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Leencat · **01-15-2014, 02:30 AM**

When it comes to RP, being spot-on with lore and having an interesting, believable character come of that lore is as important to me as it is to so many role-players (perhaps to the point of being a little obsessive-compulsive, for me). The problem is that I get myself overwhelmed when trying to research the lore on my own time, especially given some of my time restraints. I find myself focusing too much on the information I may not need so much for my character, even though I want to learn it all. I get only X amount of time to spend gaming and try not to spend all of it getting absorbed in learning, but I don't want to just leap headfirst into RP here without a clue. I've been playing to level up and reading here and there on the side.

Anyway, I would like to present my character concept here to seek the advice, critiques, and suggestions of the community, especially if someone can recommend interesting "RP goals" I might set for my character in particular. I have, at the very least, read into information about the character's race to get a feel for her background and personality, as a start. I love the Miqo'te lore.

To make this post seem less like a wall of text, I'm sticking my character's info in spoiler tags. It's abit of a read, but I thank anyone who reads and takes the time to help me out in any way! I appreciate it more than I can express.

For potential RP connections, I have an odd schedule of activity from midnight EST and onward, more freedom given on days off if I'm actually home.

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Character InfoMy Miqo'te Seeker of the Sun's name is N'arysha Eshir. Going by the N denoting her belonging to the Aldgoat Tribe, which are creatures found in rocky, mountainous regions, I assumed it's feasible the tribe (or a portion of it) could be located near Ul'dah, the city in which my character started. I couldn't find lore information on the known locations of the Miqo'te Seeker tribes, but I know that they represent their tribes by an animal said to protect the tribe.

She was sired by a Miqo'te who only became a nunh by luck; he was not incredibly strong, but he was boastful, arrogant, and egotistic, and took advantage of the previous nunh by challenging him after hearing rumors of him falling ill, rumors kept mostly guarded. Many other members of the tribe knew nothing of the nunh's illness and assumed that N'eshir had won by skill alone, letting him hold his position for several years.

Discovering this truth with her very inquisitive nature led to N'arysha being ashamed of not only her sire, pushed back into the position of tia during her teenage years, but her tribe as a whole. She was appalled that N'eshir had not been held accountable for exploiting the previous nunh's illness for his own self-gain. So few members of the tribe knew of this, but they choice to stay quiet; N'arysha could not see the logic in this.

She is just shy of 20 years of age now and has spent roughly the past four years studying with the Thaumaturges' Guild in Ul'dah, maintaining the respect of her peers by carefully-practiced solitude and devotion to her studies. She's a bit reclusive and seems cold, still a bit wary of other people even after four years in the city, but she holds a particular bit of respect for the Lalafell in light of her Guildmaster being one.

Her other personality traits, especially being so young, are a general ignorance in regards to the world (this helps me better ease into the lore, but hopefully does not make me seem lazy about it, because to counterbalance this I seek to get into the lore of magic for her in-character knowledge). She's a bit quick-tempered and proud; she hates being wrong and holds high faith in her knowledge of all things related to the workings of the world.

For her character, I would love, aside from any advice or feedback, and be as blunt as needed or ask any questions to find out if I've considered certain things, I would love any lore resources on the world's magic. I haven't fully decided her goals beyond her understanding as much of it as can be known, possibly discovering something new and being credited for it (possible RP plots?) and finding her place in the world (maybe a given)

Leencat · **01-15-2014, 06:13 PM**

I hope it's not against the rules to give this a gentle bump to try to get some attention on it during the earlier hours while people are active... I posted this rather late at night when I figure a lot of people may have likely been asleep.

Erik Mynhier · **01-15-2014, 06:32 PM**

She seems well put together lore wise. As for goals, I find they come to you as you develop the character, so don't worry about it at this point.

I'm on Balmung, but feel free to pm me if you need lore help, I have amassed quite a collection of sources, as I am a bit of a lore nut too. My stories get wacky at times but I'm always sure they are lore friendly.

C'kayah Polaali · **01-15-2014, 06:50 PM**

I agree, she seems well grounded in lore. I especially like the bit about her father, it could provide some interesting hooks.

As far as her goals go, though... What you've got is a fair history. You don't really have any explicit motivations for her, though the fact that she's left her tribe to go study suggests that she has some strong ones. I'd ask myself some questions about her, they might help you to find some goals:

She left her tribe. How does she feel about that?
Who is she close to, now that she's living in Ul'dah?
How does she feel about men, in light of her revelations of her father?
How much is she willing to put herself out in order to gain new knowledge?
What does she do when she's not studying?

Ildur · **01-15-2014, 07:27 PM**

There are aldgoats in game that can be found around Camp Drybone, though it's suggested in a FATE that they come from the south. I don't recall them being anywhere else, but that doesn't mean they can't be found in other zones. Just something to keep in mind when deciding where the tribe was/is located.

Another thing you might want to flesh out a bit is how the tribal society worked. No need to be extremely specific, but things like how leadership was formed, usual diet, religious rituals, if they were nomadic. You know, things that can come out in conversation with your character some day and that could give you insight as to how she was raised.

As for information on aether, I can provide you this wiki link and this other one. The last post there is actually quite nice.

Leencat · **01-15-2014, 07:29 PM**

(01-15-2014, 06:50 PM)Ckayah Tia Wrote: I agree, she seems well grounded in lore. I especially like the bit about her father, it could provide some interesting hooks.

As far as her goals go, though... What you've got is a fair history. You don't really have any explicit motivations for her, though the fact that she's left her tribe to go study suggests that she has some strong ones. I'd ask myself some questions about her, they might help you to find some goals:

She left her tribe. How does she feel about that?

Who is she close to, now that she's living in Ul'dah?

How does she feel about men, in light of her revelations of her father?

How much is she willing to put herself out in order to gain new knowledge?

What does she do when she's not studying?

Thank you so much. I was really looking for some questions like these because I hadn't even thought about these things. Let me try to fathom some answers.

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AnswersShe left her tribe. How does she feel about that?
She feels stubbornly prideful about leaving. She now suffers the loneliness of it, but she's too proud to do anything other than stand by her view that her tribe was wrong to knowingly allow someone to take advantage of an illness for self-gain. But she has spent some of her time alone wondering if, in the grand scheme of the world, if it's truly wrong to do whatever one must do to have a place in the world. It's an internal conflict of sorts. The truth about her leaving could have been in the heat of anger, a rash decision, as she's still young, very temperamental by nature, and simply immature. I'd be happy to think more about this question. That's just my immediate answer without thinking "too hard" about it.

Who is she close to, now that she's living in Ul'dah?
I was honestly going to let this be open to connections, if maybe someone wanted to play the part of a guild-mate in the Thaumaturges' Guild, but I was also going with her having not developed any incredibly close friendships and being reclusive. I've considered maybe she has come to tolerate a guild-mate enough that she has a roommate for ease of living, unless guild members have a set living place that is paid for. If not, I would dabble with an NPC character roommate.

How does she feel about men, in light of her revelations of her father?
Men are not entirely a problem for her. He was a fool, but she was never hurt or abused by a man personally, so hating men would not feel justified to me. She's more skeptical of other tias in the sense of the culture of the Seekers, so she is more likely to befriend Keepers than Seekers when it comes to males. She ignorantly assumes all tias are bound by a selfish aspiration to be a nunh just for the glory or gather the support of enough females to lead their own tribe. It would be difficult for male Seekers to befriend her without a lot of work.

How much is she willing to put herself out in order to gain new knowledge?
I guess this is a matter of deciding if she's more practical than stubborn. I figured I would get a feel for that through RP, but if she is more stubborn, she might have a reckless edge leading to her facing danger to learn things. If she's more practical, I may go the route of her "using" people to help do her work for her, having them distract such things as angry monsters while she gathers a desired material or what have you. Frankly, I don't foresee myself going the "using people" route because beneath her distant personality, she is empathetic and doesn't believe in exploiting anyone for her own gain, as hating what she saw of her sire. She would likely just get herself hurt getting something she wants.

What does she do when she's not studying?
This is where I'm stuck because I haven't considered her hobbies. Saying she likes to read seems too cliche to me. I'm very tempted to have her have a love of plants/botany that might help spark her having good reason to end up traveling to other areas, where would likely find more plants to use as alchemy materials and whatnot. But she may also like to sew/knit. I can't decide if picking both would be too much or if I should just choose one.

(01-15-2014, 07:27 PM)Ildur Wrote: There are aldgoats in game that can be found around Camp Drybone, though it's suggested in a FATE that they come from the south. I don't recall them being anywhere else, but that doesn't mean they can't be found in other zones. Just something to keep in mind when deciding where the tribe was/is located.

Another thing you might want to flesh out a bit is how the tribal society worked. No need to be extremely specific, but things like how leadership was formed, usual diet, religious rituals, if they were nomadic. You know, things that can come out in conversation with your character some day and that could give you insight as to how she was raised.

As for information on aether, I can provide you this wiki link and this other one. The last post there is actually quite nice.

Firstly, thank you for the links! That's what I was mainly looking for.

As for fleshing out her tribe, how much freedom do I have with that? It is a canon tribe, so I don't want to go too crazy in case I face inconsistencies with other people. Do Seeker tribes always stay in one huge group or can a single tribe be broken up around several areas?

For example, as an answer, could I safely decide that they have their nunh, but no set leadership? Based on reading lore on Seekers, they don't always have nunh meaning leadership. You may bring up a point that deciding on them being nomadic is sensible, especially in a desert region, being constantly on the move for food. Perhaps they were oriented on hunting and more ate meat than plants.

I'm happy to take suggestions. I'm terrible at thinking of these sort of fine details, which are ones I really need.

You're all being incredibly helpful and thought-provoking, and I really appreciate it!

Ildur · **01-15-2014, 07:51 PM**

If you go read the Miqo'te Naming Conventions in the official lore forums, you'll see that tribes are divided into territories, with ussually one nunh per zone. So you can say that the tribe of your character is "the Aldgoat Tribe of the Sagolii Desert" or "the Aldgoat Tribe of Coerthas" or wherever without incurring into any lore breaking. Even if canonically they are somewhere else (or if they are different than your made-up N tribe), you can justify it by saying that they are from a different territory that developed in different ways. Go crazy!
Also, remember there's basically no lore about any of the actual tribes except for the U (drake) tribe, which has a village at the border of the Sagolii Desert, but they break the lore by having the nunh and the leader being the same person (which is something that rarely happens, according to the lore thread).

Here is a summary of the dev posts about the matter. There have been also a great number of Miqo'te threads in the past in this very same forum, so you might want to take a dive into them.

Leencat · **01-15-2014, 07:56 PM**

Thank you so much! With that in mind, I will think more about the deeper details of unique traits of her section of the Aldgoat Tribe and how they live. I'll try to take more cues from the game as they are playing and work on that as a side project; I still welcome aid with her character aside from that. I'm relieved at least that my draft of what I have for her character is not an absolute disaster.

I'm also glad to have it confirmed that the canon tribes don't have a ton of info because I spent some time searching and getting frustrated that I could not find much. I'm glad that welcomes the creativity to fill in the blanks myself.

Ildur · **01-15-2014, 08:15 PM**

Oh, also here is another helpful link. Making a character sheet is not necessary (though it can help if you forget details, just like I do), but I found it helps quite a bit in making characters. It also has a long list of hobbies, since you mentioned having trouble with that part.

Help with fleshing out my Miqo'te character

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