iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

anyway i've had my cu sith for one hour and if anything happened to this baby i would sunder everyone on this star and then myself

A screencap of Summer, a redheaded Miqo'te, wearing the Beastmaster level 50 artifact gear and seated on the Cu Sith mount.

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

this is what it looks like to be the happiest and most unkillable DPS on earth, or at least in the Occult Crescent

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

UPDATE: HAVE DONE THE ARCADION. I was mostly surprised by how much the blorbo hype was overinflated compared to the actual canon material! Like some of these characters barely exist but you wouldn't know it from their fandom treatment, which is fascinating!

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Yes, it's supposed to be a sort of filler arc and a kickoff of the next big saga, but that doesn't mean it should feel entirely divorced from what story came before it, and the glaring omissions like "oh yeah the Final Days just didn't happen here" and "the Whalaqee? DWBI" were just. Frustrating.

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Full disclosure, part of the reason I tend to be so frustrated with Dawntrail isn't because it lacked things that interest me; it's because everything it introduced felt really phoned-in and contrived in a way that falls apart if you think critically about any of it for two seconds.

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

DT is my least favorite expansion AND I'm not a huge fan of the Arcadion so hard mode for me is not actually that hard. That moment in the Skydeep Cenote progressing from second boss to third boss literally made me stop and gawk, however, and 95% of my DT fandom enjoyment came from Wachumeqimeqi!

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Non-sarcastic question about Arcadion Heavyweight for the Tyrant enjoyers: what is it about him that you enjoy so much? Unironically seeking input because I just finished the raid series yesterday and I'm still processing my thoughts on it.

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

sir i think you are standing on top of me i literally cannot find myself in this image and i amnh just. a littul catgirl.

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

extremely funny against shantotto in particular when three attacks later SHE brings out her own 25 leylines

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

AS SOON AS I SAW IT HAPPENING I WAS LIKE OH THIS IS SCREENCAP HISTORY LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOO

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

if we could tag yoshi-p in exactly one shot i would want it to be this one

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

if leyline buffs could stack we would all be transcending the speed of light

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

WE PUT LEYLINES IN YOUR LEYLINES SO YOU CAN LEYLINE WHILE YOU LEYLINE #BLMThirdWalk

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

THREE TANKS. THREE HEALERS. EIGHTEEN BLACK MAGES. FINAL DESTINATION. #BLMThirdWalk

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

FORTUNATELY THE ADVENTURE INTO THE BASEMENT WAS NOT IN VAIN

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

North Horn is so great because the Mhach-loving part of me was like "oh neat, another little chunk of black mage city!" And Then I Went In The Basement.

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

This AU brought to you by "I was absolutely 100% certain en route to the Vault that I was going to find Aymeric having pulled a Dimitri from Fire Emblem Three Houses when I got there, and hoo boy was I incorrect in my assumptions".

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

@bloodwhet.bsky.social asked me for a fic in which the Vault goes a little differently, and I am as ever happy to oblige. (Technically featuring Summer as the WOL, but any black mage Miqo'te will do without much difficulty!)

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Anyway, my very long-winded wrap-up to this thread is: More's Utopia is a great read, I strongly encourage it (it's only 138 pages and free on Project Gutenberg!), and while of course anyone is free to critique Amaurot through whatever lens they like, it is pretty much definitionally a Utopia.

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

That's the premise that the Sundered world is asked to reflect on itself and confront, is "should that be a foundational tenet of society, to prioritize reason over passion and the collective good over the individual".

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

But that's just the point - that position aligns perfectly with the way Utopia is structured! It is a society that presumes, inherently, as a foundational premise of its culture, that the objective best thing is what you do. You seek pleasure and happiness through reason and service to the star.

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

The point isn't whether Amaurotine society was objectively better or worse than the Sundered one. Let it be objectively better. That's not the point. The point is, what gives Emet-Selch the right to say "if a society is objectively better it gets to exist and the inferior one doesn't."

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

- but the question that needs to be addressed is whether a society's right to exist should rest on whether it is the objectively best society out there or not. This is the argument Alphinaud never challenges Emet-Selch on in the capitol at the end of Shadowbringers.

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

I personally subscribe to the opinion that for the narrative to function we NEED to stipulate that Amaurot was the utopia that Emet-Selch says it was, because that's the only way you can hold it up against the Sundered world and say yes, it WAS objectively better -

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

But I hesitate to subscribe to the position that what Endwalker sets out to say is "Utopia doesn't exist, every society is flawed, and even a Utopia would eventually self-destruct" because you don't prop up a society like Utopia to commentate on the state of utopian society, and Endwalker doesn't.

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

I also think that theme gets invoked in the sacrifice of the Scions in Ultima Thule, where each of the Scions who sacrifices themselves is tasked with confronting a given society's benchmark ideal and comparing THEMSELVES against it as a response.

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

For that reason I think it's important to reflect on what the purpose of a society like Amaurot or Utopia serves when it appears in a narrative because it's designed to be taken as a benchmark ideal against which to compare something else.

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

More ends Utopia by saying "look, I don't necessarily agree that Utopia is perfect (obviously, the caveat of Utopia is the implicit bit about "oh yeah people just act like this and there are no problems") but those sure are some ideas worth considering, huh?"

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

But that presumes that everyday society is "correct" and therefore ways that Amaurot differs from contemporary society makes Amaurot flawed. That's not necessarily the case. To torture the metaphor a bit, you don't use your face to find flaws in the mirror.

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Part of why I wanted to read Utopia and think about this is because it feels like many critiques of Amaurot actually reverse what Utopia sets out to do - we hold up everyday society as the mirror and look for flaws in the way Amaurot reflects back (they don't express themselves through clothes) -

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Individualism and identity in adults are rooted in opinions and discourse. Children, who haven't yet been educated enough to form and express opinions, are afforded expression through appearance, but the text says they willingly abandon those things once they're old enough to see them as "childish".

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

It's not that they want to express themselves through their attire and are repressed, it's that "the way you dress" is not a form of expression that they even recognize. It would be like deriving individualism or identity from the way a person breathes or blinks. It's just pure function.

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

They don't all wear the same clothes because it's government-mandated stifling of expression, they wear the same clothes because the clothes are functional and there's no need to differentiate. They have actively excised the concept of status as being tied to things and objects, including clothes.

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Anyway it's hard to sum up in 300 characters the point of Utopian society because there's nuance and context but basically the point is you live to pursue pleasure, and the way you know pleasure is by leveraging reason, and their society is uniform to remove inequity that detracts from that pursuit.

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

More funny dicta WRT Emet-Selch in particular: - before you get married to someone you're supposed to get naked in front of them so that you can check each other out and make sure you truly know each other before you marry - you don't actually get divorced you just see other people, marriedly

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Back to funny and semi-irrelevant Amaurotine societal dicta for a minute: - All of their houses are identical - They trade houses by lottery every ten years - They listen to music while they eat dinner - They FUCKIN LOVE gardening

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Hyth takes the general societal stance of "it's a point of joy to have done good work and move on to the next state with your friends", Hermes is projecting his "loath to part with life" emotions like an IMAX onto the predecessor Fandaniel, which interestingly implicates HERMES'S guilty conscious!

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

With regard to the bit about returning to the star and Hyth's expressed take on how to process society's treatment of it, that also comes pretty textually out of a piece of Utopia - which interestingly also touches on the bit about Hermes's reservations about it!

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

But anyway, back on the subject of the disabled - this piece actually falls under the header of "Their Laws And Punishments", meaning it is codified in Utopian societal law that you don't talk shit about people differently abled than you and that's seen as a negative reflection on YOU if you do.

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

This is also notable with reference to Hermes - involuntary death, or death without the approval of the societal body, is actually DIShonorable and Fandaniel's whole little "uwu I want everyone to die forever" is societally reprehensible and would get him thrown into a ditch.

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

They also don't categorically euthanize individuals with untreatable afflictions - on the contrary, they actively work to make them comfortable. However, they DO ask said individuals to weigh living in misery (and being denied the pleasures of life) against an assisted death, and give counseling.

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

For one thing, not only do they have hospitals, but supplies for the treatment of the sick are taken first from the common fund of supplies (they do a thing where all the resources are heaped in the middle of town and everybody just goes and takes what they need) - the sick get tended first!

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

There's also a bit that addresses the experience of Hermes' feelings about his predecessor in the seat of Fandaniel, and the Utopians' approach to death, but first I want to touch on a note that I've seen frequently about the society being intolerant of the disabled, because that's mentioned too!

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Obviously how a player wants to read into that is a matter of perspective, but it does highlight the theme of the individual versus the collective - Hermes fixates on just the lykaon's experience, while the researchers focus on what they perceive as the aggregate good.

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

So that's where you get some of the dissonance between Hermes and the other Ancients - both have empathy, but their empathy is directed differently. Hermes is championing the right to live while flawed, the researchers are saying the violence is actually harmful to BOTH aggressor and victim.

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

The use of the phrase "a mind already corrupted by cruelty" is interesting because it goes to the idea of what Utopians would perceive as a fundamental defect in the lykaon's concept design. For the lykaon to be violent for the pleasure of violence is a pitiable state for both its prey AND itself!

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

There's also a bit that is interesting WRT Hermes's grief about the lykaones - Utopians are pacifists to the point that they don't even like killing when it comes to hunting or butchering, and so there's a discussion of popular bloodsports of the time period like fox hunting and dogfighting!

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Essentially, Utopian society would not have condemned Hermes for holding a differing opinion, but they WOULD have considered his unhappiness as a flaw of passion winning out over reason. The remedy for this was literally to seek therapy with an advisor like Venat. They had therapy. It's in the book.

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alex playing FFXIV @voidgates.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

The part that's most interesting about this is that there IS someone in Elpis who comes very close to fitting this "grave man" character, and it's Venat - an elder who wears white explicitly to mark her as "an impartial and trustworthy advisor"!

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