Tales from the Storm Discussion

[Anonymoose]

It's that time of year again!

The First story is up, and it's Lyse and Papalymo behind enemy lines before the rise of the Griffin.

Chalk up another mention of Gaius van Baelsar as "killed", but yet again from an in-world source educated by hearsay while more objective measures hold their silence...taunting me...mocking me...

Second story is up! Yshtola meeting Alisaie and Lyse in Limsa Lominsa.

[Belhi]

Still reading but..

Gatty had a cameo.

[YianKutku]

I was wondering about Lyse calling M'naago without her tribe prefix, and whether that was considered the "proper" way to do so, at least among close friends. (It's certainly the case with family, as seen with Y'mhitra and Y'shtola.)

Especially since I was doing the SCH Job questline, where Alka Zolka referred to R'ashaht Rhiki as "Rashaht", no apostrophe.

I was also curious about the story skimming over the revelation of "Yda" being Lyse, but on further thought it probably wasn't that big of a deal to the Resistance. Lyse is still the daughter of Curtis Hext, and she is a member of the Scions. The only things she might have deceived them about is which daughter she was (and since the Resistance only knew of her as "Curtis Hext's daughter", they likely didn't see a meaningful difference), her name, and whether she actually went to Sharlayan.

Speaking of which, did Lyse actually go to Sharlayan with Yda? I have the vague impression that she didn't, but that would imply Yda left Lyse with some other unknown guardian while she went off to become an Archon, complete with neck-tattoo. Given Papalymo's original willingness to go with the Yda/Lyse charade, it's plausible that Papalymo knew Lyse from the beginning.

EDIT:
x Conrad
o Curtis

[Belhi]

Yda and Lyse ended up in the colony. Lyse might have been a bit young to have received official training though before they up and left.

[PArcher]

Wonder who the other three tales are going to focus on? Sure one will be out of left field, but there's so many possibilities for the other two...

[MidnightS]

Wonder who the other three tales are going to focus on? Sure one will be out of left field, but there's so many possibilities for the other two...

Well, Hien will obviously be another one. Perhaps it will detail the immediate aftermath of the failed liberation attempt and him meeting Cirina.

If I had to guess, they other two will probably be Yotsuya and Fordola.

[YianKutku]

Well, Hien will obviously be another one. Perhaps it will detail the immediate aftermath of the failed liberation attempt and him meeting Cirina.

If I had to guess, they other two will probably be Yotsuya and Fordola.

I'd love to read a story about Cirina meeting Hien, from Cirina's point of view, but I don't think it will happen, mostly because it will essentially be a repeat of the M'naago-Lyse meeting told here: a side NPC's PoV of meeting a more important NPC. Still, that doesn't rule out the story being told from Hien's PoV.

I'd be more interested in Fordola's story post-SB than pre-SB, largely because we've pretty much seen all there is to Fordola's motivations during the story: do anything and everything to ingratiate herself with the Garleans, even when it involves killing her own. Pre-SB, she could at least take some small comfort in the belief that it was all necessary. Post-SB, that comfort is stripped away, and she will have to face up to what she's done, essentially for nothing.

I really don't want to read about Yotsuyu's backstory, because it's likely to descend into wallowing in misery. There should be far more interesting and relevant stories to tell within the space of the Tales From The Storm series, rather than rehashing how Yotsuyu's life is terrible.

[TinyRedLeaf]

A lovely story, and one that pretty much corroborates a lot of what I've tried to bring up in other places, about the importance of Lyse to Stormblood.

I greatly enjoyed how she grew as a character throughout the story, and was very much startled by the hostile response that so many players had towards her. It was almost as though they played a different game and watched a different movie.

It was yet another example of how there's no accounting for subjective opinion. A reminder to me that what someone gets from a story can vary wildly from what I take from the tale. It all depends on our perspectives, shaped by a lifetime of different experiences.

I understood almost from the beginning that Lyse had symbolic importance to the Resistance, and was heartened by her efforts to overcome her lack of self-confidence, all the while fully aware that she couldn't afford to let down the friends who supported her, unconditionally. She was refreshingly guileless, in a story full of conniving villains and cunning tacticians.

Most of all, I was pleasantly surprised that, towards the end of the story, Lyse was the only one among the heroes who had developed a clear understanding of what justice meant to her, and why it was vital to ensure that the revolution does not become a pogrom. On that score alone, she's more than qualified to be the new leader of the Resistance.

You can train a person who hasn't yet achieved his or her full potential. But you can't change a person's character. At least, nowhere near as easily.

Conrad correctly recognised that a Resistance made up of people from different backgrounds and different motives needed a unifying symbol to rally around. Lyse was that symbol. That was clear to me.

Not for what she did — Lyse was clearly outshone by everyone else around her, a fact that she's fully cognisant of — nor for her strengths (again, she's well aware of how stupid she currently is; but even the Bull of Ala Mhigo was once a callow youth, uncertain of his potential), but vitally, for what she believed in.

Justice. A concept that everyone thinks they know, yet, when challenged, few can properly explain. History is replete with examples of revolutionary leaders — from Napolean to Mao and to Castro — who won the war, but lost the peace. They all became the dictators they overthrew.

In Lyse, I see a potential leader who would secure a lasting peace for Ala Mhigo.

[Anonymoose]

was very much startled by the hostile response that so many players had towards her

I think for some it was just asking too much too quickly. Yda was a ditz; she was the brawn to Papalymo's brains. Together they made one actual, functional Archon, more or less. But they were also two of the oldest Scions and Yda hadn't had much character development in 20 years; so they put her to rest, preserved her legacy, and retconned in this young firebrand (an arguably more versatile, relevant character) to take that passion to the Empire for better or worse, stumbling along the way. And then suddenly the character we knew for "NANA, IS THAT YOU?" is leader of the Ala Mhigan Resistance?

That's where I differ with the people who find it hard to accept. But I also differ from people who accept it too easily.

It's going to take more than persistence and the right dad to make an actual leader out of her. She's not there yet, imho. The Resistance had spent twenty years being whittled down, fractured, broken, and killed off. Conrad saw in Lyse a sort of reset button; if the Scions and the Alliance were willing to be brought to action, if the Resistance might see a surge of new recruits, they needed someone symbolic; someone who could sympathize with many different plights in the world and not lose hope. People are coming from all over to join Ala Mhigo, and they need something more than battered loyalists who haven't left the Fringes or stopped fighting Garleans for longer than they can remember.

Yet she's growing right alongside them. She literally just decided who she was and has little experience in the role shes in, but all of Ala Mhigo is about to lose the one thing they had in common: the desire to see it liberated. I think things about to get tense fast, and I don't think she's ready to deal with it. Perhaps that's what will mold her into a TRUE leader, or perhaps that's what convinces her to come back to the Scions, instead.

But for her to just suddenly decide who she wants to be and just as suddenly have those skills right when that's needed most? Awfully convenient for someone we knew a few patches ago as the most clueless person in the room during Minfilia's powerpoint presentations.

At the very least, though, this makes it a lot easier to defend why Conrad suddenly chose her to those for whom it wasn't clear.

[Belhi]

To be fair, Lyse is a ditz too. I was worried she would just be a different character but the ditz came out several times. Frankly Yda/Lyse wasn't that dumb either. She was just surrounded by people who were very smart.

I think the characteristics that I noticed that was probably why she is supposed to be a good leader to bring Ala Mhigo together is that she is a solid figurehead, she is strong, she is passionate, she cares for people and she wants an Ala Mhigo for everyone involved. That last part is pretty important. The Ala Mhigans are now going to have to decide what type of nation they want and you need someone who is open to listening to all voices and finding a place for everyone at the table. Anything less and your going to have a lot of infighting and conflict and potentially end up with more blood being spilled.