#gotta get this out before stormblood

[theslyvoid9]

YOU DIDNT REBLOG IT BUT FUCK YOU !!!!!!!!!

3, 4, 18, 29, 31

FOR KEIHO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AUGH WHAT THE HELL THATS ILLEGAL!!! BUT FINE I WILL TALK ABOUT KEIHO FUCK YOU!!!! heres the question list for anyone curious

for those wondering Keiho is my FFXIV Au Ra character who i love dearly :3

(hes usually more happy i just like this doodle jskdnf)

putting the actual response under read more because man it got long ^_^

also in the game i just finished stormblood so this guys story is still ongoing for me dkjfng (theres 3 more expansion packs, as of right now, for me to do)

okay hi to anyone reading this o/

3. weapon of choice? any particular reason they chose their weapon?Keihos current weapon of choice is a lance! Being a lancer/dragoon class so big pointy stick sdjkdnsf.

The lore reason for Keiho going that route when becoming an adventurer i feel is mainly.. he was most used to holding lance like weapons and tools and felt it was the most comfortable way for him to get his journey started.

While the main stuff for his backstory before the beginning of the game is still kinda cooking for me, i do think he came from a smaller village kinda away from everything so they didn't have a lot of fancy resources to go around for a ton of swords or anything so the main weapons for hunting were lances. But he most likely did some spear fishing and stuff with it as well and is used to farm tools like pitchforks and hoes and stuff so again more used to lance like tools than anything else! But maybe he'll change that in the future and try different weapons now that he's got the adventure ball going!

(the none lore reason is i just liked the lance class the most and i havent bothered to try out any other class right now)

4. how crafty/resourceful are they?

i'd say they get by well enough! He's not some mastermind who's going to outsmart and trap supervillains left and right....and he definitely has his dumb moments. But he has his cleaver moments as well, def can sneak by, deceive and ambush pretty well against other regular, non super genius, folk. And can contribute in plannings if needed for battles and such.

But i do feel his resourcefulness comes out best in survival situations, he knows how to navigate the wilderness pretty well, knows how to hunt and make the most of food to make it last as long as possible and overall just knows how to get out and not die when dropped in the middle of the woods. Or build a sort of camp/housing if for whatever reason he wants to stay out there longer.

So not really some trap guy and not going to pull some crazy stunts during fights but can survive solo out in the wilderness pretty okay.

With this he is pretty lost in big cities on the other hand sjhbdnfds (me making a lore reason to explain why im always lost in limsa lominsa B) )

18. their opinion on lying, stealing, and killing?

HMMMM now this is a rather nuanced answer considering... he is the warrior of light...Hero of Eorzea etc etc... so he has his actual beliefs, the thing he preaches as a warrior people look up to and the things he believes as a warrior whos seen some of the worst the world has to offer.

Overall he fights for a world where people dont have a need to lie, steal or kill and if pressured for a black and white answer he'd say those things are bad. BUT he gets why certain people dont have any other option besides lying or stealing or even killing and doing any of those things for a valid reason isn't going to lower Keihos opinion of someone even by a bit. No "there must've been another way" or "you should've toughed it out" nope he gets that sometimes... you just gotta do what you gotta do. If anything it just makes Keiho more motivated to be a good hero seeing what someone was pushed to do just to get by. So overall he looks at each case rather individually... after all he as a hero has done all of those things for the greater good so it be rather hypocritical of him sdjkfndjsk

He also gets that while some people have a valid reason...it isn't always a good reason to do sth like killing so again... just focuses on getting as much info and then makes a choice.

If anyone tries to ask what his opinion on white lies are he just completely avoids the topic saying sth like "arent there more pressing matters" he just really doesn't have the time to form opinions on whether white lies make someone inherently evil or good skjndf

29. are they associated with any particular element (air, earth, fire, water)?

Hmm personally i haven't really put a lot of thought into what element Keiho could be sdjknf BUT in game he does have the title of "Warrior of light" so i guess i tend to associate him with light, and Keiho being a Raen Au Ra (that just meaning he has light scales instead of dark scales like the Xaela Au Ra) who believe they are descendants of Dawn Father just makes the light connection more strong huh xD

And i guess i do tend to link him with crystals due to his scales reminding me of that and him having several interactions and a blessing from the Mothercrystal goddess

so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ personally haven't thought about it but theres some building blocks there from the game

31. do they like receiving gifts? giving gifts? what is their ideal gift?

Oh you chose this one specifically after that loredump i did on you huh

Okay lets take these one by one, receiving gift

Maybe back before their adventure days he would've like the occasional gift, never really liked anything to extravagant because ough you didn't need to, but small stuff like food or something handmade or some random material he needed, perfect. But after he became a hero and with every title he just.... stopped enjoying it, at some points just despises gifts all together, but not in the " i receive them so much" or the "i'm too good for these gifts" but more in the "hey i dont need nor deserve this :(( keep it to yourself you need it more :( " way. Along the way tho he also develops a weird "if i say no to a gift i'm being incredibly rude" mentality so that's when he gets super weird with gifts and wants to say "no, they dont need to go through all the effort for a gift for lil ol' me" but also the voice in the back being like if you refuse you're being rude!! so he just... puts on his hero persona and accepts it with grace.. so no one even really knows what kind of turmoil a simple loaf of bread just caused him dhsgfjukd and its quite literally nearly impossible to pry an answer out of him if you ever asked what he'd like for a gift, because the idea of requesting anything?!?!?! is just too much and he avoids the topic like the plague. quite literally need to corner him for a WHILE to get any sort of vague answer

my boy is stable :)

Giving gifts

He most likely won't have any sort of weird relationship with giving gifts but i honestly dont think he gifts a lot, he's more of a i'll walk to the ends of the earth for you kinda guy to his loved ones. But the most something like a gift i feel is he'll make food occasionally without being asked or he might pick up something from stores or similar places if someone mentioned it. If he was still just a civilian he'd make some crafts here and there as well (woodwork, jewellery etc etc). But with being a hero he most likely doesn't have a lot of time or energy for those sorts of things, and most likely mentally he isn't really in a stable place rn to be doing anything like that either way, but in the future when his mentality regarding being a hero improves he'll def be making some handcrafted stuff for his friends!

Ideal gift

This is a tough one considering all the above about him not even really wanting gifts sjkdlnmfk but

Before the adventure days, it probably would've been something really simple, like some tasty food or some rare material for personal projects or even just something handcrafted! something to show the other cared enough to really think what he'd like kinda thing

And that mentality does stay a bit for post adventurer keiho! He'd avoid the topic but honestly... getting anything non adventure related, just for keiho to have after all the adventure gear has been put away for the day like again some good food or a nice shirt or just...anything again to show that they care about keiho the guy and not keiho the adventurer who probably needs new chainmail under his armour. He gets something from the heart and he is going to cry guranteed

Anddd with that i have finally finished responding to this jksbdnfjhks

if anyone made it this far congrats! you get a bonus keiho

[storytellers-and-co]

Ya boys about to hit Shadowbringers

I got through Stormblood post-game last night and BOY what a ride it was!? I could barely put the game down, even when I was trying to pace myself so I don't leave certain friends too far behind. Adding spoilery stuff below the cut, because I know one of 'em reads this blog (I just need to gush a little while things are still fresh in my mind)

Okay so. All the revelations of Garlemald and how, WHY it was created? I loved that, it so easily explained why a whole ass country has been the default 'evil conquerors' for so long without any real challenge or change until now. Because the real man behind the whole thing is STILL AT IT. Change don't happen if the original reason, the original driving force is still kicking about.

Also I wanna kick Solus. I wanna kick Solus so hard. Props for the animators, writer and Rene Zagger, it's on sight now old man, I'm coming for your kneecaps!

Speaking of voice actors, Luke Allen-Gale! Hot damn did he do a good job as Zenos (and the possessed Zenos)! I have complicated feelings about Zenos, ngl - He's one of those characters that I know cannot be saved, fixed, or redeemed, but I can also see why he's such a popular character? Personally it's the voice and certain lines that did it for me. Got some shivers out of certain line-deliveries.

He's actually a character that makes me kinda sad - it's a reminder that there is some characters that are doomed by the canon, they'll never be good people, and yet you can see a glimmer, a potential of what-ifs, could-have-beens and all that. A road that was there but refused by the character because that's just not who they are.

Also Varis is also on the kick on the face list. Black Rose is bad. Stop it.

AND NOW ON THE LATEST THING that actually got two of my friends laughing: The final fight against Zenos-Zombie! Zenbie? Zomnos? The- the dead body possessed by the Ascian who I keep calling Ildi because names hard. Ildinos.

So the final fight against him. One, I absolutely loved being Hien for a moment, he quickly became one of my faves through the Stormblood (he's such a fun, up-beat character that takes the life by stride while also not being a pushover, and that's such a good quality to have!).

Two.... GOD DAMMIT WHOEVER YOU ARE, COULDN'T YOU HAD PICKED A BETTER TIME FOR YOUR BLOODY HOUSECALL, YOU NEARLY COST ME MY HEAD! If it wasn't for our local stray cat of a dragoon, we would've lost then and there and you would've lost your chance to have the WoL helping out on the count of NOT HAVING A HEAD, pick your times better oui raatmacc raqan! (This is a joke I know he couldn't have known I was locked in a death-match. I hope.)

Now if ya wondering why I am not more outraged about the fact they've effectively kidnapped my friends, I uh. I actually felt a huge surge of sympathy at the start for the character. idk something about the voice painted a picture of someone desperate and... sad? Upset? Distressed? Something like that just got my empathy flaring up. So while I am mad that I keep getting these calls and everyone around me is panicking in fear, I also want to get to the bottom of this because apparently my empathy levels are far too fucking high.

(Yes I am the type of person who wants to help everyone in any of the games I play in. It's my ultimate power fantasy, being able to help and comfort folks without my actual personality coming in the way)

I think that's all for me now folks, I am taking a small break before heading to Shadowbringers - I have few alts that need to catch up to HW at the very least, and a laundry-list of things for my main to go through. Like all the gathering side-quests, Eureka, unlocking all the primal fights and fixing my glamors etc. We're also trying to get a house for Storytellers, so i gotta help gather some extra funds + items.

[tsunael]

What was their initial impression of Sphene? How did this change as the story progressed?

Dawntrail OC Questions | accepting!

Somehow you managed to ask the exact same one as @/aethergazing so I'll be answering a random one!

17. The theme of family and legacy is repeated throughout Dawntrail— did this theme resonate with your character? Were there specific moments relating to family that impacted them?

Obvious Dawntrail spoilers below.

It did, and I'm really happy about it, honestly. As much as I, personally, didn't enjoy DT I think the themes fit her very well.

If I were to think of her as canon, Stormblood really began her arc.

This expac brings back the proverbial ghost of her mother as she travels to her ancestral home. This begins her journey of understanding where she came from, and confronting her past. We would learn about what she was doing before ARR--and what had her running to Eorzea to begin with.

Shadowbringers continues where Heavensward leaves off. Her personal feelings are brought to the forefront when she is forced to contend with her own mortality. She still hasn't learned to stop running as she nearly takes Emet's offer.

Endwalker forces her to stop running and face what she fears most. The world is now so much bigger than she could have ever imagined and there is more at stake than just her homeland. Her past comes up again when she runs into her father, and when she finds her mother in the Aitiascope. This is where she can say her farewells.

6.x is about her healing: mentally, physically. She wants to run away from it all again and almost commits suicide because of it. So, she quits being a Scion and they are disbanded. She resolves to live for herself for a time.

(Don't ask me if the void quests are canon for her I haven't decided lmao).

So, for Dawntrail's theme to be legacy and family... it ended up being amazing for her story on paper. It definitely made her reflect on the recent past.

As for moments that resonated with her... Zoraal Ja's misplaced hatred for his father certainly, and Wuk Lamat and Koana watching on as their father passed would have opened wounds that have yet to close for her. As an aside: I haven't decided if I'll kill her father (Kartal) off yet but Tsuna also held him in her arms as he was near-death, so it would have been a mirroring-- especially if Wuk Lamat is meant to mirror the wol's (or Azem's?) journey.

Tsuna has extreme daddy issues is what I'm trying to get at here.

Any others were inside Living Memory. The entire concept would have left her inconsolable, if not extremely anxious and uncomfortable. Certainly not the strange, morbid joy ride the game made it out to be.

Cachiua and Erenville having one last moment together probably gave her a lot to chew on. Like a misplaced jealousy or an envy, but also a deep empathy.

What Tsuna leaves with... and the message she learns having gone through it all though...? I still gotta think about that :T

[greentrickster]

I’ve been playing In Stars and Time recently and it feels like a game that’s very much your vibe, has excellent writing and also much timeloops.

(takes a look at it)

Thanks for the recommendation, but it doesn't look quite my cup of tea, sadly (if nothing else, the idea of even playing a character caught in a time loop where it matters sounds inordinately stressful for me personally).

Also, FFXIV is still consuming my soul, as it has been for the past year and a third. Gotta make it through Stormblood, then level every single class to level 70, do all the side quests, get all the Triple Triad cards, and anything else that needs doing. Then do it all again for my secondary character. And also play more Hollow Knight, Journey, and Dead Cells, because I love them very much. And by the time I'm done with all that, Sword of the Sea will probably be out, and I have a visceral need to play that game, as well as possibly Silk Song, which I'll also need to play (I have my expectations for most of it set at a nice comfy 'the graphics will be very pretty and anything else good will be a delightful bonus' because I refuse to fall into the trap of overhyping, I've been hurt before darling, my heart can only take so much). Not to mention that I'm eventually going to be forced to actually buy the complete version of FFXIV (but hey, if I drag my feet enough, maybe they'll release another expansion and I can play Shadowbringers for free first - you never know, it worked with Stormblood!), and then I'll need to do every single thing available in that.

Which is to say, while I appreciate the offer, I have bare minimum my next three to four years' worth of gaming booked solid.

Thanks for the ask!

[aotopmha]

Dawntrail lvl 95 MSQ spoilers!

I ended today's session a little bit after the solo duty.

It's another zone I adore as just a location to go around in!

Dawntrail will be the first expansion on my list to max the Shared FATEs in just for this reason, I think.

And as I expected Bakool Ja Ja ended up being much more interesting than I thought he would ever be.

(I want to specify from my other post that he is indeed not one of the siblings. He's the only non-sibling claimant, in fact.)

In my previous post I went into how we're finally getting more nuanced thematic and character writing, but we're still firmly in A Realm Reborn cheese territory when it comes to the spirit.

Every single story with the different peoples we have met so far has been pretty simple at its core. And so is Bakool Ja Ja's little redemption arc and Koana's moment of reflection.

I keep ping-ponging between this being A Realm Reborn 2 and Stormblood 2 because it is both incredibly straight-forward and has some neat nuances at play, but really it is just a mix of the two, but without the massive focus, stake and pacing issues.

Instead of going to 10 places before reaching your goal you have one complete story in one place and move on to another one.

Instead of 5 or 8 characters or locations, you have to talk to 3 characters or go to 1 place. Most I've done is, I think click shinies in 5 different locations.

And instead of getting lost in side distractions while a location is under attack by a giant monster or desparately fighting for their freedom, the adventure through the land and learning about its people is the main point.

Dawntrail has both A Realm Reborn's and Stormblood's massive love for cheese, but also their love for building the world you travel.

If you really disliked A Realm Reborn or Stormblood, you might have similar issues with Dawntrail or if you hated the trust and friendship cheese in the Endwalker patch content, you most likely will hate the peace and cooperation cheese in Dawntrail.

We're absolutely back to pretty blunt core writing here. But it's neat blunt writing with at least some substance backing it to me.

Another aspect of Dawntrail I have not commented on are the many more cutscenes, with what feels like fewer of them voiced. I'd be interested in the statistics.

Which I don't mind, but I can see it to be jarring after it got so much more common with the past few expansions.

Each time I think there might be a break, I get another cutscene. So I think they might have overcorrected on trying streamline the questing experience.

And as much I think they've been solid, all of the solo duties so far kind of have been "the same" down to two of them being against the same character, so that's another area I feel where they are cutting corners this expansion.

It works out because all three duties involve two-headed Mamool Ja, but it is something that stood out to me. And I also don't mind it.

Shadowbringers and Endwalker really stood out for some of their solo duties for me, but if they must save their budget, I'd rather it be voice acting and solo duties than skipping out some content.

I do not get why Square Enix just won't give more money to what is still probably their biggest cash cow.

We recently straight-up got news we got the most concurrent players since A Realm Reborn.

Corporations gotta corporation, I guess.

(To specify, I have no idea how the budget for the game has or hasn't changed, but it *feels* like it has roughly been the same.)

[farfromdaylight]

i have a 600 person queue to chew through, so let's make another post.

i'm level 95 and have finished the third solo instance, plus a few quests after it (but not that far.)

this expansion feels very political in a way that's different from the previous expacs. ff14 doesn't really hide its politics and never has; it's always been a story about the power of friendship overcoming the most terrible of foes. and in that respect, it's very simple and straightforward. a little basic, maybe, but the core theme of "you should actually listen to what other people want" is very honest and true to itself.

wuk lamat wants peace. and peace is a wonderful thing to want, but what does it actually mean? it means looking at how your society is set up. it means looking at who has advantages, and who doesn't, and why that is. and then when you find out, you have to do something about it. a truly egalitarian society is a pipe dream, but it's the thought that counts.

that doesn't mean it's not worth trying. and even if you fail, you'll have learned valuable lessons in the attempt. this, too, is a constant refrain of ff14: you have to try, even if it's hard, even if you're not sure you're going to succeed. you have to put in the effort.

it's interesting how the claimants each display different parts of this struggle. koana's lust for innovation is all well and good, but there's no depth to it. bakool ja ja wants power for the sake of power, to justify but not right past wrongs. zoraal ja — well, i suspect we'll be getting more into him soon. i do not think he will accept defeat so easily.

and wuk lamat is so clearly meant to be the victor. this entire setup is perfect for her, and while she's plainly struggled along the path, she's still tried. she's given it her all, and she hasn't backed down even when it's tough. it's admirable, i think.

on the whole, i'm really liking this expansion! it feels very reminiscent of stormblood, in that the warrior of light is kind of just There and not particularly integral to the actual story. but after all the drama of the past two expacs this is nothing short of a relief. god knows we needed a rest.

some misc thoughts:

how the fuck is kenteramm still alive, lmao. i stopped msq right before going to his house (sidequests spawned and i had to do them) so i guess?? we'll find out?? most HD roegadyn i've ever seen tho, damn

i can Feel a twist looming. with the rite of succession nearing its end, there's gotta be something beyond "search for the city of gold" to carry us five more levels.

on a gameplay note, i have no idea when to use vice of thorns. it seems as though i have the freedom to use it whenever, which is nice, but i like a slightly more rigid burst window... i suppose i'll just use it after party buffs go out. other red mage changes are v good so far.

i did a leveling queue as summoner this morning to try and keep pace with red mage and lucked into the level 93 dungeon (the top one i could do, nice). these dps queues tho. killer. (i'd comment on summoner changes but l o l)

THE VALIGARMANDA TRIAL WAS FANTASTIC. i did it in trust (what a surprise! i never thought they'd do a trust trial again) and died when the boss was at like 12% health because....... i was trying to RDM LB3 and the avalanche got me and none of the NPCs broke me out of the snowball. THANKS A LOT, ASSHOLES. went fine the second time though.

as a red mage main, alisaie as your trust healer is fucking hilarious.

this goes without saying but the game looks so beautiful, goddamn.

i still have 83 in queue but i've run out of things to say. LET ME IN

[tryingnottolurk]

y'know I'm really enjoying the story of FFXIV but sometimes I really don't understand wtf the writers were thinking

spoilers for content that's six years old I guess

so yesterday I started doing some of the post-StormBlood MSQ and there comes a bit where our buddy Raubahn is like "hey we caught these two assholes who did terrible shit, if it was up to you what would happen to them?" and the whole thing was just.... odd

you don't exactly get super in-depth dialogue options, so you just get "kill them" or "don't kill them" for choices, right? and it hasn't been two minutes since ol' Raubahn gave a big speech to a mob about "you can't just execute people, you gotta have a fair trial, murder isn't justice" and all that, right? but also literally nobody has asked my opinion on this sort of thing before, in large part I think cuz the Warrior Of Light really isn't in a position of authority to be asked in the first place, so its a little awkward to be asked all of a sudden

but I figure we've been getting the "vengeance isn't the answer" lesson in this part of the story and that's literally what this guy was talking about before, not to mention all the potential info you can't squeeze out of them about their past nefarious deeds if they're dead, so I go with "don't kill them"

and Raubahn is... disappointed? in that answer?

like wtf dude you just gave a whole big speech about this

the whole thing just felt so out of place with everything else at that point that I legit sat there for a minute and went "huh?"

anyway that's it I'm done now

[voidsentprinces]

How I got from each one, its grindy, its repeative but I was also somewhat on top of it.

Part 1: DoW/DoM

Level 1 - 53: I leveled this up by finishing the entire MSQ and while running it I unlocked Squadrons. Which are like Trusts but if loaded out correctly are faster. Check out your Grand Company ranks and get to Rank Second (Flame/Serpent/Storm) Lieutenant. Then train them up their stats twice, then send them out to missions this will take a series of days so just do it and have it running in the background like Ventures. Then pick up the "Brand New Sets" by running the Novice Hall as a Tank, a Physical, and a Magical DPS to get three sets. This will also give you a Brand New Ring. Brand New Ring + Menphina's Earring or next expansions pre-order Exp Bonus will make getting from 15 - 30 super easy in just a few runs. This will also allow you to grind out some levels on your Squadron and slowly level their basic Masteries and unlock new ones. Once you have the ability to change their job set ups change both DPS to Arcanist, Healer will always be Conjurer and Tank can be either Marauder or Gladiator don't really matter. So long as the DPS are Arcanists you should be good. When you're able to set the DPS Mastery to Offensive, Tank to Independent, and Conjurer to Balanced. The ones you really want is for Offensive to get to 5. I say this because unlike Trusts, Squadron NPCs will AoE down packs of mobs. And arcanists are pretty much king of AoE in the Squadrons. Once they get to Offensive (Mastery: 5). The runs will start getting quicker, but you gotta put in the time to get them to that point. I suggest leveling each Job from level 1 - 15 by just doing Hunts Log, Guildhests and then doing a couple early game trusts to push them to Level 20, where they'll be able to begin running Squadron Command Missions. Then it is simply a matter of grinding out exp to 50 for each job and sticking with it. Brayflox's Longstop is the biggest hurdle cause it stretches from level 32 - 41 and the third boss doesn't give EXP. Still its WAY faster than Trusts. So grind, grind, grind until 50. Once 50 on a job you can somewhat abuse the Duty Roulette.

50 - 61: Choose a job at 50 and do all the Roulettes you can. Or get them all to 53 from daily roulettes and then take one and main it daily for a while. Take the tomestones you get from it and spend it on Ironworks Gear from Mor Dhona until you have Fending, Maiming, Striking, Scouting, Aiming, Casting, and Healing gears, accesories and weapons respectively, so you can just switch out to each job as they get to. Then repeat the daily process for Shire Gear in Idyllshire, Scaevan Gear in Rhalgr's Reach, and Deepshadow Gear in Eulmore or the Crystarium. If you hit 90 on the job before getting all this, switch to the next one. After you get all these armors, use Squadrons to push the remaining ones from 53 - 61 and switch to Shire Gear. Don't forget to run your job quests in between to help get better abilities to use as the dungeons get progressively more mechanic heavy. Expect to hate seeing the Vault, the Longstop, and Darkhold after a while. (Have an excess of Grand Company Seals? Spend it on emotes, chocobo bardings, or glamour prisms and sell the Prisms on the market if you'd like, just try to keep enough to keep runing Squadrons until you're all at 61 after daily roulettes etc.)

61 - 71: Here comes the hard part. They never updated Squadrons past Heavensward content. So now comes the grind. But thankfully there is a little variation. At this point your hunts should unlock so grab the Hunts for ARR, Heavensward, and Stormblood and just sort of run them to get little EXP, go unlock Kojin and Ananta Tribe quests. These will also help with exp to break up monotony.

71 - 81: Rinse and repeat. Switch out to Scaevan Gear. Daily Roulette, unlock Nuts Hunts in Crystarium, run Trusts (which are much slower than Squadron but what can you do at this point? This is what I did you might have friends to run dungeons with, in which case do the highest dungeon you can queue for [not including Post Patch dungeons] for maximum EXP gain), do your job quests, unlock Pixie Daily Quests for extra Exp from day to day. Grind, grind, grind. You'll probably dislike leveling Tanks and Healers through Trusts because you gotta be involved in the fights. But generally if you're leveling Melee, Caster, Ranged DPS just lead Thancred (and later in Endwalker G'raha) by the nose to the pack of mobs. Attack once with an AoE and then queue up your show and watch it until the pack is cleared. Pause your show or podcast or whatever and walk them to the next. Rinse and repeat. You only have to be involved in Boss Fights. Also don't forget FC buffs and Food. Buy like...cheap food. All food just gives you a 5% exp buff anyway, no use shelling out extra gil on anything that isn't Marmot Steak, Orange Juice, Eggs, and Raisins...it'll be rough going at first because the NPCs also have to be at level to enter a dungeon. But I promise by the time everything is like level 75. They'll all be 80 so you can just do it by dungeon level.

81 - 90: Pretty much the same. Switch out to Deepshadow Gear, daily roulette, Nuts Hunts now you can do them from Old Sharlayan as well and slowly buy Radiant Gear (at time for writing the highest gear you can purchase for Not Gil). G'raha is now able to tank so if you're tired of Thancred just use the Catboy. Same rules as before, NPCs have to level with the dungeons before being able to enter them. But at least you also got Estinien who is okay as a melee damage DPS. Just lead them to the packs and watch your shows until boss fights then food buff and do the encounter then move on. Save the Nut Sacks for the Radiant Gear and then just switch it out. Unless you really like the glamour, gear gotten from Holminster Switch/Dohn Mheg and Tower of Zot/Babil are gonna be useless if you're wearing Scaevan/Deepshadow Gear. Don't really start replacing things til Qitana Ravel and Vanaspati respectively. Grind dungeons with trusts or friends while getting daily exp chores done with in the meantime. If you want to level whatever Corsair and Pictomancer is gonna be. Be sure to save the Deepshadow Aiming Accessories and I assume Scouting Gear as well as Deepshadow Casting Gear and any dungeon equivalents after. Unless you want to grind tomestones for the gear after Dawntrail hits. Also unlock Arkasodara for your daily tribe DoW/DoM Exp

Congrats, over a long period of time everything is level 90.

Part 2: DoL/DoH

1 - 60: Hope you have super deep pockets for gil cause ARE YER READY KIDS!? Thankfully due to the Shadowbringers and Endwalker shake up to leveling Crafting and Gathering. This will be a little better than grinding Trusts. If you're just sitting around and grinding out DoW/DoM you might notice your Leve Allowance is reached 100. Take this time to step aside and track down level appropriate Leves for your chosen crafting and gathering. And turn them in ad nasauem. I suggest: This Site to help you with Leves for Crafting. For Gathering it is initially just find the zone and do the leve but eventually its go to the main city for the expansion and grind it out there. You can do what you want but to save on money I bought Relevant gear for gathering and crafting across 10 levels. So you know gear for level 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 respectively. And nothing in between. Its a money pit, I won't lie. But around level 50, I suggest taking time to do that 3000 quest marathon to unlock Moogle Quests for a daily tribe quest version of Crafting. The money pit is gonna get STEEP for Heavensward Leves but just do your best with the gil you're able to collect from doing daily roulettes with DoW/DoM leveling and any minion and glamour prism money you make.

Level 60 - 70: Good news, abandon the fucking leves. They are just too damn expensive to buy stuff off the market board and level accordingly for Crafting. Get one of your crafters to level 70 cause now you got Stormblood content!!! Which means you can finally unlock Deliveries. Deliveries are like Weekly Hunts, where you craft stuff for an NPC and depending on the quality to get white scripts back. The better the quality, the more white scripts you get from this. Use these scripts to buy better level 60 - 80 gear. Then hard buy level 90 Crafting/Gathering Gear from the usual vendor (not the Marketboard). In addition, you can unlock Namazu to help level your Crafting and Gathering for daily tribe quests.

Level 70 - 80: Unlock Dwarf and Qitari cause now Crafting and Gathering have two separate daily tribes assigned to it. Which means you don't have to choose which one to get the single tribe quests to on a daily basis. Just keep doing those and weekly deliveries and eventually you'll hit 80 on everything. Don't forget to turn in Scripts for better gear to make the transition between expansions a little easier.

Level 80 - 90: Omnicron and Loporrit are your tribe quests now. Do your weekly deliveries and those and you'll hit max. Once you get all the good gear for level 80. Try to focus on one crafting and gathering job to get to 90 and then you can use that job to do weekly deliveries. Check your Timer Tab to sift through the various Delivery NPCs cause some of them will have B O N U S written on a panel for Crafting and Gathering which means they'll shell out even more scrips for you to buy stuff with. At 90 this means you get Purple Scrips and if someone low on Delivery Totem Pole (like Zhoe or M'naago) have a Bonus on their panel is basically just free purple scrips at how easy it is to HQ delivery turn ins. And getting better crafting and gathering gear

And thats it grats, you can also do Ocean Fishing to level FSH but other wise on a daily basis you'll slowly make progress to level DoL/DoH over time. If you want to do it more actively...idfk this is just how I did it on a day to day basis and I eventually got everything there. Hope it helps. If Dawntrail hits before you get everything done, you can probably repeat the steps for DoW/DoM for whatever "catch all" level 90 armor they grandfather in to get you through Post-Patch for the future content and just run Daily Roulette until you collect all of that then just repeat 91 - 100 ad nasaeum for future content. Cheers...

(But Void! What about Ishgardian Restoration. Look...Marketboard is fucking expensive and there's no guarantee you're going to be turning in excellent gear to get super exp for it. So I just skipped it.)

[clockwork-sparrow]

Specula Imperatoris

A tower comes falling down.  Parts: 1 [2] 3

2 - Floor 36

Set during events of Stormblood - CW: Strong language, war, loss

“Oh fuck,” Oliver says.

The elevator’s blocked. Troops have priority, and they’re packing down.

“Oh fuck,” he repeats.

Papers are scattered everywhere. A spilled cup of coffee rolls across the floor, staining the rug brown.

“Oh-fuck-oh-fuck-oh-fuck.”

Oliver looks left, then right. He’s got Gloria’s hand clenched in his and he’s looking for the room that civilians are supposed to hide in until the conflict blows over. A soldier yells at him to get out of the way, so he presses himself and Gloria against a cubicle wall to let armored men march past. She shakes like a leaf beneath him and her palm is cold with sweat. Oliver pulls back and grabs Gloria firmly by the shoulders.

“Gloria. Gloria!” Oliver calls out. “Gloria, stay with me, okay? We’ll get through this. We just gotta keep going.”

Gloria dry swallows between hyperventilating. “T-this isn’t happening. This isn’t...”

Oliver grits his teeth. Mentally, she’s gone, but he refuses to leave her behind. He gives her a quick hug before tugging her onwards, weaving through fallen chairs and whiteboards to make their way towards the fire escape. With how much the floor is shaking from this conflict, the thought of hunkering down and waiting for salvation doesn’t sit right with him. He needs to do something, keep moving, stay alive. He doesn’t want to wait to be rescued.

He charges into the fire escape door and slams it open, and the sound of echoing footsteps down the near endless stairwell tells him that he’s not alone. Fuck, he just had to take Gloria up to see the sights today, didn’t he? They’ve got the longest way possible to run down, but for some reason, he still wants to go for it. Until his feet are on solid ground, he won’t rest easy.

So floor 50. Gloria’s stumbling behind him. What a day to wear platform boots.

Floor 40. He feels like his lungs are burning from the inside out, and Gloria’s faring even worse.

A terrible sound deafens them by floor 36. The entire building goes on a tilt, steel moaning as it leans.

“What was that?!” Gloria shrieks. 

Already manic with fear and now, exhausted from the descent, Gloria stumbles as Specula Imperatoris begins to collapse. Oliver picks her up and rushes out of the fire escape, sees that everything is set on an angle, narrowly dodges an office chair wheeling past. Worrisome plumes of smoke cloud the windows and, for the millisecond that it parts, they both see the great cannon of Castrum Abania pointed straight. At. Them.

“O-Ollie, they couldn’t have...No. The Alliance! They must’ve snuck in, did this to us,” Gloria rambles.

“That doesn’t matter right now,” Oliver forces himself to say. If it weren’t for Gloria he might’ve lost his marbles, but he’s driven by a need to be there for her. “We just have to get out of here.”

Every second tilts the world more and more. Floor 36. There’s a launchpad for drones on this level. Smaller, weedier ones meant for communication, but -- it might be a safer bet than trying to run down the stairs of a collapsing building. He slides down the floor and lands next to the workshop with a grunt. 

The launch bay door is already open. Fuck, someone had the same bright idea.

The room is nearly empty save for a single, pathetic drone that was deemed too scrawny to be used in the escape attempts of whoever came before them. Seeing that is both horrible and relieving to Oliver because he just so happens to a passenger to match. He dumps Gloria on top of it and squeezes her hand.

“Okay, I know this is crazy, but if the tower tilts so much that you end up falling out, use this,” he says quickly. Gloria furrows her brows at him.

“What the fuck? Ollie, this is /real life/ and you’re not making any sense,” she says.

“I know. I --” Specula Imperatoris writhes and nearly throws them out. Oliver, with one hand holding onto a pipe and the other onto Gloria, wheezes with effort. “--oh-my-fucking-god.”

“FUCK. Okay, okay. Okayokayokay.” Gloria uses her free hand to flip the shitty drone on and looks up with broken determination. “Come on, you meathead! This place is about to explode!”

An awful cacophony of rending metal and splitting circuits sings out and Oliver doesn’t know what to do. What to say. How to resolve the desperate urge to live with the unbelievable circumstances he’s in. He looks at the drone that’s just barely carrying Gloria’s weight and lets out a sound he can’t quite identify. It falls between relief and despair.

These aren’t the right words for the mess that’s spiraling around in his head, but still, he has to try.

“I’ll catch up with you later, but tell everyone I love them, okay?” Oliver’s voice cracks. Everything’s falling apart but he’s holding on. “Now get out of here!”

He shakes her off like the limp spaghetti that she is and doesn’t look away as she falls, her eyes wide with horror as the drone struggles to slow her descent. She disappears backwards into the smoke, and seconds later, so does he. 

Specula Imperatoris clings on for as long as it could until, just like that, it couldn’t. The tower splits into two and lays down with a great sigh, resting its carcass of ceruleum and cermet atop a bed of blood and bone. The Alliance and Empire bleeds below, pulverized and made one again, death indistinct.

Something had to change. Something did.

[motheatenscarf]

I'm glad the twins have only been here for about a year each, I know they're slowly maturing as characters but I would miss if they weren't babies anymore.

That said, fucking woof, 3 years for Urianger and Y'shtola and f i v e entire experienced years for Thancred in the like... 6 months they've been gone, at most. That's rough.

God bless Alisaie for yelling at the Exarch. I get the impression he means well, the Crystarium seems suspiciously nice, but one of two interesting scenarios lies before me;

He did not mean for the Scions to come through and is genuinely figuring this out as he goes and does not know how to help them get home, which I would consider to be grossly negligent and irresponsible. An honest mistake born of desperation, but difficult to personally forgive given how it condemned the WoL's allies to prolonged suffering and possibly death on this hell-world.

He did this on purpose to provide incentive for the WoL to not only answer his summons but actually help; perhaps once his problem is dealt with, he will work on a way to get them home. A ruthless, calculating move that solidifies his dedication to The First and its people, unforgivable but highly motivated and comprehensible if not necessarily understandable.

There are other explanations, of course, but those seem most likely to me.

I'm also trying to figure out if this guy is the Crystal Catboy or not, I thought for sure he was when I saw him at the end of Stormblood and he said he left a beacon at the base of the Crystal Tower. I was like, oh, wait, the guy in the vision was a shortie and catboys are tiny! That's gotta be him, we left him in the tower and everything!

But then you can mention him directly to the Exarch and he seems confused. So... maybe not? But then he says it's THE tower from The Source. But also, our tower is still there and maybe he's from the future or the distant past and will return the tower at another point? I truly don't know???

[lord-pigeon]

A month late to finishing Dawntrail cause I was waiting for Certain Things to update, and honestly, it was alright? Obvious spoilers under the cut.

Nonsense rambling btw, don't expect a thesis there I'm just word vomiting

The strongest part was everything with Sphene, by and far. Zoraal Ja was a completely different character between Part 1 and Part 2 and people keep overlooking that to whine about Wuk Lamat. Ironically, I feel Wuk Lamat was the second strongest part of the expansion.

I came into the expansion as "WoL's funky summer vacation in not-Mexico" and that def helped my opinion about it, cause WoL is meant to be chilling while Wuk Lamat is having the character arc. Sooo I'll guess I'll start with the positives?

Wuk Lamat I felt had a significantly better arc than Lyse did. Probably helped by the fact I play in JP so I don't have the "she sounds so monotone all the time" issue people in ENG had. So you could actually hear her gradually grow in maturity when she goes from yelling 90% of the time to taking a lower tone and calming down.

I dunno, she has a very strong personality and I found her engaging. She was most of the fun I had in the first half, so I guess I got lucky there.

Second, obviously, was Sphene. Kinda Walmart Emet, kinda her own thing. I saw her final boss status coming from a mile away, but like, her background was my speed for an antagonist. Sad old robot you gotta put down cause she's too far gone, path to hell paved with good intentions. That kinda thing, very melancholic.

As for bad, well, uh, I guess mostly that the expansion felt like it was split in half? With two different writers for each half? Like Zoraal Ja of part 2 wasn't even close to Zoraal Ja of part 1, even their motivations were wildly different (inflict war to people who forgot it in peacetime to remind them of what peace is vs daddy inheritance issues)

Also where the shit did baby Garool Ja come from. Who is the mother. Did he just reproduce asexually cause they're lizards? Artificial creation? Kid literally showed up so suddenly out of Nowhere I deadass thought it was like a Miquella/Saint Trina situation where baby Garool was actually a manifestation of Zoraal's innocence/peace-loving nature.

But nope he's just deadass his kid? I guess? I might've missed something but god everything with him was so jarring it drove me fuckin' nuts

Also I do agree with the repetitive nature of the first half. Like, I had fun with it, but Yoshi, Yoshi I know padding when I see it. Aetheryte starvation? Huge areas? Get five bear's asses? Always talk to 3 people randomly sparsed around the said-large map? Running back and forth?

I see the padding you can't hide it from me.

Since everyone's comparing it to Stormblood, I'll do it too. Like I had recently redone Stormblood before Dawntrail came out on an alt (that's now my main l m a o) so I can kinda compare them easily.

Call me bias (<- incredibly bias) but Yotsuyu was a much more compelling first arc villain, while Sphene was more compelling on the latter half. And this is from a Zenos simp so take that as you will.

Day 500000 of me not being over his death still, my copium up until the end of the Zero patches was intense.

Soken didn't miss a single time tho, king of all time

Solid 7/10. If it was all about Sphene and the beginning was more cut down, and Zoraal was consistent, I'd probably have put it at an 8.5.

[tallbluelady]

What drew me to ship Urianger with Rowan? The short answer: Shadowbringers.

The long answer after the break.

The first time I played XIV it was explicitly as a break from WoW. I was bashing my head against the Mage Tower and was like "Yannow, what? Break time. Let's try out this free trial and enjoy that for a bit."

I think the game was in Stormblood at the time? (I remember TP being a thing then being surprised that it was gone when I decided for a longer play through during Shadowbringers.) But at any rate, I was really just visiting. The free trial was to 35 and I ended up shelling out to get ARR and playing basically until the Scions moved to Revenant's Toll. After all that, I was refreshed and ready to go back to WoW for the grinding and impersonal storytelling.

Urianger had left an impression on me as the guy who speaks in Shakespeare. "Oh he's my favorite," I said, thinking of him as a character akin to like, Khadgar or Tyrande. Neither of these characters really inspired romantic feelings for me, and WoW never treats your character as anything past a "Champion". No one really has a personal relationship with the Champion past "Thank the Light you're here, Champion!". While XIV has plenty of NPC ships, I don't think I've seen any OCxNPC ships in the WoW fandom (tbf I didn't get as deep in WoW fandom as I've gotten here).

Suffice to say, the idea of a WoL ship was not on my mind as I played through Post-ARR into Heavensward. I remember seeing Aymeric and being "Oh that is a beautiful man" and calling that good. Then in 3.4, the man asks you to dinner. I'm in danger! THEN LITERALLY THE DUNGEON RIGHT AFTER DINNER THIS GUY SHOWS UP IN A VEIL AND I AM LITERALLY THIS MEME:

Then my dumbass figures out that that GNC ass is Urianger and I'm like:

The fight with the Warriors of Darkness is amazing, sensational, mind blowing. Not only does Urianger speak in Shakespeare, he's also hot!

I still do not have a single inkling to ship him with Rowan (who is still not Rowan yet).

I play through Stormblood, and the story is still pretty much better than 90% of WoW. The gameplay is GREATLY improved, and I'm enjoying myself. We're a little light on our archaic elf, but hey, I actually enjoy playing Bard now.

I admit to being surprised that Urianger is being Called by the mysterious migraine inducing voice. At that point in the story, I remember forming a much tighter bond with Krile at that point. But as I was ignorant of what the hell was actually happening (I think I was referring to G'raha as Zodiark for a while), I kinda just shrugged it off. We go from a stalemate with Garlemald to a completely different world and it's what ever. I have no expectations and didn't bother to watch the trailers when I loaded into the game.

Then this happens.

Brain chemistry changes again. I'm aghast. I didn't realize I liked men with beards in dresses this much. He's a good uncle/father figure to Minfilia. He's very serious about his mission, but incredibly silly as well. And he also speaks in Shakespeare.

Then this fucker kneels down in front of the WoL asking for forgiveness. Kneels. And then also offers to go off with you to go kill Emet-Selch at the bottom of the ocean when he can't even swim. Like, ser. What? How am I supposed to react to that? You literally had a romance novel grovel point.

So after basking in the glow of Shadowbringers MSQ, I realize I have to do something. I go through the Urianger tag on Ao3 to try and find something to read. I do enjoy the various ships on there, but I realize that there wasn't really a slow-burn ship. So like most things, I figure that's something I just gotta do myself and start to outline and rename my WoL and etc.

Then I find out about CMTools (the posing tool before Anamnesis) and the rest is history.

Another random WoLQotD/OC question

I thought I'd ask this while I worked on my other questions. :)

If you're a WoL x NPC shipper, what drew you to that ship and why? What makes that ship the pinnacle for you and your oc? Is it that you love the canon character you write them with, you find their dynamic interesting or something in between?

If you're not a WoL x NPC shipper, but you have a ship with another person, how did that come about? What makes that ship fulfilling for you? Has the ship impacted your relationship with that other person? Feel free to gush, I wanna hear it!

Oh, and pictures are a must (if you have them).

[dragoon-mid-jump]

OC tag game (FFXIV Edition)

Tagged by: @sundered-souls! Thank you!

Favorite OC: I gotta say, when I was first creating Kouh'to as a concept for Y'dehlya having a younger sibling, I did not expect him to turn out the way he did and he is very fun to daydream about.

Oldest OC: Oldest by creation, U’reksh, actually. I had made his “original files” first before Y’dehlya’s, but it was Y’dehlya that I decided to put in FFXIV first. But in terms of age, it’s among Y’tohmar, Kouh, U’sheiroh and Kouh’s Unnamed Best Friend, as they’re all parents.

If you wanna get really technical about age, Persephone and Ares.

Newest OC: Polydeukes, an Ancient OC. And technically Kastor, even though he’s Kouh’to’s unsundered self. In case anyone’s wondering, Poly allowed herself to be sacrificed to Zodiark and left Kastor behind, which tragically follows the "end" of the Gemini Twins' story of the immortal Polydeuces living on after the mortal Kastor is killed.

Meanest OC: Kouh’to. Arguably Y’tohmar, if you wanna count his blunt/brutal honesty “mean”, as the source of that trait of Kouh’to’s.

Softest OC: U'reksh has the undisputed fluffiest hair of the Scions.

Most Aloof/Standoffish OC: Kouh. Where do you think Kouh'to got it from?

Dumbest (Affectionate) OC: U’reksh. Absolute puppydog of a catboy, he is.

Dumbest (Derogatory) OC: U’sheiroh. He’s a decent guy and all, the self-imposed exile after losing his Nunh status notwithstanding...but he also fucking ghosted the two kids he was closest to from HW to EW because he thought they’d long outgrown him. Which especially in U’reksh’s case couldn’t be further from the truth.

Smartest OC: They’ve all got their own smarts in specific areas, but academically? Kouh’s Still-Unnamed Childhood Bestie being an Arcanist. Or probably Ares, a formidable genius in mechanical and martial creations and concepts. And the unfortunate origin of a lot of the technology Emet-Selch introduced to Allag and Garlemald.....

Horniest OC: I'd say...Y'dehlya. Flirty, charismatic, falls in love pretty quickly once she decides to set her sights on someone especially if they're available, turned as red as her own hair when Hancock called her "Stealer of Pants" in Stormblood, earning funny looks from the other Scions, especially after Kouh'to himself confirmed that there was at least one incident of such (I never got around tot he Hildebrand quests).

OC You'd Bang: Uh....*points to the above entry* and also Y'kouha. While both have gotten around, both also seek long-term romantic partners to get to know.

OC You'd Be Best Friends With IRL: I actually am not sure. Maybe both my WoLs? They're both pretty fun to be around.

Tagging: You. Yeah, you, reading this. If you wanna.

[mor-and-more]

Mor rating Stormblood major areas based solely on personal preferences!

Fringes - have KITYS and SNEKS, Dimworld is unexpectedly cosy, but also it's annoying AF to ride through its desert parts when you are only the Area Appropriate Level and not +11 and have no flying or even mount speed, so gotta dock some points for that, 7/10

Rhalgr's Reach - The Measure Of His Reach in one arrangement or the other playing as the area tune 24/7, drilling into my brain. I want to bite after about 10 minutes. 1/10 do not recommend

Peaks - the best features there are the Ziccurat (filled with Angy Qiqirn) and the Cool Roadway and the nice spots only available with flight. Everything wants to eat you and/or is generally annoying. 3/10

Lochs - has a fun salt lake and a nice tune while the MSQ is rolling! I have assaulted the poor B tier hunt mark critter so many times there.. Points mostly docked for the Ala Mhigan Quarter being there, where I STILL prefer to fly to get places because it makes me SO CONFUSED. 8/10

Kugane - the place of "you'd think a weeb would like it" for me, but no, me no likey. My feelings range from indifference at best to "FUCK I'd rather spam one dungeon for levelling without sanctuary bonus" at worst. It really feels like 3/10, but I loathe it much more than the Peaks, but also I have to be there sometimes because market board + retainer summoning bell, so I might hang out there between roulettes. I think I've even stayed in the inn like 2 times between 4 characters and didn't even realise that the "Bokairo Inn" means it's.. a functional Inn, on the 1st critter. But also hey Bokairo sounds close enough to Bokaroido (like y'know, Vocaloid spelled in Japanese), so I'll let it stay 3/10. Even though I don't like it there

Ruby Sea - very annoying to swim around before you get diving. And with diving, too. Shisui of the Violet Tides is in the local answer to the Mariana Trench, and you need it for flying. And getting there takes ages, and then you find out you didn't dive deep enough. But points are added for my lizard seeing a fellow lizard guy's chest in Onokoro, which prompted his sexual awakening, lmfao. So I guess that raises is to 6/10 from 5/10

Yanxia - just kinda H. I love the rainbow lakes, but that's about it. When I get in, I want to get out asap, be it through quests or despite quests. The region I would forget about if the game didn't remind me it exists, a lot. 4/10

Azim Steppe - NOW WE ARE TALKING. The only region where I WANT to do side quests for the fun of it. I mean, LIZARDS!!! LOTS OF THEM!!! Magnum Fuck the Never Fucked doesn't even spoil it because you beat him up (twice), and everyone dunks on his incel ways. The Little Sun can go set and think about his behaviour, and I'm going to give the area a solid 1000/10 because that's my rating. It's the only reason I can tolerate Stormblood, but also it has too little quests. I want to know about ALL THE TRIBES dammit! Also. I'm definitely bringing Arisu there as warrior. For the petty reason of getting Magnai trounced with his own kind of weapon by a pretty lady

[wildstar25]

Well. How about 9, 12, and 15?

lali-lets answer some questions-ho o/

9. How do they deal with their fame? Has it changed their relationship with their loved ones? Have they ever been tempted to use their fame for selfish reasons?

Arsay doesn't necessarily "deal" with her fame, if anything she is quite passive about it. If, lets say, a child came up to her with awe and admiration, she'd happily play up her role to bring a smile to their face. When people seek her out for her skills, she's there to help. She does enjoy being a famed warrior of light, though she'd be incredibly reticent to admit that to anyone.

Arsay spent a lot of her life feeling forgotten and she developed quite the complex about it tbh. She can't help but have some kind of satisfaction when some person she helped months ago comes back and treats her like an old friend. That alone is enough for her. She doesn't try to get special treatment and she's much too stubborn to accept handouts.

Getting closer to the scions and building those relationships up from friends to family also lessened her need for external validation from random citizens. She gains a lot more emotionally from knowing the people she deeply, truly cares about also hold her in their hearts and minds. That doesn't stop her from wanting to involve herself in world saving situations of course she does legitimately want to help whoever she can.

12. What do they think about redemption and forgiveness? Would they forgive an enemy? Would they forgive themselves?

For Arsay, actions speak louder than words! She runs on a thorough vibe check analysis lol. Were you bad yesterday? that sucks. Are you gonna do better today? Awesome! Yeah she gets mad and can hold ire towards particular actions that people have done - and some things cross the line completely - but for the most part if someone is making the effort to do good and/or be better now that's what counts to her.

Doing one good thing isn't enough though. That's why if she has met someone at their worst it takes a couple good interactions for her to place any trust in them. Gotta asses those vibes thoroughly 'n all. She wouldn't say it's forgiveness... more of giving someone another chance. Nero's an example of that for sure. Took her all to alphascape before she finally started to relax around him.

When it comes to herself and her own actions: I guess the same logic would apply! She keeps herself in check. If she fails, she'll get up and do better. For every disparaging thought that pops into her head, she'll put out twice the amount of positivity and hope that's enough. though again, this is not really forgiving herself & probably not healthy overall for her mental well being but! she will stay silly :3

15. How do they feel about the Ascians?

Oh boy so I am only at 5.4 so this answer is definitely in flux atm…

Throughout ARR to stormblood she really did think of them as no more than a thorn in her side. She absolutely hated how they manipulated otherwise well intentioned adventures to enact terrible schemes. She was legitimately frustrated that she couldn’t land the final blow on lahabrea in particular lol. As she headed into shadowbringers she really wanted nothing more than to put an end to them permanently.

After shb… well okay she still wants to stop them but it’s complicated. On one hand, she thinks the hole lot of them should just get on with the program! The world is different now, get used to it!! It’s so frustrating to her that they aren’t letting anyone have nice things >:(

On the other hand, she feels a lot of sympathy toward their ultimate goal. They just want their home and their loved ones back and safe. She knows how hard it can be to let go of the things you care about and what it’s like to be in denial about the reality I front of you. It was wandering through the streets of Amaurot that really got to her in particular. She felt such an immense loneliness from it all. It really got to her I think.

But on the other hand, the ascians have been responsible for so much pain and hardship. They continue to put her loved ones in peril and harm countless others. That’s shrimply not okay!! Even if they miss their home she will not give up hers! If the ascians cant be convinced with words, the edge of her blade will have to do.

Arsay will remember them for who they were and what they became.

[shivasdarknight]

oh god i still need to figure out the housing situation

uh so surkie doesn't really do housing initially? She stays initially at the Waking Sands, and then somewhat in the Rising Stones but she doesn't really find either of them to be safe - especially the Rising Stones given the Crystal Braves shit. So more often than not she just camps out somewhere - often this cave she found in Mor Dhona that very few people know about. She's used to just traveling with the bare minimum and didn't care for the longest time about having A Space to herself.

Around Stormblood is when the attitude begins to shift. This whole discussion on liberating homelands and actually going back to the Steppe got to her, and the final moments really made that void known to her. So, she ends up buying an apartment in Shirogane and slowly fills it with her hobbies but even then...it doesn't feel right. Even as she fills it up with books and plants and stuff she finds on her journey, it still feels hollow.

When she goes to the First for a year, she asks allies of hers to maintain the plants since she's got this elaborate set up of experimental stuff, but moreover she ends up sending a key to the place with instructions to Estinien in case he needed a place to stay since he was wandering wherever, whenever. Obviously, shows that she's got a lot of trust in him and that becomes a whole ass thing.

It's her main place to stay during post Shadowbringers whenever she's got a moment's pause up until about 5.55. From 5.3's closure to 5.55, she's staying there first with just Estinien, but obviously Ysayle once she reenters MSQ. Allie from the Werlyt storyline moves in around 5.4/5.5 since Surkie takes her in as the kid's guardian, and even if it makes things tight there she doesn't care so long as she can help Allie. But then comes the whole Accident which means they've gotta pack up. Place is too small for 3 adults living on the loft, and a teenager in her corner they struggled to make for her - and with a kid (unknowingly twins) on the way? Yeah, nah. But before I get rambly, this is the apartment:

The lilac futon is Allie's corner. It used to be a huge pile of books that wound up getting sorted into other piles and that bookcase so that she could live there with some semblance of privacy. Best they could do with that space, honestly. The loft bedroom upstairs has a bed that barely fits 3 people, a desk, tons of paperwork, etc. So it's pretty clear that this wasn't going to work.

From 5.55 to present (so 6.4), they're staying at the Borel Manor. Aymeric's idea, he proposed it after he joined the relationship (initially with just Surkie and Estinien, but it wound up being a full quad). Like, he's the only one living there (not even his staff do) so why not? Who was using it? There was plenty of space, Allie could get her own room, the adults in the relationship had options of rooms to themselves or shared living spaces, and there was already a nursery so why not? Animals were going to be an issue, especially Fenrir and the coeurl, Henri, but that could be worked out. So at the present, the engaged quad are living there with their kids + Venat. Heustienne and Gwen come by pretty frequently to see their partners that live there, and talks of a different home are already in the works.

I'm trying to decide where they go from here. Surkie's main thing is she doesn't want to live in the city - any of the citystates, really. She reasonably believes that they'd find a way to exploit the fact that one of the Warriors of Light lives there, it'd be an easy target for anyone who wanted to hurt her and her family, and she frankly just wants alone time. She knows that the city would allow their kids more socialization when they're older, but she'd rather stay somewhere private for her sanity and their safety.

Two options are the island you get in enw, or maybe a homestead out in Dravania. I'm flipping back and forth between the two because one would actually put the island to use beyond just a diversion, but also I can absolutely see Surkie disappearing out in the middle of nowhere? But then I'd have to figure out what to do with that damn island.

Regardless of where this homestead is gonna be, my island is a good example of why I'm torn between the two. Pics below.

I know it's not really island foliage, but I love this kind of look in part because idk that's my backyard. Legitimately. Might be leaning more into Dravania because of how public that damn island is, but either way I just kind of want them to have a place where they can just not be around others. Something that can accommodate the size of their family + all their damn murder pets (yes, Aymeric's cat is included in the "murder pet" designation). But regardless, they can't stay in the Borel Manor forever because not only would the city drive Surkie crazy, keeping two huge hoarhounds, a percheron chocobo, a full grown coeurl, two different puppies - one a lykaon, the other a hoarhound - that obnoxious cat and falcons is bound to get obnoxious. Not to mention it's 5 adults (sometimes 7), a traumatized teenager, and presently 3 infants with a 4th on the way.

They need a homestead, I'm just stuck as to where it's gonna be.

bringing another question over from my twit for y'all

does your wol/oc own a house? not just if you've won a housing lottery, do they have one canonically? where is it? do they live there alone?

and if you HAVE won a lottery,,,, may I see it? 👀