soren v'kahzu

Fern ✨ she/her ✨ Soren Vah’Kazu ✨ Exarch Smoocher ✨ sometimes NSFW ✨ WoL Story site ✨ sorenvkahzu.weebly.com Bluesky: @sorensplorin

[soren-v-ffxiv]

What Makes a Name - WIPs & Bonus Photos

Long rambly post ahead just because I want my work collected up!

At the start, I took the dialogue of 5.3 and reckoned "where does this diverge for Soren and the Exarch's relationship in particular?"

First, I removed the dialogue concerning Elidibus. For the sake of keeping the scene tight, it was too difficult to keep the parallel between the "guiding my every deed," even if I would argue that's a very important part of the scene, too. Soren would have still had the fleeting thought, but the interest of pushing the similarities between herself and G'raha was more important to her than trying to unpack the ways that G'raha could be read as similar to her enemy.

The second deviation is how they speak to each other in the middle, and giving it a much more intimate feel.

Some of those dialogue bits made it to the final copy (14 months later). I changed Soren's last name. The tears are not as pronounced. I never did have them go forehead to forehead (I admittedly forgot)! But holding his cheek, the finger to his lips, that all stayed.

Then, the game became "how much do I have to depart from the cutscene images." At the start and end, I used some of the actual CS images, but largely had to retake the entire scene, not least of all because I put Soren on the opposite side of G'raha, so any CS images were reversed...

By the end, I was just scribbling the notions of what it would look like! I almost wish I'd read my own notes better, I really started winging it at the end.

At the very start, I actually posed what became page 9-10 first: the "hold his cheek" shots. I used the wrong Exarch model the first time around, as evidenced by his legs, but I loved some of those original (September 2025) shots SO MUCH that I kept them and just cropped it!

I recreated some of the shots with the right model later (like that last one).

When I was about 4 pages in, I sketched out the entire rest of the storyboard, which I held pretty damn close to!

Some of my fave "before and after"s:

I couldn't possibly put EVERY rejected photo because there are 559 total gposes that went into this comic ;;u;; but I'll put some additional fun highlights.

Full size pics taken for the Crystal Tower flashback insets:

To be continued in a reblog, as I have run out of photo space :D

[soren-v-ffxiv]

Continuing the thread~

I was very proud of my posing with the Exarch's arms in this set of shots, but you can barely see his right hand in the final copy (the last photo) since I liked the angle on his face the best and it worked well for the text placement.

One of the shots of G'raha was actually a test shot that I couldn't recreate quite as beautifully, so I pulled him off the Ocular background and color-adjusted it until it looked like it wasn't cut/paste.

It's so nice just to stare at him lol the Ocular light is so nice.

I could make an entirely separate post about the Kholusia scene, that was a whole project in and of itself! I took SO MANY ANGLES and only used ONE of them for the comic!!

The version sitting in the Crystal Tower remains one of my favorite gposes I've ever taken, even without the color bubbles and light rays I added in post.

+Bonus angles!

The last page I planned to have a mirror of the previous page, a side view of Soren running at the end, like this (draft shots):

In practice, though, the final shots with some close-up to really see both of their expressions (and going with a vertical layout) was WAY more compelling, and I'm glad I changed it. It was hard to choose from these!

Once again, to be continued in some reblogs~

[soren-v-ffxiv]

Last but not least, some of the cutscene pieces used for this!

In Soren's flashback page, two of the pictures were from my original ARR playthrough <3 The night sky Crystal Tower is also a misc screenshot I had from my original playthrough, just with the HUD off!

The tower scenery, G'raha holding his leg, the phantoms, and G'raha speaking on the penultimate page were all original CS images. Especially the latter had to be SERIOUSLY color adjusted, and I spliced together two CS pictures to make him smiling but with a zoomed out background.

+Final edit: Smiling face over larger-framed shot, color adjustments, duplicated layer to Gaussian blur background, added color gradients, and lighting adjustments

Anyway, thanks for reading if you're still here! I worked really hard on this for the last year and didn't want to lose all my scattered notes and progress. I had such fun making this.

[soren-v-ffxiv]

What Makes a Name - WIPs & Bonus Photos

Long rambly post ahead just because I want my work collected up!

At the start, I took the dialogue of 5.3 and reckoned "where does this diverge for Soren and the Exarch's relationship in particular?"

First, I removed the dialogue concerning Elidibus. For the sake of keeping the scene tight, it was too difficult to keep the parallel between the "guiding my every deed," even if I would argue that's a very important part of the scene, too. Soren would have still had the fleeting thought, but the interest of pushing the similarities between herself and G'raha was more important to her than trying to unpack the ways that G'raha could be read as similar to her enemy.

The second deviation is how they speak to each other in the middle, and giving it a much more intimate feel.

Some of those dialogue bits made it to the final copy (14 months later). I changed Soren's last name. The tears are not as pronounced. I never did have them go forehead to forehead (I admittedly forgot)! But holding his cheek, the finger to his lips, that all stayed.

Then, the game became "how much do I have to depart from the cutscene images." At the start and end, I used some of the actual CS images, but largely had to retake the entire scene, not least of all because I put Soren on the opposite side of G'raha, so any CS images were reversed...

By the end, I was just scribbling the notions of what it would look like! I almost wish I'd read my own notes better, I really started winging it at the end.

At the very start, I actually posed what became page 9-10 first: the "hold his cheek" shots. I used the wrong Exarch model the first time around, as evidenced by his legs, but I loved some of those original (September 2025) shots SO MUCH that I kept them and just cropped it!

I recreated some of the shots with the right model later (like that last one).

When I was about 4 pages in, I sketched out the entire rest of the storyboard, which I held pretty damn close to!

Some of my fave "before and after"s:

I couldn't possibly put EVERY rejected photo because there are 559 total gposes that went into this comic ;;u;; but I'll put some additional fun highlights.

Full size pics taken for the Crystal Tower flashback insets:

To be continued in a reblog, as I have run out of photo space :D

[soren-v-ffxiv]

Continuing the thread~

I was very proud of my posing with the Exarch's arms in this set of shots, but you can barely see his right hand in the final copy (the last photo) since I liked the angle on his face the best and it worked well for the text placement.

One of the shots of G'raha was actually a test shot that I couldn't recreate quite as beautifully, so I pulled him off the Ocular background and color-adjusted it until it looked like it wasn't cut/paste.

It's so nice just to stare at him lol the Ocular light is so nice.

I could make an entirely separate post about the Kholusia scene, that was a whole project in and of itself! I took SO MANY ANGLES and only used ONE of them for the comic!!

The version sitting in the Crystal Tower remains one of my favorite gposes I've ever taken, even without the color bubbles and light rays I added in post.

+Bonus angles!

The last page I planned to have a mirror of the previous page, a side view of Soren running at the end, like this (draft shots):

In practice, though, the final shots with some close-up to really see both of their expressions (and going with a vertical layout) was WAY more compelling, and I'm glad I changed it. It was hard to choose from these!

Once again, to be continued in some reblogs~

[soren-v-ffxiv]

What Makes a Name - WIPs & Bonus Photos

Long rambly post ahead just because I want my work collected up!

At the start, I took the dialogue of 5.3 and reckoned "where does this diverge for Soren and the Exarch's relationship in particular?"

First, I removed the dialogue concerning Elidibus. For the sake of keeping the scene tight, it was too difficult to keep the parallel between the "guiding my every deed," even if I would argue that's a very important part of the scene, too. Soren would have still had the fleeting thought, but the interest of pushing the similarities between herself and G'raha was more important to her than trying to unpack the ways that G'raha could be read as similar to her enemy.

The second deviation is how they speak to each other in the middle, and giving it a much more intimate feel.

Some of those dialogue bits made it to the final copy (14 months later). I changed Soren's last name. The tears are not as pronounced. I never did have them go forehead to forehead (I admittedly forgot)! But holding his cheek, the finger to his lips, that all stayed.

Then, the game became "how much do I have to depart from the cutscene images." At the start and end, I used some of the actual CS images, but largely had to retake the entire scene, not least of all because I put Soren on the opposite side of G'raha, so any CS images were reversed...

By the end, I was just scribbling the notions of what it would look like! I almost wish I'd read my own notes better, I really started winging it at the end.

At the very start, I actually posed what became page 9-10 first: the "hold his cheek" shots. I used the wrong Exarch model the first time around, as evidenced by his legs, but I loved some of those original (September 2025) shots SO MUCH that I kept them and just cropped it!

I recreated some of the shots with the right model later (like that last one).

When I was about 4 pages in, I sketched out the entire rest of the storyboard, which I held pretty damn close to!

Some of my fave "before and after"s:

I couldn't possibly put EVERY rejected photo because there are 559 total gposes that went into this comic ;;u;; but I'll put some additional fun highlights.

Full size pics taken for the Crystal Tower flashback insets:

To be continued in a reblog, as I have run out of photo space :D

[soren-v-ffxiv]

What Makes a Name || A 5.3 cutscene retelling Bluesky Thread & Ao3

[andi-tiucs]

[eunisyn]

I'll be there when the world stops turning In the end I want to be standing at the beginning with you

I had a brainworm and had to draw..... ;w; i love one cat boy

I will have a print set available soon! Only 25 sets will be made ;w; thank you!!

[lordklemmbaustein]

My financial situation has gotten kinda bad in the last weeks (too many bills with basically no income lol), so I'm doing a 50% sale on my 3D Render & Animation services on my VGen (Link)

Every Like and Reblog helps!

Recent renders I did:

[wildstar25]

I'm inviting you all to come celebrate Arsay's nameday (aka my ffxiv anniversary) on Saturday, June 6th from 1 - 3 pm EST @ Materia, Bismark with a good 'ol Costa del Sol Beach Party!!

Come hangout, chat, draw, pose with friends, cast a line off the bloodshore, and if there's enough of us maybe queuing into some PvP??? in your best beach attire for 2 hours 🏖️

Hope to see you there!

[wildstar25]

Coming to you LIVE from Arsay's beach bash!!!

Hope to see you there!!

[wildstar25]

BIG THANK YOU to everyone who made it out!!! It was SO much fun

💙🏖️😸

[nhaneh]

adding my own screengrab even if it's basically just a repeat of that last one lmao

'twas a delight to be there, tho!

[wildstar25]

I'm inviting you all to come celebrate Arsay's nameday (aka my ffxiv anniversary) on Saturday, June 6th from 1 - 3 pm EST @ Materia, Bismark with a good 'ol Costa del Sol Beach Party!!

Come hangout, chat, draw, pose with friends, cast a line off the bloodshore, and if there's enough of us maybe queuing into some PvP??? in your best beach attire for 2 hours 🏖️

Hope to see you there!

[wildstar25]

Coming to you LIVE from Arsay's beach bash!!!

Hope to see you there!!

[wildstar25]

BIG THANK YOU to everyone who made it out!!! It was SO much fun

💙🏖️😸

[katalean]

today instead of working on my thesis film I chose to be happy

[koyoriin]

kaede // FFXIV comm for sentou!

[ bluesky | patreon | instagram | twitter | prints | clothing ]

[artctrlcee]

Empty nest syndrome

Based on the outtakes by Thancred's English VA (link to bsky)

[ofdarklands]

i'm cleaning my images folder at work. time to post it again because i'm too lazy to find the original post i made this for

[ofdarklands]

#honestly this is just missing emet sitting on the ledge in lakeland Im pretty sure he did the shinji pose and all #I will never get over alphinaud sitting sadly on a chair though (@aethris-art x)

the team assembles

[theindomitablerioghan]

when the whole squad got aether sickness

[ofdarklands]

getting a bit crowded

[ofdarklands]

WAIT

team complete

[ofdarklands]

#someone play the FF victory fanfare now (x)

ok last one

[ofdarklands]

#gotta find two more people to add so it can be a full party #surely Estinien has a pose like this somewhere (x)

regrettably estinien got disconnected mid run

[ofdarklands]

#i still think that beaten to death Zenos from ultima thule should be added to this (x)

yeah yeah ok.

[ofdarklands]

#it’s nice that they left shinji in #what class is he

summoner

[amaranthos-winter]

i cant believe the prophecy is real

[voidsentprinces]

[snail-fever]

a story about grief

song: world spins madly on by the weepies

[koijikido]

Vierapril 2026 28. this beautiful world 🌍

[1driedpersimmon]

Not an art post but.... got to see Ordained Stillness in person at the primals concert!!! It was so cool to experience! I wanted to pan around the room but I also didnt wanna die so.....