Ffxiv Headcanons - Tumblr Posts

ok so hc that the scions have board game nights like, tataru will be like "y'all need to rest" and stuff and the scions want to spend time together bc found family and all that but they really shouldn't take a full-blown day off because the world could start imploding at literally any second, and also they're all giant nerds so like once or twice a moon they'll have a board game night they'd probably mostly play hidden role games or trivia i think, because they're giant nerds (and estinien just likes lying and fucking with them). anything where some people have some information and some people don't. basically almost anything that polygon has played on overboard.

~more under the cut (character specifics)~

ALPHINAUD obviously would be super strategic about everything and probably be fairly competent, but in games where you have to try to read other people and their motives he can kinda fall into galaxy-brain traps where it's not as complicated as he thinks. In games with a "bad guy" role (like in mafia) it's pretty easy to tell when he's one of the "bad guys" because it doesn't seem like he's as eager for information as normal. lil bit to competitive but it’s all in good fun ALISAE stumbles ass-first into gaslight alley (where alphinaud and esitinien are waiting for her). she generally doesn't want to think that hard about stuff because she already has to think under normal circumstances (well, what's normal for them) and this is supposed to be her break. it's not exactly difficult for her, she just doesn't feel like it. accidentally says stuff that makes her seem guilty when she's innocent, and the inverse is also true. will go for the most batshit strategies just to see if they work. it's called "science," alphinaud G’RAHA will get accused by doing literally nothing. just, sitting there. we all know he's bad at lying unless he's been perfecting his deception for literal decades, and even then it's only okay to good. it won't even be anything specific when he's the "bad guy," sometimes he seems too bummed out and someties he's too gleefully malicious, but it's painfully obvious and very poorly excecuted. over time he gets harder to read because he begins perfecting always just being "like that." probably figures out who the murderer is in Clue right as alphinaud's about to open the envelope. THE WARRIOR OF LIGHT is obviously going to be vaguer/varried, but i think that in general they would have an excellent poker face when they want to (*glances at ARR*). gives nobody any information at any point ever about anything, quietly puts together as many pieces as they can. switches wildly between not talking at all and talking a lot (yet still not give any info??) with no correlation between that and whose side they're on. in performative/roleplaying games they can deadpan almost anything URIANGER is just there for the drama. about to win? he will purposefully temporarily screw over his team just because. overly dramatic about everything. perfect for roleplaying games. actually really good at most games but almost never wins because he gets greedy trying to see how long he can lead them on with his bullshit, and someone (usually aphinaud) figures everything out and steals the win out from under him. THANCRED isn't typically a suspect for anything. nobody 100% trusts him, but no one outright thinks he's the imposter or whatever. he'll make some jokes and generally be fairly chill about the whole thing, and overall there's a 50/50 chance that anyone will call him out on his bluffs. will occassionaly go for the most batshit strategies that somehow always work when he tries them. has threatened to quit the scions when he feels betrayed. will start singing if it's even slightly appropriate Y’SHTOLA is too competent for all this. she has fun and will sometimes get involved, but she's mostly an observer. there's a solid 10% chance that someone will figure out she's the traitor/imposter/werewolf/etc. pretty good at bluffing and somehow simultaneously seems to never be on the bad guy team and also always be on the bad guy team. a true neutral ESTINIEN is pretty easy to read if you know what to look for. he seems to be smiling (smirking) more when he's the bad guy. it's because he knows that he'll win by screwing over everyone else, and that's fun. mostly observes (or seems to be observing) regardless of what role he has in a game, though if someone says something slightly stupid or suspicious he'll point it out very quickly without drawing too much attention to himself. KRILE joins when she can but isn't usually there or is usually happy to just watch, though she always makes a point to see how much she can mess with alphinaud specifically. she doesn't care about winning (although it's always nice), she just wants alphinaud to lose. TATARU mostly watches on the sidelines but also joins sometimes, and becomes actively malicious for the duration or the game. absolutely brutal. she won't win, but she sure as hell will betray each and every one of them at least once, and each in a slightly different way. honestly kinda impressive they would also sometimes play board games back on the First! RYNE is an actual deathtrap. "look, she's so sweet and innocent, she hasn't done anything to inflict suspicion upon herself <3" NO. she has, you just all ignored it. don't trust her. what are you doing. no stop. she's lying. oh god, they're all dead now. what did i tell you. she won't win most of the time, but she'll manage to royally screw over at least half of the crew. they all know this, yet keep falling for it. thancred's always the first victim. he never learns (might add more later)

Answering More WoL Questions

6. Has your WoL/OC ever canonically fantasia'd to another species? Have they considered doing so? If so, what made them choose that species? How does that affect their relationships with those who were born as the species they changed into?

So, this answer is a tad complicated. Read beneath the cut and I’ll elaborate more.

Falling comatose

Xander is, thus far, the only member of the Dawnbreakers to have canonically Fantasia’d himself. However, as a point of clarification, there are two kinds of Fantasia that exist in my headcanon. The first, where you simply fall asleep and wake up as something else, is both A) prohibitively expensive for most people, even adventurers, and B) functions more like a complex glamour prism where it doesn’t actually change you, yourself, personally. It just provides the illusion of a different look and species. Since perception sort of dominates and determines reality, people react accordingly. (And it’s like. Rude to point out that someone’s clothes are mismatched beneath their glamour. Same principle applies here.)

The second is a much more in-depth process and effectively reshapes the body’s corporeal aether, molding it into something else on a permanent basis. Unlike any sort of glamour, it poses no risk of shattering or breaking under combat or some other strenuous circumstances. However, there are risks to doing things this way, including but not limited to:

Losing the ability to manipulate aether due to malfunctions in rewiring the aetheric connections of the body

Distraction during the lucid dreaming required for the process causing the transformation to not take at all, or worse, to alter the body into something unintended or monstrous (more on that later)

As with any medical or pseudo-medical procedure, in rare cases, death

It still took him some few further years of perfecting his craft of alchemy and study of aetherology to settle upon a formula that would actually work to serve his purposes. However, theory is no substitute for practice, and he knew before he ‘went under’, as it were, that there was a decent percent chance that it could fail. But it was worth it, to him, and so he forged ahead.

Now, most folks would balk at the risks inherent to the second method, for obvious reasons. Especially if all they wanted was to see what the world looked like from a Lalafellin perspective for a few moons. But for Xander, that was insufficient for his purposes. He saw a chance to remake himself not with a close-enough approximation of the anatomy of his desired sex, but the fully-functioning systems.

For a long time, Xander held the thought of a so-called ‘True Fantasia’ in contempt, thinking it an impossible dream. The purview of desperate fools or scam artists seeking to prey on them. And then he helped Severian realize his mad fool’s dream to resurrect the literal dead as part of his studies of alchemy, and nothing seemed impossible anymore.

Now, remember earlier when I mentioned that becoming distracted posed a risk to the dreamer during the Fantasia-ing process? For all his planning and foresight, Xander couldn’t help his thoughts wandering to the First and all the time spent with Lyna especially. She left a positive impression on him, so thinking of Viera, knowing male Viera had to exist, and obviously focusing on the body reshaping to a more AMAB design ended up with him awaking in the form of a male Viera.

An unintentional species shift, but one that he welcomed, especially with the new height and body type it gave him. Interestingly enough, he did also manage to gain a Viera’s lengthy lifespan, based on all tests he’s had performed since. He has no clue why, exactly, this happened, though he has a sneaking suspicion that it is, in part, due to him being 8 times Rejoined, and that if any other tried the process wouldn’t work quite the same way.

Knowing from the success of Xander’s method that it’s possible, his friend Celeste, who really wants kids of her own one day, is eyeing following in his footsteps or asking him to prepare another phial. But that’s a thought for another time.

So, how did people take to his shift?

Well, when he returned to the First, the people were a touch confused at first by this strange viis introducing himself by Xander’s name. However, they came to realize he was telling the truth and accept the new him. The viis of Rak’tika were a bit- a lot- more aggressive at first, as men of their kind were not welcome in their sanctum except for, well, the obvious season and reason. However, when he presented the Seal of Ronka and told them who he was, their reactions shifted from violent rejection to a certain level of appreciation.

Most Viera/viis he encounters now don’t question him or ask too much about his origins. Given that he’s clearly already out of his home woods, from their perspective, he’s not too attached to the perceived culture of his birth. If asked, he’ll admit that it’s a recent development and go into what he accomplished via alchemy, as he is quite proud of the feat. But it’s no one’s business but his own unless someone wants to know.

He might. MIGHT. Have informed Erenville by now, expecting a certain level of rejection or resistance. Erenville is just, shrugs all around about the whole thing. Nonplussed perhaps by the fact that such a profound alteration came from a momentary distraction, as to his eyes, Xander seemed like any other Veena Male.

The viis in the First, at least the main 3 in Rak’tika, take amusement more than offense in his lack of knowledge of their culture once his identity is made clear. Like, if you wanted to be one of us this badly, how silly of you not to have studied more thoroughly!

Xander is making an effort to study what he can find of Male Veena Viera culture, which isn’t all that much, if only to ensure that he isn’t completely lost if someone who’s truly attached to the culture comes upon him. He struggles a bit with feeling as though it’s not his culture to take or learn. (Which, by birth, it really isn’t.) But he still feels that it’s important that he at the least knows about it.