Aetherflow - Spring 2019 by aetherflow.media

SPRING

AETHERFLOW

2019

TABLE OF CONTENTS 08 Aetherstyle

Enjoy Spring glamours for this coming season.

Love Beyond Eorzea

A beautiful retelling of the events that lead to an amazing proposal at FanFest Paris.

38 Final Fantasy Festival Recap

Get the inside scoop on the events that took place at FanFest Paris.

54 Rebirth by Fire

Should We Disband?

Learn the history of aetherial elements and how their powers are harnessed for magic.

Enjoy the rage fest that is Suzaku.

Augmenting with Arya

Ever wonder how to make beautiful bokeh shots in Photoshop? Look no further.

AETHERFLOW

Hydaelynâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Hearth Save some gil with our Design on a Dime edition!

106 Fashion Focus

Check out these classic black and white looks with Kasai Kurayami.

124

132

Just in Case You Missed It

Curiosities of Cosplay

Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t miss out on the Scholasticate Quests!

Check out our interview with the real life Omegas.

144 Fan Art Feature

We interview the talented VVernacatola and learn what got him into illustrations!

154

168

General Advice

The Joy of the Culinarian

Glamourous

Enjoy a light spring meal to perfectly compliment a breezy spring day!

Vederah breathes life into the stunning illustrations on the Astrologian cards.

230

252

Guiding the Community

My Kind of PVP

Meet the man behind XIVDB, XIVAPI, and the Mogboard

218 Lost and donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know where to turn? New to FFXIV and looking for some tips? Find that and more in this helpful article!

Put your lances and spellbooks away, the only weapon we need is gil.

LETTER FROM THE EDITORS 4

AETHERFLOW

Hello Dearest Readers! As always, we at Aetherflow Media would like to thank each and every one of you for your continued support and feedback, which are invaluable to us and we are so grateful for this amazing community. Every article is created and designed with you in mind, and we cannot adequately express just how thoroughly we enjoy every moment of the process. Our only hope is to be able to continue to provide you with the high quality pieces you have come to expect and enjoy in our issues and on our site. We have had so much excitement happen since the last issue, from an amazing proposal at the EU FanFest to some big future plans we have put into motion. As we continue to grow and expand our project, we have also begun to work hard on ways to further promote and foster this community we have grown to call family. As always, your feedback is immensely appreciated and encouraged as it only serves to help us grow and bloom. With love, Serena (Editor-in-Chief), Arya (Artistic Director), Lolae (Lead Layout Designer)

MISSING LAST SEEN ON THE COVER OF THE SPRING ISSUE

We seem to have lost our little friend somewhere in these pages! If you happen to find this spine-backed cutie send a screenshot to aetherflow.media@gmail.com! We will select a random entry from submissions between March 1st and March 5th to receive the reward! no, the cover and this page do not count.

R E WA R D ANY MOGSTATION ITEM $25 AND UNDER 6

AETHERFLOW

Aetherflow Media would certainly be nothing without the support of the Final Fantasy XIV community members! While much of our original expenses have come out of pocket from the staff members, this humble project has many large goals for the future and we need your help to achieve these goals. Even the tiniest donation goes a long way towards helping us maintain and improve our processes in order to provide you with the finest quality content that we can. Should you be interested in donating, click here. With love, Aetherflow Media staff

Springtime Pleasure TEXT BY CELESTA ESTHEIM | PHOTOS BY CELESTA ESTHEIM, MALLERS SAMA, ESPRESSO LALAFELL, VEDERAH KILMISTER, AND TETEMUI TEMUI | LAYOUT BY ARYA ROSE

Spring has sprung in beautiful Eorzea! Spring is the season of new beginnings. Fresh buds bloom, animals awaken, and the world seems to come to life again after a long and harsh winter. Time to take that allergy medicine and try to stop to smell the flowers. It’s the season when we start to see different insects come out of hiding, maybe you’ll find a few in your adventures?

AETHERFLOW

Morpho Butterfly With beautiful blue wings, people say that this butterfly is almost like a spirit. I wanted to capture the elegance that this butterfly represents and I think I got it. I started with the Star Velvet Himation of Healing in a Metallic Sky Blue.

AETHERFLOW

I matched it with the Kudzu Longkilt of Healing in Snow White.

The

Thavnairian

Armlets and Thavnairian Headdress in both a matching Metallic Sky Blue work wonderfully. You can’t forget the shoes! Add the Thavnairian Sandals and you’re done!

AETHERFLOW

Grasshopper & Mantis When I thought about what I could do for this pair, my mind went to an Eastern look and feel, and I think I nailed it. For Grasshopper put on the Non La, along with the Lordâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Yukata in Green and Sailor Brais in a Snow White. For shoes, I choose

the

AETHERFLOW

e Little Lord’s Clogs. Grasshopper is

omplete! Now for Mantis. If your Grand Company is the Twin Adders, pick up the Serpent Elite’s Circlet. Throw on the Lady’s Suikan in a very nice Marsh Green and match it with the same Sailor Brais in the same Snow White. Finish the look with the Lady’s Clogs and it’s done!

Queen Bee & Worker Bee Get ready to see a lot of yellow with these two looks. Spring isn’t really Spring without bees. For the Queen Bee look, I thought that the Quaintrelle’s Ruffled Dress and Valentione Skirt in Cream Yellow worked perfectly. I added the Loyal Housemaid’s Pumps in a dark Soot Black.

AETHERFLOW

For accessories, I found that the Songbird Hat and Housemaid’s Wristdresses in the same Cream Yellow looked perfect.

You can’t have a Queen Bee withou her loyal workers! For this look,

paired the Royal Seneschal’s Coa

in a similar Cream Yellow and the Scion

Thaumaturge’s

Gaskins

I decided on the Expeditioner’s

Thighboots in Soot Black. And to

complete this very yellow, yet cute

look, I threw on the Boulevardver’s

Hat in the same Cream Yellow

that we’ve been working with And now the looks are complete! Get your closest friend or your sweetheart and explore the many

gardens that the world has to offer.

AETHERFLOW

ut I

’s

Ladybug Cute,

adorable,

sweet,

darling,

and many other synonyms can describe this look. You see these cute little critters on the paths of the Shroud and you can’t help but awe at them. I think the Thavnairian Wool Autumn Dress dyed Dalamud Red with Griffin Leather Cuffs and Faerie Tale Princess’s Heels dyed

AETHERFLOW

Soot Black worked for this look! Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t forget the head accessory! Finding something that would look cute for this was actually pretty tough. You see a lot of people use the Songbird Hat with the dress. But, I wanted to go against the grain. So, I chose the Loyal Housemaidâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Brim dyed Soot Black to give that frilly and cute look!

AETHERFLOW

Black Widow Elegant, sexy, but murderous intent. These three terms wonderfully described this deadly look. “But, Celesta! You can’t make a Lalafell sexy!” I hear you cry. And while you’re right, it doesn’t mean that you can’t make this look cute as ever!

For the whole look, you want a few pots of Jet Black Dye because you’ll be dying the Hannish Wool Autumn Shirt and Faire Skirt. I added the Scion Healer’s Highboots for the shoes. And for the hat, I thought that the Eastern Socialite’s Hat in Jet Black Dye worked wonderfully. For accessories, I would use the False Nails and dye them Wine Red. You’re ready to travel Eorzea and scare everyone in your path.

AETHERFLOW

Now

youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re

fashion

ready for Spring! Go forth and have a picnic with your critter friends! 29

LOVE BEYOND EORZEA OR, HOW I ASKED MY SOCIALLY AWKWARD BOYFRIEND TO MARRY ME AT FFXIV FAN FESTIVAL PARIS 2019 Text & Layout by Lolae Demort - Photos by Michael Kotowski

AETHERFLOW

D A 31

AETHERFLOW

"There's something weird but very satisfying about fighting hordes of monsters online with someone you're just getting to know."

My boyfriend and I have been together for about 2 years now. We met on a dating app and hit it off right away. The whole dating phase was fun and it's safe to say I was hooked pretty quickly. This was mostly thanks to an undeniable chemistry and the feeling that nothing was off limits; we were able to talk about anything and express whatever we thought or felt. Him being gorgeous as hell played a part as well, I think. Both of us are gamers. Nerds. Geeks. Very proud ones, even. It was a matter of days before we started playing online games together and boy, was it fun. There's something weird but satisfying about fighting enemies or even hordes of monsters online with someone you're just getting to know. There's this constant need to protect each other. The desire to be the best and show off your skills while wanting to see the other succeed. A burning need for approval yet an unstoppable urge to praise this amazing, lovable person you're playing with. Isn't that what love is? We made it official early 2017. At this point all flaws had surfaced. Things that, in a perfect world, would have been different. This perfect guy turned out to be not so perfect which, in turn, made him perfect. He brought out the best in me and gave me the confidence I'd been missing for the longest time. All I want is to see him thrive. To protect him. To praise him. Does that mean I don't want to kick him in the nuts occasionally or that he doesn't want to stab me in the face now and then? Nope.

AETHERFLOW

At this point, I had been an avid FFXIV player for a long time. Eorzea was my second home, as it is for many. The game has brought me so much joy and allowed me to make friends from all over the world. We've shared great yet often traumatizing experiences that no one outside of FFXIV could ever grasp. The desire for my boyfriend to be part of this world grew stronger every single day. He seemed hesitant to start playing at first but it wasn't long before he got addicted and traveled alongside me to protect the world together. I restored his health and kept him going while he made me feel safe and protected. He's the tank to my healer. Complete opposites, but it works so well. Funny how I'm a healer and he plays a tank; I could crush his little body if I wanted to in real life. But I won't. I swear. It only made sense to tie the knot in Eorzea, surrounded by all of our friends. Fast forward to almost 2 years later. We still want to kick each other in the nuts sometimes, we still play FFXIV, and we're still very much in love. I kept wondering what the next step could be. Keep in mind that Fan Festival 2019 was only a few months away and I was working on my cosplay like a madman. I was an absolute stressed out mess (my Moenbryda cosplay turned out fine, though. Thanks for asking!) but he was there for me every single day. Offering to help. Bringing me energy drinks. Being the voice of reason when I just wanted to smash everything to pieces. As always, he had my back and brought out the very best in me. All of a sudden and completely out of the blue, it hit me: I need to marry this guy! We already sealed the deal in Eorzea, why don't we do it in real life? And why not surrounded by thousands of people that went on the same adventures that traumatized and amazed us? People just as passionate about the game as we are? As one of the editors of Aetherflow Media, I was lucky enough to get in touch with Luke Karmali, one of the PR managers at Square Enix. After I told him that I wanted to do something special for my boyfriend and make it the most amazing day of his life, things really took off. Square Enix has been beyond amazing to us and I'd like to thank Luke and the complete team for everything they have done for us so far. We can't repay you. I can't repay you. After a bit of back and forth, we decided that a message would be played throughout the venue. My boyfriend would be announced as the "Fan Festival Paris grand prize winner," something that's completely made up but a prize my friends and me told him all about. It was this insane prize package and only one person would be lucky enough win the whole damn thing. The first day of Fan Fest was filled with joy but so much stress. The second day? Even more joy. Even more stress. I was about to propose to my boyfriend and ask him to share the rest of his life with me. This was it.

"I remember sliding the ring on his finger and looking in his eyes, completely overwhelmed by this mixture of joy and pure bliss. He said yes."

I heard the message playing and my boyfriend looked at me in disbelief. He was overwhelmed with jo off to the prize counter. Through all of this I tried to act surprised while looking for the ring box that ha my bag all day. Once we got to the prize counter, all of my friends and countless fellow Eorzeans we the booth. People had their cameras out and I completely lost the ability to keep a straight face or cool. He received an envelope, containing an invitation to his very own "Ceremony of Eternal Bondin were the FFXIV goodies? The collectorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s editions? All he got was this lousy invitation and the staf that handed him the prize had no clue what it meant either.

This staff member was in on everything, obviously. Once he asked my boyfriend to turn around, it all Quick side note: although I love him so very, very much, he sucks in social situations. He's a little and has no control over his emotions. At all. He turned around and our eyes met. I was on one kn started to laugh, cry, and gasp for air. Did I just kill my boyfriend? Turns out he didn't have a heart a the imaginable thing happened, just as I thought it would. He couldn't speak, make eye contact, or f any possible way for a bit. One of my best friends screamed "SAY YES" since he completely forgot th supposed to respond to whatever I was doing. To be honest, at this time I was completely convince was extremely disappointed and crying because he didn't actually win Square Enix goodies.

A few seconds later, he nodded and mumbled something that kind of sounded like "yes." Fine by m The 30 minutes after that are kind of a blur. I remember sliding the ring on his finger and looking in being overwhelmed by this mixture of joy and pure bliss. He said yes. This just actually happene Eorzeans hugged me and congratulated me, some of them I never even met before. One thing we a common: we've all been through the same situations, went on the same adventures and we all kn our heart belongs.

The Primals played a mind blowing concert that night, which I enjoyed to the fullest with my boyfri no. FiancĂŠ. Me and the guy I'll be marrying enjoyed the show. The guy I'd love to see thriving. The g to protect. The guy I want to praise.

A special shout-out to everyone at Square Enix for making this dream come true. 36

AETHERFLOW

oy and ran ad been in ere circling r to play it ng." Where ff member

l unfolded. e awkward nee and he attack but function in hat he was ed that he

me, really. n his eyes, ed. Fellow all have in now where

iend. Wait, guy I want

AETHERFLOW

FINAL FANTASY FESTIVAL RECAP TEXT BY MIO RYOTA - IMAGES BY TETEMUI TEMUI & TYLP USUGURAI & SQUARE ENIX CO. - LAYOUT BY ARYA ROSE

The Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival is quite the magical place. Two days filled with content about the game you love, while being surrounded by thousands of Warriors of Light which all share your passion for the same game. With floor activities, stage shows, and - probably most importantly - a lot of information on new content, it is one of my favorite events every expansion, and attending them is always a lot of fun. But while you are probably aware of the panels, I would today like to bring you closer to the showfloor and the activities in the venue.

The venue easily hosts enough activities to fill both of your days at Fan Fest with things to do. For example a group pose corner, where you could get a digital picture of yourself in an in-game area such as the Royal Menagerie Garden or two art galleries, one featuring Ayumi Namaeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s beautiful concept art. Maybe you want to get a temporary tattoo from the tattoo parlour or try the new FFXIV board game! There was even a cactpot board set up in the venue. Every visitor got a cactpot ticket with a unique fournumber code. If you were lucky enough to have your number drawn you could have won some of the merchandise buyable at the Fan Festival - or even some special, non purchasable items! The more interactive activities were the six mini games in the venue. With Buckling Behemoth you had a chance to rodeo on the back of the famous Behemoth, test your skills with bow and arrow to hit a moogleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pom, show off your prowess in a Manderville-themed version of hot wire, or enjoy a nice, relaxing game on the indoor Minion Golf course. However, the activities most sought after were the three in game activities. You were able to get paired up with fellow adventurers to tackle the dungeon plot twist, where two light parties tackle two different dungeons at the same time, and the players must follow the guide to change seats when prompted, leading to some awkward moments and wipes in the middle of boss battles or trash pulls! Of course the famed challenge roulette made a return to Fan Fest as well! Spin a roulette wheel and get presented with a random foe to face, each complete with their own handicap to make the fight more exciting!

AETHERFLOW

You might end up having half your screen blocked by a Namazu or parts of it by a group of moogles, or even have to change seats with another random player, having to play with their setup! The most exciting in game activity, however, would be the Yojimbo special battle, which is specifically made for the Fan Festival events and currently not accessible in Final Fantasy XIV! As this might change, however, I will not go into detail on what the fight against the famous summon consists of. But only having limited attempts to combat an unknown encounter may prove to be challenging for some Warriors of Light. Finally, the highlight of the Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival has to be the concerts at the end of the event days. Whether it is, in case of the Paris Fan Festival, the piano concert with Benyamin Nuss pouring his skill and heart into his play, sometimes accompanied by Susan Calloway, or THE PRIMALS rocking the entire venue playing some of the most famous Final Fantasy XIV songs, these concerts are always an absolutely amazing experience. If you ever get the opportunity to attend a Fan Festival I would honestly recommend doing just that. I was able to share amazing memories with friends as well as strangers that I have never met before. It is an absolutely amazing and unique experience, presenting the passion of the developers and your fellow Warriors of Light!

SHOULD DISBAN SUZAKU

text by Mio Ryota - photos by Makoto Magik Layout by Lolae Demo

AETHERFLOW

D WE ND?

t’s the weekend and you finally sit down to farm that one mount that you’ve been trying to get for weeks now. You swap to your favorite class and open the Party Finder. To your delight you instantly spot a party - with exactly one open spot for you! “Maybe this party will be competent,” you think to yourself, but deep inside you’re fully aware of what’s going to happen. One “salut” later you find yourself in Hells’ Kier, facing Suzaku, the Vermilion Bird. After all the melees fight over who gets to go north and someone obviously snipes your prefered position, the tank whips out his amazing 8 second pull macro, tilting the heck out of half your party members. If you mute your game volume you might even be able to hear your ninja scream in the distance! But don’t worry - just around 15 seconds into the fight everyone else will join in. Because, honestly, who the fuck thought it would be a good idea to have the boss become untargetable in the opener? But hey, at least the music is good.

a and Espresso LaLAFELL ort

If you’re lucky, someone has already revived a phoenix at this point! You know you’re in for a good time if this happens. But if it doesn’t, fear not! We all know there is that one guy that will either forget to revive them later on, or just completely miss it for some reason. After all, the entire arena is covered with AoEs and the Scarlet Plumes have such a huge amount of HP, there is so much more important things happening! And let’s not forget the difficult DPS check that is killing a Scarlet Lady - every pull is an exciting roller coaster, you never know where you might die this time! Following this, you’ve got a nice dance break which you have probably done 400 times by now. You used to wonder how people end up with only four damage up stacks - since all you have to do is face in the direction of the arrow - but by now you’ve just accepted it. Just don’t get too fired up, the real fun is yet to begin! Because we all know that one guy that forgets his knockback immunity on Mesmerizing Melody and falls right through the middle, or that nice red mage that backflips right off the platform! I’d like to give a moment of silence for the poor 3600 MP that were lost to the raise.

AETHERFLOW

Just after everyone magicly avoided the giant tankbuster knockback the arena starts changing color and you know you’re in for a good time! You always thought it wouldn’t be too difficult to look at the symbols on the side of the arena, remember them, and then take the activation order of the different platforms and use it to avoid taking damage and vulnerability stacks. But honestly, you always expect too much of the less mechanically gifted players you encounter on your valiant quest of gathering 99 Suzaku Totems - because you’re definitely not going to roll higher than 7 on the dog. Close-quarter Crescendo is another one of these really fun mechanics. You could look where the arrow’s pointing and position accordingly - or you could just pray. And there will always be the one person that panics and clicks sprint to get to the edge of the platform - just to forget to disable it, and runs into their death at full speed.

Incandescent Interlude is next and a few meteor circles spawn around the arena. You get slightly confused when you see three people on your position, and who would have guessed - someone once again confused east with west. Happens all the time! It’s just as difficult as going clockwise or counter clockwise. It’s not like it is the complete opposite direction or anything. Have you never caught the clock going backwards? But you won’t feel the true definition of fun until Suzaku starts combining Close-quarter Crescendo and Phoenix Says. Unless you’re one of the seven people in the world that actually understand this mechanic you’re, once again, in for a fun roller coaster of emotions. You place yourself properly to not run off of the platform, and once your character starts taking the wheel, you simply pray that you won’t get knocked up too often. Your party is jumping up and down, and magically, you all survive - with multiple vulnerability stacks, but at least it’s not a wipe!

AETHERFLOW

If you’ve managed to live through all of this, the boss is going to do some knockbacks, Southron Star AoEs and tankbusters. You’re already pretty certain that you are going to clear this and feel slightly relieved. Maybe this party will be able to farm the boss somewhat consistently! (Spoiler: It won’t. You just got lucky and won’t get past the first phase again. Obviously.) A melee starts channeling LB3 at 1% remaining and Suzaku is defeated! It might have been a hot mess, but congratulations! You open the coffer, the samurai weapon drops for the 30th time and, of course, there’s no mount drop. At least there’s always the token. It’s your sixtieth. Only 39 more runs to go!

AETHERFLOW

TEXT BY BOUNDING FOX

IMAGES BY LAELE NORA

LAYOUT BY ARYA ROSE

MIGHTY MAGIC: A BRIEF HISTORY OF ARCANE MANIPULATION In the previous discourse, we had the opportunity to pry open the coffers of history and peer into the fundamentals that led to the rise of one of the most influential civilizations to have found itself upon our star. Tâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;was the might of Allag that saw the Third Astral Era into an unprecedented growth, and to wit, no annals have produced a nation of greater prowess than they. We observed the elementary behind the cause of their rise: the power of aetherochemistry as the magnificent enterprise that bound magic to laws of nature rather than striving against it. For this discourse, it is of value to us to inspect our current understanding of one of the aspects of this bipartite field, namely our knowledge of what defines magic. By doing so, we can learn further the means by which the Allagan Empire fostered its majesty.

THE FOUNDATION OF MAGIC: AETHERIAL CURRENTS Magic cannot be given understanding without first knowing the source of its existence, namely that of the principles of aether. Upon our star, many events take place within and without our communities. The state of an atmosphere’s heat or rain, the progress of growth of vegetation within a dry region or a frigid one, and the feeling of temperature upon our skin are all results of aetherial currents. Aether is the building block of all existence. All things which can take the attribute of “alive” do so by having a flow of internal aether, and without aether, we would have no means to exist. Aetherial energy exhibits very distinct temperaments that gained the label “aspects.” In numbering these aspects, the scholarly community has settled more or less on six fundamental traits that find definition within the world around us: Ice, Water, Wind, Lightning, Fire, and Earth. To understand the complexity of the aetherial interactions, scholars use the terms of simpler substances to describe them. For example, fireaspected aether is what allows the existence of “heat” while ice-aspected aether gives the

AETHERFLOW

concept to what we know as “cold.” Water-aspected aether lends form to rain and fog whereas lightning-aspected aether supercharges clouds, discharging its energy in flashes during a storm. It can be further understood that these aetherial temperaments tend to overcome each other in ways similar to how their named substances interact. As an example, we see Water aspected aether conquers that of the variety of Earth. We observe the feat in nature through erosion, but beyond that process, the very aetherial energies that we symbolize through Water always overpowers Earth, even if it is not through the primary method of a river cutting through the land. Each aspect has its opponent, and aside from their natural processes, these competitions of aetherial currents between their conquests and submissions demonstrate unique effects on the environment around us as well as the living creatures that receive influence from them.

THE EXPRESSION OF MAGIC: DEFINING THE ARCANE Once we understand what aether is we gain the ability to put the concept of magic into meaning. A scholar once stated the most straightforward

AETHERFLOW

definition for magic, that being “the manipulation of aether in a manner that deviates from its natural tendencies.” Aether is bound to the laws of magic as much as light is attached to the day. To name a deed magical is to merely observe aether finding movement out of its default state to achieve the desired effect and this is the core of the arts taught within the Order of Nald’thal, Mealvaan’s Gate, or the Stillglade Fane. These works penned from the halls of the Ossuary, the author can attest to the magnitude of power that finds home in the practice of those who prepare the dead of Ul’dah. Only through brief interaction can the same be said of those from the seafaring nation who define their art through the principles of calculation and tactics, and of those who claim guidance from the land around them. There have been rumors of even further techniques in practice, forgotten disciplines from the nations that preceded us but originate in the arcane — the tales of the black, the white, and the red grace the rumors of the markets and the taverns nearby. The author maintains a rigid dedication to history and does not find the opportunity

AETHERFLOW

to pursue these rumors further, but will care to highlight the ever-growing list of magical applications accessible to the curious aspirant. Even now the rumors crest with the addition of the blue, an art that the author has had no time to ascertain. With the current schools in the city-states as well as the revival of arts of old, the history of magic becomes a fascinating object of analysis in all organizations hosting those that call themselves its disciples. Lending ear to the curiosity to answer both our previous wonder on aetherochemistryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s key ingredient and this current question on where it all began, we start by questioning this: by what means can beings change the natural course of aether from its prescribed coordinates? Our answer to this is an acknowledgment to the contribution of tomestones. Using these relics, we turn back to our previous study of the Eras and the results it brought forth upon our society.

THE ROOT OF MAGIC: A PRAYER FOR SALVATION Afore the great conflagration that took place during the

Calamity of Fire as a result of the magi, tomestones paint a picture of two Eras before, to that of the Second Umbral Era. They teach us the Second Umbral Era opened with a realm-shattering superstorm that rendered the land unfit for life and forcing all those remaining to the depths of the earth. Within subterranean shelters, these refugees from the world above struggled to persevere with limited resources. The nature of the temporary underground homes became an increasing threat to their existence, chilling them to the bone and making them sick. In this time when there was nothing left to civilization aside from death above and rot below, the surviving found themselves with one final option: prayers to deities of the past. Through this concentration on this final route of survival, that of ancient petitions to the deities, our ancestors were granted form to aetherial manipulation. Magic borne through words of faith gave our ancestors the chance to survive, and when the lands above had ceased the storms, the empowered survivors rose to prominence in their faith, strengthening the primeval manipulation that established through their

petitions in the caves in their darkest hours. The magi who founded their churches of faith fell to hubris, but all did not forget their art. Xande, First Emperor of Allag, allowed the continuation of this principle in full expression under his protection, and from this act, we can trace a root to what we accept and follow as magic. We can easily observe, however, of those who profess a faith and can genuinely state reverent petition to these deities, not all can manipulate aether. We may ask shall it be a judgment of a variation in the personal capacity of faith to see these deeds through, alternatively, mayhaps something else?

THE BIOLOGY OF MAGIC: AETHERIAL MECHANISMS Among the communities of scholars are those interested in the pursuit of a greater understanding of the principles of aether. We learn from them of aetherial mechanisms in the body, such mechanisms apparent in the acts of creatures such as drakes or peistes who seem to be able to manipulate aether with only the whim of the hunt or self-defense as their guide. Through regulation of aether, their breath takes flame, or their eyes lithify flesh,

AETHERFLOW

magicks that find a similarity to how disciples of conjury can command stone and the thaumaturges of the Order can create fire. It is Spoken alone that can define an aetherial manipulation through the petition of deities and conviction in their might, which may lend action to whatever mechanisms we have access to through our force of will. For those limited in arcane manipulation, it cannot be said that their faith is any less than those who can use it to compel the aetherial currents to their command. The whim of Nald is not to be fully understood by mortal means, and the means by which they can find fortune may not be bound to the discipline of magic.

AN AFTERWORD ON THE ONGOING MAGICAL DEBATE Outside of accusations of faithlessness, the greatest woe that befalls the disciples of magic is defining oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s personal belief of where the power of magic lies. The relics of Allag define it as a construct of prayer, but people of the common era now describe it as a regulation of the body and a focus of mental aptitude on those functions.

Instead of attesting the art of magic as a union of an effect of conviction and an organic development, some prominent men and women have taken to defending one or the other, causing a rift in the community and the means by which we can evolve our understanding of the craft. To know how Allag progressed is to remember both the root and the natural aspects of magic and applying both in action, thereby creating marvels to rival that of even the ancient Empire itself.

IN SUMMARY To Saint Coinach and all who follow in his footsteps of archaeological research, it takes little means to determine the idea that the Allagan Empire was magnificent. However, such glory would have had no purchase if it wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t due in part to the rise of magic. By our natures, through debate and contest our people find a way to determine the fundamentals of this ancient art. Natheless, there is a means of growth and greatness within the observation of its history. To learn of this, to study it and to apply it to the issues that plague our great nations might be the answer to the peace we eagerly seek. - BF

AETHERFLOW

AUGMENTING WITH ARYA TEXT, IMAGES, & LAYOUT BY ARYA ROSE

Photoshop can be intimidating. There are lots of tools, terms, and probably four different ways to do the same thing. That's where I come in; I'm going to teach you some integral and awesome techniques to take your screenshots to the next level. Whether you have reshade, mods, or a PS4, there is no reason why you can't make those shots extra polished with Photoshop. Let's jump right in shall we?

BLUR OPTIONS This time, I’ll be talking about the different Blur options you can find in Photoshop! Both the Blur Gallery and the Blur options have a bunch of different features. They can make things look like they are moving, or add in cool depth of field effects. We're going to explore and implement some of the most used ones as well as explain the other options available.

MAKING OUR SELECTION Before we get into any Blur options, we need to make a selection of what we will OR won’t be blurring. Sometimes it’s easier to make a selection of just your subject and then inverse that selection. To make a selection, you can use one of many tools. I’d personally recommend the pen tool as everything in Final Fantasy XIV is built using polygons, so there are no truly curved edges. It’s much easier for me to take the pen tool and plot points along the edges of the subject. You can do it however you like! The lasso tool works just as well. If you need a tutorial on either tool, click here for the Pen tool, and here for the Lasso tool!

AETHERFLOW

LET'S START BLURRING Now that we’ve made our selection, let’s start with the first option in the Blur Gallery, Field Blur. This is a Blur option that blurs the entire field, or whatever you have selected. You can control how much blur you want and also adjust the bokeh effect to create something like this!

AETHERFLOW

Here is the finished product! Super clean and simple. In patch 4.5, Gpose got a major update. Now you can set manual focus in an image and the depth of field slider has gotten far more powerful. However, if you still want a clean bokeh effect you may have to turn to editing software. "Hold up a second, what's bokeh?", you might be asking. In photography, bokeh is the aesthetic quality of a blur created in the out-of-focus parts of an image. Here are some examples! Pretty cool, right?

IRIS BLUR The second blur option is Iris Blur. This will create a little ‘eye’ in the middle of your photo, it doesn’t blur the center, but instead steadily blurs the area around the center until it reaches its set blur level. This can be great when you want certain things in focus, and other things out of focus! Like this!

AETHERFLOW

But wait, before you click 'OK', there is a small problem... The foreground is blurred and the space behind our subject is not. This isn't exactly what we're aiming for is it? So how do we fix this? We move the 'eye'.

By moving the 'eye' to the bottom or foreground of the photo, we can keep that area in focus and blur the outside of wherever the boundary ends. Clicking and dragging the white diamond shape in the top right corner will allow you to change the shape of the eye to be more square. This can help in landscape photos like this where there is a defined horizon line. The final result is to the right!

AETHERFLOW

TILT-SHIFT The next blur option is Tilt-Shift. TiltShift is tricky to master, but it can have some awesome results if done well. TiltShift works very similarly to Iris Blur, but instead of an eye, it creates a bar that stretches across your photo and blurs everything above and below the bar, or left to right depending how you rotate it. The effect is an interesting one, it can make landscapes look like tiny toy models!

AETHERFLOW

You keep seeing these options here... but what do they mean? We've already discussed what bokeh is. Light Bokeh just amplifies the effects. Bokeh Color will bring the original color of the light back so that yellow lights appear more yellow, pink lights look more rosy, you catch my drift. Light Range is important. Normally, Light Bokeh will select the lightest range in the photo to work with. But sometimes you may not want that effect. By toggling the light range on certain photos you'll get different effects! Try it out and see what you can come up with!

AETHERFLOW

PATH BLUR Path Blur is next! Path Blur will blur in the direction that you define using the pen tool. It can be used to create motion blur and make things look like theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re going fast.

SPIN B

The last optio is Spin Blur. T for rounded ob what you think selection to lo Blur Angle ad want the spin relatively low a of the tire to st

AETHERFLOW

BLUR

on in the Blur Gallery This works really well bjects. It does exactly k it would, it blurs the ook like itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s spinning! djusts how blurry you n to be. I kept mine as I wanted the details till be visable.

Wondering how I got the dirt and dust spray shown above? Patience, my dear reader, that is coming up ne

AETHERFLOW

ext!

OTHER BLUR OPTIONS That explains all the Blur options in the Blur Gallery, but what about the basic Blur options? I’m so glad you asked! Many of these options; Blur, Blur more, Box Blur, Gaussian Blur, Lens Blur, Smart Blur, and Shape Blur are options that I hardly ever use. That doesn’t mean that they’re useless! Far from it. Lens Blur may get you some interesting results, as it adds blur to an image to give the effect of a narrower depth of field; so that some objects in the image stay in focus and others areas are blurred. But overall, the same effect could be accomplished by making a selection and then blurring the selection with Iris or Field Blur. Always experiment though! There are several ways to do the same thing in Photoshop.

MOTION BLUR The last one I’d like to talk about is Motion Blur. This can really add some polish to your screenshots. Whether you add a sparks overlay and add motion to those sparks like I did in the photo on the right, or use it to make your weapon look like it has some force behind it, you’ll get some incredible effects.

AETHERFLOW

There you have it! Try things out, see what you can create! I’d love to see your shots. If you try out any of these filters, post them to your social media with #AFMAugmented. I can’t wait to see what you can create! Until next time, happy editing!

Hydae Hea

DESIGN O

In this installment of Hydaelynâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Hearth I have put my Pinterest Board away and replaced it with my good ole budget spreadsheet! Since not everyone enjoys the art of crafting, I will be featuring a budget friendly look filled with items and dyes that are purchasable from various NPCs found around Hydaelyn. With a goal of keeping the budget of the entire apartment at or below 500,000 gil, I grabbed my proverbial coin purse and set off to do some shopping! I wanted to make this apartment feel like home. Some bold colors, cozy nooks and, of course, plants. If you know anything

AETHERFLOW

elyn's arth

ON A DIME

about me and my decorating itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s that I love using plants. Fortunately for me, some (limited) vendors have them! I sectioned off the room to allow for a quaint little kitchenette, a lavish bedroom, a dining area, a seating area and a reading nook. To make the room feel cozy, I chose a beautiful deep Rolanberry Red theme, and dyed the partitions to match. I opted to keep the rest of the walls white to ensure that this bold red would really pop. Many dyes are available from Junkmongers, and even more at the beast tribes. You could dye this room into just about any color direction your heart desires!

TEXT BY SERENA SPARKLES | PHOTOS BY SKRULLY MATSUYAMA | LAYOUT BY TOMOKO HAKUUCHI

Upon entering my apartment, you’ll notice the little quaint kitchenette to the right. I kept it simple so as to avoid overcrowding; Hydaelyn knows I can’t function in clutter! I couldn’t help but include the adorable little Ame-zaiku Set, and no kitchen is complete without a Vegetable Basket for food preparation. With these items placed on top of an Oasis Counter, I then decided to line the kitchen walls with Interior Brick Wall backsplash to offset it a bit from the rest of the apartment, giving it a unique setting. The final touch was adding the big windows to shed some desperately needed light into this dark little corner through the use of the Fool’s Thresholds. However, if you look closely at the kitchen, you will notice that I did make one slight faux pas... I left my Summoning Bell! Unfortunately this item is crafted and thus does not actually fit the theme of Design on a Dime, so I would greatly appreciate it if you could turn a blind eye to this little mishap!

AETHERFLOW

On the left youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll find a seating area with a gorgeous Doman Dogwood and a couple of Hingan Benches, perfect for plopping down to remove your shoes since no mud is allowed in this establishment! Just on the other side of the seating area is the designated dining spot, complete with meal sets and floral arrangements. Here I used the Glade Tea Set and Oasis Breakfast because I liked the subtlety of them, but there are a variety of meal options available from the NPC so take your pick! Two Oriental Wall Scrolls don the wall behind the dining table, giving a little something simple yet elegant to offset the plain white.

Around the Open Partitions, you’ll find yourself in the source of inspiration for the theme and overall feel of the apartment, and the part that I used to start decorating outwards. I know, seems odd to start decorating a room from the center doesn’t it? Try not to judge too harshly… The NPCs offer a variety of beds for you, but I chose to go with the Futon Mattress as it dyed the way I preferred and looked immensely more comfortable than the other options. As the majority of this mattress is white, it becomes eye catching in the mostly darkly decorated room. A Hingan Wardrobe was used to mimic a headboard with Hingan Sideboards off to the sides to provide more counter space as well as to hide the baseboards of the walls. Fool’s Thresholds were then placed to bring in some light, as well as that gorgeous pattern they play on the furniture and floor, providing a bit more texture to the room. The Devil’s in the details, so I made sure to include some wall decorations and table top items throughout the space as well. There are many different trinkets you can opt for as well, so even a tight budget can’t restrict your imagination! And of course, no room is complete without Laundry! Even the Warrior of Light has to change and wash their clothes.

AETHERFLOW

The time between fetch quests and big primal fights tends to get boring, so I made sure to include a cozy little reading nook. Complete with a gorgeous Doman Dogwood to add some beauty to the massive Pile and Stacks of Tomes, this little nook and its Zabuton Cushion provide a great escape from the harsh reality that even though we can defeat any enemy, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re still just messenger boys/girls, picking flowers at the feet of ladies who are too lazy to bend over and pick them themselves... I'm not salty. On the following page is a compiled list of all of the items used in this apartment and their total cost.

I tems Used Hingan Pillar x2 Stack of Tomes x2 Pile of Tomes Hingan Bench x4 Hingan Sitting Table Oasis Counter Hingan Sideboard x2 Hingan Wardrobe Open Partition x4 Glade Flower Vase x2 Table Chronometer Encyclopedia Eorzea x3 Zabuton Cushion Vegetable Basket Laundry Glade Tea Set Oasis Breakfast Decorative Wall Fan x2 Brick Interior Wall x8 Glade Wall Chronometer Riviera Fringed Rug Oasis Argyle Rug Futon Mattress Sumptuous Dimension Castle Vase x3 Imposing Dimension Castle Vase x5 Gridanian Bouquet x3 Oriental Wall Scroll x2 Pine Bonsai x3 Fool’s Threshold x6 Doman Dogwood x2 Sake Set Ame-zaiku Set Mummer’s Wardrobe Total: 381,308

100

AETHERFLOW

As you can see, I was drastically under budget and still have room to spare! While I am not a fan of clutter and stopped decorating below capacity, you can certainly continue adding more fine details and remain within budget. With that, our tour comes to an end! I do hope that this has opened your eyes to the vast possibilities available to you, even if you are not a crafter and/or are a lone wolf. You donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to be a gillionaire to have a beautifully decorated home or apartment, you just have to let your imagination soar!

101

102

AETHERFLOW

103

104

AETHERFLOW

105

FASHION

FOCUS Eorzea’s most stylish individuals brought into focus. Interview, photos & layout by Lolae Demort

Kasai Kurayami - Moogle

How would you describe your personal style? My outfits are the result of looking through my retainers’ inventories for hours and scouring the market board. I tend to improvise and just wing it most of the time. I do admit that I prefer pieces and combinations that look a little more casual.

since I'm still exploring a lot of different styles and options... My style probably is a little quiet right now since it's busy discovering new glamours and combinations! Do you have a fashion petpeeve?

What do want your current style to say on your behalf?

When an items I really like dyes the wrong way and ruins an entire glamour... I can't be the only one who feels this way?

That's a hard one... I don't think I have a definite style yet

If you could name or label your personal style in (max) 3

106

AETHERFLOW

words, what would it be called? What about “currently still nameless”? I can't really put my finger on what my style is, which makes it hard to pick 3 words to describe it. Creating glamours from scratch instead of using full sets is something I’ve only started doing recently, so I'm learning as I go.

107

108

AETHERFLOW

109

WEAPON: Sparth HEAD: Classic Spectacles BODY: Skallic coat of Fending, Soot Black Dye HANDS: Skallic Armguards of Fending, Soot Black Dye LEGS: Hakama #55 FEET: Choka #55 110

AETHERFLOW

111

112

AETHERFLOW

113

114

AETHERFLOW

115

WEAPON: Schlaeger HEAD: Classic Spectacles BODY: Ala Mhigan Coat of Casting, Snow White Dye HANDS: Augmented Shire Philosopher's Gloves LEGS: Scion Adventurer's Bottoms FEET: Augmented Shire Philosopher's Thighboots 116

AETHERFLOW

117

118

AETHERFLOW

119

120

AETHERFLOW

121

WEAPON: Kards HEAD: Scion Rogue's Bandana BODY: Replica Dreadwyrm Cyclas of Scouting, Soot Black Dye HANDS: Arachne Field Dressing of Scouting LEGS: Hakama #55 FEET: Choka #55

122

AETHERFLOW

123

124

AETHERFLOW

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT SCHOLASTICATE QUESTS

TEXT BY RYMMRAEL BHALDRAELWYN - PHOTOS BY MIYU MAKOTO - LAYOUT BY LOLAE DEMORT

There’s a growing trend in gaming these days, especially MMOs; to rush as quickly as possible to reach the endgame and start what some people even refer to as the “real” game. It’s the sort of mentality that drives powerleveling and job boost/story skip sales. I’m not criticizing, as I’ve spent my fair share of time as a part of the zerg-rush to the level cap; the lure of fun new MSQ, challenging encounters, and shiny loot is a powerful incentive. But it’s a shame to see so many sidequests regulated to leveling alt jobs or, more often than not, passed over entirely for more efficient XP-per-hour activities such as Deep Dungeons or Daily Roulettes. Sometimes, gamers really should slow down a little and smell the roses. Especially in a game like Final Fantasy XIV which has well over 1,200 sidequests so far. They are well worth doing, as not only do the majority of them live up

to Final Fantasy’s long tradition of great storytelling, but many of the unassuming little gold exclamation points actually hide unique rewards that are not available from any other source. These hidden gems can take the form of amazing glamour gear, emotes, orchestrion rolls, pets, or housing items; and, unless you are like me and spend inordinate amounts of time shifting through databases to root out the special rewards, you’ll never know they are there if you just stick to the Main Scenario Quests. One such bundle of quests that rewards you well for stepping off the beaten path of the MSQ is the Scholasticate quest chain. The first quest merely offers you the choice of rather unassuming level 56 helms as a reward, but if you commit and stick out the entire series the final two will reward you with two glamour pieces and an exclusive emote.

125

The emote is a short but extremely cute motion where your character adjusts his or her spectacles while changing expression; the exact gesture and face they make is exclusive to each race and gender combo but all of them are sure to make your character look smart and more than a little sassy. Pairing nicely with the emote, one of the two glamour items is your very own Inspector's Eyeglasses; a very classy pair of halfrim glasses that might not raise your intelligence attribute, but certainly look like they should. The final reward is the aptly named Scholasticate Coat; a very professional-looking (and dyeable!) chest piece that just oozes sophistication. There is only a minor difference in the look of the coat between genders- female characters get a bow at the collar while males get something closer to a cravat. In addition to the ‘physical’ rewards, you’ll also get three achievements and two titles thrown into the bargain. The full chain is 12 quests long, which might seem drawn out, but they were originally doled out slowly between patches 3.0 and 3.5. There is also quite the level jump in the requirements between the first and second quests, so while the chain technically starts at level 56, if you want to do them all in one go you should really wait until you are level 60. At that level or higher, you can blow through them fairly quickly if you don’t mind skipping dialog or cutscenes, but if you are like me and want to take your time to enjoy the story, it shouldn’t take you much more than a couple of hours to complete. The whole thing starts in the Holy See of Ishgard with the quest “Keeping the Ledger” from Mathye, who you will find loitering near the far end of the Jeweled Crozier. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t see a quest marker with this name on your map; the quest giver offers multiples quests and as long as you’ve completed the MSQ “He Who Would Not Be Denied” and meet the level requirement, he’ll have this one for you. It’s a fairly simple quest that takes place entirely in the Holy See. You’ll just need to talk to several people and search some bookshelves, but pay attention to the dialog! Once you return to Mathye, he’ll ask you a question with several answers to choose from, the correct answer being based on the information you gathered.

126

AETHERFLOW

127

128

AETHERFLOW

The next part also starts at Mathye but, as I mentioned before, the second quest“Contradicting Convictions” - has steeper requirements. You need to be level 60 and have completed the MSQ titled “Heavensward” (the final quest of the original 3.0 MSQ) as well as the side quest “Her Last Vow” (the final quest of the 2.0 Hildibrand quest chain). The entirety of this quest also takes place in the Holy See and merely involves talking to certain people at various locations. There is also a cutscene which starts the ball rolling on the story of the chain. At the end you return once more to Mathye at the same location, but he’ll have a friend with him this time and she and her quest will act as a bridge to the next leg of the chain. Gaetelle is located right next to where you turn in the second quest, and as soon as you do, she’ll be waiting to hand you the third, “The Benefits of Consultation”. This is where the story starts to really take off. You’ll meet a familiar face and be introduced to most of the principal players in the quest chain’s plot. Most of you will also start noticing a trend at this point- almost all the quests take place in the Holy See. There’s quite a bit of running around, talking to different people, and watching several (highly amusing, in this writer’s opinion) cutscenes. However there is very little combat over the course of the entire thing. The previous quest ends right in front of Bruvagnon (hurray for all these unpronounceable elezen/French names), the NPC who will offer you the next quest“Balancing the Spear”. More running, more talking, more cut scenes; I’ll spare you the details. However the next quest, “More than Meets Her Eye” started by Briardien, is the first one in the chain that ventures outside of the city and has a bit of combat involved. Completing this one will finish up the first

batch of quests that came out in 3.15 and award you with an achievement and the title “Special Advisor.” The next part of the chain did not appear until patch 3.4 and picked up again at the same place it left off, with Briardien offering the quest, “Divine Reckoning”. After quite a bit of talking, it once again takes you out of the city and into Western Coerthas Highlands (of course, as far as possible from the only aetheryte in the zone). Unfortunately, there’s no combat to spice things up this time. For that, you’ll have to wait until after “Through the Grapevine” and “A Familial Resemblance” which are both simple errand quests, though they do both have juicy bits of story development for those who enjoy that facet of questing. “Finding Ulaa” from Briardien ends the 3.4 part of the chain and does offer a bit of combat in addition to the story. The achievement for the end of this leg doesn’t offer any title; I’m afraid you’ll have to wait for the conclusion for the second of those.

"HOORAY FOR ALL THESE UNPRONOUNCEABLE, FRENCH-SOUNDING ELEZEN NAMES!"

129

Speaking of which, the final arc was released in patch 3.5 and commenced with “The Student Body’s Revenge”, available from Briardien who is right where you left him in Saint Reymanaud’s Cathedral. It’s a fun quest that’ll give your emote menu some use. After that comes “The Whipping Boy” which is just a short quest involving speaking to two NPCs. The quest after it, “Letters from No One” which is given to you by Theomocent, is the second-to-last of the chain and the first one where you’ll start to hit paydirt. After that, Briardien will offer you the last quest, “The Life and Lies of Father Saturnois”. It's a wonderfully written finale to the chain and includes several cutscenes. From it you get the glamour coat as well as the third achievement and second title, “Of the Holy Body”. All-in-all, it’s not a bad way to spend a few hours. If you’re at all like me, I recommend taking your time and enjoying it simply for the story; a lot of effort went in to making it an engaging, entertaining activity. Even if you don’t rank storytelling very highly on your priorities when gaming, you're still rewarded for your time and effort. I also can’t help but hope that seeing such a wonderfully told tale (and the unexpected incentives offered from it) will inspire you to step outside the MSQ and the endgame grind. After completing the Scholasticate quests, you’ll have 12 sidequests down but another 1,200 to go!

130

AETHERFLOW

131

CURIOSITIES OF COSPLAY MAGfest 2019 was a roaring con of music nerds, DJs, cosplayers, and gamers of every stripe gathered together for an exciting but exhausting four-day party. Misha and Constantine were still in cosplay despite nearing the end of the day, but I'd already broken down and changed into my post-cosplay outfit of leggings and an oversized t-shirt with a carbuncle logo that reads “Carbucks Coffee.” Feeling self-aware of my

leisurely attire, I couldn’t help but ask, “Can you sit in those?” while motioning to the couple’s stunning costumes of Omega-M and Omega-F. They laughed and shook their heads. Their easy smiles did not betray a hint of exhaustion. Professional yet genuinely amicable, they were a pleasure to speak with, and their passion for their costumes and the materials that inspire them were the shining stars in our interview that followed.

Text by A’onisya Dehf Photos by FxDandy, velvetartmedia & Ethereous Photography Layout by Lolae Demort

133

Tell us a little about yourself! How did you start cosplaying? Misha I first started making costumes with my high school theatre crew, and thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s where I first got really familiar using a sewing machine. The only artfocused college I applied to at all was Parsons, and I started in business management. Eventually I switched from fashion business to fashion design straight up. Now, working in the fashion industry, I like to keep costuming as a hobby. My profession is so uptight,

134

AETHERFLOW

with clear, defined, tailored lines for a consumer. With cosplay and costuming I can express more creativity and make something out of my own mind and heart. Have you been able to push the boundaries of your costumes by working together in ways you couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t when you were creating cosplays individually? Constantine Misha has really inspired me when it comes to sewing. His sewing skills are phenomenal while I still lack in it! But

heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s taught me a patterning costum

Misha We both have the on costuming th always end up in t that not so many give us a lot of jo artwork is a big that drove us to designs look like drew for the orig We were so impre the design was, w

a lot about fabric and mes.

e same core aesthetic hat we enjoy, so we these really niche ideas y people recognize but oy. Yoshitaka Amanoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s inspiration for us, and o Omega because the e the box art that he ginal Final Fantasy 14. essed by how beautiful we had to do it.

"With costuming and cosplay, I can express more creativity and make something out of my own mind and heart."

You both bring elegance and poise to the characters you portray, and make it look effortless. I’m sure that grace takes a lot of practice, though. Misha Constantine has modeled previously and helped me a lot with posing and makeup and things where I start to fall short. They help me pick up the slack in their own experience both in real life and making things as a hobby. So together we make some interesting things! Constantine I grew up around my mom who was and still is a model. So I guess I try to emulate the experience I have from watching her when it comes to photos or videos, and he picks up on that. Misha [laughing] They teach me everything. I also like to listen to music that suits the character when I craft or design. I often decide on a song that encapsulates that character’s mood to get into their headspace before a photoshoot, though I don’t do it on location shoots as much as I’d like.

136

AETHERFLOW

137

Your cosp to detail in priority in y

Constant Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been young. On Midna from so I really to get that other tuto but I also it. Lots of

Misha I always costuming that Cons nice and myself.â&#x20AC;? It to the str using the transform step furth of the cha I used to

138

AETHERFLOW

plays always feature a lot of attention n the makeup. Was makeup always a your costumes, or did that come later?

but I realized I could do more to individualize each character, so over time I’ve been able to improve on that after seeing Constantine’s work.

tine practicing makeup since I was really ne of my first major cosplays was m Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, had to learn how to do certain things t look. I learned a lot from videos and orials when I was working on Midna, o put my own flavor and twist into f practice, lots and lots of practice!

You strive for accuracy in your cosplays, but do you also add your own personal touches?

had a very specific way of doing g makeup, but after a while I noticed stantine did things that looked really I thought, “Wait, I never did that t was little details like paying attention ructure of the character’s face and appropriate makeup to contour and m my face into theirs, then taking it a her to make a realistic interpretation aracter, which is number one for me. be a little more shy with makeup,

[Both are nodding and laughing fervently “yes.”] Misha I had to balance this costume alongside work and wasn’t able to budget out the full time required for it. So in its current version there are a lot of elements I ignored and also a lot of elements that I added to have the costume make more sense in construction. Usually video game designers are not clothing designers, so even if you want to go for complete accuracy, you still need a degree of creativity to figure out how to translate it to real life. I just take that a few million steps further and base a lot of my own designs in the costume as well. Yoshitaka Amano’s art in particular inspires our costumes partly because of the fluidity of the lines and the rawness of the feeling in his work. We like the freedom to emulate that fluidity in our creations.

139

Constantine It’s not so much the accuracy that’s important in a costume. If you have freedom to do your own thing, like our costumes being inspired by Amano’s work, then I say go for it. I’m also inspired by Kojima Ayami; I’ve always loved that kind of dark look with a lot of detail, which is why I always try to push for detail in my costumes and makeup. Sometimes simple is better, but if I’m able to give a little something extra then I always go for it! It’s important that you feel comfortable with your costume and that you love what you make at the end of the day. So as long as you’ve got that feeling, you’ve won!

140

AETHERFLOW

What was the most difficult part in the creation of your cosplay, and what are you proudest of now that they’re finished? Constantine The hardest part was figuring out how to shape everything to my body. I never really had an armor set quite like this, so it was really new trying to figure out shape, but once I got it I was amazed! I was like, “Finally I did it!” So, I’d say that was extremely hard for me. But I got it! Misha Patterning out armor, and patterning in general, is my biggest weakness. I’m a lot more skilled at

"I feel the first round of a costume is always a trial run."

fabric and working with fabric and draping fabric. So the whole armor set for Omega-M really took a toll on me, especially since I work full time. I had to do a lot of spray painting outside, and it was too cold for the paint to dry properly. So I do want to make it look even nicer when I can in the future. I feel the first round of a costume is always a trial run, and then I really start to feel confident by the second or even third time. Kefka was the same; I premiered the costume at Anime Expo, but knew there was a lot I wanted to refine. I improved it two more times and changed the makeup to the more recent Dissidia style as opposed to the older FF6 style. So I had a lot of evolutions of Kefka and I think Omega-M will be the same.

Cosplayers sometimes throw themselves into projects so difficult that they exhaust themselves in the process and are sick of even looking at the their cosplay. So it’s refreshing to hear you say, “Well, this was a first attempt” and actually look forward to improving your costume in the future. Misha We put a lot of time and love and craft into these costumes, which is why we also don’t pump out cosplays nearly as fast as some costumers out there. We’re really slow paced compared to most cosplayers, but we kind of enjoy it that way. At least I know that I do, because I can really target

141

142

AETHERFLOW

characters that I deeply care about compared to when I would kind of jump around a bit more. I can really focus and make something that I can ultimately look back on and think that was a piece that I made that I feel confident about, and that satisfaction means a lot to me. Do you have any advice for beginning cosplayers who are inspired or intimidated by the work you two do, and wonder how they can learn to create costumes like yours? Misha I consider myself more of a costumer than a cosplayer right now because I feel there’s a great deal of pressure, especially on people that are probably just starting to grow up in the current environment, to constantly put something out and have it be perfect first time and really throw themselves into it. People crave the content, and creators think, “Oh, I want to impress my followers, I want to impress people who are watching.” There’s so much emphasis on perfection and being the best, or getting stuff out there to get the views and likes. I can’t fault them; that’s how the algorithms are structured! But in terms of wanting to come out with a quality costume that you really love, it’s important to love yourself as well.

The kind of satisfaction that I receive from my costumes is when I can, as Constantine said, spend my time to make something that I feel good about. Because at the end of the day, it’s just me in my room making things. I never like looking back and seeing a of mess of stuff that was just thrown off to the side, only worn once or only put together once for a show. Now that I’ve slowed down I’m really starting to appreciate that. There’s nothing bad about going at a slower pace, and there’s nothing bad about coming back to things, there’s nothing bad about being imperfect. Constantine I would say patience. Lots of patience and pacing yourself is extremely important. Putting off a costume like this to the last minute is just not a good idea. Unfortunately that’s kind of what I did, because of a bunch of other things going on, but if I had paced myself and taken more time to draw out a plan and pattern things out in a certain way, the costume probably would have come out differently. But it’s like Misha said - you have the first trial, and your second trial, and your third trial, so there are trials to it. But in the end I’d say patience. It’s a good thing.

Find more from cosplayers Misha & Constantine by clicking the icons below! Misha

Constantine

143

ᄒan ᆃၰt ᆈeaၷure VVERN ACATOL A Interview by Tetemui Temui Images by Vvernacatola Layout by Arya Rose

144

AETHERFLOW

145

146

AETHERFLOW

How/when did you start drawing? I realized that I enjoyed drawing very early on on my life. My older brother is actually my inspiration because growing up, he loved to draw all my favorite characters from video games and I thought to myself, “wow, I wish I could draw like him one day!”. I was never too sure where my art would take me one day, so I didn’t get serious about it until my first year of college.

147

Do you work as an illustrator or is drawing a hobby of yours? Currently, I’m 100% a freelance illustrator. I’ve always wanted to wake up and have a drawing to do that day. Luckily, everything eventually worked out for me - even though I’m not sure how. I couldn’t ask for more! You really draw a wide variety of images. Looking through your galleries, I dig your planet series. They reminded me of the Pale Man in Pan’s Labyrinth. Is there someone or something who/where you took inspiration from? My planet series was one of my favorite projects I put together for myself. It was also a learning experience for me since it was one of the early pieces I did with Photoshop. They’re all pencil drawings that I scanned in and colored from there. As for the inspiration, I’m not entirely sure where the creature art came from. Ever since I was young, I found myself doodling creatures on every class assignment paper. Though, I’m sure some of the inspiration can be attributed to the Alien and Predator movies. That would be my best guess. How did you discover Final Fantasy XIV? The Final Fantasy series has always been one of my favorites growing up. Getting excited about each release date was always a big event for me. Of course, FFXIV was one I had to try after being a big fan of FFXI so many years back.

148

AETHERFLOW

149

150

AETHERFLOW

So, which Final Fantasy is your favorite? It has to be Final Fantasy Tactics. The job system and the story blew me away as a kid, and even to this day, I get way too excited seeing the smallest bit of references in FFXIV. I even decorated my apartment in the game to look like the outfitter’s shop! You could imagine how overjoyed I was during the entire Ivalice raid tiers this expansion. I can imagine! Have the Ivalice raids lived up to your expectations? The Ivalice raids have been way more than I expected out of them. At first, when I heard of it, I was skeptical of the whole thing, and wondering if it would deliver that same feeling I once had long ago. Of course, I was pleasantly surprised by all of it! From the moment you start the quest, the classical music started playing, and I knew it was going to be a good ride. From the monsters, bosses, skills, and armor drops, I found myself going “OH! That’s the...!” Going back to drawing: Which of the FFXIV commissions are your favorite? My favorite drawing I’ve done so far is actually a commission I did a few months back. There was just something that I did with the color that made me really like the end result!

151

You have a wide variety of portraits of the FFXIV world. Has there been any piece that was challenging to you? My most challenging piece? I think anything to do with the Au Ra. There’s something about the scales and horns that I can never seem to get the feeling of right no matter how much I try. I find myself erasing and redrawing them all the time in one piece, hoping it turns out fine in the end. I’m surprised by the Au Ra! The commissions you did so far just look way too awesome. Well, thank you! Luckily people don’t get to see the part of the process where I’m sweating, looking at the scales, and then saying to myself over and over “Is this right? I hope it’s right. This ... isn’t right”. I’m glad you think the end result turns out nice! That definitely means a lot. How does commissioning you work? I tend to break down the commission process into three easy steps, that way it’s never confusing or frustrating for anyone. Many times, I have people that never commissioned an artist before getting nervous that it will be a complex transaction, but so far, they’ve all left happy! They could either reach me through Discord, Facebook, or e-mail whichever one works best for them. Even a simple “Hello, I’m looking for a commission” is enough to get the ball rolling. To get in contact with VVernacatola, use these links!

Ravioli#7882

152

AETHERFLOW

153

T H E

J OY

O F

T H E

CULINARIAN TEXT & IMAGES BY TETEMUI TEMUI | LAYOUT & EDITING BY LOLAE DEMORT

154

AETHERFLOW

SPRING MOTIVATION

Spring is a wonderful season. It marks the beginning of a new life cycle, and everywhere the vivid colors of nature awaken us from deep winter slumber. It is the time when we throw out old things, weed out the garden, or re-paint the walls! Or it could include finally leveling up all those gatherer and crafter classes youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been postponing for months now. Whatever your spring projects are, this issueâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s menu is just for you!

Entree Parsnip Salad Main course Jhammel Moussaka Dessert Mint Lassi

155

PARSNIP SALAD

Just as you’ve begun your spring cleaning in the house, it’s time to get rid of all winter-y types of vegetables and fruits!

Preparation time: approx. 20 minutes Serves 4 people

156

AETHERFLOW

You will need: • 4 large parsnips • 8 handfuls of baby spinach • 100 grams of pine nuts (approx.¾ cup) • 2 small pears • 1 handful of fresh parsley • Olive oil • Fresh lemon juice • Salt and pepper, to taste

157

Clean and peel your parsnips and cut into wedges, slices, large cubes whatever you feel like. The result will taste marvellous either way. Drizzle them with a little olive oil and fry them in a pan over medium to high heat until brown. Set aside. In another frying pan without oil, toast the pine nuts over medium heat until fragrant. Set this pan aside as well (this is going to be fun to clean up later, eh?).

158

AETHERFLOW

Wash and peel the pears. Cut them into little cubes (or wedges, slices, starsâ&#x20AC;Ś). Wash and drain the spinach. Toss in the pears, parsnips, and pine nuts. Chop the parsley and sprinkle over the salad. Drizzle some olive oil and fresh lemon juice over your creation, add salt and pepper to taste, and mix thoroughly. Serve immediately.

159

160

AETHERFLOW

Jhammel Moussaka

Okay, technically, the jhammel moussaka is not a real moussaka, but more of a shepherd’s pie. Instead of layering eggplants and potatoes with meat and artery-clogging Béchamel sauce, the potatoes are mashed and used as a protective blanket while the meat simmers over roasted eggplants. Sounds mouthwatering anyway, right? So let’s get started!

Preparation time: approx. 1 hour Baking time: approx. 40 minutes Serves at least 4 people

You will need: • 400 grams of minced meat, preferably lamb (approx. 14 oz.) • 1.5 kilograms of starchy potatoes, e.g. Idaho Russet (approx. 3.4 lb.) • 2 eggplants • 1 large onion • 2 garlic cloves • 130 milliliters of milk (approx. ½ cup) • 60 grams of grated cheese, whatever you like (approx. ½ cup) • 40 grams of butter ( approx. 3 Tbs.) • 1 can of tomato puree • 1 egg • 1 tsp. salt • ½ tsp nutmeg powder • ½ tsp paprika powder, ground black pepper, ground cayenne pepper, ground cumin, ground coriander; each • Chili, to taste • Dash of red wine, if available • Flour, for dusting • Olive oil

161

162

AETHERFLOW

Preheat the oven to 220°C (430 °F). Wash and slice the eggplants into slices. Dust them with a little bit of flour and spread them on a baking pan lined with parchment paper. Drizzle a little bit of olive oil over it and put them in the oven. Forget them for a while (aka bake for at least 15 minutes, until they are properly roasted and your house smells like fresh babaganoush). Take them out before they are charred and let them cool down a bit. Reduce the heat of the oven to 180° C (360°F). Meanwhile, chop the onion and garlic into tiny pieces using your friend’s samurai sword (don’t let them know!). Watch a heartwrenching movie during this process to mask the true reason why you’re crying waterfalls.

Heat some olive oil in a deep frying pan and sauté the onion and garlic over medium heat until they become fragrant. And you. Your snowflake colleagues will love you tomorrow. Anyway, toss in the minced meat and fry until the meat is cooked through. Add the spices sans nutmeg, or just like me, go through your spice rack and add anything vaguely connected to Mediterranean cuisine. Add a generous dash of red wine, if you have it, and take a deep sip. Add a little more. Drink the rest and watch the wine magically reduce in your frying pan. Add the tomatoes and chili, stir, and reduce the heat to medium low. Cover and let it simmer for a bit.

163

164

AETHERFLOW

Time for mashed lala-, I mean potatoes! Wash the potatoes. Peel them, if you want - I prefer not to (or Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m just too lazyâ&#x20AC;Ś). Put them in a large pot with water and bring to a boil over high heat. Once the water boils, reduce the heat to medium and cook the potatoes until they are soft. Remove from heat and discard any water that is left. Mash them and slowly add both milk and butter. Throw in the nutmeg and salt. Add more milk if the consistency is not spreadable enough. To finish the mashed potatoes, stir in the grated cheese and egg. Set aside.

Grease a deep dish or casserole. Layer the roasted eggplants on the bottom. Spread the meat evenly over the eggplants. Cover the top with the mashed potatoes, sealing in the meat and eggplant. Put the casserole in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes, or until the top of the potatoes turns golden brown. Take out and enjoy!

165

Mint Lassi

After you definitely put way too much chili in your moussaka, why not cool down with a refreshing mint lassi? If you do not like the taste of mint, you can replace it with mango or strawberries. Take your trusty mixer and blend all ingredients together until smooth. Serve immediately!

Preparation time: approx. 10 minutes Serves 4 people

166

AETHERFLOW

You will need: • 2-3 handfuls of fresh mint leaves • 500 grams of plain full-fat (!) yogurt (approx. 2 cups) • 250 milliliters cold water (approx 1 cup) • 1-2 Tbs. rose water (to taste, basically) • 2-4 Tbs. sweetener (sugar, honey whatever) • Optional: pinch of ground cinnamon and ground ginger; each

167

168

AETHERFLOW

TEXT BY VEDERAH KILMISTER

IMAGES BY VEDERAH KILMISTER, EDITED BY ARYA ROSE

LAYOUT BY ARYA ROSE

The style in our stars Gather ‘round weary travellers, warriors from distant realms, or Ascian embodied corpses! Do you have the courage to see what the fates have in store? Are you brave enough to witness the flash of the draw to foresee your future? Will the cards speak of your heroism or will the suits plague your thoughts with worry? Did the fortune teller even remember to shuffle?

only flash upon the screen for mere seconds at a time, but the artwork and detailing upon the face of each one is so beautiful that it makes a Bob Ross painting look like a second grader’s doodle. That’s no mere happy tree, that’s a serpent wrapped Bole that has saved a tank or two. How many tanks have happy trees saved from death? None.

As an astrologian main, I’ve always found myself falling in love over and over again with every aspect of the class. As wielders of a celestial tarot, astrologians attempt to predict the future with their draws by empowering their companions with the will of the cards. It is these cards that, today, we place our focus. They may

The glamours you will find within are a pleasant mixture of both literal and conceptual interpretations of the suits within the astrologian’s Deck of Sixty: Bole, Ewer, Spire, Spear, Balance, Arrow, Lady of Crowns, and Lord of Crowns. So now, with the reveal of a card, may fate and fine fashions flash before your eyes.

169

the

Bole Cast your eyes to the skies, my friends, and see the outline of the first celestial heaven mapped amongst the stars! There you shall find the Bole; the serpent-wrapped World Tree kept by the great Matron and the Keeper. Which reminds me of the whole “Key Master/Gatekeeper” set up from the original Ghostbusters movie, but I’m sure this is a much healthier work relationship. The face of the card itself is one of the most breathtaking of the bunch. The World Tree is depicted with such wonderful detail- the twin serpents not only wrap around, but in some cases actually become parts of the tree itself. Down in the roots we spy their striped, snake-like tails, while the branches are partially symbolized by their great maws. On top of that, the coloring is just spectacular with the gradient of cool tones amongst the leaves down to the very warm shaded roots. Combined all together, this makes the defensive card a sight to behold.

170

AETHERFLOW

171

But how does it translate into a wardrobe when there’s no humanoid object to draw inspiration from? With a lot… a lot of difficulty. Not only are there so few items in the game that dye with a gradient as starkly contrasted as the card itself, but there are even fewer glamour pieces to make you resemble a full on tree! Shy of having my friend put on his all brown glamour with a green afro, I was struggling to find a suitable place to begin. It was then that I shifted my focus from the tree itself to the more subtle details on the card. Call in Samuel L. Jackson, cause we’re about to bring some mother effin’ snakes into this article. Despite the fact that this group of PvP gear sets is by far my favorite range of looks in the game, I often forget about them and their animal like features. How? I don’t know. The scholar chest piece is one of my favorite dresses to wear to eternal bondings. I use the sleeves on my astrologian constantly, and I’m pretty sure I featured part of the ninja in a recent blog post. But, then again, yours truly uses the flashlight on her phone to look for her phone. Fortunately, I had an

172

AETHERFLOW

“ah-ha!” moment and remembered that the dragoon Snakeliege set existed. The Snakeliege Scale Mail was perfect for a number of reasons. First, and definitely the most obvious, was that you had an actual snake wrapping around your torso. Second, was the wide scales. Those scales represented that perfect marriage of the serpent and the World Tree becoming one like they do in the illustration. Even though they’re mail, those scales are a great material representation of the tree’s bark. There was one glaring flaw with the piece, however. I’m a gal who likes symmetry and even though I was as pleased as a fat cat bathing in the sun to have the one snake, I desperately wanted the twin as represented in the card. I saw no other option than to have our model’s face become the snake herself! By using the Ghost Barque Mask of Maiming I was not only emulating the face of the second serpent, but the horns along the side of the mask seemed like a great way to conceptualize the snake’s heads fading into the branches of the World Tree.

173

174

AETHERFLOW

175

the

Balance Ah yes, Balance; reveal one of these to your party members and they all start losing their minds like fan-girls for an Aymeric sighting. Back, fiends! This card represents the Heaven of Fire, and boasts the visage of the sun goddess Azeyma: The Warden. Who can resist the allure of this stunning beauty- draped in fiery reds, and purples, and donning a majestic pair of wings to carry her to her divine throne? No one. I bet you even tried and failed. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t let it get to you though; just means youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re no better than the rest of us who became enthralled by her.

176

AETHERFLOW

177

Fortunately for most of the humanoid cards within the Deck of Sixty, their wardrobe consists of outfits vaguely modeled off of items we actually have in game. The trick is finding the items that dye most appropriately. Just off of the design and shape of Balanceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dress, a very logical choice would be either the Star Velvet Himation of Casting or the Himation of Healing. Both have the heavy draping on one side of the piece with the bralette showing on the alternate side. However, for this look it is important we attempt to get that same, stunning ombre effect that she has on the card. If you dye the Himation of Healing red, most of the dress stays the original color with the one drape dyeing red. Do the same with the Himation of Casting and the entire piece changes to varying shades of the color you selected- clearly making it the better option for this look. The headpiece is the major challenge here- and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m going to go ahead and beg Yoshi P. to implement that massive flowery, bow and gold filled monstrosity into the game. I will glamour into it and NEVER TAKE IT OFF for a week. And for those that know me, a week is a century long in the life span of my glamours. Nothing in

178

AETHERFLOW

game currently will be a perfect match to this hair pin, but you do have options depending on what you want to focus on. I liked the subtle pink flowers so the chest piece stayed the primary focus. For those of you who want to focus on the horns in the background for a more ominous look, I highly suggest the Republican Signifier’s Horns. The rest of this look is incredibly simple, as the primary focus is supposed to be on her actual dress. However, “simple” by no means implies that you should slap Emperor’s New pieces on the rest of the slots. You just need to look at the finer details of the illustrations to see if there’s anything you can do to highlight them. Her legs, for example, down by her ankles you see intricate, gold lines threading up her calves. The Thavnairian Tights would be a great piece to utilize to represent that, and to give a little more visual interest to the look. Same with her feet. Since you cannot have bare feet in this game without the use of a mod, I chose to dye the Gaganaskin Sandals of Casting a color that most closely matched her skin tone in order to make it look like she was simply wearing an ornate anklet. It’s the little details, my friends, the little details.

179

180

AETHERFLOW

181

the

Spire It is said in the third heaven that a great spire constructed by Byregot rises into eternity and is riddled by constant levinstrikes from Rhalgr trying to bring it down out of jealousy. Because, even as a deity, you still have that annoying little brother constantly trying to knock down your impressive Lego tower.

182

AETHERFLOW

183

I surprisingly had an easier time with this look than I did Bole. How? Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m not sure, because there are precisely zero items that make you look like a building. A tin can as a low level tank, yes; but a skyscraper? No. But we treat this the same way we should be treating any cosplay or other inspired glamour. What shapes are highly represented here? What colors do I need to pull into the look? Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s happening here in the background that we can pull into the outfit? Structure is by far the most important aspect of recreating this glamour. The look will need symmetry, need to be clean and crisp, and we need to kill it with metallic details. If you glance at the Spire card, you will notice that the building almost has an Ishgardian style to its form, which makes sense since this job was introduced in the Heavensward expansion. Long, spiked towers and majestic archways throughout- we needed a strong chest piece that could mimic aspects of this design. My first go to was the Replica High Allagan Coat of Casting. This jacket was highly structured with its sharp lines and did have pale, gold

184

AETHERFLOW

accents that we needed. But to me it felt very flat and one noted. It didn’t feel majestic enough. The majesty I needed was in the Gordian Gown of Casting. Here was a piece that had not only the color range I strived for, but had those same sharp lines as well as curved pieces along the hem to mimic those archways! And if that wasn’t enough- those dagger like protrusions of the shoulder were utterly perfect representations of those slender towers! But just as every Christmas Tree needs a starry topper, our Spire needed it's golden peak. We needed something just as sharp and lean to pierce through the heavens to make this look worthy of Rhalgr’s envy. What better piece for the job than the intricate Rakshasa Kanmuri of Casting? This helm looks like it was completely inspired by the Spire’s pinnacle itself! Want extra bonus points to take this look completely over the top? Equip yourself with one of Ramuh’s levin infused weapons and take command over the bolts that were intended to strike you down.

185

186

AETHERFLOW

187

the

Arrow I always loved how the arrow card was described on Gamer Escape as being meant to deliver clarity to those plagued by indecision, overcontemplation, and confusion. Well load me up with those arrows, hunny, because those are probably the 3 most used words to describe me. Hi, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m Ved- Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m indecisive, I over-contemplate, and am perpetually confused.

188

AETHERFLOW

189

Arrow was a tricky look to emulate since the gear portrayed doesn’t have an exact match within the game’s wardrobe. Much to my chagrin, there are few male tops that are particularly “chesty” that could also be dyed. I tried the Coliseum Galerus and some summer seasonal tops to no avail. But, instead of raising the flag of defeat, I refocused on items that may have coverage but perhaps have additional accessories that would help provide a more asymmetric look. Enter the Republican Sagittarius’s Chiton. Not only did this garment provide extra armour upon the left shoulder, but it also boasted the loincloth along the waistline - which ultimately would give us a little more freedom with pant choices! Did we lose the hunky

190

AETHERFLOW

look of a bare chest? Sure. But we gained so much more in return. And I’m all about the return on investment when it comes to clothes. Asymmetry is a big part of this look, obviously, to the point I’m not even sure why I made the point to reiterate that to you besides the fact that I’m now on my fourth cup of coffee and the jitters are starting to kick in. Can’t be helped; it’s far too early for wine, so we just have to make do. But, as I was saying; asymmetry. Both the top and bottom portions of this outfit really herald that concept. In order to bring that same look down to the pants, I found that the Summer Evening Trunks worked great. Not only were they one sided, but they still looked very rugged and earthyvery fitting for our wandering hunter.

191

192

AETHERFLOW

193

the

Ewer Ewer; represented in a similar fashion to the visage of Aquarius, the water bearer. Here the cardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s visage pours aether from his vessel, releasing the endless stream of magicks unto the world of Eorzea. His image is very clean and immensely simple which was a much welcomed change after trying to sort through the endless trials of looks for Bole and Arrow.

194

AETHERFLOW

195

When it comes to looks as elegant, yet basic as these, it really opens up the chances for characters of all jobs and levels to recreate. We now, fortunately, have a plethora of longer skirts to choose from that are not gender locked, and a vast range of level one items that can be used by any class. One such item was the Wild Rose Bandana. It’s an ornately patterned headpiece that does a lovely job of pattern mixingwhich is something we don’t see too very often within this game. Another such item is the Thavnairian Turban. Both of these items were perfectly suitable for a representation of the Ewer card since both have some pretty nice perks. The bandana, though undyeable, has a very eye-catching combination of contrasting colors that’d work great for this look, whereas the turban has ornate features such as the gold clip and the feather, but fell a little flat when dyed. Honestly, you couldn’t go wrong with either piece, but I went with the bandana simply because the color contrast really caught my eye- which is sometimes difficult to do when the glamour is very minimalistic. I know I’ve said this in basically every article I’ve written in my

196

AETHERFLOW

entire history of glamour writing, but I cannot stress enough that small details matter. Case in point: depending on the skirt you chose for your interpretation of this look, you may not be able to always visualize the shoes. Does that give you clearance to wear the Dream Boots underneath your flowy garb? No, it does not. Why? Because there’s people like me that are so glamour obsessed that watch your character as it runs to see how well the shoes go with the look. I can’t help it; I’ve tried. If I’m going to admire your look, I’m going to inspect you and admire the entire damn thing. Right down to the nitty gritty. So next time you don’t bother glamming those hideous pants because you’re wearing a dress, know that I see it and am slightly judging you. Just kidding. /hug Anyways: shoes. Whether you can see them or not, I tried finding a functional shoe that has nice coverage by the ankle and top of the foot while still feeling like it belonged with the look we were creating. For me, the True Griffin Caligae of Striking pairs really nicely here. There was a deconstructed look to the item that made it feel very organic to the entire outfit.

197

198

AETHERFLOW

199

the

Spear Haloneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sheer might, beauty, and grace adornes the face of this stunning card in all her glory. It was by far one of the easiest looks to recreate for this piece! Unlike the Arrow, the garments illustrated on the Spear are actually an almost perfect replica of the PvP Haloneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Mail set in game.

200

AETHERFLOW

201

However that doesn’t mean we get to just throw on the whole PvP set and call it a day. There’s a reason I said “almost perfect.” Spear’s image features an uncovered face, allowing her hair to flow wildly behind her. Equip the helm in game and you lose that entirely and gain a sweet chin guard instead. Nothing says beautiful like a hunk of metal surrounding your face; may as well give Halone a set of braces too. Goddess of Fury: an awkward freshman with a mouth full of metal and a face full of pimples who’s too cool to ride the bus to school anymore. No; instead I opted for the Republican Eques’s Headgear. We still get that beautiful wingspan along the sides, just with a little less coverage to allow us to appreciate the beauty of Fury.

202

AETHERFLOW

For this look, the boots posed a slight challenge. In the actual image of the Spear, she has one sandal-clad foot, while the other is completely bare. Unfortunately, there are no shoes in game where one is shown and not the otherâ&#x20AC;Ś despite how interesting and kind of cool that would be. So focusing on the one boot she does have, I was reminded instantly of those caligae sandals all of us wore early on in our leveling processspecifically the Hard Leather Caligae. There was nothing overly amazing about the shoe, but thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s always something to be said about a gladiator sandal, in game and in real life. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s simple, yet very visually interesting and really added a nice touch to this look.

203

204

AETHERFLOW

205

Lord of Crowns The first of two face cards we were introduced to at the start of Stormblood have a slightly different artistic style than the original six. Both the Lord and Lady are portrayed as the dominant figure of the card but are not a full-body image. Thus, we get to take a touch bit more liberty with their looks than we did some of the others.

206

AETHERFLOW

207

Lord was quite possibly the quickest of all these glamours to sort through and piece together, with the two most important items being his coat and crown. The design of his crown is very simple and clean- not ornate like the Paragon’s Crown or similar items. The Augmented Gallant’s Coronet worked wonderfully. It was a true crown, but was completely metal in its design and completely absent of any bling. Just because you’re royalty doesn’t mean you can’t also be practical and modest. Now, his overcoat, on the other hand… that is a touch more gem encrusted. I can appreciate a guy who knows and respects the line of appropriately accessorizing. His crown may have been simple, but his coat

208

AETHERFLOW

is a perfectly balanced combination of fur, puffy sleeves, and jewelry that Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve only ever seen in one particular piece: The Alpine Coat. That coat is the epitome of everything Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d imagine a noble lord ever wanting to wear. Brocade fabric? Check. Fur? Check. Jewels? Check. Frilly neckline? DOUBLE CHECK! I wanted to keep the rest of his glamour just as simplistic as his crown. Regal, but not so over the top like you would get with an actual king. The Anemos Sarouel is a great pair of pants to utilize for this look as they were more subdued, but still has textures and small details to keep the piece more visually interesting than it would be if you picked a more plain pair of breeches.

209

210

AETHERFLOW

211

Lady of Crowns Maybe it was the pastel coloring, or maybe it was the frills on top of frills on top of the fluffy skirts, but the Lady card definitely gave me Marie Antoinette vibes. Loosen up those bustiers, hunny- weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re about to eat cake.

212

AETHERFLOW

213

Except don’t loosen that bustier up too much because we’re going to need the Thavnairian Bustier for this look. Now even though the bustier isn’t as voluminous as our beautiful lady’s gown is, the neckline is a pretty spot on representation. The trickier part, however, would be her gloves. For me it was a toss up between the matching Thavnairian Armlets or the astrologian specific Anemos Constellation Armlets. The Constellation Armlets have really neat pleating on one side that is very reminiscent of the card, but that was just the problem: it’s on only one side. The other side of the armlet is very slim and didn’t really have that over the top “cupcake princess” look I wanted to go for. Thus, the Thavnairian Armlets won! They at least brought the volume I so desperately wanted to bring into the look. I think the aspect of this particular outfit I liked the most was the use of the Wand of Flames. As glamour obsessed

214

AETHERFLOW

as I am, I always forget the existence of wands for white mages. I mean, when was the last time outside of a leveling roulette that you saw a character with a wand? I even think that Yoshi P. forgot about their existence and that’s why there haven’t been any past level fifty. It’s terribly unfortunate because they’re gorgeous. The pink coloring to this particular wand melds the glamour with the background of the card in the most beautiful way. Definitely the cherry on top of an already pretty glamour.

Thus we have reached the end of our reading. Interpret the cards as you will, for your fate and your fashions are both your own to change as you see fit. The Arcana is the means by which all is revealed. Until next time, friends! Stay original, and stay glamourous.

XoX,

215

216

AETHERFLOW

217

general TEXT BY BLAKE LYNN

218

AETHERFLOW

PHOTOS BY TYLP USUGURAI & SKRULLY MA

l advice

ATSUYAMA & KIRBEE LIGHT

LAYOUT & DOODLES BY KIRBEE LIGHT

The inevitable time has come once more to Final Fantasy XIV; the time in which thousands of players find themselves extremely hyped for the new expansion Shadowbringers while questioning what they should do in the meantime to ensure that their monthly payments are not going to waste. With little to no new content being released between now and the expansion, with the exception being the finale of Stormblood’s story of course, one option would be to dust off those weapons in your retainer’s inventory and start leveling all of those other jobs that have been neglected for one reason or another until now. Perhaps you’ll pick up an axe for the first time to try

your hand at warrior or flip open that book that belongs to your abandoned usedto-be main level 60 summoner. Consider taking some tools into your grasp and work on those crafters or gatherers you never thought you’d touch. Whichever choice you choose, you’ll be sure to have enough content to get you through at least part of the pre-expansion lull. Unless, of course, you’re one of those that already has most or all of everything to 70… If you’re one of those overachievers, proceed to the next article! If you’re not, allow me to assist you in your journey of leveling by providing you with some of the more efficient ways to max out your jobs in time for Shadowbringers.

219

before we dive in, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;D LIKE TO ADVISE THAT ALL THROUGHOUT YOUR LEVELING, BE IT DOW, DOH, OR DOL, YOU ALWAYS, ALWAYS:

220

Have food on

Equip any extra experience boosting gear (be aware of level restrictions on such gear items) such as many of the mog station glam items (keep in mind that these items do not provide any additional stats, and thus should not be equipped at higher levels), Friendship Circlet (below level 25), Brand New Ring (below level 30), and Ala Mhigan Earrings (below level 50)

Enable the Heat of Battle I/II/III or Helping Hand/Earth and Water for Crafter/Garther respectively buffs in your FC

And enable any other experience boosting buffs, such as GC manuals for crafting and gathering activated

AETHERFLOW

221

let â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s be

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: KIRBEE LIGHT, OZIAH LOGOS, KATSU TSURUGI 222

AETHERFLOW

egin

with the battle jobs, which includes all of the tanks, healers and DPS. Thankfully, Square Enix has provided us with quite a variety of tools when it comes to leveling these battle jobs, though some can be more appealing than others. When leveling casually your best bet is to ensure that you are running your roulettes daily, especially Leveling. Should you choose to level a healer or a tank, your queue times for these roulettes will be miniscule compared to that of a DPS. As a DPS, I advise you to find a tank or healer buddy to run roulettes with. Not only will this help with your queues, but it will also provide you with some extra entertainment and perhaps even some fun when you find yourself in Sastasha for the thousandth time! It’s hard to say whether or not Guildhest Roulette is worth your time as though it is very short, it provides very little in return in terms of experience gained. The best boost you’re going to get from that roulette is if you have not done that specific guildhest on the job you are leveling and the challenge log that goes along with it. However, you might find it more useful to just run through each guildhest on their own once on each class for that boost as you level, rather than relying on the roulette. Once you find yourself above level 50, you will find some additional roulettes in your Duty Finder, including but not limited to 50/60, Trials, and Alliance. Like the Guildhest Roulette, 50/60 in my opinion is not worth the time investment for the amount of

experience gained. However, if you are attempting to gear up with Ironwork or Shire gear while leveling, this roulette is ideal for getting poetic tomes. Much like Leveling, Trials Roulette is a must as it is normally quick with good experience in return. In addition, it can also contribute to the farming of poetics for gear. The last roulette you have access to at this level is Alliance. In my opinion Alliance is one of the best roulettes to do besides Leveling and Trials, if you are willing to invest some time. Rarely shorter than 30 minutes and able to take upwards of an hour, it does provide great returns on experience and some tomes to boot. Finally, I will cover Normal Raids and Frontline Roulettes. Available at level 60, Normal Raids is another one I can’t really say that it is worth the time investment. That being said, it can be a great way for newer players to experience the Alexander content, which is some of my personal favorite content in the game (a lot in part to the music, but who doesn’t like the Brute Justice theme or Locus). Frontline is not really worth the time investment due to the extreme queue times, despite the roulette itself only taking between 10-20 minutes on average. You could get lucky and make it in about 5 mins or you could be waiting up to 3 hours. Though it is not ideal for leveling, it does give wolf marks which can be used for a lot of glamours and other items including emotes, hairstyles, and even a mount.

223

If you choose to take on this task of roulettes alone or if you are unable to persuade any of your mates to join you on your quest for experience and the queues are horrendous (looking at you DPS), fear not! Most of you will still have a plethora of those side quest icons on your map that were neglected or scoffed at during your adventure through A Realm Reborn, Heavensward or Stormblood. These quests can come in handy as they are simple, quick and often provide a decent amount of experience during your wait for DSP Queue Extreme. However, if you find yourself as one of those who prefers to clean the maps of quest icons as you go ( *cough* neurotic *cough* ), there are other options available for you as well! Another good daily experience option that most people tend to either forget or ignore can be obtained through completing your daily beast tribe allowances. While you are working on leveling from 40 to 50, you will find the Amalj’aa, Sylphs, Kobolds and Sahagin particularly useful. Working from level 50 to 60, the Vanu Vanu and Vath will be more helpful and efficient. Finally, you will find yourself becoming buddy buddy with the Ananta and Kojin while working on levels 60 to 70. Not only will you be granted a healthy dose of experience from these beast tribes, but you will also be allowed

224

AETHERFLOW

access to additional bonuses such as the ability to purchase dyes, housing items, mats and sometimes mounts. Should your daily allowances be spent, there are always FATES. I hear that groan! I did say that some options are more appealing than others… While FATES are notorious for being avoided like the plague by many players, you can take this opportunity to level your feathery companion alongside you by having your Chocobo summoned while completing the FATES. This essentially exhausts your options of what you can do waiting for those pesky queues while leveling battle job. If roulettes don’t strike your fancy, perhaps you can try your hand at leveling through Palace of the Dead and Heaven on High. Palace of the Dead can be very useful for leveling between level 1-60, but the exp past level 60 severely decreases. Due to this significant decrease in experience gained after 60, it is advised that you do a couple of dungeon runs or roulettes to bump you up to 61, where Heaven on High comes into play for leveling 61-70. This is probably by far the best method for leveling since it can be done as many times as you can stand to run it while giving great experience in return. Though this option is possibly one of the most boring and mundane methods, you can spice things up a bit if you are able to trick some friends into joining or if you have a second screen for streaming purposes.

i j L y f m e b y

G s y e b n b a t r i e a C o t a t t t t 2

Should you already have all of your battle jobs to 70, or you are not interested in leveling any of them, there are also those jobs that fall under the Discipline of Hand and Land. These jobs are a great help if you find yourself interested in making your own gear, food, housing items etc. or if you are looking to make gil for yourself. They are, in my opinion, easier to level than battle jobs as they can be leveled with little effort, unless of course you are not sure what is available to you.

Getting to level 15, or even 20, can be very simple on your crafters. Each recipe will give you a completion bonus the first time you craft each item providing you with quite a bit of bonus experience at low levels. Most of the needed mats for these low level items can be found at the associated guild merchants and then all it really takes is going down the list and crafting one of each item in the recipe book. In addition, quick synthing items such as ingots or lumber, etc, especially with an Engineering Manual activated (purchasable from your Grand Company) you should be able to hit 15, or even 20, without much issue. Once this is achieved, the Ixal beast tribe in ARR is a great option. As with the rest of the beast tribes, the Ixal do have daily allowances, though it does work a little differently in that there is a daily â&#x20AC;&#x153;turn-inâ&#x20AC;? style quest in addition to the normal quests. For this, just turn in 2-4 HQ items daily and get plenty of exp.

225

KUGANE LEVES

226

AETHERFLOW

MOOGLE BEAST TRIBE CHURNING MIST

Another option available to you is using leves. You should always attempt to turn in HQ items as it doubles your experience gained. You can craft these yourself, have someone else craft it for you, or purchase it off of the market board. There are guides readily available online for these levekits so I won’t go into details on those. Also available daily are Grand Company turn ins. Again, with these it is a waste to turn in NQ items and, in my opinion a must as it’s a very short easy way to get plenty of exp. Once you have hit level 50, you can shift your focus to the Moogle beast tribe and then shift your focus yet again once you have achieved level 60 to the Namazu beast tribe. In addition to these beast tribes, you are able to craft collectables starting at level 50, which are one of the best sources of “grindable” exp for crafters and gathers. You can turn in as many as you want before they shift the requested items to something

new the next day. Not only do you gain levels, but you also obtain red scrips that are super useful for getting the books you will need to be able to craft more advanced recipes or find more advanced gathering nodes. In my opinion, if you are leveling on your own do GC turn-ins and beast tribes daily and then grind red scrips daily and make use of leves when you feel you should or just have too many. I have already mentioned a bit about gathers, as they are very similar to crafters in that using GC turn-ins, Leves and the level 60+ beast tribes are the top ways to level. I would recommend using your leves to level your gathers over your crafters. They are much easier to do on your own and it is convenient to have your gathers higher level than your crafters so you can gather your own items, thus not having to rely so much on the market board and spending a lot of unnecessary gil in the process.

227

I hope your eyes have been opened to the vast options available to you for leveling all the various classes within FFXIV. Even if you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have a lot of time to play like most of us, there are plenty of passive ways to level, allowing you to level all of your classes in no time at all and becoming shadowbringers ready.

shadowbrin

228

AETHERFLOW

ngers ready.

229

The People Behind the Resources and Guides of FFXIV TEXT BY RYMMRAEL BHALDRAELWYN IMAGES BY SKRULLY MATSUYAMA | LAYOUT BY ARYA ROSE

Vekien

of XIVDB, XIVAPI, and MogBoard

We’ve all been there. Reached some point in Final Fantasy XIV that has left us lost and confused; be it a quest we don’t know how to advance, an item we don’t know how to find, a craft we don’t know how to complete, or a boss we don’t know how to down. We don’t know. So we turn to those who do. We utilize guides and resources created by the people in the FFXIV community who spend their free time not just playing the game, but in helping the rest of the player base as well. They write blogs and forum posts, or create Youtube videos, or code entire websites, all in order to help us find the information we need and get back to what is actually important: playing the game.

230

AETHERFLOW

231

There are many, many people out there who are writing guides and creating resources for the Final Fantasy XIV player base and working hard to make the community a better place. I wish I could cover them all but there are simply too many to feasibly do so (which has its own wonderful implications about our community). However, even among this creative and industrious group of people, there are those who stand out due to their efforts. One such person is Vekien- the developer behind XIVDB, XIVAPI, and his newest site Mogboard- and thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just his major FFXIV projects! One of his earliest and probably best-known FFXIV projects was XIVDB, the database website that thousands of fans referred to over the years for all of the basic information on the game they could possibly

232

AETHERFLOW

need. It was a huge index that covered everything from gear, items, quests, F.A.T.E.s, NPCs, crafting recipes, and more. In more recent times, the site struggled with problems with ads as well as Vekien not always seeing eye-to-eye with the company whom he originally partnered with on it. While he made the somber decision to permanently shut down the site in January, for years XIVDB was the go-to database for players all over the world. Another of his major projects, XIVAPI, is probably less known but certainly no less important. Where XIVDB was geared more to the player base at large, XIVAPI is a website developed for FFXIV website developers. Through datamining both the game and the Lodestone, Vekien has built a REST API that uses the JSON format to make an insane amount of

233

234

AETHERFLOW

FFXIV data readily accessible and easily usable, regardless of the programming language a creator used to code his or her own website. Even though it’s definitely more technical than his other sites, it’s a hugely useful resource for anyone wanting to develop their own FFXIV content. His most recent endeavor, MogBoard, is a one-page website that might seem deceptively simple at first glance. But what this single page does is allow you to check the prices of any item on any server in FFXIV, in real time! As of right now, such a website just exists largely for the convenience of players, but come Patch 4.57, the new “World Visit” system will allow players to buy (though not sell) items on Market Boards of the servers they are visiting. This means that the site has the potential to play a huge role in shaping the economy of FFXIV going forward. It’s still in beta at the moment, but is fully functioning for all but a handful of the FFXIV servers.

235

Even with everything on his plate (these are just some of his current projects), Vekien was nice enough to set aside an afternoon to sit down with me for a lengthy interview. He goes into great detail about how he got started, what he is working on now, some of his past endeavors, and what exactly went wrong with XIVDB: So when and how did you get started with FFXIV?

I got started with FFXIV from pretty much Day One of 1.0, I was even in the Alpha for it. I used to play FFXI quite heavily so FFXIV felt like the natural next step as FFXI was slowly losing popularity. I created my character in FFXIV 1.0 with the name Premium Virtue and other than changing my hair, kept the same character to do this day! So this was about 2010, I think the release was? Oh wow, you're one of the legacy players who stuck through the whole rough period of 1.0 until they shut down the servers and resurrected it as ARR?

Yep, I have the legacy tattoo and even played "end-game" (aka Garuda primal, lol) in 1.0. Was there throughout all patches, was there through some of the more tense moments before Yoshi jumped in. It was an interesting time because of the delivery of the game and lack

236

AETHERFLOW

of players; the community was extremely tight and everyone kind of knew everyone else. So it was a very interesting time. These days what do you spend most of your time in FFXIV doing?

So sad to say I rarely do get time to play lately because of the projects I have on. I also work full time so I have very little hours in a day. I recently got my partner into the game so when I do have time it is spent playing with her leveling up and doing the story content. If you think of a fresh character starting around 4.0 release, doing all 2.0, 3.0 story, plus leveling, plus side quests, there has just been so much to do. With only a couple hours a week it has taken us almost a year to catch up, but itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s good time together. If I get on solo it is usually to do datamining, or work on tools and such. My end-game days are past me now; now I just like to see what I can find in memory or investigate some datamining pattern.

237

238

AETHERFLOW

You said that you played FFXI before this game. Did you create any web-based content or fan projects for that as well or was FFXIV your first time doing so?

On FFXI I created mainly just Linkshell websites for friends. Back then a point system was very common in MMOs to decide who gets boss drops and you got like 10 points for showing up to a boss battle and another 10 per kill. These bosses used to take 18+ people to defeat so it was very important to have a lot of people available. With no online spreadsheets or simple means I thought I'd try learning HTML and other web languages to simplify the process. In the end the Linkshell master could assign points to users, users could create a wishlist of items they wanted and then when a boss was defeated and the loot shows up the linkshell master could quickly search for that item and know who has it in their wishlist and who had the most points. It worked out very well and we used it for about 2 years! I can see how useful a resource like that could be in the earlier days of MMOs. Did you know when you started FFXIV that you wanted to keep working on projects for the

new game or was it started out of necessity like the Linkshell websites?

So in 1.0 because of the issues it had, I created a small site that people could report bugs they saw in the Alpha and in the Beta and somehow hope SE saw them. Come launch I was thinking what to do next and I noticed The Lodestone had character profiles but a lot of people didn't know, or just found it very clunky to use. So I figured I could probably do something better...! And I created "XIVPads," which allowed people to parse their profiles and show all the data in a very clean 1 page view. That is the birth of my FFXIV development career and where everything really started. Was XIVDB just a natural evolution of "XIVPads," then?

Kind of. So when I was working on XIVPads it was a lot of manual work (writing up all the quests, the enemies, achievements, etc.) and through this I met another developer who told me about a JP tool you can use to extract the game data. So I tried it out and sure enough it ripped CSV data. It wasn't the cleanest but it was sure better than manually doing it. I started plugging all this into XIVPads and through conversation we

239

thought about trying to make a database website. He would do back end code plus database and I would do all the UI, front end code, the "make it pretty" stuff. And in Patch 1.23 (the last patch) we got it all working and running (there are even videos of it online). We only had one competitor so traffic was coming from XIVPads and the official forums, it was quite exciting. Both projects for a couple years lived side by side, I worked a lot of XIVPads and he worked a lot on trying to get the data from the 2.0 client; we were fortunate enough to have been in all the betas for 2.0 and had access to the client. But it was a third dev who stepped in who eventually cracked it for us! So how did you start working with ZAM?

Hah, it felt like such a small world. So way before FFXIV 2.0 was announced I used to play a game called "Don't Starve," a little 2D survival game. Not many YouTubers played but I ended up getting really into a creator by the name of "AkaMikeB." In one of his episodes he was saying how the game was quite easy (which it was once you knew the right things to do) and he wanted a way to sort of give himself some limitations, challenges or rules to play by. Think of rules

240

AETHERFLOW

you set out when playing DnD. So I thought about making a very simple RNG card system where he goes onto this site called "PainRandomiser" and he clicks a button and it would give him two random cards. And these range from: you can only eat carrots, or you must defeat 10 bulls, or even warp to a new area which meant leaving your hard earned base behind, and via this little project we got talking and became contacts. So coming back to XIVDB, we released the site just in time for the public beta (yay lifted NDA) and a lot of traffic was coming in. I have Google Analytics reports of when we first hit 1 million page views which was a big deal then. Pretty much within the same week both ZAM and Curse reached out and guess who the third-party community manager at ZAM was? Mr. AkaMikeB. So I got talking with him and he drafted up quite a good deal. I had just graduated university and had no job and so the timing was quite perfect; if ZAM can pay me full time I can do a lot of awesome stuff on the site. A lot of people were very... iffy, some saying I shouldn't; even the other devs I worked with were not sure, but the deal was very good and it meant I could work full time on it so we signed on!

And how long did you work with them on the site?

For the entire life of XIVDB. July 2013 is when ZAM acquired us and through that time a lot has changed in terms of who is on the team, people I work with, the contract I have. It will all be over on December 31st [2018] where I will become the full owner of XIVDB through a buyout process. It's crazy to think it's been this long and ZAM have been mostly hands off but have been a benefit. I think a lot of people really won't understand just how different things could have been. ZAM helped me when Square Enix sent a Cease and Desist and got me direct contact with a community manager at SE to vet stuff and were there when financial issues were cropping up. You said that you and ZAM are going your separate ways after 2018, do you mind explaining how that came about?

So over the past year, ad revenue has slowly dwindled and a lot of the times XIVDB had very bad ads due to the way the network is run. This means sometimes the site will be advertising malware or redirecting the user elsewhere. As FFXIV players are (in my opinion) more tech savvy

241

242

AETHERFLOW

than most, it's very common for players to have adblockers and noscript plugins installed. Back in 2013/2014 Patreon wasn't really a thing and ads were the way to go. I started a new job in Oct 2017 and learned a lot of very interesting web architecture stuff and decided I was going to rebuild XIVDB all over, automate the vast majority of it and add premium features via Patreon. However adding this would be against my current contract with ZAM so I spoke to them about it: about mine and the users’ complaints of awful ads, about how ads ruin the design and slow the site... They had ideas of other ways to do things but I was very firm, I want zero ads going forward and eventually this came down to me buying out the site or them taking over. The outcome of this is quite public now due to leaked conversations I had. ZAM did try to take over; however, they're very busy with other sites for much bigger games. (The traffic Wowhead gets would make many FFXIV devs head spin... I remember seeing the Google Analytics.) So they decided to take one of my deals I originally put forth many months prior.

You've worked with ZAM since the beginning, are you disappointed about how things ended or more excited to be striking out on your own again?

I am disappointed in a sense that it kind of tarnished the XIVDB brand. I don't think it's really recoverable anymore due to the actions that happened towards the end; however, I am glad I have freedom to do whatever I want should I choose. I will miss some benefits- ZAM gave me a very healthy server cost budget, and they always back paid if something went arrear (payments stopped when Tencent took over due to an internal audit, but I got full back pay and compensation). I hear of bad stories of YouTubers and the networks they join and I am grateful ZAM were not that bad. For one month I did try run my own ads full time (I blindly assumed AdSense was enough and ZAM let me do it, maybe to prove a point, lol) and I got scrap compared to what ZAM were able to achieve. You have a couple of other projects you are working on as well, including XIVAPI. It seems more geared toward the “technically savvy” user, compared to XIVDB which is for

243

the entire FFXIV community. Could you tell me a bit about the site?

So when I was building the "new XIVDB" I had written a lot of code that I didn't want to throw away. One aspect of web development that I really did not enjoy on XIVDB was front end, the part people see. This is because it's extremely subjective and requires so much work to ensure you can use it on desktop, mobile, iPad, PS3 browser, etc... I didn't really have interest in this but I loved the tech behind it. A lot of people were using the API from XIVDB to build cool stuff, like Teamcraft for instance. I find community projects so exciting because they're built from passion and usually always are way more detailed and specially tailored than anything I could do. Since at the time I was leaving XIVDB, a lot of people asked me, "What about the API!? Will it be up to date?" Now I didn't have much faith in ZAM keeping it up to date... so I decided to host just the API using what I had already built and many community developers we know and love slowly moved over to it. XIVAPI is aimed at developers or even anyone who has an interest in making stuff for FFXIV but don't want to go through the hassle of datamining and putting

244

AETHERFLOW

everything together. Square Enix doesn't provide the files in a "nice" format, you have to do a lot of detective work to figure out what the data means and more importantly how that links to another file. For example, the items you receive from a levequest require three files being managed just to get some suitable data to show the user. It can scare a lot of users away which I don't think is healthy. I've seen some awesome stuff come about so I am very happy with the direction I've taken. I've tried to be as open and transparent about datamining in general, sharing everything I've learned and discovered, providing tools- it just creates a better environment for everyone and XIVAPI is built on this principle. A significant amount of the data is tailored based on what users ask for, making their work easier. So basically it's a website to help other website developers, at least for FFXIV content? That sounds like a very large and ambitious project. Do you plan on continuing it even now that you know you'll be staying with XIVDB or will you be delegating more to other developers?

Yeah, essentially it makes other developers speed ahead by being able to get data in a very

245

246

AETHERFLOW

nice format very, very easily! It is quite ambitious as the traffic management can be tough at times (especially more so with the recent market data). My focus right now is the API and MogBoard though MB won't be primary focus until nearer to [the release of the] World Visit system as its main feature is part of that aspect. As for XIVDB, even though I do own it I am likely going to close it... There are alternatives out there for users (including the official site). The traffic has hit basically zero. My hope is that someone else wishes to take the mantle and build a database website and they could even use XIVAPI as a head start. You mentioned MogBoard, did you have the idea for it before or after you came up with XIVAPI?

The idea of MogBoard was very last minute. So when SE released the companion app, a few very smart people in the community started digging into it and finding everything they could about it. Within the first day, a guy by the name of Mino figured out the authentication it uses to talk to its internal API. At the time I didn't think much about it. I could view what the companion app was doing by watching my phoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s network

traffic and through this I could get a "daily token" that gives me access, so one afternoon I put it on XIVAPI just to pull together a concept. I then updated my knowledge documentation with everything I knew about the Companion API (it's called Sight but most people know it as Companion). Then I forgot about it for a month or so... I think it was Miu who was looking into converting Minos C# Authentication code into JavaScript and his motivation got me motivated to try do it in PHP. I spent about 3 days converting it, trying to figure out how it works and in the end I finally sussed it out. All it required was 66 characters. I knew Miu wanted it on Teamcraft so he bought a character, I had a spare and we began making the characters and I wrote a quick script that would automatically log-in to the companion API for each character and now we had an API with all the market info, in a nice format, all publicly available for anyone! So I had all the logic done, I had a public API anyone could [use], all that was needed for MogBoard was a frontend. Doing about 35 hours straight of coding, no sleep, I built what we see as MogBoard.com and decided to see what kind of

247

interest it would have. I didn't think it would be as useful as it has been. I remember a site back in FFXI which had public market prices and everyone used it because getting back to the auction house meant physically running back, very slowâ&#x20AC;Ś But in FFXIV you just teleport over, ez-win, but people are finding very useful ways to use it and with World Visit, it has some strong potential. MogBoard seems to be growing in popularity very quickly. Do you have any idea about how much traffic it gets so far?

Yeah, I have Google Analytics on it. So being a one-page site it only tracks the first visit a user gets since each page is dynamically loaded in. When I posted the Reddit thread I believe that ended with about 32,000 views and 4,200 of those users clicked the link and visited the site. Right now around 500 individual people use it daily, which is not bad at all for a little gimmick. I think with more features such as tracking, extended purchase history, and the World Visit it should become quite popular. I have already heard that some prices on the market have increased and the timing doesn't seem coincidental with MogBoard's release. The

248

AETHERFLOW

API serves market info for MogBoard and many other sites (I believe Miu is adding it to Teamcraft), KupoBot and Ser Aymeric both use it, a lot of people are building custom price trackers for their crafting needs, and so it has just gone over 8 million hits this month. I think there have been some big projects released. On December 4, I was averaging 100,000 hits a day and now I am averaging 600,000+ hits a day, so either some really big awesome community projects, or someone really wants all the market data. Even if you end up closing XIVDB (sad as that is), you seem like you've still got a lot on your plate. Do you have any other projects in the works? Possibly even an XIVDB 2.0...?

I did start an XIVDB 2.0, I was going to call it Dalamud (https://dalamud.com/ - a concept up now) as I've found people struggle to say "XIVDB," lol. Even when I apply for jobs I just call it "14 Database,â&#x20AC;? easier over the phone. So XIVAPI and MogBoard are my main two, Dalamud I think I will make as a prototype and hopefully someone has the drive to take it somewhere. (Miu even has a secret database project.)

249

As f anyt used thing as that Gath arou the d this a cu was have and

The XIVA deve focu

Did thou you deta

I've the them com for m the from awe com Garl data and to u man beco Miu, Ben

250

AETHERFLOW

for other projects, not really thing that would be publicly d. I have a few smaller gs that I've worked on such "Mappy" which is a tool t maps NPC, Enemy, and hering nodes as you run und in-game and submits data to XIVAPI since a lot of isn't in the game files. I built ustom game launcher as I sn't a huge fan of the one SE e (compared to the Korean Chinese launcher!)

ere is still so much to do with API and many requests from elopers that I will probably us there.

you have any closing ughts or anything else wanted to discuss in more ail?

met so many people over years that I could thank m all; the big players of the mmunity really stand out me who have helped drive fan-site scene. Hezkezl m Gamer Escape doing esome datamining and mmunity work, Clorifex from landTools who has taken the amining tool SaintCoinach made it such a pleasure use, Saeris for helping me nage a community and oming a trusted friend, , Arcanegea, Lethys, Amiral nson for being awesome

people to work with and have around, Zero Grav for being there since day one, supporting what I do. And I'd even say I thank all the people who give me slack for writing PHP!

Writer’s Note:

And thank YOU so much for what you've done to help not just the community at large but also, specifically, the other content developers since the days of 1.0. Is there some way for people to contact you or do you have a Patreon account for your sites?

resource-creators in my last

Oh, so I do have a Patreon I just started for MogBoard. The main way people can contact me is on Discord really, I advertise that everywhere. I don’t use Twitter or Facebook. So happy for my Discord handle to be up there, and a link to the XIVAPI discord for any aspiring developers. Discord: Vekien#3458

Hi everyone, thank you so much for taking the time to read my article! Since I covered two articles, I really want to do a guide-writer for the piece in the next issue. But there are just so many amazing guides out there, I couldn’t make up my mind. So I thought I would turn to you all for advice- Who do you want to see me interview next? It can be anyone who makes/has made some sort of guide for FF14 content (crafting guides, dungeon walkthroughs, ‘how-to’s

for

achievements,

anything!) Please leave your suggestions

the

#staff_

requests channel of our AFM Discord server. ~Rymm

251

MY KIND

OF PVP

Hey there! Qih here. This issue we’re going to dive head-first into the real PvP of FFXIV: The Marketboard! Keep the weapons at home people, we’re going to go fight with money!

252

AETHERFLOW

TEXT BY QIH MEWRILAH

PHOTOS BY WATERLESSFISH

LAYOUT BY ARYA ROSE

What is the Marketboard? Undoubtedly, you should know what the marketboard is. Nearly anything can be listed for sale and sold through it, just as long as you have retainers to do the transactions for you. (You can unlock retainers after completing the Main Story Quest) and talking to the NPC Retainer Vocate in Limsa Lominsa, Ulâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Dah, or Gridania.) Once you have a retainer, you can load up whatever items you want to sell and hopefully someone will buy them if the price is right! Which is to say, the lowest, but weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll discuss that in a bit. Do you need a retainer to use the marketboard? Of course not, you can still buy items through it at any time as long as you have the gil.

253

Marketboard Basics At first glance, the marketboard looks pretty simple: list items with your retainers for sale, people buy the items, you get gil, everyone is happy. To be completely honest, this is, in its purest form, the truth. However, there is much more below the surface that we want to explore and explain. When listing an item for sale through a retainer, you want to make sure that your item is the first one they see!

What we see when we search for an item is whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s being sold (up to 100 results for the same item) based on price, lowest first. HQ does not matter here! If an HQ item is being sold for less than its NQ counterpart, it will still show higher on the list (and that person is probably very wrong for pricing HQ for less than NQ anyway). If any Materia are melded to the item, it will tell you how many, but not which kinds unless you hover over the item to see what melds they have. Be careful with premelded items, especially battle gear, as Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve seen people put 5 trash melds into an item just to hike the price up to try and catch someone paying more. The symbol next to the total price is which market you are buying the item from. In this picture, the first two are listed in Kugane, the second two are in Ulâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Dah. Depending on market tax rates, items can vary wildly on price.

254

AETHERFLOW

255

Right now, Kugane has the lowest tax rate on my server, Adamantoise, and it’s good to move your retainers to that city-state to avoid your potential buyers from having to pay extra for items. (You can change your retainers selling-area by speaking to the retainer vocate in any of the major cities). Selling items on the Marketboard

1 2 256

Knowing how to price items on the marketboard for most people is as simple as looking up the item and then setting yours for 1 gil less so you’re the first item that people see, and honestly that’s pretty much the long and short of it. A lot of people see undercutting as a dishonest tactic and something to be looked down on, but in all reality, that’s just how the game is played. It sucks when you’ve spent time gathering all the materials and crafting the new shiny i380 gear piece that’s selling for a ton of gil, just to come back 10 minutes later and see that a few people have now priced theirs under yours, but that’s the PvP aspect of the marketboard in a nutshell. There are, however, ways to read the marketboard and know when is the right time to move in and when to avoid specific items:

First and foremost, you need to be patient. If there’s anything you get from this article, it’s patience. There are times I craft items to sell and they won’t move for weeks. Don’t expect everything to fly off the shelves and net you tons of gil immediately because you will be disappointed from the get go. List your items, set the price reasonably and then move on.

Know what your server is about. Is your server more RP heavy? Then your market is going to be a lot more focused on glamor. Raider heavy? Food, potions, and materia will be your entry. Crafter heavy? More competition on the MB, but selling mats for gear will probably be your best bet in profit.

AETHERFLOW

3 4

Avoid having ‘a market.’ What I mean by this is I hear people all the time saying “I run X market and control the price.” That’s a very hard thing to do, and unless it’s something extremely niche like gardening or running PotD/HoH for high-tier drops, you’re not going to control a market at all. Eventually people will figure out there’s an untapped stream of gil to be had, move in, and crash it. Do not put all of your eggs in one basket if you can help it. Try to spread out what you’re listing.

Identifying buyouts is a very big part of knowing how to price items and when to sell or when to hold. Look at the following:

Here we have a listing for grade 5 crafter materia. Almost all of the listings for it are at 50k gil, but if you look at the recent transactions history, you can see that there was a quick scoop up of all the cheap ones. (The same user bought everything in the recent transactions tab, I have omitted their name) This means the new price is 50k, right? Wrong. What happens here is someone needing to meld their gear and coming in and just spending a ton of gil all at once. A few people may trickle in here and there and buy some at the 50k

257

price, but more likely than not people will move in and try to profit on the ‘new standard’ and undercut each other back down to where the price used to be. This is a great example of a market to stay out of for the time being. The current crafting set has been out for some time, we’re not getting a new one (most people think we are) and have held off melding for a while. When 4.5 comes out and shows that we’re still going to have the Yamashi/Onishi gear until the end of Stormblood, the price of materia will surely skyrocket as everyone who waited will want to meld their gear. Getting a Feel for it Earlier I mentioned knowing your server’s main function. Let’s delve a little more into that. If your server is RP heavy, then the bulk of people on it are going to want glamor. (And to a lesser extent, everyone wants glamor, right?) Doing treasure maps for glamor item materials and crafting glamor items will probably be the fastest moving markets on your server. If you know your server has a lot of raiders on it, making the new BiS food and potions will be a nice source of income. Always remember reset days for when the bulk of buying is done and

258

AETHERFLOW

try and figure out when most raiders do their raiding during the week (Hint, it’s usually Friday/Saturday). As for my server, there is an excess of crafters. Everyone tries to be self-sufficient and that’s great, but it also serves the problem that there is a lot of competition for gear on the marketboard and trying to sell items for profit. That comes with its own unique solution however: Crafters are universally lazy. Why gather when you can buy? Why craft sub materials when there’s some on the marketboard to purchase and skip right to crafting the final item right away? This is where a lot of gil can be made. Pre-crafting items like Evergleam Ingots, Steppe Serge, and Grade 4 Reisuis can net you profits faster than the gear that uses them. If you’re not sure what kind of server you’re on, just take time to look at history of markets, or when in doubt, ask around! I wish that the history tab of an item spanned more than the last 20 sales, but it does not. If you see a buyout, come back in a few days to see if that was just a one-off fluke, or if it happens regularly. Opposite of that, if you see large gaps between sales of an item, it’s probably a good idea to stay away, unless of course you are fine playing the waiting game.

"A LOT OF PEOPLE SEE UNDERCUTTING AS A DISHONEST TACTIC BUT IN ALL REALITY, THATâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S JUST HOW THE GAME IS PLAYED." 259

260

AETHERFLOW

Common Mistakes It’s easy to get worked up and excited about the prospect of making gil through the marketboard, but don’t go into it without knowing what you want, and what you’re selling. Always, ALWAYS look at the price history and make sure that there wasn’t a recent shift in average price, or that it didn’t just suddenly dip down due to an undercut war between people hellbent on always being the first name to show up on an item. With that, try not to get caught in undercut wars. That’s easier said than done, but if you spend enough time on the marketboard you will start to see the same retainer names pop up over and over depending on the item (and if it’s a crafted item, hovering over the item shows the name of the person that made it in the item description) which can further explain market trends. There will almost certainly be people on your server that will not care how low their item goes, just that it is the first one listed. For example, that tank chest piece may have been 800k last week, but due to a couple people being in an undercut war with each other it has now sunk to less than half of that. Should you price the one you just made at the new lowest price? Of course not. You may be sitting on it longer, but it will eventually sell, and for more than they will have it at. You may also just refrain from crafting an item like that entirely and just find something else to focus your time on as the cost of the item does not reflect the cost of materials and time required to make it. Know the price of raw materials and sub-materials on your server. I see people constantly selling gear atcost or below-cost of the items required to make it due to undercutting wars and it makes no sense to me as they’re just throwing money away at that point.

261

Double check prices you’re putting items up for. I don’t just mean use the history tab and make sure you’re not going too low, I literally mean make sure that you didn’t forget a zero in the price or transpose two numbers by mistake.

I’ll let you figure out the mistake in this one.

One amazing thing that SE did recently was adding a shop selling price for items that are sold via NPC vendors. Obviously I can’t stop laziness, but the fact that the game tells you that an item is sold in a store, and for how much, stops people from buying overpriced materials and most importantly, housing items.

262

AETHERFLOW

263

264

AETHERFLOW

Closing thoughts I may reiterate some of the things I said above, but they might need to be restated, or just small topics that don’t deserve their own entire explanation. Think of this as the tl;dr of the article.

* * *

Use the history tab on the marketboard. Use it often. Seeing prices and dates of sales is exactly what you need as someone who uses the marketboard.

Use your retainers constantly. I didn’t touch on this in the article, but the more retainers you have, the more you can sell at once. They also allow you to farm gatherables that sell well on your server.

Know what it takes to craft something, all the way down to the price of the raw materials, don’t price something for less than what it cost you to make it.

* * *

Know your markets. See what’s selling often and for a good price. Don’t focus on the items that sell for millions as they may move extremely slow. Consistency is key.

Keep an eye out for price discrepancies and buyouts so you know when to pull out of a market or go into one.

And, of course, if there’s anything I can leave you with, it’s to BE PATIENT.

265

s e eking w eb team m embers Aetherflow Media is currently seeking staff members who are comfortable working with WordPress or have web design experience. This role is meant to be fun and creative, and design skills or coding experience are a plus! If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re ready to join the Aetherflow team and bring your ideas to our table, apply today! We look forward to hearing from you!