General Lore Questions

[V'aleera]

What makes the dragoons jump? The armour, or the thing in their blood? Or something else?

 

The few times it is mentioned (by both Estinien and Heustienne), they just vaguely refer to "training".

[Misteyes]

 

So, a little more on Ceruleum. It is made from refined aether. While the specific process is unknown, what we do know is that refineries artificially deaspect aether crystals and use the liquid residual as fuel. This process off-gasses a blue fog-like vapor, hence the Bluefog area surrounding the refinery.

 

 

 

This is the second time I've heard this, but I haven't seen its actual source. The bit about deaspecting crystals as part of the refining process doesn't appear to be in your quotes. The closest being the comment from a Conjurer about it being from "long dead life."

 

Do you (or anyone, really) have the original source for that laying around?

[Valence]

I have come across a lot of 'void touched' characters and... basically, what does that imply in the lore? I know about possessed by a voidsent, but what is being void touched exactly?

[Unnamed Mercenary]

I have come across a lot of 'void touched' characters and... basically, what does that imply in the lore? I know about possessed by a voidsent, but what is being void touched exactly?

 

In a couple words, "usually headcanon."

 

There have been areas on the map that have been void-tainted, but that usually involved an aetherial hole to the void being opened. We also have groups of people like the Lambs of Dalamud and plenty of other "bad people/beastmen" that end up summoning voidsent when fighting them or during their "kill this person" levequests. But at the same time, anything beyond belief is also immediately said to be the work of the Void. So there is likely a lot being blamed there due to unknown causes.

[111]

I have come across a lot of 'void touched' characters and... basically, what does that imply in the lore? I know about possessed by a voidsent, but what is being void touched exactly?

 

In a couple words, "usually headcanon."

 

There have been areas on the map that have been void-tainted, but that usually involved an aetherial hole to the void being opened. We also have groups of people like the Lambs of Dalamud and plenty of other "bad people/beastmen" that end up summoning voidsent when fighting them or during their "kill this person" levequests. But at the same time, anything beyond belief is also immediately said to be the work of the Void. So there is likely a lot being blamed there due to unknown causes.

 

 

http://xivdb.com/lore-finder?loresearch=void+touched

 

Unless I'm typing it wrong, I don't think it exists in the game at all.

[Virella]

Void taint

 

 

is a word what does come up though. I legit have no idea if void touched is a thing, but I will looking after it once I wake up more.

[Valence]

Void taint if I remember correctly my White Mage lore and classquests, happens when voidsent corrupt aether around them and then that shit start spreading and threatens everything. Turning sprites into corrupted horrors and stuff like that.

 

Does it work on humans and beast tribes too? Like, sentient creatures?

 

Simply put, the taint is aether that has been befouled. If we are to be rid of it, we must find the source of the corruption and cleanse it.

 

My suspicions were correct─the taint has driven the fiends into a frenzy! Let us aid the knights' date=' then see to the cleansing![/quote']

[Unnamed Mercenary]

Void taint if I remember correctly my White Mage lore and classquests, happens when voidsent corrupt aether around them and then that shit start spreading and threatens everything. Turning sprites into corrupted horrors and stuff like that.

 

Does it work on humans and beast tribes too? Like, sentient creatures?

 

Simply put, the taint is aether that has been befouled. If we are to be rid of it, we must find the source of the corruption and cleanse it.

 

My suspicions were correct─the taint has driven the fiends into a frenzy! Let us aid the knights, then see to the cleansing!

 

 

I have not seen it affect living people/beast tribes in-game. I'd imagine it probably causes aethersickness though, but that's not really the "tainted" aether that "void touched," "void infected," or other "void tainted" players seem to refer to. (It's not the power of darkness or suffering or angst or whatever.)

[S'imba]

Closest thing I know of is what happened with Nero...though I don't think much detail went into that.

[Caspar]

The closest thing to that I can think of is probably the possession by voidsent implied in Haukke and seen in the Thaumaturge storyline. As for like, just being part voidsent or having their powers, it seems like fanon.

[Unnamed Mercenary]

Closest thing I know of is what happened with Nero...though I don't think much detail went into that.

 

He was definitely void-corrupted to some extent. Although the magic of Garlean bromance friendship(?) or sheer will seemed to fix him up.

 

The closest thing to that I can think of is probably the possession by voidsent implied in Haukke and seen in the Thaumaturge storyline. As for like, just being part voidsent or having their powers, it seems like fanon.

 

We see this in Haukke Manor [hard] though, don't we? The succubi turn those poor Wailers into voidsent. ...or more likely, summon a voidsent by sacrificing their flesh and blood.

[Kilieit]

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's all I got, though. The quest doesn't really go into detail, it's just like "yeah these people are sick, help them," and that happens.

 

Actually Nym might hold the closest example for what you're looking at - I guess tonberries could loosely be described as "void-touched"...

 

IDK though, I'm just taking stabs in the dark. I don't really know what "void-touched" in the context of RP is supposed to mean either.

[Caspar]

Closest thing I know of is what happened with Nero...though I don't think much detail went into that.

 

He was definitely void-corrupted to some extent. Although the magic of Garlean bromance friendship(?) or sheer will seemed to fix him up.

 

The closest thing to that I can think of is probably the possession by voidsent implied in Haukke and seen in the Thaumaturge storyline. As for like, just being part voidsent or having their powers, it seems like fanon.

 

We see this in Haukke Manor [hard] though, don't we? The succubi turn those poor Wailers into voidsent. ...or more likely, summon a voidsent by sacrificing their flesh and blood.

Voidsent seem to definitely have the ability to "ride" into our dimension through the flesh pf sacrifices, but it doesn't seem to be much of a mutualistic or symbiotic existence that would leave a person behind. But thematically I suppose a player could come up with the explanation that an attempted summoning on them made their aether imbalanced, or more attractive to voidsent, or sth. I am just too fuzzy on how it's carried out to do much more than guess about the process.

[Unnamed Mercenary]

Closest thing I know of is what happened with Nero...though I don't think much detail went into that.

 

He was definitely void-corrupted to some extent. Although the magic of Garlean bromance friendship(?) or sheer will seemed to fix him up.

 

The closest thing to that I can think of is probably the possession by voidsent implied in Haukke and seen in the Thaumaturge storyline. As for like, just being part voidsent or having their powers, it seems like fanon.

 

We see this in Haukke Manor [hard] though, don't we? The succubi turn those poor Wailers into voidsent. ...or more likely, summon a voidsent by sacrificing their flesh and blood.

Voidsent seem to definitely have the ability to "ride" into our dimension through the flesh pf sacrifices, but it doesn't seem to be much of a mutualistic or symbiotic existence that would leave a person behind. But thematically I suppose a player could come up with the explanation that an attempted summoning on them made their aether imbalanced, or more attractive to voidsent, or sth. I am just too fuzzy on how it's carried out to do much more than guess about the process.

 

That's exactly what I'm getting at. ...such a form of void-tainted-ness would likely kill its host and just summon a voidsent. Not provide a person with imbued darkness and powers beyond the mortal mind.

[111]

Closest thing I know of is what happened with Nero...though I don't think much detail went into that.

 

He was definitely void-corrupted to some extent. Although the magic of Garlean bromance friendship(?) or sheer will seemed to fix him up.

 

The closest thing to that I can think of is probably the possession by voidsent implied in Haukke and seen in the Thaumaturge storyline. As for like, just being part voidsent or having their powers, it seems like fanon.

 

We see this in Haukke Manor [hard] though, don't we? The succubi turn those poor Wailers into voidsent. ...or more likely, summon a voidsent by sacrificing their flesh and blood.

Voidsent seem to definitely have the ability to "ride" into our dimension through the flesh pf sacrifices, but it doesn't seem to be much of a mutualistic or symbiotic existence that would leave a person behind. But thematically I suppose a player could come up with the explanation that an attempted summoning on them made their aether imbalanced, or more attractive to voidsent, or sth. I am just too fuzzy on how it's carried out to do much more than guess about the process.

 

That's exactly what I'm getting at. ...such a form of void-tainted-ness would likely kill its host and just summon a voidsent. Not provide a person with imbued darkness and powers beyond the mortal mind.

Yeah yeah but lores smores. I wanna be a demon lady.

[Gegenji]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.

 

By the blood of voidsent have I ascended to the sublime... - Calofisteri

 

Head 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

[Unnamed Mercenary]

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.

 

By the blood of voidsent have I ascended to the sublime... - Calofisteri

 

 

Head 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]

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.

 

By the blood of voidsent have I ascended to the sublime... - Calofisteri

 

 

Head 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: 

 

Lalai: 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: 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]

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

 

Lalai: 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: 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]

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

[Melkire]

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.