#deltascape

[stimulantstage]

My favorite FF14 Boss

Neo Exdeath

Kefka

Hephaistos

Heavy Metal Theme! So I was really enjoyed playing this boss battle.

I'm really looking forward to the DAWNTRAIL update that will be coming to Korea in December.

More metal ! More Muscles! More Darkness Boss!

[vettir]

First, we rank up to Captain, then run some job quests, then Palace of the Dead (if the queue isn't crap), then off to Deltascape V1.0! And perhaps some Hildibrand story while we're going through it.

[autumnslance]

Been thinking about this Stormblood exchange from the Omega quests a lot lately. AI and automation isn't new, just some tools and what they can do are new to the public. But still. The idea of a machine that can't tell fact from fiction, and so its output consists of inaccurate facsimiles, is itself not a new idea.

Transcript, bolded emphasis is mine:

NERO Halicarnassus, you say? The Queen of Dimension Castle?

CID What's this? You know of her?

NERO You mean you don't? Well, I suppose a blue-blooded brat such as you would have no interest in humble folktales. It appears a lesson is in order. Halicarnassus is a character from an ancient fable. In the tale, she is one of the chief antagonists, and as such things are wont to unfold, she meets her end at the hands of the heroes─incurably valiant youths not unlike our adventurer friend here. Literary historians have speculated that the tale could be loosely based on events which took place in the Fourth Astral Era, but little remains of that age, and there is no way to verify the claim. Indeed, most now assume the story to be a work of pure fiction.

CID …You mean to tell me that Omega is populating its grand experiment with fictional characters?

MIDGARDSORMR 'Twould seem your understanding is yet lacking. Scant grasp have I of that which men know and know not… Mark me, then. Omega hath no soul. No mind's eye in which to envision a rival. To bring forth new life, it must needs draw upon that which hath already been─its every creation being another's conception. This limitation is concealed by the breadth of its experience. It possesseth the means to retain the knowledge of entire eras─and not only of this reflection. Yet it perceiveth not this knowledge as we do. Fact…fiction…the distinction holdeth no meaning for Omega. All is equal in its eyes. If a thing is logical, it can be created.

NERO Hahaha! That such a wondrous weapon should exist! It surpasses my wildest imaginings, and they were wild indeed! But I gather not everyone shares my excitement. What's the matter, Garlond? Lost your nerve?

CID Quiet, Nero. We adults are thinking.

[otherworldseekers]

FFXIVwrite 2023 prompt 7: Noisome

Set during Deltascape, just after the fight with Catastrophe.

Once more Severia Zetsuen stumbled out of Omega’s portal back into their basecamp in the Interdimensional rift. Cid and Nero approached from behind their stations, bickering casually about numbers or something she didn’t have the patience to listen to. She glared at both of them instead. 

“Another triumph, my friend, not that we expected anything less,” Cid said jovially. 

Nero waved at the air in front of his nose as he stared down at her. “What is that noisome substance all over you, hero?”

Severia closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Tentacles!” she shouted at them. “You might have warned me about the tentacles!”

Cid and Nero took a step back from her rage and her stench. 

“The thing was covered in tentacles! And then it created giant wiggling tentacles all around me!” She was starting to sound hysterical now but she didn’t care. Wiping some of the noxious fluid off her breastplate, she flicked it off of her glove in Nero’s direction. Nero scooted over to stand behind Cid, hoping to redirect her ire. 

“Now, Severia, we did what we could,” Cid said in a reasonable tone that irritated her all the more. 

“What are you here for, if not to give me useful information?” Severia demanded. “It tried to trap me in the floor!” That had been the worst part. Not being able to move, her agility stolen from her, was one of her greatest fears in battle. 

“Ah yes,” Nero spoke up, his finger pointed in the air imperiously. “And did not the gimbal rescue you from that state?”

Severia scowled back at him. “Yes, fine, the gimbal was useful. But it didn’t help with the tentacles!”

“Well, let’s be realistic, does anything?”

Severia crossed her arms sulkily. “No, not really.”

“The important thing is that you came out unscathed this time,” Cid said with well intentioned brightness. “And it’s early yet. We might get the next fight done before the day is out…” Severia’s glare skewered him into silence.

“I am going back to Rhalgr’s Reach for a bath,” she announced. “You two are welcome to face the next opponent without me if you’re so keen.” She stomped off toward the portal to the Yawn, desperate to get clean. Hells, she hated tentacles.

[mimble-sparklepudding]

24. Extreme.

Our thanks, Alpha. That was some marathon!

[field-knots]

[impossible-rat-babies]

all of eyrie’s weapons are. very Important To Them

[lavampira]

the rattling desire to try more normal xiv raids for the story vs the mortifying fear of potentially making a fool of myself: fight

[vanmarkham]

lmaooo just got 3 player comms on a duty where i ended up with 7 vuln stacks

[mestos]

Ppl can say what the will abt pande's story but scream, tireless one, p11 and p4's ost are cracked and i will not hear otherwise

[unionizedwizard]

tumblr user unionizedwizard certified #1 shadowbringers + g'raha overthinker reporting for duty

i HAVE been thinking about sphene being the exarch's foil. because it is a very obvious case to the point they had to pick him up from SHARLAYAN as an emergency Relevant Character and also allowed him to come with us to living memory (you know it's about to get serious when they let him go anywhere with the wol)

so, obviously. both sphene and g'raha (as the exarch) were thrust into a horrific nightmarish situation where they were put in charge of a entire city/state facing an umbral calamity. both care deeply about the people they're trying to protect - their people. both have undergone (willingly or not) heretofore unknown scientific operations that irreversibly changed them, using cutting-edge technology, making them immortal and fusing them with an immensely powerful reservoir of aetheric energy, all in the name of duty and preserving hope for the future; both have become a symbol rather than a person. the alexandrians needed their queen, whose mere presence stopped them from succumbing to despair; the people from novrandt forced the exarch into a similar position (even though he kept repeating he would not stand for becoming a king of any sort); himself, on behalf of the ironworks & the entirety of the post-8th umbral calamity survivors, was willing to sacrifice himself to bring back the wol - because (and this is the really important part) of the wol's status as a symbol of hope and resilience. everyone here, the wol included, is dehumanized and worshiped and used for their good, self-sacrificial qualities, as well as their unyielding willpower.

sphene's memories were altered, muddled, to an extent that nobody really understands. the scientists who managed to create the endless are all gone, the average alexandrian forgot everything and everyone they've ever known, she herself knows she's not the "original" sphene but a copy - yet she doesn't seem to mourn this loss, and indeed i don't know to which extent she conceives of it as a loss, or a violation of her bodily autonomy (which it was! she never asked to be brought back, especially not this way, which would be a more than traumatic experience for ANYONE to go through!). in the same way, the exarch's memories encompass several timelines and realities, and he spent an entire century having to hide his identity, not being able to mention his own name, much less his purpose or homeland - i'd say this self-erasure is more than comparable with sphene's experience. not to mention that both sphene and the exarch were forced into "passive", static roles - i don't know how sphene felt about this because this is the tragedy of her character, that we don't know (and she herself doesn't know) the first thing about her, as an individual with preferences and feelings and memories.

also, this all adds up with g'raha's role in the deltascape part of ultima thule - the omicrons being, as AI mechanical soldiers, the missing link between sphene and himself. there's a pattern here, interrogating the relationship between mind, body, memory, duty, freedom and personal agency & autonomy, etc. the endless in general and sphene in particular are more than reminiscent of the omicrons on this point.

all of this to say: thinking about g'raha's gondola speech, i did not think he was talking about the scions, or even the wol. i see how this is a possible (and likely) interpretation to have, but i must confess i was surprised when i saw that this is what most people had understood. to me he was talking about the people from the First, and also the people from the 8th umbral calamity timeline, especially those with whom he'd worked for, presumably, months at a time. so many people who died after the Flood (we tend to forget that he arrived right after the Flood, in the immediate aftermath), not just because of the sin eaters but also because of the sudden and catastrophic environmental changes; all the people who could never adapt to the eternal light and, presumably, went mad (it's a real thing in real life even though night does come back eventually, so i imagine it must have been that but a lot worse in novrandt). all the people who died due to lack of medicine, because all the medicinal plants and recipes disappeared in the blink of an eye, not to mention the healers themselves; all the diseases and epidemics and interpersonal violence that arose as a consequence of the severe famine and lack of basic resources that plagued what was left of the star. and the unfathomable loss and trauma of losing millenia of culture and civilization and knowledge and biodiversity and entire families, entire tribes, cities, countries, being annihilated. g'raha has lived through this for a century, combined with the post-8th umbral calamity state of the Source. we know how much he cares for the people of the crystarium, and we only see the crystarium as a fully-developed, beautiful, and harmonious city-state; we haven't seen the century of work and planning and emergency managing and unfathomable grief and pain that went into it. in the same way, we see alexandria (and living memory) as they are now, but only glimpse a few moments of utter chaos during the alexandria dungeon.

so i'm just thinking of g'raha, seeing living memory, and being the only one among the party who truly understands. who can truly relate to sphene, and understand her. he's the only one present who has personally been through not one but two calamities, and had to deal with them on a day-to-day basis (while readying a completely crazy long-term plan). how many people that he knew, loved, wanted to protect... died of "preventable" causes during the century he was on the First, while himself was immortal - so that he could keep doing his duty, doing everything he could to save them eventually? all this happened in a manner which was truly unfair, and unfathomably evil, and - possibly the worst part - he knew this was still "the better path" (as he put it himself while trying to summon the wol). the survivor's guilt that both he and sphene must be dealing with is simply impossible to really understand, i think. we've seen the crystarium. of course he'd wish for all these unfortunate souls to endure and finally know peace and happiness. and of course, he didn't have a Living Memory, but of course he couldn't help but wonder how he'd have reacted in this situation.

and i do wish we could have had him interact with sphene, actually. it made sense that she was wuk lamat's foil and all, but i think it would have been interesting..........

[vettir]

Streaming schedule for the week of 8/4/24:

Wednesday 8/7: We hit Captain rank with the Adder, ending that bit of content. We run various job quests, try for Palace of the Dead, then it's off to Deltascape, and doing Hildibrand while we wait for queues.

Thursday 8/8: Try for Palace of the Dead, Mostly just content, we will definitely by this point finish Skalla, Rabanastre, and do our first two Hildibrand quests.

Friday 8/9: Try for Palace of the Dead, or if we succeeded the last two streams, Heaven on High! Allied Society leveling up, and definitely getting some Hand and Land class quests done, then either starting or continuing 4.2 content.

As always, stream starts between 5 and 7 pm pacific, and usually ends around 11pm.

[starvoidsailor]

My friends don't understand that I will genuinely enjoy replaying old story arcs using NG+ because the story in FFXIV, especially in side content, is so good.

The entire arc behind POD with Edda? Dark and honestly disturbing, tragic and ending bittersweet.

Crystal Tower? Don't mind me, just crying in the corner after all these horrific implications I've discovered and dooming a man I just met to nearly 100 years of grief.

Omegas trials and the Deltascape? I love seeing Alpha grow and mature into his own person, teaching Omega love and friendship only for her to ultimately perish and make me sad, as well as getting more insight into Nero and Cids relationship.

Don't get me started on Werlyt. Even if some people say its a cheap rehash of ARR and Gaius relationship with Livia, Cid and Nero, the story is genuinely well written and by the Twelve, I love how it punches you again and again with its twists and Valens uncaring attitude.

I don't have to safe Eorzea or Doma or the First or Ætheris all over again. Sometimes it's enough to help just one person find closure, learn to deal with loss, helping a little chocobo be his own bird or see a redeemed man prove himself true to his word.

[otherworldseekers]

FFXIVwrite Day 4: Reticent

WoLNero 518 words A look into Nero's state of mind during Deltascape.

Nero had never been a reticent person. Not that he was the sort of person who wore his heart on his sleeve either. After all, there was some question about whether or not he had a heart. Emotions were a weakness he couldn’t afford if he was to realize his lofty ambitions. His thoughts, on the other hand, he shared magnanimously. Who was he to keep such genius to himself? 

It had been with some dismay when he had, in the end, started developing certain very troublesome feelings for a particular hero. The feelings themselves were one thing. The real dilemma was what to do about them. 

He had never been shy of showing his admiration where it was deserved or proposing various liaisons when he felt the need. But when he was in the Warrior of Light’s company, when he had every chance in the world to express his regard for her and take their little flirtations further, he found himself hesitating. Never before had he felt such trepidation, such fear of rejection. Nero had ever viewed failure as a necessary step toward success, a temporary setback at most. And yet the thought of her rejection had sent ice through his veins more than once. 

It wasn’t even that he thought his marked interest in her was unwanted. On the contrary, all the evidence supported the conclusion that she shared that interest and would respond positively to his advances. But sometimes evidence was misleading and he couldn’t be sure. He had never needed to be sure before. Taking risks was second nature to him. Hells, taking risks was what had got him this far. 

But still he wavered. He pondered and dithered and floundered. He failed over and over again to tell her how he felt. He felt like a craven school boy. An idiot first class. And the entire time the refrain echoed in the back of his mind: why, why, why? What precisely had reduced him to this insufferable state?

Of course he knew the answer. Had known it for years now. It was very simple. 

Nero Scaeva was completely, irrevocably, desperately in love with Severia Zetsuen. 

Once before, in his youth, he had fallen in love and had been rejected. (In hindsight, it seemed to have been utter obliviousness rather than outright rejection, but it had felt like rejection at the time.) But it had not in the end mattered to him whether the object of his affections returned them. With time the sting had dulled and the heightened emotions had faded and he would have been happy if they could comfortably be colleagues for the remainder of their lives. (And now perhaps they could.)

This time was different. Already years had passed since the first stirrings of his passion for the hero yet it had not diminished in the slightest. His ardor had only grown deeper, stronger. It mattered to him whether she felt anything for him. It mattered a great deal. 

And so he continued to hover in this intolerable limbo, cursing his own cowardice, praying for his hero to deliver him.

Thanks for reading!

[petrifrozen]

RARE Deltascape petrify

[field-knots]