As mentioned in my previous post, I’ve been playing quite a bit of Winds of Change lately, and from being about two hours into the main story thus far, I’m enjoying it just as much as I thought I would! With its wide cast, there are naturally severalcharacters in the Winds of Change world that I haven’t met yet… though the characters I have met and ventured alongside in my quest to Mazeo have all been nothing short of wonderful.

And since both characters are wildly obscure compared to my other F/Os and have next to no representation on tumblr, I’d like to introduce the self-ship community to two new F/Os of mine that have become incrediblyspecial to me in the past few days…

Valessa and Fortaime!

Before we dive into talking about Valessa and Fortaime, I think it’s necessary to provide readers with a general overview of Winds of Change’s story so that certain plot points are fully contextualized before I begin gushing!

The game begins with a vision of your beloved hometown, Valinorth, in the midst of a heated onslaught. Fires run rampant, strange armored entities litter the townscape, and the screams that ring throughout town are unsettling to say the least. In spite of the horrors set before you, you can’t make sense of what is happening around you, as though you are thrown into the situation at hand without any recollection of prior events… but why could that be?

Throughout the carnage, you sneak around with two companions you have supposedly known for quite some time: the protective and burly Ulric, and the intelligent although inquisitive Valessa. While the two of them have some context as to what is going on, it becomes apparent to them that you don’t rather quickly, and a distressed Valessa takes notice.

She gently enlightens you that you play a significant role in the safety of Valinorth, and the world of Alestia as a whole— you are the sacred Seer, having been blessed with spirits which allow you to catch glimpses of visions of the future, as daunting as they may be. With this revelation, she also realizes that— because of how you’ve been acting— that the destruction you’ve found yourselves in is a mere vision you’re having, and that Valinorth is still at peace… for now.

Valessa encourages you to use this devastating vision to warn Valinorth of its impending doom. With knowledge that an attack is on the way, there’s a high chance that you as the Seer can stop it, no matter what it takes. And with a rather macabre conclusion to the vision, you wake up in the comforts of home, relieved that nothing you just witnessed was real after all… but action must be taken so that said events don’t happen whatsoever.

With that out of the way… who exactly is Valessa?

Valessa is a caring and emotive fox who is the Scribe to the Seer, and her job is to collaborate with the Seer on visions they may have in interpreting and making sense of them. It’s very evident that she has a close relationship with the Seer, and is often seen being supportive of them as well as uniting with them to get to the bottom of the disturbing vision the Seer caught a glimpse of.

Those who read the tags of my prior Winds of Change post might have read that all it took for me to give the game a go was one specific character in Winds of Change’s promotional artwork, and surprise surprise, that character is indeed Valessa! It should come as no surprise that adorable furry girls like herself are my ultimate weakness, though it was when I began playing Winds of Change that my feelings for her began to reallyblossom.

Valessa, as a contrast to many of my F/Os, is notable for having a major speaking role in her source material, so every image you’ve seen in this post so far has corresponding voice acting to go along with it (Save for the inclusion of my name, which is usually dubbed over as ‘Seer’). It’s one thing to imagine an F/O saying something sweet to you, but actually getting to hear them say it is on another level COMPLETELY.

As you can probably imagine, I have several screencaps of cute and sweet things that Valessa has said throughout my time in Valinorth thus far, but the above screencap may just be my current favorite. Valessa speaks in a calm, soft voice— which alreadyis perfect— but getting to hear her remind me to 'do my best to keep calm’ made my heart flutter, and it’s a reminder I’ve been keeping close to heart ever since I heard her say it.

Legitimately every second that Valessa is on-screen, I can’t help but smile. Every emotion she has artwork for is nothing short of adorable (Her thinking artwork featured in the promo art was what sold me on the game. Just LOOK at her), and I’m sure it’s more than obvious on how much I love supportive characters like her, so much like Zulius, Valessa was decided on being my newest romantic F/O on sight. ❤️❤️

Now that we have some insight on Valessa’s character, let’s talk about Fortaime!

Fortaime is an adventurous and kindhearted rabbit that serves as the Protégé to the Scribe of the Seer, and works valiantly under Valessa in the hopes to fully understand what it means to be a Scribe should the need of him having to step up to the position come about. Where Valessa takes her studies seriously, Fortaime has been known to become easily distracted during their lessons, though he still has a good grasp on understanding how to interpret visions regardless.

When Winds of Change introduced Fortaime to me as the player’s best friend, I at first knew that I was going to at least like him, but that quickly escalated into me actually seeing him as a best friend. His playful nature coupled with the fact that he is the first person to join your party earned him a spot on my list of platonic F/Os— and he is for certain one of my ultimate favorites.

Fortaime is never one to leave the player out of a conversation, and tells you time upon time again that you have his trust and that he’ll stick with you on your adventure until he very end. He may be a smidge more infantile compared to Valessa, but there’s something to appreciate about his bright outlook on everything and his unending love for his friends.

And how could you not appreciate Fortaime? LOOK at him!! He is absolutely adorable! I think my favorite artwork of him so far is when he’s overjoyed, of which you can see in WoC’s promo art— this man’s smile is everything to me. Fortaimeis everything to me. Valessa and Fortaime are everything to me. While I’m still early on into the story of Winds of Change, I couldn’t be happier knowing that I’m sent on such a journey with these two wonderful people whom I cherish to no end.

I’ve been thinking a whole lot about Absa in the past couple of days…

I don’t even know what it is, but like… getting to call her my friend is like the highest honor I can think of. I think what gets me the absa-loute most about her is that— in nearly all of her appearances in canon and fanart— she’salwaysgotthisgrufflookgoingon. Clearly, this portrayal isn’t without reason; she’s practically the most stoic character in Lovers of Aether, and perhaps even Rivals of Aether as a result, though…

… knowing that I’m good enough for her to consider me a friend? A best friend at that? That she might be against showing affection of any kind but makes an exception for me? That, in spite of her no-nonsense personality, that she genuinely cares about me deep down, even if she doesn’t like publicly expressing the such?

That’s so special to me.

She may as well be my ultimate favorite platonic F/O, and while I obviously love all my F/Os the same… Absa was the first character in the franchise I had feelings for, after all

stars-self-ships:

Self-Shippers of tumblr, do you ever decide you want to check out a TV series/movie/game/book after taking an interest in it and just have ✨that feeling✨ where you know you’re going to walk out of the experience with a new F/O or two?

Look at them. Do you see them?

They are my sisters now.

Self-Shippers of tumblr, do you ever decide you want to check out a TV series/movie/game/book after taking an interest in it and just have ✨that feeling✨ where you know you’re going to walk out of the experience with a new F/O or two?

Do you remember that post that I made a little bit ago where I found myself yearning for a taur boyfriend, which ended up becoming a reality by my own hand not too long thereafter? It was while I had been designing Miles that I realized something— making OC F/Os is particularly fun, because you can design them literally any way that you’d like!

From their looks to their personality to how they act around you, there is just so much to work with, and it’s always a joy working out how special you are to them and what their love language is like. And given how fun designing Miles was, I’ve actually got something to admit…

I’ve been wanting to design another OC F/O, this one leagues different than my dorky horse boyfriend. You can check out my general description of them underneath the cut!

First and foremost, this idea for an F/O of my design has been in my thoughts for a day or so now, and the more I was thinking about it earlier this afternoon, I hadto write out my thoughts on her— rather, who she is generally.

Okay, okay, so, hear me out on this one, right? This F/O would hail from a medieval time period, and be a fierce paladin, dressed head to toe in highly intricate armor kind of like this. Her unending heroism never fails to strike fear into the hearts of her enemies, and she will put her very life on the line if it means protecting something dear to her. The catch?

She’s actually a dragon.

… well, perhaps not the kind of dragon you’re thinking of. More accurately, she’s a bit more humanoid (Now that I’m thinking about it, ‘anthropomorphic’ might be a better word to describe her, and if it’s not, then how about the word 'furry’? XD) with dragon-like attributes, such as her entire head, huge wings and the ability to breathe fire.

It was a little troublesome to find reference images of exactly what I’m getting at in the above paragraph, but this one might give you a good idea of a visual, and this one to a much greater extent. Naturally, designing her may take a lot of time, thought and experimentation…

… but so did Miles, and look at how beloved he became. If a fearless dragon girl of a knight clad in the coolest armor you could imagine isn’t cool, I don’t know what is. Perhaps I’ll give it some thought, because that is definitelya type of girl that makes my heart flutter…