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"What If..." Redux: Avengret's Favored
What if the Strikers never left Coerthas and the siblings fell into Avengret's heretical claws?
To reach Lady Iceheart, Eorzea's heroes must somehow get past the Frost Maiden's greatest champions, armed by Saint Shiva herself...
Commission of Emelia and Corran Striker, Aeryn's parents; artist is Barn-Swallow. Lovely to work with, will try to comm again in the future. And I do so love the details!
Carrd Twitter
I did not mention that Vrtra was a secret when I supplied the references; just that he was important to Emelia's homeland and its lore, and that his motif should be on her side. The refs for Emelia were in the Thav Wool dress, and I mentioned roughly style, fabrics, colorful. I always give creative license for artist cuz MMO clothes. So she designed that dress and when in the color checks I saw that just one little bit of green, tying Em back to the dragon on her side, I was gleeful.
Especially since Corran is pretty well dressed as his references, including an entirely red shirt, tying him much more closely to Avengret. Also he's such a handsome dork, with his lovely bride and not quite realizing how in over his head he is.
Also if you look closely, Emelia has a nose piercing. That's actually something I want for Aeryn in game someday too.
I'm loving this piece. It's so pretty.
Bearing Sins of the Past
“Aeryn faced Nidhogg himself, and fights gods, eldritch sorcerers, rampaging alien machines, and Twelve only knows what else when not thrashing Imperials. Why is this dragon cause to fear?”
“Because she’ll know Aeryn the moment she catches her scent. And I’m not sure what the effects of the bond between them will be.”
“What bond? What are you talking about?”
The story of the dragon Avengret and her ties to Warrior of Light Aeryn Striker's family are now (finally!) on Ao3, starting with:
Chapter 1 Baleful Tidings
All of the original FFXIV Write prompts have been revised, re-ordered, lines and scenes shuffled around, and a few new chapters have even been added. I'll keep the original prompts as-is. This took far longer than I meant to, given life, other writing projects, and Endwalker.
My 2021 FFXIV Master List
Bearing Sins of the Past Ch 6 Bloodsong
“That’s it!” Johon exclaimed. “Corran’s foreign wife; you look much like her. Got his eyes, though. Gods, I haven’t thought of them in years.”
Aeryn’s attention pivoted from the older man back to Avengret, who was grinning in the way only dragons could, every sharp tooth in her mouth visible. “You—So you knew my parents,” she said to him. “They were...farmers.” The other heretics whispered feverishly around them, now realizing exactly who the woman in the red coat was.
Avengret laughed. “Your father was so much more! Until his potential was cut down by a lance, like so many others.”
“Aeryn, what’s she talking about?” Heustienne asked.
“I have no idea. My father died when dragons attacked our village, coming after—” She stopped, throat suddenly tight like it had become that day of their desperate, windy ride home, but finding only smoke and ashes. She remembered the anger radiating off Alberic, tall and terrifying to her child self in his spiky dragoon armor, bloodstains marring the dark plate.
Chapter 6 Bloodsong is live!
Aeryn and Heustienne come face to face with Avengret, but the meeting does not go at all how the Warrior of Light hopes or expects.
Soon...
In FFXIVWrite2020, I wrote a prompt near the end about a secret Alberic kept, concerning my WoL, Aeryn's, past. In FFXIVWrite2021, I ended up writing quite a few more prompts about that, creating a story about Corran Striker's actions, what Alberic did and why, and the dragon at the center of it all, an ancient red named Avengret.
I've finally gotten a draft more or less hammered out; re-ordering, revising, adding, removing, and shuffling the original prompts into an actual (I hope) story. I'll be posting to Ao3 every few days, with notifications here on Tumblr (and probably other places).
In the meantime, the initial prompts in their original versions and order for perusal (and for me to see how very much I've done with this...). Set in that nebulous time between the very end of Shadowbringers and the start of Endwalker, there might be some random out of context spoilers for sprouts not through those expansions yet.
1. Paternal - X’rhun discovers a past truth Alberic keeps hidden. 2. Aberrant - Backstory; Corran Striker starts his doomed path. 3. Scale - Backstory; more of Corran’s heretical history. 4. Baleful - Keeping the Warrior of Light out of trouble is tough. 5. Passion - Corran & Emelia’s spicy followup to “Aberrant” 6. Speculate - Backstory, Ser Alberic Bale seeing through a promise. 7. Friable - Backstory. Vignettes of Emelia’s POV over time. 8. Heady - A reason Alberic feared Aeryn meeting Avengret. 9. Preaching to the Choir - Brotherly understanding after “Heady.” 10. Strained - Immediate follow up to "Preaching", more Estinien. 11. Thunderous - Aeryn finally Echoes That Moment from Alberic. 12. Devil’s Advocate - Plans to deal with Avengret are debated. 13. Soul - Aeryn has concerns about Alberic versus Avengret. 14. Bow - The team attempts their plan against Avengret.
Bearing Sins of the Past Ch 5 Scales
“Here you are,” Avengret intoned, her deep voice a purr to Corran’s ears now.
“I’m grateful for your trust in me,” he said, standing before her, the others watching and waiting at his back.
“You have been a good and faithful soldier,” she said. “I reward those who have earned it.” Her large head lowered to look at him more directly, orange eyes dancing like flames. “But I sense ambivalence, my son.”
He gave his response thought. “I want to take the next step, yet part of me fears…what if, like Tiron, I cannot turn back?”
Avengret harrumphed. “You would cling to your weak mortal form rather than grasp for ascendancy?”
“As a man, I can continue to work among other men.”
“And?” Her burning eyes bore into him.
Chapter 5 Scales now live!
Seven years after taking his first sip, Corran finally takes the next step in his continuing heresy. Also our first (and I think as of this writing, only so far?) look at pre-trauma little Aeryn, just a few moons past her fifth nameday...
Bearing Sins of the Past Ch 15 Crescendo
“You can stop this; the war is over, Avengret. The other dragons have made peace—even your siblings.”
“Traitors!” Avengret shriek-roared, frosty dust falling from the shaken rafters as she reared up. “If they wish to forget a thousand years of suffering, of blood and horror at men's hands, forget her, then I shall destroy them as utterly as I will Ishgard!”
“You can’t,” Aeryn said. She had little time; Avengret’s heretics were sure to respond to her outburst. “The city will repel you and your brood, and all you’ve built will be for naught. Nidhogg couldn’t do it with the might of the Horde, and you’ve not even a fraction of that.”
“I won’t need it!” the dragon rasped. “Not once you summon him forth for me.”
“I swiving hate being right,” Aeryn muttered. “I’m not summoning anything. I fight primals, Avengret. And besides,” she hastily added before the dragon could interrupt. “We now know how to cure the tempered; you won’t even have the satisfaction of making the Ishgardians into his thralls. This plan is pointless.”
Avengret made a sound. As it grew louder, Aeryn realized the dragon was laughing. “Think so?” she asked, in that way of those in on a joke their listener was not. “Speaking of pointless plans…”
Chapter 15 Crescendo is now live on Ao3!
One month of posting today! The gang takes the fight to Avengret, where plans and contingencies come to fruition for all involved in this verse of the Song.
There's an epilogue yet to come...
Bearing Sins of the Past Ch 13 Details
“But you fight primals, you don’t summon them,” Heustienne said.
Aeryn winced. “I do know the fundamentals, and have had cause to draw aether into deiform entities in the First, as part of a plan to release it back into the land to revitalize it after the Flood of Light.” She rubbed the back of her neck and shrugged.
“If I understood that correctly, such a plan could work,” Alberic said. “So no, we don’t send Aeryn.”
She glowered at him, but he only crossed his arms and returned the look evenly.
“I think we should,” X’rhun said. “We give Avengret exactly what she wants—and use the opportunity to our own advantage.”
“You want to use the Warrior of Light as bait?” Heustienne said, incredulous.
X’rhun nodded. “Let’s be honest, it wouldn’t be the first time, would it, Aeryn?” As she shook her head, he nodded his own.
Chapter 13 Details is now live on Ao3!
I keep posting these so late but here's a chapter of planning.
