Navigation: The Adventurer | The Republic of Bastok | The Kingdom of San d'Oria | The Federation of Windurst | The Grand Duchy of Jeuno | The Marquisate of Tavnazia | The Empire of Aht Urhgan | The Sacred City of Adoulin | The Ulbuka Wilderness | Other Locations and Independent Characters | Beastmen | Deities, Avatars, and Immortal Entities | Jobs
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You
The player character (often called The Adventurer in fan material). They arrive in either Bastok, Windurst or San d'Oria with nothing to their name besides a thirst for adventure. The Adventurer In General
- The Ace: By the time you finish the game, you would have saved all of the major cities several times over, helped countless characters overcome their personal demons and mastered twenty-two combat styles and many other crafting styles.
- Ambiguously Bi: By the end of Seekers of Adoulin, it becomes pretty clear that Arciela has a crush on you, but (depending on how you interact with her during the story), it's not made clear whether The Adventurer feels the same way about her.
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: This happens during one of Iroha's flashbacks in Rhapsodies of Vana'diel. You do it in the present during the end of the story to meet Altana and restart the winds of chance.
- Ascended Extra: As strange as it might seem. In the original game and the first few expansions, the stories where almost always much more focused on the individual non playable characters and their relationships between each other. Treasures of Aht Urhgan starts to place more emphasis on the relationships between the non-playable characters and you, but its not until The Wings of the Goddess that the player character becomes a core aspect of the story, and not just some hired muscle. And finally, Rhapsodies of Vana'diel makes your character an important part of the back story and your relationship with Iroha is at the centre of the entire story.
- Big Damn Hero - Due to the way most mission and quest fights take place, there's usually only something to fight when you get there to take care of the situation, usually just in time to help a given NPC.
- Given that this is an MMORPG, being in the right place at the right time may provide you the opportunity to be this to another player, either by healing them when they're in trouble or helping out with the enemy they're fighting. (Note that they have to use a "Call for Help" function in order for the second to be possible.)
- Blood Knight: When you peel away the desire to help and solve problems, and the loyalties an adventurer has towards various nation-states, deep in their heart the adventurer desires combat, strife, conflict, and slaughter. Several characters across many storylines acknowledge the player character as unusually bloodthirsty and savage.
- This is whats at the heart of The Dark Knight job.
- Brought Down to Badass: In Rhapsodies of Vana'diel you actually ascend to godhood with a little help form Promathia and Altana. You lose your divinity when you merge with your dark half, and whats left of the powers you got from the ascension after using it to finish of The Cloud of Darkness.
- The Chosen One: The Adventurer shares this role in Wings of The Goddess with Lilsette.
- Double Reverse Quadruple Agent: In Treasures of Aht Urhgan where multiple different competing factions (The Alliance, Grand Vizer Razfahd, Aphmau and Salaheem's Sentinels. This isn't even including the option to join The Immortals) believe that The Adventurer is loyal or at least working for them. For the record, The Adventurer's loyalty lies with The Alliance and Aphmau.
- Evil Counterpart: They have two. One is from Wings of the Goddess with The Fourth Spitewarden, the version of The Adventurer from Lady Lilith's timeline and another in Rhapsodies of Vana'diel with Volto Oscuro, the darkness that was expelled by the future version of The Adventurer when they obtained godhood. In both cases its subverted. The Fourth Spitewarden is meerly fighting for their future and Volto Oscuro's actions are simply because they had been possessed by The Cloud of Darkness.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Happens plenty of times. Some notable examples include Zeid, Shikaree Z, Lilsette and Ingrid.
- Hammerspace — Inventory items come in all shapes and sizes, but if you're not wearing them, they might as well be invisible and weightless. And then there's key items, which don't even take up inventory space, which is amazing since, for a certain quest, one of them is a whole cardian in need of repairs, and those are bigger than a taru.
- Future Badass: As awesome as The Adventurer is in the present, the future version in Iroha's timeline takes it Then they become a god, allowing them to summon eighteen of Vana'diels greatest heroes to fightback against the Cloud of Darkness.
- Heroic Mime — Conversations are implied, but the only lines assigned to you are menu choices.
- Hope Bringer: Many characters and societies that have long since given up find themselves in a much better place after they are visited by The Adventurer
- Kleptomaniac Hero — Due to the shared environment, this usually involves interacting with specific spots in the scenery, usually identified only with "???" - while it's safe to do so in towns and cities, in dungeons and outdoors, it may cause a notorious monster (or several) to spawn, depending on your quest and mission progress.
- Living Legend: By the end of the game, they have become famous across seven different city states with exploits lasting over twenty years.
- Master of All: If you choose to do so.
- The Mentor: To Iroha in the future.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero — The San d'Oria quest line in the past comes to mind.
- One-Man Army: By the end of the game, you are going against actual gods.
- Only One Name: You only get one name.
- Saving the World - You get the luxury of taking your time for this — or not, depending on how much help you may need for a given battle or task.
- Secret-Keeper: Plenty of characters open up some of their darkest secrets to the player, like Zeid being Darksteel Hurricane, Mihli Aliapoh being a former violent revolutionary or Gunther Schultz really being 200 years old.
- Super Mode - Some of the jobs' SP abilities, originally having a 2-hour cooldown but have since been relaxed to 1 hour. Some Notorious Monsters and some very few allied battle NPCs can also use these, with the more notable characters often being able to use the SP abilities of more than one job.
- Unwitting Pawn: Several points during the story. A short list of people that have used The Adventurer in their schemes includes Joker, Eald'narche, Eshan'Tarl, Nag'molada, Selh'teus, Carbuncle, Domina Shantotto, and Excenmille
The Five Races
The five intelligent races that you can choose from during the beginning of the game. Legend states that they were born after the goddess Altana shed five tears after the Vana'diel was struck by a cataclysm as a result of the war between The Zilart and Kuluu races, although their actual origin is explored in more details in Chains of Promathia Hume
- Create Your Own Villain: The Hume population in Bastok is responsible for the rise of The Shadow Lord, due to their discrimination against the Galka population. And since Raogrimm, the Galka Talekeeper, has the collective memories of all Galka for the past two hundred years, the pain and anger of the Galka coupled with Odin's power transformed him into the Shadow Lord.
- Fatal Flaw: Like all of the races, Hume's have an inherent flaw as a result of Promathia's Emtpiness existing inside of them. In this case, it's Apathy
- The Hero: Four of the six lead characters are full blooded Hume and one of the remaining two is a half Hume.
- Humanity Is Advanced: They occupy the most advanced nations in Vana'diel.
- Humans Are Average: They are the most common of the races with the most balanced stats.
- Humanity Is Superior: They make up the majority and the control of the three most powerful nations in Vana'diel. Although this is somewhat subverted in Jueno's case, whose leadership is comprised of mostly Zilart and Kuluu.
- Humans Are Flawed: Like all of the five races.
- Humans by Any Other Name: In this case, Humes.
- Jack of All Stats: They tend to be the most balanced of the five races. This makes them a perfect statistical match for the Red Mage job.
Elvaan
- Can't Argue with Elves: In universe, the Elvaan are incredibly proud and possess heavily xenophobic beliefs.
- Fatal Flaw: Pride
- Pride Before a Fall: Their constant arrogance and in-fighting has let the Hume nations of Bastok and Jueno become the most powerful nations in the middle lands while San d'Oria slips further and futher into decilne.
- Glacier Waif: Maybe not compared to the Mithra or Hume, but elf characters are generally portrayed as pretty agile. Here they have the lowest agility in the game. lower than even the Galka.
- Honor Before Reason: One of the big reasons San d'Oria is in the state it is because the Elvaan find it hard to overlook their vanity to find optimal solutions to their problems. Its notable that the Tarutaru, despite having a state that is far older than the Elvaan have adapted to a post Crystal War age because they are less blinded by their own egos.
- The Lancer: Of the two lead characters in the game who aren't fully Hume, Prishe is Elvaan and Lilisette is half Elvaan.
- Medieval Stasis: Acknowledged in-universe. The long history of civil wars between the Elvaan nations completely stifled their advancement, until eventually the human nations surpassed them.
- Mighty Glacier: They are the lowest agility of the five races in exchange for the highest strength. They are a perfect statistical match for the Warrior job.
- Our Elves Are Different: Besides their appearance and arrogance, the Elvaan actually differ a lot from traditional depictions of Elves. They lack any real sense of magical ability and are instead one of the more physical races. They also live in highly religious medieval societies.
Tarutaru
A small childlike race that established one of the first societies on the middle lands after the great meltdown. During the age of beasts they relied on their more physical oriented Mithra allies before learning the secrets of magic from Fenrir at Full Moon Fountain.
- Create Your Own Villain: Tzee Xicu's four years as a slave in Windurst after her family had been killed by a Windurst raiding party really came to bite Windurst in the butt when she became the God-Emperor of the Yagudo Theomilitary
- The Fake Cutie: Their innocent appearance and dialect hides their ability for cruelty.
- Fatal Flaw: Cowardice
- Killer Rabbit: Despite their cute appearance, they have produced some of the most powerful characters in the game, including Shantotto and Karaha-Baruha.
- Pintsize Powerhouse: As a race they aren't this, but certain individual Tarutaru can be this if they specialize as a Tank, like Amchuchu.
- The Smart Guy: They have the highest intelligence among the races.
- Squishy Wizard: But they also have the lowest vitality in exchange for the highest intelligence and MP. They are a perfect statistical match for the Black Mage job, almost to a fault.
- Verbal Tic. Many of the Tarutaru characters have one, including Shantotto's rhyming and Koru-Moru speaking like Ned Flanders.
Galka
The Galka are also noteworthy for having a unique reproduction cycle. As a Galka gets old, he sets out on a reincarnation pilgrimage, where upon he is engulfed in a white light. A year later a new Galka child is seen with no memory of his past and is presumed to be the reincarnation of the older Galka. What's more, every so often a Galka is born with the collective memory of all Galka who had died over the past two hundred years and is heralded as The Galka Talekeeper.
- Arch-Enemy: The Antica.
- Atlantis: The Kingdom of Altepa is this to them.
- The Big Guy: Kind of obvious.
- Bizarre Alien Reproduction: See the Reincarnation entry below.
- Fantastic Racism: They are among the biggest receivers of this in the game.
- Fatal Flaw: Anger. The biggest example of this is probably The Shadow Lord.
- Mighty Glacier: They have the highest vitality and second highest strength, but also really low agility and dexterity. They are a perfect statistical match for the Monk job.
- One-Gender Race: They are all male.
- Reincarnation: Unlike the other races, they reproduce via a reincarnation pilgrimage instead of having two parents.
- War Refugees: Galka fled to the mainland after their home kingdom was overrun with beastmen.
Mithra
Due to the extreme rarity of male Mithra, they tend to stay home in the Matriarchate. The player character can only choose to be a female Mithra.
- Amazon Brigade: Pretty much any combat-based organization of Mithra (such as the Sin Hunters and Mithra Mercenaries) qualifies as this, due to their low male birth rates and the fact that they normally don't allow men in combat roles.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Judging by the Sin Hunters, who are tasked with enforcing Mithra law, the Mithrans have a moral system somewhat different from the other races
- Cat Girl: They are more felid-like in design compared to most catgirls.
- Fatal Flaw: Jealousy: This has leads to fierce wars being fought in their homeland.
- Fragile Speedster: They have the highest dexterity and agility of the races, but the lowest vitality, tied with the Tarutaru. They are a perfect statistical match for the Thief job.
- Gender Rarity Value: Male Mithra are very rare and are almost never seen outside of the homeland. Only a single male Mithra has been seen in the game's long lifespan.
- Hufflepuff House: Due in part to the fact the plot never travels to their home nation. There are also fewer prominent Mithra NPC's then there are from other races.
- Ms. Fanservice: The Mithra characters often have more revealing outfits than most other races.
Pets and other gameplay allies
The Wyvern
A small dragon that hatches from an egg at the end of "The Holy Crest." The wyvern follows The Adventurer into battle whenever they are a dragoon.
- Breath Weapon: It uses a wide range of breath attacks across a wide range of elements.
- Dragons Are Divine: It has the holy crest on it.
- Healing Winds: Depending on the Dragoon's sub job, they can use healing breath.
- Hope Bringer: A mild version. Its birth, and the revelation that it has the holy crest on it gives both Rahal and Erpalacion hope that one day San d'Oria maybe able to fight along side dragons once again.
- Made of Iron: After becoming infamous due to its squishiness, the wyvern was buffed to the point of it having, by default, a 40% damage reduction from any source, and through buffs this can be raised up to 80%
- Shoulder-Sized Dragon: It is the current trope image.
The Automaton
A mechanical puppet that The Adventurer finds in Arrapago Reef and is repaired by Ghatsad. The puppet follows The Adventurer into the battle when the puppeteer job is chosen and is able to be modified by Ghatsad to change its battle specifications.
- The Blank: Like all puppets.
- Cute Machines: A small robot that follows you into battle against the most dangerous monsters in Vana'diel.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Despite its size, it can be modified to be a tank.
- The Quiet One: While there are several other puppets in the series that able to talk, The Adventurer's puppets never say a word.
- Robot Buddy: To the Puppetmaster.
- Tin-Can Robot: No matter what its appearance takes.
- The Quiet One: Compared with some of the other Automaton characters, like Ovjang, Mnejing and Elisabeth.
The Adventuring Fellow
An adventurer possessing a magical mirror that is recruited by The Adventurer in a quest to hunt down another magic mirror. Part way through the quest line, The Adventurer gains the ability to call them to help in combat.
