Raen lore question

[LadyKairi]

So my friends were wanting to get into RP, and they have started writing back stories for their characters. Well, I've started wanting to do the same. This is where you guys come in. I'm wondering what lore you guys can give me about Raen Au Ra. Unfortunately I don't have access to the lore book, so I'm desperate. Any help would make me super happy, and I'll be eternally grateful. Hoping I posted in the right spot.

[Yuriane]

Okay so Raen seem to come in two main varieties culturally. There are the Raen who have secluded themselves in isolated villages like Sui-no-Sato and in Othard's mountains. And the Raen who have adopted other societies, such as the majority of Raen who call Doma or Hingashi home. Past that, there's not really a lot we can say, because Square saw fit to explain lack of lore away with "they pick up other cultures or are too isolated to share their culture with others".

What little has been established as common throughout the race is that they tend to be polite even when being cold, they have a history of making great swordsmen, and given that every major Raen leader we've met has been female we can guess that they might have matriarchal societies by nature but we've met 2 so that's not exactly a great metric to go off of.

I'm afraid until they show us an average Raen village (Sui-no-Sato is in no way average) you'll either have to adopt Doman or Hingan lore or just make up your own to fit a isolated village in the mountains somewhere.

[Naria]

If you haven't already I'd check out the naming convention post for Au Ra, and the official website summary of them. The lore book doesn't really have more more on them as a race then what these two posts cover.

The Raen are suppose to be rare, so there is less information about them in game than the Xaela. At some point they likely lived on the Steppe like the Xaela (its the Dawn Throne after all), and at some point they left or were driven out and became a diaspora. When ever this happened was long enough ago that neither the Xaela or the Raen seem to bring it up casually anymore.

As was mentioned by Yuriane, everything we've seen indicates that Sui-no-Sato is atypical, so your best bet is probably making your character Hinagan, Doman, or first-generation Eorzean. Technically speaking I suppose you could probably make them Garlean as well, since Garlemald has conquered most of Orthard and there are probably pockets of Raen all over the continent. There is also one Xaela tribe that takes in Raen that is mentioned in the naming convention post.

Hinagashi seems to be based off of Tokugawa era Japan with Kugane being the foreign trading port a la Nagasaki, and Doma seems to be a mix of Japan and Imperial China. So if you are up for a bit of historical research that may help you out. The lore book does have some info about the Garleans that isn't available anywhere else, mostly a historical timeline and naming conventions if that is they way you want to go.

[Hinoto-no-Ryuji]

Naria has the basics covered well (those forum posts are a huge boon), but I'll also link you to the Lore forum of the Hydaelyn Roleplayers website, as they were a big help in getting feedback on my own character's backstory (making sure everything lines up nicely lore-wise, that sort of thing). You can actually read that backstory here, if you like; although there are parts that are in desperate need of revision, I'm pretty happy with the basic shape of it relative to Raen/Doman/Othardan lore.

[LadyKairi]

Thanks a lot you guys. I definitely have a lot of thinking to do now x3