You can't stop my brain.
Anywho. It's a simpleish quickie one that I'd been wondering before, but noone really gave me a set answer on.
Accents? I know a lot of characters in the game as it is have a sort of "Pirate" thing going on. I admit I don't know what 'culture/country' if any that would apply to in the real world.
But what about other accents? Like do you think it's okay and within reason for some characters to have, say, a cockney accent? Scottish? Irish? etc.
It's not really something that I think comes up with any great frequency, but accent is one of those things you might include on your wiki along with physical characteristics that may differ from your character model and such. I'd also think that if your accent was thicker, you'd be changing around the structure of your words appropriately. I've known some RPers that do this, and quite well!
It's difficult to describe something like that when it's more subtle though, particularly as a constant, with any sort of regularity. And for most RPers I don't think it matters a great deal what sort of accent they may have, so long as their words are able to be interpreted.
Like Eva has always meant to have kind of an airy voice with a slight Irish accent. Her father's accent was much thicker and this was more easily portrayed in his speech. But I guess I don't expect most other RPers to really have much of a regard for a character's accent beyond a passing reference given via wiki (which many people won't read) and such.
I don't know that this helps answer your question really. I do think it's totally fine to have an accent though - many of the NPC's clearly do - but portraying that may prove difficult, depending on how thick the accent.
Well, I've been really wanting to give my Songstresschickthing a [somewhat heavier] Scottish accent. But my main concern was if that was lore breaking or not? As in...the fact that it's "Scottish" and there are no exactly "Scottish areas" in the game/lore.
Well I don't think accents will matter to most RPers. When people cry "lorebreak" it's normally in reference to an aspect of a story, the entire story, and/or a character's skills, feats, and/or flaws.
Basically, if giving your character an accent won't make it overpowered, it's fine.
I see nothing wrong with this, nor any reason to define exactly where the accent came from in particulars. Â It could just be that her parents happened to speak that way, and she picked it up from them.
It may deviate a little bit from the lore, but I don't think it's unreasonable by any stretch of the imagination.
(04-03-2013, 01:16 PM)Eiri Wrote: [ -> ]Well, I've been really wanting to give my Songstresschickthing a [somewhat heavier] Scottish accent. But my main concern was if that was lore breaking or not? As in...the fact that it's "Scottish" and there are no exactly "Scottish areas" in the game/lore.
We've all got ideas in our heads about how our characters sound, and they don't always have logical reasons. My partner in crime's character, Malcolm Foxe, has an English accent. Rhio sounds Arabic. They were both born and raised in Ul'dah. It doesn't make a tremendous amount of sense if you stop to think about it, but it's part of how we flavor our characters.
If your character sounds Scottish, she sounds Scottish. I wouldn't sweat the details too much.
This is mostly a flavor thing. I say run with it. Accents and dialects tend to stem from cultural differences, or the refinement/meshing as two languages merge together (for example Occitan. Though there is debate as to whether this is a dialect or a separate language). This is particularly true when several geographical areas all share a common language. A scottish style accent would hardly be out of the norm.
From a game perspective, there are plenty of NPCs that speak in varied dialects or forms of speech. These NPCs are even located in the same area or even city-state. The naming conventions on the Lodestone Lore forums even point to there being racial languages (or at least there having been racial specific languages at one time). This would also have an effect on a character's speech patterns. Heck, when I RP Yssen he often uses different accents and even slang from various real world sources. I have even had him quote latin sayings such as "Sic Semper Tyrannis" and "In Vino Veritas" from time to time. Does Latin exist in game? Probably not, but it would be silly to say that there is no form of scholarly dead language used almost exclusively scholars, priests, and other learned folk. Such a thing has always existed in our own culture, and using the real world Latin is a bit of a place holder for that. At least, that is how I view it.
Other bits of food for thought, never underestimate the power of speaking differently than normal as a tool to conceal one's identity. Borrowing and mixing various bits of dialect and such also makes it more difficult for other to tell where a character is from. In short, I highly doubt anyone is going to scream "lore break" on you for adding a bit of flavorful flair to your character's speech. Me, I say more power to you, keep it up.
Thank you all! Especially for putting up with so many random questions from me. I figure I just always wanted to check. Better safe than sorry!