Yian Kutku

As a quick note, Summoners also require a soul crystal.

My choice of words, sorry. Square Enix has said nothing about monetization; I was mainly grasping for a way to take into account the possibility that someone will use the Perform function, record their performance, and then try to sell it for money. Which is definitely a copyright issue.

Basically we're not supposed to use Perform to play songs from, say, the latest Top 40 Charts or something. It's a copyright problem that nobody really wants to dig up at the moment. So to be safe, we're only supposed to Perform songs that are either already in the game somewhere (thus sidestepping the copyright issue), or that we came up with on our own and are willing to give it away without monetization. There is, of course, no word on how strictly this will be enforced. Staccato was primarily pointing out that certain songs from RL have been referenced in-game via localization parodies, so it's not clear whether this falls under "music that's already in-game", or "music from other non-game sources". Because the lyrics have changed to fit Eorzea, but the melody allegedly remains the same. Personally I would assume these fall under the legal grey area of filks and other parodies, ie safe only as long as the authorities don't push it.

Two examples come to mind, off the top of my head. One directly involved me, the other not. The first is when someone dismisses or belittles OOC concerns. The specific case (non-FFXIV) was that someone made it their character's mission to insult and antagonize my character without my permission, or indeed knowledge that they were going to do that in the first place. This happened over the course of a month, where their character would bad-mouth mine to everyone they knew (and they were well-liked and trusted by their in-group IC, so everyone I tried to interact with approached my character with suspicion and hostility), outright refuse to associate with my character IC (while still hanging around my character loudly proclaiming how they don't want to), and generally made RPing miserable for me. I contacted them OOC that this was not where I want to be for my character, and I was feeling uncomfortable OOC with the sheer hostility my character was receiving. The answer I received was that I should "learn to separate IC and OOC", and "it's just RP, no need to take it so seriously". I ended up leaving that RP community soon afterwards. It wasn't until much, much later, that someone else who happened to be in that RP community (who wasn't involved in all this) asked me about it and learned my side of the story, before relaying the background: that person had randomly chosen my character to pick on because they wanted to start a plotline about Friendship After Rivalry, and everyone else thought that this was pre-arranged between them and me OOC, because that's what that person had assumed. So my own bewilderment at this treatment had read to them as me being a prima donna incapable of separating IC and OOC. To this day I don't know whether this misunderstanding was cleared up. I did tell that acquaintance my side of the story, but I don't know if they decided to pass it back to that RP community. To be honest, that bridge is well burned for me. TL;DR When someone says they are not comfortable with the current plotline OOC, listen to them, rather than deciding that they're a bad RPer who should suck it up. - The second instance is when someone is in the middle of a group RP session, and then takes a metaphorical huge, steaming dump on the conversation. The conversation in question was something light and inconsequential, mostly about people's backgrounds and how they felt about being in Eorzea. Just shooting the breeze, learning about each other, nothing too serious. Then someone, who had been silent until then, mentioned "with a giant smirk" that she had been orphaned at a young age when her parents were murdered in front of her eyes, spent her early life begging in Ul'dah, was raped almost daily as a child, sold herself into prostitution when she could, and had scars all over the place. I was about to join in the original conversation then, but stopped short when that dropped into my chatbox. My immediate thought was: "How the hells am I supposed to respond to that?" The conversation, which had previously been fairly brisk, devolved into one-line responses about "that's terrible" and "well, sorry to hear that". I left quickly afterwards, because I didn't want to get involved. The character might not be able to read the mood IC, but surely there's a better way to join in the RP than to kill the conversation completely. TL;DR Include OOC considerations when planning to join IC conversations.

Question about measurements: We all know the ones about length/distance and weight (well, mass, but close enough), as well as the basics for time. What about volume? Assume liquid for the moment, since for all I know there's a "cubic ilm" measurement floating around somewhere. Is there an equivalent to "litre"? Or whatever the Imperial version is; I'm mostly only familiar with metric. ... speaking of which, does Garlemald have their own units of measure? While Eorzeans use renamed (Earth) Imperial units, do Garleans use renamed (Earth) metric?

To be fair, it's based off Mongolian, so it goes on its own pronunciation guide. Which admittedly doesn't mean much in light of English's tendency to confiscate all the vocabulary it can from other languages, with or without their "proper" pronunciations. I'm still slightly puzzled by the correct way to pronounce "Yanxia", because depending on where you are in China, even the basic Mandarin pronunciation can be different. It's either "Yan-sia" (Southern China) or "Yan-sha" (Northern China), or, if you want to be stereotypical, "Yan-tsee-YAAAH" or "Yan-sharrrrr".

Maybe you were thinking of "inculcate"? In any case, I've noticed that SF&F as a genre tends to be less reluctant to use little-seen vocabulary, although this obviously depends on the writer. This is especially the case for FFXIV's English localization, which occasionally goes overboard with eye-watering words. For example, I hadn't known what "sternutation" meant until I did the Moogle quests.

I actually do use a thesaurus (well, Thesaurus.com) quite often when writing up RP or stories. It's surprisingly helpful, especially when you kind of have a word in mind, but it doesn't quite fit exactly. Using a thesaurus is more of being able to find a better word for the situation, rather than a horizontal progression of alternate words. I'll echo the sentiment of improvement through exposure. Read, read, and read even more. One tip to keep in mind is to notice how something is said, rather than merely what is said. What words can you cut out to make the sentence tighter? What words can you add in to provide more colour? You can use in-game dialogue as your examples as well. Merlwyb, Eynzahr, and Baderon are all Lominsans, but they speak in very different styles. In fact, I'd recommend rewatching cutscenes and making note of how the characters speak. Why was this sentenced phrased as such? Why use this word, instead of another? Doing so might be a bit too much like homework, though. The suggestion to just read a lot is more relaxing.

I'm noticing it's a lot easier to catch sight of long-running RP plotlines, but noticeably more difficult for pick-up casual RP. As in you'll be making connections, whether you want to or not. It's surprisingly difficult to just hang out without getting pulled into something bigger. This is just personal experience, though. I also see more RP in the Drowning Wench, as well as the usual spot in the Quicksand. Fewer people in both places than in Balmung's Quicksand, but there's usually something happening whenever I drop by. (Weirdly I've not seen much RP at the Carline Canopy; from what I hear, this is something that just turned out like that, rather than any conscious decisions.) Having said all that, if you are currently on Balmung, I would most definitely not recommend moving.

It always amuses me that Midgardsormr as a mount carries our luggage as well as us. I have to wonder if he dematerializes our stuff as well whenever he goes poof, or if we have to load and unload him every time we dismount. Personally I assume that IC I'm calling on my mount far less than I actually do in-game. Probably maybe just to get into the area, fly around whenever plot demands, and then go off to spend their time as they choose. Every other major travel is RP-canonically on foot, borrowing some other communal transport like a caravan, or some such contrivance. I'm not canonically calling my loyal wyvern mount every time my next daily hunt target is more than ten steps away, even if that's what I'm actually doing.

Possibly Now that I check it does fit: Orn Khai is Verb Adjective, and depending on which whei way it's supposed to be read, Whei Ahf is Verb Adjective or Noun Adjective. Which matches Ohl Deeh as either Verb Adjective or Noun Adjective. So that's one mystery solved, thanks.

I'd say I need help coming up with one, but to be honest I have no idea where to start, so "brainstorming" it is. If it matters, this is for a prose fanfic, rather than RP. The dragon I'd like to name is this fellow, who, as far as I know, does not have a canon name. I've been going by the official Dragonspeak dictionary, and I realized I have no idea how dragons are named. Older dragons apparently do not have names based on that dictionary, like Vidofnir, Vedrfolnir, Gullinbursti, etc. However, younger dragonets and apparently wyverns do: the three examples I know of are Ohl Deeh and Orn Khai for dragonets, and Whei Ahf for wyverns. Ohl Deeh translates as "call deep" according to the Dragonspeak dictionary. Which kind of makes a sort of naming sense: a "deep call", or a "caller of the deep", perhaps. However, "ohl" might also mean "bone", so it would be "bone deep", which makes rather less sense. Orn Khai is "born sad". Which, again, may make sense, if a little peculiar and heavy for a kid. And when we have Whei Ahf, whose name either means "wait half" or "method half". At which point I gave up. Should I just slam together two random words from the Dragonspeak dictionary? Should I ensure the name has some meaning? What arrangement of words is better, ie why "Ohl Deeh" and not "Deeh Ohl"?

Every Chocobokeep in the game has the uniform, including in Ishgard and Dravania, so I'm guessing it's game mechanic QoL. Even so, there's usually a lore excuse for it (because as far as I can tell MCKF tries as much as possible to close loopholes, even if he has to come up with something on the spot), so I'm mostly curious what the lore explanation for this one might be.

Quick question I had while staring at teleport prices: Who owns the Chocobo Porters? We'll leave aside the obvious bizarre convolutions of the "summoning stones" in Dravania, and the separate Falcon Porter system in Othard. This is just for Chocobokeeps in Eorzea, including Gyr Abania. They all wear that yellow tunic, and a chocobo mask. This implies some sort of uniform, as well as the spiel they give whenever you ask them about the whole Chocobo Porter system. Is there any mention (possibly in the very early tutorial dialogues) of who owns this service? (Curiously, the Falcon Porters in Othard wear falcon masks, except for the one at Onokoro, and the Blue Kojin at Tamamizu. The Blue Kojin even has a different spiel explaining porters, albeit with the same general gist. I have no idea about the Onokoro guy, though.)