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[honoura]

Shaaloani: The Land of Enchantment Part One

Hello again! It's another lore-adjacent post from me about a niche special interest of mine. This time it's Shaaloani, the American Southwest/Northern Mexico inspired zone in FFXIV's Dawntrail.

I want to disclose a few things right at the start just to temper people's expectations: I will not be definitively ID'ing any of the indigenous-inspired structures or visuals as inspired by any specific tribe. That's not my lane! I'm going to link to things that they remind me of, for sure. But otherwise my hyperfocus is going to be on the physical environment, some animals, and the ceruleum as petroleum industry. It's what I recognize best! And what I know best, truthfully.

"Hon why are you doing this?" A variety of reasons honestly. After DT dropped I saw a lot of folks who did at least one of the following:

Commented on the Old West theme park aspect

Called it "miqo'te Texas"

Generally just called the whole map "Texas"

And if I'm honest... it bugged me! Not because I thought anyone was being malicious about it (it's mostly pop culture saturation I'd suspect), but to me it stung a bit that this zone, which I grew up on the fringe of, was... kind of flattened by a lot of people?

I don't know, the response to me just felt like people assumed they knew everything about it because they'd seen it already in movies or TV or Red Dead Redemption rather than the same open-mindedness about what was presented in places like Urqopacha.

This zone isn't just Texas -- yes there are some bits and pieces here (because it's pulling from the Chihuahuan Desert and the Sonoran Desert), but so much of it reminds me of New Mexico, Mexico, and Arizona. There's some Colorado, Utah, and Nevada there too! And the background story going on there is something that still happens in a lot of those states, by both the government and corporations alike.

That variety deserves to be celebrated! So come learn with me about the inspiration for Shaaloani!

Shaaloani Geography

Shaaloani has three major regions in the zone -- Eshceyaani Wilds, Pyariyoanaan Plain, and Yawtanane Grasslands. To get this out of the way, I'm going to tell you the one that reminds me most of Texas.

Ready?

Lake Taori of the Pyariyoanaan Plain.

It's river-fed, with canyons on both ends of the Niikwerepi. The trees crowding around it are cypress trees, as you can tell by the little nubby off-shoots called knees. To compare, here is a photo of cypress trees along the Frio River:

This is also reminiscent of places along the Rio Grande and Pecos Rivers, two significant water sources in West Texas. I also would not call them bayous! Bayous typically have brackish water, are slow-moving, and are way too far east.

However, it could be partly considered a ciénega -- which according to its wikipedia article:

"Ciénagas are usually associated with seeps or springs, found in canyon headwaters or along margins of streams. Ciénagas often occur because the geomorphology forces water to the surface, over large areas, not merely through a single pool or channel."

As a caveat, ciénegas generally don't have trees around them, but I also know that you can't really drown a cypress and they love sunshine. Regardless -- if you see trees in the desert they are typically growing along a water source. Balmorhea State Park has some cottonwood trees native to the area that are going strong.

Yawtanane Grasslands reads as a mix of the Chihuahuan Desert and the Eastern Plains of Colorado. Both are rather arid and home to a variety of grasses that can thrive in such a climate -- which has historically made both areas home to large cattle industries (whether or not this was ever a good idea is debatable, since cattle are very thirsty animals).

Meanwhile the Eshceyaani Wilds looks similar to the Sonoran Desert -- the red-hued soil and rocks, the abundance of cacti with the scrub brush and some drought-tolerant grasses. Here's a shot of the Sonoran within Saguaro National Park in Arizona:

Saguaros also only grow in Arizona in the States! As well as the organ-pipe cactus, which you see in Tender Valley. And prickly pears grow just about anywhere they can get a chance -- as well as barrel cacti, both of which we see in Tender Valley (along with what could be agave!).

You could probably make a case for it being a piñon-juniper scrubland -- everything's very short compared to those cypress trees, including the juniper trees! Piñon-juniper scrubland's found throughout the Southwest. There are also piñon-juniper savannahs and persistent woodlands intermixed in the same places. The difference lay in what plants you find with the piñon pines and junipers.

Visually, aside from the Sonoran Desert, I can also see a lot of New Mexico, like the Ghost Ranch in Rio Arriba:

It matches up with the mountains you can see, and both Yowekwa Canyon and Tender Valley. And of course, Tender Valley is likely a Grand Canyon reference, going by the sheer height of the cliffs. But you could also make a case for Canyonlands National Park in Utah.

There's a shot from Grand View Point Overlook within the park -- the closeness of the canyon walls and the warm earth tones also evoke Tender Valley!

There's also a lot of these sandstone formations in Utah that better fit Shaaloani -- like here in the Valley of the Gods:

Shaaloani Structures

I also at this point want to call attention to one of the two sites with cliff dwellings & adobe structures. We just saw Tender Valley above, which is confirmed to be old Yok Huy structures. But check out these Tonawawta buildings below.

As I stated before, I don't want to state which tribe these two styles remind me of. But I do want to say this again strikes me as another New Mexico and Arizona callback; both the Gila Cliff Dwellings and the Puye Cliff Dwellings are found in two different areas of New Mexico. And the Gíusewa Pueblo, also in New Mexico! Montezuma Castle is found in Arizona, and is pictured below! Look at that rich reddish earth color.

I also want to call attention to the place of worship for the Tonawawta in Yowekwa Canyon:

When I saw it my kneejerk response was to call it an ofrenda. But that's ultimately an incomplete response -- that was just the vibe I felt after seeing them during my life! What it also reminds me of are pictographs and petroglyphs. You find these all over the Southwest (the climate helps preserve them!), but I'm going to link some really great examples. I won't provide images to all though!

Crow Canyon Petroglyphs:

Piedras Madras Canyon at Petroglyph National Monument (New Mexico) Petroglyph Point Trail at Mesa Verde National Park (Colorado) Petroglyph Panel at Canyon Reef National Park (Utah) Nampaweap at Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument (Arizona) Horseshoe Canyon at Canyonlands National Park (Utah) and the Hueco Tanks State Park (Texas)

In contrast, I don't want to spend a ton of time on the boom town structures in this zone; they are pretty straightforward references to mining towns during the different resource booms (gold, silver, copper, oil).

Similar blocky shapes, built out of wood. One thing I noticed as a neat addition are the decorative patterns painted on it -- again, I don't want to presume if there's a specific tribe tied to this. But I do think it's a neat touch and I want to think that's a design choice to convey the underlying theme that this is a zone at odds with advancing technology and wanting to keep hold of important traditions.

I WILL talk about the ceruleum wells and pumping though. Mostly because I'm impressed that they went with structures that so closely resemble early 20th century oil derricks. Those were also predominately made of wood (including the barrels, yikes!). The pump part of what's called a pumpjack were covered in the old days -- the ones we're most used to seeing now are made of metal and are thus left uncovered.

However, as you can see from this century old rig, even the wheel's made of wood:

I don't think ceruleum gushes the same way oil did -- it seems to behave more like natural gas. However, most natural gas pipelines do burn off excess, which can be seen as a little spout of flame atop.

Oil's occupied an awkward spot in the Southwest, and still does. Aside from the heinous crimes committed in Killers of the Flower Moon (where members of the Osage tribe were murdered for their oil shares in Oklahoma) and the Teapot Dome Scandal, oil is just... well.

Bear with me, I'm about to rag on Koana a moment.

The people who make the most money and have the most power over the average roughneck's life never live in the Southwest. They work in the c-suite and have more money than sense.

I find it very fascinating that DT chose to recreate this dynamic, this uncomfortable push-pull of a region rich in a resource, and it's being harvested at the suggestion and behest of a power that is physically removed from the area. And to some NPCs it's with a certain level of disregard to traditions and practices in place before, with the focus on the nebulous quantifier of 'progress'. Progress how? It depends!

But the folks at the highest seat of power never have to grapple with those questions, because to them it's a fairly cut and dry answer. This is the way to proceed, and if they want to take this nation into the "future", then this is the clear way to do it. It speaks to Koana's fixation on foreign technology to the point he de-values his own (partly due to his childhood trauma, which kind of prepped him to be susceptible to it).

Meanwhile the locals are the ones grappling the most with this change -- how it affects their plants and animals. Sometimes pits open up in the earth and ceruleum burns (which, Santa Rita New Mexico sank multiple times into the earth thanks to copper mining). On the map there's even discolored plants -- and they only occur in the vicinity OF the bulk of the ceruleum pumps.

This is at odds with core beliefs, keeping up with traditional practices. It puts people in the place of 'do I participate in this system, which promises work and the means to take care of my family, even as it pits me against my cultural heritage?'.

Growing up in West Texas, one of the weirdest things to me (to this day) is how many people will claim they love the land. They do! They love the outdoors, they worry over how certain species of animals have become scarcer. But they also work in the single most damaging industry because it pays the most money. It lets them cover bills and give their kids what they never had.

That same push-pull is in Shaaloani narratively; when progress has been thrust upon you, how do you survive it? How do you make sure what's dearest to you comes along with you?

In Conclusion

I want to call it here for Part One -- Part Two after this will cover more observations I had regarding flora and fauna in the Shaaloani zone, and how that also shows the attention to detail given this zone! It's a good time! There will be dinosaurs!

[snapscube]

can i ask how much time you put into ffxiv like, weekly? or how much time you feel like you have to put into it regularly to get anything out of it? it looks like a game id really enjoy, but being fulltime in college + already invested in another mmorpg, im just straight up not sure if id have the time for it a lot. breaks my heart because it looks REALLY COOL but i dont want it to envelop my life haha.

The game is largely designed around the fact that the devs want you to make it work with YOUR schedule, they’ve said as much many many times that they really don’t want people feeling like they have to log into the game every day in order to have a good or meaningful experience with it. And generally, this has rung true in my personal time with the game. I will straight up take MONTHS at a time away from playing, and when I get back yeah it can take a second to get back into the groove, but once the momentum gets rolling again it’s like I never left. It’s one of the best examples of an online game that respects the players time, imo. You can just play the main story and have fun with what amounts to a largely single player RPG if you want, entirely at your own pace, or if you’re so inclined you can no-life it and get all the best gear and beat every high-end raid and what have you. But the latter is not a requirement to feel fulfilled in the former, it’s just there if you want it, so it’s all up to you :)

[autumnslance]

By the way, gonna remind folks that trolling and harassment and making things harder for people in instances by deliberately goofing around and getting random folks killed are reportable. It's being disrespectful of others' time and play in general.

And the GMs in FFXIV respond to such reports and take them seriously.

Like, accidents happen when it comes to AOE markers for sure. People get turned around, or panic.

It's really damn obvious when a tank is chasing healers and DPS with an AOE tank buster. Multiple Times.

Standard behavior with a tank buster? Tanks move forward, everyone else moves back. Or tanks stay put while everyone else scatters.

Once? Sure, maybe the tank got turned around, and/or just kept moving in the same direction as some other folks, it happens.

Killing almost an entire Alliance party cuz you are obviously, deliberately chasing an entire group to the back of the platform that are trying to get away from you? Moving with the people in the group to catch as many as possible?

We are reporting you for trolling/harassment.

They got called out in chat for the obvious behavior, while also asking another Alliance to rez us cuz they got all but our tank and a melee, and one or two folks from the other parties, too. Had to use our LB3 on a Healer Rez when we could have used it on the boss, not to mention our DPS on the boss at all.

Just made the fight last longer for everyone for no good reason. In the brand new content folks are still learning and gearing for, too.

So yeah. Reported. Cuz it can be, and hope they enjoy the GM scolding.

Play those games with your friends, in runs that are mostly friends. Dungeons and 8man raids are a good place for it. If doing it in Alliance? Best to be a full Alliance of folks agreeing to a shenanigans run. We've had nights between pals where we try to murder each other in fun ways in raids, and have some stories of particularly legendary ones (there's a story of Eden Leviathan that's a favorite in our FC).

But even though this person was from our same world--we don't know you. So it's not cute or funny. If you don't like us--deal, it's a random Alliance raid, no one has to talk to each other, we're not in the same party, just do the job and move on with life.

Instead of getting a flag on your account as a problem. But if you get banned for such behavior over time, I'm certainly not going to cry about it.

And for the rest of you: If people are obviously, deliberately, making your instances a pain due to language, or actions that are intentionally getting you and others killed? It can be reported. Use the Support menu option and the Contact Us feature, there's options for it.

[unionizedwizard]

so i like the meta post a lot but could you give me a lil rundown on what the difference is between metanarrative and metapoetics? the latter is a new word to me and i can infer the gist but i wanna know what specifically you're getting at

oooooooooo hehehehe woooohoooo <- normal about literary theory

so, Poetics is the matter of theorizing about poetry (its rules, aims, effects...) (which implies all the allagan tomestones we've been grinding this whole time are copies of allagan aristotle & cie which i find both very funny and very. foreshadowing-inclined. but anyway). It's literally the english word for "ars poetica"; it is a set of methods and rules meant to direct the writing of poetry. Sort of like a practical textbook with a philosophical setting. Metapoetics would be the question of writing and thinking and theorizing about poetics, and the impulse generally started around the early 20th century (with the russian formalism movement in particular). This is the impulse that eventually led to the creation of structuralism and post-structuralism (Barthes & cie) - as a whole it's a matter of examining the methods and bias and beliefs we hold wrt literature (what Barthes called "the text"), eventually leading to the concept of reception theory for instance.

Nowadays i'm pretty sure that the concept of "metapoetics" encompasses a lot more than poetry, strictly speaking, though each field has its own specific meta- (metadramatics for theater and so on); as long as it's about language itself ("the text"), i think "metapoetics" is a valid concept to invoke (invoking concepts. heh. just like in- okay okay i'll shut up now). Which is a very long-winded way to say that there are subtle differences between metapoetics and metanarrativity because a narrative is not necessarily a text in itself (movies have narratives, tv shows and video games too, and they don't have "a text" in the way that a novel does for example). So, metanarrativity would be the act of a narrative commenting on itself, using dramatic irony, and/or having characters who somehow realize they're in a story. It's a very broad approach.

Metapoetics, on the other hand, would deal more specifically with textual clues. it would be the act of reflecting on the text itself, having the text question its meaning, symbolism, repeat and be modified. In this case, the difference is tenuous at best because the narrative is construed (and understood) as an epic poem, pretty much since the beginning, and particularly in the case of Heavensward; i'd say it's somewhere between a play (Amon's understanding) and an epic or saga (pretty much everyone else's understanding). Which makes the aristotle references in endwalker more meaningful, since aristotle wrote the Poetics about poetry AND theater (the ancients called everything poetry, dramatics were just a subsection of poetry as a whole)

I think the case of ffxiv is ambiguous at best when it comes to assigning a frontier between the motifs and callbacks and dramatic irony that could fall under the "metanarrativity" or "metapoetics" categories specifically because the text itself as well as the overarching narrative are very rich and precise, and feed into each other. Because one of the key aspects of the entire narrative is to put the right words and spin the right narrative (cathartic and awe-inspiring like epic poetry should be) out of real actions. Finding out the truth about the dragonsong war, writing new contracts with the local tribes.... It's always a matter of putting the right words onto everything. if that makes sense? So there's always this aspect of being mindful of speech and remembering it too, that blurs the frontiers of metanarrativity and metapoetics. in my opinion at least

GOD i've been typing for a hundred years and this all reads like mostly bullshit i'm so sorry. I hope it makes sense. like every other literary theory concept tho it's a very flexible and fluid one so mostly it gets used as an analytical lens to examine specific aspects of a text very closely which makes it a bit difficult to "grasp" (in the sense of "grasping at something to keep your balance")

[fire-branded]

There's something FFXIV Dawntrail did well in my opinion that I wish FFXVI had also highlighted.

These are, as always, just my personal opinions -- so I won't be mad if you disagree! Regardless, Dawntrail spoilers below the cut!

Dawntrail is very open about showing the impact and pressure that cultural and societal expectations can have on younger generations. Zoraal Ja and Bakool Ja Ja are probably the best examples of it.

Zoraal Ja, the first of three children of what is Tural's equivalent of a king, the only blood child of Gulool Ja Ja, and a child that no one thought could exist -- given that two-headed Mamool Ja normally can't reproduce. He is referred to as "The Resilient Son", and is constantly struggling to live up to this notion of him being a "miracle". He believes he must not only surpass his siblings in terms of strength and capability, but must surpass his father as well in order to prove that he is this miracle child that everyone believes him to be. After the Trial where you fight him, and he's talking to his son, he mentions things like having nothing to leave behind for the boy. Gulool Ja Ja may have loved his children, may have told and shown them that he loved them -- but in the case of Zoraal Ja, it was completely overshadowed by the legacy he needed to surpass(in his eyes) in order to be worthy of life, and by the immense pressure he was under to live up to the expectations of everyone who claims him to be a miracle child, possibly even on par with blessed siblings in terms of regard.

What he does is unconsciable and misguided, yes. I will never defend that, although it still is interesting to me that all three children took inspiration from different parts of Gulool Ja Ja's history and reign, with Zoraal Ja focusing on the fact that yes, his father had to fight against the Yok Huy in order to drive them back and get them to release their slaves. In most cases, no, peace is not obtained without some conflict. Zoraal Ja sees that people are taking for granted the peace that his father fought to give them, and he wants to remind them through war just how good they have it. Gulool Ja Ja was able to unite nearly an entire continent; if Zoraal Ja can unite the entire world, even if it's by using fear and force to bring them to heel, then surely he'll be good enough to make true him being a miracle child, right?

Then there's Bakool Ja Ja. He acts like an asshole who doesn't care, but in actuality, he cares -- a lot. He has the weight of not just his entire village and their expectations to shoulder, but he also has the grief and guilt of knowing about the countless two-headed infants who had died before his birth, just so that their people could carry out this building legacy of blessed siblings on the throne, thus affording them status and power to rise up from the darkness(literally) where they have been forced to call home. He agonizes, he cries, he despairs, and he hides it all, because he has no choice. The future of his village hinges upon his success, with his birth having been generations in the making. He can't fail. Not just for him or his people, no -- but also for those who died shortly after birth, to make their sacrifices and the parents who had to bury them's sacrifices worth it.

The expectations he has to live up to, too, are so incredibly high, with him having to live for everyone else as well as for ghosts of the past.

I bring this up because it's something I wish XVI had touched on more, too. Like many things in that game, there are hints and nods to it, yes. But like many things, it isn't really delved too deeply into, at least not beyond Clive's perspective. The expectations that Joshua and Dion likely had to struggle to live up to at young ages, how detrimental it likely was to their emotional well-being and sense of self-worth... And this isn't even mentioning the pot of worms that is royal status, or the rest of the Dominants and their respective stories and situations, especially when factoring in that they, like Cid, may well have accepted the inevitability of their deaths because of their Eikon's powers.

[stellamancer]

twenty questions for fic writers—

thanks to @kedsandtubesocks for the tag hehe and I'm sorry to everyone who has to suffer through my yapping. open tagging on this! take it if you want it!!!

1) how many works do you have on AO3?

Ninety. I actually don't think I've posted a lot of my jjk things on there, nor does it have basically anything that I had on Lunaescence...

2) what's your total AO3 word count?

262,115

3) what fandoms do you write for?

mostly jjk these days. in the past few years I've also written bnha and ffxiv.

4) top five fics by kudos

face in my hands. they're all from my mystic messenger era.... I'm too embarrassed to mention them LMAO. i'd like to think my writing has improved since then.

5) do you respond to comments?

yes!! i do my very best to respond to comments i get on AO3, and then also to comment-esque tags I get on tumblr. personally, as a reader, I get really excited when a writer responds to me so I try to do the same for my readers... If that makes sense? I think it's fun!!

6) what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

my gut reaction is to say don't, if you value your life— but like that fic as a whole is an angst fest and so I feel like while the ending was really angsty, it was in line with everything as a whole. but otherwise idk...

7) what's the fic that you wrote with the happiest ending?

mmmm. I think that the nature of my one-shots means they tend to end on a happier note but it's all pretty equal, both across the fics and the fics generally don't have enough emotional fluctuation for me to think 'oh this was a really happy ending.'

8) do you get hate on fics?

i'm lucky enough to never have received hate fo my work directly. i'm sure someone some where has shit on my stuff in private lmao....

9) do you write smut?

not really. I can, I just don't really.

10) craziest crossover?

there is such thing as magic, which was a base kingdom hearts × full metal alchemist crossover. there were other series in it which included fruits basket. LMAOO.

11) have you ever had a fic stolen?

not to my knowledge LMAO, at least not outright. plagiarized on the other hand...

12) have you ever had a fic translated?

I think someone asked to translate one of my mystic messenger fics once.

13) have you ever co-written a fic before?

yes! me and kelsey ( @cannibalisticskittles )cowrote a modern royalty saeran x reader fic years ago. and sel ( @seiwas ) I are working on a bunch of fics together, albeit very, very slowly.

14) all time favorite ship?

uh. I don't really have one.

15) what's a wip you want to finish but you doubt you ever will?

LMAO. every day I seem less and less likely to finish & here i am alive.

16) what are your writing strengths?

dialogue. I've been told I write tension well too.

17) what are your writing weaknesses?

a lack of focus (like sitting down and actually writing) as well as descriptive writing.

18) thoughts on dialogue in another language?

I think that... it can be immersion breaking, especially if the reader doesn't read or understand said language, to the point of being distracting. Like you're switching the attention of your reader from the story to trying to figure out what the character just said. I mean, you can clue your audience in via narration, so at least they understand...

I think it's best for the audience to keep the fic in one language (not including loan words). mao's ( @yinyuedijun ) recent aventurine fic, translation, did a really good job, I think of conveying dialogue in another language. I think she used italics there... But yeah, not sure if I'm a fan of just inserting dialogue in another language into a fic...

19) first fandom you wrote in?

yu yu hakusho

20) favorite fic you've written?

don't, if you value your life

[greentrickster]

@greenxlady #pffffft #i know very little about callyn but i'm beginning to like her #she seems a bit like maya #also i'm sure miles was a wonderful server

Yay! ^U^ Callyn and Lility can be roughly summed up as follows:

Callyn, aka my main character in FFXIV, didn't have a lot of personality until my friend Blue started playing FFXIV as well and made Lility. By the time he did, I'd been playing for several months and had Callyn past level fifty (max ranks for any class in this game is sixty for free to play, ninety if you're subscribed) for most crafting/gathering classes and the same for Bard, White Mage, and Black Mage, with some of my other combat classes in the mid-thirties and all of them at least started. (Every class and job in this game is individually leveled.) Unlike me, however, Blue went, "Time to become the world's greatest Black Mage" and put all his energy into that. So while she started behind Callyn in that class, Lility quickly surpassed her. Thus was born the idea that Lility was going to be the Greatest Black Mage Ever, and Callyn was going to enthusiastically support her friend's dream and also do Literally Everything Else, so Lility could focus all her energy on black mage-ing. Which, considering that there are twenty combat jobs and close to that number of crafting and gathering jobs in this game, is a lot.

It's a bit of a Fullmetal Alchemist situation, where everyone assumes tall, elegant Callyn is the Warrior of Light (aka the main character), but it's actually adorable little Lility, and neither of them will ever let you forget this. Callyn is a warrior of light (and now Edgeworth is too), Lility is the Warrior of Light!

#i'm trying to imagine what the incident could have entailed and phoenix is probably doing the same #but miles will probably attempt to take this to his grave #too bad there's evidence #very good-looking evidence might i add #he looks great in that outfit

As a Black Mage, Lility has the destructive powers of ice, fire, and lightning at her fingertips at all times, and the responsibility to use them wisely. As a person who is really quite fond of explosions, she... doesn't always do that. Fun fact: fire spells meant to destroy your enemies do not, in fact, provide a superior cooking heat than conventional fires. But b'golly if that stops Lility from trying every now and then. It's okay, though - one of Callyn's many jobs is carpentry, so she can fix most cases of Lility-induced structural damage!

Miles, in a typical story, would probably be the voice of reason to their chaos, but he has a 2% understanding of the societies, cultures, and world of Eorzea in general, so more often he's just the straight man to their hijinks. They're both kind people at heart, however, and have been helping him find and keep his footing for most of the time he's been in this new world while also doing their best to help him follow leads on ways to return to his old one, so all in all there are worse people he could be hanging out with. ;)

(And Phoenix agrees with you, all the walking and riding Miles has been doing since he got to Eorzea has done wonders for his already very shapely legs, not to mention - hoo boy - swordsman arms!)

[hythlodaeus-mynewoldfriend]

📥👖🧠✨️ for the fic asks!

Thank you Liz! More centered on my ffxiv stuff since this is the blog for that haha. Anyway! Let's get right to it starting with the last question!

FanFic ASk Game

✨ Choose three adjectives to complement your own writing.

Emotional, tongue-in-cheek, free-spirited or at least so I hope!

📥 What is your fave fic to receive comments/messages on?

Is it cheating to say any of them? Because I love seeing what people have to say on what I write and put out there! Among my ffxiv stuff I always love seeing comments on things that involve Stasia and Carly (which is mostly wips i know) as they are the ones that stray from the general story and aren't always likable so I like being able to see how they come across and make sure that its the way I intend to and think I'm doing when writing. A more specific piece it would have to be this piece with Anthea and the final days. I feel its one of my best works posted in completion and I like seeing how an event like that comes across to others especially given that much of that time period is up to interpretation of an individual.

👖 Are you a planner, plantser, or pantser? Is it consistent?

No planning we die like men! jk jk I am more of a plantser in that I go into a wip with a general idea in my head on what I want the main focus of a piece to be, the intention of it, and any specific lines or actions that inspired it. After that I just write it out and see what happens! A lot of times I get to where I was planning and in ways I didn't expect, other times I end up somewhere different but it felt so natural writing it that I had to leave it. There are the rare occasions I don't do any planning and just get the urge to write and so I do just that and will come back to it if I get stuck, this happened recently with a piece where I had very little in mind other than knowing Phobos is reading various letters Deimos got, but who they were from and what they said and going back home were all things that I came up with on the spot.

One thing I really let free and hardly put any thought into ahead of time is the formatting of my writing though. I like to at times be a bit of a visual writer in that I will use breaks, bolds, italics, lack of spaces, etc. to convey something that I probably would take too long to write out in any other fashion. Besides how else can I best describe racing thoughts and anxiety than putting a bunch of words together without any space between them haha.

Also will mention that much of my stuff looks like panster writing because I was writing it as I was actively playing the story so I had no idea how it was all going to end and what I wanted to do with my kids as Sib and Demos started in two different universes.

🧠 What’s an idea you have that you can’t quite call a WIP yet?

This would depend more on what you would call a wip. I tend to count anything that's at least a few paragraphs or dialogue long, which there's quite a bit of that. If we're talking just straight ideas then there's plenty of moments that I would love to write but I don't have a way to write them quite yet. Things like the last conversation Carly and Zenos have, the conversation Demos has with his mentor after the Vault, lighter moments like Sib trying to tackle Emet in ShB or the montages of the gang waking up at first light to get moving with a frantic Sib trying to catch up anime style getting ready. Hell the time that Deimos believed he could randomly tame a unicorn resulting in him, Emet, and Hyth being chased by a herd of them. Or the start of Etheirys' Worst Girls Trip with Sib and Stasia landing on their guide. I just have a lot of little things or big moments that I'd love to write because I can see them in my brain and how they play out but it can be so hard to translate that. I feel this is also why gposing has become a way for me to tackle these ideas as I plan as if I'm watching a show or movie so I can better get the angles and descriptions without having to actually describe anything haha.

[elliewiltarwyn]

Top 5 memories!

i think i kind of cheated and put a couple of them in the top 5 mounts answer lol. but nevertheless! let's see what i can think of!

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

5. Clearing savage raids with my static

i'll be fair and put this at the bottom because i already rambled about a bunch of them in the top 5 mounts post, but yeah, super meaningful to me. mmo raiding always seemed so out of reach in every other mmo i've played, so being able to not only challenge and conquer them in FFXIV but do so alongside friends has been some of the most rewarding feelings I've ever experienced.

4. the end of Endwalker

Endwalker MSQ in general, honestly, but the ending really put a fine point on it. I think I still would put Shadowbringers at the top, but Endwalker in general being about hope triumphing over despair just felt really salient at a time when it was really, really easy to despair over stuff happening IRL (both in society at large and individually). experiencing a story that just unambiguously unashamedly goes "hope is the most powerful force in the universe and it will win" is just. really nice.

3. attending friends' ingame wedding

i just think it's really sweet that you can do this ingame. i've been to a fair few (including my own! :V at one point, at least...) but my favorite was after a recent major advancement in the, ahem, crime technology scene, and we were just hanging out in discord and playing Among Us before the ceremony before actually going and seeing the super-cute ingame ceremony "as we see ourselves" and the whole thing just really felt like we were having an actual party. it was a good night.

2. Dark Knight 50 and 80 quests

still some of the most emotionally powerful moments in the whole game, and both resonated deeply with me, and maybe even helped me come to terms with parts of myself IRL?? when i was watching my best friend play through 50, there was a moment after the end where we both just sat there in silence and he eventually said "Damn, how do you even follow that up? Where do you go from there?" and the writing finds out ways of course. especially in Shadowbringers. but damn, if that ain't a mood. plus I'm a sucker for evil/dark twin/clone shit. >.> and turning that into "it's just you, trying to make you love yourself in the ways you never let yourself do before" was, again, kind of salient.

Patch 5.3 day

5.3 was the first time I was caught up and able to experience the new content on the same day as everyone else. i had also just managed to cap out DRK on Ellie, meaning she was finally the canon job I had decided for her. so going into the new MSQ content on that day, completely unspoiled, experiencing that part of the story alongside everyone else, as my canonical self, and ending up main tank-ing the Warrior of Light trial who is basically an encapsulation of all the heroic imagery across the entire damn Final Fantasy series... i've had emotionally meaningful moments that got to me in other games before, and some of them mean even more to me than this. but experiencing that tidal wave of emotions in that way alongside people just as into this shit as I was... i'm not sure anything else will ever hit in quite the same way again.

(it was also the day where, after I had finished the MSQ bit and just went to some random place to hang out and process it all, i got recruited into the FC where i met most of my ingame friends with whom I'm still friends today, so it was also a good day in that sense too ;u;)

thanks for the ask @sasslett!! i made it extremely emotional and sentimental and i'd apologize but i'm pretty sure that was exactly your goal :P

[mirror-to-the-past]

Here's some spoilers and discussion about my initial thoughts on Kingdom Hearts 2 below.

Nearing the end of my KH2 journey... I'd say this has probably been my favorite game so far, out of KH1, CoM, and now this. Overall, I'd say I like the composition of the story of CoM a tad more, but goddamn if the intro and outro haven't gone especially hard on KH2 (also has just generally been littered with several moments that have made the characters very endearing). And the gameplay... woo, actually is super fun. I love the love put into the reaction commands, and every fight is like a movie.

I got past the Roxas fight after like... 40+ tries, and was regretting immensely I decided to play in Proud mode. Never got frustrated at my boy, though- was just filled with respect, and it's seriously the best fight in the franchise thus far for me for giving well designed attacks that I felt were effectively telegraphed. I'm not quite sure how/why Roxas led Sora into what I assume was an internal battle, since he already seemed reabsorbed within Sora's being, but I can only assume Axel's sacrifice (since that happened right before this fight) must've reawoken him, in a way ("Tell me why 'he' chose you!") Poor Roxas has been having his life stolen. The Nobody dehumanization is such shit, dude. Roxas banging on Sora's braced keyblade over and over with that level of ferocity is fueled by such obvious rage that it's undeniable. God, he's living in my head unapologetically.

Meanwhile Xigbar was also... a fight. Less filled with respect, more frustrated about that one, lol. (I thought the sniper mechanics were pretty sick, though. Felt like I was doing Orbonne Monastary in FFXIV again). Can't help but assume several of these Organization members may maintain relevance in future installments in some way, since several seemed to have implied information/backstory that remained unrevealed prior to their disappearance (looking at you, Xigbar [casually referencing that there's been other Keyblade wielders before dying with zero explanation] and Saïx). The next game, 358/2 Days, looks like it's dealing with the Organization in what I assume is a prequel, so maybe backstory will be there?

Kairi and Riku have made my heart warm, and the whole trio's love for each other is honestly so sweet. I keep thinking about their reunion scenes and it's just... aaa, I feel crazy about it. When Kairi lowered Riku's hood and saw the face of Xehanort's Heartless and Riku looked so ashamed (then it cut away?? how dare), when Riku shielded Kairi with his body from Saïx's attack, when Kairi hugged Sora and said "this is real" because 😭 girl your abandonment issues and unachievable desire for constancy are making me feel things, and she's been struggling with the phantom sensation of forgetting someone she cared about for an entire y e a r, so having that confirmation... man. *Staring out to the ocean*

Felt so bad for her that Sora was so awkward about the hug she deeply needed, and didn't even realize the absence of the music until Sora reunited with Riku. 😂 And... oh my god, haha, that part got me. Not surprised that the Sixth Sense kid can pack a gut punch, ofc, he's got a long history of films making me weep, but like... "I looked for you! I looked everywhere for you!" While Sora was crying on his k n e e s and grasping Riku's hand like a lifeline was such amazing emotional payoff. Like, I've been joking with friends about Sora's unwavering "Riku, Riku, Riku" throughout the entire game, but damn if that didn't do a good job of making me invested via Sora, goddamn. I'm so happy my kid gets to see his silver haired punk again. And wowie, they're such a power duo? Their limit break "Eternal Session" is legitimately one of my favorite limit breaks alongside Vincent Valentine's "Satan Slam," from FF7 now. The synchrony of the dance where they pass off the weapons to each other, smooth as butter? Them going "back to back" between the different phases of their LB? (Which is adding to my evaluation of the poems from CoM I've had in the back of my head the entire damn game, by the way...) The clash of their keyblades, and the duality red-blue color scheme? Be still, my artistic heart, they're too much. For this, and the honestly impressive expression and facial rigging for what is a PS2 game, I want to give the animators a smooch.

All I want now is to know where tf Riku pulled Kairi's Keyblade from, and how she's apparently a chosen wielder too. Like, okay??? But where? How?

Oh, also would like Riku to see someone about his hand, that doesn't look too comfortable. My guy can be a badass all he wants, but if he doesn't drink his milk, put an actual cast around his wrist, and bit of work leave off from world-saving shenanigans, he's gonna be a certified hero with post-traumatic arthritis 10~ years down his little road to dawn. Apparently working for Ansem the Wise doesn't provide great health coverage.

[oathofpromises]

Beep boop! Portrayal check!

I very much enjoy the depth you put into your characters, especially Stella. It's clear you have a lot thought into who she is! I also appreciate how you write the thoughts/persective around your muse's dialogue; it gives a good glimpse of how your muse is feeling, which allows your partner to fil in the gaps without you having to explicitly describe every little detail. It makes me excited to write with all your other ff14 muses!

As for feedback for Muses I've a little more experience writing with --

I sent a whole spiel about writing teenagers to Mystel which I'd just copy-paste here for you writing Alphinaud, Alisaie, Ryne, and Gaia. So I don't repeat all that, I'll point to that ask whenever they post it! Essentially though, I always want to give the advice that when writing a teenager you have to find a balance between the maturity required of them for the plot (tm) vs. how a teenager would believably act. And also keep in mind that even if 16/17 is a baby to the mun personally (like me) we have to remember not to write them younger than anticipated! Although I believe with Ryne's circumstances I read somewhere that her being holed up in Eulmore did lag her development behind a bit, too. So obviously, circumstances adjust accordingly!

And since I don't just want to point to Mystel's answer -- another thing I always want to say about writing villains, i.e Yotsuyu. This is not specific to any of your threads or your portrayal but more a general advice thing: beware muns who cannot properly surrender up 'control' against your villain!

Personal Example: My friend writes a villain character in another fandom. They tried to get interactions, but every time they did, the opposing Mun would not let their Muse "lose" against the Villain in anything they did. If Villain threw a punch, the other Muse HAD to block it perfectly. If Villain sprung a trap, the other Muse TOTALLY KNEW about the trap and was just playing along. It is so fricking exhausting playing a back-and-forth of one-upping each other and, for the most part, has discouraged me from playing similar characters. If you ever find yourself in that sort of situation, try and reach out to give a little bit of direction, or at least try and get them to agree who "wins" the "fight" and work toward that. Otherwise you will be driven insane!

Thank you for all of this, I do try and put love into each of my muses. As a writer, I have always strived to give details. I've been in situations where I feel like I am the only one trying to write enough to keep the thread going, and this can be tiring. I am not the type ask people to match my writing length but at least put in some effort. I have had experiences where I would write this super detailed intro and only get back a few sentences...yeah it makes it difficult keep anything going when you barely have anything to work off of.

I admit that I was nervous write for 14 but this series has me in a grip hold ever since I first started playing almost a year ago now. I did attempt to start the game before but due to reasons stopped for a bit before making a new account and starting from there. I just am the type who wants to make sure I portray canon characters the best I can. I want people to hear their voices in my writing..that's at least the goal. I do keep adding to my ffxiv muse list, still need update my carrd but I keep thinking about a few job quest npcs that I really do love and could see myself writing too.

As for the advice, I do appreciate it and feel the same when writing any of my characters. A good example is Alphinaud, he is mature for his age but still a young boy and can be very naïve. He also started out only getting involved in everything due to his own reason, to discover what happened to his grandfather and finish what he started to prove his own worth. We of course see he does truly want to help after, but as we can see throughout the main story he does have faults. He also isn't good with money, we can assume this is based on growing up in rich household. He does posses a good heart, but it's important show all sides to his character. It's how he developed throughout the game and grown up a bit since first expansion.

Ryne, I do head canon that her development was slowed a bit during her time in Eulmore simply because of how she was treated and how caged she felt there. The girl didn't get to interact with people her age and is a huge reason that she tends to rely on others at first. It was how she survived..I am getting emotional thinking about all the stuff she did have to go through some in canon and others based on my own headcanons for her character. Ryne even admits that she doesn't know a lot about the world. I do want to expand on this in a future headcanon post for her because honestly there is a lot to dig into with her time spent in Eulmore and how that did affect her today.

I also appreciate the Villain advice, as it is true that I have had people in the past that would never let my Villain characters get any attacks on their muse. It's why I dislike god-modding in writing and has turned my off from writing with people before just simply because they act like their character can do nothing wrong and would never get defeated in a fight. A good example is even the Warrior of Light has failed..the first time they were defeated by Zenos, it broke them because that was first time they had suffered such a overwhelming defeat. Did it shake their pride, yeah a bit because for so long they were used to winning their fights. For last second mentioning to overcome the darkness but this was different. My point is, no hero is perfect and like you stated the hero can't predict every single attack. It's just tiring have a thread go like that. Communication is certainly the best thing for fighting threads..please everyone communicate

Villains are sometimes hard to write for because honestly I have had experiences where people associated actions of my muse to me, the writer. I am going to state this that muse=mun. Just because someone character says or does something in writing isn't how they would act or say in real life. I just want to mention this with the Villain part since I have had this happen to me writing for evil characters in the past.

[darilanacon]

What Makes F14  Gil So Advantageous?

Final Fantasy XIV is an MMORPG that lets players use the gold currency to buy things in the game. It is a vital aspect of the game. It is difficult to obtain and is expensive, however MMOPixel will provide low-cost and quick FFXIV Gil at a discount.

Most effective ways to make Gil involve crafters and gatherers, but combat also has various small Gil sinks. This guide will primarily focus on them, however, it will also cover other ways as needed.

Shopping Items

Having a large amount of Gil within Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is a good target to achieve, because it allows players to carry out some things they may not previously be able to accomplish include porting around without a problem, purchase catch-up equipment to be ahead of the next patch of content easily and also stockpile consumables. This also lets them purchase items that can give players a sense of status, for example, a mount to show the level of their character or a luxurious home.Uncover the best rates for cheap ffxiv gil by clicking here or visiting our official website.

Apart from the above market boards, players can create Gil from dungeons and dungeons by playing roulettes on duty, or crafting equipment with your own materials. But, it's best to have several methods for earning cash in case one fails at a specific point.

In the event of purchasing FFXIV Gil, it's essential to purchase it from a reputable seller who has an outstanding reputation and great customer service. You will be sure to are getting the correct amount Gil and you don't come out in a lower amount than you bought.

Buy Housing

If you're wanting to play FFXIV without grinding, farm or slaving away in the crafting system, buying Gil on sale is an ideal solution to speed up your time. The purchase of items and a content which is more powerful player will allow you to play more dungeons, raids, farm trophies and other activities.

The money can also purchase an entirely new set of top-quality designed gear when you hit the iLvl cap is raised that allows you to create the latest content on a much higher difficulty without having to commit much time searching through the vast volumes. This is an ideal way of catching up following a lengthy absence from playing.

The purchase of a house is another great way to make use of the gil. It's a big investment yet it can allow players to live in Eorzea with your friends or family and take pleasure in the pleasures of. It will also give you the opportunity to socialize while you play dungeons or raids. The housing market is a bit of a clusterfuck right now, but the situation is expected to change after patch 6.1, Endwalker, when the Firmament opens up and new properties are available.

buying weapons

In FFXIV, gil is the currency in general which players can use to buy things and services. You can purchase guns, equipment, housing items, furniture, mounts and much more. The game also allows players to trade gil between characters and sell their items to earn gil. The game allows players to earn gil by working on quests, guildleves duty roulettes, dungeons as well as other.

If you're a skilled crafter it is important to improve your skills to increase the quantity of gold you create. This includes the general-purpose crafters (weaver or leatherworker) and armorer) as well as blacksmith and goldsmith.

An advanced character could effortlessly make 3 million gil an hour, depending on the marketplace and how long in a patch cycle it is. The higher your earnings and the higher your level, the better gear that you will have. This means more dungeons are available and stories to discover. This also gives you more chances for side quests and earn money through the AH. purchasing a gun is one of the most well-known methods to earn gil.

Verify the purchase price of Tomestones

FFXIV has plenty of ways to make Gil however it's not as simple as players believe. The most effective method to earn money in FFXIV is through crafting as well as gathering and selling items in exchange for items from other players. It is possible to do this through the Market Board or by using tools like Skycoach with its swift, safe and reliable shipping service.

Apart from earning Gil through crafting and selling, working through the story, and unlocking achievement levels can also result in Gil. For instance, you can buy items to desynthesize 10,000 times or purchasing a mount that will show off your skills. This can be a fantastic option to earn cash in FFXIV However, it can take a lot of time and effort.

Another option to earn profits in FFXIV is through player housing. But, at present, the state in the system of housing is an enormous shitshow that is likely to remain so until the completion of the Endwalker cycle. Nonetheless, it is the perfect place to market products for large profits.

[astralartefact]

FFXIV 6.5 Thoughts and Feelings the 1 ffxiv player that didn't come here for the story (me) keeps winning while everybody else seems to be losing

I debated writing a review at all - but I'm just weirded out enough by the discourse that I feel the need to say something.

I don't really get what's happening right now. The Fandom vibes in certain places are rancid (thankfully it's not here on tmblr all that much (yet)) and I don't really get why and how it happened so quickly.

I understand not liking the void quests or not liking that Zero gets a cecil makeover into default paladin or that Yoshi-P's vision for this game is kind of questionable at times or whatever else you don't like about these patches, but for some reason everyone is acting so... heated about it? We somehow went from "This game is the best Final Fantasy that ever Final Fantasied, I love you Yoshi-P, take my firstborn" to "This is the worst FF expansion I've ever played. Yoshi-P is a hack and a fool and I don't trust the devs to write something good ever again" in the span of one meh-at-worst patch cycle and I don't know how that happened??? And I know, 6.0 already brought this underlying "Hmm. Not as good as Shadowbringers..."-attitude with it, but still, It just doesn't really feel proportionate how heated people are right now.

To give you my feelings: I don't care. Perfect Indifference. Yes, some pieces are feeling like they're missing from 6.X, but the devs were obviously trying to restructure things in a way that just simply didn't work out. I'm sure they know that nobody really liked it all that much and will adjust for 7.X - but a lot of people are acting as if the devs are suddenly just stupid idiots when the same people - and this time it really is the same people - were acting like Yoshi-P could do no wrong just half a patch cycle earlier.

For the Void Quests: I do think this would have been better as an optional trial series or as the direct prologue to a void expansion right after it and not as a filler bridge to Dawntrail (a contrast you couldn't make more drastic) - and there are more than enough other things I could complain about (The mo-cap eating animations. Why is everybody so jazzed about them wasting so much resources and screen time on fcking eating animations???) but still, I just don't really care. At the end of the day I'm having fun every time I open this game. Yay for me :)

I have realized over the past few weeks that I never really cared about stories in video games. I might be able to really be into certain stories, but generally I'm just simply not a person that cares about that stuff all that much. If it's bad I just don't care. As long as I have something else to enjoy about it I'm good. And I just simply don't play this game for the story either, I play this game to see my definitely not self-insert WoL do cool shit and look good and that's the one thing this game constantly delivers on for me.

But why would I write all of this if I didn't actually care? Why type all of this out at all and not just move on with your life? Do I think I'm better than the naysayers for accepting mediocrity??? Certainly not, we're all equally capable to check if the thing we invest time and money in is worth our while. But clearly something has to have gotten under my skin here.

Well, there is one way to make me, specifically me, care about something too much and it's if I don't understand why something is received the way it is by the general audience/community. Doesn't matter if I think something shouldn't be as popular as it is or if something is consistently hated when I think it's not all that bad - if I don't get it, I can't stop thinking about it.

And I generally try to keep it on the positive/underdog side of things, mainly because I have better things to do than be negative about a thing I can't change anyways. In that case I will usually just happily live in my headcanon and ignore it - but sometimes something so egregious comes along I just can't help myself. And this time it happened again.

Everyone is so mad about everything except for the one thing I am really mad about. That one is apparently okay because it's bittersweet uwu. Yeah, just fully trivialise some of the most integral lore that shaped the entire run of the game, but it's okay because it's sad q.q And I just can't stand it anymore, why does this exact thing always happen to meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee?????

Fuck Eulogia.

Fuck that thing.

Fuck everything it stands for.

Honestly, it's kind of funny. I just wish I could commit to seeing it that way and not constantly feel threatened about it (I love anxiety <3)

Anyways. Moral of the story? Play YoRHa:Dark Apocalypse.

[driftward]

So, let's get this out of the way up front: I don't think the writers know what to do with the Gridania they were handed from 1.x. Further, I think that history and how it works isn't a -great- fit for where FFXIV has evolved to. There's an interesting idea there, some interesting stories that could be told, there's possibility, but we've drifted out of the genre where it could be done well, I think, and that's a bit of a shame.

For better or for worse, it seems the writers have decided the current play is to kind of just... gently neglect what's going on in Gridania, and move on to stories and things they actually want to tell.

Sorry to the players who started in Gridania. Your home's story is never resolving, and both of your Scions have moved on.

But I want to tackle Gridania on its own terms. I think referring to the Elementals as 'toddler gods' is a mistake. It implies that they are the way they are because of immaturity, because they can't be bothered to work with humanity in a more cooperative way. I'm not sure they are immature. I'm not sure they are all that racist, either, just that the citizens of Gridania sure are and they're blaming it on the elementals.

But as you yourself pointed out, the elementals aren't necessarily all that discriminatory. They killed their defenders as well as their attackers in the incident you noted.

I think a more correct idea of the elementals is not that they are toddlers or immature, but that they are -alien-.

They are not humans (and for the sake of making this conversation easier, I am using 'humans/humanity' as a shorthand for all the Spoken races we know of - Hyurs, Elezen, Roegadyn, Miqo'te, etc. to include the tribes - Ixal, Kobolds, etc.). They do not have human values. They do not interact with the world the way humans do.

Now, I am not sure why they are so defensive about the forest. Possibly because it is their home, and they are, well, protecting their home. Maybe it is part of their body, and the few times we see the manifestations of an elemental it's a bit like the soul of a human manifesting near its body. I don't know! But the point is, that it IS their home, and humanity is a barely tolerated guests.

I'm trying to imagine what the opposite would look like. Imagine in someplace else, like Ul'dah. Big city that humanity has lived in for generations, worked in, built up. And then one day, a bunch of little spirit bodies showed up, and just made themselves at home. Maybe humanity kicks them out a few times, but they're persistent, and eventually, communication happens. It's not great. Communicating with other Spoken is difficult, but they at least have enough common concepts and physical capability that it is possible. Communicating with these aliens is nigh impossible. They don't have mouths. Their bodies are nearly insubstantial to humans. They float and fly. They don't seem to have a lot of shared concepts. Trying to explain something as simple as -eating- takes several moons before the linguists involved give up.

But they're persistent, and they keep showing up, and sometimes, they're beneficial! Maybe sometimes they repair something. Maybe sometimes they help move some things around the city. Maybe some people find their presence comforting. So after a long period of annoyance, finally, they're just allowed to live in the city, and people deal with it as best they can.

And sometimes this leads to its own problems. Imagine being the city guard, wandering the streets, and you hear a commotion from city market. You run over, and you see - the market is on fire. People are yelling, running, and screaming. And the cause seems to be that some of these little spirit entities are fighting. You're not sure who is fighting who or for what cause. You just see a maelstrom of colour from their different spiritual bodies, but near as you can tell, there's no rhyme or reason to it. You know some of these guys are on your side, they've been helpful, but right now, you can't tell the difference.

But the market is on fire. And your citizens are in danger.

And you've got the tools to handle this in one fell swoop. Keep your people safe, and get all of these bizarre fucking spirits out of here. Dead, probably. Tragic, maybe, but the market on fire is also a tragedy, and you can already see some of your people dead.

Make the call.

And I think that's more what the elementals are like. They're not necessarily callous on purpose. They make some effort to coexist with these weirdos that keep barging into their home and insisting on living there. These people they have great difficulty interacting with, and who don't even seem necessarily completely real, but hey, there they are. I think they probably ignore humanity for the most part. Try to talk sometimes, take big long breaks when it gets frustrating and tiring to do so. I am certain they do not understand what the humans are doing to each other, supposedly in their name; how could they? Communication is difficult, and the humans seem pretty okay at handling themselves, for the most part.

And every once in a while your annoying not-quite-real guests fuck up your very real home, maybe even kill some of your people, and you respond appropriately, and somehow, somehow, for the greater part of both societies, the peace is kept.

I think that's more accurate to what's going on in Gridania.

And yes, it could be handled better, both from the writing team, and from in-universe, by the people who are living there. But humanity is going to do humanity things, and sometimes, that means people making up rules to try to compensate for this world they live in. That means Hearers lying, either for their own benefit or to fit their own biases. And sometimes, they're just simply going to get it wrong.

And over a history, those mistakes - as well as triumphs, victories, cases of getting it right, or getting the right answer with the wrong axioms - and you wind up with a culture that looks like what we see.

FFXIV players who want their WoL to kill the Elementals: "My WoL would be applauded for freeing the Shroud of their evil and their death will fix Gridania's shortcomings, prejudices, and xenophobia."

The actual likely consequences of that scenario:

[astrxealis]

emet is so wow for being kind of a mix of sephiroth + ardyn but much better

[canmom]

personal, sex discussed, give some indication if you read please

my friend who plays ffxiv with me sometimes on American servers has recently gotten into the world of 'pillows', which are like... a sex work adjacent practice where people will rp intimacy with you in return for ingame money. ('pillows' are nonsexual, 'courts' [courtesans] are sexual, but otherwise essentially the same practice). she paid for me to go for one, and... it has given me much to think about i guess.

it really highlighted the difference between ttrpg rp and mmo rp. bc like... the mode i tend to adopt in ttrpg is that of a writer, i guess. my character is an instrument I'm using to tell an interesting story, and the choices i make are all on the basis of like, what would make for engaging drama. it's not that my desires don't factor into it - i want to feel that I'm entertaining the other players, the stories i find interesting reflect my preoccupations and interests - but what my character wants and what i want are distinct. sometimes what i want is to see her fail in her ambitions and undergo transformation as a result, because that's juicy narratively. it's a mode that suits me well, i like telling stories, and i feel very good if i seem to be entertaining people. no surprise perhaps that I'm most comfortable in the GM's chair.

mmo rp on the other hand feels more like... my character is a thin polygonal shell over me. sure she has a particular voice and a backstory, but it's a thin allegory for my own life. I'm new to this server, so she's a curious refugee from a foreign land who doesn't know how things are done. i lost Fall, so she lost someone on the voyage. logging into the mmo is these days mostly just a way to spend time with my friend in our anime bodies, going out places together - something we can't do in real life due to distance and disability.

so after a lot of pushing from my friend i agreed to do a pillow before i went to bed. why? i guess i was feeling lonely and really wishing for some touch and intimacy irl and this seemed like the next best thing. and i was also curious. i wanted to know what this would be like. but i was very concerned with being a good client - i wanted to like... rp well, make my partner in the scene feel comfortable as well. i think i did decently.

but looking back at that afterwards, and thinking about what it would be like to do that again (courts or pillows)... it occurs to me that like, that's the only way i could think to approach it, trying to do a good job. i realised i could much more easily imagine doing the job, which is figuring out what the other person desires and giving it to them, than imagine paying someone else money to perform a scene tailored to my desires.

'what do you want?' seems like the most straightforward question. everyone else seems to be able to answer it. indeed, i looked today at the list of court players in the venue my friend now frequents - all of them provide a like, list of their feelings about and willingness to do a series of 'standard' kinks. i imagined trying to fill one out myself and had no idea what I'd put. willing to do almost anything. want to do... what?

and the thing is... this is how i tend to approach sexuality in general, i guess. if someone asks me what i want i just end up on like... uhhh please touch my back? it's been years and i feel like I've opened a series of doors when it comes to talking about sexuality and writing it in fiction and yet it seems this must fundamental thing, to directly identify and express a desire, still eludes me.

when i look at the work of talented nsfw artists, animators in particular, you can see that they have it. there is a passion evident in the lavishly detailed expression: they want to be drawing that particular thing. it feels like by contrast I'm just chasing the formal codes of the medium. breaking it down analytically so i can be told i did a good job.

what's it going to fucking take to figure this out? i feel like I've been beating my head against this problem for years and I'm no closer to the solution. it's like there's a wire missing between desire and recognition/expression/action. when i was with a__, she tried to figure out what i was into, but it was so frustratingly obtuse that she gave up long before we actually broke up. like, she'd suggest stuff, and I'd feel good about it, but maybe really all it was was that she was actually paying attention to me and making me feel wanted. but in the end... i couldn't give her a usable answer. she suggested buying me outfits and i liked that but then couldn't figure out what sort of clothes I'd actually want to wear.

what the fuck am i so afraid of?? i want to want things. it's one of the most basic qualities of animal life. i don't want to always be sitting on the safe distant throne of analytical curiosity and trying to do a good job for other people. i want my art to have desire and expression and personality. i want my life to have that.

what fucked me up this way? was it the school system? did i become so dependent on feeling like I'd passed the test and done a good job that i completely lost sight of actually like... speaking for myself?

in a previous era i tried to cultivate purity. i tried to limit my stimuli to only the ones from the right categories of person that overtly stated the right political message. now I've found a voice that's like... curatorial, analytical. now i like to know the history and context, i can relate it to other things. I'm not hung up on purity but perhaps i lost something with the like... unreasonable fannishness i used to adopt so much more readily. i express my devotion now through the long critical essay, not the fanfic. i don't pick favourites. all the same, i do at least still love fiction - the vicarious, simpler emotions of imaginary people. if something can make me feel, strongly, I'm a devotee. so i want to make fiction that evokes the same sort of strength of feeling.

i wish nobody had ever told me i was clever. i wish i could let doing the things i want take priority over doing them well. all my pictures lately are attempts to capture something of what other artists are able to express. to develop into a certain kind of person - more or less a combination of the girls from eizouken. what is it that all of this aims to express? if i master all these skills, what am i here to communicate with them? i won't know that yet i suppose - art is a tool for figuring that out.

i guess we wandered away from talking about sex. but it's all related, don't you see? at least art is supposed to be mysterious.

i suppose, despite being someone who is trying to make a living off art commissions, i find it hard to imagine commissioning someone else. i have commissioned exactly one piece of art in my life, bc a friend was doing emergency commissions. i like doing commissions - it makes me really really glad to feel like I've made a picture that fully satisfies someone's desires. in a sense drawing original works should be like making commissions for myself. but instead i worry about like... cultivating technical skills, achieving specific vibes, endlessly compare myself to other artists.

i wish i could talk to Fall about this. i think she knew what's up. but... you know.

maybe I'll put a pin in that. "making commissions for myself". maybe splitting it like that, requesting and fulfilling, will help me set desire into motion. as for sexuality... that one remains a puzzle. but i will keep trying. one day the door will open.