#going into endwalker i might start like

[tira-misu-0]

GUESS WHO FINALLY OFFICIALLY FINISHED SHADOWBRINGERS

[neriyon]

How about... Claudien and Yulan for the shipping ask!

Ooooh, did not see that one coming!

Biggest hurdle for them is that Yulan is not the WoL so they didn't really meet during MSQ events. But Yulan is a goldsmith with an intense fascination towards mammets, and Claudien is a scholar, so they could theoretically meet due to their jobs. Either with Yulan being contracted to work on mammets in Labyrinthos, or with Yulan being asked about the crystal from pandae questline 🤔

Other than that, I don't really see too many problems for them~ Claudien is a good looking lad, and Yulan would be attracted to both his forward way of speaking his thoughts out loud and his dedication to his work. I can imagine Claudien blurting out his budding crush on Yulan, and the viera lad just going beet red and running off all angry looking, haha. I feel like he'd be forward enough to work it through Yulan's little bursts, and manage to calm the skittish goldsmith down enough to get him to open up about his own feelings.

Or, failing that, they'd be good buddies I think. Just like, chatting about their work, cool rocks found in Aitiascape or something.

[zylphiacrowley]

Heavensward Era

(spoilers for one of the worst-kept secrets in all of XIV below as well as some personal lore for this catboy)

I've been playing around with more of X'vahl's lore between the start of ARR and Endwalker and my brain will not let go of this so allow me to spill some more lore I've been kicking around for him.

So in X'vahl's canon Haurchefant did indeed have romantic feelings for him. It was an open secret and pretty much everyone in Ishgard who knew Haurchefant knew about it. Unfortunately X'vahl did not feel the same way. He counted him as a very close friend but he was still very much in his "I'm not ready for a relationship" mindset as well as some additional "I am not worthy of love" thoughts that had crept their way into his mind. So when Haurchefant confessed these feelings to him, X'vahl, thinking that he could not give Haurchefant the feelings and relationship he deserved in return, gently turned him down. Being the kind of person he was, Haurchefant accepted X'vahl's decision with grace and vowed that he would be happy to simply stand beside him as a valued friend and ally.

Then of course, The Vault happened. Watching Haurchefant die and knowing the feelings he had for him compounded the guilt that X'vahl already would've been feeling at the time. He blames himself for what happened and when he finally gets time alone with his own thoughts, all he can think about was the many different ways that things could've been different and how he could've prevented his death (this is what prompts him to run to the Astrologicum and rush his way through learning how to use healing magic, despite Alphinaud insisting that even had X'vahl been an expert healer there would've been nothing he could've done and magic of any kind is not something one should rush into).

Everyone knowing how Haurchefant felt made them treat X'vahl with an uncomfortable kind of pity that really just made things even worse for him because now everyone is feeling bad for him, meanwhile he's thinking that he's literally the last person anyone should be feeling bad for since he's one of the primary causes of his death in the first place. Like X'vahl just wants to scream every time someone sees him and gets that look in their eyes like they're silently apologizing to him for his loss. Like "NO! STOP! It's my fault that he's dead! I'm the reason Ishgard lost one of it's kindest and most loyal souls! You should be furious with me! You should be screaming at me! Pray The Fury strike me dead where I stand! I don't deserve kindness! Just... give me your pain and rage."

—

Fast forward to pre-DT and he's in a much better place but then being asked to help with what he sees as another delicate political situation by someone that he's struggling to allow himself to admit that he's developed feelings for and he can't help but have these flashbacks to what happened in Ishgard. He's finally considering allowing himself to be happy again but he's downright terrified of what might happen because he knows if he loses Erenville he might never be able to recover (at the time he's thinking these thoughts, it's already too late for him though because his heart is already in too deep to back out now).

It also makes Estinien noticing that there's something more between X'vahl and Erenville a bit more layered since he definitely knew about Haurchefant's feelings (albeit he was a bit preoccupied with his own situations during HW, that didn't stop him from learning about how Haurchefant felt). I think if he didn't think it would be wildly inappropriate to bring it up, he'd probably tell X'vahl that it would please Haurchefant to know that he had forgiven himself and found some measure of happiness.

[displaykitkats]

Renoux Luna: Then (2021) & Now (2025)

Here's possibly one of the first pics I took of Renoux that I have on hand (there might be earlier pics of her but I can't get to them since my PS4 is packed away). I actually started playing XIV as a miqo'te when A Realm Reborn came out on the PS3, but I went on a hiatus during Stormblood. When I came back to the game post-Shadowbringers I rerolled on a new server as a viera. While I really liked my viera, I was missing my miqo so I fantasia'd Renoux after finishing up Endwalker MSQ.

Left is one of the last pics of my ARR character (the inspiration for Renoux's overall appearance). Right is vanilla Renoux before the graphics update.

And this is Renoux today, still mostly vanilla except hair and make-up. Her journey was long (I actually had to use a few fantasias) but she's finally here!

This was a lot of fun going through all my screenshots from console -> Mac -> PC and seeing how my pictures have progressively changed. Thank you to @drowxiv for tagging me on this! Tagging @turpalauri @neriyon @juweldom @candycryptids @captainqster and encourage everyone else to share their "Then vs Now" stories/pics if you haven't already done so!

[autumnslance]

In reference to this post I reblogged earlier, but don't want to muck up UC's activity:

#i think it's more important to see that redemption is in the eye of the beholder #not everybody (characters or real people) will accept the same type or amount of repentance for the same sins #some people might not care at all if the person who wronged them feels sorry; only if they materially repaid their crimes #others can feel the opposite #and either way that's their prerogative #you can disagree with the characters or the fans or the writers about who “deserves” OR has “achieved” redemption and that's okay #because it's ultimately a complex philosophical issue #like i agree with OP!!! but there's media literacy in accepting that not everyone will

I'm going to disagree with many of these tags, especially it being "in the eye of the beholder" and would argue it's more media literate to recognize when a character has a workable redemption arc even if one disagrees they "should" get one. It took me a long time to learn this cuz of how we're usually taught redemption = forgiveness in Western (especially very Christianized, and especially if explicitly raised Christian) culture:

It doesn't rely on anyone but the person seeking redemption.

Yeah, it's the wronged party's prerogative to never forgive, to think the perpetrator's atonement (and/or punishment) is not enough and never will be. Anyone (characters and actual people) who sympathize, and who are on their side, can agree it's not ever enough and that character/person's sins are unforgivable.

And that still doesn't matter to their redemption.

We have an example of a workable redemption arc that not all accept in Final Fantasy XIV with Fordola's situation, through the Endwalker healer role quests. She was raised a collaborator of Ala Mhigo's imperial occupiers, and thought the best way to help her people was to soldier for the empire, becoming their Butcher.

In the Stormblood patches, Raganfrid says he will never forgive her; he thanks her for the aid she gave in the throne room that day, but that's all. And even in the EW healer role quests, their interactions are complicated. He still can't forgive the collaborators, even as he works to reintegrate them into Ala Mhigan society. He recognizes many thought they had no choice. He can't, won't, forget the pain of losing his own loved ones to them. This is stated multiple times.

And others, like M'rahz, Sarisha, and M'naago also struggle, also say they won't forgive...but reluctantly agree they can understand how for the sake of their families, the collaborators felt pushed against a wall, and what lengths have they themselves gone to for their own families? M'naago even scolds Fordola: she doesn't get to give up, she has to keep working--or she dies as exactly what everyone said she was.

Fordola starts out as the one punished for her sins. Through the story, she makes her choices to change and fight and work for her people as a free woman. There are still those who despise the Butcher, and always will. Redemption comes from Fordola's actions, Fordola's choices. Who forgives her and who doesn't can't change that she has changed, and continues to do so.

And in the interest of fairness, for the opposite of Fordola, we have Laurentius. In A Realm Reborn, he collaborated with the empire, selling out his nation. He came out of his punishment wanting a new chance, so joined the Crystal Braves...and immediately fell under Ilberd's sway. While others remained loyal and stuck to their morals (and paid for it with imprisonment or even death), Laurentius went along with all of Ilberd's plans. And in the end, the player gets an opinion in the punishment he and his comrade face, but it's clear from talking to Raubahn there isn't much hope. Laurentius had his chances, but he didn't make any effort to actually change--so faced the consequences.

For Reference for the Healer Role Quests: Garland Tools Healer quest text starting with "Far From Free", and my own saved text in Gdocs (raw, not very organized compared to my later saved/updated docs).

(Nero's the war criminal who...didn't even get a slap on the wrist, he just waltzed into a leadership meeting 15 mins late with Starbucks and has been helping us save the world since. Gaius is the war criminal that went through traumas, saw his privileged preconceptions torn apart, and is starting down that road in the wake of Werlyt to clean up his mistakes and not let his children's sacrifices be in vain. None of these characters "need" punishment to decide to change; some of it simply happens as part of their stories, but they make their own choices and actions toward atonement.)

(Also redemption is usually an ongoing process, which is why "Death Equals Redemption", like how Yotusyu's situation is framed, is so dicey and often unsatisfying; are they actually changed, or they just getting out of putting in that effort to? Nothing indicated Yotsuyu actually cared to change, as sympathetic as she was in the end! But she has her redemptive moment for her fans, and the people who hate/won't forgive her also "win"--the trope is a "have your cake and eat it too" writing cop-out IMO at this point.)

[gamequoteshowdown]

Hi everyone! I hope you are doing well so I can have the pleasure of ruining your day!

I have finished the match-ups for the first round and I have the list right here but I put a little twist on it. You see, every single poll in this wave has two quotes from either the same game franchise and/or character competing against each other! So choose wisely because only 1 can move on!

Here are the match-ups <3 - Mod Villain (SPOILERS FOR PERSONA 5, GHOST TRICK: PHANTOM DETECTIVE, METAPHOR: REFANTAZIO, KID ICARUS: UPRISING, BIOSHOCK AND FINAL FANSTAY XIV)

POLL 1: "Case closed. This is where your justice ends." - Goro Akechi, Persona 5 | "Teammates!? Friends!? To hell with that! Why am I inferior to you!? I was extremely particular about my life, my grades, my public image! So someone would want me around! I am an ace detective! A celebrity! But you… You're just some criminal trash living in an attic!? So how!? How does someone like you have things I don't!? How can such a worthless piece of trash be more special than me!?" - Goro Akechi, Persona 5

POLL 2: "Whatsa matter? All those broken bones smart a bit? What's it like to feel pain? Does it make you feel ALIVE?" - The Man In Red, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective | "It might make it hurt a little bit when I move you, though… Quite a little bit, actually." - The Man In Red, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective

POLL 3: “Attack in any number. Wield any weapon. But…fight with your very lives! If you live a by a creed then show me its’ strength!” - Louis, Metaphor: ReFantazio | “You believe me resurrected? Heh. Even if I could defy death, I care nothing for the prospect.” - Louis, Metaphor: ReFantazio

POLL 4: "Sorry to keep YOU waiting. But now that I'm here, let's get this party started. Welcome to MY Underworld, Pitty Pat." - Hades, Kid Icarus: Uprising | "It was a simple case of distracted chariot driving. I shouldn't have been doing my hair." - Hades, Kid Icarus: Uprising

POLL 5: "Would you kindly" - Frank Fontaine, Bioshock | "A man chooses… a slave obeys" - Andrew Ryan, Bioshock

POLL 6: "Remember us. Remember that we once lived." - Emet-Selch, Final Fantasy XIV | "I want you all to die! And I want to die too! Oh yes, I want to die and take everyone with me in a paroxysm of pain and suffering!" - Fandaniel, Final Fantasy XIV (Endwalker Expansion)

POLL 7: "Ah. Your prejudice made my bluff too effective, I see. … besides, even IF I threw him, he would just… Bounce. My son… is… A bouncy little pumpkin." - King, Deltarune | “To my people, I am a hero… to you? I’m the bad guy!” - Spade King, Deltarune

POLL 8: "It hurts, Ness… …I’m h…a…p…p…y… …friends… …It hurts, …it hurts… Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness….. …go… b… a… c…k… …Ness… I feel… g… o… o… d… …I’m so sad… …..Ness" - Giygas, Earthbound (Mother 2) | "Foolish one, you cannot do a thing with your meager powers… Powers worthy of a lowly insect." - Giygas, MOTHER

[soup-archives]

Updated as of April 2025

Note: Not spoiler-free!

Why choose G'raha as Cinna's partner?

Some might ask me, "Hey, you like Aymeric, right? So why is he not Cinna's love interest?" I have asked myself the same thing. And I have tried hard to ship her with him. I have headcanons for them. However, I feel like no matter who I shipped her with, I kept coming back to G'raha.

I can't explain it, but Cinna and G'raha together just seemed to click. It's like they're what's missing in the other's life. G'raha is everything and more for her, and I just love him so dearly myself. He is her true love. No matter where they go, apart or together, there is a string tying them together.

What's their story?

I didn't even start thinking about their story until a few years ago. I imagined that they would have had this hopeful romance with a promise of forever. They'd be happy and think that nothing could go wrong. However, during the events of the Crystal Tower, he would tell her to live a full life, get married, have the children she'd always wanted, and do anything that made her happy. He wished that he could give that to her, but he had to do this; he had to seal himself within the tower. As luck would have it, she'd learn she was pregnant afterward. I didn't want her to just move on. I wanted her to have something that reminds her of G'raha every day. Not a torturous reminder but one that may keep her going because she was in a bad mindset. And that came into the form of their son, Rowen, who was the spitting image of his father. She would even craft a knitted plushie of G'raha for him so he'd always have his father with him.

And to be honest, Cinna never really moved on from G'raha. Not even when she was with Haurchefant. In the beginning, they were two long-lost childhood friends reuniting. She didn't want a lover, not to mention that she was pregnant with her son. Haurchefant supported her and comforted her during the hardships. He would even listen as she told him about G'raha, and he was there when Rowen was born. He was even the one to suggest that Rowen's full name include Rosewood-Tia, which Cinna cried over. It wasn't until Heavensward that they started their romantic relationship. Even then, he had told her that if G'raha Tia ever came back, he'd want to see them happy together again.

After Haurchefant's death, Cinna never really sought out another deeply romantic relationship. There was too much on her plate. That, and she was scared to lose anyone else.

When she first heard the Exarch's voice, she thought she was dreaming or that someone was pulling a cruel joke on her. She didn't want to let her brain think that this was her G'raha. It had brought back so much pain that she thought she had tucked away into the deepest corner of her mind. Every interaction with him was harder and harder each time. And she had come to the Exarch with honesty about it, apologizing for avoiding him at every possible chance. Once she felt a bit more comfortable with him, she found herself adoring him, a feeling which she tried to push away. She did not want to fall for him, especially as she knew she'd only be falling for him because he seemed so similar to G'raha in his voice, mannerisms and sometimes the way he treated her. But when the Exarch was revealed to be G'raha, she was upset and yet glad because he was here in front of her. It wasn't just her mind making up stories and lies. And the two would rekindle their love once she woke him up in the Source.

During the end of Shadowbringers, I just imagined the two of them elsewhere, making up for lost time. He would spend time with her and their son. They'd be living in a lovey-dovey bubble of happiness and bliss despite dealing with the coming threat of another calamity. And even then, the events of Endwalker would only strengthen their relationship and bond, though both would have a growing fear of losing the other to death.

While the Scions go their separate ways at the end of Endwalker, five years pass and Cinna and G'raha are busy growing their little family. Within that time, they have five more children (Minerva, Emilia, Aurora, Selene, and Cosmo).

During Dawntrail, the two welcome their last child (as of now), Stella, before eventually joining the Scions, Erenville and Cinna's siblings in Tulliyollal.

[aotopmha]

Being too exhausted to play has made me think about the Dawntrail story again.

I wanted to take a break, but it occupies my brain too much, turns out and I engaged with takes on the internet again.

(Some of it is really dumb and a negativity void with zero substance, which is, in fact, unfun and exhausting, as it is designed to be, so it probably is better to not engage with, but I also do very much enjoy discussing what I love and it offers fantastic springboards for that.)

Spoilers for the Dawntrail story!

You know the complaint that it's "not as good as Shadowbringers or Endwalker"?

Well, I think a lot of people have actually echoed this, but I really like that Dawntrail is not trying to one-up them.

It's really good that it's not only pulling back the scale, but also lightening up the tone.

In particular, there was a complaint I saw that said HW, ShB and EW were these "deep and dark" stories and had issues with DT not being that kind of narrative and I think a story being Endwalker all of the time would become boring in its own right.

If all you see is positivity, eventually it means nothing, but this is also true in the opposite sense.

If all you see is misery all of the time, at one point, it doesn't mean anything anymore.

Eventhough I myself mostly enjoyed it, I can see the argument that it went too far in the other direction and handled some ideas too simplistically, but I think the general idea to do this is a really good, refreshing move.

It's similar thematically (which is actually my biggest issue), but I really like that it mostly focused on new stories with new characters.

I also like that the Scions are taking a backseat.

I saw an opinion that "you can't have your cake and eat it, too" in regards of the Scions being minor roles and you should either write them out completely or entirely focus the story on them, but personally I don't see any issue with this.

They were set up to be support and behaved as such. I don't understand the take that they were "teased" too much when the setup was that it was not their story to begin with.

Now, I do think the friendly rivalry aspect was underutilised. I feel like getting to fight Thancred and Urianger in good fun would've been great, for example.

I love the vibe of adventure we haven't really had for such a long time, and I really think the mystery of the City of Gold might be one of the best ones in the entire narrative because many of the mysteries so far at least have some aspect of retconning to them.

The gate and everything with it is entirely new and didn't need any retconning to fit within the current concepts of the story, whereas you could always tell they had to slightly tweak everything with the Ascians once in a while.

I think the fact that most of the characters that people do like from this expansion are entirely new or characters we knew fairly little about before Dawntrail says it all.

People actually do want new stuff. I think the mostly positive response towards the actual gameplay content says this, too.

So I hope they don't give up on what they've built here despite some of the really loud negative voices.

Don't start trying to do Endwalker or Shadowbringers again before building a new bigger picture.

We've talked about legacy and memory and loss a bunch of times already; evolve from this and do something *entirely* new with new characters and ALSO entirely new theming.

Don't give up on making content just a little more engaging.

That's my worry in light of these very loud complaints.

And the thing is, during the Endwalker patch cycle and even before, these are things so many people wanted.

People wanted a break from the Scions. People wanted the story to reset and relax after Endwalker because it had been within that dark tone for so long.

People wanted us to go back to being an adventurer.

People were tired of the increasingly same-y encounter design (and lack of stuff to do during patch downtime, which you can also see improved in terms of certain rewards; thing is what I've seen is people loving the new content so much they just like playing it and I feel the same way, so it isn't always even more grinds or rewards people actually want).

And that's exactly what they gave us.

Again, I don't know the overlap between audience groups here, but in terms of sentiment, that's the craziest part to me.

They kind of gave us exactly what we asked for.

And I really hope they stick to their guns and get braver from here because new is fun and even if it doesn't always succeed, you can look at what people like and don't like and go from there in a more nuanced way, rather than leaning on overcorrective decisions as they have in terms of certain aspects of the game. It just stops the game from stagnating and getting boring in all aspects.

[flame-of-tar-valon]

By the way! I keep talking about my ffxiv fic, How to Go Home Again. Here's some info about the series I'm going to make for it:

The series on Ao3 is tentatively called "Balance" because coming up with names is hard.

How to Go Home Again (MSQ Lv 1-17) stars my protagonists Lleidspaer, Nia'a, and Vivimani, plus their comrades/proteges Khadne, Celestinaux, and Laeitia in a secondary role. The entire story is set in three parallel storylines on Limsa, Gridania, and Ul'dah.

Heroism is a Full-Time Job (MSQ Lv 18-50) stars Lleidspaer, Nia'a, and Vivimani again, with the B-team serving as side characters. This fic goes in a very sequential order as opposed to parallel plotlines. It ends at the Ultima Weapon with a timeskip epilogue.

The Prisons We Gravitate Towards (MSQ 2.1-???-3.5) is an absolutely wild fic that deviates SO hard from canon. It bridges the Ultima Weapon fight with the banquet, and then follows Lleidspaer, Nia'a, and Vivimani as they ignore Heavensward entirely and start the setup for Stormblood. It's a lot more low-key and political tension-y than other fics.

And the Fates Laughed at Us (MSQ 3.0-3.3) stars Khadne, Celestinaux, and Laetitia, front and center, for the very first time, as they progress through the ENTIRETY of Heavensward focused on Ishgard, the Dragonsong War, and the Scions. Expect lots of changes!

Forged of Sharper Things Than This (MSQ 4.0-4.5) is Stormblood, starring all six WoLs on roughly equal footing for the first (and possibly only) time. It's split into two or three parallel plotlines.

Retracing Steps We Never Took (MSQ 5.0-5.3) is the story of Shadowbringers from the First, featuring Lleidspaer, Nia'a, and Vivimani. In this fic, Shadowbringers takes a lot more time than in canon, which makes this fic one of the more unique ones.

Forever On the Front Lines (MSQ 4.4-6.0 Lv 83) is everything happening in the Source at the same time as Shadowbringers; it's the Ghimlyt Dark, the 'Meanwhile in Garlemald' stuff, and early Endwalker in this case going all the way up to the Lv 83 Trial. This fic stars Khadne, Celestinaux, and Laetitia.

I'll Be Home Tomorrow (MSQ 5.4-6.0) is the rest of the story of Endwalker, starring Lleidspaer, Nia'a, and Vivimani as the principal protagonists, with the B-team as deuteragonists for much of the plot.

Seconds Adrift on the Wind (No MSQ parallel) is an extended epilogue, starring Khadne, Celestinaux, and Laetitia. I like to think it'll have a happy ending — though that may suffer from the fact that, at the end of the day, it will be my writing, and my epilogue fics have certain... tendencies.

(I do not at present have any intention of continuing the story past the ending of MSQ 6.0. IF I somehow manage to make it that far, I will need a firm stopping point.)

I might also make a fic in the series as a place to put miscellaneous and one-off scenes, maybe including various job quests that don't make sense to merge into the MSQ.

I'm not even sure I WILL make it to the end of Endwalker, truth be told! Or anywhere near it! Right now, all I'm dead set on finishing is How to Go Home Again and Heroism is a Full-Time Job. That alone will likely take a year or two. The big problem that always ambushes me when I want to write things is INSANE levels of Wanting To Write A Goddamn Epic. I read the Wheel of Time series as a kid and now my brain defaults to that in terms of ideal project size.

I'm just making this post because I like the fic titles I came up with. (And I need to come up with a series title that I like half as much...)

[gaviicreates]

Gavii Learns Stuff - Colorwork and also FFXIV

I don't know colorwork, so naturally I'm making G'raha Tia's Endwalker scarf. Oh, and I'm also primarily a crocheter, so let's plan to knit it instead.

I have no self control when inspiration strikes, and also I like to learn by doing, so here we are - this'll be my journey.

Step 1: Screenshot the hell out of Raha

Can we talk a moment about how strange this scarf design is? Not the colorwork, but the actual structure of this strange piece of material.

The main center design drapes down from his right shoulder to his left, then down the front, but then the opposite length somehow wraps, then pivots to turn right back down the same shoulder. There's gotta be a button or something, and even with the twine or rope that's clearly keeping everything together, I can't figure out the full construction of this one. If inspo strikes along the way we'll see, but for now I think I plan to just make a full scarf, and worst case, it can be knotted on the the left shoulder to create the effect where the two length drape down the same side in the front and back.

We can make it work. But, darling, your scarf makes no sense.

Step 2: Study the design, draft, re-draft, rinse repeat

I'm not accustomed to making my own graph patterns, or patterns in general, but I guess the concept is what it is. Make the thing into pixels and color code?

I got to work in Excel, copy & pasted. Compared it to the scarf, and tried again. Then once I figured out the general shape, the hardest part was figuring out what repeat would work for both the bottom design and the main in order to have everything flow.

There will end up being quite the length of stockinette in grey between designs. I haven't yet figured out how far I want to go, so that's another thing we'll be winging.

My plan is to work the pattern in the round to create a scarf tube, so this can be two sided to account for some of the fabric waving I think is going on Once complete I can sew up the ends and add the fringe.

Step 3: Yarn and Go

I'm writing this having started the project already, so I think if I make this again in the future I might go down to a DK weight. The pattern is working, and I think it will be fine, but it will be a big scarf - somewhere between a scarf width and a shawl width. My pattern might end up a bit bigger than anticipated, overall. That said - I am using a value acrylic in worsted weight - JOANN's Big Twist in Titanium, Varsity Gold, and Black.

For the first few rows I was figuring out the tension for my floats, because while I did actually practice with a different yarn and needle size for a bit, who has time for swatching? Remember that jumping right into a project thing I like to do?

Yeah, I did that again.

Thanks for coming on my THIRD ffxiv project! I'm excited for this one, and I am so glad it's going to be such a good one to learn from. I know I haven't posted too much lately, but I promise - I'm always crafting.

[voidsentprinces]

I'll start criticizing the story when we have another expansion to go off of. For now Dawntrail is doing Dawntrail's job of laying down the foundation for things going forward. And it does feel like: A Realm Reborn, but better. And asking me to politely ignore the stellar writing of what came before but still mentioning other things. Its basically FFXIV-2. Might as well just be a sequel and this sequel is going to need 4 more expansions to get a better view. We're on the ground and cannot yet see the forest for the trees. If it isn't decently executed as Endwalker in a handful of years, you bet your ass I am lambasting. But for now, I do be just vibin'.

[ragnarokalypse]

I am usually a lurker. I don't really post anything...ever, anymore, but I am so incredibly disappointed by this expansion that I felt the need to chime in my sentiments, just to get it off my chest.

I am one of the few people that loved ARR, before the "streamlining." I was hooked in the first 10 levels and the game had me in a stranglehold all the way through Endwalker. Everything after 6.0 was...eh...but I love the game so I stuck with it. I also loved Stormblood, and I've walked away from Dawntrail loving it even more, because hoo boy, does Wuk Lamat give me a new appreciation for Lyse.

I don't have a problem with low stakes. I don't have a problem with fetch questing, building my reputation, and just generally doing menial tasks even when people should be acting with a little more urgency. My beef with this expansion isn't that it's "new", "low-key", "a reset", or anything like that. My beef is Wuk Lamat.

This entire expansion is basically the Wuk Lamat show. The WoL does not really forge any new relationships, they don't really explore anything, they don't really do anything, and when they do, it's hijacked by Wuk Lamat. I swear I think my character was introduced by name to a citizen maybe...once. Instead, we have to sit there watching Wuk Lamat do everything that I want to do in a story that is supposed to be about the character I've spent years investing time and emotional effort into. I want my character to be the one making friends, exploring new cultures, and building a positive reputation with the people. When the first half ended and we FINALLY got to go do something without her, I was excited. I was willing to forgive the first half because it felt like the REAL journey was just getting started.

But nope, back to Wuk Lamat. Back to her being the main character and my character, the character I actually love and have painstakingly developed over years, being sidelined. In the final battle, I was again excited because FINALLY, a good old fashioned WoL vs The Enemy showdown. But what's this? Oh, Wuk Lamat again. In the epilogue, everyone celebrated for three days and three nights to "hail the Dawnservant's victory." Like, what? She shows up in that last 20% and gets the credit? Excuse me? I don't dislike Wuk Lamat even if I do deeply dislike her type of character, but I do resent the massive amounts of space she takes up in what is supposed to be my character's story.

Maybe I'm selfish, maybe it's just a me problem, but I play MMOs to tell stories about characters in fun worlds that I get to craft to my liking. If I wanted to play a game of pre-existing characters and watch/experience their journey, I'd go boot up literally any other Final Fantasy game. I have seen people liken this expansion to World of Warcraft, and I agree, to an extent. However, even though WoW doesn't have your character be center stage, I have always felt like the world was expansive enough for you to tell your own independent stories in the background. I have a whole host of characters in the WoWverse that I've developed over the years, and I never felt like I was held back from being creative because of the overarching narrative choices made by the game because, ultimately, my character was not a central figure and I could do what I wanted.

Here, I'm trapped. I can't say my character is off doing something else because she's literally tied to Wuk Lamat through the entire expansion and the shard key will probably be important later. I went through 3 days of cutscenes and walked away with pretty much nothing that I feel inspires me creatively or gives me any new material to build my character's story. Instead, I'm left feeling like I'm having to struggle to explain why she's being so passive and out-of-character. Is it trauma? Is she drunk? You got me. I'm still figuring it out, and figuring it out is a struggle that I have never experienced in this game. It isn't fun, which kills the creativity even more.

I might have been more forgiving of the story if it were reframed around the characters I actually care about and I got to experience the world instead of sitting back and watching Wuk Lamat experience it for me, but as it stands, I didn't really enjoy any of it save the American old west town where we got to hang out with Erenville, blissfully Wuk Lamat free. I swear they're the only people in the story that actually talked to us and learned our names. I think the best example of how little I enjoyed myself is in how many screenshots I took. I took almost 3,000 screenshots throughout my first Endwalker playthrough. Here, I took less than 100.

I will continue to stick with XIV for a while to see where it goes from here, but if this is the new story direction and philosophy - tell a story through other characters first - then I may just have to sadly resign myself to the fact that my character's story ended with 6.0, and go off to greener pastures where I can craft characters and build stories in ways that are more to my liking.

Overall, 1/10. I can't even rank it amongst other expansions because even the lowest ranked expansion for me is one that I love. Dawntrail is in a league of dislike and resentment all its own.

[glacierbash]

Y'know, any time I start to talk about this game, I feel obligated to lead with the funniest fact I have: I absolutely hated Final Fantasy, for myriad reasons both personal and amusing. I hated, for example, the way Elezen were shaped. I hated that Lalafell looked so young. I hated that everybody acted like it was so great, and by sheer contrarian nature I decided I would simply never play this game. And for quite some time, that worked! I'd bombard my partner with whatever media algorithms recommended me involving FFXIV, just to make fun of it. I detested this MMO, without having ever tried it. And yet, deep down, I knew I wanted a community. I wanted to be around people, even if through an online medium. When I worked at the library, my coworker set up a WoW private server that I spent some time fucking around in, but deep down I wanted people. Try as I might, I couldn't deny some part of me wanted to see what the game was all about.

So, I tried it. I spent 30 minutes exactly between opening the character creator to first posting a name that, genuinely, would define more than 2 years of my life: Iverelle Vauvenelle.

I spend about 2 days playing the game, one being chased around by strangers who my partner swore were good people, and one just questing on my own--and it was fine. I got to MSQ level 24, quite literally one quest away from being able to travel to other city states, and I stopped. I played my fair share, I played 5 hours, and I decided the game wasn't for me. I put it down for several months, when I was approached by somebody who I am no longer friends with. He said I should play the game again, keep going just long enough to travel to Gridania, so that I could see one of his alts--and maybe, we could play together! I didn't want to upset him, so I said "fine," and gave it another try.

By the end of the week, I was finishing up ARR, and moving into post patch, and something just... Changed for me. I'm not sure what it was, honestly. It's not like the game magically changed for me then, or if Iverelle had become perhaps my most meaningful character ever, but something shifted, and I found myself enjoying the game. It didn't even make sense to me then when I bought a subscription to the game, but I knew that something here was special. I just... Had to.

Post patch took me about a month, with multiple days spent stressing out over queuing into Good King Mogglemog out of fear and anxiety, because the trial was labeled as hard and my disorder was, frankly, at its worst. But, I managed to do so anyways. The victory was meaningless for most people, but for me? It was beyond words, just how important it was that I did content with other people, especially considering I went through all of ARR solo.

I made it to the end of ARR, to the infamous cutscene, when I realized I was sick with covid. In VC with two of my friends, I said the infamous line: "I think I have a fever." What a way to enter Heavensward, huh? I think it is in no small part due to Covid that Heavensward ended up being my favorite expansion of all time, and why Ysayle Dangoulain ended up being my favorite character of all time. Sickness and quarantine gave me all the time in the world, and being far too sick to be anxious, I sped through the story. One week later, I was done with Heavensward.

And of course, by now, I am finished with Endwalker and awaiting Dawntrail. For 2 years of my life now, I have been playing this game nigh daily. I stay up late playing it, I finish my daily responsibilities as soon as possible to play it, and I find myself enjoying it. I never thought that would happen, truth be told. More importantly than enjoying the game itself, though, is the friends I met.

I have lived a very isolated life. Partially due to my anxiety making me extremely averse to interacting with people, and partially due to how I've been raised, I struggle a lot with people. Autism, anxiety, and having not been properly socialized made me terrible. I longed for new friends, but I hated the effort that went into it. Imagine my surprise when one day, I found myself driving out to meet people who I play this game with, to spend time with them? When I found myself wanting to meet them?

And yet, here I was. I was driving out to meet these people who I play this game with--and more importantly, they wanted to meet me. Even as I think back on that day, I start to tear up. It was one of the most important days of my life. Were it not for this game, for playing it daily, for being dragged into a Free Company and for sitting in calls with people because of this game, I would not have known these people. They are some of the most important people in my life.

I think of the late nights playing Mahjong, or doing PVP, or treasure maps, or just sitting around talking. I think of those nights and then having to wake up early for work, waking up exhausted but so happy. I think of staying up until damn near 5 in the morning talking about whatever it is that comes to mind. I think about stupid inside jokes, and shared experiences, and the stories that I'll tell for years to come.

It's just a game. Final Fantasy XIV is, at the end of the day, just a game--and yet, that game has served as a way for me to grow as a person in ways I've never thought possible. My anxiety has not magically been cured, mind; but, when I'm able to talk to strangers and my heartrate doesn't skyrocket, when I'm able to do things in this game that once terrified me, when I'm able to exist comfortably not just in this game but in the outside world, I realize that it's done more for me than I'll ever be able to say. Yes, it is just a game, but people play a game due to a shared interest, no? And through that shared interest, friendships can blossom. To say that I love my friends, the people I met ultimately because of this game, would be an understatement, and I fear I do not make that clear enough.

Stupid as it is to say, Final Fantasy XIV has changed my life, for the better. Dawntrail is coming in just a few short hours, and though I am a whirlwind of emotions, the predominant one is excitement. I was there for the end of an era, and now I am here for the start of a new one.

So thank you. If you read all the way through this, thank you. If you skimmed just to the end, thank you. Thank you to my friends, especially. I would not be here as I am now were it not for you all.

Here's to a new adventure, friends :^] (Second screenshot featuring: @gailiag, the best viera on hydaelyn)

[yzeltia]

FFXIVwrite2024 16. Third-Rate

Featuring: @scrollsfromarebornrealm 's WWAU Characters: Athena Hephaistos, Claudien Hepahistos, Zellita (Y'zel Tia), Hegemone Expansion: Endwalker(Context) Rating: T Summary: Zellita meets Athena for the first time, bringing up the memory of their first near encounter. Claudien says something angsty. Notes:

“This little collection is hardly what I’d call a library, but I suppose it is more than I expected from this…How should I put this generously? Shanty of a town. Really Claudien, there are people for field work. I’m sure your little Hhestaro friend here knows many who would gladly survey the land for you in exchange for the right amount of pel.”

Zellita folded his ears back as the Athena ran her finger across a set of old encyclopedias then inspected it for dust. The woman seemed to think him no more than Claudien’s pet. Still, he remained silent, letting Claudien’s mother slowly walk through the shelves of Stonewood’s modest library. Her entire visit Claudien had put himself between him and his mother, almost warding her off from him. 

“I enjoy my fieldwork, mother. And Zellita has used his connections and the good charity of the mayor’s wife to build connections with the libraries of distant towns and even back to Tuliyollal to obtain any book one might seek,” Claudien responded defensively. 

Athena hummed. “Far be it from me to tell you how to dwindle your time and resources. You and your brother have so defiantly made your home here. I do not know why I thought my words would bear any more weight than they have in the past,” she said, adjusting her glove before making her way to the entrance. “I think I would be greeted with less warmth should I chance a visit to Erichthonius. Express my dearest affections to him for me will you? I will be busying my time here with…other matters. Who knows? I might take an invested interest. Also, you should clean up the entrance and get rid of this filthy cushion. Some mongrel seems to have made a home on the porch.”

With that, she glanced backward toward Zellita after he frigid send off. He swallowed, then furrowed his brow before wincing as he felt a memory come over him. Looking up he saw a spectral figure in the doorway, Unolohh shaking his head. His breath failing him, Zelltia collapsed to the floor.

-

Zelltia grit his teeth as he stood stiffly alongside other students of the university as they gathered around a hunk of white auracite attached to an apparatus he couldn’t quite recognize. Those around him seemed to be nonplussed by the rare stone, most likely the ones that had helped Professor Athena Hephaistos retrieve it from sacred lands to bring back for her work.

They’re all complicit. They should share Unolloh’s fate.

The thought echoed in his mind, intrusively, and he did his best to shake it off. He’d no proof they were there at the digsite, let alone any of them pulled the trigger on his beloved. He clenched his jaw tighter trying to seem inconspicuous among the students, having donned some fine clothes as a disguise to enter the university and join the lab. Wandering in, a red-headed woman moved to the front of the lab then scanned the crowd of them. 

“Great, it’s Hegemone,” one of the students grumbled.

The woman narrowed her eyes at the student, getting instant silence from him before gesturing to the auracite. “The Professor cannot make it today. She’s busy elsewhere. Today we will resume her work by seeing if we can use this piece of auracite to devise a means of finding a rich vein of it elsewhere.”

She seems to be second in command. Would the Professor even get her hands dirty? It was probably this woman.

Zellita winced, grabbing his forehead for a moment before shaking the stray thought away and raising his hand.

“Yes…Mr…,” Hegemone started, raising her brow at the unfamiliar face.

“Almahh. I am just wondering why we would go find more? Can you not feel the Weave from all around being filtered through it? Surely this is enough.”

Hegemone crossed her arms, “Almahh, is it? Well, as you should know, we are scientists and while we are all here to learn from our dear professor, she is but one of many interested in the auracite. The more we have, the more research can be done.”

Haughty girl. More research, but at the cost of how many more lives?

“Right, but should we not head the Hhestaro whose sacred lands we have to traverse to obtain it. Many tribes say that the stones must be left untouched and that only ruin will fall on those who covet it. Of course we are here to learn more about the natural world around us; however, is there not a limit to the price we enact in obtaining that knowledge? Are there not things that should remain sacred?”

The class laughed as he made his impassioned speech, one he had heard Unolohh give many times for those who wandered into Hhestaro lands in pursuit of taking more than their share of Tural’s natural bounty. Some had listened, many more did not to various success. Some were laid low for their greed…and it had caught up with Unolohh.

They’re laughing at you. They would see Tural sucked dry and the Hhestaro all but a memory. Do it NOW.

Zelltia felt a heat in his hand as the Weave concentrated in his palm, threatening to ignite. Swallowing, he found himself staring at the auracite before up at Hegemone as she shook her head. “Listen Almahh. If you’re looking to become a philosopher, you’re in the wrong department. This is not a place to worry about the ethical implications of what we’re doing. We’re about: Cold. Hard. Facts,” she announced. “Now, for those of us who read the course description and understand why we’re here, begin working with the Weave to determine the sacred geometry that best draws the aether in and from there, attempt reversal patterns. Almahh, a word in the hall.”

She’s on to you. Burn it all to ashes! Avenge him!

Zelltia jumped as Hegemone’s hand came down on his shoulder, the woman gently leading him outside the lab door. She exhaled then looked him in the eyes, offering the best smile she could muster. “Look, you’re obviously just starting out. This is a very rough discipline to get behind. You have to turn the little voice off in your head sometimes and just do your work to get through and let someone else worry about the rest. I’ve seen many of your kind come through here and be eaten alive by the professors. Get through today, but then go home and think about what it is you actually want and maybe talk to someone about it so they can get you on the right career path. You certainly can’t question Professor Lahabrea like that or she’d have just ignored you and then asked why you were still there if she happened to perceive you again after.”

Zelltia gave a small nod, surprised at the sudden change in tone. He swallowed, a twinge of guilt hitting him over the intrusive thoughts. Recoiling, he held himself and gave a small nod eyeing the keys on her belt. “Very well, I will take your advice,” he said, carefully retrieving her keys from her waist, dropping his things so that she’d bend with him to pick it up and not mind the noise. “Sorry, thank you. You know, you’re right. This isn’t for me….Thank you Hegemone.”

With that, he scooped up his things and rushed off, pocketing the keys discreetly in his jacket as he looked for somewhere to lay low. Finding a closet, he slipped inside then hunkered down, breathing erratically from nearly having his cover blown, and perhaps the impulsiveness to just bring everyone who had hurt him and his family to justice. Calming himself, he settled in, closing his eyes and hoping the exhaustion would let him sleep peacefully for once.

It didn’t. The nightmares were ever present. The sound of gunfire. The metallic scent of Unolloh’s blood and the warmth of it in his arms as he held the other. And Unolloh’s voice, softly saying how much he loved him and to watch over his nephew before becoming overwhelmed by the Weave rushing through every bit of his body. This startled him awake.

Quietly, Zellita checked his pocket-chronometer, finding it approaching the first bell of the night, well past the time anyone should be there. Zellita carefully pushed the door open, looking out into the dark hallway before retracing his steps back to the lab. Taking his stolen keys, he went through them until it unlocked. Hurrying inside, he looked for the auracite and once found he took it then paused.

Destroy it all. Ruin all of her work so that Unolloh’s will be done.

Zellita let out a breath as he held the stone, feeling the dense Weave from it pulse through him. Once more he felt the heat of fire in his hand, and raising it he shot forth a flame that consumed the latter half of the room in an intense inferno. Fire wards sounded immediately after, water soon sprinkling down from the corners of the lab, but with the auracite fueling his magic, he tore through the Weave holding them together and let the fire spread.

With a pant, he backed away, feeling the heat start to get to him as the room roared with flame. Turning, he started to flee as more sigils began to go off through the halls, the next room starting to catch as well as the one above it. Fleeing the building, he ran as fast as he could before stopping cold.

They’ll never stop coming. They’ll eradicate every last Hhestaro. Every good person from here to Shaaloni who would stand in their way. With the power of the auracite, it could all go away. It would be years before they put their sights on Xak Tural again and it would only be invaders from the east to contend with…and with this little stone here, what chance would they stand. It is the Ultimate defense. Use it Zellita, become the Weave’s perfect vessel and protector-

Zellita let out a small gasp then dropped the auracite, staring at it a moment as he felt his own senses return to him. He stared at it, thinking it was less sacred than thought, but that his people had the right of it when they declared its deposits forbidden lands. Picking it back up, he ran toward the Skygate the commotion of the fire drawing the attention of many of the Landsgaurd. Passing through, he hurried along then halfway took the stone and chucked it as hard as he could into the Stardust Sea. 

-

“Zellita…Please wake up,” Claudien’s voice pleaded.

Zellita stirred from the dream of his memory, finding himself held by Claudien. He opened his eyes, looking up at his lover as he stroked his braid back from his face. “I am alright. It was just nerves,” he lied, unsure what had caused the spell. “I wasn’t expecting to meet your mother today.”

“Let it be the first and last meeting you have with her,” Claudien said, pulling Zellita close, “If I am a monster for what I’ve become unwitting, she is something far worse. The Lahabrea’s family closet is more akin to a mausoleum. Promise me you won’t confront her. Not on your own.”

“I have no intention of-”

“No. You must promise. I know you. If you find her a threat you will devise a means to try to expel her from the town whether it be whispering in the right ears or stirring trouble with the Daybreakers or Night Pride. Or worse confront her yourself.  Whatever you think you can do, she will sense coming or be so ambivalent to it’ll just roll right off of her. Please, promise me you’ll leave her be to do her business until she grows bored and moves on,” Claudien pleaded.

“Claudien. I-,” Zelltia started, concerned by the other’s sudden panicked expression. There was always an air of fear about him given his condition, but there had always been something in him that he knew he would ultimately be okay. Now, there was only raw fear. “I promise. I will do my level best to avoid her.”

“Good. I must go to my brother and his wife. I want to see if I can warn them in advance. I should find my niece too,” Clauiden said, standing while putting Zellita on his feet. He moved to get his jacket, putting it on as he headed toward the door, leaving the other to brush himself off and then quietly look around the library. Hesitating, he turned back to wrap his arms around Zellita, kissing the side of his neck left unblemished by his feeding. “When I return, I shall not leave your side until the next morning. For now, just stay here and wait.”

“I will. Hurry back. Give my love to Toni and Idunn,” Zellita said, feeling Claudien reluctantly part from him and slip out the door. Quietly, he turned then followed, looking out into the streets of Stonewood who otherwise seemed steep in another unrelenting sunny day, unaware of the shadow cast upon it by the ambitions of its newest visitor.

[delta-chan]

Doctoring Dawntrail

My impression of Dawntrail has been positive the whole way through, but that is not without caveats--and there are many of them. What follows is a breakdown of things I thought were weak, and how they might have been made stronger~

Overall pacing

Dawntrail's most glaring issue, in my opinion, is its absolutely bizarre pacing. I've never been more confused by the MSQ--the time scale seems to be all over the place, and things seem to be spaced in random intervals.

There are two points at which this feels almost painfully confusing: the very vague message that an indeterminate amount of time has passed since Wuk Lamat winning her claim to the throne and the point of her ascension. The first of these issues could have been mitigated by providing an actual length of time so that you could properly orient yourself.

After Lamaty'i ascends to the throne in general, however, I believe trying to find your footing regarding time becomes very shaky.

2. Lack of focus on Krile and Erenville

Wuk Lamat is the protagonist of the story, but the first part of the story is the most central to her here. Her being the axis of the entire first half of the story is appropriate, as her needing to be crowned as Dawnservant is the conflict we signed up for, with Krile and Erenville's involvement being peripheral.

That said--once the second half comes along and the conflict shifts she should have moved to the close rear when it comes to character focus. She still has heavy involvement in the conflict, but her goal is singular. The latter half of the story is clearly the domain of Krile and Erenville, with their reasons for being in Tural revolving around the mystery of the city of gold itself.

I believe that a few quests focused on Krile (to match Ereville's little journey with you) could have slotted in perfectly just prior to you going into your cabin to get the "some time has passed" message regarding Lamaty'i's ascension.

3. The absolute tone and pacing disaster that is Shaaloani

If there's anything that bothered me to the point where it genuinely made me worried it was this. You get time alone with Erenville to learn more about him and his home, but it is at this point where I was perhaps the most befuddled.

Things tend to happen bizarrely quickly, and the largely comedic tone of the whole segment feels weird and detached from the rest of the expac even with Lamaty'i's antics in the first half. Erenville is a very no-nonsense character and the reason he's going home is something that holds gravity for him so the whole wild west adventure aspect is just bizarre.

There's a large amount of foreshadowing in Shaaloani, but it easily gets lost in the spaghetti western shuffle--the same shuffle that quickly moves you from place to place on the map without giving things much thought. The frantic pace of this doesn't help at all, and when it was happening I was, again, deeply confused. When I thought we were going to do something (I thought we were going to have something of a small obstacle in the case of the wood, for instance) we didn't.

This dissonance makes the appearance of the dome jarring in a negative way--I feel like this was meant to have the sort of punch that things like "No Good Deed" had--joy or peace are suddenly snatched from your hands, but there was too little time focused on seriously bonding with Erenville, too little time focused on foreshadowing, too little time focused on the map. I wound up completely uninvested in Shaaloani, confused, and a bit disappointed by the fact that my time with Erenville was more or less monopolized by a pastiche of a western.

4. The train

The whole thing with the train appeared to be trying to cement itself alongside the golum from ShB and the Ark from Endwalker--but it feels unearned. Pacing was so strange and the tone at this point so weird that it didn't really feel like a "moment". In fact, I was a little surprised when "Smile" started playing because it didn't register to me at all as something really noteworthy in the grand scheme of things.

This is because it didn't have a proper buildup. There was no running around to get help, no frantic gathering of something, no line of quests that have a sense of urgency behind them that makes it feel like you're getting ready to do something big. And if there were, the fact that I don't remember them at all is damning. The golum and ark had a tremendous lead up, triumphant music and all. The train seemed to simply... come into being.

5. Sphene's 100% rating

Sphene is an interesting character, and I don't mean that in the way of analysis.

She was meant to be a sympathetic villain, but somewhere along the line some wires must have been crossed because I feel like she doesn't really have much to her. There's supposed to be this dichotomy between her genuinely gentle and kind self with this destructive desire to protect her people, but the fact that she's so universally beloved makes her feel like an incomplete character.

Her only flaw was that she was a perfect person that was programmed to cause unneeded destruction, and it feels so incredibly... stupid.

From the beginning her universal approval is laid on so ridiculously thick that it easily renders one suspicious, as it's supposed to... only for the story to immediately disprove whatever suspicion you just had. There's this very bizarre back and forth where Sphene seems to have some sort of dark hold over her kingdom before it's revealed that "no, really, she's just that good and pure". Nobody has a word to say against her.

This waffling while trying to toy with our suspicions for a "clever twist" winds up making her a positively pristine beacon of goodness so incorruptible that she doesn't seem to have a single flaw. She's apparently supposed to be a mirror to Wuk Lamat, but Lamaty'i--while beloved--is overwhelmingly flawed.

It is clear to me that they attempted a Meteion analogue, but her execution is so strange in comparison that it did not elicit the planned sympathetic response from me. She confused me--that she was practically perfect in every way was so bizarre that it left me stunlocked. If they gave Sphene people that disagreed with her or personal flaws that were clearly visible beyond "I will stop at nothing to protect my people" perhaps I would have considered her somewhat complete.

6. The final dungeon

I understand this. I do. To have the final dungeon contain its own narrative that serves the larger narrative is a very cool thing. It certainly worked with Amaurot and The Dead Ends. And that's exactly the problem with this dungeon.

As cool as it is, this being the case cheapens the impact of such dungeons--while Alexandria serves as something of a compact loredump for exactly how things ended up the way they were, it really doesn't give any fascinating insight regarding Sphene herself. If anything, it makes her even more flat as--once again--she's so overwhelmingly beloved that it borders on parody. It doesn't have the visceral punch of either Amaurot or The Dead Ends--dungeons that earned their places as capstones to struggles punctuated by needing heavy truths told.

The team cannot keep making dungeons like this. Not every final dungeon needs to be a trip through someone's memories. Once again, this seems like grasping at the strengths of ShB and Endwalker in a really awkward way.

A lot of the time I felt like Dawntrail was caught in between its own identity and this strange need to emulate a finale, as if the devs were desperately swinging in between writing an actual starting point and trying to cram the excitement of the finale of the last arc into what should have been something far less involved.

I do not mean that the stakes needed to be lowered--in fact, I feel like they were just fine--it's the presentation that strikes me as confusing. We should have been given something Praetorium-flavored at this point in the greater arc. (Without the unskippable cutscenes.)

7. Alexandria's soul problem

This will perhaps be addressed in the patches, but Alexandria is a very bizarre place and what makes them bizarre is... alarming, given our understanding of the aethereal sea. Aside from memories being extracted from souls making reincarnation very strange the factor of Living Memory--and the fact that Alexandria had to merge dimensions numerous times to feed it aether/souls--makes it extremely concerning.

What, exactly, was happening...? Because the way they put things made it seem like they were burning aether, not simply drawing it. If this is the case it marks Alexandria as being an enormously heinous entity, eclipsing the ascians--who hold souls as precious things, regardless of their approach to corporeal forms.

This would make Preservation almost incomprehensible in its villainy. Alexandria's cultural views are alien, but to consider souls fuel to such an enormous extent that more or less dissolving them for the sake of powering an amusement park repurposed for the memories of the dead is... baffling.

Exactly what is going on here...? Plz explain clearly

8. Where babby come from

???????????????

[faelune-home]

FFXIVWrite 2024 #1: Steer

(A/n: I'm immensely glad the first week has submission leeway, cos my brain could not compute ideas at all. I've only now started getting some thoughts for things to write, though at this point, I only have this :'D So i have work to do to catch up now

But this is an idea I randomly got the other week and the timing with ffxiv write means i can potentially put this idea to work, depending on the prompts that come up - a light rewrite of the endw role quests featuring the Scions to help alongside. Let's them fill in any skill gaps my wol might have, plus any other bonuses like seeing their reaction to events they didn't experience, or culture groups they missed out on.

So this first example is the healer quest, cos it's a nice thought to imagine Alphinaud and Arenvald getting a catch up moment as friends, just one moment before its back to work.

These role quest re-writes have a mild bit of timeline fudging, everything happening pre-lv86 and so a long time until that happens, then I'll have to see when is a proper time to end them after lv87 in order to include the Scions. We'll figure it out as we go!

So largely spoiler warning for Endwalker's 1st half as far as lv85/86 and the beginning quest of the Healer Role quest.

Word count: 1624)

Fhara and Alphinaud ported into Ala Gannha, having already received their briefing on the goings on in the region from Raubahn. They were there to help the Silver Griffins, an order established in aiding Ala Mhigo’s reconstruction, and in helping rehabilitate former soldiers and wean them back into communities. A goal that would no doubt take much time and effort, but unfortunately was already at risk of being halted due to the onset of Blasphemies stirring up fear and dread in the world.

Technically, only Fhara herself had been requested due to her reputation. Every emissary sent from Eorzea and beyond clustered into a tiny strategy planning hall in the Radiant Host’s quarters descending upon her as soon as she’d entered the room. But even she had to admit that most of the skillsets they required of her weren’t her strengths, at most only basics learned in the past so she could be ready in an emergency, but she would hardly call herself well rounded. But all the better to have a more capable friend join her on these ventures.

After all, in the aftermath of Thavnair falling victim to the Final Days, there wasn’t much else for the Scions to do other than try to ease the worries of the civilians and aid them in their asylum to Sharlayan. Fhara couldn’t quite call it a distraction from current events but she hoped that taking them somewhere less crowded with anxiety and tension, somewhere yet unaffected by the larger impact of the Final Days, maybe it would help clear minds to think on the next step they needed to take.

Even if they were beset by blasphemies nonetheless.

“Arenvald has spoken of this venture in his letters recently. They’ve made some small steps toward helping some families, but he’s quite hopeful it can make a larger impact in bringing communities together and moving Ala Mhigo forward and beyond its occupation era someday,” Alphinaud stated once they were steady on their feet from the long distance travel.

“He and Raganfrid have a lot of work ahead of them, but I’m glad they’ve made some progress to start. It’ll be a long road,” she responded, ears perked as she looked around for their hosts.

“Indeed. As a friend, I would have liked to offer to assist them with it, but the Scions’ aid began and ended with the liberation of Ala Mhigo and it’s up to the people to stand on their own feet from here on. I’ll simply have to make do with Arenvald’s updates in future, while this instance is really an unfortunate outlier given the scale of this calamity,” he replied, looking torn over the fact they had to be involved at all.

Fhara’s ear flicked at the sound of crunching dirt behind her, signalling his approach before he made his appearance known.

“Unfortunate or no, tis good to have you both here to help all the same,” Arenvald greeted them both as he wheeled up to them, his warm grin being matched by the two Scions, “I’m sure this isn’t how any of us would’ve hoped to meet and catch up, but we can’t always have it easy, can we? “

“Actually, why don’t I leave you two to catch up first while I check in with Raganfrid on what’s been happening?” Fhara suggested, thinking to herself that it’d be best to let the pair catch up properly as friends before they had to worry about any official business, “You can fill me in later once we’re settled in.” She could see Alphinaud giving her a look out of the corner of her eye, though she tried to look inconspicuous.

“Already rushing into work? I would’ve expected that out of you, Alphinaud, not this one,”  Arenvald chuckled, even as Alphinaud seemed to protest weakly at the suggestion, “But aye, fine, last I saw him he was down by the river’s edge minding some of the kids. Tell him we’re good for our stores as well, I just checked it.” Fhara nodded, giving them both a friendly wave before she darted off where he’d pointed, leaving the two friends alone in the middle of the village.

“You’re well then?” Alphinaud asked, aware it was a rather simple start. It rightfully earned a light chuff in response.

“Well enough. Obviously I’ve got loads of work here, but it’s getting on. I feel I should be asking you if you’re well, given you’re busier than me with twice the workload. I’m surprised those tiny shoulders of yours haven’t cracked carrying half the world’s weight yet.”

“I’m hardly shouldering it alone,” he countered the friendly jibe, although it also felt as if the act of drawing attention to his many woes suddenly made him feel that bit more weighted, “Still, you are right, there is…a lot going on. I’m afraid I don’t have the luxury of stopping though.”

“I can imagine, with what I’ve heard about your old man, and a little bit of what’s happening over in the Shroud.”

Right as a dark expression crossed Alphinaud’s face at the thought of it all - Thavnair, the Garleans, the Blasphemies, his father - Arenvald gave him a light shove to shake his mind away.

“Hey, none of the heavy shite now, we can save that till we have to chat with Raganfrid proper. C’mon,” he said, gesturing to a shaded seating area under a pitched piece of fabric and proceeding to roll ahead, leaving Alphinaud to hurry after him with a hastily mumbled affirmation.

“I’m surprised they haven’t given you a better wheelchair for the terrain while you’re posted out here,” Alphinaud added as they walked, noticing the high backed chair was much the same as Arenvald’s original infirmary stay.

“They’re working on one, just all the nonsense about getting proper parts to make it and such. And I keep telling them if the parts were better needed somewhere else, like someone else’s cart or machine, I’d make do waiting a bit longer. The least they insisted on was giving me a better tread for the paths and rocks round here,” he reported, giving the wheel a pat once he slowed to a stop under the shade, Alphinaud noting indeed it was a heftier rubber that still looked in good condition, no signs of wear and only lightly dusted.

“Garlond was passing through at one point checking on things, and he offered to make me some kind of hightek thing with all sorts of bits and bobs and shite, and ‘oh it could float you over entire ridges with enough aether crystals’, but nah,” Arenvald said, his brief impression of the engineer making the other laugh, “He’s definitely busy enough with half the work he’s doing on his own business and all the airships the major cities use, I’m not gonna give him more work.” 

“Cid is never one to stay idle, though he certainly has a bad habit of taking on more projects when he’s already busy enough,” Alphinaud hummed, remembering how frazzled Cid often looked in his workshop, and of his own making.

“At least he’s got that assistant to keep him right, I swear, the face on her when he started talking parts and labour and costs could put the fear in any other man,” Arenvald chuckled darkly.

“Ah, I’ve only met her a few times, but I know enough that Miss Jessie is not one to be taken lightly,” Alphinaud confirmed, recalling tales from Biggs and Wedge. Arenvald settled back into his seat, making himself comfy.

“Either way, while it’d be nice to have an upgrade, this is doing me well enough for what I need right now.” And with a confident smirk, he added, “I’m lucky I had the weapons training before all this, got enough arm strength to see myself through a full circuit of most of the valley ‘round these parts before I’d need someone else to help.” The final note was punctuated with a hefty flex of his arm, earning a bemused shake of the head from Alphinaud.

“Your strength was never in doubt. But still, tis good to see you adjusting well.”

~~

“It’s good to see him lighten up with a friend here, those letters always do perk him up when they arrive,” Raganfrid hummed, him and Fhara watching over the village from the ridge.

“Yeah. I was hoping to give them some time alone before we had to focus on work. Just five minutes without worrying about everything else in the world,” Fhara said, tail flicking behind her.

“Aye…a pair their age shouldn’t have to be worrying about official duties and stopping wars, but they stood up for the deed anyway. I’d like to hope that the work we’re doing here means the generations after Arenvald’s won’t have the same troubles he did. Just a future without hardship.”

“Knowing Alphinaud and his sister, I don’t see them ever slowing down, even if we manage to bring this to an end. They could’ve chosen a quiet life in Sharlayan but instead they’re out here insisting on helping everyone else.”

“Well, can’t say I’m too upset to hear that. As much as it is a shame they’ve got the world on their shoulders, I’ll be a hypocrite and say I’m glad there’s young ones like them willing to pick up and do what’s right in the world.”

Then with a smile at Fhara, Raganfrid added, “I suppose they do have quite the guardian to keep them safe though. Never need to fear the danger they’re in so long as you’re around.”

She returned his smile with one of her own.

“I try my best. And I’ll do the same here for your people, I promise you that. Me and Alphi both.”