Ren Mistwalker

Yep! Definitely agree with all the above. I don't think we'll ever get a definitive, substantial answer on where the Au Ra come from, at least not for a good long while. Because just from a production standpoint, if the Au Ra were 100% draconian you'd have to cover things like how Ishgardians react to them during the HW storyline, how the dragons react to them, unique dialogue specifically for Au Ra based on that. And considering how stretched the dev team was leading up to Heavensward? There's no way. Better to leave their origins vague and unanswered and not have to worry about any of that. At best, I think Koji and Oda might be hinting at how the Au Ra are/were meant to be in the lore book if they had all the time in the world and an unlimited budget. But I don't think it will ever be "canon" or really anything beyond just an interesting theory.

Exactly. They never said they were draconian, but they never said they weren't either, they left it up to player interpretation. But now with the lore book and the fact that those titles are the same, I think we have a look at what was supposed to be the original intention. Because they're right, with the expansion the way it was it would have taken way too much time to fit in a backstory for the Au Ra and (probably) have different dialogue depending on if you were one or not. Better for them just to leave it vague. But I do think this is along the lines of what they were going for, and I think it has far more substance and weight against the argument of Au Ra being demonic.

[align=center]Au Ra Origins: The Dawn & Dusk Theory[/align] The following is an argument in favor of the Au Ra race being draconian in nature, citing new evidence from the Encyclopedia Eorzea, and offering conjecture and speculation in the areas where we still lack information. I've seen some people mentioning tidbits of this here and there, but I haven't seen anyone pull everything together so I'm going to take a shot at it. The first and primary argument comes from comparing the Au Ra Creation Myth with descriptions of Bahamut and Tiamat during the Third Astral Era. The Dawn Father and the Dusk Mother The Dawn Wyrm and the Dusk Wyrm Here we have our main point of evidence that the Au Ra are not only draconian but are in fact direct decedents of Bahamut and Tiamat, based on the matching titles/genders. It is also not a stretch to think that when Azim and Nhaama “returned to the heavens,” they were in fact dragons that flew off into the sky. There are, however, still a number of issues with this theory that need to be cleared up. Bahamut & Tiatmat vs. Azim & Nhaama Azeyma, the Warden, the keeper of the sun and the goddess of inquiry, commanding the element of fire. I would propose that Azeyma was actually inspired by Bahamut, the ruler and guardian of the people of Mercydia, who certainly commanded the element of fire, and whose symbol was the sun. Or, if you prefer, the dawn. And who the first Au Ra likely called 'Azim.' Tiamat as Nhaama I'm still trying to work out. My best conjecture at this point is that Nhaama may be the Auri word for 'night.' Relations with Dragons Through Heavensward we know it's possible for a dragon to fall in love with creatures outside its species. Given the emphasized strength of their bond with the Mercydians it's not a stretch to assume that Bahamut and Tiamat felt the same. Dragon Reproduction The make takeaway here is that while it's agreed that dragons CAN reproduce asexually and on their own, the wording strongly implies this is not their ONLY way of reproducing. I suspect the Au Ra are the result of producing through mating with Hyur, Elezen, or possibly Meracydian. Scale Color Another issue is the hereditary scale color. As we see can see from Bahamut in his primal form, his scales are fairly dark. However if you take into account this artwork of the first brood, Bahamut is actually much lighter in scale color here. I believe it may be possible that due to the anger and grief of Tiamat and their brood during Bahamut's summoning, his form was actually darkened and changed. Which would align with the Raen inheriting their brilliant white scales. As for Tiamat and the Xaela, well... Looks pretty close to me. Mercydia vs. Othard And now we come to the largest issue with this theory. It is stated that the ancestral home of the Au Ra is the Azim Steppe, where the Xaela have stayed and the Raen eventually left. However, Bahamut and Tiamat by all accounts wandered south to Meracydia and never left. So either A) Some Mercydians fled their lands during the war with Allag and made it up to Othard B) Bahamut and Tiamat traveled first through Othard, got into some kind some kind of epic lover's quarrel, created the Raen and Xaela to fight each other so they wouldn't have to. But when the two clans put aside their differences and learned to love each other, Bahamut and Tiamat made up and flew off into the sky (eventually traveling to Meracydia), leaving the Au Ra to take care of themselves. I'm more inclined to believe option B. And I believe the Eorzean Scholars haven't realized this because Bahamut and Tiamat were known by different names in Othard. Summary Bahamut & Tiamat share the same titles/gender association with the Auri Creation Myth. The Au Ra had different names for them in their language than what is commonly used now. Dragons have been shown to naturally form strong bonds and even fall in love with peoples outside their species. Dragons reproduce asexually, however they very likely can reproduce with a mate as well. Xaela scales line up with Tiamat. Raen scales may line up with Bahamut in his original form. Au Ra are either originally from Meracydia, or Bahamut and Tiamat traveled to Othard before they made their home in Meracydia. Au Ra were released with Heavensward, the expansion specifically about dragons. Based on all the above evidence, I propose the Au Ra are draconic, not demonic in nature, and that they are direct descendants of Bahamut and Tiamat. Of course, this is a theory. Disagreement and discussion is more than welcome!

So now that we know how housing in 2.4 works as far as subdivisions instead of new wards, time to throw out some questions to the community at large, maybe see if people can't coordinate getting some RP neighborhoods established? So... If you or your FC already own a house, which area/ward/plot are you in? Are you planning on buying a house in 2.4? If so, which area/ward/plot are you currently aiming to move into?

Well, it's been quite awhile since beta! I think it's about time for video #2. WARNING: Heavy spoilers from the main storyline from 2.0 to 2.1, along with various job, class and miscellaneous cutscenes. *Cracks knuckles* Let's do this. 9739lUbS2A4

Hey everyone, welcome to my thread in which I create videos of my character and/or show off Final Fantasy XIV cutscenes in general. WARNING: Videos will contain spoilers, obviously. S6jlcl-twGo Our first contestant consists of footage from the beta, so lv. 1-20 spoilers, including lancer quests. Enjoy!

It tells me Reddit's a popular site and that there's no big central gaming roleplaying site because roleplay sites are always fragmented between their various gaming communities. Of course, there's always the third option that everyone compromises and the 1.0 players utilize the upcoming transfer service and the Gilgameshers give up Gilgamesh and we all move to a new, neutral server and all the roleplayers roleplay together like a big roleplaying coalition and we all roleplay happily ever after... well, really until someone starts the next drama war, but whatever. Details. Actually nevermind, that'd probably cost the 1.0 players to all pay money, so no one will go for that. Carry on.

I REALLY wanted to make my character a blue mage right out the gate, but I've held off for the singular reason that when the class was introduced into FFXI, there was very specific lore surrounding the whole class. So I'm kind of sitting on my hands waiting to see how exactly they're going to introduce the class first.

I didn't write my character based on these guys, I just realized he had some similar elements to these guys after the fact. Especially Locke for some reason, even down to the bandana. Not sure why, I don't even remember FFVI that well! - Locke Cole (FFVI) - Han Solo (Star Wars) - Akira Takizawa (Eden of the East) - Prince Zuko (A:TLA)

You've seen him in my signature. You've possibly seen him in my profile. But this summer, see him... ...without a hat! BUM BUM *wild crazy drum solo* BUUUUM

This is a pretty unique situation, given that (as far as I know) this is the only major MMO to ever release then get shutdown and remade. This is the way I see it though... Balmung, while it may already have established groups and cliques and storylines that have taken place, it also has the most stable group of core RPers, given that these are the players who have been in the game the most and already have a ton invested in their characters and the quality of the RP community. Now, it would be easy to look at that and see those players as potentially being elitist or RP snobs who don't want new players coming in and mucking up their storylines. And sure, there probably are at least some players who are like that. But as a whole? I'd imagine the old RP community would love for nothing more than a wave of new roleplayers with new characters and new idea to come in and bring new life to the community. After all, half the fun of RPing is meeting and interacting with new characters and sharing new stories together. So really, an already stable community with dedicated core roleplayers AND incoming new roleplayers? That sounds pretty good to me. And, this is just my own personal opinion, but I think the whole movement of players going to Gilgamesh sucks. I mean, nothing against those who are, because I know why they're doing it and I totally understand the reasoning behind it, but at the end of the day the end result is that it's fragmenting the potential community between servers. Personally I think it'd just be funner having all the roleplayers in one place, so it's kind of disappointing. Anyway, that's basically the reasoning in my head for why I chose Balmung.