#nocnoclore

[nocturnaea]

To be fair, Elidibus never asked what exactly those 'priorities' were...

Some OC lore ramblings under the cut~

Before it was revealed at the end of 7.3 that we'd get to see more of the Ascians, I headcanoned my WoL who once held the seat of Altima as being one of two Ascians sent to the Ninth.

Unlike the other Ascians she saw merit in mankind, deeming their art just as worthy, and thus did not feel comfortable with the Ardor. She shirked her duties as much as possible, and befriended Alexandria's royal family under the guise of a traveling artist called Asteria of Avon.

Asteria is very fond of little Sphene, and always happy to indulge the princesses request for stories. After the death of Sphene's parents, Asteria takes on the role of a guardian and advisor to the now-queen alongside Otis and Zelenia.

Asteria 'dies' while trying to help bring fleeing civilians to safety, being struck by lightning from the ever-growing Storm Surge.

Anyway can't wait for my lore to crumble to pieces if/when future expansions show me what the actual Altima was like and make me have a writing crisis as I try to somehow combine canon and OC lore lol...

[nocturnaea]

Nooooo the new Deep Dungeon Floor 30 boss stole my WoL's Sineater name lmao...

[nocturnaea]

7.3's reveal about some of the sundered Ascians still being around is making me so anxious about my lore, it's lowkey hilarious.

Being part of a multi-WoL narrative with my brother and friend obviously meant two of us had to dodge our characters away from the Azem role. So I went with Altima for my character. Felt like a safe bet. Mask owned by Van Baelsar, meaning they got dispatched. Probably not permanently given the lack of Auracite, but I just figured that Altima and Deudalaphon's stories were supposed to just end there. Especially given EW was supposed to end the entire story arc of Hydaelyn and Zodiark and the Ascians, and DT at the start seemed insistent on getting away from previous lore as a sort of 'new start'.

But now with Calyx being in cahoots with the Ascians, and Electrope and the concept of Endless, I am so worried that there's a real possibility that Altima will just waltz on screen at some point and have my lovingly crafted backstory go up in flames...

I've seen several people on here and on other social media sites theorize about how art was seen in Ancient times, given Creation Magick was a thing. Based on Emet-Selch's love for theater and art, to the point where that even shone through in his role as Emperor Solus, I figured it couldn't be all too different from art on modern-day Etheirys. But now I see the very valid and interesting theories throw around about how the Seat of Altima might have been more about controlling and censoring art, about determining what was allowed to be called such and what wasn't.

And if that turns out to be the case, I'd hate it so much. I wouldn't wanna associate my character with such a stance. Hells, I lovingly butted heads with my Art History Prof in University several times over the distinguishing between Fine Arts and Layman/Amateur Art. Because the term of 'Amateur Art' alone sounds so discriminating. There is 'Amateur Art' out there that blows Fine Art out of the water in terms of skill and composition and all that. It's unfair to denounce one just because the person that made it hasn't spent years in art school. I say that as someone having both a Bachelor and Master in History with focus on Art History, and as someone who has written dozens of essays and papers on various pieces of art, layman things included. Only to repeatedly be met with upturned noses by professors, asking why I'd bother spending time on 'lesser' art.

My OC reflects my opinion on art. She's a rebel in terms of the system. Doesn't care how or why or by whom the piece of art was made. To her, it all has merit, because it captures human emotions and desire and effort and love. And she was willing to defend that against nay-Sayers. So if canonically Altima actually turns out to be a stuck-up elitist...

Oh heavens as happy as I am to get more Ascians, this is the one facet I dread so much and I just needed to get this off my chest lmao.

[nocturnaea]

Shoutout to the one friend that guided my brother and I through our first months of FFXIV, who we kept asking about various lore things because the two of us got really into the story and world right from the start.

We were super impressed by his knowledge, and when we made it to the Aetherochemical Research Facility for the first time, he told us that Igeyorhm was Lahabrea's wife. This was right around the time Pandaemonium's second tier had released, so my brother and I heard vague rumors about that mattering in the future.

Fast forward to ShB, and we decide that for our lore, we'd make Lahabrea and Athena the parents to our ancient characters, who we wanted as siblings. We love a good family drama in ARR and HW, after all. And with Pandaemoinum tier 3 out by then, our friend was like 'sure, sounds like a fun story idea'.

...well, turned out later that our friend is a story-skipper and barely knew any lore details, let alone was interested in character lore making sense. He just didn't wanna be rude to us. Most of the stuff he told us was wrong, and we ended up with a major lore crisis once we got to Pandaemonium and learned that Athena and Igeyorhm were in fact not the same person and that having Athena as a mother figure came with a giiiiant heap of issues lmao.

But at that point we were too sold on Lahabrea as the father to our siblings, and we both loved Erichthonios as a character immediately, so now we have this hilariously crazy canon divergence in our lore about Athena holding a seat in the Convocation.

Lesson learned: Don't ask that particular friend for lore. Ask him about being the dope raid leader instead.

Small potential spoilers ahead:

(Also I moved Lahabrea's cousin over to the seat of Deudalaphon, thinking it would be fine. Gaius dispatched them, after all. So no lore complications there. Then 7.3's ending cutscene said 'Hold my beer'... Can't wait for that to come bite me in the behind)