My main character is actually a world-traveler, and a very old one at that. Â Despite her age, she's still a novice in many things (physical combat, especially), and a jack-of-all-trades, so she never really focuses on any one thing, except perhaps magic, which she's usually skilled at. Â
Glioca is a character that I've had for about thirteen, almost fourteen years now, and actually started as a one paragraph NPC in an old game called Dark Ages (NOT DAoC, which is an entirely different game), and when I left the game, I took the concept and name with me, wrote an AU history as to why she left her world, and have been adventuring with her all over the multiverse, from Sci-Fi to High Fantasy. Â
While she's technically classed as a Power in D&D (where her main profile exists), she exists in a number of places, though she doesn't always have all of her memories, and most often is born or reborn as someone entirely new on a world, though there is still a retention of a few key character traits, even with a new name, and the main personality and ability of the core character lies dormant. Â I've played her in a number of MMO's, and generally work to fit her into the lore as it exists, rather than just slapping a name on her and saying 'hey, I world-traveled her over here, so everything about her is totally identical!', because that just isn't the case. Â She's been a number of things over the years across the genres I've played her in, and her only true constant is that she's a healer, and will warp whatever technology and magic she can come across to stretch the boundaries of what is currently plausible on a world, because she generally comes to care about its people and usually wants to help them.
Further expanding on that, each world is considered, because she's a power, to have a set of rules that have to be followed strictly in order for her to exist on that world: never using too much power at the risk of destroying her own body and banishing her from that world, never giving someone too much knowledge about other worlds lest they think her crazy, and rarely if ever bringing an individual with her from a past world that she has visited, because not everyone is capable of withstanding the method she uses to traverse dimensions and the planes. Â
On Eorzea, Glioca is primarily a scholar (the scholastic type, not just the class), and healer, who sometimes picks up weapons to learn more.  She has a vast well of knowledge she draws from, which sometimes gives her an advantage in terms of her abilities and skills, but for the most part, she always tries to blend in on whatever world she's on: one part for not making herself seem insane, though it sometimes slips through in conversations and she's viewed as eccentric, which she often played up, and another part so that interactions with her are maintained as something fun and she doesn't really lord over everyone else, unless that's her actual goal, usually only when made angry, or insulted.  She tends to call everyone 'young', and refers to them as 'childlike', even grown adults, which for her part is age, but most tend to see it as one more sign of her eccentricities.  Not ironically, one of the few people she told about her method of travel called her insane, despite acknowledging her skill, and chalked it up to her being a crazy mage.  Which made for some great RP interaction. Â
The biggest thing that people find implausible about her is usually her body-hopping, that being that she generally finds a body that is recently deceased, houses her soul inside it, and maintains a presence there. Â On Eorzea, this is explained as a form of the Echo, which likens her to an Ascian, though she actually isn't, and will only possess generally unimportant deceased, typically a last-of-their-line type of thing, usually from large battles or during times of war. Â She spends her time on whatever world she's on attempting to learn as much as she can from it, and experiencing the life there. Â Her actual reason more recently is finding a place among the vast realms that she and her family can call home. Â
All of that being said, I have other characters that fit inside the lore, most of my other characters, in fact, were created in-lore and meant to be entirely lore-friendly. Â One or two of my characters work for Glioca doing various tasks, and at least one of them thinks she's a crazy old lady, while the other just avoids her as much as possible, and still another kind of see's her as a mother figure because she took in him and his sister. Â
Regarding the points Hiro brought up, I've never actually understood the dislike that some people seem to have from world-traveling characters, though I have seen the character concept done, if not wrong, poorly. Â If a character brings in too much information from other sources and doesn't find a way to moderate how it is used it, it can create problems during character interactions with them, but again, gives the opportunity for disbelief, or for a character hedging out into the idea that travel is possible from realm to realm. Â Fitting Glioca into a world thanks to the lore is one of the most fun parts of bringing her to anywhere she ends up. Â There are others that world-travel that I've encountered, and it's great fun running into those characters as both Glioca, and my other characters who express various levels of disbelief about their story. Â
I find nothing distasteful about a world-traveling character, quite the contrary. Â I find it interesting, especially when an individual provides their reasoning for that character being on a particular world. Â
That said, if others don't want to interact with her because of her history and backstory, that's fine too, and I don't fault them for that. Â Everyone has a certain playstyle they avoid, and that's their own choice. Â All I ever ask is that people don't dismiss all of my characters just because of one particular character with a specific backstory. Â That actually seems to be a larger problem in some communities than others, and I'm thankful I haven't run into that here in the Final Fantasy community.
2016 Edit: Oh, how very wrong I was about this. I only hoped it was true. The reality, sadly, was far different.
Glioca is a character that I've had for about thirteen, almost fourteen years now, and actually started as a one paragraph NPC in an old game called Dark Ages (NOT DAoC, which is an entirely different game), and when I left the game, I took the concept and name with me, wrote an AU history as to why she left her world, and have been adventuring with her all over the multiverse, from Sci-Fi to High Fantasy. Â
While she's technically classed as a Power in D&D (where her main profile exists), she exists in a number of places, though she doesn't always have all of her memories, and most often is born or reborn as someone entirely new on a world, though there is still a retention of a few key character traits, even with a new name, and the main personality and ability of the core character lies dormant. Â I've played her in a number of MMO's, and generally work to fit her into the lore as it exists, rather than just slapping a name on her and saying 'hey, I world-traveled her over here, so everything about her is totally identical!', because that just isn't the case. Â She's been a number of things over the years across the genres I've played her in, and her only true constant is that she's a healer, and will warp whatever technology and magic she can come across to stretch the boundaries of what is currently plausible on a world, because she generally comes to care about its people and usually wants to help them.
Further expanding on that, each world is considered, because she's a power, to have a set of rules that have to be followed strictly in order for her to exist on that world: never using too much power at the risk of destroying her own body and banishing her from that world, never giving someone too much knowledge about other worlds lest they think her crazy, and rarely if ever bringing an individual with her from a past world that she has visited, because not everyone is capable of withstanding the method she uses to traverse dimensions and the planes. Â
On Eorzea, Glioca is primarily a scholar (the scholastic type, not just the class), and healer, who sometimes picks up weapons to learn more.  She has a vast well of knowledge she draws from, which sometimes gives her an advantage in terms of her abilities and skills, but for the most part, she always tries to blend in on whatever world she's on: one part for not making herself seem insane, though it sometimes slips through in conversations and she's viewed as eccentric, which she often played up, and another part so that interactions with her are maintained as something fun and she doesn't really lord over everyone else, unless that's her actual goal, usually only when made angry, or insulted.  She tends to call everyone 'young', and refers to them as 'childlike', even grown adults, which for her part is age, but most tend to see it as one more sign of her eccentricities.  Not ironically, one of the few people she told about her method of travel called her insane, despite acknowledging her skill, and chalked it up to her being a crazy mage.  Which made for some great RP interaction. Â
The biggest thing that people find implausible about her is usually her body-hopping, that being that she generally finds a body that is recently deceased, houses her soul inside it, and maintains a presence there. Â On Eorzea, this is explained as a form of the Echo, which likens her to an Ascian, though she actually isn't, and will only possess generally unimportant deceased, typically a last-of-their-line type of thing, usually from large battles or during times of war. Â She spends her time on whatever world she's on attempting to learn as much as she can from it, and experiencing the life there. Â Her actual reason more recently is finding a place among the vast realms that she and her family can call home. Â
All of that being said, I have other characters that fit inside the lore, most of my other characters, in fact, were created in-lore and meant to be entirely lore-friendly. Â One or two of my characters work for Glioca doing various tasks, and at least one of them thinks she's a crazy old lady, while the other just avoids her as much as possible, and still another kind of see's her as a mother figure because she took in him and his sister. Â
Regarding the points Hiro brought up, I've never actually understood the dislike that some people seem to have from world-traveling characters, though I have seen the character concept done, if not wrong, poorly. Â If a character brings in too much information from other sources and doesn't find a way to moderate how it is used it, it can create problems during character interactions with them, but again, gives the opportunity for disbelief, or for a character hedging out into the idea that travel is possible from realm to realm. Â Fitting Glioca into a world thanks to the lore is one of the most fun parts of bringing her to anywhere she ends up. Â There are others that world-travel that I've encountered, and it's great fun running into those characters as both Glioca, and my other characters who express various levels of disbelief about their story. Â
I find nothing distasteful about a world-traveling character, quite the contrary. Â I find it interesting, especially when an individual provides their reasoning for that character being on a particular world. Â
That said, if others don't want to interact with her because of her history and backstory, that's fine too, and I don't fault them for that. Â Everyone has a certain playstyle they avoid, and that's their own choice. Â All I ever ask is that people don't dismiss all of my characters just because of one particular character with a specific backstory. Â That actually seems to be a larger problem in some communities than others, and I'm thankful I haven't run into that here in the Final Fantasy community.
2016 Edit: Oh, how very wrong I was about this. I only hoped it was true. The reality, sadly, was far different.
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