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Is anyone else having difficulty RPing their Au Ra?


Ashe

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Specifically Xaela...

I have about near given up with Shar and I know a lot of others who have given up or running into walls with their RP with Au Ra and more specifically Xaela. 

I'v been trying so hard to RP with her and it's just so...bland. She's so bland and I think it's because the lack of any real NPC guide to how Xaela are supposed to act. 

 

How is everyone else coping with this or did you give up and change your character to something else? 

I really am thinking of just switching her and my other alt (he doesn't have a wiki yet >> ) so I can RP on him more and have it actually be interesting...

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This is food for thought.

 

I always thought of the Xaela as a kind of race inspired by the Mongolian nomads that ride the steppes of their homeland and build elaborate tents to rest their heads. The section of Othard that the devs describe as home of the Xaela involves how the tribe used to 'ride the steppes' of Othard or such. So my headcanon immediately went to Mongolia.

 

TvyamNb-BivtNwcoxtkc5xGBuGkIMh_nj4UJHQKuorcvdR6Q1qYFG_JiiA0p8wj9OR5FoUIVyo4gqg

 

a496c5b3d1e6a974a16d7948d07ebfd1.jpg

 

 

So if you are looking for inspiration, I recommend checking out the Mongolian nomads.

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I learned a lot about the mongols before I switched my major in college.

I am wondering if it's just the fact I'm RPing a female character (I am a girl who sucks at rping girls >>) but she's just so boring. I am comparing her to all of the stuff I do on my Elezen and it's like...she's so lame >.< I can't think of ways to change her.

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I am aware of that. My character has a tribe and I've read all of the stupidly limited lore available on Xaela. It's so difficult to find any reason to have any of them in Eorzea and make them feel like they belong there...there aren't many Xaela npcs.

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I am aware of that. My character has a tribe and I've read all of the stupidly limited lore available on Xaela. It's so difficult to find any reason to have any of them in Eorzea and make them feel like they belong there...there aren't many Xaela npcs.

 

Well, that's probably intentional. Au Ra escaped the Empire in Othard and are in Eorzea as refugees. A lot of those refugees would be survivors and/or exceptional individuals (in other words, players).

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I am aware of that. My character has a tribe and I've read all of the stupidly limited lore available on Xaela. It's so difficult to find any reason to have any of them in Eorzea and make them feel like they belong there...there aren't many Xaela npcs.

 

Well, that's probably intentional. Au Ra escaped the Empire in Othard and are in Eorzea as refugees. A lot of those refugees would be survivors and/or exceptional individuals (in other words, players).

 

Adding to that, it's fairly implied throughout the game that the Raen came to Eorzea with a rather large population compared to the Xaela. The Raen have more of a non-mobile, stable civilization about them, so I think they were more able to have access to leave Othard versus the nomadic Xaela. At least that is my head canon speaking.

 

I do find that Xaela are very rare to find in the game NPC-wise. Even compared to Raen.

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I have difficulty roleplaying an Au Ra and I haven't even made one.

 

Hah!

 

But in all seriousness, I can see where you're coming from. Since its the new thing to be, there's a ton of "Flavor Of The Month"-ing going on with people making new Au Ra or using a Fantasia to repurpose an older character, and with limited lore available for their mannerisms, I've seen multiple interpretations of them. Some people type them as having accents or broken "English" to represent their foreign nature, some people don't. Some roleplay them as being very knit into clan concepts, others play them as odd loners who don't really fit a mold. Some people seem to believe that the Au Ra females made the long journey to Ul'dah to pursue the valiant quest of becoming scantily clad attention-bait.

 

Were it me, I'd examine first the question "what do /I/ want to get out of this character's story", and then link up with other Au Ra players who are of a like mind. If it's not the same as everybody else's vision of their racial lore, so what. Yours came from a different clan or whatever, so they're different, everyone gets to do their thing, and life carries on.

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She has a backstory and everything. Like...I am pretty good with lore. I've interpreted things with the lore given that ended up being affirmed in Heavensward (which made me really happy with Ashe 'cause it's legitimized a lot of what I was rping on him). Anyways, I don't understand the foreign accent thing with the domans and othard people at all. In the Japanese version of the game, they just speak a more archaic yet understandable version of the language...I never once thought about the language as a part of their characters.

 

I have a backstory on her. I've rpd with her multiple times but there is this wall with the limited amount of lore that can't be interpreted. I see people RPing their Xaela as like...regular Eorzeans who are all about that city life and it's like...that isn't really possible because they aren't about living in cities or really liking anyone outside of their own tribes (which is what I've interpreted). To get my character out of her tribe, I had her kicked out...

 

Also, lining up stuff with other Au Ra players sounds easy but with Xaela they are warring tribes. Does that, lore wise, even make sense? Some of the tribes were especially violent--Jhungid is a tribe that held an annual battle against the Kharlu and while they weren't doing that they were enslaving other tribes. That doesn't seem all too friendly to me...

 

I am surprised no one here has hit that wall with the lore...that or people are ignoring the lore completely >>

There is actually a TON of lore available to those who are Raen from Doma available in the game. RPing a Raen actually seems easy...

But Xaela....I guess it's easy if you ignore the lore >>

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Xaela and Au Ra in general are, as said, pretty open to interpretation. There are a lot of tribes with varying vague ideas. I've seen people really embellish on these and congregate with others to sorta rebuild themselves in Eorzea and others who left the old traditions as more of a backstory and started anew once their character traveled from Othard. I rather like that it was left open. If they had laid out specifics we would have had a bunch of copy cat Au Ra running about with really similar backstories. As it stands now I feel like there are enough opportunities to accommodate lots of different styles and ideas without anyone being right or wrong.

 

Maybe its time to flesh out the character a bit more and see if its their race that is causing the problem? I've had times when I felt so so about rping one of my alts because I just didn't feel the same connection with them as I did for other characters I had....Now my Xaela has a tumblr and a 400 page google doc worth of rp. Sometimes it just takes time or that one rp that really sets you off. Whether it is or isn't due to race, maybe its just time to throw a wrench in the works? Personally I like nothing more than to throw a character through the grinder and see what comes out on the other side. Making them fall apart is good insight into how they were held together in the first place.

 

Edit: Personally I rp my Xaela 'mid range'. I don't buy into the little mermaid school of dinglehopper *sticks teapot on head* 'oh what a lovely hat' thing I've seen. He is mostly mute so that solves a lot of the speech issues but he has trouble with certain concepts. Like Gil. His first rp ever was trying to buy room and board with arrowheads and a pelt and nearly getting thrown out into the snow for it. I think some of the tribes might be better adjusted than others. There was one (I can't recall the name) that interacted with the outsiders more and others like you said who were violent in nature. I think the latter might very well mesh more seamlessly. Granted...what we have seen also shows that Ishgard, Gridania and Ul'dah may not be terribly welcoming based on looks alone so they still might have issues. Limsa is the only city I've not heard of being called out on some sort of discrimination against the Au Ra.

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For me I was invited to the server and thankful. For me I've written a flexible backstory for either xaela or rean. (I play rean for the slightly more open for me)  I also change from my hyur but kept the name.

 

As far as problems I don't I have found any currently. The names I think is best researching in full before changing and you can change or not based what you want.

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She has a backstory and everything. Like...I am pretty good with lore. I've interpreted things with the lore given that ended up being affirmed in Heavensward (which made me really happy with Ashe 'cause it's legitimized a lot of what I was rping on him). Anyways, I don't understand the foreign accent thing with the domans and othard people at all. In the Japanese version of the game, they just speak a more archaic yet understandable version of the language...I never once thought about the language as a part of their characters.

 

I have a backstory on her. I've rpd with her multiple times but there is this wall with the limited amount of lore that can't be interpreted. I see people RPing their Xaela as like...regular Eorzeans who are all about that city life and it's like...that isn't really possible because they aren't about living in cities or really liking anyone outside of their own tribes (which is what I've interpreted). To get my character out of her tribe, I had her kicked out...

 

Also, lining up stuff with other Au Ra players sounds easy but with Xaela they are warring tribes. Does that, lore wise, even make sense? Some of the tribes were especially violent--Jhungid is a tribe that held an annual battle against the Kharlu and while they weren't doing that they were enslaving other tribes. That doesn't seem all too friendly to me...

 

I am surprised no one here has hit that wall with the lore...that or people are ignoring the lore completely >>

There is actually a TON of lore available to those who are Raen from Doma available in the game. RPing a Raen actually seems easy...

But Xaela....I guess it's easy if you ignore the lore >>

 

Actually, most of those things have cropped up pretty regularly for the Au Ra RP I'm involved in. There's underlying inter-tribal conflicts and suspicions going on, bloody brawls with agitators, squabbling and chest-puffing over whether Raens or Xaela are better. 

 

Not all the Xaela tribes are warring. Of the list we have, only maybe a fifth or fewer of them are noted for violence. That aside, they're not in Othard anymore. Most of them aren't with their tribes anymore. Old habits may die hard, but they are in a totally different environment, and some adaption is going to need to happen. It's not as if the local authorities would just shrug their shoulders at a Dotharl attacking everyone they come across, so it stands to reason that a Dotharl player has cause to curb their violence at least a bit.

 

Keep in mind that what we know about the Xaela tribes insofar as the little blurbs SE gave us are talking about those tribes in the context of their normal lives in Othard. Xaela refugees in Eorzea are living anything but ordinary lives right now, which means that there's a lot of room for players to come up with their own stuff.

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Specifically Xaela...

I have about near given up with Shar and I know a lot of others who have given up or running into walls with their RP with Au Ra and more specifically Xaela. 

I'v been trying so hard to RP with her and it's just so...bland. She's so bland and I think it's because the lack of any real NPC guide to how Xaela are supposed to act.

 

I don't know if I managed to skip a response that answers my question, so I'll just ask anyway - but what walls are you hitting with her? Do you have any player connections in her background, or is she completely free?

 

 

 

But I can relate, somewhat, when you say you're trying to RP, and finding it bland...But less so with my Xaela, and more with a couple of other non-Au Ra characters of mine. I don't like to admit it, since they HAVE made connections that I don't want to just cut off...

 

Sometimes I find that I'll sit there and fuss over lore and background details and "oh no what if this isn't lore-friendly, if it isn't perfect people are going to judge me" and then I'm just horribly tense when it comes to RPing that character that it sucks all of the fun out of it. But that's just how I am - I know most people actually enjoy that process, so...

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When in doubt, go Midlander master race.

 

Ew, no...

 

...

 

Anyways, I LOVE RP'ing as a male Au Ra Xaela. He's very rough around the edges due to his tribal/barbaric upbringing, but his time in Eorzea and the people he's met has slowly soften those edges, and I feel like it makes for interesting RP.

 

Before he came to Eorzea, he didn't know how to express emotions, because it was just not something they did in his tribe, so now that he's learning to open more up and confront all the oppressed anger and pain he's kept inside of him, he's evolving as a person.

 

Because damnit, the Au Ra have experienced so much pain! Their entire homeland has basically been obliterated by the Garleans, entire tribes wiped out and they were forced to flee from their country.

 

I guess because I have found some awesome people to RP with, that helps alot, because they have helped Vachir confronting his demons, and at the same time Vachir is caught up in their lives and their problems. That's what RP is about, imo.

 

I hope you find some way to make your RP and character more interesting. If you feel bored with it, make something new up and add it to the RP, or find someone else with some issues who your character can focus on and help with.

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I learned a lot about the mongols before I switched my major in college.

I am wondering if it's just the fact I'm RPing a female character (I am a girl who sucks at rping girls >>;) but she's just so boring. I am comparing her to all of the stuff I do on my Elezen and it's like...she's so lame >.< I can't think of ways to change her.

 

People are people and should be thought of as people first.

 

Instead of thinking about how much of an Au Ra your Au Ra is, think about what sort of person you want them to be, and what sorts of stories you want them to fit into. Once you have a steady basis for this, then the rest of their identity (being an Au Ra, being a Female, whatever) should be slotted in in ways that don't interfere with your core concept. Those two facets of their identity may change their outlook and the way that they behave, for example, but their core concept should still be intact regardless.

 

If you think too much in terms of "my character needs to be first and second," then you'll get so caught up in terms of making them seem to be those two things that you'll end up not knowing what you want to do with the character in the first place. Those two things are secondary; I like to say that any solid character concept can be re-purposed to be played by just about anything; a "skilled, wise-cracking treasure hunter" can be Indiana Jones, Lara Croft, or a Genderless Slug from Outer-Space, if that's what your story calls for.

 

So think of a solid grounding first, if you have one, and then build around what they are from there. Don't let whatever identity they have be the primary jumping-off point for their creation, or you're going to have a hard time, like you are right now.

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Were it me, I'd examine first the question "what do /I/ want to get out of this character's story", and then link up with other Au Ra players who are of a like mind.

 

This is the advice I would give.

 

The reason I was interested in rolling a Xaela was because I had a set of specific themes I wanted to explore and challenge other players with. One of those, for example, was the difficulty of collaborating with someone who possessed a fundamentally different way of thinking, and the tendency for people to project the standards of their own society upon those who are ignorant of those same standards.

 

Raen don't have nearly as much wiggle room as Xaela in exploring these themes. I appreciate the fact that there's little to no real concrete lore in Xaela because it's allowed me a great amount of freedom in writing them so I can establish the themes I want to establish.

 

So, like Calliope said, I'd try to find out what you want out of a character's story. How do you want to see them grow? What kind of reactions do you want to see out of them? What kind of conflicts or friction with other characters do you find interesting, and how can you write your character to cause such friction?

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When in doubt, go Midlander master race.

 

Ew, no...

 

...

 

Anyways, I LOVE RP'ing as a male Au Ra Xaela. He's very rough around the edges due to his tribal/barbaric upbringing, but his time in Eorzea and the people he's met has slowly soften those edges, and I feel like it makes for interesting RP.

 

Before he came to Eorzea, he didn't know how to express emotions, because it was just not something they did in his tribe, so now that he's learning to open more up and confront all the oppressed anger and pain he's kept inside of him, he's evolving as a person.

 

Because damnit, the Au Ra have experienced so much pain! Their entire homeland has basically been obliterated by the Garleans, entire tribes wiped out and they were forced to flee from their country.

 

I guess because I have found some awesome people to RP with, that helps alot, because they have helped Vachir confronting his demons, and at the same time Vachir is caught up in their lives and their problems. That's what RP is about, imo.

 

I hope you find some way to make your RP and character more interesting. If you feel bored with it, make something new up and add it to the RP, or find someone else with some issues who your character can focus on and help with.

Lizard kin please. You don't compare to Midlander superiority v_v

 

Back on topic, generally my advice when you make a character is to keep your options open. Focusing on following a special path tends to cause you to hit a lot of walls and eventually burn out. Try experimenting.

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Lizard kin please. You don't compare to Midlander superiority v_v

 

Back on topic, generally my advice when you make a character is to keep your options open. Focusing on following a special path tends to cause you to hit a lot of walls and eventually burn out. Try experimenting.

 

Superiority? I'm not sure a short, girlish-looking man should say that about himself. But I invite you to my bed to prove me wrong. Like you said... try experiementing. ;)

 

I agree on all other accounts. ^^

It's good to have a settled background for your character and give him/her some goals in life, but if that's the only thing they focus on, it can get boring and trivial, and as Aaron says, you can get burned out on it.

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There's nothing 'girlish' about most Midlanders::

 

baa472ca431be66577b0db8a56c3e226f23be4d1.jpg

 

...though back on topic: I've had some difficulty finding role-play on my Au Ra but I could say that about Graeham as well. Unless I specifically approach someone in advance and arrange something it seems like role-play doesn't lead anywhere. I might get some brief random role-play, yes, but after that? Nothing consistent. People have a habit of adding each other to their friend's list after initial contact and...then never getting around to interacting with each other ever again.

 

In some cases there's a good reason for this - such as being busy, in a different time zone or just no longer interested. In other cases it feels like many role-players are just inconsistent and unreliable.

 

It's why I mostly just stick to interacting with members of my FC these days. Though I do try and expand my network of contacts when and where I can. It's exhausting though at times.

 

I really like the tribal aspect of Au Ra - which is why I created a Xaela and a Dotharl at that. Yet far, far too many role-players are either only interested in getting ERP or they expect an Au Ra to basically just be portrayed as a Hyur with scales and horns.

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Lizard kin please. You don't compare to Midlander superiority v_v

 

Back on topic, generally my advice when you make a character is to keep your options open. Focusing on following a special path tends to cause you to hit a lot of walls and eventually burn out. Try experimenting.

 

Superiority? I'm not sure a short, girlish-looking man should say that about himself. But I invite you to my bed to prove me wrong. Like you said... try experiementing. ;)

 

I agree on all other accounts. ^^

It's good to have a settled background for your character and give him/her some goals in life, but if that's the only thing they focus on, it can get boring and trivial, and as Aaron says, you can get burned out on it.

Hey its called being bishounen!

 

And lmao i see what you did there.

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If we're all speaking of personal experiences, then no, I'm not having any difficulty. I chose a Dotharl [2 actually, working on leveling the second rather recently] because I knew it'd give me more to build off of. I've been there to feel the underlying conflicting tone that Dotharl did all these terrible things back in Othard, and after coming here to Eorzea, they do need to fight against that urge to kill and take as they please... But, there are outlets, ways to take care of that need if it can be called that by going after the Garleans be they the remnants in southern Eorzea or up in Azys Lla.

 

They gave us enough lore on the Xaela to begin with... I mean, you can pretty much free-build your back story in Othard to here... it's already established by the game story that the Xaela came down from Othard to coast of Ishgard [we're not so lucky like the Raen and Doman people who got to Thanalan and Vesper Bay] so we've a number of years to play with as well from landing, nearly being killed and executed by Temple Knights, to either fully adapting or scavenging to work out a possible life.

 

If you want help with a bit of theory building, feel free to message me here or find me in game on Skar Blackthorn

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