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ElezenEleven · **01-19-2018, 02:05 PM**

So Iâ€™ve made an Elezen and I have a rough idea of what her backstory is but I donâ€™t know if Iâ€™m stepping on anything that isnâ€™t allowed when it comes to roleplay in this gameâ€” could I get help if possible?

***Nero*** · **01-19-2018, 11:02 PM**

Could you start by posting a rough outline of what you have in mind?

ElezenEleven · **01-20-2018, 12:55 AM**

Of course.

Nimie Lacroix was born in the cold air of the cut Ishgard, fathered by a simple knight and a small maid of a house. Five summers passed since she and her mother had left the city-state, her father abandoned the two after her conception after all.

It wasnâ€™t long before they were discovered by a traveling caravan on its way to Gridania which for the rest of her time she has spent has a meek Conjurer.

Thatâ€™s kind of what I have a vague idea of? But Iâ€™m still trying to imagine a way she transfers from a conjurer to a Dark Knight.

Yssen · **01-20-2018, 02:08 AM**

A couple of hopefully helpful things.

1. Which flavor of Elezen?

Just Ishgardian is fine, Ishgardian Elezen don't seem to care about the split too much. Gridania on the other hand is pretty intolerant to outsiders and pretty prejudiced toward Duskies. There is an angle there to be worked that could aid in the transition if your character has some traits that are outside the normal outsider in Grid. Bad things as a result of this can chain you into...

2. What made your character snap?

A common thread for the DRKs we can observe is that some event/injustice/tragedy. Usually the event is accepted as "OK" from the viewpoint of the society they are living in (fortunately Gridania is a terrible terrible place). This caused them to break a bit mentally and emotionally. The result of the break being the point at which they started accessing their Darkside. While it does not necessarily need to be as dramatic of a break and result as the one DRK quest line (omitting specifics because SPOILERS), something gets them to the point that they decide to correct society's wrongs (with darkness and a great sword!). This can lead you tooooo...

3. What emotion drives your character's Darkside?

DRK and Darkside stuff flows from emotion, and not just the "dark" ones. There is an emotional core that fuels DRKs and their stuff. Fury, sorrow, and pain are some obvious choices, but so are joy and love. Anything emotion is valid, the field is wide open. The response and handling of that emotion is what really counts. It is even possible to have this "core emotion" be an unknown aspect to the character (or even one they are unwilling to admit to themselves). It does not necessarily need to be the direct, raw, and visceral emotional response to the event in #2. Depending on the story you wish to tell that initial response to event-o-breaking fun can even be something that is holding them back as they develop and grow.

I hope this has been useful. Feel free to poke me if you have other questions or need some stuff clarified. Big Grin

ElezenEleven · **01-20-2018, 03:27 AM**

Ah, okay! Thank you for the help.

Valence · **01-20-2018, 07:26 AM**

Keep in mind that if your character is born in Ishgard, it's likely they have ishgardian ancestry I suppose? Which means you'll have to deal with the ishgardian elezen bloodline (unavailable ingame but the models are identical to wildwoods and duskwights anyway). This bloodline is very distinct from duskwights and wildwoods (born from gelmorran elezens), who are more or less like their cousins.

ElezenEleven · **01-20-2018, 12:25 PM**

Oh- I didnâ€™t even know if the difference. I thought they were just WildWood really.

Valence · **01-20-2018, 02:46 PM**

Ishgard got founded before the foundation of Gelmorra, so you have the top elezen ancestry of the 5th Astral Era branching into two offshoots: Ishgardian elezens, following the first circle of Thordan (the first), that all partook in the blood of Ratatoskr and are now all "contaminated" by dragon blood, albeit diluted over the generations, and Gelmorran elezens that later went to live in the underground of the Shroud.

When the Pact of Gelmorra was made with the Elementals, the gelmorran elezens branched into two bloodlines: Wildwoods and Duskwights, the ones that stayed behind.

Kairu · **01-20-2018, 04:45 PM**

(01-20-2018, 02:46 PM)Valence Wrote: When the Pact of Gelmorra was made with the Elementals, the gelmorran elezens branched into two bloodlines: Wildwoods and Duskwights, the ones that stayed behind.

That was only a few centuries ago, right? I'm surprised there's so much physical divergence in those branches and so little in the Ishgardian ones - Ishgard was founded over a thousand years ago, wasn't it?

Valence · **01-20-2018, 05:45 PM**

Ishgard is roughly a thousand years old yes.Â

Gelmorra was founded in year 740 of the 6h Astral Era in the Black Shroud, the forest that invaded the old plains of Amdapor, and that served as a thick reclusive fortress for the Elementals after the Great Flood of the 6th Calamity.

Gridania was founded in 1020, so a bit less than 3 centuries after Gelmorra.Â

The Autumn War takes place in the 1470s, we're now past 1500 (and into the 7th Era now anyway), so that makes Gelmorra roughly 800 year old, and Gridania half a millienium.Â

All in all that would put the founding of Ishgard by the king of the Elezens around 500 if I'm not mistaken with all the dates here. That king, Thordan I, decided to leave the confines of the Shroud with a caravan of their people, all under attack around the old lands of Amdapor by the huge Hyur migratory wave settling in.Â

While the majority of the elezens that stayed behind in the Shroud were still skirmishing against their Hyur invaders on one side and the Elementals on the other, Thordan did what the HW storyline tells us, then founds Ishgard slightly north in the Alabatian Spine. A bit more then 2 centuries later, Gelmorra is founded when the Hyur and Elezens in the Shroud make peace to escape the Elementals and their Ixali servants.Â

The fact that they only stayed for less than 300 years underground is certainly enough to alter their vision, hearing, and complexion yes. But you have to take into account that more than 500 years happened when the Wildwood got out while the Duskwights stayed inside. It's possible that the Duskwights we know today are even more changed and adapted to their Gelmorran undergrounds than the old Gelmorrans before the split. Those 500 years were also widely enough for the Elezens and Hyurs having left Gelmorra to get back to a more normal physiology, skin complexion, eyes, etc.Â

Now then for Ishgardians, honestly, I think for one there is the game and development limitations that just made the devs use wildwood and duskwight models for their ishgardians. And then if you take a look between duskwights and wildwoods, what's the difference? A few facial traits to differentiate them but nothing more than what could set apart two different individuals of the same race. So the difference is mostly, skin complexion, night vision and hearing. Things that can adapt in the human body very fast in individuals, and on a more macro scale, on mere generations.

That's my take on it anyway.

Yssen · **01-20-2018, 05:57 PM**

(01-20-2018, 04:45 PM)Kairu Wrote:
(01-20-2018, 02:46 PM)Valence Wrote: When the Pact of Gelmorra was made with the Elementals, the gelmorran elezens branched into two bloodlines: Wildwoods and Duskwights, the ones that stayed behind.

That was only a few centuries ago, right? I'm surprised there's so much physical divergence in those branches and so little in the Ishgardian ones - Ishgard was founded over a thousand years ago, wasn't it?

Gelmorra and Ishgard are relatively concurrent. Both were established about 500 or so years after the Sixth Umbral era. Dravania (the kingdom where dragons and elezen lived together) is far older, but we are not sure by how much. Elezen settle Coerthas in 350, and Ishgard is expressly founded in 545. We have no hard dates as far as the founding of Gelmorra, but 761 marks the time the Elezen of Gelmorra banded together with the Hyur for mutual protection in the face of the Elementals wrath (instead of the two races fighting). 1077 of the 6th astral era marks the founding of Gridania and the pact the Hyur and Elezen made with the Elementals. Gelmorra itself falls some where between the 1100s and 1300s (most in game sources put Gelmorra's fall at being 500+ years ago) when the Elementals order Gridania to attack it. The first part of the split between Wildwood and Duskwight is made when Elezen refuse to accept the pact with the Elementals, and it is sealed when their Wildwood cousins come at the Elementals orders to drive them out and scatter them.Â

Ishgardians are effectively Wildwoods by the character creator, though some bloodlines do have Duskwight traits since Ishgard was on of the main places they fled to after Gelmorra's fall. It is super weird that there was a divergence of Elezen physiologically after only 500 years or so, but you can give that some flex time by a few centuries or more since Duskie trait (dark skin tone, longer ears, better hearing) might have started cropping up while Gelmorra was still a thing. It should be noted that Duskies get a them only face tattoo in the character creator, this most likely represents one of the wards against the Elementals they are said to have created, all though I don't think that has been explicitly stated anywhere. Whee.

Elezen Dark Knight

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