at last we meet

Reaper Final Fantasy XIV Commission

part of my "Black Friday" month of discounted commissions, 7 slots left!

I really need some motivation to finish painting my Robyn statue. she has been sitting there half painted for FAR too long, judging me as I play video games instead

Cho cho cho~ Chocobo! 💛

A tiny primer on FFXI, pt 2

THE BAD GUYS

The big bad of FFXI's first main storyline. He's in the promotional artwork for the 7.1 patch, so he's definitely gonna show up somewhere. Possibly as the final boss of the first tier.

20 years before the start of FFXI, the Shadow Lord appeared without warning. Enlisting the various beastmen races in the Middle Lands, he attacked the three nations and pushed them to the brink of destruction.

The Archduke of Jeuno convinced the nations of San d'Oria, Bastok, and Windurst to ally together in order to fight back. After a long stalemate, the allied forces finally achieved some major victories, and at last a small team of heroes infiltrated Castle Zvahl and defeated the Shadow Lord.

As you play through the initial rank missions of FFXI, you find that forces are working to revive the Shadow Lord, and eventually you fight him.

A variant of him is the boss (and super boss) of the final Dynamis battlefield (the initial set of them, anyway), and he shows up in the storyline of FFXI's fourth expansion.

The Shadow Lord's backstory is actually pretty interesting, and I consider it one of the better parts of FFXI's lore/story. But I won't mention it here cause it spoils so much stuff.

There's a myriad number of animals, birds, vermin, undead, and even elementals that can kill you in FFXI, but arguably the biggest threats are the Beastmen races.

There's over a dozen of them, but I'm only going to cover a few that might show up in the upcoming raid. The first three are more or less the direct antagonists to the three main nations.

ORCS - "brutish" might be the best way to describe this humanoid race. They have a strong lust for battle and conquest, and their hierarchy is based on strength and combat ability. Orcs originally came from the far north, and are actively invading the lands of San d'Oria. They have outposts in the nearby regions, and even converted Davoi monastery into a stronghold after taking it from the kingdom.

Orcs also employ warmachines, which are basically crude, manually-propelled tanks. They are imitations of massive siege engines used in the Crystal War.

QUADAV - bipedal turtles, Quadav are skilled with metallurgy and mining. It's such a big part of their culture that many Quadav names and titles are taken from metals and gemstones. They're in conflict with Bastok because its expansion has forced the Quadav out of territories they long occupied.

YAGUDO - a crow-like bipedal race, the Yagudo have an extremely strict religious culture and heirarchy, and, well, probably border on fanaticism. They're not interested in conquest or expansion, only to keep the lands they consider to be traditionally theirs. The Yagudo have a treaty of non-aggression with Windurst, but it involves Windurst providing regular large offerings to maintain the truce.

GOBLINS - Goblins can be found almost everywhere, and engage in trade with other beastmen as well as the Enlightened races. There's even a shop in Jeuno run entirely by Goblins. They make use of explosives and trust me, "Bomb Toss" was a terrifying thing to see a goblin use in battle.

(XIV re-used the XI Goblin model, so they look the same in both games.)

A subspecies, Moblins, live in their underground city of Movalpolas, and are highly skilled in refining and smelting ore, as well as developing steam technology and underground lighting.

KINDRED - Commonly known as "Demons", these horned, winged humanoids are found in the cold, northern regions of Quon. Their origins are mostly unknown, but during the Crystal War they served the Shadow Lord and kept the other beastmen armies under control.

(FFXIV re-used their model for some enemies in early quests and dungeons, and they occasionally pop up in other stuff. A good example is in Tam-Tara Deepcroft: the enemy you fight before you can destroy the cultist orb is a demon model.)

OTHER PEOPLE

Some other notable NPCs or creatures/bosses that could maybe show up in this raid series (i.e., not just in 7.1)? Or at least get referenced.

Shantotto - Shantotto is arguably the mascot character of FFXI, and if she doesn't show up in person in this raid series, I'll be shocked. She's a Tarutaru and an extremely proficient and powerful black mage, and a former government minister of Windurst.

Lion - A Hume thief, and adopted daughter of Gilgamesh, the leader of Norg (a settlement of pirates and thieves). She's the "cute girl important to the plot" for the Rise of the Zilart expansion and accompanies and assists your character during it.

Prishe - A young Elvaan girl that is the "cute girl important to the plot" for the Chains of Promathia expansion. Because of an incident during a baptism ceremony, she became immortal, so she's actually quite older than she looks. She's brash, foul-mounted, impatient, and due to her immortality, tends to be self-sacrificing. Prishe is the other FFXI character that tends to be a guest in crossovers, and sure enough, she's in the 7.1 artwork, so she'll show up somewhere.

Nashmeira, Lilisette, and Iroha - "cute girl important to the plot" for Treasure of Aht Urghan, Wings of the Goddess, and Rhapsodies of Vana'diel respectively. I suspect if they do show up, it'll be in later patches, so I'll save talking about them for later.

Naja Salaheem - a Mithra with a big mace, she's the President of Salaheem's Sentinels, a mercenary company in Aht Urghan. Naja cares about profit, how much profit you made for her recently, and why you're just standing there when you could be making profit for her right now. And she does not care about small details like "but you told me to come see you". I honestly dunno if she'll show up in the XI raid at all, but she's really well-known and popular, so I think there's a chance.

Kam'lanaut and Eald'narche - The former is the Archduke of Jeuno, and the latter is his brother. They're also the main antagonists of the Rise of Zilart expansion.

Ark Angels - Summoned by the Archduke and his brother to assist them, they represent the Sins of the five races: Hume's Apathy, Elvaan's Arrogance, Mithra's Envy, Galka's Rage, and Tarutaru's Cowardice. You eventually fight them during Rise of the Zilart, and you can either fight them one at a time, or all five at once. I dunno if they'll show up, but I want them to, cause they're cool looking and I wanna see them in FFXIV graphics.

Maat - Maat is a bit like Godbert, in the sense that he's an old man that can kick anyone and everyone's ass. Once you hit level 50 in XI, you have to do a series of quests for Maat to increase your level cap up to 75 (thankfully you only have to do them once per character, not per job). The last of these "limit break" quests (for base game and Zilart jobs) requires fighting Maat solo, with Maat as the same job as you.

Odin - Yea, Odin is already in FFXIV, but his XI incarnation is actually pretty important to a few stories in XI.

Fafnir - A Notorious Monster, or NM, that could drop a special sword called Ridill. SQEX showed an image of a dragon during the recent Korean fanfest that I think has been confirmed to be Fafnir, and in the Dragon's Aery location where he could be spawned, no less.

Kirin - A very powerful NM, usually called a HNM or High Notorious Monster. You had to force pop it using items that dropped from four other NMs, and if I remember right, it was a long fight that involved kiting some monsters around while the party/alliance killed others. If Fafnir is in, I think Kirin or something similar could be possible too.

Atomos - Atomos in FFXI eats timelines in order to maintain reality. I have a suspicion it might be involved in the XI raid's story.

Shantotto had a crossover event in FF14 in 2014 (twice!). It was initially "Burgeoning Dread" and then repeated once later that year as "That Old Black Magic". It's where the Shantotto minion comes from. It's one of a few I've wished they would repeat.

Iroha and "The Maiden's Rhapsody" has been replayed many times, and she did remain in Eorzea, so I have to wonder if she'll be showing up for this new crossover.

Fylgja proofreading and daydreaming whatever songs she has written of the myriad of adventures of certain someone.

cutest dragon fruit

Remembered to finish this art that I started last month. Couldn’t pick between the two zu mounts so did a fusion - or zusion, as I might put it. Added couple playarounds with overlays and whatnot.

Event outfits for everyone!

Should still figure out dyes for couple, but dang, they spiffy! Ilvella's cane looking like some fleshy bone there tho.

ive never drawn hemitheos athena

i worry a lot about aetheryte transport introducing invasive species across the star via any seeds/spores/etc that are stuck to you when you teleport

imagining researchers in sharlayan coming up with some kind of mantra to repeat before using aetheryte transport to reject ownership of dirt and grime and anything else unwanted, leaving them behind during the teleport.

Woohoo, a post where I can squeeze this in!

After-bath Sienna and legwarmer carbuncle.

lamitt and ardbert

Vanguard caps for everyone.

I was leveling Dancer and chanced to get the cap from the dungeon, and then I put together a whole outfit around it. He looks so dum I love it. Note my attempt at trying to paint the print with acrylics on the jacket :'D