Au Ra physiology and other lore.

[Dynza]

Always wanted to post here, so here I go...

Everyone has no doubt shown both interest and excitement with the new race and everyone wants to learn more about them. While I have no doubt that we'll get more information about the Au Ra very soon, there's already plenty of information to be gleamed from what was already released. One need only look very closely.

First off, I want to bring up the importance of the Au Ra as a new race. They're the first new race introduced in nearly a decade. Whereas the other races have designs based on races introduced in FF11 (with slight modifications to their original designs) and whereas the Miqo'te, Roegadyn and Highlander have added male and female counterparts to their respective races, the Au Ra are the first new playable race that were not based on existing designs or elements from previous games. In short, the Au Ra are a completely original designed specifically for FF14's world. That's a big deal.

Praise and criticism has been levied at the race from all three major regions (US, Europe, Japan), and regardless of what the overall opinion may be; from a game design standpoint, the overall design has mostly been finalized.

It's important to realize just how long and time-consuming developing art and animation can be. Years ago, it was revealed that it takes the developers at SE three months - from concept to completion - to develop one suit of armor. You can then imagine the time considerations it takes to design a brand new race with brand new unique animations for some fifty different emotes plus standard animations including running, jumping, walking, and more. These elements take time and no doubt we can see many of these elements were being designed at least eight months ago when Yugiri's model first came into the game utilizing female Miqo'te animations. We can also infer, then, that the Au Ra females were likely the first models worked on. And it shows through the video showcase revealing the Au Ra as the female Au Ra are given a bigger focus when it comes to emotes.

Enough about that... let's talk about their appearance...

Au Ra dimorphism has been talked about a lot, but I do want to get into it myself just to discuss certain elements of just how tall the Au Ra males are. But first, here's a pic showing of the current races typical heights:

This chart dates back to 1.0, but the overall comparisons remain the same even now. Roegadyn's are the tallest of the races and the most broad.

Now let's look at Yugiri's model:


These two shots give us the best look at Yugiri. I do want to stress that this model of Yugiri may in fact be a unique model and NOT an Au Ra model dressed with Yugiri's clothes. It's likely that the Au Ra models were not completed (or fully modeled) yet and they simply created this model and plugged with the miqo'te animations while they worked on the real thing. I also want to point out that Yugiri could still be a completely unique's Au Ra model in the same vein as Minfillia, Aymeric, Cid, Raubahn and others. Even when her face is finally revealed it may be impossible for players to create a character to look exactly like her.

At any rate, the above shots of Yugiri give us a good look at her size relative to other characters. She stands at roughly the same height as a typical midlander female. So around 5'4" to 5'7". Now let's take another broad look at the Au Ra:

This is a 1080p shot of the two Au Ra tribes. As we can see from this shot, the Au Ra females are about 2/3rds the height of the males. Using a bit of math and logic we can assume then that the Au Ra are roughly the same height as roegadyn males, perhaps even a little taller! Thus, one half of the Au Ra race are among the tallest PCs in the game. Pretty incredible.

The video showcase and the included press materials give us additional information regarding their looks. We know of at least two heads/faces are available to the Au Ra:

Head 1.

Head 2.

As you can see, the heads determine the facial scales, but they don't determine the horns as you can see below:

Head 2 here has head 1's horns. We can then infer that players will be able to choose the head and horns separately.

Another important element to note is the tribe and skin colors. As you probably already figured out, the differences between the tribes is based on the color of their scales and horns, not their skin color. As you can see from this shot:

This pale Au Ra has black horns and scales. And the previous shot with the Au Ra riding the gryphon also having black horns and scales but with redder skin. With that said, it looks like it may be possible to alter the color of the scales at least slightly as seen from this screen:

As one see the color of the scales on the female appear bluer than those of the male. This, however, may just be another difference between the genders (the white scaled Au Ra males and females also have slightly different color tones on their scales).

The patches of scales are symmetrical across the genders. The have scales going from the neck down to the clavicle, on their forearms, wrists to hands, on their ankles down to their heels. At present, it appears that females have longer tails than males, but these may be adjustable. The length of the tails does not appear to differ between the tribes unlike the miqo'te whose Keepers tend to have longer tails than their Seeker cousins.

We've seen only two unique hairstyles for Au Ra males and three unique hairstyles for Au Ra females. Although art cannot always serve as a basis for in-game appearances, the artwork for the Astrologian (seen below) gives us another possible hairstyle unique to the Au Ra


Some may have noticed, but Au Ra females appear to have a somewhat 'deaden' gaze compared all the other races in the game. It's a little strange and I wonder if its because they haven't finished with their design yet. A close look at these screens should give you an idea of what I mean




Their eyes seem to lack any sort of life or glow compared to the other races, even compared to the males. I wonder if this is something that would be addressed in the future?

Finally, like the other races in their starting gear, the Au Ra possess the same dominate colors of red, black and white. But while the other races have a more cleaner appearance, the Au Ra's starting clothes are worn, tattered and asymmetrical, showing an appearance that suggests that the Au Ra come from a much harsher region. I suspect that Othard probably has a harsh mountainous region and that is, perhaps, where the Au Ra originate from.


Fernehalwes posts some official info on the pronunciation of the Au Ra and the future of Au Ra naming schemes

Hello everyone!

I just wanted to pop in and give a tiny update on the Au Ra. I'm still not allowed to reveal a lot (under punishment of defenestration...and we're on the 18th floor), but here are three things I can tell you:

1. What is the official pronunciation of Au Ra again?
Those of you who've already seen the Fan Fes videos will probably already know, but it's always good to have something in writing somewhere, just in case. Despite the similarity in spelling Au Ra does not sound like "aura." The official pronunciation is Au=Ow (as in "ou"ch) Ra=Raw (as in WWE sushi).

2. Hyur is Hyuran. Lalafell is Lalafellin. What on Earth Hydaelyn is the adjectival form of Au Ra?
This one's a little special. Instead of just tacking an 'n' to the end of Ra, the term takes on a slight metamorphosis. Au Ra -> Auri (pronounced Ow-ree, rhymes with Maori). Example: "An Auri warrior can eat a whole turkey in a single sitting."

3. When are we going to get a naming guide!? I need to start thinking of what I'm going to call the new character I roll in June!
The naming rules for both clans have been finalized and work is being done fleshing out the lore behind it all. Things will be somewhat similar to what was done with the Hyur (drawing from historic names) but the with the regional and linguistic roots being completely different. Surnames will also feature a special set of rules that can be followed to the T, or slightly modified if a player wants to be adventurous.

I will be adding a detailed (sticky) explanation right here to the forums once Yoshi-P has given me the green light...which hopefully will be sooner than later!

Until then!