First time attempting a RP character: lore/RP questions and character backstory

[Jezvin]

     Hello, I’ve been reading a bit of these forums and I have been interested in roleplaying for a while. I feel like I am ready to take the plunge on a different way of playing MMOs.

Character backstory:

Highlander male: Jezvin Vayirmont (Surname is suppose to be Elezen, does the surname fit Elezen standards?)  

 

       Jezvin was born around 1555, in Ala Mhigo. When it was invaded in 1557 his family was killed trying to help a Duskwight bard named Nizva Vayirmont escape the garlean empire. Jezvin’s family died while helping Nizva, and because of this he took Jezvin with him and decided to raise him. He gave Jezvin his last name Vayirmont, if Nizva was going to raise a child he would take his name. (I feel like this is pretty weak start but Jezvin isn’t really suppose to know what happened)

 

        Nizva fled to Gridania for the next few years, he experienced a lot of negative social pressure from the Wildwood Elezen for giving a Hyur Highlander his surname and being a Duskwight in a city in general. The general dislike of his decisions, combined with his desire to get far from the Garlean Empire made him decide to try to get to Limsa Lominsa. As fate would have it he left on the trip in 1562. As the caravan he was with was crossing Mor Dhona, the Battle of Silvertear Skies took place. The caravan was a relatively safe distance away, but the Ceruleum explosion was well within visual range. This is Jezvin’s first memory and a defining drive in him. Once he learns of the explosion’s relations to the primals it fascinates him and puts a desire to find out more about the primals and magic.

 

        The caravan promptly returned to Girdania in a panic. There Nizva faced with the Garlean Empire’s abundant war on Eorzea he chose to stay in Girdania. Jezvin then grows up with Nizva teaching him singing, and archery. He managed to get Jezvin in at the Oak Atrium helping the carpenters. Jezvin constantly tries to learn as much as he can about magic, although Nizva keeps a tight leash on him stopping him from learning much at all. Nizva has a dislike for magic even though he is a bard, he never used conjuring. To his displeasure, Nizva had planned for Jezvin to learn some conjuring; he wanted him to become a bard. But in 1572 the Order of the Twin adder asked for Nizva to join them to help fight the Garlean, being a seasoned bard/archer. Nizva did not want to, but the looming Dalamud convinced him to help. Nizva then left Jezvin in the care of Beatin for the time he was going to be gone.

 

         Then the Calamity happened with Dalamud breaking the world, Nizva is Lost in the last battle (I am going with dead). (I am assuming the Calamity caused tons of damage everywhere, even in the cities correct me if I am wrong). After that event Jezvin was mainly focused on helping rebuild Gridania. Jezvin spent the next 5 years with the Oak Atrium earning his keep and helping rebuild Gridani.

 

So then his in-game story begins with him being requested to join the archer’s guild.

 

 

 

          I really wanted to have a goal while playing, and his whole back story is setup so I can create a quest that he can go on and experience/meet people along the way.  I am attempting to write up a first person perspective journal/backstory so I can flesh out his motivations a bit better before release. But basically he will be starting in Girdania learning to be an archer to be capable of traveling to Lisa Lominsa to join the arcanist guild/learn about Silvertear falls and the primals. While In Girdania I want him to learn some conjuration spells which he thinks will make the Arcanist guild accept him.

 

Lore question here I tried looking a bit, but is there any songs or poems that reference the Primals? I want to have one that Jezvin has memorized for a bard/summoner connection. I am guessing creating a poem would be fine also?

 

So having never really roleplayed before, my big question is.

Is it viable to meet people roleplaying while you are out and about? or does it tend to work better when everything is preplanned and I join a LS or FC before I even start playing. I am going to play on Balmung in hopes that there is more organic feel to the interactions while playing.

 

Anyway thanks for reading, any input is appreciated.

[AkhutaiAngura]

First off, let me welcome you to the forums, and to the world of roleplaying. 

 

So far, you've got a very good start, a decent grasp of what you want to get out of the whole experience. Rather then critique you though, let me just jump right down to your question.

 

It's very much viable to meet people randomly, out and about. We'll assume that the RP community dominates Balmung (which it may or may not), and.. Oh, lets go with 3/5 players you meet up with are RPers. If you handle everything in an IC fashion - That is, you go around posting various emotes about how you're doing this or that.. Mumbling to yourself, doing whatever it is people do when they're alone, then you'll get -tons- of interraction. Other RPers will see you, and will interract with you.

 

Now, it might just be in passing.. You could be out in the forests of Gridania, yelling at your enemies, and someone might congratulate you on a kill before running off, or offer to help, or ask for directions.. There's a million different options that can happen. Granted, RP won't happen -as- often in the field, just cause a lot of players get a tunnel vision and don't notice other players when they're questing. That's not to say it won't happen, just not as often. Most of your RP will likely start in a city.. Though it can still be random. Random RP is the best! I, personally, dislike preplanning and setting up RP unless it's for an event. Muuuch prefer the random stuff. 

 

Long story short.. If you can't find unplanned, random RP, you're not in the game, on Balmung. ^.~

[Teardrop]

Welcome Jezvin!

 

Its great that you come with such a thorough idea on who you want your character to be right off the bat! I like the whole Duskwight angle too (relevant to my interests 8-) ). I can't help you with specific lore issues you might have with your background, but I will support Kaln by stating that role play can happen anywhere. Usually, if you want people to help you through your journey of discovery, though, your personal story, you'll probably want to involve yourself in at the very least a linkshell.

 

Good job though. Hope to run into you at some point on Balmung :thumbsup: !

[Ildur]

The background sounds nice enough. Even the justification for the last name is sound: his foster father was trying to raise him as he would his own son. It is a simle solution, but the simplest solutions are sometimes the best.

 

I do not think there's any poems referencing the Primals, though once the game launches we might find some buried deep withing quests. If you absolutely feel like you must have a poem handy, you should probably write your own or, if you are not confident enough about your poetic skill, write down what the poem talks about on, say, each paragraph. Then you can just /emote it whenever it comes up.

If you do write one, make sure you don't imply via RP or backstory that it's a very important poem. That might bring trouble when talking to other fellow bards who will react with 'Uh, I have never heard about it! You sure it's a famous one?'.

Here's the wiki page on Primals.

 

On the topic of roleplay: there's nothing saying you can't pre-plan the outcomes on interactions, but I think most roleplayers want scenes* to start and end organically, without any plan (or maybe just a general guideline of what the prefered outcome is). Most often than not, people won't plan scenes out: they will just roleplay and see where things end naturally from there. The only plans you will see constantly are of the 'let's have X and Y characters meet at Z'. Everything from that point up isn't planned, most of the time.

 

* a scene is not necesarily a pre-planned thing: we call 'scene' to a series of interactions between characters sharing the same space-time. For example: if Jezvin and Ildur meet by chance in the road and talk about the weather briefly, fight a rampaging eft that was close by, joke about it and leave together towards Gridania before they part ways, that's all a whole scene.

For clarification, 'cause some people have wondered in the past if 'roleplaying a scene' meant having it scripted down.