#right at the start of the expac

[tovaicas]

I was surprised that there wasn’t another containment failure scare in the Tempest tho, just to hammer home how little time the WoL has left

[duelisted]

.X'roh → Dawntrail 2/??

Settling in Tulliyolal.

[hythlodaeus-mynewoldfriend]

Demos is readying to see something new and is going along with things on his own terms now. He always coped better with life and the hardships that came from all that happened, he’s come out a lot healthier and opening up more to people and expanding his world, so for him he’s ready for this especially since by the time it happens it’ll have been 2-3 years since the end of EW and the scions have departed to him returning to the msq in 6.4.

Honestly this expansion couldn’t have come at a better time for Sib as she was the most broken and suffered the most throughout, but where she differs is she never truly confronted any of it. She got the tools and the first steps but has stayed in those early stages of mental recovery. Once cleared to go back out into the world she takes up more of an identity as an anonymous adventurer because she never got to actually accomplish what she set out to do in ARR before being tossed into the life of a hero, she spends a long while needing to find herself beyond the titles she’s been given her whole life that she clung too so tightly. With the current storyline happening she’s having to actively confront the trauma of losing her brother and the ramifications of finding out the truth from her father that he didn’t die right away, she’s having to take these tools and skills she’s learned and learning and apply them because she’s still repressing and putting on a face. She’s not as over everything that happened as she’d lead you to believe so her having this relatively lower stakes situation is good for her to really truly start work on recovery from all that trauma and learning how to live a life again knowing these things dont just go away and will be with her always and being able to keep going forward as a real person, as her true self.

From where we sit at the moment, Dawntrail feels strange tonally for my WoL. The one-two punch of Shadowbringers into Endwalker left her broken in many ways, and Alahra is still ultimately the weary wanderer of the Shadowbringers finale, duty-bound to continue on but not always sure that she can. I'm thinking a lot about whether she'll be ready to journey to the New World with the exuberance Meteor displays in the teaser trailer

So a question for all you WoLs out there:

Is your WoL ready for this new adventure? Have they managed to move on from the weight of Endwalker, or do they still bear scars from it?

[noxtivagus]

i love love ffxiv sm fr (to the edge)

[brightwingedbat]

I see a post going around with worry over anet doing another expac next year and another the year after. But to me I fully expected this to happen with the studio updates they made before SotO.

As it is, yes, it does cost more than what players used to get, it is essentially half a living world. But honestly getting multiple years of absolutely free content on an MMO without a sub fee is extremely generous. Me being a late start to the game though I had to buy them all anyway, I never had free living world content for being there early, it's not something I've 'lost' with the new way anet is doing content.

To me right now, I do see SotO as yes, half of living world's worth of story. But am I fine buying that? Sure I am! I had to buy living world content anyway. I've been enjoying the story, I've gotten hundreds of hours worth out of SotO already even outside of story content and have enjoyed every moment of it. Just for £21.99.

I also see comments that anet is being greedy and money-hungry for selling expacs rather than making free living worlds. (Which feels more like legacy player privilege, not everyone got those for free.) So let's put this into perspective with another MMO. Square Enix's Final Fantasy XIV.

FF14 expac + 2 years of sub = £30 + (£92.28 x 2) = £214.56 2 gw2 expacs over 2 years = £43.98

Guild Wars 2 is almost 5 times cheaper over the same course of time than a competing MMO to play even with the new yearly expacs.

If this were equivalent of a sub fee, it would be £1.85 a month, except you permanently own that content forever past the year.

Edit: adding something about my opinion on this overall from earlier reblogs.

My argument is the generosity of Living Worlds came at a hit to profit which potentially impacted the devs in such a way that grind was required. Less profit = less money to spend on hiring devs to avoid grind.

My ideal thing is we get content like lws4 was, even if it costs more than getting 3 years of content for buying PoF at the time did. If that profit goes to making better working conditions for the employees working on the game.

Edit 2: shgfsghf I reamend that. PoF to lws4-6 was September 2017 to May 2019. We got 11 maps in less than 2 years, no wonder PoF-LWS4 stretched Anet so thin.

[rosewoodroad]

Rant/Critique/Brain Vomit on the SoTO story updates

I've seen some people expressing their thoughts on the latest SoTO update(s) and it gave me some courage to discuss my own. Overall, my sentiments are the same- I've been getting progressively dissatisfied with how the story is being executed, and I'm not ashamed to say it's because the Commander stopped mattering.

And I'm not referring to the disrespect we got in the main SoTO expansion- because that is the exact opposite of what I'm criticising. I'm referring to the sheer lack of interaction the Commander has had with the world and story since. The immersion is just not there anymore.

To be frank, the Commander is far from the usual MMO player avatar. They actually have a base personality in their own right. What's more, they have a canonical history that we actually played through and saw progress in real time. They are the protagonist character of GW2 and not just a window for us to peer into Tyria through.

This is why I thought SoTO's main expac story was actually pretty fun. The Commander's existing history coloured most of our interactions in the world.

The wizards either hated or loved us- but we got to work on making them fear us less. Some demon lady invades our brain because we died and undied once, and we had to figure out if she was an ally or not. Her big brother kidnaps us twice because being a Dragon Champion smells good or something. Zojja is back and showers us in her friendship angst- all because of this history, which was all great!! It showed that we were actually a part of their world, somebody they could talk to or yell at, we had and continue to have impact!!

We weren't the driving narrative force, but we were at least interacting with and nudging the story forward as a protagonist.

Aaand all of this was totally missing in the dribbling updates that followed.

Let's recap- we joined Peitha in Inner Nayos and started punching out demons. And we're still punching out demons. I mean, yeah, that's why we're there in the first place, but what else is there? We find Arina, but she's totally unbothered by us messing up her initial plans and getting quite a few of her men killed. We meet Ramses, but he's 100% chill with us, nice to meet you Wayfinder, let's go kill Heitor. Eparch, the guy who found us 'entertaining' enough to whisper a warning to at the end of SoTO, doesn't even acknowledge us. Nephus, who sounds like their world's version of the Commander, talks to us like... twice. Peitha, the big mysterious sexy demon lady we had fun back-and-forths with, stopped chatting with us entirely (and we also immediately trust her despite the lack of communication).

It's all so... apathetic. You could argue that they just don't know or care about who the Commander is, but then what is the point of us being there when some Other Guy could've taken our place? The protagonist isn't protagonisting anymore and has been relegated to being a transparent sheet of plastic for us to just watch the story unfold by itself, totally hands-off. It's hard to care about a story when it doesn't care about us.

I'm still invested in the story (and Peitha) enough to play through the remaining update, because I love me a good revolution, but I cannot deny that I am officially bored with it too.

[valiant-portabella-pirkko]

first things first:

a HUGE thank you to all the people who’ve been signal boosting this, you guys are the freakin’ MVPs. I really, genuinely didn’t anticipate this big of a response.

with that in mind, I’ll give at least a little bit of further information here:

I’m currently aiming for the group to open a good while after SotO drops; so it's not quite here yet, but it's definitely in the works. that way we can have some time to see what the new expansion has in store-- both in terms of new content, and new story that might be relevant. I'm personally hoping for a new guild hall, but we'll see!

as things start coming together, I'll make announcements here and there to give a heads up as to what's in progress, and when things start opening up. all of them will be posted to the #GW2 RP tag, so with luck you should see more information roll into there soon!

and now I have a little bit for those wanting to know about the background and plot thus far, too!

the setting would use a little project I've been working on for a while; the Tideturners, a mysterious band of Mistwalkers who have been dwelling outside of Tyria for a long, long while. decades in the Mists have made them cautious and wily, learning to survive in conditions no mortal was meant to endure. the Turnabout is their home now-- and for many, the opportunity for a new beginning. you'll find faces both old and new among their ranks.... friends and foes alike wander their halls, but none of them are quite the way you recall.

if you'd like to know a bit about their origins, I've got a rough character summary on their 'founder,' the Sidewinder. it's a bit on the older side, but it should be enough to get the gist!

I aim to start things off fairly low-stakes, but if participants are interested, there would be some long-term plots to uncover as well. the Mists are filled with unknown threats, and many are far too large for even a Commander to handle alone. the forces that robbed the Tideturners of their home are still out there... and they're on the move. be ready for anything. the tide is coming in, and it's closer than you think.

Your world is just about to get a whole lot bigger.

alright. know what? with Secrets of the Obscure right around the corner and plenty of new Mists-related sky island settings coming with it, I'll just bite the bullet and interest-check a little something I've been turning in my head for a long, long while.

would YOU be interested in a Mists-based GW2 roleplay guild that uses a lore compliant multiverse system to allow canon, canon-adjacent, lore-breaking, and otherwise 'contradictory' muses to coexist in the same setting?

simply put: every writer's cast would be set in their own self-contained universe. as such, everyone could bring whatever muses they want with their own personal headcanons, and no one could dictate what is or isn't canon for anyone else. so long as your muses are GW2-based, you're good to go! bring your Commanders, bring your canon-divergent OCs, bring your canon muses-- and yes, even the ones that are 'supposed' to be dead. who can say what might have happened in a strange world far across the Mists, after all?

neutral hubs and in-character safety guardrails would be in place to keep all muses on a relatively even playing field regardless of their power, history, and prestige, too. play hardball if you like, but it might not end quite the way you'd hope. the main rule would be to maintain good OOC etiquette at all times: no godmodding, no metagaming, no theft, don't blend IC and OOC, and so-on.

if that sounds like something you might have interest in, please interact with this post! and if you've got questions or concerns, I'd love to hear them; feel free to send an ask or a DM, or just reply to this post!

[lilas]

dawntrail and the theme of duality and unity through visual motif

Hi, thank you for coming to my MEGtalk presentation, aka I’ve already yelled about this to my friends but they’re not as into theorizing as I am so I’m throwing this out to fellow theorists on tumblr dot come.

I want to discuss the motifs we’ve seen of Dawntrail so far, specifically evidence pointing to the theme of duality, unity, and two becoming one.

Discussion of live letters, marketing materials, teasers, trailers, and theories ahead.

reflection, parallels, and the motif of two and connection in official materials

Starting with Dawntrail’s poster, we immediately see reflection, pairs of two, and the idea of symmetry:

There is a sense of symmetry in the composition, where you can clearly mark a vertical line down the center of the poster

One side faces left, the other side faces right, visually separating Team WoL and everyone else/our rivals at least in the beginning

Gulool Ja Ja, the Dawnservant, is divided by the imaginary center line, with one head falling on either side of the composition

NOTE: Mystery woman at the top facing left towards Team WoL, foreshadowing her involvement with our success?

Twos throughout the poster design: Gulool Ja Ja’s two heads, his two swords, everyone placed in a pair throughout the composition (Erenville and Koana, WoL and Urianger, Krile and Thancred, Wuk Lamat and Mysterious Mamool Ja)

I’m not sure if this implies a parallel of character arcs in the story, but it is worth noting and revisiting after Dawntrail releases

The teaser for the main menu screen was released last week, and builds upon the visual motif from the poster:

Tuliyollal is reflected in the water

Clouds are reflected in the water as well as reflect across the imaginary center line

Looking at what I assume is the palace and home of the Dawnservant, its design is perfectly symmetrical; I believe this is the first straight on view we’ve seen of its architecture

As we see in the full trailer for Dawntrail and in the new world map, there is an extremely long bridge that connects the two halves of the continent:

On the map, we can clearly see a giant chasm physically separating the two halves of the continent

In the trailer, we see extreme visual differences between the two halves of the continent; one full of color and flora and the other an arid desert

They are two distinct halves of a whole

Even the new DPS job, Viper, Meteor’s assigned job for this expac and the newest job completely unique to FFXIV uses dual swords that can be apart or combined.

what we know about the story so far, from fanfest, live letters, and msq (sources to be added)

Multiple comments have been made about basic elements of the story:

Gulool Ja Ja is blessed with two heads, an auspicious sign

Gulool Ja Ja united the disparate peoples of Tural under the one unifying nation of Tuliyollal

To further signify the union of the people of Tural, Gulool Ja Ja adopted four children; several races under one household

Bakool Ja Ja is a contender for the throne; he is not royalty but has two heads like the Dawnservant

Yoshi P has made comments about the two halves of the story feeling very distinct

concluding thoughts

It’a clear to me the idea of duality and two becoming one is an underlying theme of this expansion:

Dawntrail’s poster child DPS job being built around two swords becoming one

Gulool Ja Ja’s two heads, one body

The bridge connecting two halves of the continent

There is also symmetry and parallels seen throughout available marketing materials. From this motif I suspect a few things to happen in this expac:

There will not be one ruler, but two governing heads of state, ruling as one

Tuliyollal and Solution Nine, both confirmed to be hub cities and potentially previously unknown to each other, will form a relationship or partnership; perhaps a story beat will be navigating the unease and awkwardness of this new political alliance

A major plot point during the 6.x patches was bridging the Source with the shards for traveling between worlds; I suspect some development on that front especially with Y’shtola’s involvement

Regardless of where the story takes us, I’m so excited and interested in what they do with the theme of duality and connection that they’ve primed us for, as it keeps popping up again and again in everything they show us and tell us.

please let me know your thoughts!

Did you notice these same things? Was there something I missed? Do you have new thoughts or theories based on this theme of duality?

[resol-nare]

SotO had so much potential at the start but didn't really seem to have direction at the end. I think what bothers me is that the last half of the expac, that which takes place in Nayos, feels so impersonal to the Commander. I really wanted a story that made the Commander/Wayfinder/Whatever come to terms with their highly traumatic past via having them get offered the position of wizard. Which would then make them think back to everything they've done and had to do to ensure the survival of not only themselves, but the entire fuckin' world, and whether or not a fresh start is worth erasing yourself, your memories, your relationships.

Finally, probably right before or even DURING the final boss fight, the Commander goes "nah, i think i like remembering my friends, loved ones, deeds, and experiences, even if those memories hurt they are what make me, me."

[thefandomexpert]

ok. dawntrail opinions

Overall I enjoyed it! my expectations were met, which is about all i can ask for coming off of the arr-ew epic. I do think they had some issues trying to ‘recapture the vibes’ though. There are several points where things are introduced as direct analogues to things the wol has experienced (provided you’ve done the earlier expansions) when they should have been left as their own, new experiences.

The most obvious of this is Zoraal Ja being stated, in game, to be a Zenos-equivalent. Which he is NOT. Zenos would never think about the consequences of his actions that much, his point is he doesn’t HAVE a reason. he says himself in ew: ‘would you hate me less if I had a good reason?’ that’s zenos. he’s there to make you confront how you view morality in that sense: what’s a ‘good enough’ reason to commit atrocities? if there is a ‘good enough’ reason, what if someone decides the line is somewhere else than you do? Zoraal Ja could have been a neat parallel where he does have a ‘good reason’ for turning to violence, but this, and the other major interesting thing about his character (ie. his relationship to his father and adopted siblings) is completely glossed over, ignored, and unexplored in favor of keeping him just a super strong ‘unknowable’ enemy. he’s a zenos equivalent only if you understand neither characters beyond their very basic plot purpose and it pissed me off they’d make the choice to POINT THAT OUT in a game that’s kind of made a living on making you examine grey morality.

Similarly, the last quarter of the expansion was a direct parallel to the decision we make in late shb and ew regarding the ancients and stopping the ascians. I feel like they felt like too many people were sidestepping the fact that we made a moral choice at The Dying Gasp; ‘they’re already dead/they’ve made villains of themselves.’ In removing the timeline fuckery of elpis and solidifying the shades in the amaurot equivalent, the alexandrian plotline seems to try very hard to corner you on those fronts and impress upon you that while the correct decision is to fight for your right to exist, it is a heavy decision and you Are Destroying Things, other people’s potential futures, in doing so. Again, I think this was well done (having whole areas of pretty assets erased after like 2 questlines in each one? bonkers. props to them.) but it was SO close to the ascian plotline it started to get distracting. like. They have Cahcuia say the ‘remember we once lived’ line. I love her (favorite va of the expac too) but why would you do that. get my grandpas words out your mouth rn. dead serious. This was a time for discussing the difference between permanent, remotely stored ‘memories’ of the departed and the fallible but active task of having the living population remember those they’ve lost, but instead they just. again, ignored the new interesting thing and decided to make sure you remembered the major plot line of the major villains of the past 10 years. like i love my ascians but if you wanted to do that you could have had whatever minor ascian enacted the lightning calamity be around!!! fuck!!!!

anyway the people who think wuk lamat is lyse 2 are just straight up wrong tho. They are NOT parallels they have the exact opposite character arc What are you Smoking

[rain-harmonia]

Okay maybe I am forgetting something bc it’s 3:30 am and I’m tired as shit but I do not remember Alexstrasza/Vyranoth conflict being like… resolved?? Vyranoth switches sides bc Fyrakk is destructive and insane but I don’t remember seeing her have any sort of proper conversation with Alexstrasza to resolve the lies and betrayal and egg-stealing. I remember a cinematic where they talk to each other about it but that wasn’t from the recent patch. That was Vyranoth calling Alexstrasza out and saying that she’d have vengeance

Except now she’s.. just chill with Alexstrasza? Because we held hands and came together a family and whatnot to kill Fyrakk and save Amirdrassil?

stop forgiving alexstrasza. come on blizzard. you can’t keep giving us characters that she’s wronged and then wave your hands and make them get along

[autumnslance]

New Game+ Tutorial

"I don't remember this part of the story." "It's been so long since I played X expansion." "What happened during that raid again?" "Who was this character?" "I story skipped the MSQ/job quests so I don't know what happened and who these people are!"

There's answers to this, friends. Not only is the game's own Unending Journey (in inn rooms, or as furnishing in your FC or private rooms/homes) able to replay many cutscenes, and there's the completed quest log, but there are places online, such as Garland Tools and the FFXIV Game Script, that keep most (not all) of the quest text handy.

But if you want to relive those quests, and/or get the side dialogues and replay (or first time play!) the experiences, as of Shadowbringers 5.1 there's a feature called New Game+ to allow that.

New Game+ (or NG+) will let you replay past questlines, at your current level (which makes it go pretty fast in a lot of cases). There is No experience or rewards to gain through this feature--no using it to level alt jobs. It purely exists to allow experiencing, or re-experiencing, completed content.

Once defeating the Ultima Weapon and Lahabrea at level 50 in ARR's finale of 2.0, you can go to Vesper Bay and find the Wistful Whitebeard.

More info and images below the Keep Reading cut...

(image taken from gamesconsolewiki and their article on this feature.)

Once you've unlocked the feature by talking to him, you get a new menu option in your Duty menu (the exclamation point icon), right between Duty Recorder and Hall of the Novice.

Once you select the feature it brings up a menu of options; it usually defaults to Main Story Quests, but I also have a paused replay under "Suspend" in progress. There are also options that match other quest interfaces, like your Journal or the Unending Journey; Chronicles of a New Era for raids and trials, Side Story for quests like Hildibrand, the Scholasticate, Role Master Quests, Void Quests, and Chronicles of Light (story important side quests, like Tales of the Dragonsong War, Tales from the Shadows, Tales of Newfound Adventure). Tank, Healer, DPS, Crafting, and Gathering quests also have their own categories.

Each Expansion MSQ is broken into parts; usually 2 parts for the x.0 main expansion, and then 2 parts for the patches. They're only available after x.0 or the patch stories are complete.

Also notice the "Help" icon in the top right of the NG+ overlay; it opens a pretty comprehensive guide, divided into menu sections, about how the feature works.

ARR is split into 6 parts, and I do think 2.0 could use a rework in how they're split but for now, I'm selecting Part 6 to look for specific side dialogues that only exist in this timeframe.

Selecting Part 6 opens the description; the Crystal Braves have just been formed, to help the Scions with the turmoil still facing the realm--from refugees, to Garlemald's continuing threat, to primals and Ascians.

Once you do, the NG+ quest info shows up, usually around where ever you keep your MSQ quest marker. I hide my MSQ tracker once it's done, so NG+ fits in that same spot in the upper left for me.

It tells me to "Relive Past Adventures!", which expac and part I'm in, and which quest is my starting point in this case, "Traitor in the Midst", the start of the Ivy spy plotline in Patch 2.4.

From here it progresses as if I am back in that patch and on those quests, but without any experience or rewards. Aeryn's in her current level 90 appearance and skills, making it easy to skip past and handle level 45-50 enemies in these zones.

So long as I am in NG+, I cannot do current quests, plots, or other content; I can't complete new current level duties (duties new in NG+ itself are fine), I can't access the MB, my retainers, or the Unending Journey. I can manually Suspend my current playthrough, or performing some of these actions (like duties) will automatically suspend my NG+ playthrough. You also cannot start NG+ while doing certain things (like some quests, such as leves).

This also will not let you play through the start of other city-states, only your original starter town. Solo duties will let you choose their difficulty immediately, without having to fail them first like in normal play.

If I want to drop my NG+ save before I've finished the replay--maybe I found the info and screenshots I wanted--I can delete the save.

This is an extremely helpful feature that can be used to replay events and quests, either for the fun of it, or because you want to find specific dialogue or lore information that only exists in a specific point in game. Maybe you want to visit old friends lost along the way, or take new screenshots of your WoL as they are post-fantasia.

Maybe it's just been a few years, and you've found you've forgotten some things and want to remember how the story actually went, especially knowing what you know now.

[myreia]

Desiderium

CHAPTER THREE: HAUNT

Chapter Rating: Mature (full story Explicit) Characters: Aureia Malathar (WoL), Thancred Waters Pairings: Aureia/Thancred Chapter Words: 2,682 Notes: Set during early Endwalker, spoilers for the start of the expac. Summary: After arriving in Old Sharlayan, Aureia wants to see Thancred’s old haunts. He could not be happier to oblige, but his thoughts are occupied by something else entirely. Prompt: ii. hands | blush Chapters: one • two • three • four • five Read on AO3

Thancred picks up the pace as he heads up a steep incline. The Baldesion Annex rises at the top, its elegant windows alight with a golden glow. If the others have returned, there’s no sign—its doors are silent, no residents entering or exiting. For a moment she thinks he’s headed for the Annex itself, but then he turns sharply to the left and walks right past it.

“Where are we going?” she asks, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. Her fingertips brush her earrings; the constellation of silver rings in her upper ears are cold, a raw sting against her flesh. She hates removing her piercings, but she should do it before she regrets it.

He glances over his shoulder, eyes alight with mischief, his hand still in hers. “To say would ruin the surprise, fair lady,” he says, pulling her down a narrow path between buildings.

“Don’t ‘fair lady’ me, we’re married.”

“All the more reason to, no?”

“You know I don’t like pet names.”

“As you say, Aur.”

“That’s a nickname.”

“I’m certain that though it is lost on me, the difference is, indeed, significant.”

“If you keep teasing me like this I will turn around and go right back to the Annex and leave you on your own to—”

Aureia whoops in surprise, a short, sharp gasp escaping her as he suddenly shoves her off the path and into an alcove. He gives her no time to breathe, no time to take stock of their surroundings—his mouth is on hers and up is down and down is up, and she is lost in the swift spontaneity of it all. She clings to him, her hands tangled in his hair, her back sliding against smooth marble as he pushes her against the wall. He kisses her—hot and open and careless in his rush, easily encouraging her to part her lips for him.

Mirth bubbles in the back of her throat and she trembles, laughing as she kisses him back. He grunts, seeking more—demanding more—his body pressed to hers, a hand at her waist, the other gripping the fabric of her shirt. He tugs the hem free from her trousers.

Her heart pounds. He has no qualms here in the dim light of this out-of-the-way nook, this moment of passion slipped easily between two buildings like a bookmark between the pages. Her thoughts wander distractedly, floating away even as he kisses her again, fervent and urgent, his overwhelming need for her breaking free. Long days of even longer study must lead to finding creative ways of unwinding. She can imagine more than a few lustful and dissatisfied Studium students sneaking off to alcoves like this one.

Did he once, in his youth? A self-proclaimed bard, a rogue, hopelessly pursuing anyone who caught his eye with half-baked song and poetry. Some would have fallen for the act. He has his charms, after all. And his desires.  

Her hand slips from his hair and falls to the side, palm against the wall, her fingers brushing the ivy. “Thancred,” she murmurs.

He draws back, his lips a hair’s breadth from hers.

“Please tell me your haunt of choice has a little more character than the four fulms between two walls?”

Thancred shakes with laughter, grimacing as he tries to hold it back, and rests his forehead against hers. “The things you think of sometimes, Aureia, I swear…”

The enchantment in his voice makes her heart sing.

“Well?” she replies, arching an eyebrow.

He chuckles and takes her face in his hands, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “A little to your left and up. See if you can find it.”

She frowns. Her fingers comb through the ivy, seeking, searching—and then finally slide across the fine grooves that demarcate a door or opening of some kind. She cocks her head, perplexed, and he flashes her a grin. Reaching over, he pulls ivy out of the way and rams his hand against the wall. Stone scrapes against stone and the wall rotates inwards, revealing a passage beyond.

Aureia shoots him a sideways look.

“You wanted to open that while you were kissing me, didn’t you?”

“Me? Such a thought would never occur to me.”

“Overdramatic fool.”

Thancred laughs. Brushing hair from his forehead, he nods to the passage behind her and gestures for her to go ahead. Planting a swift kiss on his cheek, she turns her back on him and slips inside, eyes wide and heart alight with curiosity.

To her surprise there is nothing in the passage—a few old boxes, tucked away in a corner and forgotten years ago, a hefty wood ladder with broken rungs, worn-out tables and chairs stacked together. Her best guess is that they are rejects from the Studium, furniture that has seen more than their fair share of students and have since been retired to rot. She finds a flight of stairs a few paces from the threshold, spiralling upwards at a steep angle. A service staircase of some kind, judging from how tight it is. They must be in one of those spires that sprout off the sides of some Sharlayan buildings. She noted a number of them when their ship pulled into the harbour this morning; now she’s going to find out what is at the top.

She sets foot on the bottom step and begins the climb. The light is soft and dim, spilling in through the large greenish-blue windows that line the stairwell. The aura tinges the worn marble steps—typical for Sharlayan buildings, yet she finds it reminiscent of the northern lights. Her heart quickens with each step, following it round and round, passing arched windows as she ascends. It isn’t long before her calves are aching, her breath comes in pants, and sweat drips down the back of her neck.

“What is this place?” Aureia asks, her voice echoing strangely in the tight yet empty space.

“Nothing of import,” Thancred replies. “At least to Sharlayans. A place to eat and study and write reports—and to catch a wink or two if time allows. There are plenty more of those nap rooms G’raha is so fond on the first and second floors.”

“Is that where we’re headed? For a nap room?”

“Heavens, no. Do you doubt my taste in haunts so much?”

“For you, now? Never.” She draws abruptly to a stop and glances over her shoulder at him. “For you in the past? Hm. Well. That’s quite a different question altogether, don’t you think?”

He sighs wearily. “You never get tired of this, do you?”

She flashes him a grin and spins around, ignoring the ache in her legs as she takes the steps two at a time. A moment or two later, she reaches the top of the stairs and bursts through the threshold. She slows to a stop, mouth open in wonder, and surveys the little chamber.

Hazy coloured light streams in through the windows on all four walls, dancing lazily across the marble floor. It has been some time since anyone has been up here, judging from the dust. What few furniture pieces have been collected here are covered in large swathes of protective white cloth. A bookcase stands in a corner, its tomes worn and their spines broken, the titles faded with age. Some do not even have titles, as far as she can tell; they may very well be journals. Ivy creeps in through the cracks in the stonework, spreading across the inner walls like cobwebs and dangling from the ceiling. How it survives here—or why no one has cleaned it up—she will never know. 

“It has been many a year since I’ve been here,” Thancred calls as he reaches the threshold. “And here I thought it may have changed. Perhaps I should consider myself a fool for thinking so.”

She passes through the chamber, the heels of her boots echoing against the floor. Click. Clack. Click. For a room so small, the sound is so vast. “Did you come here often?” she asks.

“Aye. I did say it was one of my haunts, did I not?”

“What did you come here for?”

“To think, to sleep.” He exhales a long sigh and takes up position in a corner, where the windowed walls meet a slim line of marble. He crosses his arms. “Perchance to dream, even. In reality, Aureia, this was an escape. From my master, from my mentor, from Fourchenault, from the stressors imposed upon a street urchin who had known nothing better. From the sights and sounds of the city. A place where I could take vigil on my own terms.”   

She nods and casts and eye out of the nearest window, peering through the green-blue and gold glass to observe the city below. With all four walls windowed in like this, there is an excellent view of all the major landmarks—the Studium from one side, the Rostra from another, the Noumenon and Scholar’s Harbour. She can’t help but notice that the furniture has been shoved aside in such a way that Thaliak’s statue is easily visible—and to the churning waters of the sea beyond it.

A reminder, perhaps. Of the meaning behind the surname Louisoix gifted him.

Her heart pangs. Despite this tower’s central location and its view of the city, she’s struck by how lonely it is. To be surrounded by so many people, and yet…

Aureia loops a long lock of loose hair behind her ear and runs her fingers over a white sheet. A chair beneath squeaks, its legs unstable. She frowns, shrugging out of her jacket, and throws it over the back. “Did others ever come here with you?”

The question is pointed, the double-meaning clear. She doesn’t know why she asked it—curiosity, perhaps, about who he was in his youth.

He makes a face. “I… why do you want to know about that? Must we go through my whole sordid history?”

“You know I don’t think about it that way.”

“Then you are a rare specimen in that regard.”

“I don’t ask because I’m jealous. I ask because I know so little of your time in Sharlayan. You never speak of it, but it is as much a part of you as anything else. You don’t have to hide it. You don’t have to put up some pretense that I’m the only person who ever mattered in your life.”

He falls silent, his expression unreadable. She pauses, cursing inwardly—was she insensitive for phrasing it as such? Likely. This wouldn’t be the first time she put her foot in her mouth. There have been many others in his life, for good or for ill. Some who came before her, and others who came after. He seems embarrassed—hesitant, even—to admit it front of her. But the truth of the matter is that she doesn’t mind the acknowledgement; if anything she prefers it.

“You had a life before me, Thancred,” she says quietly. “Just as I had one before you.”

He raises his head, his gaze finding hers. She pauses, heart thundering in her chest, uncertain what to say next. She has never broached the topic with him—not really—but she has sometimes wondered how awkward she has made his life. Unlike him, her sexual history is short and brief, and he is already too familiar with it. How strange have Alliance meetings become for him, knowing that Aymeric will always be in attendance? Or visits to Ala Mhigo, where there is always a chance of running into Fordola? To say nothing of Sidurgu, who is still very dear to her, with whom she shares a deeply personal connection she cannot explain, and thoughts she cannot easily express to the Scions. Not even her closest friends. Not even her husband.  

For him to know the others who have known her intimately… It’s not easily accepted.

She knows what this is like too well. She counts Hilda among her closest friends, and she has not forgotten the relationship that sparked between her and Thancred. Or the hurt it caused her and how their actions pushed her towards Aymeric.

All in the past now…  

There is no space for jealousy.

“Then yes,” he says finally, meeting her gaze. “I have had other lovers, and some of them have been here. Does that sate your curiosity?”

He pushes off the wall, the air prickling the back of her neck as he strides past her. His brow is furrowed, his mouth tight, all sense of the intense confidence and certainty he has before all but evaporated. He places a hand on what she suspects is a desk, his fingers twisting the white cover.

Aureia presses a hand to her chest, toying with her necklace. A simple silver chain, thin and delicate—a gift from Ryne and Gaia. “I’m sorry,” she says, regret twisting in the pit of her stomach. She should have left it alone. As with many things, she has ruined this by speaking out of turn. “I didn’t mean to push. Are you all right?”

He doesn’t answer. He simply stands—observing with the room with equal parts reverence and melancholy, as if mourning something he lost long ago. “Aye,” he says finally. “I am. I merely thought…”

She swallows the lump in her throat. She waits, her dark hair shining in a swath of blue-green and sliver light.

“This tower was disused for years by the time I stumbled upon it,” Thancred says finally. “A part of me hoped that others would find it, too. That it would have been re-purposed somehow. That it has not leaves me questioning… either my master did not want others to interfere out of sentimentality, or no one else has thought to come this way.”

She takes a step towards him. “Is that such a bad thing?”

“No. I suppose it is not. I simply hoped that…”

He trails off.

She takes another step. “Home is not often how you remember it.”

His grip relaxes and he releases the cloth. Disturbed by his touch, it slithers to the floor, dragged down by the unstoppable pull of gravity. The desk beneath it is strong and sturdy, its surface still covered with brittle journals and yellowed papers. Was he the last to leave them here? Or someone else?

“It’s been over twenty years, Aureia,” he says, his voice cracking. “I was seventeen when I left for Ul’dah, when I failed to save Minfilia’s father. The age Ryne is now. Too young to be making such difficult decisions.”

“Aye,” she echoes. “Too young.”

He meets her gaze. “Do you remember where you were when you were seventeen?”

“Yes. Proving my worth to Garlean legatuses in a trial by combat. Proving the strength of my abilities to a certain crown prince.” She dares not breath Zenos’ name. Not here. Not now. “My mother staked not just the lives of my brother and myself on it, but her and my father’s as well.”

Her words are not bitter. She has no bitterness left to give. Kallias and Ariv may be alive somewhere in Garlemald, but Elgara’s death in Bozja closed the chapter on her birth family forever.

He pauses. “Too young,” he murmurs.

Aureia takes one last step, closing the distance between them. She places her palm against the back of his hand, her fingers entwining with his. He doesn’t flinch or move away. “Thank you for bringing me here,” she says. “Do you want to leave? We can head back to the Annex now, I’m sure the others will be waiting for us.”

He doesn’t answer. The chamber is silent, its stale air somehow both warm and cool, the light a haze, the distant sounds of the city little more than a distant hum. Somewhere, there is a trickle of water. Somewhere, a tick of a chronometer. Below, above, she does not know.

His hand grips hers.

“Then let them wait,” Thancred says roughly and pulls her into him.

[achromant]

hello, I just followed for your orctober stuff and scrolled through some of your blog and wanted to ask, what is guild wars 2?

OOOH BOY HERE I GO! ahem.

Guild Wars 2 is a high fantasy MMO, similar to maybe Final Fantasy Online. Guid Wars as a series is about as old as World of Warcraft, but has a much smaller fanbase; mostly because the company behind it, ArenaNet, seems to be allergic to advertisements (it's gotten better since the last two expansions).

These days, the core game is free, with only the expansions costing money. Well, some expansions, as they just throw in older expacs for free now. Even if you start with a free account, you can technically buy an upgrade by just... using ingame currency, which is a WILD concept to me.

Most notable features of the game are probably the character customization, free dyeing of armor, and a few thousand unique armor and weapon skins. Players often joke that the true endgame of GW2 is fashion (and they are RIGHT goddamnit). All five playable races are so ridiculously detailed in lore and design, it's incredible. Sylvari for example are not plain elves, they are full on plant constructs that grow from fruits on the mother tree. Asura are not just gnomes/goblins, they are a highly educated society of geniuses that would openly strive for world domination if it werent for their inherent bureaucratic tendencies.

The mounts in GW2 are among the best you will find anywhere, so much that World of Warcraft just copied some for their Dragonflight expansion.

Guild Wars 2 has a medium sized active player base, smaller than WoW or FFXIV, but they are an amazing community. We have veteran players, including me, who routinely patrol the starter maps to offer advice and maybe some healing to newbies (supported by the ingame mentor system). You might receive random mail from players gifting some cake. There's festivals, community parties, role playing, fashion contests, races and minigames.

If you are a seasoned MMO player, GW2 offers raids and the smaller strike system, which is being constantly expanded. Extreme MMO experts might find the game a bit flat, but that's only superficial. For beginners, I'd say the story is beatifully written. You can explore the open world, meeting players along the way (every map holds around 50-80 player at a time). You can choose any class and complete any content, including endgame. Any class, any race, (almost) any playstyle is viable, and nothing about your build is permanent, you can adjust your whole build on the fly.

Aside from the obvious MMO parts, GW2 also has structured PvP (5 vs 5 players) and the so called World vs World, which is a large scale week-long epic battle of three teams of around 50 players on each side (which btw is not as draining on the CPU as you'd think)

If you plan on giving it a try, I'd be more than happy to give you a more detailed overview of the game. This little chaotic hellhole of an MMO is very dear to my heart <3

This is by the way for ANYONE reading this: If any of you want to try the game, hit me up. DM me here on tumblr, or on discord (@ achromant). Even if you already play the game and are still new or just lost - ask me anything you want. I have close to 18k ingame hours.

[nihilnovisubsole]

phew! finally a weekend where i can set aside enough time to type up The Promised Endwalker Stream-of-Consciousness Post. i finished the base story... a month ago? but work has been busy, and i think tumblr benefits from me being quiet sometimes. anyway, what a ride. when you've been building up to the end of your arc for a decade, you want to hit it like an earthquake, and that's exactly what they did.

i think people love endwalker because it fires on all cylinders. it returns - in both story and vision - to the eorzea we love, and the dev team gets to show off everything they've learned. the dungeons and boss fights are dynamic and imaginative and colorful and bring the game's epic sense of scope to bear. the story callbacks are juicy. the music is orchestral again. we're back home, and we're saving the galaxy. what's better than this?

i love that we go to garlemald. i don't - i mean, you know, i don't like garlemald. i shouldn't have to qualify that. but it's hugely narratively satisfying to see the face of the enemy we've been fighting since the first few hours of ARR. you don't think about them when you're beating them up in castrum centri or ala mhigo. they're star wars bad guys. then you meet them on their own turf. you observe firsthand how they starve and cannibalize their own people to feed their obsession with state power and military strength. the wintry environment makes it seem all the more barren and desperate. my favorite part by far. i wish we'd spent more time there.

actually, on that note:

there is an argument that endwalker should've been two expacs. i've heard similar about stormblood - ala mhigo should've been the whole thing, and doma should've been either patch content or an expac of its own. the prevailing theory is that, after ARR, the devs are afraid of letting arcs run long. i can't speak to that, but i wouldn't have minded, that's for sure!

i won't pretend not to be biased. i've noted in many xiv posts that it hurries through its political plots to get to the magic stuff. i felt more conscious of it in heavensward and especially in stormblood. i made peace with it in endwalker. with dessert this good, who am i to complain? i can do small character drama on my own time. for now, the game wants royce to be a big damn shonen hero, and that can be fun, too.

speaking of characters, urianger and estinien have grown on me. this is the arc where, for me at least, the scions have congealed. they're all good, but with any large cast and custom player character, you tend to form the meatiest bonds with a few specific ones. i think royce appreciates urianger's cooler, more mature head. they're both so formal. he realizes she's someone he can confide in. i think she sees estinien as a gifted, but hotheaded whelp, which i find very funny. patience, child. stop sulking. do your breathing drills.

i love thancred's MGS sequence and in from the cold too. they're stressful, but i love that the team tried, you know what i mean? the fact that you can fight enemies in a pinch makes those duties way more bearable than some other games that experiment with stealth.

in from the cold as a whole, honestly. If You Know, You Know

all right, i can't avoid referencing spoilers anymore, sorry. there's a sense of classical tragedy to the whole elpis sequence. it's like watching macbeth or hamlet. you know how it's going to end, and you know you're powerless to stop it, but if they'd just made that different choice! but we had to leave eden. the warrior of light had to end up where they are to finish what elpis started. i don't do fate/destiny plots, but this? i'll take it.

i also knew what would happen going into ultima thule and still came away from it moved. it's strong writing. that's all there is to it. sure, the visuals are haunting, but the dialogue has to sell a gauntlet of difficult character moments, and it pulls it off. on the design side, there's some interesting intentional friction that forces you to linger in the zone and sit with its sense of despair. that part where you have to search the empty park for signs of life? oof

with the majority of the MSQ under my belt, i started sniffing around for what else there is to do ingame. i tried ninja. did terribly. i tried sage. did terribly too, but at least that gave me access to the healer role quests, which, ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°). the nier raids are gorgeous. i even did the controversial werlyt quests, and terncliff is so cute. i kind of wish we could have another story there!

what's next? i dunno! right now i'm burning through the hildibrand quests before i continue on with endwalker's patch story. the field operation stuff seems interesting to do after the MSQ, in a "hey, you saved the world, but we have more missions for you" way. i've also contracted Triple Triad Collector Disease, so that'll keep me busy for a long time.

all right. one last thing. Real Gamer Moments: i was in a mount-farming party recently, and i said that i sort of collected mounts, but only used the ishgardian chocobo. it's a roleplay thing - it's the chocobo royce took when she ran away from ishgard. one of the party members said "haurchefant would be proud of you." AUGH

[onepunchcatboi]

A Very Long Thing About DawnTrail

I’ve been having a lot of thoughts on DT and decided to compile them into a giant fucking essay and post it on the internet because that’s how we all get our enrichment these days lolol

Overall I have mixed feelings about it. It seems like for everything I liked about it, there are just as many I didn’t.

I want to preface this with the fact that I only did MSQ as of this essay and did no side content or side quests aside from the ones needed for aether currents. Also I played the expansion over like a couple weeks in between masters class assignments so my memory could be fuzzy on some things lol if you know a thing that gives more insight to anything, please share! I make this not to slam the new expansion, but to discuss what I did and did not like about it lol

Also like…these are my opinions lol if you thoroughly enjoyed DT and feel it does not have any flaws then maybe idk skip this post bc I'm about to

think critically about media

And my first opinion is this: if it's a problem that has to be solved in MSQ, then its explanations and solutions also have to be addressed in MSQ. If that is not occurring then the writing has failed to inform the player properly.

Again if you find yourself disagreeing on that then maybe this post isn't for you lol

Everything under the cut because uh…how many pages did I write in word? >_>;;

I feel like it started off really good! I loved coming to a new place, learning all the things about it and such. I loved getting to help Wuk Lamat learn and gain confidence in herself! I loved that Thancred and Urianger were there to be cheeky little shites [affectionate] on the other team guiding their own baby ruler. I loved the trials and how they gave different lessons about the different peoples of Tural and how different problems require different approaches [yes I even liked the trading quest. It was funny]. I think Galool Ja Ja is a mad old genius and it was fun to know him, someone who was essentially like us in that he traveled with a band of friends and united a continent in an effort to bring peace to the land. And I was thrilled when the result of the trial was both Wuk Lamat and Koana becoming equal rulers, because they both have two halves of the right idea: love for people and their culture, and forward thinking for innovation to solve their problems.

Honestly, aside from some minor weirdness in the Mamool Ja section, I was so pleased with everything that I found it very sad I did not enjoy the second half of the expac;;

I’ve read a few posts about it now and so has my gf so the following is an amalgam of thoughts that are my own and bouncing off others. I'm both trying to make sense of what disappoints me narratively about it, and what would have made more sense for both me and my WoL

First I’ll get my small critiques of the first half out of the way:

The first a minor thing, but there were odd moments of passivity where the player didn't get to do much. The one I think of the most is when Wuk Lamat has to wrangle an alpaca. It makes sense she has to do this on her own, but why do we as the player have to sit at the campfire and wait? We could have played as Wuk Lamat to do it like we do when she confronts Bakool Ja Ja. Hell, maybe it might have been a really funny sequence, too! I don't mind taking a backseat as the WoL here, but I do mind taking a back seat as a player. I suppose you can argue it's because we need to have a bonding moment with Erenville, but this scene could still have easily occurred anyways.

Most of what I don't think feels right has to do with the Mamool Ja section. Now, my memory's not perfect here, but my understanding is that they have had to dwell in the lower forested area for a while? At least it sounded like they had an age-old conflict with the Xa'brun, so more than a few generations. In that context it feels...a little oof to have to come in and help them figure out how to grow food down there. Maybe I'm not remembering when the meteors struck? Because if it was recent then this makes sense and is not as weird, but otherwise its a bit awkward;; [to say the least;;]

As for the second half:

I think generally, a thing that would have helped is to keep the threat local. After Endwalker, it feels...maybe unwise to continue to escalate the stakes. I don’t need world-ending threats. I already did that. Or at the very least I need a break from them lol we just finished saving the Star, settling any sort of unrest on one continent would have been a fun little jaunt in comparison. I understand not a lot of people would have enjoyed that or felt this would have been a step back. But I feel that trying to take the shonen route of continuously upping the stakes tends to run the risk of ridiculousness. I mean we just finished defeating the literal embodiment of despair trying to end all life as we know it because supposedly there is only pain and suffering in life anyways. Do you keep trying to figure out more world ending stakes from there? Or do you look for different kinds of stakes? Maybe some wouldn't have felt the latter was "worthy" or "challenging" enough for their WoL, and I'm not against having some other big threats happen. I just need more time and build up from that lol. There's a reason you need your "beach episode".

The second half of DT also felt extremely jarring. I know the reality of it was there were three main writers working together on the whole thing [far as I know outside looking in], but what it felt like was one person wrote the rite of succession half, and then handed it to a completely different person to write the second half of the story. And while the first half felt really solid, the second half was highly disjointed and uninterested in the WoL or their friends. It felt much too focused on its own ideas to consider them in fact, which is...a choice, for a long form RPG where lots of the player base is pretty invested in them by now. Hell at this point I wonder if someone completely different higher up the chain looked at the first draft and went “too small, make it bigger” and thus the writers had to make sudden changes to an otherwise solid narrative. Something to look into I guess.

Again, I loved the first part, and I think the writing there felt really good! It makes sense for the WoL to be a guiding hand and a mentor to Wuk Lamat, Thancred and Urianger were playing the same roles for Koana. "What is it you want to do?", "What do you think is important?", "I think your ideas are great and I support them", "This is your country and your people, tell me what you need, and I will help you make it happen". It would have been inappropriate for us to step in any more than we did. [although I do think it wooouuuld have been nice for the WoL to come in just to ensure Wuk Lamat and Bakool Ja Ja had a one-on-one bout for realsies. Or! Have a great moment where the WoL makes to do so, and Wuk Lamat be like "No...I have this *glint*", in fact forget my first suggestion, that would have been amazing]

But if we are going to make a world ending event happen, then this is where the WoL needs to take charge again. And I don't mean that Wuk Lamat and Koana and the other major players shouldn't have been involved, this is their home and their Star too. What I mean is that the WoL should have had that moment to take the reins and guide them through it, because this is unfamiliar territory for them, but it is our bread and butter [more on this later]

Related to this I… don’t like the Azem magicial maguffin item that has fallen into our laps;;

Don’t get me wrong, I actually think its brilliant and in fact, fucking hilarious that Krile’s people yeeted themselves out of the source to avoid possible extinction due to a calamity. The idea is great, I just…have problems with its execution. I feel this story point would have been stronger if it was done through their own prowess or technology. The how of it doesn’t even have to matter right now because it was long ago enough that the methods could have been lost to time, or only have the tiniest bit of clues for our local prospective world hopper Y’Shtola to fiddle with. [speaking of that it does create an awkwardness of Krile’s soul being 2-3 steps lighter than everyone else's which presumably Y’Shtola would have noticed, which Krile herself even states early on, but that's another thing for later]

The issue is that making this exodus happen because of an item with Azem’s symbol on it actually creates more questions than answers and not in a good way. We don’t actually know right now how much contact Azem had with Venat post Zodiarc forming, but generally speaking it does not make sense for Azem [or anyone really] to have created a item to world hop between the shards, because the shards did not exist in the time frame that this item would have been made. The only way this item works then is if someone else made it and slapped the Azem symbol on it, just as our Azem crystal was. Otherwise the writing has to walk it back and say it has a different primary function, it can just also be used for reality bridging lol

But I also don’t like the maguffin because I don’t actually want to world hop with ease. We had extraneous contrived ways we were able to access the 1st and the 13th shards, and that’s great! It’s not supposed to be easy! It’s supposed to be a whole thing, because the magic used to create this world state in the first place required the power of a fucking god. And while I don’t think accessing the maguffins power will be done quickly or easily, I don’t want an item to let me do the thing in an identical manner going forward. It feels…like a gimme. [Or rather a “give her”, I am again surprised Y’Shtola hasn’t been all over this yet but it's probably because the writers don’t want to let her more on that later]

Ok now is when I am going to get the most critical because I feel like everything goes literally off the rails the second we're done with helping to fix them lol This is one part Everything to do with Alexandria/unknown shard, one part lack of character writing for WoL/Scions, one part Zoraal Ja's missing back story, and one part wtf with Sphene.

There first two points I feel are kind of intertwined, as almost everything weird about this shard mostly comes around to "why where the WoL/Scions suddenly mute on everything they are seeing". It's pretty clear that this shard was being led to a calamity by ascian activity. We just have a lack of ascians to verify this at the moment. The results are easy to see by our surroundings and the state of the world. The things that stick out to me the most are the Levin Sickness, and of course the...soul munching :'>

The Levin sickness is described as an imbalance of lightning aether, so much so that the person afflicted is in a torpid state most of the time in severe cases. But an imbalance of an aether element in a person is how tempering is described, so...why do we not bring up the fact that we know how to cure that? Even if they wanted to write in a reason for it to not work the same, the fact that Alisae is right there and has that ability, and doesn't say anything is extremely out of character for her. It's like they forgot how desperately she tried to find this cure in the first place [its a big part of her character development in fact].

But the elephant in the room has to be the use of souls as both fuel to keep people alive and a currency. I think the idea was to build in the rest of the story, where you first had to learn about a culture and understand it before making judgments but uh...I'm sorry but eating the souls of the dead is a really hard sell out the gate. Even if we hadn't been to the aetherial sea to like, witness all that, this is a hard sell. But the thing is we actually have like, been there. We saw that souls travel to a place where-after they are reborn later. And maybe I didn't understand this right, but the implication then is that those souls used for life force don't get to be reborn. I guess this point is slightly less abhorrent if the Alexandrians don't know this, and this could be the case maybe? It's never brought up. We also never bring it up! Why don't we tell people that we've seen what happens when people die?! I mean maybe they wouldn't have believed us [understandable], but it’s weird that we don't say it!

The idea of using the souls of the dead is I think, the most workable if the culture is of a mind of: when you’re dead you’re dead and nothing special happens afterwards. No afterlife, nothing, the body decays the aether disperses, that’s it. Perhaps this is clearer in the sidequests?? But if that’s truly how they view death, then it should have been touched on in MSQ. I would say this is what the function of Living Memory is but…it doesn’t seem to be a place the Alexandrians are widely aware of, nor is the concept of an Endless at this point. So their continued mantra about their dead always being remembered, while they are currently forgetting about them all the time, rings a bit hollow. They can only remember them after the fact of living the rest of their life to the point of death IF they become an endless. Which maybe the point was always to make all the Alexandrians endless [fuck;;;] but I think if it was written that the populous knew they’d go to an unending heaven place where all their memories and loved one were waiting for them, it might have made a lot more sense.

After looking at this post/reddit thread though, it seems that the main culprit for this sticking point is possibly that the EN translations were unclear on this issue??? And that some of the souls do pass on to the aetherial sea, just that many of them keep being recycled into the system? If so this does make the cast's reactions to the whole thing slightly less weird, but goddamn they should have stated this more clearly then. Because my presumption otherwise is that they are essentially erasing souls from existence or that they just never get the opportunity to be reborn in order to preserve the currently living, both of which elicit a wholly different reaction vs they'll get there eventually just not right now and possibly not for several hundred years. Which like, is still halting gears in a natural cycle, but it isn't breaking the machine outright by yanking the pieces out. Still a little fucky though? To be honest? For those souls that by chance keep getting shuffled about instead of getting reborn.

Actually another thing I am just remembering too is we never really address the whole like…deeply unethical methods Alexandrian scientists used to get to this level of precision in separating soul from memory and the effects of using the separated souls. We encounter it for a brief moment as we move through the facility to fight Zoraal Ja and it’s kind of hand waved in this moment. Which I get time is of the essence here but then yeah it wasn't discussed. Maybe it will be in the lead up to the next expansion? But that will not be for a while. And I don't like that.

Zoraal Ja is another strange point in here.

I remember reading a great analysis about the beginning of the Rite of Succession, how each of the siblings are extremely reflective of their birth order. And for Zoraal Ja, this idea of him being an expansionist falls in line with this well. Most things he has going for him are because he's his father’s son, to surpass his father is to move out of his shadow and become something more. For this he needs to either outdo his father or find different ways to outshine him. So, gaining new territories and new victories [since he’s the most martial of the bunch and doesn’t want to use his cunning for other things?] falls in line with this. And honestly...if that’s all he did I feel like the story would have been more solid for it. 

But from the beginning also, he keeps mentioning this need for him to make the people know how terrible war is? To know what suffering is so that they will beg for his rule?? Where does this idea come from??? As far as we know the boy grew up in peacetime, so there's not much to suggest he's had hardship aside from the pressure of being a miracle baby. At first I thought maybe something had happened to his still not mentioned mother during Endwalker, when anyone succumbing to despair could have become a monstrosity. [an entire tangent and a half for another day btw, no one…mentions the Star going out of whack a short while ago??] But this is never referenced...soooo...where does this motivation come from? Honestly at one point I theorized that maybe he'd actually been a wish-baby by Galool Ja Ja at the golden city but he'd been born with the soul of someone else from the golden city who'd gone through immense suffering in a war and this was why he was…like that. It just...seems an incredibly far reach for him to think this way. The only thing I can think of at this point is that he's pissed off about it being peace time so he has to find ways to cause conflict just so he can prove himself better than his father? But if that's the way it wasn't very clear.

 Finally...Sphene.

There's a lot wrong here I feel, but it's not really to do with the concept of the character, rather all the writing around her. It is interesting to have an AI with a benevolent ruler’s personality that was made to help ensure the love and safety of a kingdom. A terrible idea really, but an interesting one to play with in fiction lol the program has been around for I think 1000 years so it makes sense for this figure to feel eternal and well loved…if you're…into monarchies, I guess. But AI Sphene from the beginning is sus as fuck. In hindsight this is because it can only do what it's directive and the limiter of the personality programing can agree on, but as a person meeting another person, there is little reason for us to trust her. It gets presented as sort of a red herring at first, is she or isn't she a good person? It tries to convince us to assist in its directive by running us through a similar process as in the first half of the game. We learn about Alexandria and its people, and you know they're fine, except for...everything that happened because of the cataclysm, and the definitely normal but only been happening for the last 1000 years soul eating. It is a culture that fears death in the most extreme way possible, but they're chill.

And at this point it’s clear that AI Sphene is to be a foil of Wuk Lamat. Which makes sense given how much they both want to ensure their people’s happiness. The problem mostly arises the second we understand that Sphene is not a person. So...why do we keep treating her as such afterwards? I can understand if Wuk Lamat is not familiar with a lot of tech, that’s not her forte, but it is for some of us in the group. Who are also...just ignoring that bit?? Like if we needed to stop and explain to her what a program is like we did the reflections and such, why didn't we? I know she might not have got it fully, but again, weird that we all just carried on like the program was something that could be reasoned with. Especially if it’s at the point where massacre of anyone not in its kingdom was perfectly acceptable for it. And just...even if Sphene was real, she is no longer a good person at this point. People who love their country and their people, but are completely fine with killing others to ensure their own survival exist in this world. We know those are not good people. We have named them before, it’s just genocide masquerading as nationalism. Which is why it’s baffling and frankly infuriating that the characters are written to carry on like the program is a good person continuously after this point.

A lot of people have been making the comparison to Emet Selch and Amourot and it’s a fair and good one to make, they mirror each other well. I think the reason Emet works and Sphene doesn’t comes right back around to the writing. We as the WoL have a history with the Ascians, we know what they are up to long before Emet arrives, and when he does, we are rightfully suspicious of his intentions. Also, he is an asshole, and we are allowed to be an asshole back to him, because he deserves it lol. After knowing him and arguing back and forth for probably a few weeks’ time, we kill him. We do it because he will kill us otherwise, as he does not value or see us as people, and he is only redeemed long after this fact. The reason people like Emet is partly in this and partly because his narrative is one of tragedy: the man he was would have hated the man he became, and our once friend in a past life became our enemy. Also he’s…a real person, but I digress.

To me the reason Sphene the program doesn’t work is because we have for some reason, decided to make Wuk Lamat the main decision maker throughout the second half. This isn’t a criticism of Wuk Lamat, she is going through the narrative according to her character. Our beautiful baby ruler is hopeful, and at the onset, presuming to broker a peace as an ambassador of her people. She is operating in the mode of “learn first, ask after”, because it’s worked for her before. And she so wants to believe in the good in people, and we love her for that! 

But she’s now up against something entirely different and the WoL and Scions are bafflingly mute on it. We didn’t become Wuk Lamat’s mentor to teach her to be the next WoL to carry our mantel, we did it to help her carry her fathers. Like Thancred and Urianger for Koana, our service to Wuk Lamat ended the moment she became the Vow of Resolve. So what needed to happen at this point is for Wuk Lamat and the WoL/Scions operating on equal terms as allies, rather than continuing to defer to her. Like our relationships to Hien and Rauhban, and so on, we defer to them when it comes to the citizenry and decision making on a nation level, but when it comes to world-ending shit they leave it to us. And honestly one of the first things we should have done is be like “Wuk Lamat you have known that girl for 5 hours and she’s outright stated she will kill literally everyone in the universe just so save like 500,000 of her own. I don’t think this one can be saved. Believe me I’ve seen it before. Also that’s not a girl it’s a robot”  

Because the reality this is a perfect storm, and the only wrench in it is that WoL/Scions are present. Here's where I wax poetic as an “old”. The conversation between the characters of the Spene program and Wuk Lamat, is actually perfect and reflective of a lot of issues we're dealing with today. “Sphene” is someone who cares deeply about her own, she is a kind person who visits terminal kids and brings them flowers….and this same person is perfectly willing to sacrifice anyone outside her circle for her own. She does not care about other people actually, just the ones important to her. But she does it with this with a cute twirl and a smile, so it’s disarming. If you ask her directly she won't say she'll throw others under the bus for her owns sake, but she will still do it. This kind of person exists and is incredibly dangerous, especially to those who are not familiar with it, like Wuk Lamat. 

When you have never encountered this sort of person, you struggle to see how these two conflicting views can work together. It’s actually fucking brilliant writing in that sense, because the fact that “Sphene” is a program with conflicting goals creates a perfectly logical way for this to work! The program has its main objective-the continued survival of its people aka Alexandrian citizens. It has its limiter, the memory data of Sphene, who was a kind person that desired peace and unity. This is why “Sphene” acts kindly and loving to her own people, but is equally ruthless when it comes to anyone outside this sphere. It’s “necessary” for their survival, and it “cannot” be changed, because “Sphene” literally cannot fathom other solutions. Real people who are like “Sphene” are able to do this too, they compartmentalize so that the narrative works in their own mind, and they cannot change this mindset unless challenged by outside pressures. Wuk Lamat’s struggle to logic out that the Sphene program is still a good person despite this echos a lot of real life people trying to figure it out.

And if it was just Wuk Lamat vs “Sphene” this would work. But the WoL and the Scions are there too, and they have seen it before. They watched it time and time again through their conflict with the Garleans and the Ascians. So the fact that no one speaks up about this repeating pattern unfolding is…bad. The writing wants so badly to put this point across that it has to pretend these other characters have suddenly gone brainless to do it. Any if not all of them should have spoken up to help Wuk Lamat in this moment, not just as a newfound ruler, but as her friends. So again the player is made to take a back seat while watching events unfold, only this time it's about 1,000 times more frustrating than waiting for Wuk Lamat to wrestle an alpaca. I’m glad in the end Wuk Lamat understood the problem was not solvable with peace, but I feel dissatisfied with my part in it because I should have been able to say something before we got to this point.

Where I feel DT is its strongest is in its writing about family, as well as its themes about death and grief. The writing around the Dawnservant and his children, their relationships with each other, the writing around Erenville and his mother, and even the brief segment with Krile and her parents, are all really good! 

The bond between Koana and Wuk Lamat I feel is without question, it's the easiest to understand. Between the fact that they’re adopted alongside Zoraal Ja, Wuk lamat’s relationship with Nakkia, and their earnest attempts to connect with Galool Ja, there is a lot of love in that family to have beyond blood and it's great to see!

But the writing shines so, so well between Erenville and Cacuia too. It was incredibly relatable to watch them struggle with their differences and similarities. Evernville’s growing frustrations while Cacuia continues to not just be work focused, but just go along her merry way in general while they BOTH decide ultimately not to address their issues until the very end- that is a very real and relatable familial experience for a lot of people [myself included lol]. Even Krile’s little awkward moment with her parents that she’s never met before is so on point I want to die of secondhand awkward. Bonus points of G’Raha being the one to fix it, because he’s like family to her and knows just what to do!

It’s weakest point here is in regards to Zoraal Ja and Galool Ja Ja sadly, but I think this is more to do with the fact that there just seems to be a missing piece of Zoraal Ja’s story in general?? There’s a suggestion of tension between the two, as Galool Ja Ja says something to the effect that he is the source of Zoraal Ja’s anger, but it's not explained beyond this. 

And while the writing around the soul usage and the memory uploading is a bit clunky [to say the least], the idea of the Endless and Living Memory itself is also quite good. It's a wish fulfillment fantasy really, not just in the idea of avoiding death, but in avoiding what death takes from us. The goals left undone and the things left unsaid. Wouldn't it be nice if death wasn't the end and we could do all the things we wanted and speak the words we needed when we didn't get the chance before? It would be nice…but it can't be that way. It's not how things are meant to be, and to do otherwise is to lose value in living life while you have it. There's a bittersweetness to the whole concept, and as someone who's lost older relatives to stroke and Alzheimer’s and had to comfort my brother at their wake reminding him that this is why we must value the time we have with those still with us…let's just say the Nakkia part hit home. 

I know this already so long, but here’s some other random shit I thought about while writing this but doesn't fit in the overall story discussion well before I close out:

The Scions themselves feel…almost like they are here because someone thought we’d be mad if they weren’t. And don’t get me wrong I’m glad they are here, but it feels like a bit of a stretch for some. Alphie, Alisae and Krile make perfect sense, they have reasonable motivations for coming along.  In the case of Urianger and Thancred I’m mostly just mad we never actually got to fight lmao. Estinien…well I guess he is a wandering hobo just short of being an adventurer himself [affectionate]. And then by the time G’Raha and Y’Shtola arrive its like “oh finally! Are they going to like…actually get to do stuff though at this point?” and the answer is…kinda. They get to be the answers people. Again it mostly comes around to the second half being…ehhh??? The fact that we had to write out a reason to keep several of them out of the golden city was a little telling. Not like Alisae was being allowed to do anything as it was =7=; [I know I keep looking at her expectantly specifically but it's because she tends to be the most outspoken when things are nonsensical lol]

Who the fuck was Galool Ja's mom? Where IS Zoraal Ja's mom?? Hell we also meet Wuk Lamat's birth father but where is her birth mother??? I know she's got Nakkiah, that’s not the point! She just doesn’t exist! Koana's the only one that has an explanation on why his are missing. WHAT IS THIS DISNEY BULLSHIT, anyways-

Maybe a minor note but also the Echo was used...hardly at all? This isn't as much a hard criticism as just puzzlement. I know as a narrative tool, something like the Echo is a thing to be used sparingly. Usually they use it to "show don't tell" a thing we need to know but were not witness to [or as a flashback], and it makes sense that for really learning about new cultures that we wouldn't really want this right now. But I remember thinking "wow, been a while since we did this" when it finally happened. And it stuck me that like, this usually would have happened at least once or twice before this point. I'm surprised we never had it to gain insight to Zoraal Ja like Krile seemed to, or honestly, the second after Bakool Ja Ja fled after defeat from Wuk Lamat would have been a prime moment. And yet it did not happen. It almost feels like the writers either forgot about the Echo for a while, or simply deliberately avoided it to the point of its absence feeling unusual. Both are...hmm.

I’m sure I will think of other things later but this is already horrendously long so maybe it’s best to leave it at this and tack on other points later. In the end I mostly ruminate on all of this because previous expansions were more satisfying or more tightly written. Some of them had their issues, HW had some pacing problems with the Ul'Dah stuff and Stormblood had some awkwardness in pacing throughout, but on the whole I found these expansions fun and satisfying anyways. I don't ask that the game be doing a 10/10 all the time. It just can't lol but I do want the plot to make to at least make sense in its own rules and by the characters in it. If the characters in your story suddenly have to behave differently for your message to work, then changes need to be made to your story. Whether this means changing things about your plot, or creating situations to keep certain elements from disrupting it. And it seems that they went with the latter, but in the most ham-fisted ways possible sadly. Hopefully things will straighten out when the story picks up for the eventual continuation of the story.