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Gegenji · **07-27-2016, 08:56 AM**

(07-26-2016, 05:03 PM)Kilieit Wrote: I was actually thinking of the patients in Camp Bronze Lake that you cleanse as part of For Your Fellow Man. Depression and post-traumatic symptoms are seemingly cleansed, through the use of the spell Leeches, into mobs named Corrupted Aether.

That is merely corrupted aether, though. Which I think is more in the line of ancient real world medicine where you were removing ill humors from the body - such as through bloodletting. Just, in this case, it's your aether being affected negatively by some source - which is not implied to be due to the void.

Valence · **07-27-2016, 11:52 AM**

So far the closest thing to it that was pointed out to me is the lvl50 BLM quest where Ququruka and his pals make a summoning ritual and Ququruka alters the ritual. It rips apart his buddies and fuses them together to serve as a body for the summoned voidsent (Barbatos).

So it seems that the void can indeed alter, manipulate and 'touch' people and their bodies, or taint them like a disease. But it doesn't seem to bring them supernatural void powers, unless the voidsent actually take possession of them.

**Unnamed Mercenary** · **07-27-2016, 12:01 PM**

(07-27-2016, 11:52 AM)Valence Wrote: So far the closest thing to it that was pointed out to me is the lvl50 BLM quest where Ququruka and his pals make a summoning ritual and Ququruka alters the ritual. It rips apart his buddies and fuses them together to serve as a body for the summoned voidsent (Barbatos).

So it seems that the void can indeed alter, manipulate and 'touch' people and their bodies, or taint them like a disease. But it doesn't seem to bring them supernatural void powers, unless the voidsent actually take possession of them.

Yup.

Barring possession, which the THM quests show can be reversed (although very difficult), it seems as though all other manners of void-ness involve the person dying and becoming a vessel for the voidsent's physical manifestation. Like putting a bunch of fruits in a blender to make a smoothie.

But for a person to be say, half-voidsent, or void-tainted, the game doesn't really give anything in that manner. I'd imagine there could be small/weak voidsent that maybe infect a person, but that would be more akin to having parasitic worms or bugs in your body, eating away at your aether and possibly your flesh. Not. Fun.

Gegenji · **07-27-2016, 12:17 PM**

(07-27-2016, 12:01 PM)Unnamed Mercenary Wrote: But for a person to be say, half-voidsent, or void-tainted, the game doesn't really give anything in that manner. I'd imagine there could be small/weak voidsent that maybe infect a person, but that would be more akin to having parasitic worms or bugs in your body, eating away at your aether and possibly your flesh. Not. Fun.

Half-voidsent would imply that void creatures can breed with the races of Man. We really don't have any indication of that. Then again, I doubt many voidsent after escaping the Void decide to settle down and raise a family, so who knows? The only way I could see it working given what we have thus far is someone possessed by a voidsent - like that one THM brother - conceiving a child. And yet, it's still technically a Son of Man, so I wonder if even that would cause anything.

If you're possessed by a weaker/tiny voidsent... I would imagine it would be a lot more like the cordyceps fungus or other parasites that affect the behaviors of their host. Rather than direct control or possession, they might influence their decisions and make them more prone to various things - likely things that will make said voidsent stronger so it can more fully manifest on Hydaelyn.

So that just leaves voidtouched, which - as mentioned - is never really covered. If I was going to fling out my own head canon, I would say it was someone who has suffered the negative effects of the void before. Near (or full and later recovered from) possession, having one's aether being drained by a voidsent, or spending time in the Void. And the result of such a thing wouldn't be some sort of added power or access to the Void.

Rather, I would think it more like aetheric anemia - your aether got taken and you never fully recovered from it. Things that drain your aether - magic, teleporting, and so on - leave you more drained... or you find yourself having to spend more time recovering from exertions in general. You might even start having a Voidsent-like tendency to seek areas/individuals of high amounts of aether. You could even get to the point where you seek trying to TAKE other people's aether to fill the hole left from the void incident.

Or it could be far worse. You could be forever a weak point in the barrier between Hydaelyn and the Void. You've been possessed before, and could likely be possessed again. Or used by cultists to serve as a sacrificial gateway for their void patrons. You're a literal danger to Hydaelyn and should likely either get this situation fixed... or be killed.

In any of these cases, being voidtouched would be very much a BAD thing, and it is unlikely to bestow you with Void-y magicks. Unless you're actually RPing as the voidsent inhabiting a mortal shell. At least, in my opinion and personal head canon.

zaviire · **07-27-2016, 02:10 PM**

If it's alright I'd like to poke my head into this void discussion and bring up a pretty interesting point in relation to an in-game entity? The final boss of the Weeping City of Mhach, Calofisteri, could potentially provide a scenario that could give someone void-y powers in-verse... But it depends on how it's interpreted, really.

Show Content

Granted, it's not exactly being possessed by a voidsent, or being half-voidsent, but it is interesting food for thought in this line of discussion and it seems to have given her some sorts of supernatural void-y powers (unless we just wanna attribute everything she can do to Mhachi black magic, which is also plausible because she was a Mhachi mage before she became... that. Hmmm). She could maybe qualify as being void-tainted or void-touched though? Depends on how you wanna define any of it, really.

I'd look into if she actually says anything more specific about the Void or her current state during her boss battle, but I'm not on my usual internet connection at the moment and I don't trust my current internet not to crap out in the middle of Mhach.

/slides out

**Unnamed Mercenary** · **07-27-2016, 02:21 PM**

(07-27-2016, 02:10 PM)zaviire Wrote: If it's alright I'd like to poke my head into this void discussion and bring up a pretty interesting point in relation to an in-game entity? The final boss of the Weeping City of Mhach, Calofisteri, could potentially provide a scenario that could give someone void-y powers in-verse... But it depends on how it's interpreted, really.

Show Content

Minion Hover-quoteBy the blood of voidsent have I ascended to the sublime... - Calofisteri

Show Content

Triple Triad card descriptionHead crowned with animate tresses and mind caressed by madness, Calofisteri haunts the Tomb of the Nullstone as the relic's self-appointed guardian. This mighty sorceress of Mhach achieved a twisted form of immortality by combining the power of aether-infused crystal with the ritual consumption of voidsent blood.

Granted, it's not exactly being possessed by a voidsent, or being half-voidsent, but it is interesting food for thought in this line of discussion and it seems to have given her some sorts of supernatural void-y powers (unless we just wanna attribute everything she can do to Mhachi black magic, which is also plausible because she was a Mhachi mage before she became... that. Hmmm). She could maybe qualify as being void-tainted or void-touched though? Depends on how you wanna define any of it, really.

I'd look into if she actually says anything more specific about the Void or her current state during her boss battle, but I'm not on my usual internet connection at the moment and I don't trust my current internet not to crap out in the middle of Mhach.

/slides out

This is a good find!

...I would think more than anything, her magical prowess may have enabled her to become a voidsent. ...she's certainly not much of a person anymore. But she's also practically a relic in definition as well. Mhach fell at the 6th Umbral era, which was a good 1500+ (because I'm not gonna do math) years ago in the setting. And that speaks nothing on when she might've been born.

But this leads onto another question that the game has answered. How common is Black Magic? It's outlawed and likely treated a "kill first, ask questions later," issue. A type of person claiming to be that competent in not only Black Magic, but whatever the voidsent taught the Mhachi people that went beyond the scope of thaumaturgy with a different source of aether is probably not something that a large group of people are capable of mastering, controlling, or using, which would still create a dilemma for the fairly sized population of "void-touched" players found in RP.

Oyuu · **07-27-2016, 04:16 PM**

(07-27-2016, 02:21 PM)Unnamed Mercenary Wrote:
(07-27-2016, 02:10 PM)zaviire Wrote: If it's alright I'd like to poke my head into this void discussion and bring up a pretty interesting point in relation to an in-game entity? The final boss of the Weeping City of Mhach, Calofisteri, could potentially provide a scenario that could give someone void-y powers in-verse... But it depends on how it's interpreted, really.

Show Content

Minion Hover-quoteBy the blood of voidsent have I ascended to the sublime... - Calofisteri

Show Content

Triple Triad card descriptionHead crowned with animate tresses and mind caressed by madness, Calofisteri haunts the Tomb of the Nullstone as the relic's self-appointed guardian. This mighty sorceress of Mhach achieved a twisted form of immortality by combining the power of aether-infused crystal with the ritual consumption of voidsent blood.

Granted, it's not exactly being possessed by a voidsent, or being half-voidsent, but it is interesting food for thought in this line of discussion and it seems to have given her some sorts of supernatural void-y powers (unless we just wanna attribute everything she can do to Mhachi black magic, which is also plausible because she was a Mhachi mage before she became... that. Hmmm). She could maybe qualify as being void-tainted or void-touched though? Depends on how you wanna define any of it, really.

I'd look into if she actually says anything more specific about the Void or her current state during her boss battle, but I'm not on my usual internet connection at the moment and I don't trust my current internet not to crap out in the middle of Mhach.

/slides out

This is a good find!

...I would think more than anything, her magical prowess may have enabled her to become a voidsent. ...she's certainly not much of a person anymore. But she's also practically a relic in definition as well. Mhach fell at the 6th Umbral era, which was a good 1500+ (because I'm not gonna do math) years ago in the setting. And that speaks nothing on when she might've been born.

But this leads onto another question that the game has answered. How common is Black Magic? It's outlawed and likely treated a "kill first, ask questions later," issue. A type of person claiming to be that competent in not only Black Magic, but whatever the voidsent taught the Mhachi people that went beyond the scope of thaumaturgy with a different source of aether is probably not something that a large group of people are capable of mastering, controlling, or using, which would still create a dilemma for the fairly sized population of "void-touched" players found in RP.

Regarding how common Black Magic is, I found this whilst browsing the job quest dialogue:Â

Lalai:Â There are few who know of our existence, even among those versed in the ways of magic. You will not even find mention of us in all but the most esoteric of texts.
Lalai:Â Yet the secrets of our dark art lie encrypted here, within the forbidden library of this Sacrarium.
Source

So, not a lot of people even know it exists. You have to have access to these rare resources to find out about the art, but even then, it is extremely difficult to become a user of black magic without a Gem of Shatotto.

**Unnamed Mercenary** · **07-27-2016, 06:25 PM**

(07-27-2016, 04:16 PM)Oyuu Wrote: Regarding how common Black Magic is, I found this whilst browsing the job quest dialogue:Â

Lalai:Â There are few who know of our existence, even among those versed in the ways of magic. You will not even find mention of us in all but the most esoteric of texts.
Lalai:Â Yet the secrets of our dark art lie encrypted here, within the forbidden library of this Sacrarium.
Source

So, not a lot of people even know it exists. You have to have access to these rare resources to find out about the art, but even then, it is extremely difficult to become a user of black magic without a Gem of Shatotto.

Exactly. ...which the BLM 2.1 to 3.0 quests go into. (I have not done them myself, but know of them.)

But what we've been referring to as the "void-touched character" isn't a BLM usually. They don't even have THM experience a lot of the time. This is in relation to the players (mostly DRKs) who are calling themselves void-tainted, void-touched, void-infected, void-[VERB]ed, etc. ...which the game does not quite back up in lore, but given their population, it's not a rare minority. (I believe there have been linkshells dedicated to them before.)

But I'm basically nitpicking at a circular argument. There are people who will play the concept whether it fits into FFXIV's lore or not, because it's something they want to play. Just like we can find all the lore saying "it doesn't happen" and someone will still play as if it does. And we can find the special cases (like Calofisteri), where it could have happened, but a player RPing that is something that would probably seem grossly overpowered for normal/tavern interactions. (Maybe a really good villain though!)

Valence · **07-28-2016, 06:22 AM**

I don't even see why a good villain would necessarily have to be overpowered though... but that's another story.

Melkire · **07-28-2016, 12:24 PM**

(07-28-2016, 06:22 AM)Valence Wrote: I don't even see why a good villain would necessarily have to be overpowered though... but that's another story.

Was never said that a good villain has to be overpowered.

Was said that an overpowered character might make for a good villain.

Valence · **07-28-2016, 03:34 PM**

Fair enough.

Also, I was pointed out to the case of Edda. What about Edda and the Void? Is she just opening void portals out of her crazy mind, or does she actually have void powers or something? I find her case highly confusing considering what we know.

Gegenji · **07-28-2016, 03:43 PM**

I think it's a known thing that corpses are usually bad to leave un-cremated or otherwise appropriately handled because they can serve as potential hosts for voidsent. So it's less her having voidsenty powers and more she trying to bring her beloved back from the dead and instead getting it possessed. I would go so far to say that it was an unintended side-effect of her attempts due to being mad from grief.

Though, it doesn't seem too difficult to open at least a small portal to the void - you have folks doing it pretty early on in the MSQ and low-level THM quests (if I recall correctly). Likely easily obtained knowledge in the right circles. Whether you can handle what comes out or not is another matter entirely.

S'imba · **07-28-2016, 04:33 PM**

I think it depends on how much a person is willing to delve into the void. I mean void power is still just aether, but it's seems to be highly corruptive and slowly turns a person into a monster, depending on how much a person draws on it. Last boss from haukke Manor appears to be a voidsent, but she is that psychopath bathing in the blood of virgins or something. Basically I think a person could use void like powers, it's just eventually you will become some form of voidsent through continued use.

McBeefâ„¢ · **07-28-2016, 04:48 PM**

(07-28-2016, 04:33 PM)S Wrote: I think it depends on how much a person is willing to delve into the void. I mean void power is still just aether, but it's seems to be highly corruptive and slowly turns a person into a monster, depending on how much a person draws on it. Last boss from haukke Manor appears to be a voidsent, but she is that psychopath bathing in the blood of virgins or something. Basically I think a person could use void like powers, it's just eventually you will become some form of voidsent through continued use.

It actually sort of seems like a binary on/off.

The last boss of haukke manor is a woman who's ritual killed her, and then a voidsent took over the body.

The jury is out on whether or not any such cases retain any memories or personalities of their host. I think the eventual conclusion of the Palace of the Dead and Edda will explain some of it.

Gegenji · **07-28-2016, 04:49 PM**

I thought the thing about the Void was that it was mostly bereft of aether, though. That's why the voidsent want into Hydaelyn in the first place. To get some of that delicious, delicious aether. So void power wouldn't be aetheric at all... would it? Or is it a voidsent spending what few resources it has (or has gained from stealing it from its victims) to manifest their "void powers"?

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