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.

I'm actually arguing that no Miqo'te tribe as a "tradition" or rule practiced child killing, as evidenced that none of the other cultures show a reaction to it (Silver Blaze theory). Which means that no Miqo'te tribe or clan were influenced to stop, because they never did it to begin with. (If there are those that did, it was an individual Nunh being abusive, but not "business as usual" for the tribe.) Or there is a mono-society of Eorzeans that either doesn't care or approve of infanticide, and thus does not show any reaction to it. Or Miqo'te, despite the large numbers being assimilated into general Eorzean society, somehow manages to keep it a secret. Neither which I find plausible (especially since the only tribe in-game allows adventurers to pop in at random through a crystal they maintain for this very purpose). The reason why I feel that regular Eorzeans are protective of children, is because of how they treat the children in the game; F'lhaminn towards Ascilia, Gridanians towards the children in the 1.X storyline (particularly the one who tried to burn that elemental tree, if Gridanians were not protective of children, even not their own biological ones, their reaction to his actions would be very different). The church in Drybone in the 2.X storyline. The Buki brothers towards their youngest brother in 2.X thaumaturge storyline. The pugilist master taking in those Lalafells and training them. There's the marauder storyline in Limsa Lominsa. The conjurers taking care of Sylphie. The botanist quest for ingredients for candy for the orphaned children. Really, most of the interactions between children and other NPCs in this game suggests a decidedly familiar attitude towards children from an Earth perspective. But looping this back to biology (since it is in the title); unless the times are very bad, we have instincts that makes us protective of children (modern day example would be to help a lost child find their parents when one doesn't have the obligation to do so), which children are naturally "designed" to arouse (cuteness, high-pitched voice and so on), this is why many societies, independently of each other, are protective of children, and why Eorzea would be exceptional if none of their other cultures had protective inclinations towards children. Which is why I would find it very, very strange if none of Eorzea did not have some sort of taboo, or strong dislike, of child killing, and thus a reaction towards ritualistic/"traditional due to paternity" child murders. Erm, does this make sense? Because I'm pretty sleep-deprived and almost seeing double right now.

General human societies that does not practice infanticide due to paternal lineages. The reason why I pointed out that Miqo'te are generally accepted, and therefore unlikely to participate in large-scale infanticide, is because RL humanity has a history of hating on "other people", which is what I use for this theory/supposition. Miqo'te already have an extra limb to differentiate themselves, and they came to Eorzea relatively late and started to compete over prey. If they showed any widespread inclination to kill (and maybe even eat, going by the lion-centric theory) their offspring just because of paternity, the other races would have the perfect excuse to eradicate the Miqo'te together and then mistreat the surviving remnants (and then go back to hating each other). On your Hellsguard point: It is very different (cultural PR speaking) for a tribe in a harsh environment casting out "extra" children (who seem to be old enough to manage to get to the city-states) because they cannot support them (they might even be pitied for having to make the choice), compared to simply killing children because they had another father. Isn't it sort of pointed out that the Coeurlclaws actively work against integration? I mean, they choose the same sort of lifestyle as the Redbellies in the same area, and the only reason why Duskwights and Wildwoods separated was because the Duskwights refused to integrate with outsiders. (Yet, from what I've heard, Coeurlclaws somehow managed to get a King of all things a matriarchal, traditionalist clan could do. :dazed: This is what I mean when I say that S-E couldn't commit to their first inspiration of the lore or to rehab it to a more acceptable standard, so contradictions crop up all the time.) I should also point out that the Drake tribe, despite no longer having all the merchants around and with a distrust of strangers, still keep and maintain an aetheryte, suggesting that while they are protective of their way of life, they seem to accept having adventurers around (maybe because of their nunh?), and the adventurers in turn, while they might find them strange, does not find them "other" or off-putting enough to make a thing out of it. TL;DR: Humanity is merciless if you're considered "other" in even the smallest ways and not be able to arouse pity. If you start doing things they find morally abhorrent on top of that (just think about everyone's reaction to lion males killing and eating lion cubs, though as "mere beasts" it is tolerated as natural), even enemies might agree to work together to make you conform or destroy you, before going back to their mutual enmity. Hence, tribal/clannish Miqo'te might be considered strange, but since there is no major discrimination outside the most xenophobic areas (Gridania/Ishgard?), they would likely not break some of the largest social taboos without some NPC rallying against them (and their allowed presence in the city-states). Also, Drake tribe is toeing the line between protecting their own culture, and the changing times. This doesn't mean that they're "just" humans with fancy ears and a tail, it just means that their culture isn't "strange" in ways that might prompt the other races to "correct" it for the greater good of humanity. Erm, I hope I got across what I meant, because I kinda lost the plot somewhere in the middle.

Here's a question: Nunh are breeding males. Tia aren't. Would it be possible that women and Tia are traditionally allowed to have as much sex as they want just as long as they don't breed/have children? 'Cause there's probably birth control herbs that haven't been used to extinction around somewhere. Yeah, I'm theorizing about loopholes due to word choice, but it would be interesting if this was the case. By the way, I cannot see a Nunh offing any other male's children by way of tradition (maybe individual nunhs are abusive enough, but not regular society allows it). That's a pretty big part of humanity, and while parents have killed children to get ahead/belief that the child is better off dead, I cannot see it in Miqo'te. Particularly since one of the most maternal women in the series is a Seeker of the Sun (F'lhaminn), and then there's how H'naanza will hold the hand of insecure, not particularly talented, students (granted, both are moon/sun mixes living in the city-states). But even in the Drake tribal life [which seems to have a male leadership to boot!] the Tias take turns raising their younger tribemates (even when they have drastically different opinions of how to go about it), which is unlikely in a sapient society that expects one of them to grow up and kill them, should they be too young to breed. On the fanservice thing, I think S-E started out with making Moon Keepers matriarchal drows fanservice race, while making the Sun Seekers the patriarchal, Arabian Nights Fantasy harem fanservice thing. Then they realized the Unfortunate Implications and doctored the lore, but were still attached to it and therefore lore became disjointed (at this point, I see Moon Keepers as more wolfish [like, actual wolves and not pop-culture alpha-beta-omega wolves], and Sun Seekers lionish [some of the more obvious parallels], with a pinch of drow/harem thrown in, yet still essentially human). In either case, even if they come from the same tribes, they seem to have a wide range of lifestyles (pirate/scholar from the Jaguars, Ul'dah's songstress/storm officers from the Bears, hot springs hostess?/pirate/customs agent? from the Antelopes), so I think that their morality/society would essentially be human, since they adapt so well to living with everyone else (also, we must consider that Miqo'te are welcomed by the other races, which would be unlikely if they practiced child-killings on a societal scale, or anything else that would remove them from humanity to a point that the other races become uncomfortable).

Musketeer/Gunner is already planned to be the third class of Limsa Lominsa. I would guess one of its jobs will be Corsair. I would also venture to suggest Blue Mage (think X-2 Gun Mage), with shooting abilities that copies an enemy ability and then one that fires it. Red Mage is a job that Yoshi-P wants to put in, and currently he suggested that it'll either get a new base class, or it will be a super-job by combining two jobs. If it goes with a new base class, I think a magically inclined Fencer class (that uses rapiers) would work. If Dark Knight will be based on Cecil, it will use sword and shield. So it will probably branch from Gladiator. If so, it will probably have stances/traits that make actions consume HP/decrease max HP by ??% in exchange for DPS. It will maybe be a hybrid Tank/DPS job (Yoshi-P spoke of hybrid roles in the future). From Conjurer, I think Green Mage will show up. Think a combination of Green Magic/Druid/Geomancer/Elementalist from previous Final Fantasies. It would be hybrid Healer/Support. From Thaumaturge I think we will see a crowd controlling mage with some DPS, such as Purple Mage, the reason why I say Purple instead of Time Mage, is because Yoshi-P has already said that we wont get Haste/a/ga/ja. Anyway, Purple Mages would get more crowd controlling abilities, and would be considered hybrid Support/DPS. Marauder is a hard one, but if I get to guess, I think Viking would probably fit well. If Warriors are from the heartlands of the continent, then having berserking pirates have the other job would make sense for a Limsa job. It would combine the aspects of previous Final Fantasy Vikings, Berserkers and Pirate jobs that can be used with a giant axe. Archer would probably become Ranger, if we keep with the Gridania theme. Unlike Bard, who provides a hybrid role in buffing allies, Rangers provide support by debuffing enemies. Otherwise, if Ishgard is involved, I could see crossbow wielding Arbalist, which borrow some from previous FFs but is pretty new. The reason why I mention Ishgard is because crossbows would be pretty effective against the hides of dragons. I think everyone wants Lancer to get a pet wyvern/dragonet, but it is pretty hard with the established lore. There is the Valkyrie job from previous games,which you could have said pet be the ghost of a slain dragon, and thus explain why it isn't around all the time and why Dragoons don't kill it on sight. Pugilist could work with Dancer, and unlike Bard, who buff allies, Dancers could debuff enemies, making a party with both very successful. They both could even have passive traits that buff their own abilities if they're in the same party (something like: 10-20% buff to all abilities if partied with a Dancer/Bard). With how they went for the historical meaning of Paladins (guardians of palace and palatial residents), I could see Ninja and Samurai branch from the same class. The base class would have Katana main hand and Kunai in off hand (They have both Throw and Counter, but changes one or the other depending on job). Then, for Ninja, it becomes Ninjatou and Shuriken, while for Samurai it becomes Katana and Wakizashi.

Actually, I picked those links because both guys went "Harassment? Bah, humbug! Doesn't exist if you are a sensible human being!" while their friends were all "Nope, there's lots of harassment! And do prepare yourself if you're going to go through with this." Since Nariko said that their host/esses are prepared against this stuff, I thought I'd just point out that in cases such as these, it can often turn out much worse than planned, and if they go through with it, prepare to protect themselves as much as possible (since gender is already known, try to not let any other RL info/other characters info out is a good start, so if worse come to worst, they might only need to delete that one character).

About Dimension Hopping: We have Dissidia, which alludes to there being a multitude of universes/worlds which are heavily influenced by crystals/aether/mist/lifestream/mako/whatnot. We have Kingdom Hearts, which suggests that there are worlds that have much the same things, but in different ways (YRP being fairies, yet still best friends). My theory is that the more similar a world is to another, the easier it is for dimension rifts to open between them, either through design or accident (so Shantotto's threat of coming back would probably be credible, while Lightning, by virtue of messing with time-space, is being tossed around without rhyme nor reason). Space and Time seems to often get messed up in Final Fantasy worlds, leading to this sort of thing (even to the lesser extent of Final Fantasy XIII-2 that happened within one world), and also lets dead/undead/dream characters in on the "fun" as well. With Louisoix sending adventurers forward in time, I think we can regard such crossover events canon to a certain extent. Or at the very least, but impossible. Come to think of it, except Vana'diel, Ivalice would be pretty close to Hydaelyn by my theory.

I was gonna post about Maid Café/Host Clubs but then I refreshed the page. So yeah: This. Also: I find it unsettling that this event hybridizes Maid/Host establishments because there is probably a reason why they don't generally do cross-genre stuff in RL well-established cafés/clubs, and I believe that the reason might be a workplace hazard thing (Maid fetish/subservience+Host flirtation/sexuality) by creating a hotpot of harassment and stalking. Using RL genders also makes this more a Meta thing, and if it is different from the character's gender, then it isn't RP (or at least, not the type of RP we generally do). And no one can be prepared for harassment before it happens to them. Even if they're warned by a big chunk of their social circle beforehand.

Since Mysth (character I named myself after on this board) was scrapped, I just thought to announce that I've changed my name to my generic MMORPG forum name to avoid any confusion. *Goes back on working on her new character.*

So, while leveling up my character to the point that she makes sense with her own back-story, I decided to take a break in Costa del Sol while playing around with my SweetFX settings. The only problem is that the recliners don't look very comfortable to /sit in, but then, I remembered that she had a very comfortable (and very portable!) chair of her own. Let us hope that Behemoth doesn't die of a heatstroke. Or that she doesn't burn her bum off on sun-heated leather upholstery. (In other words, she looks more happy and relaxed while riding Behemoth than when she /doze in an FC house [seriously, Midlander women have an even less relaxing /doze than Miqo'te women!] or tries to /sit on a beach chair.)

Actually, it is because of the White Mage lore that the character in my avatar no longer exists (she was destined to be a Twelveswood White Mage, but as I continued to play that story-line, I figured that it wouldn't work and scrapped her). But I've been thinking about this, and I wonder; would it be possible for White Mages of other continents to exist? Presumably, elementals aren't isolated just to Eorzea (even Padjal could maybe exist beyond the continent?). If those elementals and Padjal forgave the previous destruction more easily, they could have eventually started teaching new White Mages. The reason I'm asking is because my new character comes from a sunken isle, which in turn was populated by people from Ilsabard who fled the Empire (the isle itself was inhospitable, but a Padjal reduced himself into Anima and worked with the elementals that had come with them to make the isle livable by making pillars of aetheric energy. When Bahamut's aether dispersed it twisted the pillars, causing the isle to sink and the survivors to scatter). They had common history of survival with their elementals which meant that the elementals were a bit more lenient, which in turn made the Padjali White Mages more lenient (they still didn't teach White Magic if you had left the isle and returned prior to learning it, or if your parents were temporarily away while they gave birth to you and returned. Ascians and Archons were their boogeymen, the first for obvious reasons and the other because it would attract the attention of the first, and the worst possible outcome would be to have a spy/possessed White Mage pupil). What I'm asking is if my character explained their White Mage status (as she became a "Renaissance Woman" by virtue of the isle's societal rules when you don't show a talent for a particular area of expertise) as a "I came from an isle where we taught white magic to a select few" would that be plausible? Or should I, despite the isle's origins and demise with white magic and elemental harmony, ignore white magic in that society altogether?