Remember When Ursula K. Le Guin Called JK Rowling A Nasty Basic Bitch Back In Like, 2004? We Should Have

Remember when Ursula K. Le Guin called JK Rowling a nasty basic bitch back in like, 2004? We should have listened

feeling so many feelings about all of this

The symbology of the Convocation of Fourteen is just... one of my favorite details in ffxiv. And yeah, I know they have zodiac signs because Final Fantasy Tactics had zodiac signs and FF12 had zodiac signs, but 14's spin on them is inspired, and I don't think that gets enough appreciation.

Each of the Ascians is characterized to at least superficially match their sign. Emet-Selch seems like a Gemini, seemingly on both sides of every issue. Fandaniel seems like a Leo who wants to be the center of attention. Lahabrea, The Creator, seems like an artsy Pisces... just...y'know, a horrible one.

And it's not as if "terrible, messed-up version of Zodiac symbol" is new here. Tactics definitely had that already. The thing ffxiv adds to the trope is the presence of the Sun.

Azem's symbol being the sun and not a constellation tells us exactly what their role in the Convocation was supposed to be. The sun's path through the constellations is what gives all those signs their meanings. You can't be a Gemini unless the sun is in Gemini. The sun's passage through the zodiac is supposed to illuminate the best way forward. This is why Emet-Selch calls them both "Shepherd to the stars in the dark," and "Counsellor to the star's people." They're meant to inspire people to become their best selves. This is inadvertently what WoL does in numerous places and times across the game, (and one of the ancients in Elpis even comments on it) because apparently repeatedly dying at the hands of their coworkers and friends for eons did not get them out of having to do their job.

When the sun protested their unspeakbly terrible plan, they went all in on their hubris by casting it down forever. They never replaced Azem. They don't even want to remember they ever had a sun. They don't have the light that illuminates their best selves, their better future. So they can't find it anymore. They don't know how to be themselves anymore, in Azem's absence. In Elidibus' case, literally. He is so desperate for the guiding star he can't even remember having, that he constantly, instinctively, seeks out Azem in different forms. Wearing Ardbert's corpse, and wandering up to WoL for awkward chats, and looking back to the heroes of the past who were definitely Azem shards.

The sun, torn from the heavens, leads to the maker's ruin.

Ch. 3.13 is now LIVE!

    Even over the unpausing din of mock combat, it was the growing sound of armor clanking against itself that snapped Yenifer back to focus. She turned to see him climbing the training floor, scant fulms away from her - and fatally inside of any guard she could snap together. From such a close distance, she could clearly see the man who’s past - and present - she’d accidentally invaded. The helm he was wearing was mostly hiding his hair, though a few golden, sweat-matted locks were pasted to his forehead. He was wearing armor not too dissimilar to Mylla’s, iron platemail that caught the torches around them with eerie golden flickers, though his was significantly less worn - and less well-kept. Everything else about him was exactly the same as Yenifer remembered him, with a single, obvious exception.     Across his face, painted in white, was the shape of an X. The center of the symbol lay directly above his brow, and beneath that was less a scar and more a divot, the skin gently bowing inwards where the skull beneath had been chipped away. In the dim lighting of the guildhall, the old injury cast a shadow on the shallow valley it made.

Come read the new chapter here!

As a reminder - An Oasis at Twilight will be on break until Sunday, 11 August! I have big plans for the future, and I can't wait to show them to you <3

Until then, may you ever walk in the light of the Crystal!

-H

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I found this interaction i had in my head yesterday funny so i drew it lol