[Spoilers] Lore of the Steppes

[JenofWildfire]

I'm curious though: how do other Au Ra players incorporate current canon into your personal canon for your characters? Do you even bother, or am I just incredibly OCD?

For Ulan, being of the Kha tribe, she's an adventurer through and through, deciding not to follow in her parents' footsteps as a traveling merchant just yet. Her mother told her of the Azim Steppe when she was a child, and going there in the MSQ was the first time she'd actually been there.

[24842]

I'm curious though: how do other Au Ra players incorporate current canon into your personal canon for your characters? Do you even bother, or am I just incredibly OCD?

Initially I tried to. My 1st thought was just like the one before me mentioned about a Tumet that failed the trial but was rescued by a duskwight. 2nd & 3rd were more simple, again mentioned about a Kha or a Haragin that wanted to explore the world beside the Steppes. The more I checked the lore though, the more I realized that it refers to Steppes Xaela tribes only & since the Xaela WoL is treated pretty much as a stranger (even if his/her ancestors originally resided in Steppes as mentioned by an NPC), it wouldn't be strange to have them born/raised outside of Othard with a non-canon mentioned tribe surname or even a tribe one at all.

[KageTokage]

It is a touch unusual if your character is meant to be a member of one of the tribes that actually appears in-game as they're all relatively small communities that would likely know one another by heart.

The only thing you could really handwave it off as is their family having decided to live away from steppe and simply continuing to bear their tribe's name out of tradition.

[Elladie]

Elai was found as a baby somewhere near Onokoro; she was raised in the Ruby Sea area and then Kugane. She was named Elladie Byrne by the male Highlander who originally found her. She went to Eorzea - not out of choice really - when her Echo first started to show itself, and she was at Carteneau when Dalamud broke open. She renamed herself afterwards since no one remembered Elladie Byrne (head canon explanation for a race change after HW that included a name change, but Elladie is the character I played in 1.0). She picked a name she thought sounded vaguely Auri without really knowing much at all about her birth people

[KageTokage]

I had a hunch the GCs would be fighting on behalf of different tribes for the Onsal Hakair frontline.

Fittingly for it being a riverland, the three tribes butting heads are the Ejinn, Orben, and Horo; all of whom have water/rivers factor prominently into their way of life/tribal customs.

[ObsidianFire]

I was happy to see that they were all from the same general are in the Steppe too!

[LystAP]

The Ejinn are more in tune with nature = Adders. The Orben build boats = Maelstrom. The Horo are obsessed with appearing wealthy = Flames.

[24842]

So, considering Steppes tribes are all pretty much about upholding traditions, what happens to Xaela that refuse to accept said traditions? Are they being banished?

[KageTokage]

So, considering Steppes tribes are all pretty much about upholding traditions, what happens to Xaela that refuse to accept said traditions? Are they being banished?

Considering that that one Dotharl tribesman was afraid he'd be kicked out of his tribe if he couldn't start living up to the standard of his supposed past life, I'd assume that some tribes banish those who refuse to or cannot uphold tradition.

[ObsidianFire]

So, considering Steppes tribes are all pretty much about upholding traditions, what happens to Xaela that refuse to accept said traditions? Are they being banished?

It would probably depend on if breaking the tradition led to that particular Xaela being stronger then if they hadn't broken the tradition. The Xaela value strength as much as the Garleans do (and have been doing so for much longer). So if doing something makes them weak, they probably aren't going to want to do it. If doing something nontraditional leads to them becoming stronger as a whole, I can see them deciding that is going to be the new tradition just fine.

While the Xaela do uphold traditions, the oldest tradition is to be strong (for whatever definition of strength the differing tribes use). I get the idea the worry isn't so much that people are following traditions in and of themselves, but that they won't end up being strong enough in the eyes of the Xaela around them. How they go about proving they are strong seems to differ by tribe (what the Dotharl see as strength vs what the Oronir see as strength).

There's also at least fifty tribes. So I could see Xaela that don't like their tribes' traditions not so much getting kicked out of their tribe as leaving it for another tribe that has a definition or standard of strength they like better. We see at least one Mol getting married to people outside of her tribe because the gods told her to do that, so it looks like switching tribes is something that does happen.