Archive of Our Own ^beta

The tale of a tiny, wayward echo in the world's broken soul, thrust against the overwhelming tides of a leftover war

Thought I'd try to explain the circumstances of this series. I've tried to keep it as spoiler-reduced as possible, referring only to names and such without giving details, but I think keeping it completely spoiler-free will be nearly impossible if I am to explain some critical parts. Read at your own risk, I guess

1) The events of FFXIV 1.0 do not occur. For all intents and purposes, this first story is 1.0, just told in a different way (which all of my stories will be).
2) The Scions and their precursors (the Circle of Knowing and the Path of the Twelve) do not exist...yet
3) The original Scions will be reduced to just the characters mentioned in the main and secondary character sections (i.e. Y'shtola, Lyse, Louisoix and Urianger + WoL and one OC)
4) Most character backstories, whether main or secondary, are somewhat altered. As is the history and lore of most locations
5) The Ascians are removed entirely from the story, with one exception, which will be revealed later
6) The events surrounding Hydaelyn and Zodiark and the distant past occur completely differently, and these two beings do not exist in "the present". The how will be explained much later
7) For the same reason, there is no "Warrior of Light" the way that it works in the game. I know Joltin is mentioned as the WoL, but that's simply due to that it's how we know this character role. She does not have the blessing of light, albeit she does possess the Echo
8) Primals and tempering do not exist (although the art of summoning does, but that differs from creating primals in the game anyway)
9) There are no "reflections" and therefore no Umbral Calamities. This will have altered parts of ancient civilizations and their history, of course, but the ancient past isn't that important to the majority of this plot (except the Allagans, which will be elaborated on when I get there)
10) Y'shtola's blindness will be an element I'm implementing from the very beginning, and is something she has had since childhood (or possibly birth). She still uses the spell to view aether, but she cannot see objects, only the outlines of them (hence she can't read traditional textbooks, for example), nor can she discern people's exact appearances. I view it similar to how I used to deal with miraluka blindness in SWTOR. Regarding "aether" i operate on the logic that aether is "life and magic", so inanimate objects or food etc don't contain aether
11) Lyse is dark-skinned in my fic (similar to her father) and she's a highlander, not midlander
12) "But Fordola's surname isn't Hext!" Oh, I know. But in this one, it is. You'll see :p

(added 25/10 2024) 13) I generally ignore the idea of linkpearls/linkshells. They can be an interesting element in certain cases, but I just find them a little too convenient sometimes (and other times they're ignored in the story when they definitely could've been of use, so why bother with them at all, basically)