For whom do you fight?

[Seriphyn]

Unnecessary artist plug

 

In the depths of the Praetorium, Gaius van Baelsar posed your Warrior of Light with a question...

 

"For whom do you fight?"

 

The same question is posed to you now, but with stipulations! By choosing one option, you are assumed to be forsaking all other options. This means that if you "fight for Eorzea", you will presumably sacrifice yourself and maybe your friends for the greater good. If you "fight for your friends" (for the sake of this, that includes family), you will presumably sacrifice yourself and maybe an aspect of the realm so your friends may be safe.

 

Since "For Eorzea" may be the most nebulous choice here, for the sake of this survey, let us automatically assume what this might imply. It may imply to a single city-state, not the entire realm. To greater society, to some greater organization (such as a Grand Company, but NOT a free company...those are your friends!), to the Sultana, to the Archbishop, and so on. It may indeed apply to the entire realm, or maybe the landscape without regard to the city-states! Something even magical? Basically, any greater yet impersonal concept pertaining to wider Eorzea that does involve a direct relationship with (an)other physical being(s).

 

Of course, it's a bit two-dimensional! The point of the survey is just a bit of fun, to see where everyone falls into within this strict framework. Do elaborate on your answers if you wish! I'll start...

 

To no one's surprise, Kale is a definite "For Eorzea!". Specifically, "For Ul'dah!". His relationships with his family and friends is of course very important to him as an extroverted type, but for those who know him, he does not flinch at putting society and the law above maintaining polite company with his friends. After all, if his friends don't agree with him about how society should be, he can just find new friends who do.

[Naunet]

Ah, good question!

 

Antimony is definitely a "for friends/family" kind of person. Hell, she's already very nearly died as a result of trying to bring her family back together and save her daughter from corruption. She would do anything for those she cares for - yes, even if it meant harming the planet or other people. Though I imagine that harm would be more a result of an omission of action, rather than any deliberate move on her part.

[Steel Wolf]

Steel fights for herself.

 

While her actions in the field do end up for the common good of Eorzea, her ultimate driving force is completely personal. She wants to tear Garleans in half with her axe and make them bleed for the things they've taken from her, and she'll use any means necessary to get it done.

 

Incidentally, she also takes on basic bodyguard work or meager side-jobs to fill her coinpurse and see through to the next day.

 

She's not a selfish sort outwardly...but her intent is purely for her own motivations and not for any grander ideal. She loves Eorzea and Limsa Lominsa, of course, and would be the first to step between a friend and a threat...but at the core she's all about her own life right now.

[ProvaDiServo]

[video=youtube]

[Erik Mynhier]

For the men and women of his unit. To a lesser extent for the people of Thanalan.

[Coatleque]

For Eorzea of course. For the rights of all freedom loving people to govern themselves as they see fit.

[Berrod Armstrong]

Berrod fights for Ala Mhigo. 

 

Not necessarily the actual city state itself, but its culture, pride and way of life. He wants to preserve that in its people, so even if they can't take BACK what's left of the city state someday, they can rebuild anew elsewhere.

[Nalin]

[video=youtube]

 

You beat me to it.

 

 

The video though pretty much sums up Nalin's answer. He fights for his friends/Freecompany; who have more or less become his family. He'll defend those who need it, but he will always rush to his friends side and do whatever it takes to save them. No matter the cost.

[Zyrusticae]

Oh hey, this one's really easy:

 

T'rahnu fights for herself. For survival, for self-advancement, for practice, for fun, for pretty much anything that will benefit her and her only. She loves to challenge worthy opponents purely for the experience of it and nothing more.

 

If she ever fights under someone else's orders it's because she's made a calculation that doing so will benefit her in some concrete fashion. She refuses to take tasks that she deems suicidal and WILL bug the hell out if a situation turns southward because she has no greater loyalty to anyone than herself.

 

This could change if she ever made close friends with somebody, but until then, she treats anyone on her 'side' as simply being another warm body she can use to draw attention away from herself.

[Unnamed Mercenary]

Hmm....

 

/imperialsalute

 

Franz will fight for those he's feels have earned his trust. That does not necessarily mean he will fight for his friends. Or his family. Trust is an interesting thing. Never know who exactly will get it.

[Val]

Val's entirely in it for Faye. Aside from that, he's in it for himself.

[C'kayah Polaali]

Dammit Val!

 

C fights for Kenthy Pennyfeather, himself, Tylwyth Narah, and his friends in that order. If asked, he will lie and say he only fights for himself.

[FreelanceWizard]

This is actually a little complicated for L'yhta, but ultimately, truly, it comes down to one thing: herself. She's sure she has some great destiny, that she can change the world and make it a better place, that she can help her friends...

 

...but in the end, these are all selfish motivations for her. Despite being a generally good person, much of what she does revolves doing what she feels is right because She Thinks It's Right (and partially because it'll get attention and adulation to help ameliorate her self-image issues). At times, she does do things selflessly, but even those actions are because she happens to like the person or principle in question and wants to support it.

 

All that said, she's not typically aware of her particularly screwed up point of view; she's no calculating manipulator. She believes she's doing the right thing and that she's fighting for Truth, Beauty, Freedom, and Love, even when she's largely just doing it because she happens to like those things, and that which she likes is good. :dodgy:

[Knight Kat]

Kiht fights for all three, but for the purposes of this scenario, she would choose to fight for her friends and family above all else.

 

Kiht lives by her code of honor and morality. Anyone who fits within her code is a friend. Anyone outside the code can only be an ally at best.

 

For example, if the Garleans come down on Eorzea full-force, Kiht would -not- be on the front lines ready to defend Eorzea to the bitter end. She would be gathering all her friends she could and trying to ensure their shelter and survival. It just so happens that many of Kiht's friends would want to fight the Garleans, so Kiht would likely be beside them to protect them, not Eorzea.

 

Even that example does not account for all factors she would consider to take action one way or another, but I think in most cases, she would act for friends and family as a primary consideration.

[Val]

Dammit Val!

 

C fights for Kenthy Pennyfeather, himself, Tylwyth Narah, and his friends in that order. If asked, he will lie and say he only fights for himself.

 

I'M SORRY BRO.

 

Val's a selfish bastard

[Aaron]

Aaron fights for himself. 

 

If he has to protect someone else then they probably deserve to die. He'll only serve under someone or similar to delegate the responsibility of protecting others to the leader.

[Savarah]

Sav absolutely fights for her friends. I mean, she'd definitely love to showcase her prowess in a fight for Eorzea, but she knows deep down that she's not a one man army.

 

Her sister actually posed the question a while back: if she could only save one, would it be her tribe, or Eorzea? Sav brushed off the question, saying it would never come down to that and she doesn't deal in hypotheticals, but it's something that's stayed with her.

 

So, ultimately, tribe wins. There's a lot of people looking out for Eorzea, but she feels obligated to protect her friends and family.

[Jana]

To some extent, Jana fights for all three. But her overall goal of revenge is very self-serving.

[Faye]

Faye fights for herself! Fortunately, herself also has an interest in helping both her friends and Eorzea, especially the former. (She'd totes screw over Eorzea for the right people.)

[DoomsdayClock]

I think realistically the only answer I can give for this question is for himself.

I think through a lot of story lines that have gone on, Iron has put on the hat with the big hero label on it, but he always insists he is not such, and at his core that's probably true.

Anyone who has sparred him or been in an actual betting match against him would know the reality of how and why Iron fights.

Iron fights because he LIKES to fight. He enjoys combat, and in the end he probably on some level gets a rush out of actually winning, even if he regrets the harm he inflicts.

Iron fights because he feels he has no place in the world. He throws himself into conflicts to gain validation, to keep his mind busy and get away from the reality that lingers.

So I suppose Iron may do good things, may throw his life on the line for the sake of friends, and "good", but in the end he truly fights because he enjoys it.

He fights because if he doesn't, he begins to feel more and more like he has no purpose, no place in the chain of events.

Not to say Iron is a bad person, far from it...but to glorify him with any other answer would be an injustice to the core of who and what he is.

[Dasair]

... This is super weird for Xavarian, especially right now.

 

His family would expect that it would be for them.  And it might end up being for them.  But it also might end up being for himself.  He's right on a teetering brink between the family loyalty that was hammered into him despite them keeping him in solitude, and his newfound freedom, and all he's finding that was potentially kept from him.  He doesn't actually find value much in his own person, but instead in what he's after.  Anything purposely standing in the way of what he's after is a problem, but if his family goes about achieving it better than he does, then they deserve to be around more than him.  In his mind, anyway.

 

Due to that, with actual people, it is honestly a tossup and can go either way.  Insofar as friends, though, he has no one that close to him yet, and certainly not close enough for him to sacrifice himself over.

 

All that said, Xavarian would sacrifice all of them and himself for Knowledge, hands down.  So that could end up any number of ways.  If he had some knowledge he felt needed preserving, or a strong will to gain a certain sort of knowledge, then he'd fight for himself.  If someone else had knowledge he felt needed preserving, he'd give himself up to keep it intact.  If there were some societal group that held untold amounts of knowledge he felt needed preserving, he'd fight for that.  If more than one of them had knowledge that needed keeping, he'd fight for whichever one logically could hold it best.  ... And this is one part of why he is such a morally skewed character, because what he perceives as relevant knowledge will shift, and likewise, who actually holds it may also shift.   ...He's.. had way too much time to himself to think abstractly.

 

TLDR: He'd lay it all down for a situational, fluid concept before any current loyalties.  But in terms of current loyalties, it's a toss up between himself and his family.  What would make the difference would literally be what the situation was in that moment.  ... If he thought he had friends, it might be for them, but he'd never fight for the faceless 'Eorzea'.

[Aris]

Once upon a time Aris would have been fighting for Eorzea, the Twelve, and for Ul'dah, but she's changed a fair bit over the recent years and has realised she's simply fighting for her life, and the life of whoever it is that is fighting beside her.

She is a fighter and solider, and quite often can be in a dangerous situation. When it comes down to those moments of putting your life at risk Aris feels that you share something with your team mates that no-one will quite understand until they've been there and done it. So she takes each day at a time, and fights for whoever is there beside her.

 

Nimimi on the other hand is simply trying to fight for the people. She's a kind little lalafell with a big heart.

[V'aleera]

V'aleera fights for Eorzea, the land exalted above all others by the blessing of the Twelve. She is more than willing to sacrifice herself in the name of defending it, and anyone who would not do the same is not someone she would consider friend or family. There is no price she would consider too high to defend the sacred from the corrupt. She would even fight a hopeless battle in the face of such things as Dalamud's Fall or Bahamut, entirely confident that those seemingly insurmountable challenges are simply tests of faith mandated by the gods.

[Selpharion]

To Regulus is difficult to know why to fight, for why is worth dying for someone. Eorzea seems an interesting place with quaint people, although she has not been born there, she has known persons of which has affection (Although she would not prove it as anyone would.) She fights for Eorzea... FIGHTS for those who are important to her.

[Gegenji]

Chachan, to his own knowledge, fights for Eorzea in general. He wants to be a Big Damn Hero, so that means helping everyone. That even includes his enemies to a point, though he'd be quite pouty about doing it. Despite his reluctance, though, he'd rather turn them towards the "light," as it were, than actually do them lasting harm.

 

That said, his reach is pretty short at the moment - though Aetheryte extends that a bit - nor does he have the skill sets needed to do what he truly wishes to do. At best, he can try to help those around him - those he does errands for and the many folks he considers his friends - and try to expand his influence from there.

 

So... I guess he tries to fight for Eorzea. He just... can't yet. Hm.