Sex between the Races Lore?

[Dakuryon]

There are a lot of irl reptiles both extant and extinct that have horns???? And even so, no mammal has horns that work anything like Au Ra horns. Technically no irl animal uses horns for hearing that I know of, but the whole hearing via bone vibrations is a distinctly reptilian trait.

Again, I'm not saying Auri are actually reptiles; I'm just saying they seem more like being a transition point of sorts between reptiles and mammals. The scales are also implicitly described as resembling dragon scales on the character creation screen. Of course, that most likely is a result of convergent evolution from whatever species their ancestors were, but I doubt they're anything like what exists irl. This is the part I waggle my fingers and say "weeaboo fantasy bullshit". What the heck would we even call reptile kemonomimis? I just don't think full on mammal correctly identifies Au Ra. Sure, they hit almost everything on the mammal checklist, but so does every distinctly not mammalian Beast Tribe like Sahagin, Amal'jaa, and Gnath.

But short of getting a full on anatomical dissection (which is alas never gonna happen), it's hard to gauge what exact traits Auri have. especially what's under their pants, lol. Being able to reproduce with Hyur unfortunately doesn't mean much in a fantasy setting and irl taxonomy REALLY falls apart when classifying certain fantasy creatures (what would a griffin even be classified as? to say nothing of the evolutionary improbability if we were to apply irl evolution on them.

I love trying to piece together fantasy biology exactly because it's never simple when it comes to human-like species with bestial traits. I honestly doubt the taxonomies would even work the same at all. Heck, we have actual mobs based on prehistoric animals but many look nothing like them *sideeyes raptors and gastornis, the latter of which is hilariously what Chocobos are based on but in the game they're literally colorful dodos*

^ All of this. Especially the transition part, it actually makes sense! ㅇㅅㅇ
Auri biology has always been a subject of interest to me, but I honestly never could fully understand it until now. You the best~

[LineageRazor]

Again, I'm not saying Auri are actually reptiles; I'm just saying they seem more like being a transition point of sorts between reptiles and mammals.

Spoiler tags, just in case:

Bear in mind, the world as we know it is only twelve thousand years old. It's highly unlikely that ANY of the animals or intelligent races on the planet "evolved" to become what they are now. 12,000 years is simply too short a timespan for that.

The life on the planet is mostly or entirely descended from the "new life" Zodiark created at the behest of the Convocation in order to heal the damaged planet. He likely created all of the races and species as they are now, and they likely have not changed a great deal since then.

In the world of FFXIV, Creationism is the reality, and Evolution the myth! (Unless, I suppose, you consider the evolution that lead up to the Ancients and the plants and animals that co-existed with them prior to Zodiark's creation.) There are actual gods (even if they're really Primals, they're still pretty darned godlike); we know one personally, and Emet-Selch recently gave us the lowdown on the other.

Long story short: The Au Ra did not descend from dragons or voidsent, but were created to be exactly what they are, just as everyone else was. WHY did Zodiark create so many races? Only he knows for certain...

[Iscah]

There are a lot of irl reptiles both extant and extinct that have horns???? And even so, no mammal has horns that work anything like Au Ra horns. Technically no irl animal uses horns for hearing that I know of, but the whole hearing via bone vibrations is a distinctly reptilian trait.

Again, I'm not saying Auri are actually reptiles; I'm just saying they seem more like being a transition point of sorts between reptiles and mammals. The scales are also implicitly described as resembling dragon scales on the character creation screen. Of course, that most likely is a result of convergent evolution from whatever species their ancestors were, but I doubt they're anything like what exists irl. This is the part I waggle my fingers and say "weeaboo fantasy bullshit". What the heck would we even call reptile kemonomimis? I just don't think full on mammal correctly identifies Au Ra. Sure, they hit almost everything on the mammal checklist, but so does every distinctly not mammalian Beast Tribe like Sahagin, Amal'jaa, and Gnath.

Re. horns: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horn_(anatomy)

Without having done further research, most of the examples are about mammals; horned reptiles seem to be grouped under having "other hornlike growths" though I don't exactly understand the distinction.

In any case, the point is that having horns doesn't inherently suggest having reptilian traits.

Basically, given the choice between "they're human-like mammals that have non-human traits found in other mammals" and "they're human-like mammals that have retained reptilian traits from their distant evolutionary past", it seems far simpler to assume they are fully mammalian. They have scales (probably more accurately scutes) but the rest of their skin is human-like, so it makes sense that the scales would most likely be structured like a creature evolutionarily closer to humans.

(Yes, evolution may not be in effect here, but let's assume it is for the sake of the argument.)

Remember that there's a lot of evolutionary distance between reptiles and humans - there are a lot of stages to go through for one branch of humans to somehow carry those reptilian traits while nothing inbetween or alongside them also has it.

And we know for certain that they're the same overall species as the other human races, or close enough to interbreed, as we have a historical record of a half-Hyur half-Auri child born in Sui-no-Sato. So they can't be some other reptilian race that has ended up in humanlike form by pure coincidence of convergent evolution.

However they ended up with their unique features, they probably evolved them independently of anything else since no other creature has horns over the ears like they do.

[MikkoAkure]

Explain why we literally have “evolution” mentioned in the Dunesfolk Lala creation screen then (i.e, “Perhaps the most unique characteristic of the Dunesfolk is their luminous eyes - a result of a glossy, protective layer which covers the pupil, an evolutionary response to their homeland's glaring sunlight”). :V

Just because Zodiark put new lifeforms in doesn’t mean he made them that way. It’s perfectly plausible since he and Ascians are in a completely separate dimension that he just tossed in the “base materials” so to speak and fast-forwarded to where everything is already going. They just didn’t turn out like the Ascians wanted.

Because that as well as many other things were written in 1.0 before anything regarding the current story was made or thought up. It’s part of why I wish they deleted the game at the end of 1.0 and started fresh without baggage or retcons.

For example, dunesfolk were said to be from a desert island to the south where they evolved their special eyes and settled Thanalan because it’s like their old home. Yet post-calamity now we know that before Ul’dah, they came from Mchach, which was never a desert. Elezen were supposed to be the only natives to Eorzea, which caused strife pre-Gelmorra but now we know that hyur and the other races have been in Eorzea for a long while before the current era.

But on the other hand, duskwights somehow got their blue skin and white hair after only living in caves for a few hundred years so it could be that small changes like that happen fast on Hydaelyn.

[Bright-Flower]

Keep in mind this is a fantasy setting. Evolution could always just happen faster than it does in real life. It's not really a realistic setting even when you take out the literal magic spells.

[kujoestars]

Because that as well as many other things were written in 1.0 before anything regarding the current story was made or thought up. It’s part of why I wish they deleted the game at the end of 1.0 and started fresh without baggage or retcons.

For example, dunesfolk were said to be from a desert island to the south where they evolved their special eyes and settled Thanalan because it’s like their old home. Yet post-calamity now we know that before Ul’dah, they came from Mchach, which was never a desert. Elezen were supposed to be the only natives to Eorzea, which caused strife pre-Gelmorra but now we know that hyur and the other races have been in Eorzea for a long while before the current era.

But on the other hand, duskwights somehow got their blue skin and white hair after only living in caves for a few hundred years so it could be that small changes like that happen fast on Hydaelyn.

1.0 is still canon regardless of what you want. From a meta standpoint, ARR is a soft reboot with only minor tweaks to the original timeline since we still see core NPCs and Carteneau and Louisoix are always referenced. From an in-universe standpoint, it's just a small reality tweak as a result of Louisoix becoming Phoenix. And besides, how many writers even plan everything out when starting out with a story? By that logic, we can't have ANY reveals at all because it's "different" from what we have at the start. Just because Zodiark created the new world and new life doesn't mean he manually put them together; he could have just thrown in the basic ingredients and hit the proverbial "run simulation" button. "Oh sorry, you wanted me to make your exact race? Should have been more specific, smh. Gonna cost you extra now cuz them's the breaks."

Keep in mind this is a fantasy setting. Evolution could always just happen faster than it does in real life. It's not really a realistic setting even when you take out the literal magic spells.

This. It's already silly to expect evolution to work exactly the same on other worlds in general given how many variables go into natural selection. Throw in magic and things get even crazier. Why else would we have improbable things like 6-limbed vertebrates like wyrm-type dragons and huge-af bugs everywhere (to say nothing of the Gnath folks)? This is one of those times I'd just go *finger waggle* Weird Magic Shit(TM). The laws of physics most definitely work differently on Hydaelyn than on Earth is all we can say (especially where aether is involved).

[dynus]

There is one Elezen-Hyur hybrid in Hilda, and there is a mention of an Au Ra-Hyur hybrid in the Ruby Sea sidequests. The Au Ra-Hyur hybrid was viable, if I recall correctly, as he's the ancestor of the Ruby Princess.

[Bluvirus]

There is one Elezen-Hyur hybrid in Hilda, and there is a mention of an Au Ra-Hyur hybrid in the Ruby Sea sidequests. The Au Ra-Hyur hybrid was viable, if I recall correctly, as he's the ancestor of the Ruby Princess.

I was just thinking this myself

[Bhearil]

Probably the mother genes tend to be dominant thats why Hilda looks like a midlander with pointed ears mostly while the unnamed princess ancestor looked like an Au'ra but less scales than usual

[RyuDragnier]

This makes me wonder...was the ancestor of the Miqote a Hrothgar-Hyur hybrid?