Blackguard

[Stormfur]

Is there a quest or something that delves into what, exactly, this title means?

You see them in, for example, Void Ark - but you also get the title if you're sworn to the Ehecatl Nine of Ehecatl Blackguard. I've always wondered what it meant or if there was a story behind it.

[Cilia]

There is not. There doesn't really need to be, in my opinion: one is a title and the other a species of voidsent.

(I'm actually somewhat confused with the choice of title, given "blackguard" is an old-fashioned insult. Also used for the original anti-Paladin class in D&D, but... whatever.)

[Fenral]

Fun fact: it's pronounced "blaggard."

For the "Ehcatl Blackguard" title, it's used in a self-deprecating sense, since the Ehcatl Twenty-Seven Nine are technically Ixali outlaws.

[LineageRazor]

For the Voidsent, most likely FFXIV is alluding to the D&D-style Blackguard, given that the ones we meet have a sort of black-armored "evil knight" look to them. Final Fantasy has never been shy about cribbing from D&D (though they've had to be a lot more subtle about it in recent years, given how lawsuit-happy Wizards of the Coast tends to be).

[Cilia]

Well, given I's bestiary was taken almost wholesale from D&D... it's hardly surprising they'd use some references, and that's what I pegged the voidsent Blackguards as.

[Zohar_Lahar]

Based on Palace of the Dead, the proper term is actually "bloodguard."

When I first saw them in the Void Ark, my first thought was of some of the gargoyle enemies in early Final Fantasy titles and spin-offs. Though closer examination shows their wings are feathered, giving them a fallen angel vibe.

[Mysteltain]

Based on Palace of the Dead, the proper term is actually "bloodguard."

When I first saw them in the Void Ark, my first thought was of some of the gargoyle enemies in early Final Fantasy titles and spin-offs. Though closer examination shows their wings are feathered, giving them a fallen angel vibe.

I always got a much heavier Valkyrie vibe from the Bloodguards, what with the armor, wings, and being Voidsent, which tends to use a lot of death and hell/afterlife symbolism. Next time I run VA I'll have to see if they have female faces or not.