Yssen

It is incorrect to say that no one at SE is batting an eye when they called for people to report house flipping and selling plots for profit in a live letter. Clear as day in a live letter. SE is not to blame for you not doing as they asked when someone violates the terms of service. Further, the fact that a similar behavior is allowed on the market board, does not mean that house flipping is in anyway justified when they have said "We don't like this, don't do it." It is specious reasoning to say that they don't care at all when they have bothered to clarify the point in a live letter, and given a method of action that you as a player can take to help them solve it. One can come up with as many reasons as they like as for why a behavior against the ToS might be justified in their eyes, at no point does this truly justify anything. It also doesn't change the fact that a behavior is against the ToS. One's personal experiences with a GM do not encompass the entire experience of everyone who has reported anyone for any reason. I'm sorry you have had a negative experience with a harassment claim, but that does not justify people breaking the ToS at any point. Houses are moving still, sure. People still buy gil with real money and bully people with parsers, too. People speed all the time on the road irl, but saying "everyone else was doing it" is not a defense that holds up in court, ever. Someone getting away with something is not an indication that SE doesn't care. It is just an indication they haven't been caught yet. If they are not being caught because you refuse to report the people doing it for reason x, then you have given them tacit approval. In doing so, it can be argued that you become part of the problem. Snatching up a house to inflate the price to make a large level of profit when relinquishing the plot is about the same sort of act as when that douche bag bought the rights to an AIDS treatment medication and jacked the price up. Yes, you can argue that it is simple supply and demand, and that it is all SE's fault for a flawed housing system. This does not make the action right. Particularly when the people who created and own the game say it is wrong. Flawed systems do not absolve an individual from making bad moral or ethical decisions.

Welcome welcomes to Balmung, fellow Duskie! ^ ^

The first part of this. Because lets face it, the ruling is not going to get overturned. This is not fluffy gray area anymore, it really never was. This isn't and investment, it is extortion. This isn't a legitimate way to make money in the game, it is a shitty one that abuses housing system as it presently stands. The people buying houses to hold the plot and sell back at a ridiculous rate are doing something wrong. The wrong has gotten so out of hand that SE and Yoshi-P himself addressed this in a live letter and gave a clear stance. They made it pretty clear they don't like people doing this and will take action against those players. By not reporting the abuse of the system you enable the scam and extortion to continue. When players abusing the system get reported, the plots come back up eventually to be sold at the regular price. Either when the GMs free up the plot, or lack of using of the house due to banning cause it to do so. You are not making it any more or less harde for other people to buy a house by reporting people for plot sitting for fun and profit. The people that are plot sitting for fun and profit already made it harder for you by doing the wrong thing and breaking the ToS. As described above, if anything you are freeing up the land to be sold at a reasonable rated down the road. And as Gegenji pointed out, you remove the reason they bought the land in the first place, which was to extort people for an ridiculous profit. If you are 1. paying their gigantic amounts of ransom money to get them to move out of a plot (and THEN paying the housing costs on top of that), or 2. not reporting their breach of the ToS. You are almost part of the problem, you have given your tacit approval to a vulture player's actions. You also kinda have zero room to complain about any of the costs for getting housing right now.

This may seem relatively unpopular, but... report them. They have made it clear even in a live letter that letting go a plot for profit is not what they want and against the ToS. If someone is sitting on a plot to sell it for a profit, report them.

Most of what has been said is good stuff. The spells cast by the jobs are canon, all of them (even stuff like Sword Oath, Shield Oath, Grit, etc.). Part of the whacky world we traipse through. It should be noted that it is only part of it though. NPCs use spells of their own in combat, and there are many references to spells that are not combat useful so we don't have them on our bars. A primary example of this is stuff like Flow, the magical stuff Matoya is using to animate her brooms, and the nifty utility spells Arcanists use to help them in their jobs as customs agents. It is a wide open world out there. I wouldn't balk too much at people using the existing spell abilities as reference, or even as exactly what they are doing ICly. I mean, they exist and most of them would qualify as commonly known. Yar.

Back off, bitch. Haurchefant is mine. :bomb: *Steals Haurchefant while no one is looking.* :chocobo: Everyone knows that the only Haurchefant ship that makes any sense right now is Haurchefant x Nald'thal. <.<

This is deduced by the fees themselves. They charge you based on distance. Which means they have some method of tracking that distance via the aetheryte itself or some other spell or device or what have you and charging you appropriately. Teleporting not via an aetheryte would seem to result in the Y'shtola and Thancred's current problems. Welcome to joyful world of paying for safe and monitored teleportation. Please do not use when trying to be sneaky. EDIT - As for personal aetherytes in the residential wards, probably collected and monitored by those in charge of the wards.

The magitek fields are artifacts from 1.0. Both dungeons had Garleans crawling around in them back then poking around for something, and using the fields as cordons against monsters and other meddler-y things.

Tornadoes are also insentient. But I supposs this bring sup the (probably stupid) question of, are all the Elementals sentient, are merely semiconscious? I feel like with some exceptions that the more metaphysical something is the less sentience they show at least in the mortal plain (INB4 someone mentions Oha-Sok) On a related note, Hydaelyn's being sentient has been confirmed from the get go since we were able to visit her plain of existence several times. The Elementals are sentient, yes. They are aware of what they are doing, but do not necessarily work of the same sort of moral set or values that people do.

Why would elementals be pissed about what happens underground? They are not harming the Shroud in any case, no interacting with it, except if they get out to poach (but that's the same shit than with wild Keeper clans and other poachers anyway). There is a large assumption running around that The Elementals are benevolent, largely because the Grids say they are. The Grids are... less than reliable narrators/sources when it comes to this. When you look at a lot of the ways The Elementals work going all the way back to 1.0, you get very "IF YOUR GOD TELLS YOU TO BURN CHILDREN, THEN IT IS EVIL!" vibe.

My simple explanation that sorta debunks the idea is this. Garleans cannot use magic at all, they still blow up just like everyone else when someone wills fire at their head. One can argue that the burny burny face fire is fire for all intents an, is magically fueled via aether but is IS fire. It still burns and lights stuff up, and goes poof when it runs out of fuel. Thematically, the concept might need some work. As some have stated, being resistant to aether means no magic healing, no abilitiy to use aethereal weapons and equipment, no ability to use the crazy crystals to craft things, no ability to teleport or return, no ability to unlock chakras/ channel darkness/or use ninjee bits. The FFXIV world is very high magic/aether. It seeps into everything and reaches everywhere, even the most seemingly mundane parts of everyday life. Not saying it is a horrible idea, but one needs to delve into how much it would SUUUUUUCK to not be able to do most of the things and adventurer or even every day person takes for granted. Anything else would read to me as just trying to have a trump card when someone throws fire at the face, and gloss over the pretty huge drawbacks.

In point of fact, there were no Duskwights before Gelmorra and no real distinction made between the two tribes until after the pact and fall. Duskwight seems to be a catch all term for those Elezen that chose not to live on the surface under the yoke of the Elementals. This seems to have gone on for a while until Gridania sacked Gelmorra and scattered the Duskies. In short, the separation was caused by the pact, and the hateful schism caused by the attack at some point later. Duskies scattered and went everywhere as refugees, but all roads lead back to Gelmorra as far as lineage in a way back past fashion.

Keepers of the Moon settled and found footholds in the Black Shroud much much later than when the Elementals were kicking everyone out and holding them at bay with their own power. We must remember that the Elementals claimed the Shroud and defended it on their own from the Ixal and Elezen BEFORE they said "wipe Gelmorra of the map." They relied on the alliance of Wildwoods and Hyurs do do this for them. Whether this was because, or the first crumble of the decline of the Elemental's power is a matter for debate. The fact remains they chose not to, or could not wipe out Gelmorra themselves. Mi'qote tried to find homes in the Shroud a while after this period.

Sounds like a perfect background to be a Dark Knight. Maybe have her go through the Dark Knight story and then have a "Cecil" moment and finally decide to be a Paladin for good. PLD to 50, DRK to 50, then back to PLD Save that DRKs are not in any way shape or form automatically evil. This was specifically avoided when they were written up. They protect those who are not persecuted by the corrupt in power. Yar.

Will be attending, again. This time with FC mates. Will be staying in the Paris and extending stay to do Vegas things. Yar.

It's not a Rumor, apparently it's through Showclix. Full info on Fanfest can be found here: http://ffxiv-fanfest.com/na/blog/index.php?post_id=us1#post-us1 Shows how much I paid attention to that portion oops. Thanks for the correction! It was given to me through my email (not just my purchaser) so I assume that if you gave the other person's email, you won't need to have the purchaser get the ticket themself. My teeny tiny power bank died or was lost earlier this year The alagan looking one they gave us? That sucks. I still have and use mine, at least until I can trade it in for really neat armor. ;p

Printed out proof of purchase always works. On my end I picked mine up with the QR code and got all 4 tickets at the same time and took them up to the room to await their actual owners.

None. Just name and name to be put on badge. They will check the ID of the purchaser to make sure that all the credit card and billing info lines up, and only the purchaser can pick up the tickets from registration. Beyond that, nada else is required for anyone of the other tickets other than shirt size.

Could be that she's got some high-quality equipment that has its own infusion of aether. It would be appropriate for Lucia, of all people in Ishgard, to have it. After all, the lack of jumping dragoons and godlike powers in that cutscene indicate that the loss of the Knights Twelve hasn't exactly been addressed yet, not that we ever actually saw those guys doing much of anything useful besides hassling the WoL's buddies and being Thordan's personal guard. Could also be that the Storyboard team and the Lore team missed their lunch dates and weren't exactly in tune with each other. Actually, it is never said that Garleans cannot channel Aether, just that they cannot wield magic. Two different, if similar things. This gone over a little in the Warring Triad side story where Urianger is trying to figure out who screwed up his wards.

hello and welcomes. ^ ^

Hello and welcomes! Feel free to ask many questions. Yar. ^ ^

Hello and welcomes!

Hello and welcomes. ^ ^

It really isn't a retcon at all. It is just a shifting concept. It works like this. There are people with the Echo. There are the people with the Echo that Louisoix teleported through the time skip at the end of 1.0, they are called the Warriors of Light because no one can remember what them and such. Then there is THE Warrior of Light, the guy or gal running around doing all the main scenario stuff. The Warrior of Light does not have to have even have to have been at Carteneau/ time skipped as far as the MSQ is concerned. TWoL is a stand in for your character as you progress your way through the story. They did not get rid of all the Echo users and other WoLs, they are still running around. One shifts the concept as one sees fit. Your story can be the TWoLs, a WoLs, an Echo users, or none of those at all. As far as the subject at hand, I don't really adapt the main plot whole cloth for my character personally. It is certainly going on, and the things and stuff in it happen. For example, Yssen knows he has the Echo, he knows there is a group out there using people who have the Echo to do stuff. Yssen doesn't like being used. He also thought the whole "Crystal Braves" thing was a terrible idea and was not surprised when it became corrupted to someone else's personal ends. Stuff like that. Yar.

Very very excellent question/topic. Kudos. The elephant in the room issue is that we all essentially knowing nothing (like so much Jon Snow) unless we are a dev or involved some other way in the game's production. This means that specific lore interpretation must be firmly placed in the category of "things that are subjective," at least until we have a great big tome/document that tells us how all Hydaelyn's bits, bobs, and boops work. The lore currently provides only a loose frame work of things that we sorta understand by interpreting the tid bits we find in game. The exception to this is when devs talk about lore bits in interviews. That stuff is basically "Word of God" and even it is subject to interpretation because most devs are smart enough to leave stuff open ended so as to not have junk written into a corner like so much "Lost." Long and short, not everyone necessarily agrees 100% with one particular interpretation of the game's lore, and that is okay because that is the nature of the beast we live under. It is also worth mentioning that no to characters are necessarily going to believe 100% in the same interpretation of the game's lore. No one is right, they only have the belief that they are right. With that said, there is a collective understanding of the loose framework/guidelines that the lore provides. Ideally everyone is pulling story ideas from that framework to form the foundation of their concepts for stories and characters. All things in the lore are effectively "bent" the second any of us start creating our own stuff in that framework. So yeah, go nuts and be creative with that framework. No one here has any authority to tell you that you are wrong from a lore stand point (for the most part), and no one here has the right to tell anyone that you have to cleave to their own (completely subjective) interpretation of the lore bits we have access to. Nothing is true, everything is permitted. With that note, here is some of the stuff that I have come up with and within the happy dancing framework for story bits. - A Thuggee like order of Assassin's that hold a unique belief in their worship of Nald'Thal. They believe that they are given holy mandate to serve the Twins as merchants of death, accepting proper payment to kill anyone, and believing that by doing so they are engaging in a holy sacrament to Nald'Thal. - Use of training similar to Monks to draw forth mass amounts of aether from places of conflict and apply to some later large scale end. - Applying different martial arts styles other than the one Coeurl fist style employed by Monks in hand to hand combat. Example - Yssen fights like zee snake, not so much like punchy macgee. - Adaptation of a "One is all, All is one" philosophy/approach when it comes to magic and aether manipulation. - Various mystic ritual hoobjazzery designed to cure spiritual and psychological afflictions. - Introduction of a corrupting tincture/potion that slowly but surely affects an individual spiritually, psychologically, and physically in exchange for power. It is also now been made somewhat infectious and weaponized. <.< - Processes and junk to bind and enslave Elementals for later use as an aether source. - Other blood contracts created by the use of Thaumaturgy with various terms and usages beyond the known Vengeance Order employed by the THM Guild. - The notion that one can train in one of the magical arts (Thaumaturgy, Conjury, Arcanistry) with out joining/serving one of the established guilds. There are others, but they to list them would be a wee bit spoilery for some of the stuff I have going on. Thus I have declined to list them at this time. I hope this has been helpful. Yar. ^ ^