(Backstory building) Raen, new to Balmung!

[Sintiya]

First of all I suppose I should list a few credentials; I'm an avid roleplayer with somewhere around 10 years experience, give or take a couple as it's all very fuzzy to me. I'm new to FFXIV 3.0, originally having played during 1.0 for about a month-and-a-half before giving up, looking to once again return now that everything looks a lot cleaner and bigger.

 

As for the backstory;

 

My character is a young female Raen from a diminishing noble family that fell upon hard times. The Garlean occupation of her homeland didn't help her family too much, either- Whilst they were allowed to keep their holdings, they were taxed more, and their already diminishing fortunes and prestige fell upon harder times when the other Au'Ra saw how much her family bent knee to the Garlean overlords.

 

The young Raen herself was the daughter of the head of the noble family, but she was either a bastard child, or adopted- She never really dared to ask, and her family was already too busy constantly belittling the little Raen girl and telling her that she was the reason the family was continuously falling upon hard times. Finding solace in the friends she occasionally made during school, she'd find that eventually, nobody wanted to be her friend anymore- Apparently her family didn't want her to mingle with 'full-blooded nobles', and so they told the other noble families that their children were not allowed to interact with the little Raen girl. 

 

Eventually, however, as with all things, the relatively peaceful, albeit lonely life of the young Raen girl came to an end. Her family was no longer looked upon favourably by the Garleans, and it wasn't too long before a Garlean squad showed up at the family manor's doorsteps.

She herself hid herself in a small, cramped cupboard, with the doors open just enough to allow her to witness the slaughtering of all of her family who stood before the Garleans. 

 

The next few months would see her slowly develop mental eccentricities, where she would walk around the now empty family manor, calling out to her dead relatives, and doing her best to, on her own, keep the manor clean. Her previously vivid blue eyes also lost their sparkle during this time, slowly becoming more dull and grey, and her facial expressions never seemed to indicate anything close to a smile anymore.

 

 

 

Fast-forward a couple of months- The little Raen girl would have been cleaning and doing other household chores when a group of Xaela nomads stumbled upon the house- The Xaela themselves were preparing for a journey to Eorzea, and according to the locals living nearby they could perhaps salvage a couple of items useful for such a journey in this family manor. They'd eventually run across the little Raen girl, and allegedly the leader of the Xaela group managed to convince the little girl to join them on their trip.

 

 

Arriving on Eorzea, the Raen girl would soon find herself abandoned by the Xaela group, who themselves were eager to start exploring the new continent. The little Raen girl, on the other hand, remained in the exact same village where their vessel had ported, for several long, meaningless weeks, managing to keep herself fed by doing household chores such as cleaning and cooking for a local seaside tavern.

 

The tavern however eventually found out that the little Raen girl was a minor, and that she had lied about her age, and thus she was fired from her job, once again forced to find another place where she could do something to keep herself fed. 

 

(Another ~year or so would pass before we come to the current time, which is where I would like to start RP'ing from!)

 

Distinguishing features of the little Raen girl; The only distinguishing features that the girl has are several cuts and saw-mars on her Au'Ra horns and scales. During all of the turmoil and travel across Eorzea, she'd have been bullied for her horns, and in the attempt to better fit in and 'make people happy', she'd, on several occassions, have tried to saw off her own horns, causing physical and mental trauma. (As if she didn't have enough mental trauma already.)

 

 

My questions for everyone; 

 

>Does this character backstory work?

>What name should I give her? At the moment I'm running around Balmung as 'Sera Uzuka', but I'm fairly sure that neither of those are proper 17-18th century Japanese names.

 

Thanks for reading and thanks in advance for any advice you could give me! <3

[RiniKett]

Ello!

 

I'll start by fully disclosing I have no idea about the naming habits. So I'm sorry that I can't help with that one.

 

Personally, as long as it doesn't conflict with any major lore points, it sounds like you have a pretty strong backbone for your history. The major points are: She was treated like an outcast, she had to do what she could to survive, she is emotionally scarred from her life, and she made it to Eorzea. Regardless of lore, that part won't have to change. I call it your back bone because the extra details you list are like the meat of your story and help flesh it out, but, big but, regardless of any issues people might have with your backstory you will always have your main structure. Stick to that if that is the character you want. Even if it might not be nobility you could still say she was an outcast in a noble home as a servant.

 

Anyway, I'm rambling, but I would love to RP with you sometime and help flesh out more of your character. Backgrounds are good, but until you nail down her personality things might be subject to change. Feel free to send me a PM. :3

[V'aleera]

http://www.issendai.com/names/japanese/edo-era/early-edo-womens-names.html

 

That's a decent list of fairly well-sourced names from the Edo period.

[Valence]

I'll probably make a few conjectures here, and I want to point out that it mostly relies on player interpretation.

 

So, we are told by SE lore team that Eorzea can be a harsh place to live. People have to deal with monsters out there, bad stuff, the Calamity, wars, bandits, pirates, slavers... Some of those which are explored in quests. 

 

It's not either the middle ages, mind you. We seem to have many anachronistic contemporary projections that go right into the lore (gold saucer, etc). It also covers a huge real life timeframe, from late middle age (Ishgard), to classic piracy (Limsa), steampunk (Ishgard machinistry), timeless (Gridania), antiquity (Ul'dah/gladiators), machine age (Garlemald), SF (allag), etc.

 

What bugs me a bit is that you say she got fired cause she was minor... But here is the thing... Is there even a minor/major distinction in Eorzea? Wouldn't children already work alongside their parents in many cases or already have responsibilities for nobles (like, you know, Emmanellain page/squire, or even Emmanellain himself)? Why would even an inn tenant care about her age? We are not in our modern world here I think, it's exactly like the cops will show up or anything. I could expect something of that vein in a rigid and more modern society like Garlemald actually. But in Eorzea..?

 

Thing is though, that as I said it stems a lot from interpretation and personal logic here. It's a fantasy world, so whatever you roll with... It's up to you! Because, maybe I'm totally mistaken.

[Kilieit]

What bugs me a bit is that you say she got fired cause she was minor... But here is the thing... Is there even a minor/major distinction in Eorzea?

 

The only bit of lore pertaining to this that I remember is to do with Sharlayan, not greater Eorzea:

 

Recent graduates of the Studium' date=' the twins were now sixteen summers old─old enough to be considered of age in Sharlayan society. And so, although he opposed his children’s planned journey, [their father'] had not sought to bar their way.

 

I can only remember one NPC (a Coerthan woman) even making mention of [one of] the twins being "but a child", and it's in the context of asking you to go easy on them emotionally - not an attempt at preventing them from doing any of the horrifically dangerous, difficult, stressful, and politically charged things that they do that in the modern world they definitely would not have been allowed to do, let alone be considered responsible for to the same degree as an adult.

 

[speculation time] I can imagine it mattering more if the person in question is a noble, or, more specifically, stands to inherit something - then there's obviously a desire to see the person safely and soundly to adulthood so they can retain their inheritance and manage their estate. Folks probably wouldn't want to be seen to be aiding noble runaways, as that business can get very expensive and/or lethal quite quickly. A refugee child though, or a bastard, or a disgraced/disowned person, likely would not be subject to any of the same hesitations...

 

Alternative ideas for how she could be fired: maybe she was caught stealing to implement her income (this is a running theme across a few quests - no legal minimum wage in Eorzea)? Maybe someone took offence to her presence as an Au Ra refugee, and complained to her boss about something she hadn't done? Maybe she was rumoured to be an evil spirit of some kind (smallfolk in this setting tend to be very superstitious) and was driven out on the belief she was bad luck? Maybe she "acted out" (i.e. had traumatic memories triggered and behaved in ways those around her couldn't understand) and was fired due to her "conduct"?