#l'nahri (fell‑court) 🜸

[fell-court]

The Crystal Tower Alliance Raids for my version of events: a rather long post (approximately 1600 words)

Crystal Tower is important in flowering verse because it’s when the trio becomes a quartet!

Clio, Bryn and Tsutsuji run into the outlandish-looking man in Revenant’s Toll when they arrive there around the time of organising the Scions’ relocation to the Rising Stones, and from there end up offering their services to the Sons of Saint Coinach as a way of getting to know some of the goings-on in the local area. By the time everything has been prepared to be able to enter the Labyrinth of the Ancients, the trio have been placed into one of the three alliance groups.

So far, I only have five of the eight members of that alliance solidified, though - Clio as the tank, Brynblyss and a Lalafell scholar as the healers, and Tsutsuji and four others as DPS roles. One of these four others is a Miqo’te called L’nahri, a novice adventurer who particularly idolises Clio and her friends for the work they have done to help save Eorzea.

Labyrinth of the Ancients is initially a daunting experience because the trio are not as used to fighting in such high-volume environments, but Clio quickly picks up on how to work best with the other two tanks, and is able to hold her own even when the main group splits into three for certain sections. It isn’t easy, but everything goes relatively well, and the hold that Cid places on exploring the rest of the place gives the trio a good opportunity to continue things with the Scions’ relocation.

=====

Syrcus Tower, in turn, is where things take a turn.

The alliance raid itself was released during patch 2.3, so it could in theory have been set anytime between the defeat of Leviathan and the official formation of the Crystal Braves. Or I could throw that out of the window and put it anytime post-ARR, in theory. I'm not sure yet. Either way, when it finally becomes time for the tower to be stormed, the group of 24 is very similar to (if not the same as) the group who went through the Labyrinth of the Ancients, with all aforementioned characters present. L'nahri in particular is quite excited, as her work with assisting NOAH is really helping her feel like she's making a difference to something, especially as she gets to fight alongside the vaunted Warrior of Light herself as well.

Compared to the previous expedition, the process of climbing the crystalline tower is in some regards more straightforward - there are fewer foes to fight at once, and everyone can safely take a break when each new floor is cleared - but those that do stand in their way are often stronger or more clever. Finally, though, even the revived Emperor Xande himself cannot stand up to the force of all these adventurers working together, and the sunset-lit view from the summit of the tower fills everyone with a strong sense of accomplishment.

The voidgate's reappearance as Unei and Doga try to undo Xande's pact is sufficient to set some of the alliance members on edge, but nobody was fully prepared for any further fighting; the sudden appearances - and attacks - from the emptier dark clones (as well as a few voidsent forcing themselves through the rift) quickly throw everything into chaos. The Cloud of Darkness reaches forth to take the pair who would annul her covenant, dragging Nero with them in the process, and the dark clones fall dead as the voidgate closes, leaving the alliances to clear up the mess.

Said mess consists of a variety of injuries, but most notably, and fatally, L'nahri's.

=====

Clio, understandably, is agonised - she would have been in a better position to bait or take more such dangerous attacks for her team had she not been wracked by an Echo vision when everything kicked off, and this is the first time that someone she'd thought of fondly has died in her arms since the attack on the Waking Sands. Brynblyss and the other healer of the alliance had been doing all they could to heal her wounds, but there's only so much that you can do when a melee fighter's taken an unmitigated tankbuster from 60% HP huge blast of void fire directly to the chest.

The other alliances are eventually able to get all of their members in more stable states, and thankfully avoided any such incidents or injuries of the same severity - but that means everyone is all the more aware of the one who did get so severely injured, the one who was only just beginning her journey, the one who didn't make it. And so the impact is felt across the whole top of the tower, all attention held by the ripple of sadness and guilt - though perhaps least so in Tsutsuji's case, as she had noticed something materialise on the other end of the area.

This turned out to be an unfamiliar figure shrouded in darkness, introducing her(?)self as being able to provide assistance in entering the World of Darkness. It quickly becomes obvious that this figure is a voidsent, leaving most of the alliance on edge and unwilling to proceed with the conversation - but as someone extremely unaverse to doing things that sound like terrible ideas to everyone else, Tsutsuji decides to play her cards and asks the voidsent for her(?) terms.

=====

Tsutsuji stands before the others, and asks the voidsent for her(?) terms. In turn, this is how she(?) responds, wearing a wry smile on what little can be seen of her face through the shadows:

"For you, little student, I shall set them in your favour. Though I could by all means ask for more, I require from you only that which I must have in order to aid you. It wouldn't do for me to be unable to hold up my end of the deal, after all.

In return for my continued existence here in your world, and my assistance in recovering your three stolen allies from mine, all you must give me is that which will permit thus - the lifeless girl lying there behind you."

Suffice it to say, this causes quite a bit of outrage in the rest of the alliance members, as L'nahri's demeanour had made her well-liked by many people in the group. It seems too dangerous to go along with, even to Brynblyss and Clio to some extent - but to Tsutsuji, the one who's actually individually being dealt with, who does not set out to do things that everyone's happy with if they aren't what she's happy with (unlike the other two), the one who steps back and looks at this some-semblance-of-objectively ("well, she isn't using it now anyway, y'know?") - well, it's something she wants to kick off and see where it goes. Why not?

So the deal is made, and the voidsent - Lorenza, as she asks to be called - takes over L'nahri's dead body, subsisting on its remnant aether to maintain her presence in the Source. The group leave the summit of the tower to more properly recuperate from the long climb (and its suddenly-frantic ending), and the atmosphere has been quite irrevocably changed. Some are placated by the voidsent's intelligent and weary-seeming demeanour, others by the fact she is kept under the watchful eye of the Warrior of Light - but not all are ever going to be satisfied, whether out of raw scepticism or of simply being unable to see any face other than their dead friend's upon looking at her.

=====

To her credit, Lorenza remains true to her word, as it was interpreted by most of those present at the time - she remains within the boundaries of Saint Coinach's Find with the rest of the light party (as they have now, by technicality, become), and her insights freely shared with whichever researchers are brave enough to actually draw on the assistance she's trying to provide do help NOAH figure out a way of opening up the Crystal Tower's voidgate much earlier than anticipated. The World of Darkness can be entered very shortly after Syrcus Tower is cleared, almost as soon as everyone feels that they have fully recovered in fact.

Within the World of Darkness itself, Lorenza's familiarity with the void and its denizens proves instrumental to not only guiding the alliances to success, but in mitigating damage taken in the process, since - as Nero proves upon the group finding him - the sustaining of any sort of wound deep enough to touch blood would be sufficient for a being of the Source to quickly be corrupted by the astral Darkness of the void. The Cloud of Darkness is slain, and thus disrupted long enough for the trio to be saved, and the contract to be ceased, and for all else to go as it does in canon (as I have it at the moment).

Congratulations, demon, your worth to us is proven - our stolen allies are recovered, and so you need not remain. Cannot remain, even, now that your own contract has been fulfilled. So would say those who missed the first part of her terms, at least. The lifeless girl, in return for Lorenza's assistance, and her continued existence on the Source - an existence with no stated time limit. The wayward princess has won herself free perpetuity, in a world where she no longer has to starve.

Through her actions, Lorenza earns the tentative trust of Clio and Brynblyss, which is forced to grow during Heavensward. And so, the four become a true light party.

Who knows what she might have left behind in the void she came from, though..?

[fell-court]

Today’s gameplay progress:

I managed to get one line of seals in this week’s Wondrous Tails, so I’ve handed that in! I think I will still accumulate second chance points even before I can collect the next journal, but it isn’t that big of a loss if I don’t, I suppose.

I slightly misread the experience bars in the menu, so despite handing in this week’s journal as a summoner, I’m still level 87 - albeit nearly level 88 - as that (and scholar, technically). I’m also nearly level 87 as a reaper, but again I haven’t quite gotten to that yet.

There was an intention to continue the story through the power of jamming out to music, but I got about three steps to the next objective before getting horrendously distracted by glamouring. So, no story progress today (and possibly not for some time).

As a result of spending literally all evening glamouring, I do have some screenshots to share, though! First of all, some classically “fun” end-of-Shadowbringers moments - the first one is Lorenza struggling with the final Lightwarden’s light, while the second one is essentially “what would happen if she couldn’t process the Light/doesn’t get help in time during the first picture”, because it’s of her as a Lightwarden. Even though this state is entirely hypothetical/a “bad ending” for her, and would only actually come to pass in an AU, I still wanted to update its design to something I was happier with (since I thought of another potential way to reference Linariyn!), so here that is.

Not the most fun of times for Lorenza, but I at least enjoyed making the images, haha. I don’t think she would be as monstrous/stagnant of a Lightwarden as you might expect, given that she was so full of darkness to begin with - i think she would act the way that I do when I’m in a lot of pain, which means her usual calm and collectedness would be replaced by a lot of crying and not being able to speak much at once.

Second of all, and entirely unrelated to the previous images, I’d like to introduce L’nahri, a nervous but eager-to-assist new adventurer who shows up as part of the Crystal Tower questline! She would be part of Clio and Tsutsuji’s alliance in my version of events. Surely nothing bad will happen to her on those expeditions, right?

..Right?

(Wrong, unfortunately. She dies at the top of Syrcus Tower directly after that alliance raid is completed, trying to defend people from the dark clones of Unei and Doga. When Tsutsuji makes her pact with Lorenza, one of the terms is that Lorenza is given the lifeless body of L’nahri to use as her own while on the Source - which, for the sake of gaining her assistance in going through the World of Darkness safely, is accepted by Tsutsuji, even if others may have objected to the concept.

She’s essentially an equivalent self-insert to Linaria, because for some reason she always seems to be the one I use for these sorts of unfortunate situations, haha. I’m not sure if I’ll keep her as an arcanist, even if she is holding a book here - maybe she can have been a conjurer as an excuse to give her a staff, which is about as close as I can get to the quarterstaff Linaria uses in Dragon Quest.)

[fell-court]

(late shadowbringers spoilers ahead)

I remembered a certain detail that means that my idea for Lorenza’s (and/or L’nahri’s) ancient probably wouldn’t work the way I had been envisioning it, which has since resulted in me now feeling unbitten by the ancient bug, so to speak. Maybe my own interest will flare up again when I actually get to story quests that explore them more, but for now it’s moreso a thing I’m fine with hearing others speak about for their own situations, without having much lore for it on my own end or wanting to care as much for it on my own end.

(The fact my brain has decided to associate a certain ancient’s name with one of the things that sets me off the most also REALLY doesn’t help, but that’s my own problem, not anyone else’s.)

I do still think that my other concept of “Clio holds the Azem crystal because it’s more fitting for her to have it than Tsutsuji, but it’s Tsutsuji’s ancient who had held the seat of Azem, and not Clio’s” is fairly neat, because it works as a potential reason for why the two would actually have been interacting with each other the whole time, if nothing else. Something, something, the threads of fate and repetition got tangled for no reason and now the two keep tagging along with each other as a result, I don’t know. I still need to figure out how the two would actually interact in my version of events, but this at least could serve as some sort of underlying reveal of why? I don’t know