Yssen

Given that as far as we know, we only get one free company at a time and we are still lacking in any real details on what the heck free companies will be like. I too am hesitant to move forward with any sort of free company thing ICly. That said. Your idea is neat, and I would be in support of adding depth to the gathering of knowledge, artifacts, and other maguffins ICly. Not so much sure I'd have my character become an "Armed Librarian," but even they probably use freelance agents from time to time. So, in short. Go for it. I support the concept, let me know how you are having people get involved. - Yssen

Give forth to me a circle spot thing prease.

Honestly, I think they are not messing with it to make the back story easier to mess with for ARR. I would not expect them to get into specifics. Even in FFXI they advanced the timeline nebulously from expansion to expansion. The Crystal War was 20 years before game start, The Rise of the Zilart was after the return of the Shadowlord, and Chains of Promathia took places one year after the RotZ. I tend to think the official timeline will read like this for ARR. 20 yrs ago Ala Mhigo fell. 5 yrs ago big doom rock went splode, people went into the poofy fun vortex. and then we are at the start of ARR. I find it better sometimes to work off of the flash points of history rather than the official dates. I realize that this can be annoying, but I tend to think SE is going to work off a being more flexible, than rigid. That is what they seem to have done in the past.

Eva. I want the cookies. How can I get the cookies. - Yssen

I have told a few people this, but it remains purely on the OOC still. Details depend on how stuff exactly happens, but Yssen will be choosing to stay behind. He will probably then proceed to cause trouble and shenanigans for the Empire. I have a vague direction to move in, but the real intent is to fill in the 5 year time skip with the others that are staying behind. Probably through forum or some other form of RP while we wait for ARR to let us in. That is my intent in a nutshell.

There is nothing in the world quite as wondrous as starlight, particularly when starlight is still a fairly new concept. Years ago when Yssen Van crawled out of his subterranean homeland, starlight was the first thing he saw. He marveled at it for much longer than he should have back then, and Yssen still cannot help being entranced by it now. Even the recent new changes he witnessed as he turned his eyes to the night sky couldn't manage to dull the experience, it always took him back to the night he first saw them. Here, now, laying down in a clearing just outside Owl's Nest, the experience was no different. Yssen had managed to even see beauty in the auroras and falling stars that had appeared in the sky lately. He also distinctively remembered when he first noticed that the stars were falling from Dalamud. Pretty little bullets falling from a big red doom sphere, Yssen had long ago given up the idea that Dalamud was in any way, shape, or form a moon. Finding the beauty in the shape destruction was a concept Yssen was fairly used to, he counted it as one of the first lesson's he learned. One must react to found beauty in the proper fashion. Admire beauty, but do not forget the nature of the thing you found it in. That was lesson number two. Yssen turned his gaze to Dalamud and smirked. There was really nothing to be done about it. If it crashed, it crashed. The damage would be done, and the big red doom sphere would serve its purpose in the grand scheme of things. Raging against it was not the way to get the coin to land on edge in this situation. A coin has more than two sides, always remember that a coin can be made to land on edge. That was lesson number three. When you examine a situation throughly, you always find the right path out. You can rage against a storm all you want, you can fight the rolling in of the tide, and punch the side of a mountain. None of those courses of action will get you anywhere in the end. The storm will not abate until it is good and ready, the tide will always roll in, and the mountain really doesn't care when you punch it. Better to direct your energy into a more useful endeavor. Storms can be weathered, the tide will eventually roll out, and you can find a way around, over, or through a mountain. Get the coin to land on edge. After all, it isn't about saving the world. Leave that to the fools looking for personal glory. Save the ones you can, save the ones you care about. That is how you made an actual difference. "You cannot save that one you care about." "There it was again, that really annoying voice in the back of Yssen Van's head that cropped up from time to time. It was an ugly little voice, and it often took a great deal of time to silence. "That remains to be seen," he replied to the voice. "You cannot save her, she is too far gone, and it is all your fault. If you cannot save her, what hope do you have to save anyone else." "Plenty, there is always hope. I can save her. I must." "You cannot, and you cannot save anyone else. You will not save anyone else." "That also remains to be seen. I am not going to stop trying." "You are a fool for that." Yssen decided to try to ignore the annoying little voice in his head, largely because he was unsure whether he was responding to it vocally or not. He turned his eyes away from Dalamud toward the moon. He smiled for a bit behind his mask before closing his eyes and offering a silent prayer to Oschon, and his thoughts wandered to his last trip to Ul'dah. Stolen food to fill the bellies of some street urchins, stolen gems used to help a dancer pay off her debt sooner, and stolen coin from an overly fat merchant to ease the lives of a few beggars and refugees. It was all that could have been accomplished given the current circumstances. "It is a good thing Brass Blades never look up." "People don't want to look up these days, it really is not that curious of a phenomenon." "It is a confusing course of action, risking precious freedom for such small action." "That is not too curious a phenomenon either. Consider a night of gambling, one cannot lose what you do not put in the pot. You can risk it all on the long shot jackpot, or you can risk it over and over again taking in smaller pots of winnings. Those small pots add up over time. So do small actions. Like tossing pebbles in a spring. Pebbles make ripples, create enough ripples and you get a wave. Besides, freedom is only as precious as what we choose to do with it." "Will it all make a difference?" "That remains to be seen. Everything is a gamble, and you have to keep playing the game to see how it turns out. Could be I'll never know, but knowing how the journey ends is not the important part. The important part is what you do along the way." "The last lesson..." "Hope springs eternal." This conversation was cut short by a loud thrumming sound. Yssen rose as to his feet and watched the airships as they passed overhead. He traced their path in the sky as the slowly moved in front of the moon, the stars, even Dalamud. He smirked under his mask and reached into his pocket for his coin. With a deft series of motions he flipped it, caught it in his hand, and observed the result. "Going to have to cut this little moment together a little short," he said as he returned the coin to his pocket, "That sound there means it is time to get back to workâ¦"

The Astalicia is no real stranger to bar fights. This latest bar fight is one of the stranger variety, if the accounts of the witnesses are to be believed. What follows is what can be over heard about the incident from an IC stand point, all of this information is easily overheard by anyone. "My mate was there. Saw the whole bloody thing. She waved her hands and people just fell apart. Apart, as in they were in pieces. My mate thanks the Navigator that he made it out of there, and I don't envy the scrub that has to clean up the mess she left." "She laughed the whole time she did it. I never want to hear a laugh like that again as long as I live, and you are going to buy me a drink for making me think about it at all." "It was no Duskwight that did all that. It was a monster. A devil. Whatever it was that made her stop at seven has my gratitude. Yeah, that is right, she just stopped at seven. Don't know why, but I reckon I would not be standing here if she hadn't" "I'd like to see her try that with me. One good whack of my axe would wipe the smile off of her face. She killed a mate of mine. She has a reckoning coming if she ever crosses my path. By the Navigator I'll see to that." "She asked after people. That was how it started. Someone who'd had more liquor than sense said something she didn't like when she addressed the bar asking after some people. She scowled when heard it, then... Then that grin, and she just started laughing. Then everything went straight to hell." "She was gone, quick as a cat. She admired her work for a moment, smiled and was up the stairs in a flash. Some chased her, but when they got to the top deck she was just. Gone." "Barracudas and Pirates alike are after her, I hear. Her description is floating around everywhere. She'll not make it out of Limsa Lominsa without paying for what she's done." OOC- Interested in following up? Good. Just send me a PM if you would like delve deeper into the incident and I'll let you know what you can find out. Hope to hear from you soon. -Yssen

Maintained alternate timelines are still time travel ;p

Couple things. The lore up on the teaser trailer sight states that the Empire starts advancing again in 1571, using the catastrophe of the 7th Umbral Era starting to their advantage (sneaky sneaky Garleans). We can make an educated guess as to when now is based of of the year 1557 being the date used for the fall of Ala Mhigo, and the previous halt of the Imperial advance. This does not help us much with determining the length of the alleged time skip, but it does give us a starting off point. We can assume that "characters beyond the reach of time" will be brought back sometime after 1571. Like it or not, time travel has been a factor in FF since the first game. It is also a central theme of several core FF games (8 and 10 come to mind, also XIII-2). While a terrible concept when handled poorly, time travel is also an interesting concept and can be handled well. We must remember that in the end, whether a character is sent out of time or not will be each individual player's decision for their character(s). We also know that there will be at least one month of inactivity between when they shut the game down to convert over to 2.0, and when we start having access again. In fact, there have been no explicit guarantees that all of us will have access to the game at the same time. They have stated that they have no determining factors of priority for player access during the period before the relaunch, and that they will work on converting characters as fast as possible. With a time skip of unknown length looming, and at least a month before any of us could have access to 2.0, RP and collaborative stories on these forums will become important, just like they were before the actual game launch. Whatever individual choices are made in regards to the time skip and time travel, we must remember that we are a community here to tell stories, and using the forums to determine what happens in supposed "limbo" or the intervening march of time will told here. I look forward to seeing and involving myself in those stories. It is what we are here for, right? Don't panic, don't worry, just adapt. See you all on the other side, however you choose to get there. ;P - Yssen PS - Fun factor to think on. When everyone does start emerging from time travel joy, how do you know that the characters you run into post time skip are who they were before. In more ways than one. [Excitement]

My advice is to create the character with what is currently available. One of the enticements they gave to player to stick with FFXIV through to 2.0 was that we would be experiencing the events that cause the massive world change that 2.0 will bring. Don't worry about what will be crushed and broken by the big pulsing red doom sphere, or better yet tap into that uncertainty and funnel it into your role-play. If you choose a place that is eventually wiped from the face of the planet you are no worse of than the rest of us when 2.0 hits. Our characters will have to deal with the loss and tragedy that the cataclysm brings. Most characters are also dealing with the fear and uncertainty that the current threats to the world bring. Nothing is going to be changed so dramaticly that a background you come up with now will make no real sense later. We are to experience the world shattering stuff in real time leading up to 2.0. As far as I know other than the big magic change they did a while back, they have no plans on retconning anything further game wise. If you want to stay on the safe side, which is perfectly undertandable, my advice is pick on of the main IC City-States for a place for your character to be from and contain the bulk of background events. It is a pretty safe bet that while the surrounding areas will be tossed on their heads that the City-States will remain relatively intact. The one possible exception is Ishgard, but only because they have not let us set foot in their yet. Its loss would not be a dramatic upheaval from a core game stand point. The current 7th Umbral Era story-line is the main focus of what is going on, and it will culminate in a big red pulsing doom sphere possibly being dropped on us, and more direct confrontation with the Empire. That is all we know at present. Everything else is up for grabs, and from an RP stand point this time period is really defined by what your character is going to do while having to stare this cataclysm in the face on a day to day basis. When 2.0 hits, our characters will be picking up the pieces and dealing with a world that has been vastly changed. This is all really exciting when you think about it. Lots of stories to be told leading up to everything and afterward. Then again I am a sucker for plot lines where you try and get the band back together/figure out what has happend to your people after a big badda boom (FFVI Post world reshaping anyone ;p). I hope this helps and gives you some ideas of what to do RP wise. We are just as itching to RP with you as you are with us. -Y

Hi guys. This took me a little longer than I thought it would to fully compile and make organized than I had planned. Sorry for the slight delay. What follows are the minutes of the LS Leader Meeting that took place last night. Lots of interesting stuff. I recommend everyone take a peek at what is here and give it all some thought. Fair warning, it did end up being a lot lengthier than I thought it would be. Enjoy! 4/25/2012 LS Leader Skype Meeting Minutes 1. Largest challenge facing the link shells involved in the RPC. - General consensus that communication between RPC members and RPC link shells is the largest problem. Several solutions to the issue were made, most are detailed below. 2. RPC link shell listings. - The current thinking is to abolish the way link shells are currently listed in the RPC in favor of a different listing method that offered more details to those looking for link shells to join. The reasons for change included; - To provide more information to role players on the specifics of each link shell. - To solve issues of confusion generated by the current role play style metric(light, medium, heavy), and implement something that gives more detailed information of the styles, themes, concepts, and level of role play immersion that are inherent to each individual link shell. - Ideas for new listing method included bullet points, brief descriptions, or a mixture of the two. General consensus was that a mixture of the two would offer a proper amount of information. - Ideas concerning what a new standard metric for the information of given about each link shell should include were discussed. General consensus was that a forum topic should be raised on the RPC forums to include input from individual players as far as what information they would like to see included in the new metric/ format. This topic will be posted up soon, and all players are encouraged to post their individual opinions in it. - The idea was put forward that this should be thought of in terms of a general questionnaire for link shells. Specific questions to be determined by the information gathered in the RPC forum topic described above. 3. Involvement of link shell leaders and officers in the RPC. - General consensus is that link shell leaders and officers should be more involved in the RPC and on the RPC forums. Several ideas for what level of involvement and what form of involvement where put forward. These included; - Link shell leaders and officers providing moderators to the RPC forums. - The creation of a forum section for link shell leaders and officers to discuss issues facing the RPC and stay in communication with each other. Most seemed to agree that while only leaders and officers would have the right to post in this forum section, the forum section should be viewable by the general public. Having it remain secret was viewed as a doing more harm the good to the community. - Consensus was that it would be up to each individual link shell to determine the method by which they would become more involved in the RPC and its forums, but that involvement should be encouraged in the interest of continued communication and sense of community. 4. General discussion of promotion of the RPC and having more of a direct presence in the game. - The idea of bringing role playing out into the public eye more was discussed. Possible solutions included; - Encouraging more public IC interaction by role playing in /say more consistently. - Being more open and inclusive in public character interactions. - Encouraging IC interaction to take place in more public areas/ events in game. - It should be noted that while the idea of having to deal with interruptions and distractions from non-role players that can best be described as "jerks" was brought up. There was a general consensus that having to deal with/ ignore said actions was a small price to pay when weighed against the potential to have others become interested in role playing by encountering it in a more open setting. - It should also be noted that the key word here is "encouraged" individual role players are of course free to determine there own comfort level and involvement in such activity. 5. The issue of having more IC interaction and communication between link shells. - The idea was brought up that more cross link shell events and story lines should be encouraged. (example - the current House Mavanix story line and events.) - It was generally agreed on that more open/ collaborative content should be encouraged, but only take place in a manner that makes sense ICly. - Several proposals for cross link shell story lines were brought up. The general idea being that each individual or link shell was free to come up with their own content and story lines. - The idea of an epic user generated meta plot was brought forward. General consensus was that such a thing should develop organically, growing out of the seeds generated by less large scale cross link shell story lines. It should be noted that this will also require a large level of planning, commitment and collaboration between link shells. - While those attending were generally interested in seeing the above come about, it was determined that other cross link shell events should be encouraged and played out before more solid attempts toward the epic meta plot idea could be implemented. - Individual link shells are to be encouraged to find their own methods for figuring out how to implement cross link shell content (polling their player base, leaders coming up with content, etc.), and that while participation was encouraged it should by no means be considered mandatory. - The issue was raised that no one really wants to be the villain in a story, and PvE options at this time were considered to be limited. General consensus was that while this is an issue, it is by no means considered to be an insurmountable one. - The idea of creating an IC link shell to include and foster contact between the leaders and officers of of other IC link shells should be created. This issue is detailed further in another topic below. 6. 2.0 and Free Company status. - The issue was brought up that players would only be able to join one Free Company when the content was released. It was determined that there was insufficient evidence to make a conclusion as to whether this fact was true or not. - It should be noted that it was generally agreed upon that while we do not have enough information on Free Company content, the issue should remain one that is open for discussion. particularly as more details on Free Company content are made public. - The idea of having one over arching RPC Free Company was proposed. It was determined that much like user created epic meta plot, this was an idea best approached organically in a method that makes sense from an IC stand point. - It was noted that PvP competition between link shells will probably make for interesting story between characters. - It was noted that no being able to field a large force of players in server wide PvP will result in a disadvantage when engaging non roleplaying Free Companies. - There are obvious pros and cons to this issue, it was determined (as stated above) that more details on the specifics of PvP and Free Companies needed to be released before a decision can be made. The issue will be discussed further as more details are released. - There was consensus that the idea of "one IC Free Company to rule them all" would in no way be considered mandatory. - The issue of a dedicated RP server being created upon the release of 2.0. - While it was generally agreed upon that one will be created as stated by Yoshida and several developers, there is not enough information known as to what form this server will take. The issue remains open for discussion as more information is released regarding this topic. 7. Leader and Officer only link shell. - In an OOC capacity. Not much consensus was given on this idea. It was generally agreed on that the RPC forum section would fill this role. - In and IC capacity. The consensus was that this is a good idea, but should be allowed to come about in a purely IC fashion. - The general idea was that this would be a method to foster cross link shell interaction in the form of introducing content ICly. - Several leaders talked about how their characters/ link shells would be engaging in IC interaction and content for this specific purpose. Stay tuned. 8. Should there be more meetings like this one? - General consensus was that there should be. - Specific details on where, when, and how will be discussed on forums. 9. General notes and tidbits. - No one "owns" role playing on Balmung. - We are all expected to be polite and respectful to one another.

Put Yssen down for being down for being a model. ;p

I meant to add feel free to add me to your friend's list if you like. Thus I have said so here ;p

Thank you both for your welcomes and advice, I really appreciate it. I hope to run into you in my various wanderings about the world in game.

Hiya, I am just taking a sec to make my intro. Seems like the right thing to do if I do not want to remain a stranger, and I certainly do not want that. I am playing Yssen Van, a duskwight elezen out of Ul'dah. He is a a devilish little rogue and general rapscallion. I have been RPing for a while in various places, and I ever so much look forward to RPing with people on FFXIV on Besaid. I am also looking for a good group of people and linkshell to RP in. I have looked over the linkshells here and I am mulling over my decision of where to send out applications. For the moment I am wandering around, ranking up, and seeing what there is to see. I am never too busy for impromptu RP though. Send a tell or something if you are also so inclined. Hoping this gets the ball rolling on not being a stranger. Any help or suggestions on how to get more involved would be just lovely, and much appreciated. Hoping to meet as many of you in game as possible. Thanks for reading my introduction, and thanks in advance to any of you who offer up your two cents/advice. - Yssen