cynthffxiv

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They’re soulmates but one of them is infact trying to choke the other to death with the red string of fate tying them together

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pro-tip: don't ever use the sentence "thousands of years" in your worldbuilding unless you really know what a thousand years is like

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"hey sorry if this is a weird question about your OC-" WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT THAT'S THE BEST KIND

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"mmh did you know that creator you like also posts 🔞 content? did you know that? don't you think that's weird? don't you think we should keep this space-"

no. i don't.

i booked a front row seat to the devil's sacrament and you're blocking the view

just go back to the 1660 new england hole you just crawled out of and eat barley for a week to atone for your sins or whatever

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they should invent a cigarette that gives you vitamins and hrt and shit

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"i would find you in any universe" but it's very clearly intended as a threat

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today I used the phrase "breasting boobily" in casual real life conversation and everyone was shocked asking how I came up with that and I had to explain it. ive been at the devil's sacrament so long that I forgot he wasn't god

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the supplicants of the DSM-5 cult are going to murder me for my opinions about plurality

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I have always found it interesting that the WoL refers to Emet-Selch as not Emet-Selch but as Hades.

Sure, the journal entry is named Emet-Selch. But the first thing written there is that his true name was Hades. You also see this when you describe him to the Minstrel for his extreme trial.

Additionally, the description of the trial alludes to this as well. As when we talk about those we have faced in the First. We talk and refer to him as Hades. Which is also written similarly to the journal. Both of which were described/written by the WoL.

"Hearken unto a requiem for a hero fallen. A man who lived a thousand thousand of our lives clinging desperately to faint hope, never shirking his sworn duty to his long-lost brethren. A man who stood proud and did avow his true name on the threshold of the battle that would see him fall to his rival—the light to quench his shadow. Borrowing liberally from the funereal rites of the Night's Blessed, the minstreling wanderer weaves an elegy in that hero's honor—the tragic-yet-triumphant tale of a man and a battle that ne'er shall be forgotten."

You can also see this in the quest dialogue and while we cannot know the exact words the WoL used (as it is your own intrepretation of it) it is still clear that the WoL didn't refer to Emet-Selch as Emet-Selch they call him Hades.

For the WoL, this is about honoring the man who held steadfast to his ideas. Who fought for his loved ones just as much as the WoL does. Not the Ascian Emet-Selch. To honor and remember Hades as he once lived.

There is however, the matter brought up by the Minstrel: Why did Emet-Selch reveal his name to the Wol?

We do have a simple meta reason why: Hades is a recurring Summon across the Final Fantasy games. Using the name Hades is just natural to do so.

However, let's look at this from an in-lore perspective as well. For which we can look to what he says and speculate.

In the quest, Return to Eulmore, before leaving to Wright you can question Emet-Selch over the information he gives in the cutscene before. Revealing to us that Emet-Selch, along with the rest of the ascians encountered, is merely a title inherited. Their true names are hidden to take up the name and position of their seat.

You can, upon hearing this, ask him for his true name:

His reply to this is rather interesting:

There are a couple of things to note from his response. Firstly, he doesn't outright dismiss telling you his name, only says that eventually he'll reveal it. Of course, this hinges upon you living through your trials in putting down the Lightwardens and containing the light within, or simply dying from other matters.

But this would be disappointing for him. This dialogue ties into what he proposes to you later in The View From Above. To stand with him as allies. He doesn't propose this to the rest of the Scions, just the WoL. He dangles these threads because he wants them to reach back as Azem would. The WoL dying would be disappointing, and he would have to begin his search anew for Azem's soul.

We don't know if Emet-Selch has encountered Azem's shards before the WoL. Maybe he had or maybe he didn't. But it wouldn't change the fact that the WoL's death would have him searching again.

Even as he hurls insults upon the WoL for once more disappointing him, that is still Azem's soul in there. After all, his invitation to seek him out in the Tempest allows you to die with dignity. Everything he ever does is not let himself be alone and reach out to an old friend.

He wants someone else to remember it all. Who is more worthy of remembering it all than Azem?

Emet-Selch is a man of many masks. It is true, and his emotions are ever cloaked, but there are ever glimpses of them throughout Shadowbringers. Especially if it's Azem's soul prodding at him to reveal the layers underneath.

So in his final confrontation, when either the WoL dies or he, wouldn't it not be disappointing to leave the question of who the man underneath is all truly is? Perhaps even this even the last-ditch attempt to have the bearer of Azem's soul remember before either of you dies.

Emet-Selch yearns for his old friend to come back to him and remember. Just as much as he wishes shoulder the burden of remembering all of those that lived before. The WoL bears that last wish and remembers the man who fought for it all underneath as Hades. A man who once lived.

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im gods weakest faggot

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I know I'm gonna ramble a little bit, and this is just me but I really do love A Realm Reborn. Not everyone is going to feel the same way, I get that -- maybe I make a lot of excuses for it! I have been through it several times and will continue to do so because I have a disease called "I can't stop making alts/ocs and refuse to buy story skips" and I find it easier to get through on repeat experiences of it

I can't separate it from the context of what led to its somewhat-slapdash creation, for starters (which is why I make a lot of excuses for it -- that's a lot of game to make in an incredibly short period of time, and they've since cut down on the quests/content that was originally in 2.0!) And replaying it after finishing Endwalker was super fun for me, because it's fascinating to see little things that become wholly recontextualized vs what was left to the wayside or doesn't fit any longer.

There are some aspects of it, the game in general, and MMOs as a whole that I think aren't that easy to fix or aren't going to sit well with anyone regardless of how much time they put into it. Asking someone to put in 20-40 hours before a game "starts getting good"/"picking" up is legitimately untenable and so I try to not come at it with that angle if I recommend it in the first place

because I think it is good at the beginning. It has the same kind of bones as a lot of jrpgs, and I think if you already like jrpgs, you'll feel at home! There's obviously an interesting world there with gears turning in the background. There is wild-ass world building in the job quests and yellow quests. I know I was floored when the banquet happened and I truly "locked in" then but ngl I was already in love with the game/world because of ARR!

i think you just have to be the kind of person who loves weird/silly fantasy and derive a lot of joy from getting nougats of lore as a reward above anything else in order to honestly love the entire game. If you only care about one specific aspect of gameplay, I don't know that an mmo is for you, but if you think worldbuilding and lore as a concept is great, all of xiv will be a treat, including ARR <3

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That old man actually has no effect on me any more

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Do you need a new body mod for your Warrior of Light? Just get Treche. You should get Cheebo. Download GoobyBod+. Just go get the YORB DT Update with IVCS. Then you can add Yet Another Bellybutton. You should try LemonYummy Tangerine with Jizzle hands. Get TBSE-Fuck with XXXXL Knuckle options. Just get Blimpy. You can download Blimpy. Blimpy has it for you. Blimpy has it for you.

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Join FFXIV we got:

Fuckable Monster Gods, Yandere General, SUCH DEVASTATION, Malevolent Breadloaf, Hate Fuck Philosophy between Church's Money Illiterate Doomslayer and the Heretical Dragon fuckers, Bestest Boy, Butch Scholar with an axe, France with hot single elves, Lesbian Gunslingers, Manwhore of Astrology, his love rival and the asexual woman who has no clue, Inner Feral State, his legal partner and their adopted daughter, Murder Bimbo, his angry red head and their sadistic feral viceroy with her himbo henchman, Hopeless Romantic who gets bullied, his very heterosexual tribe of male only warriors, the apeshit warlock stealing his women while being transpiritual and a shepherd wife, frat boy emperor, Iroh Samurai and the sickest ninja woman ever, Your Own Personal Catboy, his eligible straightforward daughter who is also captain the guard, THE HIMBO FAMILY complete with bomb throwing cat girl, adoptive mechanical nonbinary child, and psychotic hard line temper mother, entire village of rabbit woman, the most love struck catboy outside the Crystarium and his religious group, an entire kingdom of nonbinary fae folk and their they/them King, the Ghosts of Christmas Past as well the Ghost of Christmas Present with his talking dog, THE TRUEST BESTEST BOY and his robot companion, the Dragon Father and his brood of angsty teenagers, Genocidal Tsundere Emperor, his grandson no-nonsense Emperor and the pretty boy handsome girl of ancient times, the hero worshiping companion of eld who doesn't remember you BUT YOU CAN FIX HIM!, a entire continent of nerds ripe for the punching, an entire continent of geeks ripe for picking on you and your companions including their leader SCIENCE WIFE, SUCH DEVASTATON's extended family who will remain perfect if you don't touch that fucking side quest, an entire moon of bunny people not to be confused with the village of rabbit women but while we're talking about rabbit people have this stoic and handy rabbit man and his VERY ENTHUSIASTIC TRANS LION FRIEND! Did we mention you get a punchy very enthusiastic woman clad in red? Drop by Ala Mhigo she is always happy to help you punch things! Also while you're there meet the main soldier you're deprogramming from the Garlean Cult he likes giving buuz to people and has this...Great Dane vibe, I don't know how else to describe it. Got a moment? Meet your adoptive family, a knife daughter and her hammer girlfriend, a sword daughter and her scholarly brother, an entire orphanage out of both Ul'dah AND Idyllshire, and a berb daughter who almost ended the entire universe because she COUDLNT STOP FEELING!!!!!!!!!! Also meet more monsters for you to fuck Flayed Demon, MUSCLE GODDESS, Cowabunga, grumpy fire man, and Knight in Shining Identity Theft, and their friend nonbinary lass who can kill AND EAT! There is, of course, also...adoptive fathers in partnership with you and knife daughter, wine aunt of a thousand Fire IVs, a cantankerous short lad, scholar woman who is getting into art, Tataru the Most Powerful and Important Character in the game and therefore the only one I shall refer to by name here, THE HORNIEST WOMAN IN ALL OF FICTION, two Roegadyn brothers, a fabulous elezen healer and her exasperated sister, the adoptive mother and legendary dancer AND bartender, an equally exasperated woman who just convinced her patriarch to retire from adventuring, a short Sultana, an oblivious Seedseer, and the greatest admiral to grace this franchise, General Father and his son from the Shire, the inventor with a heart of gold, his companions, their stern manager, and the gremlin man who is here to make the inventor eat his shirt while laughing. AND THATS JUST THE PEOPLE IN THE MAIN STORYLINE.

So join FFXIV today.

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SHOUT OUT TO EVERYONE WHO STILL TRIES TO GET BACK INTO THE SWING OF THINGS AFTER DEPRESSION HIT THEM HARD. THERE ISN’T ENOUGH RECOGNITION FOR THOSE PEOPLE WHO KNOW THAT THEY’RE GOING TO LOSE INTEREST AND MOTIVATION AGAIN BUT PUSH THEMSELVES TO DO STUFF ANYWAYS. YOU ARE FIGHTING A DAILY BATTLE WITH YOUR OWN THOUGHTS AND YOU’RE STILL COMING OUT ON TOP, YOU’RE ALL BRAVE AS FUCK