Something Just Occured To Me About Au Ra

[Blue]

I think Au Ra are unique enough in appearance that they would've created a stir visiting various Eorzean cities for the first time -- otherwise why would Yugiri go out of her way to hide her appearance out of fear of startling the populace?

 

Especially in a continent as illiterate as Eorzea, even if an Au Ra had been sighted, unless they had made a very big deal such as bringing miracolous medicines or destroying a city, it would've been hard for the news to spread everywhere. Imagine if one arrived at a small village on a coast, with little ways to connect to bigger cities and such, did his business and then moved along. Again, the native americans (nor Yncas, Aztecs or Mayas) did not pass down through generations the story of vikings visiting their shores. To know everyone and everything in this world it's a lot harder than you think.

 

In fact, it's even borderline impossible to claim to be the first at doing ANYTHING really, since in order to make that claim you'd need to be able to possess the knowledge of everyone, including people of the past. There's countless cases of things that we believe to be recent discoveries to have been invented in the long past and then be forgotten.

 

Think of the Padjal for example. We OOCly know that they're a thing and exist, but not everyone in Eorzea knows it. Again, I think that as long as Au Ra existed in the past and had means of travel, surely there has to have been at least a handful that managed to reach Eorzea before. They simply never were heard of.

 

I mean, I'm still in 2.1 MSQ and I've never met Yugiri yet. Does that mean that if I meet an Au Ra character before I do 2.4 and he/she tells me he's the first Au Ra to arrive to Eorzea, then he is saying the truth? ICly, 2.4 hasn't occurred for me yet, so Yugiri may be the second Au Ra that arrives in Eorzea to me, or the third, or the fourth, depending on how many Au Ra RPers I meet before I get to 2.4 (I am awfully slow, I don't expect to have even gotten to Leviathan by the time 3.0 hits). It's the same for everyone else in Eorzea. Plus, I doubt Yugiri knows every single Au Ra in Doma of present and past (or even not in Doma, what forbids them from travelling in other countries and procreating there?) and whether they ever saw Eorzea or not, so again her statement is iffy.

[Tiergan]

I personally feel that's stretching just how slow news actually travels in Eorzea, but that's just me.

[Erik Mynhier]

SE has proven before they don't really make the game with us in mind (RPers). I mean sure they throw us bones like glamour and or weddings, but at the end of the day they don't seem as concerned about bending or breaking the lore as we are. They wanna stick to lore, but when it comes down to lore or a cool/new/fun mechanic, the lore loses all the time.

 

Its not a bad thing, its just how it is.

[Berrod Armstrong]

SE has proven before they don't really make the game with us in mind (RPers). I mean sure they throw us bones like glamour and or weddings, but at the end of the day they don't seem as concerned about bending or breaking the lore as we are. They wanna stick to lore, but when it comes down to lore or a cool/new/fun mechanic, the lore loses all the time.

 

Its not a bad thing, its just how it is.

I kind of disagree with this -- I mean, I can log in, adventure with my friends in character, make almost any kind of expression I want with my character, RP-walk to the housing district, stable my chocobo, check my mail outside the house, have my toon smile at the decorations that we put up in the yard, then go inside and sit around a table with friends -- grab some food, maybe something from the wine rack, relax and talk -- while making lots of expressions on my toon again (and seeing his mouth move when he talks, too!). After that, I can head down to the basement and have my toon take a shower before going back up again and chatting with the group. That's BEFORE he goes into his private quarters to lounge on his couch, or sleep in his bed (or take another bath if he wants!). 

 

I wouldn't say that they don't make the game with us in mind -- they cater to us far more than I've seen many other games do. It's just that the mechanics of bringing out a new race with an already established storyline can be a bit tricky, so WE have to keep THAT in mind, and work around it.

[Kismet]

SE has proven before they don't really make the game with us in mind (RPers). I mean sure they throw us bones like glamour and or weddings, but at the end of the day they don't seem as concerned about bending or breaking the lore as we are. They wanna stick to lore, but when it comes down to lore or a cool/new/fun mechanic, the lore loses all the time.

 

Its not a bad thing, its just how it is.

 

I don't think that's giving SE enough credit, personally. FFXI was one of small handful of MMORPGs were lore was taken pretty darn seriously. (To such an extent that it actually annoyed me when I was younger...) I don't think they'll be throwing anything or anyone under the bus come 3.0, Au Ra included.

 

For 14, a lot of lore is broken (or dodged, as I think is more appropriate to say) for the sake of making you and your character feel extra special. But that's a majority of MMOs. They have yet to write anything that makes us largely unable to function as RPers, so I think we're gonna be okay.

[Warren Castille]

My expectations, in no particular order of likelihood:

 

1) No-selling the Au Ra as protagonists in the MSQ: no one bats an eye, Yugiri says right to your spiky face that revealing her face would cause problems, etcetera. Equivalent of playing a True Sith Jedi in TOR once unlocked: No one notices or gives a damn.

 

2) Legacy-like acknowledgment in specific dialogues. Yugiri mentions "If I show my face, it'll cause an uproar. I'm not a champion of the Light like you are reputed to be." Minimal rewriting required.

 

3) Full-on rewrite to have it align with the world lore.

 

4) My personal wish, the Flashback episode. Give Au Ra a specific sequence post-2.5 MSQ that outright mentions they were catching up via storytelling, and let them "begin' to play with 3.0 lore. Through the Echo, all things are possible.

[Telluride]

 

For 14, a lot of lore is broken (or dodged, as I think is more appropriate to say) for the sake of making you and your character feel extra special. But that's a majority of MMOs. They have yet to write anything that makes us largely unable to function as RPers, so I think we're gonna be okay.

 

This is half of the issue, I think. The other half is that SE is unabashedly unafraid of invoking the Rule of Cool, and willing to suspend their serious lore in a heartbeat if they think something is neat to add. Whether the non-Japanese playerbase agrees does not necessarily seem to be something that worries them unduly. There is a lot of internal inconsistency to not just this game, but a lot of the FF universes as wholes.

 

After all, the Hildibrand quests are a lot of fun, but to someone who is seriously into maintaining the "lore", they can come off as ridiculous, annoying, and unforgivably stupid.

 

Luckily, most FF fans are willing to overlook it, and SE does not have to contend with the same sort of iconoclastic fanbase as confronts, say, LOTRO.

[Naunet]

stuff

 

This seems pretty reasonable. I think it's more likely that they'll just not even acknowledge it as a thing, but this would be likely the most minimal work work-around.

[Hyrist]

They got an easy scapegoat in that situation: The Echo.

 

The entirety of their participation within 2.0-3.0 can be an Echo Flashback in which the participating members do not even observe the fact that they are an-unconventional race until the Echo ends, as again, the presence of someone within an actual Echo cannot change the events they see.

 

They did this in 1.xx, so there is precedent, even if they drew out and retconned stuff from that period of time.

 

That said, not even sure if they would do it that way, it's all just speculation.

 

As far as RP wise goes, everyone will likely have their own methods of introducing, transforming, or re-writing their characters to make it work within their group's canon. FFXIV's 'official word' isn't really RP friendly as a whole, so it can get be bent a little. (That word sounded too aggressive.)

[Altitis Acquired]

It will most likely not be changed how the MSQ is from 1-50, even when picking an Au Ra. And I don't mind that, actually. I would gladly go through it with my Au Ra and it wouldn't kill off how I am going to RP him.

 

Should they change it though, I will admit not giving Squeenix enoug credit.

[Havoc Snow]

Don't forget that in the lore of the MSQ, all adventurers come from a far away land, as far as the game is concerned none of us are from Eorzea.

[Sounsyy]

Don't forget that in the lore of the MSQ, all adventurers come from a far away land, as far as the game is concerned none of us are from Eorzea.

 

Just for the sake of clarity, I'm assuming you mean "All Player Characters" are from a far away land. "Adventurers" are 100% an Eorzean invention.

 

That said, it's a good point you make that an Au Ra Player Character would not be Eorzean native and by-lore still be an immigrant. Though the issue still stands that Yugiri seems to believe she's the first Au Ra in Eorzea and common folk would be frightened by her strange appearance.

 

 

So here's my theory on how 3.0 will change things: I think SE is going to change Yugiri's attire to unhide her face and make her visibly Au Ra from the moment she arrives in Vesper Bay. Honestly, think about it, the only reason we (really) can't see her body now is because SE didn't want to spoil their Au Ra bomb. Now that anyone can be Au Ra, Yugiri's thinly veiled (hehe see what I did there?) excuse for hiding her body won't make sense anymore. So I think instead of attempting to alter the entire 2.0 MSQ to accomodate Au Ra, they're going to simply un-hide Yugiri and change her dialogue so she doesn't give that dumb excuse about people being scared of her appearance.

 

Is that a retcon? Yes, but an extremely minor one that no new person will bat an eye at. It also saves the lore and localization team a ton of time NOT having to rework the entire MSQ with minute dialogue changes. Considering 3.0 is supposed to be 1.5x the size of 2.0 launch, I seriously doubt Fernehalwes' team has the time or resources to go back and do all that anyways. Giving Yugiri an entirely flashy new outfit and snipping that single line of text will actually do all their work for them.

[Zyrusticae]

That's actually a really good point. That is, of course, assuming that they don't make a big deal of her unmasking come 2.5 (which they really shouldn't, for the continuity reasons you mention).

 

She only mentions the mask the first time you meet her so fixing that dialogue is likely barely any work at all.

[Briggs]

I would have just assumed the main story quests take place in the past.

 

Similarly to how expansions apply. You can still do quests from older content, but they just happen to take place before the newer quests / content.

[Havoc Snow]

I would have just assumed the main story quests take place in the past.

 

Similarly to how expansions apply. You can still do quests from older content, but they just happen to take place before the newer quests / content.

That's exactly the point, the current MSQ will take place in the past (similar to how 1.0 takes place five years before 2.0 starts), which is why we're discussing how it will work for the Au Ra when they arrive after the events of 2.X.

[Briggs]

Wouldn't it simply remain the same? As dated content?

 

I figured our Au Ra would pop up wherever an older race might, depending on their class, and simply progress through the current series of main story quests as any other character might, their race not being factored / ignored until they reach the Heavensward questlines. Similar to if you had a pandaren in World of Warcraft from 15 to 89.

[allgivenover]

Just some speculation I've been mulling over.

 

What if AuRa have a strict caste system? We don't yet have a race with that theme yet, and the actual dragons in Dravania/Mercydia seem to have sort of hierarchy. 

 

For example, the clans would be the "peasant" AuRa and the "royals" AuRa (names are arbitrary, I'm just throwing out words that would be roughly analogous to social positions). 

 

Yugiri is obviously some sort of royalty right? What if that spreads to other AuRa? 

 

I thought about making another thread, but this seemed like a good place to vomit my musing speculation.

[Havoc Snow]

Just some speculation I've been mulling over.

 

What if AuRa have a strict caste system? We don't yet have a race with that theme yet. 

 

For example, the clans would be the "peasant" AuRa and the "royals" AuRa (names are arbitrary, I'm just throwing out words that would be roughly analogous to social positions). 

 

Yugiri is obviously some sort of royalty right? What if that spreads to other AuRa? 

 

I thought about making another thread, but this seemed like a good place to vomit my musing speculation.

Out of curiosity, what makes you think Yugiri is royalty? I just got the impression she was a really skilled Ninja, not anyone of any major importance.

[allgivenover]

I was under the impression from the quests that she's not just a really skilled Ninja, but that she actively leads the Doman refugees, I see how that doesn't necessitate her being some sort of royalty. It just got caught up in my speculation verbiage.

 

EDIT: I recalled that the japanese voice-over and dialogue referes to her as Yugiri-dono (殿). That's roughly akin to addressing someone as "Lord" or "Lady" but doesn't really necessitate her being royalty. To have someone like Alphinaud (who is a powerful figure in Eorzean politics) call her that means she's on his level socially in terms of importance, or higher.

 

[Kismet]

I think that's just Alphinaud being hyper polite.

[Perth]

I think that's just Alphinaud being hyper polite.

 

This ^ I dunno, it feels a bit much to be taking formalities so seriously in theory-crafting :B We'll find out when we get there!

[allgivenover]

The verbiage isn't as important as the idea it was describing anyway.

[Tiergan]

Honorifics are crazy important in some Asian languages. Not sounding polite/respectful enough when talking to someone can be seen as a small or huge insult depending on how you speak.

 

While dono does mean something akin to 'lord' or 'lady' - it is not any indicator nobility or royalty. It just means that the speaker and the person they are speaking to have the same high rank socially, but the speaker is still trying to be super polite to the person they're addressing. Since Yugiri is leader of the Doman refugees and Alphinaud is one of the quasi-leaders of Scions and eventually becomes the leader of the Crystal Braves -- it makes sense why he would use 'dono' while addressing her. He respects her, but he views himself as on the same level as her.

 

If she were of higher standing socially, Alphie would have had to use 'sama' - otherwise he would have been seen as being a prat for not humbling himself enough in Japanese conversation.

[allgivenover]

...already covered how it doesn't necessitate her being royalty. 

 

Talk about getting totally distracted over word choice. I guess I was the only one who thought it was an interesting idea.

[Tiergan]

Whoops! Sorry about that. I'm kind of loopy from cold meds.