#npc: ardbert

[ishgard]

dog - for the single word drabble prompt!

"A drabble is 100 words, a drabble is a hundred words" I chant to myself as I go over 500.

Thank you so much though!! As soon as I saw it I knew exactly what old scene to finally write that's been in my head since grinding Holminster Switch and getting the Black Hayate. 😂

"Can't imagine why you'd want to come back here already." Ardbert's voice emerged from the silence, a frown etched into his features as he surveyed the smoldering ruins of Holminster Switch. It was a town of ghosts now, naught but a few embers still glistening under the blanket of night. 

She can never quite know when her favorite ghost is going to chime in, but it is a surprise tonight. 

"I'm not sure, either." She replied, nudging over a broken piece of fence before continuing along the winding road. "There's so little civilization left here, I suppose I just..." Lips pursed, her brow furrowed as her gaze swept over the wreckage. "Wanted to get an idea of what it was like. Without all the fighting and screaming." 

Ardbert said nothing, but his silence was so heavy it could have been worth a thousand words. 

What broke the silence was not either of their voices but instead a tiny, distinct whimpering. Frowning, Ahru’s hand went for the hilt of her rapier, gaze scanning around her. 

“…Do sineaters typically make sounds like that?” She asked in a whisper. 

“Far be it from me to assume they couldn’t… But not any that I’m aware of.” 

The sound came again, this time accompanied by the shifting of shadows from beneath one of the half-toppled buildings. Her fingers gripped the handle as her eyes made out the form of-

Oh. A dog. A puppy, to be exact; black and white with the cutest ears and -less cute- a limp in its front paw. It gave a pathetic little wag of it’s tail, clearly exhausted but happy to see people. 

“Aww, you poor thing!” Ahru cooed, taking only a few steps forward before crouching down with her hands held out - she didn’t want to scare it. “Come here, sweetie.”

It’s tail wagged again and it limped forward, sniffing at her fingertips and licking them feebly. Grabbing some dried meat from her satchel she held it out to him and he ate it up eagerly, visibly perking up. 

“Can’t believe the little guy survived all that.” Ardbert mused, crouching down beside her. As calm and stoic as he acted, she was pretty sure from the smile on his face and the glint in his eye he very much wanted to scoop the creature up and give it a good thorough petting.

“You must be pretty clever, huh?” She asked to a response of eager yips. After a testing scratch behind his ears, she gingerly touched her hand to his injured leg, infusing it with healing magicks. Fortunately the wound wasn’t too bad, and within seconds he was bouncing around, yipping and wagging his tail like wild, licking at her hands. 

“Doesn’t look like he has a collar…”Ardbert murmured, clearly far more interested than she imagined he’d ever admit to. “He’ll need a name.”

Just as amusing was the fact they were, despite saying nothing of it, on the same page. Evidently being a Warrior of Light also indicated a habit of picking up strays, at least where they were concerned. Laughing she gave the dog ‘a good thorough petting’, before plucking him up into her arms. 

“I’ve got it. I’ll call you Ardbert!”

“What?”

The pup yipped and howled, wiggling in her arms as its tail practically spun in happy circles. 

“See? He likes it!”

[windupiceheart]

A ghost

[magellanica]

Ardbert in my WoL's warrior glam because he deserves to play endgame ffxiv and do a little glamour.

[berryzawati]

Wolbert Week 2024 Day 1: A New Life

[spadegeistalt]

G'estalt during Shadowbringers be like-- (Sometime post-Titania) I just wanted an excuse to draw the Krile cookie

[swoleas]

me whenever hanan and ardbert are in the same room: 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

[skeleboy13]

compilation of various drawings i've done of my haha silly wol (ref for 2nd image under cut)

[mymarfeus]

"Need some help?"

[asuka-ff14ss]

[impossible-rat-babies]

love the gameplay trailer bc the lady is like: “could you have held fast that which is dear? without sacrifice?” and my brain just jump cuts to eyrie family guy death pose at the end of EW

[displaykitkats]

Some of my fave guys in level 100 crafter gear - but opted out of the giant mittens for Estinien. Should I complete this set with level 100 gatherer gear? MAYBEEeeE. See below the cut on who is wearing which gear.

Update: I posted the gatherer gear sets here. Enjoy!

Thancred - Carpenter

Estinien - Blacksmith

Ardbert - Armourer

Erenville - Goldsmith

Koana - Leatherworker

Emet-selch - Weaver

Aymeric - Alchemist

G’raha - Culinarian

[ilsabard]

It was Shadowbringers for me and solely because of Ardbert.

Alright now don't bother me for anything else...

[anneapocalypse]

The fundamental difference between Zenos and The Warrior of Light as Written--something that exists regardless of any particular WoL's disposition or motivations, all things subject to personal headcanon--is that the TWoLaW engages deeply with the world around them, and Zenos does not. The fundamental quality of Azem the Traveler, and the quality that is suggested to have been inherited by TWoLaW (and by Ardbert), is that they are deeply engaged with the world, and with its people.

Is it true that TWoLaW is disposed toward violence, sure, absolutely, for reasons of video game mechanics if nothing else. But I fundamentally disagree that violence is the core of TWoLaW regardless of how we roleplay them. At the core of TWoLaW is their engagement with the world. Yes, as a result of that, TWoLaW is willing to go kill people and things because they were asked to. You know what else they're willing to do because someone asked them to? Talk to people. Fetch things for them. Gather resources. Make things. Deliver gifts. Facilitate trade. Learn skills. Build community. Cross the seas to help a new friend. Explore. Uncover ancient mysteries. GO TO SPACE! And if you see Zenos as a foil for the player rather than the character, all this still very much applies.

You can roleplay the most curmudgeonly, antisocial, misanthropic WoL possible, you can even reject all side content and stick solely to MSQ, and you will still find yourself inhabiting a character who, as written, is fundamentally engaged with the world. They don't have to be happy. They don't have to be nice. They don't have to do any of what they're doing out of altruism. They're still making the choice to connect with other people, to invest themselves in the struggles and passions of others, to have a personal stake in shaping the world around them, because that is what the character is written to do.

Zenos's tragic flaw is his inability--and yes, perhaps, on some level, unwillingness--to connect with the world and the people around him. He finds no meaningful engagement with the world except to enact violence upon it. He has no personal investment in the Garlean Empire except as it allows him to enact violence, and by this disengagement he basically singlehandedly allows the entire empire to collapse because he doesn't care about it, only about fulfilling his own desires. The funny thing about Zenos as a foil for the protagonist is that he would make a terrible RPG protagonist. The archetypal RPG protagonist is so defined by their willingness to say yes to menial tasks that are only meaningful to some minor NPC that most modern RPGs end up lampshading that fact in some way, and it's endlessly memed upon. I struggle to imagine Zenos making it through the Company of Heroes fetch quests in ARR without getting bored and stabbing someone.

So all-encompassing is this worldview for him that even upon calling the WoL his only friend, he can find no meaningful engagement with them beyond "let us enact violence upon one another." Even the one person in the world he finds interesting enough to engage with, he is seemingly incapable of understanding on any other level. (And if you play a WoL with a desire to connect with Zenos on any other level, I think there's potential for a really interesting tragedy there! Because he either won't or can't.)

And we don't ever really get to challenge him on how narrow and stifling and miserable his engagement with the world truly is. Maybe there's a flicker of it at the very end, an acknowledgement that his life was fundamentally unfulfilling. Perhaps Zenos even sees, on some level, what the WoL has that he does not; maybe unconsciously in pursuing them, he seeks to figure out what that thing is. But then he dies, in his chosen manner, after getting the same one thing he's been pursuing as long as we've known him. That's what's sad about Zenos on a narrative level. Not that he dies, but that he dies unchanged and unchallenged.

And this is why I just can never quite get behind the idea that the core of the WoL is the same as the core of Zenos--no matter how many people the Warrior of Light has killed. I just don't believe that. When I look at TWoLaW, I see a character deeply engaged with the world. When I look at Zenos I see a character who never truly connects with anyone or anything outside himself.

[berryzawati]

Ardbert lives AU - part 1.

Pulled away from death's bitter embrace, a certain adventurer finds himself in a new yet strangely familiar environment...

To be continued.

[velnica]

Midlander Hyurs who are shorter than Sanson Smyth: A post

My friend was commenting how the Bard quest NPCs are mostly Elezens so Sanson who's 5'11 always look like a short twink next to them, so I got curious and compiled this list lol.

Ardbert / Meteor / Hien / Thancred (yes Sanson is taller than Meteor but twice the twink)

Bonus: Guydelot is a complete giraffe next to Meteor lmao

Jacke / Oboro / Bartholomew / Hancock

Alberic / Ywain / Riol / Asahi

[ramyeonguksu]

Shadowbringers NPC charms with Ryne, Gaia, and their third-wheel Ardbert!