Naunet

This is honestly the best advice one can give. You just need to find like-minded people who are as easy-going or rough-and-ready as you'd wish. It can be a challenge to find the right match, but it's what will make you happiest in the end. There's no fun in leaving your gaming fate up to the PUG life. A good sign for a more "chill" and potentially more welcoming group is whether or not they actively do things for members who are not level capped. This signals some amount of investment in people beyond just what they bring to the raid group; not to mention, a free company that breeds a helpful atmosphere will generally breed friendly, empathetic people.

Then, please, tell me how you expect people to start up RP with you? Because all you're doing is isolating yourself from the community and potential RP. No one can tell whether or not you're just standing around afk or chatting OOCly, or if you're RPing. And I certainly wouldn't want to engage in RP with someone who only wants to do it in /p. I want RP public and open, and your own reluctance to start up conversations with people in public spaces does not mean it's some kind of strange thing.

It's a problem at higher level FATEs where there are dozens upon dozens upon dozens of people.

I agree with this. I'm not sure what can be done about it, though. People are using FATEs for easy exp because there simply aren't enough quests once you go through the content with your first class. I suppose one solution might be an overall buff to leves, giving more allowances per day, along with increasing exp rewards from Battlecraft leves. A very easy boost to the fluidity of FATEs would be to implement a public grouping system a la Rift. Make it absurdly easy for people to group. If you're in the vicinity of someone who has not marked their group as private (which is something you have to deliberately change - the default is public), then a little UI button appears. Click it and bam - you're partied. It would help solve the "do a FATE and get no to zero credit" thing significantly.

Please tell me the costumes don't actually change your hair. I think I'd have to... do very bad things were that true.

I will end you.

Should and do are completely different things. There are a lot of things our current "rulers" should be doing for those they "rule" but aren't as well. This is the same society that is obsessed with rooting out and eliminating heretics and tosses innocent people to their deaths to... prove their innocence. I highly doubt those living potentially comfier lives do a whole awful lot to help out those lesser nobles and might even see them as a threat, depending on how Ishgardian social structures work. Which, we don't know how they work so it's impossible to say any which way. There are refineries for those natural resources Eorzeans harvest - it comes part and parcel with the mines and the oil fields and whatever else. Ceruleum is one resource in particular that gets a lot of attention in lore. And look, it's not like I'm saying Eorzeans live nice and shiny lives. In fact, I think I've been saying quite the opposite. However, I'm not sure I'd go so far as to say late 20s/early 30s qualifies as old when we've seen quite a few clearly aged individuals in-game (particularly individuals who tend not to be involved in the obviously deadly activities of adventuring or the military, such as caretakers or cooks or other such things).

A "minor noble" can mean a lot less than one may think. Many nobles lived just over the edge of poverty, their holding of land basically being the only thing securing their "status", and often you had minor nobles essentially demoting themselves to peasants when they realized they could not keep up with the financial demands of nobility. Feudalism, nobility, and the noble life are not nearly as shiny as a lot of people often assume, and there is generally definite, severe sub-stratification within nobility that leaves some nobles with a lot and many with just barely enough. [edit] Incidentally, we have not run into any NPCs from Ishgard who isn't nobility - again, bearing in mind the fact that nobility itself can have many different levels. I might be wrong, but if I'm recalling correctly (and nobility and feudalism are incredibly complex topics), simply becoming a knight tends to automatically grant you "noble" status - but you never actually get a lot of the perks that comes with being A Noble. You just get the name. So a lot of these "minor" nobles, soldiers, might very well be extremely "low class" in this context.

In Coerthas, not all of Eorzea. Which would actually be a good reason for the high infant mortality observed in Coerthas NPCs, as the feudal society would likely leave most significant health care out of reach of anyone not born into the right family. It's entirely possible that lower class Ishgardians (or even just those born into the outer branches of a family) are significantly worse off than "lower class" Gridanians or Limsans or whathaveyou because of this. Ul'dah has a pretty socially stratified structure, with a large proportion of the wealth in the hands of a very few (heh, not at all unlike current real life situations), but that's different from feudalism and I'd be willing to bet a lot of the city's poverty is due to the influx of refugees. No clue what this means for groups who live outside of the main societal hubs in Thanalan, such as Seeker tribes. We know that one branch of the U tribe at least was looking for a way to revitalize their little settlement by opening up better trade lines to Ul'dah and such and allowing non-tribe merchants space in their town.

Ah, now this is a real life picture-sharing thread I can get behind. My babies are my world. First there is Fish, who can be dignified: Or sleepy Or even, on occasion, silly! And the more recent addition, The Dark Lady Our Banshee Queen Sylvanas Windrunner. We call her Sylvie. She does her namesake proud. I think. Actually, she kind of just has one mode: Derp. Though it comes in a couple flavors. And here you have a rare image of them not fighting:

Well, I'm looking at this from the perspective of older characters in general - not just older characters who are also roleplayed as adventurers. My own character is not a fighter at all, though she certainly didn't have an easy life with her tribe in the desert.

I'm sorry, but I really don't understand what you mean by keyboard chart?

I would be careful here, because old(er) certainly does not necessitate grumpy, or even wise.

I don't like the FC-link suggestion, as a lot of us might want to neighbor with folk who aren't necessarily in the same FC, but I agree Squee definitely needs to work on a better system for determining what "server" your home goes into.

Aside from the death during childbirth and the understandable infant mortality rates (considering it doesn't look like Eorzea has things like NICU, and there are a lot of things that can go wrong during pregnancy), honestly I think the greatest danger comes from being a mercenary or part of the military (or being an adventurer!). The thing with the 27 laborers killed by the coeurl seems like a fairly "freak accident", so to speak - you don't get powerful beasts like that every day. Keep in mind also that things might be more dangerous now than they were prior to the Calamity. We've got all that aether disrupting things and the elementals are peeved and things are just generally going very, very wrong in the world. This makes everything far riskier than it may have been 6 years ago, and it's possible that a lot of the problems we see NPCs running into while questing would not have been nearly as common back then.

((Written in response to the latest Tonberry's Lantern article.)) *** She didn't know what compelled her to accept an issue of the Tonberry's Lantern. The young boy hawking the paper took her seventy-five gil with the kind of winning grin that had tugged at her heart decades ago, and for a time after she watched his flaming orange hair bob up and down as he bounced from one person to the next, occasionally disappearing in the thick fog or the crowd. It had been early morning in Limsa, and Antimony continued on her way to the office after this brief stop, tucking the paper into her satchel and promptly forgetting about it for the rest of the day. Later that day, as the door to her small flat clicked shut behind her and her feet began to carry her automatically to the small kitchenette opposite, Antimony finally recalled that neglected publication. She laid it out on the little, round table that was already so cluttered with other things - pages of notes, empty inkwells, a protractor, and a few forgotten cups - and then set about the business of making tea. It wasn't until her hands, the joints aching from hours of notations as well as the wet cold of La Noscean air, were wrapped comfortably around a clay mug slowly warming with hot tea that she finally paused long enough to take a look at what she'd purchased on a whim that cool, damp morning. The first page was fairly tame: a headline regarding the Maelstrom's continued war efforts with the allied forces (something she chose very deliberately to ignore), a light article about an Ul'dahn merchant rising in the ranks of society (she couldn't help but wonder if the CRA knew of this man yet and whether or not she'd be sent out to deal with him soon), and a report of yet another murder in Limsa (unsurprising, if sad). Adjusting her glasses, Antimony turned the page, intending to read more on the Ul'dahn merchant, when a headline on the opposite side caught her eye in a way that dropped her heart down to her feet. Her flat spun around her, and she clutched the edge of the table in one hand, the mug of tea clattering to the floor. Her eyes continued reading and it wasn't until she got to the names that she realized she'd forgotten to breathe. She felt as though she'd taken a great blow to the chest that left her light-headed and straining, and it was with a strange masochism that she read through the list of names and the brief descriptions. A rapid knocking broke through the dizzying trance, and Antimony snatched up the paper, clutching it to her chest as she stumbled to the door. Ulanan stood outside, flashing a quick smile and a little wave, but Antimony did not give the lalafell even a moment to speak. "I'm sorry, Ulanan," and she thought her voice sounded fairly even, if distant, as though separated entirely from her body. "I'm not feeling up to visitors today." She didn't wait to see or hear her friend's reaction, shutting the door and locking it tight, turning around to lean her back against the rough wood. Her legs felt suddenly weak, and she let herself slide down until she was sitting on the floor, the paper with its accusing article glaring up at her from her lap. There were pictures next to the names, and as the one once known as K'piru brought a shaking finger to one and then another, her eyes burned and the familiar images blurred. They were dead. How could they do this when they knew they were dead.

I actually have! Three different people, even. Shall make for some fun RP should certain things happen to fall into place. I can totally relate to this. I'm also coming up on 30 quite soon - no way am I gonna consider myself middle aged! Us old fogies have done some RP in Limsa and and surrounding areas so far, so if your character happens to be around there, keep an eye out!

A quick glance at Wikipedia tells me that life expectancy for those who survived childhood was 54 in classic Rome and 64 in medieval Britain. Perhaps there is some lore suggesting folks live longer in FFXIV, but if their societies are similar to Britain and Rome in quality of life, and folks live to 50-60, I'd say 30 is middle-aged. What would you say is a better historic analogy? There were cities in feudal societies, but I'm no student of history, so enlighten me. I would hesitate to draw historic parallels, considering Eorzea is a land of magic and a certain level of magitek (though that is mostly reserved for the Garleans). As Twinflame said, we do see a lot of elderly characters in-game, and we do know that lalafell can live into their 100s. That combined with the level of sophistication in not just the main cities but the outlying settlements suggests something significantly more advanced than any kind of medieval era in real life.

All these people thinking 30s is middle aged is making me really sad. On a somewhat related note, I disagree that Eorzea mirrors a "feudal" society. Its cities suggest significantly greater advancement than that. More industrialized than anything.

My character Antimony is a 46 year old mother of three and has all of the lines and grey hair and stubborn weight to prove it! Of course, her in-game model only shows the grey hair... *grumbles* I do always chuckle a bit at the number of "20-somethings" in roleplay, but then it kind of makes sense, as the majority of folk roleplay at least somewhat true to their chosen class and 20s to early 30s would be the "prime" of someone's life. Still! I definitely appreciate it when I run into older characters. Actually, my little blob of friends has rather a number of older characters in it. Twinflame's character Megiddo is extremely old - in his 80s, I believe - and two other folks' characters, Ildur and Alcor, are in their 60s and 50s respectively. I guess we're the senior(ish) club?

Take heart in this individual and forget the rest!

Squeenix doesn't allow the use of a lot of the symbols, sadly. It bothers the hell out of me, because I prefer to use the triple mix in a varied pattern...and I can't with Squeenix. I have a FoB now, and my fiancé has the phone app...but I still feel uncomfortable with their lack of variables. This might ease your mind.

((The following takes place several years prior to the Calamity.)) *** Evening in Sagoli! A great clap of thunder was heard over the dunes moments ago, but not a cloud in the sky, so it could not have been thunder, could it? From out of the wastes came a young girl, innocent and sweet, hair like a red flower and skin the color of rich clay, careening through the tents of the nomadic Hipparion Tribe at a desperate pace, but this was not abnormal. She reached the tent she shared with her mother and leaped headlong at the flaps to make her entry, heedless of whatever may lay beyond, bellowing shrilly, "MOOOOOOM!" K’piru had been kneeling on a skin stretched out across the hard-packed sand inside the tent, meticulously dividing dried herbs, when K'aijeen came barreling in. She was, however, accustomed to her daughter's energy and so though she noted the urgent pitch in K'aijeen's voice, she managed to not spill powders everywhere. Instead, she set down the small bone tool she'd been using and stood quickly, turning towards the door. Her hands were already moving to her hips. "Tell me what's wrong, now." The girl dodged to one side once she was in the tent, and begin to dig through some paraphernalia piled about in the tent. "We got a big ol' chunk of worm and there might be a brain in it and I want to get at it while it's still warm and...” she took a deep breath and shouted, "MOM WHERE ARE MY TOOLS? DID YOU TAKE THEM AGAIN? I NEED THEM! MOM!" K’piru huffed, exasperation showing on her features, "You know you aren't supposed to play with those things. Did you take it from the huntresses again?" "MOM!" she lamented, then says, "Oh, wait," and ducked to one side, dug under a pile of furs and pulled out a concealed leather envelope, "Got 'em! I bet I can make K'airos' leg work better than it did before she blew up." "You will do no such thing wi--what?!" It didn’t take much in the small space of the tent to step over behind K'aijeen and grasp her shoulders, spinning the young girl around firmly. "What did you just say? Blew up?" "Mom! Don't get in the way!" K'aijeen dropped to the ground in an attempt to loose herself from her mother's clutches, "I'm in a HURRY! I've got a head to dissect and K'airos broke her leg and I wanna look at it!" She turned from K'aijeen then with a sharp, "You will take me to her immediately" as she shuffled through some items in one corner, pulling out a length of flat, sun-whitened wood. Linen cloth lay folded nearby, and this too she snatched up. As soon as K'piru unhanded her daughter, though, K'aijeen spun and jumped out of the tent, dashing off towards the desert. Turning back around in time to see the tent flap dropping closed, K'piru's tail lashed behind her and she hurried after her daughter. It was not difficult to follow her through the camp, but K'piru did not have the agile skills of those huntresses used to sprinting over dunes in pursuit of prey, so she was slow in catching up. Not waiting for her mother, in fact likely unthinking that her mother could even be following her, K'aijeen ran straight for the corpse of the worm they''d blown up and began to pick through its bits. When she found the head, she opened the leather satchel she'd brought, pulled out her "tools" which were actually malformed metal rods twisted and sharpened into shapes suggesting torture implements, and began to harvest bits of its brain and neural fibers. Presumably there was a cliff immediately adjacent. "Hey!" someone shouted. "Can't that...wait? I'm a little hurt over here." K'airos was lying on the ground, her back against the cliff face. Most of her lower body was covered in what was arguably worm pieces and skin. Her left leg was swollen at an odd angle. The lower maw of the sandworm layed a few yalms to her side, splattered across the rocks. K'piru crested a dune with a wheeze and half-slid down the opposite side, squinting through the sun at the gruesome scene. The sight of it left her feeling ill, but then there was K'aijeen practically crawling over the thing and--"K'airos Thalen! What have you done!" The exclamation came out more urgent than demanding, and she hurried towards the shade of the cliff where her second eldest daughter lay. She knelt before her and brought a hand to her face. "Mom don't touch her! I've got it!" With great reluctance and a huff of annoyance, K'aijeen shoved a bunch of fleshy bits in her satchel, and then grabbed her 'tools' before running over to where other two were, "I've got it! Let me!" "No, you quite clearly do not "have it"," K’piru snapped, pressing the back of her hand to K'airos's head before letting her eyes slide down to inspect her leg. To the injured girl she said in a calm voice that hid her growing anxiety, "How long have you been like this? Do you hurt anywhere else?” K'airos had kept her hands on her spear while she waited for her sister's return, and now she moved it to a side and lifted it upwards. She leant against it, eyes looking away from her mother into some meaningless dune far away. "Just a few minutes, and the leg." "What's it feel like?" K'aijeen added, ignoring her mother's objections, kneeling down next to K'airos, and holding her tools like a pair of forks she was about to start poking at K'airos with. Tools, one might add, which as still dripping with worm-brains. K’airos leant away suddenly at the gruesome sight. "It hurts!" she barked. "You are not going to open my leg up with those, are you?" "Give her space, K'aijeen," K'piru ordered tersely and moved the items she'd carried over the dunes and dropped nearby closer to K'airos. Her hands felt the girl's leg carefully. "I will demand explanations for this later. For now, I want you both to do exactly as I say. K'aijeen, hold this," she held out the thin, flat plank of wood to the younger. "K'airos, do not move." Still not complying, K'aijeen pouted, "If you fix it I won't get to get a good look at it!" "Aijee! My leg's not a sandworm!" "And I will treat it with proper respect, but this is a learning opportunity!" K'piru looked up from K'airos's leg only briefly, long enough to snap at K'aijeen, "If you will not help your sister, then sit down and be silent." She then cast a briefly apologetic glance towards her other daughter and lined the plank up with her thigh. K'aijeen deflated visibly, looking greatly depressed. Her ears lay flat against her head and her tail was limp on the dirt behind her for a few moments. Then she just muttered, "I know you were gonna ruin this," and spun to her feet, turning away. "Push against me, Airos, please," K’piru said and waited just a second before pulling sharply and suddenly on the girl's leg. There was a rather sickening crunch. K'airos pointed with her eyes at the tools K'aijeen was holding in her hands. At the same time, she pushed her leg against her mother with instinctive obedience. She shrieked loudly as her bones were realigned. Antimony winced despite her years of practice with this - it was her daughter after all, which made such incidents far more painful - and pressed K'airos's leg against the wooden plank before beginning to wrap the strips of linen around it. "We'll get you something for the pain back in camp, dear," she tried to work a soothing tone into her voice, past the worry and irritation. "That hurt even more!" she protested, making a painful face to her mother. It didn't last, though, and she shrugged in shame. "I'm sorry." K'aijeen moped back over towards the dead worm as if nothing was happening between her mother and K'airos. Frowning, K'piru continued to wrap the cloth, taking care not to move the leg overly much. She caught her other daughter's movement out of the corner of her eye and spoke up then, "K'aijeen, I'm going to need your help getting her back to the tent." Her tone made it clear this was not just a suggestion, and inwardly she hoped that offering the girl something to do would distract her enough to keep her contained. K'aijeen must've missed the tone, for she objected, "I've got to get this while it's still warm and got all its aether in it! If I don't then the whole thing's pointless." "It's fine!" K'airos said, leaning on her spear. "I'm fine. I'm sure I can walk now!" she added as if it was somehow the perfect argument. "No, you will do no such thing," and then to K'aijeen in a sharper tone, "This is not a debate. I don't know what you've done to this worm, but you've hurt someone, K'aijeen. So get over here and help me get her standing." She finished wrapping the leg then, tying off the cloth tightly and moved up towards K'airo's shoulders, feeling her skin for any undue heat or chills. K'airos opened her mouth to protest. And she did protest. "It's not her fault! I miscalculated! I stood a few ilms too close...or maybe I used too many bomb claws...or maybe I misjudged the worm's density...!" She paused, took a breath and added: "Or maybe all of that." "Oh don't think you're getting off the hook either, K'airos Thalen," K'piru warned and, seemingly satisfied with the rest of her daughter's body, went to take hold of one arm. K'aijeen threw a glare at her mother that no daughter should ever use on a parent, "I said no, mom! K'airos and I worked hard on this! K'airos did this for me! It would be ungrateful of me to just leave it here!" K'piru let her grip release from K'airos's arm and stood then, turning towards K'aijeen with a heavy frown. "Do not argue with me, K'aijeen. I don't know what you two were thinking, going after a sandworm by yourselves - with a bomb of all things. You're both lucky you're not dead! I won't stand for this. Drop your tools and get over here right now." K'airos used the spear to shift her weight into it and stand very, very slowly, keeping her broken leg a few ilms above the ground. "Mom...! The meat will attract other predators. She won't be able to come back later for it!" "I'm almost done!" K'aijeen dashed the last few yalms to the shattered worm head and starts to dig around in it. "We'll send the huntresses for it. They aren't far. I won't--I refuse to lose either of you to your stupidity!" She strode after K'aijeen and, moving up behind her, went to take hold of one arm. Waving one of her 'tools' at K'piru in a useless warding gesture, K'aijeen said, "It's not stupid! I'm not stupid!" "Then don't risk your life and the life of your sister for a... a sandworm!" She was undeterred by the waving of the tool and tugged at K'aijeen's arm. "Come, now." K'airos had not moved at all after standing up, her leg limping uselessly under the rest of her body. "Aijee" she started "If you stay, some other beast could surprise you. So, please, obey mom?" Her face was tilted down, but her eyes looked at her sister "Mom! You never understand!" K'aijeen struggled against her mother's grip, and she was old enough now that that meant something. She didn’t immediately respond when K'airos spoke, but after a moment, she said, "Okay, okay! Stop touching me!" K'piru held on for a moment longer, though it was difficult with how forceful her daughter was being in attempting to escape, before releasing her and pointing sharply towards her sister. "Help me move K'airos. When we get back to camp, I want you to find your father and explain to him exactly what happened." Letting out a small groan and kicking a peace of meat away, K'aijeen said, "Dad's gonna be on my side," and trotted over to K'airos. "Didn't even get a good look at your leg before she set it." K'airos raised her leg up to knee height and looked down to it. "It's just swollen." Following, K'piru said, "Don't move it like that, Airos," and went to stand alongside her daughter. "Support her other side, K'aijeen." She didn't have to bend much at all to get her shoulder under K'airos's arm; the girl was already nearly as tall as she. Being significantly shorter than K'airos at this point, K'aijeen also got under her sister's shoulder fairly easily. Though to less effect. K'airos felt very awkward very suddenly. "Can we avoid telling the others about this? Let's say I just fell off while training!" "No, your father deserves to hear from the both of you the explanation for this disaster," K'piru replied flatly, "As do I. Beyond that, it is on your conscience." "We didn't do anything wrong!" "You've worried me sick," K'piru sighed and began moving forward, slowly and supporting her daughter as best she could. "Think about it, mom! We killed a sandworm with only two people and suffering minimal injuries!" she said cheerfully. "That's mathematically and... and geometrically sound, too, I'm sure!" "Minimal!" Her eyes looked skyward briefly. "Minimal! You could have died! You'll be lucky if you don't lose your leg from infection!" "It's not that bad," K'aijeen protested, "You're being ridiculous! You're just all scared and panicky! I shouldn't have told you what was going on!" "I...but...you won't let me lose my leg, right?" K'airos' asked, though it was really a dubious statement. After that, she stayed awfully quiet. "I won't allow it," K'piru reassured, feeling a touch guilty at bringing such a possibility up, but - "But you must understand the gravity of the situation you put yourself in! That both of you put yourselves in." She turned a frown past K'airos to K'aijeen. "Woulda been worth it if we'd gotten everthing I needed! But since we left it behind now it's all for nothing." "Nothing is worth losing your life over," K'piru concluded. "Nothing is worth losing either of you. By the Twelve, I knew you wanted to play with a sandworm, but I never thought you'd..." Her ears drooped slightly as they continued back towards the camp. K'airos tried very hard to come with something to say, evidenced by how she kept opening and closing her mouth. No word came out of it, though, and eventually she stopped trying. The tents were visible by now, fanned out across a flat stretch of hard-packed sand between dunes, and K'piru sighed with relief as they descended. "We'll stop the hurting soon, Airos." After sulking for a few minutes, K'aijeen said, "I'm not playing, and we weren't going to die. You're wrong." "I don't want to argue this, K'aijeen," she replied a bit wearily, much of the bite having left her voice. "Go, find your father. I'll take care of K'airos from here." K'airos shifted her weight towards her sister, inclining the head and resting it against hers. "Yes. Tell him how exhilarating the explosion was!" she said smiling. Then straightened her posture and looked over K'aijeen. "And how we are never, ever going to do that again." Extricating herself from beneath K'airos shoulder, she said, "Next time we'd get it right." And then, she was running off into the tents, "Don't cut off her leg, mom!" "What were you thinking," K'piru said as her youngest disappeared and the two of them continued at a slower pace. "You must stop encouraging her like that. It's not healthy!" "It was a good plan!" K'airos protested. "I just...I guess I...and then it just...!" She moved her free arms outwards, representing the explosion. "...maybe less bombs next time. Oh!" She turned her head quickly towards K'piru. "Don't you think that having such proof of my bravery would make me a better huntress at the eyes of...?" then she paused. "Yeah, less bombs next time." The harried mother could only wince at that. "Let's... focus on getting you healed up first." They'd made it through the tents without interruption, and K'piru helped her daughter inside her own, and down to the floor. "You must be more careful... This mess! Did you bathe in the thing, too?" "I did not expect it to spray its innards all over me!" "Of course. I can tell there were plenty of things you didn't expect," there was that lecturing tone again, "Which you might have thought of had you given what you were doing even an ilm of consideration." "I considered it longly! It was the safest way to get Aijeen a sandworm head without the other huntresses." K'airos couldn't hide her annoyance when she replied, "It was a good plan!" she insisted. "Where you went wrong was when you agreed to get her a sandworm head," K'piru chided none too gently. Leaving K'airos on the ground for a moment, she moved to one side of the tent and began rummaging through some supplies. "I thought I made it clear you weren't to do such a thing... least of all go out hunting on your own! Do you know how dangerous that is? There's a reason the huntresses travel in groups!" "Aijeen was with me!" K'airos accompanied this statement by throwing her arms up into the air vehemently. "Two people are a group, too!" "That," K'piru said firmly, "is a pair. Not a group." She turned around with several rags and a jar of something pungent. The rags she dropped near K'airos. "Help me wipe yourself off and then we can make sure you don't lose your leg," she added somberly. K'airos pouted, but kept quiet and obeyed her mother.

That was part of the 2.4 world event, and you'll be happy to know that it was bugged. The mobs were not supposed to be level 63; they were supposed to be scaled in some manner. Trion did a server announcement about an hour and a half into the whole thing that they were taking it down until they could fix it. That said, I hope they return it soon, because I have always adored Trion's handling of world events. ^^ They always make me feel like I'm really a part of something huge. Incidentally, I'm still playing Rift quite frequently, especially during the day. If you're ever online, you should friend Naunet and Ravni, my two primary characters!

I'd do it, if the story went that way. Twinflame and I have gone down some very dark paths in our past roleplay. It's less escapism and more just having fun telling stories driven by people who OOCly have a tendency to write unhappy things. [edit] To quote Twinflame, who put it much more perfectly than I but who is working on an essay so I am not allowing him to bother with forums right now: "Because exploring these kinds of characters is one of the major points of escapism. I don't want to get my arm chopped off irl just so that I can explore what comes of getting one's arm chopped off. Also, maybe it entertains me to tell a more dramatic story. That's nobody's business but my own, and those who agree, and who are okay with chopping off my arm or having their arms chopped off by my characters"