Lydia Lightfoot

Just remember, guys - please think really, really, super hard about it before you transfer off of Balmung, because from the looks of things, you may never be able to go back again if you do so. You can make new characters on Mateus, so if you're not absolutely certain you'd never want to play on Balmung again, it's a good idea to hedge your bets by leaving your Balmung character where they are and making a new one on Mateus. That way both options remain open to you, as opposed to leaving yourself with only one.

Hello Izzy! I'm not one to solicit, oridinarily, but, please consider our group - the Reliquarian's Guild is open to members from anyplace (they don't need to join our FC, in other words), and we have a wonderful resource that may fit your character's interests: Albus Beaularoix! We also have Olixandre Blaque, who is very interested in magical research. She's recently joined our staff too, and will be going onto the cast page today when I have a minute to update. You can read about us in the link in my signature, and our Discord information is on our page. I'll hope to see you on our server saying hello! And remember, no matter which FC you may end up joining, you can still also be a member of the guild!

You may have an incorrect profile setting on here, it says Balmung on your user data on the left hand margin.

Balmung and Gilgamesh are fine being on the same datacenter. The problem is that the active population per server in the JP datacenter hovers around 8k average, whereas NA it's around 12k average (I forget what I'd mathed EU to be, this was from a discussion a few days ago). The simple fact therefore is that we need to add 50% more new servers to the NA datacenter. The only other major issue for people is housing. The way they did it during the 4.0 launch wasn't appealing to very many players, because many of us (yo!) went out of our way to get a very specific location, and merely being returned the gil we spent on the spot gives no guarantee at all that on the destination server we'll get the same spot. SE doesn't get it. Violation of TOS or not, I've had offers of well over 200 million gil for my FC house, I'm sure as heck not taking a 20 million refund (unless the server is literally shutting down and I have no other option - 20 is better than zero). Possession of the location can be priceless. If they added the necessary servers and implemented transfer incentives which were actually comprehensive, they'd probably see a lot more success stabilizing the populations.

I guess it's a good sign for the guild that we've been so busy having fun with RP that I've fallen slightly behind on my administrative duties! Better that than the opposite, I suppose. Smuggler's Villa, one of our ongoing serial plots, has reached the conclusion... of its prologue. Having cornered Gabalier the Greenplume on the dangerous Isla Avispa, our heroes made a very unsettling discovery about their quarry's intentions. I won't spoil for you what it was - bring your character by and come find out! Suffice it to say, the plot took a turn into the realm of dark horrors, and left the guildfolk with a very strange relic, one which they have dubbed 'the Eye of Gotlutclat'. https://i.imgur.com/5ylUSui.jpg A Favor Owed, a new serial plot, has also begun! By way of Nora's contacts, the guild has been contacted to assist with the investigation of the theft of a rather valuable heirloom - the Sword of Balduf Thorne. Upon arrival at the scene, our heroes found quite an interesting, and dangerous-seeming, mystery afoot. We're proud to announce the addition of Albus Beaularoix to our staff. Well-known in some circles (though he'd roll his eyes and grudgingly deny it), Albus and his character are straight-faced delights, and I feel he offers a wonderful balance to the personalities of the other staff (both IC and OOC). He's been helping me with getting some of our Google Docs organized, and ordinarily he runs a weekly event teaching others thaumaturgy principles (and, sometimes, experimental theories). The new wallpaper-compatible partition walls and bright, lovely windows added to housing decor in 4.1 have, along with Albus joining, prompted a bit of remodel around the guild hall. The lower level (where Bistro Le Beau is located) is largely unchanged aside from some reorganizing of the kitchen decor, but the wallpaper walls allowed me to reclaim some decor slots while maintaining the same overall appearance. The guild hall itself, on the second floor, got a big facelift - most importantly, the laboratory facilities have been put into their own room (for both the security of stored artifacts and the safety of those outside the laboratory), and the auditorium is being moved into a private chamber (labeled for public use). Once the new auditorium is decorated, Albus plans to resume his weekly class therein. Looking for some new friends? Look no further! We're always hoping to have more join us on our Discord server, and we're happy to answer questions about the guild and help our guests there decide if they'd like their character to join. And remember, guild membership is open to anyone from any FC - you needn't leave your FC just to be a member of the Reliquarian's Guild and have fun with our activities. 23 of our guild members (and 3 guests) can attest to that!

I think you may be on different servers.

Everything's fine on Balmung. There's lots of public social events hosted every week, which present opportunities for people to connect with others - I've been playing since sometime in early 2015 and I'm constantly meeting roleplayers I didn't already know. The one and only thing that I could say maybe arguably is concerning is that there are a lot of "Vacuum FCs", in which the FC isn't really aggressively putting itself out there for recruiting, and then some significant portion of the leaders and active members take a break from the game (which has nothing to do with Balmung being closed - this has always happened for roleplayers, since forever), and so you end up with an FC which really isn't doing much of anything, yet it has members still in it who don't want to leave due to the "break" folks theoretically coming back. I've seen it happen with quite a few FCs where the members left end up feeling bored and restless, yet also guilty if they were to bail and go find an FC that has more activity. Sometimes, these people end up leaving the game because they aren't having fun anymore. These "victims of stagnation within their FC" roleplayers are what active FCs need, in lieu of genuine newcomers to the server, in order to grow and thrive. It should be that as one FC dies others grow, it's a cycle. Instead, sentimentality is leading to situations where an FC dies but the remaining members just sort of go into limbo. I'm not sure there's really a solution to that, except for people going on break being more honest with themselves about their intent to return and the timeframe of it (in other words, don't leave your FC members hanging, if you won't be back for months just shut the thing down until you return and give the members freedom without feeling guilty like they've abandoned the break-taker or somehow let them down by moving on). On the flip side, members in FCs where there's a vacuum need to avoid sentimental attachment to their FC - the good memories are awesome for sure, but roleplayers are notorious for claiming to take a break and then just never coming back, so... don't hold out on that, I guess. If you quit and do something else, and then the folks on break do return, nothing says you can't just go rejoin their FC if you want to.

I hope you'll still be going when I get home! Likely not until closer to 8:30-9 Eastern, though.

Wowwww, under 15 minutes?! That's faster than 3.3 went. I know there weren't a lot of super organized groups gunning for housing in 3.3, and it was still 19 minutes to gone. In other news, my spot in the Lavender Beds is now the sole location in LB that's directly against swimmable water - which makes me giddy. :3

I considered trying to snag a house, since Lydia doesn't have a personal one, but I know darned good and well I wouldn't use it for anything I don't already do at the Reliquarian's Guild hall, so I'm opting to be happy with what I have and not potentially take a house away from others. :3

Dyyylllaaaannnnn you have to use Imgur.

On which server?

Play what you find interesting. If the character's well-written, then players who appreciate interesting characters will cluster around you. Just don't let people get to you, and, don't be afraid to stick up for yourself OOCly if someone just won't take a hint (for instance, if you're playing a lalafell and they keep cracking jokes about your character being a child, ICly, and you rebuff the jokes, and they persist with it, don't be shy about asking them OOCly if they'd mind easing up on that, since you're intending to play a serious character - the player might not realize they're hurting your feelings. On the other hand, they might throw out the classic excuse players make when their characters are being jerks, and tell you "oh it's just all IC, hahaha, don't take IC into OOC bruh, ugh", in which case, alright, they've just told you what you need to know - they're more interested in their own luls than in trying to cooperatively enjoy time with you, so, move right along and let them go annoy somebody else).

This one I'm rather 'eh' about. Just like in real life, there can be people in the RP community who have amassed less than great reputations for a reason with sources of proof such as logs, screenshots, and multiple witness testimony to back it up. Also sometimes has nothing to do with being the center of drama. Some people have just been in a community/social group/etc. long enough to see what goes on, especially if they are more on the outside looking in and are unbiased in said observations. But responding with snark or rudeness when someone wants to see things for themselves is, of course, no bueno. It's also very natural for us, as creatures, to caution others about situations we've been in wherein we were hurt. That applies as much to "Hey, be careful when you're near an electric stove not to just set your hand on a burner, because even if it doesn't look hot it might be hot and you could get hurt" as it does to "My friend and I had a bad experience with this other person doing X behavior toward us, and we don't want to see you be hurt in the same way, so please be careful". That said, while there are undoubtedly some genuine bad eggs out there, I think more commonly it's not really that anyone was bad per se, just that they had differing perspectives on a situation and couldn't reconcile it (whether due to incapability or unwillingness). So while it's not uncouth to provide friends with that kind of caution, you can't be malicious/hateful about the person you're cautioning them about when you do it. Just sort of a gentle "Hey, here's what happened with me, it hurt my feelings, and it never ended up getting resolved" sort of thing, rather than a trash-talking thing.

Agreed x1,000. I've seen some players do this in darned near every post, and I've even sometimes tried to explain to them that it's flat-out grammatically incorrect unless there's something preventing them from doing it and they're including a subsequent explanation of what happened instead. Franco would verbalize his thoughts regarding Dick's choice of nickname, but his mom really did seem to like the old fellow, and thus he merely sat with his mug and watched the pair with an expression of passive disapproval. Even then, though it's technically correct, it's awkward phrasing compared to: Franco opted not to verbalize his thoughts regarding Dick's choice of nickname since his mom really did seem to like the old fellow, and instead he merely sat with his mug and watched the pair with an expression of passive disapproval.

Agreed on that. I remember that, back in the dark days of AOL, players would have entire narrative comment strings acting as a separate, quasi-OOC conversation in emotes mostly about gossiping and insulting other characters. It was ridiculous then and ridiculous now. Oh! Yes, it wasn't clear in my post, but the assumption I was running in the example was that Franco, Franco's mom, and Dick are all being written by players who are friends (and thus the comment regarding Dick's name would be received by them as good-natured ribbing rather than genuine instigation). That'd definitely be inappropriate among strangers.

That's the thing, right there - if someone's meant to be able to reply to it, then yeah, they definitely need to be given something to reply to. That said, emoting thoughts alongside actions can sometimes lend a tone to the action. Consider: Franco gasped in surprise and ducked behind a pillar as he saw a contingent of Garleans come around the corner of the ruins. ...differs in tone from... Franco gasped in surprise and ducked behind a pillar as he saw a contingent of Garleans come around the corner of the ruins. It was his youth in occupied Ala Mhigo all over again, and his mind raced in a battle of will to resist fleeing for his life as he'd done when a boy. And of course, there's also internal posts which aren't actually meant for anyone to respond to at all, which could be said to be wholly unnecessary if that's the case, but in most novels you'll also find a lot of functionally-unnecessary inner monologue stuff which serves only to give the readers insight into the character. Franco drew a swig from his mug of mead as he idly contemplated the old man at the bar who was flirting with his mom. Had he truly just said his name is Dick? Old though he may be, surely he wasn't unaware that he might be better off going by Rick or Richard, all things considered. A post like that does nothing for anyone's RP - but nor is it meant to. Neither Dick nor Franco's mom were interacting with Franco, so he's done them no RP disservice by giving them a response to something which hasn't substance for them to react to. However, Franco's player did just give Dick and Franco's Mom's players some insight into his character, which isn't inherently bad.

A big red flag for me is when players present characters or stories which push hard against lore, and the individual(s) involved have an intricate Viet Cong tunnel system of reasons why their idea is totally okay and you should be on board with it - and if you question it even a little, you immediately become the worst and you can go die in a fire. I don't mean to say we should never tolerate bending the lore - on the contrary, the lore bends itself often enough even without our input, so why not, with some restraint. The point is when it becomes obvious that the player isn't actually even looking within the lore for ideas for a character or story, but rather, they've come up with a character or story concept which obviously isn't very reasonable in this setting, and their exploration of the lore is instead used to seek every tiny morsel of anything which renders the concept remotely plausible. As I see it, there's heaps and piles of really great characters and stories that could be enjoyed that are wholly within the lore, or perhaps edging slightly against it, and so the only rational justification to behave like that is that the player is "stuck" on a concept. Sometimes this might only be a matter of writer's block, but most of the time, at least in my experience, it's due to the player's obsession over a particular theme which at an almost (or sometimes literally) fetish-like level they need to have or else they just can't even get interested in roleplay.

This one is a huge point, in my opinion. While it's good to flex vocabulary a little, there's not a lot to be gained by "evasive language". My experience with players who go especially purple with their prose is that they're not as interested in storytelling (or story-participating) as they are in trying to feel superior to others (or inversely, cause others to feel inferior) as a power complex by way of attempting to demonstrate how superior they are at writing. Might not be true of everyone, I just speak from my own experience with people like that.

You might check with Rini and see if the Wayfarers of Eorzea might be up for it.

We're super awesome! <3

No luck, eh? Well, my social group, The Reliquarian's Guild, is always open to new friends, and you needn't bear our FC tag in order to meet us and have fun with our activities. Check us out via the link in my signature if you're curious! We have a lot of players from various time zones, including PST.

Hey there! Have you read about the Reliquarian's Guild yet? We're a fairly active and growing multi-FC social group and you might make some new friends through us. :3 You can check us out via the link in my signature!

Dunt, dunt, dunt - another month bites the dust! With two adventure plotlines going on simultaneously, along with our usual social endeavors and assorted other activities, our members who wanted to participate have certainly had quite a bit to enjoy! Smuggler's Villa is an ongoing plot in which the guild has taken a task from the Alliance to track down a wanted elezen smuggler, Gabalier the Greenplume. While not inherently a peacekeeping force, Lydia knew the guild could be of help to the Alliance, whose forces are stretched thin with stabilization efforts abroad. After several sessions of investigation (and one near-capture!), some members of the guild have begun preparing to chase their quarry to Isla Avispa, an island mostly uncharted due to the population of very deadly giant wasps. What might be found exploring the island as they search for Gabalier - and will the alchemical lotion they've procured to ward off the wasps work? Sleep Like The Dead was a multi-part plot in which Ehzo'ir uncovered some evidence of a somnus drug organization while on guild business. Personal reasons and, perhaps, a bit of heroism, drove him to volunteer with the authorities to help shut down the organization, and he enlisted the aid of his allies in the guild to assist him. Ultimately, the leader Mama Jill was dealt with, and investigation of maps in her possession led to the discovery of a strange blood ruby amulet which had been guarded by voidsent - a catalyst, perhaps, for an upcoming new plot. Smaller one-shot plot activities have also occurred, such as the scenario in which Lydia's childhood friend and guard of the Reliquarium, Osric Rook, was discovered to have been engaging in collusion with Garleans to trade weapons and war materiel, which led to Osric's arrest - and execution, once the Adders were presumably done interrogating him. As it happened, the player wasn't quite feeling the character, and a reunification with an old friend who'd become a member of the guild inspired him to want to retire Osric in a spectacular fashion, so that he could repurpose the avatar into a character he'd retired, Redde Deadshot, who has since become a member of the guild himself. New to our staff is the famous warrior Kazukata Go, whose varied life changes - such as the formal suspension of the Hydaelyn Protectors organization, discovery that his daughter Fuku whom he'd thought dead is still alive, and acceptance after many years of solitude that his widower status needn't be permanent - have led him to a significant interest in the adventurous and exploratory aspects of the guild, and a matching significant interest in its dual-ponytailed guildmaster. If you've been on-the-fence about giving us a look, why not come say hi on our Discord server and see what we're about? We accept guests on the server for up to two weeks, so that the curious-but-undecided can say hello. As of this moment we have over thirty active players in the guild (8 staff, and 20+ members from various FCs), and we're always happy to have new friends become involved! Remember, members have no participation requirements (only staff do), so there's little to lose by checking us out.

WHY IS THIS NOT ON GOOGLE. This... this is a great website! T.T Thank you so much for linking it! And thank you to the others who've replied, too! What do you guys think of the linked website? I'm nosing around on it now.