Remnants - [ FFXIV ] (Patreon)

My piece for the Emet-Selch Remembrance zine. Please do not share this anywhere, as it's a secret until the zine gets revealed.

I put a lot of thought and time into this piece. I wanted to flex my story-telling with it, so I worked in a bunch of motifs to fit the narrative. Can you spot them all?

I love hearing people's interpretation of what they think the piece represents, so feel free to post yours in the comments. Below the line you can find my thoughts on the creative process, so skip if you want to make up your own story.

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My original idea, which morphed as I went through illustrating it, was to dress him in a tapestry of all the civilisations he'd helped rise and fall over centuries. Eventually that concept changed to make it tell more of a story, widening the illustration to include a ton of motifs.

At the very bottom you have Amaurot, painted in a way that leaves it ambiguous as to whether it's the true Amaurot or the ruins. To the left, there's Ul'dah, Limsa and Gridania painted in three different shades. To the right there is Ishgard, Ala'mhigo and Kugane. Directly above that is the crystal tower and on the opposite side is Garlemald, rising all the way to the top of the canvas as a looming threat.

The gold threads are symbolic and I wove them up and across in such a way that leaves the interpretation open. One interpretation could be that the world was formed from the bare threads of the original Source, which is why the threads wrap around and go through all the city/states, deeply interconnecting them. One pull and he could unravel them all. Another interpretation could be that he wove the world in the image of Amaurot. Another one could be that by pulling from all other sources, he hopes to weave Amaurot anew. Or it could be all three at the same time. This is why the threads don't have one clear direction.

Finally the wings arching around him are both the spires of Amaurot, but also drawn in a way reminiscent of Zodiark and Hydaelyn, and right behind him is the moon, as a heads up to Endwalker.

There's other things I considered, such as the image being overall centered but imbalanced (left side is heavier than right side) to show the threat of Garlemald, but also the imbalance of light vs. dark that we've been dealing with from ARR. Then things like his expression, I wanted it to be neutral enough to cover all of these meanings, but I did lean a bit into melancholy because I felt that it's a very dominant trait in Emet's personality and motivation.