Hello! My name is Aurora Aura of the Exodus (server), and I thought I’d share how I created two similar glamour concepts. Those being the Firmament and Skysteel Engineer’s sets. Here I explain why I named the glamours the way I did, my reasoning for avoiding certain sets and link to the Glams themselves.
Naming Conventions
Now why did I name the glamour sets as such? I guess I was inspired by the name of the Neo-Ishgardian tops as much as I was the aesthetic.
Within the context of the expansion the Neo-Ish gear debuted in, there is a general theme of rebirth, both within Ishgardian contexts such as the Restoration and in other aspects of Shadowbringers. From the homages to A Realm Reborn, to the general plotline beginning saving a dying world or two on the precipice of apocalypse, Shadowbringers did have overtones of revitalization.
Within the Ishgardian context specifically, much of the focus on, as the term Restoration would imply, restoring the nation to a state where it wasn’t war torn from conflicts with Nidhogg and his Hoard, and one where man and dragon can live in peace. The vector for this change into a New Ishgard is of course the Firmament, a Housing district meant to shelter the residents of the Brume and the other displaced victims of the Dragonsong War.
The Skysteel Engineer’s sets are thus named after the most prominent of its benefactors, the Skysteel Manufactory. The people that also supplied the Crafting and Gathering Relic tools.
What did I avoid?
When putting the glams together I made some decisions to avoid gear either consciously or unconsciously, the most obvious being the undyeable pieces. But I also tried to avoid the tombstone sets among others.
The first of which is the Asuran set. I felt that the set is closer to Doma than Ishgard and thus would be more appropriate for Stormblood glams.
The sets that came afterwards were the AF sets, including those for DRG, MCH, DRK and AST. The reasons why are because I feel that those are too unique in several aspects. I wanted to maintain a specific aesthetic across all 14 sets. Likewise the cultures that informed those sets are not always Ishgardian which meant that they weren’t that applicable to the Ishgard theme. Lastly is the obvious job locking not.
The Primal sets have the issue of 2, maybe 3 actually being tied to Ishgard, as they are based on Primals and specifically, Shivam Garuda, Ifrit and Leviathan. As such they would throw the aesthetic off. Note that this is unrelated to the crafted “Eikon” which are more generic (plus excluding those crafted is hypocritical since I used 3 of the arm pieces)
Which then leaves the Shire Gear. I excluded those primarily because again, Ishgard/general HW theme, and the sets are too Sharlayan for that to work.
Also excluded are the Facet sets which take their models from the Shadow of Mhach raids. The thing is that much like the Shire sets are more Sharlayan then Ishgard, those sets are too Mhachi for the general look as well. Furthermore the raid series seems more like the finale of a metaplot that started with Amdapor Keep, The Wanderer’s Palace and The Lost City of Amdapor.
Speaking of Raids, I also left out the Midan and Alexandrian gear. But that is more due to the idea coming to mind while farming Gordian gear, itself borne of a preference for metallic glamours,as well as noticing how well their pair with the Neo-Ishgardian tops.
The glams can be found over at Eorzea Collection. first being the Skysteel Engineer's sets (
Casting,
Aiming,
Healing,
Striking,
Maiming,
Scouting,
Fending) and then the Firmament versions (
Casting,
Aiming,
Healing,
Striking,
Maiming,
Scouting,
Fending). Thank you for taking the time to read this two part blog.
