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sasslett · 7 months

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FFXIV Swap 2: Enchanted Balls and Haunted Halls!

The time has come - FFXIV Swap #2 is upon us! There are some key differences from #1, for the sake of making a better (and more organized) event!

This time (and for all future swaps, most likely), there's a host of themes for you to choose from! Our second swap's themes are: Masquerade, All Saint's Wake or Autumn! Who doesn't love a midnight, mysterious masked ball? Or perhaps some harrowing haunts in the spirit of the spooky season? Or mayhap you just love the colors and aesthetics of fall?

Signups are on our Discord server exclusively! To sign up, you must join the Discord server and react beneath the announcement post to have your name added to the list! Link here: https://discord.gg/KskCdHT5

What is this, anyway? FFXIV Swap is an event in which you will be assigned a partner (at random) and will make some manner of gift featuring their FFXIV WoL/OC! Gifts in swap #1 ranged from gpose and writing and art all the way to decks of cards, drink recipes and custom weapons. The creativity of our community knows no bounds!

Changes from Swap #1: We will now have a deadline. This was a hard decision to make, but it's just too hard to have people waiting months on end for a gift when they finish in the first few weeks. The deadline is still plenty generous, giving two months to complete your gift, making the deadline for this swap December 3rd!

Rules!

FFXIV Only! I'm sure your OCs for other media are awesome but this is a XIV specific event (and our server is likewise XIV specific)

Any type of gift is allowed, so long as it features your partner's OC in some manner! No, you can't choose what kind of gift you're getting and no we will not be pairing people based on what kind of gifts they want (this isn't a free art trade).

Any skill level allowed! So long as your gift comes from the heart and you put your effort into it.

Gifter/creator chooses the theme they'd like to use - no, you can't request which theme your gift will be.

Likewise, all gifts must in some way associate with one of the chosen themes! You can do more than one theme if you'd like but only one is required.

Only one OC unless your gifter says otherwise!

No discriminating for/against mods. If you use them, keep in mind your gifter may not, and you cannot require them to download anything they don't want to create your gift.

If you participated in swap #1 and have not finished your gift by the start of swap #2 (Oct 1), you will not be able to participate in swap #2 (exceptions to this rule apply! I know many of you had temporary setbacks or weren't able to finish yet due to issues with your partners. If you want to participate but have not finished yet, please contact me and we'll look into it!)

Discord only! Tumblr is too difficult to organize on, so to participate, you MUST be a member and sign up on the FFXIV Swap discord linked above. You do NOT have to be social but you do have to be able to be contacted on discord!! This also means having a Tumblr blog is NOT required this time!

Have fun! Further, less important rules are on discord.

Sign ups close on Sept 30, and pairings will be randomly generated and posted on Oct 1! We hope to see you there!

#FFXIVSwap #FFXIV swap

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altosk · 3 months

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GETTING TO KNOW YOU.

respond to the following prompts out of character. then, tag others that you'd like to get to know a little bit better!

ROLEPLAYER NAME: gloomy

ROLEPLAYER PRONOUNS: she/they

MUSE NAME: Raven w/ sideblogs for Karol, Vicious and my oc Kai

PREFERRED COMMUNICATION: tumblr dm's is fine but i don't mind giving out my discord if asked.

EXPERIENCE: ahhh i've been rping since early teen years. raven's being one of my oldest muses.

PREFERRED ROLEPLAY TYPE: i like a little bit of everything. drama and angst are always a treat with some fluff to bandaid it. i love writing fast paced scenes even if i may not be the best at writing them. the flow of learning how to write fighting and combat is suuuper fun. getting more into the steamy stuff... i don't mind writing some but i get shy when it gets a little too xxx. especially on public tumblr blogs haha.

PET PEEVES & DEALBREAKERS: i've always been the worst at this as i don't feel like i've been too picky with things.

Don't judge my ships. Unfortunately, I had someone talking shit behind my back once but a friend had told me about it. Ever since then I kind of don't do ship content on Tumblr unless we talk it out in private and plan it out but if my ship is a notp to you, that's fine. You will be blocked without question if I find out that you weren't honest to my face. xoxo.

Pls don't become upset with me because of my pace of rp I'm saaaaur slow. While most of my beautiful friends and followers are understanding with this, it is just a thing that's always worried me. Hah. Raven is also definitely priority over my other side blogs, his muse is the strongest.

PLOTS OR MEMES: both are fun. i need to post more meme prompts honestly but I looove sending them to people if one resonates with me. I generally avoid the NSFW ones ha ha. I love plotting with people, too, so never be afraid to pop into my dms.

LONG REPLIES OR SHORT REPLIES: I feel like I always do like.. medium sized replies LOL! But I am fine with all sizes !! I definitely take shorter replies/threads to be more goofy threads for joking around, being a lil silly. We do a lil trollin.

BEST TIME TO WRITE: I always get the most creative juices at night. I've never been much of a morning person and then my job takes a good chunk of my afternoon. Sometimes I try to squeeze in a bit of writing whenever my brain has got the tippy tappies. I also spend a lot of my mornings before work playing Frontlines PvP on FFXIV.. so.. yeah.

ARE YOU LIKE YOUR MUSES: I sure hope not !! The only character I've really ever resonated with was Bennett who I use as my OOC Icon. For a short time in my life I did heavily project on my OC but since then he's gotten much better characterization and I've definitely taken a step away from leaning on him mentally.

tagged by: @serabellyms (thanks for tagging blows keesses) tagging: my usual victims @bravewolfvesperia, @voidtouched-blue, @musesofawolf, @the-leyline-directory, if you guys want and anyone else who wishes to fill this out.

#{ aaaaaaah }#{ ooc }#{ about me }

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penthepoet · 10 months

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ooh tell us about lis and arabash!!! :o what are your favorite things about them? what are they like??? also what are your favorite things about crow?? and do you have any other ocs?? 🖤🖤💙💙

I need whoever sent this ask in to know you are a godsdamn legend and I genuinely hope you find 50 dollars or your country's equivalent on the street tomorrow.

SO SPEAKING ABOUT MY GIRLIES

Qlisaiah 'Lis' Diablis Amaranth

She's my FFXIV OC/Warrior of Light!! I have a literal 20+ page lore document about her and I am highly, highly passionate about her. She's basically the deranged zealot priestess of a scary dragon goddess (Angelus from Drakengard 1) and gets sent on a journey to record the stories of others. Along the way, she takes a major step up in self-love, gains a polycule, founds a kingdom, topples tyrants and more. She deserves the world and I will give it to her. She's inspired appearance-wise by the Female MC from Persona 3 Portable, and inspired personality-wise by various Drakengard characters + Lunafreya Nox Fleuret from FFXV. I gotta post more about her on here now that Twitter is a sinking ship, her story is a ride.

Arabash Lavellan

Arabash is a similar character - they're in different fonts. Arabash is my Dragon Age OC for Inquisition - a blood mage and Dalish elf who basically gets elected the leader of a huge group of mercenaries, to the displeasure and horror of many. She basically goes on to make a lot more enemies and singlehandedly try to dismantle a lot of the systems that kept her held down in place for years and years. She is an absolute menace (affectionate) who takes a lot more work to become a kinder person than Lis and Crow Locke did.

SPEAKING OF CROW LOCKE

What I Love About Crow Locke, the Crow of Memory

They are such an insanely good character it isn't even fucking funny. The way that Crow Locke struggles with atonement - she's hurt a LOT of people back when she was traumatized and working out what that meant for her. A huge chunk of her story revolves around accepting that she fucked up, that not everybody's going to forgive her, but that she can choose to be a better person than she was last. She can change from "a creature that lives for cruelty" into somebody that can bring shelter to the outcasted, justice for the abused, power to those without. I love the deep determination she has to keep going, how even at her lowest and most grieving, she refuses to give up.

She's going to deal with a lot of hardship, and she will cry, and it will hurt her so badly she can barely bare it... but she will make it through, and she will live. She'll live for the people she loved that may not be able to live anymore, and for the human life she lived that wanted to see the world, and for herself first and foremost.

There's a lot I COULD say and want to say, even, but just know they mean a shit-ton to me and there is a huge list of things I love about them.

What Other OCs do you have?

A bunch!

I have a lot of OCs for unfiction/ARG projects, for instance, like Tiernan Poet McCready, who is a silly little autistic knight determined to save others, and The Dreamer, a mysterious figure who has lived multiple lives upon lives.

I have QUITE a lot of OCs for my original works (don't even get me started on the Penverse/Mindscape, that's a WHOLE post all on its own). Conway Riley from Hotel For The Spirits, for instance, is one of the first ones to come to mind.

and for related content too! like my two tabletop campaigns, Persona: The Occult and the upcoming standalone sequel campaign, Shin Megami Tensei: The Goetic.

I've been thinking a LOT about Occult and Goetic lately. Especially, ESPECIALLY the latter as I've been plotting it out for over a year now and it haunts my every thought.

Take, for instance, my pal P.W. Pierrot-Welker from Persona: The Occult. He is a strange little pierrot who lives in an abandoned mall and speaks in an odd lingo. He loves eating moldy oranges and listening to Moog synths, and he was one of the major NPCs of the campaign. The players adored him and so do I.

One of my favorite NPCs in Goetic so far is this girl, Azalea Winthrope. Her death kicks off the story and she is just... an absolute barrel of fun. :')

My main inspirations for her, to get a sense of just how fucking wild this girl is, are Rin Tohsaka from Fate/Stay Night, Laura Palmer from Twin Peaks, Ianthe from The Locked Tomb, and Carmen from Lobotomy Corporation.

Yeah. This Girl Can Store So Much Madness Inside Her.

ANYWAY I LOVE MY MANY, MANY OCS AND YOU HARM NOBODY BY ASKING MORE QUESTIONS AND I WILL BE ALL TOO GLAD TO ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS ANYBODY MAY HAVE ABOUT MY WONDERFUL LITTLE ORIGINAL CHARACTERS.

#Crow Locke #lis amaranth #arabash lavellan #persona the occult #smt: the goetic

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mirukimary · 1 year

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My Art Summary for 2022!

(Under the cut I'll go into more details for each month, for memory's sake. Warning: It's LONG.)

Come one, come all for your opportunity to see all of the drawings I should have posted but never did! The ones that make me work harder every december to remember when tf i drew what! The ones that, in missing, make it seem like i only draw once a year--! (going through my twitter media tab is depressing LMAO)

JANUARY

[Pictured: Iola in Prenda clothing. There was a Twitter Post going around asking you to draw your WoL in your country's traditional clothes. Ofc I didn't skip the opportunity to do it! And drew my BF's WoL too for good measure. Still my fav drawing of the year!]

Also worked on a VTuber model for a friend (i drew it as a bust january last year; then this year was asked to expand it to full body). It was very challenging, but also fun!

For the rest, I designed some backstory NPCs for Asera (Daimyorus childhood friend, his goddess and a mage that helped us multiple times); and drew some twitch emotes for a client. Was a fresh, fun start. I remember having a lot of fun and finding that month quite relaxing.

(Goddess Rondra, Mage Rupin & elf-friend Pedro (RIP))

FEBRUARY

[Pictured: My friend's bunny boi~]

Further work was done on the VTuber model, a lot of parts that weren't quite working before were redrawn. He was taking form!! Now that most of the work was done, also did a ref sheet to go with it. I couldn't wait to see him moving!

That's when I started preparing to open commissions for realz, trying to think of prices and set up examples. I drew some BGs and the Complexity Guide, and set most of the boring things up. I plan to open comms either Jan 2023 or February 2023, so let's hope all the work paid off~

MARCH

[Pictured: 'Smile at the Blue Skies', or "Fuq i need a bust sketch ref for my commission examples page". Sounds a bit less dreamy now, huh? LMAO]

But yeah, most of the month was dedicated to the VTuber model, working to fix it as the rigger found issues. Ref Sheet was finished this month. I'll stop mentioning the model, but the back and forth lasted till june or so?? Had to fix all of his toggles; and redraw his entire hair to allow for a better 3D effect when moving (it went from 3~6 layers to over 20). This was my first time working on vtuber models, so there was A LOT to learn. It surprising how many pitfalls there is in vtuber making. I'm very proud of how it turned out, and eternally grateful to the rigger (and to my friend) for being so patient with me. I was sent a small demo of what he looks like, and seeing your drawing move so beautifully like that feels magical!! There's still much to design and draw before he can debut, but hope you can support him then!

Oh yeah, there was this attempt too:

APRIL

[Pictured: 'With Friends' the commission I worked on through March and April. Extra special because that's my friend & his pets there!]

Also sketched some ideas for illustrations of our RP characters (hi Irene), but never really completed them:

It feels so long since I made these... Double checked like 3 times to make sure it wasn't April 2021 LMAO

I REALLY want to revisit some of these now.

MAY

[Pictured: #XIVARTBASH drawing, featuring Nero.]

Also drew the catgirl from Love2DrawManga. Didn't do much this month (...or did but forgot). I believe I worked on some BGs I can't show, but these are still very much stuck at WIP :(

JUNE

[Pictured: Nia's WoL, Mat. Just a smol gift for someone that brings a lot of joy to FFXIV Twitter.]

So... I completelly forgot I was drawing my OCs outfits [facepalm]:

(Don't mind the two in the corner, I don't want my essay to get hit with Tumblr hammer LMAO They're nowhere near done). But yeah, these are my OCs from 'Elder''. I've had them since childhood, and still love them, even if I gave up on the book idea. Will make an actual post once all is done and I can go back to their character illusts uwu

JULY

[Pictured: Cade from 'Still Shining'. Working on this was an amazing experience~ Won't go on detail bc I already did, but still glad for the experience!]

Instead I'll talk about... Art Fight month!!!

SO.MUCH.FUN

I'm 100% going back next year! This event just proved how much I love drawing people's OCs. I really want to be a commission artist so I can do that for a living. Sadly I didn't get to draw everyone I wanted, plus I wasted a lot of time trying to look through OCs while the website was dying LMAO Next year I'll come prepared!

Also I drew that Spring picture to use as a reference in her profile there. I missed drawing her!

AUGUST

[Pictured: Commission for 'Under Maintenance'.]

Mostly worked on commemorative stuff. Anniversary chibi for Brie; that Under Maintenance pic; Thank You for DL message for 'Loving You Fully' and 'Still Shining'. Also designed some outfits (and painted some sprites) for Mythic Meetup: Midnight Mystery (not released yet!).

Started a bday gift for my boyfriend, but something kept looking 'off' about it so I didn't finish in time. Turns out it was overblended... And will require a redraw. Sorry boyfriend TT But my wife (tm) needs to look perfect!!

Also made the design for our new RP characters:

(mine is the not-cat girl, obviously)

...And I belive this is when I made that cursed Yshtola feeding Zero picture? Yeah.

SEPTEMBER

[Pictured: Witch Torunn]

Made the YCH bases, as well as 3 examples. I have no memories of this month, but Windows says this sketch is from september:

OCTOBER

[Pictured: Old OC redraw, for my Commission Guide. Decided to do it after a client asked for clarification if an old drawing was halfbody or fullbody (august last year, Torunn sitting down).]

They're really old OCs of mine. Ever RP-ed in Deviantart groups? I did!!

Cecilia (<-) is pretty much a Iola prototype: salve maker and potion seller who lives with her dad (who taught her the craft). One day he collapses during work, and Cecilia ends up overworking herself to afford his medicine and other living expenses. In desperation, she joins The Guild as a novice magician for money, and gets herself involved on a war she never intended to join.

Celticca (->) is a archer and aspiring musician who wants to make the most beautiful song (tm) for her family. She's very sweet, but naïve and scatterbrained. I didn't have much planned for her, but had a lot of fun seeing her constantly get involved with Evil/Neutral alligned characters w/o noticing LOL

....Now that I think about it, she's literally a FFXIV bard, before I knew anything about XIV.

The rest of October was focused on Magni's Birthday Project and my YCH Halloween Commissions.

...And THIS:

Halloween pictures of our current RP characters \O/ To go with our halloween session~ Also drew these two for our halloween one-shot:

Ellie (<-) and Hadrianus (->). Ellie is a yandere witch I made as a joke and fell in love with. Hadrianus is my BF's wizard. Yes, he looks like Dr. Strange. Yes, that's the joke. The 3rd character was Rosemary, but I didn't ask to draw her so she's missing :( I do want to draw all of them at some point. We accidentally made "Spy x Family, but it's horror and Loid wants to run away" LOOOL I love this trio!!

Made 2 adoptables, but since they went unsold I decided to remove them and redraw for next year:

(The neutral pose doesn't help them stand out ^^;; Sorry bbys)

Also sketched Julio from Atelier Sophie~

(Hoping to finish it early next year. He's not the only idea I had while playing, but other stuff took priority"")

October was so much fun!! Sadly it let me completely drained by the end of it. I got hit with such a HUGE art block it was like my hands just... Forgot how to draw. Everything came out weird. Sadly, that resulted on me having to drop a drawing I was making for Brie :/ Hoping I can pick it back up soon... (better late than never right?)

It's around that time I decided to work on an AI redraw. Used Crayon (old Dall-e Mini) to create some monstrosity for me and tried to turn it into an actual drawing.

The monstrosity:

The Work In Porgress:

This drawing is a bit painful to look at, because of all the self doubt and bad feelings attached to it. But I want to finish it someday. My prompt was something stupid like 'cute anime girl having fun'. I want to remain true to the prompt and make her meeting with lil ladybug feel warm and fun!

...Like of the feelings I was missing back then, and am just now starting to get back.

TL;DR: Take breaks or you'll break.

NOVEMBER

[Pictured: Chibi Adra for Kyou.]

Managing burnout through most of it. Eventually just decided to stop fighting and played games instead. Even with the frame drops, Atelier Ryza is pretty fun~ Hoping to go bk to it soon.

At some point my boyfriend said I should just draw things to have fun for a bit. I followed his advice...

DECEMBER

[Pictured: Art Party (DracoLunari's WoL)]

...By drawing Iola as a sheep herder. It was much more fun than it sounds. I didn't care for polish at all, just seeing Iola in a cute outfit LMAO It's... A mess of a drawing. But it's MY mess of a drawing. I feel this thought calmed my mind a lot.

Also went for my first ever Art Party. It was fun, tho brain did get in the way after a bit, as expected ^^;;; Still want to go to these more often!! It's fun to draw & chat with others.

For random drawings, all I have is a(n embarrassing) fanart of Elf from Isekai Ojisan. I'll post eventually..... (that anime is hilarious)

For now I have a commission and a collab to take care of, and a certain Moon Goddess to draw as soon as possible~ Will be doing my best these next few days, and hope Iola can be my sheperd and guide me to the path of 'having lots of fun drawing again'.

ONWARDS TO 2023...

May my year be filled with bad drawings that I love;

And good drawings I'm proud of.

May your year give you the same

And everything else you wish for!

Thanks @/Taxkha on twitter for the Template!

#maryart #art summary 2022 #it's a wall of text #but i feel i'd regret it it any other way #happy holidays all

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autumnslance · 2 years

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So the more I've been fleshing out my OCs, the more similarities I notice between me and them. I find this really embarrassing so would you happen to have advice on either a. Reducing the amount of projection or b. How to get over this weird shame complex? Sorry for the weird ask, it's something I've seriously been struggling with for a while

Any character one makes will in some way be a reflection of part of yourself, even when not trying to create a self-insert. We write what we know, and what we know is how we see and experience the world. We naturally use ourselves as a starting point--even in characters meant to be drastically different from ourselves, creating mirror images. And self-inserts are perfectly acceptable, sometimes as a starting point, sometimes to figure out things about yourself.

A thing to ask yourself is how are you developing them? In notes and prompt list responses, bullet points in a document sheet or slideshow, in filling out a detailed profile page? Are you writing about them in scenes and stories, scenarios wholly created and controlled by you? Are you roleplaying them online or at a tabletop game? Are you trying to determine every detail right at the start, or discovering the character over time? There's different ways characters can grow in those circumstances, and some of them (like prompts, notes, drafts, and profiles) can overlap between them.

Let's delve into this a bit more below the cut, cuz y'all know Auntie Lyn gets wordy.

Sometimes creating superficial differences is a good start; C'oretta, for instance, can and will eat anything, and loves spices and heat. Me, a middle-aged white Yankee raised on the blandest of food traditions, can barely handle even the mildest heat. Things like that can help, even in small ways, to keep a character separate from oneself.

But superficial similarities are OK too! Many of my OCs, particularly favorites and "mains", tend to share my love of sweets to one degree or another. They also tend to be academically-minded, or at least love to read, write, and have an amateur fondness for music. Look at Aeryn, Dark and C'oretta again; academic and/or bardic inclinations in all three. Iyna's an outlier in some degree, but even she enjoys reading--she just tends to use technology for her reading and writing, over Eorzea's traditional methods.

Heck, Dark and I even have the same birthday, since she was my first FFXIV character. Likewise, my first WoW character was a shy, quiet bookish girl who liked her forested farm life home and had a September birthday, while I figured out the lore and setting and who she was beyond that--for both characters and their game worlds.

Even if a character's early life is relatively similar to my own childhood, at some point they're going to undergo some drastic changes and make different choices. Then it can become "How would living through something like this have changed me?" For better or worse--and while for real people we hope for the best, for characters, choosing the worse outcomes, or somewhere in the middle, is generally better for generating conflict and plot (unless they're a bit of wish fulfillment, like Dark Autumn is in some ways).

And even then, some deeper similarities are OK! Dark's also a homebody introverted loner compared to the others--but I also give her the focus and energy I don't have, to still get up and out and do things other than hide in her home and interact with the world through computer and phone as much as possible. That change shapes her story and interactions in different ways. Same with Aeryn, and how aspects of who she is were always meant to be ways for me to work out a few things about myself that I'm discovering and slowly accepting.

So using yourself as a starting point for your characters isn't a bad thing, and is a perfectly natural way to begin them as you try to figure things out. You can make small adjustments over time, and as their stories develop and diverge. Even a self-insert can and will oftentimes end up very different from the original, if one only keeps in mind reacting to story and character elements in character, as that person, not as oneself.

I mostly worry that in those early stages, where I'm trying to figure out characters and they tend to borrow more traits from me until I figure out/discover theirs, that they come across as flat and boring, but that's partly cuz I think I'm pretty boring. I've never felt ashamed of how my characters start close to myself until they branch out on their own. More concerned that they'll be too similar to one another as I fall back on some similar tropes, or that they'll never be very interesting, even to me as a writer!

As a note: No one else needs to know what traits your characters borrow from you and which they don't, not unless you decide to divulge that information. I freely admit a few things here (nothing I haven't divulged before to the general public somewhere), but there are other things I keep to myself. Folks will often make assumptions on one's real personality based on your characters anyway, especially depending on how much of a method actor one is, or how in character one speaks/behaves even in out of character spaces, which I don't recommend. So to heck with 'em.

But that's another thing to keep track of, a piece of hard advice I will give: never refer to characterization stuff as "I". Avoid referring to your characters and their decisions in the first person. The character is not you, even if it is a self-insert, even if using your own traits as a base, even if writing in the first person POV (where you're getting into that character's head but it's still their voice and story) or playing real time around a table/over voicechat with friends. Create that wall of separation, even if it is gauze-thin at the start, and I think it makes it much easier to see the ways the character is distinct from yourself and grows into their own person.

An example of this from the other day was this post by @dragons-bones where someone asked about "you and Aymeric" and DT was gently firm in the reminder that she, DT, is not dating Aymeric--her character Synnove is. And while Synnove has some traits of DT's (her tags for favorite treats come to mind), they are not the same person. I can say with some certainty that DT is not an Ala Mhigan refugee turned arcanima professor and Warrior of Light. Those traits define Synnove in ways that make her different from her player. But then again, I know DT has a job requiring intensive and specific higher education much like arcanima even if it's not academic. I don't know if she's refugee from somewhere, or has that in her recent family history to draw from; not likely, but unless she chooses to tell me, I wouldn't know. But even if that were the case--it wouldn't take away from the character's story and traits, but would perhaps add verisimilitude to the telling.

I do the same firm separation when I speak about Thancred and Aeryn. I'd certainly never pick that Damn Rogue as a partner; much as I like various tropes as a character he embodies, as a person he would drive me nuts, and I tend to think he's too conventionally anime attractive. No accounting for taste, though, and Aeryn's I've side-eyed for three or four years now.

But she's a fairly "successful" character for me, as she tends to surprise me in various ways--random bouts of inspired reactions leading to traits I hadn't considered, some of which diverge from my original intentions when I created her. Backstory and side stories and little adventures I hadn't initially considered, and how they impact her, how she handles them. How she reacts to the curveballs MSQ throws at us (and a reason I roll through first on Dark, giving me time to chew story over and get past my kneejerk reactions). I didn't determine every detail of Aeryn's personality and life before I started writing for her, or doing the occasional light RP with my guildmates. Some of it just evolved over time. She's not the first character, nor the last, I've sketched out in broad strokes and filled in details along the way as I learn more.

And that's pretty satisfying, in my opinion, once you learn to let go, not try to control every detail, and let the character and their story lead you to who they become.

Hope this helps a bit!

#Lyn Prompts #Writing #Characters #Character Development #Blogging #About Me #Lyn Meta

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sarenhale · 3 years

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Honestly, relating to your WoW/FFXIV post, I wonder if the 'great community, by the way' thing only has become what it has because the influx of WoW players? I hope it stops because acting like everyone in XIV is a perfect saint is only going to upset people even more if someone is even slightly less positive in game. I don't know I hope the whole WoW vs FFXIV stuff dies down, even Yoshi-P had to basically say 'shut up, WoW is what we want XIV to be, and we'll never even touch the heights WotLK had.' I just think if Blizzard hadn't been ousted as a bunch of sexual abusers it wouldn't be this extreme, like trashing WoW is kind of 'slacktivism' in a way. Sorry this is so long you're just the only person I've followed that did the WoW -> XIV jump and you haven't really done the extreme 180 everyone else has, and I think you have good opinions on things. Also I hope you have a good day :)

Thanks for the kind words! I'm flattered to hear that you like my opinions and attitude. I do try my best to not be grating over things like games.

I will put a 'read more' because I do get into a bit in detail for this ask.

I personally do get a bit tired of the costant ffxiv and wow comparison and debate too. That's why I sometimes make fun of it in a light way, and make jokes or memes about it, but also keep to myself when debates come out and people start complaining or piling up discourse over discourse. I'm just glad to enjoy my game and see people enjoying it too, that's enough for me. I honestly don't have the patience or age to withstand game discourse anymore lmao.

I completely understand why people would want to switch games because of the recent Blizz horrifying actions, the fact that the game apparently hasn't been fun or well curated in a long time, or just for funsies and switching things up. I'm absolutely not complaining about the switch in games, if anything, I'm glad people are giving other games a chance. But I am a bit tired about the costant comparison, discourse, and millions of videos essays where people try to defend wow (as if you needed to defend a game you like... you can enjoy that game, period, and not create wars over it), or people making huge ffxiv against wow essays. Like I said some months ago, I studied the whole 'wow effect' for my thesis years ago for my Uni degree and I don't plan to go back at studying the phenomenon cause I just don't care about it anymore, to be honest.

I think sometimes people are just way too over protective of things they care about, like games, and when change occurs they react with panic and overprotection over something they can't control - people migrating over games, new influx of players, etc - instead of seeing the whole thing as something of a natural process all games and popular media are subject to. Like, imagine how bad things would be for every game or media if stuff NEVER changed. Especially for MMOS, that's a death sentence. And you don't want that for your favourite game. Even WOW suffering player loss might be a good thing in the end, it might force the companies to rethink their approach to games and community, since a lot of problems laid in there.

I played my fair share of WOW during my Uni years. I played for around 3 years or something, on and off with friends irl and online, and enjoyed my experience. Overall, I still have very good memories of fun and friendship in WOW, and it's a game I still like aesthetically a lot, along with its story and fantasy races. Hell, sometimes I think about how much I miss my WOW ocs, and drawing WOW related stuff.

But I don't think my relationship to WOW was as intense as some people's - I did transition from WOW to FFXIV, but I spent something like 2 years when I stopped playing WOW (I started in mists of pandaria, stopped around the beginning of battle for azeroth times) playing almost no videogames. So it wasn't like I switched from a game to the other immediately, I think mine was more of a timed and organic switch, I didn't start playing FFXIV until quarantine hit and I had nothing to do (and was feeling really bad and needed a distraction from the imminent doom), and I also got my new desktop computer knowing I could start playing a new game comfortably, and not on a toaster-like computer like I was doing during the WOW days. (computer shutting down due to overheating mid-raid, it was fun)

So maybe the fact that I didn't do the 180 turnaround switch like some other WOW players is what makes the difference in attitude and thinking. When I started playing FFXIV, I didn't have WOW fresh in my mind so I could do costant comparisons between the two games, or my affection towards WOW kinda like... influencing my taste, or opinion of the new game in any way.

WOW was a good memory but nothing more. I never forged a huge relationship with the game anyway, so it's probably what's different between me and other players that maybe (understandably) have more history with it. I engaged with it, liked it for a game I could spend some free time on, and then moved on when I got bored with it. That's kinda it. I understand that some people who have been playing for way more years than me might have a more affectionate memory or relationship with WOW, and that might be something that influences their reasoning sometimes. But it's also a bit of a common thing withing some communities like WOW- something that people could definitely abandon and move on, change attitude. Time and game change. There's no point in getting stuck in the past with the old WOW glory days, and that kind of sentiment- we're not getting back in time, and change should always be something to be embraced, especially in games and MMOS. Changing views, games and opinions is the base of not getting stuck in the same state of mind and I highly encourage people to do it.

As for the ‘critiquing WOW has become super extreme and almost like it’s a rule’... I mean... yeah? That’s the effect that often times ‘problematic’ things have on large crowds of people online. It’s to be expected, but it doesn’t come from nothing- a lot of bad things piled up in the game, the company, the community and their attitude- and it just so happened some things tipped the waters over and everything came out in a costant flow during the past year or so. But it doesn’t come from nothing- it’s just a result of people being genuinely critic of the game they engaged with, which is something good to do.

So yeah, I appreciate the ask! I like hearing from people that follow other games too and may have experiences similar to mine, and I'm also grateful that you've been following me from so many years since I was playing WOW, to now.

That said... I would like to keep asks like these to a minimum. I enjoyed this ask because it gave me a point of inspiration to think about my journey from games, and the chance of talking about something I care about (and I would like to think I know something about too, degree and experience and all...), but I don't plan to respond to more comments or asks that might move towards a more 'discoursy' tone of this same "ffxiv and wow" topic. I do enjoy asks like these but you can't count on everyone making a good and civil argument when asking questions, so I do have to keep a firm hand on asks and topics sometimes, or people get rowdy and think my tumblr blog is the new reddit. It has already happened with some people coming to my askbox to complain about shit I genuinely couldn't care less about. That will just get your question deleted, go to reddit if you want to complain or fuel the flames. I'm just here to vibe.

#thanks for posing the question in a genuine and mature way- i enjoyed talking about this #answered

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