Arik

Well, apparently I'll be doing commissions soon! Thanks guys. \o\ I'll just need to work out the pricing/payment methods/etc first. I'll be back soon with more information. ^^ In the meantime, have a speedpaint I did of a friend's character, Kagerou: [align=center]http://i.imgur.com/sUvHL5z.png[/img][/align]

[align=center]Update 4/30/2017: Overhauled page-- I'm still alive! \o/[/align] [align=center] - G A L L E R Y - - C O M M I S S I O N . I N F O - - T H E . S L O T S - Hey there! Welcome to my own little art corner. Feel free to take a look around. Comments are welcome and appreciated! Commissions are currently: FULL-- for more information, check out the above link! I am now offering a Waiting List! Click here for more information. Don't be shy about contacting me about anything and everything. ♥ It is best to reach me at [email protected]. [/align]

If there's room, I'd love an invite as well! (On Arik Nergui)

I absolutely feel your pain on this. While I realize that the *vast majority* of people one will encounter using the Duty Finder will be polite and forgiving (especially if you're open to tips and aren't making the same basic mistakes over and over again), there are those few bad apples that ruin the fun of it. Especially for those of us who have anxiety issues even out of game. The idea of even potentially running into one of those folks is enough to turn us off to PUGs all together. While some people can brush that sort of thing off without it affecting them, not everyone is hardwired the same way. In my own case, I've see the worst of the worst of the MMO community from working as a customer support rep for one of the major titles for over two years. Often times, at that job, I mostly had to contend with those very people-- the trolls, the ragers, the keyboard-gangsters who, when they're online, will say some of the meanest, nastiest things because they're safe behind a monitor and have themselves convinced they won't be held accountable. I honestly think it was that work experience, more so than ANY of the bad PUGs I'd actually dealt with, that wound up sapping what little patience I had left for those kind of people in general. These days, I've developed such an aversion to that type of personality that tools like the Duty Finder are all but ruined for me, even though the logical part of my brain is completely aware of the fact that the ARR community is significantly less toxic than the game I used to work for and that it's not likely I'll run into those sorts regularly. Yet every time I think about queueing up for a random, I work myself up like crazy thinking "but what if I get one of *those* sort of groups? What if I make a mistake?" And then, ironically, "What if I'm so stressed out I just suck??" (as I often do, because I've worked myself up so much! It's a vicious cycle.) It's positively unnecessary of me, but yet I can't help but do it. D< In FF, I've just been fortunate in having joined up with a bunch of friends who I can run the content with and who can tolerate my aversions (luckily, I seem to be a decent enough tank that they put up with me and regularly feel the need to vent to me about the awful and/or rude PUG tanks that THEY'VE dealt with via DF, haha). That said, I'm aware of how only playing with one group can mean missing out on some learning opportunities, and I have been trying to wean myself back into randoms for that reason. TL;DR: Hang in there! You're definitely not alone in having these anxieties. For some people, it's super easy to brush off and move on like nothing happened-- but it's okay if you're not one of those people who can naturally do so. We're all hardwired a little differently and all we can do is our best while trying to stay open to ways we can improve.

I and the little crew that I run with have mostly been playing in the La Noscea and Limsa area. Not because it's "the most interesting" location, but because it is the most conducive to the characters' stories and Ul'dah is the last place at least 2-3 of them would be caught right now. (All for IC reasons.) That said, I can see a ton of potential for Ul'dah RP. I've been there a couple times myself IC, and I think it'd be a shame if folks were only looking at the Quicksand as a venue. I've got to agree with the others though-- If you want to see RP in other locations, then make it happen. A couple weeks ago, we picked a remote area as a sort of camping "headquarters" for the group. When we first started RPing in that village, there was no one ever there ICly, though we'd see lots of people with RP tags come and go, stop and watch us for a bit, and then leave. We virtually always RP in the open, because it's our policy to welcome outsiders should they want to join. Within a few days, we'd log in to RP around said area and-- lo and behold-- we started encountering new groups popping up there, and now we've even had some fun, random RPs with strangers as a result. There's no way to tell if it was just a coincidence, of course, but we can't help but smile and hope that we were in some way responsible for encouraging RP in that area. "Be the change you want to see in the world" -- Gandhi obviously meant something much more significant than a digital fantasy world, but hey, it can apply to just about anything in life. vuv

I love certain things about that first hair, and god I love the *concept* of it so much, but I really wish the long portion in the game version laid more naturally down the side of the head/neck. It looks strangely 'stuck out' from the head/neck to me all the time, especially any time the character moves around. But that's just my opinion. It's for that reason alone that I would opt for the dreadlocks myself. But she looks badass with either, frankly!

^ This. So much, this. My primary RP pet peeve is, most likely, myself. I don't even want to think about how many potentially awesome connections and new RP partners I could've made in all my years RPing if only I hadn't been so paranoid and otherwise had myself convinced that I was being a nuisance. I'm sure to some people I must come off as an elitist, clique-ish jerk because of how often I wind up sticking with people I already know, twiddling my thumbs and waiting (hoping) other people would approach me for RP. I realize it's totally counter-intuitive to finding new RP, it's best to be proactive, but yet I have to fight this constant wall in my brain that tells me that if I were to do so, I'd wind up just being obnoxious. |: Damn you psychological walls. I'll tear you down-- Some day.

So because the character is wearing weathered horas he's going to see things wrong with his body mechanics. Not just assume, nor think he sees, but literally you're going to assign wrong factors to the other characters mechanics because you know that that is a level 1 weapon and you've Inspected his level to be low? There are names for that kind of behavior in RP. They're metagaming and godmoding. The journey can be roleplayed without game mechanics. Yes. If you're a level 1 Pugilist, in my eyes, your character is a level 1 Pugilist. To me, metagaming and godmoding is claiming your character has abilities it clearly doesn't have. If you can't be bothered to level up a job to at least a level where you can pull off a look that fits the job beyond "freshly made character", then I don't see why my character should recognize the skills yours claims to have. If you're going to RP a character and not level them, why even subscribe to the game? You'd probably be a lot better suited doing forum RP. Gaia Online is over there, bro. To me, this just feels like the equivalent of seeing a guy at an expensive restaurant dressed in cheap jeans, converse sneakers and a T-shirt, assuming that he's clearly "poor"-- and then watching him drive away in his Rolls Royce. Just like real life, you can't judge someone nor their standing in life entirely by what they look like or what they're wearing.

This, actually. I'm more likely to squint at characters who are still incredibly young/etc and are somehow these masters of a craft. Not that it can't happen, of course, it's just a major story-telling pitfall I think a lot of people fall into... Plus the "child prodigy" angle can get very precariously OP very quickly if not handled well. (And it almost never is.)

I'm, personally, of the mindset that OOC achievement =/= IC capability. Does it help with immersion to be level capped and decked out in shiny, character-appropriate gear? Absolutely. Is it necessary in order to demonstrate your character is competent in what they say they do? No. For me, that's all about the other player's portrayal of the character and whether or not it convinces me of their knowledge and experience. I've encountered a plethora of "highly skilled ______" who I've rolled my eyes at in the past, but it was never because of what I saw when my cursor hovered over their character-- it was because of poor writing, shoddy character development, and usually a clear impression that they weren't writing a powerful character for a good reason, but were just doing so for the power trip. Frankly, I've rolled my eyes at just about as many level-capped characters for this reason as I have low-level characters. That said, I've actually seen some fairly nasty behavior from both sides of this argument-- as much from the "Well, I won't take you seriously unless you're level capped" camp as from the "I'm level 25 and playing a 40+ old war veteran with boatloads of experience" side. I've seen level-capped characters break the laws of lore and existence, bordering on godmodding behavior, in games while fighting lower level characters. I've seen level capped characters pick fights with low-level characters only to refuse to partake in IC combat unless the in game duel mechanics were used. Why? Because they were a higher level and/or better geared and were, apparently, out to prove something. If you can substantiate your character's IC achievements with OOC mechanics, then that's awesome. When I see someone who's obviously very progressed into a game, who has clearly put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into achieving what they have, I am absolutely impressed and, on an OOC level, I'm probably bowing down to them at my keyboard. But not everyone has that kind of time to devote to games. Some people play these games exclusively for RP and thus either only level in order to supplement that RP, or don't level much at all. Heck, there have been games in the past for me where I never hit level cap at all but played the thing for years. Why? Because I wound up hating the game mechanics themselves but found myself pulled into the RP scene enough that I stuck around just for that. I just don't find it fair to tell people who may have limited time or even capability that they have not earned the right to play an experienced character, despite whatever storytelling capabilities they might bring to the table. In the end though, if someone's trying to lord their "all-powerfulness" over another character -- be it imaginary or substantiated in mechanics--- their game progression or level is irrelevant, if you ask me. Someone who's issuing OOC threats regarding their character's "particular set of skills" (~ Liam Neeson) or are trying to shoehorn their alleged badassery into RP will be just as obnoxious at level 60 as they would be at level 5.

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As others have mentioned, I'm not aware of any lore that would substantiate an Eorzean born/raised Au Ra. I imagine there are always ways to twist things should you *really* want to do it, but the character would have to be one of very, very few Au Ra to have been in Eorzea Pre-Heavensward. (If even refugees were common, after all, it would seem we ought to have seen them around occasionally as NPCs-- it's not like they're hard to miss. I realize we didn't because the race literally didn't exist yet, but I figure their absence until now is not something we can totally ignore either.) The Au Ra, in what lore I've seen, are very much localized to their home continent of Othard. The Xaela are generally tribal and nomadic (where I imagine them being very much "stay with the tribe" in mindset) and even the Raen are described as being solitary in their homes within the mountains. There's always room for exceptions, of course, and I know of at least one or two player character Au Ra who are doing a "native Eorzean" thing, but if you're worried about adhering much to lore, I would advise sticking with the Othard-Native origins if you can. If you don't mind stretching lore and finding ways to try to make it feasible though, that's certainly up to you.

I. Basic Info Characters: Arik Nergui, Adelise Levant Primary character: Arik Nergui - Wiki Page Linkshells: A private LS with a number of IRL friends-- but I'm looking to join some others! Primary RP linkshell: The above LS with friends. II. RP Style Amount of RP (light, medium, heavy): Heavy is preferable. I'm only really hanging around in the light to medium range right now because I and some friends are trying to bust our way through MSQ/levels and I've yet to really establish any non-IRL IC contacts yet. Honestly though, the more opportunities I can get for RP, the happier I am. \o\ As for writing style-- I like to write a lot and can lend myself a bit toward the paragrapher mindset. I'm more than capable of brevity and one-liners when the situation or partners call for it though. Views on RP combat and injuries: I think they can both add a great layer of interest to a character/story arc when done right. I prefer OOCly discussed outcomes or even those totally pre-planned because everyone gets their say in it and, hopefully, no one winds up feeling snubbed by either the other player or RNG. I'm open to /roll/random outcomes, I just prefer that only be applicable when outcome is somewhat inconsequential and when the characters are actually comparable in skill/ability/etc. (I don't care how high my rolls are-- we need to talk it out before my peasant-boy of a farmer kid lands critical strike after critical strike on your seasoned, active war veteran!) I do not take in-game levels or ilevel into account-- I will go by what you have written for your character and I hope you will do the same for me. That said, I am 110% okay with situations where my character(s) may lose a fight or walk away injured (even seriously so), so long as it makes sense and is interesting play. (Heck, I tend to go by the "attempt" phrasing method myself-- as in, "he attempted to hit bob in the face," rather than "he hit bob in the face"-- If you do the same, it's very likely I may personally choose to let a strike be critical and result in a nasty wound!) So long as there is no godmodding and so long as you're receptive to sorting our plan out with me, I'm golden. Views on IC romance: If it's organic, happens over time, and is opposite a partner who I mesh with-- then romance is one of my all-time guilty pleasures in RP. I love this trope of a plot device and, so long as it's with another player I'm comfortable with on both an IC/OOC level, I will always thoroughly enjoy it. I just have to draw the line at "insta-love" with no purpose and romance for the sake of romance without any real chemistry. I feel like it should also go without saying that IC and OOC are two completely separate things and should always be treated as such. Views on non-romantic RP (family ties, etc): Yes, yes and yes! Friends, family, rivals, drinking buddies, acquaintances, enemies, students, teachers, professional contacts-- I want it all. Gimme. Views on lore: My view on it is that if you're not interested in adhering to lore, then you may as well just be RPing in a chat room or a free-form forum. It's fine if that's what you want to do, but I specifically RP in MMOs because I enjoy their lore, their worlds, and thus immerse myself in them. That said, I'm an avid believer in having fun with the lore and not considering yourself bound, gagged and beaten by it either. So long as it isn't glaringly contradictory to widely known facts about the game's story, I'll let a lot of things slide and I'll be happy to play along with them so long as they're not too outlandish. Part of the fun of RPing in an MMO is experiencing the kind of life and twists other players can add to the world itself. I personally do my best to stay believable within the constraints of the lore I've been able to gather and just enjoy filling in the blanks with my own personal headcanons. Views on chat functions (/say, /linkshell, etc): /say = In character speech. ((OOC denoted by double parentheses)) /em = In character actions and/or speech. ((OOC denoted by double parentheses)) /linkshell = Depends on the LS. /FC = Depends on the FC. /whisper = If I'm actively RPing with you, I will denote OOC with (()), otherwise it is likely IC if speech is in "quotations." If we are not actively RPing, it is likely OOC by default. All other channels are on a case by case basis. If I fear there might be confusion, I'll usually do my best to clarify at the start of a message. III. Other Info Country: United States Timezone: CST (Central Standard Time) Contact info: PMs, in-game whispers/mail sent to Arik Nergui, and Discord is available upon request! [align=center][glow=blue]~Special announcements can be found in the posts below~[/glow][/align]

Just about every story device and bare-bones plot in existence these days is a trope in one way or another. It's not about what it is, it's about how you do it and the thought you put behind it. I'd always pick RP with someone who's acting out an overdone "cliche," but are doing it well, before opting for RP with random guy #523 who's doing something I've never seen before-- but doesn't bother to remotely follow the rules of the english language and has no consistency or continuity. Does that make random guy #523 someone who should be ashamed of what he's doing? Not at all! If he's having fun, that's all that matters. Just as it's within his right to do what he wants with his character, it's within my right to just not RP with him. The only people who should be ashamed in those situations are the people who actively go out of their way to "give shit" to random RP strangers because they don't like something they're doing with a character that the aforementioned person really doesn't need to involve themselves with in the first place. I haven't been around the FFXIV RPC for very long myself, but I've yet to see any of that nasty behavior of the latter sort. Do I see people giving their honest opinions when asked for them? Yes. There's nothing wrong with wanting to see something a little different come to the community, and I see nothing wrong with warning that the concept has been very much done (in case you *were* looking to it as a way to differentiate yourself.) But being honest and blunt is different from being rude or unwarranted. I say go for what you want for your character, OP. If someone has an issue with it, they can RP with someone else. If someone "gives you shit" about it, then don't sweat it and don't RP with that person. The backstory is only one of many facets that make a character. Just because you use a few tropes here or there doesn't mean that you can't still have a unique character in the bigger picture.

You can put Arik "Nergui" down as a former Tumet, though he would have left the clan around the age of 10 years old. (Failed rites of passage, ftw.) "Nergui" (meaning "no name") is literally just a nickname he has given himself to denote a lack of regular tribe and his overall loser-status. This way, he's not bringing further disgrace on any other tribe while he's busying loser-ing it up across Eorzea.

Maybe it's just me, but whenever someone mentions witch doctors, I think of this: cmjrTcYMqBM Now just imagining it as the theme song of an entire Xaela tribe amuses me. So long as it's always sung in a slow, incredibly somber and srs-faced style, headcanon accepted.

I was originally considering a 'raised by Doman Hyur in tiny village' concept (resulting in a sort of xaela firstname + adopted doman surname convention) after either being separated from his original tribe or his original clan being destroyed in some tribal warfare. But now that there are so many cool concepts available from actual canon, I'm seriously torn. Dx To a degree, I'd come up with that contingency plan due to paranoia we'd either get the info seriously late or else when we *did* get it, it'd be too vague to comfortably work with... Boy were my fears on the latter unfounded. I might still go with some variation on my original plan, but hnnnngh some of these are so coooool. This is going to take some more research and brainstorming, I think. At least I now know Verik likely won't quite work as a first name without shoehorning it in there-- But Arik might be a good compromise. (Thanks, internet.)

This is one of my favorite things to throw into RP, honestly. I agree that I'd like to see it more, but I'd also especially like to not have my character's money-woes be immediately remedied at the turn of a dime by another character who seems capable of manifesting money from thin air. I don't have any problem with people who choose to play rich characters, but it seems the financially well-to-do tend to outnumber the average joe (much less the actively impoverished) in a lot of RP communities. I love my struggling mercenary types who go from town to town trying to scrounge up enough money to even eat... Only to then make a spectacle of himself chowing down at some local restaurant. (Or, alternatively, blowing what little he has on booze only to go pass out in some dingy, back-alley gutter somewhere because he can't afford an inn. 'Dat class.)

[align=center]http://i.imgur.com/hl4ZzP7.jpg[/img][/align] [align=center]http://i.imgur.com/SIRI2UN.jpg[/img][/align] [align=center]http://i.imgur.com/jAM6ckp.jpg[/img][/align] I spent more hours in the benchmark character creator than I'd care to admit-- But I like to think it paid off. (Can't promise he won't still get tweaks come live though. )

Having only just joined the game about a month ago and started assembling stuff for an IC Au Ra Main, I can definitely say that all of the Glamour talk and apparent use really confused me at first. For a time, I even considered it myself; though that was more out of impatience for wanting to get involved in RP. But I never could really get myself comfortable with the idea when I couldn't find a whole lot of information supporting glamours as a reliable and more importantly widely available tool on an IC basis. (Outside of armor glamours and the bits and pieces I've encountered in leves.) It only made matters worse that the character I have in mind is hardly magic-centric, nor is he in any way 'subtle.' I eventually resigned myself to focusing on leveling/MSQs and just being patient -- though, trust me, I'm practically vibrating in my seat the closer we get to Friday. It kind of amazes me though that so many people are comfortable with playing this race already when it hasn't even been fully released yet and canonical information is still so limited. Maybe I'm just a lore-junky and the sort who likes to have a relatively established backstory rather than making it up as I go, but I've already found myself compelled to find IC ways to disconnect Verik from his 'traditional' Au Ra brethren, if only to help explain any discrepancies between what I write for him and what we eventually learn to be true Au Ra customs/culture/etc (at least for certain things that I can't be easily fluid about and change along the way). I'm not saying there's anything technically wrong with playing the race now-- I'm sure there are plenty of people who are doing so wonderfully already-- all I'm saying is that those who do are braver and much more easy-going in regards to continuity than I. I think there might be something to be said regarding the excitement that comes with playing a race that is "only just emerging" on a large scale in canon story. In a way, it's almost like there's a competition to see who can be the first to garner the "holy crap" reactions that are bound to happen when other characters see an Au Ra for the first time. Alternatively, I think there might be a certain appeal in being able to say that your character was one of the first and one of the few of their kind on Eorzea pre-expansion. I can't help but wonder if that was part of why so many people flocked to the idea of using "glamours" as a way to jumpstart that sort of angle. But it starts to lose its meaning when so many other people are doing the same thing. In the end though, it's RP and we do it to have fun. if someone else wants to use the fantasia/glamour device in order to have fun in their RP, then all the more power to them. I just hope that if they are already established characters in the community that they do some OOC legwork on behalf of those they play with to be sure the partners who may be affected by the choice are on board and have something of a say in how it's done.

I'm a big fan of VII and have been since it was released; it was frankly the first FF installment that really drew me into the series as a kid. It inspired me to later go back and play its predecessors as well as VIII+ (VI and IX ranking way up there with it) but VII will always be my favorite. This is for a plethora of reasons; from its' story and characters to the sentimentality of it just being my first srs play through of a FF game and the first time I really started paying attention to Japanese video games/animation/etc. I am well aware of the fact that nostalgia probably plays a huge role in making me biased, and I'm totally okay with that. That said: I never really understood all the debate that seemed to surround FF___ being better than FF___ -- and more importantly how vehement and even bitter some people can get about it. It's pretty obvious that a lot of the installments draw inspiration from a variety of their predecessors while throwing out new concepts to change things up. Given it's all technically in the same series, I tend to view it in an almost AU light I suppose; taking elements from previous characters/stories/worlds and putting them into a new environment or making changes here and there to see how that would affect the story. In the end, everyone's going to have their own favorites and preferences, but no one's wrong for wherever they may fall on the 'fandom' spectrum-- We're all fans of FF in the end, we might just like different installments more than others. As far as the VII spin-offs/additions that were added later on, I've got to agree a lot with Gegenji on this. I liked CC a lot, mostly because I was excited to explore Zack's character and get to see him in action. The gameplay itself even turned out to be a lot of fun, so that was a major bonus. But Genesis? I like Gackt's work as a musician, I thoroughly enjoyed what he did for DoC, but it was completely unnecessary to force him into such an integral part of the main story. I have no problem with cameos, but why not just insert him as an easter egg NPC somewhere in the world? Or hell, plaster his face on billboards like some sort of canonical musician and celebrity in Midgar? There were better ways to go about executing an homage to the guy without majorly influencing the story itself. At any rate, Sephiroth's motivations were perfectly fine as they were in VII. To insinuate that he had to be directed or influenced by someone else just to investigate his obvious differentiation from other SOLDIERs takes a lot away from the character's integrity, in my opinion. The fact that he clearly knew he was different, and was bound to eventually wonder why, was more than enough. While I understand there are some people out there who thoroughly enjoyed Genesis as a character as well as what he meant for Sephiroth's story-- and everyone is absolutely entitled to their own opinions-- the whole thing just makes me cringe. In fact, I often find myself trying to pretend like that wasn't even a thing to start with and I swear my brain tries to selectively remove Genesis from the picture when I think about the VII plot and all of its additions these days. I don't doubt they'll find ways to allude to him in the VII remake, I just hope they keep it subtle. Honestly, the more true they stay to the original game's story, the happier I'll be. (Even if that means just paying for a shinier version of a game I've already played/beaten.)

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Considering my first foray into the FFXIV RP world will be via an Au Ra main, I can't exactly contribute much in the way of 'how will your character react?' I can say, however, from the perspective of someone only just coming into the community for the first time, I would personally hope to see a broad variation on how my Au Ra is received by others ICly. Conflict, prejudice, distrust, curiosity, excitement, complacency, hatred-- the more the merrier. So long as anything 'negative' remains entirely within the IC spectrum and I can still joke around with the other player(s) OOCly while our characters bicker or duke it out, I'm pretty happy. Variety is the spice of life after all, and though I can absolutely understand some players not being up for the more 'sensitive' sort of interactions, I personally don't mind it-- heck, I even enjoy it when the scene's thought out well and I can readily discuss things with the other players on an OOC capacity to be sure we're all on the same page.

As others have mentioned, there is RP on other servers, just in much smaller doses. It's probably safe to assume that there isn't much *open* RP as well, and you might have to do a little more OOC legwork to find it. There is an "other" server option on the Linkshell Hall that lists Linkshells from other servers here, if you'd like to check it out. I know there was also a recent post about someone who had started a new RP FC on Lamia here. That said, it's perfectly possible to get onto both Balmung and Gilgamesh-- it's just all about timing or what you might be willing to do to get onto the "main" RP servers. I've only recently joined the game myself and had to go through this whole process. There are some great tips for getting a character on Balmung here. It basically amounts to: Trying character creation on early weekday mornings. For me *personally* I found both Balmung and Gilgamesh open Monday-Thursday around 5-7 AM CST. (Friday-Sunday and holidays seem to be an absolute no-go.) Trying character creation immediately before or after maintenance. Creating a toon on a different server, playing for three days, and then simply coughing up the dough to transfer *onto* Balmung or Gilgamesh, as this will bypass any character creation restrictions. Hope this helps, good luck! \o/