Au Ra You Kidding: Looking at the Lack of Lore for FFXIV Most Interesting Race
/We know very little about the Au Ra, what we do know is that they aren’t part dragon or voidsent and despite some different features are very similar to a Miqo’te or a Hyur.
The Au Ra has two major features that separate it from most other classes in the game. First, an Au Ra has scales along with its skin, a trait mostly of reptiles and other similarly cold-blooded animals. However, the Au Ra has other features that are not found in cold-blooded animals. Mainly hair, and well mammary glands, in this case, boobs, while we are talking sex appeal, wide hips which indicate the idea of giving birth to live young or at least not laying eggs.
On the other hand, Au Ra have other features that are very obviously different from the other races, mainly that horns, scales, and unlike the Miqo’te scaled tails. But what are the scales and horns for from what we can the game presents the horns are hollow and act much like human ear bones, picking up vibrations that resonate to make sounds. This is depicted through a small paragraph on the Heavensward page describing the race. The other think this mentions is the size difference between males and females. This is a trait noticeably common among insects, birds, and most cold-blooded animals.
Let’s look more in depth in the size difference, how does this compare to other races hyur has a difference of 4 inches is not that large. Elezen also has a difference of only 4 inches. Lalafell are the exact same high male or female, but we will get into those beasts in another article. Miqo’te are also 4 inches, and Roegaden is even less at 3 inches difference from male to female. The Au Ra however, the tallest male is 85 inches, the tallest female is only 62 inches. Making a whopping difference of 23 inches, just shy of under 2 feet.
Next, we come to the origin of the Au Ra, and it's two clans, the Raen and the Xaela. All that is known of their origin is that they are native to the far eastern continent of Othard, but it is not known whether they truly originated from this continent. The myth surrounding the creation of the Au Ra comes from the idea that they were all born from a Dawn Father and Dusk Mother being the race's origin. The Raen claiming to have descended from the Dawn Father, due to their white scales and the Xaela believe to have descended from the Dusk Mother, hence to their black scales. If this is the case do Au Ra produce asexually? Who did the Dusk mother and Dawn Father sleep with. If it was with each other then the two clans would have the same start. So why specify these two beings be separate?
This leads to even more discussion why are the two races of Au Ra so separate, each possessing very different characteristics of skin tone, and scale color. The Rean being light almost white, and the Xaela being almost black. Further distinct is the two races skin color tabs the Raen tab is mostly lighter almost human like colors with a few stand outs like brownish greens and a few darker blue greys. But the Xeala are very different with most skin colors being blues blacks and on the lighter end the skin is still a light shade of blue.
Let’s dive a bit deeper and look at the entomology of names of the Au Ra thanks to an awesome post on the race naming conventions on the FFXIV forums by a player user named Gildrein (link to page at the bottom of the article). We find the names from the Raen come from Japanese mostly, different spellings for romanization are often seen. The names often have direct correlation to beauty in nature, along with surnames discussing tribes, or family’s history within them. The Japanese naming decision may have to do with the fact that the Raen stay in hidden in mountains, much like dragons and other similar Yo-kai in Japanese folklore and stories.
The Xaela however have names mostly derived from Mongolian ancestry. Interestingly this coincides with the ideas of the tribe, “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.” Much like the Mongol people who were nomadic and often barbaric the Xaela take their naming structure from the same languages.
So, in short, the Au Ra are far but a normal race, not even touched on are the Limbal rings available which surround their pupils, but honestly, I don’t have an explanation for them existing. Even into Stormblood, so little is known about this race. Perhaps in an upcoming expansion we can grow to learn more about these strange creatures.
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/63112-Race-Naming-Conventions
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