Crosswinds & Curios

Eorzea’s Free Companies are filled with those who are wealthy, powerful, and omnipotent. Ours is - none of these things. We’re rust, spit, improvisation and duct tape through and through. Our airship barely gets by, we take the jobs we can to keep her in the skies, and with a mix of comedy, camaraderie, stubborn determination and plucky gumption, we stick together through thick and thin. And for those who decide to take a chance on a motley band of misfits, scoundrels, idealists, and thrill-seekers, we may turn out to be Big Damn Heroes yet.

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About Crosswinds & Curios

In Character Concept:
Crosswinds and Curios is a cargo airship company that runs salvage operations and takes transport jobs to help pay for their beloved (and possibly semi-sentient?) airship, and to maintain a degree of freedom and autonomy for themselves. They're a small but tight-knit group of friends and allies that stick together through thick and thin, trying to leave Eorzea a little better than they found her. We take our inspiration from ensemble sci-fi or adventure shows like Farscape, Firefly, the original Star Wars trilogy, Supernatural, or even Scooby Doo - ensemble groups "doing good" while trying to get by and avoiding (or sometimes taking on) the Empire - just framed within more of a dieselpunk and FFXIV lore-friendly context.

Out of Character Info:
The C&C Free Company (and our associated C&C Friends CWLS) are a smaller group of older gamers, mostly in our 30s and 40s, looking to do a mix of RP and casual content with other people trying to find time to still game together between work, kids, mortgages, and chores. Our primary focus at this point is on growing our Free Company, though if you're an older gamer in another small FC looking to be active with our group, we can admit a limited number of people into our "C&C Friends" CWLS.

We have a Discord, a Cross-World Linkshell, and a Free Company open to any like-minded wayward adults looking for kindred spirits.

Requirements

  • Our members are largely mid-life gamers. We require a minimum of 22 years old IRL, and the vast majority of our members are in their 30s and 40s. Please manage your expectations and behavior accordingly.

  • Please keep profanity and NSFW content to a minimum (because we're often at work or with small children nearby). Consider our entire server, FC and CWLS "PG-13" (aka you're allowed one f-bomb per day) ;)

  • Respect for any and all members is a MUST. We are female led and with many POC in our ranks. Bigotry or discrimination of any type is unwelcome, unwanted, and will be dealt with quickly and firmly. #MomRules

  • Our character concepts are largely designed around talented, but otherwise "normal" people trying hard to get by and succeed against the odds while trying to make the world better. We ask that whatever concept you have for your character fits within those expectations. (AKA no truly evil/selfish concepts or super-powered meta-humans, as these don't go with our "hardscrabble do-gooders" style of RP. Ambiguous is ok, true evil is not.)

  • We run around one or two RP events per month, and possibly one PvE EX per week in EndWalker. If you're looking for more activity than that, please feel free to add in additional events or sponsor activities - more hands make light work for all of us. (And remember - we're all busy adults!)

  • We are looking for friendly and active members. While we do not have any sort of "minimum activity" requirement (because again, busy adults), our goal is to stay small but social. While we don't mind whether you attend one event a week, one a month, or even just once every six months, we do ask to maintain a level of involvement with us that we actually know you and hear from you from time to time.

  • C&C Friends are allowed in our CWLS on a case-by-case basis, but the focus of our activity is around our FC. If that's ok and you just want to enjoy hanging out with other adults, you're welcome to join us as a C&C Friend.

  • Alts are fine if your main toon is also in the FC. If you want to join with an alt and your main is elsewhere, that's fine provided you can still maintain activity with us. We're quite small, so we want to focus on those who want to invest their time into our group and be a regular part of our community.

  • Manage yourselves with kindness, patience, and respect. We may not always agree on everything, but handle disagreements the way you would in a professional setting - don't cause public drama, raise concerns privately to the bosses, avoid contentious and divisive topics like religion, politics, or anything else extremely divisive in the current IRL context, and help to protect and preserve our "this is our chill place to hang out with other adults and have some fun gaming" space. Thank you for understanding

In many ways, the Four Winds captures the heart and soul of her crew. They’d all been through a lot - down on their luck, a little past their prime, but still had it where it counted.
Some people saw the Four Winds and thought of her as little more than a pile of metal junk already overdue for the scrap heap. But her owner and first mate saw something more - where others saw a project, they saw possibility. Plus, it suited them to be underestimated. She might not look like much, but she’d been modified and reworked by their engineers and scientists, and when she was in good working order, the Winds could scream through the sky faster than a Garlean cutter. That is….when she worked….

OOC:
The Four Winds is our airship, FC house, and RP venue for many events. She is an old Garlean survey ship marked for scrap after crashing in the Burn, that the crew bought and has tried to reconstruct to the best of their ability. Due to their odd, hodge-podge methods of a little bit of Allag, a little bit of aetheric crystals, and a lot of improvising...."Windy" seems to have developed a hint of personality or even sentience of her own, somehow? (Think Moya, from Farscape.)

You can find our "airship" on Balmung, Ward 2, Plot 59. We recently upgraded to a Medium house (YAY!) so please pardon the dust while our designer works on her and does the decorating! Thanks much for understanding. (We are currently RPing out the reconstruction ICly, too.)

Hooks

  • If you're looking for a reason to run across the airship crew (whether to hire them or to seek employment with them), here are some ideas. Feel free to come up with your own, too!

  • C&C regularly posts advertisements for transport shipping or salvage/recovery operations throughout Limsa Lominsa, Ishgard, Idyllshire, and Ul'dah.

  • C&C also regularly posts hiring bulletins for the crew in smaller taverns around Eorzea, primarily in either Limsa Lominsa or Ul'dah, though also a few in Gyr Abania as Ala Mhigo rebuilds, too.

  • The Captain is an Ala Mhigan refugee and Abanian campaign war veteran, recently returned to Limsa after being injured at the front. Anyone who's spent time in Mhigan refugee camps or fought with the Eorzean Alliance in Gyr Abania may have run across her.

  • The First Mate is a former slave and long-time smuggler out of Ul'dah and Limsa, and knows all sorts of people operating on the fringes of society. He's also heavily involved in freeing slaves and helping to rehabilitate the downtrodden.

  • Any of the crew would likely perk up or strike up a conversation concerning topics or rumors about topics like mysterious wrecks, supernatural happenings, magical artifacts, unexplored regions, Allag technology, or any sort of human rights issue (people being enslaved, taken captive, etc).

The Four Winds Crew

Welcome to the Crew of the Four Winds. Here you can learn about the various members of the airship and read more about them! (Under construction while I fill this in, thanks!)

Captain & Council

Norah is the Captain of the Four Winds (Windy) and a riches-to-rags Ala Mhigan refugee and war veteran. She's kind but firm, with a goth Mary Poppins vibe.

Kail, the ship's First Mate, is a rough-looking pirate with scars and tattoos aplenty. His imposing appearance belies a quick wit and kind heart. Also, he swears like a - well, you guessed it - sailor.

Piper is the ship's mechanic and resident "wrench wench", keeping Windy as skyworthy as she can. She's able to fix anything from a broken stove to an aetherdrive, and can usually be found in the engine room.

Liza is the ship's policy director and Master-at-Paperwork. Why does an airship need this? Safety is important in all fields. She is an agent of the Eorzean Food & Consumables Administration (think DEA/FDA/OSHA)

Crew

Activities

Ongoing Campaign Story (D&D style, currently Saturday or Sunday evenings 8pm - 10pm Eastern)Regular Leveling Roulettes (ad hoc/pings/as people need them)Periodic Nier and Bozja runs (ad hoc)One-Shot RP adventures (scheduled by storytellers)Community Events with Atelier, Bistro 39, Bellworks, and other FCs
Coming Soon in EndWalker
Group Trials and EX TrialsMaps, starring Giant Space Whales!
If you ever want company running frontlines, roulettes, or other game content, just ask in Discord or in game!

We encourage anyone looking for RP to ping in Discord or ask in game for people to swing by the airship! It's great for character development, and always a great way to get to know other characters (and often, your own too!)

Also, we are always grateful for anyone who wants to hire the crew for RP, or volunteer storytellers to help us run content. Please let us know if you'd like to collaborate with us!

Contact and Apply

If you'd like to learn more about Crosswinds and Curios, please reach out to Norah#0859 or email [email protected].

If you're interested in membership with us, please fill out our application below. Please allow us 48 hours to review and respond. Thank you!

Application Process:
Please first fill out an application (see the button below)Norah will reach out in Discord or email once the officers review your application to chat with you OOC a bit and answer your questionsWe appreciate your patience! Application review can take up to 48 hoursOnce we agree it's a good fit, you'll get an invitation to our Discord group and an in game invitation to the FCFrom there, please coordinate with one of our other officers (Liza/Odmaa, Kail, Piper, or Vash) to set up an in game RP interview and connect with a mentor!If you haven't gotten an interview within a week or so, please remind Norah to make sure and schedule it!After a month or so of playing with us, Contract Members are eligible for promotion to full Crew status, and a special RP session to meet Windy.Please do remember that the Contract (new member) rank is a trial period. Thank you, and happy flying!