#the babies are pretty far most are in post shb or EW so end of july isnt really rushing them too much

[bertiblogxiv]

So I want to make a post with everything Berti lore I’ve worked out so far, partly for my own benefit and partly for my ffxiv swap partner :D

Under the cut is a rough (very rough) Berti timeline (warning for spoilers from ARR to EW):

Berti’s parents were shady dealers in Limsa Lominsa who got caught up in a pirate conspiracy just after he was born. In order to keep him safe they smuggled him onto a boat due to go to Gridania - he assumes they died after that but he’s never been totally sure, it’s not like Sea Wolf Roegadyn are rare in Limsa and he has very little information about them.

He was found in Gridania and eventually taken in by the botanist’s guild and grew up there without any specific person to call a parent but plenty of adults to make sure he ate and had a roof over his head. Still, he always felt distanced from his peers growing up, especially as he started to grow wider and taller than the majority of people in town (sidenote, how early do Roe grow so big? Square please give us baby Roes in the new EXP).

Until he was in his 30s Berti lived life in Gridania as a botanist. He had a little cottage, took on foraging work and was admired for his extensive knowledge of the local flora, though he struggled with the public-facing social part of the work and tended to leave that to others. He was happiest (and still is) on his own in the woods.

At the beginning of ARR he’s 32-ish and at first very confused about everything that happens (I imagine the echo starts coming in then he ends up talking to Papalymo and Yda and then it goes basically as in game, with a bit less adventurer odd jobs), but after the calamity and war and everything else he’s quietly angry about the world and does feel a little relieved he maybe has the power to do something about it.

After this point it gets vague because its mostly just ‘as it happens in the game’ until I can finish my second playthrough and see the story again with Berti in mind.

But in general, he starts off as a conjurer, because magic based on the forest makes the most sense to him and he’s never been a very violent person, doesn’t think he’d be any good at close combat. Around HW he dabbles in Astrology and afterwards blends the two, taking bits he likes of each philosophy.

He never really considered having kids before, but the twins become essentially his surrogate kids - I think he’d struggle with being a bit jealous of Fourchenault when first meeting him (and also really hate him at the very first meeting), but has to let the kids go. He finds it hard though and is especially close to Alphinaud.

He’s uncomfortable with people that praise him profusely and treat him like hes a saviour. He finds it hard to talk with Graha because of how much he clearly admires him. Other Scions he gets along with fine but isn’t really close to anyone except Urianger and Thancred, who he got to know better during the Eden raid storyline.

During STB he realised he had feelings for Raubahn but there was like, a whole ass war going on, so he held off on saying anything. When at the beginning of SHB he poofed off to the other world he panicked thinking he might not ever get to tell him, so as soon as he got back to the source he went to tell Raubahn about his feelings. By the end of EW I imagine they’re married.

After EW he’s quite happy to give up the hero mantle for a bit and get back to some botany and casual sight seeing, jokingly calling it his retirement (I’m not sure how much time the main story is meant to be? But he’s probably pushing 40, so totally an old man for anime standards :P).

There’s other little things like somewhere in there I think he had an affair with redolent Rose and he’s friends with Merlwyb, though finds her a pretty blatant reminder of the world his parents might have come from which is both a comfort and a pain sometimes.

When I have more detailed and formulated ideas, most likely after that second playthrough (barely started before raid tier ate me) I might make another post :D

[heretic-altias]

Finally making some real progress in p3s, we get to the adds fairly consistently now!

Might not finish this whole tier in time tbh, but we're doing it over pf as a group of 5 rn and the static will be full next tier so I'm thinking the consistent group will be a bit faster. This was also our first tier ever doing savage raid gearing, so I feel like we've learned how things go now. I've given the baby players I have interested a deadline of end of July to finish the game if they wanna raid in the coming tier with us so we can trial them and so that if they aren't going to be ready I have time to find other people bc we do not want to pf again lol. I'm making a full static happen for next tier even if I (a socially anxious person who ended up as raid lead through shear enthusiasm for raiding) have to go out recruiting around the internet.