#xiv misc

[maguneedsalife]

ended up in thaleia with a couple of moby dick RPers

unfortunately, the fight with llymlaen did not contain any whales

unbeknownst to captain ahab, between battles i quickly edited my usual party greeting macro to work for alliance chat

videogames are good actually im going to be giggling about this all night

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

had the thought 'thank goodness you're here but it's pre-sundering emet-selch getting roped into quests around etheirys' and i fucking s c r e a m e d

[scyanako]

Was lucky enough to do some ffxiv treasure map runs with Penny from Snapscube, so I drew her character! It was a lot of fun 😊

[nurazziana]

This is one of my favorite opening theme for Final Fantasy XIV. I tend to hear this song ever since this song was made available. It reminds me that no matter how hard your path is, no matter how many obstacles you need break through, you must remember to keep on forging ahead. No matter how dark the path it is, light will shine to you...

[conclavesummerfest]

Welcome to the Conclave Summer Fest!

Want to enjoy your Vatican summer? Want to see that Conclave beach episode you've always dreamed about? Want to send Pope Innocent XIV and his employees to the Philippines for a vacation? 

This is your chance! Join the 2025 Conclave Summer Fest! Here, we we celebrate our favourite Catholics by putting them in summer settings!

🍹Sign up form: OPEN!!!

𓆉𓆉𓆉

Our official tag is #conclavesummerfest2025 ! Do tag our official blog @conclavesummerfest when posting your works here!

𓆉𓆉𓆉

🐳 Key Dates:

Sign-Ups open: 22 June 2025

1st Check-in: 6 July 2025

1st Round Submission Deadline: 17 July 2025

1st Round Reveal : 19 July 2025

2nd Check-in: 3 August 2025

2nd Round Submission Deadline & Sign-Ups close: 14 August 2025

2nd Round Reveal : 16 August 2025

𓆉𓆉𓆉

🌊 RULES:

Works should focus on Conclave (2024 / 2016) characters in a summer setting. 

No AI-generated works are allowed. If you tag your work as AI-generated, we will not repost it on our social media.

There is no minimum or maximum requirement. 

By signing up, you agree to:

1. Submit a prompt 2. Claim a prompt 3. Create a work based off the prompt

Self-prompts are allowed (Submitting a prompt and claiming the one you submitted)!

Need a tutorial in prompting? Refer to this link https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/147 !

You must have signed up for AO3 prior to this fest, so that you can claim a prompt. If not, you can register for an account now. The usual waiting time is about 2 weeks. The sign-up will be open until the 2nd round of submissions in August so don't worry :)

Most importantly: Have fun! 🦀🦀

𓆉𓆉𓆉

🐟 FAQ:

Is NSFW allowed?

Yes! Just properly tag it and you're good to go.

Is fanart / other non-written mediums allowed?

Yes! 

Where is the link to the collection?

https://archiveofourown.org/collections/conclavesummerfest2025

Are original characters (OC) allowed?

Yes, but we encourage people to include in Conclave (2024 / 2016) background characters.

How can we contact you?

We are @/conclavesummer on Twitter and @conclavesummerfest on Tumblr (you are here now)! You can also send us an email at conclavesummerfest@gmail.com !

More questions? Check out our faq tag !

𓆉𓆉𓆉

🏄 Our team consists of @lawrellinitez (Mod Del), @mindwarning (Mod Laine), @mille-preakers (Mod Kama), @spottedsplat (Mod Spotted) and @emptiiwatertank (Mod Denn). We are excited to launch this fest and see what you guys can create with the prompts!!! Don't be afraid to reach out to any of us and enjoy your Pope summer! 🐋❤️

𓆉𓆉𓆉

Official Discord Server: Still a WIP, will be launched once it is ready!

𓆉𓆉𓆉

TAG DIRECTORY:

#faq: We answer your queries! Check through this tag to see if the question you want to ask has been answered.

#fanfic: Fanfic tag for the fest.

#fanart: Fanart tag for the fest.

#misc fanworks: Fanworks that aren't fic or art tag for the fest.

#author reveal: Tag for the author reveals.

[maguneedsalife]

screaming. crying. hyperventilating

it's done. it's out in the world. i can stop worrying about it until october

i know my chances of getting selected arent particularly great but 🥺 i want to believe....... a menorah furnishing item could be real someday........

[bengals-barnesbabe]

#Track 9 Masterlist

Pairing: Joe Burrow x RnB Singer!Fem Reader

Summary: When the secret relationship between a famous singer and a popular quarterback is revealed no one could be happier. But when lyrics to an unreleased song are released, the strength of their relationship is questioned and tested when fans, reporters and exes start coming into the mix. Will you get your happy ending or is this the beginning of the end?

Main Masterlist 🤍

Character List🩷🧡🖤

Warnings: 18+, mentions of sex, foul language.

Last Updated: 20 November 2024

*slow updates*

a/n: #track9 taglist is open! if you would like to be added to my taglist for this series comment 'tag me🧡' and you'll be added. If you want to be taken off at any point dm me -babe :)

* ~ flashback chapter 🩷 ~ social media post

🧡 ~ private dm

🤍 ~ group chat

🖤 ~ written chapter

Chapter I: Valentine’s Day Tease

Pt.1: 🩷 Pt.2: 🧡

Chapter II: Clothes Are So Obnoxious

Pt.1: 🩷 Pt.2: 🧡

Chapter III: Tell Me

Chapter IV: You Love Me

Chapter V: #Track 9

Pt.1: 🩷 Pt.2: 🧡 Pt.3: 🤍

Chapter VI: Crazy 4 Me

Pt.1: 🩷 Pt.2: 🤍

Chapter VII: Kisses 4 My Exes

Pt.1: 🩷 Pt.2: 🤍 Pt.3: 🤍 Pt.4: 🤍 Pt.5: 🩷

Chapter VIII: Real Shit

Chapter IX: #TMYLM

Pt.1: 🩷 Pt.2: 🤍 Pt.3: 🧡

Chapter X: Training Camp

Chapter XI: Press Week

Chapter XII: prayer for the broken

Chapter XIII: ‘i love you, goodnight’ tour

Part1 :🖤 Part2: 🩷

Chapter XIV: Domestic Tingz

Chapter XV: ‘The Reynolds Pamphlet’

Part1: 🩷 Part2: 🤍 Part3: 🧡 Part4:🤍 Part5: 🩷

Chapter XVI: Robbed*

Part1: 🖤 Part2: 🤍 Part3: 🖤

Chapter XVII: Operation Tiger*

P1: 🩷 P2: 🧡 P3: 🤍 P4: 🧡 P5: 🤍 P6: 🖤

Chapter XVIII: Run Joey Run*

Part1: 🩷 Part2: 🖤

Chapter XIX: #WLT*

Part 1: 🤍 Part 2: 🩷 Part 3: 🤍

Chapter XX: Wish I Never

Part 1: 🧡 Part 2: 🩷 Part 3: 🤍

Chapter XXI: Let’s Be Strangers*

Chapter XXII: Messy Gal

Chapter XXIII: Tour Countdown

Part 1: 🩷🤍 Part 2: 🤍🩷

Chapter XXIV: Mr. Perfect

Part 1: 🖤 Part 2: 🩷

Chapter XXV: Showtime

Part 1: 🤍 Part 2: 🖤

Chapter XXVI: Homecoming

Chapter XXVII: Champions*

more coming soon ♥︎

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.* ° :⋆ₓₒ

Misc/Blurbs/Extras

#Mars V Chase

[gatheredfates]

SEA'S COMMUNITY COMPENDIUM UPDATE

We have a massive one today! Huge thanks to a close friend of mine who sent me every single bookmark of xiv resources she had. 💖

Additionally, a good handful of these resources were sourced from a list originally created by @rinhkitty, which you can find here. I have tried to include the more recent/active of the lot, so it's not a one-for-one. Thank them for a lot of the large scale resources you'll find below! ✨

As of 04/12, I have added the following resources (in no particular order) to Sea's Community Compendium for FFXIV Creatives:

LARGE SCALE

GARLAND TOOLS — Contains XIV resources such as Garland Data, everything database, crafting lists and equipment calculators; Garland Bell, gathering timers, collectable resources and hunt windows; and FFXIV Fisher, daily fishing windows, bait paths and catch checklist. Maintained by Clorifex Ezalor of Zalera.

TEAMCRAFT — Create crafting lists and collaborate with others, set gathering alarms, simulate crafting rotations, and more!

CAT BECAME HUNGRY - FFXIV ANGLER — Contains everything and anything to know about fishing including specific fish guides, location, baits, aquarium fish and more!

FFXIV - CRAFTING AS A SERVICE — Crafting information and planning for FFXIV!

FFXIV GARDENING — The FFXIV Gardening Database is a collection of everything related to gardening in Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. It was created to organize and visualize the results obtained from crossbreeding.

SIGHTSEEING LOG HELPER — This tool will help those trying to complete their pesky Sightseeing Log by letting them know upcoming weather patterns for each zone!

EUREKA TRACKER — For everything and anything to do with Eureka mobs, tracking and weather patterns.

FFLOGOS — for tracking of items/actions related to Eureka.

FFXIVSQUADRON — A comprehensive tool that helps you assess the success rate of various squadron missions.

FFXIV CHOCOBO COLOUR CALCULATOR — Will calculate what chocobo feed you will need to get from your current colour to your desired colour. *rng not included.

FFXIV HOUSING — A site specialising in the documentation of all housing items available in game.

HOUSING SNAP — A compilation of player-made housing designs. Can be used for inspiration or places to visit!

MISC

NPC CHAT BUBBLES — Would you like more NPC chat bubbles for edits? Say no more! Created by @alexoisxiv.

OLD TUMBLR LAYOUT BY PIXIEL — While not XIV specific I know a lot of people aren't fans of the new Tumblr layout, so this is a fix that will revert it to an as close as possible approximation of the new one. I won't tag the creator as I don't think they're in the xiv community, but it's run by @/pixiel!

HOW TO CURSE LIKE AN ISHGARDIAN — Do you want to make the church blush? Do you want to incur the wrath of Halone? @stars-and-clouds has compiled a list of appropriate curses/swear words for you!

FINAL FANTASY XIV SIDEQUEST GUIDE - HEAVENSWARD EDITION — maintained by @chatty-moogle, this guide explores interesting sidequests in Heavensward that will give you more information about the lore, titbits about locals and other interesting information!

TRUST BANNERS FOR XIV — If you have ever wondered how people mimic the Trust banners used in XIV, look no further! @locke-rinannis has a template for you.

MAKING USE OF RECOMMENDATIONS — created by @autumnslance, this guide will help you make your recommendations tab useful rather than annoying.

BOTANICA EORZEA — A guide to the flora of Eitherys and her reflections, including fungi and seedkin. For reference in writing and roleplaying. Maintained by @tinolqa.

GPOSE TIPS — A tutorial on how to achieve clarity and detail in your XIV screenshots! Created by @aryalaenkha.

UI MACRO MENUS — A guide on how to use macros to create small UI menus for XIV. Written by @diskwrite-ffxiv.

TYPHON GATE RESEARCH — Created by @mcstronghuge, these are the statistically best places for your character to stand for the Typhon Gate!

CHANGELOG

HYDAELYN HEALTH HAVEN has been removed at the request of the owner.

Moved THE BALANCE higher on the list to reflect alphabetical sorting, excluding names that start with The.

Misc formatting as needed.

Added some additional clarification around large-scale discords/spaces; in particular: Large-scale community discords such as the XIV Reddit Discord, Hunts, GPOSE promotions and broad-space roleplay servers that harbour a large number of people and are publicly available to all. These may not have an RP focus but will assist in other aspects of the game. Also includes well-known tools/resources that are utilised by large groups of people and assist in gameplay elements.

Added a quick-jump menu to the bottom of each of the table of contents menus to assist in navigation.

Want to submit? You can either fill out the google form here, send me an ask with the relevant information contained on the Compendium, or join my Discord at SEAFLOOR (21+ only)!

I am sure there's probably a couple of things I have missed or links/formatting that might be broken. Please don't hesitate to let me know if anything is out of place. I'm going to take a break now. I'm pretty sure that's the biggest edit that's ever going to occur on this document!

[ameibousa]

ameibousa — an epithet to greek goddess hekate, meaning one that transforms. a study in man vs self, in conflict, in tearing apart geode flesh to see the crystalline guts inside. examined by luca, he/they/, 25+. ameibousa is an independent, private multimuse rp blog featuring both canon characters and ocs from kingdom hearts, death note, jjk, love & deepspace, dungeons & dragons, and more. most muses have multiple verses. highly likely you will find several dark themes such as murder and psychological torture on this blog, proceed with caution.

blogroll: @alloprosallus, xiv blog @nymeianthreads. informal, temporary muse list below the cut. especially for any ocs, i will be making detailed pages in the coming days, as well as a nicer way of organizing. temporary rules page is here, with the addendum that you must specify muse when sending memes and such, or at least fandom. this is a sideblog, i follow back from @alloprosallus, where i house caleb from love and deepspace.

love and deepspace —

caleb. (@alloprosallus).

nero.

viper.

tara.

luke & kieran.

dr. armaros glasya-labolas. (oc, engineer for ever. )

kingdom hearts —

riku.

xemnas.

saix+/isa.

xion.

tekken —

terra.

final fantasy —

clive rosfield (testing).

xiv muses here: @nymeianthreads.

hwoarang.

lili de rochefort.

jun kazama.

lee chaolan.

jujutsu kaisen —

satoru gojo.

shoko ieri.

inumaki toge.

itadori yuji/ryomen sukuna.

dungeons and dragons —

(maybe geto? he's also so interesting to me)

therai, lone priest to the exiled moon god. warlock.

kho'li, mountainous protector, soul of vengeance. paladin.

bellamy, golden-tongued serpent in the bushes. warlock.

merihem, forgiven decay shining everlasting. paladin-warlock.

kitab, rorsarch grimoire walking. thaumaturge.

strahd von zarovich. (curse of strahd ).

nil'agh, weeping destruction. oathbreaker paladin.

original characters based on the lore of sleep token —

the abbot. (curse of strahd ).

mythology and legend and those inspired —

odysseus. (the oddessy, greek mythos).

iii, martyr.

death note —

vessel, pariah.

light yagami.

oc loading.

vocaloid —

vy2 yuuma.

megurine luka.

misc —

nam seonho. (my country: the new age).

yoon jongwoo. (strangers from hell).

[slimethehacker]

[LVL 2 GL1TCH F0UND] xiv.nm = scu.src

> name

xiv, anarchy, rayne, arson, morph, carmen, chaos, creature

> pronouns

xe / they / he / she / hx / flame / freak / fail / eye / stab / xiv / kys

> gender

gender non-conforming, chaosthing, feralangeric, angrycatgender, ragepyrocattic, infernadevil, cannibomination

> sexuality

panromantic, ace-spec, cannibal4victim, believes in cannibalism as a metaphor for love

> age

chrono27, perma19

> species

tiefling

> roles

bpd handler, chaosnaut, magician

> source

slimecicle cinematic universe {specifically the baldur's gate 3 video}

> faceclaim

> likes

cats, magic, trolling online, pranks, setting fires, turning into animals, turning others into animals, betting, choice-based video games, fucking around and finding out, being called a flamer

> dislikes

losing bets, loud noises, people who touch their horns + tail without xeir consent, people questioning hxs gender, staying inside label boxes

> front triggers

fire, slimecicle bg3 video, chaos, struggles handling bpd symptoms, "blue hair and pronouns", rebellion

> cisids

blue hair, half blind, sharp teeth, horns, tail, tiefling, attention seeking

> transids

cult member, forced pet, loved, found family

> paras

zoophilia, autozoophilia, teratophilia, necrophilia, sadomasochism, plushophilia, vorarephilia, autoaptophilia, masquephilia

> misc info

tends to roll a d20 to make random decisions {aka extremely indecisive and has a mix of a gambling addiction & enjoy probability}, xe cannot see that well out of their left eye due to losing it in a bet, talks in third person a lot by accident when going on "stealth" missions or simply lying to others

> aesthetic

> personality

many people underestimate xem due to how they look, however xiv simply uses this to xeir advantage to pull some "super, mega cool xuy pranks" when least expected. outside of interacting with others {non-harmfully} maliciously, xey often spend flames time keeping xeir emotions in check and remaining calm. overall, they hide a very magical and loving interior, it simply just takes time for xem to get comfortable. epitome of keeping xeir walls up for their own good.

> favorite song

> fashion sense

th1s 0n3 1s f0r 0ur psys !! @tree-nuts-stuff {tr. this one is for our psys !!}

[verysmallcyborg]

Fornax Val'ethtue (XIV)

Sezuk-7 (D2)

Hello! The name's Renee, welcome to whatever is going on in my little corner :] primarily XIV, but not exclusively...! Other interests are D2, RoR, some other games, and misc stuff

Misc.

» My art tag » Bluesky » XMA for the occasional mods I toss out there

OC info

» Fornax's tag (they/she) » Fornax's carrd » Fornax & Ryssrael's art + gpose tags, for both WoL and their notable AU's: The Sun and Star | Pirate AU | Lily Knight AU » Sezuk-7's tag (they/them) » Sezuk-7's refsheet

p.s. Man I Love Frontlines. except shatter. hit da bricks

[shiranken]

𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑𝐒; 𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐅𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐀𝐒𝐘 𝐗𝐈𝐕

       IN THE TOWERING FIELDS OF GOLD; the nameless child would wander. Happiness upon the bright autumn days, all snatched away as the eternal winter would come forth. Barely able to survive the calamity, her heart was thrown into the tundra & frosted over, like many who sought refuge amongst the towering jewel that was The Holy See she quickly learned a knight’s honor meant little. Was it the ravings of heretics that she clambered to in hopes to preserve a warm flame or the desperation to know the truth where the dominance of Ishgard’s fist would say no, lesser men shall not know the truth of the Dragonsong war. A thousand years of turmoil, grief, strife, contrasted with the ice that pierced into everything; she yearned for a savior in the midst of confusion & in her pursuit she was deemed a heretic by the homeland she once loved. Patient yet unrelenting in her judgement, the woman with a razor’s grin would outstretch her hand to those brave enough to take it, granting them the promise to see beyond what the ruling class deemed acceptable.

MISC INFORMATION 

Sayuri is a companion to the Warrior of Light during the events of Heavensward. She is commonly found within the Brume procuring difficult items for those around her, medicine, clothing, dried meats, along with small confections for the children whom she seems to dote on. In order to access gil, she is most known for her crafting abilities in alchemy, she will accept items for trade & most in the Brume know her eccentric nature often scowling she is a ‘cunning woman’.

She does not view herself as a Dragoon despite starting off as a lancer, reserving this for soldiers of the highest degree. Hence, despite her growth progression in the class, she cannot accept the title. Her weapon tends to mimic her color scheme of gold except for in Stormblood where she prefers modesty over gaudiness. Sadly for the party, she does not opt for any other class remaining strictly DPS & tank positions. During the events of Shadowbringers she would fall into the dancer category, Endwalker she would triumph with sword & shield.

Fluent in Dragonspeak, she can recite hymns & songs in the distant language. In the morning where the sun is the highest & the gloom hangs over in thick fog, one will hear the haunting melody, as if to defy the church itself. She is deemed among the heretics as the mouthpiece of the wyvern that speaks on their behalf, in another life, she admits it would have been nice to be formally trained as a bardess.

Faint burn marks on her legs that she does not openly discuss, their origins are unknown. If she gained them during the Calamity it is not something she is willing to discuss as it elicits a response that renders her speechless, she refuses to talk about her life prior making her enigmatic.

Her origins begin in Ferndale, she alludes commonly to remembering the sun & it appears she lived quietly in a modest upbringing. She alludes to having a twin for whom she has not seen in years though often regales, the past is no longer who she once was, the being that stands before all is the role she must play. 

Her role is a chronicler of events that does not speak with bias, she narrates the story with the entirety of her heart. Once with the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, she proceeds to continue on her path as a storyteller that shapes the labyrinth of heroic tales. Since the hallmark of XIV is a story rooted in heroism, Sayuri questions within her writings, what constitutes a figure of valor that fights for those they are sworn to uphold? 

There are scandalous rumors of an author who writes rather torrid affairs in popular romance novels that have taken over Eorza. Under the pseudonym of Lady Wisteria, one is said that she often narrates with an elaborate prose similar to that of a former heretic. Sayuri has yet to neither confirm nor deny allegations, no one will ever know.  

[yuri-cocaine]

of course the VIERA would want VEGETABLES how very typical

anyways. 7.2 msq thots under the cut

wowee ive been posting my thoughts about each ffxiv for TEN YEARS NOW. SINCE 2015. GOOD LORDT.

i really like calyx as a new villain because he seems to be the first villain so far that is actively seeking out wol's azem abilities. he also reminds me of 9S

i knew they were gonna bust out the porxie to heal lightning-itis and it was just as boring as i thought it was going to be. the horrible ravaging disease that supposedly killed og sphene...wiped away offscreen, in less than a second. i need them to commit to a fantasy disease that a flying pig can't cure, just so we can have some stakes back. otherwise what is even the point of having that sickness there in the first place.

zelenia is a giant robot there for ff9 nostalgia. having never played ff9, i don't care at all.

im on my hands and knees here. i am BEGGING the writers to just sprinkle in references to other ff titles in 8.0 and not make the entire msq an au fanfic of another title. we aren't doing anything with tural, which is the truly original xiv part of dawntrail. i am so sick of ff9 cyberpunk au oh my god

og sphene being alive all along just makes endless sphene's death have zero impact. the two of them are exactly the same. good for wuk lamat tho because now she has her greatest second chance to befriend and/or date sphene.

i think calyx is going to do some kind of battle royale amongst the alexandrians to determine who is fit to become an endless and who isn't, bc deliberately giving out just 5000 neo regulators is so obviously step one in weeding out undesirables. he clearly understands that he doesnt have infinite aether to sustain a constant growing population of aether-draining endless, so he's going to pick and choose which ones are worthy of being endless.

the real mystery that makes calyx compelling so far isn't his obvious eugenics scheme but rather how much he knows about what azem can do, which is something not even wol really knows. the giant question of why azem made a key that can travel between reflections before reflections were even a thing is still looming.

another question is: does calyx know about the unsundered world? the ancients and their civilization is probably close to what calyx wants to achieve, but the reason why amaurot and its immortal citizens could be sustained was because unsundered etheirys was insanely aether-rich. the ancients also had a very blase attitude towards death and were very willing to off themselves if they think it's time, thus returning their aether to the star, whereas alexandrians are utterly terrified of death and want to cut off the aether cycle entirely just so they can live forever.

calyx actually calls alexandria's shard the Ninth. aside from the scions and the ascians and zero, who even knows about the numerical naming system for the shards???? who told calyx this??? even if he knows that there's the source and 13 reflections, why would he think that his shard is specifically the ninth one?

on naming: calyx is our first alexandrian with a plant name, i think. a calyx of a flower supports the petals.

random misc thoughts: dataminers found azeyma's hairstyle and outfit in the files. we're seriously getting azeyma's hair before yugiri and hyth's hairstyles. the reason why i think azeyma of all npcs was chosen is def because of the azem connection, as tenuous as it is thanks to myths of the realm ruining her mystique, but it's insane to me still like i did not expect them to add azeyma's look to mogshop AT ALL.

edit: FORGOT ABOUT ERENVILLE NOOOOO MY POOR BOY....HE NEEDS TO PICK UP BEASTMASTER OR SOMETHING IF HE KEEPS ON WANTING TO PUT HIMSELF IN DANGER TO HELP OUT. altho i really love the idea of erenville just Never having any combat class ever and he just keeps on successfully running to safety. i want him to show up in a trial and give us pointers on the field, and he effortlessly dodges every single aoe and somehow doesn't take any damage from raidwides either. an unkillable npc.

ARCADION:

my hashtag game theory is yaana is a shard of ericthonios. she's born inside the dome in sol 9, so technically she's from the 9th. that's how she and claudien can exist at the same time. also...just look at her. she is literally eric antonio as a catgirl.

dancing green is my fav.....i died like 30 times in his fight i didnt know what was going on

this cast is full of cats. we've got the three sisters, and now retsarra, and also the three pet cats that brute bomber had. this is 7 cats. yuma is a rabbit, but if she was a miqo, then we would have 8 cats. thats a lot of cats!

i actually really like metem. poor little guy. he's stuck as a powerless mc........

idk what the arcadion president wants if he's willing to let us set loose all the feral souls. maybe his big end goal is merge all the souls together to form a legendary bidoof type chimera and have wol fight it for a big spectacle????

i hope the president is Mr. Beast.

[freyalise]

i play more gacha games than most people, by that i mean i play about three regularly full time and then occasionally i play genshin impact. i do think that if you want to play a gacha game, doing dailies is pretty crucial if you want to get all of the characters you want, which has its own problems. that being said, all of the gacha games worth playing are set up so that you don't need all of the top tier characters to experience the story, and if you do dailies (and by extension, the regular events) you should get enough currency to pull for all the characters you want within reason. here's the breakdown of my usual rotation

doing dailies in all three gacha games i play usually takes about thirty minutes per day collectively, because for the most part all of the dailies can be done automatically. like you need to set up what you are doing but the game plays itself after that. at that point i can just watch a video or browse tumblr which feels like more of a waste of time than my gacha games.

of the gacha games i play regularly i want to say that i've spent about $40 of real person money throughout their entire lifetime. i have never spent money on granblue fantasy. i've bought one battle pass and one monthly pass in honkai star rail ($15 total). i buy the monthly passes in arknights pretty regularly but i use google play rewards money for that so i'm usually only out $0-2 per month, with $0 being more common. that is to say, the amount of money i've spent on gacha is less than the cost of shipping arknights merch from china, and far less than the amount of money i spent on final fantasy xiv subscriptions in the four-ish years i played that game

i have most of the key characters in granblue fantasy and about 80% of the top rarity characters in both star rail and arknights, again primarily through just playing the game, and i was seasonal until i joined a crew a couple months ago

as far as actual time investment beyond dailies go, it's still probably less than playing an mmo. reading an arknights event takes about 5-6 hours because those are novel length, reading a granblue event takes about 1-2 hours because those are more short story length, and star rail story updates are somewhere in between. even so this happens like once a month tops with some misc gameplay events happening in between. like star rail just came out with their monthly event and it took me like two hours tops to finish it and even then i was doing it while watching youtube and eating lunch

i don't know why i felt the need to type all of this up because the people who post about how gacha games are dragging unsuspecting children into gambling addictions will never care or perhaps accuse me of being in the pocket of Big Gacha. it does feel good to get good pulls and all of them do let you buy more pulls, yes. but all of these games have some way of guaranteeing a character so it's not even really gambling at that point, just working towards a goal you've set for yourself. but saying that if you've ever had fun playing a gacha game you're setting yourself up for a gambling addiction just makes you sound like a weirdo puritan talking about dopamine being bad for you

[littleeyesofpallas]

I realize in this* convoluted series of posts I was so focused on gym leaders and elite four as the sort of core of any games cast that I just casually neglected a bunch of side characters, so I figure it's a good time to go back and rectify some of that, starting with the now topical Kalos team...

*[Kanto] [Johto] [Hoenn] [Sinnoh] [Unova] [Kalos] [Alola] [Galar] [Hisui] [Champs] [Paldea] [Paldea2] [Paldea3] [Teams] [Misc.]

While they are in fact all named after plants, they are also themed around the ABCMX classification system for solar flares.

Aliana's name is actually AKEBI[アケビ] as in akebi[木通] the japanese name of the Akebia quinata, commonly called the chocolate vine, five-leaf chocolate vine or just five-leaf akebia.

Bryony's name in japanese is just BARA[バラ] as in bara[薔薇]: "rose." A bizarre choice for a character with a green motif, and odd for such a minor side character when Roses are so iconic and universally beloved. Kind of feels, like a waste.

Celosia's name was CORREA[コレア] after the genus of flower shrubs that includes things like the common correa(aka native fuchsia), the Salmon Correa i used in the picture above, and the Dusky Bell among others.

Mable is in fact named MOMIJI[モミジ], after momiji[紅葉]: Japanese Maple, which seemed confusing at first, as those are obviously famously red leaved, but it turns out there are some prizes cultivars that can turns range of purples and violets instead, and as an odd result of this there are notorious scams built around the faking of a mythic japanese blue maple mutation. (Although the other flowers aren't perfect matches to their girls' color schemes either so maybe that's a coincidence)

Xerosic's name was originally XEROSICY[クセロシキ] named after Xerosicyos, a genus of plant notable for their round flat leaves, perhaps most notably the Xerosicyos danguyi: the Silver-Dollar Plant.

oh but there's more...

But other than the obvious Flare association, it also ties back into the sun themes evoked by Lysandre being a descendent of AZ/his brother and as a kind of Kalos/France tied to the Parfum Palace/Palace of Versailles, is a parallel to King Louis XIV, le Roi Soleil:"The Sun King".

Also Lysandre's name in Japanese is just straight up Fleurdelis[フラダリ] which is of course extremely silly sounding. But the ⚜️ is itself designed after the Lily flower, and of course so is the Ultimate Weapon and AZ's special Floette.

In this vein I figured I could tackle a handful of other villain teams. A fun if obtuse one is that the extended Team Rocket cast in HGSS are in fact all named after rockets, both space ships and missiles.

Archer was originally APOLLO[アポロ] named after the Apollo Missions carried out by NASA throughout the 60s, utilizing the Saturn V model rockets that would eventually put the first manned crew on the moon with the Apollo 11.

Ariana is ATHENA[アテナ] was named after the Athena series rockets built and launched throughout the 1990s. I get the feeling they just picked it because it had a conveniently complementary name to Apollo.

Petrel is LAMBDA[ラムダ] is named after a family of rockets made in Japan and launched the first Japanese satellite, the Osumi, into space in 1970.

and finally Proton was just LANCE[ランス] and seemingly named after the MGM-52 Lance missiles developed by the US military in the `1970s.

Oddly while Maxie and Archie are named after flowers...

Maxie was MATSUBUSA[マツブサ] after the matsubasa[松房] tree, a type of star anise with a distinctive red starburst shaped flower.

Archie was AOGIRI[アオギリ] the Chinese-parasol tree, which is actually kind of underwhelming plant to have as a namesake, but the actual etymology of the name aogiri[青桐] is "Blue+Pauloniwa" and I assume the association with Blue is really the motivating factor re.

Courtney was KAGARI[カガリ] from kagari[篝] the Japanese word for a metal basket like structure that you put on a pedestal or tripod to put firewood in to burn as like a big torch. It can also refer to a bonfire.

Tabitha is HOMURA[ホムラ] from homura[炎] which is just the word for a flame or a blaze.

Matt is just USHIO[ウシオ] from ushio[潮]: "tide"

and Shelley is IZUMI[イズミ] from izumi[泉]: a "spring" or "fountain" of water.

Galaxy's are all obvious, although in English they renamed Pluto to Charon, Pluto's coorbital moon.

Oh and Cyrus himself being the only person not named after a planet, was named AKAGI[アカギ] after the Bishop Wood tree, akagi[赤木].

Okay so for one it's bonkers that N's real name is NATURAL HARMONIA[ナチュラル・ハルモニア] which, given some context I'm going to say is a reference to Natural Harmonics in music. But let me be real with you: I don't know shit about music theory so I cannot verify that claim, nor was I able to verify if the image I was googling to throw up here even accurately depicts "Natural Harmony" so take this one in particular with a hefty grain of salt...

And with that disclaimer in mind, Ghetsis's name is actually G-Cis HARMONIA[ゲーチス・ハルモニア], G-Cis as in "G-C♯" which is a tritone, and tritone's have the curious nickname of "The Devil's Interval" or diabolus in musica:"The Devil in Music" because of the extreme dissonance the gap in tone makes.

then there's N's foster sisters, Anthea, whose real name is VERBENA[バーベナ], after the flower Verbena, which has a variety of divine and mystical associations in western culture.

and Concordia's name is actually HELENA[ヘレナ] named after the St.Helena Olive, which I take from her epithet as "Goddess of Peace" is meant to reference an olive branch as a symbolic peace offering.

Then there's also Colress, named Achroma[アクロマ] as in "Achromatic", as in Without Color, hence the English name being "Colorless."

And then there's the other sages:

ROOD[ロット] Dutch for "Red"

Bronius was originally SUMRA[スムラ] from the arabic word samra[*] for "brown/tawny/deep yellow." (*I tried to copy paste the arabic text here but for some reason it and the brackets together were really screwing up the formatting...)

GIALLO[ジャロ] like Rood was unchanged, and is just Italian for "Yellow."

Ryoku was shortened from RYOKUSHI[リョクシ] as in ryokushi[緑色]: "green."

Gorm was AZULA[アスラ] From the Spanish Azul:"Blue"  

and Zinzolin was named VIO[ヴィオ] from Violet. Technically a few languages all spell it the same, but of note, the "English" name Zinzolin is French for a reddish-violet color

Bafflingly the Seven Sages includes Ghetsis, who of course is not named after a color, so between him and Bronius/Sumra being brown, they do not make a seven color rainbow spectrum. Why no Indigo or Orange? And why a green sage when Ghetsis and N have such strong green color coding? Why don't the sprites for the sages match their color namesakes???

Also the Seven Sages could have been a harmonic scale reference, yet aren't?? despite N and Ghetsis' thing.

It's interesting that Zinzolin is the one sage who comes back with NeoPlasma in BW2, and he is the one named in French... I wonder if he'll make an appearance in Z-A.

Team Skull we did in the Alola captains batch oh wait wtf no I didn't.. Weird, I coudl have sworn iI included Plumeria and Guzma since they were clearly positioned as sort of pseudo captains for Poison and Bug types.

Guzma's name was in fact just GUZMA[グズマ] in Japanese, from the Guzmania genus of Tufted Airplant

and Plumeria's name was PLUMERI[プルメリ] from the plumeria flower, aka frangipani.

But there's still the Aether Foundation, the "surprise" real evil team of the game. Lusimine, Lillie, Gladion, Faba and Wicke.

Lillie's name is basically the same in English and Japanese, LILIE[リーリエ] the German name for the lily, and of course her overall disposition and design are clearly based on a pure white lily.

Gladion's name is GLADIO[グラジオ] it could easily refer directly to the Gladiolus flower, the "sword flower", but I'm assuming it's from Gladiole specifically, as that's the German name for the flower, and the whole of not just Lusamine's family but the Aether staff as well are all named in German.

Lusamine's name is basically the same in Japanese, although it was probably meant to be romanized as LSAMINE[ルザミーネ] because it comes from Balsamine, German name of the Balsam plant,

Faba's name was Sauboh[ザオボー] from Saubohne, German name for the Fava bean, which accounts for his coloration.

Wicke is just WICKE[ビッケ] again the German name for the Vetch plant.

oh and Mohn's name is MOHN[モーン] and it's German for Poppy. Unlike the Poppy in Paldea, whose look is based on the flower in bloom, I'm pretty certain from his build and his hair/hat that Mohn is supposed to look like a Poppy seed, the type you'd harvest milk of the poppy, or poppy's tears from... to make opium...

Also the Ultra Recon Squad, who have a fun theme were, to play into the way they come from a lightless alien world, they're all named after underwater plants or algae. I especially like the algae ones because despite how some alga, like kelp and seaweeds tend to look, they are not in fact plants, and this familiar yet different relationship feels like it fits the themes of the Ultra Beasts.

Dulse is in fact just DULSE[ダルス] a type of algae found in the waters around Ireland and Sctoland

Zossie's name is AMAMO[アマモ] from amamo[甘藻] the Japanese name for Eelgrass(Zostera marina)

Soliera's name is MIRIN[ミリン] which is the Japanese name for the genus Solieria

Phyco's name is SHIONIRA[シオニラ] is from the Japanese name for the Alismatales order of plants comprising a wide range of species, some of which grow near bodies of water, some grow in or above the water, and others still grow entirely underwater.

So obviously Rose is ROSE[ローズ], who I guess msut have seemed too obvious because I totally skipped him before... His brother Peony is a play on the fact that the Rose and Peony are sort of undisputed romantic icons in the west and east respectively, although some of the rose's reputation has bled into the east as well. (also i forgot to put it in the image but the Tudor rose and Galar being England feels obvious even if it didn't really play into the plot or themes of SwSh's story)

Speaking of Peony... His daughter Peonia's name is actually SHAKUYA[シャクヤ] from shakuya[芍薬] the Japanese name for the Chinese peony (Paeonia lactiflora)​.

Oleana's name was actually just OLIVE[オリーヴ].

Oddly there's not really anyone of note that's actually a member of Team Yell, they don't have a real leader or admins, just Marnie as the object of their support.

I did everyone in Team Star in my first Paldea post, but worth noting is the alias Cassiopeia refers to the constellation, hence team Star, but moreover the individual star squads are each named after a major star within the constellation: Segin, Ruchbah, Tsih, Schedar, and Caph. (Tsih and Navi are two names for the star γ(gamma) Cassiopeiae, just labeled "γ" above.)

And with that we're all brought up to speed with evil teams, until Z-A drops some new ones on us...

[maguneedsalife]

documenting last night's day 1 dungeon experience for posterity.

this was a first for me

tl;dr i got matched with some of the least competent players ive ever been in a party with and we got down to 8 minutes on the instance clock before we accepted it wasn't happening

(post contains dungeon spoilers under the cut)

(first of all, if any of the people who were in my party are reading this: im not mad at you, and i am not posting this to be mean spirited about the adventure we had. you guys kept a good attitude throughout the hour and a half we were in there and there's a lot to be said for that. but i also hope this was a learning experience for you, from a gameplay perspective.)

queued in for the new dungeon as a white mage. the other people in my party were a pld, sam, and brd. the pld stood around for a while before starting the first pull, then stayed put and didn't go for a double. After 2 single pulls I told him he could go bigger if he wanted, and he replied that he never wants to assume. (very kind of him).

I notice fairly quickly, as we pick up the second set of packs, that something is off. damage is going very, very slowly. I notice the tank seems to be using his single target rotation. I'm not hearing the sounds of bard or samurai aoe moves either. Me and my Holy casts are the only ones hitting multiple enemies.

To reiterate. this is the newest max level dungeon. unless they level skipped, these are presumably not new players.

We get to the first boss. The samurai struggles with the speed of its aoes. The boss summons adds: it's going to charge them up, and we have to kill them before they finish charging. We do not. the ones we miss explode and we wipe. Luckily, now that we've figured out what it wanted us to do, we manage to kill the adds in time and beat the boss on the 2nd try. Onward and upward.

Paladin resumes single pulling. The homies are still not aoe-ing. By this time I've determined that the three of them seem to be friends by the way they banter back and forth. I notice that I have consistently been second in aggro. the samurai has been last. Ian glances over my shoulder and remarks, "Why does that samurai have less health than you?"

the second boss has a mechanic with fast-moving aoes that you have to dodge. every time he does the mechanic again, the aoes get faster. in normal circumstances you'd probably only see it two or three times, maybe not enough to notice the aoes are getting faster. We saw it quite a few times. the aoes got very fast. This boss also has temporary misdirection, which was for sure the cause of our wipe here. we managed to get through on the second try.

between the 2nd and 3rd bosses the bard starts having connection issues and has to restart, so we wait for her to come back. on the way to the final boss the tank has trouble avoiding aoes and dies to mobs, and then i die to mobs after raising him bc im still second in aggro.

eventually we made it to the final boss. "how bad could it be, it's just one bunny?"

we proceeded to wipe to this boss 7 times. part of the issue was that our damage output was so low that the boss was exhausting its earlier mechanics and then looping the ones that were supposed to be its big scary finale - starting around 60% health. it creates an open pit and you're supposed to run around the edges to avoid falling in the hole, dodging various mechanics. we all fell in the hole at least once. anytime i died it was an instant wipe bc there was no way the rest of the party could sustain through the end of the fight by themselves.

the minutes dragged on. we got the "30 minutes left to complete' warning and kept on fighting. we began getting tilted and making more mistakes, wiping on earlier mechanics we'd previously done fine with. our positive "we'll get him this time!" attitude quickly turned into "oh i hate this guy."

with 8 minutes left on the instance clock - nearly an hour and a half of elapsed time since the start of the dungeon - it finally sunk in that despite our best ("best") efforts, this wasn't happening. i bade my comrades farewell and voted to abandon. they accepted. i was free at last. i decided not to blacklist them because they were good sports, and also because to my knowledge blacklisting doesn't prevent you from being matched with the person again, which is the functionality i actually need from it in this instance

anyway after that harrowing experience i recruited ian and some friends to help guarantee i could progress msq. we were in and out of that same dungeon in 20 minutes. watching bosses that my previous group had struggled mightily with go down within a few minutes felt so good