Oli!

We're probably way way way beyond the Spoiler threshold at this point, but just for the sake of completeness, this entire post contains spoilers. This just seems to be the Fast-Track way to getting it done, really. Fighting another Monk that has their stuff going for them might do it for the similarly-aspected Chakra as it does for light and dark, but we don't know this for sure. However, background aether being the most important cause for pass / fail wouldn't make sense, considering that there was a veritable army of these guys, fighting each other to open their Chakras. If you could only use specific locations of former battles to get Chakras open (which, it should be noted, cannot be used for a very long time by anyone afterwards), then it would not be feasible for a large group of Monks to exist in the manner that we know they did. Add into that the fact that you are basically getting swamped during the 50+ questline by Darksiders that want their Chakras open (which means that they have to have some of theirs open on their own), and we run into the problem of there just not being enough places for everyone to get their Chakras unlocked if this was the only way to do it. To theorycraft beyond this for the hell of it, one of the recurring themes when it comes to unlocking Chakra is the "quickening," or something like that, of Aether, if my memory of a certain dialogue bit is correct. Large amounts of background aether floating around is one example, because the aether in your body interacts with it. Fighting another Monk is another example, because their pistons are firing, and your pistons are firing, and your aether interacts again. That said, it might be possible to "force-quicken" Aether through other means; having a Thaumaturge or Black Mage spew Aether all over the place might make things a little easier, for example (it could be argued that Yda and Papalymo did this during the 2.5 content, but that's another argument entirely). Converting a large crystal into Aether that is then absorbed or released into the environment might also serve the same purpose. If you wanted to Get Evil with it, absorbing the Aether or life force of other people, like the Bad Cat does in the final Monk quest in order to achieve Ultimate Power, might aid you in opening a Chakra as well. Part of what makes the sites of former battles so appealing is the absolutely huge amounts of aether that were released when people fought and died; the aether of all those people allows you to get done in a few minutes spent punching wildlife what we can assume would normally take several months or years of hard work. I would argue therefore that, despite location being important as far as where aether is goes, the real clincher here is that the more aether there is around you, the easier it is to get Chakras open the first time, though large amounts of aether itself may or may not be necessary at all. Less of a decisive factor, and more of a time-saving one. But, again, this is theorycrafting based on what we are given.

SP00PY All I know is Do Want.

Remember to spoiler stuff, my friends.

As far as quests go, I don't think there's really any stressed "dangers" of opening your gates, though those in the storyline that have opened them tend to be a little power-hungry about it. If you wanted to come up with something, the stress of being unable to handle the aether might work, since we have examples of that happening in other places, I believe. The closest thing that we have to a danger is the following:

The difference is that they're not saying "now no one can play the story," they're just saying that "you don't have to play the story if you don't want to." Those that still want to play the story can play the story. Those that don't want to, won't. Player Choice makes video games better. There is no way that more Player Choice can make a game bad.

Thank you! That seems to be my default aesthetic, for better or worse. Here's some more stuff:

Nope.

This FF game needs a plot now.

MONK BROTHERS REJOICE THEY BUFFED US LOOK UPON THE PATCH NOTES AND CELEBRATE

Oliwat is actually designed as a character to fill a character type I've seen in various places, which I call the Odd Wanderer. They show up in strange places at opportune times, offer advice that seems out of place at the time, yet becomes surprisingly relevant later, help the party or player when they're stuck, and as far as anyone can tell, have forgotten more than anyone else will ever know. Bonus points if where they come from is forgotten or far away, or never mentioned at all. Famous examples include the Wandering Minstrel, Kaepora Gaebora from the Zelda series, and others. He'd be dressed as a mage of some sort, but no skills of his would ever be seen in combat. Adalhaid would probably be the Outsider of the main party, and recruited later or last in the storyline. She's the sort that remains quiet and says Basically Nothing at all times. She doesn't have any personal connections to anyone in the party, at least not outwardly, and would probably only be recruited because of her prowess in combat. Side-plots that delve into her background later on in the story may cause her to open up to the party a bit, completing the Circle of Friendship they'd need to tuck the final boss away for good. She'd be a Monk, class-wise.

If this is the case, then: ...My intense hatred of gated content aside, my personal hope is that they'll take an Open World approach to future content; if you want to get the full storyline and stuff, you'll have to go back to the old content and do it (unless you don't have it, in which case it's unlocked for you so that you can use the expansion that you paid for). If you don't want to do the content, all the zones are open anyway and you can run around and do whatever you want in them. This approach is what I usually see in MMOs, and I would be very happy if that's what they've decided to go with. Catching characters up through a story that I've done already so that they can get to the new content is a snoozefest. That said, I'm also wondering if this means that new classes, if any, will be added to the character creation screen / put in more accessible locations so that we can acquire them easily.

Adalhaid is a legit monk, full-stop. Chakra, meditation, religion, all that. Being a monk doesn't pay, though, so she mines and does manual labor. Oliwat, as much as people seem to think otherwise (both IC and OOC, surprisingly), is nothing more than a very, very clever Thaumaturge. Though that might change later, depending on how plot-related things go.

For people like me that have no idea what this means, can we have a primer or a link for some info?

Oh man, now I've gotta do one. Wind-Up Oliwat (item): Just as Oliwat had Clatterpouch, you, too, can have your very own mechanical companion to help explore Eorzea! Use this item to acquire the Wind-Up Oliwat minion. Wind-Up Oliwat (minion guide): According to the doll's likeness, the explorer Oliwat Kokiwat, this wind-up toy is constructed using long-lost technological advances uncovered over several generations by the Rattlepack Society. Exactly what those advances are, however, the Lalafell declined to say... Behavior- Independent Interactions: - "Casts" Flare to "help" in combat. - /doubts other mage wind-ups. - Hugs Mammet minions. - Hobbles over and stands next to Wind-Up Edda Vincents minions.

This is fair, and also the stance that I've held from the beginning (meaning the post I made when I jumped in here, like a page or two ago). I still maintain that the simplest answer to the thread's stated question is that if you have the capability to be "witty," however that is defined on an individual level, then yes, your character can be witty. The inverse is also true; if you are unable to be whatever you consider to be "witty," then your character cannot be, because you cannot emulate something that is foreign to you. The idea of what is witty and what is not is something entirely subjective and inarguable because it is not a definite truth. As a result, I would actually go so far to say that that argument is a complete distraction from the thread's question. My first post, for the sake of completeness, I guess:

Not quite! It is, historically, a snob's argument, the same way that Shakespeare couldn't have possibly written his plays because there's just no way anybody in the middle-class could have written things that sharp. Perhaps you are not consciously being a snob about it, and that is fine. As for time, well, you went to architecture school, and I to a liberal arts degree. Clearly the time is self-evident. Wit isn't necessarily the tool of the snob. Just recall that wit was the province of the literate and the educated, and for the better part of a few thousand years, the only people getting taught to read, in fact taught at all, were the rich and privileged. Off-topic I guess, but again, not quite correct. This was not the case in all cultures, and in fact, was mostly the case in Europe. Tribal societies schooled all their members in what was known, and in their history, local geography, culture, etcetera. China practically invented the standardized test for the sake of admitting government officials for employment and further education (though whether or not it was aimed at the masses or the few varied by dynasty). The Aztecs implemented mandatory schooling for all over the age of 15. These are just a few examples. Intelligence, wit, and education aren't class-specific all the time, everywhere. It varies greatly, and it might help our view of this topic as a whole to stop viewing it strictly through that lens.

Another similarly murky, culturally-defined term, that. The fact that a distinction has been made in this thread between technical proficiency and intelligence is just one facet of how vague it can be. But to get to the point: All you really need to do to be seen as a wit in RP is portray your wit with sufficient authority that when it's well-received, it's seen as intelligent, and when it isn't, it's seen as pretentious snobbery. That leaves out the other bit that people were hoping to get at here, namely being funny. Wit includes humor, after all. Being the target of condescension is very rarely funny, and although it can be, it seems that that formula would be more miss than hit to many.

Yes! And that wit is a snobby wit. I don't really see snobbyness anywhere in there, though. Intelligence, yes, but intelligence belonging solely to the upper class is neither universal historically, nor implied in this thread, I don't think.

The notion of real wit is a classist one. It presumes a certain style of speaking and a form of quick response that was most easily accessible in the past to those with certain educational and financial opportunities. In this we need to think of wit as distinct from humor, because even if we hold the idea of "Do those around the speaker find him/her to be witty," then this man: Is very witty to a significant portion of the population if we don't make that distinction. I dunno, this seems like a sudden and unnecessary leap to me. I think it's pretty well established throughout the thread that we're talking about this wit.

I think we're getting into Thinly Veiled Insults territory again.

I could be wrong, but I think what he was trying to get at, really, is that some things cannot be informed and structured. That's part of the reason why some traits, such as being witty, funny, or charming, or other things like that, are so sought after both in real life and in terms of writing; it requires a certain amount of context and situation reading that cannot be immediately or quickly manufactured. It's like the line between Intelligence and what some people call Book Smarts; Intelligence is genetically informed, and cultivated over a lifetime. Book Smarts can be bought with information, memory, and man-hours. That's not to say that one type or the other is inherently better or useless compared to the other, but it is to say that these things are very, very different. In the instance that you run into something that cannot be manufactured, it's okay to admit that that's something that will never be grasped. As an example, as much as I wanted to be when I was younger, I currently accept that I will never be a physicist, as my mind cannot hold onto necessary information long enough. I can't work harder at that, or manufacture a better memory, because it's a physical disability. The question I'm sure you're asking at this point is whether that's really comparable to something that isn't physical, such as Being Witty. It isn't in a strictly literal sense, but there's a certain hard cap when it comes to the hours needed to learn something like that, and the amount of time that someone actually has. In other words, much like something physical, it stops becoming something that can be manufactured within a lifetime. This brings us back around to the Tennis example; yes, just about anyone short of the physically disabled can learn how to play tennis. If you sink enough hours into it, you can even be great at it. However, eventually you reach the point where there is just not enough time left to learn something, because you won't live long enough. Some things, such as being witty, really do require half a lifetime or more; if you're already there, and you're not witty, then, as bad as it might sound, there's a very solid chance you won't be. I'm not trying to be harsh or anything, it's just that a lot of things work this way. Sports, art, science, wit, and more. And that's all without getting into even more technicalities, such as the physical state needed to play sports, the mental attributes needed to be witty, etcetera. Those are real factors as well. That said, however, most people do have the capacity to be witty, and usually choose not to be, due to social limitations, shyness, or other things. What is important, however, is that they have the capability. I doubt that anyone in here is truly incapable of being such, though those people are out there. EDIT: Wow I messed up that quote attempt, fixed it.

Outside of just saying that a character Said a Witty Thing, the answer would be No, if you're not capable of constructing something that is witty. This assumes some sort of absolute wittiness, but the same thing is true for all facets of a character, like it or not. You could debate whether or not things are truly witty, or truly smart, or whatever else, of course. But whatever you personally define as witty / smart / whatever trait you want, is only achievable if you, too, are capable of constructing that behind the keyboard. You can always state narratively that your character says Something if you can't make them say that yourself, however, though writing-wise, this will fall flat for most people even if the character would be true to themselves regardless. An easy way to see this would be to play a character that is a mathematician, as they work in a field which does have a sort of absolute correctness in most cases. If you can't do the math that your character is supposed to be doing, then it's very clear that you can't "play" a mathematician. Sure, you could get people that are mathematicians to help you out, or vaguely say that they are Doing Math, but if you are incapable of grasping or understanding that facet of a character, then you won't be able to play them to the fullest extent of their characterization. So, individual reflections on what is or isn't reflective of various traits on a specific level aside, this is the answer to your question.

Alphinaud's got one, Y'shtola's got one, if your character had a miniature made out of them, what would the flavor text say? Heck, let's go a little more in-depth. Do they react to emotes? Fights? Other minions? Here's a list of other minion interactions to get your mind jogging.

So I ran the dungeon in question for fun today, and I noticed some stuff regarding the White Magestones that were mentioned earlier, along with some other stuff. Keep in mind that some of this is just theorycrafting. The White Magestones are not yellow, I can confirm. They're glowing blue in a black casing. The area that they are within is the "Sanctum of Dreams." This, in turn, is housed inside the "Tower of White." The latter suggests rather plainly to me that this was the places that the White Mages called home, considering that they were more or less an order within the old society, while the former suggests to me that this area may have been their innermost chamber; just as the Conjurer's guild is primarily a place of quiet for meditation, so too, I believe, was the Sanctum of Dreams before its takeover by voidsent. In addition to housing the White Magestones, the Sanctum of Dreams is also oddly clear of any sort of corruption as is seen all over the outside of the city. It permeates the city so thoroughly that it seems rather unlikely that it wouldn't be able to find its way inside as well. I personally feel that the reason why it may not have been able to would be due to a concentration of healing magic within the Tower of White. Within the Sanctum of Dreams are two other sublocations. The stairway you make your way down is the "Arrested Darkness," while the central area where the final boss is encountered is the "Waking Nightmare," a name in stark contrast to the name of the entire area. Both of these names would suggest to me that the Sanctum of Dreams was a location that was taken and perverted to serve the opposite of its intended purpose, a place of rest and healing. As a result, I don't think it would be much of a stretch to say that the White Magestones are using, or were otherwise created by, White Magic. It's also worth noting that the exit to the Sanctum of Dreams is marked as leading to "Central Amdapor;" although I don't know how involved they were in the use of Black Magic, it is clear that they held White Magic in much higher regard. The fact that they would build a temple to it in the center of their city speaks volumes. Dungeon maps for reference:

I'm not going to get into the meat of this argument, but I did want to say that I agree with this. Indeed, there are real martial-arts with dance elements that are very flashy, and still see real use. Capoeira, in particular, comes to mind. One of my characters uses a Hydaelyn-ized version of it. These things are real and out there. Perhaps not common, but out there.