#Then again what with how Ascians have worked in the past

[takamoris]

I liked Hythlodaeus a lot more when I thought he was a woman. :/

[autumnslance]

The Unsundered and Tempering

There's apparently some kinda post going around ruffling jimmies about the Ascians versus the Ancients, with extreme assumptions about a society we see precious little of ourselves in game and mostly get informed of by people still grieving it millennia later.

Most of them antagonists, that like many other antagonists and allies, folks seem to want to take at face value for a lot of what they say, while often ignoring what they do and how, while speaking.

This is something I have noticed among fandom and roleplayers for decades, so it's nothing new, but there's a lot of times the text of any situation is making it clear that even if a character isn't outright lying--even thinks they are being "honest"--that is not necessarily the case.

It also comes back to making sure one is using all the available information--goodness knows I've made a fool of myself before by missing scenes or text that did explain someone's position on lore and characters!

Regardless of how one feels about certain plot points, storylines, or characters, they all inform each other in canon. Different characters say different things at different times in different company. A scene from two expansions ago may inform a new patch cutscene. Actions may contradict words. It all works together.

For an example, since it's come up elsewhere, I've had doubts about how Tempered the Unsundered were from the moment Emet-Selch claimed it, due to one of the last scenes in ARR, cutscene #5 in "Before the Dawn" where we see Lahabrea and Elidibus speak just before Urianger arrives in response to the Emissary's request for a meeting:

Lahabrea: The earth is fertile, and the seeds well sown. By my will, they shall reap salvation unlike any the world has known. Elidibus: By His will. Lahabrea: …By His will.

The Ascians in ARR and HW spend a lot of time telling the WoL about their One True God. Here though, in a moment of privacy before the Archon's arrival, Elidibus has to remind Lahabrea to check his ego as his actions are for Zodiark, not himself.

This is an early indication, alongside Nabriales's actions in the previous patch quests, that not everyone's on the same page in regards to the Ascian agenda. Nor is Zodiark's hold on each red mask absolute--even the ones initially at His summoning.

EDIT: Not to mention Fandaniel's actions in their entirety in Shadowbringers and Endwalker; killing one's god to usher in the end of the world is not the act of a tempered man!

Further doubt is placed on Emet-Selch's claim by Tiamat. We get more of her situation in the Shadowbringers patches, in the "Righteous Indignation" cutscene:

Tiamat: Recall, mortals, that it was I who did first summon my beloved, praying with all my being to bring him forth. You who contend with eikons cannot well be ignorant of the consequence. Alphinaud: …You too were exposed to his influence. That you are yet in possession of your own will is testament to the indomitable strength of your soul. Alphinaud: But were you to meet with Bahamut again, you fear you might succumb. Tiamat: Indeed. Ask the dragonslayer, and he will tell thee the power we of the first brood wield. Were I to lose myself to the eikon's influence, all would pay the price. Tiamat: But it is of little matter. For even had I the strength to resist, I yet lack the strength to break my shackles. This prison shall be my tomb. Alisaie: On the matter of Bahamut's influence, at least, I believe we can be of some assistance. Alisaie: If you're afraid of being enthralled, don't be─we have a cure. And while we've never tried it on one such as you, its basic principles are universal. Tiamat: Speakest thou in earnest? Alphinaud: There is no future for those bound to the past. Alphinaud: That you committed a terrible sin, I do not dispute. But if you feel remorse, you may yet make amends. We offer you that chance. Take it, or you will forever remain a prisoner, not of these cruel shackles, but of your own guilt. Tiamat: A chance to make amends… To lay Bahamut's memory to rest… Tiamat: When our own star faced annihilation, Hydaelyn granted us sanctuary. And now your foes would bring about Her destruction. This I cannot allow. For the debt I owe to Hydaelyn, and to all who have suffered for my sins…I shall fight with you, children of man.

Tiamat is a victim of the purposefully corrupted summoning magic the Ascians distributed. Yet she is not entirely enthralled by the Bahamut she summoned; she fears she would be if she were exposed further to a primal. Tiamat, as a Great Wyrm of the First Brood, is more akin in her aetheric composition to the Unsundered than most others on Hydaelyn. She knows she is influenced by the primal she summoned, and part of her remaining bound is to protect herself and the world from that consequence.

And then she chooses the cure and to move forward with her life, when given the option. As do other enthralled figures among the tribes when granted the option.

While there wasn't yet a cure when still fighting the Unsundered, entreaties to end their crusade and move forward fell on deaf ears--but I doubt very much it was due to Zodiark's influence entirely, and more their own stubborness after having clung to this course for ages.

The first cutscene of "Unto the Heavens" in Endwalker presents finally the intersection of original creation magic and modern summoning, as preparations are made to board the Ragnarok:

Livingway: You've done a fine job of readying the Ragnarok, but for it to take flight, we'll of course need the power of the Mothercrystal. Livingway: Given its immense size, however, transporting it would be an absolute logistical nightmare. Not to mention we'd need to shatter it into tiny shards for feeding to the engines. Livingway: But a brilliant idea came to me: we convert the crystal's energy into forms that can transport themselves! Urianger: Thou wouldst employ summoning…or should I say its precursor─creation magicks. Thancred: Care to explain for our benefit? Urianger: As you may have witnessed at Bestways Burrow, the Loporrits are capable of creation magicks, which they use to shape the moon's environment. Urianger: Yet simple though they make it seem, 'tis a highly advanced and exacting art. To perform it correctly requireth that the wielder holdeth the object in his mind's eye in clearest detail. Alphinaud: Hence the ancients' meticulous management of concepts. Urianger: Drawing upon this art, the Ascians conceived of summoning as we know it. Urianger: A derivative that replaceth the complexity of concepts with the simplicity of zealotry to make manifest a creation. Y'shtola: I see… By combining the Loporrits' magicks and the tribes' faith, we convert the Mothercrystal into primals of purer form and greater obedience. Y'shtola: Summoning as it was intended, one might say. Livingway: Indeed, indeed! Livingway: While Hydaelyn gave us the ability to use creation magicks, She forbade us from using it to make anything possessed of a soul─or similar. Livingway: She didn't say anything about fulfilling the desires of others, though. So! Borrowing our friends' faith, we'll create deities using the Mothercrystal's power, and send them to the Ragnarok! Alisaie: Am I the only one here concerned about the risk of being turned into a tempered minion? Livingway: Oh, right, I was getting to that… From what I've read in Sharlayan tomes, it appears the Ascians incorporated an additional nasty element into their summoning method: the fervent desire to assimilate others into one's belief. Livingway: Beings thus created are instilled with the selfsame desire, and use their powers to enthrall people─starting with the summoner. Livingway: In contrast, our creation magicks─the original and the best, accept no substitutes─don't incorporate any of that rubbish, so there's no risk of tempering. I mean, if the being was on the scale of Zodiark, you might feel a little “tug”…but I think we'll be safe enough.

From what we get here, summoning is quite obviously an offshoot of the original creation energies of the Ancients, but twisted by the thinness of the sundered mortals' aether and using faith and collected aether as a substitute. The tempering part was a later, intentional addition, possibly after the Unsundered had opportunity to examine the effect of Zodiark's summoning on themselves and extrapolating that.

Now, is some of this likely retconning to explain discrepancies in how characters acted and how tempering has been used? Probably! There was supposedly a rewrite of the main Ascian/Hydaelyn/Zodiark storyline, inherited from 1.0, which Stormblood allowed the time and consideration going forward on how they wanted to resolve this long arc. There's a lot in ARR and HW that has been recontextualized to fit, though some things still stand out a bit oddly; they did as good a job as they could, especially given the many years and writers involved.

But from the more recent writings, the intention is not to excuse the Unsundereds' actions with "they were tempered." And the final proof comes from Emet-Selch in Ultima Thule in cutscene #4 of "You Are Not Alone", having been through the preliminary wash cycle of the Lifestream long enough to have had various enchantments removed from him, while yet retaining his self before that too is washed out before reincarnation:

Alisaie: You're leaving!? Emet-Selch: Of course. The encore is finished, and I will not suffer myself to live again by Hydaelyn's magick. Emet-Selch: But more than that, the future you seek is not the past we loved. That is why we fought. And why I lost. Emet-Selch: But though you defeated me, my ideals are inviolate. Invincible. Emet-Selch: Spare me your pity. I have no use for it. If you would do something for me─save our star. Emet-Selch: See this tale to a triumphant conclusion, and with elation in your hearts, bid the final curtain fall. Emet-Selch: Only then may it rise again and a new tale begin─with new parts for all to play.

Through Shadowbringers, Emet-Selch claimed to want to cooperate with the Scions, while only giving bits and pieces of carefully considered information, and moving the goal posts whenever they did prove to him they were able to pass his tests and meet his expectations. It is not until this moment where, his duty to fight finished and the fate of his beloved world in any form at stake, that he is truly honest about what he did and why.

(I may also have an analysis WIP about comparing him and The Sandman's Morpheus and that stubborn refusal to change his mind and ideals, but it's slow going)

So while we mostly do have to go by what characters say, directly to WoL or to other characters in other scenes, each conversation cannot be taken in a vacuum; it is taken into account with their other conversations, with their actions, with other characters' input. And sometimes, the writers change direction, and new information will overwrite the old, even as it builds off of it.

The game is not consistent about Tempering and Summoning, though the double acts of Shadowbringers and Endwalker's story tries to clean that up. I just seriously doubt, from all the evidence, that the Unsundered were as entirely under Zodiark's thumb as say, one of Ifrit's over-hammered thralls and therefore not responsible for their choice and actions, the plans they made and came up with and clung to in stubborn guilt and grief and rage for so long they couldn't do anything else, even when presented proof of other options and chances to change or move forward.

Because another thing ShB and EW have shown us in both MSQ and in the Pandaemonium storyline, is who these men were, to become the Ascians we know, and how their own beliefs shaped them individually when faced with such loss--and how in each case, those past, pre-Zodiark selves would look at the eldritch beings they became by the Seventh era, and be horrified. Not because of any god's influence, but what they were capable of on their own.

...Well OK, Lahabrea already had a pretty good idea of what kind of monster he was capable of becoming. He also chose the worst way to handle it, and never seemed to learn from that. Elidibus and Emet-Selch though, while adamant in their beliefs, were also warped by what they chose to do and be, to where Elidibus even refused to remember his past to avoid the pain, tunneling into his duty with no wavering. Only Emet-Selch chose to remember, wallowing in it, acknowledging the monstrosity of his actions...and choosing to commit them anyway.

EDIT ADDITION: Relevant lore info directly from Banri Oda on Tempering and many other things.

[tsupertsundere]

FFXIVWRITES 2024 -- DAY 10 -- SURROGATE WORK IN PROGRESS ---- 514 WORDS ----- NOTES: it's a torture scene! grandpa on grandpa violence! Picture and prompt will be related when I come back to finish this!

“I’ll tell her how brave you were,” Emet-Selch said warmly over the clinking of a pair of steel forceps dropped into a tray. 

Blood sluggishly clotted around their ends, around the crystal shards scattered across the tray, the floor, the front of filthy emperor’s robes, across the Crystal Exarch’s bare chest. His crystal shoulder was half unseated from his torso, the shining muscles splayed open neatly along their lines of gold, hovering gently where the Ascian hung them in the air. They swayed gently to odd music that filtered through the air, a woman's almost-familiar voice singing, wavering and fuzzing strangely (the Crystal Exarch had yet to quite experience 'radio').

"I'll tell her how pretty your blood is and how interesting your insides are. That's the kind of conversation she likes. Have you noticed? Not the best conversationalist."

The Crystal Exarch's head lolled against his other upraised shoulder, his flesh and blood arm shackled extended above him, one fingernail remaining. His jaw ached less from the random blows that fell onto it and more from keeping it locked against screaming; whether and how often he failed in the moment rather beside the point. He refused to give his tiresome old adversary the satisfaction of it coming easily. 

"Ohhh, yes, I'm going so without," Emet-Selch intoned in a gravely grumpy voice that skated gayly over delight. "No satisfaction for me...!" With both hands he took the hunk of the Exarch's crystal shoulder and pulled, "oh, unhooking it like it's in little fitted pieces!" he observed over some rather thunderous sounds of the Exarch's continued failure. "How clever, the crystallization process! It's sliced you up for me. Why, it’s gone much deeper in here than I thought. So this is what's been eating at you!" 

Through ragged, panting breaths the Crystal Exarch fought past the most active of the pain and muttered something, low and garbled. Emet-Selch rocked forward to have him repeat it. 

"Not against the pain," he said lightly, gravely. "It's the music that's torture." 

He enjoyed the bitter-hot white flare of rage that soured Emet-Selch's contenance for just a moment before another wave of pain hit him - the humming pieces of his arm splitting apart bit by bit by the magic that kept them floating. Emet-Selch leaned over the Exarch as his pained thrashings eased, teeth locking up again, tight. As if despite itself, the Exarch's chin was slowly dragged upward until their eyes met and the Exarch could enjoy the insult of the Ascian's stupid fucking expression on top of the injury.

"Tiresome. Tasteless, also," Emet-Selch proclaimed, picking up and adjusting the Crystal Exarch's torso roughly. "Your pathetic little attempts to snip at me. Really, a learned man of your station (if not your stature) should expect better of himself!" 

Tenuously connected only by filamented ligaments, the pieces of the Crystal Exarch's arm chimed wetly as Emet-Selch peered into the hole in the Exarch's shoulder mantle, looking all the world like he triumphantly got a sticky hold on a peach and was debating exactly where to jam his thumbs in and pry.

[sarastuss]

what does sarastus actually want for her future, if at all, vs how she thinks it should go?

my my, civi back at it again with the lovely interesting questions!! 💛

it is something that made her so fitting immediately for the seat of Azem ; sarastus' want to travel the world, becoming intimate with its cultures &. people, but also the task of identifying potential threats to the star &. eliminating them. most of these, something that also have come with the duty as the warrior of light, after waking up in the sundered world. ( &. i think this is interesting, since it is something hydaelyn says to be part of the duty. considering hydaelyn herself was sarastus' mentor &. the previous azem ; adding further into my own lore of the reason she chose sarastus to face the threats of the future, &. become the champion needed to save the worlds. because she was already back then showing aspects of a hero, before there was a need for any, + with her balance, of not answering the calls of either those who summoned hydaelyn or the ones who summoned zodiark, choosing her own way. ) but, these are things sarastus chooses to do, &. genuinely wants to.

that is what she wants to keep doing ; to adventure forth, with good company, &. ensure the realms remain protected, also carrying on for those that no longer can, who had given everything they could already to ensure the safety of others. &. though one could argue she is somewhat a thrill - seeker, she does not need those adventures to be life - threatening, rather wishes they weren't if others are alongside her. but, she also wants to enjoy mundane moments of life, relax with the people she is closest to. because of her trauma with loss &. survival, she really had a mix of selfish ( to rather be the one to leave then to be the one to survive, &. mourn ) &. unselfish reasons for the heroic sacrifices she took, &. of course, all of that combining with her duty as the warrior of light, she didn't give too many thoughts towards the future for this reason. something, she works through throughout the arcs.

if asked from her directly, that will be pretty much the response she would honestly give. though without mentioning her trauma. she sees herself traveling 'till the very end, &. hopes, she gets to do that in good company. but, that does not remove selfish wants of the future, &. how she wishes it could turn out. i have touched on this briefly before, but i definitely think sarastus would not stop from finding ways to somehow rescue those lost in the past, before the sundering ... when the star was whole. a hopeless quest perhaps, which is exactly why it is a more private one. but her resolve for it burns bright as she does. &. of course, while sarastus never was tempted to try the ways of the ascians with the rejoining - as she loved, &. cared for the people of the present &. their safety ; she was tempted to stay in elpis, when sent back in time to discover the cause for the final days. towards the very end of that, she was more or less forced to wake up from ' playing along, ' &. when meeting once more with hythlodaeus &. hades in ultima thule, that served as the final push for her, with hades telling her about all the secrets/mysteries she had yet to discover in the world. that there is still so much to discover, &. there exists an inkling of hope, that somehow along the never - ending journey ahead, she could save those from her past.

during the end of endwalker arc, she had succeeded to come to terms with the past, &. the fact that that life was hers, that she is the same person, though of course, changed in some ways. she is still herself. &. i think it is such a good development for her ; to gain a healthy look towards the future. something, even she as the strongest could not have done, had it not been the help of those she held dear to her, that she considers family.

[brineffxiv]

I returned to the first. I said hi to many of my friends and acquaintances. I filled Ryne in on what's been happening.

...And now I have to see if any part of Elidibus' soul is still in the Crystal Tower, and if it is, if he will help me.

I didn't only kill him, after all: I killed his friends. I made sure their millennia-long labor to resurrect their people ended in failure. I destroyed their last hope.

And now he's mine.

The memories of my friends are with me

Man, Shadowbringers was a fantastic expansion. I haven't even finished Endwalker and I'm already looking forward to replaying it.

Oh thank goodness; he's still here. I don't know what we'd do if he was gone.

He was sleeping, but I woke him up. The smallest of my crimes.

I tell Elidibus all that has transpired, and, to my surprise, he agrees to help me. Not for my sake, no, but because this was done by Fandaniel, he, as Elidibus, sees it as his duty to repair.

I am once again struck by how... honorable doesn't seem like quite the right word. Perhaps integrity? What I am trying to say, is that I would not have blamed Elidibus if he told me to go fuck myself. The dedication to their duty the Ascians held (save, of course, Fandaniel): it humbles me. I have a great respect for such consistent service to their people.

Elidibus tells me what little knowledge he has been granted by the constellation crystals. A pity that the one Ascian there is to ask is the one with memory problems.

It was Fandaniel himself - the original, unsundered version - who discovered the connection regarding the celestial aether currents, and dedicated himself to finding a solution. Without his knowledge, the Convocation would not have been able to do what they did to save the star.

Elidibus' claim that the Fandaniel of the past was very different from the incarnation of the present jives with Fandaniel's own assumption that the man he was would weep to see what he had become.

Aha! Elpis the place! Tell me, what was it? Where do I go to find what's left of it?

Apparently, Elpis was a testing facility for the ancients' creations; determining which ones were fit to be released into the wider world. More intriguingly, and in what cannot be a coincidence, the man who would become Fandaniel was chief of the place. When he was known as Hermes.

(I see the pattern with the names. The Convocation's true names are all those of Greek deities. Hades, Athena, Gaia, and now Hermes. What's yours, Elidibus?)

Unfortunately, that is all Elidibus knows, as the crystals tell little of the Convocation's lives prior to taking their seats.

Wha-? But, I know it's a place I go to. How...?

Eh!?

Something about this moment has triggered a memory for Elidibus. Impossibly, he seems to remember meeting me, in the past, in Elpis.

H... How?

Apparently, Elidibus has gleaned how the tower works from the Exarch's memories, and now, fueled by his own empowered essence, he is willing to send me into the past. If I am willing to trust him to do it.

The distance to be traversed is so great that I will be invisible, inaudible, and intangible. But even worse...

Even should I manage to interact with anyone I will be unable to change the future to which I must return. This tracks with what I know of G'raha's own jaunt through time, and the continued existence of the reality he left. I have no option of escaping the Final Days via changing the past, just as G'raha's changing of the past did not erase the future he came from. This is probably a good thing? I would be petrified of accidentally wiping my friends from the face of existence otherwise.

Sending me to the past will consume every last mote of Elidibus' essence. This will be his final act. I pray he finds the peace he longs for in it, and that there is some place where he will be reunited with those he lost. For all the evil he and his brethren brought into the world, they have lived their own hell all this time. I would not begrudge them this reprieve.

Elidbus' final thoughts are to Hydaelyn, now the last of the ancients. I... hadn't thought of Her in such terms before. My thoughts are somber, and apprehensive, as I step into the past.

Oh my. I am indeed a shadow of myself.

Oh my god I am in the past. And there are ancients. Real, living, ancients! I had forgotten how absolutely massive they were. Wow.

I run around and try my best to catch anyone's attention, or interact with anything at all. It is as Elidibus said it would be: I am entirely intangible.

While I am fighting with the door I can't manage to open, two more ancients appear via the atheryte-like device behind me.

And then I took three days to find a way to write out this sequence that wasn't simply pure screaming in joy. Know that behind every sensible comment is a continuous "aaaaaaaaa!"

I will admit, I did not recognize him from the brief glimpse I got prior to fighting Zodiark.

This was the precise moment I realized who these two must be, and proceeded to lose my entire goddamn mind.

It is not possible to render in text the sound I made. I missed him so much and they gave him back to me! I am going to cry of happiness!

Goddamn, Emet-Selch, you have gorgeous eyes.

Every time he looks into the camera my heart skips a beat.

Hythlodaeus was right when he said you had a handsome face, too.

Sir, I desire you carnally.

Hythlodaeus himself is also painfully pretty.

This game just keeps giving me deliciously beautiful men.

I took approximately 9000 screencaps during this reveal sequence.

Omg omg they can see me. They can see souls. They can see me. (lol at Emet pretending he can't)

Hythlodaus thinks I might be Azem's familiar.

Emet-Selch doesn't know what I am, only that I'm bad news and they should ignore me.

Hhhhhh! Stop looking at me like that! Please keep looking at me like that!

Oh damn, they can't hear me though. Blessing and a curse? I have no idea what I would say to them if they could hear me.

Oh? You can do that?

The grumpiest man in the world.

You've got him wrapped around your finger, don't you?

Self: do not ship them. Not allowed. They are both already dead. Horribly. There is no happy ending possible here. You know how it ends. The game is trying to lure you into a false sense of security by having them be all cute together. Down this road lies only madness. Do. NOT. Ship. Them.

I'm solid again! Yay! Emet-Selch even made me the right size!

Hythlodaeus introduces himself and Emet-Selch to me, and I, in turn introduce myself to them.

But then my new old friend wants to know where I came from: he can tell from my strange aetheric composition that I wasn't created here. I'm not sure if I even should explain, much less how I'd go about starting to, "You see, I'm from the future..." Elidibus said I cannot change the past... But...

Thankfully, Hythlodaeus senses I am having a difficult time with that question and asks me a different one, what am I doing here?

Turns out that our purposes are the same! What fortune! As an apology for assuming I was Azem's familiar, Hythlodaeus offers to serve as my guide as well.

Predictably, Emet-Selch is not happy about this. But, Hythlodaeus points out that it's better to keep me close by if he thinks I'm up to something.

And with that, we pass through the doors and into Elpis...

(Had to cut this post in two. Too many pictures, lol)

I can't believe it. I think I'm still in shock. I'm in the past. The ancients' world. The world unsundered.

Catch me sobbing because it's all so beautiful here and it's all going to be destroyed.

I'm doing little quests from the ancients here, and all I can think about is how they're all just people. They're the same as the people I know in my time. Oh god. I think I'm going to be sick. This is what I felt upon seeing Amaurot, but worse. Because they're alive. Fuck. Amaurot exists out there somewhere, filled with people, living and thriving. That shining, beautiful city... What did Elidibus say? He said I can't change my future... I am tied to what I came from... But can I change theirs...? Can I do for them what G'raha did for me?

This is a game. I can't effect what the game does. But I want to save them. I want to save them so dearly.

[crossroadsdimension]

FFXIVWrite 2024 Day 6

Prompt - Halcyon

(FFXIVWrite 2024 Masterpost)

Spoilers for Shadowbringers

It was becoming harder to focus on the present day and his overall goals. That was to be expected, considering the age of his physical body and the constraints involved in living in one for this long.

But Solus Zos Galvus could have done without the memories of those long-past days sneaking up on him when he wasn’t prepared for them.

Perhaps it was the slowly-dying body that was messing with his own memory processes. Perhaps it was his actions that were causing him to remember those halcyon times, when Amaurot was still in on piece and the world was as it should be.

As it would become again, especially if he had anything to say about it.

“Your Radiance?”

Solus scowled at the group of men and women sitting around the table with him. His own personal convocation, as incomplete as it was. Although they couldn’t use that term here in Garlemald — the word was too old, and harkened back to the time that Solus was working to bring back.

The member who’d spoken up — one of the younger men, recently brought on to replace a predecessor — hesitantly raised a hand. “If…if we need to postpone this—”

“I am of sound mind in this moment,” Solus snapped. “We will continue this meeting until I say we have accomplished what is required.”

The young man quailed under Solus’ fiery glare. The other, more experienced members merely glanced at him with slight shakes of their head, or sympathetic flickers that lasted less than a blink.

“What do you intend for us to do concerning the western front?” asked one of the older members. “The recent campaign ended in disaster — too many casualties, a land almost destroyed because of one man’s crazed ambition—”

“Tell the legions to do what they need to while Eorzea licks its wounds,” Solus replied shortly.

“Sir?”

“As easy as it would be to bring them under our heel now, we suffered far too many casualties to properly bring them into the fold of the empire,” Solus said. “Have the legions recruit more from the provinces to bolster our numbers. Leave Eorzea be — for now.”

His comrades among the Ascians will prepare the continent for the eventual conquering. Of that much, Solus was certain. He wouldn’t be surprised if Elidibus was plotting something even now to maintain balance, or Lahabrea to incite more violent chaos.

As intelligent as Lahabrea was, the man had become far too attached to his ability to cause explosions on a grand scale. While it worked well enough for the unleashing of Calamities to merge the shards back with their source, it took a grand number of pawns off the board in the process.

A quiet part of him tried to complain about how Azem would want to find a different way to merge the shards back together, but he quickly silenced it. Azem was not of the Convocation. Azem’s opinion did not get to factor into their plans for the Ardor.

Another time, perhaps, but even then…

Solus shook the thoughts from his mind and refocused. “And make sure to keep Gaius van Baelsar busy. I would not lose another good man to another hair-brained scheme to take Eorzea.”

After all, the man might have his uses elsewhere, especially if Solus played his cards well….

[memoriesofgelmorra]

Prompt 3:Tempest/ FFXIVWrite

Not even a bad migraine yesterday could stop me from writing it yesterday and typing it out now! Here's September 3rd's prompt!

Just to be safe, if you haven't defeated the Lightwarden of Kholusia, don't read!

“And then there was Amaurot… Never was a city more magnificent. From the humblest streets to the highest spires, she fairly gleamed… Not that you would remember any of this.”

To Chantelle Shirerort, Warrior of Light and Darkness, it was if the final clue of the long-standing mystery had revealed itself to her. Ever since Emet-Selch had reached out in cooperation to the Scions, that day in the Crystarium on the First, the question of why he had singled her out for discussion and exchange had vexed her.

There had always been a story behind his history lessons and his conversations with her. And as a storyteller herself, she had been silently collecting the pieces until she could figure out the words unsaid. And now she had.

“Ah, not that I would remember any of this,” she said, almost to herself, as her eyes closed in realization with a hand on her heart. “I think I understand now, Emet-Selch.”

Her eyes opened to his cautious expression, but there was an underlying tempest of nostalgia, and wanting and other emotions swirling from within him.

“Pardon, what exactly do you understand?” he bit out.

She could have gone straight to the point, but Emet-Selch had often led the Scions and her on grand soliloquies. He could do with a little bit of the same medicine. “Since you introduced yourself, you’ve been open enough with knowledge of the ancient past and glimpses of the Ascians’ goals. But Bards know there are tales told in what’s not said, as much as what is. Of course, the benefactor of The Majestic Theater Company would know that.” The consternated look on his face was just enough of a treat to warrant the mention.

“I noticed no matter how much you conversed with the others, you always had primary attention on me. You rarely debate the others like you do with me. Longs conversations, unraveling my feelings, my intentions. I could never fully figure it out, until The Qitana Revel. And this last clue.”

She dropped all pretension and fixed him with a serious expression. “You lost someone dear to you when your world was sundered to fourteen. Much of that soul now resides in me, doesn’t it?”

It was if she could feel the burst of dark emotion spilling from th Ascian. A further tempest of clashing emotions swelling and ebbing and almost spilling over. Anger. Sadness. Bitter joy. Resignation. Small, tiny fragments of hope, then buried.

“How- how dare you presume, he started, but it was not hard for her to cut him off.

“I know the pained look of loss well. I don’t talk of it often, but my family perished in the Seventh Calamity. That visage of pain is one companion never likely to leave me. So I can gods-damn well recognize it on your face!”

He seemed to collect himself in that moment, his gaze turned once again theatrical and calculating. “Well, you can certainly chastise me the same as her. Perhaps there is potential for you yet, hero.” He snapped his fingers and thus was gone in a burst of darkness.

High above the other people working along the Ladder, she growled out, “That was a half-answer, you arsehole!” Only the rumbling laugh of her ghostly companion answered.

[unsunderedphoenix]

Welcome to my Ted talk about my favorite mad man.

Today’s topic is his massive patent for self sabotage. More over the fact that he is aware of this part of himself and he still indulges it. To be that self aware and to throw it to the wind is indeed something. More so when a plan you have been working on for like 5000 years is on the line. A plan that involved ending the entire world.

Fandaniel stated very clear that he is his own worst enemy. Nothing makes thing more clear then the fact that he allows us to make the warding scales. He could have killed an important member of the team working on them. He could have been many things happen that would have resulted in us not having those scales. Yet, he didn’t.

Now some would take him at his word and say it was just his curiosity. Though, taking a mad man at his word is a stupid thing to do. You will get much more of the truth out of him by looking at his actions. He allows us to make the scales. He all but invites us to bring down the tower of zot. Fandaniel put Nadania in the tower, the tower didn’t do that by itself. He knew why that would do, that we would bring down the tower. More over he took the time to tell us his name, a name that he knew we would know.

That actually really important too! Because as much as he says that he has casts all of that off. It very clear, especially by the end of the of Anita Scope that what he said is not the case. In fact even before that it’s very clear. He is holding onto his past so hard it’s ripped entire holes in his sanity. He is holding onto Xande’s words. He is holding onto the tech. He is holding onto the mask he wore in Allag, not the physical one but you get the point.

But why? Why is he holding onto all of this? Because he believes these things set him a part from Hermes. All the other sundered Ascians that we have seen still believe in the cause. Amon does not because he has no wish to be Hermes again. Which is the real thing here. The other sundered Ascians not only accept the cause but likely become more like their past selves. Amon actively despises this, he is not Hermes and anyone that tries to act like he is Hermes is in for a rude awakening.

Amon also doubt the answer he has come too. He tells you as much in the Anita Scope. Even as the words pass his lips he was filled with doubt. This means the entire time he is enacting the plan that he is filled with doubt. Which is the source of the self sabotage in this instance at least. Subconsciously I am not sure he actually wants it all ti end.

There are those that would say all his listened reasons are him projecting on you all the negatives. But he is not wrong in listing those as negatives of man kind. We are in fact all of those things! Heck, the Wol has faught in two wars by this point already. We know that all of these things are put falls and negative that mankind has. The problem is that Amon is so fixated on the bad that he has lost track of the good things that are still present. So fought up in how he has suffered, in how others have suffered. That he can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel anymore. It could be right in front of his nose and he still wouldn’t be able to see it. That is the tragedy about him, he is so far gone that not even the shining light of hope can reach him. It is instead his doubt that allows us to triumph against him.

[feralkwe]

Character asks: for Thancred, 25 and 8. And 25 for Elidibus as well.

yay! i love doing these! you've poked the stick in the great places here! this got very long, lol, so under a cut it goes!

thancred. my pathetic wet cat. my try-hard disaster bab. my unexpected third leg of my ot3.

8. what's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

i can't think of any trend that i see that really irritates me, though part of that may be the corners of fandom i have tucked myself into. he has a lot of layers that i was too stubborn to acknowledge until well into the better part of shb, and i think sometimes fandom isn't forgiving enough after his growth arc, but honestly i'm really not too fussed because i think he skates through on hot white boy appeal in fandom at large. i think it's possible to appreciate where he started, where he wound up, and how he got there without excusing his many mistakes, but i also think it's important to talk about how he worked through it. so that's my answer: i think fandom is either too easy on him or too hard on him with no room for nuance. i keep saying i'm going to write an essay, but idk if thancred needs me to defend him. maybe someday i'll go feral and do it anyway.

25. what was your first impression of this character? how about now?

god i cannot stress enough how much i gave absolutely zero shits about him when i first met him. even given what happens with lahabrea, i wasn't really moved. he screamed 'bland white-haired jrpg protagonist' to me and i only cared because for some reason which wasn't clear to me until i read the short stories, minfilia gave a lot of shits about him, actually. and i adore her. i didn't care about his angst in hw, though he grew more personality and by the end of sb i at least went from indifferent to 'fine, i guess he's here, too'. then, like many people, i spent a good deal of shb utterly pissed off at him until it became obvious to me that he was, despite what i think a lot of people believe, trying his best while drowning in an ocean of trauma with almost no tools to handle it. by this time i'd read his short story content, and understood the context better. i was very ride or die for urianger from arr on, and yamisnuffles teased me that he 'comes with a husband' and i was determined to refuse. i couldn't tell you the exact moment, but sometime around going to the moon i suddenly gave a shit enough to select him as the scion who visits you in your suite at the baldesion annex. and, well, fuck off. i discovered i cared a lot, actually.

now i have a pathetic wet cat in my ot3. i affectionately call the eden raids 'kit's family camping trip'.

same question for elidibus. my ultimate angry murder and get murdered husband.

i have to start by saying that the ascians as villains compel me more than almost any villains in any media i've ever consumed. even accounting for recency bias, they utterly fascinate me, and i don't know if i've ever been so moved by villain motivations. the unsundered specifically strike me as so tragic that it makes me feral. even lahabrea, who i really find difficult to like. but that's retrospect after the entire arc of their part in ffxiv. after lahabrea and nabriales, elidibus came in with a different approach, and that intrigued me. of course i had no idea the larger role he'd play later, but the way he attempted to stand on a moral high ground really hit some buttons. again, i was really into urianger from the get-go, and their apparent partnership gave me a lot of OH NOES to latch onto. i think elidibus is the character that allowed me to really give emet-selch consideration beyond 'my bestie loves him' because he gave me an inclination that there was more to the ascians than had been revealed so far.

he piqued my interest, then enraged me because of ardbert, but the more i learned about his past along the way the more invested i became. the shb patches slowly killed me, and by the end of seat of sacrifice i was sobbing for him. he's just a little guy fighting for the all but forgotten souls of his people. he was pivotal in saving the world, driven to madness by it, and in the end, all alone as the last of the unsundered. yet there are characters within the narrative who lie about him and his motivations. i'm choking up a bit right now thinking about it.

suffice to say pandaemonium rewired my dna and entire brain. by the end of it i was devastated and so in love with him as a character it's almost embarrassing. he was kind, thoughtful, and gave of himself wholly to what he believed in. his connection to wol is so beautifully bookended by it, and the ways he winds himself with them throughout the entirety of the game just hits every character button i have. the very tragic wol/elidibus ship with kit wrote itself in my head from the moment you drop into elpis. i spent a lot of time wondering how he got from the careful man we meet to zodiark and beyond, which is what compelled me to write to the edge (and back again). now i kill him at least three times a week. it's fine. i'm fine. i'm very normal about the unsundered, and most normal about elidibus.

thanks for the asks! what a delight to get to talk about these guys!

[spotofmummery]

Amon’s adventures in the First have just begun as he seeks answers about who/what he truly is!

=============Excerpt===============

“But I’m serious, Amon,” his cousin said, tone turning grave to back up his statement. “’Tis a whole star out there – two of them now, if you count the First. A living star. Not just a remembered world stuck in your past.”

“What do you propose I do about it?”

“You could do a lot of good in the here and now.”

Amon’s gaze dropped down and to the side as he slowly shook his head.

“What do you mean no? The Amon I knew always sought to make the world a better place.”

“And look how that turned out.”

“Come on. ‘Tis different.”

“Different how? Apparently, my Other self ended up a crazy Ascian,” the Allagan waved his hands around to accent the word ‘crazy.’

“But ‘tisn’t you.”

“I just don’t think I can do it again,” Amon’s words hung heavily.  

============================

The Technologist and the Tower - Previous Sections

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Read at Your Preferred Site!

A03

Fanfic.net

[rose-from-ashes]

Ok so this is another long winded ramble about a song in connection to a muse again. This time, it's Masterpiece Theatre III by Marianas Trench, with Emet. This is on mobile so formatting isn't good, I'll go back and edit later maybe.

Masterpiece Theatre III is made of up snippets of and references fo other songs by the same artist, but I have yet to listen to all these individual songs, and the overall song fits together well enough that I don't feel the need to aside from the desire to collect more musing songs. Enjoy!

"I got a new disease in me" - Emet knows that he is changing, that he is not the same person he was before the sundering.

"I got a friend that's losing sleep" - He recognizes the pain Elidibus and Lahabrea are experiencing as well, the trauma they endure and the struggles they have.

"I take it hard, it's hard to take" - He knows that he is a slave to his heavy burden, that it's a task no one could be asked to take, and yet he takes it regardless.

"I'm wide awake, I'm wide awake" - He struggles with sleeplessness, kept up with the thoughts of what he's lost at night.

"One more confession, discretion's not what I need to sell" - He is the first Ascian to give us the truth behind their actions, the first to confess to vulnerability.

"I never needed a reason for keeping secrets from myself" - Despite his truthfulness, he lies too, and the lies he tells us are ones he tells himself as well- the lie that he doesn't see us as people, the lie that he does not falter.

"And now that's just how I tell I'm wide awake" - Often, in his dreams, Emet doesn't have these problems. The dilemma of reality is both what keeps him awake at night, and how he knows that he is not resting yet.

"I'll wreck this if I have to" - Despite his determination, Emet very nearly casts aside his attempt at the rejoining of the First for our sake.

"Tell me, what good would that do?" - He knows that we will not be strong enough, and yet he tries regardless to give us that chance.

"I'll wreck this if I have to

"I'd be so good to you

I'd be so good to you" - A silent offer he cannot voice to us- if we can hold the light, he will let us. Allow us to work at his side, care for us, he would be good to us even at the cost of his work.

"You get separated, somebody's gone" - We are different from Azem- we are sundered, very literally separated with shards of us gone.

"And I don't know how this is wrong" - His defense of his own actions, pointing out how much we stand to gain from allowing this.

"And I'm so frustrated, falling behind" - He's frustrated with our stance against him, our refusal to stand down.

"You were a friend of mine" - A reminder that we were once close, a fact that heightens his hurt that we will not side with him.

"Be so good to you" - Once again, his offer returns, to be good to us if only we would set down our weapon and let him.

"'Cause they don't know you like I do

They don't know you like I do

They don't know you like I do

They don't know you like I do" - He has a certain level of jealousy against the scions being allowed to be close to us when he knew Azem so well, and knew and fought so many incarnations of their shards. He knows our soul, deeply, and longs to remain with it.

"There's a difference from me to them" - He is alienated from the unsundered, the inherent differences too intense to breach.

"And the road home is paved in star fuckers requiem" - The way 'back' to the world unsundered is blocked by Hydaelyn's destructive action, he can only move forward in the world she has made.

"I can never go, go back home again" - He very literally cannot go home, cannot return to Amaurot, especially as even it's ruins become covered by millennia of sediment at the bottom of the ocean.

"Acadia is gone, Acadia is gone" - Acadia refers to a time, place, and version of himself the singer longs for from the past. It is gone, just as the world unsundered is gone.

"All my indecision, all of my excess" - He recognizes his struggles, his culmination of times he went too far or did not go far enough.

"Don't you ever tell me I'm not loving you best" - At the same time, he refuses the blow to his pride, knowing he gives everything he has for his love, even when he gave in the wrong ways.

"And I just need a minute, I just need a breath" - He struggles with everything, the sheer intensity of his task and his trauma, and needs to pause at times.

"It's very hard to drink to my continued success tonight" - Even directly after rejoinings, it's hard to be happy with his achievements, knowing that this success is brought from the pain and deaths of so many sundered beings.

"And I slow down, slow" - After the last calamity, he takes a little time to slow down, to rest and prepare for the next.

"It's better in the worst way

It's getting better in the worst way" - The state of the world is improving with rejoinings, at the cost of violent, destructive calamities.

"Look around, 'round, look around, 'round, look around

Look around, 'round, look around, 'round, look around

Look around, 'round, look around, 'round, look around

Look around, 'round, look around, 'round, look around" - If we view the previous stanza as the seventh umbral calamity, then this is the five year period after, as Solus dies and Emet begins a new life, looks around and processes his current reality.

"So here's another day I'll spend away from you" - Another lifetime now that Solus is dead, practically a day in Emet's eyes.

"Another night, I'm on another broken avenue" - He's once again on the path of destruction, looking to the next calamity to bring.

"Trading in who I've been for shiny celebrity skin" - Trading in Emelian for the Solus clones, well known and influential individual with convenient use to him.

"I like to push it and push it until my luck is over" - He's pushing the star, bringing in the next calamity significantly faster than he normally would.

"I wonder what you're doing" - His watching the warrior of light, watching their story progress.

"I wonder if you doubt it" - His introduction to us, knowing we do not believe his offer of cooperation.

"I wonder how we used to ever go so long without it" - He finds us refreshing, wonders every time how he lived so long apart from us even as he knows that it will end poorly.

"All the work to impress" - All his work to manipulate the world, influence events.

"Charming girls out of their dresses" - Charming people to use their positions, making convenient heirs and offering no emotional support.

"Smiling pretty and gritty" - Even as he charms and influences, it grates at him, the knowledge of his own falseness and purpose among mortal obliviousness.

"I am right beside you, right

I am right beside you" - Once again he finds himself at the side of a shard of Azem, aiding us and supporting us.

"And I'll make this perfect again" - He remains determined to rejoin the world, to bring back his people, his "perfection".

"If I burn out and slip away (what you want, what you need)" - He knows there is a chance he will die at our hands.

"You're beautiful, you are (what you want, what you need)" - Despite this, he cannot bring himself to hate us, even when he acts in anger.

"I've been here so very long" - He's lived a thousand thousand lives, by his own words.

"(I could slip into you, it's so easy to come back into you)" - And yet every time, he finds it so easy to return to us, even on enemy sides.

"I'll hide in, can I hide in you a while?" - A selfish desire on his part to hide from himself and his purpose for a while, remain with us.

"(I'm not sick of you yet, is that as good as it gets?)" - Even having lived so long, he never gets tired of us.

"(And this is just the part I portray) I never took you for a drink but" - He has so many times allowed lives to pass by without ever truly reaching out to Azem or their reincarnations.

"(And this is just the part I portray) Sometimes I don't know what you want" - Part of this is because he knows that though they were his friend before, their sundered parts are not, and sometimes they do not want him.

"I can take it if you need to take this out on someone" - A self depreciating desire to be something for them, even just a punching bag.

"(And this is just the part I portray)

(And this is just the part I portray)" - He knows that the various masks he wears are not him, but he has lost who he truly is.

"I don't know how it got this way" - He is helpless to the cycle of fighting the warriors of light again and again, and yet still wishes he could be their friend again, doesn't understand why they can't just be at his side like they used to be.

[autumnslance]

New Game+ Tutorial

"I don't remember this part of the story." "It's been so long since I played X expansion." "What happened during that raid again?" "Who was this character?" "I story skipped the MSQ/job quests so I don't know what happened and who these people are!"

There's answers to this, friends. Not only is the game's own Unending Journey (in inn rooms, or as furnishing in your FC or private rooms/homes) able to replay many cutscenes, and there's the completed quest log, but there are places online, such as Garland Tools and the FFXIV Game Script, that keep most (not all) of the quest text handy.

But if you want to relive those quests, and/or get the side dialogues and replay (or first time play!) the experiences, as of Shadowbringers 5.1 there's a feature called New Game+ to allow that.

New Game+ (or NG+) will let you replay past questlines, at your current level (which makes it go pretty fast in a lot of cases). There is No experience or rewards to gain through this feature--no using it to level alt jobs. It purely exists to allow experiencing, or re-experiencing, completed content.

Once defeating the Ultima Weapon and Lahabrea at level 50 in ARR's finale of 2.0, you can go to Vesper Bay and find the Wistful Whitebeard.

More info and images below the Keep Reading cut...

(image taken from gamesconsolewiki and their article on this feature.)

Once you've unlocked the feature by talking to him, you get a new menu option in your Duty menu (the exclamation point icon), right between Duty Recorder and Hall of the Novice.

Once you select the feature it brings up a menu of options; it usually defaults to Main Story Quests, but I also have a paused replay under "Suspend" in progress. There are also options that match other quest interfaces, like your Journal or the Unending Journey; Chronicles of a New Era for raids and trials, Side Story for quests like Hildibrand, the Scholasticate, Role Master Quests, Void Quests, and Chronicles of Light (story important side quests, like Tales of the Dragonsong War, Tales from the Shadows, Tales of Newfound Adventure). Tank, Healer, DPS, Crafting, and Gathering quests also have their own categories.

Each Expansion MSQ is broken into parts; usually 2 parts for the x.0 main expansion, and then 2 parts for the patches. They're only available after x.0 or the patch stories are complete.

Also notice the "Help" icon in the top right of the NG+ overlay; it opens a pretty comprehensive guide, divided into menu sections, about how the feature works.

ARR is split into 6 parts, and I do think 2.0 could use a rework in how they're split but for now, I'm selecting Part 6 to look for specific side dialogues that only exist in this timeframe.

Selecting Part 6 opens the description; the Crystal Braves have just been formed, to help the Scions with the turmoil still facing the realm--from refugees, to Garlemald's continuing threat, to primals and Ascians.

Once you do, the NG+ quest info shows up, usually around where ever you keep your MSQ quest marker. I hide my MSQ tracker once it's done, so NG+ fits in that same spot in the upper left for me.

It tells me to "Relive Past Adventures!", which expac and part I'm in, and which quest is my starting point in this case, "Traitor in the Midst", the start of the Ivy spy plotline in Patch 2.4.

From here it progresses as if I am back in that patch and on those quests, but without any experience or rewards. Aeryn's in her current level 90 appearance and skills, making it easy to skip past and handle level 45-50 enemies in these zones.

So long as I am in NG+, I cannot do current quests, plots, or other content; I can't complete new current level duties (duties new in NG+ itself are fine), I can't access the MB, my retainers, or the Unending Journey. I can manually Suspend my current playthrough, or performing some of these actions (like duties) will automatically suspend my NG+ playthrough. You also cannot start NG+ while doing certain things (like some quests, such as leves).

This also will not let you play through the start of other city-states, only your original starter town. Solo duties will let you choose their difficulty immediately, without having to fail them first like in normal play.

If I want to drop my NG+ save before I've finished the replay--maybe I found the info and screenshots I wanted--I can delete the save.

This is an extremely helpful feature that can be used to replay events and quests, either for the fun of it, or because you want to find specific dialogue or lore information that only exists in a specific point in game. Maybe you want to visit old friends lost along the way, or take new screenshots of your WoL as they are post-fantasia.

Maybe it's just been a few years, and you've found you've forgotten some things and want to remember how the story actually went, especially knowing what you know now.

[hythlodaeus-mynewoldfriend]

song 10!

Thank you for asking! Sorry it took a hot second but have a few little snippets from the ending of Shadowbringers.

Castle of Glass by Linkin Park

Take me down to the river bend/Take me down to the fighting end/Wash the poison from off my skin/Show me how to be whole again/Fly me up on a silver wing/Past the black where the sirens sing/Warm me up in a nova's glow/And drop me down to the dream below

All Siberite needs to do is get an amaro and make her way to….the bottom of….the sea…. Not that she knows just how to do so but she can figure it out once she gets there. A hand falls onto her shoulder, making her jump only to find Demos standing there with a frown. “You weren’t really plannin’ on going by yourself?”

She crosses her arms, looking up at him defiantly, “Well maybe I was.” She sighs, letting her shoulders hang, “He said to come alone and I don’t want anyone else to get hurt if it well….you know?”

Demos nods, “You won’t be alone, Sib. I’m gonna go with ya.”

“No! Absolutely not! I don’t want you to get hurt or killed. They need you here!”

“I’m fated to potentially die, same as you,” Demos’ head hangs, his grown out hair falling over his eyes. “I’m breaking just like you….and I don’t know why.” He looks up at her, violet eyes determined, “I thought that I would be able to help you, take on some of-. Of this burden and if anything I-,” he shakes his head, “Well at this point I’d rather have an answer as to why there’s this connection between us."

"And you think Emet-Selch has the answers?"

Demos shrugs, "He's had answers for everything else."

"I mean I guess. If you're willing to put in the work to get the reliable ones," she grumbles. Siberite sighs, "Fine, I guess you can come with. Just....if there's a chance only one of us-."

"Get you out. Got it." She gives him a tired look, Demos holding his hands up, "I mean be realistic if one of us is gonna be a monster friend to that Ascian then it might as well be the one that gets along with him better. Not only that you got my front and I got your back, trust no one better to handle me if it gets to that."

“Well guess we just have to make sure it doesn’t get to that,” Thancred says, arms crossed and a small smirk when the two slowly turn to look at their friends, “for either of you.”

  -------------------------------------

  Hythlodaeus looks up, giving a small tilt of his head before looking down at where Siberite makes her way to the counter, "One last thing. You do not walk alone, correct?" The warrior stops, glancing at her left to see Ardbert sharing the same surprised expression, "Does your other half not have a friend like you do?"

"Other....half?"

"He has already found Emet-Selch," the shade brings his hand up hiding a small laugh, "It must have been driving him mad trying to figure out if you are the same or if there is some other answer. He had to have recognized the little bit of 'him' within the two of you."

"But he's....right....here...."

The shade laughs, "Your souls tell quite the tale, a pity I will never know it in full. But in our time you were one, all three of you, though how only one of you is without a definitive form I cannot say." He quiets a moment, Siberite glancing between Hythlodaeus and Ardbert, brow furrowing, "Ah, but that is a mystery for another time. Best not to keep the others waiting. Fare you well my new old friend, I hope you find what you seek."

  --------------------------------

  "If I didn't know any better I would say you were purposely seeking me out," Emet-Selch says, Demos turning on his heel, "But I do know better. Hoping to take me out all by yourself?"

"I did come alone. I just wanted to talk." The old man raises a brow, Demos tossing his gun off to the side, "I know you can stop this. Stop whatever is happening to her....to us. I'll become your lightwarden. Give them another distraction that will make her choose between this world and ours. You just have to take that light from her and give it to me. That simple."

Emet-Selch walks slowly towards him, "I….think….not. You seem to be handling it all very well. Had I not seen the glowing white blood you attempted to hide in the bushes, I never would have thought you two were suffering the same fate." He circles the warrior, holding his chin, "Why you are though....now that's a mystery. One in which you have a potential answer for or else why seek me out?"

"I could be wrong."

"So you simply wish for confirmation?" Demos nods, Emet-Selch shrugging, "Well that is something you won’t have I’m afraid. Though if this is to be one of our final interactions then why not humor me, as I have humored you and your questions.”

Demos crosses his arms, eyes narrowing at the beige stone below him, “We have the same soul in some way. Though I may simply be a shard, it could be possible.”

“If that were the case you would have no form. Be unable to communicate with anyone.” Emet-Selch sighs, shaking his head, “No, you are your own person, with your own soul. Seems our mystery remains.”

“Then why have a keen interest in us both? Beyond just humoring your faux notion of trying to be swayed from your ways.”

“Mayhap you remind me of someone I thought forgotten,” he gives a flippant shrug, “or more simply you have read too much into our interactions, Demos.” The old man starts to walk away, “It matters not either way. Only one of you shall prevail in the end.”

[sarastuss]

YOU HAVE YET TO REACH COMPLETION, HERO, : BOTH OF THIS FEAT, &. YOUR VERY OWN. but it is still a truth you deny, isn't it? it swirls within, she feels it ; the light her body keeps contained, for now. ... she had heard of the risks long before y'sthola came to speak to her directly, the theory accidentally overheard. yet the risk she kept taking regardless. &. ONE MORE LIGHTWARDEN AWAITED TO BE FELLED BY YOU, O'WARRIOR. towards this goal, she, along the scions &. the people of eulmore worked towards. ... there it is, that familiar feeling again ; a presence felt before it is seen. &. so she had turned on her heels towards what only she could blame upon her golden soul alerting her with, questioning the observer in the shadows.

&. SURE ENOUGH, : HE EMERGES, @styrkja + emet - selch , ever so prepared tongue delivering a response. the faint hint of glow within those hues of hers focused on his figure, witnessing how momentarily his head hangs his head. ... arms fold over her chest, weight leaned slightly on the other side ; GOLDEN &. BLACK ARMOR REFLECTS THE BLINDING LIGHT ABOVE. honeyed tongue weighs the option to speak, a remark of her own brewing. a hint of a tease, mixes with caution. ❝ that is for past bad experiences to blame. ❞ thancred out of them all perhaps, comes to her mind. ... but, the ascian continues, &. sarastus' own gaze momentarily flickers to the mountain. determination glimmers within golden hues at the sight, he would not get away. &. then, gazes meet ; it is as if his words are embedded with an emphasis he conceals. ❝ if i didn't know any better, i'd say you sound confident. ❞ her own response comes, hint of that suspicion still lingers. ALL THIS TIME, THERE IS SOMETHING HIDDEN. ever since she awoke here in the first, she has felt she is wrapped within a veil ; one that he is on the other side of, &. tugs the fabric only ever so little, to give her answers, but also more questions.

continued from.

[brineffxiv]

Nice place you've got here, shame if some Final Days were to happen to it.

Emet-Selch uninvites me from the group. They are having a Serious Business meeting, you see, and the collar bell I insist on wearing detracts from the atmosphere.

In all seriousness, he's being quite sensible. I am a strange something that has appeared from nowhere and seems to possess a piece of the soul of his good friend, who, from all I've heard, happens to be chaos incarnate. Emet is powerful enough that he's got no reason to fear me, but he knows I'm up to something. And that something will probably be trouble for him. Though, I imagine he expects shenanigans, not the end of the world.

Hermes wants me to stay, he trusts me because Meteion trusts me. And he's afraid he'll lose his composure without a third party present. Oh dear. I wonder what he expects they're going to talk about?

(Psst! Hey, Meteion! You're allowed to sit down, there's extra chairs!)

Ah. It seems I have arrived in the past during the event in which Hermes joined the Convocation as Fandaniel. The previous Fandaniel is stepping down and has nominated his friend to be his successor. The Convocation is giving this nomination due consideration, and Emet-Selch, as someone who does not know Hermes personally, is here to give his impartial assessment.

Hermes claims to be honored to have been nominated, but he is visibly distressed to know the why of it...?

Ah... I thought so. It's a euphemism. I thought I remembered a similar phrase... either from earlier in the game or from one of the stories.

Hythlodaeus' explanation of returning to the star sounds so lovely. Imagining a world where death is planned, and only occurs when you feel you have reached fulfillment. Voluntarily. To see such a choice as a privilege and an honor, a celebration of a life well lived. That truly is beautiful.

Perhaps, "Return to the Star" isn't so much a euphemism as it is... an elaboration? After all, they know what happens when they die, Hythlodaeus can see it himself.

At the same time... I find it difficult to shake the memory of what will happen to them. To everyone. For half their people, Hythlodaeus included, there will be no return to the star. Not for an unfathomably long time. Death will acquire a new meaning.

Again I am impressed by the selflessness and dedication with which the Ascians... no. The Convocation. With which the Convocation treat their duties. And, Emet-Selch at least seems glad for it. I imagine he is a good leader for his people.

I can understand why you're sad, Hermes. The current Fandaniel is a friend and, it sounds like, a former mentor to you. It's alright to be upset, and to mourn.

That said, it's not your place to choose the boundaries of someone else's life. You are seeing only the loss, when it sounds like your friend likely sees death as his reward at the end of a long and fruitful life. You don't get to take that from him, just so that he can provide more.

But I don't know if what you're saying is actually what you're feeling. I wonder if you might be having a problem grappling with the topic of death itself. It seems to be culturally a positive thing, but you clearly have negative feelings regarding it...

Hermes being upset has made Meteion upset, and he asks me to take her outside for a change of scenery.

The bird returns!?!?

Or, since this is the past... the bird debuts??

Meteion says she hasn't seen this bird before. Suspicious! I think this is humorous as opposed to plot relevant, but only time will tell...

Regardless, Meteion wants to show me her power, and is going to demonstrate on the shoebill. But she can't for some reason, so she tries on me instead.

That's neat! It's sort of like how the Echo works to help me understand all languages? I wonder if it's the same principle.

Meteion struggles to speak aloud because of her abilities, it sounds like it's the overabundance of stimuli that she's taking in that causes it? That's fascinating, it is sort-of like a neurodivergence.

Meteion likes me because I have things in common with her? "Us"? With familiars? Or, with her and Hermes? Hmm...

She promises not to use her abilities to read my mind, which is a relief, because OH DEAR there are some things in my head that this sweet little bird shouldn't have to know.

I will totally be your friend, Meteion. You can be my bestie right alongside Zenos....

WHAT!? Hermes, how could you?! Eating good food is one of life's greatest pleasures.

Meteion and I return to the rest of our little group. Hermes has requested time to consider the Convocation's invitation (much to Emet-Selch's displeasure) so we are going to observe him doing his job around Elpis. How fun!

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I FOUND THE LESBIANS!!!

[missingmywing]

@strangefellows made a direct attack against me so alas, take my wips. XIV has taken over my life and I’ve created a sprawling verse of the butterfly effects and accidental Ascian untempering and recruiting so that’s what most of these are lol, though none of them are published yet.

You once again get an essay length response because it’s me.

Rules: Share the first lines of ten of your most recent fanfics and tag ten people. If you have written fewer than ten, don't be shy and share anyway.

It was time. There was an underlying buzz of energy amongst the Shadows within the Palace, and Arsène and Izanagi leaned against one of the upper walls on the outside of the fortress, looking out over the forest around them as the other ultimates of their arcana ensured everything was organized.

-First paragraph of chapter 4 of Shadows Within. It’s finally infiltration time! Which means that Arsene and Izanagi are Plotting.

2. Etheria didn’t know what compelled her. She should have known better.

Hadn’t the shard of Themis - of Elidibus - in the tower told her?

“The reality you wish to save - the reality to which you must return - exists as a result of the Final Days. You cannot reshape the past to undo the tragedies of the present. Cannot unmake the sorrow and suffering fated to come.”

She’d thought he’d meant that the events were unchangeable. That the past was set in stone, and she wouldn’t be able to affect it. But wasn’t G’raha the direct contradiction to that idea?

First section of Two Steps Back, one of my time travel fics in which my main WoL messes up in Elpis and creates a split timeline bc she panics and destroys Kairos. The Convocation quickly gets involved and oh look, now she has two timelines’ Final Days to avert. Azem is delighted at her involvement though, so there’s that.

3. As she slammed face-first into the ground, Etheria took several moments to comprehend what had just happened.

Cierread, a Sharlayan scholar studying the mechanics of time, had recruited her to help him investigate a dungeon that supposedly had tomes created by a former scholar who had been studying the subject as well. It had been a relatively routine run, they’d collected the tomes without undue issue, only to find them locked by magicks.

She’d ended up calling the other Scions for aid after the rest of the Sharlayan library had failed them - well, she’d mostly called on G‘raha and Y’shtola, as well as Themis and Heph, but the others had ended up there either by circumstance or curiosity - but when they had managed to force the first of the tomes open-

First section of Antics of Chronology, my second time travel fic that’s… well it’s supposed to be a much more humorous take on time travel shenanigans but it’s rapidly turning serious as per usual, so we’ll see. Basically I take the post-EW Scions and yeet them back to ARR, and they have to deal with the consequences and figure out what to do now. Etheria looks up from landing and sees Ifrit and goes “oh no”. (And just as a fun tidbit, Cierread is my versions Source shard of Nabriales and he did come back with the rest of them, so that’s going to be a fun interaction when he shows up with Moenbryda XD)

4. She awoke slowly, dry heat shifting uncomfortably around her in what should have been a cooling breeze, but wasn’t. It-

What was going on? She’d been… been…

… at her computer?

Yeah, she’d been at her computer, on vc with her FC, waiting for the new update for the 6.1 patch to finish downloading, and then they’d all hit play together and… and…

White.

Hear… feel… think…

The adventure continues.

What…?

First section of Fantasy’s Dawn. Aka Log Horizon, but it’s FFXIV and everyone wakes up in their avatar at the beginning of 1.0 (for legacy players) or ARR (for non-legacies) with each WoL having their own self-contained MSQ that adjusts to their own actions - except our main six heroes who somehow share an MSQ instance. Everyone is left scrambling trying to figure out how the metaphysics even works, and how much control they actually have over the world and story. (A lot, it turns out, to the horror and amusement of many.)

5. It wasn’t that Etheria didn’t trust Urianger’s judgement, or his expertise in aetherology, but she still maintained that they should have done fire directly after water, before moving on to earth and then wind, and then lighting. He’d gone into a lecture about aetheric flow and why activating directly opposing elements together could potentially do more harm than good, either canceling each other out or clashing and causing rebounds.

And she understood that - she did - but that was mere speculation and it now left them with their conundrum of lightning priming the area for life, but nothing actually growing.

Windburn, part of my exploration of how Eden goes in my main verse, this is the lead-in to the Ifrit-Garuda fight and my WoL’s terror at fighting not one, but both of them because she has very very bad memories of them both.

6. It had been quiet since the appearance of Mitron, none of them quite sure how to handle the situation. Hephaistos especially had been quiet - that stiff stoicism and clipped logic that spoke to a guilt he refused to admit to, something that she and Thancred had talked about following the events in Eden earlier.

They were all returned to Ahm Areng, for the moment, with Mitron still unconscious from her battle with him. It had been… different from her other fights with the Ascians. There was no precise calculation, no higher goal, no intent for the world at large.

He’d been frantic, focused solely upon Gaia, and his thought process had been disjointed and difficult to follow.

Paradise Forfeit, skipping to the halfway/end point of the Eden raids, which went slightly different from canon thanks to Lahabrea being untempered and Etheria more aware of the situation in general, so Gaia gets shielded and doesn’t lose her memories. Mitron his ass kicked a bit sooner too, and dragged out of Eden to be stabilized. It’s an exploration of Artemis letting Gaia go and finding his own stability, in the lead up to 5.3 (bc I place my Eden raids together in the span between 5.0 and 5.3 for streamlining reasons in this verse).

7. They knew. They all knew - had known from the moment they’d heard him speak at the gate.

But none of them could even begin to guess the details. How G’raha was here, how the Crystal Tower was here - it made no sense. The Crystal Tower was still standing tall and cold next to Silvertear Lake back home - closed, sealed, with G’raha most certainly still inside.

The theory they felt held the most weight, currently, was one Aella and Yiskah had formulated based on the Exarch’s words - that he was from a time removed from their own. Likely some years in the future, and he had been summoned to this world along with the tower and awoken upon arrival - thus making his earlier claim that he’d summoned the tower from a random point in time technically not an absolute lie - not that they would let him get away with that once they eventually confronted him about this.

Orchestrations, my SHB case study of Etheria’s relationship with the Exarch and Urianger and their plots. G’raha can’t get away with shit with my WoLs, sorry G’raha. Aella and Yiskah are archons who helped him with his own thesis and he with theirs, and S’ohlis has been pining since the CT raids. Etheria can sense aether, and Vale and Rosalia are a mercenary and pirate, they can recognize voices and tell when someone’s lying.

8. Etheria wasn’t entirely sure what to expect as she led the way up the stairs of the Crystal Tower, into the Ocular where the other three stopped. Themis in particular appeared wary of entering the Umbilicus - not that she could blame him. The version of him that was the piece of his soul she and the Exarch had sealed within the Tower was… Elidibus. While he had still retained some of his memories and mentality of his time as an Ascian, the majority of it had remained with the piece of his soul they’d pulled away; while the memories of his life before the summoning of Zodiark that he had reclaimed from his brief fall into the lifestream before Hades and Etheria had pulled him back as the him of here and now.

None of them were sure how the piece of Elidibus in the tower would react, or how their souls would react together.

Unto Elpis, as the name says it’s the lead-in to the jump back to Elpis in EW for Etheria in my main verse. Not much to say, other than poor Themis is in for a rough bit of adjusting to getting all the rest of his memories of the post-sundering back at once.

9. Azem had to admit, they weren’t… entirely sure how they were going to approach Lahabrea. Not that they were at all adverse, but they wouldn’t have gathered the boldness, the audacity, without Hyth’s prodding. The man was stern and focused on his work above all else, and certainly not the type to fool around. Especially with Azem, who was undoubtedly the greatest headache for him more often than not.

Styx knew that he didn’t hate them, or even truly dislike them, for all that he was often the first to criticize their methods and actions. But that didn’t change the fact that they were in opposition more often than not and that he would likely respond scathingly to a “distraction from their duties”.

Then again, perhaps it was simply a matter of constraints to work around.

The Lahabrea chapter of I Próklisi, a fic with the premise of Hyth going “Hey Azem, bet you can’t seduce the whole convocation” and Azem going “CHALLENGE ACCEPTED”. It’s a silly ridiculous premise that’s supposed to be generally lighthearted, but is… okay honestly it’s mostly a character study in Convocation dynamics, general lore, and character headcanons wrapped up in a thin veneer of smut. For example, I got less than a quarter into this chapter and was trying to plan ahead and just stopped to stare at Lahabrea and go “oh you have so much trauma from Athena don’t you” so. I can’t even say these are “plot what plot” because while there’s no real overarching plot, each chapter is definitely going to have a character based subplot.

10. Would that the rest of the Convocation was as easy to approach as Mitron and Loghrif, Azem thought ruefully to themself as they considered who to approach next.

There was always Nabriales, of course. They and Aion had casually tumbled into bed - well they usually didn’t make it into a bed; offices or debate rooms or far flung corners of the star were far more common - together several times. If they asked if he was up for it, chances were low he’d be uninterested.

That was kind of defeating the point of the challenge, though - it wasn’t supposed to be easy.

(The fact that Hyth had strongly implied that he’d managed it made them very curious about the stories there.)

The Fandaniel chapter of I Próklisi, though Azem doesn’t decide on him in the opening paragraphs. So far it’s just Azem worrying if he’s adjusting to Amaurot and the Convocation seat okay, inviting themself over for dinner, and then going to check with his lover (Asclepius, the ancient of my other WoL Yiskah) to make sure their overtures wouldn’t be overstepping bounds. I’m 2k words in and haven’t even gotten to the dinner, it’s just talking about boundaries and comfort levels so far. If that gives you any indication of what this fic is. XD

Uhhh who to tag.... @mirintala, @up-sideand-down, @boomchickfanfiction, and recent writing you feel like sharing?