#mentioned y'shtola

[yshtolakisser]

the most annoyingly romantic couple you've ever met after being apart for literally 2 weeks

[improvised-finish]

Miqo March Day #19 - Peace

Bathed in the glow of the setting sun, Lehon'a, G'raha and Y'shtola sat on one of the outer rocks that formed tide pools on the Tuliyollal beach. For the first time since any of them had arrived, there was finally time to slow down and simply enjoy the view, unburdened by fears of conflict or imminent destruction.

Well, that wasn't exactly true; there was still the trouble of sorting out Yyasulani's reintegration into Tural and relations with Alexandria, but those were problems that could be dealt with... slowly. There was time enough to relax, and that was good enough.

"What do you suppose those ships are for?" Y'shtola asked, pointing at a few vessels on the horizon in idle curiosity.

"They certainly can't be bound for Sharlayan with that size, but... it's hard to tell anything else from here. Have they moved much? I hadn't really noticed them, to be truthful," G'raha replied.

"They hadn't really moved until just recently, so I'd speculated they were for fishing, but they could also be a means of transport to those small outer islands over there, I suppose."

As the discussion of the historical design of fishing vessels and the natural resources the barrier islands might hold went on, Lehon'a simply closed her eyes, a smile subconsciously forming across her face.

Here, in the warm sea air, with the sounds of the ocean in her ears and her partners' hands in hers, Lehon'a let out a long exhale. This feeling is what we fight for, even if it's fleeting, she thought. For moments like this. For peace.

[littlelordalphinaud]

finding another person with a galvus oc let's GO. i want to know more about antonia do you have any random little facts or headcanons to drop

Ahhh!

So I have to be honest, Antonia is actually @instantbee 's OC to match up with my own Soladiti.

MY Galvus OC is Valentina wir vaitor Galvus.

However, since Toni comes from a shared verse and ik that Bee doesn't mind me talking about our shared beebs, allow me to give you a rundown on our dear Bnuuy Princess!

Antonia wir yae Galvus is the bastard daughter of the Emperor Varis zos Galvus, and half sister to Zenos.

Unwanted by her Father, but claimed to be brought to heel, Antonia was mostly raised by her great grandfather, Emperor Solus.

When he died, she fled to Eorzea and met Soladiti in Mor Dhona (by nearly running over civilians on her Magitek Motorbike that Sol caught with their bare hands). The Crystals Sol bore reacted to Toni, and so they became partners, adventuring their way through Eorzea and beyond.

Some key Toni facts:

Sol, Lyse and Y'shtola are the only ones to actually call her Toni. Everyone else calls her Antonia.

Sol also calls her "My little Tyrant" as a pet name. Toni is actually rather fond of the nickname.

She's a mechanical whizz and loves Magitek. And as such, looks down her nose at both Cid and Nero as they allow their pretty squabbles to get in the way of their work. (Also she rightly thinks they're not as good as she is)

When Emet-Selch turns up in Shadowbringers, Toni has a whole ass crisis and then as a defense mechanism, she spends the entire expansion mocking him for abandoning her.

During the EW patches she somewhat made a move for the Garlean throne, but was torn between that and her love of Sol, Lyse and Y'shtola. Realising that her country was moving towards a new way of being, she gave up that dream, as much as it pained her, to allow Garlemald to grow beyond what it had been.

Which is when she marries Sol and becomes princess of Thavnair so, win some/lose some.

Her tag is HERE if you wanna read the other stuff I've written about her!

(also quick note: Valentina is nothing to do with Toni and is from a completely different verse, but feel free to come ask about her too.)

[neriyon]

Hey look, an idea I stole from @zylphiacrowley (chain of idea stealing haha), feat. very startled Hawu'li. More details for each relationship under the cut for anyone curious.

Tataru: She and Hawu'li are very close friends, all the way from the first days he spent with scions. They like to hang out, talk (mostly gossip) about stuff over tea, and while other scions take to Tataur's big moneymaking plans with a healthy dose of caution, Hawu'li is always ready to go do anything she asks. She's also the one Hawu'li usually goes to when he needs some advice or just someone to listen to his woes.

Y'shtola: I've mentioned this before but she reminds Hawu'li of his older sisters. They used to be on purely professional terms up till ShB, and have since made steady progess to become friends. The two of them can usually be found reading books in a same room or chatting about Y'shtola's research (Hawu'li is always curious to learn more).

Lyse: I actually first marked her as a friend, but then remembered Hawu'li is a Gridania starter so uh, family it is. Lyse has kinda decided to take the role of a caring big sister/mother figure by herself - despite being only 2 years older. These two lively idiots (affectionate) do get along well, and occasionally send letters now that Lyse is busy with Ala Mhigo stuff.

Estinien: "Boyfriend of my boyfriend" haha. They both date Aymeric, so they are part of the polycule together, despite not having too much romantic feelings towards eachother. They do trust and appreciate eachother a lot, and are in some sort of friends with benefits status. Hawu'li's can be a bit much for Estinien at times, but it's pretty common to see them sharing some casual contact which Estinien seems to like after spending time alone. They also share the single idiotic braincell over money related things (do not let them to the market without supervision!)

Thancred: Kinda between close friends and regular friends tbh. I feel like Thancred would get annoyed by Hawu'li's energy levels, but he'd also be smart enough to just dump the catboy on someone else when in need of some peace and quiet. Hawu'li finds him pretty nice and trusts him a lot, but does not really appreciate that Thancred prefers to keep him in the dark about most things - meanwhile Thancred feels he's a good kid but a bit too young and airheaded to be trusted with everything.

Ryne: Cat sees teenager, cat adopts teenager. While not as close as with twins, Hawu'li happily treats Ryne as part of the family and takes care to check in on her regularily after ShB. He often brings her gifts and books, staying over for some coffee and biscuits to talk about how scions are doing. Ryne tends to come to Hawu'li about any relationship troubles, and when she and Gaia start going out he's the first one to hear about it (and congratulate them, haha)

Minfilia: This is an intersting one, since Hawu'li usually befriends everyone quickly (if they want to be befriended). But somehow Minfilia's position as the leader of Scions made Hawu'li kinda hesitant to bother her too much, so kinda like with Y'shtola, their relationship stayed pretty professional. In hindsight, Hawu'li definitely regrets he didn't get to know her more.

G'raha: Boyfriends! As close as can be, spending lot of time together. Reading, talking about anything interesting they've learned, visiting new places, going on dates… pretty much anything. G'raha has great tolerance for Hawu'li's clingyness and doesn't mind some pda, so Hawu'li tends to stick to him a lot. Also just cat things: they will often knock their heads together and even start playfighting every now and then.

Alphinaud: Little brother! While more snobbish during ARR, Hawu'li does see some of himself in the boy, and does his best to keep him safe and help him however he can. Likes to gently tease Alphi (usually with Alisaie), but will be uncharacteristically ready to throw down with anything threatening his lil bro (he may or may not have growled at Fourchenault when he was talking about disowning twins).

Alisaie: Little sister and partner-in-mischief! Like with Alphi, they are very close and protective of eachother, with the exception that Alisaie seems as ready to fight to protect Hawu'li as he does to protect twins. They often tease Alphi together, or go channel their excess energy in some friendly sparring. Or run off to see who can climb some trees faster.

Urianger: Hawu'li likes him a lot, but unfortunately can only understand him like 30% of the time. However he's just happy to sit there listening anyway, and usually Thancred or Y'shtola know to check if he actually got the important parts. They like eachother's company, and somehow just hanging out with Urianger seems to calm Hawu'li down a lot, which has been a godsent to everyone.

Krile: Still a pretty new friend, but one that Hawu'li is eager to get to know more. He is however tiiiiiny bit nervous about it, since Krile and G'raha are clearly close, and he really really really wants to get well along with his boyfriend's close friend. Krile thinks he's a nice lad, and hopes he'd relax a bit and drop the random bouts of overly polite behaviour.

[whitherwanderer]

20 // hamper

Sawyer huffed as she looked over formulas and figures, the graphite in her hand tapping an impatient spot into the paper where the dulled tip hit it. Even as she reached forwards for her cold tea (per the usual, she’d forgotten it was there while it was hot), she continued to glare down at the page, her brow set into a focused scowl.

Behind her, errant wings tapped at her shoulder—one, two, forcing her to pay attention to her posture in her chair as the other two skittered across the paper lightly and poked at the material samples that lay atop them.

Sawyer turned in her seat as the raen’s pointed nouliths folded neatly against her back, and the raen reached out to touch the page.

“Frustration and fury. No stranger to the Hawk, but poured into what, the oasis rarely knows.”

Sawyer hummed a note, answering in her comparatively unembellished fashion, “Modifications to those tools of yours. I’ve traded letters with some acquaintances in Sharlayan that were thrilled to see an original iteration of the concept and asked for schematics in exchange for…”

She paused, watching the way her partner’s hand felt aimlessly at the fibers of the page. She had tried to involve Amesha in as many steps of the design process as she knew how to, initially, having her try to attune herself to a great many different crystals and conduit metals, but the parchment-bound stage of design was always… rather one-sided.

She made an angry noise to herself at the injustice of it. As much as she tried to offer Amesha agency—asking what might better enable her rather than assuming, giving her a means to feel her way through a space rather than be led. "Unfettered by sight" as she so often described herself, and yet there were still realms that Amesha was kept from.

“...Hawk?” the raen called, the lengthy pause no doubt causing her worry as she reached out comfort Sawyer with a scaled hand that the hyur took and pressed to her cheek.

“Sorry, I was lost in thought for a moment. I… find it unfair that I’ve spent all this time designing these wings of yours and yet I’ve not included you in the design as much as I could. The wood models are serviceable, but only once I’ve gone through iterations upon iterations with little of your input.”

The raen’s head tilted, and though she smiled, she knew better than to placate. She’d learned well than to give Sawyer an empty reassurance when the hyur was set on the idea that something could be improved for her partner’s sake. Honestly, the hyur might have felt more strongly about it than even she did, but she knew Sawyer would argue back, “All the more reason to be a part of the solution.”

Sighing, the raen withdrew her hand and returned it to the page. “Would that quillstroke and letter could be writ into parchment like the river writes a canyon. Engraved upon page as it is engraved upon earth…” With this, her noulith tipped itself into the sheet, pressing a deep line into a corner of the page that nearly threatened to tear.

Sawyer sat up, at first ready to give the raen light admonishment, but quickly stopped herself at a realization. “...That’s less of a fantasy than you imply. I think you’ve quite possibly come up with the first step towards a solution all by yourself.” she mumbled, looking up and around her desk at the various materials there. “Just a moment.”

She leaned forwards to grab for a narrow metal rod, then grabbed for a blank sheet of parchment while she moved all others aside. The shuffle of paper followed by the quiet scraping of metal caused Amessha to wonder quietly what Sawyer was, presumably, sketching onto this new sheet.

“Now,” the hyur said, papers shuffling again. She pulled Amesha’s hand to the table and laid it gently across the parchment, where the raen explored with her fingertips delightedly. “What do you think I’ve drawn?”

Amesha made an unsure noise as she explored, but indeed, she did feel raised lines in the paper. Long, not quite straight, narrowing shapes that met a tight, rounded end. Many of them, fanned out and layered not unlike scales—

“A… bird’s wing?” Amesha questioned, and she could practically hear Sawyer beaming.

“Yes, exactly right,” she said, in that tone Amesha knew meant she’d be spending a while longer hunched over her work table. She was pulled in briefly, a kiss planted on the raen’s cheek before Sawyer excitedly mumbled. “I’ve got some additions to make to my schematics.”

[artisticvicu]

Summary:

Echo'a Velundaleht, Warrior of Light, Bringer of Hope and the bane of any villain's existence.

Or so the moniker goes. It changes, sure, adapting as needed to appease the masses or be used against him, but that doesn't mean he ever likes it. Not when there's more than just enemy blood on his hands and situations rob him of those he cares about.

At some point he's going to stop caring. At some point, he's going to be done with all their stupidity and the endlessness of it all and simply watch the world burn just because he could.

That thought scares him more than his own death does and he can't help but wonder for how much longer it will.

At least he has the Scions. If he had been on his own, he would have shattered a long time ago. He just hopes he hasn't leaned too heavily on them in turn.

 

This contains predominantly Shadowbringers content but there is some Heavensward - specifically that one particular scene because I ran it as healer and wanted it to actually hurt, gosh darn it. Slowly but surely Endwalker content is being added. Unless noted otherwise, each chapter is named for the quest it appears in with liberal use of the game transcript.

Chapters 22 through 29 have been uploaded

[flowering-darkness]

9 14 and 15 for Lorenza please!

Certainly, Merlin! Thank you very much for these!!

(question source: "ask game: self-insert lore" by celestialship)

9. who are your self-insert’s closest friends? - By this point, I would say that Brynblyss and Tsutsuji fill this role most closely, as they are the friends she spends the majority of her time with and thus knows in a more close way than others she may be seen as getting along better with. (I specify these two and not Clio because she and Clio are meant to be in a romantic relationship, I just.. keep not developing it at all.) Lorenza’s personality may be quite different to either of theirs, but the fact she has shared so many experiences with them over the course of the story is what provides that innate tight-knitness to their dynamic. Initially, this closeness first originated from Tsutsuji being the mage who initially made a pact with Lorenza and whom she was therefore arguably most bound to, while Brynblyss was the one who noticed her struggles with food (as opposed to just directly siphoning aether while in the void), and reached out to help her work around it using his knowledge of potion-making. This gesture wasn't something Lorenza expected of him, but it meant a lot to her, and it did a lot to bridge the initial gap that existed between the two from the aforementioned personality clashes/lack of trust on Bryn’s end.

Outside of the immediate light party, though, Y’shtola is the Scion whom Lorenza gets on best with (followed probably by Urianger?), and she shares a unique closeness with both her and Tataru, because the two of them have directly witnessed more of her nature as a voidsent than the others. Specifically, Y’shtola using magic to visualise aether after losing her vision to the Lifestream meant she was unwittingly faced with the full truth of Lorenza’s nature during Heavensward, while Tataru insisted on weaving a new outfit for Lorenza before Stormblood (to demonstrate that she was in fact part of the Scions and her presence was welcomed instead of just being tolerated), and Lorenza tentatively allowed her to privately take the necessary measurements, despite being reluctant to admit that her wings were not in fact fashion accessories.

14. what hobbies does your self-insert have? - Before the Flood of Darkness, Lorenza’s main hobbies were reading, dancing (particularly very fast dances that were hard for others to keep up with her in), and swordsmanship (much to her mother’s chagrin). She didn’t use to like weaving back then, but became more fond of it “recently”, as an activity done with her old friend Cessair during the Fifth Astral Era. She views a lot of different hobbies as something quite nostalgic to her, because seeing people participating in them nowadays on the Source reminds her of what the Thirteenth used to be like before its destruction. So she might have a go at things here and there.

15. how does your self-insert play a role in the plot of the story? does she help directly defeat the villain, support the heroes, etc.? - While she doesn’t give off the typical impressions of a protagonist, Lorenza does assist the heroes of the game, because those are Clio and the rest of the Scions (including the party she travels with/is part of). Her most active roles as a driving force in the story are during Crystal Tower (which is where she enters the Source and helps NOAH get into the World of Darkness), Shadows of Mhach (in which her history as a voidsent previously summoned by Mhach comes into play), the last zone of Endwalker (as she is captured by the Meteia), and the post-Endwalker main scenario (because of course she is, it’s all about Zero and the Thirteenth). But, she's part of the light party for the main scenario after her introduction!

I hope that these answers were alright! Thank you again for taking the time to send this in when you did~

[kaidawrite-a]

Day 17 - Sally

Endwalker Spoilers!!

A small group gathers before what should be a small adventure.

Short discussions of what treasure is are had.

More friend cameos!

Did you know Au ra horns do regrow canonically? I HC that many choose to cover broken horns with prostheses or cloth while they regrow because who really wants a fly in your ear. This is not relevant to the story but you're learning it today!

[direbeastrex]

FANFEST LONDON 2023 - DUTY COMPLETE!

If you met me at fanfest this weekend and gave you my card- hello! I'm so glad you checked out my socials!! (sorry about the business card print quality, next run will have better contrast balance, I promise) Please pardon the dust- I'm gonna work on an actual side blog for my art if it kills me this week, and try to flesh out and organize my social media presence a little bit more, and going forward I want to get braver about posting sketches and wips rather than just not posting anything that isn't 100% finished and 'perfect'.

This weekend was my first attempt at trying to remember to actually network in meatspace since the Pandemonium, so I'm extremely rusty and need to get some better habits developed- I'll get there with practise! MOSTLY though I just wanted a convenient way to stay connected easier to folks I met, and that seems to have done the job nicely! Next time though, fear not: I'll know now to bring stickers to trade!! In game, I can be found usually on Balmung as Rex Lioncoeur for roleplay or J'ahk Crooktail (name change pending?) for content- but discord is the most reliable way to get hold of me, and you're always welcome to say hi- Everyone I met was so awesome and friendly, and I really do need an excuse to play on EU servers as it is!

See you in Eorzea, and hope you got home safe and sound!

[unionizedwizard]

now i'm thinking about who among the scions would be the best at grillin' (not including the wol who might very well be a lvl 100 culinarian in anyone's specific timeline, obviously)

urianger: not great, as we've established

thancred: i THINK he got better at it after spending five years (!) on the run in the wilderness with a teenage girl honestly. if only thanks to sheer practice. and he's versatile enough that he could be a decent cook imo. still okay at best probably though, his dad card doesnt got that far (F)

y'shtola: i don't believe she was put on kitchen duty even once during her time among the night's blessed. she can probably make various healing potions and basic meals (SOMEONE had to help with matoya's meals. that's what apprentices are FOR!), and she obviously does have a great mastery over fire (euphemism), but she wouldn't want to grill in the first place. she's sitting by poolside drinking rosé and having fascinating conversations

estinien: i do agree with lizzie here, estinien probably would be good at it provided he's familiar with everything involved in the process, and he probably would rather actively but quietly take care of business & help in a concrete way, while being removed from the action.

alphinaud: no. let him build the fire and set up the bbq and send him to go help with the potato salad or something. not sure he can tell rare and medium rare apart. he's very eager to help and learn but wouldn't ask for grilling duty because he knows it's not his specialty

alisaie: this is a baby butchling who wants nothing more than out-grill EVERYONE. i don't think she'd be good at it (yet) but she's definitely staying around and helping and learning, eagerly trying to prove herself. i think she'd have hunted and then prepared the animal the meat came from in the first place. give it a few years and she'll be the ultimate bbq dad But A Dyke, i just know it.

g'raha: would not ask for grilling duty but would not be bad at it if given the chance. between the 100+ years of survival mode & his experience as a broke student doing field work (not to mention potential childhood experiences - grilling meat seems to be a staple of seeker culture all across the world), i think he's seen enough to know what he's doing, but as grilling is some kind of Important Position With Responsibilities, he'd let anyone who thinks they can do a better job than him handle it, and compliment the result no matter how terribly wrong it went

krile: can't say i'd see her want to do it in the first place. her job both as a scion and as a student of baldesion has always been very firmly confined to intellectual, diplomatic & magical duties, and she's been a city girl her entire life. she would help in a thousand little ways including making sure everyone feels included because she's really good at handling social gatherings, without showing it

tataru: could and would out-grill the world's most renowned chefs. they're gonna have to invent a new dellemont d'or prize for grilling specifically after tasting her cooking. she's standing on a stool wearing a pink apron the whole time. the local restaurant owners are having a personal crisis and begging her to teach them her ways.

[cinnabun-faerie]

FFXIV: Your child dresses up as them for All Saint's Wake

A/N: I hope you enjoy! Sorry, I really do love adding these moments with Y'shtola, Thancred & Urianger. These three are so chaotic and iconic. Note: Y/C/N = Your/Child's/Name I imagine they're either a toddler or a young child

Characters: Alisaie, Alphinaud, Estinien, G'raha Tia, Thancred, Urianger, Y'shtola, (Bonus) Emet-Selch

Frightfest 2024 Masterlist

She's shocked at first

but she is in awe

your kid wanted to dress up like her?

she's honored

and the costume looked so well done! Tataru must have made this for them

"Hey Y/C/N, let's go bother Alphinaud together."

"Is Y/C/N dressed like me?"

he's stunned and impressed

"You've got the braid and my sage gear as well!"

No doubt his mother had a hand in this

she would be more than thrilled to give Y/C/N an outfit to match his

When he sees Y/C/N in mini-dragoon armor, he does a double take

"What do we have here? A little dragoon?"

Y/C/N shakes their head and points at him

and Estinien doesn't miss a beat

"You're dressed as me are you? I should have known."

he's impressed by the attention to detail

there's a tiny lance that is nearly identical to his as well as a plush version of Vrtra

He knows right away

"So this is where my scarf went"

he felt so happy when he saw Y/C/N's costume

he must mean a lot to Y/C/N if they wanted to dress up as him

"Shall we go to the library, Y/C/N? Perhaps I could read to you."

Bonus: If your child isn't a Miqo'te, I could see them wearing a pair of fuzzy cat ears that wiggle every now and then like G'raha's

He's smug

"You're dressed as me? I knew I was your favorite."

He would parade Y/C/N around and declare to everyone what their costume is

honestly, he's proud

he's always tried to be a positive role model to them and this really shows that he is important to them

He would smile fondly at Y/C/N

"You have outdone yourself this time, Y/C/N. I pray this is your best costume yet."

not to mention the attention to detail on the costume

their Astrologian costume sparkles and sways just as his does

not to mention they even have the holder for cards

if there were no cards, he would give them a deck of their own that would be small enough for their hands

though he does chuckle at the facial hair Y/C/N has, the squiggles are very thoughtful

She could recognize that outfit anywhere

"Y/C/N, what is your costume?"

"I am Master Matoya! The avatar of destruction!"

Of course

She'd turn and glare at you, Thancred & Urianger

cue the reaction in Endwalker when Thancred looks away and Urianger hides his face behind his cards

She will deal with the three of you later

regardless, she was flattered

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say I were looking in a mirror."

He'd look at Y/C/N and then at you

"What is this?"

yeah, he supposed that the costume was good

nothing was wrong with it

Y/C/N even had the duel hair colors

and how in the world did you manage to get the eye color exact-

why was Y/C/N scowling like that

"Well, one of us has to go home and change, Y/C/N."

Surprise Pikachu face when Y/C/N points to him and makes the gesture to shoo him

this mini version of you had quite the nerve

honestly both he & Y/C/N would try and out-sass each other

even if Y/C/N could only babble

[yshtolakisser]

i have many a slurs to call them

[wildstar25]

Honeymoon pt.3 - Kozama'uka

"It's just as you said, my love, the sights Kozama'uka are marvel to behold. Such vibrant wetlands... I can understand now how you were reminded of that of Lakeland. Let's settle here for lunch. I would love to hear this tale of Alexander that Y'shtola mentioned earlier in Earthenshire."

<<prev//next>>

[littlelordalphinaud]

@arinaxiv reminded me of this lil thing I wrote when I first got into Stormblood, so I hunted it down to post for y'all!

Content Warning for mention of child death.

"Come with me." Fruliyo said, grabbing Lyse's arm and dragging her through the camp. Lyse was quick to look for Zhana or Y'shtola, but both were looking away, almost deliberately so.

"Look," Lyse started, although she didn't dig her heels in, "I know you don't like lying and stuff, so I get that you're probably really angry, and there was that thing of flirting a while ago, and-"

"Lyse," Fru attempted to cut in.

"-I know that I probably should have just told you instead of rejecting you and all, but can you not shout at me? Because I-"

"Lyse!" Fru tried again.

"-didn't exactly set out to lie to _you_, you just happened to be there while I was lying, so really, please don't shout at me!"

"I'm not gonna fucking shout at you!" Fruliyo shouted. Lyse blinked, pulling her arm away now that they'd stopped moving.

"That was shouting." Lyse pointed out. Fru groaned, rolling her eyes.

"Sometimes you're really frustrating," Fru admitted, brushing the loc that hung in front of her face away from her eye, "but I'm not looking to shout at you. Although that was part of why I wanted to talk to you. You've been avoiding me,"

"I thought-"

"I know, you thought I was going to shout at you. But I'm not. So can you stop avoiding me, firstly? I thought we were, y'know... friends..." Fru shrugged, looking away from Lyse.

"Oh." At this moment, Lyse wished she was still wearing Yda's mask, because that would, at least, hide the way the bridge of her nose darkened a little. "Okay. Is that everything, or-?"

"Look," Fru still wasn't looking at Lyse. She couldn't look at her and say what needed to be said, so she didn't look. "The next few weeks are probably gonna suck for you. I don't mean because, y'know, rebellion and all, but you've probably not really gotten the chance to, y'know, grieve. So it's all gonna hit you like a runaway chocobo carriage."

"I dunno, I feel fine," Lyse shrugged.

"Lyse!" Fru groaned, "I'm trying to say that I know what's coming for you. And that, if you ever need to scream, or cry, or have a breakdown that you don't need the others seeing, I can be your punching bag. I know a thing or two about hidden grief."

"Fru, don't take this the wrong way but... you wear your every emotion on your sleeve... or you would if you ever really wore sleeves... anyway, I appreciate it but... you can't possibly know." Lyse shrugged, rubbing at her arm a little, expecting Fruliyo to shout at her again. Instead, Fru sighed, and reached into the little pouch bag that she carted around everywhere.

"It might shock you to learn that actually, I don't do that. Everyone thinks I do, and that's deliberate." Fru held up a Sharlayan necklace, letting it pool in her hand before opening the locket, showing Lyse a tiny wisp of silver hair, tied up with a small white ribbon. "Her name was Kawara. My Father didn't like traditional names which is why mine is the way it is, and Kawara's other mother agreed that it would be nice for her to match me... not that she ever really got that chance." Fru seemed lost for a moment, staring down at the locket in her hand. "She was five days old when I lost her and her mother both." Fru seemed to come back to the present, and quickly shut the locket, securing it away again.

"So I know, Lyse. I know what it feels like to carry someone around like you've been carrying your sister. And when you're ready to put her down again and it feels like you can't breathe without that weight... I don't mind helping you."

"Fruliyo-"

"Oh, and it goes without saying really, but don't tell anyone about... y'know? Only Y'shtola and Zhana know, and I don't need it getting spread to everyone."

"Yeah, of course." Lyse shifted, "I'm gonna hug you now, so don't hit me." she warned, before surging forward to hug Fru. Fru chuckled, hugging her back.

"We need to work on your image of me, Lyse."

[nshi-ao3]

Obviously Joker benefits from his relatively uniquely malleable physiology and knowing the best users of healing arts in the world, but Eorzea is a dangerous place and even members of the Scions can be injured in ways that leave a mark.

What are your headcanons for pains, aches, and issues that Joker has to learn to live with as he suffers through everything the game throws at him, especially after meeting Best Friend in Stormblood and having a delightfully Normal final fight with his ass?

Ooh, good question!

Yes, both Joker and the canon WoL shrug off things that should rightfully either kill them or leave them permanently incapacitated haha... But our boy does indeed come away with plenty of scars!

Let's seeeee....

Part of the reason he's developed a bit of a habit of curling in on himself whenever he sleeps, outside of getting increasingly animalistic with all those beastly gods in his head, was that Lahabrea's big ol' energy beam went straight through him. In one end and out the other! (He has an exit wound scar on his back as well as the larger scar on his chest). It made a biiiig, big hole (much like a certain other Ascian in the future hehe... Foreshadowing!) So it would've kind of... obliterated part of his spine. And it came back, sure! (Thank you Hydaelyn and Phoenix!) but... yeah. Probably got a bit of a bad back after that. Someone give him a good massage, quick!! Also he mentioned the scar tissue from that attack was itchy when he was whining about it to Y'shtola. :P I imagine that bothers him every now and then.

Similarly he also agitated the still recovering wound on his leg post-Titan fight by not properly looking after it since the Waking Sands Massacre happened right after. That's probably a bit of a pain too. :(

His left arm probably gets it the worst out of any part of him when it comes to repeated abuse, and he's got plenty of marks on it-- especially after Shadowbringers. Wouldn't be surprised if there were some major issues there. It's probably stiffer then his right... :(

It's not permanent, but his right eye is out of commission for a bit after the first Zenos fight... Good thing there's plenty of time on a long, boring ship ride to the other side of the planet to recuperate haha!

Oh, and I mentioned at one point that by post-Endwalker he develops a stutter thanks to some stuff... It comes and goes. Typically worse if he's upset or agitated.

And it's not an injury, but soon Joker will have to learn to deal with having extra pointy canines haha. Might take him a bit to learn not to cut his tongue on them?!

[meatball-headache]

I have completed The New War. It is indisputably Warframe's greatest, grandest, epickest, most unique quest.

...so, it's worth a few words, but where do I begin?

Wow. Okay. Well... that's, that's certainly something.

Okay, but... Warframe's story quests... somewhat baffle me. Maybe it's me. As I often confess, I don't play games with a lot of cinematic story these days, FFXIV being the exception to every rule. I played Red Dead Online instead of the actual game, so I could just get to the action without being bogged down by story. That's why I like things like Bloodborne and Warframe, which have this deep, cool lore, but the game just starts with you playing, and you figure it out from the game itself, rather than having it all explained in cutscenes.

So, seeing cutscenes in Warframe is a fascinating experience. I know these characters, Ballas, Teshin, Margulis... or, at least, I've heard of them. But, I feel like I've missed some introduction. Teshin, for example. The first time I saw him was when I did Duviri. This was before I did the Second Dream, even—for some reason, I did Duviri right when it came out. So, Teshin's a Duviri character. But, later, in the War Within, you deal with Teshin a lot, and your Operator speaks as if she knows him well already. There's no mention of Duviri at all! So... what am I supposed to know this guy from?

It's a little like Destiny 2, which I hated. Whenever I'd play that game, once every couple months, it would open with me in a mission, characters I don't know telling me to fight someone I never heard of, all the while someone I never met is congratulating me for killing some boss I don't remember. Then after that mission, you're locked out of the story unless you subscribe for real money... so I was constantly confused.

Let's look at Warframe specifically. Where we last left the story, in the, the Apostasy Prologue, I think? That was just a cutscene where we saw Ballas pull the Lotus from a machine and take her away. No, no—it was the Sacrifice, where we fought the Umbra Warframe, and we kept having these cutscenes where we had the POV of someone sick in bed, playing a board game against Ballas, and someone else watching on. The name "Ballas" was familiar from dialogue in the Second Dream, where we gathered that he was some important figure from Orokin history. But who were we in that scene? Are we supposed to be Teshin or something?

Maybe I'm just dumb, coddled by FFXIV's all-access story where Y'shtola or Alphinaud are on hand to explain everything. Maybe I've been ruined by growing up on JRPGs with tropey plots and bad translations, and never had to challenge myself with actual literary analysis.

No, no. Well, yes, I could still be dumb, but, here's what I think. I think that's the game's intent. It wants to baffle you, drop you into scenes with characters you're sort-of heard of, and let you piece together just what's going on. So, if we look at where we left off and where we began yesterday, in the previous cutscene, Ballas—who's apparently just alive and around—takes the Lotus out of her Lotus machine or whatever and leaves with her. Lotus seems to go willingly. How, and why? We don't get a clear answer. In fact, we don't even get a clear question, we just want to get the Lotus back. With the beginning of The New War, we have a full-scale attack from the Sentients against everything and everyone, and we see the Grineer, the Corpus, the Ostrons, and our old friend (apparently) Teshin himself fighting against them. We hear Erra's comments on our "slapdash" alliance. Wait, we're allied?

Yeah, obviously. See, a lesser game, like FFXIV, would've had a whole series of drawn-out cutscenes where the danger is revealed, the heads of state get together to discuss their options, they agree an alliance is their best hope, they appoint Alphinaud as the overall leader, they discuss their plan... (I disparage FFXIV a little bit. Dawntrail had a similar scene, but it just cut to Vrtra blasting the mothership—thought we did pause on Koana to here him explain what's going on and why.) Warframe did none of that. We had a scene where we saw Erra with Ballas in shackles, apparently, and the Lotus turned into a Sentient, and then we cut to—

Right off the bat, The New War is a whole nother thing. Rather than make you sit through cutscenes ELI5ing you, it goes straight to the action. The game—the devs—trust the intelligence of the player to get what's going on from context, and, they attack your emotions directly by thrusting you into the danger immediately, rather than letting you get settled and learn everything about what's happening.

Kahl-175's chapter was beautiful. First we saw the Ostron get attacked, and Erra approached a child and said sweetly, "Don't be afraid." Is he... going to kill the child? Or... just capture them, maybe? We cut to Kahl, injured, loyally responding to Vay Hek's commands. He bravely sallies forth, but then when he sees another Grineer—another brother—go down, he goes to help, but it's too late. He plans to sacrifice himself as a living bomb to blow up the enemy base, "For the Queens!" So he fights through waves of Sentients, finds a bomb, and finally climbs, injured badly, to the base of the... base, and sets off the bomb, not for the Queens, but, "For my brothers."

...but the bomb doesn't go off. Time stops. Erra is there. "Don't be afraid," he says.

Oh.

Oh.

He's definitely going to kill Kahl. His noble plan failed. And this means, Erra definitely killed the Ostrons, too. Shit just got really real.

Next we meet Veso in the weak middle act, being berated by Alad V, and "nobly" fighting in the name of profit. (The Corpus' prophet is profit. Heh.) His section is full of puzzles that kind of baffled me. In fact, half the time, I didn't even know I was doing puzzles. That's Warframe for you—it'll helpfully put a waymarker exactly where you need to go, but it won't tell you what you need to do when you get there. (Usually it's Void Sling, which I always forget how to do.) In the end, he has to fight the goddamned Jackal... I strugged with that and died a lot, but eventually got it done. I think the game took pity on me and gave me an automatic win because looking back on it, I don't think it had a life bar on that last attempt? At any rate, Alad V wants to surrender to the Sentients—honestly, a logical idea, because there's no way they can win—but Veso overrides his override and syncs the fleet in one grand, albeit futile attack.

And then Teshin shows up, because of course he does. Teshin's a major character in these story quests, but his introduction is still a complete mystery. This is where I draw the line between "the game trusts the player to understand what's going on" and "okay, I definitely missed an intro quest somewhere." I think he's the NPC you talk to for PVP? Which no one does. My guess is when PVP was added, there was something introducing him. Maybe there's just a video on the Youtube, like how FFXIV 1.0 ended. (I'll do my own headcanon, hang on... Okay, so at the beginning of the game when you first get to your first Relay, Teshin senses the presence of a Warframe and goes to you, saying, "So, the Tenno are back..." Then he leaves and leaves you wondering what the heck.)

Anyway, now you do Teshin's chapter, and, it's worth mentioning, each of these chapters have their own UIs, their own unique skills, their own style of shields and HP. I've noticed this about Warframe: it makes every scene unique. Think back to the scene where you're a sick person in bed playing a board game against Ballas. It's not just a cutscene you watch, you actually play the board game. Someone went through the effort of programming in a minigame for you to play during a dialogue cutscene. Again, this is something any lesser game would have you do separately, so you can watch the cutscene and focus on it, and then play the minigame and focus on it. Warframe, again, trusts the player's intelligence to do both at the same time—or, they trust that it will be just too much to do all at once. I'm trying to solve this new minigame while listening to new information, and it makes it hard to process all of it—which, I think, is the point. Warframe wants to keep you completely on your toes. I kept putting down my controller during cutscenes to take screenshots, only to snatch it up again once I realize, I'm supposed to be aiming that beam or something.

Warframe loves to give you puzzles and no explanation. I can respect that. Some are really confusing, and to my shame, I was not able to first-try... nearly anything in this quest. I did Kahl's chapter on the first try, but everyone else died all over the place. And, what's really interesting, is that it's not a case like, again, the only other game I play FFXIV, where if you die, now you know what that does, and you don't die to that again. In Warframe I just had to try and try again until I figured out, one, what the game was asking me to do, and two, how to do it.

At the end of Teshin's chapter, there's a confrontation, and then the Lotus is sucked into a vortex, the Operator is stabbed through the whole and sucked into a vortex, and then...

What the... What the hell is going on? First, they make you sign a contract to begin the mission, and now this!? ...or... is this because I was idle for like 45 minutes at one point and my computer turned off Wifi when it went to sleep? It's probably the latter, but in the moment, it was certainly a fourth-wall-breaking mindfuck of the ultimate degree. I was already completely hooked, and now this?

Now we see Ballas as a king. Wasn't he shackled by Erra? Why's he in charge now? Was their a conflict between the two that we didn't see? Was this their plan from the beginning? Will it be explained if I keep playing or is this all we're going to get?

Naturally, I kept playing, and then—

...if this dude turns out to be my Duviri guy, I'm going to scream.

So now I'm Human Male, infiltrating the Narmer, which the context tells me is the kingdom Ballas made. "Narmer" is a familiar name. I've heard the song on Youtube, sans context, and I've seen notes saying that certain mods and arcanes and stuff can be gotten from "Narmer bounties," so there's something going on with them later. Human Male has a pistol, radar, and a smoke grenade—and a healing power reminiscient of what I had in Duviri. And that's it. Up against these guys that just dusted the Lotus and my invincible Warframe both, and conquered the entire solar system.

Again, no context. The game is letting us figure that out for our own—who this guy is, where he came from, what he's doing, and why. We're resisting the Narmer, of course. And, it says right there, rescue Ostron prisoners, so you know I'm doing that. He gets to the end of the level, and then there's something called an Archon, so he has to book it, and he goes...

...back to my ship.

Well, all my decorations are missing, but the colors are mine. Why is he in my ship? And then—

YEAH IT'S MY FUCKIN' DUVIRI GUY. Okay! Okay, so we're really doing this! Not only is it my Duviri guy, but he's got Ordis, too—and, somehow, what's left of the Lotus.

Why does he have the Lotus's remains? The game doesn't tell you, but, obviously, he went into the Void and found them. What, you think he ordered it from Amazon? He's trying to revive the Lotus, but so is Erra and Ballas—only, Erra wants to remake her as Natah, Ballas wants to remake her as Margulis, and John Duviri wants to remake her as the Lotus.

Now, in the quest Natah, we learned from Hunhow that the Lotus's real name is Natah. Then in the Second Dream, we heard the Lotus's voice actor being called Margulis. Margulis was apparently executed for treason or something, we don't know what happened to Natah, and now there's the Lotus. So, was Margulis not executed, but turned into the Lotus? Or, what? The Lotus is very mysterious. She has extremely powerful powers and is essentially a Tenno goddess. Perhaps more will be revealed in the fullness of time? But, the game is often content to not answer questions. Half the time it doesn't even ask questions, it just does what it wants and leaves it to you to grok what's going on.

So, we try to find out. First, John Duviri needs to steal a Corpus ship, so for that, we travel to Fortuna—and if "We All Lift Together" jumps into your head just by reading that name, you're not alone. But this time, we're treated to a different song...

"Praise the wise and mighty Ballas . . . "

Powerless against the Narmer, we enter the stealth section of the game... and this was really frustrating. I got caught dozens of times and this took me an hour or so. Especially inside the factory, I just couldn't figure out what to do on the left side for ages, until I finally opened my eyes and saw the extremely obvious way to go—so obvious, in fact, that the game pops up with a "Press L1 to Crouch" tutorial. Bro—do you think I made it to The New War without crouching? What do you think I've been doing for the whole stealth section thus far!? So, I stole a ship and went to Uranus (which is occupied by Grineer, so why do we need a Corpus ship?) where the Natah quest took place, and where we first encountered Sentients, and Hunhow. This time, though, we meet Hunhow in the flesh (?) and he gives us a magic weapon, the S-tier bow N... Nakurak? Nataruk. It's on Overframe.gg's tier list at the top of S rank, masked with a spoiler filter, which made me click it because, how could a weapon's name be a spoiler? It can't be that much of a spoiler, just a teaser, right? So I clicked it long ago and thought: yep this means nothing to me. But! Now, I had it, this famous bow. It must be good, then. And, yeah, it's pretty good—especially compared to my pistol.

Ah, I'm doing that thing again. Everyone hates when a Youtuber provides an "analysis" of some piece of media, and it turns out just to be recapping the story. That's exactly what I'm doing here. But, I'm also not pretending to provide a new and unique analysis—and I'm not writing and revising a script beforehand. I'm just thinking out loud, so to speak—so to type—and getting my thoughts out in writing. And part of that is retracing my steps through the story, refreshing my memory, and just sharing how I felt each step of the way. But you, dire reader, should have already done this quest—so there's nothing new for you, and if there is, shame shame, you're spoiling it for yourself. But that's all right, in the end, because I'm not writing for you, honestly, I'm just writing for myself. So it goes.

So, Hunhow introduces the three Archons to us, and now I'm thinking, okay, so the weird part's over and we're getting back to a normal video game now. Here's the "kill ten rats" part.

Hah.

But, on seeing the Archons, I noticed one thing right away. Actually, I think I saw it when John Duviri got chased by one in his first mission, but, they've got the body of a Warframe—recognizable ones, that's Mag, Rhino, and... I'm not sure about the other one but his powers seemed like Caliban's—and a Sentient on their head, with a crystal stuck through them both at the Warframe's head, like a linchpin. What would happen if you took the crystal out? What would happen if you stuck the crystal somewhere else? I'm vaguely aware that Archon Shards are some kind of game mechanic—can't be that complicated, though, because the top searches on the wiki are always Kuva Lich and Icarnon...

Anyway, right after that, we get a smash cut to a Zariman school? It's first person, but I know who I am. I'm my kid, back Before It All Happened, bored at school, as all kids throughout all time have been. There's a training drill for the crew, and we get to watch—only for it to fade back to Duviriman, and the battle against the Archons.

I went against the Owl first. Well, I went to Earth, first, I wasn't paying any attention to who was where. I kept dying because I wasn't listening when Hunhow was telling me how to attack the enemy weak spot for massive damage, but helpfully after I died, Ordis reminded me just vaguely enough for me to get what to do. Still hard, but I got it done, and just as I had suspected, he pulled out the crystals to kill them. One down, two to go! Thanks to my magic bow, this will be easy and normal!

Back to the Zariman. Something happened. The whole place is attacked and destroyed. Your classmates are crying in the corner, and I'm my kid, as I suspected. So, this is retelling the history of what happened on the Zariman. I just know what... a lot of bad shit happened, everyone was fighting everyone, it's complicated. There's Tenno, Sentient, and Orokin involved, and the Sentients made the Warframes to wipe out the Orokin? All tied together by the Lotus, which only makes things more confusing... But, anyway, yeah, time to see what really happened back then! My kid helps her friends, and then, in the corner...

"Is that me? Nah, we all have the same uniform, and there's only so many hair styles."

...I didn't get a screenshot, but that person turns around and yep, it's me. She has black eyes and says "Thanks, kiddo." End scene.

What the fuck is going on?! Once again—when the devs decided to start having cutscenes in Warframe, they clearly didn't consult any of the standard texts, or they did, and decided to skip all the rules. Half the time I'm playing in cutscenes. The entire time, crazy, weird shit is happening. From the beginning, Warframe has been nothing but baffling—no, no, "baffling" isn't the word. I've just been spoiled by having the Echo in FFXIV to let me go into the past and read people's mind and see exactly what happened to set things in motion. In Warframe, you don't get those Echoes. You just get... the experience, you just see the aftermath, so to speak, and it's on you to figure out what's happening and why.

Did you read Dune? It's fantastic. Better than fantastic—it's possibly perfect. Dune is rife with its own mythology, history, language, culture, all that—and at no point does the narration explain a single thing to you. The characters live in their world, and are completely comfortable with it. It's normal to them, they don't feel compelled to explain what the kwisatch haderach is, just like I don't feel compelled to have to explain who Jesus Christ is. Warframe has a similar aspect to it—you keep getting these scenes where characters might be talking about something about the Old War that they know all about, and you're in the dark, and that's that. They won't light the way for you, figure it out yourself, and if you can't, that's not their problem.

I'm not sure exactly what I'm trying to say—how I feel. Warframe's story is not badly written, but, it could seem that way. It could seem like there's plot holes, or missing pieces, or they're just jumping around at random. I don't have all the answers, and the game isn't telling me that I should even be asking questions. Everything is taken as a given. For instance, when you play as the Drifter, Ordis has a body. Ordis has a body!? When? How? Why? —none of these questions are relevant. Ordis has a body. Maybe the Drifter built a flying computer for Ordis to inhabit because the ship computer was offline. Maybe this is Ordis's true form, finally recovered from an ancient Old War battlefield. Maybe we're in a time loop and this is Ordis's original body, before he lost it and became the ship in the Warframe game that we've played thus far. The game's not putting a spotlight on it and saying, "Whoa, how mysterious, don't you wonder about that?" I do wonder about that! But the narrative takes it as a given and rolls with it, so I've just got to do the same.

And the same happens with bigger plot, too. In, what, the Sacrifice, or the Apostasy Prologue, something in there, we had a cutscene where we just see Ballas approach the Lotus and take her out of her Lotus machine and take her away. Or vice versa. I don't remember, and I think I have a screenshot of Lotus carrying Ballas. So... why is Ballas around? Isn't he an ancient Orokin, and weren't they wiped out? Where's he been, and why'd he get out? Where was the Lotus and how does he or anyone know where that is? Why was it possible to... anything that happened? There are lots of questions, but no time to ask them. The game simply says, "This is what's happening now. Try to keep up, kiddo."

...anyway, after the weirdness with your clone on the Zariman, the Drifter fights the second Archon, in my case it was Rhino on Mars. This was a much easier fight, I won the first time, though I didn't figure out his gimmick where he clones himself. I just shot them until I found the real one. I'm guessing, since the Owl required you to use the smokescreen ability, this one requires the radar ability? In any case, it was an easy fight, and we brought the crystal back to the Lotus, even though she was showing signs of hostility after the first crystal. This time she broke loose and attacked us, Ordis sacrificed himself to save us (but he turned out to be fine anyway), and Lotus flew away to do something mysterious and probably Ballas-related.

Then we're back on the Zariman where the kid is facing her clone who says—with great acting and facial expressions, by the way. This blows anything FFXIV has ever done with animations out of the water... but maybe that's typical of more Western games, there's more of a movie-based inspiration than anime or whatever? I just know every JRPG is filled with scenes of everyone just standing around taking their turns talking, whereas western games seem to be a lot more Hollywood. Anyway, the clone says she can save everyone... something something, I don't remember exactly, but it's a deal with the devil sorta thing. The kid accepts and they shake hands, and then—

I didn't get a good screenshot, but there are thousands and thousands of copies of the kid. And then I realized:

At the game's beginning, you controlled your Warframe, and Ordis called you "Operator," like he was speaking to you, the player, not the person inside the Warframe. There's not a person inside the Warframe, though. As we began to realize that in-world these things are remote-controlled somehow, we eventually did the Second Dream, and learned that it was the Tenno that control the Warframes. In the Second Dream, your Warframe rescues your you, your kid, from the pods in the Reservoir. One thing I wondered was, what about all the rest? Sure, it's a video game, so the bad guy goes after the player, but what about all the other Tenno sleeping in the Reservoir? But, with this scene, I realized...

I am every Tenno.

Every Warframe is piloted by this kid, the one survivor from the Zariman incident. She's copied thousands and thousands of times—infinite times, probably—through some kind of parallel time, multiverse shenanigans. It's extremely magical and totally unexplained. And, the thing is... Hunhow addressed the Drifter as "Tenno." He doesn't refute this at all. The Drifter is a Tenno as well, but there was only one survivor... in this timeline, maybe? Is he from another timeline where there was no Zariman disaster, or, somehow my grown-up self? (I like how they discuss in the cutscene whether he's just her from the future, and the game totally ignores that they're different genders. The kid just thinks "Huh, I guess I trans my gender when I grow up, okay then.") Or, something even more mind-bending? The same timeline, but just a different outcome—but still the same. Somehow.

It's fucking weird.

And I still have one more Archon to beat!

The writers for this game... well, the advice I know is "If you want to have good ideas, have lots of ideas." You come up with an idea for your story... and you throw it out and come up with one better. So they must've just had a lifetime of "Yeah... but what if instead..." and one-upping their ideas until they got to where they are now. The scene where the Drifter—now in a timeframe where he knows what's going on—sits down to dinner with the kid—who simultaneously just experienced the Zariman attack, and is also the kid we later play as, who "got all your Warframes back" as the Drifter asks—this scene is where my brain finally shut down and I understood. You're not supposed to be trying to understand this intellectually. You're supposed to be trying to understand this emotionally. Respond to the impact and magnificence that the game wants you to experience, rather than fussing over the little details of "Wait, why's he standing over there now?" It is beautiful, and it's art in the most extreme and perfect way.

Then, you get a strange choice, for the Drifter or the Operator. "To finish this," they say, so I assume it's just for the rest of this quest? Or, would this actually change my Operator into the Drifter permanently? I mean, this quest made me sign a contract before I started! Anything could happen.

I chose the Operator. I am the Operator. I've always been the Operator. And the Drifter, he's... also me, but not yet.

The Operator got stabbed by Ballas (or was it Erra? I don't remember, I was getting stabbed at the time) and fell into the Void with the remains of the Sentiented Lotus. How did the Operator survive? Obviously, she didn't. This is another identical copy, plucked from infinite timelines. The copy also got stabbed and died in the Void. Everything happened, has happened, will happen, and is happening. That kid was mumbling, "When are we gonna use this stuff?" during our Eternalism lesson, and hey! I wound up having to use it right away.

I also noticed, on the slides for the Eternalism lecture, that the recommended reading was some books by A. Entrati and E. Entrati. Our teacher was E. Entrati (I don't remember her first name)... and it occurred to me... I don't have Grandmother's name on Deimos yet, do I? Hm...

And then, final battle. The Lotus went to confront Ballas and we went to confront both. Erra had a change of heart and died on his own. No pity for bastards. And the fight, in true Warframe form, was a cinematic spectacle—I know FFXIV's trials and raids are spectacles, but Warframe, at its best, is like playing a movie. There's dialogue constantly, and the combat is a puzzle, reflecting beams at targets, baiting your foe's attacks, that sort of thing. I didn't even realize it was a boss battle, I didn't even realize it was a puzzle at first, I thought it was all cutscene for a while. It was intense, and once I realized that I'm part of it, the tension only amped up.

But, in the end, it's a video game. We defeated Ballas, and rescused the Lotus, and now everything is back to norm—WHAT IN THE HOLY NAME OF FUCK IS THAT????

All problems solved, Ballas done away with, Narmer's yoke broken, the mystery of the Lotus solved—and then this insane, preposterous, impossible thing. It loomed up with perfect megalophobia, and then... just grinned and smiled. On top sat the kid's clone, wearing the Lotus mask—the same weird creep that we chased during one early part of the quest. All it did was appear and smile and then it was gone, without a flash or bang or the remotest effect, it simply disappeared.

This is an absolutely bonkers ending to what was a pretty bonkers quest. The New War, as a whole, didn't answer a lot of questions about the Old War, the Orokins and Sentients, or what happened on the Zariman. In fact, it just raised a lot of new questions, introducing the Drifter and his impossible connection to the Operator... and this ending. What. Just... what.

Now, I'm not playing this on launch day back in 2021. I have the benefit of scraps of information that's come since. For instance, there was a new Warframe named Jade—in the Second Dream (or thereabouts) we see that Margulis was sentenced to the Jade. So, whatever Jade's quest is about, it'll reveal more about that time. I also know there's a quest "Whispers in the Walls" that's been on my Codex forever, waiting for me to clear—to even reveal—the prerequisite, "The New War." And I've seen mention of "the Man in the Wall" as a character of some sort, and, uh... I guess I'm looking at him. And, during the tantalizingly named patch "The Lotus Eaters," the login screen seemed to depict the Lotus and this wall-man looming over her.

The New War is unquestionably Warframe's greatest quest (so far). It took me nearly 12 hours. FFXIV's patch stories don't even take me that long! Not even if I combine the raid grind that comes with it! This was absolutely epic and perfect in every way. Every scene kept me completely rapt, and constantly guessing and wondering at what might come next. Everything kept being different, from playing playing as a Grineer and a Corpus with their own title cards, weird new hacking minigames, mashing buttons during cutscenes, and a beautifully perplexing story.

But.

The single reveal in the Second Dream, when they suddenly dump you into a character creator, is a better moment. That moment is honestly the highlight of my entire gaming career. Nothing can touch that... unless it turns out that all of Warframe was just the tip of the iceberg leading us to some kind of ARG or something paradigm-shifting like that. But I've already said my piece on the Second Dream.

It turned out that @chiclet-go-boom sent me the New War trailer all those years ago. My first-ever contact with Warframe was seeing that. I didn't understand anything that was happening, but had grandeur and mystery in spades—though it didn't show any gameplay, it promised some kind of substantial world and story that was more than I expected. I thought Warframe was some kind of PVP game like Apex or Overwatch and just as "deep." When I did get around to actually playing, when the Angels of the Zariman came out, I had all these quests in my Codex that required The New War to unlock... but I didn't have The New War in my Codex. This was telling: clearly, this The New War quest was going to be something special, accessed from somewhere else, perhaps, and with so many other quests hanging on it, it must usher in some complete shift in the game to reveal so many new paths. Plus, just look at the name. "The New War" is exactly what you call your big 2.0 restructuring quest.

So... what do I think happened?

There's been plenty of text ingame about what happened, from the Zariman, the Old War, Lua and the Void and everything. I don't remember most of it. But, I'll try to make a go at... some of the key points.

There's three species here. First is human, the Tenno on the Zariman. We saw the kids, bored at school, flying off Saturn, which means that humans must have mastered interplanetary travel, since it's mundane to them, and they feel comfortable enough to sit kids down for regular classes during trips. Well, they get attacked, so not totally safe. Second species is the Orokin, the blue, long-armed humanoids. Third is the Sentients, really cool-looking alive robotic monoliths... or something. Where the Orokin and Sentients came from I do not know—I think one came from the Void, and the other can't enter the void, or vice versa, or something.

The Zariman got attacked and only the children survived. Margulis took them in, which was an act of treason, so she was sentenced to death by the Jade light. So, the Orokin and the humans must have been at war, or something. Ballas loved Margulis but Margulis loved the children. The Orokin built Warframes—I think some dialogue during the Sacred Grove quests has a person talking about how she's designing Warframes for Ballas. Then, I guess, the Sentients made the Lotus in the image of Margulis to use the Tenno to pilot the Warframes to wipe out the Orokin? Snippets of mention of the Old War suggest that the Warframes wiped out "a civilization," and since we see Orokin ruins everywhere and Orokin people nowhere, I guess it's the Orokins that were wiped out. Interesting is that all the Orokin levels are in the Void, except Deimos, where an Orokin surviving family lives.

But, wait—they're the Entrati family, aren't they? All them on Deimos? Then why would the Zariman classroom slideshow say to read books by A. Entrati, if he's Orokin and they're warring with them? Unless, the Deimosites aren't Orokin? But they're blue, they look like Ballas, who is certainly Orokin I think.

Also, if the Sentients made the Lotus, how come they have the power to do so? How come the Lotus has the powers she has? Why would the Tenno children be particularly good subjects to pilot the Warframes? Is this some Evangelion thing where you mother has to be dead? Why wouldn't the Sentients just make a bunch of Lotuses to attack the Orokin directly?

And, the game begins with the Tenno returning—the Warframes coming back to life. So, where did they go? But, in The New War, the Tenno disappeared again. Is this some more time loop stuff? Are we essentially at the same beginning, but now history is different there's Narmer? Who is Natah, and how—in what way did she become the Lotus?

All this, and now the Drifter, the evil clone, the man in the wall... I know Warframe 1999, or, something, has something to do with the Entratis, so there's more to be dug from that hole. They added a new faction or something when they released Dagath, or Dante, or something. I don't know, I just watched the one dev stream one time to see the Hydroid rework :p But I know the story's going to go down that path.

Also, @maeljade said "Congrats on beating Warframe's Endwalker." What's that supposed to mean? Because it was a grand, epic, emotional, time-traveling adventure? Because it was much-hyped and long-awaited? Because they came out at the exact same time? :P Or... because this is the end of the first story, and now a new story arc begins? From the hints I've seen, it looks like the Entrati family, this man in the wall, and the Lotus are going to be the focus of the upcoming story. But, let's be honest, "focus" and "story" don't belong in the same sentence where Warframe is involved. Don't get me wrong, I love this game, I love how they're telling the story—but it's extremely confusing, completely open, and if you measure from Natah to The New War... there's not really a solid throughline here. In Natah we find out that the Lotus is really Natah, a Sentient. In the Second Dream we find out that we're really the kid on the moon. In the War Within... I forget what we found out but Teshin shows up to help us fight the Queens and unlock the Kuva zone. Some kind of coming-of-age episode, I guess. In Chains of Harrow, we learned that the Void is even weirder than we thought, and perhaps is just a person unto itself. The Sacrifice was about the Umbra Warframe and we met Ballas, and then in the Apostasy and The New War, we have the whole Ballas kidnaps the Lotus, Erra enslaves Ballas, Ballas creates Narmer and conquers the game thing. It's hard to argue that it was all leading up to that, everything just kind of suddenly happens.

Anyway, I've been writing for almost as long as the quest took. It's, no question, the greatest quest in Warframe, there's no comparison whatsoever. It's probably longer than every other previous quest combined. It absolutely exceeded all possible expectations—I was expecting more of the usual, kind of regularish quests with voice overs during, cutscenes between, and some big twist at the finish. This was like playing a movie. So many times I wasn't sure whether I was playing or watching—in a good way! I'm watching something exciting happen and the camera moves just so and I realize "Oh wait, I have to be them now!?" Active time events popping up during cutscenes. This was simply unprecedented. With the Second Dream, the game began to experiment with cinematic quests... and, having instantly perfected it, they then went off to the races with it.

I've been playing Warframe for a couple years now, and I have around 650 hours in it. I know, I know, I thought it'd be a lot more, too! Sure feels like I've been playing for a lifetime. I could've done this quest a long time ago, but I'm glad I waited. I'm glad I let the game steep, let myself sink into it and absorb it, take my time and go my own way, and now, finally, have this phenomenal experience. Like I said, the moment in the Second Dream was, I think, still a more profound, eye-opening, jaw-dropping moment—but that whole quest takes like, half an hour. The New War took me a solid twelve hours, and I did take a break for like twenty minutes to do something else, but I realized... no, no, I have to do this in one go. One massive, monumental, extraordinary adventure. And it was perfect.

...

Man, I don't know what else to say. I don't know what to think. The Second Dream had that moment, but The New War was just a wall-to-wall nonstop experience. It's like the Second Dream was magnificent, and then The New War said, "Ah, but I am not left-handed..." and really kicked it up to 11. It's going to be a long time before I'm ready to do another story quest. I don't know what this has unlocked for me, other than a slew of new quests. I know I've seen tooltips that say items can be gotten from the Drifter's Camp, and now that I finally have that, I can check that out. I've seen that you get some things from "Narmer Bounties" so there must be something about that somewhere. I know that the Zariman will be a zone on the star chart at some point because I have a button for Arbitrations that says I need to complete the entire start chart including the Zariman and a bunch of places on Deimos that aren't on my map... But, there's a lot of quests ahead of me, and we're finally getting to the things that I saw come out: Angels of the Zariman, Whispers in the Walls, the Jade Shadows. Probably it won't be until next Christmas that I get around to doing those... but, we'll see. After all, we're fighting a new war now...

All right. I think that's all for now. My mind is empty. I said some words. That's all for now.