Hi sorry for dropping in out of nowhere - I'm the artist that did the duskwight lineup and 1) thank you for the tags, I LOVED reading them, 2) I have thoughts on Foulques' age also, mainly in that Elezen apparently mature slower, so I still do think he's, by Elezen standards, quite young and naive... he just ALSO had to spend [unspecified amount of time] in prison before and ended up the way he is.
and 3) yesssss alchemical transition via pomanders, love to see it. I'm so glad that there are people thinking deep about duskwight culture because I searched high and low for canon stuff and found Scraps. so yes thank you for the lovely tags and for caring about duskwights, I hope you have a nice day :)
Heya! Thank you for drawing and making so many duskwights I love duskwights. Especially trans duskwights they are inherently so gender to me. And also especially Foulques, my beloved optional NPC that lives in my brain and kickstarted my duskwight love.
I also have been in the Digging for Duskwight Lore Scraps mines, that's the Duskwight oc haver experience. Square give me a Gelmorra variant dungeon please.
While elezen aging is definitely fucky, the idea that the emotional development of longer-lived races would be hugely different always kind of confused me (especially in younger years) since. No matter how old your threshold is, you still have the same amount of experiences as someone with a shorter lifespan, and the years likely don't start to blend together until you're way older. Of course there may be some differences with brain development, so I began overthinking and went to consult Ye Olde FFXIV Age Chart (long-ass theorizing below the cut)
Lore states that elezen get their growth spurt at around 20, so I imagine that that's where they begin to be seen as young adults at the very least. For the elezen above that (And below 30, which I think is good 'reasonable adult who has experience under their belt' going by Artoriel and Stephavivivivinien being at that age) we have:
21: Hilda (Half-elezen)
22: Francel, Guydelot
23: Heustienne
24: Ysayle (I disagree with this she's a cult leader with a notable following I don't care that it raises questions for her backstory for her to be older, it's already a bit of a stretch at her current age. Ysayle is 27 minimum to me)
26: Emmanelain, Coultenet, Briardien
28: Haurchefant, Paulecrain
29: Urianger, Grinnaux, Zephirin
I think a good age to start with here is 26, since Emmanelain is there and the way he specifically is treated/perceived is a good insight for elezen expectations. Of course, he's our meek little lordling, and is seen as unreliable, immature, and in need of growing up by pretty much everyone. So 26 is likely an age where you're expected to have matured enough to transition into a responsible adult (at least in Ishgardian High Society), evident by his more competent peers Briardien (Also from an Ishgardian house) and Coultenet.
Heustienne is also a good place to look since wol is placed as a mentor for her, and her father wants you to watch over her and help her mature, but there's not really contempt in this. So 23 is likely still "coming-of-age" times for elezen (yet again, in Ishgard. Heustienne being essentially vice-azure dragoon is irrelevant here as Ishgard loves its child soldiers)
So if I had to ballpark from there, I think baby adult years are around 21~25. Of course, this is all colored by Ishgard standards, but there's still a show of mental development in these ages. By the way, Zephirin is noted to have entered a temple knights tourney at 15 (I did not realize this part in the past when joking that he had a height complex re: his greatsword, I apologize for my actions. You were totally justified for that Zephirin you were tiny) but yet again, Ishgard war child soldier industrial complex, but at the same time we got other teenagers going out and becoming adventurers so this is just a fantasy world thing.
So I'd say that Foulques was anywhere from 16 to 24 during the whole coffer incident. I'll place him at the latter end there because I do not want to risk the possibility of him being younger than Raha in present time, which spells disaster for my WoL's world. Add however many mystery years he spent in prison + however long he's been out for after that. I'm too lazy to see if there's a lore post on how long Eorzea's sentences last, but I personally think it's been 2~4 years since he got out when LNC quests happen.
ALSO! I didn't mention this in my tags but I definitely agree that Foulques is either second-generation surface duskie, or that he moved from a more duskwight-prevalent but smaller community in the shroud to Gridania. My hc is that he fell victim to believing in respectability politics and that if he's just Good Enough, anti-duskwight racism will end, which I think these line up with. One day I will post that long Foulques backstory headcanon post I have been marinating in my drafts for 3 or so years.
Finally 🫵 Allen Avadonia spotted. (And also Dominique my beloved. But Allen comes first since EC fundamentally changed my brain chemistry)
