The offline character creator should still work, the game will autoimport your character back into the game once it goes back up, it should make things a little faster. Besides at least you can have some of the game while you are waiting.
Offline character creator
http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/benchmark/
Offline character creator
http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/benchmark/
A good FFXIV lore site: http://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/Eorzea