rob plounce's ffxiv fic reclist
this will update as i continue to find stuff i enjoy. (it also exists as a page on my desktop blog!)
disclaimer: this is just stuff i’ve read that i’ve enjoyed! i have my own favorite characters and pairings, so my reclist skews heavily towards those. i’m very into npcshipping, so this reclist is majority that! i have not read everything in every pairing and character tag, so don’t take this as a comprehensive guide. these are just things that i liked and think are worth reading.
fics are noted with wordcount, pairing (or as gen), and rating (e = explicit). * means it's been recently added to the list.
spoilers ahoy!
scions
flight of an anorak (17k+, G) gen - urianger childhood backstory fic with transfem urianger! incredibly well-characterized urianger narration. breaks my heart (due to Baby Sadness) and brings a smile to my face (due to Baby Joy) with every update.
lost and found (8.8k, T) gen, light moenuri - you know how moenbryda’s parents basically adopted urianger after they basically abandoned him? this fic is about that. also urianger autism :)
while eating (2.2k, G) gen - more baby autistic urianger with bastard parents. sob. at least moenbryda’s parents are there.
foster (1k, G) gen - pre-canon, thancred overhears fourchenault and louisoix talking about him.
second impression (4.8k, T) gen - fourchenault is a bit more of a classist bastard than in canon and is a dick to thancred, but gets past it. mostly. thancred does his best.
the stars in their abundance (2.7k, T) gen - pre-canon from the perspective of g'raha’s mom in corvos!
cross (1.1k, G) gen - minfilia and thancred clean up the mess of thancred’s possession.
your song, carried onwards (4.9k, G) gen - thancred’s rescue of alisaie from the WoD in the hvw patches.
a stranger in the woods (4.3k, E) thancred/marcechamp - you know, the guy from tailfeather in heavensward? they hook up. thancred gets taken care of.
dust in your eyes (8.8k, T). background ships include wolchefant, wolcred, and haurchefant/urianger, but is mostly about thancred being a sad bastard who is always too slow, too late, and trying to be his best self but not totally succeeding. and haurchefant being a great guy. good character stuff.
how massive is the spirit in us (2.2k, G) gen - ryne character introspection… makes my heart hurt.
testing the waters (1.8k, G) gen - thancred teaches ryne to swim.
the shimmering light (2k, G) gen, light thanuri - urianger settling into the bookman’s shelves. fun il mheg worldbuilding.
almost crystal, almost ascian (10k, T) gen - minfilia and the exarch meet up a few times over the course of a century. their parallelisms. the horror of being “minfilia.”
off the hook, provisionally (974, G) gen - y'shtola talks to the exarch in the wake of 5.0 about his deception.
among the shelves (5k, G). gen - the twins and ryne hang out and talk about the other scions.
portentous news (842, G) gen - urianger’s first morning on the moon in the middle of endwalker.
adventures in unlikely friendship (23k, T) gen - wol+cred friendship! i really like these. the bozja one is delightful. passively-suicidal bestiessss
void parsley sojourn (4k, T) gen, light thanuri - urianger hotboxes the rising stones. very charming depiction of urianger as a weed nerd. makes me laugh and smile every time i read it!
*footnotes and footprints (1.6k, G) gen - thancred’s thoughts when they arrive in ultima thule. oof ouch.
*library blues (2k, G) gen - thancred and y'shtola hang out in the library and discuss certain difficulties they have around reading. great bits of worldbuilding around y'shtola’s magic-assisted blindness.
*the path of the scholar (9k, G) gen - alisaie gets her archon mark for curing tempering, and gets input from all the scions as well. very sweet… i love you alisaie…
*tadpole (3k, G) gen - tween alisaie deals with one of the little miseries of realizing that you're growing up different from the other tween girls. and bonds with y'shtola.
*poets and partisans (94k, M) gen, minor side pairings - alisaie-centric fic where in a worse timeline the garlean empire takes over eorzea as well, and the twins are selected for this years' hunger games. riveting plot that won't pull punches. yeowch!!
there is (maybe) an ascian among us (11k, T) gen, minor side pairings - post-endwalker, the scions try to get to the bottom of a conspiracy about thancred, who just wants to grill for gods sake! comedy.
two scions walks into a bar… (26k, T) gen, but eventually thanuri - a series where the author intended to just analyze and write about thancred & urianger’s relationship as gen, but then slid into shipping lmao. covers ARR-early STB with a bit of post-SHB. great character work for both of them!
respite, despite (25k, T) thanuri - urianger pining from pre-5.0 to the close of endwalker… good pining, good urianger misery, good romance. wagh!
erasing all the lines in the sand (30k, E) thanuri - mutual pining, miscommunication, coparenting! bookman’s shelves fic.
(in parantheses) (9.9k, M) thanuri - thancred’s rescuing of minfilia, time in the first, and the mental stress that emet-selch gives him due to ascian trauma during shadowbringers. also getting together with urianger.
sleepy-eyed soldier (4.6k, M) thanuri - elidibus puppetting ardbert’s body brings thancred’s ptsd over having his body used by lahabrea roaring back to the surface in the form of nightmares and hypervigilance. (mind the CWs)
trouble in paradise (2.3k, E) thanuri - transfem urianger!!!! :D :D :D great kind-of-an-asshole thancred character work. hurting each other but trying to fix it.
sole conundrum (412, G) thanuri - pre-edw garlemald scouting mission. urianger autism :D
three of swords reversed (3.2k, T) thanuri, moenuri - urianger dealing with grief over moenbryda and thancred in the later half of endwalker.
another sunrise (5.8k, T) thanuri - post-edw wanderings - urianger deals with a mystery, sudden solitude, and a crisis of doubt! ends happily.
take root in this barren soil (and grow back stronger) (7.4k, E) thanuri - thancred shares what the training regimen of a sharlayan spy entails, not expecting urianger to react so strongly.
to wander is a dream (46k, M) thanuri - post-edw. i don’t tend to enjoy hanahaki fics but this fic is so so so good. thancred being an emotionally stunted asshole, urianger being the world’s most beautiful martyr (for better or for worse), lots of fae stuff, both of them struggling to not be repressed.
why do we forbear? (9.3k, E) thanuri - modern au fake dating, which would usually not appeal to me but this one’s real cute. (currently unfinished)
to care for those we love (11k, T) waters family, thanuri - ryne drags thancred to the bookman’s shelves and does her best to administer first aid in urianger’s absence. each chapter is from one of the trio’s pov - i’m usually not super into 1st person, but this fic uses it really effectively in imparting each character’s mindset. it’s very sweet!
an ordeal, shared (6.1k, T) waters family + minor rynegaia & thanuri - canon divergent au where FRU happened and ryne was possessed by mitron. ryne deals with the psychological aftereffects of possession, and she and thancred go on a camping trip.
*lambfic (3.9k, M) gen urianger + louisoix & minor thanuri - right before 1.0, louisoix assigns urianger a task in thanalan. ouuugh it hurts. urianger... urianger...
*may kindness prevail (4.1k, G) + even the dogs (2.5k, M) gen, thanuri - daemons au! first is a retelling of ryne's journey through shb along with her relationships with women and herself (and is by me); second is situationship thanuri and thancred's fractured relationship with his sweet coyote (and is a lovely addition by momo).
ancients
on call (2.5k, T) hythades - emet-selch goes out of town, and hyth is asked to step in for a soul-seeing duty. and he futzes with emet-selch’s office.
mail run (840, G) hythades - “A young archival intern keeps finding completely legitimate reasons to do all the deliveries to a very specific Bureau of the Architect clerk. For no reason at all.” young love!
as stars to a sky (1.8k, T) hythades - little vignettes about life in the pre-sundered world.
the seat of destruction (13k, M) hythades - canon-divergent au where hythlodaeus is the one to take the seat of emet-selch, and the sundering still happens. my favorite ascian!hyth work.
affective memory (9.3k, T) hythades - pov from the shade of hythlodaeus as he wanders around emet-selch’s reconstructed amaurot.
for good health and opportunity (14k, T) pre-emetexarch - emet-selch visits the crystal exarch numerous times over the course of a century. frenemies!
*sonnet 116 (6.3k, T/M) hythazem + hythades + venazem - dysfunction junction in the ancient world. divorce abounds. kind of gave me emet-selch advanced misogyny brainworms. transfem hyth!
other characters
“nero tol scaeva did nothing wrong”… (5k, G) gen - a bunch of job npcs try to arrest nero for driving without a license. goes about as well as you might think.
biohazard (1.1k, G) gen - nero hates valens’ ass. not because he has “morals” or anything he just thinks valens is a dogshit project manager.
left in the dust (3.9k, T?) cidnero - ARR nero finds amnesiac marques working in the lichyard. miserable little man.
adrift in memory’s fog (16k, T) cidnero - cid’s frequent bouts of amnesia have led to a patchy memory - enough where he forgets that he and nero were betrothed as teenagers. (trans cid!)
the troubled envoy (1.3k, T) gen - maxima’s diary entries during the stormblood patches, including his thoughts on his weird boss.
the last abandonment (1.9k, M) gen - maxima wanders the ruins of garlemald and reflects on his time in the garlean left. by the same author as above - i really rec all their maxima fics.
this cathedral where your face stains the windows (2k, G) ysayle/igeyrohm - “Someone had to teach Ysayle summoning.” great ysayle heresy stuff + toxic yuri.
this blessed day (80k, M) gen - lucia’s journey from a captured garlean spy to aymeric’s right hand. lucia……
cadavre exquis (6.4k, T) gen - emmanellain helps pack up haurchefant’s things at camp dragonhead ft ishgardian homophobia and an underground queer zine scene.
the lantern jar (19k, T) cirisadu - OH MY GODDDDDDDDDDD. this fic is so good. cirina and sadu growing close. lots of development of steppe spiritual traditions and beliefs.
duet (13k, T) estivrtra - estinien encourages vrtra to live more fully as a dragon. cool dragon stuff.
a view of you (14k, M) estivrtra - estinien gets fatally wounded, and vrtra keeps him alive via a great sacrifice (sadly unfinished, but what’s there is a great read)
veteran advisor (15k, E) vrtra/estinien/gaius - really great gaius character work here where he and allie are on vacation in radz-at-han, and the impact that has on both of them. but also? adult varshahn gets railed. good for him!
this home wrested forth (2.5k, T) gen - sidurgu from DRK quests and alaqa from WHM quests meet up and deal with some gridanian wrongdoing.
a fervent desire (111k+, E) sanson/guydelot - an incredibly in-depth retelling of the BRD quests. great work developing these characters and giving them really in-depth motivations!
and love you shall find (9.8k, E) sanson/guydelot - BRD quests, but from the perspective of a sanson who journals as an accommodation for his short-term memory loss.
*the bathing dance (16k, E) koana/bakool ja ja - during dt patches, koana and bakool ja ja bond over their daddy issues and then hook up. really excellent exploration of bakool ja ja, both his character arc and how it is to be a what he is! nerd slut/virgin chad with trans koana.
there are also my own ffxiv fics, if you so choose to peruse!
Someone just shared in a comment on one of my older ficlets that it was on a rec list!! I love to know these things. This looks like a fantastic list too.
