Do those characters from the Opening Cinematic exist in the Story?

[Terin]

It's something I just got to thinking about earlier, but those characters from the opening cinematic *seem* to be fairly important in that cinematic, yet I've never encountered in-game. As they're all wearing player-attainable gear, I can assume they're meant to "represent us, the players", yet Louisoux (sp?) seemed pretty intent on protecting them, specifically.

It got me to wondering; do those characters have any other story?

If nothing else, I'd definitely like to see them introduced into the game's story, if they aren't already. It seems like we have a fairly short list of recurring NPC's, and given that they clearly held their own during the Calamity, seems like a great way to bring them into the mix. Maybe as the first official "Warriors of Light" NPC's, instead of relying purely on us silent protagonists?

[DracotheDragon]

Derplander and co are the first to do anything

derplander's in game name Realm Reborn :P

its basically a standard group with all races that SE made to show off all jobs dungeons and when they show off screenshots models warriors of light have it made

[Dijana]

Pretty sure they're just meant to represent the players from 1.0

[Enkidoh]

Actually, Derplander and his party are both - they both represent the player's character, and are characters in their own right. Ferne confirmed this fact in this (now archived) very long thread in the Lore section back before ARR launched: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...9-CG-Midlander

Also, Derplander and his party were first introduced to us in the original opening movie for 1.0: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag2cRTU-Og8

[Parz3val]

His name is DERPlander?! Lol

[Recaldy]

You sure they're not from the job quests?

[Chiramu]

Those characters represent the player base. They are the Warriors of Light. And if you remember the first part of the main scenario you're told they forgot their names.

[myahele]

I thought derplanders name was Meteor?

[Enkidoh]

Actually he's officially unnamed - 'Derplander' is just a pseudonym the player community have fondly given him (I believe it was Vilheim on the old forum who first started calling him it), due to the silly faces he keeps pulling in the trailers.

But yes, in the Waning of the Sixth Sun story recap Bluray disc that came with the collector's edition of ARR, he has the placeholder name of 'Meteor'. But it remains to be seen whether or not that is his real name or something else. Either way, until his real name is canonically revealed I'm going to continue to call him 'Derplander' as the name has stuck.

[Virtuso]

Like others said, they are "characters" in the world technically but don't ever expect to see or hear from them as they represent the player base. And so far as the opening movie goes, they represent us legacy players there.

The battle you see in the cinematic was an actual in-game event that took place in the final day of version 1.xx. I remember very well the hours spent of us legacy players gathering and watching the red moon crashing down and the Imperials invading with a massive war breaking out all across the game world. *sigh*. Even at the end of the cinematic you see them being teleported to some remote place... us legacy players actually go through that. When we started in 2.0 with our old characters, we appear in the same location and we even get the same armored black tail chocobo you see the warrior ride away on in the end.

So yeah basically, their legacy players.