I spent way too much time trying to think of a witty title for this thread, before finally settling on a Charlie Chaplin quote. 
Anyway, with Heavensward looming on the horizon and a lot of folks revealing they're suddenly Au Ra, explanations for how they've been hiding this long have been proffered. The most common one? Glamours.
Now, I know (I think anyway) that Glamours mostly exist in an OOC context - a way to dress up your character without having to give up on the stats of your gear. Looking your best as you go toe-to-toe with Garleans and Primals, whether it's in an awesome-looking suit of armor or as little as feasibly possible.
However, it also seems to exist in an IC context as well - since there are numerous instances of things in-game using it as a disguise (the Big Bad of the entire Hildebrand quest line, for example!). Which has set me to wondering about the finer details - if any exist - to how glamours work and are handled in that IC context.
For example: is it merely an illusion and, if so, to what degree? If you glamour a suit of armor to look like a sundress - will it still clank about like a suit of armor? Or is sound also part of the glamour effect? I would also assume it would be a case - say, with Roegadyn glamouring themselves to look like a Lalafell - that the original form is still there in a physical sense and could easily be discovered with any tactile contact with any part extraneous from the illusion itself (the rest of the Roe not "shown" in the Lalafell form, for example).
Yet, there's also situations of people turning into Dravanians (or having been them all along and just reverting back - which raises further questions with regards to tactile sense) and Sylphs easily posing as the Sons of Man. Are all these glamours? Or are these a greater ability more in lines of DnD-style polymorphing - allowing the user to actually reshape their body rather than merely casting an illusion over them?
And, furthermore, what level of security is in place in dealing with such a system? There's obviously ways to remove glamours - the obvious IG item to remove the glamour on your own items, the various items used in Guildleves to reveal the true form of monsters, and a series of powders that range from a simple dust (Hildebrand quest line) to an irritant of some sort (Sylph dailies). And how much are they used?
I mean, it was apparently an ordeal for Hildy and crew to get the powder needed to reveal the villain. In fact, that whole situation raises questions for me. What's to keep people from doing what the villain did? Just using glamours as a disguise to commit crimes? Is there potential for an entire Eorzean Alliance spy network that uses them to sneak into Garlean facilities as grunts or people in positions of power?
It just seems like there's a lot of questions and potential available here, and I'm curious if there's some lore about it... and what level of headcanon people are applying to this. So, please, share your thoughts and let me know! I'm honestly curious.
Anyway, with Heavensward looming on the horizon and a lot of folks revealing they're suddenly Au Ra, explanations for how they've been hiding this long have been proffered. The most common one? Glamours.
Now, I know (I think anyway) that Glamours mostly exist in an OOC context - a way to dress up your character without having to give up on the stats of your gear. Looking your best as you go toe-to-toe with Garleans and Primals, whether it's in an awesome-looking suit of armor or as little as feasibly possible.
However, it also seems to exist in an IC context as well - since there are numerous instances of things in-game using it as a disguise (the Big Bad of the entire Hildebrand quest line, for example!). Which has set me to wondering about the finer details - if any exist - to how glamours work and are handled in that IC context.
For example: is it merely an illusion and, if so, to what degree? If you glamour a suit of armor to look like a sundress - will it still clank about like a suit of armor? Or is sound also part of the glamour effect? I would also assume it would be a case - say, with Roegadyn glamouring themselves to look like a Lalafell - that the original form is still there in a physical sense and could easily be discovered with any tactile contact with any part extraneous from the illusion itself (the rest of the Roe not "shown" in the Lalafell form, for example).
Yet, there's also situations of people turning into Dravanians (or having been them all along and just reverting back - which raises further questions with regards to tactile sense) and Sylphs easily posing as the Sons of Man. Are all these glamours? Or are these a greater ability more in lines of DnD-style polymorphing - allowing the user to actually reshape their body rather than merely casting an illusion over them?
And, furthermore, what level of security is in place in dealing with such a system? There's obviously ways to remove glamours - the obvious IG item to remove the glamour on your own items, the various items used in Guildleves to reveal the true form of monsters, and a series of powders that range from a simple dust (Hildebrand quest line) to an irritant of some sort (Sylph dailies). And how much are they used?
I mean, it was apparently an ordeal for Hildy and crew to get the powder needed to reveal the villain. In fact, that whole situation raises questions for me. What's to keep people from doing what the villain did? Just using glamours as a disguise to commit crimes? Is there potential for an entire Eorzean Alliance spy network that uses them to sneak into Garlean facilities as grunts or people in positions of power?
It just seems like there's a lot of questions and potential available here, and I'm curious if there's some lore about it... and what level of headcanon people are applying to this. So, please, share your thoughts and let me know! I'm honestly curious.
~