Races

[ThomasOfEger]

What i miss in ffxiv is origin of races...at least ye we have trough expansions explained where they came from and what cullture they have but in term of biology i mean ye its fantasy but it would be nice have some backstory in it. Like dwarfs in wow was earthens before and came to world as creation of Titans like stone creatures form in evolution somehow....maybe i do not hit the point in game yet but it would be nice to see some story behind it

[Turnintino]

Someone else here will surely be able to name the exact source (or correct me if I'm wrong), but I believe supplemental material describes the sundered races of men having developed their unique characteristics based on their ecological circumstances (I understand that's basically just a broad description of the concept of evolution in general, but it's what we've got). Coincidentally, though, they all happened to evolve into identical races even on the other shards (at least the ones we've seen, and it looks like you've completed ShB, so you've seen the First). Which does make that explanation a little harder to swallow, but... this is fiction, and making unique races for each shard we visit is more resource-intensive than the devs are interested in investing in, clearly lol.

Never say never, but I suspect we're unlikely to be given anything more in-depth than that. Plenty of room for speculation, at any rate!

[Cleretic]

Someone else here will surely be able to name the exact source (or correct me if I'm wrong), but I believe supplemental material describes the sundered races of men having developed their unique characteristics based on their ecological circumstances (I understand that's basically just a broad description of the concept of evolution in general, but it's what we've got). Coincidentally, though, they all happened to evolve into identical races even on the other shards (at least the ones we've seen, and it looks like you've completed ShB, so you've seen the First). Which does make that explanation a little harder to swallow, but... this is fiction, and making unique races for each shard we visit is more resource-intensive than the devs are interested in investing in, clearly lol.

Never say never, but I suspect we're unlikely to be given anything more in-depth than that. Plenty of room for speculation, at any rate!

Live letter Q&A! I think it makes sense that every race developed concurrently across every shard, because every shard had essentially the same basic conditions; it makes sense that elezen developed on all of them, because the conditions that would've led to those traits dominating would've been present on all shards. It's carcinization, but with bunny people. It's a fantastical version of it, but it makes enough sense to buy.

You've also got the more specific situations of the sub-races, where cultural or geographic differences led to a split, which might be to the OP's liking. Wildwood and Duskwight elezen stem from an ideological split that happened around Gridania's founding, Rava and Veena viera live in different places and are implied to have different social dynamics regarding outsiders as a result. Hellion and Lost hrothgar are my favorites these days, where it's not really a 'split' so much as an intra-community social dynamic that outsiders misinterpreted; the Lost are just hrothgar whose queen has died and they don't currently have a new one, they aren't really treated differently or have a different dynamic, demographic or genetic makeup to other hrothgar. But because a fairly large hrothgar family with white fur recently had their queen die, there's just a statistically anomalous amount of white-furred Lost right now that led outsiders to assume Lost have white fur as a rule.

[Iscah]

The backstory is just "they're human" but somehow evolved exaggerated traits and sizes instead of just being varieties of pink-brown.

[Chasingstars]

Also where each race comes from differs.

Miqote are most known from coming from Meracydia which is to the south.
Elezen and Lalafell are where modern Eoreza is like Ul'Dah or Gridania, so around the middle, with some Lalafell living in the southern island region.
Roegyadan are from northern part of the world where they mostly just sailed around.
Viera we know basically show up on either far east (Dalmasca & Othard) or far west (Xak Tural)
Au'ra we know are from the far east, mostly the steppes and ruby sea.
Hrothgar are like the Viera, they are either far east (Bozja) or far west (Yak Tural).
Hyur are also believed to have come from the east, such as Ala Mhigo and Othard.

Which the Hrothgar and Viera interest me as it makes me wonder if Tural is actually secretly close to Othard and that if we were to take the world map and make it a globe, that maybe through naturally forming landbridges in past eras, you had Viera and Hrothgar that traveled either west or east. As we also don't think about it, but seeing certain Hyur tribes out in the far western part of the world of Tural is actually kind of odd if they all lived to the east and there was no Hyur in say, Black Shroud, which was to the west, and it was originally only a place that Elezen lived beforehand. Such as the Whalaqee tribe hyurs in Tural. Which still rolling with the idea that there was natural land bridges in prior eras, such as ones that connected Othard to Tural, it would explain how Hyur ended up in the Far Western part of the world.

EDIT: Also if its not landbridges, that only leaves really one option. That ancient roegydan ferried hyur, viera, and hrothgar east from othard to tural. Assuming that is, again, that the world is a globe. Although that leaves a bit of potential cosmic funniness in that means the treacherous waters around Tural were just to the western side, while the eastern side was safer by comparison.

[MikkoAkure]

Also where each race comes from differs.

One thing to keep in mind here is that the game's setting is 12,000 years of history that has world-spanning wars and calamities that drive population migration all over the place. While there were events which created bridges between continents to allow for migration, it's not as though boats weren't invented until 6AE so any population of people could have traveled anywhere from the Sundering to the modern age.


Hyur can be found anywhere in the world and adapt well. In the 6th Astral Era, the only Hyur "native" to Eorzea were the Hyuran descendants of Mhach and Amdapor who set up in Gyr Abania. Then multiple waves of Hyuran migrations from Ilsabard and displaced existing Elezen populations, forcing the Elezen into Coerthas and the Black Shroud and coming into conflict with Lalafell in Thanalan.

Elezen can be found in both Aldenard and Ilsabard so their "origin" is unclear, but like I said before they could be from anywhere. On the First and in 1.0, they seem to be truly native to Aldenard/Norvrandt so take that as you will.

Lalafell homeland was stated to be the South Seas Isles on a few occasions for all Lalafell. In 1.0 the Dunesfolk were said to be from "desert isles" but in the ARR continuity they seem to be descendants of Lalafell who migrated to Yafaem from the South Seas Isles and then to Thanalan after the fall of Mhach. Other Lalafell migrated from the South Seas Isles to Vylbrand in the 5th Astral Era to form Nym and some Nymians then returned to the South Seas Isles after the calamity only to arrive back in Vylbrand after Limsa Lominsa was established. Not sure what Wedge's deal is, being a Garlean Lalafell. Presumably the Lalafell have some presence in Ilsabard that we've yet to see.

Roegadyn "homeland" seems to be Aerslaent in the far north and that's where Lominsan Roegadyn came from, but we also know there's Roegadyn living in Ilsabard, Othard, and the mountains of Aldenard. Like the Hyur, Roegadyn seem to do a lot of traveling around and settling everywhere with the notable exception of Tural.

Miqo'te are an interesting case. "Recent" history and what most people know about has them migrating to Eorzea from Ilsabard during the 5th Umbral Era when the sea froze over and they seem to have already been separated into two different clans by that time (Keeper surnames are from prominent families that crossed the ice while Seekers had 26 tribes they assigned Eorzean letters to after coming). They also have lived in Meracydia but Koji says they've lived in both places at different times and migrate around just as all the other races have. During the 3rd Astral Era, Miqo'te lived in Eorzea itself but faced persecution there and were pushed out to Ilsabard by Allag.

Au Ra are the only race that seems to have a definitive "we're exactly from here" sorta thing going on, and that's the Azim Steppe. Both playable Au Ra clans hail from the steppe and the Raen left to migrate elsewhere. It seems to be a common misconception that Raen are from the sea, but the underwater Raen are a teeny tiny splinter group who decided to adopt pascifist ideals and hide away from everyone else by going underwater after befriending the Kojin. The vast majority of Raen migrated from the steppe and lived in petty kingdoms in Doma, Hingashi, and Nagxia. One group under a Raen khan migrated to Corvos in the Near East and from there invaded Thavnair while some other Raen split off from that group while still at Corvos to go invade southern Ilsabard and establish Werlyt (but gave leadership back to the Hyur).

Viera and Hrothgar had a whole "we're exactly from here" sorta thing going on, with Hrothgar even being in the same place since at least the 2nd Astral Era, but their presence in Tural seems to throw a wrench in everything. I'm sure they're both just there to give the devs an excuse to have more NPCs of the newer races but until a new EE comes out, their existence is a bit of a headscratcher.

[Chasingstars]

Viera and Hrothgar had a whole "we're exactly from here" sorta thing going on, with Hrothgar even being in the same place since at least the 2nd Astral Era, but their presence in Tural seems to throw a wrench in everything. I'm sure they're both just there to give the devs an excuse to have more NPCs of the newer races but until a new EE comes out, their existence is a bit of a headscratcher.

See, that is my point though, as like you said it throws a wrench into what we know. Which calls into question how is there two groups on opposite ends of the world who are hrothgar and viera? Unless, Tural and Othard are actually relatively close with the illusion of distance when viewed from a map. And yes, using the idea of land bridges from prior eras, it would explain how some cats and rabbits from the far east, have circled back to the far west.

Which in addition, unless the Pelu Pelu are just short Hyur or a variation of Lalafell, means only three known races traveled east from Othard to Tural: Viera, Hrothgar, and Hyur.

As otherwise we surely we would have heard some great pilgrimage of Viera and Hrothgar if they traveled west and they would be more scattered as the Hyur.

And by extension the only groups that seems to have traveled from potentially west to Tural are the Hanu-Hanu and Goblins.

[Supersnow845]

See, that is my point though, as like you said it throws a wrench into what we know. Which calls into question how is there two groups on opposite ends of the world who are hrothgar and viera? Unless, Tural and Othard are actually relatively close with the illusion of distance when viewed from a map. And yes, using the idea of land bridges from prior eras, it would explain how some cats and rabbits from the far east, have circled back to the far west.

Which in addition, unless the Pelu Pelu are just short Hyur or a variation of Lalafell, means only three known races traveled east from Othard to Tural: Viera, Hrothgar, and Hyur.

As otherwise we surely we would have heard some great pilgrimage of Viera and Hrothgar if they traveled west and they would be more scattered as the Hyur.

And by extension the only groups that seems to have traveled from potentially west to Tural are the Hanu-Hanu and Goblins.

Almost all locations on etheryis are analogues to real world locations

The far east is east Asia (with hingashi being Japan and doma being China) and tural is the America’s

It’s not that much of a stretch to imagine in etheryis the analogue to the Pacific Ocean east of hingashi is smaller which would make travelling east of hingashi to hit the west coast of tural much easier, especially since the Polynesia equivalent; the south seas islands are south of eorzea where the real world would have Africa so it could be quite likely the far east ocean is much smaller

[Chasingstars]

Almost all locations on etheryis are analogues to real world locations

The far east is east Asia (with hingashi being Japan and doma being China) and tural is the America’s

It’s not that much of a stretch to imagine in etheryis the analogue to the Pacific Ocean east of hingashi is smaller which would make travelling east of hingashi to hit the west coast of tural much easier

Exactly. Which is why I bring up the whalaqee tribe in the lore. Because while they are hyur, they are also the native american analog, and we currently have the hypothesis in our own world that native americans traveled by land bridge from asia to the americas thousands of years ago. So in eitherys, equivalent of several eras ago. Which means it makes perfect sense with the hrothgar and viera as well if they traveled a similar way and would explain the difference.

[MikkoAkure]

It’s not that much of a stretch to imagine in etheryis the analogue to the Pacific Ocean east of hingashi is smaller which would make travelling east of hingashi to hit the west coast of tural much easier, especially since the Polynesia equivalent; the south seas islands are south of eorzea where the real world would have Africa so it could be quite likely the far east ocean is much smaller

Exactly. Which is why I bring up the whalaqee tribe in the lore. Because while they are hyur, they are also the native american analog, and we currently have the hypothesis in our own world that native americans traveled by land bridge from asia to the americas thousands of years ago. So in eitherys, equivalent of several eras ago. Which means it makes perfect sense with the hrothgar and viera as well if they traveled a similar way and would explain the difference.

You can see the Glass Ocean between Hingashi and Tural from the surface of the moon and it's just as vast as our world's Pacific Ocean. When Eitherys spins that way, the entire planet is blue. On top of that, there is no "Beringia" analogue on the world map so bridging across does not seem feasible. Plus, on the west coast of Tural you have to contend with the Fathomless Sea, which is a series of giant cracks in the planet with oceanic waterfalls covering an area that seems to be just as big as Tural itself. I don't think it's very realistic to expect sailors coming to Tural from Othard with those things in mind.

But they might not have necessarily settled there via mundane methods. The 5th Astral Era had airships and even a flying city. The 3rd Astral Era had spaceships and space stations as well as airships. But we'll probably never know for sure until EE4.