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+--- Thread: Do faeries have sentience? (/showthread.php?tid=7277)
Do faeries have sentience? - xelliexell - 05-30-2014
I had some very specific questions about faeries and the lore, and was wondering if people could help me out. I know there was another thread lately about fae, but it didn't quite touch on the topic I was wondering about. ^^;
I'd like to use a faerie as an NPC at some point, but I haven't gone through the SCH quest line yet. I'm asking here rather than looking on wikis because, if possible, I'm trying to avoid spoilers in regard to what happens with the NPCs in that quest line (although I already accidentally read about Nym and the tonberries, heh.)
1.) Do faeries have sentience? Do they have independent thoughts or feelings that are unique to an individual faerie? I've seen quite a few people depict this in their RP - pretty much every IC scholar I've interacted with, actually.Â
2.) Can a faerie exist without a scholar, or can she not live without being tied to one?
3.) If a faerie must be tied to a scholar to live, then could a scholar theoretically be able to summon more than two, if their aether were strong enough?
4.) Are there any stipulations, restrictions, or ramifications in a scholar having their faerie/s summoned at all times?
5.) I know the other thread mentioned Eos and Selene being like a fragment of Lily - is Lily the only 'real' faerie who exists, with every other manifestation being a paler copy?
I may have more follow up questions, but that's it to start. Thank you all in advance for your help. Just trying to stick to the lore in my RP. ^^;;
RE: Do faeries have sentience? - Goodfellow - 05-30-2014
As I understand it, it is as follows:
1) Yes, fairies are individuals. This is a spoiler, so skip to #2 if you want to avoid it, but the SCH quest line revolves around trying to restore the memories of the fairy, Lily.
2) I'd assume so. It's not addressed directly, I don't believe, but my understanding of the fairies is that they are in more of a partnership with their respective scholars.
3) I don't know. While we summon two mechanically, they're really both the same fairy. See #5.
4) Also don't know, also not addressed to my recollection.
5) Eos and Selene are not fragments or pieces of Lily, they are two different aspects or roles of Lily, or of any fairy for that matter. Whatever the individual fairy, she can manifest both in Eos-form and Selene-form. Selene and Eos are functional identifiers, not the names of individual fairies.
RE: Do faeries have sentience? - xelliexell - 05-30-2014
That is extremely, extremely helpful! I had misunderstood (and perhaps overcomplicated) things for sure.Â
A couple more questions, springing off of that information  --
1.) So it can be assumed that there are more faeries out there, and Lily isn't cited as the only one who currently exists? Â
2.) Along that vein, do faeries basically function as any other species within Eorzea (ie: like goblins, qiririn, sylphs, etc.)?
3.) Is there any information on the origin of the fae race, or their culture?
I know SE has a habit of leaving out details like this, but before I use a faerie as an NPC, I'd like to try and make sure I won't have players calling me out for breaking the lore, haha. So if it's really not covered and up to interpretation, that's fine, too. I'm just being super cautious not to step on any lore-toes in developing this NPC. XD;
Thank you so much for your answers! I'm really not knowledgeable about this particular subject. /grovel  ._.;;
RE: Do faeries have sentience? - Goodfellow - 05-30-2014
I'm not nearly so well-versed as some of the others around here, so there may be some corrections incoming, but I'll answer to the best of my knowledge.
1) That's a safe assumption, to a degree. Obviously there have to be more fairies in order for people to rp scholars, but my understanding is that they're not simply found out and about. They were contemporaries of Nym and haven't really been seen since then, at least until the PC finds Lily in an old Nymian tablet. I've seen some pretty creative solutions for the finding-a-fairy problem.
2) I don't think we have that information, but considering they can be confined to objects (e.g. Lily in the Nymian tablet), I'd venture to say they're more similar to other aetheric beings than to the beastmen.
3) Again, I don't think we have any of that information. All we know about fairy culture is that it was apparently pretty cozy with Nym. Again, that's assuming that they have a "culture" in the same way as the playable races or beastmen.
RE: Do faeries have sentience? - xelliexell - 05-30-2014
Thank you so much for the information - that's really way more than I knew!
And now I think I have a pretty safe springboard for the NPC/s I was hoping to introduce, so hooray!
Again, I'm just trying to avoid anyone jumping up and going "HEY! This doesn't make sense with the lore! Your face is dumb and you're dumb and I'm leaving this plot!"
All of this info actually gave me some good ideas on where to take said plot, too. I feel a bit more confident about the details now, so it's very appreciated! Thank you yet again!
RE: Do faeries have sentience? - Goodfellow - 05-30-2014
No problem. Double check my claims as you run through the SCH line, because I've been wrong before, but I don't think I'm too far off base and I'm glad to be of help.
RE: Do faeries have sentience? - Jana - 05-30-2014
The marauder-buddy's reaction when Lily is first discovered in the SCH questline seems to indicate that fairies are considered about as rare in Eorzea as they are in the real world.
RE: Do faeries have sentience? - Saefinn - 06-04-2014
I go with the assumption that our Marauder friend is responsible for new discoveries on Nymian ruins, including the discovery of faeries. I would put this down to the Calamity too, particularly as far as exploring The Wanderer's Palace goes, description of the place:
Quote:Decades of kobold mining deep beneath O'Ghomoro gradually weakened upper La Noscea to the point that when the Calamity struck, the land surrounding Bronze Lake collapsed, draining its waters and revealing a palace of unparalleled beauty. Thought to have been built by the Nymian civilization which thrived in the area some fifteen centuries ago, the palace appears to have been dedicated to their patron deity, Oschon, the Wanderer. In search of the bounty she may hold, treasure hunters have already begun to delve into this forsaken place...but will treasure be the only thing they find?
So I would say it's logical for adventurers to be attracted to this place, should they be lucky to survive. When Saefinn had a good reputation with The Maelstrom (when they found out his crimes, he lost that useful link) he helped with some trips to the ruins. Also *SPOILER* Tonberries can *potentially* have sentience too. We've seen this in the Scholar story line, though it was triggered by the faerie. */SPOILER* I have borrowed this idea in my own faeries' back story.
But to explain how I've approached things in an IC perspective. Rather than Eos and Selene being 2 fragments of the faerie. I have made them two separate entities - Asarosa (Eos) and Asaviola (Selene), they consider themselves to be sisters. Both of them have very distinct personalities, Asarosa is the one who has struggled to adapt to the modern world, the one who was very shy at first, but through thick and thin has really kept Saefinn's back, to the point where she's allowed to have an attitude problem with him...some may recall an RP when she was chasing a rather drunk Saefinn almost off of a cliff because he mistook what was essentially a nunnery as a brothel. Asaviola on the other hand, she's the more adventurous, she's embraced the modern world and has been very poorly influenced by the captain, she's an alcoholic, like he. In fact, they're a bad influence on each other. If anything, it's Asarosa who keeps things together. But both share a similar trait - a facetious attitude, both like to make fun of the captain, particularly as he refers to himself as "The Scholar Captain" and they facepalm.
With argument to summoning. I would suggest that aethyr is needed to summon, but not to sustain. Simply because MP essentially reflects aethyr use and SE has avoided using the mechanic from FFXI, whereby having an active summon meant your MP would be drained and if you wished to sustain your summon you would need to have the means of restoring your MP at a sensible rate (via gear & buffs). Whether you can summon more than 1 faerie? I suspect there is a restriction as far as binding goes, but a Summoner can summon multiple egis, just not at once. An Arcanist will use gemstones to summon carbuncle and carbuncle is able to be summoned in 2 forms, which is why I suspect Eos and Selene are 2 different forms of Lily, but it isn't explicit in lore, as far as I have seen. But, I would argue that it's not impossible for a Scholar to bind 2 faeries, like a Summoner has 3 egis ATM, so I would argue it's safe to play Eos & Selene as 2 separate entities.
I am actually playing with my faerie story arc at the moment, through all Saefinn and Asarosa have been through together, their bond has grown extremely close, it is a relationship observed as "unfaithful husband and nagging wife". They are going down a romance route...which would mean Saefinn would need to be abstinent, because frankly, I don't ERP, so porn physics won't cut it.
But I did write a story for when they suddenly realised how they felt about each other. Linky
I have also had one of Saefinn's enemies kidnap Asarosa in ransom. Could he not just unsummon her? I have thought about that, I have a couple of theories, but I don't want to offer spoilers should my dear FC members stumble upon this thread.
