A couple questions about Au Ra

[SannaR]

I think for hugs you'd have to turn your head to the side. I've had a few talks like these when bored or waiting for a que to pop with a few Au Ra friends. It's why I cringe at times when I see outfits that hide the tails as there has to be a poor tail being shoved down a pant leg or squished a lot into the fake tail. The worst is thinking about how uncomfortable the Evenstar Coat has to be for those with tails as it put's any tail into a tight always in an up position leather sheath. I know it's a lil silly to think of some of these things realistically but some times those ques are really long or you just can't decide on what to do so you start wondering about these type of things.

[Iscah]

Re. accidentally poking each other with horns, it's also possible that Au Ra would just have a different approach entirely to close physical contact. Less face-to-face and more side-by-side. (Or maybe that drastic height difference between males and females is an evolutionary result of couples being less likely to maim each other by accident...)

[Iscah]

For reference, Au Ra horn shapes:



You can also see the different designs of race-specific 'earrings' - the first two male designs have metal caps on their horns; the other two have flat plates along the outer edge. Females 1 and 4 have rings that sit around the horns, and the others don't have an option for it. (They have an additonal choice for scale placement on their faces instead.)

[Iscah]

For sleeping positions - with such a variety of horn shapes and placements, I think the exact answer would be something that each person works out for themselves. It definitely seems likely they'd culturally have invented a solid head-support rather than a soft pillow. (And possibly a bed with a gap in the middle of it for a tail to hang through!)


But of course, there's also an in-game answer because you can see a few different sleeping poses using the /doze and /cpose emotes, plus logging out at the inn.

Under a cut so it's not too pic-spammy.

(Someone else will have to test it out for female characters, I've only got a male character.)

Logout sleeping pose is kind of weird and overly straight, but his tail is flat underneath his legs. He sits down on it then shuffles over, putting weight on his hands and feet. Logging in again, he's already sitting up but still seems to have his tail clipping through the bed underneath him.






Default /doze position... on his side, never mind the horn going straight through the pillow! It could work with a thick shaped pillow that has a slit in it, maybe.

Also makes me notice that the scales on his neck seem to come to a sharp point right where it would dig into his throat when looking down...





Doze 2 - on his stomach, head resting upright on hand. I tried lying down like this and as soon as I relaxed, my head was leaning over against my left shoulder. Still, probably necessary for anyone with the more backwards-pointing horns, and they would probably also help to 'prop up' the head somewhat.

(Would also probably put the pillow under his chest when it's not welded to the top of the bed like it is in the game.)






Doze 3 - on back, with leg raised so the tail can lie out to the side. Makes sense for my character, and probably works for most horn shapes besides the really backwards-pointing ones (as there's still space between his horns and the pillow) but would be very dependent on their secondary horns! Obviously not going to work for the default hairstyle from the examples I posted earlier.

[SannaR]

Female Au Ra have about the same problems the males do where either a horn clips through or it ends up looking like it wouldn't be a pose you'd be in for a lengthy amount of time.

[AmemeAmeklin]

So basically Au Ra will never be able to sleep well because their horns are ridiculous :X

[Iscah]

So basically Au Ra will never be able to sleep well because their horns are ridiculous :X

Horns and tail fighting it out for which is the most uncomfortable to sleep on!

At least while they're staying in Eorzea with their silly flat beds and easily-shredded pillows...

[Iscah]

That sounds.... biologically improbable.

It's not. For certain injuries the body's natural response to to return itself to a sorta status quo. Whether that's altering the body in some way, like after a limb is lost, or something removed, or returning it to the way it once was. Age also plays a factor as the younger someone is the easier it is to "heal" from certain things. I sliced off the tip of my finger when I was young, and it grew back.

It's true that some creatures can regenerate some body parts - but between what I was previously aware of, and the reading I had done the previous night trying to work out Au Ra horn biology, it seemed improbable (based on analogues) that their horns would have that regenerative ability.

Reading through the article on regeneration abilities, it's mostly about soft tissues, and a lot of invertebrate animals. (Some on non-mammal vertebrates, I won't paraphrase in case I miss things.)

It specifically says regenerative abilities for mammals are a rare phenomenon, but it does happen - and interestingly (after you mentioned it!) does give fingertips as an example!

Meanwhile, going by the extra quotes posted from the lore panels, antlers probably are the best equivalent other than the fact that Au Ra horns are permanent - a branching shape that grows to a certain size, then stops - and there is no mention of them being able to regenerate. The article on antlers says that they grow outwards from the tip, leaving a fixed structure behind - but what does that mean if they get broken off halfway along? The growing tip is gone, and while the article doesn't directly say that they can't be regrown after partly breaking, the fact that it isn't mentioned (and also not mentioned in the article on regeneration) makes me inclined to believe that it doesn't happen. Permanent breakage is more likely the "expected", not-worth-mentioning outcome, while the ability to regenerate them would be more remarkable.

And actual horns are definitely not able to regrow - being like our hair and nails, growing from the base but essentially 'dead' and unable to repair damage at the tip.

As for the scales, calling them scales isn't inaccurate, but simply referring to them as skin would be fine as well.

Only if it actually is structurally equivalent to skin, and not better compared to fingernails, or even hair - by placement rather than function, in that case. (Males certainly seem intended to have a 'beard' of scales, and the "older" face (#4) even has the option for a scale-moustache. Make what you will of the females also having heavy scales around the face... but that of course is a cultural thing on top of a physical one!)

If it's just skin, I feel like it should be the same colour as their skin - or at least close to it, and not the striking contrasts they tend to have.

Also they look like either overlapping scales or solid plates, not just rough skin.


That said, if it's the same structure as their fingernails then it would have been a nice detail for their nails to be the same colour/texture, but they're just modelled in the same barely-visible way as the other races.

Also I have to wonder exactly how hard or flexible the scales are - particularly as they cover the neck quite heavily, and would potentially restrict movement if they're not flexible. (And as I mentioned earlier re. the 'sleeping poses' screenshots, males have what looks like a sharp point of a solid scale-plate right where it would dig into their throat.)

[Rosenoire]

Someone on the Reddit comm suggested that Au Ra use Japanese-style takamakura instead of pillows. Makes sense to me.

[Rosenoire]

...Or could it just be that the the Au Ra are so epic, they don't need sleep?

It could certainly explain why the males, at least, always look so grumpy.