Racial RP: How do YOU do it?

[Aya]

Best contraceptive? sleep outside of your species. Babeha are garaunteed to be rare then *sagenod*

This is something that's always hand-waved in every MMO RPG ever.  Pregnancy occurs when desired, and not when it isn't.  There's always some handy explanation ranging from good luck to contraceptive herbal remedies (which are universally effective and available!)  Fantasy is fantasy

[Mae]

With all the talk about sexuality and the fact that evvvvvvreryones doin' it.... What is the form of contraception in Eorzea?  Do you rub aether on your dingledoos?  Are there condoms?  And as an aside, if you're rping that you are impregnated by aether cuz "u don't need no man!" I hope you just give birth to a crystal that talks.  Hey, go hard or go home! 

 

Lol this isn't intended to rustle any jimmies. I'm just in a silly mood. However, I am actually curious about the use of conception in the setting..not that Amelia will need it or anything...>.> she's going to be pure forever.

Here you go.

[C'kayah Polaali]

That is that FFXIV "races" aren't really races' date=' they are different species.[/quote']

*ahem*

 

I am going to be pedantic here and explain that, no, they are not separate species at all. They are, in fact, all the same species of Man, all being capable of crossbreeding (and those crossbreeds capable of breeding themselves). By the standard definition of 'species' that alone disqualifies them from being considered separate.

 

 

Begging your pardon, but do you have a source for that? I'd like to read it. ;P

 

Here you go, Zhavi. The relevant section is:

 

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.

[C'kayah Polaali]

Best contraceptive? sleep outside of your species. Babeha are garaunteed to be rare then *sagenod*

This is something that's always hand-waved in every MMO RPG ever.  Pregnancy occurs when desired, and not when it isn't.  There's always some handy explanation ranging from good luck to contraceptive herbal remedies (which are universally effective and available!)  Fantasy is fantasy

 

I knew a RPer who went against this. Her character slept with someone, then she rolled a die and said "Whelp, got a bun in the oven!"

 

It made for interesting RP...

[Gegenji]

Here you go, Zhavi. The relevant section is:

 

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.

 

 

I've been media'd. I can't see the phrase "love and marriage" anymore without immediately thinking of the opening theme to Married with Children.

[Kage]

Thanks now I have the song in my head.

 

I think one of the scenes with Ifrit also calls everevery PC "of Man"

[Aya]

I knew a RPer who went against this. Her character slept with someone, then she rolled a die and said "Whelp, got a bun in the oven!"

 

It made for interesting RP...

I know that some people do that (I've had a GM do that in pen and paper games too!), but at some level she accepted and wanted that risk (it may not have been her desired outcome, but obviously if she'd really not wanted that chance, she'd have not rolled the die).  That's just the way it is when no biology is actually involved

[FreelanceWizard]

I think one of the scenes with Ifrit also calls everevery PC "of Man"

 

To add to this, the lyrics of one of the verses of Under the Weight (the final Titan phase music) are:

 

"Bow down, overlander, your lord commands

There's no salvation for the Sons of Man"

 

Ramuh also speaks about the darkness that lies in the hearts of Men in the cutscene prelude to unlocking his trial.

 

It seems to be a common theme among Primals, at least, that all of the player character races are "Man."

 

I also seem to recall Midgardsormr referring to the Adventurer as one of Man, but I could be misremembering that.

 

We also know from the cutscenes around the World of Darkness that Allagan ingenuity produced a bloodline running down to G'raha Tia. Seeing as the practice of summoning Primals was developed as a response to their ambition (IIRC), perhaps the Allagan empire is the source of all of the races we see in Eorzea today.

 

EDIT: Yeah, in retrospect, that's dumb speculation on my part with no real lore support.

 

 

[Oli!]

I just wish more people outright admitted that they had no interest in sticking to the lore instead of pulling out the card of 'I can do what I want, FREEDOM AND LIBERTY' that is becoming alarming common in debates such as this.

[Look at all these things I agree with!]

 

 

This, and forcing borderline fanon for things that aren't common knowledge (and I mean, like, really forcing it, like "your character's an idiot if you don't listen to me" levels of forcing it) are the two things that give me Severe Roleplayer Migraines, which is a real disease and the actual One True Threat to America.

 

Also, guild death is always sad, and finding people that think alike / are similar to that group after things like that is always hard. I hope you find good people.

[Kage]

Yes!

 

I believe you're talking about this piece of dialogue regarding Midgardsormr

"Man hath ever coveted that which lieth beyond his grasp."

 

 

<- because I'm too lazy to grab cutscenes

[Caspar]

I just wish more people outright admitted that they had no interest in sticking to the lore instead of pulling out the card of 'I can do what I want, FREEDOM AND LIBERTY' that is becoming alarming common in debates such as this.

 

The biggest frustrations for me, is trying to wrap my head around in-characterly handling completely conflicting information. I'm not that type of person that likes to disregard people, characters or encounters at all, even if they go entirely against what I know to be true. One person Kino trusts is changing their form all the time because "fantasia flows like water thanks to the alchemist's guild," while another character Kino trusts staunchly tells her that such a thing is beyond our current ken. Okay. One friend gets pregnant through [MAGIC MEANS] while modern biology (and I assume the common opinion of characters in-game) tells us this isn't possible. How does Kino, or any other character, react to the fact that there is conflicting information on THINGS THAT WOULD BE COMMON KNOWLEDGE.

I understand this frustration pretty well, because I played in a crossover rp forum a long time ago that basically had an "anything goes" attitude about the setting. Generally, the tl;dr of what I think on the lore and contradicting it is if you're skilled enough to handwave it, go for it, but only if. In this case, I joined a forum that I normally wouldn't have on behest of a friend, and when I got there, I found there were a lot of contradictory bits of setting information for the roughly Earth-like shared world that everything from Naruto to the Arthurian legends existed in... I think the worst thing was common knowledge stuff, like cities that apparently existed; How to reconcile the existence of Midgard in the real world? Where is it? Does every city have a Shinra Corp presence, and do they all use Mako? Then for the many characters derived from games and anime who used some sort of setting exclusive power source, there were like five different versions of chi, reiatsu, chakra and odic energy, and every player seemed to insist theirs was distinct from the others, despite them all essentially describing the same concept... 

 

I do get frustrated when peoples' details flagrantly contradict something. I do try to be forgiving, but I can see why someone would want to play very strictly according to the lore with some exceptions.

[Zhavi]

but... I dunno, that could just be a common ancestor or referring to the fact that they're all intelligent.

 

 

But not really something that affects rp so I'll just not think about it. >>

[Melkire]

but... I dunno, that could just be a common ancestor or referring to the fact that they're all intelligent.

 

 

But not really something that affects rp so I'll just not think about it.  >>

 

This is how I've always seen it. Without developer commentary to the contrary, "Man" seems to be a stand-in for "sapient" and less a reference to a common ancestry. The only support for the latter is the distinction between playable races and beastmen, but then you get into a sticky situation where lore says that they're only called "beastmen" due to Garlean propaganda....

 

idk. I'm rambling.

[FreelanceWizard]

What's interesting, though, is that the Primals (certainly Ramuh) appear to be making a distinction between the player character races (Man) and the "beast" races in the dialogue.

 

I'm not convinced that's a strong indication of common ancestry, personally, but it's an interesting tidbit (certainly about how Primals see the world, and they have been around for a while ).

[Caspar]

If I can use "man," then that's good. Because it is hard to use Spoken as an alternative for it in some sentences, and I have to do so frequently due to my character's backstory.

[Seriphyn]

"Man" is abstract here. I suppose it would mean "civilized races".

 

They are different species, otherwise. There is a tidbit of lore (I think it's in a minion's description) that the common scholarly consensus is that Miqo'te evolved from a common ancestor that they share with couerls.

[allgivenover]

There is a tidbit of lore (I think it's in a minion's description) that the common scholarly consensus is that Miqo'te evolved from a common ancestor that they share with couerls.

 

Citation needed, I really doubt this one because I would definitely have heard of it by now.

[V'aleera]

Since we know we're going to get some info about half-breeds in Heavensward, if it turns out that half-breeds can in fact reproduce then it'll pretty definitively settle whether the races of man are different species or races.

[SessionZero]

I'm pretty sure the fact that they can cross-breed alone indicates different races, all one species.

[Kahnopy]

"Man" is abstract here. I suppose it would mean "civilized races".

 

They are different species, otherwise. There is a tidbit of lore (I think it's in a minion's description) that the common scholarly consensus is that Miqo'te evolved from a common ancestor that they share with couerls.

Not specifically Coeurl but...

 

 

 

Summon your fat cat minion. Despite convincing research by top academics from around the realm and beyond, most Miqo'te scholars refuse to believe that there may be some ancestral connection between their race and cats (fat or not).

Reference

 

[Zhavi]

Since we know we're going to get some info about half-breeds in Heavensward, if it turns out that half-breeds can in fact reproduce then it'll pretty definitively settle whether the races of man are different species or races.

 

wouldn't that just be the icing on top if the devs decided they were all separate species but the half breeds could still reproduce?

 

who needs earth biology!

[Briggs]

I'm pretty sure the fact that they can cross-breed alone indicates different races, all one species.

 

Different species can cross-breed. Resultant offspring cannot. 

 

Polargrizzlies, Mules, Ligers, etc.

[Kinono]

Best contraceptive? sleep outside of your species. Babeha are garaunteed to be rare then *sagenod*

This is something that's always hand-waved in every MMO RPG ever.  Pregnancy occurs when desired, and not when it isn't.  There's always some handy explanation ranging from good luck to contraceptive herbal remedies (which are universally effective and available!)  Fantasy is fantasy

 

This isn't always necessarily true. I came up with Kino's pregnancy very suddenly and without really even thinking about it mid-session, flipped a coin, and just rolled with it. The randomness of it, and the fact that I couldn't have shared the plans with Kino's partner even if I wanted to very much helped the whole scene play out more realistically as an unplanned pregnancy.

[industrythirteen]

Apologies for re-hashing earlier posts. This thread has moved along pretty quickly. But, I felt a need to at least convey some thoughts I had. 

 

In my personal experience on Balmung, I find that I see more Miqo'te than anything else. This is where, in my opinion, I find it very hard to reconcile the idea that the lore team wrote that Miqo'te are supposed to be rare. It seems predictable, to me, that a feline-based race would be super popular. 

 

As to my other thought, let's say that the lore for a race is a prickly subject, at best, for some. Some folks find that lore distasteful. Some folks may choose to ignore it like it doesn't exist. Others may fully embrace it. But in my mind, there really isn't just only a binary solution to it all. This is where I personally would take that lore, use it, and use my RP to point out how shitty I personally might think it might be. I know there are some folks that like to keep politics out of RP, but I love using RP to explore social construction. I love to turn it all on its head, all to make a point. It kind of depends on what I want to make of my RP opportunities.

[Kinono]

I think it's worth randomly mentioning for the other topic here that there that there is an unofficial, literal translation of...

 

...the Midgardsomr monologue in which he refers to the character in question as "human" multiple times. Granted, the guy translating could have been playing a hyur, and granted, the translation may not even be accurate. But I find it interesting and will post them here regardless.

 

"You bid me to stop the war? You might possess the Echo, but you're just a human. I cannot grant such wish."

 

 

"However, you're a human. Like people of Ishgard, you're capable of a foolish crime. Do not think I spare your life for nothing."

 

 

"However, this will not be an easy path. Soon my kin will do battle with humanity. The roar of my children has already been heard in all of the land."