The Player Character: Where are they from?

Hi guys,

I have really love the world of FFXIV, and enjoying the musings and knowledge shared in this lore forum. In fact, I really enjoy creating lore for my own character too; it makes me feel part of the world.

Something which interests me, which we probably may never know, is the origin of our own characters. It seems we are not natives of Eorzea, at least according to the introduction dialogue when we start the game. I'm interested to know whereabouts our characters most likely have migrated from to take on this adventuring helm - we will probably never know, but it is a question that I have and I would love to hear what you think?

That's left ambiguous so you can fill in your own character's origins.

I keep my RP separate from the main story line. I just go through the motions of the story line OOC'ly cause its fun. RP wise, my character is from one of the small villages in the Black Shroud and is much less 'awesome' then the main story line would lead me to believe, but I like it that way. I prefer to RP my toons as those who are much more down to earth than your common mary sues.

The entire point is that it is of no importance. You have come out of nowhere. You are something unexpected.

So if you wish to make your own back-story, there is plenty of room to do so.

Clearly we're from Garlemald and are sleeper agents.

Well, I think this question deserves a bit more attention than just brushing it off as open ended.

The story kind of -really- stresses the fact that the Warriors of Light came out of nowhere, in massive numbers, all at the same time. Surely their exact origins may not be necessary, but all these adventurers had to come from -somewhere-, right?

As far as I understand the story, they sure as hell weren't living in Ul'dah/Gridania/Limsa Lominsa already.

My character has taken the long voyage from Vana'diel in the hopes of experiencing a different life. Although he's bulked up quite a bit and his hair is a little shaggier than usual (damn you SE for not including very many 'short' styles for Highland Hyurs :D). He is a victim of many scars on his face from countless battles with Beastmen and the life of a Dark Knight. He hung up his Great Sword and ebony armour, trading warcraft in the hopes of rebuilding the war-torn Eorzea. It isn't long until he realises Eorzea needs a strong fighter and picks up the battle axe. Although he prefers a greatsword, he is no stranger to the axe but finds the lack of a large blade quite discerning. Adventuring initially as a Marauder, he occasionally feels the lingering darkness in his heart and eventually takes up the veil of a Thaumaturge. Being skilled in brute strength and a possessing a fine knowledge of Black Magic, my character is beginning to wonder if Eorzea will see him return as a Dark Knight.

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Originally Posted by Taelia

Well, I think this question deserves a bit more attention than just brushing it off as open ended.

The story kind of -really- stresses the fact that the Warriors of Light came out of nowhere, in massive numbers, all at the same time. Surely their exact origins may not be necessary, but all these adventurers had to come from -somewhere-, right?

As far as I understand the story, they sure as hell weren't living in Ul'dah/Gridania/Limsa Lominsa already.

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Well, then allow me to go into a little more detail, since some of it has just reoccurred to me. :)

Back when Garlemald invaded Ala Mhigo, much of the continent was bracing for war. Garlemald had developed a reputation and the city states were bracing for the worst. Mercenaries and sellswords started gathering from across the world, strong-willed youths took up arms in anticipation of the threat...

...but the war never came. Garlemald just sat in Ala Mhigo, doing nothing other than consolidate their position. A brief foray into Silvertear Fall that ended rather tragically being the one exception, there otherwise no skirmishes.

And thus a lot of armed individuals across the land. Bored, armed and dangerous - that could be a civil problem, but a few wise souls got together and formed the adventurer's guild to put these souls to a more productive line of work.
(With people like Baderon, Miounne and Momodi, what could possibly go wrong?)

As for the Warriors of Light? There were only ever a few of them - somewhere between five and seven all told if my guess is right. If you were a Legacy Player, you were one of them.
Of course, because this is an MMO, a little bending of space-time is required to make the game playable, resulting in... quite a few more of us at a first glance [size=5]BUT THAT'S HARDLY THE POINT!!!![/size]

I believe the primary complaint is not about how adventurers as a whole came about as remnant sellswords, or even that our origins are left open-ended for players to fill in the gaps with our own personal backstories. Rather, it is that it's not left open-ended enough.

The game goes quite out of its way to emphasize that we are not of Eorzea as a whole. They reference our clothing as "unusual" in the opening carriage scenes, they heavily imply that we fought at Carteneau for seemingly no gain of our own, as if it's out of the question that any of us were born in raised in Ul'dah/Gridania/Limsa Lominsa.

It's something that has bothered me quite a bit from the beginning, that we are actively denied a more intimate attachment to our starting city according to the lore. It seems silly to me that someone born in Ul'dah could not become one of the fabled Warriors of Light. That said I've learned to just accept it and ignore some of the in-game text while letting my personal backstory override it.

Myranda, I am fairly certain that, in a storytelling perspective, they do so in order to diminish the importance of your origin to as little as humanly possible.
Where you are from is not important. Who you used to be is not important. You story is blank, your past irrelevant, your future is all that matters. A future which is what we play through. Hence why I believe the alleigance you choose to the grand companies is of more important than your origin nation and all that.

Myranda, I do agree with you, which is mostly why I posted this question in a way. Of course we can make our own back story, etc, i understand that :)

But thank you.

I think some other people have mentioned it, but to put a little bit more detail into where the main characters are from:

In the opening cinematic, they show the adventurers fighting a massive war where Bahamut eventually gets summoned and starts laying waste to everything. They attempt to seal him away, but he breaks free in the process.

In so doing, it produces a brilliantly bright light: The Calamity. This light, apparently makes everyone everywhere forget what happened.

So presumably, these adventurers are you, the player. As powerful and awesome as ever, except you don't know it, nor does ANYONE remember what happened! So this leaves a ton of room for your own backstory, or a new one, since you could be some new guy!

There's an extended version of this intro cutscene if you sit at the title screen for a minute or so. I do really like this story, since it gives you every reason to be a massive collection of powerful warriors against some unknown massive power.

The battle actually happened...it was an event for the server shutting down event. The cutscene was originally shown for everyone in that zone as a final farewell. It played 5 mins before server shut down, so by time it finished, you couldn't log back in...being sent away. A nice touch really as to why it's down lorewise. So we know where legacy came from, as for the new people? we'll find out with more story.

I agree with Asher. I was under the impression that we are the people who were warped away from the carteneau battlefield, only that the timeline erased our own memories of ourselves just like how it erased everyones' memories of ourselves. kinda ffxiii-ish but that seems to be what the storyline is hinting

The people warped away at Carteneau are the Legacy players and anyone else from 1.0. Not those of us who are new.

aye, I have same Cat model as in that CS so I can say I was there even though I as there(if that makes any sense lol) as for who are you and where you come from, you are a budding adventurer that is out to make your own name, if you were to see the orignal opening CS you would actually see the first time use of Echo, even though at time I thought it was more of Prophecy since that guy who is seeing it is in there in different gear and different team.

as for the lore its open make what ever story you want, if you are from LL you can say you are traveling from your home nation, from grid you wanted to see the big city that is heart of forest or wanted to see the Elder seer, if from uld you wanted to to see the jewel of desert that is uld, its a blank canvas draw a picture write a story make a legend :)

Exactly, and for those who played 1.0 it was even more of a blank, as each nation's story in 1.0 started even more differently with no clues as to where the player had come from (Gridania just had your character walking amazed through the Black Shroud before seeing an airship crash, Limsa had the player character waking up on the ferry only for it to be attacked by sea monsters, and Ul'dah briefly had the player riding the chocobo carriage but then quickly showed your character disembarking in the middle of Ul'dah during a parade that goes sour), even more given the fact word-of-God (from Ferne) says that much of what occurs in the starting nations' storylines in 1.0

had actually already happened - your character was not even living those events, just viewing the past through the Echo, including the opening scene, confusing their possible origins and history even more.

There was never any mention where your character came from in 1.0 either, although the Gridanian one did occasionally mention your character as being a foreigner and not 'forestborn'.

So yeah, the opening is left deliberately vague on the subject of your character's origins because the player is a nameless adventurer, who has to make a name for themselves. Ultimately, it's up to the player to fill in the blanks of their story (which makes it such fun for those like me who like to role play. ;)).

Its not just one or two people who called you foreigners it was pretty much entire town that called you foreigne. Any quest you take they would say something along the lines of foreigner you don't know the laws of twelve wood.

My character use to have his own town with all my Miqo'te females. Way better than the forgotten springs. I was a newly made Nunh. Only to be obliterated by Bahamut...


..so.... HE'S SINGLE

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Taelia

Well, I think this question deserves a bit more attention than just brushing it off as open ended.

The story kind of -really- stresses the fact that the Warriors of Light came out of nowhere, in massive numbers, all at the same time. Surely their exact origins may not be necessary, but all these adventurers had to come from -somewhere-, right?

As far as I understand the story, they sure as hell weren't living in Ul'dah/Gridania/Limsa Lominsa already.

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In the original Final Fantasy, the Light Warriors (only 4 of them) were prophesized by the sage Lukahn to appear one day from seemingly nowhere (or no known lands, at least) and restore the light to four elemental Orbs and rescue the world from darkness.

Could just be something of a throwback concept they decided to build around for FFXIV's purposes.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and FFXIV's Warriors of Light were definitely not from Ul'dah, Limsa or Gridania! That's my interpretation of the in-game story and dialogues at least.

I just assumed we were from some podunk town out in the boonies somewhere who headed to the big cities for adventure.

im still really confused about this, what is there out in the world outside eorzea and the empire? what are the possibilities for our characters origins?

The narration says that Eorzea is one of five continents. It is made clear in 1.0 and again in 2.0 that the adventurers are not from Eorzea. At this time we know nothing of the other continents except the empire, which it also is clear that they are not Eorzean either. It is possible the adventurers are from those other places, and also it is possible the empire has already assimilated the other continents. Perhaps that is why the adventurers don't mind fighting against the empire, and perhaps are more like refugees. However, in my own back story from 1.0, my character is from the same continent but from an area not occupied by any of the city states.

Your from where ever you want to be, while legacy players are directly from the battle it seems implied new players are as well. Despite the legacy mark I believe it can be interpreted either way. While I'm not a RP by any means I have my own back story for my character, nothing to extensive but it does add to the fun. Just like in XI you just have to make up your own and have it as simple or complex as you wish.

With regard to the "not coming from the main city-states" point, my specific fictional background has an orphaned Lalafell raised by two Hyurs deep in southern Thanalan, near what is now Little Ala Mhigo and its neighboring Miqo'te settlement Forgotten Springs, that hub of the U tribe. Fairly simple origins and helps explain why I attempted the naming convention and dropped it when I got to the last name. No Imperial confrontations to be found that far out in the boondocks, just Amalj'aa and sabotenders for days.

In the race description it says the origin of each race and gives a general idea how and when they moved eorzea that may not be the answer your looking for but its something to consider.

What little we know of the continents other than Eorzea and Garlemald, can basically be summed up like this; Ul'dahnian merchants import from the lot of them. I also recall a mention of Thavnairian silks, and that the nobles of the capital, Radz-at-Han are obsessive about scented items and perfumes from Eorzea.