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allgivenover · **11-01-2015, 05:49 PM**

Anyone else think that Au Ra would be particularly sensitive to attack by noise? They can't easily cover their horns, and these horns give "advanced hearing".

In fact many helmets don't cover the horns at all.

How debilitating would a harpy screech for example be? What about a direct hit on the horns? Those things have got to be sensitive.

Then there's the other bit; "enhanced spatial recognition". What does this mean exactly? So far I've only used this once in RP, a character tried to sneakily poke my Au Ra's forehead as she half-dozed on a couch, and I role-played that she sensed the incoming touch without hearing the character or having her eyes open. Although now I don't really know if that's what "enhanced spatial recognition" is meant to imply.

Thoughts?

Edgar · **11-01-2015, 06:09 PM**

Damage to the horns, either by removing them or shattering them, would probably be devastating.The way they're supposed to function, I cannot help but feel they'd be hollow and/or filled with liquid or light materials. Cutting off a horn would effectively make them deaf.

As for screeches and loud, obnoxious noises...To be honest, those would affect them as horribly as they do anyone else.

allgivenover · **11-01-2015, 06:12 PM**

Right, but when any other race wants to block out some noise they simply plug their ears. That's not something Au Ra can do. And for that I imagine a sustained noise that bothers or deafens other races might be even more debilitating for them. Maybe.

Edgar · **11-01-2015, 06:29 PM**

(11-01-2015, 06:12 PM)allgivenover Wrote: Right, but when any other race wants to block out some noise they simply plug their ears. That's not something Au Ra can do. And for that I imagine a sustained noise that bothers or deafens other races might be even more debilitating for them. Maybe.

A fair point, though it is possible that they have internal organs dedicated to channeling or canceling out noises.

Mae · **11-01-2015, 06:29 PM**

(11-01-2015, 05:49 PM)allgivenover Wrote: Then there's the other bit; "enhanced spatial recognition". What does this mean exactly? So far I've only used this once in RP, a character tried to sneakily poke my Au Ra's forehead as she half-dozed on a couch, and I role-played that she sensed the incoming touch without hearing the character or having her eyes open. Although now I don't really know if that's what "enhanced spatial recognition" is meant to imply.

My understanding is that that would be fairly on-point.

It's similar to how, say, an animal with whiskers seems to sometimes anticipate something bumping into their face before it actually does. Now, of course, most of the time it's because their whiskers intercepted whatever the incoming object was, but sometimes if the air currents change and 'rattle' the whiskers, it'd do that too.

So, in regards to Au Ra, they might be able to feel the change in air currents, breezes, and pressure on their horns. Though, it could also mean that they have a form of echolocation thanks to how big their horns are.

Rusty Knight · **11-01-2015, 06:30 PM**

(11-01-2015, 05:49 PM)allgivenover Wrote: Anyone else think that Au Ra would be particularly sensitive to attack by noise? They can't easily cover their horns, and these horns give "advanced hearing".

In fact many helmets don't cover the horns at all.

How debilitating would a harpy screech for example be? What about a direct hit on the horns? Those things have got to be sensitive.

Then there's the other bit; "enhanced spatial recognition". What does this mean exactly? So far I've only used this once in RP, a character tried to sneakily poke my Au Ra's forehead as she half-dozed on a couch, and I role-played that she sensed the incoming touch without hearing the character or having her eyes open. Although now I don't really know if that's what "enhanced spatial recognition" is meant to imply.

Thoughts?

Spatial recognition isn't quite the sixth sense, to my knowledge its the whole "If I fold this paper ten times in a special way and stab a hole in it when I open it'll form a perfect star" or the likes. Likewise the pictures of lots of cubes together and if you rotated it what it would look like. Not going to lie I'm pretty vague on what it means exactly but its something looked for in aircraft pilots (Especially fighter pilots) and architects so on. I guess this would mean Au Ra have the added natural ability when it comes to craftsmen and might take to things like Magitek engineering/Piloting easier. Easiest way would be just to google Spatial Recognition and see.

As for protecting the ears, essentially an Au Ra's horns are part of their skull and any damage done to them I would guess is the same as having a drill shoved down your ear canal in terms of pain. I imagine even tapping them too hard or hitting them against an object could result in disorientation for a short while and would say Edgar's thoughts on them being filled with something or hollow are very accurate, I'd lean more towards hollow though.

I doubt there is a way for them to protect against noise attacks besides having something wrapped physically around their horns, with an enhanced level of hearing any sort of noise attack would naturally be more deafening and rehabilitating then on a race with less sensitive hearing.

PhantasticPanda · **11-01-2015, 07:08 PM**

I would say that the spcial recognition, as someone said earlier, would be similar to that of animal whiskers to say the least. The way Au Ra hear with their horns is how they pick up and feel air vibrations in the air, since thats what sound is anyways. Which makes it easy to say that they can also feel differences in pressure and movement in the air as well. So it is possible to say that they can sense movement around them albiet not at a long distance but things close to them. They could probably also pin-point the location of a sound without much effort and where its coming from whereas the other races will have to readjust their orientation to do so. Thats how I see it anyways.

Edgar · **11-01-2015, 08:28 PM**

It means they're really good at solving Rubik's Cubes.

Like, really good.

Caspar · **11-02-2015, 05:18 AM**

I read that as having a strong natural inclination towards being good at visualizing shapes and undefined distances/ranges by eye or some other sense. So like, being able to visualize the approximate shape of a 2d image as if it were a 3d shape, or alternatively being able to accurately judge distances and the space between objects on instinct with just basic sensory data. They could then make a very precise jump across a gap or an appropriately ranged strike without having to think about it.

The idea of enhanced spacial awareness is invoked in Gundam with the Newtypes, the supposed next stage of human evolution. It was pretty undefined there, but it gave them an innate sense of directional reckoning and movement in a 3d low gravity environment, so probably some kind of instinctual grasp of heading and distances, the size and shape of objects, the interval between objects, etc. (They also were essentially psychic despite the creator insisting it wasn't a form of telepathy that allowed them to talk with Newtype ghosts and whatnot, but that's another story entirely.) They could instinctively sense a threat in the form of a "flash" and gained a sudden, heightened state of awareness. So maybe for some lucky individuals, this spatial awareness is able to give them a "fake" sixth sense through the powerful hearing mentioned in this thread earlier, making the Au ra appear to react a bit faster to an ambush than seems possible. Quite a few Newtypes were gifted in engineering and physical sciences too, but that might have been coincidence. Still it bears mentioning since the term used in Gundam is almost exactly the same and it was suggested maybe Au ra have an instinctual knack for building things.

Mia Moui · **11-03-2015, 03:14 PM**

There could be a muscle similar to that which makes Miqo'te ears move that can shut off or reduce sound transmission. Â There could be a neurological trick. Â If the brain doesn't react to the stimulus then the sound weapon is ineffective (unless there's physical damage involved).

The horns could be directional and only hear in certain directions. Â Cats ears swivel in order to focus in on particular sounds, sounds they might otherwise not hear.

If the horns of an Au Ra are filled with a fluid that transmits sounds, perhaps there's a way for the fluid to temporarily become thick enough to reduce that transmission. Without official lore, it's just speculation. Â I don't know if they are actually like reptiles in any way (aside from appearance) but how well to reptiles hear? Â There may be a completely different way that Au Ra hear. Â Perhaps they "see" the sounds and translate that into something they understand.

I think that last one would be my head canon, since it's so unlike others in the realm.

C'kayah Polaali · **11-03-2015, 05:00 PM**

I'm personally not convinced that Au Ra horns are actually ears.

Au Ra, despite looking reptilian, are mammals. That's plain as the... er... tits on an Au Ra female. That said, they do have some characteristics of reptiles or birds: some scales being the big one. Neither reptiles nor birds have big external ear structures. Some reptiles have external ears, in the sense that their eardrums are basically right there on the surface, but most reptiles and all birds have recessed ears with no external structures, and they hear very well.

I see no reason why Au Ra wouldn't have similar ears. They all have full heads of hair, which would cover a bird-like ear hole. The horns, then, would simply be horns. They might be hollow structures that improve their vocal resonance, or they might be solid horns, or something else entirely. But there's no reason to suspect that, since you see no external ear and you do see external horns, that the horns are actually organs of hearing.

Manari · **11-03-2015, 05:11 PM**

What this actually means is that Au Ra are really really good at playing Tetris and loading a dishwashing machine efficiently.

Edgar · **11-03-2015, 05:26 PM**

(11-03-2015, 05:00 PM)Setoh Aliapoh Wrote: I'm personally not convinced that Au Ra horns are actually ears.

Au Ra, despite looking reptilian, are mammals. That's plain as the... er... tits on an Au Ra female. That said, they do have some characteristics of reptiles or birds: some scales being the big one. Neither reptiles nor birds have big external ear structures. Some reptiles have external ears, in the sense that their eardrums are basically right there on the surface, but most reptiles and all birds have recessed ears with no external structures, and they hear very well.

I see no reason why Au Ra wouldn't have similar ears. They all have full heads of hair, which would cover a bird-like ear hole. The horns, then, would simply be horns. They might be hollow structures that improve their vocal resonance, or they might be solid horns, or something else entirely. But there's no reason to suspect that, since you see no external ear and you do see external horns, that the horns are actually organs of hearing.

I'm pretty sure there was a statement specifically saying they were used for hearing.

Heavensward Website Wrote:The curved horns and beautifully patterned scales that characterize the Au Ra oft give rise to speculation that thisÂ Hyur-like race native to the Far Eastern continent of Othard are, in fact, the progeny ofÂ dragons. This, however, has long been disputed, with scholars citing several distinct differences in the two races as evidence of decidedly dissimilar rootsâ€”the first and foremost being the enhanced hearing and spatial recognition granted by an Au Ra's cranial projections (traits not attributed to draconian horns), and the second being the gross disproportion of body mass between Auri males and females (again, a trait widely unseen in dragons)

How much more evidence do you need?

C'kayah Polaali · **11-03-2015, 07:06 PM**

Good find! Okay! Well, it doesn't make sense to me, but so little does make sense about Au Ra. In any case, direct from the horses mouth, so I recant.

murasaki · **11-04-2015, 04:30 AM**

My speculation is the physiology of those horn-like protrusions to be completely different from ours. While the other races' ears work similarly to us (meatspace humans), i.e. a cone of one shape or another, funnelling vibrations down to our eardrums, the Au Ra have horn-like protrusions. Vibrations created by the sounds would reach certain parts of the "horns" first before travelling to the other parts. I wouldn imagine the Au Ra can actually tell where and how far a sound is coming from with pinpoint accuracy. This would certainly open up the possibility of echolocation - just like what most of our real world bats do.

In comparison, most of the other races would have to rely almost solely on their binocular vision for spatial recognition just like we do meatspace.

As for audible frequency range (low bassy tones / high pitched tones) and tolerance to noises (dB), my guess is as good as anyone else's until they actually add more information.

Au Ra biology speculation

RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes