#G'raha also shows up

[kaidawrite-a]

I am on time don't judge me. 30 - Amity

Between saving more worlds, fighting gods, and running around helping anyone who needed it, Krile's summons for coffee felt like a reprieve. Post-EW, some actual spoilers.

Thank you as always to @sea-wolf-coast-to-coast for hosting this!! It's fun every year :)

[wildstar25]

wolgraha week 2023 - Day 5 : Comfort

Upon returning from Ultima Thul, G'raha insisted he be the one to escort Arsay to bed and ensure she actually gets some proper rest. Even after being treated with all the healing magics imaginable the warrior of light still winced from pain as she changed out of her blood soaked clothes. G'raha helped the best he could, but it did not take long for his emotions to get the best of him. "I know I am the last person who should be saying this but, I beg of you, never do anything like that again. I couldn't bare to think of this life without you." "What matters is we're both still alive, alright? Please, don't cry Raha… or you'll get me goin' too."

[schluesselschwert]

Small info for my mutuals who play Final Fantasy XIV: I now know enough about the game to understand (some) spoilers when I see them, so I'm now blocking the tags (with a very heavy heart bc I love this game and I love seeing fanworks for it)

If anyone thinks something isn't a spoiler and I should see it / might like it you can tag it as 'dia look' and I'll do exactly that! ... You can also do that for stuff that isn't FF14 actually if you want to :')

Love you all, thanks for filling my days with all the wonderful stuff you share! <3

[crystal-verse]

divinity -- noun; the quality of being divine/divine nature/a divine being

sae'pheli'ehva has always been divine. mortal bodies are not meant to hold such sacred, hallowed aether.

[tokidokifish]

i can’t ship anzu’a and g’raha tia bc it would be too powerful and also might kill that tiny catboy. imagine him showing up for a date and seeing this.

he would die! he would just fuckin expire

[amememightywarrior]

Food in Dawntrail

Gonna go ahead and share my thoughts on it as posted on twitter, excuse the format!

I found the prevalence of food in DT's MSQ very interesting. In a lot of cultures, food and food-sharing are acts of love both familial and neighborly. It also symbolized a desire to reach out and understand one another, from xibruq pibil to tacos to ice cream to weird grapes.

Our first encounter with food in DT is when Wuk Lamat wants to give us some tacos, but then BJJ smashes them carelessly, a sign that he is rejecting sharing and love

During the lay of repast, which is ALL about food, we learn a lot about the symbolism of meals and food and culture. It's great. 

Zoraal Ja and Bakool Ja Ja are teamed up and shown to not understand or care about food and sharing despite the BLATANT emphasis on it in the trial.

More subtle stuff that isn't called out is the way food is raised - like the Crystarium, where wandering around can reveal the importance, if you wander around DT you can find an example of what's called the three sisters method of farming.

For those unfamiliar with this system, it's actually a very culturally important method of farming in the americas where 3 staple crops, maize, squash, and beans, are grown together in a harmonious fashion. and i mean TOGETHER.

The maize, which grows tall and strong, provides support for the beanstalks which curl around it and provide stabilization both physically and nutritionally. At their feet grows the ground-covering squash which shades the soil, keeping it moist and preventing weeds.

The next major time we learn of food and agriculture is in heritage found, where we see people preserving real food as an act of culture more than anything else, showing the resilience of culture and the spirit of sharing in even the most lightning riddled situations.

After that it gets interesting. The concept of food in S9 is abstracted into the absurd (the grapes??? help), but they still share the food. More than that, it's a SPECTATOR sport, seeing WoL and Wuk Lamat eat. If you've ever been to a dinner with a family of a different culture, you will know the experience of tasting a new cuisine for the first time, and people asking you what you think of it. They share their culture with you and hope you approve. It's the sharing of joy, and it's the same as when you eat in S9.

Then we're REALLY challenged. We enter living memory and find the inhabitants feasting on the mere idea of food. They share with us as well, giving us popcorn. Did you lie and say it was great? Did you speak the truth of your tastebuds and reject the popcorn?

The food in living memory is tasteless to us, the only real ones in the place. But the act of sharing, that was the real important part. And so perhaps if WoL lied, it was not to spare feelings, but to show that yes, they were sharing in joy and culture.

Thus introduced, we are hit with that ice cream. We know it tastes of nothing, but we give it to Krile and her parents to share. Krile knows it doesn't taste like anything, and she struggles. But G'raha zips in with his own, to make her laugh and help her understand the joy.

The way each character reacts to food within DT is symbolic and shows a bit of their own perspectives. Someone who's very out on the edges, Estinien, is also someone who has embraced food very heavily after being freed from Nidhogg. He runs around eating everything in sight now.

And of course we also have the cornservant, who wants to feed everyone. I haven't actually done that quest line yet but I can already tell you what's at the heart of it XD

A lot of this we all know, I'm just calling it out specifically because it was beautifully done in DT.

Oh, before I forget: Otis and Gulool Ja

Otis, despite being, er...mechanical, has been feeding Gulool Ja. It is a familial act, feeding and helping this child grow despite zero relation.

is it just another fetch quest? Another shared meal of many shared meals in the field? Or is it asking us to look at this meal in the context of all that came before it?

What does it mean to love and care for one another? Otis shows it by being there and feeding Gulool Ja.

It contrasts with two other parties: Cahciuna's group, and Zoraal Ja.

Zoraal Ja does nothing. He does not feed his child. Abandoned him outright. ZJ rejects family, love, and sharing.

Cahciuna's group is trying really hard to take care of him, and he does allow it because they keep finding and taking him home. But why does he run away to eat with Otis? Cahciuna's response to realizing he WANTS to leave is to allow it instead of insisting.

I find that rather mysterious but I think it shows Gulool Ja prefers organic sharing, not S9 where everything is simply handed to him. Hopefully we see more of him in the future so we can learn wtf is up with this little blue-scaled cutie.

Food takes a background role in a lot of stories but DT took it, explained it, and then challenged our understanding by taking away the most talked about component, stripping away flavor to ask us what the point of food-sharing really is and how it reflects ourselves & our culture.

We've seen a lot of these themes before - ARR used to have a whole thing about feeding the soldiers before the assault on the garlean strongholds, SHB had the infamous rhon ron food stand scene, etc

we just got it called out repeatedly and the concept gently deconstructed for us in DT. 

So. what does the act of food-sharing mean to you? What does it mean to your WoL? How did you see the Lay of Repast? What did you think of the popcorn?

[anneapocalypse]

On the Former Scions and Leadership

Something that's kind of interesting to me about the Warrior of Light, which has always been there but which Dawntrail has me thinking about in a new way, is that the WoL really isn't a leader.

(Disclaimer: Obviously everyone has their own version of the Warrior of Light and is free to headcanon over and rewrite parts of the story to suit their character, and so what I'm saying here may not apply to everyone's character! For our purposes here, I'm just talking about The Warrior of Light as written.)

(Further note: I understand that there are a variety of feelings out there about the new characters and everyone is entitled to their own opinions about that; however this post is not an invitation to trash those characters in the notes so please refrain from that here; thank you.)

The Warrior of Light is a hero, but not a leader. Thanks to the linear nature of FFXIV's storyline, the game can't really offer us the conceit of making real choices, and so pretty much everything the WoL does is a result of someone else asking them to do it. So many of our major relationships with NPCs are with leaders: Minfilia, Nanamo, Kan-E-Senna, Merlwyb, Aymeric, Raubahn, Hien, the Exarch, Vrtra, Fourchenault, Wuk Lamat and Koana, every guild leader in our job quests. The WoL is someone called upon by leaders rather than being a leader themselves.

The Scions themselves have an interesting relationship to leadership in general. I've written before about how much the Scions feel like they're living in the shadow of Louisoix, especially in ARR, and how this affects their actions. As the leader of the former Circle of Knowing, Minfilia steps into the leadership position in his absence. I love Minfilia dearly; I think she has a true gift for bringing people together, making people feel welcomed and not alone, and helping them find purpose. I think all those skills probably availed her well as the leader of her Echo support group. It's when the Scions suddenly find themselves in the spotlight on an international scale following the defeat of the Ultima Weapon that I think the cracks start to show. I think that, very understandably, Minfilia is not prepared for the weight of that situation, and that's part of the reason she allows Alphinaud to step into such a leadership role himself (and also, and I say this with all the love in the world for both Alphinaud and Minfilia, why she even kind of lets him push her around at times). For Alphinaud himself, his experience of leadership with the Scions is disastrous, for which I think some responsibility also has to be laid upon the adults around him, who might have seen the red flags but didn't stop that train.

When Minfilia disappears, I think it's so telling that no one else steps up to fill the role of the Antecedent. Alphinaud is no longer so eager to take on that burden, and no one else is jumping at it either. Certainly the Warrior of Light isn't going to do it. (They're the boots on the ground, and the Antecedent is largely an administrative job.) The Scions instead just kind of agree to keep carrying on doing what they each do best, without an official leader. If anything, the glue holding the Scions together at this point is Tataru, who keeps the books and manages the budget and does her damnedest to keep certain people from putting overpriced purchases on the company card.

And that's not to say that none of the others have leadership skills! But it's interesting how, for those who do take on leadership positions, it's generally away from the Scions. After years of hiding under her sister's identity and "Papalymo's little shadow," Lyse takes an active role in the Ala Mhigan resistance, and helps to lead her people to freedom--a journey which ultimately takes her out of the Scions as she decides to stay in Ala Mhigo.

I'm counting G'raha as a Scion here since he does become one eventually, though not until after his hundred-year stint as the Exarch. It's clear both from the community that has grown up around the Crystal Tower, and from some really great G'raha moments in Endwalker, that he has real skills both at bringing people together for a common cause, and at taking charge in a crisis to protect the vulnerable. For the most part, though, he seems quite happy to take on a sidekick role after he returns to the Source. After a hundred years, I imagine anyone might be ready for a break from being in charge.

Y'shtola is harder to analyze because she's gotten less direct character development than most of the surviving Scions, and has remained largely in a supporting role thus far (though she remains a very interesting character to me, and I am hoping for a bit more of her in the Dawntrail patches given the setup for a cross-rift-travel solution). Y'shtola has always seemed reserved and a bit of a loner, and never seemed particularly interested in leadership until she threw in her lot with the Night's Blessed in the First. By the time we meet her again, she's become a trusted figure among the Blessed and the others clearly look to her for guidance and leadership. (It's also kind of interesting to me how both of the characters who wind up in leadership positions in the First are Seeker Miqo'te, and it probably was just a coincidence, but it'd be interesting to analyze how Seeker culture might prime a capable person to be willing to rise to the occasion where they see a group of people need.) Yet Y'shtola too seems perfectly content to settle back into a support role when she returns to the Source.

Endwalker is all about standing together, working together, the necessity of hope to overcome despair not merely individually but as a collective effort. The Scions all rally, each bringing what they have to offer, and they do so without ever appointing a new leader. They go where they see a need, like Urianger choosing to stay on the moon, or Thancred watching over the Warrior of Light and the twins when things go south on the relief mission to Garlemald, or the twins later taking a personal interest in the rebuilding efforts there. They also defer to leaders within the Eorzean Alliance where appropriate, happy at this point to work alongside the nations' armies rather than attempting to command one.

And the more I look at the Scions' history this way, the more their disbanding at the end of Endwalker seems inevitable and the logical end to the organization. In a very real sense they have completed the work that Louisoix and Minfilia set out to do. They've been leaderless for some time now already and it has not stopped them from doing good where needed. They are not leaders. Their goal was never to steer the course of world events indefinitely. They've all learned a lot about applying their individual talents for the greater good and having faith in one another to do the same, without having to be directed by one charismatic leader every step of the way--a major point of growth from where they were in ARR.

And all of this makes our role in Dawntrail really interesting to me, because it's all about leadership! And the Warrior of Light and their companions are, as characters, perfectly primed to take a supporting role and take initiative in that role where needed (see: Thancred and Urianger doing what needs to be done behind the scenes during the second act crisis). What the former Scions aren't, as a whole, at this point in their story, is people inclined to step up and take over. And this is a good thing for this story. Both Wuk Lamat and Koana need to learn and grow on their own, and in the context of their own cultures. The former Scions can help, they can support, and they do, but they aren't going to take over. Sure, they have opinions! At various points, we see characters on both teams (including the Warrior of Light) make some pointed faces at one another indicating that they have some doubts about the direction in which their candidates are taking things. But they withhold direct judgment or criticism for the most part and I think that makes sense both for their characters, and for the nature of the story.

I also think it was probably intentional that the former Scion with the most extensive leadership experience, G'raha, is not one of the characters hired by the claimants and doesn't come back to the plot until later. While I love G'raha and I did miss him, I understand story-wise why he couldn't be here; his unique circumstances mean that he has had more leadership experience than most people could ever have in a single lifetime, and it's probably for the best that that doesn't overpower the experiences of our young claimants who need to learn their own lessons on their own terms.

The support role of the former Scions also makes sense in other ways, I think, in terms of allowing the Turali characters and especially Wuk Lamat, as the main character, to shine in their own right and to avoid what could otherwise have been some problematic tropes. But I also think it works pretty well as a natural outgrowth of who these characters are and have grown into over multiple expansions, the Warrior of Light included.

[autumnslance]

G'raha's Leadership in the Final Days

Finally got PunchyCat to the Final Days, and while we often speak to the big cutscene where G'raha "goes into Exarch mode" and takes command in the chaos, before that he and the WoL run around Radz-at-Han investigating the Blasphemy, and even there, G'raha's many years as Exarch really show through in how he interacts with the traumatized and terrified people.

Rahdvira: Sisters have mercy, what is happening to the world!? What am I to do…? Is nowhere safe!? G'raha Tia: Settle down, friend. The danger has passed…at least for now. If it's not too painful to remember, could you tell us what you saw?

and at the end of the man's tale:

G'raha Tia: That is enough, my good man. You were brave to share with us your tale. Many of your fellow merchants are safe. The High Crucible, too, has survived mostly unscathed. Pray stay close to your friends and loved ones, and rest your body and mind while you are able. G'raha Tia: I suspect that is the most we can expect the people here to tell us. I think it best we find a place outside the bazaar where we might rest and review our findings.

Choosing to Speak with G'raha...

G'raha Tia: It might distress those still traumatized by the incident to discuss what we've learned within earshot…

He also remembers the details of how WoL knew Khalzahl (thanks to that great memory of his, hearing the reports of the first trip to Thavnair). As Mihleel is shaken by remembering the terror erupting at her tables, however...

G'raha Tia: Forgive me. I would not have you recall the memory if it brings you pain. If I could, I would ask just one more thing.

After getting directions to Khalzahl's neighborhood, WoL and G'raha question an older woman:

Mahti: I don't travel much these days, but my daughter's told me not to venture outside. Stuck in here as I am, I've heard little about these bizarre goings-on. G'raha Tia: Rest assured, the city is safe for now, but the situation may change without warning. G'raha Tia: I urge you: stay close to your daughter, and be prepared to take refuge should the satrap order it. Mahti: Yes, I shall do just that. Thank you for your concern, and pray stay safe as well.

And then the sleepy Arkasodara down the street:

Parigha: Hmmm…? Could you come back another time? I just woke up, and I'm not exactly in the mood for idle chitchat. G'raha Tia: Well, that's one way to avoid the panic, I suppose… G'raha Tia: Pardon our intrusion. You may not have noticed, but a great danger has come to Thavnair. I encourage you to stay alert, and prepare to flee the city should the situation turn dire. G'raha Tia: But before we leave you in peace…pray allow us to ask a question or two.

And finally, when dealing with Djinabaha at Ruveydah Fibers, helping the employees pack things away before he'd even talk, G'raha finishes with this as we go on to the next quest (and Ahewann's fate).

G'raha Tia: My friend, we must take our leave. I pray that your establishment is spared further tragedy. But remember: your lives are far more precious than any wares. If you are ordered to flee, do so without hesitation. Djinabaha: Indeed… I thank you for your concern, and pray you two take care as well.

G'raha knows how to talk to people shaken by disaster, calming and reassuring, and giving them clear advice and action to take to keep themselves safe. It's a handy precursor to his taking command in the next cutscene, reminding us that he is, unfortunately, all too familiar with events similar to these, and this steadiness, thoughtfulness, and concern comes from too many years of practice.

[lookbluesoup]

Thinking about G'raha and Emet at the climax of Shadowbringers, mmm there’s too many words, let’s see...

Emet freaks out the way he does and reverts back into mask-up genocidal self-righteous rage-monster mode because he thinks you’re going to die. Become a sin eater consumed by Light. You were his friend in the world unsundered, even though you don’t remember him now, and your soul is just going to be obliterated, there will be no saving it. He accepts this as inevitable, he’s too hurt to hope for anything else. You’re already gone in his mind. He’s going to do what he has to do, to end this broken world and save the rest of his people, even though it means losing you. The angst of that gets me every time.

And then there’s G'raha. Who was also your friend in disguise, working alongside you to save the world. Just like Emet, G'raha's a dear companion from another life who’s true face you weren’t able to see, who’s name they would not tell you, but who loves you still and hopes you might save the world.

The moment Emet-Selch gives in to grief and decides you can’t be saved is the same moment Graha commits to sacrificing himself to save you.

Emet prevents G'raha from doing that. And takes him captive. And the days that follow where the rest of your friends are desperately trying to preserve your life, G'raha does not know if you are ok.

But he does not give up.

He knows you are doomed, just as much as Emet does. But unlike Emet, Graha does not give up.

He fights for you, for the world, for a future, against Emet in the Tempest with no certainty that you are even still alive, and no reason to believe anyone will rescue him, and no second chance for any of it if you are gone.

But you come for him. You come for him bleeding Light and barely able to stand but you also did not give up. Both of you are defiant in the face of Emet’s despair. Graha is bloody and beaten from days of abuse, far from his tower, and still finds it in himself to summon aid for you when you make your final stand against Emet for the fate of a dying world.

And ultimately you triumph over the Light, you defeat Emet, you give hope back to the entire broken world and most importantly... you are not going to die. And neither is Graha.

And I just... cannot imagine how hard that realization is going to hit G'raha. After days in basically hell, not knowing, not giving in, you showed up like the hero he always believed you to be but even more, and you brought him home again, and you’re alive.

When the adrenaline and exhaustion fades... It must hit hard enough to be its own wound. He must break down sobbing. You cannot feel so much relief and stay on your feet. All that he hoped against hope for came to pass, and he loves you and you’re still alive.

[akirakirxaa]

FFXIVWrite Prompt 11: Surrogate

Rating: G

Word Count: 650

Summary: Stella brings Hades a picture while he's working. [Takes place in the OT4 AU, while Hades and G'raha are still at odds with each other. Note, very rough draft, words did not agree with me tonight.]

[Master Post]

Hades glanced over his notes, head leaned hard into one hand while a quill rested in his other (how long until he replaced every painfully primitive quill in the house with an easier to use pen, he wasn’t sure). He had overheard only a little of Akira’s daughter’s new abilities that were making themselves known, and though his help had been spurned before even asking him — and of course he certainly did not want to help anyway — he couldn’t help but ponder over it. And the more he pondered, the more he wrote, and now his desk was covered in notes he had no way to give Akira without admitting he had overheard. Not just her suggestion that they seek his help, but also the firm dismissal of—

“Up!” He glanced down at the small voice, finding the tiny red-haired frame of Stella, shoving the sketchbook he’d made for her at him to hold, barely waiting for him to grab it before letting go and climbing into his office chair, pushing insistently until she was crammed into it with him. She reached for the sketchbook and, while for anyone else he might grumble…he handed the book back, giving her a little pat on the head between her miqote ears.

For a while, they sat like that, Stella balancing the little book on Hades’ lap as she colored, Hades himself going back to his notes, occasionally glancing at the toddler. He snuck glances at her soul, as if someone would be able to tell if he lingered too long, fascinated at how the color almost precisely matched the ambient aether of the aetherial sea. He was deep into a multi page tangent on what it could mean combined with what other signs he had heard she was exhibiting when she tugged on his sleeve.

“What is it, dear?” Hades’ voice was softer than his usual prickly demeanor; he would never use the term of endearment if he suspected her father to be near, knowing with certainty now that, if the archon had his way, that Hades would have nothing to do with his daughter. But no matter what any of them did, Stella still sought him out with just as much regularity as her father, mother, or Hythlodaeus.

Stella flipped her book around proudly, ears flicking and small nub of a tail doing its best to swish while trapped between the arm of the chair and Hades’ leg. It was a little drawing of five stick figures, one much shorter than the others, three with red hair, one with purple…and one with white. For a moment, Hades was lost in the dozens and dozens of lives he’d lived, little children destined to live chaotic lives and die tragic deaths proudly bringing their ‘father’ their little creations looking for affection.

“Eme!” Stella pointed helpfully at the white-haired stick figure, and it broke Hades out of his reverie.

“No, no, Hades,” he corrected, and she frowned, pointing more forcefully at the figure.

“Eme!”

“Ha-des,” he pronounced slowly. Where had she learned that name? Now her face had a smirk that reminded him all-too much of her father.

“Eme!” she giggled at his frustration, and he let out a groan.

“You might as well give up,” Hades glanced up from his torment to find Hythlodaeus leaning on the frame of the office door. “Once kids decide what they want to call you, there’s no changing it.” Hades slumped forward onto his desk dramatically, and Stella jumped down with her prize, running over to Hythlodaeus and holding the book up to him.

“Oh, how lovely,” he crouched down to see it better. “I bet your mother would like to hang it up. Shall we go show her?” Stella nodded and, with one last smug look at his love, Hythlodaeus led her out of the office before her enthusiasm was the death of Hades.

[mosthuggableffxiv]

As Promised: The G'raha Essay

Full text below

While initially pretty annoying in his debut questline of the Crystal Tower raids, G'raha Tia has proved himself to be the person in all 14 shards most devoted to the Warrior of Light. Not only was he willing to throw away his life in the present to protect the world from misuse of the Crystal Tower, but he then spent 100 years slowly and PAINFULLY turning into crystal and fusing with the Tower just to yank the Warrior of Light across dimensions to save both their life and the future of both the Source and the First.

We know from patch 5.3 that the crystallisation process is incredibly painful and draining on G'raha's body, and the poor thing is literally crying out in pain during some of those cutscenes. When we first encounter him at the start of 5.0 his entire right arm has already crystallised. Moreover, I'd like to draw attention to the fact that the crystallisation by this point is already encroaching into his face, and one can only imagine that the pain from that must have been unbearable. We can therefore deduce that G'raha Tia has spent a hundred years slowly and periodically experiencing the pure agony of his body literally turning to crystal while he attempted to transport the Warrior of Light across the Rift. Furthermore, as we have seen in the MSQ, drawing upon the aether of the Tower guarantees a burst of the crystallisation process, which means that every time he pulled a scion across the rift, including the WoL, he experienced indescribable pain.

Not only can we reflect upon the physical pain he has undergone for us, but he must have also gone through incredible emotional pain. Firstly, the horror of waking up in a world post eighth calamity, where everyone he knew is dead, but also discovering the horrific fate that had taken the WoL. That alone would be enough to break most people, but not G'raha Tia. This man then went on to survive in this post-apocalyptic hellscape, which we know was a world akin to the nightmarish landscape of the Fallout series, which can only have added to his trauma, but also managed to discover a way to change history and prevent those horrors from ever happening.

Moreso, upon arriving in the First, he not only survived another nightmare-fuel world full of sin eaters, but managed to build an entire city and community, all while spending A HUNDRED YEARS preparing for his own death just to save the WoL's life. How many people would be capable of doing that? Especially when they knew their plan did not even have a guarantee of success?

This man must have lost countless friends and loved ones spending an entire century building and leading the Crystarium. We know from how he took in Lyna that he did not isolate himself, and made himself beloved by the city's people. The emotional toll that each death and loss over a century must have taken is incredible. And if his plan had gone as intended, he would have done all this without his name or true identity being known or remembered for it, even by the person he was trying most of all to save.

And then, when his true name was called at the end, and his identity revealed, he cried. He has shown time and again that he allows himself to show emotional vulnerability; even after spending a century working in secret and suffering so much, he still was not afraid to cry. And not just then, but at the end of 5.0 and 6.0 as well. He bravely shows the WoL his whole self, rather than hide anymore.

After returning to the Source, we see a change in G'raha Tia that has only convinced me even more that he is the most huggable character in FFXIV. With a new, and unexpected, life ahead of him, we see a playfulness in G'raha that had been dampened before. We see adorable ear wiggles, and him allowing himself to fanboy and get excitable. We see him has cheeseburger... and it is glorious. It is so unabashedly cute, that even if we discounted all of the above he would still be the most huggable character in all of FFXIV. His little arm rub when he's nervous or embarrassed is too freaking cute.

In conclusion, G'raha Tia has faced unimaginable emotion and physical pain for over a century to save the future and the Warrior of Light. He survived immense trauma and still remains able to show his vulnerability and emotions, and look damn cute while at it too. Plus, fluffy ears and tail. I rest my case.

[elizabethrobertajones]

Frog Time

I'm so bad at tagging people so consider yourself tagged if you want to be :)

B A S I C S

Name: Bounding Frog (redacted roe language name because I forgor)

Nicknames: Frog

Age: 18-22 (ARR-EW)

Nameday: 23rd Sun of the 5th Umbral Moon

Race: Hellsguard Roegadyn

Gender: cis woman

Sexuality: Bi

Profession: She has a summer job working with the hippo riders, although that doesn't pay as well as adventuring, so she's looking forward to Dawntrail and doing more than delivery runs.

P H Y S I C A L     A S P E C T S

Hair: maroon and light pink

Eyes: maroon and light pink

Skin: brown

Tattoos/scars: I headcanon the single choice of tattoos per face for roes are meaningful somehow - I chose coming of age, getting her Adventurer Name, and leaving home, so those were fresh porple swoops over her cheekbones in ARR :D I've only known her as long as she's been Frog and looked like this.

The scar on her nose is from being underhand punted like a rugby ball by an older brother back when she was an orb shaped child. Since adventuring the regular healing has stopped her getting too scarred up from any misadventures.

F A M I L Y

Parents: Notable members of their remote mountain community, maintaining an important set of Arcanima wards around an aetherically dangerous geological fault. Of course, they're good at their jobs so this wasn't very scary as an upbringing. They're a lovely couple and make a hell of a bowl of soup. All else I know about them is they're very supportive and Frog writes to them regularly.

Siblings: like six rowdy older brothers. She was very spoiled by this squad of bodyguards tbh. (Ignore the previous comment about one of them maiming her, they DO love her even if they saw her as a cannonball under other circumstances.) A couple of them left to be mercenaries, uncertain if for Garlemald - they don't write home as thoroughly.

Grandparents: Probably, tbh. We're getting out of my limited perception of Hellguard culture and history but I think I can say the remoteness of their village is an excuse for nothing too terrible to have happened to any of them :P

In-laws and other: She was sort of starting to think of Edmont as a potential in-law and he began acting like it after Events so she's acquired some without marrying. He DID also adopt Aymeric informally, so now she's courting him it's coming back around!

Pets: Multiple, even not counting animal sanctuary beasties. Some she drops by to visit where they're being looked after once she'd raised them or sheltered them for a while (the baby hippo was donated to the hippo riders thankfully before he got too large and hungry for example). Others live at the free company house getting spoiled by the staff. The free company is named after the baby tapir who is the best and cutest. :)

S K I L L S

Abilities: In character, she has yet to find something she isn't good at after a couple of false starts. (ooc is much more of a mess depending on my ability) As an all-jobs all-crafts all-gatherers weirdo she's genuinely alarming to contemplate.

Hobbies: crafting/gathering/fishing is more of a wind down respite than a career calling for her. Canonically she's finished the fishing log... ooc I haven't by a long shot :P She also loves visiting bars and pubs across the world that she's visited to drop in on old friends, or go on foodie tours of places she's liberated. They stole G'raha being a foodie traveller in the dawntrail trailer from her actually.

Kinda always wanted to do a in character review of all the drinking establishments in game.

T R A I T S

Most positive trait: determination and everything that went into being strong enough to do the end walk, which did feel like a culmination of all the positive things they ascribe to the WoL. Since she's living the life of box art Meteor with no plot deviations or alterations except what I can put into the downtime and spaces between cutscenes, I can't argue with times when they REALLY show the admirable heart of the WoL.

Most negative trait: She's not going to say no, so if you need a favour just stand near where she wanders by routinely and look forlorn and you WILL get helped to within an inch of your life.

L I K E S

Colors: royal purple, dark reds and deep blues

Smells: fresh baked anything. Probably also the fresh morning smell when she gets up at ass o'clock to do stretches or whatever gross things morning people do.

Textures: G'raha ears >:)

Drinks: black coffee, red wine, milky tea

O T H E R    D E T A I L S

Smokes: tried it with the Vath and hated it. Still has no idea if Fogweed is a drug or not.

Drinks: socially and merrily with a bottomless liver.

Drugs: nothing harder than caffeine and alcohol.

Mount Issuance: her sweet blue chocobo is called Turbulence and threw off everyone who attempted to ride him before that.

Been Arrested: not outside MSQ run ins with the law

[castellankurze]

I do actually have one serious criticism of Dawntrail's storytelling, which is one plot point in particular with a basic failure of "setup, reminder, payoff."

Following the first attack on Tuliyollal and the subsequent Vanguard dungeon, in the first part of Heritage Found, on two occasions we are given what should be a very important piece of information. In one MSQ quest and one aether current quest, we're told about a weakness in Zoraal Ja's robot army-

Wuk Lamat: Cahciua said you're a hunter, but wouldn't it be easier for those mechanical soldiers to guard this place? Strika: It would, if not for the fact they're weak to lightning. The Thunderyard being what it is, they've been ordered to steer clear. Strika: Some good they are, eh? But these facilities are vital to the upkeeping of Alexandria's infrastructure, so it falls to hunters like me to deal with any fiends.

Dorian: These soldiers require energy gathered from lightning, and yet lightning also proves to be their weakness. Apparently, it took a nasty jolt in the Thunderyards and went berserk. Dorian: Honestly, why are they tinkering with offensive output when they could be correcting this glaring flaw in the design? Rest assured, the engineer in charge will hear all about this in my report...

Naturally, knowing G'raha has been in contact with Y'shtola via linkpearl, we grab his ear and relay a message to Koana, who as Vow of Reason moves quickly to ensure Tuliyollal's defenders are given lightning-aspected weapons ... don't actually do anything with this info? In fact it doesn't seem to be brought up again.

When the two armies ultimately clash again we're shown the good guys winning by virtue of ... mostly just not being taken by surprise this time, as they fight back using an array of blades, guns and magic, and the trump card of having a dragon show up to play havoc with the enemy airships. It's a nice "yay everyone came together to protect Tural" scene insofar as it goes, but it feels rather cheap and makes the hollow men seem weaker in comparison to their first (terrifying) appearance when they can just be fought off by conventional means.

It's ultimately a small complaint in the grand scheme of Dawntrail's storytelling, but by the same token it's such a basic error it's hard to swallow, and has the ring of "people in the writing room not talking to one another."

[tag-of-light]

Evolution of a Bard | Zara’s Glamours

[Astra's Glamours] [Zeke's Glamours]

Child (Before the Fall)

Before Adventure (Before the Fall)

Budding Adventurer (A Realm Reborn)

Warrior of Light (ARR—Before Praetorium)

Warrior of Light (ARR—After Praetorium, Before Crystal Tower)

Warrior of Light (ARR—After Crystal Tower - Heavensward)

Scion Exile (ARR - HW)—Disguise

Warrior of Light (Stormblood - Shadowbringers)

Warrior of Darkness (ShB—Light Corruption Begins)

Warrior of Darkness (ShB—Light Corrupted)

Warrior of Light (ShB 5.1 - Endwalker lvl89)

Warrior of Light (EnW lvl90+)

Also small rant because it was getting too much for the tags lol

Zara's outfits definitely don't change as much as Astra's. I like to think she changed to her Warrior of Light outfit (gif 4) and it sort of became a uniform for her, so it just changes a little bit at a time until Shadowbringers (i.e. adding the Amon boots, changing gloves, swapping to a similar top). Then after 5.0 she re-evaluates everything and starts being more herself again rather than just being this saviour figure—she actively reaches out to take her own happiness and settles back into herself while still being the hero, symbolized by her return to her signature adamantoise green dye in the last two outfits. She also wears the Amon boots as a reminder of G'raha and everything that happened at the Crystal Tower, but she retires them after Aitiascope when Tataru provides her with new gear. Also it doesn't show up with the top she's wearing, but G'raha gifts her the Crystarium necklace and she wears it all the time.

[sjofn-lofnsdottr]

God, I just realized something.

Some of the stuff that annoys me about Wuk Lamat, also annoys me when G'raha Tia does it.

Both characters are characters I would like better if they didn't make me feel like the game is making me hang out with them because I am their bestest, closest friend even though it doesn't feel remotely earned to me yet. And I hate that shit!

Like by the end of the CT storyline, G'raha is ... fine, I think my WoLs were on perfectly nice terms with him, but he wasn't a bestie by any stretch, and it certainly came as a surprise to them the lengths G'raha was willing to go to make sure they lived. He keeps himself hidden and distant for the mostpart during ShB so my characters don't feel like they know him any better by the end of 5.0, except for maybe how batshit his plans can get when he's desperate. But the game insists the WoL and G'raha are super best friends (and that G'raha just might be Pining for you), way too early. I'm more comfortable with it now that Endwalker spent time showing G'raha is more than the WoL's Number One Fanboy, and I think his use in Dawntrail was really effective. But I spent a lot of time thinking 'I like you okay, G'raha, but you're at an eleven when I need you at a six" during the ShB patches.

And I feel kinda similar with Wuk Lamat. I like her, I really do, but the game insists on a closeness between her and the WoL way, way too early in a way that does not feel earned to me, like it's rushing that development because she's probably not going to be around a ton going forward and they really wanted to wedge that in there. And it makes me pull back, because like with G'raha, it has the strong vibe of being that friend who is a little too clingy about your friendship. And it feels forced. I hate when that stuff feels forced.

And I can't help but contrast it with the WoL's friendships with some of the other characters. Not just characters like the twins, who have been hanging around forever and therefore have plenty of time to show how they get closer and closer to the Warrior of Light, or Estinien who has good reason to be ride or die for the WoL and Alphie but still takes some expansions off to get his own shit together, but characters we don't see a ton of like Cid. It's pretty clear to me that Cid and the Warrior of Light are good friends, because they have Been Through Shit Together, without it feeling shoehorned in artificially.

On the upside, this makes me feel optimistic about her in the long run. I'll get some distance from her, she'll probably not be So Much when she does show up going forward, and eventually I WILL agree they're good friends!

[meowww-ffxiv]

#FFXIVWrite2024

Prompt: Tempest

Once again borrowing a WoL, Qisya from my friend on Twitter, @/bardings.

.

Bad sea weather was common enough in the Ruby Sea, to the point where the Confederates had docked all of their ships hours before the ocean began to churn with the force of winds.

It was quite different to view a storm from underwater rather than upshore, Qisya thought. Sound was much dulled in the bubble that served as the Blue Kojin's village, but she could still see the way the currents strengthened and flowed through the patches of seaweed, violently swaying them to the point of uprooting. She felt bad for the fishes desperately struggling against those currents, of all sizes and colors drifting rapidly around the bubble, but there were some that looked like they'd just given up the fight and let life take them wherever. Those were quite funny.

At her side, G'raha chuckled. He, too, was watching the fishes. "There is a metaphor here somewhere about no matter whether you are above or below the surface, the storm reaches you all the same," he said.

"At least all the ships are docked," Qisya remarked, eyes drifting directly upwards. With her keen sight, she could just barely make out how the surface above rippled with what must be a powerful rainstorm. "I haven't seen any ships' undersides for hours."

G'raha squinted after her. "You can see that far?"

"Not very well... But, kind of?"

"The bards don't sing enough of your sharp eyes," G'raha sighed, like a scholar who had just discovered a deficiency of information in some common topic. Only to immediately cringe, like he just realized how weird he sounded. "I-- I only mean that, um. Most people don't seem to know something so... You are the Warrior of Light, after all. Yet history speaks of your deeds and so rarely your person."

Qisya smiled at the way his words tripped and stumbled over each other. Seeing this, G'raha's face colored an interesting pink, and he stammered something else incomprehensible before seemingly giving up on the whole endeavor. Ears drooping, he shrugged, then gestured to a nearby... Something that passed for an outdoors restaurant, perhaps.

The Blue Kojin who manned the stall, in a very poor attempt to not look like she'd been watching them for the past ten minutes, nodded as the two visitors sat down. "Warrior of Light," she greeted Qisya, then turned to G'raha. There was suspicion written all over her reptilian features. "And her friend. What will you have?"

"What do you recommend?" Qisya asked her, since honestly, she didn't even know there were places that served foods to non-Kojin here. It had been awhile since she visited, but with the two of them in the middle of the ocean as the storm was beginning to gather, coming here seemed the only way to not throw away their entire Ruby Sea excursion altogether.

And better these folks than the rowdy, gossips-starved Confederates. Especially when G'raha was with her.

In short order, Qisya and G'raha were served some sort of small fish that was grilled until the bones were digestible, ostensibly. They were also given water that still tasted slightly salty, but both of them were too polite to mention it. The stall owner then moved to the back of the kitchen, seemingly content to give them their privacy.

G'raha studied the stone cup their water had been served in, fascinated. "This must come straight out of the rock in the cavern you took me through to get here," he told Qisya, rotating it to show her the reliefs of tiny shells and coral branches on the side. "Do you think this was carved, or were they fossils already in the stone?"

If joy was a source of light, G'raha could almost be said to radiate heat. Qisya leaned her chin on her hand and watched his continued fascination with a smile, her answer unneeded as G'raha emptied the salted water in one gulp so he could turn the cup upside down to look at its bottom for an artisan's mark. Then he studied the plate of fish served to them, then lifted his eyes once again to the bubble ceiling above their heads.

His eyes, red as the most precious pearls on display in Kugane's jewelry shops, gleamed with curiosity and excitement. The gentle light from the many lanterns the Blue Kojin had set up all around seemed to stick to them, and to his hair, a subdued yet warm crimson glow.

"I have read of these towns in the chronicles of your life," he said to Qisya, though sounded like he was talking to himself. "Yet never could I imagine it to be so grand in person."

His tail entwined with her, a sort of hand-holding that made Qisya blush. But she leaned close to him, and G'raha leaned over to touch their heads together. His smile was wide.

"Thank you, for taking me here," he said.

"But of course. If only the weather isn't so bad," Qisya replied.

G'raha shook his head. "Detours are what adventures are all about, isn't it?"