(06-08-2015, 12:19 AM)Verad Wrote:(06-08-2015, 12:10 AM)Natalie Mcbeef Wrote: One supported by the lore and the story of the game.
For example, if they created true blood garleans as a playable race. Obviously tension between them and other PCs would make sense given the lore, it would be a justified fictional conflict (I don't really like that nomenclature though)
Reacting with hostility to the Au Ra is kind of unjustified though, unless your character has a personal reason for doing so. They're just newcomers to a new land. I can see shock, interest, curiosity, but any large scale hostility (except maybe for things like THEY'RE GONNA TAKE OUR JOBS, or the other bits of generalized discontent immigrant populations tend to bring) seems manufactured to me.
Yes they look kind of... beasty, but so do Miqo'te. Other beastlike tribes are perfectly accepted in Eorzean culture, so I just don't see most people being all that freaked out.
By that definition, I don't think we can say much one way or the another about conflict being unjustifiable, because we don't know much of anything about their lore or their story - only their appearance.
If it turns out that there's longstanding antipathy between Ishgard and the Au Ra clans, for example, suddenly there's a justifiable in-setting conflict, one that a number of Ishgardian RPers are going to need to incorporate. I don't know if that's likely or not, but it's a possibility. Or maybe they have very harmonious relations and then there's even less justification.Â
But that's one possible definition. Vetiver's definition seemed to have more to do with whether it might make other players uncomfortable, or whether the conflict served some kind of thematic purpose. So to continue in that vein, if we find it's possible that this kind of conflict is justifiable through in-game lore, is it still unjustified for other reasons?
It is possible, however nothing up until now has lead us to believe that is the case. Though anything can be revealed.
And no, to answer the second question you posed, I don't think so. Regardless of any real world issues, Eorzea is portrayed as a land in the midst of turmoil and change. Part of that is racism.
The fact that a player might find in game racism problematic, or that it might remind one of issues of discrimination which face us in the real world, does not mean that it should not be RPed. Racism is written into the lore, much like many other troubling topics like rape, murder, slavery, and war. If Au Ra are discriminated against in the Lore, then expect that to flow out in RP, and if people don't like it they should choose a different race.
For example, my Brass Blade character treats all Highlanders like shit, because of the refugee problem in Ul'dah. He mocks them, tells them their kind isn't wanted here, and generally is an ass. However, it is just mirroring the attitude shown by Brass Blades in the lore.
