#hingashi

Sailing the Ruby Sea 🌅

1) we must be respectful/not conflate different ethnic styled clothes with one another, as it perpetuates orientalist ideas and attitudes, and

2) vietnamese players will see you and probably ask themselves where your pants are (confirmed from a close friend of mine who was tirelessly harassed on the first day the ao dai was released for validation to wear the ao dai out of cultural context)

if you're looking for chinese style clothes in xiv, such as qipao, you'll want to look at the "far eastern garb for women/men" or the "far eastern socialite's attire", for examples. if you're looking for japanese style or korean style clothes, they're available, too.

the thing is, mixing and matching east asian wardrobes contributes to this orientalist image of the far east. scholar edward said talks a lot about this in his 1978 book "orientalism", where it is summed up as:

"the exaggeration of difference, the presumption of Western superiority, and the application of clichéd analytical models for perceiving the 'Oriental world'".

there are lots of high fantasy tropes that feed into racist stereotypes and caricatures. just because ffxiv comes from the far east doesn't make it immune to perpetuating certain ideas or images uncritically - but that is an entirely separate discussion, if equally important.

to avoid creating characters and stories that feed into the negativity in this world, research and specificity are your friends. this doesn't limit one's creativity, but rather humanizes your characters and the world we live in.

New OC Incoming!!

Introducing…

R’angi Tia

Inspired by an ask that I was struggling to answer, this is “someone who hates Yume”. So, I’m still hammering out some finer details, but here’s the broad strokes.

R’angi Tia is a middle brother in the R Tribe of Hingashi, an off shoot of the main R Tribe in Eorzea. The tribe lives on land that is ruled by the daimyo Lord Masanori Aino, Yume’s father.

Since his eldest brother is to be the next Nunh after his father, R’angi needed to have a marriage arranged that strengthened their political alliances with other nobles in the region, so he would need to marry outside of the tribe.

R’angi’s father got word that the daimyo Lord Aino himself was looking to find a proper suitor for his daughter Yume. R’angi jumped at the chance, as he always admired Yume from afar whenever his father paid tribute to the daimyo.

When he got to Aino Castle with his father and two brothers, R’angi was shocked to learn that Lord Aino had just two requirements in order to arrange a marriage with his daughter: 1) Had to be of noble birth and 2) Must fight his daughter in one-to-one combat and win.

R’angi, being skilled in Geomancy and with a bō staff, said that he will fight Yume, and he boasted that he will win. Yume, on the other hand, had no intention to allow him to beat her.

The two fight in a duel, and though R’angi was a tough opponent for her, Yume did not hold back. She cut his face, leaving a scar over his right eye and won the battle.

R’angi was shamed and disgraced, especially after he had boasted that he would win. He shouted that this was a dishonor not only for him but for his family. Lord Aino did not have any sympathy for him, and said merely that he either must die and reclaim his family’s honor, or to live with the shame.

Instead of doing what was expected of him, he leaves the tribe, as he has no intention of dying just yet. His youngest brother R’rhen Tia, @faerieearthangel’s OC, goes with him, as R’rhen also does not want the same thing that happened to R’angi to happen to him.

A few years later, R’angi gets word that Yume herself was going to commit seppuku but was instead banished by Lord Aino after disobeying him and refusing to marry whom Lord Aino had chosen for the arranged marriage.

It is then that R’rhen gives his brother an idea: R’angi can track down Yume, kill her, and bring a trophy back to show that he finally beat Yume and he can reclaim his honor.

R’angi has since been training hard and tracking Yume down so that he can finally regain his honor and be welcomed back into his family and go back home.