#sharlayan

[finalfantabee]

Cat? He's a kitty cat.

[autumnslance]

Chronicles of Light vol 2 Y'shtola Story Info:

Y'shtola's story, "Private Reflections" finally gives us some insight into her family.

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The 12 Daughters of Gleaner Y'rhul Nunh, in birth order:

1 Adebh - Forum Member

2 Sumbla - Labyrinthos Engineer

3 Ranmaia - Navigator (sailor), Talhdi and Raigoh's full sister

4 Shtola - Sorceress, Scion of the Seventh Dawn

5 Talhdi - Painter, Ranmaia and Raigoh's full sister

6 Mallibo (twin) - Scientist Archaeologist, Sons of St Coinach, Shtola's full sister

7 Mhitra (twin) - Arcane Archaeologist, Sons of St Coinach, Shtola's full sister according to this, contradicting previous lore (Summoner trainer)

8 Raigoh - Musician, Ranmaia and Talhdi's full sister

9 Sohnjin - Agora armorshop proprietor, her mother was a sister of Shtola's mother making them "sister and cousin both" (image below)

10 Nazqha - Gleaner and Rhul's apprentice

11 Jhimei - Arcanist Adventurer (Limsan trained)

12 Napa - Student at the Studium, enjoys the Far Eastern hobby of suiseki (actual Japanese art/hobby)

Not long after the events of Endwalker, Y'rhul passed suddenly of contagion while working in Nagxia, Y'nazqha forced to have him cremated there due to the nature of his death, and his ashes spread in the Ruby Sea so he might continue traveling the world via the ocean currents.

His specialty was in literature, and at his direction, Y'nazqha brings her sisters rare books their father had found, pertinent to each woman's interests and work, despite the family being so very scattered physically due to Y'rhul's occupation and the emotional distance between most of them.

We don't get any of the mothers' names in this one, as it's more about the various sisters and how well their oft-distant father knew them.

His gift to Y'shtola alone shows how much he thought of his children, and reaffirms her promise made in Shadowbringers and which she has pursued since.

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Y'rhul did apparently have children with two sisters, given the comment about Y'sohnjin. The twins' difficult births apparently caused frailty in Y'shtola's mother (another reason she was placed with Matoya at age seven). It's not unheard of in reality for men to wed their late wives' sisters, and even if Shtola's mother did live, these are Seekers we're talking about. They don't exactly do monogamy.

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It looks like we'll get to meet another sister on Phaenna in a quest, checking the gamesconsole wiki for their names.

The armor vendor in Sharlayan's Agora:

No wonder we didn't catch the family resemblance. Shtola does say this sister's "an unusual character even among this unusual company." Even in the family meeting, she wears her full plate.

[riceballgremlin]

[thecat-inthehat]

I think about this scene from Endwalker a lot, where the Scions confront the Forum about the existence of the Ragnarok and the plan to evacuate the world and flee.

Endwalker, and by extension, XIV, run on hope and doing the impossible. There was no scenario where the Scions would've accepted the Forum's answer of "we can for sure save a small percentage of the population" and barrel forward with the incredible risk of saving everyone or not at all. This isn't really that surprising for RPGs, but like. Man. I really think about Sharlayan being this... rarely questioned bastion of safety and enlightened knowledge and learning, while simultaneously having the arrogance and imperialism on par with Garlemald.

Sharlayan is assimilationist at best and actively harmful to outside cultures at worst - many characters are noted to have come from outside Sharlayan and join their society, only to lose or erase their connections with their heritage. G'raha knows very little about Corvosi culture, Koana and Erenville both adopted Sharlayan names and clothes to further their goals, and while we know very little about how Lyse was raised in Sharlayan (more's the pity) but we know that she knows almost nothing about Ala Mhigo. Lyse is a bit of an odd one out given that she's supposed to be the narrative stand-in of asking questions about the areas you're going to in Stormblood, but the point still stands.

Sharlayan's culture is one of learning but not of application. They take in all this information and records from other places but don't bother to do anything with it, instead sticking it in a case to be admired like a butterfly with pins in its wings. They don't even have a culture of food save for "archon loaf", which is absolutely batshit insane. Yeah, the Last Stand/Archon loaf is sort of meant to be a joke, but also it's. Not?

It's also like. The arrogance that Sharlayan has, to just assume that, by speaking with Hydaelyn, they alone have the right to save the star and decide who gets to come with. Envoys were sent to Thavnair to invite them to join the exodus, but no one else. How can Sharlayan claim to save the world of Hydaelyn if they pick and choose and then do nothing with the samples they have collected? Are they simply going to line up every seed and animal in perfect order and say it's saved, rather than live? Real heirs of Amurot right there.

I do also think, often, about how the second half of Labrynthos deals with fetch quests with the Lopporits, that, while cute, add very little. How interesting would it have been to have the Lopporits realize that their lovely humans they've been communicating with are abandoning the majority of the world? How interesting would it have been to have Sharlayan's arrogance and imperialism called out by their allies, who had only ever known humanity through them? Have the Lopporits realize that there is an entire world beyond just Labrynthos and demand to see it, and be aghast when they're told that their allies aren't going to save it. Puddingway never would get his heart's desire if Sharlayan had had their way, the recepie would've just been saved and stored, not used and lived with.

Anyways. Get his ass Y'shtola.

[anneapocalypse]

Every time I have to return to the Leveilleur estate to do custom deliveries for Ameliance I leave gnashing my teeth over the subject of wealth and class politics in Sharlayan. The game is pretty uninterested in exploring it but it's so in your face with the centrality of the Leveilleur family. Like this is a culture where taking the time and effort to make food taste good is considered extravagant and inefficient, meanwhile the Leveilleurs live in a mansion with a massive entrance hall almost entirely devoid of furniture, surrounded by miles of empty brick patio.

Compare this to like, the Fortemps Manor entrance hall, which is colorful and richly furnished. It's a display of wealth and status for sure! It's also a space where you can not only welcome guests but sit down with them by the fire. It's full of warmth and color. It has windows! In a city of cold gray stone, Fortemps Manor displays luxury through comfort.

The Leveilleur estate is nothing like that, yet it's also a display of wealth and status in its own way. Rather a display of wealth through comfort, it is a display of wealth through space that is kept to be used for absolutely nothing. There's barely a stick of furniture in that massive hall with its vaulted gold-adorned ceilings and sterile flower vases taller than you are. It's a place that's meant to be seen but not enjoyed in comfort. You are not meant to be comfortable here. The stone patio that encircles the estate is almost worse. There's a row of perfectly manicured trees out front and one tiny, lonely flower box on one side, and other than that it's just bare expanses of paving-stones.

Perhaps the deeper interior of the Leveilleur estate is more comfortably furnished... but we never see that. In Fortemps Manor I feel like I can easily extrapolate what the Warrior of Light's guest room might look like from the decor of the front hall. In the Leveilleur estate I'm left guessing. Our guest room in the Baldesion Annex is more interestingly furnished than anything we see in the Leveilleur estate.

The luxury of Ishgard's high houses is grotesque in contrast with the Brume and the desperate poverty of the lower classes. The luxury of House Leveilleur I find grotesque in a different way, because they are clearly sitting on a massive amount of wealth and yet nothing about their home even looks comfortable to live in, so what is it even for? We know that Sharlayan is a society that purports to value the pursuit and safeguarding of knowledge above all else. Fourchenault is supposedly a diehard believer in the principles of his country. Yet nothing we see in his home reflects those values. Where are the bookshelves? The glass cases showing off rare and valuable tomes and artifacts? The botanical gardens and greenhouses? If Sharlayan culture does not discourage generational wealth hoarding (which it clearly doesn't, even if it doesn't have a formal aristocracy), then shouldn't that wealth at least be displayed in a manner befitting the culture's values? But it isn't. It's just... empty, unused space.

We could certainly point to this as a failure of environmental design, or corners cut to avoid having to instance the entrance hall. I don't dismiss that as a possibility. But it's also grimly compelling to me to analyze it as a deliberate choice (whether or not it was). It might be said that Sharlayan values the appearance of austerity and efficiency, more than the actual thing. One of the richest and most powerful families in Old Sharlayan can sit on a massive amount of generational wealth and live in a mansion with more rooms than they could possibly use... so long as they do so sitting in uncomfortable chairs in underfurnished rooms, and don't season their food.

[mtgxfinalfantasyfa]

Sharlayan, Nation of Scholars

David Frasheski: Instagram / Artstation

Source: ArtStation

[scionsoftheseventhmoons]

An old piece of my WoL J'hene with G'raha Tia, pre-ARR, fleeing Sharlayan

[pommancy]

Huevember 6 Old Sharlayan