If you RP, Auri Dragoon is basically the main character of FFXIV

[Lium]

I'm not a huge roleplayer but I do immerse myself in my characters. Currently, I'm leveling an Auri DRG and it feels very natural to nearly every story and expansion in the game thus far. In ARR, the Doman refugees appear and during the job quests,

you fight Estinien and are introduced to Nidhogg.

Heavensward is basically a gigantic job quest for dragoons that everyone can experience regardless of job.

It is a DIRECT continuation of the ARR job questline, and it brings you full circle.

Stormblood is all about the Far East. And if you're playing an Au Ra, well, its self-explanatory. You are freeing your homeland and your people.

Shadowbringers feels natural for everyone, so that of course, includes Auri dragoons.

Plus, Auri just look so incredibly badass in dragoon armor. Their horns and tails look like natural extensions of the armor. Especially if you play a Xaela. So, if you're into roleplay and character immersion, you should definitely make an Auri dragoon if you haven't done so already. It's great fun!

[Edax]

I'm afraid it's not Auri on the poster but some generic Hyur

[RicaRuin]

Au Ra (Auri is the adjective, not the plural) is possibly the race that is the least canon for ARR Patches and Heavensward. Yugiri won't show her face to you because her people are 'too different' for you to understand, ignoring the fact that you are an Au Ra yourself.

And a certain Job Quest NPC states how Ishgard is wary of all Au Ra, keen on attacking them since they have some draconic traits. Meanwhile, all Ishgardians completely ignore the very same traits on you.

So, I think an Au Ra is the least canon WoL in this setting.

[Vidu]

I'm not a huge roleplayer but I do immerse myself in my characters. Currently, I'm leveling an Auri DRG and it feels very natural to nearly every story and expansion in the game thus far. In ARR, the Doman refugees appear and during the job quests,

you fight Estinien and are introduced to Nidhogg.

Heavensward is basically a gigantic job quest for dragoons that everyone can experience regardless of job.

It is a DIRECT continuation of the ARR job questline, and it brings you full circle.

Stormblood is all about the Far East. And if you're playing an Au Ra, well, its self-explanatory. You are freeing your homeland and your people.

Shadowbringers feels natural for everyone, so that of course, includes Auri dragoons.

Plus, Auri just look so incredibly badass in dragoon armor. Their horns and tails look like natural extensions of the armor. Especially if you play a Xaela. So, if you're into roleplay and character immersion, you should definitely make an Auri dragoon if you haven't done so already. It's great fun!

I dont want to ruin your fun and I'm sure that playing an Au Ra dragoon can be a lot of fun if one happens to like the race and the job, but since you posted this in the lore-forum, its worthwhile taking a look at your reasoning that this is fun because its the most natural choice.

First off: Playing an Au Ra during the early ARR-storyline while having Yugiri hide her face at the same time seems extremly unnatural to me. Shes specifically hiding her face because shes worried people might be afraid of her and she keeps hiding her face even after she learned that the champion of those people is one of her own kind? Why?

Secondly: While everything happens in our little time bubble and there is some wiggle room to allow for an Au Ra WoL right from the start, it doesnt feel all that natural to me. There are several hoops you have to go through to make that happen. Its possible, but any of the Eorzean races are a more natural choice with less explaining to do - and the less explantion needed, the better the narrative, generally speaking.

Third - and this is probably bugging me the most here: We are not going to the Far East to free any Au Ra. We're going to free Doma and according to the second lorebook only about 10% of their citizens are Au Ra (Raen to be exact). The Xaela basically are living on the Azim Steps, which are of no intrest to the Garleans so far. They have made no attempt to invade the steps. The Xaela Au ra get dragged into this war by us - a Xaela wouldnt come to the Far East to free their people, but to bring war to them. Which could certainly be an intresting point in terms of roleplaying, I suppose... but we're not there to free them.
If you want to play as someone whos freeing their homeland: Play as highlander monk, thats much more fitting.

Fourth: Dragoon as a job originated in Ishgard and it doesnt seem a very natural choice for an Au Ra to me - while there certainly are Au Ra skilled with the lance as a weapon, you'd imagine a very different style of fightning, seeing how Dragoon is especially skilled in fights against dragons - which there arent that many hostile ones in the Far East (at least as far as we know). Theres nothing wrong with imagining that an Au Ra just picked a lance and became a dragoon because they happend to like that weapon, but it really doesnt seem to be a natural choice to me and certainly not a natural choice supported by the lore and story.

I dont want to repeat what Rica already stated on top of the things I mentioned.

The game does a pretty good job at not making any one combination of race, gender and job "more canon" than any other, so play whatever is most fun to you - I dont think that an Au Ra dragoon is the best fit for the overall story, though. I'm not a roleplayer myself, but the amount of explaining you'd have to come up with to justify certain things is just to much to make this a very good fit for immersion.

[KageTokage]

The whole "being an adventurer" thing really leaves your character open to anything as far as race/job combos go.

I don't really find the TC's preference any more or less appropriate overall, because Ishgard isn't (Or wasn't in the wake of the HW MSQ) fond of outsiders in general and they seem to have done their research about Au Ra after the little incident that shaped Sidurgu into a grumpy edgelord because they only mention the shifty behavior of the one involved in the WHM quests as cause for suspicion, not her race.

[Canadane]

Au Ra (Auri is the adjective, not the plural)

The way I read the topic title it was used adjective...ly.

...but otherwise yeah I agree if anything it's the least likely race to be the canon main character race. With both Viera and Hrothgar up there in questionable status too.
Whereas the world is washed enough for the 5 default races enough to fit any of those ones.

[Vyrerus]

Honestly, Hyur is probably the best WoL. An Ala Mhigan Highlander would be far more canonical than Au Ra of either tribe. An Au Ra origin WoL suffers from the fact that Au Ra were not there at the game's inception, so there is specific dialogue/events, as two others have already pointed out, that spits in the face of that. Whereas an Ala Mhigan WoL gets to tie their character to refugee status, war veteran, and many many MSQ and side story events.

A back story I wrote up once for my Hyur was that he was an Ala Mhigan descended from a heavy pikeman that fought in the Autumn War. He was one of the only male Highlanders to get into Gridania, where he joined up with the Lancer's Guild, for obvious reasons. Pressing up to become the 2nd Azure Dragoon, as well as join the Scions of the Seventh Dawn he gains regional acclaim. Joins the Maelstrom GC cause he has the hots for Merylwyb. Has a stronger resonance with the Ala Mhigan refugees quests in Ul'dah and South Shroud, as well as Southern Than. Facing Gaius van Baelsar at the Praetorium is also thicker. Then, when the murder plot for the Sultana is put into play, his Ala Mhigan heritage/refugee relations makes the frame-up all the sweeter. Gets more of a personal vendetta with the Ilberd/Raubahn situation too. More of an attachment to Minfilia and Yda/Lyse too.

Heavensward happens.. The Ala Mhigan Pikeman lineage plays well into the DRG questline with Heustienne remarking about how brutally strong the WoL's lance techniques are, how she can only imagine what incredible fiends or former school of the lance had me learn to wield it that way. It's even more biting in a place where bloodlines of Elezen are upheld as the pinnacle of power that a brick shithouse Hyur has shown up and flipped the script in every aspect of their culture. Most Hyur in Ishgard are of the servant class or lesser in rank militarily(there's some Hyur DRGs iirc). The whole Garlean occupation of Ala Mhigo and Lucia being a an ex Garlean agent also gets a bit juicier with an Ala Mhigan background. Character motivation is also higher once the Empire is involved when Varis shows up with Regula van Hydrus. Emotions run higher when Iceheart dies. When Unulkuhai tries to trick you into killing Hydrus during the Warring Triad sidequests, as an Ala Mhigan, you may say you only relented for your friends not for yourself.

Stormblood doesn't need explanation.

Course, it's moreso being Ala Mhigan that ties a nice bow on all it, rather than just being Highlander. So like... Hellsguard Roes, whatever Miqote tribe is in The Fringes etc.

I like Highlander though, cause it's like the buff McStronghuge version of the promotional material WoL. This all said, if you have the time to write it, an Au Ra character does fit into the narrative kind of nicely. Starting in Limsa. Ignoring the bit with Yugiri... It's not really any worse than any of the other races, but I don't think there's any Ala Mhigan Au Ras.

[Morningstar1337]

I also want to chime in and say that in terms of Jobs the most likely to be canon as of Shadowbringers would be DRK (which is used), BLM (associated with dark magics and the Void, the First's antithesis) and possibly AST (you are bringing back the night sky after all)

[Caitlinzulu]

Didnt you guys and gals all know, the wol of light is a miqo'te off course :P