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The Au Ra biology, origin and general speculation thread! - Printable Version

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The Au Ra biology, origin and general speculation thread! - Eve Malusion - 12-24-2014

I'm terrible at titles! So after having some thoughts I figured out I really wanted a thread to do some more speculation on Au Ra, so might as well make it!

The intent of this thread is to do speculation on lore, biology, origins and similar specifically about Au Ra! Anything you wonder about goes, bring it up! This thread has nothing whatsoever to do with wether you like the race or not as we've seen it, so please take that to the other thread specifically for that purpose.

For example! How do they hear? Lizard-like holes in the side of the head, probably, with hair covering it because it wouldn't fit the aesthetic they go for, but if you have other theories I'd love to hear them!

If they really are a hyur or elezen / dravanian hybrid race, how much do you think the minority could lean towards either, not talking in game model here, just storywise! Could there be a group leaning much more towards lizard like people, having more scaley skin, slit eyes, thin tongue, et cetera? Heck, maybe we'd even get them in game as a subset of an enemy faction in the expansion then!

If they're a draconic hybrid what are their agespans like! Dragons have been confirmed to live tens of times longer than Elezen by the Ishgardians, after all!

And why the heck would Ishgard let you in on the main storyline if you have even a little bit to do with dragons!

What I want to go more in depth on right off the bat, however, is the theory that I've seen some mention before but not gone in depth on, handwaving it off, namely:

What if the Au Ra are more demonic in nature rather than draconic?

Now, I know the obvious point here: They are most likely draconic as the expansion ties heavily into Ishgard and their conflict with the dragons! But as I thought about it more, I noticed some points, and realised that this might hold more credence than we might think at first glance.

First of all, as far as we are aware, dragons are not mammals, smaller similar creatures lay eggs, and they are unlikely to be physically compatible for cross breeding as a direct result (not that mammals being able to crossbreed is particularly likely, but its much easier to swallow than if they're not).

Second: The "heretics" have already proven that they can turn into dragons. They have magic to do it. We see this repeatedly in Stone Vigil and Snowcloak, and as far as we can tell its a permanent change. Why would they have any desire to breed into hybrids in the first place?

Those being the two main points about why its unlikely for them to be draconic hybrids in my eyes. It seems to be a few things that draw similarities to voidsent in the previews we saw as well!

The horns! Now, it suddenly struck me: The horn styles for Au Ra are very similar to those of voidsent! For example:

Male:
[Image: NfhScqp.jpg][Image: VoidSoulcounter.jpg]

Sorry about the quality of the second picture, I will update the thread after I take another one, but I think it serves the purpose of displaying similarity to some degree.

In addition, the way their scale patches frames their face, strikes me as similar to the facial structure of those voidsent as well.

Now for the female!

[Image: O7Ez8Ne.jpg][Image: LadyAmandine.jpg]

Now, while admittedly much larger, I think its pretty clear that the succubi horns are very similar to the displayed Au Ra female horns in shape.



Now aside from the horns visually, I also don't personally have a hard time believing a voidsent hybrid to be plausible in the universe of the game.

A lot of voidsent seem to be largely aether based, or our knowledge of how they reproduce is just dubious at best. We know they can forsake their physical body to possess our current races in order to bestow upon them power, and take absolute control over them (Ref: Thaumaturge storyline).

Could a union between a possessed individual like that and an un-possessed, or two possessed even, result in some sort of voidsent-like mutations in the offspring due to corruption or aether or some such? Maybe even a village or larger area on a different continent could have been corrupted in order to result in a large amount of such children appearing.

This would also give Yugiri another reason to hide her appearance in a land she knows little about, since voidsent are almost universally looked down upon, and she might be afraid of being labeled a monster or heretic just for minor traits of them!

Thats my initial thoughts on that theory, anyhow! Obviously feel free to give opinions, tear mine apart for lore fallacies since I will assume I made some, or just generally call me an idiot! [sub]Actually please don't do that last one, even if you think so I'd like this to be a friendly topic.[/sub]


If you read through this, as its certainly the longest post I've ever written on here, thank you very much, I appreciate it greatly!

RE: The Au Ra biology, origin and general speculation thread! - Steel Wolf - 12-24-2014

Considering that Yugiri is from Doma, a region which we know next to nothing about, I would suggest that lends even more credence to the idea that the Au Ra are a sort of peaceful voidsent/hyur crossbreed than anything else.

I'm not up on the history as I haven't followed through on the MSQ (Moggle Mog blocks my path), but Doma was a splinter-state of Garlemald, correct? Or they tried to remove themselves from the Empire before being wiped out. This leads me to think that Doma had some level of autonomy...and so it's entirely possible that most from Doma are these void hybrid Au Ra.

I imagine too that this leads in to their possible ideals of living a life in balance, as evidence from what little I've gleaned about the Ninja in this game, who are all about aetheric balance. That might just not be specific to the Ninja combat style--it might also be a way of Au Ra life in order to maintain their balance between their Hyurian and Voidsent sides.

Yugiri's last name seems to lead a little to this idea. Typically speaking, fantasy races who display descriptive last names such as Mistwalker lean towards lives of diligence, balance, introspection and calm. Of course, this assumes that all Au Ra naming conventions follow this standard--perhaps Mistwalker is just an honorific she gave herself as part of her disguise.

Just my two gil

RE: The Au Ra biology, origin and general speculation thread! - Dogberry - 12-24-2014

Cloacas. Cloacas everywhere.

RE: The Au Ra biology, origin and general speculation thread! - Cailean Lockwood - 12-24-2014

I would love it if the Au Ra turns out to be more demonic than draconic, simply because I like demons alot more than dragons. And I quite like your theory on it.

However, if it does indeed turn out that they are draconic, crossbreed is just one theory, which you said would be unlikely, but could still happen. A humanoid and a dragon falling in love in ancient times which lead to the Au Ra race could be a simple origin story.

Another theory could be that a group of people worshipped some dragon god who granted them some of his power which would turn them into his likeness, and thus the Au Ra came to be.

Or maybe a dragon god created the Au Ra for a higher purpose.

I prefer the demonic origin you suggested though. Tongue

RE: The Au Ra biology, origin and general speculation thread! - Zyrusticae - 12-24-2014

(12-24-2014, 11:22 AM)Dogberry Wrote: Cloacas. Cloacas everywhere.
Ewwwww!

In all seriousness, these things are obviously mammals and are obviously not that far removed from their old Hyur stock. After all, they are basically another ethnicity, another variant of humanity, as opposed to something fundamentally different from the other races (remember, ALL the 'races of Man' are capable of interbreeding, though we don't see any examples of this because it's so rare and probably looked down upon on some level - oh, and because modeling them out takes work, which is probably the most important point).

Anyway, I have to admit the voidsent theory seems to have a lot going for it. The resemblance in those horn shapes is absolutely unmistakable. I'll be very curious to see if they go into this in 2.5 any (I would hope so, since Yugiri's supposed to get unmasked by then).

RE: The Au Ra biology, origin and general speculation thread! - Ashren Dotharl - 12-24-2014

While it would be interesting (but also very disappointing for me, because I prefer dragons over demons) if the Au Ra turned out to be some sort of Voidsent related race, it's highly unlikely. While there are some minor similarities between the horn styles you offer, there are also a lot of other Voidsent in the game that don't have horns at all, it should also be noted that the only ones that have horns that come to mind, also don't have tails, and the ones that have tails do not resemble the tails that the Au Ra have in the least.

I also recall at a few points in the story (I believe the story leading up to Haukke Manor, as well as during the Black Mage quest) that it is said that Voidsent cannot materialize outside of the Void without a host or an anchor, one could assume that the Voidsent aren't even capable of procreation as they are merely an extension of the Void.

My theory is this, the Au Ra are a race of people who have a similar appearance to reptiles or dragons. They are not born from Dragons anymore than Miqo'te are born from cats, they are merely another race. They have no ties to Eorzea, because most races didn't come from Eorzea to begin with and it's not that hard to believe that there are races we haven't seen yet that live on the other continents.

In short, my theory is that we will get entirely new lore related to the Au Ra, they are not the children of demons or shiva or dragons, they are just a new race that fits the dragon/ishgard theme.

RE: The Au Ra biology, origin and general speculation thread! - Ashren Dotharl - 12-24-2014

(12-24-2014, 11:02 AM)Steel Wolf Wrote: I'm not up on the history as I haven't followed through on the MSQ (Moggle Mog blocks my path), but Doma was a splinter-state of Garlemald, correct?  Or they tried to remove themselves from the Empire before being wiped out.  This leads me to think that Doma had some level of autonomy...and so it's entirely possible that most from Doma are these void hybrid Au Ra.
Everyone but Yugiri that we have seen so far from Doma are Midlanders. That includes all of the NPCs related to the Ninja story. From what we can tell so far the Doman population is like 99% Hyur based on the fact that Yugiri is the only Au Ra to show up, or even be mentioned.

While I dislike the theory that the Au Ra are half dragon children of Shiva because it just seems extremely stupid to me (How does one woman sire an entire race? Also how does she do it without anyone finding out about it?) it is still possible that the Au Ra are Dravanian in some way and Yugiri is the only Au Ra that lived in Doma.

RE: The Au Ra biology, origin and general speculation thread! - Tiergan - 12-24-2014

Whether or not they're dragon-people, I am SUPER curious how Ishgardian NPCs are going to react to the Au Ra and whether it'll be with extreme distrust and suspicion or something else. Is Doma in Dravania by any chance?

_ - Isengrim Lacour - 12-27-2014

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RE: The Au Ra biology, origin and general speculation thread! - Naunet - 12-27-2014

(12-27-2014, 04:35 AM)Isengrim Lacour Wrote: Not to be pithy, but: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitochondrial_Eve

Not to split hairs, but the theoretical Mitochondrial Eve was not the only human woman alive at the time. Environmental pressures were just exerting a particularly harsh bottleneck effect, and it's entirely possible that children of her direct lineage mated with children of a different mother - in fact, it I'd hazard to say that would be necessary to avoid extinction-levels of gene pool loss. It just so happens that hers was the only female lineage preserved, as far as we know so far.

RE: The Au Ra biology, origin and general speculation thread! - allgivenover - 12-27-2014

Given the story of 2.4 I really doubt this voidsent theory, but we'll see.

_ - Isengrim Lacour - 12-28-2014

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RE: The Au Ra biology, origin and general speculation thread! - Ashren Dotharl - 12-28-2014

(12-28-2014, 02:00 AM)Isengrim Lacour Wrote:
(12-27-2014, 09:07 PM)Naunet Wrote:
(12-27-2014, 04:35 AM)Isengrim Lacour Wrote: Not to be pithy, but: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitochondrial_Eve

Not to split hairs, but the theoretical Mitochondrial Eve was not the only human woman alive at the time. Environmental pressures were just exerting a particularly harsh bottleneck effect, and it's entirely possible that children of her direct lineage mated with children of a different mother - in fact, it I'd hazard to say that would be necessary to avoid extinction-levels of gene pool loss. It just so happens that hers was the only female lineage preserved, as far as we know so far.

I'm not sure what hair you are splitting in my comment.  Mitochondrial Eve is frequently misinterpreted so the clarification probably helps those encountering the theory for the first time from my link, but my point was simply that the notion of 'one woman siring an entire race' is not as fantastic as it first seems.  Add to that the fantasy genre convention of mythologizing race and it should not be a surprise if they went that way for Au Ra.
You also failed to acknowledge the point I made about it happening under the nose of the sworn enemy of the Dravanians.

Let us assume for one moment that Shiva banged a Dragon, and from that coupling an entire species was born from it. Then let us assume that Ishgard never found out about it, why then are all of the Au Ra now living on another continent? I have seen the reasoning that Ishgard did know about them and forced them into exile, but let me then pose this question. If Ishgard has been locked in a near losing war with the Dragons for a thousand years, what power do you think they actually have to exile an entire race of Dragonkin from Dravania? Do you think the Elezen Pope just walked up to the Dragons and said "Hey your kids need to gtfo or else?" I highly doubt that.

Considering how eager the Dragons are to defeat Ishgard, and the fact that they are willing to recruit heretics from within the ranks of Ishgard means it was also equally unlikely that the Dragons were the ones to exile the Au Ra, they would have been Dravania's greatest asset considering their human-like appearance.

Clearly Yugiri has shown no knowledge of Ishgard or their politics, which means that if they were exiled the stories of their lost homeland and their war with Ishgard was lost to them over the years, however long ago it was.

In short, the theory that the Au Ra might be tied to Shiva in some way is interesting, but flawed. There are a ton of holes in the idea people are conveniently overlooking simply because of hype, and I highly doubt we're going to get any indepth origin story for the Au Ra, just like we never got any origin stories for any of the other races. My bet is on the fact that the Au Ra are just another race that live in the world, who just happen to have scales and horns, and there is no rhyme or reason for it other than because SE wanted a race that resembled dragons for their dragon themed expansion.

_ - Isengrim Lacour - 12-28-2014

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RE: The Au Ra biology, origin and general speculation thread! - Eve Malusion - 04-26-2015

So, I know this thread died and I haven't really done much to keep it active but I thought this translation from the Nico Nico stuff was worth mentioning in regards to this thread.

"Au ra are not related to Dragons. Their motif are demons."

Fan translation, but oh is it ever so relevant to this thread.