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floopers · 9 months

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Granblue Fantasy F/F List

Decided to finally put together a list of most of the F/F content in the game after spending so much of my time on this game. I got into gbf because several of my friends were playing it at the time and recommended it to me so I gave it a shot but found myself a little overwhelmed in the beginning since it was all so massive. I just wanted to make this list in case anyone else felt the same as me back then.

This is not meant to be a comprehensive list because I don’t have everyone nor have I seen every event so I will miss some things. I mainly want to just have this as a small guide to help people get straight into the content either because they’re interested in the characters but don’t want to play the game or aren’t there yet in their progression.

I’ll try to find youtube links to fate episodes and events because the great thing about gbf is that almost everything is voiced save for the R/SR versions but some of these are a little bit older than when the game got a localization so not every fate episode or event has a video link. With that said, all transcripts are also up on the wiki.

Some further background info for those new: In GBF, characters go through character development either through events and/or their fate episodes so later versions of the same character may reference back to a previous point (ex. Silva’s later versions after her Water SSR assume that the events of Water Silva’s 100 uncap/Song’s 100 uncap have happened). Alternately, an older version of a character might have gotten their 5* uncap that continues their development from their latest version (water socie and grand vira...) I’ve tried to put things into what I believe is chronological order but there are some I’m not too sure on. I just wanted to explain this because the development of Vira is all over the place and also weaves some of the MSQ into it because of Katalina.

There’s no particular order to this list other than the first few are the biggest ones that the game likes to tease I should have put megmari should’ve been at the top tbh

1. Katalina and Vira

Friends who went to the military school of Albion together, Vira grew attached to Katalina to the point of obsession. Vira became Lord Commander of Albion while Katalina left and they don’t meet again until years later.

Main Story Quest - Chapter 17 (this section is also covered in season two of the gbf anime as well with some extra context)

Dark Vira’s fate episodes

Summer Vira’s fate episodes

Grand Vira’s fate episodes

Wind Vira’s fate episodes

Fire (Promo) Vira’s fate episodes

Main Story Quest - Chapter 126 - 127 - 128

Valentine Vira’s fate episodes

Grand Vira’s uncap episodes

Both Katalina and Vira are playable in Granblue Versus (GBVS), the fighting game spin-off where they have many unique lines against each other and Vira also has a special CG if she wins against Katalina (can be seen in her character trailer release)

by default, Ares and Albion should also be mentioned here

they also feature in Lowain bro’s daydream events where they’re making up stories but your mileage may vary on them (Water Vira with Katapiller is part of this so I didn’t include them, and nothing I read seemed notable anyway)

they have battle banter with each other

Official Art

https://twitter.com/gbvs_official/status/1490293562256551936

https://twitter.com/granbluefantasy/status/1032553052769644544

2. Song/Tweyen and Silva

They used to be great friends until a big misunderstanding led to the both of them avoiding each other. They get better.

(Water) Silva’s uncap episode

Song’s level 100 uncap episodes - uncap at 80 / 5* episodes

Note: Silva and Song’s uncap episodes are essentially the same outcome but they play out in different perspectives (the crew and other Eternals are involved in Song’s version, Silva and her family are more involved with no mention of the crew in Silva’s, and the way Song is portrayed is very different between the two [later writing leans toward Song’s version being the canon event])

Make Up and Go! event

Light Silva’s intro fate episode (her skill fate episodes don’t have Song)

SSR Cucouroux’s fate episodes

Summer Silva’s fate episodes

Song’s Transcendence Episodes

A Sweltering Eternal Getaway event

Light Silva has battle banter with Song (unsure about Silva’s other versions)

they have a song together

character live performance from holiday stream 2023

Official Art

https://twitter.com/granbluefantasy/status/1204702378219335682

3. Yuel and Societte

(I’m not too brushed up on these two so sorry for any inaccuracies)

Childhood friends who went their separate ways looking for the Nine-Tailed Fox connected to Societte. A lot of things happen along the way but reunite on the Grandcypher, and they also take in two other foxes for one giant, fluffy family.

Fire Yuel’s fate episodes

Forgiveness and Gratitude

Water Yuel’s fate episodes

Kou and the Hollow Existence

Wind Societte’s fate episodes

Summer Yuel’s fate episodes

Water Societte’s uncap episodes - uncap at 80 / 5* episode

Yuel is also in GBVS, Societte features in both her Skybound Art and winning end pose - Yuel’s trailer

they have an image song together (which is also used as Yuel’s theme for gbvs)

They have battle banter with each other

they also have a dual unit together

Official Art (also includes the rest of the foxes)

https://twitter.com/granbluefantasy/status/1095880330437771265

https://twitter.com/granbluefantasy/status/1188032539534905344

https://twitter.com/granbluefantasy/status/1236205872600080385

https://twitter.com/granbluefantasy/status/1095880330437771265

4. Zeta and Beatrix

Childhood friends who ended up joining the same organization, Society, for different reasons. Both are impulsive and brash but Bea tends to get into a lot more trouble and needs Zeta (and/or the other Society members) to bail her out of it.

Gripping Freedom - introduces Beatrix and Eustace, Zeta does not appear until the end

Dark Beatrix’s fate episodes

Platinum Sky

Summer Beatrix’s fate episodes

Right Behind You

Second Advent

SR Beatrix’s fate episodes

Spaghetti Syndrome

Home Sweet Moon (this was the 7th anniversary event and many of the prior events are needed to understand everything leading up to this and they have a great moment with each other at the end)

Earth SSR Beatrix’s fate episodes

Water Zeta’s fate episodes

Ramen Travels with Cassius

They have battle banter with each other

Official Art

https://twitter.com/ebten/status/1369591062604304385

https://twitter.com/granbluefantasy/status/1082956205964681217

5. Lecia and Monika

The both of them work for the Enforcers to safeguard the skies, with Monika being Lecia’s superior. Both are dutiful and serious to their jobs but Lecia wishes they could have more time off together.

(Arcarum) Monika’s fate episodes

Grand Lecia’s fate episodes

Grand Monika’s fate episodes

Water Lecia’s fate episodes

Valentine Monika’s fate episodes

Summer Monika’s fate episodes

Summer Ferry’s fate episodes (Lecia talks about Monika and both Vira and Ferry point out how important Monika must be to her)

I know they’re part of the main story quest but I cannot remember for the life of me when they appear other than in Act 2

5. Meg and Mari

Childhood friends and schoolmates. Meg’s dream is to have fun at Auguste but through a series of escalating events that may or may not be caused by the presence of our crew, Meg ends up becoming skyfarer material and joins the crew of the Grandcypher. Mari stays behind to help rebuild Auguste and wants nothing more than to settle down with Meg into one big, happy family.

My Beloved Auguste

Auguste of the Dead

Summer Meg’s fate episodes

The Time a 37-Year Old Former Imperial Soldier Expanded His Horizons Through the Experience That Is Saunas (Mari only shows up in Chapter 3 though)

Mari’s journal entries are also just really telling: 1 / 2 / 3

They now have a song together

song performed live at the 2023 holiday fes (the start is a mini skit)

They now ALSO have a dual unit together

Official Art

https://twitter.com/granbluefantasy/status/1419960779957182467

https://twitter.com/granbluefantasy/status/1422844785765752833

https://twitter.com/granbluefantasy/status/1337336346772262913

https://twitter.com/granbluefantasy/status/1470018678473506816

Their seiyuu are also really into it

6. Athena and Medusa

Athena has been on a 79 years mission to find a certain primal beast with eyes that can petrify people. They navigate through school idols.

Athena’s fate episodes

Love Live! Door to the Skies

Medusa is always mentioned once in all of Athena’s home lines (including her summer summon, except for her 100 portrait)

The two of them show up in the background of Summer Satyr

Official Art

https://twitter.com/granbluefantasy/status/1103543318883885056

7. Medusa and Satyr

Friends who go centuries back.

Primal Resonance

Fire Satyr’s fate episodes

Earth Satyr’s fate episodes

Created By the Stars, Loved By the Skies

Yuni’s skill fate episodes

Summer Medusa’s fate episodes

All versions of Satyr will mention Medusa in her home screen lines

They have battle banter with each other

The two of them show up in the background of Summer Athena

8. Michael and Gabriel

Coworkers who go millennia back.

What Makes the Sky Blue

000 (Note: they did not feature in the second of the WMTSB trilogy)

The Magnificent Mole Troupe one of my favorite events

9. Gabriel and Europa

Europa is Gabriel’s disciple, being primed to be able to lend her aid in case the world gets into more catastrophes that require the intervention of the Primarchs.

Europa’s fate episode (intro only)

Summer Europa’s fate episodes

ZodiaCamp: The 2nd Assembly

Prayers

10. Cordelia and Brigette

Knights of the Lumiel Order of Holy Knights, they joined in the same year and became fast friends. Their bond persists even as Cordelia goes on to become a praetor (think of undercover spy work). Brigette notably refers to Cordelia as her dear Cordelia.

Little Skyfarer a la Sacre Blumiel! (link is to opening, all chapters are up as separate videos)

they have battle banter with each other

they have a dual unit together

11. Narmaya and Azusa

Azusa was taken in by Narmaya’s parents when young and trained in their dojo alongside Narmaya. As Narmaya became obsessed with growing stronger for Zanba, Azusa was afraid of being left behind by Narmaya and so ran away to steal a cursed sword that nearly blinded her permanently, all to defeat Narmaya.

Grand Narmaya’s fate episodes

Azusa’s fate episodes

Yukata Narmaya’s fate episodes - Part 1 / Part 2

Summer Azusa

They have battle banter with each other

Official Art

https://twitter.com/granbluefantasy/status/1677965822315175942?s=20

12. Shion and Mirin

Childhood friends, they unexpectedly met up later in life when Shion runs into the crew of the Grandcypher where Mirin is. They both pursue their ideas of being a samurai, to varying results.

Shion’s fate episodes

Summer Mirin’s fate episodes

Summer Shion’s fate episodes

Official Art

https://twitter.com/granbluefantasy/status/1739194275118670256

13. Black Knight/Apollonia and Orchid and Orchis

where do I even start with this After the death of her mother, Apollonia ended up in Mephorash where she and then princess Orchis became friends. A tragic accident happens that causes Orchis’ soul and body to become separated and leads Apollonia to search for a way to bring her back at any means, becoming the Black Knight and working for the Erste Empire. She is given a golem companion that she names Orchid and plans to use her to bring Orchis’ soul back but things aren’t always as simple as they look.

Black Knight’s fate episodes (including her 100)

Dark Orchid’s fate episodes

They are both heavily involved with Arc 1 of the MSQ, with Apollo’s main motivation being that she wants to restore Orchis’ state but grows conflicting feelings over sacrificing Orchid to do so

Black Knight and Orchid have a (paid) dual unit together

Earth Orchid’s fate episodes

14. Athena and Enyo

Partners who used to work together until Enyo betrayed Athena.

Athena’s 100 episode (introduces Enyo and her relationship with Athena)

Enyo’s fate episodes

Enyo’s seasonal lines generally reference back to Athena

Summer Enyo — I feel obligated to link her uncap art

15. Anne and Grea

Friends and schoolmates at Mysterica Academy. Anne is really interested in Grea’s tail.

Lonesome Dragoness

Fire Grea’s fate episodes - intro (I am unable to find complete parts of her skill episode as of right now)

Water Anne’s fate episodes

Summer Grea’s fate episodes

Check out the Manaria Friends anime for more of these two (the anime is unrelated to gbf and takes place in the Rage of Bahamut verse where these two are originally from)

Official Art

https://twitter.com/granbluefantasy/status/1086986731428077568

https://twitter.com/granbluefantasy/status/1086216657335271424

16. Mireille and Risette

In an attempt to rid herself of her illness with alchemy, Mireille somehow accidentally creates Risette, another living being. Unfortunately, Mireille is still an inexperienced alchemist and this causes problems for the both of them. Notorious for being playable immediately after their event.

Alchemist’s Desire (viewer’s discretion is advised on this event, there are some gory bits and also deals with a lot)

Their fate episodes - Intro / Skill episodes

17. Alexiel and Europa

Both disciples of the Primarchs, Alexiel would like to get to know Europa more but unfortunately, Europa only has eyes (and ears) for Gabriel.

Prayers

Official Art

https://twitter.com/granbluefantasy/status/1633663937676996608

18. Cupitan and Tristette

Cupitan is searching for Tristette, her childhood friend she claims to be brainwashed by the Navis, a secret organization. Things get messy and complicated after that.

Marionette Stars (viewer’s discretion is also advised on both this event and Unbound Asterism, they’re very long and also deal with A Lot™)

Cupitan’s fate episodes

Summer Cupitan’s fate episodes

Unbound Asterism

Official Art

https://twitter.com/granbluefantasy/status/1633301546866995200

https://twitter.com/granbluefantasy/status/1696402300284100953

https://twitter.com/Granblue_GW/status/1738372397634634068/photo/3

https://twitter.com/Granblue_GW/status/1738372590367121751/photo/2

https://twitter.com/Granblue_GW/status/1738373828408205544/photo/2

Congratulations to cupiris winning our first actual on screen yuri kiss

Notable interactions/other things of note that I couldn’t fit anywhere

Ilsa and Korwa - Summer Ilsa’s fate episodes - Intro / Skill Episodes

literally just Cordelia lol (her R version features girls fawning over her winning a battle)

Summer Kumbhira’s uncap art featuring Anila

Summer Anila’s uncap art featuring Kumbhira

Freesia is in love with the previous queen of Erste (Orchis’ mother), many of her actions during the MSQ is motivated on rewriting history so she does not die (her playable character is someone else’s daydream that became a unit so not indicative of her actual character)

Vikala and Kumbhira’s cross fate episode

Vikala and Catura’s cross fate episode

Divine Generals events if you like the generals interacting with each other

Many of the girls have certain seasonal lines toward the player that skew on the romantic regardless of whether you play as Gran or Djeeta (Nier, Anthuria, Yuisis, Clarisse, to name a few) but notable mention goes to Cucouroux who will bring up that you’re a girl if you play as Djeeta

whatever Milleore and Sahli Lao have going on

#granblue fantasy #gbf #three years since I kept forgetting to post this #and my god if you told me we'd get an actual official kiss between girls and megmari coming out with a marriage ring I wouldn't believe it #going to finally post this in honor of them #take a lot of these with a grain of salt tho #my shipping goggles are different from other people's #and at the end of the day there's always a girl for everyone #so just go ahead and smash whoever you want the skies are free and blue

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therealdesastrffxiv · 8 months

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My Thoughts on 6.5! (Note: Spoilers.)

Hey everyone :)

A little background on me - I'm a new player as of late Shadowbringers from World of Warcraft. I know, I know! A scary WoW player. Rest assured, I'm a roleplayer, and not an elitist. I did like PvE content in WoW, but I prefer story building and roleplay. I'm an author, after all!

Anyhow, with that in mind, I admittedly wasn't a huge fan of 6.5 MSQ. What was intriguing about the 6.x series was how Zero's character was challenging the notion of voidsent being just evil in the MSQ. We've seen instances in side content where this is the case, and in fact emphasized - a lot of All Saint's Wake stuff comes to mind (speaking of which, where's the info on it for this year? I'm dying to know!). However, in this instance, Zero's story in my personal opinion really did not end well at all. It was the typical 'defeat dark with light' and 'cure the void'. We went from a half-voidsent hero with a cool, unique aesthetic to just another paladin. I don't mind stories where a darker character goes lighter... in a vacuum. When it's repeated over and over and never in the reverse, to show the 'dark' stuff can be used for good too, though, it gets SUPER old. Why can't we have a paladin/light user switch to 'dark magic' and be a hero? (I know it happens a lot in side content, but I'd want to see it as a highlight of a story for once.) The "Warrior of Darkness" thing they did in Shadowbringers was super neat! But it was, all in all, in TITLE only, not actual lore. The Warrior of Light/Darkness didn't switch unless it's your OC lore that it happened.

All in all, I was disappointed. Any nuance she had went out the window with that generic, predictable ending, and Golbez's arc was waaaay too rushed to be satisfying at all. One could argue he's the 'good void user' or something, but I honestly don't buy it. Meanwhile, Zero's character design changed greatly too. I rolled my eyes hardcore while her scythe broke. Sigh. Plus, what happened to Zero's camp where she was helping voidsent? Voidsent not (as) aggressive? I wanted to see more of them and help them... with Zero (before she became a paladin). They just... left that there. No closure at all. Ugh. One could say everyone there was killed by Barbariccia but i thought they were all freed once she was slain?

Anyway, I was told 6.5 was a callback to FFIV or something, but I've not played any other games and have no interest in doing so. FFXIV has my interest and the reliance on nostalgia in stories is kinda meh. I dunno. Maybe these portions of the game aren't for me, but it's just... disappointing. It doesn't make it a good story. To me, it just wasn't.

(For WoW fans - the story reminded me of Calia & Lothraxion. Somewhat of the blood elf story as well. I'd say Lightforged Draenei, but they're not the dark to light trope so much as just fanatical light users.)

I liked the Myths of the Realm better, but I've seen the community voicing their distaste for what happened, and while I actually enjoy a huge chunk of it, the ending left me feeling very hollow. I've figured out why that is now, too.

I think one of my 'dislikes' even if I like the overarching story of the Myths of the Realm is that we just met everyone, and they all left. I sort of wish it was more 'hey we need a break, can you help us so we can take it? We want to become normal mortals for a little while and learn more about the world in person'. While remaining the gods and gathering power again so they can help more effectively.

I dunno. That would have been a more satisfying ending for me as opposed to them all essentially dying and leaving us with… no gods. It just feels really sad that after all these near world-ending exterminations, now the gods leave. I understand why - they need a break. But yeah… I kinda wish it was done that way 😭 Because I hate meeting a character, loving that character, seeing personification of very powerful entities… and having to say goodbye right away. It just feels really sad. I guess that's the point, but yeah.

I don't mind they were originally people and morphed by beliefs, but I also wish there were hints that peoples' faith were forming new gods (that again - would retain personalities and humble-ness stuff.)

Because after thinking about it for some time, it just feels kinda sad that they're needed the most now, after the world was nearly exterminated, and now they're saying goodbye :s It feels like now more than ever is the perfect time for them to do what they'd understood they should be doing for the world and helping people.

Alternatively, choosing new gods/passing the baton onto someone to help. Choosing your own fate is great and all, but with many people being faith-based (something I don't see as a bad thing - but I'm polytheistic irl) it would have felt better. I would have really enjoyed this option, it could have started a new era and still upheld the faith of the people of Etheirys. To include the tribal deities as well, as opposed to just strictly putting down peoples' primals.

Anyhow. Endwalker had its ups and downs to me. I don't hate it, it was the first expansion I played through with everyone else, after all. Ultima Thule was interesting, I wish we saw more of it. Hated Garlemald at first, but then the sidequests and RP with my friend really opened my eyes and showed me far more nuance with them in general, which was neat. The ending boss was lackluster, and I thought Zodiark was being built to be a WAY bigger threat than he was.

I know it's trendy to hate on Endwalker, and that's not what I'm trying to do. I'm just sharing my thoughts on why the postpatch story felt really off and disappointing to me. I left WoW Shadowlands because of the horrible, abysmal lore. I really hope FFXIV doesn't take that path, and Dawntrail is treated better.

We're going into it with some rushed, 'tied up loose ends' and a favorite part of the game for me with much intrigue (the void) essentially 'to be fixed fine and dandy' or something. I dunno... it just... meh. It does remind me of my disappointment with Shadowlands, and just how horrible that was fucked up, but not as badly, at least.

FFXIV has the benefit of housing for RP though, and me and my RP partner taking our own paths in the story with super intricate plotlines, so there is that. A lot of the side quest content has been phenomenal even if MSQ has let me down bigtime lately. I still love this game and will be playing it. After all, I need to grind PotD and get my Necromancer title on one of my OCs. That...and grind a bunch of my alts up through EW. I know, I'm a crazy alta-holic.

Oh! I will mention one thing I did like about the postpatch EW story though. The dragon, and Vtra being reunited with his sister. That was pretty neat, I did like that. Super cute, and lovely. Good riddance to Zero who I originally adored and was intrigued by, and who now is just another paladin. Hello to a new dragon friend, I guess.

Edit: Also, I probably am coming across as someone who just 'hates the light'. I don't, and think it can be cool to depict either fire or warmth in the light, and the 'light at the end of the tunnel', but when it's repeated over and over as 'the light will defeat the evil darkness' in common media including beyond FFXIV, it just gets tiresome. Again, I'm coming from WoW, which is another game utterly notorious for doing that. We also see it in D&D. It's a common trope in FFXIV in general and I adore seeing signs that hey, maybe this portion of the story will break it, only to be disappointed.

At least we got to see Sin Eaters as bad in ShB. Hell, I'd even like to see some sin eaters take the lore-route of voidsent - some being good, some being bad. It sucks that there currently isn't any lore for that right now, so in that case, I would like to see some nuance and development there, because it'd be really cool to see variants in that aspect too. Trust me, I wish for the 'I hope the extreme end of this can be good as well' too.

#ffxiv #ff14 #final fantasy 14 #final fantasy xiv #ffxiv rp #wol #ffxiv spoilers #ffxiv endwalker #endwalker spoilers #myths of the realm spoilers #6.5 spoilers #msq spoilers #6.5 msq

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lilbittymonster · 1 year

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2022 Writing Round-up

Tagged by @crackinglamb and tagging basically the entire clown car (@yloiseconeillants @azure-dragonsinger @mythandral @whatsthisascianbullshit @tallbluelady @hermits-hovel)

For simplicity's sake, I am choosing to interpret "words posted" as anything I've put either on here or on AO3, since I know my AO3 has seen precious little activity from me lately and most of my work has been doing prompts which get posted directly to tumblr.

Words posted: 34,376

Additional words written: 26,490

Grand total of words: 60,866

Fandoms: 1

Highest kudos count: Crisis of Faith at 24 kudos

Highest hit oneshot: Crisis of Faith at 126 hits

New things I tried: Writing other people's OCs! It's scary! And fun! And Scary! AAAAAAAA!!!!!! But no, for real it's been a lot of fun getting into the headspaces of other characters that aren't NPCs bc it turns into real time collaborative stuff!!! It also helps that we are all just. Constantly yelling about our children in the discord server so there's been a good aggregate of info by now.

Fic I spent the most time on: Dragoon Age: Origins. It took a little over a month and about five or six passes of beta-ing before both I and my beta reader were satisfied with it.

Fic I spent the least time on: Crisis of Faith. I think I sat and got most of it out in one sitting, and rewrote the last conversation once.

Favourite thing I wrote: This post is probably my favourite from this year. I come back to it all the time.

Favourite thing I read: honestly genuinely i do not know. I have read so much this year. The answer to this question is likely something that was posted in the group chat at 2am and has not been posted anywhere else.

Writing goals for 2023: literally anything I have plans for getting to Kitali's Heavensward arc properly. I'm currently playing through her clone over on Light DC and I'm about halfway through ARR in MSQ, so I'm hoping a couple more big pushes will get me into the 2.x patches in the next month or so and then I can start writing fresh off of the story!

I also have the royalty AU that's been banished to the backburner in the wake of all the AUs coming out of the clown car (affectionate) but I'd like to explore that a bit more.

New works:

Crisis of Faith - The aftermath of the DRG 50 fight leading into meeting Estinien again prior to Heavensward MSQ (2,261 words)

Dragoon Age: Origins - A (mostly) external perspective on Kitali's journey from mercenary to Azure Dragoon (16,208 words)

Extinguishing the Last Light - The bad ending where the Scions fail on the First, and another legendary hero is called in their place (4,122 words)

#tagged #writers round up #over 60k words jesus FUCK #and thats not including the stuff still sitting in my tumblr drafts either #so probably closer to 62k all told #this is. and i cannot stress this enough. after nearly five years without writing anything.#mind boggling to see it laid out like that ffs

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mrfippstuff · 2 years

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For anyone who visits the Dissidia Opera Omnia subreddit, I am the guy who made all those character polls, as well as the on-going Burst Theme discussion posts.

When I initially made the character polls I was only doing them for games that I had either played or experienced for myself, which would have been all the number titles up to XIV, and later played XV and Tactics so I could add them to those polls when their turns came up. I had not done polls for other games represented in OO (Type-0, Crystal Chronicles, World of Final Fantasy, Stranger of Paradise) because I didn’t know them well enough to make polls for character that might make good choices to add to OO down the line.

However, upon deciding to make the Burst Theme posts, I decided to know those games better, as a way for making up not making polls for them (a task that has since been taken up by another on the subreddit). I managed to play Type-0, but watched the cutscenes for the rest on YouTube since I knew I may not have time to play them to completion, or in CC’s case, just didn’t have the required consoles.

Basically, the reason for this post is just me going on a rant or sorts about what I experienced when going through these games, so expect spoilers.

Type-0

I started Dissidia around the time it came to global, around the time Setzer came out, so when I heard about how how people are forgotten when they die, it peaked my interest, but it wasn’t until recently did I actually play it. I rather liked most of it, I found it interesting to see a FF game be a dedicated war story, and I really enjoyed the cutscenes that were the narrator talking about the different battles and what directions they took the way, it was always interesting.

It was also fun play, each character felt unique, and regardless of who I was playing as, though Ace, Deuce, Sice and Queen were my favorites. That being said, with fourteen characters in a story more focused on plot than character, they mostly felt underdeveloped by the large; Ace, for example, despite being used as the face for this game, could be replaced with Seven or King, and I don’t think it would matter. Machina and Rem are the only one who really have a story arc, but it’s not much.

To further with the criticisms, this game is terrible in handing out its story. There is just so much background lore that is important to the story that is easily missable because its in a conversation who can miss because you don’t have enough free time, it’s buried in a character’s entry in the in-game encyclopedia, or in a cutscene you can’t see until either post-game or NG+. The final chapter is hilariously terrible because the moment you step back onto school grounds, you are assaulted in an info dump how the world is now suddenly ending and monster and killing everyone. Up until this point the story had just been about war, but now it suddenly it throws all this world-ending horror at you at once, and expects you to role with it. Now that I think about it, despite how important it is, I don’t think the game every actually explains what Agito actually is, at least in an initial playthrough.

When I finished Type-0, I went back and watched the Lost Chapter and MSQ cutscenes associated with it, and I ended up having a much better appreciation for these characters and stories, which I feel OO does a better job at exploring on an individual basis than their home game. Their story chapter about Ace trying to rebuild Akademia, with him talking to the Machina manikin that is an obvious stand in of Izana, and all of Class Zero coming to terms with the end of the game, and Machina dealing with his guilt, felt like a fantastic post-game story line for these characters. Out of all the storylines about characters dealing with their deaths, or the deaths of people they know coming back to life, or how they live now that they have gotten back all the memories of the respective game back, I think Type-0 has done the best job with that.

Also, fuck Arecia. Machina gets a lot of well-deserved hate, but Arecia is a piece of shit. You do this 600 million times, and only now decided to end it? I honestly don’t believe that in the literal hundreds of millions times you have repeated these cycles that this one cycle in particular had something in it that didn’t happen at least a couple thousand times before. it just makes her seem entirely arbitrary.

Despite the contempt people of the OO subreddit has had for the introduction of Type-0 characters being added, I would like more in the forms of Tiz, Lean Joker, Cid Aulstyne and Arecia for the sake of more story.

Crystal Chronicles

I watched this on YouTube, so maybe I missed something, but I really liked how lowkey this story was. It was a very much a story about the journey and not the destination, though it did make jump to fighting a meteor and memory-eating being a bit jarring, but that’s on me for how I chose to experience this game’s story. While the player character is a blank slate, I really liked Ciaran’s scenes in OO more, specifically with talks with Ace in the Type-0 story chapter.

Also, the music for this game is great, I really like the celtic/folk style they have going on, which is an appropriate thing to say because I watched this because I plan on making a Burst Theme post for CC later.

CC: Ring of Fates/Echoes of Time

I really don’t have much to say about these individual games for the most part, but I have gained a greater appreciation for Yuri, Chelinka and Sherlotta, their own personal stories and the struggles they went though. That being said, I think they both had incredibly strong endings.

CC: Crystal Bearers

This was kind of a pain to watch because all the cutscene movies I tried to watch were hit by copyright notices and had to be edited to cut certain scenes out. What was weird is that the scenes that had to be removed with almost every scene that involved Jegran using his crystallization powers. That being said, I did manage to watch everything, and in the end I very much enjoyed the story I watched.

Out of all the CC characters we can still get, I think Belle and Althea are ones I would want added for the sake of post-game material.

World of Final Fantasy

I regret every writing this game off because of the chibi art style and not liking Lann in Opera Omnia because I really don’t care for characters who are so stupid that it becomes a wonder they even remember how to breathe. Once I actually watched the scenes, those previous opinions began to change; WoFF’s srty styles was honestly more fun than I had assumed it would be, and Lann was genuinely much better in his home game than in OO, which I pin on the writing doing a better job of bouncing him off other characters like Reynn and Tama, and WoFF’s more motive cutscene direction.

Also, HOLY HONK, that game’s story is great, it really caught me off guard with how much I became invested in it. I was honestly caught off guard in how it dealt with it’s “endings”. That Bad Ending really caught me off guard. When I finish the current list of games I have, I will go and play this myself.

We really need Tama and Hauyn in Opera Omnia.

Also, the soundtrack is so chill, I love it.

Stranger of Paradise

I have not actually played or watched Stranger of Paradise, between all the memes, the plentiful second hand information due to being a recent release, and watching Shenpai’s supercut, I feel I have a good grasp on this game’s story, though I do intend to play it myself eventually.

Ending

Well, that’s about it, like I said this was just a sort of mini rant about these games I went through for the sake of making a series of posts on reddit, I fully intend to make a post for each game series represented in OO (All numbered titles, Tactics, Type-0, Crystal Chronicles, World of Final Fantasy and Stranger of Paradise) so that will give me twenty posts in total. If you are paying attention to these posts, the FFVII Burst Theme post will be up tomorrow.

Also, I am currently replaying my old copy of Tactics Advance, and trying to find Tactics Advance on YouTube to add them to the Tactics post, but they are a bit low priority at the moment. If I can finish them before I make that one, which is a fair amount of weeks away, I will add them. If I can’t, then I simply won’t.

#final fantasy #type-0 #ff type 0 #crystal chronicles #ffcc #ring of fates #echoes of time #crystal bearers #world of final fantasy #stranger of paradise #opera omnia #dissidia

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rowanul-tyr · 15 days

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Hi! I'm Maddie, and this is my XIV sideblog (my main is @howdomaddie ).

I will mostly be reblogging a lot of XIV stuff, but! Any original content will mostly be of my characters--the catboy above, Rowan, being chief among them. I am a fic writer for the most part, but I've been doing more and more GPosing lately and will post some of those when I remember to do so here!

If you'd like, I have a XIV-centric twitter where I ramble about MSQ and Rowan (and sometimes my alts). If you'd like to get to know the general info behind Rowan and some of the other characters I play regularly, I now have an entire page dedicated to them all that is slowly being updated. I do my best to update tags on posts, and here's the list of tags I use.

For anyone interested in Rowan specifically, I have an entire fic series on AO3 dedicated to him, as well as a more minor tag here for things that haven't made it over there yet (as well as things written by others!). And here's his tag specifically!

Feel free to drop me an ask if you want to chat or ask about any of my characters!

#ty lev for posting your pinned post and reminding me i hadnt done this sdlkfj

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jimmawww · 1 year

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Top 5 unhinged FFXIV Changes rant fuck it

1. New scenario music each expansion. We get new battle music, area music, new theme music but GOD FORBID we change the scenario music that has not changed SINCE 1.0. HOLY. Fuck. If I must listen to ‘Cheeky’ or ‘Adversary ‘ one. more. fucking. time. I am going to lose it and post gore in my friend’s hello kitty discord. Fcuking idk, put mandolins and erhus over the composition for the Stormbringer OST, becuase its, yknow, asian influence? And organs for the HW exp? I hear the first 3 notes and my brain shuts off or goes into rage mode, please I am begging you Soken, I don’t care if you had cancer THIS is giving me cancer, please.

2. Restore 1.0 animations. So MUCH life and SOUL in them, feels like a real game rather than playing a robotic moving mute autist. It simply is too close to my personal reality to immerse into my OC.

3. More social. Enable mics, enable proximity chat, enable chaos and not fucking useless text box chats filled with vague info from random people and merchants and rpers.

4. Release 14 as a stand alone game. Face it its already a dark soul level of online game for most people who don’t rp or social whatever. You do your own thing with a market and character echoes around the place, playing with others may as well be NPCs (Trust). BUT the real question is how to release as a single game: I’m thinking combining ARR with SB (since that was how it was originally going to flow until they needed to bring in Kino-P for HW) and then end with HW somehow. Then next game is SH, EW, and the next one. Honestly I fucking hate ARR and SB and they need to be srsly scaled back because its just in the way of the massive kino masterpiece which is SH & EW which I never would have played if not for the skip pass, ARR patch is that fucking horrendous and I just wish more people could exp KinoBringer without having to play a 6 month headache please god.

5. Need more glamour slots. Honestly this probably the most reasonable, they extended the glamour storage from 400-800 and I’ve already filled it up to 700 from backlog. But they NEED to give us more than 20 glamour plates, like wtf, the REAL endgame here is glam and having such a low limit is infuriating. Its honestly a reason why I unsubbed, if I’m done MSQ and have top gear I only go for side stuff for neat gear and usually its story is not as good as MSQ either. SO. If you want me to keep playing I NEED more than 20 outfits to pick from across ALL my classes. Its such a logistical nightmare and a joke and takes away my impulsion to grind or buy gear if all it does is sit there and forces me to organize it and becomes more of a burden than a boon.

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illegiblewords · 3 years

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FFXIV Lore Resources

Hey dudes! Lately I’ve been reaching out a bit to some FFXIV players who expressed interest in getting a hold of lore resources. I mentioned to them I’d try to set up a post making the most helpful ones I’ve encountered readily available, and this?

It’s that post.

MIRKEMENAGERIE: Easily one of (if not the) most complete and comprehensive collections of lore I’ve encountered online. Includes quotes from NPCs in-game, Encyclopedia Eorzea I and II, item references, and more. The Twelve posts and location lore are some of my favorites but really all of this is fantastic. Very accessible.

HARMONEA: Has assembled a HUGE collection of lets plays on youtube that are organized and well-paced, showing everything from MSQ to Ascian-lore specifically to Job quests and beyond. This has been truly helpful whenever I want to check a reference but don’t necessarily have time to New Game + or check the Unending Journey in-game. It’s easy to jump around to find exactly the scenes you’re looking for, and compare moments from different points during the game.

GARLAND TOOLS DATABASE: Sometimes I need lore details from specific quests, that aren’t in cutscenes or easily found in a video. Garland Tools helps with tracking down quotes, character information, and much more. Also contains data around NPC designs. Doesn’t have cutscene quotes, but does have enough info to find what cutscenes you’ll likely need to watch. Whether on youtube or in the Unending Journey, it gets much easier spotting references.

TALES FROM THE CALAMITY, TALES FROM THE DRAGONSONG WAR, TALES FROM THE STORM, CHRONICLES OF LIGHT: THE HUNT BEGINS, TALES FROM THE SHADOWS, TALES FROM THE TWILIGHT: These are official FFXIV short stories associated with A Realm Reborn, Heavensward, Stormblood, and Shadowbringers respectively. The story from Chronicles of Light is also canon but insanely difficult to locate, contains details surrounding Zenos’s backstory and psychology. These absolutely carry lore details! You don’t need them to understand and enjoy the game, but they give added information and context.

ALL FINAL FANTASY XIV 1.X MAIN SCENARIO CUTSCENES: I have not gone through all of this yet but you can bet your ass I have it saved.

FINAL FANTASY XIV 1.X LETS PLAY: Likewise haven’t gone through all of this yet but if you want really detailed 1.0 lore info, this has it.

OZMA’S ASCIAN REFERENCE PILE: Contains both concrete known information, game data, and speculation by Ozma as a longstanding Ascian fan. 1.0 WHITE MAGE QUESTLINE: This isn’t 100% canon anymore, but I’m including it because it actually shows the Elementals in voiced roles and that is a huge deal. Worth noting this youtuber has other 1.0 videos documented too.

BOTANICA EORZEA: This contains all lore surrounding the plants of Eorzea, organized and accessible.

MINERICA EORZEA: Sent by @firecattebird, A fully searchable, organized, and accessible doc containing all the lore I could find in-game about the things we pull from mining nodes.

LODESTONE SONG LYRICS COMPILATION: There are often other places you can google around for official song lyrics and I usually use those, but if you want everything in one place this is your spot!

ETHYS ASHER: Has some really good coverage of the niche parts of Eorzea’s history and solid discussion/speculation surrounding various lore elements. I haven’t gotten to investigate deeply but did enjoy his coverage around Belah’dia and the Great Wyrms.

Lastly, while not lore related I do want to share a particularly fun resource with the people who might be peeking over.

EORZEA COLLECTION: A lot of players in FFXIV are heavily invested in the design components of the game, and this is a hub for that. Whether you’re looking for something in the vein of Dark Souls, something outrageously silly, something cute, something majestic, etc. you can basically find all kinds of tones/experiments here. You can restrict what you see by job, race, gender, etc. and order according to recency or loves. It’s also somewhere you can see how gear looks with different characters, dyes, and combinations. Very organized and can be a useful resource for farming.

#FFXIV #final fantasy xiv #final fantasy 14 #ff14 #ascians #hope this is helpful!

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aethernoise · 3 years

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I've never sent you any asks, mostly been a lurker haha. But since you're asking for asks, I've been very inspired by your writing about Alyx and Aymeric to write about my own WoL for fun. But one thing that I struggle with is figuring out their story over the course of the events of 14 (i.e. what they did during HW versus ShB, any character growth they experienced). Do you ever run into that? Are there things you do to explore/brainstorm?

First of all: hi! I'm so happy to have helped you start writing about your WoL! and lurking is fine by me, but you’re welcome to toss questions anytime if you have them.

Secondly, this is a great question and absolutely something I do struggle with. I think that as a whole, for any "canon WoL" character it can be really difficult to reconcile your personal viewpoints and writing preferences with the myriad details of the MSQ (and everything else). It's super overwhelming feeling like writing your OC this way means they have to be as canon-compliant as possible and you have to include every single major event and it has to play out as it did in the game unless you specifically declare it "canon divergent." Even if that expectation doesn't actually exist, I feel it, y'know?

(This got a bit rambly so here's a cut for good measure)

If you want to do that, hell yeah. I don't do it because it feels dishonest. It's also a shitload of work I'm not interested in doing. I want to write about the aspects of the story that are important to me and important to Alyx. For me as a player there are large portions of the story that straight up do not interest me. There are whole portions of the MSQ I've cut entirely from Alyx's story and others I've shifted and expanded to suit my own creative needs.

A lot of my ideas come from the moments in between major events--sometimes entirely fabricated free moments, like Alyx's stay in Gridania to recover after Rhlagr's Reach--I tend to write in stepping stones along the path rather than a fully paved road.

And that's how I've always approached writing the relationship, too. Focus on the events or story elements you feel strongly about, or have a funny idea about, or wish were different in a specific way. Don't feel like you have to include everything, because you don't! I like to think I'm able to tell a compelling story about two people over the course of several years & 3 expansions with only small pieces. I really hope I am, anyway. And there are lots of in-between bits I intend to go back and explore in more depth because I have ideas for how to do it. For others... I have nothing whatsoever, and have to remind myself that's okay too.

I unfortunately don't have solid tips for brainstorming but I like to make lists. Otherwise I yell at my friends or info-dump all over twitter. Sometimes, if I'm stuck, complaining about it helps--if I explain WHY I'm stuck I can usually talk myself into an idea or solve the problem. You can do this totally in private, though. Sometimes I just info-dump into a document to blow off steam about how frustrated I am that I Haven't Written This Yet Because XYZ and... sometimes just that is enough to get wheels turning, or give me a new perspective. Your mileage may vary.

I certainly hope I answered your question in a satisfying way. I haven't had any coffee yet so my brain cells are not all awake, but I really appreciate the message and welcome any further questions you might have if you ever have them. Enjoy & best of luck with your own writing!

#thank you so much!#munday random questions #emily blabs about writing

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autumnslance · 5 months

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Hello Autumn! I love your stories! You’ve inspired me to make my OC WoL to write about. The thing is I don’t know where to start? Any tips or advice you could give that could help me get started? Thank you so much!

whoop, meant to post this one earlier and got distracted! But hey; maintenance day.

I found prompt lists are a good place to start; there's all sorts of character ones out there, some for WoL and some generic ones. Even if your answers changes as you write the character, they're handy for noodling out some ideas to get started thinking about who they are and why.

Otherwise, take a look at MSQ itself. Maybe play through it, first time or in New Game+ and take some notes; how does the character feel about this, and why? Not you the player; what about your rough idea of the character's background and personality would make them react to X event or Y person? How? Why? Some will be influenced by your own knowledge of the meta and plot, but there's a lot we can glean by seeing the story as the character experiences those events.

And then we can write about it later.

We all put a bit of ourselves into our characters, we can't really help that; they are reflections of our thoughts and experiences, even when quite different from us. A "successful" OC, In My Opinion, is one that you start to realize would do or say things you never initially intended, but it's the right course of action for them.

I've spoken on this before, that trusting our own character creation, how we determine some things about the character at the outset, even subconsciously, can and will have an impact. And sometimes we just have to trust ourselves and see where that unexpected thread leads.

*stares down thousands of words, hundreds of screenshots, and a handful of art commissions, over 5 years for a ship she never meant to write to begin with*

And it's not set in stone! You might change something, find some things work better later after all, retcon a few things, follow a random thread only to find it doesn't work out...and that's OK. Don't be afraid to experiment. This is all for fun!

Also don't try to determine every detail at the beginning; it's a way to box yourself in, or an excuse to not get started in the first place. I knew on chargen that Aeryn's bio dad was a Coerthan farmer who died in a lead-up attack to Ferndale; I didn't know anything else, not even his name, for years, until a random idea from a random prompts got me. I sat on it for a while, and then eventually followed the thread into the Avengret storyline. We also didn't have Thavnair until EW, so I left a lot of things about Aeryn's family vague and purposefully off to the side of the "mainland Thavnair culture" to give myself some breathing room, and it's worked out decently.

The game's always updating, changing, and evolving; give yourself the same space the game writers do themselves, and determine if new info makes you want to retcon something or work your own lore in alongside updates; flexibility is key, and characters can be wrong, misinformed, lying, or altered by events and people they meet.

Anyway; these are a few things I work with. I think some of the earliest things in my blog you'll find for any of my characters are some short prompt responses before I started writing and posting stories involving them (and some of those answers have changed over time as I grew more certain of who they were--or they changed!). I have notes from ShB and EW MSQ--some just sentence fragments, some short scene or dialogue ideas--to get how Aeryn reacted to MSQ events and interacting with people. Most of them never end up in stories, but they're important as they let me noodle out how to write about those events.

Hope this helps! And here's to seeing your WoL join the fray. 😘

#final fantasy xiv #lyn prompts #lyn meta #writing #character development #blogging #about me

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thefirstknife · 3 years

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I did specify people who *don't* play seasonal content (and I would include events like Dawning or Festival of the Lost in that for the purposes of "extra content vs MSQ") for whatever reason or who came in late--there is no reason for somebody who missed Dawn, for instance, to have any idea about anything revealed in it unless they explore lore or talk to people. I don't usually bother chatting with people about lore or world building when I play a game casually, I just do whatever the main storyline is and that's that. So any really casual players like that truly have no reason to know about the rep in the game. There's also something weird to me about expecting players to stand around listening for idle lines they have no reason to know exist unless they're in the fandom and have heard that they're a thing. And for the lore, it's easier now than it was, yes, which is awesome (I hated having to go to a website or complete tasks that were beyond my skill to unlock, so glad that's largely gone now)--but if you're a newbie or a causal the sheer amount can be daunting to contemplate trying to read through. Especially if they have no reason to think there's anything important to the story or contemporary characters. (The gear lore, for example--most games I play the attached info is just flavor text and if you skip it you miss absolutely nothing except maybe a joke. If I went in to Destiny thinking it was like that I'd have no clue there's actually important and relevant stuff revealed in the text attached to gear!) I don't, however, see a way around that since Destiny is basically a bunch of lore with gameplay tacked on (I mean this in a good way, I love lots of lore--it's just a bit Much for people who are just starting out or very casual and can easily overwhelm them trying to find where to start.)

I should've specified a few things as well, I think.

What I wanted to highlight with the post about Saint and Osiris and the devs having to confirm it is mostly that devs still have to do so much work to explain something very basic to people who are *NOT* the innocent newbie players just asking questions. Devs and the community have to bend over backwards to explain O14 to people who play a lot and have access to all content but refuse to accept that the game has canon LGBT+ rep. The twitter thread where that discussion happened was specifically about someone posting O14 art to reddit and being viciously mocked and attacked by homophobes who kept denying that it's a canon relationship.

Again, I do not fault new players for not knowing. But usually when someone is genuinely just new and they're told, they don't start vehemently denying it. I've seen a lot of new players not knowing, being pointed in the right direction and then being overjoyed that there's representation.

Other than that, yeah, people who missed on all previous content and don't have access to seasons and don't play events and-- yeah, they'll miss out on a lot of information. I know it's daunting to get into it at this point, but luckily there's plenty of different types of ways to do so, either by researching alone or engaging with the community through sites like these or youtube or podcasts. I've been there, I was very reluctant to start engaging because I had no idea where to start. And ever since, Bungie has made significant improvements to that so people can now start engaging much more easily.

It still requires some bit of work on the part of the player though. And that's likely to stay that way. Destiny is not a new game, it has 7 years of storytelling behind it and it's really downright impossible to get every single new player acquainted with everything right away. However, I do hope Bungie keeps improving this (which they seem to be interested in doing).

#destiny 2 #lore #ask #long post

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porta-decumana · 3 years

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5.55 spoilers below:

The MSQ was good. I’ve been pretty critical of the MSQ since 5.0 (it’s pacing has left a bit to be desired imo except for 5.3) and 5.5 did not feel like the hype train it needed to be but 5.55 rectified it somewhat. I still feel as though most of my hype is from the 6.0 trailers/info from Fanfest, not from how the story is presenting the next expac. But I still enjoyed it overall and thought it was def above passable. Just lacking a certain ‘oomph’ aspect I feel would’ve made it better. Definitely an A- in my book.

The solo instance was by far my favorite part of the MSQ and probably the best thing about 5.5. I loved getting to swap between the characters and revisit spooky lunar versions of our old primal friends. I was very excited to see Old Lord of Crowns back again when I got to play as Urianger. I hope that’s a sign that they’re revising the cards again, at least to give AST something a bit more for DPS rather than Malefic, Gravity, Combust, and Earthly Star. I really miss old Lord of Crowns. Critting that felt good.

Poor G’raha was probably traumatized by my awful BLM play.

Aymeric with the “I beg your pardon” line had me actually chuckling irl. I am glad we’re finally putting to rest the beast tribes as secondary, passive antagonists. It feels like a plot point overdue in terms of needing to be wrapped up.

Estinien dodging Aymeric just to fail to dodge Aymeric = good shit. I hope Estinien is also ready to have Nidhogg roar when he’s in my Trusts. What is that Koji? He wants to make sure he doesn’t go too hard and hurt us? He didn’t seem to care during the Carteneau instance. .__.

Fourchenault was very much what I expected. I feel like he’s sus though for reasons the characters have stated.

I’m still waiting for Fandaniel and Zenos to do something that feels pertinent other than vague about things as they have for the past 3 patches. It’s been nice and we did get a tidbit more with the roar from the tower but... I was wanting a bit more. Just a smidge. Also there’s no way that roar isn’t Anima. Having just watched FFX footage, the roar sounds the same but louder in FFXIV. Runner up thought: the roar is some primal embodiment of Garlemald which terrifies me more because what if that means a primal version of Solus? Anima seems more likely though.

Venat being the person at Silvertear feels basically confirmed now with Hydaelyn-like dialogue to go along with it. I question why nothing more is made of that scene. The WoL at this point is probably seasoned enough to be like “hey guys... there’s some shit going down, I just saw a weird glowing lady over there that sounds like Hydaelyn” but I digress, maybe that’s me projecting a bit.

I’m not done with Bozja yet (gotta do the new instance) but some thoughts after hitting rank 25:

I’m ngl, once I would’ve been all for the Mikoto x Cid stuff but since I have a friend who ships her WoL with Cid, I’m just... hm. It’s reaffirming the fact that I like having the NPCs having ambiguous love lives instead of having shipping in the actual quests. I think Yoshi P has made good calls in the past about being as open with stuff like that as possible so people can headcanon whatever they want. So seeing it up front... has me with mixed feelings.

Where is Nero, where is my boy. This entire experience would be improved if 1 Nero tol Scaeva was present.

Gaius getting namedropped was nice considering the entire Zadnor arc feels super ARR-esque. Gabranth feels like a younger Gaius with less indoctrination and a different end goal. Gabranth was my favorite character in XII and I’m excited to see more of him.

Oboro and Tsubame being in Zadnor were both pleasant surprises. As well as the Nagxia lore from the field notes.

Overall, Zadnor being the exact same thing as Bozja is just... I mean, I expected this. They told us this. But that doesn’t make it any more palatable. At least the level grind isn’t too awful (looking at you Eureka). The first area was abysmally flat and uninteresting but the rest of the zone is okay. I wish if we were gonna continue to get instances like that, they would be... less bland and flat? It just makes the slog seem more sloggish imo.

SHEMHAZAI <3

Lilja is growing on me. I wish her a happy be in more content in the future and a very live through all of it.

I continue to be conflicted about Misija. I think if I resent her at all, it’s because she kicked my ass one too many times in DR. I’m... intrigued about what will happen to her, I guess.

Fran showing up again with the speeder and giving me big XII nostalgia.

Cid coming back for this arc of Bozja ALSO felt really good. I was sad when he wasn’t around for the last few installments. I’m glad he’s getting to resolve his feelings about the Bozja Incident.

#ramblings //#5.55 spoilers #ffxiv spoilers #spoilers #msq spoilers #bozja spoilers #long post

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neurotic-knives · 5 years

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Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood, The Story of Hali Naras

Beneath the cut is probably a very long story, detailing a lot of feelings and other things, including feelings, opinions, and experiences as told from my perspective. I will not be tagging certain people with whom I’ve since parted ways, both to prevent further conflict and spare them all the reminder that I exist within a shared space, especially as some have come to fear or are made uncomfortable by me for some reasons I wholly understand, but some that I still do not fully comprehend. For those people, if you see this post and choose to read it, I am thankful for the good times, and regret all the bad that has transpired despite them. I hope all involved here, friend or otherwise, can move on and enjoy Shadowbringers with nothing holding them back. I know that I will.

Near the end of Heavensward,

I returned to FFXIV after over a year of being gone. I didn’t leave of my own volition. I’d changed out my phone, and, with it, lost my authenticator. I had issues with customer service, then, and, instead of deactivating it like I had asked, they removed my payment info and said nothing more, essentially, as I put it “soft-banning” me from the game.

WoW had become a toxic place for me. The creativity and ideas that I had grown to love sharing with my friends had begun to be spurned due to several changes in leadership, some of whom were not used to my off-the-wall ideas and story arcs there. Combined with the rise of community groups like Failzeroth and the like, I had wound up seeing, as the Discord admin, that I was being talked about behind my back. People dithered on what to “do about [me]” because the ideas I had for my longest-running character, @titantechcorelyn, were viewed by the leadership at the time as “possible, but not probable” despite countless instances of proof in the lore, which I prided myself in knowing inside and out. I made the decision for them, and I left the game after getting sick of feeling like I was being swept under the rug.

At the time, my ex-girlfriend and roommate had a friend from work that we both got along with well who played FFXIV and got us both back into the game. After a couple of days trying again with customer service to get my account back, I was back in. Corelyn Rosefire, my main at the time, a Garlean defector who had long since taken refuge in Eorzea, was brought back into the spotlight, and I began trying to find RP again as I worked my way through the MSQ, preparing for the new Stormblood expansion.

Eventually, I reconnected with @danshadowsrp / @raptorswithlaszorz, who had been a fabulous and supportive friend for a very long time, since almost a decade ago when we met in WoW. He was the one who helped me ease into my transition and I owe finding my identity entirely to his help. He means a great deal to me, even though we don’t get to do much together these days.

Corelyn’s story moved forward slowly but steadily, and, eventually, I met Aegir, Bragi, and Araceli during a “Garlean Bar Crawl” RP. I eventually got Corelyn involved with their Garlean group, and a linkshell of Garleans at the time they were all part of. The frienship grew, and I began hanging out with them exclusively. They were great friends and I loved every moment we all spent together, hanging out and having fun.

Eventually, I was introduced the the Gold and Glory free company, which was still run by Jaliqai at the time, being a hunters’ guild full of Xaela and Miqo’te, yet that also played unwitting host to the “Not-Garleans,” Aegir, Bragi, and Araceli, as well as Araceli’s main, Lirilith. It was less than a few months in that Jaliqai decided the she no longer wished to run G&G, and passed leadership on to the Not-Garleans, who made a fantastic RP experience with their boundless creativity and inclusiveness. They invited me in, at that time, and I’d found my first real home in FFXIV since before, for the long time I’d played, I never really belonged anywhere. This felt nice. I had good friends.

G&G took off. There I met wonderful friends, some of which I still am happy to know, including Naoh, Keerith, Dato, and more. Soon, I decided to use that font of creativity within the free company to create a character that I had intended as an experiment: Hali Naras, my main character now known by the name Asashio no Haruhi, and the subject of this tumblr: an autistic Keeper of the Moon miqo’te of somewhat awkward height and build who, through the Echo, could feel out aether and tried to use that to copy spells she experienced or studied. She was meant to be something I had never done before: a character based on what was, overwhelmingly, a self-insert concept. Inevitably, she grew, and she grew fast. She was discovered by another of the Not-Garleans, their boss, Zheng. and, after helping with a job gone south, she was taken to meet the Crawfords, Aegir and Bragi’s personas for the new owners of G&G, played by an alt of Aegir’s and a recustomisation of Bragi’s main.

Things were off to a rough start, as, given the lack of a real event system, we used Grindstone rules for the most part, opposed rolls never quite working out for her. She was established very quickly as a fluke - someone who performed well when no one was looking, at first meeting, then proceeded to become a helpless, anxiety-ridden mess, incapable of really helping anyone, even herself. She was beaten, broken, and abused, time and time again, to the point where it sort of became a running joke. Aegir tended to play off on it in his comics quite a deal, picking on her from time to time, though usually just in good fun. I’ll admit a small bit of resentment over it since I had wanted her to start off as a somewhat competent, interesting character, but instead wound up with a woobie.

Hali liked to cook, as I do IRL, and so she found her niche within G&G thanks to some intervention. She would go on adventures to hone her skill and magic as much as she could, but her primary job was the overnight chef. She excelled there. My penchant for writing food porn got her far, there, and so we also decided to open G&G’s old tavern, the Bountiful Chest, back up. I took the lead on the project, creating a menu, helping to make the restaurant, and taking the lead on running things. The crew at the time was fantastic, Araceli waiting tables, Aegir and Bragi hanging about as the Crawfords, greeting people and overseeing operations, Hali cooking up a storm, and, as time went on, more and more people took part. It was a fun weekly thing - or semiweekly as my health began to decline due to a mixture of issues that I have only recently begun to have treated.

We began to network from time to time with the Outriders free company and with a storyteller, O’byahta, who was a big part of that FC, run by @glitterychaospersona and @superiorthaumaturge, along with a couple others at the time. Hali got involved in “Byahta’s Ventures” around the same time as she was scouted out by Aegir, Bragi, and Zheng’s “Immortals,” a sect of Thavnairian Blue Mages that were throwbacks to FFXI’s BLU. Hali faced a great deal of turmoil, but always managed to overcome it.

We had also, eventually, taken over the Garlean community linkshell, being heavily active with the Not-Garlean, networking with Corelyn and a multitude of others. We created what was called the Fustuarium, a group of Imperial special agents that would hunt down rogue elements, judge them, then either bring them back into the fold or execute them. We had many members join by being “re-acquired.” It was a lot of fun.

Through all I did in both the Fustuarium group and G&G proper, I was made an officer. I was never really asked if I wanted it, and likely would’ve asked not to be, but I accepted the role. I had taken such an active role within the FC, and loved the feeling of belonging to this wonderfully-creative group that ran immensely-fun events and came up with great ideas together, such as Iron Chef Eorzea, the Menphina Madness Blitzball Tournament, revamping the Golden Gala, and so much more.

Hali’s story moved on and on, eventually earning herself the title of Iron Chef, she went with the company to Kugane, was taught to become a shinobi, eschewed the blue magic of the Immortals, fought for her life with the Outriders at her side, became captain of Kugane’s Koban Crushers Blittzball team, and so on.

Eventually, through the Fustuarium group, @phantom-singularity was introduced to me and to G&G. I was leery of her at first, admittedly, as she was brought in by a member of the group, Otho/Odeai, for whom I really didn’t have much fondness. However, we began to talk in general, and then she DM’d me on Discord. Since that day, nearly two years ago, not a single day has passed where we haven’t been in contact nearly all the time we share awake. We fell in love, suffered together, visited one another, and eventually moved in together. If there’s anything I’m grateful for from this expansion, it’s her. If it were not for us starting RP between Hali and her character Dahlia @umbralhearts, I probably would not have survived the stress and abuse I had suffered over the course of the past few years thanks to, I have only recently discovered, a very abusive pseudo-relationship with someone we are still trying to escape.

As time went on, and Odeai continuously stirred shit up (eventually getting herself kicked from all those groups), I grew to greatly dislike her, especially as she was very much the catalyst that led to the awful witch hunt that was perpetuated against Dani. I won’t go into all of that again - the posts can be found on my main blog, @nierfenhimer, somewhere - but it was hell for us both. She wanted to have friends. I loved the friends I had, but they way it was all handled was, inevitably, disastrous, no matter how much I tried to stop it. Eventually, she left G&G and the Fustuarium. Not long after, I did, as well. Everyone was angry, everyone was hurt, and we all hated it. It was a nightmare come true for many reasons. There is still, today, especially after repeated similar situations on Aegir, Bragi, Liri, and Zheng’s parts with G&G, a lot of resentment between us all, I’m sure. What bridges were burned are likely gone for good. Everyone made mistakes. Following all of it, Dani and I became so stressed that we left FFXIV for a year, sacrificing the house that we had just gotten together for the sake of our safety and sanity.

During that time, Hali and Dahlia, who had been struggling together against a voidsent that possessed Dahlia, became embroiled in an awful conflict, eventually resulting in Hali’s death. Thanks to a combination of a great many things, Hali was resurrected when we returned. We left for WoW for a time, going back to my decade-long friends like @tyrellia, @kombink, @squishlecharacters, @aythala, and so many more. However, it didn’t last because, frankly, Battle for Azeroth turned out to be a dumpster fire.

It sucks, but today, I’m happy to have several great groups of friends. Dani and I joined the Outriders officially, along with Naomi and Otto, as well as Naoh and Keerith, who had gone there, Hali’s long-time rival and best friend, @trahventia, and more. We made new friends like @weaponskill, @deviltouched-xaela, and more. We reconnected with old friends from before we left such as @floating-city-of-nem and others. We made new friends.

Even though I was unemployed on and off, going through hell on earth, and constantly unstable, Dani, along with the Outriders and my friends from the Retribution/TSV/Ashguard back from WoW were immensely supportive. The Outriders, over the summer of 2018, raised nearly $350 together to help pay for my name change as part of my transition. Today, I have a name to match my identity - one that I’m comfortable and happy to use - because of them. We’ve played countless games of D&D together, as well as other tabletops. We’ve had fun, and we’ve even had our share of drama, but we’ve made it through.

Hali and Dahlia got married in-game, and we’ve come up with wonderful ideas, characters, and even ships together. Hali has since become a cyclone of chaotic life events, combining her shinobi training with abyssal magic as she’s embraced her inner darkness. We managed to reclaim a house for Hali and Dahlia and have since made a wonderful home together in the game.

Stormblood was an expansion where I truly let go of past hurts, in RP and otherwise, and found my niche. I found my identity, I grew up, I suffered immensely, but I learned, I fell in love, I had fun, and I let go of the things that had been holding me back as a person and from letting me truly have fun.

To all of you who were a part of my life, for better, worse, or both, thank you. Thank you all for everything you have been for me. To G&G for getting me involved, to the Outriders for picking me back up when that all fell apart, to the Retribution for taking me back for the short time I was back on WoW and understanding my propensity to disappear when life gets hard, to the friends, both old and new, that we have had, kept, and lost, and, most of all, to Dani, who I love without parallel and am happy every day I wake up next to you, no matter what trials we face.

Stormblood brought good and bad. It was truly a Storm of Blood. But it was good. It was amazing, and it was terrible all at once. I wouldn’t trade any of it for anything. I’m looking forward to Shadowbringers, and to experiencing it with all of you. We’ve all come a long way. See y’all on the other side. ♥

~ Asashio no Haruhi / Hali Naras of Balmung, Crystal DC

#stormblood #ff14 #reflection #hali #hali naras #haruhi asashio #asashio no haruhi

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bloodsworn-marshal · 5 years

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REALLY LONG CHARACTER SURVEY. RULES. repost , don’t reblog ! good luck !

TAGGED. @cielcrd TAGGING. Anyone who would sell their souls to complete this as I have

BASICS.

FULL NAME: Pipin Tarupin

NICKNAME: Pip (Prefers None)

AGE: 25

BIRTHDAY: 19th Sun of the 4th Umbral Moon (August 19th)

ETHNIC GROUP: Dunesfolk Lalafell

NATIONALITY: Eorzean

LANGUAGE(S): Common Eorzean

SEXUAL ORIENTATION: Heterosexual/Unsure

ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: Heteroromantic/Unsure

RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Single

CLASS: Soldier / Military / Gladiator

HOMETOWN / AREA: Ul’dah / Thanalan

CURRENT HOME: Goblet

PROFESSION: Flame General / Marshal of the Immortal Flames

PHYSICAL.

HAIR: Long locks of sandy almost ash-blond hair. Typically wild and loose with a side braid.

EYES: Coal Black

NOSE: Dark and pudgy

FACE: Very round chubby cheeks

LIPS: Average, always smiling to an extent

COMPLEXION: Tan, mixtures of dark depending on amounts of sun exposure.

BLEMISHES: Slightest almost unnoticeable freckles.

SCARS: Multiple small scars and calluses.

TATTOOS: Twin dark black tattoos on either upper arm. Somewhat akin to Raubahn’s, but typically hidden.

HEIGHT: 91 cm ( 3′0 )

WEIGHT: 20 kg ( 45 lbs )

BUILD: Small and somewhat built in muscle. More than your average Lalafell.

FEATURES: Fairly average, most notable being his small stature.

ALLERGIES: None

USUAL HAIRSTYLE: Loose and free.

USUAL FACE LOOK: Deep look of concern and strictness. A burning determination that makes one think his mind is always set on what it is that he’s doing. A little too much so.

USUAL CLOTHING: Oft seen in Immortal Flames uniform whether it be his battle armor or coat for more political-sided ventures.

PSYCHOLOGY.

FEAR(S): Deep Water, Failure, Losing loved ones.

ASPIRATION(S): Cleaning up Ul’dah, picking up where his father left off.

POSITIVE TRAITS: Confident, Brave, Loyal, Honest, Fun Loving

NEGATIVE TRAITS: Impatient, Cocky, Mistrustful, Self-Conscious

ZODIAC: Leo

TEMPERAMENT: Sanguine

SOUL TYPE(S): King / Warrior

ANIMALS: Falcons

VICE HABIT(S): Drinking / Overworking

FAITH: The Twelve / Azeyma the Warden

GHOSTS?: Yeeees

AFTERLIFE?: Yes

REINCARNATION?: Yes

ALIENS?: Um...

POLITICAL ALIGNMENT: Democratic?

ECONOMIC PREFERENCE: He’s not too sure what this even is.

SOCIO POLITICAL POSITION: Left?? He’s not too sure about this one either.

EDUCATION LEVEL: Hardly any. Knows how to read and write at best.

FAMILY.

FATHER: Raubahn Aldynn ( adoptive father )

MOTHER: Unknown / N/A

SIBLINGS: None

EXTENDED FAMILY: None

NAME MEANING(S): Pipin/Pippin: Highly admired or very admirable person. Or an apple.

HISTORICAL CONNECTION?: Being related to Dunesfolk lineage, Pipin shares a lot of the typical characteristics such as dark skin, pupil-less eyes, neutral colored hair, and having a yearning for the desert.

FAVORITES.

BOOK: None

MOVIE: n/a

5 SONGS: n/a sort of, but he favors the little shanties sung by soldiers and sailors alike. Easy to pick up on and pass on through song.

DEITY: Azeyma

HOLIDAY: Little Lady’s Day

MONTH: September

SEASON: Fall

PLACE: Sagolii Desert

WEATHER: Clear sunny day with a breeze on the winds.

SOUND: The clank of blade hitting against blade.

SCENT(S): Spices

TASTE(S): Bitter and Savory foods.

FEEL(S): The soft cushion of his cot after a long day. The hilt of a sword in hand.

ANIMAL(S): None in particular.

NUMBER: 100

COLORS: Black and Gold

EXTRA.

TALENTS: Passioned speeches, Swordplay, Singing, Leading, Commanding, Puns

BAD AT: Cooking, Sitting still, Writing, A lot of domestic normal stuff

TURN ONS: Reciprocated love, fierce determination, displays of power, fairly vanilla

TURN OFFS: Unsure... we’ll leave it at that.

HOBBIES: Training, Exercise, Collector

TROPES: Long-Haired Pretty Boy, Pint-Sized Powerhouse, Badass Creed, Four-Star Badass, Happily Adopted

AESTHETIC TAGS: The rising sun, piercing eyes, tousled locks, thunder, coffee, natural charisma, calloused hands, a burning flame, iron and steel, weaponry, inspiring loyalty, intimidation, reckless force, to war for battle, scars, liberation, rust, the light in the dark, change, lighthearted laughter

GPOY QUOTES: Not exactly sure what this is...!

FC INFO.

MAIN FC(S): Himself, obviously.

ALT FC(S): n/a

OLDER FC(S): n/a

YOUNGER FC(S): n/a

VOICE CLAIM(S): Adam Howden - English, Nobuyuki Hiyama - Japanese

GENDERBENT FC(S): n/a

MUN QUESTIONS.

Q1: IF YOU COULD WRITE YOUR CHARACTER YOUR WAY IN THEIR OWN MOVIE, WHAT WOULD IT BE CALLED, WHAT STYLE WOULD IT BE FILMED IN, AND WHAT WOULD IT BE ABOUT?:

Goodness I’m not so sure! If I were to think really hard on it, it would be something like a high action-packed movie filled with small comedy bits and epic animations to an extent. When I think of Pipin, I imagine he’d prefer his name to be known to the ends of time, that he was more than just a simple soldier. What better way than to show all of that off and be thought of as a valiant person of great strength?

Q2: WHAT WOULD THEIR SOUNDTRACK / SCORE SOUND LIKE?:

A lot of emotionally powerful songs. The kind that make your heart leap and are epic in sounding, making you feel the adrenaline of going into a battle!

Q3: WHY DID YOU START WRITING THIS CHARACTER?:

For the longest time I was too nervous to do so. Back then I didn’t have too strong of a connection with Pipin just yet and even when I began writing as him I would occasionally feel lost for words and the connection weak. But when I saw that some very few people actually cared for this character, I wanted to do him justice! And provide content to make him more known and appreciated.

Q4: WHAT FIRST ATTRACTED YOU TO THIS CHARACTER?:

Literally the very first meeting I fell in love. At the time I too played a lalafell with some similarities to Pipin-- not to mention he goes the extra mile of showing off his appearance and proudly proclaiming his connection to his father. And just... anytime you see him after that, he’s such a wonderfully emotion-driven character whom is willing to do his damndest to right all wrongs.

Q5: DESCRIBE THE BIGGEST THING YOU DISLIKE ABOUT YOUR MUSE:

His screentime really... give him more SE! Out of all the msq, Pipin is the only lalafell you’ll actually see on the battlefield and to be taken seriously too! All too oft... no one takes them seriously and its such a pleasure seeing him out there giving his all.

Q6: WHAT DO YOU HAVE IN COMMON WITH YOUR MUSE?:

What do we have in common indeed... very few things! But perhaps it would be things such as enjoying spicy foods, staying dutifully focused on our jobs and enjoying them, perhaps even the same feeling of wanting to grow stronger in a sense.

Q7: HOW DOES YOUR MUSE FEEL ABOUT YOU?:

Fairly neutral, probably! Though I do make him suffer when I can-- he probably enjoys being given a voice and having the opportunity to show a side of him that is just barely hinted on.

Q8: WHAT CHARACTERS DOES YOUR MUSE HAVE INTERESTING INTERACTIONS WITH?

One being an obvious Nanamo ul Namo, they have a rather interesting relationship that the game hardly touches on. Much of their moments have come from writing tales and mentioning the other in passing, with Stormblood finally giving a tiny peek to a degree. I have the smallest hope of something happening in 4.55, but we shall see.

And of course Raubahn. Their relationship is more than just father and son. They are also mentor and apprentice. Leader and second in command. Best friends even! Theirs is shown quite a lot in game, and even more so in depth in writing. I could go on and on about these two, but suffice it to say I love their interactions most!

Q9: WHAT GIVES YOU INSPIRATION TO WRITE YOUR MUSE?:

Ultimately it comes down to loving the character so much and wishing to see other people love him as well. The moment I have an idea for writing for instance, I want to share that bit with not only myself but to those who also could get a gleam of the character!

Q10: HOW LONG DID THIS TAKE YOU TO COMPLETE?:

A good couple days actually... good god

#meme #some of these were entertaining to answer #and some interesting tidbits here and there

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illegiblewords · 5 years

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FOR CONFUSED BYSTANDERS

I know that I have a lot of followers who have been (very patiently) witnessing a stream of pictures, commentary, and general posts related to Final Fantasy XIV. This is going to be my attempt to present the game and its story with context for you guys who have no idea what’s going on.

I’m doing this for two reasons, the first being I LOVE THIS GAME. If I can share the positive experience I’ve had with other people, I’d like to do that. The second reason is, for people who still follow but aren’t necessarily going to play themselves--it might offer enough background info to make posts that go up more entertaining at least. I know I don’t personally mind seeing bloggers, writers, artists, etc. share something I’m unfamiliar with, but it gets more fun when I have some clue what it’s about.

Parts of this post will be just about my own subjective experience, some will be recapping the story, some will be going over different ways I’ve seen people play in case that appeals. So on and so forth. I’m aiming to offer an honest reflection on whatever seems important.

Putting this under a cut because really, this is fucking long. Not as long as it looks because pictures are included but even still. For anyone who reads, I hope you enjoy and if you have questions don’t hesitate to hit me up! :)

BACKGROUND - NON-MMO PLAYER LOVES THIS MMO

I have never played an MMO before this. I’m pretty apathetic about them for the most part. When I play games I like to design things, get good pictures, and kill baddies for stress relief. I'm here to immerse in an exciting world and story, meet characters I can invest in. Stuff in that vein. So far as gaming goes I’m pretty simple.

There are people who put heavy emphasis on the social elements of FFXIV. They’ll play with their friends specifically, either because they’re focused on fighting together or because they want to roleplay or just to hang out. I’m not really in that category.

I entered knowing no one, and while I’ve made some friends through FFXIV I mostly interact with them outside the game itself. This can happen on tumblr, on forums, on the official blog platform, etc. In-game, I encounter other players all the time but it is generally something like “I was running around the city doing stuff and other people were also running around the city doing stuff”. You can approach people. You can message them and do little emotes like waving or hugging or slapping or whatever. You can do these emotes directed at nobody and just see your character go through the animations, which can be fun for taking pictures.

More detailed encounters with other players happen in dungeons, trials, and raids. These are called registered duties. Guildhests and PVP (player versus player) exist too, but I haven’t done them. I’ll elaborate later, but the gist you need to know here is that you are grouped in with a fixed number of additional players and then placed in a setting with a pre-set encounter or encounters to overcome. Some of these are straightforward, some require strategy.

In FFXIV, people usually chat to varying degrees during duties. Most are polite, pleasant, and focused on gameplay. At least where I am, which I’ll also go into later. Occasionally there are people who are jerks in the sense that they are inconsiderate or rude to other players. Also occasionally, people are incompetent. More often though I’ll encounter someone with a great sense of humor or people who have helpful tips to improve.

This is a game where, if you see a player marked as new struggling with low level monsters, a more experienced player might pause to oneshot that monster so the newbie can escape. People are casually nice most of the time.

Since I’d normally be doing single-player anyway, for me this is very refreshing. I get to do all the things I’d be doing in a single-player video game, but I also get light exchanges with other fans in ways that aren’t disruptive. There’s enough meat to the Main Quest Scenario (MSQ) and side quests that I don’t feel bored or lonely at all.

FFXIV does cost money to play and has a subscription. This can be paid in varying increments. I personally think it’s worth it because 1) the developers are adding new content on a pretty regular basis 2) the developers actually care about quality and having happy fans 3) the game keeps getting better over time 4) there is SO MUCH you can do in the game. It is truly expansive beyond anything else I’ve seen. I might not be ready to do a subscription with every game, but for this one absolutely.

This essentially plays like a normal final fantasy game in most respects. You might run around solo by-and-large, but there is an NPC supporting cast. They and the villains get fleshed out very well. Same goes for civilians and other background characters. The biggest difference off the top of my head is the story’s beginning...

OBSTACLES

I’m going to get this out of the way early, but in essence I think there are two main obstacles as a beginner. The first and most notable of these is that the game’s entry point, called “A Realm Reborn”, is less well-written and EXTREMELY LONG.

Seriously. I’ve only gotten one character past this point and it took me a stupid amount of time. Some of the quests at this stage are things like “my dad doesn’t like the stinky chocobo please spray it with perfume so it is less stinky”. Or “jump through all these stupid hoops so you can fight the exciting boss you’ve been waiting for”.

However, the length at least is slotted to be fixed in the future. I’ll probably announce that when it happens in case that’s the deal changer for anyone.

On writing quality, it starts off mediocre. However, later writing is so strong that it actually manages to make past scenes WAY more interesting. The initial setup also kind of lures you into a false sense of security, at which point shit gets real very fast.

The second obstacle for beginners involves a degree of not knowing what you don’t know. For example, there is an extremely powerful attack that can be used in registered duties called “Limit Break”. Initially I didn’t even know where to find it to put in my move hotbar. Then I didn’t know that using it would take limit break away from other players in the group. Then I didn’t know that the limit breaks of different jobs needed to be used under different circumstances. An example of this would be that spellcaster SHOULD use a limit break attack on freakishly large groups of enemies, but SHOULD NOT use limit break on a lone boss unless there is literally no other damage class (DPS) available to do it. This is because the overall impact of caster limit break is comparatively low, but effects more enemies at the same time. Using limit break inappropriately can frustrate people.

There are other things similar to this, such as when you use Duty Finder (a roulette that sets you up with completely random people interested in the same registered duty) and when you use Party Finder (where you announce what registered duty you want to do with what circumstances, then people volunteer to join), or being aware of which moves are supposed to be used in which order for top efficiency. That said, if you tell people you’re completely new they’ll usually be willing to explain.

If it’s something like “how do I use the glamour plates to switch into designs I made easily” or “how does crafting even work”, youtube is very helpful too! Overall just take initiative and communicate to people your experience level while in groups and things tend to work out.

THE STORY

Disclaimer: Recaps get less detailed over time to avoid spoiling too hard.

SHORT VERSION

You are a god-slayer, or more precisely the slayer of false-gods. False-gods drain the land to make it lifeless and are prone to brainwashing people. You also regularly fight the rough equivalent of angels who believe the world as you know it has gone horribly wrong and are trying to force things back into their natural forms. Excessive death ensues anytime they are successful, so high stakes. Meanwhile, an authoritarian and technologically advanced nation is causing issues on the regular and has to be stopped.

PRELUDE/LEGACY

Final Fantasy XIV had a rocky start with patch section 1.0/the true beginning, which I did not play. While there are videos online of what it was like for those curious, the gist is that five years before the current opening the world was stricken by a terrible calamity. The nation of Eorzea (an allied collection of city states) was at war with the Garlean Empire--otherwise known as Garlemald. During this war, one of Garlemald’s scientists implemented a genocidal strategy against the Eorzeans by dragging the lesser of two moons down upon their heads. This moon was called Dalamud. However, what took this situation from bad to worse was that Dalamud wasn’t actually a moon but a prison.

Thousands of years prior, the technologically advanced nation of Allag had been performing experiments using dragons and entities known as primals. Primals are summoned into being using a combination of aether (life energy, the source of magic), ritual, and the belief of their summoners. One of Allag’s experiments involved murdering a powerful dragon then using the tortured prayers of his lover and his kin to summon a warped, primal imitation of him. This primal was then trapped as a power source and left to fester in rage and insanity.

The dragon’s primal is Bahamut. Dalamud was his cage.

When Dalamud burst open above Eorzea, Bahamut was released in all his apocalyptic glory. A collection of heroes, allied to an organization called the Scions of the Seventh Dawn (dedicated to eliminating primals for the toll they take on the land and its people) stood against Bahamut. A man named Louisoix Levellieur, leader of the Scions, cast a powerful spell by summoning the Twelve Eorzean gods to stop Bahamut. This spell cast the primal, Louisoix, and the heroes five years into the future. It also wiped the heroes, known thereafter as the Warriors of Light, from memory.

Part of what makes 1.0 really cool looking back--when the developers saw how many problems existed in the MMO, they knew they would need to reboot it. There was a date set for that to happen, which would involve taking Final Fantasy XIV offline until an improved version could be released. Players knew the real world reasons behind all this. What they didn’t know was how the hiatus and reboot would be presented within the narrative.

People who were up-to-date in the storyline knew that war had erupted and that the moon was falling. They also knew that a particular time, the game would be taken offline.

This is what they saw.

A REALM REBORN

The average player, and likely anyone reading this, will not have played patch 1.0. For us, Final Fantasy XIV begins five years after Bahamut’s calamity. The world is still recovering and has been irrevocably scarred in the dragon’s wake. Refugees from both that event and Garlemald’s conquered territories pour in even as the empire bides its time for another invasion.

The player is a fledgling adventurer endowed with a gift called The Echo. The Echo is an ability that first, prevents them from being brainwashed (or “Tempered”) by primals. This is important because like I said before, one of the things that gives primals their power is belief. This extends to prayer. If a person is tempered, they will worship and empower the primal responsible until they die. This means most people can’t even approach primals safely, much less fight them. More than one character (including NPCs) possess The Echo, but it remains a rare ability.

Another aspect of this gift is that it allows someone (without any deliberate control) to see into the memories of others, superimposing emotions and perspectives of the event over the witnessing Echo-user. It also translates all direct speech into an understandable form to the Echo-user. There are additional abilities that become unveiled over the course of the story, but these are most important and consistent going in.

The player initially is just one of many such adventurers, a guild of independent mercenaries willing to undertake odd jobs using their skill in combat. After coming into conflict with a mysterious, masked organization, however, it becomes clear that the player has been chosen as champion to Hydaelyn herself.

Because you see, Hydaelyn isn’t just the name of the planet. This is also a sentient mothercrystal claiming the role of protector to all life on Her surface.

The masked organization consists of spirits with varying degrees of immortality. They also have the ability to body snatch. These are called Ascians. Ascians argue that the world was split into fourteen pieces thousands of years ago by Hydaelyn, and that their dark crystal god--Zodiark--is the true will of the star and represents a natural state of being that must be reclaimed. Their way of pursuing this objective requires causing a series of apocalypses or near-apocalypses, always coming with innumerable casualties.

As Hydaelyn’s champion the player joins the Scions of the Seventh Dawn in combating primals, fights against lingering threats from Garlemald, and thwarts Ascian plans to continue rejoining the world through calamities.

A trailer for this arc can be viewed here.

HEAVENSWARD

Shit goes pear shaped in a big way and you have to flee territories held by the Eorzean Alliance--city states including Ul’dah, Limsa Lominsa, and Gridania. Ishgard, now a frozen, mountainous landscape ruled by a religion dedicated to the goddess Halone, takes your character in.

Ishgard has been at war with the draconic nation of Dravania for thousands of years. Dragons are immortal by natural means, but can be slain. Ishgard no longer remembers, by and large, why the war even started except that they have been losing loved ones in horrifying ways for as long as they can remember. They refused to send aid during the struggle against Garlemald specifically because they couldn’t spare forces from their war with Dravania. They have a reputation for being hostile to outsiders, having extreme class divides, and inquisition-style zealotry. Nonetheless, there are good people here and over the course of A Realm Reborn the player manages to befriend some of them.

This arc delves into Ishgard’s war, and involves the player taking part while clearing their name in the Alliance. Toward the end, it is also extremely important to note that the player encounters a group calling themselves “Warriors of Darkness”, who are in-league with the Ascians. It comes to light that they hail from one of the divided worlds, that their world is in terrible danger, and they believe the path to survival comes from confronting you.

A trailer for this arc can be viewed here.

STORMBLOOD

One of the antagonists we encounter forces the Alliance to involve itself in freeing Garlemald’s conquered territories, namely the nations of Ala Mhigo (largely Middle Eastern) and Doma (East Asian). In undertaking this task, the hero comes into repeated conflict with Garlemald’s crown prince, Zenos yae Galvus. Zenos is basically a serial killer with the resources of a prince but no actual investment in being a prince. It’s pretty wild.

A lot of this plot focuses on the consequences of Garlean rule. Over time though, it comes to light that the founder of Garlemald was a high-ranked Ascian and is still very much alive.

A trailer for this arc can be viewed here.

SHADOWBRINGERS

The plot set into motion with the Warriors of Darkness resumes as the player is forced to travel to their home world. Dealing with a setting on the brink of Armageddon, this current arc has a ton to do with examining different perspectives while getting much clearer insight on lore metaphysics. Most notably, we finally learn why the Ascians act the way they do and discover more about the nature of the player character and Hydaelyn.

I’m aware this is vague, but honestly this is my favorite of all the expansions/arcs so far. Seriously it is fucking killer.

A trailer for this arc can be viewed here.

YOUR PROTAGONIST/THE CHARACTER CREATOR

The main character of Final Fantasy XIV is known as the Warrior of Light, regardless of whether you play from the Legacy version of the game or A Realm Reborn. Similar to the Dragon Age games, in Final Fantasy XIV you get to design your own main character and shape their identity to varying degrees through the story. Some people like to imagine their protagonist as existing within a completely different role in the world of Hydaelyn for roleplay purposes (so not a Warrior of Light), but that involves essentially disregarding the main quest scenario narrative provided. It’s fine to do that of course, but I’m going to be explaining things that essentially fit within the canon approach.

There are currently eight playable races for the Warrior of Light. These include hyur (human stand-ins), elezen (elf stand-ins), roegadyns (orc or giant stand-ins), miqo’te (cat people), lalafells (dwarf or gnome stand-ins), au ra (tiefling or draeni stand-ins), viera (female-only bunny people at the moment), and hrothgar (male-only lion people, the beast race).

Each race option has two subraces attached. The most dramatic differences between subraces come up for hyur, where there are Midlanders (shorter and slighter frames) and Highlanders (taller and beefier/curvier). Otherwise it’s more minor differences.

It is common for players to develop their own personal interpretations of who their Warrior of Light character was before the story begins and how that impacts progression. This can be shaped by what race they belong to and what lore is attached to that race according to region. It is also possible to shape things according to which of the Twelve (Eorzea’s pantheon) the Warrior of Light worships. These deities are loosely described and made available for selection at the beginning of the game.

It isn’t unusual for people to pick names in-keeping with lore. A good site to turn to for this is over here, although there are also spots that go into what different names actually translate to. Other people just go with whatever they feel like. I think I saw someone named Cheese Whiz once.

Stat variation is pretty negligible between races, and it’s mainly an aesthetic/tonal choice. Currently there is some pressure on game developers to make Viera and Hrothgar playable for male and female gender options both, and it seems likely that at some point this will happen. Currently there are indications that the release for Viera and Hrothgar was somewhat rushed due to some behind-the-scenes circumstances, so while they are less versatile than other options this is likely to change at some point.

As someone who is a sucker for character customization, I want to mention that while it might be easier to get some of the fantasy races to fit a particular ethnicity--Final Fantasy actually does a great job in terms of visual versatility and has made it possible to hit a wide range of options well. For example, it might be easier to make an East Asian au ra or a French elezen, but you can easily break with that in totally believable ways. You might not have the precision adjustments of Dragon Age: Inquisition or Bloodborne, but the options presented are pretty flexible.

In terms of how the Warrior of Light works through the game, again while there is some wiggle room there are certain aspects to their identity that stay pretty consistent. They get jaded and worn out by the narrative as time goes on, they experience loss, they become increasingly chatty and sarcastic. They have powerful neck muscles from years of communication by nodding. Commonly, the personality of the Warrior of Light is also influenced by the job they choose.

THE JOBS

Something I wish got explained to me early--you only get certain jobs as options starting out, and any others you hear about getting added are only accessible at higher levels. In Final Fantasy XIV, basically when it comes to combat you start with a very basic class, which graduates to a job (better versions of the class) when you fulfill certain requirements.

There are notably three main roles a combat class or job can fall into. These include tanks, healers, and DPS. Tanks are responsible for leading the charge, provoking aggression, directing mobs, and enduring attacks in groups. They don’t deal the most damage but have the highest defense and are generally right in the thick of the action. Healers can deal damage but their main purpose is to keep themselves and everyone around them from dying, especially in groups. At the moment all of the healer jobs use magic. DPS (Damage Per Second) are the jobs that are mainly responsible for taking chunks out of the enemy’s health. Within DPS there are additionally three subcategories, these being Melee DPS (non-magical and close-range), Physical Ranged DPS (non-magical and fighting from a distance), and Magic Ranged DPS (magical and fighting from a distance). There is also a limited job and Crafter/Gatherer classes, but I’ll get to those later.

Some DPS jobs, additionally, focus more on playing support to other party members while others are geared toward boosting their own damage output.

The classes you can choose from in the character creator include:

Gladiator (Tank, Sword and Shield)

Marauder (Tank, Axe)

Lancer (Melee DPS, Lance)

Pugilist (Melee DPS, Fists)

Archer (Physical Ranged DPS, Bow)

Conjurer (Healer, Wand)

Thaumaturge (Magical Ranged DPS, Staff)

Arcanist (Magical Ranged DPS, Tome)

At level 10, if your armory system is unlocked (you need to complete a quest for your starting class NPC mentor to do this) you can approach an NPC in Limsa Lominsa to unlock the Rogue class as well. This is a Melee DPS class and uses twin daggers. If your character starts with Marauder or Arcanist this takes less time.

To graduate each of these early classes into a job, the following requirements need to be met:

Paladin (Sword and Shield): Requires Gladiator level 30, Conjurer level 15.

Warrior (Axe): Requires Marauder level 30, Gladiator level 15.

Dragoon (Lance): Requires Lancer level 30, Marauder level 15.

Monk (Fists): Requires Pugilist level 30, Lancer level 15.

Bard (Bow): Requires Archer level 30, Pugilist level 15.

White Mage (Wand): Requires Conjurer level 30, Arcanist level 15.

Scholar (Tome): Requires Arcanist level 30, Conjurer level 15.

Black Mage (Staff): Requires Thaumaturge level 30, Archer level 15.

Summoner (Tome): Requires Arcanist level 30, Thaumaturge level 15.

Ninja (Daggers): Requires Rogue level 30 and completion of quests Sylph-Management and Cloying Victory.

I’ll describe these in more detail in a bit, but there are waaaay more combat jobs than this. Currently the others are:

Dark Knight (Tank, Greatsword): Requires having purchased the Heavensward expansion and having completed all of the Seventh Astral Era Quests up to Before the Dawn, which is needed to unlock the city of Ishgard. This job starts at level 30.

Gunbreaker (Tank, Gunblade): Requires having purchased the Shadowbringers expansion and having a Disciple of War or Magic job at level 60. This job starts at level 60.

Astrologian (Healer, Star Globe): Requires having purchased the Heavensward expansion and having completed all of the Seventh Astral Era Quests up to Before the Dawn, which is needed to unlock the city of Ishgard. This job starts at level 30.

Samurai (Melee DPS, Katana): Requires having purchased the Stormblood expansion and having a Disciple of War or Magic job at level 50. This job starts at level 50.

Machinist (Physical Ranged DPS, Firearm) Requires having purchased the Heavensward expansion and having completed all of the Seventh Astral Era Quests up to Before the Dawn, which is needed to unlock the city of Ishgard. This job starts at level 30.

Dancer (Physical Ranged DPS, Chakrams): Requires having purchased the Shadowbringers expansion and having a Disciple of War or Magic job at level 60. This job starts at level 60.

Red Mage (Magical Ranged DPS, Rapier): Requires having purchased the Stormblood expansion and having a Disciple of War or Magic job at level 50. This job starts at level 50.

So total, right now the jobs include 4 Tanks (Paladin, Warrior, Dark Knight, Gunbreaker), 3 Healers (White Mage, Scholar, Astrologian), 4 Melee DPS (Dragoon, Monk, Ninja, Samurai), 3 Physical Ranged DPS (Bard, Machinist, Dancer), and 3 Magical Ranged DPS (Black Mage, Summoner, Red Mage). Total is 17 jobs. When I describe these combat based jobs, I’m not going to focus on the actual gameplay aspect because frankly I don’t know how to play all of the jobs. This is gonna be a quick and dirty explanation based on the scientific approach of “idk that’s just my impression”.

Paladin: You are a holy knight and you can heal a little sometimes maybe (???) and you are very good and noble with great defense.

Warrior: You are a beserker who loves to release your inner beast and kill shit in really violent ways and are kind of a badass and do the most damage of the tanks.

Dark Knight: Super super edgy and kind of magical but also straight up crazy, you hate corrupt authority figures and are willing to get your hands dirty and darken your name in order to protect others. One of the most beloved job questlines.

Gunbreaker: You have a sword that is also a gun and you can shoot people with it, soldier style. Basically if you have ever fantasized about having a knifegun this is like that but better.

White Mage: Very pure, focused on nature and communing with elemental beings, all about that land/sea/sky thing with ties to the elements earth, water, and air. One of three magic traditions that got involved in a next level magic fight, this one stemming from the city of Amdapor. Amdapor is full of fungus and poison spores now.

Scholar: Takes a highly intellectual spin on magic with ties to weird geometries and so forth, figured out how to summon fairy familiars from aether. Does a lot with shields and preventing people from taking as much damage in the first place. One of three magic traditions that got involved in a next level magic fight, this one stemming from the city of Nym. Nym is a floating city and is basically hovering in ruins now, with any surviving residents having been transformed into tonberries. Tonberries are little green creatures that like to stab people.

Astrologian: A fortuneteller take on magic that combines tarot cards, astrology, and crystal balls. The idea here is that Astrologians are messing with fate and time in order to heal you, sort of undoing damage. Snazzy dressers, intimidating moveset.

Dragoon: Jumpy people with spears who struggle to live down their legacy of animation lag-related deaths, my understanding is that today’s Dragoons do solid damage and are decent at survival. Their reputation, however, is that if someone is going to die in a fight it’s probably them. They are very broody and like to hang out in high places with capes billowing in the wind. They also wear spiky armor and fight dragons and have the soul of a dragon. People make jokes at their expense a lot but with affection.

Monk: You punch people to death and get gauntlets of varying levels of sharp. You also get to master chakras and go through forms associated with different animals. In a series like Final Fantasy where people carry swords bigger than they are, you’re the job that said lol who needs that and made your body the weapon.

Ninja: Very very sneaky, used to be sort of a state-sanctioned criminal. If anybody is a spy it’s you. You are very fast and can basically turn invisible and sometimes smoke bombs go off. Mudras are used and I don’t understand.

Samurai: Deal a solid amount of damage and are very flashy and cool, probably one of the highest damage outputs for Melee DPS. Very neat and fancy katanas.

Bard: Draws a connection between the strings of a harp and the strings of a bow, is able to both shoot the crap out of enemies, make enemies more vulnerable with some songs, and make allies more powerful with other songs. I think Bards are very pretty and fancy.

Machinist: These are tech nerds who realized that guns are an option. So are flamethrowers. So are robots. This job has a reputation for being ungodly complicated to play but this has apparently been rectified recently.

Dancer: Similar to Bard in that they do a lot to boost allies in a fight, do lower damage as a result but damn do they boost their allies. Also have ridiculously swanky outfits and are super flashy in fights.

Black Mage: The edgy magic users, they are disciples of Eorzea’s death god and all of their magic ties into destruction. If you wanna make the biggest explosions Black Mage is where you go. Magic ties to fire, ice, and electricity but primarily puts focus on the shift between fire and ice. Black Mages also have a reputation for being involved in demon summoning because they were kind of the assholes in that magic war against White Mages and Scholars. Black Magic as a discipline has ancestry in Mhach, which is of course now crawling with demons. Black Mage is the DPS king in the sense that if you want the biggest numbers of damage dealt, this is where you go. They are however tragically slow and squishy so expect the Black Mage to be somewhere between standing right where an attack will land or dodging frantically between spells.

Summoner: Has the ability to summon small familiars in the form of defeated primals, these being namely Ifrit (fire-based), Titan (earth-based), Garuda (air-based), Bahamut, and Phoenix. Apparently their questline is covered in Ascians too. One of two DPS capable of raising fallen allies.

Red Mage: Very fancy, fast-moving swordsmen covered in ruffles. The founders of Red Magic were Black and White Mages who came together in the wake of that magic war mentioned above. They essentially work to balance Black Magic and White Magic alongside physical attacks. They don’t get the numbers of some DPS but are again extremely fast and are also capable of raising allies. Versatile.

The limited job is called Blue Mage, currently being lamented because it’s unable to fight in dungeons or main quest situations to the extent of other jobs. Blue Mage gets abilities by fighting monsters and learning magical abilities from them. They use a cane and are massive dandies who will hopefully get the opportunity to do more in the future.

If you want to actually make in-game money without blood sacrifice, you want to get involved in a Crafter or Gatherer job. These don’t deal with combat but instead let you acquire, develop, and sell in-demand resources to other players.

Gatherer jobs include Fishers, Botanists, and Miners. Crafter jobs include Carpenters, Blacksmiths, Armorers, Goldsmiths, Leatherworkers, Weavers, Alchemists, and Culinarians. I am not good at these and so can’t explain them properly, but some people do play the game exclusively so they can level these jobs. I think that besides getting mad cash, this is probably because Crafters and Gatherers also get to make really fancy houses and get very pretty clothes with their vast amounts of wealth, skill, and resources.

THE SETTING

There are three city states that, at the start of A Realm Reborn, comprise the Eorzean Alliance. Your character becomes a hero to the Eorzean Alliance before any other nation. The three nations are Ul’dah, Gridania, and Limsa Lominsa. Ul’dah is a desert city (someone mentioned it being Byzantine), ruled by a Sultana, and watched over by the dual-aspected god of death and commerce. Gridania is a forest city (to me it looks Western European but unsure?), ruled by a spiritual Elder Seedseer, and is watched over by the nature goddess Nophica--her will embodied in the form of spirits called Elementals. Limsa Lominsa is an ocean city (Greek influenced, although some territories read Caribbean), ruled over by an Admiral, and is watched over by a sea-goddess.

Ul’dah is a major trade center and known for having a solid amount of crime and corruption, harsh wealth divides, huge reverence for the dead, and general canniness. Gridania is super spiritual and has massive reverence for the forest and maintaining both it and the boundaries necessary to co-exist peacefully with Elementals. Limsa Lominsa is literally pirate town and have the most kickass military/naval fleet ever.

Depending on what job you choose in the character creator will effect which of these three cities you start out in. It’s ambiguous where the Warrior of Light comes from so conceivably you could be a native to that city state or a foreigner from somewhere else. It mainly matters in terms of if you’re making a story up for your character or not.

Another city state is Ishgard (technically Eorzean but isolationist), which has parallels to Norse mythology, France, and the Catholic church. It is covered in snow and full of mountains. Ala Mhigo is also a city state, and while like Ul’dah it is also a desert environment this one seems to place higher emphasis on different regions within the Middle East and India. One part looks strongly reminiscent of the Dead Sea, for example. Idyllshire was formerly a territory of the nation Sharlayan, which dedicates itself to the scholar-god. However, Sharlayan up and bailed when Garlemald showed up so that whole city got evacuated.

Those city states are all based on the continent Aldenard. Garlemald comes from a continent called Ilsabard that we haven’t gotten to see yet. It’s supposed to be cold and shitty there. Also worth mentioning, Garleans are on the one hand atheists and on the other hand borderline worship their emperor.

Othard is the Far Eastern continent and represents Asia. The two main city states we’ve seen there are Kugane (Japan) and Doma (China). There are other nations in the surrounding areas that we know about as well but haven’t explored. Both Kugane and Doma worship entities known as kami, omnipresent spirits who appreciate treasure and sometimes play a role in manipulating the fates of mortals. There are also animal spirits who through wisdom and longevity gain power and the ability to change form. These are called auspices. Special shout out to the Azim Steppe of Othard as well for representing Mongolian tribes and a plains environment.

There at least two other continents around but we don’t know a lot about them yet. One is The New World and draws from pre-Columbian North America. The other once housed a nation called Meracydia that opposed the ancient Allagan empire.

Shadowbringers takes place on a world called The First, which is one of the fragmented realities split by Hydaelyn. This world is called Norvrandt. It parallels Hydaelyn in some ways but not others. The desert environment of Ahm Areng geographically resembles the red deserts of the Southwestern US, but the architecture doesn’t match. The Rak’tika Greatwood is an A+ perfect jungle setting and heavily modeled after Mayan civilization. Eulmore kind of reminds me of the idea of pre-French Revolution excesses surrounded by poverty but with almost neon circus aesthetics married in. Il Mheg is rainbow fields and glassy lakes and fae creatures fucking with you 24/7. Very pretty and art nouveau.

The Tempest is full of secrets.

THE COMMUNITY

People focus on different things in this game. It’s huge enough to make that extremely doable.

One group involves the combat-focused players. These are people who just want to take on content labeled Extreme or Savage and beat it as smoothly as possible. Very talented bunch but tend to be short tempered sometimes, also often can’t wrap their heads around people playing any other way.

Glamour hounds are people who are in this for the A E S T H E T I C S. They want their characters to look a very specific way with certain gear in certain colors and god damn it if they have to run savage to achieve their goals they are going to do it. Often also are very into exciting mounts and housing, will frequently do artsy screencaps and share them online.

Lore hounds are people who focus mainly on the main quest scenario, overall storytelling, NPCs, setting, metaphysics, etc. Some of these people just want to analyze and make predictions. Some are independent fan creators. Some are roleplayers.

Worth noting--the most active roleplay communities are on the Crystal server, on the worlds Balmung and Mateus. My understanding is that these worlds are pretty packed and come with their own collection of pluses and minuses. More drama and a high likelihood of being ambushed for erotic RP, but fun community storytelling too. You can absolutely join servers outside your geographic location, by the way.

I’m on Primal server. It’s pretty chill.

Crafters, gatherers, and gamblers as far as I can tell are out to get top tier gil and fabulous prizes. I think some just honestly like the process too tbh and it happens to pay swimmingly. By the by, yes there is an in-game casino.

Last major group off the top of my head is the people who are mainly, specifically there to hang with friends and otherwise socialize with the game as a medium for that.

OKAY BUT I FOLLOW YOU SPECIFICALLY, WHO THE HELL ARE THOSE CHARACTERS YOU KEEP REBLOGGING?

EMET-SELCH

He is an Ascian who showed up fashionably late, would rather be napping than villaining around. Massive troll and also responsible for single-handedly making the fandom care about Ascians after four arcs of apathy. Secret sad boi. I am omitting a bunch because he’s basically a walking spoiler, but someone once described him as having absolutely relentless theater kid energy and I have yet to see it put better than that.

ELIDIBUS

Another Ascian known as the Emissary. Talks more about balance than ZODIARK!!!??!!!?11111!! and sometimes tries to have conversations instead of fistfights. Is not as good at having conversations instead of fistfights as Emet-Selch but is significantly better at it than Lahabrea, who will be described next. Elidibus is notable for spontaneously adopting a child and then passing that child off to the heroes as discreetly as he could.

LAHABREA

The third major Ascian and the first recurring one players meet in A Realm Reborn. Lahabrea seems like he is probably a few screws loose, fucking loves to blow shit up, embarrasses all of the interns who get stuck with him, and spent years in charge of PR before his colleagues realized that was a mistake. Makes very poor life choices. Apparently he used to be a fantastic orator and was praised for his imagination but these talents have since been replaced by ZODIARK!!!??!!!?11111!! and explosions. Has been described as an idiot by Emet-Selch and “unique” by Elidibus, who needed to take a very long pause before saying so.

G’RAHA TIA/THE CRYSTAL EXARCH

Honestly this is only pseudo spoilers, basically everyone figured out who he was well before Shadowbringers got released. Catman is currently doing battle with another character called Haurchefant for the position of #1 fan to the Warrior of Light. Has some wild misadventures with you that involve exploring ancient ruins, excessively long fetch quests, clones, and getting sucked into a demon world. Later runs across time and space to save your life but kind of almost gets you killed in the attempt. Says he is very sorry for this later. Just doing his best.

NERO TOL SCAEVA

A scientist who fights with a massive hammer, formerly worked for Garlemald but finds himself unemployed later. Is better than the engineer Cid, who gives you all your tech. He is also a troll, an egomaniac, and fucking hilarious. It takes a while for the extent of this to be revealed because A Realm Reborn still had some issues.

AYMERIC DE BOREL

Basically in charge of Ishgard, for a while literally but now only mostly. A very reasonable authority figure, runs the the Warrior of Light across several countries when you get injured in battle then chills at your bedside. Thinks you should relax sometimes. Encourages this by taking you to dinner once.

ESTINIEN WYRMBLOOD

Broody Dragoon McAngst of Ishgard, fucking hated dragons for the longest time because they murdered his whole family. Goes on an extended journey with you and in the process reveals he also hates moogles with a burning passion. Chills out a lot later, has demonstrated he is in fact a real bro.

YSAYLE DANGOULAIN/ICEHEART/LADY SHIVA

Delusions of grandeur and good intentions, also chosen by Hydaelyn and possessing The Echo. Figured out she could use her possession of The Echo to literally become a primal without losing her mind or body. Wants peace at any cost and will kill shitloads of people in the name of peace. Morally questionable but an interesting lady. Disagrees strongly with Estinien about moogles.

HAURCHEFANT GREYSTONE

Name sounds like a sneeze, is currently fighting G’raha Tia for the title of #1 fan to the Warrior of Light. Apparently there was an event where he said he wants the Warrior of Light to be his pony, as in he wants to ride you. Has shirtless men doing squats in his office. Saves your ass when shit gets real for Heavensward and then saves your ass again when the Pope’s bodyguard tries to murder you. It does not go well.

ZENOS YAE GALVUS

Absolute serial killer who feels like you complete him and give his life meaning and are his BFF. Probably wants you to fuck him. Also the crown prince of Garlemald and has spent years trying to engineer situations that will produce someone who can actually fight him as an equal. Doesn’t give a fuck about most things but jesus does he go yandere.

FRAY

If you become a Dark Knight, Fray becomes your NPC mentor and basically takes the Warrior of Light on a journey in becoming batshit insane. 10/10 Best teacher hands down.

SOPHIA THE GODDESS

A primal who I love to pieces, basically shows that the only way you can have perfect balance forever is if you are literally dead. We know this because the song that plays during her fight is about her murdering an entire family because they were unstable.

SRI LAKSHMI

Another primal who I love to pieces, just full throttle lotus eater in action where she encourages you to go fuck everything and be happy. Super pretty.

SEPHIROT THE FIEND

One of my top fav primals, pure id and distorted Kabbalah. I have a lot of feelings about him and have analyzed his fight to pieces.

CENRIC ASHER

Lol he just my Warrior of Light. I have a story for him but it is not official or anything.

THE FIVE BILLION OTHERS

Probably other people’s characters! I just really love seeing what people come up with, whether it’s their version of the Warrior of Light or going full-throttle into OC territory. It’s really refreshing to me, seeing how passionate and inventive people get. ^^ There are plenty of other important NPC characters, some I would even consider favorites of mine, but I just don’t post them as much.

IF YOU MADE IT THIS FAR JESUS CHRIST GET YOURSELF A COOKIE OR SOMETHING. GOD DAMN.

#final fantasy xiv #final fantasy xiv screenshots #final fantasy 14 #ffxiv #shadowbringers

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