#you live in ishgard

[morganali-art]

Rare Pair Week - Day 5 Solstice/Equinox

On the longest night of winter, remember that soon the sun will return.

[1driedpersimmon]

More Sesame doodles!! Also. Can you guys tell when .. *that* happened.. yeah

[sealrock]

me and a friend were talking about thetinne (tauvane) and the possibility of her being half-elezen and how that'll affect her storyline

I'm still on the fence about this but look at that sweet face. thetinne in her younger years maybe

[fooltofancy]

-rm 2, plot 16, 6th ward, lavender beds-

[tovaicas]

my real favourite character is Nidhogg, I’m only obsessed with Estinien bc he’s a hangers-on /jokes

[elizabethrobertajones]

Good choice for an upstanding roegadyn husband for Frog to bring home to her parents to impress them: Rammbroes

Hilarious choice for bringing home an upstanding roegadyn husband to alarm and frighten her parents: Rasho the captain of the confederacy in the Ruby Sea.

[lily-ohfally]

HaurcheWol / WolChefant week day 2: AU

[⚠️] Heavenward; The Vault spoilers, WoL OC; Lily Oh'fally A small fic for day 2 of WolChefant week, vaguely written with Dragonsong Ultimate in mind.

Notes: Written to fit my WoL, Lily. He picks up AST during HW but struggles with channeling magics despite his overflow of aether. When reading please keep an open mind and don't think about it too much :) Comments and reblogs are appreciated! Thank you for reading!

[foxpunk]

okay i love that you made a haurchefant lives au where he survives the unsurvivable unhealable attack. genuinely i love to see it, i love him and miss him and think the "if he lived it would ruin the timeline" thing is stupid as hell. (like, narratively i had made peace with his death, that part is as okay as it can be to me, but then they come up with this cop out "no fun allowed, he Has to die" bullshit come ON thats stupid AND defeats the true tragedy of his death shut UP.)

anyways, thats beside the point, my real question is why is he never disabled though (an obvious question with an obvious answer, but so many people do not even bother asking lmao). like. in these aus i see him either miraculously fully healed or with a bitchin scar. and that scar is oftentimes huge and RIGHT over his spine??? hello. why is he never disabled. why does that seem like a fate as bad as or worse than death to so many of you.

[eorzeashan]

based off an interaction I just had

Estinien: (slowly rotating a leg of meat over an open fire)

Aymeric, the WoL, and Alphinaud, in winter coats: hey Estinien! what are you making?

Estinien: lamb shank.

Alphinaud: that sounds lovely. how is that going?

Estinien: (stops cooking the meat, looks at the raw bloody half-frozen stump on a stick)

Estinien:

Estinien: poorly.

WoL and Alphinaud: (trying not to laugh)

Aymeric: ...Estinien, come to brunch with us.

[crystarium-cafe]

To no one’s surprise, and Tei’s delight, it was snowing. The day had been warm enough that the snow was not yet sticking, but the fat flakes guaranteed that it soon would. Tei tilted her head up, and laughed as a particularly large flake landed in her eye. Wiping the cold moisture from her eye, she turned her attention back to her story.

They were making their way from Jeweled Crozier to Fortemps Manor, and G’raha’s eyes could scarcely hold still as Tei told him all about her time in Ishgard. His last time in Ishgard had been too quick for him to see the sights, let alone learn of Tei’s history here—the time before that, the city had been more of a smouldering pile of rubble than a city. To see it now…

Realising Tei had gone quiet, G’raha glanced at her, and was surprised to see her gazing with tear-filled eyes at a large cathedral looming at the top of the hill ahead. Their walk had slowed to a stop, and silently G’raha waited for Tei to be ready to continue. He knew the next part of her tale—it had been a heartbreaking entry in Count Fortemps’ memoir, and from Tei’s reaction, the pain still lingered.

They had properly toured the city earlier that day—Tei having requested her walk down memory lane after he was more familiar with the city so that his attention need not be divided. As he stood there, he felt her grip on his hand tighten as she slowly told him of the dear friend who had been a brilliant light in the darkness when she had been adrift and alone. The man who had been a friend true when she had felt betrayed by those she had trusted. When fleeing into the snow with scarce resources, she had led her two remaining friends to the only place—the only person—she had dared to trust. Scared, powerless, alone, she had turned to Haurchefant. And he had welcomed them with a warm hearth, hot coco, kind words and wise council. When she had been at her lowest, Haurchefant had held out a hand to help her up again.

Listening to Tei describe her departed friend, G’raha could see it all in his mind’s eye. The lighthearted moments between the hard—Haurchefant had clearly possessed the ability to lighten Tei’s load with more than just action—and as Tei spoke, G’raha could see just how much the man had cared for her and the others. But more than that, G’raha could see just how much Haurchefant had loved Tei. And as Tei stood there, tears streaming down her face as she spoke of his death—how he had pushed her out of the way of Zephirin’s attack; of Alphinaud’s desperate attempts to heal him, how powerless she had felt—G’raha was surprised to see that she was smiling through her tears.

Turning to him, Tei continued. “He told me how much he loved my smile…and— and I’ve tried to keep smiling for him.” She paused, then looked him in the eyes. “Haurchefant was the first person to see me. He knew I was the Warrior of Light, of course—the Champion of Eorzea—but he never seemed to care. To him I was, forever and always, his dear friend Tei.”

He had loved her, G’raha thought as Tei wiped her eyes. And though it had not been in the same way, Tei had clearly loved Haurchefant in return. G’raha could see it in how Haurchefant’s legacy had shaped the dark knight Tei had become.

“A knight lives to serve─to aid those in need! There is no greater calling for a knight than to save the life of his fellow man.”

G’raha smiled, and pulling Tei into a hug, he kissed her forehead. “Thank you, Beloved, for helping me to learn more of such an amazing person.” He smiled warmly when she looked at him.

Tei laughed softly. “I wish you could have met him. I rather think the two of you would have been good friends.”

G’raha pressed his forehead to hers. “I do not doubt it,” he replied.

[budugaapologist]

what if i just put my ffxiv hot takes in the tags.

[ishgard]

Mostly referring to you not your WoL/OC, but either works and feel free to specify for both in tags if you want! Now it's been asked a hundred times but with new cities out…

[autumnslance]

The worst part too about the Paladin quests is it's Heavensward that's most egregious. It honestly feels like someone had no idea what was going on, or didn't care, or left, and their colleagues left holding the bag with this mess of a story had no idea what to do with it.

ARR Gladiator quests are fine! They're along the lines of the other Class quests, intro you to the job and a complicated character dynamic, and it's a decent time.

The ARR Paladin quests...are just boring. They aren't actually even that bad, they're just...utterly predictable, bog-standard tropes and plot line where you can see everything coming malms away. But they have an internal logic to them that builds on the politics and scheming in Ul'dah. Jenlyns realizes he's an unwitting pawn of the Syndicate, and he was literally chosen for the job cuz he could be easily duped and controlled. He doesn't even get to have imposter syndrome, he's actually unfit for the job (and then strives to do better, leveraging support from Papashan and Mylla to shore up his own weaknesses, which is admirable!).

...Nevermind that traditional Paladins in general are a bad fit for Ul'dah. The heavily armored Sultansworn makes no sense in that desert environment, and looking at a world map we can even see that Southern Thanalan seems to be on the equator. Like it's not even a case of "it's cooler than it seems cuz they're further north." Because they're not. And I know the devs wanted to have Ishgard perhaps be a starter city but that was scrapped due to time and resources, fine but um.

Dragoons are still trained in Coerthas, by Coerthans. Why didn't they just...do that with Paladins? Keep Gladiator in Ul'dah, where it makes sense as presented. But then have to work with Temple Knights to get the Job. Especially since after Ul'dah's intro, the game just forgets the Sultansworn exist and they have no bearing on the MSQ the way the other factions in Ul'dah do. Not even in the finale of ARR's arc where it would make sense. Gladiators are a constant in other side quests and MSQ both.

Stormblood Paladin is also fine--because it goes back to those Gladiators, and we interact with Paladins and Knights across the realm, and deal with those complicated relationships between the Gladiator guild core members. It's internally logical in its drama about finally restoring Aldis's reputation and place in Ul'dah, against the backdrop of the tournament.

Heavensward Paladin straight up makes no sense. Solkzaygl's actions are entirely contradictory to his character and arc from ARR. There's no way for some of the actions to occur without him working with the outlaws in some way. Instead of teaching Constaint, he sends him on a merry chase across Coerthas to learn on his own, and it's only the WoL's aid that sees the boy live, let alone make progress. A random man dies, guilt-ridden, due to Solk's scheming and lies he confided to this poor guy.

And then Highlander-esque "there can be only one" nonsense. Even as a Highlander fangirl in my youth, it was insulting and awful. Papashan, Jenlyns, and Constaint all call out how nonsense, illogical, unlikely, and stupid this whole story is...all to make a sword shine.

Because there's no internal logic to events, let alone the reason for the string of happenstance that leads to the finale.

And we know it's possible; HW Blacksmith gives us a fantastic paladin story! One that fits Ishgard's storyline and HW's themes. HW Dark Knight is also a good paladin story, actually, as they are meant to be another angle on the concept of dedicated knight defenders. Samurai for the Eastern equivalent, and the concepts and tropes present in those quest chains.

But the job actually bearing the name "Paladin" is left in the dirt. As a fan of the concept across various games (video and TTRPGs both), it's quite frustrating how the devs had no idea what to do with this job, despite other members of the writing and scenario team presenting stories that would have fit perfectly well within the framework. Only some of it is misplacing where Paladins originate in the setting; the rest is not taking advantage of the themes and setting of the expansions, and just not caring enough about the characters and story to even try, compared to the rest. Or worse, they did try, and meant for more, but whatever intrigue and complex plot they wanted to create was too much for 5 quests and no guarantee the arc would continue in the future, even if it had landed perfectly.

[stars-and-clouds]

You know what makes Aymeric and Haurchefant special?

Despite having every reason to be cold, vengeful, mean and selfish people-being bastards, living in a house they weren't born to, growing up in an environment as hostile as Ishgard, having inherent beliefs different to everyone around them- they still chose to be kind.

I think it takes something away from them if we assume they were simply born with a kinder deposition.

Haurchefant was bullied by all of Ishgard, including his step mother, for being a Greystone. Aymeric was adopted and has really low self esteem because he probably grew up hearing how ill deserving he is of everything he got by being adopted into house Borel. Yet they both made a conscious choice to be better. They wanted to treat others the way they wanted to be treated themselves. They wanted to love and invite change when Ishgard taught hate and stagnation.

This is why the warrior of light would've failed in doing everything they did if it wasn't for Haurchefant and Aymeric. How many warriors of light have tried helping Ishgard before us? Over hundreds of years of war, this revolution can't have been the only one. Yet it was during our lifetime that the stars aligned perfectly to have Haurchefant aid us and Aymeric lead us into changing Ishgard for the better and bring about peace.

Without Haurchefant, we'd have ended up in prison and possibly executed (he saves us again by taking a blow meant for us) and we wouldn't have been let into Ishgard. And without Aymeric's trust over his best friend he wouldn't have let us go to Dravania and afterwards, invite the reality shattering truth about his ancestors' actions and usher Ishgard to peace and unity.

Everyone hails the Warrior of Light as the antithesis to bad with absolute power. That, if they're there, everything is solved. But without Haurchefants and Aymerics, the Warrior of Light would be nothing and would not be able to solve half the problems they have solved.

[tovaicas]

friend and I were discussing it and it's so fucked how the ishgardians literally have nowhere to go even if they wanted to run

[gatheredfates]

On the Topic of Plagiarism:

I decided to make my own post rather that co-oping @thefreelanceangel's because, despite having her full and enthusiastic permission to do so, what I'm talking about is somewhat adjacent to her point and entirely inspired BY the fact she tagged @riftdancing—particularly Blink—and I wanted to demonstrate examples of incidence were coincidence and consent do not immediately equate to plagiarism; it's ultimately about intent, and you do not need to tear yourself up on the inside if you find someone with a similar idea to yours, provided neither of you have gone out of your way to copy each other.

First, please meet the troops:

On the left is Miss Koret Swan. On the right is Miss Blink Vaniro. As I so delicately summed up:

It would be easy to surmise, based on this alone, that one of us copied the other person. However, both of these are old characters, written in a time and space where neither of us knew each other, and the similarities have always been a cause for laughter and playful teasing rather than competition and spite. I made Koret in WoW as a sister to a wolf and lamb concept, and Pepper made Blink as a character to an overarching D&D campaign set in a sci-fi universe.

What I'm trying to say is that, whilst plagiarism is absolutely a bad thing, as someone with anxiety over this sort of thing, you do not need a wholly 100% original idea in order to write and roleplay publicly, and many ideas share overt similarities to others that deviate the moment you peel back the veneer.

Koret and Blink are both 'pirates'. Koret is a privateer (said with all the sarcasm a privateer entails; a pirate with the proper papers) and Blink is a sky pirate. All of Kor's theming is around the ocean, particularly the deep ocean, and Blink's is all about the sky and the freedom it gives. But they both have wolf motifs. Kor has had a sister, Blink has had a brother.

What makes these characters different is the way that we explore them and how these broad ideas become niche based on the concepts we want to expand on as writers. What makes them different is that neither was written despite (or even in spite) of the other, nor did one of us look at the other and go 'oh, i want to do x with y because i think it'll be better'.

There are dozens of femme fatal concepts out there. There are heaps of bad-ass men. If I had a dollar for every knight character that was in xiv alone, I'd still be a rich woman. Hell, I know for a fact that my star-gazing viera is certainly not the first of her kind, nor will she be the last. I can coexist in spaces with people who have these similar concepts because I know there's enough deviation between those characters, as I have spent the time cultivating a niche story for mine where broad concepts are more set-dressing than the actual meat and potatoes of the character.

If you have the ick about someone copying you, especially if you have a negative history with them or the person is being weird, you're probably right on the money. I have had characters of mine blatantly ripped off for the former. But this is more for the reassurance of people who are like 'I don't want a pink-themed miqo'te because I know one already exists' or 'I don't want to play with a spore druid concept because I know one exists' (i'm using my own miqo'te here as an example, LMAO). You can have a primadonna, pink miqo'te who lives in Ishgard and is clawing her way to the tippy top of the high houses and I wouldn't stress because my primadonna, pink miqo'te is currently knee-deep in a bog because she heard she can find peat mummies there. They're not the same. They share similarities, but they're not the same.

Write it because you think it's fun. Not because you've seen x's concept be popular and you want a slice of it. Not because you want a ship similar to y's and you're going to gush about how much you love it and try to mosey in with a knock-off (no, this has never happened to me, what do you mean?). You're not going to have the same amount of fun!! It won't be the same!!

But also, at the same time, don't rob yourself of an opportunity to play with a concept because someone else is already doing it, especially if it's just a trope. People can tell the difference and they will embrace it if you're earnest.

You may even find someone like I found Pepper. We laughed at it. Then we made an AU and shipped them. They're kissing. They are stabbing. They are kissing and stabbing each other.