Zietes

You invite a friend over to your house for the afternoon. Describe what your friend would see upon entering your home. I suppose there isn't really much of an answer to this question due to the fact that I currently travel alot and usually stay at inns. However to describe my older home from when I was younger I'd say that upon entering my home a friend might find a somewhat plain house. Simplicity has always been my thing when it comes to my home. It helps you stay organized... During the casual small-talk that ensues, your friend asks you if you have read any good books lately. How do you respond? Hmm...book wise I'd have to go with The Adventurer's Guide to Adventuring. It's well written and very humorous. Believe it or not it also explains many questions you might have when setting out. Let's you know how to keep yourself from being dirt poor, surviving in the wilderness, and even gives a list of the cheapest inns found in Eorzea! It's a definite recommendation on my part for anyone that's looking for a good read and some professional tips. Just don't give it to your kids...it might give them bad ideas. Your friend eventually leaves, and you're still bored. Restless, you leave the house and set out for a walk. Describe the neighborhood you live in. To respond to this question I suppose we will say my friend has left the 'home' that I'm currently established at in Gridania. Neighborhood wise I suppose you'd find a very beautiful view of the forest as well as a friendly community. I can't go into much detail as I haven't been staying here for long and also don't plan to. My apologies. Oh no! An orphan is in trouble! Down the street from where you stand, a small street urchin is being bullied by three larger youths. What do you do about it? In an honest opinion I suppose I'd watch. If the kid shows some bravery towards the bullies I suppose I'd give him my assistance. However a coward deserves no pity or help in my eyes. In the times we live in it's either be brave or be bread, and by bread I mean food. Adventure time! The next day, still restless, you decide that what you need is a good change of pace. How do you pack for your four-day road trip to Ishgard? First thing is first, rent a good chocobo. Don't want one that'll give up halfway through your travels. After that carry necessities for the journey. Food, water, supplies for repairs, and some tools in case you need to stay alive by cooking the wildlife around the area. Never know what you'll run into. Of course I'd also bring a trusty weapon and set of armor. Can't be too careful these days... Along your journey, you spot some bandits waiting at a bridge across a wide but slow moving river up ahead of you. They haven't seen you yet. You need to cross the bridge to get to where you're going. How do you handle the situation? Pitiful, as if we didn't have enough troubles nowadays. I have full confidence in my combat abilities, and I want to make sure I keep my chocobo in good shape and safe. I'd approach the bridge and refuse to pay. If need be, I'd fight them. There's no honor in cowardliness. You have just arrived for the first time in a new big city. Where do you go first? Check around for any information that might prove useful for my adventures. If there happens to be any good piece of information then I'd most likely dig deeper and deeper till I got somewhere. If not, enjoy the freedom and see what the city has to offer for a few days and then continue on my quest. For being the 1,000th tourist to the city, you have been given a 6,000 gil voucher to spend as you like at the Ishgard Department Store (think FFXIV version of Macy's). What do you spend it on? Hmmm...difficult question really. I suppose I'd see what I was missing at that point. If anything I'd try my best in order to get some cheap crafting materials to improve my crafting. Need to be able to create things when I need to in order to stay in top performance. Maybe they'd have some decent weaponry as well, I'd definitely check that out. All of that shopping has made you deliriously hungry. What sort of food establishment do you seek out for lunch? Best taste for the cheapest I can find. Us adventurer's nowadays don't really run on much money. Alot of it goes towards things that will ensure our survival. Also, there's a decent number of establishments that although quite small and new, they provide you with top quality food. However in the end, a meal is a meal so...anything is good really. I'm not too picky. Five months later and safely back at home, you realize the Winter Festival is approaching! What sort of present do you pick out for your mother (or nearest living relative, or closest friend)? Heh....family. I suppose I can't quite answer this question, but if I could...I'd pick her out the nicest artifact I could find out in the market. She always loved them.....

So recently me and a couple of my friends got into the whole Trading Card Game scene. There's a nearby card shop that sells a bunch of cards and has a very friendly community and even hosts tournaments. We decided to get into the WoW TCG cause it's relatively new, and very very interesting. So far we all love it and seem to be getting into it hardcore. I'm participating in my first local tournament this thursday. Already had some of the pro's at the shop help me construct my deck and even special ordered some singles that I needed for my deck specifically. That being said, does anyone here play any TCGs? I know they are a bit nerdy and can sometimes get a bit expensive, but they are so fun to play. So many possibilites with different decks, and it's always so fun to collect all the different cards cause of the art on them.

I hate Zombies with a passion. My first horror movie was a zombie movie. Worst...idea...ever. That being said, the thought of a zombie apocalypse scares the shit out of me, I'd hope that I never got to see one in my life. So let's hope I don't have to. Anyway, I remember hearing/reading like a few months ago that there was a study conducted by scientists on the chances of civilization surviving a zombie apocalypse. Basically they ended up stating that if there was a zombie outbreak, civilization wouldn't survive due to how fast it spread, etc. etc. So...I hope a zombie outbreak never occurs, and after reading that 5 Reasons why one could happen, I'm even more scared now. Damnit....time to stay awake all night long......

Are people from the forums usually on in it?

Well I believe in trying games out and judging for myself. Call it a bad habit. But I mean, you just never know.

Well we like the PvP aspect of it so that's what we wanna play with. And like I said, it's just something nice to play till FFXIV. Anyone have a friend invite?

My friends and I wanna play AION for a bit till FFXIV comes out, we think it'd be fun with our group of like 6 people. So I was hoping one of you could send me one of the trials to try the game out while I'm chillin with them here at the Keys. Also let me know what servers you'd recommend and which side is better PvP wise, etc.

I agree Azreiel, and I'm almost 100% sure the RPC already has plans to select a server for all RPers to gather in. Let's just hope people have the patience to create as many characters as necessary in order to get lucky and into the server needed!

Yea, but a good type of crazy. We still love you guys.

God Shamad, no wonder your "Evidence" story was so freaky...

Yea, but first we need to kill the non-believers. Slowly....and passionetly....

Is trying to figure out how a coalition of Linkshells is going to turn out. I mean, I don't doubt the RPC community is going to grow. Specially after launch. Due to that, I'm interested in seeing how the individual LSs interact with each other. A specific that comes to mind are LSs such as T.A.L.E. and A.E.T.H.E.R. As some may know T.A.L.E. is a group of adventurers who start out as nothing and will someday hopefully become famous adventurers known by many! And A.E.T.H.E.R. is creating an encyclopedia about everything that they can hopefully get their hands on! This includes stories from all of the different RPing that is going on. So I'm thinking of situations where T.A.L.E. may do some noble deeds, or uncover some amazing artifacts and word spreads through the community to LSs such as A.E.T.H.E.R. who then write about these deeds! If this RPC takes off, which I really think it will since it is already growing, then we will create a growing world within our server in FFXIV! We won't be bound to the restrictions of storylines set by SE, or endgame content! There will always be new interesting things going on in the world and we will stumble into many of them. We will create our own history together and make it a whole new game just with that. My point is, I'm just so amazed by this. The fact that we're going to shape an entire world together is so inspiring. I cannot wait till we all get together in game, and start interacting with each other. I really look forward to FFXIV, not only because of the game, but because of all that I know is going to happen because of the RPC. But enough of my ranting! Let's talk about what you guys think will happen!? What type of events do you think will rise up?

I'm not entirely sure yet but I'm definitely considering her for my deity. And I'm very happy that you enjoyed it! I was a bit scared at first because I thought it'd sound to cliche. So I put a bit of a spin on the parents portion even though one died in the siege. As for the father...I have other plans for him. Also I do have to give some credit to Kashemia as she helped me to edit the story alot. Also her fiance helped me with coming up with a better ending than my original one. I plan to release another entry in the journal later tonight, so have an eye out for it. It'll talk about what he's currently doing and searching for as the present day begins. (FFXIV release )

My mother always told me that everything happens for a reason. My sister always told me that mother was crazy, as to my father....well he spent too much time out of the house to tell me anything. Life in Ala Mhigo was never easy for my parents. Mother always spent her time away from Father wishing that he was home, while my sister relied on me for guidance. However, this didn't stop us from creating memories. I remember spending days traversing through the city with my sister just to eye all the adventurers which were passing by. I was always inspired by those knights in shining armors. The way they carried themselves and the way they carried their swords, it was truly amazing. Then there were the times I spent in the fields looking up at the starry night sky with my sister. I can remember a specific time when she asked me what I thought life was like outside of Ala Mhigo. I replied telling her that I didn't really know but that someday I'd explore the world and bring her all sorts of artifacts! My sister was always my main inspiration in life to be honest. Even though she was seven years old at the time, she gave me something to hold on to. We spent our time together, and never lost sight of each other. Mother was happy with us most of the time since we were never really the type of kids to go around stealing or anything. There were occassions though where she would sit in the kitchen and cry softly to herself. My sister would ask me why Mother cried. What reason did she have for it? I simply replied by telling her that I didn't quite know, but that I'm sure it would be fine. I lied....I knew exactly what was happening. I knew Mother cried due to her feeling of loneliness. Father spent most of his time out of the city with the Ala Mhigo military forces. This isn't to say that he didn't love his family, it's just that he wanted what was best for us and being part of the military paid quite a nice amount. Everything happens for a reason....right? Then there was the attack. It had been a beautiful day from what I've read, and of course me and my sister were oblivious to anything occurring outside of our city. Mother always tried to shield us of all the evil in the world, but eventually that would catch up to us. It'd catch up to all of us. I woke up that day to my mother screaming at me to get up. Disoriented and confused from the wake up I had no idea what was going on. âWe have to go now Zietes! Hurry!â She screamed at me. We ran out of the house and as I looked around I could see nothing but destroyed buildings and the remains of a battle. Ala Mhigo's day had finally come. I stood there in horror only to look at my sister and find her crying. Mother grabbed us both and began to run with us. All around us we could see fighting and death. âWhere are we going!?â I asked her, she did not reply. We continued to run as our city fell all around us, and all hope for us seemed to vanish so suddenly. As we ran I looked up at the sky only to see a a great ball of fire coming straight at us. I realized what was about to happen and then the fireball struck the ground near us. Instantly we were sent flying from the force and I was knocked unconscious. What happened during that time I will never know. I awoke some time later. As I opened my eyes all I could see before me was total obliteration. Everything around me had crumbled and I slowly got up with the small amount of energy I had. My arm was hurt....broken most likely. Blood ran down my head, probably from the hit against the wall. Immedietely I thought of mother and sister and looked around for them. I searched through the piles of dead bodies, digging through any that I could. Nothing. There was no signs of them. Perhaps they were still alive I thought... I continued moving through, trying to find any signs of life. The battle could still be heard in parts of the city...it seemed as if it wasn't over just yet. I headed for the keep which is where any Ala Mhigo forces would be found at. I had to be careful however, there were Garlean troops searching for survivors in these parts, and even some still fighting our military forces. As I arrived I saw a group of soldiers fighting, protecting some citizens behind them. That's when I saw them. It was my father and his companions fending off some Garlean troops to protect mother, sister, and some of the other citizens. I smiled and stood there watching, and I slowly began to make my way to them. As I was almost there though, a Garlean took notice of me as well as my mother and the rest of the troops. The enemy charged at me and my eyes widened as I put my hands infront of my face as if it were going to protect me. Suddenly I felt a push and I fell on my back. I looked up to see my Father resisting the attacker, then suddenly pushing him back and stabbing him with his sword. He picked me up and took me with him to the rest of the survivors and his squad. We all began to run, our choices were to either escape now or die with the rest of the city. âWhere were you?â Mother asked me âI don't know....â I replied. She was happy to see me and sister hugged me tightly. As we ran we fled into a forest, slowly we marched from there. My father and mother talked to each other....I don't remember about what, my head was so scrambled at the time. I turned to my sister and noticed the look of fear in her eyes as she held my hand and walked. âHey...it's going to be okay...â âI...I'm scared....â âDon't be, you've got your big brother right beside you don't you?â She nodded and smiled at me. I'll never forget that look on her face. That look of hope, that look that said âI trust you, and you'll take care of me no matter whatâ Sounds of steeds could be heard from behind us and we all realized we had been found out. Once again we began to run away as fast as we could. I held my sisters hand as we ran and mother ran next to us with father. As we ran though I felt my sister fall, and my hand let go of hers. Shocked I turned around to see her with her foot stuck. My mother tried to help her and time was wasting. They were catching up. âWe have to go!â My father yelled at her âNot without her!â Mother yelled back I ran back towards them and tried to help my sister. We weren't being successful. My father grunted, looked at us, then began to walk away. âWhat are you doing?â I asked him. âI can't leave them! I have to save them all, it's my duty!â âWe're your family! Have you forgotten that Father!?â âNo....but I have orders to keep...â And with that he ran to catch the group. We stood there shocked. We couldn't believe what was happening. I looked at mother and I swear I could see the life slowly fading away from her body. I finally got my sister unstuck and grabbed my mother's hand to bring her along, but she would not budge. âMom! We have to go!â I said. âHe's....gone...â âMother now is not the time! Everthing happens for a reason! Remember!?â She turned to me, her eyes a dull color. âBut not always for a good one...â Suddenly a figure passed by at high speed and mother's head came off. Sister screamed....I only stared in disgust. Not only at what had happened...but at what she had told me. It's as if a knife had struck my heart at that moment. That response to what she had always told me was the eqiuvalent of someone telling you that things don't always happen with good intentions or because they'll lead to other ones, but that sometimes things simply happen to make situations worse. I turned and ran into the woods with my sister. They were searching for us now and we needed to finally get out. We hid under a nearby trunk and sat there quietly hoping we wouldn't be found. The time passed and before we knew it we were sound asleep. We awoke hours later, and it was now day light. I had no idea if the remaining Garlean forces had left or not, but it was now or never. We came out of our hiding spot and walked around trying to find an exit to the woods we found ourselves in. Soon enough we found ourselves out of those wretched woods. In the distance the remains of Ala Mhigo could be seen. An entire city...gone. It was simply unimaginable. There was no time for sorrow though, and I knew this. I needed to look after her...she was all I had left. I looked at my sister and suddenly my heart ached, as if I could feel her pain. âCome on...we have to go...â I told her softly. âBut....daddy?â I sighed and turned to her, âHe's not coming back...he's gone.â âBut he said-â âEverything he needed to. Don't you see...he doesn't want us, nor did he want mother. It's just you and me from now on. We have to look after each other.â The sorrow in her eyes could be noted once reality struck, yet you could still see that she did not fully understand what was going on. Father's act had left her in a state of confusion, and at the same time it had left me with confusion. But all I could feel towards him was hate and disgust. Even know that is all I feel... We traveled after that. Village to village we went, never really settling down at first. Finally however we settled in a town not too far from Limsa Lominsa. Our life there was peaceful, the other villagers took us in with many kind offerings and over time we began to have a normal life. However, over time I could tell sister was not well. I attempted to teach her how to stand up for herself as she matured, I tried to teach her to be as those Knights were in our childhood. But she grew weak, all she would do was weep, mourn, and whine about her life and past. It sickened me that she had become so weak, and I found it so pitiful. She was now just like the rest of them....weak with no power to defend themselves. Just as Ala Mhigo was...and just as Mother had been. But alas... âEverything happens for a reason...â Her Depression became worse...she felt more distant then ever. I tried comforting her as much as I could, telling her not to worry, that at least I would always be by her side. She cried to me. âI can see her Zietes....in my dreams. I see her standing there...her eyes blank and her head dismembered. She looks at me, as if I were the one to blame for all of this. For Father's leaving, and for her death.â âIt wasn't your fault....it needed to ha-â âStop saying that! If I hadn't have gotten stuck. If I hadn't been such a burden on you all, everything could have been fine now.â âBut sis...it's okay. You're what I care about. It makes me happy just to have you with me...â âDon't lie to me...â âI'm not-â âI SAID DON'T!â I sat there....looking at her. She hated herself because she didn't know who else to blame this all on. It wasn't her fault entirely...but she didn't realize that, she didn't let herself come to that conclusion. Her mind was set....the damage was done. The next day as I traveled out on my usual work route, gathering herbs for the town Alchemist, I found something. Happily I picked up the object thinking it could cheer her up, and continued my work. I headed back home a few hours later. As I approached our home people were gathering around it. Confused and scared I ran towards it to see what had happened. Moving all the townsfolk aside I ran inside only to find her on the bed...blood surrounded her. âNo....no..noo..noo!â I screamed as I walked to the side of the bed and held her in my arms. âWhy!? How could you do this to yourself! Don't you know you idiot! You were my everything, my one and only!â I cried....never had my heart been in so much pain. I sat there for what felt like eternity. I just held her... Everything happens for a reason, does it not mother? However it doesn't always happen for the right reason. I swore to protect her...I promised her, but I failed. I let her grow weak, I let her turn out just as you and Father had. As I walked out of the room, I reached into my pocket to pull out a shining stone. It was rare to find a stone such as this...kid's say they're treasure all the time. Maybe that's why I picked it up for her....after all, I'd travel the world to bring her beauties found in the most ancient of places. That's what we agreed on in the end under that last starry night. I promise you however...that we will see each other again, and anything or anyone that attempts to stop me in achieving this goal shall fall before me, be it man or beast. The story is not yet over, we shall one day lie down in the grass again...looking up at the night sky and dreaming, and you shall hold your head up strong again, just as you did when we were kids...just as I am even now after your death. This...I swear it.... my dear sister, Avus. -Beginning entry in Zietes' private Journal

Hey guys, my character's prologue is now complete and I would love to hear all of your feedback on it. Now remember, all you read there is purely OOC so when the game comes out please do not use any of it as preknown knowledge. I will say that as I planned my character is indeed going to be some sort of 'villain' but how he will do this or what he is trying to achieve is up for interpretation. I know it of course but for those that may not figure it out by the end of the prologue, I don't wanna ruin it. All comments are welcome and you can make them straight on that post, it's fine by me. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. ::Edit:: I posted it in the wrong section so I had to repost it. Sorry viewtopic.php?f=15&t=573

I want to thank everyone that helped contribute to this thread. Everything you all said was an inspiration to me and helped quite alot in the creation of my character. I have just finished his prologue which explains alot about him and what has happened during his life. It also gives the first signs of his 'goals', be they evil or good is up for interpretation. As many of you have said, there is no real definition of good or evil, just what one believes to be correct. I also have a feeling I'm going to really enjoy playing this character. In the end actually I believe I'll be more sad than anything because of his reasoning behind his intentions. It's truly a character which I think others will connect with. As I stated the Prologue is done, and I'm running it over with Kat in order to put any finishing touches on it. Once it is done I will post it on the forums for further criticism and just overall thoughts on the character. I really want to get it right so you all can have a great IC character to RP with, and so that I myself can enjoy RPing said character. So once again thank you all for your help, and I hope you all take a look at the Prologue.

So what race are the Garleans exactly? Are they humanoids? Or what? And also, did non of the other City states try to stop the attack on Ala Mhigo?

Yea the $3 alts is kind of lame. Wish it was still 1 dollar per. But anyway, what about the retainer? I heard you can play them or something. Switch between your characters or something like that. Any idea on how it works exactly? Because if you can still take them any place and give them nice looking clothes to really make them iconic then I could make the person who does all the dirty work for my character my retainer.

So I'm trying to figure out exactly what the backstory to Ala Mhigo is. I thought it was ten years ago that it was destroyed from what the website says, but on the Eorzapedia it says it was 15 years ago? Can anyone give me some information on what's correct and exactly what happened with the information we know so far from FFXIV? Also, I'm asking this because I need to know for something....

First of all I want to say that all your feedback has been quite amazing. There are alot of great tips and tricks on this thread, as well as some do's and don'ts. I'm currently working on making a prologue to Zietes in order to get a feel for the character and from there derive his intentions, how I will play him, etc. etc. My plans are to of course make him a subtle villain, and maybe not even completely evil. Alot of what people have said has stirred many new ideas in my head. However last thing I must ask is.... What do you guy's think about giving him a disguise. This means that I can still roleplay Villainous situations with other RPers yet still keep my identity secret. Of course, OOC people could tell it was my character because my name would be over my head, but IC wise they would have no idea. I'd have to be very careful as to finding a reason why Zietes was not there, maybe trick them into thinking he was. Also Kashemia has already said that people might meta game by mistake and think they know it's my character when they see him, but I explained that it wouldn't be a hard fix, just take a whisper or two explaining that they can't really tell who I am.

I'm hoping it goes well. However one thing I wonder is....what happens after it's all figured out. What happens after the jig is up and the main protagonist in your story has that ONE encounter with you? The one that explains it all, the bee's knees man! Where do you go from there?

Well I guess that's technically wrong about him not doing anything good...I'm trying to work out the character with Kashemia right now. However I suppose in him doing good it'd all be part of a larger plan. Meaning do X in order to gain Y so that Z can be done. Stuff like that....

Is Dexter Morgan the guy from the series Dexter? If it is then I can see what you're saying but it wouldn't fit. Dexter isn't exactly evil, he still does things for Justice. Zietes however does not, and will not...

I'm going for a more mature and dark villain. Something along the seriousness of iconic villains such as Sephiroth from FF7 and Seymour from FF10. I'm not really gonna adopt their personality or anything, but I am however bringing it to their level of maturity and darkness.

Kashemia, I'm sure we can make it work. Like I said, let me know how I can contact you and we'll talk about it. I have nothing yet for Zietes so it'll be quite easy to do it all. As to you Aveline, hmmmm....it might be able to work still. I like the idea of your LS and I think it'd fit my characters role because as I said, I'm planning to slowly corrupt him. Or he might already be a bit corrupted. Either way, he needs a cover and he can be one of those characters that although he seems like a normal laughable individual, in reality he is not....