Gegenji

I think "celestial" aether is the source of the aether, as opposed to what typing it is? It's sort of a variation on the Conjury and White/Black Magic method of taking aether from the planet rather than utilizing your own aetheric energies. Just, rather than pull the aether from Hydaelyn, you're drawing energy from the constellations above. Or something along that line, at least. I say that because I'm very vaguely remembering something that might've made mention that the stars serve as more of a focus but you're still using your personal aether or something despite all the astrology talk. Could be totally misremembering, though. Wouldn't be the first time.

That's fine, that's - as I said - my own personal feeble attempt at what the patch name could be. Not really trying to "sell it" to you as much as explain how I'm looking at it. If you want a definitive reason of why it was called what it is, you'd want to ask SE. Otherwise there's not much more than personal guesswork and interpretation to be had. To be perfectly honest, I had completely forgotten what the patch's title was until you asked the question and I had to look up what you were talking about. It's that forgettable to me, and thus I hadn't put any thought into it until just now. So if my explanation seems rather spur of the moment... it kinda is. EDIT: A just as spur of the moment thought - maybe it means we're at the very precipice of doing something fateful? Something that will start to swing the war in the Alliance's favor and ultimately lead to Garlemald defeat? I mean, getting Ishgard back on our side helps, but reclaiming Ala Mhigo and possibly fostering dissent in Othard might really help give the Alliance the chance to fight back against the Garlean Empire. We're on the very edge of starting on that path that will finally put the Alliance in direct opposition and conflict with the Garleans. Or something.

...I guess that is why I'm feeling like a wet blanket over the whole Stormblood thing. I feel like our intentions don't ultimately matter, the war and animosity won't simply end when those intentions are met. I figured that's more or less a given, though. The war with Garlemald is going to happen regardless, that's what the story seems to be building towards anyway. However, the Griffin was trying to force the Alliance's hand because he wanted Ala Mhigo free NOW rather than at the pace he saw the Alliance going at it. Nothing's going to stop the conflict from what we can tell right now because we're dealing with a nation that believes it should be ruling over everything. However, where and when the Alliance does this needs to be with them deciding to do so as a united front, and gathering as many allies as possible. Not being forced into jumping in early because an Ala Mhigan revolutionary wants his war and he wants it now. Though, all that said, this is a bit of a detour from "why is the patch named the way it is."

So we are not forced to do it? We could have decided not to? I'm not entirely sure what sort of answer you're looking from me here. :? I have no idea what the name means. I'm just trying to guess what I think it means. And in that grain, it seems (to me) we're "fated" to ultimately deal with Garlemald and attempt to free Ala Mhigo from its clutches. Previously, it looked like we were going to be dragged into it and forced to do it at the Griffin's pace. However, we put a stop to his plan (kinda) and dealt with the Primal threat (kinda). So, the Alliance really doesn't "need" to continue pushing into Ala Mhigo. However, we're still doing it, but it's because the Alliance wants to rather than feeling their hand is being forced into doing it. So it's still fate, but it's a willingness to follow through with it rather than try to seek appeasement with Garlemald or something else that isn't "attack Ala Mhigo." Thus it's at the "far edge" of fate. Or something. I dunno, man.

... what lie? :? The point I was making is that the Griffon tried to force the Alliance into fighting the Garleans to free Ala Mhigo. We stopped him and his endeavours, yet we are still going in to do that very thing, just of the Alliance's own volition rather than being forced to. IE, doing it of our free will rather than being forced (fated) into doing so. Or it could just be a mishmash of words chosen because they seem cool and don't have a deeper meaning.

It's obviously the opposite of the near edge of fate. ... In all seriousness, I haven't really put much thought into what they name the patches. Maybe it means the line between free will and fate, and it's just at that line between the two? Like, it almost seemed like the Alliance was going to be pulled into things against their will (fate), but now they're at least kinda-sorta doing it willingly now (free will)?

This method actually works really well. You get the item codes basically immediately. Just remember, you need to go to ffxivredeem.com with the code you get from the order! Then that'll give you the three item codes you put into the Mogstation. That tripped me up for a second, so I wanted to spread that little tidbit! :thumbsup:

The big ones that come to mind are void-related things (like you said) and Black Magic. Considering Black and White Magic nearly killed the planet during the War of the Magi and resulted in the Elementals causing a massive flood... people aren't too happy with the idea of Black Mages being around. White Magic is also supposed to be under the control of the Padjali at the moment, so trying to delve into that without their permission might get them after you? And, on a lesser degree of destructive power, the people of Sharlayan are very insular when it comes to the knowledge they have that could be weaponized. The AST quest line delves heavily into that, with the nation sending people after your Astrologian trainer because she's teaching the more combat-oriented Sharlayan style of Astrology. So anything war-related from Sharlayan is basically forbidden to outsiders from their standpoint. Hope that helps!

Search for posts by Sounsyy. She's responded to a lot of lore questions, either in the thread itself or with links to another info-dump elsewhere. She's covered a huge range of topics so you'll probably find anything and everything you're looking for. And even if she hasn't, if you pose the question, she or someone else will likely pipe up with answers for you.

Didn't Chachan get a minor milestone for his participation as well? Or is this list in regards to something else?

You say that, but doesn't Cocobusi survive being a void-host in the THM questline? It's been ages since I've done it, but some quick research shows that the demon "Momo" gets tricked into leaving his body and is subsequently defeated. So, it seems like you could be able to save the host if one acts quickly enough. However, after some length of time, I would assume then it becomes the case that the only way to deal with a voidtouched being is just to put them out of their misery. Though how long that takes I don't think is explicitly stated anywhere. Plus, the method used was tricking the voidsent itself out of the body from what I've read. There isn't really a method to forcefully expel them, or at least one mentioned in lore. That doesn't mean that characters couldn't either be researching a way to do it (perhaps with white auracite or something, like an Ascian?) or for some method to be discovered and utilized. Plenty there to work with, I think.

I'm going to throw this out as an odd little curveball idea, but maybe it might catch your fancy. Chachanji is also a smith from Othard, specifically from the outskirts of Doma itself. He also currently lives in Ul'dah and both has his own little smithy, and - through a few events - is currently in charge of a small smelting guild and its facilities. While he isn't as into magiteknology as your Hitokami, he could make for a colleague or even a sort of benefactor for her. This could provide her with facilities, materials, and other such things for her to do her work. We would just need to engineer some manner of scene ICly for the two to meet up somehow (perhaps at the Quicksand!) and get them to join forces in that sort of manner. Just an idea, but let me know if it catches your interest! I'm also EST, so our times should hopefully line up decently well for both getting in touch and possibly having that RP happen. :thumbsup:

Correct. Every living thing has aether in it. In fact, the CNJ questline in particular shows what happens if you try using your - for lack of better term - lifeblood aether to cast spells. It will kill you. Instead, as the THM questline intones, everyone has a different size... aetheric well that they can draw from to cast their own spells. The only other way to power spells is by using the ambient aether around you - but there's varying degrees of that (from CNJ's "borrowing and returning" policy to BLM's "I'mma take it" one). And, of course, that just taking and using the world's aether nearly killed the planet in the War of the Magi and caused the Elementals to flood everything.

I believe there's some principles involving the Elemental Wheel and the cycle of Aether that can be found in the books and stuff at the Ossuary (Thaumaturge's Guild)? I'm not entirely sure if that fits what you're looking for, but it describes the elements that aether is used in, at least from a Thaumaturgic viewpoint. And the whole Monk chakra thing I think is explained in those questlines. Basically you have parts of the body where you can channel your own aether through to bolster your physical abilities - increased stamina or power or what-have-you. And I think some have theorized (though it isn't outright stated) that channeling their aether into their legs is how Dragoons do their super jumpy thing. I also think there's stuff somewhere regarding how Aether is basically the lifeblood of all living things and ties into a cycle with the Lifestream. And such energy that is lost suddenly and dramatically (such as the deaths caused by Bahamut) cause crystals to form. ... I'm sure Sounsyy will have more specific examples and quotes on the matter, though.

Just to help out with this, you're kinda right? I mean, it literally is you writing at each other - either through chat or your aforementioned custom emotes (which are "/em" followed by whatever you want to emote, like "/em taps their chin thoughtfully"). However, a lot of RPers also weave in some of the other stuff made available by the fact this is an MMO. The built-in animations for one (using /yes for nodding, for example, which can be done sans the accompanying emote text by adding "motion" to it, so "/yes motion") and even some of the ability animations for the various classes. So, sometimes it is just your two characters just standing there as you write at each other like a chatroom with a very fancy background. Other times you'll be moving your character around using emotes, attacks, and the geometry of the locales to better immerse yourself in the story that's happening. Thus, Eorzean DnD sometimes... Eorzean LARP other times, I guess. :lol:

Obviously the term "Red Mage" comes from the clay that caked their clothes as they eked out a living up on the mountains. :chocobo: ... Honestly, that's always been an odd egg to me. Why call the combination of black and white magic "red magic"? Unless it's another DnD reference, this time to the Wizards of High Sorcery from Dragonlance.

Well in SE defence, we really don't know what Ala Mhigan 'aesthetic' is. We've seen the Fist of Rhalgr, who are wierdo religious cult esque group, and a heap of poor hobos, refugees and mercenaries. That said, I don't think it is that far-fetched beyond the 'flamboyant' aesthetic (once more for all we know it might be legit Ala Mhigan aesthetic >_>). Perhaps the RDM class was the 'upper' class type of job? Nobles ect? Ala Mhigans were after all super advanced compared to any other Eorzean city. So writing it off on "well they had to focus on survival" doesn't make exactly sense. They were a wartorn area, and if real life logic applies a little bit to it, nations who actively war then to progress quickly on warfare, so I don't see why it would be far-fetched to have RMD to have its origins there. I think we were all just thrown off by the fact it looks super flamboyant. Honestly, aesthetic wise I could have said Ishgardian, but alas. Maybe we're looking into it too deeply atm with Ala Mhigan influence. So far we only know Red Mages came from the ancestors of Amdapor and Mhachi, around the same region that houses Ala Mhigo, and if I recall correctly, they were primarily Midlander Hyurs and Lalafells. With Ala Mhigans being dominantly Highlanders, it could be as Sounssy stated, the Red Mages could have came before the Ala Mhigans, only to seclude themselves again as they came into power, which could explain their current 'absence'. I honestly don't see Ala Mhigans as the mage sort of society which they have focused so much on lancer legions and monks. Not going to lie, when I read the bit about them fleeing the mountains of Ala Mhigo and whatnot... the first thing that came to mind was that jungle full of dinosaurs that apparently exists at the... south pole? in the X-Men universe. Just, instead of dinosaurs, it's a hidden enclave of ancient magic. ... which then immediately made me think of Dalaran and its big barrier shield in the older versions of WoW.

You're so sugoi, Madi-san.

I'm of a mind that anything can pulled off well if enough care and flair given to it. With amnesia, I think that I would want the person using it to... well, it's hard to put into words but... give it proper gravitas and weight to it, I guess? I would expect it to have some sort of solid relevance to the character and their development. Like, how they handle it - does it nag them to no end and so a lot of their waking time is trying to figure out what they've forgotten, or do they decide to start anew and leave that forgotten past behind them? In the case of both, I would figure there'd also be plot points at some juncture where someone from that past shows up. Shake things up a bit - either helping (or misleading) the prior type that wants desperately to recover their lost history or throwing a wrench in the works of the person who's just trying to move on. But in either case it would need to be a slow, building thing - not a new blast from the past every week or something. I guess, in the basest sense... I have no issue with a character having amnesia. It's how they resolve that fact - what they do with it and what comes from it. And that it plays a hefty role in the character in general, since what is a person but a summation of their experiences?

It was a victory of sorts, but Chachanji felt a bit stymied on the internal celebration at the various minute expressions and other minor displays of emotion that he noted on the groundskeeper. He was nothing if not an empathic sort, so any happiness that would've been wrought at his success was tempered by the gnawing confusion caused by the Hyur's behavior. Virara's actions only further helped to drain at whatever fledgling confidence the smith had girded himself with in his little stubborn tirade. "W-well, yeah," he managed weakly after Sorimachi's pair of statements, rubbing at the back of his neck awkwardly. All that resolve that had flared so brightly before had faded into the shadows once more. "I mean... 'm me. Can't be anyone other'n me, I 'spose..." Those last words rung sharply in the little Dunesfolk's own ears as the groundskeeper fished out the keys and worked the lock open. The words of the Void Monk and that strange woman came back to him in trickles of memory, as if lazily pouring out like a miasma from the slowly opening door. He said he could only be himself, but he was all but engulfed in the realm of individuals who hid behind masks. Or were personified by their masks - he had yet to fully grasp what they were really going on about. It was in these brief moments of clarity that Chachanji found himself wondering if he had gotten himself swept up in something that was far beyond his ken. He was certainly not the brightest of the Gegenji children, and yet here he was at the gateway of this great manor because he had espoused his beliefs in a manner no less stubborn than his father had when he drove Gogonji and - ultimately Chachanji himself - away. And, to many, weren't his own ideals almost as crazy as those that had nearly driven his brother into the heart of Garlemald? After all, at his side - the reason he had come this far and was entrenched this deep in this strange matters - was someone who had been raised only to kill. Someone who he had trained alongside with but a little and yet was fully cognizant, if a bit unwilling to admit to himself that she could, that she had a power and skill that could end the youngest Gegenji's life in an instant should she wish it. And yet he had been all but stubbornly insistent in turning her away from that path her Master had set her upon - steadfastly believing that she could be "better," be "more than that." As if his own childish views on the world were infallible and sacrosanct, despite all the claims (and perhaps even cold hard evidence) to the contrary. And here he was again because he bucked against what might be common sense and again refused to let someone - in this case the apparent embodiment of the mythological dirt spider of Doman fairy tales - be considered nothing more than a tool. The very beast that had ensnared his current companion and wracked her with fear and paranoia for moons afterward, this was the one he sought to save despite all that it had already done. Stubbornly oblivious to the fact that, as cyclical as his foolishness might be, his dumb luck might not hold this time around. And yet Chachanji couldn't, he wouldn't tear himself away from this path. He was here because he felt he needed to be - that he had to be. Not for himself - or at least that was what he told himself - but for that now marked-for-death spider that no one wanted. For the Plainsfolk girl whose dreams had been tainted by that very same creature. And so he plodded forever forward in his own bumbling, stumbling, stubbornly childish way. And now he was crossing this threshold - both figuratively and literally - deeper into the shadows of a realm that may ultimately be beyond his own understanding. And ultimately his downfall. The little Dunesfolk's thoughts - perhaps a bit poetic in how they had ultimately turned inward and self-reflective, much like his companion's - were interrupted by the thunderous noise of the door closing behind them. So suddenly torn from his thoughts by the suddenness of it, he lurched a bit in surprise and subsequently sought to awkwardly recompose himself as the light burning of embarrassment in his cheeks tussled with the incessant, biting cold of the locale. "A-ah, r-right right, a'course," he stammered out with a nod that came perhaps a bit too hasty, an obvious attempt to quickly segue away from that embarrassing moment of surprise. "Right b'hind ya." Perhaps to further try to distract himself from the invasive sensation of his burning cheeks, or to keep those darker musings from bubbling up from the recesses of his mind again, Chachanji's attentions flitted to the sparse decorations of the hall. His violet eyes flickered from sconce to sconce, traced the curves of the wall as it arced upwards into the high ceiling, and idly drew mental pictures among the stone architecture based on how the flickering light danced across them. This flowed nicely into taking in the sudden flood of stimuli as they entered the main hall - his Dunesfolk eyes not even flinching at the brighter light source, simply continuing to roam until Sorimachi's words brought his attentions to the figure in repose before them. Perhaps reacting simply on instinct, or a desire to not further cause any issues, the little Lalafell mimicked the Hyur's bow but a half-beat after the groundskeeper had done it. Which then, upon noticing Virara's far more resplendent option, segued awkwardly into a more traditional Doman kowtow of his own. He said nothing at this point, letting Virara take the lead as that faint feeling of being in over his head gnawed at his gut once more. Remaining still and silent as he quietly sought to find where his own awkwardly-shaped piece fit in the grand puzzle that was the events unfolding around them. If it fit at all.

RDMs are pretty dapper in general. It's kind of their thing.

[align=center][/align] Can't. I'm being a smart-Ascian.

Yes, but Eorzea needs MORE terrible Ascians. Eorzea probably goes through a lot of terrible Ascians. But are they called Half-Ascians?

Is this a new character you're playing? Because if not, I'm sorely tempted to make a character who is literally just The Worst Ascian. And I'm blaming you for it.

Throwing yourself out there for events and the like (which you can find on the Calendar) is usually a good way to go. Or just throwing yourself into popular RP hotspots and seeing if you get any bites. Other than that, you mentioned you posted in the RP Directory, but did you make a thread in Making Connections too? I'd recommend it if you haven't. Mention what sort of people and RP you're looking for, and what your character brings to the table. Hopefully that will get you some results too.