The character you made

[Local_Custard]

I have been reading through the responses of this thread and I enjoy all you have had to say! Long post incoming! To start...

I find the races in this game to be extremely boring so I struggled for quite some time to find something I clicked with. I tried everything except Au Ra and eventually landed on Elezen which I stayed on for a while. Even then, I never felt like it was the perfect fit, it was more like "well I guess this is the best I can do with the choices available."

Later, during another period of being restless with the race choices, I started to go down the list trying out the different races again with fantas. This time however I did something I hadn't done previously, I checked out female Highlander in the character creator. I had always written them off as more boring humans and rarely ever saw them out in the world to prove otherwise. When I got to the voice section and heard Voice 9's /cheer ("WOO YEAH YEAH YEAH AAARRHGHRGH") I laughed really hard and made the switch.

I only expected it to be temporary for laughs but to my surprise a race finally clicked for me and I've been a thighlander ever since. I really dig their tomboy vibe, I love how animated and full of personality their emotes are, they look amazing in every glam, and the voice I use is hilarious. Even their /sit pose is awesome, they take a knee like a boss. I often get whispers asking "where did you get that emote?" lol.

I usually play whatever the furthest thing from humans is in every game so it's certainly surprising that this is where I landed, but it just goes to show that even if a race isn't as popular overall, it makes a world of difference for the people who do end up gravitating toward that race. I honestly probably would have quit by now if fem highlander wasn't an option. I'm sure many people will feel the same about the upcoming Hrothgals and honestly that's the only thing that could ever pull me away from Highlander, depending on how they turn out.

Sometimes it can be a struggle for picking a race to consistently enjoy, especially with almost all of them leaning very humanoid. Even then, the different traits make each of them a unique experience. I'm glad you found a race you enjoy! I appreciate how this game has considerably little gender locking (yeah it still exists, but the devs show a clear tendency to not letting it last). As you say, highlander has more than one gender to pick from. I also look forward to what the additional gender of hrothgar will look like! Sometimes the concept art isn't the full picture so I am up to the surprise and how the fandom may interact with it. Side note: I love how some voices sound silly or how a few sound straight up feral (gives me endorphins while I giggle).

sexy dragon/lizard girl was basically the only thought in my head when i picked this character.

very understandable. Sometimes reasons for picking a gender can be simple.

Honestly without fully understanding how important/unimportant attributes would be, coming from FFXI, I chose Highlander because it had the highest STR rating while also having second highest rating in VIT(at the time) and respectable other stats (decently high MND).

That and the option to finally play a Hume that had some bulk to them, rather than just being another bishie boy in a Final Fantasy was something I liked a rather lot. I trend towards things like Half-orc or full Orc if they're available, and Highlander was somewhat up that alley with the whole lore about being rumored to be half Roegadyn and such (really just an insult from insecure Midlanders loL).

I also started a Roegadyn as my first alt character back during 2.1. He wasn't a permanent fixture after Au Ra came out, though.

Lore I make up for my character changes on a whim, so I try not to think to hard about it.

Over the years I've tried out other races on alts as well. I find that Highlander males are the best at showing pain in their facial expressions.

ah yeah, attributes. I remember when I first entered the game I considered attribute but ultimately didn't care enough about minmaxing to consider it (I mean, the game let me make alts, so my first character can always be a playthrough and an alt be more polished? Luckily, that isn't really the case, though). I love how some faces show pain. Curious what the pain emote looks like on your character!

I've always thought of my character as a continuation of my FFXI character.

neat! Any lore on that for your character? Also, did you do the FFXI event when it was a thing?

My characters always have a piece of myself in their creation (self insert alert!), so I picked Viera for my race because they're (typically) dark-skinned and tall (as well as being an all-time favorite race of mine).

Her forest name is Chul Dei-Ijla, but her city name, Kukuru, was chosen after eating chocolate for the first time. Before that, the only sweets she ate were fruits found in the Golmore Jungle.

...And yeah, I kind of chose that city name because she's a "chocolate bunny" of sorts... cx

Does she like the Eorzean equivalent of easter or any holiday prominently featuring chocolate? I love how in lore, any name is a canon viera name. That is how I have a viera named Rosemary Tea (side note: I later looked this up after making him and rosemary tea is quite bitter).

Don't really have a personality or lore. I like cats, so miqo'te felt like a good idea.

Obviously it turns out that everyone else like miqo'tes too and that sometimes bugs me. Not so much that other people like it, but more so that I'm just a drop in the ocean of thousands of miqo'tes. I really don't feel like there's any way to actually be unique with the limited character creation options.

I have had thoughts of fantaing as well, but that's an expensive habit(assuming it becomes a habit). I feel like if I fanta it would take a few at least to figure out what feels good to me and I just don't want to go through the process or spend the money.

yeahh. Sometimes I'm tempted to buy a fanta just to explore the other face options. I also get curious what my character may look like as other races. Sometimes it is about carving out a personality when choices overlap. Even then, it might be funny to run into a doppelgänger and get up to antics with them (maybe both parties agree to copy each other for example).