#Matoya

[topbanana-art]

Fave FFI Character: Matoya (and her brooms)

TY for the love on my silly FF sketches!

I did a bunch of warm up doodles a couple of years ago of my favourite FF characters, along with a quote from them- I learned I hate picking favourites.

[augurm]

[superthatguy62]

The Differences and Influence of  the Final Fantasy 1 manga

While Final Fantasy is certainly no stranger to adaptations and alternate media, it’s mostly towards the later entries such as VII or XV depending on how you feel about such media, this may not be a bad thing.

When it comes to the first three entries, their adaptations are the most mysterious: Final Fantasy III got an absolutely insane manga, Final Fantasy II got a somewhat insane novelization and Final Fantasy I has an obscure manga. As these came out long ago in Japan and were rarely, if ever, re-released, knowledge on these media remains scarce.

However, TrafalgarScans on MangaDex has translated the entirety of the Final Fantasy I manga, allowing english readers to experience it for the first time.

And, while a straightforward retelling of the original game, there are a few interesting elements in it. Elements that may seem somewhat familiar if you’ve Dissidia or Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin.

Before we begin, I’m going to be doing something different from my previous discussions: Rather than doing a summary/play-by-play of the manga, I’m mostly going to be talking about things I noticed, whether they be different... or indirectly indicative of where Square would take FF1 in the future. As that implies, I will be discussing spoilers for Dissidia and Strangers of Paradise.

For context: The manga was written Kaimejii Yuu and was released in 1989: 2 years after the first game landed on Famicom, one year before it arrived on NES and the same year as the MSX port. So rejoice Space Station!Flying Fortress fans.

Let’s start with one of the obvious ones: 

The Party

The original Final Fantasy centers around four Warriors of Light who mysteriously appear, each with a crystal fragment.

In the manga, we are introduced to the members of the party bit by bit: First, there is Puffy who seems to be a traveling Warrior.

Puffy later meets Flitz/Fritz, a Monk who was kicked out of his monastery for his vices.

A Monk and a Warrior. Seems standard so far. But then there are the other 2 members.

Matoya, a witch who is skilled with black magic.

And the fourth party member... who isn’t introduced until quite a ways in. While Sarah and Bikke both join the party, the true forth member turns out to be none other than

Bahamut, the king of dragons.

Naturally, this is a pretty big deviation: Matoya and Bahamut are NPCs in the game after, but here, they’re main characters. Matoya would go on to be a prominent character in FF1, even being playable in spinoffs for what it’s worth. However, I don’t think there are many FF1 interpretations that put the NPCs in the WoL roles.

They’re not the only ones different, however

The Villains

The Final Fantasy manga follows a somewhat condensed version of the game. It’s actually kinda close to how Memory of Heroes did it, with the focus largely on Garland and the Four Fiends, concluding with a bout against Chaos.

Garland generally keeps his overall role, including his infatuation with Sarah (which makes me wonder what was the first media to touch on that aspect of him) but also has some significant differences: He doesn’t wear armor, he doesn’t seem to die before vanishing and the manga more blatantly sets up the plot twist by showing Garland entering the Dark Crystal. Only Flitz notices though, so he’s the first to realize that Garland’s behind everything once the Warriors learn about the whole she-bang from the Lufenians.

There’s also his name, but we’ll get to that.

The Warriors are promptly attacked by the Four Chaos/Fiends. There’s the Lich, who is looking positively Mobius!Chaos today.

Then we have Marilith, who looks about how you’d expect.

Then we have Kraken... Who is...

And last but not least, we have Tiamat, who has both a monster form and a humanlike form.

And then there’s Chaos, whose design is vaguely reminiscent of how Garland’s armor would evolve from Dissidia onwards mixed with traits from his Chaos form.

Oh yeah, Garland. Did you know that’s not his full name in this adaptation? Yup, long before “Jack Garland” would use the last name Garland, this Garland had the full name of “Red Garland”.

And here’s where we start to get into the influence that this manga may or may not have had on Square-Enix’s future interpretations of Final Fantasy 1.

The Backstory

In the games, the Warriors of Lights’ backstory is left unexplained. This plays into the role-play/”create a party” aspect of the game: It’s up to the player, if they so chose, to fill in the blanks about who their characters are and where they came from.

Memory of Heroes, being a close adaptation of the games, leaves its characters’ backstories ambiguous outside of tying a further connection to Garland as his time shenanigans “unchained” the Warriors of Light and wiped their memories, explaining why they can remember nothing and why nobody recognizes them.

Dissidia Final Fantasy, while not directly touching upon the events of FF1 itself, gives a backstory to its Warrior of Light: He’s a perfect manikin created by Cid of the Lufaine and placed within the cycles of conflict. Over time, he grows into more of an actual person and continuously comes to blows with Garland, who already knows him from the cycle back home. In the end, WoL ends up in the FF1 world and sets off on his journey, determined to not only save the world from Chaos but to free Garland from the endless cycle he unwittingly trapped himself in.

The manga, however, gives a more detailed backstory.

Early in Chapter 2, Puffy explains that she is not actually from that world; In another dimension, she worked at an inn and was just an ordinary girl. However, on her way to visit her friend Matoya, she winds up slipping through a dimensional barrier. When she wakes up, she’s surrounded by the circle of sages who explain the situation to her and send her off to fight Chaos, despite her attempts to argue otherwise. Puffy later meets up with a different version of Matoya, and soon after the manga begins.

This is largely forgotten about until climax, where it becomes much more important:

As one of Lufenia’s Knights of Gaia/Sky Warriors, one of the bats in the Chaos Shrine explains a bit further: It’s not just Puffy, all four of the Warriors apparently hail from other dimensions. The Knights figured that the best way to stop Chaos was to get four people from parallel worlds that Chaos did not exist in, resulting in heroes with fresh perspectives from worlds in which the crystals were not compromised. Thus they set up barriers that would link the five worlds together and the four Warriors of Light seen in the manga wound up being the four that were chosen (the manga mostly focuses on Puffy, but the implication is that Flitz, Bahamut and that version of Matoya all hail from similar parallel worlds). After Chaos is defeated, the four end up being sent back to their own worlds with no memory of their adventure. Puffy in particular goes back to being an innkeeper and serves drinks to various patrons... including Garland who, although rejected by Sarah yet again, has not turned into Chaos and is an overall decent guy.

What makes the dimensional stuff even more surprising is the meta aspect: Either great minds think alike, the parallel world stuff was in the Japanese FF1 or Square Enix took inspiration from this very manga.

Dissidia Final Fantasy is a big fat crossover featuring the protagonists from the first couple games. While the first game was somewhat ambiguous, Dissidia 012 (the prequel) would establish that the game took place on World B: A destroyed parallel counterpart to World A, which is the world of Final Fantasy 1. The reports in 012 would also establish that Onrac stumbled upon a dimensional gate which would be how they acquired the ore that allowed them to produce manikins. 

Stranger of Paradise takes the parallels even further. The concept of Lufenians drawing in people from parallel worlds to function as Warriors of Light was embodied in the Stranger Project. However, it turns out that the manga beat them to the punch with Knights of Gaia’s dimensional barriers. Of course, the KoG were benevolent compared to the SoP Lufenians who were malevolent. The concept of summoning warriors from other worlds would naturally be used there too, although in 012′s case, it’s due to Shinryu’s influence creating gateways.

And speaking of...

The Lufenians

The Lufenians are a simple, standard “Ancient Civilization with advanced tech (TM)” that was common in fantasy stories and would become a recurring trend in Final Fantasy, one that still remains even to this day. As far as plot significance go, they remain primarily in the background: They’re one of the civilizations the WoLs encounter their space station is the Semi-final dungeon and their champions were turned into bats that infodump a number of aspects about the overarching plot. 

Then there’s Cid. In the original Final Fantasy, while the airship is said to be a Lufenian creation I think, I need to fact that that, there’s no mention of any particular Lufenian who created it. Later versions would name the Lufenian “Cid”, in keeping with series tradition of naming the prominent airship engineer “Cid”. Memory of Heroes gave a Cid a more prominent role, leaving behind video projections to show what happened to the Flying Fortress, entrusting the warp cube to the robots and burying the airship that the Warriors of Light find and use to travel in the later half of the story.

However, Cid’s actions are actually somewhat familiar.

In the manga, a Lufenian (not Cid, though with the benefit of hindsight and how SE would’ve handled it, he may as well be) features prominently in the intro, leaves one of the robots to gather the warp cubes in preparation for the day the Warriors of Light arrive and leaves behind a video projection, with the man himself being long dead by then. Not!Cid’s exposition is different though, tying into how the energies from the four shrines can be seen converging on the Chaos Shrine from the Space Station as well as discussing the Knights of Gaia for a bit.

There’s also the dark crystal. In Final Fantasy, Garland is seen in front of a dark crystal in the Chaos Shrine. When the Warriors travel back to the past, they play the lute in front of the shrine, transforming the crystal into a portal. Stranger of Paradise would explain the crystal as being a “Dimensional Crystal Matrix”, sent to them by their unnamed collaborator.

Again, however, this is not the first time this has happened.

Turns out, the Dark Crystal in the manga is a “Time-Space Transfer Device”. The Knights of Gaia had used the device to set up the barriers to summon warriors from other worlds. However, Chaos took control of the device soon afterwards and used it to set up the time loop that would bring him to power. Coincidence or not, the manga Lufenians’ usage of the device would be echoed in the aforementioned two different aspects (the Dimensional Crystal Matrix and the Stranger Project). SoP would also echo the element of Garland taking control of the device for his own uses.  

Conclusion

In the Stranger of Paradise Confidential Files -Secret Chapters- (An official complete guide - Thanks ChrysalisThoughts for the clarification! ), one of the questions posed to the developers is why Jack’s station is known as “Station 19″. While the final game has its own independent time loop, apparently it was named after SoP being the 19th time Final Fantasy 1 was ported/remade at the time, with the idea of different strangers being dispatched from different stations for each of the remakes.

While that plan ultimately didn’t fully pan out, the implication of Final Fantasy 1 having parallel worlds or a connection to other worlds in general is one that has echoed throughout the franchise.

- The Final Fantasy manga utilizing the concept of parallel worlds for its protagonists.

- The Souls of Chaos dungeons featuring prominent bosses from the other 5 Nintendo-era Final fantasy games.

- Dissidia introducing “World B” with 012 establishing it of being a parallel world to the world of the original Final Fantasy

- Memory of Heroes implying that the Warriors of Light of its three adaptations (and perhaps beyond) either inherit the will/souls of the previous ones or are the previous ones reincarnated in another world.

- And Stranger of Paradise’s original intentional of having parallel worlds, along with its hinted connection to World B

It’s looking more and more like a DC multiverse, especially if you flub things to suggest that each interpretation is its own parallel world.

But, in a way, it’s oddly fitting. Final Fantasy is a game that has you make your own party. The game gives no detail as to their character or backstory. You’re encouraged to fill in the blanks yourself, hence why fanfics and such can vary wildly with how everyone ca reinterpret the story. In a way, it’s fitting that SE themselves get in on it. And it’s interesting how, almost every time, multi-dimensional shenanigans manage to get involved.

I dunno.

I just think it’s neat.

[siderealcity]

LRT I really like a lot of the analysis of Y'shtola and Matoya there, and I don't want to append a bunch of speculation/interpretation onto it, but there's just... so much about Matoya as a character that lives in the margins and background of the story that I feel is worth examining.

To start with: Her conflict with the Forum.

This is the very first thing we learn about her, and no one ever goes into any details about it, but there's enough we can kind of piece together from the MSQ to paint a picture. A few of the things she says to you if you visit her cave after the MSQ.

Post-Heavensward: I don't care much for politics. Too much talk and not enough action. (After: For those we can yet save) Noble causes, hmph. I can't count how many times I've seen what began with the best of intentions be twisted into something altogether different in service to a “noble” cause. Post-Endwalker: Like old Louisoix, you lot set out to save the world. Like him, you believed in your cause with all your heart. And like him, you succeeded. The spineless wretches of the Forum could stand to take a cue from your example.

We know that she was charged with designing a weapon to use against the Garleans that the Forum decided wasn't worth developing and then opted to flee the continent and abandon everyone there to die. That this--the refusal to act, even in their own defense--is the philosophical difference which keeps her from returning to the motherland seems pretty clear.

I suspect that this is the core of her rivalry and disagreements with Louisoix, Galuf, and Montichaigne, as well. But I'll get to that more later.

The second thing we know about her concerns the Crystal Eye.

How and why she obtained it is never explained, but I am an old-school FF player. I know that she has it because Matoya in the original Final Fantasy game had a crystal eye that was stolen. However, in this case, the eye has a lot of interesting implications.

She tells us that it's an old crystal of light, and therefore we know it is implicitly connected to Hydaelyn. The only person who can use it (aside from Matoya herself, presumably) is Krile. Who has the Echo and the gift of hearing the soul. And then, of course, we soon learn that Matoya is the last keeper of the Antitower, the Sharlayan device for speaking to Hydaelyn. The crystal eye was probably used as part of the Antitower originally.

Matoya, therefore, is an oracle. We can assume she, too, has the Echo like Claudien in Old Sharlayan, and occupied a position like his during the days of the Sharlayan colony. She was the researcher responsible for managing their studies of the Aetherial Sea and for trying to communicate with the Mothercrystal--a thing only those who have the Echo can do.

Which means that, in all likelihood, she knew about Hydaelyn's warning of the Final Days to some degree or other.

This sets her up, in many ways, like Zero. She's effectively meant to be a Warrior of Light, but nobody around her will do anything. She's alone. Watching things fall apart.

Her frustration with the Forum--with her entire culture--was probably not limited to their policy on Garlemald. That was almost certainly just the final straw. Her closest friend/rival seems to have been Louisoix, Sharlayan's foremost expert on prophecy. Followed by Galuf (we know that she kept in touch with him enough to hear about G'raha from him) who dedicated his life to trying to stop the primal Eureka from destroying everyone. It's not hard to imagine that this group of archons, all of them interested in stopping calamities, clashed with the Forum in different ways, but also with one another over how to act on behalf of the star.

When the moment came, and the Forum decided to give up on Etheirys, Louisoix followed the order and went home. Galuf stayed on his island prison. Nobody stood up for the star.

Louisoix thought, perhaps, that he could change things from inside. That seems to have been the root of his many arguments with Fourchenault. He tried for too long to get Sharlayan to take action, and was forced, in the end, to make a desperate last stand. Galuf and Montichaigne seem to have had similar stances. Trying to work within a broken system to achieve change. It didn't work. Galuf follows Louisoix in making a desperate sacrifice to avert calamity. Montichaigne would have gone along with the Exodus.

I think her refusal to return to Old Sharlayan was also her way of saying that she unequivocally rejected the Great Exodus, as well.

And then Y'shtola left.

She would have been a child at the time, she couldn't have had much say in the matter, but nevertheless, she obediently went back to the motherland to finish her education with the fools who wanted to sit around debating over whether or not it was worth trying to fight for their own lives. No wonder Matoya felt bitter about it.

And just look at how often this is the point over which Y'shtola clashes with others.

When we are busy doing ridiculous fetch quests for the Company of Heroes, she's furious about this. Why do you need a test? Someone needs to do something, doing nothing serves nothing, you idiots! Thancred's indecision about Minfilia, Urianger's waffling and deception over even telling the WoL something is wrong with them, she has no patience for this. Act. Stop being a coward. No amount of thinking about it will make the problem disappear. This is Matoya's influence, through-and-through.

It's ironic, but oddly fitting that Matoya, keeper of the device for communicating with Hydaelyn, struggles to communicate with her apprentice. But so much of her anger and frustration with her friends, colleagues, leaders, and nation stems from their propensity to talk too much and act too little. They heard Hydaelyn's warning and took the exact wrong approach. What good is knowing without doing? What good are words without deeds?

And we see her act. Every single time Y'shtola comes to her for anything, she complies. The plans she locked away forever? Of course you can have them. Keys to the Antitower which nobody should ever use? Go ahead. Her precious older-than-antique Crystal of Light? Fine, borrow it. Something bad happens to Shtola? She will leave her cave for the first time in twenty years and come take care of her. Oh, you're making pigs fly? I'll open up the evil magic lab.

She is the most ridiculously doting master in the entire game, she just tries to cover it up (badly) with crochety remarks.

[privateolives]

Louisoix and Matoya had the same relationship as professor Oak and Agatha.

This came to me in a divine vision and I will not be taking criticism at this time.

[mod-a-day]

Nobuo Uematsu, Amstrocity (Daryl Banner) "Beyond the Deep Blue Sea" (S3M Arrangement) Final Fantasy V (1992, unknown year) Square Co, Ltd.

[purple-link]

Alisaie and Purple Link

FFXIV Write 2024 Story Entry

Spoiler: Story takes place after WoL reaches Garlemald in Endwalker, but but before the Tower of Babil dungeon. Story will be largely sfw, but will adhere to FFXIV's level of mature storytelling.

Chapter 11: Surrogate

♫Naelc ot evil swish-swish aroo!♪

In the silence of the cave, she thought very deeply about the center of the planet. She thought very deeply about the center of the moon. She thought very, very deeply about the reflections of the Source, and what tidings they held.

They had only gone to the First reflection, she thought, that band of miscreants. Risking their life, to perform good deeds and help people on a version of the planet that was not necessarily theirs.

What little solace she could take away from the fact that her daughter was still alive, after all that, still seemed to be shadowed under the implications of the task.

After all was said and done, she thought, the troubles that plagued the First reflection was only a brief glimpse into a different world, a fraction of about thirteen different shards, the source being the fourteenth.

There had been seven rejoinings in all, and the destruction of those worlds meant that every single soul on it perished.

She shed a single tear, but to many who knew her, it might as well have been full-on bawling.

The sadness that crept along her spine and her staff didn’t stop her from recognizing that there were some people who were going to suffer based on the actions of those with ill intent.

She knew that one person wasn’t going to be enough to turn the tide, let alone a whole crew of Scions, who were ready to give their lives for people they had never met.

But she wept anyway, understanding that, even as cynical as she could be, she wasn’t as heartless as to wish to deny people their lives, just because they lived on different versions of your world.

She wondered who they were, on the other reflections, what they were like.

She thought of each reflection, having the time to get up as far as eleven, feeling that events there were familiar, but not quite as similar as they were in the Source.

♫Sseltops gnihtyreve ekam swish-siwsh aroo!♪

She got as far noticing the possibility of those in other reflections coming to visit the Source, not just that of the First reflection called the Warriors of Darkness, when she noticed a group of five walking into the cave.

While she didn’t smile at the sight of Y’shtola, she felt her spirit soaring upon noticing.

“Master Matoya,” said Y’shtola, after finally reaching the table sitting in the center of the cave, “It has been too long.”

…

Sitting underneath the ruins of Sharlayan, in the Dravanian Hinterlands, Purple Link and the Wolf Burglar explained their situation to the elderly woman.

She was standing hunched over and holding a staff, but her most defining feature was the huge purple hat that she often wore. Even if it looked heavy, it didn’t seem to weigh on her head in the slightest.

No, the reason why she was so hunched over was because of all her experiences weighing her down.

She pondered their question, thoughtfully.

“Interesting,” said Matoya, “So, in order to feel more comfortable in your skin, you asked the Warrior of Light how comfortable he felt in his.”

“Uh…in a nutshell, I guess?” said the Wolf Burglar, “It does feel like I’m out of place in the world. If I want to see this ceremony performed successfully, I want to make sure the people I work with don’t have any compunctions. There's a high likelihood we're going to be doing things and going to a lot of places a lot of people wouldn’t risk.”

“If this were a matter of personality quirks, I wouldn’t even be humoring this,” said Master Matoya, “I would think the two of you had something better to do than accuse one another of duplicity.”

The Wolf Burglar gulped, but he tried to keep his cool. He was an excellent agent, and he tended to keep his wits about him in a crisis.

However, the old lady was watching him. It seemed as if she was the only person who noticed his moment of weakness.

♫Gnivil raelc wodniw raelc swish-swish-aroo!♪

“I wish there was another way,” said Purple Link, “But unfortunately, we don’t even have a place to start. We have one artifact, but the location escapes us.

"Everything’s being kept under covers, until we can reach our destination and perform our duties, and the question of integrity is up in the air.

“I have found myself turning against friends I’ve had since forever,” said Purple Link, “and I’m beginning to have doubts myself. If I can discover the truth of the Phial of Fantasia for myself, maybe it’ll be a better place to start than we have right now.”

Matoya went up close to Purple’s face, as close as to shove her head up close to his, right up to the brim underneath her hat.

She stared right into his eyes. They were light-blue and slitted.

“You’re a Lost Hrothgar, aren’t you?” said Matoya, “Tell me, did you select this avatar because you felt a kinship with their kind, or did you just like the way that it looked?”

Purple Link didn’t answer right away. He was often put off his rocker by the old lady, but suddenly the invasion of personal space meant she was done wasting time.

“Excuse me,” said Alphinaud, “You make it sound like he selected it from a list, like a book off a shelf.”

“That’s exactly what I’m describing, my lad,” said Matoya, “I remember this young man. He was much smaller and much less hairier. I can’t begin to understand why you would want more hair, must make summers living hells.”

Purple Link furrowed his brow. He was fond of Master Matoya, but her demeanor could be off-putting. She tended to be abrasive, and put in no uncertain terms that what you were fighting for was demonstrably not worth it.

Purple Link, on the other hand, often begged to differ.

“That’s up for me to decide, isn’t it?” said the purple Hrothgar, “I’m more than willing to accept the consequences for my decisions.”

“As you have proven,” said Matoya, “But you you’re not the kind to think about your decisions, either, take the time. You very obviously rushed into this.”

“I didn’t have a lot of time,” said Purple Link, “I have other things to worry about besides saving the planet.”

“As you should,” said Matoya, “Obviously, a lot was asked of you, from the lowly peasant oppressed by the Empire to the Mother Crystal Herself.

"You should be allowed to make your own decisions and take the time to progress through your story on your own. Anyone else expecting you to do the job they can’t falls short of exploitation.”

“Master Matoya, if you please,” said Alphinaud, sounding very serious, “The tasks we ask the Warrior of Light to perform are no small challenges, and he could have refused at any time. He did not–”

“You mean he could not–”

“We are not taskmasters!” said Alphinaud, “We do not intend to force our way of lives onto others, and I am not in the business of pushing everyone I’ve considered a friend into overly uncomfortable situations.

"Including Purple Link, everyone I’ve ever asked for help has done so of their own accord."

Matoya stared severely at the young Elezen, and Alphinaud felt as if his walls crumbled into dust then and there.

She was accusing him of the kind of control of power that was demanded of all from Garlemald, and yet when she stared at him with such accusation, he found it difficult to deny he also couldn't be guilty of it.

He silenced himself, and looked away guiltily.

“If you aren’t here to take my business seriously, I suggest you take your grievances and leave,” said Matoya, “I sympathize with your dilemma, and I will do everything I can to certify your existence, but I will not have my experiences made a mockery of by an upstart who wasn’t even alive when I was given my Archon.”

Alphinaud looked away, frowning and looking upset. He didn’t speak again for a while. Matoya turned her head back to Purple Link.

“You do not owe anybody anything, not even to me,” said Matoya, “In fact, I owe you, several times over, for saving my daughter. Knowing what befell her in the First reflection makes me grateful, and I couldn’t be prouder of the two of you.”

“I…Thank you?” said Purple Link, anxiously.

“But just because I do this for you, doesn’t mean I’m a pushover, y’hear?” said Matoya, holding the staff dangerously over his head, “I want you to recognize that your actions are your own, and not the machinations of the Scions or of Hydaelyn herself.

"However, I also want you to recognize that just because you go fannying about in other parts of the planet and trying to save everybody, doesn’t give you the right to treat these matters with triviality.”

“Master Matoya,” said Purple Link, sounding quite serious, “When I changed into a Hrothgar, I was completely serious. I didn’t even hesitate once I found a form I liked.”

“Again, you make it sound like browsing a shop,” said Alisaie, “How easy could it be to change your shape?”

“Quite easily, I have to say,” said Matoya, “If you remember, the heavily tempered of those that surround their primals, their aether can change their form in drastic ways.

"There were even people in Dravania that willingly drank the blood of dragons, so that they could take their form and fight against their own.”

“Such was the terror of the Dragonsong War,” said Alisaie, “As we have learnt.”

“This isn’t unheard of magic,” said Matoya, “In fact, such practices have been in use for countless millennia.

"Aether, when manipulated in just the right ways, can alter the appearance of an individual to such a degree that they are unrecognizable from the situations of their birth.

"However, such manipulations require a great deal of power, and mana, as we evidently do not have the ability to reshape aether like clay, as the Ascians did.”

“Such knowledge was lost when the Ascians were destroyed in the Final Days,” said Alisaie, “Very few survived that could perform magic at that level.”

“I’m sorry, but this is going waaay above my head,” said the Wolf Burglar, “Are you saying that the Lifestream isn’t just the flow of water, but it’s molecules as well?”

“Finally, someone who paid attention in class,” said Matoya, smiling, “Honestly, you could go to the Studium for the rest of your life, and still not get the most basic of principles.”

“Pretentious witch,” said Alphinaud, in his corner. Matoya smiled quite indulgently.

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” said Matoya, “We often spoke negatively about our professors, but it didn’t mean they lost our respect.”

“I’d say it’s pushing it when the professor is the kind to kick a student out of their class over a minor incorrect answer,” said Alisaie, “But I could agree with that.”

“Standards are higher for you than they were for me,” said Matoya, “Back then, we thought we were so smart, jumping from place to place, like Garlemald, pretending to be like them and making settlements without asking.

"The sharp contrast after our exodus made it clear just how wrong we were.

“But where were we?” said Matoya, suddenly changing the subject, “I believe you wanted me to examine your aether?”

“You can do that?” asked the Wolf Burglar, “I mean no disrespect, but this lady can literally only see in aether.”

“Yes, but who do you think taught her how to do that?” said Matoya, “If manipulating aether was as easy as breathing, we would all be as deft as the Ascians. As it stands, we have to start from scratch, and being able to see aether after taking the time to learn the skill is pretty damn good after so long, don’t you think?”

“Quite,” said the Wolf Burglar, “If you could shine a light onto this subject, I would really appreciate it.”

“Fine,” said Matoya, “Purple Link, I only have one question I want to ask you.”

“I…yes, what is it?”

♫Eros era seltsirb ym sdog swish-swish-aroo!♪

“You were born a miqo’te,” said Matoya, “Why did you want to change your species? And please, don’t give me the answer you give everybody, I want the truth.”

Purple Link looked at Alisie nervously for a minute. She put a hand on his shoulder and nodded.

She was there for him, he thought, he was going to share this with her. Maybe it wouldn’t be so scary to explain with Alisaie around.

“So…I had been playing around with this idea for a while,” began Purple Link, “I don’t have to remind everyone that Hrothgar hadn’t been around that much at the beginning.”

“Try none at all,” said Matoya, “It was until recently that treaties had been signed and agreements have been struck so that they could travel and walk freely within our borders. It’s not a far shot to say they’re a recent inductee.”

“Yes, that is a bit intrigue,” said Alphinaud, whose curiosity shook him out of his fume, “All I can remember at the earliest was being amongst miqo’te, and that’s about as far as it went. Even if you were a lalafell, you weren’t out of place.”

“And we’ve had spoken before,” said Alisaie, “But none had ever been so-called ‘qualified’ to receive Hydaelyn’s blessing.”

“I’m not holding my breath,” said the Wolf Burglar, “We Lupin have been doing just fine on our own, and I think many of my race would say much the same.”

“But I remember Purple Link,” argued Alisaie, “He was there from the beginning, all the way from Ishgard. Even if I do remember his previous form, I see him mostly as a Hrothgar. I had almost forgotten he had a previous form.”

“Was it the discovery?” said Alphinaud, “Or, was it the news that they had joined our population? This is all becoming rather mysterious.”

“Hang on!” said Alisaie, “That means, whatever family troubles you had were with Miqo’te, not Hrothgar!”

“Good guess,” said Purple Link, “But believe it or not, I loved my family. It was home that I wanted to leave. I eventually found myself in Ul’dah, and the rest, as they say is history.”

“But that wasn’t enough for you, was it?” said Matoya, “Eventually, you found out the new home you arrived at was also not to your liking. You sought a change, began living in Limsa Lominsa, and took up with those marauders, the Maelstrom.”

“What can I say?” said Purple Link, “I’m a cat of the sea.”

“No, you are a man,” said Matoya, “Or at least, you were born a man. It doesn't really matter to me, what really matters is what you wanted.”

“Yes…” said Purple Link, in shock, “Yes! That’s precisely it!”

“Wait, so you wanted to be a spoken?” asked the Wolf Burglar, “I hate that title, by the way, isn’t there a better name you could call differing species?”

“Generally,” said Alisaie, “We call them ‘friends.’”

“Or if not friends,” said Purple Link, “Then at least family.”

Matoya looked at everyone in turn. She looked perturbed, but the stoic expression on Y’shotla’s face suggested she looked like that all the time.

Eventually, Matoya began to grin.

“I don’t often express it, but I love my family,” said Matoya, “When you can look past a person’s race and see them for who they truly are, the differences aren’t that stark.

"I would imagine that would be coloring your appreciation for the Garleans now, would they?”

“The Garleans are in an awful position right now,” said Purple Link, without hesitation, “It would be a waste of my skills and my kindness to turn them away just because their suffering hadn’t matched ours.

"It’s not fair to make that comparison, and I refuse to turn a blind eye to them.”

“I stand corrected,” said Matoya, “You are a good man.”

Matoya asked Purple Link to lie down on a cave ledge nearby. She approached and put her hands over his chest. He was confused about this for a minute, until he realized they were beginning to glow.

“Um…” said Purple Link, “What…are you…is she doing?”

He turned to Y’shtola, who folded her arms.

“I haven’t the slightest,” said the white-haired miqo’te, no visible reaction, “She hasn’t shown me this trick yet.”

“Aether is indiscriminate,” said Matoya, “In today’s world, it would not see the difference between one’s tail and another one’s pointed ears.

"However, the matter of one’s birth leaves an imprint that’s easy to detect, if you know how, but after that, it’s up to the person how they want to live their lives.

“It’s the anchor that allows one to determine how far one travels along aether,” said Matoya, “It leaves a distinctive trail, and it makes it easy to figure out how far an individual has come.

"It’s how we were able to find you in the First, or rather, the lack of you here.”

“Yes, aether is quite a unique property,” said Y’shtola, “And quite difficult to materialize. We had to produce vessels for not only our souls, but also our aether, just to return to our bodies.”

“When you fell into the Lifestream,” said Matoya, “You became permanently attached to your anchor. The kind of changes Purple Link made are impossible to make because your aether, for just a brief second, became indiscriminate. You effectively died, for one small second.”

Y’shtola lowered her head, looking anxious. Matoya peered over at the white-haired miqo'te and smiled at her, getting her attention.

“You remember, when you were young,” said Matoya, “And you were so fussy? You wanted to go out and play, just like a normal child, but I had you studying inside, and you pouted.”

“‘Fussy?’” said Alphinaud, “‘Pouting?’ Doesn’t sound like the Y’shtola we know.”

“Alphinaud, you and I are going to have a talk later,” threatened Y’shtola.

“I thought to myself,” said Matoya, “‘What a little brat that girl is going to grow up to be.’”

“I’m sorry, ‘grow up to be?’” said Y’shtola, “I don’t recall ever acting untowards lately.”

“Not true,” said Alisie, and the evil grin on her face prompted Y’shtola to want a talk with her as well, “Remember that time you were in Azim Steppe and you called the leader of the Oronir Tribe a ‘little sun.’”

Everyone had a fresh guffaw, except Y’shtola and Matoya, the latter of whom wasn't told what happened at the time. However, she ended up smiling greedily anyway.

“Sounds familiar,” said Matoya, “Louisoix and I would trade a million names before we settled on an agreement, and after a time, they became terms of endearment.”

She concentrated a little too long on Purple Link.

“Did I ever tell you,” said Matoya, “How grateful I was that you survived?”

“Not often,” said Y’shtola, “But you have said it recently.”

“Well, I’m saying it again,” said Matoya, “Even though I am not your mother, I’m still grateful that you’re not dead yet.”

“‘Yet,’” said Y’shtola, smiling, “You make it sound like a dare.”

“You’ve certainly treated it as such,” said Matoya, “I don’t like that you’re throwing your life away nilly-willy.”

“Matoya, I do it for my friends,” said Y’shtola.

“That’s why I’m grateful,” said Matoya, “No better sacrifice than to risk yourself for your friends. I am very proud of you.”

“Thanks…” said Y’shtola, a single tear falling from her eye, “...mother.”

“Ah, here it is,” said Matoya, “Yep, you were definitely born a miqo’te.”

“That’s it?” said the Wolf Burglar, “A vocal confirmation? Can I at least see for myself?”

“Take a look,” said Matoya, holding out her hand. She was holding what looked like…

…It was indescribable. The Wolf Burglar pointed it out.

“The anchor, if you’ll believe it, is simple to find, if you know where to look,” said Master Matoya, “When you drink from the phial, all you have to do is take a slumber, and all your wishes will come true.

"A vision of changes flows through your mind, and if you are able to perceive it, you can pick which changes you would like. The phial makes perception that much more acute, takes hold and reshapes the aether that surrounds the anchor.

"It’s a lot like lucid dreaming, except your aether is permanently rearranged and refreshed.”

“Wow, and you really went for more fur,” said the Wolf Burglar, flatly, looking at Purple Link with suspicion, “It’s like going one step forward and two steps back.”

“What can I say, I like the feeling of fur on my body,” said Purple Link, smiling meekly, “And the tail, I really wanted the tail.”

“Miqo’te had the tail,” said the Wolf Burglar, being exceptionally strained to point this out.

“Yeah, but Hrothgar have the muzzle and the claws,” said Purple Link, “I liked being a cat, I just wanted to become more cat.”

“You know what, I’ll give it to you,” said the Wolf Burglar, “No one who would go this far for a species transformation would be a liar.”

“That’s…reassuring,” said Purple Link, “Are you going to put it back now?"

“Hold your horses,” said Matoya, enjoying every minute of this experience knowing that Purple Link was being annoyed by it, “You young kids today, with your linkpearls, and your fast mounts, and your global crises threatening to end life as we know it on not only this planet but thirteen other reflections of it across different universes.

“Always in a hurry,” she added.

♫Evivrus llahs tsud fo kceps a ton swish-swish-aroo!♪

To be continued…

[mimble-sparklepudding]

Prompt #15: Portentous

A Poroggo was startled to scry,

Things portentous in the Crystal Eye,

He knew telling Matoya,

Would only annoy her,

But she'd know what it might signify.

Portentous silliness in caves.

[chippersweetbaby]

Wtf, lady!?

[sparrowsong-7]

Ayami really shouldn't trust Matoya when she asks for help with an experiment...

[havocpioneer]

[arianeoftheglade]

Master Matoya 🧙🏻‍♀️

[elderlytourney]

Old Woman Tourney Round 1 - Group 5E

[siderealcity]

Replaying Heavensward with an alt character and now I can't help wondering... Does Master Matoya have the Echo? Why would she have an old Crystal of Light? A relic which, to date, nobody else but Krile (who definitely has the Echo) can use? Why did the Sharlayan Forum put her in charge of the Antitower, the device formerly used to contact Hydaelyn, a process that requires a person to have the Echo?

[yzeltia]

Auraugust A.9 Danger

"We have ensured that her barriers are in place in the restricted sections that she's designated as dangerous. This is getting ridiculous. I've been rebuilding Gubal to promote the free exchange of information! She talks as she abhors the Forum almost as much as I, but in the end she is hardly better!" "Dear, perhaps you shouldn't speak ill of-"

"I don't care if that madwoman hears! I'd say it to her face!"

[mod-a-day]

Nobuo Uematsu, Tushino "Matoya" (IT Conversion) Final Fantasy V (1992, unknown year) Square Co, Ltd.

Note: While this originally comes from Final Fantasy, this particular mix is from an unused Final Fantasy V track.