Mercurias

"Fall to a dragon, go to heaven. Fall to aught else, who gives two hells? ...That's the Ishgard way." -One of the Coerthas quests. That quote was one of the first times it really sunk in for me exactly how much emphasis was placed in Ishgard on the Holy See and the Dragonsong Wars, and how bleak and hopeless the culture was.

I started with a simple concept, and then I fleshed things out from there as I believed made sense to the character. Soren Walker, for example, is a playful airship pilot. That's all. That's what I started with. From there on, I filled him in piecemeal using several different things like the questionnaires in this link to probe and consider what made Soren into a character. Then I test drove him several nights in random RP. And once I thought I knew who he was, I brought him into circulation.

Of my three characters: M'sato is the one who is the most 'brave'. He's also the one most likely to face down something much bigger, stronger, and scarier than he is without blinking. M'sato refuses to let his fears consume him, and half of his bullheaded stubbornness is born from that refusal. "You want me to be afraid, and I am, but I won't godsdamned let that stop me." Solomon sees courage is more along the lines of weighing the odds. While he's able to be devil-may-care from time to time, he usually considers his options carefully and chooses the one which involves the lowest risk to himself. Fear is his warning system. He's just lived through enough of it that he recognizes it and accepts it. "You scared the crap out of me and I don't think I can take you. no reason to stick around, so bye!" Soren is a madcap adrenaline junkie, but when it comes to real danger and violence, his heart falters. Soren was marked by war in more ways than one. Having to go into a real fight makes him nauseous and trembly. "You scared the crap out of me, so NOOOOOPE!" *RUNS AWAY*

Hello and welcome to the RPC!

Hi I didn't know you to miss you but welcome back. According the the FFXIV dev team during one of the fanfests, the Fantasia potion 'gives you the courage to be who you always were on the inside' rather than actually changing you. In other words, that's their cute way of saying it is not actually in lore...Or that it's some truly epic booze. The ONLY time that I would personally go with a Fantasia IC is if the character never actually changed how they looked and it was all in their head, and that would be played for laughs. So official lore says Fantasia isn't a thing. Feel free to take that information as you will. It's your RP and you can play it how you want. I personally go by official game lore as much as possible, but that's me and you're you.

Limsa actually patrols very heavily in order to prevent pirates from doing exactly that. Arcanist Storyline shows so.

Dating Armi Alliando. (Not accurate, but funnier this way).

In a heavy, precise script is M'sato Tia's name and an address at which he can be contacted.

M'sato Tia clicked his tongue disapprovingly as he finished making notes to the report in his desk. Ten hours after fixing Lunae's misconceptions on what she's supposed to be doing was all it took before she brought him this little gem. He sighed and leaned back in his chair as he looked over his additions at the bottom of Lunae's report. Any damned fool with half a brain can read between the lines. She formed up a group willing to do what the Grand Companies are too afraid to and reclaim the lands the Garleans are basically allowed to keep on Eorzean soil. She funded them herself to try and do good. What she gets in return is shame and ruin from the people she did it all for. I move to mark Annunu Nunu as person of interest. I want to see what she, and the people around her, are going to do from here on out. -M'sato

I think it can safely be said that, while slavery DOES exist in Eorzea, it isn't legal in any of the City-States for a person to OWN another person. There might be indentured servitude, military conscription, and prisoners forced to perform labor, but there are no legal slave auctions or the like, and if someone is found out as a slave, they'll likely be freed and the person keeping them like that at least prosecuted if captured.

My character, Soren, is a combat character who would very much prefer to solve the vast majority of his problems without getting involved in violence at all if he can do anything to prevent it. He prefers talking things out before taking swings, and he hates killing. More than anything, he just wants to be free. THAT BEING SAID, there is a strong martial bent to Ishgardian society, from its founding to its centuries-long culture of warfare, so it would make a whole lot of sense for a whole lot of soldiers to come out of there. Like one of the quest NPCs in Coerthas says: "Fall to a dragon, go to heaven. Fall to aught else, who gives two hells? ...That's the Ishgard way."

The full bit is: It could be argued that the visualization is important part rather than the grimoire itself, with the specialized ink making for a better reference material. Also, I would politely suggest she paint the ink into or onto a person's skin like henna rather than tattooing, stating that the ink can cause aether sickness or severe allergic reactions or some kind of thing when sunken under the skin. That way the affects could be temporary. If someone else has made this suggestion already, I'm sorry for having wasted your time. I glanced through and didn't see it, but I miss things sometimes.

Okay. So what do you want us to do with this?

TANKS SHOULDN'T LEAVE THE HEALER AND THE DPS TO DO ALL THE FIGHTING THEMSELVES WHEN MOST OF THE BADDIES ARE TARGETTING THE SQUISHIES! *grumbles* Still salty.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! /em dies

I've had my characters be kidnapped for up to three months before for plot purposes. The three month character was brutally tortured and came back missing a few toes, missing fingers, only one eye, and his appendix and gall bladder carved out (removed while he was awake to scream just for the sake of torture). He spent the next year and a half coping with post-traumatic stress so severe that he wasn't able to leave his "Safe place". So yes. I've done kidnappings, and I've done them pretty serious and nasty. I've also done them amusing and lighthearted where it turned into a week-long drinking binge and joint spirit quest between kidnapper and kidnappee in order to subvert the trope. Just not all in FFXIV, and not in the span of a year. The key thing to all storytelling is to do things in moderation. Kidnapping? Sure. Just don't overdo it. The issue I see with kidnappings is that they become VERY common. One person has it done very well and someone else wants to develop their character a bit, flashes back to the well-done kidnapping, and things "Hey! I should try it too in my own way!" There is absolutely nothing wrong with it except for that it can slowly turn into a fad, and then it loses impact. And then somebody gets a little hurt OOC because their plot, instead of giving a huge impact, is met with eyerolls and a "Not -another- kidnapping!" attitude. My suggestion would be to look for inspiration and other ways to develop your character that don't fall along the lines you've seen before. A lot of the time, looking at other genres entirely can bring you some huge ideas! Watch a western! Read a biography on a famous person! You'll be shocked to see what you can adapt into your story.

Ran into them tonight on my alt, Soren. Soren just winked at the girl and dropped his trousers. They thanked him for complying "During these trying times" and gave him permission to pull 'em back on. He complained that they hadn't even bought him dinner, but by then they were chasing a rabid miqo'e jamming buttons at random in a magitek reaver and destroying the scenery.

As far as "warning signs" go, the main one I think of is a character immediately showing genuine romantic interest in mine right off the bat. Not flirting or flirty behavior, but deep, longing glances and acting like a soul mate or something. I'm a little jittery about romance RP in general because of drama that can follow, so if your character immediately tries to initiate that before they know one another, that's not going to get a good reaction from me. Another thing is walking up and instantly attempting to metagame completing an action successfully on my character. If you say "Jim-bob walks up to where Soren is sitting at the bar, grabs him by the hair, and slams his face into the bar repeatedly until his body goes slack and he stops breathing" then you're on my blacklist for godmoding. Always give your actions a chance to fail unless you talk to the other player in advance and know what they'd like. I personally don't like it when someone turns an interaction into a "Who could win in a fight?" dialogue or begins making random accusations in order to start a fight. There are a lot of ways to get a reaction out of a room without instantly turning on the aggression, especially because the kind of characters who start this tend to be the ones who like to play physically dominating sorts who are just out to beat someone down. I also prefer the erp/makeout RP be taken to tells, please. As a personal note, and others are -absolutely and justifiably- not going to get an argument if they disagree with me on this (so put the knives down), I tend not to like a lot of paragraph posting in busy or fast-paced RP. They take a long time to compose and a lot of folks are speeding through conversations. In forum RP I like the longer paragraph format for rich and vivid writing, but in-game I follow the maxim "Brevity is wit". It helps communication flows a little faster, and big text walls don't hammer chat boxes and make it harder to find posts. To be frank, you shouldn't be aiming to becoming a venerable part of the community. Just be a -part- of the community. 99% of the 'cool' or 'popular' or 'respected' posters here don't seem to be doing anything for name recognition. They're just trying to contribute and make the community as a whole better. Sounsy is a lore god, for example. nobody asked Sounsy to start it. S/he just started gathering lore and posting to help people out. Just participate and try to make things better. Respect will come based on what you do. And personally, I'll respect you a lot more if you stay clear of forum drama. >.> A Mary Sue character is really kind of an idealized character who might be an author insert and can carry implications of wish fulfilment. In other words, a Mary Sue character tends to be often close to perfect and gathers people who love them. To me? Perfect is boring. My main character is a catboy with the absolute worst personal skills imaginable. Half of the good things he does end up being soured by the words that come out of his mouth, and he almost prefers it that way because he's afraid of getting too close to people. It someone put duct tape over his mouth, he would actually probably end up being a heck of a lot more likeable as a person. What makes him interesting, at least to me, is that struggle between obviously caring about people's well being and acting like a giant dick. The end result can sort of be seen by what Sato's recently deceased (RIP Ellion) FC leader wrote about him in his will" "M'sato, you are probably the biggest asshole to have ever graced Eorzean soil when you were torn from the womb of that mother that had to have cussed the gods you came to be. Don't ever change. Well... maybe change your attitude. But you have good qualities, and if the existence of this will is any testament worth its salt at all, it is that you have a follow-through no one else can match. The important thing isn't how perfect your character is. It's who your character is. How they act, what they struggle with, what makes them hurt, what makes them cry, what makes them laugh or turns them on and how they cope with all of it as well as how they touch the lives of those around them. Perfect is limiting. Make enemies, then make up with them. Screw up. Fall down and have trouble getting up again. Lose when everyone expects you to win, and win when everyone expects you to lose. Have fun with it. It's your character.

Ooh! Ooh! Soren is an Ishgardian airship pilot gearhead -hobbiest- (he never finished his apprenticeship as an airship engineer before he was conscripted into the Dragonsong War) with a piece of wearable, reverse-engineered magitek Nadine might be interested in! Check, checkity check! Hit me up! I'm on US Central time and always up for roleplay!

Love that High Allegun.

Here's a link if you need it.

I'd suggest copying this post to the "Making Connections" section of the site. Hopefully that'll be of some help.

Sato honestly won't care. He hates all people equally. Solomon would wonder how they have sex...And then probably want to try it out. Soren might KNOW. H's very well-traveled.

Yup! Lots of Miqo'te are raised by adoptive families because people don't like the lore.

Reminds me of my Tera guild, Sons of the Skywhale. I prefer Scions of Anarchy.