"Run from the Light": Neverending days, Sin Eaters, and the Monstrous Light of Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers with Andre Cowen
About this Event

Romancing the Gothic is run entirely on donations so if you can support the speaker and do not already support the project through patreon or ko-fi, please choose the 'pay what you can' ticket option. The recommended donation is £1-10.

If you attend regularly, you can support the project on patreon here (and get all the links monthly!) - https://www.patreon.com/romancingthegothic

Within the Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game (MMORPG) Final Fantasy XIV,the player-avatar is depicted as the Warrior of Light, a hero of the god Hydaelyn fightingagainst the evil Ascians. When the player is brought to another world in the Shadowbringersexpansion, they find that by banishing darkness from the world, light has run rampant andcreated monsters, labelled as Sin Eaters.This talk will look at the role of parasitic light within Shadowbringers by first looking at therole of the light within the narrative as a identical to the darkness portrayed in the rest of thegame. Secondly, I will look at the role of the Sin Eaters, their physical forms, and theirrelationship with humans, as both monsters formed by the human mind, and as symbioticbeings looking to overwhelm the human psyche similar to a zombie infection. Finally I willlook at how the game utilises light to convey horror, and the ways in which night anddarkness become a reprieve for the people of the world.