#mamook

[autumnslance]

Inside or outside, we're all just people. No matter what we look like or where we're born. When you're not used to all the color and variety, differences can feel like obstacles. But by learning more about what makes us different, we can also find common ground in places we never expected. Something new may become something you love! And someone you once hated might one day become your friend. You'll never know unless you keep an open mind. And while it may feel scary, taking that first step towards understanding is always worth it.

-Wuk Lamat, Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail, "The Feat of Brotherhood"

[dracolunari]

The Tyrant of Resolve

Zoraal Ja - Dawntrail

[sightseeinglog]

[sainsa-in-eorzea]

Mamook

[xomnus]

mamool ja OC

[akirakirxaa]

Auraugust Day 12: Flora and Fauna

"Are those rainbow bananas?!"

"Seem to be."

"Hades, why didn't you tell me there were rainbow bananas?!"

"It wouldn't be much of an adventure if I just told you everything, Hero."

[lightparty-fullparty]

I think it would have been interesting if instead of helping Wuk Lamat; Alphinaud and Alisasie ended up helping Bakool JaJa. I have no great reason for this outside of Alphinaud and Alisasie being a pair of Red and Blue coloured twins. Red Twin is more physically powerful and Blue Twin is more strategic and magically powerful. It would have been cute I think. So I might end up doing it for Light Party if I ever get there XD.

[ruuari]

yellinh

[impossible-rat-babies]

maybe it’s just 6am talking, but I’m trying to puzzle out in my head why ShB still grabs me so much compared to DT when they both have themes that are adjacent and are interesting to me

[driftward]

Let's talk about Zoraal Ja.

So early on in Dawntrail, shortly after Krile's first Echo off of Zoraal Ja, I was like, we are going to find out there is something fucked up happening to this guy. Maybe there's actually an Ascian in there purposefully fucking things up, or whoever the big bad of the expansion turns out to be rewired his head somehow, or, you know, some flavour of brain fuckery.

But as we go through the story and ultimately see him at his defeat, no, nothing so extreme as all that. He seems to be just Like That, and I thought it odd. By all accounts, it seemed he must have been raised okay. Gulool Ja Ja seems to have been an alright father figure, good enough to have raised two other kids into decent adults. They have their own sets of issues, but nobody's perfect, and they both do a good job course correcting for their shortcomings.

What the hell happened with Zoraal Ja? Why did he turn out the way he did?

Gulool Ja Ja is a blessed sibling, which we are not just told are exceedingly rare - we are shown so, explicitly, and we learn what the cost of a blessed sibling is to the Mamool Ja. A cost that their people bore in order to try to better their lot and win a war against the Xbr'aal. Gulool Ja Ja did not so much win their war as much as he simply ended it, bringing peace to both peoples.

That peace is simply, however, not that old. When we visit Iq Br'aax, we slowly learn the story of how that peace came to be, but throughout it, I could not help but notice that we were only getting one side of the story. The celebrated meal of Xibruq Pibil was meant to be a symbol of bringing peoples who were historically enemies together, but where were the Mamool Ja to share it with? And why did none of the Mamool Ja present seem to know how to create the recipe?

There is a peace, but here we see that it is a flawed peace. In the side quests, you learn that trade happens between the Mamool Ja and the Xbr'aal, but only in secret. The younger generation knows peace, but the older generation is still cagey about the not all that distant history with their neighbors in the forest.

And so the Mamool Ja still continue their practice of enduring the terrible loss of so many stillbirths in an attempt to create more blessed siblings. Their culture, especially the remnant that chooses to remain in the forest, is still trying to make its place in the larger world and improve their lot. They are still living in a land that makes for harsh conditions for living.

And in this we see a few things. One, Gulool Ja Ja is not perfect. He did a good job, but not a great one. The work of peace is going to need to be an ongoing project. And two, I believe it sets the foundation for why Zoraal Ja is the way he is.

He was not raised in Mamook, but he is still Mamool Ja. And like Gulool Ja Ja, he is a miracle. The trueblood son of a blessed sibling, who were long believed to be sterile. We don't know anything about his mother, and I suspect she had little influence on his life. But judging from the way the fight against him goes, and the visions we see of the people in his life, he may not have had a mother, singular, but I think he definitely had nursemaids.

And they certainly remembered what life was like in Mamook. And that history is not so old. And so early on, he is told he is special. He is told he is destined for great things. And probably, at least a little bit, there are whispers of how he might surpass his father one day.

The seed of a terrible imposter syndrome is planted.

And none of what happens requires Gulool Ja Ja to be a bad parent. In fact, I think what we get is the result of him trying to be a good parent. It seems likely he probably met his kids where they were at, encouraged their interests, and let them be who they wanted to be. Wuk Lamat probably sparred with him, and certainly got his sociable, outgoing tendencies. Koana, quiet Koana, I like to imagine he expressed an interest in sciences, and knowledge, and Gulool Ja Ja probably made sure he had the best tutors, and when the time came, made sure he had a good send off to Old Sharlayan.

And quiet, taciturn Zoraal Ja who rarely speaks. I can imagine Gulool Ja Ja let his son keep his peace. He probably assumed his son wanted his space, and left him to it. And Zoraal Ja, the miracle, watched his father. His father's living accomplishment was peace in Tural. Zoraal Ja will bring peace to the entire star. Gulool Ja Ja loves a good fight, enough that he challenges people to come to the palace and face him. Zoraal Ja will be a better fighter than his father. Gulool Ja Ja was a leader. Zoraal Ja is the leader of the Landsguard, and will succeed his father as Dawnservant.

It's interesting, I think, to compare and contrast Zoraal Ja with Bakool Ja Ja, who are more alike than they are different. Both are miracle children, both are impossible children. The Mamool Ja thought that a child born of Hoobigo and Boonewa was impossible - until the birth of the first blessed sibling. And they also believed a blessed sibling, in turn, was sterile - until the birth of Zoraal Ja, the miracle.

And both of them, I think, are carrying the weight of their people with them. Bakool Ja Ja explicitly, but I don't think Zoraal Ja got to escape it just because he was raised in Tuliyollal instead of Mamook. Even if the aforementioned nursemaids did not explicitly put the idea in his head that he might be the future of the Mamool Ja, he is not an idiot. They definitely told him he was a miracle, destined for great things.

And absent guidance from his father, who probably just wanted him to be his own person, he decided for himself what those great things would be.

Zoraal Ja is intent on completing them alone - to his ultimate detriment, in the trial in Mamook.

And while they are so very similar, the difference between Bakool Ja Ja and Zoraal Ja is that Bakool Ja Ja not only never wanted this, but he was eventually offered a path out. A way to be free of the yoke of the responsibilities his culture put upon him before he was ever even born. But Zoraal Ja never got that chance, because his burdens were not being forced upon him. He took them upon himself.

And he carried them until his death.

In the end, Gulool Ja Ja was probably a decent father, but not the right kind of father for Zoraal Ja. Zoraal Ja's ambition was born of a terrible inferiority complex that he nursed until it festered and swallowed him whole. He could have found his own freedom, but he could not see it past the shadow of his own father, who he was obsessed with eclipsing.

And so we're left with this. Zoraal Ja died in a completely avoidable tragedy of his own making.

[elvenchain]

Bakool Ja Ja , Pride of Mamook

[rydiathesummoner]

Game: We're going to Mamook now! It's Bakool Ja Ja's homeland.

Me: Let me guess, this being a Final Fantasy, you're going to try to make me feel bad for the asshole who entered the story by stomping on my tacos. Nice try, game.

*** 30 minutes later ***

Me: Aw, shit.

[ffxivxd]

According to Mamook legend, the blue leafkin were once Mamool Ja who were cursed for some misdeed or another. Some say the original leafkin was a Doppro Mamool Ja who was punished for felling trees. Others believe it was a Boonewa who was caught burning trees.

[sightseeinglog]

[dragons-bones]

FFXIV Write Entry #23: What the Future Holds

Prompt: on cloud nine || Master Post || On AO3 (coming in October)

A/N: Massive spoilers for the first half of Dawntrail.

---

It is not until after the ascension of Wuk Lamat and Koana as the new Dawnservants of Tuliyollal, and the first botanists from across the salt arrive with a plethora of seeds and saplings to discover which will thrive in the sapphire shadows of Ja Tiika, that the events of the past moons finally settle in the minds of Bakool Ja Ja.

With hindsight, he is not proud of his actions, even if at the time he believed they were necessary to secure the future of Mamook and her people. He was cowardly and dishonorable, and a fool besides to release Valigarmanda from his prison. Soon enough he must gather the courage to apologize to the men of his retinue for his callousness, to Wuk Lamat for his derision, to the Yok Huy for his arrogance, and await their judgment.

But he will do so with the knowledge that a real man, a real leader, accepts the consequences of his actions.

His mother and a group of their farmers are deep in discussion with the Sharlayan botanists. There are tentative plans in place for which seeds will they need to plant over the coming seasons, observing which will thrive and which will wither and which may end up to invasive for safe cultivation. Bakool Ja Ja the Mighty does not even pretend to understand it; Bakool Ja Ja the Mystic is itching to get his hands on one of those Sharlayan books about aetherology as it relates to agriculture. But today Bakool Ja Ja is needed elsewhere, and his mother smiles at him and has him lean down so she may kiss the cheek of the Mighty and then the Mystic before she returns to the meeting and he leaves the autarch’s palace.

He thinks that his mother has not stopped smiling since the Rite of Ascension ended. He does not remember that meeting room ever sounding so lively. He does not know if the walls of the palace have ever had hope echo through them.

Bakool Ja Ja passes his father on his way through the city streets. The autarch is overseeing repairs to some of the houses, and Zereel Ja nods to him as he walks by, even offering the shadow of a smile. His relationship with his father is awkward, to say the least, but Zereel Ja…Zereel Ja is trying. Bakool Ja Ja is not the only one who must relearn a great many things, and while he loves and resents his father in equal measure for the pressures placed upon him, Zereel Ja acknowledges he has erred and has let go of (most of) his pride, accepting the assistance of the Dawnservants to revitalize Mamook.

He has always had a good relationship with his mother, but the prospect of a healthier one with his father is…odd. Odd, but good.

It is in Skydeep Cenote that he breaks.

Oh, Bakool Ja Ja has broken many times in the past moons, not the least of which was in this very spot before Wuk Lamat and her entourage in revealing the shame of the Mamool Ja. But as he gently, reverently lifts one of the many urns that litter the waters of the cenote and sets it on the stone pier, to be carefully packed for transport to a proper mausoleum, both the Mighty and the Mystic together realize he will never have to place an urn within these waters ever again.

He has the sense to first ensure the urn is safely on the pier, even as his breath rattles in his chest. Then he steps around the crates he has already filled, each with four urns nestled among dried grasses and shredded najool leaves and cloud-soft alpaca wool, and walks to the doors of the inner cenote. He leans against the wall just next to the doors, staring out across the great cavern, and slides down to sit on the floor with a thud. The Mighty gasps for breath and the Mystic’s arm trembles violently.

No more dead brothers and sisters and cousins.

No more lost generations who could have been warriors or artisans or scholars.

No more children unable to escape their eggs, no more potential healthy children forsaken for the infinitesimal chance of a blessing sibling instead.

No more love matches broken for a betrothal between Boonewa and Hoobigo, no more resentful brides and grooms, no more mourning mothers and fathers, no more desperation that surely this egg will make it to maturity, no more wails of grief echoing through their dying city, no more potters having to fill their shelves with funerary urns, no more undertakers processing through Mamook westward to Skydeep escorting wivre-pulled carts rattling with filled urns.

No more no more no more no more no more no more.

The Mystic cannot cry; Boonewa eyes are simply not capable of the action. Hoobigo eyes are, however, and the Mighty weeps enough for them both, even as the Mystic rests his forehead against his brother’s temple. They shake, and hiccup, and cry, and cry, and cry.

For the first time in Bakool Ja Ja’s life, the tears are not from stress or grief.

They are from deep, overwhelming joy.

The past cannot be fixed, and the ghosts of his people’s children will haunt him until his last day. But his people have a future. His people will have happiness, and health, and one day soon, there will be children running through the streets of Mamook. There will be still be sorrow, because sorrow is a part of life, but there will be happiness at last, and laughter, and love, and hope.

Bakool Ja Ja weeps and as he does, his heart lightens until it soars.

[fisherrprince]

OK HERE ARE MY THOUGHTS ABT MAMOOK SINCE YOURE SO NICE. pardon me

mamook drove me a little insane because it is so, SSSSO close to being good but there’s these little flaws in dialogue/characterization consistency that were scientifically engineered to bother me. maybe no one else is bothered. but I AM so here’s the deal

bakool ja ja made a heel-face turn too fast and broke his character slightly while doing it

zereel ja did the same thing

the rest of mamook was said to be divided, but not really shown to be divided to the extent I wanted to see out of it

being the final tablet, the “things go differently” of the plot structure happened here. but it also didn’t happen here, for the above reasons, also because things go different is in solution nine sort of? and “solving the problem” equally happened too fast and in such a way that I felt simultaneously good and weird about

which again is scientifically engineered to bother me because on the surface I LOVE this. I love it being weird and bad in there I love the one billion dead egg twist and I love lamatyi attempting to approach it from a “is this a cultural difference we are accepting, or is this genuinely harmful” POV. something I kinda wish was stronger themewise with the regulators. BUT!!!!! we get no time for consequences. keep in mind that I understand a major theme of dt is learning and developing and I think mamook should end up with the ending it has now. but I cannot abide having no characterization consequences

NO. 1 bakool ja ja up until this point has been bowser. the cartoon bully. He’s done a bunch of very bowserish things including kidnapping lamatyi and releasing a monster, and he’s not very sorry about it. He’s not all that smart, he’s very tactical, he blows off competition with overconfidence, he’s THE one hope and champion and Divine Blessing from his hometown and it bothers me that he’s so fast to repent and so articulate of his issues! would that not get to your head at all? it has, demonstrably, gotten to his head already! would you not have conflict between what your mother tells you, softly and in tears behind closed doors, when the rest of your people praise you as a savior and a god amongst men. I just wish he was 1) consistently abrasive to us, still seeing us as sorta not on his side until the attack on Tural, I don’t think he should say sorry where he says sorry it should be later or not at all (when he’d apologize thru action not word), and 2) more in his head about it all. Obviously he’s of two minds. He has two heads. the heads should have slightly disagreed in the cenote when confronting wuk lamat but came to the same conclusion as in canon is what im saying I loved when he disagreed with himself that was rad

NO. 2 zereel ja. I know people like him. people like him don’t give up so easily. I know, in steven universe fashion, this is not a realism character, this is a plotline about unity. BUT! AGAIN every one of the previous trials was about unity and we can afford to take a risk with him. Maybe it would have been fine if he stayed mad and bad? maybe it would have been fine if he were just more reluctant? how does milaal ja feel about him?? Why did gulool ja choose him? We brought that up but didn’t really explore it. I don’t know if we should have killed him I think he’s allowed to grow. but he would not so quickly unless something else happened. I feel like the short thing later with him at the crowning of the dawnservants should have been a little tenser too how does bakool ja ja feel about him Now. Probably pretty complicated. How does the rest of mamook see him

NO. 3 I dunno I just wanted to see more of the mamool ja who lived there. what stokes their belief so so strongly… how do they feel… where are the kids? im getting distracted but what’s the birth rate of blessed siblings in contrast to normal kids out of hoobigo/boonewa pairs? does it always happen just with a very high infant mortality rate? Or does it happen half the time and there’s like, a whole NEW issue with kids running around who were not blessed? I know the vibe is rancid

NO. 4 this one is a little self explanatory the way I worded it. But also, I feel like importing nonnative crops in order to help those who want to stay and prosper is a good solution. Just the way that it’s… I dunno. I wish it was presented as more of just a part of the solution, because it was, just not emphasized enough that this won’t solve all your problems.

look (throws 3 ring binder out the window causing a huge crash and cat yowl sfx) this is a smaller part of a larger problem throughout dawntrail in that the ideas are very good but the dialogue put together to present these ideas to the audience is not and it creates a weird sense of goodbad, in that I feel like if I DIG AND PLAY, it’s great, but when first presented with anything I’m put off. But I DON’T CARE ABOUT THAT ANYMORE !!!!!! I’ve already said that piece! I’m going to think about sphene for the next THIRTY SEVEN HOURS! Thank you for listening