Norna

I decided to adjust Aumer a bit. Say hello to Aumer v.1.5: Stargazer Lotus! Also, I call the above image "Hey, haven't opened Photoshop in forever, lets see if we can put together a collage... OMG where did all the hours go?!"

Why are all Au Ra hairstyles straight (or one dreads)? Would it have killed them to have one or two wavy and/or curly hairstyles? And then most of the new hairstyles come with bangs/fringes, so it's not like you get to have much variety in that way either. :cry: And on top of it all, horns and scales are attached to faces, and what faces we have! We have Baby Face, Miqo'te Expy, Tired/Drunkard Onee-san (usually from Harem anime, but I believe Rangiku from Bleach have this face? I'm sorry it's just that I feel like I've seen it in a hundred generic anime during the past decade or so) and one which is actually pretty far removed from the other races (including their children) so I picked that one, and an inspiration (in this case, the flowers Nelumbo nucifera and Lilium 'Stargazer' also known as Sacred Lotus and Stargazer Lily). So I set out in an effort to make a non-baby-faced Au Ra! The first one also got Fran as an inspiration (sadly, not with her height) since that was the only way I knew to work with her ink blue scales. I call her Fraun (Fraun ended up half-Raen because of white horns on the hair, lol): The other, which I named Aumer (after Elder Scrolls Altmer, again, sadly without their height), and was a project in making the scales blend in instead of looking pasted on: Well, I tried. I also only found one voice that I liked. Which one do you think came out the best? Personally, I like Aumer the most when viewed in the character creator, but the moment armor is put on her, it clashes with her horns and tail. Meanwhile, Fraun's horns and tail blend real well with the armors, but I'm not feeling her as much. Also, I'm LOLing over how they've curved their lower backs in the idle stance to hide the lack of lower-body curves. Well, that was my rant/creations. I'm not as put off by the Au Ra as I sound. I'm just a bit miffed (also, is it just me, but when they said that Au Ra would have more customization options, doesn't it feel like they have less because of the horns/scales? Technically, all the extra scale options plus the eye-rings make it more, but when you must match them to ink blue and bone white scales, as well as the shape and spread of horns/scales? Not to mention any hair accessories, it just feel like less options).

Okay, I only got a good look at the bodies before and now I'm seeing that compared to the males, the females have some serious baby-face going on on top of their smaller bodies(even peacocks and peahens have the same facial structures despite superficial feather differences. And if we're talking lizards with big size differences, this anole is pretty extreme and still basically have the same faces across genders). *Starts praying to the Twelve* Please let there be older face options! Also, let the girls have some fierce eye options like the guys!

Though if SE does crossbreeds (they've said that they're thinking about it since it came second in the poll and was liked across all nationalities, plus lore panel on livestream hinted at some showing up in Heavensward), and Au Ra is compatible with the other playable races, it means that they too are human, which means that we need some lore explanation of the sexual dimorphism of close relatives that is not shown in the other races. I'll LOL if the lore ends up being "men's baths were irradiated with corrupted aether after the Calamity, causing after-growth growth spurts and steroid-like growth of muscles" or something like that.

While I love how they look (except how patchy some of the scale placement is, hopefully that'll be an option in Character Creation), I dislike the sexual dimorphism (they should just have made the two tribes/clans look different; one tall with muscle. Female could be sort of like Viera/concept art Elezen without the ears and bad feet. The other could have been short, petite and slender. They running theme could be that they're both very graceful). It's too different from the races we already have, considering that Titan and the Livestream Lore Panel basically confirmed the playable races are all human (this is actually a good Lore reason why they are not more bestial looking). As far as I know, they're supposed to come from Doma, and while they could be Elezen/Dravanian, I don't think that's the case. That would make them the only playable race that originate in Eorzea (as far as I know, all the others migrated at some point in time, with Elezen being the oldest and Miqo'te the youngest). Depending on their animations, my Midlander might become an Au Ra (I find playing the RL human boring, but so far they have the best animations).

Do we know that the days are in the right order? Because there is a table of the month on this site with elemental symbols that's in a different order (Iceday, Watersday, Windsday, Lightningday, Firesday, Earthsday, Lightsday and Darksday).

Three elementals come to the conjurers' aid during the conjurer questline (at least that's what I think the other conjurers said when I was running out of the AoE). Here's a few screenshots:

Which city would lose at siege? Ul'dah, because of their bloated population and lack of water and food, you only need to keep them inside for a couple of days, tops, which negates a lot of the "how do we get large quantities of food to us during a long campaign?". Limsa and Gridania also have healers on their side, so they could also go with a smaller force than Ul'dah would require to get at them. Which city would lose at besieging? Ul'dah. They cannot besiege Limsa Lominsa. They cannot cross a desert and then be able to besiege Gridania without getting a face-full of white and elemental magic (remember, when elementals get grumpy, everything, including animals and plants, become grumpy as well). Ul'dah also doesn't have the healing guilds needed to pull off a besieging against those who do. Which city would lose in open conflict on random, neutral plains? Ul'dah. No large number of healers. Only thaumaturges to pick off at a range (against the shield-producing conjurers? Against the quicker archers? If Limsa gets musketeers and rogues counted, those would also be an issue). Their melee units don't absorb as much damage as marauders and lancers. They don't have the real resources (food and water) to keep a large enough force supplied compared to what Limsa and Gridania could muster. Gridania and Limsa Lominsa are about on par; impossible to besiege. Capable of holding out a long siege. Gridania has the most powerful magic known, while Limsa Lominsa can just have their arcanists do a summon rotation with aetherflow instead of sending out real soldiers for quite some time (when the enemy is tired). Is Limsa have a go at Gridania (inland) they'll lose the battle, but Gridania also loses because of the aftermath of having been a battlefield. Limsa should probably be the winner, because I can't figure out any way for Gridania to get at them without losing before they reach Vylbrand. I'm not commenting on the aerial front since I haven't seen any war-ready fleets in the city-states.

So she's could be just a conjurer/scholar then on the mage side? She was supposed to be taught the noble "knightly" arts (in FFXIV this would be Gladiator/Archer/Lancer), and the basics of magic (particularly arcanima as it also has a mathematical application, but in order to truly understand arcanima, you also need to understand the external-internal aether thing that conjury and thaumaturgy is built upon) as the only heir of her family from the time she could walk and talk. But her master in War disciplines saw that she sucked at Gladiator and Lancer, and since it was supposed to be for her self-defense as well, he decided to teach her pugilism and some rouge techniques (this means that she's been studying magic and melee since she was about six, and in Real Life, you are generally good enough to be a teacher, even if you aren't a master, after around 10 years of constant study, and by the time she left home, she had 17 years of formal studies in melee and magic, and that's with aether). Maybe I should add that she wasn't allowed friends outside the household when she grew up (and she was a brat until one of the servant kids let it slip that no one would play with her if she wasn't the masters' daughter, after that, she basically had no friends her own age, and certainly no friendly relations that weren't being paid by her parents, something she became very self-conscious of), so she basically spent every hour of every day studying and training (this, of course, means that she has trouble approaching other people). Basically, since the Calamity, there is only one weapon (axe) that she picked without any preliminary studies/similar experience (and she's currently considered intermediate at it), and she's talented and very interested in magic, so further studies in arcanima and conjury (since she fails at thaumaturgy) was one of the few things she found easy after leaving home, she may or may not have either the Echo or something like Sylphie, I haven't decided yet, so any input would be gratefully received. Basically, she has an agile body and mind for (certain kinds of) magic, but has trouble dealing with people, and is still not totally "grown up" and free of her oppressive parents (one of the reasons why she became an adventurer after the Calamity, was because her parents knew she never could say no to them, and they kept taking her money to pay for their lavish lifestyle because they didn't have any themselves, so she took a profession that would send her all across Eorzea, making it nearly impossible for them to contact her (they can't afford Moogle Mail anymore since they're without profitable skills, without their business, and with no friends after the family scandal broke), and thus, she doesn't have to say no to them). She also has a few less serious problems (she's veeery short, and admires tall people, ergo, she dislikes her height, for example). She's also terrified of the undead (mainly, she's grossed out by them and doesn't want to be touched by them). Oh, and true to her cloistered upbringing, her alcohol tolerance is low, and she's still feeling the culture clash of her pseudo-aristocratic, impersonal upbringing, and the ragtag, personal adventuring life. Ah, does that answer any questions?

So it would be better if she's just some midlander daughter to some rich family that expects her to learn some classes she's not really good at, so she knows a few cross-skills from different classes she wont be playing, and after the Calamity ruined the family business and reputation, she ended up traveling and as she came across them, picked up skills she was interested in. But even if she's interested in a skill, she couldn't always learn it in a time-frame she could afford (give her a lance, and she'll eventually injure more allies than enemies, including herself, even if she admires the jumps. Strangely, despite being a good Arcanist/Scholar and Conjurer/White Mage [is this even possible in lore?], she's rubbish at Thaumaturgy and Summoning. She can also dual-wield, with either short blades or fists, or wield two-handed greataxes, but ask her to use conventional sword-and-shield to attack and block, and she just can't [she has a scar on her face from where her shield smacked her over her nose, and when she tried to use a shield as a conjurer, she failed miserably], for example). Would that be a better base to build on? Also, don't worry, I've decided not to go Padjal! (again, that would be harder to Lore than White Mage, though I'm still wondering about that. What if there was a historical White Mage who left a crystallized soul with the express wish to teach white magic to non-Padjal during a time of need, like an Umbral Era?)

Sometimes one can look at the real world to get some form of idea of how much a person would be able to do (even if it is without the aid of aether and echo). Take knights for example. By around 20-23 years old, they were knighted and had learned swordplay, jousting (lances), horseback riding, archery, courtly manners (whether they'd follow them is another matter), hawking (this was a common hobby among pages, I'm told by history books), hunting and a couple of other things. Of course, they started as pages around age 7, but it should give some idea. Some Shaolin monks start training at age 3 and are considered good enough by 11 to demonstrate their style for the public as an example. Disciplines of Magic is a bit harder to find an equivalent for, but arcanists could be considered magical mathematicians, and if they immersed themselves like monks and knights in their education, it would probably take about 4-5 years to master, if not less (remember, today our education is spread all over our teachers' schedules of many students, if there was only one class to concentrate on, and every sunlit hour of every day was math hour, lots of ground would be covered much more quickly). Thaumaturgy and Conjury seems to be about the same but opposite ends of the same education (Conjury teaches to mend and heal with external power, while Thaumaturgy teaches destructive power from within oneself), they both also seem to have some ecclesiastical purpose. I'm thinking around 5-6 years for that (again, could be less), considering that they need to learn application of their powers as well (assess injuries/corruption, control of destructive power) on top of the ecclesiastical duties. Now, if we were to add all this up, we'd get around 30 years of education to have mastered all the classes to a point, and that only if there is no cross-class perks (conditioned body from knight, balance from monk, reasoning and logic from arcanist, elemental knowledge, tuned to aether from magic and so on. Do we even know if echo works on math? Because that could help with arcanima). The problem isn't really a character that is trained in a lot of disciplines. It is a character that's mastered all the disciplines, have a developed social network outside the disciples, an rich adventuring history and other time consuming things that would get in the way of learning those disciplines. And even if they're trained in all the disciplines until mastery? There is knowledge, and then there's experience. A career student of a monk will have a harder time making their punches land in the optimal area even if they know where they should punch, than a monk who have fought many enemies and know how to compensate for enemy movement in life-or-death situations. So for me, it isn't unrealistic that a multiclass character would exist. It would only be unrealistic if they know what to do in every situation, never make a mistake and just generally be perfect before age 50 (we must allow for them to learn how to walk, talk and eat first, right? And then they study, and then they experience the real world). Also, in-universe, you'd likely not be considered an expert without a lifetime's study in the relevant areas. Of course, this is all assuming a character who was in the position of being a full time student. As and aside: DoL and DoH would take a lot longer to learn and master than DoW and DoM, judging by the real world equivalents.

Plus she'd be the oldest looking Padjal alive with the smallest horns:P. I added it because it was suggested. I think the problem is that I want to do a jack-of-all-trades character who eventually drops a few disciplines in favor of the ones she's actually interested in (yet, for the sake of IC dungeoning when party is one role short, she can make do in a pinch), as well as thinking that she wants to do one thing, yet she really wants the opposite. I wonder, would it be better to make her the Midlander child of a DoM-DoH and a DoW-DoL who disagreed about her upbringing (and their general arranged marriage, though they agree on telling her just how grateful she needs to be for being their daughter), and so they taught her a little bit of everything, and she was kept cloistered in preparation for an arranged marriage (all the while, the Echo makes her dream the memories of adventurers), but her family falls from grace (they profited from both Eorzeans and Garleans, as well as used Ala Mhigan refugees as cheap labor, a fact that came out after the Calamity) and her marriage is called off by the groom's family, and her parents can't stop arguing so she runs away from home and becomes and adventurer. As she grows up and becomes more settled during the past five years (picking up skills here-and-there with the help of the Adventurers' Guild), she believes that the fairytale of the prodigal offspring returning and reconciling with her parents and lifting them up from the poverty they'd fallen into (basically, filial loyalty) is what she's supposed to do, but she distracts herself from doing it because she really, really dislikes her parents. Still, she believes that it is her duty as their daughter to reconcile, and a lot of her growth as a person will be to decide whether filial piety is the be all and end all of her existence. Er, would that be better?

(Warning, this post is ridiculously long and convoluted as heck) Okay, so after revising the back-story of my character to a ridiculous degree to allow for the multiclass system/Echo/Only One White Mage According to Lore/you know what I mean, this is what I ended up with (a Teal Deer, basically): Once upon a time, there was an Elemental worshiping fishing village in Meracydia (previous incarnations of this back-story had Garlean Empire, but due to certain things that is apparent in the back-story, that didn't work out), but they had the unlucky misfortune of being in the way of the Scourge of Meracydia's journey north, and, of course, all the wyverns increasing activity in the area. Several of the fishers died saving the rock, tree and spring water in which their elementals resided as they fled into the sea, but they were decimated and terrified, and didn't dare to return, so they drifted until they came upon an isle made entirely of rock except an almost withered tree on its tallest point where the saltwater yet hadn't reached. The tree was home to an old elemental that explained that the isle is gradually sinking and that all other elementals had either died or left. It advises them to do the same, but the fishers doesn't dare to leave, lest more wyverns would come. The elementals they had saved felt gratitude and also grief that their people would slowly starve to death in fear on some rock in the middle of the sea, so they consulted with the ancient elemental and together, all four of them used their powers to restore the isle into a habitable stage. Oh, most of the fishers didn't survive (as the first harvest was small), but the second generation didn't have the same fear and started trading with the mainland, and thus other classes made their way to the isle. But being blessed with elementals and with a small population meant that the isle was an apparent paradise, and of course, a couple of outsiders hoped to exploit that, and so, by the third generation, the islanders isolated themselves and became more of a folktale on the mainland. Then, at the fifth generation, mainlanders found and tried to conquer the island, only thwarted by the natural protection of cliffs and reefs hiding around the isle and aged ranged disciples. It became clear to the islanders that once the aged disciples of war and magic had died, they had little protection, and so sought the guidance of the ancient elemental (who, by that point, held some improper-for-an-elemental affection towards them). A system was set up: Children with talent in magic would be separated from the rest of the village and taught in seclusion (to prevent them from being corrupted by usual human weaknesses) by their seniors. Others would be taught in the village. If the magicians remained pure of heart, and the warriors (as in DoW) survived their rigorous training, they would be pulled into the aether (via an aetheryte) by the ancient elemental and meet souls of departed job-holders corresponding to their classes and had to pass their trial (two outcomes if you didn't pass: dumped back in the real world with amnesia pertaining to the profession, or lost in the aether forever, if you really screwed up). This system, flawed as it was, worked somewhat. And, by the tenth generation, had become completely twisted. Children were locked by fate (basically "it is your fate to be a fisherman and it is selfish to refuse!" said to three-year-olds by their parents), and if a child had no or multiple talents, they were expected to master them all. Which is where my character (henceforth; Chara) comes in. Lazy, bored, and with average skill in all the skills, she was separated and trained as a magician, and when she got those souls, was trained as a warrior and got those, but thought it all a hassle. She had the echo since birth, but did not know, as all it did on the island was give her strange dreams of wonderful, faraway places. Her grandparents were both on the Council of Elders, so not only was she familiar with the masters of disciples, but related to the islanders' leaders, and her disdain for it all made her unpopular with her peers. In short, she felt trapped. Both by having to practice all her jobs every day, not being able to leave the isle or make other friends. Then the Calamity happened and the surge of aether from Dalamud killed the elementals of the isle. Yeah, isle started to sink quickly and the islanders used the aetheryte to jump into the aether in the hopes of exiting somewhere safe (it had happened occasionally that an islander on a trial ended up on the mainland early on when the elementals weren't used to guiding people through the aether). Chara, by virtue of having the echo, was sent into the heartland of Eorzea. Which is where her internal conflict begins, basically: She believes that she wants to find the other islanders and restore their culture, because that is what she's supposed to want. It is the proper thing to do. She's also supposed to keep being a master-of-all-trades. What she really wants is to be an adventurer, preferably faaaar away from the isle and islanders, so while she goes through the motions, she lets herself be distracted away from any lead (this is how she ended up with the Scions; "you want someone to get this letter to Limsa when there's rumors of my people in Ishgard? Well it is an important letter and the rumors might be nothing so I'll do it!"). She is also letting her practice of certain jobs she finds less appealing lapse (she can still do them, just, not as good as the ones she actually likes). What she doesn't know, is if anyone else is alive, so she doesn't like to talk about the isle and islanders at all (and doesn't press the issue when she guiltily asks of any rumours). Humorously, the Twelveswood elementals don't like her because apparently the ancient elemental of the isle is disliked there (it was a bit of a rebel in its youth, I believe, and liked agitating more refined and delicate elementals). They tolerate her presence, but if she takes one wrong step they'll send everything they have against her. I've gotten the suggestion to maybe make her a Padjal for the WHM thing, which would mean Midlander as well. But since both Hyur and Miqo'te are immigrant to Eorzea, both of them might work (though from the history of the Miqo'te, it almost sounds like they came from the north instead). Anyway, I need help to decide what to do with this (and if the back-story is too complicated).

That's why I said if we'd move at all. I like Balmung as well, but I also think that if there are players who want to move, maybe it would be good to either find out which EU server has the biggest RP presence, or if there isn't anyone in particular, maybe agree on one, well in advance so that the information is there for the people making that choice (and so that, if it becomes a scramble, EU-RPers wont have to finish a debate before a deadline or something). I'm probably going to stay on Balmung, because knowing my internet luck and track record with other MMORPGs, the EU servers probably will be in a location that gives me about the same ping and packet loss (give or take 10-20 ping or so. This was me for AION and ArcheAge Beta 3: US servers=165-190 ping, EU servers=170-180 ping. Yeah, not much of a difference :? and if I'm really unlucky it'll go through that one node that randomly, a few times a day, gives 170+% packet loss which in FFXIV terms translates into 90000). I'm sometimes toying with idea of an FC/LS that has leaders (and subsequently, members and events) of every timezone, but in order to make that work, I kinda need contacts/friends/other people and I don't have that.

According to this (French) interview Yoshi is talking to Blizzard about actual EU servers in Europe somethingsomething Battle.net (can you tell that my French is nonexistent?). Anyway, when that happens, I think there are several EU players who want to make the move to an EU server. But if so, which server would we like RP to move to (if we'd move at all)? And is there already a strong EU-RP server (I wouldn't know, the only EU server I tried was Moogle and everyone I met during levels 1-15 spoke French [and as I said, mine is nonexistent], so I switched to Balmung)? Cerberus - Has a lot of French players, according to what I hear? Others say that it is the Unofficial UK Server? Lich - ??? I never hear anything about Lich, except that a few complain that it's quiet. Moogle - Unofficial French, Italian and 4chan Server? I heard Spanish and Polish might be here too. (Or everyone just wants to be on the Moogle server.) During Early Access, it was one of the servers mentioned in conjunction with RP. Odin - Unofficial UK Server? I hear many Anglophones recommend it. Another possible RP server? Phoenix - I heard that there's a large population? Some claim that it is the Unofficial EU-RP server, but most posts I've seen online say that it's really Moogle, Odin or Ragnarok that's RP. Ragnarok - Legacy Shiva - Unofficial German Server? Zodiark - Another server I barely hear anything about. I just thought we might want to iron it out well in advance to avoid further fragmentation.