#ffxiv language comparison

[sealer-of-wenkamui]

I happened to check the EN more this time which inevitably meant I had more to say cause this really is one of the shittiest localizations I’ve ever seen!

First off, I guess in part because they changed the crystals in the whole previous segment to begin with, Cid is simply explaining here how the 3 crystals will work together to covert the wind wall into fire. Like the crystal you got in La Noscea will convert Garuda’s wind wall to water, then the black shroud will convert that to earth and so on. (Also he doesn’t bring up any risk, he knows what he’s doing)

Next up, the original script places a lot more emphasis on Cid and his father, not only did he want to prove that technology is meant to give us freedom, he wanted to make his dad recognize this, and wanted to save him.

Even if you don’t know any JP, if you’re playing with JP voices you probably heard this one, but after regaining his memories, Cid proudly and confidently states who he is- Cid Garlond, representative of Garlond Ironworks!

There’s none of that “landwalkers” stuff with Garuda, she almost exclusively calls you an insect or worm. Also pictured here, Alph is saying it will be the final fight against the primals (doubt.jpg) and Garuda actually lists the body parts she’s gonna tear off 💕

Ultima Weapon’s name is openly stated in the cutscene with Gaius using it, but more importantly, Gaius uses the term the “have-nots” (The have-nots will all vanish like trash)

In the next quest, Alphinaud brings up that Gaius saw you, and used that specific term, implying that the Empire, or at least Gaius himself, knows about those with special powers- the transcending power. Which is how he reasons that’s why he likely wanted Minfilia… it sounds very out of nowhere in English lol

THIS however is the one that pisses me off the most (and I’m told this isn’t even a one time thing with M-C! :)))) )

So all the stuff about them being put in a camp and his mother and sister “forced to do far worse”? All added in. The JP only states the part about them being caught by the empire, and ended up throwing themselves off a cliff in front of him, and that it was at the time Ala Mhigo fell.

FURTHERMORE, the reason he refuses the offer to directly help is because his body doesn’t move like he wants it because before his mother died, she slashed him across the back to attempt a full family suicide. Which is absent entirely in EN despite them adding all that shit in.

And then, even though they decided to add some random abuse to that guy’s mother and sister, they removed the much more rape-y sounding lines Livia has towards Minfilia??? They’re good shit too, especially this one about how she’ll have her body thoroughly examined….(the earlier one is telling her she can confess and die here or else undergo unbearable humiliation and die in agony)

I didn’t grab a screenshot of the comparison, but a baffling change is the name of the plan to fight the Empire. The Japanese one is written in perfectly good English, no bad grammar or false equivalents, it’s the March of Archons (written in katakana) and yet they changed that to Operation Archon for some reason….???????

[trustinsighters]

Duty Support Dialogue: The Tower of Zot

Inculcation Channel - feat. Alisaie Multilanguage

[mercurialmalcontent]

I've been intending to make a more serious post addressing the language choices in Veilguard vs FFXIV and how those affect the 'fantasy feel' of the games to go along with my barrage of snarky FFXIV screenshots I took, but it's been difficult to muster the interest when I'm reasonably sure that the original argument (that FFXIV 'feels' more fantasy than Veilguard despite its wild tech levels because it doesn't use modern language) was not made in good faith.

I say that because the characters in Veilguard don't speak particularly differently than the characters in previous Dragon Age games. If a person didn't have an issue with how Iron Bull or Varric or Hawke or Alistair or Felicia Day Tallis or any number of NPCs in previous games spoke, it's hard for me to take seriously the argument that characters in Veilguard sound too modern. There's something else going on there under the fixation on the word 'okay'.

It's also pretty fucking silly to point to FFXIV's English localization as an example of great fantasy dialogue. Look, I love the hell out of that game, but sometimes the localization is so focused on being archaic and formal it changes the entire meaning of some scenes (like the first meeting with Midgarsormr) which end up conflicting with later story developments, and sometimes it vanishes up its own ass in a puff of pretentiousness. Its own UI often isn't immune to these localization choices, which is a hell of a decision to make where clarity of meaning is essential, especially for a game with as many systems, menus, and tooltips as FFXIV has.

FFXIV is also a weird comparison as it has plenty of characters who do not speak in that stiff, archaic way -- for example Cid, Lyse, or more recently Cahciua wouldn't sound particularly out of place in our everyday environments. Various characters make pop culture references. The player can often choose dialogue options that are very contemporary.

But there's not really an argument here, because as I said, the original argument wasn't in good faith. It's a 'bitch eating crackers' nitpick and therefore kind of pointless to engage with, but here I am anyway. Hey, I had to get it to stop rattling around my head somehow.

[tainbocuailnge]

i tend to hone in on the dark knight questline when it comes to translation differences in ffxiv because it has perhaps the largest difference between languages in the game, at least as far as I've seen, and it's also one of the cases where the german script (generally known for sticking pretty close to jp) also does its own thing. I actually went over the entirety of both en and de versions of it again the other day because I'd been meaning to translate it for comparison and one thing I noticed this time is that en actually has more lines, as in, optional lines when you talk to characters after they gave you the next quest objective that in german would just repeat the last line they said, in english would say something different. the journal entries changing depending on whether you have the job crystal equipped or not is also unique to the english version.

it's interesting because to me it shows that they really felt incredibly strongly about their take on dark knight and put a lot of serious effort into pulling it off. it's actually improved my opinion of english drk a little because clearly someone really believed in what they were writing here and used absolutely everything they had available to try and make it work. but even with that extra text to work with I still think the german version delivered their concept better and had a clearer vision of what they wanted to say with these quests. because the english team are just not as good at writing as they seem to think they are.

in my recent replay of stormblood in german there were so many scenes that made me think "you know what, maybe stormblood isn't as bad as I remembered it being", and then when I went to double check the english version of that scene it actually was as stupid as i remember it being. and often the thing that makes it stupid is like, lyse displaying confidence and competence in de but talking herself down in en, or yotsuyu pointing out the systematic failures that brought her where she is in de but indulging in personal sadistic tendencies in en. and making your antagonists dumber and more evil is one thing but the fact that they also made lyse sound so insecure and incompetent at so many points when she's the main character of the expansion, it's just so baffling to me. are we supposed to believe she can lead the resistance movement or not?

so knowing that de will generally be closer to jp than en is but does occasionally have major deviations of its own, and seeing all these stormblood scenes where one of the big glaring differences between en and de is that en keeps dumbing down and vilifying (female) characters that have more nuance and with it more thematic consistency in de, that leaves basically two options. either the japanese script had that nuance and the english translators were so full of misogyny that they decided to remove it, or the japanese script didn't have it either and it's the german translators that decided to not hate women actually. and while i don't know enough japanese to be sure, listening to the jp voicelines does give me reason to believe that the jp script is harsher to yotsuyu than de at various points, so it's probably a bit of both.

so, yknow, I can't make a sweeping statement of being against major script changes in localisation in general without being a hypocrite because the de script has at multiple times done its own thing in a way that i consider either an improvement or at least an interesting alternative of roughly equivalent quality. but that's also exactly what my problem with ffxiv localisation is, that when the en script has major deviations it's almost always some stupid shit like adding gendered slurs (they love calling a woman a bitch or a whore in english it gets really glaring when you start putting individual lines next to each other) and transphobia (matoya does not make fun of alphinaud looking like a girl in german) and removing instances of characters openly saying they care about something (thancred calling ryne his daughter in every language but english) and generally destroying all character voice, and when de changes things it's like, well written and makes sense even if it's different. so the en team looking down on the script theyre translating and changing it is hubristic overconfidence but when the de team does it they actually have the writing chops to back it up

[jazzpostsrandomthings]

My introduction to FFXIV

Hey, after posting the thing about the stress test server a few weeks ago, I got an idea to try and go down the memory lane, trying to recall everything that had happened during the time I've spent playing Final Fantasy XIV. I hope that someone would find my story and experiences interesting. After all, I found out that I enjoyed seeing other people's reactions to the game itself as well.

But in order to tell my story, I have to start somewhere. And I can't find a better way to do so than to tell you how I learnt of the game in the first place.

Not sure when exactly did it start, but I remember my friend mentioning that he was playing FFXIV during Summer this year, I think. I wasn't too interested, after all I had prior experience with MMORPGs like Aion, Tera, Black Desert, ArchAge and even that Digimon Masters Online or whatever was it called, and I didn't go further than level 30 in any of them (which meant I was playing for less than a month or a month and a half at max for Aion (the 2010 version prior to becoming the cash shop simulator with no story) and Digimon Masters). Why was I trying so many MMOs out in the first place? Well, my mom is actually into MMOs herself so I was visiting the titles she was playing as well (minus Digimon Masters) to help her and just find a title I would like, but it never clicked so I thought that maybe I wasn't into online gaming in the first place.

So when I heard that my friend was playing an MMORPG that was also a part of a franchise I didn't know much about, I kinda wanted to join... but I hesitated, knowing that it would probably end the same way as it did for five other titles I've listed above.

Fast-forward to the beginning of September 2023, September 2nd to be presice, when I saw some hentai-loving douche from a Russian Megaman Discord server saying how much the old gaming and MMOs sucked in comparison to perverted gachas he was playing with and how the critically-acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV was actually trash. Needless to say, the guy was banned for posting hentai there. But either way, what he said about FFXIV was actually a good advertisement for the game so I remembered what my friend was saying and decided to reach out to him, saying I am willing to give it a shot. I did mention that I might not stay for too long here due to my track record with MMORPGs, but he said it was fine and that I can leave if it doesn't light up the spark in me in a month. He then made a group DM with a friend of his who actually was a person I saw on a different server a few years ago so that was neat.

I made a SquareEnix account that same evening, downloaded the game and then logged into the Free Trial for the first time, getting hit with this game's version of Prelude (even though I wasn't a fan or FF series, I knew the tune) and feeling a sense of tranquility, staying on the screen for a few minutes and continuing to listen to it while fiddling with settings.

I watched the opening cinematic (it was great but I was wondering if the game even had Japanese voice acting because I like playing games and hearing their original language, be it English, Japanese or something else, just a personal preference) and got to the character creator. I was looking at the races, finding a liking to exactly the three of them -- cat-eared people with furry tails known as Miqo'te, tall and slender horned people named Au Ra and short child-like folk with long ears by the name of Lalafell.

Also I was struggling a lot with trying to read most of the race's names at first. It took me at least a few weeks to memorize them even.

At first, I wanted to make Axl as a cat boy here, thinking that I probably won't stick for long anyway (and I did make him in the game later, I still have his preset saved), but I decided to actually choose the race none of my friends picked up (one was a Miqo'te, other was an Au Ra), so I went for a lalafell and made my boy Pi from ROCKMAN ZERO - Chapter: AXL here to the best of my ability. One of the two friends was certainly really happy I chose a potato according to her messages when I had announced it :D

After getting freaked out by the game asking what my deity was (picked Oschon because Pi has a thing for exploring and learning new stuff about the world), I decided to pick the Healer class, before getting told not to do that because it would make early combat really annoying, and then my friend told me I can go for Arcanist since it would become a Healer class at level 30. Needless to say, I went for the book, then chose the Atomos server because my friends were there (ping wasn't bad here at all, even though everything tends to freeze rarely due to my internet provider screwing me over) and thus had set my eyes towards the seaside jewel of Eorzea -- Limsa Lominsa...

I didn't know there was a different opening for each of the city-states at that time so I had some flashbacks to ArchAge when my character, Pi Peataan (I REALLY didn't think much while giving the character a name), but then we had actually arrived to the city and... I realized I underestimated my PC with the potato graphics settings I had supposedly set for it. Those bushes took me out of it for a moment.

So, I arrived to Limsa, fixed the graphics, met Baderon Tenfingers (still giggling at that name), took notes that pirate speak is indeed quite hard for me to read quickly, then went to the main plaza with giant aetherite where I was met by my friends, the self-proclaimed 'emo catboy' Miqo'te Summoner/Scholar and an immensely tall black-scaled Auri Dark Knight. They greeted me, which made me feel all shy because before that I've only seen these people as 2D avatars and text messages, and now they could ran around me and kinda interact with me... ahem. One of them added me to the friends list (other couldn't, he was still in Free Trial), and then went their own ways while I had one hour left before the bed to explore the city.

I didn't know yet that you don't need to do yellow quests so i just picked up all the quests that were available in Limsa before proceeding with the main quest. I was getting lost in this giant city A LOT, which was the result of me having what I call "topographical cretinism", but I was... enjoying it. I ended the day without setting a foot outside the starting area, but I was looking forward towards tomorrow to explore some more, drifting to sleep while the main menu theme kept ringing in my head, accompanying me into my dreams...

Hope you enjoyed this entry. I will try to continue this series. I had a lot of fun remembering the details of the first day of FFXIV for me and what was I feeling during it all. Playing through it again with my friends that cannot play FFXIV or don't want to sink so much time into an MMO, and looking through the backlog of messages and screenshots in Discord I left while going through all of that certainly helped to assemble these memories back in a proper order.

Next Entry >>

[keykidpilipili]

Playing FFXIV in more than one language is driving me bonkers actually cause now I feel compelled to watch several cutscenes in four languages, two of which I can't read, for text comparison.

[laeorinel]

FFXIV Write 2023 - Day 27 - Sole

Another day of struggle writing done.

Shadowbringers spoilers aplenty.

As Samara lurked around the upper walkways of the Crystarium, she occasionally glanced down at the people below. There was an excited buzz in the air; word had spread of the night sky returning to yet another area of Norvrandt. It had been a while since she had seen The Wandering Stairs so busy. Drinks flowed freely, and she would not be surprised if the partying continued all through the night. She would spot her fellow Scions every so often, darting through the crowds to either get their own drinks and join in with the revelry or moving onto somewhere else.

She spotted Ryne off to the side with Thancred. While it was hard to make out all too much from the distance from what she could tell from their body language, both of them were at peace and, for once, looked comfortable in each other's company. She did not miss, however, the occasional glance from one or both of them in her direction.

A part of her wanted to join them, but it was safer for her to keep a distance. She did not want to worry them further, especially now that hiding the changes the Light was causing was becoming more complicated. She knew Ryne would offer to share the burden of being the host to the Lightwardens aether. She would not let that happen.

No, this was how it had to be. She had the sole responsibility of keeping the Light at bay. She would not condemn the young woman who had only just carved out a name and place for herself to this fate. Nor would she condemn the man so dear to her to lose another one he loved. If her life was the price that needed to be paid to save this world from destruction, then so be it, but that did not mean they needed to see every moment of her decline.

The physical changes were becoming harder to disguise. Her hair was becoming more brittle and paler as the days went on. At first, it was just a few stray hairs tinged a horrid pale bright yellow; now, most of her hair was tinted white at the root. She could easily cover it up with various dyes, but the changes to her eyes and scales were harder to conceal. She doubted the others had not noticed the changes in her attire, with every shred of scale and skin hidden beneath cloth, leather and metal. Her eyes she could do little about.

Still, the external changes paled in comparison to the ones happening inside. She was partly keeping herself separate from everyone else because she could feel herself coming undone at the seams. Her emotions were harder to keep in check, and her already tempestuous anger was always a hair's breadth away from being unleashed on anyone for even the most minor of things. Then there was the paranoia. The First had changed her friends; how could it not? Regardless, she still trusted them. Or did. Now, there were moments when she questioned their motives and wondered if they were friend or foe. On more than one occasion, she had found herself reaching for a weapon, ready and willing to fight any or all of them. It was a feral state of mind she had not felt in years, and to say it unnerved her was an understatement.

Then there was the hunger. She would need to go out hunting again soon. It was easier to hide the increase in her appetite that way, though she imagined sooner or later someone would come across the string of animal corpses felled across Lakeland or catch her mid-hunt or feast. That is assuming none were aware already. She knew the Exarch had a means of keeping an eye on her. Not to mention, a certain ghost was never too far away.

"Yet again, I find you alone. Want some company?" as if one cue said ghost made his appearance. Ardbert made his way over to Samara, taking his place by her side at the railing.

"Are you saying that more for my sake or yours?" Samara did not take her eyes off the crowds below as she spoke.

"Does it matter? How are you feeling? You're looking a little pale."

Samara sighed, leaning heavily against the railing and staring vaguely toward Thancred and Ryne. "Before, when I thought of the Light, I thought of the sun, a force that nourishes life but could also snuff it out in an instant of fire and flame. Compassion and fury in equal measure. I was wrong. It is cold and unyielding. I feel like I am in the middle of a snowstorm, the cold robbing me of my senses with each passing moment until nothing is left but the still of winter."

"Not good then. I assume you know what is happening?"

"That I am becoming a Sin eater, or that I am dying?" Samara idly picked at a patch of off-colour scales. She tried to not dwell on it, even if they were starting to turn a discomforting shade of gold.

The question went unanswered, with Ardbert quickly changing the topic. "What will you do?"

"Keep fighting for as long as I can. Pray whatever scheme the Exarch has in mind works, and if not…take matters into my own hands."

"What the hells does that mean?"

"If I fall to the Light, both this world and the Source are doomed to calamity. However, the calamity the Ascians wish to bring about can only happen if I, or something harbouring this damn Light, exists."

"So you would return to the Source before you turn. You realise that could cause what is happening here to repeat there. The aether would pass onto another, and then two worlds would be full of Sin eaters."

"Unless the aether was destroyed or absorbed in a single moment." her gaze turned up to the night sky. She knew it was not Nhamma up in the inky black sky, but it was a comfort all the same.

"On the Source, the land I hail from is known as the Azim Steppe. There is a sacred place up in the mountains known as the House of the Crooked Coin. Inside, you can find a fragment of the Dusk Mother, Nhamma, one of my people's deities. People from Tribes all over the steppe travel there when…when everything becomes too much. We throw ourselves at Mother Nhamma's mercy. Literally. Everything a person is, was, or could ever be is destroyed."

"That's your plan? Suicide?"

"What other choice is there? I either live and am freed of this burden or become the doom of this world and everyone on it. I refuse to let the latter happen. Not if I have a way of stopping it."

"Except you don't! You have no way of knowing if your plan will work."

"It is better than the alternative. What sounds better? Guaranteed destruction or the faint hope of averting it? I'm dead either way."

"I just don't want to take everyone down with me…"

[robynmarkius]

Language Differences

So I have a bit of a long ramble, which involves Spoilers for the end of 5.3; obviously. Some of it’s already out there as I replied on mobile while half asleep, but it led to talking to the lovely @shiro-from-cafeberry​ about the German text. (Once again, thank you so much! I enjoy talking to you! :D <3 I have discovered I have even more questions for you to help with. lol) I then bothered my friend and co-writer @xehniscreations​ about French and she said it’d be a good practice to shake off the rust. (She ended up translating the whole ending scene for practice! <33 lol )

This all started because I am married to a man who has a degree in Linguistics and a simple questioning of one line/part led to hours of jokes and discussions. Which then turned into me putting my game client into two languages that I don’t speak a word of just to see what a character said... XD And! And! Learning a few other things along the way. I’ve been having so much fun with this and I hope you all can too. Plopping a cut here so as not to completely destroy anyone still trying to avoid Spoilers... or those who want to prepare some tissues. lol

I have cried a lot in the process of this entire Translation, and keep crying. lol As long as this post/translator ramble got, I made sure to post the ‘screenshot comic’, “Remnant” [as its own post] for the sake of focus. That was the scene that started this trip down the rabbit hole, after all. xD

After three days of editing this post, I decided to split it, so that this was just the ending scene. There’s flashbacks I also covered, but this was getting extremely long and I realize that I had not asked Shiro about the first flashback at all! So I still have things to finish and more to talk about before I have more.

For now, though, let’s talk!

Part One: Elidibus’ Explanation

The lines in question came from when Elidibus picked up the crystals, then told us he heard the voices of despair/cries and lamentations of his friends. After which there’s a slightly awkward explanation about how there were lots of opinions and thoughts about the world/star, which led to Elidibus pulling himself free of Zodiark in order to help his friends. It bothered Hubs because it felt kinda “clunky”; he explained:

“I think it’s because of a general norm of Japanese society we hear so much about. That it’s important to have a consensus and not to stir up trouble or stick out too much; which is how that part kind of reads. Your direct Translation is fine. I just feel like the localization team just kinda gave up when they wrote the English version. They could have give a little more context on it when they wrote it. Instead, what happens is, it feels out of place and awkward where it is. It also doesn’t give the context of when Elidibus freed himself from Zodiark. Is there any context that says that wasn’t when Hydaelyn shattered the star into the reflections or Shards?”

Putting aside his question about when Elidibus actually separated from Zodiark for now; as that’s a whole ‘nother discussion that’s rather interesting; I finally understood what he meant by my Translation felt clunky. It was accurate to a “direct translation” versus a “localization”. I re-translated the whole part just to make sure I hadn’t missed anything, and made sure that the final lines I wrote in English still made sense. lol

First, I wanted to note the differences in terms; in case I slip when putting this together. ^^; The literal translation of 「十四人委員会」 would be "Fourteen-person Committee"; but in the context of FF14, (at least in English,) we call it the "Convocation of Fourteen", so I try to stick with that for final translations. What makes anything with the Ancients more difficult, is that they're not speaking a language that we can immediately understand, but rather making sounds that our Echo/超える力/l'Écho/Kraft des Transzendierens interprets into words we/the WoL/WoD can understand. The downside is lack of clarification for actual translation if you don't fluently read or speak another language. lol

For example, when Elidibus speaks, we hear the words spoken, so if there's a kanji that's said more than one way, I can hear which definition is correct by listening to the sentence. But the Ancients' "woop woop wop wah wahp woo" is harder to interpret... but, at least it's the same in every language, right? XD For German, they have “The Convent”, and French has “The Council of Fourteen”.

Second, in English, we called him “The Emissary”, which is another term for “Mediator; Arbitrator; Go-Between” which is the definition of the term 調停者 [shouteisha] , his Japanese title. When translating from German, Shiro used the term “The Advocate”. His French title is “le Médiateur” His role seems to be the same, at least, he settled disputes, found the facts, kept things in check, and generally maintained balance. That was the seat of Elidibus; which is necessary to understand why he said what he said about being needed. (Those titles come from the first flashback as well as the second one; which I’ll get to in the next post. <3 )

The English lines that started this conversation are: “Divided -- over the fate of the star. A rare occurrence, always fleeting. But not this time. Not this time... Reconciliation. Elidibus. I was needed. I withdrew myself from Zodiark. For them...”

Japanese: 世界の行く末について、たくさんの意見が出た…… そんなことは珍しいから、委員会のみんなが悩んでいた。

だったら、エリディブスが手助けしに行かないと…… そう思って、ゾディアークから零れ落ちたんだ。

Final Translation: (after edits and all this discussion) "A great many opinions were expressed regarding the fate of the world, Everyone in the Convocation was troubled, since such a thing was unusual.

That being the case, I could not go help them in my role as Emissary. I believed that they needed Elidibus, so I pulled myself from Zodiark.”

In French, from Xehnis: "Le Concile avait perdu sa cohésion...Face à l’anéantissement, les avis divergeaient sur la marche à suivre pour sauver notre planéte…

Ça ne leur ressemblait pas...Plus que jamais, ils avaient besoin d’Elidibus...Ils avaient besoin de moi...Alors, je me suis détaché de Zordiarche pour voler à leur secours…”

Her final translation: “The Council had lost its cohesion...In the face of annihilation, opinions differed on the way to save our planet…

It does not resemble them...more than ever, they needed Elidibus...they needed me....so, I detached from Zordiark to fly to their aid…”

The German lines, from Cafe Berry’s Shiro, along with the explanations: "Die Zukunft der Welt hing in der Schwebe und Chaos machte sich breit. Die Ascians waren zutiefst gespalten. Der Konvent uneins..."

Here, they are talking about how the Ascians, and most importantly, the convent is divided. How the future of the world was not clear and with that chaos spread.

"Elidibus, der Fürsprecher, musste etwas tun. Ich musste etwas tun. Und so spaltete ich mich wieder von Zodiark ab ..."

Here, Elidibus says that Elidibus, as the Emissary, had to do something. HE had to do something. So he split off from Zodiark.

Their translation they gave me then, was: "The future of the world hung in the balance and chaos spread. The Ascians were deeply divided. The convent divided ...

Elidibus, the advocate, had to do something. I had to do something. And so I split off from Zodiark again ... "

This was the part that my husband had called into question; with my original translation to:

"Many opinions and thoughts came forth, regarding the fate of our world.... The Convocation was worried, as such a thing was unusual."

世界の行く末について、たくさんの意見が出た…… そんなことは珍しいから、委員会のみんなが悩んでいた。

The literal translation of it all, would be: "The world's future/fate concerning/regarding, a great many/a lot (of) comments were brought up/expressed......

such thing(s) are/is curious/rare/unusual because/since, committee of everyone("Everyone on the Committee") (was/were actively being) troubled/worried.”

There was also the lines that followed, which were also rough to word in English, so the whole section had felt awkward.

だったら、エリディブスが手助けしに行かないと…… そう思って、ゾディアークから零れ落ちたんだ。

“if that's the case, Elidibus (from) assistance (as/in the role of) to go/to do (could not),

so/appearing that/seeming that considered/believed/reckoned/judged/decided/desired, Zodiark (from) spilled over/scattered from (n'da - 'no desu' / 'no da' used to add emphasis)"

I had tried: "I decided that they needed Elidibus, but as I was I couldn't help them, so I pulled myself away from Zodiark.

Which was another way to put the idea of: "That being the case, Elidibus could not go rescue/help, I believed, then spilled and fell over/scattered from Zodiark."

It ended up: "A great many thoughts and opinions were expressed regarding the fate of the world, Everyone on the Committee was troubled, since such a thing was unusual.If that was the case, I could not give them assistance in the role of Arbitrator. I believed that they needed Elidibus, so I fell/scattered from Zodiark."

In the end, for this part, it really helped to learn what was said in French and German, because it helped solidify more what was trying to be said, and that there probably is at least a little societal influence in the Japanese text. If it hadn’t been for Xehnis and Shiro’s assistance, I probably wouldn’t have landed on something that felt comfortable enough in English. <3

They all feel different, but have the same general idea: that even after Zodiark was summoned; and Elidibus became his Heart; things hadn’t been fixed. Things continued to grow worse, and they began to fight, and have conflict. As Arbitrator/Emissary/Advocate/Mediator, Elidibus’ job was to maintain balance, and settle disputes, but he could no longer do the job of his seat as the Heart of Zodiark, and it seemed to be destroying the Convocation; making things worse; so he yanked himself out of a Primal to go tell everyone to SIMMER DOWN, NOW.

Sidenote/Side Question here... I wonder what happened with Venat and Hydaelyn...? Perhaps we’ll get clarification in the future, as the only person who’s become/been anything like Elidibus has been Minfilia as the ‘Words of the Mother’, then sent off as an “Emissary” of sorts to the First. lol

This all led to wondering about the last line; as it was clearly different in the Japanese Audio than the English Text. I do want to state that I think what they did in English worked just as well for the emotional gut punch intended from Elidibus’ last words; but it’s very different. It did lead to looking at the flashback in Anemnesis Anyder where we heard the line about the rain, which will be in the next post.

English: “The rains have ceased, and we have been graced with another beautiful day. But you are not here to see it.”

Japanese: 私が最後に残ったって……仕方ないじゃないか……。 Translation: “There’s nothing for it then, is there? I’m the last one left...”

French: Je devais partir en dernier... Comment aurais-je pu abandonner mes amis, esseulés en ce bas monde? Translation: “I had to leave last...how could I abandon (forsake) my friends, lonely in this lowly world?”

German: Es ist vorbei ... Alles verloren ... Ich bin der Letzte ... Translation: "It is over. Everything lost... I am the last..."

Japanese can also be read as “I’m the last one left... I guess it can’t be helped, huh?” but even in context, it didn’t flow quite as well as I’d like.. but that doesn’t take away from the crying, does it... ; A; I got the term “Remnant” from Japanese, where “watashi ga saigo ni nokotta tte” would literally translate to “I’m the final remnant”/”I’m the last leftover”, which I did word as “I’m the last one remaining/left.” (It is also 'Sumo term, cried by the referee to indicate that a rikishi is still in the ring’, but that didn’t quite feel right here, however, you can take the sumo joke if you’d like. <3)

I’m going to repeat that I think referring back to the line he was told back when he’d gotten the title of Elidibus wasn’t bad, and it did still work very well to convey that lost, lonely, longing he was left with as a remnant; what little was left of him, lamented the loss of his beloved people; people that he’d just wanted to save. This is evidenced in French and German; where he states that he’s all that’s left, everything is lost, it is over... that he had to go last, so he wouldn’t abandon his friends.

I appreciate that we gave Elidibus all the constellation stones, which, in a way, let him finally be with all of his friends once more. All the stones, except for ours; we kept that, because Hades made it for us. He made it for us to remember, so that the story of the Ancients wouldn’t be forgotten; the ‘truth’ he made sure he told us when we asked about the past.

At least, that’s what I choose to believe for now.

[Next Post >>]

[futuredagger]

𝓂𝒾𝓇𝒶𝒾𝔁𝓪𝓿𝓲𝓮𝓻

The Basics ––– –

Age: 133

Birthday: 17th sun of the 6th astral moon

Race: viera / veena

Gender: female

Sexuality: demigirl

Marital Status: married

Alignment: chaotic neutral

Physical Appearance ––– –

Hair: long purple locks that are beginning to fade into pink waves. what used to be a solid color now exposes her age and her unending need to find equilibrium between light and dark.

Eyes: aquamarine blue. 

Height: 6′

Build: her slim frame hides her strength and muscle quite well, but forces other zones to look a bit more endowed.

Personal ––– –

Profession: free company static leader and resident sleeper.

Hobbies: selfies, sleeping and helping sprouts along their journey.

Languages: mooglespeak (kupo!) and dragonspeak (toskh na!)

Residence: shirogane, but looking to colder climates in ishgard.

Birthplace: golmore jungle, though now banished.

Religion: shiva and hraesvelgr are relationship goals.

Patron Deity: menphina.

Fears: spiders, loss of friends, standing out too much in a crowd and not getting enough sleep.

Relationships ––– -

Spouse: she has had two wives. from year 5 of the seventh umbral era until a requiem for heros in the seventh astral era she was married to aori. after their relationship was dissolved, she married to another shortly after, talon.

Children: none.

Parents: unknown, abandoned at a young enough age to never really know her parents.

Siblings: none.

Other Relatives: none.

Pets: her chocobo, sweetea.

Traits ––– -

Extroverted / In Between / Introverted 

Disorganized / In Between / Organized 

Close Minded / In Between / Open Minded 

Calm / In Between / Anxious 

Disagreeable / In Between / Agreeable 

Cautious / In Between / Reckless 

Patient / In Between / Impatient

Outspoken / In Between / Reserved 

Leader / In Between / Follower 

Empathetic / In Between / Apathetic 

Optimistic / In Between / Pessimistic 

Traditional / In Between / Modern 

Hard-working / In Between / Lazy 

Cultured / In Between / Uncultured 

Loyal / In Between / Disloyal 

Faithful / In Between / Unfaithful

Additional information ––– –

Smoking Habit: only recreationally.

Drugs: none.

Alcohol: occasionally.

From the Player ––– –

my character is an in-game reflection of myself, perhaps more personal than anything. final fantasy xiv has been a source of growth and awakening for me,  through all of the trials and tribulations i’ve faced. for example, though i was never truly “abandoned” as a child, i have been diagnosed with complex ptsd as a result of my parents’ choices when i was younger. my hair actually is purple (though fading to pink because.. well, dye fades). i was genuinely married from 2014 until 2019 and my spouse at the time played ffxiv with me under a character named aori. i believe he still plays, but what his name in-game is now and what he’s up to i’m not entirely sure. while i’m not married again, i am with someone new named talon. i moved in with him in august of 2021 after we had been dating for two years.

writing about my character is kind of difficult for me, because a story never really formed for her until shadowbringers. that expansion dropped the same summer i finalized my divorce, and it led me down into some very dark places as well as into bright places. shadowbringers also brought an immense amount of change in my character, both in terms of race and job choices. from heavensward until shadowbringers, i had been an au’ra, so a lot of the backstory i would have for her doesn’t involve viera. for jobs, i have been playing ffxiv since 2.0 released and for a large majority only played scholar. (i was that one person in my fc for the longest time that only played scholar, actually...) with the changes in shadowbringers to scholar, i was really disappointed with how it felt to play in comparison to how it felt before. because i was going through such a hard time offline, i saw it as an opportunity for growth in-game so i switched to gunbreaker and now it’s my main job. i hope that i’m able to work on her backstory more throughout endwalker and as things continue to improve in my life offline.

i’ve moved to tumblr because of a few reasons. one of them being that the twitter community in terms of modding and general ffxiv stuff has become increasingly toxic and negative. i just wanted a spot ultimately to show off screen captures of my character and talk ffxiv stuff, but it’s so hard to with some of the people i’ve met on twitter. the second reason is because i love reading and writing, and though i probably won’t ever role-play with this character (seriously, don’t count on it), i do still want to be able to read others’ musings about their time in eorzea and perhaps share mine, too. like i said at the beginning, she’s an extension of my offline self, and i’d like to give her as much love and attention as i do my actual self.

i hope that this works as a decent intro to who i am and whatnot. i know i kind of followed a lot of you and only posted big booty modded bunny screen captures, which i realize was probably not the best start lmao, but please do expect more screen caps with mods and i’ll be sure to work on a resources page so that you can see what things i’m working with.

thank you so much for your time; i know this was a lot, but just know it means a lot to me that you did.

[fatewalker-phoenix]

2, 13, 20. *spins the wheel* (from oc asks pt 2)

2. Is there a meaning behind their name, or a particular reason why they have it?

Eden Azalea's name has such a long boring history behind it that I fear I would put everyone to sleep recounting it, suffice it to say that it comes from the names I used for two previous MMO's I played before xiv, as well as my online tag. In-game, as we know, eden is the fae word that means utopia, and is the alias she adopted for herself on a whim following the loss of her memories. Her birth name is Tsutsuji.

Kiana's name origin story is that I literally took Kiara from the Lion King II and changed one letter for the OC I was developing for my Inheritance Cycle fanfic, from which she originates. Kveykva is from the in universe ancient language of that series, and means lightning. The name Kiana itself is of Hawaiian origin and means divine, so put em together and you get divine lightning, which, I mean, is pretty metal ngl. Ironic since she's the most Baby of the three.

Airi Nakamura was the name given to a Bleach OC made for me by a friend. Airi itself has meanings both in Japanese (beloved jasmine) and Finnish (messenger). In story it has come to be her nickname, as her full first name is Aurora.

13. What are their views on marriage? If they want to get married, what would their dream wedding be like?

Eden, as the sole married one of the three, thinks marriage is pretty dang sweet. In keeping with both her and Astor's (@tiredassmage) wishes, theirs was a fairly quiet wedding, much to the chagrin of much of the Alliance who wanted a union between two Warriors of Light to be a grand affair. But enough of their lives and accomplishments are under the scrutiny of the public that they are happy to keep such a moment to themselves. With that said, let there never be any doubt that the two are deeply, deeply in love. Eden couldn't imagine a future without him in it that she would want for herself, and he will never fail to get a shiver of delight out of her when calling her Mrs. Caulfield.

Airi's views on marriage are...complicated. On one hand, she would absolutely be down for a lavish affair and the chance to dress up and declare her vows! But. Her strict parents drilled into her that her marriage would be one that benefits their family, feelings and romance be damned, giving her an overall bitter feeling toward the idea. Additionally, the man who owns her heart is...not one for conventional weddings, period. It was already a shock to see him dressed up for the Banquet at all. And their bond is already one that has transcended eons and lightyears, to declare their union in a ceremony seems very insignificant in comparison. There will be opportunities to dress up, but a wedding as the setting is unlikely for the time being.

What AU would they belong in the best?

See it's funny, because all three of them come from other fandoms, technically making ffxiv the AU!

Of the three of them, however, Eden's characterization was developed the most in xiv, and it's become a little difficult to fit her into other universes without having to change large parts of her (such as her memory loss and future-sight Echo). If I had to pick one AU she would do well in, it's one where she can flex her full queenly self to its max, so something in the fantasy/historical fiction genre would fit her. If she finds herself

Kiana is meant to be an underdog protagonist, so she's very flexible on where she can go. I do still carry a soft spot for her original incarnation as a surprise Dragon Rider in the war between the Varden and the Empire. She's most recently found herself in a small YGO 5'Ds AU with a few friends.

Airi is also very flexible on which universes she can go into, she usually fits into the role of the rich family's runaway heiress (think Lucy from Fairy Tail), who like any Disney princess just wants more than whatever stifling role her parents want to force her into. Bonus points if she's able to meet a brooding world-weary grump who slowly warms up to and falls in love with her over the course of the story (psst Shay that's your queue)

[kunstpause-archive]

FFXIV Write Prompt #19 - Where the Heart is

‘Where the heart is…’

The saying is far older than the body he currently inhabits. And yet far younger than his mind is. It came into existence somewhere in between.

After the sundering.

A saying about home. The place, or the person, where one would always want to return to.

A simple concept. And a quite natural thing.

The first time he hears the phrase, he scoffs at it. Mortals and their limited view. Putting stumbling, gangly words together to crudely describe something so true, so natural, with their incomplete language. It is barely worth his time.

Over the centuries, though, he learns to appreciate their childish attempts at describing the world around them. They are still so far beneath him, and they make no effort to grow, but listening to them long enough, he can see some beauty in their crudeness. Can see their fumbling for what it is - an attempt to give form to the things that can not be grasped. 

They can’t make their thoughts take shape after all. They have never learned how to color the world with what they feel. They can’t take what is inside their hearts and make it manifest into pure beauty.

So they use words, descriptions, and every comparison under the sun. They refine them and distill them into phrases that stand the test of time, that linger on long after their creators are dead. Like children, learning how to walk, he often thinks. And over the many years, they start running.

The way they use words reminds him strangely of concepts sometimes. He would never admit it out loud, but sometimes he is something akin to impressed when he sees them fill an empty space with their ideas and make something new. And he grows fond of what they are doing somehow. They fill the blank pages of a book with stories that come to life in front of his eyes on grand stages. From nothing, they learn to create whole new worlds. 

Fondness becomes a passion, and soon he watches the actors on stage, faithfully delivering their lines, and something clasps around his heart. They are so different from what he has lost. And yet, when he sees them perform, he sometimes thinks they are the same. They play their parts as he does his own. On a grand stage, keeping the people watching in suspense. But they can never deviate from their script. They create a story, reel people in, and take them on a journey with them. And if they are as good as he is, then, for the smallest of moments, their audience believes them wholeheartedly.

If they are good, it feels almost real.

(It isn’t.)

The act always ends. The curtain always falls. The next day begins, and with it, another journey. For them as well as for him. And no matter how real it sometimes appears, it never quite feels like home.

(Except, when it does.)

When he sees the Warrior of Light, he sees them act, just like him, as they share the same stage, like puppets on strings. And he has no idea why the phrase is on his mind again. 

(But he knows.) 

He plays his part, and for a moment, one big, beautiful moment, he is so good at it, it feels real to him as well.

‘Home is where the heart is.’

He laughs bitterly at the words. He wishes he could still shrug them off as he did before. Could still pretend they are silly and untrue. But even he is not that good of an actor.

Emet-Selch can see it right in front of him. A vain yearning for a home. He sees, and feels, and knows where his heart is. It lies just out of reach. 

(Bathed in light.)

But in the end, his heart doesn’t matter. Can not matter. It is but a feather against the weight of his soul. Emet-Selch knows that he can never go home.

Not when his soul is the very chain keeping his heart in check.

The show must go on, and he plays his part.

And remains, as always, tempered.

[sealer-of-wenkamui]

So I recently got to this line in Haukke Manor, which struck me as particularly important, so I took a screenshot.

And then I've been comparing just how bad the EN script is in comparison, because it often hides/omits information, drastically alters names of things, changes lines, and changes the way characters come across and I happened to check this line. And its just STRAIGHT UP GONE. As if they want to make the ascians come across as pure evil with no possibly understandable goal.

The JP is something like "We are the heavenly envoys, the ascians..... ....We are those who will drive out the light with the dark so this planet may regain its "true form"". I only know vague spoilers, but this seems like an extremely important bit of info about them which the loc decided to omit entirely.

[yzareenxiv]

FFXIV Write 2021 - 2: Aberrant

Aberrant

((TW: Mild body horror))

Two figures walking in perfectly harmonious steps through the jungle-esque territory where the trees’ hearts beat in their bark and their sap bled thick ichorous blood. Two figures with bows and quivers on their rounded backs. They hunched as they walked, backs bowed, legs digitigrade but ending in feet clad in leather-like boots. An odd number of eyes between the two of them, uncountable for when one would close on the first figure, it may reopen on the second, or where it first appeared, or not at all. It made them excellent hunters.

They were hungry. The flow of aether that the world-eater had brought to this region had abruptly ceased and the two had been forced back to ranging their territory daily for sustenance.

Both stopped and turned their heads in perfect synchronicity as a flock of small prey abruptly took wing, screaming and calling at each other.

One flat voice stated. “Strange.” The second replied in the exact same tone. “Very.”

“Should we examine further?” “Let’s.”

They turned together and walked single-file down a game path in the darkness, the ever-shifting purples, reds, pinks, blacks of the sky providing enough ambient light for their feet to find the way. They stepped into a small place where the creeping, hissing, whispering foliage had been broken, many branches still keening softly as the ichor bled from them into the ground. Together, they laid their many eyes on the figure that lay sprawled in the midst of the clearing.

The second spoke first. “Is it dead?”

The first replied quickly but in the same flat affect. “No. Look, it’s breathing.”

“So it is.”

“What is it.”

“A new creation of the Queen-mother.”

“No. It is something stranger.”

“Something new.” The flat tone did not match the surprised way in which the many eyes blinked.

“Possibly.”

“How odd.”

“Agreed.”

The aberrant being on the ground groaned very softly and the two hunters went silent as one, turning their heads to watch. One limb moved. Another. A third, fourth, and fifth, though the fourth had a strange way of flopping around in comparison to the others. Protuberances from the head moved, twitched. The hunters slung their bows from their shoulders together, other hands reached back for arrows that they did not yet nock.

Spring-green eyes opened slowly, the color unimaginably vivid in this place and both hunters recoiled. The creature on the ground blinked several times, the black in it’s eyes very wide. It’s breathing was harsh and sped up as it pushed itself up and looked around in a fashion that was unmistakably alert, frightened.

“I do not like this.” The first muttered.

“No.” The second agreed.

“We should report it.”

“We should…” The voice trailed away.

“You disagree.” The words were stated, as all the others, flat and emotionless, but several of the eyes swiveled to look at it’s kin.

“I want to catch it.”

A beat of silence. The creature on the ground was holding forelimbs to it’s head, moving very slowly and carefully. Injured?

The hunters watched it, the first finally stating. “Cache it in a tree. Then we will report it.”

The second seemed satisfied. “Yes.”

The creature on the ground turned what must have been sensory processors of some kind- ears?- towards them before those wide eyes turned their direction. It garbled something, the snarl transcending language, and began to carefully pull itself together into a crouch. It’s eyes continued to frantically dart around as the “ears” turned swiftly. The hunters nocked their arrows, drew, fired in smooth synchronicity.

The creature in the clearing let out a startled, pained shriek as it was struck in left shoulder and right calf. It tried to turn and break and the hunters eyes widened at how fast it moved, even injured, but only a few steps forward before the mild paralytic on the arrows ensnared it and it went down, the fifth appendage being the last thing to move as if in defiance.

The hunters moved together to break the arrow-shafts while leaving the heads in their prize. They finally ceased to move in a pair as one lifted the creature and the other pulled a binding from it’s belt. The hunters stopped in their motions and sniffed the air. Aether. The creature appeared to be...bleeding it?

Their eyes fluttering in bliss in a way that made them rapidly appear and disappear, the hunters opened wide the mouths in their torsos and allowed themselves the indulgence of licking the wounds clean with wide tongues. The flow of aether became sluggish, ceased, as their saliva hardened over the wounds.

“We could keep it.” said the second.

“No.”

“No.”

“We will cache it, then report it. And be rewarded.”

“Yes.”

Satisfied, they wrapped the strange creature in a blanket, tied it off, and cached the bag in the branches of the heart-beat trees, where the foliage hissed and whispered around it.

[mottledscales]

Voice Reference: Muunokhoi

► ACCENT

“country” (?) │ “backwoods” │ “sailor” │ “noble” │ foreign speaker | “The Queen’s English”

As one might expect, Eorzean is not Muunokhoi’s first language and as a result his words tend to be fairly accented. Those of the Khatayin and Ura tribes might find it familiar as it and its dialect are specific to the Tail mountain range. Similarly, Xaela of the Azim Steppe might consider his accent noticeably different from their own.  However, as it has been many years since he was last in the company of his own tribe or anyone with a similar manner of speaking, it has lightened considerably.

► ELOQUENCE

educated │ uneducated │ doesn’t use conjunctions │ shortens words │ just makes up their own words  │ old English │

When he speaks -rare as it is- he often paints a very different picture than the hulking behemoth that he is...depending on the language he’s currently utilizing. Old Auri, Doman, and Common all share a somewhat similar level of proficiency for him, with the former being his strongest and Doman a close second. In both of these, Muunokhoi is eloquent and well-spoken, which might seem like a departure from his hulking physique. He does falter occasionally, particularly in Common or Eorzean, and is prone to pausing while he tries to remember word in those languages he might know instinctively in others. Or vice-versa.

► TONE

loud │ soft │ room volume │ high pitched │ low pitched │seductive │velvety │ speech impediment │ abrasive │ gruff │ shrill │ booming │ matter-of-fact │ toneless │ husky │ gravelly │ breathy │ nasal │ barking │ chatty │ condescending │ musical │suave │ world-weary │ brash │ authoritative │ lisp

So...there’s two tones one might hear out of Muunokhoi. If you’re a stranger or he’s in public, he’ll speak in a monotone rumble. It’s soft, but due to the depth and low pitch, his voice tends to travel well. Its a conscious effort, he prefers to be inconspicuous. If you’re a friend -or a child- you’ll earn his openness, fluctuations in tone according to his mood, etc. He’ll still remain quiet, for the most part, but he’ll come off less robotic or stoic. Its uncommon for him to yell or to raise his voice, but when he does, it booms. Particularly his laughter. 

It’s probably worth noting that Muunokhoi does possess a speech impediment in the form of halting, almost-stutter like stops at times. That’s further covered in This Ask

► HABITS

incorporates different languages / terms / sayings │ uses gender-specific terms │ adapts to audience │ changes pitch around animals or children │ shifts tone when lying │ gives others nicknames │ uses terms of respect towards others │ pauses in mid-sentence to work out the the right word │ incorporates colorful descriptors / analogies

Usually you’ll hear him say “Mr [Name]/Ms [Name]/Mx [Name]” to refer to any adult, honorifics when using the appropriate language for them, and titles of those he knows to possess them, though the latter of these is sometimes a point of amusement, rather than respect. Muunokhoi tends to be respectful to a level that can be aggravating if you want to be casual with him. He still refers to his closest friend is still “Mister Myym’sae” more often than not, and Shirojishi is still “Mister Gyokuro” There’s...rare instances of him dropping formality. Few and far between, those.

► VOICE REFERENCE

Christopher Judge as Kratos from the most recent God of War is a spot-on comparison for the depth and gravelly feel of Muunokhoi’s voice. Video is full of puns and dad-jokes. You’ve been warned.

Tagged by: @ffxiv-sunderedsouls Hell yeah. Thanks my dude.

Tagging: Hmmmmn. @myymsaetayuun, @kiin-tsu-gii, @teebster, @hadriandemara-ffxiv, @dread-adumbration​, @black-water-tia​

[elfyourmother]

Star Emoji for the bit in A Warmer Hearth where Gisele is reading up on Ishgard, if you have anything for that?

that was a really fun part to write tbh

Gisele’s is fundamentally a fish out of water story, though much less so as time goes on and she’s more rooted in Eorzea

generally she adapts well to new situations, it’s one of her greatest strengths, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t faced with culture shock at times and I like dealing with those subtle reminders that she’s not actually from Eorzea, and her points of reference for things are sometimes starkly different

cuz like, you might look at Ishgard and Orlais and be like “what’s one fake fantasy France or another?” but they really could not be more different when you start digging, and some differences are really rather jarring. the language is the same (though canon claims it died out, I find it totally ridiculous--I actually despise the way language is treated in FFXIV’s world building, it’s an uncommonly lazy handwave for an otherwise deeply thoughtful setting and one of the few things I really take issue with, so I ignore that. besides, an insular city-state like Ishgard with a strong distrust of outsiders would absolutely hold onto old Elezen dialect as a point of pride, why would they let their language die out, or care about the lingua franca of a realm they set themselves apart from much less adopt it? lmao like it’s not a total 1:1 comparison but try to roll up on your average Québécois or Parisian and demand they speak only English and see what reaction you get)

the religion thing is especially fascinating to me bc how would someone raised in the Andrastian chantry, even against her will, view the Ishgardian Orthodox Church? her whole life in the Circle she was taught male priests are illegitimate and Tevinter heresy and was raised on horror stories of the Black Divine’s perfidy and here Ishgard’s whole ass church is run by a man. Gisele was not remotely Andrastian but she’s got that innate cultural bias at work just because of the societal context in which she was raised and that’s why she never trusted Thordan from the beginning. she couldn’t help herself.

but like that sort of thing is what makes a good crossover imo. it’s not just finding obvious parallels (that’s boring tbh) but digging deeper into how these kinds of aspects of world A shape a character and how does that then color their perception of world B.

[of-the-wine-dark-sea]

Voice Headcanons - Tanith

Bold what applies to your muse, italicize situational ones. Feel free to add your own suggestions and carry it on.

► ACCENT: “country” │ “backwoods” │ “sailor” │ “noble” │ foreign speaker | “The Queen’s English”  │

► ELOQUENCE: educated │ uneducated (not entirely, she tends to code switch a lot, depending on the crowd)  │ doesn’t use conjunctions │ shortens words │ just makes up their own words │ old English

► TONE: loud │ soft │ room volume │ high pitched │ low pitched │seductive │velvety │ speech impediment │ abrasive │ gruff │ shrill │ booming │ matter-of-fact │ toneless │ husky │ gravelly │ breathy │ nasal │ barking │ chatty │ condescending │ musical │suave│ world-weary (after a few couple drinks) │ brash │ authoritative │ lisp

► HABITS: refers to self in third person plurals │ incorporates different languages / terms / sayings │ uses gender-specific terms │ adapts to audience │ changes pitch around animals or children │ shifts tone when lying │ gives others nicknames │ uses terms of respect towards others │ incorporates colorful descriptors / analogies

► VOICE REFERENCE

I had a hard time finding a reference I was happy with, since I imagine her “sailor’s accent” would incorporate more of a Bristolian sort of feel, while maintaining the occasional unintentional change in tone - as she traveled Eorzea and the far east extensively in her youth.

My favorite comparison I could find would be Courtenay Taylor’s performance with Jack, from the Mass Effect series. The voice has the right mix of seductive versus brash versus aloof vocal fry, and let’s be honest - profanity - that I was looking for (at least in my opinion ^^””), as for the sailor-esque tone, we just have to imagine for now.

You can sample Courtenay’s great voice performance, here! : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo8qYn4EG0w

Stolen from: @chanaihimaa​ & @hadriandemara-ffxiv​ (Cause it looked cute, and I felt like it~)

If you copy this from me, please tag me so I can check it out! ^^