HEY THIS IS IMPORTANT Whats Your Favorite Place To Find Drawing References?

i sometimes like characters that fucking suck. when a character is a shit head in just the right way it can be so funny and/or compelling. like this is my beloved character, Asshole The Hater. they suck and i love them. someone dropped them into a ditch on the side of the road and i picked them out of the ditch and put them in my pocket

everyone say in the tags what their current custom discord status is

K - Know It All - Are they a Know-it-All? Do they actively seek out new knowledge? How do they behave around others how have a great amount of knowledge on a topic?

Sena isn’t in the traditional sense, but I think there’s a lot of overlap between his cynical worldview and him thinking “I know more than you!”

Even pre-ARR, he thinks that most people are bad, which is something that gets reinforced pretty regularly. But for more concrete, specific topics…

He does want to get stronger to protect the handful of people he actually cares about, and actively pursued that! But him being so cynical sabotages his progress - he doesn’t always want help, which he equates with helplessness, and he doesn’t trust that many people, which means finding someone else to teach him things can be super hard.

He thinks people with greater academic knowledge are just nerds, though.

you may think you're a poser for spending your life struggling to imitate cool people you knew once in the hopes that the amalgamation of every funny quip and slice of good taste you've ever picked up from someone else will make you a millionth as cool and likeable as them, but really they're doing the same, and the people they're imitating are too. this chain goes on and on until it eventually ends at shadow the hedgehog

I THOUGHT I LINKED MY BSKY HERE OH NOOO

staff's getting a little too silly for their own good. they think they're our buddies. "oh look we put another silly thing on your dashboard teehee" get rid of the fucking bots

FFXIV Lore Resources

Hey dudes! Lately I’ve been reaching out a bit to some FFXIV players who expressed interest in getting a hold of lore resources. I mentioned to them I’d  try to set up a post making the most helpful ones I’ve encountered readily available, and this?

It’s that post.

MIRKEMENAGERIE: Easily one of (if not the) most complete and comprehensive collections of lore I’ve encountered online. Includes quotes from NPCs in-game, Encyclopedia Eorzea I and II, item references, and more. The Twelve posts and location lore are some of my favorites but really all of this is fantastic. Very accessible.

HARMONEA: Has assembled a HUGE collection of lets plays on youtube that are organized and well-paced, showing everything from MSQ to Ascian-lore specifically to Job quests and beyond. This has been truly helpful whenever I want to check a reference but don’t necessarily have time to New Game + or check the Unending Journey in-game. It’s easy to jump around to find exactly the scenes you’re looking for, and compare moments from different points during the game.

GARLAND TOOLS DATABASE: Sometimes I need lore details from specific quests, that aren’t in cutscenes or easily found in a video. Garland Tools helps with tracking down quotes, character information, and much more. Also contains data around NPC designs. Doesn’t have cutscene quotes, but does have enough info to find what cutscenes you’ll likely need to watch. Whether on youtube or in the Unending Journey, it gets much easier spotting references.

TALES FROM THE CALAMITY, TALES FROM THE DRAGONSONG WAR, TALES FROM THE STORM, CHRONICLES OF LIGHT: THE HUNT BEGINS, TALES FROM THE SHADOWS, TALES FROM THE TWILIGHT: These are official FFXIV short stories associated with A Realm Reborn, Heavensward, Stormblood, and Shadowbringers respectively. The story from Chronicles of Light is also canon but insanely difficult to locate, contains details surrounding Zenos’s backstory and psychology. These absolutely carry lore details! You don’t need them to understand and enjoy the game, but they give added information and context.

ALL FINAL FANTASY XIV 1.X MAIN SCENARIO CUTSCENES: I have not gone through all of this yet but you can bet your ass I have it saved.

FINAL FANTASY XIV 1.X LETS PLAY: Likewise haven’t gone through all of this yet but if you want really detailed 1.0 lore info, this has it.

OZMA’S ASCIAN REFERENCE PILE: Contains both concrete known information, game data, and speculation by Ozma as a longstanding Ascian fan. 1.0 WHITE MAGE QUESTLINE: This isn’t 100% canon anymore, but I’m including it because it actually shows the Elementals in voiced roles and that is a huge deal. Worth noting this youtuber has other 1.0 videos documented too.

BOTANICA EORZEA: This contains all lore surrounding the plants of Eorzea, organized and accessible.

MINERICA EORZEA: Sent by @firecattebird, A fully searchable, organized, and accessible doc containing all the lore I could find in-game about the things we pull from mining nodes.

LODESTONE SONG LYRICS COMPILATION: There are often other places you can google around for official song lyrics and I usually use those, but if you want everything in one place this is your spot!

ETHYS ASHER: Has some really good coverage of the niche parts of Eorzea’s history and solid discussion/speculation surrounding various lore elements. I haven’t gotten to investigate deeply but did enjoy his coverage around Belah’dia and the Great Wyrms.

Lastly, while not lore related I do want to share a particularly fun resource with the people who might be peeking over.

EORZEA COLLECTION: A lot of players in FFXIV are  heavily invested in the design components of the game, and this is a hub for that. Whether you’re looking for something in the vein of Dark Souls, something outrageously silly, something cute, something majestic, etc. you can basically find all kinds of tones/experiments here. You can restrict what you see by job, race, gender, etc. and order according to recency or loves. It’s also somewhere you can see how gear looks with different characters, dyes, and combinations. Very organized and can be a useful resource for farming.

5 and 6 for the ffxiv asks?

5. Which, if any, of the major cities or cultures does your WoL/OC consider to be their childhood point-of-origin? Why did they leave? Do they go back and visit? How do they feel about coming from this place?

Sena is technically from the Steppe, but he left pretty young and doesn't remember it well. He spent some time just trying to survive, and doesn't really consider anywhere specific to be "home", which is a bit of a downer, but it's definitely in a "home is other people" sense.

He does go back there for story reasons (still working out the logic since Stormblood is his villain arc, admittedly), but it's a weird experience for him, which is made weirder by how much NPC dialogue there is specific to Xaela (Hien's "you may not have been born here" line actually really rubs him the wrong way).

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?

Sena has not; he's very protective of his horns and scales and losing them again would weird him out.

If he did Fantasia, he'd probably be a catboy. Not much reason behind this other than it just feels right.

Saw Spiderverse earlier and can’t stop thinking about it. I understand now.

[guy who hasnt drawn in a few weeks voice] yeah the world is horrible and life is agony