Au Ra Character Creation Screens discussion!

[DeadlyMagikarp]

I'm just hoping that the people who pick Xaela, know the lore and come up with a believable story. ._.;

 

 

Then again, a part of me knows most of it will be....

"I was raised by hyur"

"My clan was abusive so I left"

 

And I think this is okay. Some may see it as cliche, others may see it as creative, and some just won't care. People can decorate their sandbox as they please, so to speak. We can choose not to play in it.

I know, but their lore is so rich! It is like someone is stabbing me in the stomach every time I hear those sort of lines.

 

Everyone kinda just, makes up a sob story and rolls with it. Like whoa, why is everyone in Eorzea so unfortunate? Why does the player need to be the -last- superspecialsoleremainingpersonleftoftheirtribewhoshehatedbecauseitwasabusiveandsoshewasadoptedbyhyur.

Because they want to.

[Delilah Scythewood]

I'm just hoping that the people who pick Xaela, know the lore and come up with a believable story. ._.;

 

 

Then again, a part of me knows most of it will be....

"I was raised by hyur"

"My clan was abusive so I left"

 

And I think this is okay. Some may see it as cliche, others may see it as creative, and some just won't care. People can decorate their sandbox as they please, so to speak. We can choose not to play in it.

I know, but their lore is so rich! It is like someone is stabbing me in the stomach every time I hear those sort of lines.

 

Everyone kinda just, makes up a sob story and rolls with it. Like whoa, why is everyone in Eorzea so unfortunate? Why does the player need to be the -last- superspecialsoleremainingpersonleftoftheirtribewhoshehatedbecauseitwasabusiveandsoshewasadoptedbyhyur.

I can understand that. At the same time though when you look at the MSQ and the NPCs and everything else that misfortune is super common in one capacity or another given the Calamity and Garlean interferences alone. Not including the bandits, poachers, beast tribes...

 

Some people don't have parents (like the boy in the MRD story quests and Minf was adopted), or lost many of their friends in battle (Company of Heroes) and the list goes on from there.

 

As a whole I notice a lot of folks don't fully grasp the extent of how badly the Calamity alone fucked up entire families and regions. Made even more noticeable when you're from 1.0 or see the 1.0 maps and how it all looks before Dalamud went kablooey. It's not entirely out of scope that someone could have been the last remaining person to make it out alive either by luck or purely because they had been some where else at the time.

 

And who knows what the Au Ra have been through on their end besides the big G's coming in and making them flee? Maybe it wasn't much different for them either. Sure it's a concept that might be overplayed, but like with any RP concept some people work well with it and others don't

[Zhavi]

I'm getting a really strong gothic lolita vibe from the females, which is a huge turnoff because nomadic peoples are freaking rugged, man. Whatevs! I made it work with Zhavi and the supercutesmoothbabyface miqote, I'll make it work for them.

 

Plus they all have that sort of cool, reserved look.

 

I'm edging more and more towards making a fortune-teller xaela who uses a modified form of shagai to tell her fortunes. Plus add some heavy superstition and maybe a pinch of xenophobia and a love of an oral storytelling tradition... and now all I need is some more lore to iron everything out and stuff and yayyy.

 

This time I am not making a character locked to one city state. Ahaha. I don't think I'm ever going to do that again.

 

and then I'll be ready to find her a tribe-sy. :>

[Michikyou]

But we don't even know if the lands where Au Ri come from was even hit by the calamity! We know Xaela fight with each other in tribal settings and that Raen strive for peace and live along side people. 

 

I mean, the Calamity hit Eorzea more than any other nation, no?

[BumblingSeaBiscuit]

But we don't even know if the lands where Au Ri come from was even hit by the calamity! We know Xaela fight with each other in tribal settings and that Raen strive for peace and live along side people. 

 

I mean, the Calamity hit Eorzea more than any other nation, no?

 

But we do know that they come from Othard, and Othard is part of the Garlean Empire. We also know that the Garleans aren't really nice people. So whether or not the Calamity hit them specifically doesn't equate to the fact they could have had their own struggles, wars, and strife with the Garleans. The treatment isn't rainbows and sunshine. We can see Ala Mhigo and Doma for that. The latter of which was razed to just make a point. 

[Michikyou]

I'm not denying the fact they grew up in a dangerous location - I'm saying the calamity didnt affect those over n Othard as it did in Eorzea. If Xaela people are nomadic they might of ignored most global conflicts with the garleans or perhaps bee taken out by them - hence I can see refuge needed there.

 

Raen however are easier to fit in story wise due to their connection with connection with people and society. I mean - One who is wanting to adopt a child doe snot walk into the middle of the woods, and hope to find a Xaela baby. They go to the orphanage. Which is a city thing.

 

I suspect most Xaela children who are left without parents in the wild - either learn to fend for themselves or die.

[Zhavi]

But we don't even know if the lands where Au Ri come from was even hit by the calamity! We know Xaela fight with each other in tribal settings and that Raen strive for peace and live along side people. 

 

I mean, the Calamity hit Eorzea more than any other nation, no?

 

Also, I mean, nomadic peoples alone have it rough. Even up to modern day -- weather will fuck you up.

 

Look at what happens in Mongolia whenever they get a foot or two of snow (which is freakish for the steppes) : Their animals can't paw through the snow to get to the grass. You have mass starve-offs, which sometimes results in families no longer being able to function as pastoral nomads. If they aren't lucky and don't have family in the cities, they often wind up living in tent-cities on the outskirts, scraping by and trying to find work. Even without freak events like that, life as a nomad is hard and has its own tragedies. Accidents happen, and you're really dependent on the land.

 

Now add some wars/raiding to that, and yeup, you've got plenty of room for tragic stories (a lot of tribal cultures regularly participated in slave culture. While typically this meant taking slaves for personal use (or taking extra brides, lolol), selling slaves off to other parties was not uncommon, either).

 

But my thing has always been: if I'm sick of seeing something, I just create the polar opposite to it. Most of the time, that's why I try to make ugly, rough characters. But, you know, I think as long as people are enjoying their rp then it's okay, because that means they'll continue to rp and that means rp as a whole will flourish. Which is great, because I love seeing thriving rp communities. :3

[BumblingSeaBiscuit]

I'm not denying the fact they grew up in a dangerous location - I'm saying the calamity didnt affect those over n Othard as it did in Eorzea. If Xaela people are nomadic they might of ignored most global conflicts with the garleans or perhaps bee taken out by them - hence I can see refuge needed there.

 

Raen however are easier to fit in story wise due to their connection with connection with people and society. I mean - One who is wanting to adopt a child doe snot walk into the middle of the woods, and hope to find a Xaela baby. They go to the orphanage. Which is a city thing.

 

I suspect most Xaela children who are left without parents in the wild - either learn to fend for themselves or die.

 

And you are entitled to those suspicions and beliefs. One could argue that a baby was heard crying in the forest while a merchant travelled through. It was found to be an Xaela and it was taken to a village or otherwise. Where it became part of an orphanage, or even that merchant adopted it. There are all sort of outlets for what people want to do and how they want to do it. 

 

 

I stand by my comment of, "We can decorate our sandbox how we please," and we only have to play in the sandboxes of those whose decorations we like. 

[Spethah]

Omg I want that bobcut so bad.

 

That 60s bobcut

 

I need this.

 

This only burns my further need to be the most kawaii of them all. 

 

In all seriousness though, I actually like the female look (even if I'm one that tends to hate the cute, this is oddly an exception). The male's eye look horrrrible in my opinion and is my main turn off for them. 

 

Also not all nomads are all rugged. Nomad is an archtype from which smaller ones are born from (example gypsies). Quite a few, mostly southeast asia, tend to be less rugged...but also have a hard male dominant system where the males have to be hardened and the females have to just be beautiful. I could go on for days on nomad sociology as well (I'm actually studying that right now) but bleh, let's not. It's just a video game after all, we don't have to force exacts on fantasy. If we did, magic wouldn't exist.

[Kismet]

Everyone kinda just, makes up a sob story and rolls with it. Like whoa, why is everyone in Eorzea so unfortunate? Why does the player need to be the -last- superspecialsoleremainingpersonleftoftheirtribewhoshehatedbecauseitwasabusiveandsoshewasadoptedbyhyur.

 

I'm not denying the fact they grew up in a dangerous location - I'm saying the calamity didnt affect those over n Othard as it did in Eorzea.

 

I think you're missing the point Lililove was trying to make by bringing up the Calamity.

 

Tragedy, while not always present in every story or character's background, is very common in XIV. There are many things going on not only in Eorzea, but across the world that are pretty darn terrible. So if the volume of RPers with dead parents/who've been adopted, found tribal life too abusive/abrasive, and various other sad backstories seems unnaturally high to you... We're trying to tell you that it's not all that out of place, given the large amount of misfortune that permeates throughout most of XIV's universe.

 

And even if all that weren't the case, no one should really care. RPers create stories and characters that interest them and share that with others. If you aren't interested in a particular type of story, character, stereotype, theme, or whatever... then simply engage with RPers who do cater to your palette. It's as simple as that.

[Wymsical]

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.

[Zhavi]

Omg I want that bobcut so bad.

 

That 60s bobcut

 

I need this.

 

This only burns my further need to be the most kawaii of them all. 

 

In all seriousness though, I actually like the female look (even if I'm one that tends to hate the cute, this is oddly an exception). The male's eye look horrrrible in my opinion and is my main turn off for them. 

 

Also not all nomads are all rugged. Nomad is an archtype from which smaller ones are born from (example gypsies). Quite a few, mostly southeast asia, tend to be less rugged...but also have a hard male dominant system where the males have to be hardened and the females have to just be beautiful. I could go on for days on nomad sociology as well (I'm actually studying that right now) but bleh, let's not. It's just a video game after all, we don't have to force exacts on fantasy. If we did, magic wouldn't exist.

 

Eeeps, my mistake! The ones I've looked at (central eurasia and africa, though not all african groups, as there are many) all had been; southeast asia is actually an area I had never really delved into.

 

Please note it was a self-preference -- I don't expect anyone to need to enjoy the things I enjoy. One of the things I very much enjoy in my rp is to pull from rl, and endlessly fixate on details. It's not something everyone enjoys, I understand, but I do very much enjoy it for myself and those who enjoy getting into the nitty gritty with me.

 

edit - and too, most of my points were to demonstrate that there is room for tragedy in nomadic groups, certainly not to say or to encourage everyone to have to play that way.

 

I've always encouraged people to play the way they want. It doesn't mean everyone will want to play with you, but there will always be others who will, and that's all that really matters.

[Aaron]

That black haired au Ra with the pinkish red eyes might be my waifu.

[K'nahli]

Given the fact that we're not from Eorzea, I have little choice but to write the tribal thing off to a degree. Granted, I knew my character's family would be dead long before any of this lore came out, but I understand the pain of knowing that many, many Au Ra will be presenting similar stories. I can't really blame people for that but I do hope some people bring over the tribal aspect with them if they can find the means to. I'll certainly keep my eyes open and see if there's anything of interest that I could perhaps get my character interested in with regards that since I don't like deviating from the lore.

[Spiritual Machine]

I'm just hoping that the people who pick Xaela, know the lore and come up with a believable story. ._.;

 

 

Then again, a part of me knows most of it will be....

"I was raised by hyur"

"My clan was abusive so I left"

 

And I think this is okay. Some may see it as cliche, others may see it as creative, and some just won't care. People can decorate their sandbox as they please, so to speak. We can choose not to play in it.

I know, but their lore is so rich! It is like someone is stabbing me in the stomach every time I hear those sort of lines.

 

Everyone kinda just, makes up a sob story and rolls with it. Like whoa, why is everyone in Eorzea so unfortunate? Why does the player need to be the -last- superspecialsoleremainingpersonleftoftheirtribewhoshehatedbecauseitwasabusiveandsoshewasadoptedbyhyur.

Their lore is so rich? Where is it all then?

 

Oh, here it is.

 

Xaela: "Unlike their sister clan, the Raen, who lead solitary lives hidden behind the savage peaks of Othard's eastern reaches, the Xaela are free spirits who roam the vast western steppe in close-knit tribes hunting, gathering, and warring as their ancestors have for countless generations."

 

Raen: "Unlike their sister clan, the Xaela, who bloody the land with their endless tribal conflict, the Raen have embraced a life of tranquility and solitude, long abandoning the nomadic lifestyle of their ancestors to settle the deep valleys of Othard's mountainous eastern reaches. Only on rare occasions will one emerge from the valley mists to seek adventure in realms afar."

 

Emphasis mine.

 

So do Raen have to come up with a believable story too? Because we really can't extrapolate any useful lore from Yugiri's situation--it's too unique (selfless defender, last of her people, lives with huyr, made leader of a group of refugees).

 

What we do know is that Xaela sojourn in the western regions of Othard. If anything, that makes them a more common presence on most of the continent than their reclusive kin. That also makes them more likely to have encountered the Garlean march first. Remember that Doma in the far eastern mountains was one of the last city-states to be brought under Garlean rule.

[allgivenover]

 

Check out this edgelord dream boat.

[Zyrusticae]

If there's a skin tone option that completely matches the scale color, I may be able to make this race work for me. Maybe. Possibly. Gotta wait 'til Monday I guess...

 

(And it's like that in BnS too' date=' wtf)[/quote']

Ear and tail styles are not tied to hairstyles in BnS. You must have seen an older, beta version of the character creation, which also lacked the sliders and fine tuning options available in the release version.

 

Screenshot for posterity:

 

Edit: That being said, you can't change the ear and tail color. They're entirely preset. So that's unfortunate.

 

[ArmachiA]

I for one cannot wait to be an upbeat Gothic Lolita Xaela Princess.

 

I love Armi far too much to ever make my Au Ra my main, but main-alt? Possible.

[Dravus]

 

Check out this edgelord dream boat.

 

Is he named XxDarkSephirothArthasxX?

 

I'll reserve my full judgement until we get to play around with the character creation for ourselves. I have to echo the concern that the scales/horns feel tacked on though. At least the men are a lot less human looking than the other playable races so they have that going for them at least.

[Michikyou]

....am I the only one disturbed that the MAX HEIGHT for females is only 5'2? Like.. 5'2? Thats the average height for a 14 year old in my country.

[EveyVorai]

....am I the only one disturbed that the MAX HEIGHT for females is only 5'2? Like.. 5'2? Thats the average height for a 14 year old in my country.

 

Why ya'll gotta be short shaming, eh?

[Dravus]

....am I the only one disturbed that the MAX HEIGHT for females is only 5'2? Like.. 5'2? Thats the average height for a 14 year old in my country.

 

You're not the only one. Though it seems this is what the masses want - creepily short females paired with much bigger guys who look like they'll snap their women in two. :roll:

 

Not that there's anything wrong with that, it just isn't to my personal tastes.

[allgivenover]

....am I the only one disturbed that the MAX HEIGHT for females is only 5'2? Like.. 5'2? Thats the average height for a 14 year old in my country.

 

I guess being as tall as the average 14 year old in someone's country is pedophilia now. Better update all the RP police rules quick.

[ArmachiA]

THe average height for all women in Japan in 5'2" though >.>

 

(For comparison the average height for ladies in the US? 5'4". Come on now, 5'2" isn't extreme at all)

[allgivenover]

THe average height for all women in Japan in 5'2" though >.>

 

PEDOPHILE NATION CONFIRMED