It Is Difficult To Believe That Ardyn Was Ever A True Hero, Even In His Glory Days. While It Is A Sure

It is difficult to believe that Ardyn was ever a true hero, even in his glory days. While it is a sure thing that he was seen as a savior at the time, curing people of the new Starscourge by taking it within himself, everything about him has always been theatrics and grandeur. In the artworks of him riding on his black chocobo down the streets, his body language screams that he is eating up all the praise, that this is what he lives and thrives on. The way he talks about the past is dripping with the venomous green of jealousy, and all of his revenge motives are rooted in it.

He believed that he alone deserved to ascend for his deeds and sacrifices, and he plays the part of the victim who got chased out. The problem, however, is that he never made sacrifices. Everything he did was for his own gain. He wanted the glory, wanted to be worshipped. His goal had never been the salvation of humanity, it was godhood. Even had he not been tainted with Starscourge, he could never have ascended as the King of Light. The Crystal lacked the power to purge the Starscourge for 2000 years, so it begs the question, how could it ever have been Ardyn?

 The answer is simple: Ardyn was never the King of Light. His words are lies twisted by his own self-importance and greed. He claims to have been pushed aside and hidden away by a jealous Izunia, by one “not yet Chosen by the Crystal.” However, it is clear that he himself had never been Chosen, else things would have been far different. He appointed himself to that role because he felt he was the only one who deserved it, and by holding himself in too high of esteem, he was set up for his fall.

He had always been selfish, and when he didn’t get what he felt was owed to him, he set out to destroy it in its entirety. Moreover, he plans his revenge in a way to lift himself up ever further, even beyond his coveted godhood. Had his revenge been born of grief and rage at being denied ascension after his sacrifices, his methods would have been more simple. He could have easily just killed off all of his kin. The Astrals slept, and so had he killed all of the Lucis Caelum and Nox Fleuret bloodline, he would have won.

That wasn’t what he wanted. He was after the recognition, to be seen as a god. Because he was denied ascension as one of Light, he chose to become one of Darkness. That is why he sends Noctis on the path to reach the Crystal, while making sure he suffers every step of the way. He wants Noctis to become the most powerful that he can and to have no reason to hold back, so that he may tear apart the Astrals’ Chosen King in all of his glory, all to prove himself better.

This is made clear as Noctis defeats him, and the only thing Ardyn is concerned with is if he’ll be erased from history again.

Everything that Ardyn says and does is very deliberately engineered. He twists and manipulates with words and magic to further his goals while painting himself as victim. But he is the one who chose to spread the Starscourge. He chose to take control of his darkness, he chose to terrorize and kill much of humanity to reach fame however he could.

He used the Empire as breeding grounds for his weapons, never once caring about the casualties left in his wake. His goals were always the only thing that mattered to him. Were he truly a selfless hero, if he was ever the victim he claims to be, he never would have done all that he did. He would have continued using his magic to heal people even though it meant taking in more of the darkness that cost him his ascension. He would never have given the Empire access to the Magitek technology. He would never have orchestrated everything to make Noctis suffer in his journey.

The taint of the Starscourge cannot be the primary cause of his character. The Starscourge creates rage, and Ardyn’s anger is far too carefully controlled. He has his wits perfectly in order. He has not been turned by the Darkness, he controls it. He always has, and that is why he has never been worthy.

N O C T L U N A   W E E K

Day 6: Night and moon

Quote by: Frederick L. Knowles

Did you design your OC with a specific aspect of RP in mind? Such as shipping, NSFW things, attending in-game social events, hosting events or entertaining others?

Little OC Creation Ask List. — OPEN

Thank you for the ask, @mimble-sparklepudding! I always love your ask questions for the thoughtfulness and insight, and I’m very happy to receive one from the OP (´◡`) To answer the question: not really, for the options stated in the question.

Whenever I design my OCs for storytelling (be it for writing fanfics or RPing with others), I usually go along with either my personal aesthetic taste, or if I already had a rough idea for their lore to pick something that would work reasonably. I don’t think about what other players would feel towards my muses because I didn’t create my characters for them in the first place. Great if you like my blorbos, but it’s fine if you don’t vibe with them. My characters and I aren’t here to please everybody. I’ve been writing and roleplaying in other fandoms for at least a decade, way before I even joined the FFXIV community, so I’ve never felt the need to create my characters around other people unless absolutely necessary.

So far, I’ve only shared two major muses openly on this site: Sora and Yiuno. Sora is a likeable sort of character, with her cute appearance and child-like innocence (we do not talk about her penchant for violence). She was the first OC I made when I started playing the game during Shadowbringers launch. I was fairly clueless about FFXIV back then, so I didn’t really think much about her character development and mostly went along with what felt right for her. I only started working on her backstory proper around patch 5.55, when I’m more familiar with the game’s lore.

As for Yiuno… he wasn’t created to be someone good and straightforward, like Sora. When male Viera is added to the game in Endwalker, I thought of designing a character who is multilayered, complicated, and fun for me to explore from various perspectives. Yiuno is a dangerous but broken man; almost nothing about him is particularly likeable as a person (except maybe his face, lol). Speaking of appearance, that was what I had intended for him—he has an idealistic beauty that could charm others to gravitate to him, until they finally realize the horrors he kept behind that pretty smiling mask (and by then it’d probably be too late). He’s supposed to be a hypocritical existence, the embodiment of paradox and contradiction.

The only exception created for shipping with NPC, I’d say, is Persephone, the other half of Yiuno’s Ancient self. The serious reason is my own take on the true motive that drove Emet-Selch to extremity in his actions against the Sundered on Etheirys to reclaim the Star for his own people (i.e. my way to fill in some blanks in the canon). The fun reason? I enjoyed the various studies on the relationship between Hades and Persephone in Ancient Greek mythology, and I want to do something similar with them. (Also, I stand by my personal headcanon of Emet and Lahabrea often lamenting about their wives after the Convocation meetings.)

While most people might be unwilling to admit this, our characters also serve as an extension of our real selves, particularly in a virtual world like Etheirys. I mean, we technically don’t see the real faces of other players in the game (unless you share your RL photos, that’s on you), so naturally the avatars that everyone sees in the game is a representation of the player controlling that character. I believe that ultimately people create characters for themselves, because they are the ones making the conscious choice and taking the necessary actions to fulfill that decision. Just my two-cents.

T H E   A U D I   R 8   S T A R   O F   L U C I S

For the inheritor of the light.

ffxiv graphic resources — my dividers.

— readme. Request; closed. Please credit me and like/reblog this post if you use. Do not edit and/or claim as your own. Do not remove or change the copyright tag. FFXIV © Square Enix. All Rights Reserved.

— changelog. [2024.05.13] Masterlist created.

shadowbringers

endwalker

palace of the dead

yorha: dark apocalypse

Happy New Year from the FFXV team! (source)