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Character background and lore check - Printable Version

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Character background and lore check - Kang - 11-01-2016

Hey all! I thought I'd post in here to ask if my character concept made sense within the lore, since I know very little about FFXIV lore.
 
Before I start, I should give a background explanation. I knew for certain, first off, that I wanted to play a Monk in-game (meaning that if RPing a Monk didn't make sense, I'd at least want to RP a martial artist character). I've typically played Human races in most games so I was originally playing a male Hyur. However, after a while, it just felt to me that the Monk's animations and style complimented the Miqo'te better  (nothing wrong if you disagree. It's just a personal preference thing). So I figured that I'd roll a male Miqo'te Monk. After reading up on the Miqo'te lore, I began to finally have some semblance of a character backstory and motivation, which is something that I struggled to find before.
 
So here's what I had. Note that there's a number of details that I either hadn't yet decided on or I plan on just making up at they come along. Also, I understand that my concept is pretty generic and unoriginal but originality isn't something that I usually go out of my way to accomplish, as long as the concept is fun and interests me.
 
K'doh Tia is a Seeker of the Sun male Miqo'te. To my understanding, the Nuhn is responsible for producing offspring while the rest of the males are Tia. In order for a Tia to become a Nuhn, he must defeat the Nuhn in combat or leave the tribe and start his own. K'doh is a Tia who has since left his tribe and embarked on a journey of self-discovery. I haven't yet decided his exact reason for leaving. It could be a personal decision or perhaps he was banished and asked to leave. It could also just be a temporary departure with the intention of one day returning (which he may or may not change his mind on).
 
He also may or may not have challenged the Nuhn and lost,depending on his own ambition and personal desires. Though either way, I do see him having an inferiority complex with the Nuhn of his tribe and perhaps being weak early on in his life, only to later grow into a stronger combatant.
 
I'd read somewhere that the original settlers landed on Limsa Lominsa and settled there. In that case, perhaps K'doh's tribe was originally from there and his original fighting background was Marauder (to also explain my leveling Marauder to unlock Mercy Stroke for gameplay reasons). However, he was rather incompetent with the axe and struggled with it. He later lost his axe or it was destroyed when he arrived in Thanalan. One way or another, he eventually learned how to fight with his bare fists. Either from him finding the Pugilist's Guild or he was saved by a Pugilist after being mugged by a group of bandits who destroyed his axe. He was likely also too poor at the time to afford a weapon. Over time, he decided that hand-to-hand combat was his true fighting style (especially when chakra gets involved further down in his development).
 
On a random cosmetic note, he currently has dark brown/black hair. Is it normal for Seekers to have this hair colour? I don't see many Seekers with it. Which is ironic since many ethnic groups IRL with that hair colour originated from warmer climates.
 
That's all I had for now. Suggestions? Comments? Does his story check out?
 
P.S. As I typed this, I was reading some more and it turns out that the Limsa Lominsa settlers have modernized themselves and do not follow the tribe traditions for the most part. In contrast, there exists settlers in Sagolii Desert who do abide by these traditions. In which case, I could potentially have him originate from Sagolii Desert with much of the same backstory but with the Marauder background removed.

RE: Character background and lore check - Koen - 11-01-2016

The Monk lore is very iffy, and there are people on this website who would be able to give you a lot more detail than I can, so take this with a grain of salt. The gist of it, however, is that there was a group of Rhalgr worshippers in Gyr Abania who wanted to get as close to their idea of Rhalgr as possible, and the way they did this was by taking large concentrations of aether in to their body to make them capable of all sorts of wacky crap e.g. Elixer Field.

The vast majority of them were wiped out 25 years before ARR, but there are some that remain, and plenty of RPers who play one, if your character needed a tutor. It should be noted, however, that one of the main purposes of Fist training (A combat-oriented sect of the Monks) is to make your body able to take in aether so you can do aforementioned funky moves. Even if someone stumbled upon a large concentration of aether, which appears in places of mass violent deaths (namely warzones, which is why Gyr Abania was so perfect for it), and managed to absorb it, without the proper training it would tear their body apart. Whether a soulstone helps in the process of this, I'm not too sure as I'm going off of memory here.

So in general, it's rather hard to become a Monk and even harder to gain the kind of power seen in the WoL's Monk quest. The man (a miqo'te, actually) unlocked all 14 of his chakras, and when the WoL does the same, their HP regenerates to the point where you could probably afk with decent enough gear and you wouldn't die, not to mention one-shotting the man's disciples with even your low damage skills. I'd recommend doing the Monk storyline to get an idea for the lore (especially the light v shadow sect crap), and poking someone like Sounsyy or Ave (the main Monk RPer I know of, and she's got a pretty solid understanding of the lore and how Monk skills work imo).

Off the top of my head, there's a few ways your character can be(or become) a Monk. These aren't the only ones though, just the most obvious.
  • Ask for tutoring from another Monk RPer and go from there. I imagine it'd realisticaly take years of training just to be able to unlock one chakra, so this isn't great if you're looking to be a monk for the power aspect.
  • Have your character have been a Fist of Rhalgr from Ala Mhigo, although they'd have to be at the very least in their late 30's to have had enough training.
  • Your character was tutored by a NPC Fist of Rhalgr and is carrying on their training with some practical uses. The shadow sect were exiled iirc and one of their members could've done it, or a light sect who survived.

To give an idea as to how hard unlocking chakras are, the main villain in the Heavensward Monk quests was seemingly obsessed with it and only managed to unlock all 14 by the time he was in his mid-50's. I've probably left something out in this, but I wrote it on the bus. Good luck with your character!

RE: Character background and lore check - Kang - 11-01-2016

Yeah. After reading on the lore of many of the jobs, the impression I got was that the majority of the jobs, as opposed to the classes, had a pseudo "Luke Skywalker Jedi" vibe where "the order is nearly or completely extinct and becoming one is nearly impossible. But hey, you're the WoL and you're special so have at it."

I wouldn't be surprised if my character ends up also just being a Pugilist or some sort of hand-to-hand combatant and is only an OOC Monk through in-game mechanics. Amazing feats like unlocking chakra is something that I'd look into later down the line after my character has gone through some development. I don't have any intention of being an uber powerful character, especially right off the bat, unless it fits the development (one of my SWTOR characters did but that's only because it developed naturally in the story. My other alts were average at best).

Once I've played through the Monk storyline, I'll likely have a better understanding and a desire of where I want to go. Prior to that, he's pretty much just a guy who owns a pair of brass knuckles and knows how to kick. Smile

RE: Character background and lore check - Valence - 11-01-2016

Hello,

I'll start with lore check!

It's perfectly fine to have a miqo'te being a monk, to begin with. The level50-60 monk questline presents us with 2 apprentice female Seekers, for example (of the Shadow Sect).

It is best to keep in mind that monks are now few and far between since the Light Sect got absolutely genocided by the King of Ruin, though monks of that sect seem to still be kicking here and there, as proven by Widargaelt two older masters that raised him after he escaped the massacre. The Shadow Sect however, is not in any better shape, since before the slaughter they disagreed with the Light Sect on the matter of serving the royal Ala-Mighan dynasty, and both clashed and fought, and the Light prevailed. The survivors of the Shadow got banished.

So either way, monks are not common individuals, and most people have forgotten about them. Even Widargaelt, pure blood mighan and all, that was raised by two Light masters, didn't even know about the very secretive Shadow sect. It is always better to be aware that taking on some jobs ICly might bring some dire results when lore gets revisited and elaborated upon, as we have seen with the Knights Dragoons recently. 4.0 should bring us a lot more stuff to build upon on monks, supposedly.

Another thing also, is that monks are depicted like Dragoons, or most jobs: they are fucking powerful. They were absolutely feared by both the enemies of Ala-Migho on the battlefield, as well as those same elite mighan lancers that fought at their side so... That's to say the fear they inspired. Anyway, if we are to make an assumption that all jobs are similar in power level, then when you know that a damn black mage or white mage is literally a god on earth, I'll let you imagine what a good monk can do.

You nailed perfectly the Seeker lore on Nunh and Tias so I don't see much to add there, other than it is not unusual for miqo'te to wander alone, or in groups separated from tribes. A lot of miqo'te are actually not really part of tribes but more of cities, or even enlisted in various militaries. Or maybe even both (tribe + job in a city, I don't see why not). So your exiled Seeker having been part of a tribe would work as well as a Seeker that was never part of a tribe to begin with. Up to you, it just offers alternative backgrounds.

The original settlers of Limsa Lominsa were part of an insurgent Sea Wolf fleet that rebelled against their own nation in the name of their people (nation located in the Northern Islands somewhere in... the Northern Sea). They were mostly roegadyn Sea Wolves, but the fact that they had two elezen navigators at the very least, seems to show that they probably weren't only composed of roes. In any case, many people left aside by circumstances, bad luck, exile or whatever else, eventually came over time to join the new pirate nation of Limsa and become part of all those ruffians, no matter the race. The nation is composed of 20% of Seekers, so you are fine here either way.



Now on a more subjective level...

I think the reasons you gave for exiling from a tribe give a lot of nice opportunities and strife to build upon. The fact that he first tries to be a good lominsan and fight with an axe, but utterly fails at it, is also interesting and builds character. By the way, that's one of the best ways to make characters unique without going the road of silly edgy themes. I also think that what you call 'not original characters', when well anchored in the lore and given a unique well fleshed out personality, are actually the most original, so... I wouldn't worry about that, to the contrary.

RE: Character background and lore check - Virella - 11-01-2016

(11-01-2016, 03:38 AM)Koen Wrote: and poking someone like Sounsyy or Ave (the main Monk RPer I know of, and she's got a pretty solid understanding of the lore and how Monk skills work imo).

I was summoned. Now give me a moment to edit to this post, and I will throw some useful information towards you!

As for lore sources, screenshots and general useful information regarding Monks:
General Ala Mhigan Lore Post By Sounsyy
General Monk Lore by Sounsyy
Monks & MP by Sounsyy
German Monk Quests Translated
Extra German Monk + Ala Mhigan Lore
Monk Lorebook Page 1
Monk Lorebook Page 2
Ala Mhigo Lorebook Page 1
Ala Mhigo Lorebook Page 2
Screenshots 30 Monk Quest
Screenshots Post 50 Monk Quest
Screenshots Post 50 Monk Quest (Shadow & Light sect)
Screenshots Post 50 Monk Quest (Level 60)


Now, let me point out right here that I'm not here to tell you how to roleplay your character, but as Koen pointed out, to be a Fist of Rhalgr, well... it is a group of religious fighters who devoted themselves to Rhalgr, who have very few of them left*.

Koen was also so kind to give your work around with these. Yes, sadly enough if you wish to be young AND well trained, you have to go for the Luke Skywalker approach. Personally I'm not a fan, because it feels like a cheap cop out to me due to being an exception and not so much the norm but others may feel differently about this. I feel this concept works for NPCs, not so much for PCs.

Then there is, yeah, just be a Fist of Rhalgr student. There is a lot of mixed roleplay to be found for this as well. There's all sorts of Fist of Rhalgr roleplayers around who roleplay Monks of various ages, lore compliance, headcanons, religiousness, realism, pace of training ect. So there is quite a few direction you could go with this, if you decide to rolepay a Fist of Rhalgr apprentice, and wanted a PC to be his master. NPCs are always an option as well, but I felt it was worth mentioning there is a flourishing community for this. Really, you can find anything when it comes down to this. I could even point you towards directions of what type of roleplay you're interested in when it comes down to Monk roleplay.
Not exclusively Fists, but this LS may interest you to get in contact with Monk roleplayers and other martial artists.

As for the third commonly seen option. Older Fists. Not people who made it out of the main temple, because as far as we know there's quite a few other temples left. So your Monk could have either fled the main temple before things started to become too tense, or simply lived in another temple and survived that way. This in my opinion is probably the most solid one to be a 'legit' Fist. Your character will have the age and experience below their belt. The downsides? We don't really know how those temples were, or Ala Mhigo. Yes, the expansion is coming up, but it is still quite a bit of 'lets not mention this' or a 'I need to wing this' type of situation. Also if you have a dislike for roleplaying older character, because you'd probably have to be in your mid forties to be a decently trained Monk from the temples before the Fists shattered. But that's once more totally up to you! Some people simply don't like roleplay older characters, and that's fine. Just in the case of roleplaying a Fist of Rhalgr, to be the real deal who's been trained properly within their community, you have to be older. Also, your character would need to be Ala Mhigan! But that's no problem as being a Miqo'te. In the odd chance you decide to go for an Ala Mhigan character, guess what? We got a Linkshell for that as well.

That said, I can rant on about Monk lore for hours on end, so if you want to know something in specific, just let me know and I will try to do my best to answer any question.

That said, Pugilist are awesome as well. They still throw Aether around in their attacks, so please don't think you need to be a Fist to being the typical fantasy punch wizard, Pugilists can do this as well!

*There might be a possibility of a lot more Monks living still in Gyr Abania due it being the main temple who was purged, and the shadow sect been hidden for a long time, so there's a huge possibility there might be Fist of Rhalgr communities quietly living out their days somewhere. But probably not in non-Gyr Abania regions.

RE: Character background and lore check - Sounsyy - 11-01-2016

Hey there Kang! Welcome to RPC and Eorzea! I saw your welcome post yesterday and was waiting for you character thread. But really most of the lore has been answered. Virella dumped a good amount of lore for Fists and Ala Mhigo, so I'll just sweep through some extra tidbits and leave you with some general world building lore stuffs. ^^


(11-01-2016, 02:54 AM)Kang Wrote: On a random cosmetic note, he currently has dark brown/black hair. Is it normal for Seekers to have this hair colour? I don't see many Seekers with it. Which is ironic since many ethnic groups IRL with that hair colour originated from warmer climates.

This is actually normal in NPC Miqo'te! Once upon a time, I was working on a theory where certain physical traits might have varied by tribe, but ultimately it was inconclusive. It's an older, outdated census of the in-game Miqo'te population, but it might help your aesthetic choices. There were plenty of Miqo'te with dark hair.


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(11-01-2016, 02:54 AM)Kang Wrote: P.S. As I typed this, I was reading some more and it turns out that the Limsa Lominsa settlers have modernized themselves and do not follow the tribe traditions for the most part. In contrast, there exists settlers in Sagolii Desert who do abide by these traditions. In which case, I could potentially have him originate from Sagolii Desert with much of the same backstory but with the Marauder background removed.

Using the link above, you can also see that Miqo'te have the greatest population in or around Limsa Lominsa and Vylbrand. Whether or not these Miqo'te abide by a more traditional tribal style is wholly dependent upon you and your desire. The only in-game tribal setting we have currently is deep in the Sagolii Desert with the U Tribe, but you'll also find several non-traditional Miqo'te the closer you get to the city-state, and that goes for all of Eorzea. Many Miqo'te have left tribal life behind and have chosen to join the cities, but many still have small tribal sects in the wilds of Eorzea. So you can totally have a tribe in Vylbrand.

1.0 Character Creation Wrote:Miqo'te are known to be very territorial, and many individuals tend to lead solitary lifestyles, particularly males. The few Miqo'te who have made the transition to life in Eorzean society are predominantly female.

I think the marauder background actually works out great- and can give you a connection to the Pugilists' Guild as well. The Platinum Mirage and the pirates of Limsa Lominsa actually have a history together, though not an altogether pleasant one. Some five years ago, the Kraken's Arms were involved in making counterfeit coins and chips, cycling them into the Mirage's supply to rig some bets and make a lot of money. Whether this still continues to this day is unknown, but likely where there's money to be had (Platinum Mirage) Lominsan scoundrels will try to get involved. Alternatively, the Platinum Mirage is always looking for hardy mercenaries to guard its money.

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(11-01-2016, 04:23 AM)Kang Wrote: I wouldn't be surprised if my character ends up also just being a Pugilist or some sort of hand-to-hand combatant and is only an OOC Monk through in-game mechanics. Amazing feats like unlocking chakra is something that I'd look into later down the line after my character has gone through some development.

Pugilists are awesome, and wildly underplayed unfortunately. There is some lore behind being a pugilist though. Though many are or start out as show-fighters, the guild does have a darker side and purpose beneath the flashy display. They're money collectors. A pugilist's main concern is making sure the Ul'dahn elite's money stays in Ul'dah, using their techniques to track down members of the exclusive gambling hall and high elite social club known as the Platinum Mirage pay their dues. No one cheats the house. To do this, the pugilist guild hires and trains sellswords, popular gladiators, and even the spare Limsa Lominsan pirate.

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(11-01-2016, 04:54 AM)Valence Wrote: The original settlers of Limsa Lominsa were part of an insurgent Sea Wolf fleet that rebelled against their own nation in the name of their people (nation located in the Northern Islands somewhere in... the Northern Sea). They were mostly roegadyn Sea Wolves, but the fact that they had two elezen navigators at the very least, seems to show that they probably weren't only composed of roes.

This is actually a segment of the lore book that's under suspicion on the official forums due to various conflicting lore texts, even within the book itself. But yes, Limsa Lominsa was settled roughly 700 years ago by the survivors of the Galadion after a massive conflict wrecked them upon the coasts of Vylbrand. In the 700 years since, Limsa Lominsa has become a massive port hub for all of Eorzea and the world beyond.



For more general lore, I've thrown in my starter kit as well as some additional links (some of which Virella has already posted)! ^^ Hope this helps!

Eorzean Lore Starter Kit
-Racial Lore Compilation
-Class/Job Lore Compilation
-Hydaelyn Geography Lore
-Settlements in Eorzea Pre-Calamity
-Eorzean City-states' Political Structures Lore
-Eorzean Units of Time and Measurement Lore

-Ala Mhigo Lore Masterpost
-Pugilist and Platinum Mirage Lore
-Soul Crystal Lore Compilation and Job Directory

RE: Character background and lore check - Valence - 11-01-2016

I don't necessarily see it as conflicting per se, but it sure raises questions.

RE: Character background and lore check - Kang - 11-01-2016

Yeah. I'd imagine that when I first start venturing in the RP world, my character will likely just be a guy who simply knows how to punch and kick at first. Anything beyond that, I plan to just wait and see what direction my character goes in. 
For one example, in SWTOR at the end of the Jedi Knight class stories, you can potentially become a Jedi Master. Even if I reached this title in-game, my IC character remained a Knight because I wanted to play that progression out (and young Masters were unheard of). We also had people that played a Jedi in-game but weren't a Jedi at all ICly. They were mercenaries who fought with swords (you can glamour swords instead of lightsabers) and we'd just look the other way when they'd do Jedi-like abilities if we RPed through a group mission and they did their rotation.

I also know that if I decide I want to associate with a significant faction, that comes with its own set of risks. That's why if I decided to roll a Dragoon, they'd likely just be a guy who fights with a lance ICly. Perhaps what I might go with is he ends up mostly a Pugilist. Though playing the role of "hired muscle that collects debts" might not sit well with him and I could see him giving up that life, eventually aspiring for something else. A Fist of Rhalgr student is a possibility, but I'll see what happens first. If I do bring him along that path, while NPC masters are a possibility, if there's plenty of PC masters that would be interested, I might take advantage of that opportunity. That also creates much greater possibilities and potential to work with IMO.

Though I know that I don't have to incorporate the tribe lore if I don't wish to, doing so gives me something to work with. Since sometimes, having too many options makes it challenging to find direction (it's why I find myself preferring linear and theme park games over sandbox a lot of the time). Smile Perhaps one thing I can do with the "failed Marauder" plot is that when he gets attacked in Thanalan and loses his axe, his attackers had assumed he was a pirate at the time.

Definitely starting to build some foundation here! Smile