First of all let me start by wishing you welcome to FFXIV, Balmung, and RPC from a fellow TSW player.
This is indeed a very good place to start as a roleplayer in FFXIV, although there are many roleplaying groups that don't make an appearance on this forum. And Balmung is, as I presume you have already figured out, THE server for RP.
A few thoughts on your character concepts:
For a male miqo'te roaming the world is practically the norm. This is especially true for Keepers of the Moon, but I think it is quite common for non-Nunh males of Seeker of the Sun tribes as well.
So doing it wouldn't be much of a rebellion
The trouble with playing a quiet character who don't speak much and mostly observes is that it will be hard to get much RP or make IC contacts. Not impossible, but certainly much harder than it would be for an outgoing character who is ready to speak with any stranger.
Not much Au Ra lore is known currently, but I suspect we will learn a lot more once the upcoming Stormblood expansion is released - since part of it will take place in their homelands.
The one you should play as your main though is: The one you want to play.
Unhelpful I know, but really - only you know for certain what you like or don't like.
Much like in TSW each character can (potentially) learn and do everything so from a gaming point of view one character is quite sufficient. From an RP perspective more than one can always be nice, although it is hard properly developing more than one or two characters at a time.
I do recommend creating one character in each of the three starting cities and going through the early quests in each of them though - there are some quests and information you will only ever see if you start in that city. That can be done in a couple of days though.
If you want dark have no worries, things can get very dark and gritty in Eorzea as well.
FFXIV does not highlight or spell it out to the same degree as TSW does but if you pay attention it is very much there. I do not know how far you have got in the game yet so I will not give examples for fear of spoilering things, but trust me when I say that if you want dark you can get it.
The good thing about a large RP community like the one on Balmung is there is probably a group specializing in whatever type of RP you may be looking for. Only trouble is finding the right one....
Many can of course be found by looking through the Free Companies and LInkshells sections on this site, but others also exist.
This is indeed a very good place to start as a roleplayer in FFXIV, although there are many roleplaying groups that don't make an appearance on this forum. And Balmung is, as I presume you have already figured out, THE server for RP.
A few thoughts on your character concepts:
For a male miqo'te roaming the world is practically the norm. This is especially true for Keepers of the Moon, but I think it is quite common for non-Nunh males of Seeker of the Sun tribes as well.
So doing it wouldn't be much of a rebellion
The trouble with playing a quiet character who don't speak much and mostly observes is that it will be hard to get much RP or make IC contacts. Not impossible, but certainly much harder than it would be for an outgoing character who is ready to speak with any stranger.
Not much Au Ra lore is known currently, but I suspect we will learn a lot more once the upcoming Stormblood expansion is released - since part of it will take place in their homelands.
The one you should play as your main though is: The one you want to play.
Unhelpful I know, but really - only you know for certain what you like or don't like.
Much like in TSW each character can (potentially) learn and do everything so from a gaming point of view one character is quite sufficient. From an RP perspective more than one can always be nice, although it is hard properly developing more than one or two characters at a time.
I do recommend creating one character in each of the three starting cities and going through the early quests in each of them though - there are some quests and information you will only ever see if you start in that city. That can be done in a couple of days though.
If you want dark have no worries, things can get very dark and gritty in Eorzea as well.
FFXIV does not highlight or spell it out to the same degree as TSW does but if you pay attention it is very much there. I do not know how far you have got in the game yet so I will not give examples for fear of spoilering things, but trust me when I say that if you want dark you can get it.
The good thing about a large RP community like the one on Balmung is there is probably a group specializing in whatever type of RP you may be looking for. Only trouble is finding the right one....
Many can of course be found by looking through the Free Companies and LInkshells sections on this site, but others also exist.
