RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes

Ashren Dotharl · **07-31-2013, 08:25 AM**

So for my LS/FC I had planned on allowing anyone who wanted to write the order into their history to have been part of the organization prior to the Calamity and to return to the group with the return of the missing members after the five year gap. I was going to do this one of two ways, if you were a time jumper you'd obviously arrive with most of everyone else who was spirited away, or you could have stayed behind as a Remnant. I've given this some thought and I'm not sure how viable the second option is anymore, not at least with the idea that my character time jumped and thus is subject to people forgetting who he was.

So this is kind of a question directed towards those free companies and linkshells that were already established in the old game, or have ties to the pre-Calamity world with members from both before and after the fall of Dalamud. How do you plan to handle the gap in memory of characters who were in the Calamity and time jumped, compared to those who did not?

If say for example the leader of a FC time jumped, but some of his old members opt to have their characters left behind, how do you explain your right to rule when you return?

For my character he was not the former leader, he was the son of the former leader so there may already be those who question his right to rule the organization now, which I kind of want to get into ICly through roleplay and what not, growing pains before the new order is solidified (I had intended to actually write up a story for this), however if no one remembers he even existed, let alone was a member or the son of the former leader, I figure that would give him zero claim to leadership.

This thread is not whether you will or will not time jump, or ignore the existence of the amnesia. It assumes that the amnesia is taking affect for the sake of discussing this potential problem.

Ellie · **07-31-2013, 12:13 PM**

The fuzzy memory syndrome isn't a complete wipe of all memories. From the perspective of those who stayed behind, you remember everything you did with them and everything they've done for you. The only thing that's been erased is their identity. You remember that you spent your life with...someone. You just can't remember their name and you can't remember their face or what they looked like.

In your situation, the FC members would remember that their former leader had a son, and would also know that he was a Warrior of Light because his identity has been wiped from their memories.

I hope that clears things up a little.

Ashren Dotharl · **07-31-2013, 12:30 PM**

It does a little bit, but I still feel like the whole amnesia thing creates a lot of complications and loop holes and what not. Definitely why I feel I'll need to give a lot of thought to a story explaining the events that take place immediately after my characters return and his rise to power in his organization.

Eva · **07-31-2013, 12:38 PM**

This has been kind of a complicated point for our LS/FC as well. Â I can just rattle off a bit about what we're doing and maybe it might help you figure out some ideas for your own group, or if you have any questions or I can explain anything any further I'd be glad to clarify.

The history is a bit lengthy and admittedly a little bit off-topic but it still might help, so I'm going to drop it under a spoiler tag:

Show Content

SpoilerCrystalline as a linkshell was originally something that Eva's father had had created a few decades ago when he was living in Ishgard and maintained ownership of throughout the years. Â This is something that he and a few [now more elderly] characters had used back in their "glory days" to keep in communication with each other. Â It was never any sort of formalized company or anything more than a group of friends who leaned upon one another during some tough times of their own that the previous generation faced.

Throughout the course of 1.0 pearls were somewhat randomly dispensed by Eva to those she considered to be friends. Â She had been a part of a number of communities, some of which were a bad fit for her but she wanted to keep in contact with friends she had made, and other companies didn't stand the test of time for whatever reason. Â Towards the end of 1.0 she was heavily invested in a group called Everwatch as a sort of assistant to its leader Oskar. Â When he was feared dead after particular events the company disbanded, but more of these pearls were distributed to the members in order to preserve friendships and the bonds of camradarie. Â At that time there was little sense to trying to breathe new life into a company because Dalamud was swollen in the sky and people were panicking. Â So the little blue pearl that her father had given her before passing away wound up being handed out as a way for people to hear the comfort of their friends' voices during what looked to be tough times.

And then the Calamity happened and all the pearls stopped working. Â Eva herself was pulled into this time rift along with a number of other members. Â Some members remained behind though and survived throughout the five years. Â They have their own stories and those characters have seen marked changes as well, from what I have come to understand.

Now five years later the people that were safely removed from that battlefield are beginning to re-appear in Eorzea - confused, disoriented. Â They're finding that their homes have been destroyed, or reappropriated, and that life has gone on for five years without them. Â And for many of our characters that's been a tough pill to swallow. Â They're meeting with slightly-older versions of characters they once knew, but are finding that they're not being recognized. Â And amidst all of this, some of the older "original" elder members are making their presense known as well.

So we have a lot of interesting sort of interactions now where Eva's still adapting to the change in environment, adjusting to people she knew from only a month or two ago [from her perspective] exhibiting five years worth of change and in many cases having to convince them she is who she claims to be since there is that fuzziness of memory being exhibited by many - and it's not always quick for that realization/recognition to sort of 'click'. Â And some newer folks have been rolled in as friends of friends and such. Â And the old timers are kind of back offering their advice and sort of gently trying to nudge Eva along the path they think her father might have wanted. Â And some who shared the time jump experience are just finding solace in each others' experience, or trying to help find other friends who may have gone missing, or dealing with that uncertainty of not knowing whether their friends, lovers, or family are alive or dead.

Somehow this will give way to an actual company forming with Eva (not a natural leader herself) at the helm somehow, but for right now there's just too many really wonderful sorts of interactions to explore first and it would be a shame to kind of rush through all of this chaos for the sake of hastening the company's formation.

I've been RPing a lot, both in P3 beta and along various Skype channels in a multitude of settings. Â I wouldn't say so much that Eva's been trying to get from Point A to a concrete Point B. Â Instead I would say we have sort of a direction we're moving in, and certain events and interactions push her in that direction, while others might pull her in a slightly different direction. Â That whole ambiguity thing has been kind of fun for us though.

It sounds like maybe you should discuss the issue with your members in some detail - perhaps explain where you're stuck now and where you'd like to end up and brainstorm some plausible ways to at least move in that general direction. Â Folks who stayed behind may have "forgotten" the faces of those Warriors of Light who disappeared for five years, but you might have some success in trying to jog their memory in-character. Â One good example of this might be a character doesn't believe at first that FriendX is who she says she is. Â After explaining, there is still doubt. Â Then she makes mention of something that only FriendX could have known, and there is a moment of eureka, like that face gets linked back to that character, and its like the one missing puzzle piece fills in all the gaps. Â Or it can be done differently such that a stay-behind character might have to trust that FriendX is telling the truth, and that sort of wariness that may need to be overcome could then become a part of their new relationship, in and of itself. Â There are a lot of really great things you can do with it.

I would love to see an NPC who is like the wife of an NPC Warrior of Light - to see how she might react to her husband's return. Â Or a quest whereby you have to go fetch some items or do some questy things to help him prove to her that he is who he says he is. Â I think that would be really fun, and also sort of cement down the idea that a WoL can sort of return to one of the stay-behind's memory through some sort of deed that proves it. Â But... sadly this is not the case yet, or at least not that I've seen at all. Â Perhaps in ARR we may see something like this or it may be explained to us in greater detail.

Sorry for all my rambling here, but maybe there's some nugget of wisdom that helps? Â I hope... Â Blush

FreelanceWizard · **07-31-2013, 01:16 PM**

Note that there's a story element in ARR that may make this concern immaterial, depending on your membership and how much content they plan to do in character.

Show Content

Ashren Dotharl · **07-31-2013, 01:41 PM**

(07-31-2013, 01:16 PM)FreelanceWizard Wrote: Note that there's a story element in ARR that may make this concern immaterial, depending on your membership and how much content they plan to do in character.

Show Content

Hello, main scenario quest spoiler!
Because you must have the Echo to not be tempered by a primal, and your first primal fight happens with Ifrit around level 20-22, it is more or less impossible for a PC to continue doing primal content IC if they don't have the Echo (since you'd be tempered by Ifrit and immediately become an enemy of the Scions, the Empire, and any adventurer allied with either side).

Additionally, we know from the ARR quests for legacy characters that having the Echo makes you immune to the amnesia regarding the Warriors of Light. In fact, Minfilia states that explicitly when you first meet her in the first Scions plot arc (around level 17).

So, if all PCs in your FC have the Echo -- which is required to do content IC past level 20ish and certainly at endgame, not to mention being part of the main scenario quest -- they would remember you (if they'd met you before, at any rate), and as such, there'd be no issue.

You make a fairly good point here, and hopefully we'll see more explanation behind this in the future content as we progress in the story. In the case of the Blades, the Remnants were those who were not at the Battle of Carteneau, but without any leadership to keep them together (since the Inner Circle were all killed save for Ashren who was just forgotten about) the remaining members all sort of dispersed without disbanding, keeping eyes on any of the holdings the Blades might have had, such as old offices, warehouses, shops, etc in case any other Remnants ever needed help. So the idea was then to have the time jumpers sort of return to those holdings unaware that five years had passed, and there'd likely be some confrontation because these unknowns were snooping around old Blades territory.

This would most likely lead to them being watched, and possibly kidnapped for questioning at which point Ashren will need to explain who he was and prove he was Laurente's son. As the only remaining member who could unite the Blades again he'd become the defacto leader.

Ultimately the idea is that the original Blades were formed a long long time ago, during the Sixth Umbral Era, in order to protect Eorzea during the dark times ahead, and in way they would have been like heroes during that time. Once the Umbral Era ended they weren't needed any longer and so the order become secretive and took to operating in the shadows, but now that we're in a new Umbral Era Ashren wants to recreate the Blades under the same goals they had during the Sixth Umbral Era, to help the people and keep Eorzea from ripping itself apart.

I just feel that an order that is incredibly secretive, it would be hard to earn the trust of people if they can't remember you for the life of them, though what FreelanceWizard pointed out that actually might not be that big an issue. Thankfully at the moment only one or two people have shown an interest in actually writing the Blades into their history and playing as Remnants. I think with the idea that people with the Echo can remember, it would be a lot easier because his return would be more along the lines of "By the Twelve, you're alive!" and less like "Who are you and what are you doing here?!"

ArmachiA · **08-01-2013, 01:07 AM**

We're solving the Primal problem with a plot hand-waving of sorts. The eventual plan is for our Alchemists to find a potion that will help us resist the Primals. We have a pretty big Alchemist/Engineers subplot in the Night Blades right now, so it works for us. This is going to be a long process, one that is going to take till we're actually doing the primals OOCly, so a couple months as most of us don't have level 50's. Since we actually do plan on having a plot line where we try to control the Primal's power (And weaving the roaming Primals into our storyline) we had to come up with something.

As for the Blades (Of Night, as there is a blades above me XD) we were originally the Crimson Blades, a secret organization in Eorzea that was about getting artifacts and riches, named after the long since lost "Crimson Blade". The Crimson Blades and their members were completely and utterly decimated in the Calamity. There just wasn't anything left.

Ellion comes out of the rift and, after finding out the fate of his old organization, realizes that the Crimson Blades were going after the wrong thing, the only true wealth in the world is POWER. Riches didn't do shit to stop the Calamity, but POWER.. that will do something. So he finds old members of the Blades, renames it the Night Blades to better reflect the new goals.

Those who skipped time were pretty easy sells. There are two characters from the old Blades (That Ellion knows about) who didn't skip time though; Stanzie and Daej.

These two salvaged what they could from the CB HQ and made a pretty good living off of the money they made and the Apothecary shop Stanzie runs. They also managed to save a few artifacts and things, but most of it was gone. They had to be convinced to join and convinced they knew who Ellion was.

And that's how we did it.

Linkshells, Free Companies, and Amnesia

RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes