autumnslance:

scrollsfromarebornrealm:

In which Riven continues screaming about dragoons, dragons, and things proto/current Ishgardian.

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So I decided to rewatch some cutscenes, one of them being the level 60 SB Dragoon starter quests.  However before Heustienne drops the adorable bomb that is Orn Khai and his search for his mother, she says this little gem:

Wait, whut?

Now as we know, Heustienne was taken by heretics and forced to drink dragon’s blood.  She more or less had a bad reaction, and was continuing to have it up until the end of the HB DRG questline.  She also hints that she’s still had a hard time until recently…

And then enters Orn Khai and the SB dragoon questline basically consists of ‘DAWWW’ with some violence.

And then Estinien.  But anyway.

It’s really interesting that Heustienne still feels she can’t return to Ishgard.  While this can probably be attributed to a personal decision on her part, you have to wonder if there’s still a social aspect to it.  Her primary reasoning in HW was to ensure the Inquisition would not go near her parents-as guilt by association was a major thing under the Halonic Orthodox.  I’m in the camp that Ishgard, even this far into SB, would still more or less be having growing pains as they adjust to a new government and society, with the Church’s hold being completely shattered.  In fact, it’s safe to say that probably for a generation or two, Ishgard would still be dealing with the aftershocks (and probably some hella internal fighting) as you still would have old holdouts of the Church trying to come back to power, not to mention families or people who greatly profited from the Dragonsong War.  Yes Ishgard’s part of the Eorzean Alliance again, but fighting the Imperials is an entirely different prospect than dragons… 

It also brings up a question about just what is going on with Heustienne.  We don’t know if she is a descendant of one of Thordan’s knights with the curse upon her, if this is something new due to the possible formation/awakening of her inner dragon due to her dragoon training, or if this is something else entirely.  We get one more interaction with her at the start of the level 63 job quest, but then she seems to vanish.

Then as you’re getting ready to head back to Alberic, if you speak to Orn Khai, this little tidbit appears:

(…thanks buddy.  I feel honored and yet disturbed at the same time).  

Orn Khai’s comment there seems to possibly indicate that Hraesvelgr’s brood knew of the dragon-curse.  If that’s the case, then that potentially adds in another layer to the Ishgardian heretics–or even any Ishgardian, proto/past/present (and maybe even future) when it comes to dragons…

TBC

Funny as it sounds, Hildibrand’s Heavensward quests deal with those Ishgard growing pains, particularly for the Inquisition. While it’s played for laughs (as it’s a Hildibrand chain), the main NPC, Cyr, is a former apprentice of Ser Charibart, and is trying to do his duty as the Inquisition feels the strain of the new order they must operate under. Cyr even mentions “quotas” the Inquisitors had to meet (kind of like cops and monthly speeding tickets), and spends much of the early quest chain trying to prove the various Mandervilles or Gigi are heretics, or associated with heretics, or somehow Not Holy.

It comes to a head late in the chain, when after pulling forbidden texts for research to help Hildibrand and Gigi, Cyr himself is accused of heresy by another young Inquisitor who saw Cyr consulting said “heretical texts” that the Inquisition had (evidence locker? It’s not clear). Cyr blows up, realizes he hates his job, and when the Manderville party leaves for Idyllshire, that’s where Cyr stays, becoming a Consulting Inspector himself, and keeping the house Slowfix gave to Hildibrand–because he cannot go back to Ishgard, due to the allegations against him, as the young Inquisitor was going to report Cyr.

As for Heustienne, I really think it’s a combination of the social growing pains–if the Inquisition is still a slowly-dying force to deal with–and her own problematic inner dragon, and the fear she might be a danger to innocents if she should lose control.

The idea of Ishgard’s heretics and the reaction to dragon blood (including the Dragoons’ own “inner dragon”) seem to be related to Thordan’s crime, and those knights who chose to become commoners; it’s mentioned in the quests and scenes on meeting Hilda, when she realizes what the WoL is saying about “what makes a noble so bleedin’ noble.” Especially considering all the noble bastards in the Brume, anyway. Also, it’s heavily implied that one of those original knights is the same one who originally founded The Forgotten Knight tavern, from the Echo vision as well as things Gibrillont says of his establishment. The knights stayed in Ishgard–they just stopped being knights, after what they had done and what it had cost, and left ruling the nation to the four who remained.

A drink of dragon’s blood in a modern Ishgardian can be enough to trigger their own transformation, but it seems to be by degrees. In the DRK HW chain, a background character is mentioned as having drank blood for years to prepare for his own transition eventually (and it had an effect on his child due to his regular ingestions, creating a more concentrated infusion in said child’s own blood). In SB’s MCH quest, which focuses on Ishgard, we run into someone one would least expect swallowing a vial to transform on the spot. Heustienne’s forced ingestion seemed to be meant to have an immediate effect–especially as a dragoon with an awakened inner dragon–but her own force of will kept her (painfully) herself.