I've been meaning to input my own thoughts here. Â It's been interesting reading about some others' creative processes and how certain things elements sort of materialized.
Like a few others did in the time leading up to the release of 1.0, I decided to create my new character as the adult child of my character from FF11. Â A lot of the lore needed to be transitioned in such a way as to make sense. Â Details about many things were limited and we were left to our own devices for much of it. Â Much has since been illuminated for us and minor alterations here and there have been made to keep things plausible.
Dyterium was an extremely skilled San d'Orian dragoon whose wife left him for another man after they had a baby girl together. Â I felt San d'Orian lore transitioned most smoothly to Ishgard - though we still know precious little about Ishgardian culture. Â I've taken a few (and only a few) liberties with regard to this, keeping most of the details veiled. Â Both moved out to Coerthas and lived a pastoral lifestyle shortly after Eva's mother left the scene. Â Eva has no memory of her mother nor Ishgard - which makes things simpler regarding the fog that is Ishgard lore.
I should also point out that I take a very psychological and sociological approach to the structure and creation of this character and had input from a number of sources (including my own RL father - a licensed counselor) about what her development would have been like, how she would have grown up, etc. Â It's also hard to talk about what went into Eva's character without delving a bit into the events of her past and looking at the various chains of cause and effect.
Eva's name also isn't actually Eva. Â It's Kes. Â For those familiar with the Star Trek franchise, this is derived directly from the Voyager series. Â The character's personality in many ways is also similar, though this worked out to be more of a happy coincidence than being rooted in her namesake. Â While we're on the subject, 'Ianeira' derives from greek mythology - a water nymph. Â Water in all forms has been an important element throughout Eva's story - swimming, rain, etc.
We were left figuring out what it would be like to grow up, the child of a single father who was a fallen knight and a broken man. Â His story from the point was about his inability to cope with his loss - his wife, his status, and eventually even his sanity. Â Her story bears tragic elements as well, though arguably nowhere near as severe. Â Her story also deals a lot with learning to let go, and living after loss.
I deleted a few paragraphs that were basically just talking about character history.  Suffice it to say, there was an accident that happened at the age of  7 that caused a lot of stress and prompted a move to Gridania, she gained a significant amount of weight, which led to her having issues with her self-image even to present day.  She also met a boy, fell in love, had 7 wonderful years with him before he died tragically, and it can be said that in some ways she is still grieving that loss, even having sort of moved on from it.  There is also the element of her duskwight culture, which has been handed down.  Again, without a lot of detail from lore we're left to draw our own conclusions here.
She was also never really intended to look exactly as busty as she does, either. Â At the start of 1.0 she was still working through her weight loss and was supposed to be regarded as much better, but still rather 'fluffy'. Â After running through the original character creator it seemed that certain face types were tied to certain bust sizes and another member of this community remarked about Eva's from our initial "show your character" screenshots, so that wound up getting factored in which sort of worked out nicely for her as a matronly or motherly character, though has made for some awkward moments in RP - which in and of itself is kind of awesome too. Â Throughout the course of the 2+ years of her story, she has become much more disciplined and trained hard and much more of the weight has been shed, but we have left her on the chesty side and RP this from a more realistic angle rather than sexualizing her the way I imagine most would. Â She experiences back pain, and has problems fitting into certain clothing and armor, for instance.
Most of what has happened from the game's launch has been less a factor of what we inject into the character and more a factor of how she reacts to those around her. Â From early on we sort of figured if she was somewhat susceptible to peer pressure, in part as a result of her self-image and wanting to be accepted. Â We decided if she was befriended by bandits or mercenaries, she would go that way, and such. Â There was no "alignment" metric figured out at the onset, or an argument can be made that she was initially True Neutral.
But she's not a natural leader (which will make for some awkwardness in ARR when she eventually gets prodded into the role), but she does well as an advisor and counselor. Â She's also very motherly and nurturing. Â There was an accident some years back that left her [supposedly] barren, and being a mother was always something that was important to her since she never had a proper mother of her own. Â More recently the 'barren' diagnosis turned out to be false, and this wound up being the result of a really fluky dice roll, but we went with it, and this will be a critical and unexpected turning point in her story as well as her pregnancy (with twins, another fluke, praise Nophica!) progresses into ARR.
So this got rather longwinded (though the ones above all are as well so I don't feel so bad), however I think there might be room for a...
...TL;DR: Â Inspirations came from FFXI character as a parent, lore transitioned from XI to XIV stuff, names came from Star Trek, Greek Mythology, character personality evolved as would be expected from the daughter of a fallen knight in a broken family, and cause and effect surrounding two or three major life events dictated pretty much everything else. Â Almost everything else from 1.0 release and on has been governed by her interactions with other RPers. Â And her ginormous boobs were unintentional and kind of a fluke, but a happy one.
...TL;DR for the TL;DR: Â FFXI>FFXIV transitions + RP happenings = Eva
Like a few others did in the time leading up to the release of 1.0, I decided to create my new character as the adult child of my character from FF11. Â A lot of the lore needed to be transitioned in such a way as to make sense. Â Details about many things were limited and we were left to our own devices for much of it. Â Much has since been illuminated for us and minor alterations here and there have been made to keep things plausible.
Dyterium was an extremely skilled San d'Orian dragoon whose wife left him for another man after they had a baby girl together. Â I felt San d'Orian lore transitioned most smoothly to Ishgard - though we still know precious little about Ishgardian culture. Â I've taken a few (and only a few) liberties with regard to this, keeping most of the details veiled. Â Both moved out to Coerthas and lived a pastoral lifestyle shortly after Eva's mother left the scene. Â Eva has no memory of her mother nor Ishgard - which makes things simpler regarding the fog that is Ishgard lore.
I should also point out that I take a very psychological and sociological approach to the structure and creation of this character and had input from a number of sources (including my own RL father - a licensed counselor) about what her development would have been like, how she would have grown up, etc. Â It's also hard to talk about what went into Eva's character without delving a bit into the events of her past and looking at the various chains of cause and effect.
Eva's name also isn't actually Eva. Â It's Kes. Â For those familiar with the Star Trek franchise, this is derived directly from the Voyager series. Â The character's personality in many ways is also similar, though this worked out to be more of a happy coincidence than being rooted in her namesake. Â While we're on the subject, 'Ianeira' derives from greek mythology - a water nymph. Â Water in all forms has been an important element throughout Eva's story - swimming, rain, etc.
We were left figuring out what it would be like to grow up, the child of a single father who was a fallen knight and a broken man. Â His story from the point was about his inability to cope with his loss - his wife, his status, and eventually even his sanity. Â Her story bears tragic elements as well, though arguably nowhere near as severe. Â Her story also deals a lot with learning to let go, and living after loss.
I deleted a few paragraphs that were basically just talking about character history.  Suffice it to say, there was an accident that happened at the age of  7 that caused a lot of stress and prompted a move to Gridania, she gained a significant amount of weight, which led to her having issues with her self-image even to present day.  She also met a boy, fell in love, had 7 wonderful years with him before he died tragically, and it can be said that in some ways she is still grieving that loss, even having sort of moved on from it.  There is also the element of her duskwight culture, which has been handed down.  Again, without a lot of detail from lore we're left to draw our own conclusions here.
She was also never really intended to look exactly as busty as she does, either. Â At the start of 1.0 she was still working through her weight loss and was supposed to be regarded as much better, but still rather 'fluffy'. Â After running through the original character creator it seemed that certain face types were tied to certain bust sizes and another member of this community remarked about Eva's from our initial "show your character" screenshots, so that wound up getting factored in which sort of worked out nicely for her as a matronly or motherly character, though has made for some awkward moments in RP - which in and of itself is kind of awesome too. Â Throughout the course of the 2+ years of her story, she has become much more disciplined and trained hard and much more of the weight has been shed, but we have left her on the chesty side and RP this from a more realistic angle rather than sexualizing her the way I imagine most would. Â She experiences back pain, and has problems fitting into certain clothing and armor, for instance.
Most of what has happened from the game's launch has been less a factor of what we inject into the character and more a factor of how she reacts to those around her. Â From early on we sort of figured if she was somewhat susceptible to peer pressure, in part as a result of her self-image and wanting to be accepted. Â We decided if she was befriended by bandits or mercenaries, she would go that way, and such. Â There was no "alignment" metric figured out at the onset, or an argument can be made that she was initially True Neutral.
But she's not a natural leader (which will make for some awkwardness in ARR when she eventually gets prodded into the role), but she does well as an advisor and counselor. Â She's also very motherly and nurturing. Â There was an accident some years back that left her [supposedly] barren, and being a mother was always something that was important to her since she never had a proper mother of her own. Â More recently the 'barren' diagnosis turned out to be false, and this wound up being the result of a really fluky dice roll, but we went with it, and this will be a critical and unexpected turning point in her story as well as her pregnancy (with twins, another fluke, praise Nophica!) progresses into ARR.
So this got rather longwinded (though the ones above all are as well so I don't feel so bad), however I think there might be room for a...
...TL;DR: Â Inspirations came from FFXI character as a parent, lore transitioned from XI to XIV stuff, names came from Star Trek, Greek Mythology, character personality evolved as would be expected from the daughter of a fallen knight in a broken family, and cause and effect surrounding two or three major life events dictated pretty much everything else. Â Almost everything else from 1.0 release and on has been governed by her interactions with other RPers. Â And her ginormous boobs were unintentional and kind of a fluke, but a happy one.
...TL;DR for the TL;DR: Â FFXI>FFXIV transitions + RP happenings = Eva
"One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth doing is what we do for others." Â ~ Lewis Carol
Eva's Journals  |  Eva's Wiki Page (coming soon)  |  RP Handbook
Eva's Journals  |  Eva's Wiki Page (coming soon)  |  RP Handbook
