I wonder if FFXIV story is always so !!! is because it's consistently driven by (a) what characters want and (b) what we the WoL don't know yet. You would think that's the most obvious things that drive stories and they ARE, but you'll also be shocked at how many big name franchises do bad on that front.
FFXIV drags their feet on story beats, not on the story. It can be corny or annoying in the moment but because they have firm handrails on their actual, extended plot, I feel like that's what always earns them so much grace. You might put FFXIV aside for awhile if the current story isn't to your tastes, but you can always look forward to the next story beat to see if that piques your interest again.
Welcome to FFXIV. We have catboys, we have bunny boys, we have a rather heartwrenchingly excellent and non-sugarcoated expac covering the direct harm and inhumanities caused by occupation that weirdly got people a lot more upset than the fact that the series as a whole coddled the actual empire, we got racism and bullying in spades if you go on social media, but overall people are really nice in the actual content and overworld!
Would any moots like to trade art/writing with me of your FF14 OCs and/or/with canon characters with me in honor of the Rising (FF14 anniversary event) later this month? :3
Alisaie: Is there a difference between that and synthesis?
Meowdred: Price, mostly. People pay more for your hard work. That's the idea anyway.
Alisaie: And in practice??
Meowdred: Knowing how to do it by hand is crucial to knowing how to synthesize it. Synthesis method used by modern artisans ain't that different from Amaurotines' creation magicks. To fabricate a complete item, you really, really gotta be able to hold the image of the finished product in yer mind, or otherwise know how the materials come together to make the finished product. The only way to obtain that is to make it by hand at least once or twice. Then you can make it faster with synthesis.
Meowdred: Some extremely complicated or delicate items would also benefit from making the parts separately to ensure they're high quality, then just using synthesis at the final step to put 'em all together.
Alisaie: I see...I don't know if I would ever have patience for crafting.
Meowdred: Eh. When you're into it, you're into it. ^w^ Also, these will be baby blankets, so I wanna do it out of sentimentality.
Would any moots like to trade art/writing with me of your FF14 OCs and/or/with canon characters with me in honor of the Rising (FF14 anniversary event) later this month? :3
Would any moots like to trade art/writing with me of your FF14 OCs and/or/with canon characters with me in honor of the Rising (FF14 anniversary event) later this month? :3
Theodore: My son is very taken with your mastery over the rapier, Alisaie. If it isn't too out of your way, would you ever consider visiting us in Ishgard? Though I understand if you are quite through with snowy, dreary weather for awhile.
Alisaie: (+400 happiness points) It's no trouble! Let me know when the time is good and I will come.
Alphinaud: Young Aubin is shaping up to be quite the knight, isn't he? ^_^
Theodore: He is. At least, he had been convinced to pursue typical knightly studies rather than pistols...
Meowdred: He has pretty good aim for a 7 year old. C'mon.
Alisaie: I had no idea Ishgardian children start firearms training that early.
Theodore: Nobody should get their hands on a weapon that requires only the pulling of a trigger that early. My cousin Stephanivine just decided to forego all common sense, of course. You could have backed me up, Mordred. Did you not see him give Aubin the "present"?
Alphinaud: Oh, dear.
Meowdred: Why would I see anything???
Theodore: I will get you in some manner of glasses someday.
Meowdred: Not today though. What about Euphenie? You might a' well get 'er started on something legit before she picks up the family trade.
Theodore: They haven't been poachers since the Gridanian government finally relented on those limitations to the hunt.
Alisaie: :O
Alphinaud: P-Poachers...?
Meowdred: Don't worry about it, kids. Euphenie's clan are Keepers of the Moon who's been huntin' certain animals an' harvesting certain plants for generations. After the Calamity though, someone included those things as protected species when Gridanian government passed a bill to forbid their hunting. "Preservation o' nature", they said. Overnight, plants an' animals that'd been keeping 'em fed for decades became illegal to obtain. So the clan said kiss our asses an' kept at it, albeit sneaky-like.
Alphinaud: That is terrible! I understand the need to preserve local flora and fauna from extinction, but to devastate an entire clan's means of survival in return... Were those things even actually endangered?
Alisaie: Even if they were, the way Mordred put it sounds like no consideration was given to the clan when Gridania determined which species are to be protected.
Theodore: Just so. Perhaps Gridania is not solely to blame, if one is to view it as an isolated incident. The forest contains many settlements and clans which had lived there for Ages uncounted, keeping to themselves if not outright rejecting Gridanian outreach. Yet it is a sovereign's failure to treat with the people it claims to impose its laws and customs upon, and the city-state's general attitude towards those it does not think befit its definition of "citizen" only fed into the mistrust that made these scattered settlements reluctant to be contacted, to begin with.
Alphinaud: I see... Sometimes I feel the gaps in our knowledge of Eorzea so sorely. We expend effort elsewhere on the star, and while I still maintain that our time in Garlemald was necessary, it's as if I barely know the inner workings of Eorzea's politics at all.
Meowdred: What Theodore just told ya were told to us by Lyse, who spent lots of time there with Papalymo back then. It's not too late to fill in the gaps, even secondhanded. Just ask 'round the Scions. We're all a well traveled lot.
Alisaie: That's a good idea. And I'm glad to hear your daughter's clan isn't having their lives made difficult by odd laws anymore.
Theodore: Thank you, though I am wholly unsure whether they would give up more criminal enterprises. There turns out to be a good backwater market for certain herbs that can be refined into...potent recreational substances that are taxed very highly if sold through legitimate means. But I am choosing to look the other way until Mister Meow or the Seedseer decide to take a direct stance against it.
Meowdred: Or you can get off yer ass an' try to get 'em to at least give Gridanian envoys a chance. The money that clan needed so much to buy civilized amenities like medicine, clothes, or other services can be easy-got if they didn't shoot at Wood Wailers.
Theodore: You underestimate the shackles and pillars of tradition, Mordred. Also, I have no standing in the clan. I am not even a miqo'te. Nor does Euphenie's parent have any standings. Close-knitted communities like those rarely take kindly to deviance from expectations, especially when you are the eldest child of the clan matriarch.
Meowdred: 🤔 But...yer the father of the matriarch's granddaughter. Ain't she the oldest granddaughter too?
Theodore: That does not give her bastard father any status.
Alisaie: I don't suppose a noble from Ishgard could claim any... Not even as the Warrior of Light?
Theodore: The only people impressed with my name or "Warrior of Light" status are grizzled old soldiers and a particular kind of gossiper in Ishgard itself. I would rather have Euphenie and her parent move somewhere they aren't constantly pressured and nitpicked at by their clan, to be honest, but they're both reluctant to abandon family...as callously as they had sometimes been treated by them.
Alphinaud: I had no idea Euphenie is in such a predicament. :( If there is anything at all you can do to help, please, I insist that you tell us.
Theodore: Certainly. Firstly, please do not entertain the cat's attempts to convince you that kidnapping my daughter -- or her parent -- is a sound scheme.
Meowdred: I wasn't bein' serious!
Alisaie: What if Euphenie goes to study at the Conjurers' Guild in Gridania? She showed quite some talent in conjury already.
Meowdred: That's what I'm saaaayin'. But Theodore said Gridania's too racist.
Theodore: And am I wrong? Besides, she is still the heir apparent for her grandmother, who does dote on her quite a bit. As complex medicines are difficult to brew so far away from civilization as her clan lives, her talent in conjury will not be something the matriarch yields to Gridania without bloodshed. And (sighs) as long as their daughter is guaranteed good care, K'hlia will suffer any ire from the clan.
Meowdred: Which is why I said kidnapping--
Alphinaud: --can certainly be a last resort, but it would also complicate things and sour Theodore's bond with them, no?
Alisaie: You don't have to be nice about it, Alphinaud. Kidnapping is an asinine thing to even think about.
Meowdred: I wasn't bein' seeeerious.
Alisaie: It's impossible to tell with you.
Meowdred: Which is why I don't joke around a lot, okay?
Alphinaud: Are there no other Keeper clans that Euphenie's own trades with or have good relations with that would be more willing to vouch for us? If credibility is what we require to even begin convincing her grandmother, then perhaps we should also start locally.
Theodore: Hm... That is not a bad idea. Alas, it will hinge on whether they remember my face. I was a Wood Wailer once, and Euphenie's clan was not the only one affected by inconsiderate poaching laws. I was unfortunately the one to enforce punitive measures to these "poachers" years ago, and my hands are not clean.
Alisaie: Y-You killed them?!
Theodore: I did. At the time, I did not have any context to those laws or why the clans so opposed them. Never mind that there were real bandits and those in for the money mixed in with the lot. It would...be a poor edit of my character to say I would have cared at the time, even if I knew.
Meowdred: How did ye get with Euphenie's parent, then???
Theodore: (sighs) We were both injured during a fight and fell into the river during a rainy night. The swollen current swept us away from the conflict. As we had to rely on each other at the time, we called a truce. They healed me. And then we made some very bad decisions.
Alisaie: =_= I will never understand the logic of philanderers.
Theodore: -999999 HP
Alphinaud: Aheem heem. Well. Like I said, if you need any help...
Meowdred: Just marry 'em for real.
Theodore: What.
Meowdred: What's the marriage customs for their clan? It's not like it's gonna get in the way o' our contract in Ishgard.
Theodore: Keepers are matriarchal, Mister Meow. That means I would be expected to move in with whoever I join with.
Alphinaud: Um...
Meowdred: But that only applies if the clan member's female, right? K'hlia ain't female.
Theodore: I am noooooot sure if their mother would take kindly to me playing hoodwink with their child's gender, that she already has issues with.
Meowdred: Pah. Maybe I'll ask Lyse. This sounds like the kind of crazy bullshit she must've heard of at least once while livin' here.
Alisaie: Out of morbid curiosity, does Halonic doctrine permit multiple spouses?
Theodore: Hells no. How are we to protect our inheritance without bloodshed like that?! We are not even permitted concubines, and legitimizing bastards is a task so astronomical one would have better luck ending the Dragonsong War.
Meowdred: Which we did.
Theodore: I know. Such is the leverage I am using with the church to have Aubin legitimized as my heir.
Alphinaud: Is it that important?
Theodore: Yes, because then if my sister or stepmother decide to marry and have children of their own, then none of them can touch Aubin's inheritance without his permission. If I do not do this, he is as a second-class citizen to his would-be cousins, and indeed anyone related to my father or mother, despite being my direct progeny.
Alisaie: That's preposterous!
Meowdred: Is it really? This was a nation that decided justice's only meted out in death, an' made a kid and a civilian participate in church sanctioned violence to back up their violence.
Theodore: And is Ul'dah any better? Your Order of Nald'thal does reserve most of your bullying to the penniless rather than those born out of wedlock, but much to the same effect, no?
Meowdred: We're talking about HOW each place's bad, though, not whether a place's WORSE.
Theodore: Honestly, I have no idea why Ishgard held such draconian control over lineage and inheritance when we can all die at any moment. Many of us had, in the thousand years we have warred with the horde and with each other.
Alisaie: Can Aymeric not help?
Theodore: Aymeric is largely the reason Aubin is even being considered for the opportunity. The church continues to drag its feet, however, and so do many other lords. I am just prominent enough that they are afraid of my son setting a precedent. The nobility of Ishgard and the Church of Halone had been on very shaky grounds since the war's end, and some among them felt this act to be further eroding the soil under their feet while they still had not built new foundations.
Alisaie: That is ridiculous! What does one boy's ability to "legally" claim his father's inheritance have anything to do with them?
Alphinaud: They're afraid your success would encourage other, lesser nobles to also claim their bastards, and that would somehow dilute the entire ruling level's grip?
Theodore: Something like that. Aristocracy is only valuable when it is exclusive. Already so much was lost by nobles in Ishgard since the Calamity. Holdings and lands in outer parts of Coerthas were swept away by the tundra. New opportunities were small and fiercely competitive in the Diadem and other ventures. The war is ended, the church discredited, and now an inexorable, oncoming tide to shift the nation from a theocracy to a republic, putting civic powers ahead of blood. Many think blood is the only thing that permits power, and found themselves quite...challenged in letting go of it.
Alisaie: Then I shan't mourn their losing grip of it.
Theodore: Nor shall I. Some houses are already choosing to acclimate with grace. House Dzemael, of all things. I hope they will serve as a hallowed example for the rest.
Meowdred: Probably also doesn't help that we're married.
Theodore: Not at all, though likely less than you think. Aymeric and Lord Edmont had been workshopping our image as unity between the sovereignty and the craftspeople who moved here during Firmament reconstruction and had elected to stay -- who you know very well and are held in high esteems amongst. It does, in fact, do Aymeric's endorsement for Aubin much credit because no children will come out of our union.
Alisaie: Uuuugh. Alphinaud, I'm getting us drinks. This is something you and Theodore will talk about for hours and hours. But sure, I'll definitely go see Aubin.
Meowdred: I'll take pomegranate juice if they have it.
Alphinaud: Just a pitcher of water for me, please. And for Theodore as well. Much as I don't like proving my sister right...is it alright if we talk more at length about politics in Ishgard? 'Tis another area I have quite fallen behind on, I'm afraid, and considering the part we played in her transformation, it's honestly irresponsible for me to be so ignorant.
Theodore: Of course.
Meowdred: You know what, Alisaie. Let's both go. These two're lost to us for the evening.
origamiaround
vaporwave
stormborns
dailybridgerton
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
germansingergirl
yousharknotpass
theartofmadeline
