#stormblood took a lot out of her okay

[gatheredfates]

Soon I say. Then immediately head over here. I have no chill today. I already lightly poked at your characters before asking.

So first question. Koret. Echo. Okay those aren't really questions but tell me about the Echo and her. How does she experience it? She sees it as a curse so I imagine it gets in the way. But what exactly does it let her do? Or do to her?

:)

Koret and the Echo have a very complicated relationship.

In truth, her feelings on the Echo depend on what verse I'm playing her in, because her WoL verse has a very circular relationship that she's only just coming to terms with, whereas her general/in-game verse doesn't have that same kind of closure.

I'll break it down into those parts but I'll pop it under a read-more, only because I tend to get carried away when talking about her.

I may drabble these at some point.

Warrior of Light

Kor, point blank, did not want to be the Warrior of Light. She made it known to the Scions very early in the piece that the only reason that she was allying with them was because her secondary option was killing herself, and she'd prefer to take out Hydaleyn before she did. She was not a kind or palatable character in early ARR.

The thing was, the Echo was nothing but a horror. Her very first manifestation of it showed her sister being murdered and thrown to the brine beneath La Noscea, and she could do absolutely nothing to stop it. She was on her ship at least two days away from port, having just had a major argument with her, and in no place to warn or protect. Her death was an inevitability she could not stop.

Kor has a complicated relationship with her sister. She was protective in the same way she could be possessive; she wanted to shelter her from everything, even at the cost of her experiences, and part of that she felt was the reason she ran into her father's arms when he promised even an ilm of protection. Kor's treatment was more akin a raw nerve — jagged edges and white-hot reactions — and, while her heart was in the right place, a creature raised on rage and trauma learns to extend the same in kind. There were times where she was not a good person, or a good sibling, and those are things she has had to reconcile in Lily's death.

That makes her angry. This anger, this hate, influenced everything she did. What was the point of The Echo if it couldn't stop the one thing she so desperately wished she could avert? She didn't want the people of Eorzea to look at her like she was a hero. If she could carve The Echo out and give it to them malignant and squirming, she would have. If they wanted to be the hero and risk life and limb, they could bloody well have it. All she was interested in was undermining whatever sick individual(s) thought she ought to be the 'chosen one'.

It didn't even occur to her that she was softening over time. Every time she did, it felt like there was another blow — another obstacle — she and the Scions needed to overcome. Rage became resignation, she told herself; even if she'd risk life and limb for them.

It's not so much the Echo does anything to her, no more so than a regular WoL. A lot of the time her visions come to her in dreams, or in strange, intangible pictures she needs to decipher, but they don't hurt her. In Stormblood, she comes to the terrible realisation she had been relying on The Echo when Zenos took her eye, and that causes her outrage all over again.

It's a Catch-22. She didn't mind The Echo when it allowed her to kill her father, but despised using its clairvoyance. It merely showed her that all her thoughts about him were right.

There's a lot in here that I could unpack that would make this already really long reply longer than it already is, but I'll cut to the chase. Elpis was eye-opening for her. Meeting Venat changed her perspective. Events within Shadowbingers had already given her a more sympathetic look towards the ancients and the cruelty of fate, but coming face to face with the person she told herself she hated... she didn't hate her. She simply could not hate her. In telling her the story of how she had come to be, she also had to tell her about her sister.

It was that horrible, gut-wrenching realisation that she needed to ask Venat to only give her The Echo on the night her sister died.

She needed to see that she died, to feel the weight of her death, before she would do anything. Where Lily alive, she wouldn't become the Warrior of Light. If she didn't see her death, there would be no rage to live for — no constant push to adventure and endure for her 'revenge'. Venat had to inflict the worst horror for the greatest kindness, and she did it knowing Kor ( or, more apt, Kore — her protégé, inheritor of her seat ) would hate her.

She did it anyway.

What's crazy about all of that is I made up the former part of Kor's story in Stormblood. Everything beyond that was just a happy accident, and it feels right for it to come full circle in that way. Fate had to play out a certain way so she and others could chart their own course. She needed to live because she deserved to live.

Minor footnotes are that I did drabble parts of it here. I'd like to revisit it at some point but... it's there.

In Game/General Verse

All the stuff surrounding Lily still applies. Kor simply never sought out the Scions. Instead, she was pulled off the brink by Crow and ushered keenly into Firelight Trading Company.

Kor... doesn't like The Echo. That's not a shock. While it gives her the future-sight to predict storms and keep her safe, it's also the little bastard who likes to give her a play-by-play of her friends and loved ones' lives.

There's a indescribable level of mortification that comes from trying to respect peoples' boundaries and their trauma, only for The Echo to conveniently say 'hehe, let's tell you anyway!' in nightmares you can't escape from. It feels invasive and spiteful to her, even if those it affects knows it's not her fault. She wouldn't want people to see into her life, so why is it fair she gets to?

Obviously, I'm very mindful of the power The Echo holds, and I'm deliberate in reinforcing that it doesn't give Kor any advantages in regular roleplay. It's just there for ~flavour~.

However, in both verses she wrecked her ship on Leviathan because she couldn't be tempered and got her just rewards from The Maelstrom. That was probably the best thing that came from it.

#｡･ﾟﾟ･ — sea speaks #｡･ﾟﾟ･ — sea answers things #｡･ﾟﾟ･ — 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫 : koret #looks at how much i wrote #jeezus

[motheatenscarf]

Okay, I was told again and again by people that Shadowbringers was really good, but uhhh, I was not expecting them to mean by this big a degree of basic visual storytelling.

Only a few hours in but I'm really digging this expansion so far.

I love how little preamble there is to getting the story going, just, hey, we found the beacon that was set up at the end of Stormblood, so let's GO TO SPACE.

Or, well, dimensional travel to an alternate version of this world in its shattered reflection, but that's less fun to say.

I love little nods to mirrored endings or just slightly off beginnings, so the merchant who took you into Ul'dah (or any of your starting cities, I suppose) with the twins also being the one to spirit you out at the end of ARR just before Heavensward was a nice touch that I liked. And now with Shadowbringers, you meeting this world's version of that identical merchant, but an old man, on the road to the Crystarium is great. Immediately killing him off off-screen was also effective to show the threat of the Sin-Eaters in an impactful way without forcing the player to feel helpless or stupid by watching and doing nothing as cutscenes happen beyond their control.

I've also noticed the camera is a lot less static, just in general. And my god, the Crystarium is the most beautiful post-apocalyptic city I've ever seen. Don't trust the Exarch, he may mean well, but he kidnapped the Scions and has DOOMED my children to live on this planet forever as wandering spirits?

I also love them bringing back the Warrior of Darkness, he said his name, I forget it, spending a century as an incorporeal shade unable to be seen or heard or understood is a brutal fate. Their arcs were all rushed and poorly executed before, easily the weakest element of Heavensward, so if they can take the time to examine this character's plight and his regrets by there only being ONE of him and giving him the fucking time and space to address that shit, I'll welcome it.

I'm also worried he's what will happen to the Scions if they stay here too long. If the Exarch only needed my help and had fucking said the words, "Please help me," this woulda gone a lot easier. As is though, Talia is very bitter because as far as she's concerned, he at best kidnapped her friends and at worst has murdered them if they can't go home to their own bodies. I don't know how they're "physically tangible spirits," but they've done a good job explaining or hand-waving my biggest questions regarding the usual MMO utilities here on The First, so I'll trust them to explain it at some point. I'm just glad we're giving "Eldritch Horror Hydalen" the attention it deserves because yeah, a Calamity of Light was just kinda thrown out there like so much lore and left hanging.

Anyway, very promising so far, my only concern/complaint is that it's forcing me to CHOOSE which of my kids I'm gonna go find first, which is tantamount to asking me to pick a favorite, and like all mothers put in this kind of choice, I will languish forever in shame at knowing I picked one over the other 😔

#Caitlin Plays FF14 #FF14 spoilers

[scrollsfromarebornrealm]

🖊 for Riven and G'raha. I know there's been some awkwardness in the Rivenverse, but I'm not sure how it all fits.

Awkwardness is actually a pretty good descriptor. And to preface, @erickgage jokes that I pretty much deal in self-indulgent fantasy in the fact that I take the chances I can to drag this man up and over the coals for the bullshit he pulled. Which I feel is completely valid because as far as I know so far, there's not a lot of stuff in the fandom that actually has him dealing with the consequences of his actions. However I do try to be as unbiased I can in terms of lore and story. Try being the key word.

Anyhoo. G'raha does not really endear himself to Riven the first time they met, first because of the stunts he pulls while she's getting the reagents needed to break the Tower's security, and second because of the hero worship. Hero worship 100% creeps Riven the fuck out.

(CT stuff is also in that weird gray area of stuff I'm ironing out due to the overhaul. Suffice to say, Riven did settle into a working relationship with G'raha, she does respect him as a scholar and fighter, and she was upset when he did seal himself away.)

And then we have post Stormblood. The Scions are dropping like flies, Riven's having panic flashbacks of the bloody banquet and how long it took to get her friends back, for all she knows Augustine and the others are on the chopping block next, and then mid fight with Elidibus of all people, her spirit gets yanked to a border crossing where this stranger is telling her not to fight the Empire, that she needs to cross to another world and ah don't worry you're still alive! Suffice to say, the moment the Exarch closed the doors in the Crystal Tower after Riven's proper arrival to the First, she read him the riot act. And because he was on her shit list at the time, the fact that he rapidly deflected her request of 'okay, can you bring the rest of my friends over' immediately made her suspicious, as was the explanation for the crossing spell.

And in all honestly, she had every right to be. The situation in the First was pretty fucking grim, and G'raha--rather Crystal Exarch, came from an even worse scenario. I have the feeling that he tried multiple things to get rid of the Light, they didn't work, and finally was forced to go 'well shit, this is the only thing I have and even then it's going to be bad.' I like to think that he didn't want to play fast and loose with the Warrior of Light's life, but at the same time it seemed as if he had no choice. Crystal Exarch comes off to me at certain times in the game as being ruthless, and you know what? You can't blame him. It was that same ruthlessness Riven was picking up on, because the Exarch didn't want to bring Augustine and the others over. He knew if he did, the plan would definitely be in peril. The Scions could be placated, Riven would certainly throw herself body and soul into trying to save the First--he was banking on her heart and empathy--and well...

One or four big brothers getting sus vibes and possibly acting on them would ruin the whole thing. So the Exarch placated Riven by saying he'd see what he would do while she met up with Alphy and Allisae, banking that the sheer 'what the FUCK' horror of current world events would sway Riven enough that she would believe him when he said he couldn't bring Augustine and the others over.

This did not work out well. Following Holminster Switch, Riven approached him again. The Exarch would hem and haw about the magic going off kilter and he wasn't able to get a lock on them. The next thing he then saw was Riven's back as she went through the portal.

Which then resulted in this.

Fortunately for the Exarch, he then caught a break, as Urianger's predictions...while not completely on the money (Sebastian becoming a gunbreaker was the outlier) did come true. He started to feel guilt for what he was doing, but it was too late to turn back. Especially when he and Riven had a much better working relationship than their first outing (though probably being much older and not as hero-worshippy had a lot to do with it).

And then Mt. Gulg happened. And if there's one thing Riven is very good at, it's choosing what's more important to deal with. She was hurt, she certainly felt betrayed, but if she gave into those feelings, she'd turn into the Norvrandt Lightwarden for certain. So she set them to the side, and set about breaking the Light's hold on the First--and defeating Emet-Selch. She kept the Exarch at a distance, and this continued up until shortly before the first Eden outing. Riven was back from the Source with the others--minus Reinhardt, who was still fighting his curse. They were meeting with the Exarch, something was said--they don't remember now--but it resulted in a blowout fight between the Exarch and Riven.

(which is in progress, here is a snippet)

TLDR: Exarch flung at Riven that it was her fault her friends were turning into Lightwardens due to bringing them to the First--to which Riven responded that yes, she knew it was her fault and she'd live with the guilt of harming them for the rest of her days but really did he have any right to talk after what he'd pulled, and again--the hero-worship/putting her on a pedestal. Which did make the Exarch check--because yep, he was guilty of it. And he'd used it in manipulating Riven's own feelings.

Elidibus then happened.

Suffice to say, while the fight did help clear the air--things were now officially awkward. Riven kept distance from the Exarch, though she did honor his wishes and helped revitalize him in the Source. The awkward generally continued though Endwalker, though by the time of Ultima Thule, the two of them were somewhat on more of an even keel--as working adventurers and scholars. So there's progress being made. They may never be truly close, but mutual respect works just fine.

The entire affair however, was the death knell for Riven being...agreeable when it came to her role as the Warrior of Light in any grand schemes or plans. Being sweet and accommodating was no longer an option, especially if her good nature was being used as a weapon against her.

(long live the gremlin)

#ffxiv #thank you for the ask #wol riven #g'raha tia #crystal exarch #this turned into a long ramble i am very sorry but HERE #these two are complicated

[healersadjust]

How is Aki's relationship with Estinien going currently?

It's apparent that, in the past, her emotional volatility and Estinien's lack of anything resembling tact, has proved to be an incendiary combination, but have they become closer over time? Or at least come to an understanding where they clash less?

Thank you so much for the ask!!!!! I’ve not been feeling too great so it took me a while, i also haven’t looked over this again since otherwise i will probably leave it in my drafts for another few weeks fhdjdjdjd. i’m sorry it took so long!!!!! thank you again!!!!

Aki is used to breaking things, not fixing them. Their relationship was awful for them both, and when she finally realized it, she wanted to fix it. But she was shocked when it wasn’t her who shattered what little they had left. Estinien ran off before she could even finish, and she was pissed about it. She was responsible for once and it burned her pretty bad.

For a few years after, Aki couldn’t stand even being in the same room as him. This worked out just fine, as he never seemed to stay long enough anyway. She stewed for a while, she’s not one to forgive and forget, so she had all this anger and hatred brewing. At the end of post stormblood, when Estinien saved her, she snapped at him when she woke up and saw him in her room. That marks when Estinien started to try to make up for things.

Aki was zipped to the First, and while she was gone, Estinien was roped into taking care of her shit on the source as we know ! The world waits for nobody. When Aki got back and discovered that Estinien was helping the Scions, she was shocked. Her mind didn’t change entirely, but she started questioning if he was still that person she hated.

Once returning to the Source with everyone, Aki had a lot of new fears and anxieties. During the events of Shadowbringers, she experienced a lot of loss and saw realities she had been blind to before. She got closer to death than she had ever been, and she saw the people closest to her nearly die as well. She was terrified of missing out on connections like she had before (she never got close with a lot of people who passed away early on in the game) and she was resolved to do something about it.

She was thankful when Estinien was finally ready to get his shit together. She pretty much hunted him down when she got the chance. She pretty much was willing to put them both in a “get along” shirt until it worked. Thankfully for her, it was as simple as talking to him that time.

Where they are now? Well, things get awkward when their previous relationship is mentioned. Things get really awkward when someone mentions the years of hiding from each other. But beyond that, they’re pretty okay friends! You can catch them brooding in the corner together from time to time. They get closer as time passes, and Aki is genuinely happy to get to spend time with him in 6.1!

#i’m loose with the xiv timeline! so it’s been like 5 years from 2.0-6.1 #important to note i suppose but not important enough to put in the actual response #This is one of the relationships that Aki actually is willing to patch up! #very rarely is she willing to do such a thing #but she’s growing!!!!!!! #her growth makes me rlly happy #and his! #also i don’t think estinien is a bad character or anything but man HW was a TIME #him + aki at that time was… no good #could have been fine w other characters #NOT tiny rage filled catgirl #it’s like a constant game of one upping each other #where they destroy themselves in the process <3 #aki/estinien #aki mitsuo #v time bb #again i’m rlly sorry for how long it took #once i’m feeling better i’ll smash out everything in my inbox! for now #thank you for your patience <3 #shadowbringers spoilers

[lusciakoushiro]

August Part 1

As I mentioned at the end of my last post, there were three projects that I wanted to get back to and perhaps finish;

The first was the first custom doll I attempted; Very Merri's streaming mascot, Lami. When I had first worked on her I was so excited to start that I didn't bother waiting for some of my materials to arrive. Now I'm not saying you need the best of the best to even attempt this kind of craft, but having something of a little quality will save you the headache and heartache. For those who might not know, in order to do a face up to remove the original paint with acetone. After that you could repaint the face with acrylics or build layers with water colored pencils. Seeing Dollightful build those layers I knew thats how I wanted to do it. I had ordered the same brand she had used and was awaiting them, but I was too impatient with my excitement that I opted to use the lesser ones I had, those being the Artist Loft brand. I did what I was supposed to; removed the paint, layer three layers of Mr. Super Clear and start, only the colors weren't building up at all. I had I think seven layers with nothing really showing before I said f it and went to my paints. I broke three out of four of my needles doing the reroot as well. Part of this project originally was to teach myself how to sew, but I just couldn't wrap my head around it and with where I was living at the time I had little space to work in. It was actually quite discouraging, so I gave up.

The next project was a sculpture of my friend's FFXIV character that I was trying to make for Christmas last year, using Nerdecrafter's Not Another Crap Kit. Now, I've never really worked with polymer clay, only air dry, so this was a challenge in of itself and I foolishly didn't bake it to save my progress and let it sit so at one point things just fell off. I fixed it, baked it this time and thought everything was okay, only to have it topple over one day and break so it once again needed repairs.

And the third I never actually touched, but have had the bade for four years and thats the DIY Funko. I always knew I wanted this to br FFXIV Lus, but I could never settle on the look. First it was my look from Stormblood, then I went DNC main in Shadowbringers and was gonna do that, only to fall in love with my BRD glam and go back to BRD main. I have multiple versions of Lus as the Miqo'te through my years of playing, but I realized that this was the perfect opportunity to make my Lalafell version that I fantasia into during October.

So with plans in motion I started to work on Lami, with the idea of flipping between her and the statue for my friend, but Lami took up a lot of space so I was unable to.

After doing Celes the way I did I didn't feel the need to force myself to sew and instead made a base for her to sit on and sculpt onto her.

I made an armature out of foil in the shape of a snake and glued Lami's legs together. Now I am telling you right now, this Disney princess doll was the worst base I could have chosen all because of those damn vinyl legs! Because of the weird flex they have, I had a hell of a time gluing them together.

Once the glue dried I painted her legs with multiple layers gesso and began to use my air dry clay to make the snake.

He's derpy and I love him. You cand see I also painted a wooden plaque to attach him to cause he was a little top heavy.

In this time I sadly had disaster strike... twice. Remember the chibi of Luscia I made on the BRD swing? Well somehow I managed to yank the jump ring through not only the plastic, but also the resin.

Not wanting to trash it I turned it into a standee using one of the test coasters from the Hythades standee as well as the botched flowers from the Lotura dome. And the other was sadly my Zack and Aerith snow dome.

This one had come out so well and I loved shaking it, so I was shocked to see the resin layer peeling off of Aerith. I managed to break the seal and drain the liquid only to find the situation was much worse. The resin had become bendy and I'm not really sure how or why, but I have seen two possibilities. The first thing I read said that ot might have bern too humid when I had applied the resin. I did dome Zack a day or so before Aerith so that could be why his doming was still in tact. He is leaning like Aerith which does lend to the humid theory since I attached them the same day I domed her. But let me flash forward to early November, now, I have no real reason to shake my Lotura dome since the micro glitter all but disintegrated and the stars just stick to things, but I for some reason I decided to pick it up and shake ut only to see my plastic piece of the characters wobble, so they too had a problem like the Zack and Aerith one. My Sheith one still stands like a rock and I attached it and the Lotura one the same day, so why?

Upon some more research the glycerin and the resin don't play well together. But if that was the case, wouldn't Zack and Lotura's doming peel off too? And what about the thicker resin pieces like the life stream or the flowers? Since I can't find a clear answer this put the plans I had for doing a Sheith giveaway for the domes on hold.

As saddened as I am to see my work crumble, I'm more fascinated as to why it happened. If anyone knows, please feel free to drop a comment.

Needless to say I didn't let that stop me from moving forward.

#my art #ff7 #final fantasy vii #snowglobe #ffxiv #final fantasy xiv #miqo'te #bard #doll custom #clay art

[tinygamertris]

More Theo Stuff! Talking about the various Scions now!

Thancred was the first Scion he met. He thought he was kind of a jerk at first, until they'd worked together a few times around Ul'dah and he realised the silliness was... rather close to his own burying his head in books. A protective mechanism, and not one that was always working. When he realised Lahabrea had taken his body, he was furious and also desperately afraid, worried that Thancred might be dead. They became pretty good friends during Thancred's convalescence, the kind that bickers and jokes and tells the other when they're being a tool. He's one of the most steady people in Theo's life and they're excellent friends. (Theo did consider sleeping with him once during their early friendship, but then Thancred accidentally ruined his first attempt to lose his virginity and it kinda took the shine off the idea.)

Y'shtola is fucking terrifying and he respects her as the Goddess of Knowledge that she is. She was the second Scion he got to really know after Thancred, and constantly blew him away with how quick and clever her mind is. She's one of the few people not called Cid Garlond or Nero tol Scaeva who can help him over tinkering block when he's working on stubborn magitek! They like to sass each other over afternoon tea when they can, and if he happens to be the one making the treats, all the better. He's been putting a lot of thought into helping her travel between the Source and the Shards since the end of Endwalker, mostly because he knows she misses Runar and the rest of the Night's Blessed very much. Yes, he ships it.

Papalymo took him a while to really get anywhere with. He was almost constantly around Yda, which was okay at first but made it really hard to have a proper conversation about Aether and how he was able to channel it despite coming from a low-density world and... Look. They were compatriots and allies but never quite got to the point of being friends, and Theo regrets it very much. He knew something was coming when Papalymo asked for the remnants of Tupsimati but if he'd had any idea just how crazy he was planning to be he... He doesn't know. He can't change the past, and passing up on knowing his ally better will always haunt him.

Yda/Lyse is a sore subject. When he first joined the Scions proper they got along pretty well, when he wasn't trying to talk nerdy with Papalymo anyway. They commisserated a lot over feeling like the stupid people in the room with a bunch of smart people, and he was probably more honest with Yda than he was with anyone. When Papalymo died and he found out that she'd been lying to him for years, that he'd pretty much bared his soul to her and she hadn't even done him the dignity of telling him her name... Well. Let's just say that the duel in Stormblood didn't happen, because she wasn't his friend any more. Their interactions, when they have to happen, are still extremely frosty on his part. Maybe he'll warm up to her again one day, in the future, if she ever figures out why he's so angry and apologises, but he's not holding his breath.

Minfillia drives him crazy. She's pretty smart, but she often makes some truly mind-bogglingly poor decisions, and it rubs him the wrong way. Imagine a cat's expression when you rub their fur against the grain, and that's the face he makes when she makes decisions that hurt his brain. Plus the fact that she's the one member of the main Scion team who never once fought, not even when she was being rescued from the Castrum at extreme risk to everyone involved... Well. He don't like it, okay! He doesn't exactly like fighting overmuch himself, but when someone who is supposedly well-trained and talented with the sword she carries around doesn't actually do anything with it... Add to that the number of situations he wound up in on her word that he really, really, really didn't want to be in, and it's not really a wonder that he was kind of petty towards her right up until she disappeared. Then he was angry, at both her and Hydaelyn for not telling anyone why she disappeared, and then there was the whole mess with Ryne... Complicated. It's complicated.

Urianger is absolutely on the spectrum and Theo took to him the instant they met. ASD solidarity, baby! In all seriousness Urianger is often the member of the Scions who Theo feels most comfortable being quiet and studious around. They don't need to fill the air with noise because they Get It. Urianger doesn't understand much of his magitek work, and Theo doesn't understand Astrology or the Astrologian job in the slightest, but they respect and admire each other's expertise. Theo has never once been angry or bitter about the secrets Urianger's kept or the plans he's made, because he knows him well enough that he'd only do those things if he genuinely thought they were necessary for the greater good. He's never been let down and he doubts he ever will be. (When Theo finally came back to the Waking Sands after Haurechefant's death, Urianger said the thing that wound up helping the most. "Do not doubt that the love thou feelst is real, or that the day shall yet come where the memory of him shall give thee great comfort.")

Alphinaud is baby. Baby brother. Do not hurt his baby brother, he will hunt you down and do terrible, terrible things to you. Initially he thought he was a bit of a brat, but a well-meaning brat. Then he took over after the nightmare at the Sands and impressed him rather a lot, even if he occasionally thought he needed to slow down and think more. Pretty much the only reason Theo was functional for large parts of Heavensward was his MUST PROTECT BABY instincts keeping him going when he would rather have just laid down and let the snow take him. He will do anything for this boy and he's so, so proud of who he's become that he could cry.

Alisaie be ANGRY BABY. Furious baby sister! Do not fuck with the baby sister, he will help her eviscerate you. As the Warriors of Darkness discovered to their loss; they tried to kill his sib and he came for them hard. She's so much smarter than she gives herself credit for sometimes, and it makes him crazy when she compares herself to Alphinaud. They are different people with different skills and are both his baby siblings no time for rebuttals have been allotted accept your hug-filled fate. When she realised she could use what she learned on the First to cure tempering he threw himself head-first into helping her because he believed she really could. And she did!

(When Fourchenalt called them warmongers at the Forum he very POINTEDLY said that it wasn't Sharlayan or Fourchenalt who ended the thousand year war and cured the ongoing nightmare that was tempering; it was his children and he WOULD show them the respect they were due for their achievements! Oh and he was also very lucky they weren't letting him draw up adoption papers, because he would prouder than proud to call them his own.)

Tataru is terrifying. She is the scariest member of the Scions bar none. You do not cross her, you simply thank whatever gods happen to be listening that she's on your side. Also the clothes she makes are undeniably comfy, even if they're not always the kind of thing he'd willingly wear himself.

Moenbryda was the alpha lesbian and they made friends pretty much instantly. She took one look at his hopeless twink ass and decided here was someone who needed a little wlw/mlm solidarity and also some great jokes about the asses of various Scions. She got him drunk. He told her how cool Urianger is (she already knew but loved hearing it anyway). They were exceptionally geeky together and Theo learned so much about how the aetherytes worked. If he could've stopped her sacrifice and taken her place he absolutely would've. The world lost a truly amazing person the day she died and he'll regret her loss for the rest of his life.

Estinien is so much more of a dork than people realise. He seems to attract ridiculous situations without even noticing and honestly it's wonderful to watch. (This did not stop him from lecturing the alchemists at the Great Work about FUCKING CONSENT when they tried to take his blood. Want to make him lose it? Let him see someone being fucked over with even the slightest hint of medical context.) He wouldn't say they were friends early on, the trip with him and Ysayle was Awkwardness Incarnate a lot of the time, but you can't fight an ancient dragon together and then rescue each other from the vengeful spirit of said dragon without becoming close.

Krile is second only to Tataru in the scariness ratings. Why is it that every woman Theo is friends with is terrifying as fuck? He doesn't know, he only knows that he respects them as the Goddesses of Wrath that they are. After discovering that she gave the remains of the Mothercrystal to Zenos, he is now thoroughly convinced that Krile has bigger balls than the entire population of Old Sharlayan put together.

G'raha, G'raha, precious Raha! He fell for this sweet silly cat of a man very early on. Yeah, the sand prank was annoying, but someone who could keep up with him who wasn't named Cid? Who made the ancient history of a people who he had no reason to do anything but despise interesting? Who was so very eager to show off yet so very sweet when he wasn't? Theo never stood a chance, even if he didn't actually realise he had a crush until many years later when G'raha stood before him in a hood pretending not to be himself. (He was slightly preoccupied with being head over heels for Haurchefant at the time, in his defence.) Shadowbringers was complicated but he never once stopped believing that G'raha was planning something... He was very upset when he found out what though. Especially because he wasn't dying, he was just having a rather bad case of his body remembering that it used to be very very sick. Once they were back in the Source, and it was clear that Raha was fine, there were a lot of very blushy and awkward admissions and a lot of very enthusiastic kissing. Theo loves to find new ways to make Raha blush! Seriously though, he loves him very much and will 100% protect him no matter what. And Raha is not allowed to pull another sacrifice play EVER. NO MORE.

Bonus: Ryne is Honorary Baby. Seriously, he took one look at her and decided she was Family. Before she became Ryne, Theo called her 'Minnie' and was very emphatic about her being her own person, even winding up in a fistfight with Thancred over his behaviour. (Thancred is strong. Theo is a Monk when he's not healing or shooting things. Thancred lost for the first time in years.) He was so happy when she befriended Gaia, and he 100% Ships It. They're really sweet together and he wishes them nothing but the best. Gaia's not baby but she is Family and became so the moment she fought for Ryne.

#Theodore McCoy #Warrior of Light #More headcanons #The Scions

[wildstar25]

Well. How about 9, 12, and 15?

lali-lets answer some questions-ho o/

9. How do they deal with their fame? Has it changed their relationship with their loved ones? Have they ever been tempted to use their fame for selfish reasons?

Arsay doesn't necessarily "deal" with her fame, if anything she is quite passive about it. If, lets say, a child came up to her with awe and admiration, she'd happily play up her role to bring a smile to their face. When people seek her out for her skills, she's there to help. She does enjoy being a famed warrior of light, though she'd be incredibly reticent to admit that to anyone.

Arsay spent a lot of her life feeling forgotten and she developed quite the complex about it tbh. She can't help but have some kind of satisfaction when some person she helped months ago comes back and treats her like an old friend. That alone is enough for her. She doesn't try to get special treatment and she's much too stubborn to accept handouts.

Getting closer to the scions and building those relationships up from friends to family also lessened her need for external validation from random citizens. She gains a lot more emotionally from knowing the people she deeply, truly cares about also hold her in their hearts and minds. That doesn't stop her from wanting to involve herself in world saving situations of course she does legitimately want to help whoever she can.

12. What do they think about redemption and forgiveness? Would they forgive an enemy? Would they forgive themselves?

For Arsay, actions speak louder than words! She runs on a thorough vibe check analysis lol. Were you bad yesterday? that sucks. Are you gonna do better today? Awesome! Yeah she gets mad and can hold ire towards particular actions that people have done - and some things cross the line completely - but for the most part if someone is making the effort to do good and/or be better now that's what counts to her.

Doing one good thing isn't enough though. That's why if she has met someone at their worst it takes a couple good interactions for her to place any trust in them. Gotta asses those vibes thoroughly 'n all. She wouldn't say it's forgiveness... more of giving someone another chance. Nero's an example of that for sure. Took her all to alphascape before she finally started to relax around him.

When it comes to herself and her own actions: I guess the same logic would apply! She keeps herself in check. If she fails, she'll get up and do better. For every disparaging thought that pops into her head, she'll put out twice the amount of positivity and hope that's enough. though again, this is not really forgiving herself & probably not healthy overall for her mental well being but! she will stay silly :3

15. How do they feel about the Ascians?

Oh boy so I am only at 5.4 so this answer is definitely in flux atm…

Throughout ARR to stormblood she really did think of them as no more than a thorn in her side. She absolutely hated how they manipulated otherwise well intentioned adventures to enact terrible schemes. She was legitimately frustrated that she couldn’t land the final blow on lahabrea in particular lol. As she headed into shadowbringers she really wanted nothing more than to put an end to them permanently.

After shb… well okay she still wants to stop them but it’s complicated. On one hand, she thinks the hole lot of them should just get on with the program! The world is different now, get used to it!! It’s so frustrating to her that they aren’t letting anyone have nice things >:(

On the other hand, she feels a lot of sympathy toward their ultimate goal. They just want their home and their loved ones back and safe. She knows how hard it can be to let go of the things you care about and what it’s like to be in denial about the reality I front of you. It was wandering through the streets of Amaurot that really got to her in particular. She felt such an immense loneliness from it all. It really got to her I think.

But on the other hand, the ascians have been responsible for so much pain and hardship. They continue to put her loved ones in peril and harm countless others. That’s shrimply not okay!! Even if they miss their home she will not give up hers! If the ascians cant be convinced with words, the edge of her blade will have to do.

Arsay will remember them for who they were and what they became.

#Arsay Nun #thank you for the ask! #WOL posting

[ammyamarant]

So I have two Warrior of Lights that I have extensive headcanons for currently. I wrote a lot so a cut.

The first is Amarant Kalathi. A Xaela Au Ra, formally known as Altani Kha, who had the Echo from a young age, and fled the Steppe because she had a horrible vision and wanted to protect her family. She knew she had to change her name when she arrived in Limsa Lominsa, and just kind of put down the first flower she saw (an amaranth) and a random collection of syllables for a last name. I have come up with a lot for her (she's a middle child with three brothers and a sister, she's incredibly mischievous, when a certain character [redacted since I have a few people who haven't played who said they're interested] died she freaked out that she'd lose more people she loved without telling them and proceeded to fuck most of the adult Scions before she was forced to realize that isn't healthy, she is a smn main, she picked up ast briefly in Ishgard and proceeded to put it down when [redacted] died and picked up drk so she couldn't fail to protect anyone anymore, is a little too accepting of things in her head like Bahamut or Fray) and I love her.

(oh and Amarant's unsundered self is Bia and Bia is fucked up. She literally has the Will of the Universe in her head and draws upon that for her magic. Think Lina Inverse but instead of only calling upon the Lord of Nightmares for the Giga Slave, she does it for every single spell.)

(also the Will of the Universe likes boba)

The other is Tsukiyomi Inugami. So this one takes some explaining. I made her because I think I'm funny, and thought making a Shadow Hearts: Covenant reference would be funny. She was originally a reference to Kurando's first fusion, a Viera as pale as I could make her so she could resemble the moon. And yes I misspelled Tsukuyomi I did not double check my spelling when I made her. I could pay for the rename but eh. I'm now officially baking into her lore that she misspelled her own name just in case so she could distance herself from the primal. Anyway.

Tsuki is actually the primal Tsukuyomi. Like, literally, she's the primal that Yotsuyu summoned. After the fight, Kurando (yes I'm keeping the references) saw the mirror and pocketed it. From there, Tsukuyomi was constantly trying to get him to summon her, and he resisted. Throughout the last few patches of Stormblood, she came to admire him greatly. He was strong, kind, helpful, and loved his friends. But at the Ghimlyt Dark, before Estinien could show up, he was fatally wounded. In his last moment, she begged him to summon her, to turn into her. He did summon her, but to make a pact. To find and protect Alisaie. To become the Warrior of Light in his stead. To save the world, not to suck it dry of aether. She agreed. To prevent any confusion she took his name and pretended she had just drank a Fantasia and turned from a male Hyur into a female Viera.

If you're getting "trans allegory" vibes so far oh boy I'm not done yet.

So yeah, she literally was born right before Shadowbringers. And Estinien knows she's a primal, but before he could even attempt to kill her, she was taken away by troops that came to investigate and thought she was a civilian. She went through all of Shadowbringers and Endwalker, realizing the memories she has of what Kurando went through actually pales in comparison to it actually happening. At the end of 6.0 (after everything that happened like killing primals and the entire You're Not Alone quest), she finally came clean. She admitted she's a primal to her friends, but she's starting to realize... she's okay with a mortal body. She's okay with being a Viera, and she wants to live her life as herself. And she took on the name Tsukiyomi Inugami, to reflect who she was (with a now canon misspelling) and the Warrior of Light she came to love as hers. She wants to live as herself now, and not as the person they thought she should be.

I told you there'd be more trans allegory.

So those two are the ones I have the most headcanons about. I know I wrote more about Tsuki than Amarant, but I promise, Amarant has a LOT of lore behind her too.

[mothervvoid]

“Hey have you guys seen Lena? Or Thancred?” “They’re probably just celebrating in their own way.”

In which Lena and Thancred sneak away from the festivities post 4.0, confess their feelings, and take a well-deserved nap.

#There is a Hymn Between Us #highkey feel like they argued #and then they just accidentally vomited out their feelings abt each other #ffxiv #thancred waters #thancred x wol #also shes still a bard she's just more of a... fight-bard instead of a buff bot in stormblood #stormblood took a lot out of her okay #my screenshots

[buffaloborgine]

A frigging long dive into the writing of Zenos in FFXIV (part Ia)

This is my take on the writing of Zenos from Stormblood to Endwalker, along with materials taken from the two short stories (one from Chronicles of Light and other from the Lodestone). 

I may make some (perhaps a lot) mistakes throughout this writing, so please feel free to address me about them, thank you for doing so (if you don’t mind) in advance. 

Friendly reminding that this is totally my interpretation, and not in anyway to force my opinion on anyone, we all have our own opinions and reasons to believe in it. But of course you do have time to spare, feel free to take a look at this. 

(Also spoiler alert, I will write up to 6.0 ending so by reading this, you agree with being spoiled)

Part I: “Freedom or Death”, or the story of a “Necessary Evil”

We play FFXIV as the Warrior of Light, the chosen champion of the Hydaelin, the Mothercrystal. We take up arms and heads for adventures, answering the pleas of help from the people, fighting for the freedom of the oppressed. 

But then when our jobs are done, oppressed people unshackled, invaded nations liberated... we just move on. Do we ever look back on the political status of those liberated nations? Do we ever wonder what will happen to them later? Or we simply believe that once our jobs are done, people in those nations will achieve neverending happiness? 

I believe asking those questions for an MMO, where people come to enjoy the gameplay, boss raids, crafting glams, spending time with friends or simply enjoy being the hero, is a bit too much, because it’s totally petty, even if we want to care, it’s impossible for us to do anything. 

However, I want to tackle this problem, because while it is obvious that we can’t tackle political issues in a world where we hardly can have a say on anything, we should ask ourselves: Why? We are the Warrior of Light, we are the hero, if we just solve the situation with violence and then leave, then who would clean up the mess after that? 

So if we agree that the Scions will help us take care of that and we have no need to worry about it, then why would we need to actually “care” about it in Endwalker, when we have to actually go and witness the mess of a fallen Empire and how its people are trying to cope with it and have to solve it out with, erh... actual political method? 

Okay, so, let’s go back to the topic. Stormblood. 

The main theme of Stormblood expansion is “Freedom or Death”, so we fight to death to achieve freedom. Freedom for the people of Ala Mhigo and Doma, freedom for these nations. 

But asides from us, who fight for the belief of the majority, someone else is fighting for their own belief of freedom too. 

Fordola rem Lupis and her group of Skulls, who are deemed as traitor by the Ala Mhigan. They fought against us because they believe the only way to achieve freedom is to earn their own spots in the Imperial states, to no longer be seen as savages “We made a promise that we would do whatever it took so that one day... one day the Imperial would learn to accept us.”

Asahi sas Brutus, who struggles his way through the ranks in the Garlemald military and achieves a spot as an emissary, believing that struggling against the Empire is futile, for he who has seen the futility of people doing so, “ For every Imperial you cut down, a thousand more will come.”

Yotsuyu goe Brutus, who has endured the horrible treatment of her family, her former husband, throwing herself onto men’s laps to work for the Doma viceroy who only saw her as cattle, so now she fight against those people of Doma to retaining whatever freedom she has just only achieved. Was it not her closest kin─her foster parents and her late husband─who had made her life a living hell? And none who witnessed this treatment had lifted a finger in her defense. As far as Yotsuyu was concerned, her countrymen were complicit in her abuse, and deserving of the same punishment as her abusers. 

Even when you think what they fight for is selfish, undeserving, but in their eyes, those purposes are the only hope they can cling on, for they are their resolves of freedom. 

Fordola watched her father dying because Ala Mhigans didn’t accept his point of view and because no Imperial came to intervene, Fordola believes the root of it is from the Imperial not accepting Ala Mhigan as their own. 

Yotsuyu’s case would be relating to all the mistreatment she has to endure, which she believes coming from her own countrymen. 

Asahi’s conclusion comes from his own frustration and inability to find any other way to survive, also from watching countless people dying to fight back. 

None of them are wrong. Their will to survive is strong, just like us. So once they achieved freedom, even when it’s a twisted freedom, they hold onto it so tightly they suffer from it. 

Now that would be the whole antagonist cast of Stormblood, right? 

Did we miss anyone? 

Ah yeah, of course, the elephant in the room. Zenos yae Galvus.  

You may think that there is no reason for Zenos to attain the theme “Freedom or Death”, but he is the one that actually reaches the climax of that theme, to the point that is no longer “Freedom or Death” but “Freedom in Death”. 

To realize this, you may have to look through the back story “The Hunt Begins” and “In Darkness Blooms the Lily”. 

One might think it a blessing to be born into the ruling family of a vast and powerful empire, but for the young Prince Zenos-great grandson of Solus zos Galvus, revered founding father of the Garlean Empire-it was a curse.

From the beginning, Zenos was alone. His lady mother succumbed to illness shortly after bringing him into the world, and his lord father was seldom present, occupied as he was with his military campaigns and political maneuvering. And while the prince was surrounded by countless servants, they were as machina to him, trundling about on invisible rails, bereft of independent thought. Nor did he hold the learned men and women who served as his tutors in much higher regard. His brilliant mind found their lessons their very existence-monotonous, and he preferred the silent company of books. (The Hunt Begins)

With Emperor Solus on his deathbed, a clandestine war of succession was already being waged in Garlemald. Solus's eldest being dead, his grandson Varis was next in line to the throne, but the Emperor’s second son Titus had other ideas, and no shortage of support. What he did not have, however, was Varis’s standing with the military, nor less a ready heir─this Zenos.(In Darkness Blooms the Lily)

Through those pieces of story, we can conclude that Varis zos Galvus never sees his own son more than a piece of property. Zenos was born to ensure that Varis has an heir, an advantage in the civil war. The Garlean crowned Prince also suffered a life with no one being open-minded or really caring for him, resolving to seek the silent company of books. For a child to grow up in a cold, emotionless environment, then get treated like a property, throwing out to battlefield and set as figurehead, Zenos has never felt like he is “free”. 

You would argue that he was born on the top of society, given all the wealth, power, teachings, and that he is also a crowned Prince, he should be responsible to his nation. But there is one problem, all that would apply for a prince that will inherit the throne, which was, is and never will be an option for Zenos, because Varis never has the intention to hand down the throne for his son (we learnt this from Shadowbringers cutscenes, where Varis straightly said “The burden of this throne is beyond you.” to Zenos’ face, and of course, by the way Zenos replied, he surely has long acknowledged that). 

Therefore, being assigned as viceroy of Ala Mhigo and Doma is literally nothing more than shackles onto Zenos, for he sitting there but cannot decide any major decisions to the area. 

Now you would say that he is bad because he killed many rebels and oppressed people, so he is totally evil. 

Well yes, but also no. 

Assuming you are a soldier in a war, and you kill people too, would that make you evil? Debatable. 

Assuming you were someone sent to perform an action upon a group of people, but you didn’t choose to do that, you were ordered to, would that make you evil? Also debatable. 

So in this case, we have to take into account what Zenos actually did, while also not justifying his actions. 

There are several scenarios that can happen in Zenos’ case: 

A. Zenos straight out acting as the viceroy of Doma and Ala Mhigo, crushing all the rebellions and deploying his subordinates for total oppression. With no rebellion and total control, the Empire will have no problem controlling those two nations. 

B. If Zenos really wants to set himself free, he could go join the rebel, support them and oppose his father completely. 

C. Zenos doing nothing more or less than ordered. No killing more rebels than those who attacked him, no deploying the Garlean force to oppress the rebels, enabling people of their own country to deal with their own kins, not putting his hands into any of those political affairs. 

We all know what option did the writer gave to Zenos. So, next part I will write on how this option is actually an advantage for us and also an important step for Zenos to achieve his freedom.  

Thanks for reading, please feel free to tell me if I make any mistakes so I can fix them. 

_________________________________________

Part Ib: https://buffaloborgine.tumblr.com/post/671028361828728833/a-frigging-long-dive-into-the-writing-of-zenos-in

#ffxiv #zenos yae galvus #zenos viator galvus #zenos #an explanatory essay #with many parts #also there will be theory

[jqupohtia]

J’qupoh’s relationships with the Scions

Okay going to be honest I am still fleshing some of this out because I didn’t really start getting attached to him as his own character until close to the end of Stormblood. G’raha will be separate because his section ended up pretty much as long as all the other’s combined LMAO. Under a cut because it’s a little long.

Alphinaud and Alisaie are basically beloved younger siblings to him at this point. He tries to spend equal time with each of them, but Alisaie reminds him far too much of the little sister he half raised for him not to occasionally play favorites (sorry Alphinaud). Though he does definitely relate with Alphinaud on a spiritual level when it comes to sisters driving you spare over their recklessness (and being equally oblivious to their own hypocrisy with that).

Definitely took it upon himself to keep an eye out for Alphinaud when he realized the kid was going to be working with the Scions and generally being concerned about this 12-year-old looking kid working himself so hard with stuff a lot of adults would be hard pressed to handle. Negotiating and meeting with heads of state, organizing and running a grand company? Qupoh did not even want to think about how much work goes into the back end of that. Alphinaud there are whole bureaucracies in place to handle those for the city states what are you doing???? Hey you know what I really need to draw? Qupoh disguising Alphi as a miqo’te with a combo of glamours and borrowed clothes, basically passing him off as his little brother as they fled for Coerthas (you cannot convince me just keeping the hood up on that very distinct outfit was enough to get past patrols long enough to make it to Cid and the airship).

He never really became very close with Minfillia, but he did treat her with quite a bit of respect and much more immediate honesty than he normally gives people, if only because she was the first to give him a name for the ability that had been both boon and burden, and for being among the first to believe him.

He found Yda quite endearing, and definitely enjoyed that period where they were working together to investigate the Sylphs, appreciating her levity.  He was pretty proud of Lyse for stepping up to reveal her actual identity and own up to lying to the other Scions for so long, and try to make good on the legacy of her sister. She inspired him to really want to finally reveal his own identity, though he choose to wait a bit longer because he was torn between it being a show a solidarity and worrying it would be taken as a one-upping kind of thing. Even if he did occasionally get frustrated with her, he was also well aware that he had very little ground to judge her when she was getting frustrated over the hopelessness and hostility her people showed towards fighting back, so he tried to just keep reminding her to focus the anger in the right direction, and to stand by her.

He absolutely was briefly but very intensely infatuated with Thancred, and liked to believe Thancred was not aware. (He was.Thancred has absolutely teased him about it.) Not that this is saying much, Qupoh pretty much falls for anyone who gives him positive attention but gets over it just as fast. They weren’t super close outside of being occasional drinking buddies (Thancred would not have been the only one making the mistake of trying to out drink Moenbryda.) Still feels bad about not making much time to check in with him after the whole possession thing, ESPECIALLY so after the events of Out In The Cold.

His own bad habit makes it so that he feels like he can't really judge Urianger for his secrecy and falsehoods. He knows that the man at least has good reasons, and if anything he can trust that if Urianger is acting shady, it's a good sign that he needs to start being alert, because something big is likely going down. It helps he knows that Urianger hates being put in a position where he feels he needs to do so. Also he likes listening to Urianger talk, he has a nice voice.

He fears Y’shtola like one fears a mother that always knows when you’re up to mischief. He also had a brief gross crush on her and prays she never noticed (if she did she’s forgotten or brushed it off and never brought it up. Mercifully.) Also please, Shtola, please stop almost dying you are going to make him have a goddamn heart attack he is too young for this much stress.

Tataru is his gossip buddy and they absolutely abuse the Scion linkshell for this purpose. He is both frustrated she keeps beating him to making the others new outfits but also willing to concede he simply is not good at coming up with clothing designs nor the desire to work on wearable designs outside of base fabrics (he likes the actual weaving part of being a weaver). Definitely uses his botany and weaver skills to supply her with more expensive materials at a discount or in exchange for her making him something with some of the materials.

#ffxiv #character musings #text #j'qupoh tia #scions of the seventh dawn

[magefeathered]

Tried to send to the writing blog but you seem to have asks disabled there? So anyway: 🖊 🖊🖊🖊 one for each

omg I'm sorry! I always forget you have to manually enable asks on a new blog and it's not enabled by default, I just never enabled them when I made the sideblog o(-( Thank you for letting me know!!

I will repay you with the origin stories for how each of my OCs was made!

L'yara

As my original WoL, she wasn't actually meant to be an OC! It all started with the absolute lack of dialogue options for the player character in ARR, of all things. It made me go, "Oh, so I'm just one of those people who goes along with everything everyone says because I lowkey hope I'll die doing something heroic and be remembered as a hero for it? Okay." Aaaand that actually became the foundation for L'yara's backstory! A lot of her lore has changed since then, but her original reason for joining the Scions is still, basically, because she had a death wish.

Khorchi

So, funny story, I made my account on the free trial, and only the five races were available to play as on the free trial, which is why I picked miqo'te - I knew nothing about au ra or viera or hrothgar. And it took me until Heavensward (like, well past Yugiri's introduction) for me to realize that au ra were a playable race in game on the full version. And by then I had the full version, but by then I was attached to L'yara as a character and already developing lore for her. So I made Kaisuri as an alt just so I could play as au ra. Once I got to Stormblood I fell in love with the Dotharl tribe, because I've always had a fascination with reincarnation mythos, and the next time I logged into Kaisuri I went Holy shit, because she was a xaela with dark, blue-toned skin, like much of the Dotharl tribe, and the dye color I'd picked for her glamors was void blue (commonly used for Dotharl garments) and she (at the time) had white hair, just like Sadu, so I immediately decided that she was going to be an OC from the Dotharl tribe, started giving her lore, and eventually changed her name to Khorchi to make it more xaela-aligned rather than the raen-aligned Kaisuri.

Domitien

Dom SOLELY came about because I wanted to try playing a healer but was terrified of being bad and being judged for it. So I basically made a throw-away alt with a randomly generated name that I didn't hate, so I could start as a conjurer and have the "excuse" of the sprout by my name if I sucked. I got to Sastasha, the tank died, in the time it took me to get him up the rest of the party had died, I tried to move on to res-ing the next person before I'd topped off the tank and the tank died again.... it was a shit show. I felt so terrible and the people in that dungeon with me were so, SO nice about it, but I still literally deleted the character out of humiliation. A few months later and I'm joking with a friend about making a functional light party of OCs, because I already had two DPS's, and technically had a healer since Domitien's appearance data was still saved. By then I had started playing AST on my main and wasn't terrible at it so I had much less healing anxiety, and decided to revive Domitien and start giving him lore!

Einar

Despite them now being one of my favorite OCs, I literally only made Einar because I needed a tank for my (then still hypothetical) light party. It was shortly after male viera were announced, and I wanted to make a male viera OC so badly. The entirety of their lore and personality was formed around me pondering what kind of mindset a male viera would need to have to leave their tribe, which is really funny considering that same train of thought led me to this character identifying as nonbinary and actively seeking to obfuscate their gender.

Thank you for the ask!! <3

#lynmars79 #asks #my ocs #char: l'yara nulah #char: khorchi dotharl #char: domitien tanamiere #char: einar atoel

[vergess]

what are your ffxiv ships?

*cracks knuckles* Oh baby strap in, I have so many, and I cannot possibly put them in a properly ranked order, so this will be chaos.

Alphinaud/Estinien is my #1 favourite, I live and die for this ship. Estinien's lowkey marriage proposal in 5.5 absolutely slayed me. I fell out of my chair and onto the floor, injuring my arm pretty significantly in the process when I saw it. Like, what's more gay, being gay, or whatever these assholes have going on?

Haurchefant/Aymeric(/Estinien?). I'm not one for self insert ships, and Aisling (my WoL) isn't a self insert anyway but a fully fledged OC who is "conserved" (ask me about my binormativity in Eorzea headcanons!) and not interested in men. But I am not immune to Haurchefant!! So, Aymeric is my preferred vessel for Hauchefant shipping content. Estinien can also be there, because Estinien is clearly Aymeric's good-terms ex (probably the fucked in Knight School). And Haurchefant is a good sport, he'd absolutely be down for whatever weird shit Aymeric and Estinien still have going on. Three's a party, babyyyyy.

I actually used to struggle mightily with finding Haurchefant content I could enjoy, but then AO3 author WonderMint's Sad Boys in Snow collection was like "bitch I have you SO covered you don't even KNOW" which is why I'm now a hardcore Haurchefant/Aymeric believer.

Jannequinard/Leveva. Fun fact: Leveva has an adult Hyur model and I'm a lalafell so I didn't realize she is Really Short. So I didn't even know this was a ~problematic~ ship until people started bitching me out about my extensive sexual headcanons for them on twitter, when people started screaming about her ~only being 16~ at me. Which, IMO, makes it that much fucking funnier that she's the only motherfucker with both sense and spine in that relationship. I mean not a lot of sense, but Janne is simply not going to be takign the Sensible Adult lead in anything.

Anyway, IMO, the reason Leveva took Rufin's name as her secret identity is because Janne accidentally called her by her dad's name in bed (they were dating in college), and instead of getting pissed she was like, "OH FUCK!!! BOYO YOU HAVE SOLVED IT!!!"

Sadu/Cirina. I used to be a WoL/Sadu shipper but Endwalker was like, "no no, we can do better," and they were right. I was a fool. I had all of the pieces, but I never put them together. Sadu is the most extreme Top on the planet. Cirina is the most submissive and breedable character in the game. They literally go into politics together. Somehow, I just never put the pieces together.

That's okay, Ishikawa and the other writers gently held my hands and guided me to the obvious answer.

Alisaie/Lyse. Stormblood was so good to me on this front, but alas, both of them grew up and grew apart into bigger responsibilities, so they're good-terms-exes now. Sometimes when they're feeling especially nostalgic and depressed about the way life has turned out, they might fantasize about a different, better world where there weren't so many horrific catastrophes that tore them onto different paths. But mostly they're just glad for the time they spent together.

Alphinaud/Alisaie(/Estinien?). I like twincest. We all know this about me. But what really fucks me up about this ship is, Alphinaud's adoration for Estinien is about the most obvious thing on the planet, right? But when you stop to think about it... Estinien and Alisaie are extremely similar characters. In Trust fights they even have the same voice lines. They both have crippling abandonment issues which they sublimate into running off on their own. They both obsess over high output DPS and stabbing things to avoid looking at their own insecurities. They both prize Alphinaud's attention and approval more than they're willing to admit. They wear their hair the same way.

In conclusion, Alphinaud has A Type, and no matter how much his head says he should stick to good respectable people like Arenvald or Maxima, his heart is only interested in half-feral gremlins he really, REALLY should not stick his dick in.

Also I think it would be extremely funny if Alisaie got super competitive about sex, and Estinien was just like, "ma'am I am 35, I have outgrown sex competitions, please ma'am, please do not do this."

Estinien/Varshan or Vrtra. All the emotional baggage of incest, now with interspecies flavour! Extremely fucking hilarious to me that Nidhogg killed Estinien's little brother, so Estinien adopted Nidhogg's litter brother post-mortem. Also, post-EW, if you talk to Estinien at the bar, he outright admits that Vrtra is just sugaring him. How does this man have so many pocket-sized shotas after his dick? Sure, sure, Varshan is just a puppet that Vrtra uses to move around town, but like. Dude. You made your body look like a 11 year old boy and then had eyefucking contests with Estinien.

This is like a Thing with him. This man is catnip to shotas.

Raubahn/Nanamo. I've talked about this before, but the pining!!! Oh my god the pining!!!!! That scene at the end of Stormblood when they realized that their time together had come to an end broke my heart. To be kept apart by the vagaries of their ages, their duties, their positions in the Ul'dahn class structure, and then to become truly peers in the worst imaginable way: by having the be separated forever... oh my god.

Oh my god it's so good.

Oh my fucking god it's so good.

Alphinaud/Sad Garlean Men. Jullus, Maxima, Gaius... probably Zenos if the writing was right? If Estinien is catnip for Shotas, Alphinaud is catnip for Sad Garlean Men. He just goes so well with all of them, in such varied ways. Talking diplomacy and alchemy with Maxima. Coping with the horrors and costs of war from the position of command with Gaius. Rebuilding from the ashes of a destroyed life with Jullus.

A long, long, looooong time ago (I'm talking around Heavensward) there was a common hypothesis that Alphinaud was actually part Garlean, and that's why his magical skills were so disastrous even though he more than had the necessary intellectual skills. I think the idea that maybe his grandmother or something was Garlean would be a fun twist on this (since obviously we know his parents are Sharlayan now lol).

Whatever the case, something about the way Alphinaud interacts with Garlean characters was always unusually delicate-yet-tense in a way that lends itself well to romantic interpretation.

Nero/Cid. All you need to know here is, every time Nero is even slightly inconvenienced, he serves Cid with divorce papers, and every time he experiences one (1) moment of joy, he demands they get remarried. This has happened at least 7 times by Stormblood, and unfathomably more by Endwalker.

Urianger/Assorted College Lesbians. "Urianger's Girls" is clearly slang for lesbian at the Studium. Moenbryda, Mikoto, Alisaie... it's a rite of passage. You cannot truly be a Studium Lesbian(tm) until you find yourself fucked up over Urianger's mysterious gender powers*. His extreme emotional vulnerability to any woman who shows him even a modicum of genuine kindness and respect is so wild.

*Urianger is a he/him trans woman, and his adoption of Astrology in a place without a fucking sky was his transition. I am not joking. I am dead serious. I can, have, and will again fight people about this.

Urianger/Thancred. Unfortunately for all the college lesbians, Urianger got married to Thancred and raised children together in the First and now they're just happily touring the world together like retirees on an RV trip. I love that for them.

Ryne/Gaia. Honestly, anyone who played the Eden raids ships this, I feel like I don't need to explain it. But I'm gonna!!!!!

Two young women born into the world as perfect opposites, the oracles of dark and light. Both stripped of anything approaching a normal childhood. Coming together as mirror images to rebuild a broken world. Overcoming indescribable horrors and eldritch magics to retire to the city and just been Teens together having coffee dates and going to festivals and shit.

I love them.

Also in Eden 12 in French dialogue, Ryne and Gaia use terminology for each other that "technically" and be used to refer to friends, but generally refers to romantic partners. The equivalent of calling eachother "girlfriends" in english, where yeah, sure, it could be platonic, but like... it's clearly not.

So they're canon, I am not taking criticism at this time.

#FFXIV #Shipping #Asks

[ladychraelix]

✨ for thamior~ I would like to hear about him :>

oh HELL yes i love talking about ace elf dad

okay, so, here's a basic bare-bones recap for just about everyone else following who may not know about thamior:

name: thamior nailo

obligatory dnd info: drow way of elements monk

was an adventurer in his younger days, but has mellowed out considerably and much prefers his duties as head abbot at a temple to gilean, god of knowledge

is Best Dad to xelaria sharptongue, my tiefling warlock character... along with a bunch of other characters jgdjksfhg

ace

amazing art drawn by @sludgebat draven my friend draven:

(image ID will be under the cut)

and as for some other random facts about him?

my voice claim of choice for him would be patrick stewart because Dad Vibes; and on that note, this guy is just... he's just Ultimate Dad, i swear. he will take one look at a troubled or struggling youth and go "is anyone parenting that" and not wait for an answer jgsdkfhg.

to wit:

Noodle, hybrid purple dragon afflicted by Weird Time Shenanigans, raised by Thamior from an egg. took place during his adventuring days and was his first foray into parenting, entirely by accident. [Original campaign: Iomandra]

Xelaria, tiefling warlock, raised by Thamior from infancy after she was abandoned at the temple he worked at. None of the other temple folk would take her because she was a tiefling, which he scoffed at because she was a literal baby. Evil is not inherent; it is a series of choices that you make, as are the choices to be good. This is something he'd tell Xel often as she was growing up. [Original campaign: Caldera]

(The first time she asked him if she was evil, it just about broke his heart. She was about four at the time.)

Kevin, human paladin-turned-bard, @autistichylian 's character, sibling-adopted first by Xelaria but very quickly adopted by Thamior once she wrote to him about what she'd been able to pick up about Kevin's home life. [Original campaign: The Unbinding of Vanna]

Alphinaud, elezen arcanist. In my defense, my time playing through FFXIV has been as Thamior because monk class, and, well... you travel with Alphinaud a lot. The "hmm, Dad Mode Engaged" thought from Thamior didn't strike me until somewhere in the patches between Heavensward and Stormblood, at least. Still though. Alisae hasn't quite made it under the umbrella of paternal feelings, but I honestly kind of figure it's only a matter of time. [Original source: FFXIV mmorpg]

to be fair this is only four-ish characters, but like. originally it was just xelaria! then noodle came along when i was playing thamior in iomandra, and then xel got all ride-or-die sibling besties with kevin in unbinding, and, well.........

yeah.

[Image ID: A grey-skinned elf of early middle age, face lightly lined, holding a mug in the ace flag colours and emblazoned with "#1 DAD". He has long white hair laying loose over his shoulders, pale purple eyes, and four gold earrings, two in each pointed ear and spaced asymmetrically. His one visible nail is painted a muted magenta. He is lit from behind by the crest of Gilean - an open book - in pink. He is smiling calmly.]

#Rae answers stuff #goldieclaws #thamior nailo

[faelune-home]

FFXIV Write 2020 #9: Lush

(A/N: No WoL featured this time, instead I did an NPC focused piece. Then again, as a post-Stormblood piece, miqo!Fufu would probably be the most likely one in this timeline, but the WoL doesn’t even come up so it doesn’t matter.

So here’s another mourning piece, in similar vein to my piece for Minfilia posted pre-ffxivwrite. With Lyse in the Shroud. :’’) I had this idea a while ago actually, but this got me the spark to actually write it.

Given how open the prompts are, part of me wonders if I’m still on prompt here when I don’t use the specific word and I don’t draw a lot of attention to the word meanings a lot. :’D I tried to allude to the word here by focusing on the life in the forests of the Shroud, but idk if I still miss the mark there. But it’s good to get me writing anyway, which is the point.

Spoilers for end of HW patches at least for a character death

Word count: 1395

@ffxiv-writers)

The East Shroud had ever been so full of life. In the treetops, in the ferns, in the tangled bramble patch, even deep in the twisted forest of the sylphlands, the creatures ever stirred. It was almost hard to imagine that only a scant few weeks before, a vicious primal that could’ve ended it all had hung over the imperial castrum at the forest’s edge.

That end never came, if only due to the acts of one man.

Near Amarissaix’s Spire, Lyse stood silent, staring at the metal walls of the castrum, so alien compared to the greenery surrounding it. So alien, yet so familiar to herself, with all the time she’d spent as part of the Scions fighting the Empire. Under another’s name…

She shook her head of the thought; she missed her sister greatly, of course she did. But then maybe the way she’d handled it hadn’t been the healthiest. Even so, Papalymo and the other Scions had indulged her odd grieving method. In a way, as much as she maybe could’ve been set straight long before now, she’d still come out okay. Maybe?

“Oh Papalymo,” she sighed, “sometimes I wish you were still here. Even if it wasn’t to have you help me - even if I still feel like I need the extra hands, especially running a whole resistance - at the very least...I want you to see how much I’ve changed.”

She smiled ruefully. “Of course, sometimes it feels like I haven’t at all. But I know I can’t just go crumbling when people need me. And at least I have Naago to keep me right...but it’d be nice if you could do it too.”

But there was no-one to respond to her. The only sound in the forest was the buzzing of insects and the rustling of the leaves. She sighed again.

“H-hey, excuse me miss!” she jumped as a voice called to her; a hyuran man in a Twin Adder Private’s coat ran up to her, “I’m sorry miss, I-I’m gonna have to ask you why you’re here. Idle loitering an’ all.”

Lyse flinched. Had she really been standing there long enough to look suspicious?

“I am so sorry, I didn’t mean to be here this long or I would’ve told an officer or someone at the Hut. I’ll be on my way soon, if someone from the Reach doesn’t come shortly after me,” she told him, shuffling on the spot. His eyes widened.

“Hold on, you’re- I’m so sorry, Commander Hext, I didn’t realise it was you!” He bowed, embarrassment clear on his face.

“Oh, no no, it’s fine, like I said, I shouldn’t have been standing here without telling someone,” she spluttered, surprised that he recognised her.

“I-it should be alright for you to stay, I can tell my commanding officer you came ‘round. But uh- why are you here, if you don’t mind me asking? I figured if it was official business like, you’d have an entourage or you’d be in the city.”

“I...Well it’s nothing official,” she shrugged, then looked back at the wall, adding, “I was just here to pay some respects. I was almost done.”

“Your old partner?”

She started, eyes wide at the young man, to which he flinched again and said, “Sorry! I didn’t-”

“No, I don’t mind,” she said quickly, trying to calm the jittery soldier. Gods they were both so flustered at that point, somebody could jump and reach the trees quicker than any Ishgardian dragoon. She looked over his uniform again, spying the Third Class emblem on the arm. He was still only a new recruit. “I just didn’t expect you to know him, that’s all. How long have you been an Adder then?”

“Not that long, ‘fraid to say. I remember seeing you and the lalafellin man around the city as part of the Scions before I signed up. Heard he passed at some point during the raid on the castrum.” Lyse frowned, looking to the structure with a hard look in her eye.

“B-but I helped with taking back Ala Mhigo,” he said, a proud smile spreading across his face. “Hells, I was with one of the groups storming the city as well.” The woman gawped. He looked the same age as her, and barely a new recruit at that.

“Well, I’m surprised. Grateful but surprised,” she said. He gave his chest a beat with his fist, and said, “Was only happy to help, Commander.”

“Lyse,” she smiled, “Just Lyse is fine. I just didn’t think Gridania would want to send such a new recruit all the way into the worst of the fighting and risk losing a fresh soldier. Not that you probably aren’t capable but-” She stumbled, worried it would sound like she was dismissing him, but she stopped when he shook his head.

“Nah, you’re right. I’m as green as any leaf in this wood here, But I asked to go in. Me and the rest of my unit, sprouts the lot of us.”

“...why?”

He shrugged. “Ours isn’t a common opinion in Gridania, I’ll say that first. ‘Cos most folk are still bitter about the Autumn War, even if it were years ago now and barely anyone that took part back then is still around. Some few are, aye, but not a lot. But my comrades and I thought, ‘If the alliance can forgive Ishgard for not doing their part for so many years while focusing on their war with the dragons and still take them back, then we could do the same for Ala Mhigo. Let bygones be bygones and help them out now they need it most.’ And if we were needed most in the thick of it, then we were gonna be in the thick of it.”

“That’s a good sentiment,” Lyse smiled, “I’d say Gridania should be proud to have a soldier like you in their ranks. It’d be nice to have more good thinkers like you and yours.” She sighed.

“Gridania’s always had some problems, and it’ll take time to sort it out. But one step at a time, right? But then I could say the same about Ala Mhigo.” She looked to the sky, her mind flashing back to that night as the mimic of Dalamud hung in the clouds, holding fast to its draconic prisoner.

“That’s why I wish he could be here to see it all now,” she mumbled, almost forgetting her company.

“What was he like?” the soldier asked. 

A smirk crossed her lips. “He was stubborn as anything, and feisty. His tongue was sharper than any whip if he caught you saying or doing something ridiculous. I can attest to that right now.” She laughed, ignoring the prickling feeling at the corners of her eyes.

“But for all he said he was the no nonsense type, he could be lenient. Oh, he was lenient for a lot of things that he probably would’ve been snippy over otherwise. For every 10 silly questions I asked or stupid statements I said that he gave me grief over, there’d be another 5 things that he’d just let me have even if it was wrong or foolish or I should’ve known better.” Her words trailed off into a sob as tears flowed freely. In her mind she could almost hear a familiar voice chastising her for breaking down so easily in front of a stranger, especially with her new position.

To his credit, the soldier held out a handkerchief to her and said solemnly, “He sounded like a good man, Lyse.”

She nodded, taking the cloth and dabbing her eyes. “Yeah. He was a brilliant man. Brilliant and smart and ridiculously patient for someone that could blow up so quickly. He put up with me for so long.”

She sniffed, “Imagine, some brilliant scholar like him having a silly girl like me trailing around after him for years. Gods above, it’s a wonder anyone took us seriously.” Eyes dried, yet still watery, she handed back the handkerchief.

“Like I said before, I didn’t know him,” the man said, taking it back and pocketing it, “But from what you’ve said here, he would’ve been proud of the woman you are now. I feel pretty certain saying that.”

Lyse smiled again. “You know what? I feel certain enough to say you’d be right. He would be.”

#ffxivwrite2020 #ffxivwrite #lyse hext #ffxiv writing #ffxiv fanfic #ffxiv #final fantasy xiv #do no wol pieces count? are these okay? #also credit to the sb bard quests for bringing up the autumn war #my writing

[varae-ver-you-are]

Fuck it - An Essay on Stormblood

So I was browsing twitter and someone posted “A hill to die on” for FFXIV. 

There were a lot of really good hot takes, and mine was that Stormblood wasn’t a good expansion. I look at SB the way a lot of people viewed HW: Lacking in some cases and overhyped in others. 

I understand that this was a chance for Ala Mhigo to shine, for Ivalice to make it’s way into the story somehow other than subtle subverts, and for the player to see more of the world outside of the map of Eorzea. 

But so much of this expansion rubbed me the wrong way, which is why I probably love Shadowbringers so much: It avoided all of these things to a degree. 

Here’s my hot take: 

-Race: Is no one going to call SE out on their Eurocentric bullshit or am I just going to sit here and be forced to just take it in with a grain of salt? Let’s start with the not-so-subtle choices made along the way:

-Lyse: Biggest offender, innocent by way of storytelling. She doesn’t look like the people she represents. Ala Mhigo, a place inhabited by brown and POC characters (save for the occasional Roe) and we see Lyse as the embodiment of Eurocentric beauty standards. She looks absolutely the opposite of them, if we’re being completely honest. It comes down to and feels like a white savoir trope at it’s face value. White girl goes in to save the POC folks from imperialism because they haven’t been able to do it themselves for X amount of years.

She stands at the forefront of the Ala Mhigan resistance after Conrad is killed off and instead of making it M’naahgo, they turn around and give it all to Lyse? Someone who has NO merit leading, someone who was never trained and never fought for the resistance? She was handed a position she was clearly unfit for, but apparently HAD to lead because she was someone’s daughter? 

Oh, and don’t forget: Dear old dad was dark skin and blonde (white) hair. Even if she were to have the whitest mother in existence, it doesn’t make much sense that she would have peachy-toned skin for someone who has such a dark-toned father.

Yay she gives it back to Raubaun in the end, but it took patches for us to get there and still it wasn’t right. It never sat well with me. 

I’m not able to fully comment on the experiences of asian cultures in regards to the Doman/Yanxian/Nagxian areas, so I’ll leave that alone. 

Leads me into my next thing: Tone-deafness/Imperialism

The expansion’s storytelling seemed okay at first. We enjoyed going all the way east and fighting there only to return and kick Zenos in his creepy crotch. But the whole thing was embedded in Imperialism. The two: Imperialism and Tone deafness went hand in hand. 

We had a story of Yotsuyu, a woman of color, who was forced into an abusive relationship which turned her into this bitter angry woman who then sort of had a SMALL redemption arc that was then taken away because her slimy as fuck brother showed up. Again, her roles were forced by Garlemald and their occupation. Would she have had a different life if they didn’t show up? Definitely, but we can’t actually tell what that would have been because the story never gives us the chance. Local battered woman ends up a pawn in an imperial scheme and dies in the end...

Now imagine being a POC and being forced to digest this. All of this. 

I’m not sorry. I’m glad people got some of the things they wanted. I’m glad people got to experience Ala Mhigo and Ivalice and whatever, but all of this rubbed me so many wrong ways that it ruined the expansion’s experience. 

#FFXIV #Ren's take on something