Nero

It's worth noting that Heavensward had almost the exact same set-up: going to Ishgard was purely reactionary after the bullhockey that was the Sultana business (and the Warrior of Light inexplicably not having any of their weapons and not turning the Crystal Braves into unrecognisable piles of gore). One of the things I wish would change about how Square Enix does its story telling is making the protagonists proactive rather than reactive.

Also did they fight over Gyr Abania or the Sea of Jade or does Gyr Abania have a huge lake that all the cartographers sort of just missed

I'm underwhelmed by the killer beetle Omega. The fight was awesome, yeah, but I get why the Garleans resurrected Ultima instead: it looked way cooler. The Yda reveal is a little weak considering we never knew the real Yda, too. The character changed names and doesn't wear a mask any more, done and done. And Tataru...you spent all this time on the outfits but you have no clue how to design shoes (for the male outfit at least). Shame on you. EDIT: I never noticed this before but it bugs the shit out of me now. Why does Raubahn keep his sword on the right side when it was his left arm that was cut off? NITPICK NITPICK NITPICK

I like it quite a bit. It's a humble background with a lot of detail, which I personally appreciate highly. The idea of a medicinal person who doesn't use much magic is one I've never encountered, so you've got a unique idea going for you there. I enjoy the suggestion that the family has an Elezen heritage and also have no idea where it came from. As for lore details! One of the wonkiest things to deal with in FFXIV is the timeline, given the irregular years and eras; I'd advise getting this sorted because it's...really, needlessly confusing at times. The current in-game year is at is hazy, but the best guess is the year 1 (or possibly year 0) of the Seventh Astral Era. Preceding this was five years of the Sixth Umbral Era, and before that, 1,572 years of the Sixth Astral Era. So for example, piracy in Limsa Lominsa was outlawed in the year 1563 of the Sixth Astral Era, so that's about 15 years between then and present day (+9 years in the Sixth Astral until 1572, +5 years in the Seventh Umbral, +1~ for the Seventh Astral Era). The Maelstrom was founded in 1572, so there's currently about six years between their founding and present day. Technology-wise, Eorzea is a couple of ways away from industrialisation; the best estimate would be roughly 18th-century technology, with a lot of exceptions. Limsa Lominsa has a thriving firearm industry, mostly utilising muskets. As for purely medicinal based healers, it would work fine. I like the concept a lot. The thing with healing magic in Eorzea is that it's not instant regeneration; for example, if you set and mend a broken bone with healing magic, you probably still should put a sling around it until it heals fully for at least a week, maybe. The recuperation time is a bit hazy, but it could be anywhere from a couple of days to a month. The point is that healing magic isn't an instant cure-all, so medicine still has a place in Eorzea. So while the "main" battlefield healers would undoubtedly be conjurers or arcanists, who are unparalleled at life-or-death situations using magic, there would still need to be personnel responsible for actual after-action care and recuperation. I can imagine your character in a field hospital like Florence Nightingale (though hopefully with fewer amputations and horrendous gangrene). Healing magic can make fatal wounds non-fatal, but they still need to be properly cared for in a traditional manner for some time. For the most part though, non-magical doctors in Eorzea tend to be alchemists or have undergone alchemical training. Alchemy in medicine is primarily used to treat diseases and chronic conditions, since things like common injuries and wounds can be mostly taken care of with magic. Potions are an acceptable stopgap measure, but potions, being liquid aether, are impractical to use regularly outside of emergency situations. Regarding the Maelstrom: currently, Limsa Lominsa is headed by a Chief Admiral. Beneath her is Maelstrom Command. Maelstrom Command itself is responsible for two different fleets and a ground division called the Yellowjackets. The Yellowjackets are a sort of combined militia and police force, used to keep the peace within La Noscea. The first fleet is the Crimson Fleet, consisting of five squadrons, with four in reserve. These squadrons are simply referred to by their numbers, and are each stationed in different waters around Eorzea. Squadrons themselves contain an unspecific number of levys. You can think of squadrons as battalions, and levys as companies or platoons. The second fleet is more of a provisional organisation of privateers under Maelstrom Command. Essentially, these are former pirates or adventurers who have agreed to serve under the Maelstrom as part of the Foreign Levy. For ship naming, there's no real naming convention you need to worry about. The Maelstrom is nominally a military organisation, but it's comprised of pirates or former pirates who all name their ships whatever they want, so I wouldn't worry about that. I think that's all I have off the top of my head, so feel free to ask questions, but keep at it! I think this is a great character concept!

Regarding Au Ra: In terms of writing, the implementation of Au Ra is...very clumsy. Their presence was essentially retconned into Eorzea. That said, having an Au Ra be born in Limsa Lominsa is fine. It's worth noting that Eorzea knew that Au Ra existed and came from Othard before Heavensward, so while it would have been extremely rare at the time (although again, this might just be Square Enix's slipshod storytelling), it's workable. One thing that helps is to have the timeline worked out. For reference, the Garlean Empire invaded Othard in the year 1528 of the Sixth Astral Era. The Sixth Astral Era ended in the year 1572, and the current year is about ~6 in the Seventh Astral Era. That means that there is roughly 50 years between when Garlemald invaded Othard and present day. We can assume that the Au Ra began to migrate to Eorzea as refugees anywhere within this timeline.

I don't think you'd have to describe it every time unless you're meeting someone new who doesn't know the character. I think it's completely fine to have a permanently removed limb; really, in RP sessions or on forum posts, you'd only have to describe it in one sentence or statement and I think most people would get it, so I wouldn't worry about describing it every time.

One thing that's important to consider is, what kind of story do you want to tell? Do you want to tell the story of a princess stranded in a far-away land, forced to adapt in a place far from home? The story story of a rebel trying to free their country? The story of a magic-user discovering and interacting with new magic? Or perhaps the story of a princess rebel stranded in a far-away land, trying to free her country by discovering new magic. A combination is totally fine. Figure out exactly what kind of story you'd like to tell with this character, and only add elements that convey the story you want to tell. Anything else excess can be added later, but every piece of the story should ideally have some sort of goal behind it. Why do you want this character to transform from one race to another? Why do you want this character to be royalty? Why does this character need to know magic? Try to justify everything, and I'm sure it will help you have something a bit cleaner.

I think Option 2 fits the aesthetic a bit more. Option 1 is a bit too utilitarian, and I think Red Mage is a bit too flashy for plain clothes.

Given their track record with world building, I doubt even Square Enix knows where RDM comes from at this point. On a more serious note... The fanciful rapier movements could be based on Limsa Lominsa. I know "pirates = axes" in Final Fantasy, but it looks rather swashbuckly to me. There's also the chance that it's from Ilsabard, but not necessarily Garlemald. Dalmasca and Rabanastre are possible options as well.

Coming up with a Doman name that doesn't sound like something ripped out of an anime or Samurai Warriors is hard. Also, names in general. I have a rule that all of my names need to be phonetically and aesthetically pleasing--in short, they need to look and sound "cool". It's a careful balance that must be achieved.

"No place for patricide!" It was an effective rallying cry: short, easy to remember, punchy alliteration, politically friendly, and just scathing enough for a mob. Kasrjin was careful to skirt the outside of the crowd that had gathered in front of the Vault; armoured members of the Temple Knights were deployed at the foot of the steps armed with shields, but no weapons. This was an...uprising, of some sort? Clearly not the armed sort, but it wasn't a demonstration that Kasrjin understood, either. If this was a civil dispute, then there was no reason not to open some kind of dialogue. And if this was a military dispute, well, swords would be useful. The assembled crowd was small; at most, it was thirty or forty people. "No place for patricide!" A Hyur at the front of the crowd shouted, raising his fist as his followers behind him followed suit. A stiff wooden plaque had the phrase "BOREL THE BASTARD" carved into it. Clearly, not all was well. The chatter and rumours had been all the same, and even the intimidating Xaela could not help but catch wind of the peace that befell Ishgard. The nobles and the commoners had ostensibly joined together to rule the city, and that clearly provoked what disgruntled populace remained. "The Temple Knights let scalekin ravage our city time and time again! And they repay our faith by ruining our city and expecting us to turn belly-up at the beasts!" The Hyur leader shouted again. The Au Ra sighed, glancing his head around the corner. Loitering in the market wasn't overly conspicuous, but it was not as if he could stay forever, especially because the crowd blocked the only way he knew to get back to the lower levels of Ishgard. The rhetoric was simple enough to understand, however. The problem, then, was to discover if this crowd had any connections to those who might have killed Kaizhan. Assuming ignorance, anti-dragon sentiment could easily manifest as anti-Au Ra...but Kasrjin was not willing to risk himself to the hands of an ignorant mob. A finger pressed against the linkpearl. Roen should be back in the city, and she would know how best to approach this.

Broadly speaking, every character of mine is based on the relevant stereotypes (i.e. Limsa is for pirates, Ul'dah is for selfish rich bastards, Gridania is for...well, it's not for a steakhouse at the least). I tend to use it as a jumping-off point for my characters. As for specifically going for or against stereotypes, I consciously try to avoid that. Writing a character just for the sake of being contrarian or adherent to a stereotype can be sort of interesting, but I don't find it particularly compelling because people are fairly complex. As humans we have an instinctive need to categorise and sort--call it leftover tribal instincts or what have you--so this kind of thing is inevitable, but stereotypes, whether you're going against or with them, should really only be used as a foundation and nothing else.

As glad as I am that Square Enix finally committed to a world map (though it only took them four years to do so), I find it hilarious that Garlemald has apparently turned Ilsabard into Beijing. Must be why they all wear helmets.

Characters who are withdrawn, reserved, or otherwise disinclined to participate in social activities generally require external factors to spur them on. Either there needs to be some kind of external conflict or events that force their participation or there needs to be other characters present who are willing to sort of wheelbarrow them around to a comfortable place for interactions. I've roleplayed plenty of characters who are asocial or anti-social, but generally I only do such when I am engaged in a plot; by their nature, these kinds of characters generally don't care to be involved in things unless they are forced to, or unless they are directly affected. Otherwise, they don't really work in slice-of-life situations except as background. So I'd look to getting involved in a plot or engineering one yourself first and foremost, to get the best possible use of such a character.

Statistically speaking, Miqo'te and Hyur make up the bulk of the player (and by extension, roleplayer) population, which means that statistically, the chances of a "weird" roleplayer being a Miqo'te are relatively high, hence the stigma. It's basically just a cognitive bias.

This seems to be a rather slipshod way to justify the completely arbitrary appearance of the sealing spell and Tupsimati. For one, it's objectively poor writing because it requires knowledge of info that's only established in the Final Coil of Bahamut, and at no point is Louisoix becoming Phoenix or the methodology of such ever established in a satisfactory way in the main story. At best, there's one, maybe two lines of dialogue mentioning it in the paragraphs of overly long text. For two, the dialogue that occurs post-cutscene rather explicitly describes how the spell is fatal because it requires all of the caster's aether. Nowhere is it mentioned that Papalymo was attempting to invoke a Phoenix-like primal entity, nor is it mentioned that dying as a Primal and then releasing the aether back to the land like Louisoix is something that occurred. Papalymo having to become a primal to perform the sealing spell should be a big plot point, and yet it's mentioned nowhere, which either means no one actually knows how the sealing spell works, or more likely the sealing spell doesn't necessitate such a thing. That still doesn't explain why this Primal takes an arbitrarily long amount of time to form when pretty much every other primal summoning was more or less instantaneous as long as sufficient aether was present. Either there's enough aether for it to materialize, or there isn't. If anything, this just presents more contradiction; why couldn't they utilize the aether released from the deaths? There are only two possibilities to this: Either the primal has already absorbed all of the aether from the deaths and the Eye (in which case there's literally no reason for it to not materialize unless there simply wasn't enough aether, which is frankly a hilarious miscalculation on the part of everyone present), or the primal hasn't absorbed the aether and said aether should be perfectly usable by Papalymo. Either the aether is already absorbed by the primal, or it's ambient. Even if we go with the explanation that primals are like black holes and aether is like light and the aether was in the process of being absorbed and could not be drawn to any other location, that raises all sorts of questions that poke even more holes in how primals are summoned in the first place. It's repeated constantly that summoning a primal requires a specific prayer; faith by itself is insufficient, and faith and prayer are not the same thing. Louisoix, Thordan, and the Binding Coil story all thoroughly establish that there needs to be a prayer containing a wish or desire. This is a fairly specific requirement. In Louisoix's case, it was the combatants of Carteneau praying to be saved from Bahamut. In Thordan's case, it was a millennium of fervent prayer instilled in the Ishgardian people for salvation from the dragons. The Binding Coil too, housed hundreds of Meracydian dragons held in stasis. The Allagans held the dragons in stasis so they would constantly pray for salvation, thus keeping Bahamut materialized to harvest energy from. My whole point behind this is that the Rhalgr primal couldn't have possibly been powerful enough to necessitate a sealing spell if we consider that the only ones praying for Rhalgr's salvation (or alternatively, praying for Rhalgr to destroy their enemies) were the Ala Mhigans dead or dying on the Wall. And this is where the entire thing gets hazy and the whole "primal summoning" thing falls apart due to Square's lack of detail on the subject; were the Garleans' prayers included as well? Does the power of a primal depend on the amount of prayer or just the amount of aether? And yet, those war machines are heavily implied to have been activated and released by Laurentius, which just pokes more holes in the issue. A). How did the Resistance forces even breach the Wall in the first place? If we assume that Laurentius and Yuyuhase helped the Resistance forces enter the Wall, then Garlemald's security is hilariously bad, because this means that the "take a uniform, infiltrate stronghold" trick worked on them twice on two major military installations (Castrum Centri and now the Wall). Garlemald has a habit of conscripting conquered peoples, but apparently doesn't check to make sure they're not saboteurs or infiltrators. B). If the Garleans had sufficient force to defeat the rebels, then why did the rebels only lose when Laurentius activated the killdroids? The Garleans were losing decisively before Laurentius activated his killdroids (as evidenced by everything Garlean being dead or destroyed before said droids were activated). The heavy implication is that the Resistance would have successfully taken the wall had said killdroids not been activated, which still says that Garlemald is laughably bad at their border defence. C). Why was Laurentius put in charge of activating the killdroids in the first place? If these killdroids were Garlean forces, why weren't they immediately activated when the wall is attacked and immediately become anti-resistance gore machines? If Laurentius and Yuyuhase deliberately delayed the activation of the killdroids, then why were two random grunts who were definitely not Garlean officers put in charge of the killdroids? And why are Garlean military installations just so damn easy to infiltrate? At this point I'm basically complaining about nothing because really, who cares. Papalymo dying has no emotional weight at all considering he was basically totally absent throughout the entirety of Heavensward and he definitely wasn't relevant at all in ARR either except as Yda's sidekick, so whatever. I hope Stormblood has better writing.

Regarding the primal: I just have so many problems with this thing. 1). Tupsimati still has "great power", and yet the sealing spell takes up all of the caster's aether? Well, Tupsimati's "great power" must count for utter shit, then. The way the dialogue is written, it's implied that all of the caster's aether is used up no matter what the scale of the spell is, so what is the point of this Chekhov's gun if it doesn't even seem to matter as a plot device? 2). You need hours to gather the aether? THERE IS A PRIMAL RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU, A BEING MADE OUT OF WISHFUL THINKING AND AETHER. YOU HAVE AETHER. What, did the primal just call dibs on all the ambient aether in the air and using that would just be impolite? And the thing is that there has to be a shitload of loose, ambient aether around the primal that isn't being used, that COULD be used for the spell. Because if there isn't, then what in God's name is the primal absorbing to take shape!? And if said primal isn't using any ambient aether and is instead using the aether from the Eyes of Nidhogg, then why is it taking so long to form? Shiva (who didn't even need the Eyes), King Thordan, and Corrupted Estinien didn't take twenty minutes to take shape, they more or less formed instantaneously, so why is this thing suddenly special? Are there suddenly special rules for primal summoning? Was this primal busy trying to get its forms through the Department of Primal Formations so that it could take shape on Eorzea? 3). I'm the Warrior of fucking Light! Who cares if there's a primal being summoned when I've schooled like nine of these fuckers practically singlehandedly? Why should I waste time running away, when you Scion twats are just going to make me run all the way back and kill this primal when it eventually gets released anyway? And for Baelsar's Wall, I just don't get it. How do a couple hundred unorganised wahoos take on what should be the most fortified border in the empire? Eorzea as a region more or less crippled two entire legions, so how is the wall not the most fortified border in the Empire? You idiots have tried twice, twice to conquer this piddly little region of Aldenard with superweapons, and utterly failed both times. Guess what? You managed to completely conquer Ala Mhigo with traditional Garlean arms and tactics. Have you maybe thought about using that again before the Eorzeans summon another demigod to kick your ass? As a side note, I finally figured out what makes every MSQ so exhausting to get through. The dialogue is so needlessly wordy and verbose. What should be very simple ideas to convey--such as "yes", "no", "good to see you again", "I disagree", and "I will go there now"--gets stretched out to three, four, sometimes five long sentences written in their standard early modern English style. This isn't particularly a problem when only a few characters do it--Urianger's verbosity is a notable exception, although what his archaic speaking style is supposed to convey about him I'm not entirely sure considering no one else in the game besides the dragons talk like him--but when everyone constantly takes thirty seconds of speech to say something that should really only take five seconds to say, it gets incredibly draining. There's a difference between writing dialogue to make characters distinct, and writing dialogue to waste my time. I think my complaint about this extends to most of the game's dialogue in general. It's why I still haven't managed to chew through Hildibrand or the Scholasticate. It's like eating a bucket of paint remover with a pair of chopsticks.

Yda takes off her mask, and underneath is just another mask.

If we follow Heavensward writing as the example and just to brown some pants, here is what I predict for Ala Mhigo in Stormblood: -Owing to a long heritage based around violence, the Fist of Rhalgr becomes the Palm of Rhalgr wherein monks become almost entirely pacifistic beyond "defending the weak and innocent". -Shadow Sect and Light Sect seamlessly merge together with no conflict or disagreement. -Widargelt either becomes king with no conflict and starts a golden age, or doesn't become king and Ala Mhigo still has a golden age. -The Garleans fail to be relevant or interesting in an expansion centred around fighting them to liberate a nation, because ASCIANS.

It certainly has a warrior-scholar feel I'd attribute to Sharlayan. I'm hoping it's not a case of "ultra rare super secret art that only like, one person in the entire world will ever learn".

Ishgard was still too risky, but Falcon's Nest was far away enough and Kasrjin was enough of a familiar face from his hunts that the area was relatively safe for now. The Xaela breathed, resting underneath a makeshift tent he had pitched beneath some cliffs some distance away from the outpost. A small campfire and some broth bubbled next to him, as Kasrjin stared at the keystone in his hands while considering the information. Inquiries at the Falcon's Nest indicated that no one had seen an Au Ra matching Kaizhan's description in the past fortnight or so, save for one of the travelling sutlers having sold provisions almost a moon ago. Assuming that that information was true--and suspicious as Kasrjin was, the sutler had no apparent reason to lie--it set things in an important time frame. Kaizhan had arrived to Coerthas sooner than Kasrjin, which was not a wholly unusual circumstance given the latter's poor grasp of directions and navigation. He picked up a small metal tin and scooped some of the broth from the stone bowl, sipping the hot liquid gingerly as Kasrjin studied the map of the Highlands that Roen had given him. Assuming that the ones who killed Kaizhan took no other objects from his body, the limited amount of rations that Kasrjin found on his compatriot's corpse indicated that Kaizhan had not resupplied in some time, and thus it stood to reason that Kaizhan was returning from his destination. However, while this made some things certain, it only made the other questions more dire. What was Kaizhan carrying? Who had taken it from him, and how had they known that he possessed it? How had they found him, and perhaps most importantly...was Kasrjin's mission complete without that object, or did this keystone require another piece to function as intended? As time passed, the chatter at the Falcon's Nest had inevitably reached the Xaela's horns: the Dragonsong War was over, and Ishgard was now at peace. Perhaps it was safe to return to Ishgard...perhaps. Kasrjin had spent the last few suns watching the Highlands intently for any suspicious activity, but when no knights nor war party revealed themselves, he began to pack his makeshift camp. What he was looking for would be in Ishgard.

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Constantin Theron squinted against the candle light, cursing the scribes for having made the text so small as the Hyur adjusted the spectacles on the bridge of his nose. An idle wave of his hand, and his Elezen manservant dutifully took the sheet of parchment from his desk and replaced it with another page, leading Constantin to squint once more, a slightly crooked finger tracing the text. Since their inception, the House of Lords and the House of Commons had been relentless in their conflict. New proposals--usually brought up by the House of Commons--were being drafted with every meeting, forcing a debate wherein the House of Lords would deny said proposal. The shouting would continue back and forth until the Lord Speaker was forced to moderate, and either some kind of lukewarm compromise would be met or recess would be called with no progress made. A female Elezen servant entered with a short bow. "Lord Valencourt has arrived and requests an audience," she said tersely. Constantin glanced over his shoulder at her in mild irritation, waving his hand. "Lord Valencourt will enter whether I wish to see him or not." As if on cue, Maximilian brusquely entered the room, shouldering his way past the servant. "Speak of the fiend, and he will appear," the Hyur muttered beneath his breath. Constantin made a gesture out of the door, and the two servants bowed and swiftly left the room, shutting the door behind them. "It's never a good sign whenever you have to enter my house. At least be quiet; Leila and Astidien are sleeping." Constantin continued attempting to trace the unfeasibly small line of text on the document. "I am here to discuss our mutual friend," Maximilien said, folding his arms and leaning against the wall. The dragoon's countenance was stern, with the heavy implication that he was approaching this issue with equal parts impatience and frustration. "More to the point, I want to know what he is doing." Constantin snorted. "You have known that shady type far longer than I have, my lord Valencourt." "But you have been involved in his dealings of intrigue, yes?" "Not as of late," the Hyur sighed, adjusting his spectacles again. "I have been thoroughly occupied with the bickering of the Houses. Commoners want this, lords deny that. The status of my house is what concerns me just behind the welfare of my children, and the Marquis has made it emphatically clear that any improvements in that sector will occur as coincidence, not as a deliberate result." Maximilien shook his head. "What was the last thing you did for him?" "Why do you ask?" Constantin turned his gaze to study the Elezen's face, his eyes squinting further. "Because I need some kind of guarantee," Maximilien grunted. "I have good standing with the Count de Durendaire. I am willing to put in a good word for the Therons if you supply me with information on the Marquis." "That is uncharacteristically conniving of you," Constantin muttered, turning away again. "And the esteem of the High Houses means little, least of all Durendaire, as you should know. The war is over and the dragons are no longer our foes, which means all of that pretty gil that Durendaire invested in their dragoons and the Order has fluttered off." The Hyur sniffed ruefully. "The High Houses have no need of bannermen, not any more, as you should well know." Maximilien's hands curled into fists as he unfolded and refolded his arms, his knuckles turning white from his vice grip. "You need not speak of the repercussions of this peace to me," he seethed, scowling. "But you must know something. You only play the part of the doddering fool chasing after his children, Lord Theron. The Marquis asked you for something." Another sigh escaped the Hyur's lips. "The Marquis has only asked that an ear be kept on the House of Lords. The Commons he couldn't care less about. Ishgard as a democracy is fifty times easier to manipulate than it ever was under the machinations of the Holy See, so I suspect that anything underhanded occurring is being carried out by the Marquis himself. Before that..." Constantin frowned. Well, there was no reason to hide things any more, was there? "Before that, the Marquis wanted the lords riled up about the Lord Commander--or is it Lord Speaker now? Pin the disappearance of the Archbishop on him as patricide. I may have dropped an encouraging word here or there, but risked nothing else so long as the situation was as volatile as it was." Constantin set down the sheet of parchment on his desk. "Why, what did he ask you to do?" Maximilien frowned. "Just recently, he had me kill some Au Ra and appropriate him of his rock. You are certain that the Marquis tried to have the nobility oppose the Lord Commander?" Now it was Constantin's turn to frown. "As certain as I can be. What lead you to this, anyway?" Maximilien began to pace. "This peace is not good. It is not good for Ishgard, and it is certainly not good for me. The Order is dwindling, and with no dragons to fight, we are meaningless. The Marquis made me certain guarantees. I need leverage in case those guarantees turn out to be false." Constantin snorted. "Times are changing, Lord Valencourt. Resisting the flow may only drown you faster." Maximilien, apparently having arbitrarily decided that the conversation would lead nowhere useful, opened the door to the Theron study but paused at Constantin's latest remark. "I would rather burn than follow that course," he murmured before leaving.

It's fairly clear that this thread is no longer constructive, so there's a lock going on this now. You're free to restart another thread if you feel the topic still has merit for discussion.

He had always hated knocking on doors. Which is why Maximilien didn't bother this time. He unceremoniously turned the knob to the Marquis' office and swung the heavy mahogany door open with little grace or finesse. Again the drachen mail was absent, replaced with functional yet considerably more comfortable cotton work clothes. The Elezen held a burlap sack underneath his arm, adjusting it as if its weight was considerably more than its size implied. The Marquis chose not to face him, of course. The mask this time was a full face mask made out of polished ash, its markings imitating the style of the Gridanian Wood Wailers. Maximilien snorted at the choice. Perhaps it was symbolic and the Marquis was seeking to avoid some sin. Not that such a thing mattered to him, of course. "You have what I seek?" The Marquis' voice was sharp and thin, his manner of speaking almost sing-song in nature, accentuating his question with a slight trill. The Marquis was short and stocky, the top of his head barely coming up to Maximilien's shoulder. The white hood he wore obscured most of his features, save for the brilliant green justacorps that adorned his frame. Maximilien stepped forward and dumped the burlap sack onto the Marquis' desk, repressing a snarl. He had no time for games, now. The Marquis turned, unfolding the sack to reveal a polished hemisphere made of smooth black granite. The interior was coloured brightly like a geode; the flat face of the hemisphere was inscribed with carvings that seemed to shift every time the eye attempted to focus on the lines, as if to obscure its appearance. Despite having been in the frozen Coerthas climate, the hemisphere was warm to the touch, and almost seemed to pulse like a still-beating heart. "This is the legacy of the heretics," the Marquis croaked, stroking the rounded surface of the hemisphere. "It is what you requested," Maximilien said tersely, tapping his foot. "About the House--" "How many were lost?" the Marquis murmured, tapping the hemisphere. Maximilien glared at the Marquis at the interruption. "Twenty-nine. Though that seems pointless now, if you have heard anything of recent events." The Elezen clenched his fists. "You are angry," the Marquis said, turning his masked gaze towards the Elezen. Maximilien stiffened briefly. "Peace has been declared," the dragoon practically spat the word. "Nidhogg slain upon the Steps of Faith. The Lord Commander has seized control. The Dragonsong War has ended, and this is only the start." Maximilien began to pace, arms folded and knuckles white behind his back. "Do you know what they call him? The new Azure Dragoon for a new age of peace. The people say that he soared through the heavens upon a white dragon." When the Marquis responded with nought, Maximilien grasped one of the ornate oaken chairs by one of its legs and violently hurled the furniture against the wall, resounding with a tremendous clang. The mahogany door swung open behind him, leading a female Elezen with platinum hair and adorned in full, polished armour to storm into the study, sword in hand. The Marquis gave her a gentle wave, even as she eyed Maximilien with tense suspicion. "We had a deal! And now the war is over. The Order is finished. Our traditions are finished!" Maximilien was shouting now, leading the female Elezen to approach him. "Sir Valencourt," the Marquis whispered, tapping on the hemisphere again. "You need not worry. Ishgard will be free of the shadow of the dragon, and then you may resume your holy war with gusto. Our Lady Alchemist has shown promising results, and now that you have delivered this piece into our hands...I ask only that you endure this humiliation for a while longer." Maximilien grit his teeth. Peace. Peace. And now Ishgard would throw its lot in with the Alliance, forced to contend with such mundane foes as Garleans and beastmen. "I did not take on the drachen for peace," he murmured venomously. "I have tolerated your shadowy dealings and machinations because I believed it would achieve the results I needed. Pray do not give me the perfect reason to bloody my spear so soon into this newfound peace." And with that, he stormed out of the study, brusquely shoving his way past the female knight. The Marquis merely tapped on the stone again.