Character Refinement

[AltoSanctus122]

I am utterly new to FFXIV roleplaying standards because I had been stranded on non-RP servers, without any knowledge of where to go.

 

And now I've found it, and I have no clue what to do.

 

Still, as a writer, I have my pride.

 

And part of that pride is in knowing my limits.

 

I have a basis for race and class down, Au Ra (Xaela) Dark Knight. And while I won't describe her appearance, that's only because I usually save that for "on-site" modification, going with what feels and looks right.

 

I figured she'd be a rather kind person, despite her imposing appearance, often impulsively stepping in to protect others, regardless of whether or not she understands the situation.

 

She would not be someone who enjoys the light, preferring the serenity of night. This part I have done a little refinement in, as it's because she views the morning as "the time of masks." In contrast, the night is "the time of truths," where the proverbial masks of the day are discarded, and people feel more relaxed. And yes, she does take philosophical views on many things.

 

She is very impulsive, tending to think with her heart much of the time. However, she is not a fool, and does have a good head on her shoulders, even if she rarely looks before she leaps.

 

As a hero, she would be the "moonlight" to that of the average hero's "sunlight." When she's not deep in the throes of passion, she's surprisingly calm, and while still bright, she is soft and soothing, rather than blindingly brilliant. The jury's still out on whether or not I'll actually make her a hero.

 

I tend to follow a pattern of characters being very powerful, but requiring plenty of experience and self-discipline to prevent that power from just lashing out at everything. I'm probably going to try and break that pattern here.

 

There are just a couple things I'd like to brainstorm with these forums. And yes, I am asking for opinions.

 

Number one, her backstory. This one I'd had surprising trouble with, as usually backstories are my speciality. I'd like to hear a few ideas about how someone like this might end up wandering Eorzea, see if anything sparks my interest so I can build from it.

 

Number two, how would you improve upon/add to what I've already devised. Again, I'd really like to see some ideas. I know how barebones this character concept must seem, and I'd really love to improve.

 

Finally, number three, how would such a Dark Knight be received?

[Nebbs]

 

I tend to follow a pattern of characters being very powerful, but requiring plenty of experience and self-discipline to prevent that power from just lashing out at everything. I'm probably going to try and break that pattern here.

 

 

I'm going to pick up on this and rather than feed you suggested answers I offer instead some questions that may help change your view?

 

What do you like in other characters you RP with and what do you think they like in what characters you RP? From this maybe you can find some areas that you could change or enhance in your character to make it more engaging RP wise.

 

Powerful, intelligent, self-discipline are all virtues. If you forgot about those and came up with more flawed characteristics what could those be and how would that change your character? There is a lot of RP in the struggle of a ordinary character in extraordinary situations. For me the win for RP is those ongoing struggles and not the IC winning. 

 

If they had not been drawn to a Dark Knight, what would have become of them? That part of them is probably still alive and is a rich font of reflection, regret or even relief. It could add extra dimension to your character than just Dark Knight.

 

If your character as a child could meet your character as the adult, what advice would they each give the other?

 

I hope that helps get you some different views on possibilities for your character.

[GloryRhodes]

For character refinement you've given a lot of details, which isn't bad, but now comes critical thinking time.

 

For everything you've listed ask yourself why.

 

Why does she hold these beliefs, why does she act this way, why is she a Dark Knight, why is she a Xaela.

 

That last one is good and always helps a lot with characters.  Why is this character the race she is, as opposed to you making her something different?  How does her race effect her day to day life?  How does it effect her belief systems?  If she would work just as well as a hyur or Miqo'te, but you chose Xaela because you just like how they look, that's fine, but think about how that race defines who they are and how they interact with the world.

 

Also, while backstory is good ( and people here would be glad to help) you might try putting that aside until after you've played her a few times to get a feel for her.

 

I always try to start with motivations rather than backstory first.  Future (since you'll be playing there) rather than past (since you'll just be telling people about it).

 

What does your character want?  What are they willing to do to get it?

 

Characters with goals are always more interesting than characters with pasts because other players can interact with goals, less so with histories.

 

Overall you've got the outline for an average character with interesting quirks, but nothing that's incredibly original or even rare, but that's fine.  Interesting characters don't necessarily have unique traits, tropes exist for a reason, but rather incorporate those traits uniquely.

 

So grab a motivation, figure out what they would do pursuing that motivation, then figure out all the whys of the character.  When you've done that usually the backstory has halfway written itself.

[Warren Castille]

Xaela-as-dark-knight is explored in the job questline (or is Sid a Raen?). It's vague enough to think that more than one person could have experienced similar things and chosen a similar path.

 

On the topic of being a Dark Knight, though, it's worth keeping in mind that 1) they're an Ishgardian faction primarily, with their self-appointed roles keeping them, if not actually in Ishgard, operating against Ishgardian corruption and 2) the job's an enemy of the country, since they're murdering those with influence.

 

We don't know exactly where they shake out after the 3.0 MSQ resolves, but for the time being it's still something to tread lightly about.

[Caspar]

I like that you already have some interesting key phrases you've come up with as well as a motif and theme to help give your character flavor.

In the matter of backstory, I think using Spahro's approach to formulate in character voice and then let the background follow is good, though really either way could work. Also worth considering is the general mood and objective behind the character. I often joke that I think of how I'd like best for my characters to die before I start playing. While this is an extreme example, I believe personally it helps to keep in mind what you want to do when drafting backstory, and everything should contribute to that goal in some way, or to other things that accentuate the goal. I started with the basic cliche of "student wants to kill the master" and built upon the concept as best I could. However the aesthetic and personality was somewhat decided, like your character's, and so it was not too difficult to tie these things together.

 

Consider the moon aesthetic. Why the significance? Does she prefer honesty or simply find seeing people'strue character fascinating, not judging them?

 

Basically considering what kind of story you want to tell is key, in my view. It isn't necessary for you to have all your future story events planned, but consider what kind of writing you are comfortable with. Backstory can then be used to embue present interactions with underlying meaning like a character in a novel. I refer constantly to mine to determine how my character reacts to things or lend her words double meaning. It must likely be a concept, then, you won't get tired of revisiting over and over, even if it changes through the course of rp.

 

Your character is Au Ra. Like Warren said, on a level with indeterminate scale, this is a doubly unwanted person in Ishgard. Depending on what sort of RP you enjoy, this could be used to create a violent background, but she seems like a knight errant, chivalrous wanderer sort, so perhaps you could go with the angle that she sought a philosophical outlook to engage or disengage with the merciless way the Ishgardians treated the Xaela with in the past. If you choose to actually be an official Dark Knight, this somewhat ties her to Ishgard, though you could also just write her as a swordswoman. But if you're not interested in a darker backstory, you could either characterize her as at peace with herself despite suffering, which might imply a slightly older character (than the usual young adventurer type.) or have her be a more recent immigrant eager to see the way Eorzea exists in her unusual day/night understanding.

 

I'm saying as much "you could" as I can because you are more aware of what you enjoy writing than I am. If you're not sure, playing the character as she is for a bit to develop understanding of what feels like it fits will help. Otherwise I'll just ramble about the choices being yours and yours alone or something equally nineties.

[AltoSanctus122]

I'm still really groggy from having just woke up, but I'll try to post a few replies to expand upon my character, thanks to your help.

 

 

 

I tend to follow a pattern of characters being very powerful, but requiring plenty of experience and self-discipline to prevent that power from just lashing out at everything. I'm probably going to try and break that pattern here.

 

 

I'm going to pick up on this and rather than feed you suggested answers I offer instead some questions that may help change your view?

 

What do you like in other characters you RP with and what do you think they like in what characters you RP? From this maybe you can find some areas that you could change or enhance in your character to make it more engaging RP wise.

 

Powerful, intelligent, self-discipline are all virtues. If you forgot about those and came up with more flawed characteristics what could those be and how would that change your character? There is a lot of RP in the struggle of a ordinary character in extraordinary situations. For me the win for RP is those ongoing struggles and not the IC winning. 

 

If they had not been drawn to a Dark Knight, what would have become of them? That part of them is probably still alive and is a rich font of reflection, regret or even relief. It could add extra dimension to your character than just Dark Knight.

 

If your character as a child could meet your character as the adult, what advice would they each give the other?

 

I hope that helps get you some different views on possibilities for your character.

 

In WoW, I didn't do a lot of "adventuring" in my RPs, and I'd like to change that. I liked players that were pretty mature and level-headed, the ones who didn't just instantaneously leap to judgement, and instead asked themselves, "what could have made them what they are now, and why are they so interested in me?" The ones who actually gave thought to what was going on.

 

So basically, players much more patient and calm than me.

 

Players who did like me in RP (I sadly tended to raise a stink about more nonsensical guilds, like the ones who murdered in the streets because "oh, cleanse the unclean powers," and the ones formed from organizations that have basically been ripped to shreds) appreciated the energy I infused into an RP, and in some cases, looked favorably on my interesting spins on preexisting concepts. One of my characters was a warlock. In stark contrast to the stereotype however, he was completely infatuated with Azeroth, and was totally opposed to its aggressors. Suffice it to say, he was a very generous person (too generous for his health, many characters noted).

 

Which leads me to a few flaws my character could be given. She could follow in that warlock's footstep, and place the safety of others far above her own, being "entirely too giving." I already figured to make her a bit timid, and unaccustomed to working in groups. Additionally, I could make it so that there's a berserker rage she has to fight off when things get too tense. That last one is a bit trickier, because it actually has a personal implication, which tends to terrify me whenever it comes up.

 

As for the Dark Knight thing, this is where some controversy might be stirred.

 

She's not part of the official order. I haven't decided on whether or not she's self-taught, or someone trained her without forcing her to make tight ties to the Dark Knight order. But if she were part of the Dark Knight order, she would not be allowed to be the knight errant she is. Or at least, that is what I'm gathering from this thread. Surprise surprise, I haven't actually got a character high enough to preview the job questline.

 

Don't worry about spoiling the questline for me, though. In such cases as this, research is a blessed thing to perform.

 

Next, I'll try and address Rhodes. After letting my brain adjust to wakefulness.

[AltoSanctus122]

For character refinement you've given a lot of details, which isn't bad, but now comes critical thinking time.

 

For everything you've listed ask yourself why.

 

Why does she hold these beliefs, why does she act this way, why is she a Dark Knight, why is she a Xaela.

 

That last one is good and always helps a lot with characters.  Why is this character the race she is, as opposed to you making her something different?  How does her race effect her day to day life?  How does it effect her belief systems?  If she would work just as well as a hyur or Miqo'te, but you chose Xaela because you just like how they look, that's fine, but think about how that race defines who they are and how they interact with the world.

 

Also, while backstory is good ( and people here would be glad to help) you might try putting that aside until after you've played her a few times to get a feel for her.

 

I always try to start with motivations rather than backstory first.  Future (since you'll be playing there) rather than past (since you'll just be telling people about it).

 

What does your character want?  What are they willing to do to get it?

 

Characters with goals are always more interesting than characters with pasts because other players can interact with goals, less so with histories.

 

Overall you've got the outline for an average character with interesting quirks, but nothing that's incredibly original or even rare, but that's fine.  Interesting characters don't necessarily have unique traits, tropes exist for a reason, but rather incorporate those traits uniquely.

 

So grab a motivation, figure out what they would do pursuing that motivation, then figure out all the whys of the character.  When you've done that usually the backstory has halfway written itself.

 

I already know she's going to be a knight errant, making it her personal mission to try and make the world better, little by little. Maybe she's seen too much suffering in the dark, unseen corners of the world, and in alleyways, and it's touched her heart, convinced her to take up a cause.

 

Perhaps she was a sheltered girl, "protected" from reality's harsh truths, but after hearing how poor-off the world was, she leapt in without really thinking about it, and exposed herself, unprepared, to the darker side of the world. And rather than simply give up and crumble under pressure, it reaffirmed her belief that something needed to be done.

 

I can see both having potential to develop into showing aspects of the "Knight in Sour Armor" trope (which I'd probably play for comic relief).

 

As for why I picked an Au Ra, that actually aligns with tropes as well. Particularly about dragons. Dragons are often portrayed as sagely, if jaded, entities, older than most mortals, even when they're merely "juvenile" among their own kind. With them comes a sense of detachment, as if you're staring at the closest mortal creature to godhood. And yet, they are just as slave to emotion as any mortal man. They feel fury, they feel desire, and they feel weakness, just as any sapient creature does.

 

Black dragons tend to be more aggressive, violent, and passionate, embracing their desires with great fervor. This embrace of emotion would also be reflected in my character. She doesn't have any filter. Sure, she might shy away from instantly admitting she finds someone attractive, but she trusts her heart to lead her true. Her passions may not be as intense as the true black dragons, but I intend to make the connection notable.

 

Some other dragons tend to be great scholars, thinkers, learners. They do not delude themselves into thinking they are omniscient, but they are far from ignorant. If friendly, they tend to be mentors, and are relatively humble. Otherwise, they are haughty and arrogant at minimum, and downright greedy and spiteful at worst. My dark knight would show this same love of learning and life. Again, not to the same extreme as true dragons, but enough so that the connection is visible.

 

As for why she's intended to be a Dark Knight, there are two reasons...

 

One, I have always enjoyed taking a "negative" concept and introducing it to a "positive" character. Dark Knights, mechanically, show quite a bit of self-sacrifice in their abilities, as last I checked, many of their skills incurred an HP cost. This may have changed, I may have been flawed in my research, or I may be right. But it would be nice to show that self-sacrifice attribute in a character, having them be a living example of both "Dark is not Evil," and a variant of "Bad Powers, Good Person."

 

She is also an example of "Good is not Soft," or at least, I hope to make her one. She might give sapient foes a chance to change their ways, and prove they are capable of good things. But she only gives them one chance to do that.

 

As for a more solid, and quite likely far more attainable goal, she does want to live to see the Garleans driven back away from the homes of Eorzeans. She'd be okay with the Garleans still being an empire. So long as they stayed on their end of the world.

 

As for how her race influences her interactions, she tries to ensure it doesn't. At times it does anyway (horns make for an interesting conversation piece after all), but generally, she as a character tries to keep race separate from her interactions with others. Her beliefs, her philosophies, are how she copes with the world. When she sees the world through a lens of wisdom, both formed from her own experiences, and borrowed from old friends and family, it seems less alien to her.

 

Generally she's not exactly a simple character. While her goals are very morally-grounded, the experiences that shaped those goals are a long tale indeed.

[AltoSanctus122]

So, I have her appearance and everything ready... set her up nicely for the most part.

 

Aaaaand Balmung is full (NA Legacy Balmung that is. There's no other Balmung, right?)

 

Is that normal for the server?

[Jana]

I'm gonna be the party pooper here and fill in some blanks with the lore that you might not have reached yet. I know you said you didn't care about DRK questline spoilers so I'll go ahead and give you that info.

 

1) Au Ra are not dragons, they just kinda look like them to the point that Ishgard was pretty racist about it for a while; whether or not they still are isn't really elaborated upon but different players have different opinions on that. Xaela tribes are most easily paralleled with Mongolian nomads (tribe-by-tribe specifics should be on the wiki), and while you don't have to use this to make your character's background, most Au Ra in general are only very recent arrivals in Eorzea. The events that brought Yugiri's initial boatload took place less than one year ago.

 

2) The specific clan/job combination of Xaela Dark Knight mirrors the quest giver/teacher for the 50-60 DRK quests, a guy named Sidurgu. In his background, we learn that his family made its way to Ishgard after the initial Garlean occupation of Doma (unlike Yugiri's group, which only came after the razing of Doma due to their failed rebellion), but due to looking like dragons, the Ishgardians killed them indiscriminately. He was saved at the last second and lives as a fugitive within Ishgard until the end of the DRK questline. If you wanted to have another Xaela Dark Knight, you can use this as possible back story/motivation for your character, though I'd advise against saying she was in the same group.

 

Unrelated to the lore, reading your posts gives me the impression that you're working with "tropes" and stitching them together into a character. Be careful that you don't let yourself get boxed in, tropes are essentially other peoples' ideas in the end. It's good to pinpoint what you like in a character and have an idea of how you want to play them, but don't fall into the trap of treating tropes as a checklist for character creation.

 

Edit:

So, I have her appearance and everything ready... set her up nicely for the most part.

 

Aaaaand Balmung is full (NA Legacy Balmung that is. There's no other Balmung, right?)

 

Is that normal for the server?

 

This is normal. Balmung is the most populated server and is full 99.9% of the time. Some people are lucky enough to sneak into the server in the few seconds immediately before or after a maintenance, but the only certain way to get on is to use a paid transfer ($18, flat rate for up to 8 characters) from another server.

[AltoSanctus122]

I'm gonna be the party pooper here and fill in some blanks with the lore that you might not have reached yet. I know you said you didn't care about DRK questline spoilers so I'll go ahead and give you that info.

 

1) Au Ra are not dragons, they just kinda look like them to the point that Ishgard was pretty racist about it for a while; whether or not they still are isn't really elaborated upon but different players have different opinions on that. Xaela tribes are most easily paralleled with Mongolian nomads (tribe-by-tribe specifics should be on the wiki), and while you don't have to use this to make your character's background, most Au Ra in general are only very recent arrivals in Eorzea. The events that brought Yugiri's initial boatload took place less than one year ago.

 

2) The specific clan/job combination of Xaela Dark Knight mirrors the quest giver/teacher for the 50-60 DRK quests, a guy named Sidurgu. In his background, we learn that his family made its way to Ishgard after the initial Garlean occupation of Doma (unlike Yugiri's group, which only came after the razing of Doma due to their failed rebellion), but due to looking like dragons, the Ishgardians killed them indiscriminately. He was saved at the last second and lives as a fugitive within Ishgard until the end of the DRK questline. If you wanted to have another Xaela Dark Knight, you can use this as possible back story/motivation for your character, though I'd advise against saying she was in the same group.

 

Unrelated to the lore, reading your posts gives me the impression that you're working with "tropes" and stitching them together into a character. Be careful that you don't let yourself get boxed in, tropes are essentially other peoples' ideas in the end. It's good to pinpoint what you like in a character and have an idea of how you want to play them, but don't fall into the trap of treating tropes as a checklist for character creation.

 

Edit:

So, I have her appearance and everything ready... set her up nicely for the most part.

 

Aaaaand Balmung is full (NA Legacy Balmung that is. There's no other Balmung, right?)

 

Is that normal for the server?

 

This is normal. Balmung is the most populated server and is full 99.9% of the time. Some people are lucky enough to sneak into the server in the few seconds immediately before or after a maintenance, but the only certain way to get on is to use a paid transfer ($18, flat rate for up to 8 characters) from another server.

 

 

In regards to 1), I was already aware of that fact. I was not saying Hoelun Qerel (yes, I have decided on a name now) is a dragon. I was actually just making a few personality connections.

 

In regards to 2), I think I'll take your advice, saying she was of a different group. Maybe she ended up wandering Eorzea while Ishgard was going postal. Again, she is not going to be part of the official order, though I am increasingly thinking of having her be trained by someone who might have been part of the order.

 

In regards to Balmung CC issues, that sucketh rocks. I don't really have a way to get that 18$ right now.

[Caspar]

I know. It must be disappointing thinking about the character you're going to make and not being able to get on. I think I got mine midweek at like 4 AM. Now even that is almost inconceivable. Were I to want to make alt characters, the transfer is probably the only viable option.

 

And the dragon thing is a more common misperception than you might think, hah...

 

Also this might be useful should you choose to have her come from a Xaela tribe.

 

http://ffxiv-roleplayers.com/showthread.php?tid=12130

[RiniKett]

I don't have much advice for you that the others haven't already given you, but I do feel obligated to tell you a few things since you'll be joining our happy little(not exactly little) family.

 

As a former WoW player/RPer it would only be fair to tell you that FFXIV is far from the same communities you are use to on MG or WRA.

 

(I sadly tended to raise a stink about more nonsensical guilds, like the ones who murdered in the streets because "oh, cleanse the unclean powers," and the ones formed from organizations that have basically been ripped to shreds)

 

It's really sad that, from experience...Five painfully years of experience, that I know exactly what kind of guilds and Roleplayers you are referring to. While our community on Balmung is not perfect...I..Have yet to see..Well...The following:

 

• Public execution
  
• Murder in broad daylight in a city full of guards
  
• Guilds that try to own a city
  
• Dueling to solve IC conflict (Can't duel ha)
  
• Weird soul swapping and I own you cliche
  
• Guilds that claim certain areas and tell players around that area to get lost
  
• Unsactioned fighting in cities
  
• Simply...Being a jerk to someone you don't know because...Well you feel better than them.
  

 

So yea, I could go on and I know this isn't exactly "constructive" for your character, but it took me awhile to get use to the new atmosphere. Almost everyone you RP with in a town is friendly and even when you do meet a few characters who are self-entitled they do not do so maliciously OOC. There are a lot of community events and a lot of Free Companies who focus on exactly what you are comfortable with in Roleplay.

 

So why am I telling you this?

 

In the end, like lore, we can only make characters based on what we know. So far, you know the community of WoW and how things went there, but here it is...Well..Far more pleasurable. I'm not going to say you are never going to run into someone who is just nasty, but the atmosphere from WoW to FF is shocking. So, I hope this helps a bit with what to expect and what to look for. It will also be a lot easier for you to make wise choices on character creation if you have more knowledge with the lore. Personally, I knew every quest and every bit of lore in WoW, but I am practically oblivious to the gobs of information there is to learn on Final Fantasy 14. Because of this, a lot of my wiki is incomplete or blank. Leaving out details is something I always recommend because it gives wiggle room for your character to evolve and grow into something.

 

Anyway, I hope this helped at least a bit or so, but if you do find yourself on Balmung feel free to look me up or PM me here if you have questions. Things are always easier when you aren't alone.

 

Lastly, I am going to post a few links below that you can read if you would like. I still can't find this one in particular that I read here when I first started, but it stated something like... "You can have the most interesting character in the world, or the most powerful one. He can slay hoards of foes, best any warrior, or solve any problem, but if you don't have something to promote yourself that draw people in to engage you then you'll struggle to find RP." This is something I always found true, especially with shy characters. So I wish you well and I'm sure any question you have can be answered here. : )

The Role-Play Handbook - It's a little outdated lore wise, but as far as RP values go it's a pretty good read.

 

100 questions to ask.. - This is a fun little...Okay it can be tedious, 100 questions is a lot, but! It will help ask questions and pick your brain to formulate answers. Then when someone asks you "What is your favorite drink?" you have an answer...And 99 more.

 

Ash's Guide - Another great guide that can get you thinking on what you want your character to grow into.

[Warren Castille]

Just for posterity, it is entirely possible to style a character with an image (in this case, the Knight Errant archetype) without having to attach them to the corresponding job. XIV is very bad at this compared to prior Final Fantasy games.

 

Dark Knight refers to a specific job, but not all armored greatsword wielders are Dark Knights. Their powerbase comes from tapping into their emotional drives to augment their attacks, but there's also no hard rules saying the only way to learn this is to join the official Dark Knight faction (which also seemingly doesn't exist in the game itself, as the only allusion to an Order proper is in the fluff on the website!). Their powers get a small adjustment compared to older games, too: It wouldn't be practical for a tanking job to be spending their own HP, so XIV's version of it lacks the self-sacrificing aspect. For now, at least.

 

Similarly, someone can be a gallant helper with a sword and shield without actually being a Paladin, which in XIV refers to a faction based in or around Ul'dah's Sultanate. White Mages aren't necessarily just healers, they're also custodians and stewards of the Black Shroud. Dragoon refers to both the official Ishgardian faction of spear-trained-dragon-slaying-jumping-people but anyone who has displayed proof to the Holy See can also be ordained a "dragoon" (emphasis on the lowercase).

 

In short, don't feel beholden to a class just because the game makes you change to it for the sake of your look.