#source: ffxiv

[incorrectpuyotris]

Klug: You onerous little usurper! That was my explanation to give!

Source: Final Fantasy XIV

[incorrect-mhst-quotes]

"Such Devastation! This was not my intention..."

Anvis after the rite went wrong

[nights-at-crystarium]

here's a very specific collection in light of my recent emetposting, i believe these are all the flips i've drawn so far

[trans-emet-selch]

HADES WEAPONS MEANING

TANK

Misos (Paladin) - hatred, aversion - Note: can also mean anger/desire for revenge Eulabeia (Shield) - discretion, caution Thumosis (Warrior) - passionate anger, sudden rage - Note: Derived from the word Thumos. However there is a secondary word in Thymos (meaning breath) Eleos (Dark Knight) - mercy, compassion. distress from the wretchedness of another in undeserved suffering Odune (Gunbreaker) - consuming grief, burdensome distress, sorrow

HEALER

Kelesis (White Mage) - to call, invite or summon - Note: can also mean the delight soothing of the soul by hearing Enochlesis (Scholar) - distress accompanied by bodily suffering Himeros (Astrologian) - god of sexual desire. often accompanied by Eros (sometimes identified as Anteros when paired with Eros, meaning reciprocal love) - Note: can also mean the lust/longing for someone not present/gone

PHYS MELEE DPS

Menis (Dragoon) - divine wrath, anger - Note: (It is associated with the Wrath of Achilles as it is one of the first words in the Iliad) Zelos (Monk) - jealousy, envy - Note: can also mean the distress of having something/someone and having to go on without it Aischune (Samuari) - shame, disgrace, confusion of one who is ashamed of anything, ignominy, dishonor Phthonos (Ninja) - personification of jealousy. particularly that of romantic jealousy

PHYS RANGED DPS

Deima (Bard) - fear, fear of approaching evil Ekplexis (Machinist) - to strike or confound someone with surprise, fear or amazement - Note: can also mean fright/paralyzing fear Zelotupia (Dancer) - jealous, envy, rivalry. specifically in seeing someone else you believe to be yours with another

MAGICAL RANGED DPS

Oknos (Black Mage) - hesitation, delay and the wasting of time - Note: can also mean the fear of ensuing toil Epikairekakia (Summoner) - rejoicing or taking joy at the misfortunes of others - Note: anglicized word Agonia (Red Mage) - agony, anguish. a struggle for victory (often a violent) - Note: can also mean the fear following fright

[fyllophobia]

dejected single father of one cockroach

[tritoch]

i know a lot of people (very understandably) dislike the paladin job quests in ffxiv, particularly HW, but i do think it's fun that, now that the pre-ShB MSQ revamp is complete, paladins now have a very cool and thematic in-game storyline that happens without a word being spoken: the development of passage of arms.

none of the below is directly stated in the script, but imo it's a fairly obvious gloss on what the game presents, if you assume a paladin warrior of light. spoilers for all expansions through the end of 6.X.

in the new version of steps of faith, as vishap breaks through each ward protecting ishgard from attack, lucia mounts a final desperate effort to hold him back, with a very familiar looking animation:

but even lucia can't hold back vishap's flame alone, so the temple knights surge forward to assist her. their efforts make the shield visually more powerful and larger. the temple knights here band together in defense of ishgard, and their knightly resolve to protect their home is the difference between victory and defeat.

lucia and the knights do ultimately succeed in defending the last ward, as you have to defeat vishap before their shield falls or you lose.

later in heavensward, obviously, we will get ffxiv's most famous (failed) attempt at blocking something with a shield.

this moment can be read as fairly impactful on the warrior of light's development; as i've noted elsewhere, after the trauma of watching haurchefant bleed out in their arms at level 57, at level 58 paladins learn to channel their magic into healing (and it's called "clemency," or mercy. mercy for whom? who was guilty?), and as someone pointed out on that post, at level 58 dark knights used to get "sole survivor", letting them heal in response to a marked target's death.

for a time, you literally carry haurchefant's shield with you, and 3.3 very much literalizes in genre fashion the idea that even when you are standing alone, your fallen friends stand with you. you don't need to call any allies to stand at your side and raise their shields with you because they are already there, in spirit.

stormblood marks a pretty important turning point in the warrior of light as a combatant, in my opinion, and the text makes this clear in several ways. first, in pretty much all your jobs, you've now far exceeded your trainers and are pioneering new techniques. this is no less true of paladin, which for 60-70 abandons any trainers at all for you to show off your peerless skills in a tournament.

second, stormblood is straight up a story about you getting stronger. at level 61, zenos kicks your ass. at level 70, you kick his ass. why? because you fought and got stronger and developed incredible new techniques and became a one-man army.

for a lot of classes, this story lines up nicely with the big rotation changes or flashy new finishers on the way from 60 to 70. SMN is now busting out bahamut and casting akh morn; RDM gets verflare and verholy; DRG starts harnessing nidhogg's power directly through dragon sight and nastrond.

the tanks are divided in two: warriors and gunbreakers get huge damaging upgrades at 70 in the form of inner release and continuation, each of which lets them hit the same button many times for lots of damage and satisfying animations. paladin and dark knight get more protective abilities; dark knight gets the blackest night, and there's been plenty said about that already by pretty much everyone.

paladins get passage of arms. instead of a relentless new attack (and you get requiescat at 68, which is a way bigger deal for your dps rotation), your big reveal at 70 for zenos in your fight in ala mhigo is a superior way to protect your party, a shield that lets you stand for your allies so they never have to fall for you again. it's lucia's same shield, except you need no allies' shields to reinforce you, proof of your martial prowess and your ability to transcend limits, and perhaps in truth a reminder that you never really stand alone.

in many respects passage of arms should really feel like a paladin signature move to you now if you are playing it at this point, because you should be popping it in pretty much every fight (you are using your mits, right...?). basically every FFXIV fight has at least one big AOE with downtime that warrants passage of arms usage, usually after the mid-fight add phase with slowly filling bar. since that AOE usually drops during downtime, there's no reason not to pop passage of arms (which otherwise restricts your movement and actions), and even on normal, sometimes every little bit counts on a damage check even if it means dropping DPS (thinking here of harrowing hell P10N on release, which was...less consistent for a lot of roulette parties than you might hope).

so from 70 onward, passage of arms is in a sense a paladin warrior of light's signature move, and certainly the one a player gets to most actually enjoy (since if you're using it, you're by necessity not doing anything besides moving your camera and admiring your sick animation). it doesn't have any competition in terms of spectacle until confiteor, and those you're usually throwing out in the middle of movement.

it's such a signature, in fact, that the only other person shown using your one-person version of passage of arms is your greatest admirer, who studied your legend for over a century.

and it's when he fails (should've popped arm's length, bud) that the warrior of light decides they can't let their friends fall for them, and sends them away with the transporter beacon. this is all wrong: you were meant to die for them, not the other way around. yours is the shield that stands between your allies and defeat. it is you who will win this passage of arms and break your opponents lance. and you do.

and then later, when they need to quickly establish zero's domain as a place of fallen grandeur, the home of someone who once believed in heroes but is now a cool and cynical vampire hunter d, what do they use? a decayed statue of someone in the paladin endwalker gear doing the passage of arms animation, of course.

from a visible instantiation of knighthood as a joint effort to defend what is sacred, to a tribute to the fallen friends whose memories stand by you and animate you, to a symbol of the wol's power as emulated by their allies or darkly mirrored in other shards.

not bad for a mit button you hit once per fight and otherwise never think about!

[1driedpersimmon]

❓

[nivienne-grovant]

XIV Rarepair Week - Day 2 Mend

There was nothing quite as unnerving as watching the Scions slowly slip away from them, even if the Warrior of light promised to bring them back.

But at the very least, neither of them had to wait alone.

[wildstar25]

MiqoMarch Day 16 - Free Day

Touch-ups in Green

[fatedroses]

The Devil's in The Details

[emcapi-gaming]

Headcanon: Right after the Sundering, there was absolutely no distinction between the Source and the other reflections.

The only reason that 'our' reflection became 'the Source' instead of another was because it was adjacent to the now-Void, which hosted the Ascians' first attempt at a rejoining. Although it failed, the trickle of aether that overflowed from the now-Void to the adjacent now-Source left it a tiny bit denser. Not enough to have a substantial impact - but given that all the reflections started out perfectly equal, it tipped the balance to establish the now-Source as "downhill" (if only slightly) relative to the other shards. That's why future rejoinings merged with that reflection. It was only after the first successful Rejoining fused with that shard instead of an adjacent one (due to the 'downhill' property) that the Ascians started referring to it as the Source, and established the names for the other reflections relative to it.

[havocpioneer]

[tearlunars]

we would have met either way somewhere ; somehow.

VIERAPRIL 2025 | TREE

[eemamminy-art]

If you're willing, would you share some of your thoughts about zenos? I just met him in my playthrough and I'm already obsessed and curious about how people misinterpret him

I have many thoughts on Zenos ahaha you can find a lot of my long-winded rambles about him in my tag for him! There will definitely be spoilers in this for both stormblood and endwalker, so if you're just going through stormblood for the first time I'd advise saving this to read later!

But in reference to the thing I was talking about with my partner yesterday was mainly like, how there's this idea people have of Zenos that he enjoys killing when it's simply not the case. Now don't misunderstand-- he doesn't hate it either. He's not remorseful. He's not even trying to justify the action. It's just totally meaningless to him.

When he's urging on the wol to be more violent and to let themselves loose against him, it's not for the sake of simply sowing more destruction. He wants to bring the wol down to his own level in order to debase himself. The reason he wants to encourage the wol to hurt him is because being challenged by them is the only thing making him feel alive. The destruction is something of just a natural consequence of that, of showing the wol that Zenos sees them as two sides of the same coin. Zenos is the emperor's attack dog more than his son, the wol is in turn the alliance's attack dog more than their ally (or so he thinks!).

When he talks about "the hunt" it's less this whimsical mass murder that people point it out to be, and really him seeking purpose, meaning, and happiness in the only messed up way he knows how. As a child he was only given praise and attention for causing harm, so he seeks an opponent that can harm him in return so he can feel something, anything. When he's collecting weapons from fallen warriors, they're not trophies or spoils of war, he's specifically interested in the history of the weapons.

I think it's maybe easy to forget, I mean stormblood was so long ago now and while the characterization is still there in endwalker, it's colored by the perception of others. Isse and the other Domans choosing freedom over fear, no matter how hopeless things are.

Jullus wanting to know why he would betray his countrymen and pleading to his empathy, when Zenos was shaped into a weapon by that empire and holds no love for his nation. Alisaie telling him that while he may have found a spark of joy in fighting with the wol, without empathy for others he will find himself alone and bereft of the one thing that makes him happy.

Zero trying to wrap her head around the way Zenos discarded lives as though they were nothing, while bearing some undefinable emotion toward the wol (obsession, competitiveness, devotion, fondness-- she's not able to define it and I think it's meant to be vague for the player's sake). All these characters in their words with and about Zenos do lay it out clear that he is someone who is devoid of emotions except for the relationship he has to the wol, but I think because they are rightly condemning him for the lives he has taken and destroyed, people misconstrue that to mean he likes killing. There's a sort of malice attributed to his actions when it's really just nihilism.

Now, I'm not saying that because he didn't like it, it means it's fine or something. I know people like to interpret it that way when you like a villain in anything lol. All this to say, this idea of Zenos being a psychopath gleefully murdering people is so far from the truth. He's a very broken man with deep traumas and depression, finding happiness only in wanting to be hurt and killed by the wol.

Maybe at the end of the day, it doesn't matter whether he likes it or doesn't-- I find to most people it makes no difference, so it's easy for them to conflate the two things. But I think Zenos' very existence challenges how the player views their own actions. In the same way that Elidibus in the ShB 5.3 quest Faded Memories reflected back at them all the death and destruction that the wol has caused-- intentional or not-- I think Zenos serves a similar purpose narratively. He questions why, he questions what are good or evil really, and asserts that there's no point in trying to find a justification for death and murder.

I can see why it makes people uncomfortable! He's reminding the wol that they have killed just as much as he did, and questioning the "justice" behind the wol's actions. It's an uncomfortable thing to think about. I think it would be fun to have a wol that comes out of endwalker as a pacifist tbqh!

(Not to get on a tangent, but I totally thought post-HW and especially with the DRG 70 quest, that Estinien was going down that road. I was really sold on the idea just by my own interpretation of his actions and words, only for him to be not only just fine with fighting still but to be actually kind of into it for the sport, just with more humility and empathy now. Total missed opportunity imo! But this is not a post about Estinien!! 😤)

Going back to Zenos though, I think it's easier for people to not grant him a shred of empathy and to write off all his actions as those of a madman. He does after all say he wants the world to burn, for the selfish reason of having the wol all to himself. I get it's uncomfortable for the player character to be the one at the center of his attention. I get it!! But gosh there is a much more interesting character in there than just "guy who gets off on killing", if you just open your eyes and ears for a moment.

I do think that, given the themes in ffxiv's story overall, that granting empathy and forgiveness to even the worst of people is kind of the driving force behind a lot of characters' motivations. Raubahn recognizes Ilberd did all he did for the sake of their shared nation's freedom and future; Estinien recognizes Nidhogg was grieving and in pain as much as he was, leading to vengeance; Hien recognizes the cruelty of her family and others in Doma failed Yotsuyu every moment of her life, shaping her into a tyrant; Lyse recognizes the unrest in Ala Mhigo failed Fordola, pushing her into the false hope the Empire offered; all the scions and the wol recognize how the unsundered ascians bore the responsibility of their entire people on their shoulders and did the unthinkable to try to save their own; Wuk Lamat recognizes Sphene acts out of love and preservation for her people, no matter what it takes. On and on and on.

So I find it odd that Zenos never gets that sort of grace! It's easier to just make an enemy out of him than to see things from his perspective, even while most of the other antagonists are given some degree of empathy while still acknowledging they were wrong and had to be stopped.

He's really neat. I'd put him under a microscope and study him if his ass wasn't too big to fit on the slide.

[verysmallcyborg]

[ THE CAPTAIN'S LEVIATHAN ]

say hello to pirate au fornax's sea monster form :) a terror of the sea, and anyone who stands in them and their captain's way...! no one and nothing ever survives their vindictive wrath

do you like closeups on details? i know i do:

[riftdancing]

Oof.

That fall was one of the more unpleasant ones. I was grateful no one had seen. Or at least... I thought no one saw.

Then he swooped in. Oh, Valinaux. You big dumb idiot. Thought he had accidently pushed me.

He was so concerned...

I found myself immediately smitten. He told me later, supposedly, he'd been equally as smitten the second he saw my smile.

"Mihli, are you listening?"

"I need you sharp. Focused. We're here for you. Your past."

"I'm here. I'm focused. I promise."

I just miss you sometimes.