Hello! Welcome back. Always great to see returning players - we've been having a lot of them in recent days, as well as new players all together.
I'll take some time here to answer a few of your questions. The RP community is actually in an up-swing. Things were in a slow, downward arc for awhile there, but recent events have seen it once again on the rise - at a quickening pace, too. This can really only go up as we get closer and closer to 2.0, at which point I'm sure we'll see a massive explosion in the community.
While the RPC might not seem very lively these days (we're working on it!), the community is very much so alive in-game.
The un-official RP server is still Besaid.
The game is in fact very new player friendly. More so than it ever has been in the past. Grouping can be a bit difficult at the start, as a large majority of the player base has already leveled most of their classes out of the lower levels, but server mergers due within the next month or so will see a spike in lower level activity. Either way, the game is very solo friendly when you are unable to find a group.
As far as a history of Eorzea goes, there's bits and pieces scattered everywhere. The wiki is under construction at the moment, as we're trying to fill it up with things other than character profiles. From lore to locations and everything in-between.
There are several threads about with random tidbits of lore if you browse the forums. Some have little facts about Eorzea, like this thread for example. Naturally, there's lore about Eorzea on FFXIV's main site (And the lodestone), as well as plenty of people in-game who are well versed in lore.
There's an OOC linkshell as well, which is something I personally would recommend to a returning/new player. It's a helpful tool for integrating yourself both into the RP community in-game (as we have many members from many different shells, as well as freelancers), and FFXIV's RP in general.
Bit of a long winded post, but, hopefully that answered some of your questions. Hope to see you in-game!
I'll take some time here to answer a few of your questions. The RP community is actually in an up-swing. Things were in a slow, downward arc for awhile there, but recent events have seen it once again on the rise - at a quickening pace, too. This can really only go up as we get closer and closer to 2.0, at which point I'm sure we'll see a massive explosion in the community.
While the RPC might not seem very lively these days (we're working on it!), the community is very much so alive in-game.
The un-official RP server is still Besaid.
The game is in fact very new player friendly. More so than it ever has been in the past. Grouping can be a bit difficult at the start, as a large majority of the player base has already leveled most of their classes out of the lower levels, but server mergers due within the next month or so will see a spike in lower level activity. Either way, the game is very solo friendly when you are unable to find a group.
As far as a history of Eorzea goes, there's bits and pieces scattered everywhere. The wiki is under construction at the moment, as we're trying to fill it up with things other than character profiles. From lore to locations and everything in-between.
There are several threads about with random tidbits of lore if you browse the forums. Some have little facts about Eorzea, like this thread for example. Naturally, there's lore about Eorzea on FFXIV's main site (And the lodestone), as well as plenty of people in-game who are well versed in lore.
There's an OOC linkshell as well, which is something I personally would recommend to a returning/new player. It's a helpful tool for integrating yourself both into the RP community in-game (as we have many members from many different shells, as well as freelancers), and FFXIV's RP in general.
Bit of a long winded post, but, hopefully that answered some of your questions. Hope to see you in-game!