D'aito Kuji

I'm just about to introduce my character to them on my blog version of her story. She's been in far Southern Thanalan and is now on her way back to Limsa Lominsa. I'm certain she will be very surprised when she arrives. I'm not at all certain how she will take it. I think she'll find the males repulsive initially, if only for their intimidating size. But it would not surprise me to find that she likes the look of the female Au-Ra. I've not personally logged into the game in a couple months now (graduation,vacation,rehab,stuff). But I will have ample time this weekend to see what everything looks like with half the Miqo'te population replaced by dragons.

D'oh! I did mine wrong. 70 word limit. I guess I'll divide them up into two descriptions. That kinda makes sense anyway.

There's plenty of people who come to a new land and decide (or it's decided for them) that their names are too difficult to pronounce or don't work with the dominant language and are then changed. There's no doubt that a few Au Ra would do such a thing.

Here's my head canon... The Dodo tribe fractured long ago, leading to substantial divergence between the denizens of temperate La Noscea and those that survive within the hottest and most barren areas of the Sagolii Desert. Both tribes prefer to keep to themselves but the desert Dodo tribes are far more isolated and little is known about them other than they cover themselves from head to toe in loose, flowing fabrics to help repel the burning heat and light of the sun and are violently protective of their territories. The Dodo of La Noscea are far more approachable, engaging in trade with merchants and routinely leaving their tribal lives for city life. Less traditional than some tribes, the Dodo of La Noscea still retain their worship of Azeyma the Warden, but their bonding practices have started to mimic those of the Hyur, with interracial relationships compensating for the lack of breeding males.

Miqo'te lore screwed over Seeker role-players in that regard BUT! there are ways to spin it other than "adventurer" or "adopted." For example, I have a Seeker who was sort of the runt of the tribe, a wimp, who spent more time at home reading and daydreaming than doing anything productive for the tribe, which led to some resentment from her tribe. She read a lot of romance novels and books about other places and cultures, and romanticized them in her mind. She preferred the allure of them rather than the feral tribal life that she just didn't fit in with, so she left after her mother died. I have another Seeker who was kicked from her tribe when her interest in technology and all things Magitek and Allagan was feared to be traitorous or sympathetic to Garleans. I have another Seeker whose tribe disbanded due to internal power struggle, betrayal, and its leader being murdered by one of their own. Another alternative: my RP partner plays a Nunh who was exiled from his tribe when he began abusing his position and mistreating the women in his tribe. There are plenty of alternatives for anyone wanting their own twist on things! Wow. These are all really good.

I'm not sure that leaving necessarily qualifies as a trope. Something has to happen for there to be a story at all. No one writes stories about the mundane everyday stuff. A lot (most?) of the adopted protagonists also strike out on their own. That simply has to be done for there to be adventure - at least according to the hero's journey. That can be someone who was cast to the fates unwillingly or voluntarily or merely a victim of circumstance. Less common are stories that come to the protagonist from the outside. There's absolutely no way to avoid tropes. There are literally (literally) no completely new ideas. All stories are just variations on a theme. But sometimes the theme is super common and shows up too many times, like a song you can't get out of your head. "Seeking adventure" is a cliche and a trope, but it's one that most of us do. We grow up, leave the home, and strike out on our own. I'm going away to college this fall so I'm feeling like I can really relate to the thrill and fear of leaving behind everything. Like I said, I'm not against biracial characters or adopted characters or whatever else. But there are themes and backgrounds that are a little too common for my tastes. Like - the tribe was wiped out, for instance. Or their parents were killed. How many comic book heroes lost one or more parent? So many that it feels like a revolution when a comic book hero has parents they actually like and are good people. In reality, most of us have parents we actually like and are good people. But that's boring to talk about or write stories about. But it doesn't always have to be boring. There is novelty in deliberately trying to resist novelty. The story does have to start somewhere and go somewhere and no matter what you try, there's going to be a trope for it. But I can honestly say, I've not yet run into a Miqo'te who wasn't adopted, born in the city, or had a tragic origin story. These things don't make them bad characters or bad role players. It's merely something I've noticed and tried to deliberately avoid doing myself. My idea is no better or worse than anyone else's but it feels less common based on my interaction and observations. For all I know, there's a vast ocean of Miqo'te without tragedy and I've just never been in the right place at the right time.

(i messed up the quote thing - sorry) @FAYE Totally agree with what you said. It's doesn't bug me when players develop stories and background for themselves that might be contrary to some part of the Lore. It's a very natural thing. But what I find fun is finding my creativity within the box I'm given. So many people "think outside the box" now that I think a lot of people are missing the value of what's actually in it. I love the Miqo'te lore as it is and try to stay within it as much as possible because I like the challenge of developing a character within those limits. For me (and my interpretation of the Lore) the Miqo'te do not generally have a human-like, real world nuclear family (mother, father, sister, brother, etc). The naming conventions pretty much spell out how things are for the Miqo'te. No one has to stick to that but it seems to me like most people want to diverge. We want our characters to be special or specifically unspecial in some way that makes them exotic because it helps explain why they are different than the NPCs and other characters around them. There has to be a hero's journey and that can't happen to just anyone. And so many stories about adventures feature protagonists who weren't raised by their family from Moses to Superman to Conan the Barbarian to Luke Skywalker. That this story trope is so common it has to have some meaning and I think it's novelty. Novelty is why we so enjoy stories about how donkey and goat were friends and were sad when they were separated and filled with joy when reunited. It's unusual. In our everyday life, adoption is rather uncommon (though my father was adopted). That novelty is attractive that we don't always recognize that adopted characters in fiction are as common as they are. None of this means I'm in any way opposed to people playing what they want and I don't want to cause any offense at all. For me though, I want to play a traditional Miqo'te who was taught to read by a knowledgeable Tia, who then read books about adventure and became intoxicated with the idea of "chasing the horizon." She leaves her tribe to fulfill her dream and has varying degrees of success, mostly humorous but sometimes serious. When asked about her past, she talks about traditional life, expresses confusion over eternal bonding, has little use for Tias or Nuhns (and most other races), side eyes Keepers, and finds herself inexplicably attracted to Huyr (that's my own fanciful thing). Some part of her is guilty about leaving her tribe and she knows that she should return for breeding at some point. But that's my take. No one has to be Lore compliant but I guess I'd like to see more people give it a shot. Limitations are sometimes the best inspiration for creativity.

I'm preparing to have my character, on her blog (a moogle-mailed newsletter), to describe her initial encounter, mistaking a female Au Ra as a Miqo'te in costume. She will hear a tale of how large their males are, but she will believe that it's an exaggeration. Other cool stuff will happen.

I had zero plans to roll a new character or change the one I have but WOW, the lore is soooo good. I'm going to try to resist. But I might think up a name and a tribe just in case.

I'll be honest, FFXIV is not my true love or even close. I've never liked the fantasy genre and much prefer superheroes and real-world settings. But there is no City of Heroes and nothing comes close (yes, I've played DCUO and CO). I really liked, even loved TSW, but the updates are so painfully slow and not the best quality when they do happen. I left TSW for FFXIV and I do appreciate the value, the amount of content, the flexibility of being able to eventually play every role with the same character, I just can't totally get into it. So, I'm almost always in a state of being slightly demotivated. I've abandoned FFXIV three times since I started playing but keep coming back whenever TSW disappointed me in some way. Their last update was the last straw for me and it's unlikely I'll come back. But I see FFXIV as more of a discipline. It's not the kind of thing I absolutely enjoy but that shouldn't stop me from being able to do my best and write good stories for D'aito Kuji. If I were passionate about it the way I was with City of Heroes, then I'd have no problem writing, RP'ing, doing raids, dungeons, grinds. But that's not really a challenge. It doesn't require discipline. So while I'm rarely ever truly motivated by FFXIV, I make myself do it. And sometimes, I do enjoy it.

I tend to RP all over the realm, depending on whether or not I'm concentrating on leveling. I've only RP'd a few times in Ul'Dah and that had more to do with unexpectedly running into a IRL friend's character. But one thing I enjoy doing is RP'ing with NPCs in open chat. This has got the attention of more than a few people. I have got some crit from it, not everyone is pleased by having a RP'er around, especially outside of the "correct" areas. Chatting aloud with NPCs is also just a fun way to stretch my imagination even if nothing comes of it. Also, I've been known to wander around the various housing districts and if there's a sign that says "feel free to come in and look around" or something like that - then I'll do just that. I've run into several people that way and had good conversations. I even had D'aito accept the offer to stay for the night. The last way is also fairly traditional and my least favorite: tavern chat. I do most of my tavern chats in Limsa as that is where me and the character feel the most comfortable. Sometimes I just sit around but other times I'll see if I can wedge myself into a conversation if D'aito has anything good to add. One of my starters is asking for directions to one place or another. Next time I see a large RP gathering announced here or elsewhere, I'm gonna try to get in on that.

D'aito is arguably employed by the Maelstrom so she can be anywhere in the realm on official or not-so-official business. But because she's a bounty hunter and an adventurer-for-hire, she's necessarily going to do a lot of traveling.

I pretty much use the Yen to Dollar conversion, assuming that prices are far lower than we are used to today thanks to inflation. This works with my head canon that D'aito earns around $250 to $500 a month, which works out to 30,000 to 50,000 Gil per month. This is also the amount of Gil I actually earn as a player month to month. This means that I and my character have to be careful with money. I think that's good for the character and fits well into her role as an "underpaid" warrior for the Maelstrom and part-time bounty hunter. She can easily afford to eat, find a room, or book transportation, but can't always afford the best weapons or armor or clothes.

Using the traditional accent of the Dodo tribe that D'aito Kuji hails from, her name is pronounced: Deh [super quick pause] A - Eye - Toe - Koo - Gee. The given name and the Sire's name should run together and sound almost like a single name. This pronunciation makes it a little different than the Japanese Buddist temple I named her after. Outside of her tribe, people tend to simplify her name, pronouncing it: Day-Toe She doesn't mind this and is sometimes genuinely startled and impressed when she encounters someone who gets it right. While she is thankful for her Sire, D'aito will generally correct anyone who tries to use Kuji in replacement for her given name, the exception being her superiors in the Maelstrom.

D'aito Kuji can hardly wrap her mind around eternal bonding or faithfulness to one partner. It's just not the tradition of her culture. While she tries to respect the choices of others, she does harbor some discriminatory attitudes towards Seekers who marry. I've had her RP this discontent a few times and it's started some great conversations and discussions, usually with D'aito ending them by walking away shaking her head. To me, this is the fun of playing a character still deeply immersed in her traditions despite the fact that she ran away from her tribe to avoid the new Nuhn.

I assume you actually meant 'PCs' and not 'NPCs' here, or else you're stating the exact opposite of what is intended by the developers. I think she was drawing a distinction between NPCs that appear in-game and the NPCs that are in the "background." I.e. it's hard to make generalizations about the people of Eorzea when the NPCs that we interact with are such a small part of the actual world's population. 'Tis indeed what I meant.

It's been hit or miss for me. In City of Heroes, I was part of a very active community on what was once "Formspring." We developed our own plots, interacted with each other, met in the game and RP'd some scenarios, or based our plots on events that happened in-game PVE, PVP, or in RP. I was part of it for a couple of years, eventually maintaining 5 major characters and a half-dozen minor ones (each one of them had their own accounts). Many of us wrote "fan fiction" about our characters and each other and in my case, some of these stories reached light novel length. But after City of Heroes sunset, a lot of us lost interest or it was just too painful (in my case) to keep going on. Since then, I've tried forum RP in The Secret World a half-dozen times without much success. But I was part of a community of TSW Tumblr RP'ers and from that platform I got involved with several different people and I'd probably still be doing that if TSW's Tokyo expansion didn't piss me off so badly. But that is that and I'm here now. I don't know if I'm comfortable with forum RP here. I'm not that competent in the Lore and not as passionate about this world than I was compared to TSW and especially City of Heroes. But I might give it a try. I really do miss collaborative story telling.

I usually come here to see the drama.

dFf4AgBNR1E AKB48 Koi Suru Fortune Cookie Yeah...I pretty much can't get this song out of my head. Listen at your peril!

Oh, I dunno. I plan on buying the expansion even though at my level of progression, it'll literally be more than a year before I can play it. I just wanna support the game. But I understand that not everyone has money to throw around like that. I'm not too sure that I care about spoilers as I've managed to stay in the dark about how the story before Heavensward ends. And besides, my personal journey to that end will be different than anyone else because it's my journey. I hope that a lot of MMO players understand that, at least RP'ers. City of Heroes and The Secret World both put significant barriers to accessing their expansions, so this is nothing new to me. I will say that the MSQ dungeon thing is the one thing I absolutely do not like about this game. But, I'll get around to them all eventually.

We could be seeing the early stages of a print revolution in Eorzea. After the Gutenberg press started to become more common, from 1425 to 1500 printing exploded around Europe and helped to cause a revolution in information sharing and changed the political and religious landscapes because it gave more people access to new points of view. Literacy rates during this period of time weren't especially high but that didn't stop millions of copies of things from being developed. While the majority of a nation could be illiterate, a population of sufficient numbers could still have millions who were not. Perhaps adventurers are uncommonly literate, leading to various levels of discomfort with their place of origin, which inspired them to leave and explore. But for the most part, I agree that the Lore is inconsistent with the reality that can be observed. Then again, how many common folk do adventurers run into? NPCs are presumably a tiny, tiny fraction of the population. This makes drawing conclusions challenging.

I adore the idea of using ears and tails to suggest mood when it comes to Miqo'te. I have had my character be very bad at poker (or the Eorzean equivalent) precisely because she gives away too many tells with her ears and tail. I play D'aito Kuji as a traditional Miqo'te and she does avoid city-states, preferring to be left on her own, making a few reliable contacts and picking up odd jobs as she seeks out adventure. As such, whenever it comes up, I'm quick to have D'aito express confusion over pair-bonding, not seeing males as particularly important to have around full time. But she knows that some people get offended by her traditional ideas so she tends to keep some of her thoughts on such things to herself. As someone has probably already pointed out, one of the barriers between Seeker/Keeper combos is that one is diurnal and the other is nocturnal. But if it's one of those "late night" encounters or an "afternoon delight" situation, a Keeper/Seeker combo could create a mixed off spring. This child would probably experience a lot of negativity about their existence from whatever tribe they ended up with (or they may have been raised by other sympathetic Eorzeans). So it's not likely, in my opinion, but there's no reason that it can't happen and be the basis for why the person becomes an adventurer or whatever else. I've also thought about how, with the ability to light cities at night, the extent to which city-based Keepers and Seekers become used to being up at odd hours.

http://40.media.tumblr.com/6af2e0c5e48486b855cfb33148ddac23/tumblr_nhubqyrp061tmmfrio1_1280.png[/img] D'aito Kuji tends to be a very practical Miqo'te who basically lives inside her armor most of the time. While she has a couple of dresses for more formal occasions, such as weddings, and an outfit for casual parties, she is at home in her armor. Her one affectation is her collection of earrings which she swaps out daily.

D'aito Kuji goes where the Maelstrom tells her to go. And as she is also a bounty hunter, it may well be the case that she must go to Ishgard to attempt to apprehend someone who fled there. I can well imagine that some would look to Ishgard as a way to flee from justice (or debts). Edit - But given the cold environment, I expect that her stay would be relatively brief. But by the time I actually get her to that level, the ice caps of Hydaelyn may well have melted leaving behind a warm sea. (460 subscribed days, one main, lvl 42, much sigh)

"Get out of Gridania you damn dirty cat!" "You're not one of those poachers are you?" "Are you a tribal or city Miqo'te?" "Stand up" (I am usually already standing) "Aren't you a little short for a marauder?" "Want me to get that for you?" "Do you want a booster seat?" "Can I touch your tail?" "Can I touch your ears?" "Can I see your ax (sword, shield, etc)?" "Do you purr?" "How high can you jump?" "I can tell by the way your tail looks that you are in a good (bad) mood." "Do you have fangs? I thought Miqo'te had fangs. "Your ears look more like fox ears instead of cat ears." "Is it true that you can't wear spectacles because Miqo'te are missing ears on the side of their head?" "Is there a secret Miqo'te language that only Miqo'te understand?" "Will you be here in the morning?" "Are baby Miqo'te called kittens?" "Can I be your Nuhn for the night?" "I know some Miqo'te are sensitive about their mating practices but could you explain...?" "If the breeding male is your sire, and you want to have children, does that mean...?"