#Garlean pc

[semi-imaginary-place]

ffxiv 6.0 siberia 2

Yeah yeah for those we have lost for those we can still save or whatnot. This is noraxia erasure also the devs are cowards and havent killed anyone since 3.5. y'shtola should have died in rhalgar's reach make zenos an actual threat. And g'raha in shadowbringers.

wonder what cid is up too.

if we're so concerned about appius why not go check in with the tappers while looking for that carburetor.

lol the devs wrote themselves into a hole making garleans tall this means they can't use the normal midlander models or well they do and we just do happen to meet a lot of very short garleans.

they retconned the roaders into motorcycles. those were totally human eperiments in sb like there was this whole thing about zenos transfiguring humans in aether experiments and horribly mutating them. we had that entire lv69 dungeon about this. it comes up again in shb?ew? when gaius and estinien infiltrate garlemald and have to fight some of the humans fused into cyborg mechs.

im sick and tired of these follow quests so annoying and easy to fail i miss the old arr days where you just had to go to a location. so nerva died offscreen in the aftermath give my 13 volume galvus family drama. boring i wanted to see it. also what happened to volusus dad? narrative forgoy about him. the dad is the guy with the key who was running a slave labor operation. so the dad is where the mom was all the way on the other side of the map

fun fact jullus in jp might be yuri. yuris yurus something like that. at least from how it's pronounced in japanese/ and yuri is the archtypical name for russians in japanese media.

ah the infamous several cutscenes will play. wol ia gonna develop some pavlovian stress response to dinners. every time one happens and things seem to be going too well it's the calm before the storm before things go horribly wrong. every garlean is back to beign tempered and we got kidnapped. that damn aulus. all this for zenos' dinner date smh. suprised there's servants left to cook because zenos aint doing that. im not sure zenos knows how to like take care of himself does he know how laundry works? ...what have they done with varis' corpse. i do sometimes feel bad for varis like yeah he was a brutal dictator and imperialist but he had to put up with solus and zenos as family. hmm but i thought the radios acted as anti tempering why would they have a primal's voice? or is this saying that everyone is already tempered it's but it's the light style tempering that like hydaelyn does so zenos' primal couldn't move in. I still don't get this. most people got tempered because they heard the roar of the primal zenos+fandaniel made from varis' corpse. but the radio broadcasting primal varis' voice also protected the rest from losing their minds.

zenos died and he learned absolutely nothing, he's still projecting hard onto wol-kun. homoerotic obsession if it could also be straight. ok that's really gay also no way anyone would believe zenos is the player characer, zenos lacks the social skills to pull it off. im ready for the worst acting ever seen he might not even bother. zenos should have stuck the pc in his body. it's all a game to them and the game is all there is to live for. given all the clues the radios should enhance anima tempering: playing varis' voice, looping the nationalism song, since believing in the glory of the garlean empire is what powers anima. huh how like fascism to try and replace religion with veneration of the State. So why did the radios then stop the first round of tempering?

what am i even suppose to be doing here??? the path is blocked with red dots and a blue barrier i can't go to camp broken glass. I TALKED TO THE DUDE THE GAME WOULDN'T GIVE ME THE DIALOGUE OPTION

well this is very nightmare dreamscape-esque

i told you so. lol zenos lasted 1 second with the scions. see this is why i was pushing for taking out the telephoroi over helping every last garlean. so they summon anima to summon zodiark??

so relieved my game didn't crash during the cutscene. game crashed 5 times during the arr banquet. if i had to do that segment again i would have cried. that still took me 5? attemps on very easy without any crashes.

fandaniel deserves to be killed with a cutscene gun. also we didn't prepare some auracite?

and of course it's on the last day that all the crashes happen. ugg was in the middle of the dungeon and hadn't even died yet. i nudged the power cable and the game flipped. guess i won't finish the dungeon until next year.

garlemald section is one of my favorite in the game so far. I really like this. there's some actually good writing here. it also paints garleans as nationally having this massive inferiority complex. They're out there making pretty much the rest of the world miserable, have invaded and occupied like half the world and made everyone else either slaves or second, third, etc. class not even citizens. And yet garleans feel like they are the oppressed persecuted minority when then are the oppressors. reminds me of is rael if it ever takes over the world. and yet they're people too with families and dreams, they get cold and hungry too. Personally my choice would have been helping them as a secondary objective. Resources from manpower to fuel and food are limited and would have been better used stopping Anima, which the main root of the garlean people's problem. delaying in stopping the cause of all this only makes the garlean's problems worse. dps mentality damage is mitigation. my other favorite sections would be the gyr abania sections especially the second one, the lead up to the Vault and travering Dravania, and honestly the shroud/little al mhigo section of arr. All these are heavy in worldbuilding and politics which is what I like.

I went and looked up the radio thing. so garleans got lucky and just happened to accidentally make radios out of the specific ore that works like the warding scales. so they were hearing varis' voice because that was Anima's roar translated through the radios into a non-tempering audio. Most people heard Anima's roar unfiltered and got tempered.

[furymint]

2024 Creator Reflection

FFXIV.

1. Playing with each others' fingers

it was nice to write wwi again... id planned for a complete conversion of nol and eli's story into this verse, but other hyperfixations got in the way and i forgot all my research for it (thankfully I have lots of notes). i liked how both of them are ridiculous here, and how nolanel is able to show both reason and disorder under an incompetent system.

2. Frightened

i think this was the strongest nol/eli writing this year. i had a lot of fun working out the correct verbs and balance during the fight. challenging nol w magic and garleans was also satisfying. i didnt get to participate much in nutley's extraordinary Tower rp plot, so im glad i could write this little bit of nol during endwalker. his silly convo w eli abt crushes is also set during that time.

3. Possessive Hand-Holding

This one is cute. I like culture shocking nol and eli with each other's communities, but i usually do that w nobility or penury, not making nolanel walk into a cruising district HGTHGTHHU 

FFXVI.

1. For Now I Am Winter

i have two more to write, but this is 200 words each (plus a couple bonus longer ones) of teredios in winter. i got to write some wwi au which kind of made me rly happy. i started to get used to the tiny frame as i continued throughout the month, and it rly enabled me to explore some ideas whether or not they fit in such a limit or not. i ended up liking each response in its own way, but i think 4. tinsel, 10 icicle, and 16. candles are my favs. i also need to give a big thank you to my friends for absolutely exploding my emails w comments. you make me so happy 😭😭😭

2. the waves now loose

tall ship brain rot finally indulged in.. it was fun to be back on the water after so long. getting to write invulnerable, young, spiteful dion after coming from my tired post-game dion was also great fun. it took me about 4 months to finish it and it began w this bullet point i cooked up while brainstorming lavendre's 2023 secret santa/No murmur against Fate.

even if this is canon-compliant tedi (the sanbreque navy is REAL OK🤡), i liked getting to establish some more of terence's refusal to accept the wider financial responsibility of knighthood bc that will be big in The Light I Hear ch3. talking abt the violence and tragedy of the ship is what i did best tho i think.

'terence writings words on dion's back w his finger' is a very old concept i had in my pocket for nol/eli which never had the right time. this fic has the longest and most explicit smut ive ever written (which isnt a lot lbr) and i think it finally kicked that bug out of my brain that liked writing it. which is also to say, idk how to reflect on it bc i feel neutral towards it rn. i have a lot of brainworms i need to wake up in 2025 to feel passionate again.

im not gonna put too much detail into this before i make myself upset. i didn't really meet any of my goals from last year. i did a lot of tellier research and made some astounding developments on that end, but not much else. i want to write more no matter what. i can feel the rust on myself every time i try to write, and when i look at my older writing and its beauty i get paralyzed by how i can no longer produce something like it right now.

i had a lot of good times last year too, though, and miku expo was probably the best day of my life. i also got to see kikuo, masashi hamauzu, nothing but thieves, and ffviir2 orchestra. we went to new york and i met karo and anew! i went to tellier's apmnt and found new poems! i made wyvern tails and gave a few out. i played a lot of disney dreamlight and made some decor im rly happy with. i plotted jillian's xmas gift for a while and she really liked it. i enjoyed the new dragon age game a lot. i bought some books im super thrilled to have. i got the sculpture arts aerith statue.

i need to build my stupid pc no matter what. i need to take care of myself. i need to let myself write instead of fearing my inability. im going to finish my degree next year. im scared about 2025, but it'll also be the year me and jillian get to see hachi. i really hope we can see hitorie at miku symphony.

thank you everyone for being my friend

past reflections:  2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023

[disciple-of-frost]

So after seeing the screenshot I just reblogged I just got the biggest brain idea I could use to integrate my OC, Abel, into XIV.

So originally, he was a D&D character, a DM PC. He's an Elf, he's an assassin, he has long silver hair pulled back into a loose braid. He was born into an affluent family and was well off, but in his teenage years he was kidnapped. However, his father was a right cunt and refused to pay the ransom money in exchange for Abel's safe return. After their plan failed the kidnappers attempted to kill him by slitting his throat. Miraculously, he did survive and he vowed to take revenge on his father.

Very basic baby's first DM PC, but I do love him dearly and I struggled to find a way to squeeze him into XIV. We already have so many white elves with light colored hair as is. When I saw that screenshot I was thinking of having him be the Garlean Soldier that the WoL gets shoved into during In From the Cold.

Have him be a half elezen, half Garlean? Maybe he's taken to Camp Broken Glass after the WoL resumes control of their body? He decides to help out Lucia and Maxima after Endwalker and he becomes a protector of the twins while they stay in Garlemald. I also love the idea of him also forming a friendship with Zero since he too is a #edgelord.

Idk man, I'm just having a good time brainstorming ideas.

[nhaneh]

finally went and got an adapter to hook up the boot drive from my previous secondary PC (the larger 4TB storage drive alas remains dead, and making The Noises™) to copy some of my old XIV notes over and found this stray line of Kea speaking to Gaius:

Kea: Knowing all that you do, can you truly say the Garlean Empire survived the death of Solus?

[thetoxicgamer]

Expand Baldur’s Gate 3 with over 50 races from DnD and even FFXIV

In contrast to Baldur's Gate 3, which is set in the realm of Faerûn, Dungeons and Dragons features a vast multiverse of locations, people, and stories. Due to a massive RPG game mod, you may now choose from over 50 races throughout the DnD world, which is amazing. Previously, the races you could play as in Baldur's Gate 3 focused on the Sword Coast. With many gamers finishing their first Baldur's Gate 3 session, this is the ideal moment to use this mod to play as a completely different character. One Baldur’s Gate 3 mod already lets you play as an honest-to-goodness skeleton in Larian’s excellent adventure, but this is next level. Fantastical Multiverse from modder ‘DungeonsAndSouls’ has seen a 1.0 update now that BG3 is out of early access, and it includes a staggering 54 races from across the DnD multiverse and beyond. “Playable races from Legacy, Grim Hollow, and my Homebrew have been adapted to be relevant for any class in any world in the multiverse,” DungeonsAndSouls writes. “All races are revised or made compatible with the new era of DnD if they are not officially updated to the One DnD format or Monster’s of Multiverse Fantastical Race already. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RqYrvExVT0 “Races found in One DnD have been upgraded to their new version. This means Baldur’s Gate 3 vanilla races have been upgraded to their new versions but still keep the racial tags they have in Baldur’s Gate 3.” As a lot of this comes from homebrew material, there are even a few Final Fantasy 14 races now playable in Baldur’s Gate 3, but the roleplaying possibilities are now even more endless with all these extra DnD races, which you can see below. I want to play as a Minotaur and I want to play as one now! All new Baldur’s Gate 3 races in the Multiverse mod - Elf (Revised Unearthed Arcana 2024 PHB) three Subraces - Pallid Elf - Sea Elf - Shadar-kai - Avariel - Grugach - Tiefling (Revised Unearthed Arcana 2024 PHB) nine Subraces - Githyanki (MoTM) - Dwarf (Revised Unearthed Arcana 2024 PHB) - Duergar (MoTM) - Half-Elf (Mark of Detection) - Half-Elf (Mark of the Storm) - Gnome (Revised Unearthed Arcana 2024 PHB) - Dragonborn (Revised Unearthed Arcana 2024 PHB) - Dragonborn (Gem Dragonborn (FIZBAN’S)) - Half-Orc (Mark of Finding) - Goliath (Revised Unearthed Arcana 2024 PHB + MoTM) - Orc (Revised Unearthed Arcana 2024 PHB) - Aasimar (MoTM) - Genasi (Air, Earth, Fire, Water)(MoTM) - Bugbear (MoTM) - Changeling (MoTM) - Firbolg (MoTM) - Githzerai (MoTM) - Goblin (MoTM) - Kobold (VGTM + MoTM) - Minotaur (MoTM) - Shifter (MoTM) - Triton (MoTM) - Yuan-ti (Pureblood + MoTM) - Kender - Astral Elf - Lineages (Dhampir, Hexblood, Reborn) - Kalashtar - Verdan - Vedalken - Locathah - Laneshi (Grim Hollow) - Ogresh (Grim Hollow) - Downcast (Grim Hollow) - Dreamers (Grim Hollow) - The Disembodied (Grim Hollow) - Krsnik (D&S) - Moroi (D&S) - Mušḫuššu (D&S) - Tydelvian (D&S) - Lunari (Hemato-Kai + Crepusriel) (D&S) - Gwŷddpāla (D&S) - Nephilim (D&S) - Malformed (D&S) - Hyur (FFXIV x D&S) - Elezen (FFXIV x D&S) - Roegadyn (FFXIV x D&S) - Garlean (FFXIV x D&S) The massive BG3 races mod is available in 1.0 form right now, and keep in mind that it requires a handful of other mods to get working. I really want to try out either playing as a Minotaur or Kobold, if I’m honest. If you need a little help in the Forgotten Realms we’ve got the best Baldur’s Gate 3 builds for your deserted playstyle, alongside the most optimal Baldur’s Gate 3 settings for your PC considering Act 3 is causing a few people some trouble. Read the full article

[thorn-walker]

To celebrate the fact that I got my data back after my pc died ✨twice✨ in the last month (old pc died and new pc crashed), I'm treating myself with a FFXIV oc dump lolllll

Ramiran, my WoL! Grumpy kitty. Healer Who Heals (and actively hates you while doing so). He's a paranoid insomniac. Also has a heavy stutter and did not know how to read, write our count until Alphinaud started giving him lessons roughly during Stormblood.

Ywain! I just realized I don't have a lot of recent screenshots of him, poor baby. He's a himbo. Himbo galore. So himbo he would make out with Kronk (and they would be very good friends). He's very cute and would eat all the cakes if he could digest pastries. My guy only eats raw meat. Also loses his teeth regularly like a crocodile and collects them to make jewelry that he gifts to random people

Memnos! Sweet baby who's the same age as the twins and has a very awkward crush on Alphinaud. Before he met the Scions in Ishgard he managed to sneak into the Garland Ironworks to steal a gun. He still has it btw

Andddd Constantine! My latest addition because I was struck with inspiration while doing the Gunbreaker quests. His full name is Constantine Messalla (iykyk). He deserted the Garlean army and served as a double agent for Kaien Rijin and the domans. After Kaien's death, he remained in Yanxia where he tried to sabotage the Garlean forces.

That's it!! Now that I have a (hopefully) working pc I can try to take real screens of all the babbies!!

[swtorramblings]

I'm being forced to conclude that in addition to AtLA and some other sources, Kovfefe was pulling from FFXIV. SWTOR always had cutscenes, but they were generally about things the PC was involved with. KotFE and KotET had cutscenes like some of those in FFXIV, showing the larger story. And Senya and Vaylin had the forehead decorations, somewhat similar to Garleans.

I wouldn't be surprised if there's more, but I wouldn't be surprised either if I'm reaching.

[dieterfaust]

I’m still trying to sort out what to do with Dieter in 6.x, so broadly: EW left him pretty emotionally trashed, but I won’t really know his state at the start of 7.0 until we’re there, lmao

Dieter’s relationship with Zenos was... complicated: a fierce personal dislike set against a natural personal chemistry; an acute awareness that this man has done immeasurable, material harm & is not worth saving; but also an overwhelming desire to save him, because Dieter can see his STB-era self reflected in Zenos’ EW-era self, which compels him to encourage Zenos to strive for life. Only when Zenos joined him in the dead sun, did Dieter finally come out the other side of this & Actually fall in love with him... for him to die like, twenty minutes later, lmao. But not JUST die: because of WHERE he died, Dieter is possessed by the thought that Zenos is cut off from the cycle of reincarnation--a fate not even visited upon Amon, & one which Dieter finds uniquely cruel for a guy who committed all of his sins in the name of WANTING to feel alive

In 6.x, Dieter makes a conscious effort to put all the lessons he learned from grieving Haurchefant to use in processing Zenos’ death; but none of those lessons are helpful in processing the uncertain status of Zenos’ soul. In talking with Venat, Dieter learned the nature of his own Echo, which guides him towards what can be best described as answers: he has uncommonly good luck in finding the right object, person, or information to achieve his goals. Armed with explicit knowledge of this ability, Dieter is analyzing every stray impulse or event for evidence that it’s a manifestation of his Echo, pointing him in the direction of what he needs to find an answer re Zenos’ soul. Helping Y’shtola with the Thirteenth is something that he would be excited to do, anyway--but is this ACTUALLY his Echo pointing him in the direction of the answers he’s looking for? Is something about Zero vital to finding out what happened to Zenos?

(I’ve only briefly flirted with DND, so I barely know what I’m talking about. But imagine the vibe of when you Know your GM is setting something up for your PC, but whether you succeed at it or not is dependent on YOUR ability to find all the clues; so anything significant enough to get a description is instantly worth ALL of your attention, & even if you roll well & the GM says, “There’s nothing here”--is there really; or did you just fail a check?? Dieter’s just going through his daily life in 6.x this way, lmao)

Likewise DEEPLY upset that (a) he knows almost nothing about Zenos, despite also being the person who knows the MOST; & (b) that he has no mementos of Zenos, Dieter trawled the Garlean palace for any personal items of Zenos’, which could either trigger an Echo, or serve as a suitable remembrance. He did find the broken halves of Ame-no-Habakiri, which he has since been using in his nightly attempts to call on his soul, a la the 50 Alchemist quests. Since he’s putting So Much thought into this, Dieter has also been having a lot of difficulty sleeping, because he has a lot of very unsettling dreams about this too; so the dreams either wake him up, or he just sleeps bad generally

Suffice it to say, he’s not really doing well, & categorically CANNOT do well until he gets an answer one way or another about this guy. Since I don’t think this will ever be addressed in the text of the game, I’ll have to make up my own answer; but until I know what the text of the game SAYS, I won’t be able to decide the timeline OR the finer details

In short: I have no idea what’s going on, & or how Dieter is going to end up having any summer vacation to speak of :) But he’s going to, goddamn it

From where we sit at the moment, Dawntrail feels strange tonally for my WoL. The one-two punch of Shadowbringers into Endwalker left her broken in many ways, and Alahra is still ultimately the weary wanderer of the Shadowbringers finale, duty-bound to continue on but not always sure that she can. I'm thinking a lot about whether she'll be ready to journey to the New World with the exuberance Meteor displays in the teaser trailer

So a question for all you WoLs out there:

Is your WoL ready for this new adventure? Have they managed to move on from the weight of Endwalker, or do they still bear scars from it?

[astroflux-ffxiv]

Took some basic, but cute shots of Dona in her favorite bathing suit. It’s just kind of nice seeing her in something other than armor. I imagine that ICly Dona enjoys going to swim whenever she possibly can, since when she lived in Garlemald it wasn’t a common thing to be able to do.

[captainkurosolaire]

“Wasn’t me.”       ............ <This time.>

[semi-imaginary-place]

ffxiv the sorrows of werlyt

ewww the gaius redemption arc continues. new writers be like "he not actually that bad" just ignore that he's a war mongering fascist that upheld and implemented a brutal colonization and occupation that included slavery, systemic rape, and general crimes against humanity for decades. Zenos too but that was for far shorter a time period and this doesn't excuse zenos but it didn't seem like he did all that much governing whereas gaius fully believed in the garlean empire.

that's an eva. like eva's were special in the mecha genre for not being robots but cyborgs and these ones are too

also gonna say the ost at the alliance base is unnerving it's an off key rendition of the ala mhigo/stormblood theme

ewww the gaius redemption arc continues. ugg it's sickening military indoctrination. reminds me of those american christians who adopt native children for the sake of "showing them proper path" and "making them good christians" as their mission states. literal cultural genocide baked into a religion. let's not forget they're probably orphaned because of the empire. but awww look at how gaius is actually a good person all along, he's a dad look how sympathetic and good he is /s

and they made livia one of his adopted orphans. you know livia the one obsessed with him and who he's implied to have sex with. the new writers sure wish they could take that back huh

uh cid your ultima isn't going to horribly mutate the pilot too is it?

huh terncliff. not seeing a lot of garlean "enhancements" in the archtecture i hope i can come back here

this quesline is really good too the tragedy of the sibling sacrificing themselves for an empire that will only exploit them. just take out daddy gaius and this would be perfect.

so they're combining sacrifice pilot with legatus battle data with an eikon

what is this cutscene. sweaty dude being an ass and chugging unrefrigerated milk. wow work place abuse you should unionize

why would they transport the emerald weapon all the way to la noscea or the rhotano sea. we are to the east of eorzea, they would have to take a ship all the way around the continent to the western edge of eorzea. also i did tell everyone in arr to permanently get rid of those eorzean castrums. i told them.

and they exploit that very desire to feed you into the meat grinder. same as with foldora

maybe because they never respected you as people to begin with

the sheer hypocrisy how much of that went on under his rule. and the writers are probably going to go "but he didn't know!" "he's changed!" which then just makes him incompetent.

bad reasoning but when you're in it it's hard to see clearly. only 3 things would have stopped valens. someone higher up shifting his position which given the mess garlemald is wouldn't happen. an enemy (us) kills him. or he kills so many people it becomes a heachache for greater HR to replace them which is also unlikely to happen

have you considered assassination. like poisoning his milk. or shooting him i mean there were 3 children to defend him and he was out of his armor you totally could have killed him. but again it's difficult to consider these things when you are deep under the established power structure,

that plan is so bad all it does is help the established garlemald power structure perpetuate itself. you are giving up your lives for less than nothing

should really stick that branding iron on his face but ah it's hard when you are alone acting out against a much bigger system. that's a kid again the man who has absolute power over them

oof don't lie on your back that'll make it worse

uh actually that list of names is like pretty sensitive information. publically releasing info immediately, I suppose it could be good and th pc has the authority to do whatever they want but uh be careful about that type of stuff

oh yeah and for all this papa gaius stuff. he left. deadbeat.

interesting that the siblings say they volunteered but are counted among the conscripts.

so the vii's gem weapon series was designed to consume the pilot who are non pureblood garleans. but i distinctly remember that the prototype that estinien fought had a hyur with the garlean 3rd eye embedded into the back and that the experiments under zenos also used garlean cyborgs abominations

this is true only because theodoric and zenos are out there people. but i remember in stormblood and arr people not liking the black wolf. so the reconning of oh he's not bad actually ew. the new writers are trying so so hard to rewrite gaius and never having been that bad.

ah yes throw off the shackles to put the biggest garlean defector in charge. i get the writers are doing this for gaius' character arc, but he's not even from here nor ever actually lived among the people. where's my local representation.

the writers really are just whitewashing him with "no he was never bad, actually" ah yes a successful second time because the first time was so successful

"for the freedom of Werlyt" the siblings say, all you did was feed the machine of it's occupation

ooooh guuurrrrll you should know he doesn't honor agreements with "savages" unless you have a failsafe and a way to cheat him you shouldn't be entering into agreements. we'll see what she has planned. interesting Allie seems to have bought into Valen's lies, why else try and negotiate citizenship and self rule for werlyt. where has her brother well actually that's ambiguous. early on their dialogue seemed to imply they wanted to prove themselves to garlemald through military achievement. but the more recent dialogue suggested threatening war as leverage for werlyt or possibly even rebellion against garlemald. or is she just using it as an opener to stoke his ego and emperor ambitions?

and her tear started overmind, not oversoul and the eva sorry diamond weapon broke free of it's control measures and deactivation signal

remember the old days when the writers use to use () to show thoughts instead of the new text box format

ug valens is still alive. he should just be dead from the diamond attack

yeah he got fused it. it really is an eva soul of the mom and everything. the sexist thing they could have done with his character.

the balloon popping sound effect!

i would have preferred allie or the siblings be continuing characters instead of gaius. instead they died for his character arc. wow this batch of devs are gaius simps. imagine how cool it'd be to have a party member that's also a big robot cyborg monster thing. i would have loved a storyarc about alphonse living after this

also you can tell the writers who put gaius and his two followers back into the story were different than the ones who wrote this storyline. because severa and valdeaulin both have history with the empire and reason to be invested in werlyt and terncliff but they have little reason to be hunting ascians. this story has little to do with hunting ascians which was gaius' new life goal when we met him in stormblood. like in sb severa was portrayed as very loyal towards gaius but her backstory doesn't really give that strong a motivation.

their "sacrifices" only helped give the empire more bodies, their deaths didn't help terncliff one bit.

lost opportunity but this totally could have been another cid arc. let's be real the whole end of 2.0 was Cid's story we were just there for the ride. remember how cid said gaius was like a father to him. in the storyline all about gaius being a dad, cid and gaius barely have meaningful interaction, which itself could have been interesting. sorrows of werlyt is a well written story one of the best in ffxiv so far, it's a shame i hate it.

oh meli... uh names... dyed her hair red that was confusing me

ah and of course the siblings were orphaned by the epidemic instead of making gaius responsible for ordering their murder which would have been more interesting and realistic given what we've seen in the other garlean occupied territories.

[serengeral-alaan]

A brief retrospective on the FF14 2.0 storyline, since I re-finished it recently

Pretty good overall as far as an RPG story goes, while still of course the weakest out of all the MSQ storylines. 

Main issue, I think, is that it spends a lot of time worldbuilding and setting up conflicts, but struggles to get players as emotionally invested in the immediate conflicts due to it focusing on worldbuilding and setting things up over having the PC interact with deeply interesting characters. The Scions aren't...awful in 2.0, but between their frumpy character designs, awkward voice direction in EN, and clumsy initial chemistry, it's hard to feel emotionally invested in the Scions. Meanwhile, the WoL at this point is just some no name adventurer who's not even from Eorzea, so our PC isn't a good avenue for emotional investment in the initial plotline either. 

 The lack of truly interesting villains doesn't help. Gaius Van Baelsar has a weird might-makes-right philosophy and seems to mostly want to conquer Eorzea because he despises the "barbaric" Eorzean society, while Lahabrea in 2.0 is not much more than a cackling loon who wants to bring his dark god back for...reasons. The tribes are a bit more nuanced, but even with Y'shtola and the city-state leaders admitting that the conflict between the city states and the tribes is pretty gray, we don't really see much from the tribes' perspective to make the conflict feel truly tragic or ambiguous. 

 All this means the overall 2.0 story does not have the emotional beats that the later expacs are known for, and the lack of such moments in 2.0 really helps add to the perception that 2.0's story is...fine, but nothing outstanding compared to the other expacs or even other well-written RPG stories.

 As for the plot of 2.0 itself, it's overall fine. I don't think the Titan questline is as bad as it's made out to be, and if you bother to talk to the lesser Scions at the Waking Sands, suddenly losing most of them to the Garlean raid is actually kinda shocking. Rather, IMO the real low point is the annoying runaround you have to do to get all the corrupted aether crystals in the leadup to Garuda--at least in the Titan storyline you got to talk to the Company of Heroes and hear some interesting perspectives on what it means to be a hero, whereas in Garuda it's a constant chain of "Sorry but your properly-aligned corrupted aether crystal is in another castle" messages. 

 Lastly, one major black mark on 2.0's record:  the EN version of Lahabrea getting smote after the last solo duty is *cringe*. It felt like something that came out of a bad children's saturday morning cartoon. 

Beyond those mentioned lowpoints, 2.0's story didn't feel bad. It just didn't have a lot of those high points that later expacs do, and while worldbuilding and setting up later conflicts is all well and good, such things have a hard time drawing in newer players. As is often pointed out to me by skilled writers, worldbuilding is something you do to make your interesting story work, not something you do instead of an interesting story. Seeing how the conflicts plaguing Eorzea are laid out in 2.0 is neat and all, but if a player doesn't care about Eorzea that much in the first place, that worldbuilding doesn't mean much.

[autumnslance]

Side Stories and the Warrior of Light’s Integration

Was thinking and wondering about the upcoming trial series, that I don’t think we’ve had any hints at really as to what it’s going to be, and reflecting again that the biggest problem I believe Sorrow of Werlyt has in its “bones of a good story but lacking in execution” was how it not only decentered the WoL but made the PC superfluous to the narrative entirely. It’s also a reason why the final tier of YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse as a crossover with FFXIV falls flat, in my opinion.

FFXIV has done a good job overall of taking our silent protagonist, and even with Assumed Default WoL (since this is an MMO that can’t do multiple options the way a single player game can), the connection folks feel to their own OCs is often very real, due to how the main narrative centers the WoL and hinges upon their actions and relationships with the NPC cast. The RP duties where the player takes on a NPC for a time helps branch it out a little and makes what would otherwise be a summary or long cutscene interactive, but those are brief asides. The MSQ is the WoL’s hero story, and many of the side stories follow the same vein by at least keeping the WoL as an active and necessary participant even when another character is the story focal point.

Spoilers for various side content below.

The loose idea of the trials in ARR patches is further investigation of Ascians pushing the tribes to summon more powerful versions of the primals the WoL’s already fought, so WoL’s investigation of those escalations is front and center; especially for Ifrit, where a still-recovering-from-2.0-MSQ Thancred can’t go into the field himself yet, so WoL has to do the heavy lifting. Coils of Bahamut and Crystal Tower also have the WoL involved, interacting with the NPCs, forming bonds with the other central characters in the plot, investigating, creating items to get past defenses, and so on. We’re doing more than just the fighting, we’re part of the team. The Coils story has a direct impact on Alisaie’s development, and her friendship with and admiration of WoL really starts here (please play Coils story, it’s easy now to desync and roll it as a 90 solo, or get high level friends to run one through, and does affect almost all of Alisaie’s dialogues on her return to MSQ in 3.4).

Same in the Heavensward stories; in Alexander, WoL is part of a team with Y’shtola and the Ironworks; making friends with Mide and Roundrox, helping them, is essential to the story. Actions in the plot center WoL and their comrades in the mystery and time shenanigans. In Warring Triad, again WoL is part of a Scion research team figuring out how to deal with the eikons, while interacting directly with Unukalhai and Regula the entire time. We feel Regula’s sacrifice for the youth, and see his sense honor, twisted as it is by Imperial doctrine. There’s a reason Regula, for the very brief time he has on screen, is one of the more popular and lamented as lost-too-soon Garlean antagonists. Folks were interested in our little buddy Unukalhai and pleased he got more story in the Void Quests in ShB finally. Meanwhile, WoL is also off adventuring with the sky pirates to investigate the Shadows of Mhach; they treat WoL as a member of the crew, sharing info, bringing them in on tense meetings with the rival, letting WoL hang out at their base.

In Stormblood, we get drug into helping Cid’s old school friend and realizing his dream of the truth of Ivalice; there is a LOT going on with that story, and there are moments where it doesn’t land for folks because it’s such a huge reference-fest to Tactics and FFXII that sometimes WoL does get lost among the rest, but overall it’s the WoL’s interactions with Ramza that help him get past his adolescent upset and back to focusing on his family, WoL who supports Alma, WoL who meets with Fran and gets the rebels’ cooperation, WoL who deals with the Dramaturge and his wife’s silly requests. Four Lords, meanwhile, works right off the MSQ and Alphinaud’s little error with the checkbook, WoL agreeing to Soroban’s offer of adventure and treasure, and upon meeting the auspices, becomes integral to helping Soroban’s new training and not just fighting the Lords, but also listening to their stories, letting them shed their long-held burdens. It’s necessary for the WoL to help them finally grieve their friend, and in the finale, though it’s a cutscene, WoL still has a place and role. Omega likewise has the WoL as part of another Ironworks research team, and as the bot takes out other members of that team, WoL has to do a bit more work they’d normally aid Cid with. Making friends with Alpha is again essential here, letting the little birb self-actualize in a way Omega cannot (yet?).

In Shadowbringers, Eden gets it mostly right. The 8man raid series, much like Coils, is a wrap-up of MSQ and directly related to past events (Coils is more related to 1.0, but still). We work specifically with a Scion team again, and forming connections and memories with Gaia is essential to the story. The WoL’s experiences with the primals is also central for the majority of it, and it all ties back in, too, with our Ascian antagonists. Even the Bozja Resistance storyline, building off the Ivalice raids and the friendships formed there, makes sure the WoL is an active participant, enough that the major NPC betrayal fairly early on stings a good deal. I mentioned the role and follow-up Void Quest earlier, and again, the non-combat connections WoL makes with those characters, how the PC investigates the Virtues, interacts with the hunters and the boys, everything with Cylva, relies on the WoL as a person, not just a combatant.

Throughout, even stories like Hildibrand keep the WoL an active participant in the story. While the Inspector’s quests focus on his antics, WoL is a part of his team alongside Nashu. WoL still interacts with all the other NPCs, handles investigative tasks, and only occasionally has to fight something the others cannot. We’re along for the ride, but also nudging it on its course.

YoRHa seemed to start off well enough in that same vein; the WoL’s interactions with the dwarves are a big part of the story, and being able to explore the raid zones and bring back documentation as clues to what’s going on felt good. I loved having quests during the off-patches to give more story and characters. But in the end…Anogg runs away, there’s a confusing mystery as to what happened to her and when, and then she apparently meets 2B and 9S and helps revive the latter all off-screen. The weekly follow-ups with rebuilding the town go well while seem to be building to a problem with Glagg that just…goes away on its own, no help from WoL needed. Meanwhile the twins just vanish with the WoL left in the empty room. All so Dark Apocalypse can be part of the greater NieR storyline, with its cameo in FFXIV being just a confusing aside that the FFXIV characters never get even minor resolution on in-universe.

And in Werlyt…the WoL is superfluous. Literally only shows up to fight the weapons, maybe have an Echo vision of some things that set it up, and that’s…it. You could replace WoL with an advanced Ironworks defense mechanism and nothing changes. We actually meet most of the kids only once (and the first girl not at all) outside of their weapons. All of the major character interactions happen elsewhere, in “meanwhile” scenes WoL and Team Gaius aren’t present for. WoL never even meets the primary antagonist nor sees him in those Echoes; he’s Gaius’ villain—barely—and while that Diamond finale scene is well-done, WoL isn’t part of it. A lot happens with Gaius and his team becoming part of Terncliffe, helping Werlyt, the struggles with this former conqueror now working with the rebels…all offscreen. Summarized and informed. We just show up, fight a weapon, get to pilot the G-Warrior once, and then go back to other WoL business. We’re watching the story—and there’s a lot of cutscenes that run long that we just watch—but our character isn’t really part of it.

And it’s frustrating because the elements of a good tragic mecha anime story are there. The concept of Gaius examining his past beliefs and working toward change in himself (while never expecting others’ forgiveness) is there. There’s a lot going on in Werlyt, perhaps a bit too much, and along the way, the WoL, the game’s protagonist and the player POV character, is entirely lost in the shuffle and relegated to the side in a way they aren’t usually in these stories. Even when other side stories focus on specific characters, like Mide and Roundrox, or Ryne and Gaia, The Four Lords, or the Lexentales, the WoL’s interactions with them, the help we offer outside of combat scenarios, is integral to those characters resolving their issues. We never get the chance with the weapon pilots, and in the end, I’m still wondering what and how exactly did Team Gaius learn from the WoL when we just show up now and again long enough to fight the next weapon and leave right away while actual story events happen elsewhere outside the characters’ POVs.

So far in Endwalker, I am optimistic with Pandaemonium and Aglaia; the first tiers of each have gone well enough, and WoL’s interactions with the characters is so far forefront. We’ll see what comes in the next series as the 6.x patches continue forward with new ideas and stories.

EDIT: And as of 6.5 and the end of the raid stories...Yeah. Panda and Myths both centered WoL in interesting ways, with Panda relying on the stable time loop and the friendships forged with Themis/Elidibus, and then Erich, and even our renewed understanding of Lahabrea and bringing it all back to the Heart of Sabik and Athena’s obsessions, which became fixed on WoL. Myths had the Twelve decide that with Hydaelyn and Zodiark gone, they could enact their own retirement plan and who better than Her Champion to aid them? And the friendship with WoL, the other Baldesion pals, and a baby monkey, were pivotal to the climax, and it’s WoL there all the way to the end. The trial series for Endwalker ended up as part of the MSQ, and so of course WoL is central there, working with the other Scions to teach Zero how to remember to be a real person again. Even so far in the Tataru quest line and in Hildibrand again, it’s the WoL’s connections to people across the star and actions as part of the agents’ team that matters. Even Island Sanctuary’s minimal plot is all about giving the WoL a vacation project to work on and others coming to visit them for fun!

So yeah. Keeping WoL involved not just for combat and the handy Echo, actually having pivotal moments happen onscreen and that WoL is simply present for--even if just as moral support!--go a long way to making the stories feel more involved, make more sense, and gives it a better chance of hitting the desired emotional resonances, as the players are then able to care about the NPCs, the the story, and how their WoLs fit in.

[porta-decumana]

The Great Revampening!

Hi, it’s been a minute since a huge major big post regarding my characters.  I want to start this off by saying that most fics are gonna remain unchanged because a lot of these revamps are not things that will require much in the way of retconning!  There will be minor tweaks to And Love You Shall Find and MAYBE to Alea Iacta Est.  Everything else will remain the same.

The big two things are that Kaida and Lillian are being reworked slightly.  Unfortunately when I upgraded my PC, some things were lost and certain files got corrupted.  I had to rebuild Kaida and Lillian’s looks from scratch and due to certain things, some changes were made to their appearances.  And then I realized... I kind of like those changes.  

I also am in process of making a new probably secondary OC but I’ll post about that later when her design is finished.  I think much like Ifra and Y’aana, she may not necessarily have full fics dedicated to her but she’ll be a character that shows up in fics.  But that’ll go in a later post, time to talk about Kaida and Lillian!

Appearance Changes

Kaida has a new set of scales.  Lillian has been given wavy hair and freckles. Both have new hairstyles for 6.3 onward.

Additionally, Kaida’s appearance in previous expansions will be getting slightly revised moving forward (mostly hairstyle changes and I’m going to come up with official “looks” for her for each expansion).

Further changes are under the cut because long.

Backstory Changes

The only characters receiving backstory changes at this time are Kaida and her Unsundered form, Euphrosyne.  I’ve been doing a lot of deep diving into Kaida’s character lately and I’m ready to reveal these new changes.

Euphrosyne (Euphie)

Formerly, Euphie was adopted into Hades’s family.  However, I’ve decided to switch the scenario so that Hades was adopted into Euphie’s family.  Euphrosyne also had two sisters (Aglaia and, tentatively, Thalia).

Kaida Asagiri

I have bumped back the time that Kaida was exiled from the Ruby Sea.  Rather than being exiled at age 16, she was exiled at age 19.  I chose to do this to give more time to explore her life in the Ruby Sea prior to her adventures as a Warrior of Light.

Kaida had a pet syldra during her time in the Ruby Sea.  These were not uncommon for richer clans to own.  The pet syldra was named Gin.  After her exile, Kousuke and Aika-- Kaida’s siblings-- took care of Gin.

While Kaida lived in the Ruby Sea, she had a long-distance relationship with Yugiri.  This relationship was kept mostly secret as Kaida knew that her parents would not approve of her dating someone outside the village.  At the time, Ao-no-Sato and Sui-no-Sato were still repairing their relationship after generations of political conflict.

Yugiri was Kaida’s first kiss.

Kaida’s curiosity of the outside world was influenced by Yugiri’s stories, especially the tale of her encounter with a young boy name Shun.  

Yugiri broke things off with Kaida when she departed the Ruby Sea to become a shinobi in Doma.  Yugiri explained to Kaida that she was doing this because she could not see a future in which the Garleans did not invade the Ruby Sea. Although Yugiri tried to convince Kaida to come with her, Kaida felt, at the time, Yugiri was too obsessed with this paranoia of the Garleans invading (a paranoia Kaida was too familiar with as it had caused her village to become even more reclusive than normal-- something she did not like).  Kaida refused and lost contact with Yugiri soon after, which broke her heart.

Rather than being part of a free company prior to the Calamity, Kaida worked in Gridania as part of the Conjurer’s Guild.  She trained under E-Sumi-Yan, who took an interest in her geomancy.  Because Kaida’s form of geomancy had more to do with water than the earth (given that she learned everything in an underwater village), she was tasked frequently with seeing to aetherial imbalances in the Shroud’s waters.  She helped tend to the wounded during the Calamity and afterwards, she was recruited by the Order of the Twin Adders.  She attained the rank of Serpeant Sergeant Third Class and mostly did Grand Company work for spare gil to cover living expenses.

During the events of rescuing Minfilia, Tataru, Urianger, etc from Castrum Centri in ARR, Kaida was captured by the XIVth Legion’s Livia sas Junius.  This is going to be a fic so please look forward to it, I guess.

When Kaida and Yugiri reunited in 2.2, they tried to make things work out.  However, they quickly discovered that they had simply become different people and after a month of trying, they decided to split things off permanently.  They remain friends, however.

During the events of the Naadam in Stormblood, Kaida did not fight for the Mol.  Instead, she fought for the Malaguld-- the tribe that her father hailed from.  Kaida met some of her extended family during this time including her grandfather Sükhbaatar, the khan of the tribe and an experienced warrior, and her cousin, Erhi.  Upon winning the Naadam, she gave her title of khagan to her grandfather as she felt it was not her place to hold that title.

Character Changes

Kaida’s Echo is now slightly altered.  Rather than simply seeing the past through another’s eyes, Kaida experiences them in a more vivid and emotional way.  The emotions sometimes cloud her mind post-vision to the point where she can fall into a state of delirium.  The delirium is born from a blend of lingering emotions from the vision (usually the emotions of another) and her own feelings, giving her a cooldown period where she’s more emotionally volatile.

Not entirely a change but more or less something I’ve been developing over time.  Kaida is pretty anti-piracy, specifically due to a bad past with the Confederacy, who has long harassed people from her village.  Because of this, certain scenes in Stormblood are a bit different, with Kaida likely being forbidden from dealing with Rasho due to her immense hatred towards him. I will probably write about these scenes later.  Kaida also has a civil but colder relationship with Merlwyb and does not particularly find Limsa to be a comfortable place. Characters such as Sicard, who lean into piracy a tad too comfortable, make Kaida wary and she is not comfortable around them.  There is a bit more to this but I will also save that for fics.

I think that about covers the major changes!  I plan to replay Stormblood when Trust support is added because I don’t think I’ve ever gotten to play through it as Kaida before!  So when that happens, I foresee many more headcanon posts.

I will be revising banners and profiles gradually over the next week!

Thank you for reading. 

[fraywol]

Tiqa as recruitable NPC

Name: M’tiqa Myste Alternate Name or Alias?: ”The Warden’s Shield”, in Ishgard they are referred to as “Her Fury” Race & Job: In-game as Viera, lore-wise they’re mixed viera & miqo’te, combat job: drk & pld with some unique animations, notable DoL job is cul Nickname: Tiqa! The PC gets the option to call them this if they've progressed their romance route far enough Default Tarot Card: VIII of Swords [art by eriartdotnet]

Do they have the Echo? If so, how did they discover it?: No.

How/where does the WoL meet them?: They're introduced to the WoL as a good friend of Haurchefant’s & “Specialist” on inquisitors during their first time in Coerthas & will generally aid them during the questlines there

How are they recruited into the Scions?: They join as a potential trust NPC for dungeons in Heavensward & officially join the Scions after the Vault.

Romanceable?: Yes! Note that they are polyamorous and will have romance routes with some NPCs no matter what (they are in a rship with Haurchefant when first introduced and if Haurchefant survives the events of Heavensward they will continue to be together with their relationship becoming more & more romantic, they’re involved with Crystal Exarch in the First and get into a relationship with G’raha Tia post-ENW, joins the thancred/urianger/yshtola triad), if asked for exclusivity they will deny the request (kindly, if asked nicely) & break-up with the WOL if it’s phrased as an ultimatum.

Where they are in the open world:

(As a Scion): During Stormblood they spend most of their time in Rhalgr’s Reach (they are injured after Zenos’ attack and spend much of the time afterwards healing). When first (re-)encountered in Shadowbringers they have infiltrated Eulmore on behalf of the Crystal Exarch and join the “main” party after Alphinaud & the WoL first arrive there as well (in this verse the quest is much more about getting Tiqa out of Eulmore than anything else), afterwards, when idling in the Crystarium they tend to be around the Crystalline Mean. For Endwalker they once again join the WoL’s group for most quests & after 6.1 they can be found idling in Radz-at-Han, due to their involvement with the construction of the orphanage there.

(As a NPC): After their introduction they will be in one of a few random locations around Camp Dragonhead, usually leaning against one of the many walls & keeping to themself. During Heavensward they switch between spending time at the Forgotten Knight, the Brume & Fortemps manor, although they are more frequently outside & express discomfort at spending their time around nobility (”Haurchefant doesn’t count”, if asked about it, in a tone that makes very clear that this is complicated to them)

Default saying: (when you want to talk to them in open world, how do they respond?)

(As a Scion): Fancy meeting you here, huh?

(When romanced): [softly] Greetings, my friend.

(After breaking up): Greetings. (They may still call the Warrior “friend” or by their name if the break-up is amicable)

(As a NPC): I’m simply keeping my ear to the ground.

What do they typically do off-screen?: Frequently they are involved in reconstruction quest/storylines. They have some about Ishgardian reconstruction (and can be seen (but not talked to) there as a rare NPC encounter). With a DRK WoL, Tiqa will also talk about spending time with Sid & Rielle and working with Sid. 

Things they Generally Approve of: Kindness & care for those in need, vigilance, actions that are in accordance of ones own morality (if generally aligned with tiqa’s beliefs), good food, protectiveness, support for peoples individuality and freedoms Things they Generally Disapprove of: the garlean empire, ishgardian nobility, they aren’t super fond of gridania either, unquestioning loyalty, self-sacrificial attitudes

Are they in a Grand Company? Which one?: They are unaffiliated.

Friends:

Within the Scions:Y’shtola, Urianger, Thancred (they start out not getting along but grow closer over time), Tataru

Outside the Scions: Haurchefant, Sidurgu Orl, Rielle, Raubahn, Lucia

Small side mission(s): They appear as a semi-regular NPC during DRK quests for a WoL who has it as a class. While they’re not involved directly in the plot, they do offer their assistance. For DRK WoLs there is a post-HVW quest that involves finding a specific member of Ishgardian clergy with Tiqa, only to discover that he’s dead. It’s implied said clergy member is responsible for the death of at least one of Tiqa’s parents, but never outright confirmed. At the end of Endwalker, if romanced, they have a side-quest chain that involves tracking down & finding their younger sister in Thavnair to be certain she has survived the final days. 

Potential tarot card changes:

Default: VIII of Swords as depicted above

If accepted into the Scions: Knight of Swords

If romanced by the WoL: Three of Cups

If not recruited/kept as an adventurer: Justice

meme template by: vaniccio, thank you so much!

[anghraine]

squirrelwrangler said:

I love reading your struggles w/ GW2's treatment of the Charr and Ascalon. every time I resist the urge to shower you with XIV lore to pick your brain over the Garleans and the multi-expansion examinations of imperialism, anti-colonialism, etc...

Aww, thanks! I'm glad someone enjoys it—sometimes I do have to vent, lol, but I rarely expect others to care. I've got a thing in drafts about my wildly AU headcanon for my Charr PC, since the only way I can tolerate having one is to imagine an "are we the baddies?" epiphany that leads her to turn her back on the Charr war machine. (Except to try and awkwardly make things right insofar as it's possible for one person to do while also throwing herself into the fight against the dragons.) But I wavered about actually posting it because I was like ... eh, that's probably too niche even for the people who do care about the GW2 stuff.

(The Charr are sort of steampunk Roman-themed as a society in GW2, and most have Latin given names + some hardcore Nounverber surname/epithet like "Foereaver" or whatnot. I decided my Charr keeps the format and never tries to pretend she's anything but a Charr or that she doesn't care about Charr honor, she just comes to feel that the "victory at any cost" ethos is actually dishonorable. So she renames herself Pax Vowkeeper and tries to find a better way.)

WRT FFXIV, it's hard to know how I'd respond without experiencing the story myself. But I do like to see other people engaging with their preferred MMOs the way that I've been engaged with Tyria's lore for the last seventeen years!