John Spiegel

How to deal with metagaming in general: Have very sparse public information (Forum posts, RPC wiki, etc) out there. Yes, yes, we all love talking about our characters, but people can and will metagame if it helps them meet their desires whether it is to push themselves into a plot as the hero or romantic interests. I started a wiki years ago. I think it has bare bones on it if that. I do not wish various aspects of my character(s) to be metagamed as the mystery is most of the fun for portraying the beautiful boy my avatar reflects. Your particular instance: Lay out a cease and desist. You do yourself a disservice if you do not lay boundaries and express your dissatisfaction. If that fails, break the IC=/=OOC boundary and cut all ties because sacrificing your happiness isn't worth keeping the IC=/=OOC boundary up.

I would argue in both the game itself and RP, dark knights are rather rare as to be one is a hard life that not many RPers want to take up (and NPCs get hunted by holier-than-thou people for being perceived as being demons and junk) Dark knights specifically in name are tied to Ishgard by the term "knight". You can safely be a sword-slinging user of the dark arts and never have been tied to Ishgard. Or even a sword slinger vigilante that doesn't use dark arts. The thing so many people do when they go around RPing as a DRK is that they act edgy and really don't flesh things out at all. The DRK storyline is fantastic at highlighting the sacrifices and inner turmoil along with the general outcast nature of it all. Like a few other jobs, DRKs are fueled through emotions but unlike other jobs, it is misinterpreted by NPCs as voidal/evil magicks and the sort. It's a hard road to be a proper dark knight in roleplay in my opinion and in fact the three (well, one had to be killed, so two) people John has put on the Path were not done lightly and for quite awhile, he felt guilty about it until he accepted that they 100% wanted it.

Off the top of my head, naming convention for goblins are BlahblahOX DescriptiveGobSurname for females (Brayflox Alltalks) I wanna say male goblins are ---IX end for the first name. With that said, here's some ideas for names. Blinkix Papereyes (as goblins use sometimes slightly confusing word combos to mean other words, so Papereyes could mean Blinkix is a Reader or Bookish goblin) Floix Lettertaker That's all just shooting off the hip. My goblin-fu isn't that detailed as I rarely draw on it lol.

Yup. Still a thing. We'll continue to fly under the radar. Till the next month (that I remember)!

A run around Ishgard hyur names yields: Redwald Rothe Herewart Aelmer Eustacia Haimirich (said he's from Ul'dah but serves House Foretemps, captain of the Oschon's Raiders).

I make/edit/manipulate digital elevation maps and the sort primarily via ArcGIS. I consider it a point-and-click adventure game at times. I rather enjoy the job even on crappy projects. The boring/crappy parts aren't that bad, just hard to stay focused when it's not engaging but when I'm creating a map? All my geology nerding and video game nerding comes out. So yeah, I feel you.

GOONIES NEVER SAY DIE!

Sounds about right. I especially look for some focus on the FC culture and especially on RP from a FC application process. The process should bring in people you want, and not be focused on excluding those you don't. The recruitment process is a good indication of the FC and any process that is over 60% about what not to do is a sign that this is an oppressive FC in my experience. So buyer (applicant) beware. I got five rules. Rules one and three are the same. Rule five is a joke. So I got three rules, really. There's a common misconception that since we all play the same game/same hobby (RP) that we're all able to play nice with a different group. That's a lazy and idealist point of view. Have your group and nourish your group. It's like any real life group of friends. There is indeed individual FC culture. Through my many travels both in the real world and in digital, I can get a good feel for someone based on their application.... such as their ability to form coherent sentences, an actual interest in the group rather than "I'm bored and need constant stimulation me me me me!" and other indicators. Couple that with a chat and blamo. It's much easier to personalize an OOC interview than to have a large application. Also, I hate long apps since I'd have to read all that shit and would have no one to blame but myself.

Application -> OOC interview -> IC interview -> Recruit status -> time -> Full membership. That's what I do. I dislike making an applicant wait for a response so my turnarounds are within 24 hours. That being said, the short application and OOC interview are my gauges to see if an applicant is fit for my group. I do not and will not cater to people that don't fit with our established mojo. Two options: 1. Make your own FC 2. Find another FC I have directed a good bit of people away from my company just based on a few criteria since I ain't about compromise lol.

Still here. Still small. Still happy. Pls no inactive me pls.

Alright, this is an issue I have with people taking the lore literally. Dark Knights ARE a construct of Ishgard as that there was the "first dark knight" who went and slew a man of the cloth for being a creeper, won his trial by combat, and cast his banner aside. That was @500 years ago. In the entirety of spoken crawling across the world, there weren't other cases of people going against the law/fighting injustice or using perceived evil to snuff out untouchables? There -had- to have been. They just weren't called dark KNIGHTS! FFXIV likes to lock a particular style or profession somehow to one city state.. but in the lore, for example, Ala Mhigo, Gridania, and Ishgard all have marvelous lancers each with their own specialization. Ala Mhigo had the griffin-mounted lancers that took the Elementals' intervention and the Eorzean Alliance to fight back in the Shroud in the Autumn War. Ishgard got their pikemen and dragoons. Gridania got hippy lancers. Sure, they all might have originated in Glemmora or some pre-current society and branched out when that nation died. I like to think the Dark Knights that are centered in Ishgard (the "first dark knight", Frey, Grumpylizard...) are all one variety of "Dark Walkers/Weilders" in that, despite some things changing for them over time, they can trace their original to that of a knight. Frey and Sid weren't knights at all and became dark knights. Frey was a Brume runt and Sid was a lizard that survived ethnic clenching from Ishgardians thinking au ra refugees were dravanians. TL;DR -- Silly to tie weilding darkness or being a vigilante to Ishgard!

I stopped doing Wikis years ago because metagamers. I keep all my information in private documents.

Friendly reminder, our main page is over in the FC section since it's cleaner. http://ffxiv-roleplayers.com/showthread.php?tid=17448

We are still a thing. Just not flashing about. w/e. Here's a (you), me.

It would be silly to believe Ishgard is the only place dark knights happen. Sure, yeah. Calling them dark KNIGHTS is a thing in Ishgard because they cast away laws and order and whatnot. But to believe in the entirety of the history of the world that in other lands or individuals didn't drink deep the darkness to protect others. They just weren't called dark knights. Anyways! If you call JJ a knight, he will say he was never no knight. Dark Knight is just a common realm term because of the history Ishgard has with such.. that's what I'm going with anyways... ANYWHO, HERE'S YOUR QUESTIONS! 1. In what sort of ways does a dark knight become one? Is communing a method to advance their learning of their art? One becomes a dark knight by 'scratching that itch' of a whisper in their heart, the soul gem amplified one's inherent abilities as is lore for soul gems. I equate Communion as something similar to the way the Greybeards taught the Dragonborn shouts, through sharing one's knowledge/aetheric imprint of an ability as a means to "light a torch along one's Dark Path"... kind of lets one's mentor or whatever give the student a flavor ability or whatever. 2. Is Darkside one common impulse of violence, or does it manifest in differently in different people like a Jungian shadow? Would Kallera's Darkside be different than another Dark Knight's? The Darkside is merely your internal self-preservation speaking up. It can and should manifest in people differently. The way my group goes about it is that the person's strongest emotion, positive or negative, is the root of the Darkside. Say deep down you are really an angry person, anger always having been the emotion you used to hide how hurt you were. That is amplified by the Darkside and would be a pretty good standard emotion of your Darkside when in your headspace. Say your deepest emotion was sadness, the visual representation of your Darkside could be the standard red-glowey-eyed form PLUS a trail of red from both eyes like tears. 3. iirc, "Frey" was seen as a rare occurance by Sidurgu, how is control over the Darkside usually attained? Is it again a matter of psychology between the user and their impulses? I like to think of it as remembering why you became a dark knight as being what helps you gain control (or lose it). Those that travel the path for others safety have that matter of grit to remember to not drink deep the abyss. Those that did it for pure power and selfish reasons might find themselves slipping deeper and deeper out of control.. 4. I take it a habit of using Darkside for the effects would be a nono, right? With great power also comes great crux. Having no adverse effects to some power, whether it be having to take time to recharge that photon laser beam or having to eat cookies to recharge magic juice for spellcasting, a good RPer will have some sort of built-in system for this... someone that uses the Darkside constantly is probably getting drunk off power so they'll lose control and whatnot. All that being said, everyone does things differently. These are just a short summary of how -I- go about the Dark Knighting.