#the one which set her free of bahamut | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

brineffxiv · 1 year

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This was a surprisingly pretty dungeon. Those golden fields you fly over astride a dragon to get to the final third especially.

We defeat Lunar Bahamut, and Tiamat and her children are free, finally.

The leader of the Amalj'aa comes to greet us and thank us for our assistance, and vows to make the proposed alliance work. Good. That's progress. His might only be one band of Amalj'aa, but they represent the first step.

But the tower still looms forebodingly, and inside it...

...Are imprisoned dozens of Amalj'aa, their bodies embedded in the walls. Which seem to be made of flesh. The floors also, are disturbingly meat-like. This reminds me both of the Mhachi Void Ark, and the Allagan Aetherochemical Research Facility.

Excuse me, are those teeth in that wall?!

Hey, uh... If the towers are made of flesh... are the towers themselves parts of a primal?? Like, a really huge primal? That spans the world... sort of like the Empire itself?

...Did.

Did Fandaniel make the Empire itself into a primal? Somehow?

Arenvald makes the mistake of trying to free one of the Amalj'aa, and sets off an alarm in the process. Which activates something that makes the Amalj'aa in the walls cry out and writhe in their prisons.

And then all the nerves (?) in the floor light up and...

...Summon Ifrit?? An Ifrit? Lunar Ifrit?

...

Ohhhh... Oh I just now got what was happening. The tower activated, and forced the Amalj'aa to summon their god. And, as we learn a few scenes later, since the Amalj'aa are tempered to Garlemald, so too is the primal they produce.

Arenvald jumps in front of Fordola, trying to protect her, and we cut to black.

Returning to Ul'dah we are met with news that Fordola saved Arenvald from the tower, but he is gravely injured. Alphinaud runs off to try and see him.

Arenvald is in a bad way, and Fordola has had quite enough of Alphinaud's idealism. There is nothing we can do to assist here, and must trust in the chirurgeons.

We meet with the Sultana and are filled in on the intelligence contained in Fordola's report. The towers are being filled with peoples of the beast tribes who, in their tempered state, are being utilized to summon forth primals in service to Garlemald. These primals are strange in that they don't seem to be able to temper people themselves?

Thancred is speaking of a "main" tower of sorts that they observed in Garlemald, and I am thinking of my earlier idea that the towers themselves are extensions of a very large primal. If the towers are like the limbs of a being, the main body of which is in Garlemald: the Empire itself is the primal. This implies that all the people in the Garlemald itself are now enslaved to its will. A will which is likely commanded by Zenos and Fandaniel.

Somehow.

I don't know how that would be done, but I cannot see either of them simply allowing a primal like that to act independently. Perhaps Zenos, as the acting head of Garlemald, is himself the focus of the devotion?

Or perhaps I am completely off base.

Multiple primals like Ifirit have been sighted, but, as they cannot temper, Nanamo wishes us to leave the Grand Companies to deal with them. She hopes, for the moment, to keep us in reserve.

For a scant bit of good news, the Amalj'aa have reached an agreement with Ul'dah.

Left to our own devices we resolve to return to the Rising Stones. With Estinien begrudgingly in tow. (Wow, look how many of us have white hair. What's up with that??)

Krile has decided we should petition the aid of the infamously reclusive nation of Sharlayan, and has already asked for and received permission from the Alliance to act as their Eorzean emissary.

This is not the only thing she shall be doing. While in Sharlayan, she will be looking into the exact nature of Hydaelyn's "blessing". And wants to know when the last time she spoke to me was.

The text prompts inform me that I heard from Hydaelyn at the end of the Dragonsong war, which I'll be honest, I don't remember. I'd have said during the fight with the Ultima Weapon.

Yes, and her failure to even speak to the Minfilias and Ryne is one of several bones I have to pick with our Crystal Mother.

She knows I sympathize with the Ascians and is punishing me for it.

Seriously though, if there is something preventing Her from speaking with us, I wonder what it could be that changed since when I last heard from Her?

Krile is, however, reluctant to leave the Scions less a member at such a critical time, and this is why she requested Estinien accompany us. She asks him, for apparently not the first time, to join the Scions.

And, after a truly touching speech about how inspiring we've been and the change we've effected, Estinien agrees. Wow, Estinien, you've come a long way from a minor antagonist/mentor in the Dragoon class quests.

Meanwhile, in the imperial palace in Garlemald, Zenos has been taking out his boredom on the floor. That is not a good place to store your blades Zenos, you're going to blunt all the edges that way.

He MAD.

Or. Can you even feel anger? Or is it just positive emotions you have trouble with?

That was a failure? I cannot fathom what it is you hoped to achieve... terrorizing some random Amalj'aa? Or were you hoping to capture more fodder for your primal-generating towers?

Oh yeah, there's definitely a scary-big primal in your basement or something.

Apparently, Zenos' new sword is a seeeecret as well. All the secrets.

#ffxiv liveblog #rhesh'a tag #alphinaud leveilleur #arenvald lentinus #fordola rem lupis #nanamo ul namo #thancred waters #krile baldesion #estinien varlineau #zenos yae galvus #zenos my friend my enemy #fandaniel #tiamat #baseless speculation #thoughts on lore

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icharchivist · 7 months

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I'm a bit out of the loop so excuse the question, but does Danchou even know that Lucio and Shalem are the Speakers?

you're all good asking question, no worries, and god knows we don't have a proper ressource to check lorewise aside from collecting the infos ourselves otherwise.

So as it is, the tldr, is that Danchou knows something is up with them, especially with Shalem, but don't know they're Speakers.

the longer version is that:

-Lucio did not tell MC about him being a Speaker.

-However, when he met MC, he was pretending to be an actor on a play about the Creation Myth, then told them it was all fake, and then after that, appeared in MC's dreams to try to expand on the creation myth in order to know what MC thinks he should do now.

-MC still believes those things were dreams, induced by the play.

-But MC also knows something is up with Lucio in the sense that he's not just a regular actor guy. Lucio has showcased his powers to MC multiple times, most alarmingly, by setting the sun so MC could watch the sunrise, so MC knows something is fucked up with Lucio, but doesn't know exactly to which extend

-MC doesn't know Lucio is Sahar and Lucio intends to keep it a secret from the crew. (Likewise Sahar only appeared in MC's dreams so far, which MC has brushed off).

-They discovered Shalem in an Ark which was exposed on a "Creation Myth Exhibition". on there, they read about the Etermanki, which all had them stunned. The exhibition had a mural representing Bahamut with two people, and from the writing underneath they read that it apparently refers to the Speakers, but the writing is too vague for them to know what it means.

-When MC comes back to the Exhibition later after feeling a pull from the Ark, they free Shalem from her prison, and she starts to babble about everything that happened, because she's extremely confused, and as a result, super confusing.

-She makes it clear that she was there since the dawn of creation. She then realizes that she has memory issues and doesn't remember everything about who she used to be. She's then so confused and overwhelmed that she faints

-Lucio then appears and mentions that the Ark she was locked in was destined to lock in a God.

-So MC knows Shalem is a Godly creature from the Creation Myth, but not that she's a Speaker, despite the circumstances.

-Lucio conceals that he's Sahar from Shalem in her FE so she doesn't spill the fact they're both Speakers to everyone. Shalem is still confused and wants to find Sahar again. In the Tower of Babyl storyline, Sahar and Shalem talk as if nothing was holding them back, and i genuinely don't know when something changed in between them.

-In Art of Mercy, Altair finds archives on which he finally reads about the Speakers, a topic he's been really curious about. He reads one of the name being Helel Ben Shalem, and if you have Shalem in your party, Altair will gasp and put together that the name, while probably a coincidence, is probably too big of one considering the circumstances of Shalem's origins.

-This is where the whole Speaker Thing was Left Off as far as i'm aware

So -MC knows Shalem is akin to a God and has existed since Creations, but not the details -MC knows Lucio is a far bigger deal than he pretends to be -Lucio had shared a huge part of the truth to MC in dreams that MC has been writing off as "just dreams" -Altair is the only character who actually put together than Shalem is probably a Speaker and it's never been discussed ever again.

so that's where we're at, Speaker wise, as far as i remember.

hope it helps!

#ichareply #ichafantalks gbf #anonymous

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cursedfortune · 1 year

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[kazeofthemagun] + swim

The evening was warm, and so the Hunter had followed the Witch to the lake where she preferred to bathe. His body was not suitable for swimming, but he entered the water nonetheless, keeping to the shallows. As long as he could keep the ground under his feet, there was nothing to worry about - he lowered himself, allowing the water to wash around his neck, crimson hair free from its metal constraints.

There was a sigh of relief and contendedness, blue eyes closing against the waning sunlight as shadows lengthened and the moon took charge of the darkened sky. The quiet hum of forest creatures remained the only sound aside from the occassional movement of water around his form. How pleasant.

The Wind's gaze turned towards the woman, never shy in the face of her toned body and its myriad patterns. An arm extended, offering her to come closer should she wish to do so.

system of touch. @kazeofthemagun

It was always easy to get lost in the weightlessness of water. The gentle waves of the lake prevented stagnation but was not harsh enough to move the witch far from where she started. Her routine had finished some time ago and the rest of it was now spent feeling the passing of time, staring upwards as the rest of the sun began to set and the night crawled in.

Caught between the fading light and the oncoming darkness - the witch watched the stars burn brighter without having to compete with the sol. Idly her fingers traced along the surface of the water, feeling the ripples as she floated.

It was normal, this comfortable silence between two beings that hailed from quiet but violent species. There was only the gentle rocking, the chill that made her nerves spark now and then. Mortem could hear her Hunter tending to himself in the shallows near the bank, not at all far off. Somewhere in the back of her mind he was always there, when he wasn't in the forefront.

It was fortunate she knew the feeling of his gaze well; her own tilting his way, watching at he beckoned her closer. Releasing herself from idling the witch turned over, the tips of her toes brushing along the ground before her feet flatly found purchase. Much like her one handed gunman there was no shyness to be found in either of their nudity. Between their cultures, lack of care or comfort with one another she had no one doubt in her state of undress.

A relaxed smile crossed her lips, a silent chuckle as her fingertips slid along his wrist affectionately. Curling over to hold as she pulled herself closer. Skin brushing skin was normal with them so it mattered not that she stood close enough for her chest to brush against him - as ordinary as her fingers lifting to trace along his own markings.

This life was not a peaceful one and she'd never want it to be. But with him, with her Hunter, she found herself never minding the time to breathe and be with another.

"Mm..." Her hand rested over the marking of Bahamut's, holding the two as one herself. "The moon compliments you, my lovely." His hair especially, which shouldn't be news to him. Mortem was never shy when it came to voicing things she liked about him. He deserved to know he was cared for, even in the small ways.

#kazeofthemagun #asks #mortem: okay but lemme comb ur hair king

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meowww-ffxiv · 1 year

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Theodore asking Meowdred why he even got that house in the Goblet to begin with if he didn't even really stay there often, to the point of cursing the doors and windows with voidsents to help guard it because he was away so often. Expected some silly answer like "Well it's free" and "Well I need a place to escape the law".

Instead Mordred was quiet for a long moment before admitting, "Once, I wanted a home. Somewhere permanent, quiet, wholly mine, that I can always return to. Somewhere so unremarkable that no one would think to destroy it and take it from me."

Mordred was someone displaced not once but multiple times in his life, often by violence or cruel circumstances he was powerless against. He got that house on a "whim" some time after returning from Ishgard no longer a hunted fugitive accused of regicide but a hero.

And it all too suddenly made sense to Theodore, who had recently found himself accepted into Ishgard, his home, once again. After having left it behind in a flurry of grief and fear, when his half-mad father who'd already murdered his own wife out of jealousy turned on his children next. But that displacement had happened when Theodore was older. Twenty-four, well trained and well spoken, having already daydreamed of the departure.

Mordred had first been displaced when he was a few months old, ripped from Doma by a woman who wanted a child and didn't care whose she was stealing. Upon her death, he was tossed to the orphanage in Ul'dah, managed to find a father figure, was ripped from him and tossed to Limsa Lominsa, and when he'd gotten his feet under him, everything disappeared in the blaze of Bahamut's wrath.

He'd clawed his way back home. To Ul'dah again, reunited with his adoptive father and childhood friend, had made a name for himself as an adventurer. Had earned status, earned many's good regard. Only for the bloody banquet to once again set him on the run.

So the house in the Goblet, with its darkened windows, its self-sufficient little garden, its airtight wards and monsters from the Void patrolling the halls when its master wasn't home -- it was insurance.

Mordred never let anyone in. Not even Theodore, though he had the key. Not even G'raha, though he knew where it was. Dusty and forgotten, books and dim lights and workstations.

So it was why Theodore said, "Come to the Firmament. You helped build this place back up from the ground, you know. I can stay there with you. I think that a home which is open and made for guests, always ready to host visitors and receive gifts, would make you far happier."

Mordred hated cold, and disliked Ishgard for some reason. At least he didn't like to live there. But he took the other thing Theodore said to heart.

#it's just a house i forgot about but you know what. it is an excellent character building opportunity #meowdred surana #theodore pentaghast #also theodore wasn't wrong. meowdred hid in his house and shrouded it from view when he started catching the Misandry

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wispofwillow · 2 years

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The Final Coil of Bahamut

Setting/Timing: Final Coil of Bahamut, following the events of A Realm Reborn for Wisp (and was the first experience of Coils for Wisp and Onawa)

Note: This snippet features members of the Riskbreakers Free Company: Onawa Rider, Chained Dawn, and Akhutai Urit (featured with their permission, which does NOT mean that I did not mess up their characterization), as those were the characters who did indeed run Coils of Bahamut with me the first time. (Likely also got some other details wrong and have some things messy, so will need to go back and fix later)

Music: From the Ashes - Masayoshi Soken Loyal - ODESZA Bahamut Prime’s Theme/Answers - Nobuo Uematsu

____

Wisp stood staring up at the great bulk of Bahamut’s head, at its masses of sinew and straggling, tattered ends of flesh, and felt another shudder of nausea roll through them. The platform still simmered with the afterglow of the blows Bahamut had thrown against them, deflected by the combined determination of the twins. Wisp could feel Alisae and Alphinaud beside them, braced against whatever might come next.

But what would come next was not down to the twins, they knew. Wisp dragged their eyes from the monstrous sight of Bahamut, half-rotted, half-new, kept alive by the machinery of the Allagans and the endless pain of countless lives, refocusing on their companions. They had turned, as well, to look to one another, Akhutai standing tall and still, unbowed by all that had just occurred, blue-grey eyes calm, scaled tail as steady and still as the rest of him. Onawa too, stood firm, long Viera ears and stance both straight and tall, lance held steady in her grip, though her face looked paler in this light, lines of strain that had not been there standing out starkly around the scars that crossed their eyelid and skipped over one eye and down one cheek. But then, Wisp knew Onawa better than they did Akhutai, who, together with Chained Dawn, had stepped forward out of the Free Company when they had heard of the request Alisae had made. Whatever Akhutai felt and thought, they might not see it.

Akhutai turned to Onawa, who nodded, mouth set in a grim line, and then to Wisp. They nodded, too, twisting their grip on their staff, and waited until he had turned away to shut their eyes just for a moment, swallowing hard against that roiling nausea as their ears lay flat back against their head for a moment, tail twitching. Ready. Or as ready as they could be…

The air swirled around them, thick with aether laced with the fear, the pain, the hate of this place that hooked into their skin, into their guts, and pulled, dredging images of the past layers of this wreckage to the surface and keeping them firmly, permanently, repeating in the back of their mind. A fresh wave of fierce, angry grief rocked them at the thought of what had been wrought here - of the horror of the ranks upon ranks of imprisoned dragons, trapped - deliberately, purposefully - in an endless pain, a despair without limits. How could anyone do this? She had thought, and did again now. It was no wonder Bahamut’s rage rode the very air of this place. It was no wonder he had seized what opportunity he could and twisted it to himself.

No wonder, no - but no easier, for all that, to see that twisted opportunity made reality in the form of Louisoix Leveilleur’s shade. No easier to learn, at last, to watch the full knowledge of what he had become - of what Wisp had begun to suspect had become of him - reflected in the faces of the grandchildren who so clearly had loved him. Or to throw themselves against that shade as it rose from ashes into a screaming bird of flame, shrieking its rebirthed torment on them in a hail of fire. Wisp had thought themselves - had thought them all - spent, then, as the final flames had sunk again into shadow, afterimages burned against their eyelids where they knelt at the edge of the platform that had contained them all, fur singed, raw. But, their work had not been done. Chained Dawn had knelt briefly by her, then, the strength of her a steadying force, offering a salve for the burns, as Akhutai did the same for Onawa. Esuna could serve them well, but by this time the spell flared in fits in spurts in Wisp’s hands, offering relief but leaving traces of their injuries behind. “You alright to go on?” Chained Dawn had asked, voice pitched quiet. As though there were a choice in it. And there was, Wisp realized looking up to meet their companion’s steady gaze, taking in Onawa standing and stretching out sore muscles behind, Akhutai stepping back, crossing his arms as he nodded at something Onawa had said. They would, and could, carry on themselves, whether Wisp could stand with them or no, and see Bahamut’s continued reincarnation to an end. Wisp had dropped their gaze from Chained Dawn’s calm concern for a moment, feeling the weariness and the ache of their own stumbling pace this far spreading through them. But when they had looked up, Onawa had met their eyes over Chained Dawn’s shoulder, her head tilted, and Wisp had seen resolve in her. And, thinking of Onawa, and then of the twins, waiting to hear of what, now, had become of their grandfather - or what remained of him, Wisp had nodded, and accepted the brief smile and the hand up that Chained Dawn had offered them.

Thinking of the twins again, now, Wisp looked to each, and found Alisae and Alphinaud looking back, that same determination that had carried them this far showing again in the intent way they watched Wisp. Feeling again the awe at their fortitude, the quick bite of sadness at the need for it, Wisp reached out to briefly grip Alisae’s arm, nodded once to Alphinaud, and stepped forward to join Akhutai and Onawa at the mechanism that would carry them this last step.

As Akhutai reached for the screens before them, Wisp lifted their face again to the wreck that was Bahamut. No tears rose in them now, but those they had cried earlier, in the hall of dragons, and again in the wake of Louisoix’s fresh loss, had left trails of salt-stiffened skin and fur down their face, left unattended as Chained Dawn had offered a hand to help them up, or Onawa had bumped a shoulder against their arm, silent encouragement to carry forward. All the while, as they had summoned stiff smiles or determined nods for the Leveilleur twins, Onawa and Wisp had traded grim glances, Wisp glimpsing moments of the same horror at the back of her eyes, the same anger in the fierceness with which she carried her lance, the forceful precision with which she struck true at each new opponent. And Akhutai and Chained Dawn had strode ahead, looking back with a kind of remote, distant understanding that made Wisp think they had guessed, or somehow knew, what might await them here. And at each new obstacle they had struck with a swift ease that belied the power of their blows, felling twisted creatures and relics of Allagan technology alike with an effortlessness that left Wisp, stumbling behind, uncast spells at the ready, in a breathless awe. And when Chained Dawn had waved her farewell, called away in an urgent linkpearl message to another mission, Akhutai had continued on, ready to lead them, Onawa and Wisp, and the determined twins in their midst.

They felt Onawa now at their shoulder, and the tightness in their chest eased just a moment, just a bit, at the reminder they were not here alone.

The light took them, then, and they felt their perspective shift, a familiar vertigo of transport magics swooping through them, the flash of it blinding them.

When their vision cleared, the three of them stood alone in the midst of a vast ring whose edges bled into the swirling mass of red that had become the sky. And Bahamut - or whatever remnant this heart of Bahamut was - hovered above them, wings beating at the air with a force they could feel vibrate through their teeth, red, furious eyes fixed on them all.

Wisp gripped their cane tighter, shifting their stance to face the vast shadow of dragon whose wings seemed to span the width of the platform below them, and willed their speeding heart lower, their breathing slower as they lifted their face to meet that gaze full on through the flimsy protection of their carved mask. On either side of them, Onawa and Akhutai stepped forward, as well, sinking into their own battle stances, lance at the ready on one side, axe on the other.

Bahamut beat his wings once, twice, hitting against the air hard enough to send gusts of air skirling through their hair, their clothing, then tipped his head back and roared. The sound echoed, reverberating back through the air around them, and Wisp felt the power, the anguish twisting to anger, to hate pulse through air and aether both.

Akhutai stepped forward, then, undaunted, as the last of the sound still shivered in Wisp’s bones, and Wisp could’ve sworn they heard him say, “This should be fun,” as he hefted his axe and, without hesitation, aimed an initial blow at one of Bahamut’s dangling legs. The blow connected, scraping the scales of Bahamut’s natural armor with a metallic hissss. Bahamut roared again, attention honing in on Akhutai, and the great creature spun, aiming the edge of a wing toward Akhutai’s head. Akhutai sidestepped neatly, turning the motion into a shift of position, drawing Bahamut back with him as he swung Bahamut away from Onawa and Wisp, back toward one edge of the platform. Onawa and Wisp used the opportunity he had created to duck under Bahamut’s wing, its heavy beats against the air audible now as he dropped to face Akhutai, and shift around behind him, Wisp laying down a quick layered dome of shielding as they ran, while Onawa twisted to deliver a first precise blow of her spear aimed at one of those great wings. Wisp saw Bahamut swiped a heavy set of claws towards Akhutai, who deflected the jarring blow with the shaft of his axe, one corner of his mouth lifting - whether in a smirk or a growl Wisp could not tell before it was gone again, Akhutai stepping back and then launching forward again, axe swung high above his head in a blur of an arc that Wisp could feel land. Bahamut hissed, flinching back, and Onawa used the opportunity to draw her lance down his back in a long, slashing arc that bit past his scale into skin.

Wisp took in a breath, focusing their attention away from their companions, who needed none of their healing in this moment, and back to Bahamut himself. They let the familiar flow of aether rise through them, heard an answering call in stone, and sent a first wave of rock bursting toward Bahamut’s heart. It broke against his armored hide, shards skittering away down his side and wings, and Wisp sent another, and another, aiming first at his side again, then at the wing closest them. At the edge of their vision Onawa called on the strength of the dragoon, scaled coils rising in a vision of red around her, and thrust her lance again, weaving in and out of the reach of Bahamut’s beating wings. Akhutai struck at the same time as Onawa, strength roiling in almost visible waves from him as his axe landed another true hit, biting deep into the arm of the clawed hand Bahamut had swiped toward him again.

The dragon - or his shade, whatever this warping, shadowed creature was - beat his wings once, hard, shoving himself back away from Akhutai’s next blow, and roared again. It hit fast, hard - a physical wave of force that staggered Wisp - and the other’s too, Wisp saw as they used their cane to steady themselves and ran forward once more. Seeing Onawa since, feeling the sting of the blow in their own flesh, Wisp took another breath and let the calming flow of healing magic, always scented somehow so faintly of pine, roll up through their veins and out through their palms, a regenerative spell sent out in an answering wave to Bahamut’s blast of force.

They felt something shift. When Wisp lifted their face, tail twitching, Bahamut had twisted his head around to fix his gaze on them. The moment where their eyes met his - the wild anger there dizzying - was instant, but felt stretched into eternity across a heartbeat, two. Then Bahamut lifted his face toward the ceiling - sky? - and released a screeching call. Wisp saw the flare of fire forming, a spark to a flame bursting outward, set directly above them, dropped their head, and ran, hard. The air behind them flared with sudden heat. Faster. They pumped their arms faster, each footfall launching them a springing step forward, breath coming wildly

Whoosh. Flames dropped down and then out, clawing after them. And they hadn’t been fast enough. Fire ate up the back of their feathered robe skirt, their tail, their legs, washing out along their arms as they threw themselves a final step. Then, it stopped. Wisp stumbled, the pain of attack rising, and breathed a quick prayer to themselves, calling another spell up to their fingertips. They lifted their head as the magic washed up to check for Onawa and Akhutai, released another breath to see them unharmed, Akhutai in the midst of another blow of his axe to draw Bahamut’s attention fully back to him.

Then the heat flared above them again.

Wisp dove, but far too late.

The full force of the flame dropped on them, heat and pressure driving them into the ground, drawing knives of pain up their legs,their back, their shoulders. A weak involuntary cry escaped them as they dropped, cane falling from their fingers, loosed in a spasm of pain, and shade took their vision as their head hit the ground. In the last moment a flare of light burst behind their vision, and they felt the crystal always with them resonate - a last, protective hand of Hydaelyn cupping around them, softening their fall from the world.

—

Hsss

The hiss became a shrieking cry, piercing enough to cut into the haze of pain that engulfed them. Wisp forced their eyes open a crack.

Onawa. Akhutai…

They could see nothing at first, just the indistinct blue glow of the platform, then the blur of crackling red flame circling its edge. A gust of wind blew over them, stinging in the burns along their arms and back. Wisp stirred, managing to lift their head enough to see up. And up, and up, as Bahamut spiraled up and away from them, trickles of blood scattering from his wings as he lifted. Onawa and Akhutai stood, still tall, firm - unharmed - watching him rise. In a last gust of air, Bahamut disappeared.

Done…?

Another roar echoed through the chamber, shaking the very structure of the space. Not done.

Bahamut screamed - closer this time, and at the very edge of their vision Wisp saw him drop to hover at the edge of the ring, just in time to see him fix his eyes on Onawa.

Onawa no! Wisp tried to shout it, but their voice wouldn’t obey, their fingers that scrabbled uselessly beside them would not find their cane, rolled now just beyond their reach.

Bahamut dove.

No.

His claws raked for Onawa’s shoulders, the force of the pressure he sent before him knocking her from her feet as she tried to twist to aim her lance up into his passing wing. Wisp saw her drop to her knees, then, with a sigh of breath, she dropped to the ground, lance clattering down beside hher.

No, Onawa, no, no.

Wisp tried to summon their strength, to grasp at the healing magic, but they couldn’t reach the aether around them without the channel of their cane. Not Onawa, please. The cane lay just beyond their reach, and Wisp tried to inch along the floor, to stretch just that much further, but their body wouldn’t obey them - they pushed up to one elbow but their arm gave out beneath them. Tears gathered at the edges of their eyes and fell unchecked as the pain swam up through them again.

They couldn’t reach the aether of the world around them without their cane, but they still had their own aether. Wisp fixed their eyes on Onawa, where their friend lay, too far from them, face turned away, blood trickling from the slice to her shoulder, and turned their attention inward, E-Sumi-Yan’s calm-voiced warnings sounding ignored at the back of their mind ignored, and reached for the core of aether at their own heart. Slowly they felt the weave of it come loose - now just to grasp

Pain roared through them, fire in their limbs, their heart, their nerves, and everything cut out, Onawa lost to their vision.

—

A piercing shriek cut the air. Wisp’s eyes jerked open, mind swimming hazily back to consciousness through the heavy waves of pain still radiating up their tail, their legs, their back. Onawa? Akhutai? But Onawa lay where Wisp had seen her, tall form just visible across the platform, back to them. But what…

The shriek came again, closer this time, and one ear swivelled almost automatically to catch the sound. Was it just their imagination, their desire for relief, or did one of Onawa’s long ears twitch, too? A shadow streaked by just above them - the heavy, scaled tail of some draconic creature swinging overhead. Sluggish mind frantic now, Wisp dragged one knee up toward their chest - so, so, slowly - and, gritting their teeth against the scathing burns, fang piercing their bottom lip unheeded, they pushed until they could get an elbow beneath them, just enough so that they could lift their head and turn it. In another second, their arm shuddered and gave way beneath them, dropping them to the ground again. But it was enough.

Enough for them to see, as if through a veil, the great muscular form of a draconian creature slump forward and fall, Akhutai’s axe buried between the horns on its head. As it fell a cry more feel than sound echoed - a last lament of pent up rage and pain trapped and amplified by the Allagans for years on years on years - and Wisp felt tears spring to their eyes. This place…

Akhutai just had time to free his axe and stand back, his own scaled tail moving with some emotion or agitation, before another creature came barreling over the edge of the platform, teeth bared as it made for Akhutai. With no change in his settled expression, Akhutai turned to face the new onslaught, back to Wisp, twisted to avoid one set of raking claws, and, as the creature reared back, severed the creature’s neck. Another wave of burning rage and sorrow washed through the air. Wisp just saw Akhutai step back, shoulders down, head bowed before their own eyes slid shut against the echo of pain that the wave called up from their own body.

Enough.

The single word came from everywhere and nowhere, Bahamut’s voice ringing through Wisp’s head loud enough to rattle their teeth.

We have played this game long enough.

Heat rocked the air, sucking the moisture from it in an instant. Wisp gasped, and opened their eyes to a nightmare. Flames wrapped the platform, spiraling up and up into nothingness. And above them, Bahamut hovered, wings stretched outward, lightning flaring, cracking and snapping as it struck him and struck out from him. Across the platform Onawa stirred again, pushing herself to her elbows to look up, as well.

Bahamut opened his arms, head tipped back as the lightning gathered, but his eyes remained fixed on one spot. On Akhutai, a dark silhouetted against the backdrop of fire, standing tall but, against the spinning tower of flame, still a single, lone figure.

No. The single word was all that could register in Wisp’s mind. They twisted hand seeking their cane. They had to get up. They had to…

There, a slight shadow on the ground through the blinding afterglow of the fire. Wisp reached, and the world flared bright. Light erupted from Bahamut’s chest, knocking Wisp flat, staff clattering away across the floor. Onawa fell, too, pressed to the ground by the pressure slammed out from the dragon’s gathering spell.

No.

Wisp forced their head up, vision blurry through the mess of pain- and panic-wrought tears.

Against the fire, Bahamut opened his wings wide, wider, the flare of light from his chest burning.

Against the fire, Akhutai still stood, unbowed, head lifted toward Bahamut, horns silhouetted against the light.

Bahamut roared.

Akhutai lifted his axe, up, out and down in a shielding spell.

And, in the last instant, head canted to one side, one corner of his mouth curled up.

The world exploded.

No.

Columns of fire shot down from the sky, straight for where Akhutai stood, a tidal wave of fire roiling out from Bahamut’s suspended form, deafening thunder cracking as lightning split the air. All was heat, sound, pressure, light, pain, forcing Wisp against the ground skidding their back across the floor with the force of it, a soundless cry ripped from them until they lost all sense of body, of thought, of reason, of anything but the light and the heat.

Then, suddenly, absence. Nothing.

A chill in the sudden retreat of flame. Air, rushing. And pain.

Akhutai…Onawa… With the first return of thought, Wisp forced one swollen eyelid open, then the other.

The world was dark. Fire extinguished.

In the faint glow that remained, Akhutai still stood.

He turned to face the center of the platform, axe still held in unburned hands, expression calm. Unbowed, again.

Unharmed.

A sob of relief caught in Wisp’s raw throat. Unharmed.

Akhutai looked briefly to Wisp at the noise that escaped them, then Onawa. Onawa! She, too, lay further back on the platform than she had before the blast, but as Wisp looked one hand shifted.

But where…

Akhutai’s attention snapped back to the center of the platform, just as Bahamut dropped from the shadows, the blow from his wing deflected by a quick block from Akhutai’s axe. For a moment, they stilled, the summoned dragon’s pain-mad eyes meeting the Au Ra’s steady ones. Then Bahamut struck again, again deflected.

He roared, throwing his body back, and a searing light streamed from the sky. In it coiled all the tortured energy that ever had gathered here - pain and fear and grief and rage and hate wrapped together, given form. It struck Akhutai where he stood. And again. And again.

Please, please, no. Wisp pushed themselves to their hands. Their knees. This was not a blow meant to be taken alone. Below Bahamut, across the ring, they saw Onawa rise, too, crouching balanced on one knee. She looked up, scars stark against her skin, a fierce determination showing through the distance-wrought shadows, and her gaze met Wisp’s.

Wisp pushed themselves to one foot, but the muscles gave beneath them, spent. Bahamut beat his wings once, twice, scattering flames and a force that blasted back over Wisp and Onawa with each, and Wisp saw Onawa collapse again even as she felt her own knees give way, nausea rising. And again that impossible blue light gathered.

Hydaelyn, please, no…

Prayer and spell together on their lips, Wisp fixed their gaze on that light, reached for the aether at their core once more, and stretched out their hand. A light of another kind trickled into their palm. Across the ring, Onawa, still on her knees, lifted her head, her hand extended, too.

Bahamut’s light slammed down.

Wisp took in a last breath, gathering a final strength.

And Akhutai burst through the ray of Bahamut’s force, shedding it from scales and skin like water. The light flared from the copper bracer on his wrist, from the blade of his axe as he swung it down over his head, burying it one, final time, in the center of this shade Bahamut’s chest.

The light everywhere dimmed, died.

Bahamut fell back, a shattering cry screaming up his throat. Akhutai stepped back, freeing his axe neatly from the gaping, empty void in Bahamut’s chest, standing ready.

But readiness was no longer needed.

Slowly, from the echoing empty wound to the tips of his wings, Bahamut began to disintegrate. To dissipate.

And as Akhutai stood witness to this last stand of the end of this once-great dragon driven to madness in its eternal torture, the last shades of the pain wrought over and over in this place crept out through the aether, and Wisp felt their mind slip toward darkness again.

—

“What happened here?! Akhutai! Onawa…Wisp?” Alphinaud’s voice drifted over them from somewhere.

“They will be fine. Hydaelyn’s blessing will take hold soon.”

“But they…”

“We will bring them out. It will help.”

“And Bahamut…?”

“Gone.”

“Good. It’s over.” That was Alisae’s voice. Shaky, but close.

“Yes.” And Akhutai’s voice was close, too. They could feel others close by them, living aether, living bodies. “Gather their weapons, will you?” Then something touched them, a hand on their shoulder, an arm shifting their body, and new lines of pain screamed along their veins, taking them under again.

—

“Wisp. You awake yet?” This voice, too, was familiar, rough in sound but gentle in tone. Onawa’s. Onawa coughed, once, and true recognition hit.

Wisp opened their eyes, and above them was sunlight. True sunlight, filtered through the welcoming canopy of leaves. The sight of it brought tears springing to their eyes, and they spread their hands, sensation returning slowly as they sank their hands, their claws into the silky grass and soft moss beneath them. Sensation - but not pain.

They sat up, blinking, and looked sharply to where Onawa’s voice had come from. She sat paces away, knees pulled up to chest, ears tilted back, but not on alert.

Safe, they were safe.

Wisp inspected Onawa, who looked back at her, one brow lifted as she eased out her legs to dig in one pocket, withdrawing her pipe a moment later. No burns laced her arms, no bandages crossed her shoulder. Wisp looked down at their own hands. Burn free, as well, and their tail twitched behind them, mobile as ever.

They looked back to Onawa, and something in their eyes must have spoken some message, for Onawa laid her pipe aside a moment, and reached over to clasp Wisp’s wrist as Wisp reached for her. They stayed like that a moment, wrists clasped briefly in each other’s hands, almost a physical touch of the Echo, and Wisp saw the same echoed memory of horror, of loss, of discovery and witness, in Onawa’s eyes as they felt in themselves. An ache of bone-deep pain even when the true pain was gone.

“Aye, but it’s done.” Onawa released them, and leaned back against the bole of a tree, lifting one hand in a small greeting as the other picked up her pipe again. Wisp looked to where Onawa had waved. There was no sign of Akhutai - gone as quietly as he had come, though the image of him standing against the landscape of Bahamut’s flame, ever unbowed, remained etched in their mind. But, across the clearing, Alphinaud and Alisae were just appearing up the path, white hair bright in the patch of sun they walked through, talking animatedly amongst themselves.

It’s done. It was done. And yet a legacy, too, lived on.

#FFXIVWisp #wispofwillowriting #FC Folks' WoLs #Akhutai Urit #Chained Dawn #Onawa Rider #Once again a piece that feels long but ah well it is a Something #What is emotional pacing by the end? I don't know her

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sorcerous-caress · 3 months

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Yes you get it, I work really hard to give Jubilee the right vibes.

Jubilee would be super open about her name change if Sol asked, most people in her life took it fairly well especially after she explains its a part of teifling culture however the assimar she was in that weird situationship plus people she knew from the church of Bahamut with refused to participate in a “devils traditions” which is actually what made Jubilee put her foot down and made her disenchanted with the church which has always had a keen interest in her for her gold Dragon magic. She would tell Sol something along the lines of “I don't deserve much but I deserve better than that.” Dame Alyin, Isobel and shadowheart have successfully converted her to a sulunite by the end of the game and her relationship with the gods in her life is this energy.

As for whether or not Jubilee lives up to her virtue, no argument has a leg to stand on she consistently runs herself ragged trying to help her companions and the NPCs and successfully keeps up her front until the act 3 breakdown lol. She constantly goes out of her way to cheer folks up and talk her way around combat whenever possible to keep folks keep living healthy and happy lives and while it is exhausting and her work life balance needs adjusting helping people genuinely makes her happy. The gal just needs some moderation.

Jubilee would also totally invite Sol & the companions to a festival but like not one she's going to one that she is working at and not mention the fact she is working it to them because she thinks working a pastry stand is great, she won't get mad at them for going of and will encourage them to go have fun but she's good, leave her to her pastries please.

We don't talk enough about her aasimar ex tbh. That is some delicious toxic positively. Because who would take the tiefling side over the literal angel incarnation? Who would think the fiend was the victim against the symbol of goodness?

It must have been harsh on Jubilee, a lot.

Both for her heritage and her sorcery. And yet that church still wanted to use her, despite labeling her a sinner and a devil, they still wanted to use her powers while condeming her for being born with them.

And Jubilee is so sweet, so kind. All she wanted to do was help people, figure out her powers.

When writing Sol, I made it a very clear point to distinguish between dragon fire and hellflames. I avoided any spells that had any fiend reactions, I avoided any warlock robes or accessories. I wanted their fire to be primal, born from the ancients and magic older than the sun, rather from the pits of hell and sin.

And I think because of that and the fact Sol is human and rich, they've always been at a position of privilege. No one looked at their fire and deemed them a devil. Society celebrated Sol's shiny scales while it shamed Jubilee's tail.

That would make a great contrast. The hypocrisy of people. How Tiefling's horns and tails are seen as hellish and weird but dragon face scales are seen as unique and regal.

How human sorcerers are welcomed by the churches and treated as the pinnacle of human talent while tiefling sorcoers are deemed sinful and evil. How if Sol set something on fire they'll get a slap on the wrist and their family will thrown gold at the problem while if Jubilee did it to no fault of her own, she might face serious consequences.

Especially with how genuinely good and kind Jubilee is. Yet just because someone is good, it doesn't mean life will grant them good things. While someone who is rude and with no consideration to others like Sol, gets forgiven and celebrated a lot.

But also, Jubilee is free in a way. She likes her sorcery she wants to figure it out. By being an outcast she found true freedom while Sol is chained under the pressure of society expectations.

If Jubilee fails at a spell, it would be nothing and she can try again. If Sol fails at a spell it might as well be the end of the world to them, how dare they fail after all the gold, effort and training that was forced upon them? How dare they not be perfect and powerful after all the sacrifices everyone made for their sake.

Jubilee also is constantly working and draining herself, her sorcery practice is at the far back of her mind between all the tasks she has to get done and the people she has to help. Sol just...sit on their ass and set something on fire occasionally, maybe go ruin someone's day if they're feeling bored and put even more work on Jubilee's plates without meaning to.

If Sol saw Jubilee working at a pastery stand, they'd ask her why doesn't she just quit and Gale or someone else can give her enough gold to live. They wouldn't understand the importance of work, let alone someone actually being passionate about their job rather than doing it for money.

But the maids also never allowed them into the kitchen to look at the chefs cooking, so Sol would stand by without any self-awareness and observe Jubilee bake. Giving bad advice occasionally or telling a rude customer to fuck off because they were impatient or had a compliant.

Again I hope I'm not over extending- this is just my view of Jubilee's personality and it could be wrong. She is your OC and the details are always up to you.

#♡Jubilee #♡OthersOCs #♡Sol #♡myocs

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heretic-altias · 1 year

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There’s that job tier list going around but honestly my characters have such narrow skill sets I can just talk about my OCs for once and tell you what they’re good at.

Altias started out as an archer, but picked up mch in HW and with it engineering as a whole. She’s a SUPER talented magitek engineer and weapon creator. She could easily rival Cid if they didn’t have such different focuses. That just comes with being a super good gnb and mch as well as things like blacksmith, armorer, and carpenter. Whatever you need to make weaponry, she’s talented at. Her gnb is more Garlean based than bozjan, but she definitely has pulled inspiration from both and then also summoning magic. She studied summoner extensively, and while she’s never actually been a summoner, she incorporated their way of summoning egi into her weapons to empower them. This led to her being corrupted by an actual primal, a strange fusion of Bahamut and her own insecurities that just lives in her head rent free now, but it kind of worked out bc she can draw on his power now, it only took an entire expansion of her being high risk bc the primal was trying to take over her. Her studies focus now on fusing magic and magitek in a way the Garleans never could being incapable of using the former.

Akku’s talents have always been more diplomatic than anything else. Even his echo lets him see people’s emotions (he later learned that the more accurate description was he could see their dynamis) like an aura around them. He was initially a ninja by chance, the rogues helped him out and gave him some training when he ran away from home and ended up in Limsa. Zelda (a friend’s OC) later took him on as a student to specialize that into ninja. He was decent enough in practice, but in battle he’d freeze up. He spent a long time seeing himself as kind of a useless warrior of light since he couldn’t fight like the others. So after ShB he resolved to do things his way instead of trying to be like the others, and learned conjury leading into white magic. This is his real skill set, he’s a healer not a fighter. His offense magic is generally water aspected (Enbarr is very helpful) and non lethal, just keeping enemies away from him so he can focus on healing his allies. In ingame job terms, his only REALLY GOOD skill is whm, but ninja is something he’s trained in.

Kito has a lot going on, but his skill set centers around his unusually dark aspected aether which is really strange, particularly for the warrior of light. DRK has always been his number one talent, to the point he was genuinely afraid of his own power for awhile. But he hung up that sword after EW, and picked up rpr when traveling to the void which also matches well with his dark aether. But he uniquely also combines the class with drg, he was accidentally soul bonded to Twintania freeing her from the binding coils (think an inheritance cycle dragon and rider type relationship between them). So instead of a rpr avatar, he draws on her power and his own dark aether creating an odd mix of rpr and drg that’s ultimately mostly rpr in training and appearance. He’s also a really good botanist, he studied plants in bozja before it exploded, but those are really his only canon job skills.

#I should start tagging my characters so I will but this is the first time so you won’t find anything else on the tags #there’s little overviews on my character pages they might just be a touch outdated #but I’ll also just answer questions if you want details on something #ffxiv #final fantasy xiv #altais narluu #Akku ephos #a’kito noro

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nerath-mp · 1 year

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Rheksus, part 2 (The Temple Complexes)

Picking up from part one, here is the map again

The Temple Complexes

The Temple of Luxor complex is the Royal Temple of Ioun, the complex houses the palace of the nomarch (regional governor), a temple devoted to the Pharaoh as the exarch of Ioun (which doubles as a secondary residence for a visiting Pharaoh), and the royal menagerie.

Mine is set up on a rise, so the walk to the dock is a bit longer

The Temple of Mut complex is the military complex for the city, the Red Temple, housing most of the armies under the nomarch’s command are housed and trained, along with temples and shrines devoted not only to gods of war, but also many great victories and historical strategists and commanders. It also has a small annex to the Red House (the war college of Khonsuria, literally “House of Those Who Massacre and Heal”), where advanced martial arts, and the secrets of harming and healing are kept.

The Temple of Amun-Re complex is the primary religious center of the city for most of its inhabitants. The complex itself is dominated by The Great Temple of Ioun, an immense edifice as much as place of bureaucracy as it is of worship. The Great Temple is built of magical and exotic, often extraplanar, materials – like astral diamond, soulsteel, floatstone, liquid light, and orium – and was build by elemental and astral labourers. It is the second largest temple to Ioun in the kingdom (the Pharaoh’s Temple in Sakhaen Tair is larger but in some ways more mortal in perspective). From their offices, the priests of the city administer the affairs of state. Often this requires travelling between the Great Temple and the nomarch’s palace. Within the complex are smaller shrines and buildings dedicated to the training of priests, and testing those who are gifted with more divine blessings (clerics and paladins) or merely those than accompany a religious education.

The Temple of Montu is the final complex and like the Thebean area, it is the judicial center of the city and the Lower Kingdom, where the magistrate-priests hear cases in one of two temples, each dedicated to one of the Thrones and the manifestation of justice, Tarastia (the complex is named the Temples of the Thrones). The Merciful Temple of Tarastia-Bahamut houses the court for the nobility and the sphinx. The Temple of Tarastia-Tiamat the Punisher is the court that handles all other crimes. Punishments in the city are often in the form of fines (often in the form of proper sacrifices to the Great Temple), lashings, or periods of indentured slavery to perform labour for the injured party or to the Pharaoh (the state). When the city was in the hands of slavers, the temple was instead the last place most saw as free people before being condemned for slavery and transported to Djeser-al-Moqqara as chattel for their markets.

The Temple of the Thrones is essentially two of these, surrounded with the offices for magistrates, scribes and other essential staff.

While it seems that justice here is unfair, even in her “Merciful” epithet, Tarastia is a very harsh demigoddess and punishments can result in total forfeit of your estate, being stripped of title and even being imposed to slavery to repay the people of the kingdom. Bahamut may not be as cruel as his sister-wife, he can be as impossible to please. Dragons are not known for their sympathy of others. One punishment that only the noble court can mete out – forcible mummification and entombing in the necropolis.

#Nerath #Khonsuria #Rheksus #lore #dnd campaign #location

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elfyourmother · 2 years

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FFXIV Black OC Week: Day 2

“Who are their friends and family?”

For one such as I, with no blood relations to speak of upon this world to which I was spirited, the line between friends and family is oft blurred--and I would not have it any other way.

Count Edmont and his sons, of course, became kin to me by right of marriage to Haurchefant; but Artoirel and Emmanellain were brothers to me long before I exchanged vows with my beloved knights in that grand cathedral--in affectionate and infuriating ways by turns, betimes. I never knew my birth father, vagabond Dalish sorcerer that he was, but his lordship Count Edmont has been all that and more. I am not ashamed to admit I have cried more than once upon that elegantly furred shoulder, and ever has he treated me as the daughter he swears he as yet prayed for to the Fury. We all needed one another, I think; healing wounds in one another none of us quite realized we possessed. House Fortemps embraced me when I had naught but the stained, torn finery upon my back fleeing the only place I knew as home in this land; proudly do I wear her scarlet unicorn, and have ever striven to honor the name I was gifted with the utmost pride.

Yet of all the esteemed personages I am honored to know, of all the wealthy and powerful I have befriended across not merely Ishgard but no less than three worlds, the Sultana of Ul’dah is mayhap the most unlikely--or, might I call her Lady Lilira? Still, glad am I to know her as aught but my one-time sovereign, but as a boon companion and sister, to share my joys, to lend a shoulder (however tall it might be for one so diminutive) that the weight of her crown be not so heavy. But she is made of steel behind the fine Ul’dahn silks, that one, and I am minded of it whenever we speak.

Last, but assuredly not least, I must speak of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, that storied order which gave me purpose and set me upon the path of destiny. I love them all beyond description, many of whom in decidedly unfamilial ways. But I count the Leveilleur twins--my steadfast companions, ever since that fateful day they silently accompanied me in the back of Master Brendt’s carriage, all unawares of how our Fates would one day so entwine--as the younger siblings I truly never had and had longed for...also unawares. After all, twas their grandfather’s doing (however unintended) that brought me to Eorzea in the main, his great rite of magic to summon the Twelve. And when I repaid my debt to him at long last, freeing him from the clutches of Bahamut’s vengeful spirit, I made him a promise: to guide his beloved grandchildren as though they were mine own flesh and blood, to continue their education in the arcane arts, to stand as protector and confidant to them. Thus have I striven ever since. Mayhap I see much of my self in each of them by turns, in Alphinaud’s guile and Alisaie’s brashness--and the propensity of both to wear their hearts upon their sleeves.

Above all else, if I knew not then, I know now with all certainty that love is what makes a family, not a mere accident of birth. They--and so many others--have taught me this in abundance.

#ffxiv black oc week #gisele surana #edmont de fortemps #artoirel de fortemps #emmanellain de fortemps #nanamo ul namo #alphinaud leveilleur #alisaie leveilleur #(she's very longwinded lmao)#bisho's adventures in gpose #long post

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moquall · 2 years

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Dissidia Opera Omnia : Force Weapon partner connection (PART 1/?)

Japanese version has entered the new era with LV 300 of SHINRYU difficulty and the release of ☆7 weapon called Force Weapon (FR)

Force system has a similiar concept with Band attack from Final Fantasy IV : The After Years which is a combination attack between two characters. (Band attack has more than two characters though)

The unique part is each FR pair has a connection or similiar backgrond between characters but restricted to character from different game so you won't see a pair from same game like Tidus and Jecht or Cloud and Zack as FR attack.

Looking at the combination so far, i've concluded how dev choose their partner.

Story wise, both have similiar background on their own game.

Their interaction in Opera Omnia, Original Dissidia, Duodecim or NT.

Gameplay wise, they have a same or similiar job and ability.

I'm sure not everyone understand why A is B's FR partner because not everyone play every single Final Fantasy games. Even they played, not everyone remember everything in the game.

-------------------------------------

PART 1 compiled the FRs up until Tidus FR released in November 2021. The one with bold purple is FR user and the black one is the partner.

Just click on "fr partner" tags if you want to see the full list.

-------------------------------------

Kain - Aranea (Cross Jump) : Highwind dragoon. They were in enemy side but became your ally.

Kain permanently became your ally after he is totally free from mind control despite his numerous betrayal 😂.

Aranea while she worked for Niflheim Empire, likes to hangout with the bros and after quitting the army, she became good friend with them and worked together to slay the daemons.

Krile - Relm (Retribution on Three) : Granddaughter duo who loves their grandpa and possess unique ability.

Krile is Galuf's granddaughter and can talk with animals. Relm is Strago's adoptive granddaughter and being the descendant of Magi, channels her magic by Sketching.

(Yeah, it's obviously the granddaughter duo.)

Braska - Amidatelion (Mixture Power) : The summoner who sacrifice their life.

Amidatelion sacrificed her life to save Layle from Jegran while Braska sacrifice his life to save Spira.

I've seen a lot of complain with Braska summoning Valefor is dev getting lazy and reuse Yuna's Valefor animation for him. He should summon Bahamut because Amida summoned it and Braska originated from Bevelle, the home of Bahamut's Aeon.

Kam'lanaut - Seifer (Djinn Blade) : Both are arrogant, have a dream and a "tool" of the main antagonist but casted aside when they failed.

Kam'lanaut and Eald'narche desires to open the Gate of The Gods. When the adventurer (the player) defeated him in Delkfutt's tower, Eald'narche casted him aside.

Seifer dreamed to become Sorceress's Knight and became Ultimecia's Knight but she casted him aside after his numerous failure.

Desch - Leila (Electric Order) : Temporary party member, wearing purple outfit and use Thunder attack.

(Desch was a guest party member while Leila was playable.)

Tidus - Ceodore (Saintly Shot) : Interaction in Arc 3 Chapter 1. Their father once possessed by the enemy and have to live up to the expectations people set for their parent's achievement.

Cecil was possessed by Mysterious Girl in The After Years and Jecht was possessed by Yu Yevon to become Sin.

Ceodore has no confidence with himself caused by 'burden' of his bloodlines and people around expected him to follow his father's footsteps as Paladin.

Tidus is Jecht's son and his father was known as the legendary Blitzball player. People are expecting him to be like or surpassing his father even one of the supporters called him "Jecht junior."

Long story short, daddy issues😅

#dffoo #dissidia #dissidia opera omnia #opera omnia #fr partner #kain highwind #aranea highwind #krile mayer baldesion #relm arrowny #braska #amidatelion #kam'lanaut #seifer almasy #desch #leila #tidus #ceodore harvey

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dmsden · 3 years

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No Two Alike - Making interesting combat encounters

Hullo, Gentle Readers! This week’s Question from a Denizen ties in nicely with another article I wrote recently. AN Anonymous readers asks, “ So I'm wondering, have you ever done any articles on interesting encounter design? Not just the creatures involved, but also the environment and the running of (particularly combat) encounters so that they become more interesting than simply a repetition of 'I attack him. Again.' statements from players?”

Well, Anonymous, hopefully you recently read my article at https://dmsden.tumblr.com/post/646002547172179968/keeping-pace-ways-to-speed-up-combat. Although the original query was about speeding up combat, I ended up talking a lot about making combat more interesting so that you wouldn’t need to speed it up. I think that answers some of your question, but I’m going to follow it up with some advice about making encounter design interesting. (It’s almost as if I’d decided to put these articles in two adjacent weeks...huh!)

Beyond making your combat descriptions exciting and keeping the action fast-paced, you can make encounters interesting by making sure there’s something at least a little different about each one, so that the challenge of each will be unique. I read something in an RPG I purchased recently called Worlds in Peril, where they mentioned that each combat can be thought of like a puzzle that needs to be solved. In superhero comic books (the genre of Worlds in Peril), it’s rare that the villains can be defeated through a straightforward toe-to-toe fight. If that were the case, Superman would simply win every time, because of his awesome strength. Instead, the foes are often presented as a puzzle that Superman has to solve.

For example, I recently watched an animated movie called Superman Unbound. In it, Superman faces Brainiac for the first time. He discovers that, while he can physically overcome Brainiac, Brainiac’s ship is, essentially, an extension of him, so any defeat is largely temporary; his ship helps keep his little world completely sterile and contained. Superman finally realizes that he can only win by luring the central Brainiac out of the ship. Brainiac’s need for control over his environment short-circuits him when he’s forced to deal with Earth’s mud and insects and chaos.

Keeping this idea in mind, you can add elements to combat that make each one like a challenge to be solved rather than simply overcome by brute force. I’m going to look at terrain and enviroment, monster mixtures, if/then combats, and alternate challenges.

Terrain and environment are one of the easiest things to vary, and they can really affect the feel of a combat. You could have a combat with five orcs using boulders and rocks for cover, and it’s going to feel very different if the fight happens on a narrow bridge over a lava flow. In one, PCs and monsters will be moving around a lot to try and take advantage of the natural cover, difficult terrain, high ground, and so on. In the other, the PCs may be concentrating more on keeping themselves safe from falling, or maybe concentrating on attacks that push their targets, trying to bring a swift end to things.

Early in my campaign, my PCs encountered a Gauth in a hall full of mirrors. I had the Gauth using its eyebeamns through the mirrors, allowing it to attack from many different angles. Once the PCs discovered they could cast spells through the mirrors, too, it made for a very interesting and surreal combat. You can do something as basic as setting a combat underwater, or you can make insane combats where the fight happens in a raging river while being swept downstream, in the middle of a forest fire, while plummeting through the endless skies of the Elemental Plane of Air, or anywhere else you can imagine.

When you do create a combat in an unusual environment, think about how the environment will affect normal combat and how the PCs and monsters can use the environment as a tool or weapon. While underwater combat gives significant advantage to creatures with a swim speed, a druid might be able to use control water to create disadvantages for them. A combat in a forest fire might allow PCs to knock enemies into the flames, to kick burning embers into their opponents’ eyes, or even to knock a burning tree into their opponents for an area of attack. If the PCs don’t take advantage of the environment, have the enemies do it to give them an idea of what’s possible.

Monster mixtures are a lot of fun to play with. Given the XP budget, I’ll tend to have 2-3 kinds of monsters in a fight. If I have a choice, I’d rather have a couple of orc fighters, an orc archer or spellcaster, and a pet giant boar or something than just a group of straightforward orcs. The different kinds of attacks and defenses of the variable monsters make for a more interesting fight, and you can exercise even more creativity in describing the various attack. The orcs can slash with their scimitars and axes, the boar can brutally gore with its tusks or trample with its hooves, an archer can send arrows whistling through the air, and an orc cleric could fill the air with profane magics.

An if/then combat is one that really is like a puzzle. There’s some kind of condition that must be met to either end the combat or make it much easier. If the necromancer is slain, then all of the skeletons collapse, leaving only the two wights to fight on. If the enchanted shackles are struck from the statue of Bahamut, then the priest of Tiamat becomes vulnerable to all attacks instead of resistant. If the enchantment on the Eladrin Bladesinger is broken, then she will aid you against the Hag and her Tree Blights. You could allow skills like Perception, Insight, Arcana, History, Nature, Religion, and the like to be used as a Bonus Action in combat to give clues as to how to change the battle, or automatically tell characters if you think they should know. A Grave Cleric, for example, could automatically recognize that cutting down the Necromancer is the way to end this battle more quickly. An Archfey Warlock might have their Patron whisper to them to aid the Bladesinger to free them from the Hag’s curse. An Acolyte might remember a holy book about shackling a statue to a God, and so on. This rewards the players for their choices during character creation and gives them a moment to shine.

Alternative challenges are something I’ve talked about before, and they form a more detailed version of the If/Then combat. I use the 4E mechanic for skill challenges to allow PCs to affect combat through means other than making attacks. This is a great way to allow characters like a bard with a lot of knowledge skills to make a big difference in combat. For example, in my campaign, an Arch-Fey was captured by the Briar Hag Auntie Mengybone, making her more powerful, immune to all damage except cold iron, and allowing her to raise plant monsters to do her bidding. When the PCs confronted her, some of the PCs took the time to use Detect Magic and saw bonds linking her to the Arch-Fey, who they’d thought to be dead. Several of them then spent their combat rounds using Arcana to disrupt the magical bonds, which ultimately freed the Arch-Fey. Auntie Mengybone was then returned to normal and attempted to flee before being stopped and destroyed by the others.

Anonymous, I hope that, in conjunction with my previous article, this gives you some solid ideas about making combat a lot more than “I attack” every round.If you get your players to RP more in the middle of combat, give them meaningful choices and alternatives, and generally make combats more lively and interesting, I think you’ll find that things will be a lot more fun when they happen.

Until next time, Gentle Readers. May all your 20s be natural.

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chadillacboseman · 3 years

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So I’m gonna tell you about my main character in FFXIV, Sh’mara Naham (Mara, for short). I’m going to assume you don’t play FFXIV, because I’ve never seen you post about it, but feel free to correct me if I’m wrong!

Description:

Mara is a Miqo’te, which means that she’s mostly human with some feline characteristics (i.e. elongated, furry ears at the top of her head with a pinna reflex, vertical pupils on her eyes, faint striping on her skin, and a long, furry tail). She has olive skin, dark hair with red highlights, and brilliant green eyes in an otherwise youthful face. She’s somewhat fit with well-toned muscles that hint at some strength, and bears a generous bust. Mara’s voice is a low alto, but it’s quite versatile, and while she’d never admit it to anyone, she has a lovely singing voice, and she really enjoys singing.

Sh’mara quite enjoys good fashion, and isn’t afraid to show off the assets she has. It does garner some attention, to be sure, but she enjoys how she looks and feels more than she dislikes the attention she receives.

What She Does:

Sh’mara is something of an adventurer by trade, though her business card would call her a “librarian.” She’s very adept at most common forms of magic, and has an intuitive understanding of the aetherical concepts that underlie them. She’s also well-versed in history, and has a keen understanding of what tomes and artifacts might be useful or valuable, beyond what she was commissioned to retrieve. Some of her more interesting adventures of late have been from patrons telling her rumors of archaeological finds in far-off lands, where she’s needed to investigate matters on her own, ultimately deciding for herself what artifacts would best please her patrons. For the most part, they’ve all been pleased by her work.

Personality:

To strangers, Mara generally has a quiet demeanor. She is reserved and careful, and tends to prefer curling up by a fireplace with a good book to engaging in the revelry of smalltalk and shallow flirtations that tends to fill most social spaces. Still, if she is invited and engaged with, she will open up to reveal a very playful demeanor. Mara is unafraid of deeper topics of conversation that might make others uncomfortable, and quite enjoys discussions of philosophy. She is prone to witty repartee, and will tease those she’s comfortable around incessantly - it can just be hard to break the ice.

Backstory:

Sh’mara spent the first five years of her life living as a child servant in the brothel where she was born. She never knew her birth mother, let alone her father, and was put to work just as soon as she could walk and understand words. The state eventually moved in on the brothel under suspicion of human trafficking, and the owner burned it to the ground, rather than let the records of his activity be found.

Almost everyone who worked in the brothel died in the fire, but Sh’mara was saved by an Elezen woman who took her in as her own. She accepted her as her mother, and soon Mara’s skill with magic became clear. She learned all that the local school of magic had to teach her, and her mother decided it was best to pick up their life and move so she could learn more. Over the next several years, they traveled between the city states, and Sh’mara learned to a point of mastery all of the common forms of magic that she could.

When she was 16, Sh’mara’s mother fell in love with a member of the city guard, and the two wed quickly. This worked out well, because Sh’mara was actually the one to introduce them and encouraged them to spend time together. Her new father taught her how to use a sword in addition to her magical training, and soon the three of them set out to earn money adventuring together, doing whatever odd jobs were needed, wherever they were needed.

When the Calamity struck (Bahamut broke out of the moon in the opening cinematic of the current incarnation of FFXIV and basically wrecked everything), both of Sh’mara’s parents died, and she was left severely wounded. However, she recovered, and eventually took up a lonely life of adventuring.

Romance and Sexuality:

Sh’mara has basically no experience with romance or sexuality. In some regards, she is somewhat scared of her sexuality, because she has some rather vivid memories of the brothel where she was raised. While she has never been triggered per se, she is scared that it may happen if she begins to explore her sexuality. As her memories are not exactly entirely pleasant, she is also concerned that she may succumb to her desires and lose control of herself. All this is to say that the notion of romance and of the sex that may follow make her quite nervous.

Sh’mara considers herself pansexual, despite being somewhat afraid of what her sexuality might entail. She appreciates attractive people regardless of how they present themselves. As yet, the only arousal she has experienced has been waking up from a dream she couldn’t quite remember--and the experience made her feel somewhat uncomfortable. When it comes to romance, she has little experience and no success. She has been on a total of three dates, and nothing came from any of them.

I watched my husband play it quite extensively, but never played it myself!

I love how fleshed out her story is! Her childhood also broke my heart 😭

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