#i hope thats coherent i am so sorry about the length LOL

[lookbluesoup]

Random question time!

Has Lyrha ever been to Old Sharlayan and Thavnair? Does/would she like it there?

How does Nahte'to find the Myths of the Realm raids? What does it mean to him, meeting (and fighting) the Twelve? And how does he get along with that Deryk fellow?

Thank you so much for the ask! :3

1. Lyrha's been to both Sharlayans thanks to Nahte dragging the Red Mages into Scion business! She also visited the abandoned colony as part of her training with Arya and X'rhun, during the RDM questline. She didn't really understand why they'd ditch such a well-built place with so much wealth and technology... until she landed in their main city and met the populace. Suffice to say her friendship with the Scions was not enough to stop her from robbing Fourchenault of various important looking knick-nacks and leaving a dead fish in one of his locked desk drawers. She says he was asking for it.

Before then, she never had much reason to set foot in either, although the seas around them? Those she can navigate like a pro! I'lyrha is... very extremely extra wanted in Thavnair. As a trading hub between East and West, she worked with many a crew during her pirating days to harass ships coming and going. It's possible she earns a pardon over the course of Endwalker, at the Scion's intervention... but for most of the Blasphemy business, she's in Ala Mhigo with X'rhun, so she's not done much to foster reparations with Thavnair or Radz-at-Han. I don't see that being resolved, at least for the moment.

She probably did visit it a few times before she became notorious, and I think she would have enjoyed its bright colors and vibrant people. The giant eyeball carving "watching" the way into Radz-at-Han though? Terrifying. Very sus.

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2. At the time you asked this I had gotten as far as unlocking Aglaia and then... been too scared to touch current expac raid content for months since. So a double thank you for the ask because I finally faced my fear and did both it and Euphrosyne this past week. Though I spent a lot of Euphrosyne dead on the floor (They call me Rez Mage because I need a rez. Again.) now I actually have enough context to answer this LOL

Nahte has struggled with his faith a LOT through MSQ. He was fairly devout about Menphina until Dalamud exploded into a Primal. Things started to get a little shaky after that...

But when Hydaelyn spoke to him, CHOSE him? He really believed in the cause. He wanted to be her champion, to serve as he was called. As it progressed... a lot of things she did, or didn't do, or omitted/lied about, effectively crippled Nahte's faith in the gods and any trust he had that their goals aligned. Especially after finding out the second moon was also artificial. If he couldn't believe in the Mothercrystal, how could Menphina be different? (His journey through THAT and his feelings about Venat are a whole other essay)

While he'd made peace with a lot of it and generally preferred men be masters of their own fate, there were a lot of unresolved emotional wounds that I think... true to his fashion, Nahte hadn't even realized he was carrying, he'd pushed them so far back.

When he first got to The Omphalos, he was ready to throw hands with another bout of Primals. But this situation is different. Gods like Nald'thal and Halone have been far kinder than he anticipated, none of them have demanded reverence, and they're not aether-sucking vampires.

He doesn't exactly trust them, especially knowing Hydaelyn had a hand in it all. But it's started to pull on some of those loose threads in his mind, and a lot of those wounds are starting to actually show.

Menphina... has so far been everything he could have hoped or wanted her to be. Her love for life, her compassion, her inquisitive nature - her genuine ache to help those who call out to her... that's been healing in a way he didn't know he needed. I think the pulse of drawing that pain out has probably brought him to tears intermittently.

She might not be an omnipotent deity. But so far, at least, she hasn't disappointed him. She's been the embodiment of unconditional, innocent, genuine love that he grew up putting faith in - and the idea that she did hear him, every time he reached out, even when he had doubts... that someone up there was watching, and did care, and didn't see him as a pawn on a millennia-spanning chessboard is a pretty big deal.

More than that, her core purpose is described as not simply presiding over the moon - but also the turn of night and day in a cycle. Something that would certainly encourage Nahte, who in the past often struggled with balancing his Moonkeeper and Sunseeker halves.

I've struggled to break down Nahte's feelings about this in a coherent way but essentially... it's an opportunity for him to reconcile the part of himself that is very spiritual - which was badly wounded by years fighting false gods, with the wisdom he's gained that beliefs shape reality, and his firm desire to determine his own fate. They can coexist - logic, faith, and pain need not be in conflict.

Whether all this arc will ultimately give him any more healing with regards to Hydaelyn, or simply salt the wounds... I'm not sure! We'll have to see how it all resolves. I've been surprised too many times from Shadowbringers onward to reliably speculate.

As for Deryk, Nahte likes him! Nahte can certainly relate to the wanderlust, though he personally finds it more fulfilling to travel with friends at his side. He's... pretty sure the Opo-opo is Oschon. He hasn't asked it, but there have been a few very long bouts of staring back and forth at each other.