crocuta mentha

ok, starting with what we've pretty thoroughly established: the end of shadowbringers and defeating emet-selch goes more or less the same as in canon, with one of the major departures being g'raha - temur never really forgives him, although whether anyone else does is as yet up in the air. we have at least once written him as still being part of the scions, although that was before we had established this much so it's not like we couldn't go back on that but i'm not totally sure i want to just yet either. so that's our first question: if there's no big reconciliation with him, does he stay a part of the team and become a scion going forward? i don't think a "no" would like break anything necessarily, aside maybe from being able to use the crystal tower via his spirit vessel, but still it would be a major departure from canon so we'll let it sit before committing to an answer.

as for post-shb, obviously the major plot thread is elidibus as ardbert. that's kind of fun with elidibus as the traveler in temur's canon, because i imagine him a little more azem-like and so i think even zodiark stuff aside some part of him enjoys playing the "warrior of light." i think this is also where we fit in at least one of the role quests, definitely at minimum the magic dps one since that was our favourite.

one other change is that temur is definitely stuck on the first until they all find a way out, so he doesn't necessarily find out about everything happening back on the source for quite a while. i guess that's the end of 5.3, and most of 5.4 in game is relatively chill? it's mostly going around making peace with the beast tribes and curing tempering which is like important but i think temur can take a break around here he isn't particularly necessary for most of that. and fandaniel doesn't show up until right at the end.

ok this is another bigger change we need to decide on: do we just write zenos out? i kind of want to say yes because like... even aside from my distaste for him as a character, he doesn't really Do anything. i guess zero somewhat relies on being introduced as his avatar, and there's the big dramatic duel at the end of endwalker, but it just doesn't really feel like the story loses much of anything if he just stays dead after stormblood. i think fandaniel works fine as the antagonist for early endwalkers (i mean, i'm not crazy about him either, but at least he actually does things and his being there is relevant to other parts of the story). and like yes i get that it's fun to be able to structure the end as fight the endsinger → come out mostly fine, have your little final chat with meteion → fight zenos → get really really messed up but just barely survive and make it out via teleporter. but zenos being there just didn't add anything imo?

ok ok back to the first question. let's deal with how getting off the first works. in canon, opening a portal for the player is no problem, it's just getting the scions back due to the way they were only half summoned that presents a problem. i think i may change that such that it wasn't entirely possible to send him back earlier; either that or the trip home is one-way (so he wouldn't have been able to leave without abandoning the first forever) because it does admittedly feel out of character for g'raha to just choose not to let him go home at all. i mean maybe if we play into "he wasn't going to risk temur not coming back, even if that wasn't going to actually happen"? making the trip one way also... while it makes some kind of sense it also cuts off any future return to the first which i'm not sure if i like.

right so summarising that i think the portal home can stay open for temur, and g'raha either couldn't open it sooner (for which we'd have to invent some reason) or wouldn't open it sooner (which definitely makes him even more unsympathetic). i also. like. while g'raha doesn't necessarily need to be likeable, i want this version of him to have motives that are more or less coherent with who he is in game, which i think can work with the "wouldn't" but i don't wanna go too hard and just make him awful for no reason. anyways point in favour for him making it back to the first is that if there isn't a g'raha spirit vessel, then everything that relies on it (elidibus stealing it to summon the spectral warriors of light, using the tower in endwalker and post-endwalker) kind of breaks. so i think i'm going to tentatively say that he does make it back that way, and in any case leaving him dead on the first and in stasis on the source does feel. a little cruel kind of? maybe deserved but who are we to say. very tired that's who we are. also losing the capacity to tell what's a good idea whoops. but anyways big point here is if he's back on the first, then our options are basically either "the scions forgive him in a way temur doesn't, so he becomes a scion but there's tension there" or "he just goes his own way as an adventurer and is basically written out." and while the latter is in a sense more boring i... am kind of fine with it? i enjoy the capacity for temur/scion conflict obviously but the others being like "hey g'raha come join our friend group :]" feels more like them just kind of ignoring what he went through and so like. i don't know. we're not setting anything in stone but the point is i think we could write g'raha out after post-shb if we wanted. there's a slightly angstier version of events somewhere with the "wouldn't" option where temur straight up tries to kill him even before that but let's not jump that far yet.