A small detail I picked up on while writing the Rak’tika section of my Shadowbringers rewrite - the Night’s Blessed know sin eaters well enough to tell when one of them is likely to corrupt others:
Night's Blessed: Runar!
Night's Blessed: In the woods... <pant> <pant> Sin eaters. I fear they may have the touch.
Runar: Where!?
Night's Blessed: In the grove to the southwest. For a mercy, they've yet to wander any closer to Slitherbough.
Runar: Then we have no need to engage. Inform the guard that no one is to set foot outside the village until they have moved on.
Night's Blessed: But sir, what of Toddia's heartstone?
Night's Blessed: It must be retrieved before the service.
Runar: Of all the times for sin eaters to appear...
Minfilia: Are you just going to leave them alone?
Runar: Under normal circumstances, we would not hesitate in striking the beasts down. But if they indeed have the touch, I will not risk them corrupting one of our own.
I love this. It makes perfect sense that this is knowledge the Night’s Blessed have, that other factions don’t make mention of.
The farmers of Kholusia aren't equipped for combat, and aren’t protected by any military; they need to avoid sin eater conflicts at all costs. The Crystarium, on the other hand, fights sin eaters from a position of strength; the citizenry can shelter safely behind the Crystarium barrier, and their armed forces are free to (/obliged to) indiscriminately kill any sin eater they encounter, regardless of the risk.
Only the Night’s Blessed and the other residents of Rak'tika are in a position to make a cost/benefit analysis of whether they need to run and hide, or stand and fight - they are the only civilians who have equipped themselves to deal with the new normal. They're a very spiritual community who are also extremely canny and practical about the dangers surrounding them (see: the decision not to rebuild Fort Gohn), which I like a great deal.
I do feel like the Scions' involvement, particulary Y'shtola's, diminishes this a bit; I would have liked one more named Night's Blessed character to flesh the group out a touch further, and also to stop the story being "outsiders step in to uncover the local history and save the region" - perhaps a historian/spiritual guide who works with Y'shtola and the Scions on the tablet transcription, for example. (But these details are what Umbra Dei is for!)
Did some of the Night's Blessed quests on Iyna and recalled this bit.
Runar: Should you see any of our people come to this chamber, they have likely returned from a journey beyond the borders of Rak'tika.
Runar: We use the water stored here to cleanse ourselves of the Light's impurity.
Runar: A simple and perhaps peculiar custom, but it is one of our most important.
Runar: Would you two kneel for just a moment, that I might rid you of the Light's impurity?
As Runar lightly sprays you with water, your skin begins to tingle.
Runar: And with that, you have been cleansed of the Light's blighted touch. How do you feel?
Minfilia: I'm not sure, to be honest. Not refreshed, exactly, but I do feel different.
Minfilia: Has this water been treated in some way?
Runar: Only blessed by our priests. They are practiced in the arcane arts. As such, it is said their prayers imbue the water with a faint dark energy.
Runar: A prickling sensation? No one has ever spoken of such a reaction before.
Minfilia: I wouldn't say it was an unpleasant sensation, but I too felt something strange.
Runar: Hmmm. The dark aspect of this water should have no discernible effect. Unless…
Runar: By the gods! Master Matoya was right─you are sin eaters!
Runar: I jest, I jest. What you felt was likely no more than the chill of the water.
Both Ryne and the WoL at that point have a lot of Light related to them, and so if the water is blessed by priests with a bit of dark magic, it makes sense.
Pinterest Asks: 13. “These people are my family, and if you hurt them in anyway – I will kill you.”
It was easy to forget that the galdjent woman was not Dark Autumn. The physical similarities were uncanny; warm brown skin, thick black hair worn long, golden eyes. They were even of a similar muscular build and exceedingly tall height.
But where Dark excelled in martial skills and could barely cast the most basic of spells, Felina was an expert magus, eschewing martial weapons unless she had little other choice. A priest’s staff and traditional Night’s Blessed robes–today in a glossy blue–were her preference. And they did, Urianger thought, compliment the woman’s form very well, even from an entirely objective viewpoint.
Though it was difficult to remain objective with said priest’s staff pressed against his throat just under his chin and its owner glowering down at him, golden eyes narrowed in suspicion. She held him right at the edge of the tower’s walkway, a good forty fulms over the houses and narrow streets of Fort Gohn.
“I am sorry to have given thee cause to mistrust mine intentions,” Urianger said after a moment of silent staring. He had used the time to go back over their conversation up to this point, and he had to admit he was impressed by her subtly drawing out as much as she had from him.
“I overheard your argument with Master Matoya,” Felina said simply. “She is hurt that you seem to be withholding something, at that Crystal Exarch’s behest. She wants to trust you–but she distrusts him, and has told me a little of why.”
That was surprising, and he was certain he had not hidden that from his expression quickly enough. Then again, was it truly, when Felina looked so much like a friend, one of the Warrior of Light’s own boon companions able to fight primals and other threats to Eorzea? It certainly explained how Felina had been able to bait him so well, if she had also learned more than she ought to from Y’shtola.
It also likely helped Felina was one of the few among the Night’s Blessed so far to accept the strange “mystel” woman; they had cause to be cautious, and Felina’s challenge of Urianger’s own intentions made sense in that regard. It would not surprise him if she were worried that she had made a mistake in accepting the outsiders, given what she must have overheard.
“My association with the Exarch is more…complicated than I care for,” Urianger admitted. He pushed down his own sense of ambivalence at having to once again keep such secrets from his dearest friends. “‘Tis rare that I cannot tell…Master Matoya all that I know, but she understands I have my reasons.”
“I’m not sure she does,” Felina replied. She drew back her staff and looked away, eyes closed in thought for a moment. “You have the right to call Master Matoya by her true name. You even stumble on the name she wears in the Light.”
“Yes,” Urianger said. “I have known the lady since we were but children in our homeland.”
“You’re family. And family sometimes argues,” Felina said, opening her eyes and looking down over the village.
Urianger did not reply, watching her and attempting to guess what would come next. It was difficult, when he kept conflating this woman with her doppelganger back in the Source. For all their physical similarities, Felina and Dark Autumn were different women.
“You, Master Matoya–even the Exarch, say you came to Norvrandt to help. And I believe you think that.”
“However?”
“No one can know everything, not even a strange old wizard in his mystical tower. Believing you know what’s best for others isn’t the same thing as it actually being the best for them–more often, it’s pure arrogance.” Felina gestured over the village and the people below. “These people are my family, and if you hurt them in any way–I will kill you.”
There was no heat behind the words, no withheld emotion. Simple fact, based on what little information she had, and the realities of life under the Everlasting Light. In that way, not so different from his distant friend after all. Dark was also a rather practical, straightforward woman.
“You have my vow, my lady, it shall not come to that. My arrival to the realm was not intentional, but I shall do all in my power to aid thee and thine against the harms that plague this land.”
“Perhaps you can talk to the sin eaters to death,” Felina said dryly. “And for Master Matoya’s sake, I hope you and that Exarch know what in the hells you’re doing.” She turned on her heel and strode off, the long skirts of her robe swirling, the Light above gleaming over the soft, blue cloth.
‘So do I,’ Urianger thought as he watched her walk away.
——
((Felina first got mentioned HERE, as an alternative to having Dark on the First.))
“Truly? You’re Master Matoya’s friend? There’s no one I admire and respect more! She’s so wise, and gentle, and beautiful... Ah, I want to be just like her!”
-Slitherbough Girl on Y’shtola “Master Matoya” Rhul, Dreamspinners quests.
Honestly kid, same.
This little drahn girl has prophetic dreams; she foresaw the attack on Fort Gohn and the ensuing fire--though no one believed her except Y’shtola, but by the time the girl could warn her, it was too late.
