#they all are but shb's just especially special to me

[astrxealis]

okay rambles but i started creatively writing in like ... 5th grade? and. oh god just a little encouragement to anyone looking to get into writing or insecure or whatnot, but HELLS, maybe it's to he expected with my (obviously) very young age and inexperience with writing then, but my writing was really. yeah. Yeah. but then i'm what... a lot older now, obviously, and my writing has gotten leagues better. i'm probably not a good example for this bcs childhood years development stuff are different etc etc BUT practicing writing more and whatnot really does go a long way :]

[haunted-xander]

tbh one of, if not my absolute favorite part about ffxiv, is the small little moments/sections where nothing super big or like. Plot Important happens, but that give both the characters and us, the players, some much appreciated down-time to just. Feel things. And to process what's happened and what's going on or to just. Let us exist, in the moment. In a much more grounded and human way than when there's Big And Important Things happening.

The biggest(imo) and earliest example of this is right after the Waking Sands get raided in ARR, and WoL turns to the church for guidance. The entire section of us helping them gather and bury our fallen comrades, and especially bringing Noraxia home to Little Solace so she can be laid to rest in her homeland, by her own people and in their own cultural ways, was so so important to me.

Because it wasn't just replacable allies cast aside for shock value anymore, it was real. These deaths were real and meant something. I got to actually process what just happened, and I got to watch Banana go through it right with me. And not only did it make it feel real, it also gave me a sense of closure. These people, these friends, are dead, but they also got to be treated with the respect they deserve and laid to rest properly.

And that, more than anything else, made me want to save the world. It's grounded and grounding. This world, and these people, meant something to me, the player.

And there's tons of stuff like that throughout the game, especially in shadowbringers and endwalker.

In shb we have, for example, Lyna venting her anger and frustration after the sin eater attack in Lakeland. She's on her knees yelling on the verge of tears while punching the ground, so furious at her helplessness and powerlessness, at everyone having come so far yet set back because some megalomaniacal tyrant deemed it so.

In ew we have Urianger being approached by Moenbryda's parents, who confront him about not confiding in them about his grief. When Bloewyda starts to scold him, he of course reacts guiltily, believing they blame him, only for him to be completely caught off guard when she instead goes in to hug him, telling him he should have let them grieve with him. And he just. Breaks down. He's been holding these feelings, this grief inside him all this time, and now that he is not only told it's okay to let it out, but by her very own parents at that, he just can't keep it in anymore. He cries for Moenbryda, right then and there, being held lovingly by her family.

And the thing is, these scenes aren't necessary, strictly speaking. The plot at large could go on without them, the events that happen around them are not changed by these moments in any way.

But still, they are so so important, to the world, to the characters, to the players. Everything feels real and impactful now, every death means something, every tragedy, every person, feels real.

And that, to me, is what makes this story so special.

[autumnslance]

Normally I'd agree many Final Fantasy games have rather young protagonists. It's because they're usually single-player JRPGs made with the assumption of younger players, and like most Young Adult media, create characters that cater to that, even if it ends up with teens running the world and fighting in wars. And for many players, the first time playing these games is in childhood/adolescence/very young adulthood. So it's YA anime.

Final Fantasy XIV does not fall into that same mold, despite the "Teen" rating for legal and distribution purposes.

The majority of the FF14 cast, including the bulk of the main characters, are between 20 and 40 years old (the Scion Archons, Ishgard Elf Husbands). Many other characters are between 40 and 80 (Ishgard's Counts are all late middle aged to elder dads/grandpas, Gaius is mid 50s, Jehantel and Ran'jit are elderly, all still active). The younger characters (especially with any authority or special position) like the Leveilleur twins, are actually outliers. And the youth of the characters between 16 and 20 years old tends to be plot relevant, where that inexperience and naivety causes problems and drives story (Nanamo's arc at the end of ARR into HW, Alphinaud and the Crystal Braves, Ryne's determination of self in ShB, etc).

Characters have a variety of appearances; some characters in the same age ranges look very different. Varis is only 4 years older than X'rhun but Varis's model shows the stress and disagreeableness of his life a lot more than the RDM trainer's. Cid's in his mid-30s but with the beard looks older--and without it he has a baby face (hair color doesn't matter, cuz they do keep the anime trope of "everyone's got white or silver hair"). Lalafell are designed to be anime-cute halflings so it's hard to tell their adult ages even if they've got facial hair like grandfatherly Papashan. The pad'jal of course look like kids, but the youngest main pad'jal is A-Ruhn in his late teens; all the others are adults stuck in adolescent bodies. E-Sumi is a few hundred years old. Kan-E uses various methods to look older so other leaders and people from outside Gridania will take her seriously as an adult. The padjal introduced in the StB WHM quests is a child, and that's the plot; she's not in charge of anything, or has any particularly advanced-for-her-age skills. She's just a kid having a really rough time.

This inability to determine age by looking and assuming isn't just due to limits of the game engine and character creation options; it reflects real life. I met my work team for the first time in person recently; one person looked older than I know them to be, thanks to months of stress and health issues. While all of them were shocked to remember I'm in my 40s as according to them, I "look much younger". Most people are actually pretty bad at guesstimating ages based on appearance, due to the variety of folks' lives.

Speaking of kid characters, many of the children we interact with, like the Doman Adventurers, are between 12 and 14 and act much younger. Khloe has this going on too, with her age "corrected" to 13 (when previously listed as 10), but she acts way younger to me. Most of the actual child characters are treated like children, and it's not until they get to 14-16 (Honoroit, Leveva) that we start to see them treated like maturing adolescents and having some rsponsibilities, but still young and prone to the kind of choices one expects of less experienced and more emotional youth.

As a MMO, FF14's primary audience is actually adults; teens do play the game, but also age up with it if they keep playing. If a 15 year old began playing with ARR's release, they're in their mid-20s now. Having a primarily adult cast, and treating child characters like children, and adolescents like young people figuring out how young adulthood works, makes sense for this game.

FF14's time bubble is also part of the issue; a developer tool to keep it so they don't have to worry too much about character ages, new models so often, or how long things take in game. Timelines are then intentionally left malleable for the players' benefits, to create our own stories and determine how long things take for our WoLs and their tales. Some folks have their stories pass in real time, some compress it to a year per expac, some expand it out even longer. So the ages the characters have listed in the lorebooks and rarely in game (which is then reflected in online resources), is a starting baseline. Personal headcanons as always should be applied (including changing around some character ages to fit one's own story if necessary).

Also, FF16, made by the same team, has a brief prologue/tutorial section where the main trio is between 10 and 15, guided/trained by adult characters, experience the inciting incident trauma--and then we spend the majority of the game with the main cast in their 20s and 30s. The game also has a mature rating, featuring some sexual situations, lots of violence, and stronger language than other FF games. It's made for adults, and its cast reflects that.

So it is a matter of audience expectations; for a MMO, you're going to have an older and aging player base, and the varied ages of the cast reflect that, as do their varied appearances and experiences as adults. The young characters are treated closer to how their youth should be; still with respect for those in positions like Nanamo, but also prone to errors due to inexperience that drive story. In other FF titles, which were made to be more YA-focused, a teen and young 20s cast were treated much differently. But even in the single-player FF titles, if they are made with adult players in mind, their cast and stories likewise reflect that.

[lem-argentum]

hi hi here’z a post of me rambling about some of the things in shadow.bringers, because i predicted i would be abnormal about it and i was right. 💛💛 <)

1. FIRST OF ALL. character writing. early into the game i remember reading someone say that shb improves a lot in giving you a lot of character moments. and i remember not entirely believing it because this game is usually so plot-driven that characters’ feelings are not the spotlight? and you especially don’t talk to them one-on-one in depth about emotions or anything. BUT AS IT TURNS OUT. THEY *WERE* TELLING THE TRUTH

from very early in..!! when you reunite with ali.saie and you have that talk with her on the tower overlooking the flood. VERY GOOD moment. just the two of you, her expanding on feelings that were introduced to you post-stb and prior, further establishing the relationship you have with her in a meaningful way. it sets up the fact that.!!! moments like this continue happening through the whole story forward…!!! lots of them…!!!! and it was so unanticipated on my side that when th.ancred just started talking to us about his struggles & insecurities in nuvy’s leavings i was like HUH!!!!!!??? AMND IT KEEPS HAPPENING. HELPS YOU CARE PROPERLY FOR THE CHARACTERS AND LETS YOU FEEL CLOSE WITH THEM. EMOTIONS FEEL LIKE THEY’RE GIVEN THE ATTENTION THAT THEY NEED, ITS GOOD. <3

2. tge setting. awesome. the premise is compelling all in itself. “world plagued by eternal light + essentially a zombie apocalypse with angelical beings” is a strong base especially in juxtaposition to earlier plots where the main threats are nothing like it. and the story leads you through different areas in such a smooth way, each introducing to you the effects of the flood on the people and auaug it’s got cool worldbuilding in it. <3 it’s not at all without its flaws (kholusia is super interesting in idea i’m a huge fan of “location has something deeply wrong with it but its residents are unaware” concepts, but, ya know. vau.thry’s whole deal could have been much better, hm……..!) but i’m in love with lots of it….. leadinf into:

3. emet-s.elch. making him a section is kind of funny HEKFK I THOUGHT HE WAS A GOOD VILLAIN. have not thought about him enough to super elaborate but the themes around him + amaurot are so oouuuououg. good. amaurot was such a change in atmosphere from places we’ve seen before and the ENERGY. was SO. AUGH. (its theme, the ticking clock, the the the….!!.!) having its destruction be a dungeon was also a great idea. having us go through the calamity ourselves to experience what it was like & the loss he’s been dealing with for eons. it’s cool. OH AND TALKING SPECIFIC CHARACTERS:

4. ARDBERTTTTTTTTTTT. MY FRIEND. MY BESTIE. I HAVENT MENTIONED HIM BEFORE. BUT HE’S EVERYTHING. you could argue he has one of the best narratives out of any character here ever. the scenes you share with him are so so special i understand why people like him so much. warriors of darkness my beloved your writing gives me So Much Feeling.

5. The Themes. in general. okay SO. you could really write an essay on how shb feels like it was written for suicidal people. truly. at the very beginning you are introduced to the premise of “your friends have figured out that you are destined to die. and they have spent their past years trying to stop it.” and that’s not the entire deal, you all still have a world to save, the focus is on that, but that theme is still there, in the background, and whenever it shows itself it is so potent. to me.

this game has a core of hope and survival and it’s a central point constantly. but in shb…. it feels most directed at you. the exarch tells you to survive at all costs, that it’s the one request he must impose on you. to “burn bright again, and live.” ali.saie has you promise against self-sacrifice (several times, actually!). and with the way everything is worded, it’s hard not to feel like the message is from real people, urging you to stay.

when the warrior of light is, well. consumed by the light. when emet tells you, in front of everyone, how much of a danger you will be, how you will inevitably hurt and ruin everyone around you — the only thing on their minds is curing you. not getting rid of you, even with all the world’s corruption inside of you. you wake up in a soft bed and are told of how busy everyone has been, desperately searching for any other route for you. (and, of course, that’s the obvious course of action for people who care about you, but to players who struggle to see that as at all reasonable, it means something…!!)

you see the light in the sky above you and KNOW it’s because of you that it’s there. that if you were gone the first would be free. and then you are told that there is hope, that you and everyone else will find another ending to this, and if they can’t, they will forge one. and everyone insists on being by your side even when who you are could bring about their doom at any moment. and ITS GOOD………!!!!!!!!!!!!!

all this to say: i understand why this is most players’ favorite expansion. um. game good, meant a lot to me. :’) THE END <3.

(AND TAKING A MOMENT TO PUT MY FAVORITE SHB TRACKS HERE, OK? OK <3. special shoutouts to to fire and sword (HELL YES.), sands of blood and the quick way (the night themes being so intentionally calm & elegant compared to their daytime counterparts really makes you think doesn’t it.), mortal instants (yeaahhhhhhhg. <3), who brings shadow (THE CROWD ERUPTS IN CHEER). OKAY THE END <333)

[selchwife]

in my own personal little narrative bubble for ffxiv it makes me kind of laugh that the only people who actually identify hydaelyn as taking advantage of pfeil since childhood are like. hydaelyn, and pfeil, and emet-selch.

hydaelyn hates doing it but it's one of those like "throw this twelve year old at the meat grinder or the world will end" situations that suck so much so what is SHE going to do about it. i think she tries the best she can not to make it so painful for him but there is truly like jack shit she can do it's kind of out of her hands

pfeil spends a lot of time really angry at her during hvw but also still worships her and it's a whole thing, and the whole "hydaelyn doesn't really give out the echo to special people she's just doing it indiscriminately" one zillion wols arc in shb kind of makes him feel Especially used, and that's REALLY a whole thing. pfeil kind of forgives her during endwalker bc he bonds with her in elpis and she understands why she made the choices she did even if they really harmed him.

emet-selch is not really critical enough of his own culpability in pfeil's problems but he does love him and hydaelyn HAS obviously hurt him and he doesn't like her anyway so it's easy for him to pick out all the ways pfeil has been kind of used and taken advantage of and lied to and how shitty it is that of all the people in the world the whole warrior of light thing had to fall on HIS shoulders, as someone who is not really adequately in a place to take it (being already deeply traumatized and vulnerable from childhood prior to even becoming wol, which is part of the reason he was so easy to convince in the first place).

i think the rest of the scions never really put themselves in a position to criticize her like, mentally, but i may be forgetting some important thing where like thancred shakes his fist at the sky and is like DAMN YOU HYDAELYN!!! or some shit equivalent. also i think as much as they're mostly good presences in pfeil's life they kind of did not have any compunctions about sending him off to war at age 17 so i think they are probably less worried about it (except maybe thancred bc like that's his son and he was possessed during all the parts in ARR where he could have as a father Stepped In).

[myrfing]

If you haven't done Abyssos yet I hope you do in the future I THINK THERE IS SO MUCH YOU WOULD TALK ABOUT and I would love to look forward to any thoughts about more flaws of the ancients' civilization, poyo.

the poyomeister...thank you for gracing my inbox once again

I have! OK in reality I have to admit the ancients aren't my main point of interest in the game at all and I'd have been okay with it if they were never mentioned in length again after shb and especially after 6.0 which does dull my interest in it a bit even though it has my favorite ascian when he was a boyscout in it. I just talk about them a lot because well <- argumentative and they're a popular topic.

I think ultimately though the flaws of the ancients arent too different from our own. they're just people with a lot of juice. nothing I have been shown has ever contradicted that. abyssos definitely shows us a far more colorful palette of people than e-s let on and they honestly all seem to really be. WEIRDLY REPRESSED? abyssos is what prompted that post where I was like wow the ancients didnt know shit about each other's hearts. it's kind of insane that. ok first I will be a little hater I hate when people say the ancients feel grief and love with greater depth and breadth than mortals LIKE there's so much about that that will make me want to maul you but it's crazy that pandaemonium is considered to have a like blood moon effect on the people inside it and so erich's resentment for instance is treated like a strange overreaction even though. like honestly? to me he was relatively composed for a young guy whose mother died under mysterious circumstances in the company of their father who then emerged from the ??? all like I have to go to work. The Star. You are such a fucking failure btw. [92 years later] Anyway since you can't handle this situation I think we should blow this whole place up and kill all your coworkers. and then it's revealed that the mother he felt all that anger for used him like a lab rat and that his father very consciously chose to neglect him after protecting him one (1) time. like to me erich is very resilient for even continuing to try. like I don't think this is lahabrea's intent but. I guess even though I was like e-s you are full of shid and fard :\ from the start it like SURPRISED me that one of their most respected members of society (and they never mention his flaws post-sundering in this era, they're like oh he used to be very wise and respected) was so self-serving and callous towards his child. on the other end the other ancients seem very willing to be involved and facilitate each other's reconciliations and understanding and maybe that tradition explains their relative harmony versus any purity of individual self. and then back on the other end agdistis does this for lahabrea and in her final words says how much she admires him and he doesn't even grant her the favor of looking at her in her last moments. it's all so very ????

I also wonder if they're going to go the actually erich is a super special boy route and that's why he was used by athena and why his magic struggles but I also wonder if rather it was because he was born quite weak to two genius parents that he was considered something expendable enough to experiment on by a woman who is the epitome of their society's scientific curiosity and pragmatism. after all it is only aetheric density that seems to be what people look at to separate us vs them. I do think lahabrea "loves" erich but he also like. the only expression of that has been handing him that belt. it's like if your absent father gifted you a calculus for dummies textbook. his love manifests in the hope that erich can be normal and participate in society in the way he admires and in the way he extols himself for because that's what happiness is for an ancient. AGAIN...VERY VERY human flaws we see this shit all the time irl which is just like...dude you guys are just people lol. it baffles me that people can see them call erich overemotional and witness this whole Being At Your Friends House While They Fight With Their Parents Tier and be like well actually ancients are not only intellectually and physically but also emotionally superior to everyone else. like does this look like any of that.

also funny as fuck that lahabrea severed his problematique cringe younger self entirely from his soul and left it to rot in prison until it mutinied. mostly for the crime of mourning his own wife and feeling perfectly normal human regret at the tragedy and disbelief of it. i can see why venat did not think the convocation was capable of reaching meteion.

[c0rpseductor]

kind of occurs to me that maybe my perspective and response to azem being the polar opposite to a lot of emetwol fics that enshrine her as the True Identity (azem has no canon gender but im saying her bc shes always a girl in those fics and my azem also uses she/her lol) is like...informed by A Critical Difference!

that being that like, i have a complex dissociative disorder and a lot of other players do not. this isn't saying any one response is INHERENTLY tied to one or the other, but it kind of strikes me because like...when you have a dissociative disorder that results in Parts or Alters or whatever you might call them you get very used to like, "total strangers that are also you" in your life. those parts simultaneously are and Are Not you, and despite that statement being contradictory, part of living with the condition is accepting that the contradiction doesn't mean both aren't true. so to me, azem makes a lot of sense in that kind of paradigm. she isn't my wol, but she also is; the two of them are parts of a whole, so they are and are not each other. same with ardbert.

but like, if you're not a dissociative i imagine that's potentially a weirder thing to confront. you're one person with one identity and Self, not one person spread out over however many interconnected yet distinct senses of Self with the impression or feeling of being multiple people. so to suddenly be confronted with the idea of "this is not you, but this is you; now you're two people" must be weird. if you're not attached to the idea of embodying this person then their being totally separate is a valid option for reconciling that dissonance (i think a lot of times this is what happens with ardbert bc for a female player, putting your/your wol's selfhood in him might be. understandably dysphoric). and if you DO feel some connection then you have to tear down that wall completely and assert that azem and wol are interchangeable, rather than just same-and-not.

just kind of an idle thought. i am clearly biased bc this is how i live my life and i cant really see another perspective, but i think that a lot of shb and to some extent endwalker touches on like, things that are especially predicated on the emotional logic of dissociation or that have special significance to a dissociative audience (of all stripes, not just folks with dissociative disorders!), so there's almost a whole other lens of dissociative subtext that gets lost if you just don't really like...experience dissociative reactions very strongly or think about dissociation and if that emotional logic doesn't scan to you. kind of like how i like to joke that you cant understand emet-selch if youre a singlet bc he very clearly operates on the terms a lot of systems do. hermes-amon-fandaniel is very this as well. not shb or endwalker but the entire dark knight quests being a glaringly obvious allegory for DID if you have DID and other people just not picking up on it. you get me

[semi-imaginary-place]

ffxiv on to shadowbringers full spoilers

i joined ffxiv right around 5.2-5.3 so i actually got super spoiled on shb

really they're putting the gate at the lake and not in the special crystal tower zone where the raids were.

... are those unique animations? that wasn't the default run. wow you can really see how the funding has improved since arr.

oof that bloom effect my eyes are suffering for making a pale ass character dressed in white. the one time in videogaming history where the bloom is narratively appropriate.

so ardbert in shadow. uh i don't recognize the narrator voice. oh hey minfilia haven't seen you in forever. so why did player character get whole body teleported when all the other scions left their bodies behind. (or is the pc secretly collapsed on the source)

now i could go for the map marker.... ooooor i could run around the entire map. boooo the devs thought ahead and blocked me off.

they killed off the brenon clone immediately D:

i can't tell if it's lore significant or not but the crystal exarch's arm doesn't have the lighting effects crystal usually has. like most of the crystal in ffxiv is kinda glowy and a little translucent but the arm is matte like paint. maybe it's a graphics limitation thing idk.

is it me or does the crystal tower look different. i don't remember those basalt looking formations. there's fluffy amaljaa! was initially confused because underground is the WORST place for an herbarium but if the problem is too much light i guess it makes sense. having giant grates in the library seems like a bad idea. hmm the naming scheme seems sharlayan. why is the marketplace called universal music? its a good thing i know most of these terms from other ff games and shab spoilers otherwise if you threw like 7 new race names at me i'd cry. once again the lack of guard rails is concerning. why are the hortorium and sweetsieve no next to each other. a lot of wroght iron and glass.. art noveau? is this entire city built over silvertear lake?

great now the writers have a precedent for timetravel

exarch described feo ul as "kanojo"

ghostbert angst. i joke but i do find this sort of stuff compelling. oh that clears it up, so his title changed. because i just heard that the warriors of light killed the shadowkeeper and caused the Flood but arbert was also going around calling himself the warrior of darkness, and i didn't connect it until now but it was all them. hey this is that melody that plays whenever the pc does something heroic, played prominently in the ultima and around the end of 2.0 but here its real slow and sad.

did the faeries take over ishgard???? especially curious is the faeries are the equivalent to the sylphs. and rak'tika is the shroud equivalent. limsa was gentrified lol. what im curious about is the habitable part of novrant is shown as both an oval and a circle and i don't know which map is right.

exploring lakeland and uh is that a giant lake monster? yeh that's a giatn lake monster. why's there a road at the bottom of the lake. you guys have extremely nice outdoor furniture. like damn going to spend the budget on nice furniture instead of having a roof.

Crystarium architecturally reminds me of my highschool pet worldbuilding project about a magic crystal floating city filled with telepathic shapeshifting immortals.

shb could have been its own game. Post apocalyptic fantasy about civilization on the brink feels like a pretty standard premises minus the light and dark swap. Writers went wild with the worldbuilding. So glad i watched ffxii and xenoblade so i know what a hume is

Theres also how the crystarium is built over silvertear lake the center of all magic. Although middy isnt on the first, then why are there dragons dragonish things around. I wonder how much shared history there is between the source and the first since right around silvertear actually is the elezen homeland and thats where the elf bandits on the first are hanging out trying to reclaim their homeland.

[noxtivagus]

RETURN TO OBLIVION FFXIV HSDJFAJKSLDFDKSJL

[transcredwaters]

『 𝙰 𝚅𝙴𝚁𝚁𝚁𝚁𝚈 𝙳𝙴𝚂𝙲𝚁𝙸𝙿𝚃𝙸𝚅𝙴 𝙿𝚁𝙾𝙵𝙸𝙻𝙴 𝙾𝙵 𝚈𝙾𝚄𝚁 𝙼𝚄𝚂𝙴 』 .

NAME.   O'miz Tia

AGE.   28 and some moons.

SPECIES.   "Keeper of the Sun" Miqo'te (mixed keeper/seeker)

GENDER.   Demiboy

PRONOUNS. He/Him, They/Them, It/Its

ORIENTATION.   Cinthean. Boykisser. He likes guys. Gay shit.

INTERESTS.   I FORGOT HIS INTERESTS ! art aand music, as well as goldsmithing and weaving/leatherworking ! he's also super invested in the stars/space, it's his special interest uuu

PROFESSION.   He started off as a lancer; After 5 years of Isolation (inwhich the calamity happened during) he became a White Mage - dropped by the Vault, he takes up Astrologian, and soon Dragoon, before dropping Dragoon around 5.4 and juggling Dark Knight and Astrologian. He can be ur tank or ur healer baybee

BODY TYPE.   Lean and muscular, with slightly larger hips and thighs; partially built up with dragoon work.

EYES.   A warm yellow.

HAIR.   Pink ! Pink boy with lighter pink highlights as you go down. By 5.0 his hair has gone a completely cream white, including his eyelashes and eyebrows; an aftereffect of the sineaters. For a while he tried dyeing it like his natural color, but by the end of 6.0 he gave up.

SKIN.   A light peachy tone.

FACE.   Pure white freckles - also an aftereffect of the sineaters. Not shown in the photograph is a large burn scar over his right eye, covering most of the right side of his face. His right eye is slightly paler than his left. A small scar lashes at the corner of the left side of his mouth. His nose is ever so slightly red, and his cheeks always seem to be a little flushed.

HEIGHT.   4'11 - he stopped growing at a very young age, and is significantly shorter than his family - all of whom go over 5'8.

COMPANIONS.  When he was young, it was practically just his siblings- Shele, Oh'dax, and eventually Cherie'li- his parents- O'naruho and Cherie (before she passes)- and his two friends, Hardin and Kanifoix. After some time, D'hmitria briefly takes his companionship, before a nasty split. (His time with her happened before he found out he was gay. This is, again, projection on the mun's part.) Eventually, he travels with Shele and Oh'dax, carrying around his daughter O'dhael. -By the time ARR rolls by he considers Thancred a brother, and does eventually find a sibling in a viera Than also saw as a sibling- named Nix; He grows very close to Haurchefant as well ! And by SHB he's romantically involved with Aymeric, Estinien, and G'raha. He still visits his father(s)- Naruho eventually weds Bertennant- and O'dhael and Cherie'li when he can- and frequents the final resting place of Oh'dax and Shele, oft with flowers and plenty of stories. -Also important to mention; he takes in Foulques under his wing and sees a brother in him as well, and pretty much adopts Sylphie as his daughter. Dhael loves them both quite a bit, as does the rest of Miz's family.

ANTAGONISTS.   Ywain. Lahabrea. Fourchelnaut. The unending guilt and pain that follows him.

COLORS.   Typically pastels of any sort. Bone white especially is a favorite.

FRUITS.   Peaches !! He cannot get enough of peaches.

DRINKS.   cocoa pretty much any sweet teas. He's not one for bitter drinks.

ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES ?   He doesn't really indulge in drink until after the events of 5.3 . While it's not extremely often, he's basically been recognized as a frequenter by the Forgotten Knight's barkeep, drinking himself into a silent state. He's an alarmingly quiet drunk, choosing to simply lay about once he's been dragged out a bar by Thancred or G'raha.

DRUGS ?   "Stoner Mizzy" has been an ongoing joke w/ me and my friends because I decided the catboy does weed . or Eorzea's equivalent . He doesn't do it often, and it's pretty much always when he's chilled out, but.

DRIVERS LICENSE ?   unfortunately no

snatched from @yloiseconeillants ' open invite .

Since I'm a bit too anxious to tag anybody else I'll be doing an open invite as well !

btw, nixie is @pygmybird 's WoL !

[autumnslance]

Character meme: Thancred

Give me a character and I’ll break them down:

This got long cuz I tend to ramble about this dude.

How I feel about this character:

This utter absolute godsdamned bastard of a man. How dare he.

When I really got into FFXIV finally (after only dabbling for a bit), the age gap of his listed 32 and my RL age at the time put the same distance as me and my own younger brother, and that is where Thancred fits. I was FINE with him as a total bro, as the local disaster, similar to a younger sibling I am both fond of and exasperated by. He has a lot of backstory, character development, and changes, even before Shadowbringers really brings his various issues and working through them to the foreground. I love snarky, sarcastic characters, using that to cover their pain and issues. Highly competent but still so full of doubts. Acting out middle child of the core Scions family (now the elder brother figure with Papalymo gone and his own sense of responsibility kicking in in healthier ways).

There's a lot there, and he hits a lot of character tropes I like as a writer and reader both. So for 2 full playthroughs, he was a colleague, a companion, a pal, a bro.

Now. Now when I make a fic writing WoL based off the lady midlander CGI model, now when I decide to make an ace WoL who won't get shipped with anyone cuz we so rarely see that, now when I decide to roll Aeryn through the MSQ and got to meeting the Scions and Ifrit's quest...

Sigh. Here we are, 3+ years and counting, and "Shippy Nonsense" has completely taken over my FFXIV posting and it's all that Damn Rogue's fault. I blame his bonus to sneak attack vs a WoL's smallclothes. I know he took that feat.

He’s still my bro that I am going to tease affectionately while my character swoons, but I am going to be amusedly grumbly about it forever.

(Also I still think his ARR model is Generic Anime Protag #3547 and isn’t all that visually interesting. I like bits and pieces of the HW mountain hobo look. I think his ShB model is better at showing his experience and personality, but still wish there were some adjustments.)

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Fellow Wolcred ships. I love you all. Also it just makes “sense” to me to ship WoL with a Scion over most other NPCs, and Thancred is definitely the default nice handsome male romance option like what one gets at the beginning of a Bioware game (looking at you, Carth, Kaiden, Alistair...). I just. y’know. Thought OC/NPC shipping was for other people, not me.

I have a soft spot for occasional Y'shtola/Thancred and Urianger/Thancred. I feel like he’s a person who’d only open to true romantic relationships with people he’s known and trusted for awhile, because of his own doubts and issues.

He’s totally a Bi disaster though; a lean toward women, perhaps, but certain dudes’ll turn his head.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Thancred & Minfilia for the found family brother-sister trope.

Thancred & Ryne for the same, with father-daughter flavor instead.

Thancred & Urianger for the best bros back and forth.

Thancred & Y'shtola for the best bros in a different way. I also include here occasional side-along headcanons for a FWB situation for them, safe comfort and release--especially after the Lifestream--but without romance; their love is platonic.

(I can’t quite see Urianger doing a casual FWB in the same way tho, he doesn’t strike me as the type; it’s all or nothing there.)

My unpopular opinion about this character

How I see the "temporary eye injury." How he likely wasn't as much of a slut as assumed--while he got plenty, he also used the flirting as a cover a lot (esp given how he drops the flirty demeanor entirely post-Antitower). How he likely wasn't as much of a drunkard in ARR patches as assumed, either; getting blackout drunk makes little sense when the issue was loss of control thanks to possession.

I also think many of the people who think it would have been “fitting” (or just wished for) him to die at the Trolley RP Duty in ShB missed some of the point of Shadowbringers’ overarching themes. ShB could certainly be dark at times, but overall was a story of hope and the differences between remembering the past versus being held captive by it, and the bonds between people. If it were a more tragic story with more pessimistic themes, then yes; Thancred dying then to protect Ryne with their issues unresolved would have been (heartbreaking but) fitting. However, that’s not the story being told; it’s him using that battle as catharsis to beat at his own issues and realize he really had repeated his original mistakes. To make his peace with Minfilia’s loss and then, in the end, work things through with Ryne and be the man he should have been for her.

Ryne gets the fairy tale ending of having her parental figure that she feared resented her tell her he was sorry and fix himself for her.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

We should have seen more of his and Minfilia’s found family relationship in game. There wasn’t a lot of room for it in 2.0, it could have been in the 2.x patches a bit more, but a lot about their relationship is described after she’s already gone.

Ran’jit was Thancred’s kill. There is no way that was originally written with the General porting out last second just for the WoL to suddenly be able to defeat his plot armor. The Trolley RP Duty has the foil character set up, the “last special bullet,” and the player is controlling Thancred at the time. It makes no narrative sense and stinks of executive meddling out of some fear the players would feel cheated by not having it be WoL who defeats Ran’jit, but it’s a serious misstep in the story. We could have, should have, fought suped-up Jongleurs as the speed bump boss to Vauthry, as those characters also were woefully underused.

I’m also hoping for more personal Scion history as we get to Old Sharlayan; while most of the older Scions are from or were educated in the Dravanian Colony, being around the culture and people again shall surely give us more information as to their academic backgrounds.

And we all always need more nutkin interactions and shenanigans.

[wel-kynd]

WoL Intro: Lore

This is the Warrior of Light/Darkness version of my main RP character Faero’li - and he is *much* different. Which, I suppose is important given he is the WoL and Fae is definitely not. Here we gooo - 

OKAY so, this is Lore. That’s it, just Lore. Though it’s his clan name, he never felt that his birth name was appropriate since they gave him away as a baby to the Padjal, who were quite unsure what to do with him so they, in turn, shipped him off to Sharlayan where he was quite content growing up among books and relics and becoming a nerdy little archaeologist who specialized in the relationship between aether, soul, elements, and magic as it developed. 

(He also just really likes stories and history, so that his name is also his professional fascination also fits.)

Lore and Y’shtola were the kids in the back of the class muttering about aetherology while their teacher despaired of them, was studying politics not fun? No. No they were not.  He was *not* a good mitigating influence on anyone younger than him, for as bookish and studious as he was - he was an awful prankster. Still is (sorry literally anyone in Gridania for that one time that was Lyse’s fault).  For all of his playful, snarky personality - Lore has, as the Warrior of Light, been through some stuff. The Calamity, especially, rocked him as it did the entire Circle of Knowing. His being forced to attain the soul of the White Mage, also changed him - he was given to the Padjal for reasons, after all. He’s cool with Raya-O-Senna, but E-Sumi-Yan can get wrecked by a Pescatarian. 

He will never accept a drink from anyone that he did not watch them open and pour. He is forever watchful of his friends and changes in their aether, because they should have caught the possession and they didn’t.  There is not a single thing he wouldn’t do for Ishgard, at this point. He absolutely has a bet with Tataru and Krile about when Estinien and Alphinaud get together. (He also has one with Krile about when Wedge will actually say something to Tataru). He never had a romantic relationship with Harchefaunt or Aymeric - though he’d have considered Aymeric at some point now they are very good friends and allies. He has always been a little inappropriately attracted to Raubahn. And while his heart is pretty complicatedly tied up at present (post ShB) he’s always been free with his physical and sexual affection. He’s had crushes but never really had time for them before. Now he was too much time and something that launched so far past a crush it’s fucking ridiculous.  He wants to punch Nero in the face as much as he wants popcorn whenever Cid and Nero get into it. He is not a mitigating influence there. At all.  Y’shtola is his best friend, though the entire Circle are his family. He babysat the twins and will kill for those two hellions.  He.. absolutely had a weird complicated thing with Emet-Selch and G’raha both, and is in fact still rather in love with G’raha even if he doesn’t think he’s worthy of that any longer. (Worthy of love in general, not specifically Raha’s). 

He really loves the Pixies. Like, if he could become one, he would. 

He is a snarky, tired healer with a playful, good heart. Ask me anything ‘bout him! 

[whitherliliesbloom]

Post-5.2 ShB  ❀ Illya/Alphinaud with Alisaie  ❀ 1,039 words

“Do you really intend on following us?!” Alisaie’s raised voice causes her twin to falter in his step. The foot he raised forward, once determined to tail the pair now rooted and still to the ground.

“You’ll forgive me for thinking that your sudden insistence to pull Illya away isn’t at least a little suspect-”

“Gods.. can’t the both of us just have a little girl moment together? I’m friends with the Warrior of Darkness too, you know?” Alisaie scowls and crosses her arms.

“Of course, I’d love for you both to spend time together.. but last I remembered, your ‘girl moment’ merely entailed you badmouthing me.”

Alphinaud knows better then to leave his sister or Krile alone with Illya - a lesson he sadly learned the hard way after catching wind of Illya’s growing knowledge of his far too embarrassing days of naivety. 

From the fact that his artistic abilities came from his efforts in impressing schoolmates of the fairer sex back during his days in the Studium, to the speech he gave as he stood forth his seniors. 

He could not understand just what gave them such immense pleasure as to regale such awful, pathetic tales of his past to Illya.. but one too many embarrassing secrets revealed to her has made him determined to put his foot down and ensure neither of them are ever left alone with the lalafell for too long - especially not when both are present.

Alisaie fully understands what he means, though her scowl merely grows deeper. Gesturing to the corsage of peach blossoms she now wore in her hair, clipped on not even five minutes ago by the Warrior of Darkness, she chides back.

“Oh for pete’s sake, it’s Little Ladies’ Day in the Source!” 

Alphinaud’s eyes widen, and his gaze quickly shifts to the shorter woman beside is sister, who merely flashes him a sorry smile and nods as response. 

Time in First has robbed Alphinaud of his once impeccable memory and knowledge of Eorzean festivities. Not that he was ever hugely celebratory, but it is indeed hard to not know when a holiday is taking place with the elaborate decorations and activities that are strewn in the cities. 

The First obviously has no equivalent of a Little Ladies’ Day festival.. but he should have known- from the moment he saw Illya stroll up to them gowned in a long flowing pink dress, wearing blossoms in her hair and on her ears to match.. a far cry from the robes she donned during battle that he’s grown so accustomed to. She even said that she had just returned from the Source.. 

He truly believed himself aware enough about her, and yet he’d mistaken her special form of dress to be a mere act of impulse. 

And when he finally remembers her words to him on the very first Little Ladies’ Day they had spent together three whole summers ago, his complexion turns pale.

Alphinaud had watched as Illya’s violet gaze was stolen by the pink blossoms around her, watching as individual petals broke off and drifted towards the ground gently. He’d contemplated brushing off the stray petals that had gotten caught in her hair, and so nearly did until Illya’s unspeakable gentle smile catches him off guard.

He knew his then friend had a fondness of flowers, if her longing stare towards flower beds in the wild were any indication.. But he hadn’t quite grasped the true extent of her love for the holiday, and what it meant to her.

Asking her if she liked the holiday, Illya had nodded to him far too eagerly than he’d expect. 

“It’s one of my favorite times of the year.”

He was awestruck by her very own awe towards the festival,  and though they had been nothing more than mere colleagues at that point - albeit as his heart tormented him with wishes for more to come of their relationship.. Alphinaud swore to himself that he would gift her flowers every Little Ladies’ Day - or at the very least give her a token, a symbol of his sincere belief that she too, like any other girl deserved to feel like a princess. 

And he’d forgotten about that promise after lingering in the First for so long, only to find out that Illya had not only likely attended the event on her lonesome, but she’s returned to the First to spread the festivities to the ladies of the Crystariums out of the kindness of her heart - to act like a Seneschal.. when he should have been hers.

The triumphant smirk upon Alisaie’s face says it all, as does the evident look of guilt that washed over Alphinaud.

“Oh, forgetting something, brother? Perhaps you’ve forgotten what Little Ladies’ Day is supposed to represent.. Or have you forgotten what you said? Is that any way to treat the woman you said that you would be glad to watch over for the rest of your life if she so allowed it?”

Alphinaud’s face is ghost white now, though his cheeks are speckled with a hint of red and he worriedly turns to look over at Illya, whose expression of surprise wrenches at his gut even more.

“A-Alisaie!” 

His sister merely shrugs, leaning her weight to her other leg as if to sway mockingly at him.

“Well? Go on, then. You have time to get her something while we have our girl moment. Or must I tell Illya more about-”

“I get it, thank you!” the young man quickly interjects, raising his hands up in the air. “I’ll come look for you later Illya, I promise.”

The speed at which he bolts off shocks even Illya, who slowly turns her head up to look at her friend beside her.

“You’re still going to tell me something embarrassing about him later, aren’t you?”

With a mere shrug, Alisaie cocks her head to the side and replies.

“Well, if we intend on being family in the future, I thought it’d be better to make sure there are no secrets between you two.”

It was the lalafell’s turn to blush in a fluster now, and the sound of Alisaie’s fills the air of the Crystalline Mean.

[catleha]

𝑪𝑯𝑨𝑹𝑨𝑪𝑻𝑬𝑹 𝑺𝑯𝑬𝑬𝑻

repost, don’t reblog !

𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐬 !

full name. Y’shtola Rhul. pronunciation. yash-toe-lah R -uh-l nicknames.  Cultured Conjurer (ARR), Lady White Mage (HW), Master Matoya, Sorceress (SHB), ‘shtola (Matoya & Y'mhitra only). height. 5′1″-ish  age. varies; early twenties during ARR - HW, late twenties during SHB zodiac. aquarius languages. Eorzean (English), various other languages (predominately ancient). Language as such later on loses most of its merit for Yshtola learns to read scriptures & tomes based on the aether one can find in the very ink. it does not matter in which language they originally are.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS.

hair colour. white. eye colour. formally teal, milky white / scorched silver post lifestream retrieval. After evoking the forbidden spell “flow”, Y’shtola lost her sight. skin tone.  rather dark fur / tan when measured under human standards.  body type. slender built, quite lean. Certainly feline. accent. British according to modern standards dominant hand. right handed. posture. rather elegant & upright, can be considered crooked now & then whenever exhaustion overwhelms her. tattoos. circle of knowing tattoo on both sides of her neck. most noticeable features. scorched eyes, cat-esque fur, tail & ears alongside a rather peculiar, feline built. Other than that she can be considered beautiful according to human standards, even tho she wants to hear none of it. -- flattery will not bring you any sympathy.

CHILDHOOD.

place of birth.  close to Sharlayan. hometown.  due to y (jaguar) tribe's nomadic nature, Y'shtola never had an actual hometown; she used to spend of her childhood in Matoya's Cave, close to Sharlayan, however.. birth weight / height.  unknown. first words. unknown siblings.  she has several half-sisters & certainly just as many brothers given her tribes’ mating customs (seeker of the suns are generally described as polyamorous); she knows little of their existence. The only half-sister she keeps close is Y'mhitra Rhul, a summoner resident in Gridania. parents. Rhul Nunh (father) &  Y'lyhia Rhul (mother). parental involvement. barely any. Post her mother’s demise, her father concluded on sending both, Y’mhitra & Y’shtola to respective mentors to let them carter to their arcane inclinations (mostly due to them being so close in age & likewisely gifted). While Y’shtola was sent to Master Matoya at the age of nine, Y’mhitra & her mother left to start a life in Gridania. The jaguar (y) tribe on the other hand continued to travel South. -- Y’shtola has no contact to them whatsoever. 

ADULT LIFE

occupation.  aetherologist, archon (member of the circle of knowing & the scions of the seventh dawn), sage of the Night’s Blessed.  current residence. Rak’tika Greatwood (SHB). close friends. Urianger Augurelt, Lyse Hext, Thancred Waters, Minfilia Warde, Papalymo Totolymo, Alisaie & Alphinaud Leveilleur. relationship status. single, read: married to her work. financial status.  well financed driver’s license. n / a criminal record. unknown

SEX & ROMANCE.

sexual orientation.  uncertain, presumably homosexual romantic orientation. uncertain, presumably homoromantic  preferred emotional role. submissive | dominant | switch  |  unsure preferred sexual role.  submissive |  dominant  |  switch |  sex repulsed libido. it exists & Y’shtola has certainly acted on impulses before but she is not one to pay that much heed to it. She has other priorities over all. turn on’s. n / a turn off’s. n / a love language. She expresses affection in her very own, special ways. Y’shtola is not one to openly shower you with love, compliments or other, similar signs of affection. Her love is a tough one shaped & formed by her patron Matoya. -- a pat on the shoulder, a compliment disguised as a piece of advice, a genuine smile or the attempt to open up in someone’s proximity are signs of her trust & love -- If she considers someone close enough she will allow herself to be weak, show fatigue or sadness & even become physical (embraces, actively searching closeness, etc). In the most dire case (aka a high level of trust) she will willingly sacrifice herself for a person’s very well-being or ask them unthinkable things like “would you describe the sky for me”. -- most of her “love” however remains strictly platonic. relationship tendencies. Y’shtola is prone to not only seclusion but also long periods of total solitude, in which she studies, practices & meditates. -- she prefers a reclusive lifestyle & does not openly look for friendships. In fact, Y’shtola prioritizes work & the sake of the many above her own social / love life. Needless to say, her negative self-perception & all that jazz come into play too. 

MISCELLANEOUS.

character’s theme song. Torn from the Heavens; a theme that plays whenever she participates in battles / appears in Dissidia; for Shadowbringers & the change it heralds, I envisioned something like Wardruna’s Solringen (it unites Rak’tika’s general flair with a tad more edge). hobbies to pass the time. studies, reading, research, practice. Sometimes she simply likes to indulge in sitting somewhere in quiet reflection, drinking tea & eating cake. mental illnesses. insomnia (post HW), ptsd. physical illnesses. chronic blindness on both eyes (irreversible) . left or right brained . left fears. powerlessness, loss (especially in regards to the scions), being helpless / unable to protect those she loves, the dark. self confidence level. she seems & acts quite confident & self-assured, yet is plagued by doubts, fears & constant worry (due to overthinking certain situations). Her self-perception in itself is first & foremost extremely negative up to the point where she considers those close to her as more deserving. -- Y’shtola also has a knack for considering herself as absolutely unlovable due to having been devoid of affection whilst growing up (loss of her mother, being sent away at the age of 9 + Matoya’s rather gruff parenting style).  vulnerabilities. limited eye sight (can access the lifestream / aether at a cost); the aether allows her to see rough shapes & forms, but details, colors, expression, etc are lost on her. To conclude, she has learned to sort certain coloring of aether or its particular behavior to i.e her friends / scions. Other than that Y’shtola is completely blind. 

If subjected to another world, her aether-based eye sight may either get better or worse. -- a good, contrasting example is her travel to the First (shb) versus her time spent in the World of Spiritus & Materia (dissidia).   The exposure to the aether-supersaturated world of the First, on the one hand, dimmed her eye sight but increased her general capabilities (while being in Rak’tika, she can see the entire swamp / Greatwood through connecting with the soil & / or trees around her). Spiritus & Materia’s realm improved her general eye sight but slimmed down her sight’s overall capabilities (she has been depowered in one way or another, unable to properly connect with the merged lifestream of multiple worlds). 

Albeit being able to draw strength from the lifestream & thus become more powerful & able to see, her ‘gift’ comes with a massive cost; every time Y’shtola accesses the lifestream she suffers from headaches, nausea & sometimes vast bouts of fatigue. While she adapted over time, it is quite certain that the stream itself is consuming her. At one point, Y’shtola will burn out -- every use of aether & the power that comes with it drains her off her lifeforce. 

tagged by: @noxerro tagging: @sparkblood, @murios, @garuvusu, @gaidna, @martyrcrowned, @hyethla, @hisburden, @scionsect, @regalvus, @onlyliberty, @ofvesper, @lightsprotect, @leveilleurisms, @thuashdore & @gunslingir.

[stammeringwhitemage]

BP’s Warriors of Light

Or well, the three that are currently the highest levelled, anyway.

Trust Banner template by @spotofmummery.

Full Name: Takawa no Kasumi Race: Raen Au Ra A White Mage of considerable power and great empathy as well as crippling shyness. Modest to a fault, it’s easy to mistake Kasumi for a run-of-the-mill medic, but make no mistakes, for she has felled a dozen Primals and three Ascians and is still counting.

[Honestly, I’m keeping this one short because you know Kasumi by now. She’s my baby girl and always will be, no matter how many gods she kills. Located on the Crystal Data Center, on Brynhildr.]

Full Name: Thala Lihzeh Race: Hybrid Miqo’te; Keeper mother, absent Seeker father. Identifies as Keeper Some people try the local cuisine when travelling to a new destination; Thala seeks out a mentor in the local fencing school, and invariably incorporates elements of every school she’s trained in into her own personal fighting style. Despite her young age and small frame, she’s a nearly immovable force on the battlefield and sometimes called the Scions’ ‘goddess of war’ by those who have seen her fight Primals and Imperials.

Thala seems to know no fear, staring down enemies several times her size without flinching and launching herself at them without a second thought, especially if it would serve to protect someone else. Thala’s energy levels are through the roof at all times (exception: the crash at the end of a day or particularly grueling fight) and her attention span isn’t the longest in the world, so she can come off as dull-witted sometimes. But that same high energy is what makes her so eager to throw herself at ever more dangerous foes, and while she won’t be devising grand-scale battleplans anytime soon she’s more than capable of adapting on the fly.

Have fun trying to deplete the nine lives on this one, Elidibus!

[Thala is my secondary main, and probably the one with the most ‘canon’ jobs; prior to SHB dropping she had Paladin (her main job), Dark Knight, and Samurai fully levelled, and I plan to drag all three of them to 80 and add Gunbreaker to them. I affectionately call her the ADHD tank, because dear god I love her but she needs to learn to sit still and look before she leaps. I’m running her through SHB as a Dark Knight since it’s the featured job for the expac. Ready to claw out eyes and save the First from our base on the Chaos Data Center! (Louisoix server)]

Full Name: Hunter Covey Race: Midlander Hyur A Thanalan native whose entire family was uprooted and sold off as slaves. Hunter himself slaved in a quarry for the ‘best years of his life,’ trying to serve as a bit of a protector for his weaker and less vocal fellows -and earning a name as a troublemaker and designated punching bag for his owners in the process. In a fit of rage and strength now attributed to his Inner Dragon, he broke free of his restraints and slaughtered his supervisor one day, fleeing as far as his legs would carry him before he could throw himself onto a carriage bound for Gridania.

One’d think with a history like that, Hunter would be hardened and unsociable, but the opposite is true- he’s a friendly and spontaneous bloke most of the time, although his resolve is tempered and he’s hard to intimidate because really; wasn’t that bad when his masters did it, can’t be that bad when someone else does it. Unfortunately his attempts at being the Big Damn Hero are often foiled by his partner’s continued lack of awe for him and his own borderline legendary clumsiness. Still, if push comes to shove Hunter can be very competent, earning his spot as a honorary member of the Order of Dragoons.

[Oh, Hunter. My special son. I don’t know what it is with this guy but he defies all logic and laws of reality. A running joke between my boyfriend -who plays his partner, the Dazkar huntress Fioxi- and myself is that Hunter falls through reality as a matter of regularity and has accepted this as a fact of life, following my own experience clipping through one of the bridges of Limsa Lominsa and falling out of bounds.

Similarly, his clumsiness is derived from the fact that I never fail to fall off of EVERYTHING with this guy while all of my other characters can keep their balance just fine. The Matron’s Ledge in the Central Shroud is where this started- and it continues in Titan, Bismarck, Ravana, the platforms in Costa del Sol- believe me, if it doesn’t have an invisible wall, Hunter has found a way to fall off of it. Good thing he’s a Dragoon so he can Jump back onto track easily.

...and yet he somehow had the highest FPS out of the three when we did the level 71 dungeon earlier today. Hunter, what the FUCK.

Based on Exodus in the Primal Data Center.]

[the-wardens-torch]

Airing my SMN grievances like so many dog turds baking in the summer sun because I feel like it.  Read on... if you dare.

TL:DR - The majority of what ShB gave us was more control over our summons, it sucks and I blame players who prioritize style over substance.

SMN is in a really weird and difficult place right now and honestly, I blame the 4-5 years worth of people whining about how the class didn’t feel “Summoner-y” enough.  Every time I go to the lodestone DPS forums, there’s at least one thread on the front page about “SMN is just a ruin mage” or “what do DoTs have to do with summoning?” or “I want to be more like Yuna!”

I think a lot of people decided to ignore the unique and technically challenging class SMN was simply because it didn’t fit their concept of what a “real summoner” was supposed to be. (People also seem to forget that most FF summoners had white and/or black magic in addition to their summons.  Not everything can be “look at this sweet demure pure-hearted mage and the giant pet who follows her commands even though he could eat her in one bite.”)

I love summoners in the rest of the FF series (hell, Rydia was one of my earliest fictional female role models,) but I just don’t think the lore and mechanics of the class can be implemented in a way that “feels” like a true FF summoner. Calling up giant kill-switch monsters that have their own list of commands, take up most of the screen and take a long-ass time to summon is not a good idea for a movement and mechanics heavy MMO. And the class has been moving in that direction since SB.

Phoenix-egi is really cool and a neat idea, but the fact that you have to command it while watching your DoTs, dodging mechanics, managing cooldowns and doing everything else is really hard. It also feels really awkward to switch between spamming as many skills as possible with Bahamut-egi to carefully managing an exact sequence of skills with Phoenix-egi.  And of course who can forget Iffy, Rude Gary and McNugget, who now only use special attacks when we tell them to, no longer proc Ruin IV with their regular attacks, and no longer provide buffs/debuffs.

Annnd don’t get me started on how aetherflow energy drain’s timing is tighter than ever now that you can only use it in combat and only get 2 stacks of it. You have to be extremely careful to always have 2 stacks before any downtime (i.e between trash pulls or boss phases) or you’ll lose a lot of time and DPS once the fighting starts again. Also DWT doesn’t even buff your MATK anymore, so its debatable whether you even need to use it for any purpose other than building aether for Bahamut and Phoenix.

All this, AND its fallen quite a few tiers in terms of sheer DPS.

Underpowered/low tier I can handle.  I spent a good portion of my Ragnarok Online experience playing “trash” builds (battle priest, combo monk and to a lesser extent, crit hunter) and had a blast because all I did was PvE and the occasional boss. The same with FFXIV - because I don’t do Savage content, PvP or even most raids, I feel like all I have to do is obey mechanics and try my hardest. I’m fine with being at the bottom of the parse if I’m having fun and not handicapping my party.

But underpowered and extremely difficult to optimize?  That’s something else entirely. The ideal SMN rotation takes what... 2 minutes now? Ain’t nobody got time for that.  Especially a filthy casual like me.

I’m still hoping for some QoL adjustments at the very least, since SMN was pretty borked at the start of SB too. But in the meantime, Fal’s going to go back to his performer class roots and... DANCE.