Valence

Personally, it's the whole WhM/conjuring storyline that I found awesome. I may be biased with everything that relates to Gridania though.

Ah yeah, of course...!

Well, usually if you are the one writing the plot, or the GM, then you will of course have the liberty to set the pace however you want... If it's the plot of someone else... I think that the only thing you can really do is send OOC nice feedback and see where it goes... I mean, when you GM something, or run a plot, it's not only for yourself, so usually a good GM will listen to the needs of his/her players, and hear feedback. If the people you play with don't want to hear them, then I guess you will eventually lose your fun, or people will start to leave it. More generally, I think it is a natural tendency that plagues most people writing or creating stories: you usually want to get to the last chapter, or the culmination of the story because that's where it's the most awesome... That's a natural thing to do, especially when you don't have much experience. It's also why a lot of novices tend to go for 95% pure epic action and 5% laid back various stuff... But the subtlety gets diluted in that over abundance, and that's where of course you have to slow down plots as you say. But I can understand what makes people often forget that. Character development, intrigue, is actually not fond only in those epic moments that are rather big shifts in a story, but more in the intermediary more laid back moments, the everyday, the cement that binds all those epic wtfbbq climaxes together. Breadcrumbs is a good idea, but from experience it also tends to get lost in all the white noise. Sometimes you really have to get heavy handed to make sure people pick up clues, or else they just miss them and you can wait a century after, but it will not change a thing. I am not sure it is a good analogy to make. In every story, you have time ellipsises for that. Imagine if you had never to cut any sequence like IRL, describing everything happening at every minute (going to the bathroom, eating, chilling for what would look like eons, etc)..

For myself again, that word doesn't annoy me that much when used correctly with justification. When it just sprouts out randomly for the sake of edginess, though... Well, that's rather vague said like that, right? Yeah, I am afraid I can't describe it more accurately for once, but maybe I think that not trying to play a swearing, rude eorzean character more than a cursing, rude RL/generic character is the crux of the matter for me.

On the subject of ilms, fulms, and all other confusing Eorzean metrics, do we have a list of them, and what they amount to exactly? Because well, since i'm born in the SI metric system, I find them as confusing as inches, feet and all other royal related measurement units...

Personally I find the template you and a few others use to be clear, sleek, simple and elegant.

Using nameplates ICly sounds silly to me, to begin with. It's a clear cut case of OOC/IC bleedover. Nameplates are only useful as an OOC memo, and should be kept as such. No...?

Because you know, perhaps, maybe, very maybe, Eorzea doesn't have SJW issues. Leave them out the door please, and keep roleplay to roleplay, because god, bringing real life issues into roleplay irritates the fuck out of me. Well, as I said, take it with a whole spoon of salt, and I am sorry that I irritated you. I feel though, that this doesn't make those issues less important for the actual people concerned, that you care or not. I was just pointing that out, and it is a factor that sometimes enters the equation.

Another thought occured to me also... Please take it with a whole spoon of salt since it might touch sensitive topics. Some curse words like cunt, bitch, and especially pussy, can be considered, especially today, as incredibly sexist. The same way the saying "having the balls to do something" (can be replaced with "guts"), is, in a way. It belittles or outright puts the female gender to a subpar position in comparison. This is not to say that those words are necessarily bad, especially if you want to portray someone that well... is sexist. Or, if you consider that the time period is inherently sexist. After all, I have seen several mentions of "bitch" in a few quests, so there is that too. Please note that I have no strong feeling on those as long as they are kept IC in a justified context, but I think it is an important thing to keep in mind as it can ruffle sensibilities.

I'm not sure if you've ever actually spoken to anyone irl. Care to elaborate?

I think the issue is less than those words have a place in the setting, and a lot more that people tend to use them on a very gratuitous, over the top, basis. When you tend to always go for the biggest superlative you can find, it eventually dampen a lot its meaning while creating a sort of linguistic discrepancy between people used to that to the point where some of the most extreme words are used on a hourly basis, and people that are not. It's exactly like in cinema if you will: if you start only using close-up after close-up, then it loses its meaning pretty fast, especially when you eventually use one in a more justified moment that will just feel drown in the middle of all the other superfluous, over the top ones. In short, your enemy here might be less the lexical language used rather than the context in which it is used. Beware of the cheese or you will end up pretty fast in a shoddy cheap pulp cliché. Edit: also, one can also have to take into account the tone used by the setting and storytelling itself, and it's pretty bookish/convoluted english I find. Of course, that certainly doesn't prevent players to make the choice to darken their own setting a lot and go for different tones. And then, different tones clash together and can lead to... well. That.

Well that's actually the thing with constitutional theocracy (not dissimilar to Iran), the executive is not religious, much like Uldah. The religious body is the parliamentary body, aka the legislative power. Except here it's not really parliamentary in nature, but it remains a religious institution that writes the law. That's what made me say that it's a constitutional monarchy yes, but more than just that.

Thank you for the exhaustive answers! I suppose Uldah could be seem as a sort of constitutional theocracy ?

Mhh lots of great answers. I'm still not quite sure to think about every adventurer being able to teleport like that, even with such limitations... I guess i'll have to work around it. Also yes, what of those modern teleportation magics Urianger spoke of?

Well hello, another question... Having seen the few bits we know about the political structures of every faction in the lore, I wondered how much we knew of that exactly? I have to admit that I come from another game (eve online) where the lore can be immensely deep and detailed especially on such matters, and it usually interests me a lot. I mean, I know that Ulda is a Sultanate, and that the Sultanate has to deal with the Syndicate and powerful merchant interests that have a seat to the table, but what exactly encompass the ruler power? What are its limits (they seem very numerous)? Is that only executive, legislative? Is the Sultanate just a first among peers (the merchants and syndicates)? Likewise, on Limsa, I can expect a rather direct line of command like a on ship for the Admiral, and the people below, but what do we know more about it exactly? How do they represent every (ex) pirate, merchant interest? How are they represented? How do they voice their concerns? How is the thalassocracy organized? On Gridania as well, we have seedseers (all of them padjals?), but how exactly do they rule? Is it like a druidic council of sages? How are the people represented here? How do they voice their interests? How do elemental rule and law translates through the power in place? We are portrayed listeners that are the ultimate and almighty voice of the elementals on spiritual matters on who can stay and who cannot, but what else? If we have similar info on other powers like Ala-migho, or even the Empire and Ishgard that seem more fleshed out, i'll take them too, of course..

First of all sorry if I missed an already existing thread on the matter... And my question is rather simple at first, but... What do you do of Aetherytes ICly? Especially the teleport mechanic that goes with them? Now then, they are obviously enforced by the lore, mind you, but what is your personal approach to them? Even in the MSQ, there is sometimes a huge dichotomy when they speak about travel (like, you know, when you help resettle those Doma refugees in huge caravans... so why not using the aetheryte network if airship is not possible? Because not everybody can attune or something similar?). If so, if it's not everybody's possibility to use them, I would myself be even more weary to use them ICly since it already grants you some kind of special powers in itself... But that's just me. Also, more on a lore appreciation matter, I understand that they primarily stem from a gameplay mechanic, and I take them as such more as real tools ICly, but I also tend to think that they detract a lot on the meaningfulness of the concept of journeys, voyages, pilgrimages... When you stop going by foot or carriage, and start using jet airliners or instant teleportation, well... it ruins the grandiose a bit. How people deal with that usually?

Some are either easy to replace, by using more generic terms or changing the expression for a similar, less fourth dimensionally loaded one. We encountered that problem a lot on eve online, with scientific laws and formulas. Some are a nightmare to translate, like Occam's Razzor, etc, without dedicating a whole paragraph as a replacement. Well, I remember to have seen in the MSQ the authors themselves replacing a word with an ingame equivalent (like God <-> Twelve something), but I can't quite remember the specific example I have in mind...

Good luck! True neutral has always been a very interesting theme to me.

I like the concept of that FC. Good luck!

Why, hello fellow francophone.

I understand. Thank you for the replies. I will try to get in touch.

Hello, Well, I must say that the FC description struck me as the perfect match that I might be looking for (in terms of quality values, etc)... Added to the fact that.. well... EU timezone. Of course, I have yet to come introduce some RP with you if I can, but I may have some questions if you can indulge me...: I'm certainly fine and definitely not in any hurry, but how long can those closed recruitment periods last? And also, if you still have a racial restriction enforced?

Aah nice that'e exactly what I was looking for and asked about on Heavy RP the last day! Invaluable info to me. Do Aldenard seem land connected to Garlemald? Likewise, is Garlemald land connected to the other landmass on the east next to it?

How fat is the patch?

Alright, I updated the wiki quite a bit and fleshed it out, while correcting the timeline mistake... Thanks for the help, and if you still see blatant errors or whatever advice to give, feel free!