Disowned (character development)

[Kohaku]

So I'm a bit new to RP at least in FF14 and would like to see if I can get any help adding details, etc to my character.

 

My character is Aoi, a Female Au-Ra who comes from a family in Limsa Lominsa with great disdain for the other races. At a young age Aoi befriended a young Miqo'te boy only to be seperated and scolded by parents. Over the next few years Aoi would secretly sneak out to visit him (his name being Zu'le) and after being discovered, Aoi was disowned and cast out. She attempts to live for all races and fights discrimination where she finds it. 

 

Being cast out with no resources was hard on her and she took up the bow to defend herself and earn gil eventually finding herself in New Gridania. This is where she found Mother Miounne and joined the adventurers guild. 

 

Music had always had an influence over her aswell and always finds herself stopping to listen to a performance on the streets or in a tavern. That in mind she dreams to become a bard that can aid those around her and provide the same emotion to others that music has on her.

 

                                                                              

 

 

 

 

That's what I have in mind so far, and im fairly new to the game as well so if there are any conflicts with lore, etc let me know! Currently only level 20 arc so her dreams are a bit away still  but yeah, any ideas or suggestions?

[Amnesic]

So far, I think the idea is great and your backstory is pretty fluid (most people seem to like them shorter, I spend probably too much time on mine), but knowing what I know at least, I'm not sure if your Au Ra could have been in Limsa years ago, being as they only more recently came to Eorzea. I'm not a lore wizard though, so you'll need to wait around for one of our local loremasters to clarify.

 

Other than that, all I can say is that I like the idea!

[Parth Makeo]

I sadly do not think Au Ra existed in Eorzea (like enough for a family) and mostly stayed in Othard until they started coming over more but i could be wrong. I have a friend who's Au Ra was turned into a Lalafell (hence his Lalafellian name) and his backstory was that he was found somewhere by the Caravan he had, yet they changed him for a time? It was complicated and i mean it's one way around it.

 

Then again I have two Doman Miqo'te that have no confirmed family members (most likely dead/never saw them after birth) with one being adopted to just be a marriage chip for some rich boy and another picked up just randomly one night.

 

I know it's impossible but Miqo'te tend to be that kind of nomadic race and if any existed in Othard, It would likely end up as some kind of cheap slave or killed...At least if we draw some similarities to real world.

 

You are free to add if instead of a family from Limsa, that the family moved to Limsa earlier than expected to escape Doma and in that time you were born in Limsa just...not well known and the family keeping to themselves. That would make things a lot more believable in my eyes.

[Caspar]

Perhaps they are an immigrant family that has struggled to adjust to Eorzean mores and had some status in Othard. So it's very difficult for them to not express contempt for the culturally distant locals.

[Nero]

Regarding Au Ra: In terms of writing, the implementation of Au Ra is...very clumsy. Their presence was essentially retconned into Eorzea.

 

That said, having an Au Ra be born in Limsa Lominsa is fine. It's worth noting that Eorzea knew that Au Ra existed and came from Othard before Heavensward, so while it would have been extremely rare at the time (although again, this might just be Square Enix's slipshod storytelling), it's workable.

 

One thing that helps is to have the timeline worked out.

 

For reference, the Garlean Empire invaded Othard in the year 1528 of the Sixth Astral Era. The Sixth Astral Era ended in the year 1572, and the current year is about ~6 in the Seventh Astral Era.

 

That means that there is roughly 50 years between when Garlemald invaded Othard and present day. We can assume that the Au Ra began to migrate to Eorzea as refugees anywhere within this timeline.

[Kilieit]

Smaller migratory waves of au ra did occur before the events of Through the Maelstrom, as evidenced in the backstory of one Sidurgu Orl. I don't think it's impossible for a family of au ra merchants to have migrated to Eorzea and settled in Limsa Lominsa earlier than that, especially as they're more likely to have survived there (Limsa Lominsa accepts the presence of all friendly Spoken, including beastmen) than the Orl tribe were in Ishgard. But it certainly wouldn't have been common - it's not like there would have been a community of other au ra in Limsa for this family to take part in, so much as a community of other miscellaneous races that weren't one of the Five.

 

So it's not the au ra in Limsa that sticks out to me as odd, but the xenophobic au ra in Limsa - why would they have chosen to settle in Eorzea's most multicultural city? Why leave Othard to begin with?

[Valence]

The Raen migratory waves are recent and mostly came with Yugiri. Xaela however, had 3 of those over a decade or more.

 

Unless I'm recalling incorrectly.

[Kohaku]

So to solve most of these problems would it be sufficient to say that Aoi left while her family was still in Othard, but then that takes away the discrimination they would have... is there any logical way to make this work? I am new to the game but I would like the lore to be flush and fit in. Is there another place they could have lived besides there? How could I make this work or do you have any suggestions for how I could change it a bit to make it fit?

 

What if the family stayed in Othard and she befriended a enslaved Miqo'te which led into the problems, etc and she ended up leaving the continent with some of the mirgators.

[Parth Makeo]

So to solve most of these problems would it be sufficient to say that Aoi left while her family was still in Othard, but then that takes away the discrimination they would have... is there any logical way to make this work? I am new to the game but I would like the lore to be flush and fit in. Is there another place they could have lived besides there? How could I make this work or do you have any suggestions for how I could change it a bit to make it fit?

 

What if the family stayed in Othard and she befriended a enslaved Miqo'te which led into the problems, etc and she ended up leaving the continent with some of the mirgators.

I say go with kilieit's idea because he bascially summed it up. Also I'd don't recommend the miqo'te thing being a slave because well...

 

My characters were made before more solid info about the land came through (aside from NIN Quests) so take some of Kilieit's words

[Kilieit]

The problems I see are basically:

 

- how would an au ra have come to grow up in Limsa?

- why would xenophobes choose to live somewhere with lots of other races?

 

Here are some solutions you can pick and choose. I'm kind of leaving things a bit vague, because... we're going to Othard, the ancestral home of the au ra, next expansion. This is going to be a wonderful opportunity to learn more about the lands there, BUT that means basically anything we make up right now could potentially end up contrary to lore when it comes out. But... here's my suggestions, with that disclaimer:

 

- They're in Limsa for the trade connections. Alongside Radz-at-Han (which, unlike Limsa, has a policy against harbouring enemies of the Garlean Empire), it's one of a number of seaside trade hubs that lies along the southern coasts of the Three Great Continents. Rich or well-connected families might still have travelled to Limsa for business (likely para-legally...) even before Doma was razed, and possibly have settled there if they wanted their child to grow up out of the shadow of the Garlean Empire.

 

- They settled not in Limsa, but in Ul'dah. Although still a majority lalafell (not au ra) and potentially hostile to "beastmen", if a very rich au ra family were to have arrived as merchants or foreign dignitaries and not as refugees, they may have been able to make a life there. Yet Ul'dah also attracts refugees, including those miqo'te who have left their tribes behind, and Lady Lilira has proven there's all sorts of trouble a rich heiress can get into in Ul'dah if she slips the notice of her handlers.

 

- They lived not in Eorzea, but in a trade settlement in Othard that played host to au ra alongside other races, such as hyur and beastmen. Kugane looks like a likely bet, but we'll know more about it when Stormblood releases. Your character had recently heard stories about Eorzea, a land of magic where five races live in peace, in (pick any of: newspapers/fishwives' rumours/family friend's fantastical stories/etc), and impulsively decided to travel there upon being disowned.

 

- Their xenophobia is such that while contacting outsiders is acceptable when it's for work, fraternising with them for social reasons is strictly forbidden. As your character would have been a child, she had no reason to be speaking with outsiders, and got into trouble for doing so.

 

- They were forced to live there by hostile circumstances in their old home. Their xenophobia is thusly intensified by their general insecurity i.e. their desire to stick as closely to the things they'd lost as possible, so when their child rebels against their rules, it's the end of the world all over again.