#florem

[fyodior]

today’s mood

[lunaflorem]

Poem by Nakahara Chuya

[goddesstrolls]

support group for trolls named Hanabi or something similar

[inatungulates]

Stevenson's klipspringer Oreotragus oreotragus stevensoni

Observed by florem, CC BY-NC

[bunnibeezness]

Please welcome my new OC, Ginger. She's from Florem (Bravely Default), i made her to be Xigbar's cute little secret girlfriend, and they're both perverts.

More to come!

[ninesnowfang]

Ramble about Bravely Default's offensive spells and why they're bad and how Bravely Second made it amazing

first of all i'm gonna mention that i will default to BD for bravely default and BS for bravely second in this, BD2 isn't gonna be mentioned much if at all. I will also note that this is mostly stated for boss encounters since regular encounters are so easy it barely matters what you use, any sort of AoE spammed enough will clear the encounter, This will also talk about Hard mode being the played difficulty (normal and especially casual mode you can literally run whatever and it'll work) BD has probably the worst magic in any "final fantasy" style RPG i've ever played, it's very strong SUPER early on (aka once you get it) and no further than the first optional asterisk holder it's already becoming so weak comparitively to the sheer damage output that thief and its massive agility stat lets you do, this is partially because of bosses not having many elemental weaknesses to exploit and also because rods don't give magic attack via proficiency, a Brawler and a Black Mage will get the exact same amount of magic attack from the same rod which holds back magic starting late Florem or early Eisen. It's also held back by Spell Fencer taking away what COULD be its niche, having elemental variety to exploit any and all weaknesses if a boss DOES have them (mostly crystal bosses). By the time you get Hunter especially there's no longer much reason to use magic at all offensively thanks to hawkeye taking away the one issue physical attacks could have, that being the chance of missing or whiffing to many hits, doubly so once you get the strongest class in the game aka Ninja. Lastly the amount of JP needed as well as magical damage support being incredibly scarce as the game goes on compared to physical support (merchant's crit boost, quick, agility boosting equipment and ofc spellblade) just makes it an awful feel to use it compared to mowing down enemies with pyhsical damage. Then comes BS and your literal first asterisk you get is wizard with the glorious Spellcraft ability, Spellcraft lets you change your spells with different properties, need a priority spell that does 1.5x its original damage/heal? level 2 of the class which you reasonably get before the bella/cu fight where you really want those lightning darts, enemy magic defense too high? at level 4 you get spellcraft: hammer which deals PHYSICAL damage based on your magic attack, it can also crit for double damage, the same spellcraft level also gives you mist which keeps the spell on the side you cast it on for a few turns, this can be used with healing spells or even REVIVES, the next spellcraft tier includes wall, a counter that casts the spell after getting hit by a physical attack and blast which turns the spell used into an AoE and boosts the effect of it. So yeah Wizards give you a massive utility boost right out of the start with any caster you get… and it somehow also has the highest intelligence stat in the game + the now SCALING magic attack rods which lets you use magic offensively throughout the game… especially with the last spellcraft tier where you get spellcraft: Rain, changing the spell to be cast four times with no effect boost besides that.

This works with meteor and every hit does capped out damage and with the right setup you can do this 14 times per full brave turn, that is 56 capped damage hits which no boss in the game can survive. But it costs a ton of MP so unless there's a simple way to take care of that you really won't be able to spam it...

thankfully MP free in a pinch + ghost status turns these frail glass canons into a zero risk maximum reward team setup that obliterates the entire game and you can get that setup going at around 60% of the game being complete. Now how does physical stack up to that? well, magic is far easier to use in BS but physical builds have a lot of neat new tools too, fencer in particular is such a good class that it's worth using as a sortof hybrid tank and DPS or main DPS. thanks to spellcraft on Supportive magic like keeping up buffs every turn, immediately rebuffing someone with dart after they were just revived it doesn't really matter what kind of build you go for, hell use both magic and physical in the same team it's ABSOLUTELY viable in this game because Bravely Second is probably the most free "just go nuts it'll work somehow" class based RPG i've ever played and that's likely going to stay that way

On that note just to have it mentioned, BD2 also has good class balance as long as you ignore beast tamer and freelancer overshadowing the other classes as main jobs due to sheer stats, the game also has a good mix of phys and magic balance so it's another sorta "just use whatever lol" game, but not to the degree of BS

[lunerabo]

florem agreste

cw: self ship, SuguLune (Suguru/Lune), hunting/animal death mention, implied smut, major character death, gore, much shorter than my usual stuff

Note: @mydarlingdahlia 🫵 inspired by u! Mainly because I forgot self ship fics were a thing you can do. But I liked yours and wanted to write my own :3

He had first caught sight of her—a sight he had ignored—in school. Lune was foreign, that much he could tell just by looking at her, and hadn’t been here long, which he could tell by listening to her speak. But Satoru was too distracting, because how could he not be, and few conversations between the two were ever had. They had fed each other their names, known of each other’s backgrounds, and no more. They were not friends. She had watched silently from the background as he lost his mind, and promptly disappeared soon after him.

He remembers her hunting ground. He remembers the arrow between the ribs of the doe, and the one in the tree trunk inches from his face. It had been snowing. She was not suited for the cold, and her aim wavered as she shivered. She had missed. She didn’t like being followed, especially not when she had taken measures to prevent being found.

He recalls asking for her help. Telling her she had no reason to join him, nothing to gain and everything to lose, but he was desperate. Despite his composed demeanor, raising two children by himself at his age was a daunting task, and one he had been wholly unprepared for. He needed the help.

He hadn’t fallen for her immediately. She was a wild animal kept in his home, coaxed into eating from his hand without biting, letting him touch her without fleeing. The wilds of Japan were not her natural habitat but the desert was ruthless and the forest forgiving, and having grown in the conditions that she had made her suited for everything but the cold. The cold. The cold that swayed her decision to allow him to bring her into the warmth of his home, of his arms, of his bed. He did love her, as wild as she was.

But to love her was to burn beneath her sun, to blister, to boil in his skin.

He walks with legs that aren’t his, to a home he’s not certain he’ll be welcome in.

Poor fool, he thinks, as he cards through memories of her and wonders what she dreamed that night, that night that she lay bare and asleep beside him, ears twitching and nose wrinkling. He could swear her skin had scorched him when he held her, burned his tongue when it met hers. He had dispelled her nightmare with a gentle hand, feeling her breath, her pulse, the swell of her ribs, the stretch of her muscle. This was, he had determined, someone walking the line between man and beast. This was someone who could and would have his throat between her jaws if she wanted to every time she nudged her face there, and chose instead to kiss. Perhaps if he had never needed help—had simply left the wildlife alone—she wouldn’t be in this predicament. If only he had never traced the contours of her spirit with his fingertips, never looked into charcoal eyes, never buried his face into dry curls, bleached a rust hue by the very sun whose heat he couldn’t handle.

It’s so interesting, he muses, that the head he now holds between his hands contains this entire past. Such lovely memories to think of, yet it isn’t savoring any of them. This head screams and cries as he crushes it, thumbs digging into eye sockets and blood seeping from ears, as blunt nails rake across his arms. Skull caved in and face a messy pulp, she at last falls, as all things do.

Not him, though.

Kenjaku merely wipes his hands of her filth.

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Edepol ego neque florem neque floces volo, mihi vinum volo.

- Caecilius

Goddammit, I don’t want the froth or the dregs, I want WINE!”

[yukirayu]

Lyrics: “Denshō no Uta -Verum-”

While the opening theme of the VN got an English translation, the same couldn’t be said for its good ending theme, “Verum”. 

As such, I tried to see what the lyrics could possibly mean by getting both the Latin and the Japanese lyrics from the soundtrack booklet and crossreferencing the translations of the lyrics in both languages. 

So know that this is just an edited MTL of the lyrics. Take the (attempt at a) translation with a grain of salt. Still, I hope you enjoy knowing how you can possibly read the lyrics and what the song intended to convey, since Lamento has one of the best soundtracks I’ve ever heard in a visual novel. 

......

“Denshō no Uta -Verum-” “伝承の詩 -Verum-” (Note: The word verum is Latin for “truth”.)

Performed by: Kanako Itou

Lyrics

Let me tell you something important now: the truth is hidden Dicam rem gravem, nunc: veritas est celata 螺旋 翔け昇り 届け･言葉･想い

It continues to exist, unravaged by the flow of time sed tempus eam possit perdere et violare が、時の流れに決して揺るがず、在り続けるのだ

He stood in the midst of disaster, death, defamation, and damnation In calamitate, morte, fama, in maledictio, erat ibi hic 災害、死、噂、呪いの渦中に、彼は佇んでいた

In ruthlessness, conflict and darkness, he stood as an evil omen In misericorde, bello, tenebris, ut ipsus malus stabat hic 非情､争い、闇、その中で禍々しさの象徴として彼は立っていた

In blasphemy and impiety, there he stood as a form that inspired fear In blasphemia, impietate, in terribli forma est hic 冒涜、邪悪の中、恐ろしい姿で、彼はそこにいた

The screams resounded from the void, “Is that form real? Is it not an illusion? Is it real or not?” In clamore, vanitate: Estne vera forma, non vera? Non vera? 叫び、空虚の中:真実の姿なのか? 真実ではないのか? 真実では･･･ない?

Open your eyes, open your eyes and behold! Oculos tuos aperite occulusos, ecce! ごらん! 閉じた瞼あけて

He brought a red flower to an ashen world Rubem florem in canam terram tulit 灰色の世界に、彼は赤い花をもたらした

Hope, that is our only hope Spes, ea spes, sola 希望・・・それは唯一の希望

I’ll share with you the memories and truth of a distant past Memoriam antiquam et veritatem te donam 遠い記憶 そして真理を君に贈ろう

The truth is hidden from sight, but it remains there for eternity Veritas invisibilis est, sed manet, manet in perpetua 真実は見えない しかし失われず 永遠に留まるのだ

Days of peace, laughter and tranquility, of life, fertility and joy Diem pacis, risum, placidem... Vitam, fructum, felicem… 平和な日々、笑い、穏やかさ… 人生、 実り、幸福・・・

Of benevolence and order, of unity, virtue and light Bonitatem, ordinem... Consensum, asquum, lucem… 充足、秩序･･･心の一致、正しきこと 光・・・

Everyone desired them all, and his wounds pained and ached Omnis eos petunt, ergo hujus dolebat vulnus 誰もが、それらを求め 彼の傷は痛んでいた

Quietly, yet certainly Quiete, sed certe 静かに、しかし確実に・・・ 

Does he seek love? Or does he not seek love? Vultne amorem, vel non vult? Vel non vult? O! 彼は愛を求めていたか? あるいは求めていなかったか? ・・･求めていなかった?

My heart and thoughts reach beyond the boundaries of time Trans finem temporis, cor mei, vola 届け 僕の想い 悠久を越えて

He breathes life into the earth In terram hic donat spiritum 彼は大地に息吹を贈る

This is something that I, and only I know Solus ego, solus ego id scio 僕だけが僕だけがそれを知っている

He stood in the midst of damnation In maledictio, erat ibi hic 呪いの渦中に、彼は佇んでいた

He stood as an evil omen Ut ipsus malus stabat hic 禍々しさの象徴として彼は立っていた

He stood as a form that inspired fear In terribli forma est hic 恐ろしい姿で、彼はそこにいた

Is that form real or an illusion? Estne vera, non vera? 真実なのか?真実ではないのか?

Does he seek love or not? Vultne amorem, vel non vult? 彼は愛を求めていたか? あるいは求めていなかったか?

Does anyone know the answer? Quisne id scit? 誰が知っているというのか?

Open your eyes, open your eyes and behold! Oculos tuos aperite occulusos, ecce! ごらん! 閉じた瞼あけて

He brought a red flower to an ashen world Rubem florem in canam terram tulit 灰色の世界に、彼は赤い花をもたらした

Hope, that is our hope Spes, ea spes 希望・・・それは希望

My heart and thoughts reach beyond the boundaries of time Trans finem temporis, cor mei, vola 届け 僕の想い 悠久を越えて

He breathes life into the earth In terram hic donat spiritum 彼は大地に息吹を贈る

This is something that I, and only I know Solus ego, solus ego id scio 僕だけが僕だけがそれを知っている

[bravelyartbooking]

10 Anni Booklet

So I got the 10th anniversary booklet and it is full of VERY old original concept ideas for Bravely. So old that the characters don't even have names.

Bravely Default seems to have been the project name that they just never changed... as they seem to be doing a lot over in Team Asano. Hahaha.

Anyway.

Copying/pasting from my twitter thread:

The AR movie Agnes IS confirmed to be the Agnes from Ringabel's world.

Airy was originally supposed to have (help) started the Crystal Orthodoxy 3000 years ago. Lester "looks" 20, and Yulyana "looks" 70. Victoria was originally stated to be 10. (Updated/official timeline says she's 17, born the same year as Agnes and Praline.)

Alternis was originally 18, changed to 20. Braev was originally 50, changed to 45. Agnes was made vestal when she was 12 (5 years before the start of the story). In the updated/official timeline Alternis was 7 and Edea was 2 when Braev found him. Also Braev found Victoria 2 years later in Florem, as well.

(There's an official timeline in the book that starts 32 years before the beginning of the game, 2 years before the mountains in Eternia began to move (it starts with Ominas Crow being born). It is so tiny I need to scan the page to be legible.)

(In the confirmation that AR Agnes was from Ringabel's world, it says Tiz was already dead and Edea was being "bludgeoned" to death by Airy while Alternis watched fro the shadows. Also there's a helpful diagram of this event.)

Some country concepts were COMPLETELY different. Ancheim was meant to be a country completely ruled by "time" and "schedules". There was a country of magical/endangered animals. Florem was... pretty bleak. Children were raised in an institution and people lived literally underground. Very few marriages for love. Hard to tell in the google lens translation, but men came to Florem specifically for wives.

Orignal Concept Tiz had a sister, not a brother. Anti-Crystalism was a SECRET. Edea had no idea it was a thing! Eisenberg's conflict was over orichalcum, over swordSMITHS and shieldSMITHS, as in... who wanted the materials.

Official timeline says Einheria, Agnes, Jackal were born in Ancheim. Artemia and Mephilia were born in Eternia though (though we knew about Artemia).

Some bad phone pics as highlights:

Anyway here's the twitter thread that contains some blurbs in regard to the planning/concept of each game too:

Seems BS's issues really hurt them.

[volumina-vetustiora]

Bella Ciao in Latin

cum uno mane evigilavi o bella vale, bella vale, bella valeas cum uno mane evigilavi invasorem inveni

o asporta me, commilito mi o bella vale, bella vale, bella valeas o asporta me, commilito mi quia mortem sentio

et si peribo nostra in pugna o bella vale, bella vale, bella valeas et si peribo nostra in pugna me sepelire debebis

me sepelire illic in monte o bella vale, bella vale, bella valeas me sepelire illic in monte subter umbram flosculi

hominesque qui praeteribunt o bella vale, bella vale, bella valeas hominesque qui praeteribunt florem bellum dicent mi

qui bellus flos est pro bellatore o bella vale, bella vale, bella valeas qui bellus flos est pro bellatore qui libertatem petivit

[lunaflorem]

Daffodils 💛

[saintarchie]

The Nile Song

How delicate is this outfit that it can be worn out after six uses?

Last time around, the Hidden Village of the crystalists was wiped out by Einheria. This time, while she is hanging out here for some reason, the place was deserted before she arrived, presumably due to that earthquake that killed Olivia. Maybe not even that; Ringabel describes the place as looking like it’s been deserted for years rather than months. Einheria agrees, noting that she has come here several times now without ever seeing anybody. As for why the place is empty, she has a theory about that: The Orthodoxy’s corruption caused them to rot away and collapse from within.

Agnès is willing to concede that the Orthodoxy’s leadership may well have been corrupt, but also knows for a fact that Einheria has been oppressing ordinary worshippers who have nothing to do with that. Einheria doesn’t deny this; stating that the Duchy’s goal is to get people to renounce crystalism by whatever means necessary, and thus weaken what remains of the Orthodoxy’s power and influence. That said, she isn’t entirely on board with the methods being pursued by the Bloodrose Legion here in Florem. For that reason, she understands Edea’s betrayal, even if she can’t excuse it.

Edea tries to talk her into defecting as well, but Einheria dismisses the idea immediately; she swore an oath to uphold the grand marshal’s ideals and isn’t prepared to break it. The fact that the Legion itself has compromised those ideals doesn’t give her the right to abandon them. I mean... It kind of does though? If anything, the Legion turning away from Braev’s ideals should mean that her oath now compels her to turn away from the Legion. But it would appear not; Einheria’s belief that the world will be better off once freed of crystalism is apparently strong enough to override her sense of virtue. Perhaps inevitably then, she throws down the gauntlet and challenges Edea to pit their ideals against each other.

It feels pretty similar to the first time we fought her. Not too difficult, but takes a long time to get through because every time she uses Spirit Barrier the battle gets dragged out another ten turns.

She uses Spirit Barrier frequently.

Some time later, Einheria is defeated, leaving behind a last request for Edea: meet with Braev in person, and so understand what it is that he’s seeking. Edea is tactful enough not to mention that she already tried this and it didn’t work.

That leaves the Water Temple, and Rusalka, which I remember being kind of a pain to fight, but I can’t remember why. *tries fighting it* Oh right, it can clone itself. Fuck.

[some more time later]

I fucking hate this thing what the fuck.

[even more time later]

OK, that’s done. Fuck. Agnès awakens the Water Crystal without any trouble, but afterwards realises that her Vestal Garb has become so worn out that it won’t be usable for the last two crystals. Which means it needs repairing, which means going to see Yulyana. I had tried looking for him earlier, but the Needleworks were empty, so I guess he only appears after you’ve awoken two crystals.

In any event, he’s there now, but naturally doesn’t recognise his visitors. Or seems not to. When pressed, he describes this meeting as “the third time” but that the party might think of it as “the first”. When Agnès asks what he means by that, he answers with a question of his own: What world are you from? The party are naturally taken aback by this question and everything it implies, Yulyana invites them in to discuss the matter further.

Inside, he asks if Agnès is aware of his role in foundation of the Duchy and his history with DeRosso. He seems rather shocked when she explains that she only knows part of the story, remarking that his future self has been very lax in not telling her everything up front. Who are you, me? Apparently deciding to make up for his other self’s shortcomings, he then tells her to bring her most trustworthy ally (and only that person) to the nearby cave where he’ll tell her more and restore the vestal garb for her.

After he leaves, the party debate which of them should go, with Airy and Ringabel each insisting it ought to be them, while Tiz maintains that Agnès should decide the matter herself. This latter point seems to settle the question in Agnès’s mind, and she asks Tiz to see her outside, much to Edea’s amusement.

Outside, they reminisce about their first meeting and the time they’ve spent together, realising, after a lot of awkward pauses, that Tiz has indeed become her most trusted ally. Returning to the others, they find that Edea & Ringabel are in agreement with this assessment. Airy is less enthusiastic about letting Agnès go off without her, but the others overrule her and send Agnès & Tiz on their way.

In the cave, they find Yulyana, who remarks on what a fine pair they make, lamenting the fact that he's 1,880 years too old to pair up with Agnès himself. For some reason, Agnès seems surprised to learn how old the sage is, even though she already found out about his immortality. Possibly this is the game hedging for the benefit of players who hadn’t gone through the Vampire Castle yet. Regardless, she and Tiz take the revelation(?) in stride and ask Yulyana to tell them what he knows. Yulyana answers their question with a question, asking if they understand what he meant when he described himself as meeting them for the first time. In other words, are they from another timeline? After some hesitation, Agnès admits that they are.

Yulyana asks if Agnès’s only memory of him is from when the previous vestal brought her to see him. Agnès says it is, so I guess they mean “before they met again in the previous timeline”. Yulyana explains that that wasn’t their first meeting; from his perspective, that happened over 1,800 years earlier. Again, Agnès & Tiz act as though they haven’t already heard this story, or known about Yulyana’s immense age. Yulyana gives them a quick recap of his history with DeRosso and the angel they encountered during their final battle, but unlike when DeRosso told this story, Yulyana actually makes note of the significance of Agnès sharing the angel’s appearance.

He also goes into a bit more detail about what she actually said: That before the rise of the old faith, it was thought better for humans not to come in contact with the crystals at all. This was because unleashing the power of the crystals without due care can destroy the borders (of what?), opening the door to something called the Harrowing. Apparently there have been warnings about this since before recorded history, which makes it slightly odd that this is the first we’re hearing about it. Tiz asks the obvious question, but it seems that the angel never actually explained what the Harrowing is, leaving Yulyana to spend the next eighteen centuries trying to figure that out, without success.

He has, at least, got some of it figured out; it isn’t the Great Chasm, although the Chasm is one of the signs that it’s about to happen. He speculates that it could be the environmental damage caused by the corrupted crystals, and Agnès explains that they had managed to solve all of that in the prior timeline and were about to use the Holy Pillar to close up the Great Chasm as well. Yulyana seems sceptical on that last point, noting that the events Agnès describes are exactly what the angel said would happen immediately before the Harrowing.

Bizarrely, nobody involved in this conversation makes the connection to Airy, despite her being the one to come up with this plan. I understand that they’d be reluctant to start assuming the worst of a friend like that, but it’s still weird that the possibility doesn’t seem to have occurred to any of them. Yulyana doesn’t tell the party not to continue reawakening crystals, but does warn them to think carefully about the possible consequences of their actions. As for the sage himself, seeing Agnès has renewed his youthful vigour, and so he’s going off on a journey of his own.

On their way out, Agnès & Tiz consider what they’ve learned, and speculate whether Yulyana actually told them the whole story. “But why would he leave us in the dark?” Who are you, me? Neither can think of a good answer to this question, so they continue on. Outside, the party regroups, but aside from Airy worrying about the strange ideas that Yulyana might have been filling their heads with (like not bringing about the Harrowing, perhaps?) they don’t have much else to say.

This mostly just recapped things we already knew, though we do at least now have a name for the awful thing that we’re being manipulated into causing.

All that remains is to go continue causing it.

[wilyum]

Femina florem carpit

[mercuriicultores]

Theognidis Megarensis – Sententiae elegiacae, 1065-1066

Ἄφρονες ἄνθρωποι καὶ νήπιοι, οἵτε θανόντας κλαίουσ᾽, οὐδ᾽ ἥβης ἄνθος ἀπολλύμενον.

[LAT] Dementes homines et stulti, qui mortuos lugent, non autem adolescentiae florem pereuntem.

[HIS] Hombres insensatos y niños, que lloran a los muertos, pero no lamentan la pérdida de la flor de la juventud.

[rou-luxe]

FLOREM!! THE FASCINATING FLOWER COUNTRY

HIRUMA DEMO USUGURAI HANABIRA NO UCHIGAWA DE-