Now, I just want to preface my response by saying that I am brand new to the FFXIV lore, so I can only go off of the things I've read, and no "in game" experience.
*places a pie on the table*Â
Now, to the topic at hand!
"How concrete are racial cultures really in Eorzea?"
I have no idea. HA! Â
When I wrote the back story for my Roegadyn I scoured the inter-webs for information on this topic so that I could make his back story "believable" and "viable" for rp'ing. Not being able to find anything specific on Hellsguard culture, I resorted to examples from the real world and in fiction to fill in the gaps.Â
Now, it's funny how you talked about a character "embedded" in a "tribal" society, as that is the back story I am going with on my Hellsguard. I wrote that his "tribe" has kept to the mountains that the Hellsguard hail from (Albathia's Spine if my memory serves me correct).Â
Now, I have acknowledge that they have made contact with the "outside" world, hence the way they learned the "common" language, etc, etc... But for all intents and purposes they keep to themselves. when I RP him, I'm rp'ing that he is coming out of  the mountains for the first time, so most things will be very new to him.Â
I based this thought process on the Amish of Pennsylvania (NOTE: Thanks to my fiancee that totally brought the Amish concept up to me). Yes, there are Amish that go out into the "regular" world. Yes, there are some Amish that have constant interaction with "outsiders", and yes, outsiders can go and see the Amish if they drive into Amish country. But how much do we really know of the Amish? I mean, we know that they are an industrious, god fearing people that make some WONDERFUL pies (mmm.. Shoefly Pie).Â
After that though, how much (as average human beings) of their actual culture do we know about? Â Now, I put (average human beings) in parenthesis because if you are a student of social interactions and cultures, yes you would have a deeper knowledge of the Amish. I would think that's the minority though. I'm talking about Jane and Joe Q Public that get their news from <insert social media here>. Now mind you, the Amish are a people, a sub culture if you will, that lives smack in the middle of U.S. but to most are still very foreign.Â
From my travels I've found that every country has their own little sub set of people that no one knows much about.. From the Gypsies of the U.K., to the Bedoin tribes of the Middle East, to the Monks of Asia. Again, all these peoples do have some contact with "modern" society, but we really don't know much about their cultures then some candy coated topping. Â
Another thing to remember is that, coming out of an Umbral age, some places could very well have been cut off due to the devastation of war, Bahamut throwing a hissy fit, etc. and people are just re-finding/re-establishing communications with these places. I like to think that Eorzea is a big enough place that things like this could happen.Â
So.. Ya, there ya go. This is a good topic! Gives some great fuel for thought. Well done!Â
*places a pie on the table*Â
Now, to the topic at hand!
"How concrete are racial cultures really in Eorzea?"
I have no idea. HA! Â
When I wrote the back story for my Roegadyn I scoured the inter-webs for information on this topic so that I could make his back story "believable" and "viable" for rp'ing. Not being able to find anything specific on Hellsguard culture, I resorted to examples from the real world and in fiction to fill in the gaps.Â
Now, it's funny how you talked about a character "embedded" in a "tribal" society, as that is the back story I am going with on my Hellsguard. I wrote that his "tribe" has kept to the mountains that the Hellsguard hail from (Albathia's Spine if my memory serves me correct).Â
Now, I have acknowledge that they have made contact with the "outside" world, hence the way they learned the "common" language, etc, etc... But for all intents and purposes they keep to themselves. when I RP him, I'm rp'ing that he is coming out of  the mountains for the first time, so most things will be very new to him.Â
I based this thought process on the Amish of Pennsylvania (NOTE: Thanks to my fiancee that totally brought the Amish concept up to me). Yes, there are Amish that go out into the "regular" world. Yes, there are some Amish that have constant interaction with "outsiders", and yes, outsiders can go and see the Amish if they drive into Amish country. But how much do we really know of the Amish? I mean, we know that they are an industrious, god fearing people that make some WONDERFUL pies (mmm.. Shoefly Pie).Â
After that though, how much (as average human beings) of their actual culture do we know about? Â Now, I put (average human beings) in parenthesis because if you are a student of social interactions and cultures, yes you would have a deeper knowledge of the Amish. I would think that's the minority though. I'm talking about Jane and Joe Q Public that get their news from <insert social media here>. Now mind you, the Amish are a people, a sub culture if you will, that lives smack in the middle of U.S. but to most are still very foreign.Â
From my travels I've found that every country has their own little sub set of people that no one knows much about.. From the Gypsies of the U.K., to the Bedoin tribes of the Middle East, to the Monks of Asia. Again, all these peoples do have some contact with "modern" society, but we really don't know much about their cultures then some candy coated topping. Â
Another thing to remember is that, coming out of an Umbral age, some places could very well have been cut off due to the devastation of war, Bahamut throwing a hissy fit, etc. and people are just re-finding/re-establishing communications with these places. I like to think that Eorzea is a big enough place that things like this could happen.Â
So.. Ya, there ya go. This is a good topic! Gives some great fuel for thought. Well done!Â
![[Image: rain1.jpg]](http://novashepard.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/rain1.jpg)
