Havoc Snow

I haven't got it downloaded yet, but you can equip different gear in the new creation tool?

This excites me a great deal! Edit:

I use it. Visually it's nothing special, you just click a button and it gives you a code to enter in.

I'm still inclined to believe until I see otherwise that Phase 4 will start two weeks prior to launch, and Early Access one week prior to launch. The most likely scenario to me would be on August 8th they'll announce Phase 4 release date, shortly after the client will be available, then on the 13th Phase 4 begins, and on the 20th Early Access begins. Since they said there will be a few days of debugging between Phase 4 and Early Access it doesn't make sense that it would start just over a week before the game launches.

http://www.dualshockers.com/2013/07/31/final-fantasy-xiv-beta-registration-site-outs-probable-closed-beta-start-date/ This was posted not long ago talking about the potential for P4 starting August 7th and apparently the Preorder slips stated Early Access was 7 days. That means Phase 4 is only 3 days. Seems kind of off to me.

To my knowledge I think you can actually only have one security device tied to your account at a time, though I may be mistaken. What Averis said.

I probably could have done a lot more, but here we go.

I should have never looked at this thread, I'm going to be going through these for days now... I'll post my findings later.

It does a little bit, but I still feel like the whole amnesia thing creates a lot of complications and loop holes and what not. Definitely why I feel I'll need to give a lot of thought to a story explaining the events that take place immediately after my characters return and his rise to power in his organization.

So for my LS/FC I had planned on allowing anyone who wanted to write the order into their history to have been part of the organization prior to the Calamity and to return to the group with the return of the missing members after the five year gap. I was going to do this one of two ways, if you were a time jumper you'd obviously arrive with most of everyone else who was spirited away, or you could have stayed behind as a Remnant. I've given this some thought and I'm not sure how viable the second option is anymore, not at least with the idea that my character time jumped and thus is subject to people forgetting who he was. So this is kind of a question directed towards those free companies and linkshells that were already established in the old game, or have ties to the pre-Calamity world with members from both before and after the fall of Dalamud. How do you plan to handle the gap in memory of characters who were in the Calamity and time jumped, compared to those who did not? If say for example the leader of a FC time jumped, but some of his old members opt to have their characters left behind, how do you explain your right to rule when you return? For my character he was not the former leader, he was the son of the former leader so there may already be those who question his right to rule the organization now, which I kind of want to get into ICly through roleplay and what not, growing pains before the new order is solidified (I had intended to actually write up a story for this), however if no one remembers he even existed, let alone was a member or the son of the former leader, I figure that would give him zero claim to leadership. This thread is not whether you will or will not time jump, or ignore the existence of the amnesia. It assumes that the amnesia is taking affect for the sake of discussing this potential problem.

To answer your question a bit more thoroughly, there Resistance has never made any notable attempts at freeing Ala Mhigo, at this point the Ala Mhigo Resistance are too weak to do anymore than skirmishes. This is likely intended as a plot device to allow content later on for the player characters to come in and save the day by defeating the Empire and freeing city (I expect this to be in an expansion). If we won back Ala Mhigo that would be a HUGE blow to the empire as that is their biggest foothold in Eorzea and their connection between Eorzea and Garlemald. While we can be certain there have probably been at least a free uprisings, the only one we are ever made aware of specifically is the one we take part in during 1.0.

Only thing I know about them really is that they've been at war with Ishgard forever and a day, Bahamut is most likely their Primal, they once followed Midgardsormr (or however it's spelled this time), and technically at one point they defended Eorzea successfully from certain doom at the hands of the Garlean Empire when Midgardsormr sacrificed himself to destroy the... Argus? Whatever their flagship was called. Though in doing so he also unleashed the Primals.

I understand entirely now! Thank you for the clarification. I'm gonna go off topic for just a moment and say that stuff like this is why I love the RPC community so much. Pain free, peaceful resolution in just a few posts. If this conversation were happening on the beta forums we'd be on page 20 by now, at least, with people resorting to petty childish name calling.

This is part of the information I need to know for, um, science... or something... It seems like a reasonable speculation since we know that Arcanists create their own Carbuncles using a mixture of symbols and a gemstone, so unlike in the past where Carbuncle was a singular being and Summoners were able to unlock the ability to call him to their aide, this time he's a manifestation of the Arcanists power. We also know that the Summons that the Summoner uses are just manifestations created using a combination of the Summoners power and a sliver of the Primals energy, so they too are sort of like homunculus in a way. So if these two classes actually create their pets as an extension of their power, rather than calling to serve the aid of already existing beings, it could easily be assumed the the Fairies are also just a reflection of the Scholars power in some way, an extension of their magical abilities. It was also stated that the Fairy would have different forms for different stances, which I assume mostly means a change in color and maybe wing design based on whether it's buffing, healing, or assisting with damage.

Your name suddenly makes me want to make a pun character if we ever get Samurai. The second son of Za Ichi, Za'to Ichi, the wandering blind Miqo'te Samurai.

A few points I wanted to add to the conversation that were relative. In 1.0 Nym was alluded to as an ancient civilization that had powerful magical practices (though nowhere near on par with the Allagan). However we never really get to see anything from Nym, so there was very little lore or facts about the ancient city other than it was located "somewhere" in La Noscea. During one of my many lore surfs (randomly hopping around links on the net and getting lost in the lore and info) I came across an article on the FF Wiki about Nym that contained some concept art that is believed to be Nym in ARR (image below). The proximity of Nym's ruins (and likely cultural influences) to Limsa Lominsa easily explains why Scholar would be tied to it, but what it also may mean is that we'll eventually have quests that send us into the ruins of Nym (perhaps a dungeon?) which may mean we'll have a better explanation on what the fairies are, and why they're only just now appearing again after all this time. One thing I'm curious about is whether the fairy is a living creature, or a magical homunculus of sorts created by the Scholar, like an extension of the Scholars knowledge and magical prowess. Artwork of the Scholar and their Fairy Possibly some ruins of Nym

First of all I want to say the name Umbr'a? Very cool! As far as my name goes, it actually isn't that well thought out or impressive. I sat for days trying to come up with a name, debating whether or not to use a lore friendly name or to go a different route. Ultimately I decided to go a different route because my character was intended not to have been raised by other Miqo'te and was instead raised by a Wildwood Elezen. So I kind of spent a bit walking around my room and looking at random things trying to see if something sparked a bit of creativity when the old box for my copy of Asheron's Call popped out at me, and I thought that the name Asheron sounded kind of cool, but perhaps a bit too rough or barbaric for an Elezen, so I ended up dropping the "o" and moving the "e" into its place to get Ashren. As for his surname, it's actually not a real surname but more of a... nickname, to some degree. Ashren is albino, pure white skin, pure white hair, pinkish eyes, the whole deal, and because of this he was often called "Ashren of the Desert Snow" being from Ul'dah and all, eventually he took it as an honorary and his name became Ashren Snow. The primary reason he didn't have a surname to begin with despite being adopted (his fathers surname was Trentes), his father raised him by intermingling Ishgardian principles with a mix of Sunseeker tradition, wanting him to have an understanding of who he was and where he came from, while also being raised to be noble and honorable (even though his father was an exile). Because of this, Trentes believed it was important that Ashren be given a first name, but like his culture to not be given a surname. Despite that, to many people he doesn't know well enough he tends to lie about his name and calls himself "A'shren Tia," or to the ladies "A'shren Nunh" It's not until he gets to know someone better that he'll explain his actual name and reveal who he really is.

Well here's a belated welcome to the community, Fiona! Hopefully you'll find the people here welcome and friendly, and feel the urge to stick around for a while! I've been here for about a month now I think and already I think this is one of the most lively, diverse, knowledgeable, and friendly group of people I have ever encountered in an MMO (and I've played in a lot). As always, never hesitate to ask questions when you want to know something, and don't be shy! As a new RPer it can be a bit overwhelming trying to take your first step into a big pool filled with people who have been doing it for a long time, but just know that most of us are very tolerant and welcoming and I for one always love meeting new rpers and giving them advice or just RPing with them to get them comfortable with it all!

I preordered the PS3 CE from Gamestop in store and got a the early access/preorder code on my receipt.

I actually can't agree more with this explanation, this is pretty spot on to how I view it. This also takes into account why story deaths could happen, Raise wouldn't bring you back from the dead but instead bring you back from the brink of death. It always annoyed me how in video games where anti-death magic or items (like Raise or Phoenix Down) existed, people could still die. Like a character has a slow and tragic death while the healer stands their weeping helplessly, and I'm just like "WHY AREN'T YOU CASTING RAISE!?" That is until I subscribed to this method of thinking, at that point it kind of made a bit more sense.

Yup, as Ildus said there is a Resistance group that actively fights back against the Garlean rule. The only time we ever get to see them in action (and help them) was during a quest in 1.0 where they introduced Gaius, and during that attempt they failed miserably. Here's a video from "The Story So Far..." videos that were made to help fill in the blanks for a lot of players that didn't get to play in 1.X, in it you get to see the setup for your help in the Al Mhigo resistance and their total obliteration: [video=youtube]http://youtu.be/DL97uDBTHnM Currently in 2.0 there is only one point where I see them mentioned, when one of the Garlean super soldiers (the red one) uncovers two spies in their ranks and has them killed. The video above is still one of my favorite scenes from 1.X

Well as far as I know Fairies were introduced to the game lore through the Scholars, and while Nym was alluded to in the past I don't think there was a lot about it (that I can recall) beyond a few in game texts. So until we know more about Scholar, and possibly about Nym, we won't really know a lot about Fairies. I assume most of the lore will come from the Scholar Job quests and possible via any Scholar NPCs we might encounter. As far as Ramuh and the Sylphs go though, I could be completely wrong about this but the Element of Lightning has also struck me as the "Dark" Element of FFXIV, just the same as Air would be the "Light" Element. A lot of the Lightning based creates (and even Ramuh himself) share similarities in color or appearance to the Voidsent monsters given them a demonic vibe, and Ramuh even looks like some kind of Vampire based on his concept art. The closest thing to Druids we have in the game are Conjurers who use Water, Earth, and Air; while the Thaumaturges who use Black Magic and are tied with Death and the Afterlife use Fire, Ice, and Lightning. The only reasoning I could make was that in most prior games Ramuh was always something like the Wise Man in the Woods, you usually found him in some isolated part of the world where he'd offer you guidance and what not and then become a Summon for you.

Sylphs: http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/world/threats/primals/ramuh "A diminutive people who dwell deep within the Black Shroud, sylphs resemble delicate dolls wrapped in vibrant leaves. By and large, these woodland folk hold favorable relations with other races, and have become an almost common sight since a trade in crystals was established. The Garlean invasion of the Black Shroud, however, has quickly soured the sylphs' view of outsiders." They're considered among the "Beastmen", and venerate Ramuh. I haven't actually played the game / I know very little, but I'm hoping for my Roegadyn Conjurer to have some RP revolving around them and diplomacy with Gridania. @ Ashren Snow, I don't know if that post was directed at me, but I was just pointing out that in past games they've been nearly indistinguishable. These are Sylphs (from other Final Fantasy games): My mistake, I thought you meant that the Sylphs of FFXIV looked identical to the Fairy. Yes, the Sylphs of previous games do look pretty spot on to the fairy, and I wouldn't be surprised if that was what they based its appearance on to begin with. As far as the Sylphs storyline goes, the "bad" Sylphs are new in 2.0 IIRC. I can only vaguely remember the story from Phase 2, but if I can recall correctly Ramuh used to be peaceful and suddenly became aggressive after the attacks from the Garlean Empire, corrupting some of the Sylph who in turn have begun kidnapping other Sylph to corrupt them. There is a small settlement of them in East Shroud that are still good, so a diplomat between Gridania and the Sylphland is still a feasible concept, just avoid the purple ones. Some of the Primal choices confuse me though, like why Ramuh is the Primal for cabbage patch kids, or why Titan is the Primal for the Kobolds and not the Hecatonchires/Giants. Ifrit being the Primal for the lizard/dragonkin race makes sense, Leviathan as the Primal of the fish people race makes sense, and if you know the lore behind Garuda and why she's totally insane even her being the Primal for the scaley wingless bird people race makes sense.

Really the Fairies and Sylph are two entirely different things, especially since one is a beast race and one is just a fairy. Beyond that the Fairies look like tiny elves with butterfly wings, complete with humanoid features and little dresses, your typical fairy. The Sylphs look like dolls made out of cabbage, complete with soulless black eyes that stare knowingly into your heart. For example this is a Sylph: and this is a Fairy: The similarities end at the point that they're both supposed to be fairy like, though the actually Fairy definitely fits the bill a bit more. As far as lore goes in FFXIV, the only thing we know so far is this: