Narissis

............. *Fans self even more*

Regarding items and how they're carried, I always try to weave that into the character's glamour and concept. Razh carries his daggers on his hips, pretty much as rendered in-game. Rhaine uses Minfilia's attire for glam, and it has enough straps and things that it seems feasible for it to have a holder for her cane. Sylvain carries no weapon and instead conjures one using aether, so for him I use a padjali/kinna weapon set to hide when it's sheathed. I guess the one that might be a bit of a stretch would be Takeshi, but for him I can just handwave it as magitek shenanigans. As far as asshole characters are concerned... the thing that's important to keep in mind is that your character treating another character like crap is not the same thing as you treating the other player like crap. If you sense that the person you're RPing with might not fully grasp this, a disclaimer in the form of a tell wouldn't go amiss. The other thing that's really important is that your asshole character has a reason to be an asshole. While it's true that there are people IRL who really are just plain jerks, and that's not out of the question for RP, it does make it difficult for other characters to interact with them and that's a caveat that must be kept in mind when making such a character. But if your character is an asshole for a reason (or an agglomeration of reasons), then you can evaluate their reaction to any given situation based on that background. In doing this, you'll inevitably have them reveal glimpses of their inner struggles/vulnerabilities/weaknesses/etc., and this can be enough to intrigue another character sufficiently that they put up with the asshole behaviour in an effort to get to know your character better.

Judging by the names, is that... not one, but TWO femroes? *Fans self* Oh my.

A "calamity" in Eorzea isn't just a a description of a devastating disaster; it's an historical designation formally assigned, and marks the transition from Astral to Umbral era. The battle between Shinryu and Omega was not designated a calamity by the leaders and historians of Eorzea, and did not begin an Umbral era. Ergo, it is not a calamity. Largely, I would presume, because most of the damage they did was to one another and not to the world itself. There were some casualties, but not at a world-changing scale. And the surface of the world itself was not significantly changed apart from a few inflicted scars. IIRC there have been some calamities in the past of similarly minor impact, but the difference between this event and those is the designation. Still, most calamities are far more destructive. One was an ice age. One was a great flood. And one, of course, was Dalamud/Bahamut, which we can see just from touring the gameworld caused an order of magnitude more damage than Omega/Shinryu.

As far as I can tell, Sharlayan and Garlemald are similar in that respect... Sharlayan is the enlightened magic civilization that pities Eorzea for its lesser arcane advancement, and Garlemald is the enlightened technology civilization that pities Eorzea for its lesser scientific advancement. Obviously, the foreign policy of the two is, on the other hand, diametrically opposed. Sharlayan be like "we're the magic master race so we're just gonna isolate ourselves from the dirty less-magic peasants" while Garlemald be like "we're the tech master race so we're gonna 'enlighten' the luddite peasants whether they like it or not". There's also a little vignette at Buscarron's Druthers where a drunk patron assails a Duskwight in the yard.

Moon Guard alumni unite! I've been off WoW so long my characters no longer appear on the armoury, but on the off-chance any of us were acquainted, I mostly played my worgen warrior Kethral, my night elf druid Dyrnthal, and my troll mage Kurimatsu (hush; he wasn't planned as an RP character when I named him). I also had a Gnomish arcanagineer by the name of Corillya.

!! Lesser Panda (Pabu? ) Mog Station Credit Shiny Weapon (WHM)

I transferred 8 characters onto Balmung last week and my sentiment is something more akin to this scene, from the 33s mark: https://youtu.be/Fv4nGAqybU4?t=33s

Honestly, it'll probably take you until SB to get through all the MSQ leading up to it at this point, and that's if you zip through quickly. And then there will be SB's MSQ and launch content to occupy your time for a few weeks after that. So my suggestion would just be to plug away at all your progression/levelling stuff, and once you're 70 and comfy with your character, see where things stand at that point. Probably by then, a second RP hub server will be starting to grow, or maybe enough people will have transferred off Balmung for them to lift the inbound transfer lock, if not the character creation lock.

Here's what I got for A'razh: Logistician Personality (ISTJ, -A/-T) 99% introverted 77% observant 63% thinking 61% judging 60% assertive And for Sylvain: Architect Personality (INTJ, -A/-T) 57% introverted 72% intuitive 91% thinking 84% judging 94% assertive

Thanks, Roh; that is a very comprehensive list of suggestions! @_@

After much deliberation, I transferred to Balmung yesterday in search of an RP community I could really sink my teeth into (shout-out to Coeurl though; it was a good starting server!). Of course, being kind of frugal and also a huge altaholic, I decided to make a full roster of characters to transfer so I'll have future alts on tap without having to pay transfer fees again. So far I'm mostly focused on my two mains; who are as follows: A'razh Tia A culturally traditional Seeker of the Sun, currently undergoing some culture shock as he's introduced to the wilder world and cultures of Eorzea. Somewhat aloof and rather a closed book, he tends to keep to himself and doesn't easily warm up to new people. Especially given how strange most Eorzeans are to him, looking outward at them from within his comfort zone. A'razh is a bladed weapons specialist; currently he's 60 on NIN but I intend to also level PLD and SAM on him, and probably also MNK 'cuz he can throw a punch, too. His overall abilities and concept are very rogue-like, preferring to dual-wield smaller blades as opposed to carrying larger weapons, and his fighting style is all about finesse and agility, leveraging his natural gifts as a Miqo'te. Sylvain Ombrecesse Mysterious and enigmatic, even by Duskwight standards. Sylvain is a magic-user, but attempting to discern of which specific type is all but impossible. For his own part, he only ever describes himself as a sorceror, an aetheric researcher, or some similar sort of discipline-neutral term. In observation, he's mostly seen using the types of destructive magic associated with thaumaturgy, but the extent of his knowledge is known only to him. Secretly, Sylvain is a very powerful magic-user with exceptional versatility and a drive to plumb the deepest, darkest, most forbidden recesses of all the magics Eorzea has to offer. At the same time, he has great respect for the risks inherent in such endeavours, and the damage they've wrought on Eorzea in the past, up to and including the incitement of a calamity. So naturally he conducts his research in secret and passes himself off as a benign historian and researcher. So far I've levelled him to BLM 52, but he will be my go-to character for pretty much every caster-type job. On most of my other alts, I'm only really considering levelling the bare minimum number of jobs required to support their concepts. But I'll introduce them as they mature, I suppose. A little bit about myself: by internet standards I'm getting pretty long in the tooth these days... my very first online RP experience ever was text RP in Battle.net chatrooms in the era of Diablo 1. First MMO RP in Asheron's Call around 1998-2000. I played WoW extensively for years and RPed there, as well as in City of Heroes. Games I currently have installed include Neverwinter, Champions Online, TERA, Wildstar, and of course FFXIV. As of yesterday I can say I have RPed in all of those. Wildstar is presently my other 'main' game apart from FFXIV. The community here is pretty big, but I'm optimistic I'll be able to weasel my way into a niche somewhere. >_> Biggest question I have right now is: what would you all recommend as introductory steps? I figure I should post on the player directory and maybe make articles for my characters on the Wiki... are there any other 'best practices' for a new player to get a foothold on FFXIV RP as a whole, or Balmung RP in particular? Also, please feel free to drop me a line in game. You might have to put up with Razh's unglamoured Torrent set for a few days while I save up seals for the glamour I'm working on...

I literally just transferred to Balmung yesterday, but... A'razh is a rather traditional Seeker, not long removed from his tribe and so ICly undergoing rather a lot of culture shock as he gets used to being around other races, and less orthodox Miqo'te. I'm still kinda ramping up getting into RPing him (don't even have a decent glamour yet, but 3 more days of hunts should help remedy that). But I'd certainly be happy for any opportunities to connect with other tribal/traditional Seekers.