characters that seemingly break lore (but don't)

[Unnamed Mercenary]

-deep sigh- Oh well... I guess at the very least, Amelia doesn't ICly CALL herself that... I just do. Kind of sucks... I don't want to be a special snowflake, I just wanna be a damn White Mage...

 

I guess as long as I just keep continuing to play her ICly as a gifted healer no one will notice my sin and shame...

 

-slinks off to lurk again for several months-

 

Wait! Come back! There's something you brought up that could be an excellent and potentially dangerous topic of discussion: What is it about having the title of White Mage that makes it more appealing than say, a Conjuror, Arcanist, Astrologian or Scholar? Naturally, we know that White Mage is a big-name job within the Final Fantasy series. But that's a concept that widens the scope of discussion beyond just FFXIV.

-mutters softly- Conjurers don't get the cool classic robes. They get shapeless potato sacks.

 

I guess being a long time fan of FF9, I always wanted to make a WHM/SMN combo. It's no secret that Amelia is heavily based off of Dagger. So naturally the role of a WHM and SMN was very appealing to me.

 

But you're right. It is really the title I'm being a baby about. I get bristly sometimes when I'm told "No, you can't do that because of lore" when mechanically, I WORKED for that damn title. I healed that damn tree with my own blood and sweat... leaving it a really messed up looking and smelling tree in the Black Shroud, but DAMN that quest was hard at the time!

 

Would being a conjurer instead of White Mage change Amelia's story? No. Mainly because I don't really have her walking around calling herself that. Again, it's just something I associate her with. I guess the most she'd ever say is call some of her abilities 'White Magic.'

 

I don't really want to make people mad by bending or breaking lore, but telling someone that they can't ICly be something that they can actually be in the game just seems... I dunno. There's a word for it that escapes me. Unfair-ish?

 

Again, it's not something I want because I want my character to be a special snowflake... but because it's something that just feels like it really fits. I know that thinking and feeling this way is wrong as a Role-player... and I know a lot of people disagree. For that I apologize.

 

 

 

Here is the part I tell you something amazing: Most of those fancy WHM robes really have nothing to do with White Mages (in FFXIV)! (Aside from the lv50 stuff. Yes, you did dig up a dead guy's robes that had been spread around the country). That fancy i90 robe? Rowena made 'em. All the other gear you've gotten from her? Basically crafted. So...yes, it might require the job crystal to equip because of game mechanics, but that's simply glamour and battle mechanics. Replicas of "legendary" or "artifact" equipment is [while yes, maybe rare for poor people or nonadventurers] common enough for people to have!

 

You've nothing to apologize for! Look the way to want to. ...now if you start casting White Magic, the lore hounds may OOCly question how. (but looking at the skills, the Battle Team at SE has made skills inconsistent all over. Why are Cure 2 and Aero 3 somehow Succor but the rest aren't?!)

 

Little edit: The colors of the CNJ robes are actually their rank. So I guess one levels from boring potato sack to shiny potato sack.

[Sylentmana]

-deep sigh- Oh well... I guess at the very least, Amelia doesn't ICly CALL herself that... I just do. Kind of sucks... I don't want to be a special snowflake, I just wanna be a damn White Mage...

 

I guess as long as I just keep continuing to play her ICly as a gifted healer no one will notice my sin and shame...

 

-slinks off to lurk again for several months-

 

Wait! Come back! There's something you brought up that could be an excellent and potentially dangerous topic of discussion: What is it about having the title of White Mage that makes it more appealing than say, a Conjuror, Arcanist, Astrologian or Scholar? Naturally, we know that White Mage is a big-name job within the Final Fantasy series. But that's a concept that widens the scope of discussion beyond just FFXIV.

-mutters softly- Conjurers don't get the cool classic robes. They get shapeless potato sacks.

 

I guess being a long time fan of FF9, I always wanted to make a WHM/SMN combo. It's no secret that Amelia is heavily based off of Dagger. So naturally the role of a WHM and SMN was very appealing to me.

 

But you're right. It is really the title I'm being a baby about. I get bristly sometimes when I'm told "No, you can't do that because of lore" when mechanically, I WORKED for that damn title. I healed that damn tree with my own blood and sweat... leaving it a really messed up looking and smelling tree in the Black Shroud, but DAMN that quest was hard at the time!

 

Would being a conjurer instead of White Mage change Amelia's story? No. Mainly because I don't really have her walking around calling herself that. Again, it's just something I associate her with. I guess the most she'd ever say is call some of her abilities 'White Magic.'

 

I don't really want to make people mad by bending or breaking lore, but telling someone that they can't ICly be something that they can actually be in the game just seems... I dunno. There's a word for it that escapes me. Unfair-ish?

 

Again, it's not something I want because I want my character to be a special snowflake... but because it's something that just feels like it really fits. I know that thinking and feeling this way is wrong as a Role-player... and I know a lot of people disagree. For that I apologize.

 

I totally get what you mean and feel the same way. Like you, my character is based on a Final Fantasy character (Refia, also a little bit on Mia from Golden Sun), and it ruffle my feathers when I was told by others that I am breaking lore. Honestly, though, I think it should only serve to encourage players like us to get more creative in our characters' presentations.

[FreelanceWizard]

You've nothing to apologize for! Look the way to want to. ...now if you start casting White Magic, the lore hounds may OOCly question how. (but looking at the skills, the Battle Team at SE has made skills inconsistent all over. Why are Cure 2 and Aero 3 somehow Succor but the rest aren't?!)

 

The lore and battle teams have an unfortunate history of coming into conflict in XIV -- the moving of elemental offensive magic to Thaumaturgy from Conjury is one such example that they've admitted to. I think it's safe to say that the battle team will sometimes say, "These are WHM Job skills because they'd be OP if they could be cross-classed or available to CNJ," and then the lore team says, "Welp, time to sweep that under the rug."

 

I'm a big supporter of "if the game says you can, you should be able to do so," which is why I advocate different approaches to using Succor or, indeed, using spells that the game classifies as Succor in a way that makes them not Succor. If your character's a skilled conjuror, surely they've created some spells of their own, perhaps some to keep people in the fight with less effort (Regen)? That big explosion of light you do (Holy)? Why, that's just a lightning-aspected spell (since we know that conjurers, per lore, have access to elemental magic). On the black mage side, that's not the "Flare" of the War of the Magi, it's just a customized, augmented fire spell.

 

To paraphrase a common (and silly, when you think about it) saying, when the lore team closes a door, they open a window. XIV really doesn't ban much of anything, and even when it bans one approach, others still exist, ready to be employed by the enterprising RPer.

[S'imba]

You've nothing to apologize for! Look the way to want to.  ...now if you start casting White Magic, the lore hounds may OOCly question how. (but looking at the skills, the Battle Team at SE has made skills inconsistent all over. Why are Cure 2 and Aero 3 somehow Succor but the rest aren't?!)

 

The lore and battle teams have an unfortunate history of coming into conflict in XIV -- the moving of elemental offensive magic to Thaumaturgy from Conjury is one such example that they've admitted to. I think it's safe to say that the battle team will sometimes say, "These are WHM Job skills because they'd be OP if they could be cross-classed or available to CNJ," and then the lore team says, "Welp, time to sweep that under the rug."

 

I'm a big supporter of "if the game says you can, you should be able to do so," which is why I advocate different approaches to using Succor or, indeed, using spells that the game classifies as Succor in a way that makes them not Succor. If your character's a skilled conjuror, surely they've created some spells of their own, perhaps some to keep people in the fight with less effort (Regen)? That big explosion of light you do (Holy)? Why, that's just a lightning-aspected spell (since we know that conjurers, per lore, have access to elemental magic). On the black mage side, that's not the "Flare" of the War of the Magi, it's just a customized, augmented fire spell.

 

To paraphrase a common (and silly, when you think about it) saying, when the lore team closes a door, they open a window. XIV really doesn't ban much of anything, and even when it bans one approach, others still exist, ready to be employed by the enterprising RPer.

This is the perfect point. I personally believe that SE keeps the lore really loosely defined to keep one of the big visions behind at least the original final fantasy alive. The whole the player being in control of the story, though this could only be done to an extent since there still needs to be some sort of story for the player to follow. They want the player to have an extent of control over what goes on in the game. Though it is much harder to accomplish in a mmo setting I still think they try their best to stick with it. Give the player enough information to be able to create a character off of. 

 

Though more on topic there is a good chance of some people who would try to harass you about breaking the lore, since some people tend to take anything a character says about themselves as what their character is saying is 100% true. They get so caught up in telling people off about how they are a lore breaker they don't really take the time to think that there are other factors contributing to why they are claiming that point. 

 

If it's something your character would do, go for it. Hopefully you find a lot of gullible people to believe her. I mean S'imba is at least gullible enough to fall for most anything someone claims to be.

[Amelia]

You've nothing to apologize for! Look the way to want to.  ...now if you start casting White Magic, the lore hounds may OOCly question how. (but looking at the skills, the Battle Team at SE has made skills inconsistent all over. Why are Cure 2 and Aero 3 somehow Succor but the rest aren't?!)

 

The lore and battle teams have an unfortunate history of coming into conflict in XIV -- the moving of elemental offensive magic to Thaumaturgy from Conjury is one such example that they've admitted to. I think it's safe to say that the battle team will sometimes say, "These are WHM Job skills because they'd be OP if they could be cross-classed or available to CNJ," and then the lore team says, "Welp, time to sweep that under the rug."

 

I'm a big supporter of "if the game says you can, you should be able to do so," which is why I advocate different approaches to using Succor or, indeed, using spells that the game classifies as Succor in a way that makes them not Succor. If your character's a skilled conjuror, surely they've created some spells of their own, perhaps some to keep people in the fight with less effort (Regen)? That big explosion of light you do (Holy)? Why, that's just a lightning-aspected spell (since we know that conjurers, per lore, have access to elemental magic). On the black mage side, that's not the "Flare" of the War of the Magi, it's just a customized, augmented fire spell.

 

To paraphrase a common (and silly, when you think about it) saying, when the lore team closes a door, they open a window. XIV really doesn't ban much of anything, and even when it bans one approach, others still exist, ready to be employed by the enterprising RPer.

This is the perfect point. I personally believe that SE keeps the lore really loosely defined to keep one of the big visions behind at least the original final fantasy alive. The whole the player being in control of the story, though this could only be done to an extent since there still needs to be some sort of story for the player to follow. They want the player to have an extent of control over what goes on in the game. Though it is much harder to accomplish in a mmo setting I still think they try their best to stick with it. Give the player enough information to be able to create a character off of. 

 

Though more on topic there is a good chance of some people who would try to harass you about breaking the lore, since some people tend to take anything a character says about themselves as what their character is saying is 100% true. They get so caught up in telling people off about how they are a lore breaker they don't really take the time to think that there are other factors contributing to why they are claiming that point. 

 

If it's something your character would do, go for it. Hopefully you find a lot of gullible people to believe her. I mean S'imba is at least gullible enough to fall for most anything someone claims to be.

 

Well, again. Ami would never just outright call herself a White Mage. It's plainly what I call her, because that's what I associate her with. Fits the character. I don't think she ever gives herself a title as such other than 'a gifted healer.'

[Greybarren]

You've nothing to apologize for! Look the way to want to.  ...now if you start casting White Magic, the lore hounds may OOCly question how. (but looking at the skills, the Battle Team at SE has made skills inconsistent all over. Why are Cure 2 and Aero 3 somehow Succor but the rest aren't?!)

 

The lore and battle teams have an unfortunate history of coming into conflict in XIV -- the moving of elemental offensive magic to Thaumaturgy from Conjury is one such example that they've admitted to. I think it's safe to say that the battle team will sometimes say, "These are WHM Job skills because they'd be OP if they could be cross-classed or available to CNJ," and then the lore team says, "Welp, time to sweep that under the rug."

 

I'm a big supporter of "if the game says you can, you should be able to do so," which is why I advocate different approaches to using Succor or, indeed, using spells that the game classifies as Succor in a way that makes them not Succor. If your character's a skilled conjuror, surely they've created some spells of their own, perhaps some to keep people in the fight with less effort (Regen)? That big explosion of light you do (Holy)? Why, that's just a lightning-aspected spell (since we know that conjurers, per lore, have access to elemental magic). On the black mage side, that's not the "Flare" of the War of the Magi, it's just a customized, augmented fire spell.

 

To paraphrase a common (and silly, when you think about it) saying, when the lore team closes a door, they open a window. XIV really doesn't ban much of anything, and even when it bans one approach, others still exist, ready to be employed by the enterprising RPer.

This is the perfect point. I personally believe that SE keeps the lore really loosely defined to keep one of the big visions behind at least the original final fantasy alive. The whole the player being in control of the story, though this could only be done to an extent since there still needs to be some sort of story for the player to follow. They want the player to have an extent of control over what goes on in the game. Though it is much harder to accomplish in a mmo setting I still think they try their best to stick with it. Give the player enough information to be able to create a character off of. 

 

Though more on topic there is a good chance of some people who would try to harass you about breaking the lore, since some people tend to take anything a character says about themselves as what their character is saying is 100% true. They get so caught up in telling people off about how they are a lore breaker they don't really take the time to think that there are other factors contributing to why they are claiming that point. 

 

If it's something your character would do, go for it. Hopefully you find a lot of gullible people to believe her. I mean S'imba is at least gullible enough to fall for most anything someone claims to be.

 

Well, again. Ami would never just outright call herself a White Mage. It's plainly what I call her, because that's what I associate her with. Fits the character. I don't think she ever gives herself a title as such other than 'a gifted healer.'

 

Perhaps if this helps, your character Ami is of the White Mage archetype, but not the class/job.  Your character fits the mold by OOC description, but since she never calls herself that ICly this type of think would seem to apply in my head.

 

My own character is a similar case.  Tristram's archetype is easily "woodsman" or "ranger", but when IC the best representation is botanist.  ICly he would never call himself a botanist nor is he a member of that guild, but class works of his IC appearance most of the time.

 

I've had the viewpoint of a disconnect of roleplay vs. mechanics, so archetypes fit better into this sort of descriptive thing for myself.

 

At the end of the day though, we all handle the lore and/or mechanics with some creative license to get our characters where we want them to be.  And it's your character, no one can take that from you.  Those that enjoy roleplaying with your character as well as those that discover they enjoy roleplaying will do so.  Those what don't, well not really that big of thing if they don't RP with you ... they aren't there to be part of your characters story, are they?

 

P.S. - I think potato sacks are hawt, but I have a thing for hobos.

[Sylentmana]

 

Perhaps if this helps, your character Ami is of the White Mage archetype, but not the class/job.  Your character fits the mold by OOC description, but since she never calls herself that ICly this type of think would seem to apply in my head.

 

My own character is a similar case.  Tristram's archetype is easily "woodsman" or "ranger", but when IC the best representation is botanist.  ICly he would never call himself a botanist nor is he a member of that guild, but class works of his IC appearance most of the time.

 

I've had the viewpoint of a disconnect of roleplay vs. mechanics, so archetypes fit better into this sort of descriptive thing for myself.

 

At the end of the day though, we all handle the lore and/or mechanics with some creative license to get our characters where we want them to be.  And it's your character, no one can take that from you.  Those that enjoy roleplaying with your character as well as those that discover they enjoy roleplaying will do so.  Those what don't, well not really that big of thing if they don't RP with you ... they aren't there to be part of your characters story, are they?

 

P.S. - I think potato sacks are hawt, but I have a thing for hobos.

 

I never considered thinking of it in terms of archetypes. You just blew my mind.

[Amelia]

You've nothing to apologize for! Look the way to want to.  ...now if you start casting White Magic, the lore hounds may OOCly question how. (but looking at the skills, the Battle Team at SE has made skills inconsistent all over. Why are Cure 2 and Aero 3 somehow Succor but the rest aren't?!)

 

The lore and battle teams have an unfortunate history of coming into conflict in XIV -- the moving of elemental offensive magic to Thaumaturgy from Conjury is one such example that they've admitted to. I think it's safe to say that the battle team will sometimes say, "These are WHM Job skills because they'd be OP if they could be cross-classed or available to CNJ," and then the lore team says, "Welp, time to sweep that under the rug."

 

I'm a big supporter of "if the game says you can, you should be able to do so," which is why I advocate different approaches to using Succor or, indeed, using spells that the game classifies as Succor in a way that makes them not Succor. If your character's a skilled conjuror, surely they've created some spells of their own, perhaps some to keep people in the fight with less effort (Regen)? That big explosion of light you do (Holy)? Why, that's just a lightning-aspected spell (since we know that conjurers, per lore, have access to elemental magic). On the black mage side, that's not the "Flare" of the War of the Magi, it's just a customized, augmented fire spell.

 

To paraphrase a common (and silly, when you think about it) saying, when the lore team closes a door, they open a window. XIV really doesn't ban much of anything, and even when it bans one approach, others still exist, ready to be employed by the enterprising RPer.

This is the perfect point. I personally believe that SE keeps the lore really loosely defined to keep one of the big visions behind at least the original final fantasy alive. The whole the player being in control of the story, though this could only be done to an extent since there still needs to be some sort of story for the player to follow. They want the player to have an extent of control over what goes on in the game. Though it is much harder to accomplish in a mmo setting I still think they try their best to stick with it. Give the player enough information to be able to create a character off of. 

 

Though more on topic there is a good chance of some people who would try to harass you about breaking the lore, since some people tend to take anything a character says about themselves as what their character is saying is 100% true. They get so caught up in telling people off about how they are a lore breaker they don't really take the time to think that there are other factors contributing to why they are claiming that point. 

 

If it's something your character would do, go for it. Hopefully you find a lot of gullible people to believe her. I mean S'imba is at least gullible enough to fall for most anything someone claims to be.

 

Well, again. Ami would never just outright call herself a White Mage. It's plainly what I call her, because that's what I associate her with. Fits the character. I don't think she ever gives herself a title as such other than 'a gifted healer.'

 

Perhaps if this helps, your character Ami is of the White Mage archetype, but not the class/job.  Your character fits the mold by OOC description, but since she never calls herself that ICly this type of think would seem to apply in my head.

 

My own character is a similar case.  Tristram's archetype is easily "woodsman" or "ranger", but when IC the best representation is botanist.  ICly he would never call himself a botanist nor is he a member of that guild, but class works of his IC appearance most of the time.

 

I've had the viewpoint of a disconnect of roleplay vs. mechanics, so archetypes fit better into this sort of descriptive thing for myself.

 

At the end of the day though, we all handle the lore and/or mechanics with some creative license to get our characters where we want them to be.  And it's your character, no one can take that from you.  Those that enjoy roleplaying with your character as well as those that discover they enjoy roleplaying will do so.  Those what don't, well not really that big of thing if they don't RP with you ... they aren't there to be part of your characters story, are they?

 

P.S. - I think potato sacks are hawt, but I have a thing for hobos.

 

Y'know...? You actually just made me feel WORLDS better.

 

Thank you. :3

[Desitjant]

I think that usually, if you can pull it off ICly, people will leave you alone OOCly... and if anything compliment you on originality. Creativity is the foundation for any RP, ya know? "Pulling it off" is kinda vague, but I think of it along the lines of:

 

1) Know your story and keep it straight. 

Once you start contradicting yourself, someone will Law&Order your "tailed but not really" ass. Probably ICly. Consistency is key!

 

2) Anticipate and prepare yourself for the scrutiny you'll receive. 

It will help you to avoid falling into #1, and it keeps the RP from grinding to a halt while you cook up responses on the fly.

 

3) Consider the other person's perspective. 

Stonewalling someone's interrogation typically isn't that much fun, for either party (though there's a time and place for everything!). Luckily, you almost always have a few options.

 

- Circular Logic: it's a special kind of disheartening when you realize someone has lead you on a wild chocobo chase back to their original point. And it tends to resonate with our RL selves.

 

- Non-Logic: maybe "Hey guyz I'ma Black Mage now" has a few bats in his steepled hat. In his wild world, 

A+B=C 

D-B=C  

A/D = -(moogle)^2 

 

Take the derivative and Voila! 

Black Mage.

 

- Tactful Acknowledgement: Revel in the skepticism! 

If Femiqo'te "Nunh" is lying through her teeth about her heritage, for whatever reason, perhaps she could use /em to convey a sentiment that only other Miqo'te would pick up on. A certain tail twitch or ear angle could mean, 

 

*Oh, you know that I know that you know! But whatcha gonna do about it?* 

 

/em HissSpitMROWR etc.