Author's Notes

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Author's Notes

Thank you for checking out this story!

I'm truly humbled and grateful to those who have read it and given feedback to help improve the story, be it lore-related or related to the craft of writing.

I'm always open to more feedback and would love to know your genuine and honest thoughts.

I've had a lot of fun researching, plotting, creating, and building this story for an original character set within the Final Fantasy XIV world. Avianne is a lovely character that's been in the works for some time and built to be a character that can facilitate journeys for many adventurers while still feeling grounded and real within the world.

This entire work is non-cannon to the greater Final Fantasy XIV universe and is in no way intended to serve as official writing. All original rights to the IP of Final Fantasy Fourteen and any referenced places, characters, world-building aspects, or histories are referenced for the sake of cohesive story-building for an original character set in the world.

This is for entertainment purposes only.

Point of View Perspectives and Notes

A few people have asked why I chose to write this from the perspective of Eleront Kunard, Avianne's first love interest.

The answer is rather simple but has a few layers.

The first reason is that it allows for flexibility. Viewing the life of an active RP character from the eyes of a different character allows for the POV character to misinterpret current events and allows their opinions to color the character in a way that may not be accurate. This in turn allows me to RP Avianne slightly differently from what Erlont may have viewed her as and it allows me to keep gaps in the history open from Avianne's side should something need to be shifted or altered in time.

The second reason is that it gives me as a writer a different perspective to use. I RP Avianne often in the game and as a character she's much different than a character like Erlont. Allowing myself the opportunity to write the perspective of a different character ensures that I am exploring new skills as a writer but also that I am not burning myself out by writing this (basically novel) from her Point of View while also trying to RP her in my downtime.

Timeline
- Timelines are difficult. Our historical information given by the FFXIV Team stops giving dates for the passage of time at the start of the Seventh Astral Era, 5 years after the Calamity of Dalamud's Fall began the Seventh Umbral Era. There's even a reference from the Devs that everything from ARR to the end of Endwalker takes place one after another and so takes place over the course of about a year. I wouldn't say I like it but that's what we have to work with.

Art and Music

All Art is AI-generated.

All music is credited to the original and incredible artists that created it. I'm honored to be able to attach some of the inspiration for these scenes to music and share it with others.

Liberties within the Lore

Chocobo Ages
- Did you know that many species of parrots live 80-plus years? What about ostriches living 70 or more in captivity? I could not find any lore on how long chocobos live but in a setting where there is magic and hyur can live over one hundred years I took a liberty and considered the life of a magical horse-chicken to be around eighty to ninety years.
  - If anyone knows where I can find this lore PLEASE share!

Albino Chocobos
- Every breed of animal has Albinoism and Melanism. Naturally, there will be variations in the natural plumage of chocobo as well and to account for this in a lore-positive way I used the idea and tied it in with the strict religious beliefs of the Ishgardian people. Making the animals that they use in war touched by their goddesses seemed a good way to bring to life the idea while still making it a more culturally held idea that's more obscure so that it wasn't a fact of their religion but more of a superstition.

Stable area in Ishgard
- Even with the amazing work of the creators of FFXIV there's always going to be things missing from in-game. Infrastructure and buildings that we all know should be present but are otherwise left out or unable to be reached. Chocobo are a vital part of combat and life within a nation like Ishgard and to me it made sense to have a dedicated place for the animals to be housed where they were close at hand both for the defense of the city, for mass gatherings of knights and soldiers, and for the infrastructure of the city's functionality.

The Black-Snow Paddock
- There is no such place as the Black-Snow Paddock in game. Again drawing on the idea of missing infrastructure chocobo stables, just like farms, would be a key source of necessary goods to maintain a nation. Creating a small stable with a skilled chocobo breeder to fill this gap in the cultural and industrial flavor of the nation seemed reasonable.

House Vorard
- There is also no such thing as a House Vorard when considering the nobility of Ishgard as a nation. Working with the various historical representations of nobility across the entirety of the Middle Ages (which is a very long time) there are many ways to define a noble house and their place within a power spectrum specific to its time period. As I was uncomfortable RPing a character from an established High House of Ishgard, as that is too close to lore-impersonation of a named NPC, I thought it best to create a minor noble house that could reasonably exist within the framework of Ishgard as a whole. Much like a background NPC to the Warrior of Light. They are important to the relevant characters but they do not interact with the story as a whole, and their historical presence had no effect on the timelines of the history presented by FFXIV Lore/Devs.

Lore Sources