discussion Canon lore & you?

[Lutka]

If you can logically explain to me why your idea fits in the game, then it's cool and I'm cool with it. If it's contradicting lore and you don't have a good reason behind it other than "lel speshul case cus reasons" I'm walking away. I like some level of logical reasoning and by logic I mean using the game's ideas and lore as proof of your theories/ideas/concepts, not using nothing but real life logic. My character isn't on the dot lore perfect, she sits in a grey spot. It is however sound, given that I have guidelines to use and logic that makes sense.

[Spikewerks]

I try to stay as consistent to lore as possible. The only place I have ever really bent the lore a bit is with Zigovali's Echo (still unbeknownst to him), which changes the way he does some of his magick. This choice is purely to make things more interesting and give him some pretty profound predicaments; he is in no way stronger or more powerful than a regular caster for his differences.

[TinyRedLeaf]

 

I have been wondering about how people's relations to the canon lore is, and specifically how far outside of it you go with your characters. Are you fine with bending it a little, do you just do as you please no matter what, and how do you go about it?

Thanks for making this topic.

 

I don't often make drastic departures from the main storyline, but I do bend quite a lot of plot points to suit how I imagine my character, Lyland Battersea, to be growing within the official lore. He started out as an arcanist, but is now a summoner, the only one of his kind in Eorzea at this point in the story.

 

As for how I go about doing this, it mainly depends on two things:

1) My personal reflections on the key themes, as presented by Square-Enix.

 

2) How I believe Lyland would react to key developments, based on his own beliefs and values, as I imagined them. My character is a part of me, no doubt, inspired by my personal experiences, but he does also have a "life" of his own. And his "thoughts" may not always be the same as my own.

 

 

What drives you or could drive you to go outside of the canon?

 

To fill in the details that are essentially left open to interpretation. As someone else pointed out, there are a great many things that are left open to us within the main storyline, and there's where our imaginations are free to run wild.

 

Our characters' backstories, for example, as left to us to fill out. And to make these back-stories fit, it's sometimes necessary to finesse some of the details. To me, it's more important to get the "feel" right, rather than to stick pedantically to the official story. In other words, I'll do whatever it takes to make my character "work", without breaking the official story.

 

 

Feel free to mention examples if you want to, I am genuinely curious on what people have done/are doing that might be considered dubious/sketchy/grey-zone like.

 

It'll be a huge list, haha! I'll keep it to a couple of examples.

 

(1)

Lyland is from the Ciedalaes. It's not entirely clear whether the Ciedalaes is a part of Limsa Lominsa.  Canonically, the Lominsan Navy does have a squadron named after the Ciedalaes, and this suggests the archipelago may be under the thalassocracy's rule. But there's very little in the story itself to corroborate this. The Ciedalaes are usually mentioned in a very off-hand manner that doesn't seem to suggest Lominsan sovereignty over the islands. Rather, the archipelago seems to be under very loose control, and appears to be the hideout for various pirate gangs.

 

So, I imagine the Ciedalaes to be under Lominsan "protection" instead. It lies within Limsa Lominsa's sphere of control, but isn't actually under direct rule. And this allows me to explain how Lyland is a foreigner, despite being fairly familiar with Lominsan culture.

 

(2)

I've largely departed from the Anima weapon questline as it's presented within the game. There's too much background to go through. In short, though, the quest to build Lyland's Draconomicon is not driven by Ardashir, but rather by Lyland himself. Lyland has come to a point where he realised that he needed a better way to control the chaotic primal essences that now reside within his aether, and Ardashir's quest to create an artificial soul provided the means to achieve this.

 

The anima (which Lyland has named Saravasna) currently acts as a counter-balance to the roiling primal aether within that was coming close to overwhelming him, especially after he learnt to tap Bahamut's power through the Dreadwyrm trance.

 

More pertinently, Saravasna is essentially a "filter" that's helping to reduce the primal taint on his soul, allowing him to stay in control of his growing power without being consumed by it.

 

It pleases me that, despite this major deviation, there are elements in the official Anima weapon storyline that dovetail nicely with my own interpretation of events. Take for example, the latest revelation that the anima is sustaining itself on its user's aether. Well, that's basically what Saravasna is doing as well.

 

And if later developments in the canon were to throw up some kinks, I guess I'll have to manage by making further bends along the way.

[Mia Moui]

I don't consider personal headcanon on one's own miqotribe or school of aether control or whatever to be lore bending, but rather world building (with all the pros and cons it implies), which means expanding logical conclusions based purely and solely upon lore. It can be dangerous on the long run of course, like every kind of RP, but I believe that as long as you keep it 'regional' (vs 'universal') and pretty situational/lore friendly itself, the risk is rather low.

 

Of course if you don't base it on lore, or take liberties with it, then it's lore bending or even lore breaking. I define bending the lore as a willingness to introduce something that doesn't quite fit with the lore, but doesn't break it outright either. With the caveat of super vague lore that you somehow want to use neverthless, of course.

 

I don't find lore bending to be very spread, it's rather specific in my opinion. Either you break it most of the time (consciously or unconsciously), or either you don't.

 

If I bend or break the lore it's because I'm adding traits to my Miqo'te that they might not actually have.  It's not a plot point that I know of, but Miqo'te are said to have a keen sense of smell.  I've used that in RP.  I add other cat-like traits like emotive signaling with tails and ears.  Mia Moui sticks to the nocturnal ways of her people and will complain about no one being up at 3 bells.  And she sees in the dark as least as well as Seekers see in the daytime. My Miqo'te tend to be traditional and hold to traditional views on relationships.  Since Mia Moui is a Keeper, she is all about sisterhood and cares little for masculine companionship.  She's not trying to be deliberately sexist but it's just not the way of her people to have men around. And of course, she'd never have left her sisters or extended family were it not for the Calamity.

 

I also enjoy RP'ing Mia has having an adversarial relationship with the Wood Wailers because of her family's reputation and because of the unfortunate association with the Coeurlclaw.

 

I suppose I do lore bend a little as I suggest that an unknown adventurer was able to free some Miqo'te from the Coeurclaw, including Mia and her sisters.  It seems like something like this could happen but I don't think the player takes on the Coeurlclaw King until level 50.