#brynblyss (fell‑court) 🜸

[fell-court]

The Crystal Tower Alliance Raids for my version of events: a rather long post (approximately 1600 words)

Crystal Tower is important in flowering verse because it’s when the trio becomes a quartet!

Clio, Bryn and Tsutsuji run into the outlandish-looking man in Revenant’s Toll when they arrive there around the time of organising the Scions’ relocation to the Rising Stones, and from there end up offering their services to the Sons of Saint Coinach as a way of getting to know some of the goings-on in the local area. By the time everything has been prepared to be able to enter the Labyrinth of the Ancients, the trio have been placed into one of the three alliance groups.

So far, I only have five of the eight members of that alliance solidified, though - Clio as the tank, Brynblyss and a Lalafell scholar as the healers, and Tsutsuji and four others as DPS roles. One of these four others is a Miqo’te called L’nahri, a novice adventurer who particularly idolises Clio and her friends for the work they have done to help save Eorzea.

Labyrinth of the Ancients is initially a daunting experience because the trio are not as used to fighting in such high-volume environments, but Clio quickly picks up on how to work best with the other two tanks, and is able to hold her own even when the main group splits into three for certain sections. It isn’t easy, but everything goes relatively well, and the hold that Cid places on exploring the rest of the place gives the trio a good opportunity to continue things with the Scions’ relocation.

=====

Syrcus Tower, in turn, is where things take a turn.

The alliance raid itself was released during patch 2.3, so it could in theory have been set anytime between the defeat of Leviathan and the official formation of the Crystal Braves. Or I could throw that out of the window and put it anytime post-ARR, in theory. I'm not sure yet. Either way, when it finally becomes time for the tower to be stormed, the group of 24 is very similar to (if not the same as) the group who went through the Labyrinth of the Ancients, with all aforementioned characters present. L'nahri in particular is quite excited, as her work with assisting NOAH is really helping her feel like she's making a difference to something, especially as she gets to fight alongside the vaunted Warrior of Light herself as well.

Compared to the previous expedition, the process of climbing the crystalline tower is in some regards more straightforward - there are fewer foes to fight at once, and everyone can safely take a break when each new floor is cleared - but those that do stand in their way are often stronger or more clever. Finally, though, even the revived Emperor Xande himself cannot stand up to the force of all these adventurers working together, and the sunset-lit view from the summit of the tower fills everyone with a strong sense of accomplishment.

The voidgate's reappearance as Unei and Doga try to undo Xande's pact is sufficient to set some of the alliance members on edge, but nobody was fully prepared for any further fighting; the sudden appearances - and attacks - from the emptier dark clones (as well as a few voidsent forcing themselves through the rift) quickly throw everything into chaos. The Cloud of Darkness reaches forth to take the pair who would annul her covenant, dragging Nero with them in the process, and the dark clones fall dead as the voidgate closes, leaving the alliances to clear up the mess.

Said mess consists of a variety of injuries, but most notably, and fatally, L'nahri's.

=====

Clio, understandably, is agonised - she would have been in a better position to bait or take more such dangerous attacks for her team had she not been wracked by an Echo vision when everything kicked off, and this is the first time that someone she'd thought of fondly has died in her arms since the attack on the Waking Sands. Brynblyss and the other healer of the alliance had been doing all they could to heal her wounds, but there's only so much that you can do when a melee fighter's taken an unmitigated tankbuster from 60% HP huge blast of void fire directly to the chest.

The other alliances are eventually able to get all of their members in more stable states, and thankfully avoided any such incidents or injuries of the same severity - but that means everyone is all the more aware of the one who did get so severely injured, the one who was only just beginning her journey, the one who didn't make it. And so the impact is felt across the whole top of the tower, all attention held by the ripple of sadness and guilt - though perhaps least so in Tsutsuji's case, as she had noticed something materialise on the other end of the area.

This turned out to be an unfamiliar figure shrouded in darkness, introducing her(?)self as being able to provide assistance in entering the World of Darkness. It quickly becomes obvious that this figure is a voidsent, leaving most of the alliance on edge and unwilling to proceed with the conversation - but as someone extremely unaverse to doing things that sound like terrible ideas to everyone else, Tsutsuji decides to play her cards and asks the voidsent for her(?) terms.

=====

Tsutsuji stands before the others, and asks the voidsent for her(?) terms. In turn, this is how she(?) responds, wearing a wry smile on what little can be seen of her face through the shadows:

"For you, little student, I shall set them in your favour. Though I could by all means ask for more, I require from you only that which I must have in order to aid you. It wouldn't do for me to be unable to hold up my end of the deal, after all.

In return for my continued existence here in your world, and my assistance in recovering your three stolen allies from mine, all you must give me is that which will permit thus - the lifeless girl lying there behind you."

Suffice it to say, this causes quite a bit of outrage in the rest of the alliance members, as L'nahri's demeanour had made her well-liked by many people in the group. It seems too dangerous to go along with, even to Brynblyss and Clio to some extent - but to Tsutsuji, the one who's actually individually being dealt with, who does not set out to do things that everyone's happy with if they aren't what she's happy with (unlike the other two), the one who steps back and looks at this some-semblance-of-objectively ("well, she isn't using it now anyway, y'know?") - well, it's something she wants to kick off and see where it goes. Why not?

So the deal is made, and the voidsent - Lorenza, as she asks to be called - takes over L'nahri's dead body, subsisting on its remnant aether to maintain her presence in the Source. The group leave the summit of the tower to more properly recuperate from the long climb (and its suddenly-frantic ending), and the atmosphere has been quite irrevocably changed. Some are placated by the voidsent's intelligent and weary-seeming demeanour, others by the fact she is kept under the watchful eye of the Warrior of Light - but not all are ever going to be satisfied, whether out of raw scepticism or of simply being unable to see any face other than their dead friend's upon looking at her.

=====

To her credit, Lorenza remains true to her word, as it was interpreted by most of those present at the time - she remains within the boundaries of Saint Coinach's Find with the rest of the light party (as they have now, by technicality, become), and her insights freely shared with whichever researchers are brave enough to actually draw on the assistance she's trying to provide do help NOAH figure out a way of opening up the Crystal Tower's voidgate much earlier than anticipated. The World of Darkness can be entered very shortly after Syrcus Tower is cleared, almost as soon as everyone feels that they have fully recovered in fact.

Within the World of Darkness itself, Lorenza's familiarity with the void and its denizens proves instrumental to not only guiding the alliances to success, but in mitigating damage taken in the process, since - as Nero proves upon the group finding him - the sustaining of any sort of wound deep enough to touch blood would be sufficient for a being of the Source to quickly be corrupted by the astral Darkness of the void. The Cloud of Darkness is slain, and thus disrupted long enough for the trio to be saved, and the contract to be ceased, and for all else to go as it does in canon (as I have it at the moment).

Congratulations, demon, your worth to us is proven - our stolen allies are recovered, and so you need not remain. Cannot remain, even, now that your own contract has been fulfilled. So would say those who missed the first part of her terms, at least. The lifeless girl, in return for Lorenza's assistance, and her continued existence on the Source - an existence with no stated time limit. The wayward princess has won herself free perpetuity, in a world where she no longer has to starve.

Through her actions, Lorenza earns the tentative trust of Clio and Brynblyss, which is forced to grow during Heavensward. And so, the four become a true light party.

Who knows what she might have left behind in the void she came from, though..?

[fell-court]

Today's gameplay progress:

I finished patch 3.4 as Clio! (I started it earlier today, actually, so I did it in basically one go.) I'm hoping to keep up the same rate of progress for doing all of 3.5(5) tomorrow, so that after my last exam I can make a start on Stormblood!

I don't think I levelled up as her today, but in terms of her levels in general: she's a level 73 gunbreaker, level 64 dancer, high level 63 red mage, and still level 70 reaper and sage. I intend to use dancer and red mage for the Stormblood story where possible, especially after figuring out that Clio could canonically pick up the class (via Iris, one of my OCs) during 3.2!

I did also play as Lorenza today, but that was not for the purpose of making any progress as her - instead, it was simply so that I could accompany @snow-system-wol in the final area through to the end of the game. Congratulations on making it there!! You did super well!!!

As part of this, I of course took many screenshots. The ones I will be posting here in this post are quiiiite vague, hopefully; all they have in them are characters and backgrounds. I will however be putting all of them under the readmore, because of the "being taken in the final area and boss arena" reasons.

Some close-ups I managed to take of Lorenza, Nimda (@soothingmind) and S'ria (@snow-system-wol) =3

..Some brief interruptions to the plot in the form of Nimda and S'ria doing some gathering =P

Some post-final-boss-defeat shots while everyone else left the instance~

And finally, some very hastily-taken shots of my light party, after everyone had left. I didn't want to stay for long, but I still thought it would be neat to put everyone here ^-^

[fell-court]

As mentioned in my last post: the other four characters that I came up with today for flowering verse!

Given that Shadowbringers takes place in another world, the previous four wouldn't be able to accompany Clio, Brynblyss, Tsutsuji and Lorenza to the First. Therefore, I came up with four new characters to make up a full party for that expansion's trials, normal raids, and alliance raids! I have less actual lore for most of them, but I'm always happy to take questions if anyone has any~

The red-haired Mystel with the prosthetic right arm is Sasha-Bea, a strong and beautiful swordfighter whose fighting style would be comparable to the samurai of the Source. I've been envisioning her as a runaway noble of sorts, fleeing Eulmore in favour of the Crystarium and taking whatever wealth she could with her.

The strangely-still Viis is known only as Anhedonia (or Anhe for short), a taciturn fighter whose skill with a scythe is as uncanny as their affinity with sin eaters. Born around a hundred years ago somewhere to the east of Norvrandt, they and their mother were both irrevocably corrupted by Light before their birth - yet they seem to have been able to stave off turning somehow, and can even draw sin eaters to their side in combat. (So, like a reaper of the Source, but associated with sin eaters instead of voidsent.)

The silver-robed Ronso is Ilya, originally born in Slitherbough but who has since left the Rak'tika Greatwood in the hopes of finding a way to restoring sight of the night sky his astrologian techniques still try to connect with. He harbours some guilt for feeling like he has turned his back on his fellow Night's Blessed.

The shield-bearing Drahn man is currently named Vonric, an aspiring knight descended from the people of what was once the Kingdom of Voeburt. He is chronically unlucky, but the constant mishaps he runs into have forced him to learn a wide variety of crafting and gathering skills, which he almost favours more than his combat prowess.

That's all that I have for these four at the moment! However, I'm very happy to take questions on any of them if anyone wants to ask something, as it's a really good way of developing them!!

[fell-court]

Today, I would like to present: the flowering verse light party, as of Shadowbringers!

Clio, leader of the party and recipient of Hydaelyn's Blessing of Light. Her normal fighting style is like that of a gunbreaker, but recent events have encouraged her to walk the path of the dark knight, in the hope she can help the First in this way. Despite the weight of the current circumstances dampening her natural friendly demeanour somewhat, her goal of helping people in whatever way she can hasn't changed. She and Ardbert get on fantastically.

Brynblyss, the party's healer. I would say he's probably doing the best out of everyone, even if he is also very worried about everyone as a result of them being in worse places than him comparatively. He gets on very well with the fae folk, and is able to grow a lot closer to Urianger over the course of this expansion as well; I think the two would already be in a relationship by this point or begin it at the start of the story here, and they get married after coming back to the Source together ^-^

Tsutsuji (as she is still known), who is feeling decidedly overconfident after the events of Stormblood left her with yet another mighty summon to rely on in combat (in the form of Shinryu). Her pride in her own capabilities starts to leave her somewhat dismissive of others' limits, as she insists that the combination of Clio's blessing and Lorenza's Darkness render the Lightwardens a relative non-issue. This will later come down on her head, so her turning point is moreso at the end of Shadowbringers instead of the beginning. Emet-Selch's worst nightmare, courtesy of her similarities to Kirsion.

Lorenza, if you can tell that that's her beneath the mask and robes. As may be evident from the mask and robes, as well as the state of her wings, she's not in a good place (from a physical perspective) when Shadowbringers begins - an entity from a world destroyed by Darkness brought to a world nearly destroyed by Light is not generally a good combination! She is lucky enough to have pity taken on her by Lyna, who teaches her how to wield a spare pair of twin sickles in a similar style to her own method of combat. Shadowbringers is definitely where the rest of the party see her at her weakest, which does a lot to bring everyone together because she finally shows them (or, well, has to show them) that side of her; it's sort of where she most properly realises how much they care about her wellbeing, and in turn how much she cares for theirs.