I hate to be a stick in the mud but every time I see people in the XIV fandom talking about their Ancients OC(s) and their unique mask, it just strikes me how much everyone seems to have missed the point.
The Ancients had a society where public expressions of individuality were considered dangerous and shunned. Children were scolded and shamed for not wearing their featureless, identical uniforms. A majority had the power to transform at will into incredible and fantastical forms, considered to be a true expression of one's soul, yet to do so was seen as abnormal or deviant, even if only done in private. The Convocations' identifying masks were not personal expressions, they were name tags for their job. A job that supercedes their very identity.
And I think a part of this is because the Ancients were effectively a death cult. Their entire worldview was that life exists to better the planet, and the most rewarding thing in the world is to kill yourself after achieving some vague goal of "improving the star". Life that "served no purpose" was deemed unfit to exist and erased. You're not a person, no one is. Everyone exists to contribute to The Great Work of our species and then die once we've served our purpose.
If your Ancient OC goes around being non-conformist and disrupting the status quo, they end up a social pariah at best or hunted down and killed as a threat to the balance at worst.
prguitarman
snowghoul
pixelskylines
titsay
