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Sailing the Ruby Sea 🌅

Prints available here!

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I've been spending some time in Bozja again recently and I really love it so much. I am looking forward to potential similar content in Dawntrail but it's not going to be the same because the story, characters and lore were a big part of why I love it so much... in that sense, a new Ivalice-themed something-or-other would be amazing, but it's the combination of that and the gameplay that makes the questline really special for me. I would love a continuation of it in the same style most of all but I think the ship may have sailed on that. Cosmic exploration might be better than I expect but I'm a little burnt out on that sort of stuff after Endwalker so I'm not all that excited about it thematically, even though it tentatively sounds like the kind of thing I'd really enjoy in gameplay terms. But perhaps it will surprise me, or there will be new things in future that I feel as strongly about as Save the Queen.

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A map of Garlemald found in Camp Broken Glass.

#final fantasy xiv #ffxiv #endwalker #garlemald #garlean empire #this could probably be extracted more cleanly from the game files but i'm not doing that lol

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Just one new piece of artwork from JP Fanfest.

Concept art for Dawntrail so far!

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The FFXIV hairstyle contest results were announced today, lots of great designs among the winners! Looking forward to seeing some of them implemented, particularly those that we don't have anything like currently.

This was my entry. I tried to come up with something fairly versatile that fits a niche we don't currently have filled in-game, though of course, I did think about which of my own characters it would look good on... so I might still use it for that purpose even though it wasn't a winner.

Usually when coming up with hairstyles I just wing it, and even when I've made model sheets for my own characters there's still a lot of flexibility and creative license available - trying to create a design that could make sense as a 3D model was a great challenge that gave me a lot to think about.

I also started trying out accommodations for Miqo'te and Viera ears but didn't have time to finish before the deadline.

#my art

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Hello, I have new items in my shop - stickers and greetings cards, original and FFXIV-inspired designs.

As mentioned in my last post I'm gradually going to be adding prints and more things in the future so stay tuned!

🌟 rowanclair.etsy.com 🌟

#hello please look at my wares #my art

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Greentear and Gabineaux’s Bower, pt. 2.

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Was kinda worried I wouldn't like this mount as much I hoped from the previews but no, it's perfect.

#final fantasy xiv #ffxiv #dmitriy vosko #statice #aloalo island #i love aloalo #a lot

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I don't post many screenshots of my characters here lately but here's a quick snap because I haven't been this happy about a new glamour item in a long time.

#final fantasy xiv #ffxiv #dmitriy vosko #so happy and excited i forgot to equip the right earrings #but never mind

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Points of view

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Personally I hope we never see an Ascian again. Or Zenos, for that matter. Especially Zenos. We've spent years going in circles with these guys; Elpis got us way under the covers with the Ascians but I don't think we need to keep digging until we have a day-by-day account of their entire history. And Zenos wanted nothing more than a perfect, climactic battle—and after getting that, what then? I want to move on to a new story.

And now for an even hotter take—let's ditch the Scions, too! The time is right. Alphinaud fired us all. The world is super saved. It's time to move on, start our own path, begin a new adventure. ...Erenville can join us for work. And Estinien can come, too, because that's how 6.x started, so let's treasure hunt again. And G'raha obviously won't leave us alone. But the rest, we've been through so much with them. We'll always have our memories—to say nothing of the fan art and fan fics. So, again: time for a new story.

#the scions are too popular for them to abandon at this point it feels like #but what i hoped/expected was for the core group to be the newer guys #g'raha estinien krile #the others could still be in the story in other ways! #but it felt so pointless for them to make a big deal about the scions disbanding but immediately just continue as things were #i love zenos and the ancients but yeah we don't need to keep digging into them either #especially not zenos #i also wanted them to time skip just a little bit so the twins could age #just a few years #but i guess that's not happening either #i hope at least the whole “ooh the scions are going to be split” thing they're teasing us with is some interesting conflict

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A Cactuar Garden

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Kozama'uka & Shaaloani

#posting separately also for reasons #final fantasy xiv #ffxiv #dawntrail #tural #fanfest 2023

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New artwork from EU Fanfest, including the censored area...

Concept art for Dawntrail so far!

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My artwork for the FFXIV EU Fanfest Art Contest, based on the intro to Shadowbringers, one of the most memorable scenes in the whole game for me. I'm so happy to be chosen as a finalist!

I spent a very long time on the details of this piece, including various flora and fauna from around Lakeland. I remember looking up through the trees from the first place you wake up, seeing vines hanging down and birds flying overhead. The place is so strange and deeply affected by the everlasting light, and yet still full of life that has survived in spite of these conditions... And then, there is the Crystal Tower rising above the hills in the distance, a familiar beacon standing out against the unsettling sky.

For me this moment represents so much of what I adore about the experience of this game and it's one I'll never forget.

#my art #i spent so many hours on this and i've been itching to post it ever since it was done #for the last 6 weeks #so happy i can share it at last #💜

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Further thoughts re: Myths

Upon thinking about it further, it's definitely another case of the writers resolving mysteries and tying up things that personally I didn't feel needed to be addressed, but also, weren't handled in a very interesting manner ultimately.

To meet the Twelve, fight with them and so on is not necessarily going too far, but when I think about what this questline achieved... for me it feels like nothing. There is no longer much allure or mystery to the Twelve, nor were there any interesting revelations about them either. Details of their creation came in the form of what felt like a laundry list of a bunch of Ancients who we have no connection to. I was expecting there to be some kind of substance to that, some actual presence, not just some second-hand exposition that didn't really tell us much of note. Perhaps in part my fault for reading too far into the use of certain character's voice actors to voice the Twelve, even though I know they generally just use their existing cast to voice raid bosses.

I've been trying to figure out whether I agree with the decision to send them back to the Lifestream but I think my conclusion on that is that it doesn't really matter... it's not a terrible idea, but ultimately I didn't care much about it because I wasn't given much reason to beyond "that's nice for them I guess". Perhaps if I had actually known and cared about the Ancient people they originated from then I might have felt differently, because it doesn't affect much except for that.

At this point I haven't enjoyed the story of an alliance raid series since Crystal Tower which is rather unfortunate. I was hopeful that a return to an original XIV concept that dealt with the game's lore in some way might be good - and none of the story was bad... but it also wasn't good and didn't make me feel much of anything, beyond a few lore notes. I think for the most part I'll somewhat ignore what went on here and stick with my own interpretations of things.

Post-6.5 thoughts

on MSQ/Myths/Endwalker in general.

While there have been things I liked in this patch and the recent MSQ arc in general, it's a shame that my ultimate feeling upon the end of it is "glad that's over so we can move on"... I like Zero a lot and the stuff with Ryne in this patch but that's about all really. I don't hate it or think it's terrible but I just didn't really care much for any of it either.

Not sure if I like the conclusion of this part of Zero's arc, perhaps because of my lack of interest in the overall story I didn't feel much about it. I loved her and the way things developed with her in previous patches but here I was kinda just like... "oh, okay". It just didn't really feel very impactful for something that should really have been a big deal. I don't think this will be the last we see of her, but even so...

I think the way I would have liked for this to be handled is for it to be a prologue to an expansion that was very similar to Shadowbringers in concept, where we visit the Thirteenth in a more major way, restoring various areas of it. Given the status of the place, that is, much further gone than the First was, it might be difficult to pull this off with how the game presently works... I think to do it effectively they'd need something along the lines of how they've already handled changing environments based on quest progression, but it would need to be much more drastic than just changing weather effects and the occasional structure. I have hopes that it's possible in future for them to do something like that, especially with the upcoming graphics update, but now is probably not the time.

So I guess what I saying is that I feel as though this arc would be a nice build-up to a Void-themed expansion but it's not. It's a somewhat uninteresting story arc to me which ends in a predictable and not particularly exciting way and just has a vague promise of future content... It could come around to being amazing eventually, like how I simply didn't care about the Warriors of Darkness arc before Shadowbringers, thought it was awkwardly placed and uninteresting, and look how that turned out. lol.

I don't want to place too much expectation on it, though... It's hard not to with something I'm so invested in, but Endwalker in general has disappointed me a lot by not doing things how I would have liked them. I didn't like how most of the 6.0 MSQ was handled, I think it was a poor decision to cram it into a single expansion instead of allowing it the time and space that was originally planned for it. I did enjoy Elpis and Pandaemonium as they are, but if it were my choice, I would have preferred that the details of Ancients were still largely left a mystery.

I suppose the Void thing feels a bit like the Ancient situation right now. They elaborated on a lot of mysteries of the place, but currently, in a rather unsatisfying way that doesn't go far enough and sort of leaves me feeling like I wish they hadn't done it and just waited until they could execute it better with more time and resources.

This also applies to Myths of the Realm, really... I don't hate it, I like Deryk, I like the designs of the Twelve and enjoyed seeing and interacting with them to a degree... but ultimately it felt like a miss for me and I sort of wish they hadn't done it. The conclusion was underwhelming, I'm still not totally sure how I feel about the decisions made there but right now I can't say I'm a fan. I need more time to consider my feelings there, but, well... it's another part of Endwalker that just doesn't quite hit the mark for me, and it's a shame to look back on this expansion and feel so much dissatisfaction.

However, the positive side of this is that I'm very much intrigued to see where things go from here. A totally new setting and story for Dawntrail has a lot of potential, and I'll try not to get too caught up in my own hopes and expectations... but even when I do, there's a good side to that as well - inspiration. Everything that I wish for in FFXIV (or any other story) that doesn't happen is something I can make happen myself, in my own stories and creative endeavours.