Suggestion: Origin Story for the WoL

[KaivaC]

I'm sure this has been discussed here and there, but I wonder if Square would do something like a side quest or an area for giving your character an actual origin story. .

Nothing fancy like you would see in single-player open world RPGs, or even what you would find in SWTOR...but it would be nice to materialize something about your character's origin stories. As I've been an Au Ra since subbing, I was really excited when we got to the Azim Steppes...but my character feels very much like an outsider.

Like I said, nothing too fancy, but just a little something that lets us define our character's past. We already have dialogue choices throughout MSQ, so that would work fine. I dunno, what do you guys think?

Side note: I'm aware that because the WoL is a blank slate, we can just imagine this. While that's nice, I still would love to have something play out on my screen

[Alestorm]

Just make one up yourself. The game sets it up that in the beginning where you came from doesn't matter all that much, just a face in the crowd of adventurer's trying to get rich and famous.

WoW has a section in your character page for a short bio for RP. Though it would be nice to have something similar, but this game has yet to fully embrace role playing on any level.

[Mysterysword]

That's what fanfiction is for. Besides, some people come up with really out-there origin stories for their WoLs. Some imagine their WoL as the child of deities. Some imagine their WoL is secretly an ancient Allagan automaton. You can't create a sidequest that accounts for every possible interpretation of the WoL.

Especially if you want to write a long bio for your WoL, which is a part of my fanfiction for FF XIV.

[KaivaC]

Well shoot...I have yet to fully embrace RP, though whenever I'm online, I have a tendency to speak as if I am Kaiva. If we go the bio route, I'm afraid I'd get carried away and write a book out of all the things I would put in. But, who knows, maybe that's a route the dev team should get inspiration from. We really haven't ever had a FF that let's us customize an avatar to that extent.

[Alestorm]

Just make it a short reference for yourself. Quirks, likes/dislikes what clan/tribe you hail from and other small things like that. Unless you go nuts with details it can all fit on a single page usually.

[blindfoldedkaos]

The thing is, devs giving you a origin story shoehorns you to that origin story, rather than what you feel like your origin story is.

OP could say that they originated from the steppe at a young age, but it could of been ages since you were last there, such things are different and your seen as a stranger, rather than kin.

[KaivaC]

Yeah, good point. I didn't account for how wild some of the origin stories could possibly be. I may just have to concede that the blank slate start is the best for our characters.

[BigRed5392]

my g.f does light rp, and since i'm a xaela and she switched to a plainsfolk lalafell. She dubbed herself a azim steppe plainsfolk since they are nomadic in nature much like xaela.

what i found cool is npc in the azim steppe aknowledge you as a xaela if you talk to npc enough, even before going to the mettle you are told even if you are not born of the steppe your anscestprs were and you honour their memory or some such.

then you have the big guy asking female character if they are his moon. XD

[Enkidoh]

The thing is, FFXIV is closer to the style of the very first FF game rather than later titles which also only had a party of nameless generics only identified by their Job class (which in itself ties in with role-playing's pen and paper Dungeons and Dragons roots), as was it's MMO predecessor FFXI.

Having said that, we are given at least a little backstory for our character, they're a foreigner from another land who has come to Eorzea to take up work as an adventurer, after becoming inspired by the tales of the heroism of the original Warriors of Light during the Battle of Carteneau (of course, if you're a 1.0 player who satisfied the requirements, your character is actually one this later group, they're one of the original Warriors of Light, albeit living incognito due to some aetheric amnesia shenanigans that erased their identities from the memories of everyone in the realm). Everything else about them is a blank slate left entirely up to the player to decide upon.

Personally I actually enjoy this approach, as it gives just enough story to work from while still leaving things up to the player to work out.