Dragoon attack theming

[fulminating]

I wanted to put my thoughts down somewhere, and here people can say "yeah nah" and poke holes in them.

Of the real dragons, the player character has encountered bahamut*, nidhogg, ratatoskr** midgardsormr, hraesvelgr, tiamat, shinryu***, Vritra and azdaja.


I don't believe vritra nor adzaja(nor fiends/golbez/zeromus) donated aether to the player, so they are unlikely candidates for showing up in the skills. Likewise tiamat only recieved aether when being untempered, so if anything is more likely to get a porxie/alisae themed attack than the WoL getting one of hers. Both Hraesvelgr and Nidhogg's eyes were in close proximity to the WoL, so are the most likely to have had an effect. Midgardsormr, while in close proximity to the player, was greatly weakened and his corpse didn't seem to have eyes so that's a bit odd. Bahamut may be accessible, but seems largely reserved for summoners. Shinryu is a wildcard I think, but after featuring in the climactic fights for two expansions, I could see traits from him being acquired.

Despite meeting most of the first brood too, Estinien is probably "the" nidhogg dragoon. He did have a significantly higher level of exposure to him (his funny turn at 50 job quest, host to two eyes for 3 patches), and hasn't demonstrated any other dragon's traits. Several WoL abilities also seem nidhogg themed, dragonfire dive and rise of the dragon being the most obvious. Also stardiver and nastrond. Despite using the name "gierskogul" in nidhogg's rage, it seems closer to nastrond. Estinien's armour/lance being drenched in nidhogg blood seems to have infused them with nidhogg essence to a degree too, the player probably had a shower instead of keeping it though.

The player also borrows Hraesvelgr's eye for the final steps of faith, who probably is alluded to by the wyrmwind thrust animation and blue/red auras of blood/life of the dragon. BotD was learnt at 54, around when hraesvelgr is encountered. Gierskogul may be more hraesvelgr-themed from colouration, however it's learnt a bit before getting to borrow the eye so doesn't have as strong case.

Ratatoskr - the level 70 artifact armour was blessed or something. It's in a short story I think. I imagine if the player were to eat an ishgardian elezen they'd get trace amounts of exposure this way too.

Midgardsormr I think is only represented in starcross - the "walls" of the jump being similar to the edges of the arena following the intermission in O11. It also has a whiter-than-botd noodle upon impact, so this while this might be hraesvelgr the colour seems off. Rather than being the starcrossed lovers/romeo and juliet/hraesvelgr and ysael angle, it would make sense if the name is a literal "star cross", the activity midgardsormr is known for.

My primary theory until o11 and endwalker really killed it was midgardsormr's true form was some 14 eyed dragon god, with a pair given to each of the first brood. That said, I am starting to wonder again where midgardsormr's eyes went. Maybe hydaelyn needed more juice for the mothercrystal which was both the tithe and how shinryu came back. Either way, I'm surprised at how little impact he seems to have had on the player's skillset.

*a primal but as per the summoner job quests, is still dragon shaped when drawn upon.
** the blood's inside all the ishgard elves, probably the most tenuous but mentioned for completion
*** a primal made fueled by the nidhogg eyes. Probably not really a dragon in its own right, and uses worm rather than wyrm in naming convention.

[Vyrerus]

Midgardsormr is the DRG LB3 since Heavensward. His eyes are in his body in Silvertear Lake. They're just mostly divested of aether cause his original body is dead ever since it coiled around that Imperial Dreadnaught and blew up in 1.0.

They are still intact and slowly but surely drawing aether in, regenerating him. He even wakes up to aid the 8UC in that one short story.

Shinryu is just a primal based off of his original appearance, based off how he looks in O10 (O11 is Omega).

We have a lot of Nidhogg in our DRG skillset because we got setup to be an Azure Dragoon in the ARR DRG quests. The Azure Dragoon draws their incredible power from Nidhogg's Eye. We then gain Hraesvelgr's eye once when we reclaim it from Nidhogg in The Aery. Then again when it's bestowed upon us to give us equal footing to him, to beat him on the Final Steps of Faith (where he fought us both as himself and as corrupted Estinien).

Shinryu's original incarnation born of the Baelsar's Wall sacrifices was also incumbent on having Nidhogg's eyes in the mix.

Ever since Final Steps of Faith, part of Nidhogg persists within Estinien due to the fusion of their souls into one vessel, and this is is made apparent several times along the story, usually under humorous guise. (Estinien's intense love of certain meats, his reference to Alphinaud and WoL throwing his eyes off the bridge, naming his lance "Nidhogg." His displays of power that harken back to Final Steps of Faith powers)

He's definitely the "Nidhogg DRG" but the WoL still has entanglement there, as well as the auspices of Midgardsormr, who all of the other great wyrms are derivative of.

[Cleretic]

Shinryu is just a primal based off of his original appearance, based off how he looks in O10 (O11 is Omega).

This isn't even remotely plausible, because Shinryu was summoned by Ilberd, who's never seen pre-journey Midgardsormr. There's a conversation to be had about why Shinryu looks like that exactly, but I think it primarily has to revolve around Ilberd.

We can't fully trace Ilberd's military history, save that he probably wasn't there to see either the Battles of Cartenau or Silvertear Skies (and I'm a little more certain he wasn't there for Cartenau). However, being around the Crystal Braves, he probably had a cursory memory of Midgardsormr's dessicated kinda-corpse. Given that history Shinryu makes sense as something of a 'dragon drawn from memory', by someone who never thought about dragons all that much; it doesn't really resemble any of FFXIV's dragons, but gets closest to Midgardsormr in the 'I mean I guess' way you'd expect from someone who only sort of looked at him on the way to work.

And of course this is all working backwards from the fact he's just based on FFV Shinryu, who just doesn't look much like how FFXIV does dragons. But that's a less interesting conversation.