Aedan Marceaux

To my knowledge, Mateus is in the near closed down stage like Balmung once was. Meaning, you can still create characters there, you just have to try to do so during a none-peak hour time. So, early in the morning such as 4 or 5 AM it'll likely be open. Someone else did a chart like this in another thread, can't remember where, but the servers seem to go through stages depending on population. 1) Completely open. 2) Only able to create characters during off prime hours. (Early morning/late night) 3) No new character creation but transfers are still a thing. 4) Complete lockdown (Balmung, currently) Of course, this is coming from someone that hasn't been over to Mateus since right around the massive exodus from Balmung... so I may well be wrong. If nothing else, if you really care to get them there, they should be able to create a character on another server and transfer over. It sucks that that is a costly way to do it... but it is a solution.

I'm unaware of any particular FC/LS that has a "general RP" theme about it as I've not personally looked for one. As for recommending any of the themed FCs or linkshells, I can't really do that either as it all depends on what you want out of your character, what your stance on lore would be, realism vs high fantasy stance, etc. There are companies listed there that are adventure-based like what you do as a player in the game (like my own). There are criminal organizations, there are entertainment troupes, taverns and inns... So, again, I can't really, or rightly, recommend one company over another. You'll just have to figure out what type of RP you wish to get into, then look for companies that fit that theme.

Like you mentioned, the Quicksand is usually the busiest... that doesn't mean best... place to run into people. Otherwise, there really isn't a particularly huge hub like the Quicksand. Most of the main cities have places like the Quicksand (Carline Canopy in Gridania, Drowning Wench in Limsa, Forgotten Knight in Ishgard, etc.) where you'll occasionally find people. Otherwise, you just have to look about in the world. A good portion (I won't say most as I don't have quantifiable evidence to support it) of RP also happens in the housing areas and personal/company houses themselves. So, honestly, in my opinion, the best way to find RP is to find a free company or linkshell that has a theme you like and see about joining them. The links are there at the top of this website and can be filtered by server. A sizable handful of those groups (like my own) attempt to do the majority of their RP out in the world in all sorts of different zones.

Thank you for the art.

Hard to turn down free, particularly if the artist is asking for more masculine models. Here's Aedan. Nothing particularly special about him that would effect the art, me thinks. So what you see is what he is. Thanks for doing this!

Hard to turn down free, so let me toss in my hat. Here's the pic. What you see is what he is. Thanks for doing this!

I may have missed this in the quest text somewhere (or another post on these forums despite my searching), but the whole breathing underwater thing... is that a "WoL and friends" only thing.... or can any Joe Bob Adventurer (or otherwise) show up and get the blessing?

Teadrinker beat me to it. I took a lot of time trying to think of a way to word this without sounding argumentative or combative, but it's probably going to sound that way anyway. Out of all of the complaints on here, I'd wager the large majority of complainers aren't going about making the change themselves. If something isn't going the way you want it to, be the change you want. Saying that events aren't what you want and event runners should do xyz is not the way to go about getting what you want. Run an event yourself in the manner you would like. If you want there to be more RP out in the world rather than in the housing areas or houses themselves, be the person to start it off by doing it yourself. Combine the two ideas... throw your event the way you want it in the area that you want more RP to happen. Be the change you want to see rather than waiting and hoping other people change to meet your desires.

Had this gem thrown at me just now after healing the second boss of Doma Castle (and nearly wiping due to lack of mechanics being done). [20:12](Me) guys... please do the mechanics... [20:13](Red Mage) bro, i'm trying, but if we aren't, then you aren't too [20:13](Me) You ran out of the pylons... [20:13](Me) The thing you're supposed to stand in [20:13](Me) And never ran in for the stacked aoe The red mage then proceeded to spam scatter on the last boss. Good times. High level game play right there.

For reference, I quoted a line from the dark knight quests for said applicant: Told them that pretty much up until the end of HW content, au ra were seen as potential enemies of Ishgard because of their draconic appearance... and probably are still very untrusted in Ishgard. Told them that because of the claim that their Au ra was part of the Holy See, we weren't accepting them into the company, however beyond that one particular point they seemed like an interesting person. Should they rewrite that particular part of their character, we would be willing to look again. Their response: "We have a difference of opinion then. My interpretation of that passage was that initial contact was like that but per your own post that racism is pretty much nil in current year. Regardless however I respect your choice to run your FC the way you see fit. I hope you find members that can conform to your exacting standards. Unfortunately, that was the only one who I thought might fit your template." *shrug*

In a perfect world, it would be easy to do as you're saying. And I would love that perfect world as everyone would conform to what I perceive as lore-abiding. As Zalitai mentioned, and demonstrated, above... everyone has a sliding scale as to what they believe to be lore-abiding/strict. In my opinion, his particular view is still too lax, but as I don't "pay his sub" he's more than welcome to stick to his area of that sliding scale. From what I gather from your posts, it would seem that you and I are closer on that sliding scale. We want everyone to stay as close to the known lore as possible, and not have any "snowflake points" as Zalitai mentioned. We want everyone to conform to that as we don't have fun dealing with characters that don't conform to that. It "ruins our immersion" and, quite frankly, makes RP less fun for us. Where we differ is how to approach it. At one time, I did try to "fix" those that didn't meet my standards. Unfortunately, those that I tried to fix didn't care to be fixed... no matter how civil my approach to the topic or the circumstances of the approach (random out in the world, friend from another LS/FC, or an applicant to my own FC, for instance). Often times, in fact, they got quite upset and offended. You can't teach those that don't want to learn. And after a while it becomes akin to bashing your head against a brick wall - the wall still stands and all you have to show for it is bruising and a headache... probably a concussion. So, yes. I agree... having standards is not a crime. Wishing for people to RP accurately in the provided setting should not be an exception or a minority. It would be lovely to draw the name of an event out of a hat and be able to go to it without "fear" of lore-benders/breakers also attending. And in a perfect world, people would listen to our opinions on what is right and wrong and conform to our standards. Unfortunately, this isn't a perfect world... we don't pay their subs and, as such, have no control over what they will or won't do outside of the companies and linkshells we manage... and everyone's method of having fun in this game, especially when it comes to RP, is vastly different.

Where have you people been all of my (FFXIV) life? It's good to finally read my thoughts coming from another player that isn't my wife or one of my company members. This has been a sticking point for me in all of my MMO-RP experiences, but especially here in FFXIV as it has been my personal experience with this community that the large majority wish to toss lore aside whenever it gets in the way of their character being particularly bad-ass or "interesting". It's the main reason that I have stopped going to public events altogether, because even if the event holders somehow announce that the event is meant to be 100% lore-abiding (or as close to as possible), you'll still have open black mages, au ra dragoons, etc. It's also the main reason that my wife and I have decided to go off to make our own company... because even those that we spoke to or joined that claimed they follow the lore had at least one member that blatantly broke it. And when we brought it up with the leaders of said companies, it was almost always a case of "Oh yeah, but that's Bob. Bob's an awesome roleplayer so we just look past it." (paraphrased, of course) Even when we moved on to our own company we'd still get applicants that were blatantly ignoring lore, and then arguing about it when we explained the issue with proof. Au ra that were part of the Holy See. Direct rips of characters from anime/books/etc. without even bothering to make it FFXIV friendly. Literal openly practicing white and black mages. The list goes on and on. So, again, it's refreshing to see people speak out so strongly FOR the lore... especially with the rhetoric of "why play in this universe if you don't intend to follow the rules?" Of course, it's their $15+ a month so their choice on how to play.... as always. Which brings me to this.... While I completely agree that events that allow such destruction of the lore aren't particularly fun for me either, I don't think it's fair to outright call them bad. Again, going back to that whole "their $15+" thing, it's not really our place to tell people how to have their fun at their own events. Now, I haven't really looked into any of these events (outside of the Grindstone) as, as I mentioned above, I don't really bother with going to any public events anymore... so I don't rightly know if it's explicitly stated on the event page that they strictly follow the lore, or if the organizers themselves say as much in shout in game or whatever. So, if they DO say no lore breaking/bending/whatever, then yeah... I agree that participants should be able to offer criticism should someone/something be out of the boundaries of the event's rules... and the organizers should very much be open to hearing it. However, if the rules don't specifically state anything about lore then... well... we're just out of luck with regard to that event. You can, of course, bring it up and perhaps ask them if they mean to stay within the boundaries of the lore with their event, but I don't think it fair to say "Jimbo over there is blatantly being a black mage. Your event is ruined because you allow lore breaking in it!" To each their own. I feel that if event organizers want their event to go a particular way, be it with regard to lore or otherwise, it needs to be explicitly stated in their rules, event page here on the RPC (or official forums or tumblr or where ever), and/or even shouted OOCly there at the event itself. And those of us that don't like particular events because of their stance on lore (or whatever else) just don't have to go.

I may be wrong, but it almost sounds as though we have a all squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares situation here. Just because a person wields a sword in this world doesn't make them a gladiator or paladin, an axe doesn't make them a marauder or warrior, a gun doesn't make them a machinist, etc. Just because a person fights with their hands and feet and "knows kung fu" doesn't make them a pugilist (in terms of the Ul'dahn guild) or a monk (in terms of the Fist of Rhalgr people). If you're dead set on wanting a "sect" of kung fu fighters from the east... go on with your bad self. To my knowledge, there isn't anything in lore saying such a group exists, but there also isn't anything saying they don't exist. If you're dead set on wanting to bring the religion of the Fists of Rhalgr to the east... that's a bit trickier, but I suppose you've already been given several options by Valence above. As before, nothing in lore says it exists, but nothing says it doesn't exist either. No matter what you do with this particular idea, you're delving into grey area material (some would argue the very existence of our characters is grey area material as there's nothing in the lore that states a C'vahn Tia, for instance, ever existed... so yeah...). In my opinion, it'd be a lot easier to drop the whole Ala Mhigan monk bit and just go ahead and come up with some sort of eastern kung fu master school or something. There isn't any reason to keep them as Ala Mhigan monks, unless you're also wanting to bring over the particular move set and chakras in particular. If not, your kung fu masters can just use chi or whatever and have very similar attacks. Beyond that, having a sect of Ala Mhigan monks suddenly turn peaceful, to me, seems completely counter to who Rhalgr (the Destroyer) would be. But, as always, no one is the boss of you and no matter what option you choose I'm sure you'll find others that would enjoy tagging along with your story. So, best of luck.

... so there is! Ignore my previous request!

Might I request a "Back to index" button at the bottom of the page much like the old site had? Some of these threads are getting quite lengthy and having to scroll back up to click the RPC icon to get back to the home page is a bit of a pain (namely in those threads that are multiple pages). Yes, hitting the back button on the browser itself works, but doesn't actively refresh the page. #firstworldproblems and all that.

Searches have not given me any answers, so turning to you guys. How immediate were the climate/aether changes that were caused by the calamity? I am curious about other parts of the world as well, but of particular interest would be Ishgard/Coerthas. Was it literally hours in and it was freezing with snow falling out of the sky.... or was it a gradual change over weeks, months, the five years...? To tag along with that, how far reaching was the calamity? Did Garlemald and/or the near and far east get smacked, too? Or even the "new world"? Sharlayan?

Welcome to the RPC and back to the game! While Balmung is arguably the longest established server for RP, it is not necessarily "THE" RP server. Beyond that, it is currently closed to all new characters - creation or transfer... so if you're not already on Balmung, you're out of luck for now.. It may open again in the future... but I wouldn't count on it, unfortunately. However! Another NA server has quite the budding RP community. Mateus started becoming a major hub for RP when the Balmung full lock down went into effect. So if you're wanting NA server RP, that is currently your best bet. If you decide you want to stick to EU servers, Omega is the place to go, I believe. There are other servers with RPers on them too, such as Siren and Coeurl... but I don't think the populations of RPers on those servers are quite as big as Mateus or Omega. Best of luck! Edit to add: Gilgamesh may still have a strong population of RPers on it, too, but I'm not sure. I keep reading conflicting stories as to whether or not that "community" even still exists.

I honestly don't even feel like we, as the WoL, were even needed for this MSQ. Nothing during this bit of story seemed overly difficult bordering on impossible needing the "over 9000" powerlevel of the Warrior of Light himself to overcome. It honestly just felt like we were around to give autographs and, at most, "make people feel safe". The beginning of the quests was even us just being told "nah, we got Ala Mhigo... you go see to that other business across the sea." Even the in game mechanics aided in this feeling when you're saving Gosetsu and Yotsuyu. During that fight you were little more than a "tank" that pulled the big robots into Alphinaud's massive attack. Twice. So one thing I would actually like to develop out of this boring patch would be a phasing out of sorts of the WoL. People realizing he isn't even really needed anymore.... ascians and primals aside, perhaps. The rest... I honestly don't care about. Yotsuyu could just randomly fall over from a heart attack and it would fall right in line with the storytelling this go around, I feel.

A little late on the update, but here it is! With the addition of new family members (twins on the way, mid-February!), the loss of a family member, and all around real life busyness... we have become a little less active than we'd admittedly like to be. Because of real life jumping in the way, we are not currently "formally" recruiting. What this means is that we are still technically open to new members, but we're not pushing to add anyone as we don't feel right trying to recruit people during this semi-hiatus we're going through. To go along with this, we have decided to pull the funding from our enjin site for the time being... so should you decide to visit, it looks a little garbage right now, but the pertinent posts are still there. Our members still get on when able to and run content and RP, but as said above, it's far less than what we'd actually like to do. As such, what we currently offer is a home for any player that would like a small group of individuals to play with from time to time. A place where you can receive those juicy company buffs while trying to level or teleport around, a place where you can purchase a personal room for your RP use, a place where you can call on people to help you run dungeons and the like (when real life isn't in the way), and a place where you can hang out and chat with us either in game or in our company discord. ICly, the tavern and inn is still open and available for use by patrons and visitors alike... it'll likely just be run more by the NPCs than actual players for now. It is our hope that once the twins get onto a schedule and other real life issues settle, we can revitalize the company and move forward with our plans. So, if you would like to join knowing all that we currently are just to have some company and buffs as you play the game, you can either message me here or in game (C'vahn Tia or Mialyre Vance) or message TheBlob here or in game (C'lehna Rhek or Sedalyn Brenner). Otherwise, thank you for your time and consideration. Enjoy your time in FFXIV!

Lackluster, disappointing, and boring.

Paladins that seem to think Circle of Scorn is something that is a ranged attack (akin to Shadow Flare and the like). Seemingly every paladin in dungeon groups nowadays likes to pull with Circle of Scorn... which is fine and all... but they do it at a range that none of the enemies actually get hit. I've actually had to re-read the tooltip myself to make sure it didn't say anything about a launched attack or some such. "nearby enemies" seems clear enough to me. *shrug* Needless to say, such pulling is quite troublesome with regard to threat... and makes me twitch every time I see it.

A quick bump to say that we are still around and active! We've added a few names to the roster since opening our doors and are still looking for more! Looking for pretty much any sort of character, so long as they're not villainous (good, fun RP, but it doesn't fit here ). Any sort of character that would fit the staff such as waiters, bartenders, cooks/chefs, entertainers, etc. Any sort of character outside of that to be tenants such as adventurers, civilians, merchants... whatever really! So if you're looking for a place that offers a home to a wide variety of characters, offers both slice of life and adventuring, and also delves into other parts of the game outside of RP.... give us a shot! Check us out at gnarledoak.enjin.com for more information! And happy holidays!

Welcome! As much as I'd like to say hold onto that hope of Balmung opening up once more.... ehhh, I'm not sure it'll be happening anytime soon. Good new, though! There are two other servers (actually more, but these two have the biggest presence I believe) that serve as RP hubs. Mateus for NA, Omega for EU. Given your work schedule, Omega may work out best for you... though I'm not sure how bad the ping will be (though with the move to Italy it may not be bad at all), nor have I been there myself to tell you just how big the RP community is. Mateus, however, I can vouch for there being a sizable RP presence. So, if you're dying to play the game, I certainly recommend either of those servers... rather than waiting the unknown time it'll be for Balmung to open up again... assuming it ever will. Either way, welcome to the addiction!

Sounsyy post and a discussion thread http://ffxiv-roleplayers.com/showthread.php?tid=16493&pid=259952#pid259952 Another discussion thread ( with another Sounsyy post) http://ffxiv-roleplayers.com/showthread.php?tid=8488 Long and short of it, the conversion seems to be up to the individual. 10 Gil to one USD 2:1 5:1 100:1 Whatever... Because of that, my characters generally carry a descriptive amount rather than a numerical one. Meaning, "enough to get by" or "bulging coin purse(lol)", etc. Not "1000 Gil" or "only 10 Gil."

As I've stated in other threads regarding seeker tribe placement, it's always been my headcanon that the tribes tend to settle or roam near where their particular "totem animal" settles or roams. The in game examples we're given of settled tribes are the U and M tribes. U is drake, and if you head off into the Sagolii a bit you'll find wild drakes roaming about. M is marmot, and while you don't see any marmots wandering about in game in the Fringes... a marmot is generally a pretty well-versed creature that likely could be there... just not as a mob that we kill for in-game mechanics. As you mentioned, lots of R miqo'te in La Noscea where raptors are plentiful, etc. etc. So... that's what I personally do. Find out where, in game, that particular mob is plentiful... and say that my miqo'te are from those areas. For instance, C'vahn is coeurl.... and there's a pretty good handful of them in La Noscea... so his tribe is from there. As for customs, how they live, etc. etc. I tend to do much like what Val said, as well. Make them live, fight, whatever in a similar fashion to their "totem animal". In general, they revere that particular animal just shy of the amount that they revere Azeyma the Warden. There is a coeurl headcanon floating about in the wiki connected to this site. I personally don't agree with it for a number of reasons, but I feel it does pertain to your question. Beyond that, I don't think there really is a community consensus.