#Garlean pc

[yloiseconeillants]

for the cursed ship memery, but based entirely around what potentially boggles the brain trying to imagine the vibes. but. yloise and hw era estinien??

Ok so . before we go any further . a history lesson wrt: my playthrough - I played through the game until just after the vault, when a combination of factors, including:

Discovering That Gpose was an Option in the Game and Not Just Something That The PC Players Had On Hand That Was Forbidden to Me

Developing a More Intricate and Nuanced Understanding of My Own Player Character Who Was Originally Way Too Much Like Ysayle

Being Pissed Off at the Giant FC I Was In Because They Would Not Stop Making Fun of RPers in the Chat Box

Wanting To Play Through the Rest of HW as DRK But Not Making Any Actual Progress on the Leveling Requirements,

led to me restarting my character on another server, complete with a new surname that was not a Silly Joak because I legitimately thought there wasn't going to be a Cid in this game like some kind of fool and decided to change the established Duskwight surname 'Cibleroit' to 'Cidleroit' for a chuckle and then immediately regretted it the second that said Garlean appeared.

What am I about to bring up happened before all that. In the Aether Times. In the Yloise Cidleroit Times.

But originally, I was somehow convinced by the presence of like Exactly Two RPers out there in the Internet Space that Haurchefant/Estinien was like. a bigger ship than it actually was, so I just sort of assumed going in that whatever bullshit my character was going through with Haurchefant, which at this point was a LOT more angsty and a LOT less clown (like. not clown at all, actually. She was a completely different character in many ways) made her metamours with Estinien and the Entire Road Trip Scenario was this incredibly awkward 'get to know the person that your bf is also fucking' with a side of 'also the newer party who isn't even Ishgardian is also Heavily Fucking Around with the Leader of the Heretics on this road trip and their sexual tension is getting on your nerves let alone the political ramifications' thing.

Anyway I did end up Almost Writing like 6 pages of Gutwrenchingly Awkward Yloise/Ysayle/Estinien bath sex on a yellow notepad during work hours (I say almost because I never edited it into anything like. Readable, so it's a combination of sentence fragments, tense-jumping paragraphs, and diagrams). Like, hair getting caught in armor when it's trying to get removed, it being too cold to be comfortable type of shit, someone slips down some stairs, it was bad. I was actively removing any amount of Perceived Sexiness in a smut situation because the vibes were meant to be Completely Rancid. And they were. It was post-Vault, Ysayle has to Dom the Sad Out of These Two Losers and Yloise Won't Stop Crying and Estinien isn't even attracted to either of them but he's mad because he feels abandoned and not being given the space to grieve and doesn't want to be alone and honestly I should just not be allowed to write anything ever-

so yeah i think if we're looking for cursed Yloise/Estinien, i've already written it, i've moved on, I didn't know that aymeric was going to get more than three lines in the entire game at this point, whatever.

[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.

[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?

[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. 

[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

[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!

[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?

[izarblack]

Pardon mistakes I am doing this by phone and not by laptop or PC, thank you 💖

-Time Skip-

∆ Years before it all began ∆

CHAPTER FIVE

Ten years have come and gone since that fateful day. The most notable change in was the war that occurred five years after V'atillia's death. The Garleans invaded Kugane and Ala Mhigo and they fell to the might of their magitek armies. Ishgard abandoned the rest of the Eorzean leaders and returned to their ancestral homelands. Where the war with the dragons still raged on.

Few stayed behind tho, those like Nunoux who couldn't and wouldn't abandon the people they knew to their fates. However, because of the location in which they lived there, was under threat Nunoux had herded the people and fled. Not wanting to lose anyone to the armies of the Garlean Empire. Thus, they became a nomadic group to try and survive. It was rough on all of them, save Izar. Izar flourished in that environment.

Izar at first had an extremely rough start after the passing of his mother, V'atillia. He often fought with the other kids, who didn't understand why Izar's eyes were the way they were or what happened to his parents. Since, he refused to talk about them people just assumed he was abandoned. Nunoux often had to break up the fights along with some of the ex soldiers who also knew of Izar's back ground.

Over the course of time however, Izar began to calm down. He ignored the taunts and jabs made at his own expense and became quiet and more observant of others behavior. He also picked up his training more so than usual. After his mother's passing he'd done training just to distract himself. However, lately he did it for other reasons. He wanted to be useful and so he started to spar with Nunoux and some of the ex soldiers.

Today was no different, "Izar you're doing great. There is barely any need for improvement now."

A smile slid across his features as he looked at his Foster Father, "Then how about you say we step this up a notch then?"

"If you think you're up for the task, then have at the."

With that Izar lept into action, his sword arched in an upward fashion. The sound of metal against metal filled the air before sparks went flying as Izar tilted his blade slightly before roughly swinging his blade along the edge of Nunoux's blade. Forcing the Elezen to adjust his grip or risk losing his sword.

Nunoux was in complete concentration mode after a while. Izar's blade strikes were powerful and precise. As the sparring match drug on Izar got a bit to sure of himself.

Before they knew it, one of Nunoux's moves threw Izar off balance as his sword arched in a downward slash. In a ditch effort to stop the descending blade, he was able to successfully keep the blade from gouging his I eye out by letting himself fall backwards. Instead the tip of the blade left a long angry scar from slightly above his brow to just above his jawline, on the right side of his face.

Nunoux dropped his sword and started to freak out. He hadn't wanted to hurt Izar. A few of their watchful bystanders jumped into action. Taking up emergency medical supplies to bandage up the wound and stop the bleeding.

"Izar!... By Rhalgr... Are you alright?" Panic laced his voice as he tried to staunch the bleeding.

"That is a silly question Nunoux, the boy is literally bleeding," R'ana clicked her tounge at him.

"It missed my eye," Izar gritted his teeth but did not cry out in pain. "My fall kept that from happening, but I still got a pretty nasty hit to my face... It's okay Nunoux... This was my fault... I got to cocky. Lesson learned... I just need to not get to overconfident and keep myself calmer," He flinched as the silent Hrothgar soldier applied a disinfectant to the wound.

"How does it look, Orlin?" R'ana asked.

A humming murr left him in a sigh, "It will scar. Unfortunately, it was deep yet, Izar was right... It missed his eye but not his eyelid. That to will scar." He dabbed more disinfectant on the wound.

After a bit more dabbing, he applyed a herb soaked bandage to that side of Izar's face. Then he carefully wrapped that side of his head to keep the wound from getting infected.

"You will need too have myself or R'ana to help take care of your bandages from time to time. Lets see," He hummed in thought as he puts the medical supplies away. "Every three to four hours for the next twenty-four hours will be ideal. After that we can stretch the time and hope the bandages allow for good healing and don't rip the healing skin open when removing the bandages."

Izar glanced at Nunoux who was rather pale and looked extremely guilty. He knew the man was still blaming himself. He let out a sigh, sure it hurt but the pain was nothing compared to the one he got as a child. The one that went from his shoulder to his hip. Luckily for him the damage that had been done didn't give him lasting pain. Cold didn't bother it much anymore and it didn't hurt to the touch either.

"Nunoux, I'm fine... It's not your fault," Izar sighed as he said it.

"Sometimes kid I feel like you have a death wish," R'ana mumbled, "No wonder Nunoux feels so high strung all the time with you. Or did you forget the bear that nearly got a hold of you because you thought it was a good idea to use yourself as bait.?"

"Or the time those Ax Beaks nearly tore into him because because he cornered himself after he punched one in the head to get it's attention on him and not the kids," Orlin huffed, "Or the group of Garleans that came to close to camp and he aggravated them to keep them away from our group... Took a week to find him after things settled down."

"Yes and by the time we found him he was found in a hole in the ground. If it wasn't for the griffin rider in our group who knows how long it would have taken to find him..." R'ana scoffed.

"Izar leaded back and sighed, "I don't have a death wish... I just... Don't want to see another person get hurt let alone die if I could have done something about it. Besides, I only sprained my ankle in the Garlean incident. Nothing harmful happened in the others."

"Only because you got Lucky, Izar," Nunoux shouted.

Izar fell quiet.

R'ana sighed, "I don't know how much you know Izar, but the younglings look up to you. Heck some of the adults admire you. You're a great hunter and a talented fighter. But it means nothing if you get into situations you can't get out of on your own. We're a team here, we look out for each other."

Izar sighed and looked at her, "It was the only option at the time R'ana. I knew eventually you all would come for me. At the time I took the best course of action with the least amount of danger."

"That's not the point Izar!" Nunoux grabbed him by his collar with a growl, "You're important to us to, weneed you... If something happened to you and we couldn't find you... We would have mourned you if you died! Don't you get it! We don't want to lose you like we lost V'atillia!"

Izar's eyes went wide, Nunoux never acted like this with him. For the longest time the older male had treated him as though he might break over the last several years.

"I don't want to lose you too," Nunoux threw his arms around Izar and held him tight, Promise me, you'll lean on us more... Rely on us, don't take things on your own because you're not alone!"

Izar sighed and hugged Nunoux tightly. Nunoux had been the only one he got close to intentionally. But he was fooling himself thinking no one would care should he perish as his mother did. He'd seen how people acted around him now compared to when he was still a cub. It was different in many ways and the bullying had completely stopped. People approached him more often to discuss herbs or foraging in general. Some of the hunters had also come to him to be taught the ways of the bow like his mother had done for him.

Even the ex-soldiers would spar with him on occasion. Mostly because Izar didn't stick to one style and often switched it up to throw his opponents off guard.

Izar was no where near perfect in his fighting styles, but with the training he got often he was slowly increasing his experience. The experience helped him greatly tho. He was getting stronger each day and he would begining his journey once he was satisfied with his training. Until then, he would train and train those in the group who could fight and hunt so they could survive without him.

"I promise Nunoux... I will try to lean on you all more," he said with a sigh.

Nunoux held him tighter, "You better... You damned punk."

Izar gave a lop sided smile as he patted Nunoux's back, "I can't breathe old man..."

Nunoux released his hold on him before pulling away to look Izar in the eye. He lifted his hand and ruffled Izar's hair before letting another sigh out as he stood up. He held his hand out in offer to help him up. Without any thought to it he clasped his adoptive father's hand in his own before he was yanked to his feet.

"So since training is out for the next week or so... What should I do?"

"Well... You can help Svana Lionheart in making meals or help her and the others with fletching and laundry for the time being. You won't be able to do much else with with only a part of your sight," R'ana sighed.

Orlin scoffed, "R'ana you haven't seen him training blind folded recently have you? The kid is so aware of his surroundings that even should he go blind he would still have a better understanding of what is going on around him then we would being able to see."

Her eyes went wide, "What? You have to be kidding me!"

Nunoux laughed, "At first I didn't want him to. But the training has been fruitful. He uses his other senses more now, should he lose sight his sense of touch and sound would take over. If he loses his hearing touch and taste take over."

"Wait, why taste?" R'ana questioned.

"It's because of or heritage," Izar explained, "Since we had beast blood we can sent taste things in the air. Something similar to a feline. I can actually taste the air and can tell if someone is near by without having to hear or see them."

"Damn kid, I didn't even know that," R'ana gaped at him.

"Most people like us don't know about it, but you have to get past the tastes that is the annoying part. Air senting pulls in every scent, the taste of water, dirt, grass, trees, snow, sweat, spices, emotions, and more... They're all distinct and have different flavors. Like snow has a similar feel and taste to mint because of how fresh it is. Some scents are harder to describe... Like grass, or sweat. But they're distinct enough to not mix up what they are, " Izar told her.

"Teach me..."

"Huh?!"

"I told you to teach me Izar Black... I want to learn this too. Teach me in a way I can understand it," R'ana demanded and Izar just smiled at her for a while before nodding.

"Alright, I can teach you R'ana, but in turn you can teach me how to duel weild daggers," R'ana smirked at his counter demand.

"That's fine with me brat, but for now rest up. We'll start tomorrow."

"Alright, see you then," Izar chuckled.

Izar waved R'ana and Orlin off as they returned to theur own sleeping quarters for the rest of the day. Nunoux went to train the young ones who needed the training so they could protect themselves should the need arise.

He watched Nunoux for a while before he decided to go help Svana like R'ana suggested. It was still considered resting without over exerting himself. Since they were simple tasks to deal with even when he was half blind. He was pretty sure he could do other things but he's worried them all enough for the day. He thought it would be best to lay low for the rest of the day and allow everyone to pamper him. Since they would do so without him allowing them to anyways.

With his thoughts cleared now, he set about helping clean the laundry at the nearby river they had settled near for the next few days.

[semi-imaginary-place]

ffxiv 5.1-2

you can see sqnx is rolling in shb money. honestly i was fine with arr's lack of animations, voiceacting, and cutscenes. im a ps2 player reading doesn't bother me. i wish xiv was like fe3h where if you cutoff a dialogue line the voice line keeps going until the next is started. dungeons are really getting harder... do i risk dps and dying or tank. remember the days when yashtola was a conjurer and both twins arcanist. soo french elves german voeburt? i need those clawed shoes for my bunny. you sure that's a nu mou? they have tentacle hands and a different face. ah a glamour. they sound like a ten year old boy. beq lugg's a soul mage.... ah voeburt...

like a primal?

i don't remember what was the excuse they gave for why the pc can freely travel between worlds.

i don't think the light visual effect was the right one to use here. hmm the seperation of mind and boy. tempering was described as a filter or barrier between the mind and reality or something. the stagnation was from light aether. i remember early in 5.0 the writers went for quite a while describing how light was stagnant and dark vivacious.

welp i'm locked out of editing my draft. damn you tumblr.

anyways hadn't kal-shir moved to the crystarium also why didn't you ask her what's wrong.

here's the thing they established that upon buying their way into free citizenship they gave up all worldly possession to eulmore/vauthy. so all their private businesses's ownership was transferred to the State. unless vauthy sold them they should still be owner by eulmore. idk if vauthy kept them running or now just owns the trademark and stuff. also why not just make this wrenden mayor. i don't think making the parlor the seat of governance is a good idea. just convert vauthy's room to office space

they really are turning it into las vegas. which i mean the strip is a tax haven but nevada is doing pretty well, implemented some good policies recently. if it's advertising, could do traveling shows and pop up bars. bro you're getting paid in company credits don't do it ask for gil.

it was a whole plot point with moenbryda that white auracite can't store aether it just dissipates it quickly

i don't remember what a soul crystal is. but uh hey anyone remember job stones those picked up bits of memory and personality,

so zenos can use aether now. dude you're a dragoon break a window

look i have dps brain. killing the boss is mitigation. i was i suppose the know the adds explode and wipe me. also where's my easy mode

an echo with out the hydaelyn. hmmm. zenos probably got the battle echo.

im only half listening to voiced lines but he does mention aymeric by name here

wow they're really dangling the plot thread teasers

ffxiv 5.2

ew. the gaius redemption arc.

oh wouldn't that be fun in this game actually forced the player character to choose between the scions and the threat of the garleans. shame that's not going to happen.

oh yeah the ardbert look alike plot thread.

ojii-chan!!!

timeline lore! g'raha arrived after everyone hated the wols, after the flood? pr campaign go! this ties in pretty well with cyella's quest. i do think the player character could use their time better like hello the ultima weapons and garlemald and war and scions, but ffxiv in general has a priorities problem (i remember the arr titan questline), and there's no one the crystarium loves more than the wod and crystal exarch. disturbing really how much influence these two people have. i hope there's a scribe present recording everything the pc is saying. im a bit iffy on the ethics too that 2 people (as moral as they actually are as we know out of universe) should be able to dictate history and opinion. should we be able to do this just because we personally like ardbert and have a personal connection with him. the fact that we're doing this not for truth's sake but because woe ardbert doesn't deserve a bad reputation rubs me the wrong way

huh he's acting like 3.x ardbert. interesting. uh wasn't warrior of light like specifically for hydaelyn's chosen. wow the pc HATES new arbert. i wonder why they are so convinced he's not ardbert initially when there is 0 evidence. like new ardbert walk into the room and pc immediately starts death glaring at them. i actually think it'd be more interesting if the devs had left it ambiguous as to whether that was actually ardbert or not instead of immediately telling the audience he's fake. because a lot of players really liked ardbert and dearly wanted him to come back. and i mean the new writers did bring back gaius, dragoon boy estinien. and fake ardbert acts so much like 3.x ardbert the devs could have made it ambiguous whether he had memory loss or not. string the player on a little have a couple heart to hearts hahaha. uri always refers to the paragons by full title, he's so stuffy and proper in japanese (unlike eng uri who's a theatre kid). it's never Elidibus like in eng it's always Ascian Elidibus, never Lahabrea it's always Ascian Lahabrea.

wol and mean wod different things. warrior of light refers to hydaelyn's chosen, possibly tempered, with the blessing of light, and echo. warrior of darkness meanwhile refers to the person to returned night to novrant no metaphysical implications or affiliation with zodiark. so it's real weird to hear the scions equating the two.

back to the bunnies! that statue's totally going to come to life and attack us. yup

wow the pc hates new ardbert so much "extend a friendly fist". the new writers crying and shaking and sweating and tearing their hair out over how to retcon the old writers saying that elidibus sought to balance light and dark because let's be real the old writers said that and probably didn't have a plan.

the elidibus writers definitely changed. warring triad and 3.x vs 5.x you can tell the writers were writing him for different goals different types of characters.

my, aren't we quick to believe one side of the story. the writers clearly are framing a good guy bad guy situation but if this were real and you look objectively at the situation there's isn;t enough information to be making drastic decisions like attacking the benthos.

that's a little infantizing. the fish people are allowed to make bad decisions.

yeah why didn't we try the boat to begin with

why do we need bismark again. oh it's also buried underwater. could have just sent wol and alisaie instead of destroying another ecosystem

anamnesis anyder. surprisingly intact for 10000 years under the sea or something. unless the ondo have been refurbishing it. like the lights are even on. see originally bosses disappeared into purple wisps because they were ascian aether summons or something but even after that stopped being a plot point they kept the bosses poofing mostly, like there should totally be a corpse there that was a normal person/ondo why'd she go poof into dark aether. huh so that's a a female ondo/sahagin look like (ignoring that they gave the fish tits)

praxis. you help people by helping people. if you leave who's going to help the people of the crystarium and lakeland. who's going to protect the roads and keep the city functioning. what was that you do more by plants native plants in you garden then you do chasing some grade world saving dream. are the devs retconning the echo and hydaelyn connection and separating the two. i like this actually framed as a misconception. what is eli up to. trying to awaken the echo in more people? why didn't any of the scions get the echo if so many in that crowd did. (real reason plot breaking need to keep the pc special). the custom animations for ardbert's face. how did the pc awaken the echo i don't remember. or did we start in the hydaelyn cutscene. hmm what about 1.0 player characters. those two would honestly probably do more good staying in the guard adventuring seems to be a mix of oddjobs and mercenary work you aren't going to be heroes saving people it's a job like what if a crime lord hires you as a bodyguard against assassins.

if zenos didn't implant an artificial echo, maybe he could have awakened it naturally, should have gone to more meteor showers smh. but doesnt he hear hydaelyn's voice? could he be one of the few echoes not tied to hydaelyn?

also yeah i got spoiled on cystal mommy. the internet is is the internet. also asahi is malding from beyond the grave.

[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.

[jdtrashman]

I like to give voice claims to every character I create. As ana here can attest, it's one of my favorite pastimes, as it gives the character texture and life imo.

Allie's voice was easy once I nailed down her personality and backstory. Allie is a Black mage turned Dark Knight turned Reaper (pssst, pssssssst, the classes represent her character arc :3) who grew up on a small island community that was wiped out by the garlean empire. Losing everyone she loved left her in a dark, violent place for a long time. So I needed someone who I knew could nail down the contrast of who she used to be, who she's become, and who she must grow into.

Almost immediately, I landed on Maryke Hendrikse. You might know her as the voice of Sonata Dusk in MLP...and also Revy from Black Lagoon

get you a girl who can do both.

This contrast is perfect for Allie, who was by all accounts a lovely, gentle young woman before the Garleans brutally murdered her family and people.

Next up is her boyfriend, pirate turned samurai Beloch Bluesail

Having been found as a baby in a shipwreck by a bunch of pirates, Beloch grew up among them as the captain's adopted son. The last name comes from the color of the sail that he was swaddled in to keep him warm by his dead bio father. He uh, "parted ways" with his family when he learned that his father had been getting into the trade of child slaves. And by parted ways, I mean he brutally murdered every last one of them in a blind rage. He later became a samurai to help come to terms and find peace with his guilt.

Beloch's voice needs to be weathered, badass, but also with a distinctly blue-collar charm. No one else could do but Ron Perlman, the voice of Hellboy.

And finally, there's my paladin/sage, Mitnu C'arnagy. Also known as Mitnu Baelsar.

Mitnu is one of Gaius Baelsar's many adopted kids. He found her as a baby after breaking up a riot in Ala Mhigo, alone and abandoned in the middle of the street. He took her in, raised her as his own daughter, and even let her join the military in a way via The Skulls, of which she was a founding member alongside Fordola.

Everything changed, however, when Mitnu gained the Echo, which gave her the ability to see through lies. After a particularly harrowing mission, she recited some imperial propaganda to herself in the mirror to get her head back in the game. Nobody knows what the echo showed her. Mitnu will go to the grave before telling anyone. She faked her death and fled to Eorzea.

And yes, losing his daughter WAS a major driving force behind Gaius and the 14th legion going rogue and marching on Eorzea. Yes, she knows this.

So yeah I needed someone to capture the dignity of a young woman who grew up as basically royalty, but also the deep, cavernous guilt and grim determination of someone who learned all too late what she helped perpetuate her entire life, and who must now aid in burning it down along with everyone she loved. In short, a girl who had to grow up far too much, far too fast.

Not a question in my mind. The queen herself, Cree Summer. If you don't know who that is, yes you do, do not fucking lie to me.

I have more but I don't have pictures of them on my PC, and I do not feel like wrestling with Geforce's screenshot feature AGAIN.

Also I'm lazy

I swear this isn't an OC question blog BUT I have another question:

What does your WoL's voice sound like? Does it match their appearance? Do they have a noticeable accent of any kind? Do they have any other vocal quirks or habits? Do they have a good singing voice?

[captainkurosolaire]

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

[14kuponuts]

the way he said “slice” turns my gears

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[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.