Smiling River

Indian, more specifically the northern regions most likely. Smiling River is heavily inspired by "Siddhartha" by Hermann Hesse after all.

Funny to see this thread, because I was just running around Gridania today and trying to find some RP. There was none I have a particular affinity to Gridania and would like to join with Smiling River, a wondering monk and disciple.

I have to be honest, I didn't read the whole thread because it's 14 pages and I'm busy. I read a handful of posts. I'm the the "follow the lore" camp myself, and challenge people to rise to the responsibility of playing their chosen part. Be it a chirurgeon or a Miqo'te. I myself play a Roegadyn currently (and had played an Elezen for a long time in 1.0) and constantly struggle with finding a balance between RP'ing a stereotype vs a Roegadyn mindset. There is a huge point that maybe someone has mentioned in the pages I skipped to get here. That is that FFXIV "races" aren't really races, they are different species. I always say that a good rule of RP is to RP what you know or at least have some connection to / understanding of. That makes for immersive and realistic RP, regardless if it's solely based on lore or has some personal flare added to it. Ideally it'd be lore based, but whatever. The problem with playing a non-Hyur is not simply the act of making sure to wiggle the ear, play with the tail. It's that you as a human being need to put yourself into the mindset of an entirely different species. Every. Time. You RP. That to me is the greatest challenge to authentic racial RP. It is entirely too easy to 'humanize' the other species of XIV, heck one can argue they are all sort of versions of Hyur. But the challenge is to try to think like a Miqo'te or a Roegadyn. Would they even perceive the world the way humans would? Would their thought patterns be similar or more varied, and if they're varied how so? There is a quote that is apropos of this discussion; ""If a lion could speak, we couldn't understand him" - Wittgenstein. Meaning if a different species had the capability to communicate with us, we may not understand them due to their completely different reference points and way of thought. We know that the various species of Eorzea can communicate, but perhaps there are not only physical differences but psychological ones Roleplayers are not exploiting? Just as an example, say you have an ailing citizen, doesn't look like they would make it. Perhaps a Lalafell, who have close familial bonds, is more likely to have the opinion that this person should be taken care of by everyone (their world view may be based on this concept). Being left alone is evil, communal support is good. That may be their moral compass, in this situation. Given the same predicament a Miqo'te may think the good choice morally is to destroy the ill person, because their mindset may be based on who can or cannot contribute to a tribe. For the Miqo'te the evil option is to keep them alive, and the good to destroy them swiftly. Their psychology would potentially explain that kind of moral compass. Now that was just one example, and maybe it was a bad one at that - I am not sure if all the lore I tried to talk about there is correct, but I hope you see what I am trying to elaborate. Racial RP can be far more complex, if one truly wants to make it a challenge and step outside of playing a human with a different costume on. But I do understand how hard that road is, and by selecting a race other than Hyur we're always kind of shooting ourselves in the foot because there is a limit to how true to a different species we can role play.

Eva nailed it, as I know her to nail it time and time again I'm all over this like white on rice. Add me before I add you, "Smiling River"

Amazing! I didn't finish it just yet but so far it looks like a hell of a lot of work went into this! Really good stuff, I am surprised every time someone from the community does something on this scale.

"Just because you're 2 feet tall doesn't mean you have to be small forever, in other people's eyes."

My Roegadyn has technically been traveling for a while so if that can work for you, I'm game.

"This boss literally has a million HP. Do you know how many times you have to cast your spell? Do you know how many times you have to pee?" Sorry commenting on my own thing bc I logged on with a different account somehow when I posed this. Oskar Helvig.

You're right, SE probably can't make a game where the content and gameplay is heavily swayed by which gender you pick at character creation, especially if it's one sided (like women not being able to play all classes but men can). On the other hand, there is no "timeline" to speak of, because while this game looks to us as resembling medieval / renaissance times... it's not. Nothing that we culturally know of those times has to apply here because it's a fantasy, and the lore is not set within the Earth timeline. As far as pointing to women being the heads of the three nations as an example of dominance, I think that is also narrow minded in it's own way. What if this is a rare coincidence in the history of Eorzea? OOC'ly, SE wouldn't get flack from groups focused on "men's rights" by making all three leaders female, or even making female characters seem more dominant, but if things were reversed? There would be a huge outcry if all the leaders were men, and it seemed that men were more dominant. The Keeper clan is a matriarchy, but is there a race/clan that is male dominated? I don't think so, because again - no one will protest a female dominated culture but if there was also a male dominated one (even in a fantasy) there would be trouble. This is one of the reasons I don't particularly respect the lore (although I generally follow it), because it's very heavily shaped by OOC politics.

I'm pretty much in the same boat save for I didn't play since 1.0. Decided to just roll a fresh character because wtf. I'll just use the older one when I get a grasp of things again, if that ever happens. Until then I can hide under the noob banner. Or something.

Thanks for the prompt reply! That clears things up for the most part. I guess I'll do the silly "fetch this" quests until 15 and then try the dungeon runs

As a new character, is it worth doing all the quests? Is it mandatory? Is there a better way to level up / progress in the early levels?

Yes please.

Who cares, blacklist and get on with your life. That simple.

I loved that game.

So after nearly a week’s worth of adventuring, I finally have a spare moment to write in this thing. This being my journal of course, which I plan to keep updated with stories from my travels. Who knows, it may be worth something one sun! And if not, it’d be a good read for the kids. Who am I to speak of kids anyway, most would probably call myself a kid. My name is written on the inside of the leather binding of this journal, but I’ll repeat it here. My name is Joachim Fieldman, I am 16 years of age, and I’ve recently begun “adventuring.” It’s a bit of a dream come true, really. I’ve saved up just enough gil over the past few years to afford some camping supplies, some armor, and a weapon. Unfortunately I couldn't even get close to affording anything from the Celestial Forge like I dreamed, and got some bootleg knuckles instead. The guy at the strip told me they were on sale, and later I found that I overpaid for them! What a shitty weapon… I should have just went with a sword, or spear… isn’t that what Verence used? I’ll need to check the card. Oh, I guess I should mention the cards. My friends and I grew up admiring the adventurers who made a killing slaying dangerous creatures, defended the realm, and fought the Empire itself. I think I was 9 or 10 when we actually made the first batch of Legacy Cards, for a card game we invented. Seems lame now, but it was a big deal to us. Edwyn drew them pretty good, and then we’d give them their special features, skills, and life points! We even had sets, based on the linkshells they were in. I remember I had a Corvus Cinis set for a while with Alothia, Zenge, and even Jake Roon! But then I traded in for the Eorzean Guard set, because I had Oskar in my deck for a while. He was kind of worthless until he became the head of the Second Division in the Guard. My friend Fox had Mtoto so I gave him Zenge for that (he thought Zenge would be a lot more valuable after he and Alothia hooked up) and I traded Ugar Alothia and Jake Roon for Mylor, Eva, AND Deirdre… I don’t know why I just wrote all that, I’m all grown up now, and these cards were just a plaything. But I guess they kept us sane when the shit hit the fan. I hope to collect them all again, wherever they went, just to remind myself of what we went through and what I’m striving for.

You can just reply "(Oh sorry, I'm OOC atm)" and I don't think most RPers will mind, and just delete the IC greeting or w/e their character said to you from history I personally like to get RP'ed at whenever, so I don't mind this but if I really was OOC and couldn't think of anyway to spin it IC'ly I'd just say that ^ . Cheers.

Good reference, thanks!

lol sorry, next time!

Welcome back! I don't think I've RPed with you back in the day, but maybe we'll get a chance to do that this time around!

Welcome to the community and the world of MMO RP I just restarted myself after a break so if you ever need a youngin' to go on adventures with, let me know!

Oh derp... Got it! Thanks for all the info ^^; Hey Mtoto! Aldotsk- For sure! I'll add you next time I log on.

Feel free to add me, if you're looking for some RP! I'll probably be mingling in and around Ul'dah for a while

TheLastCandle- Oh yeah, that's right. Can the names be changed as well? I think I will re-roll a brand new guy though, just because a lot has changed and I'd be rusty as hell for someone with a nearly maxed character... unless they pushed up the level cap?! And I was totally wrong in assuming your character, sorry! Eva- Good to hear from ya, glad to be back in the world of FFXIV RP Manari- While I can't promise the same type of RP with this character, there will for sure be shenanigans you'd appreciate. And yeah I'll hold you up to some help in my newb levels Nel- Thanks! Aaaand in other news, Joachim Fieldman is alive everyone! Friend me if you want Oh and if I can change my username that'd be good too!

Isn't this exciting Kylin- I've actually not kept up, so I don't know much about that. Eva sends me a PM once in a blue moon but a lot of that is about catching up about OOC/life stuff rather than the game. I am glad to hear that my RP lives on in some form or another still, it's a big compliment. Whittledown- I'll add you to my friend's list when I get set up, and say hi! Alothia- Hey sister from another mister, let's get to RPing again soon, I've some ideas Bryn- I was in Stormguard, yesss. I was fast and lose with my RP LSes back in the day, before Eorzean Guard and eventually Everwatch. I had the chance to RP in a lot of early LSes, and that was one of them. Nice to see you again! Paleo has been great, I advise anyone to try it. Feel free to PM me and I can tell you details... or maybe I'll do a post about it sometime! TheLastCandle- Hmm not sure who this is but I have an idea... I think that "d'aww" sounds British, doesn't it? ANd I can't wait to see what changes there are, and experience them through new eyes. Aysun- Thanks bro I am excited to try something new, especially since Oskar been dead an' all. New RP idea: Duskwight zombies. This one's on the house. But seriously, I'm eager to try re-exploring the game and meeting characters that I loved to RP with, with a character who has idolized them for years! Xenedra- HAAAY I FINK U FREAKY AND I LIKE U A LOT. John Spiegel- JJ! Holy hell, back from the old old XI days! And still bald! That's awesome, I can't wait to run into you in-game and RP after like, 7 years...