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I made a character on one world and then was told I can only have one character per world (is this a trial only thing?). After I made the character on the second world, I was in a new city, a new realm, and everything was different.
Is there a way I could travel with the first character to the world of my second character? Is each world a separate "planet" with no travel in between?
And finally, will I, once I buy this game, be able to make more than one character per world?
Worlds (Servers) are separate from the cities.
There's three major city-states you can start in - Ul'dah, Limsa Lominsa, and Gridania. Which you start in is based on which class you picked to start as. When you progress to level 15 in the main quest, you will be sent as an envoy to the other city states, and from then on can travel freely between them.
Each server is an exact copy of the game environment. The same places, events, content, etc., exists on every single server; the only difference are the people.
Welcome to Eorzea! :D
Free trial accounts indeed are restricted to only having one character per 'world' - this is also the same for full accounts that are on the 'Entry' level subscription rate (the cheapest subscription). To be able to have multiple characters on the one server you need to have at least a 'Standard' subscription which is more expensive (the 'legacy' subscription also allows multiple characters per world, but sadly you can't qualify for this as it's no longer offered).
Technically the term 'world' is a misnomer - it's a fancy name for a server. And yes, each server is separate. Although you cannot freely travel between servers, once you upgrade your account to a subscription, you will be able to make use of the Character Transfer Service which allows you to move a character from one server to another. However this requires a once only fee to be paid (separate to your subscription), but the trade off is the move is virtually instantaneous.
As for your second character having started in a different city, this is because what city you start the game in is determined by what class you choose when you create your character (specifically, the choice of city is the location of that class's 'Guild'). Not long after starting you will be able to unlock the Armoury System which allows you to change your classes, so if you want to start in a specific city you will need to choose a class whose Guild is located there. The starting cities and which classes are associated with them are below:
Limsa Lominsa. Port city of pirates. Choosing Marauder or Arcanist will start you here.
Gridania. Forest city of nature. Choosing Conjurer, Archer or Lancer will start you off here.
Ul'dah. Desert city of merchants and finance. Choosing Thaumaturge, Gladiator or Pugilist will start you here.
As well as being able to change class reasonably early in the game, as you progress through the story you will also open up travel between each city once you gain your airship pass so you'll eventually get to see all three cities without having to create a character in each. :)
Ahh thank you! :)
I'm not concerned about bringing my characters to the same server- they're both approximately level 10. I was only concerned about the cities and land around those cities. It's great to learn that it's based upon class!
Thank you very much for the responses and the warm welcome :)
Each of the three city states also has a different 1-15 story based on their society, but the story progression is the same no matter what you choose (This includes Grand Company choices later in the game around level 20) The only thing that these choices change is the FLAVOR of your progression and the location of where things happen, but your encounters with the MAIN story remain the same. (As in you fight the same kinds of enemies for the main story in the level 1-15 quests, you just have a different flavor or specifics of circumstance based on the location you are aligned with)
I don't want to be more specific because that's kind of "spoiler", but each city gives you MSQ "guides" based on your city state that help guide you into the unified story after you unlock airship travel at 15, and you will have fights with these guides helping you and they explain a little of what's going on and indicate deeper knowledge they aren't ready to reveal just yet... so you aren't MISSING anything, it's just you get to choose your allegiance and this can add a few lines of text here and there later in the game to acknowledge things you've done.