Reasoning for irregular race/nationality combinations

[Seriphyn]

For my latest instigation, I wanted to bring up a topic which bothers me mildly. Not quite the promised topic about the possible whitewashing of Miqo'te tribal lore, alas. This particular topic concerns playing characters who are not the native race of the nation they hail from. 

 

Yes, immediately, we can cite examples of exceptional cases existing within the lore. That's fine; I'm not denying the existence of such cases. As I've said before, it's not a law of physics, so it's not impossible. Instead, rather than impossible it's just be very unlikely at most, or generally considered strange in-universe. Again, fine. The argument is from a character-building perspective; not questioning the validity but the authenticity.

 

Let's take the egregious, caricature example of the Miqo'te Dragoon. My immediate response is that players who construct these characters are a textbook case of wanting to have their cake and eat it too. They want to play a pretty cat race and a badass spearman famed within the Final Fantasy mythos. I might be wrong, hence why I'm creating this thread to begin with!

 

But my issue is this; if I wanted to play an authentic English Knight, I would play a fair-skinned Briton. If I wanted to play an authentic Samurai, I would play a Japanese gentleman. If I wanted to play an authentic Maasai chieftain, I would play a dark-skinned Kenyan. Similarly, if I wanted to play an authentic Ishgardian Dragoon, I would play an Elezen or Hyur. If I wanted to play an authentic Ala Mhigan, I would play a Highlander. And so on. I don't believe in the argument "It makes it more interesting", because I don't believe that an exotic race or exotic occupation is needed to make your character interesting (it is your character's character which makes your character interesting!). Moreover, if being a race that defies that nation's norm is intended to make the character more interesting, why is it always Miqo'te?

 

While citing examples of exceptions existing in real-life history to the cited real-life analogies is fine, that doesn't change the reality of the fact that these cultures exist accordingly because of a majority demographic. Nations like Ishgard are explicitly portrayed as being Elezen-dominant, so why not play an Elezen? You can play the exception, fine, but is there a reason you did not pick the main race? That is the question I am putting forward! 

 

Ultimately, this doesn't really change whether or not I'm going to roleplay with someone or not, because I roleplay with everyone regardless. If someone wants to play a pretty cat and be something, then, well, go ahead! I've heard stories of people being bothered in whispers about lorebreaking by random people not even roleplaying with them, but just in the general area, and I really want to keep my name far from that sort of behavior. In the face of the above exceptions, my character will react accordingly, but otherwise? I still love all of you!

[Brynhilde]

[Michikyou]

*grabs popcorn*

 

---

However, yes I completely agree. This is a setting where there aren't many if at all, any exceptions to the rules put in place by city states or cultural groups. 

It bothers me greatly when I see people claiming to be a ... I don't know:

Miqo'te half Magitek garlean-doman.

 

._.

 

I  just stick to my ignorant Doman and Eorzean based characters for this reason.

I think it comes down to the fact people want to have a unique character, when making a too unique character can result in lore breaking and unbelievable feats.

 

But this also plays into my role playing of racial tensions. Most people don't do this either which is mildly confusing as they are obvious in the world setting.

[Nalin]

Raises hand slowly. Yes hello, ICly Miqo'te Dragoon/resident lurker here. : D;

 

To be honest, when I picked up the game for the first time; I had no intention of playing a catboy; but had every intention of leveling a dragoon because that is my favorite class throughout the entire Final Fantasy franchise. And, when I started playing I had no prior knowledge of Ishgard or any of FFXIV's lore save for: Omfg its such a badly designed game. I also expected to quit the game two months after launch.

I ended up picking a Keeper catboy because I love space and all things night time. So. Me and my love for moons + dragoons + no knowledge of pre-existing lore = Nalin Frostclaw the Miqo'te Dragoon. Literally. That was pretty much it. His name, species and class was all based on what I wanted to play.

 

It wasn't until after I got to Coerthas for the first time in game(Thus level 30) that I learned of Ishgard and its inhabitants. And I immediately fell in love with everything related to it that I dove into every lore thread I could find related to Ishgard to learn any and all things about the city and its history. From that, I began piecing Nalin's story together until I was able to get what he is now.

 

Whiiiich is a Miqo'te who's Coerthas-residing clan was stomped by a dragon; and he was then was adopted by an Ishgardian(Much to that Ishgardian's dismay as he didn't even want the kid at first; but details, details--) and learned to be a dragoon from him. And is why he has a more "human" name, and why he acts less like a tribal miqo'te, more like a city boy.

I also RP Nalin as a Dragoon still very much learning the ropes; his entire existence focuses around him taking up jobs to become stronger and wiser. He fumbles around a lot and is pretty much an idiot with spikey armor and a lance. He's kinda a self-proclaimed Dragoon; as he killed a dragon and his father/mentor gave him armor for it. Ishgard probably doesn't even know he exists.

Which is fine by him, he just wanted to be a Dragoon because he figured they were the best at killing dragons. Which is what he wants to do. Because his original family got squashed by one.

 

tl;dr: I made a cat Dragoon with a funky name cause I wanted to! Then I tried to make him make sense with lore afterward because I found out there was a huge established lore after I made him and kept playing the game. And that's pretty much all there is to it.

[Lekka Meyren]

As others have stated almost perfectly with memes... Here we go again.

I'm going to simply ask: Do they need a reason, really? I mean as long as they're not making up their own lore wildly and deciding to be a vampire tribe of Mi'qote Ishgardians who secretly run the place.. Why should they need to justify themselves.

 

I agree with all exceptions obviously, if you're just out to completely break lore to play your own thing; then expect people to take issue simply because they don't want their character influenced by things that seem inherently "wrong" in their character arcs.

 

...But as a minority in real life I have a little bit of a hard time not having some cynicism around this line of thinking. Gods know we have enough of an IRL problem of the majority experience being expected and all minority experiences being doubted or pushed into neat little boxes to fit the narrative.

 

Tl;DR: If it's not ruining your character arc in some way and it's not completely cross with the lore - It's highly likely you're overthinking it from the perspective of a majority experience.

It's not that freaking unlikely that some mi'qote walked up north at some stage.

[Michikyou]

As others have stated almost perfectly with memes... Here we go again.

I'm going to simply ask: Do they need a reason, really? I mean as long as they're not making up their own lore wildly and deciding to be a vampire tribe of Mi'qote Ishgardians who secretly run the place.. Why should they need to justify themselves.

 

I agree with all exceptions obviously, if you're just out to completely break lore to play your own thing; then expect people to take issue simply because they don't want their character influenced by things that seem inherently "wrong" in their character arcs.

 

...But as a minority in real life I have a little bit of a hard time not having some cynicism around this line of thinking. Gods know we have enough of an IRL problem of the majority experience being expected and all minority experiences being doubted or pushed into neat little boxes to fit the narrative.

 

Tl;DR: If it's not ruining your character arc in some way and it's not completely cross with the lore - It's highly likely you're overthinking it from the perspective of a majority experience.

It's not that freaking unlikely that some mi'qote walked up north at some stage.

I don't see how being a minority IRL plays into this - I mean, this is not a realistic setting. Its a setting with dragons and thousands of years of racial tensions and legitimate reasons for exclusion.

 

I understand there are issues with people who begin to play the game without any knowledge, my questioning is why don't those players or peoples go about correcting their lore or characters to fit the setting. Especially those who have been playing for a while now.

 

Sure you aren't harming anyone - but why disregard the work the lore devs and such have put into the game by working in to be a special snowflake?

[Chris Ganale]

I've heard stories of people being bothered in whispers about lorebreaking by random people not even roleplaying with them

 

Can confirm, does happen. And it wasn't even to my miqo fake!DRG.

 

It bothers me greatly when I see people claiming to be a ... I don't know:

Miqo'te half Magitek garlean-doman.

 

So someone can't have a miqo'te, a race which originally immigrated from across the seas in the first place, have lived in Doma, only to be conscripted by the Garlean Empire due to the area's subjugation?

[Michikyou]

I've heard stories of people being bothered in whispers about lorebreaking by random people not even roleplaying with them

 

Can confirm, does happen. And it wasn't even to my miqo fake!DRG.

 

It bothers me greatly when I see people claiming to be a ... I don't know:

Miqo'te half Magitek garlean-doman.

 

So someone can't have a miqo'te, a race which originally immigrated from across the seas in the first place, have lived in Doma, only to be conscripted by the Garlean Empire due to the area's subjugation?

We have 0 confirmation that there are even Miqo'te in other countries but this one.  We only know for sure that the races in Doma are most likely limited to: garlean Citizens (being predominately Hyur and Elezen of conquered countries and areas. one miqo'te and one lalafell. There was also ONE Roe mentioned who adopted a garlean naming convention. But other than that. Hyur.) and Au ra and Domans (hyurs).  I'm not saying you cant be whatever you want, I'm just saying the integrity of the lore is at stake when you move too far away from what we have confirmation of.

 

We literally don't -know- if other countries have Miqo'te. But we know their ancestors (thousands and thousands and thousands of years ago) crossed the frozen sea to this continent and settled here.

 

Fifth Umbral Era - Element: Ice

Less than 4000 (YA) more than 3000(YA) --- Ancestors of the Miqo'te tribes travel across the frozen seas following food.

 

The ones that remained probably couldn't feed themselves hence the migrations in the first place. When we get confirmation, sure - thats cool. But we don't have it yet.

[Warren Castille]

I think the reason that catdrg gets so much scrutiny is because we know that Ishgard is xenophobic as fuck, and that Dragoons are a symbol of their nation's might.

 

Of all the things that are symbolic of the nation of Ishgard' date=' few are more recognized than the dragoon.[/quote']

 

Hm. This is gonna get reeeaaal awkward as I show my lack of world culture.

 

Real-world France has a reputation for being similarly xenophobic. Preliminary glances at wikipedia of all places gives us this link detailing an "award" given out to prominent French folks who embrace - gasp! - the English language. It's similar to the Razzie Awards, only instead of being fun at the sake of bad movies, it's mocking someone for not being French enough. It has been brought to my attention, however, that this is far from the prevailing national attitude and is probably not the best example.

 

Similarly, this link discusses how internally, France is also phobic against itself; speaking a dialect or language other than French in school is grounds for punishment.

 

It's not too far-fetched to think that Ishgard would be as accepting to "lesser races" as the French are to fat, cheeseburger eating Americans butchering their language.

 

And then letting that guy join their special forces.

[Michikyou]

I think the reason that catdrg gets so much scrutiny is because we know that Ishgard is xenophobic as fuck, and that Dragoons are a symbol of their nation's might.

 

Of all the things that are symbolic of the nation of Ishgard, few are more recognized than the dragoon.

 

Hm. This is gonna get reeeaaal awkward as I show my lack of world culture.

 

Real-world France has a reputation for being similarly xenophobic. Preliminary glances at wikipedia of all places gives us this link detailing an "award" given out to prominent French folks who embrace - gasp! - the English language. It's similar to the Razzie Awards, only instead of being fun at the sake of bad movies, it's mocking someone for not being French enough.

 

Similarly, this link discusses how internally, France is also phobic against itself; speaking a dialect or language other than French in school is grounds for punishment.

 

It's not too far-fetched to think that Ishgard would be as accepting to "lesser races" as the French are to fat, cheeseburger eating Americans butchering their language.

 

And then letting that guy join their special forces.

 

 

All of that. Yes. That.

[Kellach Woods]

So someone can't have a miqo'te, a race which originally immigrated from across the seas in the first place, have lived in Doma, only to be conscripted by the Garlean Empire due to the area's subjugation?

 

If you want to be technical about it, other than the Elezen every single race in Eorzea immigrated from across the seas.

 

Hyur : Surrounding continents and islands

Elezen : Sole inhabitants of Eorzea

Lalafell : Islands of the South Seas

Miqo'te : Walked across the seas in the Age of Endless Frost

Roegadyn : Not mentioned but assumed to not be natives due to Elezen description.

 

* * *

 

Not gonna touch what Warren brought up with a ten-foot pole. Too personal.

[Warren Castille]

Not gonna touch what Warren brought up with a ten-foot pole. Too personal.

 

I just hope folks realize my ignorance isn't born of malice.

[Gegenji]

We only know for sure that the races in Doma are most likely limited to: garlean Citizens (being predominately Hyur and Elezen of conquered countries and areas. one miqo'te and one lalafell. There was also ONE Roe mentioned who adopted a garlean naming convention. But other than that. Hyur.) and Au ra and Domans (hyurs).  I'm not saying you cant be whatever you want, I'm just saying the integrity of the lore is at stake when you move too far away from what we have confirmation of.

 

But if there is one miqo'te from Doma, couldn't that mean that there could be more? By having even one of another race there, you are technically setting a precedent for others to also be from there. There is confirmation that, yes, there is a Miqo'te and a Lalafell that came from Doma - not to mention that there was confirmed trade with Doma and Limsa, which could set the scene for a Sea Wolf finding the place charming and settling down. As long as you can explain it in a reasonable fashion (my "Answer the How" approach), should it really be that big of a deal?

 

The main reason I mention this was because my second ever RP in FFXIV (and in an MMO in general) was almost derailed by another player telling me that Chachan couldn't be a Lalafell from Doma. The player's character itself was rather antagonistic as well, but that led to some interesting RP and several interesting folks coming to the little Lalafell's rescue (Dogberry and Yangh shoutout!). The tells that sought to tell me that I was bad and should feel bad for trying to RP a Doman Lalafell, though, that's what really got to me.

 

It's not a fun thing to experience.

[Virella]

I think the reason that catdrg gets so much scrutiny is because we know that Ishgard is xenophobic as fuck, and that Dragoons are a symbol of their nation's might.

 

Of all the things that are symbolic of the nation of Ishgard, few are more recognized than the dragoon.

 

Hm. This is gonna get reeeaaal awkward as I show my lack of world culture.

 

Real-world France has a reputation for being similarly xenophobic. Preliminary glances at wikipedia of all places gives us this link detailing an "award" given out to prominent French folks who embrace - gasp! - the English language. It's similar to the Razzie Awards, only instead of being fun at the sake of bad movies, it's mocking someone for not being French enough.

 

Similarly, this link discusses how internally, France is also phobic against itself; speaking a dialect or language other than French in school is grounds for punishment.

 

It's not too far-fetched to think that Ishgard would be as accepting to "lesser races" as the French are to fat, cheeseburger eating Americans butchering their language.

 

And then letting that guy join their special forces.

 

That said, we have Lucia, who is Garlean.

 

Ishgard is very, very, very closed off, but it appears everyone can get in their good graces and work themselves up into their society. BUT. I would say these are very much exceptions, and you really, really need to work hard to get at those places. They wouldn't just train the first person passing by to become a dragoon. Oh no, I imagine they got to dedicate themselves for years to Ishgard before even sure a thing is considered.

 

Not to mention I've got this personal headcanon that becoming a Dragoon takes years and years and years of training, starting from a young age, and their powers are shrouded in mystery, even to other Ishgardians.

 

However, I'm really not fond of those exceptions, I'd sooner see people who fit in line with the majority of the NPCs. I won't shun people for roleplaying something what wouldn't fit their race/job combo, but I will raise a few eyebrows, and let my character react accordingly.

[Kellach Woods]

I just hope folks realize my ignorance isn't born of malice.

Nah - relationships between France and the overall Francophonie have always been done in an overall colonialist sense and honestly feel that concentrating on their acceptance of English as a way to describe their opinions on other races is not only reductive but a bad example taking that into account.

 

'cause typically if you're willing to learn the language they'll bend over backwards to help from what I remember. It's if you're unwilling to do so that things get awkward (also France's adoption rate of English words in their vocab is far, FAR higher than in the other places and it's only now starting to worry people who actually matter, rather than a bunch of reactionaries).

 

However I ain't French, just a dude who's had their entire culture shat on by 'em before.

[Kismet]

Let's take the egregious, caricature example of the Miqo'te Dragoon. My immediate response is that players who construct these characters are a textbook case of wanting to have their cake and eat it too. They want to play a pretty cat race and a badass spearman famed within the Final Fantasy mythos. I might be wrong, hence why I'm creating this thread to begin with!

 

I don't believe in the argument "It makes it more interesting", because I don't believe that an exotic race or exotic occupation is needed to make your character interesting (it is your character's character which makes your character interesting!).

 

I do not see how someone can give an answer to the questions you're asking without giving some variation of what I've bolded above, and have it still be logical and/or lore-abiding. I'm aware that's a very black and white way for me to view things, but it's how I feel.

 

For the life of me, I cannot think of why someone would RP something like... a Lominsan Roegadyn White Mage, for example... for any reason other than "I just really like WHM and Roes look cool" or "it's not boring, unlike a RPing a Roe Yellowjacket would be". That may or may not be a terrible example... But my point is that no matter what the reason, it's ultimately going to boil down to wanting to have one's cake and eat it. And if they're not trying to stick as closely to lore as possible, then that's fine. Go have fun and do whatever makes you happy.

 

I'm not saying this necessarily makes those people not worth RPing with or bad RPers in general. And neither is Seriphyn, to be clear. Just my two cents.

[Marisa]

Well, not quite a cat-dragoon, but I do play a half-miqo'te Ishgardian, which is possibly worse. It was, as many are, a case of making the character first, then joining the rp community later. I just love the character too much at this point to change her.  

 

That being said, I can absolutely justify it. Now, if we were trying to compare Eorzea to medieval Europe, inter-racial breeding would be almost unheard of. People just didn't get that far away from their place of origin, not unless they were diplomats or crusading armies. But Eorzea's not the middle ages, is it? It can't really be pinned to a time period, but if anything it's the late medieval or early colonial era. And during those eras, being a soldier or merchant meant you traveled a lot.  And you know what? Inter-racial babies suddenly became a thing.

 

 

Now, Ishgardian men are still men, regardless of their culture. Without fail, even today, one of the first things deployed soldiers will do in a foreign land is see the local women and say "I want to have sex with that." Hell, the US military has to give an entire speech/video about STDs for this exact reason. It is my understanding that Ishgardian knights venturing into the shroud pre-calamity was fairly commonplace. It was only a matter of time before some midlander saw the local cat-girls and decided he wanted to show them his lance.

[Warren Castille]

Well, not quite a cat-dragoon, but I do play a half-miqo'te Ishgardian, which is possibly worse. It was, as many are, a case of making the character first, then joining the rp community later. I just love the character too much at this point to change her.  

 

That being said, I can absolutely justify it. Now, if we were trying to compare Eorzea to medieval Europe, inter-racial breeding would be almost unheard of. People just didn't get that far away from their place of origin, not unless they were diplomats or crusading armies. But Eorzea's not the middle ages, is it? It can't really be pinned to a time period, but if anything it's the late medieval or early colonial era. And during those eras, being a soldier or merchant meant you traveled a lot.  And you know what? Inter-racial babies suddenly became a thing.

 

 

Now, Ishgardian men are still men, regardless of their culture. Without fail, even today, one of the first things deployed soldiers will do in a foreign land is see the local women and say "I want to have sex with that." Hell, the US military has to give an entire speech/video about STDs for this exact reason. It is my understanding that Ishgardian knights venturing into the shroud pre-calamity was fairly commonplace. It was only a matter of time before some midlander saw the local cat-girls and decided he wanted to show them his lance.

 

Can different races crossbreed?

 

Answer: Yes, but it is rare...and often difficult due to cultural differences, etc. which is why you don't see it often. The lore team has informed me that there will be future quests/events that touch on this and other issues, such as love and marriage.

 

A: Some of the lore makes it sounds like the conflict between the Hyur and Elezen got pretty heated while others make it sound like a long standing tension. What was the extent of those hostilities?

 

MCKF: I touched on this a little bit today in the live stream and there was a question about relationships between the races and crossbreeding. A lot of it doesn’t happen because while we have all these races living together in Eorzea, there’s this tension between them. That’s there because they have these histories of fighting for a long time and then not really making up, but agreeing to disagree and living together because it’s better than living by our self and being more susceptible to Garlean attacks or whatever. We work together because we have a common enemy type of thing. Most of the races don’t really like each other and it”s gone on through multiple Eras. There are times when Eorzea has been more populated by one race over another and there will be conflict there. With the Hyur and Elezen, that’s very recent. In the sixth astral era, Elezen migrated in and in that era they were like “we’re the first ones here!” even though they weren’t, but they were the first at the beginning of the sixth astral era and they settled and of course the pesky Hyur who are everywhere come in and the Elezen are like “oh my god we left you that whole continent up there why are you here!” and the Lalafell come in and you have these cycles of clashing and moving part and that gets ingrained in their society and their racial cultures. There’s always these power struggles, you’ll have times when the Lalafell rise for whatever reason and they’l side with one group and then turn on another group and that’s one of the reasons there’s not a lot of interracial relationships because even though they’re living in the same towns it’s like well yeah… but you’re an Elezen.

 

F: I can just imagine some young Elezen bringing home a Hyur woman and the Grandma going “Why couldn’t you have found a nice Elezen girl!”

 

MCKF: There’s a lot of that going on. Like i mentioned in the stream, in the future we’ll have some characters that are half one race and half another and we’ll see how they’re treated in society and quests with that.

 

Maybe.

[Marisa]

 

 

Maybe.

 

See, I don't get the whole "they don't usually interbreed because of racial tension" thing. The Romans and the Jews had more cultural tension than possible anyone else in history, yet Roman soldiers getting Jewish women pregnant was so common that some people even theorize that Jesus was half Roman (although, full disclosure, that theory mainly existed in Nazi Germany)

 

Sexual urges almost always trump racial conflict. If you haven't seen a white woman in 2 years, the Vietnamese gals are gonna start looking awfully cute. Same goes for Ishgardans and cat girls.

[Warren Castille]

 

 

Maybe.

 

See, I don't get the whole "they don't usually interbreed because of racial tension" thing. The Romans and the Jews had more cultural tension than possible anyone else in history, yet Roman soldiers getting Jewish women pregnant was so common that some people even theorize that Jesus was half Roman (although, full disclosure, that theory mainly existed in Nazi Germany)

 

Sexual urges almost always trump racial conflict. If you haven't seen a white woman in 2 years, the Vietnamese gals are gonna start looking awfully cute. Same goes for Ishgardans and cat girls.

 

If I've had anything hammered into my head the past couple of days, it's that we're not allowed to interject real-life logic into fantasy games.

 

Beyond that, Ishgard has been fighting the Dravanian war for one thousand years. They sealed their gates to outsiders a few years before the Calamity but after the fall of Ala Mhigo. While Ishgard does have an agreement with Gridania to be able to pursue heretics who flee into the Shroud, it's also likely that there's nothing keeping them from returning home.

 

Of course, this is all assumption based on what we've been told currently. I'm wondering if SE's going to give us a prominent miqo DRG NPC just to fuck with us.

[Martiallais]

As others have stated almost perfectly with memes... Here we go again.

I'm going to simply ask: Do they need a reason, really? I mean as long as they're not making up their own lore wildly and deciding to be a vampire tribe of Mi'qote Ishgardians who secretly run the place.. Why should they need to justify themselves.

 

I agree with all exceptions obviously, if you're just out to completely break lore to play your own thing; then expect people to take issue simply because they don't want their character influenced by things that seem inherently "wrong" in their character arcs.

 

...But as a minority in real life I have a little bit of a hard time not having some cynicism around this line of thinking. Gods know we have enough of an IRL problem of the majority experience being expected and all minority experiences being doubted or pushed into neat little boxes to fit the narrative.

 

Tl;DR: If it's not ruining your character arc in some way and it's not completely cross with the lore - It's highly likely you're overthinking it from the perspective of a majority experience.

It's not that freaking unlikely that some mi'qote walked up north at some stage.

I don't see how being a minority IRL plays into this - I mean, this is not a realistic setting. Its a setting with dragons and thousands of years of racial tensions and legitimate reasons for exclusion.

 

A bit off topic but I wanted to touch on this.

 

How often do you see dark skinned and/or minority knights portrayed, generally? In fantasy games on the whole? For most it's far easier to believe in magic and dragons and fantastical races than the existence and prominence of minority races in that sort of setting. I believe there was even some backlash on having a black knight on a popular fantasy show here recently (Once Upon a Time I think?)

 

How is it related? People draw comparisons from real life places and cultures. They do it a LOT, actually (I'd quote you Warren but your post came in while I was typing this). Minority characters are typically fairly lacking in MOST fantasy tales (which is something FF is actually really good about not doing, and one of the things I personally enjoy about it). So dealing with the 'you shouldn't be like this' or 'your character should look like this' for years can and does create some cynicism as was stated.

[Warren Castille]

As others have stated almost perfectly with memes... Here we go again.

I'm going to simply ask: Do they need a reason, really? I mean as long as they're not making up their own lore wildly and deciding to be a vampire tribe of Mi'qote Ishgardians who secretly run the place.. Why should they need to justify themselves.

 

I agree with all exceptions obviously, if you're just out to completely break lore to play your own thing; then expect people to take issue simply because they don't want their character influenced by things that seem inherently "wrong" in their character arcs.

 

...But as a minority in real life I have a little bit of a hard time not having some cynicism around this line of thinking. Gods know we have enough of an IRL problem of the majority experience being expected and all minority experiences being doubted or pushed into neat little boxes to fit the narrative.

 

Tl;DR: If it's not ruining your character arc in some way and it's not completely cross with the lore - It's highly likely you're overthinking it from the perspective of a majority experience.

It's not that freaking unlikely that some mi'qote walked up north at some stage.

I don't see how being a minority IRL plays into this - I mean, this is not a realistic setting. Its a setting with dragons and thousands of years of racial tensions and legitimate reasons for exclusion.

 

A bit off topic but I wanted to touch on this.

 

How often do you see dark skinned and/or minority knights portrayed, generally? In fantasy games on the whole? For most it's far easier to believe in magic and dragons and fantastical races than the existence and prominence of minority races in that sort of setting. I believe there was even some backlash on having a black knight on a popular fantasy show here recently (Once Upon a Time I think?)

 

How is it related? People draw comparisons from real life places and cultures. They do it a LOT, actually (I'd quote you Warren but your post came in while I was typing this). Minority characters are typically fairly lacking in MOST fantasy tales (which is something FF is actually really good about not doing, and one of the things I personally enjoy about it). So dealing with the 'you shouldn't be like this' or 'your character should look like this' for years can and does create some cynicism as was stated.

 

I actually agree with you. I'll raise my eyebrows ICly if someone tells me they're a half-breed from a "strange" location but I don't care if people do it. I was just parroting what SE told us officially: No, crossbreeding isn't common. Hence the reaction when people use it; No one's used to seeing it.

[Edvyn]

being able to justify something does not actually mean it is a good idea 8-)

[Branson Thorne]

Even if I don't agree with who or how your character is roleplayed, I simply ask that you back it up somehow. So if you are indeed roleplaying an odd character, be prepared for me to bombard you with why that is, on an IC level.

 

And much like real life, it better make sense or buh-bye.

 

That's not to say that you have to change how you Rp to fit with what I want. Infact you are free to go about with your Rp and I will not bother you, but I will have no desire to rp with you. OOC I do not care with what/who you are. IC I do.

[DrDucker]

this is the godlike option select of exotic backgrounds

 

1. - it roots people out who can't jive with it, which means you wouldnt rp with them consistantly anyways

 

2. - it roots in the people that are chill and don't care, which you would rp consistantly with