Havoc Snow

Technically so did Ishgard. A reeeeeally long time ago. That is a huge technicality. It has been stated that the extent of Ishgards part in the Eorzean Alliance is pretty much the extent of their part in current affairs. They told everyone to stay the hell out of Coerthas, and in return they would offer them meager supplies when they could. So essentially they were only ever part of the Eorzea Alliance in name alone. I believe at that point in time the only thing they really did was give Gridania Chocobos, which is why Bentbranch has their own stable. I'd need a source on something like that before I could even contemplate believing it. To my knowledge no such source exists thus we have absolutely no bearing on how large or small their involvement was in the Eorzean Alliance. What we do know is that the Ishgardians bred the finest chocobo mounts on the continent and that prior to the Calamity almost no female chocobos existed south of Ishgard because they wanted to monopolize the trade and did so pretty effectively. Fairly certain it's a Bentbranch NPC who explains that but anyway, even IF, and it's a big if, the Ishgardians only supplied chocobos to the rest of Eorzea? That's still a pretty large contribution. But since we don't know what they did and how much then it's really doing no one any favors to make assumptions with little-to-no backing. Edit: Okay so a friend of mine corrected me, they did actually send soldiers to reinforce the ranks of the Alliance during the Autumn War but their primary function in the war was providing supplies and chocobos (which at that point were non-existent outside of Ishgard, not because of a monopoly but because of an epidemic called the Chocobo Blight). At this point however we have completely gone off track from the original point of this debate which was my joke about how Ishgardians are anything but inclusive. So I will just reiterate my point that while Gridania may be somewhat wary of outsiders, I'd say they are far from xenophobic. The numerous points in recent history where they are present and assisting other nations shows this. I do agree with you on the point about Ul'dah being a "good ol' boys club" or however you put it, however if you've been paying attention to the storyline at all you'll know this is likely to change very VERY soon. How much is up for debate, but we know that the socio-political climate in Ul'dah is shifting very rapidly. So that brings up back to Ishgard. Their presence in historical events, even in recent events has been incredibly miniscule, and only now are they even bothering to extend an olive branch to outsiders because of the deeds of MC and because they need our help, and even then they are barely able to admit that. With all that said, I'm going to step out of this thread to prevent it from being derailed any further.

Technically so did Ishgard. A reeeeeally long time ago. That is a huge technicality. It has been stated that the extent of Ishgards part in the Eorzean Alliance is pretty much the extent of their part in current affairs. They told everyone to stay the hell out of Coerthas, and in return they would offer them meager supplies when they could. So essentially they were only ever part of the Eorzea Alliance in name alone. I believe at that point in time the only thing they really did was give Gridania Chocobos, which is why Bentbranch has their own stable.

Is it bad that I would play that non-ironically? BA DA BA BA BA I'M LOVIN' IT Summoned by the elusive Beast Tribe known as Fry Kids.

The primary reason is because of the Padjal part, they are literally the Chosen ones of the Black Shroud, hand picked by the forces of nature to defend the forces of nature. Still doesn't make them more lorebreaking than White Mages of other races, IMHO. The lore team has stated that there are other methods of obtaining White Magic other than learning it the way that the PC learns it, they just haven't delved into that in any official capacity yet. There are apparently forces at work trying to bring back Succor through nefarious means, so while most White Mages are viewed with a certain level of "u wot m8" by the RP community, it's still a possibility if you play it off well enough. Padjal on the other hand are exceedingly rare because they are only ever chosen by the Elementals when the Elementals feel they need more to help them. Considering the current Padjal have all been around for an exceptionally long time, it's likely that for more to be made it would require an immense threat to the Black Shroud that couldn't be handled by the current collective might of the Padjal that already exist. It's lorebreaking because there just aren't really any unaccounted for Padjal in the lore, so you would require a lot of hand wavium to wiggle yours in, which basically means the vast majority of people won't want to play with your character. This may sound cruel, but it's how RP communities work no matter what game you're in. It's taboo because as stated several times now, the Padjal are the Chosen Ones, and it is exceedingly frowned upon for people to play anything in that kind of role.

The primary reason is because of the Padjal part, they are literally the Chosen ones of the Black Shroud, hand picked by the forces of nature to defend the forces of nature.

Just to add onto this, most characters who color outside the lines in general tend to have a difficult time getting accepted by the RP community as a whole. People who play races outside the currently playable races tend to be viewed with skepticism at best, and out right rejection at worst. Things such as Allagan, Voidsent, Dragons, or something entirely made up are pretty common taboos, Padjal not so much but it's definitely on par. My advice is do what you want if you think you'll have fun with it, but if you're looking for community acceptance and mass appeal, this isn't a good idea.

I've been through the WHM story twice and I never got that impression. I thought the general population knew that the Padjal were blessed by Elementals with White Magic. Also, you mention the horns yourself a bit later, and that's my major question. How is a perpetual child with horns going to masquerade as anything other than Padjal? It's -potentially- possible that less educated populations of Limsa and Ul'dah might not immediately know what she is, but most anyone in Gridania would know a Padjal when they see one. They don't really masquerade as anything as far as I know, anyone who is a resident of Gridania knows what and who the Padjal are. Any child chosen by the Elementals is taken away to the Stillglade Fane to be trained in White Magic. While there may be Padjal we have yet to meet, the lore doesn't really leave much wiggle room for "unaccounted for" Padjal because the Elementals pick them specifically, it's not really some random thing that happens and no one knows about it. If you're going to play a Padjal, you may as well play the Warrior of Light as well. You're pretty much afforded the same level of mary sue.

The short and simple answer is no, it's not even remotely lore friendly.

The big difference though is that Gridania doesn't shun the outside world. They willingly participated in the Eorzea Alliance before and after the Calamity, they took part in Project Archon, they actively enlist the aid of adventurer's through their resident adventurer's guild. Ishgard does none of these things, and the only reason they were EVER a part of the Eorzea Alliance was because everyone else convinced them that Ala Mhigo would come for them next after conquering Gridania as the next closest citystate.

Your post is unfortunately insanely long and difficult to respond to because you kinda just throw a lot of points out there, so I'll just try to break it all up and respond to it as best I can. So for your first point, I'm not really sure what you're talking about here sadly. What gate guard are you referring to that you think I'm basing my opinion on? Are we talking about Ishgard? If so, then no... everything we know about them is that they are a hyper zealous nation who absolutely loathe outsiders as a whole (this is excluding the few individuals who will help you, or do like you) and have been all to happy to tell the rest of Eorzea to piss off with all their troubles because it didn't involve them. Now on to your second point, I would like to start by saying that the primary reason that the Ala Mhigo refugees were turned away likely had nothing to do with the demeanor of the Gridanians, but more to do with the fact that it was not THAT long ago that Ala Mhigo attempted to invade and conquer Gridania. Not only that, but Gridania was supposedly hit harder by the Calamity than any other citystate and has been forced to rely on the assistance of the other nations to keep them from buckling under their own weight, they more than anyone else could not support a population of refugees. I would also like to point out that you don't begin the game as the Warrior of Light, you begin the game as a mere adventurer and outside of a few isolated incidents with the Wood Wailers getting all butt hurt over adventurer's most Gridanians have a friendly and welcoming demeanor so long as you respect their ways. As I pointed out in my previous response, there is at least one Ul'dahn merchant selling her wares in Gridania, I believe Buscarron was originally from Limsa Lominsa if I'm not mistaken. Really the only group they show any outright disdain for are the Poachers in South Shroud. All I can really say to this without spoilers is pay more attention to what is happening in the MSQ, and look forward to 2.55. In conclusion you really haven't proven anything to mean, especially that Ishgardians are not a completely isolated nation who do not wish to be inclusive with the outside world, thus the original respond about the post being ironic still stands. Gridania may be a bit stubborn when it comes to outsiders, but the fact that they have an active Adventurer's Guild, airship traffic, and they pretty much host almost every holiday event now it seems shows they are still open to working with outsiders so long as they are respectful to the ways of Gridania and the Shroud. As far as Ul'dah goes... well there really isn't any comparison, so not really sure why we need to bring them into this. What is happening between the Syndicate and the Refugees has nothing to do with them not being inclusive, that is just a strict caste system basically. Ishgard is barely willing to help the Scions, and only then because of all the help you have provided them, they do not have an Adventurer's Guild (maybe this will change in 3.0?), they do not allow outsiders into the city properly, they barely tolerate outsiders in Coerthas. What about any of this makes you think that they are inclusive in any way?

The irony of this statement is that Ishgardians are anything but inclusive. We seem to be doing okay with the Gridanians being traditionally xenophobic as well as the Ul'Dahn socio-economic good ol' boys club that likes to dump on Ala Mhigans and treat them little better than unwanted slaves. At least Ishgard looks to be having a change of heart. I doubt you'll ever change the Ul'Dahns and Gridanians, though. The xenophobic attitude the Gridanians are supposed to be known for is almost completely unapparent in the game outside of the Archer quests and the initial cutscene for those who started there. Most Gridanian NPCs are all too happy to talk and help out outsiders it seems, and there are even Ul'dah merchants there now. I think once they had to accept aid from Ul'dah to start reconstruction they lost their attitude towards outsiders for the most part. As for Ul'dah, I actually expect a change in their socio-political climate soon with the way the storyline is going (I won't post spoilers), but even then Ul'dah only treats one group of people with any sort of disdain, that being refugees. Ishgard treats everyone not from Ishgard with disdain, and even goes as far as to call all outsiders and anyone who help them heretics in at least one case. One thing you REALLY have to take into consideration is just because a few people in Ishgard like the Warrior of Light, does not mean they will suddenly become accepting of any random person who wants to come into their city. This is probably the most important fact to consider.

The irony of this statement is that Ishgardians are anything but inclusive.

Personally I actually expect to see RP shift to the Gold Saucer since it is supposed to be nearly city sized, and will have a lot of attractions such as a lounge area with seating/dining areas, lots of little spots you can hang out at, etc.

No we don't. There are a lot of RPers on Balmung for sure, what with it being the primary and original server for RP, but we definitely don't make up the majority of the server. I've heard the ratio for Non-RPer to RPer on Gilgamesh is even greater. They stated if they added housing to Ishgard it wouldn't be until near the end of Heavensward, there has never been any official mention for housing in Mor Dhona, that has been entirely player speculation based on the growth of it and the chance of it becoming a citystate on its own.

I don't see this happening, at least not anytime soon. It's not a city state so it doesn't have the economic backing to support residential wards, all of the current construction is pretty much funded by Rowena and the Adventurer's Guild. Not only that, but all three of the current residential areas are by far bigger than RT is as a whole. What they could do however would be add apartments basically that would act like the Private Chambers (or Mog Houses), where instead of having an entire area dedicated to housing just let people buy an apartment the same size as private chambers but without the need for a FC house.

Third party retailers will put up stuff on pre-order the moment it is announced with a guessed price and release date, but until it's actually available through legit means pre-ordering it from another retailer doesn't really mean much, you're basically just paying for a product that doesn't exist yet. With SE putting it up for sale on their own website means that it is actually for sale now, so you'll likely see it up on their EU store in a few days.

If it's anything like the 2.0 release they probably won't have it on steam until post-launch, though I don't imagine they will bother selling it on steam at all since it doesn't use a different launcher. You just buy the game, activate the serial key on your account, and launch the game the exact same way you would normally, so if you purchased a physical copy of Heavensward, but had the original game on steam it would still work exactly the same since it's an updated launcher, not a new launcher. As for what the CE comes with, it tells you on that link: A dragon figurine An art book A disc featuring various videos and trailers Digital in-game items exclusive to the Collector’s Edition: a griffin flying mount, a helmet designed after FFIV’s dark knight Cecil, and a wind-up Kain minion

I doubt it, they will probably still keep all the token gear and stuff in Mor Dhona since they stated RT will continue to grow even after the expansion, and the Scions are still based out of it so all questlines will still start in RT in future content. Ishgard is a war torn nation however, and from what they have shown it looks battered and in a tattered state, which will likely come from the Battle for Ishgard event where I'm willing to bet the Dragons break through and tear shit up before we fend them off until 3.0. With all of this in mind, no... I don't think it will become the new RP hub. Ul'dah has most of what people need/want from an RP hub, it's easily accessible by anyone who is at most lvl 15 and has unlocked the Airships, it has a bar/inn, plenty of little areas around it that can be used for RP outside of the city, and it's right in between Gridania and Limsa. We can assume that Ishgard being in a state of perpetual war will not have any cozy little hang out spots, it probably won't even really act like the previous cities since it has no adventurer's guild.

No Collector's Edition yet, not even the digital one but for those who want to get on the waiting list, or who just want the standard version they are available here.

I would be careful of doing a charge back, if you use the same card that you use for your account, doing a chargeback is an automatic permaban. Since it is still SE they might permaban you even if it is not the same card. Be veerrryy careful. I used my debit card for my sub, used a credit card for this purchase and there was no account required/connected to the purchase. Even still, it's technically not SE as Pepita is their own thing, out sourcing essentially, not a subsidiary or anything of SE (similar to Digital Rivers, the company they use for handling the sales and distribution of their digital goods). While I have no doubt that SE is the one who gets the money from the sales at the end of the day, the people who deal with billing and shipping are another company entirely. In either case though, like I said no account linked to the purchase, and different card information. Worst case scenario, if it does come to that and I do a charge back and somehow they find out it was me and ban my account, that's grounds for legal action. I purchased a product from them, I have verifiable evidence I did not receive what I paid for. If they refuse to refund me on their own or provide me with the product I paid for, and then take any sort of action against me for reversing the charges on my own, I can sue the shit out of them.

Holy jeez. I'm so sorry, first of all. That sounds awful. I suggest following they steps they offered, for one reason: if their warranty department and the post office won't assist you, then you can say "I did that." With customer service things like this, my experience is that escalating (politely, of course) and asking to speak to supervisors can go a long way. It may not resolve it, but it makes it more likely; polite persistence pays off (along with awesome alliteration, apparently). What has been suggested to me by a lot of people is to contact them again on monday and request that they be more direct with taking action to get my package back. As I never received what I paid for, and I never signed for what I did receive (the post office simply left the empty package in the drop box) they can't claim I got anything at all, and it was the post office who stamped it stating they received it without contents, which they can verify themselves without me if they really need proof I didn't get what I paid for. If they still refuse to help me, either by tracking down the package and getting it reshipped to me, or sending me a replacement, I'll just get a charge back done on my credit card and inform them of such.

So last week I purchased the art book online from https://ffxiv.na.square-enix.com/ and the package arrived today, however the box was in terrible condition, unsealed, and empty. On the box was a stamp from my local post office stating it was received without contents. I contacted the post office, asking them what I needed to do and they said I had to contact UPS (it was shipped via UPS and then handed off to USPS for final delivery) because they received the empty box which meant UPS lost its contents. So I contacted UPS, spoke with a representative for about 30 minutes before they said something about "Surepost" and that it meant I had to contact the sender to resolve my issue. So I contact PepitaStore, which is apparently the actual people who handle the shipping and what not on behalf of SE, I speak with their representative for another 30-45 minutes and it seems like everything is going to be handled, they tell me they're going to escalate the issue to their logistics department and someone will get back to me. I then get an email basically saying I need to contact my post office and file a claim, and I should contact their warranty department for further assistance... At this point I feel like I'm pretty much forced to just eat the $50 I spent on the book and live with it, is there anything else I can do? Has anyone else had this much trouble ordering something from them? I pre-ordered the Delivery Moogle plush from the same site but now I am seriously considering canceling my order after all this bullshit...

If I recall correctly one of the main things sought out during the hunt for gil sellers is suspicious listings on the market board. If there's thousands of animal hides available for a single gil and someone buys the one available for fifty thousand then it's possible that it'll be flagged and investigated. Don't sell it on the market board, sell it in person.

Simplest solution would be something like "Art commissions free with your purchase of grade 1 dark matter!*" *price of dark matter may vary.

Actually this isn't true, at least if I understand what you mean by casinos and raffles (there may be something else going on I'm unaware of). If you're just talking about betting money on /random though, that was clearly stated as not being against the ToS. You can find their response to it here. I apologize for going off topic, I just wanted to clear this up.