°•A wild Morgan appeared•°

I've been working on and off with this design for a good two months. Even though its really rough, I'm really proud of how this came out.

I took inspo from 11, 15, 16, and some unused concept art from 13. I wanted to do a darker version of Ramuh, one that is more focused on being a combat mage than a sage.

That has more to do with my feelings about what kind of justice we need in society nowadays. The idea that justice is deteriorating and the law is no longer upholding fairness and justice. This version is a true arbiter.

• Barnabas in the beginning admired Cid's will and ability to survive, and given enough time, ability to heal from tragedy. Specifically the loss of his world/family. Cid had lost his parents at a young age, younger than Barnabas had lost his mother. Then in the years following, loses his younger siblings as well.

• Part of Barnabas is envious, but in the beginning before everything went to shit, he never let that colour his interactions or thoughts/feelings of Cid. Why could Cid do it but he couldn't? How could he move on from losing his entire family? Then willingly choose to leave the rest of his world behind in the Southern Continents? And unlike Barnabas, Cid has never been particularly religious, he never had that feeling of safety and assurance that someone more powerful than you is there with you, so you're never truly alone. He was alone in these remarkable endevours, at least in Barnabas' mind.

• Barnabas lost something the day his mother died, something he has never been able to get back. Or in other words, he has never recovered from the grief of her loss, never been able to let go. And yet he sees Cid, someone who lost just as much as him move on and flourish. It baffles him.

• After Barnabas falls completely under Ultima's thrall and becomes akashic, he feelings towards Cid's will and resilience begin to change, slowly but surely over the years. Feelings of admiration and envy become feelings of disgust. That if Cid simply accepted his place as a lesser being under the will of the Lord, that if he abandoned his poisoned will, he could take his place as one of His Chosen. That all these worthless trivialities Cid fights with him over would be burned out from this imperfect world and solved by the creation of His Paradise.

I need to give Joshua more love in my art. I was inspired last night to draw him. It's pretty rough but I had fun.

A sketch that's been sitting in my wips folder for months now. I finally cleaned it up today. So here you go you degenerates, have some fluff!

I started this with the single intention of drawing CidClive, even if you can only see Clives hand. No other thoughts. I hadn't drawn them before so this is my christening into posting shippy(shipy?) stuff.

They have gripped me by the balls and haven't let go since I finished the game a few months ago. Hazah!

I plan to start it when he's 12, then skip through the next few years until he's 15-16, when he leaves for Valisthea.

I've done a shit ton of research in Minoan and Greek history because that's the area I imagine he's from. At least the FF16 equivalent. I have him growing up on the fringes of a port city near the border.

I have also scavenged the internet for all the information I can get on the Southern Continent. It wasn't much.😔

And the reason I choose to use Minoan/Greek society as my base was actually because of his name. Telamon was a character in the Iliad. He was the child of a king and a mountain nymph and was one of the Argonauts, a group of hero's in Greek mythology. And Cidolfus sounds Greek as hell, even if it is a made up name.

I plan to spend most of my time around the times he's 18 and later as Waloeds Lord Commander. I wish we found out anything about that time in his life. So since the writing team didn't fill it in for us, in my eyes it's free real estate!

I imagine his mother was the ff16 Greek equivalent, while his dad was Slavic. I asked two of my friends who are minorly aware of the plot of ff16 what flavour of white person they thought he was. They both agreed he could be either or.

I also gave him 3 siblings. From what I've seen from other writers it seems like a common theme. For me it's because he gives me the impression that he's always been the one to take care of others. And having 3 younger siblings would explain that easily. He just can't stand the idea of being taken care of by another person. He'll indulge in his vices for all the live long days, but ask him to relax while someone else takes over his job? Oh hell no. I don't think he'd consciously realize this. And even though he planned for Clive to take over the Hideaway, I imagine it's because he knew he was dying and wanted the Hideaway taken care of after his death. And of course, he can't see anyone better taking over his mantel than Clive.

Anyway, I've started writing out what Barnabas and Cid's relationship was like. Just notes of how it developed and eventually evolved into what we are hinted at in the game. How Barnabas saved Cid when he was 18, then appointed him his Lord Commander at 21. That's a very fast promotion from essentially a contract mercenary to the head of the Waloedi military. I imagine the power went to Cid's head, especially after what Barnabas saved him from. Am I making parallels between Benedikta's experience and Cid's, maaayybe👀. But that's for later😈

I wish it was brought up in fic more. Like that kind of fucked up mindset doesn't just disappear. And I've only seen it used in a handful of fics.

We see his guilt over Phoenix Gate mentioned all the time, as it should be, but then his time in the Bastards is just glossed over. I think part of it is that we don't actually know what he did/experienced. And it would take some serious thought, maybe even some research, to figure out the kind of shit he and the others got up to. Much less what the Sanbrequois higher ups ordered them to do. Like children were probably not off the table. Even if they were only collateral.