Character

Nothing, I find, gets me in the mood to write quite like trying to take a break from it.

Which incidentally is good because irl I'm actually finishing the draft of a book a friend and I are gonna try to get published on Kickstarter. I'm excited because it's the culmination of several years of hard work and I sorta wish I could talk about it on here but I also care about, like, not doxxing myself. Anyways, it's probably not all that good, if we're real...

But the beautiful thing is, I don't actually care if it's bad. Once we're done, I'll be able to say that my friend and I, we wrote a book. An entire, complete, book - not yet another project abandoned as soon as it gets hard. By Jove, that book could be the worst thing on the surface of God's green Earth and I would still be proud of it.

This being said, I enjoyed writing this blog so much that I just don't wanna stop yet. I do however need to space out my updates in order to get the project described above ready to roll out (plus I can't say I'm really in love with the string of quests that fill the gap between ARR and HW anyway).

So, for the time being, what I'm gonna do is write occasionnal snippets of Lalli's ongoing adventures in the form of letters to various NPCs. That way I won't have to keep chronicling the story in a linear fashion, but once I start writing about HW I'll have laid out all the lore I need.

Lastly, since this is a bit of a retrospective post, I'd like to take a second to outline what this experience of writing about the MSQ has brought me, and why I want to keep going. I've seen comments float around saying that this kind of exercise is pointless because, well, we all know this story, don't we? Why tell it again and again?

I've compiled a couple of reasons.

5. It lets me experience Eorzea even when I can't play.

That was my original motivation for writing this blog, actually. When I created Lalli and started this playthrough, I quickly became hooked. This project enabled me to get a little dose of FFXIV even when I was away from home - I wrote most of my posts during my mandatory lunch breaks at work.

When I moved this summer, this project took a whole new dimension: Eorzea became a safe haven as my life spiraled into chaos. Through writing this blog, I was able to escape to a friendly, familiar world whenever I needed. I think it did good stuff to my mental health, honestly.

4. No one tells the story in the exact same way.

Of course, everyone who has played the game knows how the MSQ goes. Crystals, the Echo, Ascians, yadda yadda yadda.

And yet every journal I've read that attemps to follow a character's progress through the game is unique! I know Annabel has written about that before: there are countless ways to re-tell this story in fresh, interesting ways. Just changing the narrator, for instance, makes everything different.

Of course, I totally get if reading that sort of content isn't your thing - predictability can definetely be a turn-off. That being said, a lot of folks actually enjoy retellings of stories they already know. Knowing the plot in advance is comforting, while the new spin is exciting - best of both worlds. It's the very reason why many people enjoy stuff like modern versions of fairy tales and remakes of superhero origin stories.

3. It's great writing practice.

The hard part for me, when I write, isn't really getting the words out, it's deciding what to write about. The MSQ basically fed me great raw material, and I got to play with it to my heart's content, reflecting on how to express certain things, what themes I wanted to weave into the narrative, etc.

This was all the more valuable considering that English is not my first language - but it is the language I use at work. That practice was thus not just personal enrichment. It was a lot more valuable than that, and I didn't expect it to be so effective.

My emails are so good now y'all.

2. It makes the game much more immersive.

That's another thing I didn't expect to be so effective, but as soon as I started writing this blog, I noticed I slowed down and paid attention to the game a lot more when I was actually playing.

Lalli isn't my first FFXIV character, and yet, in many ways, it felt like he was. I paid attention to the scenery and the lore about 200% more, and realized that all along, there had been this incredible depth that I'd largely ignored before in favor of running from one quest marker to the other.

Obvs this won't appeal to everyone but as a veteran roleplayer, I quickly realized I'd been missing out.

1. It's fun as heck.

That's really all the reason I need to do this, honestly, no matter if it's pointless or not.

Life is short and pain is plentiful, so pursue what brings you joy even if it doesn't bring you anything else. Joy is reward enough.

In the immortal words of Captain Picard: "Seize the time... Live now! Make now always the most precious time. Now will never come again."