Eva

"House Zelorius" (not specifically Eva, btw) "It is light that the darkness most fears."

Eva lacks any sort of singing voice and will never go the bard route (not in-character at least), but she received an enormous concert-style harp for a nameday gift when she was much younger and took lessons for several years. She's fairly skilled but hasn't played much recently so she's really rusty. The harp's huge, and heavy, and has been dragged from Gridania to Ul'dah and back. She's not as good with the smaller handheld lyres and such since that's not what she received lessons for. Esbe (Elriche's brother for those who were familiar with him from 1.0) was kind enough to draw this wonderful picture of her in a private moment in her room playing: And it's not even really a major focal point of the story. It's more something she once did, and occasionally still dabbles with a bit. But she is skilled with it, though nervous about any sort of public performance. And she can't sing well at all besides. Her voice is too soft. And she doesn't know how to play any other music instruments.

Sun lemons~ Like, by themselves. Eva even wrote a poem about that once! Eva is a character who used to be drastically overweight and has since lost much of her body mass, so she still eats very sensibly - small portions of meat, fish, rice, lots of fruit and vegetables, and an wonderful overabundance of tea. She does still have a weakness for chocolate, but it's a little more under control now. :blush: Buuuuuut if we're talking about what the diet of the average adventurer from Thanalan consists of, or the average duskwight elezen, I'm not sure. There are merchants in each of the city-states from each of the other city-states so there is a great deal of variety from which to choose.

On Skype: Eva.Ianeira

Oh god shes back *hides* *mopes and sulks*

I would be interested in participating in a Skype RP.

:love: Thank you?! I've heard this (or some variant of it) now quite a few times! It bugs me sometimes that I might miss out on making new friends because of this. I like newer RPers and love hearing all of the ideas they bring to the table. All I can say is please please please please don't feel intimidated by me or anyone else here!!! I do a lot of writing both for work and play, but there was a time in a little MUD called GemStone III (now GemStone IV apparently) that I like to think was not that long ago (>.>) where I was the newbie and my jaw sat perched on the floor in awe at witnessing some of the amazing interactions and stories that other characters there had woven together. All I can really say is stick with it, don't be afraid to ask questions or to explore your own writing, or art, or whatever you aspire towards. And try not to compare yourself to others too much. Instead, strive to create a unique and wonderful character and then be that character and own everything about him or her. The rest will eventually come naturally! It's often those first few steps that are the hardest. Or as an extremely wise woman once said to me, "90% of life is just showing up." :thumbsup:

Let us also try to remember that this is temporary and at the end of Phase 3 they're going to shake the etch-a-sketch again. I'm planning to play on Balmung briefly in order to take note of some of the changes and see how the legacy characters ("hollow beings") are regarded by NPC's and if it answers some of the questions we've had. I'd also like to play with Free Companies a little bit as well to see what that's all about. I anticipate within a few hours of experimentation on Balmung, I'll be back on Gilgamesh in order to play and RP with everyone else again. :thumbsup:

Thank you CJ!! But all credit for the chart itself belongs to Selene/Aatrix who took the time and energy to put several screenshots together in order to make that. I believe a more refined version of it may be forthcoming in the near future. And I still mean to post some specific numbers when I'm not tethered to my work computer and can find some time to do so. Thanks! :love:

Hello there Arky. Welcome back! I am assuming you are the same Arky we knew from 1.0 - I hope... Otherwise just ignore all the stuff and... welcome back anyway!!! Everwatch kind of dissolved shortly after Oskar reportedly died in a cave-in. Eva made kind of a half-hearted effort to keep its employees together along with a handful of others using a linkshell her father had given her a long time ago, but this was no company, and there was no strcuture to it or anything. Just a way for a any of her friends to keep in communication with each other along with a handful of friends she had made along the way even before Everwatch formed. This band of friends will probably turn into something more in ARR, but we're still waiting patiently on a lot of the lore to reach the forefront. And that's also an extremely abridged version of what things happened after you left. There's obviously much, much more to it than that. And you could always peruse my journals (link in my sig) to kind of get Eva's perspective on what's happened. There was a lot of dismay and worry and panic as Dalamud grew larger and larger and larger in the sky. I hope this helps!

There's some pros to this, sure. But there's a big, glaring con as well: Picking someone similar to you when it comes to roleplaying sensibilities is dandy for actually playing, but not as great for learning. It doesn't offer a fresh perspective, simply because you'll agree far, far too often. The student, for my experience, just doesn't gain as much from those interactions, and the teacher is never forced to re-evaluate their method or their message, which leads to stagnation. Agree to disagree. I'm still inclined to think that there would be a great deal more constructive feedback from someone who has actually RPed in a similar style or engaged in similar interactions as what the student is looking to do - more specific questions can be answered with greater accuracy based on past experiences in RP by a similar-minded RPer or similar character. There are plenty of alternative perspectives here on the RPC which can be solicited as well. But were I a student at any discipline looking for a mentor, I would want someone who held a similar mindset or similar views and still afforded a wonderful opportunity to learn. So I respectfully disagree with you on this point.

I agree with Ellie. Gerik's edited the OP to post links to each of the mentor's "summary" posts, and those seeking a mentor can kind of peruse them and see who has a similar style, RP's in a similar fashion, or has a character with a similar sort of background. It might be worthwhile to add an even briefer summary (maybe like 6 or 7 words about the mentor that can be added to the link) that sort of summarize the summary, as it were. But I think it makes a lot more sense for those seeking a mentor to choose for themselves from the pool of available mentors.

This will likely also vary widely from one RP group to the next. We encountered something like this back in FFXI where a member finally had to be ousted after several attempts to mediate the issue because there were simply never any realistic consequences for any number of [often unrealistic] misdeeds. In that particular instance there was also a godmode element, however different RPers who practice different styles may look upon this sort of thing in varied ways. Consider the possible impact upon characters who RP law enforcement types of characters as well. Also there's absolutely nothing wrong at all with asking a lot of questions! :thumbsup:

Even the most awesomest, expert artists or RPers were new at it once - and possibly marveling at someone else. So definitely stick with it, make friends, and most importantly have fun!!

Beta Characters (both twins on Gilgamesh): Caissa Ianeira Sevrineux Ianeira (Eva is still in the rift and won't be RPing for awhile yet)

Thanks Nel. I'll post some specific information later as I'm on my way out the door to my parents' for Father's Day. The screenshots used came from Phase 1 Beta, so according to the NDA I cannot post those. From using the character creator extensively I pretty firmly believe that the values for "Shortest", "Average" and "Tallest" correspond with height slider values of 0, 50, and 100 - but I can't really confirm this yet. We will probably take a closer look at this with the next beta window. I do have some specific numbers and information to post when I get back, and these ought to help outline our conclusions in greater detail. In the meantime, Selene was kind enough to create a more helpful chart (which I'm adding to the original post as well) which illustrates the variations.

Welcome to the RPC! That is a wonderful commission! :love:

This is a tricky one. In the end I think folks should do whatever they feel is best for their own story arcs. Again, I'm a little glad we chose to time-jump rather than stay behind since it allows dodging of the entire issue. But if Eva did stay behind, I would think friendships forged would allow her to retain many of her memories of her friends and peers. I also wouldn't want to go against the lore - so there's probably a good middle ground there where details might be a little hazy - particularly towards the end of 1.0. In any case, I'm really looking forward to the resulting RP, however it's spun. If the people whose lives she touched remember Eva than I'm sure she will be happy, and if not than she may be appropriately confused.

I would say 'no.' Did something like this myself from 1.0 in part because there was a lack of information about duskwight culture (and sort of still is). We've since filled in the blanks a bit, but she's kind of assimilated into Gridanian culture much more. I see no reason why origins (or familial origins) can't be different from upbringing.

"Eva the Weava" was my old IRC forum name from a linkshell I belonged to back near the beginnings of 1.0.

The NDA for screenshots is lifted now, and I'm surprised nobody has already created a thread for showing off what their characters look like in-game. So, take a screencap of your character(s) and post it here!! All screenshots within this thread are Copyright © 2010 - 2013 SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. All Rights Reserved Here's Eva (click to enlarge):

Ah, yes. I think I misunderstood and was going by some of the responses so far. And yes, among other things Eva is a trained nurse/midwife. She is also a few generations removed from her original culture, so she's spent the entirety of her life away from her clan's place of origin. A lot of traditions have been passed down, but she didn't fully understand it until recently when she went back to the caverns from where her great-grandfather had "ascended" and visited with those whom were distant cousins. As far as other cultures go, she's lived in the melting pot that is Eorzea amongst the other races for most of her life. She was a bit sheltered for most of it, living in Gridania and spending a lot of time reading books where she worked. But the past few years have opened her eyes and while it might be dangerous to say nothing would surprise her, it's probably not too far off. She doesn't know the specifics of miqo'te or roegadyn cultures other than what she's been told by others and their own more specific histories. Even other duskwight cultures that have been described to her are foreign to what she grew up with. One thing that I did just think of is that she was brought up believing devotion and loyalty to one's mate is the most sacred of bonds, and to betray that trust is the worst kind of sin one can commit. So she does get confused by some of the more tribal things such as the taking of more than one mate, or open marriages, or spousal betrayal and infidelity and things like that bother her on a much deeper level than they might others. For her loyalty is paramount. I'm rambling now though... :angel:

Eva (duskwight elezen female) regards most of the races and genders pretty much the same, tending to draw her opinions more on the way they conduct themselves than what they look like - she was also relatively frumpy and unattractive for most of her life so she does not put physical appearance on any sort of pedestal. This unprejudiced view manifests itself in her despite growing up in a household with a father who exhibited somewhat racist tendencies (generally against miqo'te). His racism is less a product of any sort of hatred than it was a factor of his upbringing and "that's just how things were back then" in his culture. Eva is happy to call a number of miqo'te good friends and sort of thinks that aspect of her father's persona was a bit silly and misguided. She and her father seldom saw eye to eye on many things though. If we're talking about physical attraction (touched upon this a bit in the intimacy poll), she generally keeps to her own race when considering a mate. There were issues in the past when a former lover was Wildwood and not Duskwight (from both families). She is also often inexplicably attracted to roegadyn men.

Outstanding work! Thank you for taking the time to do these. :love:

Disclaimer: What follows is strictly my opinion. I will RP with most anyone regardless of how I view their RP styles/techniques. I will probably incur the term "RP elitist" at some time or another, and that's fine. I tend not to see that as a negative the way some try to imply that sort of connotation. I admit that I do have certain hopes, but I also have no desire to demand my own expectations be met. But to reiterate, what follows is my opinion, and those opinions of others are apt to be different. When I think about some of the most talented and interesting characters I've interacted with, they are not always necessarily the most powerful or the most intelligent or the best at something. I find weakness and vulnerability to be enticing qualities in characters and this "room for growth" makes for a lot of interesting possibilities. To me a character that changes gradually over time in realistic ways is also interesting. Characters that change drastically overnight are usually less "real" to me, though I accept that certain events in their stories may trigger a sort of "about face" where there is a sudden shift in value, aspirations, etc. Interesting characters to me also have motives for everything that they do, whether I'm privy to those or not. And I don't expect to be always privy to the reasons for things. But I do like to know that there are reasons that support decisions and that a character isn't necessarily doing things just willy-nilly (footnote: insanity is a sufficient enough reason if that is a part of the character's persona). I don't usually like seeing anything overly supernatural or out of scope with the lore of the game cropping up in RP, but I usually kind of accept it in stride whenever it does so long as it's not something I feel is extremely ridiculous. I know there are RPers that will latch on to certain aspects of the lore and interpret things one way or another and that's fine as well. But for myself I prefer to avoid anything that's very extraordinary. Most of the rest of what you've asked about boils down to the RPer and individual preference. I like comic relief once in awhile, but when everything is a joke or there's never anything regarded seriously than I feel like something is missing. This sometimes feels like being spoon fed a diet of only cake, candy, and sweets. While it may seem ideal at first, there quickly comes a point where I really want some meat and popotoes. And I prefer more serious, gritty style of RP where bad things happen and need to be dealt with, and not everyone can skip around on cloud nine all of the time. Good versus evil is sort of the same thing. I tend to view it more in shades of gray. "Good" may mean different things to different people and is highly based on perspective. Often the best "evil" characters have very compelling reasons for behaving the way that they do, depending perhaps on something from their backstories. You can refer back to what I said above about motivation for character actions/behavior. If a character's family was slain by someone and their story is angled at seeking vengeance, that's definitely one of those gray areas. I'm glad that you read the RP guide and gleaned a lot from it, and I'm happy you started this conversation as well because it is very interesting to see how other people feel. It's also important that people realize that opinions are being expressed here, and there seems to be a lot of sensitivity in the RPC community of late, or false perceptions that certain remarks that are being made as generalizations are directed at individuals. I would encourage everyone to take these posts with a grain of salt because I can see how quickly tensions could rise if someone assumes a remark is directed specifically at them. The RPC harbors a number of different communities which each encompasses different sets of values and beliefs.