#i think it just comes with the territory

[blucifer08]

Naru Lore Dump

Okay I used to have like a pinned post about my characters and their lore but things changed and the story grew a lot; and someone needed an entire document for a fic thing from me so ytd i put together a VERY rough summary of Naru's lore from pre-ARR to EW and I figured I'd share it here and pin it to my page in case anyone wants to know about Naru.

This is, very rough, very simplified, but it gives the general gist of Naru's story and themes, so if you're ever curious, here it is under a readmore:

Naru grew up on the Steppe. She is a Kahkol, and her family was killed early on and she was left to wander the Steppe on her own. As a result, she was forced to learn to hunt for herself and to clean the animals herself. She got very good at dismembering. That is her main trait in battle later, she is very good at identifying weak places in joints in order to cut someone up in battle with ease–to make up for her smaller size as an Au Ra. 

Eventually, Magnai picked her up off the Steppe and she was introduced to the Oronirs. She was given to a family, and Magnai treated her like a younger sister. Naru learned of Nhaama and Azim, and in this story, she found comfort. Ever since Naru can remember, she has felt a stark loneliness inside herself–even further than the loneliness of having lost one’s family. Something deeper, as though something were missing. And upon hearing the tale of Azim and Nhaama, Naru became horribly fixated on the idea that finding her Nhaama would help fix that feeling. (This was very influenced by Magnai, though his gendered view didn’t really get passed onto her)

Naru left the Steppe in search of her Nhaama, becoming convinced that they would not be anywhere on the Steppe, as she decided she didn’t fit in there. She then joined the Doman resistance for a time with young Hien. Naru developed a crush on Hien, of which he lightly used as a point to keep her fighting for their cause–Naru’s skill at dismembering was a great advantage for them. Naru took up the samurai sword under his tutelage and quickly surpassed him. She eventually kissed him as a show of her adoration, and he turned her down, shattering her young, fragile heart. She continued to fight for a time, though her spirits had dropped.

During an intense fight, Naru gets shot in the side. She has to flee the battlefield and winds up knocked out on a shore. A fisherman picks her up and tends to her, and she ends up travelling from port to port. Her wound becomes infected along the way, and after a long adventure, she stumbles upon Ul’dah. She eventually collapses onto a side street, her infected bullet wound becoming too much to bear.

She is approached by a pink-haired Viera man. He’s a bit cocky when he offers her help, but she’s in no place to turn him down. He carries her away and to an unmarked door in the Sapphire avenue exchange, and down to what seems to be a bar. He reveals himself to be Levi, a white mage, studying to be a black mage, but perfectly capable of helping her. He tends to her with practical means and with magic and she rests there in a small apartment above the bar. His name is Levi; and he introduces her to his business partner: Ehva, a Miqo’te from Limsa who used to engage in a little piracy to pay off her parent’s gambling debts, but now has settled down to enjoy running a bar.

Naru is quite lost at this point, but she agrees to stay and help out at the bar for room and board. She moves in with Levi in the apartment–Ehva lives somewhere else, citing needing a better separation of work and fun than Levi needs. Naru is terrible at bartending, and she often slips out of the work to take up adventuring instead. This earns her a slight reputation in Ul’dah. 

One day, Naru and Levi are on a walk when they come across a man advertising his future-telling. He offers them a free session. He calls himself Solomon, and tells their futures. To Levi, he gives a very vague, clearly half-assed reading. But to Naru, he suddenly becomes incredibly interested and excited to spill the details. He smiles and tells her, “Your Moon is not far. You will meet him in this life, but it will not be as you expect, budding adventurer.” This elates Naru, and it is the beginning of when Levi notices Naru has a problem.

Naru is borderline obsessed with destroying the lonely feeling she has. It has made Naru obsessed with finding love, she believes that there is someone out there made for her and only her. Levi assures Naru over and over throughout their early adventures that she doesn’t need love, friends and family can be enough, and that SHE can be enough for herself. 

(There are things occurring in the background here. Solomon has his own story and own motivations, but it doesn’t matter for the intents and purposes of this document! But he basically goes and tattles about Naru’s connection to the Ascians, of which will elaborated upon. It is worth mentioning that Solomon is part voidsent, and part of his motivation is to steal aether from his clients)

The story proceeds per usual for a while, per normal ARR things. Levi and Ehva abandon their bar for a time and join Naru on her adventure as warrior of light, and during ARR, Levi and Naru get incredibly close. They’re inseparable best friends–despite Levi’s constant irritation with her point of view of the world. In my canon, Levi is possessed by Lahabrea at the end of ARR instead of Thancred, so there’s a bit of angst there but it still doesn’t diverge too insanely from canon.

Things start to change for Naru during her first meeting with the mysterious white-robed Ascian, Elidibus. He gives his little speech about their plans and wanting to check out the Warrior of Light, but Naru feels a strange feeling around him. She ignores it for now.

Until during Heavensward, Elidibus approaches her again in her room at night. She immediately attacks him. He insists that he just wants to speak to her, that he is not there to hurt her, but she won’t have much of it. After nearly getting stabbed through with a samurai sword, Elidibus finally relents and leaves. Until Naru attends a Masquerade ball that Aymeric has invited her to. Elidibus appears at the banquet with no mask; thus concealing HIS identity as an Ascian. Naru dances with him, and the feeling returns. She becomes confused and steals off to a balcony, which he follows her to. Naru impulsively kisses him, he is rather surprised as romance wasn’t necessarily his intent, and reveals his identity. After a bit of back-and-forth and having to accept she just kissed an Ascian, she decides to perform a crazy trust test and drags him off a balcony with her to see if he would save them both–he does.

After this they kindle a secret relationship. He reveals that, long long ago, the world was whole. And in that time, he loved someone. He can’t remember them. Not their face, not their name, he just knows he loved them. He knows he hurt them in some way before the world was ripped asunder, and something happened between their souls. Now Elidibus holds a piece of their soul, and they held a piece of his–and when they were sundered, it meant Naru had a considerably sized fragment of his soul within her.

Thus, the lonesome feeling she had always felt was one he had experienced too. Their souls were reaching out for their other pieces, trying to become whole once again, unnaturally torn apart somehow. They fall in love, spending time together in secret. Naru becomes a bit distant, but Levi is pleased to see that she’s suddenly no longer interested in finding her moon–However he has no idea she has already found her “moon.” She didn’t outgrow the idea; Elidibus simply satisfied it. 

Things go fairly per MSQ. Naru and Elidibus never concede on their ideas, merely they often agree (with exceptions) not to talk about it. They fail to uphold this agreement when Elidibus possesses Zenos and their relationship becomes a bit rocky, but mends eventually because they have become fairly co-dependent on each other emotionally.

Naru proceeds into Shb, but Elidibus warns her that if she continues down the road she is on, they will ultimately fight. She is stubborn, and holds fast to her ideals. Naru is an actions person, not a words person, and she often remains quiet when they have these conversations on the Source, between her adventures on the First. She will let him watch her refuse him. 

Emet-Selch and Naru grow close as Emet-Selch manipulates Naru with his woes and sad tales. He speaks of Azem, and quickly connects the pieces for Naru that she was once Azem, and Azem is the mysterious person whom Elidibus had loved. Emet-Selch is very kind to Naru at first, attempting to pull Azem’s nature from her. However, Azem was a bold and brash person who said what was on their mind. Naru by contrast is a bit quiet, sometimes a LITTLE shy, actions over words, and keeps her thoughts to herself. Emet-Selch, in his delusion, perceives this as weakness on Naru’s part. He continues having her consume light warden after light warden, and once she’s near to bursting with light, just like canon, he invites her to Amaurot.

Naru, ever keen to handle her problems herself, stumbles to Amaurot by herself. He welcomes her sweetly at first, and waits for the moment she can barely even move, then reveals that Naru is not good enough. She is not like Azem, she will never be enough. Naru refutes this, and says she doesn’t need to be like Azem.

Emet-Selch clarifies. He claims that Naru is like Azem in only one way. That she is selfish. He provides the rest of the details on Elidibus and Azem’s souls, that Azem had begged Elidibus during the final days to be with her, to refuse to become Zodiark, to finally abandon his duty and think of himself and to think of her. He refuses. She begs again, and asks him to merge souls with her (Lahabrea and Athena style) so that he may understand her feelings. She begins the process, hoping that showing him a bit of her love for him will change his mind… But he is persistent in separating “Elidibus” and “Themis.” He rips their souls apart and in the process, their souls get fragmented and swapped. Azem ran away, and Emet-Selch caught up with her and heard the tale. He tried to stop Azem, but they ran away and hid for the remainder of the time before the Sundering. 

Emet-Selch poses this as similar to Naru’s actions now; she refuses to give up her desires (being a wol, saving the world, not letting the ascians win) and demands that Elidibus give up his duty–and this is causing him strain. Emet-Selch exaggerates, getting into Naru’s head and manipulating her into thinking that she has caused Elidibus a lot of suffering. 

Then the light becomes too much, and Emet-Selch whisks her away to lie in wait for her friends to arrive. Levi, Ehva, and the scions arrive and Naru has turned completely into a sin eater, dubbed “Desiderium.” (Longing.) There is a long, emotional battle, and Levi tries to appeal to his best friend, and it works. Naru’s strong will and desires stirs her dynamis, and allows her to take control of her body once more and to protect her soul from being completely obliterated by the light. And as a Lightwarden, she destroys Emet-Selch. After this, she is permanently a sin eater, one whose body is manipulated into shape by Dynamis. Naru must work hard to keep control of herself at all times; and at this time those around her must be wary of passive light damage. (Later Vrtra gives her a warding scale and this protects people from her light.)

5.3 comes around and it’s obviously rather emotional, neither Naru nor Elidibus backs down. But it ultimately reveals to Levi that Naru was in love with an Ascian the entire time–which isn’t really the big betrayal. It’s that Naru never grew. Levi thought he had had an effect on his best friend, that she had learned to find worth within herself and love herself, to love her friends, and fill the gap she felt herself. But it turns out, that the entire time, she was just relying on someone who Levi sees as manipulating her. She was being ‘weak,’ in his eyes, choosing to let Elidibus soothe an ache that he saw as an ache that shouldn’t have existed in the first place.

He goes to Naru’s room when she’s resting afterward, and the two have a massive argument. Naru is covered in light scars after the sin eater ordeal with Emet-Selch, and Levi calls them ugly symbols of her weakness. She had gotten too close to Emet-Selch, and clearly too close to Elidibus. This fight breaks them up severely, and Ehva tries to calm it, but the two will not speak to each other for some time.

Naru does most of Endwalker alone, for this reason. She casts away the samurai blade and takes up the scythe, choosing to wear clothes that cover more of her skin. She and Levi meet in Garlemald later, and he tells her that she’s insane for trying to do everything on her own. She tells him that, “If you want to join me, then beat me in a fight.” They fight, but Levi knows he has no chance of beating a Light Warden, essentially, by himself. They take out their anger on each other.

Elidibus in the tower sends Naru to Elpis. He apologizes for the dependency he created, admitting that though he did not realize how far Naru’s obsession with the “azim and nhaama” story went, he did understand to some extent that he had caused her to be incredibly emotionally dependent on him. He sends her to Elpis.

Long story short for Elpis, Naru tries to kill Emet-Selch for having turned her into a sin eater, he is obviously confused, Hythlodaeus and Venat have to defuse things, Emet-Selch half apologizes. Naru does a lot of investigating into Azem, wanting to know how different they truly are. She doesn’t find out much. She grows closer to Emet-Selch, starts to heal slightly internally about the things he said to her at the end of Shb. 

She leaves and MSQ completes as normal. Naru considers summoning Elidibus to help fight Meteion but she wants him to rest and leaves him be. Levi and Naru make up in UT and Levi sacrifices himself to help Naru get to the end. 

There are a lot more shenanigans going on in the background that aren’t really dire for me to list. The fortune teller, Solomon, is a very important character. He ends up helping Fandaniel gain control of Zodiark and he toys with Naru’s depression after having lost Elidibus in order to steal her bountiful aether and her gil. Solomon also becomes involved with Levi, who becomes a powerful black mage, and wants his aether (and a few other things…) as well. 

Endwalker is a lot about Naru learning to be happy with herself, learning to grieve, and accept the good and bad about herself and others. 

[dailyloopdeloop]

DAY 71: shy

[queerofthedagger]

One thing that's just been keeping me up for a week straight is that, while we tend to associate Elrond as the one incredibly skilled in healing - rightfully so - there is also that "little" titbit of how "the hands of a King [of Gondor] are the hands of a healer," which, infamously, is the line of Elrond's brother.

Which leaves just enough room to speculate that they may have both had a talent in healing, and in turn begs the question of just which part of their ancestry they got it from.

And the options there are all wild in their own right - on the one hand, there is Elwing's side which would make some sense due to Lúthien/Melian, but then in at least one version of the tale at the end of the Fall of Gondolin, it's said that Elwing and her people believed that the 'power of healing in their camp' came from the Silmaril if I remember correctly. Which implies that it's not a skill their line has been known to have an extraordinary talent in.

The alternative option is, of course, Eärendil. Now that means it comes either from Tuor, or it means Idril, which means through Turgon/the House of Fingolfin. And if I think about that too much I might just go insane because oh man the implications.

But also all the ancestral musings aside, just the idea that the line of Gondor's Kings is carrying forth Elros' own talent in healing as this permanent relic, reminder, and tangible leftover for Elrond, of something they shared and learned together? just. man

[leroibobo]

really do not think people understand the extent to which palestinian sites/landmarks (especially muslim ones) were destroyed, beginning in 1948 until now, even in cities. the oldest extant mosque in jaffa (al-bahr mosque) was built in 1675, even though islam came there in the 7th century

[everybody-loves-purdy]

I’ve seen a few people lately share what warriors characters they think represent the seven deadly sins, and I’ve had a think about it too and come to my own conclusions. And I thought it would be fun to include a relevant quote for each one.

Wrath : Darktail

But it wasn't a claw Darktail lowered toward him. It was his head, as he bent down to whisper in his ear. "I will destroy you, and all the Clans, for what you did to me.”

Onestar’s Confession Chapter 29

Pride : Skystar

“That’s the problem Clear Sky.” Thunder lashed his tail. “I can’t tell you anything. You think you know it all. But you don’t! You can’t tell good from bad, you never could. But you’re so determined to be ‘right’ that you’ll twist everything to prove it. If you mistook a fox for a rabbit you’d keep calling it a rabbit while it tore out your throat, just because you’d rather die than admit you were wrong.”

A Forest Divided - Chapter 12

Lust: Ashfur

“Are you ready to fight me?” Squirrelflight demanded. “Because that’s what you’ll have to do, if you want to stop me.”

“No, I don’t want to harm you,” Ashfur meowed. “I still love you.”

Squirrelflight’s only response was to turn away from him with a disgusted hiss. Ashfur blinked and looked away briefly with a dip of his head. To Shadowsight’s surprise, he seemed genuinely hurt, as if he couldn’t believe that the dark ginger she-cat had rejected him. How could Ashfur possibly think Squirrelflight would go along with him, now or ever? Shadowsight wondered. Then he realized that Ashfur wasn’t thinking straight at all. His obsession with Squirrelflight was making him ignore what was right in front of him.

“Why are you forcing me to do this?” he asked plaintively. “If you would just admit that you love me, I could stop.”

The Place of No Stars Chapter 15

Greed: Tigerstar (I)

As Fireheart said good-bye to Yellowfang and went back to hunting, he felt a new surge of determination to bring Tigerclaw's guilt into the open. For the sake of Redtail, murdered; for Ravenpaw, driven from the Clan; for Cinderpaw, crippled. And for all the Clan cats, both now and to come, who were in danger from Tigerclaw's greed for power.

Forest of Secrets Chapter 4

Gluttony: Slash

Juniper grunted. “We shouldn’t have to go hunting when food is rotting in camp.”

“Why doesn’t Slash share it?” Raven growled angrily. “He gives the best pieces to Splinter and Beetle and leaves the rest to turn sour when we’re eating scraps.”

Path of Stars - Chapter 12

Sloth: Sol

"Ask me if Sol joined in the fight," Pod rasped. Brambleclaw cocked his ears. "Well?"

"He didn't raise a single claw to help us," the old tom growled. "He wasn't even there to watch! He just strolled in here while we were licking our wounds."

"What happened then?" Brackenfur asked. Jingo twitched her ears. "If he'd admitted he was wrong, it might have been different. But he insisted that we were the ones who decided to fight, and it wasn't his fault that we lost. Then he sat down and started washing himself, and asked Jet to bring him some food."

Sunrise Chapter 11

Envy: Mapleshade

"I earned my place in the Dark Forest. But what made it worse was that the father of my drowned kits took a RiverClan mate! He promised he would only love me! They had a daughter, and she had a son, and do you know who that son was?"

Crookedstar shook his head, trying to keep up. “Shellheart," Mapleshade snarled. "Your father." Her paws were trembling. "Do you see now? Do you understand?"

"Understand what?"

"You mouse-brain! My kin should have been the leader of RiverClan, not his! If ThunderClan hadn't driven me across the river, my kits would never have died. If RiverClan hadn't rejected me, I'd be their father's mate, not some fish-hearted RiverClan queen." Her breath was coming in gasps now. "I’ve endured so much betrayal! So many cats have hurt me beyond measure. And then you came, destined for so much greatness, when you should never have been born!"

Crookedstar’s Promise Chapter 39

[shamedumpster]

28 or 32 for Javert?? 🥺

That's a very fitting palette for him!

(Both you and @kittycattscathy asked for the same thing, so here you go!)

[pixiecactus]

i'm going to call this post book!gendrya for dummies (it's me i'm the dummy): i had always loved the parallel that gendrya share about being the third born child (we are five books in, and still to this moment we don't have another baratheon bastard introduced to us that's older than gendry, so the order for me is: mya, bella and gendry) and (if we go with the r+l=j theory, jon obviously is not ned's son... so we have robb, sansa and arya) but something that has never ocurred to me before, is that we obviously already know the plot point of "the seed is strong" and we have gendry directly telling ned how his mother used to have yellow/blond hair (this is my own headcanon, but i like to think that she had brown eyes as well) meaning that all children sired by robert baratheon shared his hair colour and eyes colour, so gendry in his colouring and looks does not resemble at all his mother and we know exactly the same thing about arya, how of all of the catelyn tully/stark's children, she's is the only one that has none of her mother's looks, she and jon had the stark look, long face and grey eyes, like her father (and jon's mother) and like all of the starks of old time (karstarks included), and meanwhile genetics in asoiaf had always been somehow really wonky if compared to how genetics work in real life, it always interested me this fact about arya, one could simply said that arya having stark's looks and colouring is to help the narrative of arya feeling like an outsider in her own family, just like jon, and to establish even more how deeply the jon/arya bond runs, even when she knows both of her parents, and it's a true-born daughter. so this post was me discovering another gendrya parallel shared between them, i don't think it's really important but hey, it's still there alright

[akuma-tenshi]

oh i am OBSESSED

[aimasup]

throws up my hands in mock resignation but also a hint of frustration Okay Valentino is a cool villain I guess

He's like. Genuinely unsettling. Wish the show struck a better balance with his character sometimes (like sometimes when he's onscreen I have to skip over because I feel queasy and sometimes he's so unsubtle he feels more like a prop than a guy who's going to be a Huge Deal in s2)

[coyotesinew]

Some recent thoughts about nonhumanity and my relationship to the community + my personal relationship with it that I cleaned up, my writing style is a bit disjointed, I would like to share more of my writing, if anyone would be interested in seeing that :)

[lunar-years]

whenever I think about how Jamie (nor really anyone) knows about Rebecca's actions I get even more and more annoyed with the writers. Jamie deserved to be hurt, he was literally a pawn in other people's games without his knowledge.

yeah, I get this. I do think it is really beautiful of Ted to not get angry with her and to also not go around exposing Rebecca's actions to everyone else on the team, rather offering her wholehearted, blanket forgiveness. That is such a wonderful and meaningful standout moment in the show. That said, of course Rebecca's actions weren't only Ted's to forgive. They affected the entire team. All the player's careers (Jamie's especially because of her sending him back, yes, but literally all of them), Beard, Higgins, Keeley. That said, from the perspective of the show, this is actually an instance where I understand why the writers let the matter lie instead of sending Rebecca on an apology tour, because I think it would have been really hard to write that organically. Like, Keeley knows and doesn't tell Roy. Ted knows and doesn't tell Beard. I think those they choose to keep it quiet not *just* to protect Rebecca but because they know it would do much more harm than good to tell other people. Beard and Roy I think in particular would have had a really really difficult time forgiving Rebecca after that, and the show wanted to move the story forward.

Similarly, Rebecca and Jamie don't talk to one another on the show, lol. Rebecca has no idea she sent Jamie back to a situation of abuse, from her pov she probably convinced herself she was actually helping Jamie by returning him to a better team. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that from the writers standpoint, I get that it would be really hard to write a scene where Rebecca calls Jamie into her office to be like "hey, by the way....you don't know me well or know that i did this to you, but i'm sorry for it!" in a way that doesn't read as super weird and forced. Ultimately, who would that have even served? Because I don't think it actually would have helped Jamie to know that.

Personally, I was most let down by how quickly Keeley forgave her. I think it would have been more impactful to let Keeley really be angry at her for her betrayal for longer. they tend to forgive extremely quickly on this show, don't they? lol. And I think Rebecca's s2 arc should have been more focused on taking active involvement with the team and their success as opposed to romance, to better demonstrate the weight of her change.

[valyrfia]

i'm like n1 lecfosa but i have to say some of the anons i've seen in other people's inboxes because they think that charles could've driven better today or that carlos deserved the win....have not been it. if you have an opinion to say, please just post it on your own blog and put your own name to it rather than going to terrorise and spit on someone who doesn't agree with you while retaining the luxury of hiding behind an anonymous icon. or even better, if you're upset, stick to the blogs that you know share your opinions.

[punmster]

being ace means i don't get giggly or horny about omegaverse aka abo but instead become painfully obsessed with details in anatomy and world building

[hajihiko]

Your tag saying Mikan is gonna have it rough has me worried. She’s already been through enough! I mean they all have but especially her! I don’t even want to imagine what her haunting is like!

there's no metric for suffering so it's not like she literally has more bad than the boys. I just mean that, to me, things pertaining to childbirth and the menstrual cycle is horror in itself so it hits harder

[foursidecity]

I think it's funny that I can't imagine daisy taking donald seriously whenever he gets superstitious about somethibg but she and gladstone definatly call eachother up about their horoscopes every week

[forcedhesitation]

I'm actually rather surprised that not a single one of the boys made top three. but then again, I suppose the large number of straight men that play this game are not as visible in fan spaces as us lgbt. That is...a fortunate thing, though, I'd argue.