#durante

[zakifairer]

I think it's going to be really funny when Golbez gets dragged through the Garlean moon teleportation device.

[xivrefsheets]

Durante and Golbez references.

Durante hi-res download [here] Golbez hi-res download [here]

[dawntrailing]

GOLBEZ AND THE FOUR ARCHFIENDS

"No sacrifice is too great. Even should my four archfiends be lost, I will not halt my steps. The prison of passivity is an obstacle to my cause and so you must fall. What irony that the blessed damned should set us free! As I swore so long ago. The gate lies open. At long last, my ambition shall be fulfilled! Accursed Light… you who have ever basked in its warmth could never understand our envy! Our agony! You will not deny us our release!"

[starrysnowdrop]

Shared Soul: Hali’s Shards

So I’ve been thinking about this topic a lot, and I really want to eventually have a list of all the shards of Hali’s soul… ahh well, it would be the shards of Urania’s soul technically speaking. I don’t have a full list yet, but I have some that I’ve decided on already, and I wanted to share those with you now.

Note: Because of Hali’s canon story having multiple Warriors of Light, my headcanons for Hali’s shards greatly differ from those in the MSQ with the default WoL. Also, due to the ongoing storyline, these might change in the future with new developments.

Unsundered: Urania, Seat of Azem

Urania was Hali’s past self at the time of the Sundering; therefore, Hali and all of the other shards are pieces of Urania’s sundered soul.

Source: Hali Aloke, Warrior of Light, 8 times rejoined

Hali being the sundered soul of the Source, is the one that most closely resembles Urania, though she differs from her in several fundamental ways, most notably she will not deny herself the happiness that she desires in her life for the sake of duty like Urania as Azem had done. Unlike Urania, Hali has found her happiness in adventuring, helping others, and building a life together with Aymeric.

First: Lamitt, rejoined during ShB 5.0

Unlike the default WoL’s shard of the First being Ardbert, Hali’s shard is Lamitt, the healer of Ardbert’s group. Lamitt and Hali actually have a lot in common, with both being outsiders from their homelands, having a desire to help others through the healing arts, and they both are in love with men who have no idea what their true feelings are, well until Hali confesses to Aymeric that is. Lamitt never gets the chance to tell Ardbert. She does get to live on through rejoining with Hali at the end of 5.0, and Lamitt is thrilled that Hali gets to have her happiness with her lover.

Seventh: Aerith Gainsborough, rejoined in 7th Umbral Calamity (Bahamut)

Though Hali herself is unaware of any of her other shards that rejoined with her during each calamity, the most recent shard to rejoin with her before Lamitt was a young woman named Aerith who had lived on the Seventh and was rejoined during the Seventh Umbral Calamity. Aerith was a healer who brought joy to all who knew her. She was kind, caring, and sweet, yet feisty, passionate, brave, and strong-willed, all traits that her Source counterpart shares.

Tenth: Tidus, rejoined in 6th Umbral Calamity (Water)

The shard that rejoined back during the Sixth Umbral Calamity, centuries before Hali would be born, held the soul of a young man named Tidus who had lived on the Tenth. He was a famous Blitzball star, but most notably he was a guardian to Summoner Yuna who he had fallen in love with and was willing to give his life for. Same as his Source counterpart, he was kind, brave, outspoken, outgoing, and a bright ray of sunshine in a world in desperate need of joy and laughter.

Thirteenth: Durante, AKA: Golbez, alive

Durante is the shard of Urania’s soul on the Thirteenth who took on the name and armor of his dear friend Golbez after the original Golbez was corrupted by the darkness. Durante was a knight from Baron who tried to save the world during the Contramemoria along with Golbez, but he brought ruin to the world he tried to save instead. His unflinching resolve to save his world no matter the cost, but doubting himself that he could never be the hero that his friend was, are traits that Hali shares, and Durante is a reflection of what Hali could become if she went down a dark path.

That’s all I have for now! I’ll add to this list in the future when I decide to add more! Subject to change if we get more information on the other shards.

Published: 11/30/2023

[wingsaloft]

fellas, is it gay to be so obsessed with your dead friend's memory (the friend you had to kill, because he was possessed) that you lived on for eternity, using his name and likeness in an attempt to claw back order to your world, only to look back and realize you were part of the reason it fell to chaos?

[fatedroses]

The moat incident.

[cosmicseashanty]

Some NPC requests I took on Twitter! As you can see, my friends have good taste (although I just drew Durante because I wanted to)

[valentina-lauricella]

FEMily man Dante

(Dal Corriere dei Piccoli, 1965)

[fallimentiquotidiani]

“Io ho voluto bene al pubblico italiano e gli ho dedicato inutilmente cinque anni della mia vita. Faccio questo non perché sono stanco della vita (tutt’altro) ma come atto di protesta contro un pubblico che manda “Io, tu e le rose” in finale e una commissione che seleziona “La Rivoluzione”. Spero che serva a chiarire le idee a qualcuno. Ciao. Luigi“.

[draconiccatgirl]

is this anything

[ragazzoarcano]

“Nel mio cuore c'è solo un prima di te e un durante te: è senza di te che non riesco nemmeno a immaginarmi.”

— Ferzan Ozpetek

[zakifairer]

"They claimed to be soldiers of a kingdom called Baron..."

[kusurrone]

fellow Italians is that true?

[animaloftheelements]

Commissions | Ko-Fi

Oh boy it's more animatic time

it's Round 4 of Midwich babyyyyy lets see where we end up today

[tahri-nhupuju]

Now maybe I just don't follow enough ffxiv people on here and I'm gonna look like a fool, but I haven't seen anyone point out how likely it is that OG Golbez was/is in fact Azem's shard on the 13th.

The Echo vision we have of him is in first person, which is new, and he is the only unvoiced character, speaking entirely through subtitles. He is also an extremely charismatic hero who shares the WoL's trust and belief in others.

Furthermore, I also think Durante is meant to be a reflection of Zenos: A blonde, long-haired magic swordsman who shares an incredibly strong bond with Golbez, credits him for making him who he is, and absorbs the very power he is meant to be fighting to face them in battle much like Zenos -a garlean- absorbs Shinryu. I also believe Durante's boss fight is using Zenos' skeleton, but I could be wrong there.

[autumnslance]

A thought occurs, given the recent WoLverse post(s)... Has Aeryn bumped into a Shard on the First or Thirteenth that could be her brother's? And if so... how well/badly did that go? :3

On the First, I headcanoned a sister for Ardbert, who would have been Zaine's shard. They also initially planned to go adventuring together, but she had a lover on their little island, ended up pregnant, and so Ardbert went off into the world on his own.

(This was also part of my initial "silly meta" given I was just using the base Meteor and Lady Midlander CGI models, with color tweaks, for Aeryn and Zaine, and we had Ardbert in the HW patches and knew vaguely, when I wrote "Bonded", only that we were going to see the Champions of the First again in the newly-announced Shadowbringers, and little else of the expac at the time. It was supposed to just be a ha-ha-funny coincidence. I should have known better.)

After defeating Mitron and Lohgrif and realizing "oh no!" Ardbert returned home...to find his sister and her child both dead to an accident, and his brother-in-law lost in a bottle over it. Ardbert, having already sacrificed his best friends, said one last goodbye at his sister's grave as Elidibus walked up, waiting on Ardbert to finish himself to ferry the fallen champions to the Source.

That was part of a story about the cycles of rebirth between Zaine, Ardbert's unnamed sister OC, and my Ancient OC Icarus. Ao3 link, as that version was heavily revised from the original prompt.

So Aeryn never got to meet Zaine's First shard, though she and Ardbert talked a lot about their late siblings during those long evenings in the Pendants.

As for the Thirteenth...either Durante or Rubicante would fit the bill, and I lean on Durante.

With the sibling soulmates the way things normally happen is Icarus's soul falls first, leaving Pandora's to carry onward. Icarus was with Venat in Elpis and met Aeryn. The tiniest sliver of Icarus's soul/aether/whatever is extant in her--and if our favorite pair of soulseers would have seen Zaine, they'd see the teeniest sliver of Pandora in him. Icarus did not join the party in Ktisis Hyperboreia, so retained his memories. As ever, he was desperate to help his sibling--even a reincarnation of her, who was herself Icarus's friend. Bolstered by the idea of that tiny sliver, he performed a risky magic to tie his and Azem's souls together (I really need to get last year's FF14 Write up on Ao3). But his own prophetic ability also showed him his reincarnations would always die before hers. That when Aeryn spoke of her brother in the past tense, it was because that was Icarus's modern reincarnation--who didn't make it out of Louisoix's spell (because he offered his strength to Hydaelyn).

Part of the problem with the Thirteenth is that the cycle is disrupted and then broken. Golbez (who I personally think was the WoL/Azem shard) was corrupted and Durante forced to Memoria him. Which then led to Durante breaking down and taking up Golbez's identity so the world would know their "true hero." It's all choices made of despair that I can see Zaine making, especially given the lengths his precursor was willing to go to, to stay with his heroic sibling and help her across millennia.

However, neither modern Golbez nor Aeryn have realized that connection, and no one they travel with currently has the necessary gifts to see it. So it doesn't come up during the story, nor matter at all before, during, or after. He's his own person, and has made his own choices--including, now, to hope again.

--

(I tend to think Zero is actually Zenos's shard, given the resonance of their aether to make her his avatar, and it makes for some interesting parallels about their potentials and how their natures and lives led them. And canon-Durante is another extraordinary hero the same way our Scion pals are. But overall I also don't worry about that all too much; those characters are themselves in the end. And all is subject to revision based on future canon revelations/changes.)