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I'm guessing in the case of someone who self summons a Primal into their own body ends up pretty messed up if they don't have the Echo to protect their mind, especially something as nebulous as the Knights of the Round. Who as far as we know don't have centuries of worship to stabilize their personality. Like were any of the Knights' Saints?
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Sep 2, 2022 03:11
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| # ? Jun 11, 2024 06:36 |
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So are the Knights of the Round and Thordan one collective Primal, like the Twelve summoned by Louisoux? Or are each of the Heavens Ward tempered by their individual knight...?  Important Lore Questions.
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Sep 2, 2022 03:24
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Outside the game information for Heavensward: It was in one Q&A or another that Thordan had already "Blessed" the Heavens' Ward long before the Warrior of Light had ever met them - it was upon their formation as a group, which left them loosely bound to him; just enough at the time to give them the desire to support him in any task and never betray him. Couldn't say whether that tied them to their individual counterparts of the past then and there but that's part of why the temporary transformations happened before they ever set foot on Azys Lla.
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Sep 2, 2022 03:37
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Kwyndig posted:I'm guessing in the case of someone who self summons a Primal into their own body ends up pretty messed up if they don't have the Echo to protect their mind, especially something as nebulous as the Knights of the Round. Who as far as we know don't have centuries of worship to stabilize their personality. Like were any of the Knights' Saints? I mean, he says he threw the eyes and "A millennium of prayer" at the WoL. So I'm pretty sure that's tapping into the hero worship of Thordan that's been going on since that whole dragon war started.
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Sep 2, 2022 04:12
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Kwyndig posted:I'm guessing in the case of someone who self summons a Primal into their own body ends up pretty messed up if they don't have the Echo to protect their mind, especially something as nebulous as the Knights of the Round. Who as far as we know don't have centuries of worship to stabilize their personality. Like were any of the Knights' Saints?
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Sep 2, 2022 04:22
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I'd say the Knights were probably tempered as individuals, and also each capable of summoning their own weaker primal forms, powered by aether supplied by Thordan in the center. It's a little feedback loop of them supercharging Thordan with their beliefs and prayers, and him powering them up in return.
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Sep 2, 2022 04:52
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DLord posted:Key difference is Ysayle has the echo and they don't. Probably why Susano was safer to deal with. Even if he never actively tempered anyone, he probably would have tempered any would be summoner by accident if it was not the WoL doing it. Wondered what a tempered of Susano would even be like? The ultimate party bro but a Turtle. I am imagining shutter shades.
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Sep 2, 2022 10:23
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They would either be a good fighter and dancer, or they would become those two things on very short notice.
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Sep 2, 2022 10:27
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I feel like they would be ninjas, perhaps teenagers too?
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Sep 2, 2022 10:28
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Twibbit posted:Wondered what a tempered of Susano would even be like? Date clan from Sengoku Basara
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Sep 2, 2022 10:30
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DLord posted:Key difference is Ysayle has the echo and they don't. She also has a crystal doodah and also gets included as a "chosen of Hydaelyn" suggesting that she might well have the Blessing of Light too as a lowercase-w warrior of light.
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Sep 2, 2022 11:46
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Twibbit posted:Probably why Susano was safer to deal with. Even if he never actively tempered anyone, he probably would have tempered any would be summoner by accident if it was not the WoL doing it. Wondered what a tempered of Susano would even be like? The ultimate party bro but a Turtle. I am imagining shutter shades. They'd have fun picking fights with anything and everything. If the WoL had been tempered by Susano, would anybody even notice..?
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Sep 2, 2022 12:31
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Chapter 15: Die Another Day Lyse’s narration describes how the entire party went dead silent as they entered the Yanxia valley. Alisaie’s first comment on the place is about being overwhelmed by a sensation of emptiness and desolation. While the cutscene does give us a brief look at destroyed buildings and battle damage, my impression was almost the opposite. Compared to the lifelessness I observed in The Fringes or the oppressive Garlean presence in the Peaks, Yanxia appeared beautiful at first blush. Greenery abounds there, especially the shoots of young rice across numerous fields surrounding the village of Namai. There are a few foreboding signs, such as how the paint is being worn away from the stone walls, which have been neglected after Doma’s defeat. Still, on the whole, the place seems little worse for wear. We were warned this was the site of an atrocity, but not even the damage from the cutscene, let alone anything more dire, is visible on the road leading to town. As we approach the little hamlet, it seems no different from any other. Only the fact that I’m arriving at night and hear the sad, lonely tune  “A Mother’s Pride,” does anything to back up the idea that we are in a place scarred by evil. This misconception would be corrected soon enough.Gosetsu takes a moment to flesh out Doma’s recent pass. While Zenos personally led the force that crushed the rebellion, he had little interest in ruling. He left the territory in Yotsuyu’s hands almost immediately, and she proceeded to institute her purges. Any who resisted were slaughtered. Since then, neglect has been the order of the day. Fear keeps the people cowed, so direct occupation is unnecessary. Gosetsu uncharacteristically suggests caution as we approach Namai, but he’s quickly back to his boisterous self when we see that no Imperials are lurking about. He calls out to the townsfolk, asking for the word of the day. As it turns out, the word is ‘terror.’   (Total side note, but these folks identify Gosetsu as a Lord and a General of the Doman army. I knew he was one of the royal family’s retainers, but it seems he was a far more important personage than I realized!) Everyone shows a mixture of disbelief and horror at the sight of the samurai, to the point where he wonders if they believe him to be a vengeful ghost. One young lad finds the courage and audacity to disabuse him and asks curtly why we’re here. Then he doesn’t bother waiting for the answer and hustles us to the city limits. Kheris takes a moment to look back at the trembling and sobbing people, no doubt realizing just how bad things are here despite the idyllic surface. The villager, Isse, bluntly tells us to get lost once we reach the edge of town. This is when Gosetsu loses his patience. He’s never been one to hang on manners or rank, but being shown blatant disrespect instead of the common decency he would expect Domans to give to even a stranger triggers his Inner Nobleman. He asks if the boy knows whom he’s talking to, and Isse doesn’t hesitate to address him as the leader of the Doman rebellion, “Notorious fugitive, wanted dead or alive.” At first, Gosetsu is amused, taking his status as Public Enemy #1 as a mark of honor and noting that many brave souls from Namai were right there with him in the glory days of the revolt. They fought to the bitter end like proper, honorable Domans and died as heroes. As it turns out, this was not the wisest response to give the lad.    Gosetsu is a bit taken aback by the raw emotion and guts behind this ultimatum and decides to honor the boy’s wish that we depart, at least temporarily. We press on to the House of the Fierce, headquarters of the Doman Liberation Front.  The House is deep underground, requiring us to dive into an underwater tunnel to reach its entrance. We find it mostly empty of people and supplies, which is certainly not what we were hoping to find, Lyse least of all. No doubt she expected a Doman equivalent to Rhalgr’s Reach, with a well-supplied army waiting to sock the Empire in the jaw. Gosetsu assures us that those here are not the full extent of their forces. Many of their operatives are working in the field, and many more who have sworn allegiance to the cause are in hiding but ready to rise when the call goes out. However, he does acknowledge that most who counted themselves as rebels are dead now, and only the “stubborn remainder,” continue the fight openly. Still, it’s not all bad news. Yugiri is here to greet us! And in her fancy opening cinematic outfit!  After thanking us profusely for coming so far to aid Doma and getting the short version of why we decided to do so, Gosetsu presses her on that completed mission. Her task, you may recall, was to find where Lord Hien went and ascertain his status after he disappeared during a skirmish that left him critically wounded. She found him in a place called “The Azim Steppe,” where he’s made a full recovery. Gosetsu’s relief is palpable. Despite his outward confidence, he clearly feared the prince was long dead. However, the report is not all positive. Yugiri could not persuade Hien to return to Doma. Instead, he sent a message:   Their lord’s command is troubling for both the ninja and samurai. Yet Gosetsu, perhaps because of the exchange with young Isse, can’t help but ponder the question. If the common people we were told drove the rebellion in the first place now demand surrender, perhaps it is better to bend to their will rather than instigate further war and suffering in the name of freedom. After all, Hien was one of the loudest supporters of liberation. The outcome humbled them all, so it’s not strange for him to think deference might be the best way to serve those he would rule. Then again, perhaps some part of him has been broken, and he has decided to shirk the mantle of leadership while calling it deference because he can’t bear to make a choice again. Yugiri, on the other hand, is visibly disgusted at the idea that Gosetsu would even consider going along with this. For the sake of Doma, her fallen comrades, and the young Lord who’s ready to put his head on the chopping block, she won’t allow the fight to be abandoned. Another touchback on characters feeling that sacrifices in war must not be in vain. This speech is some of the strongest emotions we’ve ever seen from Yugiri. Even Gosetsu is a bit taken aback and calms her down by suggesting we not make any hasty decisions one way or the other. For his part, he’s going to take a well-deserved post-torture nap. This allows Kheris to poke around the new digs. The House of the Fierce was a spiritual retreat before the war. I suppose it was not entirely unlike Rhalgr’s Reach, though this was a place for those who wished to leave behind material indulgence. The ascetics would undoubtedly be proud of the rebels because the temple is barren. Only a handful of NPC troops, ninjas for the most part, train and care for the meager collection of arms and supplies. They marvel at how far the Scions have come to help them and Kheris’ reputation as a warrior. While they are so weak and impoverished that they are severely hampered in their ability to harm the occupation, none allow their commitment to waver. They count their few blessings, such as the enemy’s failure to discover this refuge, and carry on. The most lavish luxury they’ve allowed themselves is an Aetheryte, which has been destroyed for some time to ensure nobody could follow a teleport spell back here like Kheris once did with Ysayle. Alisaie says it can be fixed, but she’d probably need Alphi’s help if she wanted to do it herself. As for Lyse, she’s treated to a brief oral history of the Doman Rebellion. The picture the survivor paints is not pretty. He reveals that the rebel army was broken without most of the XIIth Legion even taking the field. Zenos personally led a minor vanguard force against the Domans when they had every strategic advantage, and he STILL crushed them with nothing but pure tactical brilliance. We hear how the Garlean troops feinted, allowing the Domans to believe they had them on the run, only to encircle them when the samurai attempted to press the advantage. This might be a stretch on my part, but I believe this is an allusion to one of history’s most famous battles, the Battle of Cannae in the Second Punic War. There, despite being outnumbered, Hannibal Barca destroyed the Roman Republic’s army in a single day with the flawless application of a pincer maneuver. He used the Romans’ superior infantry against them with a retreat at his center designed to look like a broken line. When they pressed in, drunk on imagined victory and looking to run down their enemies, the trap closed on both sides simultaneously. By some estimates, as many as 48,000 Roman troops were killed, and 16,000 were captured. Hannibal’s army was half their size and is purported to have lost less than 6000 men. Of course, Zenos was not satisfied with a mere perfect victory. With the Domans helpless, we are told he stepped away from his lines. He carried no weapon and walked across No-Man’s Land with nothing but his armor to protect him. When he arrived before the samurai, he challenged the entire surviving force to kill him if they were able.    drat, I knew he was an Anime Villain, but even Dragonball or Bleach might balk at that. Kheris is told this was not the only time he did something like this. Once the Liberation Front army was scattered, he pursued them relentlessly, looking for a samurai with the power to challenge him. Then comes the juicy tidbit: as he continued his “hunt,” Zenos also rigorously disciplined his own army for war crimes. Imperial soldiers caught slaughtering the families of Doman warriors or taking actions against their foes that served to debase the mind or spirit were punished by being flayed alive. Yikes. But not as yikes as why he did it. Zenos didn’t care about the laws governing warfare or the honor of the Garlean army, or even the moral standards of basic decency. He cared that if the enemy’s souls were shattered and they lost the things they were fighting for, they would become weaker. He wanted anger rather than submission because the latter meant less sporting prey. Now, we have to consider that this is the point of view of a Doman whom Zenos victimized. We can’t necessarily trust that this is really what was in the Crown Prince’s head when he brought those troops to justice. But it’s certainly believable. We’ve seen aspects of the man that make him seem insane, callous, and deluded. Yet we’ve also seen unexpected moments of respect, principle, and arguably even a twisted kindness. We need more data before we can be sure of anything. Speaking of which, there is one more morsel in this story. While he left this country for his next hunting ground with little regard for the Domans as fighters, there was one thing he learned to appreciate during his stay.  Hey! That’s the sword he broke beating down Kheris! Neat! Also  Also, that must be why Yotsuyu insisted on taking that sword with her.Lyse is disgusted by all of this, decrying Zenos as a monster who treats lives as toys. The Doman Veteran espouses his philosophical view that strength trumps all matters of morality and justice in war. Therefore, we have no say in the rightness of his actions. She then declares that if that’s the case, she will simply have to become stronger to bring Zenos to justice. A Lyse response if I ever heard one. ~*~*~ Having explored as much as she could, Kheris checks in with Yugiri, if only to confirm the veteran’s story. It is sadly all true, but Yugiri thinks it is a necessary truth. One cannot defeat an enemy without an understanding of its nature. All other concerns are secondary to that step. That said, she is thankful to have the Warrior of Light on hand to help with the rest. I guess it’s lucky for her peace of mind that she wasn’t around to see Kheris get bodied. To complete this irony, she asks if learning the truth of the Rebellion and the state of the Liberation Front has proven discouraging. Kheris, of course, puts on that Hero-Suiting Smile.  It’s funny; my first instinct was to pick that second option, really play things up for Yugiri’s sake, but something stopped me. Something about “relish the challenge” made me uncomfortable. It was only later that I figured out why it bothered me. My fellow ninja suggests that our next step should be gathering information about the country’s status quo. After all, Lord Hein commanded her to find out what the Doman people want for their future. With Lyse in tow, we return to Namai village. I expected some spying, so I came wearing my ninja suit. Imagine my embarrassment when I found Yugiri disguised as a peasant. She planned for us to pose as merchants and talk to people, not just watch them. Oops. She offers some very Yugiri-ish comments to gently nudge the Warrior of Light in the same direction:   Between this and Nero, she must have graduated top of her academy class in Passive Aggression. (This line HAD to be unique based on detecting I was doing the quest on Ninja, right? It’s too perfect.) On the bright side, because of that 6.1 Glamour Plate change, I could keep my immersion fully indulged and change into a disguise just by sneaking close to Namai’s aetheryte. But it’ll take more than clothes to pull this one off! These are wounded and suspicious people, and to get them to drop their guard will take a portion of Kheris’ cunning. NO! All her cunning…  “Salutations from Ishgard, my fine Old Girl! Where might I find your most expensive local frivolities? As you can see, I am a noblewoman and thus lavishly wealthy, and I need to buy things to avoid confronting the crushing void of meaning that is my life of privilege! Also, I will happily purchase any large chunks of salt you have on hand! My many attractive-but-empty-headed peers will surely come to bed with me if I bring such an exotic foreign treat for us all to lick together during dinner, and the orgy will give me an excellent excuse to sleep in past noon!”  Another flawless infiltration from Kheris Kilrau, MASTER NINJA! Much like the zone itself, Namai appears peaceful on the surface. They are a simple farming village, and the water here is pure and plentiful, which means lots of rice. The bushels of food seem abundant, racks of freshly picked persimmon lay out in the sun to dry, and one woman even talks of her husband’s success in river fishing. But this ‘prosperity’ doesn’t even deserve to be called skin-deep. Much like we saw in Ala Mhigo, the Empire has stripped this village of its most precious resource: people. Gosetsu mentioned that many from Namai died in the rebellion, and Isse told us that more were purged for their association with those ‘traitors.’ Now we learn that Empire has compounded this disaster through constant demands for laborers and conscripts, which the villagers do not dare refuse. While the fields look impressive, they barely have enough hands to tend them, meaning they’re only cultivating a fraction of what they’re capable of. Since the entire village’s economy is based on rice farming, this has had catastrophic effects, impoverishing nearly the whole surviving population. Worse, this also happened to every other town in the region, which means that virtually no one has resources, currency, or labor to spare. There is almost no trade; everyone has been reduced to a borderline subsistence lifestyle. They may not be starving like the Ala Mhigans, but they’re not much better off. The only wealth in the region is in Doma Castle and the attendant Doman Enclave, where the Garlean military and bureaucracy are administrated. They, of course, do not buy or trade for anything from the peasantry and take whatever they want through taxation. Even if they wanted to help, they couldn’t. Doma Castle has been isolated behind an enormous Magitek forcefield, the Dairyu Moon Gate.  The Domans back in Eorzea mentioned this structure. It stretches the entire width of the One River and closes off every path to the far side, to be opened only for official military business. From this fortification, the Garleans completely shut down all river transit. One local mentions that Namai used to make significant profits shipping sake made from their rice all along its banks. Now, with most too poor to buy and the rest behind a wall that never opens, they’ve given up on the booze business and turned the old trading barge into an inn. Among the Hyuran villagers, Kheris finds a Wolf-man, one of the same Beast Tribe she saw serving in the XIIth Legion. He says he is a Lupin and his people proudly served Hien’s family for generations. Now he’s so poor that he hasn’t tasted meat in years. But maybe the saddest feature of Namai is the large population of elderly folks who were useless to the Garleans and had to watch their home’s future ripped away soul by soul. One old man talks about how he begged the Centurions to take him in place of a youngster. Now he walks with a cane. Enough said. Even worse is the old woman who wanders around the town square, delusionally sweeping the dirt for someone who isn’t coming back.  It’s a bad situation, Lyse and Yugiri agree. Everyone seems thoroughly beaten. Even the thought of resistance has been driven from them by fear, replaced with bitterness toward those who tried in the first place. Lyse is reminded of Ala Gannha, her hometown. Still, up to this point, it seemed like those back in Eorzea were in far worse circumstances. Nothing Kheris heard in Namai was as bad as some stories from that little quarry town. But then, the worst story they have to offer is yet to come. ~*~*~ Yugiri insists we check with those living in the countryside beyond the village, and there Kheris finds a young girl named Azami being attacked by wildlife. She fights the beast off, and the girl explains that she was out here looking for flowers to place on her parent’s graves when she was attacked. To keep the girl out of danger, the Warrior of Light volunteers to gather the flowers herself. Azami is so grateful that she invites Kheris to join her on a visit to the place where mom and dad were buried. They sneak past a damaged metal grate and come upon a cliff that looks down upon the One River and the expansive Glittering Basin. It’s a view Kheris isn’t likely to forget.  Scorched earth in every direction. Structures from at least a half-dozen villages left in ruins. Roads and bridges shattered. The few intact buildings are abandoned, and riverboats rot in their berths. Not even the plants have returned to reclaim the land for nature. This is the crime we were warned about, the thing the others sensed which filled them with foreboding. It was so unspeakable that none of the Domans, not even Gosetsu, dared evoke it openly or imply its true scale. Even the cutscene camera shied away from it, offering only a hint of what the player would see when they stepped onto this spot to lay flowers on a grave. We are looking at what remains after a genocide, and the towering cermet fortress on the river’s far shore offers the only fingerprints we need to know the culprits. It almost seems proud as it stands guard over that which its builders wrought. For most, the image alone would tell the story, but the game wants to be sure we fully understand. Isse, whom it turns out is Azami’s brother, appears from behind us. Initially full of piss and vinegar at the sight of Kheris, he cools somewhat when he learns that the foreigner he tried to drive away rescued his baby sister from wild animals. His ‘cooling’ does not stop him from commanding Azami to run back to town and lock herself in their house until he returns. Once she’s gone, he tells Kheris that, regardless of his gratitude, she still must leave Namai and never return. If she doesn’t, everyone is going to die. You are given the choice of confronting his demand directly or taking an indirect approach to try and get him talking about what happened. Kheris, seeing how deep this pain runs, opts for the latter.  Isse recounts that his parents were true patriots and volunteered to join Lord Kaien’s army when Doma called their banners to throw out the Garleans. They weren’t killed in the fighting. That would have been easy. Instead, they were brought back chained up in a cart along with every other POW that had called Namai home. The Centurions demanded that the insurgents’ families present themselves, or the entire town would be burnt to the ground. Once they did so, the POWs were made to watch what happened next:   Once each civilian was tortured and terrorized into a public statement that their imprisoned relatives deserved to die for their ‘treason,’ that wish was granted, publicly and painfully. One imagines that the half-dead villagers were forced to watch the executions just as the prisoners had been forced to watch the torture. They had to listen to the screams just as the soldiers listened to their loved ones proclaim the death sentences. His story told, Isse once again begs that the Liberation Front leave the village out of whatever their plan might be.  When Kheris returns to Yugiri, the ninja notes that she appears visibly shaken. The Warrior of Light relays Isse’s words, and Yugiri is just as shocked. She was in Eorzea when these things happened, and nobody ever gave her the complete picture when she returned. Once again, her emotional control cracks. She begins to describe what she will do to the Imperials responsible should she ever learn their identities before stopping herself. It’s hard to see Yugiri of all people like this. Since Kheris met her, she’s always been in control, tough and stalwart. She’s also always overflowed with compassion. Now there’s this dark, ugly rage growing within her. You can’t blame her, but watching her struggle with it is still painful. She even voices her fear that if this despair is all she has to report, Lord Hein may go through with his promise to give himself up for execution. Before we can decide on the next step, trouble snakes its way down the nearby road in the form of an Imperial squad. We hide and observe as the people present themselves for an important news bulletin:  ...   While the Pilus assures that nobody is being conscripted to fight the Confederates and that this is just a temporary measure to ensure the army has sufficient laborers for minor tasks, Yugiri sees through it. This is intimidation. To ensure that nobody feels brave enough to stir up trouble after hearing that the Empire lost a battle, people are being pre-emptively culled to put the fear back into the countryside. Lyse (very reluctantly) agrees to go back to base and let the others know what’s happening. Kheris and Yugiri go after the Garleans, hoping to find out where they are taking these people and what they’re planning for them. Since they have hostages, the shinobi have to take great care not to be spotted, but they also can’t just kill any soldiers they find to keep them quiet. Yugiri suggests we bring back that little blowdart minigame and hit them with some sleeping potion.  We get past the sentries with relative ease and approach Castrum Fluminis. Once the headquarters for the entire Doman occupation, it now serves as little more than a storage facility. However, it is equipped with one of the Garlean’s ring transit devices, making it the only way to access that big fort they have on the far bank. We overhear from the base commander that the fort is the prisoner’s destination. As promised, they are tasked with maintenance and repair duties on weapons and armor for frontline troops. He then off-handedly comments that this will include care for Magitek equipment. When one farmer points out they have no clue how to do that sort of work, the boss mocks them. Perhaps they all should have thought of that before people from this country decided to damage the equipment. By the completely reasonable rules of race-based proxy punishment, they’ll remain in military service no matter how many years they take to pay off that debt. Yugiri is less than pleased.  We must get the people out before they stargate to the fort, or it’ll be too late to help them. To that end, Yugiri scales the wall and knocks out a few guards so we can do the old ‘Steal The Uniform’ trick. This will allow us to relieve the soldiers guarding the villagers and give us a window to evacuate them. Somewhat comically, she goes to the trouble of subduing a Roe and Lalafel guard to make sure any given Warrior of Light will have something that fits to choose from. She also snagged a giant bag full of uniform odds-and-ends from the barracks to ensure there would be no way for people on the internet to complain about the metaphorical Magic Xylophone. With a bounty of options at her fingertips, Kheris suits up for yet another flawless infiltration!  “Greetings, fellow Imperialists! Can you direct me to the nearest helpless innocent? My new jackboots need to be broken in, and I find that they never fit right until they have oppressed at least three or four inferior races. I could try looking in one of the filthy hovels these Domans purport to be homes, but that might reduce their village’s ability to pay the Imperial Tithe, and SUCH DEVASTATION IS NOT MY INTENTION!” Jokes aside, when you talk to the guards, the dialogue takes the opportunity to remind you that a lot of these guys are Domans themselves behind their masks.  This same fellow will be knocked out by Yugiri a few moments after this, and you find him muttering in his sleep how he just has a few more years left until citizenship and how much he wants to go home. Just like in Ala Mhigo, the writers want us to remember that collaborators can also be victims, so we will maintain some empathy even when confronted with the sheer scale of their master’s crimes. With the way clear, our heroes approach the crowd and tell them this is their chance to make a break for it. Their first reaction is… horror at the possibility that we killed the guards and they’ll face the consequences. They start panicking, shouting that trying to run will only make things worse. Yugiri, though her anger is clearly for the conquerors, can no longer contain her emotions and lashes out at the conquered.  Isse steps forward from the crowd. When he tried to chase our help away before, his focus was on protecting his sister. Now, feeling that he will die no matter what he does, he finally speaks of his plight. The gallant heroes who talk proudly of fighting make him remember how much he hates the Empire… but thanks to what he’s witnessed and endured, he cannot believe that victory, or even change, is possible. He has nothing to look forward to but suffering, so our words of hope bring him nothing but pain. Yugiri is taken aback by this, and it gets worse when an older man adds his thoughts. His face is covered in fresh bruises, gifts from his captors. Yet to him, these are nothing. His scars grew too numerous to bear long ago.   Every Doman bends their necks, weighed down by the collective shame of their defeat, submission, and collaboration in their own destruction. Yugiri’s thoughts turn to Hein. She knows the sacrifice he is prepared to make for these people. When she speaks again, the scorn is gone, and the compassion Kheris knows her for shines through like a beacon:    There is hesitation… then one of the farmers speaks up. He says that if the Empire comes looking, he will tell them that he was tricked into leaving the Castrum by an Au Ra. Then he runs. The others hurry after him. Only Isse looks back, almost bewildered that after all the times he’s tried to drive us away, we still refuse to leave him to his fate. Rather than allowing shame and fear to kill them, they have chosen to live. It’s the smallest victory imaginable, but a victory nonetheless. Yugiri is pensive in their wake. Like Gosetsu, she now has little choice but to entertain the possibility that continued resistance and a new war for liberation may be too much to ask of the Doman people. She asks Kheris to do some clean-up to cover their tracks, promising to take care of the rest herself so she can be alone. When the work is complete, she’s nowhere to be found. After a bit of searching, Kheris finds her friend at the edge of the river, listening to the sound of the water. She offers maybe the saddest smile I’ve ever seen in my life.  Yugiri admits to Kheris that despite her oft-spoken fervor for Doman freedom, she is not of this land. This gives Kheris the chance to mention that not only have the Scions visited her undersea home, but we met her family. The news brightens her mood considerably, if only for a few moments. She speaks of how she left home seeking the strength to protect it, even though her people dismissed her fears and disowned her for the effort. Before long, her training bore fruit, and her ninja clan elders dispatched her to Kaien and Hien’s service. They were good men. To serve them and the cause of freedom filled her with pride. Yet beneath that pride was a minor imperfection. “In the end, I will always be of the sea,” she confesses. Though her training and oath demanded that she hold her Master’s mission first in her heart and be willing to die for it (the same tradition Oboro explained to Kheris during their service to Yuki), she was fighting for the Raen above all. To keep the world-warping madness of Garlemald’s imperialism and the fight against it away from her family. One night during the war, she felt compelled to confess this ‘shame’ to Lord Hien.  If there was any question about why she is so devoted to Hien, this information puts it to rest. He learned that his best ninja held loyalty to others higher than her loyalty to him and praised her for it. He even declared her an example of why Doma would prevail despite the impossible odds. He sounds like quite a man. Indeed, this memory kept her from despair even when she came to Eorzea. By all appearances, when she sailed away from Doma, hope was lost. But thanks to Hien, she could believe the dream of victory lived on despite that. Then came today.  The delivery of this line is nothing short of soul-crushing. I remember when the comments heaped praise on Ardbert’s voice actor for his most iconic lines. I expressed my appreciation for Lyse’s performance in the Far Edge of Fate patches. This scene with Yugiri is at least on that level and may even surpass it, if only by a hair. In those words, you can feel the many days she was on the brink of giving up. You can sense the courage it took to keep fighting and how she depended on Hien’s example to find that strength. Most of all, you can understand the truth in her admission that she feels victory may be impossible for the first time. The player gets a dialogue choice here, a chance to share the Warrior of Light’s strength with this wounded soul. Usually, in situations like this, Kheris would project strength or determination, as she did earlier when Yugiri asked if she would help them despite the odds. The first option does this well. Instead, she offers something a bit more vulnerable:  “It will not always be so,” is a statement that acknowledges Yugiri is correct to be bereft of hope at this moment. It validates her pain. Kheris remembers well her darkest hour during the Dragonsong War. Hope for peace with Nidhogg gone, Ysayle’s moral clarity in ruins, Estinien’s lust for revenge seemingly vindicated and sanctioned. Then, with her heart still breaking, came the confrontation with Lolorito. His successful effort to squirm free of consequences for his crimes and maintain his power. His purchasing of a pardon from Raubahn with Nanamo’s life. Yugiri was there that day. Now, in her darkest hour, Kheris is here. Anyone could offer Yugiri a platitude. Kheris can provide an earnest certainty, backed by the experiences of her own bleak history, that things WILL get better. Hope may be gone for now, but it can yet be rekindled. Yugiri’s gratitude for this is plain.  I don’t think I could have written a better line for Kheris’ personal narrative if I’d tried. So often, she has also faced “misgivings,” which threatened to smash her will to fight for a better world. So many morally grey situations and failures on the part of those she’s trusted, including herself. Yet the Warrior of Light finds her strength and “labors on.” Now she’ll always know someone else understands that burden. Their talk is interrupted by the roar of ceruleum engines. An Imperial Gunship streaks across the sky, heading for Doma Castle. We rush back to the House of the Fierce, report on the ‘success’ of the rescue, and then ask if our spies know anything about who was on board. Boy, do they ever: 
Sanguinia fucked around with this message at 00:23 on Sep 4, 2022 |
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Sep 3, 2022 23:49
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I get the impression that Kheris is blending her disguise training with Oboro with her experiences with Hildibrand. 
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Sep 4, 2022 00:00
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The scene in this update is what made Yugiri bar none my favorite character in FF14, and it's one of my favorite emotional moments in the whole game. I feel that the Warrior of Light is in general written to be too indomitable, too fearless, too downright psychotic in their lust for adventure and battle. This scene where you sit down with Yugiri in one of her darkest hours and agree with her while still helping her find hope is a delicacy and sensitivity of writing and characterization for the WoL that I think the game could use more of.
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Sep 4, 2022 00:11
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Cythereal posted:The scene in this update is what made Yugiri bar none my favorite character in FF14, and it's one of my favorite emotional moments in the whole game. I feel that the Warrior of Light is in general written to be too indomitable, too fearless, too downright psychotic in their lust for adventure and battle. This scene where you sit down with Yugiri in one of her darkest hours and agree with her while still helping her find hope is a delicacy and sensitivity of writing and characterization for the WoL that I think the game could use more of. Good news, you get this multiple times an expac.
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Sep 4, 2022 00:20
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I tend towards the options that the Warrior of Light find themselves in a bit over their head if there's nothing funnier to say, though I know there's plenty who prefer the undefeatable hero or the murderhobo lusting for battle, and that's fine - the game allows for some degree of variant interpretations. And they've really started ramping up in Stormblood. As for the zone itself, I do love the vistas with vegetation - the place looks inspired by hanging wall scrolls like these. 
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Sep 4, 2022 00:26
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That Ishgardian persona was a quality moment of levity in the midst of some heavy content.  And yeah, the picture painted of Zenos and of what occupation has done to Doma is certainly a raw one.
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Sep 4, 2022 00:29
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my favorite detail, amid all of this update, is the tone of the Imperial doing the conscripting. he is not wrathful or imperious. he is bored and pissy. he very clearly drew the short straw to have to go down to the lovely little village and round up a couple of the lovely little locals to do the empire's lovely grunt work, and you can hear how much he thinks the task is beneath him specifically. a Zenos-in-miniature, someone who views grinding these people beneath his boot as an insufferably tedious chore. they could have made him as comically over-the-top as Yotsuyu, but no, this is a guy who doesn't even have the excuse of enjoying the pain he's inflicting; he is grumbling about how inconvenient it is that it's his turn to man the peasant-flensing machine again.
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Sep 4, 2022 00:31
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Sanguinia posted:Chapter 15: Die Another Day (e:) ...as you've discovered, I see. (e2:) gently caress, ignore me, I thought you meant the bit about "I see you put thought into your garments." I thought *that* would be the part to change, which does not, and I missed the second textbox's addition. Zomborgon fucked around with this message at 00:43 on Sep 4, 2022 |
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Sep 4, 2022 00:31
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I usually pick the exhausted/in over his head options for my main, but I definitely picked the "relish the challenge" for him for probably the same reasons that it felt wrong to you to pick it for Kheris. Granted I also see him as in such a bad place mentally that he's letting his Esteem front A Lot, so hashtag just DRK main things I guess 
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Sep 4, 2022 00:46
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This was the arc that made Stormblood emotionally crushing for me to continue on through, even after the pacing missteps of the Ruby Sea. The amount of character work going in is really solid, though. It's hard to go through Yanxia and not feel it.
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Sep 4, 2022 00:59
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When Stormblood nails the landing, it's a very good story.
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Sep 4, 2022 01:27
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I felt a touch of the Emmanellain in that Ishgardian impersonation! Bravo! Doma hammers even harder on what the initial Ala Mhigo section did, regarding the bleakness of war and the oppressiveness of the Garlean occupation. There's a lot of really subtle characterization and scene-setting to be found throughout, and I'll admit to feeling a bit discouraged at all the hopelessness when I first played through it. Yugiri's moment there is a high point, just wonderfully acted, and it's a shame that it doesn't get the same praise and appreciation that some others do.
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Sep 4, 2022 01:30
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I can definitely make a guess as to why you felt that option was wrong in that moment, even if in general Kheris has shown to enjoy and relish challenging herself. I honestly don't recall the choices Hanayuki made during Stormblood in terms of dialogue. But for his personal backstory, it's a rather meaningful and important expansion. He left Golmore to fight the Garleans 40 years ago, so he deeply feels this sensation of futility, he's spent decades failing to fight this war for a home that much like Yugiri will be one of the last threatened by Garlemald.
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Sep 4, 2022 01:36
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you linked the nighttime theme for yanxia, but the daytime theme, A Father's Pride, is one of my top 3 favorite songs in the entire game.
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Sep 4, 2022 01:46
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Kerrzhe posted:you linked the nighttime theme for yanxia, but the daytime theme, They're both great. The daylight theme just felt a little too... happy to make mention of in this update unless I was saying "It really didn't fit with what was going on." But I'll probably have a mention for it sooner or later 
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Sep 4, 2022 01:49
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I do think that the Yanxia day theme really sold the false serenity of Yanxia when I first walked in, because I remember coming in and being struck by how impeccable the vibes were between the music and the zone design and then the actual story happenings hit me like a truck. There is also a Very Good rendition of A Father's Pride by Soken, but I'm not sure if there are any spoilers in that video... maybe it's better to talk about when Sang talks about it in an update, though.
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Sep 4, 2022 02:19
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Even more than when Lyse ran into it in Ala Mhigo, this part of the MSQ confronts WoL and co with some bitter realities about what all too often happens to a conquered people. Their hope has been beaten out of them so completely that it almost breaks Yurigi to see it. And it's a very picturesque zone that is very pleasing to look at, in the parts that aren't devastated by war at least. My own thoughts about the extreme verticality of buildings notwithstanding (yes it's a fantasy game and the effect has been used plenty in the game already, I just feel that they go a bit overboard at several points in Stormblood).
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Sep 4, 2022 03:30
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Sanguinia posted:
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Sep 4, 2022 03:38
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Sanguinia posted:Between this and Nero, she must have graduated top of her academy class in Passive Aggression. (This line HAD to be unique based on detecting I was doing the quest on Ninja, right? It’s too perfect.) On the bright side, because of that 6.1 Glamour Plate change, I could keep my immersion fully indulged and change into a disguise just by sneaking close to Namai’s aetheryte. It is fact a unique line! If you have a different job equiped and have completed the Ninja quests, or are a Ninja and not wearing Ninja gear, Yugiri will praise your infiltration skills. She will also note your familiarity with the blow dart if you are a Ninja.
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Sep 4, 2022 04:28
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OhFunny posted:It is fact a unique line! If you have a different job equiped and have completed the Ninja quests, or are a Ninja and not wearing Ninja gear, Yugiri will praise your infiltration skills. She DID tell me how proud Oboro would be of my shooting :3
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Sep 4, 2022 04:39
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Honestly I wasn't the biggest fan of this part, primarily for reasons that happen later, to be fair. Still, I will agree that Yugiri was really cool here.
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Sep 4, 2022 06:05
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It's really funny how Zenos is a big weeb.
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Sep 4, 2022 06:22
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he's just really into the superior doman blades, made by smiths laboring over the course of years to fold the steel up to a million times
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Sep 4, 2022 06:38
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Dr Pepper posted:It's really funny how Zenos is a big weeb. Like a true weeb he cherry picks the part about Doman society he likes and ignores the rest.
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Sep 4, 2022 06:55
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Does sort of point out the slightly skewed situation of both Hingashi and Doma being fantasy Japan stand-ins, just with different aesthetics, even if Yanxia itself is supposed to evoke fantasy China. Might have just been a potentially thorny issue side-stepped by the writers, though. Sanguinia might have more to say about that later.
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Sep 4, 2022 07:12
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Hogama posted:Does sort of point out the slightly skewed situation of both Hingashi and Doma being fantasy Japan stand-ins, just with different aesthetics, even if Yanxia itself is supposed to evoke fantasy China. Might have just been a potentially thorny issue side-stepped by the writers, though. I will. But not for a while yet. There are some things I want to see and still some thinking for me to do on the puzzle pieces I've gathered before I'll feel ready to discuss it.
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Sep 4, 2022 11:06
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I do find it fascinating that the Garlean empire will alter gear for where people are stationed, even if there is not a logistics reason for it necessarily. Like it is one thing to adjust to working in a cold, or really hot climate. Another for them to go full cosplay.
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Sep 4, 2022 13:36
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Twibbit posted:I do find it fascinating that the Garlean empire will alter gear for where people are stationed, even if there is not a logistics reason for it necessarily. Like it is one thing to adjust to working in a cold, or really hot climate. Another for them to go full cosplay. I always interpreted that as the Empire employing conscripted locals, who proceed to make the kind of armor and equipment they're used to making, just with Garlean aesthetics and standards slapped on top. Colonial empires in real life often did something similar, adapting their clothing and equipment in colonial territories to what can be locally made, including adapting local innovations if they offer advantages, and Garlemald is very much not above taking useful technology, magic, and skills from conquered territories.
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Sep 4, 2022 13:40
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