Au Ra physiology and other lore.

[Cilia]

[Wall of Text]

Wow, how many times was the word "trope" used here?

... only 7? Disappointed in you!

Anyway, I think the main thing to keep in mind is that the Au Ra were almost clearly designed with the Raen in mind over the Xaela. +90% positive this is the case; just look at the effort that went into explaining the Raen names vs. the Xaela "use a period Mongolian name and a tribe with a quirky custom." Considering this and the strict gender roles of Japanese society (even in modern times, to a lesser degree) it's not surprising at all the men are big and tough and the women are small, prim, and proper.

Ironic, then, that I've seen more Xaela PCs on my server...

Regardless, while there might be tribes and individuals that fall outside of these boundaries, there is only room for so much variety in the character creator. What we're allowed to create falls within the boundaries of "average" members of the race. There are individuals who fall outside of these boundaries (all of the GC leaders have unique models, for example, and Yugiri has a unique face and horn coloration), but PCs are just that - average.

You keep saying "well, they should make a race of big tough women and smaller men," but if they did that they'd get just as many complaints (if not more). All the boys who play the game as a power fantasy would be up in arms saying stuff like "It doesn't make sense for the women to be big and tough while the men look like scrawny geeks because raisins!" etc etc. No matter what they do everybody isn't going to be happy, so they did the best the could with what they had - unfortunately, this meant making the "tougher" of the two tribes identical to the "gentle" tribe in every way save horn / scale coloration. Since the Raen were clearly the more focused-on of the tribes, and the Raen are part of Hydaelyn!Japanese society...

Could they have differentiated the clans a la Midlanders and Highlanders? Absolutely. Should they have? Probably. There are reasons as to why they didn't, the chiefest likely being they didn't have the time and resources to devote to it with everything else going on. They can't add in special options because then they'd have to add in special options for EVERY race - people would complain they want to play a Lalafell with gigantism, or a Roegadyn with dwarfism, etc. The only options in that case would be to either A) put the time and resources into making those situations work or B) tell people the Au Ra got special treatment and piss them off. Asking for something like that because "well, my Au Ra is from a highly secretive clan with super-tall women" is asking for special snowflake treatment.

Yeah, the Huge Guy, Tiny Girl Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism is overdone and cliché, but that's because it works for good or ill. Ultimately your complaints boil down to "I wanted to play a big, tough dragon lady (not that kind of dragon lady), and female Au Ra don't let me do that," which fair enough, but they aren't exactly what I wanted either. Still, they can't please everyone, and I'm willing to accept what we got. RMT and class balance are another thing entirely - they can be an active detriment to your performance, while the appearance of your character is purely aesthetic (aside from a few starting stat points that end up being negligible by endgame).

Having fun with DRK, but I do want to get on with the story. 4 levels to go. At least I haven't had any bad experiences aside from this one Stone Vigil run with a cocky overgeared BLM who wordlessly decided he was calling the shots because he's overgeared. Feel kind of bad for leaving Alphinaud standing out in the bitter cold though. (Not really, serves him right for leaving his damn coat at the manor! ... but Tataru...)

[Zumi]

Which is correct.

I am an Au Ra girl.

or

I am an Auri girl.

[Cilia]

Which is correct.

I am an Au Ra girl.

or

I am an Auri girl.

"Au Ra" is the noun form of the race. "Auri" is the adjectival form.

So probably the latter (though I prefer to call my character a woman, not a girl).

[Niwashi]

Hit and run tactics work best when the opponents are very much so unprepared, when people know they're coming and have time to set up things like traps and proper defenses, they don't work nearly as well.

In other words, hit and run tactics are ideally suited to use against groups like the Xaela clans. Nomads won't have extensive fortifications. Speed, agility, and endurance are the traits that win wars in such an environment. Brute strength would at times come in useful as well, but not nearly as often.

[Kedrah]

"Au Ra" is the noun form of the race. "Auri" is the adjectival form.

So probably the latter (though I prefer to call my character a woman, not a girl).

And "Au Ra" appears to also be the plural.

(Confession: My newest pet peeve is when people use Auri for the plural.)

[Cilia]

And "Au Ra" appears to also be the plural.

(Confession: My newest pet peeve is when people use Auri for the plural.)

Don't worry, I'm much more vexed by people saying stuff like "Au'ra." It's "Au Ra," two words. Not rocket surgery guys!

(As an aside, I was going for a more Mediterranean skin tone. Does anyone think I went too dark? Might need another Fantasia, but damn if I'mma spend $10 just to fix that...)

[Samcaesar]

Snippers!

It was pretty late and I needed to sleep, though I had a pretty simple final in the morning so yay for me.


Eh, then I fail to see how it's not the fault of SE then, something they should take a few extra steps to not seem lazy. Like.. Sure it's fine for the Raen, but diversifying it's boring whenever the they go and base an entire race on idealized gender roles version (Though I'd say the big, scary, and tough = the stereotypical gender role for men in Japan is questionable) of one culture, while the Xaela have very little if at all to do with Japan nor its gender roles. As a side note, I dunno, I feel while they might have more unique names, their culture is just "feudal Japanese culture with a twist" nothing overtly unique about them unlike the 51 listed tribes for the Xaela, even if they are gimmicky. Plus it's kinda a big flubup on SE's part to make the Xaela closer to the original Au Ra culture, but go with more Japanese ideals for the looks. I also find it a little sad that the Midlanders from Doma hardly look any different than the ones from Eorzea, like.. Highlanders and Midlanders look different and yet the one from a different continent look just the same as Midlanders!

Honestly, I attribute that to the fact that the black scales. They just help make the Au Ra look a little bit more unique. Otherwise the white scales kinda make

Oh of course they would get tons of complaints, except that if they want that, well they actually have options. There is yet a race where the women are tough and the men are small, even with the race with the massive women, the men are yet larger. I feel you're letting them off easy, there is a lot of talk of maybe they lacked time or resources, but really I'd prefer a more unique race if it meant that it wasn't available at launch, akin to a the summoner glamours. Sure it'd look bad ("Whaaat the race that was promoted isn't avaliable right away?!") but it people didn't see the benefits of holding it back for a while, then they aren't looking at the bigger picture. Hell, let the Raen be available at start, come out with a "We had limited time during the development, but we promise the Xaela will be available as soon as we can pump them out(Insert shiny picture showing off uniquely designed Xaela)" Like.. There would still be some complaining, but more parties would be suited.

The issue with that is we know they've at least had an idea for the Raen women solidified for a while (Yugiri was introduced in 2.2), I wish what would've been the case is that SE just dropped the charade and showed us the new race much earlier on so they could've gotten an opinion on where to go with it, like say focus resources on adding more variation between the clans or something. I doubt making it so that the height had a larger range would be that resource intensive as well, considering a little while back you could use a glitch to make your PC much larger (Both clientside and visible to other players) with little issue. Isn't the whole "Piss off" the case with this sort of scenario? "Sorry, your demographic didn't get pandered to, it's not a big deal." Sure, they're going to end up disappointing someone, so the might as well work their best to try and make that as little of "Someones" as possible, and lets be frank, less people would be complaining if they just dropped the whole "tiny woman big guy" thing, or at least made it so the height range for the Au Ra worked to allow some variation. Even if they wanted to keep the "Tiny woman big guy" theme that badly, just make it so its "unusual/rare" for a Auri women to be as tall as the men. Plus I don't think we've got any reason to call "special snowflake" treatment when that's all the Xaela are, a bunch of gimmick tribes that SE even goes out and says "Of course there are some tribes unseen/hidden" to allow players to do "Special snowflake" things outfit of the 51 other "special snowflake" options. Heck they even made an option for you to have Japanese named Xaela/Mongolian named Raen with that one tribe that takes Raen or the other tribe that is fine with outsiders.

Just because it works doesn't mean it ought to be what SE does, I mean otherwise we get the nth variation of Big guy tiny girl because well, it works. You're not wrong, the main part of the complaint does boil down to my personal preference not necessarily being available, but imho it doesn't spell well for any future playable races whenever the first new race (Outside of Miqo'te men and Roegadyn and Highlander women) are so heavily reliant on a very overused trait. Like.. SE even had their reasoning for the Auri women's stature and appearance "More people play Miqo'te and Midlander so they look similar" and while one could argue that the male Au Ra are suppose to add variation so they're not just carbon copies, it just feels like they could've done more, like this is a race they've been planning and working on since 2.2, probably a bit before. Aesthetics are still pretty important however, I mean why bother adding a new race if they weren't. Plus it's pretty subjective over what matters more, I mean, I don't really care if WHM is OP or about RMT, while as a roleplayer I love doing a hundred different things to my character's appearance, heck the character creator is one of my favorite things about this game.

DRK seems fun, I might eventually dip into it, shame that the darkstance aura is an eye sore. Eeeh don't worry he seems to like it, but he could've dressed more warmly!

Don't worry, I'm much more vexed by people saying stuff like "Au'ra." It's "Au Ra," two words. Not rocket surgery guys!

(As an aside, I was going for a more Mediterranean skin tone. Does anyone think I went too dark? Might need another Fantasia, but damn if I'mma spend $10 just to fix that...)

I think you look fine! Though the lightening hair looks strange.

[Beckett]

(As an aside, I was going for a more Mediterranean skin tone. Does anyone think I went too dark? Might need another Fantasia, but damn if I'mma spend $10 just to fix that...)

I think it looks fine, but you should be getting a free Fantasia when the expansion officially comes out, right?

[Cilia]

[Wall of Text 2: Electric Boogaloo]

I think you look fine! Though the lightening hair looks strange.

While "big and tough" certainly doesn't describe modern Japanese ideals of masculinity, it's important to remember that the time period the Raen Au Ra are based on is medieval Japan - which was a big warrior culture. Even in modern Japan, there's the concept of "a man's pride / honor." The male Au Ra certainly do look like the warrior types, don't they?

Can't comment on the Xaela being the "original" type of how Au Ra were, but if they were designed with the Raen in mind and the Raen are part of Hydaelyn!Japanese society, you're going to get what we got. Why they went with this direction I don't really know (short of Yoshi-P's comment on wanting a race whose females look "like someone you want to protect"), but as the Raen were clearly in mind over the Xaela...

Could they have delayed the Xaela and developed unique models for them? Absolutely. Then they would have invited a [kupo]storm though, because every other race had 2 clans available at the start (even if no females for Highlanders or Roegadyn or males for Miqo'te in 1.x), they already showed the Xaela being just like the Raen but with different horn / scale colors and some unique skin tones, etc etc. Plus, again, the Hyur are the exception when it comes to clan differences. Might be unfair, but that's what it is.

SE didn't drop the charade because they didn't have the designs or models finalized. Yugiri was using a custom Miqo'te model up through 2.5.5 (might still be using it; I'll know when I run into her again) and prior to the teaser at PAX East we didn't know what the general look of either tribe or the males was. If they had asked for player input on what the next race should be like then that complaint would have more ground, but they didn't, so they went with what they wanted to do (supposedly based on player demographics). It is what it is.

There's a significant difference in upscaling the entire character model and just boosting the height range. Armor and clothing will start to stretch and look off-model if you put it on a character whose height is abnormally great for their race, and there is only so much leeway that can be given depending on the race. It's not just a matter of "boost the height slider range lol."

The Xaela tribes aren't "special snowflake" material, they're mostly the same but with a quirky custom or two. The "unnamed / unknown clans" clause was to explain how names not on the List of 51 could pop up in the RNG, not carte blanche to redefine their biology to suit your wishes.

I don't think it's fair to say "Well, the Au Ra were another typical Huge Guy, Tiny Girl Sexually Dimorphic race, so that points to any future races being the same!" They wouldn't do that because that would be just copying the Au Ra. While there are race / sex combinations with builds similar to the Au Ra (males are less muscular Roegadyn with horns and scales, females are Miqo'te with scales and horns instead of cat ears and feline pupils) there was no race with the sexual dimorphism the Au Ra exhibit, which is part of what makes them unique. Doesn't mean it's a good kind of unique, but unique nonetheless.

DRK is fun and Fray is [kupo!] hardcore. I do wish the Darkside aura was more subdued (make it just a faint blue flame aura in combat, or leave more prominent energy trails from weapon swings), but it's a small complaint. Should ping 50 tomorrow especially with the Challenge reset to help glide me along. However I do not like tanking Dzmael Darkhold...

I only went with the Lightning haircut because I wanted to see if anything other than the "bang over eye" haircut worked for my design. Fortunately I haven't seen many people using that haircut, so I switched back to it.

I think it looks fine, but you should be getting a free Fantasia when the expansion officially comes out, right?

The free Fantasia only came with the CE... which I wuz not payin' fer. At least I think it did. Either way it's a small complaint; I'd like to bump up the skintone a shade or two, but it's not worth $10.

[Samcaesar]

Snip

Not every Xaela is nomadic, as we now know, and there's plenty of reason to suggest that after centuries of constant hit and run tactics, effective counter strategies would develop and lead them to remain only somewhat effective. For example setting up temporary walls and having scouts on horseback would give reasonable defense and time to prepare, or perhaps the first thing they do whenever they temporarily settle is set up a defensive perimeter. Further more, we are now aware that this is far more than a traditional steppe environment, such as having a coastline to the east, a desert to the south, and some more mountainous regions. Either way relying on another creature to cover for something extra is fine, but once that creature is done (Say unable to walk due to spikes traps embedded in their hooves) which would probably be the best strategy defensively speaking, the rider ought to be capable on their own, which means being physically strong. Also, keep in mind that shooting a bow, even a shortbow, requires a good amount of strength with the arms at least, which seems lacking in the women.

Looking at the largest tribe, zerging their enemies with massive numbers seems to be more popular than hit -> retreat -> repeat til enemies stop. Looking at the most violent tribe, they don't fear death and die often, which might mean charging head first and keep fighting til they're corpses, again not too hit and run esque. Interestingly enough, horses are mentioned, but nothing specific about hit and run, though plenty of interesting notes like poison darts, javelin slings, psychological warfare. Also, with regards to muscular strength, I'm sure at least the Urumet are muscularly strong, considering they carry their elders on their shoulders as lookouts, as funny of a sight that might be.

Wall of text 3: Son of Wall of text

I was more or less commenting on how the Xaela and their life style, lore wise, is the "Original" Au Ra, not necessarily the development process. The question is why develop the Raen first is the lore works in the opposite direction, with the Raen leaving the Xaela's lifestyle behind and eventually integrating into Hydaelyn!Japan? It seems like lazy work really, and it'd be more forgiving if it was either "Xaela left Hydaelyn!Japan" or "Raen look like Xaela" with Xaela having a non-"Japanese ideal"/having a consistent "Fierce warrior" look for both sexes instead of the very divergent gender roles of the "Japanese ideal". The fact that the "like someone you want to protect" and the whole "The girls look close to the Miqo'te/Midlander because that's what's most played" doesn't spell out well for future playable races, as it shows what the dev teams has in mind when "new playable race" is suggested and what SE has in mind when "new playable race" is suggested.

Sure there'd be a ton of complaints, but the benefits would have outweighed the costs, especially with the fact that otherwise they'd just have the raen with black scales. Ultimately it's the fault of SE for showing off the Xaela being identical, therefore complaints are justified. Hyur don't have to be the exception however in fact, it'd look better on SE's behalf via dedication to pour a lot of love and time into the new race. It is what it is, and what it is SE showing that they'd rather go an easy route and color palette the newest race

But by then they had already decided one thing notably, the Auri women were going to be short, as short as the Miqo'te at least. If they just said "Hey guys! Say we were to add a new race with the theme is Dragon/Demon! Which of these concepts for the race sounds best? (Insert several options for male and several options for female)" Someone noted that it looked like she was still using the Miqo'te model, but they could've been mistaken. Plus it's not unheard of for SE to take a race related poll http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...IX-(06-04-2012) was asked at the launch of 2.0, but sadly it seems SE seems to have strayed from the polling process and instead went with just collection of data. It is what it is, and what it is isn't something SE should be doing because it's not actually listening to the consumers, it's guessing what the consumers want with 100% certainty and that's both risky and unfair to the consumers.
-- A correction, source, and edit to this part of the post, http://www.siliconera.com/2015/03/13...planned-au-ra/ states that by 2.2 the Au Ra had been finalized in design and also chosen to be the next playable race. It's interesting to keep in mind considering that was over a year ago, plenty of time to gather feedback and make adjustments for the clan that hadn't even been announced yet. Furthermore, the 2014 Eorzean census hadn't even passed yet (As the data was collected in August), the phrasing implies that the data isn't always kept on hand (After all, if they didn't keep tabs on all the races at all times, why would the Data be 2 months behind?). It would seem to me that SE made a gamble relatively early on, knowing what would sell (Probably based upon knowing how these gamer demographics work) and it paid off. Now while I doubt the ratios have changed that much, it's still important to keep a few things in mind: 1) SE decided to make a reptilian esque demi-beastman very early on, as they had the Au Ra finalized by 2.2 7 months after ARR's launch and the census for reptile demi-beastman was gathered nearly 2 years prior to ARR. 2) Because it was finalized in 2.2, 5 months before the date was taken for the 2014 census and the data for the Census being drawn two months in advance, considering the time difference between the time the Data was gather and the time it was posted it doesn't seem like "Players play more Miqo'te/Midlanders" is a very valid point on the dev teams behalf. There's three remaining questions: 1) When did the devs gather their data to support the "More players play Miqo'te/Midlanders"? 2) When the the development for the Au Ra begin? and 3) Why didn't it occur for the dev team to take feedback once they finalized the Raen to make adjustments for the Xaela, who would've had 8 months to make adjustments to differentiate the clan?

Again, hardly another changes with the foot height range with the Roegadyn women, which is literally just up-scaling the model, go tease around with the height slider and you'll see what I mean. Even with that in mind a glitch allowed your character to be much larger than they normally appeared and there were no issues clipping or stretching to speak of with my experiences with it, and this was a Miqo'te going to near Elezen height. Examples of the glitch https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B5lk-jcIIAIxG73.jpg http://embed.gyazo.com/37d9b98c82c5f...3957701936.png http://i.imgur.com/WAnWDDQ.jpg http://i.imgur.com/237q7S3.png

You're telling me the tribe that practices eugenics to make their people as tall as possible, or the tribe that has a unique communications based on cloud- and wavekin, or the one who's skincolor changed due to their environment, or the tribe who's breath can be held for roughly 15 minutes, or the one that has a massively high rate for twins for no explained reason aren't "Special snowflake" tribes that change the basic biology of the Au Ra? Plenty of tribes have abnormal biology due to those gimmicks, I don't see what's so bizarre about there being one tribe where there's not a height difference for whatever reason and SE just implementing it for the girl Au Ra. I doubt seriously neither hard or lore breaking, seeing as how SE messes around with the usual biology in some clans anyways.

See that's the issue though, their reasoning behind the sexual dimorphism was "Cute girls sell, the bigger ones are unpopular". As long as that continues to be the case, no doubt the next race will be another batch of "cute girls" and whatever guy. I still feel that the Roegadyn exhibit massive amounts of sexual dimorphism, more so than the Au Ra, its just ignored because the race isn't popular and the sexual dimorphism isn't the right type of it. SE just made the Au Ra exhibit all the right kinds of sexual dimorphism to appeal to certain demographics (IE players who adore small and cute girls), but I still don't understand the deal with the Au Ra male, who are visually closer to Elezen another unpopular race.

Is Fray a ghost or something? I only half payed attention when that 1st quest occurred so the details are a tad fuzzy. Have you tried going back to the older dungeons alone yet? It's pretty therapeutic to just wreck some of them without level cap.

Yeah, I don't think not to many people use the Lightning cut if they've got it, plus the allure of new hair styles is always appetizing. Want me to spend a bit for a fantasia for you Cilia?