#and also i'm pretty sure the world building has shifted but i can't be 100% on that i forgor ok

[zehecatl]

okay, but the reason that works for Final Fantasy, is that each new FF is, like, an entirely new thing. new world, new characters, new mechanics and rules. like doing it for something that's connected is not going to work as flawlessly

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #200

Wow, what a milestone, huh? It feels like only yesterday we were building Mash. Didn't even know you could grab multiple fighting styles back then. We were also one person back then. Things change. Things change even faster when you have magic eyes that let you bend anything you can see, so let's hurry up and build Asagami Fujino already. She is a Quandrix Sorcerer to tear apart anything she lays eyes on, as well as expand her field of vision beyond what her eyes can see. Dangerous combination, that.

Check out her build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet over here!

Next up: In the dark of the night, evil will find you! (If Rasputin ever become a playable character I am really going to regret using that one here.)

Wait, what's that...

Race and Background

No surprises here, Fujino is a Variant Human, because normal humans can't tear people apart with their mind. That means she gets +1 Dexterity and Charisma, as well as proficiency with Perception (kind of her deal) and the Tough feat. HP isn't just how much body you have to get hurt, it's also how badly getting hurt affects you. Fujino's deadened sense of pain means she can take hits and keep going, purely due to the fact that she doesn't realize she should stop. That means you're getting an extra 2 HP each level.

Fujino is a schoolgirl, so the closest thing we have is the Cloistered Scholar background. That gives you History and Nature proficiency.

Ability Scores

Your highest score should be Charisma. Your magic eyes are an innate part of you, and it's really easy to be frightening when you can tear a bridge down around you. Second highest should be Constitution, for the reasons we outlined in your background feat. Your Dexterity should probably be pretty high, you fight in clothing, and you fought against Shiki for more than five seconds without dying. That's impressive. Your Intelligence isn't that bad, though you're still going through school. We aren't dumping Strength, it's alright, but we are dumping Wisdom. You have a hard time feeling yourself and feeling connected to other people.

Class Levels

You're a Sorcerer, giving you proficiency with Constitution and Charisma saves, as well as proficiency with the Intimidation and Arcana skills. You've got magic implanted in your face, and again, bridge. As a Sorcerer, you can cast spells using your Charisma. Blade Ward deadens your senses further, giving you resistance to physical damage types for a round. Mending lets you twist a small item back together, instead of tearing it apart. Sword Burst is a short range bending... sorta. Force damage is hard to quantify. But it's free, so that's nice. You can also Shape Water to bend liquids to your will. For first level spells, Mage Armor helps you not die, and Magic Missile lets you shoot little bursts of twistiness that'll never miss. You also join the school of Quandrix, which gives you the starting gift of the spells Guidance and Guiding Bolt. They aren't super in character, but they're free, so suck it up. More Importantly, you learn Functions of Probability, helping you bend luck in your favor. When you cast a leveled spell targeting a creature, you can add an effect to a nearby creature (yourself included). A Diminishing Function forces a wisdom save (DC 8 + Chr mod + proficiency), and if it fails it subtracts 1d6 from the next attack roll it makes this round. Turns out swordfighting is hard when your sword is a corkscrew. Alternatively, a Supplemental Function lets a creature add a d6 to an attack or save made in the next round. This part is less believable, but if you're creative I'm sure it'll look good.

Second level sorcerers are a Font of Magic, giving you sorcery points equal to your level per long rest. You can turn them into slots, or turn slots into points. Eventually you can do other things. Also, you can cast Thunderwave now. It destroys objects, you destroy objects, it's a match made in heaven.

Now that you're a third level sorcerer, you can make your spells truly your own thanks to Metamagic! If you cast a Heightened spell, one creature in its effect has disadvantage on their save against it. If you cast an Empowered spell, you can re-roll a couple damage dice. Tearing people in half is generally hard to avoid, and kind of damaging. You can also bend the air itself by casting Dust Devil, creating a Medium sized tornado, dealing damage to creatures nearby and pushing them around. It'll even pick up dust and make things hard to see, though that's kind of a drawback for you.

Use your very first Ability Score Improvement to bump up your Charisma. Kind of a spell-based build, to be honest. Speaking of, Mage Hand probably doesn't have much tearing force behind it, but it's free. You can also cast Shatter for more indiscriminate destruction.

Fifth level sorcerers gain third level spells like Clairvoyance! Now you can see a bird's eye view of the battlefield, tearing your way through it like, well, you.

At sixth level it's about time you started bending the earth to your will. You can Velocity Shift nearby creatures if they start their turn or move within 30' of you. If they fail a charisma save you can shove them to any other point within 30' of you. You can react this way 30' per long rest. Twist debris at people and watch them scatter, it's fun. To help with that, you can also cast Erupting Earth, bending the ground in a 20' cube. This forces dex saves on creatures in the cube, dealing damage and making the area difficult terrain until it's cleaned up.

Seventh level sorcerers get fourth level spells like Stoneskin for even more deadened senses. Now you resist physical damage without having to waste your action every turn. It does use your concentration, but it lasts an hour.

Another ASI! Max out your Charisma for super special eyes. You can also Control Water to create truly damaging whirlpools. There's other options, but whirlpools! Who'd want anything else?

Oh hey, I found something you might want else. It's fifth level spell Bigby's Hand! You can grab people and play with them like a stress ball. Technically there isn't a twisting option, but a Grasping Hand is probably the best you'll do. It'll grapple a huge or smaller creature, and if it successfully does so you can Crush it as a bonus action for damage.

Another Metamagic option! Technically these spells are all just you looking at things, so grab Subtle Spell so you don't have to yell out all your attack names. You can also Mold Earth. It's not that powerful, but it's free twisting. You also get Telekinesis! Again, no "twisting" in the rules, but it's strong enough to lift an object of 1000 pounds, and fine enough to open a door. Their heads should be popping off here.

Sixth level spells! Here are the big boys of the spell world. If you twist anything enough, eventually it'll Disintegrate, dealing plenty of force damage and leaving behind a mess you can't even revive. A little too clean for Fujino, but it's destructive enough.

ASI time. Bump up Constitution for a thicker skin and more HP. HP changes retroactively, so you get an extra 12 HP here.

Did you know turning into rotini is painful? Your enemies certainly know that, thanks to Power Word Pain. If a charmable creature has 100 HP or less, their speed drops to 10', and it gets disadvantage on all attacks, checks, and saves, aside from constitution saves. If it tries to cast a spell, it'll be wasted if it can't pass a constitution save. The target stays in pain forever until it can pass a constitution save.

Cool, so fun thing about these Multi Class Subclasses! As long as you're the correct level, you can take any one feature they have each time you hit the appropriate level in your main class. Since the highest requirement is 14, we're taking Quantum Tunneling now, and we'll pop back to the other one later. Your senses permanently deaden, giving you complete resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage. You can also bend your way through any physical objects, as long as you're willing to deal with a halved movement speed and 1d10 damage each square you move. You also have to end your turn in an empty spot. Playing to character this should leave a huge hole behind you, but maybe you're conscientious? You weren't raised in a barn, after all.

Your eighth level spell is Earthquake. Now no structure in your view is safe from your destructive powers. Tear open the earth, shatter structures, and interrupt concentration, there's nothing you can't do!

Bump up your Dexterity this ASI. Not getting hit is still pretty useful, even if you can't feel it.

Remember when I said turning into rotini hurts? I was wrong. Actually, it kills you. Please grab Power Word Kill to reflect these changes. You have become death, destroyer of mages. You also learn how to cast Distant Spells, doubling your spell's range. Your range should be "anywhere in sight", so this is a step in the right direction.

Okay, I guess we'll grab Null Equation. Once per turn you can twist up a creature you damaged. If they fail a constitution save, they get disadvantage on strength and dexterity saves, and they only deal half damage with weapon attacks, all for a round. You can do this Proficiency times per long rest. Again, real hard to hit people when your femurs are spring shaped.

Use your last ASI for more Constitution for more HP and better concentration.

We've finally done it, we've made a pure sorcerer build! It's time to finally learn the dark secret of the Sorcerer capstone. What feature could be so powerful we've completely avoided it for 200 builds? It's Sorcerous Restoration. You get 4 sorcery points per short rest. It's not good. Sorry.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

You're good at dealing damage, and your most powerful spells deal Force damage, which almost nothing blocks against. That means you're consistent and deadly, a solid combination.

You're so good at damage that it isn't just limited to creatures. Use telekinesis, mold earth, and shatter to tear apart structures that are getting in your way. Walls? Torn down. Steel Beams? Melted. Bridges? Falling down.

Despite spending your entire time in a class with the worst hit dice imaginable, you're pretty tough to kill, with just over 200 HP, a decent AC for a spellcaster, and permanent resistance to physical damage types. To make things worse for fighters, it's also a pain to get near you, since you can tear up the area around you and shunt melee fighters away as a reaction.

Cons:

While you do have magic missile, a lot of your spells deal damage in wide areas, so your party might have words with you about using earthquake one too many times.

While you're good at tearing things up, that's just about all your magic can do. There's the occasional Clairvoyance and some defensive spells, but by and large you're either dealing damage or doing nothing.

Despite your great physical defense, you struggle a bit more against other damage types. If you end up fighting someone who can turn their knife into psychic damage, you might have a problem on your hands.

[umbralstars]

OK.

I am going off complete on wishful thinking but I don't believe that all of the Nabateans, besides the obvious, who lived in Zanado are dead. Do I have much evidence? No, but I do have speculation from evidence and headcanons. If you're still interested let's go.

The two pictures above are most likely depictions of Zanado before the massacre. They don't 100% line up with the Zanado/Red Canyon we see in-game, but Nabatea could very well have been spread all over the Oghma Mountains include the snippet we see. The first one can be seen in the opening flashes but Sothis, in her original physical form, is there and the second is from the SE art book but from what I understand it's not 100% confirmed to be Zanado or part of Nabatea. I'm sure most people in the Fandom have seen seen these by now.

My main point with them is that Zanado as a city is pretty big. Due to the Nabateans being dragons one could argue they would likely need to build bigger architecture to accommodate their dragon forms, but it seems to me that the Nabateans are in a more Laguz type situation vs an Archanean Manakete. Where most primarily lived in their smaller humanoid forms, only few chose to be in their dragonic forms most of the time, and this has always been part of the Nabatean physiology with no Cataclysm induced dragonstones. For instance: Indech and Macuil choose to live in their dragonic forms 100% but could likely shift back if they wished, Rhea can go back and forth, and don't ask me about Seteth and Flayn. I still don't know why they can't transform at all as they claim.

I say this because, outside of the Gods, most modern depiction of Divine Dragons or other Dragon races aren't that much larger than humans. Tiki in FE Warriors is big in her dragon form, but she's no Rhea. There's a clear difference in FEH as well with the Manaketes vs Dheginsea, Seiros, and even Ena as the majority of the playable and NPC Manaketes are smaller than the Lazguz not go mention Seiros' sprite who's part of the gigantic club. In 3H the Nabatean dragon forms are consistently sized as huge compared to humans.

The Nabateans living in their own city would likely choose to live in their humanoid forms since they have the choice. They wouldn't need to build structures as gigantic just so they can accommodate people, thus the city could be less spread out, they likely wouldn't need to eat as much, and it would be easier to live with humans in humanoid forms as the Nabateans were want to do in the past. Even Sothis seems to primarily live in her humanoid form as that's the form we see in a very brief flash of her looking over Zanado, and if the Goddess feels safe doing that her Children would as well.

This is all to once again point out that Zanado from these depictions is a pretty big city. Nabatea itself could've ranged from a city-state (with Zanado as the heart with surrounding territory, often farm land and small settlements dependant on the city) or even a small country with Zanado and other smaller cities and towns. The population of Nabateans from this seems to be pretty big even if you think humans lived in Zanado too. I do have a feeling that after the Calamity, which Sothis healed Fódlan from, the population may have been cut down by a lot, but not enough to where all of them could be killed all at once in Zanado.

Even though they could've been virtually trapped within that canyon, I don't believe (and I hope) Nemesis, the Elites, or the Agarthans killed every single Nabatean in that city or any Nabatean settlements beyond Zanado. Given that the Agarthans needed bodies for the Relics (and Nemesis was actually there with his Elites) I assume they didn't use the Javelins of Light but I will admit it's a possibility. If they did not, there is a distinct possibility some Nabateans could've gotten away even if the number is as low as only a few hundred or under even that.

As for where they went, and why the Nabateans we know don't know that some of their kin are still alive is because they likely all fled Fódlan. I believe there is a possibility of diaspora communities in Almyra to various countries across Dagda. All hidden among humans to keep themselves alive.

The most interesting possibility I think lies with Morfis. The Traveller's Journal Issue 1 states:

(Picture of the text from FE Datamine)

As far as I remember we know next to nothing about Morfis except from this little bit of text tucked away in a lore book. I believe that it's possible Morfis may house the largest community of Nabatean diaspora or may have been founded as a result of the diaspora. Morfis is fairly close to Fódlan, but still disconnected from it via the ocean and so would discourage Nemesis or the Agarthans from pursuing the survivors.

Morfis was also known as the 'City of Illusion' and seems to still be unknown to outsiders despite the trade networks. The Nabateans, as the Children of the Goddess, would be quiet connected to magic and may have know how unknown to mankind. After they fled their homeland and traveled deep into the desert the survivors hid their settlement via illusions and re-established their lives best they could. Zanado is also consistently shown as a rather arid environment, so the Nabateans could perhaps easily adapt themselves to life in the desert using skills they already had from Nabatea.

Any other survivors back in Fódlan wouldn't know of Morfis since they, justifibly, hid themselves and were disconnected completely from the outside world. The Journal also makes it seem like Morfis is still incredibly mysterious with their trade routes only bringing rumors of the city, nothing more. Even if the city or country now is more open to outsiders, perhaps in hopes of bringing more Nabateans to them for safety, they may still be wary of Fódlan. It's possible they know nothing of what has been happening in Fódlan for the past centuries, unaware of Seiros and Cichol's presence, and assume the religion worshipping Mother Sothis to just be a human continuation of bygone days if they even know of that.

I don't think it's farfetched to believe that some Nabateans may yet live somewhere outside of Fódlan. Perhaps I'm a bit optimistic in believing they were able to re-establish themselves in Morfis, but I want to believe it even if the chance is next to non-existent. Also, even if this is a possibility, it doesn't negate the sheer horridness of what happened to them, and doesn't undercut Rhea's continued grief over the genocide.