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Reposted by Liz Ard

🦇kasutera🎃 @kasutera.bsky.social · 1d

scions: hey exarch how's the soul vessel coming along
exarch: oh it's going great after i carved pieces off my flesh to put on them
scions:

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Reposted by Liz Ard

naut. 🖤 @papernautilus.bsky.social · 21h

a snippet written in reaction to the new exarch story. 💎🔨 #crystalexarch
#nautwrites

He could not bring himself to drive the hammer down.

His breath rattled in his ears, hissing wetly on the exhale. He tightened his grip on the hammer; it was his off-hand, but it would have to do.

He could not feel the stone floor beneath his palm, only the intolerable seam between crystal and flesh, jagged crystal rending through muscle and fascia with every wrong move. Raha chokes on a sob, sweaty red strands falling into his eyes; he shoves them out of the way irritably with the back of his hand.

He hefts the hammer, aiming above his target. Bends his elbow back as he tests the weight. Swinging once. Twice. Always coming just shy of the crystal, glimmering faintly in the hearthlight.

It's a sculpture. It's not you. You cannot even feel it. He tries again to bend his fingers, to crook his thumb. There are no tendons nor nerves to convey the action. It isn't his arm anymore, he knows that. It's the Tower's cost.

Raha shoves the belt between his teeth, incisors biting into the leather as he swings the hammer down.

It clinks harmlessly against the sapphire. False start. That's alright. He has nothing but time to get this right.

$Three bedridden weeks wasted. Four sin eaters attacks he could not save them from. Twenty or more deaths. They were still digging the graves in the lilac hills. Saliva pools down his chin. He takes a long, shuddering breath, and drives the hammer once more. The hammer glances off one fractaled edge before spinning out of his hand, knocking over a stool as it spirals beneath the bed. Raha swears inarticulately through the belt. "Come on," he grunts, dragging the dumb, useless weight of his arm as he struggles to wedge himself beneath the bed. Staring at the cobwebs and moldering dust, Raha reconsiders his course. There were doubtless volumes in the Crystal Tower's libraries he hadn't accessed. There was no logic behind this choice. There was always another way. Crystal shreds through his flesh as he reaches for the hammer. He scrabbles out of the bed, staggering for a moment before collapsing against the wall, clutching the hammer as if it were the only thing left to him. His back slides down the wall, and he grimly presses the crystal arm down onto the stone floors. He couldn't sleep another night with this weight attached to him. He shoves the belt between his teeth, grinding down on his molars as he readies his arm again. He doesn't look at the crystal when he swings— instead he casts his gaze a little further. Told himself he would only drive the hammer into the stone floor. Raha's arm shatters in a profusion of crystal shards and viscera.$

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Reposted by Liz Ard

cozy milly 🥀 @mischiefmilly.bsky.social · Jul 7

g'raha tia 🥰🥰 g'raha tia happy and sure of himself and his strength 🥰🥰 g'raha tia feeling accepted for all that he is and not disparaged for what he no longer is 🥰🥰 g'raha tia able to reflect on what exactly life means for him again 🥰🥰

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Reposted by Liz Ard

Opteekaal @opteekaal.bsky.social · 20h

"If they are of no value to you, give them to me. These shards of your will-of mankind's determination. They are beautiful beyond compare."

Exarch sitting bent over as his arm crumbles. Feo Ul has a shard of his arm in their hands as they hover over him.

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Reposted by Liz Ard

darmie ☀️ @swiftclaws.bsky.social · 23h

his promise, his purpose 💎

#swiftclawART #ffxiv

the exarch with his hands wrapped around his own throat. his crystal arm is crumbling.

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Liz Ard @lizardxiv.bsky.social · 21h

Encyclopedia Eorzea III!

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Liz Ard @lizardxiv.bsky.social · 1d

And the Crystal Exarch 🥺

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Liz Ard @lizardxiv.bsky.social · 1d

Kinda late since you found it on YT but I got you!!! I have this clip saved <3 I love Yuma's acting here. It's very intense...

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Liz Ard @lizardxiv.bsky.social · 1d

Yesss it was!! I found it
bsky.app/profile/liza...
at least the one phrase that confirms it!
It was directly confirmed in the JP version, while in the EN I think it was probably supposed to be implied but I completely missed it

Now I'm even more curious about the entire Exarch part in JP!

Liz Ard @lizardxiv.bsky.social · 1d

Not that it matters I guess but I think the "crystal parts had to be shattered" lore isn't new and it was not explicitly said by the EN Encyclopedia localization 🤔 I guess it kinda was implied, but...
I found a quote of the JP version according to a twitter post and it directly mentions it

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Liz Ard @lizardxiv.bsky.social · 1d

even after all of this he still thinks he is only going to be a footnote on the WoL's tales, WHYYY 🫠

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Liz Ard @lizardxiv.bsky.social · 1d

I was thinking about that, too...but now it's easier to see the connection because we have explicit confirmation that was happening, but for the longest time I didn't really put those things together. I got attached to "move body with aether" and not "move tiny had-to-be-broken body fragments"

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Liz Ard @lizardxiv.bsky.social · 1d

yeahh...I'm going to admit I'm traumatized by localization since 2005 when I found out my favorite game was changing a bunch of stuff 😭
For XIV when I'm curious about cutscenes I can check them out and try to translate them, but it's way more difficult when it's merch and things you have to buy

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Liz Ard @lizardxiv.bsky.social · 1d

That scene breaks me EVERY TIME
He stands tall and smiles so we not worry.....BUT IMAGINE THE PAIN HE'S IN 🥲

He doesn't walk much there either, I can definitely see him having to shatter his ankles to be able to run to us after...

I will never get over 5.3

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Liz Ard @lizardxiv.bsky.social · 1d

In comparison, the EN equivalent would be:
"His body began to crystallize in a process akin to necrosis, and he was obliged to suffuse those petrified parts with aether, animating the shards in a golem-like manner."

So it says it's in shards...but I just didn't think what that was implying at 😭

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Liz Ard @lizardxiv.bsky.social · 1d

if anyone has the JP books and could confirm that'd be great
but I found this

「完全に結晶となった部位は一度砕き、さながらゴーレムのように破片をエーテルで繋ぐことで動かしていたようだ」

"The crystal part was shattered once, and the fragments were connected with aether, like a golem, allowing him to move"

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Liz Ard @lizardxiv.bsky.social · 1d

Not that it matters I guess but I think the "crystal parts had to be shattered" lore isn't new and it was not explicitly said by the EN Encyclopedia localization 🤔 I guess it kinda was implied, but...
I found a quote of the JP version according to a twitter post and it directly mentions it

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Liz Ard @lizardxiv.bsky.social · 1d

(but now I'm curious about the Encyclopedia Eorzea entry in JP)

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Liz Ard @lizardxiv.bsky.social · 1d

Aaa thank you!! 😭❤️

Maybe I'm reading too much into it but there's more than one around the same time...and the description says "I guess he also broke his legs once"?! Was there something in JP that suggested this before?!
...or maybe it's just two great artists ahead of its time :P

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Reposted by Liz Ard

SPOOKcha🎃 @mochamorii.bsky.social · 1d

💎🔨

g'raha/exarch: and in this despair, won't you finally allow me to shatter?

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Reposted by Liz Ard

fishu @ coms closed @goldfishu.bsky.social · Apr 7

lyna

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Reposted by Liz Ard

🍊 Kel Catte 🍊 @rarasanpou.bsky.social · Dec 8

Do you guys think as a kid Lyna used to wrap up in her bedsheets and walk around pretending to the be the Exarch? Because I do

#Keldraws #ffxiv #ffxivart #art #lyna #crystalexarch #shadowbringers

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Liz Ard @lizardxiv.bsky.social · 1d

OH MY GOD THIS WOULD HURT SO MUCH I LOVE IT😭
please share if you find the fanart again I'd love to see it!!!!!!

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Liz Ard @lizardxiv.bsky.social · 1d

I think there still might be ways to make it work! Either he figured out another way to deal with it later, or based on the sounds of crackling crystals, he could be breaking it and mending it with aether?

I just kinda don't want to accept "plot holes" as okay if that makes sense? :x

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Liz Ard @lizardxiv.bsky.social · 1d

I like to think it was intended! He's in pain the entire patch, trying to hide it . He smiles to the WoL, but it fades when we're gone. Also, what was said in Encyclopedia Eorzea matches
not everything writers plan out end up in the final story, so who knows what other details Ishikawa had in mind!

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Liz Ard @lizardxiv.bsky.social · 1d

imo one of the really impressive things in how XIV story was told up to EW is how everything in the end mostly fits really well, even though it was confirmed to not be planned! So I prefer to believe that there is alwyas an explanation that makes it work, we just don't have every single detail yet

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