#.:Ysayle's Shards:.

[disciple-of-frost]

Putting this discussion under the cut because I CAN'T NOT talk about this NPC we meet in Dawntrail!

I am unwell!

This is 100% Ysayle's shard from this reflection yes????

Also I do not recall anyone using specific pronouns for them so I hereby decree Shale is nonbinary. And even if it turns out that Shale does use "she" she can still be she/they.

[shivasdarknight]

#wolqotd #wolquestion more like ancient question but how does venat get to meet your azem/ancient? and if it's the case, how does she (and/or remaining convocation peers) eventually appoint them as the next azem in line?

THIS IS A FUN QUESTION especially since this ties in with Charon and their relationships - ex and otherwise.

So, quick establishing info: Charon was the younger sibling of Hermes. They looked a lot like him, they were trans masc + genderfluid, Exclusively went by they/them, and a...very opinionated person. They were briefly seeing Emet-Selch and Hythlodeus, at some point. Briefly. They're exes.

When Venat met Charon, they were still with those two. So, one of the partners of her coworker. At this time, they were very much so like their brother: quiet, kinda depressive, spitting image of him with the dark, dull blue hair and startling green eyes. Venat - the very outgoing woman that she is - was quick to try and interact with them since I mean...she figures it's just polite to do so since they were the partner of her coworker.

She could also quickly tell that they weren't happy in that relationship. Mostly out of curiosity, she offered to take Charon on as an apprentice since it was a job that would allow Charon the freedom of travel that they didn't have. I still haven't figured out what it was, but let's be honest it was probably something lower ranking to do with experimental magic.

Once away from Amaurot and allowed space to breathe, the conflict became very clear: they were exactly like their brother in that they were deeply uncomfortable with the structure of their society and how it impacted those who were less fortunate - except unlike Hermes, this was mostly aimed at folks who weren't a good fit. Like those with lesser aether, or with issues with magic, or I don't know - someone disabled like them.

The ancient society screams ableism and I'm dying on this hill.

Anyways, once they're not as suffocated by that they start to really flourish under Venat? They talk a lot about their discomfort with their partners and how complacent they are with the state of things, how they just don't seem to care and all. Those two can't put themselves in someone else's shoes and see that there's something fundamentally wrong. Venat is one of the few people who sits down with them to walk them through their issues. So is it really any surprise that not only does Charon really begin to enjoy their travels with her, but really start to admire her?

This is around the time that Charon starts bleaching their hair, because they want to match with Venat - which yeah, Venat finds that really endearing. Charon grows more and more distant with their partners until it gets to where they dump them altogether. As Charon begins to grow more into themself, they get a hell of a lot more bold and outspoken and it brings out this petty streak of theirs.

Deeply petty.

Venat's choice to retire is both so she can be of help to a greater freedom than Azem would be, but also because she wanted to spend time with her partner, Khione. The two were hoping to have children, but unfortunately Khione was infertile.

Charon partly takes on the title of Azem to allow Venat that free time since they deeply disagreed with the whole. Dying when your job is finished thing, because they thought that was fucking dreary and disturbing. But also it's fucking funny being Azem because now they have to work with Emet, which.

I mean they hated it. They were constantly coming back home to Hermes to vent about how it felt like things were being undermined because of the fact that they were exes - yet he was the senior Convocation Member thus they couldn't say shit!

Their wanderlust was part of what made them a good choice for Azem, but their bullheadedness and their habit to take matters into their own hands resulted in them constantly getting in trouble with the Convocation. Lahabrea, especially, could not stand them. About the only one they got along with was Themis, and that's because he's Venat's younger brother in this.

The Convocation also didn't take too kindly to Charon hooking up with Venat and Khione. Partly because they thought Venat was kind of being selfish by not passing on, but also because they were just very hypercritical of anything Charon did. The further they got into the Convocation, the more obnoxious they got. And this continued into the Final Days.

About their only supporter was Hermes when he joined, and they actually advocated his appointment so that they'd have back up. They just weren't anticipating that he'd join on with the Zodiark project, and that resulted in them abandoning the Convocation to help Venat and her allies with the Hydaelyn project. They were to be the Heart of Hydaelyn, but they died before they could do so.

So yeah, it went from "partner of a coworker" to "apprentice" to "successor" to "lover" to "accomplice". Venat and Charon have a really interesting relationship, and this extends into Hydaelyn and all of Charon's incarnations - especially now that they've reincarnated into Surkukteni.

[cyazurai]

Dawntrail spoiler contemplations below.

Okay, so, playing through Dawntrail the first time, and the second time as well, when I reached the Backroom and met Shale... she reminds me of Ysayle.

Not a whole lot, not overtly, but the pale, light hair, light blue eyes, and general face shape.

I'm probably the only one. But with everything, I wonder if maybe, since she's from Alexandria, she's a shard of Ysayle's. Or, if she was born inside the dome, perhaps she's actually Ysayle reborn.

I know I'm wrong, because characters can look similar without being shards or anything, but this is wishful thinking because Ysayle was such a cool character and Shale is also a super cool character, and I just think it would be neat if they were related in some way.

[penthepoet]

Time To Inflict More Liscanon Content On You (or, a selection of Fun Threads On Bluesky About My XIV Character)

Will be updated more as time goes on.

[SPOILERS FOR ALL OF FINAL FANTASY XIV, XV, AND DRAKENGARD CONTAINED WITHIN.]

Essentials

Lis's Faith/the Scarlet Faith - a brief thread talking about Lis being the reincarnation of Angelus, from Drakengard 1.

The Many Crossovers of Liscanon - A short thread listing the various crossovers of Liscanon.

Qlisaiah Amaranth's Characterization in a Nutshell - examining why Lis is the way she is, through the lens of the past lives she's attached to

Why's Thancred Such A Dick in Liscanon? - Examining why Thancred Waters is the way he is in Liscanon.

The Hoard/the Polycule of Qlisaiah "Lis" Amaranth - Examining the character dynamics between the polycule of one (1) Qlisaiah "Lis" Amaranth, and who makes up said polycule.

What The Fuck Is Up With Ardyn Izunia's Starscourge In Liscanon - Examining how Ardyn Izunia and the Starscourge work in Liscanon.

Dark Knight Gladiolus Amicitia - How Gladio and Lis get together, and what causes Gladio to undergo the Dark Knight questline (what changes him into the Dark Knight he becomes).

The Various NPC OCs of Liscanon - a list covering some of the main OCs in Liscanon, from the Quiet Trio to Emmerololth and Veritas!

The Society of the Wine-Darkened Sea - A thread surrounding a group that existed in the Unsundered World that Azem (Morevna) belonged to.

What Are Records/Record Tomes? - Explanation of Lis's Record Tomes and why she compiles them.

With Friends Like These - An expanding thread series on Lis's connections to her best friends (Zenos, Noctis, Ysayle, Minfilia, Urianger and Ardbert), starting with Minfilia.

Fun (and Vital) Worldbuilding/Character-Building

The Truth-Grip Visionry (or, how Lis's Echo Works) - A brief explanation of Lis's Echo.

Emet-Selch and Lis - How Emet-Selch and Lis grew to care for each other.

The Quiet Trio - Lis's adventuring pupils, discussed in full!

The Chainbond Jewelry - a certain tool that becomes highly useful in Liscanon

Lis's Job Quest Divergencies - A short thread covering some of the various divergencies in Lis's job quests.

Who Does Lis Regret Losing? - A thread on the people Lis regrets losing that turns into a rumination of the state she's in going into Shadowbringers.

That Poor Guy Must Be Struggling So Bad - a rambling thread on how Prompto feels about Gladio's DRK questline from an external perspective (slightly outdated but still very fun!)

The Red-Eyed Doll - A thread talking about an adaptational difference in In From The Cold with big ripple effects.

The Members of the Wine-Darkened Tribunal - A list of members for the adventuring group/coven/organization that Lis forms post-EW alongside her founding of the citystate of Lycoris, the Twilight Sanctuary!

The Various Shards of Morevna of the Dead Leaves, Seat of Azem - A list of various Shards of Morevna, across the world!

Miscellaneous Facts/Ramblings

Lis and Letters - a short thread talking about Lis's letter-writing habits

The Song of the Ancients in Liscanon - [ShB + EW Spoilers] How the Song of the Ancients from Nier is the theme for Lis and all connected to her.

Beloved Items - Some of Lis's most treasured items, and why.

[elizabethrobertajones]

So I've been thinking about Fransi way too much, on account of now levelling up what was a side character in Frog's journey and becoming completely invested in a tiny rude farmer :)

Obviously the suggestion that your reaper avatar is your shard is incompatible with the suggestion Golbez (original flavour) is your shard from the 13th, both of which are now supported choices for the player to make and leave you rationalising the other option. And I picked the harder one since saying Golbez is your shard just means your pacted voidsent is some other guy.

I've been turning that over in my head, wondering what else he could be if not that.

Then it hit me that of course we know a handful of people with the echo so it's easy to quickly assign one of them to Golbez and maybe even just knowing them would be enough to manifest some weird shit.

Like, there's the ambiguity of if this was a past life for you or Estinien or just Your Weird New Bond with the dragoon job stone is what manifests Haldrath out of our dragoon stone in the level 50 Dragoon quest - I lean to it being our past life but it is pretty vague on account of the lore being so unknown to us at the time that we have no framework for this, vs like, even in SB patches when we learn about Tenzen we're sort of putting the dots together a bit more thanks to the Dotharl that this is a definite in-world mechanic. Although I'll always be mad everyone's so mean to Ysayle, who may absolutely not be Shiva's reincarnation but up until that point we shouldn't have been mean to her because we did know reincarnation was how souls worked in this universe, it just seemed to be very fringey to KNOW who you had been. And she still has a strong bond to Shiva regardless of not being her because of her echo memory of her. She may have made a Primalsona of her based on her expectations but at the end of the day I think they'd made a connection.

So there's fully a ton of reasons to think we could have reacted to Golbez's memory so dramatically, especially if he was a shard of someone we knew.

Then I was like, so who is that. Who is the best possible person for it to be.

Of course the whole theme of the story with him and Zero and the Thirteenth falling from a ton of mistrust and in fighting and manufactured war, and the crux of what may have saved them (well probably not but it created a What If) was Zero not daring to reach out. The whole story was about empathy and friendship.

THE most obvious soul to me to have been the shard of the person lumbering around in Golbez's armour trying to rally a dying world (while the Azem soul shard was off working a farm, oblivious) is the 13th shard of Krile with her hyper-empathy and friendship based echo.

[glacierbash]

Endwalker spoilers!! Thinking about Ysayleverelle!!

So I already have decided that post atiascope, iverelle gets a blue eye after basically capturing a smidge of shiva’s Aether, after she protects the party from Amon. But. What if I let her and Ysayle talk one final time. And it’s not some beautiful closure, but it’s iverelle pissed off and railing against the world, crying about how it just isn’t fair, and Ysayle just softly agree. This, “I don’t care about the next life, I deserved you in this one, a chance with you is the one thing I wanted and it’s not right that after EVERYTHING I have gone through, I couldn’t have even gotten that.”

And maybe Ysayle tries to mention the other shards, how they existed thirteen and one times over, how there’s still five, six other worlds where their souls might’ve met, and Iverelle just gets angrier, because she doesn’t CARE about the other shards, she doesn’t care about the other fragments of Azem and whoever Ysayle once was, SHE is the only iverelle that’ll ever live and it’s not fair that SHE had her first, and perhaps true, love taken from her.

It’s this absolutely selfish meltdown, where Iverelle just finally talks about what she wanted, and it was just to be happy with the woman who changed her for the better, the woman who told her, “you are more than just a weapon, a tool to be used, you’re a person,” when Iverelle needed to hear it most. She’s grieving the loss of a future, and the death of who she might’ve been. She’s angry about emet-selch and his light-Aether schemes changing her, she’s angry about azem not helping Hermes, she’s angry about Venat not being able to avert the final days, she’s angry about how so much of her life was dictated by people she’ll never meet, because of a soul she didn’t ask for, and how the one time she wanted something for herself it was doomed from the start.

There’s nothing Ysayle can say to that, of course, so she just holds her face, as Iverelle starts to cry. The scions are calling Iverelle on, but she’s just. Breaking. And the eye changing is less Iverelle catching a piece of shiva, but rather Ysayle offering a tiny piece of herself. There are no more words spoken, before Ysayle is gone—and that’s it. Iverelle spends her last goodbye angry, and missed her chance. But Ysayle doesn’t blame her; iverelle is just left blaming herself.

[autumnslance]

You ever think that technically Shiva and by proxy Ysayle blessed Ryne/Gaia with a small present of a shard of eternal ice? Which was turned into a pendant that helped Gaia remember. When you remember that it was implied that Ysayle was manipulated onto her doomed path by Ascians this feels like more than coincidence? Shiva or Ysayle helping to save Gaia from a Ascian…

I tend to think that because Eden Shiva, like the others, is spun from WoL's memories, that perhaps that thought, consciously or subconsciously, of Ysayle's manipulation by the Ascians, of her life and story being cut short when she had just learned the truth and her friends having nothing left of her when she was lost, might have had an influence WoL didn't even realize, manifesting in ways that ended up saving Gaia. Hedging our own bets without realizing it, just doing something, anything, to prevent repeated tragedy and have something to recall this time.

Ysayle's story and how she affected WoL being the catalyst, so less direct but still extremely important in the end, even before we were aware of what was actually happening with Eden.

Also makes for an interesting link, from the story of original Shiva, to primal Shiva and Ysayle, and having to summon those aspects based on very painful memories around the Dragonsong War and being the culmination of our elemental summonings, why the lyrics and singing of "Return to Oblivion" are so desperate; we didn't get it in the actual dialogue like so many wanted, but there's a lot of Refulgence rooted in WoL's grief and fear of history repeating again with a new Shiva.

Which is why I ended up writing an entire story on why summoning the aspect of ice was so hard for my WoL.

[lunarosewood23]

FFXIVWrite2024 Prompt 10: Stable

XVI -> XIV crossover and both Endwalker and MotR spoilers: The gang crashlands in the Omphalos after getting back from Valisthea. Fts @starswornoaths's Serella and a few of @inkblood-mistrieu's characters.

~~~

Raven still couldn't believe it, yet while she made her calls to Serella and the others as she stared at the monolith of the Omphalos she felt tears stinging in her eyes.

They were home.

A gasp caught her attention and Raven looked down at the others. Their newfound friends from Valisthea came with them too!

And they looked like they were all going to be sick. Well, the ones not currently being tended to by Mingxia, who was doing her best to stop the spread of the petrification trying to take the three who fought at Origin.

She was no healer, but she could still try singing.

Ratatoskr? Can you help me one more time?

“You know I will hatchling. Especially after you helped in rescuing my brood brother.”

With that Raven began to sing. It wasn't much of a melody, but it seemed to help stabilize them until L'tahsu and Serella showed up with Hopeful Vine, G’raha, Noudenet and Haumeric.

"...Hopeful Vine, Noudenet, Uathach, prepare the space. We begin operation immediately." L’tahsu stated as he knelt next to Mingxia and the three men who appeared to have...dead yew leaves on their chests.

Raven flung her arms around Serella. “Thank goodness I've missed you!!”

“I missed you, too-and came as quickly as I could! You have me worried, friend." Serella replied.

“Sorry, but in my defense it was urgent.” Raven admitted sheepishly. “Once we get them stable you think Tataru will let us keep them in the Rising Stones until they're well enough to travel?”

“I have no doubt. But while they rest you have to tell me what happened.” Serella assured. "Though for now, at least give me their names and some sort of explanation for what happened. Can't help if I don't know what's going on."

Raven nodded and began pointing out everyone, starting with the three L'tahsu had started to work on. “The man with black hair is Clive Rosfield, the redhead is his brother Joshua, and the blonde in white is his stepbrother, Dion Lesage. Those three sustained the worst damage as they fought the big bad.”

She then began pointing out the ones who were merely aethersick. “The wolf is named Torgal, who is the sweetest hound we've met. I think Vardr would be glad to have a friend. The woman with long silvery hair is Jill Warrick. I think you and Ysayle would do best with her, she's specialized in ice magic. She and Clive are also very close.”

“The woman with short brown hair and is dressed like a Tonberry is Jote. She's Joshua's retainer and...I think they're dating? I don't entirely know their deal.” She explained as she pointed to the woman that Haumeric was tending to before looking at a man with brown hair in a militaristic cut and wearing silver armor, the crest of a dragon set on his breastplate. A young girl about the same age as Kaia and Zephirin’s foundlings was clinging to him. “Terence and Kihel. He's Dion's second in command, while the child saved his life after a shitshow in one of the cities. I think Zephirin is gonna have words with Dion, and Kaia might find a kindred soul in Terence, who knows.”

“As for the lovely blonde woman over there-” She pointed to her, who G'raha had been tending to. “-that's Benedikta Harmon. She made me think of Yotsuyu, a little.”

“Similar stories.” Rukia offered. “Yotsuyu might have a kindred spirit with her, and Barbarricia.”

“As for what happened, well...the super rushed TLDR version is we were called, we made friends, aaaaaaaand we saved a shard of Etheryis from potentially rejoining, or just getting blown out of existence. I’m not entirely sure at this point. But we’re back! And we brought our new friends with us because someone-” She looked over at Mingxia, who was currently smushed against Dion and looking like she was going to fold at any minute. “-shared her aether around among them.”

“Sounds about right.” Serella stated. “Well I’m glad you guys are back. Thankfully it’s been quiet since you guys disappeared, though I hope Mingxia knows she chose an interesting place to drop off her friend Telamon.”

“Cid’s here? Hell yeah thank gods!” Rukia piped up. “I missed that sexy silver fox.”

“Of course you would.” Serella replied with a sigh and a fond shake of her head before looking at the ones collapsed on the ground. “How bad are they guys?”

Haumeric sighed as he looked up from where he was knelt at Jill's side, her silvery hair falling in her face. “A majority will merely be aethersick for a good while, however I worry for those three.” He explained as he looked towards L’tahsu, Hopeful Vine and Noudenet, who seemed to be in focus at the three people that looked to be in various stages of...petrifying?!

“What the...why does that look like what we saw on the First with the Inn patients??” Serella asked.

“Their world isn’t exactly kind to magic users, or those who held similar magic to Ysayle and could summon a primal into their bodies. Not to mention that their bodies are suffering from an aether depletion.” Haurchefant explained, already switching to his white magic kit to help. “Though I would liken this more to what Giott and I saw with the dwarves, stoneblight.”

Serella nodded as she sighed. “Oh boy...alright. I didn’t think to bring a porxie but-”

“No need I got it.” Hopeful Vine assured as the creature flew over and landed on Clive while L’tahsu finished up on Joshua.

“I’ll introduce you to everyone properly when they’ve woken up.” Raven promised before looking to the others. “One of us should call Tataru and see if we can borrow the Rising Stones for a bit while they recover.”

“I’ll call.” Rukia offered. “Someone should also call Telamon too, unless he came with you.”

“I actually told him to wait in Mor Dhona.” Serella replied. “I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to bring him to the Omphalos, all things considered.”

“Then I’ll go get him too.” Rukia replied as she stood. “I can even take one of them with me if you want.”

Raven looked over at the Valistheans in thought before nodding to Benedikta. “Take Benedikta. I’d say take Kihel but I think Terence would freak the hell out if you did.”

“Cid might also appreciate seeing Bene too.” Rukia agreed as she slowly sat the woman up, who groaned. “Hey Bene, how are you feeling?”

“I feel as though I'm going to vomit.” She groused, her hazel green eyes clouded by the aethersickness. “Ugh where's my pipe...”

“Easy Bene, I'm taking you to somewhere you can rest. Can you stand or would you prefer I carry you?”

Benedikta tried to stand on her own but keeled over the second she was upright. “Damnit...alright some help would be appreciated. Where are we?” She asked as she winced at the light.

“Not in Valisthea, that's for sure.” Rukia stated. “You're in our world now. Hate that your first little bit is spent like this, but welcome to Eorzea.”

“Too bright...” She grumbled.

Rukia giggled as she went to carry her. “Go back to sleep Bene. Don't worry, we'll get you somewhere cozy and something light to eat to help with the bad stomach bug. Your body is gonna need time to get used to the aether here.”

Serella watched Benedikta sigh and close her eyes, choosing to trust Rukia after what felt like bells.

“Thanks Bene. I gotcha.” Rukia soothed as she scooped her up. She looked up at Serella with a sigh. “Like I said, she's like Yotsuyu. Been through hell. Should probably introduce them when she's better.”

“There's a lot of people who they should be introduced to. I know for a fact Zephirin’s gonna have words with that one.” Raven sighed as she pointed to Dion, whom Mingxia was clinging to.

“Agreed. But I'll meet you guys at the Stones. Call if you need help.” Rukia nodded as she walked out, though not before Haumeric put a necklace and pair of wristbands on Benedikta. If she remembered correctly from when L'tahsu treated Telamon, they would help in easing the amount of aether intake.

She sighed. “You need me to make more of the jewelry?”

“If you are willing and able that would be most appreciated.” Hopeful Vine replied in L'tahsu's stead. “These three are in the worst shape, but the others are severely aethersick. Thankfully they’re all under a sleep spell to help with the nausea.”

Serella nodded and got to work, but noticed Jill slowly reaching for Clive. Her eyes were closed but she seemed to be murmuring in her sleep.

“...Clive...hurt...Shiva...” She murmured before going still.

“Shiva?” Serella asked.

“Y’know how Haurchefant said that there were people who were like Ysayle and could summon primals into their bodies?” Raven asked. When Serella nodded she pointed at Jill. “She could summon Shiva. She might’ve been trying to use her powers to help Clive.”

“There were others like her too. A total of nine, though one of them technically wasn’t supposed to exist. One for the six elements, plus Light and Darkness, and the bonus one.” Floriano explained. “They were called Dominants there, and not all of them are here. The Dominants of Titan and Odin, are dead. Rukia just carried off the Dominant of Garuda.”

“Hold up a sec, trying to set these correctly.” Serella explained as she had already pulled out her goldsmithing tools and was setting a gem in a necklace. “Sorry, continue.”

“You met Telamon, who had Ramuh.” Raven started before pointing to Joshua, “Phoenix.” then pointed to Clive. “Ifrit.”

“And finally, the reason we got pulled to their world, Bahamut.” She finished as she pointed to Dion. “While there we discovered that the Bahamut of their world was actually the Dawn Wyrm of ours. The big bad yanked his soul from the Lifestream after he died in our world and dragged him there.”

"By the Twelve...were Ascians involved, do you think?"

“We think it was an Ascian, but the way that thing was warped into some undead ginseng sephirot, we don’t know what it was that made it like that, though it made Mingxia really sick by the looks of it.” Raven explained as she looked over at Mingxia before sighing. “I need to get a hold of Hades, because if there’s anyone who would know how the hells Bahamut got to another shard after his death, it’d be him.”

“You mean if he didn’t have a hand in it?” Serella muttered bitterly as she passed off several necklaces to Haumeric before starting on the wristbands.

“He does have soul sight. Wouldn’t be surprised if the fucker yanked Bahamut out of the Lifestream himself and gave him to the corrupted Ascian to cause a Rejoining.” Raven grumbled. “Either way, if I want answers for how he got there, the best chance to get answers is him.”

Serella patted Raven on the shoulder as L’tahsu rubbed at his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, appearing to be done with at least Clive before moving to Dion, the one that Raven said carried Bahamut. 

“Gods I hope the song of your soul becomes something more than just a beautiful tragedy, Dion. Now that you're here, somewhere you can actually heal without duty trying to slow you down...” Raven prayed as she looked over towards Terence and huffed a breath of relief. “And you won't be alone either.”

Serella gave her a worried look as the brunette seemed to be reaching for the blonde, albeit weakly.

“G'raha, help him.” Raven stated softly.

He looked at her in confusion before he noticed what was happening and placed his hand closer, letting him take the blonde's hand and weakly squeeze it before going still again.

Serella looked at Raven, who only gave a small smile. “They're married. Have been for years, even if they couldn't show it. But also he's his pillar of support, the only one he had for most of his life.”

Serella blinked at their joined hands before sighing. “There's a story there.”

“There is, but sadly one I can't elaborate on until they wake up.”

“Gotcha.” Serella nodded as she passed off a few sets of wristbands to go with the necklaces she made before they heard a gasp and a swear from L'tahsu. They looked up to find Mingxia slumped on the ground while the blonde, Dion, was for the most part breathing, even if he was still passed out on the ground before everyone shrieked.

“MINGXIA!!”

Suddenly, they watched the redhead, Joshua, slowly blink as he opened his eyes. He sat up and took in their surroundings before spotting Mingxia on the ground. “Soul sister...”

Serella blinked and watched as Joshua reached over and take her hand. He placed it to his chest before a spark of a flame erupted from his hand. “Please soul sister...”

Mingxia gasped before she winced. “Ugh...Fried Chicken did you-” She started before falling over against his chest, where she spotted a familiar glyph on his chest peeking from his shirt.

“A flower...”

“A flower?” Serella asked as she looked at the redhead. “Wait, are they-”

“Joshua has a similar flower to Mingxia.” Foulques supplied. “And he is just as prone to gambling with his life as she is.”

“Oh boy...there's two of them now...” She sighed.

“Joshua and Mingxia both having that glyph are the biggest clue we have for us thinking we were on another reflection.” Raven explained as Mingxia bunted her face against Joshua.

“You okay Fried Chicken?”

Joshua chuckled as he leaned his head against her. “I'll be alright. But where's-” He started but soon spotted Clive. “Clive!”

He started to try to move when he was hit with an intense wave of nausea and a cane landed firmly on his shoulder stopped him from moving.

“Do not move, your brother will be fine.” Noudenet assured. “Your little stunt saved Mingxia’s life and spared us the trouble of spending more energy to bring her back, but that was still risky. Rest now little bird, go back to sleep.”

Joshua groaned, feeling drowsy, but reached over to take his brothers’ hands and hold them to his chest. Mingxia hugged him tightly as he murmured “We did it...and we're alive for our efforts...thank you...”

"Yep. We made it. Somehow. Thank you Dad. Oooogh...that. That was. Too close.” Mingxia groaned  before they saw her wobble a bit before flopping on top of Joshua.

“Damnit Novice...” Foulques grumbled before looking at Floriano. “Can you check to see if Rukia’s gotten them a place to sleep?”

Floriano nodded as Serella sighed. She looked at the aether-surgeon. “Are they clear to be moved? While the Phantom Realm is good for discretion, it's not ideal in the ways of comfort.” She questioned softly as she finished the last of the jewelry sets for the three men from another star.

“Yes, they should be clear to be moved, though they still need to be heavily monitored by some of the healers on hand.” L’tahsu stated before leveling a glare at Raven and the sleeping Mingxia. "Is it going to kill you people to not bring me critical cases every time you decide to take a walk?!"

“Hey we didn't plan this!” Raven grumbled. “Shit just kind of...happened.”

"My point still stands. The amount of trouble you all manage to get into accidentally is beyond unreasonable." He groused in annoyance.

"At least we're not causing you problems on purpose?"

L'tahsu sighed as he rubbed at his temple. "I suppose I will have to be satisfied that I have something new to study and solve. I should have expected something when you all disappeared."

“At least it was quiet? But in any event, want me to rehash what I already said or do you wanna hear the tale from them? I'm assuming you already heard a bit of it from Telamon.”

"I have the gist of it. I will hear the rest once they are well. Twelve knows I will need the time to prepare my heart and blood pressure for the nonsense you both got up to- especially her." He thumbs at Mingxia.

"Hey I had what was basically my hometown 2.0 and his sperm donor-" She points at Dion. "-was basically Thordan."

"Lovely," L'tahsu says dryly. "I shall hope for a swift recovery."

Raven pouts as she grumbles something about a “rotten arrogant old man” as she moves to scoop up her oath brother. She heard Ratatoskr croon at him from within her soul.

Can you hear Bahamut, Ratatoskr?

“I can.” The crimson dragon replied from within. “He will be alright. He frets for your friend Mingxia.”

She’ll be fine. You’ve seen the nonsense she’s pulled off.

“I have, I have indeed. He wonders if they will be alright.”

They will. The aether isn’t trying to kill us here for one. The most they’ll deal with is a bad stomach bug for a few days, a week tops. I know it’s been several millennia since he’s been home, but it’s changed so much. Allag is long dead, Tiamat is well, and boy will she be thrilled to know her beloved is back in some form. Among other things...

She sighed as everyone picked up each of the Valistheans with some effort, but when Haumeric made to gather Jill he stopped and blinked.

“Hopeful Vine, could you come confirm something for me?” He asked.

“What's up?”

“Lady Jill's aether...I cannot see it, but while tending to her I thought I felt the presence of another? Not so much the primal she could call upon, but another person.”

Hopeful Vine blinked as she did a quick check before smiling. “She’ll need to be monitored carefully as well. Good catch, Haumeric.”

He smiled as he gently picked her up, making sure to carry her in a way that wouldn't put too much pressure on her belly. She may not be visibly showing, but better safe than sorry.

[selnyam]

So many thoughts

some thoughts about Flidais's story and where to go from here now that I beat Dawntrail below the cut. Spoilers for Dawntrail of course to follow

so I loved the expansion, even if the concept of using souls as batteries and erasing people who have passed gave me a real life panic attack that kept me up for a night. The idea of losing years of time, much less 30, in the blink of an eye to my loved ones is a personal fear of mine. That I could just forget things important to me. However it hit even HARDER for Flidais. She only has about 3.5 years worth of memories as is. She lost everything she knew prior to escaping from the Void and arriving in Western Thanalan. The idea that a device on your head could just erase any of her precious memories horrified her. If not for Wuk Lamat calling the shots she would had started pulling regulators of people's heads, stormed the tower and started breaking everything in sight. Then there's Living Memory. Seeing her friends and allies meet loved ones and get to say goodbye. Seeing Krile, her best friend, meet parents she never knew. Flidais doesn't have her family. She will never know them. Her 'sister' she pulled from the Void can tell her about them, but it isn't the same.

It hurt her in ways she couldn't explain, let alone try to communicate. She was happy for her friends but deep in her chest that old pain rose. She won't ever know her parents or her wives and children from before she was lost to the Void. She'll never see K'shai again, or Ysayle, or Moenbryda.

and it hurts so so so much. (that said! should the coming patches reveal that Alexandria was actually the 11th shard? Her original home? well that would mean Sphene would have pulled her family out to try and dissuade her. A family she wouldn't recognize. Or she would have family still alive in Solution 9 and that will lead to some intense writing from me.)

[mentorcrown]

okay i have slept on it and now have somewhat coherent thoughts about the dawntrail msq... less mad than i was when i first finished the game lmao

tl;dr overall it was an okay expansion. not a great one but not bad either. im looking forward to seeing where the game takes us

in terms of where id rate it in my personal scale-- where my personal scale does not indicate i hate an expansion, just that i dont enjoy it as much as other ones-- its below stormblood but above heavensward.

personal scale now: shadowbringers > endwalker > stormblood while zenos is on screen > rest of stormblood > dawntrail > heavensward while ysayle is on screen > ARR > rest of heavensward)

rest is under a read more because it contains blatant spoilers for the MSQ

things i loved

i loved all the ff9 references. ff9 is my most beloved game

i love you wuk lamat. i love you koana. i love you erenville.

the dungeon/trial design is top notch. lots of fights in endwalker feel very flat and not at all challenging. not this time. everything was great. it was engaging. parts were difficult in a good way. loved how even it was basically the same mechanics we've seen before, it was presented in interesting ways

dragons?? in MY dawntrail??? more likely than you think aka mission status sick cutscene

gripes(??)

the pacing was off. some parts felt completely unnecessary. especially the weird cowboy bandit thing ill be honest i could not have cared less than i did. i think that entire map could have been better spent focusing on the nomadic cat tribe(s).

first half of the story was stellar i loved that. it was a bit too expositiony in parts but i still loved every part of the first half (desert story not included). (this was at least partly because by my wife is an anthropologist and was fangirling the entire time)

second half was weak as fuck. i dont know why they needed to rehash the same thing we've seen the past 2 expansions. we did not another emet-selch archetype. i feel like the entire S9 stuff could have been handled so much better than it was.

the theories that people had pre-release about how s9 was likely a hidden city that did trade with the rest of tural. and that one of the brothers were likely working with them to destabilize tural; that story would have been so much better. they still could have had it be a shard idc. they could have kept the azem stuff too. i just did not care one little bit to have emet-selch/amaurot 2.0.

hated the "we have to save the world but lets fuck around as much as possible while our friends hold open the gate" plot sooo much. i get why we did it but holy hell the pacing shift from 'this is world ending' to whatever the hell was going on in the golden city was like Why.

did find the krile parents and erenville mother thing soft though. even if i am still livid about how they dangled erenvilles mother in front of him several times. the poor guy

i dont care about the scions. i DONT CARE about the scions. STOP SHOWING ME the scions. why are these old people not retired yet. rehash the scions. give me a new main cast. the twins and graha can stay.

[disciple-of-frost]

.:Reworking the 8th:.

So Shiva in FFXIII is split into two beings right, Stiria and Nix. I initially had it so that Ishi’s Shard on that world was Snow, but thinking back it makes waaaay more sense for the Shiva sisters to be both Ishita and Ysayle’s shards. Ishi’s being Stiria and Ysayle being Nix.

[swtorramblings]

Heavensward spoilers, I think.

From the journals of Valerie Yndera, Soul Hunter:

A memory from some time ago, during the last days of the war with the dragons. Shards of my soul called me to join the fight, but we all know now that our cause was unjust, and cost too many. Including a young orphan named Osaulie that could have been saved.

I had to ask, did he reach out to her? Or anyone? Knowing she was an orphan? Knowing that she had no one and nothing? Did anyone ever even ask her why she was a thief, one so young, or did everyone simply assume that she was to blame for her hardships?

No, I didn't ask her, either. I could have attempted to track her down, I have abilities and allies that would have made this easy enough. But I didn't. I was busy, it's true, the land needed both a hero and, eventually, a peacemaker. But who was her hero when she needed one?

One failure among many. Haurchefant. Ysayle. So many whose names I don't know and never can. Perhaps if we had just listened, the war might have ended in time to save many of them, including this young woman who only wanted to escape the life it had forced on her.

[primalruination]

📂

Nehra has a small tattoo of an ice shard on their inner wrist in honor of Ysayle.

[thescions]

begonia! for a muse of your choosing!!

Botanical Headcanons | Accepting

begonia : how cautious is your muse ? are they prone to noticing red flags , or paranoid to the point of untrusting most everyone ? why or why not ?

On this blog, we support an Ysayle-didn't-die AU. Instead, Ysayle's broken faith means she is unable to summon Shiva again, but ultimately was saved by Hraesvelgr and didn't burst into shards upon helping the Scions reach Azys Lla. She then was nursed back to health and looked after by Vidofnir and maintained a 'consultant' position between Ishgard and the Dravanians...for a time.

So!

Post-Heavensward Ysayle would be far more cautious when it came to trusting others. Despite her reputation as Lady Iceheart, Ysayle always had a bit of a soft spot for those seemingly in need. She wanted to desperately be the Person that her younger self had needed, and therefore welcomed nearly anyone spurned by Ishgard into their ranks.

But upon learning the truth of her visions and of Shiva, Ysayle could not go back to who she was. Already relatively guarded as the leader of the heretics, there are few whom she would easily confide in out of paranoia of ulterior motives. This would get to the point where Ysayle would have to leave Coerthas as a whole.

Perhaps she could be persuaded to one day join the Scions (post-Endwalker perhaps?), but it is more likely she would join those who sought to make peace with the beastman tribes. She'd likely end up in Gridania, entreating first with the Moogles of the Twelveswood at the behest of their Moghome kin. For awhile, she would only ever seem fully comfortable around those of similar tribes...and the Warrior of Light, of course.

[corgibardballads]

I absolutely love our dragon dad. I loved him the second we met him. But the lore between us and Midgardsormr is also interesting because it has changed context over time but also is so vague that I think we can interpret things the way we want until the writers fully figure out what they want to do. But I really hope he isn't gone gone. Every time we get any dragon lore I always expect to see a tiny Midgardsormr pop up again and sit on our shoulder just like old times. Replaying our first meeting is interesting because I feel like a lot of it has either changed or perhaps been given knew meaning over time.

I appreciate that dragons are almost eternal, super powerful, and depicted as flawed as the Greek gods because lets be honest... this is the worst take possible lol. Even Ysayle shares this take which is so interesting. Punishing the son for the sins of the father is 0/10. "This man just killed someone! He also has a one year old son. Clearly he is equally guilty and must also be killed!"

This is kinda interesting these days because it's kinda both? On the one hand we are the shard of Azem and we learned in Shb and EW that Hydaelyn's blessing only affects protecting your aether but has nothing to do with our inherent strength and unique abilities. So presumably we can attribute our uniqueness to being a shard rather than Hydaelyn's blessing. On top of that we learn in the EW quest where we inhabit another soldier's body that our ability to find things in the right place at the right time is also inherent to us (it seemed to imply we are unique as a whole rather than just our soul specifically). On the other hand we were technically chosen by Hydaelyn because meeting Venat in Elpis let her know which incarnation of us to specifically look out for and guide us. Anyway, just a cool continuation of how the lore grows.

So I kinda wonder about this... Venat says her magic simply guards one's aether from being altered or corrupted. Midgardsormr wouldn't have that power when he entered into his covenant with us and blocked our connection to Hydaelyn. So the primals we fought should have been a threat to us, but they weren't. I surmise that we may inherently have aether protection independent of Venat's magic. Considering what we know about Azem's role, or I guess how little we know, it seems logical to me that with everything they would be exposed too it's likely all Azems develop some sort of magic to protect their aether. And from that I would infer that we inherit it as a trait rather than being reliant on Hydaelyn's magic and that our connection to Hydaelyn is mostly about guidance to prevent Ascian plots. Granted this is speculation, but I feel it seems logical given what very little information we have.

As a dragoon this was written for me specifically to enjoy. But really I always felt that our LB3 was just momentarily fusing our aether with Midgardsormrs to abso-fucking-lutely wreck someone.

I was wondering about this bit too. If he fedon Hydaelyn's essence to regenerate and she is gone. It's possible that Midgardsormr's only connection to this world now if our covenant with him. It's possible that when we die, if he isn't able to regenerate enough to at least have his tiny form, he could just straight up die with us. Now they could change this later, but I think it's kinda cool if it stays that way.

Haha yeah. Yep crazy. Hey can we keep a little bird perch in here? Like no reason homie, just in case a lil guy wants to have a lil sit.

[aetherotransformer]

hancock: happens a year or so after ysayle dies because she sublimated her frustration at being forced to leave gyr abania and the ala mhigan resistance into the desire to maul loloritos little lackey the moment she set her eyes on him

elidibus: happens a few weeks after shes rendered unable to express her feelings towards ardbert because he fucking dies. yes this is in 5.3 so hes possessing ardberts corpse. yes its the only reason they hook up. btw elidibus does it only because ashen is a shard of aion its a toxic sludge of a situation and they both regret it