(10-18-2013, 03:06 AM)Ildur Wrote: I suggest answering the 100 questions found here. It will take you sometime (it's a lot of questions!) but it's very useful, specially for stablishing details people tend to ignore but that would, realistically, have a deep impact in an individual's personality.First off, thank you and everyone else posting.  Every lit bit to get this block out  of my head helps a ton.
Now, about some of the more specific things you have said about your character:
-The VIIth Legion is implied to have been destroyed completely during the Battle of Cartenau. If you want your character to have been part of it, you'll have to make his desertion sometime before it. You should also familiarize yourself with what the Legion was doing before that. Here is a nice (if long) article about what was going on 5 years before A Realm Reborn started.
-I have not seen signs of the Garleans using traditional cavalry, be it horses or chocobos. It is also not mentioned in lore if they have access to them.
However, they do have the Reapers (the mechs seen in the intro video), which are basically horses with a canon. Soldiers piloting them aren't called "cavalrymen", though. They are just pilots.
-For the razed village, I suggest you give it a name and place it in an 'off-game-world' zone. Or in a not determinate area. For example, say it was a village near Ala Mhigo. I suggest against writting that a Castrum was built on top because there are a very definite number of Castri in Eorzea and official lore might come later to contradict you.
-About the white mage that saved your character, you will have to stablish him as being a Warrior of Light, as it is stated by lore that the arts of white magic have been kept a secret by the Padjai (the weird horned children from Gridania) until very, very recently.
Alternatively, you could push your character desertion closer to the present. For example, instead of being years since his desertion, make it just a few months. Then the white mage can be one of the 'new' white mages.
For the most part I already figured the Castrum would be a bad idea. Â Mostly need something that could cover the former village as even a burned down village still has traces of it. Â Official lore I realize would contradict a castrum but likewise if they decided to do the area around Ala Mhigo (kind of feel like a retake Ala Mhigo is a very likelihood for something in an expansion/update,) then it might suck to have to rethink locations simply because somebody decided to do the math and find that there's a thriving town ontop of what the village was. Â
Was also having trouble with the cavalrymen thing simply because at first I wanted to go down the roman 8-men tent party but I felt like nine could easily be overtaken by a village if they're all on foot. Â Perhaps if I took the original 15 man cavalry and turn it in...mm, four pilots with eight foot soldiers sound like a good number?
Actually, I think pushing his desertion towards the present could work wonderfully. Â I could change the village location to Ala Mhigo and the reason from not paying taxes to the Legatus into caught with a public prayer to Rhalgr as a sign of rebellion towards the Empire and thus the Empire had ordered the squad to either have them cease and desist or raze the village and make an example of the people as a sign to other Ala Mhigans still residing within the area. Â He'll be a part of the XIVth, but then begs the question of how to get him towards the Ul'dahn area from Ala Mhigo. Â Stowaway on an airship maybe? Â Thoughts so far?