I tend to view lore in most settings as more of a framework that then contains original concepts, rather than a set of definitive rules that must be stringently adhered to. FFXIV is no exception. For this reason, I tend to be more accepting more often of lore bending than outright lore breaking.
Most concepts I run into ICly, therefore, don't necessarily require or even elicit the "run, drink it away, and disregard it as a fever dream" reaction. Case in point, I've run into quite a few variations of the Echo, and most of them were well within the confines of what little established lore we have on that topic. That's lore bending; you're working within a framework, but you're fudging a little here and there, and shifting this support beam about half a foot over, which while not perfect is at least within a certain tolerance. Now, on the other hand, if some Black Mage stood in front of my characters and then summoned the fully-fledged Bahamut? That's lore breaking, and I have a tendency to drop the RP right then and there if circumstances prevent me from passing it off as anything less than as-presented. Self-validation of claims that take a hard divergence from the established lore such that we break out of the framework that is FFXIV? Not okay with me.
I've never yet had to ditch a storyline or plot or narrative in this way yet as far as FFXIV RP goes, but I've had to do so elsewhere, and it always sucks. Those experiences have instilled caution and selectivity that borders on elitism in me. It's not "this person's RP sucks," it's "I can't trust that RP with this person won't progress into degrees of lore bending or lore breaking that I'm not okay with, so I'm not even going to start RPing with them."
This doesn't just apply to lore, either. If we're going to be getting into themes I'm uncomfortable with, an OoC dialogue begins and continues until limits are set and agreed to, or until talks break down and I decide to bail.
Most concepts I run into ICly, therefore, don't necessarily require or even elicit the "run, drink it away, and disregard it as a fever dream" reaction. Case in point, I've run into quite a few variations of the Echo, and most of them were well within the confines of what little established lore we have on that topic. That's lore bending; you're working within a framework, but you're fudging a little here and there, and shifting this support beam about half a foot over, which while not perfect is at least within a certain tolerance. Now, on the other hand, if some Black Mage stood in front of my characters and then summoned the fully-fledged Bahamut? That's lore breaking, and I have a tendency to drop the RP right then and there if circumstances prevent me from passing it off as anything less than as-presented. Self-validation of claims that take a hard divergence from the established lore such that we break out of the framework that is FFXIV? Not okay with me.
I've never yet had to ditch a storyline or plot or narrative in this way yet as far as FFXIV RP goes, but I've had to do so elsewhere, and it always sucks. Those experiences have instilled caution and selectivity that borders on elitism in me. It's not "this person's RP sucks," it's "I can't trust that RP with this person won't progress into degrees of lore bending or lore breaking that I'm not okay with, so I'm not even going to start RPing with them."
This doesn't just apply to lore, either. If we're going to be getting into themes I'm uncomfortable with, an OoC dialogue begins and continues until limits are set and agreed to, or until talks break down and I decide to bail.
![[Image: 1qVSsTp.png]](http://i.imgur.com/1qVSsTp.png)
