I would like to introduce you to my project, a free FFXIV fanfiction set in the Azim Steppe, the tale of one of my original characters inspired by the rich, immersive world of Final Fantasy XIV and a little sprinkle of my imagination.

As I hinted at in my first post, I have always, always loved crafting stories, from my early childhood I remember that as soon as I learned to read, I found this whole other world opened up to me, which is a terrible cliché that I want to kick myself for, but it’s true.

The first thing that I remember writing that wasn’t for schoolwork was a Harry Potter character insert on Fanfiction.net which oh my lort, just looking at that site takes me back to the days of dial-up! (Thank you advances in technology and BT Broadband for letting me never have to suffer from slow site loading ever again) Looking back at my old writing and jeez, it’s CringeFest 2001 but having said that, I’m glad it exists, because without that, I’d never have moved on to write for more fandoms, met wonderful new people who have helped craft who I am today, but most of all, I wouldn’t be here, sharing this with you.

Enough of the mushy stuff? Okay, on with the actual point of this post!

I would like to introduce you to Ahi Akane and her younger but not so little brother Azphel.

Ahi was originally something of an accidental creation, made when I was just playing around with ideas of creating a character that looked unique and different as far as the limitations of the game would let me. At first, she even had bright red and pink hair, but I changed that up pretty quickly, less is more, so they say (not that I listen to that, like ever).

My attachment to her was almost instantaneous! I loved her individual colouring, her cute emotes and the awesome look of auri scales, all of which I had kind of ignored before, so I started to play her, going through the story and I began to see it through her eyes, to imagine how she would react to things in this world I love so much, and that was it, the spark was lit!

Throwing myself into the lore and background of the au’ra, the Azim Steppe and their culture, I began to craft this new tribe in my head, to feel Ahi come to life and after many, many years of not writing, I was inspired. I initially started to post her view of the main story on Instagram, but it wasn’t enough for me, there was more that wasn’t being shown in game and so I started to make notes, those notes turned into outlines and the outlines, well, that’s why I’m here.

I humbly welcome you to walk the journey of writing this tale with me, to bear witness as I spin the story of the Red Dragon of the Steppe.