Hammersmith

This is a pretty common problem in large-scale RP communities. One server like Balmung has -thousands- of players who could have similar ties. Which means if each and every one of them Has the Echo, Helped the Warrior of Light, and has been key in the entirety of the history of the MSQ centric events, you have a massive ball of people who should know eachother, should have worked together, but have never met, have never interacted on any level, all in this circle of "Me too!" Sure, logically, you could be that One, or that one of some, but it's not feasible to have thousands all calling claim to the 'special' as it were. Which isn't to say you can't, but it will clash with what has become kind of the defacto solution, which is to play a normal-ish person who isn't involved in the MSQ but still adventures and has things Happen to Them inside the setting. Sure, they might have seen or even been there when Titan hit limsa, or been part of the military in Ala Mihgo when the Rhalgar monks were slaughtered, but they weren't the general of the Mihgan army under the king of ruin and they didn't personally slay titan. You're part of history but you're not the keystone holding it together. Which means that most people subscribing to this method, and there's a lot (me included) have never heard of an echo, don't know about black mages or white mages beyond "Long ago mages blew shit up and it was bad", can't summon Primals, or plenty of other things the WoL and Friends will find out during their "I find out everything" adventure of FF. People in this kind of focused char generation often view being MSQ active as being a 'special snowflake', which is a derogitory term in this sense. If you're MSQ active, as it were, often it's assumed you're looking to be the Important One At All Times, in these kinds of circles. It is OK to be MSQ Active! Don't get me wrong! But you are going to run into a LOT of people who play chars who have no idea what an echo is, and probably don't care, ICly. Which means if your char centers around that single concept you're going to have a lot of people who you can't interact with. It's why I like having a basic char with a history that other people can be slotted into (Siren for example!) and then rolling with it. 'Normal' People can have crazy adventures and forge their own legend. People with the echo and whatnot can too! It's just a question of why you might need it to be central to your char's history and concept. If it could work WITHOUT the echo, and it's not generating anything except a gold star on your list of things your char is, then it probably works without it and probably doesn't need it! If it DOES have some intricate, plot centric tie that influences and guides a char's existence? Hell yeah be echo sensitive and play out dealing with that. Just be ready for blank stares from people not playing in that ballpark. RPers play in a lot of different versions of things so you have to be ready to switch which feet you're using when dealing with people in different facets of the larger game and lore as a whole.

One of the key points I think that has been hammered home here is that for magic to work you A) Need a source of Aether (Two examples are the Self and the Elements) and B) A way to shape that aether into a spell form Which means magic really works however you WANT, as long as you have A and B working together. It means magic is infinite. It also means that the magic traditions in FF that get the most exposure just happen to be the ones that were easiest to codify and pass on. They're the traditions with paperwork and students who kept offering out the knowledge. Who knows what "other" ways of doing things lurk out in the boonies, the dark, and the strange places of the world. Though, as n OOC cavet, when making up your own tradition, you should make sure it has reasonable constraints, which makes the Conj/Thaum traditions a good example to look at for how concepts are limited and why.

Hammer visibly twitches which exposed to a specific sound that can be roughly written as "Squerk!".

I can see how that meeting would go for me. "You did this. You did all of this." "Now wait let's just t-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH" And then just fire and screaming.

Will hurt people for kicks. (Gonna drag Ham to this Wed.)

I ALSO USE A STICK AT GRINDSTONE. Granted: The Stick is a Shillleglah, and the Shillelagh is a cudgel, the bastard child between a mace and a staff, mostly mace (especially if you fill the head with molten lead to weight it first)

Hammer's name is on the list. Right next to a bloody thumb-print.

None of the above. Hammer's a siege smith/engineer who like large, scary weaponry when he's hurting people. You say the words "Inner Beast" or "Warrior Lore" around him he's going to assume you're drunk. Never heard of it. You ask him how you collapse a wall using sapper tunnels or how to make someone in plate armor regret being alive? He'll go on for days.

Hammer's a rage trainwreck in constant motion.

PM me, there's points in here where Hammer and War might well know eachother.

Hammer very MUCH aspires to be a hero. Unfortunately for everyone else his idea of a Hero is the classical greek version: Someone who punches history so hard they can never buff the mark completely out no matter how hard they scrub. Heroes in the greek times were less virtuous and more INFAMOUS. They did huge, wide reaching things that impacted society and the world, and it often wasn't good. (Which isn't to say they were good, just that someone who conquered entire lands and slaughtered people was as much a Hero as the one who defended them, and there was a lot of bad shit in antiquity) Come to think of it the root of the word as we know it is somewhat tied to THIS motherfucker: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herostratus Who burnt down one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world just because he wanted to be known forever. They tried scrubbing him out of history. Obviously it didn't work. Hammer's on a similar trajectory. He wants nothing more than to drag a key over the nice shiny paintwork of history and leave a mark that even replacing the door won't hide.

Trial: Riot Rhythm: A celebration at the Gold Bazzar has tilted wildly out of control. The local brass blades are no help getting it under control. By the point they've been swept up in the alcohol, sound and the throngs of people that have invaded for this debauched, impromptu, free festival. At the center of it is a caravan of alcohol, loud music, food, and violent dancing that's beginning to threaten to tear down the entire settlement. It's owned by a Roe named Hammersmith. Get in there and end his party before the entire town burns to the ground! Phase 1: Don't make me get up! The fight begins with a series of adds 'Sloshed' These party-goes carry barrels and only want to bring the party to the....party. They apply a stacking "High Proof" debuff to those in a 5 yard range, every second, that has no duration. The longer you stay near it, the more debuffs you accumulate.. They move slowly and focus on a single ranged target. On death they explode. Anyone in range of the AOE takes damage based on the amount of debuff stacks they have (Too many CAN result in an insta-gib) and gets a "Burning" DoT. Anyone with a "Burning" DoT has a 5 yard range that can spread to others with the "High Proof" debuff. This can be used to keep stacks of the debuff low, by one person being set on fire and "burning off" low stacks of the debuff on other people. These will constantly spawn until the two 'Hammered' mobs are killed. "Hammered" These party goers are mean drunks and have mining equipment in hand. Two spawn, one with a sledge hammer, the other with a mining pick. The Hammers apply a stacking vulnerability to to the hammer weapon, the pickaxe gives a stacking vulnerability to the pickaxe weapon. Tanks will need to manage these two with target swaps constantly or risk taking more and more devastating hits. Each has "Overpower" styled cone attacks so facing will be important. If either of the 'Hammered' mobs takes a stack of 'High Proof' by being tanked too close to a 'Sloshed' mob, it buffs thier damage per stack of High Proof they have applied to them. Tanks will have to be mobile and focus targets of the Sloshed mobs will have to be careful where they lead them. One of the barrel-havers lumbering through the tank party could spell a wipe as the two Hammered mobs turn into very, very angry drunks. ---------------- Phase 2: Please. Let me introduce myself. (100% to 70%) When the drunks are gone, Hammersmith enters the field by landing in the center of the trial area. This is an AOE effect with fire damage that will forcefully ignite every remaining "High Proof" DoT on the field, as well as doing middling physical damage. Hammersmith will have a normal agro table minus the tank with the "Black Cloud" debuff and will pummel and kick whoever is at the top of it. He has a frontal cone of flame, so melee and casters should not stand in front of him. "Black Cloud" He will IMMEDIATELY target one of the two people who had aggro on the Hammered mobs and cast a debuff called "Black Cloud" on them. This tank will be unable to gain Hate on Hammersmith. However he will be able to target and gain hate on the "Foul Word" mobs. This debuff lasts for 1 minute, and then fades. When it wears off, the tank will be unable to gain hate on the Foul Word mobs, but will be able to target and gain hate on Hammersmith. "Foul Words" Every 5% of health removed during phase 2, starting at 100% and counting down, Hammersmith will shout a curse word so obscene it takes shape as a terrible and violent word from the smoke leaking from his mouth and cigar. This Foul Word mob will cast a room-wide AOE magic damage scream with a 3 second cast time if there is no player in melee range is attacking it. These need to be picked up, and tanked, by the tank with the "Black Cloud" debuff". "Devil's Dance Floor" Hammer will, every time two "Foul Words" die, cast this spell. Several "safe" circles" will appear on the ground. After the cast completes the ground outside these circles ignites and anyone outside them takes high fire damage. The "safe" zones will begin to move until the channeled spell completes, at which point the phase begins to repeat. It is possible to control when this effect occurs by timing the deaths of the Foul Words, but having any "up" when this effect goes off will certainly mean the party will be out of melee range of a word and taking Scream damage. Hammersmith is invulnerable during the channeling of this spell. Ending this phase also triggers an insta-cast "Devil's Dance Floor" Phase 3: It's a Dead Man's Party (70%-40%) Hammer will chug a bottle during the final "Devil's Dance Floor" transition, and then set the surrounding caravans on fire. Anyone stepping outside, or knocked out of bounds, will take high fire damage until they return to the safe interior. Brass Knuckles: During this phase Hammersmith will attack faster and hit harder. He still has his frontal cone, so the two tanks will have to be careful of their positioning so as not to catch the melee in this as Haymaker will mean he will be switching his facing between two targets constantly. Not having both tanks in the cone during this phase will be helpful. Haymaker: Every third hit will cause the tank to lose some aggro and knock them back. The two tanks for this fight should do their best to maintain maximum hate at all times, otherwise this ability will allow Hammersmith to break free and start wading into the more squishy DPS and healer brigade. Geek the Mages: A random ranged player will have a skull and crossbones marker over their head. Shortly there after Hammersmith will hurl a bottle at them. A large AOE effect will appear around them. Three seconds after that Hammersmith will snap his finger, at which point the player will explode and take damage. Each other player caught in this effect raises the damage of the primary target and also causes medium AOE damage to those caught in the effect. Clustered ranged, or stacking near the melee are a certain way to get killed with this effect. This effect will not overlap with Ball Breaker. This ability triggers more frequently as Hammersmith's health drops lower and lower. Ball Breaker: Every 10% Hammersmith will turn and target a melee ranged player who is not one of the top two on the agro list. Ball breaker has a 5 second cast time. Players will need to stack on the targeted player. At the end of the effect Hammersmith will turn and catastrophically kick the targeted player squarely in their....fork, with a screen shake effect, causing knock-back. The damage will be divided around players stacked in the area, as they share a sympathetic wince, and knockback will be reduced for each player stacked nearby. A player with no players to share the pain of this hit will almost certainly die from the effect and, if they do not die from it, will find themselves almost certainly landing in the surrounding 'out of bound' fire zones. Phase 4: Red Right Hand (40%-10%) Hammersmith will shout and flood the interior of the arena with fire, making the space to move smaller and causing medium AOE damage. He will come out of the ensuring flash and burn with his two handed axe in hand. The following abilities will all trigger, randomly, except for Greed and Lust, which will be a constant buff during this phase. "Greed" Hammersmith attacks slower during this phase but hits MUCH harder. He gains a wide, long AOE cone that will constantly intersperse with his normal attacks as the axe sweeps through the room. Every player he hits with the cone attack will make the next one come on a reduced cooldown. "Lusty" Every player death on this phase gives Hammer a damage buff. "Wrath" Hammersmith will occasionally activate a 5 second buff that causes a AOE fire damage attack to the entire room for every hit that lands. The tell for this is a loud shout and a smoke-like shield that will cover him for the duration. Attacking during this is a good way to wipe a raid as the attacks have no cooldown between triggers. The only attacks that will not trigger a retaliatory explosion will be DOTs that were applied before the shield was cast. He will completely wipe aggro after this effect ends. Tanks need to be ready to pick him up as poor pickups can result in the Greed cone attacks hitting the room at bad angles, possibly causing them to chain quickly before people can scatter. "Pride" Hammer will hurl an axe at ranged DPS. If they are within 10 yards of another ranged DPS the axe will ricochet to that player, and will continue to ricochet until it runs out of targets that have not been hit. This causes more damage for each target that it hits. The axe will stop jumping targets if it's current target dies from the ricochet. "Envy" Hammer will turn, shout "FOOOOOOORE" and golf-swing one of the melee, knocking them back towards one of the ranged. The melee will be marked with a Golf Ball symbol. The Ranged will be marked with a Flag. The cast for this is very quick, and the knockback does high damage to the melee targeted and the ranged if they are HIT by the melee during their knock back. If this effect kills a player Hammer will scream "HOLE IN ONE. WHO'S NEXT?" Players will need to be careful with where Hammer is tanked, and faced, because poor ranging with the fire ring surrounding the room could mean that melee could be punted into the burning out of bounds area. "Sloth" Hammer will slow his attacks but take greatly reduced damage from all attacks. At the end of this buff he'll unleash a high damage attack at whoever is on his agro list. If someone other than a tank takes this hit they will probably die. "Gluttony" Hammer will take a long pull from a bottle and cast a line of fire in front of him that reaches all the way to the edge of the burning area. He'll then spin, sweeping the entire room. This is a high damage, moving AOE. Phase 5: Arsonist's Lullaby (10% to 0%) Sheep go to Heaven: Hammer leans his head back and begins to sing. This is a pure Ultima cast burn. If it goes off the raid wipes in a pyroclastic explosion of fire. Quotes: "Can't hold yez liquor? I SAID DRINK." "Move yer feet before I remove em." "DANCE YEZ BUGGERS. DANCE TILL YEZ DIE." "SCREAM WITH ME." "Someone's dead. Take a drink." "Corpses make dancin difficult" "FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORE" "Hole in one!" "Dammit. Bogey." "We Don't need no water. Let the motherfucker burn."

The WAR job quests specifically name "Legendary Warriors" like Iron Eater and Mythril Heart. Iron Eater was a literal beast of a fighter who built a heroic sized mythos around his dealings and doings, as well as his weapon (Which plays a role in making your Relic back before HW was released). He was an actual person, with some leftover records about his dealings, his weapons, and his style in combat. Mythril heart is a mythical hero warrior who went around -murdering giant beasts- for fun. There's talk in the WAR post 50 job quests about how he ripped arms off behemoths bare handed and the like, that kind of hero myth stuff. Most of his stuff is so far out there it's become children's tales and the like because of how extreme it is. You'd think he was a folk myth but you go and -dig up his axe- in the post 50 lead in quests. So there's that. Edit: A lot of the historical holders of the Azure Dragoon position has this as well, giant mythilogical battles of one guy and a lot of badass beasts, once you hit Ishgarde. The Crystal Tower also has a "Legendary Being" tale in it, but I'm not gonna spoil that one. Go climb Circus Tower and see what happens.

Hammer can sing and dance. Decently, not just drunken slurring and shuffles. Speaking of which: His slurred speech isn't an accent, and it's not because he's stupid either. What? You think you get away from a head injury without something to show from it? For someone so invested in metallurgy, smithing, gear works and black powder, Hammer's younger formative years were spent in a tribal-esque level of tech and culture. Which, given his views on 'civilized' magic means it might also be safe to say he knows a little bit of their mystic ways as well. Hammer is old knows a lot about war and sieges, and really doesn't like the Shroud. You know who else happened a long time ago, did a lot of war, is suspicious of trees and came under siege in the last few decades? Ala Mihgo.

Only one question, is Muad'dib a killing word? If it wasn't before it is now.

fqJzHcJPomU Paper lanterns are funny things. Especially when they can fly. Watch this one up in the winds above the Shroud. One small red light red in an ocean of black. It spins as it rolls through the sea of wind above the canopy. Always forward. Even against the wind it goes. One red light stubbornly pushing onward in the blue cold and the green trees. Much like the one who'd sent it. An unhappy crimson burning in a world full of cool colours. It was drifting towards a thin trickle of smoke near the edge of the Shroud. It was floating down towards the chimney and the porch in front of the primitive, spartan forge. Let's follow it.... "BOSS." She'd been hoping to catch a brief nap before the evening hit and the next leg of what was looking to be an all nighter-job began. Of course the apprentice would interrupt that the moment. "BOSS LOOOOK." Kidd knew the next words out of the apprentice's mouth would make her regret opening an eye. She wasn't old, not yet, but she was old enough to mourn losing a rare, guiltless chance for rest. The apprentice had a lantern in their hand. It was as big as their head, bright red, and... She reached out and pulled it out of his hands irritably. "Where did you get that boy?" "Landed on the porch!" said the Apprentice who was suckling eagerly around an iced treat one of the City Folk had been hawking in the square to children stupid enough to carry coin that was certain to burn a hole in their pocket. He wasn't a bright child and he wasn't a bright apprentice, wasting money like that, but training the local brats was part of her agreement with the wailers to stay in the Shroud, for the moment. She was stuck with him. Who knew what the next moon would bring. Right now she was teaching kids how to bang shovels out of scrap metal and how to hammer the dents out of Wailer armor without cracking it. "Bring it here, get the wire clippers too. And be quick about it." The brat returned with the clipper and more questions. Always questions. "Whatisit?" She'd been like that once. Green, rudderless, and directionless. "It's a letter from home. No one else is stupid enough to write letters like this." Then someone had decided to pay attention to a street rat who'd built a spring-loaded shit-launcher. She clipped the wires and unrolled the red paper from the frame of the lantern frame as the child watched. "What's it say! It's just covered in squiggles. Looks like....ants!" The apprentice was blessedly ignorant. Though he wasn't wrong. Of course it was ants. She hated ants. He'd buried her up to her neck next to an ant-pile when she was about the apprentice's age, after all. For someone so large Geezer had always been quick on his feet and catching a kid on the streets of Ul'Dah was easier when everyone on street moved aside out of pure fear. Eventually she'd been herded into a dead-end ally. The entire chase as she remembered it was kind of like a bear herding a scared sheep. At the end of the ally she remembered being picked up by a mountain of furious flesh...being tossed over a shoulder and then the ground rushing up to meet her. Who suplexed a 10 year old? Geezer. Geezer suplexed ten year olds who threw shit at his door. That's who. She remembered waking up with one of those damn sticky, sickly sweet iced popsicle melting into her hair and that one red, insane eye staring down at her from a shit-covered face. And then he'd left. Left her to the ants. Ants who loved sugar and iced lollies. His idea of punishment for firing a shit pie at his forge's door. His idea of punishment for having the bad timing to hit him instead. It had taken her hours to wriggle out of the loose earth and the crawling ants. More hours to wash the crawling hell-insects off and the melted sugar and fruit out of her hair. More hours to sulk the pain of the bites off. Hours to think about what had just happened. Hours still after that she'd been back at the forge door, hammering on it with the remains of the shit-catapult that had been responsible. She'd apologized. The Geezer had looked surprised. Actual, brief confusion on the face of the big roe with the crushed eye and the constantly smoking pipe, the terror of the Flame's siege unit. Apprehensive confusion even as he'd asked if she wanted a job and told her she'd probably regret it more than the ants. The memory still brought a smile to her face even as she tossed the letter full of ink ants into the furnace fire. "It's a reminder kid. That someone I used to know isn't dead yet. It probably means trouble and a lot more work for us. Go pump the furnace, we already have plenty to do." She didn't' regret anything more than the ants. He knew that. He was never going to let her forget the ants.

As a tank main: It's usually pretty chill. Pull, make all the hate, continue. Adjust if you die. I've only really had problems when people decide to do my job for me and go pulling, or purposely focusing things they shouldn't have. That's a paddlin. Normally gets their ass kicked though.

I think it works for why dead heros and kings can show up. It gets fuzzier when dealing with the Twelve and the Primals, depending on if they existed in say: The First Umbral when they 'left' the planet and told man it could go fuck itself. IF that's true, they've got an echo or existed in/before the lifestream. If it's all religious dogma it means that a hard enough belief punch can make that kind of echo, if you have the crystals to shape it.

As for pulling heros out as primal avatars or stand alones

I'm going under the assumption that everything "magic" still works on the existing "Aether manipulation makes things happen". Which means the wiggle room you have is how you get magic to fuck around under your command. With that in mind, the School of Practice I have worked up for a later thing. It's close to Bardic, but it's a lot more primitive and a lot less 'pretty'. - What are the factors in learning magic? Heart and soul and a good memory. Can't sing a song if you don't know the words or don't believe the words. - Does it require study? A good amount, since you have to know the words and how to sing along, but all of that's for nothing if you can't hold a tune and scream the right word. Some people just aren't cut out for it. Some people are nothing BUT one giant song waiting to be sung and they're pretty well fit for it. You either 'get' it or you don't, after study. Bad students of it tend to say the wrong word at the wrong time for the wrong reason with the wrong emotion and end up dead in very unique ways. - Does it require a sort of "attunement" with the magic of the world? Yes and no. Everything's got a word behind it. Trick is knowing it. Trick is finding them. Trick is knowing how to use them. It's barely even magic, it's more putting a lever into things and forcing them to move a certain way under the force of whatever you put into the word, using your force of emotion as the lever. It's one part Word, one part Emotional investment driving it and if you have both of them, it's enough to cause some change. - What kind of components are involved? IE, Vocal, Somatic, Material, Focus, etc. It's somatic. It's song and word and curse and shout and scream and lul and lilt and poetic joy. It's word and voice and heart. You don't need components to do it, but you can only manipulate existant things so it doesn't work in a vacuum. It's also doesn't have a lot of words for catastrophic, unnatural things, so the song can't drop a moon or teleport someone, or raise the dead. It CAN coax all the heat out of the front of your skull and give you a brain freeze from hell. It -can- pull all the flame and heat in a room into one point and then release it in one quick, ugly, violent flash-bang blast. If you're feeling really adventurous you could try calling lightning, assuming you knew the right name for the right kind in the right place, but lightning's kind of notorious for being indiscriminate once it's unleashed. You could pull chunks of shrapnel out of something, you could draw poison out assuming you knew the "word" for the poison. Thing is: All of this takes the Words. Not a lot of them are known, they're kept secret by practitioners, and used as a kind of currency between people who do this kind of thing. Secrets kept are powerful, even if they're small. Assuming you can match the kind of emotion the word wants to function, you can do a lot with it, but doing it right means knowing the words and how to use them. That's so intense most practitioners only work in a certain 'facet' of the language. - Does magic draw energy of some kind from the user? It's using their emotion as the leverage to "shape" aether, and the word they're speaking specify where that lever gets applied. How they speak, how intense they feel, and how purely, dictates how it works. If you're missing the heart, the song, or the word, the entire thing collapses and tends to target a part of you with it, by force, Needless to say people who know this sort of school don't use it just for 'kicks'. No one wants their brain getting catapulted out of their ear at mach 2. No one wants to have their bones turn to liquid or their eyes into rocks. Don't say the wrong words. Don't say them if you don't mean it. - Does it vary depending on the kind of magic? If yes, how so? I think there's a billion different ways to shape aether, shape the effect, and to what degree of power, so definitely.

Hammer's got a few things: A set of brass earrings with a story behind them. He's wearing them most of the time. A lockbox with paper-lantern making material. Refer to "Letters Home" as to why that's important. Knives. So many knives. These in particular because they've been lifted off of bodies, the result of one on one fights or corpses on a specific battlefield. A brass lantern with a lot of writing on the bottom, also noted in "Letters Home" The key to his planned retirement home. You know. The one under 6 feet of ocean after the moon dropped. A pipe recently made for him by his current free company.