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nights-at-crystarium · 8 months

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You know what, I assume that people always read my pinned, or notice the pointer "new reader? start here" in every new Fragments' episode. I might be deluding myself. So hi hello lemme TALK ABOUT MY COMIC.

Before I get too rambly (and I mean RAMBLY), here's a quick intro. Fragments is a comic focused on feels and slice of life, made by a queer guy, aiming to ~character study~ the main cast (Vivi, Raha, Alisaie, Feo Ul) and fill in the gaps in canon (or linger in canon moments that needed more air imo), the tone ranging from angst to fluff to meme. Good punches require a good windup, so please don't expect angst anytime soon :3c

The story's segmented (fragmented, heh) into episodes. Episodes 1-11 take place in ARR, you can enjoy them with no worry about spoilers. Episode 12 onward is ShB, with all the spoilers and lorebending.

My storytelling style assumes you haven't only played through ShB, but know it like the back of your hand, i.e. it's for nerds and thinkers. Of course there's plenty of silly moments that don't require any deep knowledge, but the overarching story does. Often I skip canon events, only hinting that they took place, simply because I don't wanna retell the msq 1:1, I've got plenty of original scenes waiting to be drawn. You're in for a treat if you like obsessing over emotional and moral implications of things. And, yes, this's a story about a morally grey mc. Don't expect to be spoon-fed "and this's why that thing's bad, kids".

Currently I've outlined all the main story beats up until post EW, so it's like, not being winged as I go. Yes I refine things here and there, but I know where I'm going. I'm going ham!!!! With the lorebending post ShB. Initially I didn't plan to, but the more I learned about Vivi and personally grew as a writer, the more courage I got to "divorce" from canon. The general xiv story may still be good wherever it's headed, but it's not suited for an established wolgraha, so I'm making food for myself.

Everyone imagines the lil scenes from their wol's life, I'm taking that a tiiiiiny step further. Fragments tells a cohesive story that's looking to be the longest project at least in our corner. I can and will hyperfixate on this for years.

I started out just like many others, being hit with ShB like a truck, I wanted to put a catboy under a microscope and rotate him forever. Although I'd already been drawing for decades, I didn't have the comic-making skills yet, or eloquence to write the dialogue, so I spent the first half of 2022 self-studying, just because I needed a mouth to be able to scream about my ship.

Vivi didn't exist prior to my obsession with Exarch. He was made for this, he started out as a reagent (or a foil, now that I know fancy writing terms) for a rich and fun chemistry, and keep myself entertained for years, first and foremost.

Me, a fool: okay let's make a guy that falls in love with Exarch in this particular moment, what kinda life must he have led to- Me: ....oh no

The chemistry quickly bubbled up and exploded in my face, involving not only Exarch, but other characters (first as a means to subtly tell about Vivi, then they also demanded their own screentime), and here I am, sitting with a massive script on my hands, drawing my blorbos every day. Thanks for enabling that btw.

I care about characters a lot. I ask a lot of whys and hows. I'm critical-minded and burned on many bad stories that did their characters dirty, and I wanna be an opposing example. What I'm doing is extremely ambitious and risky, yes, but I can only invite you to tag along and see if I stick to my word.

The internet's a cruel and unforgiving place nowadays, and here I am, pitting my passion against what feels like decaying humanity. I'm making this comic to keep myself happy above all else, being sincere and cringe because life's too short to be anything else.

Thanks for reading this, and if you haven't yet, read Fragments here!

#ffxiv #vivien rell #crystal exarch #g'raha tia #wol x g'raha tia #wolgraha #own: next lvl #fragments talk

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aroaceacacia · 3 years

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why you should check out future smp!

future smp is a small minecraft server started by mysticat, frostbyte freeman, and animagician. the server's whitelist now has a roster of 23 very cool creators, including people like pixelcraftian, zyphon, and firebreathman!

every player is genuinely such a sweet person. like i cannot tell you enough how great they are. theyre thoughtful and they try to learn, and listen if theyve been corrected. they're all so nice to be around. a rly great bunch.

they have lore! it's not super intense, just every few streams or so they do in character stuff. and they let us know beforehand and usually will have lore in the title. and if you're behind on lore, they have a lore document summarizing events so far for people who've missed things! in addition, the events of the christmas arc are on youtube :)

frostbyte freeman's monologues are legitimately a reason you should watch this, mans improvises dramatic ass speeches and heartfelt, real, and raw character arcs and THEN goes on twitter and posts screenshots of a build hes made as part of a character beat and leaves us an emotional playlist with a title in italian

they're all pretty young! the streamers range in age from 13 year old apden to 23 year old mysticat. it's honestly really cool to be watching creators who are younger than me (and who are peers in age with many of my friends) because it feels kind of like I am supporting a younger sibling sometimes. makes me proud. and especially with that in mind, their maturity is astonishing - apden in particular was one of the creators at the forefront of calling out a creator who was scamming and sexually harassing people.

they are Queer !! that I know of there are 4 members who use any pronouns, two gay people, and two bisexuals!

they are funny! frost's weird ass dynamics with literally everyone else make me laugh out loud, mysty has such great comedic timing, deadhawk and longjaws have a really cozy and fun dynamic that fills me with joy, they're all so much fun. wolfeei showing up to a presidential campaign debate wearing a shirtless buff skin. keegan deciding that his detective uniform is a maid dress. bigman walking up to the mic and saying "free my mans he ain't do nothing wrong" in response to wrongfully incarcerated animagician asking which candidates would free him. jack notsouls being a flower loving catboy who thinks that giving flowers to the ominous void rift in the sky is a good idea

the community is really great! we're mostly based on twitter where the creators tend to hang out but its really great being able to easily interact with them and each other, like we have a groupchat there and a discord server! it's a lot of fun and just about everyone in the community is wonderful. it's an interesting mishmash of people from the creators' stream chats/fanbases pre-smp, irl friends, online friends, and people who came because they saw frost's "how the blue bats won mcc 9" video and liked his content and found future that way

they appreciate artists SO much. a bunch of them have fanart reels with credits on their streams, they reply to just about everything, they get so happy to see art you have no idea. they have the custom pictures in item frames plugin on the server so they can hang fanart! they have art by me and by many of my friends on the walls of the government building! hell j even wrote a fic and linked it on twitter and the guy I wrote it about read and approved it! and to top it all off they Commissioned Me to make them their official group picture, like! that's supporting artists baby!!!

you want interesting character designs? they have two frogs, a cat, a penguin, a bird, a tedsattic, an ironstarr, and a literal cookie. rinnly wears a box on their head. dec is a goth. pixelcraftian is a funny little man. john needs a life is a jojo cosplayer. bigman is a snowman. bigman is also the president. the penguin is his secretary of defense.

a handful of them are current or former MCC testers, many of whom met or became testers because they were runner-up mcc 10 applicants, and dec is a noxcrew artist! theyve also participated in smaller events in the community, or even bigger ones, like minecraft ultimate! the upcoming retro rivals event has 4 future smp members on team space invaders (the fact that they didnt put pixelcraftian, the man whose brand is Loving Mario, on the mario team is a crime).

this is a long post but I'm dead serious please check them out!! I'll link their introduction slide show in the notes, which is a good place to start for most of these creators!

#mcyt #mcytblr #future smp #long post #bearvocalizations

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amandlas · 3 years

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tagged by the adorable @destiniesfic 🌹 thank you love!

How many works do you have on AO3?

ten (not counting deleted ones)

What’s your total AO3 word count?

29,376 total words

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

can’t count across my lifetime (lets not touch my old quizilla history) but currently there are three

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

get me to the altar - 960

maybe this is danger and he just don’t know - 629

open for me - 395

the way you see it fall apart - 326

just your neck, and my beloved - 290

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

if there’s something i looooove it’s receiving comments! more than kudos tbh. and yes, sometimes i do respond to them. however, i selfishly try not to respond to any that don’t merit a response because i feel like it only ups my comments number for no reason. also, some are complimentary rather than inquisitive so i don’t know what to say other than “thank you”. i do read every single one and appreciate it though!

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

obviously this bad boy almost gone (in these little moments get your cards out)

Do you write crossovers? If so, what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

neeeever hehe

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

not that i recall thankfully

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

... my account is almost exclusively smut. if i were to write something in depth or emotional i wouldn’t want to waste it on fanfiction. rather i’d save that for manuscripts of original stories. so my account is one small little bubble of pwp!

my specialties range from emotional catharsis to bondage to dom/sub and dirty talk with slapping and surprisingly enough, it’s come to my attention that several of my fics have slight voyeurism? which?? 👀

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

nope! i did notice, however, that after posting get me to the altar some new fics sprung up with throne sex 😶 do with that info what you will

Have you ever had a fic translated?

that has never come to mind, actually. despite being bilingual myself that’s EMBARRASSING

What’s your all time favorite ship?

give me a J! give me a U! give me a DE! give me a catboy! what’s that spell? the ship with the most daddy issues! that’s right - JUDECARDAN!

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

funny enough i have a finished wip! it’s heavily doused in religious themes though and i doubt it would be well received by the internet so i kept it in a secret google doc and sent it only to select friends. because who would want to see judecardan roleplay as jesus and judas, right? anywho, other than that, i started an au where jude wasn’t abducted by madoc but rather found by ahem other people. it spanned into this long umbrella academy-style storyline that i doubt i can see through.

What are your writing strengths?

uhhh this is difficult for me to say considering i’m self-aware but i can’t really see my own writing from an objective point of view. therefore i invited a guest!

zara “that bitch” sanktaleksander comments: i enjoy your characterization and dialogue because it feels very real

What are your writing weaknesses?

as my bestie zara says, verbatim: Over fucking description bro I’ll kill u for that

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

i love it. i try to do so as often as i can, including my judecardan’s babies mini-fic! it’s glaringly obvious that i love a character when i make them multilingual

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

gosh who even remembers. probably some dumb 14-year-old take on ghostgirl or avatar the last airbender

What’s your favorite fic that you’ve written?

get me to the altar was the first smut fic in which i “put myself out there”. it was so well received i wrote the rest! it will always have a special place for me. second to that is probably right at the borderline is where i’m gonna wait

a dozen thanks for the ask! 🕊️

tagging: @slightlyrebelliouswriter23 @moononastring @jurdanhell @wanderingpages @anonniemousefics

#about nicky #the fact that i had to use a calculator for a tumblr post... criminal #i didnt realize i had that many kudos on my writing i wont even lie. thanks everyone!#to me im more fulfilled by hearing from people and thats why comments is what i like the most #the surefire way to my heart!#nicky writes

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isabellehemlock · 2 years

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Fanfic Ask Game

Thank you to the ethereal @disregardandfelicity for tagging me in this lovely fanfic ask game 🤗

I actually had done a similar one to this about ten weeks ago, but let’s see if any of the answers changed 😎

Now who to tag?? Hmmm

@tobebbanburg @kiaya (now that she's back!!) @mekana47 @fitzcamebacktome (no pressure though of course)

How many works do you have on AO3?

37 (with 6 being fanart)

How many fandoms have you written for (and what are they)?

The majority are for The Old Guard - and a few are for Luca Marinelli Multiverse Character crossover au’s.

Are there any new fandoms you want to write for?

Well I’m outlining a prequel for The Witcher featuring Calanthe and Eist :)

What are your top five fics by kudos?

Endless Ocean (TOG Modern AU)

Cleanse (TOG Post Canon)

Catch Me If I Fall (TOG Omegaverse AU)

The Bet (TOG Pre Canon)

The Purpose of Art (TOG Modern AU)

Which of your fics do you want more attention for?

They’ve had enough attention, it’s fine lol. I mean I do love kudos and comments, and I do hope something that brought me joy, brings joy to someone else, but I don’t know if I think any works need “attention.” I suppose if the question is meant more like, “Which of your fics do you hope people notice?” - I’d say, “Any that helps brings joy to someone’s day, or helps them process something.”

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I love commentary, I love to talk - words of affirmation is my love language <3 - and am always so grateful when someone has gone out of their way to let me know they enjoyed my fic/art (and seriously I’ve had a full range of commentary from like emotes to quotes copied back to me and everything in between and I treasure each one! I even keep some saved on my phone). I tend to reply back within twenty four hours, but sometimes it can take me up to a week and a half if I have a pretty full inbox (which hey, that’s a good kind of “problem” to have lol). Right now I have thirteen I’m hoping to respond to by morning :)

What sorts of things do you normally write?

I’ve been told I write two extremes - either fluffy or angsty lol. And it’s enough of a pattern where I seem to trade off between the two between each work. I’d probably say the tropes or themes that keep reappearing is simply down to discovering how someone feels loved (whether that’s romantic or platonic), and communicating that to strengthen the relationship, and lots and lots of healing and feelings. So yeah, sometimes that’s adorable and fluffy, sometimes that’s angsty 🙈

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

I think it depends on your definition of angst? Because I would say “none,” but then I do have a few that are probably close: The Necklace (TOG pre canon), An Interrupted Oath (TOG pre canon), and Memento Mori (TOG pre canon) - can’t really say too much without it becoming spoilery, but essentially . . . sad, sadder (because the reunion is off screen), and third is a cliffhanger 👀

What’s a fic that pushed you out of your comfort zone?

All of them lol. In one way or another, because I always have this moment right before I post a new work - or a chapter update, where I have to convince myself it’s a good idea (thanks anxiety 🙃).

Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Yup yup - and oh hands down, Pwimo where Primo Nizzuto turns into a catboi. But I have something even crazier in the works lol.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope :)

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Co-planned EO, butttt - not yet, though fingers crossed for a little something later in the year 😎🐙

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Oh I’m going to finish them. I might be six months behind schedule but it’s going to happen. I have yet to make a google doc of like a whole outline and not do a fic 😏

What are you currently working on?

My Joe x Nicky precanon get together fic, Their souls were knit together (and he loved him as himself). Last night I uploaded the angstiest, most depressing chapter I have ever written ever (which is really saying something), but I’m just under halfway through and the rest is focused on healing and growing closer and all that lovely jazz.

I'll probably be working on it for the next month and uploading once a week - do some fluffy one shots here and there, and then dive into my Cult AU around Valentine's Day 👀 I mean, I have started it, but figured I'd pause while I worked on some things during December 🎄

What are your writing strengths?

I think when it comes to within the fic itself, maybe character backgrounds and dialogue? I really like to explore what makes a person them from all angles, and discover that through dialogue and explorations of their past. So I suppose a chunk of my energy goes into those portions the most? I do like to think I’m funny sometimes, but sadly the angst tends to outweigh my attempts to balance it with humor, because I have yet to receive a comment of “this was funny” on a heavy chapter lolll

And just in case the question was about writing in general, I’d say my strength actually lies in my neuro divergent brain. I don’t really need to carve out time to write, because I can sort of tap in, tap out throughout the day/week. Thirty minutes here, pause - work on an errand, then head right back in for another hour, and so on. I mean of course it’s great to be able to schedule a block of a day to just really pump out the words, but it’s not a necessity, and since I’m a mom with a full calendar, it’s nice not to need a lot of transition time between activities. Helps me to actually be able to get more done during the day, so I can do some fun creative stuff in between errands.

What was the first fandom you wrote for? Most recent?

I have some vague memory of jotting down notes for Sailor Moon fanfiction when I was like fourteen but I’m not 100% if I ever posted it, or just dreamt I did lol (twenty two years ago ahhhh!). The Old Guard was the first fandom I wrote fics for and posted them on AO3!

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

That’s like asking a parent who their favorite kid is, I can’t pick one haha. But feel free to check out the link at the beginning to see which baker's dozens I linked that came to mind first lol

What fic are you most proud of?

I can’t do the proud word lol, hmmmm - I think I feel most humbled by someone saying they felt seen, or something I wrote resonated with a reader. Love hearing it helped them process something. I wrote plenty of fluff, and even pwf, but honestly I do try to reflect "What would I have wanted to read growing up?" (Because one, it nurtures my inner child and two, it might nurture someone else's 🥰)

Thank you for the tag Felicity

#gentle hugs to Felicity #fanfic ask game #tag game #for queue

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illegiblewords · 3 years

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Notes under the cut!

Having made a lady WoL collection, I decided to do a dude one too. As before I have more, but not all are leveled and I have some I’m more attached to than others.

I do want to push for more range honestly--I’m not sure how I wound up with three midlander dudes and a highlander lol. I should really follow through with a male au ra, hrothgar, and lalafell. I did an odd green/brown hair hybrid that I suppose could qualify for brunette, but otherwise my tendencies toward black and blonde hair came through real strong. Mysteriously absent are redheads. I may also want to experiment more with color palettes and cultural influences a bit.

For the guys, there are spots where I played into job expectations and spots where I defied them. I wanted to try designing some characters in ways I hadn’t seen so much in-game, as well as designing characters who would immediately evoke a specific tone! There are also definitely jobs where I deliberately tried to show some traditional masculinity where it’s less expected, which was fun.

Cenric/Black Mage Midlander: People have criticized hyurs before by calling them “too vanilla”, since they’re the human stand-ins. I figure though, they’re hyurs. Hyurs are imaginary and don’t need to follow real world biology. Play with color palettes and features so you get a more definite fantasy look if you want to. With Cenric, I specifically tried to go super dark and de-saturated to evoke a walking silhouette (sort of like drow) and gave him the palest eyes possible with strategic face paint so they’d look like they glow. This was all in the name of making a character who evoked Final Fantasy’s classic black mage, just going in a more adult and extra spooky-goth direction.

Maerec/Dark Knight Midlander: Maerec, I designed specifically to both be a step off of the default midlander from commercials and to embody the Dark Knight questline as best I could. Giving him some edge visually while still feeling reasonably natural was fun to balance! To this end, I knew dark eyes would be important to helping the black hair fit in. Going with a very dark red I figure it almost seems like he could have brown eyes until you look closely. Making him feel very Ishgardian was also fun, with the horned helmet and Fray-esque glamour. I also designed him to both parallel and contrast with Lahabrea given their stories are intertwined. If there’s scattered angel/demon imagery between them that works even more.

Sublime Tiger/Samurai Hellsguard: I know that my natural inclinations go toward bishonens lmao, so figuring out the angle I wanted to work with the SUPER BEEFY male roegadyns was wild! One thing that gave me inspiration at the time was realizing that, with their black noses, Hellsguard roegadyns can 100% evoke big cats--among other animals. I usually prefer designing Sea Wolves for lacking the black noses because my impulse is for it either to be visually unified with the rest of the face/body or go without--so I often feel a bit more limited with what kind of designs I’ll do for Hellsguard. With Sublime Tiger, originally he had both orange and black striped hair (one of the styles available works it) as well as the black face paint evoking tiger stripes. I found the hair more limiting with helms though so made it pure black instead. Deciding what glamour would look good and play well with proportions was also a process--wanted him to feel like he’s from Othard since there is a big Hellsguard population there, so samurai made some sense to me in building that. After experimenting though, I wound up going with a look that took a bit of inspiration from One Thousand And One Nights. I have additional ideas for what I might try going forward though.

J’mor/Red Mage Miqo’te: This was a combination of a lot of ideas! One was wanting to embrace the physicality of red mage as a job, and explore it as a worldly kind of caster who works well with ease of movement and does a lot of darting around the battlefield. Mages in-general are often seen as kind of ivory tower sorts, and by shedding the usual frills I wanted to show that it’s possible to have a caster’s knowledge while being very connected to the world at large. Also give a strong sense of SWASHBUCKLER where the magic kind of slaps you in the face with additional power. I also noticed I hadn’t seen as many black male miqo’te in-general, along with fandom stereotypes about catboys as soft. So I decided to design J’mor with that in mind--playing him as a very shonen kind of hero while the beard brings an extra bit of hardness to his features.

Asah’zi/White Mage Miqo’te: Asah’zi is another case where I wanted to challenge the idea of male miqo’te as soft, and I added to that challenge by making him a white mage when that is often filled by lady characters. I was also interested, lore-wise, in the tension between Keeper of the Moon tribes and Gridania (where white magic has very strong ties). That Keepers of the Moon are also very matriarchal gave added interest for me making a more rough and traditionally masculine-feeling white mage sort, especially since Keepers often build a lot of their lives around hunting through the Twelveswood. I also wanted to bring some sense of druid into white mage as a job, given the nature ties. With Asah’zi, using skydruid skins, claws, a wooden cane, and on all contributed toward the vibe I wanted to build for him. Using emotes that show off his fangs helps bring a bit of cockiness to him too, which is fun. And stealing Thancred’s hair lets him have a bit of a roguish vibe lol.

Amir/Dancer Highlander: Like I said, I tend to go for bishonen-sorts in designs a lot. HOWEVER! I do love this highlander face type specifically a ton, and think guy highlander proportions are well-balanced overall while being beefy. I knew for a while that I had a specific design I liked a lot for male highlander with Amir, and I definitely wanted to do something with him. The choice to make him a dancer specifically came from a conversation I saw just after the job’s release. An IRL male hip hop dancer mentioned feeling a bit bummed out because a lot of the animations felt like they played more to softness/grace and traditional femininity, and he’d been hoping for the option of a little edge with battle dancing because that’s what he does. Some players said he should just play monk, others were kind of mean to him and acted like what he wanted was somehow shitty. I felt for the dude to be honest since he was coming from a place of feeling frustrated by stereotyping, so I decided to look at the animations and see how much they could be integrated into a design that felt more traditionally masculine. I saw a lot of bright greens (especially with the peacock feathers) so I tried to unify that with a green glamour. The mask reminds me of rave aesthetics a bit, and I’ve seen dudes wear shorts similar to the Nezha ones before. I’m a big fan of the idea that fashion can be a way to create what you want tonally, and I tried to explore that in this design.

Navarre/Paladin Midlander: At some point it hit me that I have been avoiding traditional knight-in-shining-armor looks like the plagues in my tanks lol. This made me think a fair bit. What struck me was that if the only thing a glamour has to say for itself is “this is a knight”, that doesn’t feel so interesting to me. If it’s supposed to be a knight in shining armor specifically though, bringing an almost angelic, elemental feeling to the look is something I’m 500% there for. And weirdly, people don’t seem to do this as much. I’m less used to paladins compared to dark knights, warriors, or even gunbreakers--and since paladins are so associated with that holy knight-vibe I figured it made sense to go that direction. While I was looking into glamours, one thing I found was that a lot of them dyed with unchanging patches of black, had edgy red woven in, or otherwise came across as having been designed with dark knight or warrior in-mind. I decided part of what I’d do in this instance was really make a Warrior of Light who immediately screamed “yes I am the Warrior of Light” when you looked at him, and took inspiration from Cecil Harvey from Final Fantasy IV toward that end too. Every piece in this glamour was carefully picked not just for whether it worked as a silhouette, but also how it would dye.

Cesaire/Dragoon Elezen: Cesaire has gone through a lot of design phases. Initially he was a red elezen, because it’s a direction I don’t see used a lot but has a very doable fantasy feel I think is fun. Then he was a champagne/cream color all over as inspired by a particular breed of horses. Now, having put a lot of thought in, he is deep gold with blue eyes. The underlying concept for him was that I wanted to make a golden dragoon who looks like he should be terribly heroic, but then in practice he’s a kind of blood knight WoL who is about as close to Zenos as a Warrior can get without going outright evil. I played into gold and more general adventuring gear for the reason that I think Cesaire has absolutely left Ishgard behind him, and strongly prefers to be someone defined by what they do rather than where they’re from. Given elezens’ wide shoulders I also had to think about what combinations would work for balancing proportions, and I wanted Cesaire to visually hold his own visual niche within my overall Famfrit lineup so a lot was chosen with that in mind.

#final fantasy xiv #final fantasy 14 #final fantasy gpose #final fantasy xiv screenshots #ffxiv

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