Saw this WoLQotD and even though I answered it on bsky I wanted to go more in depth on Tumblr because it's giving ideas and I wanna go further than my og answer which was just Estelle and Aymeric.
what would it be like for your wolship to have met as kids? are they getting along? fighting? or are they maybe a little shy?
Short og answer
Estelle and Aymeric did meet as kids! They got along as well as children with a 4 year age gap could. Aymeric saw her as a silly little girl (in a childish way) and Estelle saw him as a dumb gross boy. The last time he saw her she was about 16/18ish and he met her again when she was 28ish.
Long answer under the cut
But more in depth, Estelle's father is a Sharlyan expat who fell in love with a Ishgardian woman. The Dutairois were retainers for a few noble houses but their longest tenure were the de Borels.
Estelle was in a weird way in a similar position in society to Aymeric, middle class family and daughter of an outsider who worked for the upper class. While he's an orphan and bastard, no noble blood in his veins. Both were in a weird space of half in the upper circles and half out.
When they were children, they did not get along very well. Which is to expected with children with such a big age gap. Aymeric was always nice enough with her and they'd occasionally play together but for the most part they had their own activities. Aymeric would obviously have lessons on how to be a lord and Estelle was learning the ways of an Astrologian from her father and sewing from her mother.
But they probably wouldn't have really hung out as friends until Estelle was about 14 and Aymeric 18. By that age, however, Estelle had met Sellenei, another outsider who's father did work for Ishgard (hiring out mercenaries, always good to have extra swords to fight those dragons!) And Aymeric had Estinien and his own duties to the war. And Estelle's father was working more freelance Astrologian than as a retainer.
So all in all they weren't terribly close as childhood friends but would occasionally talk.
AU Where Sellenei and Haurchefant and Astrie and Estinien met as kids?
Astrie and Estinien have a 10ish year age gap, lol 22/23ish and 32 so if they had met it would be a baby and a tween. Not really much interaction on either party.
AU where they are closer in age? They'd hardly ever talk. Astrie was a skittish and traumatized child. She was too scared on being yelled at and hurt by other children. Estinien was dealing with his own issues with losing his family. Maybe though they did talk and he'd become protective of her.
Sellenei and Haurchefant have a 2 year age gap. 30 and 28. So she'd be slightly older lol. Assuming Sellei's father, Dezaineaux got contracts with Ishgard earlier and knowing that House Fortemps works with outsiders the most, they met that way. Her father working for his father.
Even though Artoirel and Sellenei are the same age, Artoirel wouldn't hang out with her. She's an outsider, lowborn, he has lessons and studies to prepare him to take over for his father one day etc. (And the one time they eventually do interact (at 12). They duel and she beat him. He knew it was a terrible idea to give the outsider a chance...)
And Emanellain strikes me as having been smothered by his mother. And again...
But Haurchefant had no friends (yet anyway) and Sellenei was a bit of a tomboy as a child so I could see her getting him to practice fighting with her. But she'd also hate his stepmother and would be there if he wanted to vent, and to support his dreams. But she would not go easy on him if they ever duel. He has to beat her fairly, even if it's not fair because she older and slightly taller (for now).
Oh and she'd treat Francel like a little brother too. And she and Laniaitte would have become friends. Emanellain would be wishing he'd befriended Sellenei...
And in the AU... that would mean Sellenei, Estelle, Aymeric, Haurchefant and Estinien would have a tangential chance of all meeting at the same time.
Not Astrie though, she's in her tower looking down with anxiety
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It's a joke that the elezen are French. Their names are obviously French inspired and we assume their original language is probably French or based off it. The race name, elezen, even sounds like a French word. But they aren't actually French. They're Germanic.
If we look at older elezen names (and the name of Ishgard) they have more Nordic flare to them. The names they gave to the dragons who settled in their area are also Nordic.
And yes, I know Nordic and Germanic are different peoples but most people don't and there is an overlap with some names and shared mythology in real life.
Urth, Odin, Thordan. Names of ancient elezen. They're definitely not French. The first and last are Germanic and Odin is obviously a Norse god. But Ofin had a germanic form Wodin and for consistency within the series the devs aren't renaming an iconic summon for consistency. (I mean look at Shiva, her name is taken either from an Indian god or a Slavic goddess).
They also take themes from chivalric romance, Arthurian romance, so they're also taking cues from English culture and obviously Catholicism. They're more of a "Generic Medieval Kingdom" than being heavily one culture/French.
You might want to say, "the hyur, especially the highlanders are Germanic".
And you'd be half right. Highlander names are Germanic (and Norse). But their culture is... Middle Eastern...ish? I'll be honest, I'm not familiar enough with those cultures to comment on the exact inspiration but I can tell you Ala Mhigo is not Germanic or Norse inspired.
(I guess they're "Generic Middle Eastern Kingdom"...)
As for midlanders... have we even heard of their homeland? They kind of have no unique culture of their own. Their names are Anglo Saxon and the Eorzean language is hyuran. That's it.
Kind of started having some interest in the Shards/Azem lately but unfortunately not in the way the devs intended.
I'm starting to like the idea of Azem really not being a good person, at all. And every Shard of Azem (save for Ardbert... maybe) being in some way a detestable person. Maybe not everyone was the worst of the worse, but they were still not a good person. And not even with Zenos's excuse. They are just rotten to the core.
And it becomes a conflict of seeing Azem as a hero. Because each one is capable of or even has done heroic things but they've also done very monstrous things on purpose because they want to hurt others.
And maybe it becomes a quest of taking out the Azem Shards because they cannot be trusted. And Ardbert in some form having to see how corrupted his other Shards are, but he can only stand and watch as he's a spectre, not even rejoined with another Shard of his (thankfully, maybe, or maybe he did rejoin and he's in a living hell of watching himself commit these attocities).
I had another idea of Meteor being a primal made in the original WoL/Azem's image and controlled by Hydaelyn but I also like this idea of an evil Azem.
The fun thing with writing an AU with regency themes is adding in regency without completely changing the lore. Weirdly enough Gridania despite not having nobles actually fits in well with these themes.
In game there's a section where the butler, Ursandel(sp?), is sitting. If you talk to the wood wailer he tells you that beyond the gate is where "well-to-do families" live and you're not welcome.
We know some families produce padjals more than others. The Sennas are the most obvious, having three padjal in one generation. Padjal children are also taken from their parents once their nature comes out.
With a little twisting... you can assume families that produce padjal are essentially the upper class. The more padjal children they have, the more notoriety. While they can't influence their padjal children, their padjal children elevate their status.
Perhaps families are compensated too for their children being taken away. Padjal families only marrying with those who have produced padjals. And families having as many children as possible. Imagine being one of the Senna siblings who wasn't chosen as a padjal. Imagine if you were the only sibling who wasn't chosen! You're only saving grace would be having children yourself and producing a padjal.
Now just to figure out the well to do wildwoods and how they came to be.
Other than Astrie's crush on Ysayle my other girls had different relationships with Ysayle.
Estelle being a rather proud Ishgardian, disagreed with Ysayle on much of what the heretic said. Much like Estinien, Estelle butted heads with Ysayle. The two got into a few heated arguments with one another. Very much, they should just kiss now vibes though.
Sellenei having less of a connection to Ishgard listened to what Ysayle said, sure there was truth to both sides of the story. Sellenei was keen on finding out the truth. Sellenei definitely saw Ysayle as a potential new ally as their traveling went on. Someone she could rely on one day once the war was over.
There were definitely several times when Ysayle, Estinien and Estelle got into an argument, about to fight it out. Sellenei and Alphinaud trying to play the voices of reason. And Astrie not paying attention because she saw a cool looking frog and went to catch it so she could show her friends.
And then there's Celestin who was a friend of Ysayle's before joining the heretic cause. He disagreed on some of her methods (becoming Shiva, mostly). And if I have him end up tagging along it's a four person fight...
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