A couple questions about Au Ra

[KaivaC]

Oh? This thread got more replies. Perfect, because I was thinking about another biological function of their (partially inspired by questionable anime) tails. Are their tails sensitive at all? I notice that with Auri, their tails are not quite emotive - that's the best term I can use - like the Miqo'te. So what's the biological function for their tails? It couldn't be for balance, could it? Or is that just a byproduct of being partially voidsent? I like to run with the theory that the allagans were messing with the succubi demons that you'd find in Haukke Manor HM and crossed them with dragon blood and hyurs - creating this race.

[KageTokage]

Their design is inspired by both demons and dragons, but there's no lore connecting them to either.

They were also already well-established as a people during the peak of the Allagan Empire judging from the 4.4 MSQ and Heaven-on-High lore, so it's highly unlikely they were created by them.

[Rosenoire]

Their design is inspired by both demons and dragons, but there's no lore connecting them to either.

Officially, no. However, I was looking through the first lore book the other day, and I ran across the section on the Allagan Empire and the Third Astral Era. In the description of the Allagan invasion of Meracydia, there's a referenced to Bahamut being the "dawn dragon" and Tiamat being the "dusk dragon". Could very well be a coincidence, but it did make me wonder

[Bright-Flower]

Bit of a random question, but I'm a bit curious if an au ra tail could be used as a weapon of sorts. I have an au ra alt and it has the spiky tail option and I was wondering if it would be feasible to cut someone with it if they were close enough...but I'm not sure that their tails are flexible enough or strong enough for something like that, and they're not super long to give an idea like that much range.

[ObsidianFire]

It would probably depend what the spine-like growths are. If they're just extra bone growths (and Au Ra seem to do extra bone growths a lot) then probably not. If they more something along the lines of the spines of a stonefish or a lionfish or some lizards venom spines... yowch. Also, even if they weren't natural weapons, I could totally see Au Ra, particularly the Xalea, figuring out how to do things like add metal spikes to them to make them more dangerous.

In the description of the Allagan invasion of Meracydia, there's a referenced to Bahamut being the "dawn dragon" and Tiamat being the "dusk dragon". Could very well be a coincidence, but it did make me wonder

It might be. However, the story of Nhaama and Azim also reminds me a lot of the Hydaelyn/Zodiark conflict only it has a happy ending where they make up in the end instead of the actual ending where they are still fighting. Temulun, the shaman of the Mol tribe, makes it sound like the WoL is heavily associated with Nhaama, the Dusk Mother. To the point that we're "A singular radiance. Shimmering. Like a jewel of the Dusk Mother, blinding in its brilliance." And it's like... where have we heard that before? It sounds a lot like another description of the Blessing of Light to me.

[KaivaC]

Bit of a random question, but I'm a bit curious if an au ra tail could be used as a weapon of sorts. I have an au ra alt and it has the spiky tail option and I was wondering if it would be feasible to cut someone with it if they were close enough...but I'm not sure that their tails are flexible enough or strong enough for something like that, and they're not super long to give an idea like that much range.

I'd imagine that it could be - their tails seem sturdy enough to be used for that purpose. I don't see why not. Flexibility...now that's a good question. I'd like to think that the structure would allow them to curl their tails much like snakes and serpents are able to curl their bodies. Still would like to think there's some biological advantage that their tails might give them aside from intimidating.

[KageTokage]

I'm interested in learning what the "original state of man" the Ascians have been telling Solus about was...assuming it actually existed to begin with.

If it's not just a lie, it implies the different races didn't even exist prior to the shards being created and there was only one race of man, which begs the questions of why/how they even came into being in the first place.

I assume that's something we'll get the full truth about in 5.x or maybe even 4.5.

[Draginhikari]

Bit of a random question, but I'm a bit curious if an au ra tail could be used as a weapon of sorts. I have an au ra alt and it has the spiky tail option and I was wondering if it would be feasible to cut someone with it if they were close enough...but I'm not sure that their tails are flexible enough or strong enough for something like that, and they're not super long to give an idea like that much range.

It depends on the amount of muscle control they would have over the tail itself allow them to swing it with any level of force. The Au Ra tails are probably too short in comparison to their body size to make them very effective at it. Just looking at my own Au Ra's animations, unlike the Miqo'te, their tail has very limited movement (Mostly just seems to be side to side or slightly upward) which makes it's kind of unlikely they would be able to whip it very far in one direction or the other. At the most I image they would spin there body and using the momentum... but due to the length of the tails I image that wouldn't be the most effective way to do anything.

The Au Ra tails seem similar to that of those of many lizards that use the tail as a means of balancing when climbing or moving rather then a means to attack anything.

[Ramesses]

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

Not grumpy, my friend... "Draconian"

[SannaR]

Speaking of the hardness and flexibility of the scales they seem to be hard but not to the point where they would hamper the movement a ninja or a monk would make. If you look at the female Au Ra's rse you'll notice one heel is exposed to show a scale section. A lot of the the scales do seem to be covering important areas that other races would protect with the use of armor. Yet with the Xeala at least you have two whole tribes that leave a lot of areas exposed and if one were to actually accept that the armor one can get from the second dungeon is what those Raen use as armor then again there's a lot of areas that are exposed. I say those as there seems to be at least one Raen clan that isn't as secluded and doesn't live under the water since both Yuki and Akagi both wear armor/clothing that covers up most of them.