#I didn't start playing until Shadowbringers so

[otherworldseekers]

Severia and I experienced it very differently. My experience of Nero was very non-linear and went like this:

ARR: whatever, random enemy. (I wasn't really into the game at this point.) HW end: lol I guess this guy is kinda funny. Omega (but only like half of it): oh no, he's hot. And funny. Oh no, he's hot and funny. Going back to do CT after 6.0: I… I see. He's also a very interesting character and not just comedic relief. (This is when I initially started shipping with him.) Going back to finish Omega: ThIS MAN has HIDDEN DEPTHS and I am DIVING IN.

I had stopped playing the game partway through the 4.x series and when I came back for Shadowbringers I had, I admit, totally forgotten who Nero was. And I had no idea he was in the CT quests. Honestly it was probably fortunate I didn't do CT earlier. Because Severia really only came alive to me as a character during ShB. So playing CT after that allowed me to really experience it through her eyes. And (apologies to all the G'raha fans) Nero was CLEARLY the most interesting character there. I couldn't help thinking about how she would react to him.

I don't know that I personally ever had a single "oh" moment about Nero. He grew on me steadily, and it wasn't until I had already started shipping him with Severia that I became obsessed with him. It's partly his chemistry with her that makes him so attractive to me.

But of course Severia experienced Nero in canonical order. She also has an "oh no, he's hot" moment when he first shows up at the Crystal Tower, and she hates it. And despite her best efforts to prevent it, when Nero is sucked into the World of Darkness she has a big "oh no, he has affected me more deeply than I realized and I have begun to care about him" moment and it floors her.

You could say their relationship is a long series of frequent "oh" moments on Severia's part. While, Nero is intentionally pursuing her almost from the beginning, every new development in her feelings for him comes as a huge surprise to Severia and has to be adjusted to. (She's not very in touch with her emotions. At least, not until much later.)

And just for fun, Nero's "oh" moment is when Severia kisses him back for the first time (at the Gold Saucer) and he suddenly realizes that this doesn't feel like a game anymore.

fellow wol x npc shippers- If applicable, what was the "oh" moment for you and your oc falling for their love interest? Was yours seperate from your WoL's?

[tishinada]

This may be old speculation; I didn't start playing until just before the last patches for Shadowbringers were released. But I was rewatching the Shadowbringers trailer & suddenly realized...Zenos had to survive Ghimlyt Dark. And didn't in the original timeline.

In the trailer, it shows the WoL killing Zenos, and it looks like that fight, using that cracked mask to suggest Zenos in someone else's body while showing him in his own so we know for certain who it is. And that's not what happened. *That* was the moment G'raha first significantly altered the timelines, by pulling the WoL out of their body for a conversation, which of course seemed like the absolute worst timing. Instead, I think it was the opposite, G'raha chose that moment intentionally. Because without Zenos, Black Rose was deployed which was what devastated the original timeline

There may have been nudges to the timeline earlier when he grabbed the Scions, but we know those weren't intentional. People like Estinien and Gaius were trying to stop Black Rose production, but they weren't enough. We know they weren't. It was only stopped because Zenos survived to kill Varis, reclaim his body, & stop Black Rose, whatever his twisted reasoning for doing so. So his survival was an important turning point.

Either way, I think that fight at the beginning of the trailer represented the moment the WoL killed Zenos in the original time line. It has no resemblance to what ultimately happened to Zenos in our timeline.

Zenos deciding to destroy the production of Black Rose might even be a bizarre instance of Azem's gift working even on an enemy who had begun to think of the wol as a friend in a twisted way, whatever the WoL thought of him. Certainly Azem's gift best accounts for his surprise appearance in U-T later.

EDIT: OK, rewatching some of the scenes (it's been quite a while since I watched the final Stormblood scenes), I'd confused the timing. That was actually Elidibus-in-Zenos's body, though it's also the battle where Zenos-in-an-elezen body starts trying to get to Garlemald (and he is also fighting with a katana). But I still feel like that's the point that was altered from the original timeline.

[chiclet-go-boom]

look. guys. gals. non-binary pals.

shadowbringers spoilers

Emet-Selch was winning. By all metrics, right until the Unsundered tripped over our Warrior of Light and it all started unravelling like a loosely knitted cardigan, the Convocation of Three was at the crest and just starting the downhill slide to utter victory.

Hydaelyn was leaking the last of her strength like a punctured balloon. Midgardsormr had to cut us off from the teat for awhile as our drain could easily have been the end of the Mother - if it turned out we weren't the right Chosen One and she had to somehow struggle on just that little bit further, she had almost nothing left in reserve.

The Eighth Umbral Calamity was being held back by a thread. Nearly all of the First was lost, Light was starting to pour through the cracks into the Source and Black Rose was right there to receive and amplify it as the perfect confluence of events, oh so carefully set up by our darling empire-builder.

We've all got our opinions about why Emet-Selch engineered his own defeat, but please don't say its because he was desperate and losing. He wasn't. They weren't. He could have simply stepped back for a nap for a hundred more years and returned to pick it all back up again with nary a blink of his golden eye, reset the pieces and played again. And again. And again, for as long as necessary. The fact that he didn't is the most interesting thing out of all of it because he objectively had the higher ground and could so easily have kept it - and chose not to.

Hydaelyn would have been swept away, if they'd managed just one more Ardor. Just one more, that's all they needed, they were so close.

____

yes, i read another post about how emet-selch knew he was on the ropes and was grateful to be stopped before "it went too far". blech. ack. noooooo. so wrong.

[dumb-hat]

roots: Is your OC's look inspired by any specific style of clothing or fashion trend? What are the roots and/or inspiration for their look?

(I'm coming back to that Exalted one, trust me.)

So, I guess this is another good place to talk about the out-of-character origin of Evander.

Ages ago (like, 11-12 years!), he got his start as a Bard with the Archaeologist archetype in a Pathfinder game that @luck-and-larceny ran for me, @irascibleblackguard and @kalencook. As an archaeologist, he had to have an Indiana Jones-style hat. Other than that, he was a short, scruffy looking guy of... around 5'7-5'8, I think? I'm pretty sure he ended up gaining an inch when I made him in Final Fantasy XIV, but he was a contrast to a lot of the other characters I had played recently, which were mostly taller. The point is, a lot of his visual traits (general color palette, height and build) and habits (hedonism, a tendency to go to great lengths to make it look like he went to no lengths at all... The guy loves "artfully disheveled" in all his forms) got their start there, in a tabletop game that happened well over a decade ago. I dug around and even found some art from waaaay back when:

I honestly don't remember why he has a pimp cane, but I kinda love it. Also, no, that's not actually, technically a proto-Malika stealing his money pouch. It's a completely different troublesome, dark-haired girl.

(He may have a type. I may have a type.)

Anyway, when I first made him in FFXIV, I was mostly playing on Gilgamesh and just kinda made him because Mal pointed out that Balmung was open and this was the old nightmare days when you could, like, almost never make a character on Balmung. So I made him, did the seasonal event (I think it was the 2014 Moonfire Faire, but don't quote me on that) and logged out on him for like... years.

I didn't start actually playing on Balmung until like... right around Shadowbringers, and I figured I might as well play Evander since he was like... Right there. He didn't really sit right with me, though. I went through a few fantasias and hair changes and stuff, and he just didn't click until I went to the market board and started looking at the low-level glam stuff and saw the beloved dumb hat. It wasn't a jaunty feathered cap, and it wasn't an archaeologist's fedora, but... It was perfect. I looked at it. I tried it on. It was dirt cheap, so I bought it. I chortled and guffawed, and told Mal "Hey, look. Look at him. Look at this dumb hat. I'm gonna wear it with everything.

And so I did. The hair still didn't look right, and wouldn't until I'd eventually cave and buy Aymeric's whole damn look just for his hair, but god, the hat helped. Everyone just immediately assumes he's a cowboy, which is kinda funny, but other than that? Worth it.

Ask me stuff! oc asks: character design edition

[smol-nevi]

You know...I took the entire last raid tier off from FFXIV. I was so burnt out. I couldn't even look at it. I got to such a peak with what I was doing on an individual level that I've got an orange aDPS parse in P5S (that's the one that's just your damage and your own buffs, mostly good for tracking rotation improvements). For the more common rDPS metric I had straight purples. That was without any parse runs and a not-hardcore group. I literally could not get a better parse under those circumstances and I kept beating my head on trying anyway until I wasn't even tolerable to be around.

I'm actually excited about Dawntrail? I'm cleaning out my inventory a bit (major feat, I've been playing since ARR and I have five retainers). I did something like three runs of Delubrum Reginae last night with my partner because they want to finish a relic and I just love Bozja that much.

I'm so tempted to spend some time in Eureka farming bunny boxes alone while everyone else is leveling and doing Dawntrail...

It feels nice to be able to be back. I'm not sure if I want to raid yet or not, but I'll play it by ear (aka if someone I know needs a dancer/ranged phys, I'm in, lol). Whatever the case though at least I know I proved whatever I thought I needed to with my numbers, and I'm a lot better at spotting burnout in myself and others now.

See, the difference between burnout and no burnout is that I couldn't even remember what I used to do for fun outside raiding, and it didn't sound fun if I did remember. Then I quit, slept for a while, eventually got my shit back together, and suddenly horked up an entire novel—of fanfic, but that counts—within 4 months, and then another in another 4 months. (Tellingly, both of them plus the third one I'm working on are about a lot of things, but they're all heavily about the devastating mental effects of burnout.) Now I'm like, do I even want to raid, if I could be doing all this other cool stuff? And yeah, kind of. My FC and our friends had a huge photoshoot to say goodbye to Endwalker and it reminded me of what's good about raiding: shooting the shit, laughing when things explode, being social around people on a schedule. I got way too focused on the math and not the people.

Slightly in my defense, it is hard to keep your head up when you run the same content for that many months. We cleared P4S week 31 and P8S week 34, if I'm remembering right. But also, absolutely not in my defense, until I intentionally took a short break during the P8S slog I had missed one single raid day since the second tier of Eden, and that was only because I'd had top surgery the literal day before and couldn't hold the controller yet for long enough without it seriously hurting. By the next raid night I was already back in it. I've never had perfect attendance in anything so that was a very hard record to let go of. What I needed was to let it the fuck go about six months before I actually did.

Anyway I'm literally just rambling because that's what I do, but I'm excited to be back. I think I'll level pictomancer because yeah, everyone is, but that's fun too. Bandwagons can be good or people wouldn't get on them. Dancer has been my main since Shadowbringers dropped and one of my favorite memories is still spending hours rolling over the Gyr Abanian maps with a bunch of half-dancer, half-gunbreaker fate trains like a steamroller covered in blenders and bayonets, laughing with strangers. I'm hoping pictomancer and viper will be that way too. It was good shit and I'm looking forward to it. I'll have a slightly late start because I've got a friend visiting through Friday, but that's fine. The point is friends anyway, and I need to remember that this time.

[winterdeepelegy]

My Thoughts on Dawntrail

So having finished DT, here are some of my thoughts on the expansion as a whole. Expect spoilers below the cut, do not click if you haven't finished. Again these are entirely my opinions, I don't intend to present this from a perspective of fact.

Hmm. I don't hate DT, but it's not high on my list: 1. Shadowbringers 2. Heavensward 3. Stormblood 4. Endwalker 5. Dawntrail 6. ARR That said, I don't hate any of the installments of this game, but there are some definitely high and low points. Let's rip the bandage off and get the blanks out of the way: 1. DT has a dialogue problem. I don't hate Wuk Lamat as a character, it was kind of refreshing to see a green, earnest character take center stage while our characters stepped aside and provided a guiding hand. The big problem I have with her is her dialogue. She's basically a shounen character, complete with the 'I'm gonna be king of the pirates'/'I'm gonna be hokage!' schtick, and it really wears on me after a while. That's not the character's fault so much as it is the writing team. That being so, this game is best played in short stints, 1-2 hours at a time instead of trying to marathon the whole thing in short order. Any more than that and it really becomes repetitious. If they want to script it to sound like an episodic anime series, it will be best enjoyed in smaller bites. Sphene suffers from the same problem. I wanted to enjoy her more as a character, but the script made that a challenge. 2. Pacing and exposition. God. The first few hours of EW were enough of a slog with its slow pacing before getting to the first dungeon, this felt like an eternity by comparison. Up to about the level 95 content, it is a long span of exposition and lore stuffing (far be it from me to complain about abundant lore!), so much of which could have been covered in less time and with less repetition. They really wanted to hammer the tribes into our heads, and it felt like too much at times. They wanted us to care about the tribes and the people therein, but few things make me care less than overdoing it. Level 95-ish is when things start becoming more interesting, in my opinion. That's a long way to climb to reach the proverbial cookie jar. 3. The music. I'll be honest, soundtrack wise, this is not my favorite. I appreciate all genres of music, but swing jazz doesn't quite fit the feel of Tulliyolal. I would have liked to hear something closer to a cultural aesthetic to match the visuals and themes presented throughout the areas and civilizations therein. We didn't get that, and it's kind of a weird choice. The main themesong, also? Ehh... I didn't care for it in the trailer. This opinion hasn't shifted since my playthrough. I didn't really start finding enjoyable area music until Shaaloani. 4. 'My people are more important than your people'. This plot point has been done. We just dealt with the Ascians and pretty much got the same shpiel from Hades. They made Sphene and her subjects a little more sympathetic, though, so... good, I guess? 5. Erenville deserved better. Fussy Bunbun got done so dirty in this expack, the very least anyone could have done was give him a hug. He didn't even get that from his mother who, frankly, was the worst character out of all of it. He was also deadnamed repeatedly, which could have been a teachable moment. 6. Wuk Lamat and/or Bakool Ja Ja still owes me tacos. ------------ As for the positives? There are some. Thanks for sticking with me so far. 1. Pretty graphics updates - better over all. 2. No weirdly split zones - thank the Twelve for this. StB, ShB, and EW all had zones that you could only cover in part, and couldn't finish until later. The zones in DT flow pretty well for the most part, and the transition between upper and lower areas of Yak'Tel are nothing short of beautiful, especially in flight. 3. More Reflections - I'm glad to see more of these and I hope this trend continues. 4. For once, I'm not luke warm on the bard AF gear. It's actually a fresh look, but haven't found a dye pairing I like yet.

[scales-claws-and-thorns]

(Count)Down to Dawntrail Free Day :V

Look at me, actually doing all seven days, woo!

Considering one of the options for the free day was "talk about how the game and the people you have met have made an impact on your life", I'm going to go with that.

This is going to be a long one

I started playing FFXIV back in the ARR open beta. At the time, I didn't have a good gaming PC but I did have a PS3 and I saw XIV as an opportunity to play a game with my then-GF and roommate. I picked lancer because it would become dragoon and I really dug the armor. The character was a male keeper because fangs. I even dug up a picture.

Look at him. Obviously this is not lancer but of the few pictures I do have at the time this is probably the clearest one haha.

I had also picked Adamantoise as the world to be on :V

At some point, I joined an FC called .. I think it was Order of the Wild Rose? And I followed some of the people who were members of that FC on tumblr. This is important.

Anyway, I played off and on (I was terrible looking back lol), sometimes I would talk with other FC people, sometimes I would just .. do quests and try to figure out what I should be doing. But, my then-partner quit and so did my roommate and I just.

Okay, so, to try to get myself more attached to the game, I decided to try RP. I made a character on Balmung :) I joined a new FC :) and I even had my first ever RP with them!! And then I deleted the character.

:D

I don't know, I had this problem of becoming suddenly self conscious and afraid that I was doing things wrong and I would rapidly pull out of whatever I had tried to do. This was definitely not the first time I'd done this.

At that point, I had decided I might quit FFXIV. I didn't feel as connected as I wanted to and so maybe I would just let the sub lapse and move on. But! I did transfer that moon cat up there onto Balmung first because there was a brief thought of maybe trying RP on him. Which I didn't do. But now he lived on Balmung.

Fast forward ... I don't know how many months later and HW was releasing. I was still following some people I had followed back in that old FC and knew they had also ended up on Balmung. And I saw all of them be rather excited about the new expac coming out (you know, kind of like right now).

At the time, I was dealing with what would become my diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis and couldn't work. I desperately needed something to do and people to talk to because otherwise I would just be kind of alone sitting at home.

I decided I had three options: Elder Scrolls Online, FFXIV, or return to Destiny with a vengeance (I had played a ton of it and even was in a clan, I'd just quit by this point).

I ended up landing on FFXIV because... well, I was following people who played it! Technically, I had an in! Maybe I could even join that new FC of theirs! They seemed to be having a lot of fun!

So I get myself a sub, boot up the game, and fantasia that moon cat into a Xaela. And this is when Tai arrived!

It wasn't until I had gotten into Ishgard and then leveled Dark Knight that I started RPing. And it wasn't until a couple months after that where I did end up joining The Riskbreakers. But I did, in fact, end up joining that new FC of theirs. It turns out, they remembered my old character's name!

I met a lot of cool people through that FC. And many of them helped me out a ton a couple years later when I ended up becoming homeless for a time. I am forever grateful for all of their help.

But that isn't all of the cool people I met.

At the end that same year I joined the Riskbreakers, I joined another RP group called Rendezvous of the Stars. And it is through this group that I would meet my current girlfriend of .. it'll be eight years in July.

Several years after that during Shadowbringers, I would end up (through more connections) meeting my boyfriend as well! Along with one of two awesome roommates.

The other roommate was technically also through the Riskbreakers later down the line.

Man Risk has done a lot for me haha

I need you all to understand that if not for this game, my life would look so much different. I like to say that it saved my life, in fact. Maybe not directly, but through all the wonderful people I met who made such an impact on my life.

I can imagine that I will be continuing to play this game until they stop updating it entirely and then even then I'll probably still pop in from time to time until they shut down the servers.

It is just extremely important to me, in all sorts of ways. From the two best partners a guy could ask for, to every single fantastic friend along the way, and even to all the brief connections with strangers..

I don't think I could ever really put into words just how much this game means to me.

I hope to see you all in Dawntrail!

[laidlays]

MAGICAL RANGED DPS

Magic is fucking cool, man

The Magic DPS in FFXIV are all fairly varied in their own right, but I personally find that they range from deceptively hard to outright brainless, and it's no surprise who's in my last place if you've been paying attention.

Pictomancer

As of 7.05, Pictomancer remains the most overtuned, powerful caster in the game. It's a huge surprise that it hasn't been nerfed yet, but I cannot complain. Pictomancer's kit had a surprising free-flow style to it where most of what you're doing, as long as you understand why you're doing it, will contribute to the party. By its design it has one of the most committed cast times of all the Magic DPS and thus to make up for all the time NOT spent DPSing, your canvas magic makes up for in HUGE DPS. It's no surprise to see them top-DPSing on third-party tools. But like I said, it's a deceptively hard class. Between mechanics, juggling your canvases and building up Aetherhues to gain negative palette, you're constantly working up towards your burst until 2 minute hits and you release EVERYTHING you've saved up. And it feels fantastic. And its pseudo-leylines skill is extremely unique and rewards good playing and knowledge of the raid. Definitely the most well-thought out class overall.

2. Black Mage

The Great Sword of FFXIV made into a class. It boasts (what's supposed to be) high DPS with the tradeoff being long cast times and stationary playing. It's a class that rewards knowing the fight and understanding your kit well to be extremely effective in-combat and I hope they never change it. But it's one of those classes that you NEED to have community knowledge and guides on if you wish to be effective, otherwise you're dead weight. I think more classes should be this difficult and punishing if not played right, but that's just me. In Dawntrail, it's had a very rocky start and was recently changed to play like it did in Endwalker, which I am thankful for. But right now, its damage is pitiful for what's supposed to be THE premiere selfish DPS class. Still better than the other two on the list, but no where near where it should be for how much work you put in unlike Pictomancer.

3. Red Mage

Red Mage didn't exactly change much between Endwalker and Dawntrail. All of its new skills, just added onto the finishers and it still kept its utility as a pseudo-healer and situational resser (thank god). Ironically enough, of all the caster classes I feel that Red Mage is the class that has the least mobility. There's very few movement options that Red Mage has and outside of its finishers, you move very little unless you learn to slidecast. Probably my least played class not because it's bad, but because it has more fun alternatives for me.

4. Summoner

If Dancer didn't exist, this would be the most boring class to me, so we'll settle for second. Its Shadowbringers counterpart was full of an old and outdated design that also dealt with the infamous pet actions that didn't work most of the time. And yet, it was extremely engaging what with micro-managing your Summoned pet and taking in the power of Primals to do devastating damage. It was the first class in FFXIV that forced me to actually study how it worked, and I felt satisfied figuring it out. In Endwalker they had drastically changed it to better encompass the Summoner identity and at the same time reducing its kit to what's basically baby's first color identifier. I had held out hope that Dawntrail would have added more complexity because as it stood, it was a super bare bones class, but unfortunately it seems that they felt they didn't need to do any more to it than just add another phase and swap around Bahamut and Phoenix. To aptly describe the change would be the saddest fall from grace.

Bonus Stage:

Blue Mage

BLUE MAGE #1 STILL THE BEST FOREVER

In all seriousness, I like the role it's been put in by the community. Because none of the spells you learn are locked behind levels, its potential damage output is insanely high at any level, making it the perfect choice to farm Fates or old content with. It's the key reason why I'm even able to farm as many Aetheryte tickets as possible, making me save a LOT of gil, especially as a crafter and gatherer.

[nihilnovisubsole]

oh, right, shadowbringers! i'm overdue for another ffxiv bullet point vibe check. i actually finished it a couple of weeks ago, and then my sink exploded [long story] and i wanted to chew on it for a while. it's clear that this expac is an overwhelming fan favorite, so i figured i should formulate some more intelligent thoughts about it.

part of me worries that my shadowbringers experience was colored by how badly i missed the people and places on the source. more than the aether and gods and soul transference and all that stuff, what i really took away was a sense of loneliness. the first isn't my world. its citizens are strangers to me, though i recognize on a philosophical level that i should help them. even the scions - in theory, my closest comrades - have lived for years in the blink of my eye and become very different people. when did thancred become responsible? when did the twins grow up? i wondered what other NPCs were doing without me. all i wanted was to go home.

on the other hand, i read a theory that this is the point. the story wants you to feel cut loose from everything you know. are you still a hero in an emotional vacuum? will you still put yourself on the line to do the right thing? sure, your world will be doomed if theirs falls, but that possibility seems so huge and far-off that it doesn't register in your gut. i don't think that's the writing failing to connect with me or anything. if that's the intent, it's an interesting feeling for a game to evoke.

i may have also exacerbated that feeling by keeping my actual avatar isolated on norvrandt for so long. i mentioned earlier that i play around the game's day-night cycle, running missions based on when they'll feel most immersive. that extends to maps, too: if the story says i'm stuck in a place, i stay around that place until the story carries me elsewhere. i mean, i'll dip out for wondrous tails and daily cactpot and stuff, but i don't take big story vacations to jet around eorzea. i didn't "come back" from the far east in stormblood until doma was free. that's a lot of MSQ to just spend alone with your thoughts.

there's a storytelling paradox at work: the first's problems are so large and so bad that it's smaller and more personal when you become invested in someone's plight. i expected to care a lot about liberating ala mhigo because i'm so fond of raubahn as a character, and i did. i didn't expect to feel the pity that i felt for, say, kai-shirr, or runar's unrequited crush on y'shtola. it comes on slowly and quietly.

i don't know. it's a curious story. it's a melancholy story. it's a lot more experimental than the expacs that came before it. it'd probably be worth it to new-game-plus it at some point to pay closer attention to the individual character arcs.

same goes for emet-selch. he's a curious villain. i don't sympathize with his methods, and i obviously have no romantic interest in him. but i keep mulling him over. he keeps lurking in the back of my mind, which means that his writing succeeds by virtue of being memorable.

to my mind, everything around amaurot contributes to that success. amaurot is where it all starts to come together for me. it's a beautiful, odd place - art deco in final fantasy? who knew? - and the pinnacle of the arc's surreal "this is a dream, but tangible" tone. you can tell the team wanted to go all out with the ascian reveals they'd been building up to for years. i wonder if they had fun designing it.

even if it is. i. hm. no i shan't say it

all right, i'll say it

I AM EMET-SELCH AND I AM HERE TO ASK YOU A QUESTION

there, it's out of my system. on a less ridiculous note, i finally got royce's canon armor! now i can gpose freely. i wish there were an in-engine way to pose with NPCs, but them's the breaks. who knows? maybe we'll get it eventually. it is a live service game.

[nothingxs]

Light

The Crystarium. I don't generally do Warrior of Light Celica stuff, but I wanted to try and capture the bizarre, amazed feeling I had when I first started playing Shadowbringers and arrived to the Crystarium, and how baffled I was about everything I was seeing.

While I know this post is just outright spoilers for Shadowbringers (at least visually), I will be discussing the game more after the jump, for those of you who haven't made it that far. For the rest of you: I hope you've enjoyed my posts so far. This has been really fun! Can't wait to do more.

I almost didn't really stick with Final Fantasy XIV. I really enjoyed Heavensward, to be sure, but many of the parts of Stormblood felt like homework. The pace of it turns a bit into a slog, with the stakes of things being all over the place. The villains were not particularly deep (fighting the equivalent of an overpowered petulant child is not particularly interesting; Zenos doesn't get interesting until they start filling in the gaps of his past and upbringing later, as well as change the nature of his interactions with you two expansions later).

But then Shadowbringers hits, and the world is covered in everlasting light, and everything is awful. And then you see someone get turned into... a monster. And the stakes are immediately real, and horrifying.

Reny complains a lot about how death in this game feels unearned; how healers simply would make those situations fairly irrelevant. Why did any of your friends have to die when you can just cast Benevolence on them? The game logic and the story the game is trying to tell don't line up. The major death in the game would've been better if you could see their aether burn up, or some other reason for why healing was no longer an option—but they never really do the work of fixing what is basically a plot hole between mechanics and storytelling.

Shadowbringers ups the stakes in that regard... significantly. Off rip. And Endwalker doubles down on those... well, it can hardly be called death. But those final steps are brutal, and harrowing, and scary. When you see people start falling to despair, it resonates. You feel it more, because you know that's not an end anyone can truly fix.

Shadowbringers is where i imagine a lot of people will really start to vibe with the story, particularly if they can't stomach the sort of... intrigue that expansions like Stormblood are putting forth. And it's not even that Stormblood is particularly bad, but the bad parts are... rough. But Shadowbringers?

Fucking hell. I love Shadowbringers. It may be the one expansion I replay fully as I spam-level my alt.

[before-calamity]

Gladiator/Paladin Skills Overview: Part 1

Alright, let's do it. Each class/job we'll look at will be in two parts, with one part being Class skills and the second part being Job and Class Traits. This is so you don't get a giant wall of pics or text on your Tumblr dashboard. I'm trying my best to tumblr.

I'm only going to comment unless I have something interesting to say.

Fast Blade, a classic. It was your lvl 5 Sword weaponskill, and it's your starting skill in both forms of FFXIV. Notice it has a frontal positional - many FFXIV tank skills are like that, sort of like a prototypical Goblin Punch.

Another 1.0 thing is that there are attacks that can only be used if you evade or block them. Such as Phalanx here.

Sort of like a prototypical Holy Sheltron back when Sheltron was just an automatic block.

Combos in 1.0 work similarly as they do in ARR - you use an attack with a combo, if you have the resources attack for the next in the combo, it'll be highlighted. However Combos in 1.0 are more complex, as we'll see in a second. Also combo bonuses are not always an increased damage.

Good ole flash. It was a GLD/PLD main enmity getter up until the big Tank rework in Shadowbringers, and in 1.0 it didn't even have the blindness effect that actually made it worth using (...yet). It also wasn't AoE. Also note that the timeouts of these weaponskills are quite long.

Probably a remnant of the Sentinel class, and it's still in ARR today! Now it's a stun on GCD, back in 1.0, it had a 30 second recast time. When I play PLD these days, I don't have it on my hotbar, because Low Blow is better. As Shield Bash is technically a sword class...you may not necessarily need a shield to use it (something to try for later!)

Notice how 1.0's descriptions don't tell you anything? You know that it reduces damage taken but not by how much. Also doesn't tell you how long each ability lasts. This skill is still in ARR as GLD/PLD's 120 second, 30% damage reduction skill. No enmity generation anymore, but the tank stance added in EW kind of makes that irrelevant.

So here, you can branch Fast Blade off of Savage Blade or go into Fast Blade, depending if you want damage or enmity.

Yeah, Riot Blade has a back positional and is ranged for some reason. Now it's just part of a GLD/PLD's standard 1-2-3 combo.

Kind of like EW's Sheltron (at the beginning before it became just a 15% damage reduction)/Bulwark, but also with TP generation.

Probably another Sentinel skill that uses a shield. It's an AoE skill and is an actual shield attack. May not need said shield for the attack itself - looks like it only requires a sword (will experiment later).

I started playing FFXIV during Stormblood, and this was my least favorite skill, because I never saw the point of it - you rarely get binded or heavy, and while knock back and draw in are useful abilities, I never used it (but I was also really new to the game by then). It is amazing to me it survived from 1.0.

Told you combo bonuses are a bit different in 1.0. Basically if you combo Rage of Halone, you'll have more accuracy to hit all five melee attacks. At least the animation in ARR is similar.

(Here is where people scream about PLD losing their DoTs in the "PLD Rework" during EW). Also another skill better for whoever is playing as an off-tank or a fake DPS.

Stay tuned to part 2, where we'll cover Paladin actions & traits. They are very familiar to what you know today. Very similar.

[minti-tales]

what glams do u use on minti??

Anon.

Sweet, wonderful, delightful Anon.

Imagine (with your consent) that I'm pulling you in real close, like Gaston to LeFou, and I'm about to burst into my signature song.

You're in for a good time.

And by good time, I mean an extra long post where I talk about Ms. Minti and her fashions as of the start to the Dawntrail expansion.

I'm writing this the day before Dawntrail drops, so I don't have *everything* available, but I'll update this once servers go back online.

RIGHT. SO. Story time.

Back when I started XIV, I played Arcanist. I had one job. I didn't like that job, so I swapped to Lancer. I kept swapping jobs until I got to, I think Dark Knight? Which I did for a while, until I got to Shadowbringers. I leveled up jobs for the role quests, not much else happened, until I hit Endwalker and start doing Endwalker stuff. It's specifically when I saw the "A Life of Adventure IV" achievement that Things Start Happening.

In case you don't know, "A Life of Adventure IV" says

Obtain the achievements "Mastering War IV" and "Mastering Magic IV."

You get an Amaro mount. For curious sprouts, this is a flying bird(?) mount that appears in the Shadowbringers expansion. Without spoilers, it's pretty special! It doesn't have any special animations, but it's important to the story and will make you cry.

You can't get this bird elsewhere in the game.

What do you need for "Mastering War IV" and "Mastering Magic IV"?

Mastering War IV says

Achieve level 80 as a gladiator, pugilist, marauder, lancer, archer, rogue, dark knight, machinist, samurai, gunbreaker, and dancer.

You get a title. Neat.

Mastering Magic IV says

Achieve level 80 as a conjurer, thaumaturge, arcanist, astrologian, and red mage.

You get a title. Also neat.

What we need to do is get level 80 on all combat jobs that were available to play during the Shadowbringers expansion. As of Dawntrail, that is everything but Sage, Reaper, Blue Mage, Viper, and Pictomancer.

Almost. Every. Combat. Class.

For a bird.

A special bird.

You know what you get for getting all those classes plus Sage and Reaper to 90?

A Chocobo plume.

For your head.

No bird.

No special bird.

So, I had a goal. I had a lot of goals, at the time, that I kept updated on the Notes app on my phone. I started taking Adderall during this time, which I needed for my general mental health, and more recently Lexapro for other pressing mental health needs. Is this too much information? Yes, BUT they helped me to stay focused, get my shite done, and tell my anxiety (which has been my "manager" for a very long time) to stop managing my life.

Reader, gentle reader, I got all those classes up to 90. I got Blue Mage up to 80.

For a bird.

A special bird.

It was worth it.

We're dividing this up into sections. You good? Yes? Hydrated? Had a snack?

If you want me to talk about the glams for the Choir, that's going to be a separate post. I think Tumblr's going to get mad if I make this too long, or, I may lose all this lovely progress in the drafts, because Tumblr does SUCH A GOOD JOB of keeping your drafts saved.

~---~

My Main Classes

As of the start of Dawntrail, I have all available combat classes leveled to 90. Blue Mage is currently maxed out at 80. (No idea when I'm going back to the Carnivale, sorry what's your name. Maybe when I have time in Dawntrail.)

When I run content, I usually choose from:

Warrior or Gunbreaker

White Mage or Sage

Dragoon or Samurai

Dancer or occasionally Bard

Summoner or Red Mage

I like the other classes, but I feel like these are the ones that I vibe with the most. Not too complex, not too simple (with the exception of Summoner), just the right amount of thinking to come out alive and look cool while you're doing your LBs.

~---~

Glams

Please note that I will not be providing the base equipment, just glamours. Everything is organized by role.

~---~

Tank Classes

~---~

Paladin

Current Glam Name: Shiva's Champion

Arms: True Ice Brand/True Ice Shield

Headwear: Altered Mythril Magnifiers (Loam Brown Dye)

Body: Tigerskin Coat of Fending (Royal Blue Dye)

Hands: Doman Iron Gauntlets of Fending

Legs: Kudzu Longkilt of Fending (Snow White Dye)

Feet: Doman Iron Greaves of Fending

Earring: Wayfarer's Earcuff

Neckpiece: Patriot's Choker

Bracelet: The Emperor's New Bracelet

Rings: Hero's Ring of Healing (2x)

---

Warrior

Current Glam Name: Monster Hunter, Slayer of Rathalos

Arms: Majestic Manderville Bardiche

Headwear: Rathalos Helm [F]

Body: Rathalos Mail [F]

Hands: Rathalos Vambraces [F]

Legs: Rathalos Coil [F]

Feet: Rathalos Greaves [F]

Earring: Storm Sergeant's Ear Cuffs

Neckpiece: Horn Necklace

Bracelet: The Emperor's New Bracelet

Rings: Hero's Ring of Healing (2x)

---

Dark Knight

Current Glam: Shadowbringer

Arms: Shadowbringer

Headwear: Altered Mythril Magnifiers (Loam Brown Dye)

Body: Idealized Bale Cuirass

Hands: Idealized Bale Gauntlets

Legs: Idealized Bale Flanchard

Feet: Idealized Bale Sollerets

Earrings: Augmented Shire Conservator's Earrings

Neckpiece: Patriot's Choker

Bracelet: Ishgardian Historian's Bracelet

Rings: Hero's Ring of Healing (2x)

---

Gunbreaker

Current Glam: Iron Cowpoke

Arms: Mandervillious Gunblade

Headwear: Altered Mythril Magnifiers (Loam Brown Dye)

Body: Virtu Bodyguard's Coat (General-purpose Jet Black Dye)

Hands: Metian Gauntlets (General-purpose Dark Brown Dye)

Legs: Virtu Bodyguard's Trousers (General-purpose Dark Blue Dye)

Feet: Outsider's Boots

Earrings: Wayfarer's Earcuff

Necklace: Wayfarer's Necklace

Bracelet: The Emperor's New Bracelet

Rings: Hero's Ring of Healing (2x)

~---~

Healer Classes

~---~

White Mage & Scholar

Current Glam: Ramuh's Grand Arbiter

Arms: Kelesis

Headwear: Altered Mythril Magnifiers (Loam Brown Dye)

Body: Void Ark Robe of Healing

Hands: Orison Fingerless Gloves (Lavender Purple Dye)

Legs: Kudzu Longkilt of Healing (Lavender Purple Dye)

Feet: Orison Thighboots

Earrings: Wayfarer's Earcuff

Necklace: Horn Necklace

Bracelet: The Emperor's New Bracelet

Rings: Weathered Ring (2x)

---

Astrologian

Current Glam: Classic Astrologian

Arms: Dreadwyrm Torquetum

Headwear: Altered Mythril Magnifiers (Loam Brown Dye)

Body: Welkin Robe

Hands: Welkin Half Sleeves

Legs: Welkin Breeches

Feet: Welkin Shoes

Earrings: Storm Sergeant's Ear Cuffs

Necklace: Horn Necklace

Bracelet: The Emperor's New Bracelet

Ring: Hero's Ring of Healing (2x)

---

Sage

Current Glam: New World Bound

Arms: Isnae Phis

Headwear: Isle Shepherd's Headdress

Body: Peacelover's Shirt (Dalamud Red Dye)

Hands: Ravel Keeper's Halfgloves of Healing (General-purpose Pastel Pink Dye)

Legs: Peacelover's Pantaloons (Othard Blue Dye)

Feet: Expeditioner's Moccasins

Earrings: Wayfarer's Earcuff

Neckpiece: Wayfarer's Necklace

Bracelet: The Emperor's New Bracelet

Rings: Weathered Ring (2x)

~---~

Melee DPS Classes

~---~

Monk

Current Glam: Turtle Power

Arms: Shinryu's Ephemeral Claws

Headwear: The Emperor's New Hat

Body: Oyoroi of the Blue

Hands: Kote of the Blue

Legs: Tsutsu-hakama of the Blue

Feet: Sune-ate of the Blue

Earrings: Wayfarer's Earcuff

Neckpiece: Wayfarer's Necklace

Bracelet: Aetherial Coral Armillae

Rings: Hero's Ring of Healing (2x)

---

Dragoon

Current Glam: The Spear of Hydaelyn

Arms: Partisan of Divine Light

Headwear: Altered Mythril Magnifiers (Loam Brown Dye)

Body: Tiamat Mail

Hands: Tiamat Gauntlets

Legs: Tiamat Trousers

Feet: Tiamat Greaves

Earrings: Wayfarer's Earcuff

Neckpiece: Wayfarer's Necklace

Bracelet: Aetherial Coral Armillae

Rings: Hero's Ring of Healing (2x)

---

Ninja

Current Glam: Quick As Lightning

Arms: Phthonos

Headwear: Scion Rogue's Bandana

Body: Hachiya Chainmail

Hands: Hachiya Tekko

Legs: Hachiya Tsutsu-hakama

Feet: Hachiya Zori

Earrings: Wayfarer's Earcuff

Neckpiece: Wayfarer's Necklace

Bracelet: The Emperor's New Bracelet

Rings: Hero's Ring of Healing (2x)

---

Samurai

Current Glam: Cyber Swordswoman

Arms: Mandervillious Samurai Blade

Headwear: Idealized Kasuga Hanbo (General-purpose Metallic Silver Dye)

Body: Idealized Kasuga Haori (Void Blue Dye)

Hands: Idealized Kasuga Kote (Soot Black Dye)

Legs: Idealized Kasuga Tsutsu-hakama (Soot Black Dye)

Feet: Late Allagan Sollerets of Striking (General-purpose Metallic Silver Dye)

Earrings: Wayfarer's Earcuff

Neckpiece: Redbill Scarf

Bracelet: The Emperor's New Bracelet

Rings: Hero's Ring of Healing (2x)

---

Reaper

Current Glam: The Mockingbird

Arms: Kinna Sickle

Headwear: Red Viola Corsage

Body: Neo-Ishgardian Top of Maiming (Dalamud Red Dye)

Hands: Muzhik Field Dressing (Dalamud Red Dye)

Legs: Thavnarian Tights (Dalamud Red Dye)

Feet: Scion Healer's Highboots

Earrings: Halonic Friar's Earrings

Neckpiece: Redbill Scarf

Bracelet: The Emperor's New Bracelet

Rings: Hero's Ring of Healing (2x)

~---~

Physical Ranged DPS Classes

~---~

Bard

Current Glam: The Song of the Sea

Arms: Storm Captain's Bow

Headwear: Augmented Crystarium Blinder of Aiming (Soot Black Dye)

Body: Aoidos' Cloak (Wine Red Dye)

Hands: Aoidos' Shoulder Gloves (Soot Black Dye)

Legs: Aoidos' Tights

Feet: Lominsan Soldier's Boots

Earrings: Augmented Shire Conservator's Earrings

Neckpiece: Horn Necklace

Bracelet: Aetherial Coral Armillae

Rings: Hero's Ring of Healing (2x)

---

Machinist

Current Glam: Thanalan Outlaw

Arms: Fomalhaut

Headwear: Nabaath Scarf of Aiming

Body: Ravel Keeper's Chestwrap of Aiming (Gobbiebag Brown Dye)

Hands: Gazelleskin Armguards of Aiming (Mole Brown Dye)Rakshasa Hakama of Aiming (Gobbiebag Brown Dye)

Legs: Rakshasa Hakama of Aiming (Gobbiebag Brown Dye)

Feet: Anemos Boots

Earrings: Augmented Shire Conservator's Earrings

Neckpiece: Wayfarer's Necklace

Bracelet: The Emperor's New Bracelet

Rings: Hero's Ring of Healing (2x)

---

Dancer

Current Glam: Dancer of Light

Arms: Chakrams of Light

Headwear: Bozjan Hood of Aiming (General-purpose Jet Black Dye)

Body: Ravel Keeper's Chestwrap of Aiming (General-purpose Jet Black Dye)

Hands: Bozjan Armguards of Aiming (General-purpose Jet Black Dye)

Legs: Plain Long Skirt (Wine Red Dye)

Feet: Zonsureskin Sandals of Aiming (General-Purpose Jet Black Dye)

Earrings: Wayfarer's Earcuff

Neckpiece: Wayfarer's Necklace

Bracelet: Aetherial Coral Armillae

Rings: Hero's Ring of Healing (2x)

~---~

Magic Ranged DPS Classes

~---~

Black Mage

Current Glam: Archmage of Ronka

Arms: Asura's Rod

Headwear: Altered Mythril Magnifiers (Loam Brown Dye)

Body: Spaekona's Coat

Hands: Spaekona's Wrist Torque

Legs: Spaekona's Skirt

Feet: Spaekona's Shoes

Earrings: Wayfarer's Earcuff

Necklace: Wayfarer's Necklace

Bracelet: The Emperor's New Bracelet

Rings: Weathered Ring (2x)

---

Summoner

Current Glam: ARR Summoner

Arms: Lemegeton Anemos

Headwear: Idealized Beckoner's Horn

Body: Idealized Beckoner's Coat

Hands: Idealized Beckoner's Fingerless Gloves

Legs: Idealized Beckoner's Sarouel

Feet: Idealized Beckoner's Crakows

Earrings: Wayfarer's Earcuff

Necklace: Wayfarer's Necklace

Bracelet: Aetherial Coral Armillae

Rings: Hero's Ring of Healing (2x)

---

Red Mage

Current Glam: The Cavalier of Roses

Arms: Tropaios Rapier

Headwear: Pince-nez

Body: Virtu Duelist's Tabard

Hands: Virtu Duelist's Gloves

Legs: Virtu Duelist's Breeches

Feet: Virtu Duelist's Thighboots

Earrings: Royal Volunteer's Earrings of Casting

Neckpiece: Horn Necklace

Bracelet: Aetherial Coral Armillae

Rings: Hero's Ring of Healing (2x)

~---~

Limited Classes

~---~

Blue Mage

Current Glam: It's A Blue, Blue, Blue Blue Mage

Arms: The Spirit of the Whalaqee

Headwear: Altered Mythril Magnifiers (Loam Brown Dye)

Body: Appointed Jacket (Royal Blue Dye)

Hands: No. 2 Type B Gloves

Legs: Angelic Slops (General-purpose Jet Black Dye)

Feet: Appointed Shoes (Pearl White Dye)

Earrings: Wayfarer's Earcuff

Neckpiece: Wayfarer's Necklace

Bracelet: Augmented Cryptlurker's Bracelet of Casting

Rings: Augmented Cryptlurker's Ring of Casting (2x)

---

That should be everything except my crafter gears, which I'm not focusing on right now. Hope to see you in Dawntrail!

This took a while to catalogue!!

[sarastuss-a]

ᴹᴱᵀᴬ . SARASTUS &. STRENGTH :

Sarastus, ever since awakening from the long slumber, had the duty as the warrior of light placed upon her shoulders. it started with small deeds, something so mundane many would just have ignored those in need of help &. carried on. but not her. from the very start, she was lending her strength to those, who needed. &. of course as things progressed, more &. more was demanded of her. &. more &. more did she give of herself.

it is something that has been present ever since the times that the star was whole, the way Sarastus radiated strength, one look at her soul &. one could see from its' colors, the brightness of it that she had potential within her, potential to become successor to Venat, to become the next Azem.

even back then when ' there was no need for heroes, ' Sarastus was one. it is what she has always done, taken fights not her own upon her shoulders, protecting even the smallest of lives, fighting for the balance of the star. seeing this, &. knowing that Sarastus was indeed like the sun : both gentle, warm, &. kind, but also, when need be, ruthless &. fierce in the way she could defeat those she must, ... all of this played into the way Venat saw the potential in her. &. when she didn't take any side during the debate of how to proceed in the final days, but instead choosing to fight it all in her own way ( like hythlodaeus said ) it proved to Venat she is fit to be trusted with the weight of the soon to be shattered worlds, to become her champion, the warrior of light.

Which leads me to talk about how much is placed upon Sarastus' shoulders. the events during the ARR - arc, ( her re - awakening ) were a starting point to it all : from acts of kindness &. heroism, quickly that potential within her was seen, &. it was made known she was Hydaelyn's chosen champion. this of course, made others to entrust even more weight upon her shoulders, as she was deemed the only one who could take on the toughest fights. it came with a certain loneliness, this duty of hers. she had the support of her allies, her friends, her found family ... but, despite being loved, there was still that loneliness. something that could not be understood by others.

every fight tougher than the other, mentally &. physically, yet she pressed on.

' even should you lose all that is dear to you. even should it cost you your life ... you bear the burden and fight on, kicking and screaming until your last breath is spent. '

i do not think Sarastus was ever the naive - type to see the world as black &. white, as from the very beginning of her re - awakening, as she began it all by being able to fight primals unlike anyone else to her level, it was clear that there were gray colors to everything. there is no default good and bad, as later proven during Shadowbringers - arc, the scions travel to the first that proved that even too much light is destructive. this in itself, made the weight of fighting these certain battles all the more painful. while she wanted to save everyone, some were beyond saving, such showcased the best when she was forced to kill both hades / emet - selch &. themis / elidibus, who used to be her dear friends, members of the convocation alongside her in her past. a fate worse now, that she had her memories back. this all, the final days that happened again, having to travel back in time to see it all happen then as well, all of these strained Sarastus extremely hard mentally, &. though she is good at hiding it, it was obvious something weighed heavily on her mind. so her immense strength is not also physical but also mental, to be able to handle all of those things mentioned above in itself : though i always want to emphasize that she was extremely affected by it all mentally, &. it really took a huge toll on her, yet she pressed on, because she had to, &. because she still could. because there were still people she wanted to protect. there was no time to be weak or genuinely grieve, it was time to forge ahead.

she in truth, must shoulder so much. not only the weight of one realm, but others too. &. this is to say, she chooses to. she chooses to bear the burden, despite how heavy it weights upon her shoulder. not only because she thinks ' if not me, then who? ' but also, because she genuinely wants to. she wants to save others, she wants to fight for this world : for those she loves, for those she has lost. she is the strongest, &. she is fine with giving everything she has, till there is nothing left of her to give.

[anneapocalypse]

100 Word November Final Count & Thoughts

It has been a Bad Year for writing, and so while I definitely wasn't up for doing NaNo this year, I set myself a low-pressure goal just to try and get myself writing regularly again which I called 100 Word November.

I have written plenty of little Ariane snippets this year, but nothing remotely structured or finalized because I don't intend to finish and post anything until I'm caught up on MSQ (and can finally look up lore without fear of spoilers... you do not know how I am suffering). I could not have picked a better month for this challenge because I was playing through Shadowbringers which was an absolute font of inspiration.

My final count at the end of the month is 10,332 words, which averages out to 344 words per day. There were a few days I didn't write, and most days when I did I wrote more than 100. If I averaged word count by my usual five days a week writing schedule, it's almost 450 per day.

Most importantly though it's gotten me back in the habit and excited about writing again, and thinking about what I want to work on in the coming year! I know I'm going to want to work on FFXIV fic, obviously, and in particular I'd like to write the chronologically-first Ariane fic I have planned (it's about her and Haurchefant). I also really do want to finish A Hero Sleeps in Gwaren, and I'd like to set aside some time for that somewhere. If we ever get that final season of Red vs. Blue, I would like to use that as a push to do some more work on Radio Silence, at least get past the last chapter I was stuck on. That's about as far as I'm thinking for now, and that's certainly plenty to keep me busy.

For December I plan to keep it lowkey as usual, but try to keep up the 100 words a day, and also start sorting out what I wrote in November and organizing it. Some of it will undoubtedly get scrapped or rewritten, because I wrote a lot of speculative stuff before I actually reached the point in canon where it would happen, but there is definitely a good amount of material I can use. At this point I do have the broad strokes of what I want to write about Ariane kind of outlined for myself, though no doubt it will change along the way!

I'm just glad to be writing again.

[marcilled]

According to the votes on that poll, at least 70% of you want to hear about my FFXIV ocs (meanwhile, only 12% think i should sleep. so i'm awake still, typing this.) I'll ramble about them under the cut, but for the ~7% that said they don't know what ffxiv is, I ended up rambling quite a bit about what ffxiv even is, and why I personally enjoy it/what i recommend for anyone who's interested in it. (I made it easy to skip over if you don't care to read about that, though)

Gonna put this under a readmore since it got really long;

Cassern Qestir! my main girlie. she/it pronouns. lesbian .

she's the warrior of light. if you don't know what that means; it's the protagonist. if you still need more context:

(skip to the blue text if you don't want to read me explain ffxiv and why i think it's worth playing, i didn't expect to ramble this much about it...)

Final Fantasy XIV is a MMORPG by Square Enix. Most other final fantasy games aren't MMOs, but this one is. That means it's a multiplayer game with RPG elements. It's also heavily story-driven. While you might hear people complain about the story at times- and I'd be one of them- it manages to really leave an impression in spite of any contrivances, awkward writing, or plotholes. That's due to the fact that the player character is... well, whoever you want them to be.

Your WoL (Warrior of Light), the player character, is the protagonist of the story. And it really must be emphasized... They are so, so fully the protagonist, it's hard for other protagonists to even compare to the protagonist energy the warrior of light has. That might seem... dull or uninteresting to some, but eh, it's not like you can please everyone- the point is for you to get into character, and if that doesn't interest you, then hopefully the other characters in the story will. Personally I love this aspect- I've made the WoL my own oc with a really, really detailed backstory. Which brings me to my next point;

The Worldbuilding... The worldbuilding is probably the strongest point of ffxiv, aside from the STELLAR soundtrack it boasts. The worldbuilding is incredibly detailed, and is there to encourage roleplaying, as well as to help the plot along (tho, really, it works best as a means to encourage roleplay). I suppose I should be more specific here; it's the setting that's really the key point here- the world, the cities, each and every river and valley... But also the time period, the history, etc etc etc... There's a lot of material to work with, and I suppose you'll just have to believe me that it's really quite in-depth (if you're interested in that depth! totally fine not to engage with it, too.)

All of this isn't... going to grab or interest everyone, certainly, but eh, I've accepted that at this point lol. Don't force yourself to keep playing it if it isn't grabbing you, but for me, I started playing it for the social aspect- doing something in the game with friends, socializing in the game, making new friends through it... it's been great for that. What I didn't expect is how much the story would grab me.

FFXIV's story is very slow to start, but gradually builds on the humble roots of your adventurer until you're literally saving the entire universe. It's very, very gradual, and this slow pace might turn people off as well. Especially if you hear people say "it really gets good at heavensward!" "shadowbringers is unforgetable!" "just wait til next expansion--" these sorts of things are common to hear, but it's the same as touting that a game gets good "after the first 20 hours of gameplay", it's poison. Just try it out and see how you feel about how it plays. If the style of doing quests is interesting to you, if the combat feels engaging or shallow. etc. hey wait this was supposed to be about my ocs. ok i'll finish talking about the story and then get back to my ocs.

Anyhow. The story is really shallow at first, it's true. Even within the whole base game itself, (A Realm Reborn, aka 2.0), it can be a bit dull and contrived, and boy oh boy is the voice acting completely awful... It's rough around the edges. But if you're like me, you can really appreciate a series that starts out rough around the edges, and slowly evolves over time from humble beginnings into an epic tale that really blows away your expectations... It's about growing with the narrative, to me. If that sounds interesting to you, maybe you'll like it. I certainly did. In fact, ffxiv might be like... top 10 games to me, in terms of how its story affected me personally. Particularly the shadowbringers and endwalker expansions. But you can't skip all the way there, either- the context of everything that happened before it is crucial to understanding where you're at once you get to those expansions. The more you skip, the more lost you'll likely be. Take your time. Don't rush. And ignore anyone who tells you "it gets really good at (x) part!!!", it's a great way to set yourself up for disappointment if you end up not personally connecting with a certain plotline or character moment. I think, the thing that makes ffxiv really special... is.. it's YOUR story. The story of you- your warrior of light. And the parts that are going to connect for YOU, and for your warrior of light, are not necessarily the same as what connects for anyone else. You may end up loving the slow, humble beginnings of ARR, and feel alienated by all the saving-the-world stuff that comes later. Who knows! It's what you make of it. That's kind of the beauty of it. Now, I could talk all day about how I personally connected to shadowbringers and endwalker, (and some smaller moments, scenes, & questlines from earlier in the game), but you didn't come here for all this, you came here to read about my ocs. SORRY.

I'm done talking about FFXIV as a game now. It's time to ramble about my OCs.

FFXIV is really great for making OCs, if you like its setting. Square Enix doesn't like when you talk about it, but there's a pretty big modding scene that lets you customize your characters way beyond what the vanilla game allows for. This is often used for horny purposes, but more interesting to me personally is the gender euphoria I get from seeing my own body reflected in my own character. I gave Cassern wider shoulders, made her taller than any other au ra woman can be in vanilla, and gave her the horns that are typically only on male character models. She is so transgender. i love cassern.

Cassern Qestir is the warrior of light, meaning she's the protagonist that goes on to save everyone and everything. But at the start of her story, she's a budding new adventurer, completely new to Eorzea- her home is far to the east, in the Azim Steppe, where most Xaela Au Ra hail from. It started out casting spells, but picked up ninjitsu along the way, and quickly became one of the most skilled shinobi there is.

(she kills fascists lol)

she's also pretty socially awkward, in spite of her unparalleled combat capabilities... it lacked a lot of confidence early on in the story, too, but over time it got a lot of character development, and gained confidence. my little beepo. i have a lot of photos of it, but I don't want to make this TOO long... plus, it's difficult to give a spoiler-free overview of her character that's still approachable to people that don't know anything about the game. I suppose I could talk about her backstory, because most of my writing for her actually happens before the main game... but, eh, I'd still need to introduce a lot of settings and topics that wouldn't make sense if you haven't played before. tricky to do. maybe I'll attempt that one of these days. Anyhow... onto my next oc...

This is Samga Mol! they/them. bi.

Samga is a touchy, standoffish Xaela dragoon. (Dragoon means they fight with a lance- it's one of the many jobs in the game, like Ninja is. I'd need another long tangent to explain that in full.) Samga was actually close friends with Cassern in their youth, having also grown up on the Azim Steppe- but the two of them haven't spoken in years... I wonder what happened between them?

They're very edgy, as dragoons often are- but they also have a softer, gentler side that they don't often let show... They also get grumpy if you say they're cute. (Which is just even cuter, by the way.) They actually have a soft spot for animals, particularly chocobos.

But shhh, don't tell anyone you saw them like this... they have a reputation to uphold, you know. Tough, menacing dragoon that kills in the name of dragonkind and all that. Most feared heretic in all of Ishgard, strikes fear into the hearts of the temple knights... Wait, weren't they from the Azim Steppe? How did that happen?? Hmm, I wonder...

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I have a lot more OCs, but most of them don't have cohesive designs and intricate backstories like Cassern and Samga do- and more often than not, mostly exist just to add more depth to the story between the two of them. There's a few others I have, like this mad scientist catgirl named Dr. Frankie. I'm still working on her. She's completely unrelated to Cassern and Samga's story;

stay tuned if you enjoy morally dubious scientist women with an ephemeral grasp on social etiquette. i'm already obsessed with this little freak, i just need to develop her a bit more before i start showing her off all the time. she also has an ... "assistant" that i'm excited to design. more on that later.

Anyhow, this was a really, really brief overview of my ocs, and I have SO many more thoughts on them, that I post about with much more frequency over on @azimsteppe ... when I remember to... (I usually use twitter for ffxiv stuff, but I'm sure you're all familiar with how that website is faring these days...) just be aware that there are spoilers on that blog, and although i try to tag them, you'll likely run into some spoilery stuff if you browse there long enough.

please let me know what you think!! it always makes me happy hearing what people think of my ocs and what interests them about them... :] and!! big thank you for reading all of this!! it was a lot of fun just to ramble lol, my ocs mean a lot to me. so i'm glad it interests at least some of you. take care!!