Help with an idea. Voidhunter?

[Kima wolf]

So i have this idea of a voidhunter, who spends his/her time hunting down voidsent and voidtouched. So I have a few questions as the information is scant; first off can it be purged without actually killing someone who was voidtouched for instance.

 

Secondly, is that a feasible "occupation" lorewise? I am still working on the backstory, but if the very base idea is not workable, then it isn't worth it.

 

Basic backstory I am working on goes something along the lines of a wife/husband became voidtouched, and my character slowly watched this person disintegrate until they were completely lost and had to be killed. This grief and sadness fuels my character to find and "help" these tainted souls or end the existence of these dark creatures.

 

for a bare bones, does that work lorewise?

 

any help would be appreciated.

[Branson Thorne]

The last I've heard, the only way to banish a voidsent was to kill the host. But their are Voidhunters ingame and I'm currently researching all about it as well as it would suit a character I have.

[Musemi]

My Keeper is a bit of a voidsent expert, has done several voidsent related investigations, and continues to find plenty of work in the field despite her efforts to get away from it.

 

There's certainly plenty there to work with as far as your characters main line of work

[Gegenji]

The last I've heard, the only way to banish a voidsent was to kill the host. But their are Voidhunters ingame and I'm currently researching all about it as well as it would suit a character I have.

 

You say that, but doesn't Cocobusi survive being a void-host in the THM questline? It's been ages since I've done it, but some quick research shows that the demon "Momo" gets tricked into leaving his body and is subsequently defeated. So, it seems like you could be able to save the host if one acts quickly enough.

 

However, after some length of time, I would assume then it becomes the case that the only way to deal with a voidtouched being is just to put them out of their misery. Though how long that takes I don't think is explicitly stated anywhere.

 

Plus, the method used was tricking the voidsent itself out of the body from what I've read. There isn't really a method to forcefully expel them, or at least one mentioned in lore. That doesn't mean that characters couldn't either be researching a way to do it (perhaps with white auracite or something, like an Ascian?) or for some method to be discovered and utilized.

 

Plenty there to work with, I think.

[Virella]

I sort of do it with my elezen lady, but moreso that she's Sharlayan and feels that people shouldn't have accesses to these tomes, and rather takes care of them herself then seeing random adventurers do it. Knowledge in the wrong hands is her motivation, not so much killing voidsent ultimately. Anyhow, those books might be something to work with for your character as well, even if their motivation is different?

 

There's a heap of them to be found in game and on Gamerscape (although it's super wonky) and XIVDB regarding them.

 

https://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/Necrologos

 

http://xivdb.com/?search=necrologos&filters=cGFnZT0xJmxpbWl0PTYwJnN0cmljdD1vZmY=

[Kilieit]

The Coco brothers and, yeah, the MSQ example at the end of 2.0 are the only ones I can think of where a character is possessed and then subsequently freed from that possession.

 

The MSQ example features an Ascian (not a Voidsent) and involves using an obscene amount of aether - like, an amount available only to the WoL - to damage the possessing being, separating him from his host. But Ascians don't work the same as [classic] Voidsent do. They're a distinct type of being.

 

The Cocos' example also involves using a large amount of aether, but in this example, it wasn't used against the possessing being (an actual Voidsent this time) - it was used to tempt her. She, a succubus, was occupying the host body (a male lalafell) as an interim, while she gathered the aether necessary to manifest her true form. The trap was thusly: a powerful mage offered himself as tribute. She consumed his aether, consumed the nearby bodies of some women she had already killed, then willingly abandoned the host body to assume her true (more powerful) form. Finally, the Warrior of Light and the other Coco brothers banished the voidsent by defeating her in combat.

 

The powerful mage in question almost died as a result of her consumption:

 

 

His life was only saved by the effects of an experimental mana-amplifying potion, which was originally developed to try and aid those of low aetheric potential in becoming mages (yet fell short of achieving such).

 

Essentially, the technique allows things to get worse (the voidsent fully manifests, a large quantity of aether is consumed) before it gets better. Unless you can be certain of your capability to defeat the voidsent in question - this one was faced by the Warrior of Light and some of the most highly qualified thaumaturges in Eorzea - it's possible that you might be freeing the person in exchange for unleashing a powerful monster. It's a payoff that's... well, I guess it makes for an interesting question: would you save your friend if it meant endangering other people?

 

But for a professional voidhunter, as harsh as it sounds, maybe not the favoured technique for dealing with possession. It involves too much risk to the lives of many, simply for the life of one. It involves offering up an amount of aether relative to the power of the voidsent - collecting this is risky in itself. And I can only imagine there's no guarantee that the voidsent will leave the host body unharmed, either - if it's already sustained injuries not compatible with life, or if the Voidsent takes too much aether with it when it goes, then I think the host would perish anyway.

[Sounsyy]

So i have this idea of a voidhunter, who spends his/her time hunting down voidsent and voidtouched. So I have a few questions as the information is scant; first off can it be purged without actually killing someone who was voidtouched for instance.

 

If you are a voidhunter in Eorzea, in all likelihood, you're going to be killing the host no questions asked. (The obvious, and most likely, exception to this is when dealing with "void-touched," "void-possessed," "voidsent" player characters.) Kilieit already did a good job of explaining how many ways the THM storyline exception-to-the-rule could've gone sideways. Across Eorzea, consorting with the void, void summoning, and void possession is illegal under pain of death. Similar to Tempering, there is no known cure for voidsent possession, so there is only one solution: death. There are a couple vague references to exorcisms in the lore, but even most of these mentions of a "good ol' fashioned exorcism" are just a euphemism for killing the host.

 

“With genius born of desperation' date=' the mages of the now-fallen city fashioned an urn that would drain and imprison the aetheric vitality of any creature that laid a hand─or claw─upon it. Mormo, believing she was receiving a gift of appeasement from the beleaguered citizens, found her very essence drawn forth and trapped within the ensorcelled pot. Over the course of several centuries, the captive aetheric energy was intended to weaken and dissipate, allowing any surviving descendants to safely shatter the urn and thus destroy Mormo's enervated spirit. The pot's lid was never to be opened again─to do so would release the ravenous voidsent, freeing her soul to enslave the nearest mortal vessel. As possession of this nature is irreversible, the only mercy afforded such a host should be a swift and decisive demise.”[/quote']

This is a work devoted to studying that nasty voidsent? I should hope it provides some hint of salvation... Uhhh' date=' Cocobuki... These passages hold naught but misery and despair. It seems we have little choice but to employ our...traditional approach.[/quote']

Sounsyy. Long have I agonized over Cocobusi's plight...and the measures I might take to extricate him from it. It would not do to call upon my thaumaturge colleagues. No' date=' they would simply seek to obliterate my brother outright. Our teachings from the Yawning Abyss allow for no other alternative. Though fraught with danger, there is one solution that promises an alternative to killing Cocobusi. If we fail, however, it will likely mean death for us all.[/quote']

The serial fire-starter Margry Flintheart has been revealed as a devotee of the primal Ifrit. She has also been seen wielding dark tomes to summon voidsent. Repentance is neither likely nor particularly welcome at this juncture. Beware weakening the ward on the forbidden book' date=' whilst you extinguish Margry's fire for good.[/quote']

One of countless clockwork servitors discovered in the home of a Gridanian goldsmith recently hanged for the crime of ritual summoning. It is believed while crafting the automatons' date=' he became increasingly obsessed with the void, until the darkness bid him do the unthinkable.[/quote']

A lowborn woman approached our ministry and confessed a serious crime committed by her father. Labor had taken the man on a long expedition "north of the western highlands' date='" and on the eve of his return, the woman could hear her father repeating mysterious dark words from his bed chambers. Upon inspection of his room, she was horrified to find a torn excerpt of the Necrologos hidden beneath his pillow. We raided his home and confronted him on his heresy, but he ingested the pages before we could seize him, claiming that he had long waited for this moment to allow the great powers of the void to overtake him and inflict hell on earth. The fool did not realize a mortal man does not transform into an unnatural being of the void through devouring its evil words, and his "grand transformation" reduced his cursed body to ash before our eyes. As naught but a ripped excerpt did he obtain, the rest of the tome must be out yonder, and we seek an adventurer to investigate the original location of his place of "labor," most likely in the Dravanian hinterlands, to see if the tome can be found. Should anything suspicious appear in the vicinity, it must be extinguished forthwith.[/quote']

I had a criminal executed for his public display of heresy' date=' but I fear he may have sown seeds of discipleship. When I granted reprieve for a moment of quiet repentance ere the cold steel's cut, the miscreant drew a copy of the sacrilegious tome, the Necrologos, concealed within the folds of his robes. His obsession led him to rip out the pages, scattering them to reach of strong winds and cackling about his "followers" until I ordered his lunacy be brought to an end. Retrieve the torn pages and exhaust the monstrosities within so no others might succumb to the void's taint.[/quote']

 

One thing I do want to quickly bring up is that the Necrologos is a Sharlayan tome, and the Sharlayans have utilized weaker voidsent in the (recent) past to learn from, guard their knowledge, etc. But there's also no indication that they are more lax on those scholars who become tainted by the void during their research and trials - such as the bibliomancers who ran off with several copies of the Necrologos in the first place...

 

Hope this helps!

[Kima wolf]

Thanks for all this information. I am getting a sense of just how I need to approach this situation.  Especially all the lore excerpts, its helping me form the background and reasoning of this character.