Rhio

Rhio goes under "other" (this is becoming repetitive), mostly because she's in the midst of undergoing a massive crisis of faith. When the game launched, Rhio followed Thaliak without the slightest iota of commitment. She liked the idea behind the Scholar, but she was generally not terribly concerned with deities. Still, she had no real need or desire to be an iconoclast and paid her dues appropriately. As far as she was concerned, the gods were simply entertaining stories. A series of losses in her life saw her slipping gradually into a resigned acceptance of Nymeia, helped along by some of her discussions with Eva on the subject. It wasn't so much that she switched over to being a full believer that she started to believe that fate was clearly present in her life, which made the hop to believing in a deity less onerous. It also made her misery at least a touch more explainable. So she marked off fully intending to die in the last battle, that fate had a purpose for her that involved her death. Needless to say, that didn't happen. So come ARR, she's going to be knee-deep in wondering what she's supposed to do or feel. Neither fate nor the absence of fate have worked out well for her, and so she's left adrift and confused. What happens after that is... well, I really don't know. But it does mean she's not quite agnostic, nor a devoted follower.

These are awesome and I am super-envious of everyone.

Treasures from lands far and wide. For a given definition of treasure. One time, Rhio might drop a sword built around a shard of aetheryte crytal, a weapon gently humming with the energy of solidified magic itself. The sword would have a fine edge, but its real strength would be the fact that its wielder could move like water, as if the weapon itself was guiding each block and thrust. Another time, she might drop a bundle of wood with strange properties, wood that could make excellent equipment... if anyone in Eorzea knew how to work the wood. Which they would not. And yet another time, she would drop a book. Not an Arcanist weapon; a book. With half of the pages dog-eared.

Really, any emotes that significantly add to the RP experience are going to be a whole lot of work. That's just the nature of the beast. I like the idea of having them, just like I enjoy the idea of having more options for stance or demeanor, even as I realize that the amount of time needed to get them working properly would be needlessly prohibitive. On the topic of prohibitive options, one thing I'd love to see is more ability to interact with props, either those carried by players or just out in the world. Being able to turn a weapon over in your hands, lean against a streetlight, or pick up a glass would go a long way toward making the game more immersive. It also eliminates the problem of catching up midway through a scene; you don't need to be told that someone is holding a drink, you can see it in their hands. For that matter, you could have the option to make physical items meant solely for roleplaying purposes. That ways you don't have to remember if one character or another has a specific book; it's an actual thing that can be traded and shared. Time-consuming and ridiculously ornate to program, but it would be entertaining. A far less resource-intensive feature would be the option to set some sort of player biography as well as the suggested IC flag. The Lodestone, in theory, could be used to great effect for these functions, especially if there's cross-talk between the site and the game client.

Hey, I legit put tons of effort into my wiki. Which reminds me, I need to finish doing another pass.

It's tricky. Rhio was a criminal in Gridania, but that mess was cleared up, and she was a member of the Adders. She might very well prefer to move to Limsa while she gets back on her feet. Ultimately, I picked Ul'dah because in her mind she's an Ul'dahn citizen regardless of what everything else might dictate.

In terms of gameplay, Rhio's class isn't really modeled in the current game, simply because the two jobs that best fit her aren't currently in the game. Yoshida has said on multiple occasions that they will be, but they aren't there now. So she played variably in 1.0, generally with an eye toward debuffs, dodges, and heals over straight damage. She's fearsome in combat because she's very skilled and very well-trained, not because she possesses overwhelming force. But in terms of Final Fantasy mythology, she's a Gambler. She enjoys eclectic weaponry, she prefers stunning and surprising ploys to more reliable methods, she disorients and confuses her opponent rather than engaging on fair terms. The Corsairs of FFXI, Setzer of FFVI, and the general sense of style and glitz informing the job all perfectly suit Rhio's personality. Not to mention that she's skilled in unarmed combat... and that means working with the Mirage in Ul'dah. Not a coincidence.

We've all got ideas in our heads about how our characters sound, and they don't always have logical reasons. My partner in crime's character, Malcolm Foxe, has an English accent. Rhio sounds Arabic. They were both born and raised in Ul'dah. It doesn't make a tremendous amount of sense if you stop to think about it, but it's part of how we flavor our characters. If your character sounds Scottish, she sounds Scottish. I wouldn't sweat the details too much.

Welcome to the coalition! Eorzea is the continent, Hydaelyn is the planet. So both are accurate, in the same sense that "see you on Earth!" and "see you in Australia!" would be accurate.

I really wish I didn't have so much work to do this evening that I could pop in. Then again, Rhio at age 12 is a completely different person from Rhio as an adult. Girl went through some times.

I'm astonished that despite writing a weekly column on roleplaying, I haven't actually written about villainy since July 2010. The key is, as Deirdre is hinting, that no one is ever a villain. Deir herself wasn't a villain; she accepted a job spying on people she didn't know at the time in order to keep her children safe. Rhio worked with (not for) the Empire for a while, but that was part of a ploy to get closer to someone. I've had a character attempt to murder pretty much everyone she knew, because she genuinely believed this was the greatest kindness she could give them. Unfortunately, the problem here is one of scale. Being villainous with justification doesn't leave your character feeling like a villain, but passing beyond the pale into full-fledged awfulness leaves everyone with a burning desire to perform an impromptu vivisection on your character. You need someone entertaining enough to be worth leaving alive while still being vile enough that people genuinely want to counter their agendas. In terms of a full shell... I'm not sure if it would work to have a persistent member of a group known to be villainous, but it could work in short doses. You'd be jumping shells a lot, but you could certainly play up the idea that the person in question is basically being kept on a short leash by the group's leadership. Until he or she finds a way to slip the rope, so to speak.

I think the gray suits her a little bit more.

Bats up adorable by 800%. True facts. Awesome sketch.

It's non-canon (unless the people playing agree it to be canon). x3 DAMNIT STOP MAKIN' ME DERAIL. Taking a page from one of the chief inspirations for Rhio, everything is canon. Especially the parts that aren't.

Well there's a thing I didn't know existed up until now. Not that I should really be RPing Rhio at this point anyway. On the point of WoD Online, I will get interested when I can play one of the following: - A Kitsune (yes, I know, they're mostly Nuwisha but with foxes, I don't care) - A mummy (yes, I'm fond of pretty much anything with a vaguely middle eastern flavor, even if Egypt is a bit far) - A demon (yes, I really enjoyed this eleventh-hour addition) - A Ravnos (yeah, let's see that get past White Wolf right now) - Pretty much anything from Doomslayers (because Doomslayers) Until then, I'm hedging my bets.

That's still doing fairly well on the grand continuum of prom dates.

Rhio has to go under "other." Her loyalties tend to be intensely personal rather than national, but even beyond that they're frequently ambiguous. She's from Ul'dah, she's a member of Gridania's Grand Company, she was trained around Ishgard, she has worked with (although not precisely for) the Empire, and she avoids making any statements that could be construed as actually nailing down a specific affiliation. However, "none" implies that she's not loyal, which isn't the case. She just tends to keep her loyalties on a complicated and sliding system. She is decidedly loyal to Eorzea, but she isn't necessarily loyal to any individual part of the region.

Xenedra asked me earlier today if I'd requested a card. I said I had not, and I believed that all the cards were filled. But apparently that's not the case after all, as I don't see anyone for the Page of Swords. Which is about nine-tenths of a quintessential Rhio anyway. So if I'm not being presumptuous, yeah, I'd like to request Rhio in there. It fits.

Too sexy for their shirts.

It's the "probably" part that sells this. Anyway, Rhio's tree is boring. It's got one more link than Xenedra's and that's about it. Ah, well.

Hey, being shy has worked for many of us for years, and we see no reason to stop cowering in the dark corner of the room now. If you don't like it, we'll show ourselves out. Which we'll probably do if you do like it. On second thought, forget I brought it up. More to the point, welcome! It's a pretty friendly bunch here.

The math is simple. Open beta is not happening right now, therefore open beta is too far away.

Rhio has never been wealthy, exactly, but she's never been poor for long either. In 1.0 she made more than a decent living and was actually quite well-off for a while, although she gave most of it away either as gifts or as charitable donations. By the time that Dalamud fell, Rhio's home was already destroyed and she was marked as a criminal in Gridania, thus resulting in the seizure of most of her assets. Despite that, I still picked middle class, for two reasons. First of all, she had squirreled some things away in buried caches prior to Dalamud's fall, and while most of those caches contained historical records that would be of interest to future explorers (since she expected that Eorzea might not make it through) she also did tuck away some gil and useful items for herself in the event that she survived. Second, however much money she might actually have, she doesn't give the impression of poverty. Well, unless she does. Rhio's like that sometimes.

Welcome to the thing!

Welcome to the community! Ironic that you mention being too much of a college student to play FFXI, since being in college was part of what prompted me to buy FFXI in the first place.