What is canon and what is not (Spoilers)

[Jennah]

If you're RPing, *You* haven't been to the First. You've probably heard rumors by now though, especially with the Scions waking up.

Exceptions:
1) You are RPing as the Warrior of Light herself (do not do this)
2) You are secretly an Ascian (also do not do this)
3) Your character can shift to different dimensions at will (there's a term for that, and it rhymes with Larry Blue)
4) You were a big enough deal as a hero to be summoned to the climax of 5.0 or 5.3. (Chances are, you immediately went back home. Or died.)
5) Your entire group is based on the First (in which case you haven't been to *the Source*, but you probably know about the Source by now.)


If you aren't RPing, then of course it's canon. Duh.

[RitsukoSonoda]

Canon is a company that manufactures decent quality affordable printers. :P

[Gula]

There is no such thing as soft canon here. Either it exists or it doesn't.

It's not like, say Kingdom Hearts with its novellas and manga. Is it 1.0? Then it's canon. Is it a side quest? It's canon. Is it a minion description? It's canon.

Did I player theorize that something is possible because of circumstance X Y and Z? It's not canon.

BUT!

That's the point of RP. To play a role. And you can always find someone down to share your ideas.

[NanaWiloh]

Canon? Ya I use those over at Limsa to fire Lala's off into the distance.

[VenKitsune]

If it happens in the story, its canon, anything player made is not canon.

Thats not specifically true. For example, pretty much ALL of the ARR Primals were canonically solo'd by the warrior of light, he/she did not have 7 friends that all conveniently have the echo along to help kill them. So despite the game clearly putting you in a full party, it isnt canon. This is especially noticeable on the very first primal you fight, ifrit - You're captured alongside some flames soldiers and everyone but you gets tempered, the amaljaa run away when they take you for some unholy abomination that can resist their lords will and then you fight ifrit. During that whole exchange the WOL did not have time to go out and find 3 people with the echo to help fight Ifrit, especially when you're introduced to minfillia they all act as if echo is an extremely rare thing.

To answer OP's question - All the other "Adventurers" in the first are native to the first, canonically. The WOL/WOD is the ONLY person or thing that can travel between worlds at will. After all, The Crystal exarch summoned specifically the Source's Warrior of Light (Player), of which there is only one and it wouldn't make sense for rando adventurer's to be able to travel between worlds at will especially when the scions could not.

[Gemina]

Virtually everything is canon, and it would be easier to mention the things that aren't. Even all the little fetch quests are part of the WoL's demeanor, and that even most menial and mundane tasks are not beyond their helping hands.

Even if I was to use the Omega raids which do not tie into the MSQ directly, Omega itself has a massive role in the game's lore, and affiliation with the characters within the MSQ. But the whole 'tournament' and eventually owning the robot? That's what the WoL does when they are told to go and rest for a while. The MSQ stops acknowledging Omega, but all those events still happened.

So yeah, like 99% canon. Including the oil rubdown you gave Godbert, which he will never let you forget.

[KayRadley]

The general rule I think is that:

Anything in the MSQ is hard canon.
Sidequests are semi-canon until the MSQ brings them up and confirms them. Like Crystal Tower which has been deemed canon since 5.3 (technically speaking since 5.0, but with some Time Travel Tense Problem meaning that it's happened in the past but can still happen in your future, but 5.3 NEEDS the events of CT)
Omega, Alexander, and Coil are kind of canon in that the first 2 are not REQUIRED for 5.x, but greatly flesh it out.
Ivalice is generally canon as of 4.5, given that the Dalmascan Resistance shows up in an Easter Egg; and the Wandering Dramaturge from the Prima Vista is now in the Blades of Gunhildr storyline.
IIRC the only thing not SUPER canon are Hildibrand Quests... and even then I'm not that sure because the Scholasticate quests needed the ARR Hildibrand quests to unlock, and Ultros, Typhon, and Yojimbo have become part of the Gold Saucer...

However, technically speaking, the PC is not the only one of Hydaelin's Chosen (there are other people in the opening cutscene), but IS the only "Warrior of Light". The other PCs you run into are random adventurers who are probably Echo-blessed so as to fight primals but aren't THE WoL/D. The game, at least, doesn't treat their race/gender combinations as anything special (like Moonkeeper Miqo'te Males being rare, or Au Ra not being shot on sight in Coerthas pre-3.0); any Lore about it would be the RPers personal backstory, I'm guessing.

And traveling to/from the First... afaik only The WoL/D should be able to do that in both body and soul... any Loremongers are free to correct me on this one.

In regards to the First: I think the same deal applies with other players as in the Source. You are the Warrior of Darkness and able to move freely between worlds, they are inhabitants of the First.

[Bright-Flower]

I treat basically anything as canon except for the crossover promotional events.

That said, very few people actually roleplay being the Warrior of Light/Darkness in the RP community because that whole idea falls apart very quickly, and also beholdens you to a linear story instead of RPing whatever you want for your character's story. If everyone 'is the Warrior of Light' or even just five people in the same room, it gets ridiculous because the story is written very clearly with a singular protagonist in mind, and having everyone say they experienced the same events is very limiting.

As for people going to the First, it's not exactly an easy task to do but I believe Yoshi P in an interview basically gave his blessing for people to do that if they want to in their RP as non WOLS but I'd have to go looking for the exact quote. But in the context of the msq it doesnt' really make much sense because it's a pretty big point that only the WOL is able to freely make that journey. On the other hand, I don't blame anyone for not wanting to cut an entire expansion worth of zones and story out of their RP so I have no issue with people RPing ways to do it.

[Morningstar1337]

The thing is just because its canon doesn't mean it's RP friendly unless you love getting Mary Sue accusations (which is also why people discourage RP as the WoL or an Asican, well one of the reasons anyway) or finding some contrived explanation to attempt to justify it.

The way I see it, the appeal of RP for some is to immerse yourself in the world and therefore "live" as an average person (NOTE: I speak in relative terms, I'm certain there are a few RPers that play as above average compared to their neighbors but still don't match up to the WoL's power) there. Such a person is unlikely to have any affiliation with the Scions or beings from other universes,and winding up in most of the encounters they have would be a death sentence for them. Hell unless they are a traveler themselves they are pretty unlikely to know about events beyond their nation of origin beyond the rumors and big news.

But that doesn't mean there aren't RP'ers interested in playing as dimensional travelers, but it does mean that they are very few and far between (and probably in relative isolation depending on the RP community).

[Catwho]

Canon is the material in the game. RP is what you do with it.

If you've got people arguing that your RP isn't "respecting canon" and giving you a hard time about it, then it might be time to consider finding a new group of folks to RP with. I've got a WoL non-RP main character, a Voidsent in a Lala's body, a fairy godmother who has the Echo and can also use Flow to teleport wherever she wants in RP (boom! surprise grandma!), a geomancer hiding out in the Conjurer's guild, and a robot Viera made by the Garleans who was found deactivated in Rabanastre and taken to Eorzea by the Ironworks, who got her functioning again.

Are any of the non-WOL ideas "canon" in the story sense! No, of course not! Are they still fun to RP? Heck yeah!