#jaime plays ffxiv

[msviolacea]

So, the Dawntrail crafter/gatherer turn-in quests appear to be WAY better in terms of story/lore than any of the role quests. I'm honestly super disappointed in the role quests thus far - the NPCs we meet are fine, but the stories seem to be nothing more than an additional excuse for shenanigans. That's fine for an optional side quest, but not for something that's a core part of the experience. In Shadowbringers, the role quests gave us more info on the Warriors of Darkness. In Endwalker, they gave us capstones to all the various Eorzean city-state quests. Here ... they're nothing? Random excuses to go to previous zones? The story of the dumbest and least connected bunch of criminals ever? An unexciting excuse to show Turali visitors in Eorzea and beyond? They're tedious and not worth anything - except maybe a bit in the ranged physical questline, because I hope the Mamool Ja mercenary who turns back to our side eventually goes home and marries the woman we accompany on that quest, they're both awesome and they deserve to be happy. But other than that? Meh.

But I'm surprisingly engaged by the gatherer quests so far. I already talked about the bunny boys in the botany/mining quests. And I just started the fishing quests last night, which are kind of ridiculous but also appear to connect to the tribe mentioned in the Blue Mage questline, which is fun! And even if it doesn't go very deep, at least that's a connection to something else in the story! I hope all the crafter quests have equally interesting connections to the world at large, even in small ways.

Not every storyline can be a winner, unfortunately. I just had higher hopes for the role quests after the last two we got. Ah well.

[niriaveil]

she serves cunt tbh

[ishaslife]

welcome, weary wanderer 🌖

ABOUT ME:

name: Isha

age: 21

gender and pronouns: female, she/her

MBTI: INFJ-T

socials: YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest

games: dragon age, bg3, ffxiv, elden ring, hakuoki and other visual novels, love and deepspace, wayhaven chronicles and many others.

hobbies: playing video games, occasional writing and reading, making ambience and playlists, cooking & baking, making moodboards, photography, learning/studying history, literature, fables, myths, legends and simping over fictional men alongside being delulu. This may be TMI but, I am a university student majoring in English Literature.

favourite music genres: kpop, dreamcore, folk, high-fantasy ethereal, soundtrack, 2000s rock, 80s-90s synth pop and rock, vaporwave.

I make ambience and playlists on YouTube, my channel is linked above. My content focuses on imagined ambiences and playlists, i.e. how I imagine a fictional place to sound based on descriptions and music representing characters, locations etc. However lately, I have also been dabbling in theory videos.

romances and favourite characters (at least those I can remember off the top of my head):

Alistair Theirin, Fenris, Solas (dragon age)

Astarion (baldur's gate 3)

Harada Sanosuke (hakuoki)

Gilbert Redford (piofiore)

Hattori Hanzo (nightshade)

Zayne (love & deepspace)

Hien Rijin, Aymeric de Borel, Haurchefant Greystone, Emet-Selch (ffxiv)

Hebaron Nirta (under the oak tree)

Nate (Nathan) Sewell (the wayhaven chronicles)

Jaime Lannister, Jon Snow (asoiaf)

Popular work on YouTube:

astarion is falling in love with you (bg3)

valyrian ambience (asoiaf)

an evening with astarion (bg3)

shadowlands of asshai (asoiaf)

Fanfiction:

unbroken oaths (series) [fandom: under the oak tree, RI: Hebaron Nirta] MLIST

a starlit rendezvous [fandom: baldur's gate 3, RI: Astarion.]

Posts a lot about: everything fantasy, but mostly video games. As of August 2023, the blog has been very focused on Astarion and Baldur's Gate 3 but I also post about ffxiv, dragon age, asoiaf, hakuouki, lotr, gothic arts and literature, history to list a few of my interests. My interests are ever changing and when I get obsessed with something new, I post about that thing for months.

I also write character/game analysis on this blog along with sharing my thoughts on video games, film, television, characters, themes etc. This blog is not political and I have no wish to make it so, it is a place where I share my work and interests.

I don't make new posts everyday, but there are a lot of reblogs.

Moodboards:

Astarion Ancunín (bg3)

Hebaron Nirta (under the oak tree)

Hien Rijin (ffxiv)

Dame Aylin (bg3)

Zayne: Foreseer (love & deepspace)

Xavier: Lightseeker (love & deepspace)

Dr. Zayne (love & deepspace)

Solas (dragon age: inquisition)

Sylus: Relentless Conquerer (love & deepspace)

Enjoy your stay 🤍

[msviolacea]

Saki has a new summer hairstyle and no cares in the world. At least not until I decide to brave savage again.

QUICK! EVERYTHING IS GOING TO SHIT KUPO SHOW ME YOUR BEAUTIFUL OCs!

[righthererightzao]

Get to Know Me: OOC

1. Dogs or Cats?

I’m more of a Cat person than anything. Dogs are fine! I just prefer Cats overall 

2. YouTube celebrities or normal celebrities?

Youtube Celebrities I guess? I’m not really big on “Celebrities” for the most part.

3. If you could live anywhere where would that be?

Somewhere nice and cold, and preferably as far away from a City as can be.

4. Disney or DreamWorks?  

I’d say Disney. I have more favourites from Disney than DreamWorks, no matter how much I love MegaMind.

5. Favourite childhood TV show?

 Animaniacs. I LOVED that show as a kid.

6. The movie you’re looking forward to most in 2020

I wouldn’t say.. looking forward to, but I’m very interested in what the new Ghostbusters film will bring to the table.Oh and the Sopranos Prequel film

7. Favorite book you read in 2019?

The Way of Gods by Rhett C Bruno and Jaime Castle. 

8. Marvel or DC?

Ooof... okay uhm... I’d say Marvel, because Spiderman is my favourite Superhero.

9. If you choose Marvel favourite member of the X-Men? If you choose DC favourite Justice League member?

Nightcrawler from X-Men.

10. Night or Day?

Night

11. Favourite Pokemon?  

Roserade. Best Pokemon. My two favourite types, Grass and Poison rolled into one and I love the Masquerade Dancer aesthetic it rocks.

12. Top 5 bands:

Megadeth

KoRn

Combichrist

Billy Idol

Gorillaz

13. Top 10 books. 

1. Sharpe’s Enemy by Bernard Cornwell

2. Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky

3. Gotrek and Felix: Skavenslayer by William King

4. Alien: Out of The Shadows by Tim Lebon

5. Carter & Lovecraft by Jonathan L. Howard

6. The Hogfather by Terry Pratchett 

7. Night Watch by Terry Pratchett

8. The Dresden Files: Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher

9. Ciaphas Cain: For the Emperor by Sandy Mitchell

10. Who Goes There? by John W Campbell

14. Top 4 movies

John Carpenters: The Thing

ALIEN

Batman Returns

The Dark Crystal

15. America or Europe?

Europe

16. Tumblr or Twitter?

Tumblr. But that’s because I’ve used it longer than Twitter so I’m a bit more comfortable with it... Kinda.

17. Pro-choice or Pro-life?

Choice :clap: All :clap: The :clap: Way.

18. Favorite YouTuber?

Civvie 11. His reviews and Pro series are great, even if they have a habit of making me feel very, very old because some of the stuff he plays, I remember playing as a kid ;A;

19. Favorite author ?

Uuururuuugh if I had to choose I’d say Dan Butcher.

20. Tea or Coffee?

Tea. Gimme ALL the tea. Gimme Matcha Green tea, gimme Rooibos tea, gimme fruit tea, Gimme black tea. Just. Give. Me. TEA.

21. OTP?

Zaoka and Elle naturally uvu

22. Do you play an instrument/sing ?

I used to sing when I was in High School and College, I even did training for it and everything, that came to an end when I did my first apprenticeship.

Tagged by: @esme-selah​

Tagging: @ffxiv-ofthewhite​ @thegildenheart​ @herd-of-halla​ @tracytigress​ @whitherliliesbloom​ @falanyr​ @vysaldhe​ @locke-rinannis​ @chidorifarcloud​ @trishelle​ @othardsflames​ @jasleh​ @marjiandco​ @daintycure​ and anyone else who would like to do this! (y-you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to :hide: )

[eva-420]

yo i think some of my followers play ffxiv because those posts are getting notes without being tagged so like

who wants to be my friend

[msviolacea]

Okay, I think I might try this in September. Because a) I need to get my writing muscles limbered up again, and b) I have a new potential WoL who has some vague stories in my head that I’d love to flesh out. 

.... which means it’s also about time to start running her through the revamped ARR to make some notes about her reactions to things!

That’s right, folks - YEAR 4 of our annual FFxiv 30 Day Writing Challenge begins on Tuesday, September 1st at 12:00pm PST!

More Info: https://ffxiv-write.carrd.co/

Artist Volunteer Sign-up: https://forms.gle/bMojWcWWiUMXZzht5

Questions: My Ask box is open, or ask me on Twitter (MoenMoenFFxiv)

Need a warm-up? Here are some short weekly prompts to get the writing gears in motion:

I challenge you to keep your responses short while writing to these weekly warm-up prompts. Why? Because they’re just warm-ups - a moment for your creative brain to stretch a little before running the marathon.

And, I want you to practice writing short because if, during the Challenge in September, you start feeling creatively exhausted from this marathon, you’ll be able to think back to how short your responses to these warm-ups were and it may encourage you to submit something super short so that you meet your goal of writing every day without overtaxing yourself. I mean it when I say that short and sweet entries count. ❤️ I will accept single sentence entries!

See if you can do one of these warm-ups each week leading up to the Challenge. If you want to repeat one or two of them multiple times, go for it! Whatever you need for your creative brain to feel good and ready.

I won’t be tracking responses to these warm-ups. They’re purely for your benefit. Use the hashtag #FFxivWrite2020 warm-up if you’d like.

WEEKLY WARM-UP IDEAS:

Write a haiku about your character

Write about your character’s facial expression (10 sentences max)

Write a limerick about your character

Write about the sound of your character’s voice (10 sentences max)

Make up your own warm-up idea! (10 sentences max)

Have fun! 

[msviolacea]

Another thought of the less analysis variety.

Erenville has gone from "cool bunny boyfriend" to the character I overidentify most with in the game, and also my husband for whom I need to create a WoL to marry because I am full of nothing but cartoon heart eyes for him. I am entirely uncool about his entire existence. Please let me go on adventures with you forever and ever.

[msviolacea]

You know, this game has the most remarkable ability to produce heartfelt treatises on the nature of life and death right after I lose someone.

[msviolacea]

I am thinking of them this morning so this gets reblogged, because it’s the only screenshot I have of them yet. I need to get back to playing Lily’s game so I can get more. 

(I also may need to someday learn how to use forbidden tools so Lily can have a hairstyle closer to what I picture, but that’s maybe a winter project.)

For her part, Lily is somewhat unimpressed on her first encounters with Thancred. He’s charming, yes, and certainly handsome, but he’s not super helpful in Drybone, and at this point she’s weary of being tested and being the errand girl. The fact that she’s still attracted to him despite herself doesn’t really help her mood, though.

But after Ifrit, she can see the bitter self-recrimination in his eyes, even as his words are light and reassuring, and she begins to see there’s more under the surface. She’s curious, despite herself. 

[msviolacea]

I have finally finished the FFXIV MSQ, and I have two mostly non-spoilery comments.

I would die for Wuk Lamat.

I deeply identify/sympathize with Erenville's "I love my family but I went to university halfway across the world so I wouldn't have to deal with This Nonsense" vibe.

And now, I wait 3 months to see how everything goes, with everyone else.

[msviolacea]

A not-so-short word vomit on a complaint I saw about 6.3. It was just a couple of people, so this is definitely not a “why is fandom like this” sort of thing, but the conversation I saw just made me think and I don’t have the time or energy to engage in a direct back and forth on Discord right now. So, I word vomit here, as one does.

I saw a thing the other day (here? Twitter? who knows, time is an illusion and brain cells are in short supply) that asked if you’re the kind of person who came to FFXIV from Dragon Age versus ... somewhere else. I am obviously from the Dragon Age side of things. And if there’s one thing DA fandom taught me, it’s that a game suffers when all players are expected to know what happens in ancillary non-video game materials in order to fully appreciate the story. Thus, I come down hard on the side of “what the game itself says is exactly what the characters should be expected to know and reference.” 

And the FFXIV spoilers begin below. Assume spoilers for everything through 6.3 here. 

So 6.3 - and 6.2 to a lesser extent, thanks to Zero - is full of references to Zenos and, quite frankly, what a terrible person he was. And that’s perfectly understandable, given what everyone knows about him in game. (And even what we know about him out of game, but more on the nuance of that later.) Yes, our WoL knows that he made one big gesture at the end of his life that helped us save the world. That’s great! But after that, he immediately challenged us to a fight and very nearly killed us - would have killed us if not for semi-divine intervention. Because in the end, he didn’t come to the end of the universe because he’d discovered a conscience. He came because he was a deeply selfish man who only cared about getting One Perfect Fight, and Alisaie’s words stuck in his head only to the point of “well if I do a thing for them, they’ll do a thing for me.” He only progressed to the point of understanding equivalent exchange in a similar way to the voidsent of the 13th.

That may have been vaguely fine for a character in another position, but he was supposedly running a country. Whether he wanted that is something else entirely, and we’ll get to a bit of Emet Selch and his crimes in a bit, but regardless of what he wanted, he had an obligation, and he failed it entirely - he refused to even consider it. And an entire nation suffered for his lack of care. That was one of the points of this patch. We met Zero in 6.2, learned that she’d been attached to Zenos against her will. That was mostly background to the rest of the dragon and void stuff in that patch, but in this patch, we bring her to Garlemald, where she sees more of the consequences of Zenos’s selfishness, outside of her own situation. And after observing us, our friends, and the people of Garlemald trying their best to survive together, she shows that she can choose something different - that despite the many, many years of darkness and selfishness she’s had to survive in the 13th, she has the capacity to desire something different. 

Maybe Zenos would have displayed that same capacity if he’d had more time. But that wasn’t the story this game was telling. Not every character is going to get the same opportunities. 

Not every villain gets to be redeemed. 

I understand that we have a relatively robust history of redeemed villains in this game, compared to others of its kind. But that’s been a mixed bag. Emet Selch is one of the best examples of villains in general in the video game genre - the game itself showed exactly why he was the way he was, without excusing the atrocities that he committed along the way. (Fandom is a different story on the excusing - I am deeply uncomfortable with the “but he didn’t see humans as equals” argument being used in earnest - but that’s a different post.) And then they gave us an opportunity to see who he was before the sundering, before the trauma, and that once his full memory was restored and he had the opportunity to understand the full scope of what happened, he would gladly (though with characteristic grumbling) help us put the world to rights before his truly final curtain call. 

Zenos did not have the same narrative opportunities. If that disappoints you, I understand. But it’s not a failure of the game, it’s just a narrative decision. 

(Briefly - Gaius is a very, VERY different story, and one that I think is actually a failure of the game’s narrative. Gaius Baelsar should have remained dead, and the person we met in the Burn should have been an entirely different Garlean leader who defected and decided to help us. That one change would have saved that entire storyline.)

But, Zenos. We, as players, have the opportunity to read some ancillary materials to understand more about him. Side stories, lore books - we find he was neglected as a child, raised by narcissists and molded to be the person he was, to a certain extent. We can sympathize, we can understand the narrative threads that denied him a real chance at being a good person. But do not confuse what we the players know - or even the space the game writers give us to play with our headcanons - with the knowledge and opinions the characters should reasonably be expected to express in in-game dialogue. 

What does the Warrior of Light know about Zenos in game, through actual in-game sources? He’s the great-grandson of Solus/Emet, his father was a xenophobic zealot, he gave zero shits about anything other than fighting and let a lot of really shitty people do his governing for him, he killed a ton of people and threatened many, many more, the Ascians brought him back to life and as soon as he got his body back, he allied with Fandaniel and let a civil war turn Garlemald into a smoking crater just so they could get to Zodiark, and when Fandaniel used Zodiark for his own purposes, he just shrugged and went wandering on his own because nothing in Garlemald was any use to him anymore. That’s pretty much it. Yes, he came to our aid at the moment we needed it most, but he did so for his own ends, and we gave him what he wanted. You can headcanon the reason why your WoL did so, but that doesn’t change the basic facts we know from in-game sources. 

Your WoL doesn’t canonically know anything about his childhood. And, quite frankly, even if they did, do you think it would be reasonable to “well actually” Zero and the Garleans in dialogue at this point? 

Zenos is a tragedy. Zenos also caused tragedy, and those two concepts can coexist in our minds as players. But in-game characters can’t be expected to view Zenos in a sympathetic light, not even our WoL. External lore sources are not in-game lore. Our headcanons are not in-game lore. The writers cannot avoid every single instance of our dialogue possibly deviating from our headcanons, not without eliminating dialogue entirely. 

(There’s an ancillary topic here, about how the current shape of the world makes it very inadvisable for writers who give a shit about society to gloss over atrocities committed by a rich ogliarch in their narrative, no matter what players headcanon about that character, but that’s an aside to the points I’m making. But while I’m all in for villain-fucking and blorbo-appreciation in a fannish space, fandom is a totally different space than canon.) 

In the end, Zenos died a villain. A complicated, interesting one who made a fascinating decision at the end of his life, but a villain nonetheless. We can do whatever we want with him in fandom - that’s what fanworks are for. And we can be disappointed that the canon narrative doesn’t share our points of view. But we should also understand that there are very good reasons for those POVs, and that not sharing our POV is not a failure of the narrative. 

[msviolacea]

Okay, more Dawntrail spoilers, this one a) from fairly soon after the mid-point "oh shit" moment, and b) completely unimportant to the grand scheme of things, but.

I find it wonderful/adorable that Alisaie now refers to him as Raha along side Krile.

Also HI G'RAHA AND Y'SHTOLA, I MISSED YOU BOTH.

[msviolacea]

So, this is me (obviously). While I’ll still reblog some of the general FFXIV stuff here, I’ve been seeing and liking and loving a bunch of content the last few weeks that feature other folks’ WoL characters and other very specific things that my general followers may not be overly interested in, especially in the volumes I might want to reblog it. But if you like FFXIV or pretty character screenshots or just seeing me vomit fannish rainbows all over everywhere, go follow @sakiffxiv for even more nonsense!

Okay, I’m gonna use this as my general FFXIV side blog - for Saki stuff, as well as whatever other OCs I make (and there are already a couple in the works, because that’s the way my brain is), and for reblogging and interacting with other awesome FFXIV folks. 

All follows will come from @msviolacea, but I figured this would be a good idea to keep, rather than spamming the rest of my followers with all the gorgeous WoL screenshots I want to like and share. :) 

So! If you like FFXIV screenshots and talk and info and such, follow away! I want to get to know more awesome folks around here!

[msviolacea]

A couple more random Dawntrail observations at the level 95 MSQ point.

I don't know why they keep sidelining Alphinaud, but I am amused that Alisaie has managed to turn Red Mage into a healing class somehow. I choose to believe it's a side effect she figured out while dealing with the whole tempering thing.

Also: holy cow Kettenram is the single hottest Roe dude I have ever seen.

So yeah. Level 95. Some Bullshit is about to happen, isn't it? I predict that asshole oldest brother has gone back and managed to kill/maim his father and/or start an uprising, or we're about to unleash something in the Golden City. Or something completely different that I haven't even thought of yet. I can't wait, lol.

[msviolacea]

Call this one "three zones of flight down, three to go." (I was on vacation for a couple of weeks, I'm catching up!)

Cameo by the ever-faithful Mollymauk, whose name will tell many people approximately when I started playing this game in earnest, lol.