Questions about Armor/Gear and their In-game/In-Character acquisition.

[Technic164]

So, was digging around a little, trying to find some answers, but wasn't really getting much of anything in regards to my particular questions, so I thought I'd post them up and see what everyone thought, or what people feel would be acceptable.

 

So, going to cut right to the chase,

 

Tomestone/Raid Trade-in Armors and gear. Just how would someone acquire such things In-Character? Like, a couple of them I feel would make sense and be easy to explain, since they are more or less just different cloth like materials. [though that begs another question of just how strong certain materials are as we level up and progress..]

 

But gear like.. the Ironworks Magitek or the Lost Allagan stuff, or any of the Alexander Raid armors. How does one come across those?

Do the Ironworks or Rowena's people just.. craft this stuff? Is that what the Tomestones are for? Crafting methods? How would characters IC acquire tomestones to actually trade in to get such things, if that is the only method thought possible?

 

I suppose one could just handwave and just 'oh yeah I found it', but.. I don't wanna do that. These are things I want to work and develop towards In character.

 

What other methods might people consider allright? I had a thought that maybe scavenging/Salvaging like.. Garlean armor, weapons, gear, metals to trade with Rowena's people, or the Ironworks people to put towards helping forge armor might be an idea? Or would it just be simpler to assume that Gil is the answer to everything?

[LiadansWhisper]

I believe they're all copies of old armor.

[Teadrinker]

There is an Alexander top I just use as a dress. My character probably bought it at a stall in Limsa.

There are very very few items out there that I think anyone would give you grief over using. I think some of the Warrior artifact gear has specific lore stuff behind it but even then I've seen people use it ICly and I really don't care. It's just an axe. It's just some armor.

If you like a certain suit for battle then use it. If there's something from a raid that looks like something your character would wear casually then go get it. Only thing I would say might warrant some kind of IC explanation is if the thing is glowing neon pink or something but even then it shouldn't stress anyone out.

So wear what you would like imo.

[Faye]

There are only so many gear options in the game, especially for a single class, and a good chunk of them have some lore significance. But IC, as far as I'm concerned, unless someone signifies otherwise in their role-play, clothes and armor are just clothes and armor. (Though like Teadrinker said, some more extreme ones might need some explanation, like the glowy augmented gear pieces.) If my character is wearing the WHM artifact gear, then IC she's just wearing some clothes that happen to look like WHM artifact gear (and realistically, how many characters would be able to pinpoint a specific article of clothing as that?). Most people probably won't question the lore significance of whatever your character is wearing, and I think it's polite to abide by the same!

[Technic164]

My apologies, I suppose I worded my initial post incorrectly due to.. being tired maybe? I'm unsure.

 

My question was more geared towards how one might barter or trade with individuals working under Rowena in order to acquire actual armor from these locations In-Character. As.. I imagine we aren't just finding thousands of tomestones laying around to trade to the artifact collector and her subordinates, since pretty much any means of acquiring them through the same places we get them mechanically would require our characters to.. actually be Warriors of Light.

 

I don't know, I suppose I really shouldn't /have/ to explain how or why my character is wearing Ironworks Magitek gear, or the Lost Allagan stuff. But I would like to, because I kind of imagine they would be a lot more protective than the standard clothing they wear, and they are adventurers, after all. I guess can handwave it, or perhaps find someone IC who claims do be able to craft/forge these things.

[Silmanos]

To be honest most rpers I've met don't even mention Rowena's existence let alone actually deal with her or her organization. The whole tomestones as a currency is more of a game mechanic than actual lore. In lore, yes, Rowena does deal with some odd armor requests and antiques and such. Rare things that most of the average person would never be able to afford. It's doubtful even most of the average adventurers would be able to afford some of her wares. That said as far as Ironworks or the Lost Allagan... that is actually rather easy to explain. Does it /have/ specifically be those sets? Aside from using the look what is to say those aren't specific pieces of Magitek armor made by some random engineer? Granted in lore it's not a common thing in Eorzea yet, but the magitek industry is a growing one as highlighted by the Garlond Ironworks, and there are many Player made FCs dealing in magitek creations.

[Mermaid]

1 hour ago, Technic164 said:

I don't know, I suppose I really shouldn't /have/ to explain how or why my character is wearing Ironworks Magitek gear, or the Lost Allagan stuff. But I would like to, because I kind of imagine they would be a lot more protective than the standard clothing they wear, and they are adventurers, after all. I guess can handwave it, or perhaps find someone IC who claims do be able to craft/forge these things.

 

Honestly? You can probably get away with avoiding Rowena and not having to use a crafter character easily. The Garlond Ironworks creates the gear and Rowena distributes it but that doesn't mean you have to 100% adhere to that. It's hardly a stretch to just cut out the middle man that is Rowena and say the Ironworks just produces it for well off adventurers.

 

The Lost Allagan stuff is a bit of a stretch but I believe it's the Sons of Saint Coinach that unearth a lot of Allagan artifacts? I know they find the Summoner AF gear and are key in the Crystal Tower story. Maybe they unearthed the Lost Allagan gear and released the designs to Redolent Rose who's trying to start an antique fashion trend? I'm sure there's lots of ways you could write around that without having to use Rowena or an IC crafter.

[Gegenji]

Worse come to worse, you can make it an RP moment and interact with a crafting-type character ICly (like my character Chachan!). In fact, I like to jokingly head-canon that the old Asuran gear (the old Doman-looking gear from relatively early in HW, now relegated to Seals in that tavern in Ishgard, but I digress...) was actually made en masse by Chachan's father when he and the rest of Chachanji's family fled from the razing to Eorzea. So, if someone wanted to have that sort of armor, it was easy enough to just say they got it from him.

 

It's stated that a lot of the stuff Rowena makes are replicas. That means anyone could likely do the same if they have the right materials and a design to follow. So if you want there to be some degree of lore significance to what you're wearing, you could bring a sketch or other example of the gear to the appropriate crafter and have them make it to those specifications. Otherwise, you can just have said crafter make it and it "just so happens" to end up looking like that!

 

Those are my thoughts on the matter, anyway.