Hello, My Name is Human

[Elamys]

ARR has enough slightly-jarring dialogue that doesn't account for race already. Playing through that early part of the story as a beastman race would be very strange for a new player who didn't know what they were getting into.

I'm still a little sour about being berated in the Archer story for being an "outsider" to this art that the Wildwood elezen created and only they could perfect.

cries in wildwood

[Iscah]

(Au ra was also too cutesy for me :<)

Yeah, "cutesy" is exactly the word for describing female Au Ra, particularly emotes. It's a bit weird compared to the lore and existing NPCs, especially the Xaela.

I always thought that the ear pockets look incredibly stupid. If their ears are so rigid that they can't just slide under a helmet then make openings in the sides instead.

I don't like the look of it either. Cowls should probably just drape over the ears - but perhaps looked a bit strange like that, or maybe they didn't want to have to remodel them.

But for helmets - you really don't want long ears exposed, that's just asking for them to get sliced off! Although it does seem like it might be hard to actually get their ears into those slots as they put the helmet on. A bigger 'wing' design might make more sense than being exactly ear-shaped.

[succubus picture]

Who said voidsent can't have breasts or bear children? Or that they aren't warmblooded?

From the lorebook: "Succubi manifest on the physical plane by forcing their souls into the bodies of deceased women."

So, physically a human body, but not necessarily alive or able to reproduce.

(Horns)

An even better example for dragon-like horns: goats or antelope.

In fact, having consulted Wikipedia, it seems horns are primarily a feature of mammals.


Also for fun and trivia, looked up pangolins and armadillos. Both have scales or something like it, but in different forms. Pangolins have overlapping scales made of keratin (the same stuff that hair, horns, claws and our fingernails are made of). Armadillos technically don't have scales but 'scutes' - which apparently is a layer of bone in their skin, with a thin covering of keratin.

(So, interesting thought coming from that: Au Ra scales might not be just for show, but could actually function as inbuilt body armour.)

I have never seen the word mammal used in game so I have no idea if they consider anything a mammal. Even if they do it's likely not exactly the same concept as we have. The people of this world are collectively referred to as "mankind" especially by the dragons. That suggests, (but is not conclusive) that all the races we have are related.

Are you confusing "mammal" and "human" here? (The terms have been used somewhat interchangeably in this discussion but that's not at all correct.)

Whether the races are 'human' is indeed debateable (although I believe the Japanese version does use the equivalent word to refer to all the races? But the English version specifically avoids it.) but mammal is a term for any of a large variety of animals with particular features: warm-blooded, with hair or fur, giving birth to live young and producing milk to feed them. Humans are one of many of this group, and all of the Eorzean races would fit into it. Even if Au Ra do have reptilian features, their actual body is humanoid.

The term doesn't need to be used in the game for it to remain a concept, any more than they need to talk about gravity before we can be sure it's in effect. As long as the animals in the world are similar to Earth animals, we can classify them in the same way.

I'm still a little sour about being berated in the Archer story for being an "outsider" to this art that the Wildwood elezen created and only they could perfect.

cries in wildwood

My Duskwight alt got the other side of that. Silvairre doesn't want to work with "the Miqo'te and... the other one". I know the other Gridanians don't like Duskwights but that's extra harsh.

But yeah, I was thinking it must be super weird playing that storyline as a Wildwood Elezen.