I'm going to make a few statements here, then kind of go back and contradict myself, in a way. Â But please bear with me anyway!
One thing to realize is that weapons in XIV are generally played up for the sake of the game... often pretty substantially so. Â They define the class. Â They are named. Â They have a 'special snowflake' story attached to them. Â And they are generally identical based on class (e.g. relic, zenith, atma, animus) - or various nuances of the same flavor. Â If this is RPed than there's a good chance someone else out there is RPing the very same thing. Â I think most RPers want to avoid coming across being Mary Sue, and I think RPing the weapons as they are based on the game's story tends to work against that endeavor. Â As others have suggested, deviating from it a bit to make something a bit more unique for yourself is probably a more ideal solution.
Another thing is that historically weapons are not generally regarded as much more than tools. Â Yes there might be a fondness from a fighter for his chosen tool of the trade, maybe even giving it a name or a certain amount of regard. Â But in the end it's a thing, and like most things it can break, be lost, misplaced, be replaced by another, etc. Â And I think realistic RP will sort of mimic this. Â Named weapons were more often a thing for kings and nobles and such, where the weapons were often seen more as a symbol than as an instrument to be used in the more literal sense. Â This isn't to say it's wrong. Â Our alt has a weapon he's named, and some of that creative license needs to be employed with its use. Â Sure it looks like the same Bravura that everyone else wields, but he's spoken about it at times and more often descriptors in emotes are used. Â It ignores the entire Curious Gorge story, relic story, etc. Â He thinks it's super-special. Â But nobody else is expected to. Â To anyone else it would look like a big axe with some etchings carved into the haft and a figure molded into the axehead's design. Â Fancy maybe, but still ordinary.
I kind of kept up with this mentality in FFXI before upgrading a relic weapon (pre-2010 when it was like years of effort and was a pretty major accomplishment - or in hindsight a bit of a colossal waste of time). Â I had wanted to somehow find a way to incorporate this in RP. Â Unfortunately, it came around the endpoint of RP in FFXI on our server though (most of us were getting stoked about XIV which was just around the bend at that point) so there wasn't any real substantial RP pertaining to this. Â In lieu of that, the character in XI loosely translates to Eva's father's character, so we've left the weapon intact - unnamed - but it's too big for her and after the father character passed on it became a wall decoration since it was such a pretty weapon. Â So that's been kind of our nod to that without anything being godmody or naming a weapon or anything.
So I guess what I'm saying is that folks should just RP whatever they want, but it may be worthwhile to try and think outside the box and either leave the weapon to be an ordinary thing, or otherwise find a way to mold it to fit some other story, or if you're adamant on clinging to XIV's items at least realize that your character may not be the only one doing this and make certain allowances for other characters with similar parallel stories for their own weapons.
There also should be no expectation upon other RPers that your character's weapon is somehow more than the sum of its parts or what would be available to other RPers - I think that's probably the most important thing. If you're having to send /tells to people or make people understand that your thingamajig is somehow better or more special than their thingamajigs, that's a pretty telltale sign that something is wrong with your approach.
If it matters at all - for Eva (apart from the bit I already mentioned about her father's wall decoration) I've never really given any special focus to any of her weapons or linked them to any special storyline, and that's worked pretty well for our purposes.
One thing to realize is that weapons in XIV are generally played up for the sake of the game... often pretty substantially so. Â They define the class. Â They are named. Â They have a 'special snowflake' story attached to them. Â And they are generally identical based on class (e.g. relic, zenith, atma, animus) - or various nuances of the same flavor. Â If this is RPed than there's a good chance someone else out there is RPing the very same thing. Â I think most RPers want to avoid coming across being Mary Sue, and I think RPing the weapons as they are based on the game's story tends to work against that endeavor. Â As others have suggested, deviating from it a bit to make something a bit more unique for yourself is probably a more ideal solution.
Another thing is that historically weapons are not generally regarded as much more than tools. Â Yes there might be a fondness from a fighter for his chosen tool of the trade, maybe even giving it a name or a certain amount of regard. Â But in the end it's a thing, and like most things it can break, be lost, misplaced, be replaced by another, etc. Â And I think realistic RP will sort of mimic this. Â Named weapons were more often a thing for kings and nobles and such, where the weapons were often seen more as a symbol than as an instrument to be used in the more literal sense. Â This isn't to say it's wrong. Â Our alt has a weapon he's named, and some of that creative license needs to be employed with its use. Â Sure it looks like the same Bravura that everyone else wields, but he's spoken about it at times and more often descriptors in emotes are used. Â It ignores the entire Curious Gorge story, relic story, etc. Â He thinks it's super-special. Â But nobody else is expected to. Â To anyone else it would look like a big axe with some etchings carved into the haft and a figure molded into the axehead's design. Â Fancy maybe, but still ordinary.
I kind of kept up with this mentality in FFXI before upgrading a relic weapon (pre-2010 when it was like years of effort and was a pretty major accomplishment - or in hindsight a bit of a colossal waste of time). Â I had wanted to somehow find a way to incorporate this in RP. Â Unfortunately, it came around the endpoint of RP in FFXI on our server though (most of us were getting stoked about XIV which was just around the bend at that point) so there wasn't any real substantial RP pertaining to this. Â In lieu of that, the character in XI loosely translates to Eva's father's character, so we've left the weapon intact - unnamed - but it's too big for her and after the father character passed on it became a wall decoration since it was such a pretty weapon. Â So that's been kind of our nod to that without anything being godmody or naming a weapon or anything.
So I guess what I'm saying is that folks should just RP whatever they want, but it may be worthwhile to try and think outside the box and either leave the weapon to be an ordinary thing, or otherwise find a way to mold it to fit some other story, or if you're adamant on clinging to XIV's items at least realize that your character may not be the only one doing this and make certain allowances for other characters with similar parallel stories for their own weapons.
There also should be no expectation upon other RPers that your character's weapon is somehow more than the sum of its parts or what would be available to other RPers - I think that's probably the most important thing. If you're having to send /tells to people or make people understand that your thingamajig is somehow better or more special than their thingamajigs, that's a pretty telltale sign that something is wrong with your approach.
If it matters at all - for Eva (apart from the bit I already mentioned about her father's wall decoration) I've never really given any special focus to any of her weapons or linked them to any special storyline, and that's worked pretty well for our purposes.
"One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth doing is what we do for others." Â ~ Lewis Carol
Eva's Journals  |  Eva's Wiki Page (coming soon)  |  RP Handbook
Eva's Journals  |  Eva's Wiki Page (coming soon)  |  RP Handbook