A few questions

[g0ne]

Right, so I've got a few questions about Seekers of the Sun families. Firstly, there are only 26 tribes, right? But, does the entire tribe live in close proximity and is tight knit, or are there smaller families/clans within the tribes, who live in places of their own choice? 

 

Secondly, are only nunh allowed to breed with the females to make offspring, or can there ever be a forbidden realtionship between a tia and a female of the tribe? Can a tia under any circumstances breed without challenging for the position of nunh?

 

Thirdly, there are many nunh, usually a ratio of one nunh to ten to fifty females, right? Can a nunh be devoted to only one female or is a harem ( ) very much necessary?

 

I have some more questions after this that will help me construct Eleni's backstory, but for those questions to rise, I'll need answers to these questions first. 

 

Many thanks in advance!  Looking forward to the answers and an increase in my knowledge of the lore.

[Faye]

Right, so I've got a few questions about Seekers of the Sun families. Firstly, there are only 26 tribes, right? But, does the entire tribe live in close proximity and is tight knit, or are there smaller families/clans within the tribes, who live in places of their own choice? 

 

Secondly, are only nunh allowed to breed with the females to make offspring, or can there ever be a forbidden realtionship between a tia and a female of the tribe? Can a tia under any circumstances breed without challenging for the position of nunh?

 

Thirdly, there are many nunh, usually a ratio of one nunh to ten to fifty females, right? Can a nunh be devoted to only one female or is a harem ( ) very much necessary?

 

I have some more questions after this that will help me construct Eleni's backstory, but for those questions to rise, I'll need answers to these questions first. 

 

Many thanks in advance!  Looking forward to the answers and an increase in my knowledge of the lore.

 

 

1. There are 26, originally. Players can invent their own tribes using combinations of letters rather than a single letter of the alphabet. I believe that generally, tribes have different little sects.

 

2. Only Nunh are allowed to breed. I'm sure there are Tia who do break away from the tradition, but it would be frowned upon if not downright punishable, and the lore seems to suggest Seeker women are generally unimpressed by any man who isn't a Nunh who's proved his worth. I don't really know under what circumstances a Tia may be allowed to breed unless a Nunh can't perform his duties, in which case I imagine they'd just name the Tia the new Nunh anyway.

 

3. I thought the ration of Nunhs was generally smaller than that, but idk, it's been a while since I've read a lot on Seeker lore. Regardless, I don't think it would ever be approved for a Nunh to be monogamous/take a single mate, as it would kind of defeat the purpose of Nunhs.

[g0ne]

Thank you very much, Faye, for answering my queries. Much appreciated!

 

Okay, now that I know that, I'd like to know if the backstory I've come up for Eleni is viable or not.

 

C'eleni Meztli was born to C'meztli Nunh (the breeding male of the Coeurl sect she belongs to) and her mother (currently unnamed, need to come up with one) in a smaller sect of the Coeurls. She spent very little time with her parents, as during a hunt, most of the sect was wiped out (I might make Eleni phobic of whatever creature was responsible for this massacre, I'll decide what killed them when I go through the game). She was then raised by her grandmother, who she endearingly calls Nan, who taught her and schooled her and loved her like no other. As she aged, she realized that she was naturally gifted in archery, with her botany and culinary skills being meticulously polished by her grandmother. Now, some months after the passing of her grandmother, she lives by herself in Gridania, (age is currently 21 years) and from here on, her real story starts (as soon as I can jump into the game).

 

So... :blush: Is all of this plausible, or do I have to make changes to Eleni's past?

[FreelanceWizard]

Indeed, the tribes do have subsets (sects, sub-tribes, etc.) that are based on hunting grounds. What happens is that a tia who would be nunh, rather than challenging the nunh of his hunting ground, goes out and acquires new territory. If he holds it for a long enough time, he becomes nunh of that hunting ground. Because of how this works, there's really no unifying characteristics among members of a tribe unless they want there to be (i.e., their players agree to have their characters be from the same place or to have their sects related in some way). This dev post explains it, along with noting that creating a new tribe (as opposed to acquiring new territory) is very rare and marks those involved as outcasts. (I'll just leave this miqo'te lore link collection here for you, as well.)

 

Regarding your background, it looks good to me. It seems plausible than an older miqo'te female might not participate in all of the hunts, and if the subtribe/sect/breeding group was nearly destroyed, she might have escaped such a fate that way. Do note, though, that Seekers are typically found in the Sagolii Desert and on Vylbrand (the island where Limsa Lominsa is); Keepers are the ones who live in the Shroud. Of course, that in no way prevents your character from traveling to Gridania at some point in her past -- bearing in mind, however, that certain circumstances regarding Gridania made travel to it very difficult to impossible before the Calamity (5 or 6 years ago, depending on your reckoning of time).

[g0ne]

Indeed, the tribes do have subsets (sects, sub-tribes, etc.) that are based on hunting grounds. What happens is that a tia who would be nunh, rather than challenging the nunh of his hunting ground, goes out and acquires new territory. If he holds it for a long enough time, he becomes nunh of that hunting ground. Because of how this works, there's really no unifying characteristics among members of a tribe unless they want there to be (i.e., their players agree to have their characters be from the same place or to have their sects related in some way). This dev post explains it, along with noting that creating a new tribe (as opposed to acquiring new territory) is very rare and marks those involved as outcasts. (I'll just leave this miqo'te lore link collection here for you, as well.)

 

Regarding your background, it looks good to me. It seems plausible than an older miqo'te female might not participate in all of the hunts, and if the subtribe/sect/breeding group was nearly destroyed, she might have escaped such a fate that way. Do note, though, that Seekers are typically found in the Sagolii Desert and on Vylbrand (the island where Limsa Lominsa is); Keepers are the ones who live in the Shroud. Of course, that in no way prevents your character from traveling to Gridania at some point in her past -- bearing in mind, however, that certain circumstances regarding Gridania made travel to it very difficult to impossible before the Calamity (5 or 6 years ago, depending on your reckoning of time).

 

Thank you very much. The links are really helpful!

 

Okay, so can this work? C'Meztli Nunh became nunh of his sect by extending the tribe's hunting ground and occupying and claiming a new area in Vylbrand as his own. After Eleni's sect is wiped out, since there isn't much left for them, her grandmother decides to take her and move permanently to Gridania, when she was still very young, say 15 years ago. That way they'd have been there since a long time ago. 15 years ago, would it have been possible to migrate to Gridania?

 

By the way, the Calamity is the fall of Dalamund and the destruction caused by Bahamut, right?

 

So, does this work?

[FreelanceWizard]

Yep, the Calamity is the thing you see in the game's intro trailer, with Bahamut ravaging the land.

 

What made it difficult to travel to Gridania since its founding up to the Calamity was the elementals of the Shroud. The Gridanians lived in the Shroud under the terms of a very delicately orchestrated agreement wherein the Gridanians would tread carefully and treat the forest and its denizens with the utmost respect, and in return, the elementals (who flooded the world in the Fifth Umbral Era to end the War of the Magi) wouldn't destroy them utterly. Basically, as an outsider, it was extremely easy to incur woodsin for taking proscribed actions, and woodsin would provoke the greenwrath (the forest and its denizens trying to kill you).

 

There are rituals to cleanse woodsin, but Gridanians, being a rather xenophobic lot, generally only offered that to those they considered worthy. Most outsiders would get killed by the Shroud before they reached Gridania in the first place. The Calamity and the events leading up to it damaged the Shroud considerably and largely broke the power of the elementals, which is why you can safely travel to Gridania now (as shown in the 2.0 intro sequence), why you can enter forbidden Amdapori ruins, and why there's a big Castrum in the Shroud. There are still some powerful and dangerous elementals about that need to be placated, but on the whole, their power is significantly diminished (as noted by the twins in the main scenario quest around level 20ish).

 

The upshot of this is that traveling to Gridania as an outsider before the end of the Sixth Astral Era was a quite rare thing. That doesn't mean one couldn't have special circumstances to allow it (smuggled in, just that attuned to nature, grandmother married a Gridanian, etc.), just that travel to Gridania wasn't nearly as free then as it is now.

[g0ne]

Yep, the Calamity is the thing you see in the game's intro trailer, with Bahamut ravaging the land.

 

What made it difficult to travel to Gridania since its founding up to the Calamity was the elementals of the Shroud. The Gridanians lived in the Shroud under the terms of a very delicately orchestrated agreement wherein the Gridanians would tread carefully and treat the forest and its denizens with the utmost respect, and in return, the elementals (who flooded the world in the Fifth Umbral Era to end the War of the Magi) wouldn't destroy them utterly. Basically, as an outsider, it was extremely easy to incur woodsin for taking proscribed actions, and woodsin would provoke the greenwrath (the forest and its denizens trying to kill you).

 

There are rituals to cleanse woodsin, but Gridanians, being a rather xenophobic lot, generally only offered that to those they considered worthy. Most outsiders would get killed by the Shroud before they reached Gridania in the first place. The Calamity and the events leading up to it damaged the Shroud considerably and largely broke the power of the elementals, which is why you can safely travel to Gridania now (as shown in the 2.0 intro sequence), why you can enter forbidden Amdapori ruins, and why there's a big Castrum in the Shroud. There are still some powerful and dangerous elementals about that need to be placated, but on the whole, their power is significantly diminished (as noted by the twins in the main scenario quest around level 20ish).

 

The upshot of this is that traveling to Gridania as an outsider before the end of the Sixth Astral Era was a quite rare thing. That doesn't mean one couldn't have special circumstances to allow it (smuggled in, just that attuned to nature, grandmother married a Gridanian, etc.), just that travel to Gridania wasn't nearly as free then as it is now.

 

So, can Eleni have traveled to Gridania recently and settled there recently, after the Calamity (i.e, in A Realm Reborn, or 2.0); is this better?

[FreelanceWizard]

So, can Eleni have traveled to Gridania recently and settled there recently, after the Calamity (i.e, in A Realm Reborn, or 2.0); is this better?

 

Yep, that'd work. The Calamity displaced a lot of people, and while Ul'dah got the brunt of refugees, it's entirely possible that your character moved there after the Calamity for whatever reason.

[Aya]

Gridania also provides a potential point of tension for plot, because it is so unwelcoming (although it has become much more so, for adventurers at least).  Trying to settle in Gridania as a refugee can either be incredibly easy (if you're fortunate) or an endless struggle of cold-shoulders, rejection, and expulsion (if the Shroud does not accept you).  At least that's my understanding

[g0ne]

Thanks a lot, everyone, for your valuable words!

 

Eleni moved to Gridania just recently (post Calamity, in 2.0) and settled there after Nan passed away. With nothing rooting her to her previous home anymore, she decides to move on and live her own life, as Nan would have wanted it.