Swift

(Just for the record, I read it all ;P) Thank you! I was hoping someone with some biology know-how would show up, lol. So, I was on the right track (at least) to suggest that perhaps the Miqo'te had some sort of "immunity" to the defects typically associated with in-breeding. Considering this has been their life style for who-knows-how-long, it sounds very plausible to suggest that they've significantly removed the bad genes from their entire race, if not eliminated it all-together. This, combined with the fact that their concept of "family" should be very different from its conventional definition, would go further to assert that they're perfectly fine with in-breeding for the sake of raising strong, able-bodied children.

Assuming that is the case, we still have the issue of those 250 members all being related--again, it'd effectively be the Nuhn's own sons usurping him, and then the only pool of females they have to mate with within their own tribe are their sisters.

While I can see comparisons being made, I don't think I'd go that far with it, lol.

((Hopefully this is the correct sub-forum to post this question in; I wasn't sure questions about lore were more of a "game" question or an "RP" question D:)) So, um, today I decided to start compiling all of my character notes together in an effort to adapt the backstory of a cat-like character of mine (that was originally made for a D&D campaign) into something that would fit into Eorzea's lore and setting--especially with the established conventions about how the Miqo'te name themselves and how their tribal culture functions. While I was searching for some inspiration to get me started, I came across the "100 Questions to Ask About Your Role-Playing Character" thread made by Vash. I started going down the list, casually answering the numbered points to myself, but admittedly didn't make it too far before making a double-take to this: "4. Do you have any siblings? What are/were they like?" At first, I just shrugged it off as "Sure, considering the Nunh sires the children of an average of 50 female Miqo'te, I guess technically he'd have a ton of siblings." But then, it struck me. You'll have to forgive me for being blunt: If all these children are being born from the same father, doesn't that mean that there is a lot of incest going on in Miqo'te tribes once these children mature? I suppose in very largely populated tribes, it wouldn't be as big of a problem, as there would be several entitled breeding males available. Additionally, the surname of the women is that of the Nuhn that sired them, so it's not like they'd be showing up on the Jerry Springer show any-time soon to figure out "who the daddy is," so direct father-daughter relationships would be unlikely to happen by mistake. But what about smaller tribes? In particular, I remember reading in the Naming Conventions lore that some "Tia" males leave the main tribe to start their own, electing themselves as Nuhn and bringing a group of willing females along with them. If that's the case, then there seem to be instances where there might be only one current breeding male to the tribe, and given that not only are male children fairly rarely born, but must challenge the current Nuhn in battle (and be victorious) to take his place, having another to replace him by the time his children come of age is unlikely. So, what happens? Is there some vital piece of information I'm missing? Are women rotated between different tribes to prevent this? Is it a cultural norm and genetic adaptation for incest to happen and turn out normal (i.e. are there no disorders associated with it)? I'm honestly kind of stumped as to where to go from this point. P.S. I probably should put a disclaimer here that I'm not here to discuss whether or not such relationships are "acceptable." I am a very open-minded person, especially in the realm of fantasy settings, fictional characters, and exotic races/species.

An art thread? Hm.. I don't know about that just yet It takes me a lot of effort and motivation to make something that's presentable enough for public viewing, lol. I am familiar with the emote system, and I love using it for casual goofing-off, but I'm not quite sure how much I'd really like it for actual roleplaying just yet. The fact that my name always appears at the start of the sentence kind of limits how I can structure it. That, and if my user name differs from my character's name... it'd feel odd. I had a thought. Would it be acceptable to ramble-out actions and descriptions in /say (or /party as the case may be)? For example: Turning this... /em slumps himself up against the rough trunk of a nearby tree, panting heavily as his ears laid flat against the top of his head in a distressed fashion. /say That was close! How could a marmot be so ferocious!? Into... /say Slumping himself up against the rough trunk of a nearby tree, Merkaris panted heavily, laying his feline ears against the top of his head in a distressed manner. "That was close!" he huffed out, exhausted. "How could a marmot be so ferocious!?"

Leviathan was the server I randomly received on XI, and so--not knowing of any special qualities among the XIV beta servers--I decided to stick to my roots when I had to pick one for the beta ;P I've met a lot of really awesome people there, and I plan on going back to meet them in Phase 4 ^^

Hiya! Thanks for stopping by my first little thread here, hopefully I'll get the chance to chat with 'ya soon ^^ I suppose I should start with a little about myself, considering this is an introduction and all. I'm a male college student of 22 years (I actually just celebrated my birthday on July 8th ;D) with an overabundance of imagination and not enough outlets to sling it all out at. Though my major is in Graphic Design, another big hobby of mine (aside from being an avid gamer and trying to fill out sketchbooks) is creative writing--particularly the roleplaying sort, but I'll get into that in a sec. Adventure games and RPGs have always been towards the top of my list when it comes to gaming, and I feel pretty comfortable saying that the Legend of Zelda is my favorite series among them. Final Fantasy is also particularly close to my heart despite the fact that I've not owned any Sony consoles (I was always more of a Nintendo and Xbox kind of guy. Though I donno about all this XboxOne business--perhaps that's another thread entirely in and of itself ). However, Final Fantasy XI was my first experience with a large, subscription-based MMO, and thus I have very many fond memories of playing it for who-knows-how-long. I came in somewhere shortly after Rise of the Zilart and quit a few months after Treasures of AU. The sense of immersion and adventure really plucked some strings in my creative engine, and to this day, I often find myself humming the Gustaberg theme while daydreaming about my first steps in Vana'diel. But enough about all that--let's talk about why I'm here! As I mentioned, roleplaying is a big hobby of mine, and serves as a means to "simulate my own RPG" when games fail to scratch my adventuring itch from time to time. My beginnings were fairly humble, taking place on the RuneScape roleplaying forums of all things, where I met most of the wonderful people that I still write with, today. A series of unfortunate events, a surge of (very) young players, and some unsympathetic moderators eventually forced my friends and I away from those boards and into our own private sites. The rest after that, is history. However, if one fundamental thing popped out of all this, it's that I never mentioned any history of roleplaying on any games--that's because, quite frankly, I haven't! Almost all of my creative writing has been done via forums, message boards, chatrooms, etc., where most players would play via writing long, detailed paragraphs. The descriptions themselves were our immersion, and allowed the scenes, characters, and worlds to be painted within our minds. But now, I wish to challenge myself. I want to branch out and try something new with my creativity--I want to try RPing in-game for the first time. This is the part where I'm going to need your help. See, when it came to what made my characters not just unique among my friends' characters but also among each of my own were the heavy descriptions and subtle details I mentioned before. My gloomy Tiefling refused to look people in the eye; my Master Thief frequently attached fluent gestures to his suave manor of speaking; my passionate Elf wielded her greatsword with twirling, almost dance-like motions; and of course my curious Catfolk had a nasty habit of only pushing doors open just far enough for him to squeeze through, almost shutting his tail in the doorway as it shut behind him every time. One of my biggest concerns about roleplaying in-game the inability to point out such subtle--but meaningful--details frequently. If I walk Merkaris through a door, for example, it always opens up all the way. Of course, the quirks I listed are just one of the many that all of those character exhibited, and as I said before, all these little things come together to make my characters who they are. In order to achieve the same effect, I'm going to have to find another way to convey these little characteristics, or simply abandon them (for the most part, anyway) in favor of another method of personalizing them. So far, with my lack of experience in in-game roleplaying, however, I've yet to come up with a solid solution. So, that's why I'm here--I need your help! It's all part of my personal challenge, and I'd love to see what I'm missing out on! If you've read all the way through this (It got a LOT longer than I thought it would, lol), thank you very much for your time and interest, and I can't wait to meet you ^^