What If Your Character's Backstory Didn't Happen?

[Sylentmana]

If Cecilia's adoptive parents hadn't found her that day in the forest, she likely would have died...or been raised by funguars. One's as likely as the other with her.

[Kaiz]

Curiously I'm pretty much in this state for real. I was asked to fansatia my character and he's got the same fundemental traits as he had before but now he's a completely different person so I now have to come up with a new backstory for what is otherwise mostly the same character.

[Diskwrite]

Well, the most obvious question for Ojene is, what if she didn't go to Ala Mhigo in 1557 to help the resistance?

 

...Then she'd have gone another time. Another way. There's no way she could have stood to hear of all that suffering and done nothing. The thought would have eaten her alive!

 

Now, if for some reason she hadn't heard about Theodorac's tyranny? Or the Garlean atrocities? She'd have stayed in Aleport. And over the course of the two decades she was there prior to the Calamity, she would have continued con her mercenary track to become something of a renowned hero. Even if she was still a bit of a curiosity as a foreign Duskwight in La Noscea!

 

She'd probably have gotten married in another few years after 1557. Would've had a couple of half-Roe kids. But then again! She always had a penchant for doing things the hard way. Chances are, she'd have found something else to get sucked into. Now that she's 52, she looks back on what could have been with wistful eyes. But at the time, in her 20s and 30s, she wasn't likely to ever slow down long enough to have the happy familial life.

 

So there's a second question I could ask that seems a little more plausible to me.

 

What if, after she spent her first year in Ala Mhigo, she'd never gone on the secret mission in to Garlemald?

 

She'd have likely remained in Ala Mhigo for about 3 or 4 years. She'd have stayed until she sustained a grievous enough injury that she couldn't fight there anymore. And at the urging of the rebels, she'd have left. Gone back home to Aleport. And in a good few years, she might have been able to start making that happy familial life. Just a little... delayed.

 

But her mercenary days would still have been over. And she'd still carry the mark left behind of the atrocities she'd seen. But she'd still have had a very different life! The Garleans wouldn't have had it out for her, so she wouldn't have to lay low. She'd have found a way to make a career fighting them. Even she wouldn't have lifted the arms herself.

 

...Of course, this is assuming that, in those 3 or 4 years, the object of her affections wouldn't have come find her. Because he would have been the only person who would have been able to convince her to leave all that behind.

[13uddy]

If Cecilia's adoptive parents hadn't found her that day in the forest, she likely would have died...or been raised by funguars. One's as likely as the other with her.

 

My character would be in a similar boat, except I'm not sure he would have survived if he hadn't been found.  In the unlikely event that he would survive without being found, the infections and fever would likely have scrambled his brain and left him in a bit of an unstable mental state.  I wouldn't say psychotic or anything that severe, but he would probably behave more like an animal than a person.

[Dis]

All of Glioca/Meallaire's backstory was fueled by the fact that she lost her mother when she was very young.  If her mother had never died, she never would have started experimenting with conjury, alchemy, and the other magics she did. 

 

She probably would have eventually become a Hearer, and settled down with a nice Elezen man from the Shroud.  She never would have gone across the sea to Othard, and she would have died at the end of her expected lifespan, since unnatural magic would no longer be keeping her alive. 

 

Her aetheric condition never would have happened, so she'd be dead already by now.  Meaning she wouldn't technically exist in ARR.

[Flickering Ember]

Ember, as she is currently, is a Hellsguard roegadyn who grew up a feral child in the wilds of Thanalan. A feral child in this case being, growing up alone in the wilderness with no family or town to protect her or teach her. Therefore, she's ignorant to society and did not actually learn to speak until somewhat recently.

 

Taking backstory away, Ember would have grown up with her biological parents and would have lived the life of a normal girl. Her parents were adventurers and thus she would have been able to have an education and would have lived in comfort. Her personality would be the same in many regards. She'd still be affectionate and loving. She'd be considerably less aggressive in dire situations and would probably fancy magic over physical fighting. I imagine she'd have different quirks to her than she does now, seeing as how many of them have been brought about by her lifestyle. More gentle, less wild. Soft-spoken, yet outgoing.

 

Depending on how far back we rewind backstories, she might even be able to see. 

[Solistor]

Well, Arlon was born on a pirate ship (middle school jokes are returning to me), so it would be kind of hard for him to be something else. I suppose he may have ran the hell away the first time they set down to port. Might have even ended up learning polearm combat after fleeing into the woods.

 

 

Arlon originally used to be a Lancer before my hiatus from FFXIV.

 

[Sigil.9054]

Difficult to say. Seldi's course was significantly altered by the Calamity. Then again, so was the entire course of history, most likely. It's hard to say where she'd be if that hadn't happened, because it's hard to say where Eorzea would be.

[D'aito Kuji]

Could have sworn I did this.  Anyway...

 

Since D'aito Kuji was seemingly born with a thirst for adventure and chaffed at the traditions of her Seeker tribe, I think she still would have run away at some point.  But there's an equal chance that she would have done what most people do and slowly but surely give up "childish" dreams in favor of the workaday lifestyle.  As she is perpetually almost 21 (given the time loop that are MMOs) she may well have had kittens by now. As one of the few of her tribe who could read, she might become a storyteller and regale her tribe with stories of adventure in order to help quench her own desires.  Or she may have trained to become a huntress, taking down the largest and most dangerous prey.

 

It might have been an unremarkable life, but I think she would have found some way of being content at least.

[Khunbish Avagnar]

Let me see...

If his parents did not die tragically in a flood that nearly killed him as well, he would have not ended up with his major fear of water past his calves.

 

If his Tribe of Xaela had not been wiped out due to inter tribal conflict in the Steppes, he never would have left and eventually found his way to Limsa Lominsa because he would still be with his tribal family, hunting, laughing, and carrying on like he had been.

[Tara]

If Nevahe's story never happened? First of all, Ala Mhigo would never have fallen, and thus never prompted her parents to run back to Sharlayan from Sharlayan ((oh that's confusing)) and thus also prevented her parents from leaving their research in Saint Mocianne's Arboretum and becoming almost destitute. The fire seven years after she was born would have never happened, meaning she wouldn't have a crippling fear of open flames and she'd also be able to run long distances, her lungs never would have been damaged from smoke inhalation.

 

Nevahe would probably have grown up a proud member of the Tevennie family, doting on the twin siblings who would have been born soon after her ninth Namesday. Instead she was formally disowned by her paternal uncle at her parent's funeral and left on the streets.

 

Would she have been happier? I don't know. She doesn't know. She'd like to think she'd be happier, living in Colony!Sharlayan with her parents and siblings. She'd like to think she'd be happier not having to fight her way through the Studium, to prove herself at every turn to people who would once have been her peers but now saw themselves above because she had no Surname and wore tattered clothes. She'd like to think she'd be happy to be able to run long distances without feeling like her chest was about to explode, that she'd be happier if she hadn't had to stow away on a ship bound for Aldenard. That she'd be happier if she was Nevahe Tevennie, not Nevahe Duskwood.

 

And maybe she would have been happier...but maybe she wouldn't. Those things did happen, her life as she knew it fell apart when she was seven...and she wouldn't be the person she is today if they'd stayed the same...and she's happy with who she is right now. So, she chooses to live for tomorrow. She chooses to live for who she will become under the guidance of the people who touch her life in little ways everyday.

 

((Hm...didn't really end the way I expected it to...I guess Neva decided she didn't want to wallow in the 'what if's' and has decided to write her own fate.)

[SkyeTheKnumpty]

If S'kye's backstory never happened, she'd pr- oh wait. It didn't happen. Because she doesn't have one.

[Capheira]

Odette would likely have ended up as a Garlean conscript, in truth.

 

With the invasion of Ala Mhigo and the fact that she had already been dragged kicking and screaming into Imperial hands as a child of only five cycles, were it not for her mother's barbaric sacrifice of life to see her daughter protected then she would have ended up a much different person than the woman she is.

 

A life of freedom and high seas, the years spent as pirate captive which prompted delve into the rogue's guild... none of it would have happened, replaced instead with strict militant discipline and combat training that would have taken her natural sense of duty and turned her into loyal Garlemald hound.

 

/imperialsalute