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The Red Dragon of the Steppe: Preview

A landscape of a dry green plain scattered with grey, craggy rocks and snow-capped mountains in the distance. In the foreground there is a little settlement made of round yurts and a blue aetheryte crystal. In the distance is a huge castle on the flat top of a hemisphere of rock, surrounded by stone monoliths like fingers piercing the ground. The location for a free FFXIV fanfiction set in the Azim Steppe
The Azim Steppe, home of our hero.

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!

Two characters, Ahi Akane and her younger but not so little brother Azphel. Azphel is a tall male with red skin and dark blue scales sits on top of a rock with his sister Ahi, a much more petite female with the same colouring, who kneels behind him, touching his arm. They both have dark blue hair with red highlights and prominent horns to either side of their heads. They both wear tribal outfits in shades of red and have bright pink tribal face paint that matches their eyes.
Azphel and Ahi Akane

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.

Two characters, Ahi Akane and her younger but not so little brother Azphel. Azphel is a tall male with red skin and dark blue scales stands on top of a rock with his sister Ahi, a much more petite female with the same colouring, who kneels behind him, touching his arm. They both have dark blue hair with red highlights and prominent horns to either side of their heads. They both wear tribal outfits in shades of red and have bright pink tribal face paint that matches their eyes. They both wave and smile at the camera.
The Akane siblings welcome you on this journey!

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.

Wolf, a white haired rabbit man with mismatched violet and deep blue eyes has his arms folded and stares at the camera with a deadpan expression. He is wearing a red collared shirt that's open to show a black undershirt and a matching red and black checked bandana around his neck.
Thank you for reading!

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