A Question I've Always Had On The Races...

[TheVigilant]

(I'll start with I know that this is a game so there are for this some impractical reasons but let's assume there are reasons thought of and put in place for the sake of an agreeable lore)

So I've always wondered, seeing the world of Eorzea, the races are always socializing, interacting and mingling with each other.

Shouldn't it then be an often occurrence that two from a different race and opposite genders would procreate?

So then what has caused characters of a mixed race appearance to be so rare to the point of a handful one in the game?

So far I only know of Hilda Ware, whom according the FFXIV wiki, "Her father refused to acknowledge her existence to the day he died" (Wiki's Source: Encyclopedia Eorzea).

Is it that they simply refuse to procreate with another race or is it that they do but the child turns out to only have the racial appearance of one of the parents or the other?

Has this subject been clarified by SE before?
Your thoughts?

[zcrash970]

Probably because that would take work to make a cross species race. That takes work and time which I doubt the dev will put effort into it

[Caurcas]

In lore its a social taboo.

[OranKells]

Generally speaking in the real world interspecies breeding is rare.

There are a lot of biological reason why it doesn't work very well and while some species can intermingle the resulting children are often infertile.

I would suspect the case is the same in the game.

[Tsumdere]

They seem to be rare because of taboo as stated in game, but I also wouldn't doubt there is some physical/cultural challenges with some of the races as well.

We know that Elezen and Hyur can procreate from Hilda, as well as Hyur and Au Ra (from the story in Sui no Sato of an Au Ra with no scales). Hyur and Garleans can as well as Arenvald is mixed race. Meaning that reasonably Elezen, Au Ra, Garleans, and Hyurs can all intermingle.

The other races I have a hard time imagining either because of their extreme statures, isolationist cultures, and some of their certain attributes being too different from Hyurs. Would a Miqo'te/Hyur hybrid have human ears on top of their head? Or cat ears on the side? Or Gods forbid a pair of both?

As an aside, I simply have the headcannon that Miqo/Viera + Hyur/Elezen/Garlean hybrids having hearing issues.

[Vidu]

The quest "Its not easy being green" (unlocks Wanderes Palace HM) features an interracial, homosexual couple (Hyur and Mi'qote) and heavly implies that the interracial aspect of their relationship is a problem for society.

Given that interracial couples are a social taboo, as Caurcas already said, we dont see that many of them - they are there, though!

[TheVigilant]

Generally speaking in the real world interspecies breeding is rare.

There are a lot of biological reason why it doesn't work very well and while some species can intermingle the resulting children are often infertile.

I would suspect the case is the same in the game.

Excuse me, while I understand the point you're trying to make, I disagree that a Hyur and a Miqo'te are like a Human and a Cat.
The only difference between the two is the ear and tail, that's it.
They are even both called "people", "person" and even "Humans" several times in the story.
Hell, they even are attracted to each other, seeing the Miqo'te female dancers in Ul'dah and Costa del Sol, attended by other races there.

[Iscah]

Excuse me, while I understand the point you're trying to make, I disagree that a Hyur and a Miqo'te are like a Human and a Cat.

They didn't say that, though.

Even in the real world, closely-related species (like the various big cats) can interbreed but the offspring are often infertile.

And as Tsumdere pointed out, there are real physical differences between the races that may not neatly combine if their bodies have different shapes, particularly ear placement (and necessary difference in the underlying skull shape) and tails.

[Avatre]

IIRC, it's been stated in lore that if two different races do procreate, the offspring is of the mothers race.

[Jennah]

There are all sorts of plausible answers:

- Such unions really are infertile, with the sole human/elf exception we've seen in-game. (Nothing weird here - sex without the possibility of conception happens all the time IRL, whether homosexual, post-menopausal, fertility issues, trusting to birth control...)
- The offspring are their mother's race. (I was under the impression the lore said this too; though I dunno where.)
- The offspring are a 50/50 chance of being either parent's race. (This seems to be the case with Garleans / Highlanders; listen to Arenvald and other Ala Mhigan children of Garlean rape being worried about the 3rd eye showing up.)
- They're all in-game, but 'just hiding' (like male Viera, up til now. Plausible since interracial breeding seems rare - we just haven't run into any important ones.)
- We see them all the time, but most aren't identifiable at a glance. (Do note that G'raha must have some Hyur ancestry, unless I'm wrong and ancient Allagan royalty was in fact Miqo'te.)