#Ser Zephirin

[mosthuggableffxiv]

Round 1A: Ser Zephirin de Valhoudin vs Varis zos Galvus

"He kills Haurchefant and then runs away; based on the Singularity Reactor and the DRK storyline, the developers agree he's good for being treated like a pinata."

"Literally a fascist and also probably the worst father in the MSQ"

[knights-of-ishgard]

[mostfuckableffvillain]

Round 1 - FF14

Lyon: ... I know nothing about this man, I'm sorry.

Zephirin: Killed my husband and I hate him.

[pixieberrydream]

One fateful day, while tending to their Island, the Warrior of Light senses an eerie presence. Upon investigating they find that an old enemy, Zephirin, has returned as a ghost. The two seem unfathomably linked in some way. Will they find out the truth behind his untimely return? Or will they be stuck together forever?

AKA Zephirin is a ghost and the Warrior of Light must help him out. This visual novel features THREE different endings depending on the choices you make: a good, a neutral, and a bad ending.

Trigger Warning: Blood, Major Character Death

This is written with no gendered words and ambiguous race and classes.

[lyrieuxsicons]

Who? // : Ser Zephirin de Valhourdin From? // : Final Fantasy XIV Amount? // : 381 Size? // : 100 x100 px

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If you enjoyed or have used these icons, please consider donating to my KoFi!

[veliara]

Junelezen2024 Day 13 New Acquaintance

[claire4545]

"A lowborn runt… whose every effort went unrewarded. Whose very name disqualified him from ever leading the Temple Knights. But His Eminence raised me up. Granted me a place at his side…."

Drew Ser Zephirin de Valhourdin the Just, the Very Reverend Archimandrite of the Heavens' Ward... Bit of a long title.

[aethermimic]

The End of Ascalon

The archbishop lay meekly on the ground, his body aglow as the aether composing his form flitted away. Moments before, the scene was quite different -- he had been a towering primal, a living facade of the ancient King Thordan -- but now, Oyuun thought, he was nothing more than a dying man.

He was mumbling words… something about a millennium of prayer. Oyuun wasn't listening; she didn't care. She numbly let her grimoire fall to the ground -- she didn't need it for the spell she was about to cast.

Her right hand curled into a cruel grip, as if to receive of a weapon. Her eyes closed, recalling… recalling that day. How she was pursuing that bastard archbishop; how she turned around and saw certain doom coming her way. How Haurchefant jumped in front of it to save her life.

Her eyes opened, her brow furrowed. In her grip aether began coalescing into a long, pointed shape. Her fingers were trembling, though whether it was because of fury or exhaustion, she could not say. The archbishop looked up at her, eyes darting around her form as if searching for something.

But Oyuun did not notice. She was remembering the sound of metal and wood buckling under pressure… the splash of red that gushed out of her friend's mouth when the lance pierced his armor. She remembered hovering over him, desperately studying the wound as Alphinaud tried to mend it. She remembered realizing how to undo the lance's magicks seconds too late.

A smile may better suit a hero, but Oyuun was not going to be a hero today. A near-perfect replica of Ser Zephirin's lance had formed in her grip. She stepped towards the archbishop in a broken cadence, lance in hand. He looked up at her, terror in his eyes, and pleaded,

"Who… what are you?!"

Oyuun's only response was to raise the lance and foist it between his eyes.

[scrollsfromarebornrealm]

on our fates alight--first warning

Augustine pulled the cloak around his shoulders, securing the ties together. Pausing to make sure his sword was buckled securely to his hip, he headed for the door.

“I’ll be back with the soup!”  He called, turning the handle. “In the meantime, just stay in—” As the door opened fully, Augustine found himself trailing off.  Standing in the hallway, a fist raised as if to knock on the wood, was Lord Haurchefant. There was a dark look on his features, and Augustine blinked as the elezen’s eyes met his own.  Then suddenly ice started to crawl up his spine—Halone flaring to life—just as the paladin’s eyes moved past the Fortemps lord. Directly behind Haurchefant were Zephirin de Valhourdin and Haumeric de Peulagnon.

Shite.

“Ser Augustine!”  Haurchefant said a bit too cheerfully. “I’m sorry, did we catch you at a bad time?  My lords of the Heavens’ Ward were nearby and wanted to pay a visit!” 

“I was about to head to the city, actually.”  Augustine replied, and then froze at the sound of a body hitting the floor. Fear made him whip around, staring at the hallway behind him.

“Mathye?!”

-------

Haumeric sighed.

“Not even aetherical exhaustion from Priming has the capacity for you to stay still.”  He commented dryly, pulling the tunic back over Mathye’s wound.  “But you didn’t rip open the stitches, so that’s good.”  Mathye didn’t say anything, electing to stay as still in bed as he possibly could.  Halone had alerted him to the presence of the two members of the Heavens’ Ward. Worry for Augustine had given him a brief burst of strength to get out of bed—but then that had been his limit. He’d fallen, and then suddenly Augustine was exploding through his door, Haumeric and Zephirin on his heels.

“You need to be more careful.”  Haumeric continued. “Your devotion to your duty does you credit, Ser Mathye, but you—like your brother—are both precious and valued by the Archbishop.  Surely there is no need for you to go haring off on every single little errand…” 

“I go where the work is needed.” Mathye countered. Gods, he was exhausted. All he wanted to do was curl up and sleep. He could feel Halone’s alarm—he was at his limit, he needed to rest—but he couldn’t. Wouldn’t. Not until Zephirin and Haumeric left.

“I apologize for my older brother.”  Augustine interjected. “Thank you, Ser Peulagnon, for looking at his wounds. I pray ask your forgiveness for taking up your time like this.”  Haumeric blinked.

“Ser Augustine, there is no apology needed!”  He said, gesturing. “If anything, this is a friendlier use of our time!”

“Reports have made it to the Vault of voidsent infestations out here in Central Coerthas.” Zephirin added. “His Holiness requested that the matter be investigated.”

“I see.”  Augustine got out. He didn’t dare look at Mathye, but he knew his older brother had gone very still. The other day the priest had dealt with a voidsent rift down at the bottom of Witchdrop with a friend of his, Tristan Galis. While normally such things wouldn’t technically be a problem…Tristan was actually a former Ishgardian paladin whose entire order had been executed by order of the Archbishop for treason and heresy.  He now was a fiend hunter, his former life as a paladin making him especially skilled in dealing with voidsent. How Tristan had gotten back into Coerthas and why he was dealing with the Witchdrop voidsent problem Augustine didn’t know.  Nor did he want to know. Tristian was his friend as well; their paladin orders had been allies. And given everything that had been happening ever since Halone had chosen him as her First Dominant…

"Your wounds have been cleansed, but there is a faint trace of Darkness." Haumeric frowned. "Did you encounter one of the void's denizens, Ser Mathye?"

"There was a aether-rift by the Weeping Saint." Mathye admitted. "I was traveling there to gather some water, and ran into a fiend. It was fairly powerful, and I ended up semi-Priming to fight it." Augustine inhaled, feeling his truthsense briefly flare to life. Mathye was lying--but he was also telling the truth as well.

"I closed the rift afterwards, and just had enough energy to teleport back here before passing out." Zephirin shared a look with Haumeric. Something seemed...off about the other knight, Augustine realized. At first glance the leader of the Heavens' Ward appeared to be normal. But ever so faintly Augustine could...sense something. Smell it, now that he was focusing on it...

Decay? Halone was in his thoughts, sharing his senses. She'd sensed the strangeness too. The smell was gone--but for a moment Augustine could have sworn that he'd picked up on the sickly-sweet smell of rot. As if the wind had brought the scent of a decomposing body. And it had been coming from Zephirin.

What the... Augustine's eyes flicked to Haumeric. The conjurer also had that feeling of wrongness, and again that brief flare coming from him--the smell of rot. What in the name...what is that?!

I don't know. Halone answered. But I think...I've sensed this energy before.

Where? Augustine thought.

From the Vault.

[sjofn-lofnsdottr]

NPC ASK: Heavens' Ward (are they unredeemable villains? mislead zealots? men who deserved a second chance?)

I love that the first ask I get for this is one of the most complicated ones for Dusk. <3

So he was born in Ishgard, but his parents deserted had taken him and his sister outside of Ishgard when whoops, the Gates were closed, when he was around ten or so, and so he spent the bulk of his life in Gridania. He grew up knowing a fair amount about Ishgardian life and its culture, but didn't experience a ton of it personally. As such, he initially felt the Heavens' Ward and the temple knights were good men and women dedicated to protecting Ishgard.

Then he actually went to Ishgard.

He really doesn't know what to think of the Heavens' Ward, truth be told. When he's trying to be charitable, he thinks of them as very flawed men who were driven to protect Ishgard at any cost. It was obviously the wrong path, but he can see how they got there (and he feels this way about Thordan too, btw). At the same time, the ones he personally encountered before his final confrontation with Thordan were a bit too into trying to hurt or kill him. It didn't seem like a Grim But Necessary Duty for any of them, they seemed very enthusiastic. So when he's not feeling charitable, he's pretty bitter these knights who were supposed to be Ishgard's most righteous were corrupt, murderous thugs for an archbishop too blinded by his own hubris to actually make Ishgard a better, safer place for everyone. And Ser Zephirin in particular can go fuck himself, of course.

Bitterness like that is not a feeling he likes feeling at all, and he's slowly working on letting it go. He has no idea they were tempered, I think he'd still feel conflicted about it, but much less bitter overall if he did.

Thank you for the ask!

[ramyeonguksu]

Haurchefant POV!

:3c

As this writing takes place in Heavensward, Rifra will be referred to as Seren!

Haurchefant only had a split second to react.

This was supposed to be a mission to rescue Aymeric after he was falsely imprisoned by the Holy See, by his own father Archbishop Thordan VII. Estinien, Lucia, and her squadron of Temple Knights invaded the Vault to rescue the Lord Commander while he, Alphinaud, Banneret, and the Warrior of Light Seren went to confront Thordan themselves. Now that they knew the truth behind the millennia-long conflict that was the Dragonsong War, they had to do what was right and confront the one who kept perpetrating the lie.

Yet Thordan refused to listen, stepping onto the airship as one of the Heaven's Ward escorted him. Seren yelled after him, calling him a coward for leaving, running across the bridge to chase him. Had nothing else happen, perhaps she would have been able to reach Thordan, tackling him down and beating him and the Heaven's Ward senseless even in their primal forms. Perhaps Thordan would have relented, accepting his defeat right then and there. But instead a bright light appeared at the corner of Haurchefant's vision. The primal form of Ser Zephirin had charged some sort of lance made of light and was aiming it at the viera, who was completely unaware.

He had to do something.

The elezen warned Seren, sprinting as fast as he could as he drew his shield to block the attack. He planted his feet onto the ground, pushing against the lance of light with all of his strength, fighting to keep the attack at bay.

Crack.

Haurchefant kept his stance, bringing his other arm to support his shield as he continued to defend against the assault. The woman he was protecting was the Warrior of Light, the one who offered herself to assist them against heretical activities despite Ishgard's isolationist approaches. She even came to their aid when Dravanians tried to invade his home at the Steps of Faith. There was so much he was grateful for, and he was not letting her die until he paid his gratitude in kind.

Crack.

And Seren was his ward, a request accepted by his father Lord Fortemps. He had offered her, Alphinaud, and Tataru shelter until their names were cleared from the Bloody Banquet at Ul'dah, one of many ways he had intended to show them his thanks. If she was to die here, then he would have failed his mission.

He heard the sound of his shield getting pierced through as a burning sensation wracked his stomach.

Haurchefant could taste his own blood in his mouth as Seren screamed his name, collapsing in front of her as Thordan nonchalantly boarded his airship. Alphinaud ran to his side, quickly applying his healing magic, yet the pain refused to subside. Ishgard was a cold land, yet it seemed to get even colder as the seconds passed by.

"You..." Haurchefant muttered, turning towards where he thought Seren was. "You are unharmed? Forgive me... I could not bear the thought of... of..."

He felt a warmth in his hand, his gray eyes tracing its path to meet Rifra's teary green. She was holding his hand tightly, pleading for him to live, shouting at Alphinaud to apply as much magic as he could because by the Twelve he was not going to die there.

Ah... The Warrior of Light truly had a heart too big for her own good. Many refused to acknowledge Haurchefant properly even after he had achieved knighthood, having been born a bastard to Lord Fortemps. Being "impure" meant that he had to work twice as hard as everyone else to get even a little bit of recognition, even if it meant that he had to appeal to outsider help in order to protect the land he called home. Seren didn't care for any of that, her opinion of him unwavering even as it was revealed that he was a bastard. She continued to aid him and Ishgard, even traveling to Dravanian lands in hopes of establishing peace with dragonkind. She didn't have to do any of that; she was his ward, after all.

Haurchefant smiled weakly at the viera, strength leaving his limbs. If anyone could change Ishgard for the better, change the world even, it would be her, and he was more than happy to sacrifice his own life for hers, a fire that burned so fiercely amongst this frigid wasteland.

"Oh, do not look at me so..."

His debt to her was paid in full.

"A smile better suits a hero..."

[mosthuggableffxiv]

Round 2: Asahi sas Brutus vs Ser Zephirin de Valhourdin

"Simps for Zenos *and* intentionally triggers his sister abuse-related PTSD"

"He kills Haurchefant and then runs away; based on the Singularity Reactor and the DRK storyline, the developers agree he's good for being treated like a pinata."

[knights-of-ishgard]

one of the reasons i stopped posting stuff was partially bc of the godaweful caster role q in ew where they retconned basically all of zephirin's established lore and i got rly angry/frustrated/heartbroken about it, which is why i started to invest my time and energy in another subject/ship i have for around a year now.

not it's not len and fafnir, but he plays a role in lenthes' hc!

i still hate the canon q and now i just say fck the canon lore, honestly 🤷

[aeronbracken]

I am not a Haurchefant enjoyer but it kinda slayed when the Warrior of Light said 'Life for death. I will have Ser Zephirin's heart for what he did to Haurchefant.' 😳

[irisopranta]

The Flowers of Fate - Part 1: The Wheel Turns

There be Heavensward spoilers ahead. tw: Death

The sun glowed a vibrant orange as it was setting. Iris was tired from her fight with Ser Charibert. However there wasn’t any time to waste. They needed to stop Thordan with any means possible.

“Fall back!” Ser Zephirin called out to his comrade. Despite his injuries, Ser Charibert limped away as quickly as he could. With the help of Alphinaud and Hauchefant, Iris was able to get back on her feet. The three gave chase to the two knights. They made it through the spire. Only to be greeted by an air dock. And there he was waiting for the airship overhead. 

This all seemed familiar to Iris but she couldn’t place her finger on it. It felt like those  heroic tales you would have read as a child. Where the hero makes it to the big bad guy for their final conflict. Is this truly how it all ends? A voice called from behind her, breaking her thoughts. “Father,Please.” it was Ser Aymeric, limbing, surely from the torture that Thordan and the Heavensward gave him. 

Estinien and Lucia were not too far behind. “For a mercy, we were not too late.” the gruff voice of Estinien directed his words to Iris. 

She nodded at him. “And for that, we shall be thankful.”

“Why must you do this, Father?! Nidhogg is Fallen! There is no need for further deception! Now is the time to renounce the lies which led us down this path–to start anew!” Aymeric shouted at Thordan, hoping that his words could get through to him. 

“And tear down the very pillars of society–our history, our values–everything we have built over a thousand years?” Thordan sighed  “A fool to the last.” He continued onward the airship. Knowing that if they didn’t act then he would get what he wanted. Hauchefant knew what Iris was thinking. The two sprang into action.

Hauchefant took off first with her following him. They were focused on Thordan. They didn’t notice there was a knight up upon the spires behind them. The knight produced a spear of light. It flew through the sky. At the blink of an eye it pierced Iris through the chest. She collapsed to the floor, blood spilling out.

Her sight was dimming. She was barely making out what the others were saying. She felt a bit of warmth. Perhaps Alphinaud was trying to heal the wound. She knows that it won’t do anything. She knows that she isn’t long for this world. 

Iris tried looking for Hauchefant. It was faint, but she felt something holding her hand. She looked over. Her breaths were getting heavier. She was able to make out his expression of horror. “I’m sorry Hauchefant, I couldn’t be the hero that everyone needed.” Her hand goes limp in his. She closed her eyes once more, never to open them again as she drew her final breath. Her soul had returned to the aether sea. 

The others would join her not too long after her. Ysayle was first. The group continued to pursue Thordan and the knights twelve. While they were giving chase, the Empire also were following them. She gave them enough time to get into Azys Lla by sacrificing herself as Shiva. Then it was Hauchefant, who fell when confronting King Thordan and the Knights of the Round. With his death no one could stop what Thordan was going to do to the dragons. 

With all that happened, Aymeric and Lucia were charged with treason against them and sentenced to death in the court of Ishgard. It was made public to warn the rest of Ishgard what would happen if the citizenry opposed their new king. 

Estinien, though he tried his best to resist, turned to Nidhogg from the influence of the eye. It was his desire for revenge after Hauchefant’s death that transformed him. His end was similar to the end of all dragon-kind in Dravania. As for Alphinaud, the last that any of them knew was in hiding from the king of Ishgard.

[ladyofvoss]

Year of the OTP 2023

April - Canon Divergence

Content Warning! - Mentions of death and blood

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

She was supposed to be safe in Ishgard. It was why he had taken this risk. Had all but begged his father to give her and her companions asylum. It was why he had bound himself to her in matrimony, to give her as much protection as he could.

She was supposed to be safe.

~

“Did I not tell you to have faith, my friend?”

~

He should have seen it, Ser Zephirin perched on the parapets, readying his weapon, taking aim. 

He should have been faster, should have put himself between her and the fatal blow, even if it meant his own death.

But he wasn’t.

The spear had pierced her heart. Within a single moment, she was gone.

~

“Do not hesitate to call upon me, no matter the hour...”

~

Blood, there was so much blood. It stained the silver chainmail of his armor. It stained the stones beneath their feet. It stained the thick leather of his gloves. 

He fumbled with the clasps, bit into one of the fingers to wrench the glove off with his teeth, just to press the bare skin of his hand against her neck in the hopes, however weak it was, that he would be met with the thrum of her pulse, or the warm flush of her skin.

But she was cold. Cold and very still.

~

“You would truly risk life and limb for Ishgard?”

“It’s your home, isn’t it?”

~

I’xiris’s anguished wails still pierced the air, even as Estinien physically removed the mi’qote girl and an inconsolable Alphinaud. 

“I can....I can heal her....” “Alphinaud....”

“I can save her! Estinien please!”

Undeterred, he had carried them, literally kicking and screaming, back into the Vault.

They could not see. They were still children, they could not see....

~

“Aren’t you afraid, Haurche?”

“No. After all, I have you, don’t I?”

~

“Haurchefant....” Aymeric croaked, and over the ringing in his ears, he could hear the devastation in his voice. “Haurchefant....I......I am so sorry....”

“No....”, he pleaded. He could barely recognize his own voice, broken as it was. He couldn’t look at his friend. He couldn’t look at any of them. Not when his love, his light, his life Thalia was lying still and lifeless in his arms.

“Please. Please leave me”

Aymeric’s strangled sob was the last thing he registered before Lucia took the Lord Commander by the arm and carefully guided him away. 

~

“What is it?”

“Nothing. I’m just......I’m glad to have known you, Haurchefant”

“And I you, my love”

~

He was alone now, the air still and silent around him. Then, and only then, on the empty airship landing, did Haurchefant Greystone let out a soul wrenching cry of agony as he mourned.

~~~

In which Haurchefant Lives™ , but it all goes terribly, terribly wrong.