Varus

At Kannadi’s statement, Tyonis chimed in. “If the vessel isn’t run –a–ground, the three of us can sail her back to port,” the swordsman explained. “You can chart the course and steer the ship,” he pointed at Kannadi, “while the Roegadyn and I rig the sails. Shouldn’t be too difficult if the ship’s the size of a caravel or a small carrack.” His last sentence was more speculative than informative. Tyonis turned his head as he heard the floorboards creak to wordlessly announce the arrival of two more… OOC: Since we are continuing this plot without the others, I wrote in an opening for Mtoto to introduce the NPCs who offered the job.

Tyonis failed to suppress a gag when the woman introduced herself. “Albedo – that explains everything,” he muttered. Tyonis knew her history through his studies of Ul'dah's noble houses during his short lifetime as the Magstrom heir. Kannadi was Albedo's only child and daughter, a family who held a Syndicate seat for three decades, and a product of the Lahar, an old lineage with roots in Ul’dah’s famous textile industry. He recalled when the Albedo announced her birth. Such news spread quickly among Ul’dah’s people because many noble families saw the birth as a way to gain entrance into the wealthy house. In truth, the rules of succession were more pliable than many realized, but the news still spread like wildfire as every nobleman worth a lick of salt attempted to arrange a marriage proposal with the Albedo's patriarch and matron. Apparently none of them stuck, Tyonis thought with a wry grin. The Silver Giant was known to be a hardass, even after stepping down from the Syndicate. He briefly wondered if his father attempted to fix Valen and Kannadi together. They are about the same age, he mused inwardly. After Kannadi’s introduction, Tyonis slowly rose to his full height, just a little over six feet. He took one final bite of the apple before tossing the core over the side of the railing and into the ocean below. “Name’s Tyonis,” he said curtly, while replacing his knife. “Hobbies include dancing and killing people.” He added with an afterthought.

Or, you know, any illiterates among the majority of characters who have Eorzean as their native tongue. You're over-thinking it, mate. Listening isn't part of the poll at all, so you can't assume any option implies an inability to do so. This level of literacy was actually quite common among lower classes in history. Being able to read had a lot of practical use, but being able to write didn't matter so much if you didn't have any power. Again, no implication of an inability to listen. But yes, it is pretty much impossible to write without reading. 1) Yes, the Listening skill isn't covered by the poll, so we will automatically assume characters who choose this option can understand Eorzean speech at some level. If this is the case, then yes, "Speaking Only" would be applicable, since this option would now imply the character can Listen with enough fluency to Speak. 2) Once more, if we automatically assume that the characters who pick this option can Listen and understand Eorzean speech at some level, "Can Read and Speak" becomes possible because Speaking is a productive skill born from Listening and Reading is a fundamental, receptive skill. And you are right; this is the common level of literacy among the lower class. 3) We seem to have an agreement on the third issue.

Okay, so I'll expand upon this. There are four basic communication skills. There are tons of subdivisions, depending on which linguist you ask, but basically they are: Listening (receptive) Reading (receptive) Speaking (productive) Writing (productive) So you have two pairs of receptive and productive skills. Listening and Speaking are considered inherent communication skills - that is, they come naturally and without much assistance. Whereas Reading and Writing are taught communication skills, which require a subject to be taught and be immersed in an environment that encourages reading and writing in the target language. In general, it is much easier to hone your receptive skills than your productive ones. Taking humans into example, one normally learns how to Listen and then Speak. Reading and Writing come after and must be taught. Note that this only applies to a subject's first language. Secondary language acquisition is virtually completely taught and not inherent, since subjects must make proper associations between their first language and the second language to understand the second language. This does not apply to true bilinguals, however. EDIT: I see your point Echo. Upon reading the poll again, I realize that a few of the options make no sense for a first language speaker or even secondary language speakers. "Writing Only" doesn't make sense because in order to write, one must be able to associate the written word with either the spoken one, the heard one, and/or the read one - unless the character is associating the written word with the equivalent word in a different language, as one might do in secondary language acquisition. "Speaking Only" doesn't make sense for much of the same reasons above. I guess this situation would be possible for people going through secondary language acquisition, but I highly doubt it. "Can read and speak" implies the character cannot Write or Listen. While the inability to Write is understandable, the inability to Listen while still being able to Speak does not make sense unless the person is deaf - even then, it barely makes any sense (the subject would not have any way to associate the word with the proper sound). However, this case would be possible during secondary language acquisition (People learning Japanese in a classroom tend to learn how to Read and Speak as they learn how to Listen - Writing comes last.) "Can Speak and Write" implies the character cannot perform the two receptive skills needed to perform the these two productive ones, which also does not make sense, unless we were also including secondary language acquisition, even then, this situation is practically impossible.

Glad to hear it Kylin!

Ugh, I could go into a whole spiel about this, but I won't. The short answer is no. Reading is a receptive skill while writing is a productive one. It takes less fluency in the target language to read effectively, but far more to write effectively. For example: 薔薇 means rose in Japanese. I can read it, but I can't write it. EDIT: For an English comparison, think about people who can read complex words (receptive), but cannot spell them (productive).

Welcome to the RPC! And if you are looking for another server to RP on, message Lilszee - he was also expressing interest in starting off in a new server and mentioned quite a few people would join him.

Welcome back!

Tyonis raised a brow at the woman as she approached the Gate. Not many people in this backwater knew of Ul’dah’s finer forms of entertainment, much less the specific song he was whistling. When she loomed over him, the swordsman immediately recognized her aristocratic bearing. If her knowledge of fine music wasn't enough, her perfect poise and extraordinarily fine clothing were. There was no attempt to hide her up-bringing. Or perhaps she wasn't even aware of her stately habits. He was surprised that she knew about the stolen apple - it meant either her eyes were sharper than most or that his skills in subversion were waning. "Probably a mix of both," he thought idly. But he did not outwardly confirm or deny the woman's observation. With practiced grace, the swordsman switched his grip on the dagger and carved out a large chunk of it and shoveled the piece into his mouth. “Dunno what you’re talking about.” He finally replied, chewing visibly. Tyonis leaned back and began to close his eyes, thinking the conversation would end there, but after an embellished pose, she addressed him again. Instead of replying to her inquiry, the swordsman cleaved off another piece of the apple and gave her a dull, annoyed look that said: “Of course I am.” Tyonis’ salvation came in the form of a Roegadyn whom he recognized but could not name. He turned his head toward the newcomer, with hope that the woman’s interest would be redirected.

Ugh formatting was a mess at first, but I managed to fix it. I look forward to RPing with everyone!

Tyonis rubbed his ears irately; he was standing right next to the female Roegadyn just as she began bellowing her pitch. After the initial desire to punch the woman in the face passed, he listened to her repeat the quest a number of times, tapping his chin thoughtfully. Since coming to Limsa, the swordsman made ends-meet by hunting down the wide variety of scum that clung to the city’s lower decks. But the pay was bad and the fights were even worse. At the very least, this job promised a great sum. With that much money, he could afford the company of fine wine and finer women. Convinced, Tyonis made his way to Zephyr Gate – and with a quick spin and flourish, pilfered a bright Faerie Apple from the food basket of a passerby who stopped to gawk at one of the prettier entertainers that littered the Octant. His trip to the Gates reflected his current situation: boring and uneventful. He half-expected the Yellow Jackets to chase him down the decks for stealing in broad daylight, but it appeared his thievery was too good for his own good. "Years of living as a street rat in Ul’dah are paying off in spades," he thought whimsically. Since he arrived early, Tyonis had nothing to do but wait, so he sat in a comfortable corner, drew his utility knife, and began carving a pair of dancers into the stolen apple while whistling the melody line of a waltz popular among Ul'dah's aristocracy.

Since the combat posting order is determined by the armor type and weight of the individual characters, I have to wait until everyone posts their character profiles to determine that particular posting order. Outside of combat however, I decided there would be no posting order, so people are free to post as they please. The general rule of thumb however is to post once per round of turns. You can always post more than once during the normal RP, but try to limit it to one or two posts before the next set of turns. Hope that made sense! sometimes I type out things that make sense to me and then I read them and I think "wat" .__, Yeah I got it! Thanks for the clarification. Also, how do I spoiler tag things on this forum? I assume it is: ' Also, do you have any posting length requirements? If not, I'll probably just type up a paragraph or two to keep the RP from getting crushed under walls of text.

Did you want to establish a posting order first Mtoto? EDIT: just read the thread. All right, no posting order for non-combative scenarios.

Well to address your PvP question, I don't think many members of the RPC actually care enough to sit there and hunt down lowbies even if they were given the chance to. And there are a few people in the RPC that are experienced with endgame raid content who are also heavy RPers, so I'm sure you can find some linkshell (guild) that will fill your requirements. Also, welcome to the RPC!

This, so much this.

Great stuff! Looking forward to more!

Lilszee is right: ultimately, it will be up to the new players to decide where they want to go and why. What should be asked is: If some new players do decide to strike it on their own, should they expect any form of support from the RPC to keep them from breaking apart like the other communities Kylin highlighted earlier? And if so, what should they expect? By extension, is the RPC targeted only at Balmung players or FFXIV RPers in general? There is no wrong answer to these questions, but a clear stance should be taken to avoid any further issues.

Great post. Thanks for the info!

Hmm, I totally understand the plights of the new players - and speaking realistically, RP cliques do and did exist in FFXIV 1.0 and will most likely continue to exist in 2.0. (This was not to accuse anyone of anything, just my own personal opinion.) To expand, most RPing communities have cliques, that is, RPers have certain people they like to RP with. While more established RPers on Balmung are willing to accept new players, more likely then not, you will have to create characters based on their rules or critiques, lest you get ignored by these RPers and their cliques. Most will agree that this is a common and acceptable part of conformity. In order to join a group, you'll have to sacrifice a little of yourself to fit in. In this case, it would be your creative mindset. Not all of it of course, but your ideas will get cropped here and there to "fit" with the popular interpretations of lore. Others may say this doesn't have to happen. But I have seen it happen, and it has happened to me on FFXIV and dozens of other MMORPG RPing communities I have joined. I warn the new players to be prepared to make concessions with their creative outlets if you decide to join Balmung. On the other hand, if new RPers want to completely start fresh without too many established RPers setting the boundaries on their creativity, I suggest they roll on a new server. In order to give the new RPers this option, I am in support of Vee's suggestion: Poll for a second server for players to gather in. This becomes much more important to address if the Devs create an official RP server that is not Balmung.

Here's a question! Does anyone know what happened to Darnus' gunhalberd? Seriously. What happened to it?

Sounds fun! I'll have to lurk it though, since Tyonis does have that much money to blow and I'm actually dirt poor in-game... #firstworldmmorpgproblems

You know, I have a feeling FFXIV will have an npc named Fernehalwes...

Since Mtoto emphasized how this would mainly be for combat, I added a bit more detail to the weapon descriptions in Tyonis' character profile to give everyone a better idea of how they work in general combat scenarios. I also changed the inventory order a little bit, but the points are the same. So it's finalized and ready to go Mtoto!

Great formatting Caysen. Totally stole it from you LOL!