Valence

I found that the story carried a lot of the main cast very well, for what it's worth. Even if I wouldn't definitely have minded more character development... Sometimes a lot of things didn't even need to be said out loud, which I appreciated.

As long as you remain the more vague and evasive on how he got to open his shadow chakras, I mean, I'm sure you are pretty much covered honestly.

You can't be someone and a voidsent at the same time. A voidsent generally has to pass through rip or tears in the fabric of the physical realm to cross from the Void to Hydaelyn. The bigger they are, the bigger the rip must be, and consumes exponentially more energy. Voidsent often pass through without their physical form from the Void as to minimize that cost and the void portal size. It's not uncommon for them to possess eorzean creatures or Spoken so that they get a new body. Voidsent possession is a parasitic relationship that removes all control from the possessed soul and hands it to the Voidsent creature. Basically, the possessed person might still see what's happening, at best (or maybe not even), but they are trapped and can't do absolutely nothing as long as the Voidsent remains in control. If you are interesting to know more I suggest that you play/watch the 30 first level of the thaumaturge class quests where a lalafell gets possessed by the soul of a voidsent. People can also slowly turned into disfigured, hideous hybrid creatures if put in contact with enough Void matter, as shown by Calofisteri, an old sorceress of Mhach that used to drink void blood and other things to increase her magical power. She is no human anymore since long though. More like a half Void creature that is closer to a voidsent and lunacy than anything else. As for Dark Arts, nothing in lore says Dark Arts didn't originate from elsewhere. However, nothing says it did. Some will argue that since it took centuries for Dark Knights of Ishgard to discover it, why would it automatically have been discovered elsewhere? It really boils down to your interpretation of what Dark Arts are, a generic form of emotion driven struggle not unlike the dark side, or some form of more refined, specific art proper to ishgardian society?

The only thing we know for sure is: - The body holds 7 chakras, each of them divided in two (one light aspected and one shadow aspected) - 6 of those are lesser chakras, and the 7th is the Seventh Chakra, the ultimate, that makes a monk master his full power and earn their title. - Once you have mastered the 7 Chakras of your sect (light or shadow), you can start to open the 7 other mirrored chakras of the opposite sect, a priori the most common method being, directly fighting and confronting their members. - As it is always the case with the 7th Chakra, the mirrored 7th (so, the mythical 14th) is incredibly arduous to unlock and is something of legend. - Chakras are valves regulating internal aether. The more you open them, the more powerful you get (enough to give you a decisive edge even against someone with just one less than you). - The monks technics are not linked to the aspect of their sects. Both sects basically teach the exact same thing. They just don't open the same aspected chakras. - We know how light aspected chakras are opened: through old battlefield sites and places filled with turmoil, rich in aether traces from such events. - We don't know how shadow aspected chakras are opened. Maybe the same way, maybe not. But if the same way, there must be something different somewhere obviously.

The aspect of their chakras make them different (opposites actually), even if their technics are the same. What exactly makes monks of a sect open a shadow aspected chakra instead of a light aspected chakra and vice versa is quite obscure as far as I know and we lack info on that. It would seem though that once you have started opening your chakras, be them light or shadow, you seem more or less locked into the same aspect for the rest of your chakras. This is why opening the chakras of the opposite aspect is so arduous and central to the shadow/light conflict as seen in the lvl 60 classquests.

It has been a bit more than a year that I joined, and the RPC proved to be a valuable tool to use as well as a good place discussing about the lore. We are not that many but it's quite stimulating! Besides Sounsyy that we all have to thank for all the things, the work and answers, I have had a great time and plan continuing investigating lore as much as I can. I'm actually happy to have other players that are ready to brainstorm with me around it, because it gets a lot harder when you are alone (and a lot less fun too). Just wanted to say that. Cheers

Maybe I missed that somewhere in your story, so my apologies if so, but does she have a job? In my humble opinion, that can change everything.

You can awkwardly copy paste the content of the folders of other characters in the alt's folder. Just having to find the right one since it's alphanumerical names is the real annoyance here. Those are located in myDocuments, FF directory.

Yes, I'm not especially speaking about the OP here. I thought were were long gone into generalities, however hard it is to do over such topics. Uh yeah, let's calm down a little with the blanket accusations. Case in point of what I was saying just above. We don't live in a world seen through a binary lens and you might want respectfully to re-read what I wrote - I'm not saying that with any malicious intent. I'm sure I specifically mentioned that some fling their social anxiety and disorders in very disingenuous manners at every occasion possible when they don't get it their way. You are not the only one with a certain degree of social phobia IRL! I know perfectly well how it can be crippling, and the amount of efforts you have to do to always get the better of it. That is why I said that being proactive and encouraging people to move their asses is good, but not the way you do it, I believe. I just have to look at the results everywhere you wrote that way, and it doesn't seem very successful, despite the potentially good intentions, if you don't mind me saying that. Maybe I'm wrong though? Same here really. You seem to only see in black and white what I said above. I never, ever, said that you have to take kids gloves with social anxiety. You both are really putting words in my mouth. I don't think that anyone with any kind of ailment really enjoys being considered differently than others.

Honestly, watching this whole thread unfold... Makes me think people sometimes only deal in absolutes. It's either white or black. Well I for one, and call that unpopular opinion if you will, I find there is truth in both sides of the fence. The advices given by mosts are solid and I don't think many disagree with that. I'm also sure that experiences vary and some have had more luck than others. I also know for a fact like the exact same way some people play the game better than others when it comes to PuGs and dungeons and stuff, well, some people are also better at finding contacts and their place than others. And that's okay. As long as you are willing to improve and make things move in the right way, half the way is done. Then... yes, it depends on your own skills. Telling people they have to move their asses and that's only their fault they aren't finding anything is... while more or less true, also a bit harsh in itself. You don't tell someone suffering from occasional depression to move their ass simply because you could do it. You don't tell someone crippled to perform the exact same jump you did simply because you could. But, you can tell them alternatives. You can show them possible ways that are more affordable to their specific case. I saw a lot of comments on that you can't know why someone ignored you. That they could be RPing in a closed circle, or didn't see you under a wall of text, or other possibilities. That's definitely true. You can't also know why someone isn't the social butterfly you are. Some fling their social anxiety for every reason possible in a very disingenuous manner, and a lot others actually have issues like that. Telling them to move their ass or die is not going to do much except alienating them. Sometimes people are seeing through it through a privileged lens that doesn't do justice to what it actually is for others.

I started roleplaying like everyone without any contacts and had to go through the RPC connections thread and find a good FC (the two best tools in my opinion). That's where I found a handful of my long lasting contacts (especially the FC though, the connection thread is more often a miss than a hit since most people disappear after a week or two). It was already demanding enough and time investing that I don't even want to imagine the nightmare when going blind through the most inefficient mediums like huge events and public RP in public places.

Hi, your thread caught my eye since I am more and more in a situation where I have a hard time finding meaningful RP due to various factors, like being in strictly regimented EU hours (most EU folks actually play at EST hours in truth), added to a need like you for more mundane everyday characters with a strong like for being well anchored in the actual lore of the game. I lack time to weave stories of my own (besides the few I GM for my FC), but I'm always super happy to play a supportive character for others. The only thing I'm always wary of though, and it's not directly tied to power levels actually, is that my character gets embarked into incredible story successions of epic proportions. Like for mundane characters, I prefer 'mundane' plots. Which means, not necessarily something where you spend your time fighting hordes of enemies every time. You don't need to have epic fights or just fight every time for a plot to be powerful, quite the contrary, is something I truly believe in. It doesn't seem like much said like that, but it actually is the kind of things that tends to make your character "level up" incredibly quick and go from green sprout to awesomely grizzled in less than a year.. Which ultimately makes character get out of the ordinary and become supernatural. And I don't want that for mine (she's barely above twenty and was meant to be a RP green sprout). That doesn't mean that I don't want her to actually grow and evolve, quite the contrary, but... I'm not sure if I'm being super clear unfortunately. But less is more. Subtle is epic. Slow is fast. etc. Feel free to reach me out if you are interested!

Keep in mind that conjurers are also healers, among their duties. In fact conjury is mostly used offensively as well as defensively in others regions. In the Shroud they just spend a lot of their time tending to the forest well being and the elementals.

If I can give an advice, the FFXIV lore is generally heavily vague, and relies a lot on what the devs call individual bias, where the NPCs saying things doesn't in fact always represent the perfect, naked truth. Except for the lorebook of course, the lore is generally very permissive and allows for a lot of things that can be explained one way or another. After having checked if something breaks the lore, the real question is generally more often, "if it's possible, should I do it or not?" It's where you can start to draw the limits of your suspension of disbelief, your personal take on powerlevels, special snowflakism and the likes.

Hi and welcome! On 1), yes, a lot of jobs imply a good level of power and some of them even a certain amount of uniqueness. WhM is probably the most restraining job ever since only the Warrior of Light as far as we know was granted that magic by the Elementals and Padjals. But even for milder 2.0 jobs, like bards, keep in mind that they still were able of feats like turning the whole tide of battlefields by the power of their songs. You might get more luck looking at the 2.4 and 3.0 jobs though, that are way more reasonable, or at least open to more various levels of power and accessed more easily. I can go into more details on every job if you wish. 2) As said above, racism is widespread and most races have come to live with each other in the current city states only recently, when those were created. On Auri internal conflict, the civilized doman Raen tend to see the tribal Xaela as warmongering barbarians, while the latter see the former as people that forgot their roots and went to live as (doman) Hyurs.

Alright, so the host is pretty annoying, but those old interviews are gold:

Worst advice given so far. Running from your issues as a shy wallflower aren't going to be magical fixed. In fact, I imagine you only have to try HARDER to get noticed on a server with barely any roleplayers. Not really running when the only enjoyable rp I have had was from players who long left the game. Anything in the recent years has been a sorry excuse for rp when I did bother. Just because I would enjoy a smaller community myself where I could actually get to know people or know what was going on isn't what I call running. But hey to each their own. As I said.. I had rp and I got noticed. It just never lasted long due to people being fickle on how they wanted to play or rp from day to day. From anyone who has met me in game or back during the beta.. shy is hardly my issue. Player RP fickleness and the fantasia obsessed are a bane in that game, no denying that. I think you just haven't had the luck to find a long lasting group of players with established characters is all.

Missing the 1.0 butts?

Are you kidding me? Mercs outlets are like, the second type of RP FC after the generalist adventurer type...

Oh yes, the ping pong sidequests. In the Churning Mists and Havensward content because there wasn't obviously enough of those in ARR. The saddest thing is that we don't learn that much of the lore in 3.0, unlike ARR, while doing those, because we spent our time in areas where it doesn't matter much... At least I had fun reading up the lore in ARR sidequests. Well. 'Fun'. Anyway, generally I tend to take the leveling of new classes casually now. Roulette everyday and that's it. It levels itself quite nicely all in all. But the first second jobs I leveled up I sure was more eager to get them so I had to grind. Which soon made me drop FATE for all eternity and damnation and just queue for dungeons.

That's more or less how it is currently on the chinese/korean servers and how they plan to add it if they do eventually. One jump potion that can get a job to 50 (will be 60 once Stormblood hits). One jump potion that can unlock the MSQ up to the very end of 2.55 (will be 3.55 once Stormblood hits).

No, Yoshi-P said pure DPS, and like the two other casters (BLM and SMN).

Red Mage just confirmed to fill a pure ranged DPS casting role, like BLM and SMN. No more support role than those two. Very vague on how it will attack in melee (but I strongly suspect it will be similar to OGCD skill or stuff to trigger at times).

Reading a bit more into the french translation... They use the singular in the whole lvl50 questline, and refer to "Le joyau de Shattoto" (The Gem of Shattoto). They start using it as a plural in the 3.0 storyline (as opposed to the english translation that continues with the singular). In any case, it seems to reinforce the theory that referring to it as a singular refers to a specific kind of gem rather than a single stone/item.

Yes although I wonder where they came to the plural translation and what made them do so. As far as I know there isnt a true plural form in japanese? Context has to play a part here... I will try to watch it a bit more in details when I find the time.