D'aito Kuji

I'm fine with RP without specific context. I don't have to obey my own character's timeline. I do prefer to RP in real time but I can't ask that of people since it's my own slice of insanity. So I will violate my character's cause and effect and RP with another person and then resolve it after the fact. A while ago (i've been having computer issues) I RP'd a bit with someone from another zone, knowing that my character would not have been in that zone based on the timeline. D'aito Kuji is currently freezing in the north while doing whatever it is she does, presumably step & fetch while bounty hunting. But I don't pass up on RP very often, especially when I'm not the one starting it. Later, I mentioned the interaction on my IC blog and placed the adventure in a different spot on her timeline, before her journey to the north. This might not work for everyone, but since I'm the author of her journey, I don't see why I can't tell her story out of sequence. I might say that I was inspired by Pulp Fiction but to be honest, it was Durarara!

I'm not especially skilled at walking up and talking to people in-game or in life. But what I have done with a lot of success is talk to the NPCs. I bow to them, react to their words to me, complain about them, or the weather, or whatever else. And that can sometimes get the attention of others in the area. "Can you believe this guy?," she says to no one in particular. And if people take me up on it and chime in, super good. If not, that's just fine. I don't mind RP'ing in my head. I have caught a little grief from time to time doing this, not everyone appreciates a role player. But the game is so large and there's so many people, it's not super likely that you'll run into that person again. I also have a RP blog that sometimes (not that often) gets me opportunities to RP as long as I'm able to actually log into the game. But alas, I was too busy and now I've got computer problems. But I'll be back sooner or later. Best of luck and if you see D'aito Kuji, feel free to walk up. She's always looking for things she can use, trade, or sell.

Keepers: Lazy day sleeping, round eyed snaggletooths. Huyr: Round eared, hairless lemur monkeys. Roegadyn: Thick skulled oafs. Buffalo men (women). Lalafell: Untrustworthy, lying, scheming, balloon heads (or egg heads) Elzen: Insufferable, snobbish, scrawny, stick figures. Au Ra: Lizard shaped dragon poop Some of these D'aito would only think to herself or shout at a considerable distance. She's quite intimidated by the size of Au Ra males and her ignorance about them. Seekers: Neko (i.e. freaking Neko!) In my own head canon Neko is what D'aito calls Seekers who engage in eternal bonding or seek out monogamy. She sees it as a Miqo'te wanting to be like the Huyr (who presumably have a history of pair bonding).

I've mostly just ignored in-game time because I feel like I have to. So much goes on in the MSQ that I simply don't believe that it could be done in a year or two or maybe even three. I play my characters in real time based on the time the game started or my involvement in it. I came to the FFXIV a few months after launch so exactly that much time has passed. D'aito is now around level 43, has some experience in fishing, crafting, gladiator style fighting, and a few pugilist lessons (real time helps me justify the gaps when I'm unable to play consistently). She arrived in Limsa Lominsa around her 20th summer solstice and she is now presumably 22. Like with most things MMO, I have my game canon, my cooperative RP canon, and my own private canon. I'm more strict when it comes to my private canon but if there's group consensus in the FC about how much time has passed, I stick with that.

I tried the thing but I didn't run into anyone from here, I suppose. Someone did walk-up but it was because of my search info.

This is my head canon, that older Lalafell smell different. Not in like a corpse-y way but just different, like cedar maybe. It might be so subtle that only Miqo'te can smell the difference but maybe anyone can if they knew there was a difference. Personally, I don't mind that Miqo'te don't discernibly age. Not that the Miqo'te are "cat people" more so than "people who just happen to look a bit like cats" but looking at pictures of my cats from 10 years ago, the only difference I can see is that they are all fatter. (In my own head, I do tend to RP Miqo'te as significantly more tethered to actual cat behaviors. It's just more fun for me that way. ) I think it would be fun if the Miqo'te got fatter as they aged.

It's almost always like this. This site has been tremendously helpful, informative, approachable and generally friendly. My RP has been greatly improved since coming here.

In my head canon, the Miqo'te of D'aito Kuji's tribe, live on average 40 years. This is for all the reasons Sounsyy mentioned. Her tribe is traditional having changed little in generations. They are subsistent hunter-gatherers who have managed to survive in one of the most brutal areas of the Sagolii (conveniently located beyond the game map). But survival can be difficult. One bad season, dryer than normal conditions, or a sickness brought from merchants could cause a lot of damage. On top of all that, members of D'aito's tribe are violent towards outsiders and this limits trade for critical things like medicine, potions, and spells. Add to all of this the instability of the Nuhn, and it's easy to see why 40 might be a grand old age, and an age that only the females tend to see (it would take an exceptionally strong Nuhn to remain in that position much beyond 40). Anyway, that's the really not the question that was asked but I really like to take Lore and add real-life-ish pressures to a group of people.

http://36.media.tumblr.com/5d674b84a9dbf1cc6e47d0c0db85fe45/tumblr_nrvdocdxZv1tmmfrio1_1280.png[/img] D'aito Kuji is all about her armor. It's her favorite thing to wear and it's generally the only thing she wears unless she is sleeping, is attending a special event, or needs to be in uniform. She prefers deep red or dark blue tints with silver or gold colored trim. She believes that the armor helps her look more legitimate as an adventurer. She worries that she may not be taken seriously because of her small size. She is also appreciative of the androgyny her armor provides as she tends to be uncomfortable in traditionally feminine clothing and styles. That did not stop her from purchasing a set of heavy duty armor in pink. Unfortunately, as the adventuring life does not always pay well, her retainer had to sell the armor to keep their room at the inn.

Neko /10

I do something similar. All the standard and mostly uneventful step and fetch, delivery, and message carrying missions are things my RP character has actually done. She has done a lot of the hunting and culling too. She has a retainer and sells things on the market. All the basic things plus a little bounty hunting on the side when applicable and not too unbelievable. But most of the stuff in the MSQ are things I only RP for myself.

To be clear - this was an IC interaction. But both my character and myself were a little bewildered. And I too love it when different factions fuss - makes the world seem more real and the stakes a little higher.

They have some bewilderingly complex naming rules (if you don't speak Japanese) but that's about it.

Hey, I unexpectedly caught some flak yesterday when I was in Central Thanalan over my Chocobo wearing the Maelstrom barding. It had not occurred to me that doing such a thing in one of the other city-states might be offensive. Has anyone had their allegiance to one of the city-states questioned while outside of it? And if so, what would your character say or do? I for one changed the barding after some in-depth denial of my character being a spy for Admiral Merlwyb. (if I was would I go around parading the flag of my city-state? I should think not)

In Costa del Sol, there's a somewhat unpleasant Lalafell named Gegeruju who sends you on a quest to track down late or missing dancing girls. I came away with the impression that their contract may not have been especially fair to them. It felt like indentured servitude, I suppose. But I may be reading a lot into that interaction. Anyway, I have RP'd that something akin to this happened (not necessarily Gegeruju) and D'aito still feels bad for turning them over.

D'aito Kuji longs for adventure and trills and challenges. She is not deliberately acting out the Hero's Journey or seeking to save Eorzeans from the whatever. She does bounty hunting but only for the gil and the thrill. And she is becoming known as an adventurer who will not easily give up on the task she's been contracted to do. D'aito won't knowingly violate the laws of the land and will not play the role of an assassin. Her brief time with the Drake Tribe and their politics left her with a sour stomach so she will attempt to avoid political squabbles. This isn't to say that D'aito is morally gray. She has a sense of right and wrong but those senses don't always coincide with business. For instance, while she feels bad for returning Miqo'te "dancers" to the people who "contracted" them, she did as she was asked. And she has returned people who escaped from confinement despite suspecting they were falsely charged or convicted. Fortunately, these problematic cases don't come up very often. The vast majority of her work is fetching, hunting, fishing, delivering, escorting, and any number of odd jobs that pay. But many an adventure has spawned form what was thought to be a simple job.

Welome, friend! Hope your journey to Balmung is swift and free of trouble.

In-game it took me (and presumably my character) by surprise when she was referred to as Sargeant Kuji. Others, Minfilia for example, calls her simply "D'aito" - which seems a bit informal to me.

D'aito has commented in her newsletter (tumblr blog) about their appearance and smell. She promised to put pictures in her next update. Not to spoil anything for anyone who actually reads the blog, but there's usually significant economic impact on a region when faced with a dramatic increase in immigration. It would almost certainly become temporarily impossible to make a living fishing, fetching, and fighting. There's too much competition.

ERP. That is all. <10

Character Fear? Aside from the usual and well recognized fears of brutal and painful death and a phobia regarding Yarzon Feeders, D'aito Kuji has a fear of her mistakes costing someone their life, especially innocent life. This can become a self-fulfilling prophecy as her reticence to make a snap decision can be the mistake that costs a life. How do they cope? D'aito copes primarily with heartfelt prayers to the Twelve and to Azeyma the Warden in particular. She will also take more practical steps and try to think about everything that could possibly go wrong and plan a strategy to counter them. Unfortunately, D'aito is not as intelligent or thoughtful as she thinks she is and this breeds overconfidence. When she recognizes her mistake, she tends to beat herself up over it and questions her role beyond the tribe of her birth. Such existential crises do not tend to last and are often abated by a few stiff drinks. How do people respond to their fear? It's not uncommon for D'aito to passively-aggressively seek positive and comforting feedback from her peers, especially those in the Blood Roses Free Company to which she is a member. She will utter self deprecating things about herself and expect a refutation. Many people find this annoying and also find it difficult to know when D'aito is genuinely upset. Knowing that she can be overconfident and occasionally absent minded when it comes to planning something, friends, partners, or colleagues must add their own input if they wish to reduce the risk of being killed. The only reason others consent to her leadership is her uncanny ability to get a job done and overcome stupendous physical challenges in spite of the limitations of her intellect (she is a tank, after all). Do you think one day they could be cured of there fear? I think she could overcome some of her fear and just accept that sometimes people under her leadership will die. But this might be a hinderance as much as a help. Many leaders can begin to see those under them as pawns and can disassociate themselves from the consequences of the dangers they face. And because it's unlikely that D'aito will gain greater intelligence, this could become especially dangerous when mixed in with her overconfidence. It may be a good thing that D'aito fears making costly mistakes but that is little comfort to her or the families of those whose lives she's inadvertently taken.

- How does your character deal with killing? According to a few sources, the violent death rate was 30 times higher in the late middle ages or early renaissance than it is today. If I apply that to Eorzea, then violent death is almost as common as heart attacks are today. That is, it would almost be a certainty that someone you knew was violently killed or that you had killed someone. So I try not to apply current world moralities to my characters efforts. D'aito Kuji kills when commanded, kills in self-defence, kills in the protection of others, and there is little resistance to doing so. Before our modern conveniences, lots of people had to kill their own food or at least knew more about where and what their food came from. People were far more comfortable with death because they were very familiar with it. Add to all that, the rates at which people died form disease, infection, childbirth, and accidents, people had a tendency to become callous about death, even violent death. This helps to explain why so many people enjoyed public executions or animal torture as a form of entertainment. The psyche simply had to be far more impenetrable to the softer emotions. That's all a lot to throw onto Eorzea. Our world doesn't have magic and some of the technologies used in the realm are beyond what we can do today. So, Eorzea isn't as grim as our world was back then. But I still believe that the average Eorzean is very familiar with death (especially post Calamity?) But I use some of these historical things to inform how I think D'aito would deal with death. Which is to say, she doesn't really think much about it at all unless the death was as a consequence of her own incompetence. That would plague her both for the permanent nature of the failure but as a stain on her own sense of self and her pride. - How did your character feel after his/her first kill? D'aito was no doubt elated and flush with the thrill of victory. In her tribe, like most of her sisters, she was raised as a hunter. This helped to familiarize her with death and what it means to take a life. When she joined the Maelstrom, her and fellows were ambushed by pirates and D'aito killed two of them but only after her commander had been run through. To this day she regrets not acting faster and she is determined to not let another person die for her mistakes. - Does your character mull over it later on? (Exe. The nightmares) It would be wrong to say that she does not. She chooses not to speak about them only rarely mentioning that she has killed anyone. But she knows exactly how many and is no stranger to the soothing power of alcohol. It quiets the mind before sleep and generally cures the nightmares. She can become highly agitated when it is not available and will experience nightmares without it. So there's no doubt that she's uncomfortable with what she's had to do but I feel that she's more haunted by what she was unable to do and the price of her failures.

The fewer the Miqo'te, the more lore compliant it is. That suits me fine. I am surprised to see so many Hyur. I guess I just haven't noticed.

Here's a bit of fun I stumbled on while research for the "perfect" lore compliant Raen name. http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/242051-Au-Ra-Raen-name-generator-translation It basically lists off many of the names from the character generator and what they mean. I found it to be incredibly helpful.

I'm not as strident but I will usually edit that sort of thing out of my own headcanon depending on the situation. Game mechanics and lore are different things to me and I don't know if fantasia is actually part of the lore or not but it just seems too strange, even in a fantasy game. A temporary glamour spell I can deal with, but permanently changing your character, your personal lore, history, and everything else doesn't seem all that awesome to me. If I wanted to be an Au-Ra, I'd just start a new character. I know that doesn't work for everyone. Maybe I'm just too attached to my Miqo'te to consider changing her at all. But I will RP with people I've interacted with before even after they've changed. I'm just not sure I would keep that as part of my character's arc.