Au Ra physiology and other lore.

[Bluevann]

Personally I'd like the "deaden" gaze to stay. The more differences from the other races, the merrier.

However I'm disappointed at how similar the two clans; I can already tell they will share emotes across clan, like every other race but Hyur. I was hoping for more diversification among clans (I do still hope one day that my Keeper may have different emotes from the Seekers, too. Seekers of the Sun are happy and cheerful and very hyperactive, and the emotes we currently have fit them well. Keepers however are said to be broody, solitary and thoughtful. I'd like them to have less enthusiastic/lively emotes than Seeker's. As of now, almost no one of the Miqo'te emotes reflect Keepers by lore).

[Cilia]

Wait, I forgot... the ninjas might be using pseudonyms, except maybe Yugiri. So I can guess it'll be <Japanese name> <Nounverber> but it's a muddy guess, at best.

[Dualblade]

If I'm correct they talked a little about naming conventions for Au Ra in the last live thing...need to find it.

Here we go:

Q1: Could you please tell us the naming conventions for the Au Ra?

A1: There are two clans: Au Ra Raen and Au Ra Xaela. Au Ra Raen have been closely related to the Domans for long time, so their names are somewhat Japanese-like. The Xaela on the other hand have led a nomadic lifestyle for some time, and they have a unique naming convention.

So looks like only the Raen will have Japanese(-like) names.

From the Digest here: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/229013-Letter-from-the-Producer-LIVE-Part-XX-Summary-Digest

[LineageRazor]

Miqo'te have been in Eorzean for a few centuries. They most likely adopted the Eorzean pantheon at some point in their history. With Au Ra there is no history of them in Eorzea until very very recent history and come from a different country (or countries) under the rule of a dictatorship that iirc doesn't believe in any form of gods (and probably enforces said beliefs on the peoples under their control).

You're speaking of a very specific clan of Au Ra - the ones associated with the Domans. There's no reason to believe that ALL Au Ra come from that very specific area of the world and nowhere else. In fact, with the two race variants with very different naming conventions, there's every reason to believe that they do NOT all come from that same area.

Even if all Au Ra DO trace their lineage back to the ones from Doma, though, even if there's no history of them being in Eorzea neither is there any history of them NOT being in Eorzea. They could simply have lived in parts of Eorzea that we haven't explored yet. There's plenty more to Eorzea than the five regions we're familiar with, after all.

There's plenty of room to postualte Eorzea-native Au Ra that worship the Twelve.

[lilirulu]

Maybe the Au Ra come from Dravania (though it still leaves questions if they'd worship the twelve or not). It's the only place I could think they'd come from that we haven't really explored up until now. And if I recall the "Tour of the North" trailer did show a village located in the Dravanian areas. I'll have to rewatch when I have time.

[Kedrah]

Pure speculation, but based on the hints we've been given and in-game characters, I'm assuming female Raen Auri names are going to follow a <Japanese name> <Nounverber> pattern.

It's stated they follow naming conventions similar to Doman names due to close relationships with them; the only major non-Auri Doman characters with full names so far are "Oboro Moonrise," "Tsubame Sunrise," and "Karasu Redbeak." "Yugiri Mistwalker" follows almost the exact pattern, except adding -er on the end (instead of "Yugiri Mistwalk").

Not sure if anyone else noticed this or what the naming conventions for male Raen Au Ra or how Xaela Auri names will be like at all, but I wanted to throw it out there.

It's not uncommon for characters in FFXIV to have an epithet, especially when they appear as an AI NPC in a duty. I'm thinking these are their style of epithet rather than any actual names. Considering these "surnames" are related in meaning to their given names (for example, Yugiri means "evening mist"), it seems more like an epithet to me.

I could be wrong of course, but it's just so different from the linguistic roots of their given names that it seems a little odd to be a surname.

[Niwashi]

It's not uncommon for characters in FFXIV to have an epithet, especially when they appear as an AI NPC in a duty. I'm thinking these are their style of epithet rather than any actual names. Considering these "surnames" are related in meaning to their given names (for example, Yugiri means "evening mist"), it seems more like an epithet to me.

I could be wrong of course, but it's just so different from the linguistic roots of their given names that it seems a little odd to be a surname.

That's what most real world surnames are or at least started out as, epithets. It seems more like the Doman pattern is for an epithet to be their last name. The difference in the linguistic background of their given name from their epithet/surname is a bit odd, though. It could suggest an earlier migration, with given names based on the language of an earlier homeland and epithets chosen based on the language where they now live (or possibly vice-versa).

[Cilia]

Yabi Two-tails, V'kebbe the Stray, Avere Bravearm, Edda Pureheart

Yabi Two-tails is a bandit, and bandits are pretty well-known for taking on more intimidating pseudonyms.

V'kebbe means "Kebbe of the Vulture (V) clan." Presumably she's "the Stray" because she doesn't know who her father is.

Avere Bravearm is... well, kind of hard to figure out. Perhaps he was a pale Hellsguard, or simply took on a psuedonym like Spinning Blade in the Carline Canopy?

Edda Pureheart doesn't strike me as strange for a Hyuran name.

[lilirulu]

The point I was making that you can't use the names of Ninjas seen in the Job quests as examples because they follow the same naming schemes used by other NPCs in job quests/instances as a predictor of Au Ra Raen/Doman(?) and Xeala. Wilred and Haurchefant for example also use titles instead of actual last names. I'm pretty sure all the Scions we did instances with did too.

[Kedrah]

^ Agreed.
The fact that almost every NPC has this style of epithet makes me think it wouldn't necessarily be a naming convention.