#ffxiv rambles

[celest-star-collection]

I am so bad at sharing art consistently but AAAA here is my attempt

Was having trouble figuring out her appearance/body type but here it is, a character idea I have had for a while that I finally made with one of my wives, Artemis @glassknight and a bestie Sami @shadowchroma

Name: Anima Grave ["Soul; Breath; Spirit"]

Real name: Isolde Briarrose ["Fair lady; Iron ruler, Ice ruler; Thorny Rose"]

Origin: Lapis Manalis a small village in Cerulean Ingens, Ilsabard

Occupation: Butcher, Now "Warrior of Darkness" Anima Primal Proxy

Ancient name: TBA

Nameday: 10/31

Race: Garlean/Midlander, Hyur

Gender: Female

Age: ~28 (ARR)

Sexuality: Demisexual

Height: 5'2”

Relationship status: Single, Uninterested at the moment

Fighting style: (MNK) -> later (RPR)

Fighting style: Agile, swift, very mobile and a lot of aerial movements/flips. Will go for the knockout/kill shot when open. Will steal the LB from Tsu

Trivia:

- Due to being the proxy of a primal Isolde ages much much slower than she should. Aging a year for every 5-10 after she reached her prime.

- Grew up knowing and having been raised around reapers so she has the aptitude for it but not the skills yet at the start. After meeting Drusilla again after 20 years the old woman decided to train them properly for it.

- Is obsessed with death, animals and plants, has a hard time understanding people but would like to try.

- Alyx is the oldest of the group, follower by Tsu and then Anima.

- Her chocobo's name is Corpseguard, he is a pure black chocobo

Tsukuyomi is Sami’s girl and Alyxander is Arte’s.

Base for the first made by DesireeU on DA.

[okami-zero]

More Dawntrail Ramblings

And while this is only...mildly spoiler-y for the...mid to second half of things, I will put a readmore for spoiler avoidance.

So, this is very much a ramble, and honestly nothing earth-shattering, but I found the focus on memory in the latter half of things was very similar in some ways to what we learn with Wuk Lamat during the feats hosted by the Yok Huy, and their belief around how no one is ever truly dead, so long as they are remembered. This echoes/is based on real world cultural beliefs (I recall reading about them in Mexico, but they are likely more widespread, I am sure) that are very similar, linking remembrance and death and how they are related, etc.

The thing that has ping-ponged around in my brainbox is how the efforts of Preservation created the Endless from their own memories (and likely memories of others who knew them), and is kind of like the Yok Huy's beliefs. But at the same time, it is very different and... kind of hollow. Because the people who would be remembering those they lost are bereft of that ability, indeed having those memories just removed POOF! As if their loved ones never existed. Though people close to the deceased retain some small shadow of recollection - "I had two parents, but I don't remember their names or what they were like" - I find this to be the Regulators's most insidious function. We do meet at least one person who seems to retain a little bit more than most about their long dead parent, and we find out that people who do not have Regulators when they die remain in the memories of those they knew and loved. But for those hooked into the system, them simply vanish "into the cloud". And THAT is a phrase that knocked me for a loop, because I have worked in and adjacent to IT and was kind of horrifed that people's very memories and essence were being shunted into cloud data storage (and it kind of was, too. O.o)

But the thing that niggled at me the whole time I am running through the MSQ is how very close, and yet how so very FAR from the Yok Huy tradition the whole system is (not even getting into souls as a commodity, me and Akagi almost BSOD'd learning about that whole deal). Because, instead of those who loved and knew and cared for these people being able to remember them, they are robbed of the ability, which is then given over to basically giant fucking storage servers. To be "remembered" by machines. And recreated as a facsimiles of themself based on their (and I assume, others stoeln) memories. It's a broken mirror reflection of the Yok Huy traditions and a very interesting point to present.

And I have seen people going "oh we killed all those Endless, we committed mass murder"! Bestie, they were already dead. Those are all ghosts - quite literally ghosts in a machine. (Which is not the exact meaning of that phrase, but you get it). "But okami," you might say, "they were living and walking around and experiencing joy and wonder and life!"

Were they, though?

Imagine someone dies before they turn, say, 15. If they had a Regulator, not only do they vanish from the lives of everyone who knew them, they are now, if recreated as an Endless, eternally a child. Never aging, never growing up, never maturing. They are locked in that state, and while it looks like there can be experiences in Living Memory, it's not really life. That kind is now forever a kid, and their existence is now tied to that state forever. And we even meet some Endless who are very much unsure of whether they are really happy with their lot, because they are locked in stasis, basically. Yes, we did reunite that one fellow with his childhood love, and he was able to propose to her, as he had been unable to do in life, which was honestly one of my favorite quests. So there is SOME change, but... it's kind of like a pseudo-afterlife that is materially unsustainable. That would exist at the cost of other worlds and lives. Sacrificing the living to preserve the dead. And possibly create EVEN MORE ENDLESS, which would exacerbate the issue even further. All the sustain a stagnant amusement park full of ghosts.

So yea, this whole ramble to say that Living Memory's terminals juxtaposed with the Yok Huy sepulchres was really neat, and Living Memory and Spehene's existence was so very, very sad. And I am really enjoying Dawntrail.

Also...

DID ANYONE ELSE NOTICE AZEM'S SYMBOL POP UP OVER THE TOP OF THE KEY?! CAUSE I SURE DID!!! AND I WAS BOUNCING IN MY SEAT!

[rin-khatayin]

Pictured: local woman reaches for clown makeup bag upon reaching Solution 9

(Current Dawntrail sentiment: Zones 1-3 FUN! Zone 4 & cutscenes OH BOO. BORING. BOO. Zone 5: I'm listening 👀)

[clearlitebergaming]

i draw nothing but pictomemecer in my spare time lately

and probably will resumes when dawntrail drops

cbu3 is such an enabler

[grollow]

brain still yelling at me that i want to write sing come twilight because i have an incredibly based idea for it

and then the awful skunk appears on my dash

now brain playing who brings shadow on repeat

god i miss that expac

[vagabond-sol]

Oh boy! I can feel it coming! The need to rearrange/rewrite Caz lore because nothing can sit still forever. Eh at least it’s fun to do.

[rynpost]

Side note - it's during the beginning of ShB that Rynianger starts ramping up. When Urianger goes down shortly after Thancred, Rynia is distraught, more so than she was expecting, but she has to put it aside to help Alisaie.

When Thancred tells her they're heading to Urianger's house she starts rushing forward, desperate to see him again even if she won't admit it to herself. Thancred knows, though. She bursts into tears on seeing Urianger and flings herself at him, and he is so caught off guard by it that he actually picks her up and holds her close just for a moment.

Thancred stands there smirking while MinfiliRyne is just like ?????

[ravyncursing]

thoughts at the end of the universe

recently added some glowy hair to his normal hair and i vibe with it. i like to think that it's the excess dynamis he channels, in place of aether he physically can't channel.

[otterpedia]

so I guess I'm really going for it- the title for maxing out my Trust levels in Shadowbringers

my lalafell alt is my achievement hunter and now he threatens to take over the position of main at the rate things are going

I'm so proud of the lil guy

[blackwhitecheck]

I had a dream last night that I was replaying Shadowbringers and I was right at the end of it.

The Scions stormed Amaurot/the Garlean castle (which was all encased in ice for some reason) and the boss fight was about to begin. For some reason the game let me skip the fight because I was doing a New Game+, so the next thing I knew I was standing outside the ruins of the (ice) Garlean castle beside Emet-Selch, who was standing where the gate used to be, holding a huge tome containing hundreds of years of Garlean history, with a particularly dejected look on his face.

Usually when I dream I'm playing video games, at some point I'm not dreaming about playing anymore, and I start dreaming that I AM my player character. In this case, I was my WoL Alkahest, and when Emet-Selch and I looked at eachother I said

"Well I'm not sure what you expected us to do after you did what you did."

[celest-star-collection]

My FFXIV hyperfixation has returned and I am excited cause some friends asked me to teach them the game! So hyped to show them around!

More ranting about new character ideas to play with them under the cut, talks are a little endwalker spoilers but I wanna put my thoughts into a concise box of information

Name: Belial Levent ["Worthless; Roughish"]

Real name: Sabri Ümit Kivanç ["Patient; Hope; Pride and Joy]

Origin: Yedlihmad, Thavnair

Occupation: Former Military Commander, Now Warrior of Light

Ancient name: Phobos, an ancient who spent their life in pursuit of understanding all of the emotions felt and why, an expert in Dynamis research.

Nameday: 04/15

Race: Veena, Viera

Gender: Male

Age: ~41 (ARR)

Sexuality: Bisxeual

Height: 6'0”

Relationship status: Single, Unsure but wants to be a father.

- WIDOWED, Father of two children DONT YOU JUDGE ME THE STORY IS SLOWLY WRITING ITSELF

Fighting style: (WAR) -> later (DRK)

Long breaking swipes intended to knock enemies off balance, wide swings to hit with as much force as possible, No Mercy.

Will probably edit (still in character creation making him or make a new post) for every expansion talking about his experience especially with his little light party

[okami-zero]

Back-to-back posts! Look at me being a chatty mofo today! :P

Anyway!

I saw an FFXIV post that mentioned Azem's mask being black. Which I did not recall ever seeing anything about in-game. Now, there are game details I might have missed or forgotten, either because I was straightrunning MSQ or said MSQ had me in tears (gaawwd this game made me cry SO MUCH .>.<. ), but after poking some things, it appears that yes, the Convocation all had red masks EXCEPT for Azem, who wore a black mask. And I assume white masks were what everybody else wore (were they all silver filligreed like Hyth, Venat, Themis and Erichthonios, or was that something that only high-standing society members had?).

But, we also see... let's call them "minion-level", Ascians wearing black masks. And the Shadowhunter has black masks on his belt. And we know that Azem did not side with either the Convocation and their summoning of Zodiark, nor did they side with Venat's faction and their summoning of Hydaelyn. AND we know that the Convocation saw this as Azem defecting, refused to keep their memories in a crystal (Hades little but of shenaniganry notwithstanding). I wonder if they gave the minion-level Ascians black masks as kind of snub to Azem, like an insult to insinuate they were equivalent to these "lesser" Ascians.

It's an interesting brain weasel I thought I'd share.

[haunted-xander]

I made this AAAAGES ago and forgot to post it and now I'm annoyed by how it's rotting away on my phone so here. Bratty teen Thancred being a menace to Fourchenault (and a bad influence on Urianger lol)

[celestefox13]

One of my favorite parts about Dawntrail is that no one knows who the WoL is.

Like, Koana has a vague idea, sure, and Galool Ja Ja clocks that we're far from average in an instant, but no one else has a fucking clue who this adventurer the Third Promise brought with her is.

Cause it leads to so many moments that are absolutely hilarious for us as players (and arguably our WoLs if you rp).

The way every threat of violence against the WoL and the party, and every "I bet you've never seen anything like this" could absolutely get one of the responses about:

-how we've slain eikons and gods,

-how we've saved the Star multiple times,

-how we've channeled (and honestly probably still have some of) the power of dragons,

-how we've been to other worlds, the past, and the edge of existence

And instead we get to respond with things that are effectively intimidating smiles and humble confidence.

It's not "Bitch, you don't who you're messing with."

It's "Yeah, ok, bud." Which is arguably the funnier and the more insulting of the options.

This is Stormblood all over again, but x2 cause we've done so much more than help settle revolutions by now. 😂

[sohm-wehs]

going through the crystal tower quests on Fornhesh and i forgot how much of a dork g'raha is, I missed this little dweeb. he's so small.... Little dude

[ecosystem-administrator]

Teleportation magic in FFXIV is actually the craziest thing

like, it's established so early on you don't have to think about it, and I expect the writers also didn't think too hard about it when they were first putting together the worldbuilding. but we teleport through the Lifestream. we dip in and out of the afterlife every time we go anywhere long-distance. and this is such a normal part of everyday life that major settlements basically all have giant crystals in the middle that are meant to facilitate this kind of travel.

and to be absolutely fair, in a world where the afterlife really was a place underground, we totally would build a subway system through it and put Hades in charge. it's not like it doesn't make sense, it's just. wild.