Paradox

I'm only annoyed in this case if they do shit like this and then they make their characters just walk it off as if it never happened. You know, being all casual like: "Oh yeah, I was kidnapped a few weeks ago, I got saved though, haha." Or, even worse, those who do the "false fear" scene for attention, like... "Oh no... I--I was... R-raped!" Two days later, you find them going "Oh no, I was raped!" And flirting with a random dude, using the fact the character was raped as some sort of... "Hook" I'm aware many RPers don't do this, but as a psych. student and someone who has known people in that reality, that attitude is cringe-worthy. This. Like. Okay, if you're an adventurer, got kidnapped by bandits or something for a ransom and your friends came to save your ass, then the trauma would probably be mild at best, because let's face it. Eorzea's a harsh place. Shit does happen. But yeah, with rape or torture, real traumatizing, fear creating events, the 'walk it off' thing annoys me to no end.

I read this as Au Ra Horn Headcannons, and my first thought was Fuck. Yes. Laserhorns. As for the actual horns, well. I had a character in an unrelated RP years and years ago that had horns made into her skull as part of an experiment with her family. The way the horns worked is that they were like hollow carapace with hardened outer shell. The idea was that they took in vibrations through the air through very tiny openings in the horns that led into the hollow cavity, enhancing her ability to hear and feel those vibrations to identify things. In a sense similar to, but not quite echolocation. More like one half of it. I imagine if an Au Ra's horns got broken at the end, they would not be able to filter out sounds, and it would be like a bullhorn going off in their 'ear' constantly until they covered it with something or it grew back (can they grow back? can they be healed with conjury?).

I think it's subjective. I also think that balance is based entirely on many things, such as the roleplayers themselves, the situations, and where the power is applied. Again, this is one of those things that you can't easily measure. If you have two characters with similar combat strength but in different areas, it's hard to say who's overpowered. A ranged high thaumaturge vs a melee warrior who moves slowly for example. The thaumaturge, if he has distance on the warrior is clearly overpowered compared to the warrior because he had the advantage. The same can be said if the warrior has melee range, and can down the caster as he's casting easily. Subjective. As for more subtle things, well. Underpowered can mean a lot of things too. Someone who is a non combatant in a combat situation will clearly be underpowered. They'll have to run. Or get a combatant friend to help them. But again, subjective. 'Power' is an odd measuring stick because what exactly constitutes power? My only problem with what some call 'underpowered' characters is the fact that everyone cheers for them because they have so many weaknesses, while deriding characters who are stronger. I have a mix of strengths in my characters (there was a power level thread a while back where I talked about my charries there, that was so long ago though.) and people are so afraid to be strong they make characters who are weaker to be praised and not snubbed. I also wonder at how often this comes up considering most people don't get into open world RP fights with people anyway (I rarely see anyone who enjoys combat Rp that isn't planned like some sort of master plan to take over the world, which makes me sad). The way I see it, as long as you can take hits and be defeated, you're not overpowered. A'rk for example is well trained in melee and magical combat, but he has downfalls. Arrogance, underestimating his opponents, sticking to his own code of fighting, his Aether pool, complexity of some of his hand-made spells taking more time, only being trained in one or two weapons to any high degree and being shit with most other weapons, and so on. Power or lack of it in characters is not a sin. If you're Christ and the man Jesus, or Punchbag Bob, it really doesn't matter as long as everyone is having fun and no one is bitter about the results. And that's genuinely what it comes down to. There's no baseline about what's too strong or too weak except by the people in the scene and what's supported by the setting itself as possible or impossible. And we've seen some characters even not the WoL do some crazy things. (Godbert nonwithstanding though. I think he's either a Primal or one of the Twelve in disguise.)

Confessions, hm. Sure, why not. Wall of texts incoming. 0: I talk too much. WAY too much. I write walls of text because it was pounded into me you have to write in great detail for great justice. It's a thing for me, so. Yeah. I: I confess I like creativity of all kinds, even if it doesn't jive with the rest of the world. Straight up. Unless someone is pretending they're I dunno..a Primal crossbreed, or a major lore or other Final Fantasy canon character or something impossible, chances are I'll play with them no matter how alien or odd their concept seems, because the Rp can often be very engaging in spite of, or even because of that. I'm very easygoing with conceptualizations because I believe Rp is 99% imagination, 1% everything else. Lorebending to an extent is fine with me, even if it's on the wonky side. Openly breaking is harder for me to accept, but I've found many good players who became friends of mine with concepts not 100% lore friendly either, and I wouldn't give those friends up for the world. You won't hear the words 'special snowflake' or 'edgy' from me about RP or people's characters, because it's disrespectful, and when I grew up as an Rper, we learned to respect each others creativity, not snub our noses at it because we didn't like one or two little details that didn't fit in our happy bubble. II: I confess, I hate slice of life RP to death. I know a lot of people think it's the bee's knees to be the everyman and have a quaint little soap opera life to play, but as someone who came from a heavy combat/conflict RP background I find it really dull. No offense to anyone who plays it, just ain't my thing unless I really have nothing else to do and my characters have no one to piss off. That, and I already have a slice of life RP I do. It's called married life. >> I happen to be an everyman in real life, why would I want to RP what I am? III: Like some others have said, I confess, I do ERP at times if the character's nature or story would make sense for it to occur, and fade to blacks to me are like a blank page in a book I'm reading. I also laugh at people who judge Rpers because they ERP of their own choice. If it's outside someone's comfort zone it's absolutely fine for them to not do it, their choice, but those who act like it's a cardinal sin and look down on or shame people for it (especially behind people's backs because most of them don't have the stones to say it to someone's face) just make me roll my eyes. IV: I confess I love drama (IC). I love conflict. I love fighting, blood, violence, I love when someone's feelings are hurt, I love when two people who used to love one another hate each other. I love when someone dies in battle. I love when the bad guys win. I love when the world is destructive and cruel, and I love when there is no truly happy ending. I know that doesn't jive with some people's happy bubble, but I really love when things are terrible. I'm only happy when it rains. ..is it weird then that I don't really like GoT? Huh. V: I confess I do all I can to have an objective view of whatever world I play in, and play by its rules. I try not to let my biases from the real world affect how my character views their world because I'm looking through their eyes, not mine. I try to remember no matter what, this is not earth, it's Hydaelyn or however you spell it. /Effort. It's hard sometimes, admittedly. VI: I confess it's hard for me to play racist characters. Weird, I know. This kind of coincides with V, but it's subtly different. I mean, I can play a character that slings an occasional slur to provoke someone easily, but playing an actual racist is difficult because I've never had that mind set in my life. Hating someone just for how they look or how they were born is so alien to me, it's hard to do despite how I've tried in the past even trying to look at it through my character's eyes. VII: I confess I got my start in RP with tabletop D&D, 2nd edition with some old 1st edition flavor. I started at age 13, 23 years ago. I've loved tabletop games for many long years, though I've always preferred freeform combat (but that's neither here nor there). I also confess as an addendum that my favorite tabletop system is Pathfinder or AD&D 2nd, tied. It's just so good. VIII: I confess I hate kidnapping/abduction/torture and rape as drama plots with a vengeance. The whole abduction/(gender here) in distress/rape/torture as drama is bad, and you should feel bad if you do them on a frequent basis. Not because of the subject matter (though for some that alone can be a reason), because sometimes shit needs to get real. But because I have run across only a handful of people in over twenty years of RP that have actually managed to play the severity of any of the above situations in the seriousness they need to be taken in order to have impact. Kind of the same as playing true villains. It takes a certain mature approach that the majority of people don't have. IX: I confess that I don't often try to get involved in random RP because despite a lot of people having 'walk ups' in their info, I get ignored when I walk up. (I know, this isn't just a me thing). But I mean even by people who don't know me for the dick I can be. >> You walk up and start a conversation, get blown off, then they start yammering away at someone they know or that's in their FC like you never even tried. It's enough to swear you off of open world sometimes, but I keep trying. Maybe I like the abuse, meh. X: I confess that I have a very bad short term memory, which kind of messes up RP sometimes. It's been damaged over the years. I literally have forgotten whole Rps I've done after a day or two has passed, and I genuinely am shit-horrible at remembering names. I have people on my friends list I repeatedly forget and have to ask 'who are you again?'. Yeah, my short term memory loss at times can be that bad. It gets really frustrating sometimes. XI: I confess, godmodders don't really bother me at all like they do other people. Even the 'invincible' ones get tired if you counter them enough with their own medicine. It's actually kind of great for a laugh when you make their brains bluescreen or you frustrate THEM for a change. Good times. Plus, sometimes they just don't know any better and you can help them get better. :3 XII: I confess, I like anime style/magical physics and the suspension of disbelief in things like combat and can't stand when others just plain out mock people in a *fantasy* game for using said things in their RP. Gritty realism and plausible physics is fine, but we're in a high fantasy game with races that couldn't biologically exist with our own real world physics, creatures that can make matter into energy while violating all the conservation of energy laws, and where the laws of thermodynamics do not stop you from launching big fuck-off fireballs by waving a magic stick. Also, Godbert. Anyone who plays in a world with all this and has a problem with someone jumping a little too high or punching hard enough to crack a few stones if they've had enough training is nitpicking, and they need to RP in a more realistic setting. Not, you know, Final Fantasy.

In most cases, characters are fearless not because they go through great trials, but because as was stated before, there are no consequences to your characters acting like a colossal douche canoe because you need permission to look at someone funny. I don't even mean killing or trying to 'force' damage. You can't even start the beginnings of a fight with someone IC without a bunch of permission anymore in most cases. Everyone is all for spontaneous roleplay if they get to talk shit, or do cute slice of life stuff, but if someone wants to put a fist in their mouth for running it, then it's godmodding or doing something without permission and it's a cardinal sin. It's the same overall idea as being an internet tough guy. They run their mouth because they know it's very unlikely they'll face real consequences behind the keys.

As far as the two suspensions of disbelief meeting in the middle, one simply has to look at Final Fantasy XIV's laws of physics and combat to find what is and isn't possible. And that is..that it's inconsistent. We often see massive feats of strength and magic, and not just form the WoL, but from many individuals. The fact is, the game is cinematic, anime-styled, and very very Japanese. Thancred does a lot of high flying acrobatic stuff, people fling fire from their fingers, we have an empire that's kind of like the Empire from Star Wars lite version mixed with the Gestahl Empire from FFVI. But we also see those sometimes superhumans beaten when they shouldn't be, or not using that strength or magic at certain intervals when it would be useful to advance the plot along. As far as Godmodding. Well, it's fairly cut and dry. What was described by the OP is more about 'style' than 'godmodding'. Someone prefers to disregard all the anime style fighting the game presents is entirely feasible by lore because they're not comfortable with it. Another does use it because it has precedent. That's up to them to figure out in method and flow. That's clashing styles. It just requires compromise, or the ability to recognize compromise isn't possible. Godmodding is a lot easier to deal with. If my character casts a spell to drop a meteor on your head without any way of disengaging from the attack, forcing your character to take the entire hit, that's godmodding. If he casts a spell to drop a meteor on your head but leaves several avenues of escape that still might result in you getting some burns or scrapes or damage, that's more feasible. Yes, you can dodge a spell, a sword, a bullet, what have you, but it's important to remember you can't dodge *all* the time. That's the tricky part about godmodding, at least in combat. You have the right to avoid an attack and not have the *full* effect forced on you. However, dodging all the time to *no* effect against you is as equally godmoddy. It's fine to fully dodge some of the time, because if you didn't, fights would be over way too fast. There's an example in the MSQ of a protect type effect completely nullifying (What I assume at least) the impact of a normal bullet. Ultimately, in a battle, we should expect our attacks to have some effect on the other individual, without the end result being written for them, by us. Barriers should have a number of hits allowed, or a precentage of damage allowed in, based on the scale of the attack, and so on. What it comes down to is, use good judgment, and all shall be well. Don't write people's responses or damage for them. Let them answer creatively and have both sides expect acknowledgment of effects from attacks on either side, otherwise it's not a battle. Godmodding out of combat is a no no as well. If you're pickpocketing someone, they have a chance to notice. Don't just do something and call it law without giving them a chance to respond. The story has many writers, after all. Otherwise, why interact at all?

I just obsessively look at people's search info. If people RP, it's usually there. Beyond that, I just look to see who already is Rping, and try to insert myself if possible. People Rp everywhere, it's not really hard to find.

There's actually more to the Echo than that; you see another thing it's capable of when you do the MSQ and something happens involving the Sahagin and Leviathan. Later on, you also see what it can do when the Ascians use it in its base form. I don't want to give anything away for those who haven't gotten that far yet, but the seeing memories and understanding languages is just the tip of the iceberg; it's just the most common thing known because it's basically the passive abilities. And from what I gather, few with it get past that point.

Ark is an Echo user, but he's not a WoL. The way I understood Echo is, it isn't unique at all, and has variable things it can and can't do. We see a lot more of what it's capable of in the MSQ, and find that it's got some things we didn't originally know tied in to its existence. But barring that, I've always played this version of Ark as Echo-compatible because it makes sense for the character and ties in to his backstory. Keep in mind, even being a WoL is *not* a unique thing. In 1.0, there were several. And in the MSQ we find that someone who was once one of our enemies is also a WoL, though only has one crystal. [Not going to mention names for fear of spoilers, and the spoiler tags always go funny on me]. The funny thing is, being a WoL, ie, having Her blessing, does very little in the long run. It just means you put off a 'No Ascians Zone' around yourself and can 'assimilate' crystals from Primals, and make you stronger against them. Interestingly enough, as 'powerful' as the BoL seems to get, that power only serves them against monsters and primals. I think being a WoL makes one in a sense, a 'reverse Ascian'. Like an antithesis to all the primals and things that are antithesis to the goddess and her world. It doesn't really seem to give you any special powers against mortals at all, as you still get messed up by them at every turn. (I know, I know, it's part of the plot and all.) The superior strength in combat is basically shown from what I've gathered, to just be the BoL's experience and natural ability. They're the hero, after all. The protagonist. The other WoL we see may be exception to this because that individual took on a different existence to a normal mortal, so I don't know if it counts. However, in terms of being the 'Bringer of Light' and the MSQ savior, to me, that's Derplander, basically, and that's kind of how I play it out. Whenever Ark goes somewhere in the MSQ's reveal publically, Derplander has already been there. He's already fought the bad guys, already laid the smackdown, so that's how people can travel to some places where there'd normally be great opposition. Basically, I RP alongside the MSQ; 'these things have happened in the world, and people talk about them'. I basically have it so that the BoL exists, and the WoLs exist, and Ark learns about them through rumor, buying information, and gathering up what he knows. As far as Echo users, they're not ultra rare, but they don't go around talking about it, because not that many people understand it. It's kind of like being a psychic in the real world. Either people blow it off and don't believe, or you're viewed with awe or fear if you can actually prove it.

In every dimension I've ported him to, I've tried to make sure Ark is some kind of elf-like product. While Elezen's overall body shape is a little..slender for my tastes in regards to his usual shape, I just can't see him being pure human. That, and too few Elezen, too many Miqo. Thought I'd add to the balance of the universe. :3 #Elezenmasterrace

Ark aspired to be a hero once, because of how he viewed heroes and where he came from. But after adventuring in the 'hero' fashion for a good number of years, it left a bitter taste for him because he learned what Archer from Fate/Stay Night did; in order to save one or more, you need to let at least another die. There's no way to save everyone. The world moves on without you. So then he tried the opposite for a while. Went the dark road. Found out it's the same principle, but in reverse. You just end up killing 'heroes' who are ignorant of the real nature of the world's amoral reality. So he basically became self-serving and lives for his own whims but has a specific code of things he will and will not do and will and will not abide. Not a hero or a villain, not really good or evil. Ark's the kind of guy that will sacrifice for his family and defend them, but also withdraw his protection if he thinks they're depending too much on him so they can do it themselves. He's quite contradictory in a lot of instances, and more than a little unstable. A 'hero' is just someone who the weak put all their expectations on, and a 'villain' is someone who has a cause that bothers the sensibilities of others in pursuit of an obsessive goal they think is good or just. They're cut from the same cloth to him, having seen both sides, so he currently simply prefers the role of an 'individual seeking his own goals'.

I sometimes want to make a wiki. I have one started. Sort of. Well, finish the one I'm working on. I just..ugh. It seems like a lot of work for something that I wonder if people will even pay attention to, or I worry about it becoming metagame information for someone trying to start nonsense, so every time I want to work on it, I end up going 'bleeegh'. It's also a case of /effort a lot of the time.

From what I've seen, in Ul'dah at least, slavery is something that works in line with the prison system. You either stay in the system, or become a slave-gladiator, which is basically the same thing because you're a prisoner anyway. As for normal slavery, I haven't seen a lot of references to it in a legal fashion. It's very likely slavery is a crime and punishment deal in most places, and that's legal because it's actually part of the legal system, but it's combat slavery from what I've seen. 'Fight for our country as a slave, earn a pardon' sort of thing. Ul'dah's is confirmed on that, and I imagine Limsa might have something similar, being as they're all old pirates, or a good chunk of them are. It wouldn't be outlandish for a criminal to have to do his time scrubbin' the decks for X years. Gridania..I haven't seen anything in Gridania about it. Their legal system is not touched on that I've seen. I also have no idea about slavery in Ishgard/Coerthas, either, though some of the commoners in Ishgard are treated almost as slaves by more corrupt nobles form what I've gathered in the MSQ, but that's more of a feudalism thing. I think from what we've seen, the actual wholesale selling of people is for the most part, illegal as Mercurias stated. Also, rogue quest touches on slavery as well and how it's illegal by the Code, not just the law. So you have two forces in Limsa who are actively against it.

So much this. But it isn't even the mundane meta that's the problem. It's this idea that if someone does something you don't like, it's automatically bad and has to be 'fixed'. Because an individual has an idea of how Rp should work, how their standards are set up, that you are automatically bad. For people with so much creativity, so many are quick to discount their credibility as roleplayers because an idea doesn't fit with how they think a lore works. Some things are fuzzy and have grey borders. If you think an idea is bad, that doesn't mean it 'needs to be improved'. It means you think it needs to be improved, which is not the same thing. At this point folks, it's turning into a lot of snark, condescension, and headbutting. And a lot of it's gotten seriously off topic from the original point entirely. So that being said, I think I'm going to remove myself from the discussion as it's gone out of discussion territory and into another fight about what kind of RP is bad and what isn't, which wasn't the point of OP's question. Cheers.

From what we've seen in 2.x, Ifrit tempers with fire. In a sense a literal 'tempering'. In order to do this, he breathes blue flame over the targets, which do no actual damage. This means Ifrit's tempering apparently has a range, and is a specific ability he has to activate. Basically he has to hit that hotkey. On using multiple waves to attack a primal, let's assume each primal has a specific technique that tempers with a specific range. That being the case, maybe it also has a target limitation of how many minds it can affect simultaneously. Which is why they threw so many people at Titan; maybe his tempering ability has a target limit, like how our own spells work.

Personally I'd find it kind of awesome in its own way if someone was doing a gladiator arena RP, and SCSA walked out onto the sands, with Good ol' JR announcing at ringside. Heh. Would I take it seriously? No, no. But damn it'd be fun to watch. Thinking about it, there was someone on Balmung named Stone'Cold Steve'Austin at one point I think, saw him /sh. But that's really not on topic.

My major problem with this response is basically that the one who decides it's a good reason is the player themselves. There is no one specific 'reader' to speak of in a roleplay community, so again this is a sweeping generalization that doesn't really apply to everyone. It may be a gravely important reason to the player of that character. Whether anyone else agrees it is or not is on them, but it's not up to them to judge its importance, just their reaction to it. We're talking about varied interactions with multiple individuals, not some dime store novel. It is neither my duty nor my responsibility to impress upon others anything. The OP asked a question, and I gave the responses I thought that supported his idea from what I've seen within the game and with what I know about the universe itself. Considering that every response you've given at this juncture has absolutely no intent on having a different perspective other than 'this is bad, don't do it', I honestly also don't see how you could speak on trying to make anyone have said different perspective, on what might work or otherwise.

Warren basically has the right of it. Some will refuse to Rp outright with you, which is fine for them. Others will accept your character's story gladly, and react accordingly. Still others will have their characters react with 'you're mad', or something such as that, but not refuse RP. It takes all kinds. If someone doesn't like your idea, move on, find someone who does. That's what it comes down to. I won't say no ideas are bad, but this one's fairly par for the course as plausible in this kind of fantasy setting. I've seen actual really bad ideas, oh gods help me. D:

That's a pretty rampant generalization. As of this post, I'll say I've spoken to many roleplayers in the community, some who like the idea of dimension walkers, others who don't. This makes it sound as if you're speaking for those communities, which is a bit of a dangerous stance to take. Perhaps it may have been frowned on in most communities you have known, but that doesn't make it 'most communities'. Having come from many where it was not only accepted, but enjoyed, I must respectfully disagree. Again, a very sweeping generalization. Who are these 'most people' you speak for, precisely? Also, for those who have become very attached to a long term character, just altering them is out of the question for some who prefer what they have. They've already put imagination into their creation many times over. We have precedence for dimension-travel in game events, in the story, and across all the Final Fantasy universe. As I stated above, sure, I'd facepalm at someone who wanted to come from the Shire, but if they wanted to be from Vana'diel or a final fantasy based universe, there'd be nothing wrong with it in my humble opinion. Also, is the question 'why have a lore or a setting' even a serious question? Nowhere in the lore does it specifically say what is suggested is impossible. Equally, 'why have a setting' is like asking 'we have an America, why have a Europe?' Because it exists. Eorzea, Hydealyn, is there. So why not move from one setting to another? Having a setting does not devalue coming to one setting from another, anymore than having your own country devalues going to visit another. Are the physics of traveling worlds different than hopping a train or plane? Sure. But the principle is the same. As to 'why have a lore'? Well, each world has its own culture and peoples. That does not mean not being initially part of those peoples or cultures devalues having a character. The answer to that is the roleplayers themselves. 'How many people'? The community isn't some gang or government that collectively decides what's allowed and what isn't. It's a group of individuals who can choose to allow what they want in their roleplay and the stories they build with others. No one gets to decide how many people form other universes is too many. No one has that right to arbitrarily decide that. If someone doesn't think the lore allows for it by their interpretation of how it's presented, then they have the right to not accept the person is from where they're from. But even then, this does not exclude Rp with them either. Perhaps they would be seen as mad. Or maybe dropped on their head a few too many times. Or perhaps they had vivid dreams about this 'other world' they speak of. Integrating someone's story in that manner, does not mean your character has to accept it at all. Good roleplay comes form introducing a little grey into your black and white rather than dismissing something outright. If someone doesn't like their explanation, have your character interpret it a different way. It may even make for interesting roleplay.

My two gil. I don't see a reason why a character can't be from the world of XI. While it's clear that only Shantotto herself in that world can consciously open dimensional doorways to alternate realities or worlds, there's plenty of room for accidentally shifting, and as we've seen, Lightning sort of coasts dimensions. When big magics go wrong, anything can happen. Hell, look at the Allagans. Nothing says an Allagan research project into tearing open new worlds couldn't have reached the world of XI. 'But Allag is dead as of five millenia ago!' I hear you say. Ah, but dimensional physics are tricky. If their method was flawed, certainly they'd pull an individual or three through by accident..but who says you'd arrive in *their* time? Maybe you'd arrive in modern Eorzea instead. Time/Space is a tricky thing, left to the imagination,which is good! Imagination is something I think many of us have forgotten is a catalyst to great creation and roleplay. While I admit Tancred's reply was a bit negative in its presentation, I have to concur with one thing. Certain universes do not mesh. Middle Earth, for example, has no known method of dimensional travel and is very removed form the Final Fantasy universe. However, other final fantasy games are notorious about being 'connected' in one way or another. Gilgamesh appears in many worlds, and has spoken of traveling through the void. XIII-2 shows us a 'Void' that serves as a connector between the various Final Fantasy realities, meaning that while they are separate of one another, they can also overlap in places. So if someone said they were from Middle Earth, or somewhere that doesn't have the kind of magic or technology that would allow it, yeah I'd question that right off the bat. But since Final Fantasy worlds are known to be somewhat coterminous with each other, I wouldn't see an issue of of someone's character being form any of the known Final Fantasy dimensions at all (provided they weren't playing canon characters, which is a bit in poor taste in my own opinion.) Nor would I have an issue with them being from a world where inter-dimensional travel could potentially bring them to Eorzea. The fun of this is that it means they would have to adapt to a whole new set of cultures, of viewpoints, and the fact whatever magic or object brought them to this world..would no longer likely work as it does not follow Eorzea's 'rules'. Stranger in a strange land is always fun to roleplay. As to what makes an interesting character? That's easy. Whatever floats your boat within reason. If someone doesn't like someone being form another universe, time, or dimension? Well, then your choice to roleplay with someone else. I'll be over here roleplaying with the AU guy so my character can hear all the stories of his strange land, and either dismiss him as a madman, or listen with rapt attention at the idea that there's more out there. But saying someone can't be from another universe is basically the same as saying if an honest to gods extraterrestrial landed on Earth, and your consensus is 'wait, they're form another world and not earth? that's not interesting at all'. Me, I'd be asking how he built his sweet ship. But that's me. Still, everyone does have their view, and differing views make the whole place good. Game on. :3

I have been waiting for this information for a long time to work on a Garlean. Whoever is responsible for this information deserves a

Elezen Master Race.

Mm. In my instances, I generally only fantasia a character I'm not inclined to play anymore because the idea fell flat in my head, or what I was doing with them isn't really working out and there's no way to recoup it. My Au Ra male, Takeo, I actually made as a Hyur way in advance for Au Ra change. I kept him level 1 till Heavensward (since I was mostly doing things on my main), and now I've changed him right proper. I changed my other Miqo because she died IC, and renamed her. I don't change race or gender on a lark, but sometimes it's fun to do it temporarily for comedy purposes, if you want to run a silly story arc, because not *all* RP has to be srs bsnss, after all. Most of what I create is fixed from the get go, unless something really changes that. I think if they ever come out with half-breeds though, I might change my main into a half-elezen, because in his original iteration when I created him ages and ages ago in tabletop D&D, he was a half elf. If it happens, I'd figure out some way to explain it, but I doubt we're going to see halfies for a long time, if ever. But that's sort of off-topic again, apologies.

@Lili: That may be the case, but then again, in this community, a lot of the time I find that creativity is often met with cries of 'this wouldn't work' or 'special snowflake', so using the common out is just the better path if you don't want to deal with the headache. If something doesn't tickle someone's immovable lore meter or fall into their acceptance box a lot of the time, or they have an issue with it, you're generally in for a snit with that person regardless of the creativity of the idea. Admittedly some will accept it if it's very creative, but the majority seem to have this line they follow so to avoid conflict, follow the herd tends to be less stressful. But I digress. Back on topic, If someone name changes *and* race changes, then I'd say yes, they're a whole new character. Now, if they Fantasia into a new race and keep the same name, and want to play off as they've been changed into a new form somehow by some means, or maybe they're in disguise for spy purposes or infiltration, and say hi to their friends in private when they're relatively safe, that would be great fun I think. But I do agree with the group that if you change your name, you're basically not the same character if it's in conjunction with a race change, unless it's a really good explanation. Like..it was an unwilling transformation and they were renamed by whoever did it, and their memories lost or fudged or something. But then they'd have to re-remember their old friends and find a way to live life, and struggle with identity crisis and all that, which can be great fun too. I try to avoid Fantasia myself unless I'm making a whole new character. And while it's expensive to rename and potion, I'm finding that's the only way I can make anything new on Balmung anyway..>< But that's neither here nor there.

It's not so much uncreative as simply more common. Given that we only have so many ways to change bodies one way or another, it's just the easiest way that people have access to most easily. Urianger in the story is shown to have glamour ability. Illusion magic seems to be one that can be used to fudge a lot of things, and it's a more feasible fallback than say, actually using an in game fantasia. It's simple to say someone went to a magus that specializes in glamours; the Halloween event is a good example of some amazing glamours that can change the appearance of not just race, but even into believable monster species. Someone who dedicates their lives to that kind of magic would obviously likely sell it to make money, selling disguises for criminals or spies, or fleeing refugees, or races that might not be accepted right away. Another consideration is that the idea of rarity is based entirely on PCs. Hydealyn is a big, big world; and three people out of what are probably millions, or even billions of people would technically be considered rare in terms of numbers. But most don't consider the world full of billions of NPCs living every day lives as part of the number involving PCs. Admittedly, meeting three in short order could be considered a highly rare coincidence in and of itself, but not entirely impossible by the numbers. Just highly improbable. When I changed one of my characters to an Au Ra, she'd already died IC, so there was really no conflict there. However, I'm fine with accepting any reason a person has..a curse, a glamour, forced transformation magic, Allagan machinery, surgery, Fantasia slipped in your tea, Echo transferal, whatever works for them as long as it's proven to exist in the world itself already.