Sohki

Pending lore in a later patch, probably a 5.3 or 5.4, for traversing back and forth freely, the most lore-accepting way to RP on the First is probably to RP a Suspiciously Similar Substitute for your character, and if people really analyze it just handwave it with some of the comments from Emet on the nature of souls. If you absolutely need it to be your character, odds are you have some kind of ongoing plot that is taking you there and you can weave an explanation into said ongoing plot.

Balmung still runs open events on the calendar, and unless you're looking to set up something more structured (which is probably beyond someone whose actually fresh at first anyway) that's a good enough place to start. Plus those events can be accessed by anyone on the Datacenter thanks to World Visit. Really server choice these days comes down to what RP-FC you want to join and where they're based. Well that and how long Balmung can manage to stay unlocked.

Beast Tribe would be implementing in a way people didn't expect, I suppose.

Maybe I'm a bit fresh of a face but I honestly don't care if we get Viera or not. I just hope we get another race next expansion, because I'm always one for more options and more variety.

I'm male and I've been playing female characters pretty much only going back to the days of Runescape and IRC in like.... 2003? So it's just kinda been trained into me to RP female characters. Doesn't hurt they have the better armor most of the time, 4.3 notwithstanding. I will say I don't roll for ERP purposes, and don't roll for the cliche of "want to look at a good ass." Nor am I really interested in spinning any IRL romance out of this, heck playing a female character probably makes it harder to find an IRL romance when you're straight.

Now the question is can I hit 70 in 11 days....

Got another duo of questions, since I'm actually not just deciding on what to RP now but who. So I was thinking of doing a Hingan Au Ra, but I was wondering if we have any sources on how a isolationist nation like that deals with people who want to leave. Like if a character left Hingashi, went to Eorzea, and returned later on, would they be treated as a foreigner now? Or is it essentially "once a citizen, always a citizen?" Second question deals with Sharlayan, specifically their reactions to outsiders. I skipped 1.x so my knowledge of proper Sharlayan is probably lacking, but I was considering having Sohki originally attempt to learn Arcanemia from Sharlayan, but ending up rejected and instead traveling to Limsa to learn. Is Sharlayan the type of nation where they have a high bar for perspective students? Do they outright reject foreigners to preserve their neutrality, except in cases like Louisoix and Thancred? Or are they generally known for teaching everyone with potential?

Given how Male Keepers work, I think that story is good enough. Honestly how your parents met probably isn't going to be asked as often as where you're from, anyway. Your choice of how they died probably is more about when you began adventuring than anything else. Since obviously if they died at Carteneau you probably began adventuring at the start of 2.0, or even during the interlude between 1.0 and 2.0. Otherwise if they died during the Doman liberation attempt, you likely came to Eorzea late in the 2.0 cycle, possibly as one of Lady Yugiri's refugees. If they died 25 years ago during the first invasion of Doma, well then you have a pretty sizable area where you could have come to Eorzea, even pre-Calamity. There's also a fourth option you didn't mention, or maybe implied, where they traveled to Eorzea and died at Carteneau while you remained behind in Doma.

Keepers are a bit of a tough one since we don't really have any evidence of them living outside the Shroud. Though the fact they run on family units rather than outright tribes probably means you could put a small batch of Keepers anywhere there's game to hunt and trees for cover. Probably depends on what kind of story you want to tell. Did you and your parents move to Othard? Did they move for trade, or did they go to aid the Domans in resisting the Empire? Or were you born to a Imperially conquered family that moved in as part of the occupation? Or were you born there, in which case your parents probably migrated to Doma before the Imperial occupation even began. As for naming, I'd say it depends how long they've been there. Unless we're talking a long-established family, though, they probably still use traditional Keeper names.

Thanks for the replies, I expected maybe one very confused person. Good to see names aren't end-all, be-all. Since I could change it, but I have grown rather attached to it after being called it for 63 levels. As for the classes matter, I like the idea of having a set number of levels to divide up as far as RP goes. Allows me to have some more control over how much she does, but still have logical drawbacks. I do find the idea of... maybe not a fresh character but maybe one who's relatively new, though. The setting I'm pretty okay with, at least for Eorzea. Will admit my knowledge of the specifics behind magic is.... iffy to put it one way.

So I'm by no means new to RP, just new to the setting of XIV. So expect these questions to be more about lore, also probably sound really awkward. I'm bad at first posts like this. But I've been trying to put together my character and I just want to make sure I don't go completely off the rails here or anything. 1. So about the naming conventions. I've read over most of the relevant ones, and that's actually why I'm asking this question. So when I first rolled Sohki I rolled her as a Keeper of the Moon, since I didn't own Heavensward and honestly assumed Au Ra were just a weird dragon-human hybrid because Japan. (In my defense I was coming off of a pretty stereotypical Korean MMO!) But after getting into the 2.X patches I decided to spend one of my two Fantasias on race changing to Au Ra. However by the Raen naming standards, and Doma/Hingashi in general, "Sohki Tisghawa" isn't a compliant name. Now it's not as outrageous as calling an Au Ra "Tidus XII," but I do have one more Fantasia in my back pocket that I was planning on using either to switch back to Miqo'te or to tweak my Au Ra. Guess the question here is merely if it's better to play a race where you are named correctly, or a race where your name is.... okay, but you like the race more. 2. Okay this one is less opinionated, but still kinda opinionated. How many classes are too many on a character, ICly at least. Obviously OOCly we can be everything, but I'm assuming actually being a Renaissance man/woman and having a bit of everything is probably a case of Warrior of Light Priveledge. But I was thinking of probably doing 3-4 IC classes for Sohki. Note I've already done some research and found out that Jobs (or at least the 1.0/2.0 jobs) are a pretty... iffy subject. But anyway I was thinking of going with a character who initially came to Eorzea to become an Arcanist, but then later on picked up Machinist and Red Mage in her journey. Having a basis and interest in magic I think would make learning Red Magic viable, and I was thinking that the combat side of Red Mage draws from a job she had trained for as a child, but doesn't actually use around Eorzea, like a Rogue or Samurai or something to that effect, hence the 3-4 bit. 3. Okay now we're getting into real lore hours. The timeline of Heavensward, to a non-Scion, I find rather confusing. I'm led to believe that Ishgard wasn't open to visitors of any sort during your first visit to Coerthas in 2.0. Yet we do see at least one Limsan in Ishgard as part of the Machinist storyline. So at what point does the city open up to outsiders? Was it always open, just the need of Edmont's patronage was to ensure you weren't arrested and sent back to Ul'dah? Does it open after the events of The Vault? Is it after Ishgard rejoins the Alliance? Is it not until the Dragonsong War ends and you get airship access to Ishgard? 3.5. On a related note, what are the means of someone getting to Dravania? Are the only two access routes through West Coerthas or Idyllshire? Or are there routes from Mor Dohna or Thanalan? 4. Raen. Especially Raen culture. Now I know they borrow a lot from the other major Far East nations, so this might even be a question about general Eastern characters, but how much emphasis really is put on the Lord-Servant relationship? Is going out and finding a Lord to offer your services, whether weaving or assassinating, to as regular and expected as moving into your own place? Or is it rarer, where most people just remain in the same general area as they grew up, perhaps serving the same Lord that their entire family or clan does? I'll admit this probably gets explained in Yanxia, which is actually the next zone I'm headed to, but I figured I'd throw it here since I'm sure there's info on it in the lore book that I don't own. 5. Okay last one, and back to something a bit more subjective. I know that it's generally accepted that the closer you get to the events of the Warrior of Light's story the more you isolate yourself from the RP community at large (because there can be only one WoL, but there's however many hundred RPers) but how close is too close? I'm guessing going around saying "Yes I helped fell X, Y, and Z Primals" is pushing the limits of what a non-Warrior of Light could do, and I know the subject of being a member of the Scions is a hot debate. I'd also assume being a former member of the Crystal Braves is looked down upon because of how... messy that ended for both sides. Is it best just to leave anything MSQ at an arm's length, or are there acceptable limits for weaving MSQ events into your character's story? Anyway that's all of it! For now. I mean technically if anyone has any good Balmung resources coughlinkpearlscough I'm all ears too. And I'm just as bad at endings as I am at starting these kinds of things. Also apologies if anything in here is just drop dead stupid. Or just hard to read.