#ffxiv vauthry

[magellanica]

Innocence- FFXIV

[wyrmwinds]

Someone with a better mind for character design than me should redesign Vauthry because of how the fatphobic design makes idiots unable to read the nuance surrounding him and ALSO because I do feel like there's a good design in there.

The way he's stylized doesn't do him any favors but I think that the tie between his baby-like appearance and the whole concept of innocence surrounding him could be so good if they didn't do it like that. At the very least, I feel like he should have gotten childlike eyes.

I feel like it would have been interesting if instead of leaning heavily into "grotesque fat manbaby" stereotyped design they maybe made him look like. An actual child, to give off that air of innocence. Sort of like a padjali situation with him, which offers an interesting tie between the "pure" white mages of the Source and him. I also feel that it would offer a more visual parallel between him and Alphinaud. He can even keep the fat, with it even giving him a design aspect of angelic cherubs.

[ryuucae]

A dialogue on heroes

[humblemooncat]

MiqoMarch '25 🔸 Day 9 🔸 Free Day: Secret Trial

AKA, Bad End (Extreme)

Decided to use my free day to make up for the days I missed this week, but combine them for something fun!

Lohi's Lightwarden bad end would have happened post-Innocence, when the Light became too much to bear. Torn asunder and remade with purest Light.

A cocoon for his consciousness, ever fighting and straining to return. Pyrrhos, they call him. The Fallen Hero, who sacrificed too much in the end.

To the one who bore too much of the weight of the world on his shoulders, death would be a final mercy. Perhaps the only mercy he's ever known.

[namiargentum]

Happy Meol

[swluminekin]

Bringing Our Own Hope (We are Warriors of Light/Darkness)

With everything that is going on in the United States right now post election, I've been taking time to reflect and think about things. And what I've noticed a lot currently - and I kind of blame a TikTok I watched for this - is there are parallels to the Shadowbringers expansion of Final Fantasy XIV. I've probably lost y'all, but just... give me some time and I'll explain. It'll make sense.

For those who haven't played but want to, I will be HEAVILY going into spoiler territory. Back out now if you don't want to be spoiled for the expansion.

Everyone gone who wants to be spoiler free? Okay, here we go.

Anyway, for a TL;DR of the game so far before we head into Shadowbringers, the player (as the Warrior of Light) along with your friends - the Scions of the Seventh Dawn - has at this point:

Rejoined the main three city-states of Eorzea

Stopped a group of "counter" heroes from making a mockery of you and your group

Caused for a fourth city-state to join in the alliance

Got blamed for and stopped a coup while at the same time ending a 1000-year man-vs-dragon war

And brought independence to two nations who would become allies to Eorzea

Towards the end of the last part, most members of our group fell unconscious, leaving us as the last. During all of it, we found that we were being called and eventually we did find our way from the Source to the First.

Anyway, while we're on the First, among the chaos that we see in realizing that we have a reflection to save, we see the difference between two leaders.

On the one side, we have the ExArch of the Crystarium. He helped people for nearly a century after The Flood of Light fiasco to just try and survive. We learn later on how he had gotten to the First - it had been a disaster where he was from, but he'd been a point of... hope.

The ExArch was an unwitting leader of the people, gave people a beacon. He cared for the people, helped them to create a life in the world that seemed to want them gone. The people wanted him as king, but he only wanted to be seen as one of them, because he considered himself one of them. They wanted him as a leader so they created his role - the ExArch. He helped with supplying, storing and rebuilding a community; a community of lost souls. When the Scions arrive, he tells and shows them the world of the First. He wants them to understand and see what has happened with everything and everyone. He worked to keep the remaining people of the world safe.

But that led to where one of the Scions was made to go: a place called Kholusia and the city-state of Eulmore. It's a place that looks amazing from a distance but on the outer edge and below, it's slums. And there, is a leader of this place - a leader who lives in opulence and who believes in the separation of those who are lower in status to those who are rich.

His name is Vauthry. When we meet him, we immediately know he's corrupt. He is the (heavily overweight, infantile-like) son of the past leader of Eulmore - a man that the ExArch had been friends with. He surrounds himself with the well-off and makes beggars of those not so much. He basically does a sort of performative charity in the slum areas to show that he's a great guy and deserves to lead the people. And if you didn't do as you were asked/required to do? Well... needless to say, he prided himself on fear as well. He also believed he was a sort of god among men and threw tantrums if things didn't go his way. But there was more as well (I'll get to that in a minute).

The ExArch tried to get along with Vauthry, but they didn't agree on what should be done and how. They both wanted to save the people of the First. However, their methods differed by leaps and bounds. Vauthry only wanted the well to do to be saved. They had money and because of that nothing else mattered and they could buy their way into the lives of the poor. The ExArch, on the other hand, found a way to lead the people in a way that the people became self-sufficient. He led with compassion and kindness, believing that everyone deserved a chance to live.

Going through this election cycle brought forward a lot of things and watching it was strange because I hadn't realized it yet. It wasn't until a TikTok video pointed out that "America really voted in a Vauthry" that I understood what I was seeing. The comparisons between Trump and Vauthry are insanely staggering.

Vauthry/Trump are extremely rich

Vauthry/Trump prefer the rich over the poor and tax/hurt those with less money in order to widen the gap

Vauthry/Trump do performative charities to their own benefit

Vauthry/Trump have shadow organizations running the show in the background

Oh... You saw that last one?

Much like Trump has several people from the National Heritage Foundation (a Christian Nationalist Conservative "think tank") in place for when he takes office (including his Vice Presidential pick, J.D. Vance), Vauthry was supported by his own shadow group.

Taking a step back to what I said about Vauthry believing himself a god among men (which, let's be honest, Trump pretty much blatantly infers this of himself on the daily), he actually wasn't wrong... to a degree. You see, while he is able to solve certain problems, he is also the cause of them. This being because when he was conceived/born, he was given a power by a group we know want the destruction of our home because they wanted things to go back to the way they were. Sound familiar? It should. The Ascians wanted to return the Source and its reflections back to how it was during their time. They thought of the current man as less than a person ("I do not consider you truly alive. Ergo, I will not be guilty of m*rder if I k*ll you." -Emet-Selch). Once again, sound familiar?

So as we go through the First, we meet the various peoples - many familiar in appearance, while others have changed in some way. In this world that is covered in never ending light, we change our moniker from Warrior of Light to Warrior of Darkness. That being said, we never fully change our position, we're just going under a different name since the last WoL wasn't exactly looked highly upon in their end. (Remember that group who were trying to make a mockery of us? Needless to say, they'd been misguided and brought to the source under false pretenses.) As we make our way through the world and defeat the enemy leaders, we become a beacon of hope ourselves as we bring the night back to the world. Not only that, but even the ExArch believes in us more and finds a way to help with getting the people of Eulmore to break themselves free of the corruption of Vauthry - we and our fellow Scion already having planted a seed of change within the people there during our earlier visits.

That said, as we go through the story, we do see the ExArch faulter. We see him question himself. We see him doubt if he'd done things right. But as he does, he looks to his people and sees their work and their hope. He watches us and the Scions as we go through our trials, our battles. He watches as each enemy leader falls at our hand as we fight corruption and knows what he must do. He's always known, but he didn't really know the how or when until we arrived and did what we could. He led as he followed and followed as he led. He knew what we represented and who we were.

For as much as the ExArch was a leader of the people, he was also someone who believed in the people as well. He believed in us and our team. The people of the Crystarium. Honestly, he believed in the people of the First. For even in the more dire of times, he knew what could be done and who could do it. Because the ExArch believed in the people as much as they believed in him. He was able to give hope and peace of mind rather than doubt and fear.

That's why, in all truth and honesty, I believe that the Crystal ExArch's role could be filled by Kamala.

So, why the title? Because when it comes down to it, we as voters? Are the player. We as voters are the Warrior of Light (or in the case of the First, Warrior of Darkness). We are the ones who can make the change. But now that the votes have been cast and our world's Vauthry and Ascians have (at least temporarily) won, it's time to take up the banners and ready ourselves for the next set of battles.

They won't be easy - anyone who's played as a WoL in Final Fantasy XIV knows that the grind is difficult. But let me remind you of a question:

When has fighting for peace, hope, and survival ever been easy? To quote the ExArch himself:

"To take action is to hope. To believe - to choose to believe - is to take the first step for towards a brighter future." ... "For in times of hardship, when you fear you cannot go on... The joy you have known, the pain you have felt, the prayers that you've whispered and answered - they shall ever be your strength and comfort."

We are Warriors of Light/Darkness. It's time to step up and make the world better.

[tarajenkins]

It's that time again

Time to make a massive post for my thoughts on the Lord Vauthry side of the new Encyclopaedia 3! ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ Spoiler alert: they aren't positive at all, lmao As it turns out, there is a convenient cover-our-ass disclaimer right off that this book is diegetic. The information in it is supposed to have been gleaned from the Scions. The Scions who, especially in the case of Eulmore's ~dark secrets~, would know jack shit about fuck all.

Admittedly, Hydaelyn should've known at least some of this through the death of her last Oracle, but for whatever reason it slipped her mind to tell us any of it in-game. Whoops!

Or maybe she was relying on that child to be the stopgap against the Rejoining happening too soon, like Selch. She could've at least given credit where it was due, if so. >:T

Twitter had a huge pearl-clutching shitfit the other day about that Oracle's death, which boiled down to "EW GROSS FATTY BEAT A CHILD TO DEATH OMG". The OP showed a screenshot of the page which mentions that Vauthry attacked the Oracle after having a nightmare that she would kill him. But they chose not to link the FIRST part for whatever reason, where it stated the Oracle in question had been fighting Sin Eaters alongside Ran'jit before Vauthry was even born. So unless this Oracle was an infant slayer of Sin Eaters, Vauthry was the child in that scenario--at age TWELVE. A twelve-year-old somehow defeated Hydaelyn's avatar, who was a skilled fighter trained by Ran'jit himself. (Ran'jit was a Master Assassin at five years old, btw. No, really.)

That said, the fanbase in that post naturally bought the OP's failure to math the way Estinien buys his hair ties: like suckers. Players were parroting the misinformation via solo posts and showing their entire ass on fatphobia in this character's tag all day. And, of course, where the fandom forgives and forgets the atrocities of almost every other character, people suddenly seemed very invested in making Vauthry enjoyers EXPLAIN THEMSELVES because this character did THIS.

When that was called out for the glaring hypocrisy, one poster replied it's just that "people are shocked at child abuse suddenly being mentioned and relevant."

Except child abuse has ALWAYS been mentioned and relevant in this game. It also applies to Vauthry himself. Emet-Selch essentially killed Vauthry before he was even born, dooming an infant to a life of madness and violence by fusing the baby with a Lightwarden. His father groomed him on lies for a power grab, Ascians further manipulated him in his madness to raise the Virtues, Ascend Gaia's parents, and who knows what else. What would you call that, if not abuse? Thank Emet-Selch for the previous Oracle being murdered. That wasn't going to happen with a 12-year-old who wasn't corrupted by a Lightwarden.

But, let's be real. All the derision of the character's weight during that Twitstorm made it extra obvious what makes him ~problematic~ to them. For their faves, it's "it's just fiction uwu" or the classic ~moral relativism~. For Vauthry, it's rabid foaming because it's clearly a Moral Failing to enjoy THAT character, and we who do must be harassed for it! Case in point, the Twitter OP even pulled out the old uwu ~at least I'm not a ~Vauthry shipper uwu" chestnut, I kid you not. At least, rabid foaming on behalf of vidya game children everywhere until I asked if it was finally time to discuss how many pixel children were murdered by the Rejoinings or Garlean occupation, for a start. Kids freezing in the Brume, etc. Kids made monsters by corrupting them in the womb. You know. A Tuesday. Crickets, then.

"I can't imagine Vauthry ever being a child", someone else posted.

They showed him as a baby in his mother's arms, in the Echo flashback. It's not hard. But I guess it's easier to dehumanize a fat character than it is to think a little.

If anyone else wants to be pissed at me saying all this as they were years ago, I really, really can't be arsed to care. It's rare NOT to see this character's fatness derided in just about any discussion of him. It sure was in his Twitter tags the other day. And, well. Every day. If you want to prove me wrong, though, confront that behavior when you see it, make shutting it down the norm, instead of whining how I'm "too rude" and so that invalidates my points somehow. No shit I'm rude when this "great community" has all the wit of bullies on a playground. Go tone police them instead, maybe.

ANYWAY

On the plus side, some of this new sorta-lore does seem to still back up some of my original in-game theories, but he was already twisted by the corruption from birth. There's no denying that anymore at least, no more hearing stuff from the fanbase like "uwu Emet-Selch gave him a GIFT, Vauthry just abused it uwu". (Who am I kidding, the last part will still happen.) Also, since the actual writers of this book don't stand behind anything written in it, I can still give him the happy ending in AUville that he should have had canonly. ⸜( ˙˘˙)⸝ ♡

What the purpose of this book is when nothing in it is concrete, I have no idea. But if Square can't back off their unimaginative fatphobia, can they at LEAST make Eulmore make sense?

NOPE ( ᐛ )b

Vauthry's father was named Veronth Mudthane, and in this retcon they imply he took more than a minute to decide that allowing a rando to corrupt his baby without asking his wife first was a swell deal. "The Scions" should've at least known the Echo shown in-game just…completely refutes that. But this book also has a blurb for Anogg but shows a portrait of her brother Konogg, so I honestly have to wonder if "The Scions" even played this game.

Vauthry's mother, as per usual, is not given a name or otherwise addressed at all. Because reasons.

"A euphoric Veronth went on to spoil his offspring in extravagant fashion, showering this "new god" with adoration bordering on worship. Such treatment would warp any child's mind, and Vauthry was no exception: he grew up willful, wanton, and possessed of an awful temper."

No exceptions except: Alphinaud, Alisaie, Nanamo, the fandom darlings of Ishgard (arguably excluding Emmanellain but for some reason he always gets a free pass), Hildibrand, Sark Malark, I'm sure I am forgetting some but you get the idea! There's only one difference, I wonder what it could be--

reads book's description of Vauthry's "corpulent chest"

--ah, right. The shitty tropes barely disguised as storytelling. Double standards! It's not just for jackasses in the fanbase anymore! "The Scions" are trying to lay this on "spoiling", when the child was fused with a Lightwarden. Ask Titania how that went for them.

The book goes on to say Vauthry murdered both of his parents at age nine in a fit of temper. You read that right: age nine. With witnesses. Somehow. They go on to mention the witnesses may have been okay with it perhaps because of "a growing mastery over his Lightwarden powers of domination". You know, those powers of domination that didn't exist in-game when Alphinaud chastised the Eulmorans for willfully ignoring the plight of the rest of the world. Those powers of domination that, when they finally were exerted in-game, resulted in the Eulmorans staggering around like drunks, muttering and supremely useless.

In-game, Vauthry wasn't "dominating" anything until he sprouted meatwings and fled to Gulg. Otherwise, Tristol would never have been able to ask to leave? Alphinaud would've been affected, even if the WoL was shielded by the Blessing of Light. Kai-Shirr would have chopped his arm off gladly. The Eulmorans would be blameless for everything Alphinaud and the narrative blamed them for.

In any case, both in this book and in-game, the writers completely gutted their own narrative of Vauthry and/or Eulmore being symbolic of All Things Bad. It's pretty impressive. Vauthry was corrupted by a Lightwarden, like Titania; his mind and behavior were compromised by this from birth. And if he DID control the Eulmorans the whole time, then they had no free will, either.

The book claims Vauthry used Ascension as a cruel game and delighted in ~revealing the truth~ to his victims as they became Sin Eaters. But they never explained why there would be a need to hide any truth with this latest spin on the dumpster fire that is the Eulmore arc.

In-game, there were rules to even request Ascension of him, and it was limited to and at the discretion of the formerly rich free citizenry. Workers could be granted it, but only if their patron vouched for them. The free citizens apparently had to wait until they were at their natural end, as per the Warbler's patron. The random disappearance of so many people from the stagnant population of that tower over the years would cause a panic by any stretch of the imagination. Word would get out, because workers on the inside were shown to be able to visit loved ones in Gate Town. Only allowing Ascension at the natural end of life would cover all that part up, except Vauthry was only 29 years old. The opportunities for Ascension: The Game would've been about as often as Minfilias spawned in that one century. (Which, according to the game, was totally hundreds on hundreds of Minfilias!) Either way makes zero good sense. The convoluted lengths they went through for the sake of these cheap fatphobic tropes is staggering, I s2g.

Meol still doesn't make sense, either. They doubled down on the "fat character eats people" trope in the book, but tbh I've come to expect unoriginality from anything directed by Naoki "Diversity would be unrealistic in my giant magic summon fantasy game" Yoshida.

Sin Eaters are said to have been found in cages next to a butcher table sort of setup, even though in-game, Sin Eaters have no bones, blood, or meat. In fact, the sparklies they dissapate into upon death are rather important to the narrative, as that is what turns people into new Sin Eaters. Meol, you know, that dish which was still entirely optional, and so really contradictory to using it as some master plan to MC the populace.

TL;DR: This is what happens when you phone in lazy tropes instead of a story for a last-minute arc and call it a day. Imagine what we could've had if they'd done some actual thoughtful writing. Also TL;DR:

Mood, Your Lordship

[goodappleapyl]

Random Meeps headcanon #7

Vauthry can change his weight at will to prevent people from picking him up. He acts a bit like mjolnir in that regard. Generally he only allows Meeps or her children to handle him.

[vettir]

Final Fantasy XIV: A new patch, new job, job quests, Shazenkai, Allied Society quests, Crystalline Mean turnins, and then we go back to Kholusia!

[garsideofthemoon]

the Eulmore Ran’jit battle isn’t superfluous it’s showing Ran’jit as a foil to you in the Crystal Braves arc. He’s the monstrous enforcer to Vauthry’s grand plans, who’s forsaken morality in the name of the greater good. He’s what you might have been if Alphinaud’s misguided plan for peace had been taken to its extreme

[roegadynroost]

I did THREE shoots for day four of the FFXIV Vanilla Gpose Challenge and I didn't really LOVE any of them, but I'm exhausted ATM so these are the ones going up. The theme was BATTLE and I visited a few of my favorite fights to try and get some fun shots, but the winner is Vaulthy. I'll never get tired of kicking his ass!

[magellanica]

WIP!

[sasseebeee]

okay replaying shadowbringers is bringing up points of confusion i have with vauthry's whole mind control thing

to my understanding, vauthry has control over sin eaters, which includes people who have sin eaters in their being (such as the meol thing)

so 1: why did he try to control the exarch? assumedly, he has not eaten meol ever in his life, and he is certainly not a sin eater. it is possible that they could have been doing the whole meol thing even before vauthry's inaugration (when the exarch had last visited eulmore), and the exarch could've unknowingly ingested some meol, but i doubt that the essence would've remained in his body for THAT long.

and 2: wouldn't he be able to take control of the warrior of light? like i know in reality the player character being mind controlled would be a pretty hard thing to pull off, but the wol has like 4 lightwardens inside of them and they dont even falter when vauthry's weird mind control wind sweeps through? idk maybe the blessing of light is protecting them or something

i could also just be misunderstanding something but that exarch thing in particular has been bothering me for a while now lol

[sleepinertia]

this is uhhh the Boy Mayor of Mt. Gulg. obviously.

[katarh-mest]

I saw your post about Vauthry in the tag and I just wanted to also point out something I think kinda flies under the radar - I believe Vauthry is 100% meant to invoke the image of a cherub as well, since lightwardens and sin eaters are meant to resemble angel type beings and "purity", and Vauthry is Innocence. That's why he not just fat, he's stylistically fat, and he's nearly bald, and has a baby face.

Oh that's a good point! And then when he "grows up" he's a variant on the Archangel Michael, who is one of the more beautiful angels depicted in Catholic iconography.

Man, the idea of Vauthry as a cherub makes the scene where he sprouts tiny little wings and flies off even funnier.

Thanks for the insight!

[sir-adamus]