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the next time you hesitate to leave a comment on a fic remember that I go back and read all the comments I get on my fic whenever I'm feeling down and it makes me feel so much better

if you leave nice comments on ao3 i love you

#somebody went through almost all of my works and left a ton of '<3' #like one for almost every chapter and almost every story written #at the time i got so overwhelmed and had no idea how to respond to them #wherever you are tho commenter i think about you regularly #sorry i got overwhelmed #fanfiction #ao3

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Holiday Poll: Most Huggable FFXIV Mom

Characters are listed roughly in the order they're encountered in-game. I realize a couple of them technically aren't mothers, but I felt they were close enough.

#gotta know who in the 1.1% of people that wanna hug athena #genuinely curious #anyways gotta go w mother hydaelyn of course #venat deserves more hugs anyway #but also the compulsion to pick dulia-chai was strong #ffxiv

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Wolmeric Week Day 3: Alternate Universe

#ffxiv #writing #fanfiction #wolmeric week #wolmeric week 2024

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Day 2: Colors

#ffxiv #writing #fanfiction #wolmeric week

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Forgot to post this here for Wolmeric Week!

#ffxiv #writing #fanfiction #wolmeric week

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#rip to the boy #ffxiv #haurchefant greystone

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Estinien: When have I done anything rash or irresponsible?

Aymeric: I keep a list. It's alphabetized.

#start w drg quests #then we'll talk about him divebombing a cannon #then we'll talk about him divebombing an ascian to get us out of danger #shall I continue? #ffxiv #estinien varlineau #aymeric de borel

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More things I had forgotten from the ARR patches: how Alphinaud basically accuses Aymeric to his face of manipulating the Scions on behalf of the Holy See for their own ends, and Aymeric just calmly looks him in the eye and is like, Wise up, kid. You and I want the same things here. It's such good foreshadowing for the fact that Alphinaud really is not as politically savvy as he thinks he is. But it's also such a great character moment for Aymeric, who is seasoned in politics and knows when to speak and when to keep his mouth shut and how to gracefully work around the obstacles laid in his path. By his measured response to Alphinaud (whom he undoubtedly recognizes as a precocious teenager shooting his mouth off thinking he's being clever), and his amiable response when Alphinaud relents and apologizes, not only does he preserve the arrangement with the Scions but he comes out looking like the magnanimous one in that situation, with the other party contrite and eager to demonstrate their cooperation.

#oughhh god that scene was pivotal for my impression of the game #no way he would have been able to do that without some backing of the holy see too #he knows the limits that he can work within and how to navigate it expertly #so chances are that he framed the whole thing to the archbishop as like #‘we can get the new crystal braves to do this for us for free’ #and thordan ate it up #and in the back of his mind he’s satisfied bc it means keeping support to the scions going #he can get most of what he wants at this point in his career #most being the keyword #he’s such a good politician and i am fully in the camp that alphinaud learned all the basics of politics from him #he got schooled in one debate club ass meeting #next thing you know in heavensward he’s there with a notebook jotting down how to politics #i could talk about this forever tbh #ffxiv #aymeric de borel #alphinaud leveilleur

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Quick correction for your (excellent!) meta post on Aymeric's mom: according to the wiki, Thordan was the youngest of five, not seven.

Updated, thank you kindly!

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Currently digging a deep, deep hole about Aymeric's mom and I'm dragging you all with me.(Heavensward spoilers ahead if you're not there yet. There will also be Scholasticate questline spoilers, and I highly recommend that you do those too for some good Ishgard lore, especially if you did the ARR Hildibrand quests)

So other than the fact that she slept with Thordan before marriage and gave birth to Aymeric, we know little and less about the woman. I've seen people come up with hc images of her (and I love them btw) but we have nothing confirmed. For this post, I'm going to call her Amie (AM=Aymeric's Mom + Elezen "-ie" name ending for female Elezen) because I would feel weird constantly calling her Aymeric's Mom.

So first, let's talk Thordan. He's the youngest of 5 brothers, and his house was allied with the Durendaire family. If the Halonic Church takes after Catholicism, chances are that Thordan is just a name he picked while he was ruling similar to popes IRL. At the time we met him in Heavensward, he would have been 74 years old. Aymeric at the time of Heavensward is 32, so Thordan would have been around 41-42 years old when he slept with Amie. This man clawed his way up the theocracy, doing everything in his power to gain favor and attention, using all sorts of connections he built from his family's connections and his own from when he would have attended the Scholasticate.

This meant that he would have had to appear clean as a whistle, and probably wouldn't have gotten out too far, so chances are that he wasn't exactly searching for women. So where did Amie come from?

Now let's talk the Scholasticate. If you were in a noble or otherwise well-connected house, you were most likely here. Highborn would graduate and move along to become part of the clergy or writers or musicians or artists of what have you. They would become people of culture. Especially those who would become seminarians, they had access to real power and influence. People like Father Choisseau could use that to their advantage, and who better to use that on than an orphan girl from the Brume?

These orphans would have been locked away, waiting for the day they could reveal the truth of everything to the next Archbishop, so chances are that Amie and Thordan would have crossed paths before she graduated from the Scholasticate. And chances are that Choisseau would have taken every opportunity to keep a pregnancy like that hidden, lest a scandal about the Scholasticate got out to the public. Again, Thordan's probably in his early 40's at this point, so chances are that he's gotten to a stage of influence where making him look bad would make you worse off.

So now there's this baby. There's this orphan in the scholasticate who is about to graduate after having just given birth to a bastard child. What a time for her to be taken to the Holy Body of Decency and locked away for good. What a time to hide away a baby, a person that would be quite useless to the process of the expurgators purpose, and give it to another friend of the Durendaire family- the Borels.

We also don't know for sure what happens to the expurgators and watchmen other than that the Scholasticate reveals their existence to all and sundry. Most likely, they would have been released from their prison and be re-admitted into society with their names restored. This could mean that Amie was released and simply became a no-name in a new Ishgardian society. Who knows how much she would want to be involved in Aymeric's life considering everything? Most likely, she would be in her 50s and just trying to settle.

Wherever she is, I hope she's all right.

TLDR; My theory is that Aymeric's mom was an expurgator and got locked away into the deepest darkest secret of Ishgard as a result just after giving birth.

#ffxiv #aymeric de borel #aymeric's mom #fan theory #anyone else who might also be going insane over this #feel free to message me #i'd love to hear other theories

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FFXIV fans this is your daily reminder that if Estinien has even a tiny fraction of Nidhogg's memories he knows a hell of a lot more than he's letting on.

Nidhogg remembers at least three Umbral Calamities, and probably four or five. Safe to assume he defended Coerthas from Allag, and that he heard Vrtra looking for Azdaja and the primal-ification of Bahamut through dragon song. The DRG 80 quest states Nidhogg considered himself guardian of the star after Midgardsormr. At his prime, Nidhogg may have even known or been trying to learn his father's abilities - the changing form, the crystals, possibly even the ability to speak with Hydaelyn. Theory time: Hydaelyn may have even rejected him for being a dragon supremacist.

Estinien's shortcomings (if you don't have another silly explanation for them) have to do with mortal knowledge and interactions, like niceties, coin, and bluffing immigration officers. He asks for the Scions to explains things because they have discovered stuff nobody knew before this, or they were using vocabulary he doesn't know.

In Shadowbringers the idea of Ascians doesn't phase him, but the different shards and time travel nonsense throw him for a bit of a loop, coincidentally things Nidhogg wouldn't know. He is very tense at the idea of the WOL seeing his memories, and leaves immediately, but after telling you he shares Nidhogg's memories in 5.5 he chills out and hangs around more. Like he saw the writing on the wall about joining the Scions and covered his own ass in case of an Echo vision.

In Endwalker the reason I think he said "At least I will not pretend to understand this talk of ancient primals or the Final Days" and the like is because he has to constantly sort out if what Nidhogg knew was correct. He is remarkably chill staring up at Hydaelyn like "ya bitch let's go let's fight God." What Hydaelyn said to Estinien about hate becoming love is ambiguous enough it could also apply to Nidhogg.

And you are still the only person he has directly told he shares some memories with Nidhogg. He is deliberately not sharing this with people. He doesn't want to be Nidhogg. Most of the information is pointless outside of Coerthas in the 7th astral era. He makes an exception when he is the only one who knows something important - there's a Great Wyrm behind the curtain, how to motivate depressed dragons, the Eyes of Nidhogg are active again better find them, Omega? wait the thing that chased Midgardsormr? if not me better make sure someone handles it, oh shit Zenos is standing back up that's not Zenos anymore-

Then he just wants to have a drink and some dried squid and chill out. Not get interrogated about past kingdoms, or have his brain and eyes poked at when he dies ( . . . if he's even mortal anymore.)

#ffxiv #estinien varlineau #that lodestone story they posted about him #tells me that his nidhogg stuff is gonna come into play w some shenanigans #i hope so anyway #certainly nothing could go wrong with having the memories of a first brood dragon

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He is risen

#ffxiv

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this is honestly the funniest final fantasy 14 image i have ever seen

#ffxiv

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I've posted a new chapter to Not as a Scion because for some reason I keep finding gaps that I should have addressed years ago.

It's a new chapter 20. Enjoy!

#ffxiv #writing #fanfiction #aymeric/wol #aymeric de borel #f elezen wol

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...wait wh--

#snero bc i like it a bit too much #but papa shan’s is just set up for success right off the bat #ffxiv

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Our GNB tank was on call with a client during our minilvl levi clear

#this really is just how it feels when you raid while you work #ffxiv #ffxiv memes

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#ffxiv #carbuncle #so tru tho