How Many Role Players Ignore That We Are From Another Land?

[Cilia]

It's ambiguous as to whether the Warrior of Light is first journeying to Eorzea, or simply returning from a trip abroad. Or perhaps emigrating from one city-state to another.

Me? Well, I deliberately went with the Haragin tribe because their quirky custom is pretty, ah, tame, and it also provides an adventure hook.

[DPZ2]

Of more interest, from the point of view of "WoL finding themselves in Eorzea. Again" -- the descent into the Howling Eye is preceded by a certain airship captain's memories of your character gifting them with goggles at least 10 years prior to current time. This scene is experienced by 1.0 and 2.0 players alike, and is pretty aetheric in nature.

[ObsidianFire]

That scene is a bit weird because we know that's not how Cid got to Eorzea in the first place. As far as we are able to tell, that scene is a metaphor for the WoL somehow fixing Cid's memories with the Echo.

[Kytrin]

I circumvented that with my main by giving her a backstory where she grew up essentially a gypsy along with a number of other refugees displaced from their village in Othard who turned mercenary. And basically is from everywhere and nowhere at once. The entire reason she got into adventuring was because of the decline of mercenary work and her desire to support her very eclectic clan. So she can legitimately say that she's both familiar with a place and a stranger at the same time.

[Grayve]

I went with the classic “fell of a boat and can’t quite recall her homeland”.

[Gemina]

Everything is set up so you can develop whatever lore you want for your character prior to arriving to the city state of your choice. Your character's background can be rooted in Eorzea, the far east, Garlemald, Thaivnair, or not even be native to this star if you please. The only conflict with that last one is Midgarsormr refers to you as "child of man", which basically means you were indeed born on Hydaelyn. And I don't know about you guys, I'm not entering into arguments with the King of Kings.

As for being sensitive to the aether, all this really says to me is that you have been away from Eorzea for quite some time. I tend to look at it like spending a certain amount of time away from Eorzea increases your reaction to the aether once you immerse yourself in it once more. Kind of like moving/visiting a coastal residence from one of high elevation. Once you return to the high elevation, you are affected by it along with the changes in weather just like someone who is native to the coastal region.

When I start up a new character when we get Viera and Rothgar, this character isn't going to be a WoL like my current character. When I go through the story again with her, it's going to be a retelling of the events of ARR/HW/SB through a more harnessed/reflexive ability of the echo from Gemina. She'll receive these 'visions' into the past and live them out kind of like how we do when facing EX primals as a kind of 'calling' until the two characters meet sometime during ShB. Unlike Gemina, whose actual birth location is currently unknown and assumed to be somewhere in the Hinterlands, this new character will most certainly be from Gilmore Jungle; leaving her forest sisters and arriving in Eorzea in pursuit of the WoL.

[MistakeNot]

As a new (non-1.0) character, you're definitely treated as an outsider who isn't familiar with Eorzea at all. If I remember correctly the peddler remarks that you were having a nightmare and that you must not be used to all the aether.

The peddlar does suggest that may be the problem. That does not mean we actually are unused to all the aether - peddlars aren't always right about everything after all.
In fact, we aren't especially susceptible to high concentrations of aether. The 'nightmare' was more like a vision due to being Chosen by Hydaelyn.

[Balipu]

Back when I was writing my lodestone blog I was absolutely not committed to saving the world, so I have no problem with being a foreigner. I was roleplaying a vampire hunter and changed events and their meanings to suit this new narrative. I'm just fighting Ascians cause they tried to kill me. And only my first race change was fantasia. The rest was Matoya doing my a favor.

[Iscah]

The peddlar does suggest that may be the problem. That does not mean we actually are unused to all the aether - peddlars aren't always right about everything after all.
In fact, we aren't especially susceptible to high concentrations of aether. The 'nightmare' was more like a vision due to being Chosen by Hydaelyn.

I know that's the actual reason for the 'nightmare', but the thing I find strange is more that he (and Y'shtola/Thancred/Papalymo later on) remarks on it being a possibility at all.

Aether is the basis of everything in this entire world - so where would they have to come from to be affected by exposure to it?

[SannaR]

Aether is more abundant and thicker in Eorzea so it might work like having been gone from an area at high altitude for years only to go back and have to become re-acclimated to it. I mean the crystals the moogles mine in the moogle dailies can make them sick, but then they are more sensitive to things like corrupt crystals. I want to say that a few npcs who aren't used to seeing someone with the echo get memory shares/flashes in ARR and early HW mistake it as aether sickness. Alphinaud hints to this after we have an echo "attack" around the time we meet Iceheart or about to asking if we're alright and to take our time if we're not feeling well.