#viking plays endwalker

[thevikingwoman]

well you should see it in pink to match your hair!

[maridiayachtclub]

shout out to my dual Aesthete's Rings of Crafting, made by myself at the end of Shadowbringers, at the time the top of the line crafting rings. i overmelded them a little bit and they subsequently proved to have better stats than literally anything short of overmelded crafted gear in Endwalker, and only now, here at level 100, with Dawntrail's currently highest available crafted rings, have i come up with replacements that are superior. these little dudes lasted me an entire expansion longer than they were supposed to. no other bits of gear in this or any other MMO i've played have served me as faithfully. they weighed like anchors on my ilvl throughout EW but hell if we didn't make it work.

in the tradition of outdated FFXIV gear, i gave them a viking funeral and desynthesized them. it would not do to have them molder away in some retainer's back pocket, crammed in with the leftover moogle tomes and six year old chocobo feed. the rings were part of the cycle of gear, and back into the cycle of gear they go.

crystals to crystals, mats to mats. like, we literally just went over this in the MSQ. you hold the good memories close and move on

[amaiuna]

ian's endwalker job gear photoshoot: tanks

lmao the first photoshoot was taken back in march 12.. i've been lazy (nothing new) to upload them here HAHA

at least the last one was on april 2 and i did tell myself "imma upload everything when all job pics are taken" sooo.. it's still in april... same month, good enough ^o^

paladin: scholar's harbour. starry seaside with the grand thaliak statue at the back

this was actually taken as the last set of pics, since ian wanted to redo the first ones we took cos they didn't use the job's default idle pose. and honestly i like these ones more LMAO so majestic ooof and i don't even play pld 😩👌✨✨ *chef's kiss*

warrior: tranquility, wild life at dusk

the concept of warrior's job gear always looks savage and wild for me (yknow like some viking stuff... bears...) sooo.. i decided to take the pics in this tiny sharlayan forest area. added a touch of sunset lighting to make it more dramatic ✨ this set was done so fast cos i was satisfied with my first take ❤️

dark knight: archons' design, illuminated shade at night

ian chose the spot for this set, and i must say it's not bad at all! feels lonely and gloomy owo. i took both in daylight and nighttime, but decided the night one was better cos the glowing windows made some nice contrast with the dark. i joined in cos yknow.... i only play drk for tanking so why not HAHA

gunbreaker: the rostra, making a statement

ah gnb and its condescending, fuckboi vibe 😭 (imma blame thancred as its poster boy.) ian chose the spot as well and i really liked how the high glass ceiling fits so well with.. gnb personality HAHAH and the pics turned out great, like them so much!!

[khorren]

Video game roundup

Every year I like to do a quick lookback at the games I've played over the year. Some I've barely touched, some I've put significant time in to, but it's nice to have a look back and see what I got up to :)

Guild Wars 2

iAs always, my main game. We saw the end of the Icebrood Saga back in May, and have been awaiting new content since. We've got the new expansion End of Dragons coming in February which we're all excited for. Kept busy during the downtime with the "Seasons of the Dragons" / "Return to..." achievements. Got a light set of legendary armor through WvW. Got legendary sigils and runes. And various achievements and other things along the way. Game's definitely kept me busy.

Final Fantasy 14

Stopped playing around 5.2 and came back a month or two before Endwalker to get used to the game again. Spent some time as a Lalafell, then a bunny girl, then lala again. But back to Catgirl for Endwalker. Still working my way through story, taking it slowly. Have a weird love/hate relationship with the game. But I do enjoy my time there, it's just not a game I can call home. It does do certain things right, but GW2 ticks more boxes for me.

New World

Played this back in Alpha when it was just sort of a weird crafting game with PvP and not a lot else. It got revamped into a weird pvp game with gathering and crafting with some pve elements but not enough PvE to make it meaningful. Played a few of the betas and there's really not much of a game there. It's absolutely gorgeous, the combat is OK, but I just wasn't feeling the substance of the game. I think there was a story in there somewhere? Like I know the vague "this is why you're here" of the game, but after that I couldn't name a single story npc. Absolutely none of it mattered. Glad I was there to experience it, but glad I left when I did. If anything, it's been an entertaing game to follow on social media for how wrong everything's gone.

The Forest

Baaaaaaaaad survival game. I'm used to survival games giving you zero clues what to do, but this was just.... terrible. The only thing I really remember about this game was fighting a mutated human monster.... thing. Its lower half was just a lot of legs. A loooot of legs. Its upper half was a set of boobs (?) and its weapon of choice was throwing mutated non-babies at you. Not gonna lie, it was pretty disturbing. We didn't spend long in that game.

7 Days to Die

Acceptable survival game. Didn't spend too long in it, but was OK. A little bit of direction for what you needed to do. But wasn't really clicking on the whole. This was just a "something to do" game before we moved back to FF14 I think.

Valheim

Here we go! Survival game I didn't hate :D Ah, Valheim my beloved. A little bit of direction on what to do. The game is quite beautiful for what it is. A tiny game that barely takes up 2GB of space. Characters aren't going to win any fashion contests, and your building materials / building items are pretty simple, but you can lose yourself in building giant towns, viking lodges, massive mountain castles for days or weeks at a time. Whether you want to gather all the materials yourself or just use console commands to cheat it's up to you. But basically you start off alone and naked and build yourself some basic tools and clothes. Kill a boss. Get an upgrade to get more materials or building pieces and you journey to meadows, forests, swamps, mountains, plains, and more. You get to meet such friendly creatures as goblins and deathsquitos. Mosquitos who can instakill you with one stab if you're not paying attention. The game shines with friends. You either play on a friend's world save with them hosting, or you can pay a 3rd party company for an always online server. And honestly, if you can get a few friends together to play this, spring for the server for a month or two and you'll have a barrel ton of fun.

Elder Scrolls Online - Blackwood

Another journey into the world of MMOs, this time Elder Scrolls Online. They came out with their new expansion which meant a new story, new zone, and new features. In this case you could journey with one of two companions and build them as you wanted. Whether tank, dps, or healer. They'll never be as good as an actual human companion, but they were nice for open world stuff to support you, and if you and a friend each took a companion, they were OK for doing some low to mid level 4-man dungeon content.

Sadly, I find ESO expansions pretty lacking and am always kind of disappointed by them and should probably stop getting them on release cos they're pretty pricey for what they offer. ESO on the whole is worth a play, but it doesn't make a sustainable MMO experience for me.

ARK: Survival

Dinosaurs! Another survival game. It's absolutely massive and it's pretty fun, but not really clicking with me. But having fun adventures with friendly dinos is pretty entertaining. This is currently my 3rd game on rotation.

Two Point Hospital

My beloved @drazzi got this for me a couple of years back and finally got to put some time into it. It's basically Theme Hospital repackaged, and I loved that game so much as a kid. Run a successful hospital and all that jazz. It's very charming and funny in the right places. A great little time waster.

Horizon: Zero Dawn

I started this last year, ignored it for like 3 months for some reason and then dived right back into it. Great game. Great story. Great characters in the world. Can't recommend this enough.

Runescape

Yeah. Runescape. Definitely rinky dink lookin' but so much to do. Lots to grind. Like loooooooots, but some really endearing quests. The humour's great. Not a bad game to waste a bit of time in. Game feels a little clunky cos of no WASD movement, it's point and click and man my brain didn't like that sometimes. @_@ But yeah, was pretty fun, lots to do.

Breakwater

Early access cutesy building / survival game. Not put much time into this yet, but enjoyed what I saw. Has (had?) a few issues with camera wonkiness and stuff and still needs a bunch of polish, but I liked what I saw and look forward to poking at this again when I have some time /I'm not distracted by 70 million other things.

[thevikingwoman]

okay, some endwalker thoughts below the cut -

alright, killed zodiark, met the loloporrits, and I'm still not over the tiny baby carrot people!! I went and inspected the endless supply of nutritious carrots and the questionable fashion choices, and that's where I am. Some thoughts spinning:

Thank you Thancred for asking where we're going in the moon spaceship:

this is a pretty wild plan? go *somewhere*? we will see what is habitable? i'm still wondering if hydealyn got this idea from midgardsormr, in which case: consider the space death robots.

Thank you Thancred, again, for asking about the other shards:

Hydealyn uniquely loving the source is fucked up. wtf??? that's SO weird and unacceptable. Why the source? So zodiark's followers first had him eat their friends and comrades so some could be saved, and supposedly Venat was against this? or maybe just part two of the plan, zodiark eating everyone so they could have their friends back and rejoining the world. Sacrificing some people so that others could live; which it now seems like Hydealyn is perfectly happy to do too. Ancient behavior, apparently, and it sucks - especially in the context of the story and making the choice in shb that the ascian's plans are unacceptable. Anyway sorry Minfilia, whose love of Hydealyn saved the First, she wants to throw your work and love aside. Meryta is mad about this one in fact.

The mysterious books the loloporrits has recieved for their preparation and their earthly (sourcely? eitherysly?) collaborators:

My thought is this is the Sharlayans? It would make sense that THIS plan is the secret thing the Forum is doing. What if they have been in on the plan all along, passed down to the forum? Since the end of the world is now at hand, they have set the secret plan in motion, making the gleaners fetch all sorts of things for the spaceship trip. They also don't care about fighting the telephoroi, since they are busy with the next bit - what comes after when the world is ending.

Further thoughts on this:

well, that is fucked up, actually. If the sharlayans have Special Hydealyn Instructions to save the world (or at least what they think is imporant, which doesn't seem to include any other cultures and hey what about the beast tribes? ), they why does Hydealyn make the WoL go fight the telephoroi? there whole flower bit and it's a bit fuzzy but I think there's a distinct feeling that the expectation is to PREVENT the Final Days (not cause it whoops, but lets blame Fandaniel). Why not let the WoL in on the whole plan with the moon?

It seems like the sharlayans and the WoL are both the tools, and Hydaealyn is betting on two horses, so to speak. The weapon failed, so now the other plan is taken over. Just little chess pieces moved on a board; out of some allegedly love for the people on the source (only). Hm. The motive feels hollow with the amount of manipulation

[thevikingwoman]

Hello and welcome, I’m Viking!

This is a fandom blog, and I’m currently mostly yelling about FFXIV, but you’ll also find Dragon Age, BG3, and interactive fiction - mostly Wayfarer. It’s my main blog too, so I’ll yell about personal and random stuff too. Obsessed with wizards, mages, elves, minor and overlooked characters, and apparently pirates. 

I’m an adult, and do expect you to moderate your own internet experience. Content is occasionally mature and explicit. 

I write and read a bunch of fanfic, I’ve written fanfic for Dragon Age, Uprooted (Naomi Novik), FFXIV, and Wayfarer

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Meryta Khatin - Warrior of Light 

omni-crafter, archer, protector, self-sufficient, fierce, optimistic, and hanging on by her fingertips

I'm currently playing through endwalker!

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Lastly, I’m Viking because I’m originally from Denmark, this blog is not about vikings, the vikings tv show, the vikings football team; and if you use viking aesthetics for your white supremacy please fucking don’t and I will block you.