Fan Ideas/Speculation: Weird Humanoid Races

[Jaywalker]

----------

OKAY. No more technical nonsense!

Really love the ideas! Honestly voidsent au ra would prob be insanely popular given how the community has been lamenting the original designs, mammets/Vivi is a very fun and classic design, and honestly there might be room for some interesting lore complications with espers/primal-born. Had trouble seeing what you put for Yuke but going to go back and see if I can figure it out.

I do think it sounds a little bit like you're going more for third subtypes for a couple of options (mammets being a kind of offshoot for lalas, voidsent au ra being an offshoot of au ra) but tbh we do have room for that. After all Othardian Roegadyn like Gosetsu exist but aren't in the character creator.

Speaking as someone who aspires to reference the classic black mage/Vivi look, one thing I wonder at a little is whether there'd be enough customization options or whether it would be more efficient as a kind of gear you could don?

A Majora's Mask-style setup for beastman gear sounds brilliant. I seriously think that would go a long way to helping out folks who are interested in playing a beast race efficiently.

Tried brainstorming a little for Lunarian aesthetic, came out with this:



If you feel like it, I'd be happy to take suggestions and play with features (not just for Lunarian, could try esper/primal born a little too possibly) to see how things look. I tried to differentiate with a very flat face, droopy sanpaku eyes, and droopy ears along with some gravity-defying hair but I think this isn't weird enough and looks too similar to elezen.

Also, spent a few minutes going through options--besides Lunarians as a possible alien/star people sort of race, in terms of existing options there are variations off of Ancients, robots, and Gnomes I think? Some wound up being too normal (Selkies and Clavats) so not gonna throw them over here, and others were too animal-specific or had elements that looked like logistical problems. Orcs came up once, but I think Roegadyn filled that niche already.

Some ideas for how these might be implemented to FFXIV...



Lunarians have started descending to Hydaelyn following the fall of Dalamud. They have no idea what on earth is happening in Eorzea or its neighboring nations, people have adapted a bit since their arrival following the Calamity so we don't see the full culture shock, and their numbers are not significant to cause widespread panic. Kind of a weird twist on an invasion story, they're coming more to scout and gather information while offering aid as they get bound into the story of the world. Their lore might be possible to address if a quest with a + next to it is placed in adventurer's guilds at level one accessibility or around there. Additionally, them not having strong presence in any of the nations or much lore shown would be explainable because they are literally from the moon. Warrior of Light has basically descended as an explorer or scout. Alternatively, Lunarians could fall to earth or something like meteors occasionally and get raised by established races if people want to make up alternate backgrounds. Plenty of possibilities! Also aliens with a kind of mystic, otherworldly tone to them would stand out compared to other options. Visually I think there's room to really experiment hard with proportions too. They seem to have gray skin sometimes, which could be fun for gray alien type references. Could be made either tall and lean or could be very short (like between lalafell and miqo'te) and thin and I think that would work. Would lean toward flat faces.



Ancients, and variations off of the concept, feature in a bunch of final fantasy games. The Cetra was one notable example, but even easier--we have Allagans in FFXIV and no idea what they look like. They could be basically anything or some bizarro combination of features from various races or who knows what. They could look vaguely fetal even, implying they were the original humanoid race of Hydaelyn from which others evolved. Who knows. And if the Allagans themselves don't work, some remnant of them could work too. Just need a long lost civilization or a bunch of people in pods waking up and stumbling around.



Robots, or magitek robots, honestly could be addressed as either Allagan creations that have been waking up and wandering around with no one quite sure what they're about but needing to deal with them regardless, or they could be sentient escapees from Garlemald. I lean toward the first option because it addresses more cleanly why they don't appear in combat earlier, and there's room for their existence to be covered in a much later plot point. Quests with + added sometimes at varying levels can help address lore, and if the rewards are fun but not practically useful items like minions or level one glamours it would offer incentive without borking the leveling process. Aesthetic lore basically until it's brought in in-depth later. This would also allow a fair amount of versatility into weird facial features as well as dramatic variation between face options. The downside imo is frankly, what on earth is done with hair and earrings? Would something else need to be substituted for added customization if no hair options are present? Earrings are a bigger issue because they're gear. I think this could be done but would be a bit trickier.



Gnomes showed up in FFIII and by the sounds of it were smaller than Lalafells. I think this might be workable, they could just be an unbelievably secretive and reclusive race and if it's from fear/timidity it could contrast the warrior-Viera. I would lean away from previous designs for these personally and think it could be fun to make their ears positively MASSIVE while their faces and bodies go more ugly-cute to contrast Lalafells.

[Shougun]

Hehe I see you had fun learning about the good ol' edit the post to get past the character limit trick .

Really love the ideas! Honestly voidsent au ra would prob be insanely popular given how the community has been lamenting the original designs, mammets/Vivi is a very fun and classic design, and honestly there might be room for some interesting lore complications with espers/primal-born. Had trouble seeing what you put for Yuke but going to go back and see if I can figure it out.

Yuke is just another example of puppet-like race in SE games, that was all. If people are not familar with them then I could understand why bringing them up was like "I dont get it" lol.

Speaking as someone who aspires to reference the classic black mage/Vivi look, one thing I wonder at a little is whether there'd be enough customization options or whether it would be more efficient as a kind of gear you could don?

Well if we used the majora mask setup, which lowers SE's pressure to deliver the lore and huge set of customization then.. none - what you get is what you get haha. You don the visage of a shadow and that's that. The mask system doesn't have to literally be masks either, it might be best if they're actually glamours you apply onto your wrists (a slot that doesn't use anything at the moment).

However, I do believe they could make some race options and I would also suggest if they're adding a bunch of goof races because it's fun then they don't need to have each race have a huge array of options (if it doesn't make sense to have, like Void born Au Ra having a more normal section makes sense while Vivi like having less also makes sense). For example the vivi race would have scale, like in FFIX there were fat large ones and short lalafell ones, different eye shapes and perhaps colors, perhaps different hues of shadows, and also in the "lore" I came up with different undergarments. In this case the undergarments are more like bindings for the soul to stay in one spot, so they aren't really undergarments but very important shackles to reality lol. There is no pressure on this specific race for SE to add 500 different options, and because the shapes the model will use (like lalafell) I think it would be a relatively easy to implement race just for the fun of it.

I do think it sounds a little bit like you're going more for third subtypes for a couple of options (mammets being a kind of offshoot for lalas, voidsent au ra being an offshoot of au ra) but tbh we do have room for that. After all Othardian Roegadyn like Gosetsu exist but aren't in the character creator.

I'd love new shapes, but I was thinking in terms of cost effective (keeping the shapes that armor fit on, emote animations, not super heavy lore). I did that mostly because you had in a sort of essence asked me to bring down the level of requests from "make some beastmen, big lion faces go!" to something more normal. I believe adding more subtypes is an easier outlet, at least given that SE doesn't have some sort of memory issues from doing so.

A Majora's Mask-style setup for beastman gear sounds brilliant. I seriously think that would go a long way to helping out folks who are interested in playing a beast race efficiently.

Yeah I think it cleanly kills any lore issue about playing something beastman looking, because you're not and the NPC know it too, but it also allows SE the ability to add beastmen options with limited lore and customization requirements (making them much easier to add). Like the wolf race could be added tomorrow, when you slap the glamour onto your wrist it'll cause your helmet to be hidden and you'll gain tail/fur.

I know there are some normal masks in the game, that are like parade/sport mascot masks, but those do not feel real (they're a mask that goes over your real face). The point of the majora system would be your face changes, becoming animated and alive in some part - like the Majora Mask. Like if people remember that old Jim Carrey movie (The Mask).

Tried brainstorming a little for Lunarian aesthetic, came out with this:



If you feel like it, I'd be happy to take suggestions and play with features (not just for Lunarian, could try esper/primal born a little too possibly) to see how things look. I tried to differentiate with a very flat face, droopy sanpaku eyes, and droopy ears along with some gravity-defying hair but I think this isn't weird enough and looks too similar to elezen.

Also, spent a few minutes going through options--besides Lunarians as a possible alien/star people sort of race, in terms of existing options there are variations off of Ancients, robots, and Gnomes I think? Some wound up being too normal (Selkies and Clavats) so not gonna throw them over here, and others were too animal-specific or had elements that looked like logistical problems. Orcs came up once, but I think Roegadyn filled that niche already.

Some ideas for how these might be implemented to FFXIV...



Lunarians have started descending to Hydaelyn following the fall of Dalamud. They have no idea what on earth is happening in Eorzea or its neighboring nations, people have adapted a bit since their arrival following the Calamity so we don't see the full culture shock, and their numbers are not significant to cause widespread panic. Kind of a weird twist on an invasion story, they're coming more to scout and gather information while offering aid as they get bound into the story of the world. Their lore might be possible to address if a quest with a + next to it is placed in adventurer's guilds at level one accessibility or around there. Additionally, them not having strong presence in any of the nations or much lore shown would be explainable because they are literally from the moon. Warrior of Light has basically descended as an explorer or scout. Alternatively, Lunarians could fall to earth or something like meteors occasionally and get raised by established races if people want to make up alternate backgrounds. Plenty of possibilities! Also aliens with a kind of mystic, otherworldly tone to them would stand out compared to other options. Visually I think there's room to really experiment hard with proportions too. They seem to have gray skin sometimes, which could be fun for gray alien type references. Could be made either tall and lean or could be very short (like between lalafell and miqo'te) and thin and I think that would work. Would lean toward flat faces.

They're not from Dalamud though right? Just came down to see what's up after it fell- yeah? I think it would be a nice twist if they came down to "help out" with a bit of an air of arrogance and power, but when you look closely its with a high sense of urgency. They helped the Allagan set up the moon in agreement for some power from it, like a giant primal dyson sphere lol. Problem being now that it fell and their back up stores have finally ran out they are coming down to find a new power source (they didn't notice right away beacuse they became so used to a life of luxury, their technology grand and their power limitless). Looking for a source they perhaps find the state Minfilla in interesting enough for their new more portable sphere.

Ancients, and variations off of the concept, feature in a bunch of final fantasy games. The Cetra was one notable example, but even easier--we have Allagans in FFXIV and no idea what they look like. They could be basically anything or some bizarro combination of features from various races or who knows what. They could look vaguely fetal even, implying they were the original humanoid race of Hydaelyn from which others evolved. Who knows. And if the Allagans themselves don't work, some remnant of them could work too. Just need a long lost civilization or a bunch of people in pods waking up and stumbling around.

I believe Garleans, the pure blooded ones like Cid or Nero, have some relation to the "ancients". Like the third eye. Except Garleans can't use magic if recall correctly. In such a scenario you might be able to add Garlean looking race to the character creator but they can still use magic. Perhaps to avoid you having memory of insane technologies and magics in lore we find a giant, giant, room full of clones - perhaps to reference FFIX called Genome (zidane and kuja are an example). Could even give them some features like Zidane and Kuja just for fun (soft faces, Kuja especially lol). Some of the Genome wake up and they have no memory of the world. Normally they would have been used to house a true Allagan mind, or perhaps were just made as dolls and toys for their fancy (in their imagE). Yet time has allowed stray energy to somehow spark them awake with their own soul-like aspect, rather than the system putting one calculated soul into it as was intended. The player can be one of those awakened clones of the ancients.

Robots, or magitek robots, honestly could be addressed as either Allagan creations that have been waking up and wandering around with no one quite sure what they're about but needing to deal with them regardless, or they could be sentient escapees from Garlemald. I lean toward the first option because it addresses more cleanly why they don't appear in combat earlier, and there's room for their existence to be covered in a much later plot point. Quests with + added sometimes at varying levels can help address lore, and if the rewards are fun but not practically useful items like minions or level one glamours it would offer incentive without borking the leveling process. Aesthetic lore basically until it's brought in in-depth later. This would also allow a fair amount of versatility into weird facial features as well as dramatic variation between face options. The downside imo is frankly, what on earth is done with hair and earrings? Would something else need to be substituted for added customization if no hair options are present? Earrings are a bigger issue because they're gear. I think this could be done but would be a bit trickier.

Hmm, am a little worried about this one but if SE could come up with a good looking design then it's surely possible (like it could be great, but if not done carefully could just look way out of place lol). I also believe they could just use the sort of clone idea above though, and then maybe allow some sort of circuitry tattoos that have light animations on them as a special race option. Like if you remember Command Shepard from Mass Effect 3, when he goes bad you can see some of the underlying components - although lets not make it explicitly evil looking like it is in that game lol.

Gnomes showed up in FFIII and by the sounds of it were smaller than Lalafells. I think this might be workable, they could just be an unbelievably secretive and reclusive race and if it's from fear/timidity it could contrast the warrior-Viera. I would lean away from previous designs for these personally and think it could be fun to make their ears positively MASSIVE while their faces and bodies go more ugly-cute to contrast Lalafells.

If the shape stays similar to lalafell so that they can reuse the body structure I could see this being a side option. I think that's the main reason why I suggested a bunch of sub-types, if the structures are similar for armor and some emotes (doesn't have to have all the same emotes, but similar proportion means many can be reused) then SE can add more races without it being a huge giant pain in the booty. The FFXIV universe, and pretty much all FF, have a vast array of races so I don't really feel like there is a strong need to be stuck with just a handful (if they can be added reasonably like majora mask style, or via subtype reuse).

If SE has heavy memory issues (where the code can't allow more than X) then I wish to have some more unique ones each time and they can work out the costs of adding them every so often in expansions but if it's possible to diversify without it costing them an arm and a leg then I think it's worth it. Or in other words I still like to see different shaped stuff, but I believe the route of subtypes and masks could offer SE some freedom.