What Your Character Says About You [Final Fantasy 14]

Beyond mere race and clan, Final Fantasy XIV is filled with options to make some of the prettiest (and ugliest) characters in any modern MMO. Here, I go over some of the common stereotypes associated with those choices and with no credentials whatsoever, psychoanalyze what your character says about you!

It's hardly an exhaustive list, but it doesn't need to be—98% of us look the exact same, anyway!

Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:28 Hyur
1:18 Elezen
1:36 Lalafell
1:52 Miqo'te
2:18 Roegadyn
2:44 Au Ra
3:04 Hrothgar
3:25 Viera
3:40 Customization Choices
3:49 Height
3:57 "The Zoom Test"
4:30 "The Royal Eye of Raiding"
4:51 Hair
5:32 Face Paints
6:02 Outro

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Socials:

[TechneMakre]

"femroes are almost universally played by straight men"
every single femroe i know: is played by a lesbian

[lexysteinberger]

"Your subscription is integral to your future, so fork it over bud." I don't know why but that snark ACTUALLY SOLD ME on subscribing.

[hellfrozenphoenix]

Im the ultra rare Roe that has small boobs on the slider. A lot of people actually get confused when shes in heavy armor and one asked "how can you get male roes to have a chest that small?"

Had me rolling.

[Reycied]

As a player of a male Miqo'te with Face 4, it sure was quite the surprise when this video informed me that I was gay! You'd think I would have noticed before now.

[KanaevM]

I picked lala solely as a joke, because I wanted to start as a tank and mashed potato in a tin can looked amusing. My friends told me I would change and there's a Fantasia at the end of ARR waiting for me, yet now I can't. It just feels so jarring to play as any other race when I get a chance during some solo duties. Smol speed is the way. Cute as well. Can barely see glamoured shoes, though.

[eithiana]

As a male viera. All you have said is mostly true. I haven’t changed race but the hat thing does bother me. But the recent glam from Tataru’s grand adventure has me in love! And yes my golden eye blinds me from mechanics. This is why I always look up a guide because I know I suck at pattern seeking.

[astraying]

I’m the duskwight elezen male that doesn’t exist. You absolutely hit the nail on the head about the ishgard aesthetic lol

[gravity-san]

As a person who play Elezen

I must tell you. You're right about Ishgardian part lol .

[Castersvarog]

1:33
_Looks over at my Duskweight Elezen whom I fantasiad into over a year ago_
And I took that personally.

[Nuinwing]

I would like to add to the lalafell part that outside of raids and dungeons, lalafell come in 4 different personality types:

1. Pure cinnamon buns
2. Meme machines
3. Chaos gremlins
4. Limsa lalas(also known as bad potatoes)

[UkraineJames]

I chose male Hyur and by the Twelve I'm sticking to it.

[fuzzwobble]

Female Viera are strange. They're not actually a common choice, but they have a subculture where they congregate together. I told my partner about this and they've noticed it, too. Viera enjoyers just tend to gravitate towards each other subconsciously and form 'tribes'. I think it's funny considering how tight-knit and xenophobic Viera tribes are in the lore. You don't even see five Miqo'te together with no other races, but if you hit up a venue you'll sometimes see a half dozen Viera women relaxing together.

Male Miqo'te so often have gay men playing them. So, so, so often. They're usually out and proud too, rocking booty shorts or fabulous glam.

Female Roegadyn, conversely, have so many lesbians playing them it's insane. You can practically presume any femroe you see is a lesbian by default. Almost always have a relationship with a little Miqo'te or a heckin' big Viera queen. Probably has a lot to do with their side of the coin as lesbians IRL.

Hyur men never speak, and often play on console. When they do speak it's to ask a question succinctly and then go about their day. There's a lot of paladins.

Roegadyn males are either the nicest guys you've ever met and great at the game, rocking tasteful glam that looks like something realistic, or they're complete joke characters that meme about and never do any serious content.


Hrothgar who reach level cap tend to focus pretty hard on being good at the game. You almost never see a Hrothgar floor tanking. I can almost guarantee they're a furry as well. It's as if all the skilled furries play Hrothgar, and the derpy ones go with Miqo'te.

Female Hyur are usually glam obsessed and always lead down the road to ultimate raids. They'll spend weeks mastering an ultimate to have a shiny weapon for their glam, but otherwise are usually lazy about the game. It sounds weird, but you probably don't want these 'X Legends' in your savage raids.

Female Elezen usually play relaxed ranged classes, with the most intense being the odd bard. They're dancers, bards, and summoners who only play other classes to get level cap. Their adventure plate is always one of these three classes.
Male Elezen can be quite similar, but they do have a subculture of dragoon and paladin superfans.

Lalafell are cursed because they either are in on the joke or not, and you never know which it is. They either take themselves too seriously and rage at the hint of a popoto joke, or they're cracking wise and bantering about biting ankles. They have a bad reputation in the RP community due to the former being super ERP creepy in spite of having the bodies of toddlers, and are often banned from venues (or even free companies). Most secretly enjoy being small because it feels like you run fast and jump super high.

Speaking of creepy, male Au Ra are almost all played by straight women. You know the kind I mean; they love supernatural romance thrillers and probably fantasized about werewolves or vampires for their teen years. Unfortunately, they took all courting advice from said content, and often lurk about and creep on characters, making them uncomfortable. They're the ones who tend to overreact and get banned from venues when they're rejected, or pushy with the staff.

Female Au Ra, on the other hand, are a coin flip between being played by males or females. A lot of trans people play female Au Ra for some reason. They glam like crazy, usually are obsessed with housing and/or venues, and almost always have their height slider set to minimum and heterochromatic eyes. A lot of them are reapers. So, so many reapers.

Male Viera are probably the most mixed bag race of them all, likely due to being the newest so a lot of people mess with them. You never know how they'll act. I'll say that a LOT of women play male Viera, and a LOT of men who play male Viera were convinced to by their partners so they can have a bunny boi. Unfortunately, this means the creepy male Au Ra discussed above hone in on them a lot...

[Meepman]

In my defense for the blush, I only use it along with lip coloring because the face will look dull and lifeless without it. Adding that pop of color gives extra dimension to your character.

[davidnelson]

It's weird, I never thought about the heterochromia thing before. I actually made my character look like how I did relatively at the time, the quirk was I had an inoperable cataract in one eye so I reflected that as best I could.

[reykas_]

I knew since I started playing that I would swap to male Viera (October before Endwalker released) and haven’t regretted my choice since. Even before the swap (and the only time I used a fantasia) I never used hats because I liked seeing my characters face. So really, I just have more space in my glamour dresser for other things since I don’t have to worry about them 😌

[MsSpella]

As a super rare Elezen player (only one I have seen in my year and half of playing), I must say, you are correct about the Ishgard part. My favourite expansion is Heavensward, followed by Shadowbringers.

[yoshifet]

I feel like hrothgars tend to be the chillest people in the game, and for that reason I feel obligated to uphold that perspective outlook for others. If I get caught salty, I'll let my bros down, can't let that happen. So I usually act overly enthusiastic in chat whenever possible lmao.

[billybob]

My character is a Mi'qote seeker of the moon with ashen grey skin, and short white hair with black highlights.
There was no deeper thought behind it, I just thought the combo looked good.
She also has blue/green heterochromatic eyes.
My own eyes look like they're both blue/green, in a pattern not dissimilar from Limbal Rings.
She's never been fanta'd, but after several years, I did have had Vaindelyne make the highlights even darker, add a few freckles, and pick a slightly different but still short hairstyle
The idea there was to make it look like she's changed and matured a bit over the whole saga from ARR to EW.

IMO, the perfect callout for players like me is that we basically made our ideal girlfriend.

[casualgamingauraous]

As a Hrothgar player, honestly I picked it as it seemed to be the most “Fantasy” looking race to me, then immediately became a Warrior main that I usually switch up with either Summoner or Dancer for DPS. Honestly one of the other reasons I went with Hrothgar is because I liked the beard and Stache combo he has, sure other races have beards but I guess Hrothgar’s jaw structure makes the beard appear longer overall to me, kinda sad we miss out on a ton of hats but eh, can’t win ‘em all.

[aquabreeze]

Am I the only female Hyur midlander player who just picked someone kinda sorta similar to herself because she just wanted a nice power fantasy to live vicariously through? She's even kinda shortish even though I'm short irl.