Wymsical

Okay, that's fine! The wording of your first post just seemed a little judgmental, that's all. I'll be fair and say a bigger variance would have been nice but only roegadyn have a full foot to work with, unfortunately. I wish they'd expand them all a little more, give us some short roe and freakishly tall Lalafell.

I like short and contrast a lot. I'm a little peeved by implications of some moral infringement for playing short characters. Miqo'te females are short. Midlander females are short. Just because the males aren't also short doesn't necessarily make it 'disturbing.' Also, I've noticed a lot of RPers set themselves to shortest and tallest already. People like extremes, it's just a personal preference.

There's honestly tons of potential for both tribes and their reasoning to come to Eorzea. Last bastion holding out against the Garleans, a land particularly rich in aether, a new place to explore, ect ect. There's lots of potential reasons for nomads or tribes to change locales as well. I definitely don't think it's fair to pass judgment on Xaela that don't come from a particular tribe or perhaps had some reason for leaving a tribe. Au Ra lore is a little more open-ended and that gives roleplayers a ton of different ways to deviate or simply reference their race's origin. Variety, as long as it's well-done and researched variety, is great and adds lots of dimension. Edit: Also, Kismet has a very strong point about what an unforgiving world FFXIV is set in. I think we forget about that sometimes because of the art style.

Those two photos are actually of different faces, though the structure is very similar (and the person showing them off picked facial options that make them very close). Same thing for all the men too. I've spent way more time than I should studying the screenshots and I'm 99% sure the 'cranial growths' are tied to faces. Kinda expected it given the shots we've seen so far.

I'm hearing around that they mentioned Au Ra customization options were finalized, so this may be all we get. I was hoping for one or two more faces.

Zodiac Weapon and... no idea for TP besides Tactical Points.

Y'shtola continues to be the absolute best. I'm still willing to accept all the Scions being alive because she'll be there too. Alisae, come back to us. ;_; I miss having both of the giraffe babies around. The ending is almost too accurate.

All of this looks super awesome besides the wait for Au Ra naming conventions. That's super disappointing. But I'm excited for new GS stuff, more housing wards... The Fat Chocobo being able to fly is perfect.

The hype is real for glowing eyes. Actually, with certain colors it might not even look like it's glowing but just an extra rim of color in the eye, like Yugiri's. It's pretty clear she has a custom face and scales now. Funny how she has the least amount. Now that we've got a better look at Au Ra, the 'demon' rather than 'dragon' aesthetic is more obvious. Edit: I'm also amused by how this person is taking all of their photos with the race in the worst possible lighting.

I didn't even notice that at first but you're right, it looks like the horns are tied to faces. Sigh. That's one big disappointment but I've heard them quote 'Character Data Limitations' time and time again, such as giving Highlanders more beard options. It sounds like a PS3 limitation, honestly. I still think the female Miqo'te look more 'moe' than the female Au Ra, but this is definitely just a personal preference thing. Either way, I'm quite excited to get my hands on the creator myself; I've noticed that players can make much better specimens than the devs manage to show off so I'm certain we'll see some even better looking Au Ra. ... that scale mustache looks ridiculous though.

I'm "go get some sun, geez" white, and my characters usually tend to be in extremes; very dark or literal white, usually with grey/purple/blue undertones. I also generally make characters with more caucasoid features; partially because I'm way better at making them with sliders and also just general personal preference. I used to have a pretty even split in what shade I used for what gender (lighter for women, darker for men) but in the last three or four years I've switched that up more. Sometimes I feel bad that I have very particular 'face structures' that I gravitate towards but hey, everyone's got what they like. I always like seeing the variety around me in the world, though!

... I'm definitely intending to do that, yes. I've seen a few other people planning similar concepts. Kind of inevitable. I'm curious if IC rivalries will spring up. In honesty, I'm not too worried about the popularity of the concept because fortune telling is a craft that often depends heavily upon the teller themselves; a lot of personal touches, perspective and intent. I've got a very particular method in mind for my character and presumably everyone else will too.

To those commenting on a lack of afros and curly hair, it's 300% because texturing and meshing hair with a significant amount of texture is a royal pain. I've done some hobbyist experimentation and it's a mess to execute decently. Even wavy hair can be annoying. That's why the most complex hair we have currently is Nanamo's fluffy pigtails. I love curly hair myself and I'm really hoping we eventually get hair closer to hers. I'm almost glad we don't have afros, if only because every single game that features them can't manage to make it look right. Such bad memories of the ones in other games like Aion, Guild Wars 2 and Sims 4.

Yeah, XIV is anything but sweet and innocent. The horror of what's going on in Sastasha, the Ala Mhigo storyline in the MSQ, the postmoogle quest about the Keepers, positively ENDLESS comments from NPCs including a reference about the temperature of a... err, deceased prostitute's tender bits and I could go on and on if I spent enough time hunting it down in the world. To say nothing of all non-sexual references to various horrific or grim scenarios that keep appearing throughout the game. It's everywhere. And honestly, I like that they don't keep the art style of the game as a limiter on how lewd or grim they can be. But that's a personal appreciation of mine.

I like to imagine some random person finding a gun left behind by a forgetful or dead adventurer and going 'man this is tight, gonna use this all the time now.' Havoc ensues. Really, most if not all of the jobs in this game could be used by RPers in the 'similar or a little less powerful' skills and abilities. Most of the special jobs are 'off-limits' only in the strictest sense by how specific or particular the titles are like white mage and black mage. I'm very happy to see their job design veering away from the 'Chosen One' stories to just rare or only a certain title for a very particular type of training and association. Or so it seems anyway.

Probably because of this quote from the Live Letter info: "Au Ra Raen have been closely related to the Domans for long time, so their names are somewhat Japanese-like." Which technically means they're not reclusive from everyone, they just stick to their general area. Which gives any Raen players a very easy way to come to Eorzea, given the refugees.

Hard to say with the current amount of lore we have. There might be reveals later on or in the quests themselves that confirm it either way. The Dark Knights may very well recruit more people - any likeminded people - for their cause in the hopes of spreading their sentiment further throughout Ishgard or even outside of it. But you don't have to sport the title to use a fighting technique very similar; it's essentially just a certain use of magic + greatswords + armor. Anyone can do that with enough training!

Well, people seem to have covered all the important bases by now. The comfort of you and your roleplay partner really is the most important factor here; I'll write whichever but some people get way too upset with either choice. The guys who get upset when they realize IC romance doesn't mean OOC, the girls who outright stopped writing with my male characters when they figured out I'm not a guy OOC... and the people with either preference scoffing at people on the opposite side. I think my strangest experience yet was a guild OOC chat where a bunch of female members nearly got me kicked from the guild for admitting I ERP sometimes... and then immediately went back to making incredibly lewd jokes and stories about their male characters. People can be judgmental jerks when it comes to anything regarding sex, no matter what their view is.

But you missed the upper slide that has the general 'Au Ra' description! Actually, considering the way the images are layered, might've been a better idea to just use the images Folken uploaded or screenshot them as a whole... Either way, I like the subtle implication in that missed slide that other people might know about Au Ra, the 'scholars' and such. Also, the Auri warrior mention in the Odin minion.

It's a good thing I don't disagree with you. You're still not making any reasonable points in relation to the actual conversation, though. To rephrase my point (on a smaller post because lolmobilepostingsucks), why are you very against the notion that much, if not nearly all, of Ishgard has considerable amounts of prejudice and could likely be considered a largely racist state? Of course allowing for individuals who aren't. While we might not have a statement outright saying 'we're totes the most racist, guys,' I honestly believe the evidence is stacked for this. Ul'dah is racist. Gridania is racist. Limsa Lominsa is... pirate-racist? Also probably actual racist but I haven't paid much attention to their quests. Eorzea is just a very prejudiced and judgmental place in general. Ishgard not being racist actually makes less sense in the context of the world.

We just finished with this discussion, I think, wherein it was established that correlation != causation. So may I screencap and post this for when it doesn't happen? I'm curious, why are you so determined that Ishgard doesn't have any forms of racism present? Gridania is well-established as hella racist but people play as natives there all the time. Hailing from a place with significant interracial tensions doesn't have to reflect poorly on your own character. Given Ishgard's very prominent xenophobia, hating anyone who isn't native seems very likely, or at least with extreme suspicion and prejudice. Is a more cultural form of -ism really that different? /sigh. Go reread the posts. No where have I stated that there is no racism. Apparently my implication of 'largely racist' didn't get through. Now that I've clarified, mind actually answering?

We just finished with this discussion, I think, wherein it was established that correlation != causation. So may I screencap and post this for when it doesn't happen? I'm curious, why are you so determined that Ishgard doesn't have any forms of racism present? Gridania is well-established as hella racist but people play as natives there all the time. Hailing from a place with significant interracial tensions doesn't have to reflect poorly on your own character. Given Ishgard's very prominent xenophobia, hating anyone who isn't native seems very likely, or at least with extreme suspicion and prejudice. Is a more cultural form of -ism really that different?

Welp, if everyone's as Lore abiding as i think id expect the Xelra to be in the QS not the Raen lol I'm going Xaela but I don't see any harm in sayig that the 'rare to see one emerge' statement could be taken as a 'until now' sort of thing, especially if they're as close with Doma as earlier implied. Maybe some of them fled Garleans or the threat of Garleans and went by themselves or with Doman refugees.

YES. Also if 75% of quicksand turns into Au Ra overnight, I just hope it's 75% male~ ... Yes please.

Well to be fair, we know that Raen also associate closely with the Domans and... uh, they're not doing so hot right now.