To be Midlander or Miqo'te, that's the question

[Norna]

(Warning, this post is ridiculously long and convoluted as heck)

 

Okay, so after revising the back-story of my character to a ridiculous degree to allow for the multiclass system/Echo/Only One White Mage According to Lore/you know what I mean, this is what I ended up with (a Teal Deer, basically):

 

Once upon a time, there was an Elemental worshiping fishing village in Meracydia (previous incarnations of this back-story had Garlean Empire, but due to certain things that is apparent in the back-story, that didn't work out), but they had the unlucky misfortune of being in the way of the Scourge of Meracydia's journey north, and, of course, all the wyverns increasing activity in the area. Several of the fishers died saving the rock, tree and spring water in which their elementals resided as they fled into the sea, but they were decimated and terrified, and didn't dare to return, so they drifted until they came upon an isle made entirely of rock except an almost withered tree on its tallest point where the saltwater yet hadn't reached.

 

The tree was home to an old elemental that explained that the isle is gradually sinking and that all other elementals had either died or left.  It advises them to do the same, but the fishers doesn't dare to leave, lest more wyverns would come. 

 

The elementals they had saved felt gratitude and also grief that their people would slowly starve to death in fear on some rock in the middle of the sea, so they consulted with the ancient elemental and together, all four of them used their powers to restore the isle into a habitable stage.

 

Oh, most of the fishers didn't survive (as the first harvest was small), but the second generation didn't have the same fear and started trading with the mainland, and thus other classes made their way to the isle. But being blessed with elementals and with a small population meant that the isle was an apparent paradise, and of course, a couple of outsiders hoped to exploit that, and so, by the third generation, the islanders isolated themselves and became more of a folktale on the mainland.

 

Then, at the fifth generation, mainlanders found and tried to conquer the island, only thwarted by the natural protection of cliffs and reefs hiding around the isle and aged ranged disciples. It became clear to the islanders that once the aged disciples of war and magic had died, they had little protection, and so sought the guidance of the ancient elemental (who, by that point, held some improper-for-an-elemental affection towards them).

 

A system was set up: Children with talent in magic would be separated from the rest of the village and taught in seclusion (to prevent them from being corrupted by usual human weaknesses) by their seniors. Others would be taught in the village. If the magicians remained pure of heart, and the warriors (as in DoW) survived their rigorous training, they would be pulled into the aether (via an aetheryte) by the ancient elemental and meet souls of departed job-holders corresponding to their classes and had to pass their trial (two outcomes if you didn't pass: dumped back in the real world with amnesia pertaining to the profession, or lost in the aether forever, if you really screwed up). This system, flawed as it was, worked somewhat.

 

And, by the tenth generation, had become completely twisted. Children were locked by fate (basically "it is your fate to be a fisherman and it is selfish to refuse!" said to three-year-olds by their parents), and if a child had no or multiple talents, they were expected to master them all. Which is where my character (henceforth; Chara) comes in.

 

Lazy, bored, and with average skill in all the skills, she was separated and trained as a magician, and when she got those souls, was trained as a warrior and got those, but thought it all a hassle. She had the echo since birth, but did not know, as all it did on the island was give her strange dreams of wonderful, faraway places. Her grandparents were both on the Council of Elders, so not only was she familiar with the masters of disciples, but related to the islanders' leaders, and her disdain for it all made her unpopular with her peers.

 

In short, she felt trapped. Both by having to practice all her jobs every day, not being able to leave the isle or make other friends.

 

Then the Calamity happened and the surge of aether from Dalamud killed the elementals of the isle.

 

Yeah, isle started to sink quickly and the islanders used the aetheryte to jump into the aether in the hopes of exiting somewhere safe (it had happened occasionally that an islander on a trial ended up on the mainland early on when the elementals weren't used to guiding people through the aether). Chara, by virtue of having the echo, was sent into the heartland of Eorzea.

 

Which is where her internal conflict begins, basically:

 

She believes that she wants to find the other islanders and restore their culture, because that is what she's supposed to want. It is the proper thing to do. She's also supposed to keep being a master-of-all-trades.

 

What she really wants is to be an adventurer, preferably faaaar away from the isle and islanders, so while she goes through the motions, she lets herself be distracted away from any lead (this is how she ended up with the Scions; "you want someone to get this letter to Limsa when there's rumors of my people in Ishgard? Well it is an important letter and the rumors might be nothing so I'll do it!"). She is also letting her practice of certain jobs she finds less appealing lapse (she can still do them, just, not as good as the ones she actually likes).

 

What she doesn't know, is if anyone else is alive, so she doesn't like to talk about the isle and islanders at all (and doesn't press the issue when she guiltily asks of any rumours).

 

Humorously, the Twelveswood elementals don't like her because apparently the ancient elemental of the isle is disliked there (it was a bit of a rebel in its youth, I believe, and liked agitating more refined and delicate elementals). They tolerate her presence, but if she takes one wrong step they'll send everything they have against her.

 

I've gotten the suggestion to maybe make her a Padjal for the WHM thing, which would mean Midlander as well. But since both Hyur and Miqo'te are immigrant to Eorzea, both of them might work (though from the history of the Miqo'te, it almost sounds like they came from the north instead).

 

Anyway, I need help to decide what to do with this (and if the back-story is too complicated).

[Verranicus]

I only skimmed over that, but please don't do the Padjal thing. You'll get a lot of ridicule. They're supposed to be super rare if we were meant to play as one SE would let us.

[Norna]

I only skimmed over that, but please don't do the Padjal thing. You'll get a lot of ridicule. They're supposed to be super rare if we were meant to play as one SE would let us.

Plus she'd be the oldest looking Padjal alive with the smallest horns:P. I added it because it was suggested.

 

I think the problem is that I want to do a jack-of-all-trades character who eventually drops a few disciplines in favor of the ones she's actually interested in (yet, for the sake of IC dungeoning when party is one role short, she can make do in a pinch), as well as thinking that she wants to do one thing, yet she really wants the opposite.

 

I wonder, would it be better to make her the Midlander child of a DoM-DoH and a DoW-DoL who disagreed about her upbringing (and their general arranged marriage, though they agree on telling her just how grateful she needs to be for being their daughter), and so they taught her a little bit of everything, and she was kept cloistered in preparation for an arranged marriage (all the while, the Echo makes her dream the memories of adventurers), but her family falls from grace (they profited from both Eorzeans and Garleans, as well as used Ala Mhigan refugees as cheap labor, a fact that came out after the Calamity) and her marriage is called off by the groom's family, and her parents can't stop arguing so she runs away from home and becomes and adventurer.

 

As she grows up and becomes more settled during the past five years (picking up skills here-and-there with the help of the Adventurers' Guild), she believes that the fairytale of the prodigal offspring returning and reconciling with her parents and lifting them up from the poverty they'd fallen into (basically, filial loyalty) is what she's supposed to do, but she distracts herself from doing it because she really, really dislikes her parents.

 

Still, she believes that it is her duty as their daughter to reconcile, and a lot of her growth as a person will be to decide whether filial piety is the be all and end all of her existence.

 

Er, would that be better?

[Maril]

I only skimmed over that, but please don't do the Padjal thing. You'll get a lot of ridicule. They're supposed to be super rare if we were meant to play as one SE would let us.

 

I have to agree with this. Whatever you do, don't padjal.

 

I can't really comment on the rest of your stuff because I kinda got a bit confused by it. Simplifying may be something to consider, there's a lot of stuff you can do without making things too complicated

[Jilan]

Personally, I'd go with something simple as a jumping-off point, and figure out other details during RP. Though, if you want to use the ideas you've come up with thus far, the idea with you Midlander with the fallen family could be simplified. 

 

Maybe they're a jack-of-all-trades because they like hunting (lancer or archer) but family traditions dictate that they must learn alchemy or something. So, sneaking off to study the "forbidden" discipline when not studying the one their family wants. Maybe men learn the arts A, B, and C and women have to learn X, Y, and Z in Midlander's village, because Traditions. 

 

This all could result in Midlander deciding to run away/get exiled when the village learns Midlander's "extricurricular activities"/be sent to study the expected art because Reasons (some version of Rumspringa or something) and Midlander decides to use the opportunity to further study the art they genuinely like.  

 

Of course, you don't have to decide to go with any of this, I'm just tossing the ideas out there and hopefully it was helpful. :lol:

[Chika Ito]

Do not go Padjal. Not only are they very rare, but it just makes it seem like you want your character to be a special snow flake. Wanting to be different isn't bad, mind you, but just...do not go this route. People will give you flack for it. In other games I have played when there are those that play a rare race/class/etc there are some in the gaming and role playing community that avoid the 'special snow flakes'. I am in no way saying people are Balmung are like this, but you never know.

[Norna]

So it would be better if she's just some midlander daughter to some rich family that expects her to learn some classes she's not really good at, so she knows a few cross-skills from different classes she wont be playing, and after the Calamity ruined the family business and reputation, she ended up traveling and as she came across them, picked up skills she was interested in.

 

But even if she's interested in a skill, she couldn't always learn it in a time-frame she could afford (give her a lance, and she'll eventually injure more allies than enemies, including herself, even if she admires the jumps. Strangely, despite being a good Arcanist/Scholar and Conjurer/White Mage [is this even possible in lore?], she's rubbish at Thaumaturgy and Summoning.

 

She can also dual-wield, with either short blades or fists, or wield two-handed greataxes, but ask her to use conventional sword-and-shield to attack and block, and she just can't [she has a scar on her face from where her shield smacked her over her nose, and when she tried to use a shield as a conjurer, she failed miserably], for example).

 

Would that be a better base to build on?

 

Also, don't worry, I've decided not to go Padjal! (again, that would be harder to Lore than White Mage, though I'm still wondering about that. What if there was a historical White Mage who left a crystallized soul with the express wish to teach white magic to non-Padjal during a time of need, like an Umbral Era?)

[Zyrusticae]

Scholar I can understand, but is there a specific reason you need her to be a White Mage?

 

Keep in mind that you don't necessarily need to pay too much heed to the game mechanics - you don't HAVE to have your character have that class IC just because you happened to level it up. White Mage, in particular, is one of those classes that's really not conducive to having multiple PCs running around and still have it play nice with the lore (especially since just being a white mage is reason enough for others to be skeptical and wary of your character). She can just be a good Conjurer, for example, which alone is enough to be a fairly competent healer. I find that trying to force the "I can be everything!" class system into your character's background is just going to make something of a monster... which your OP is certainly pushing towards.

 

I also have to say that there's a kind of odd dissonance between someone who knows both arcanum AND conjury yet is also proficient in melee combat. Not saying it's impossible, but it takes some doing to explain, especially since the educational background behind any of these is generally quite divergent from one another. Is there a specific reason she pursued martial arts after spending so much time working on arcanum and conjury? Some kind of event or inspiration that sparked her interest?

 

It may be better in the end to put some hard limits on your character instead of having her branch out so much, unless it's essential to her character in some form or fashion. Simply having a lot of interests isn't really an excuse for actually being skilled in many or most of those interests, and it doesn't really make for an interesting character.

[Norna]

Scholar I can understand, but is there a specific reason you need her to be a White Mage?

 

Keep in mind that you don't necessarily need to pay too much heed to the game mechanics - you don't HAVE to have your character have that class IC just because you happened to level it up. White Mage, in particular, is one of those classes that's really not conducive to having multiple PCs running around and still have it play nice with the lore (especially since just being a white mage is reason enough for others to be skeptical and wary of your character). She can just be a good Conjurer, for example, which alone is enough to be a fairly competent healer. I find that trying to force the "I can be everything!" class system into your character's background is just going to make something of a monster... which your OP is certainly pushing towards.

 

I also have to say that there's a kind of odd dissonance between someone who knows both arcanum AND conjury yet is also proficient in melee combat. Not saying it's impossible, but it takes some doing to explain, especially since the educational background behind any of these is generally quite divergent from one another. Is there a specific reason she pursued martial arts after spending so much time working on arcanum and conjury? Some kind of event or inspiration that sparked her interest?

 

It may be better in the end to put some hard limits on your character instead of having her branch out so much, unless it's essential to her character in some form or fashion. Simply having a lot of interests isn't really an excuse for actually being skilled in many or most of those interests, and it doesn't really make for an interesting character.

 

So she's could be just a conjurer/scholar then on the mage side?

 

She was supposed to be taught the noble "knightly" arts (in FFXIV this would be Gladiator/Archer/Lancer), and the basics of magic (particularly arcanima as it also has a mathematical application, but in order to truly understand arcanima, you also need to understand the external-internal aether thing that conjury and thaumaturgy is built upon) as the only heir of her family from the time she could walk and talk.

 

But her master in War disciplines saw that she sucked at Gladiator and Lancer, and since it was supposed to be for her self-defense as well, he decided to teach her pugilism and some rouge techniques (this means that she's been studying magic and melee since she was about six, and in Real Life, you are generally good enough to be a teacher, even if you aren't a master, after around 10 years of constant study, and by the time she left home, she had 17 years of formal studies in melee and magic, and that's with aether).

 

Maybe I should add that she wasn't allowed friends outside the household when she grew up (and she was a brat until one of the servant kids let it slip that no one would play with her if she wasn't the masters' daughter, after that, she basically had no friends her own age, and certainly no friendly relations that weren't being paid by her parents, something she became very self-conscious of), so she basically spent every hour of every day studying and training (this, of course, means that she has trouble approaching other people).

 

Basically, since the Calamity, there is only one weapon (axe) that she picked without any preliminary studies/similar experience (and she's currently considered intermediate at it), and she's talented and very interested in magic, so further studies in arcanima and conjury (since she fails at thaumaturgy) was one of the few things she found easy after leaving home, she may or may not have either the Echo or something like Sylphie, I haven't decided yet, so any input would be gratefully received.

 

Basically, she has an agile body and mind for (certain kinds of) magic, but has trouble dealing with people, and is still not totally "grown up" and free of her oppressive parents (one of the reasons why she became an adventurer after the Calamity, was because her parents knew she never could say no to them, and they kept taking her money to pay for their lavish lifestyle because they didn't have any themselves, so she took a profession that would send her all across Eorzea, making it nearly impossible for them to contact her (they can't afford Moogle Mail anymore since they're without profitable skills, without their business, and with no friends after the family scandal broke), and thus, she doesn't have to say no to them).

 

She also has a few less serious problems (she's veeery short, and admires tall people, ergo, she dislikes her height, for example). She's also terrified of the undead (mainly, she's grossed out by them and doesn't want to be touched by them). Oh, and true to her cloistered upbringing, her alcohol tolerance is low, and she's still feeling the culture clash of her pseudo-aristocratic, impersonal upbringing, and the ragtag, personal adventuring life.

 

Ah, does that answer any questions?