Video Game Scenery Meme [ 2 / 3 ] Underappreciated Locations

video game scenery meme — [ 2 / 3 ] underappreciated locations

north shroud —hyrstmill

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.

Absolutely no tail (and no peets) for all my Viera characters.

These features don’t fit into my personal aesthetics—I’m glad that canonically they don’t have one, and all the bun tail mods I’ve seen out there are just weird to me. They also don’t fit into the lore I have developed for Yiuna and Yiuno’s birth clan. Some people have mentioned that they find Viera with short fluffy tail to be cute. My twins, on the other hand, are anything but cute.

That being said, I’d imagine the twins aren’t bothered by the existence of either or, to be honest. Etheirys has a very diverse population, and there are mixed races too, so it’s entirely possible for different Viera clans to have features unique to their own bloodline! Like someone had mentioned in the reply section—it’s more fun and interesting to have variety, regardless of personal preferences.

viera wols, bun tail or no bun tail?

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𝓐 L L   A T   O N C E

14 associations: Valoren Stormcrow

tagged by @why-raven ! passing this on to anyone who sees this and wants to join :D

ANIMAL: gaelicat. A curious, charming creature with a feline body and the wings of a bat. It possesses a keen, mischievous intelligence. Gaelicats are an important part of Vanu Vanu culture, with the Gundu using them in fortune telling rituals, releasing them into the Sea of Clouds to receive omens of the future. Their ancient predecessors, the ailouroi, were familiars created to keep watch and bring inspiration as muses.

COLOR: robin-egg blue. Often associated with lightning, water, and the sky, this vibrant shade of cyan is the color of Valoren’s soul.

SONG: Fake Out by Fall Out Boy. The perfect upbeat anthem for a man whose life has been one long, heartbreaking fake-out.

NUMBER: zero. The Fool in tarot is numbered as zero. Valoren also thinks of himself as a non-entity, with no true identity. His sister’s derogatory nickname for him growing up was Valoren Nothing, and it really stuck.

TIME OF DAY: very late night. In the darkest hour that comes before dawn, Valoren has always thrived. He’s practically nocturnal. Not only because that’s when his jobs as a tavern bard take place, but because he finds pace in being awake when almost nobody else is.

FLORA: nightshade. A beautiful purple flower whose scientific name is derived from the Greek mythological figure Atropos, the deadliest of the three Fates. Of course, the plant is infamously poisonous.

SMELL: lavender. Valoren has a custom perfume blend made of lavender, vanilla, and cardamom. He uses the same scent profile in his soaps. You can tell a letter is from Valoren not only because of his signature blue ink, but because it smells like lavender.

GEMSTONE: moonstone. A multi-hued stone that seems to shift depending on what light it's in, moonstones are also associated with tides and, obviously, the moon.

SEASON: autumn. While the weather is often dreary, it only makes for a better excuse to stay home and be cozy. The beautiful leaves also make for an excellent show!

PLACE: rooftops. Valoren often climbed up onto the roof as a child to escape his (less dextrous) older sister’s torment, and they’ve always been a place of solace for him.

FOOD: plum fool. One of the first things Valoren made, a plum fool is a dessert with layers of lightly cooked and sweetened plums and either rich custard or freshly whipped cream.

ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: the spire. It is associated with dominion over others, the noble class, and the element of lightning. Often, the Spire heralds a disaster or upheaval.

ELEMENT: lightning. As an astral element, lightning takes an active role in shaping the world around it, either in creation or destruction. It is the divine wrath of a storm, the spark of inspiration, the flash of brightness that’s alleged to never strike the same place twice.

BEVERAGE: top-shelf bourbon, neat. Valoren fails to see the point of drinks that aren’t either caffeinated or alcoholic. When he’s drinking on his own gil, he prefers a strong drink with complex flavors and just a hint of burning.