Koen

Thanks for all the responses. To be honest, I thought the old guy wouldn't get much interest, but I'm not complaining about more people to RP with! I've sent some of you a PM, but I thought I'd respond to a couple things that I probably should've included in the main post. Whoops. This is a good question, and, like I said, is something I should've included in the main post. I've done a combat training class before on a previous character, and I don't feel like it gives enough individual attention to the 'students', and only worked on that character because first, not many people would show up to it, and second, that character was kind of a prick, so he didn't care if they actually learned anything or not. Koen's aim is to pass on his accumulated knowledge so that it doesn't die with him. He cares about results, and having a 5'6" Hyur and a 6'5" Elezen learn to fight in the same way just wouldn't be practical, so the training will be personalised to the person's body, strengths, and goals. In the same way he won't teach people of vastly different heights or builds the exact same things, he also wouldn't teach someone just looking for basic self-defense tips how to find the carotid artery. I'm going to add a list of weapons Koen can teach to the main post. Speaking generally, if a character is comfortable with a weapon, he's not going to tell them to switch. That being said, if he was training someone who only used a spear, he might advise them to keep a sidearm handy in case someone gets within their spear's reach. Monks are an odd thing, because of how extraordinary they are as their number of chakras unlocked climbs. I imagine there are different techniques involved when you can punch holes in people and when you can't, but we'll see how it goes!

I'm making this thread because the old Making Connections one I made for Koen is extremely outdated. On to the actual point of the thread: I'm looking for people who'd like some combat training for their character(s). To put it bluntly: Koen's getting too old to be going out at nights to mess with the Garleans, or killing bandits to keep his arm in, and so with his newfound free time he's decided to take on some students so what he's learned over the years won't go to waste when he kicks the bucket. It'd be lazy to just direct people to Koen's RPC page, and to be honest it needs updating as well, so I'll give a few details about him to give an idea of who your character would be learning from. He was trained in hand-to-hand, warfare and the use of most weapons in the Ala Mhigan military. After leaving Ala Mhigo, he spent nearly a decade in Abalathia's Spine training and sparring with a tribe of Hellsguard Warriors. He's got fourteen years military experience, and over fourty years in general combat using mainly hand-to-hand and his greatsword. He'll take pretty much anyone on as a student; whether your character's preparing for a war, generally wants to know more about fighting, or just wants to know how to look after them self, feel free to pop me a message here or in-game if you're interested. :^)

My alt, Keltwaen, would fit this description pretty well. While Koen is by far more developed and he'd be much more useful, he's too much experience and training under his belt to be classed as an 'everyman', despite being as realistic as I could make him (looked over how age affects different martial arts, soldiers, took experience from IRL people I know etc.). Koen's also not the type to go on an adventure. Kelt, however, is entirely average when it comes to his premise and most of his character. He's as morally grey as his skin, and while he tries to help people out, at the end of the day he's got mouths to feed and giving handouts or taking stupid risks isn't going to do him or his any good. Despite having ties (loose ones) to the Rogue guild, he's a 7'6 500+lb Roegadyn, and I'm under no illusion that he could hide from anything with functioning eyes. I've got a couple decades worth of MMA experience IRL, and tend to use that in his fights to add as much realism (relative to the fantasy setting) as I can, so he won't be doing any 'ninja flips', haha. He's not super talented and his only 'special ability' is being born in to a race that makes him a big, strong bleeder. Hell, he'd rather be a lot shorter: he wouldn't have to spend as much on booze to get drunk, and he'd be a smaller target! When he's out of work he goes fishing, practices, or just plain chills out with a smoke somewhere peaceful. As I said before, I have IRL knowledge that leaks over, and Kelt does know how to handle himself in hand-to-hand fights (enough to know that most of the time it's not worth it!) He rarely goes outside of La Noscea though, and if you asked him to fight a dragon or some kind of MSQ-level mage, he'd exit first the conversation and then the room. As for the dark side of things, he should fit the bill. He's done some things he's not proud of in the past when times were hard and his makeshift family needed the gil more than he needed to stick to his morals, and has suffered the consequences of mistakes. I only just made him and I'm too broke to afford another name change/fantasia, so I'm not comfortable with him dying or getting any injuries /too/ permanent, since I haven't developed his personality enough to figure out how it'd affect him, but luckily he's the cautious type and doesn't risk a fight when he can get away with another option. His #1 tactic is always avoiding it. I'm in the GMT timezone and I'm normally up fairly late if I haven't had a busy day, so feel free to poke me in-game on Koen Stone or Keltwaen Slettbhirsyn if you wanna set something up. :^)

I've got an alt (going on second main) who hangs around La Noscea and can get along with most people. He likes to fish and does whatever work he can get his hands on. More Roegadyn are always welcome, so feel free to pop him an invite. He's called Keltwaen Slettbhirsyn, and here's his ugly mug:

Just make as realistic a character as you can. Don't be one of those people whose characters have 'flaws' like "He's too nice!", "He's just so powerful it's hard" blahblahblah, crap like that. My starting point when making a character is to get a general idea of what I want them to be. I wanted Koen to be an older soldier who'd been absent for a long time, since I'd come back from a break and didn't know the lore, and I didn't want him to be anything special, just reasonably skilled with what he does. From there, you have to look at their starting point and do a lot of research. See how the environment they grew up in would have shaped their personality. Koen was raised in Ala Mhigo not too long after the Garleans had become a major threat, so naturally he would've had anti-Garlemald prejudices beaten into him from a young age. His parents were both military, so he'd aim to be the same and look up to them, and would also see discipline and respect as the highest virtues to have. Things like that are how you start to form your character's values, and if you want to change them you can bring things in. I wanted Koen to be less strict with his values and not be a harsh military type, so I wrote into his backstory that he had two children, and lost one. The loss wasn't just to give him a tragic past, it was to make him appreciate his one child more, and it humanised him. So I managed to shift him from a super militaristic soldier to a skilled soldier who has a soft spot for kids and is kinder than he otherwise would've been. Apologies if none of this makes sense, but that's how I try to make an interesting, or at least realistic, character. tl;dr: Do a bunch of research into what it would've been like for them as they progressed through their life, and don't add anything for the sake of it being there. :^)

You're wonderful for doing this, here's hoping my /random luck doesn't carry over to here. :^)

If the lore isn't an issue for you, I don't see why you can't just make your character's motivation to find someone and use that to create interactions. A weird looking guy spouting crap about sucking blood approaching every young girl he sees might bring issues in itself, but that's part of the fun: you don't know what's going to happen. A NPC would better serve you than another person who might not go along with the big plot you've got planned out. Plenty of people RP without giving too much of a shit about lore, you just need to put it in your search info so people who are strict with the lore know to avoid you.

Personally, I wouldn't have a problem with it. Have you seen the kind of messed up things that have happened in the FFXIV world? The Corpse Brigade straight up rape an NPC, to give one example. I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility that someone might have a crush on their brother. As long as you're not pushing it in everyone's face and using it to somehow appear special and different, I don't see what the problem would be. I think it's important with anything like this, whether it's a mental illness, a crippling injury or something else that would seriously affect a person's personality, to respect the kind of effect it would have. You see characters all the time that have mental issues that only seem to come up in convenient times when they want to create drama or some other equally crappy reason. As long as you don't carry a big sign saying "Incest ftw!!" and seriously think through how your character would act differently because of this, you'll be fine. As someone said, there's always gonna be muppets out there who won't RP with you, but that's the same for pretty much everyone. Anyone with serious 'triggers' will know how to deal with them already and I don't think you need to worry about them when coming up with a RP character. You do you. tl;dr: Don't shove it in anyone's face, think it through well enough, and you'll be fine.

Welcome back to the game, a lot of new stuff has happened. That's not the kind of thing I know a great deal about though, because I'm prone to take month-long breaks as well, haha. When I came back from my most recent break, Square was pretty cool about resetting my password for me after I sent in a support ticket. Hopefully it goes as smooth for you as it did for me! I really like the sound of your character, and I think he'd fit right in with plenty of the FC's and LS's around the server. No idea what kind of RP you're looking for or what kinds of characters you're looking to interact with, but feel free to poke me on Koen Stone if you want to set something up. He's an old soldier who's spent most of his years traveling to different places and missing his kids. You can see his wiki in my brand spanking new signature, if you want to prod around for more info. Good luck getting back into the flow of things and finding IC pals for your Keeper. :^)

Shush you, go back to your cooking and your kitchen knives. :^p Brinn and Daire both sound like people he'd be interested in meeting. It took Koen a while to get used to not constantly being outside of Gyr Abania, so he could help Brinn out if he sees him having trouble adjusting to things. He last hung around Little Ala Mhigo a few years after the Garleans took the proper one, so they might not have ran into each other before, but a couple of his men were there for years after he left and Brinn could well have heard one of them talking about their old commander who helped them escape. He has a soft spot for kids too, so if he saw Daire practicing he'd definitely give him a few tips or words of advice. He hangs around Little Ala Mhigo often enough that they could run in to each other, so that's one way both characters could meet Koen. Other than that, he goes for jogs all around Thanalan, relaxes in Forgotten Springs/the Sagoli and frequents the Coffer and Coffin. I'll have to poke one of those listed people about the work you mentioned.

Got an RPC wiki page up and I've thrown together a quick signature for the forums. I've managed to find Koen a great smith and a person or two to teach, but I still need to bother more people for healer and general goods store connections. He's also been doing more sewing lately, if that's something someone would be able to help the poor guy with.

Koen's a simple man to please. A scarf to keep his neck warm, a new sewing kit or something to make his back stop aching. Any of them would make his day/month/whatever this game calls that crap.

Penguins can fire out their crap with four times the velocity of a human pooping. They can also get pretty aggressive in a fight. Nothing awkward about them, they're pretty cool! I don't know what your character's like, but if they don't mind chatting with a soldier who's getting on in the years, feel free to pop me a tell in game and we can set up some RP. Welcome to the RPC, have fun. ^^

Pretty much.

Hahaha, you got me curious with the title. Totally fell for it. I'm not witty enough to come up for another meaning fot ERP, but I wouldn't mind some normal RPing some time. Koen's old and experienced enough not to be bothered that she was raised to kill, that just means she's a less disciplined soldier as far as he's concerned. He had to adjust to civillian life himself, so he could probably help her out with that too. Hit me up in-game or pop me a message here if you want to set something up.

I'm not sure about that. Having to throw a spear fast enough to out-speed a prey's reflexes, or on a more basic level being able to jump out and take a prey by surprise requires a short burst of intense muscle use. Speed would be important because it's so easy for a prey to disappear back in to the vegetation, or if another predator (like some of the seemingly carnivorous plant enemies) tries to jump out at them from a tree, bush etc. they can get out of the way. You are right though, they might not run that much faster. I'm just making a case for them being naturally better sprinters, to name one example. Overall, it'd depend vastly more on what the Miqo'te got up to in their day-to-day rather than their genetics.

One thing that could be expanded upon is their stamina and how their muscles work. It's touched upon that the Seekers of the Sun can run for long distances without tiring, and it makes sense when considering they have a lot of open space to run after their prey in. Early humans used to do this, it's called "endurance hunting", and is basically just using tracking skills and superior long distance stamina to follow a prey until it's worn out, making for an easy kill. This means that Seekers of the Sun must naturally have a larger ratio of slow-twitch muscle fibers to fast-twitch, meaning their muscles don't tire out as fast, but aren't good at quick bursts of speed. Keepers of the Moon, however, live in the Shroud (unless my memory is failing me) and so obviously don't need to run a long distance, they need to be able to kill their prey before it can disappear back in to the bushes/trees, so they'd need a larger proportion of fast-twitch fibers, which means Keepers of the Moon's muscles wear faster, but they're better at quick bursts of speed. Without going in to the biology too much, mainly because I don't remember most of it, people generally lean to being either a sprinter (fast-twitch) or a long-distance runner (slow-twitch), not including type 2b which I won't talk about. The reason I assume Miqo'te don't have this kind of even distribution is because of the kind of society they live in. If you naturally can't keep up on a hunt, you probably won't live very long, or if you do, won't get chance to breed because the women won't want crappy hunters for kids. Something to note is that this can be changed depending on your training and lifestyle though, so while Keepers would generally beat Seekers in a 100m or 200m sprint or the opposite for a marathon, don't assume this would always be the case. Also, on a personal level, I want to slap anyone who ends their sentences with "nyan", or uses "meow" in regular conversation, Miqo'te or not. Not sorry.

There was an attempt.

She seems like an interesting character, that's for sure! Koen often wonders around Thanalan when he's finished his usual routine, so I could see them bumping in to each other somehow. He's an older character too, so he'd probably be more quiet company than most, but it sounds like that might be what she's looking for. I took a look at her wiki and noticed she's a miner as well, which is something that runs in Koen's family. He's more focused on combat, but he could carry himself well enough in a conversation about mining and metallurgy. I'll see if you're online later and pop you a message, if you're interested.

This needs to never happen. Half of the reason I go to the Grindstone is to watch Judge casually shout at people and see the regulars accept it as normal. He's one of the most interesting and entertaining PC's I've had the pleasure of lurking near, even if I do feel sorry for his horse. Anyway, I got thinking about this thread when I had some free time, and it made me figure that if there are conspiracy theorists in our world, there must be some in Eorzia, right? "Dragon breath can't melt Ishgard walls", "The Sultana is a literal puppet and Raubahn is a master ventriloquist" kind of thing. Do any of the lore buffs know if some of the NPC's have spouted anything like that? Might give an idea as to how wrong people in the setting can be.

His Daughter's Nameday Inside the Coffer & Coffin, Roger idly washes mugs and pitchers, occasionally giving a curious glance to the lone patron, a man whose age shows as clearly as his companion, a large greatsword leaned against the bar. A glass of highland whiskey seems to be the target of his gaze, but the slight frown and tired eyes decorating his creased face show otherwise. After a long sigh, he empties the glass down his throat and slides it to join the others, along with more than enough gil to pay. The stool groans in relief as the man stands and forces a smile, an act his eyes betray, “Later, lad. Thanks for the drinks.” He earns a nod in response, but he doesn’t seem to notice it. Not long after, he stumbles through his apartment door, finally some life in his eyes as he takes in the room. Simple in design, but with more luxuries than the man is used to. A soft bed, a hot bath, and a sturdy desk. He lays his weapon next to the bed, treating it almost as if it was built for decoration, not battle. After taking off his shoes and placing them neatly next to the desk, he sits at the nearby chair, paper and quill set up already. As he relaxes, his lips curve in to a warm smile and he starts to write. ---------- Aesa, Happy name day, kid. I hope you’re well. You’re coming up on thirty now, unless my memory’s worse than I think. When I was your age, the only thing that kept me away from the battlefield was that smile of yours. That and your mother’s cooking! How is she, I wonder? Things between us- well, that’s not what I’m writing to you about. As old as I am, I think I’ve managed to adjust. It’s just me now, but I get by. I walk a lot, to make sure my bones don’t get weak, and everywhere I look I’m reminded of when life was better. I see people enjoying life in the city, and I wonder if you’re still the happy girl that you used to be. I see young couples, and wish everything had worked out all those years ago. When I look at myself, I see an old man who’s made a lot of mistakes. I’m glad you’re not one of them. Sometimes I dream of what it’d be like in an ideal world. I’d train you and your big brother to fight, and then you’d make me proud when you finally beat me like I did my parents. Eventually you’d get married to whoever was tough enough to survive your mother, and you'd have kids of your own. They’d be your reason for fighting, like you were to me. These dreams are comforting, but they’re not enough. We’ll meet up again soon though, don’t worry. Until then, look after yourself lass, Your father. ---------- He takes a deep breath, his shoulders shaking as he slowly exhales. Half a bell goes by before he moves again, putting the quill back in the ink and picking the parchment up. He presses it gently to his lips before opening the top drawer in his desk and carefully laying the letter on the top of a thick pile of similar messages, letting his eyes linger on the pile for a long moment. His right hand pushes it shut, then joins the left in supporting his head as he leans forward on the desk; eyes closed and chest moving with each shaky breath as he silently weeps.

I've got a few stories planned about Koen Stone, my character (mainly so I can fill in that damn Stories tab on the wiki page, partly out of boredom), and rather than clogging up the place with a different thread for each one, I figured I'd just put them in the same thread with different posts. I haven't done any kind of creative writing for... over a decade now, I think, and even back then I failed the subject, so bear with me. Feel free to respond; this is just something to kill time with, but I appreciate feedback none the less. Some of these stories will be sad in nature, some will be violent and some will depict the darker sides of war. I'll try to drop in a few positive ones, but I doubt I'll be writing these on a common basis or with any kind of structure, so no promises.

I think it's less a character being correct about everything as it is that most characters tend to come across situations where their knowledge on random topics is tested unless they're an adventurer or some kind of student. A PC alchemist who never stepped foot out of Gridania would obviously know a lot about potions, but if questioned on the current happenings in Ul'dah, they wouldn't have the foggiest. Meanwhile in real life, people have access to so much knowledge through books and the internet that they can have all kinds of odd interests. As for Koen, he knows what he's experienced and, while not the smartest guy, can figure out basic details of related events. He was there when the Monks were wiped out, and he knows they were labeled as heretics, but he realises they probably pissed off the King of Ruin at some point and that the attack was more political than anything. On the other hand, if he somehow came across some kind of Sharlayan ruin, he wouldn't be able to tell you anything about it, and would just shrug if someone asked his thoughts. Obviously there are more things than not in the lore that he's completely unaware of, but as for ideas of his that are entirely wrong, it's nothing too major. To give a few examples: he thinks Elezen's pointed ears are just decoration to make them look less like stretched out Hyur; he thinks volcanos are mountains that grew too high and got melted by the sun, and he's positive that most Gridanians walk around in their underwear. The majority of this misinformation is just because he doesn't have anything other than hearsay and guessing to go off of. He's never been to Gridania, so when someone tells him they walk around mostly naked to be closer to nature, he figures that makes sense and believes them and probably will do so until someone argues otherwise, if it ever gets brought up in a conversation.

The Monk lore is very iffy, and there are people on this website who would be able to give you a lot more detail than I can, so take this with a grain of salt. The gist of it, however, is that there was a group of Rhalgr worshippers in Gyr Abania who wanted to get as close to their idea of Rhalgr as possible, and the way they did this was by taking large concentrations of aether in to their body to make them capable of all sorts of wacky crap e.g. . The vast majority of them were wiped out 25 years before ARR, but there are some that remain, and plenty of RPers who play one, if your character needed a tutor. It should be noted, however, that one of the main purposes of Fist training (A combat-oriented sect of the Monks) is to make your body able to take in aether so you can do aforementioned funky moves. Even if someone stumbled upon a large concentration of aether, which appears in places of mass violent deaths (namely warzones, which is why Gyr Abania was so perfect for it), and managed to absorb it, without the proper training it would tear their body apart. Whether a soulstone helps in the process of this, I'm not too sure as I'm going off of memory here. So in general, it's rather hard to become a Monk and even harder to gain the kind of power seen in the WoL's Monk quest. The man (a miqo'te, actually) unlocked all 14 of his chakras, and when the WoL does the same, their HP regenerates to the point where you could probably afk with decent enough gear and you wouldn't die, not to mention one-shotting the man's disciples with even your low damage skills. I'd recommend doing the Monk storyline to get an idea for the lore (especially the light v shadow sect crap), and poking someone like Sounsyy or Ave (the main Monk RPer I know of, and she's got a pretty solid understanding of the lore and how Monk skills work imo). Off the top of my head, there's a few ways your character can be(or become) a Monk. These aren't the only ones though, just the most obvious. Ask for tutoring from another Monk RPer and go from there. I imagine it'd realisticaly take years of training just to be able to unlock one chakra, so this isn't great if you're looking to be a monk for the power aspect. Have your character have been a Fist of Rhalgr from Ala Mhigo, although they'd have to be at the very least in their late 30's to have had enough training. Your character was tutored by a NPC Fist of Rhalgr and is carrying on their training with some practical uses. The shadow sect were exiled iirc and one of their members could've done it, or a light sect who survived. To give an idea as to how hard unlocking chakras are, the main villain in the Heavensward Monk quests was seemingly obsessed with it and only managed to unlock all 14 by the time he was in his mid-50's. I've probably left something out in this, but I wrote it on the bus. Good luck with your character!

I normally use the Hound as an example, since he's generally pretty neutral when he speaks and they have the similarities of both being big Scottish men swinging around greatswords. Liam Neeson is closer when considering age though, so he'd probably be more accurate.