#ffxiv 6.3

[cryoriku]

bullying him

[magellanica]

My two favourite blorbos because I love their dynamic

[opteekaal]

The Star to Which I Chart my Course

I was part of a Secret Valentine's Day exchange with friends and I got to draw my wonderful friend's WoL Solene.

[nijohirjesyho]

Zero/Jullus as Textposts

[zakifairer]

Frustrated

[limielle]

I got you something!

[devotedlystrangewizard]

guy whose biggest special interest is ffxiv voice: yeah recluse nightreign is like if ninja and black mage had a baby that starts at level 100

[dragoon-mid-jump]

A basic and hasty meme about Myths of the Realm:

The Eorzean Pantheon circa. once Dalamud became a figure of worship:

[storms-path]

Day 15 - Presence (Extra Credit)

Sanda wondered, as she traipsed through the sweltering city, if Zero had adapted to feel the heat again yet. Dressed in such tight, dark clothing as the voidsent was, she’d surely be feeling it if she had. Sanda certainly was, even with the tactical (as she repeatedly told her sister) holes in her rearper’s garb providing some level of relief from it. Still, better to be sweating most of her fluids than freezing near to death in the icy wastes of Garlemald. Thankfully they would be headed into the relatively temperate Void again, rather than that frozen hell.

Provided Sanda could find Zero, of course.

She’d be lying if she said that she didn’t know why she specifically had been sent to corral the wayward reaper. Arashi, irritating big sister that she was, was attempting unsubtly to play match-maker. Whatever lingering doubts she had about the voidsent had apparently been quelled, but now she had flung herself too far in the other direction. Not that Sanda could deny the rush of… something she felt when around Zero, but she couldn’t help but feel a very different emotion that emerged from her bonded voidsent.

Hunger. She could practically feel Oscuro licking its lips whenever Zero was near.

That one is not your prey. And if you forget that, you’ll be starved of the aether you so desperately crave until your memory returns to you. She felt the creature shrink back in her mind. Oscuro described themselves as an opportunist. Sanda described them as a coward. They had fled back into the Void to avoid true death, and they had attached themselves to Sanda only after trying to ambush and devour her when she picked up her soul crystal. Fear was its only leash, so Sanda made sure to keep it tightly held.

Still, the conflicting emotions made it… difficult to voice them. Quite aside from the fact that Sanda didn’t even know if Zero remembered what romance was. She’d barely gotten the hang of trust, after all. Even then, she had to frame it as bargaining.

Sanda found Zero standing at the edge of one of the great bridges, staring down at the townspeople going about their days. Her face, as usual, was unreadable, but there was the slightest hint of a frown on her face. She seemed to sense Sanda’s eyes on her, for she turned towards the au ra as she approached. Zero’s lips curled into the semblance of a smile. Sanda tried to ignore the effect that small gesture had on her. Zero’s gaze soon returned to the people below her as Sanda approached, though.

“Everyone here is so… carefree.” The frown returned to her otherwise expressionless face. “Unafraid and unconcerned in spite of their weakness, and how easily their lives could be torn apart in an instant.” Sanda remembered the crimson skies, the people becoming monsters before her very eyes, the utmost despair claiming people at random, causing cascades of fear and pain, everything burning, burning, burning…

“You’re wrong.” The words freed themselves from her before she could stop herself. “They’re fully aware of how easily their world could end. That’s why they strive so hard to put it to one side. The people down there survived the Final Days. They’re so much stronger than you know.”

Sanda flushed, unused to such outbursts. Arashi must be rubbing off on me. Still, Zero appeared to have taken her words to heart. She looked upon the people of Radz-at-Han with more consideration. “Perhaps I was wrong. But still, such luxuries as these are lost to us. We have no hopes or dreams – not even the release of death. Only hunger.”

Oscuro stirred again, as if to remind Sanda of that last fact. Sanda shunted it back into its slumber. Zero was looking at her now, Sanda realised. As Sanda met her gaze, Zero tugged her hat down over her eyes, turning away.

“Zenos was the same,” Zero continued. “Lives were as tools to him, to be used and discarded at whim. In that respect, he was a voidsent at heart. But towards your sister, he behaved… differently. And I cannot fathom why.”

Sanda remembered Arashi’s words, her bitter declaration of herself as a weapon. She remembered the near-feral hunger that overtook the vaunted Warrior of Light in battle sometimes. She remembered Arashi throwing herself into the jaws of death over and over again. She said nothing. Whatever else Arashi was, she remained Sanda’s sister. She remained caring to a fault. She remained a woman of strength and conviction that Sanda could only dream of attaining. She was far from the monster Zenos had been, no matter what she thought of herself.

Zero took Sanda’s silence for a lack of knowledge rather than a lack of ability to speak. “But enough of that man. He is dead, and we are better for it. Why are you here? Is there something you needed?”

“We’re making ready to return to the Void,” Sanda replied. “I was sent to retrieve you, if you’re ready.”

Zero nodded. “Very well. As per the terms of our bargain, I will join you.” Then, more quietly. “Thank you. You’ve given me something to consider.”

Sanda had already turned around, so thankfully Zero did not see the blush rise to her cheeks. The pair returned to Varshahn in silence after that.

…

Zero had faced oblivion before. She had known the razor’s edge of its embrace. She had escaped it time and time again. So she knew, as she lay in the snow, that there was no escaping it this time. The same mistakes, the same ends. Again and again. What should I… What could I have done? Memories flooded back to her, of a time before the darkness had taken everything. A time where she had stood her ground… and failed. She remembered nothing else after that. The same weak light shone down on her now. The same darkness was waiting to end her, properly this time. Zero closed her eyes. At least she had bought those soldiers some time. A strange thought to have, at the end of it all, but-

[HELL’S INGRESS]

[GALLOWS]

The voidsent that had been readying its annihilating blast burst apart in a rush of aether. She felt, vaguely, another voidsent greedily devouring what aether it could as the wretched thing’s soul finally found peace. Then she felt someone pulling her to her feet, and an impossible warmth filling her body. “What…?” She opened her eyes to see Sanda supporting her. The two children were present as well. Alphinaud and Alisaie, her flagging mind provided. They were providing a share of their aether to sustain her. Fools. You’ll only weaken yourself. “You? What are you doing here?”

Sanda’s eyes were full of something Zero couldn’t place. “Oscuro warned me of another incursion, so I got here as quickly as I could. Don’t worry, Arashi’s mopping up the remainder of our share with Estinien and Y’shtola.” Concern. That was the emotion there. How strange, that Sanda should feel something so tender towards a mere voidsent such as herself. Stranger still, the odd rush of heat that began burning in Zero’s chest. A different kind of heat than before. Warmer. Stronger.

“Are you able to stand?” asked Alphinaud, the flow of his aether still steadily pouring into her.

“Never mind that, can you fight?” Alisaie blasted a winged voidsent out of the air with a blast of wind-aspected magic. Zero responded by reaching for her scythe, trembling though her hands were.

“Don’t push yourself.” Worry creased the edges of Sanda’s eyes. It steadied her, somehow. I will not fall here. Not while you yet stand.

“...All right. I will let it burn, this fire in my breast! Let it burn and rage.” Zero faced the assorted voidsent before them. “We fight together, Sanda.”

[gigues]

wol drawings!

[amaurotine-daydreaming]

XVIII. Fish Out of Water

“My friends!”

Amongst a flock of sheep stood young Varshahn, stray bits of wool and hay stuck to his clothes and a squirming baby lamb cradled in his arms. He was beaming.

Estinien and Zero were walking up the path toward him. All around, men and women tended to sheep in a wide-ranging pasture. Zero’s eyes flicked this way and that, taking in her surroundings without moving her head an ilm. Estinien, meanwhile, raised his hand in a short greeting.

“‘Tis well your Radiant Host keeps a close eye on your whereabouts, Your Excellency,” he said. “One almost cannot make you out amongst your flock.”

Varshahn laughed, hearing the note of humor under the straight face and stoic voice. “Mine apologies for bringing you out all this way.”

“‘Tis of no moment,” said Zero softly, watching closely as the baby lamb lifted its head and began to nurse from a small waterskin Varshahn carefully held to its lips. “It was…nice, to walk here. This land is very colorful.”

“We are come with an offer of joint training,” said Estinien. “Though mayhap we have not come at a good time.” He tilted his head slightly, indicating the lamb in Varshahn’s arms.

“Nay, I would be glad to accept,” said Varshahn. “I can conclude my time here but shortly, but pray do not wait on my account if it would cause you undue inconvenience.” He handed off the young lamb into the arms of a waiting caretaker. “However…” he turned back toward them, smiling, “if it please you, I would welcome you to share in the joy of new life.” 

“New life…” murmured Zero, her pale eyes a little wider as she took in the shepherds tending to some heavily pregnant ewes nearby.

“Aye, I can spare a few moments,” said Estinien, shrugging acquiescently. “'Tis some time since I have last seen a lambing.”

Two men knelt by a ewe laying on its side. As it bleated and grunted, they supported its body and offered the laboring ewe words of encouragement. From behind a sac of fluid the very top of the baby lamb’s head was beginning to emerge. “You are…familiar with this practice?” Zero asked him.

“Aye,” said Estinien, as they wove their way amongst the flock in Varshahn’s wake. “From my youth.”

No further elaboration came. Finally Zero pulled her gaze away from the ewe. “This creation of new life…such a thing no longer exists in the Void. Not in this way,” she said. “Temporary death is not the same as new life. Neither is it new life when voidsent consume one another–it is no more than two entities in uneasy coexistence.”

“My friends,” Varshahn said gently, pulling his two companions from their dark reveries. “Look over yonder.”

In a separate part of the pasture some young lambs frolicked about. Nearby, a mother was nudging her newborn to stand. It did so on shaky legs, took a few wobbly steps forward, and abruptly sat back down.

“‘Tis similar to my own experience,” Varshahn said, looking on fondly.

Faint surprise flitted across Zero’s features. “You remembered learning to walk?”

“As a simulacrum, yes,” Varshahn chuckles, resting his chin in his hand. “I wished to walk amongst my children, to know them in all of their joys and sorrows, their hopes and their labors…yet in the beginning, ‘twas as if I were a fish out of water.”

Zero looked pensive. “Did you struggle to understand them? Your people.”

“Nay,” said Varshahn. “Compassion I knew–‘twas the ambulation I struggled with, having only two legs to ground me instead of four. And an Au Ra’s tail is not used for balance to the same degree of that of a wyrm. And to be flightless….”

Estinien crossed his arms and watched as the lamb struggled back to its feet, its spindly limbs jerking like a wooden doll’s. “And for us dragoons, to learn the jumps and leaps is as if we are learning to fly, albeit only briefly.”

Varshahn politely hid his broadening smile behind his hand. “‘Tis difficult to imagine that you, like any other creature in this world, once had to learn to stand and walk.”

A smile quirked the corner of Estinien’s mouth. “Likewise.”

[sharlayandropout]

Weapon

Part I

(Part II here)

Back in Sharlayan, a couple of days after New Beginnings

Part II here

[chilledfoodtin]

After finishing Rokkon I'm very curious about these dirty little secrets

[opteekaal]

A valentine's day gift for a good friend of her wol and g'raha.

[annietaloxiv]

ALPHINAUD POINTS OUT IF YOUVE PLAYED REAPER??????? HELLO THATS SO COOL AND WORKS INTO MY (admittedly weak) LORE FOR MY CHARACTER ???

[shivasdarknight]

Disconnected 6.5 thoughts below the cut; I've only finished the alliance raid and msq so keep that in mind - also pandae stuff because I'm still miffed about it.

Honestly, it's just a lot of conflicted feelings. On one hand, I'm glad that Zero and Azdaja actually survived the patch; on the other, Zero has been removed from the story right as we were really getting to know her and get used to her being there and Azdaja barely has any presence or lines in her appearances. Tiny Azdaja cute, but narratively she was just...really just Vrtra's motivation and not much outside of herself and very hollow. She was also Golbez's weapon, and now that she's her own person again she struggles to communicate and the most we get is a thanks from her and "Radz-at-Han...home...". Like I want to be glad that they survived patch, but that's such a bare minimum desire considering how the rest of XIV has gone. While Zero got to stand more on her own and be her own person, I just can't help but feel like Azdaja was robbed of so much agency and ironically more so once she was free of her imprisonment.

The writing of this patch series has been all over the place and it's been hard to stay invested in it. 6.1-2 and this patch have been ig the best in terms of msq, but 6.1-2 are still significantly better than 6.5, and then there's 6.3-4. The pacing is all over the place - either lots of fluff, or you're being hit with so much all at once that it barely makes sense - and they're trying to tackle a lot of plot threads while not letting them play out or mature naturally. I loved Zero's arc, but 6.3, 6.4, and the first part of 6.5 all felt like the same story to an extent - like gaining the trust of the Garleans versus the Eulmorans, learning about friendship vs learning about trust and dependability. While 6.3 is the one that had Lapis Manalis and was overall a lot stronger since Rubicante, most of 6.4 felt like fluff that went nowhere. 6.5 still has that fluff problem but actually gets going - and what's frustrating! Is they have some genuinely interesting ideas in there that they don't really capitalize on!

We are presented with a treasure hunt that leads to the void and their turf wars. But instead of going into that, we have to now help with the Garlean reconstruction and making them seem like Oh So Poor Victims when they've spent the last expansions trying to colonize the entire star? Trying to wipe out the religions and cultures of various peoples on Etheirys? Now we have to play nice with them and treat them like fragile glass and give them trade routes and whatnot? Beyond the fact it continues ENW's problem of only showing Garlemald through the eyes of the upper class (problem that extends through all of our focuses, but this especially with the people who were ripped from their homelands and forced to work for the Garleans in Garlemald), it invalidates a lot of the genuine harm they've caused and obfuscates their role in the state of things. I wish this care and attention had been placed in Ala Mhigo instead, but here we are - doing with Garlemald what Ala Mhigo has been starved of for ages now. Oh and now we're back to the Archfiends, and now we're back to the Garleans, and now we keep throwing Jullus in here and the devs really really really want to make him and Zero a thing (the thought of it gives me Fucking Hives), and then we're in Sharlayan, and oh look an arbitrary FF4 reference, and now we're on the moon and now we're on the First, and NOW shit is finally happening.

Like my god, either condense this story into a concise proper trial series (like the Four Lords or Werlyt - honestly a Four Lords structure would've been perfect), or give this the proper attention it deserves as an expansion pack focused on the Void. The turf wars, the restoration of the Thirteenth - also where the fuck was Cylva?? I'm happy to see Gaia again and in a voiced cutscene, but where the fuck are Cylva and Unukalhai? They're literally relevant to it, you can tell Zero about them and vice versa and the most it amounts to is just "Interesting. Anyways-" and there's no progress on any of that. Both of their stories have just halted right when Zero's was gaining momentum and while Cylva's has been in limbo since the end of the SHB role quests.

And Zero. God, Zero. It felt like they were floundering with her for the longest time before they decided to make her follow Cecil's example. I'm glad she's alive, and I really do like the new design for paladin, but honestly the reaper stuff fits her way way better? Aesthetically and design wise, I get story wise that it was about her breaking from the confines of the darkness she'd been submersed in, but her old design was literally so much better orz As in more fitting, more interesting. Yeah ik I'm biased because I love the Vampire Hunter D look, but her immediate shift was just...weird. They floundered with making her the food motivated moe lead and then they just shoved that into her last second - the stuff with wanting to harness the light was fascinating, but it should've been brought in way sooner instead of an extended scene of people eating really hot curry. We were just starting to get into an extremely interesting character and then they went "Arc's over, time for everyone to go home without Zero (:". Yes, I'm now sitting here regretting the fact I didn't listen to my gut feeling about writing romantic stuff with her, especially since GWEN, but I'm mostly miffed from the point of. This is the first major ADULT female character we've had in a bit to be in the main party and now she's just back on the Thirteenth. And with Dawntrail and Tural coming up, we probably won't be seeing her for literal irl years - if at all. I know that not in msq is a better fate than dead, but between her and Lyse and Fordola all getting sidelined when they had the potential to carry some pretty serious story, it's just exhausting. Also the speed at which wolzero and yshtola/zero became predominant sapphic ships, then suddenly there's a lot of zero/jullus, yshtola and zero become increasingly distant with each other, and Zero is removed from msq? What the fuck?

People have been calling the Scions more one-note lately, which I agree. Estinien and Y'shtola were definitely the focus this time to build them up - which is great! I like how they're developing them! - but it seems like they only know how to do one thing with them when there isn't action, which is like. Research and nixie-related threats for Y'shtola, and training and squid with Estinien. Y'shtola has been at her most endearing and likable in these patches, and I really don't want them to strip her of what makes her fun. Estinien was also really good in 6.1 with that merchant (fight me, he knew what he was doing - he is not financially illiterate, he just doesn't give a fuck about material possessions), the stuff with the orphanage and him connecting with the children of Thavnair is really sweet considering his backstory, and he was really great with like Zero and Azdaja and how reliable he ended up being towards the tail end - but him just bailing last second? That fkn fanservice shirt scene? The constant squid shit i'm just. He's one of the most interesting characters that's still alive and relevant (hate that that's a factor in this) and the more they turn him into a joke character the more it feels like they're missing the point with him. Like you can still have him grow from his experiences and actually be fairly carefree without doubling down on food motivation or the "he's the dumb scion" - ENW portrayed that very clearly in all of his interactions with the Scions. Whoever is doing the 6.X patches doesn't seem to get that with the exception of moments like in 6.1 and the later half of 6.5.

I think the only storyline that I've really liked so far has been Myths of the Realm. Tataru's whole thing is fine, just really hated dealing with Gaius and Emmanellain. Sil'dihn Subterrane was fun, Rokkon is...tiring. Pandaemonium started promising and ended up leaving me feeling gross at the end. I wasn't really looking forward to Myths of the Realm because it started off with the implication that the Eorzean tribes' gods were "knockoffs" of the Twelve - but I'm glad they specified that it's more that the Twelve took influence from them but at the same time. We still have a pantheon of twelve extremely white humanoids that are supposed to represent the sum of their believers - and thats what they look like? I appreciate the Leviathan stuff in Llymlaen, but it's just disappointing seeing their designs if they're supposed to be a culmination of faith.

The story of Myths of the Realm was way better as it went on, though there are so many boring designs within it which includes gear. Obviously Azeyma, Halone, Llymlaen, and Nald'thal had really nice designs - Nald'thal's is beyond fun - but so many of the others are just Zeus knockoffs or Guys. Byregot, Zeus. Rhalgr, also Zeus. Althyk? Zeus. Or at least old greek man but so much of that Is From Zeus. And again, they're all so fucking white. Conceptually, Eulogia is interesting. In execution, it's...something. I don't hate it, I just wonder how it could be refined. I also don't really agree with this idea that people are saying the ending was just putting in a prayer answering machine because it was pretty clear as to what was happening? The gods weren't there to assist people directly, they were there as aetheric balancing for an unstable star. People worshipping them happened when people caught glimpses of them, and from there the religion came about and began to further and further grant them power. As that religion grew and so did their strength, they harbored aether they wanted to return to the start to help facilitate its stability and longevity - hence why they seek you out and hence the device. Y'know, the device that was meant to collect prayers and funnel it into the star so that they could be released and finally rest. They're a lot like Hydaelyn, but whereas Hydaelyn was conscious because she was directly made of Venat, these twelve were constructs based on their original selves. That they have this much autonomy - especially Oschon - was beyond the original plan and exists because of the faith of the peoples of Etheirys. That story in it of itself is honestly really compelling to me and I really like the conclusion as it makes sense that the remnants of the old world should eventually be laid to rest and allow for the people of today to live without the shackles of the past tying them down. It lets the Twelve actually get to live amongst the people they watched over as people themselves, since they're not really the people Venat worked with. My only thing is that Deryk's conclusion is what I'd wished Venat had gotten. I'm not against him getting that ending - it fits, it makes sense, I really liked it and him - but it feels weird that they meta-textually say that her entire spirit being decimated in your fight against her is a good thing when it just feels like murder in the context of the game. I wish we could've gotten to adventure with her and let her actually see the star she so diligently tried to protect. That Deryk gets to is great, I just wish Venat had been given that chance but we all know why he got to but she didn't.

Myths of the Realm is definitely one of the best stories in the 6.X series so far, but I don't think I can say it's like...any better than stuff like the Void Ark, Eden, Omega, the Four Lords, or even Eureka. At least it's better than Pandaemonium, though - which god. That shit is a mess. I'm going to spare anyone reading this the rant of how insidious it is that they included so many references to notable instances of rape/attempted rape in Greek mythology and named their antagonist after the target of attempted rape, or the fact that this series is a huge step back from Eden in how gd sexist it is (and god especially the fans of this and how they so quickly dropped Ryne/Gaia (who were already just an extension of thanuri) for erich and themis), or the fact that we got to watch Lahabrea immolate a woman ON SCREEN in a really GRUESOME attack that was only revealed last minute that she was secretly evil all along!! With no hints towards that!! So all our female rep is either evil or dead or both!!! No, besides all that, it shares msq's issue of horrible pacing and just a bizarrely written sequence of events that frankly should've been reversed - start with the threat, then go to Elpis to investigate said threat. There's so much fluff in pandae, we spend so much time meandering around, and things that feel like they're gonna matter just never get touched. Not to mention this should've been Erichtonios' story but instead Themis overshadows Everything. Erich never got voiced! In his own story!! And yet we wrap up Themis' story in a side quest series?? Pandaemonium, Kokytos, Themis, Athena, and Hephaistos all get voiced - but what about the fucking emotional core of the story?

Before anyone tries to come at me with the "if you hate it so much, just play another game" - I like this game. There's a lot I have found within the 6.X series that I like that has spurred my enthusiasm and creativity wrt my writing. Which makes all of this all the more frustrating and disappointing when they can clearly do better but then actively don't. They've fumbled the stories of some of their best characters - yes I am still pissed about Ysayle and the fact that Fordola's been treated like crap - and they continue to pace their stories poorly (which implies cram to me). It's really clear they want to be done with everything from 1.0-6.0 and have no love for that part of the game anymore - it's tangible. But it's such a shame that they're relying so heavily on FF4 to prop this part of the story up instead of the years of unexplored content they've referenced. And I'm saying this as an FF4 liker, all of the FF4 references were really heavy handed and obnoxious. So much for an "unpredictable story", it was probably their most predictable yet (PREDICTABLE=/=BAD AND VICE VERSA UNPREDICTABLE=/=GOOD, im just point it out because they themselves said that fans of 4 "wouldn't be able to guess where this was going" And Yet-).

I want to see them capitalizing on parts of the story where they did really well! Capitalizing on their good writers!! And the frustrating thing about this isn't that this patch was egregiously bad or anything, it was just meh. 6.0 and 6.X as a whole has just been very meh the longer I sit on it.

i oughta replay eden.