synaesthetic

Stacking vs individual dodging is one of those things where you either rely on individual skill or group coordination. The main reason I advocate for stacking is because it's good training for Titan EX: you have no choice but to stack for him. If you scatter, you're going to be knocked off by Upheval, or be out of healing range for stomps, which CAN kill you in EX without healing during the stomps. wrt Manawall and Landslides, the only physical damage Titan does consists of punching the tank and Landslide. Everything else is elemental damage. I understand erring on the side of caution, but again this is something I consider Titan EX training. BLM DPS on EX is awful due to how often you have to move, so if you can get used to using Manawall to eat Landslides and keep DPS up on Titan HM, it'll help you immensely when fighting Titan EX later.

I actually mute my music when raiding because it can make me too tense. I'll put on something instrumental, upbeat and happy or ambient and soothing, like CombatPlayer, Bohren & der Club of Gore or Tipper.

ExKage, I main BLM, so I'll tell you a little bit about how to BLM in Titan HM. Some helpful tips: Use Sprint. There's absolutely no reason not to. Your job doesn't use TP, so feel free to burn Sprint whenever you need to get there faster. Landslide is a physical damage ability. This means that if you have Manawall up, Landslide will deal no damage and will not knock you back. As Manawall has virtually no other use in this fight, just cast it on cooldown and use it to eat Landslides whenever you want to stay safer or just stay still and do more damage. The safest spot in the world during Titan (HM or EX) is right on his ass. Trying to maintain range in this fight actually makes it harder on you. Try not to hang out too far from the healers, so you'll be hit by Medica/Succor during stomps. Tumult is elemental earth damage, so Manaward will protect you from it if you need a bit of a buffer. Remember that all defensive abilities take 2-3 seconds to fully apply to your character, so make sure to precast Manaward before you think you're going to need it. The duration is short, so don't precast too soon. In Phase 5 especially, stack for Weight of the Land. If your group stacks for weight, it becomes impossible to accidentally kill your party members by spawning weight underneath them. When running out of the stack of weight, cast an instant-cast spell to force the server to update your position (throwing Scathe on Titan is a good way to do this). This makes even more sense when you realize that during Phase 5, Titan will always stomp before casting weight, so moving to the center to get Medica spam is something you'll be doing anyway. Stack tightly and your WHM can even use Cure III effectively. Memorize Titan's rotation or write it down on a sticky note and stick it to your monitor. This will help you more than anything else, when you know what's coming and when to expect it. Titan, like most of the Primals, has a very scripted set of abilities that he never really deviates from. The only random element of Titan HM is in which players are targeted for Weight of the Land and Granite Gaol. Send me a whisper or a PM in-game (Aeriyn Ashley) and I'll help you out.

Just send me a PM with where and when. If it's in Ul'dah or Limsa then it wouldn't even need me to come up with a reason for Aeriyn to be around.

Aeriyn is a researcher of magic (and ICly has knowledge of black magic in addition to minor skill in conjury; her current plotline also has her learning Nymian arcanima) and has the ability to sense aetheric currents in people as a result of her physical and mental alteration caused by corrupted aether during the Calamity. She isn't telepathic and can't read minds, but she can sense magic and as a result has a strong understanding of aether and any technologies built upon the manipulation of it.

If you want to do it I say do it. The game lets you play as multiple occupations and acquire multiple skillsets, so go wild. My character Aeriyn is a black mage who, after entering the Wanderer's Palace on a mission for the Maelstrom, rescued a Nymian fairy who was imprisoned in a shard of corrupted aether. The fairy, Rinah, has been disconnected from the aetherial flow and will die eventually if things are left as they are. Aeriyn's current character arc centers around both trying to help Rinah and to science the crap out of the incident that severed the fairy from her original summoner, stuck her in a shard of corrupted aether and disconnected her from the source of her existence. During the events of this plot, Rinah teaches Aeriyn the spells and formulae of the Nymian scholars. So Aeriyn is ICly both a veteran black mage and a novice scholar. The way the plot's going, she'll likely also start learning about the Allagan art of summoning as well. I don't see a problem with your characters having diverse skillsets because people in real life can have diverse skillsets, and the game allows you to do it, so why the hell not?

Compressed time is a gameplay mechanic used in a lot of sandbox titles such as The Elder Scrolls titles, the newer Fallout games and especially in Simcity-type games. The gameplay kind of relies upon time passing, but nobody wants to wait around for a full actual day to get something done... so... FFXIV has the same compression ratio as FFXI did; it's 12:1, so an Eorzean day is two hours. I remember when I started playing WoW after leaving FFXI the first time and being really bummed out that it would always be nighttime in-game when I played, because I always played after work, on CST, while playing on an EST server.

Well. After that completely unwarranted explosion I think it's safe to say that I'd never want to RP with you, either. I've been on the wrong side of people who let IC affect OOC before and it's not pretty, so I don't really think that peoples' reactions to the way you are expressing your opinion on the matter is that unusual. Edit: I will say I do appreciate the calmer response to my post, though.

Why not be a really strong *insert class here*? Well, there's job specific abilities. Thaumaturges can't cast Flare. They can't consume part of their blood or body to fuel their aetheric capacity (Convert). Conjurers can't cast Holy, or Benediction. And the lore around the jobs is very, very interesting. If I were to RP a white mage, I would follow the lore as closely as possible while also disregarding the Super Speshul Snowflake nature of it. My character would be a white mage, who isn't supposed to know what she knows. She would avoid Gridania, be fearful of the intercession of the elementals, and hide her access to Succor... ... just like my black mage character, Aeriyn, wears plain robes or other outfits to hide her traditional black mage attire, doesn't use her black magic where it would be recognized as such, and tries her damndest to avoid attracting attention of any shady characters who might want to use her knowledge for their own personal gain. Or any do-gooders who might want to put a stop to her for the crime of using "forbidden" magic. Fortunately for me, the black mage lore is not Super Speshul Snowflake. There are at least five other black mages in the BLM quest line, and it's strongly hinted at that the guildmaster of the Ossuary is also a black mage. But if I were to RP a WHM, I would disregard that Super Speshul Snowflake-ness, just like I disregard killing Gaius van Baelsar, destroying Castrum Meridianum and saving all of Eorzea. Anything that could edge your character toward Mary Suedom, even if the game's storyline encourages it, should be thrown away.

I don't RP fight. If there has to be battle between a character of mine and a character of someone else's, then it gets written up in forum RP, at least in FFXIV, because we have no dueling or deathmatch function. Yes, I'm one of "those" RPers that tries to involve gameplay systems as much as possible and I absolutely loathe emote "fighting." If we need to have a good, gripping, edge-of-your-seat battle, I'm going to write it up as a ficlet after talking with the person OOC and determining the outcome. My reason for wanting to roleplay the jobs is based around my character's roleplay. Aeriyn is a scientist. She studies magic. Her life's work is to create a universal aetherial theory, a method for explaining how all magic, aether, crystals and the various things work, and the various things that happen as a result of these things (including primals, deities, Hydaelyn and Zodiark). So yes, the actual, lore-specific difference between a conjurer and a white mage, a thaumaturge and a black mage, an arcanist and a summoner or scholar... these are big differences in power, in capability and in the methodologies they use to do what they do. If I just ignored all of that then Aeriyn's roleplay would be far, far less interesting and that would be terrible. She's a black mage, which fortunately there's considerable lore support for this because during the BLM storyline you encounter a whole mess of other black mages, none of whom actually have the Gem of Shatotto. I don't RP Aeriyn as if she has the gem, because that's leaning dangerously close to Super Speshul Snowflake territory. The gem is known to her, as it's part of black mage lore, but she doesn't know where it is. Probably that crazy lala still has it. But Aeri being a black mage ICly, and being taught the arts of the Nymian scholar by Rinah, these things are kind of extremely important to her personal storyline. Disregarding them would be silly.

No, it's not the same thing and no, there's no Catch-22 situation here. Look at it logically. How many people can be the single person who defeated Gaius, routed the Garleans, foiled Lahabrea's plans and saved Eorzea? One person can be this. The game explicitly shows you as the Chosen One. It never, ever, ever shows any other player as also being the Chosen One. It may show other players as your helper, or your friends, or hirelings... and their clients will show them as the Hero and you as the helper. How many people can be a White Mage? How many people does the game show as a White Mage? Does the game erase every other White Mage's artifact armor and replace it with generic conjurer robes? No, it does not. Does the game hide all other Thyruses and show them to you as a plain wooden cane? No, it does not. The game goes out of its way to indicate that you, the player, are the hero, and it takes great pains to ensure that you are the only one who looks like the hero. Of course this is worthless in an MMO, so it must be discarded. The lore surrounding white mages is also a Chosen One narrative, so it, too, must be discarded. But wait! There's all these damn white mages everywhere now! So you can discard the offending part of the lore that relies upon Super Speshul Snowflake Storytelling (very lazy and very bad for an MMO), but that still leaves you with loads of white mages everywhere. If someone claims to be a white mage in game and isn't a Padjal, my character will absolutely be suspicious. The Succor is not something just anyone can use. Aeri will become very, very curious, because it means that person did something exceptional to access that power. Since Aeri is a researcher of the nature of magic, this would interest her a great deal. That's such a freaking good RP hook that I'd never just throw it away. If people want to disbelieve that another person is a white mage, then that's fine, but if the white mage manages to prove what they are ICly, and the person continues to stubbornly refuse to believe it, expect to cause OOC frustration. Additionally I probably wouldn't continue to RP with someone who refused to participate properly.

Amusing, because this here is the reason why people are so against letting people roleplay a white mage. Because the lore says that very thing, that you (the player) are the only Super Speshul Chosen One White Mage. Clearly this cannot work, so it must be discarded. Any time an MMO storyline turns you into the Chosen One, it must be discarded, because every player gets that same storyline and every player is therefore the Chosen One. When there's supposed to be only one of those Chosen One... Ones... then how do you get a whole server full of them? Unless, of course, your lore takes a third option and explicitly makes lots of Chosen Ones. RIFT does this very well in both the Defiant and Guardian storylines; it's explicitly stated that you are not the only Ascended and that nothing you do is really unique or super-speshul.

If every DPS class does the same amount of damage on a stationary target, the theorycrafters and raiders will find the one that is easiest to do the most damage with, and then they will demand that class and that class only. Normalizing raw DPS across all damage dealers will always result in class stacking. The devs are not perfect and nobody has ever designed a fight that is completely fair in how much pressure it places on every possible raid composition. Class stacking happens. It happened in FFXI, it happened in XIV 1.0, it happened in WoW constantly. It's what created the whole idea of a "Flavor of the Month" class. Hell, it happened in 2.0, when everyone would stack bards and one Dragoon for Disembowel. It happens now, in 2.1; Garuda EX favors ranged stacking while Titan EX favors melee stacking. There are ways to prevent this, some of which work better than others. The limit break nerf was a pretty heavy-handed way to punish class stacking, but not as heavy handed as Blizzard's constant "balancing" which just forced FotM rerolling. Making sure that certain classes synergize well with each other is a much better way to do that, which is something Squee did do and I'm glad for it. What I'm trying to say is that if you design your damage dealers to do the same amount of damage, your players will poke and prod and pore over thousands of parser logs until they figure out which one does the most with the least amount of risk and the least amount of player skill, and then they'll only want that one. The stereotypical raider always takes the path of least resistance. The only way to stop this is to make the riskier classes worth more than the less risky ones. If you don't, you have the FFXI situation where every damage dealer is a SAM.

Silliness aside, my view on these things essentially boils down to, "if the game allows me to do it, then I should be allowed to roleplay it." Game lets me play WHM, so I should be able to RP a WHM. Game doesn't let me play Padjal, so I will not attempt to RP a Padjal. Game lets me play different occupations (dare we call them "jobs") on one character, so I'll RP characters that may or may not have multiple avenues of training and expertise. The game allows me to run dungeons, but thanks to the stupid friggin' timers I can't really RP a dungeon run, which makes me very, very sad. *shakes fist at Squee*

I would cast Holy on them repeatedly until they stopped.

Maybe I'm just so damn good at dodging and most of the melee I've played with sucks at it? Because short of a few people that I know who are really damn good at monk and dragoon, I see lots of monks and dragoons getting flattened. Seems pretty unlikely, because I'm almost certain that if I stopped playing black mage and started playing monk or dragoon, I'd be right there with those people getting flattened. On a training dummy, melee should absolutely do more raw DPS than ranged. In an actual encounter, they should be almost exactly the same if all played well and correctly, because melee, despite having higher DPS, will have far lower uptime than ranged. That's the "risk" I'm talking about. If your average uptime is lower on actual encounters then your average snapshot DPS should be higher to compensate. The end result is that everyone does around the same when you take an average across the entire fight (unless the encounter requires some damage dealers to intentionally lower their DPS to deal with mechanics, such as monks using Arm of the Destroyer to keep mini-ADS from using High Voltage). Uptime can be shortened by being forced to dodge, or by being flattened by an angry monster and then having to be raised and deal with reduced attributes for 90 seconds. This is why a raw DPS hierarchy needs to exist. It has to. When you're doing theorycrafting on a training dummy and ranged is beating melee, what do you think is going to happen in a real raid encounter? The hierarchy is based on risk of loss of uptime, whether that loss comes from being squashed by a mob or by avoiding an attack. As a result, the DPS hierarchy should be a scale from "highest DPS, lowest uptime %" to "lowest DPS, highest uptime %." So we should see MNK > DRG > BLM > SMN > BRD on training dummies. I think Square is heading in that direction. These latest changes got us a lot closer, by nerfing bard and summoner, both of whom were doing more damage than they should for their uptime, and by buffing monk and dragoon, who were doing less damage than they should for their uptime.

Miqo'te are cats? Huh. I always thought they were miqo'te. The tail and ears are used in emotes to convey expressions and emotions, so I do the same with Aeriyn. Outside of that she acts like any other sentient being. She does not purr, she does not hiss (except perhaps the same way a person might hiss when angry), but if she becomes nervous the fur on her tail will fluff out, the movements of her tail can signify her mood, and her ears will move based on emotion or when tracking sounds. I also try to take into account these differences when roleplaying. A tail is a counterbalance and as such, miqo'te should be far more agile and balanced than their tailless neighbors in Eorzea. Tripping over ones' own feet should be a rarity as a miqo'te. I also tend to write roleplay where scent of smell and hearing take special mental precedence over vision. My character can and does identify people based on smell, and will actively avoid crowded, noisy places because her hearing is sensitive and it would give her listening fatigue and a headache. Additionally, Keepers of the Moon have good low-light vision and are nocturnal, thus most mentally and physically sharp at night. These are all things, physiological differences that I take into account when roleplaying my character. Miqo'te are not cats. They are miqo'te. They have vaguely pseudo-feline features, but they are not nonsentient felines, nor are they anime catgirls.

I think it's a bit absurd for people to be arguing against "breaking lore" when the game's systems are poorly integrated into said lore and are also rather meta. The way I designed my character takes these meta aspects into account and incorporates them as best I can. The Armoury System is a nightmare for strict adherence to lore because it's such an arbitrary, disconnected and obviously "gamey" system. But guess what? Tons of people play as if their characters are multiple classes and nobody takes issue with it. Besides, it's the first rule of sensible roleplaying that ya'll should be paying attention to: If the story forces the character into a Super Speshul Chosen One narrative, it should be explicitly disregarded and considered godmodding in regards to roleplay. Nobody should be the Chosen. We're all just regular folks doing regular things, maybe having wild adventures on the way. Some of us are more powerful than others, just like regular people. Additionally the lore doesn't even say it's required to have a soul gem to be a Job. There are multiple black mages you encounter during the BLM job quest line, and there's only one Gem of Shatotto. The soul gem is just another gamey, meta system that Squee grafted onto the game in 1.0 to allow for Jobs without having to make them fully separate classes that you had to level up separately. So yeah, people who are ICly their character's jobs? No problem at all. Most of the jobs make it clear that you aren't the only one. WHM and DRG are the only real sticking points, but even those can be handwaved without much issue.

Dragoons have higher defensive attributes than monks, they have more powerful defensive cooldowns and also they have more ways to avoid damage than monks do. Granted, there's no real functional difference whether the mob takes five seconds to flatten you vs six seconds to flatten you... I already said it's not exactly where it needs to be. Dragoons should have their defensive abilities increased. They should be able to take more hits than monks and obviously so. They shouldn't be all the same because that's boring (not to mention impossible to balance across all encounters exactly). Why bother having different classes if every class does exactly the same thing?

I'm speaking strictly concerning damage-dealers. Tanks are a completely different role, so it's not the same, but they have their own hierarchy (PLD is the safer mitigation tank while WAR is the riskier damage-sponge tank). It's a risk vs. reward kind of thing. Those classes that have to work the hardest to get their damage should be rewarded by being able to top the charts, while those that have it easier should not be able to match their riskier fellows. Reason for this is if you have a class that can easily and safely do just as much damage as a class that requires a lot of skill, then your endgame min-maxers are going to automatically prefer the safer, easier class. We already see this on a per-fight basis; I've seen countless Garuda EX ads on the Party Finder asking for only ranged DPS, because the fight is easier with ranged DPS, even if the melee damage dealers actually do more damage over the course of the fight. This was also a problem in 1.0, where you'd have massive class stacking of dragoons on certain fights and black mages on others. You can either make sure that all classes are equal in both risk of being squashed and the level of damage they can put out, or you can reward high-risk combat classes with higher overall damage. The former runs the risk of homogeneity, making any damage-dealer feel like any other damage dealer, while the latter can support drastically different playstyles. For instance, I prefer ranged damage dealers in basically every game I play. If I play melee, I will play a tank. I don't have the twitch reflexes to play something like monk or dragoon very effectively (I'm terrible at real-time strategy games). If all the classes had the same general level of twitch, high-risk gameplay, I would not be very satisfied. Conversely, if all the damage classes had the same more deliberate gameplay that ranged classes have, many of my friends who adore melee jobs would likewise be rather disappointed. The "face target" thing becomes completely a non-issue if you use Legacy camera controls. I never have to worry about which direction I'm facing because W is always "away from camera" and S is always "towards camera." I can't stand games that force me into "tank controls" where the movement keys are centered on your character. ><

People who think DRG and MNK don't do ridiculously insane single-target DPS have been listening to the whiners on the official forums far, far too much. Melee was good pre-2.1, they were just overshadowed by how ridiculously overpowered bard was, and the fact that Titan HM is a terrible fight for melee and it was the barometer practically everyone was using to determine how much damage people actually do. Now, after 2.1, bards and summoners were hit with nerfs (bards moreso, but SMNs got hit pretty hard by the loss of Thunder), and monks and dragoons were buffed considerably. Now the damage hierarchy is looking a lot more like it should... monks should be the best DPS, because they're the highest-risk damage dealer to play. Monks go splat easily. Dragoons are close behind them, which also makes sense, because DRG rotations are crazy complex and require a lot of positional wankery. Bards still do too much damage for how safe they are. They're the only damage dealer with potentially 100% uptime since they can move and shoot without any loss of damage whatsoever. I think, to fix bards, Square should disallow them from shooting "magical homing arrows that work like physics-defying guided missiles," (they should get the same "not facing target" error BLM gets) but undo the Internal Release and Blood for Blood nerfs, while also giving bard a few small potency increases and buffs to their utility skills to make up for the loss. Summoners are about where they should be and so are black mages. In my opinion, damage dealers should all perform within 10-15% of each other to prevent elitists from preferring one type over another and resulting in underutilized jobs. They're doing a pretty okay job with that (the limit break nerf was unnecessary, especially since the Duty Finder does not prioritize making sure there are no duplicate jobs), but damage dealers should also have a hierarchy. The most risky jobs to play should always perform the best when played right. The damage hierarchy ideally should be MNK > DRG > BLM > SMN > BRD. Monks are the riskiest, bards are the safest. It's not quite there yet, but it's getting there. I'm sure we'll see further adjustment in 2.2.

[align=justify]Part 1 Arcane fire wreathed the blackened, wrought head of the aetheric focus. A deep violet glow began to emanate from the crystal within the stylized shooting star. Thought became action, became a manipulation of aetheric potential. Action became reality and a tremendous explosion rocked the desert as a bright pulse of intense, white-hot aetherial power condensed and expanded outward. The miqo'te opened her eyes to witness the destruction she had wrought. Fully half a dozen figures lay motionless upon the ground, their features and garments blackened beyond recognition. The sand beneath their bodies had glassed, melting beneath the intensely energetic aetherial manifestation. The cool evening air battled the residual heat, rising in distorted waves from the blast radius. Aeriyn Ashley blinked and glanced at the staff in her right hand. Thanalan hadn't changed much since she had left, two years previous. The bandits were still fools who would attack anyone not wearing rags. The miqo'te slung her staff across her shoulders and made her way back to the old Allagan road. She wasn't far from the city now--Ul'dah loomed in the distance, a shining beacon of wealth, intrigue... and more misery than either. Aeriyn had left the city of her rebirth three years after the Calamity. It still looked exactly the same, though perhaps there were more shanty towns cropping up around the city walls. "This is not a homecoming," she muttered, seemingly to no one at all. "It's not," a soft, lyrical voice agreed. "It's more important than that." "Rinah," Aeriyn said, the miqo'te's ears flattening slightly. "You followed me here?" A soft, golden glow emanated from behind and Aeriyn's violet eyes narrowed as a tiny winged form floated into her vision. The newcomer was perhaps only slightly taller than the length of Aeriyn's forearm. The fairy's body practically glowed with aether, leaving slowly-fading motes of golden light wherever she went, her vividly-colored wings fluttering rapidly. "Had to," Rinah said, flitting across to land lightly on Aeriyn's left shoulder. "We're in this together, you and I." "You should have stayed in Limsa. It's not safe for you here," Aeriyn objected. "It's not safe for you here, either," Rinah pointed out. "This is very likely to be dangerous for you, Aeri. You have a much better chance of surviving if I'm with you." "Even if it kills you? You've been cut off from the flow of aether. If you die--" "I know," Rinah cut her off. "It doesn't change anything. If you die, I'll never be able to find out what happened to me. I have a good reason to risk it." "I'm not completely convinced I can help you," Aeriyn said. "I'm not an evoker." "You've practiced. You've been studying the processes I've shown you. There are better arcanists, Aeri, but I trust you far more than I trust them. You know how it feels to be cut off, adrift. You saved my life, such as it is, and I'm going to protect yours." --- The Quicksand hadn't changed, either. Aeriyn walked into the dimly-lit tavern, careful not to let her wariness show too obviously. With a great deal of effort, she managed to keep the fur of her tail from fluffing out in agitation. Ul'dah held memories. Many memories, most of which were not pleasant. Just being back in the city where she had begun on her current life's path felt strange, as if she had gone back in time and was viewing her own past. The subtle tug of those memories--her own, not the memories of others--led her to the counter where the proprieteress of the tavern, Momodi, now stood. "I never expected to see you again," the lalafellin lady said, keeping her usually-boisterous tone below the level the tavern's dull roar of conversation. "Had enough of salt spray and fish guts? Or was it the stench of unwashed bodies of pirates?" "A temporary visit, nothing more," Aeriyn said in the same quiet voice. "I'm here for research purposes." "Aren't you always?" "I need authorization papers for passage through Highbridge to the Burning Wall," Aeriyn went on, keeping her voice low so that she would not be overheard. "It needs to be good enough that the Blades won't ask any questions." "That's going to cost you," Momodi said. Aeriyn didn't bother to reply with words; instead, she reached into her satchel and withdrew a bulging sack. This she dropped on the counter in front of Momodi. The lalafell's eyes widened at the sight and the weighty thunk and jingle. "Enough?" "Where in the seven hells did you get--" "That isn't important," Aeriyn cut her off. "Just get me the papers as quick as you can." "Tomorrow morning is the soonest I can manage," the lalafell said. "I'll get a room set up for the night. Food and drink are on the house." "Thank you, Momodi. I'll be back in a few bells for the evening meal." "Going to pay your respects, are you?" Momodi asked, her expression turning more serious. "I would be a very poor little sister if I did not," Aeriyn said, her lips curving into a sad smile. The miqo'te mage turned around without another word and walked out of the tavern, picking her way through the knots of patrons with an ease that spoke of long years lived in crowded cities. The heavy wooden doors opened easily--Momodi took very good care of the Quicksand, after all--and Aeriyn once again stood under the Eorzean sky. The cool, dry Thanalan air was a respite from the smoke-choked tavern interior. Aeriyn took a deep breath and slowly let it out. There was a sudden movement within her satchel, closely followed by a high-pitched and extremely annoyed vocalization. Aeriyn smiled despite the situation and opened the top carefully, allowing Rinah to emerge from within the bag. The small fairy's long hair had become disheveled while in her hiding place and the expression on her tiny face was one of utter relief. "I never appreciated fresh air so much," Rinah said. "We're still in the city? Shouldn't I stay in the bag until we leave Ul'dah?" "It's not necessary," Aeriyn assured her. "Ul'dahns rarely care much for any unusual sight unless that sight is a considerable amount of gil. The Ossuary here has also jaded much of the population to open displays of magical power. I doubt anyone here would recognize you for what you are." "What did Momodi mean about paying your respects?" "You'll see soon enough. We're going to take a short walk outside the city." Rinah fluttered around Aeriyn's head for a moment, wondering if she should press the issue further. She decided it would not be a good idea to press the miqo'te and she simply alighted on Aeriyn's left shoulder. Tiny hands gripped the fabric of the plain, shabby robe Aeriyn wore over her mage's attire. While Rinah herself may resemble any number of conjured illusions to be considered uninteresting in Ul'dah, Aeriyn's highly-enchanted garments would draw far too much attention. The fairy held on as Aeriyn walked slowly but purposefully out of the westernmost gate, past several small groups of people who chattered on about all manner of things. Rinah was not the least bit upset to leave the people behind as Aeriyn walked down the ancient carved stairways of the Eighty Sins of Sasermo. Aeriyn's tail swished to and fro nervously as she turned left off the stairway down a well-worn cobblestone path. Rinah could tell that a great many armored boots had walked this path before. The miqo'te and her fairy companion traveled in complete silence, soaking up the sounds of the desert as they did so. Above the distant dull roar of Ul'dahn night life, Rinah could make out the calls and songs of all manner of animals and birds. "This is our destination," Aeriyn said suddenly. Rinah blinked, disentangling herself from focusing on the living desert around her and quickly realized she was surrounded by the dead. Aeriyn had taken them to a lichyard. "Oh," Rinah said softly, understanding at last. Upon the grave they stood before was etched a surname very familiar to the fairy, for it was the adoptive surname of the miqo'te who was her companion. "She was my sister," Aeriyn explained to the fairy. "You know I have no memory of my life before the Calamity. My earliest remembrance was that of a monsoon in the Thanalan desert, a chance encounter with an Immortal Flames patrol ambushed by an amalj'aa warband. That was when I first met Ariene." "How did she die?" Rinah wanted to know. "She saw something she shouldn't have, and she would not let it go," Aeriyn said, feeling the weight of memory press down upon her heart. "Ul'dah is an extremely dangerous place to be an idealist." "The same could be said for Limsa Lominsa," Rinah pointed out. "It's different. There are shady deals happening every minute in Limsa, true, but the Ul'dahn underworld is far darker and much, much more powerful. The Syndicate opposes the Sultana's rule, the Flames are caught in the middle--dependent upon the merchants' coffers for their operation. It is not a situation that either side is fond of, but it is tolerated for the pursuit of stability and, of course, profit." "Is it really that different?" "You haven't lived the world as I have," Aeriyn reminded the fairy. "I freed you from the corrupted aetheryte shard less than half a year ago. The power structures that control Limsa Lominsa may seem more lawless on the surface, but the rigid hierarchy of this place exists to hide a deeper darkness. The balance of power in Ul'dah is more delicate." Aeriyn reached into her satchel without another word and withdrew a small parcel. She unwrapped the twine holding it together and from within drew out a moonflower blossom in perfect suspended animation. The small token would retain its beauty, untouched by time, due to alchemical preservation. Reverently the miqo'te knelt before the grave of her adopted sister and set the blossom against the headstone. "Dream sweetly, Arie," Aeriyn murmured, feeling her eyes start to sting as tears threatened to spill forth. Rinah turned her gaze toward Aeriyn, a twinge of sympathy rippling through her diminuitive form. "When Ariene died, everything began to unravel," Aeriyn went on, her voice ragged with emotion. "She was my strongest--no, my only true link to the Ashley family. Without Arie, I was no longer welcome within the estate. My name and reputation no longer held much weight." "So you left for La Noscea," Rinah surmised. "Yes," Aeriyn agreed. "It proved to be a very wise decision. I still had enough coin to make the journey and rebuild the fragments of my life. Had I not left when I did, I suspect I would be one of the many lost souls clinging to memories in the shanty towns surrounding the city." "I'm sorry," Rinah said after a long moment. "You aren't really sorry." Rinah's tiny mouth hung open in shock, the aetherial glow emanating from her body shifting from soft gold to a dull, angry orange as the fairy's emotions flared with anger. "I'm not really sorry, either," Aeriyn explained, favoring her companion with a sad smile. "Arie knew. She knew the Syndicate would silence her if she did not hold her tongue, yet she refused to be silent. My sister would never have compromised her principles, even if it meant her death." "You don't have to understand a person's choices so long as you respect them," Rinah said, her sudden burst of anger cooling quickly. "Just so," Aeriyn agreed. "I respect Arie's choices, even if they threw my own life into chaos. Of course, had Arie never stumbled upon the conspiracy, or if she had been frightened into silence, I would have had no cause to leave Thanalan. No reason to enlist in the Maelstrom. No reason to set foot within the ruins of Oschon's temple." "And I would still be frozen within the aetheryte shard," Rinah observed. "Probably forever." The fairy shivered, revulsion and fear clearly etched upon her delicate features. Aeriyn understood Rinah's fear quite well, for the fairy had been fully conscious during her imprisonment, a terrible sentence that lasted for hundreds of years before Aeriyn freed her. "It was a coincidence, a happenstance of fate," Aeriyn mused philosophically. "But it's not one that I regret. I miss Arie terribly, but I will not rail at the world for what happened. The world would not pay me any mind." "I don't know what to say," Rinah managed after a long moment. "You don't have to say anything," Aeriyn said soothingly. "We should get back to the Quicksand. Momodi will have prepared a room for the night by now and I'm starting to get hungry." "Aeri, I..." "What is it, Rinah?" "I... just wanted to say thank you. For everything. I've never had a... a friend before. That I chose, consciously, and was not compelled to follow." Aeriyn's smile widened and the melancholy slowly drained from her face. "Of course. That's what friends are for."[/align]

Arcane fire wreathed the blackened, wrought-mythril head of the aetheric focus. A deep violet glow began to emanate from the crystal within the stylized shooting star. Thought became action, became a manipulation of aetheric potential. Action became reality and a tremendous explosion rocked the desert as a bright pulse of intense, white-hot aetherial power condensed and expanded outward. The miqo'te opened her eyes to witness the destruction she had wrought. Fully half a dozen figures lay motionless upon the ground, their features and garments blackened beyond recognition. The sand beneath their bodies had glassed, melting beneath the intensely energetic aetherial manifestation. The cool evening air battled the residual heat, rising in distorted waves from the blast radius. Aeriyn Ashley blinked and glanced at the staff in her right hand. Thanalan hadn't changed much since she had left, two years previous. The bandits were still fools who would attack anyone not wearing rags. The miqo'te slung her staff across her shoulders and made her way back to the old Allagan road. She wasn't far from the city now--Ul'dah loomed in the distance, a shining beacon of wealth, intrigue... and more misery than either. Aeriyn had left the city of her rebirth three years after the Calamity. It still looked exactly the same, though perhaps there were more shanty towns cropping up around the city walls. "This is not a homecoming," she muttered, seemingly to no one at all. "It's not," a soft, lyrical voice agreed. "It's more important than that." "Rinah," Aeriyn said, the miqo'te's ears flattening slightly. "You followed me here?" A soft, golden glow emanated from behind and Aeriyn's violet eyes narrowed as a tiny winged form floated into her vision. The newcomer was perhaps only slightly taller than the length of Aeriyn's forearm. The fairy's body practically glowed with aether, leaving slowly-fading motes of golden light wherever she went, her vividly-colored wings fluttering rapidly. "Had to," Rinah said, flitting across to land lightly on Aeriyn's left shoulder. "We're in this together, you and I." "You should have stayed in Limsa. It's not safe for you here," Aeriyn objected. "It's not safe for you here, either," Rinah pointed out. "This is very likely to be dangerous for you, Aeri. You have a much better chance of surviving if I'm with you." "Even if it kills you? You've been cut off from the flow of aether. If you die--" "I know," Rinah cut her off. "It doesn't change anything. If you die, I'll never be able to find out what happened to me. I have a good reason to risk it." "I'm not completely convinced I can help you," Aeriyn said. "I'm not an evoker." "You've practiced. You've been studying the processes I've shown you. There are better arcanists, Aeri, but I trust you far more than I trust them. You know how it feels to be cut off, adrift. You saved my life, such as it is, and I'm going to protect yours."

An Update on Unity's Endgame Status As a result of a recent spike in both endgame interest and recruitment, I've decided to open up Aether Group as its own Coil/EX Primal static. This group has not actually begun to participate in scheduled events yet, but we are working hard to fill out Aether's ranks in order to begin scheduled runs. Aether is currently in need of a full-time tank and three full-time damage-dealers (we prefer at least one full-time bard and two full-time magic damage-dealers). We should have healing covered at this point in the process, but I will update this post with any necessary information. Unity Raid Schedule Astral Group Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM (Pacific Standard Time) Umbral Group Monday, Tuesday and Thursday 4:30 PM to 7:30 PM (Pacific Standard Time) Aether Group Monday, Wednesday and Friday 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM (Pacific Standard Time) (Tentative) Current Unity Endgame Recruitment Needs: DISCLAIMER: Please be aware that Unity's endgame groups are not statics in the strictest sense of the word; we are intentionally over capacity on each group so that we do not have to cancel runs or seek random replacements. The Unity leadership will rotate players in order to ensure everyone gets a chance to participate. FULL TIME MEMBER: A full-time member of Unity's raiding groups means that you will show up for all three events each week, barring extenuating circumstances. If you have to miss a run or two, you will notify the FC leadership ahead of time. Full-time members should be able to set aside the full three-hour scheduled event period on each event day without having to leave abruptly. PART-TIME MEMBER: A part-time member of Unity's raiding groups means that you will show up for at least one predetermined scheduled event each week, barring extenuating circumstances. However, you will not always be required to attend these events, but you will be asked to remain on standby. You may play the game in whatever way that you wish during scheduled raids under the condition that you will be ready to join the raid currently underway at a moment's notice. Part-time membership can be further negotiated, and we can and do swap members in and out in order to ensure everyone gets a chance to experience endgame. Astral Group: Astral Group is currently full. We are not in need of any full- or part-time members at this time. Umbral Group: Umbral Group is currently full. We are not in need of any full- or part-time members at this time. Aether Group: Aether group is currently in need of the following jobs: Damage-dealer (any job) - Part-time (bonus points if you can also part-time as a tank)

Unity in A Realm Reborn is always looking for friendly faces to be a part of our company's strong social core. Unity is an LGBTQ-safe-space Free Company with an emphasis and focus on clearing PvE content such as The Binding Coil of Bahamut and Extreme Mode primals. We don't require that you raid, of course, and being lesbian, gay, bisexual or trans* is not a requirement to join! We're a very chatty bunch and FC chat is almost always alive with random nonsense, though it does tend to quiet down a little bit during raid times. If you're interested in checking us out, please visit our website at http://unity-arr.enjin.com!