Tiamatshade

Yep. Tales and hearsay often pass into myth and rumor over passage of great amounts of time.

Wonderful! Thanks for these reinforcing and insightful quotes! So Domans would know they exist and are protecting the people, in a way... and from the first quote, they don't dare tread on what they perceive to be holy ground. Really comforting, then, knowing that the common folk parted ways on better terms after Tenzen's legend became myth.

Hiya everyone! I'm roleplaying a raen native to Doma, and despite her studious and practical nature, she's still very spiritual and frequently references about both the Kami and – sometimes – Byakko or Seiryu (who has a conspicuously similar name to Koryu). My question is this: How many Domans or Othardians would at least be aware of the existence of the Four Lords, insofar as to revere them? It seems likely common people don't know them as auspices or millennia-old critters, but the Lords' interactions with humanity throughout history (and through the legend of Tenzen) leads me to believe that the populace would at least be aware they have a monumental influence on preserving the natural order... or something to that effect. Many might not ever see one of the Lords, or even know them if they did see them, but I still wonder if it's a bit farfetched to be praying to or honoring one of the Lords. Taking this a step further, or conversely: Would any Domans or Othardians pay respects, homage or worship to one (or more) of the Four Lords the way Eorzeans might do for the Twelve? If they are not well-known, would cults of superstition be a thing as well? Thanks in advance for your time and consideration, as well as for helping me continue to grow and evolve my rp character since our last discussion! ~ Reberta Amachi, Mateus-US

Good evening, everyone. It's my first time posting here and I'm in a bit of a rut that I need some real advice with. With your patience and blessing, a bit of an explanation might be in order. If not, well, I guess I'll offer a "Skip past to the TL;DR" • • • • • I began playing the game last summer, right as Stormblood came out to play on Mateus with some RP friends who'd invited me to rp with them and stay away from warcraft as long as we could. These friends apparently had been rp'ing on Balmung for a number of years before transferring off to get to a less-congested server. Before knowing much about the story or the game's canonical lore, I chose to roll an au'ra because they were really different and cool-looking and (at least until I got around to seeing them in Stormblood) had a wide-open backstory. I took a quick shine to lancer and dragoon because the class itself also was really different than others in the MMO trope, and I really loved their aesthetics, armor and weapons. My rp free company leader quickly advised me of the problems with trying to write a story explaining how an au'ra somehow becomes a dragoon, for reasons I'd only really find out after advancing the MSQ to Heavensward. It didn't take long for me to realize that anything remotely looking dragonlike would be hunted and killed, and I had a dark knight rp'er friend in the FC (whom also knew me from warcraft) tell me that it was extremely unlikely my raen would receive any training from Ishgard. Fast forward a little to advancing the story past Aymeric taking over and getting Ishgard into the Alliance, and I'd been writing a mostly tragic backstory that finagled how a Doman refugee not unlike Yugiri (who at the time was the only au'ra I'd seen in the MSQ) would or could hide/survive in the Coerthas Central Highlands. My FC lead and officers looked it over, asked me to change a few things, but otherwise said I wasn't treading into snowflake territory. Not more than a week after getting my sleek new Dragonlancer glamour set, do I taking it out for a spin at one of the FC's public rp nights out to the Quicksand ... and I very quickly get rp shamed. Elezen dragoon rp'ers immediately start whispering me vociferously how there can't be any au'ra dragoons, how they don't have any ties to the Dravanian blood, how they can't have any real dragoon abilities, and how I should "enjoy myself being a little snowflake." It took most of the evening for my friends to convince him to leave me be, while I spent most of the night wondering if I had gone too far trying to be a Doman dragoon. With that being the sole exception, most of the other pickup rp I've encountered on Mateus has been friendly and willing to float the idea of an au'ra dragoon if they accepted the backstory I wrote for her. Most seemed pretty chill about it, and I didn't dwell too much on that winter rp outing. When December hit, my FC lead had a lot of RL problems force her to cut costs and her subscription, and many of the other FC members went back to rp in warcraft. I despaired and went back for a few months as well. I had always missed playing my dragoon, missed working on her interactions with others within the FC, and generally wasn't all that happy with the way the warcraft story was taking some turns. Last week, I decided to try to come back to FF14 despite the FC essentially being dead. My old FC lead said she was cool with me leaving to try to find other communities, and she even got me the link to Mateus' RP Discord. To put it politely, of the three FC's I've expressed interest in so far, two have turned me down because they thought au'ra dragoons were a bit too sketchy. • • • • • TL;DR This is where my problems begin again, and where I ask for the advice from a community I'm hopeful can have either some constructive criticism or ideas, because although I almost am completely committed to rewrite my character backstory entirely, I'm not sure I want to keep throwing Gysahl Greens at the wall until I see what sticks. I love my au'ra, I love playing DRG, and I want to rp as both if possible. Assuming there are zero circumstances a non-elezen would learn to be an Ishgardian dragoon, are there other acceptable iterations or variations of lancers / dragoon-like characters in other city-states? Does Doma have its own cultural representation of the Ashigaru (spearmen) or those wielding polearms/yari? If not, is there sufficient breathing room to make a character who fights using that style? Could a warrior draw on different entities for inspiration/strength other than Dravanian blood, such as the Kami? If none of this is kosher, is there any way to make this work? Thank you to those who both had the patience to read all this and the consideration to leave some advice for a hopeful, prospective and down-on-her-luck RP'er. ~ Reberta