#;the diplomat [Alphinaud]

[kaldwinroyalty]

Thinking about it, its kinda wild to me that. The Scions as an organization are supposed to, outside of primal slaying their main role, like, handle diplomatic relations and yet.

And yet you have basically a group of zero actual diplomats.

Like ok listen. Minfilia was the one who handled the majority of that when she was around, ARR made it clear she handled a lot of the bureacracy, but after she's out of the picture its the Scions taking on the role on a 'whichever one of us is closest to the current diplomatic meeting' basis, not a 'yeah I want and/or trained to do this'. Yeah you could say they have Alphinaud but like, huge plot point was him not getting the nuances of politics and fucking up big time, it wasn't till a lot of development did he get to where he is in Endwalker where he can pull on diplomatic relations like a pro so.

Zero proper diplomats for a good chunk of the MSQ

Cause Y'shtola is a magic scholar who constantly toes the line of "maybe casting dangerous magic isn't a bad idea", and is only not permanently living alone in a cave because thats a slippery slope to being like Matoya

Thancred is a goddamn spy, the guy behind the scenes, and once he's out of his flirting stage he's rather blunt and short tempered when dealing with people being slightly annoying

Alisae basically dragged her feet to joining the Scions at all and voices several times diplomacy not being her cup of tea

Urinager doth verily speaketh like so

Estinien gives me a heart attack each time he turns to an ancient dragon and goes "bitch"

I suppose Tataru and Krile I'd trust, but Tataru is much more in the mercantile world and Krile has had other things to deal with instead of working out relations between city states

So until G'raha showed up, it really was just Alphinaud with a shaky dream, AND EVEN THEN. Mister Crystal "stop trying to make me king" Exarch only pulls out his commanding tone when he really has to, otherwise he's content letting others handle it. This super powerful group is coasting through their peace keeping job with luck, very specific and relevant knowledge, and the ability to go "we can ask the WOL, a practical walking nuke, to kill that for us"

[bakuzen-xiv]

I love when Orion makes this face in cutscenes. Crazy husky eyes looking mf

[tritoch]

I wish people were willing to have a slightly broader or more expansive understanding of FFXIV's women because I think there's so much there in terms of easily-unearthed subtext that no one really thinks about! And I don't mean this in a "people need to re-evaluate their response to the women of Stormblood" way (though I do think that's largely true), I mean I think fandom's understanding even of the women it mostly likes is pretty weak. And you can say that's because the women are underwritten, and I won't argue that they couldn't use more attention from the writing, but that doesn't prevent you from analyzing them the way you can any character in fiction.

Like everyone's always like, oh, Y'shtola and Krile are like your snarky wine aunts, haha. But...Sharlayan is a pretty ossified and patriarchal society from what we see of it in Endwalker and places like the AST quests. Can we open ourselves to the possibility that it means something that almost every young Sharlayan woman we meet, almost all young women in academia, tends to be a little sharp and quick on the retort? The arch and snarky ways in which those two carry themselves reflect in some sense the facts that Krile is almost literally a nepo baby woman in STEM who is barely older than her students, while Y'shtola learned her behaviors from her much older female mentor, a woman who hated Sharlayan academic culture so much she literally abandoned it to go live in a cave.

Or like, Alisaie! Fan jokes and meta frequently buy into her tendency to characterize the dynamic between her and Alphinaud as a jock/nerd, street savvy extrovert vs book smart introvert thing. Except, tragically, Alphinaud's highest stat is 100% Charisma and he absolutely pulled in his student days. All his greatest achievements are diplomatic, and he very easily develops strong friendships with people in every culture you learn about. Alisaie is the determined, sensitive genius who revolutionizes Eorzea by proving the tempered can be healed. She's just permanently carrying a chip on her shoulder that while she and her brother are remembered as the youngest students in Studium history, actually he got in six months before her, a fact pretty much no one else ever brings up once. She's constantly fuming over the fact that he was marginally better than her in certain specific ways in high school, and looking to differentiate them in ways that actually fail to credit her own obvious strengths and accomplishments. I think that's so fun! It's so juicy, and it's equally good for comedy or serious character studies.

Venat is a genuinely benevolent hero who has no compunction sacrificing lives for the greater good. Minfilia is kind and compassionate and clearly on some level actually buys into the narrative of her own unique moral authority. Ysayle is a revolutionary firebrand with almost no concern for the common man, whose death reflects her Javert-like inability to reconcile her own romantic belief in justice with the tragic ways her blinkered worldview (born largely of trauma) let her be easily co-opted by a violent system. But even people who like these characters rarely move past surface-level reads (people who think Venat is just an all-loving mommy figure make me want to fucking die). The fandom is allergic to drawing connections the game doesn't draw, and fails to recognize that FFXIV is a game where characters voice understandings of themselves and others that are wrong about as often as they're right.

You can already see the ways that women like Wuk Lamat and Cahciua and Sphene are getting flattened or losing their shading in fan reception and it's boring. Like I'm not even saying this because you should take female characters more seriously or something (though you should), I'm literally just bored to tears sometimes and if you guys turn Wuk Lamat into another Hot Dumb Jock Lady, I will combust.

[tobyfoxmademeascaly]

Alphinaud headcanon: he is actually a remarkably UN-picky eater. Truly omnivorous specimen. One might expect Mr. Hoity-Toity Rich Boy to have extremely exacting dietary preferences, but he’s actually willing to eat basically anything offered to him. He’s a diplomat, after all. What’s he gonna do, refuse hospitality? Never.

[unionizedwizard]

now i'm thinking about who among the scions would be the best at grillin' (not including the wol who might very well be a lvl 100 culinarian in anyone's specific timeline, obviously)

urianger: not great, as we've established

thancred: i THINK he got better at it after spending five years (!) on the run in the wilderness with a teenage girl honestly. if only thanks to sheer practice. and he's versatile enough that he could be a decent cook imo. still okay at best probably though, his dad card doesnt got that far (F)

y'shtola: i don't believe she was put on kitchen duty even once during her time among the night's blessed. she can probably make various healing potions and basic meals (SOMEONE had to help with matoya's meals. that's what apprentices are FOR!), and she obviously does have a great mastery over fire (euphemism), but she wouldn't want to grill in the first place. she's sitting by poolside drinking rosé and having fascinating conversations

estinien: i do agree with lizzie here, estinien probably would be good at it provided he's familiar with everything involved in the process, and he probably would rather actively but quietly take care of business & help in a concrete way, while being removed from the action.

alphinaud: no. let him build the fire and set up the bbq and send him to go help with the potato salad or something. not sure he can tell rare and medium rare apart. he's very eager to help and learn but wouldn't ask for grilling duty because he knows it's not his specialty

alisaie: this is a baby butchling who wants nothing more than out-grill EVERYONE. i don't think she'd be good at it (yet) but she's definitely staying around and helping and learning, eagerly trying to prove herself. i think she'd have hunted and then prepared the animal the meat came from in the first place. give it a few years and she'll be the ultimate bbq dad But A Dyke, i just know it.

g'raha: would not ask for grilling duty but would not be bad at it if given the chance. between the 100+ years of survival mode & his experience as a broke student doing field work (not to mention potential childhood experiences - grilling meat seems to be a staple of seeker culture all across the world), i think he's seen enough to know what he's doing, but as grilling is some kind of Important Position With Responsibilities, he'd let anyone who thinks they can do a better job than him handle it, and compliment the result no matter how terribly wrong it went

krile: can't say i'd see her want to do it in the first place. her job both as a scion and as a student of baldesion has always been very firmly confined to intellectual, diplomatic & magical duties, and she's been a city girl her entire life. she would help in a thousand little ways including making sure everyone feels included because she's really good at handling social gatherings, without showing it

tataru: could and would out-grill the world's most renowned chefs. they're gonna have to invent a new dellemont d'or prize for grilling specifically after tasting her cooking. she's standing on a stool wearing a pink apron the whole time. the local restaurant owners are having a personal crisis and begging her to teach them her ways.

[galactickohipot]

Hmm so I've seen a lot of ppl say there's no stakes in FFXIV anymore because the WoL is too strong anyway. Like sure, making the WoL a godslayer isn't making things easy, but that's not truly where the issue is imo. Spoilers for DT's msq!!!

The main problem to me, is that the writers now consider that a victory through fighiting is a victory in the story. It kinda boggles my mind that there aren't negative repercutions for using violence anymore... It's especially true in DT: when you fight it's always the right thing to do and all fights have a positive influence on the story. It's pretty much "right is might and might is right" all around. The characters never doubts their fight is a righteous one for a second, and we are never given an ambiguous win either. Wuk Lamat is only able to influence the story because she becomes strong and she becomes strong because she is right and good. It is ironic for a character that is so focused on peace and love. Yet the story will still consistantly reward the characters for crushing their opponents. Storywise it doesn't make sense. It only cheapens your victories, so of course you would need to amp up the stakes. (also please note: these issues were already present when Ishikawa was at the helm, but there were other things to balance it out in ShB though.)

In contrast, in ARR and HW, there usually was a downside to the WoL's victory. It wasn't the entire story!

For example, a part I particularly like in 3.0 is the first time you slay Nidhogg. Not only is this done by Estinien after you've weakened the dragon; but it actually feels like a defeat. The entire game up to this point had your group try to mend the relationship between ishgardians and dragons. Estinien warms up to your group and Ysayle, and you can feel he is slowly begining to hope for lasting peace. However, with Hraesvelgr's revelations, Ysayle's dellusions are exposed and all the progress made towards reconcilliation is reduced to nothing. Worse, Estinien's violent and vengeful ways are proven to be the only solution. Truly, a terrible setback for the characters, and it results in an empty victory over Nidhogg. Sure you beat the baddie, but it's devastating for Alphinaud and Ysayle. It even comes back to bite Estinien in the butt when he gets possessed. There was more to the story than just finally beating a very strong foe, and it is made apparent at that moment. Even though the wol won every fight, it didn't mean that the main characters would be victorious. It could either be a diplomatic defeat, your beliefs could be challenged, or one of your allies could die. Unforeseen consequences were right around the corner. Plus, your character is only one person. Things could still happen outside of their reach, like at the end of ARR. Regardless of your WoL's strength, there are many ways you can create tension for a story!

In earlier expacs, there used to be a feeling that your battles wouldn't necessarily win the war. No need for a world ending threat then, to have stakes.

[siderealcity]

I want to do sort of a deep dive on the character of Wuk Lamat. In a few posts, I've talked about how much Dawntrail parallels Heavensward. But in this case, I want to talk about how Wuk Lamat parallels Aymeric. Spoilers and lengthy rambling under the cut.

When we first meet Wuk Lamat, we are clearly meant to mistake her for sort of a carefree dumb jock. She wanders off before her important introduction because she's too busy oggling the scenery. She thinks with her stomach. She's not paying attention. She's all bluster and talk, but kind of a scaredy cat. This is all just a fun vacation to her. That's deliberate. We're meant to underestimate her. It's why we have that heart-to-heart scene with G'raha debating whether or not we should really be getting involved in her bid for the throne -- literally not a question we have ever been asked about any other political figure we've helped anywhere. We get asked this twice about Wuk Lamat. Once by G'raha and once by Erenville, and then again, later, we get asked our opinion of her qualifications by her dad, the ruler of Tural.

We are meant to feel that she doesn't know what she's doing. Because she doesn't. None of them do.

So, by comparison, let's look at Aymeric's introduction. When he first appears at Camp Dragonhead to meet with Alphinaud we know a few things about Ishgard via the MSQ and the side quests around Coerthas up until that point. The first thing is: Ishgard takes its church deadly seriously. Inquisitor Guillaime can literally just murder anyone he wants with very little evidence and nobody dares question it. The knights of the high houses may be splitting their attention between constant vigilance in their war against the dragons and constant vigilance in their power struggles against the other high houses, but if the church says jump, they're already in the air and falling off a cliff before anyone can ask how high. They haven't been part of the Alliance in decades, they don't talk to anyone, they murder their own people for asking questions. Our expectations going into our first meeting with an official representative of the Holy See, therefore, are not supposed to be positive.

And then the first words out of Aymeric's mouth to the WoL are fanboying at us. He talks circles around Alphinaud for the rest of the meeting, doesn't agree to do anything, and ends by asking us to watch a dead dragon for signs of suspicious activity. A request so baffling that Alphinaud even calls it absurd in the middle of a diplomatic meeting.

We are supposed to have doubts about him. That he knows what he's doing. That he's not just playing us for fools. Aymeric's introduction, just like Wuk Lamat's, establishes him as being kind of questionable as a leader and ally.

Unlike in Heavensward, we have no knowledge at all of Tuliyollal going into Dawntrail. So our first few beats of the MSQ are a high-level crash course in the place. But even before we get off the boat, we know that Wuk Lamat is considered the long shot in the rite of succession. In much the same way that we early on learn that Aymeric attained the position of Lord Commander of the Temple Knights despite his birth not being considered noble enough and over a more popular low-born contender for the job in Ser Zepherin. What we see of her during the storm, however, is that she is not only willing to act when she's so sick she can barely even stand, she will try to protect others, whether they're her people or not.

Our quick tour of the city sets the foundations for what's to come. The aetheryte is the work of her brother Koana, scholar, forward-thinker, techbro, and industrialist. The Landsguard, traditionally led by Tuliyollal's strongest warrior, are led by her brother Zoraal Ja, who has taken over the post from their father, meaning that he has already been acknowledged as being equal to their father in martial ability for three years now.

Wuk Lamat has no accomplishments at all.

And then we get to the bridge. And the Tuliyollal Saga. The legacy these claimants are trying to lay claim to is that of a peacemaker. Gulool Ja Ja actually is the leader that Thordan VII wanted to be. He's unified the disparate people of two entire continents who were at war for centuries, while the Holy See couldn't even unify the people inside one city. He's their hero-king. Almost revered as a living god by everyone you talk to. What Thordan thought he had to summon a primal to do, Gulool Ja Ja just did the hard way.

Here's where the parallels start to get interesting.

Aymeric, an orphan, was contending with the legacy of his father--a man who was related to him by blood, but who had never once acknowledged or cared for him. And that legacy consisted of a divide-and-conquer strategy: Keep the people divided so they can be more easily controlled, keep them tentatively "unified" against a common enemy so they don't have the impetus to rebel. The Dragonsong War was a necessary evil to Thordan because it kept the church in power.

Wuk Lamat, an orphan, is contending with the legacy of her father--a man who is not related to her by blood, but who had always acknowledged and cared for her. And that legacy consisted of collaboration. Between the peoples of Tural. Between himself and them. Between Reason and Resolve. And now his sons are trying to divide it up. Koana, even though he's well-meaning, is an illustration of "the road to hell is paved with good intentions." He wants to improve life for his people, but he doesn't actually know them or what they want, or understand the consequences of his choices. Zoraal Ja, the imperialist, wants to be Thordan VII. He doesn't have his father's ability to be a hero-king because everything's already been solved, so he'll invent problems he can heroically solve for them.

Wuk Lamat is the only Promise who has no ideas for the future, because she's already happy in the present. What's wrong with how things are now?

So much of the first half of Dawntrail is an object lesson on what Tuliyollal actually is, and what it is not. That, peaceful as it is now, the legacy of war and conquest has scarred every culture. That the people still have lasting problems. They are not all happy now. Which is why most of them support her brothers -- they want change, and both the First and Second Promise are offering change. Wuk Lamat's kidnapping is the turning point for her in this regard because she is attacked by people who are desperate. Including, ironically, Bakool Ja Ja. She foolishly follows a bandit somewhere alone, when it's pretty obvious this is a bad idea, but it's not like she's ever been attacked by her own people before. The bandits do not know how to change their circumstances except through violence, and she didn't even know that kind of desperation existed in her nation. Even forward-thinking Koana instantly succumbs to anger when faced with them--it never occurs to him to even look for the problem they were facing, let alone solve it, until his sister does it first.

This is not a problem that can be solved with a sword. Or even a train line. You can't fight or technology away generational trauma.

Heavensward has some wonky pacing due to it attempting to resolve plot points from the Bloody Banquet, but it does much the same thing as Dawntrail. We take a road trip across Dravania to learn first-hand what the war is and what it isn't. The dragons are just people, and we meet the first ones who will actually talk to us. These cultures are all scarred by the legacy of war and betrayal and loss, and they don't know how to change their circumstances.

Honestly, Aymeric's sudden insistence on confronting his father after we kill Nidhogg is the weakest point in the plot. It seems to come out of nowhere. He has not, up until that point, demonstrated a tendency to be hot-headed, and this is such a stupid thing to do it borders on suicide. Everyone present in the scene tells him that, but he does it anyway, and this is the tragic mistake that leads directly to Haurchefant's death. But this moment, the moment that he learns the truth that was always there, the lie that his people have always been like this, is just as much a shocking revelation for him as the bandits are for Wuk Lamat. None of this ever had to happen. They were not always at war with the dragons. They were not always divided into highborn and lowborn.

This was never a problem that could be solved with swords or prayer.

Both Aymeric and Wuk Lamat embody contradictions. Aymeric is the leader of the Holy See's military who absolutely does not trust the Holy See at all and kind of hates the pope. He is not a paragon of and champion for the old order, like he's supposed to be. He's a diplomat in full plate armor with a sword, and a revolutionary in the highest position in the church. Wuk Lamat is an axe-wielding princess of peace. She's a nepo baby, but somehow also an orphan. She's not a thinker, she's all feels, and yet she looks for the deeper problems while her brothers settle for the surface precisely because she still feels a problem where reason says everything is fine. The difference between reason and resolve is a big, recurring thing in Dawntrail.

Aymeric tells us after the Shiva battle that he learned early on to see the difference between words, deeds, and beliefs, and that's exactly what Wuk Lamat learns to do over the course of the plot. Zoraal Ja and Bakool Ja Ja accept the idea that the Rite of Succession is a contest that can be won, and never question it. They are both competing in a scavenger hunt, and that's all they're doing. Wuk Lamat realizes even before the Feat of Pots that it's a lesson. The point is not just to win a little keystone. And, gradually, she takes the lesson more seriously than the contest, which is why she wins. She stops worrying about how well Zoraal Ja is doing around Earthenshire and starts worrying what her people have to give up for peace. Our big reveal, like the vision we have after killing Nidhogg, is the conversation with Gulool Ja Ja where he admits to us that he isn't going to name the winner successor unless they learn the lesson he's teaching them. The words were "contest" but the deeds were "follow in my footsteps." Koana starts to pick up on this because he sees Wuk Lamat doing so, and it's the realization that she understood the problem better than him that makes him yield his place in the Rite to her.

Reason can find a solution to the problem, but resolve is what finds the problem in the first place.

Aymeric, notably, tells us that he understands the difference between words, deeds, and beliefs, but then still falls for Thordan's speech. He doesn't have an answer when Thordan asks him what he can offer their people in place of a thousand years of certainty about who they are and why they're fighting, even though he feels that Thordan is still wrong. He doesn't have words for his resolve. He still has to learn to trust his feelings more than authority.

The second half of Dawntrail, like the second half of Heavensward, has Wuk Lamat stepping into a position of power that she doesn't really know how to wield, although for Aymeric this comes more in Dragonsong than in Heavensward. The surprise attack by Zoraal Ja on Tuliyollal mirrors the attack by Estinien at the peace summit--someone they used to trust, someone who used to be close to them, is now an enemy and proves it without any ambiguity, and now they're in constant danger of war. Now they're both left struggling to figure out how to pick up the pieces of a terrified nation that just lost its beloved leader. Aymeric is blamed for Thordan's death. The father that he always resented for abandoning him. He also clearly blames himself for Haurchefant's death, making his entire relationship with the Fortemps family extremely fraught. Wuk Lamat is not held responsible for the loss of her own father--who was killed by his own biological son, just like Thordan was, who resented him for not giving him the throne. She is, however, responsible for Sphene's death, and she knows it, even if the people of Alexandria do not. And she is well known to have killed Zoraal Ja, their king... although he was not nearly so well loved as Thordan. She's navigating a much more difficult, if so far less violent situation, caught between her own grief over losing her father, her conflicted feelings about her brother, her nephew, who likewise has very conflicted feelings about his father, and Sphene--the remorseless invader who wanted to harvest the souls of her people as fuel, but whom she nonetheless felt a connection to.

Aymeric, in Dragonsong, has to find a way to bridge the gap between peoples divided by a thousand years of war and lies, and Wuk Lamat has to bridge a gap between actually different worlds and views of life and death so dissimilar they border on irreconcilable.

I am interested to see where that goes, because there's no obvious enemy to fight in Dawntrail. We don't have a looming undead great wyrm waiting to destroy Tuliyollal, so we're not set up (at least right now in patch 7.1) to end this with a climactic battle. (Although maybe we're about to get a looming undead robot queen?)

Either way, this isn't a problem we can solve with swords.

[starrysnowdrop]

FFXIVWrite 2024 #1: Steer

Idiom: steer clear of; to stay away from purposely; avoid.

During the events of patch 4.3, quest “Under the Moonlight”; Hali tries to convince Yume to take a step back from participating in the investigation of Zenos’ death and potential resurrection.

“Yume, can I talk to you about something?”

The auri samurai glanced down at her pink-haired lalafellin companion and nodded. “Alright, what’s the matter?”

“Well, you see…” Hali scrunched up her face, trying to figure out how to say what she wanted to say. She folded her arms and continued.

“Look, Alisaie and I, well we are worried about you, and we thought that perhaps you might need to take a step back and let us deal with the… umm… problem at hand.”

Yume shrugged her shoulders, not following Hali’s train of thought. “What? Why would I need a break? I’m fine.”

“Yume… you have had to deal with a lot lately—”

“So have we all! Honestly I was thinking that Alisaie might need to take some time for herself with Alphinaud embarking on a diplomatic mission to Garlemald and all. She is the one that needs to relax for a while. But I’m alright.”

The lalafellin astrologian shook her head and looked up at Yume with a concerned expression. “While I agree about Alisaie, I still think you need to rest too, you know?”

Yume was growing tired of Hali dancing around the issue, or was it the person in question. She raised her voice as she replied, “Just say it already! It’s because of Zenos, isn’t it?” She sighed and placed her hands on her hips. “You don’t understand. He is alive, and I need to know if it’s really him, or if an ascian has claimed his body!”

“Yume, listen to me! I think you need to steer clear of all this right now, especially when we tell Lyse the truth. She’s not going to be happy with hearing that Zenos lives, in any capacity whatsoever. Do you really want to be there to witness her reaction?”

Hali briefly closed her eyes as she began to recall the events of the past few days spent in Doma.

“You just had to deal with Asahi threatening you over his obsession with Zenos, and you are still clearly shaken up by the echo vision we saw earlier, so perhaps you should go back to the Rising Stones to relax, meditate, and clear your head. I will keep you updated on everything, I promise.”

Yume shook her head, with slight irritation in her voice as she wanted to put this whole needless conversation to rest. “…No, Hali. I need to see this through for myself, and that’s final. Lyse will just have to be a good little leader and learn how to tolerate me being in her presence.”

This time it was Hali’s turn to sigh. Yume and Lyse were not on good terms with each other anymore, not after they have had several fights over Yume’s fixation on Garlemald’s crown prince. Though Yume never wavered in her duty and fought Zenos alongside her and their friends, Lyse couldn’t stand how much Yume seemed to talk about Zenos, and how the samurai picked up and read every tome she could that held information on him. To not only Lyse’s eyes, but everyone else’s, Yume seemed to be growing obsessed with him, and she always seems to talk about him as if he were a long-lost lover…

Hali wondered for a moment if that was how she looked like when she recalled her days in Ishgard with Aymeric, but she quickly pushed those thoughts from her mind and shrugged. There might be another dramatic argument in the near future between Yume and Lyse, but it couldn’t be avoided if Yume insists on going to Rhalgr’s Reach with her.

“Alrighty, suit yourself.”

Yume’s Blog: @firelightmuse

[anneapocalypse]

WIP Wednesday!

Thank you @chocochipbiscuit, @myreia, and @lilbittymonster for tagging me recently! The past couple of weeks have been [static noises] and writing this week has been like pulling teeth, but here's some teeth.

Tagging: @farfromdaylight @orime-stories @plounce @ostentenacity @queenaeducan and anyone else who would like to share!

***

Tataru had already heard the news from Riol himself, as it happened. "But thank you for calling, Urianger! Still haven't a clue as to where they went… but I must believe they escaped… No word yet of Thancred or Minfilia, I take it."

How he wished he could say otherwise. "Nay, yet I too abide in hope, Mistress Tataru."

"But I've good news to share as well! You remember Krile, of the Students of Baldesion, yes?"

"Aye—though ne'er have I had the pleasure of meeting her face to face. Yet full many a time hath Lady Minfilia sought her counsel, and we have had occasion to speak by linkpearl. She was, as I recall, one of few survivors of that strange cataclysm which befell the Isle of Val? Lady Minfilia was quite concerned for her wellbeing."

"Indeed! I'm pleased to report that Krile's made a full recovery—and she'll be joining us soon! When she heard that Minfilia was missing, she insisted upon coming at once. Y'shtola and I are meet her ship when she docks in Limsa Lominsa on the morrow—after which they'll rendezvous with Alphinaud and Ariane in Dravania!"

"Dravania, thou sayest?"

"Oh, yes, perhaps I forgot to mention it! They've gone north again, into the Forelands, on a diplomatic mission."

A mote of unease troubled Urianger at that. To the Forelands—just where he had directed the Warriors of Darkness to turn their attention. Still, there were at present no rumors of a summoning… if they meant only to keep watch…

Yet his unease lingered.

"Should they have need of me…" Wherefore did even this half-formed thought fill him with ambivalence? In sooth, a part of him should greatly have liked to be asked… He should have liked to see Master Alphinaud, and the Warrior of Light, and especially Y'shtola, whom he had not seen in the flesh since her return and recovery. Yet he had reason to believe his new acquaintances might call upon his aid again in the coming days. Reticent as he was with regard to their methods, he could hardly deny his eagerness to know more.

"You'll be the first to know! I understand Krile has some sort of novel idea for tracking down Thancred and Minfilia. She'll be meeting up with others in Idyllshire."

"In—I beg thy pardon?"

"Oh—I suppose you don't know! I gather it was quite a surprise to Alphinaud and Y'shtola as well. Sharlayan—the colony, that is—has been resettled! It's become quite a lively little place, from what I'm told—adventurers, treasure hunters, goblins, all abiding together quite happily. 'Idyllshire' is its new name. It's there our friends are bound, once they've concluded their business at Anyx Trine."

"I see." Urianger's mind was rather awhirl at this. The colony… resettled? Treasure hunters and… goblins? He could scarce imagine it. The thought of strangers residing in his childhood home gave him a rather peculiar feeling in his stomach, foolish though it might be—as though that house, both those houses, had not lain abandoned for well over a decade. Or so he had thought. When had this resettlement occurred? In sooth, he had many more questions, but mayhap now was not the time.

"I'll be sure to let you know of anything they discover," Tataru went on. "Hopefully I'll have more news soon!"

"And I shall likewise apprise thee of any word of Yda and Papalymo." As though he could claim any credit for the recent findings… as though he had made any contributions at all of late to the search for their missing comrades, instead of consorting with Ascians, and visitors from another world.

[catierambles]

Quintus: If you wanted peace so badly, why didn't you just let us conqueror you? Alphinaud: *diplomatically speechless* Alisaie: *undiplomatically speechless* WoL: I'm sorry. What the fuck did he just say?! Alphinaud: My friend-- WoL: No. Nuh-uh. It's killin' time. This guy is about to become a stain. Alisaie: We are heavily outnumbered. WoL: Never stopped me before!

[klopford]

I had a dream last night that the Scions had to infiltrate a gala like in a spy movie.

The twins were in disguise. Alphinaud dressed smartly, wearing his hair a little differently, pretending to be some wealthy foreign diplomat while mingling with the guests and gathering information. Alisaie was wearing a lovely dress and had her hair down, she looked absolutely gorgeous! She was mostly trying to blend in with the crowd while doing some recon. Thancred was practically invisible, like when he helped us in Garlemald, and provided lookout for everyone. Estinien pretended to be security. Eventually my WoL had to get involved when shit hit the fan. 😆

[sheepwithspecs]

Freedom of Choice

|| FFXIV || Rated G || XIVRarepairWeek2024 ||

Ao3 Link

He was an idealist, she was a realist; can I make it any more obvious?

Day 1: Fated Arenvald x Fordola

“I wish you’d turn out that light.”

Arenvald turned his attention from the creased parchment in his hands, peering through his bangs at his sullen bedmate. Fordola had her face buried in one of his spare pillows, both arms burrowed beneath it as though she planned to smother herself in the soft featherdown. “Some of us are trying to sleep,” she added, her trademark scowl evident in every muffled word. At that moment, the midnight bell chimed low and strong from the chronometer.  

“Sorry, sorry.” Smiling patiently, he refolded the parchment and tossed it onto the bedside table. “It’s only that Alphinaud’s letters are always so interesting,” he explained, adjusting his legs with painstaking care before shoving a pillow beneath them. Pillows and cushions had come to be indispensable in the months since his accident, being one of the easiest ways to prevent pressure sores. He was on his way to becoming something of a connoisseur, gathering castoffs from all over Ala Mhigo in order to gauge the quality of the fabric, the firmness, the moldability, even the strength of the stitching. Fordola made no mention of his growing stash, though perhaps that was because she seemed to prefer using him as a pillow instead.

“He’s going to the New World soon,” Arenvald settled the bedclothes over his legs with a heartfelt sigh. “Tural, he said. I’m almost jealous… I wish I could go.”

“Then go,” Fordola grunted, peering at him from beneath her elbow. “Put that linkshell of yours to use and tell him you’re coming along for the ride.”  

“I could go, I suppose,” he mused, lacing his fingers on his stomach. “It’s not as though I’m bound by any real authority, not like when I was a Scion. And it’d be nice to travel again; exploring the star, meeting new people, delving into ancient ruins or scaling mountains in search of adventure…. But I’m better off staying here. There’s still plenty to do for Ala Mhigo, not to mention the former Skulls and their families. The Silver Griffins need me now more than ever.”  

“Glad that’s settled. Turn out the light.”

“Besides….” Arenvald grinned. “I’d much rather wait until a certain someone can come along, too.”

“It might take a long time, if you’re banking on me.” She gave up the pretense of sleep, rolling onto her side to face him. “Who knows when they’ll see fit to set me free, if they care to at all. Time means nothing to a gaoler.”

“If you ask me, you’re one of the few things in my life worth waiting for.”

“Hmph.”

Arenvald couldn’t bring himself to voice the full truth: the thought of being so far away from her, even for a day, was almost too much to bear. The Resistance soldiers already joked that they were nigh inseparable, with Fordola serving as a volunteer for the Silver Griffins as well as his unofficial bodyguard in the field.

There were, of course, those who found their relationship less than palatable, snide whispers and sidelong glances. The bastard and the butcher. There were those who insisted that Fordola must have seduced him, perhaps employing some Garlean technological trick that kept him in her thrall. Others were more simple in their hatred, calling her a whore and him a whoreson in the same breath. They weathered the insults in stride, her raging fire the fuel for his diplomatic tongue.

At their core, they were the same—children of Ala Mhigo. His half-Garlean blood had left him no better off than her efforts to earn their favor. In Garlean eyes, they were savages; to Gyr Abanians, they were traitors. If his lot in life was easier, it was only due to the fact that he’d arrived on the winning team, so to speak. It was strange to think that in another life he might have been a Skull, or she a Scion.

“Do you think—” he began, the thought sparking an idea, “that if things had happened differently—if our lives had been different, I mean—would we have still ended up like this?”

“What are you going on about now?” she huffed. “I thought we were talking about the New World.”

“I know, but listen. Remember that time after your father died, when you had a chance to run away from Ala Mhigo and start a new life with the refugees? What if you had? Or what if I had never left the city, and instead I’d joined up with the Skulls when I was older, or… or anything else, really. Do you think we’d have still found one another, even if things were different?”

Fordola stared at him without a word, lips parted in utter disbelief. After a moment she fell back to the pillow with a groan, rubbing her eyes with the heels of both palms.  

“Probably not?! What the hells kind of question is that?!”

“You don’t think we’re meant to be?”

“No! No one’s meant to be!” she snapped, gracing him with her best snarl. Her brows were furrowed deep enough to nearly meet over her nose, lips twisted almost comically in her annoyance. “There’s no such thing as soulmates or what have you; it’s all a heap of rubbish! That’s the sort of tripe spouted off by poets with no more common sense than a dodo two days from the axe.”

“But what about fate? Destiny? You don’t believe in that?”

“Tch! Of course not!” Fordola sat up, looming over him with a stern glare. “Fate’s nothing but a bloody myth. People do things because they want to, not because the stars are aligned. Rhalger himself could tell me otherwise and I still wouldn’t believe a single word. I’m here because I choose to be here, and no other reason. The only one in charge of my destiny is me. Now turn off this godsdamned light and stop asking silly questions!”

She lunged across the bed before he could move, arms straining to reach as she forcefully clicked the lantern shut, dousing the flame within and throwing the room into darkness. He blinked the spots from his eyes, waiting until she rolled back to her side of the bed before venturing to speak.

“Do you know what I think?”

“For fuck’s sake— No, I don’t know, and I don’t care to. Go to sleep!”

“I think that in every world, all the parts of you and all the parts of me… we always find one another, no matter what.”  

“Well, Ithink your friends are a bunch of liars. I’ll believe in other worlds when I see them for myself, and not a day before.”

“I think we knew each other before, when there was only one world. I think even in the Final Days we were together. I think—”

“Arenvald!” He fell silent, heart beating strong with conviction. Now that the thought had taken root in the forefront of his mind, it was nearly impossible to ignore. Maybe this was part of the Echo, the memory of what once-was. Maybe Fordola didn’t feel the same way because the Resonant was not built with such capabilities in mind. Or maybe she was right, and he was just being ridiculous. But even so—

He was startled from his thoughts by cool fingers on his chin, turning his head with a gentle touch that belied his partner’s strength. She placed a clumsy kiss on the corner of his mouth, the barest flutter of lips, before resting her cheek on his chest.

“If it makes you feel better to think that way, go ahead and believe it,” she sighed, the breath tickling his sternum. “But don’t get upset when I call you a fool.”

“I think—” He wormed his arm beneath her, pulling until she was flush to his side. Even in this way, they seemed to fit together so well…. “I think that’s just my way of saying that I’d choose you in every lifetime, too.”

“Hmph. That’s not what I said.”

“That’s what you meant, though, isn’t it?” Arenvald smirked. He could practically feel the full force of her blush, hot as an iron against his bare skin. “Isn’t it? Fordola?”

“… Shut up and go to sleep.”   

[theblackestnight-ffxiv]

[ffxivwrite2024] prompt 1: steer

D’zinhla had been on enough vessels to know that danger lurked just offshore.

The fact that large vessels were unable to come to the piers of Tuliyollal made sense to her long before the shoals came into view. Or the evidence of them; the waters themselves were dotted with a few exposed rocks, but the shoals were not directly visible, not from this distance, not in this angle of sun. It was more about the darkening of the water, the way the waves moved over them, subtle signs of the danger they represented.

A formidable barrier for the coastal city, protecting them from seagoing raiders. She wondered if that had ever been a concern in the city’s history; her knowledge of Tural and its peoples was sparse, and lacked any mention of piracy, so she could hardly be sure one way or the other. 

Protection, perhaps; but the shoals were also providing a significant barrier to entry for peaceful sea travel. She had no doubt that stout merchant vessels, riding low to the waterline with cargo holds full of goods, wouldn’t dare risk venturing past them, but that would mean anchoring well offshore, and depending upon smaller vessels to ferry those goods back and forth. She could already see some of those small vessels in the distance, putting out from the piers to meet the ship from western waters.

Their own conveyance was being prepared, and D’zinhla shifted the pack on her shoulders, feeling a tingle of impatience to get ashore. Not even the thought of putting a line into the waters to see what fish patrolled the edge of the shoals could distract her from that. Well, not too much; she did make a note to pay her way onto a fishing vessel later, when she had the time. 

She heard and felt Airraim’s low chuckle behind her, and her ears perked appreciatively at the sound as she glanced back. Her beloved was smiling at her, golden eyes bright. “Eager to begin your new adventure?” Airraim asked.

She laughed, tilting her head. “I’d think it’d be more surprising if I was not!”

“True enough, my heart,” Airraim acknowledged with her own headtilt. “I suppose you’re already imagining the fish you could catch here.” She then laughed as Zin flushed.

“Guilty,” she admitted, unable to feel too abashed. “I know, I know, we’ve a lot to do beforehand, and likely some statecraft to acknowledge, what with attending an important personage, but it can’t hurt to think about the fishing!”

“Because that’s more pleasant than the statecraft, I know,” and Airraim rested a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry, I’ll pay close mind to it, in case yours has drifted to sea from the drone of diplomatic niceties.”

Now she did feel embarrassed, a little bit, because it was clearly her responsibility to become informed about what it was she and her fellows had agreed upon when they took up the invitation from Wuk Lamat. 

Before she could say as much, Airraim had continued. “And I’m certain that Alphinaud and Krile will be listening closely themselves, saving you and Alisaie the additional effort.”

She flushed, but couldn’t argue that she was more inclined to Alisaie’s action-oriented disposition than Alphinaud’s careful consideration of interpersonal issues.

“You know we’ll help you put your foot right. Or at least, not straight into it,” her beloved added, with a smirk that Zin could hear.

She sighed and leaned back; the pack she wore prevented her from directly leaning into Airraim, dammitall, but the feeling of contact was there. “I do appreciate it, Airraim.”

“I know. Now, come on, it looks as if our ferry is ready.”

Gladdened by the reassurance that she wasn’t solely responsible for charting their course, D’zinhal rocked her weight forward to the balls of her feet, preparing to take her first steps into the new adventure that awaited. Just as soon as she got to land.

[wolpromptaday]

#FFXIV #WOLpromptAday

March 4, 2025


What if Alphinaud Leveilleur never got over the depression he felt after Heavensward? If he went back to Sharlayan without assisting the Doman refugees.

Never assisted in the Dragonsong War. Was not there to aid Tataru Taru when she was captured. Absent when Haruchafaunt lead the van through the Vault. Never there to save the Asure Dragoon. Unable to gather reconnaissance about Eulmore. Did not act as a diplomat to Garlemald.

What would have happened if Alphanald was never in Eorzea?

[hear-feel-think]

FFXIVWrite2024 | #18 - Hackneyed

Rating: G

River, Alphinaud, and Alisaie engage in some light theatre criticism.

—————

“The plot was hackneyed, the characters derivative,” River scoffed as he left the theatre. 

“Why River, I didn’t know you were well-versed in the dramatic arts,” said Alphinaud. “I thought your artistic purview was focussed on the musical side of things.”

River rolled his eyes. “It doesn’t take a critic to know that that display of buffoonery was not worth the price of entry.”

Alphinaud shrugged diplomatically as they followed the path between white stone buildings back to the Leveilleur estate. “It’s certainly not the best play I’ve ever seen, but the costumes and effects were quite beautiful.”

Alisaie’s arms had been firmly crossed since about halfway through the performance. “No, no, I agree with River,” she said. “They could’ve at least gotten my name right.”

River shook his finger at Alphinaud. “The next time someone comes around asking for permission to write a play about the Scions or the Final Days or anything else I was involved in, I want to see the script before we sign the contract.”

[unionizedwizard]

also thinking. about ultima thule. alphinaud and alisaie going together mirroring y'shtola and urianger. both alisaie and y'shtola favor a more direct and focused course of action, and hold (sometimes brutal) honesty in the highest regard because they believe that telling the truth (even - especially - if it's Bad News) is the decent and honorable thing to do (see: alisaie lashing out at ryne "promising" to find a cure for the light corruption before the Tempest trip; y'shtola confronting urianger about his lies). both alphinaud and urianger being support-based healers, diplomatic and cautious, and deeply valuing their friends' contribution (partly as a way to atone for their past deeds and The Consequences). something interesting here