Blue

But... but... they are ... (see picture on actual size to read)

I probably shouldn't step on this topic again, but I can always hope reactions won't be as flaming as the last time this point was argued, can I? With all this, I'm trying to point out that, first of all the term "Keeper clan" is not something that really came from the lore, but a small plothole-filling/lorebending that the vast majority of the RP community accepted and adopted (personally I prefer to still use "family" until anything is given, but I'm not going to avoid/despise those who RP Keeper clans). Secondly that, given the multiple times it is specified that Keepers are more of a loner type, live in smaller families, and have closer relationships seems more than enough hits of a monogamous lifestyle. Polygamous relationships are not considered "close" (in fact, they are often pointed to be "unlike the Seekers of the Sun" in this way). In short, I think what SE wanted to do was make Seekers similar to Lions in type of society, and as such have their mating traditions, while the Keepers would be more similar to nocturnal feline hunters, like panthers, tigers and the like, who prefer to have one mate instead. EDIT: A small addition so I do not come out as an hypocrite: I realize I am "reading signs" about Keeper's monogamy just how people are about Keeper's clans, so I do not feel people must take my stance as a dogma, much how I do not take Keeper clans as a dogma myself. In the end, it's all plotholes and until they're filled, we're free to see what we find more reasonable in them. In short, I simply think that there are more hints of monogamy than there are of polygamy in what little information we know of the Keepers. *flaps white flag*

I know I'm a bit late to join the boat but I just wanted to say that as an Italian (born, raised, and still living in Italy sadly) RPing in English I fully understand where Ilwe comes from. And to think that I own all my English knowledge to Final Fantasy.. it's actually kind of a funny story. [align=center][/align] Back when I was in middle school (we're talking of the good old 90s here), I was horrible at English. Like, I was so bad, the teacher had given up on me and just didn't even hand me tests anymore. It was always an automatic uh... I think the equal grade to "Gravemente Insufficente" is F over there? I just didn't care to learn. Anyways, at some point I receive my Play Station one, and with it, FFVII. Italy never bothered translating this game, so it was in English. I played fine until I got to the part where I had to cross-dress. I didn't understand what I was supposed to do. No things to fight, no items to pick up, just a bunch of speaking that looked all the same to me and gave me no hints at all. I gave up on it. The good thing however, was that along with the FFVII discs came a demo of FFVIII, which I enjoyed, and looked forward to play in Italian once it'd come out. A year later I get FFVIII, in Italian, and have a total blast. In fact, I like it so much I try to give FFVII another go. I get stuck again. At that point I said "eff it, I WANT to play this". I grabbed a heavy English dictionary (Computers, internet? what was that?), a pencil, rubber, a blank book, and restarted the game. I handwritten and translated by myself every single piece of dialogue throughout the game, with almost zero knowledge of grammar or spelling. Thankfully I got a good memory, and after a bit, I'd stop having to search for certain words in the dictionary. The thing was so damn heavy, my mind would memorize English words (often of completely opposite pronounce than Italian ones) rather than make me struggle to browse through the damn thing again. I became the best one at English classes in my school in three months, and I beat the game. My teacher felt insulted (we're talking about the age of "games only make you violent!"), lol but damn was it a sweet revenge. If I look back at the books I wrote (it took me six of them to get all the dialogues of the game), the translations there are horrendous. But hey, the game couldn't teach me grammar, you know? It was mostly memorizing sentences and guessing their meaning based on the context. Thankfully that's when I got the internet, and with it, came FFXI and meeting people from across the ocean. My RP experience (a whooping and still ongoing seven years) there was what mostly contributed at improving my grammar and finally being able to not just translate, but also make my own sentences and talk to English people in the game. It would have never been possible if those who invited me to their English RP LS hadn't had the greatest patience and tolerance for my mistakes. I owe them a lot to this day, and I'm glad they're still with me to RP, even in XIV. I am sorry to read of Ilwe's experiences, and sadly I've had them too. But it's also out there that I've met those friendly roleplayers that helped shaping up my skills at a completely foreign language and made my life richer than any kind of friendship here in Italy has ever done. Not exactly a vent, and maybe the wrong place for a sappy story, but I just wanted to say his posts touched me deeply. You have my whole sympathy and support, I think RPing with you would be nice one day too! :blush: And a huge thanks to Mae and Blade for being the best English-practicing partners I've had in these seven years of roleplaying! EDIT: And a side note regarding the categories of languages that are difficult to learn... I still suck at both Spanish and French Sure some words are similar in pronounce but the grammar rules are all sooo damn different. English's good side is that it has very very little grammar to learn It's mostly a work of memorizing the words.

Haha yeah, I do that with Jet'a Vann. The Keeper family he comes from was of the stricter approach to the Keeper's traditions. Females ruled and males were not even allowed to learn how to fight, instead helping inside the family to cook, work hides and make medicines. Because of a tragedy in his past, Jet forced himself to break the rule of his family and learned Thaumaturgy (and took lives with it, a terrible sin in his family as among the Vann they are taught that Only those with the power to give life have Menphina's permission to take others' lives. The soul of a creature killed by a male will never find eternal rest and will wander in torment and sorrow as a condemned ghost, and so will their assassin when his life is claimed.), but even now Jet'a is very respectful of women and intimidated by them, seeing them as his superiors. He has kind of a racist scorn towards Seekers of the Sun males, as to Jet'a's point of view they disrespect their females by mating with more than one in their lifespan. It's weird, but it's a kind of racism I like to RP for a change .

While genetically possible, I think the major halt to cross-clan offspring among the Miqo'te is their huge difference in culture. Sure, there are individuals who are exceptions and stray from their clan's traditions (and a large % of roleplayers like to be that "special exception", I've found), but commonly, Seekers of the Sun are a patriarchal, tribal culture, while Keepers of the Moon are matriarchal and live in small families. The lore also says that both clans have an insular mentality and tend to live among their own kin rather, trying to avoid the other races. But to go back to the inter-clan mating, I think a woman coming from a matriarchal structure and a male from a patriarchal one would be in heavy conflict, as both consider themselves the "leader" of the family. The same also goes if they were of opposite genders. Seeker Female: Hey love, my sister also wants a child. I'm gonna call her over to mate with ya. *the Keeper male flees* Seeker Male 1: Hey, I'll be back in a hour or two, okay? Another female in my tribe wants a child and I'm their Nuhn. *the Keeper female begins to seek ways to break Eternal Bond* Seeker Male 2: Okay, now that I have you, I think I am officially no longer a Tia. We'll need to find more females. *the second Keeper female seeks the first Keeper female to know how to break Eternal Bond* So yeah... Hybrids are possible, but likely very rare because it's rare to find parents not influenced by their clan's mentality. But again, you'll find that most of the RPers out there like to be "the rare case". So go on ahead.

<_< ohhhh is this a slow contest...? I have yet to start 2.2 and my main weapons are the ilvl60 Ifrit's.... I did start at launch but... Damn OCD making me refuse to face Garuda HM without having a full ilvl70 set first... and to get that, I need allied seals... lots of allied seals... SE, cut those ilvl70 hunt gear prices already x_X ....!

1) Jet'a Vann 2) Atoner 3) 1 - The Horse (Unicorn, if you have issues with non-Eorzea creatures) 2 - The New Moon 3 - The Ice 4 - The Void 5 - The Night And since you've asked to specify, yes, Jet'a can detect Aether. He's been dwelling in thaumaturgy (and black magic, for those who accept him RPing as a Job) for over six years now.

I've had another excuse: "Lol you are supposed to pop Hollowed Ground when I do that." Oh you mean that thing still on cooldown from the previous big pull? <.<

As a main BLM and occasional tank (when I really need those roulette tomes and don't have time to wait for DPS queue), I hate with passion the DPSs who don't watch their enmity pool. No, not the happy dots on the middle left of the screen. Yes, that cute little pool over your job icon in the party menu. The one that eventually fills up and displays a radiant 'A' when the boss turns away from tank and decides to come hug you. Sometimes I feel like I am the only DPS in the game keeping that thing in check. Is it SO hard to slow down on the damage if you see you're close to capping the pool and get hate? Why must you make me struggle, even though I, the tank, am trying my damn best to keep hate? I don't have a pimp novus sword. And I very certainly will not hold aggro if you start spamming Fire when I'm still in the process of pulling the boss in the right spot of the arena. I've discussed this with friends and it seems the general answer I get is "DPSs don't need to worry about enmity. That's the tank's job and checking enmity lowers my damage out, which is my job to do." Is it? So do you not avoid AoEs because it's the healer's job to keep you alive? I mean, running away from an AoE lowers your damage output as well, right? So let's just sit in the glowing AoE field and be hit. Who cares if the healer gets headaches healing us for something that was totally avoidable. It's the same for the tank and having to restore his enmity because you, little DPS prick, need to show off that you do more damage than him/her and will get the boss to HATE you. Let's be a little serious here. You're a big ass guy with a huge spear. I'm a fool with a sword toothpick. I already know you do more damage than me and so does the rest of the party. There is no need for you to go all out to get aggro. So please, just please. Keep that enmity pull on check. Don't go on your most damaging combo while I'm still trying to place the boss in the right spot. If your enmity pool is approaching tank's, switch to Umbral Ice for a few seconds, or refresh DoTs instead of doing the main damage combos and for the love of the Twelve DON'T START RUNNING IN CIRCLES WHILE STILL SHOOTING ALL YOUR BEST ATTACKS AT THE BOSS. Stand still, let me Cover you. Let me Holmgang. You won't die if you eat a couple hits, the healer got you. And if the healer doesn't get you, that's really what you called for when you ignored that cute little enmity pool, so eat your Raise. My enmity will be back to A and we'll be buddy-buddy again. At the start of fight, take a look if the tank needs to position first, or just HOLD for a bit. We won't wipe if you wait a second or two before starting to deal damage, I promise. Mind you, I am not defending noob tanks (A little pause here to explain my definition of Noob. If you're new and you don't know things, you're a newbie. If you're not new, know things, and still refuse to learn, that's when you're a noob.) that don't do their job, treat Flash like it's a precious last resort or don't pop their Defiance/Shield Oath. I am talking about genuine players who see themselves forced to go to bed with a headache because, no matter how hard you try. It can be lag, it can be gear difference, it can be timing. DPS at some point will take aggro from you and you'll be the one to be blamed. And if you try and argue that, you're the "asshole tank". Enmity managing is an effort the whole party must do together, as much as it is dodging AoEs and positioning in the right places. As a DPS I used to think all tanks were stuck up assholes, but with this crap they've got to deal with, I'm not surprised they start to act like they hate the whole community. It's just a glance to the upper left, and it can make the duty more enjoyable to everyone. 2) Minor, but just as common: DPSs who just think they can burn any boss and that you, tank or healer, must take care of the adds. This seems to happen especially in things like Pharos Sirius' first and second boss. Agh...

Haha, if you're talking about Kujh'a, yes, he will definitely be my main man in RPing this expansion's content I can already see him goof and miss his first jump, only to be chased by a dragon until he manages to make it run into something that will kill it <_< .... Dragon Slayer on accident!

<_< yes, pretty much.

I use Sleipnir IC. I just don't RP it as being Sleipnir. ICly, it's a dark-coated unicorn with a horn split in two because of an accident. And that will stay my mount for as long as SE doesn't give me another option to walk as slow as Sleipnir does. He is, up to now, the most realistic walking speed we've got in-game.

No gifts sadly (introvert loner for life :blush: ...), but I got a text from a person I really missed for 6-7 years. I called him afterwards and it was an awesome, sweet 2-hours long phone call. By far one of my best Christmas.

Assuming that the Au Ra are a dragonian race and not a voidsent race as some people speculate, I do plan to make a male Au Ra Dark Knight who will side with the Dravanians and slay dragoons to protect its dragons kin. Will happily accept offers of wannabe-corpses, or rivals, or even comrades, why not?

Just going to point out that the picture you found (the costellations map) is actually of FFXI's sky. I wouldn't know if it matches with Hydaelyn's sky though since Vana'diel's costellations are strictly related to the eight celestial avatars, which we do not have. I do not see the eight Prime stars eight in-game, so probably not the same sky. Still, who knows? Maybe we'll get to learn something when Astrologian comes out.

As much as Yugiri claims to be the first Au Ra in Eorzea, we shouldn't forget that Columbus did much of the same, while now we know that vikings did see the Americas long before him. I wouldn't call it a stretch to theorize that maybe some Au Ras did get here in the past, and maybe just were never heard of on a big scale. People travel, and always have. As for my own questions about the race, I'm mostly wondering about their age spans. Dragons by stereotype live for centuries, and I admit I'd be very intrigued to RP a secular character... :geek: Right now I'm playing with the idea of making a DRK Au Ra who hunts down Dragoons to protect dragons and dravanians A nice alter ego to my strict Ishgardian Wildwood.

Poll is up and running now, sorry it took me a bit!

A lot of us are excited about the new races and are already brainstorming on how to RP one. I've been hearing all kinds of things, but I'd love to get a general idea of what people will do to achieve RPing an Au Ra. Personally, I'm going to ICly kill two of my alts (I'm on 8/8 slots, I wish I had more!) and Fantasia/Name Change them into Au Ras, but I know there's lots of other options! What will you do? Will you kill a selected character to create a brand new Au Ra? Will your character be cursed / bribed into drinking Fantasia and receive the features of an Au Ra, but preserve his/her original personality and habits? Or will they suffer a complete mind reset as well? Or maybe you simply aren't going to RP as an Au Ra? Let me know!

Hey, you guys had your hot chicks game with FFX-2. Time for us girls to get our share of the sexy characters cake. And as a shonen-ai fan, I more than welcome male-only groups. Give me bromance and I'll die happy!

My guess is that Dark Knight will be an Au Ra primary job, maybe their own knights to fight whoever their enemy is? Basically picturing the equation Dragoon : Ishgardians = Dark Knight : Au Ras I am already sketching the idea of making an Au Ra dark knight who hunts Dragoons to protect the fellow dragons. Blue will definitely go Machinist. Wanted guns for her since 1.0; it's no musketeer, but oh well. I'll probably ICly kill Dylise and Valeria and Fantasia/Name change them into a female Au Ra astrologian and a male Au Ra dark knight. Gotta RP them all jobs!

I'm going to give a 50% vote on this event. The place and set up was exquisite and full of potential, but it didn't seem to be organized in a way that'd encourage interactions out of couples/cliques like the Fullmoon Gala in 2013 or the Royal Ball of Ul'dah. I recommend forming randomized parties like they did in the Gala to prompt strangers to talk to each other, that was a great method (and the /say chat was spared a lot, it was a great solution to some headaches). The other thing that lowered my score for the event is that the event ran out in a way that was very different from what the description at the beginning suggested. Being in the Sanctum and having priests and the Twelve involved, I had imagined it'd have kind of a solemn and religious feel, rather than the christmas party at home feel the songs and best couple poll gave me (I'm mentioning just these two because there wasn't really anything else). Anyroad, this is my dispassionate and impartial feedback, no personal feelings towards anyone in whatsoever way (I couldn't do that even if I wanted, I managed to talk with only two people other than my date and they were both really really nice!), just impressions and bits to help with future events. Can't wait for the next one!

Astrologian will make all them Yu-Gi Oh fans happy. As for machinist, ehhhh I had hoped for Musketeer till the very end, but I suppose this will do. Long as it gives me single-handed guns and not shotguns. Blue has finally her own class! And now I need to decide who of my 8 characters gets to ICly die so I can have an Au Ra. So wait, where's the Cash Shop Only icon that's supposed to pop next to each of these things?

Nowhere near level 50... *sniffle* This sounds like so much fun though. If Avis shows, she'll be in pumpkin mage gear... that's the most presentable outfit she's got.. I wouldn't worry about being lv50 to be honest. I think it's more weird to see a woman attend a well... not-her-wedding in a wedding dress <_<; ... I've seen screenshots of weddings so far and was kind of baffled by the amounts of guests wearing those at their friend's wedding too. Don't people know it's rude to wear something fancier/as fancy as the spouse? But yeah, go with ordinary dresses peeps, stay classy.

Blue gets to see her first Starlight decorations! And also has a curious encounter with a strange Duskwight man.

Oh yes, an invite to a party would be really nice for christmas (at least for one of my friendlier characters). Sadly I will not celebrate IRL this year (money issues, far away from family etc.), so I will definitely look forward to ways to not get depressed!