Tag Archives: Raubahn

FFXIV: For Ala Mhigo

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Oops, extra long chapter! Well, it’s the season finale. I adjusted the gatecracker battle, because the Garleans would be rank fools not to put cannons on top of their walls, just letting the Alliance waltz up unopposed except for a paltry handful of flying machines. (I’m sure part of that is game render limitations, so I’m just breaking the limit.)

Tidbit that didn’t make it into the story: I headcanon the Temple Knights were training with the Immortal Flames in Thanalan for a few months to acclimatize to the arid environment. Also they’re on double water rations so no one sweats to death. Even if Coerthas used to be warmer, it’s not like it was hot. It’s like Scandinavians going to the Mediterranean – you can’t just throw them in there and expect them to operate as normal.

For Zenos fight I had to rely on an old standby boss-fight-inspo song: Blue Skies and a Battle from FE3H (which I haven’t played because I don’t want to play such a sad game).

I would really love for Ala Mhigo to have a hub city zone (like Ul’dah or Kugane) using the dungeon tileset, those textures are PRETTY.

Chapter 63: Reunion

 

Chapter 64: For Ala Mhigo

Tam tried to take stock of the last hour. Fordola was in Alliance custody. Krile was safely behind friendly lines, with Urianger. Urianger speculated that Fordola had been given an artificial Echo through those experiments on Krile, and his device, inspired by Alisaie’s testimony, had been to disrupt it. Rinala had arrived and Raubahn sent her to give his sword Tizona to Pipin, and Tam had gone along to hang out. Now how did Tam get from Pipin to… wolfmen, again? Continue reading →

FFXIV: Reunion

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Yesssssss the return of the king, as the memes say!

I’d kind of hoped to put in Raubahn’s flashbacks in the previous chapter, to pair up his memories of Lyse’s father with Achiyo’s last Echo involving her ‘father’, but eh the pacing ended up not really working out.

Thancred’s line about leather waistcoats… research tells me is a Monkey Island reference (to go with the ridiculous breath holding). (I’ve played several of the Monkey Island games, but it’s been quite a while. That sort of puzzle game isn’t really my cup of tea.)

Chapter 62: Legacies

 

Chapter 63: Reunion

The first thing to do was to warn the army of the experiments they’d encountered. The Empire did like building sinister laboratories everywhere they could – they’d built one beneath Doma Castle, for kami’s sake – and if they were creating machines that were part-beast, or worse, part-Spoken in one place, they could be creating them elsewhere. Or who knew which of their experiments had been approved and put into production. Their very horror would grant them an edge, let alone their combat capabilities. Everyone needed to know. Continue reading →

FFXIV: Legacies

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I forgot how long the Radiata bit was, and I couldn’t figure out how to abridge the WHM quest, so this is likely the third-last chapter of 4.0.

TIL that ‘cermet‘ is a real thing?? Man I know a little bit about a lot of things but I didn’t know that. I thought FFXIV made it up for the Garleans to use.

Estinien’s cannon-slaying is probably the best moment in all of Stormblood. He’s the Azure Dragoon, after all. (Jocat guitar sting)

Chapter 61: Bitter Dreams

 

Chapter 62: Legacies

Rinala walked through the forest of the Fringes, head down, tail low, lost in thought. Trying to figure out how her life had fallen down around her. How she had lost herself to the point that she couldn’t do her job anymore. That the Scions didn’t want her around anymore. Continue reading →

FFXIV: Bitter Dreams

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I know people have complained that several characters post-ARR are basically whole new characters, and I think it’s true. I feel Lyse got the better end of the deal in the character development hand-outs; she went from ‘bubble-brained comic relief’ to ‘oh crap I have to adult now, it’s scary but I’ll do my best’. Maybe it’s a bit too drastic, but you know what ARR was a bit cartoony overall so I don’t think it’s out of step with the general tone shift. But Thancred went from ‘mischievous perv with an angsty side’ to ‘Batman’, and not even a fun Batman like Estinien. And just to reiterate… I really don’t like his haircut and chin scruff. (Alphinaud’s character development is, of course, perfect, so needs no discussion.)

Chapter 60: The Fall of Doma Castle

 

Chapter 61: Bitter Dreams

R’nyath ducked through the press of soldiers, looking for his fearless leader. “Achiyo! Hey, hey, over here!”

She turned, startled, from where she had been talking to Raubahn. “R’nyath? What is it?” Continue reading →

FFXIV: When the War Is Over

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this is horribly self-indulgent (7,000 words of fluff, most of it written literal years ago) and yet it’s what we’ve been waiting for, please enjoy : D

Chapter 50: Achiyo Defeated

 

Chapter 51: When the War is Over

The wounded were borne away in wains to Castrum Oriens, Y’shtola among them, with Lyse and Pipin to guard. Gradually, those left took stock of their situation. Rhalgr’s Reach was in shambles. The tents were charred tatters; the cannons were in pieces. Holes had been blown in the cliffs, including those that contained historic chambers now laid bare to the elements. And there were so many bodies, hundreds of casualties, many of them unarmed; people lined them up in neat rows to prepare for burial, weeping and cursing the Imperials. The ground was covered in scattered dark patches of dried blood. Continue reading →

FFXIV: Into the Fringes

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Whoooo Stormblood!!! Y’know, once upon a time I thought I’d never make it here, even though I’ve had tons of notes for it for a long while. And I know, with it being the most political expansion, it’s a little more difficult than the others to get emotionally invested in – but I have some story threads that I think will be pretty interesting. And of course, this is a fanfic, I can skip the worst of the politics if I want! You’ve already all played the game anyway.

That being said, I personally found 4.0’s opening to be one of those spots that’s hard to get emotionally invested in. So we’ll be moving fast for a bit.

Thanks, Cider Spider, for forever implanting Lyse puns into my brain.

Also oops I spent the past three months in 1) year-end work crunch/recovery, 2) writing out Achiyo’s entire backstory (will post after I finish posting 4.0), and 3) playing Honkai Star Rail.

Chapter 48: The Battle in the Sky

 

Chapter 49: Into the Fringes

Rinala looked around at the Alliance camp within Castrum Oriens, the fortification on Baelsar’s Wall that was now the Alliance headquarters in Gyr Abania. It was already more arid on this side of the Wall than the Shroud, the trees thinner and less leafy, reminding her of the southern border of the Shroud where the forest met her own Thanalan. This part of the castrum was largely built of stone, with metal on top, which surprised her after seeing the grand metal intricacy of Baelsar’s Wall itself – were the Garleans taking advantage of older structures as the basis for their own fortifications? Continue reading →

FFXIV: The Battle in the Sky

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I feel like Nero’s English VA isn’t smug enough. He needs to sound punchable. His dialogue shows him to be at least purporting to be utterly full of himself, and I feel the VA plays it a bit flat; he sounds almost normal despite the dramatic dialogue. BRING ME SASS

Chapter 47: The Edge of Gyr Abania

 

Chapter 48: The Battle in the Sky

Achiyo, Kekeniro, Vivienne, Alphinaud, and Alisaie were the last to arrive at the council at the Lotus Stand. Besides the four Alliance leaders and their retinues, Cid and Yugiri were there. Alisaie did not actually have to be there, but Achiyo guessed she was curious enough to put up with politics. Continue reading →

FFXIV: Rousing Spirits

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Is it just me or have interpersonal relationships suddenly become easier between my characters starting last chapter? Like they actually like each other? Y’know, only an expansion and a half late. : P

I took out the cyclops because I don’t think it really adds anything except make Thancred miss the climax of the fight for no reason. : P

Chapter 35: Unraveling Hopes

 

Chapter 36: Rousing Spirits

Achiyo, Rinala, R’nyath, and Vivienne went down for breakfast in Fortemps Manor several days later and found Count Edmont reading a notice as he ate. “Ah, good morning to you all. Ser Aymeric has news for us. I shall call upon him after I have breakfasted, would you care to join me?” Continue reading →

FFXIV: The Parting Glass

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And BOOM goes the dramatic tension! Thanks for reading everyone! I’m going to take a break from writing for a bit to play Legend of Dragoon, but I’m sure I’ll be back with HW sooner or later!

Regarding the song Thancred and R’nyath sing at the beginning of the chapter: I was subbing for a choir earlier this year, and one of the pieces they were singing was ‘Quick, we have but a second‘ by Stanford, and I realized immediately that it fit this chapter perfectly. And I’ve been waiting for this one… Vivienne’s fight song is RichaadEB’s cover of Bad Apple!

R’inwa is actually a lot taller than R’nyath, I learned when making him into a retainer; his height is at max, and I think R’nyath’s in the bottom third of the scale.

EDIT: Vivienne’s soul crystal has broken for story purposes.

Chapter 18: Blushes and Blood Pearls

 

Chapter 19: The Parting Glass

The air in the Rising Stones was merry, despite everything that had happened in the last little while, despite the tension that Rinala felt in her chest like a distant thundercloud. But if the others were worried, though she suspected they were, she couldn’t tell from their demeanour. Perhaps they were pretending and putting on a good face, as the other folk at the banquet would neither know nor care about the horrible murder that had just happened, or the sinister plot behind it that no one would tell her about. She didn’t begrudge them maintaining her ignorance; she was terrible with secrets, only… she wanted to know what to be worried about, and also she was just curious! Continue reading →

FFXIV: Once a Hero

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To write this chapter, I took Achiyo (level 52 PLD) and rounded up a party finder of folks willing to fight Coils 1-5 synced to level 50. Twintania took a couple days to beat, and when we did, it felt awesome!! It’s a lot harder than my writing implies… But the chapter was tending to the long anyway, and Twin isn’t really worth the epic writing, not compared to Phoenix and Bahamut will be.

Starting to feel like writing Voltron fic, stand by. : P

EDIT: I was never happy with Chuchupa’s little bit, or her backstory; I’m still not totally sure what it is, but it’s not what I had here before. I also added a bit for Vivienne, because her brother has thus far not made a single appearance and she seems kind of distant from him, like he’s not necessary to her story. Which means he probably isn’t, which I would like to fix.

Chapter 6: For the Light

 

Chapter 7: Once a Hero

Rinala had passed out from exhaustion not long after they had escaped the Castrum, and she did not hear much else until about eight hours later, when she woke to find herself in a tent with the sun smiling down outside. Someone had dressed her in clean clothes, and someone – probably one of her Scion friends – had even got out her Thancred plush and laid it in her arms while she slept. She squeezed it happily, sleepily, then decided she should probably get up, she was ravenous. Continue reading →