Character Age and Census [Poll]

[Ignacius]

Hey.  Was just chatting with my FC last night and realized Eorzea, least the rp part of it, seems to be inhabited by many, many young people.  But, where are all the older characters to pass own their wisdom and yell at the young to get off their lawns?

 

Thought it be fun to post characters age here and make a sort of census for ages.

 

So, for me, Ki is Mid-Thirties.

 

Yours?

 

Exceptions abound, of course, but most RPers will play characters a few years older than themselves, if not around the same age.  This has to do with people feeling as though they're at the peak of their lives at the moment they're living in.  You can traditionally (but, I stress, not always accurately) guess both the average age of a community and the players by their ages.

 

When I was 12-13, my characters were 17 or 18, usually.  Those were, what I thought, the best years.  However, when I was 18, I was playing characters in their early twenties.  When I left college, my characters were in their late 20s to early 30s.  Now that I'm 30, my characters are in their mid-30s.

 

However, I've constantly said that you can't play a character well that you can't simulate in your mind.  In a way, I think age has made me better at my craft.  I've very often played criminals, and when I was young, my "criminals" were assassins on a ninja anime level.  When I was twenty, my characters became somewhat more measured, brutal, but sly.  Still, though, they were like street gangsters.  By the time I was well into my 20s, my people played thugs but were by then highly secretive and known for playing in the background, running money operations, and were becoming more "real".

 

Today, I think Orleans is the most realistic criminal I've played.  He's based not just on decades of research on everything from biker gangs to Chinese triad organizations, but on my own maturity as a person.  I'm not sure I was capable of playing this kind of character convincingly when I was younger, even though I think one of the reasons I play it so well is practice.

 

However, it's generally accurate to back the years off the average character age and you'll get the average age of the players.  I'd say the average age of the players here probably are college age.

[Lucius Ignatius]

Kiht'a is 18-19. However I plan to solidify when I know more on the lore and him. He will age though.

[C'kayah Polaali]

C'kayah's 31, Setoh's 30.

 

I wanted C'kayah to be in his mid twenties during the Calamity. Setoh's a cheap-muscle mercenary turned skilled-assassin mercenary, so he needed to have some time to develop those skills.

[LiveVoltage]

Despite how tiny and young Sarnai looks, she is actually 29, though most consider her to be around her early 20's.

[Shoshopu]

From youngest to oldest- Awyrbyrt turned 17 last month, Dyrstswys is 19 (she'll be 20 in August), Shoshopu turned 24 in May, Lahzlona is 25 (and I forget her birthday), and just the other day I made Dyrstswys's older sister Merlgeim ingame, and she's 28.

 

... I accidentally hit the option after the one I meant to because my aim is really bad and I wasn't paying attention, though. I meant to vote 15-19, 20-24 and 25-29 but accidentally voted 15-19, 20-24 and 30-34. orz

 

edit: arkamas voted but didn't feel like posting, but Fyrilsunn is like 37. I think all of his characters except for Shopu's brother Jujuwai are in their 30s, Jujuwai isn't that old yet but he's close.

[Masaki Moui]

Since I like to play in a kind of real-time and the game was just beginning for me when I joined 2.0, I set Masaki and some other MQ founders to only be in that young, golden prime of 18. But it's been two years since then so he's having his 'amaga I'm twenty! I'm so old' experience this year. (His nameday was just on the 13th too.) My goal though is to play through the game from young to old and age the characters as the game progresses. I wanted to start with a young, ambitious but still rather inexperienced character and push him along the road of life.

 

Since that time I've also created a more mature lancer character who is an Elezen and a kind of guest of the lodge. She's somewhere between 30 and 34 without a definitive age yet. But she's the only real character I have in that age range because I want my MQ crew to age with the game. I want to look back in like 10 years and peruse old threads with nostalgia and sometimes laugh at how foolish those 18 year-olds were. Even now I can look back on the 'days before Heavensward' in that way.

[allgivenover]

When I was 12-13, my characters were 17 or 18, usually.  Those were, what I thought, the best years.  However, when I was 18, I was playing characters in their early twenties.  When I left college, my characters were in their late 20s to early 30s.  Now that I'm 30, my characters are in their mid-30s.

 

When I first started I played much older characters (sometimes 20-30 years older), yet the older I get, the more I seem to want to RP characters on the cusp of adulthood. I don't know why exactly.

[Jana]

I played a 37 year old Elin on Tera, so I decided to play younger characters here. Jana and her sister are 20 and 19 respectively while my undeveloped Au Ra alt is somewhere in her teens.

[Caspar]

When I was 12-13, my characters were 17 or 18, usually.  Those were, what I thought, the best years.  However, when I was 18, I was playing characters in their early twenties.  When I left college, my characters were in their late 20s to early 30s.  Now that I'm 30, my characters are in their mid-30s.

 

When I first started I played much older characters (sometimes 20-30 years older), yet the older I get, the more I seem to want to RP characters on the cusp of adulthood. I don't know why exactly.

My characters have gotten younger as i grow older. I rarely played teenagers in HS and now do so regularly.

[Marisa]

14 year old Marisa didn't qualify for the poll

[Knight Kat]

Kiht Jakkya will be 25 in October.

 

Qara Hotgo is 20.

[Vahn Kasch]

Vahn here is 35. Or so that is what he tells people.

[Kou]

I have two, but they're conveniently in the different age brackets (./sob)

 

Akino is sitting at a solid 24.

 

K'washi is 18, soon 19. He's the youngest character I've played in a long time, to be honest.

 

As I find myself aging, I find it harder to play younger characters. The youngest character I've ever played is... 4? 5? Around there. Cute as hell, but the amount of energy in a 4-5 year old child is hard to replicate when you're 21 and getting beaten to a figurative pulp by Life.

 

I'm sure I'll start to play characters in their late 20s to 30s soon, if the trend is anything to go by. Unfortunately, I'm the type of roleplayer who can't roleplay things they have no experience with, and research can only get you so far.

[Reshie]

Eresh is 27 and Brannie is 30. Both are fairly young but have some life experiences to back them and their personalities up.

Adelina is actually in her late 40s, probably somewhere around 48 but I haven't picked an exact age yet. She's the oldest of my group as she's gone the farthest in life. One does not rise up through the ranks within a few mere years. She's had to work and build from the ground up which has taken a while but now she gets to enjoy her brothel empire and the rewards that come with it.

[Asmodean]

Asmodean is 26, which given the world didn't feel too old and would be a good medium for an traveler like him.  Not so long and monster will confusing him for a lala and not so odd that his ability to defend himself has yet to dull.

[Zezeki]

Zeki is 51.

[SM Nick]

Nicholas is currently 18. I'm that age so it's easy for me to RP as.

[mongi291]

Isaulde is 27.

[Eses Fafa]

I was quite conflicted when I chose my age, wondering whether I should stick with being a fresh newbie in ARR or having a backstory before the Calamity around 1.0 despite not being around. I chose the latter and I beliiiieeve that this one is around 27/28.

[rainichan]

Ness and Karima are 17-18.

Rivienne and Lune are 25 (or in Lune's case, 24 or 25 because I haven't really settled on an age whoops)

Caelia is the oldest at 31. I originally had her younger, but aged her up in the end.

[Diskwrite]

Ojene is 52. She's an Elezen, yeah, but still. She's definitely older.

[Heidrek]

Heidrek is in his mid-twenties, even if I haven't nailed down where exactly. It's nice to go younger when my last significant RP character from WoW had been through the wringer of time and circumstance a few times, so I like having the room for growth going forward.

[Martiallais]

Martiallais is in his late 20s, like 28-29ish. I'm still balancing his age around his siblings and such.

 

Aedan is pretty fresh into the 30s but I haven't quite narrowed it down yet.

[Miko Shiroi]

My main character, K'heyo, is 26.

My alternate character, Ghoa, is 28.

 

I plan to age them every irl year, however, so they won't stay younger forever.

[Mia Moui]

Mia is 20 because of plot reasons and I needed her to be old enough to have accomplished a few things but still inexperienced enough to make serious mistakes thanks to her youth.