discussion Community Opinions on RPing Hybrid Races?

[infamousviolet]

Hello!

 

I wanted to start off by saying that my fiancé and I are new to FFXIV, and are planning to move to one of the RP servers once we having our baring's straight of the game.

 

I was wondering what the overall view and attitude was of roleplaying hybrids? I particularly loved Hilda's model, which inspired me to possibly roleplay a similar hybrid like her.

 

Thanks! And I hope to hear from some of you!

 

:chocobo:

[Lydia Lightfoot]

Though the existence of hybrids is plausible (given evidence you already mentioned), it's also very very rare, if we consider the NPCs we have access to in the game to be any indication of population density. Thus, while playing a hybrid isn't in any way lorebreaking, you will doom yourself to the following two probable situations coming up on a regular basis:

 

1. Some players will consider it snowflakey, especially if the fact of being a hybrid seems irrelevant to the character's story/background. If it's a major component and arguably defines their outlook on the world and the manner in which they interact with others and pursue goals, then it will seem less snowflakey because it becomes a critical plot point rather than a cosmetic detail.

 

2. You will have to constantly, and repetitively, make note of whatever prominent visible features exist on the character which other characters can see, but you can't represent on the avatar. For example, when playing a hybrid hyur/elezen, if you use a hyur avatar, you'll have to constantly include in your emotes references to the character's pointed ears, lanky limbs, etc. On the other hand, if you use an elezen avatar, you'll have to constantly reference the character's rounded ears and squatter-than-elezen limbs. This is the only way to ensure that other players can recognize you're playing a hybrid (putting it in your search info or wiki isn't enough - many won't look and will just assume the character is the race represented by the avatar).

 

If those two things are palatable to you to endure on a routine basis, then you'll be just fine.

[Nero]

Here is the relevant info from Fernehalwes about hybrid races and interbreeding.

 

It's improbable, but possible. So yes, you can roleplay a hybrid and be lore-compliant, and it'll be totally fine.

 

That said, I would personally advise you to deliberately avoid the more common pitfalls of the "half-breed character".

 

Don't make hybrids superhuman (why are hybrids inexplicably portrayed as better than everyone else?), don't make every conflict into a racial conflict (e.g. Hilda's conflicts with the Temple Knights is expressed as one of social class rather than race, even if the latter does play as a factor in the former), and when you do have racial conflict, be very careful about centering that racial conflict around your character's specific hybrid.

 

The general stigma towards hybrid characters comes from the fact that many hybrid characters are written as fairly blatant Mary Sues who consider themselves very self-important in everything they do, who will shout about their hybrid status to the streets with a megaphone in one sentence and then angst about how everybody's racist against them the next.

 

As long as you can avoid that kind of extreme, I see no reason why it shouldn't go swimmingly.

[infamousviolet]

Thanks for the replies thus far!

 

I am not really looking to roleplay a special snowflake class, or one that has god-like tendencies to know everything and know every skill trait out there. I thrive off of unique character flaws. I have a serious love for half-elven beings in any form of fantasy, so when I saw her, I was kind of hoping the overall option of the hybrid was relatively positive.

 

Coming from the WoW RP community, I am aware of the concern for special snowflakes. Though as Lydia kind of said, that if I do it, I should do it right; then there shouldn't be a problem.

 

Hope to hear more of the communities input!

[Sounsyy]

In general, I have very little problem with mix-raced characters. Interracial relationships and children exist in the lore, albeit a rarity. Most issues I see others cite have to do with preferences towards how these characters are portrayed. So perhaps heed as many of the warnings others may give in this thread and proceed how you feel is best.

 

In my own experience, I've had good reception to my mixed-race characters and characters who've come from interracial family units. I don't shout it from the rooftops and I don't put the information in my search info (I usually just reserve that for "rp > age > profession > maybe nationality"). I actually had some people I RP with regularly for over a year now just find out fairly recently that one of my characters is mixed. I drop a mix of subtle and less subtle hints that it's the case where appropriate. Sometimes people pick up, sometimes not.

 

Some people might ask why bother RPing a mixed race if it's not central to who their character is on a day-to-day, but as someone who RPs mostly older characters (30+) I feel as though their lives have gotten past the stage where they angst about their circumstances. Either they've faced 30+ years of discrimination or they've had mixed experiences. How has that shaped them? How does growing up in a mixed household inform their opinions of the world. This interests me more than the simple fact that they are.

 

More often than not, you won't find outgoingly discriminatory characters in your un-planned RP. So bringing it up to the forefront seems to rarely elicit the conflict you're hoping for anyways. You're more likely to get a "cool" or "cool, yeah my wife's _________" and now it seems like you just brought up this thing about your character just to show off this thing about your character. So you can spare sharing the information unless you're more sure it'll work out the way you're wanting - such as a longterm partner or someone who's frequently been a bigot in public ICly. Is it so terribly relevant to the inception of a walk-up RP to mention that your character looks like a Hyur but has pointed ears? Not always.

 

Anyways, I also wanted to drop off some of the lore regarding the mixed-race topic that you might find helpful to your RP or character in the spoiler tab below!

 

Inter-clan Children

 

The same topic was brought up in the JP forums, so the loremasters decided to make an official response.

Here is a rough translation of what it says:

 

As is indicated by the name, F'lhaminn is a member of the F (bear) Seeker of the Sun tribe. However, as many of you have pointed out, she has many physical features which are attributed to Keepers of the Moon (such as iris shape, skin color, etc). As many of you have also noticed, there have been other characters which have displayed the features of one clan, while following the naming conventions of another. This can be attributed to two factors.

 

One: It could merely be a genetic anomaly. Just because certain races have a tendency to display certain features (pointed ears, long legs, darker or lighter skin, soul-piercing eyes), doesn't mean that once every thousand or ten thousand births, something deviates from the rules.

 

Two: It could be that a parent or grandparent was of a different clan, and the features of that clan were passed down. We know for certain that F'lhaminn was raised as a Seeker of the Sun, but we would have to look further down her family tree for clues why she has the appearance of a Keeper of the Moon.

 

Finally, some good news for our role-players who want a little more spice in their character's history--in character creation for ARR, we'll be allowing the mixing and matching of certain features between clans, so it will be possible to create a Keeper of the Moon-like Seeker of the Sun (or vice versa).

 

Interracial Relationship Stigma and Children

 

2: Can different races crossbreed?

 

Answer: Yes, but it is rare...and often difficult due to cultural differences, etc. which is why you don't see it often. The lore team has informed me that there will be future quests/events that touch on this and other issues, such as love and marriage.

 

They have good hearts' date=' no matter how odd their appearance. None of that should matter anyway. This fellow is Hyuran and I am Miqo'te; are we lesser a couple for our difference? I should think not! My dearest and I know their pain all too well. We both had to leave our birthplace. Why, you ask? Simply because we were different. The two of us had to leave our village, but we always have each other. Neither of us are strangers to hate. Growing more spiteful with each passing day is sadly the province of those who are shunned by all around them.[/quote']

 

Recognizing your curiosity' date=' Hilda explains that she took to calling herself “the Mongrel” out of a newfound pride for her mixed heritage, in spite of the discrimination she and others like her suffer. In the end, she declares, her followers have come to believe that the differences between lowborn and highborn are far greater than those between pureblood and mongrel.[/quote']

 

Let me guess: you're wondering why I chose “the Mongrel' date='” right? Because it's what I am, and I'm not ashamed of it. Not anymore. Besides, even my pureblood pups have more in common with me than the lords and ladies up on high. And none of 'em are well-bred. Hells, some of their mothers were cast out after a spot of fun, same as mine. Story old as time─and one we're sick of hearing, which is why we took up arms. Not that we mean to hold all the blue bloods to account. Some have done right by us, I'll allow, like them in House Haillenarte. 'Course, you'd know all about that, wouldn't you?[/quote']

 

A: Some of the lore makes it sounds like the conflict between the Hyur and Elezen got pretty heated while others make it sound like a long standing tension. What was the extent of those hostilities?

 

MCKF: I touched on this a little bit today in the live stream and there was a question about relationships between the races and "crossbreeding." A lot of it doesn’t happen because while we have all these races living together in Eorzea, there’s this tension between them. That’s there because they have these histories of fighting for a long time and then not really making up, but agreeing to disagree and living together because it’s better than living by our self and being more susceptible to Garlean attacks or whatever. We work together because we have a common enemy type of thing. Most of the races don’t really like each other and it”s gone on through multiple Eras. There are times when Eorzea has been more populated by one race over another and there will be conflict there. With the Hyur and Elezen, that’s very recent. In the sixth astral era, Elezen migrated in and in that era they were like “we’re the first ones here!” even though they weren’t, but they were the first at the beginning of the sixth astral era and they settled and of course the pesky Hyur who are everywhere come in and the Elezen are like “oh my god we left you that whole continent up there why are you here!” and the Lalafell come in and you have these cycles of clashing and moving part and that gets ingrained in their society and their racial cultures. There’s always these power struggles, you’ll have times when the Lalafell rise for whatever reason and they’l side with one group and then turn on another group and that’s one of the reasons there’s not a lot of interracial relationships because even though they’re living in the same towns it’s like well yeah… but you’re an Elezen.

 

F: I can just imagine some young Elezen bringing home a Hyur woman and the Grandma going “Why couldn’t you have found a nice Elezen girl!”

 

MCKF: There’s a lot of that going on. Like i mentioned in the stream, in the future we’ll have some characters that are half one race and half another and we’ll see how they’re treated in society and quests with that.

 

[Drej]

I've never had an issue with mixed-race characters, so long as it's a hybrid that's physically possible. 

 

Now, I'm not 100% sure exactly how mixed-race works in this universe - most accurate thing I've seen is that the child usually gets most of the mom's attributes. So, human mom + Au Ra dad might produce a mostly human child, to my understanding. And all of the races are....well, "human" enough to make reproduction viable between races (I'm thinking of Elder Scrolls where a human and an argonian would very much not be producing a baby).

 

I think as long as you're not making your hybrid character an overpowered super snowflake or constantly having them angst about their half breed status (insecurities are fine, but don't overdo it), you're fine.