Rewritten MSQ - Garlemald and EW

[aveyond-dreams]

Thank you all for your input! I will address some of your comments in this post:

As for the Loporrits, I’d hope they’d choose to live on and discover a true sense of purpose (and pudding). Thank you for sharing.

After rereading the ending that I gave to the Loporrits...I will agree with you in that I do hope that some chose to stay awake and not rejoin their new adopted mother, Meteion, so soon. When I was thinking of what to do with them, as obscure a reference as this might be, I was looking back to Buju from Dawn of Mana. In the ending of that game, Buju longingly looks at his owner, Ritzia, as she sinks into the depths of the Mana Tree before transforming into the Goddess of Mana. I think to myself, given the choice, wouldn’t a creature like this want to be reunited with his owner? Wouldn’t therefore the Loporrits, essentially children, want to be reunited with the figure that they have accepted as their mother?

Other inspiration for the way in which I wrote them includes the story of Hachiko – though the Loporrits in my rewrite were subjected to a far crueller fate. Hachiko’s owner did not abandon him deliberately, but the Hydaelyn of my rewrite did despite these creatures perpetually longing for her return. They would immediately believe Meteion to be the goddess having finally come back for them, and Meteion would be both enamoured by such cute creatures yet internally torn at the thought of deceiving them. Eventually, they would come to realize that Meteion had lied to them but because of how much love she showed them, they come to look at her as everything they wished Hydaelyn was.

Is Svetlana Garlean? And more specifically a member of the Galvus family? Because I’m pretty sure every Garlean other than Cid (and Midas which is a Greek name) have Latin/Roman names. Svetlana is a Russian name, and while certain aesthetics of the Empire are Russian, wouldn’t it make more sense for her to have a Roman name, especially if she’s a member of the royal family.

When it comes to Svetlana, there was a lot of extra exposition that I refrained from including for the sake of brevity. In summary, she is the youngest daughter of one of Solus’s sons (though not the original crown prince, which was Varis’s father.) Her rank of “Grand Duchess” would be given to the daughters of a prince, but not those of the crown prince, otherwise she would be a princess. When it comes to her name, I admit that my preference for the Russian over the Roman aesthetic influenced my decision to name her Svetlana, along with my general interest in the history of figures like the Tsar’s family, and the families of those who went on to rule Russia afterwards.

She is in her early twenties, and by this point has received an extensive education and military training. During her early years, she watched as the Imperial Senate acted together in order to inflict great torment on already struggling provinces and how they “silenced” dissenting nobles, including her older siblings. In order to protect herself from such a perilous situation, she devised a plan to become so beloved amongst the Garlean people and the provinces that it would be unthinkable to harm her – anyone who did so would be branded a destroyer of the icon of beauty and mercy/charity. Similar to Garlemald’s cult of Emperor worship, people would also flock to her side for these reasons. Though admittedly feigning it at first, she came to grow closer to the people in the subjugated provinces and developed an interest in their wellbeing.

Svetlana would have acted as a war nurse and treated Al-Sid’s wounds despite his position as a rebel combatant – and internally she would wonder to herself whether she did such a thing out of kindness or calculating and manipulating potential enemies in order to turn them into allies. From there their relationship would develop romantically, and so on. Al-Sid’s hot blooded and impassioned temperament would contrast with Svetlana’s more shrewd and cooler demeanour, though they ultimately want what is best for the people under their care. Her pregnancy was an accident she did not account for, despite the measures she took to prevent one, but it ultimately worked out in her favor and in favor of a lasting peace between Rozarria and Garlemald.

In addition to Celes from FFVI, I suppose other figures that I drew inspiration from whether deliberately or subconsciously include: Duchess Georgiana of Devonshire (an ancestor of Princess Diana), Kaiserin Elizabeth/”Sisi”, Hildegard Mariendorf (Legend of the Galactic Heroes), and Svetlana Alliluyeva – whose life story I learned of in a documentary I watched earlier this year and felt great sorrow for all she endured. In retrospect, I feel remorse for having put a character of the same name through such an ordeal in my writing and wish that I could have done a better job. If nothing else, I would like to think that at the end of my rewrite that the new Empress Svetlana went on to rule for many years with Thancred to keep her company as her bodyguard, and were able to find lasting happiness together.

Speaking of copy-paste from other FF Universes, Landis would have been a better use of another country in Ilsabard other than Rozzaria. The problem with it in regards to the OP's story though is that it was a republic.

I picked Rozarria because I thought Al-Cid was cool whenever he came on screen in FFXII. Contrasting inner Garlemald with the Mediterranean seemed like a good idea, and I like the name because it definitely rolls off the tongue better than...Landis. I wanted to see Spain/Italy in the game so I put it in, simple as that. Liberating yet another republic or turning another former monarchy into one seemed like a boring idea, and Al-Cid certainly wouldn’t be the type to just let the scions roll in and do whatever they want with his country.

I struggle to think of any relevant characters to draw from Landis besides Noah van Gabranth, which would have admittedly made for a very interesting dynamic should I have brought him back to rule as a military dictator over the region with the scions forced to accept his form of government or else be branded his enemies. However, I wouldn’t have been able to effectively tie a character like that up with Svetlana in the way that I did with Al-Cid because the whole, “Do I love this person or am I secretly manipulating them?” dilemma wouldn’t have played a factor in the storytelling. The Noah of FFXIV is too intelligent and would have seen through Svetlana’s machinations.

From his perspective, the Grand Duchess and her popularity would have been a serious problem...he may have pressed the issue of a marriage alliance with her but then subjected her to the same treatment as the Duchess Georgiana did in the movie, overpowering and manipulating her in turn to break her and bend her to his will. I’m not sure if I want this man to have the ending of becoming the emperor of Garlemald...The writing surrounding him would make him an unpopular if not downright hated character, ironically playing right into Svetlana’s hands in that no one who harms or moves against her will come away clean.

If there is one thing I'd like to have seen it would be Venat involving herself with some being like Lavos or Jenova (or in XIV terms, related to the High Seraph) - something eager to devour or end their star, capable of approaching her, whispering to her and perhaps acting as the catalyst for her behavioural changes and inducing her ideological predisposition. Maybe something like IV: The After Years's Creator, which instilled in her notions as to how things in the world must evolve in order to avoid the fates of other worlds, so working a bit with the theme of the Dead Ends but without trying to cast it as inevitable. You could tie into this the Echo powers of a seeress, where she has visions of possible futures, which this entity is capable of tapping into and manipulating, and layer on acting as the primal's heart as further warping her and committing her to her path, which is where I thought they were headed with the whole 'heart' thing. This sort of entity I mentioned could then set up a future antagonist/storyline, later on exploring the cosmic destruction it unleashed on multiple worlds but on a slower, more organic scale, and later in the story arc.

I'd echo Skyborne's point on the sundered Ascians, and I'd also liked to have seen both divinities preserved in some fashion in the being into which Meteion will form, and not just Hydaelyn, as a being incorporating both light and darkness, which could perhaps have been a lesson drawn from these thousands of years of experience and modified into the concept with the sanction and blessing of what remained of the Convocation and those ancients liberated from Zodiark.

Your post brings up a lot of interesting points, and I’d like to start with the Lavos/Jenova aspect. Admittedly this didn’t come across as well as I would have liked to in my post, but in riding Midgardsormr to beyond the stars and escape the WoL’s final blow...Hydaelyn would have gone on to another planet to re-establish herself as a “supreme goddess” and inflict widespread chaos again all for the sake her vanity. Effectively, she would have been Jenova. I will however concede that there is greater value in having the source of her personality change be an external force that could linger on after her defeat – paving the way for future storytelling. Perhaps in Venat’s case, it turned her into the fallen angel of FFXIV’s world, while if it affected a different person they would become a gluttonous space parasite that consumes whole worlds, etc.

In regards to the remaining Ascians, I must confess that I had completely forgotten them as I was writing and regret not having included them in the rewrite. There are a number of different ways to have gone about that, from having them be part of the Telophoroi to having them act as Zodiark’s last line of defense on the moon, before being cut down by Zenos...and forcefully possessing some of the remaining party members in order to assist in the fight against their former god. Another option would be for them to be absent from the story, in hiding, until they witness the last phase of the WoL’s battle against Hydaelyn on the moon. They would then ferry the WoL’s body back to Meteion, and impart onto her the last of their essences in order to give her dominion over darkness as well.

[Lauront]

Another option would be for them to be absent from the story, in hiding, until they witness the last phase of the WoL’s battle against Hydaelyn on the moon. They would then ferry the WoL’s body back to Meteion, and impart onto her the last of their essences in order to give her dominion over darkness as well.

Yes, something like that is exactly what I have in mind.

[Theodric]

Well, that made for an enjoyable read! I like pretty much everything that you proposed and I think such a direction would have truly done justice for the Ancients and the Garleans alike. It also captured a lot of what pulled me into the setting back in the days of ARR and HW.

My only suggestion would be to perhaps have Regula's blade play a part in the confrontation with Varis. Mostly to give some pay off to the scrapped thread that was Regula's dying words. Upon seeing the blade, the part of Varis that managed to resist would be emboldened or some such. A little cliche, perhaps, but it'd be a good way to tie off the loose end and maybe later have a follow up where it is revealed that Regula had a son who survived the chaos consuming Garlemald and vows to become a good soldier.

[aveyond-dreams]

Well, that made for an enjoyable read! I like pretty much everything that you proposed and I think such a direction would have truly done justice for the Ancients and the Garleans alike. It also captured a lot of what pulled me into the setting back in the days of ARR and HW.

My only suggestion would be to perhaps have Regula's blade play a part in the confrontation with Varis. Mostly to give some pay off to the scrapped thread that was Regula's dying words. Upon seeing the blade, the part of Varis that managed to resist would be emboldened or some such. A little cliche, perhaps, but it'd be a good way to tie off the loose end and maybe later have a follow up where it is revealed that Regula had a son who survived the chaos consuming Garlemald and vows to become a good soldier.

Thank you! I would probably place a potential son of Regula’s on the city outskirts or somewhere in the inner city, probably trying to protect his own group of survivors. By some means, he would have obtained his father’s gunblade and potentially may have assisted in rescuing the recaptured Svetlana at this point in the rewrite. Since Regula and Varis are roughly the same age, I imagine his son would consequently be the same age as Zenos. However, the revelation of him being Regula’s son and the sword being Regula’s gunblade would be uncovered after the battle against Anima -

An alteration to account for all this would be Svetlana regaining her senses while unsupervised and laments her actions of killing both Gaius and Al-Cid. Having lost the love of her life and succumbing to thoughts of suicide, she steals the gunblade from Regula’s son in order to arm herself. She heads to the palace with one final mission in mind: aid the WoL in their fight against whatever horrors lie within and then leap.

She would navigate the tower using all the survival techniques she learned from Thancred up to that point and arrive with the gunblade during the battle against Anima. Using it against the transformed Varis restores a degree of his sentience, enough to project an image of his former self where he declares his resolve. The phantoms of former officials, Regula included, bear witness to the event and entrust the future to Svetlana as the primal shuts itself down.

Perhaps in spite of all this, she would still try to leap only to be stopped by Thancred. There, he would again promise to keep her safe if she accepts him into her service, which she does. In any case this would certainly give Thancred a more grounded and heroic role as well instead of...becoming atmosphere in Ultima Thule. In hindsight I still can’t believe that zone really happened. Regula’s son would follow soon afterwards and the other characters present would react with shock at the revelation of his parentage, and the true significance of the gunblade. Naturally Svetlana would return it to the son and assign him to work with Jullus on continued rescue efforts around the capitol.

Perhaps another way would have been to tie in the plot surrounding the gunblade and leave Jullus as is except for the surprise revelation of him being Regula’s son towards the end? Given Regula’s association with the Sapphire Weapon...his son having blue hair would not have been outside the realm of possibility.

[MikkoAkure]

Yeah, no worries. I think some sites have made room for new stuff by getting rid of older interviews since there's a few I remember reading that I haven't been able to find despite knowing exactly what phrase to put into a search engine in order to get them to appear. I set out to bookmark some for a while but there's honestly so many that it became too much work. Especially when accounting for different language variants.

I wasn't able to find the interview, but it does say in the EE that female heirs in the Imperial Court have no claim to the throne and are titled "wir". The emperor's mom and wife get to be "yae" but that's still on the same level as all male members of the royal family who are listed as being in the actual line of succession, which seems to imply male-only inheritance. So I don't believe Gaius would recommend Svetlana unless he were desperate or he happened to be very progressive. Then there the matter of the remaining legions. As we've seen multiple times, except for the 1st legion, the rest are more loyal to their legatus than to the throne.


On the topic of Svetlana, I just realized that would be a Hrothgar name. There's even a name example in the Hrothgar naming conventions thread that starts with "Svet", which is a pan-Slavic word for "light", which pulls from the cultural pool that Hrothgar use. And there's also her actions. It seems to be a bit out-of-character for the game's theme to have a "benevolent" Imperial character decide that the conquered territories are better off with the Garlean Empire considering a whole expansion was spent on their liberation. And then cartoonishly out-of-character to blame atrocities on the Senate just because OP doesn't like republics.

It also appears that the WoL basically does nothing in the first of the two expansions laid out. A story where we go back to being the mute do-nothing feels like a step back from Shadowbringers where a lot of the appeal was the fact that we were actually the main character. Instead, that spot has been replaced with yet another in the line of important MSQ blonde girls after Minfilia, Ysayle (ish), Lyse, and Minifilia, so yay for consistency at least?

That's changed in the 2nd half of the OP but the rest just feels like a rant post because they don't like Venat. We already see her at the very end of Shadowbringers and that characterization doesn't fit in with the post. Let alone our interactions with Hydaelyn elsewhere in the game.

[IkaraGreydancer]

So there's this little activity called reading, it's typically recommended before you respond to a written post. No matter which course of action he chose it was going to be bad.



Personally, and this is just me, just my honest opinion, I think the best option is preventing the sacrifices happening in the first place by telling the truth. Try calling me dumb after you've actually read my post, I know it might be hard for you but I promise it's possible.

You often speak as of you know her being fully open with everyone would just automatically fix the issue. NOBODY knows what would've happened if she did tell the Ancients. She already had apprehension about telling Hermes as she felt her may turn on them and not help them figure out that things were destabilizing. The story could go a 100 different ways there yet the one she choose resulted in us having a game to begin with. You don't have to like it, but it IS why the WoL is even a thing. Yall already got your option to say Venat wasnt justified in game. Is that not enough?

Also iirc wasn't it confirmed the Ancients would end up like the Final Dead Ends world if they did continue on their own path?

[anhaato]

You often speak as of you know her being fully open with everyone would just automatically fix the issue. NOBODY knows what would've happened if she did tell the Ancients. She already had apprehension about telling Hermes as she felt her may turn on them and not help them figure out that things were destabilizing. The story could go a 100 different ways there yet the one she choose resulted in us having a game to begin with. You don't have to like it, but it IS why the WoL is even a thing. Yall already got your option to say Venat wasnt justified in game. Is that not enough?

Nope! And fuck closed time loops!

[IkaraGreydancer]

Nope! And fuck closed time loops!

Like I and many others have said. You don't have to like it. Throwing tantrums and being dickish won't change nor "fix" that

[anhaato]

Like I and many others have said. You don't have to like it. Throwing tantrums and being dickish won't change nor "fix" that

I really don't care. I'm not going to behold myself to some made up standards until the end of time when I've spent as much time as I have being eloquent and succinct with my criticisms. Whether or not you think I've done enough of that is irrelevant to me.

[Rulakir]

Yall already got your option to say Venat wasnt justified in game. Is that not enough?

As someone who has not completed the Omega raids, no, I did not get that option. Having nuance that was sorely needed throughout 6.0 locked behind side content from 2 expansions ago isn't my idea of addressing the issue. Nor is one dialog option adequate, especially not when her codex entry is a laughably glowing review that may as well have been written by one of the lopporits.

Also iirc wasn't it confirmed the Ancients would end up like the Final Dead Ends world if they did continue on their own path?

It was stated it was Venat's belief that was the future of the Ancients.