#FFXIV Write 2021

[nabaath-areng]

on the downside, ffxiv wont boot for me at all so i wont be able to continue msq for another 10 days at minimum....... <:-(

[shivasdarknight]

how long you would wait for me? how long I've been away? {ffxiv, wolestinien}

❆fandom: final fantasy xiv, ffxiv ❆characters: named warrior of light (Surkukteni), Estinien Wyrmblood/Varlineau, Krile Baldesion, Tataru Taru ❆relationship: wolestinien ❆dynamic: m/f ❆rating: e ❆key tags: xaela wol, bi+intersex+bigender wol, bi4bi relationship ❆content warnings: cursing, scars, canon typical depressive stuff, very glossed over smut scene that isn't really one but still is? ❆words: 12,389 ❆series: part 7/7 of WolEstinien Week 2021

Shadowbringers was a nightmare for Surkukteni. From all she'd put on the line with little to gain, she's emotionally drained - not at all helped by her brother's romantic drama that resulted in him being even closer with his two partners. Needless to say, the loneliness and ache in her chest has been fairly prevalent for quite some time now. All she wants is company - physical or otherwise - but she's not even officially with Estinien and she still wants for his company?

A bit of a tangent from that 5.1 scene where Estinien shows up to recount what happened in Garlemald. Lots of yearning in this one, especially with these two emotionally constipated dumbasses that just need to confess already.

{Read Here}

[noxtivagus]

Final. Fantasy.

[youngster-monster]

anon from the other day, back again to (attempt to) provide Moral Support literally been on the verge of exploding with excitement, i've been looking fwd to monachopsis 3 since around mid 2021 (or really when i started reading wc fanfic i guess) and so everytime i open tumblr and see something abt it i sit up a little straighter in my chair and start making incoherent animal noises over it but ANYWAYS. there are no words to describe the full extent of excitement i feel about reading the fic when its done SO 🎉🎉🎉🎉 BEST OF LUCK !!!!

anon I owe you my life ( < is also making incoherent animal noises over this ask)

Two years.... Thank you for your patience lmao

But it's looking like 2023 might actually be the year of monachopsis 3 for real this time!! Maybe!!!

[gatheredfates]

Hi everyone! It's been a hot minute since I did a Compendium update, but I promise I'm not dead. For those who don't know, I got a new job! That meant pretty much the entirety of October was spent wrapping up my old job, going to my new site and trying to learn the new one. I'm on break in approximately two weeks, yay! ☃️

These updates will take on a wintery/Starlight theme to celebrate the season, much like All Saints. I hope you enjoy.

Additionally, myself and the lovely folks at SEAFLOOR are having a Catch up (for) Starlight Challenge! You should join us if you're interested. ❄️

However, without further the following communities have been added to Sea's Community Compendium for XIV Creatives.

LARGE SCALE

The Help Lines—We are a community-based discord to be used to play the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV. We host almost all content including DRS and BA, Raiding, Deep Dungeons, Blue Mage and more. Our mission is to create a welcoming space for any individual in need of assistance to reach out and accomplish their FFXIV goals in a toxicity-free environment.

The Aether Entertainer—Founded in 2021 on Aether, The Aether Entertainer is player-made virtual magazine covering music, theatre, art, current events, and Eorzean popular culture.

LORE

Final Flowery XIV—Compiled by ann0yance(bsky)/@sa8oteur, this guide explores the various flowers in XIV, comparing them to their real-world equivalents and meanings.

On Elementals, Accountability and Criticism—An essay written by @morgana96 that explores the lore of elementals and their place in Gridania (and beyond)!

MISC

Vanilla Gpose Tips by Winterdeepelegy—A how-to guide on effectively utilising the vanilla gpose tools to create visually stunning screenshots, written by @winterdeepelegy.

WoL Reference Sheet—Created by @coldshrugs, a handy WoL reference sheet you can build in Canva!

NA GPOSE Studio/Themed Housing Directory—A player-made repository of North American Gpose studios and themed houses!

CHANGELOG

The Scholar's of Nym—The link has been modified at the request of the owner.

Skystone Co.—Has been removed at the request of its owner.

UI Macro Menus—The link has been modified to accurately reflect the bookmark.

Have you thought about joining our Tumblr Community? You can find it here!

Want to submit? You can either fill out the google form here or send me an ask with the relevant information!

Is my space suitable for the Compendium? Most of the time, yes! Below the read more is some more information/stipulations. This is all publicly available on the document. 🦌

Below are the following things I do not accept on the Compendium:

Personal/Single-Character LFC ads. (Though these get posted to the SEAFLOOR Tumblr Community when I find them!)

Content intended for or can be used for bullying, harassment and OOC gossip. E.g. ‘Secrets’ blogs, receipts, callout posts, etc. This does not include IC tabloid blogs or other ventures used to generate roleplay.

Communities that do not have an RP/writing element (large-scale exempt).

Anything I find personally distasteful or goes against the spirit of this project.

Common-sense rule applies.

I want to put my community on the Compendium but we have an application process. Is this okay?

Yes! Just note somewhere in your application that's a requirement. The only thing that is mandatory for the Compendium is that you must be open to new members or have a public-facing/accessible facet. There's no point advertising a community if no one can join it in some way!

I want to put my Community on the compendium but I only have x number of members —

Also totally okay! People don't start with large communities. Activity is a must but, whether your server has two or two thousand members, if you're looking for new people to join, I'd love to help you find people.

I want to put my community/resource on the Compendium but I worry its too niche?

Okay, and? If your Eorzean Fishing Alliance has four members but you roleplay every second weekend, I still want to know about it. The same goes for resources; if it's relevant to the game, it'll be useful to someone.

How active does a community need to be?

If you find a community has not been active in about two/three months, send me a message and I'll take a look at it. Communities have ebbs and flows, especially event spaces that may take hiatuses depending on member interest/life events. I'm not strict in my implementation provided a space isn't dead. If a link or anything is broken, contact me asap!

I have [insert a question not stated here]?

No drama! Send me an ask or use the #Compendium channel in my Discord!

[emcapi-gaming]

Then vs Now

I've seen a couple open tags for this, though the most recent one was @sleepymoonlady, which also came with a light threat so that pushed me into finally getting around to it. Open tag for anyone who hasn't done it yet!

Apart from some body type changes, Ardwin has always remained really consistent in terms of design! She had a couple brief hairstyle changes (still sticking with very short styles) but that's about it. Those free fantas will probably sit in her saddlebag forever lol.

I started playing in 2021 on the world's shittiest laptop. This is the earliest decent pic of her I have, some time during the Heavensward patches, on the lowest possible graphics settings and resolution.

I ended up taking a hiatus midway through Stormblood for various reasons (including my laptop finally no longer being able to handle the increasing graphical demands), and came back several months later after finally building the gaming PC that I had wanted for years.

Here's my best recent pic of her from about a month ago, now with significantly more beef and also significantly more pixels lmfao.

(She mained Viper through most of Dawntrail, but was exclusively Warrior through the end of 6.0 and is still a WAR main at heart <3)

In terms of character development: I had played WoW before and found that a lot of my characters had very organic development as I went through the game. I knew almost nothing about XIV, so I went in with a rough idea of her personality but otherwise left her largely a blank slate to see what would happen. Turned out that this was a great idea because XIV is practically MADE for that sort of development. (And by pure coincidence, she ended up being Ardbert's perfect match down to the fucking NAME, which made me feel like I won some sort of OC creation lottery.)

I made several alts/other Warriors of Light after her, but Ardwin is by far the one that stuck with me the most, to the point that she jump-started FFXIV back into Primary Special Interest status after shifting to BG3 for a while. I had tossed her into BG3 for a tactician run for shits and giggles, started writing a fic of her reacting to the whole Shadow-Cursed Lands thing like "yeah this is a normal Tuesday for me," and that made me go "oh right, Ardwin's the best - aaand whoops, time for FFXIV Obsession: Round 2, I guess."

[autumnslance]

LynMars's FFXIV Write 2024 Master Post

We're back again! The list and links for all of my completed prompts for this year's FFXIV Write. Stats and ramblings about writing will go under the Read More cut. Eventually these will be revised in some manner and tossed onto Ao3.

Asterisks again mean there's wolship nonsense happening.

01. Steer - Vignettes of less sociable times over Aeryn's life. 02. Horizon - WoL at the end of Ultima Thule, EW 6.0. 03. Tempest - WoL returns to Amaurot to contemplate, EW 6.4. 04. Reticent - C'oretta & Dark Autumn have a chat. Sort of. 05. Stamp - Aeryn finds a memento while cleaning, post-EW 6.0 06. Halcyon - Tanzel, Emelia, & understanding grief. Backstory. 07. Morsel - Zenos heading to Camp Broken Glass, EW 6.0. 08. Free Day! 09. Lend an Ear - Emperor Varis is very much alone. StB patches. 10. Stable - Hydaelyn as the avatar of Light. Endwalker. 11. Surrogate - Weird West AU. Unexpected new roles for the Strikers. 12. Quarry* - Dominants AU. Thavnair comes to Tural's aid. DT 7.0. 13. Butte - Dark Autumn versus seedkin in Xak Tural. DT 7.0. 14. Telling - WoL reflects on Emet-Selch's expected reaction. EW 6.0. 15. Free Day! 16. Third-Rate - Aeryn's annoyed by the Unbound. DT Role Quests. 17. Sally - Dark pays a final visit to a traitor, post-StB 4.1. 18. Hackneyed* - Aeryn, Thancred, & terrible literature. 19. Taken - A young wood warder tries to save his sibling. Backstory. 20. Duel - Wuk Lamat's challenge does not go as expected. DT 7.0. 21. Shade - WoL ruminates on some of their ghosts. Thru DT 7.0. 22. Free Day! 23. On Cloud Nine - A chocobo & her Warrior of Light. End ShB 5.0. 24. Bar - 2 different adventurers starting out. Legacy & ARR. 25. Perpetuity - Aeryn, Deryk, & questions of faith. EW 24man raid. 26. Zip - C'oretta helping out Hamon at the Coliseum. Technically DT. 27. Memory - In a future, music makes Iyna remember. EW Patches. 28. Deleterious - Aeryn & Shale discuss regulators & history. DT 7.0. 29. (Free) Deleterious 2* - Thancred & self-recrimination. ShB 5.0. 30. Two Heads are Better than One - Gulool Ja Ja muses. DT 7.0.

Previous years: 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023

Ended up a touch Aeryn-heavy this year, though Generic WoL, various NPCs, the other OCs, forays in the FC's AUs, and some supporting family cast members make appearances. There's even a callback to a previous FFXIV Write entry. Lots of Endwalker and Dawntrail due to recency bias, but it manages to span the spectrum from backstories through various expansions.

I only did 1 Free Day, due to having 2 solid ideas I ended up writing for that prompt. It was right at the end of my annual birthday vacation week, so I was pretty rested (may also be why they're among the longer entries!). Unusually, the rest of that week's works are not any longer than the others.

I'm also still working on some original writing, though, so that did cut into fanfiction time.

Below 500 words: #2 Horizon (347), #3 Tempest (415), #7 Morsel (499), #10 Stable (400), #13 Butte (477), #14 Telling (355), #17 Sally (464), #20 Duel (499), #24 Bar (462).

500 - 1,000 words: #1 Steer (944), #4 Reticent (581), #5 Stamp (588), #11 Surrogate (964), #12 Quarry (844), #16 Third-Rate (564), #18 Hackneyed (577), #19 Taken (915), #21 Shade (764), #23 On Cloud Nine (728), #25 Perpetuity (958), #26 Zip (592), #27 Memory (810), #30 Two Heads are Better than One (500).

Over 1,000 words: #6 Halcyon (2,479), #9 Lend an Ear (1,326), #28 Deleterious (1,099), #29 Deleterious 2 (1,231).

Shortest: #2 Horizon Longest: #6 Halcyon

Total: 20,382 words. Not my shortest but far from my longest. Comparing with the previous years, I can see a clear improvement in my grasp of both NPC and OC voices, and more confidence in general.

Even so, "Butte", "Sally", "Bar", and "Zip" were the hardest for me this year, and I may need to warm up to them. I love "Halcyon" for a lot of reasons, and am also fond of the lighter offerings in "Duel" and "On Cloud Nine." I like a lot of the others, particularly when trying to get into NPC heads (even if they're really weird places to be ffs, Zenos).

Not too many shippy entries this year, one of them for one of the AUs, one mostly talking about it rather than seeing it, but I like "Hackneyed" a lot as it's been awhile since I've written about Aeryn & Thancred's literary tastes (and opposite ways of treating their books).

These will eventually be revised and added to Ao3, and then we await next year!

[ffxivaltaholic]

FFXIVWrite2024: Master List

Prompt Master List:

Week 1: Prompt 1: Steer | Jellal Prompt 2: Horizon | Zhira Prompt 3: Tempest | Tlalli Prompt 4: Reticent | Tsirae Prompt 5: Stamp | N'akani Prompt 6: Halcyon | Ame Prompt 7: Morsel | Isanii

Week 2: Prompt 8: (You Pick) Prickle | Diarmune Prompt 9: Lend an Ear | Jellal Prompt 10: Stable | Ame/N'akani Prompt 11: Surrogate | Isanii Prompt 12: Quarry | Diarmune Prompt 13: Butte | Tsirae Prompt 14: Telling | Zhira

Week 3: Prompt 15: (you pick!) Lessons in Patience | Tlalli Prompt 16: Third-Rate | Jellal Prompt 17: Sally | Tsirae Prompt 18: Hackneyed | Ame Prompt 19: Taken | Isanii Prompt 20: Duel | Zhira Prompt 21: Shade | Diarmune

Week 4: Prompt 22: (You Pick) Homecoming | N'akani Prompt 23: Cloud-Nine | Ame Prompt 24: Bar | Jellal Prompt 25: Perpetuity | Tlalli Prompt 26: Zip | Isanii Prompt 27: Memory | Zhira Prompt 28: Deleterious | Tsirae

Week 5: Prompt 29: (You Pick) Divergence | Diarmune Prompt 30: Two Heads Are Better Than One | Dalain

Notes: Once again I am very happy to have completed the entire list.  It was fun to write and expand on my character's and their stories and to introduce my Hrothgal Tlalli, as well as bring back a retired character for one final prompt.  Thank you @sea-wolf-coast-to-coast for everything and once again providing a fantastic month of writing! I hope you have a relaxing October! <3

Previous Years:

FFXIV Write 2023 FFXIV Write 2022 FFXIV Write 2021 FFXIV Write 2020

[valdiis]

Thirty entries, one a day minus a single make-up day where I did two. I wrote for four characters, one of which was never meant to be more than a background character in the first place. I don't have a word count and I'm not sure I want one - but I sure did write a lot. I've discovered that my comfy place right now is dialogue. I love writing snappy lines and character interactions, and I'm not as good with lengthy introspection or action scenes. This is a contrast to prior years, when I did write more long-form introspection.

If anyone is interested (ha) in my prior years, I don't do single collected link posts - though I probably should. You can find all of it below:

FFxivWrite 2024

FFxivWrite 2023 - scattered among my other blogs that year, so here's Aeluan, Daephrin, and Vy'thanis.

FFxivWrite 2022 - in which I focused solely on Vyth

FFxivWrite 2021 - this is an actual master post for once...

FFxivWrite 2020 - I think I missed a few prompts that year

FFxivWrite 2019 - oh man, we're getting into the ones that hurt because I either don't speak to those people any more or my grasp of lore was shaky - a lot of this has been retconned

FFxivWrite 2018 - man, my writing's improved since these days

FFxivWrite 2017 - the first year I participated, and I knew next to nothing about how anything worked in FFXIV because I'd just started playing

[dragons-bones]

FFXIV Write 2024 Master Post

Another year, another master post! Throughout September, this post will be updated to reflect completed prompts. Fills posted to Tumblr will remain raw and unedited, but in October, I will edit and upload to Archive of Our Own, and further update this post with links to the AO3 versions.

Fills run the gamut of the timeline; all content through Dawntrail is fair game. Please note individual warnings where necessary on each fill.

--

AETHERSURGE

--

Previous Master Posts: 2017 || 2018 || 2019 || 2020 || 2021 || 2022 || 2023

--

Prompt 01 [Steer]: The Constants of Adventure

Prompt 02 [Horizon]: High Flying

Prompt 03 [Tempst]: Levinstrike

Prompt 04 [Reticent]: Lominsan Girls

Prompt 05 [Stamp]: Missives from Aboard

Prompt 06 [Halcyon]: Promise

Prompt 07 [Morsel]: In Pie We Crust

Prompt 08 [Free Write | Telegraphy]: Aethergraphy

Prompt 09 [Lend an Ear]: Matters of the Heart

Prompt 10 [Stable]: Carbuncle Quality

Prompt 11 [Surrogate]: Maternal Instinct

Prompt 12 [Quarry]: A Rescue!

Prompt 13 [Butte]: A Sky Full of Stars

Prompt 14 [Telling]: Skin-Deep

Prompt 15 [Free Write | Deodate]: Lux Solaris

Prompt 16 [Third-Rate]: Scorched and Chipped

Prompt 17 [Sally]: War Paint

Prompt 18 [Hackneyed]: Bard Off

Prompt 19 [Taken]: Levinstorm

Prompt 20 [Duel]: Reach and Flexibility

Prompt 21 [Shade]: Vistas

Prompt 22 [Free Write | Rencounter]: Kith and Kin

Prompt 23 [On Cloud Nine]: What the Future Holds

Prompt 24 [Bar]: [SELF-DETERMINATION PROTOCOLS]

Prompt 25 [Perpetuity]: Endless

Prompt 26 [Zip]: The Heron Hike and Hustle

Prompt 27 [Memory]: Fragments

Prompt 28 [Deleterious]: Summer Heat

Prompt 29 [Free Write | Thanatopsis]: Only the Good Die Young

Prompt 30 [Two Heads Are Better Than One]: More Uxorio

[snoozedraws]

hello!! making a pinned post here for new followers:

i’m snooze and this is my art blog! this is what i consider my "main hub" and where all of my work, regardless of genre or content, will be posted! i like making OCs and writing comics. :}

✽ @snoozelocke is my nuzlocke comic blog, and my primary account - i follow/like from here!

✽ @pawmpadour is my ffxiv blog, where i reblog my and others' ffxiv art and occasionally post about my final fantasy guys.

i tag my art in the following ways for browsing:

✽ by year (ex: [ 2023 ], [ 2022 ], [ 2021 ], etc) ✽ by type (ex: [ comic ], [ illustration ] / [ painting ], [ sketch ] / [ colored sketch ], [ commission ]) ✽ by content (ex: [ pokemon ], [ ffxiv ], [ d&d ], [ ocs ], etc)

thanks!! \o/

[shivasdarknight]

handicapped {ffxiv, wolestinien}

❆fandom: final fantasy xiv, ffxiv ❆characters: named warrior of light (Surkukteni), Estinien Wyrmblood/Varlineau ❆relationship: wolestinien ❆dynamic: m/f ❆rating: t ❆key tags: xaela wol, bi+intersex+bigender wol, bi4bi relationship, multiwol story ❆content warnings: cursing, arguing (it's constructive) ❆words: 3,243 ❆series: part 3/7 of WolEstinien Week 2021

Set around 5.55, Surkukteni and Estinien have a routine on how to destress and how to decide how the night goes. Some bout of strength or a competition because they're still rivals to their core. But for some reason, Estinien keeps winning and he knows something is up. This is basically just an excuse to pick apart Surkukteni's vie for power and where that's taken her, especially about how isolated she feels the further she gets into MSQ.

{Read Here}

[noxtivagus]

my skill is making nonsense out of nothing fr 👍

[i-mybrunettelady]

20 questions for 20 writers

i was tagged by @accidentallyadorable, ty for the tag friend <3

tagging: @archesa, @thevikingwoman, @scionshtola, @antariies, @anneapocalypse, @ghostwise and whoever sees this and wants to participate <3

q1. how many works do you have on ao3?

i don't post all my work on ao3, but on ao3 alone, 28!

q2. what fandoms do you write for?

guild wars 2, wayfarer, ffxiv, blood moon, infamous, the exile <3

q3. what are your top 5 fics by kudos?

tales of the red wayfarer - a cassander character study

overflowing - intellis pining

somewhere after midnight - cassmel post-sex cuddling and pillow talk

ties that sever, ties that bind - an inteus family study, currently being finished

songweaver - more intellis pining (all wayfarer works lmao)

q4. do you respond to comments?

always! they're few and far between so i make sure i do <3

q5. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

hard to say... i write angst, but i write hurt/comfort, so like. by that alone it's ties that sever because cass cries by the end of each one and is very much alone so like. ties that sever??? bonus points go for scenes of an arson site also.

extra bonus points go to on theokleia, my mother which is a part of the ties that sever series, but a piece that haunts me to this day.

q6. what is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

hm.. ones that gives me budging hopes are a flickering light, or a tale of two survivors (ffxiv) and my future will listen to me! i'm really fond of the endings of these two even if they're not typically... happy. i have happier endings but these two seem a different kind of happy to me. a wistful, hopeful happy as opposed to a typical happy.

q7. do you get hate on fics?

so far no and i hope it stays that way. i only recently hot my first hate ask lmaoooo

q8. do you write smut? if so, what kind?

yes! i write for.. pairings, moreso than one type. so far i mostly have mlm smut, and that's because they're cassander pairings and he is a bisexual/achillean dude, but i do want to write wlw smut if the inspo strikes, and i do wanna write some het scenes i have in my head (namely a crossover that's nyra/estinien atm tbh. i also wanna write nyra/mirka for that wlw stuff.)

i also have a nyra solo i'm very proud of :>

q9. do you write crossovers?

i wrote a wayfarer/ffxiv crossover (a flickering light), and i wanna write a gw2/ffxiv crossover (nyra and estinien!) i also wrote a wayfarer/gw2 crossover with mordrem!cassander (a story of how (not) to be a big head)

other than that i rarely write crossovers tbh

q10. have you ever had a fic stolen?

girl no god forbid :xxxx

q11. have you ever co-written a fic before?

a long time ago, yes, with @guildwarsgirl! it was a braham shippy one, and i wrote for braham <3

q12. what's your all-time favorite ship?

honest to god? i got a few ships i cherish and keep near and dear to my heart: cassmel (cassander and melchior, wayfarer), trammander (nyra and trahearne, gw2), elion (el and liv, gw2) and angelina and farro from blood moon! i may not write about all of them equally but i do cherish them deeply

q13. what's one WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

i do have certain series i wanna finish, such as my nikartoirel apology trilogy, called trials and tribulations - parts 1 and two are out - and ties that sever <3 when ffxiv brainrot comes back, i'll probably finish the nikartoirel apology series.

one other thing i wanna finish but it's not high on my to-do list is nikartoirel bridgerton au <3 gotta love regency husbands

q14. what are your writing strengths?

character voice! on god i love character voice so much and it shows.

q15. thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

i technically am since english is my second language! so yeah, full speed ahead

q16.first fandom you wrote for?

gw2 baybee <3 back in 2021. my first fic was actually trammander <3

q17. favorite fic you've written?

please don't ask me that ;; but between us... my future will listen to me, ties that sever, ties that bind, say hi to yourself, scenes of an arson site, a gravitational pull !

q18. what are your writing weaknesses?

fighting scenes hands down

q19. have you ever had a fic translated?

not yet but if anyone wants to.. i owe you my LIFE,, i could also tecnically do it but translating your own work is hard as fuck

[stalwart-spirit]

16. Do you have the same OC (broadly speaking) across multiple fandoms or settings?

I saw that the answer to this is 'yes,' but I figured this would be a good excuse for you to talk about what bits carried over and which parts you shed to put 'em into FFXIV better and such!

I start levitating ominously. You do not know what you have started (thank you though, I love talking about my characters!)

As you said, yes, all my characters have started off elsewhere before FFXIV, mostly just lil guys I make up in my head! I'll take this chance to go into a little more depth though, since I can source some development art for some of them!

Saeed is a good example, since he goes back to 2016! I don't have any art I'm willing to share for this initial version of him cause it's so old and so basic, but he was made for a duel roleplay and art group back on deviantART, back when you had to draw out and write full applications for roleplay groups and contribute both roleplays and art to get little rewards and be involved in the plot!

Fast forward to 2020, and I decided to revamp him and use him for another roleplay group (same vibe as above, but based on Discord but hosting art and writing via dA)

These were actually some of the concept sketches I made to get a feeling of him! And yes, that IS an Emet-Selch quote I used for some dialogue, I'd literally just finished SHB I think when I made him. As you can tell, he had COMPLETELY different vibes to what he has now. More of a bastard, not someone that people could get along with, a lot more selfish.

Then I started playing FFXIV, and through that I met my D&D group who asked for me to join their group and current campaign in 2021. When thinking of who to make, I thought "Huh, party doesn't have a rogue or someone who can deception their way through things... I know a character I could use who does that-"

Above is some concepting sketches and other stuff from when I was first making him. Some of his old personality remained, but in the end it ended up being developed as he was like that due to some trauma, and eventually grew out of it and ended up being party dad with some wonderfully warm and close bonds with the party!

2023, I still adore this finale painting I made for the whole party upon campaign ending <3

Just as the campaign was wrapping up was when I added Saeed to FFXIV as an alt but now he's become my main! Honestly still shocked at how pretty damn close I managed to get him considering FFXIV's chargen limitations!

It's kinda what I do though, I get attatched and still wanna write and roleplay a character actively with others. His plot honestly transferred over super well, keeping the plot as a rogue rising to a position he never intially expected, fighting against a corrupt empire (though in D&D it was his own empire home that was being corrupted internally).

I also happen to play him in other games, like I have him in GW2 (no plot, no pics to share cause that's just when I take the nostalgic urge to play Baby's First MMO again) and he's also my Drifter in Warframe!

I could go on endlessly about all my other characters, especially since Saeed isn't my oldest in terms of creation, but this is already quite long, and they follow a smiliar pattern!

Also shameless plug, I have more art of him both on my Twitter and my website :^)

[hallowed-nebulae]

2025 Writing Goals

I admittedly feel a bit silly posting this, since it's been. . . a hot minute since I actually did things on this blog, but, I may as well make the effort! (this is entirely inspired by @corishadowfang doing the same -- if you like my writing, go look at theirs, especially if you're a fan of kingdom hearts).

i'll be putting this under a cut for sake of post length on dashboard, as i am Well Aware that i ramble, and i imagine i'll be rambling a lot. with that said!

i had a lot of goals and ideas for 2024 - i wanted to write a lot. it's something i'd started to notice, but this year i sat down and had to acknowledge that the times of 2019, 2021, 2022 even when i could sit down and churn out 3k words in one sitting, when i could update chapters semi-consistently every few weeks or so, is entirely gone. both because of my lower levels of energy, being chronically ill, and because of college work picking up, and things of that nature.

things have definitely changed a lot over 2024 -- i'd gotten diagnosed with POTS in late 2023, and this year by talking with my doctor, other friends, i've learned that i probably have EDS, which doesn't help with the energy levels. i'm trying to get better at managing my ambition with writing - that's a major goal, is to not start huge AUs or projects without pacing myself or being realistic about how long those things are going to finish.

another goal, most definitely, is to try to rotate my WIPs, and not just focus on only one WIP at a time. i tried that with crystal verse, last year, and it definitely led to some burnout, between all the exhaustion of everything else. being able to poke at different projects and not feel guilt about that is going to be incredibly helpful, i think.

also, i want to get better at actually working on my WIPs -- take some space every day, or at least every week, to at least add something. i used to have a goal to write 10 words, minimum, ever day, and i think i'll try to adopt that again as a 2025 resolution.

as far as WIPs that i've actually got:

Tempests Verse, my beloved, is over three years old, now. i started this thing in September 2021 and it's still ongoing, can you believe it? Storm Whispers, the current WIP, is going to be on hiatus for the forseeable future, until such time as @beastenraged has the energy or time to work on it again; it's written by both of us, after all, and i don't want to pressure them by writing a whole bunch on my end that they'd have to catch up to.

i do still want to work on this 'verse, though - since Dark Road has finished, i can now properly write out what happened with those sets of events, in this AU, and how they diverged from canon. more elaboration on the ghost xehanort, what happened with bragi, what happened with baldr, how Darkness even possessed xehanort's corpse, all of that. it's exciting, even if i don't know how long writing that fic will take or entirely where to begin. i do really love working with the mobile games, so i'm excited to work on this one, whenever i have the time or energy to do so. i reread all of Tempests Verse and took notes, last year, so hopefully i can be most consistent when writing this one, despite my poor memory.

Crushing Stones Verse! will still be poked on, as always. since it's become my warm-up exercises, writing a chapter of this AU's current WIP before moving to other WIPs once i'm warmed up, it's gotten a lot easier to work on this one. i finished outlining it, also, so while it'll take a good hot minute to finish, there is an actual end in sight! i look forward to working on this project and seeing how anyone reading reacts to some of the twists that happen.

Crystal Verse, my ffxiv AU (which has rambles related to it hidden over on @crystal-verse, my ffxiv blog), will get worked on as well. i'm trying to get better and not have there be an entire 7 months between updates like what happened last year; it's very ambitious, given it's a sort of novelization of, well, all of FFXIV, but i do also have an endpoint for this one -- currently, the plan is to write up to the end of Endwalker, and then stop. (that is, 6.0 -- no patch quests, no Dawntrail, nothing, just the end of the Hydaelyn and Zodiark saga.) given how large FFXIV is, this one will take a long while to finish as well, but i do really love it, so it's worth the work.

Miracles Verse will get its rewrite! to those of you who remember the original version -- please don't mention it, and i ask of you to simply read the rewritten versions with open minds. to those of you who've never heard of this au before -- good, the original was my first "got too ambitious and scrapped the project when i failed to execute it the way i wanted", so i'm hoping to do this story justice with the rewrite. this one will also take a long while, most likely, as i'm planning on using multiple digimon canons here, but i'm confident that as long as i rotate my WIPs and outline decently, i'll be in good hands.

Red Scales Verse, a new au of mine, is my first major RWBY au! you have @cheeseandcake-from-ao3 to thank for this AU, as they provided the initial idea, and have rambled with me long enough for me to decide to write this as an entire proper AU. no idea how large this project will be, we'll likely go to post-V9 for this one (and if V10 ever gets greenlit then who knows, we could adapt that one into this AU as well). i've only recently gotten into RWBY, so i'm not sure how well this will be received, but hey, who am i if not someone who writes niche fics that are for me and me only, right? (this AU begins with the premise of: what if ruby rose, and summer rose, were wyrms akin to the story of the king lindwyrm? and then things diverge and stick to canon in different ways from there)

i want to make room for more oneshots, also! i've got a couple that i'm poking at, one for RWBY and one that's for digimon frontier, but i miss just -- writing oneshots. writing a thing and being Done with it, and not having to plan for another chapter or work in the series or whatnot. i miss oneshots and want to do that more. so, that's what i'll try to do this year!

with all of that said -- please look forward to seeing more of the various WIPs, and if you have any questions feel free to ask! it's a bit ambitious this year, but i'm trying to be ambitious in a different way than i was last year, and hopefully will be kinder to myself as far as writing.

good luck to everyone else, in 2025, and may your writing be whatever it is that you desire to get done