(no subject)

[unnecessaryflourishes]

→ PLAYER INFO

Name: Sceadu
Age: Old and tired (30s)
Contact: draconic
Character(s) in game: n/a
Permissions: here

→ CHARACTER INFO

Character Name: Emet-Selch (among others, but he uses Emet-Selch most often)
Age: Really Fucking Old. FFXIV is really bad at dates, but at least 12000 years and likely more
Canon: Final Fantasy XIV
Canon point: Shortly before voluntarily returning himself back to the aetherial sea
History: It's a link! Spoilers for FFXIV up through Endwalker
Personality:
~Dramatic AF: The most immediately noticeable thing about Emet-Selch is that he pretty much tends to exist up near the higher ends of the 'dramatic on purpose' scale and does not seem in the least bit inclined to not do so. There are, admittedly, different shades of it - a fair bit of it does seem to be a conscious decision on his end and there has been more than one occasion where he has played it up to an absolutely over-the-top level, but even at his baseline there are still shades of the dramatic. Most of this tends to come out in his body language - not to the point of being overwrought, but enough to be noticeable - but even aside from that he is often prone to dramatic proclamations as well as more subtle moments of dramatic emphasis. (One of his favorite methods of casting spells is simply to raise a hand and snap. The weight of eternity has not changed this. If anything, it seems to have made him more inclined to lean on it, to the point that he spends a fairly extended period simply using his dramatic tendencies to troll the everliving heck out of his (mortal) grandson, and otherwise simply proving himself to be a very dedicated nuisance. And then there's the matter of his almost ever-present slouch through much of the game, as if he is announcing to all the world just how tired he is, and how much his duty has weighed on him.

~Patient: Emet-Selch is - or was before his death at the hands of the Warrior of Light - quite literally immortal, and with that comes a certain amount of patience (in his case at least. Even within his canon it's not universal across what few immortals we meet). Enough so that he directly admits at one point that even should his plans end up being foiled he can, quite simply, start over. There's an implication that it will be something of a nuisance to have to, mind, but other than that he shows no direct concern over the idea. This is further echoed by his preferred methods, when it comes to villainy. While we do see a number of antagonists who are more direct in their methods Emet-Selch... is not. His preferred method is a more subtle one, built up over gentle nudges and careful planning rather than any sort of more in-your-face villainy. Additionally, he himself admits to having been the architect of multiple "imperially-inclined nations" - in particular, Allag and Garlemald. No mean feat, given that Allag lasted for some several centuries, before its inevitable downfall.

~Driven: In addition to the above, Emet-Selch is also very much the sort of person who will see he duties and goals through to the end regardless of they are. Most recently, this has been his desire to see his own world reborn and his people reborn, but even before then he had been prone to treating matters of duty with utmost sincerity. He might certainly raise something of a complaint, at being asked to do so in some cases, but once he has begun something he will see it through to its end. Whether it be his duty as Emet-Selch - one which tasked him with overseeing the aetherial sea and the souls therein, and which ran more than a few millennia beyond what he might have expected - or the numerous duties of overseeing an empire. Similarly, once he has embarked on any specific task, he seems to not let his own protests and misgivings about the matter at hand get in the way of doing whatever he has been asked to. Enough so that when time travel shenanigans have the Warrior of Light encountering him far before he becomes the villain we first meet him as he doesn't let an explanation of his future actions - which he spends some time outright denying the plausibility of - get in the way of helping the Warrior of Light once it proves that their goals are momentarily aligned.

He does, later, end up having his memory partially wiped, which leads to him forgetting that he'd ever been told his future. But that brief glimpse is nonetheless enough to suggest that he treats his task with utmost sincerity. Even if he does get better at finding ways to avoid taking on too many tasks, as the millennia go on.


~Caring: Buried deep deep down under everything Emet-Selch is - and something that he will absolutely and utterly protest being - is someone who cares. Deeply and thoroughly, and most especially with those few people he considers friends. (Of which there are not too many, for reasons that will be discussed below.) It's this care that leads him to treat every request made of him - or at least every request that he doesn't manage to rebuff - with the seriousness he shows, and is what earned him the role of Emet-Selch, through the testimonies not only of his friends but also the many and various people he had helped besides, and with little thought that he might have been doing anything out of the ordinary. It is also at the core of what makes him such a tragic figure in the wake of the catastrophe that destroyed his world and split it into 14 different shards. His people - the people he loved and cared for - were all but wiped from the world and even the very world itself had changed into something no more than an echo of what it had been, populated by people whose lives were little more than blinks of an eye. And yet, despite his grief and loss, and his attempts to hold the people of the Sundered shards at arm's length, he cannot help but care. So much so that, while spending his time acting as the Emperor of his most recent Empire, the birth of his firstborn son was very nearly enough for him to feel hope again after all those millennia without. Hope that, perhaps, there was another path to take. Unfortunately, when said firstborn son died before his time, Emet-Selch's hopes were all but dashed to the point that his relationship with the rest of his mortal descendants never recovered.


~Callous: For all that Emet-Selch at least was a decent enough person once, even at his best, he has never been anything that could be considered nice. Quite the contrary, in fact! Even before the events that culminated in the destruction of his world, he was often prone to being grumpy and sharp-tongued by turns, even to those he considered his friends and rarely made any sort of attempt to be anything other than thoroughly blunt about his opinions. Additionally, for all that he cares enough to help (most of the time), even one of his best friends admits to the fact that repeated insistence is often required to convince him to actually be willing to do whatever it is that's being asked of him. Once he has been suitably worn down he's not usually any worse than superficially grumpy and is remarkably selfless about his actions, but there's a sense that he's using it almost as a sort of... limiting factor. To the point that he comes across - at best - as an extremely crotchety introvert who doesn't really have a lot of patience.

This flips into outright cruelty after the destruction of his world and his people, as unresolved grief and loss have him sliding into the worst version of himself. His sharp tongue swiftly becomes biting, and by the time we see him in Shadowbringers he has well and truly embraced the idea of words being both shield and weapon, to the point that he point-blank admits to not really seeing the Warrior of Light and his companions as people. Which may well have been partially a distancing tactic but even so, it's one hell of thing to directly admit to someone.

As of his current canon point he seems to have pulled back somewhat from the outright cruelty he displays periodically throughout Shadowbringers, likely as a result of no longer having to bear the burden of his long duty, but he almost certainly still retains the capacity for genuine cruelty, especially if pushed.
Suitability: Though Emet-Selch will almost certainly be feeding the entity to which he's aligned in some respect - if only to reclaim or partially reclaim abilities he rather takes for granted - he will be more than glad to assist ADI in their endeavors. He won't be exactly thrilled about hauled to another world, but that alone is hardly going to be enough to have him throwing all caution to the wind. Especially given the implication of there being an imminent apocalypse. Admittedly, he has spent far more time causing apocalypses of late than actually stopping them, but even those were carefully crafted events, built up over multiple decades and specifically tuned to his own world. Absent those specific circumstances, and in light of fairly recent developments within his own personal timeline, Emet-Selch is far more likely to offer his own advice on how to stop (or survive!) an apocalypse than seek to immediately cause one.

...Provided there is no direct evidence that causing one will see himself and those he cares about home faster than simple cooperation, anyway. But even that is an option he will only entertain after thorough consideration and if there is, genuinely, no better option. Or even one that might be better. He is a patient man, with the advantage of eternity (and a very distinct inclination to not bother with significant effort if he doesn't have to, and apocalypses are very much Effort). If the path of least resistance (ie: cooperation) works, then he will be more than content to go with that.

Powers/Abilities:
~Ascians and the Echo
Like all his fellow Ascians Emet-Selch is possessed of a set of abilities that - in mortals - is generally referred to as 'the Echo'.  In addition to allowing him to understand all spoken language, it also allows him, essentially, transcend the bonds of mortal flesh.  This in turn lets him not only escape death by leaving his corporal host and escaping into the rift between dimensions, it also allows him to possess new hosts, leaving him functionally immortal.  Additionally, once in a mortal body, he's also capable of reshaping it to his desired appearance as well as disappearing "into the shadows" as a form of what appears to be either teleportation or disapparation, along with the Standard Video Game Antagonist dramatic floating in midair. He also has not one but two boss forms: the first is later implied to be what canon refers to as a transformation - a skill many of Emet-Selch's original people possessed, wherein a person essentially uses magical power to weave a sort of 'second body' around their first, which is possessed of both more strength and unique skills that they might not have in their normal form. Emet-Selch's second form appears to involve him relinquishing his mortal flesh and accordingly it will not be accessible to him in game.

Finally, as what seems to be a sort of act of last resort, he is capable of essentially performing a fusion dance with his fellow Ascians (or, in at least some cases, with people who bear a fragment of an Ascian soul), creating a composite being most commonly referred to as an Ascian Prime. While this doesn't grant any new abilities, it does act as a sort of power-up, given that an Ascian Prime has access to the abilities of both individuals involved in the fusion, and may end up using them in ways either or both of the two might not have thought to (or been able to) separately.

Along side these, Emet-Selch also has a fancy glowy mask made of magical energy that he can call up.  This serves to indicate who he is, and identify him as being Emet-Selch specifically, regardless of what body he happens to be in.  As Emet will be arriving in what is effectively his own body, he will be unable to leave his body for any purpose. He will, however, retain his ability to enter an Ascian Prime state, although this will require both someone with whom he could do so, and a fairly significant amount of magical juice. Additionally, his trick of disappearing into the shadows will not take him beyond the boundaries of the town and may be subject to simply not working as per mod decree.

~Creation magic
Like the name suggests, this is nothing so much as the ability to create something out of nothing, and is an ability that all of Emet-Selch's people shared, to one degree or another.  Emet-Selch, however, appears to use this relatively sparingly - we see him directly use it on only one occasion, to create a new set of clothes for someone, and it's further implied that he must have used it at some point to create both his own clothes and, later, a gun.  However the things stated to have been created through this method by one individual or another includes things like griffins, so presumably Emet-Selch could also do so, if he so chose. It's also possible for two or more Ancients to essentially pool their power in order to Create something more complex than one alone would be able to. Emet-Selch will retain this ability in general, but this will be highly dependent on how much stored power he has, and the more complex an object is, the more taxing its creation will be on him. Additionally, if he should manage to create any physical creatures, they will come out twisted in such a way as to reflect the entity with which he's aligned and the task will be almost uniquely taxing (living creatures are very complex!).

Addendum: Living creatures created this way will be limited to things with the intelligence of animal. Material creations will continuously drain his fear reserves after creation and will disappear entirely when his reservoir runs dry.

~Sorcerer of Eld
Even by the standards of his own people - people to whom creation magic came as naturally as breathing - Emet-Selch is noted to have been a powerful mage, and both the ease with which he casts spells and the sheer scope of some of things we see him do backs this up.  A list of what we see him use is as follows:
~~Shields: self-explanatory; strong enough to bear the full force of an attacking opponent's blows, but only cover the most relevant angle
~~Darkness arrows: one of his favored methods of attacking, these can either explode on contact (with a target or the ground) or simply act as if they were a bladed projectile
~~Blasts of darkness: the most versatile of his attacks, this comes in a variety of forms - blasts designed to knock foes back, ground-based explosions, actually FF-style Dark (as a spell), and darkness tendrils are all forms he uses at some point or another
~~Double: causes his next spell to cast twice
~~Energy discs: slow-moving disks of energy that fall from above and explode on contact with the ground
~~Aetherial gaol: imprisons the target(s) in a ball of magical energy.  can be broken, but only from the outside
~~Doom: Final Fantasy style Doom
~~chains: also self-explanatory.  Similar to aetherial gaols in purpose, but can be broken if the target struggles hard enough.
~~Black Cauldron: a massive darkness-based attack.  In canon, this is strong enough to one-shot the entire party.

He's also canonically shown using the Black Mage and Dark Knight jobs and uses a number of their respective abilities. He additionally uses Benediction and Resurrection, though he displays no other healing abilities.

Additionally to all of the above we also see Emet-Selch recreate an entire city and simulacra of (some of) its inhabitants.  While this is explicitly referred to as a "enchantment" and is thus presumably something built over an extent structure, it is none the less one on an absolutely massive scale and built over the ruins of a city besides, which may have required the use of some creation magic to keep things stable.  Finally, while he is never shown to use them in game, it would not be unreasonable to assume that he's at least familiar with of most of the standard sorts of Final Fantasy spells.  While he prefers to not fight, Doom will not have any effect on player characters and Black Cauldron will similarly be unable to one-shot characters.  His illusions will additionally only be able to encompass an area similar to a mid-sized room. Finally, as per canon, Resurrection will be unable to bring anyone back from being genuinely dead.

~Denizen of the Underworld
Though Emet-Selch is not literally an inhabitant of the Underworld (despite some very apropos parallels with regards to his true name), he is capable of seeing the aether - the energy that exists within all living things and allows for magic to be cast - that suffuses the world itself, and the currents it makes as it crosses the world.  In fact, his sight is so keen that he can pick out not just the souls of any given being but also the individual colors of same.  He is also capable of reaching into the aetherial stream - sometimes also referred to as the Lifestream - and pulling out a soul, provided it still retains its shape instead of having dissipated into the aetherial sea.  While he will still have this ability in game, reaching into the Lifestream will require that there be a Lifestream to reach into in the first place. He will also not be able to use this ability to nullify anything related to character deaths, or to be able to speak to the recently-deceased.

Addendum: All the above aether-based abilities (including soulsight) will be non-functional without any stored fear power, and will be of varying strength depending on how much he has and how heavily he has been feeding the entity with which he is aligned. Additionally, as there is no Lifestream present his ability to directly reach into it will quite simply not function, even should he try.

~Planning/Strategy
Moving on into the realm of purely physical abilities, Emet-Selch is both a brilliant tactician and excellent planner, frequently thinking several steps ahead and having plans for several contingencies, just in case his initial plans either fall to come to fruition or otherwise don't quite work out as intended.  Having the advantage of an immortal's lifespan and several thousand years to get really good at it helps, but it's notable that his plan - of all the ones thrown at the player character by the various antagonists of the game - is one of the ones that comes closest to succeeding.

~Builder of Empires
Every immortal needs a hobby (or two, or three...) and empire building is Emet-Selch's most notable one.  Very literally so, in fact.  He masterminded the creation of the main antagonistic empire of the game inside of a single human lifespan, and under his rule as Emperor, the empire sees an almost meteoric rise to power besides, until it's very nearly the equal of any of the other major powers of that world.  And just in case that alone wasn't enough, he admits to having had a hand in not just the other (long since vanished) empire of that self-same world, but "various other imperially-inclined nations besides" and one of his fellows Ascians later directly comments that he had a "penchant for nation-building".  As such, it can be presumed that he has at least a fairly thorough grasp of not just military tactics and strategy as mentioned above, but also any of the various bits and pieces that go into ruling a highly-militaristic empire - and ruling it well, by most accounts - for some 60-odd years.
Entity Affinity: The Dark. Even before Emet-Selch ended up bound to the will of a darkness-aligned entity in his own canon, a not insignificant number of the abilities we see him use are elementally aligned to darkness, and he had - and still retains - a strong connection to what his canon refers to various as The Underworld/Aetherial Sea: the place all souls return to after death. Beyond this, he has also spent multiple millennia serving as both a major antagonist and one of the forces of darkness in his own canon, to the point that during the Reaper job questline he is directly described as having "Things That Lurk in the Dark" style terrorization well enough to not only send a would-be assassin packing but also caused the man's hair to go fully white besides.

Inventory: The standard black (hooded) robes favored by Emet's own people, and his mask of office, which is unique to him.

Samples: a short log-style thread + a longer comment-spam style thread