Thanks for stopping by. This blog is a catch-all general space for XIV. It's going to be filled with my personal content, reblogs of neat things, and in general just a place to organize all XIV content into. If you're looking for a more multi-media blog you can consider my personal blog which is @bumblingseabiscuit. If you're looking for more niche, specific character content (screenshots, artwork, stories, asks, etc.) you can find those below. Some of them are still undergoing some updates I am just #tired, lmao.
Please be aware that all my blogs should be considered 18+.
They are not a space for minors.
Nostalgic Melancholy
âą Space / Sea / Ice â
âą Keeper of the Moon / Admiral / Multi-Media Artist
Fiancee's computer is starting to really critically fail and is at end of life. We're crowdfunding to try and replace it. Fiancee is the provider in the house on a retail worker's salary; her computer is her sanctuary and connection to her loved ones.
Currently: Cannot even get it to properly run after it purple code of death'd.
Also if life could?? Stop?? Trying to actually make us give up forever?? That would be great. Truly. This year has been awful and I'm SO done.
just a quick note and not directed at anyone in particular, but if i see anyone using ai or ai-adjacent face filters in their gposes thats gonna be a block from me
Not really what this post is about (i heard tales of that ai filter, but i've never seen it), but unfortunatelly there's presets that use AI textures as well. It's ridiculous, I know. Got fooled too.
The ones I know of are:
Wi-Fi. More noticeable on their golden flower preset. If you go to their twitter you'll also find many screenshots with gen ai backgrounds.
Leon, AKA: Gposingway creator. He has been a huge defender of gen AI for really long and hasn't changed. I've heard tales of a gen AI tarot preset he made, and it's likely included in gposingway.
If you know anyone else that uses gen ai on their presets, this is your cue to name them. The concept is so ridiculous it never crossed my mind, so i got fooled by Wi Fi. I'm sure I wasn't the only one! A lot of people struggle to tell if a picture is AI or not. Help us out by letting us know when we step on the landmine!
I can confirm those two above examples:
-if you go check Wi-Fi site here you will see how all or almost all of their works there uses AI generated backgrounds. They are even linking sources they got the pictures from and authors are usually clearly stating those are genAI
-Wi-Fi also used AI generated backgrounds for few of their older presets, confirmed are those in the "Renaissance" collection
screenshot of the preset preview from their google drive- if you take a closer look on those "flowers" you will notice that it's in fact an AI slop
Those presets were made when whole the gen AI thing was still quite fresh and many people didn't have idea about it or simply ignored because we didn't knew so much as we do now about all that.
-as for Leon- it's true that he was defending gen Ai and from what I know his partner is big into AI stuff as well- I think they are both behind the gposingway project? I didn't have a deeper look into this one yet
-he created a "tarot" preset for reshade which was using AI generated frames. At first he didn't mention that but when me and other people asked about it on twitter, because it was quite obvious AI slop- he made a post defending AI and his presets, stating that "it's all fine because it's done for free" and other things like this, you can check it here I was never on his discord but from other person I know that he was shitting on people who are against genAI on there for whole this case.
-I hated this case especially because I was always looking up to him as gposer, when he was always so oh ah about vanilla game and glamours being so awesome- and then he went and used this trash for his own creation. Sickening. Funny enough he followed me on Bluesky few days ago đ
-Aside from reshade presets there are now also mods using genAI graphics for things like tattoos or skin- I don't mod so I don't know many names there but you want to keep eyes open if you are into modding.
I was always thinking about making public posts about those but I was feeling like standing against two "big" people in community won't end good for me- but seeing how people are rising their voices as well- fuck it! People should know and decide if they want to support such individuals.
ffxiv out of context is incredibly funny. I just fought a playful faerie armed with whoopee cushions and a gun so an elephant guy could go fishing. we got this side quest from a small talking bird. the elephant guy is best known from a truly harrowing scene of tragedy in the main story that made me cry so hard I was nearly sick. 10/10.
UUUuuuUuuuhh. In the wake of Tumblr having it's regular fitâą, I thought I might try to do a little outreach post!
Hello, my name is Sea, and I am looking for more xiv blogs to follow! I'm a roleplayer with far too many ocs, but I write and gpose on occasion, and run a question drive for people to participate in! I love meeting and engaging with new people, even if my timezone hates me. I also have a bluesky if you have one, too!
I'm not picky about blogs I follow as long as you're xiv adjacent, but I tend to more readily follow roleplay, writing and gpose blogs. If that's something you're interested in, please give this a like and/or reblog and I'll check out your blog! Thanks for reading! â„
Something I have such a hard time with is deciding interesting or relevant personal Hooks & Rumors. This desire to reach out! And connect! And provide story bits! . . .But a deep fear of being mocked or found to be not interesting. Haven't quite figured out how to overcome that one but it is big sadge.
Where: Starting up at the Gates of Nald in Ul'dah, then on to the crawl!
Wear: Tis the season to be spooky, so dress up accordingly in your best All Saints' Wake apparel.
Why: Because this is our 10th year!
What: -C-rescent Entertainment and friends are gathering everyone together to crawl there way across Aldenard, going from bar to bar, having a blast!
đ» MASTERLINK đ
((Crescent club nights are meant to be a joyous occasion, and we understand if everything gets to be a bit much. Slipping out to somewhere quiet and returning is absolutely fine! Given the current atmosphere surrounding âclubsâ, weâd also like to specify that while we do have a DJ providing optional music, our events are RP events, not twitch-streamed influencer parties.))
â Weâd adore your help in spreading the word, thank you! â
Since Endwalker is there still no way to cast black magic without a soul stone? Argument with a friend. Sadu and Y'shtola seem to be able to use black magic without one?
I'll answer both since I talk about this on discord a lot, so I'd like to talk about it here too.
First, to quickly clear up a small misconception, neither Y'shtola nor Sadu are Black Mages. Y'shtola is a thaumaturge and Sadu is a practitioner of a type of magic unique to the Xaela tribes of the Steppe. The game mechanically treats them like BLMs sometimes, but that's game limitations not so much in line with their lore.
Y'shtola: âI never did tell you why I chose to take up thaumaturgy, did I? As you will no doubt have noticed, life here in the First can be exceedingly unforgiving. Brutal, in a word. I had not long been in Norvrandt when I realized my mastery of conjuring magicks would not suffice to protect the people. 'Twas a struggle at first to embrace the change, but I confess the path of the thaumaturge suits me rather well... Lest you worry, Iâve not forgotten my healing spells. Be it restoration or destruction, this sorceress can command whatever magicks the situation requires.â
Encyclopedia Eorzea II - Eldritch Secrets of the Au Ra:Â âAmong the Xaela of the Azim Steppe, there is a multitude of tribes who have preserved the ways of ancient magicks. In typical Xaela fashion, the manner of their teaching, not to mention the content of the lesson itself, varies wildly from tribe to tribe. There are shamans who claim to hear the voice of the gods themselves, while yet others boast the ability to see into the future.
Whilst research into these magicks of eld has progressed but little, a respected aetherologist has documented instances of other phenomenon - blasts of fire, curative touches, and the like - which prove the Xaela capable of casting the equivalent of most rudimentary spells. Distinct amongst their knowledge, however, is a rite wherein pattern engraved into specially prepared stone result in a biddable golem. These stone faces, or âkhun chuluuâ in the Xaelaâs native tongue, can serve as a focus which amplifies arcane energies, enabling the manifestation of falling comets and other such spells of devastation and ruin.â
To quickly answer the second question: Yes, there are many disciplines of magic which utilize external aether: Black Magic and White Magic, Blue Magic, Conjury, Astromancy, and Geomancy.
You can learn more about how all of the magic classes work, here!
You can learn more about the history of Black Mage, here!
There's even a section about BLMs in the modern day at the bottom.
Soul Crystals & Roleplay
tl;dr - Can I RP a job without a soul crystal? Absolutely! *But, there's no need to do so unless not having a soul crystal is somehow important narratively to your character.
More in depth talk below the cut!
No soul crystal should be more difficult to obtain than it is for your character to learn about that job's existence.
In every job quest scenario, the WoL bumblefucks their way into obtaining a soul crystal almost immediately in the first quest. There's not an instance where they don't. And detractors will likely say: "Yeah but they're the WoL! They're special!" Sure, but in none of those aforementioned questlines does the WoL get handed a soul crystal because they're the WoL. Circumstances just happens. And they can for your characters just as easily too.
I've noticed a lot of people in the community seem to think these soul crystals are rare or nigh-unobtainable (I can only assume it has to do with the half-dozen Job Tier Lists floating around that I just cannot in good conscience recommend), but that just isn't the case. Soul crystals have been in use for at least the last 6,000 years. Nearly every known civilization on Hydaelyn has made and used soul crystals. Even in the modern day, it is known how to craft new, blank ones. It's never imparted how to us, the players, but its known how in universe. Both Stephanivien (MCH) and Martyn (BLU) mass produce blank ones, two characters from wildly different economic means.
Here's a few suggestions you can tailor to yours or any character:
Passed down as a family heirloom. Maybe for generations, waiting for the right person to come along.
It belonged to your character's parent and they gave it to your character (like Alphinaud).
Bought it on the black market.
Looted off a corpse (on the battlefield, in the belly of a beast you killed, in the slums, on the front doorstep of the Supreme Sacred Tribunal of Halonic Inquisitory Doctrine...).
Pickpocketed off of an adventurer.
Found in a river / dumpster / attic / treasure chest / dungeon crawl / new FC house.
Won as a prize from a tournament or RP event!
From an RP partner who is also that job. If they teach you about the job also just have them give you a soul crystal too.
Make an RP event out of it! Do a dungeon crawl (say U'Ghamaro) and at the end find a soul crystal (on a dead padjal far from home).
Make a blank soul crystal! It may not contain knowledge of past wielders, but it will satisfy that "requires soul crystal" requirement.
Or, you can ignore all of that and just not have one if you really don't want one. There's no real reason not to have one, unless your not having one is part of some specific narrative, but that option is on the table for you.
Doesn't this job say I need one or else I'll explode!? (No.) There are some job quests that will say a soul crystal is required. (SMN, AST, etc) Or in many cases, that soul crystals have a secondary function that serves the wielder in some way (this makes sense because these jobs were invented with soul crystal use in mind). Like a SCH faerie's memories being stored inside the crystal, or a MCH's aetherotransformer being powered by your soul crystal, etc.
You can choose to ignore that, of course, but there's no real need to. You can just say you have a soul crystal. As a given. You can just do that! No explanation needed.
So what does a soul crystal actually do for you? It's a means of learning an art which no longer has any living practitioners. Or just any practitioners in your part of the world. It teaches you through the memories of past practitioners, helping your own journey. Sometimes it aids you in performing that art.
Some might see this as a short cut or speedrunning the process of learning these jobs. But I feel like it must be said that you, the roleplayer, ultimately and always have control on how fast your character learns something. Instead, ask how quick of a learner is your character? How gifted are they with magic? Are they a neophyte caster? Then having a black magic soul crystal probably won't do much for them, if anything. What's their access to education, books, research materials, tutors, foci and other materials necessary to preform the job in question? All of these things can drastically affect how quickly your character learns a new skill. And they're all under your control! Whether you choose to learn a job like black mage from a soul crystal, a tutor, or from ancient tomes sealed away in a forbidden library you ultimately decide how fast and how well your character learns or masters something.
Aren't soul crystals SUPER rare? Not as much as people seem to think they are. Miqo'te and Viera are "rare" in Eorzean lore, but we ignore that don't we. So why do we fanatically gatekeep a soul crystal's rarity? Sure, Samurai might be hard to come by in Eorzea, but if your character is from Far Eastern Doma or Hingashi they and their crystals are likely a dime-a-dozen.
Where could I find a black mage soul crystal? Where couldn't you? Mhach was a nation full of black magic practitioners. Shatotto, the first BLM, its inventor, had a soul crystal. It's safe to assume they (successive black mages) all or most all did. Why wouldn't they? We've established they're simple to mass produce. They conquered a good portion of Eorzea, and waged war on the places they hadn't conquered. Mhachi survivors fled to Gyr Abania where they lived and continued to speak Mhachi until the 10th century 6AE. Mhachi descendants wandered the southern half of Eorzea for nigh 700 years before founding Belah'dia keeping Mhachi traditions like their magic and forehead gems alive. There's a lot of fertile ground in the lore for creative ideas, don't be too afraid of community stigmas to try.
I don't like the idea that people should be gatekept from roleplaying what they want because someone deemed a bit of crystal hard to get in a Final Fantasy game. By all means, roleplay jobs as having the gravitas and obscurity their lore suggests, but "rarity" is subjective and a fake community construct that has little bearing on one's roleplay.
