Damien

To be honest, I doubt there's any real limiting factor to learning the mudras beyond when their tutors feel they are ready. I think this is best reflected in Oboro's quote mentioned by Sounsyy above - "who has attained full mastery." I'd like to think they give you the first mudra and once they feel like not only you can use it, but use it well - be it under pressure or at the best times, -then- they give you the next mudra and time to learn the new skills that lets you access. That way the student builds up a better idea of when to use each mudra, rather than learning them all at once. So it depends on the student, and whether their teacher feels like letting them do more mudras is in their interest. Teaching them all outright might be to their detriment - knowing all the mudra combination does not equate to mastery over them. As how long that mastery takes, it's sensible to leave it vague.

If X'lantah has been dwelling in Ul'dah's streets for long enough, she could be an old acquaintance of Damien's. He was an Ul'dahn street rat and pickpocket for the longest time (under his real name), so they could have gotten up to fun and mischief with the occasional bit of trouble before circumstances meant he had to disappear. Naturally there's a few IC or OOC caveats, but I can poke you in-game sometime if that sounds interesting. Also welcome back!

I gave it a read through and here's what I think for whatever it's worth It'd be helpful to have a better idea of where it is she's growing up and where this is all happening. If it were in somewhere like occupied Ala Mhigo, for example, running a kiosk in a bustling town couldn't really happen. If it were in Ishgard, until relatively recently, outsiders from the other city-states couldn't really access the city, so no Red Mages could get inside. If she also spent the second half of her training in Eorzea, where was the first half spent? Somewhere like Othard? Anyways - for the first part about Opal adopting a sort of fake personality, I guess I wonder the relevance of how that plays out for the rest of her story. It's mentioned that it happens, but not much on what it changes or how it affects her beyond making her fit in a little more. Secondly, and this is just me thinking - but surely it'd take more than what it did there to convince a wandering red mage to devote his time to training a pupil, even with her capacity for manipulating aether. I think this could be a good way to bring in that fake personality side of her, though. It'd seem more genuine and convincing if he was able to tell she wasn't being honest with herself - and then she opens up to him. Maybe finally being able to talk about the things she likes with someone raises her self-esteem again. Because of that, maybe the Red Mage sees a little of himself in her, maybe starts off teaching her little things about how to manage her accidental outbursts of magic. Maybe then it's when he notices her potential, and by then he wants to help her through teaching. Finally as for the training and her skills, I don't think it makes much sense that she'd receive little training with the rapier with most of it centering around aether manipulation, since red mages are pretty much all about combining the two.. but it could be that she just doesn't have an easy time with the rapier and maybe neglects to practice it as much because of that.

I have my own miqo'te character trained as a ninja - not by living or being born in the Far East / Othard, but by the people Yugiri brought over to teach Eorzeans during the post ARR quests. Slight Post-ARR story spoiler ahead. During the process of trying to stop the summoning of Leviathan, Yugiri noticed how similar Thancred's fighting style was to her own during the post-ARR quest The Gift of Eternity (which has the awesome cutscene of them fighting together). After it's all dealt with, this happens. In-game I think this was actually the point that rogues / ninjas were introduced into the game, since I remember learning that the job was added later into release than initially intended. Anyway, that's a plausible way you could go about having your character be trained in ninjitsu. They wouldn't be too experienced, since this only happened a couple years ago in the lore - but since we're RPers we can get away with our characters being talented enough to pick it up a little quicker than average.

I've seen a lot of younger characters in my time RPing on FF than I have in other games - I suppose because the races aren't supernaturally long-lived, and the player models better allow one to portray someone younger on a visual level, which can help. So it's not uncommon at all. Though it'd be good to have a bunch of other rascals to pal around with, younger characters can have some great interactions with older ones who can become anything from good friends or teachers of important life lessons to concerned parental figures.

As mentioned nothing there seems to break boundaries in terms of what wouldn't or couldn't happen. Background wise it's fine, and it works as a nice clean slate to begin with. Like many new RPers though, whilst you've got a good backstory that tells us a lot about what the character has gone through, there's less to be said for what we know about who the character really is. What you can fill in now is the real clockwork that makes the character tick and gives it a heartbeat - the sort of things that're going to be more relevant in RP than their history - since if anything, a history only serves to explain how the character got to where they are. Are they the sort of person who lies a lot? Are they prepared to take a life - for reasons like coin, or only to save another, or to save more lives? Do they have habits or hobbies, hidden talents or maybe lack skills most people have instead? Would they keep quiet and let others walk over them to save causing trouble, or stick up for themselves and fight back even if it earns them a scar? How do they deal with the regrets for the past they have? Who do they trust or turn to if they're direly in need of help? Who or what do they hate, or love most? Are the ends more important than the means to them? Is there a line they would never cross? Most new RPers are keen to develop a good backstory which is great, but when your character starts interacting with others, it's not like everyone stands there trading their histories. They'll talk - and what they talk about is only half as important as how they talk, what they're doing whilst they're talking, and how the other character responds to those things. http://www.miniworld.com/adnd/100ThingsAboutUrPCBackGround.html Have a read through those questions and try answering them as your character. The clearer each answer is, the better!

It might help to think about character first, rather than occupation. An example I like to make is that you can have a wizard character - but depending on how you flesh him out, the fact that he's a wizard could be a fairly minor detail or the most crucial thing. The first version of the wizard could be a scholarly librarian type who spends his time buried in books, perusing arcane scrolls, discussing magic with colleagues - his whole life revolves around magic. The second version of the wizard could be a wanderer, an explorer. He goes about and meets new friends, tries his luck with women, works odd-jobs to make coin and has a plethora of talents he's picked up along the way like being able to improvise funny rhymes or eat anything no matter how spicy it is. But he's also a wizard - but it's hardly as centric to his overall character as it is to the other version. So it could be with your character being a burglar. Is it something centric to who he is, an all-encompassing definition? Or is it just the means through which he's able to survive as he does something else? Anyway you say you don't want to mention stealing OOCly because it ruins the surprise of it, and I can sort of get that. I prefer to keep people out of the loop OOCly if I can because it makes what happens ICly more genuine if they didn't know it or weren't expecting it. But sometimes it's simply for the better. What if I wanted my character to lose something ICly and it turned out be stolen? Rather than go on a hunt for a fictional NPC, bringing a character into the mix would be a better thing to do because your character is going to be more fleshed out than my only-exists-in-emotes characters who'll only be there for the sake of a storyline event to get back what was stolen. Think about it that way and I'm confident you'll find plenty of people requesting your stealing-stuff-ICly-services!

I've been leveling an alt on Adamantoise in the hopes that maybe one day I'll be able to swap it to Balmung like I should have done when I had the chance. I'm hearing and seeing Mateus is popular too though, so maybe this is a sign. I'll have to look into how it affects the Road to 60 buff since I might still want to make use of that to level up war, but it'd still probably be worth transferring. Thanks for the heads up.

Hello there! Edited this a bit as I've added in more people to look for and straightened a few things out. So, here's the idea. Rather than fill my character's background with people who only exist in writing, I'd like to see if there's a player character who could play the part. Whether you're a new RPer and want to make an immediate connection and friend to RP with, or a veteran, it's all the same. Hopefully we can work something out! What do we get out of it? Naturally, more people and friends to RP with and the chance to bring our character's history to life a little better. I've left all this pretty brief since I prefer to keep what I can to IC information - but if you're interested, I can elaborate on whatever you want to know more about. Here's a little about the character. Damien is a young adult miqo'te, living under an obviously assumed name. After fleeing his old tribe with his sister, he was left to lead a regretful life committed to evil and profit in the slums of Ul'dah. After reaching his lowest point, he scarcely survived the trials it took to claw his way out, but thankfully he finds himself in a better place as a "good person," in his own words. He is not so well learned in books or history, has pitiable amounts of aether to make use of, and no real occupation to speak of. However, he has a keen wit and finds ways to get by all the same, currently among a group of explorers he has come to call friends. He takes pleasure in the simple things - naps by the beach, gambling, and eating tasty food after years of rough living. He does, however, continue to prepare himself for the times a fight will come to him whether he wants it to or not. ... So, there you have a little window as to who I am. As for who I'm looking for... Firstly, I'm looking for a character who could be Damien's sister (for a female Seeker Miqo'te) If you have a female miqo'te character and wanted a brother for her, this could be one way to go about it. Damien's sister is a very important figure to him. Shortly before their tribe collapsed, she carried him - a sickly kid at the time, to Ul'dah, and left him in the hands of a healer. She vanished afterwards, and he's been looking for her ever since then, though with barely any information about where she went. Her appearance, what she's like, where she went, and even her name are all things I've left intentionally blank in the hopes that I could find a player to take up this familial role. Ideally the character would be a Seeker in her mid to late 20s, around the same age as him, and likely to have a (real / tribal) name beginning with J. Naturally, if you've got any cool ideas I'd love to hear them out. Secondly, victims of crime or relatives of victims! (anyone / everyone who's lived in Ul'dah for the last ten years or so) If your character has suffered the death of someone close to them, this might open up an interesting opportunity to find the killer behind it. After being brought to Ul'dah by his sister, life didn't get much better and Damien became quite a crook - turning to a life of crime to pay his way. Along the way, plenty of people were hurt - innocent merchants and citizens, Brass Blades, young or old, rich or poor, anyone he had to. If your character or someone they knew / cared about was on the receiving end of a criminal's violent intent, Damien could have been the one behind it. Third - Old Ul'dahn contacts! (anyone / everyone who's lived in Ul'dah for the last ten years or so) Since he spent a long time working within Ul'dah's dark underbelly I figure Damien would know all sorts of people, be it merchants, information brokers, Flames soldiers, and in particular the other poor folk who loitered round the cities' less welcoming alleyways. As for how they could know him, that could be decided between us entirely since it's very open - though they'd probably know him as a dusty street-dweller with a knack for stealing and secrets he'd rather not share. Finally, any suggestions from anyone! Frankly I trust that lots of people here are pretty creative and maybe you've thought of a way our characters could be connected in a way I haven't thought of. If you have a suggestion though I'd love to hear it out. Naturally if anyone has questions, I'll do what I can to answer! Note: I'm in the UK so my times of play might be incompatible for some people over in the US; I got a regular hours job, so I'm usually free on weekends, and on weekday evenings until 22:00 or 23:00 GMT.

I made a thief character to RP on at one point because it easily allowed me to a good excuse to approach lonesome strangers on my own and start up some RP with them. Firstly I'd say letting someone know doesn't always defeat the entire purpose. People can't know you've stolen anything ICly if they don't know OOCly either! If you're wanting to steal from someone you could go with the simple case of emoting, like you said - trying to steal, and seeing what happens... either dealing with the situation if they catch you, or trying to get away with it. Maybe later on they find you trying to sell what you stole and the chase begins again, maybe you try to sell it back to them - maybe it gets broke, who knows. What's more important than the act of actually thieving is what RP you can make out of it. Secondly, get in touch with someone and mention that you're a thief RPer, and if they're looking to have some possession of theirs taken or their house broken into for the same of some story or something, you can be the one to do it. Or perhaps someone's RPing a character who had some precious heirloom stolen in their backstory, but the person who stole it is just an anonymous thief who only exists on paper for the sake of the character's story. If you could offer your own character to be that thief instead, that opens up some options and reasons to RP with that person and is far more exciting than just saying it was a random anonymous guy. And if you're not out thieving, there's other ways your character can give away their nature just through how they normally behave. Constantly looking at people's coinpurses as they walk by, checking over their shoulder just to make sure they aren't being watched by some guardsman or authority figure, that sort of thing.

As others have suggested, looking at where the animal the tribe is said to be protected by, though I often it's like the tribe emulates the behaviour of the animals as a means of staying alive and surviving in the same environment they do. I wouldn't try to go into too much detail about how the tribes work and function though. Until we know more officially, I think it's better to keep it open to interpretation. There could be tribes of the same letter that are different depending on who's in them or wherabouts they live. That way you don't get the issue of trying to assume or guess too much, or feel conflicted when someone else has wholly different ideas.

I've been giving this some thought as I'm contemplating having my character train as a ninja or samurai, undecided. My interpretation is a bit like you suggested; the handsigns are a sort of shortcut of their own. It's like a sensory aid that helps them remember how to channel the correct energy they need in a particular way, quickly and silently, rather than having to stand still and focus. The way I think of it is that it's a sort of association game. Ninjas probably train or learn to call on the particular type of energy, e.g Earth, Man or Heaven, but learn to do it so that whenever they perform a certain sign, the calling of that energy becomes like a second-nature reaction. The meanings of those mudras might be quite literal, too. They might genuinely be bending their own aether if they use Jin, of that of the ground or world around them if they use Chi. It's not worth thinking about overly heavily since trying to wrap your head around a fundamentally supernatural, illogical thing like this is just asking for a headache, so I wouldn't think it's too smart an idea to try and break it down too much more. As for additional techniques, I'm a fan of creative liberty - but here it'd be limited. The amount of techniques ninjas can do is more than what players can perform, we know that because of what we've seen in quests and such. But there's only three three mudras that most ninjas are aware of, and so there's a finite way to combine them and it's already clear which each sequence can do. So either other ninja techniques don't always rely on mudras, or there's simply more to mudras than we know concerning techniques and such.

Healing in RP can be a handy storytelling device or a cop-out. If your character gets wounded or something in a battle or a fight, it can be a bit demeaning for them to have their woes waved away with the flick of a hand like it nothing, since it can basically reduce them to feeling like children who cry over scrapes. This isn't so bad if it really is a scrape, but I think in order for the danger of harm in the world to remain a danger, it can't be something that is always so easily dealt with. When I did a lot of healing RP I could usually get a gauge of what the player wanted for their character - a quick patch up of some damage so they could go 'back' to their RP, or players who wanted to make RP out of the injury itself; go through a process of healing, recovery and rehabilitation and feel the consequences of it. For the first, I'd just give them what they wanted and play out healing the damage. The second was a bit more fun, getting to tear away clothes or armour to assess the damage, clean out the wound with some disinfectant or whatever was on hand like alcohol. Then mend the necessary damage with magic and leave the rest to heal (my healer would often see to several injuries a day and so had to use their magic conservatively for the important work), apply some bandages and prescribe some painkillers or other medicine or something. For combat situations I always thought of the heals as a sort of powerful but hastened form of healing - like plugging holes in a leaky boat, it's keeping the thing afloat but not solving the issues fully. As others have said though, it's good to leave it to the player receiving the healing how they want it to go.

For FFXIV I just have the one male character, and being male myself it's pretty standard. I've RPd in the past on female characters though - I began it partly because I was already on an RP realm and RPing, but if I wanted another character of the same race I already had a male of, I'd make the character female for some greater visual disparity, different animations etc. I'd like to think any of my characters could work well enough as either a male or female, they still have an identity that better suits one or the other. On that note, I've never felt like there's a knack to playing a man or a woman and personally I don't think it need be anything complex. The fact that my male characters are male is no more relevant to who they are than it is to my female characters being female. As for the risk of lashback you might get for being opposite to what you are in-game, if you think about it, there's just no getting around the fact that some people are just going to assume, which is fine. But for the sake of a good story it doesn't matter if the author is male or female, and so it shouldn't really matter who's behind the character. This isn't as much of an issue if you don't get involved in romance or ERP, unless you don't mind. You could either be up front about it all the way and just tell people, or just tell no-one. Personally I'm in favour of the latter; the less people know about you OOCly, the more they know you as your character and not a player.

Tropes aren't really bad on their own. Everyone and their mother does tragic backstories, but that's because they can give a character a compelling ambition or drive to do something. You can use any tool you like to piece together your character, but a simple character done well will forever be preferable to engage with than an butchered attempt at a horribly complex character. Don't feel obliged to be different. After all, RP is sort of about fitting in. Having similarities to people is what can draw them together just as much as appreciating differences. I've made a character and played it without developing a backstory at all, and who the character eventually became was sort of improvised, shaped by ideas on the fly and RP with others. I wouldn't get too caught up in background. It's only there to explain the way the character is now. When you start RPing, it doesn't become an exercise of referring to written out notes to calculate how your character would respond, nor does it become a task of trading fictional past experiences with other characters for theirs. Things that really matter are the sorts of things you'll have to think about throughout your RP. What a character fears, what they hope for, their preference of weather, what hobbies or hidden talents they might have, how well they can cope under stress, how they deal with people, what secrets they're unwilling to share, how they talk, whether they are wealthy etc etc. Aside from the past of your character, far fewer give thought to their future. I think it's a good idea to have goals for your character; short term ones they might achieve in RP, long term ones that might slowly unravel over time and change the character as they do, and even the long milestones that your character strives for but probably never ever reach.