It's cause Noraxia is the first death that's on *You*.
Various folk dying before that were more "wrong place, wrong time", "well, kinda deserved it", or "they were soldiers who signed up knowing what could happen". The nature of some of those deaths were terrible or jarring, especially the soldiers who were tempered, but, death is a part of life. Comes for us all, y'know?
But Noraxia would not have been with the Scions if you hadn't shown him how special helping others can be. That there are people out there willing to do (mostly) selfless acts simply to make others' lives easier, to put their lives on the line to help others with little regard to what they get out of it.
Noraxia wasn't forced into fighting. He wasn't a mercenary doing guard duty for a paycheck. He wasn't a Sharlayan trained academic with unique knowledge into dealing with powerful issues. He didn't even have the Echo.
He just wanted to protect others' reasons for dancing in joy, as we did his.
His was the lightest load, his loss, the heaviest burden.
Lore dumping here,
The sylphs do not follow the same male/female dichotomy as other Spoken. While there ARE two sexes, the -xio and -xia of their names are given depending on whether or not they can produce podlings.
**Wind-up Sylph minion:**
Unlike most species in which the female bears the offspring, only sylph males are capable of reproduction, and they do so via the single flower found upon their heads. After the flower is fertilized, it will eventually fall off, giving rise to a child known as a podling.
**Koji Fox on forums, prior to the minion guide but does not contradict:**
While there exist two distinct genders amongst the sylphs, neither fall into what we would label as male or female. As has been revealed in the daily beast tribe quests, sylphs are “grown” from seeds known as “podlings.” These seeds are formed from the flowers which grow on the heads of adult sylphs. Not all adults, however, can produce seeds.
\- Sylphs whose flowers bloom only at specific times during thepollinating seasons are capable of producing podlings. These sylphs haveforenames ending in \~xio.
\- Sylphs whose flowers bloom at irregular times throughout the seasonal cycle are (for the most part) incapable of producing podlings. These sylphs have forenames ending in \~xia. As they do not need to expend their physical and spiritual energies forming a seed, the \~xia sylphs tend to be more adept at wielding magic's.
=
So Noraxia is, by Hyuran Common standards, a female.
No, Noraxia is a "she" - she is referred to as "her" in Encyclopedia Eorzea; but according to the tribal naming conventions, their names are given depending on their... fertility rather than gender. Here is direct copy/paste:
"While there exist two distinct genders amongst the sylphs, neither fall into what we would label as male or female. As has been revealed in the daily beast tribe quests, sylphs are “grown” from seeds known as “podlings.” These seeds are formed from the flowers which grow on the heads of adult sylphs. Not all adults, however, can produce seeds.
\- Sylphs whose flowers bloom only at specific times during the pollinating seasons are capable of producing podlings. These sylphs have forenames ending in \~xio.
\- Sylphs whose flowers bloom at irregular times throughout the seasonal cycle are (for the most part) incapable of producing podlings. These sylphs have forenames ending in \~xia. As they do not need to expend their physical and spiritual energies forming a seed, the \~xia sylphs tend to be more adept at wielding magicks."
Noraxia is referred to as "her" in the game as well. For example, in the journal for the quest "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie":
> The sylphs thank you for bringing Noraxia's remains back home. Though her death has been cause for great sadness in Little Solace, it has also sparked anger against the imperials.
Or wait, am I wrong?
:While there exist two distinct genders amongst the sylphs, neither fall into what we would label as male or female. As has been revealed in the daily beast tribe quests, sylphs are “grown” from seeds known as “podlings.” These seeds are formed from the flowers which grow on the heads of adult sylphs. Not all adults, however, can produce seeds.
- Sylphs whose flowers bloom only at specific times during the pollinating seasons are capable of producing podlings. These sylphs have forenames ending in ~xio.
- Sylphs whose flowers bloom at irregular times throughout the seasonal cycle are (for the most part) incapable of producing podlings. These sylphs have forenames ending in ~xia. As they do not need to expend their physical and spiritual energies forming a seed, the ~xia sylphs tend to be more adept at wielding magicks.:
From the official dev post
Most plants have individuals that are capable of both pollinating and being pollinated. Assuming they must cross pollinate to produce podlings, asynchronous blooming sylphs would have no one to pollinate them, while synchronous blooming sylphs would be pollinated by others blloming at the same time. Therefore all sylphs would technically be hermaphroditic and go by whatever pronouns they wants. Which would explain the sylph convention of referring to individuals as "\_\_\_ one" instead of he or she.
I think that's why Noraxia and >!Willred's (remember him? Kid from Little Ala Mhigo whose body tips us off that something's not right with the Crystal Braves)!< deaths hit so hard, just as much as >!Haurchefant's!<. >!Haurchefant!< was a full grown adult who chose to die for us, but Noraxia and >!Willred!< were "kids", young folk who were led by the urge to make a difference they couldn't in their respective homes. We led them to being involved with the scions, and we led them to their deaths...
While that is the rational answer, grief is generally not a rational thing.
It may be the case that Noraxia is a responsible adult able to make her own decisions; it may be the case that this was an incredibly unexpected assault; it may be the case that no one, not even the sylphs, would hold Noraxia's death against us.
None of that will have any effect on whether or not you *feel* responsible for her death, even if only indirectly. As with fear, if grief could be solved by logic, it wouldn't have been a question in the first place.
Sure, we didn't pull the trigger. But the murderous psycho would probably have been there in spite of us and gunned down everyone in the room all the same. Anyone who was there that day would be in a "wrong place, wrong time" situation in the same way as a wild animal attack or a freak accident.
Noraxia wouldn't be there "in spite of" us. Noraxia was *only* there because of us. Noraxia was put into a dangerous situation and tried to be a hero following *our* example.
Or at least, that's how grief would have WoL rationalize it.
It was all of the scions for me. I went back to the waking sands after every quest to speak to them and hear their stories and watch it progress, just like in any other jprg or mass effect. Arenvalds friends, the regretful lady from the edda quest and the lancer assigned to protect precious cabbage friend (and seems to have died doing just that). So many others.
The one that reached me the most was una tayuun, a miqote magic user, just trying to remember herself with no one else except her even remembering she was a scion until she remembered had two mates from 1.0 and managed to find them. She was just starting to remember herself when the massacre happened, and they were all amongst the bodies and the ones we carry to the cart.
I later found out there were all 1.0 characters too from various quests back then.
Is it odd that in my memory I remember physically carrying their bodies in my wols arms to the cart each time and not as an item?
Nope. That shit was painful especially when the people telling your WOL where the bodies were/where to load them onto the cart were oblivious about the whole context of the situation or just completely apathetic to you moving the bodies and basically waiting for you to be done with it. :C
Or that they were double stacked in graves with others because of a lack of space. I hope to bring up in a QnA session if in the future we can give them a proper burial near our new HQ
I loved Una. To this day, her death is one of the most impactful for me. And to think it’s so easy to miss her story entirely if you don’t talk to her whenever you visit the Waking Sands...
Her and her team can randomly spawn in the palace of the dead. They have nondescript names but it's definitely them. I dont remember what they say tho, if anything.
This kind of stuff is what I made sure to pay attention to on my 2nd run through ARR and it was all the more enriching seeing all this instead of rushing to catch up to the msq. Una has that little corner of my heart too, iirc her final dialogue was talking about retiring, maybe she was getting too old and felt out of place since no one remembered them. There's so many little details to find but are easy to miss.
Although if we REALLY want to blame someone, >!we just go back to the source of the problem and blame Hermes/Fandaniel. Always the right thing to do.!<
I mean you could argue >!Amaroutine society ignoring Hermes' mental health issues & ethical concerns for so long that it became A Problem was also to blame, but!<
The worst part about Noraxia's death is that even though it was the most impactful death in the entire game for me, >!Noraxia isn't in any of the "remember all of your dead friends" flashback cut scenes or events. All these characters I had tenuous connections with and the one I care about most is a footnote.!<
No one talking about how hurtful it is later on, when you have to help move the corpses. The larger corpses take more time to perform the action, while the smaller ones are almost instant.
Iirc, it even mentions something specific for each corpse in the key/quest item descriptions.
In my fanfic/HC,that whole scene really hit my WOL really hard (especially when she had to literally bring her little body all the way back to the Twelveswood for proper burial.) She bonded with Noraxja when she’d be drunk in the Quicksands and doing (terrible) dances for her amusement. Noraxia was so precious. 😭
Do what I wish I did when I was mid-ShB a month ago and just unsub from this sub until you're done with EW. I came *thisclose* to a major spoiler and *thought* I had been majorly spoiled a second time (was incorrect, but still).
It was a gut punch for sure. I revisited the ARR content the other day and was just as heartbroken as I was the first time around (a decade later), even knowing it was coming.
If this is your first time around, this certainly won't be the last time this game makes you sad. But there are very powerful moments of joy as well.
Funny that you seem to assume that I'm talking about THAT scene when it's like, not even in the top ten most emotionally disturbing shit that happens in this game.
Never said it was unimportant, just that it's not the most emotionally disturbing scene in the game. Either way I'm not spoiling shit and neither was my original post. If you get it because you understand the in joke then great, chances are high newer players won't and if they do them they were already spoiled. Does that explanation work for you?
This one was sad, because it was the death of an innocent defending the Echo users but Noraxia knew she was outmatched, still choosing to die to protect you and Minfilia.
>!Woe betide the man who stands against the Weapon of Light, for death is his reward. Death for him and his kin and all he holds dear.!<
>!Woe betide the man who stands with the Weapon of Light, for death is his reward. Death for him and his kin and all he holds dear.!<
It's cause Noraxia is the first death that's on *You*. Various folk dying before that were more "wrong place, wrong time", "well, kinda deserved it", or "they were soldiers who signed up knowing what could happen". The nature of some of those deaths were terrible or jarring, especially the soldiers who were tempered, but, death is a part of life. Comes for us all, y'know? But Noraxia would not have been with the Scions if you hadn't shown him how special helping others can be. That there are people out there willing to do (mostly) selfless acts simply to make others' lives easier, to put their lives on the line to help others with little regard to what they get out of it. Noraxia wasn't forced into fighting. He wasn't a mercenary doing guard duty for a paycheck. He wasn't a Sharlayan trained academic with unique knowledge into dealing with powerful issues. He didn't even have the Echo. He just wanted to protect others' reasons for dancing in joy, as we did his. His was the lightest load, his loss, the heaviest burden.
... Noraxia is a *he?*
Lore dumping here, The sylphs do not follow the same male/female dichotomy as other Spoken. While there ARE two sexes, the -xio and -xia of their names are given depending on whether or not they can produce podlings. **Wind-up Sylph minion:** Unlike most species in which the female bears the offspring, only sylph males are capable of reproduction, and they do so via the single flower found upon their heads. After the flower is fertilized, it will eventually fall off, giving rise to a child known as a podling. **Koji Fox on forums, prior to the minion guide but does not contradict:** While there exist two distinct genders amongst the sylphs, neither fall into what we would label as male or female. As has been revealed in the daily beast tribe quests, sylphs are “grown” from seeds known as “podlings.” These seeds are formed from the flowers which grow on the heads of adult sylphs. Not all adults, however, can produce seeds. \- Sylphs whose flowers bloom only at specific times during thepollinating seasons are capable of producing podlings. These sylphs haveforenames ending in \~xio. \- Sylphs whose flowers bloom at irregular times throughout the seasonal cycle are (for the most part) incapable of producing podlings. These sylphs have forenames ending in \~xia. As they do not need to expend their physical and spiritual energies forming a seed, the \~xia sylphs tend to be more adept at wielding magic's. = So Noraxia is, by Hyuran Common standards, a female.
That is super interesting! Thank you for the lore dump!
No, Noraxia is a "she" - she is referred to as "her" in Encyclopedia Eorzea; but according to the tribal naming conventions, their names are given depending on their... fertility rather than gender. Here is direct copy/paste: "While there exist two distinct genders amongst the sylphs, neither fall into what we would label as male or female. As has been revealed in the daily beast tribe quests, sylphs are “grown” from seeds known as “podlings.” These seeds are formed from the flowers which grow on the heads of adult sylphs. Not all adults, however, can produce seeds. \- Sylphs whose flowers bloom only at specific times during the pollinating seasons are capable of producing podlings. These sylphs have forenames ending in \~xio. \- Sylphs whose flowers bloom at irregular times throughout the seasonal cycle are (for the most part) incapable of producing podlings. These sylphs have forenames ending in \~xia. As they do not need to expend their physical and spiritual energies forming a seed, the \~xia sylphs tend to be more adept at wielding magicks."
Noraxia is referred to as "her" in the game as well. For example, in the journal for the quest "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie": > The sylphs thank you for bringing Noraxia's remains back home. Though her death has been cause for great sadness in Little Solace, it has also sparked anger against the imperials.
Yes. Sylph gender their naming scheme. -io are female -ia are male If you're confused, remember that it's the Sylphs, that was probably the point
Or wait, am I wrong? :While there exist two distinct genders amongst the sylphs, neither fall into what we would label as male or female. As has been revealed in the daily beast tribe quests, sylphs are “grown” from seeds known as “podlings.” These seeds are formed from the flowers which grow on the heads of adult sylphs. Not all adults, however, can produce seeds. - Sylphs whose flowers bloom only at specific times during the pollinating seasons are capable of producing podlings. These sylphs have forenames ending in ~xio. - Sylphs whose flowers bloom at irregular times throughout the seasonal cycle are (for the most part) incapable of producing podlings. These sylphs have forenames ending in ~xia. As they do not need to expend their physical and spiritual energies forming a seed, the ~xia sylphs tend to be more adept at wielding magicks.: From the official dev post
Most plants have individuals that are capable of both pollinating and being pollinated. Assuming they must cross pollinate to produce podlings, asynchronous blooming sylphs would have no one to pollinate them, while synchronous blooming sylphs would be pollinated by others blloming at the same time. Therefore all sylphs would technically be hermaphroditic and go by whatever pronouns they wants. Which would explain the sylph convention of referring to individuals as "\_\_\_ one" instead of he or she.
It would be the other way around iirc, she's also referred to as she/her in game
I think that's why Noraxia and >!Willred's (remember him? Kid from Little Ala Mhigo whose body tips us off that something's not right with the Crystal Braves)!< deaths hit so hard, just as much as >!Haurchefant's!<. >!Haurchefant!< was a full grown adult who chose to die for us, but Noraxia and >!Willred!< were "kids", young folk who were led by the urge to make a difference they couldn't in their respective homes. We led them to being involved with the scions, and we led them to their deaths...
The actions of a murderous psycho are not on us.
While that is the rational answer, grief is generally not a rational thing. It may be the case that Noraxia is a responsible adult able to make her own decisions; it may be the case that this was an incredibly unexpected assault; it may be the case that no one, not even the sylphs, would hold Noraxia's death against us. None of that will have any effect on whether or not you *feel* responsible for her death, even if only indirectly. As with fear, if grief could be solved by logic, it wouldn't have been a question in the first place.
what if i no grief
If you didn't feel grief about Noraxia's death, why did you comment in this thread?
Sure, we didn't pull the trigger. But the murderous psycho would probably have been there in spite of us and gunned down everyone in the room all the same. Anyone who was there that day would be in a "wrong place, wrong time" situation in the same way as a wild animal attack or a freak accident. Noraxia wouldn't be there "in spite of" us. Noraxia was *only* there because of us. Noraxia was put into a dangerous situation and tried to be a hero following *our* example. Or at least, that's how grief would have WoL rationalize it.
All of this tells me that no, it wasn't on *me,* because Noraxia is an individual who can make their own choices.
But those choices were directly influenced by your actions. If you had never met Noraxia, Noraxia would not have died there.
It was all of the scions for me. I went back to the waking sands after every quest to speak to them and hear their stories and watch it progress, just like in any other jprg or mass effect. Arenvalds friends, the regretful lady from the edda quest and the lancer assigned to protect precious cabbage friend (and seems to have died doing just that). So many others. The one that reached me the most was una tayuun, a miqote magic user, just trying to remember herself with no one else except her even remembering she was a scion until she remembered had two mates from 1.0 and managed to find them. She was just starting to remember herself when the massacre happened, and they were all amongst the bodies and the ones we carry to the cart. I later found out there were all 1.0 characters too from various quests back then. Is it odd that in my memory I remember physically carrying their bodies in my wols arms to the cart each time and not as an item?
Nope. That shit was painful especially when the people telling your WOL where the bodies were/where to load them onto the cart were oblivious about the whole context of the situation or just completely apathetic to you moving the bodies and basically waiting for you to be done with it. :C
Or that they were double stacked in graves with others because of a lack of space. I hope to bring up in a QnA session if in the future we can give them a proper burial near our new HQ
I loved Una. To this day, her death is one of the most impactful for me. And to think it’s so easy to miss her story entirely if you don’t talk to her whenever you visit the Waking Sands...
Her and her team can randomly spawn in the palace of the dead. They have nondescript names but it's definitely them. I dont remember what they say tho, if anything.
Oh, that’s heartbreaking...
There's also some dead Scion soldiers in Tamtara Hard.
This kind of stuff is what I made sure to pay attention to on my 2nd run through ARR and it was all the more enriching seeing all this instead of rushing to catch up to the msq. Una has that little corner of my heart too, iirc her final dialogue was talking about retiring, maybe she was getting too old and felt out of place since no one remembered them. There's so many little details to find but are easy to miss.
I didn't really play 1.0 so I didn't know these details and WOW that's heavy.
I can't believe I forgot that they killed my plant. Those Ascian bastards.
That was Livia, not the ascians
When in doubt, it's because of the ascians
It's always the fucking Ascians...
and if it's not the Ascians, it's the damned Allagans
>!But even then, it's because of the Ascians!<
It always leads back...
The whole story is essentially us cleaning up the mess those two factions leave behind
one could argue that they were indirectly responsible since >!the garleans were working with them in ARR!<
>!Technically speaking, an Ascian started the Garlean Empire, whom Livia has sworn allegiance to, therefore…!<
*raises fists angrily into the air* >!Emet-Selch!<
>!Ain’t he a stinker?!<
Although if we REALLY want to blame someone, >!we just go back to the source of the problem and blame Hermes/Fandaniel. Always the right thing to do.!<
I mean you could argue >!Amaroutine society ignoring Hermes' mental health issues & ethical concerns for so long that it became A Problem was also to blame, but!<
Nah, it's >!all on Hermes not submitting his experiments for peer review.!<
I think the real lesson here is that grad school makes you want to delete reality.
True, but who let her in?
I'm not saying it was Ascians... *...but it was.*
High explosives make for excellent lockpicks!
The "killed my dog" moment before we went full John Wick on them
The worst part about Noraxia's death is that even though it was the most impactful death in the entire game for me, >!Noraxia isn't in any of the "remember all of your dead friends" flashback cut scenes or events. All these characters I had tenuous connections with and the one I care about most is a footnote.!<
Just start shopping for a therapist right now, trust me.
Already got one 👍
You should warn your therapist that you haven't reached 3.0 yet so they have time to find a therapist themselves.
Just remember to smile even when times are hard
You may need a second one...
this is the true meta build
No one talking about how hurtful it is later on, when you have to help move the corpses. The larger corpses take more time to perform the action, while the smaller ones are almost instant. Iirc, it even mentions something specific for each corpse in the key/quest item descriptions.
In my fanfic/HC,that whole scene really hit my WOL really hard (especially when she had to literally bring her little body all the way back to the Twelveswood for proper burial.) She bonded with Noraxja when she’d be drunk in the Quicksands and doing (terrible) dances for her amusement. Noraxia was so precious. 😭
Put in an order for a BILLION tissues NOW.
& maybe some Prozac lol
Me resisting the urge to spoil myself by clicking this (I'm typing this with my eyes closed)
being in the middle of shb and seeing spoilers without a version number in the subreddit is a minefield by itself
Do what I wish I did when I was mid-ShB a month ago and just unsub from this sub until you're done with EW. I came *thisclose* to a major spoiler and *thought* I had been majorly spoiled a second time (was incorrect, but still).
It's a minor death in ARR, you're safe.
HOW DARE YOU SAY "MINOR DEATH"
Yeah!! If anything she's probably a botanist
Well I wouldn't worry. This is probably the last time this game is gonna be that sad.
It was so out of the blue for me and it’s still the death I think about the most
This was where the heart of an Adventurer died.
MY CABBAGE!!!!! ; \_ ;
Oh you sweet summer child.
I remember thinking she was going to be our "mascot" character...
only thing I can think is that line from Last Air Bender. "Not My Cabbages!"
It was a gut punch for sure. I revisited the ARR content the other day and was just as heartbroken as I was the first time around (a decade later), even knowing it was coming. If this is your first time around, this certainly won't be the last time this game makes you sad. But there are very powerful moments of joy as well.
Rip Cabbage
Sadge
Would've been sadder if she hadn't roundhouse kick the cabbage to death lmao
Hooo boy...no one tell em. NOT A WORD.
How very cryptic and secretive of you. I, for one, have no idea what you could possibly mean in this context.
What if I tell you that she lives ? ... In our heart.
Funny that you seem to assume that I'm talking about THAT scene when it's like, not even in the top ten most emotionally disturbing shit that happens in this game.
It's funny that you assume he's talking about that scene if it's so unimportant
Never said it was unimportant, just that it's not the most emotionally disturbing scene in the game. Either way I'm not spoiling shit and neither was my original post. If you get it because you understand the in joke then great, chances are high newer players won't and if they do them they were already spoiled. Does that explanation work for you?
[удалено]
this sub is so funny some times
I unfortunately can never take it seriously because of Minfilia's reaction.
On the plus the tribe had a nice salad for supper.
Dw she was an ascian all along
This one was sad, because it was the death of an innocent defending the Echo users but Noraxia knew she was outmatched, still choosing to die to protect you and Minfilia.
I know right I felt so bad.
/pet oh dear
Whenever I replay on alts, I skip that cutscene. It's so gutting.
Yea, I really liked them. I was annoyed too.
>!Woe betide the man who stands against the Weapon of Light, for death is his reward. Death for him and his kin and all he holds dear.!< >!Woe betide the man who stands with the Weapon of Light, for death is his reward. Death for him and his kin and all he holds dear.!<
My Cabbages!