#fae plays ff14

[faerieenthusiast]

Went ahead and made a new character for FF14, this time on PC. Didn't really do much in the free trial when I tried on PS4. That one was a catboy I named Mi'ku Moon. But this time, I have a new catboy.

Meet Ta'sha J'unior! I named him after my actual cat, Tasha. The J in J'unior is pronounced like you would in French. I'll call him Ta'sh or TJ for short. I gave him a long fluffy tail, and he's a shorty. Got nowhere to go with him for now.

[the-one-and-ourinie]

Brief overview/greetings

Hello, denizens of tumblr. This is my posting place for things regarding my FF14 characters/separate OCs. They existed before I started playing the game, I merely applied them to the setting. For character asks and the like, I'll color code the text (will match their name's color) to make it clear who's talking. Asks are very much welcome, in or out of character.

This is probably leaving a lot of stuff out, but am tired and want to get this out. Send asks if you want, I'd love to answer them. Looking to get some ref images commissioned soon.

As for our wonderful cast, we have:

Wes 'Warrior of Light/Darkness' or 'Echo-born' Ourinie- my son. A somewhat short blue-haired Midlander. The one who's been doing the MSQ, which initially started as him going on an independent journey from his nomadic tribe. Has a lot of issues relating to self-worth, responsibility, and freedom. Wears a weird fetter on his left wrist (just like all the characters on this list do). Has a knack for learning and copying spells/techniques fast, very proficient with just about all jobs. Joined the tribe young, adopted by Sileas and Lenmis, and was raised by the whole tribe. Has incredibly keen senses, a cut above the others.

Ying 'Starshine' Oondan- a runaway noble Xaela girl with a very manueverable tail. Joined the rest of the tribe young, besties with Wes, left shortly after he did for a journey of her own. Part demon, specifically a fiend. Wes is, in her words, 'basically like 90% of my impulse control'. Just as Wes learns and copies at a monstrously fast rate, Ying studies and adapts to her opponent's fighting style incredibly quickly. Always loves to fight or spar, and prefers to stay active most of the time.

Lenmis 'Bladebane' Moondew- strongest of the bunch, a tall, jacked as hell Wildwood Elezen with a penchant to break most weapons she finds with a single swing. Blacksmiths hate her. Married to Sileas, adopted Mother to Wes and Ying. Leader of this nomadic tribe, and dedicates it to protecting the innocent, wherever that may happen. Not that great at showing affection, is rather stone-faced most of the time, but she cares deeply about those she protects.

Sileas 'Grass-song' Murphy- another Midlander. Married to Lenmis, adoptive mom to Wes and Ying, and functions as the tribe's head chef, botanist, survivalist, medic, and mount specialist (in this case, chocobos). Speaks with a Scottish accent, Wes wonders if she has ties to the fae. Rather secretive about her past. Red Mage/Bard combo with silly spell names coupled with a specialization in plant magic. Literally causes flowers to bloom in her wake. Generally a sweet lady that loves the tribe as her family.

Luz 'Brightmind' Taki- Sun Seeker Miqo'te who abandoned his society to hang out with the weird gay nomad people. He made the right choice. Gay and queasy about existing in Sun Seeker society. One of the top minds in magical theory, and a well-read scholar in general, often talks with an Urianger-esque air. Mentored Wes on magic, and provided his general education.

Lapis 'Redliner' Corund- a selectively mute Duskwood Elezen, with a background in espionage and assassin work. After killing her bosses and tearing the organization to the ground, grouped up with the nomads to help folks. Wears almost entirely black, with a glitter rainbow hairclip. Hates making noise, but has gradually become ok with being noticed by people while living with Wes.

Ryo 'Rampart' (no surname)- a himbo Roegadyn. Earned his epithet by holding his own against a full army for a week straight. The only one who can safely take a full-power punch from Lenmis to the stomach. Invented a game for Wes when he joined the nomads called Ryo-Go. It makes no sense, has no winner, and is absolute dumb-fun incarnate. Used to be a soldier for an oppressive force that lied to its citizens, and began fighting back as soon as he found out. Considers himself in a life debt to the nomads for resolving the conflict, and helping the citizens back up on their feet.

Basi 'Featherbrain' Ouroboros- typically nonverbal Plainsfolk Lalafell with an acute interest in bird feathers and solving crimes. She joined up to be the best detective the world's ever seen, and she hasn't been stumped yet. Quite affectionate in her own way, leaving fancy feathers, quills, and accessories for her fellow nomads to find.

[sniperct]

hullo! I suppose I've just been curious about Ithilrin, your elf OC. How did she get started? What universe(s?) is she a part of?

So for years my wife and I have taken our LOTRO characters and played and RP'd with them in various AUs and universes before we started to write something original with them (in a sort of technomagic type setting with fae, elves and humans(there's a human city that's more advanced in tech and certain kinds of magics, while the fae courts are high magic with some tech, and the elves are more like wood elves and traditionally naturey. But are related to fae. There are also dark fae which play an important role), along with air aspected dwarves). These are elves and rangers and regular folks who all kind of became interconnected over time playing the game and writing them.

And as we were writing some of this in that setting she just kind of popped into my head and announced her existence as the younger sister of two of our elves (granted she's still many thousands of years old, 8200 in LOTRO, 2800 in the original setting)). She ended up filling in some key missing bits in their backstory and is now firmly one of my favorite OCs. Everything tends to revolve around her siblings and her (and their immediate circle which ended up with several polycules)

So was easily backfilled into LOTRO and quickly spread to other MMOs I play lol this got long. But her most filled out settings are LOTR and the original universe. I don't actually play her in FF14 but she's a viera there, I did roll her up.

In the original setting (which is super self-indulgent ngl) she was presumed to be dead for a few thousand years, due to being run through by her father but had been revived from near death and working with a group that was uh, they do a kind of ritualistic sex work. Magic that improves the harvest and the planting, and also a lot of general therapy type stuff. (in hindsight, the companions from firefly and Inara in particular may have played a subconscious role in developing Rin).

Because of that and assorted past trauma's she's a champion of consent/safe words, and a very do-what-you-want-but-don't-harm-others kind of person.

In most settings she's a noble at best (in LOTRO she's the High Elf race, specifically a Noldor from Valinor. High Elves in LOTR are those that saw the light of the trees).

In the original setting she and her siblings are the heirs to the Lunar court and also aspects of assorted concepts and gods. Her brother is the chosen of war, her sister is death, and she's chosen of the moon. Chosen in this universe act as both high priestesses and also vessels of their goddess(sun/moon/various seasons, etc) and will all eventually replace their goddesses by taking their power into themselves, but as themselves rather than being deities themselves.

So right now she's the Queen. Her brother is older but he married the Sun chosen so is king there now. Her sister was removed from the line of succssion. I could go into all the other characters (like the mermaid pirate captains and the messengers called the Crows and Lomea the Queen of the summer court who long time followers may have seen in other forms ;) Or Rin's brother in law who has the gift of seeing the past clearly.

And then there's the heir to the abyss who's mother is the mother of monsters and rules over the city that is the last safe place for the dark fae and adheres to darkness doesn't necessarily mean evil)

So they need to replace their gods and then kill God himself because he keeps 'restarting' time since nothing goes right and there's always darkness. So that'll be fun. Oh but first they have to kill their father, who's basically satan, three times as was foreseen. And then the fatesinger (this was before endwalker lmao) will speak and undo the world so they can sing in a new world, imperfect, but a world of their choosing. And darkness must exist for there to be light, etc etc. The mother of monsters is very invested in making sure there's room for her and her kind in this world. (and they have to kill god before remaking the world, or before he remakes it, of course)

(Illidan voice: I AM MY SCARS)

Her lover is an elf who's a wolf-spirit/shifter and said shifter's twin sister is also often involved, while also being with the Summer chosen maiden.

(My PFP is Ryscewen, aspect of Chaos, and one of the few who remembers the worlds that came before. (She started out as Fox in another original setting my wife created many years ago that we would like to also finish some day) her love is raven, who is the fatesinger who cannot speak because if she does it will kill those around her. Hence when she speaks it will end the world)

She became, in a way, a vessel for exploring darker and more taboo subjects

[zorritocruzado]

Just say Nay to Fae

Was playing with Briar in FF14 a while back (because of course I made her in there) and we got to the part where Thancred's telling you what not to do around pixies And I suddenly had a visceral vision and realization that Bard Briar is in fact: the last person you need to instruct on the ways of the fae and would also simultaneously be deeply insulted they would try something so basic on her as to directly ask for her name. So I had to draw it Pillowfort ✦ Twitter ✦ Instagram ✦ Patreon ✦ Ko-fi

Posted using PostyBirb

[shivasdarknight]

Following up on this since the 6.5 PLL was yesterday (so hey, if you're in the reblogs of this post, please read this!)

First off, a correction: the region is now known as Tural, which thank fuck. So in further discussion, it will be referred to as Tural, I've corrected the above post to reflect as such since it was on me for forgetting the region's actual name, and I really hope that Square changes the names and dialogue that have instances of "New World" and hopefully remove the gear set please?

Second: during the 6.5 panel, the translator Kate Cwynar (the one responsible for the non-binary fae and the inclusion of more non-binary npcs) spoke on Dawntrail during Banri Oda's talk on how they write and develop cultural influence in XIV. Importantly, this was said:

"And the most important considerations when they're designing the lore is how to make these influences fit into the world of Fourteen. Like Oda-San wanted to emphasize that it's really important that what we're trying to do is we're not trying to recreate reality. We are trying to imagine a world with perhaps similar locations, but still fitting the history of FF14. But you know at the same time, when we do draw on real life cultures and languages, we want to develop an understanding and a respect for those cultures and we want to try to demonstrate that the best we can. Yeah. And this is a real point of focus for 7.0. I can't say much about it, but I will say that is something the team is very aware of. They're aware that we have not always made our goal of being, demonstrating the proper respect for cultures in the past as a game and as a franchise, and we are really working on it."

-English Localization Lead Kate Cwynar on developing lore for FFXIV, Las Vegas FanFest, July 29, 2023 (transcript from @/autumnslance)

Frankly, it is extremely promising that they've at least acknowledged that they've made some really awful decisions in the past with other cultures.

I want to be clear because of my tone in the previous post: I want to be wrong. I do not want this to go badly. There are so many people who are excited to see their culture represented in here and I really dearly hope that they do well and this goes without issue.

I - and frankly, a fair number of people I've talked with and critics I often look to and follow - simply have reservations because the same person giving those tips (Oda) is the same person responsible for questionable content leading up until around STB. And this is the same company that just not too long ago appropriated stuff from the Saami for their cash shop.

I want to be wrong. I want this to be an overreaction and it turns out good and respectful. I do not want this to be a racist imperialist expansion pack based on the tagline for the journey. I want them to do something interesting with this and actually say something poignant about the subject. They have a lot on the line with this one and are playing with very delicate subjects in Tural. Someone in the tags of this post put it aptly by saying they better be taking surgical tools to this with how careful they need to be.

So I want to be wrong! I really do! I want the expansion pack to be respectful to the cultures shown in the trailer! I just think we also need to be aware of the history they're walking right into and be conscious of the colonial narrative of the "city of gold" and what actually happened in relation to it.

So genuinely: I want Square to actually do well with this. Considering the 5.5 reparations scene with the Kobolds, the ENW Phys Melee quests with the Sahagin, and the scene in Endwalker with the Eorzean tribes getting you to Ultima Thule, they've shown they have put in work to change the narratives prevalent in ARR. And I want to see them continue this.

They just have a really bad history that they really need to confront and frankly need to do some work on like how they finally renamed the Tribe Quests from "Beast Tribe Quests". An ideal situation would involve a complete rework of the BLU quests, but I just want to see Dawntrail do better than everything that's led up to it.

Time for your regularly scheduled, "Killjoy Hour with Enya" because we're being a killjoy about Dawntrail (:

So first and foremost: fuck Square and the XIV team for taking this angle. We could've gone any direction and we're going with Colonizer The Adventure. They looked at what we did on the Steppe with Hien and went "let's do it again! :D"

Mandatory CW for racism as it pertains to the indigenous peoples of North America, Mesoamerica and South America, and discussion of the genocide enacted by Spain against Mesoamerica and South America.

(Sections and the first letter of each sentence have been bolded for ease of reading)

But to explain further: Square has a really awful track record with their take on Tural, the "New World", especially in their handling of the Mamoolj'aa that are in Eorzea. This has been an issue since ARR and has been frequently criticized due to their extremely anti-indigenous writing. The way they handle the Eorzean tribes (which have been known as "beast tribes" and "beastmen" for a good part of the past decade that XIV has been around, I Should Not have to explain to you why that's deeply problematic) is an issue in its own right, but I'll only touch on what we've seen of Tural in the game itself and why this doesn't bode well for Dawntrail.

Let's get the obvious one out of the way first, this fucking shit:

For those unaware, this is the New World set. It's a craftable gear set from Heavensward that players can wear as a goddamned costume. I shouldn't have to be saying this in 2023, but this set has caused a great deal of controversy because it's a bastardization of plains tribe regalia. Square never should have added it to the game, but here it is and players constantly wear it in further offensive glams.

The only instance of this set being used with NPCs is in the Blue Mage quests and what we see of the Whalaqee. Again, to those unaware: the ARR Blue Mage quests are an extremely racist storyline that plays into white savior narratives and more offensive caricatures. The only representatives that we get to interact with of the Whalaqee are a little boy in this outfit (who's also extremely pale), and two Mamoolj'aa who are the lackeys of Martyn, the job trainer for Blue Mage - a white man! Further, the magic is notably not from Eorzea and is instead a cultural practice of the Whalaqee that Martyn took and turned into profit, and he's who you're supposed to work for. You are - yet again - considered a master of the practice, and this is written in mind with a default white man in mind considering Meteor being the stand in for everything. There is in-game appropriation of cultural practices, clothing, and tools but it gets worse the further you go into them.

The main plot of the ARR quests is that the Whalaqee are dying from a plague brought toTural by Martyn and other researchers with the Arcanist's guild 🙃 There were two trips: one to study Blue Magic, and one where people from the first trip went back because they found ceruleum in the sacred lands of the Whalaqee and began drilling for it. But remember: you only get to meet the Whalaqee through the two Mamoolj'aa and the Whalaqee child. The fate of the tribe rests in an Eorzean's hands because they put the medicine behind a bet for the further profit of Ul'dah. Win the carnival and make the owner a bunch of money and you get the medicine; lose, and they go raid the place for ceruleum and wipe out the tribe. It's a deeply offensive storyline that turns past and ongoing horrors that indigenous peoples - especially those of North America and Mesoamerica - have faced and are still facing into some trivial goal for a questline for a joke job that's solved through the white savior trope.

Then, of course, there's how the Mamoolj'aa are generally treated. Like the other ARR tribes and anyone the game doesn't consider civilized, their dialogue is written in broken speech patterns to reflect "lower intelligence." They're one of the only ARR tribes (next to the Qiqirn, who only got that somewhat through the SHB Qitari quests) that haven't gotten any kind of humanizing that the others have seen over the years (and even then, that's only been recently). Throughout ARR-HVW storylines, they're portrayed as extremely aggressive, are often throwaway mercs for hire around La Noscea, and they have them use this "cultural dance" of theirs that's described as extremely suggestive and is frequently used to sexually harass the white women of Eorzea. They're also seen in the Wanderer's Palace (Hard) as "aggressive barbarian" types who enslaved the Tonberries, which were originally the Spoken of Nym (so y'know, predominantly white society that became malformed and gangrenous tonberries). And your job as the Warrior of Light is, naturally, to exterminate them. There's other stuff like the naming of abilities they use (frequent use of barbarian/barbaric, which in it of itself is problematic), the totems and standards that you're actively encouraged to destroy, the shaman stuff + the fact that again: they're the only ARR tribe that never got the same kind of humanizing lens that tribes like the Sylphs got early on, or like the Amalj'aa got only recently.

Dawntrail looks to be as if it might be that humanizing effort that began in Stormblood and was most prominent in 5.X (ARR-SHB tribe side quests don't count as it's side content, not MSQ), but of course there comes the problem: beyond them never treating the Mamoolj'aa with any respect in the content we already have, they've already framed 7.0 as you meddling in the rite of succession for this new area. An area that is ruled by a two-headed Mamoolj'aa that we have to help overthrow (which is not new, as a two-headed Mamoolj'aa was already shown in The Wanderer's Palace (Hard) - but that one was portrayed as brutish, unintelligent, and played into inbred stuff as...the final boss of the dungeon who gets a special end dungeon cutscene to showcase the Tonberries brutalizing his corpse). And again, this plot thread isn't new! We already helped Hien do that to the Steppe back in Stormblood! This is yet another instance of the game treating imperialism and colonization as a fun thing for you to get in on, especially since they're using the setting and the getting to the setting as a summer vacation.

The fact that they are framing Dawntrail as summer vacation-like is insidious. You are a party of fantasy Europeans sailing to fantasy Mesoamerica/South America to meddle in their governing process.

And let's quickly go over that: the fact Tural is the "New World" as you search for "a city of gold."

These names are rooted heavily in European colonization. The idea that Europe is the "civilized Old World" and that the Americas were the "uncivilized, waiting-to-be-conquered New World" is what drove the colonization of the region, especially in Mesoamerica and South America. The term "New World" is inseparable from white supremacist narratives about the colonizers that engaged with the peoples of the Americas. It's bad enough that XIV introduced Tural as "the New World" to begin with and populated it with a fantasy race that's characterized by violence, a lack of intelligence, and sexual harassment + a gross caricature of North American plains nations, but they have now made it into the destination for the Scions' "summer vacation adventure"? So that you can go do an imperialism there, too? They even framed it as some tropical paradise as if that's not an extension of how colonization of these regions is perpetuated today through the tourism industry.

The other term - city of gold - was a myth that was used as the excuse to ransack Mesoamerica and South America. You've definitely seen it, as that was the entire plot of Road to El Dorado. It was under this pretense that Spanish colonizers decimated indigenous populations in the search of glory and gold. The search for the "city of gold" in the "New World" was a mass genocide - enabled through widespread massacre, and a vicious plague that wiped out 80% of just the population in Mexico alone.

In Mexico, the pestilence reached the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, before its fall in 1521. Pathogens also reached Peru, inciting a civil war among the Incas. Both of these situations were extremely favorable for Spain. The plague—cocoliztli—was the most devastating post-conquest epidemic in large parts of Mexico, wiping out somewhere around 80 percent of the native population.

(from "How Aztecs Reacted to Colonial Epidemics" by Richard Herzog on JSTOR)

This is not a subject to touch upon lightly in any respect. And for XIV to use it for their "fun adventure in a foreign land" is deeply inappropriate and frankly disgusting. But is anyone surprised? This is the same company that ignored the demands of the Saami council to remove the offensive Far Northern attire from the store.

What I'm disappointed the most about, however, is the number of fans chomping at the bit with angles about a tropical tourist destination, taking the summer vacation angle the devs are actively encouraging, and even stuff with pirates (do not get me started on how white pirates contributed to colonization of the Americas). As a friend put it very aptly: how do you see "new world," "city of gold," and a fleet of European ships sailing towards fantasy Mesoamerica and not get skeeved out at the prospect? This isn't something you should be excited about because they're having us role play imperialism Yet Again. But this time, it's all to the tune of "tropical summer vacation in a foreign land". And y'all are excited to join in?

I don't want the expansion to turn out this way. We barely have any information on this, I understand. But what I've laid out here is what the game has already done with regards to Tural's pre-7.0 depictions and what they've shown they want to continue perpetuating. If Dawntrail turns out to be somewhat decent (and it better be better handled than Thavnair and feature fewer white people populating the countries that are inspired by black and brown cultures), then fine. But as it stands, Square has not given us any reason to trust them in how they've handled their indigenous stories leading up to 7.0. This entire concept is rife with the potential to be extremely offensive and extremely racist, and the main takeaway most fans seem to have from this isn't that this is a gross depiction of indigenous cultures, but instead a fun summer vacation with the Scions?

Really?

[keykidpilipili]

Scholars when they forgot to tell their faerie to follow after placing her for a boss mid-dungeon:

I ABANDONNED MY SUN!

[versegm]

for the fandom ask: ffxiv

The light is hungry and it will not let you know peace.

Ok joke aside:

- there are many different races you can play in ff14: bunnyboys/girls, lizards, catgirls/boys, and boring fucks.

- the protagonist is The Warrior Of Light, or maybe A Warrior Of Light? I know the goddess of light sells the deal to you like "you're the only one who can help us" but I think there's some deal about her actually getting multiple chosen and just seeing who survives til the end

- The Warrior of light miiight be reincarnating through time? I think?

- Amongst your companion, there are two elf siblings. The girl one is pissed as fuck. The dude one is called Alphonso or Alphinaud and he's a painter I think? Or maybe you con people by making him look like a painter at some point? Also he always makes me think of french politicians which I assume comes from watchings french streamers years ago but I can't for the life of me remember what the FUCK the context could possibly be

- The Dark Knight sidequest has your evil side scribbling all over your personal journal like "aren't you tired of being nice? don't you ever want to go apeshit"

- at some point you isekai into another dimention where the light won against the darkness and everyone is slowly turning into angels and it FUCKS. body horror expension my beloved. also the ost slaps mad tits.

- "Real heroes die with a smile." I have no context for this line I just know it kills mzee every time.

- when the latest expension came out + WoW shat the bed, there were like thousand people-long queues to log on the servers

- There is a very active erp community over there

- There are multiple dudes horny for fighting you, and I mean horny in the most literal sense. One of them looks like legend of zelda ghiraheim.

- Those little fish dudes keep asking you weird and convoluted shit and then you get flashforwards to see how that saves the entire village

- Fat catgirl lady and her dilf husband

- There's a fae leevel with weird bushes that are people

[theaceofskulls]

I’ve been trying not to post any comparisons between World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy 14 for a long time but I really can’t hold off on this anymore. Every time I think of the latest content in FF14, I’m immediately reminded of my biggest criticism with WoW’s last expansion and I need to write it down already.

Note, this contains spoilers for Final Fantasy 14′s 6.2 main story content, but it’s honestly kind of mild and won’t ruin the experience for you if you’re planning on playing the game.

Before I begin, I do have to give some background on lore of both games for people unfamiliar.

Firstly in FF14, death is fully permanent in canon. Player death doesn’t really happen for real when your HP hits 0, however anyone who dies in a cutscene is for real dead and there’s almost no exception and none of those exceptions are really true exceptions to be honest. This isn’t Dragon Ball Z.

Warcraft’s a little looser but to be honest it mostly adheres to the same rules. It has a couple more loopholes for certain types of beings. Also there’s more undead. However player death has always been a little weirder, which I’ll get to in a second.

As for what happens after you expire, in FF you enter back into effectively the lifestream to reincarnate, your memories and personality dissolving. Meanwhile WoW has always pointed to the idea of an afterlife, called the Shadowlands, which players get a taste of when they die and have to run back to their corpse.

Eventually, WoW decided it was going to explore the Shadowlands in a titular expansion, having players and the plot explore a collection of realms that make up the afterlife of its universe.

The reception across the board wasn’t great. I’m not going to unpack all of it here because there’s a lot to it, but I’ll focus on one aspect of it that doesn’t feel thought through.

Because the game had to play like it always has, you needed to jump into it, fight monsters and bad guys and beat bosses. So naturally you have to have all your standard combat and exploration mechanics. This means you hit things with weapons and they turn into experience and rewards.

The lore shakes itself out like this: The afterlife ends up being Life 2, and if you die in the Shadowlands, you die forever (except for players since it’s not a roguelike).

What’s that? You wandered off a floating rock and plummeted to the ground? Well it turns out your eternal existence is not canceled and now you’re just a bunch of energy. Oh, it turns out you can just run into heaven with a blade that some guy in a fishing hamlet smithed up for you and kill an angel with it. In one afterlife you can be pulled apart in a necromantic wasteland and stitch yourself back together but if you bleed out in Fae Wonderland, then your soul gets to feed their weird bugs.

It kind of become existentially terrifying the longer you examine it. (This doesn’t even touch on how it handles what your soul looks like when it comes to multiple timelines and how it compresses them down but like I said, I’m not touching on everything here).

All of this culminates into the final boss of the expansion. There’s a lot to be said about the Jailor but for the purpose of this post, I want to focus on one thing in particular: the players foil his plans and ultimately kill him without any kind of magical artifact or special countermeasure.

Like I said earlier, the players are always able to fight against the beings of the Realm of Death. There’s no difference between them and a monster or mortal on the material plane. And once you kill something it’s dead here.

In previous expansions, the final bosses have always had some extreme measure of power or protection that the players typically had to overcome in order to be able to strike the final blow, but in Shadowlands, it turns out that the only issue was that it never put 25-30 player characters in the same room as this guy from the start of the story. Yes, there’s a gear system and technically there’s a soulbind system where you link yourself to a being of the afterlives to power yourself up though it is never referenced in story or really in gameplay outside of stats. In the story it comes down to a raid fight that feels like it could’ve happened at any time with a villain who has no special protection (there’s a small plot about him having special mind control powers and trying to protect against that and you’d think that would payoff more, but they literally just did that with the previous final boss of the proceeding expansion and couldn’t do it again).

I could talk at length about this but I want to move on to the point of this post:

Final Fantasy does all of this better.

I could make a series of posts on how the last two expansions for this game actually rip apart Shadowlands, but for what I really want to focus on I want to move on to the 6.2 content.

In FF14, there’s a realm of Darkness that’s called the Void where demons known as Voidsent dwell. Sometimes these show up in our world either by slipping in between cracks between the worlds or by being summoned, and it’s been recorded that even if you kill them, the same ones have reappeared again later.

Due to circumstances with the plot, we go to there a couple of times, and with this latest trip, we learn something important about Voidsent: You can kill them even in their home plane but they can come back. I promised mild spoilers so I won’t get into how they do this (trust me, it’s worth playing through to find out, as how the game represents the idea of light and darkness as themes of entropy actually makes for some amazing worldbuilding).

By entering this strange new world, we learn that it doesn’t play by our same rules. Sure, we can interact with it like we always have in game terms, but on the story level, we can’t solve our problems with a blade.

Meanwhile the residents of the world change how they live based off all of this. Life and death act differently, and the forms of the voidsent are varied and complex. The way they interact with each other and you reflects how different their world is from yours. While not a realm of death, it feels like a realm based around a theme rather than just a cool concept art.

In the end, in order to beat even the first major challenge in this world, the player and their allies are forced to use a special method which raises several questions (of technical, logistic, moral, and historical varieties) and opens up a lot of avenues for potential plot developments. There’s a sense that even if you were to get put into an arena with the big bad in this realm, that winning the boss fight wouldn’t necessarily win you the fight.

While it’s not a 1:1 comparison, I can’t help but keep comparing the Void to the Shadowlands and knowing that I really wanted the Shadowlands to act like this the entire time rather than be dropped without any consideration for the existential implications it brought with it.

[khorren]

Fae rambles about the idea of GW2 Housing

I wanna talk about housing for a moment, and why I think it would be a great addition to Guild Wars 2.

So I've played a bunch of MMOs that have housing, and each one handles it pretty differently. I'm using these games as my reference point as this is what I'm familiar with, so here's a breakdown. Wont go into the world of subs or irl money maintenance on these, cos that's a whole other kettle of fish. I'm also going to make this as short as possible, so not going to go into the nuances and fiddly stuff.

Archeage: Housing is a finite resource, meaning there's only so many houses out in the world. There are housing districts out within zones and people get to decide how much of that space they take up. So say your house takes up a 4x4 spot. You could, in theory, put your property at the edge of the housing zone and have 3 junk spaces on 2 of the edges, thus making your property appear to be 7 by 7. If you put down another 4 x 4 you can arrange it even more wacky so you're taking up way more than just an 8 x 4 space. Kind of a dick move? Sure. Anyway. It's possible for the player base themselves to make things really unfair on other people. The plus side to this system is that your beautiful house is out in the world. People can walk past and look inside, even go inside if you left the door open, and you generally have some outdoor garden space to plant trees, flowers, and suchlike.

BDO: Housing blends in to the world, usually in towns and cities. You own an instance of the inside of the apartment/house essentially. When you approach the building you get a list of the people who live there, and you can go in and look at their house. Everything is indoors, no outside to speak of. Randoms can just walk in to your house.

ESO: Again, housing blends into the world. Houses can be bought with in game coin, or there's properties that are only available in the cash shop. You can set permissions for specific people to come in to your house, or make it guild only. Randoms cannot just walk in to your house (there's a workaround for this with an addon, where if you've been there before, you can go back in to someone's house if it's public, but it's not like BDO where there's a list of residents, you pick it and go in.... anyway). Some of the houses do have outdoor space, but it cannot be seen from the open world unlike with archeage.

Final Fantasy 14: Housing is a finite resource, but it's not in the open world. Instead there's housing districts that anyone can visit, and plots available for sale, and several instances of these zones. There's a good few thousand plots for server, but they get snapped up and people are hesitent to let them go. I know plenty of people who keep subbing to FF14 just to keep their house, as if you ignore it for 45 days it goes into a demolition phase, where at some point it's up for grabs. It's possible to own an apartment, either in a big public building, or within your guild's house, if your guild is fortunate enough to own a guild house. But this is missing some key features of home ownership, namely a garden. There's things you can put in a garden that apartments can't get, so owning a house is a very sought after part of FF14 for a lot of people.

So.

All 4 games do housing very differently, have different uses, etc. But one thing they all do, is that furniture is a mix of things that you buy/make, or buy from the cash shop. While we'd all love to to just be able to make whatever, having some stuff sold in a cash shop is a great little money maker for the business of game making.

We already have the scribing system in GW2, and I'd love to see that expanded on to make home decorations.

As for the style of house acqusition in a potential GW2 setting, I'd love to see something like a cross between FF14, BDO, ESO. I'd love a housing district where you can claim a property in a village and everyone can just wander around. I'd hate for it to be a finite resource, so I'd love a way for them to just keep creating as many districts as needed. I love snooping around other people's houses, but I also understand how much of a drain it would be on resources if you could go in to absolutely every district, especially if there's no limit to the housing. So maybe make it so you can only enter your district, but if you can go in to others if you're in party/squad with someone who owns a property there.

Once a district is full, the game will create another. Or maybe if that's too intense on the GW2 spaghetti code add new districts at anet’s whim. Archeage and FF14 both have a system where you lose your house if you don't log in / pay the taxes, but that's all tied in to the payment model of those games. As GW2 doesn't do the sub thing, I'd like to think the system can hold your house indefinitely, but maybe to releave some stress on the system unattended houses for X months get cleaned out and someone can nab that plot. (the contents would be mailed back to you or put in a storage or w/e) That way, if there's a system of new instances being added manually, they don't need to add them if there's plots going free.

Oh, and I’d love to be able to live together with people. <3 Where we all have permission to play with any interractables in the house!

But yeah, that's my general thoughts on the matter. It's not perfect, there's flaws, but I've been meaning to get this down into words for a long-ass time.

TL;DR, I really hope we get a housing system in GW2 one day. I want a system where everyone can get a house and can have a pretty garden that people can see, even if it's not everyone. Furniture can expanded on the scribing system, and the gemstore can benefit from selling items as well. Because the game is a business, so as long as there's a fair amount of earnable/craftable things, some gemstore items would be just fine. :) 

While this is all just pipe dream fairy make believe, I’m insterested if anyone else has put some thought into how they’d like housing to be.

[faerieenthusiast]

So I finally got to start my adventure in FF14 with Ta'sha. It took several days to even get set up, and then to get into the server. I chose Malboro, but if I can figure out how to server jump then I will when I want to. I met up with a friend and he jumped from his server to help me out, and since he's been playing for a long ass time, he was level 90. And gave me 40,000 gil to help get me started.

I'm using my xbox 360 controller for this, but I'm glad that I can still use the mouse for a few things I haven't figured out how to use on the controller yet without having to jump through hoops. I got to experience battle, nearly died if I kept just standing there casting spells. And to get used to the aethernet to fast travel. I hope eventually I can find my way around the most important of places.

That's us! With him presenting me, a lil sprout. I also got a pat on the head from a different player. And I want to have a fat cat with me.

[mai-takeda]

Tough & Soft Shell!

TOUGH SHELL

bruised knuckles. bloody noses. eye rolling. empty bottles. messy hair. sarcasm. lip biting. unwashed jeans. coffee breath. loud music. broken neon signs. chipped nail polish. leather jackets. always wearing headphones. swearing. sneaking out at 3am. dark lipstick. frown creases. burning cigarettes. plaid shirts. under eye circles. dark colours.

SOFT INSIDE

honey tea. flower crowns. giggling. blowing kisses. dancing without worries. white lace. soft textures. fluffy throw pillows. using too many heart emojis. empathy. constant daydreaming. handwritten letters. fairy lights. bullet journals. designated driver. warm hugs. garden picnics. quiet. smile lines. optimism. flowy clothes. pastel colours.

I was hit up by this WONDERFUL person! Err if I miss any other WONDERFUL peeps that hit me on this then knock me on the noggin and say Mai you missed my post! I am playing catch up and it’s a lot! Oh back to the program! @the-shoosh

Now I need to find some more AMAZING peeps to tag up. Oh I know PLENTY because all of you rock! @vylette-elakha ((smooches!)) @ivyffxiv @fair-fae @astralyehga @avwalya @strayed-from-the-sun @thedarkstar-ffxiv @silvernsteel @zhauric @ainarosewood @silvertail-ffxiv @leatherlaceandblades @roxinova @halcyonic-aether @kich-rp @lizard-wanderer @yuki-yukichan @kha-merc-ffxiv @lareine-kira @chidorifarcloud @the-hawkeyes @lukelxiv @rosaura-ff14 @elu-delouche-ffxiv @porcelain-and-blood @captainkurosolaire @kitsu-udon @ink-dreams-ffxiv​ @xmimiteh​ @desimirffxiv​ 

That’s enough for now because I have more to come! Muahahahahahaha!

[gcmblingdice]

replies are slow. playing ff14 uwu also let me show u more pictures i got! This is from the sylph lands in Gridania, near Hawthorne’s hut. More info under cut because this is long!!!! 

also this is an excuse to show off HOW PRETTY THIS GAME IS AND I JUST WANT TO THANK SQUARE ENIX. and yoshi-p. you da man boi. 

for the area your muse could come out to, see this link here ! 

I’m literally imaging this bridge, which takes you from a small little coven of forest nymphs who are helpful btw! and takes you into the forest, and the deeper you go the more you see outlines of ruins of a city. and eventually, if you make it through the corrupted area of the forest you could, potentionally, see a portal and archway that would take you to the “eden” riadeux lives in. although if you do, unless pure of heart it will be clouded over by fog and the colors muted.

Actually for a modern human to even find this place, one would have to have stepped into a fairy circle without knowing which would whisk them to the area. 

Your muse will find themselves suddenly noticing that wow, there looks to be something like buildings? a house? what is this???? but if your muse keeps walking, as i mentioned, you’ll come to this: 

and after passing through they’ll see more of what used to be a human settlement. At this point you can keep walking, or turn around and hope your entry way has not dissappeared!!! [don’t worry a kindly sylph or forest nymph may guide you back!] [they are much kinder then the fae folk :V ] 

the path way is literally beautiful. the green grass, lush trees...and clean air. it could be easy to want to rest suddenly. If your muses wants, there is always a main little building which would probably have cured meats or something.  [you can ignore the aytheryte, it wouldn’t be there in the thread if you didn’t want it o:!!]] [[if you wish to include it, just imagine it as like a light source, maybe its filled with magic? who knowso : we could totally figure out what to use it for! plotting is fun after all.] [again tho you don’t need to know jakc shit about ff14 or its lore], [im literally basing Ria’s home and such off Gridania and il Mheg uwu with references from various dungeons to show off what once was a grand castle with a city inside and outside of its walls! which can be found via various posts tbh. ] MOVING ON!!! 

As you walk to the left you will notice a path, over ridden with grass. 

the more you walk the more you eventually see what looks like a tree house of some sort. 

continuing you would see this: A settlement that used to be inhabitted. although if the muse is able to see, they may notice the sylphs. maybe the fae folk? who knows. we can always write it as abandoned tho. Like I said plotting is fun~~ 

Walking through you come across a bridge uwu 

crossing over will take you fully into the fairy world and if you turn back, your muse may get lost! So you gotta keep wandering. 

your msue will start to see many creatures, and the area will have a green haze to it. Proceeed with caution!!! o: 

Should they choose to keep going on [and avoid!!!] they will come to here: 

and then as they venture deep they will eventually come out here: 

walking further will lead you to hear, and passing through this gate will take you the path that will eventually lead to ria uwu 

congrats your muse found ria’s domain. good luck getting him to remove the veil otherwise you’ll be wandering uwu 

[khorren]

Character meme thing that’s doing the rounds.

Fae Sun has the most hours, but honestly they’re the most AFK hours since I hang around way too much with my boything being twins. Ruby’s probably the most actually played since she gets used in all game modes. Am surprised Alexis is still 3rd, she was mostly used throughout all core content as a main and it wasn’t really til LS2 that Aoife took over.

You can tell that all my love goes into my humans and norns. :D 

Fia was made right before I started playing FF14. Poor Fia. You had such potential. I’ll come back to you one day, promise.