- Vincent Valourheart - - - - - - - A travelling swordsman, wandering adventurer, swordmage and hero for hire. - The Valourheart of Ishgard - ------ [A Final Fantasy XIV, Dungeons and Dragons, inspiration, and roleplay blog] - Server: Balmung Character: Vincent Valourheart Class: Paladin/Red Mage Timezone: EU/GMT
((I’m a lil rusty since I haven’t used the blog in a while, but, if I was going to pick any moment, it’d be the night Dalamud fell. Under a spoiler tag because it gets long and the prose is a lil rough))
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Flashback - The Fall
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He was just a boy, barely even a teen, when his mother went to war.
The sky was crimson, Dalamud painting the heavens in scarlet with its descent.
When he looked up at the falling fate, drawing ever closer to the firmament of Eorzea, if he listened, for more than a moment, he could almost hear a lamentation, as if the very star itself trembled in fear of the moon.
Of that, he and the land were of one mind.
Though he pretended otherwise, for his sister’s sake.
The boy was terrified.
The siblings stood side by side, staring out at the skies above from atop a tower in Lominsa, wondering when it would be over, when their mother would come home.
They waited, hand in hand, afraid, but not alone, and that was enough.
Dark clouds swirled as a battle raged on far beyond where either could see, so they watched, and they waited, and before their very eyes… The Lesser Moon began to crack, and the stars began to fall.
The scarlet heavens were at once alight, as the fire rained down from above, striking a mountain off the shore, at once engulfed in flame and light, a crack like thunder as saltswept stone splintered first to shards, then to cinders, then to nothing.
Even from atop the tower, they could feel the winds swept into a storm by the impact. They turned from the tower’s edge and began to run, even as the sky filled with falling flames. The two of them fled down the steps, feeling the stone beneath their feet begin to shake in mere moments, as more explosions began to fill the air.
A small section of the tower erupts into rubble as a passing shard scrapes the tower’s side. The siblings separated as a chunk of the staircase and wall fall away into the sea. The boy is thrown further down a few steps, while his sister is thrown back above by the impact, the ground beneath their feet growing unsteady.
The pair are reaching out for one another even before the dust has begun to clear, a tumult of rubble falling from the floor above, striking his sister on the temple. Stunned and bleeding, the girl begins to fall from the opening in the tower wall.
The boy is on his feet in an instant, snatching her away from the edge as her consciousness slips, shielding her with his own body as more rubble starts to fall from above. He is given no time to wake her before the remains of the steps beneath them both fall to pieces, sending them tumbling a floor down, into the next stairwell of the tower, the boy bearing the brunt of the impact.
He cradles her, and please, desperately, for her to wake. The girl stirs, and though unsteady, she’s on her feet again quickly, and the pair continue their descent, slower than before, now both beaten, bloodied and bruised in the chaos.
By the time they reached the bottom of the tower, the air had become still with an unearthly silence. They let go of each other’s hand and stopped only to catch their breath at a bridge’s edge, and despite his fears, the boy, and the boy alone, dared to look up at the sky again.
The sky was burning, the moon aflame, already splintering along its seams, a vicious light swelling within. He stood transfixed, as before his eyes, Dalamud began to fall apart, and the dread wyrm, emerged.
A roar that split the very heavens, carved its way across all of Eorzea, and the boy, unable to move even a single limb, heard every echo of it ring out, the sound reverberating in his mind, as if in answer.
His body was numb, his gaze solely on the dragon that now stood above all creation. He felt its rage, its malice, its suffering, like a song.
His sister tugged at his hand, pleading for him to run with her, but he could not hear her voice, not clearly, as if she were a thousand malms away. Yet the dragon’s voice, seemed to him only a footstep away, and he had never been more terrified.
All in a moment, all in the time between a second, he heard that roar as if were the only sound in the world, even as Dalamud itself detonated before his sight, shattering the very sky.
The top of the tower he was just in is hit by a falling shard, and explodes into splinters, stonework sundered in an instant flash of heat and hatred. The force of the impact deafens his ears, a hollow ringing that seemed to at last drown out the dragon’s voice. He turns his gaze to his sister, still pleading with him to move, unable to hear her voice calling him, even as his feet begin to follow her as she leads him away from the bridge, the tower behind them both crumbling into the sea.
Even as they begin to flee the bridge, there doesn’t seem to be anywhere safe to run, the whole city ablaze, the seas around it, amber amidst the flame. Even the very waters seemed to burn beneath the dragon’s hatred as the skies fell down and sundered the earth.
The dragon releases another roar, and the boy stops moving. His sister’s hand slips from his own, and she stumbles a few paces ahead, clear of the bridge.
Bahamut, sings his rage, and unleashes a torrent of hale fire from above. A spark of fury lights the bridge, throwing the boy off of his feet as he lands close to its exit. He collects himself just as the stonework begins to crumble away behind him. As he tries to run, he reaches out to his sister, calling his name and reaching for him, unable to flee to his side, restrained by a guardsman for her own safety.
He feels the very ground fall out from beneath his feet, just as he would’ve reached safer stone to stand upon. He screams, but not for long, another shard of the fallen sky, shattering the island rock a few paces from him.
Everything goes black, just as his limp body hits the sea.
God. I feel the sense of sadness and “I don’t know what to do with myself now” feelings I usually only get when I finish a really, really good book or video game and it’s from an MMO expansion.
Gunbreakers have destroyed my insta-queue and I have come to the realisation I have no idea how people normally get experience points without immediate roulettes.
Personally I'm excited for all the 2B outfits :eyes:
No judgement here, mystery anon! I’m eager to see what equipments we get. 2B’s outfit is a given but I’m betting it’ll be on the final tier of the raid series.
I’ve seen a couple people mention how they’re upset that the Nier stuff doesn’t fit in with FFXIV’s lore and at first glance it doesn’t. But with the direction the story is going now involving other worlds, it’s something that is now possible.
We don’t know just yet how things will tie together. Could be on the First, could be on a different Shard. Could even come from space on the First. We’ll see when we get there.
Plus, knowing how Yoko Taro is, he’ll figure out how to make it work out just nicely. I think it’ll all be A-Ok!
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