#anyway could we not go back to stormblood level writing. I am not sure my interest in paying a sub would survive that tbqh

[sword-and-lance]

((well that was dumber'n a sack of tits and not a tenth as enjoyable))

[berryarmstrong]

Thoughts on Roleplaying and Monk lore.

I've been mulling over posting something like this lately -- even as I type this I barely know where to start.

Recently there have been splits/schisms on monk/chakra lore. Given that I'm here for pretendy fun times and to make friends, I decided to remove myself from that matter entirely for a time. It's honestly been a trip seeing some of the uh -- comments that have been made, but those don't really matter. I suppose I finally just wanted to account for my own monk roleplay, perhaps? I'm not sure if that's worded right.

To begin with -- I enjoy following the lore, a lot more than may be rumored, especially regarding my main. I do have a good time taking some of the more fantastic concepts from it and applying it to the more flashy plots in my own Free Company, as you may see from the Agency tumblr -- but that's neither here nor there. This is about me, my character Berrod and the things I do with him.

While combing through the monk lore back in 2.0, I realised that there was a little hole in it. They always made mention that monks harness the energy of the chakras, but they never went into any sort of detail how . There I decided to extrapolate a bit, and begin assigning in game monk mechanics to chakras. A simple start, but it ended up developing into something more. After a bit of research and conference with some IRL friends, I decided to utilise the concepts of the seven major chakras as pictured in hinduism. Very loosely did I pull from that inspiration, for I knew that one day there would probably be a lore drop to say 'ABSOLUTELY NOT'. So far, there hasn't been one - there has been absolutely no bit of lore that outright states 'THIS IS NOT AT ALL HOW THAT ENERGY IS HARNESSED, AND IT CANNOT BE HARNESSED IF A MONK DECIDES TO UTILISE IT'. If there has been such a bold, black and white statement, I'll probably have to re-evaluate! Who knows, with Stormblood coming, I may very well have to -- and I'd be happy to, honestly! In the meantime, the chakra stuff I posted is what I used, and still use, to fill that harnessing hole.

Back when I was scribbling the concepts for it, I noticed that the chakras in lore did not have names. I didn't want to name them -- but after some thought, I decided that my character, who names EVERYTHING, would work better with named ones. I arranged things so that his master was the one who gave them names so that he could learn better. In short, my chakra notes/scroll stuff is simply what Berrod has been taught by his master in order for him to learn easier, not a declaration of 'THIS IS TEH LORE' or, 'I AM BREAKING TEH LORE AND CALLING THEM THIS'. It...kind of caught on more than I intended it to, but people were having a lot of fun with it, so who was I to snatch it back and say, "NO THIS IS MINE!"

Regarding the whole 'emotions' thing -- I don't think I've ever explicity said that 'CHAKRAZ R OPENED WIT EMOTIONZ'. Rather, with my character relegated to the role of working on opening/harnessing his, and later on being asked to teach others to open theirs, I applied an emotional element to each -- especially regarding meditation, which is only mentioned by name in the monk lore -- another thing on which I firmly believe we are free to extrapolate on. Our characters are men (as in mankind). Emotions come into play in almost every aspect of our roleplay, so why not that? The emotional element that I have applied is a very minor, very individual thing, not against the lore in any direct way, and honestly a very appealing way to get each character to grow outside of NPC status. Exploring endurance, will, passion, fear, anger, and YES, even sexuality during roleplay with those I've interacted with has been an amazing and fulfilling experience, and has not ONCE shaken the pillars of the established lore. It still sits within that hole of 'how the energy is harnessed'. Developers and worldbuilders often tell us that they cannot build/write everything to the most minute detail, and sometimes we need to place our individual flair and speculation into the gaps. I believe this applies to the harnessing gap -- at least for myself!

I'd also like to point out that my character has, not once, referred to himself as a Fist of Rhalgr. He has worn his master's regalia on a few occasions, and spoke on what he believed to be their behalf at one event. Berrod calls himself a 'Son of the Fist', and more recently, thanks to a phrase I enjoyed from the lore book, a 'leaf on the wind'. I'd like to take a moment to emphasize how IMPORTANT that phrase is. It's blatantly giving us the freedom to take what is a lost art and carry it forward in what reasonable ways we see fit as roleplayers. The stuff I've done is just my own part in that.

Anyway, all that stuff aside, there's something else I wanted to say. All the lore drops, lore posts -- I'm all for them. I agree with everything cited; contrary to popular belief, I've always done by best to follow it as best as I can. The thing about my style of roleplay is that I believe in extrapolation. There's literally nothing that says that chakras have anything to do with emotions! No lore on it at all! Good! I agree with that. However, there's absolutely nothing that says, 'chakras are not related to emotions whatsoever'. Extrapolation requires working within the limits of the little holes and gaps, and so far, that has not been a hard set limitation. Chakras are power levels! Yes! I 100% agree with that too! However, with very little lore on their exact nature other than that, why not apply a little flavour to them! I could sit here and write about my four chakra monk being more powerful than your two chakra monk, OR, I can engage in a fulfilling literary journey that explores the nature of exactly why MY individual is weaker than ANOTHER individual -- all within that harnessing hole. A journey that provides character development, forges friendships and rivalries...and makes it an overall, richer experiene for me and the friends I've made here.

THAT SAID -- I will roleplay with you. Whether you are a hard stickler for the lore with no deviation and look down on what I have done, whether you want to use the stuff I prattled out, whether you've developed your own thing within those gaps...I will roleplay with you. If you've bent the lore a little bit to give your character some flavour, if you play a DBZ style crater-puncher, if you play a pugilist playing at being a monk -- I will roleplay with you. Is your character a friend? Is your character a rival? Is your character a student? Is your character someone who wants to kill mine because of the things he follows and teaches? I will roleplay with you -- though don't expect me to have my character killed just like that. He's my baby, after all. No matter what is written as lore, no matter what drops in Stormblood -- it has all been developed so that we, the players, can use it to have fun together. I want to be as inclusive as I can, so I can meet as many of you awesome people AS I can. I won't look down my nose at you. I won't be condescending toward you (BERROD MIGHT BE, JUST A LITTLE, BUT HE'S TRYING NOT TO BE A SHIT ANYMORE). I just want to play with you and have a grand time in this fantastic world that the developers have created.

I've...been sitting on these thoughts for a while now. It feels good to get them out, to be honest. I'd love to hear people's thoughts on it --publicly or privately -- though I beg that everyone be civil. I'm not going after anybody here, and I'm not trying to start a fight. I'm just putting my mind to pixels. I'M LIKE 90% SURE I LEFT OUT SOME SHIT THAT I'VE BEEN WANTING TO TALK ABOUT, BUT YOU KNOW, SCATTERBRAINED AND ALL. But yeah! May He smite your writer's block. THE BIGGEST FOE. 'May Rhalgr smite your foes' by the way, is another one of my extrapolations. AT LEAST I THINK IT IS. I HONESTLY CAN’T REMEMBER IF I SAW IT IN DIALOGUE SOMEWHERE. ALL I REMEMBER IS PULLING IT OUT OF MY ASS DURING RP WAY BACK WHEN. IT'S FUN.

Happy roleplaying, people -- I can't wait to see what you all bring to the table in Stormblood.