by the way, guys, for those who only watched a playthrough of ff16 or those who don't want to constantly boot up their ps5 to re-check the lore, someone assembled the archive entries here. i notice it is still incomplete in some areas, but it's better than nothing and helpful if you want to have a read.
𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐅𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒 : the lush lands of the now-known tenebrae had been one of ruin and darkness long ago. in the pre-historic age was humanity bestowed with fire, and the waters followed. as ifrit would gift his sparks, leviathan would gift riverflow. civilizations would be built with each those tools, but they never ceased their fascination for astronomy and selenology. where the sun would obtain patron status would man establish solheim, the home of the sun ; where they would revere the moon, they would establish maniheim, the home of the moon ; where they would ask the stars for guidance, was the seat of the stjarna people. maniheim’s and stjarna’s societies were interlocked and influenced each other with their belief in the afterlife, crossroads and prophecies, and had closer relations with each other than with solheim. and though all three had different celestial objects in focus, they would all greet the dawn warmly. the global population would worship eos the most as the mother of life.
while solheim was not the only civilization to rise to power, it was the last one to connect people before the astral war split nations apart with babylonic impact. long has the war lasted and none of their social structures survived. an era of turmoil gave rise to the darkness that people would soon interpret as the curse of the stars.
𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐓𝐎-𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑 : during the time of war emerged factions, and the messengers of defeated deity fell from heaven right into the ruins of civilization. some of them, lingering upon maniheim-soil which would simply become known as the "dark land", fell in love with humans and procreated, their offspring dubbed the children of sin. the line of the fleurets began with skadi, a daughter of sin, born of eos' messenger and a wintery man who originated from the western parts of the continent. she would wander over barren hills, hear the voices of angels, and grew up distanced from her peers. years pass and she hardly shown any signs of aging, her father long lost to plague and her mother executed. ere she, too, would beget a child with a mortal does bahamut's messenger find her and announce the punishment for her and her descendants : ever shall this blood of molten dawn and rotten light that understands the word of gods bear this burden till the last one falls. ever shall the sons of eos and the daughters of her messenger be the token of guilt. the draconian shall claim the crossing between clay and ichor.
while skadi had not been bahamut's chosen blood, her daughters and granddaughters would evolve traits closest to the soon-to-appear first oracle aera and her sister gullveig. and gullveig, she'd one day beget another line of descendants with another messenger : selene's.
↬ THE INFERNAL DEVICES SERIES ( 2010 - 2013 ) by cassandra clare.
sentences taken from or inspired by the dialogue from the series, including the books clockwork angel, clockwork prince, & clockwork princess.
+ feel free to change pronouns / roles !
‘ one must always be careful of books, and what is inside them. ’
‘ we live and breathe words. ’
‘ if there is no one in the world who cares for you, do you really exist at all ? ’
‘ they say time heals all wounds, but that presumes the source of grief is finite. ’
‘ requited love is nice, but it doesn’t make much of a ballad. ’
‘ i am not the one of us who has no heart. ’
‘ i haven’t broken his heart at all. ’
‘ you don’t know that there’s only oblivion after death. ’
‘ if you have the soul of a warrior, you are a warrior. ’
‘ i thought we could at least talk about books. ’
‘ there’s plenty of sense in nonsense sometimes, if you wish to look for it. ’
‘ pointless, needless suffering and pain ? i don’t suppose it would help if i told you that was the way life is. ’
‘ you hurt everyone. everyone whose life you touch. ’
‘ it’s all heartbreak, death, and unrequited love. ’
‘ such harsh truths so early in the morning cannot be good for the digestion. ’
‘ hell is cold. ’
‘ i seek scandal and low companionship. ’
‘ perhaps we do need a chaperon. ’
‘ death could be imminent. ’
‘ the handsome fellow that’s trying to rescue you from a hideous fate is never wrong. ’
‘ i have lost everything. ’
‘ who said we were owed happiness ? what about what we owe others ? ’
‘ he’s going to kill someone. or get us killed. ’
‘ clearly the word excellent means something else on this side of the atlantic. ’
‘ you may hide here with me, if you wish. ’
‘ with god on your side, what does luck matter ? ’
‘ are you highly intoxicated at the moment ? ’
‘ you wish to marry me now ? ’
‘ entreat me not to leave thee. ’
‘ don’t be ordinary like that. ’
‘ is it because i’m better looking than you ? ’
‘ dreams can be dangerous things. ’
‘ declarations of love amuse me. ’
‘ be prepared to swoon at my finery. ’
‘ i don’t believe you can threaten people into goodness. ’
‘ finally broke down and admitted you’re in love with me, have you ? ’
‘ i say this out of pure selfishness. ’
‘ is loyalty still a commendable quality if it is misdirected ? ’
‘ you must be terribly dull witted. ’
‘ you need not be so careful. i will not break. ’
‘ there is more to living than not dying. ’
‘ men may be stronger, but it is women who endure. ’
‘ was there ever a more beautiful sound than your name ? ’
‘ we do not have to carry the burden of their choices or sins. ’
‘ life is full of risks. death is much simpler. ’
‘ you serve a greater cause. your life is not yours to throw away. ’
‘ there are so many worse things than death. not to be loved or not to be able to love, that is worse. ’
‘ you are human. never think that you are not. ’
‘ if you’re determined to follow me into hell, i cannot stop you. ’
‘ i’ve always wanted to see hell. doesn’t everyone ? ’
‘ come back to me, for i cannot bear to lose all my heart. ’
‘ i am catastrophically in love with you. ’
‘ i can offer you my heart, though i have no idea how many more beats it shall sustain. ’
‘ our souls are knit. we are one person. ’
‘ i do not want to sit by while tragedy comes for us. ’
‘ i am leaving, but i am living. i will not be gone from you entirely. ’
‘ they say that you cannot love two people at once. ’
‘ i cannot leave you to face death alone. ’
‘ when i breathe, i will think of you, for without you i would have been dead years ago. ’
‘ the world is a wheel. when we rise and fall, we do it together. ’
‘ you are the first dream of my soul, the only dream i was unable to stop myself from dreaming. ’
‘ when i am in the darkness, i want to think of it in the light, with you. ’
‘ heroes endure because we need them. not for their own sakes. ’
‘ if there is a life after this one, let me meet you in it. ’
‘ life is a book, and there are a thousand pages i have not yet read. ’
‘ words have the power to change us. ’
07 : versus xiii ; as a tenebraen-born oracle of solheim, lunafreya serves the fal’cie of this world since she was an adolescent girl ; and by extention, so, too, does she serve the sleeping god of light who aims to find the unseen realm. with chaos seeping into the realm of the living, the moon grows larger, redder, and ominous in due time, metamorphosing into a gate between dimensions, which the oracle is raised to operate.
08 : ffx ; an unsent summoner, walking the world, haunting not as a fiend but as a ghost of the past, ever-seeking for the dreaming zanarkand she was never meant to be part of.
09 : assassin’s creed ; the isu selene, also known by the romans as luna, was part of juno’s sage project and has ever since been spread into the tripple helix dna of the fleuret bloodline. during the industrial revolution, lunafreya guards the ring of solomon, an eden artifact, which both templar and assassin order hunt for in equal measure and only few were granted to treasure its secrets.
10 : draken-nier ; luna is a divergent type of legion specifically picked by selene, a kin to the watchers and the queen beast, in pursuit for a way to break the imposed ties between humanity and god, even if it takes thousands of years to find the correct singularity.
▬ ❝ On my honour as Oracle, I will not rest until the darkness is banished from our world and the light is restored.
The past beats inside me like a second heart.
John Banville (via quotemadness)
i. a little headcanon ( from an earlier post ) with @asterites includes the perfidious lady cousin of the fleuret siblings, cytherea, who, in good old fleuret family tradition, perishes. but not before turning into a daemon that resembles siren from ff11. if iedolas still had an implied son ( short-haired blondie from the versus trailers ) she probably would have had a scandalous affair with him while they planned to overthrow niflheim together via to their shared greed for power.
ii. while luna has neither a particular eating disorder nor an unhealthy relationship with food, she does have the tendency to self-neglect due to overworking, which results in slight underweight and a bit of hair loss / hair thinning. that does not mean she finds no enjoyment in food or that she consumes with guilt attached, quite the opposite ; she simply finds little time to indulge. if she gave herself the chance to eat regularly, she'd find back to a healthy weight without much issue.
iii. opposite to what little we've seen of the pages within the notebook that luna and noctis exchange, she likes to decorate her entries with little ( bad ) scribbles that go along with her letter-long ( fancy ) texts. of course, over the years have assembled multiple books, filled with smaller or longer notes, insignificant or emotionally charged alike. she lets noctis vent more than she allows herself to, but sometimes even she finds herself writing down what she is feeling in her political prison.
iv. as much as square enix wants the sylleblossom to be associated with the relationship of luna & noctis because they keep showing the pressed flower in the journal, plus her death scene / the scene with ravus --- the only two times i accept this flower in relation to her and why i think she nurtures them, are : one. a field full with its blue petals appear like a sea and therefore creates a visual dynamic that reminds of the moon and its control over the ocean. two. sylleblossoms highly resemble gentiana’s and are a direct hint towards the connection between the messengers and the oracles, since the flower is native to tenebrae. other than that i just take the lunar tear out of nier and apply it as luna’s personal flower, because of the fact it grows at a lost shrine ( i oft like to symbolize that the moon as selene's forsaken body is sort of like a lost shrine ) and is said to perform miracles which is a reference to luna’s entire healer image.
𝐃𝐈𝐃 𝐈𝐓 𝐇𝐔𝐑𝐓 𝐓𝐎 𝐄𝐗𝐈𝐒𝐓 ? — did it hurt to see, to hear, to smell, to taste, to touch ? did it hurt, to be and not to be ? yes. it did, indeed, every day. she witnessed afflictions of that which she should not have, but a fleuret woman was ordained to stand between the visible and invisible, the confessed and unconfessed, the yoke of human-flow riding through her, the moon, the stars, the sun, trampling o’er them with all their might, all they had in store. the misery, the revulsion, the ashes of a village or the thunders between gears, putrefaction stuffed into where it should not be, the embers of death beneath her bare heels. the progression, the regression, the stasis crystalline of encased einherjar. the undreamed, and the lucid dreams. all that taken and shaken deep into the bones, the moon so close to bleed it all out / the stars so close to blink out. was this what mother wished for her daughters, the long-winded thread of barbed wire wrapped around their golden heads ? the taking of sin, and giving back oblivion ? was this her doting parenthood ? “ i hope she did not. may etro bless her heart to rest peacefully. ” o etro, o fallen light, did it hurt to exist ? did it hurt to give light and receive back every sin committed, every fear felt, every laughter strangled off the throat ? we all would carry dying inside of us, the way the oxygen shriveled us till all that was left was a little glint, leaving or hiding away from etro’s clay. “ or have you…. have you seen her ? out there ? ” // @asterites
𝐖𝐄 𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐘 𝐀 𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐃𝐘𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐈𝐃𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐔𝐒. or at least that is what the ancient scriptures had dubbed these augury of souls. the broken fractured of light, unseen by all, existing inside the aortic construct of pulsing organism. t'was the gift of a desperate goddess, an unholy sentiment donned upon the flesh of the first women and her children. how fascinating it was to understand : we are all born rotten before we are made pure. holiness, sacristy, neither would have existed without the beautiful chaos that trifles that of heavenly order. the words of the dead undoubtedly guides the stars more intimately then that of life, for soft-chosen reservation is bereft of conventual guidance. ❝ whether it be regret or fear, the concept of non-existence is still quite terrifying. they cling to the shadows and covet in what is familiar. they reject death as fervently as life had rejected them. it only makes my heart ache more. ❞ in the layers of deep affinity, she unsheds the truth of sacrificial burdens —— it suffocated her. deeply. violently. the horrors that she has seen, the things she dares not repeat, and perhaps even her own glorification of bedlam did nothing but weaken her inner psyche. say selene, was it the same for you too ? when the blood moon rises and sheds its light to the world, when humanity looks to you for answers, do they shed their sins onto you ? did they just expect their pain to just disappear ? to answer your calling : did it hurt to exist ? ❝ when mother departed in this world, do you think she had any regrets ? ❞
‘ i seek scandal and low companionship. ’ // @leadingmcn
𝐏𝐈𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐄’𝐒 𝐓𝐀𝐔𝐍𝐓 𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐄𝐃 𝐀 𝐅𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐅𝐔𝐋 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐎𝐀𝐓’𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐎𝐁 𝐀𝐆𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐓 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐍𝐓’𝐒 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐋𝐘 𝐓𝐈𝐏 ; and neither seethed its owner with scornfulness, although this could have been a matter of personal grudge. through wide-open windows leaked nocturnal breeze, beddings all undone and disorderly, pearls and gems scattered across invaded tilings ; those were witnesses to a criminal scene which succeeded not according to its plunderish schemes. this lady’s heritage was both sheltered and targeted, her belongings rumoured and sought after, and within merely a question of ' when ' would she fall victim to games to this extend --- this much she could fathom and for this much she prepared.
one night, to her dismay, she failed to read the warning signs : the silence of owls, the flutter of crows, the peering balcony-glares shadowing behind her tender shoulder before she rested ‘pon her familiar mattress, all that ignored only for them to wake her with a rustling of treasures. the following miniscule wrestle amounted to a moment ‘twixt oddly opposing personas of parallel nobility, and the grin of yours ; a mischief, socially offensive like any other theatric trickster in tales, pinned against ornamental walls. “ and you concluded to find those by trespassing my private chamber ? well, at the very least, you are an intriguing character, albeit a thieving one. ” cold jest, dry lips, bruised dignity. lungs may be pressed by inconvenience, but her hands, firmly clenched 'round weapon's pole, shan’t afford to waver nor shiver.
“ you have accomplished the scandal ; now, the latter explains the pitiful deeds. ”
𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐄𝐎𝐍𝐒 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐃𝐎𝐑𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐓 𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐀 𝐄𝐍𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐒𝐄 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐘𝐕𝐀𝐓𝐀𝐍 𝐏𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐍 , 𝐅𝐑𝐄𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐔𝐍𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃. astral and whimsy. and wherever they’d go, they would belong. for a seeress bereft of her home, unbelonging and still half-settled, tied to the arteries of time, the wonder arose frequently when those visions of dust would finally be realized to dust, when the dream of eternity consumed those who fled every passing day from its consumption. beneath the faint moon-sheen she folded her hands and hummed out her pondering softly. and even this, cradled within the security of khaenri’ahn walls, would be a state momentarily existing before it did no longer. “ for the naked eye, it is an unchanging sight, but what seems eternal is, in fact, not. i believe she wants to remind us about our own evanescence. that, though we may last long, it shan’t be forever. even the moon, will disappear one day. “ abruptly did she then acknowledge etiquette might not be appropriately applied to chatter nigh resembling ‘ small talk ‘, not at all the place for philosophies and spills of vague prognostics. “ forgive me, kind dainsleif, cryptic remarks are a terrible habit i ought to unlearn for private conversations. ” // @reginrokkr
Inteyvat anthers glow in the dead of the night, an announcement of their detachment from the shackles of their filaments to fly towards the nocturne dome specked with their companions-to-be: the stars, and the lonely moon that sheds its frigid, albescent light in the kingdom of darkness. Ever since his arrival to Khaenri'ah, this is the first time Dáinsleif has the opportunity to be on a vantage point like this with an even better company than his own solitude.
Glacial sapphires turn to look at the angelic figure beside him, what little and natural light that reaches Khaenri'ah imprinted on her like she's the source of this luminescence. ❝Many moons has it been since you witnessed this view, yes? Has it ever changed since then?❞
@moonichor ✦