ansemaru

What I'm also beginning to realize is that the majority of information about the Ixal concerns why they're antagonistic towards Gridania and vice-versa. While it is useful for me, what would be most useful would be more concrete information about Ixal culture, behavior, speech patterns, beliefs... Anything about how they act in a capacity beyond "GRR FORESTBORN" and "OH GARUDA YOU'RE AWESOME WE'RE GOING TO KEEP SUMMONING YOU". But I suppose I'm just going to have to wait until we get beast tribe quests regarding them for that sort of stuff. It's how we got actual concrete data on the Amalj'aa and their culture, after all.

I do not believe any of the available information about Duskwights in canon gives any reasoning behind their tattoos. However, Duskwights have a general paucity of available information in comparison to most other races and clans. Given that they're unique to Duskwights, we can make the assumption that those specific tattoos are of some cultural significance to them. It could be a tradition that dates back to the days of Gelmorra that has died out among the Wildwoods but been maintained by their cave-dwelling cousins. The design- abstract and twisted- likely represents something. Unlikely that it's specific to families or subgroups of Duskwights, but is rather something that is more universal to them. Hypothetically, it could be seen as representing something like the roots of a tree, a crack in stone, or a rivulet of water. But this is all speculation, keep in mind. There's no available information confirming one way or another just what the tattoos mean.

Honestly, I'm pretty fine with Gridanians having less of a leg to stand on in justifying their xenophobia.

Hrm. I'm getting the impression that the difference is either one of two things: Square telling but not showing. The writing continues to imply that the Greenwrath is a major threat to avoid, but events in the game do not ever show the exact consequences of invoking it. If this is the case, we're meant to take these words at face value, regardless of the lack of tangible demonstrations that the Greenwrath and elementals are the same as they were in 1.0. Square using the discrepancy to imply that the elementals were weakened by the Calamity. The reason behind the Greenwrath hardly showing up in tangible form in 2.0 could be entirely an intentional way of showing how much the Calamity changed the world, rather than a weak point in the writing of the game. I'd prefer to believe the latter, rather than the former, but it could honestly be either. All we know for certain is that there is a marked difference in how the Greenwrath is demonstrated in 1.0 versus 2.0. ...goodness, this got off-topic. Back to the subject of Ixal... It seems like there are a few different versions of what forced them to leave Tinolqa/the Twelveswood and why they were once at peace with the Gridanians but no longer. And all of them appear to be based in canon sources. How frustrating.

E-Sumi-Yan doesn't seem all that soulless to me. Sure that's the best way to describe a Wildling? And okay, I think I'm starting to see the point about the Greenwrath- at least in 1.0. There's a marked difference in how it functions prior to the Calamity and after the Calamity, though.

There's a lot of ground to cover here, and while I'm not an expert, I'll try to answer what I can! In regards to the Twelve and Primals: The gods are real entities- they were partially summoned during the Calamity by the collective faith and effort of the people of Eorzea as a means to protect the world against Bahamut. Typically, they do not have physical form or tangible influence in the world- much like the Primals. The Primals are entities that operate on the same axis of existence, but are not in the main pantheon and are instead worshiped by the beast tribes. Get enough crystals and dedicated believers in one place calling for a Primal to take physical form, and it will emerge from the aether in a tangible body. Of course, the beast tribes make a concentrated effort to repeatedly summon the Primals, while the people of Eorzea typically don't put in a lot of energy into giving their gods physical form. Primals and gods alike can lose their physical body and therefore their means to impact the world around them, but cannot be permanently killed. They're forces of nature that simply exist. And Primals are a little more complex than just "they're the bad guys". They're entities that are clearly motivated to continue to exist in the physical world, and tempering exists as a means to an end to have a dedicated number of followers to maintain the faith in them necessary to let them stay in the physical world. But each of them has individual traits- Ifrit is more avid to temper mortals, and wishes to cleanse the world in holy fire, while Titan is more concerned with serving as a protector to the Kobolds, particularly at a time when they've been wronged by the people of Limsa Lominsa. Garuda wishes to eliminate her competitors for worship, and is vicious and capricious, to the point that not even all Ixal are 100% behind her existing in physical form. We haven't seen them face-to-face yet, but it seems like Ramuh is a benevolent protector in the vein of Titan, while Leviathan is more Ifrit-like and demanding. All of them are to some degree motivated by a desire for worship and a connection to those with faith in them, and all of them would prefer to exist in tangible, physical form.

I was aware of the tempered individuals taking on Primal qualities! The Ixal in question are followers of Garuda, but not specifically tempered by her, so they're not likely to be specifically bloodthirsty or fanatical.

It seems like there's a lot of evidence suggesting that the Greenwrath is considerably weaker than it was prior to the Calamity. Given how much of a catastrophic impact it had on the environment in general, it makes sense that the elementals would be less able to punish/drive out those they deemed a threat in their current state. But that's sort of tangential to what seems like a pretty valid/interesting point- there's inconsistency between the 1.0 Ixal information in the Raven, and the information provided in the Botanist questline. It could be retconning, or one of the sources being an unreliable source of information. Or, like mentioned upthread, it could be the summoning of Garuda that made the Ixal the enemies of Gridania and caused them to break the peace.

To anybody reading this thread, I found a remarkably useful bit of information in regards to the Ixal from 1.0: http://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/%27Neath_Garuda%27s_Shadow Seems they were exiled by the elementals before the Gridanians even arrived, due to overpopulation, and migrated out of the forest they consider holy. It was their living outside Tinolqa/the Black Shroud that resulted in their young being born flightless- not a curse from the wood itself, but the absence of a blessing. Or, possibly due to the aetheric nature of Xelphatol itself- it's a land we know nothing about, since the closest thing we've witnessed to Ixal territory is Natalan. It also seems that though Gridania views them as enemies, the Ixali motive for summoning Garuda- at least initially- had nothing to do with waging war upon the forestborn. It was instead a ploy to reclaim their long-lost powers of flight, which failed rather dismally.

Mmm, I'm going to need to go back and rewatch that part- I recall kind of rushing through the Quarrymill quests to catch up to my friends in level. But if the Greenwrath as it is is just "animals hate you", it's hardly the catastrophic fate it's made out to be by Gridania, is it?

Actually, relatedly: have we seen any examples of the Greenwrath actually being evoked post-Calamity? I've not completed the CNJ or WHM questlines, nor any of the archer or lancer ones, so I wasn't sure. It seems to me like it was much more of a tangible threat prior to the Calamity/in 1.0 than it is now.

Oh, that's very interesting for my purposes. I need to continue the Botanist questline, clearly! Not exactly uncommon for Gridania to disenfranchise a race of beings, regardless of what initially caused it. Probably tied to the Ixal committing some kind of act that provoked the Greenwrath- or angered the conjurers of Gridania enough due to the risk of doing so. If they're indeed cursed, and not the victims of evolutionary trends- extensive tool use and "civilized" behavior is more convenient for those who've got their current body plan, rather than wings- the elementals seem like a likely cause of that. Could be that the Gridanians used the elementals as an excuse to drive the Ixal out and treat them as second-class. Or it could be that the Ixal angered the elementals and hold Gridania responsible for it. Given that this story ties into some other groups that are variously discriminated against by the Gridanian establishment, this is extremely helpful to know.

Having played through the story of the game, and even having gone back and made an alt who started out in Gridania, I've found that there's an unfortunate paucity of lore in regards to the Ixal, their culture, behavior, and motivations. At least in 2.0, anyway. I'm trying to write a character plot that involves the Ixal in a capacity other than "token local evil beastmen enemies to fight", and given the lack of information about what makes the Ixal tick, it's kind of frustrating- I don't want to end up breaking lore once a patch rolls around that gives them beast tribe quests and more backstory than "bird people who are the enemies of Gridania, really proud of their janky remaining feathers, no regard for the elementals/sanctity of the forest". So my question is thus: What do we know about the Ixal? I'm particularly curious about information regarding them from 1.0, since I wasn't around to play it, and it's just generally harder to dig up than information from 2.0.

M'usually around at those hours. Not always RPing then, since it's sort of the ideal time for me to do solo play after my FC goes to bed, but I'd be up for RP in the wee hours just as much as any other time of day! EDIT: Aaaand I just remembered that I moved servers to Balmung, and am no longer on Gilgamesh. Curse my reading comprehension and memory levels!

Answering on behalf of our fearless leader- Lansquenet's IC functions are all done through a LS, allowing for people in other FCs to still participate in our activities and join us. Our actual FC chat is OOC, but used for organizational purposes. It is completely reasonable to have a core FC but a linkshell that covers similar/extended functions.

Goblins aren't exactly evil. More likely Garlean.

If my guess about what your not-available-for-normal play race is is correct, I can't really in good faith recommend Lansquenet. We're certainly operating on the wrong side of the law and have a different attitude towards what is "good" than your standard FC of adventurers or mercenaries, but we're not precisely evil/chaotic and I'm fairly certain it's not the ideal place for what I'm assuming is an Ascian.

Miqo'te having feline features is a boon to writing body language for me. In addition to typical tone/expression cues, having ears and a tail to indicate emotional state is really convenient, even if I don't try to faithfully replicate cat behavior. Other than that, my Miqo'te character doesn't really exemplify feline traits. No hissing or meowing or other speech quirks, doesn't try to sit on things people are working on, has never once stolen food from a person for no good reason... Well, I jest on some of those- the punchline there being of course that cats are weird- but to be honest, most of my Miqo'te character's idiosyncratic traits come from who he is as a person, not from him being a catboy.

Talk about a dick move. Now all of the advertisements I've seen for the FC in-game have taken on a rather sinister tone in retrospect- was that jerk just trying to collect as many resources as he could before jumping ship? My heart goes out to those screwed over by his actions. Definitely report him to SE- and with any luck, he'll get caught and punished for them.

Wait, coming from the Duskwights? From what we've consistently seen, there's a lot of prejudice aimed at them, but not a great deal coming from them.

So... have you never done any of the quests in the game, or spent any time in the cities? Because overtly racist Eorzeans are kind of all over the place. This is right outside a major guild in Gridania. Gridania's general xenophobic attitude is colored by the fact that it has constructed itself as a city of Wildwoods, Midlanders, and Padjal- and don't see room for much of anybody else. Duskwights, Keepers of the Moon, and Highlanders live on the margins of the society there, and are visibly worse off. And they're still doing better than the Highlanders in Quarrymill. As Freelancewizard noted already, there's also the issue of every sentient race outside of the playable five being called "beastmen" and viewed as less worthy/intelligent, distrusted because of their appearance and cultural practices. Merlwyb screws the Kobolds over on a legitimate deal and acts justified in it, and like them retaliating is somehow inappropriate as a response to her actions- and it seems like the Mamool Ja are also victims of this treatment. They wouldn't be hanging around Bronze Lake if they weren't hired and then suddenly let go by Limsa Lominsa.

There's a fair bit of prejudice against Duskwights, and Wildwoods tend to be apt to perpetuate it. There's been a divide since the days of Gelmorra, and things haven't really improved for the Duskwights since- they're the ones who tend to be more isolated and more outside of "normal" Eorzean society, with a higher crime rate and a lower number of individuals in visible/respectable societal positions. There's also the note in the naming lore that even though Duskwight and Wildwood names sound very similar, there's more or less no actual overlap. So even if "Nicot" or "Chassebel" are linguistically valid names for both Duskwights and Wildwoods, you're not going to see a Wildwood with those surnames. There's nothing saying there can't be children of a mixed Wildwood/Duskwight union, but there is a considerable social barrier to such a union occurring in the first place. Wildwoods look down on Duskwights, generally, and Duskwights tend to avoid Wildwoods. Any couple would likely be at best in Romeo and Juliet circumstances.

A lot of these are interesting. Which is why, I guess, I'd hate to see them played as a collection of stereotypes and tropes, rather than well thought-out characters. I suppose I've mulled over character types I'd like to see show up in the RP community as well. Characters playing against type, for example. Stoic warriors or devoted cultists a la Mullenkamp- but Lalafells. Elezen in service to the Sultana or sailing on ships. Gentle Roegadyn botanists. Prudish Ishgardians who aren't Hyur or Elezen- how about a Miqo'te from the region! Ala Mhigans who aren't Highlanders, and who aren't tragic and proud- instead, try for dishonorable and ambitious! Putting new flavor spins on classes for the sake of RP could be interesting, if you don't want your character to simply fit into the established story for each job and its guild. In-universe, it's not hard to explain some- you see archers in the ranks of the U tribe out in Thanalan, so having your archer character have learned somewhere other than Gridania isn't out of the question. Honestly, most of the melee classes are pretty flexible like that- a swordsman doesn't need to have learned to fight as a gladiator IC, you hardly need to be a marauder to know your way around a greataxe, spears aren't the sole providence of Gridania any more than bows are, and I like to think that there's room for a pugilist having learned martial arts styles from every corner of Eorzea. The Disciples of Magic are a bit trickier- Stillglade Fane has a monopoly on conjury, and few places seem to have the resources for learning arcanima other than Mealvann's Gate, and while thaumaturgy seems like the sort of magic that one could learn without the guild, it also seems like a monumentally poor idea to do so. Of course, that's part of the fun. A mage who's self-taught or learned their art from a non-standard source would occupy a very interesting place in their world indeed. In general, I'd also love to see more Ishgardians. There are no end to those from Gridania, Ul'dah, and Limsa Lominsa, as is to be expected, and a good handful of Ala Mhigans and even Garleans running around in the game, but I've noticed far fewer characters hailing for Ishgard/Coerthas. Sharlayan PCs would be interesting, too, but we seem to have a dearth of information about it- odd, considering how many major story NPCs are evidently from Sharlayan. I'm equally interested in Ishgardians who embody the culture and social mores of the region as seen in the game as I am in those who rebel against that! Something that I'm also deeply invested in seeing more are characters who were adopted across cultures- who weren't Miqo'te taken in by Hyur. That has been done to death, and I'm pretty sure the ones who exist cover enough bases that we don't exactly need additions at this point. What about someone adopted by Roegadyn or Lalafell? Or a Hyur adopted by Miqo'te? I admit, this might be my fondness for the non-Hyur naming schemes (especially Sea Wolf names), but I'm also really interested to see how someone would play a character growing up in a family that isn't their species- and isn't even the same size as them. It'd be pretty odd for, say, Tadesu Gedesu the Elezen to be three times the height of his mom and dad- but pretty powerful on an emotional level if he loves them all the same. Or go even further, and follow the example we see with Loonh Gah- I'd be really interested in seeing a character who was raised by or spent a portion of their life with beastmen. How would it impact a character to have been brought up by Qiqirn or Sylphs- or something more sinister? They'd likely have a very different perspective on the world than someone from the city-states. ...this got way longer than I wanted it to. I guess there's just a whole lot of things I'd be really interested in seeing in terms of character types!

How interested are you in a primarily RP-focused FC? I admit that Lansquenet isn't for everyone- we're heavy-ish RP, and specifically themed around dual concepts of organized crime and theatrical performance- but we're usually doing something every day, and we're still open for new members of the family. We've also got two linkshells- an IC one by the same name, and an OOC one called Order of Curs, which are great for people who want in on our business but are already part of an FC.

Name: The Elmtree Village Families: Ghria, Dhava, several others that I'm trying to keep open for the sake of others retconning in characters. Location: Central Shroud. Sexual Mores: Typically monogamous partnership. The village was only around for a couple generations, so this was rather nebulously established. Eldest children are sent out, once they learn a trade, to find a partner among other tribes or groups, while younger children stay back (as a hypothetical pool of partners for nomadic Miqo'te, and to help support their elders with the trades that they learn.) The eldest children were meant to join up with other tribes/clans and thus keep the families from inbreeding, while outsiders were to be welcomed in as new members of the village. Males keep their surnames if they wish, but it is common for them to take on the surname of the woman they marry, and that surname is passed to any children. Homosexuality is accepted, but there is still an expectation for individuals to find a partner and raise children- whether this means marrying a beard for the purpose of childrearing or adopting children with a partner incapable of having offspring. Traditions: The families gathered in the Elmtree Village lasted only a brief few generations before the Calamity scattered them to the four winds, so "tradition" is used mildly. They were a disparate bunch of Keepers, descended from a collection of young friends who wanted to settle down and become members of Gridania's guilds without giving up a sense of Keeper identity- compromising between forest and city by building their community on the edges of Gridania in the Central Shroud. The founders and the children born to them became farmers, merchants, and most of all members of the noteworthy guilds of Gridania- conjurers, archers, lancers, leatherworkers, carpenters, botanists. At 15 years of age, children are sent to join one of these guilds, and upon mastering their craft become a full-fledged adult, contributing to the welfare of the village- or, if they're the eldest son or daughter of a family, traveling afield to find a mate and settle amongst other collections of Keepers. Another odd tradition, born of the eclectic mix of families making up the village, was the names they used for their sons. Most mothers in the community only had one or two children of their own, so the suffixes given to male children were spread across all of the families, rather than just the children of one. This meant that though there could be children with the suffix 'a, 'to, 'li, 'sae, and so on, they wouldn't be brothers by blood, but rather by naming and by the bonds of spirit between their families. Of course, all of this is rather esoteric now- the Calamity destroyed the lives and livelihoods of many members of this village, and their whole social structure collapsed in the years following Dalamud's fall. Any Keepers of Elmtree still living are scattered across Eorzea, far from their home village.