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The Garlean Empire is sorta the Big Bad Evil Empire of FFXIV who are trying to subjugate the Three Great Continents. You get your first look at them pretty early, so you'll see them before too long if you haven't already! "Pureblood" Garleans are the native race to Garlemald (capital of the Garlean Empire) and they are unique in that they have a third eye on their foreheads, and almost all of them lack the ability to manipulate aether to use magic. To make up for this they've turned to machines, called magitek.

Hey there LordSqweb and welcome to the RPC and to Hydaelyn! I wanted to drop in and say that, while Lucius isn't incorrect that WHM, BLM, and DRG are probably some of the most looked askance jobs, it's not impossible or "taboo" to roleplay as them in all groups. The "RP Community" here is actually... well, it's many communities (with many more joining the mesh now thanks to World Visit) and no two seem to have exactly the same taboos, lore strictness, etiquette, etc. In lore, the base classes that you start off playing are disciplines of war, magic, hand, or land that are common across Eorzea. These classes have guilds, which teach a standardized version of each discipline, but practitioners and disciples of those classes also exist and can be trained in a non-standard way. For example, the Lancers' Guild may be in Gridania, which teaches the way of the Wood Wailer lancers, but Ishgard and Ala Mhigo are both famous for very different types of lancers. Jobs (what classes turn into after level 30 mechanically), on the other hand, are usually professions that are incredibly rare in Eorzea. This can be for a few reasons depending on the job. Many are ancient professions that have been lost to time until the most recent Calamity: WAR, BRD, BLM, WHM, SCH, SMN, RDM. Others are currently being practiced but are taught only to an elite order of military soldiers (that may or may not still exist): PLD, DRG, MNK, DRK kinda, SMN and WAR and BRD now after a revival by the Grand Companies. Others are just brand new to Eorzea's shores, either having just been invented or have come with travelers and refugees from distant lands: MCH, NIN, SAM, AST, BLU, GNB, DNC. While all of these jobs are rare and powerful in Eorzea, you can roleplay as one if you desire to. It's just that each of these jobs usually requires certain backstory elements to make them make sense. For SMN, you have to have faced down a primal and lived. For SAM, you may be better received if your character was from the Far East, where the art originates and is more commonplace. WHM and BLM, as said above, tend to have difficult backstory requirements for many people to swallow. That's not to say it can't be done, just that its hard to do well. And generally, if you start adding more jobs to your IC roster, your character's power level starts increasing beyond the average RPer's characters. This isn't necessarily bad, but it can begin limiting the groups that will want to play with yours. If you have a trusted group, or are playing with other high-powered or WoL type characters, this can be fun! There's a very wide spectrum of what's acceptable here, so play what you find fun and enjoyable, but just be aware that certain things will be turn offs to some roleplayers, but not to others. One quick correction here. BLM, in and of itself, has very little to do with the void. BLMs harness the energies of the planet and use them to cast powerful destructive magicks, and once did on a grand scale. The art was made forbidden because of this and after a thousand years was forgotten almost entirely. There can be multiple BLMs in the modern day, but the art is forbidden to those versed in the histories. You can find lore on the BLMs, WHMs, SCHs, their histories, and their current status in the world today in this post on the War of the Magi. OK, lore sources! You can find a large collection of my own lore posts here: The Lore Index Just about anything from Ethys, Anonymoose, or Gamerescape is also a good source. Avoid the FFXIV Wiki at all costs. If you use it, take it with a very hefty dose of salt as they have a terrible habit of not citing their sources and writing in player fanon and shipfic as lore. Hope this helps! If you have questions my inboxes and messengers are always open!

I don't see anything wrong with this. Go for it!

Balmung and Mateus are the two biggest RP servers. Balmung is almost always listed as congested these days, however, but I'm told you can still slip a new character onto Mateus during the early hours of the morning EST/PST (before NA players wake up). Alternatively, you can place your character on any of the smaller servers within the Crystal Data Center (like coeurl or goblin for example) and then use the new World Visit system to get onto Balmung or Mateus for RP. Hope this helps!

Welcome to Eorzea and the RPC, Seda! (Yay battlehealers!) I can help you out with Miqo'te lore here! I'm still working on other race lore posts, but if you'd like to browse my notes on Hyur or Au Ra those can be found here (sorry for the formatting!). Hope this helps!

Assuming your character is from/in Eorzea, "normal" tech would be Clockwork. This is the type of basic technology that's commonly used and available throughout Eorzea for the past couple centuries. It's simple gears and cogs (think steampunk) that are fueled by aether, usually from an aetherial core or "heart". The most commonly seen variety of clockwork tech in game are the Mammets and minion dolls, but a lot of the lifts, elevators, and mechanical tech that you see out in the regional areas of Eorzea all fall under the Clockwork umbrella (though they are slowly being modified with magitek technology thanks to the Ironworks). Magitek is a Garlean brand. It was invented about 70 years ago by redesigning the Steam Engine to use Ceruleum fuel. This sparked a technological revolution, first in Garlemald, and then spread across the world as the Empire invaded neighboring continents. Once the Empire uncovered Allagan ruins in the Far East, they reverse engineered ancient Allagan technology to greatly improve their own technological capabilities. This is most evident in their airship technology. What we know of Magitek is that it uses Ceruleum as a fuel source and its smaller "electronic" components transmit lightning-aspected aether (electricity). Magitek first came to Eorzea in 1562 (15 years ago), when Cid nan Garlond defected from the Empire along with several of his Imperial engineers. His organization, the Garlond Ironworks, partnered with the city-states to introduce Magitek technology to give Eorzeans a fighting chance against the mechanical might of the Empire. As getting one's hands on Magitek is costly and only produced by the Ironworks (or stolen off Imperial units) and the only source of ceruleum fuel in Eorzea is tightly controlled by Amajina & Sons Mineral Concern in Ul'dah, the advancements in technology in Eorzea have come gradually. Most common are Eorzean airships, which are now run by Magitek. Magitek engines have also found their way on a few newer Lominsan vessels, Magitek minecarts in Ul'dah, as well as several elevator upgrades. Like Kieron mentioned above, however, as an adventurer or Free Company there are avenues open to getting one's hands on Magitek technology that aren't as widely available to the rest of the populace. This does assume your character is an adventurer, or with a Free Company that has some standing with the Ironworks, Rowena's House of Splendors, or similar faction. As far as computer / database tech goes, you can take either route. Allag had a variety of computers, database tomestones, etc that were seemingly reverse engineered by the Garlean Empire. Garlemald's airships seem to be operated by computer screens. While we've not seen Eorzean Clockwork have computers, we do know from the PVP maps that clockwork mammets have the capacity for databases, and data extraction and transcription from ancient Allagan tomestones. So it really comes down to preference, and what level of technology you think your character is most likely to have access to. Hope this helps!

All of that looks good! That's pretty much the lore of the Silver Bazaar and Hammerlea, and it's pretty on point for someone who would've grown up there!

Welcome to Hydaelyn and the RPC, Hakha! Sadly I haven't gotten around to a full Garlemald lore post yet, but I do have a Garlean timeline that should be helpful and answer a lot of questions! A Timeline of the Garlean Invasion Let me quickly answer some of your questions though! Garlemald began its invasion of northern Ilsabard (the northernmost of the Three Great Continents (map by Rommy)) in the year 1515 (62 years ago). Nhalmasque is the only other named Ilsabardian city that we know of so far, and it was conquered in 1517. By 1522, all of Ilsabard is under Garlean rule. This is when the Garlean Republic becomes the Garlean Empire. (55 years ago) After that, the Garlean Empire invades Othard, the eastern continent (also known as the Far East). Bozja, Dalmasca, Doma, and Hingashi are the four nations that once made up the Far East. We don't know when Bozja was toppled, but Dalmasca fell to the Empire 30 years ago. Nagxia fell 27 years ago. Doma fell 25 years ago. And Hingashi surrendered not long after. Bozja was later obliterated by Meteor Project in 1562 (15 years ago), Dalmasca was recently razed in the MSQ, and Doma was razed during A Realm Reborn (~1 year ago). After Othard fell and its territories were annexed, the Empire then moved to Aldenard/Eorzea and soon after Ala Mhigo fell under Imperial control in 1557 (20 years ago). No problem with this! There's plenty of places - villages, towns, settlements, etc - in Ilsabard and Othard that exist but aren't on the map. Some Garlean NPCs do reference coming from small towns like this that are under Imperial control and suffer Imperial rule, but it's never said where these towns are or what their names are. So feel free to come up with your own! (Probably want to avoid something as big as an empire, but city/town/village/etc should be fine!) Only "pureblood" Garleans (those with the third eye on their foreheads) are unable to manipulate aether into magic! But there's plenty of other races, conscript or native, living in Garlemald, the Imperial capital, that are of other races that can use magic. Also those with mixed ancestry (half Garlean and half another race, for example) will not have the third eye, and can use magic. Hope this helps! There's plenty of Garlean RPers out there, you just have to go looking!

All kinds of ways to swing this and race should never be a disqualifier for a job! Like Valence said there's several ways that this concept can be swung and all of them are perfectly viable. I'll add a few more. So first and foremost, the actual "Astrologian" job that we get to play is of Sharlayan origin and has been around for centuries. Sharlayan is situated in the seas north of Eorzea and is one of two archipelagos in the Northern Empty, the other being Aerslaent, the Sea Wolf homeland. Sharlayan's founder was even a Sea Wolf. So there's an easy shoe-in there! Sea Wolves are likely common sight in Sharlayan, and its easily possible that Astromancy has proliferated across the Northern Empty over the years. If not in its card-reading form, then certainly in its use for seafaring navigation. Roegadyn can also be found in Ishgard and the Far East, where Dragonstar-centric Astrology and Far Eastern Geomancy are taught, respectively. Using cards to tell fortunes is also a fairly widespread concept, even when not tied to Astrologian. Practitioners can be found throughout Eorzea. Finally, using stars for navigation and study is also seen in the three main city-states. Limsa, which has the largest collection of Sea Wolves in Eorzea, uses the stars for seafaring navigation. Ul'dah's Order of Nald'thal also teaches astrology. And Gridania's Gods' Quiver also keep detailed logs of the movement of the stars. So the sky's the limit!

Classes are modern professions that are common pretty much throughout Eorzea. They have at least one guild, which standardizes one way of teaching said class, however as Franz said, that doesn't mean the guild is the only place to learn that profession. The Lancers' Guild may be in Gridania, but Ala Mhigo and Ishgard are also just as famous for their lancers. The class guilds, in addition to teaching, also serve different roles in their respective cities. The thaumaturges of Ul'dah are lawmakers and priests of Ul'dah's organized religion, for example. Jobs, on the other hand, are professions that are very uncommon in Eorzea. Sometimes it's because the job hasn't been used in hundreds or thousands of years (SMN, SCH, BRD, RDM, BLM, WHM). Or sometimes it's very new to Eorzea and its popularity hasn't become widespread yet (NIN, SAM, MCH, AST, BLU). Sometimes it's for other reasons! It depends on the job. Which is why I stress that every job can be playable and can be lore abiding, but with each job there's usually some sort of backstory element that is more or less necessary for your character to be or become one of these legendary professions. That's certainly not to say it can't be done, and can't be done well, but that it can add an extra layer of difficulty on a character concept. Alternatively, you don't need to RP a class or job at all! Sometimes your character doesn't fit the mold, or you play a profession that exists in lore but has no mechanical counterpart (like Geomancer, or Musketeer). One small correction though: Black Magic, contrary to popular belief, isn't "illegal". It's forbidden and it's forgotten. Forgotten by most of the world's populace after centuries of witch hunts against mages and learned scholars, and all trace of Black Magic was buried and hidden away. To all those who did still learn of its existence 1600 years later, it was a forbidden art. But calling it illegal would suggest that it's in a lawbook somewhere and that its existence is common knowledge to law enforcement, which is not true. Hope this helps, Parqua!

My first question is: does your Au Ra worship Halone because you RP them as worshiping Halone? Or do they "worship" Halone because their chosen deity in character creator is Halone? If they worship Halone because you want them to worship Halone, that's totally fine! If it's just a character creator thing, you can consider that irrelevant for most characters who were raised outside Eorzea, as they don't worship the Twelve. In the case of the Raen, they like most other Othardians, worship the kami. If you want your character to also worship the kami, that's totally cool too! The only flaw in this is that it would cap your character's age at about 15 or younger. Otherwise this or a similar backstory would work just fine, but it doesn't need to be too complicated! Without MSQ spoilers, Raen (judging by your profile picture) are found in small doses throughout the Far East. And like the Hyur, they tend to adopt the culture and customs of the areas or cities they've chosen to settle in. Eorzea has traded with the Far East for several decades now. It's not too farfetched that your character's parents might have come over as traders. Maybe they got sick, maybe your character got separated from her parents on one such trip, maybe the circumstances of your character's birth made them want to leave her behind where she gets raised in an Elezen-rich environment like Gridania or Coerthas? Or maybe your character's mother was brought to Eorzea as a Garlean conscript and she escaped to Gridania/Coerthas? But don't worry about making mistakes! We all do! Make the kind of character you want to make and then fiddle with the 'hows' and the 'whys' as you continue through the MSQ, brainstorm your character, and even when you start breaking into RP! Characters are always a work in progress, and the more blanks you leave open, the more you can fill in later as needed. Hope this helps!

So the RP community is not super strict on everyone following naming conventions. A lot do, some don't. Some go by aliases, some have a real name that fits conventions but go by a different name that they made up. Some characters were adopted and have more "Hyuran" sounding names. There's even a Lalafellin character in the MSQ who does not follow Lalafellin naming conventions because she was named by her adopted Hyur father. So go with Shelly Flashtrigger or Black Fox! Maybe she's a merc and Black Fox is just a lot easier to remember than her real name? Whatever your reasoning, most people will probably go with it if the question gets brought up at all. And sometimes, a name can be a great way to break the ice with a new RP encounter.

Here are a few Ishgardian Hyur forenames and surnames. They seem to stick most closely with their own racial naming conventions. Alberic Bale Cyr Blyme Elaisse Poole Mathye Reede Redwald Younge Willmott Wyrke Hilda Ware Fray Myste* Stacia Myste* Leofard Myste* *Myste is a surname common among Brume orphans.

So there's a necessary distinction to make between science and religion as far as death goes: Learned scholars believe that upon a creature's death, the soul leaves the body in an initial burst of aether. The more violent the death, the more burst of aether happens. The body left behind then slowly decomposes over time and "returns to the Lifestream." In those rare instances where we see a person dissolve entirely into aether right before our eyes, it is in cases where a person has consumed all of their aether at the time of their death. Moenbryda is an example of this. Anyroad... As aether filters into the Lifestream, it follows the raging torrent to Silvertear Lake, the fount of all aether in the world, where it passes to the Aetherial Plane or Aetherial Sea. In creationist beliefs, this place is sometimes also referred to as the "Whorl." This Aetherial Plane is a massive swirling blender of aether which slowly filters out of the Sea back into the Lifestream to return as new life. Only so much aether can filter into and out of this exchange at any given time, called the Aetherial threshold. This is why in areas of massive death, like some battlefields, there is a denser aetherial concentration and sometimes crystalization of stagnant aether than in most places. You can find more info about this here! Religious beliefs differ and are varied depending not only on the religion but where that religion is taught. Most Eorzeans believe that upon a person's death, the soul exits the body and enters the Lifestream and, hopefully, is carried into the Halls of the Twelve. "Halls" is sometimes also referred to as "Heavens." There are seven Heavens, and there are seven Hells. Six of these Heavens and Hells correspond to the elements of the deity pair which rules that element, and then the final seventh Heaven and Hell are astrally and umbrally aligned, respectively, and rule over the six lower Heavens and Hells below them. Again, I want to reiterate that this belief can vary. In Ul'dah, for example, it is commonly believed that Nald and Thal are separate entities, brothers, and that one brother (Nald) rules Life whilst in this plane, while his brother (Thal) oversees Death and one's placement in an afterlife called Thal's Realm. Thal's scales weigh your accomplishments in life to determine whether or not you will be admitted into his divine embrace. It is also taught that the dead who aren't buried properly (by the Order of Nald'thal) risk their souls returning to haunt the living for all eternity. Gridanians do not believe in Thal's Realm and such teachings are heresy in Ishgard, whose faith in the Fury eclipses all of the other eleven in the pantheon. Ishgardians believe that the other gods and goddesses exist, but their powers are a shadow of Halone's. They believe that those who spend a lifetime of devotion to Her or die valorously defeating Halone's enemies will be taken unto Halone's Halls in the heavens. Beliefs in the Far East vary even more greatly, with worship in the kami producing several disparate theories on the fate of a soul, and a belief specific to the Dotharl that Xaela whose souls burn bright at the moment of their death are reborn in their tribe. I have a number of posts regarding the religion of several of the Twelve in my Lore Index. Across Eorzea, people bury their dead! The lichyard in Drybone is one of the more obvious ones, but others exist across Eorzea, especially throughout Gyr Abania if you look for them. You can learn more about the Order of Nald'thal, the Ossuary, Erralig's Burial Chamber, and the Church of Saint Adama Landama in this post that also has a wealth of information on Ul'dahn funeral practices here. In Gridania, the main burial ground is the Tam-Tara Deepcroft. It is likely that the hearers of the Stillglade Fane take care of last rites of the dead. Limsa does bury some of their dead on land (see: Founder's Crypt), however, as many Lominsans are/were seafarers until Merlwyb's regime, most of the dead were lost at sea and there was rarely a body to bury. So burials at sea were most common, but burials upon land are also a thing on Vylbrand. Overweening Thaumaturge: “Limsa is famous for its distrust of the Order. They claim the special benefits and rites promised with our burials are rarely carried out. And why might that be, you ask? I imagine it is because there are no dead to fill the graves, frankly. It is a city of sailors, and many and more die at sea. Without a corpse, what proper burial can there be?” Ishgardians also bury their dead, as seen in the graveyard in the Coerthas western highlands, assuming you are neither dragon nor heretic, in which case the body is often left out. Ala Mhigans also bury their dead, as seen by the plethora of graves scattered across the Gyr Abanian zones, most noticeably in Rhalgr's Reach and the mass graves in the Lochs. Ala Mhigans also have various posthumous rites they carry out to maintain the graves and keep the vengeful spirits of the fallen from rising, which can be found in quests from the aforementioned zones. The Garleans, however, outlawed these practices deeming them too religiously oriented, and that's why we see so many Ashkin across the region twenty years on. Hope this helps!

Fortunately, Hyur are everywhere! In Eorzea, Gyr Abania and Ala Mhigo are generally where we see the largest Highlander populations. But before Anshelm Cotter founded Ala Mhigo in 1135 (442 years ago), Gyr Abania was home to a mess of feuding clans, tribes, and peoples. Encyclopedia Eorzea - Litany For Survival: "The feuds continued for many long years. On occasion, one clan would win a string of victories, and grow larger by absorbing their defeated foes into their ranks - only to be encircled by a coalition of the remaining tribes, and hammered back down. Following its victory, the loose alliance would then dissolve for lack of a common enemy. This pattern repeated time and again, and the fray showed no signs of abetting.” This was Gyr Abania for the first thousand years of the Sixth Astral Era. On top of this, they also faced invading clans from Ilsabard, seeing as Gyr Abania was the one road between Eorzea and the northern continent, the region saw battle from all sides by a mix of different tribes. This is eventually what forged Ala Mhigo into the military might it was prior to its fall to the Garlean Empire. Even after the fall, Gyr Abania was still a land interspersed with small villages, temples, and roaming tribes who did not unite themselves into Ala Mhigo's rule or the Empire's. There were also tribes which left and moved north, south, and west. So you could have your Highlander living in the remote reaches of Abalathia's Spine which stretches across the northern border of Eorzea to the Farreach, where the Warrior clans of Hellsguard live. You could also have your character from the Northern Empty or even Sharlayan or Aerslaent, Ilsabard - though this would mean living under the Imperial yolk, or as far away as the deserts of Dalmasca, though again this would mean Imperial rule. Rule of thumb in FFXIV, a Hyur can be from anywhere.