#smn things

“—look at me, I’m the allag prince and I think I know everything!”

“I lived in the crystal tower for over a hundred years, I know more than you!”

“I brought back summoning from half discarded texts and a soulstone!”

For years, years!! I’ve been saying that it’s a thing! That the very existence of Sophia’s Enlightened, who showed humor, reason, and critical thinking skills, meant that tempering had to be something that wasn’t “all or nothing”. For years I’ve been saying that it has to be at the will of the Primal, for how much they’ve been tempering their followers. Which was further implicated when you talked to Emet-Selch!

[Shakes the Ascians] to what degree are you tempered, you little shits, come on tell meeeeee. Emet is the only Ascian that’s said he’s tempered, but considering how much personality he holds, likely just enough to ensure loyalty. But then there’s also the fact that he’s an Unsundered, so his soul is quite literally bigger/more powerful, so that could factor in (since the character theorize that Tiamat was too powerful for Bahamut) …. But then also there’s the question of how strong Zodiark *is* which throws its own wrench into the problem

Oooh~ This is gonna be fun~

[ask meme]

Ysayle:

In the Triptych verse, we use a slightly different system to define the soul than what canon does. In this particular verse, Ysayle truly is Shiva reincarnated, possessing her soul, while Shiva's spirit and personality rests with Hraesvelgr. As a close companion to Ratatoskr, and a friend of Hraesvelgr and Nidhogg, Strikefire met Shiva during the tumultuous days of the first war. There was a time of uneasy rest, and Strikefire was asked to act as a liaison between the two nations, and taught Shiva how to use her innate aether and wield it as magic. Shiva was a very lonely person at the time, and reached for the newfound freedom with both hands, taking in the tutelage as best she can. Strikefire slowly fell in love with her, and began introducing her to her dragon-friends, including Hraesvelgr. Shiva was unaware of Strikefire's feelings, and fell headlong into her whirlwind romance with the dragon while the war picked up fervor again. Strikey blames herself for what resulted, and hated that she could never confess her feelings.

Some thousand years later, she met the same soul who claimed to be Shiva reborn. Blessed with soul-sight, she knew the color of that soul instantly, and was extremely close to simply giving up the Scion business and joining this young woman on her mission, and was only held back by her fellow Warriors of Light, brothers Emmanellain de Fortemps and Suna'ya Molkoh. After the events of the Steps of Faith, Strikey was forced to reckon with the fact that this woman was not the Shiva she knew, but someone familiar-yet-different. To add to the tension of the road trip to the Churning Mists is that both Ysayle and Strikefire had been personally wronged by Ishgard's Holy See --Ysayle being a heretic, and Strikefire having witnessed Ratatoskr's murder, and that they could understand each other in a way that her brothers couldn't.

Strikey grew to love Ysayle as well, and fretted immensely over if she was actually loving Ysayle, or the echo of Shiva that she saw. They entered into a Courtly Romance, with little gifts being exchanged, and Strikefire almost swore fealty to Ysayle, the budding Queen of a new nation. However, that would've meant that Strikey would be rooted in Ishgardian politics and Dravanian soil, and after the wound that was Ratatoskr's murder, she couldn't really do that. It didn't help that Ysayle also was the one to spur Hraesvelgr into action after a millennia of stasis. The parallels to their first love were enough that Strikey quietly bowed out, despite being in love with Ysayle deeply. They remain friends, though now Ysayle is Queen of the newly reformed Dravanian nations at Anyx Trine, and regularly treats with Aymeric.

Ysayle's fondness for Strikey did help them out though, as she smugly sent hundreds of dragons and riders to help with the Liberation of Ala Mhigo, to the shock of the entire Alliance.

Y'mhitra is an invaluable part of Nive's life. Y'mhitra approached her shortly after Nive and Hel felled Ifrit because she was interested in an arcanist's input for a 'new' disciple of magic--Summoning. What started out as a simple work relationship developed into a true friendship, with both of them sometimes enabling the more insane ideas the other has.

I think the first time they really became friends was after a more disastrous attempt at giving Nive some summoning tattoos. The aetheric ink scorched its way through Nive's skin and burned off most of the fur along her arms. Y'mhitra felt horrible about it, and insisted on tending to the burn wounds as a trained healer. This led to both of them tripping over themselves to apologize, only to end up giggling at the absurdity of the situation out of sheer relief and adrenaline. From there they started going about things in a more languid manner, and made sure that the other was comfortable with what was going on and what the process was going to entail.

Personally, I liked that smn was a dot management class in 3.x/4.x, but the actual identity of it felt odd. There’s no rhyme or reason as to why Summoner should graduate from a class that primarily infects physical sickness into your enemies into what it is, and the transition felt off to me for the longest time. Granted, the smn quests do talk about how you’re basically resurrecting an ancient art from the dead, and carbu summoning is kind of close enough for Y’mhitra’s purposes. But. Not enough IMO.

“Sorry,” Y’mhitra murmured, but she was too distracted to give a genuine apology. “Stay still, I almost have it.” 

Nive nodded and bit a knuckle, her fang worrying the skin and threatening to draw blood. “Do all tattoos hurt so much?” She asked plaintively, the sound coming out muffled from the finger in her mouth. 

“Not really, no,” Y’mhitra said apologetically. “Since we’re using aetheric ink instead of regular ink, and with the patterns blooming into spells as I work…” 

“Right. So most tattoos don’t come with the burning sensation,” Nive said, flexing her other claw into the crate she was sitting on. It already had scores of her other marks from how long this particular session had gone on for. 

“Most mages don’t do experimental summoning tattoos that are more art than science,” Y’mhitra corrected wryly. “I’m told regular tattoos are a light pinching sensation, or something of the like.” 

“Oh, what I wouldn’t give for that,” Nive muttered, and stifled another gasp as the ink burned with aether as it sunk into her skin. “There has to be a better procedure.”