Applying Lore Via Rants (they/them)
Your local Asian currently in college to study Asia so that I can be the most Asian Asian of all time
Oh yeah I have an ao3 account: ClearAutumnVibes
read my works or don't
I don't know man
Woops! A full month has passed since I last wrote for this series, my bad. Was busy with exams (aced the last one yesterday) and witnessing my friend go through Shadowbringers for the first time. I have a lot more free time now so I can finally continue Journey Retold!
There will be a preamble of sorts next, feel free to skip around until you see a text written in purple.
One of my friends told me that I should shorten the names of the players when I am inserting their messages into these posts. His suggestion was to shorten "The player of the self-proclaimed Emo Catboy" to "Emo Catboy" for example and he has a point, but I am not going to. I wanted to switch to a format of "The player of [WoL Full Name]" actually, but I had to make a choice against it out of my respect for the privacy of my dear first friend I've made through the game upon their own request so I am not going to do the switch because otherwise they would stand out like a sore thumb.
Another reason why I don't want to shorten the names like this is that... I feel like it's important to point out that there is a real person behind each of these characters. I find it one of the coolest and most magical things about FFXIV and MMO genre as a whole, and for an extravert like me who only goes outside for studies it just holds a lot of weight. Not all interactions with these player characters and people behind them themselves might be pleasant, it's a double-edged sword all multiplayer games and social medias even have to deal with, but an overwhelming majority of these interactions have brought me joy and laughs and it all just feels more real than just interacting with someone over Discord DMs and such.
The issue of the player names being too long in these posts during the messaging segments is real so from now on I will shorten it to "TPo [simple character description]", like "TPo Emo Catboy" or "TPo stern Auri man". That should do it.
...
OK, where did we stop last time? Ah, right, Ifrit.
Pi had slayed a monstrocity from the deep depths of hell yaaaaaaay.
I picked the msq back up the next day, judging from the screenshots' date. The word of Pi's conquest over the Lord of Inferno had spread quickly, like a wildfire, and the officers of the three Grand Companies had arrived to the Waking Sands, wanting to have Ifrit's bane to themselves. I was hit with a choice between these three Grand Companies, i.e. Limsa Lominsa's Maelstrom, Gridania's Order of Twin Adders and Ul'dah's Immortal Flames. And I wanted to join Maelstrom right away because I like Merl-- I mean, I like Limsa and I am the most familiar with it, but I was open to seeing what can other two city-states offer and thus I had set for Ul'dah first.
Raubahn entered the scene, as well as a cute lalafell woman wearing a weird dress that honestly makes her look like a bowling pin when she stands, I am sorry. That lalafell, Nanamo Ul Namo, is the sultana of Ul'dah by the way and it was my first time seeing her.
Their combined speech was very strong, talking about their glory and wealth (both in monetary fortune as well as the spiritual) and how they laid low the VIIth Imperial Legion five years ago.
For Victory and Fortune, stride fearless into the inferno, for we are by fire reborn!
Some young and kinda familiar gentleman had something to say about that last line:
So that's how it happened. How soon history forgets.
The speech was met with a round of applause and cheering, and like I've said before, the speech itself was very strong, I actually started to think that maybe Flames can win me over. Then the twins (or rather one of them) decide to speak to me to explain some things that were kinda glossed over in the grand speech, mentioning the refugee problem and their relationship with Amalj'aa that keep summoning Ifrit and costing many soldiers' their lives.
Next up was Gridania. The speech was mainly presented by Kan-E but her brother and sister (and also another seedseer) were also present, even if they didn't say anything.
The Elder Seedseer's speech was about peace and harmony. She talked about uniting Eorzea to fight the Empire and to protect the place that have been their home for almost five centuries.
And together, let us heal the forest's wounds, that our progeny might live in harmony beneath these ancient boughs. For serenity, purity, and sanctity!
I liked the speech as well, but it wasn't as memorable and strong as Raubahn's and I felt like this would be the Grand Company Pi would most likely side with canonically since he is mostly pacifistic and he wishes for the fighting to stop so there could be peace.
Alphinaud chimed in again, mentioning how Gridania has to deal with two beast tribes, Ixal and sylphs, and how all the fighting they do is in self-defense. He also mentioned that their lands have been hurt the most by the Calamity which only complicated things for them and soon their bickering with the beast tribes can turn into an all-out war which is why they might need more people to deal with it when the time comes.
Now, all that remained was Limsa Lominsa.
Merlwyb's speech was about freedom, how their nation was fighting for it for seven centuries since they came to La Noscea and how they would like to keep their freedom until their very last breath.
And with the guidance of the Navigator, this great vessel of ours shall ride the waves till sea swallows all!
Alphinaud spoke to Pi once more, mentioning that Lominsans have a lot of blood feuds betweens the factions that comprise the city-state, not to mention the two beast tribes, kobold and Sahagin that both want to take the place for themselves and are planning on summoning their respective Primals to help them with that. All that made them quite an easy target for Garleans which is why they would be needing more men soon, "drenching the Maelstrom standard a deeper shade of crimson ere long".
Freedom is also something that Pi as a character have been craving for because of his passion for travel and exploring, but he wasn't the person to kill somebody for it... but I didn't want to disappoint Merlwyb so I ended up choosing Maelstrom in the end. Sorry Kan-E and Raubahn ;w;
Next up we see Alphinaud and his twin sister Alisaie talk about the speeches between themselves. The sister says how those remembrance ceremonies (because yes, these speeches were dedicated for those celebrations) didn't talk much about the Calamity and were mostly about "standart-waving rallies" while the brother remarks how they didn't even mention the Warriors of Light, as if they chose to omit their deeds in saving their realm in order to move on from the Calamity. Alisaie did not agree that was a right choice.
She couldn't stand it all and chose to find a different way "to cute ails of this world", the twins going their own separate ways. For now, at least.
And then it was the time to get my chocobo.
Say hello to Eorzean Axl by the name of Gingerhead. I made him into Pi's horsebird lol.
Then I did the next msq quest which was Sylph Management which allowed me to unlock Summoner and Scholar. I went on to do... Summoner one before continuing the main story.
"Huh? But didn't you choose Arcanist to then unlock a Healer job?"
Yes, I did, but I realized that I actually have a Healer anxiety and that I probably won't play as a Healer much anyway, plus beating MSQ as a Healer will be pain so YUP, I chose violence.
First chain of SMN quests was OK. Kinda cool, but not memorable. Even thought our quest companion was Y'shtola's sister.
And to conclude this entry, have this hilarious screenshot.
I had to finish some pre-exam homework today and then stomach ache was killing me so I wasn't able to complete Journey Retold entry today, sorry ;w;
I will compensate with some fun trivia for my WoLs because I feel like doing it.
Pi Peataan
Pi is Sharlayan by birth but he doesn't remember much of his early childhood here because he was very little;
Pi's birthname is Piyu Lazuyu;
He is 97 cm tall (postEW);
He is a good swimmer;
He plays a flute (picks it up preSB and gets better at it during ShB);
He likes to keep his diary (in addition to sending the letters to his family that usually recount everything that happened within a week);
He also scribbles small drawings at the sides of his letters and sometimes diary pages. Not nearly as good as Alphinaud at art, but they are not an eyesore either;
Pi likes citrus fruits, specifically the oranges;
His favorite flower is a dandelion and his favorite bird is a doman magpie;
Pi wore a few different hats over the course of his journeys (I will probably make a funny post about the hats he officially wore in the story itself tomorrow).
Haru Hataori
Haru looks almost the same as his mom (horn type, tail type, eyes (partially)) and he only got the skin color from his father;
His mom expected him in Spring and wanted to name him Haru;
He is 203 cm tall;
Haru has heterochromia;
He was taught to sew since he was 6, and despite of mainly being a fighter, he is actually great at making clothes;
He was growing pretty much unsupervised which resulted in him growing up to be the dork everyone knows him as now;
That also resulted in him getting a book about the brave Ishgardian Dragoons which inspired him to pursue the craft;
Haru started to dye his hair and do makeup in his teens;
His family is quite rich and thus he has bad spending habits;
He can draw patterns pretty well but he is awful at drawing people and animals;
He is very bad at wistanding cold (even if he says otherwise);
He wore new clothes designed by his father every time He met Pi from ARR to SB. He stopped doing that after he journeyed to Eorzea on his own near the end of SB;
Haru likes sweets and spicy food but he doesn't overindulge in them and most of his meals are actually quite healty;
His favorite flower is a sakura flower and he carries around a sown trinket shaped like one everywhere he goes;
His favorite animal is a chocobo. He absolutely adores the horsebirds, especially his girl Chyunchyun :)
Also did you know that his chocobo laid eggs after Endwalker---
Sorry for cutting the last entry a bit short, I ran out of time and space and then got busy with the next exam. But I have time now so let's pick up from where we left off!
After Pi took flight, the scene transitioned to a different airship flying through the air and landing in a fortress on a... space rock of some kindAt first I was very confused and thought for a second that it was the same ship my character had boarded… But it still was a nice transition.
From the airship came four figures dressed in metal garb, looking quite alien to the rest of the people we've seen so far. They also looked very "Star Wars" in addition to their own theme music, which is probably why I thought we were on a completely different planet now.
And who is that guy, Gaius van Baelsar? He sounds quite fami--
OH YOU--
I didn't check his voice immediately after hearing it for the first time (I did do it near the end of ARR), I had my doubts about it since I am known for confusing voice actors a lot, but man, I did manage to hear the guy's voice right and he still sounds incredible after so many years since Rockman X7 came out.
But if someone didn't know, he is also the Japanese voice of Solid Snake and Big Boss. I am just more familiar with his role as Red.
Anyways, we have an evil Empire trying to conquer Eorzea and who are quite ruthless to others. Most definitely they are our antagonists, at least for this expansion. Note taken.
After that scene, Pi finally arrives to one of the city-states Admiral Merlwyb had sent him to, the liveliest and the largest settlement of The Black Shroud -- Gridania. It's the least confusing city to traverse through by far which is a plus, but I wasn't too interested in it because it was looking like a normal fantasy forest village, but I still don't think it's bad, don't get me wrong, I just think Limsa and the next city we'll visit after that were more memorable.
Here we meet up with the Elder Seedseer, the local governor of sorts -- Kan-E-Senna, who I, for a moment, thought was a weird kind of Au Ra lady because of the horns, but it's actually a really rare subrace of hyurs that only lives here which I found interesting. She signed some documents after reminising about the days prior ot Calamity and what happened after (mostly latter) and Pi moved on to the other city-state on the list, the richest city of Thanalan -- Ul'dah.
Now, I really liked the whole look of Ul'dah. Its West Asian aesthetic and the way it's structured like a big palace with rich-looking buildings and bazaars around it was just so memorable and unique to me, and I absolutely loved looking around Ul'dah for the first time… even though it was the worst city for me so far in terms of actually exploring it because of the amount of layers it had. I was getting lost even more than I did in Limsa...... ;w;
We go talk to the guy here who isn't the ruler of the city-state but instead is the leader of the local Grand Company called "Immortal Flames" -- Raubahn Aldynn. He didn't talk to me much because everything has already been explained to Pi by Kan-E, so he quickly signed the papers and let me go.
OK, what did I do next, I genuenly don't remember, let me look at the fold--
Oh. I went to unlock a few dances instead of MSQ. That's hilarious.
But after that, I unlocked the first dungeon! I made sure to tell my friends about it because they wanted to take me through it so I wouldn't be afraid to do the next ones. I had to wait for one of them to come back from a raid they happened to be doing at the time though.
It was... fun! Although the fact that my friend was a level 90 tank who knew how to pull enemies quickly made me sweat because I was falling behind and doing shit damage due to my equipment being very low-level in comparison. But I was told to ask others to slow down in the next dungeons if I happened to have troubles catching up.
However, I wasn't afraid anymore. I wasn't playing as Tank or Healer so I didn't need to take note of everything at the same time, I just needed to maximize my damage output and stay alive -- simple enough.
Next day, I did a few sidequests before proceeding to the next dungeon, this time in The Black Shroud... and I actually couldn't find the entrance to it for a while because I somehow missed the fact it was under the ground.
I also asked my friend how to do a character portrait (and by extension the Adventure Plate) and it took me nearly an hour to make, if not more, but this was the result:
The variation of this portrait is still on my Adventure Plate to this day actually. I think it just shows the character of Pi quite nicely (at least when he isn't out exploring the world).
After I came back from university (and I remember that because I actually wrote to my friend about finishing the portrait as I was going outside to catch a bus), I actually went to the second dungeon. And then to the third one. None of them gave me troubles fortunately.
At this point, according to the screenshots at least, I seemed to have drifted off into Arcanist questline for some reason. Either because I wanted to unlock Scholar and Summoner (and hitting a brick wall because of Sylth-management quest) or because its story was just more interesting than MSQ itself to me at the moment, or maybe even both. So yeah, I ended up picking the MSQ back only a few days after, on September 7th.
And also have a funny excerpt from a conversation we had in Discord before that point:
Me:
Probably we won't be able to play together until Saturday, my University classes are held until 8PM for four days straight.
The player of the self-proclaimed Emo Catboy:
Das fine... miss 20 hours in THREE DAYS.
Me:
You two are so fun to play with though... but do you have a problem with my progress?
The player of the self-proclaimed Emo Catboy:
YOU ARE ALREADY LIKE A SIXTH OF THE WAY THROUGH THE FREE TRIAL. At the pace you are going, you'll outrun me when we hit StormBlood.
Me:
:D Skill issue.
(You are allowed to give me shit for this, Emo Catboy :) )
But I did have a problem of playing too much Final Fantasy XIV in a span of three days at that time, I won't deny that. I too had (and still have) a bit of a skill issue in this regard if you can say so.
OK, let's continue.
So, some thugs attacked a defenseless woman because they thought she was stealing food, my little baby defeated them, and then Y'shtola showed up again and told Pi that it must be fate that they have been bumping into each other so often and that he does actually have a gift that her good friend also has. This gift is called "Echo" and it's the reason why we can look into other people's memories, along with a few other powers we will learn of later. The miqo'te woman also invited us to visit her organisation's headquarters in Waking Sands at the Vesper Bay. But before I actually visited the Scions of the Seventh Dawn (that's what the group was called), I made sure to unlock Glamour, which also allowed me to obtain a beret, which I dyed blue and proudly put on Pi's head. Now he could finally have his most recognizable design feature and stop wearing ugly wizard hats and mismatched robes. After that, his appearance remained largely unchanged until the start of the next expansion.
But let's go back to the story.
This is the receptionist at the Waking Sands. And I think I was more buffled with her unironically singing "Trololo" than her standing on a chair because she was too short to reach the table.
But yeah, her name is Tataru. She lets my lalafell boy in after finding his name on the list and here we are finally introduced to the full cast of main protagonists.
(Sorry I actually never made a screenshot with them all in one frame...)
Their leader, a young woman by the name of Minfilia (voiced by Milla Maxwell of all people lmao) who also had Echo, told us that they have been working on protecting the peace on Eorzea after the Seventh Umbral Calamity (hence "Scions of the Seventh Dawn") and how they are searching for people that too have the gift of Echo because it helps with resisting the tempering of the primals, gods summoned by the beast tribes, which can brainwash people without such gift into serving them for the rest of their lives so there could be even more bloodshed. Minfilia politely asks if the lalafell boy of mine even wants to join the team, but of course he wants to save the world and be as cool as them so he answers with a nod. Now Pi too is a scion!
At this point, I had already formed a group of friends to get to the first trial as quickly as possible. And then something absolutely hilarious happened, which I unfortunately did not capture in a screenshot.
So I was in a cutscene and all, and when I finished it, I saw a giant fucking level 50 lizard thing that my friends were fighting. I panicked, tried to run away while I heard one of my friends scream, and then this thing killed me in one hit, scoring me my first death in the game. Even though I was swearing and typing in caps in the part chat at that moment (couldn't use the mic), I was actually laughing my ass off. I don't think I could have had a moment like that in any single player game, or even if I was playing FFXIV alone because I think my friends accidentally got the monster too close to me, so it was another moment that made this game worth it for me.
But just a few cutscenes after that, Pi got taken into some cave with other people by the lizard beastfolk tribe, Amalj'aa, that wanted to summon their god -- Ifrit. This was the first trial, the first actual boss fight, and--
The player of the stern-looking Auri man:
Jazz? Where are you?
The player of the self-proclaimed Emo Catboy:
...Actually, yeah, where ARE you?
I opened the map, saw that the location was called "???" and that there was no way out of it, and then I was told that you can actually start duties through a menu -- no need to approach the entry points to dungeons or trials once you unlock them. That was a relief because I was afraid my party leader won't be able to register for this duty and I would have to do it with a bunch of randoms.
I am sorry, I didn't screenshot Ifrit either. But the cutscene that showed how summons happen, with the whole demon-ass flame monster emerging while this musical theme of approaching disaster played, it all was quite great! As for Ifrit himself, though... he didn't stay alive for long, all because of my friend's equipment again, I am pretty sure.
We stopped the primal, sending the lizard folk running, and, oh! Ifrit left a crystal behind! Great, now its ours and we are 2/6th of the way to... whatever would actually happen once we collect all 6 crystals.
Damn, I do write quite a lot here, don't I? And I didn't even mention all the things that happened along the way, I had to skip a few (such as Golden Saucer and Aesthetician guy) since the post was too big already and I was diverding attention from MSQ a bit too much. But I assure you, once we get over the middle part of ARR, my writing will end up being more focused on MSQ itself, just bear with me here :'D
Hey, something clicked in me and I decided to draw growth charts for both of my WoLs.
I fucked up at the final stages (the most current looks, I mean), with making Pi too wide and giving Haru a weird face and head position I think, but I am still satisfied.
Pi ends up being 97 cm tall while Haru is 207 cm tall.
Pi is supposed to be 5 on the picture titled "original". Then he is 8-9 on 'After Calamity" one, then 14-17 on 'ARR-EW' and then on 'Post Endwalker' he is 18.
You can't really see it, but Pi gets his right ear chipped lightly at the side after the events of Calamity. Then Post Endwalker (and during Shadowbringers too actually) he gets his hair long enough to tie a floppy ponytail at the back.
Haru starts to dye his hair pink (normally it's blond) as a teen, and gets into make-up completely as an adult.
His 'Adult' outfit is from Endwalker era when he had to travel Eorzea a lot on his own.
The sakura-shaped trinket on his belt is the same one as he had since his teens, but it got a bit damaged from all the fighting he has been doing.
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