Au Ra, what are they?

[Vergill]

I'd only be interested in a 'third clan' for each of the playable races if they're going to be distinct both physically and in terms of their lore. It'd take up a lot of development time, sure, but it'd be a good way to include highly desired options for customisation.

So far only Hyur have major physical differences between their clans. For the other race's clans it's a lot more subtle.

As a rough example they could add Ishgardian Elezen with more muscle (which would make sense given that their people are built on strength and hardship) to appease those like myself who prefer their elves to be big and beefy.

For Au Ra they could go with something a bit closer to the original design displayed in the early concept art.

As someone who role-plays an Ishgardian, i whole-heartly agree with the idea of giving the Elezen an third clan who's beefier and less girafe-looking.

[WyrahFhurrst]

An Au Ra clan could have one set color of skin, and instead allow players to decide on scale color, which would be pretty sweet.

I'd like to see Lowlander Hyur and Meracydian Miqo'te especially. If there's Highlander and Midlander Hyur, and Midlander are smaller than Highlander, I think Lowlander would be the next logical step, and be shorter than both of the other two. Not sure how Meracydian Miqo'te would be different, outside of being more tribal, perhaps including some Babylonian traits to their society, considering they may be the ones who named Tiamat and Bahamut.

Forestfolk or Mountainfolk Lalafell would be interesting, with Forestfolk being more lithe and a bit taller than our two current clans, and Mountainfolk being more muscular and a bit more stocky.

Frostborn Roegadyn could be a group from the far, far north and have whites and light blues for skintones, though I have no idea how they would differentiate in naming scheme.

I agree on the Ishgardian Elezen, though. I imagine they would be like High Elves, taller, fairer, perhaps not quite so giraffe looking.

[Nalien]

An Au Ra clan could have one set color of skin, and instead allow players to decide on scale color, which would be pretty sweet.

I imagine the third clans "thing" would be something akin to the limbal ring, but for scales rather than eyes. The Dawn Father/Dusk Mother lore for the Raen and Xaela have me imagining that, while the Raen attribute their white scales to a strong connection towards the Dawn Father, and the Xaela attribute their black scales to a strong connection towards the Dusk Mother, this third clan would likely be somewhere in the middle and thus have mixed scale colour as a result.

Would be nice to have some scale customization though, Yugiri has some slight coloration on her horns, for example... I'd be more interested in having more scales though, the arms in particularly I just find disappointing... Some of the concept art had basically the entire forearm and hands covered in scales, and I cannot for the life of my figure out why the developers scrapped that concept...

[PArcher]

@Nalien
If you look at a few of the horn types (specifically, I know the upper right male horn does this, and I think Yugiri's base face also does it, not just her) they have a redish color on them (it's often covered by the bangle or metal plate you can add)

[jomoru]

Come on third clan Au'ra mix up sizes. Large females small males...

I'll say again the third clan for Miqote should be foxes. Yes I know "foxes aren't cats" neither are Miqote. There's enough of a desire to see fox people in the game and I am not sure there's enough variation in Fox people that could get 2 whole clans and them not just end up looking very Miqotish

Mountain Folk for Lalafells, more muscular explicitly hitting the "dwarf" trope.

[MrPresident]

I was pretty disappointed by Au Ra honestly. Dragons are my favourite mythical beings, so when I saw the concept art of dragon-like beings I was excited about it. But the end product was these scabby goat looking things.

What are the Au Ra? Other than a disappointment, I don't know.

[mdha02]

Could somebody post a link to the concept art?

[Alacran]

Small changes such as Hilda's elf like ears, and Garlean Third eye gems, should hopefully make it to the character creation options. As they simply reuse existing art assets, devolpment time shouldn't be to much of a nightmare. However the implementation of the Aura was a real let down. The lore even states the Xaela revere a "Dusk Mother" and have a warlike tribal society, a perfect platform to introduce an option for an imposing, strong, feral female race/ matriarchal society.

[Vergill]

/\ You mean like the Keepers of the Moon (Miqo'te)? Aside the fact that Keepers are not warmongerers.

[Hinoto-no-Ryuji]

Aside the fact that Keepers are not warmongerers.

Neither are (most of) the Xaela, for that matter. Most of the description we get in that naming convention post focuses on the hunter/gatherer aspect of their culture, with only a small handful explicitly mentioning combat. In fact, by my count, there are a whopping SEVEN that are especially warlike (Adarkim, Borlaaq, Budugu, Jhungid, Kharlu, Qerel, Dotharl). Seven, of fifty-one.

I agree that the Xaela are, as a whole, raised in a different enough culture from the Raen that distinct emotes (especially for the women!) would have made a lot of sense, but the idea that their sexual dimorphism would somehow differ seems suspect, to me, especially because the difference is so stark to begin with. What I'm interested in is at what point in their life cycle this size differnce manifests (puberty is a good bet, but who knows).