Final Fantasy XI is the eleventh numbered installment in the… Okay, you know what it is, I’m just going to tell you about one of the storylines!
During the Wings of the Goddess expansion, adventurers will be sent back in time to experience the events of the Crystal War, a cataclysmic event that is the foundation for conflicts of the modern-day timeline. Should an adventurer choose to serve the Kingdom of San d’Oria, they will be immersed in the story of the Young Griffons—a group of children who would see themselves knights, many of whom grow into prominent characters later in life.
Among the Young Griffons, the player will find Bistillot, a shy boy who doesn’t like to be seen. With his penchant for engineering, shy demeanor, and lack of combat potential, Bistillot prefers to spend his time inside of an orcish war machine that he was able to repair to working condition.
He is often seen before he is heard, with his signature phrase, “HAAAALLOOOOOOOOO” being used to hail the adventurer. Through the course of the story, Bistillot finds his way, even contributing to the war effort with his engineering skills.
However, when another member of the Young Griffons is kidnapped and taken to the present day, the adventurer must return to the present day and reunite with the Young Griffons’ present selves! The adventurer’s first contact in the present day is Bistillot. When the adventurer hears the signature “HAAAALLOOOOOOO,” Bistillot approaches the player, but what the player sees is… a woman?? She introduces herself as Bostilette, a “friend of Bistillot.”
After the rescue mission, Bostilette comes clean. She is, of course, the very same Bistillot who was a little boy twenty years earlier. She explains that she was very sick as a baby, so her parents gave her a boy’s name so that she would be stronger and survive the illness. Once she overcame the illness, she was comfortable to reclaim her name and gender. Well, that closes the book on that story, except… I’ve decided that’s bullshit!
I have unilaterally decided that Bostilette is trans, the sickness she had was dysphoria, she stayed in the orcish war machine because she was an egg, and I hope you all agree!
As a reminder, be sure to properly give content warnings and put sensitive subjects behind proper spoiler tags. It's for the mental health of not just your comrades, but yourself as well.
Here is a screenshot of where to find the spoiler button.
been putting together this pokemon TTRPG. there's a couple systems out there, but they're all so damn crunchy with the combat. I've settled on just using showdown for actual battles.
putting together some kind of coherent world of what the fuck actually is pokemon is honestly the most difficultt part. like I tend to tell very political TTRPGs, but pokemon is just so obscure with what the fuck anything is because it's a dumb RPG for kids. what is the government? is the pokemon leauge the government? what do most people seem to even do for work? presumably taxes pay for the pokemon centre? are officer Jenny and Looker the only damn cops in this entire world? what's the regulation on owning a pokemon? how does the government control wild pokemon from starting a forest fire or blowing the electrical grid? just world building stuff like that
honestly, it's strange when you consider just how fucking HUGE pokemon is as a franchise, and yet has little to no TTRPG spin off community as other media properties do
It's from the POV of 10 year olds, they don't know that politics big view stuff. See the entries in pokedexes they put in, Alakazam has an IQ of 10000? No way.
There's the theory that there was a fairly recent disastrous great war that devastated a lot of adult men - the only evidence is Lt Surge in game and tangential stuff like your dad is never around or involved. There's definitely a lot of adults just hanging around like in the gyms or fishing.
not only do I know about the theory, but I have written an entire deisgn document for a squad based pokemon tactics game around it. basically, xcom but with Charizard. whole story about Gionvani founding Team Rocket as a Yakuza esque 'we help the people... but we also do a bit of kidnapping and ransom to boot'
I like to imagine the pokemon world is a fuedal society where the champions are monarchs of their region, the elite four are lords, and the gym leaders are vassals.
A pokemon TTRPG sounds really neat, I'd love to see a version of this idea that incorporates the TCG in some manner. Maybe I'll make it my next godot project.
Rocket edition prob closest of anything poke related that made me think of politics
spoiler
I'm still kinda upset you can't up end the system cuz status quo but the bit of post war power struggle still great that and how many areas crime was keeping the place going