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elfyourmother · 5 months

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hello! I have a silly Giséle question! When she came to the Source from... Thedas? Apologies it's turbo-late and I'm a bit silly and can't find the name of the Dragon Age world so I'm guessing. When she got to the source from where she came from... did she fuse with her Source self, or was all of her there before she was brought across? Secret third option?

Thedas is a single continent on the Seventh reflection, similar to how Norvrandt is a single continent on the First.

I know it might be a little confusing, but it might help to think of it in terms of what was established in MSQ. She got to the Source almost exactly the way Ardbert and the Warriors of Darkness did: she died on her home reflection (the Seventh one), and her soul was then pulled to Source. Did Ardbert immediately rejoin with WoL when he showed up in Dravania? Nope! Rejoining is a deliberate, conscious act, whether it be on the large scale the Ascians deliberately were trying to engineer thru the ardor, or on an individual basis. It’s not something that just happens automatically.

Where Gisèle deviates from SE canon is that she was not born on Source as the many times rejoined incarnation of Azem the way the SE canon WoL was. She was “just” a sundered fragment of Azem, the way Ardbert was, and the real Golbez (Durante’s companion) was heavily implied to be. She was just the one on the Seventh rather than the First or the Thirteenth. Louisoix was the reincarnation of Aphrodite (Azem) born on Source, the one who was many times rejoined every time the Ascians succeeded in their plans.

Gisèle was fighting the Archdemon Urthemiel in the Battle of Denerim on the Seventh reflection while the Battle of Carteneau Flats was simultaneously happening on the Source. The precise moment when she dealt the deathblow to the dragon was when Louisoix cast the summoning magic to call down the Twelve. Her soul should have been consumed by Urthemiel's due to the darkspawn Taint, but the Blessing of Light awakened within her and protected her soul. Her soul went to the Lifestream. Louisoix's spell to summon the Twelve was actually him subconsciously invoking Azem's summoning magic, and Gisèle's soul was drawn to it like a moth to a flame, which is how she ended up being drawn to Source. Through Creation magicks, Hydaelyn made the adult Elezen vessel for the soul, and made a deal with Nald'thal for him to watch over her. So Gisèle awakened in Nald's Reflection with no memory of anything but her name.

So no, Gisèle did not rejoin with Louisoix at that time. Much later on, after beating the Garleans at the Praetorium, she went through Coils and freed Louisoix from Bahamut. That was when she learned that she was a sundered shard of him, and rather than his soul returning to the Lifestream, they underwent rejoining instead. BUT because Louisoix was so weak after being tempered and sublimated by Bahamut's will for so long, and because Gisèle's will was so incredibly strong, when he and Gisèle rejoined, she became the dominant consciousness.

#gisele surana #slumberingslothfully #ask bisho

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aotopmha · 17 days

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I haven't even started the lvl 89 Endwalker MSQ and I'm thinking about how annoying certain opinions around it are.

It's annoying me and I don't want it to distract me in my playthrough, so I'm just going to air it out via this post.

The story really clearly foreshadows what happens. In fact, it directly tells you.

But it is fairly common for people to call twists that are pretty directly foreshadowed still out of nowhere. (And of course, a text can be read in many different ways.)

And I think regardless of any of this, people still don't have to like what happens!

But I've talked about this a bunch regarding other pieces of media, and at this point, nerd criticism is so obnoxious to me because it's often so much more about telling other people how much smarter you are than the writers or the people who like their writing.

I'm not interested in listening you putting yourself on a pedestal and telling me how smart you are.

It's such a boring way to engage with art/writing to me.

In fact, it isn't even about the art, but a shitbag telling me how they would be above any of this kind of "mistakes" in their writing.

This talking point just reminds me of my most smart alec, know-it-all late teens/early twenties moments that have an air of arrogant ignorance to it. Where the criticism absolutely can have its basis, but there might be elements to the narrative decision that have issues in their own right.

It feels like certain storytelling tropes have become "taboos" regardless of how they're executed because of the perception of storytelling "rules"/"basics" being "broken", when in truth those have always been just "guidelines" and even the best-told stories probably have these "flaws" in there somewhere if you look hard enough.

If a major part of the enjoyment of a story for you depends on how many characters die and you obsessively count on your fingers who lived through impossible odds and who didn't, Final Fantasy 14 was probably never a story for you.

I say all of this as someone who at this point has seen The Endwalk probably dozens and dozens of times via playthroughs and cried at it almost every time.

(It's gonna be great for me when I get to it, I can tell!)

Because I find it incredibly meaningful regardless of any issues I might have with it.

To engage that critical mind for a second, if nothing else, I think the story absolutely does need to drop the fake death trope it likes so much, and firmly decide on the characters it kills and that alone would go a long way to reinstill a stronger sense of base tension.

In fact, I do agree that actually killing any of the long-term main characters might need to happen. (And it might need to be staged in a super unexpected way, at that.)

I just do not think Endwalker was the place to do it considering what it is about.

The obvious "hopeful" framing to everyone dying and you alone surviving would be for you to carry on their legacy/work, and the patches then would be finding new connections, but pulling this off could also send the opposite message and come across as amatuerish shock value.

Hey, life is suffering and a path for you to find the good in the bad, so guess what everyone you ever loved dies after everything they've been through!

But there is hope, though!

It looks "ballsy" to kill everyone on the surface, but actually might just thematically fly in the face of the entire story.

All of these characters that have suffered loss and much pain in their own right, yeah, all they get is death in the end!

But there is hope, though!

It's the second point that gets me the most. It would've felt so hateful to me (and it often wished for in such an hateful manner by those who wanted it to happen), especially for like G'raha who was stuck in a tower for a hundred years.

And just a single or few characters dying would feel wrong in a very specific "shock value" way, too.

Why those characters specifically?

That's not what FF14 ever was to me, not even in HW, the section of the story that had the most major deaths.

I think Thancred dying in ShB would'be been perfect, for example.

Main character, paving the way to another character after making peace with his situation with Minfilia.

Would've pretty automatically fixed the general tension issue, too, I think.

But in EW? I think the losses everyone already experienced and the suffering we saw across the entire game from ARR-EW are enough to make the point.

#Final Fantasy XIV #Final Fantasy 14 #FFXIV #FF14 #FF #Final Fantasy #Endwalker #EW

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elizabethrobertajones · 4 months

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Hi! Top 5 NPCs for ffxiv? :>

Joint 5: the bunny girlfriends - Debroye from the bread quest in EW and Lilja from Bozja in Shb :) Debroye is fighting the good fight for flavour and that hardly needs expanding on after the build up Archon Loaf had in the MSQ as worldbuilding for Sharlayan. Lilja is just a badass bimbo nerd who is good enough to work at the Ironworks but cool enough for shiny nail polish and sunglasses in a warzone. They're small characters who you only meet doing side content but they have strong personalities and they get to rep viera girls who are just kinda nerdy and weird. I am disproportionately affectionate to both of them.

4: Gerolt... I think I've just spent too much time doing relic weapons... He's just awful in a really funny way and I wish him all the best and do all I can to ensure he has a better lot in life, and then one expansion later he is once again in deep drinking debt but saying the realest shit while creating incredible artworks. Also he's sort of 1/3rd the parent of the aforementioned child Frog has so I guess I need to at least get child support in the form of the first free weapon of each quest. The AU version of him and Mowen in the relic crafting tools thing actually really moved me and I'm not ashamed to admit it :')

Anyway in terms of "this guy!!" he's so up there and I'm always thrilled to see what Scenario he's in now. Over the long course of the game he's made an impression...

3: Ameliance. I'm certain she's a mob boss controlling everything from the shadows.

But seriously, no. The twins really are favourites but in terms of Top NPCs I'd been wondering about her the whole time since they do make mentions of their family and writing to mother etc and expectations were high, and getting to know her was so utterly wild because the plot demands on her from all directions of her family - her husband, her father in law, her children, the servants she hires who include the hired goons Alisaie brought to the Coils of Bahamut... Like. She is a character who had to be retroactively constructed from everything that has been said in a way that Fourchenault didn't need to be because his template is clear: He's the Son of Louisoix and burdened with cursed knowledge and the weight of history from immediate family and long lineage of being related to founding fathers of his city; he's EASY to write. Now imagine up the woman who MARRIED him, and has stayed married to him. And is going to stay married to him since the twins dealing with divorce doesn't seem like a probable plotline given the emotional directions of the broader story. Okay, now let's imagine a real woman with actual desires and personality who can fit into this puzzle piece.

Fucking Ameliance.

How on earth they convinced me she's real is a feat of writing I am in awe of.

2: Urianger is so important, like. Leave me alone, Il Mheg got me good because ffxiv seems to get everyone eventually, and now I'm nonbinary and he's my nonbinary icon :') SIGH. A Process Has Occurred. I could say more but honestly, I think that sums up that he is important to me.

1: Erenville............. Listen, I own multiple David Attenborough merch people get me because they know it's an easy gift. I had been a kid who sat and poked rockpools and puddles and I put snails in a jar and and of course picked up frogs in the garden. You introduce a character whose job is Animals and especially claims to be an expert in frogs??? He would have been at least with the bunny girlfriends on this list if this was his only contribution to the story. (And I would have enjoyed my feud in peace.)

Instead he's a fascinating guy who stood up for his workers, has leves where he's commissioning presents for gleaners, happily goes against authority to be helpful from the jump.... And NOW we get more content where we get to see him being a grumpy snarky bastard who is the only rational person in Sharlayan AND apparently has been neglecting being the only rational person in Tural too so off we go to see that in action???

I'm marrying him I'm marrying him I'm marrying him...

#ffxiv #endwalker spoilers

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lookbluesoup · 1 year

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Beginners Guide to Red Mage

I've had a frankly alarming number of people comment to me on various platforms that Red Mage is too difficult and confusing. Which - I know different classes vibe with different people. Sometimes a class just doesn't click with you, and that's ok! But I actually find RDM to be one of the easiest classes in ffxiv to get the basics down on, so I thought I'd type up a little crash course!

This is a guide to a basic rotation, without any eye-glazing acronyms, and a few tips on how RDM evolves at higher levels, hopefully in easy to understand terms for someone just starting out. It is not a min/max guide. It's not designed to get you Super Rainbow Diamond Parse. It will show you how to play red mage competently in Duty Roulette and MSQ and get through whatever regular content you want. (As long as you don't forget to keep your gear levelled with you!)

If you want to go MAX ULTRA DAMAGE UNREAL TRIALS mode there's plenty of other guides out there for that, a google search away, who can help you with more complicated, number-crunchy type rotations! My hope is that if you are new to RDM and want to get into that content someday, this will at least give you a foundational understanding to build up to that from.

And if you're a casual player, this guide will see you through just fine. You're who this is made for!

Full guide below the cut!

Red Mage is about balance, which means it's basically a repeating pattern.

There is a magic rotation to build up black and white mana in equal amounts, and then a melee rotation to spend that collected mana on high-damage sword attacks. Later, you'll get a second magic combo to use after your sword combo.

Here's my hotbar setup synced down to level 50:

And here it is at level 90 with some upgraded skill icons:

Because I'm very visual, it's set up to keep related abilities close together so that I can quickly input combos.

If you take a look at your spells, you'll notice Veraero and Verthunder (the green and blue buttons) do high damage but take almost 5 seconds to cast. A really long time. They also only increase either white or black mana, though by a significant amount:

Jolt, the red one in the middle, only takes a remarkably short 2 seconds to cast and gives both black and white mana, but does much less damage and doesn't increase either color very much:

This might initially seem clunky and frustrating.

But here's why.

Every second spell a Red Mage casts is instant.

Jolt is your ticket to flinging spells around like a dog with a roman candle.

The goal is to start with a short-cast spell, and then follow up with a long-cast one, which will hit immediately instead of taking those agonizing 5 seconds.

So, if you are fighting a single target, that's Jolt, followed by Veraero or Verthunder. (Or, if like me your eyes want to glaze over with the fancy names for everything. Red, followed by Green or Blue.)

And how do you keep your black and white mana balanced? Easy. Each time you do your combo, switch up veraero and verthunder.

You basic magic combo is literally just Red, Green, Red, Blue, Red, Green, Red, Blue. If you set up your hotbar with these in convenient places, you can just get your fingers into a rhythm and eventually won't even have to think about it at all.

If you end up off balance with too much of one color, just repeat the other color a few times in between Jolts until its back close together.

The AoE Rotation, Though?

Since you know why the cast times vary so much between spells, you can probably already guess how this works! They're inverted! That's all! If you're fighting 3+ enemies at once, you should switch to your AoE set which damages all enemies around your target. Your basic magic combo is still just Red, Green, Red, Blue, Red, Green, Red, Blue. But you start with Green or Blue first!

When its time to stab things

While you can use your melee skills at any point, in any order - there's a pattern here, too. And its easy!

This is your mana bar when you enter a fight:

And this is your mana bar as you build up black and white mana through casting spells:

The white side, predictably, is white mana. The blue side is black mana. The gem on the top will light up in red when you have enough of both collected to perform a melee combo (which is 50 white and 50 black). It maxes out at 100 of each.

While your sword skills on your hotbar will color change from purple to red earlier than this, do not succumb to the allure. Wait until you get your magic red button. Every "Enchanted" sword strike you hit with will deplete your mana, so you need to make sure you have enough to do a full combo of all three attacks.

An Enchanted combo does MUCH more damage and it is absolutely worth waiting until you can combo them. Start with Riposte, the one that costs 20, and the others will light up in order afterwards to show you the correct steps.

Once you're too low on mana to run a full sword combo, go back to casting spells until your red gem lights up again!

AoE Rotation

It's not even a rotation, it's one attack - Moulinet. However, it should be noted that at later levels, when Mana Stacks are added, you'll need 60 black and white mana to get a full three mana stacks by using your AoE sword skill, instead of the 50 needed for single target sword skills.

Imbalanced Meters

If you cast too much of one color without the other, your gem will change to reflect the imbalance. You get a penalty to gaining mana if the bars are off balance, so make sure to give the other color some attention until your gem turns red or clear again.

Free Damage Buttons

Fleche, and its AoE version Contre Six, are free damage. They don't share any cooldowns with your regular spells/sword skills, and cast instantly. It's free damage.

Corps-a-corps is a gap closer, another attack that shares no cooldowns with any other skills. It's a great way to start out your sword-combo when you have enough mana collected, because it will put you in range of your target and deal damage in the process. A lot better than losing seconds to running up to them manually, during which time you can't attack.

It has two charges which refill over time, so in a short period you can use it twice if you need to. Like if you target the wrong enemy the first time. Whoops.

Engagement is another free stab button, but it shares charges with Displacement, which is your run away button, so make sure to save a charge if you're going to need that!

Displacement is a good way to end your sword combo (or, later, end your bonus spells combo.) It is also a good way to escape an enemy's attack if you stood in one place just a LITTLE too long and don't have time to run out of range. You will leap backwards immediately and quite far.

Once in the Crystal Tower raids I used this to evade an AoE and landed in one of those paralyzing electric traps on the corner of the arena, where I remained trapped, in shame, for the rest of the fight. Check behind you before you jump.

(Slightly) More Advanced Rotation

If everything above feels like a lot to absorb already, you can ignore this section for now. Get a handle on the basic basics, and then start weaving the rest of these in later once you're more used to your patterns.

Occasionally when casting a spell you will get "Verstone Ready" or "Verfire Ready" These can be woven in at your discretion, they have short cast times. But generally they should replace your short cast spell for one cycle. For example, use one of these instead of Jolt, and follow up with a Green or Blue spell after. They both give you a specific color of mana, but not quite as much as a regular long-cast spell, their benefit lies in how fast you can cast them and their high damage.

Acceleration can be used to quickly rebalance your mana if something goes awry, or to deal heavy damage quickly. It's another tool that allows you to cast any of your main long-cast damage spells instantly. As an added treat, it makes your next Red AoE do significantly more damage, or ensures that your next single-target Green and Blue spells will give you a Verstone/Verfire right after.

Manafication will instantly grant you 50 black and white mana both. It's best to use it between Enchanted sword combos! Once you hit 50 on your own, perform a sword rotation, hit Manafication, and do another sword rotation. Or, when Mana Stacks come in, use Manafication after completing your bonus spells to get another Sword-Spell rotation combo in right after.

Embolden is a damage buff for you and close-by party members. There's a lot of ways to use damage buffs, but if you time it right, you can get two buffed Enchanted sword combos in by pairing this with Manafication. Later, with Mana Stacks, you can get a sword and bonus-spell combo in, with a little extra room.

Mana Stacks

At higher levels, you'll get Mana Stacks. These basically add a third pattern after you use your spells to build mana, and your sword to spend it.

By completing an Enchanted Sword combo (the red ones, that cost 50 mana to complete) or casting 3 of the Enchanted AoE Moulinet in succession (which costs 60 mana), all your Blue and Green spells will transform into Verflare and Verholy:

You get to cast ONE of them. If you perform just about any other action, including manafication, you will lose these. Make sure to cast them when they appear. They do not, however, run on a short timer, so if the dungeon boss is at 0.1% hp you can hold your actions and just use these on your next ad pack.

If your black and white mana are not perfectly balanced when you get these spells, that's a good thing. Pick the spell that matches your lower color. If you have less black mana, cast Verflare. If you have less white mana, cast Verholy. This will guarantee that Verfire or Verstone, mentioned above, become available to you:

If you pick the "wrong" one, don't worry! You still have a chance at getting your stone/fire spell. And if not, you can use Acceleration to quickly cast for whichever color you need to rebalance your mana.

A little down the line, you'll get a third bonus spell. Scorch replaces your Red spells and appears after casting Verflare or Verholy. That's a lotta damage!

And again, further down, you'll get another red spell to follow on the heels of Scorch, Resolution. To really help you finish off nuking everything in front of you.

So in short - magic combo till you have 50 of both mana colors, sword combo, bonus spell combo, rinse and repeat.

And there you go! You can Red Mage!

But wait! There's more!

Saving the Party from a Wipe

At level 64 you get Verraise. And since you know all about dualcast now, you know that 10 second cast timer doesn't mean anything to you, a Red Mage.

While you should generally let your healer(s) handle raising so that they don't waste their swiftcast trying to get someone that you might reach first, if you notice multiple people go down close together, or the healer is low on spells/having to work really hard to keep the party alive, or the healer is dead... you can resurrect someone every 2 seconds. Do not be afraid to help save the party from a wipe. It feels very powerful.

Your healing spell, Vercure, also has a 2 second cast time, so you can give party members a little hp boost in between shoveling them off the floor.

#ffxiv #red mage #tutorial #guide #long post #text #how to red mage

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aetherotransformer · 7 months

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ASHENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN (heavy rain style screaming) 5, 8, 27?

5. Where are they from? What was their childhood like?

answered here!

8. How did they feel about the liberation of Ala Mhigo? Do they feel it could have been handled differently? Where they at all bothered by how they were involved?

i mean ashen teared up a little at the end of stormblood she was up there singing the anthem with the cast. she does wish that eorzea gave a shit earlier lol but at this point its a "well im glad it even happened" thing for her because zenos's attack on rhalgr's reach/finding out that her dad was actually alive and conscripted into the garlean army left her pretty shaken and she did seriously doubt the resistance's ability to win. ultimately she was aware that it was probably their last chance to do so for a while so she went all in with supporting them and didn't regret it. she was sort of pissed at having to go to the far east though because it felt even more like the scions were prioritizing doma over her homeland. and also because she ended up not really liking hien. she would have preferred they let her stay in gyr abania but what can you do

27. How did the events of Shadowbringers impact them?

ohh boy this one is a lot so im keeping it to 5.0 and not the patches. besides the baseline msq stuff (ardbert soul merge etc) the one physical impact it had on him was that his hands stayed sin eater-ified. they have a feathered appearance now but are cold and waxy to the touch and incapable of channeling aether (hence making monk the one job physically inaccessible to ashen)

anyway you're here for the yuri. ashen didn't understand why ysayle sacrificed herself for him when one of the last conversations they had was about settling down in dravania after the dragonsong war ended, and assumed it was a suicide-by-garlean-airship because she felt the sins she'd committed were too numerous and dying like that was the only way to redeem herself. his brain immediately pinned this as being his fault because he'd previously told ysayle that he wouldn't forgive him for what she did in the name of shiva (but that it didn't matter to him). this sort of fucked ashen up for an expac and a half and made him resent that kind of self sacrificial behavior. he almost had a thing going on with ardbert in the first but by the time he realized his feelings they were in amaurot and he was actively dying. ardbert's soulmerge was just sort of further salt in the wound.

but then he met cyella—cyella, who was undone by ardbert's mercy—who was now, a century later, begging for ashen to kill her, so that she might be redeemed for all her sins—and something in him broke, and he refused, because he's tired of people being self sacrificial. and if maybe they were willing to do that for you it's not because you're a warrior of light or because they want to atone. it's because they love you. now theyre dating and ashens almost come to terms with ysayles death* (*ill type the last loose end up when i do aitiascope its living in my mind right now)

oh also the ancients stuff didnt really do anything for ashen i guess. she already believes in the cyclical nature of fate. the ancients fell due to their mistakes. this current civilization will, too, someday. what is the point

#anonymous #ask #ask meme replies

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papalo-palo · 2 months

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WHM 50, MSQ 34 - Heart of the Forest

I fell asleep in my meditation, and found myself dreaming of a time before I ever set foot in Gridania. When my uncle would come visit the farm with some adventuring friends of his. Mother would be so upset about the ruckus, but he always brought a gift of something useful from his travels to placate her. They always volunteered to help us on the farm in some way. They would visit to rest their soul by tending to the cows and helping with the harvest. No monsters here to slay, except the ones that haunted their dreams.

Some of them were very haunted, such that there was no life to their face and I wondered if they were truly alive. One such wounded soul was always apologizing, as if their presence was a wound on the land. Father would argue with my uncle about his presence, but each time Mother would remind all that her brother had never brought anyone violent to the farm, and that not all wounds could be cured with potion or conjury.

A knock on the door brought me back to the present. A visitor had come to the Carline Canopy to call upon me by name. My friend had arrived with their scion friend's gift to me, however the gift had a requirement for acceptance. The scion required that our mutual friend assist me with trying on each and every bespoken piece of cloth, accessory, and cane. They had guessed at my size and stature, and wanted to ensure that the robes fit me well before permitting me to run out for battle.

Ah, dear diary, the robes fit me better than my own skin! The leather is soft and supple, the cloth is strong but comfortable, and the cane is sized perfect for me and responds to the channeling of mana by a vivid glow! I have seen individual pieces of this set on the Market Board for several thousand gil when made by hobby crafters. These obviously high-quality pieces were likely to demand hundreds of thousands of gil to purchase. My friend showed me where the pieces had been created with slots into which materia could be attached to further enhance the mana channeling ability.

It wasn't until after I had completed donning each and every piece, did my friend explain why the scion omnicrafter required me to test each piece. Now that the armor, accessories, and cane have been fit to my hand, they will never fit anyone else. This prevents me from selling the pieces to another adventurer, even accidentally. As if I would throw away something that costs more than all the gil I have accumulated to date! The idea of discarding such a well-crafted gift for the sake of a bag of coin is distasteful.

The terms of the gift now fulfilled, my friend gave me a deep hug and left to report to the scion that all was well with me.

As much as I wanted to rush to Y'shtola and show her the gift, I knew for what this gift had been given. My benefactor had known that Raya-O-Senna would call for me, perhaps they have the Echo as well, and had told me to tarry until I had received their gift. And so, it is to Raya-O-Senna I shall attend first, to complete the Quieting with her and her brother, A-Ruhn-Senna. The robes will help me channel the aether needed. I only hope that I have the courage and wherewithal to see the ritual to completion.

The Padjal Raya-O-Senna did not challenge why I was wearing foreign robes and not the holy white mage pieces already blessed by the spirit of A-Towa-Cant. She was too busy being surprised that A-Ruhn-Senna had accepted my role in the Quieting, and glad that I had answered her summons as it was time to complete the ritual. We assembled ourselves at the Guardian Tree to quell the rage of the ancient elemental.

However, the elemental would not be lulled into repose that easily. Its rage called forth denizens of the forest to assault us and to drive us away. It was such that the spirit of A-Towa-Cant made himself manifest to join us in putting down the rampaging creatures and healing the wounded soul of the Great One. As I wielded weal and woe in alternating prayers, I found the land's aether flowing through me with a potency I had not expected. The omnicrafter's handiwork allowed me to focus on the mechanics of the situation, so that rather than trying to decide when to gather aether into mana and when to cast mana in a spell, I could focus on when to grant succor to the Guardian Tree and the Padjals, and when to grant peace on the rampaging creatures by returning them to the soil.

It was still a hard series of actions to take, as A-Ruhn-Senna was prone to running out of reach of my spells, forcing me to dog after him to help keep his spirits up, and Raya-O-Senna was prone to ignore her wounds in favor of casting healing spells on the Guardian Tree, such that A-Towa-Cant and I had to often focus our healing on her lest she succumb to rage herself. But after much quick thinking and quicker casting, suddenly, the forest was silent.

As the sun rose, a sweet calm emanated from the Guardian Tree to spread outward around us. The forest quieted and in the stillness, I felt a deep connection to not only the land under my feet, but a great measure of the forest. I felt Frixio's approval in Little Solace and a rumbling mirth from Buscarron. I felt something unsettling near Quarrymill and something soothing in Hyrstmill. I felt the forest living and present. I felt my place within it.

But I also felt that my place was not to remain here. That this was a waypoint in a longer journey. I was not permitted to dwell overlong on my burdens as A-Towa-Cant congratulated me for proving myself worthy to be his successor and departed to return to the lifestream once and for all.

Later Raya-O-Senna confirmed what had occurred and declared me her peer and equal. "Papalo of the White", she called me, with an obvious amount of pride and succor. She granted me the remaining piece of A-Towa-Cant's blessed robes, and a coffer containing a modern set of robes crafted to Stillglade Fane's specifications. I accepted the gifts, even as I silently noted that the scion omnicrafter's robes permits me to channel aether better than what the Conjurers' Guild could provide.

Exhausted, I returned to the Carline Canopy, but not without some gifts of my own to share. With a bag now full of ventures, I not only granted to Rosomoni better equipment so he may explore further, but also paid him well so that he may continue in my employ. He chuckled gently upon receipt of coin and cloth, and reminded me that his work for me was a salve to us both.

All my immediate duties now completed and recorded, I shall end this entry in my diary, blow out the candle, and sleep deep and well in the care of the Twelveswood.

#ffxiv #The Memoirs of Papalo Palo

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starrysnowdrop · 1 year

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Thoughts on Patch 6.3 MSQ, Myths of the Realm, and Tataru’s Grand Endeavor

Everything is under the cut! Avoid if you don’t want any spoilers!

So far, this was a solid patch overall, though I do think it feels a bit shorter than I would’ve expected. I guess I’m still not used to 6.3 not being the end of a particular expansion’s story arc, unlike 3.3, 4.3, and 5.3 was, and all of those were massive patches in terms of story. We are still in the middle of this arc about the Void and saving Azdaja so it feels shorter. This arc also feels much smaller in scale than some other previous arcs, but that’s not exactly a bad thing. After saving the whole star from literal oblivion and despair incarnate, it’s nice that the story right now feels different in that way.

I will admit, after 6.2, I wasn’t invested in the msq much at all, but 6.3 has made me a bit more invested, though not nearly as much as I feel that I should. Perhaps it’s because there hasn’t been that much build up and the plight of the people of the Thirteenth doesn’t hit me nearly as hard as the First did. I do think that most of the emotional beats that did really well are because of Zero’s character development and not the storyline itself.

Speaking of Zero, they’ve done a fantastic job on her character development and I’m looking forward to seeing more of her in the next patches. I’m very curious as to what they plan to do with her character. And I don’t know how most others feel about this, but boy did I get shippy feels from Zero and Jullus. I’m just here to say that I ship it.

Last point on the msq is that I’m wondering if any of this arc is going to carry over into 7.0 at all, or is this just a smaller story arc that is more self contained? I can’t help but feel like a lot of this seems like… dare I say, filler? I seriously hope I’m mistaken about that, but I worry that this won’t have much impact once we get to 7.0, whatever that might entail.

The highlight of the patch for me was Myths of the Realm. I’m enjoying the alliance raid series SO much right now, and learning more about the Twelve and battling them has been so much fun for me, and so has been my theories about their origins and their motive for fighting us. Euphrosyne is just as amazing as Aglaia was, and I’m obsessed with the fights, the gear sets, and the music. Literally obsessed with “Dedicated to Moonlight” right now, as I have the song on repeat on YouTube.

Oh, and Deryk is Oschon. It’s not even just a theory anymore to me. I’ll be way more surprised if he wasn’t. Same with what I think their origins are. The Twelve, plus the Watcher on the Moon, were the ones who summoned Hydaelyn, and they are making sure that humanity will be alright without them, now that Hydaelyn is gone and their duties are done. That’s my theory, and once again, I’ll be shocked if that’s not the case.

Lastly, this was my favorite part of Tataru’s Grand Endeavor so far, as I love the Four Lords and seeing Tataru with Hancock again was such a treat. Another npc x npc ship that I love. Oh, and Yume with the Flaming katana!!! Holy shit, can she keep it??? Like for real, seeing her with a flaming katana was so much of a serotonin shot for me, just perfection.

Anyways, that’s all I’ve got for now. Feel free to chat with me on your thoughts on patch 6.3! Do you agree with me, or am I just wrong about everything?

#ffxiv endwalker #endwalker spoilers #patch 6.3 spoilers #6.3 spoilers #myths of the realm spoilers #euphrosyne

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xiv-wolfram · 1 year

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I'm new to tumblr and looking to start my own visual stories. I stumbled upon yours through the suggestions and I am INVESTED. Raubae is a beautiful man and Wolfram and he are a beautiful couple!

Can you give a noob visual storyteller pointers on how to get started with their own comics?

OMG THANK YOU!!! 😭 I'm totally normal about them. I also want to apologize for Tumblr being a bit of a mess in terms of following the comics. Highly recommend the Carrd for chronological links.

As for comics - I'm far from an expert but I do see myself getting better with each one I make so hopefully some of this will help. 🤞

Read a bunch of different types of graphic novels. Pick the ones you like the most and pay attention to how they do things. I personally like lots of dialogue and character development, dramatic lighting, and focusing on facial expressions. Others focus on the action or scenery. Some a mix of both (which I'm working towards). Just find inspiration in what you love and let it help you find your style. 😁 Looking into how comics are made and what the different speech bubbles mean/text decoration/etc was helpful.

Use Clip Studio Paint or a program like it. Basically you want something that will let you cut out comic frames and add dialogue boxes easily. It really streamlines the workflow.

Write out "scripts" before GPosing. I know some folks who can freestyle but for me scripts with minor stage direction and dialogue have helped a lot. I have a different numbered line for each GPose I need to take too.

Everyone does plot/characterization differently. IDK if you were curious about that but I personally focus my plot around 3 main storylines - WolfBahn relationship arc, Wolfram's voidsent problem/past trauma, and MSQ. These plotlines overlap A LOT and come to a head in Endwalker. A lot of folks focus on their OC (I of course do.) but its also nice to develop the NPCs in some way. Most of Raubahn's development comes from MSQ which makes that easy but I do take time to touch on some of the things MSQ doesn't cover heavily like his recovery after being rescued from Halatali or the toll fighting to liberate Ala Mhigo takes on him. So I guess I just think - stories are more engaging if you flesh out the NPCs a bit. That may be personal preference though...

Really know your characters. I've found answering WoLQoTDs helps a ton. Along those lines - a timeline of their major events. Mine includes Eorzean events like The Autumn War and Garlean invasion of Ala Mhigo so I can fit my character's story in with the greater world. Before starting the comics I had a summary of his story on his Carrd (it's down now though). I also made a family tree. Replaying cutscenes helps get me in the zone to write too. Knowing them really well makes the writing flow pretty effortlessly.

Spend the time to edit each screenshot. I didn't do enough of this starting out and regret it. Even just upping the sharpness makes a big difference. Highly reccomend hitting it with the dodge/burn if you have time. The images will be smaller than most gposes so zooming in or cropping closer can help show the fine details (another place CSP shines).

Make dialogue box text large enough so that the majority of users on mobile won't need to zoom in. What I've been doing is 50 in CSP.

This one I don't do - but I should. Have someone with good grammar who also actually enjoys your story go over your comic before you post it. Ideally over the script as well. They'll point out grammatical mistakes but also since they're fans they may have some cool character insights you hadn't thought of!

Don't be discouraged if you get less "likes" than you do for GPoses. I usually get way less. On the flip side I get more actual interaction with the comics. Nice convos. It's how I've met some of my best buddies! So it's a good trade-off IMO. Most important of all - it's FUN to tell stories!

I hope this was helpful. Feel free to DM if you have more specific questions/want to have a convo too. I'm always excited to see more GPose comics! :D

#WolframAsk

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macarensesangles · 8 months

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lgbt terminology is annoying in fic for a game like ffxiv. I don’t mean other people using it but trying to figure out what would be appropriate in my own writing myself. it’s all deeply predicated on cultural context and there’s seldom little basis for envisioning that in canon, if any.

and it’s like, these are things that can be spoken about without specialized vocabulary to some extent, but being queer itself is just as highly contextual, so trying to delve into like “how would a trans man in this setting express that he’s trans or explain what he feels” gets frustrating. Emet is even tougher bc like, I DO have an idea of how he would view his gender and sexuality in irl terms, but how to express that? i at LEAST imagine that he didn’t start out this way in the unsundered world bc he was very intently closeted, so his identity as a queer person is probably more deeply rooted in the context of sundered societies than not. but even then, with his being immortal and not a “true” member of those societies, it’d feel odd for him to, for example, claim that he’s an [insert garlean equivalent of f slur here] in his heart and soul — like, he’s not garlean. entirely. ykwim? but then i guess the point of emet is that the masks he wears do persist, even should he claim otherwise, so.

and anyway like im sure it would not be be odd to anyone if i were to import modern terminology to apply to these concepts (the word trauma being used in a psychological context in recent msq was pretty jarring to me, but that’s an example of one such precedent). i don’t want to spend a bunch of time inventing new words that carry less meaning, either. it’s just one of those things where it becomes difficult to speak about queerness in a way that feels grounded for the setting, and i can’t even go the way of c&w and avail myself of the actual historical research bc this is a fantasy setting where queerness is at best an afterthought

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zimystry · 11 months

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We made it through the emotional damage of Thavnair- really we are flying now . (Though tomorrow May be a bit slow cause I have ooc things to do ) Now onto my favorite zone in terms of plot and also prettiness- Elpis. Which brings up the question of who is Nahkus AZEM. Well I talked about this on my Twitter but he’s essentially this big Egyptian God and he is sexy as he always is . Since most folks have followed me from there I’m not gonna bother to repost that.

Hush is gonna fantasia to his Bun self for this zone so that’s a heads up. I’ll still be the same because I rarely fantasia . I just like persistent things I guess. Some folks like change. Me? I prefer to stay the same as much as possible . I created the toon how I see him so why spend the money to change it. I’ll just make a brand new character. Anyway ..

I’m just glad that I can be there for Hush so he doesn’t do things alone. Plus he heard for the first time Nahku grunting while fighting so that made me smile a bit . I am glad that I get to find out his first reactions to stuff and I live for that, really .

But yeah at the rate we are going we will prolly be going through the msq pretty quickly . Still have to do flying quests etc but hopefully soon Hush will have the full story up until now :) He is in for some pain ….

@glxsscannon

#;; the moon ( hush io )#:: the sun: nahku kha #;; the lovers #[ ooc. mun — i need a cuppa tea ]#rambles

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unmeiha-arc · 2 years

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drk 30-50 + mild stormblood spoilers under the cut! copy/pasting my liveblog meta from my archived blog

koharu literally ties her self worth to her honor for a very, very large portion of msq. like, we’re talking all the way up to the end of 4.3, which is when she does all of drk 30-70 in one go. when you first encounter fray, he tells you that dark knights don’t care about that and if you want to be a dark knight, you can’t either. in a roundabout way, it can be looked at as fray telling her to stop fucking doing that, that’s not healthy.

AND THEN THIS. she held onto the belief for so, so, so long that if she had just stayed in doma that she could have done something, that maybe her family would still be alive and this dialogue, right off of finally, finally freeing doma, especially after the tsuyu arc, just… is so, so, so important. it’s essentially fray telling her it’s not your fault and you need to stop trying to martyr yourself to make amends for something that’s not your fault. and that’s something she needs to hear. even if she doesn’t consciously realize it, her subconscious does and it desperately wants her to listen.

of course you’re questioning her commitment. she’s afraid. healing is hard and terrifying and you’re ripping out her biggest insecurities and putting them on display for her, but she still keeps coming back to you because somehow, for some reason, you know that, she knows you know that, and something about that puts her at ease. something about someone telling her outright to actually value herself and not what she can offer is something she needs, and wants, to hear, even if it’s hard.

and god, just the thought of the way fray speaks to the other npcs during the questline. i think it’s generally accepted that fray doesn’t actually make a physical appearance in front of other people outside of the first quest (as a corpse) and the level 50 quest in whitebrim, so this is fray speaking like that through koharu. it’s koharu speaking like that. it’s so far removed from how she actually is -- stiffly formal to the point that it actually sounds kind of awkward -- that it wouldn’t surprise me if someone thought she was having a fucking mental break, which, like… isn’t too far from the truth, i guess.

AND LIKE… THIS KIND OF RESPONSE FROM THE NPCS? HER LITERALLY LOSING TIME/NOT BEING AWARE OF THINGS SHE’S DOING?? SHE’D BE CONFUSED AS FUCK, TOO. what do you mean me? that was fray, i literally just stood here while he went off, why are you looking at me like that? and that would only scare her more.

and we see how afraid she is in fray literally begging her to please just fucking stop, you have to stop, this is going to kill you one day, please please please. but, haha, she sure fucking doesn’t stop, does she? even if she forgives herself for doma, she’s the warrior of light, she can’t just walk away from that.

OR CAN SHE? FRAY LITERALLY OFFERS HER A CHANCE TO RUN AWAY AGAIN. LITERALLY KOHARU HERSELF CONSIDERING RUNNING AWAY AGAIN. HER BIGGEST REGRET WAS RUNNING FROM DOMA AND SHE’S FACE TO FACE WITH THIS CHOICE AGAIN.

if you’re familiar with my fray playlist at all, you know that it’s in chronological order and that this song specifically corresponds to this specific dialogue exchange.

AND SHE ALMOST DOES IT. she almost takes fray’s offer to give up and leave, to say to hell with it, to hell with them all and just go. doma is free and an ascian is traipsing around in zenos’s body and she’s tired, so, so tired, and she just wants to stop and fray wants her to stop.

but she doesn’t. during the course of this questline she has faced that regret and come to terms with it and accepted that, even if she regrets leaving she couldn’t have done anything, but instead of repeating what she considers her biggest mistake she decides no, not again, this time i’m not running and faces both fray and herself head on.

30-50 is generally considered the warrior of light is tired of being used by everyone as a human weapon questline, and that’s not entirely untrue for koharu but for her there’s more to it. for her, she allows (and even encourages) herself to be used in that way because she hates that she didn’t do all she could to save her home and family so 30-50 is more about her forcing herself to come to terms with what happened to doma and her choices both before and after to stop herself from working herself to death to try and make amends (to her king, to her country, to the dead, to herself) for that. it’s not just i’m tired of being a weapon, it’s stop trying to martyr yourself, too.

not that she listens to that part. looking at you shadowbringers.

#❀ LORE 「桜吹雪」 about : headcanon && meta.

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crossroadsdimension · 2 years

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Well, today was fruitful in terms of FFXIV progress.

All my DPS classes are now at least Lv 55. That leaves me with 5 classes that are under that (not counting Blue Mage, so...Paladin, Warrior, Dark Knight, White Mage, and Astrologan). I’m going to start using the XP piggyback from Frontlines for my tanks as I start leveling up my DPS to 60. I’ll see how long that goes for.

In the meantime, I tackled the first set of the 8-man raids today. Omega’s Deltascape is clobbered; next I’m gonna hit the first of the 24-man raids, but that’ll happen next weekend. I’ve also run most of the optional dungeons through -- just the hard modes for Fractal Continuum and the greenhouse in Idyllshire are left for those, and I’ll get to them eventually.

As for...optional raids? I guess? I unlocked Rathalos last weekend and have yet to poke that dragon; I’ll get to him probably next weekend.

In the meantime, I decided to hit the patch MSQ quests this afternoon and man was it nice to get back to that. Fordola having a more sensitive pseudo-Echo because of poor Krile certainly means she has Every Reason to Regret letting her Skulls have their run of everyone else (all the Echo flashbacks!). Not to mention coming down so hard on me. The establishment that she won’t be forgiven by the people of Ala Mhigo, as well...Fordola has a long way to go before she can be forgiven by others, much less herself.

And Lyse is definitely growing. She’s still stumbling in learning how to be a leader, of course, but she’s getting there. And hopefully, she’ll have good people to lean on to encourage her growth in leadership.

(Yes, I failed that first attempt to save everyone from being tempered. Yes, I took the Very Easy route to get it done. No, I’m not quite done with that quest just yet -- Fordola just walked out of the palace, going back to her cell. I’ll wrap up that quest tomorrow morning.)

#cross' rambling #cross plays ffxiv #cross plays final fantasy xiv #stormblood patch quests

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miss-littevi · 5 months

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About my last storybit "Thoughts" (and about Yorina and Estinien)

This one

It was written in a short amount of time. It is rough, with many mistakes, not really revised. But it was never my intention to get a high quality writing out. I know, it has lots of mistakes, grammar errors, typos, wrong names because I didn't look up every single english name of ingame-things (grerman language game client here), but it was important for me to get it "on paper" because it haunted me,

My goal was to write down two things:

The fact, that Yorina didn't brush off this final confrontation with Zenos as the game suggests the WoL does. That it was a long and exhaustig fight for her. That she was in a death-like state at the end, before her companions brought her back. Or did she die and just wishes and prayers / dynamis brought her back? (Maybe the 10 hours are a bit too much and I'll change it to four or five hours in a future revision of this story part. Four to five hourst would be more than enough I guess, but the exact number doesn't matter anyway)

The dynamic between Yorina and Estinien. I always wrote them as "sibling dynamic" but the more I write, the more I want to write them as "star crossed lovers". It's cliche, it's cheesy, it's... overused. But it evolved into this. After the Dragonsong War (the Final Steps of Faith), they left Ishgard together. Estinien for whatever reasons MSQ gave us. Yorina because she needet time to sort her thoughts and the thick stone walls in Ishgard made her anxious and stoped her from doing so. During that time they mostly travelled together without talking much but she convinced him to teach her at least some basics concerning lance-combat and as the powers of the Dragoons manifested in her basics of the Dragoon combat too. They feld some sort of mutual trust and understanding while travelling together, but nothing more. It took a while until they met again (Stormblood Dragoon Q basically) and by that time they first feld drawn towards each other, but Yorina was already engaged (or married, have to look up the correct timeline again) to Aymeric, so both ignored the feelings. But they trusted each other with their lifes nevertheless - and don't really get away from each other either. And since Estinien is part of the Scions, it is clearly visible, they spend lot of time together. Most people explain it with "just Dragoon-things", Yorina and Estinien know it's not just that, but they both are not willing to accept the truth that they feel drawn towards each other and somehow long to be closer to eachother than they can socially acceptable be. And they never talked about their true feelings, because it just can't be. Another aspect of their relationship: For some "supernatural reasons" he can feel her mood spiralling down and just knows where she is, when it happens. That's why he is always there to listen to her words, if necessary. Yorina can feel Estiniens mood shifts as well, but both agreed that he doesn't want to talk most of the time so it is rare that she looks for him. uit she has a good sense of when she should really worry about him. I explain the "attraction towards each other" and the "can feel the others state of mind" with their ancient selves. I have "Nyx" as name for Yorina!Azem, and since we never learn anything about our companions ancienf selves (prob for good reasons), this is where "fanfiction world" beginns and I am working on my version of the Ancient-version of Estinien. Greek mythology isn't an exact science and I am at the beginning of my research, but Nyx seems to have several "siblings" (as far as it is "siblings" in ancient greek concepts). One of them is Erebos and Erebos and Nyx had at least two children in mythology (let's translate it to "concepts" in FF14-terms). They could have the sibling-aspekt and also the "physical and mental closeness" to create new concepts together. So maybe I will follow that road for Ancient!Yorina (Nyx) and Ancient!Estinien (maybe Erebos, maybe another name) as far as familiarity, mutual trust and intimacy goes. Like I said: just a thought. Nothing is finally decided.

and with that being said, I wrote way more than I originally wanted, but the thoughts and words just flowed onto the digital paper ^^ (made some minor edits later because some things were chronologically nonsense - but I have to rewrite the timeline nontheless I think ^^'')

#oc: yorianna limai #InDragonsight #littevi on etheirys #littevi's thoughts

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