Virella

This is great! My thanks to Sounsyy (if she's reading!) for this piece and to you for pointing it out to me, Virella. If I had any questions, would it be cool to ask here, or is there a specific person/place to go? You could always make a thread in lore discussions or character workshop. People are happy enough to help out new folk!

While it isn't completely, Sounsyy is our resident lore goddess. Her Lore Complication It is super handy! Make sure to also check out her Tumblr index and all that. But for example, she has anything gathered about the races, more so what SE gives at character creation! Might be super handy to decide on what you want to roleplay.

No, there are no proper RP communities on the EU servers. You still find a lot more roleplay here on Balmung as an EU person, on EU times, then on any 'proper' EU server. - EU person

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. Because grey magic doesn't sound that awesome? Hells if we know! Back on topic though... Given the lack of seeing them, unless they pull a 'they were always there but not really' type of thing, I suppose they got either rooted out and it will another super exclusive job, or perhaps the people in Gyr Abania somehow forgotten about it, or perhaps it was just one village with Mhachi/Amdapori people who practised it and their numbers are super low, or indeed wiped out again for x reason. I just don't want more WoL only jobs x_X

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.

Yes, Liadan, I didn't predict that one about the Amdapor. So I'm not going to make claims that I did. Hence why I left it out. Thank you for your unnecessary 'correcting' because there was zero need for it. But keep passive aggressive snarking on if it makes you happy. Anyhow~ Hopefully benchmark soon to come! I'm wondering how much they will show off from RDM and SAM this time around. I don't think they really did much with AST/MCH/DRK in the HW ones? Beyond a few basic abilities, not nothing special such as their LBs?

On the eastern edge of Abalathia's Spine lies the mountainous region of Gyr Abania. It is in these elevated lands that people took shelter, when a burning star guided them away from the Sixth Umbral Calamity's treacherous floodwaters. The survivors gathered from near and far, and amongst them were refugees of the sorcerous cities of Mhach and Amdapor. These sworn enemies buried their history for the sake of the future, and cast aside their vestments of black and white. Upon the remnants of their arts a new discipline was built, and the first red mages stepped forward with rapiers in hand to fight back against the rising tides of destruction. http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/stormblood/system/#newjob Also holy shit I might be right about Mhachi being the ancestors of the Ala Mhigans o_O Also rising tides of destruction? I'm looking way too far into it, but is that directed towards the FoR or just Ala Mhigans being dumb and fighting one another constantly? Monk and FoR both seem to have started appear around the Sixth Astral Era. SO MANY QUESTIONS ARGGGHGHGH

Offering (E)RP in exchange for gil is not considered RMT according to FFXIV. There's a Reddit thread on it somewhere. I'm sure Google can help you out there! That said, I'm glad to see an ordinary sexworker and not yet another courtesan. Besides that I have little to add. Best of luck o/

Fascist mods, Kupo!

Also why did we let that ugly roe escape? I feel the WoL should have learned by now to kill their enemies asap? Jfc SE.

That outfit is offensive on fem highlanders. Like they were forced into some shitty anime. Like please Tataru, you make such bad ass battle outfits for people, why do we need to go back to high school ;_; It does look good on cutesy races though. Not so much on buff women. The male version is a lot less offensive though, the jacket actually looks good on about most races so far I've seen.

They could have you know Made it AT LEAST a giant dragon/griffin beast what spits thunder. NO A DOMAN DRAGON IS CLEARLY THE WAY TO GO FOR AN ALA MHIGAN

Lets give an angry Ala Mhigan a Doman Primal as his summon guys. And fuck "Nidhogg's eyes made him that" excuses they are giving us, seeming Thordan didn't turn into a massive ass dragon. That's my main source of salt for the time being. I guess Ilberd was just a weeb in the closest or something.

Limsa still has an issue with slave trade. If I recall the pirates there still actively engage in it. I vaguely recall some of the Limsa starting quests having slavers involved. Not to mention, uhhh... Sastasha is filled with female, highly likely, sex slaves. There's quite a bit of that sort of slavery going on in Limsa. Pleasure barges appear to have women against their will on it as well. Hardly openly though I'd imagine, given the laws and the firm stance the Alliance has on it. Ul'dahns used to endorse slavery as well, just look at Copperbell Mines. The hecatonchires were called thralls. But as far as I recall, it's not an active thing. I'm not sure, given Ul'dah is not my best part of lore knowledge! As for branding? No idea. Maybe someone else knows more on it. If I find something on it, I will let you know!

Hey there! http://balmungrpcalendar.tumblr.com/calendar Is a very handy Tumblr site to keep an eye onto. Of course events get posted on the RPC as well, but keeping two in mind is never a bad thing. Personally I can suggest joining the the Grindstone (happening this evening actually), if your character is capable of sparring. You will always meet new people that way! Best of luck o/

If only there was an EU RP server :

Ping increase? For the love of, please, please don't make it worse. This is okay, this is playable, the odd 103 ping or so we have right now as Europeans. But I really hope the game doesn't become unplayable. I don't want to teleport all over the place if I'm going to level in SB. I'm fine not doing raids if need be. I just don't want a lag teleport spree when I'm levelling, that's all. Else I will have to probably move one of my characters off back to EU to do content ;_; I'm getting flashbacks of doing PvP in GW1 and getting US/Asia instances. What is interrupt, what is fakecasting, oh wait my shield didn't swap while I'm sure I swapped when I got spiked. /cries

For context, many EU countries had promos which involved buying shitty dying magazines who were available nowhere. To add insult to injury, it had to be a specific one of them to get the Maid and Butler outfit, and you needed three issues in total, and take a picture of all three, send it to the magazine to receive the Fat Chocobo. Some countries didn't and got really obsecure things to do as snatch food or drinks somewhere (?), while others could buy SE games in certain stores. Others didn't get a promo at all. The Netherlands never got a promo despite one being promised. It was a fucking mess on the EU side.

Another, probably terribly organised, promo around the corner. So RPC... So how many European countries will be ignored this time? How many US people will get banned this time around for abusing the Amazon store? Place your bets right now! https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/60mn4f/new_711_event_collab_with_ffxiv_comfirmed_jp_only/

I'm not sure how those devices are named, but I know someone irl who cannot talk uses a tiny device which converts their text to speech. However it might be a bit too far-fetched/exclusive/expensive for the character in question, given I'd imagine it would be magitek and not readily available technology. But hey, Garleans have damn huge airships with fancy tech. A simple text to speech device doesn't sound that far fetched. Only downside in real life, next to having to carry it with you, it takes a while to type out. You will never get as quick as a reply out of him as you'd normally would in a conversation; so conversations sort of go quiet for a moment, but it's not bad or anything. On top of that group conversations he still struggles with due to that. Other people purposely need to keep him a bit in mind so he has time to reply. But I think in context of roleplay? The wait is already there anyhow due to the fact we're still typing things out behind our keyboard. So I don't think it is that bad. Ultimately though, depending the reason why she is a mute, seeming we don't know, a simple device might suffice. People who get cancer and need to have parts removed from their throat lose their vocal cords as well. Voice prosthesis are a thing as well, but they look far from charming in real life. But that's something to look into as well. Thankfully in FFXIV you could glamour that up, I suppose. The two people I know who have them don't have really nice voices though, so she will hardly have a heavenly beautiful voice, but she could talk. Unless she lost her tongue or something like that. But I'm just going to assume damaged vocal cords. But yeah a prosthesis might be something less magical or Garlean magitek heavy. Surely the character must get used to talking with it, not to mention the operation to get in it, and she won't have a super beautiful voice. But hey, she'd be capable of talking. And otherwise, who gives a damn if she uses some magical aether magitek device. If she really wants to get rid of the muteness completely, just go that route. If she wants to remaining having a trait of her character, she's other options as well. Or perhaps a middle ground of both? Perhaps the device drains her personal aether reserves so she can't use it 24/7? Having to recharged herself at times ect? Best of luck!

Probably very little. Unless they retcon the fuck out of jobs and classes their stories. But I hardly see that happening.

Camping your retainers, undercutting (please with 1 gil), seeing if first and foremost the item(s) you're trying to sell are fast selling or not, that's a big point as well. Switch markets if need be. If things drop hard, you can always buy out the absurd undercutting hos and relist it. Weekends things tend to drop hard as well. In the middle of the week item prices stabilize. Don't be stupid and try to sell quickly. You will sell your shit somewhere later that week for a better price. Making gil can be a pain though. But really, keep your eye on the market and all that.

This might be interesting for you! Monthly market event. Who knows who you might run into selling your wares after all! http://seabreezebazaar.tumblr.com/

There's a heap of people who play 'exotic dancer/courtsan waifu' from Thavnair. You can thank them for that. But ultimately? Screw them. I roleplay a Thavnairian myself, an adventurous alchemist, and I never ran into issues with her at all. In fact, all IC conversations have been super fun, even if I have to wing everything trough due what little lore we have. But I never ran into problems with her. She even wears the Thavnairian outfits; but unlike everyone ever, she is actually Thavnairian, not a low-key offensive dancer stereotype. I actually gotten compliments from people that they are happy to see a legit Thavnairian for once instead of yet another dancer/courtesan. So I wouldn't be too worried! A Thavnairian merchant is a super valid concept and I'm sure you will find plenty of people to roleplay with! There's quite a few markets these days you could throw her at to sell her wares on top of that. Best of luck!

I'd honestly just go with something easier... "Othardian Hyur noble had to flee due to supporting underground rebellion against the Garlean Empire and got found out" is a lot easier to work then having some super complicated background. That's not to say you can't make a super complicated background, but you're really seeming to stab yourself in the foot at this point. Especially if you don't know much lore, keep it simple!