It would nice to develop our origin story more.

[ObsidianFire]

While a lot of people like how the Dark Knight quests explore how your character reacts to the event of the MSQ, I do know people who don't like how the Dark Knight quests force your character to react emotionally in a certain way as that's not how their personal WoL would react to the MSQ. They feel like their character is being railroaded in them.

Which I can understand. As much as I like the Dark Knight quests and what options they give the WoL's character, they aren't canon for my character. She's not dealing with that kind of emotional breakdowns. What she is dealing with is being someone who doesn't have problems using Allagan Summoning Techniques and tries to use Bahamut's borrowed power as often as possible and how a lot of the Scions/Ironworks/Sharlayans are concerned about the effects of that. Let's just say she, Alphinaud and Cid have had some rather spectacular arguments about it. None of that is in the game either, it's stuff I can see logically happening as a result of different character's canon personalities.

I just think if SE tried to explore our backstory more, it would lead to more constrictions on who our character is instead of less. One of the things FFXIV has never been very good at is letting us make choices that affect the narrative. None of the choices we make effect the outcome in any way, they just give us two different reasons we could do the same action. In light of that, I'm very glad they don't go into why/how the WoL got to Eorzea in the first place. I (and a lot of other players) already have that figured out.

[TinyRedLeaf]

The more that's made certain, the less room there is for possibilities.

Count me among those who is strongly opposed to having a more "official" account of our character's backstory. That's practically the only part of my character that is truly my own, and not forced to run on the rails strictly defined by the main story questline. As it were, I have had to bend — and even outright ignore — certain parts of the main story for it to stay consistent with my character's personal motivations and personality, as I imagine it. One of the most significant weaknesses of JRPGs, especially in the numbered Final Fantasy series, is their lack of room for "sandbox" creativity. Filling in the character backstory would be a step in the wrong direction in that regard.

For that matter, my character's "origin" story is pretty well-developed, growing as it had over five years of regular play. Several details, some minor, some not-so-minor, had changed along the way, but the broad outline, thankfully enough, had stayed the same. And that's mainly because so little of it is officially defined, granting me plenty of freedom to craft my own story, based on what's known of the world's lore.

[Kallera]

It's not that I'm arguing for the WoL to be filled in as it is(far from it, I liked it when we were more known as the adventurer, and one story amongst the many around us.) just that play the MSQ and getting invested in it doesn't work as well when you don't want to be the warrior of light.

Roleplaying the Warrior of Light is not very feasible, at least in my opinion. Because they are so open ended and can do anything and everything, when a character is there, filling that space, it seems less....believeable? Human?

[Brightamethyst]

While a lot of people like how the Dark Knight quests explore how your character reacts to the event of the MSQ, I do know people who don't like how the Dark Knight quests force your character to react emotionally in a certain way as that's not how their personal WoL would react to the MSQ. They feel like their character is being railroaded in them.

Yeah. I dislike the DRK quests for this exact reason. It spends a lot of time telling me that I'm feeling a certain way and having certain opinions, when it's just plain not true. My WoL would never think that and most certainly does NOT feel that way. The whole quest line runs completely contrary to the idea of the WoL being a blank slate character wise. It's very jarring and I don't like it.

[Alleo]

They could give us some dialogue options ingame that has like "I have siblings too" or maybe even a "my family is death/alive.." Things like that could easily be part of just some discussions with the NPCs and could flesh them out without having to give each WoL a specific past.

I also find the blank characters a bit bad in this game since we dont have much of a choice so its not like we can truly form our character and certain story points are always decided by SE anyway...so they want to give us our character but at the same time make choices for us too thus its not really 100% our character.

[MicahZerrshia]

I think we are a primal, summoned up by the peoples hopes and prayers after the calamity. It just took us 5 years to manifest as it wasn't a direct summoning.

They could even make it work for us legacy. We were sent into the lifestream and our emergence 5 years later was the direct effect of the people.

This would explain our sudden appearance, lack of backstory and concern for a homeland or a family

[Alleo]

I think we are a primal, summoned up by the peoples hopes and prayers after the calamity. It just took us 5 years to manifest as it wasn't a direct summoning.

Then the scions with their gadgets are quite blind if we are truly primals. Also we would just suck out all of the aether in the world, which goes against the wishes of the mothercrystal. Also I dont believe that they would create a different story just for legacy players, when the time jump one is reasonable enough.

[Cilia]

What it is, is that this game sits at a very interesting intersection between a JRPG and an MMORPG. Unlike most JRPGs, the Player Character is customizable and created; unlike most MMOs, the story has a strong narrative that proceeds in a purely linear fashion.

JRPGs typically have defined protagonists and strong narratives. See the other games in this franchise, which (from IV onward) have characters with defined personalities and a narrative that you play though in a linear fashion. The character definition has continued, while the linearity of JRPGs has only gotten worse; the last JRPG I remember playing with a traditional overworld map was Tales of Vesperia, released almost a decade ago(!).

MMORPGs, on the other hand, tend to be very loose with their narratives by virtue of their more free-roaming gameplay and have less-defined protagonists because the protagonist is created and defined by the player. Since you can go anywhere you're allowed at any time, and the player character is created and defined by the player, you need a lot of freedom. The free-roaming practically necessitates a loose narrative, typically limited to one zone. It's only been relatively recently that they've made an effort to have those storylines form a cohesive narrative; each zone in World of Warcraft has its own story, but it wasn't until Warlords of Draenor that they were brought into a narrative stretching across the entire expansion.

Since XIV sits at an... interesting intersection between the two (a strong, cohesive narrative surrounding a player-created Player Character), that leaves it in a difficult spot of "poorly characterized protagonist" (unless you realize that Alphinaud is the real protagonist of the game) with "narrative that demands they be heroic." As the possibilities for why your Warrior of Light acts the way they do is entirely up to you (along with the rest of their past), just... as others have said going with your own headcanon is infinitely better (and cheaper) than having something put into the game for that purpose. I mean, we're already not getting much casual content...

There are so many ways my character would differ from the canon Warrior of Light - she's sharper and less prone to allowing the villains to monologue - so a lot of the Garlean Emissary mini-arc would be pretty different. Instead we have a protagonist who can't figure out where Tsuyu went, who just stands there despite how heated the situation with her in Namai will quickly become, and who allows all the Tsukuyomi shenanigans despite Asahi's plan being pretty clear after the Echo flashback from their father. Charge her instead of listening to Yotsuyu ramble, or try and call out to Tsuyu! Do something, geez!

[MicahZerrshia]

Then the scions with their gadgets are quite blind if we are truly primals. Also we would just suck out all of the aether in the world, which goes against the wishes of the mothercrystal. Also I dont believe that they would create a different story just for legacy players, when the time jump one is reasonable enough.

Well they added an original opening and extra story cs for us in the arr msq, albeit minimal.

But I could see the scions just not mentioning we are primals since we are the ones keeping the big ones at bay, fight fire with fire. Honestly only a few people would even know, Y'shtola for sure and maybe Krile, Minfillia, Louisioux, Matoya and Urianger and even some of those are suspect if our aetheric readings are not as large as say Ifrit. And we do use a ton of aetheric energy with them big Ascian killing weapons we developed. Heck we had to use Tupsimati to kill off just 1 and you saw how much that thing conducts. So the scions are willing to use large amounts of aether to suit their own needs while complaining and fighting others who do the same thing. They are very hypocritical in everything they do, due to being blinded by their own self righteousness.

So the case for us being a primal is not that entirely weak where the scions are concerned.

As for the Mothercrystal, she turned Minfillia into a Primal of sorts by making her an avatar, so Hydaelyn is also not beyond using primals either when it suits her own needs.

[KageTokage]

I'd honestly be disappointed if it turns out the WoL in this game is actually some manner of supernatural entity and not simply someone who gained the blessing of the Mothercrystal through circumstance and trial.