A concept for a new playable-race, with lore and feasability considerations

[Glasya]

So I was watching Overlord recently, which got me thinking about the potential for greater racial diversity in FFXIV and what races might potentially be added in future; whether they be original or imported from another FF game, such as Au Ra and Viera respectively.
This is indeed assuming SE plans, or are content to add further races to the game.

In short my idea is thus:
A race of Allagan androids or automatons.


Offhandedly this might sound crazy, but take a moment to think about it;
For one, androids would logically be of similar morphology to the races we currently have in-game, meaning there would be few to no issues with gear maps/clipping, or of player alienation (as there might be with less-humanoid races such as Bangaa).
Secondly, similar entities have appeared in the Final Fantasy series before: including a race of Robots in FF Adventure and the Yuke from Crystal Chronicles. Their presence would thus not be unprecedented.
Thirdly, in the context of the Crystal Tower and Coil quest chains both clockwork and cloned entities are known to exist. Robots/androids are conceptually quite similar to the aforementioned and for playable robots to also exist is a relatively small leap of logic.
Finally they'd also bring something new to the table in terms of aesthetics. Compared to some of the concept art I was a little disappointed by how 'human' the finalised Au Ra design was, but robots/androids can take any number of forms: from the Casts of Phantasy Star to the droids from Star Wars, and everything in between.

They're also pretty easy to shoehorn into the lore.

Given life by crystals and mobility through ambient aether, the [Race] were a product of Allagan aetherochemical engineering. Designed as a simulacrum of the lesser races and built to be capable of harnessing Hydaelyn's crystal blessing, they were to serve as synthetic thralls for the Elder-primal Bahamut and other Eikon-summoning experiments. Production was however halted when the [Race], though sentient, proved resistant to tempering. Unable to sustain Bahamut's corporeal form, the scientists of Allag opted to instead immortalise and entomb Meracydian scalekin within the lesser moon Dalamud; that their prayers and rage might serve to maintain the primal's physical body in lieu. Now without purpose the [Race] were ultimately sealed in [new expansion zone], but were awakened in the wake of The Calamity by the gradual perfusion of their would-be master's aether.

Thoughts?
Also if this is the wrong forum I apologise. Please feel free to move the thread.

[WellFooled]

Something like this might be interesting to encounter as an npc, but I think there are some tricky things to consider if you want to make them playable characters.

Firstly, I don't think the people of Eorzea would treat an Allagan Automaton the same way they treat the playable character. Whatever the playable races are, they need to be something that people would welcome into their guilds and shops and settlements. Secondly, I think a lot of text in the game would need to be changed if your character was a member of this race. For example, anything that refers to our character bleeding or breathing, really anything that has any connection to our being organic beings...which I imagine would be a lot.

[Enkidoh]

It won't work, for one reason - the Echo. The Echo is such a major part of the narrative (and gameplay too for that matter) to ignore simply for the sake of adding a playable race that is incapable of using it. As the Echo is granted by Hydaelyn Herself (the Mothercrystal) to only living beings (because She is the source of all life on the planet), and the player's character gains it immediately upon beginning the game, needless to say an artificial automaton simply cannot be granted such a gift.

Personally I think we have more than enough player races in the game as it is - implementing the au ra into the narrative was a tight fit enough.

[Kaiser-Ace]

I say the next logical step would be mixed races (maybe even limits due to genetics)

But as far as a new unique race, "The Five" are Eorzian and the Au Ra are from Oethard. Considering we'll likely go to Oethard after we retake Ala'mhigo Garlens mat be the next playable race (with the echo bypassing Garlen Magic gimping) but other than that, we'd have to wait till we either went to meracidia (Theoretical homeland of the Miqo'te tribes) or wait till we head west over the Rohtano to "The New Contenent" which is presumably near Sharlyon Proper.

[LineageRazor]

As the Echo is granted by Hydaelyn Herself (the Mothercrystal) to only living beings (because She is the source of all life on the planet), and the player's character gains it immediately upon beginning the game, needless to say an artificial automaton simply cannot be granted such a gift.

This sentence contains an awful lot of assumptions. First off, who's to say that an automaton can't be a living being? What rule is there that there can only be life in things that are made out of meat? Secondly, even if they aren't "alive" how can you be sure that Hydaelyn can't grant the echo to a toaster oven if she so chose? How does being the source of all life limit her in any way in her interactions with non-living things? Hydaelyn is kept deliberately mysterious, and we currently have little or no idea exactly what she is capable of.

No, if there was an automaton race, players playing it would get the Echo, and there would be no conflict of lore preventing it - either the androids would be living things, or Hydaelyn can grant the Echo to whomsoever she chooses.

The biggest issue with this race suggestion is the OP's clear desire for an inhuman race. SE's made it pretty clear that they are reluctant to do this because of the difficulties in creating new armor models. If we did get androids, they'd be very humanlike in appearance, with only a few visual cues that they're actually robots - maybe some creases at the joints, or glowing eyes, or antenna or whatever on an otherwise human body.

[Kaiser-Ace]

Actually, The Echo Its self is why a machine couldn't have it. A machine doesn't have a soul so the echo can not be granted as a soul is a fundamental requirement.

Now it IS possible for a Bio-Mechenical construct, like the reploids from Megaman X, to have souls, but androids are still just a souless robot that just happens to look like a living being. This why allag fought Primals with Robots, you can't temper a souless machine either.

[Mwynn]

Given the Fact there are Allagan Clones, yet the Question is... are they mind controlled / serving a purpose only or do they have a free will of their own?

Lore Wise it wouldn't be hard, think of something like Dalamud Pieces crashed down with parts of Hives full of Allagan Clones in them, you the (Allagan Clone) escaped one of these Coils and made your way to one of the Citystates.
It needs tons of NPC Dialogues to be changed (It's like the Dialogues in Fractal, based on your Race, the Devices throw something out related to your Race)

As for the Soul thing, it can be a Aether thing, everything is made out of Aether, the World, the Primals, the Environment, everything.

[Lukha]

'Allagan Clones' could be an interesting race, but they'd have to have severely limited character creation options >_>.

[Dererk]

Gona say this for the last time.

'Allagans are not a race its a nationality. Can the lore team please put this to rest already.

[Voldemort]

The new race could be something like Darth Vader, General Grevious, or the Adeptus Mechanicus Techmarines, in that the race was once of organic form but have simply replaced their limbs with robotic parts.

This satisfies the echo portion by having the beings originate in organic form, but have chosen on whole as a race to "better themselves" physically with robotic appendages.

There could be a light and dark version of the race. The Light version has qualities and a personality and looks more human than robot (unexposed metal parts, acts human, etc), whereas the Dark version care not for projecting a human image (terse personalities, may have gapping metal parts sticking out of body, tears in the flesh covering body, jaw missing, red lightbulb in eye socket, etc)

Though the example I put above sounds a lot like the beginnings of some Necron-like Terminator horror plot line for the game. I would assume the developers could weave the race into the game like the Domans; refugees that simply integrate/have been hiding amongst everyone this whole time.