Marisa

You make a good argument, but I have to point out again that we've been inside of the Crystal Tower, seat of power in the Allagan Empire, and saw nothing resembling what we would consider a flag. That leads me to believe that the Allagans simply didn't have one. Heraldry, possibly. Probably, even. But something they could point to and say "That is the visual representation of all Allag and it's peoples", I have to doubt it. And maybe that's just a cultural thing. I mean, there's no natural law saying that the concept of "unity" is represented by a flag. Somebody just made that decision at some point and it stuck.

Man, I can't believe this didn't get any replies. This discussion has great potential. So far as we know, there doesn't appear to be any official Allagan standard (Crystal Tower would be covered in them if there were) but they definitely have a fondness for blue and gold. What I think it interesting about this is that national flags have only recently become universal, in both Eorzea and the real world. In fact, the idea of a nation is pretty novel to begin with, although history is littered with the occasional nation-state here and there. For most of civilized history, the world consisted of kingdoms which were the property of their respective kings, who would lease the land out to friends and family. Those people, the nobility, would then sub-lease to the common folk. This wasn't conducive to a national identity, because borders were constantly in flux as monarchs bought, sold, and traded land. I think the most notable example of an early form of nationalism would be the Roman Republic / Empire. I'd imagine that Greek city-states had at least some national identity, but I don't know a ton about them and I don't think they were huge into what we'd consider a flag (although family heraldry was very common) so I'm going with Rome. Even then, I don't believe the SPQR banner was nearly as widespread as, say, the American flag is today. Heavily used in the military, but probably not something you'd see hung in the local tavern. So let's hit on the subject of Allag vs. Garlemald, and their key differences (because the game tends to focus on their similarities). If we absolutely had to pick one real-world civilization to pair each empire with (because really they're a combination of many cultures), Garlemald is probably Rome and Allag is probably early kingdom Egypt. Think more pyramid builders, old testament Egyptians, not more modern Cleopatra-era Egyptians. Even the Romans considered them ancient. So, going off this comparison, we can guess a couple things about Allagan politics. Political theory in Allag, as in the real Egyptian kingdoms, probably hadn't advanced past the point of "Serve me and you get food, or we'll kill you if you don't." Pretty basic reward/punishment structure. Also, Xande owned everything. Everyone else just had the privilege of using Xande's land. Garlemald, on the other hand, belongs to no single man. Even the Emperor, in theory, lives to serve the nation of Garlemald. It's not just his empire. It's my empire, and your empire too. Sure, many of Garlemald's conquered people are just going along because of the reward/punishment system. But Garlemald has shown that it's reached the nationalist level of political theory. Citizens are supposed to work for the Empire because its the right thing to do. So to create this paradigm, you don't want the face of the Empire to literally be the Emperor's face, because then it just seems like he owns the whole thing. Rather, you need something like the standards of Ishgard's High Houses, but for everyone. If everyone has the exact same family emblem, then logically everyone in the nation must be a single family. From this, you get Garlemald's Ivory flag. And that's my really long and rambling was of saying that Garlemald has a flag and Allag doesn't.

Getting in those Christmas glam shots while I still can.

WE ARE CURRENTLY MERGING WITH LONG CLIMB TRADING CO. PLEASE UNDERSTAND! ~.O [align=center][/align]

Please don't shoot Marisa! She'll probably die, or at the very least she'll start crying and it'll ruin the rest of her day.

Only question I didn't like was the ERP one. I never ERP, so my only option was "I stay as far away from it as possible." That makes it sound like I have something against it, when I don't. I just don't find it fun, and even if I did, my character is a child so it'd be... weird. That said, I have no issue with people ERPing near me or even being a third party for ERP, just as long as its not my character being sexual.

Well, I got curious and dug it up. If it's the comment I think it is, I think it's more likely it was downvoted for what was said about Ysayle. Other comments in the thread/chain mentioning not liking this or that character are also downvoted. Thats fair. I will never understand how people could stand her, let alone like her.

It was! I mean, it's been a number of different threads but that was the most recent one. I think my comment is down to -9 now, but it was up at +7 at one point so thats probably 20+ downvotes.

I've noticed a trend on the XIV subreddit that really confuses me, but any time I ask this, I just get flamed with no real answers. What's up with all the Thordan hate? Basically, any time I talk about the redeeming qualities of any other villain we've had, its usually received very well and a lot of people agree with me, or at least discuss why they disagree. But the moment I mention that I liked Archbishop Thordan, or that his perspective had some merit to it, I get downvoted until my comment becomes hidden and not a single person replies. This has happened probably five or six times. I don't particularly care about the downvotes, I just really want answers! You guys are, on average, a good bit more mature and level-headed, so I'll ask you: why do people get so upset about Thordan? I realize this is a strange question, but I'm just frustrated because I really liked him and I just want to be able to talk about him without people getting mad :?

I only vaguely remember something like that about Gridania, but you're 100% correct about at least Coerthas being all screwy. Being just North of Carteneau, most of the airborn particulate from Bahamut's little tirade seems to have all drifted their way, causing a miniature, localized ice age similar to when Krakatoa erupted on Earth. Not sure why that would cause Gridania to do the opposite, but I get the feeling it has to do with the Elementals.

Oh my god, super off-topic but it actually offends me how much this happens. So often we see fights where one side, usually the Garleans, out-classes the other side in every way: Better training, better equipment, better technology, more experience, greater numbers, better group coordination, air superiority, artillery superiority, etc etc. And yet the rag-tag group of jackasses with pitchforks beat them every. single. time. And why? Plot armor and shonen-willpower apparently. Probably the single biggest immersion-breaking thing for me is watching professional soldiers consistently be overpowered by people who have no actual experience in combat outside of bar brawls or hunting. And it's not like they're winning using guerrilla tactics, either. They just run straight into the melee and the Garleans just let them win. Why even have a military at that point?

I'm honestly of a similar mindset when it comes to effective amount vs actual amount, and I tend to adapt my numbers to fit whatever the people around me are using. That said, as someone who's starting to actually sell things in-character, its kind of important for me to have information for people beyond "This costs a lot" and "This costs very little", because people tend to want you to give them concrete numbers. The nice thing about currency in WoW RP is that I think most people just have an innate sense of what a gold or silver coin should be worth. Gil seems to be a much more abstract concept, like if you handed a group of people random amounts of Turkish Lira and told them to trade among themselves with it. They just guess its worth based on how much everyone else has. That said, the fact that Gil is readily accepted at all merchants outside of the Eorzean Alliance leads me to believe that Gil is itself minted on precious metals. It'll probably never happen, but if we could find out what denominations are printed on what metals and how much they weigh, we could roughly calculate, at least, the minimum relative value of each coin. Maybe Koji will get an urge to talk economics one day. I feel like he's been really quiet since Stormblood launch...

So after doing a lot of merchant RP the last couple days, it's become very apparent to me that there is a huge discrepancy in the perceived value of Gil. So I've started paying close attention to the price of what my character buys most often: Beer. In the real world, if I'm at a bar, I expect to pay between 2 and 6 USD for whatever is on tap. But in the last two weeks in XIV, I've paid as little as 65gil and as much as 3500gil. And the 3500 wasn't me getting something really pricey and exotic. That was about average for the menu. I'm kind of curious to know how much gil your character carries day-to-day, and what their financial status is. I feel like Marisa carries around a thousand gil, and that's enough to buy food and drinks for a couple days. Also, what do you think beer should cost?

Back in 2007, I was made my first Horde alt in WoW. Joined a guild called "We RP in bed". Had no idea what RP was at the time. I asked, they explained. Slightly later on, tried to join the WoW RP community. Absolute trash. Nothing but circle-jerking drama queens with no coherent stories. Then Warhammer: Age of Reckoning came out, and I decided I'd try again. Joined the most amazing Dark Elf rp group. Had a guy who RP'd as my Goblin slave, absolutely hilarious dude. Still miss him today. Took a break from it when WAR went to shit, played some more WoW, then found you guys a couple years ago and I've been here since!

Marisa begins to divvy up the explosives between Polyitsaux and Etoile. "They come with a safety right? I don't want this blowing up my apartment." Etoile inquired. Marisa simply shrugged in ignorance as she stacked several on the table. "They seem pretty safe to me!"

Huh. I wasn't aware that an anti-sue was a thing or that it was general frowned upon. I just think its more fun to fill out the 'weakness' section than the 'strength' section. Scored -3 on that first test. The scoring scale didn't even go that low.

Marisa, being new and inexperienced in the business of shopkeeping, is both overwhelmed and exhilarated by the rapid influx of customers to her little stall. She addresses Polyitsaux. "Oh, they're super dangerous! You'll love it!" she excitedly declares while hoisting a wooden box up onto the table. Inside the box lies maybe three dozen roughly identical balls, each handcrafted with only the finest goblin junk. Mia catches Marisa's attention, who sees the lotus and ponders it for a moment. "Hrmmm," she mutters. "I think my sister found that washed up on the beach. It's probably magic or something but I can't figure it out. You know, I bet if you put it on top of one of those wizard staffs, it'd be really powerful! How's 30 Gil sound?"

Marisa excitedly takes the payment for her first sale of the day and places the coins into her money/food/cool stuff pouch. Turning her attention to Etoile, she claps her hands together with delight over what the woman is holding. "That's a very special item! Those are made by my very best gobbie-friend, Bibblebix Stickytoes! It's for when something is in your way and just won't move! You twistgrab the spinring, then you placedrop it on the hinderjunk, pushpress the springclick, then fastflee for cover. Count to ten and then tick-tick GOBBIE-BOOM!" Marisa accentuated the word 'boom' by throwing her arms out to either side. "I use them all the time for my work. People in the past usually don't want you touching their stuff, which is dumb because they're not using it anymore. So they make all kinds of locks and walls you have to get through. Nothing that Bibblebix's patented gobbietek Boomrocks™ can't handle though! 10 Gil each!"

Marisa turned briefly to to newcomer. "Hi, I'm Marisa! You probably guessed from the sign that this is my shop! Please have a look around, you're bound to find something you need!" Returning to Schezar, Marisa scans her wares, trying to remember anything else she might have picked up near the spinning device. "Oh!" she declares, having had a sudden epiphany. She reaches across the table and grabs what appears to be an ordinary compass, with each of the cardinal directions illuminated. "I saw people using these around that same place! They were walking around and looking at them sometimes. It's obviously some kind of treasure detector. Look at this!" Marisa proceeds to rotate the compass back and forth a few times, then points off in the direction of the needle. "No matter how I turn it, it always point that way. There must be treasure over there! Normally I wouldn't let something like this go, but I managed to scrounge up a few of them so I can give you this for... 11 gil! It'll probably pay for itself in no time!" Marisa continues to move the compass back and forth in front of Schezar, enthralled with the idea that there might be treasure nearby.

Coulda swore I'd already done this but I don't see my post anywhere... Un-supervised minor fails at capitalism and gets away with having a broken moral compass because people think she's cute.

Marisa's eyes beamed as Schezar approached her stall. She wasn't expecting customers so quickly, and in her mind someone with such a sharp-looking outfit must have lots of money. As Schezar played with the toy, he inquired with Marisa about the price. "Well that one is pretty rare, and it wasn't easy to come by," said Marisa. She began making grand gestures with her arms as though she were regaling Schezar with an epic tale. "You see, I was digging around around the lake with the big dragon-balloon when I hit this with my shovel. I was pretty excited, as you can imagine! Not everyday you find a super ancient Agaladan relic. This was clearly a highly advanced balancing device for... I dunno, but it'll spin forever basically!" As Marisa said this, the toy fell over on it's side. Marisa stared at it in disbelief. "Well, it's pretty old so it's not going to be working 100%. Still, it's a pretty important piece of history, and I had to run away from a giant frog after I found it, meaning I have to factor in hazard pay. So I can't possibly give it to you for less than... what's the sticker say... 9 Gil!" Marisa stares intently at Schezar and awaits his reply.

They do, yeah: So it'd just be a neat rock then. Marisa would try to sell it.

Do soul crystals require a certain level of strength or fortitude to use? If so, my character probably couldn't manage it.

Amidst the frenzy of trade and labor typical of Limsan docks just after sunrise, a young girl drags what appears to be an old wooden door onto the pier. The effort is tremendous for her, though few seem to pay any mind to her struggle. Having found a satisfactory spot, she lays the oversized board on the ground and briefly disappears. Within moments, she returns with one barrel, then another. It becomes clear that she is constructing a makeshift table. Upon her fourth trip to the pier, she is carrying an quilt of impressive size, held as though it were a sack and thrown across her shoulder. She hefts the quilt upon the table and unfurls the corners to reveal what most would think a pile of garbage. Having spread the quilt as though it were a table cloth, the girl rearranges her pile of trinkets so as to take up the entire surface. The assortment is truly random, with the only unifying trait being that each item is something that glints, gleams, or glows in the sunlight. Scraps of metal, bits of crystal, junk materia, loose coins, the like. There is, however, the occasional item of potential worth, things you might expect to find hidden in some ancient tomb, not meant for the eyes of the living. How this girl, barely older than a child, acquired any of it is rather unclear. Placed on each piece, artifact or junk, is a sticker denoting a price in gil. To anyone who didn't understand her thought process, these prices would seem entirely arbitrary, though most are insignificant sums of gil. With a look of mostly undeserved pride, she takes her place behind the table and sets a small wooden plank before her. On the scrap of wood are crudely carved letters filled in with a deep red paint, "Marisa's Shop" [note to potential participants! What you find at the stall is almost entirely up to you, but it has to be something shiny and small enough to fit in a shoe box. Marisa also has rather questionable methods for obtaining her wares, so anything you've had go missing recently could very well be on this table.]

I feel ya. I'm having a problem where most of my original Balmung friends have either drifted to other circles or outright quit the game. I'm trying to force myself to socialize with people I don't know, but its hard to find time for it between work and getting all my daily chores done in-game. But as others have said, there's an incredible amount of people on the server who RP. I went to a variety show in some FC's basement monday night and holy crap, there was like 40+ people in the audience and I knew maybe 4 of them. You probably know more people than I do but I guarantee there's still connections to be made. And yeah, just keep telling yourself that someday Balmung will open again. It will, its just gonna take time.