Characters / Final Fantasy XIV - The Warrior of Light

Final Fantasy XIV | Main Character Index
The Warrior of Light (Tank Classes | Ranged DPS Classes | Melee DPS Classes | Caster Classes | Healer Classes | Limited Jobs)
Scions of the Seventh Dawn
Nations of Hydaelyn: The Eorzean Alliance | Ishgard | Dragon Hordes | Othard and Hingashi | Sharlayan and Thavnair | Tural
Other Realms: The Void | The First | The World Unsundered (Pandæmonium) | Ultima Thule
Garlond Ironworks | Hildibrand Allies | Other Allies (Hydaelyn | G'raha Tia)
Antagonists: Ascians (Emet-Selch) | Garlean Empire (Gaius van Baelsar | Zenos yae Galvus | Bozjan Garleans)
Primals | Raid Antagonists (Omega | The Twelve) | Other Antagonists
Class and Job Questlines: Disciples of War (Tank | Melee | Ranged) | Disciples of Magic | Disciples of the Hand | Disciples of the Land
Races: Playable Races | Beast Tribes
Seasonal Event NPCs

As the story has advanced beyond the point of hiding plot twists, there are unmarked spoilers below, you have been warned.

---

The Warrior of Light / The Warrior of Darkness / Azem's Reincarnation

The Meteor Survivor, the Player Character stand-in used in promotional artwork and trailers, along with the various jobs he's taken up over the years.

^{Click here to see the jobs portrayed}Clockwise from top-right: as a Dragoon in Heavensward; as a Warrior in A Realm Reborn; as a Samurai in the Doman half of Stormblood; his current self Walking the Earth, job unknown; a Dark Knight in Shadowbringers; an Archer in Legacy; a Monk in the Ala Mhigan half of Stormblood; and a Paladin in Endwalker. Not Pictured: as a Viper in Dawntrail

"This world is not yours to end... This is our future. Our story."

The Player Character, and The Protagonist.

An Eorzean adventurer from one of three city states. Those who started in 1.0 witnessed a star shower and met an Archon of the Circle of Knowing and were then gifted with the Echo and became entwined with the war with Garlemald. Players are implied to be from outside of Eorzea entirely (or at least returning from an extended journey abroad), and have come (or returned) to Eorzea for reasons the player may define in the opening. In the process of proving themselves to their adopted city-state, they too meet a (now-former) member of the Circle, discover their possession of the Echo, and become involved in a conflict not only with the Garleans, but with a perhaps older and more sinister power...

---

0 - D

• 100% Heroism Rating: The Warrior of Light is treated with respect and awe throughout Eorzea and some lands beyond it, and even isolationist, borderline xenophobic nations come to respect them on account of their heroism. Ishgard reveres the WoL for ending the Dragonsong War and mending their relationships with both dragonkind and the rest of Eorzea. Doma and Ala Mhigo both view the WoL as a hero for liberating them from Garlean tyranny, aiding their refugees, and helping to restore their economies and infrastructures following the war. Hell even Garlemald and Sharlayan, arguably the two most xenophobic nations in the setting, despite their leaders doing their damnest to paint them as a barbaric butcherer can't help but respect and admire them after Endwalker.
• 11th-Hour Superpower: Frequently for the expansion finales, the Warrior of Light will tap into even more power to help them topple their increasingly powerful foes.
  • At the end of the redone fight with Ultima Weapon, Hydaelyn supercharges the player's Limit Break meter, granting access to a level 3 Limit Break despite being in a 4-man light party. For a new player, this will be the first time they get to see the awesome power that comes with an LB3, and it's the only time in the game it's useable when there's less than 8 players present.
  • In the redone finale to A Realm Reborn in 6.1, Lahabrea actually kills the Warrior with his strongest dark magic; Hydaelyn steps in and expends even more of her power to resurrect them and grants them an incredibly powerful blessing to weather his further attacks and defeat him.
  • After failing to defeat Nidhogg himself, Hraesvelgr gives you one of his eyes and the incredible aether stored within it, allowing you to fight the elder wyrm and come out victorious. Though since dragon eyes have already proven themselves to be very sketchy, you give it back to him after the danger has passed.
  • To defeat the final boss of Shadowbringers, the Warrior of Light uses all the absorbed light from the Lightwardens they had defeated during the expansion, in combination with Ardbert rejoining with them, to empower themselves to stand up against Hades' full power, before using it to finish him off.
  • For the boss of the 5.3 MSQ, For the final battle with Elidibus the Warrior of Light unlocks the powers of their original self, Azem, letting them summon allies to their side. This even seems to be able to summon the spirits of the departed, as Emet-Selch appears to help midway through the boss fight.
  • At the end of the final battle of Endwalker, the Warrior of Light is lifted up by the hopes and prayers of the Scions' belief in their success, translating to a stacking damage done up and damage taken down buff that lets you tear through the last 40% of the Endsinger's HP pool. This also lasts into the fight with Zenos right afterwards, where the residual energy of their prayers manifest as six extra lives and a freakishly powerful regen effect.
• The Ace:
  • Eventually you are this, being the go-to person for the Grand Companies and the Scions to solve whichever world-ending issue is plaguing them.
  • This is extremely exaggerated if you also put into perspective all of the various jobs the character can have. Most people will spend a lifetime honing their skills in a single trade. The Warrior of Light? They can very easily become the master of nine different crafting trades, three different gathering jobs, and 20 forms of combat and counting. This is lampshaded repeatedly by the other characters. Baderon complains about how the Warriors seems to be bloody good at everything, while Gyoei remarks that it must be boring to be so talented in so many fields.
  • The guildmasters of the Disciple of the Hand and the Disciple of the Land jobs are also quick to note just how much of a natural the Warrior of Light is at any task they put their mind to, going from complete novice to providing salable work within a few months if not a few hours of in-game time. You can potentially become a master of every artisanal craft in Hydaelyn. In Stormblood, Hisui or rather, Kurenai, marvels at the Warrior of Light's ability to be a peerless warrior, a master craftsman, and a skilled gatherer, wondering if there's anything they can't do.
  • In the trailer for Shadowbringers, the Warrior of Light is shown switching between all the jobs we have seen him use in previous trailers in quick succession. Downplayed in that the enemy he is using them against quickly repels each attack, breaking his weapons in the process...at least until he switches to Dark Knight where he delivers a One-Hit Kill to his enemy.
  • This is also deconstructed. The Warrior's nearly unparalleled battle prowess and posession of the Echo means that they're constantly called to the frontlines when a primal shows up. Their fame for the deed and reputation as someone who can't say no to a cry for help means that the Eorzean Alliance quickly grows reliant on them. It gets to the point that the Warrior starts to feel Heroic Fatigue even if they do so willingly. Haurchefant and Estinien both complain about how readily the heroes send the Warrior at every problem they face, regardless of how the Warrior may feel about the matter.
• Ace Pilot:
  • In A Realm Reborn, they find that they're a whiz with a Garlean reaper, piloting the magitek armor with ease against Garlean soldiers specifically trained in its use. In the Sorrow of Werlyt questline, they commandeer the G-Warrior, a retrofitted Ultima Warrior from the Fractal Continuum, piloting it with such skill that even Gaius Baelsar, former Legatus of the XIVth Legion defers to them as the Humongous Mecha's best pilot.
  • They have no problems piloting a manacutter into Nidhogg's nest in Heavensward despite never having flown an airship of any size before. They also pilot Garlond Ironwork's G-Warrior, a refitted Ultima Warrior from the Fractal Continuum, against the Sapphire Weapon and the Diamond Weapon.
• Adventurer Archaeologist: While they don't exactly have an archeology degree, they often find themselves helping to uncover the ruins of lost civilizations and has more experience fighting the remnants of those civilizations than anyone else. Cid basically calls them a certified Allagan archeologist because of just how much they've uncovered and encountered over the course of their adventures.
• Adult Adoptee:
  • The Warrior, who is old enough to drink, is taken in as a ward of House Fortemps during the events of Heavensward, granting them free access to the otherwise isolated nation. By the end of the expansion, the Warrior is more-or-less adopted as an honorary son or daughter of the House.
  • Completing the Sahagin Tribe Questline will have Novv name the Warrior a honorary member of his clutch as thanks for all of their help. From then on, the other members of Novv's clutch will proudly refer to the Warrior as "clutchmate". Novv himself is delighted to see the Warrior and refers to them as "my shorewalker spawnling".
  • About midway through the Reaper questline, the Warrior has proven trustworthy and capable enough to be considered a part of Drusilla's family of Garlean exiles and misfits.
  • At the end of Ameliance's Custom Deliveries questline, she considers the Warrior an "Honorary Scion of House Levellieur" for their generosity and efforts to help make her project a success. Though this is ultimately Subverted, as while she'd like to sign some papers to make the Warrior officially a member of her family, the amount of paperwork required would give even her husband pause.
• Affectionate Nickname:
  • The Vath fondly refer to the Warrior as "great hunter" for their skill at slaying beasts and monsters as well their feat of bringing down the primal Ravana.
  • During the Heavensward Miner quests, Haimirich nicknames them "Professor" for being the best educated member of the expedition group out to search the wastes outside of Ishgard for mineral wealth.
  • Feo Ul calls the Warrior their "sapling" for their magical pact while acting as the Warrior's "branch". Following Feo Ul's coronation, the Warrior is subsequently referred to as "the king's sapling" by the fae.
  • A spirit found in Shadowbringers calls the Warrior "new old friend" due to them being the current incarnation of his and Emet-Selch's old friend, who held the seat of Azem.
• The Alcoholic:
  • While one of the dialogue options of the Dwarven Tribe Quests can imply that the Warrior is The Teetotaler, the other dialogue options imply the opposite.
    Warrior: You can't buy love but you can buy alcohol, which is better.
  • They can enthusiastically take up Godbert's offer for free high-class liquor in the Manderville Weapon quests. Though even they show alarm when Godbert winds up drinking Gerolt under the table.
• Almighty Janitor:
  • This can be invoked at your choosing. While you're required to join a Grand Company as part of the story, you aren't actually required to apply for promotions. As a result, you can be a hero and the mightiest warrior in Eorzea... as well as a lowly private in the Twin Adders, Maelstrom, or Immortal Flames.
  • In addition, you lose your rank and must start from the beginning if you choose to change Grand Companies. You can be a lieutenant of the Twin Adders with all of the experience and strength that entails before going back to being a private when you hop ship to the Maelstrom.
• Amateur Sleuth: Numerous questlines have them solving mysteries and stopping crime on behalf of someone else.
  • The Hildibrand questlines have them helping the good inspector as a Hypercompetent Sidekick, often slaying monsters or stopping bandits in addition to doing some actual detective work.
  • In the 2021 Make It Rain event, the Warrior is asked to solve the case of a stolen Sabotendor Emperador horn, worth millions of MGP, while exonerating a member of the staff being accused of the crime Ace Attorney style.
  • The Heavensward Alchemist questline has them volunteered to act as a crime scene investigator in Revenant's Toll on Severian's behalf since the culprit has been making extensive use of alchemy techniques to facilitate a Locked Room Mystery. The Stormblood questline has them investigate the case of a strange corpse that does not show signs of decay weeks after it has been interred.
  • The Heavensward Scholasticate questline has the Warrior assist Inspector Briarden in investigating allegations of cheating and corruption at Saint Endalim Scholasticate, Ishgard's finest religious academy, all while navigating the rift between highborn and lowborn wrought by the end of the Dragonsong War.
• Ambadassador: Throughout the story, the Warrior of Light has served as an envoy between the members of the Eorzean Alliance as well as to the nations outside of it. In addition to trying for peace whenever possible, they are also the strongest warrior Eorzea has to offer.
• Ambiguously Human:
  • During the conclusion of the 3.0 Heavensward plot, a number of your opponents begin to legitimately question whether or not you are actually another mere heroic "Spoken", as you've gone from "doing heroic things" to "performing feats that, by the laws of the metaphysics of this world, should be properly, literally impossible".
  • Shadowbringers finally reveals the "Echo" is in fact the same ability that gives the Ascians their power, and the Warrior of Light in a past life was one of the greatest of all the Ascians: Azem, the fourteenth seat of the Convocation of Fourteen, the ruling body of the ancient precursors of Amaurot, and colleague of the likes of Emet-Selch. Further, your abilities are getting so close to that of an unbroken Ascian, when the protagonist reclaims the ninth of fourteen pieces of their previous unbroken soul from Ardbert's sacrifice, Emet-Selch even temporarily sees the protagonist as Azem in full.
• An Adventurer Is You: A mutable Adventurer Be You, in fact, courtesy of the Armoury System.
• And Then John Was a Zombie: The Warrior teeters dangerously close to this after absorbing the aether of all of the Lightwardens. Despite their best efforts, they are unable to contain all of that Light in their bodies, and it's only by Ryne's intervention that the Warrior doesn't transform into the ultimate Lightwarden then and there. After that, it's a race against time to find a way to safely expunge the light from their body and stop Emet-Selch's plans.
• Animal Lover:
  • Despite their propensity for slaughtering their way through hordes of ravenous beasts, the Warrior demonstrates a remarkable affinity for animal handling. The Warrior befriends numerous creatures over the course of the main story and in sidequests, with others noting that even cantankerous and agitated creatures tend to trust the Warrior and calm down in the Warrior's presence. This trait of theirs is also tied to the mounts earned from Extreme trials, as the Wandering Minstrel notes that few people could hope to tame one of these creatures blessed by primals, much less six or seven of them. Even legendary beasts like the Kirin, Firebird, and Ixion allow the Warrior to ride their back and arrive at their call. This is a trait they share with their counterpart on the First, Ardbert, who is a trained amaro handler and shared a deep friendship with his amaro, Seto.
  • In the Facets of Nourishing storyline, their work in feeding Skip and constant kindness means they're the only one the amaro trusts at first. Even the friendly, enthusiastic veterinarian Bethric gets nothing more than a cold stare if Skip bothers to make eye contact. Skip, or rather Lugg Lugg, later explains that the amaros' latent ability to see the souls of others allowed him to see that the Warrior's soul is not unlike that of his dear, departed master. This, combined with the delicious, nourishing feed the Warrior has been preparing for him, allowed the amaro to trust them despite suffering from the treachery of poachers.
  • The Warrior can tame and raise animals on their island sanctuary with ease. Even brutal animals like tigers and alligators will happily lick the Warrior's hand when they pet them.
• The Archmage: The Warrior of Light can be an exceptionally skilled mage who quickly masters any school of magic they choose to study, including foreign disciplines^note like the Sharlayan Astrologian and the Whalaqee Blue Mage and previously extinct Jobs^note like the Allagan Summoner or the Nymian Scholar. There’s even a series of achievements which grant the player titles for getting all currently-available magic classes to the current level cap: these titles start with "Archmage"^note awarded for getting White Mage, Black Mage, and Summoner/Scholar to level 50 and get progressively more grandiose from there.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership:
  • By the end of the main quest in Azim Steppe, you are, regardless of your race, the khagan of the Xaela. While the Mol will rule in your absence (as officially, you fought on their behalf), strictly speaking you're the one in charge and a number of NPCs change their tune to reflect this. And half the reason they respect you is because of the mountains of ass you kicked during the Naadam.
  • Apparently, this was the case back in the Warrior of Light's past. As an Amaurotine, they were very powerful, and very high on the ladder in the Ancients' society, as evident that it only takes 8 shards of their soul to contain a world's worth of eldritch light that mutates everything into Sin Eaters. Confirmed when they are revealed to be Azem, the Traveler and Shepherd to the stars of the Convocation of Fourteen.
• Audience Surrogate: The Warrior of Light is this for the player.
• Back from the Dead: As of 6.1, the Warrior dies during the fight with Lahabrea at the end of ARR. Hydaelyn helps them get better.
• Badasses Wear Bandanas: The "Scion Traveler's Attire" that Tataru gives the Warrior in the lead-up to Shadowbringers includes a black bandana tied loosely around the Warrior's neck like a scarf.
• Badass Boast:
  • Byakko warns the Warrior not to hold anything back against him, as he will be naught but a raging beast once he unleashes his aramitama. In response, the Warrior can casually say that he's in good hands, as they've bested kami before.
  • They can be rather flippant about the prospect of taking on the VIIth Legion's most powerful warmachina, the Diamond Weapon. When someone tries to persuade them otherwise, the Warrior can respond with, "I'll have you know my record for surviving dangerous missions is impeccable. So far."
• Badass in a Nice Suit:
  • Near the end of Heavensward, Tataru has a bunch of tailors jump the Warrior of Light to take their measurements in preparation for making the Warrior the snazzy Scion Adventurer's set. For the guys, this consists of a white blazer, black slacks, and a neat tie accented by silver accessories along with some High-Class Glass. The girls still get the blazer but trade the slacks for a skirt.
  • At the end of Ameliance's Custom Deliveries she gives you the "Appointed" set of clothes, consisting of a black blazer accessorized with a bronze chain, white tie, a layered Waistcoat of Style, matching halfgloves, delicately embroidered white slacks, and white leather shoes. Should you decide to dye the top a different color, the tie changes color to black to better coordinate with the rest of the outfit.
  • In the 2022 Little Ladies Day event, the Warrior of Light is asked to act as a runway model for an aspiring fashion designer. Should they ask to dress as a seneschal for the event, they'll be decked out in a Best Man's Jacket (a black blazer with a white Classy Cravat) along with dark slacks and shoes as well as white gloves.
• Battle Aura: They've apparently developed one by the end of Shadowbringers that can be felt by others; in the level 80 Paladin quest Aldis asks for a friendly spar to test his new experience as a Samurai with your experiences as a Paladin on The First. Upon closing his eyes to sense you out, he's met with a massive aura of power that makes him immediately back down and ask baffled just what happened to them that they've gained so much power in so short a time.
• Being Good Sucks:
  • Zigzagged. On one hand, the Warrior's adventures and acts of heroism make them a world-renowned hero with friends in every corner of the world. They wind up comfortably wealthy from their exploits and have countless new experiences to satisfy their Thrill Seeker urges. On the other hand, the Warrior's Chronic Hero Syndrome gives them immense responsibilities that everyone expects them to uphold. Dialogue options, journal entries, and sidequests depict the Warrior as weary from having to bear the burden of saving and ending so many lives. In Stormblood, Fordola is incredulous that the Warrior can keep pressing on with a smile on their face after everything they've suffered in their travels.
  • The Dark Knight questline in particular underscores the damaging effects that being the Warrior of Light has had on their psyche, as Fray and Myste, the embodiments of the Warrior's own unheroic traits and Guilt Complex respectively, berate them over their failings and try to convince the Warrior to escape their responsbilities.
• Beneath the Mask: The Dark Knight questline examines this trope in regards to the Warrior.
  • While they're held up as The Paragon, they have numerous, seemingly contradictory personality traits. They hate killing, but they're a Thrill Seeker and a Blood Knight who plunges into life-or-death situations. They prefer peace, but willingly leave a small army of bodies in their wake in the war against Garlemald and the Ascians. For all their Heroic Resolve, their journal entries show them suffering from Heroic Fatigue. Reading their angry journal entries makes the player wonder just how repressed the Warrior feels beneath their cheerfully stoic facade.
  • Then there's Fray and Myste, who both represent the parts of the Warrior that they'd much rather keep to themselves, namely their rage at being taken for granted and their sorrow over the toll of their heroics. But rather than call any of these faces the "real" Warrior, Fray ultimately concludes that the Warrior is all these things: the brave hero, the tortured soul, the altruist, and the pragmatist. While others may tell the Warrior what they think they are, only the Warrior knows exactly who they are.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Usually the Warrior of Light can be anywhere from Nice Guy to Jerk with a Heart of Gold, but they won't start a fight unless they're fighting wild monsters, are violently provoked, or have to act to save someone else. Some actually underestimate the Warrior due to their "bleeding heart," only to find out the hard way that they've picked a fight with a hero that has stained their hands with the blood of small armies and gods as the epitome of Good Is Not Soft. And the Dark Knight questline fantastically highlights this trope when Fray, as their Enemy Without, vehemently protests and spectacularly flips out about yet another quest giver exploiting their supposed kindness, which is actually the Warrior themselves ranting about it.
• Beware the Silly Ones: You can dress in all sorts of unfitting outfits, such as running around dressed like Santa Claus or in a comedic ghost suit, even bumbling about as Fanservice with a Smile or being a happy-go-lucky Lalafell with the squeakiest voice possible. Doesn't stop the Warrior of Light from being a proverbial wrecking ball that destroys everything in their path all the same.
• Beyond the Impossible: The primal slaying and having the Echo is already grounds enough for many people to keep an eye on the Warrior. Then with each successive expansion, they not only get stronger, but topple regimes and tyrants, overcome Garlemald's greatest scientific achievements, kill stronger primals and beings that might as well be bordering on actual godhood, save the First from the Flood of Light's aftermath, and beat the original Warrior of Light in Elidibus at his strongest. Endwalker proceeds to have them defeat an (incomplete) Zodiark, withstand Venat's Limit Break while at their weakest and she's still in her prime, overcome Hydaelyn in her trial, and then quell Meteion's despair to save the universe. Needless to say, the Scions start placing a Lampshade Hanging that if something seems impossible, give the Warrior of Light an opportunity to correct it and they'll take it without fail, even if not immediately.
• Big Brother Mentor:
  • Both Alphinaud and Alisaie look up to the Warrior for their unwavering bravery and resolve in the face of peril and constant desire to do good, often asking What Would X Do? when they're in a situation without the Warrior. The Warrior is protective and supportive of them in-turn while frequently having words of encouragement for them in their dialogue options. The Warrior is devastated when the twins sacrifice themselves to create a path to the final area of Ultima Thule, with all of their dialogue options actively protesting the twins' decision.
  • Dialogue options allow the Warrior to act as this for Vath Deftarm, a young Vath who aspires to become an adventurer like them. The Warrior can gently encourage and guide Deftarm in his journey to both aid his fellow Vath and cement his purpose in life. The other dialogue option portrays the Warrior as a Stern Teacher or even a Drill Sergeant Nasty, responding to Deftarm's mistakes and grumblings with Quit Your Whining at best.
  • In the Arkasodara quests, the Warrior is appointed the supervisor of the Hippo Riders' new business, helping them get it off the ground and offering them encouragement and guidance while helping them integrate with greater Thavnairian society.
  • For the 2022 Rising event, the Wandering Minstrel asks the Warrior to guide a young Miqo'te named Nhagi'a Jakkya through his first steps as an adventurer, mirroring the Warrior's own humble beginnings right down dialogue being used.
• Big Damn Heroes: The finale of 4.5 has them arriving in the nick of time where Hien, Lyse, and Yugiri get beaten by Elidibus possessing Zenos's body. They then promptly start kicking ass.
• Big Eater: Subverted. While they can boast about trying to eat their own weight in carnival food, the Warrior struggles to get countless servings of Mord Souq's Foreign Queasine down after the Exarch has them "crack the coinpurse" to earn the trust of the locals. By the end, they can either force themselves to eat the last serving with immense discomfort, or give up and hand the rest to the merchants as free food.
• Big Good: Beginning with the absence of Hydaelyn in Heavensward through the end of Stormblood the WoL slowly becomes this for Eorzea and Othard. They have many friendly and influential relationships in all corners of the realm (see 100% Heroism Rating above). They are also the World's Best Warrior / The Archmage and the most important asset in the fight against the Ascians, the primals and the Garlean Empire.
• Birds of a Feather: The Warrior tends to get along well with those who share their adventurous spirit, kindness, and love of a challenge. Aside from the Scions, Haurchefant becomes fast friends with the Warrior when they meet in Coerthas. Hien and Lyse also quickly strike up a friendship with the Warrior during their travels in Stormblood.
• Blood from the Mouth: After absorbing Innocence's light, the burden of containing the Flood becomes too much to bear, resulting in them coughing up glowing white blood as they begin to transform into a sin eater.
• Blood Knight:
  • Heavily implied by Lahabrea, saying they are just simply looking for something to despise so they can fight it. The Dark Knight questline confirms that they often offer to help people just for the chance of fighting a challenge. Zenos is also very fond of the Warrior of Light simply because of their refusal to die and how much bloodshed they can cause in battle. How much it truly applies is, of course, up to the player.
  • During a friendly mock battle between Ishgard and the other members of the Eorzean Alliance, the Warrior of Light winds up in a one-on-one duel against Raubahn, who remarks that he'd hoped it'd come to a battle with such a Worthy Opponent. The Warrior of Light's response is a small, wry smile, showing that they too are eager to challenge themselves against the Flame General.
  • In the Stormblood trailer, the Warrior can be seen wearing a huge grin on his face as he spars with Lyse atop of the Temple of the Fist.
  • When Alphinaud asks if the Warrior would be willing to participate in the fight at Castrum Velodyna, one of the available responses can be summed up as, "Wherever there's a fight, I'll be there!"
  • In a conversation with the Crystal Exarch, the Warrior of Light can confirm their plans after freeing Norvrandt from the tyranny of the Lightwardens involve, to paraphrase their own words, doing what they always do and finding another, stronger challenge, should you select that option. Other options include settling the score with the Garlean Empire, taking a breather, or thoughtful silence, so how much of a blood knight the Warrior of Light is, is still left up to the player.
  • When beseeched by the leader of a friendly beast tribe clan with the sister clan's summoned primal, they have an option to tell them, "Know that I'll kill your god if I have to. Maybe even if I don't."
  • While the Warrior faces many Worthy Opponents throughout their career, their journal entries in Stormblood suggest that the Warrior, for all they want him dead for the good of Ala Mhigo and Doma, relishes crossing swords with Zenos. Potentially culminates in Endwalker when Zenos tells the Warrior of Light to admit that they get excited for the thrill and danger of battle. The Warrior of Light has the option to agree with Zenos, giving a positively vicious smirk in the process. Later on, the Warrior can describe their fighting with Zenos as "playing" to Zero, who was brought to Radz-at-Han.
    "Should you fail, you will have no choice but to face him in open combat. But a part of you would like that very much..."
  • In the Dawntrail opening cinematic, the Warrior can be seen clashing with the towering Gulool Ja Ja. Even as he's tossed about by the Dawnservant's strength, the Warrior is wearing a huge grin the entire fight.
• Blue Is Calm: The Alchemist and Gladiator questlines reveal that the Warrior's aether is naturally a serene blue hue, reflecting their calm and composed demeanor even in the most tense and hostile situations any adventurer can hope to be in. Some of their dialogue options allow you to subvert this, with Hot-Blooded or goofy responses that can alarm or befuddle those around them.
• Book Dumb: The writing generally leans towards this. The typical division of labor is the other Scions will do the research and investigating while the Warrior does more physical tasks. Numerous dialogue options depict them as a Bunny-Ears Lawyer or a Cloudcuckoolander who isn't as well-read as their Sharlayan compatriots and they're frequently the target of exposition regarding complex subjects like aetherology. But the Warrior of Light is by no means stupid. They're an Instant Expert at anything they put their mind to, be it a combat form or a trade, and can become an expert at any number of intellectually taxing disciplines that require a lot of reading, such as arcanima, thaumaturgy, and machinistry. So while the writing tends to default to the Warrior being uneducated, how much they are is up to the player. A good example of this is when Urianger is explaining the aetheric causes of the water cycle. A default answer is to attribute it to an Allagan conspiracy, but if the player is a Scholar during the cutscene, they can be the ones who explain it to the group.
• Bootstrapped Leitmotif: "The Maker's Ruin," originally just the theme for the first battle against the Ultima Weapon, becomes this for the Warrior of Light, showing up remixed for the theme of Omega-M and Omega-F, who are emulating the Warrior of Light to understand their power, rearranged in a softer and more melancholic version as "More Than Truth" for quiet moments with Ardbert in Shadowbringers, and returning as a Triumphant Reprise during the final boss fight in Endwalker.
• Boring, but Practical: A recurring element of crafting questlines is that one of the things that makes the Warrior such a successful artisan is they take the time to sit down with the client and discuss exactly what they want, allowing the Warrior to craft something customized to meet their needs. The Warrior's competition, on the other hand, produces something according to their own personal ideas of what would be best which inevitably is in some way Awesome, yet Impractical for the client.
• Born Lucky:
  • The Warrior has a remarkable tendency to always be at the right place at the right time. For instance, during the Stormblood Culinarian questline, the Warrior is in Kugane to ask for instruction from the esteemed sushi shef of the Bokairo Inn. Due to their fame not reaching the Far East, the chef scoffs at them and tells them to bugger off. But Dellemont happens to be staying at that same inn when the Warrior is visiting and vouches for the Warrior's skills and willingness to learn.
  • In Shadowbringers, the Warrior uses a last-ditch mining technique to flush out coblyns from the mines and harvest the rocks on their backs in hopes of finding some leonine to restart a Talos. Not only do they end up getting the largest chunk of leonine that Twine has seen in years, but that chunk happens to be Agna's last gift for her grieving husband, Magnus. Onlookers quote this trope when discussing how miraculous it is.
  • More than once an expansion, an NPC from the MSQ to the sidequests, will note your uncanny knack to turn up EXACTLY when needed or for them to run into you exactly when you needed them.
    Alka Zolka: How curious that you always come at the most opportune time, [Player Name]. Tis' divine providence, almost.
  • In Endwalker Y'shtola turns this around and jokingly suggests that the Warrior's ability to be in the right place at the right time for all their (harrowing and life threatening) adventures is because they had somehow offended the gods in a past life and been cursed with misfortune.
• Broken Bird:
  • The Warrior of Light finally begins to crack after Haurchefant's death. While the whole story and affair in Ul'dah deeply affected them, Haurchefant's demise is what causes the Warrior to start mentally breaking down. This is only compounded by Ysayle's sacrifice not long afterward, and the Warrior spends the rest of the expansion grieving them. The Dark Knight questlines are entirely devoted to delving into this aspect of them, to the point that Myste, their Guilt Complex personified, takes the form of a child with both Haurchefant's and Ysayle's features. Their wearier perspective is commented on by the other characters as the Warrior gets an increasing number of snippy and jerkish dialogue options from then on, including several where the Warrior just wants to rest after it all.
  • In Stormblood, Fordola is forced to experience everyone's pasts due to her uncontrollable artificial Echo. She is dumbstruck after reliving the Warrior's memories, questioning how on earth they're even able to function through all the loss and betrayal you have gone through over your career.
• Brought Down to Badass: Midgardsormr strips the Warrior of Hydaelyn's blessing to see what the they're capable of with your own strength, without relying on divine protection. This doesn't slow them down one bit save for being unable to muster up the aether required to strike down Nabriales without Moenbryda's sacrifice. Over the course of Heavensward you earn back that power fight by fight until even the great wyrm admits that you are truly worthy to be Her champion.
• Brought Down to Normal: In Garlemald, Zenos subjects you to the same struggle he endured after his death. He has Fandaniel force you into the body of a nameless Garlean foot soldier while he claims your body as his own. You have to fight your way back to your body using nothing but ordinary Gladiator techniques and whatever supplies you can salvage from the city's ruins — you don't even get Regenerating Health.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer:
  • In more lighthearted parts of the story, the Warrior of Light can be quite a goofball. One of their responses for getting help moving furniture in the Firmament is to ask their dragon friends for help. They can also declare it their solemn duty to eat their weight in carnival food during the Nier scenario. It doesn't change how they're the Warrior of Light and the mightiest warrior in the land, not to mention an Ambadassador and potentially a master craftsman.
  • During the Stormblood raid questline, they can whine about not getting a Garlond Ironworks uniform of their own after Jessie outfits Alpha with one. Jessie scoffs at them, pointing out that the (likely Allagan tomestone-bought) gear they're wearing is worth as much as a house, not to mention that the Ironworks' uniform isn't durable enough to handle whatever Physical God or Eldritch Abomination they throw themselves against.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday:
  • After a certain point, the Warrior's memories of all the primals they've fought start becoming fuzzy by the time of the Eden raid series. Outside of traumatic signature skills, the Warrior of Light's attempts at summoning their own Leviathan and Titan come out distinctly different from the ones fought on the Source due to poor recollection of them, pulling in traits of similarly-aspected enemies. Leviathan is close, being merely far larger and having a second head but with a fighting style more in line with Shinryu, while Titan comes out more like a Transforming Mecha with its only similarity being that it is prone to attacking with landslides.
  • During one Letter from the Producer it was mentioned that this lack of clarity is partially the cause of the Wandering Minstrel's exaggerated versions of events, he was already getting an incorrect version of the story before even getting to his dramatic additions. In the new Titan's case specifically, it was due to the Warrior of Light momentarily mixing up Kobolds and Goblins.
  • The Warrior of Light also has numerous heroic examples of this trope. In later expansions, they are approached by NPCs they had previously rescued/assisted. But they've assisted and helped so many people throughout their journey that they cannot for the love of Hydaelyn recognize them, even though the Warrior of Light's heroic actions changed their lives. You may not remember pulling that injured soldier from the rubble, but he remembers.
  • The Level 80 Dark Knight quest is a cavalcade of this while trying to find the unnamed writer who penned them a personal letter. First they meet Lunnie, the girl whom they rescued at the beginning of their journey as a dark knight. Then there's Ser Petrounade, the Temple Knight the Warrior pulled from the rubble of Specula Imperatoris after it was destroyed on Fordola's orders. Near the very end, they meet the ungrateful merchant who berated them after the Warrior splattered his cargo with Qiqirn blood. Said merchant has since turned over a new leaf, but is flabbergasted when the Warrior fails to recognize him until after he relays all the details of their last encounter because of how long ago it feels.
• Busman's Holiday: Double Subverted in the post-Endwalker storyline. While the Warrior does intend to keep adventuring despite having just come back from the very edge of existence, among other unspeakable things, their intention is to have a new adventure for its own sake, rather than to save people or stop villains. Unfortunately, they and the Scions stumble upon a voidsent invasion in the making, and spend the first five story patches having to protect the Source and contemplating how to restore the Thirteenth.
• Calling Me a Logarithm: Upon walking into the Crystarium for the first time, the Warrior will be addressed by the First's name for whatever their race is. A hyur will be called a hume, for instance. This understandably baffles the Warrior until they get additional context.
• Call to Adventure: The player character begins mid-call of being an adventurer already, the Warrior of Light starts off as a fresh adventurer looking for work and is basically a wandering mercenary before meeting the Scions. It's only when the Warrior starts to fight off demons repeatedly and with ease is when you earn the attention of the Scions and begin the story proper.
• The Captain: As of 4.4, if the player has met all the requirements, this is their rank in their respective Grand Company.
• Caring Gardener: In addition to their constant acts of heroism, the Warrior can potentially take up gardening if they buy up a plot of land (or share one with their free company).
• Casual Danger Dialogue:
  • Some of their dialogue options come across as them being rather flippant in the face of danger. After suffering their first major defeat against Zenos and being sent sprawling across the field, Raubahn asks if they're alright. One of the Warrior's responses is, "I think my pride might have taken a knock."
  • When Gaius van Baelsar insists on going on a mission alone to keep others out of danger, the Warrior can either respond that they have every intention of making it out alive, or with the much more snarky, "I'll have you know my record for surviving dangerous missions is impeccable. So far."
  • During Endwalker, when Fandaniel forces you into another body and sets up a dinner party with Zenos, one of your dialogue options is "You are such a pain in the arse!" to him, seeming more casually irked than the other dialogue option, which is suitably concerned.
• The Cavalry: There are numerous times in the main story and in sidequests when the Warrior is called in as backup to aid a struggling military unit. This is most notable at the tail end of Stormblood, when the Warrior rushes through the battlefield at Ghimlyt Dark to reach Hien, Lyse, and Yugiri, who are leading a unit locked in combat with Elidibus, who has since taken Zenos' body. The player controls Hien to buy time while the Warrior is busy carving a path to help.
• The Champion:
  • When Alphinaud and Tataru are accused of heresy in Ishgard, the Warrior of Light volunteers to act as Tataru's champion and fight the knights of the Heavens' Ward in her stead.
  • The Crystal Exarch in Shadowbringers is such a fanboy of the Warrior of Light that he pulls of a years-long gambit to get them involved in things with the First. Even whent he Warrior is skeptical of being yanked from their home world into another, the Exarch never stops believing that the Warrior is the greatest chance that the First has of winning.
• Character Development:
  • At the beginning, they're just a simple adventurer going along for the ride and rarely emote anything beyond a nod or something similar. They also do what they're told without complaint. As the story progress, the Warrior of Light becomes a lot more expressive and the replies they can give can range from a variant of the usual "yes" to the more sarcastic or jerkass nature. They will also frequently lampshade the situations that they get themselves into and they can even snark from time to time. The Warrior of Light also becomes more invested with their relationship with the Scions and other major characters and are willing to fight for what's right and defending the weak rather than doing it for the sake of glory.
  • The Dark Knight questline in particular delves into the inner trauma, anger, guilt, sorrow and frustration the Warrior accumulates from being betrayed, seeing friends die, killing others and being treated as everyone's personal gofer.
  • On a more concentrated level with the Inspector Hildibrand questlines, the Warrior is about as stoic as they usually would be during A Realm Reborn, or at least shocked and as confused as everyone else with the antics afoot. As the quests proceed through the expansions, however, they shed their Only Sane Man status to gradually be ready and anticipate some of the more preposterous events, even directly taking up Nashu's role in waking up Hildibrand with explosives in the First, or playing volleyball with a bomb. It reaches the point in 6.55 that, bereft of any better options, Julyan tosses the Warrior her skillet — and they immediately take a batter's stance to smack more bombs aside, effectively being as into the wackiness as the Mandervilles themselves at this point.
  • This is reflected in the CGI trailers. In the original 1.0 trailer, the Meteor Survivor was a short-haired and clean shaven young man, and by the time of the Calamity, his hair has grown out and he's become slightly taller. In the Heavensward trailer he switches from Warrior to Dragoon to emphasize the new relationship he has with Ishgard. The Stormblood trailer shows him first as a Monk with a new, shorter haircut, before switching him to Samurai and growing his hair out to ridiculous levels. The Shadowbringers trailer shows his hair growing out even more, his complexion darkening considerably, and developing a much more obvious beard as he switches to Dark Knight and later Paladin in Endwalker. In the Dawntrail trailer, the Meteor Survivor has a more cleaned up appearance, having trimmed his stubble and tied his hair into a ponytail, while also appearing to be much more relaxed and cheerful than in previous trailers. This crosses over with Expository Hairstyle Change.
• Character Tics:
  • They have a tendency to nod in response rather than speak their mind. Even when it comes to counting, they'll nod instead of saying "One." This is relentlessly lampshaded throughout the story.
  • They also have a habit of excitedly punching their open palm in response to a challenge or a call to adventure as well as thumbing themselves as if to say, "Leave it to me."
• Chef of Iron: If the Warrior is a Culinarian, they can kick boatloads of ass as well as cook meals fit for a sultana.
• Cheshire Cat Grin: The Warrior wears a shite-eating grin of satisfaction in the Rogue quests after successfully pilfering several crates of muskets that had been stolen from the Maelstrom and watching the black market merchant panic.
• Chick Magnet: The Warrior's heroics, kindness, and generosity help them garner a number of admirers over the course of the story whose affections can be easily read as romantic interest, though few actually make advances on the Warrior (the most notable one being Haurchefant). Interestingly, many of these responses remain the same regardless of genders, making the Warrior a case of Even the Guys Want Him and Even the Girls Want Her.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome:
  • Along with their ability to use the Echo, the Scions of the Seventh Dawn specifically seek out the Warrior of Light for this reason. They repeatedly act in service of others without a desire for reward, such as when they intervene on a refugee's behalf against Ungust and his goons. This tendency is what convinces the Scions that the Warrior of Light would be an invaluable addition to their cause.
  • Their willingness to help others goes so far as to make them an Extreme Doormat, helping virtually anyone if they so much as ask nicely (or not). This is pointed out as not being a good thing, with others reminding the Warrior repeatedly to assert themselves more. During the Dark Knight storyline, Fray points this out to them, but the Warrior can simply respond with, "It's what we do."
  • Following Minfilia's decision to become one with Hydaelyn and later guide the Warriors of Darkness back to their world to help them save it, the Scions debate who should lead them, if they need an overseer at all. Thancred notes that in terms of sheer competence, the Warrior of Light would be near the top of the list of candidates. But the responsibilities that come with leadership would get in the way of their usual duties, namely killing primals, kicking the Empire's ass, and helping the poor and hungry.
  • Discussed in the Level 80 Summoner quest. Jajasamu asks the Warrior what it's like to be constantly sent out to the frontlines of primal fighting because they possess the Echo. The Warrior's responses indicate that they either feel obligated to help because they can or that they're happy to help whenever possible.
  • Subverted regarding the Namazu. Due to an awful first impression courtesy of Gyodo, the Warrior's first response to seeing a distressed Namazu at the edge of the Azim Steppe is to essentially go Screw This, I'm Outta Here until the Namazu chastises them for leaving him to his own devices. They can even respond to the Namazu's request for aid with a hells no for emphasis, only going along with it at Temulun's behest and Because Destiny Says So. This is all Played for Laughs, of course.
  • Exploited by the Gogg tribe in Shadowbringers. Two dwarven twins hear of the Warrior's reputation as someone who goes around doing things out of the kindness of their heart, subsequently abusing the Warrior's generosity to make them fetch something as their patsy with a helping of But Thou Must! if they refuse. Even though it's blatantly obvious that they're being used, the Warrior's better nature wins out. Then another dwarf chastises the twins for abusing this stranger's kindness... before repeating the twins request for help almost verbatim. Lampshaded by the Warrior's own dialogue options.
    Warrior: ...This is another one of those moments where it doesn't really matter what I have to say, isn't it?
• The Chosen One: The Warrior is chosen by Hydaelyn to be her blade against the darkness. While there are others in possession of the Echo, and thus capable of fighting a primal, the Warrior of Light is consistently said to be both stronger and more skilled in the Echo than them, to the point where, by Stormblood, they are able to project it as a barrier to shield others from tempering. Even after Shadowbringers explains once and for all that the Echo is more or less a literal echo of a person's original power as their Ancient self the Warrior of Light is still well above everyone else as in their past life they held the seat of Azem on the Convocation, traveling the world on a mission of understanding and even averting natural disasters for the sake of others. Endwalker goes on to show that thanks to a Stable Time Loop, everything Hydaelyn worked towards was to set up the Warrior of Light to save the world because they inspired and gave her the means to do so, unwittingly listing themselves as the inevitable chosen one to her in the first place.
  • They also end up as this for a number of different Job vocations. black and white mages, for example, are extraordinarily rare and exclusive within certain plot-related boundaries. And yet, soul crystals always seem to resonate with them more than anyone else if they don't outright choose the Warrior to bear them. This means the Warrior of Light winds up being the perfect and occasionally only candidate for certain jobs where no one else can suffice.
• Cloudcuckoolander: The more the story progresses, the more opportunities arise for more.. unique responses in dialogue, ranging from simply being a Naïve Newcomer to veering straight into Idiot Hero territory, and then this trope. It's the only way to describe some of the actions the Warrior of Light performs in certain sequences, particularly the Hildibrand quest line as it progresses when they're not the Only Sane Man.
  • The guildmasters of the Thaumaturges' Guild expect the Warrior to say "Flee." when being quizzed on what to do when they run out of MP. The Warrior can instead say, "Brandish my scepter as a club.", provoking outrage at this display of foolhardy bravery.
  • In the quest, "Too Many Cooks", the Warrior is tasked with retrieving a fistful of spices from a Far Eastern merchant ship wrecked on the Isle of Umbra. As noted in their journal, the spices are "squishy" rather than powdery as you'd expect. The Warrior evidently thinks nothing of this, writing it off as something the Far Easterners do. They only realize that the spices are moldy after the rancid spices have been dumped in the soup.
  • In the Allied Tribe quests, Skaetswys is wondering how Nhaza'a Jaab could have left Outer La Noscea, an area surrounded by lakes and steep cliffs, so quickly. The Warrior can either provide the logical response of him possessing an airship or say that he's actually a Roegadyn. Skaetswys, a Roegadyn herself, is thoroughly unamused and wonders if the Warrior is making a stupid joke or is they're really that daft.
  • When being held at arrowpoint by the Night's Blessed in the Rak'tika Greatwood, the Warrior can choose to say, "Uh... kupo?" after they're accused of being a Sin Eater in disguise. Thancred mutters that it won't sound very funny when they have to fight their way out.
  • While stopping by the kitchen in Revenant's Toll to get a pick-me-up to deliver to the Scions on the First, the Warrior can show visible confusion that Tataru baked a loaf of bread rather than a cake, remarking, "Your cake looks like bread."
  • When Urianger brings up the idea of using Eden to summon primals to restore the aetherial balance of the lands destroyed by the Flood of Light, one of the Warrior's potential responses is to think he's referring to moogles.^note While the Warrior has indeed fought Good King Moggle Mog, a moogle primal, Urianger is not referring to him.
  • During one quest, the heroes are trying to examine the state of the World of Darkness to see if it could be salvaged in any way. While mulling over their options, the Warrior can say, "We could use the Crystal Tower to open a voidgate, couldn't we? Please?" They're quickly chewed out for their remark on account of how dangerous it is.
  • In Endwalker, the heroes are looking for an object hidden beneath murky, ice-cold, likely polluted water. When no one volunteers to go search for it, the Warrior can offer to try and drink the pond dry to uncover the object.
  • Also in Endwalker, he Scions are barely hanging on as they desperately try to protect tthe Hannish refugees from the Blasphemies in Garlemald. When the Warrior finally arrives to lend a hand, the available dialogue options they can offer to a beleaguered Alisaie range from a cheerful, "I'm back!" to a gentle rib of "I see you've done well in my absence." to a "This is precisely why you should never skip your squat regimen."
  • While they, Y'shtola, and G'raha are being censured by Vrtra for unknowingly breaking into a secure site where a voidgate is being locked away, they can blithely joke about Y'shtola liking to mess around with dangerous things like that despite the seriousness of the situation. She responds with one hell of a Death Glare and a a blood-chilling reprimand. Even G'raha tells them that that was a pretty terrible lapse in judgment.
  • Potentially justified by the sheer number of Physical Gods and Eldritch Abominations the Warrior has thrown themselves against over the course of their career. As noted in their journal entry for the quest, "The Instruments of Our Deliverance", cranial injuries are only expected when doing battle with primals, implying that their goofier outbursts may be a result of brain damage or concussions (though it's just as likely that this is just being Played for Laughs).
• Closest Thing We Got:
  • The reason they're dispatched as an envoy to send word for the planned memorial service at Carteneau is that their many heroic deeds in so short a time makes them the closest thing to the Warriors of Light around. It's not until well after the memorial services that they're granted the title of "Warrior of Light" in earnest.
  • In Endwalker, Merlwyb asks the Warrior to lead a temporarily reformed Company of Heroes against a hostile faction of Sahagin bent on summoning Leviathan and a blasphemy produced by the Final Days that is turning Sahagin into Terminus Beasts. She reasons that if the Company's original commander won't heed a call to action, she'll just leave the Company in the hands of the most decorated hero around.
• Combat Pragmatist: The Warrior of Light may be the World's Best Warrior, but they didn't survive all of their battles by being a Leeroy Jenkins. They exploit every advantage they can when facing their foes. They exploit a foe's mortal weakness through gadgets prepared by Urianger or Garlond Ironworks, launch ambushes on unsuspecting foes, or simply bring their friends with them to a fight rather than duking it out mano-a-mano. Numerous jobs also have a means of inflicting debuffs, including bleeding and poison effects. If they can tilt a fight in their favor, they will.
• The Comically Serious:
  • In one Ananta Tribe Quest, the Warrior is tasked with cleaning a bedsheet soiled with grime and sweat. They wring and scrub at it until it's squeaky clean. All the while, the game narrates this as if it's a matter of utmost import.
    "With the selfsame strength that has felled many a god, you succeed in washing away the worst of the filth. However, the bedsheet is far from what can be considered clean."
  • In the Endwalker Hildibrand quest, the Warrior steps up to find Hildibrand with a look of resolute determination... before immediately dancing the Manderville or the Manderville Mambo to summon the good inspector. Theyler and Vonard look on in befuddlement before following the Warrior's lead. In the same questline, the Warrior of Light volleyball spikes a bomb at the good inspector, again with utmost seriousness. The rest of the way, they've beat up Lugae in ways that amount to playing sportsballs like a pro athlete, from aerial kicks to slam dunking a Coblyn right into Lugae's maw.
• The Confidant:
  • The Warrior's naturally quiet and open-minded personality makes them an ideal confidant for their companions' worries. Alphinaud, Alisaie, Yda, Estinien, and many others trust them enough to confide their deepest secrets and insecurities, while the Warrior is able to listen intently and offer encouragement and advice.
  • Nanamo considers the Warrior one of the few people she can open up to. Not only is the Warrior an outsider unbound by Ul'dah's hierarchy, but they are also a doubtlessly trustworthy hero who has risked their life for Eorzea countless times. Because of this, Nanamo is willing to share her desire to Abdicate the Throne with the Warrior even before her most trusted advisor and ally, Raubahn, and enlists their counsel in deciding how best to help the Ala Mhigan refugees following the events of Stormblood. Nanamo later enlists them as her personal escort in the Sil'dihn Subterrane dungeon, reasoning that the Warrior is both a mighty hero and a trusted friend, making them the perfect person to help her explore its myriad corridors safely and discover all the secrets within.
  • Part of being an adventurer is also a willingness to respect a client's confidentiality. As a result, the Warrior winds up hearing the stories of countless people who hire them for one job or another, as they're professionally obligated to keep silent if asked.
  • Subverted in one sidequest in the Fringes where the Warrior is forced to listen to the overly romanticized version of events that had two soldiers enter a Rescue Romance with each other. The Warrior speaks to each half of the couple separately, and one of the dialogue options has the Warrior politely nod while hoping for an opportunity to escape this conversation.
• The Conscience: The Warrior of Light doesn't just fight primals and liberate subjugated lands. They have an uncanny knack for inspiring people to become better versions of themselves.
• Conspicuous Consumption: In the Stormblood Hildibrand questline, an okiya proprietor charges Hildibrand seventy-thousand gil to borrow one of her prize kimonos. The Warrior can scoff at such a bill, claiming that their subligar (read: underwear) costs more than that, perhaps as a nod toward inflation on the player market. Regardless of the Warrior's financial circumstances, Hildibrand will refuse to have them pay for it, instead offering to foot the bill himself until he realizes he has no money.
• Consummate Professional: Provided reasonable compensation, the Warrior will do whatever is asked of them (within moral reason). Their myriad skills means that their services are in high demand and they always perform their best, be it slaying monsters, procuring supplies, or making rounds, all while maintaining professional confidentiality when necessary. Kancana explicitly cites the Warrior's professionalism as an adventurer as a model for the Hippo Riders to follow in their role as delivery drivers.
• Covert Pervert: At the end of the "Breaking Brick Mountains" crossover event, the client who gives you the quest rewards you by having scantily clad women surround them and offer to "puff-puff" them. The Warrior is clearly bewildered by this, but given the copious amounts of Male Gaze in the subsequent cutscene and responding with either a nervous, but excited gulp or "Puff-puff away!", they are clearly enjoying themselves. They look almost disappointed when "puff-puff" turns out to be having snurbles brushed all over them.^note Puff-puff is a recurring gag in the Dragon Quest series where a woman offers the player a "massage" (implied to be a euphemism for Marshmallow Hell), only to get something else soft or squishy rubbed in their face, be it slimes, the butt of a sheep, or in Final Fantasy XIV's case, snurbles.
• Cultured Badass: In addition to being a One-Man Army who punches out an Eldritch Abomination every other moon, they can also be a master artisan, a Supreme Chef, a musical virtuoso, a talented dancer, a skilled bartender, an Ambadassador, a Professional Gambler, and an Adventurer Archaeologist.
• Damsel out of Distress: In Endwalker, the Warrior is captured by Fandaniel and has their soul plucked out by Aulus mal Asina's soul extraction machine to be placed in the body of a nameless Garlean footsoldier. Bereft of their usual abilities, they fight and sneak their way past the magitek weapons and tempered soldiers, managaging to make it back to Camp Broken Glass just in time to stop Zenos from killing G'raha or Alisaie.
• Dark Is Not Evil:
  • Outside of the Dark Knight class, a Duskwight, Keeper of the Moon, Xaela, or Hrothgar Warrior of Light is this. In the Duskwight and Keeper of the Moon's case, they are discriminated in part because of their dark appearance and stereotyped as criminals. For the Xaela, they have a Proud Warrior Race reputation as well as having a dark theme to them as a whole, having dark scales and being created by the Dusk Mother according to creation tales. The dark scales also give them a particularly demonic/voidsent appearance for the males, while females resemble succubi. As for Hrothgar, they are the newest addition to the game and are the first truly monstrous race to become playable, whose first contact with the rest of the Eorzeans was met with fear and panic, but managed to stifle all-out conflict by learning the language of the other races. Nevertheless, outside of roleplay, a Duskwight, Keeper of the Moon, Xaela, or Hrothgar Warrior of Light is as heroic as any other race.
  • Inside of jobs, the Warrior of Light can be a Black Mage (illegal because of its raw destructive power and reputation for demon summoning and human sacrifice), Dark Knight (demonized for, again, tapping into void powers and known as murderers to the public despite actually being vigilantes. The art itself also takes a toll on the user's mind) and Warrior (controls a rage that if control slips, can turn them into an indiscriminate and unstoppable tornado of destruction and collateral damage) while still being Eorzea's near-worshipped champion of the smallfolk and hero of the Mothercrystal.
  • Shadowbringers is all about them becoming the "Warrior of Darkness" of the First, which - since Light is now the overwhelming force threatening to destroy the world and Darkness the underdog barely holding out - entails being exactly as heroic and helpful as they always were. As if to drive the point home even further, the Warrior is given a largely black outfit with an eye-obscuring hood just prior to entering The First.
• Deadpan Snarker: Come Stormblood and Shadowbringers, the Warrior gains an increasing number of snarky dialogue options, ranging from lighthearted ribs to much more pointed insults at the people around them. The Endwalker Hildibrand quests crank this up, as as almost every single dialogue option the Warrior has involving Hildibrand includes some kind of passive-aggressive jab at him.
  Warrior: [referring to Delion] I think he was a few materia short of a full meld.
• Death Glare:
  • The Warrior rarely has a Pre-Asskicking One-Liner ready when they're about to duel to the death with the latest villain they're confronting (or at least none that has voice acting). They instead tend to show their contempt with a cross glare before drawing their weapon.
  • In one sidequest, a member of the U Tribe asks the Warrior to scare off the voyeurs watching them bathe with the "Furious" emote. The men who witness this immediately run off, with one saying that the look of fury in the Warrior's eyes will give him nightmares.
  • Upon meeting Jucabra again in the Endwalker Hildibrand quests, the warrior instantly flashes him a "distrustful and somewhat bloodthirsty" glare after he brainwashed both Gilgamesh and Godbert with dewprism back in the Stormblood Hildibrand quests. Jucabra takes a step back but acknowledges that the Warrior's suspicion is warranted all while continuing to plot behind everyone's backs.
  • In the 2023 Rising event, they rush to the aid of Nhagi'a Jakkya, who has been cornered by bandits from the Quiveron Manse. All it takes is one scowl from the Warrior for the bandits to recognize that the Warrior is not your average adventurer and flee rather than face the Warrior's wrath.
• Declaration of Protection: In Shadowbringers, Chai-Nuzz is having a meltdown over being given the task of designing a Talos that will drag down Mt. Gulg and Vauthry along with it. When he cowers before the thought of a Sin Eater reprisal, the Warrior has this to say.
  Warrior: I'll protect you. I'll protect everyone.
• Dented Iron: The longer the story goes on, the more their dialog choices and reactions to certain events tend to start implying towards the fact that they've taken a thousand beatings and then some, though it's usually moreso mental than physical.
  • In Shadowbringers, their gradual transformation into a Lightwarden may not stop them gameplay-wise, but they're more and more pained, constantly tired, and utterly worn out by the end of the main story until they finally hit their breaking point.
  • Notably, the Eden raids have them produce primals based off of the ones from the Source that they'd fought before to generate the necessary elemental energy — except they're very radically different in every occasion. The Warrior's responses to being asked about this infer they've likely incurred no small amount of trauma (and some odd blows to the head) that caused this.
• Depending on the Writer: The Warrior is usually depicted as a well-adjusted individual who does express emotions like anger and sorrow when appropriate but is generally content with their life. The Dark Knight questlines, however, show them as having huge amounts of pent up grief, rage, and guilt that they apparently simply repress most of the time. Likely not coincidentally, when the writer of that questline, Natsuko Ishikawa, became a main scenario writer for Shadowbringers and Endwalker, those expansions put increased amounts of emphasis on the stress and strain the Warrior goes through during their journey.
• Determinator: In Endwalker, Fandaniel places the Warrior's soul in the body of the Garlean soldier whom Zenos possessed to return to Garlemald. Although their fighting ability is crippled by being in an unfamiliar and weaker body, they fight their way through the streets of tempered soldiers and even try to help a few surviving civilians until they're mortally wounded by a ceruleum tank explosion. Even then, the Warrior manages to drag themself back to Camp Broken Glass just in time to stop Zenos from using their body to murder Alisaie.
• Discard and Draw: Invoked in the CGI trailers, where the Meteor Survivor takes up a new job for each expansion. In gameplay, although it's no longer possible to take actions from one job and use them while in another job, you're never completely locked out of a job by taking up a new one, so it's more "Reshuffle and Draw".
• Disney Death:
  • Following the Patch 6.1 update, the Warrior of Light is brought to the brink of death after Lahabrea's strongest attack, only to be recusitated and empowered by Hydaelyn lending the last of her available energy to them to finish the fight.
  • At the end of Endwalker, the back to back battles against the Endsinger and Zenos leaves them mortally wounded, and they slowly bleed out while having one last conversation with the also-dying Zenos. Thankfully, the Scions are able to find and heal them at the last possible moment.
• Dissonant Serenity: In the Endwalker Hildibrand quests, the Warrior flashes a beaming smile before pulling out one of Nashu's bombs to jog the inspector's memory on the First. The Warrior keeps wearing this smile even as the bomb's fuse lights up in their hands.
• Ditzy Genius: In addition to being The Ace and an Instant Expert at both combat and artisanry, many of the Warrior's more humorous responses and journal entries make them come across as a Cloudcuckoolander. They can be a Supreme Chef who fails to register that "squishy" spices they grabbed from a shipwreck are rancid and moldy, are completely oblivious to Longhaft's gratuitous Double Entendre, and can blurt some wild non-sequiturs in highly inappropriate situations.
• Does Not Know His Own Strength:
  • In the sidequest, "Toxic Avenger", the Warrior is asked to wrangle some of the pelicans near Skull Valley and extract the neurotoxin secreted from a gland underneath their tongues. The Warrior does so, but winds up killing all three of the pelicans they wrangled in the process of these "exertions".
  • Played for Laughs in the Hildibrand questline. An injured Hildibrand requests the Warrior massage salamander oil all over his body so soothe his aches and pains. A thoroughly befuddled Warrior agrees, only to accidentally cause him even more pain by messaging him too hard, forcing them to start over and do so much more gently.
  • While trying to clean a bedsheet in one of the Ananta quests, they may accidentally warp the fabric in their attempts to purge it of grime, though Eshana doesn't seem to mind since she thought the sheet was too filthy to ever use again.
  • In the Level 80 Paladin quest, the Warrior is completely oblivious to the fact that they've developed a Battle Aura powerful enough to floor even a champion gladiator like Aldis, who immediately forfeits rather than trying to go a round with them in a friendly spar.
• Don't Call Me "Sir": Tahla Molkoh christens the Warrior "Griffin's Bane" for defeating the Griffin atop the walls of Castrum Oriens. Given how emotionally heated that confrontation was, the Warrior is understandably not fond of being reminded of it despite Tahla's insistence. While introducing Alpa to her, Tahla again calls them that, which confuses the Ananta and asks if they should call them that. The Warrior vehemently denies this, with the implication that they'd much rather be called by their name.
• Doom Magnet: The Warrior's constant hunt for adventure and battles alongside the Scions of the Seventh Dawn mean that they see suffering and death wherever they go. They've had to put down tempered thralls, lose friends and allies, and see the aftermath of whatever disaster, monster rampage, or Ascian plot has in store for them. Myste, the physical manifestation of their own grief and regrets, accuses the Warrior of being the "Weapon of Light" who brings death and ruin upon their friend and foes alike in the Dark Knight storyline, something the Warrior doesn't deny. Despite this, the Warrior presses on and continues to save as many lives as they can, going so far as to swear to protect everyone on Norvandt in Shadowbringers.
• Dragon Rider:
  • At the end of Heavensward, they return to Ishgard on Midgardsormr's back, a truly historic moment given the enmity between dragons and Ishgardians. "Rider of Dragons" subsequently becomes one of their many titles.
  • In Endwalker, the Warrior of Light faces down The Endsinger on dragonback for the Final Battle. Specifically, on the back of Shinryu. Yes, that Shinryu.
• The Dreaded:
  • Late into the main story questline, imperial soldiers will start displaying reluctance to face them during cutscenes due to their growing strength and infamy. This is especially notable just before the fight with Rhitahtyn sas Arvina, where one of the soldiers with him appears visibly shocked and frightened when he learns that they're the one responsible for defeating the primals. The carries all the way to Endwalker, where the few lucid Imperial soldiers suddenly realize who had walked into their encampment as an emissary. The soldier who was about to slap a shock collar on you (and everyone else in the room) quickly realizes that the Warrior could kill every soldier in the room if given proper cause, and likely effortlessly.
  • Your reputation is starting to become this to your enemies by Heavensward; this is perfectly exemplified after killing King Thordan and the Knights Twelve, where the leader of the group sees your character's face masked in shadows as he dies and asks in genuine terror "Who... What are you?!" And also, you've become so powerful with the blessing of light restored that even the Ascians are worried about you, to the point Lahabrea is beyond words after you defeat him for the second time.
  • You also become this to the faction of Crystal Braves who betrayed you and the Scions. While ordered to arrest you on sight, many of them who walk around Revenant's Toll are shaken even just by talking to you, much less trying to restrain you. While they play it off as not worth their time, it's very apparent that they really don't want to fight a well-known primal-slayer.
  • By the end of Shadowbringers, Elidibus refers to the Warrior of Light as death incarnate to the Ascians for their role in the slaying of multiple Ascians including Lahabrea and Emet-Selch and swears to strike the Warrior down for the sake of his fallen brethren.
• Dude Magnet: A female Warrior of Light will garner just as many admirers as a male Warrior, many of whom are of the opposite sex. But in the case of a male Warrior of Light, the all-male Buduga tribe of the Azim Steppe are awed by the Warrior's battle prowess during the Naadam. Seeing them in action gets all of the Buduga eager to invite the Warrior into their clan, regardless of race.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?:
  • One of the things that seems to consistently frustrate the Warrior of Light as the story carries on is having their good deeds turned back around on them or barely be acknowledged. Fray in the Dark Knight quest chain notes this themself and is actually the physical incarnation of these feelings born from the Crystal Braves' betrayal and the Wandering Dramaturge with his inane fetch quests and little to no respect for their hard work makes the Warrior of Light nearly hit a Rage Breaking Point.
  • In the Heavensward Ninja questline, a sellsword writes off the Warrior and Oboro as "fledglins'" tagging alongside Jacke. Note that by this point, the Warrior has wrecked the Ultima Weapon and is recognized as Eorzea's greatest hero and a member of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn. Naturally, they're totally on board when Oboro announces his intention to make said sellsword eat his words. It takes all of three seconds for Jacke, Oboro, and the Warrior to pummel the guy.
  • Subverted in one sidequest in Endwalker. While walking the streets of Radz-at-Han, a hamsa keeper mistakes the Warrior for the subsitute hamsa keeper who was supposed to arrive a while ago and demands they get to work. This being the Warrior, they do it. Once they return to the man, he realizes he never caught the Warrior's name and is horribly embarrassed when realizes he made an international hero who saved a friend of his do chores. He then apologizes and pays the Warrior for the help while hoping to find the actual subsitute hamsa keeper.
  • Subverted again after the events of Endwalker. A waitress at Mehryde's Meyhane greets the Warrior as just another customer before realizing who they are. She then insists that any drink the Warrior orders is on the house, as Merhyde would have her scrubbing pots for a week if she found out that Thavnair's savior was being charged for a simple drink.
• Dude, Where's My Reward?: As an adventurer, the Warrior does prefer to get paid for their efforts rather than working pro bono. After all, if you're breaking your back fighting off hordes of monsters, escorting goblin merchants, and delivering packages, you'd want to get paid for it too. As noted by their journal entry at the end of the Blacksmith questline, the Warrior is happy to finally get paid after all the work they did for Laurisse de Jerviant^note making rivets to repair her armor, a titanium bastard sword on short notice after her previous sword broke, a hammer good enough to impress the Ultimate Blacksmith, and forging her another sword made out of the mythical metal adamantite (even while rooting for her to win her tournament).

E - J

• Embarrassing Nickname: When Hancock meets you in Kugane, he delivers various titles with one oddball title: "Stealer of Pants". If you haven't done the Heavensward Hildibrand storyline, it's something of a Noodle Incident, but if you have, it's one of the Warrior of Light's lowest moments according to their journal for the relevant quest (specifically, the Warrior lures a senile knight out into the middle of nowhere filled with bears and morbols, massages him to sleep, and then steals his clothes to help Hildibrand disguise himself as the old man).
• Emotional Powers: Endwalker reveals that the Warrior of Light has been unwittingly using dynamis to empower themselves to topple much more aetherically powerful foes this entire time.
• The Exile: Being falsely accused of murdering Nanamo, the player character is forced to seek asylum within Ishgard since the other city-states would likely cause trouble if they showed up.
• Expert Consultant: Each of the Shadowbringers role quests involve the Warrior of Light being hired by a bounty hunter after one of the Cardinal Virtues for their expertice in a specific field.
  • Giott is hiring a skilled healer to help understand the riddle of how Sophrosyne is healing sin eaters and even raising them from the dead when healing magic shouldn't work on sin eaters at all.
  • Cerigg is hiring a magic expert to understand the Unrealistic Black Holes Phronesis is opening with its magic everywhere it travels.
  • Lue-Reeq is looking for a fellow offensive fighter to watch his back while hunting Andreia.
  • Granson wants someone extra durable who can survive an assault from Dikaiosyne.
  • Taken to extreme levels in the Crystalline Mean quests, which replace the Crafter and Gatherer job quests during Shadowbringers. Each and every Facet of the Mean (that is, the workshops that provide essential goods and services to the Crystarium) is either severely understaffed, or on the verge of going under. Not only does the Warrior's exquisite and high-quality craftsmanship and deep knowledge of the land turn their fortunes around, leaving the owners astonished with every delivery, but customers from all over Norvrandt are left in awe and travel in person, regardless of distance or danger, to thank the master artisan.
• Exposed to the Elements: There's nothing stopping a Warrior of Light from running around in Ishgard in nothing but a swimsuit even as people are freezing to death in the cold. Lampshaded in the Dancer questline, where fellow dancer Ranaa Mihgo is shivering in her Bedlah Babe dancing costume whereas the Warrior seems as content as ever. When she asks how they handle Ishgard's climate, the Warrior can either respond that they've gotten used to the cold or tell her to put mind over matter.
• Extreme Doormat:
  • No matter how demeaning or pointless as task may be, the Warrior of Light will do it—even if the only reason someone asks them to is mistaken identity! In fact, other Scions will even tell them to be more assertive, and the Dark Knight 30-50 quest focuses on how their inability to say no has led to them bottling up a lot of frustration on being taken for granted and treated without respect.
    Rowena: Seriously, though. You'd best learn how to say "no" or they'll have you muckin' out the chocobo stables now.
  • In Shadowbringers, a Zun amaro keeper mistakes the Warrior for someone looking to learn amaro husbandry, roping them into performing various chores, including lugging around bags of manure. By the end of all these tasks, the Zun reveals that he was just making a joke and didn't actually expect the Warrior to go through with all of them. He's downright baffled that they didn't drop everything and run once they got handed the manure.
  • In the quest "Word About Komra", the Warrior is well-aware that they're being used as a patsy by Anogg and Kanogg and can even tell them to sod off. But copious amounts of But Thou Must! later, they just seem to resign themselves to the task while remarking about how it's one of those moments where it doesn't matter what they say.
• Famed In-Story:
  • If you decide to have small talk with some of the NPCs, you'll notice that your fame grows over the course of the story. You go from a novice getting advice to the talk of the town and then a Living Legend. That said, many others will hardly notice you and boss you around as if you'd just started adventuring, every so often causing amusing moments when they realize just who you are.
  • Everyone in the Firmament will recognize the Warrior as the Savior of Ishgard following the end of the Dragonsong War, addressing them as "Master" or "Mistress" and showing amazement that a hero would stop to talk to them.
  • Save Ala Mhigo and all the the Ala Mhigan NPC's spread across every region of Eorzea (pre-existing from ARR or otherwise) will know who you are and what you have done for them.
  • Following the events of Shadowbringers, everyone on Norvandt knows the Warrior's name and face for returning the night sky and ending the threat of the Lightwardens, welcoming them with a smile and wishing them the best in all their travels.
  • Invoked and exploited by Tataru after the events of Endwalker. She sews them a new adventuring outfit free of charge on the stipulation that the Warrior wears it everywhere they go. She hopes that the Warrior's fame will make them the world's best advertisement for her upcoming clothing line, muttering about how she can already hear the gil she's about to rake in. The Warrior just shrugs at being used as a walking billboard.
• Famous for Being First: The Warrior enters a prestigious cooking competition called the Dellemont d'Or in the Culinarian questline. Due to their attention to detail and willingness to take the judge's needs into account when preparing a full course menu, they're the first culinarian in history to earn a perfect 10 out of 10. This becomes important in a later questline where news of their perfect score is needed to convince a sushi chef to take you on as an apprentice.
• Family of Choice: The Fortemps family becomes this to them, having been named a ward of the house, meaning that they're pretty much unofficially adopted. In Shadowbringers, when Ardbert talks to them about the home he wanted to protect, the place that comes to the Warrior of Light's mind is Ishgard, and the Fortemps family waiting for them there.
  • The Scions of the Seventh Dawn eventually become this to the Warrior of Light over the course of the game.
• Fan of the Underdog: And savior of them too should the player choose. The Warrior gets involved in many causes that are deemed wastes of time due to the people needing help or because they agree with their goals and rather frequently makes them a success:
  • Politically speaking potentially one of the very first causes is the Royalists, while the WoL never officially joins them, if the player does enough content they'll have humilliated two of the Monetarists, aided Nanamo in many of her proyects, is a personal friend to her and Raubahn, helped restore the Paladin order and helped the Sultana find her footwork in the political world of the Monetarists, making their position much better compared at the start of the story.
  • If you do the Tribe Quests, the Warrior becomes the first Scion to fight for Minfilia's dream of promoting peaceful coexistence between them and the "Spoken" races from all the way back in 1.0. By the end of Shadowbringers, the Warrior's and the Scions' efforts bear fruit, resulting in the tribes of Eorzea becoming open to peace and aiding the new Grand Company of Eorzea.
  • Some of the Custom Deliveries also fall into this, while all are noble, most characters involve the Warrior of Light because they are not certain they can succeed for a variety of reasons (Zhloe is too scatterbrained to effectively manage an orphanage, Kurenai is up against centuries of her people's traditions, and Kai-Shirr is an outsider with no known talent or experience in business while Kholusia is in the midst of an economic breakdown with Vauthry's ousting). Nevertheless, the Warrior pulls through and together they make it a success.
• Fire-Forged Friends:
  • They begin the story as an outsider to Eorzea, but finds camaraderie with the Scions of the Seventh Dawn and Garlond Ironworks. After suffering through countless trials and tribulations with them, it's all but stated that the Warrior is practically family to them.
  • Especially, it's implied, with the Scion from the player's respective city-state, since when they arrive in Minfilia's office, they greet either Yda and Papalymo (Gridania), Thancred (Ul'dah) or Y'shtola (Limsa Lominsa) with a smile, and the Scion in question offers an additional line about expecting the player to come.
  • This often happens during individual class/job storylines; as seen below, everyone's opinion of the player improves as more quests are completed.
• Foil: To the Scions that they share Jobs with, in a good case of Gameplay and Story Integration, the different circumstances that the Scions experience change the way they approach the Job compared to the adventurer:
  • Thancred and the Warrior share the least amount of differences due to being taught by members of the same order. However, Thancred's impairment mean that if he doesn't have someone supplying aether. he needs to use Rogue techniques to supplant the necessities of his blade. The Warrior by contrast is much more straightforward because they do not want for aether.
  • Urianger and an Astrologian Warrior have different approaches to the art. Urianger is more of a schemer and as such, he appreciates the long-term visions and benefits of the job, while the Warrior is an adventurer, so they have more tools for immediate situations.
  • Alisaie and a Red Mage Warrior share a Red Oni, Blue Oni dynamic. While they were taught by the same teacher, Alisaie is much more hot headed, and tends to rush in with her blade at any given opportunity, whereas the Warrior is more patient and prefers to build up their meter and use the Red Mage utility spells.
  • By contrast, a Black Mage Warrior and Y'shtola share a Strong, but Unskilled vs a Weak, but Skilled dynamic. While Y'shtola can recreate the moveset of a Black Mage fairly well, the story reveals that without a Soul Crystal, their spells burn them alive from the inside out, meaning that Y'shtola's spells don't pack quite the same amount of bite as the Warrior's. To compensate, the Archon uses all elements in her rotations and can heal.
  • Alphinaud is a genius, but he lacks experience, which is evident in both of his jobs.
    • As an Acadamecian, he summons a Carbuncle which is much more potent on the offense than the ones the Warrior can summon^note even moreso after Endwalker reworked summoned pets, but also means that Alphinaud himself is the only source of healing; in contrast, a Scholar's fairy provides the bulk of the party's healing, which eases the burden on the Warrior as a healer and lets them focus more of their energies into offense.
    • As a Sage, he's just getting used to his Nouliths so he doesn't use some of the Sage's most basic functions, such as Kardia; he is also significantly less aggressive than the Warrior, which contrasts with the adventurer's use of the Soul Crystal to learn the necessary steps to use the Job to its fullest.
  • Estinien taught the Warrior, so it makes sense that their fighting styles are similar. He, however, lacks the adventurer's variety of opponents; Estinien's fighting style more reminiscent of a super powered ARR Dragoon, focused more on powerful jumps that kill the opponent in one blow, whereas the Warrior prefers various jumps in between their spearwork.
• For Great Justice: In the opening cutscene, the Warrior can say they're becoming an adventurer to seek power, not for its own sake, but for the sake of protecting others.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In the opening for A Realm Reborn, they dream of falling meteors. Four real-life years later, Patch 5.2 reveals that such a sight is what triggers the Echo; it's a response to a form of PTSD from reminding their soul of the Final Days of Amaurot. In essence, it is an echo of their original incarnation's trauma.
  • After the meteors fall, Hydaelyn speaks to them for the first time. Or rather, they hear Her for the first time. She's always talking in case anyone is listening, but the Echo is a prerequisite for hearing Her, not Her gift or sign of favor.
• Four-Philosophy Ensemble: The player forms one with Alphinaud (Realist), Estinien (Cynic), and Ysayle (Optimist) throughout 3.0. The group is traveling throughout Dravania together. The player serves as the Apathetic, not really getting involved in the arguments with the others.
• Friend to All Children:
  • The Warrior of Light tends to get on pretty well with kids, whether regaling the Doman refugee children with stories about their adventures to telling tales to children for the Starlight Festival (in the 2016 event). Alisaie also mentions that the Warrior of Light enjoys telling stories about their adventures to children in Idyllshire when they aren't out doing everything else in one of the Tales from the Storm.
  • In Shadowbringers, they can run into a Panicky Expectant Father, who begs them to convince the midwife to let back into the room his wife is giving birth in after his flustered behavior got him kicked out. But it's all over by the time they get there. The midwife instead asks the Warrior to welcome the child into the world. After doing so, the midwife notes that the child stopped crying and seems content.
  • In Endwalker, one sidequest chain has the Warrior aid a young boy named Volusus who has been separated from his parents by a civil war. Although Galla, the local guardswoman looking after him, has lost all hope of finding the Volusus' parents alive, the Warrior offers to help look for them without hesitation. Another sidequest in the same area has the Warrior comfort a sobbing girl before going out of their way to lift a piece of rubble that normally would require a team of men to remove off the girl's mother.
• From Zero to Hero:
  • From the Garlean and Ascian perspectives, among many others, the Warrior of Light is some nobody adventurer that came out of the woodwork among many, many identically capable individuals, only to rise up above all impossible odds and thwart their plans at every step while leaving their armies and gods dead in the aftermath like some unstoppable, vengeful entity. Archbishop Thordan found this out the hard way, explicitly planning around the Warrior's intervention only to still be slain after he became a primal. All he could do at that point was be terrified and ask what they were as he dies.
  • Even the Ascian's plans over plans, where they manipulate heroes and count on them being predictably heroic and thus unwittingly perpetuate the cycle the Ascian's established, eventually come crashing down in the case of this particular Warrior of Light.
• Fusion Dance: In the final battle against Emet-Selch, the Warrior is on the verge of succumbing to the Flood of Light inside them and transforming into a Lightwarden. But Ardbert offers them his axe, remerging his soul with theirs with the power of the Echo to bring them closer to their original self, Azem. Their newly merged soul is able to contain the Flood of Light and then weaponize it to take down Emet-Selch for good.
• Futile Hand Reach: During the climactic showdown in Ktsis Hyperboreia, the Warrior reaches back for Emet-Selch, a distressed expression on their face, as Argos carts them to safety.
• Generation Xerox: To their unsundered prior incarnation, who held the seat of Azem, who is also described as a quirky but highly competent person who couldn't help but butt into other people's affairs. Numerous characters draw comparisons between them, with Hythlodaeus calling the Warrior "my new old friend" because of this. Upon rejoining with Ardbert, their appearance briefly flickers to match Azem's, much to Emet-Selch's disbelief. This is also lampshaded by Themis in the Pandæmonium questline, who can't help but point out how similar they are. This is part of the reason why it's so easy for them to pretend to be "Azem's familiar", as they've changed so little that the researchers of Elpis immediately accept the "explanation".
• Genius Bruiser:
  • Most people unaware of the Warrior of Light's achievements, and even some that are aware, dismiss them as simple Dumb Muscle. Even disregarding the fact that the WoL can be a master Astrologian, Scholar, Arcanist and/or Machinist, they are an active part of an organization comprised of some of the best in the most educated nation in the world, and the WoL gets to show many times that they can be just as intelligent inside or outside the battlefield as some of their colleagues, even if not as well-educated.
  • Shadowbringer's Role Quests furthers this. It's implied that, in the absence of people capable of teaching them more advanced abilities, the WoL invented the new techniques they use in the expansion. In most cases this just dabbles in the bruiser side of things, inventing new techniques for martial purposes, but certain Jobs show some astonishing brilliance from the WoL such as the Ninja ^note  Where they manage to make a copy of the Clone Technique without reading the required scroll , the Astrologian ^note  Where they manage to tap into the power of the stars by resonating with the planet itself so they wouldn't be limited by the time of the day something that stumped a Sharlayan Astrologian and the Machinist ^note  Where they don't create techniques, they create gear including a variety of different guns, gadgets and a freaking attack automaton .
• Genki Girl:
  • Or Genki Guy. The other characters frequently bring up how the Warrior possesses a seemingly endless font of energy when it comes to adventuring. They rarely sit still for long, running off in search of some new experience, learn a new craft, or just help someone who asks. More than one cutscene features them exercising when there's nothing else to do, be it squatting while eavesdropping on a conversation or doing push-ups on a fishing voyage. Alisaie wonders if the Warrior even sleeps with everything they do.
  • In the Monk questline, they teach their own rigorous training regimen to their fellow monks in the Fist of Rhalgr, including throwing ten-thousand Bootshine combos and using Arm of the Destroyer for ten hours straight. But while Widargelt and the others are exhausted, the Warrior doesn't even look winded. They then fight off dozens of members of the Corpse Brigade immediately after this training on top of running from the rugged terrain near Gyr Kelim to the forested, craggy hills of East End.
• The Gift:
  • The player possesses the power of the Echo, allowing them to witness past events, understand any spoken language and be understood in turn, and rendering them immune to primal tempering. While most bearers of the Echo only manifest one or two applications of it, the Warrior demonstrates all three: the Power to Transcend Words, the Power to Transcend Time, and the Power to Transcend Worlds (the ability to hear Hydaelyn's voice and commune with her).
  • The Warrior is also noted for their prodigious talent in the arts of war and magic, turning them into the Scions' and eventually Eorzea's champion in the battle against primal summonings and The Empire.
• Ghost Memory: The Echo allows the Warrior of Light to dive into another person’s memories and witness key moments of that person’s life. While doing so, the WoL will also experience the emotions that the person felt at the time of the memory. In Stormblood we learn this can have severe psychological effects if you can experience the memories of everyone around you with no way to turn it off.
• Glad He's On Our Side:
  • The Warrior's allies frequently remark that the Warrior fights like a demon on the battlefield and that they're glad the Warrior is on their side. Raubahn and Lyse say that they almost feel bad for the enemy after seeing how the Warrior plows through primals, Garlean defenses, and Allagan superweapons. Hien also describes the Warrior as both "magnficent" and "a bit terrifying" in battle. After seeing the Warrior fight at Orbonne Monastery, Fran says she wouldn't wish the Warrior's wrath on her worst enemy.
  • In the Reaper questline, Drusilla says that the stories about the Warrior paint them as "ferocity incarnate" and a "force of nature" that few have survived when provoked. She then goes on to say that she has no interest in being on the recieving end of that ferocity, having sought them out because their "killer instinct" gives them the potential to be a fine reaper.
  • In Shadowbringers, the Scions note that the Ascians have never attempted to possess the Warrior of Light the way they've possessed so many others throughout history. They're also glad for it, as the idea of fighting one of their closest friends and their greatest champion sends shivers down their spines. This fear briefly comes true in Endwalker when Fandaniel arranges for Zenos to possess the Warrior's body, with Zenos getting within striking distance of Alisaie and G'raha Tia. Only a desperate and well-aimed sword toss deflects what could have been a lethal blow.
• Glory Seeker: This is one of the reasons they can give for becoming an adventurer at the start of the game. By the end of A Realm Reborn, they've earned enough glory for a lifetime and then some, and they prove to be overall a Humble Hero despite their newfound fame.
• Good Feels Good: Despite expressing Heroic Fatigue in numerous dialogue options, the Warrior clearly enjoys helping others and putting smiles on people's faces. In the sidequest, "Mum is the Word", the Warrior helps reunite a mother and her son after a civil war reduces their home to rubble. At the end of the quest, Galla, a member of the city's guard, remarks that it's moments like these that convinced her to sign up and that a good deed is its own reward. A beaming Warrior agrees with a nod.
  Warrior: Seeing their smiles makes it all worthwhile.
• Good Is Not Soft:
  • While they're known for their kindness, it should be remembered that the Warrior of Light is a killer, having ended many lives both important and not. Their guilt over ending so many lives manifests itself during the Dark Knight level 70 questline. Their adventures garner them a reputation as "ferocity incarnate" and a "force of nature" that the Eorzean Alliance is glad is on its side.
  • The Warring Triad plot also involves Unukalhai realizing he's been putting the Warrior of Light on a pedestal and sneaking off to do "the dirty work" himself rather than stain the purity of his idol. The rest of the Scions confront him on this and emphasize that the Warrior of Light is just as aware as the rest of them that the only thing to do for primal thralls is to put them down and they've done it before.
• Going Native: During the events of A Realm Reborn, the Warrior is said to have come to Eorzea from the lands outside of it, potentially looking for the strength to protect others, money, fame, or for reasons that they prefer to keep to themselves. But in any case, they soon adopt the continent as their own, standing with the Eorzeans in all their major battles and more or less declaring themselves an Eorzean, regardless if they are one or not, with their allegiance to the Scions and one of the Grand Companies.
• Got Volunteered:
  • While trying to foil the phantom thief threatening to strike Ul'dah's Coliseum, the heroes debate which of them will be the "poor chump" who has to go fight in order to win and secure the treasures. All eyes quickly fall on the Warrior of Light, whose face more or less says, "Who? Me?"
  • This is how you get the Anima Weapons - you go to speak to Rowena, only to encounter Ardashir and Gerolt in an argument. Their arguments and your arrival leads Rowana to declare the creation of the Anima Weapons and that you should be the one to test them, much to your displeasure.
  • The Alchemist story questline has them volunteered to act as a CSI in Revenant's Toll in place of Severian. The Warrior of Light is particularly surprised by this, since they were told that they were only going to be a messenger until the actual consulting alchemist showed up. But since they're the best the guild has to offer, they got sent instead.
  • In the first Endwalker Custom Deliveries questline, the Warrior is clearly expecting this when they see Rowena at the Last Stand, quickly coming up with an excuse to make themselves scarce. Ameliance assuages the Warrior's concerns by insisting that she only invited Rowena over for tea. But it isn't long before Ameliance smooth-talks Rowena into agreeing to help fund a host family program with free supplies program for prospective Studium students from abroad on the stipulation that the Warrior is her sole supplier. The Warrior instantly cringes at the impending workload, worriedly looking side to side for a way out until Ameliance invokes the Warrior's Chronic Hero Syndrome to get them to agree.
• Greater Need Than Mine: There are many instances in-story and in chosen dialogue where the Warrior of Light will place others' well-being far ahead of their own, even when they are deeply hurting themselves, emotionally or physically. Given their well-known Chronic Hero Syndrome, they will sometimes get called out for this:
  • The introductory Dark Knight quest has Fray sic the Warrior on a squad of corrupt Temple Knights who injured an old woman and arrested her granddaughter to have their way with her. The Warrior saves the granddaughter, of course, and in the lead-in to the second DRK quest, they have the option to start the conversation with Fray by asking if she and her grandmother are all right. Fray, naturally, is exasperated to wits' end by this and gives a clearly annoyed response that yes, everything went peachy for them.
  • At the very end of Endwalker, when the Warrior is returned to the Ragnarok bloody, beaten, bruised and battered, with one foot in the grave and the other dipping its toes, they have the option to ask "Is everyone all right?" as soon as they wake up to the tearful faces of the Scions (whom the Warrior had saved from Meteion's onslaught earlier). G'raha all but blubbers out through his tears that "[The Warrior is] the last person who has the right to ask that."
• Grin of Audacity: The Warrior wears one of these during the finale of Endwalker if they decide that they're not so different than Zenos.
• Happily Adopted:
  • The Warrior comes to view House Fortemps as their adopted family after enough time has passed in Heavensward. Passive dialogue from both Edmont and a house steward reveals that the Warrior is family in their eyes and always has a home there.
  • Upon the conclusion of the Sahagin Tribe Quests, Novv has come to care and respect the Warrior so deeply, he proudly declares them an official son/daughter of his Clutch. The Warrior, for their part, can also proudly wear the title of "Clutchmate" from that point on.
• He's Back!:
  • After an expansion's worth of heartbreak and implied depression for the Warrior of Light and the scattered Scions, Patch 3.4 sees the Scions of the Seventh Dawn reunited, the Warriors of Darkness defeated, and the Scions, despite all the hardships up till now, having their resolve restored and their hearts lifted.
  • Similarly, they've endured so much by the events of Shadowbringers that they stop cheering after the end of a dungeon or a trial, merely closing their eyes and reflecting in silence. After the end of the 5.0 main story, they now smile and nod at the end of a grueling fight and may even cheer again at the end of dungeons like the Grand Cosmos, illustrating that they're feeling more like their 2.0 self again.
  • After facing down the end of existence itself and going through a huge amount of trauma, followed in short order by having to protect the world from a impending Voidsent invasion on what was supposed to just be a low stakes charity mission to help Thavnair, Dawntrail's trailer shows the Warrior of Light on the boat to the New World, tapping their foot up and down on the rim of the boat with an excited grin in clear anticipation at getting an entire new continent to explore with no stakes, purely for adventure's sake. Even when they're shown fighting in the trailer, they're doing so with a smile on their face.
• Heartbroken Badass: The deaths of Moenbryda, Ysayle and Haurchefaunt weigh heavily on the Warrior of Light by the time of Gears of Change.
• Hello, [Insert Name Here]: You are free to name your character however you want, as long as your name doesn't infringe the rules of the game (i.e. no rude names, insults or other tasteless things).
• The Hero: The title of Warrior of Light is effectively an in-universe acknowledgement that they are this. The Warrior is the great champion of the good guys and bane of the villains, noted even early on to have both the great strength and innate goodness to be a magnificent hero of the realm. They are also something of a deconstruction. Some characters criticize the Scions for expecting the Warrior to solve every problem the way they do. The Scions themselves increasingly express frustration they need to ask so much of the Warrior and insist they take time to rest and let others handle some burdens in their stead. The player can also select dialogue options that depict the Warrior as not exactly happy they've ended up as such a figure of towering importance and yearn for the days they were a simple adventurer.
• Hero Does Public Service:
  • When they're not romping through dungeons or saving the world, the Warrior of Light can often be found assisting with reconstruction efforts in the Firmament, Doma, and Ala Mhigo, helping Zhloe Aliapoh fund her orphanage and make gifts for the kids, or aiding the beast tribes in their efforts to build and make peace. Their willingness to take up any task, no matter how small, has people shocked that a world-famous hero would stoop to being an errand runner if asked nicely.
  • That said, the Warrior has done so much for so many people with nary a complaint that they start to get antsy when people impose on them. It's one thing for the Warrior to help out in their spare time and out of the goodness of their heart, it's another entirely to be bogged down by their own Chronic Hero Syndrome when others come crying to them for help. It gets to the point that they start to feel Heroic Fatigue from so rarely having the freedom to do as they please because of their fame and prowess. The Dark Knight questline in particular has their buried resentments take form as an Enemy Without.
  • Lampshaded in the YoRHa Dark Apocalypse quests. When the Dig Site Chief asks if the Warrior is ready to rebuild Komra after it's carpet bombed by the machine lifeforms, the Warrior can say that they still have worlds to save and packages to deliver before they can help. During the Save the Queen events, they can also call themselves "Eorzea's errand boy/girl".
• Hero Protagonist: The Warrior of Light is the central character who drives the story forwards and is one of the most important lore figures in the setting.
• Heroes Love Dogs:
  • One of the sidequests involves feeding, soothing, and eventually befriending a wolf pup.
  • Becomes incredibly fond of Venat's canine familiar, Argos. They can even be playfully reprimanded at one point for petting and talking to Argos instead of carrying on with the current objective.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: While your weapon will vary based on what job you're using, you will always wield a "Blade of Light" to finish off the Ascians. Then it's subverted at the climax of Shadowbringers, as the Warrior strikes down Emet-Selch with a Blade of Light forged in the image of the axe Ardbert's Bravura, reflecting how they're fighting together after remerging into a single being. When Emet-Selch returns to his human form, he has a Torso with a View from the axe that sheared straight through him.
• Heroic Build:
  • Implied. Whether or not you actually make your character brawny-looking, the characters in the story will instantly comment on how you have the sturdy look of an adventurer. Mogleo calls you brawny outright, Haurchefant fantasizes about your chiseled body in the original Japanese script, and numerous other characters will comment on how much stronger you look after training. This is particularly strange sounding for a Lalafell Warrior of Light, who has no visible muscle definition to speak of.
  • Played for Laughs during the quest "Word from Komra", where two dwarven twins recognize the Warrior partially because of their "powerful neck muscles sculpted by a lifetime of nodding". In Anden's Custom Deliveries, he briefly considers trying to jolt his memories by having the Warrior give him Percussive Maintenance. He has second thoughts when he takes a closer look at the size of the Warrior's arms.
  • Inverted by Lyngsath of the Culinarian's Guild—one look at the Warrior, and he decrees that those "scrawny arms" wouldn't hold a skillet. Of course, he's a huge Sea Wolf Roegadyn, so he's biased (he's also just joking.)
• Heroic Fatigue:
  • This becomes more and more apparent in the level 30 to 50 Dark Knight quests. Fray, or the Warrior of Light rather, become sick and tired of always having to save everyone and doing things they could have done themselves, all without any thanks. This boils over to the point where the Warrior of Light's inner desires and frustrations become their own entity and fight to control them when they refuse to give in to their own desires.
  • By the time you're reunited with Yda and Papalymo in 3.4, Papalymo remarks in some side dialogue that the Warrior of Light looks, pardon his wording, more rugged and world-weary than the last time they saw one another.
  • At the end of the Level 70 Dark Knight quest, Sidurgu remarks that few people have hearts that have bled as much as the Warrior of Light's. To the point that the living embodiment of the regrets they feel for having killed so many people in the name of "justice" manifests as an Enemy Without in a desperate attempt to bargain for forgiveness.
  • The trailer for Shadowbringers shows the Warrior of Light looking extremely haggard as they cross a wasteland as well as looking more scruffy and older.
• Heroic Lineage: Exclusively for a Xaela Warrior of Light, Hien speculates that their ancestors must have cleared Bardam's Mettle in the Azim Steppe, and that the Warrior of Light would bring honor to their forefather's legacy by passing Bardam's mettle and participating in the Nadaam.
• Heroic Mime: The Warrior of Light can clearly talk, but only NPCs can hear what the Warrior is saying. You'll occasionally get a prompt to choose between a few dialogue options to make the Warrior say something, but none of these lines are voice acted. The only vocals you'll get is Voice Grunting — emotive cries paired with emotes (like laughing or cheering), shouts of effort in battle, and a dying gasp when knocked out.
  • In-universe, it's noted that the Warrior doesn't talk that often, but only because they're choosing not to talk. Gilgamesh makes note of this tendency in the 2.1 Hildibrand quest line, asking himself what role you were to play in the investigation and noting that he'd initially settled on "a silent guardian, content to watch events unfold with minimal interaction".
  • Starting from Heavensward, a few NPCs will take note that the Warrior of Light will just nod in agreement whenever spoken to. For example, Serendipity considered making a Mammet fashioned after the WoL, which would only nod when spoken to. Rostnthal complains that the Warrior is "too bleedin' quiet", but their skill with a carbine speaks louder than words.
  • In Shadowbringers, the Warrior has to give a speech to a few people in the Crystarium about events which have happened up to that point in the story. While the Warrior's mouth moves and they gesture to indicate that they're talking, none of it is voice-acted. Instead, what the Warrior is apparently referencing is shown via sepia-toned flashback images that are overlayed on the screen.
  • In Endwalker, Matsya asks the Warrior to help him peddle fish in Thavnair, reasoning that a seasoned adventurer like them would have spectacular conversational skills from meeting and speaking with so many people. The Warrior just shrugs at this for Dramatic Irony.
  • Funnily enough, this was also lampshaded in the original 1.0 launch trailer, which averts the trope by having the protagonist stand-in speak at the end, to the surprise of his party members.
  • In the Endwalker Hildibrand quests, Nashu says the Warrior has a look that says, "What about all the weird portal business?" and agrees to exposit because the Warrior, "silently asked".
  • In the Endwalker quest "In From the Cold", Zenos pulls a Grand Theft Me on the Warrior, stealing their body and teleporting to Camp Broken Glass so that Zenos can kill the Scions of the Seventh Dawn. Despite this, Zenos never talks while in the Warrior's body. Even when giving a Hannibal Lecture to the Warrior, which switches between Zenos and the Warrior in the camera's view, Zenos only talks when he looks like himself.
• Heroic Resolve:
  • When they're on a warpath, almost nothing can stop them. They will rout an army, penetrate the most heavily guarded fortresses, and slay gods and demons alike if it means protecting the people and world they care about. Time and again, they're given Breaking Speeches on the futility of their actions in the face of the latest Physical God they're pitted against. Only to punch out whoever gave it to them in due time. All of their heroics are rooted in the desire to protect the places and people they hold dear.
  • In Stormblood, Fordola sees their memories through the Echo and is incredulous as to how they can keep going after everything they've experienced. Dialogue options allow the Warrior to play it off as not a big deal.
  • In Shadowbringers, they can say that they became as strong as they are because they found something they wanted to protect or something they couldn't bear to lose. The sheer Battle Aura flowing off them is so strong that Aldis, a Blood Knight who has never backed down from a fight, immediately forfeits a friendly spar between them as he can tell that he's no match for the Warrior's resolve. After that, he decides to invoke this himself by returning to the Gladiator's Guild and protecting it as it's the one thing he can't bear to lose.
• Heroic RRoD: The Warrior of Light's final fight with Zenos pushes them to their absolute limits, leaving them to collapse afterwards as glimpses of the places their journeys have taken them to flash before their slowly-closing eyes. It's implied they may have died if not for the teleporter's timely intervention.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation:
  • While their cheerfully stoic face to their friends doesn't betray much, their journal entries in the Dark Knight questline underscore just how badly the title of "Warrior of Light" is weighing on them. Losing so many people they care about and being forced to shoulder the responsibility to protect and end so many lives leaves them wondering how people still see them as a "good person".
  • As Fray and Myste are parts of the Warrior's psyche, their barbs towards the Warrior during the Dark Knight questlines are essentially the Warrior taking potshots at themselves.
  • In Shadowbringers, the Night's Blessed revere the Warrior of Darkness as a messianiac figure who will guide their souls to a peaceful afterlife. After attending the funeral of a young girl who admired the legend most of all, Y'shtola remarks that the Warrior's presence will bring them hope. The Warrior can respond that they don't deserve such reverence with a dour look on their face, showing how torn up they are over the expectations placed on them.
• Heroic Willpower:
  • This is effectively what the "Echo" buff is; if the Warrior of Light gets beaten down, they get back up for another round, more determined than ever to triumph. For solo instances, this is an optional benefit if you select a lower difficulty after failing and beginning again; in group duties, it's automatically applied after a wipe, unless disabled for a pre-formed party.
  • In Endwalker, the Warrior has their soul transferred to the body of a weak imperial soldier, while their own body gets appropriated by Zenos to attack the Ilsabard contingent. A straight-up fight with a tempered imperial is enough to wind the Warrior in this body, and while allying with some imperial citizens, they get surrounded by explosives that all go off at once. The Warrior proceeds to force themselves back to consciousness and crawl out of the city, catching up to Zenos at the last moment to drive off his avatar and protect their friends.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Subverted. Although they're framed for the assassination of Nanamo, the Warrior of Light's name isn't tarnished due to Gridania's and Limsa Lominsa's leaders convincing the Syndicate to keep things under wraps until decisive evidence of the Scions' alleged crimes could be found. Kan-E-Senna, Merlwyb, and Raubahn are quick to say that they never doubted any of the Scions for a second and move to clear the Warrior of Light's name completely as soon as they are able.
• Hey, You!: Due to being named via Hello, [Insert Name Here], their name is never spoken in voiced cutscenes. They're instead only ever referred to as "you", "lad/lass", "sir/ma'am", "Warrior of Light", "Scion", or one of their many, many titles.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Despite being a hero renowned throughout Eorzea, part of them namely Fray despise both the title and the fact that they have to help almost everyone for little more than a thank you, and sometimes not even that, and feel extremely guilty for all the lives they've been forced to take throughout their adventures.
  • Almost paradoxically however, they love fighting for the thrill of it, to the point that they actively seek out someone that they won't feel guilty about fighting against, and cannot stop themselves from helping other people even in matters that they don't want to help. They also seem to love traveling and adventuring in general; it is one of the few things that neither Fray nor Myste criticize, and is one of the few things that seem to give them joy. It turns out that they already loved traveling and adventuring as Azem, whose role in the Convocation of Amaurot demanded them to live that kind of nomadic life.
  • On a less serious note, the WoL's ability to master styles of fighting goes well with them learning other trades, and they have proved themselves quite skilled with matters of business, mining, gardening, crafting, alchemy, cooking, or even fishing.
  • What triggers the Bard job quest isn't some need to learn more archery techniques from a legendary master, but a genuine desire to learn how to sing and write poetry. Similarly, they don't even see Troupe Falsaime do any fighting before approaching Nashmeira about becoming a Dancer, they seem interested in the dancing in and of itself. In the level 80 finale quest, they look delighted to have a chance to dance a duo with Ranaa even without any fighting involved. Most of their dancing emotes feature them wearing a smile or a huge grin as they prance around; The excitement they can show over participating in the Masked Carnivale as "Azuro the Second" indicates that they have a general love of performing as well.
  • Dialogue from Aymeric in the Heavensward patch quests suggests they're a skilled (or at least animated, despite their appearance) storyteller. Alisaie is similarly impressed by the Warrior's stories, while "Tales of the Storm" state that the Warrior spends some of their downtime regaling chlldren with them. The quest chain "The Paths We Walk" also has the Warrior of Light take a trip down memory lane, narrating eloquent descriptions of the people they've met and the things they've seen over the course of their journey through Ishgard.
    • During the Anima Weapon questline, Amphelice is extremely impressed by the Warrior's written accounts of their battles, using them as inspiration for her horror and carnage-filled poems.
    • Rowena's House of Splendors is also willing to trade valuable ores in exchange for the Warrior's penned recollections of their battles (though, the Warrior is noticeably irked by Gerolt's willingness to sign a contract for more ore and can tell him to write his own bloody memoirs after writing sixty of them while fighting the war in Bozja).
• Hope Bringer:
  • The Warrior of Light's ability to routinely achieve what is thought impossible and otherwise bring about the greatest good possible is able to unite people from all walks of life behind one cause. Lord Haurchefant even describes them as "hope incarnate", which Count Edmont dismissed as him waxing lyrical until he sees what the Warrior of Light is capable of. In the Bad Future wrought by the Eight Umbral Calamity, the survivors are inspired by the Warrior's Heroic Resolve to Set Right What Once Went Wrong.
  • Numerous side quests and story events have the Warrior delivering something to someone down-in-the-dumps and offering them some hearty words of encouragement. The idea of a Living Legend who has felled gods stopping by to hand a lowly soldier a pick-me-up is always met with astonishment at first. But Warrior's reputation and kindness is able to rouse someone from despair when even the recipient's friends and family could not.
    Grimcogg: Wicked white, you're her/him! You were there, in the middle of it all, strong as a hundred men! A bulwark against the tide of eaters that threatened to overwhelm us! And now you've brought me a sandwich!
  • Shadowbringers has this point get discussed by the Crystal Exarch with Urianger. The Warrior of Light and their story, at least in the Bad Future, was what kept people from falling into the Despair Event Horizon. It even inspired the Crystal Exarch to undertake a years-long plan to save the First because of how heroic the Warrior was.
  • Endwalker reveals that they're also this for Hydaelyn herself. As Venat, she was fascinated by the Warrior's stories of adventure and how life was still beautiful on the sundered worlds even with all the pain and suffering that followed the end of the ancients' paradise. This knowledge of the future is what allows her to go through with sundering Etheirys and gives her hope that mankind will be able to overcome Meteion's threat.
    • Taken even further in the final area of Endwalker, Ultima Thule. Ultima Thule is a realm on the very edge of the universe fully controlled by dynamis Energy. Meteion controls Ultima Thule and despair is essentially a rule of nature there. One by one, each of the Scions have to sacrifice themselves in order to allow their quest to continue. At the end of their journey, the Warrior of Light encounters Meteion herself, now essentially serving as the Anthropomorphic Personification of despair... and still manages to inspire hope in her, reminding her of the bond she shared with Hermes back in Elpis. Doing so also permanently alters the dynamis of Ultima Thule, breaking the grip of despair and allowing them to safely resurrect the Scions without undoing the good wrought by their sacrifices.
    • And taken to its ultimate expression, again, in Endwalker's Tribal Quests. As Jammingway and the reconstructed Omicrons strive to bring happiness to the civilizations recreated by Meteion's cosmic memories, it is the Warrior of Light's efforts which reignite hope in each and every one of them to the point their new visions for a brighter future create an entire new star out of the raw emotion that makes up Ultima Thule. The Karellians put down their Eternal War and work together to raise farmlands, the Grebuloffs vow to never again pollute their beloved oceans and care for them, the Ea rekindle their hope as they become self-appointed guardians to the brand new lifeform borne out of their newfound dreams, the Dragons awake from their torpor and fly across the sky again, the Omicrons themselves determine that their command to "Live" is valuable in and of itself even with no calculable goal or mathematical assessment, and that bringing happiness to the other races gives them great happiness in return, and finally, even the Nibirun, who had managed to talk at least one Omicronian into suicide when they first appeared, come to the conclusion that while everything ends eventually, there's no proof something new can't be born from those ends, even if one of those ends is "the end of the universe". Impressively, the Warrior of Light barely interacts with the Nibirun directly - but it's because of the hope the WoL brought to the other races that the Nibirun can hope as well.
• Horrible Judge of Character: You recruit Laurentius, a Wood Wailer who willingly sold out to the Garleans for profit, to join the Crystal Braves. Surprisingly, he's among the Crystal Braves who betray you for the Monetarists, though it's implied that the Warrior was trying to help Laurentius turn over a new leaf, and at least in the short-term he genuinely wanted to reform.
• Hot-Blooded: Played for Laughs. Upon joining the Order of the Twin Adders, one of your dialogue choices allows you to swear to slaughter your enemies and drink deep of their blood. The officers present to swear you in are clearly unnerved by your fervor.
• How Do I Shot Web?:
  • Amusingly, outside of a handful of explicit cases where they show more fortitude in its use, the Warrior of Light's most vaunted power of the Echo is out of their control. While they do use it in one case to create barriers to block tempering attempts made on the Eorzean Alliance leaders, for the most part they just involuntarily see past memories. And Endwalker reveals that tempering-immunity is a separate power from the Echo proper. Several other Echo users get more elaborate abilities by comparison, leaving it a question as to just how much further the Warrior can push such an ability if they ever had to. Given their already-superhuman capabilities separate of the Echo, they haven't exactly had to push themselves to find out any time soon.
  • Subverted at the end of the main Palace of the Dead storyline. After the defeat of the necromancer Nybeth, the Warrior is presented with documents unearthed by the investigation team. Since these documents are written in an ancient otherwordly langage, the Padjal have no means of translating them, but the Warrior deliberately invokes the Echo to see into their past and understand Nybeth's origins and motivations.
• Humanoid Abomination: Near the end of Shadowbringers, the Warrior's soul finally begins to breakdown after containing the light of all the Lightwardens becomes too much for them. Although Ryne is able to stop them from transforming completely and losing themselves, the Warrior essentially becomes the Lightwarden to all of Norvandt inside a person-shaped shell. Although they later manage to cure themself by merging with Ardbert and converting the Light into a Blade of Light to strike down Emet-Selch, Y'sthola can later confide in the Warrior that their battered, broken soul had begun morphing into "a horror beyond description" at the time. She expresses concerns that the Zenos' posession of the Warrior's body and the Warrior's battle with Zodiark could have had similar effects on them, but is relieved to find no such ailments.
• Humble Hero:
  • Their interactions in the story show that they don't place much personal stock in the title of "Warrior of Light", as they're simply doing what they feel is right, only using their title and fame as a means of helping others. During the Heavensward Leatherworker questline, the bard Aubrenard sings the Warrior's praises as a master craftsman, prompting the Warrior to blush and try to wave off the praise.
  • At the start of the Stormblood Culinarian quests, Lyngsath calls the Warrior in because of a customer dying to meet the Bismarck's most decorated chef. He rolls his eyes at their "sickenin' modesty", calling them a "daft sod" for not realizing that he's talking about them. They can also say that they "dabble" in crafting as a high-level Disciple of the Hand.
  • In Shadowbringers they ask the Exarch why he wanted to summon them specifically to the First to help against the Sin Eaters. He seems confused by the question and turns it around, asking why he wouldn't summon them and making it clear he considers them the finest hero he could call on.
  • At the end of Margrat's Custom Deliveries, she calls for all of the researchers in Labyrinthos to come meet them. The Warrior can be seen grimacing as they're immediately swarmed by dozens upon dozens of researchers eager to ask them a barrage of questions, showing that they don't particularly like being swamped with so much attention.
  • But for as much as they hate being the target of reverance, the Warrior is (rightfully) confident in their skills as a combatant. When Byakko warns them not to hold anything back against him, they can simply reply that he's in good hands, as they have bested kami before.
• Hunter of Monsters: Practically a given due to their profession as an adventurer. But they can also join Clan Centurio and Clan Nutsy to go after especially dangerous marks in exchange for experience, gil, and special currency to be traded for equipment and useful items.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: To Hildibrand Manderville, as the one doing most of the actual detective work on top of handling most of the bad guys they inevitably encounter.
• I Am Who?: On two separate levels. If you're playing a non-Legacy character, it's revealed in the Coils of Bahamut that both the Warrior of Light from Legacy and A Realm Reborn are the same character, transported five years into the future. Being a Legacy character averts this by explicitly recreating part of the CGI opening loosely with no ambiguity about who you are. Meanwhile in Shadowbringers, you're revealed to be the Source's latest reincarnation of Azem, one of the Ascian's Convocation of Fourteen who was just as adventurous, heroic and quirky as you are now.
• I Choose to Stay: Brutally denied in "Griffin, Griffin on the Wall"; you can choose to stay with Papalymo when he decides to perform a Heroic Sacrifice to contain the emerging Shinryu, but Papalymo decides to blast you onto the escaping airship to get you out of there.
• Idiot Ball: Grabs hold of a small one during the Hildibrand questline. They are told that the weapon thief they are looking for is a man in garish red clothing. Moments later Gilgamesh, clearly the man they are looking for, shows up. Hildibrand forgot exactly what the description was except that the perp was wearing ridiculous clothing and doesn't realize he's looking for Gilgamesh. This is in character for him, but the Warrior of Light either doesn't make the connection as well, or is just so apathetic as to let the farce of a search continue for a while.
• I Know Madden Kombat: The Warrior shows off their chops as a volleyball player while doling out an explosive to jog Hildibrand's memory in the Endwalker Hildibrand quests. After the inspector tries to hit it back, Theyler and Vonard set it toward the Warrior, who proceeds to spike the bomb back at Hildibrand after jumping two to five times their height into the air. In the same quest chain, the Warrior finishes off Dr. Lugae by kicking his head (set on fire by friction) like a star soccer player. The dent from the kick can still be seen in the victim's head afterward. The Warrior later slam dunks a coblyn into the mouth of a foe charging a Breath Weapon, causing the attack to backfire and sending the victim flying with the resulting explosion. Finally, the Warrior uses a giant frying pan as a baseball bat to return a speeding explosive to sender with a home-run swing.
• I'm Having Soul Pains: Although the Crystal Exarch and Urianger claim that the Blessing of Light renders the Warrior immune to the Lightwardens' corruption, the Warrior begins experiencing intense physical pain after absorbing the light of Storge. This is because the buildup of Light has become too much for even them to bear, and they double over while clutching at their chest as the Light leaks out of them. Both Ryne and Y'shtola see that the Light inside them has become monstrous, and the only thing that seems to provide any relief is Ardbert's touch. After absorbing Innocence's Light, the Warrior's soul begins to break down completely as they begin the transformation into a sin eater.
• Immune to Mind Control: The Echo renders the Warrior of Light immune to a primal's tempering. Both Ifrit and Garuda try to enslave the Warrior, only to fail, the former claiming it was because another (Hydaelyn) has already claimed them. This is foreshadowing of the reveal that Hydaelyn and Zodiark are the first primals. But Endwalker specifies that Hydaelyn did not temper the Warrior in any way, merely casting a protection ward she'd developed in her days as Venat.
• Improbable Aiming Skills:
  • They can hit a fully armored soldier between the gaps of his plate mail with a blowgun from atop a cliff at well over 300 yalms away.
  • The journal entries for the Machinist quests make note of the Warrior's "frighteningly accurate marksmanship" and they repeatedly scare off neer-do-wells with warning shots placed ilms from a person's head or foot.
  • A Warrior who has never even touched a bow before has no problems picking one up and hitting repeated bullseyes on targets being held by shaky Namazu hiding in jars from well over 50 yalms away.
• Improperly Paranoid: Between Nanamo's near-death experience and you being drugged before Ser Aymeric's peace conference with the dragons, the Warrior becomes understandably wary of being poured drinks, particularly wine. Luckily for them, their paranoia never amounts to anything.
  • By Shadowbringers this is more or less a running gag. In one scene, when the Warrior gets up to pour themselves some water in the middle of the night, they hesitate a moment before drinking it, and in Endwalker one of the options when asked to order a drink is "Water. Just Water."
  • In Endwalker they do accept some chai from a woman in Thavnair and juice from a researcher in Elpis, but in both cases, the drink is prepared in front of them.
• Inexplicably Awesome: On top of the Warrior of Light's rather vague pre-game backstory, once you enter Shadowbringer content, you learn all of your new techniques essentially by yourself. Some are logical, such as Black Mage learning new ways of manipulating aether they had already been using, but others, such as Machinist building up an arsenal of incredibly powerful weapons like the Automaton Queen and the Summoner obtaining an entirely new Demisummon, seem to be nothing but the Warrior literally making up new techniques wholesale because they can.
• Informed Attribute:
  • In the Bard quests, Jehantel praises the Warrior's singing voice and skill with a harp. But given that the Warrior goes entirely unvoiced in cutscenes regardless of what they actually say (minus a voice actor), players just have to take his word for it.
  • Done deliberately on the First. The Warrior adopts the title Warrior of Darkness because the locals would take a dim vim of anyone called the Warrior of Light. Though the player can, as the cinematic Warrior does, change their combat approach to reflect this, they certainly aren't required to and they still make full use of Hydaelyn's Blessing of Light to combat the Sin Eaters.
  • According to NPC dialogue, the Warrior is visibly young, strong, and obviously a fighter accustomed to combat. Due to the options available in character creation and glamours, they will say this even if the Warrior is a grey-haired Lalafell wearing merchant's clothes.
• Instant Expert:
  • It doesn't take them long at all to pick up anything they put their mind to, becoming a master of any number of skills and professions within a single adventure when other characters can spend their whole lives honing their talents in a single field. This is particularly noticeable in the Machinist storyline, as the introduction quest has you outshooting your own marksmanship teacher in a one-on-one duel.
  • While getting ready to throw a concert in Lord Francel's honor, it takes even a non-Bard warrior just two practice sessions to be mistaken for a piano virtuoso by passerby in the Firmament.
  • Although they're initially surprised by the Gundu tribe asking them to learn the Sundrop Dance to inspire the Zundu, the Warrior's first attempt at it winds up impressing both tribes, who declare that they perform it as well as their greatest warriors. The Warrior also picks up Linu Vali's new Moonlift Dance after watching her for a few moments in order to undo the brainwashing inflicted on the Gundu by Nhaza'a Jaab.
  • Though they have help from the Soul of a Dancer, the Warrior only needs a few practice steps with Nashmeira to segue into a full-fledged Magic Dance performance that leaves even the members of Troupe Falsaime in awe. Soul Crystal or not, everyone recognizes the Warrior's prodigious talent, and Nashmeira specifically seeks them out for the poise and grace they carry themselves with.
• In the Hood: The "Scions Traveler's Outfit" that Tataru makes for the Warrior just prior to Shadowbringers includes a hood and mask that completely hides one's hair and eyes.
• Irony:
  • The single greatest foe of the Ascians is themselves the reincarnation of one of the greatest and strongest of their race. A Warrior of Light that is an Au Ra of the Raen clan doubles on this, seeing as Azim is a legend seemingly based off of Azem, meaning they're reincarnated as a member of the race thought to be made by Azem themselves that unwittingly originated their clan's nomadic ways with their adventuring. This also applies to a Xaela Warrior of Light, considering that the Xaela were created by the dusk mother and were enemies of the Raen in ancient times, meaning that potentially Azem reincarnated as a member of a race that they opposed in ancient times. A Xaela Warrior of Light's past life also makes Magnai's claim to being a reincarnation of Father Azim ironic considering he made this claim to the Xaela who is the actual reincarnation of his deity.
  • To save the First within Shadowbringers would be normally impossible, for whoever manages to slay a Lightwarden becomes one themselves. It's through the Warrior's own Blessing of Light from Hydaelyn that they're able to absorb this light and permanently kill the Lightwardens to return darkness to the world, meaning the power of Light coincidentally gives them the opportunity to be the Warrior of Darkness and undo the damage the previous Warriors of Light accidentally wrought. Though the reality of the situation is much more complex, as it's only delaying the inevitable rather than stopping it entirely.
• It's All My Fault: At the end of the Stormblood Dark Knight questline, the Warrior is accused of being a Doom Magnet who destroys the lives of their friends as well as their foes. The Warrior never denies this and agrees that a reckoning is due for them somewhere down the line for what they feel are their sins. Myste is the Warrior's Guilt Complex running wild because of their belief that I Should Have Been Better. He desperately tries to make amends for the Warrior's "sins" by draining the land of aether in an attempt to create simulacrums of the people they've killed and failed to save. In his final moments, Myste begs for forgiveness, which Fray does, showing that the Warrior forgives themselves and is finally at peace.
• It's Personal:
  • The Warrior of Light is visibly hit hard by a death in Heavensward. One dialogue option has them swear vengeance upon Zephirin — and by extension, the rest of the Heavens' Ward — for killing Haurchefant, saying "Life for death. I will have Ser Zephirin's heart for what he did to Haurchefant". It's even examined in The Dragonsong's Reprise. The Wandering Minstrel proposes that if the Warrior of Light had been able to prevent Haurchefant's death, they wouldn't have been as motivated to immediately follow the Heaven's Ward to Azys La, leading to a very different conclusion to the Dragonsong War that spares Haurchefant and Ysayle, but leads to the deaths of many dragons, including Hraesvelgr.
  • On a more comical note, a culinarian or alchemist Warrior of Light begins a personal vendetta against Galveroche, a Sharlayan scientist, after tasting his "updated" Archon Loaf. The Warrior of Light's reaction changes depending on their race, but regardless of race, they unanimously consider it to be the worst thing they have ever tasted. They can take a vow to save Sharlayan from a Fate Worse than Death should it become the nation's prime emergency food ration, as the Sharlayans would be surviving, but not truly "living".
• Jack of All Trades: The sheer number of roles the Warrior can take up over the course of their adventures is staggering. In addition to the twenty different forms of combat they can master as of Endwalker, they can also be an expert miner, botanist, fisher, culinarian, weaver, goldsmith, carpenter, leatherworker, armorer, blacksmith, and alchemist. At various points in the story or in sidequests they've also acted as an Ace Pilot, airship engineer, construction overseer, philanthropist, business advisor, postmoogle's assistant/professional letter carrier, schoolteacher, runway model, talent scout, business supervisor, race strategist, crime scene investigator, author, spokesperson, resistance fighter, saboteur, babysitter, impromptu wedding officiant, Amateur Sleuth, artifact restorer, Adventurer Archaeologist, animal handler, research assistant, restaurant supplier, humanitarian aid worker, conservationist, sabotender hype man, Hyper Hustler, Ambadassador between nations, people, and worlds, and a fishmonger for a day.
• Jerkass to One:
  • During the Astronomy crafter questline in Endwalker, even though you are helping him out, you can yell at Jude to pull himself together multiple repeatedly, which initially isn't completely unjustified as he is being a pathetic mess. But the third time you can do it, it is even more aggressive than before (with multiple exclaimation points at the end of the dialogue option) and is in response to him actually being optimistic for once (so it just ends up making him confused why you are yelling at him). You can even take a potshot at his friend's newly donned Studium robes at the end of the questline for basically no reason. All in all, the questline allows the Warrior of Light to be a bigger jerk than normal (if you so choose).
  • In the Pandæmonium quests, almost all of the Warrior's dialogue options when discussing Lahabrea are bitter and accusatory. Themis, who had since struck up a close friendship with the Warrior, is at a loss for words to see them talk about someone that way. When confronting, "Lahabrea" in Abyssos, the Warrior can choose to call him "Paragon" even though it would be long before any such notions existed. Given that Lahabrea orchestrated the deaths of many of the Warrior's friends and loved ones, it's little wonder that the Warrior responds this way. It becomes even more notable due to the fact that the Warrior knows Themis is Elidibus, and is implied to have suspected it for a while in one of their answers, yet this didn't stop them from becoming close with him, indicating that Lahabrea's core attitude might just strike this in them. It doesn't help they know he's only making things worse for himself due to this, even though it's not on purpose, so their genuine attempts to help him in the second tier's questline can come across as pretty frustrated at the whole situation. However, things start getting better towards the end of the tier, as the Warrior has gained a better insight of Lahabrea's true personality and intentions.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: You are definitely heroic no matter how you play your character, but as the story goes on you get an increasing amount of opportunities to be kind of a jerk to people. Usually they laugh it off as you not being serious.

K - S

• Kill the God: The Warrior makes a name for themselves as the world's premier godslayer in their battles against primals, Tulpas of heroes, saints, and gods of myth. Time and time again, they're called to strike down primal summonings across Eorzea. This culminates in Endwalker with overcoming both Zodiark and Hydaelyn, followed by defeating the Endsinger — and then topping it off with gradually beating all of Eorzea's genuine deities in the Twelve, albeit without the killing part. Amusingly, being a part-time god slayer is one of their most oft-cited feats.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: After helping Aleport with its rampant coeurl and jackal problem, the Warrior can take in the last remaining coeurl kitten as a pet not long after taking in a wolf pup. A later quest in the Firmament can also have them declare that, "Yes, no cat must go uncuddled!"
• Knight in Sour Armor: Numerous dialogue options in Stormblood and Shadowbringers allow the Warrior to be a jerk to their friends and allies as well as display fatigue at all the chaos they have to handle. Despite this, they're still fighting for the sake of everything they care about and protecting the innocent wherever they go.
• Legacy of the Chosen: It's not a coincidence the Echo awoke in the Warrior of Light nor that Hydaelyn chose to support them. Shadowbringers reveals the Warrior of Light in a past life was Azem, the fourteenth seat of the ruling body of Amaurot. Azem's duties involved venturing into the outside world on a mission of understanding, often helping others and making friends. They would often clash with the rulings of the other members of the Convocation, including their decision to summon Zodiark. Furthermore, their known reincarnations rose again and again to fight against the Ascians attempts to destroy the new worlds to bring back the old one.
• Leitmotif: While "The Maker's Ruin" has been acknowledged as their battle theme for a while, their proper character theme appears in Shadowbringers, named "More than Truth". Endwalker adds one more song during the second phase of the final boss; “With Hearts Aligned” as the character’s boss theme.
• Living Legend:
  • By the time you defeat Ramuh, your character has become so well-known around Eorzea that you're attributed with single-handedly inspiring an entire generation to become adventurers in service to the good of the continent. Revisiting the guilds where you've cleared the class story quests will have the guildmasters reveal how your exploits have had people coming in droves to emulate you.
  • The entire sequence of events in post-Stormblood and all of Shadowbringers (and by extension everything that comes after) is due to their story inspiring the future survivors of the Eighth Umbral Calamity. To the point where despite the extremely bleak, hopeless and unrepairable post-apocalypse setting the survivors find themselves in, the story of the Warrior's deeds persists long LONG after their demise to inspire multiple generations to commit themselves to earnestly work on unwriting the calamity itself by throwing a light into the past. Urianger comments that for such a complex and vulnerable plan to have not fallen apart over such a long period of time is nothing short of miraculous, to which the Crystal Exarch cites the hero's inspiration as the major contributing factor.
• Light Is Good: In the grand tradition of the franchise, the player once again takes on the mantle of Warrior of Light and, regardless of class, is able to use Light to save the day (mostly in cutscenes).
• Locked Out of the Loop:
  • The machinations of one of the Scions don't really come to light for a while, but the Warrior is none the wiser for the longest time. Urianger was manipulating the Warrior behind the scenes so that things would work out well not just for the Scions, but for the Warriors of Darkness from the First. Even when Urianger gives the Warrior a device to help them subdue a threat in Stormblood, his explanation boils down to "I'm not going to tell you what this does, just use it". (Though that particular instance is justified, because its operation depends on the user not knowing what it does.^note Fordola's Echo-based Combat Clarivoyance depends on reading the aetheric fluctuations of her opponents to figure out what they're planning to do before they do it; without knowing how the aetheric siphon helps to conflict this, she can't react to it as a threat until it hits her.) The Warrior can still hold a grudge for this as far as Endwalker.
  • Enforced during the YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse questline. Although the machines were yet another enemy to be defeated, the Warrior of Light will never understand the full gravity of the situation and why it was so important the invasion was halted in its tracks.
• Loophole Abuse: More than once the Warrior is approached for help by someone in a group for something that rules or customs forbid any other group members from assisting them. But since the Warrior isn't in the group, they are free to lend aid as necessary. For example, no member of the Brotherhood of Ash is allowed to aid Loonh Gah in her personal vendetta, but the Warrior is not a member so they can help her without either side suffering dishonor.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Whether or not they actually choose to wield it as a Gladiator or a Paladin, the end of Heavensward has Count Fortemps gift them a kite shield emblazoned with his house's coat of arms.
• Made of Iron: The Warrior of Light can endure truly ludicrous amounts of punishment in the process of fighting Ascians, the Garlean Empire, primals and other similarly strong adversaries.
  • In A Realm Reborn alone, the one attack they explicitly cannot endure on their own or through the use of in-battle devices is the Ultima Weapon's Ultima spell, for which Hydaelyn herself has to shield the Warrior.
  • Notably in Heavensward, Thordan expresses disbelief at your continued survival after he launches his ultimate attack. At least while fighting Nidhogg, the Warrior has the excuse of being powered up by Hraesvelgr's eye. Ravana, Bismarck, the Warring Triad, all of Alexander's fights, and the entirety of the Shadow of Mhach raid enemies have no such excuse.
  • In Stormblood, the more notable things the Warrior endures include, in no particular order, falling at terminal velocity from a height more than twice the height of Mount Everest^note the free fall portion of the fight lasts 80 seconds, which according to the distance formula would require them to have been dropped from a height of approximately 18,233 meters, (Byakko's fight), a gigantic sword swinging down on them (Susano), having copies of other primals' ultimates striking down on them one after another (Shinryu), and having "Optimized" versions of their own level 2 DPS Limit Breaks thrown at them (Omega).
  • By the time of Shadowbringers, the Warrior is almost, but not quite, tough enough to single-handedly take on the overflowing Light that threatens to destroy an entire world. Exaggerated in the Eden raid, as the very first fight against Eden Prime lets them survive being thrown by a planetary beam into a nearby galaxy that then explodes. They also can survive Ruby Weapon's use of Optimized Ultima - with only normal Trial healing, no shields from Hydaelyn - which the Weapon will spam.
    Warrior of Light: You name it, I've been punched by it.
• Magic Knight: While not all classes will use MP, all forms of combat in Eorzea do use magic and aether to achieve their superhuman feats. Every class/job has at least one aspect that is considered supernatural or magical. This is especially true with jobs. Even if they learn nothing too flashy as a base class, the magic starts to pick up as the job it follows into. Not even the Machinist is spared this trope. Their bullets are made of aether.
• Magnetic Hero:
  • The Warrior of Light may very well be the most social of the Scions, whether it was the rest of the Scions, Garlond Ironworks, the people they meet during the class quests, or the people they meet and befriend during their many, many, adventures, the WoL always has a friend somewhere, no matter what part of Eorzea or Doma they visit.
  • In the Return to Ivalice storyline, Fran is aware of the Warrior's vast network of connections and demands they use them to supply the Dalmascan resistance with money and soldiers in exchange for granting them access to the Orobonne Monastery. To their dismay, the Alliance, Doma, and the East Aldenard Trading Company all refused their requests. Though, this is exactly what Fran was expecting and made this ill-fated request to prove a point to Ashe and test the Warrior's willingness to help.
  • In comes to a head in Shadowbringers when the Warrior and the Scions call upon all of their connections in Norvandt to help Chai-Nuzz construct a Talos large enough to bring down Mt. Gulg. The staggering amount of manpower they have access to leaves the poor engineer dumbstruck as he asks how they could possibly have so many friends. But while getting a pep talk from his wife and the Warrior, he comes to realize that it's their irrepressible aura of dependibility that wins over the masses.
• Master of All: You can master every class on the same character if you so desire. Until 4.0 it was highly beneficial, in some cases practically mandatory, to branch out to at least some other classes to get access to cross-class abilities.
• Memory Jar: Soul crystals operate on this principle. Explicitly, every job crystal (excluding Machinist and Blue Mage) contains the memories of a past user of that job, and so conveys knowledge of its arts to the bearer when provoked. However, some also have other, more specific effects, including the aforementioned exceptions.^note The Soul of the Black Mage, also known as the Gem of Shattoto, prevents higher-end black magic from burning out the caster. The Soul of the Machinist is a medium to power devices with the user's aether. Martyn mentions that the Soul of the Blue Mage lets the bearer learn spells from enemies. There are implications that the soul crystal will learn from the user, as well - after all, the Warrior of Light will one day be a paladin/dragoon/whatever "of eras past" to practitioners in the future.
• Megaton Punch: At the conclusion of the main story of Endwalker, the Warrior uses one of these to finish their final battle against Zenos, since at this point both of them have lost their primary weapons and are forced to resort to Good Old Fisticuffs.
• Messianic Archetype: The Warrior of Light is an interesting example due to the fact that whether they are this trope, or Satanic Archetype, depends entirely on the point of view of the main conflict From the point of view of the races of Eorzea they are The Chosen One of the Top God, are a savior beloved by everyone, if were a Legacy character they came back from the dead, have True Companions, were betrayed by one of this companions and remain a beacon of hope and a paragon of virtue.
• Military Mage: It doesn't come up often, given that the WoL is considered the Champion of Eorzea as a whole, but they are indeed part of the military, as of 4.4 having reached the rank of captain, and thanks to them being a Magic Knight even in their least magically inclined Jobs, they are always this.
• Multi-Melee Master: They can master a vast array of melee weapons, ranging from swords to spears to axes or even just their fists in tandem with some knuckledusters. Multiple characters will also praise them for their masterful skill with any of these weapons.
• Mundane Utility:
  • The Warrior is strong enough to deflect two blows from Susano's Ame-no-Murakumo, a sword as long as a small office building is tall. They later apply this same strength to scrubbing and wringing a dirty bedsheet clean in one Ananta sidequest.
  • In Endwalker, the Warrior is able to travel to the unsundered past via the same portal they entered the First in the Ocular thanks to Elidibus' sacrifice. They use this to meet Hermes, the man whose sundered soul would be inherited by Fandaniel, to discover the source of the Final Days. In the Studium Deliveries for miners, botanists, and fishers, they use this ability to collect rock, plant, and fish samples for researchers at the Studium to study for their theses.
• Muscles Are Meaningful: Regardless of how your character actually looks, the Warrior of Light is repeatedly described as having the rugged, muscular build of an adventurer. They also perform great feats of strength throughout the story, such as in an Endwalker sidequest where they lift a slab of fallen rubble heavy enough to normally require an entire team of people to lift. They also deflect blows from powerful beings like Titan and Susano, who can attack with entire landslides and swing a BFS as tall as a small office building respectively.
• My Greatest Failure: The Warrior of Light is haunted by Haurchefant Taking the Bullet for them following the heroes' raid on the Vault. The event gets a Call-Back in every expansion following that failure, and the Warrior's journal entries makes it clear how much they regret it and wish they could change it. There's even a What If? during one of the Ultimate raids where the Minstrel examines what might have been if the Warrior prevented this from happening.
• Mysterious Past: Who they were and what they did outside of Eorzea is a complete blank. All that's known is that the Warrior has an almost-unquenchable thirst for adventure, and came to the troubled lands of Eorzea in search of it. Even when Shadowbringers introduces the idea of them being the current incarnation of Azem, one of the Ascians in the Convocation of Fourteen, everything that could be catalogued in the interim is a mystery. A lot of this is on purpose for player reasons, so you can determine things for yourself.
• Named Weapons: The various relic weapons that the Warrior of Light can obtain have unique names to set them apart from more generic weapons. The level 50 relic axe for the Warrior Job is called Bravura, for instance.
• Nice Guy: While there is an increase in the amount of jerkish dialogue answers you can give, nothing says you have to take them, and it is possible to play the Warrior of Light as kind-hearted from beginning to end.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The Warrior of Light has an unfortunate knack for doing this.
  • Heavensward: After defeating Nidhogg, the Warrior and Alphinaud throw Nidhogg's eyes into the bottom of a chasm near Ishgard. The Warriors of Darkness retrieve them and give them to Elidibus, who gives them to The Griffin, who uses them to summon a primal even greater than Bahamut. To be fair, Aymeric assumed tossing the eyes into the abyss was a safe bet because the violent turbulence of wind and water aether made it impossible for a normal person to survive in. Unfortunately for them, their enemies are not normal people.
  • Stormblood: The Warrior of Light assists Yugiri with an assassination attempt on Zenos in Doma, despite Zenos curb-stomping them already. Predictably, all they accomplish is alerting The Empire that the Scions are in Doma. ^note Though given that the entire reason you're in the East is to draw Garlean attention away from Ala Mhigo so the Resistance can recover from the losses at Rhalgr's Reach, this may simply be the Warrior of Light taking the most direct approach imaginable.
  • Shadowbringers: Though its overshadowed by Annog and Konnog's mess the entirety of the YoRhA questline is littered with poor decisions from the Warrior of Darkness, from giving the aforementioned two the key to the mine thus kicking off the entire thing, defeating 9S without knowing the whole story or potentially trusting 2P, these poor decisions end up costing a lot of innocent dwarves their lives.
  • Endwalker: Their slaying of Zodiark is what truly triggers the Final Days since the primal's existence is what kept the star alive. Downplayed however due to the fact it was Fandaniel who dealt the final, suicidal, blow rather than the Warrior, and if the Warrior of Light hadn't intervened the same thing would have occurred, except Fandaniel would have had more time to use Zodiark's power to cause havoc personally.
• Nightmare Fetishist: Played for Laughs in the 2023 Hatching-tide event. The Warrior of Light can take a little too much glee in running around in the guise of the tonberry. The dialogue options they get while spooking the sylphs include a serious option as well as an option about "eggy, eggy, stabby fun."
  Jihli Aliapoh: Exactly! That's the spirit of Hatching–tide. ...Perhaps without the “stabby” part.
• No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: On the receiving end of this thanks to Zenos and Fandaniel in Endwalker after having their soul shoved into a nameless soldier's body. Though, instead of killing them where they sit, Zenos decides to torment them by stealing their body to kill the Scions, while Fandaniel throws them into the fray to fend for themselves, either getting killed in combat or dying from being separated from their body for too long.
• Not So Above It All:
  • No matter what Job they are, even the more serious ones like Reaper and Dark Knight, no matter what race or gender they may be, even the massive Hrothgar, and no matter how hard life can get for them, the Warrior can be down for some downright silly antics sometimes, hilarious snark like a couple traded barbs with Y'shtola, and have the time of their lives with the various dances. Even combat situations can result in a bit of the inner Blood Knight showing when something like Nero showing up with Magitek Armor for the Warrior to use against Grynewaht results in a downright mischievously fiendish smirk.
  • In the quest, "The Moogle Motivator", they try to psych up a malingering moogle to help them work with gusto. When the moogle rebukes them for it, the Warrior is so offended that they walk up to the moogle and slap them across the face.
  • This even applies to the usually-silly Hildibrand Adventures questline, especially in the "Somehow Further" story in Endwalker. Despite being the go-to Straight Man for the storyline, they have no qualms clowning around; when trying to find Hildibrand in the First, the very first thing that comes to their mind is to perform the Manderville (Mambo) to bring him to them. Then their next course of action is to throw a bomb at Hildibrand to re-jog his memory, something that Nashu would certainly do.
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • They're recognized as the number one primal killer, or as the Garleans like to call them, the "Eikon-slayer". To this end, there are Imperials that respect and even believe that lineages of savagery aside, the Warrior of Light could be a great ally for the similar goals were they not firmly on the side of the Eorzean Alliance. Gaius even offers such a deal, pointing out afterwards that their refusal also means they're simply too powerful to let live as a potential threat despite their similar priorities; while he does mock the Warrior for their seeming inability to rule, he does firmly respect them for their own power given the Garlean philosophy of Might Makes Right.
  • The Warrior of Light can come to this realization between them and Zenos at the very end of Endwalker, accepting his offer for a final duel to the death for no reason other than the thrill of it.
    Warrior of Light: That, I can't deny.
• Not So Stoic: The Warrior typically keeps a stiff upper lip throughout all but the worst of times, rarely showing much more than controlled fury or mild surprise when they aren't keeping a straight face or a small smile. But this cheerful stoicism falters at numerous points in the story, often for laughs or for drama.
  • After dealing with a barrage of fetch quests courtesy of the Company of Heroes while the threat of Titan bears down on Limsa Lominsa, Y'shtola remarks that the Warrior of Light looks like they've been to the seventh hell and back, showing just how fed up the normally cheerfully stoic hero is.
  • At the end of the 'Wanderer's Palace (Hard)' dungeon, the Tonberries the party freed during the course of the dungeon interrupt the victory music to start enacting stabby revenge on their former captor. The Warrior of Light looks visibly alarmed and backs away a few steps.
  • Heavensward begins to show cracks in the player character's stoic persona, especially after Haurchefant sacrifices himself to save them. On a more comedic note, the Warrior of Light rapidly cycles between shock and anger while receiving multiple revelations all about how pointless a certain extended fetch quest during the Ivalice raid series was. They even get the option to demand that a quest giver not use the "f" word (fetch) in front of them after the whole farce.
  • On a more comedic note, during the Namazu beast tribe storyline, when one of the Namazu suggests sacrificing them in a giant wicker man, they react with vehement disagreement.
  • After listening to Vauthry's insane rant on the nature of Eulmore and the people within, the Warrior of Light looks pissed and clenches their fists like they're about to try to attack him then and there. Alphinaud has to stop them before they do anything they'd regret, but it's one of the few times outside of the Dark Knight storyline we see them get genuinely angry.
  • Pretty much any time they agree to help someone, it's by simply nodding their head, possibly punching one hand with the other as if so say "let's kick some ass". In the Hildibrand questline, they bear witness to Julyan completely knocking out three people, including the enormous Gilgamesh ^note  who, need we remind you, was an eight player trial , with a frying pan in short order. Julyan then turns and calmly asks for the Warrior's assistance. With a nervous look in their eyes, they very quickly nod in response, not wanting to be her next target.
  • Upon unlocking Clan Nutsy's Elite Marks, they're alarmed to learn that the clan's leader is a bloodthirsty moogle named Nutsy who sends hunters to pointless deaths to sate his own bloodlust. Their jaw then drops like Hildibrand's when Xylie hits her Rage Breaking Point over Nutsy's inability to run a sustainable organization and declares her intent to rip off his pom and shove it down "the furry little shite's" throat.
  • In Shadowbringers, they can act incredibly distressed when Y'shtola warns them that the Blessing of Light is not nullifying the Lightwardens' aether at all, and that they might turn into a horrible Sin Eater if they're not careful. This showing of vulnerability catches Ardbert completely off-guard and he fumbles for words to help the Warrior feel better.
  • The Warrior is devastated by Y'shtola's apparent "death" in Shadowbringers and turns their fury towards Ran'jit immediately afterwards without any input by the player. They do not snap out of their resulting depression until after they realize Y'shtola may have survived.
  • Following the events of Shadowbringers, the Warrior is furious that Elidibus would possess Ardbert's corpse and proclaim himself to be Ardbert reborn. Both of their dialogue options in response to this event are impassioned and aggressive, and they're seen clenching their fists with barely controlled rage.
  • In one sidequest chain in Endwalker, the Warrior's jaw needs to be picked up off the floor when they realize that they accidentally helped invent the behemoth species while advising the researchers at Elpis in the unsundered past.
  • During Endwalker, the Warrior is left increasingly devastated when their fellow Scions sacrifice themselves one by one in order to allow them to progress through Ultima Thule. When it comes to Alphinaud and Alisaie sacrificing themselves, the Warrior is furious. While their previous responses to the Scions sacrificing themselves ranged from upset to trying to make light of the situation, the only dialogue options for the twins are angry ones.
  • The Warrior looks furious when Golbez turns Azdaja into the Shadow Dragon and sics her on Vrtra. At this point Vrtra is just as much one of their True Companions as the Scions and the entire purpose of their quest was to save his sister, so seeing Golbez make that all for nothing in the cruelest way possible immediately sends the Warrior into a rage, with their pre-battle dialogue options both being curt and to the point as they waste no time invoking Azem's crystal to summon the rest of the party.
• Obviously Not Fine: In Shadowbringers, the Warrior begins suffering intense pain from containing the aether of the Lightwardens within their body. When Y'shtola witnesses this, she demands the Warrior return to their room at the Pendants to get some rest. The Warrior can retort that they're fine and that they can still fight, but Y'shtola admonishes them for their obviously false bravado before once again demanding they go to bed.
• Omniglot: The Echo allows the player to comprehend any spoken language, including the various beastmen dialects and the Black Speech of the Ascians.
• Oblivious to Love:
  • In the sidequest, "Stroking the Haft", the Warrior is acting as a substitute delivery moogle and hands a package to one Hunberct Longhaft, a Brass Blade captain fawned over by two women in his unit. Reading the journal entries for the quest shows that the Warrior is oblivious to the womens' affections for their captain beyond mere loyalty as well as the gratuitous amounts of Double Entendre in the ensuing conversation whilst talking about "operating his lever" or "polishing his blade" as well as Longhaft's virility. At the end of the quest, the Warrior finds themselves admiring the womens' devotion and resolves to lend them their aid should they need help at Highbridge.
  • Despite this, they act as a Romantic Wingman for Hinageshi in the Anthropology Studium Deliveries. Early on in the questline, they ask her to simply confess her feelings to Tankin rather than her current goal of courting him by helping him with his research.
• Oh, Crap!: Despite their Nerves of Steel, the Warrior has clearly demonstrated this reaction on numerous occasions.
  • After watching Julyan beat Hildibrand, Godbert, and Gilgamesh unconscious, the Warrior stares at her with a panicked look on their face, quickly nodding in agreement to everything she says.
  • When the goblins of Idyllshire agree to clear the blockage barring passage to the west side of the Dravanian Hinterlands, the Warrior is content until they realize that the goblins intend to do this with bombs. And that they're standing right next to the bombs. Cue them sprinting away from the ensuing explosion in a panic.
  • In Endwalker, the Warrior's jaw drops as it dawns on them how they accidentally helped invent the behemoth species while aiding Kleon with his research.
• One-Man Army:
  • They're explicitly referred to as such by Ilberd in ARR as a one-man/one-woman army. Given the Warrior's accomplishments just by that time in the story — slaying every primal on the face of Eorzea, storming the Garlean Empire's most heavily guarded fortresses, routing waves of enemies on their own, destroying the Ultima Weapon, which had the power of multiple primals and the ultimate destructive magic in its core at the same time (albeit with some divine intervention from Hydaelyn) — it's hard to argue with the assessment.
  • During the grand melee between Ishgard and the other members of the Eorzean Alliance, everyone on the Ishgardian side has no delusions that it was anyone but the Warrior of Light who granted them victory over the Alliance's finest soldiers in the mock battle. Then during Hullbreaker Isle (Hard), the Maelstrom soldiers the Warrior is sent to test consider drawing blood on the Warrior to be a source of bragging rights.
  • In the Paladin questline, Jenlyn accuses the Warrior of being a Monetarist spy and calls for the entirety of the Sultansworn to execute them on the spot. Not only does the Warrior defeat all of them, but they do so non-lethally.
  • In the Monk questline, they dismantle the entire Corpse Brigade, the elite Praetorian Guard of the mad king Theodoric that wiped out the Fist of Rhalgr, almost entirely on their own, with the other monks of the Fist of Rhalgr only joining in at the very end. The fight itself pits the Warrior against waves upon waves of enemies until there's no one but Hewerald left.
  • In the Save the Queen questline, the Warrior's decision to fight for the Bozjan Resistance gradually turns the war for Bozjan independence from a losing battle to one the resistance has a great chance of winning. The Warrior's feats are described as being so incredible that Bozja's commanders would write them off as fiction had several other soldiers not witnessed them in action.
  • This trope is also examined and deconstructed. For all the Warrior's skill and strength, it's pointed out that they're still mortal and can be overwhelmed if pitted against sufficiently large numbers. As such, they're rarely placed directly on the frontlines in large-scale military conflicts. They instead spearhead assaults on key positions to cut straight to the most important targets while the Grand Companies of Eorzea keep the rest of the enemy occupied. In addition, the Warrior's abilities are so profound that they're constantly called in for help, with others more-or-less assuming the Warrior will help as a matter of course. Haurchefant and Estinien call out the Scions for treating the Warrior more like a weapon to be pointed at primals than a person at times.
• The Only One:
  • In general, this was the Warrior's status in the Scions back when their primary mission was dealing with primals. The Scions had skilled fighters (most of the Archons) and people immune to tempering (Minfilia and eventually Krile). But until the Warrior came along, they didn't have someone who was both. This diminshed after they started recruiting other Echo-blessed adventurers, but the Warrior's strength and experience still made them the best fit for the job most of the time.
  • This also got a resurgance in the First when the Warrior of Light reaches it in Shadowbringers. Anyone who kills a Lightwarden becomes consumed by their Light aether and made into a new Lightwarden. The only people immune to this are the Minfilia reincarnations who aren't strong enough to do the job in the first place, requiring the Warrior to take care of each one themselves.
• Only Sane Man: Their Silent Snarker and Heroic Mime tendencies usually cause the Warrior to come off as much more grounded and level-headed than their companions. This trait of their personality is increasingly downplayed after A Realm Reborn, when the player is given more frequent, emotive dialogue options. They also tend to split this role with Briardien during the Hildibrand Adventures questline.
• Our Souls Are Different: During the second boss fight in the final Stormblood dungeon, a Garlean scientist forcibly extracts the Warrior of Light's soul from their body. The body itself goes comatose, but when the Warrior's soul forces itself back into its body, they are revived. The scientist is very surprised to see the soul rebel against the extraction, which could imply that the Warrior's soul is unique. It turns out that this is because the Warrior of Light is the reincarnation of one of the fourteen most powerful people of the ancient Precursor Race.
• Pals with Jesus: In Endwalker, the Warrior travels to the unsundered past and meets Venat, the woman who would become the heart of Hydaelyn. Although the Warrior's visit was relatively brief, their stories of the future and the camaraderie they strike up with Venat sticks with her for the next 12,000 years, giving her the determination to go through with the Sundering. Following her duel with the Scions as a Threshold Guardian to see if they're capable of stopping the Final Days, the Warrior can refer to Hydaelyn by her original name and tell her that humanity will find its own path. This one statement makes Venat shed a Single Tear of joy.
• The Paragon:
  • Of all the characters in the story, the Warrior of Light is considered the bravest and most incorruptible of them all, suffering through thick and thin for the sake of Eorzea and their loved ones and still managing to smile when the battle is won. Even after suffering from Heroic Fatigue, they continue to serve as Eorzea's greatest hope and an exemplar of strength, determination, compassion, and generosity for others to follow.
  • At the end of the Dancer questline, the Warrior rallies an insecure Ranaa Mhigo's spirits not with words but by sharing a dance with her. Watching the Warrior's technique relieves the stress Ranaa was feeling and helps her find the confidence to take up leadership of Troupe Falsaim while Nashmeira leaves to train more dancers to combat the Totentanz. Seeing this, Nashmeira compares the Warrior's presence to a mirror that helps others find their truest selves.
  • That said, their example has a star adventurer has not always led to positive outcomes. Early in the Warrior's career, numerous other adventurers looked up to or were envious of the Warrior's accomplishments. Their eagerness to emulate or one-up the Warrior leads to careless mistakes that get these would-be adventurers killed. This is what happened to Dolorous Bear's party and Avere, who rushed to their deaths in the Copperbell Mines and Tam-Tara Deepcroft respectively.
• Party in My Pocket:
  • Often after unlocking a trial or dungeon NPC's tell you to gather "your adventurer friends" (as in other players) to aid you and on occasion other players in your party will be shown in the background for cutscenes but most of the time the player appears to stand alone until the scene ends. Gets lampshaded more as time goes on, to the point Lyse suggests finding some of your fellow adventurers, who hopefully are coincidentally taking a fishing trip in the Far East at the time of a pressing situation.
    "How fortunate that you had the wisdom and foresight to invite several of your fellow adventurers on this journey to the Far East, and how kind they were to agree to help you torment the Red Kojin, for no single warrior, no matter how blessed or powerful, could ever hope to slay a primal on their own, despite what some wandering minstrels would have you believe.”
  • Shadowbringers introduces the Trust System, where dungeons can be run with a party of nearby NPC's for those who want to avert this.
  • This is taken to its logical conclusion at the end of 5.3. After obtaining the crystal of Azem, the WoL gains the ability to summon heroes from other worlds whenever they need to, literally having a having party in their pocket. This pretty much handwaves away any time they have a non-Trust party, because trying to explain how the WoL even has friends in places like the moon or the literal edge of the universe became nigh-impossible.
• Player Character: Though you occasionally play as someone else for a short time, the Warrior of Light is both The Protagonist of the story and the character you control the most often. The Warrior is also the only character that you can customize.
• Powerful and Helpless:
  • The Warrior of Light is THE strongest fighter in all of Hydaelyn. This means nothing with cases such as political machinations against them, being drugged, watching your friend's souls get taken one by one, and dealing with The Corruption of becoming a Lightwarden.
  • No amount of martial talent or magical might helps the Warrior in the timeline where Varis unleashes Black Rose, an alchemical weapon of such devastating proportions that it simply causes life to stop working in any areas it's exposed to.
• Power Copying: Several of the skills they can learn are potentially inspired by attacks they've seen performed by others. For instance, Dragoon's Chaotic Spring is an adaptation of the Ala Morn attack used by Nidhogg while possessing Estinien's body, Gunbreaker's Double Down takes clear inspiration from Gaius van Baelsar's signature Terminus Est attack, while Paladin's Confiteor spell combo seems to have been derived from Venat's own magical blade attacks from their spar in Elpis.
• Power Incontinence:
  • The Warrior of Light has no control over when the Echo will trigger, resulting in them having an out-of-body experience whether or not the time is convenient. This is also coupled with a debilitating headache that can leave them helpless should it trigger on the field of battle, requiring others to snap them out of it or defend the Warrior long enough to shake it off.
  • During the Scholasticate quests, Briarden asks if the Warrior can use the Echo to determine whether or not the missing student Ulaa is in fact a radical revolutionary plotting to frame Archombadin for her disappearance. The Warrior has to shake their head, much to Briarden's disappointment.
  • Lue-Reeq quickly grows frustrated with the Warrior for suffering Echo visions while confronting Andreia, accusing them of doing so on purpose to let her get away. He realizes his error when they catch up later and he learns that these visions are uncontrollable, but begs them not to have another vision in the middle of their final confrontation with the Sin Eater.
  • In the Endwalker Melee DPS Role Quests, the Warrior begins to have an Echo vision just as the beast plaguing Limsa Lominsa reveals itself. Although they try to stifle it and fight it off, they're forced to view it anyways, forcing to the Company of Heroes to defend them until the Warrior returns to their senses.
• The Power of Friendship:
  • Although the Warrior of Light is the champion of Hydaelyn, there are many others gifted with the Echo (other players) that aid them in fighting primals. Word of God even points out the big difference that helps the player overcome Zenos in the end of Stormblood is that they "brought backup this time". The number of places where you just so happened to invite your adventurer pals increasingly verges on Contrived Coincidence, which the trial descriptions gleefully lampshade.
  • Shadowbringers reveals that even before the Sundering, as Azem they were fond of solving problems with the help of their friends. This is never more evident than the final battle against Elidibus; the Warrior of Light taps into their old power to summon the other seven party members, differently than how the Exarch does, and when it looks like they're going to be locked away in the Rift, they call out to their old best friend from Amaurot times - none other than Emet-Selch - to save them in their darkest hour.
• Power Loss Makes You Strong: Midgardsormr strips away the Blessing of Light to test your abilities and see if you really are worthy of being The Chosen One, and after spending a long time without it, by the time you get it back, that's when the general reaction to you tends to be What the Hell Are You?.
• Precision F-Strike:
  • They're normally quietly cheerful most of the time and quite eloquent when they do speak. It goes to show how irritated they are with the Namazu that they can respond to their request for help with an oddly aggressive, "Not just no, no, but hells no, no."
  • They can also respond to the Mogmenders' request for aid and guidance with a curt, "Piss off, kupo."
  • The Warrior also shows clear disdain for and disappointment when the leaders of the Order of the Twin Adder abandon Sanson to his fate at the end of the Bard questline. The Warrior agrees with Guydelot's scathing critique of the Order's decision by either saying that they've lost faith in the order or replying with "Aye, it's bullshite."
  • In the Endwalker quest "In From the Cold", the Warrior of Light has been kidnapped by Fandaniel, forced to eat dinner with Zenos, and has had a Grand Theft Me pulled on them by being transported into a nameless Garlean soldier while Zenos takes the Warrior's body. One of their responses to all of this can be "This is such a pain in the arse." Later in the same quest, the Warrior can shout "Get away from them, you bastard!" to Zenos as a dialogue choice.
• Propaganda Hero: Their fame as Eorzea's greatest hero has every Grand Company on the continent climbing over each other to get them to join their ranks to bolster their country's position. During important missions like Operation Archon, they're asked to rouse the soldiers with their "stirring gesticulation" out of hope that their fame and status as The Paragon would do what a general could not. Alphinaud also has the Warrior of Light use their status to help him recruit adventurers and soldiers to join the Crystal Braves.
• The Protagonist: The Warrior of Light is the story's central character. Though other characters do get a lot of focus on their characterization, motivations, and backstories, it's the Warrior with whom the player will be spending more time than any other, since they're the Player Character. As a character, the Warrior's backstory is almost entirely a blank slate so that the player can fill in whatever they want, whereas their mindset and motivations are still explored quite a bit as things happen. However, their past life as Azem, one of the Convocation of Fourteen on the Ascian council, is always the same, no matter what the player does.
• Protagonist Without a Past: The player's past and motivations don't come up too often, although the game gives you a few opportunities to define your character a little. They don't change the flow of the game, but mostly exist to let you define what sort of person your character is. Averted in Shadowbringers, concerning their original identity.
• Punny Name: The promotional Warrior of Light in trailers has been named "Hiroshi" by the developers. It's a pun on the Japanese reading of "Warrior of Light" (Hikari no Senshi).
• Purely Aesthetic Gender: Although races have a few (negligible) points of difference in starting stats, there is no gender difference at all apart from some cosmetic gear. Story dialogue will reflect the Warrior's gender (e.g. the Buduga will make advances on a male Warrior of Light and are disinterested in female ones), but it's extra fluff that doesn't alter the narrative.
• Purely Aesthetic Glasses: Any glasses they wear are inevitably this, given how they have Improbable Aiming Skills without them.
• The Quiet One:
  • The Warrior of Light doesn't talk too much, especially not in A Realm Reborn, preferring stoic nods more. Starting in Heavensward, they talk a lot more, but there is almost always an option to keep silent. Less so in Stormblood where you don't have the option to not say anything as much, but even so the Warrior of Light tends to let others do the talking. This is also lampshaded repeatedly, with others complaining about how one-sided conversations with them tend to be.
  • This largely plays to their advantage during the Disciple of the Hand jobs though. Their willingness to stop and listen to their clients' concerns allows them to come up with an idea guaranteed to satisfy them. This is heavily contrasted by the comparatively impulsive and vocal craftsmen around them, like Blanstyr and Cemi, who fail to complete their assignments precisely because they can't slow down and listen to others.
  • Played for Laughs in Endwalker. At the very end of the story, the Scions are saying their goodbyes to each other as they're officially disbanding. When they walk up to Estinien, the two of them stare at each other with their arms crossed for a while, both of them too quiet to start conversation until Estinien finally breaks the ice.
• Quit Your Whining: 3.2 has the Warrior of Light giving these off at times (especially to the Vath Deftarm) if you choose to respond that way, though some dialogue choices will have them giving some variant of the trope no matter what.
• Rags to Riches: The Warrior has only the clothes on their back and a weapon on their person when they first arrive at the Adventurer's Guild. Their immense success as an adventurer and countless accolades as a globe-trotting hero leaves them well-off to the point that a number of sidequests give them dialogue options to act as an Uncle Pennybags, though all of their offers are inevitably rejected.
• Readings Are Off the Scale: In the Level 65 Summoner quest, an egi of Master Sari, Principia's creator, rates the Warrior's latent aetheric potential as "immeasurable".
• Real Men Wear Pink: There's nothing stopping a male Warrior of Light from taking up goldsmithing, weaving, and cooking as side professions. Never mind how they also have rippling muscles and are the World's Best Warrior.
• Red Baron:
  • The Warrior of Light is referred to as the "bane" of the primals they defeat. As such, they garner a wealth of these titles over the course of the story, including "Ifrit's Bane" and "Titan's Bane". The Garlean Empire also refers to them as "eikon-slayer" and "champion of the savages".
  • Their fame and status as the World's Best Warrior also gets them called "warrior of warriors" by the dragons of Dravania. Vidofnir is also surprised to learn that they are a "crafter of crafters" while the Warrior is helping the Mogmenders.
  • Following the liberation of Doma and Ala Mhigo, members of the other resistance movements in Garlean territories refer to the Warrior as the "liberator" for their deeds.
  • The Ascians know the Warrior as the "Bringer of Light", as their victories serve in Hydaelyn's favor and strengthen her hold in the cosmic order.
  • In the Dark Knight job quests, both Fray and Myste separately refer to the Warrior as "Weapon of Light", Fray as an insult for their willingness to be pointed at an enemy, and Myste to highlight how many people die around them.
• Regenerating Health: Happens in several main story quests throughout Heavensward and Stormblood under the "Brilliant Conviction" status where the Warrior of Light is breaking so many boundaries that they can regenerate HP on their own without any assistance and gains boosted strength as well. For gameplay purposes, the buff is to help the player get a slight edge when it comes to doing some of the major fights solo.
• Reincarnation: One of the biggest reveals in Shadowbringers is that in a past life their unsundered soul held the seat of Azem on the Convocation of Fourteen, the ruling body of the Precursor Race, before the apocalypse and split of the worlds. Azem's soul was split across them and reincarnated. The WoL can be considered the main shard of it, as the others return to them every time a new calamity occurs or, in Ardbert's case, when both shards are consenting. Emet-Selch is horrified when he realizes this, trying to brush it off as a "trick of the light" rather than confront the possibility that the reincarnation of one of his closest friends is actively opposing him.
• Reincarnation Friendship:
  • A strange variant of this appears in Endwalker, as the Warrior, who traveled to the past and is the future reincarnation of Azem, bonds with Emet-Selch and Hythlodaeus. Despite the Warrior's troubling news about their future and Emet-Selch's reaction, the three of them are shown to naturally build up a friendship with similar dynamics to the ones they had when the Warrior was still Azem. Their bond stays so strong that it culminates with the Warrior summoning them in Ultima Thule, and Hythlodaeus and Emet-Selch making a Reunion Vow with the Warrior, as they leave to be reincarnated, hoping to invoke this trope between the three of them once more. It's arguably played up even more in the japanese version, where Hythlodaeus insists that their trio should reunite happily, no matter how many times they reincarnate.
  • There are even hints of this during Shadowbringers, despite Emet-Selch being an antagonist. He is shown to be speaking very honestly to the Warrior, and clearly has a fondness for them. In return, while being wary at first, the Warrior doesn't hesitate to talk with him, possibly ask him honest questions and being open about trying to at least listen to what he has to offer. This is more evident in the japanese version, where instead of the usual "Ascian XXX" name floating above an Ascian, Emet-Selch is simply "Emet-Selch", showing a more personal relationship between himself and the Warrior of Light. It leads to the conclusion where Emet-Selch gives a sincere and honest smile to the Warrior before disappearing, while the Warrior is shown to be affected heavily by his death, despite having ended up in different sides over the years.
• Remember When You Blew Up a Sun?:
  • The other characters in the story frequently bring up the Warrior of Light's heroic feats in conversation, particularly regarding their ability to take down primals, facsimiles of the gods of the beast races' religions. In Stormblood, Genbu seeks out the Warrior of Light to help him quell the aramitama of his fellow auspices because of the Warrior's triumph over Susano.
  • In Endwalker, Estinien brings up the time the Warrior ventured into the Drowned City of Skalla with Alphinaud and Arenvald in search of treasure that could be sold to stimulate Ala Mhigo's economy after the events of Stormblood. He asks the Warrior for help in finding Alzadaal's Legacy to do the same for Thavnair following the destruction wrought by the Final Days.
• Renaissance Man: Can easily switch between and master multiple classes, not to mention become a master of every major discipline on the face of Eorzea when it would normally take a lifetime to master one.
• Ret-Gone: The Warriors of Light (Player Characters who have been playing since the original release) have been forgotten by the world at large due to the spell Louisoix used to send them five years into the future, to the point that although their deeds have been remembered, their faces are complete blanks. Most seem to remember them only as silhouettes against a bright light. At the end of the story of 2.0, everyone remembers you all at once.
• Romantic Wingman:
  • In the sidequest, "Short on Courage", the Warrior agrees to accompany a lovelorn dwarf and give him the courage to woo a Hume girl whom he's fallen in love with at first sight. But he's too shy to even try to ask her out, requesting the Warrior ask if she's unwed and if she'd be interested in dating a dwarf. After she tells them that she's interested in a kind and generous soul, regardless of appearances, the Warrior can tell him this, inspiring the dwarf to become more like the Warrior by taking to the road in hopes of becoming a man worthy of marrying her. In this case, the player can choose to subvert this by saying that the the girl is interested in someone like them, shocking the dwarf who didn't expect them to be a romantic rival.
  • In the Endwalker Studium Deliveries, the Warrior is recruited to act as this for Hinageshi in hopes of getting her professor Tankin to realize her feelings for him since she Cannot Spit It Out. The Warrior even presides over the couple's Ceremony of Eternal Bonding in Searcher's Meet. As Hinageshi and Tankin kiss, the Warrior can be seen looking on with a satisfied smile on their face.
  • Then in the Splendorous Tools questline, the Warrior encourages Grenoldt to act on his feelings for Mowen and get over his Cannot Spit It Out tendencies. They then help arrange romantic get-togethers between the two before attending their marriage ceremony on the banks of the Source lake in Lakeland.
    The Warrior: One does not simply do romance. One must bring the romance!
• Rookie Red Ranger: They are the newest member of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn during the events of A Realm Reborn, having never heard of them prior to meeting their members while starting out as an adventurer. It isn't long before they gain the reputation of being the strongest of them all as the Warrior of Light.
• Royal Favorite: The Scions in general have access to more information and favor than regular people but the Warrior stands out for being close to the rulers of the biggest governments of Eorzea and Norvrandt. They have Ship Tease with Aymeric, Lyse, Hien, and the Crystal Exarch, are a trusted confidant of Nanamo Ul Namo and Chai-Nuzz once he becomes mayor to whom they come to for help with various issues, and, of course, they are one of the most trusted agents of the leaders of their starting city-state. This is all without getting into the many royals of smaller governments that the WoL helps along the way and naturally gain their trust.
• Satanic Archetype: The Warrior of Light is an interesting example due to the fact that they are a genuine heroic case of this trope, and whether they are this or Messianic Archetype depends entirely on the point of view of the main conflict. From the perspective of the Ascians, they were a powerful figure among their people who disobeyed the greater authority, was cast out in disgrace, had their body disfigured (in the Ascians' eyes), and is now the head of an army of (again in the Ascians' eyes) malformed beings who seek to overthrow the remnants of the Convocation and deny mortals true salvation in the form of the Rejoining.
• Satellite Character:
  • The Warrior will often be this in Class or Job questlines, where the story will center around the questgiver or another character while the Warrior assists them. The Arcanist questline, for example, is about K'lyhia overcoming her Dark and Troubled Past and bringing down Doesmaga while the Warrior aids her in battle, helps her out of a funk, etc.
  • They're especially this in the Allied Tribe finale quests for reaching max rank with all of a given expansion's Tribes - their presence will basically come to being there just so the player has a camera viewpoint while the major tribe characters deal with Nhaza'a Jaab and whichever antagonist hired him. While they might help with rescues or fighting lackeys offscreen, there's never any in-game combat in the entire storyline.
• Seen It All:
  • It's hard to tell due to their stoic tendencies, but according to their quest journal, the Warrior of Light starts out as baffled as everyone else by everything involving Hildibrand. But by Heavensward's questline, they seem to simply accept everything with a bland smile and nod when people unfamiliar with Hildibrand are losing it over his insanity. By Endwalker, they are actively participating in some of the more ridiculous things, such as blowing up Hildibrand with one of Nashu's bombs in her place to jog his memory.
  • They've seen so much over the course of their adventures that the auspices, talking magical animals over a thousand years old, can seem positively mundane to them given their responses. The auspices are grateful for this, as the whole "That animal just talked!" response gets old after a few hundred years.
• Sergeant Rock: Should they be a sergeant in one of the Grand Companies, they can still lead squads of elite adventurers into the most dangerous locales on the planet and come out on top.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran:
  • The Warrior of Light gains some very noticeable Trauma Buttons throughout the story, including any mention of the Sil'dihn Subterrane and being poured drinks due to the events of the Bloody Banquet and a later traumatic experience in Heavensward. The Dark Knight questline emphasizes that part of them has grown jaded over this and they harbor intense guilt over ending and failing to save so many lives despite the number of people counting on them. Both Fray and Myste encourage the Warrior to run away from all the things that hurt them because they represent the Warrior's self-love and Guilt Complex respectively. Myste also lambastes the Warrior for being a Doom Magnet who has murdered countless people and gets many of their loved ones killed.
  • Spoofed and Played for Laughs during the Eden raid series. When asked about what Titan is like, the Warrior of Light can respond with, "The landslides... the landslides...", a nod toward his infamous Ring Out mechanic. Ryne then says that the Warrior sounds like they've gone through something traumatic.
• Ship Tease: The Warrior of Light has this with nearly every major NPC in the game. The fifth anniversary celebration even included two videos mimicking a Dating Sim.
• Showy Invincible Hero: Subverted and discussed. The Warrior develops a reputation as a practically invincible fighter able to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds on the regular. But no matter how strong, quick, or clever they are, they are still mortal and can be killed, as shown when the Warrior is handily defeated by Zenos at Rhalgr's Reach. Following Zenos' brief possession of the Warrior's body, Alisaie asks the Warrior to take care of themselves and reminds them that one misstep could be the end.
• Silent Snarker: Even before they started getting snarkier dialogue options in later expansions, some scenes can have the Warrior of Light give the appropriate gesture or facial expression showing off their snark. For instance, in the Goldsmith questline, they snicker when Serendipity calls herself an "excellent judge of character".
• Sinister Silhouettes: The Warrior is framed in one of these in Heavensward after defeating the Big Bad Wannabe of the expansion. The Big Bad looks up to see the Warrior with their entire body outlined in black, complete with a sudden zoom-in to show their Face Framed in Shadow and only their outline lit. The villain then asks who, or rather what, the Warrior truly is.
• Slasher Smile:
  • While battling Garlean forces under Grynwaht's command at Carteneau, the Warrior flashes a sinister grin when Nero tol Scaeva lends them his magitek armor to help him deal with the rest of Grynwaht's men. Cue Oh, Crap! from the imperials.
  • They can also wear an absolutely vicious grin should they agree with Zenos' assertion that they live for the moments where they can push their body and soul to the limit in battles where their life hangs on a knife-edge.
• The Slow Walk: They pull off two very badass slow walks at the end of 3.3. The first one re-enacts part of the Heavensward cinematic, where the Warrior slowly approaches the Horde as Temple Knights fall back. The second occurs after Nidhogg rips off one of Hraesvelgr's wings. The Warrior of Light doesn't even flinch as s/he stares down Nidhogg and proceeds to slowly approach him with a determined look once they obtained Hraesvelgr's eye.
• The Soft-Hearted Warrior: The Warrior of Light is a One-Man Army said to fight like a demon on the battlefield. They've slaughtered more Garleans than anyone can count, brought low Physical Gods and Eldritch Abominations, and slain the otherwise immortal Ascians. But when they're not fighting, they can often be found funding orphanages, rebuilding settlements ravaged by war, and helping anyone who asks nicely enough.
• The Soulsaver: They become this to the people of the First, by bringing back the Darkness to their world they allow the souls of the people living there to finally pass on, including those of the Sin Eaters.
• Spanner in the Works: Several organizations and antagonists, chiefly the Ascians, fully plan with the Warrior of Light in mind and especially after their victory over Gaius. The problem is that they're too damn good at killing primals and upending whoever gets in their way, foiling their foes in the end in spite of all machinations. In their final encounter, Elidibus pulls a Lampshade Hanging that the Warrior was supposed to be an Unwitting Pawn, just as any other Warrior of Light he inspired and manipulated over the ages. And yet, this Warrior fulfilled this trope to the tee, ruined all of his plans, and killed his remaining friends anyway.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: Zigzaqged. The Echo includes the "power to transcend words", which allows the user to bypass language barriers between intelligent species, which would theoretically include animals. In practice, the story flip-flops on what it can translate. In Shadowbringers he Warrior converses with a beaver in one sidequest, conveying its intent to Uln Hagan and Lad Kenn. Similarly, the Warrior speaks to a troll nicknamed "Shaggles", translating its growls into intelligible language in an Endwalker sidequest. But the Echo fails to translate Rudy the Yeti's similar growling, requiring the intervention of an auspice as a middleman.
• Stable Time Loop: Somehow they've induced this twice by accident.
  • In the Alexander raids, their fight with Alexander Prime has them diving back into time portals that allow them to stop an attack that was going to obliterate them in a previous cutscene earlier in the storyline. If you fail to do the DPS check to stop this, the party wipes because the Warrior didn't live to the present.
  • During the MSQ of Endwalker, their going back to the past in Elpis, and accidentally being discovered on this by Venat as she forces them to spill the beans, ends up with the pair escaping Hermes' attempts to wipe their memories and ultimately inspiring a desperate Venat-as-Hydaelyn to create a vast plan that eventually leads to the Warrior of Light as The Chosen One for her in the present so many millennia later. Amusingly, it seems that while Hydaelyn herself couldn't stir it into motion, Elidibus had come to figure it out after his death and uses his last amounts of existence to power the Crystal Tower to allow this to occur.
• Stage Name: While fighting in the Celestium, the Warrior is given the moniker of "Azuro the Second" rather than using their real name. It's a title referring to their position as a successor and student of Martyn, who is "The Great Azuro". Fans of the Celestium are quicker to recognize the Warrior as Azuro the Second than they are as the world-saving Warrior of Light.
• Stock Shōnen Hero: No matter what kind of character you create or which dialogue choices you pick, the Warrior Of Light will always have shades of this: They are protective of their friends to the point of invoking The Power of Friendship, are evidently very confident in their combat abilities and have Heroic Spirit for days.
• The Stoic: The Warrior of Light rarely speaks and—prior to Heavensward, at least—demonstrates little emotion during conversations. Their stoicism is lampshaded repeatedly by multiple characters, though it progressively lessens as the expansions go on:
  Thancred: ...You might try to look a little disappointed! Or do you mean to give me another one of your stoic nods? You do, don't you? [sighs]
  Warrior of Light: [nods]
• Story-Breaker Power: Well before Shadowbringers the Warrior of Light is established as the World's Best Warrior, late in said expansion they obtain the crystal of their past unsundered self, Azem, and with it the ability to summon up to seven allies, with each of them potentially just as powerful as the WoL. With 8 people that qualify as the World's Strongest Man essentially jumping whomsoever the WoL desires the story has to limit the use of this spell in-game, otherwise there would be no story past certain bosses.
• Stunned Silence: This is one of their responses in Endwalker in response to Y'shtola's Magical Girl-esque ritual incantation for creating nixies. The person they're speaking to is so embarrassed by their reaction that they ask the Warrior to never speak of this again.
• Straight Man: They are usually this, though they can sometimes join in on the shenanigans from other characters if the player chooses to. This becomes very apparent in the Healer Role Quests during Shadowbringers where Giott gets frustrated at the Warrior of Light for either not reacting to their insults or jokes or giving them deadpan answers.
• Suddenly Voiced: In Shadowbringers, after Ardbert willingly rejoins his soul with the Warrior of Light's, they give a voiced line of dialogue to Emet-Selch without any input from the player, albeit with Ardbert's voice (regardless of gender).
  Warrior of Light: This world is not yours to end... This is our future. Our story.
• Summon Magic:
  • The vague history of the Warrior of Light hints at them being capable of this. Their favored spell back in their days as an Unsundered Ancient, fueled by The Power of Friendship, is later revealed to be what they were capable of as Azem. It's insanely powerful, and allows them to summon basically anyone from anywhere in the span of seconds. The Warrior of Light manages to reclaim it for their own during the climax of Shadowbringers.
  • Come Endwalker, the breadth of this spell includes, but is likely not limited to, summoning people from across different Shards, to the very edge of creation, and even calling long-dead souls back from the Aetherial Sea^note albeit, with the last of Hyadelyn's power as a catalyst, with the story making it very clear that restoring Emet-Selch, Hythlodaeus, and the Scions exhausted this ability, the setting's equivalent to the afterlife. The only implied limitations on the spell is that the summoning circle has room for a maximum of seven people at a time.
• Supernaturally Delicious and Nutritious: In the Reaper questline, Orcus sets his sights on devouring the Warrior's "bounteous" soul for being as "blinding as the sun, pure as the snow", which is "[as] delectable as a boar slathered in grease" to a voidsent like him. The voidsent that the Warrior meets on their second foray into the void also comments on their "exquisite" aether and are salivating over the thought of tasting it.
• Super Not-Drowning Skills: After undergoing a Kojin ritual in Stormblood, the Warrior of Light is able to breathe water as if it were air, allowing them to swim underwater indefinitely. This detail becomes lifesaving in Shadowbringers when the Fuath try to drown the Warrior of Light to turn them into one of their own. Since the Warrior is immune to drowning, the Fuath reluctantly leave them be.
• Super Swimming Skills: Even before getting the kojins' blessing, the Warrior has no problems swimming the distance between islands even while dressed in full plate mail. That said, the spawnlings of Novv's Clutch lightly rib the Warrior for swimming "slower than a three-day-old hatchling" after the Sahagin Tribe Quests are completed.
• Supporting Protagonist: Though the Warrior of Light is the one we control and is the one who generally gets stuff done, they are rarely the focus of the story, usually playing silent second fiddle to others in their story arcs.
  • In A Realm Reborn, they are just a mercenary that helps the Scions of the Seventh Dawn fight primals and eventually helps the Eorzean Alliance stop Gaius and his Garlean troops from taking over.
  • In Heavensward, though their reason for coming to Ishgard is personal (being framed for murder), the primary overarching story has little to do with them, with Aymeric, Ysayle, and Estinien having the most character focus.
  • In Stormblood, they are largely just the muscle that helps liberate Doma and Ala Mhigo from Garlemald, with Lyse and to a lesser extent Hien being the focus characters who orchestrate everything.
  • Shadowbringers' primary character arc seems to be about the First's Minfillia coming to terms with who she is and her powers, and Thancred coming to terms with the loss of "his" Minfillia and his feelings about this one. However, both of these arcs are resolved about 2/3rds of the way into the story, and the Warrior of Light finally steps into the role of the protagonist with a major arc focusing on them. Specifically, they are the only one who can slay the Lightwardens plaguing the land without instantly being turned into a Warden themselves when they absorb the Lightwardens's aether. They are also being tested by Emet-Selch throughout the story as they possess the partially rebuilt soul of Azem, one of Emet-Selch's closest friends and a defector from the Convocation of Fourteen, and he wants to know if they are reformed enough to join him in the Ascians' quest to unite all of the worlds together again and revive Zodiark.
  • In Endwalker, the story focus is largely on the Scions and their interactions with the people of Thavnair, Sharlayan, and Garlemald. Alphinaud and Alisaie in particular have their beliefs and ideals challenged repeatedly by the people around them. But the Warrior once again steps into the spotlight in Elpis when they travel to the unsundered past to learn about the Final Days. The trip also informs the player on the Warrior's relationship with Hydaelyn and Azem's relationship with Emet-Selch and Hythlodaeus. In the finale of the story, the Warrior teams up with Zenos to defeat the Endsinger before having one final duel with him.
  • In the Hildibrand quests, they largely serve as an observer to the wacky hijinks that engulf the titular inspector and friends.
• Surpassed the Teacher: The Warrior almost invariably surpasses their mentors when it comes to the mastery of their classes and jobs.
  • In the Dragoon questline, the Warrior is selected to be a second Azure Dragoon, which has never happened before in the history of Ishgard. Not only do they reach the level of Estinien, their fellow Azure Dragoon, extremely quickly, the Warrior ultimately puts an end to the Dragonsong War. They also make peace with the power of the dragon and earn the respect of the Dravanian horde, gaining access to new powers that Alberic never had. Heustienne, one of the senior dragoons who hosted the Warrior's trials, begins looking to the Warrior for inspiration on how to further improve her spearmanhip.
  • In the Heavensward Paladin questline, the Warrior's honor and mastery of the techniques of the Sultansworn rival and then surpass that of Solkzagyl, as shown when the light of their soul crystal manages to restore Oathsworn's radiance where Solkzagyl failed. In Stormblood, they're crowned the finest swordsman in Eorzea after winning the Ul Cup, surpassing their mentor Mylla as well as defeating Aldis, the famed Sword of Nald. By the end of Shadowbringers, Aldis initially challenges the Warrior to another friendly spar for old times sake, only to get floored by the Warrior's Battle Aura and immediately forfeit the match.
  • The first fight of the Stormblood Warrior questline consists of the Warrior and Curious Gorge thoroughly thrashing Wyrmzoen and the rest of the Marauder's Guild in a friendly spar at the Wolves' Den. According to the Curious Gorge, neither he nor the Warrior even broke a sweat. By the end of the Stormblood questline, Gorge, Mountain, and Dorgono declare the Warrior of Light the greatest Warrior alive (and that they'll be vying for that title themselves one day).
  • In the Monk questline, the Warrior defeats their teacher, Widargelt, in single combat when he attempts to murder them in hopes of opening his seventh chakra to take vengeance upon the Garlean Empire. By the end of the Heavensward questline, the Warrior has opened all fourteen chakra of the Sect of Light and the Sect of Shadow, becoming the only monk alive to do so after they kill H'raha Tia in self-defense. Following this, Widargelt considers the Warrior the greatest of the living monks of the Fist of Rhalgr and says he's learning from them as much as they've learned from him in the beginning.
  • In the Bard questline, Jehantel recognizes the Warrior as his equal and successor as the "Godsbow", while Lucianne, leader of the Archers' Guild, recognizes that the Warrior has long surpassed her by the events of Shadowbringers and Endwalker.
  • Endwalker ends up having the most prominent example with the Warrior of Light surpassing Hydaelyn herself who, in her Ancient life as Venat, was not only the mentor of the Warrior of Light's original incarnation, but was the Azem that came before them.
• Survival Mantra: "For those we have lost. For those we can yet save." In spite of the Trauma Conga Line and Heroic Fatigue the Warrior goes through, this mantra helps them keep going. It's a simple one, but it's effective. In 4.1, when Fordola's artificial Echo sees what the Warrior has been through, Fordola openly wonders how the Warrior can keep functioning after all of the pain they've been through, much less continue to be a Hope Bringer. This mantra is one of the possible answers, and it's enough to send Fordola into a small Villainous BSoD, only able to respond with a soft "Godsdamn you".
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: In the case of a new character who isn't imported from FFXIV 1.0 you are treated as an entirely new person who for whatever reason decided to come to Eorzea, with people being reminded of the 1.0 heroes each time you accomplish a feat or act heroically. While you are never called an original Warrior of Light, and indeed the original Warriors of Light remain a foggy memory, the leaders of all city states and other groups come to recognize you as a new Warrior of Light in your own right, and Hydaelyn blesses you in the beginning as her new champion in the first place to replace the ones lost in the 7th Umbral Calamity. This is subverted however, as during the Bahamut raid story, Louisoix confirms he sent the player character forward through time by five years, even if they were created in 2.0, making them a 1.0 Warrior of Light in-story. This had to be confirmed this way most likely not only because of the continuity of the story, but also because the legacy campaign couldn't work for everyone.
• Sympathy for the Devil:
  • Towards Yotsuyu after defeating her primal form. While she was an enemy to the Warrior of Light, her tragic backstory and complete loss of hope doesn't make the Warrior of Light feel good about their victory and they have some sympathy towards her.
  • The Warrior of Light also expresses some somberness towards Emet-Selch after defeating them, nodding in agreement to uphold their legacy.
  • Although the Big Bad of Endwalker threatened everything the Warrior holds dear, the Warrior still finds it in them to approach Meteion and give her the answer she was looking for, inspiring her to undo some of the harm she caused by singing a song of hope instead of despair.

T - Y

• Talented, but Trained: While the Warrior is often acknowledged as The Ace and an Instant Expert, they spend an extensive amount of time training, studying, and honing their skills. In the Monk questline, Widargelt asks the Warrior for instruction on Ul'dahn puglism to defeat the Corpse Brigade. The Warrior's response is a more than ten hour long Training from Hell session. They're also eager to learn new things and seeks out experts to learn from. They accidentally create Fray from their subconscious desire to have a mentor to learn the ways of a dark knight.
• The Teetotaler: An option for players following the events of the Dwarven Tribe Quest story. When asked how you enjoyed the ale they provided, one of the possible answers is, "I never touch the stuff." In the Endwalker Manderville Weapon quests, the Warrior can politely refuse Godbert's offer to buy them some high-class spirits from Merhyde's Meyhane, getting a glass of lassi instead.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork:
  • At the finale of Endwalker, Zenos arrives to provide some much needed backup after the Warrior uses their portable teleporter to whisk their friends to safety. When Zenos explains his intentions, the Warrior can either say that they don't want his help or that they won't bother trying to save him should it come down to it. Either way, the Warrior is not happy about having to work with him. Zenos likewise admits he'd rather not give his help if it was up to him, but if it means getting rid of any distractions from a one-on-one clash with the Warrior of Light, so be it.
  • During the events of Pandæmonium, many of the Warrior's dialogue options toward Lahabrea are bitter and accusatory because of Lahabrea's future manipulations and crimes as an Ascian. While the other person winds up being a Reasonable Authority Figure who hears them out, the Warrior remains uncomfortable around them. By the end of the raid story, they part with the understanding that their perspectives are too different to ever see eye-to-eye. Given the Warrior's fast friendship with Themis and Erichthonios, it's clear that they worked with Lahabrea out of necessity more than anything.
• These Hands Have Killed: While numerous dialogue options indicate that the Warrior enjoys the thrill of battle, their journal entries make it clear that the many people they've killed weighs heavily on their mind. The Stormblood Dark Knight questline has their regrets and desire for forgiveness manifest in the form of Myste, who attempts to atone for their sins by draining the land of aether to create simulacrums of all the people they've killed. It's not until the Warrior and Fray stop Myste that the Warrior finally manages to forgive themselves. Even then, the Warrior believes there will be a reckoning for them somewhere down the line and they'll welcome it when that day comes.
• Thrill Seeker:
  • When the world of Hydaelyn isn't teetering on the brink of collapse, the Warrior of Light would like nothing more than to do what an adventurer does: go on an adventure. The promise of adventure alone is enough reason for them to join up with the Redbills and explore a voidsent-infested Ghost Ship. After ending the Dragonsong War, they can respond to the Scions' question of what they plan on doing next with, "Go on another adventure, of course."
  • At the end of the Shadows of Mhach questline, they cheerfully nod in agreement when Leofard declares that there's no better reward than high adventure and the heady rush of danger.
  • Upon being roped into Ramza and Alma's quest to find and rescue their missing father, the Warrior can answer Alma's pleas for assistance with, "I'd be a poor adventurer if I were to shy away from an adventure."
  • During the YoRHa Dark Apocalypse raids, Anogg and Kanogg say that if there's anything the Warrior loves more than helping their fellow man, it's embarking on dangerous, practically suicidal expeditions into the unknown in search of adventure. The Warrior can respond to this with, "Rude, but fair I suppose."
  • In Endwalker, Zenos says that before the Warrior became the hero and the savior of the star, they are at heart, an adventurer. He then asks if he's wrong to say that they enjoy pushing their body and soul to the limit as much as he does. The Warrior can choose to say, "That, I can't deny." before flashing a vicious, eager grin of anticipation for their final duel with Zenos, who is utterly delighted if they respond this way.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: In Endwalker, they manage to stop Zenos from using their body to kill Alisaie and G'raha by throwing the sword they're holding to knock the attack off-course. This is especially impressive if the player had never taken any class that used bladed weapons, such as Black Mage or a healer.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • During the events of A Realm Reborn, the Warrior starts out as a no-name adventurer training at the guild with everyone else. Their skills, while impressive, are eclipsed by veteran fighters like Aldis. But by the end of the expansion they lead the parties that defeat the infamous Gaius van Baelsar and his Ultima Weapon that threatened to bring all of Eorzea to its knees (albeit with some Divine Intervention from Hydaelyn to neutralize the weapon's powers). They then get their Heroic Second Wind after being nearly killed by Lahabrea and is empowered by Hydaelyn to strike down one of the highest-ranking Ascians, though he does manage to escape in the end.
  • In Heavensward. This is impressive enough, considering how powerful the Warrior of Light was before. But once they regain Hydaelyn's Blessing of Light, it only adds to the Warrior's strength. It gets to the point that even a previously-encountered Ascian can't believe that the Warrior has grown as overwhelmingly powerful as they have.
  • By the events of Stormblood, the Warrior goes from needing the power of Hraesvelgr's Eye to match Nidhogg to slaying Shinryu, a dreadwyrm even more powerful than Bahamut, with the help of their fellow adventurers. They also take down a digital recreation of Midgardsormr in his prime (albeit, incomplete, since Omega did not understand what made him so powerful), as well as Omega, who forced the Father of Dragons to flee.
  • After Shadowbringers and their merging with Ardbert as one of the sundered Shards of their original self, Azem, the story effectively holds the Warrior of Light as one of the strongest beings in the known Eorzean world. The aforementioned Aldis opts to challenge the Warrior in the Paladin capstone quest for the sake of old times, only to sense their latent Battle Aura has grown so vast that he immediately forfeits knowing he's completely outclassed. Given that the circumstances make them closer to their original Ancient self than most other people in the entirety of the globe could possibly ever approach, this just inherently puts them at a class even the other Scions can no longer compare to anymore, only try to keep up with.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Downplayed. The Warrior of Light's possible responses can become a bit blunt in Heavensward, but by Stormblood, it's possible to make them an outright jerk at times. Shadowbringers cranks it up where you can be a complete asshole with your replies. None of the characters will take the jerk responses seriously and the ones that do will quickly brush it aside. In the end, the Warrior of Light is still a good-natured hero, even if they can be a bit of a jerk sometimes. It seems to be a sign of their growing frustration with the same repeating scenarios slowing them down in their pursuit of doing good and the growing list of traumatic events wearing them out, which is especially pronounced during Shadowbringers.
• Took a Level in Kindness: In A Realm Reborn, they usually just do simple smiles and nods as they go along with whatever orders or circumstances are put on their plate, having stumbled into the role of Champion of Eorzea. Post-game starts varying up their expressions, and by Heavensward, the Warrior of Light can practically radiate warmth in some of their kinder smiles for their True Companions. This only gets more accentuated the further in the story you get, along with becoming Not So Stoic with a number of other things.
• Trauma Button:
  • Following the events of A Realm Reborn, mentioning the aqueducts running beneath Ul'dah becomes a sore spot for them due to the traumatic events of the Bloody Banquet. Speaking of them in passing earns a pained smile at best from them and they'd rather forget the day they had to step foot in them.
  • By the end of Heavensward, being poured drinks. During a private dinner with Aymeric at his estate, the Warrior of Light declines a drink, intensely watches the servant pouring the drink, and then watches Aymeric drink it with a look of worry. Between being drugged themselves at the peace talk and Nanamo's poisoning right before the expansion, it's clearly left an effect on them. In fact, they have made a habit of refusing offered drinks throughout the expansions.
  • During the Return to Ivalice raid series, the word "fetch" quickly becomes this after the dramaturge of the Garlean acting troupe you are helping sends you on a (deliberately) extended hunt for a specific bottle of wine. And then he and his wife don't even drink it. And then you get chewed out by the leader of the group and his son for screwing around (even though he told you to help the dramaturge to begin with), leaving the WoL clearly annoyed. When the dramaturge's wife later asks you if you want to... fetch something, the top option has you channel your inner Fray and demand that they never use the "F" word in front of you again.
  • Patch 5.2 reveals falling meteors/comets/etc. are another, not just for them but for any sundered Ancient. The Final Days of Amaurot left such an indelible mark on their past self's soul that witnessing a similar event triggers a flashback and awakens a fragment of the power they held back then—the Echo.
• Trauma Conga Line: Not counting the many separately distinct examples before (such as the Garlean massacre of the scions) there are a pretty long, continuous series of events from the end of A Realm Reborn through to Stormblood where the Warrior of Light fails a lot and loses a lot of people. While they have many victories (stopping Thordan, ending the Dragonsong War, saving Estinien, killing two Ascians and watching a third die, etc.), it comes at great cost, as they watch Wildred, Moenbryda, Haurchefant, Ysayle, Minfilia, and Papalymo die or be lost in front of them, as well as spend quite some time believing they failed to save Sultana Nanamo, and seeing Y'shtola lose her eyesight and Thancred lose his access to magic because of it. While the Warrior of Light's personality is up to interpretation and choice, they are continuously and strongly implied (particularly in the 60-70 Dark Knight quests) to be very much traumatized due to all of this. There's a reason that they can choose to adopt a simple mantra:
  "For those we have lost. For those we can yet save."
• Tragic Keepsake:
  • Near the end of Heavensward, Count Fortemps entrusts the Warrior with the remains of Haurchefant's shield, which he used to defend the Warrior from Sir Zephirin's attempt on their life. The Warrior would later lay it to rest at Haurchefant's grave, after which Count Fortemp gifts them another kite shield bearing the house's coat of arms.
  • In 5.3, they return almost all of the memory crystals to Elidibus, but hang onto Azem's, which Emet-Selch secretly created and had delivered to them posthumously. Given that Azem was their past self, the keepsake could be in remembrance of themselves, Emet-Selch, their lost people, or all of the above.
• Trying Not to Cry: They're brought to the brink of tears by Haurchefant's sacrifice and death, but he tells them that a smile suits a hero better, so they manage to stifle their tears and smile for him in his last moments.
• Try to Fit That on a Business Card:
  • There's a very long list of titles that can be received and selected to display by the player. But of the ones officially recognized or mentioned in the game's Main Story Quests, they're eventually known as The Warrior of Light, Scion of the Seventh Dawn, Blessed by Hydaelyn, Soldier of one of the Grand Companies^note Which ranges from being a mere Private Third Class to a full-on Captain., Eikon Slayer, Bane of the Imperial Legions, Eorzea's Champion, Savior of Ishgard, Rider of Dragons, Knight (and later Honorary Son/Daughter) of House Fortemps, Khagan of the Azim Steppes, Liberator of Ala Mhigo and Doma, Warrior of Darkness, Azem, Fourteenth of the Convocation of Amaurot, Member of Gunnhildr's Blades, and Stealer of Pants if some of the more puzzling rumors involving their assistance of a particular Gentleman Inspector are to be believed.
    • Some of their other, non-story relevant acquirable titles include Worldcleaver, the Blood Dragoon, Skysinger, Annihilator, Liberator, The Transcendent, Lord Protector, The Reaper, Rhalgr's Right Fist, Big Fish, and many, many others.
    • Lampshaded in Stormblood. During a conversation over the future leadership of the Ala Mhigan Resistance, Conrad mentions that he wants his successor to be someone who's known both sorrow and victory, who can look at things through fresh eyes, and hasn't lived in Gyr Abania their entire life. The Warrior can jokingly respond that they have too many titles to add "Leader of the Resistance" to them.
• Übermensch: The events of the expansions, but especially Shadowbringers eventually turns the Warrior of Light in one of the rare positive examples of Nietzsche's "Will to Power" philosophy. Everything that the initial setting presents about it's conflicts and meanings ^note  The good city states vs the evil beast tribes, the innocent Ishgardians vs the world-ending dragons, Light Is Good vs Dark Is Evil, the Ascians are pure evil, the nature of the resident goddess, and the very meaning of the title Warrior of Light is revealed to be a lie or far more complex than initially let on ^note  the only things that separates the city states and the beast tribes is religious differences and thinly veiled racism, the Ishgardians started the war with an unjustifiable crime and there are plenty of good Dragons, neither Light nor Dark is inherently good or evil, they are a part of the world and equally needed, with "light" being a purifying force which can turn worlds into lifeless husks in excess and "dark" being a creative force which can warp worlds into grotesque monster-filled hellscapes in excess), the Ascians are just trying to save their lost home and people by any means necessary, and the "Goddess" we've been serving is just another primal whose job is to act against other primals, even the title of the WoL was made by an Ascian as a part of their charade . While it makes the situation far more complicated the fact that they become this is the key for them to become The Paragon, rather than accepting or trying to maintain a bad situation because of belief or hopelessness, they challenge the status quo and create their own reasons for fighting, creating a new future that allows for things that everyone else in the setting thought impossible.
  • The events of Endwalker brings this its zenith, the expansion makes it brutally clear that thanks to the Endsinger despair is the natural order of the universe, death is innevitable to the extent Meteion wishes to spare the universe of the pain of living and many races have already give in, does that stop the Warrior? Absolutely not, through sheer determination they manage to defy Meteion's will and manage to fulfill the übermensch ideal in the most Final Fantasy way possible: by using Dynamis they ensure that Hope becomes the rule of Ultima Thule and thus the world changes in accordance to their ideals.
• Uncle Pennybags: The Warrior's adventures have accrued them a handsome sum of gil over the course of their career. Numerous story events have dialogue options to wield their wallet to help their friends, such as trying to outbid a merchant planning on putting an immobile Inspector Hildibrand in his house as a statue or offering to foot the bill when Alphinaud blows the Scions' funds on buying back Gosetsu's sword. But these offers are inevitably refused — mainly so that the dev team doesn't have to worry about whether or not the player really has all that gil available to spend.
• Underestimating Badassery:
  • On the receiving end of this throughout most of the story up until Stormblood. From the Garlean Legatus under Gaius, to numerous factions and criminal groups that gets in their way, to even the supposedly all-aware Ascians, everyone seems to make a bad habit of thinking this mere adventurer isn't enough to stop them. Even when the villains start planning around the Warrior of Light once they gain the title formally, the villains still get caught off-guard by their unstoppable prowess. The only people who get a leg up on the Warrior are those that don't underestimate them whatsoever, treating them as a Living Legend instead and taking all the runmors about them as fact.
  • Other characters note that while the Warrior carries themselves with confidence and grace, their quiet, unassuming nature and the blank expression they tend to wear means that people who don't know their face and reputation tend to write them off as Dumb Muscle or a mere sellsword. In Endwalker, Jullus is horrified that he led Eorzea's single most dangerous individual into his camp after assuming they were just a no-name bodyguard for Alphinaud and Alisaie, only realizing it after his commander Quintus points this out to him.
• Universal Translator: The Echo allows those who have it to be able to understand all languages, even ones that aren't native to Hydaelyn. It works by allowing the user to "hear" the whispers of the soul, conveying meaning even if the words being spoken are gibberish to the ear. It also translates the user's words for others to hear. In Stormblood, everyone is surprised when it fails to translate Alpha's kwehs despite the latter's clearly sapient intelligence. At the end, the Warrior can understand Alpha's goodbye when he leaves to begin Walking the Earth, indicating that he has truly gained a soul of his own.
• Unstoppable Mailman: The Warrior takes their role as postmoogle's assistant seriously. Whether it's braving hostile territory infested with monsters, staring down a murderous pirate known as the "Rabid Dog", or even tracking down the recipient by making a lap around all of Eorzea, the Warrior is nothing if not determined to deliver their missives to their rightful owners (being a One-Man Army certainly helps).
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: As the Warrior of Light quests helps Kleon in improve his creations in Elpis, you realize that all of your suggestions lead to the invention of monstrosities like the Behemoth and the Giant Toads.
• Unwitting Pawn: In the 2022 All Saint Wake festivities, the Warrior is tricked by a disguised Papa Gruff into convincing the Gridanian smallfolk into drinking potions that would permanently transform them into a beast or monster. The intervention of the "Wake Doctor" actually the Great Gourd in disguise lets them give Gruff a taste of his own medicine by disguising themselves as his wife or son to feed him a cookie that would forcibly dispel his glamour.
• Vague Age: It's deliberately left unclear how old the Warrior of Light is supposed to be. They're shown to be an adult of whatever race the player chooses for them, and they're old enough for numerous characters to offer them alcohol. But the Warrior is also young enough to be consistently referred to as "lad" or "lass" by their elders.
• Victory Pose: The "Victory" emote features a unique, cheerful pose for every combat class, with one shared pose between all of the Disciple of the Hand and the Disciple of the Land jobs.
• Vitriolic Best Buds:
  • With Giott in the Healer Role Quests. While they initially play the Straight Man baffled by Giott's dwarfy rowdiness, the Warrior gets an increasing number of insults and snipes pointed at Giott as the questline goes on. Giott is actually happy that the Warrior is finally throwing some "friendly insults" at them and the two get along swimmingly for the most part.
  • With Hildibrand, the Warrior often snarks with him, wonders in their diary why they torture themselves by following the Inspector, and is as casual as the rest of the cast about the pain Hildibrand puts himself through. They also follow him through hell and back, always help him with his plans including the ones that have become their greatest shame, and is willing to travel to different worlds to save the Inspector's soul.
• Villain Killer: The character ends up accumulating a very large villain body count throughout the stories and expansions; this includes various generals and Legati of The Empire, powerful Voidsent such as Diabolos, several godly avatars called primals, the powerful, incredibly hard to kill Ascians, a Mechanical Abomination from another planet, several massive dragons, etc. After a certain point, most of the main cast is fully confident of the Warrior of Light's ability to pull through, considering the absurd feats of power they managed to pull off. The Omega Raid storyline takes this to its logical conclusion, allowing you to fight and defeat villains from other games in the Final Fantasy Franchise, including Kefka, Exdeath and Chaos, though as digital recreations rather than the real deals.
• War Hero: The Warrior is required to enlist in one of the three Grand Companies of Eorzea and quickly becomes the continent's greatest hero. Their legendary martial prowess has been a crucial factor in turning the tide of several wars for liberation from Garlemald as well as beating back the primals that threaten to drain the land of aether. Doma and Ala Mhigo in particular refer to them as "liberator" for freeing them from Zenos' grasp, while all of Ishgard is grateful to them for ending the Dragonsong War.
• The Watson: Due to being from outside Eorzea before becoming an adventurer, the Warrior of Light is largely ignorant of the sociopolitical landscape, nevermind the sciences, magicks, and customs. This makes them an ideal target for exposition as they're brought up to speed on complex concepts and issues, introducing them to the player at the same time.
• Wealthy Philanthropist:
  • Regardless of when the player actually starts assisting in the rebuilding of the Firmament, the Warrior of Light is consistently referred to as the top Skybuilder, meaning that they've gathered and crafted more materials and items to donate to the efforts than anyone else.
  • Their donations to fund the rebuilding of the Doman Enclave total up to several million gil worth of inventory, with no indication that it dents their bottom line that much.
• What the Hell Are You?: They are on the receiving end of the question several times, most notable after they bested Archbishop Thordan and during their fight with Elidibus' primal form.
• We Help the Helpless: At its core, being an adventurer means doing nearly any task asked of them to get paid. Most of the time, this means selling their sword arm to dispatch of monsters, bandits, and other problems for those who can't. But adventurer work can also be as mundane as delivering packages, harvesting crops, or lighting torches. It's also fairly common for people unfamiliar with the Warrior of Light to view them as a mere mercenary.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • They're on the receiving end of this at the end of Endwalker when they find themselves back on the Ragnarok having just barely survived dying fighting Zenos and the Scions are all in tears, fearing that they're dead. It's quite clear that this is all Anger Born of Worry, especially with Thancred and Alisaie.
  • Varshan hits the Warrior with this in 6.1 after the Alzadal's Legacy dungeon. He calms down easily after they explain that they thought they were raiding a lost cache of treasure to give to Thavnair, instead of raiding what amounted to Vrtra's rainy day funds stash, since that's what the map Estinien bought was hawked to him as, though he stays slightly annoyed at how you broke all his defense constructs.
• What's Up, King Dude?: The Warrior of Light is placed at the center of Eorzea's politics due to being the land's best hope at beating back the primal and Garlean threat. Beause of this, they become quite close to its most powerful authority figures, including numerous members of the nobility of Ishgard as well as the royals of Ul'dah and Doma. Raubahn, Nanamo, and Hien in particular speak with candor around the Warrior, who lets them vent and express their most private thoughts around them. At one point, the Warrior can even offer Hien to the Buduga with a, "Sure. Why not?" to the bewilderment of the Domans. In Shadowbringers, they have a magical pact with Feo Ul, who is the new Titania, King of the Faeries. After Feo Ul's crowning, the rest of pixies subsequently refer to them as "the king's sapling".
• What You Are in the Dark:
  • The Level 30-50 and Stormblood Dark Knight quests both tackle this question with the Warrior's Enemy Without, Fray and Myste. Fray is "the part of [the Warrior] who couldn't become a hero" and wishes that the Warrior would be free to live life as they pleased after all the pain they suffered in their role as Eorzea's hero. Myste represents the Warrior's nagging guilt and mangled self-esteem from shouldering the burden of saving and ending so many lives. Both Fray and Myste ask the Warrior to abandon the duties given to them so they can find happiness. But the Warrior refuses to shirk responsibility for their actions and battles both of them for the sake of the people they care about.
  • At the end of Endwalker, the Warrior of Light finds themself alone with Zenos at the literal edge of the universe. And Zenos asks them to finally admit that above it all, what they truly live for are those moments in battle where they are pushed to their limits at the very edge of death just like him. The Warrior of Light can either agree with him with a sly grin or reject his way of thinking.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…:
  • The Warrior of Light is basically the heroes' silver bullet to every Physical God and Eldritch Abomination thrown their way. Monster uprising? Throw the Warrior of Light at it. Primal summoning? Send the Warrior of Light to an aetheryte. Defense mechanisms made of Lost Technology made by the highly-advanced Abusive Precursors? The Warrior of Light will plow right through them. On the off chance that they do lose, they almost certainly figure out a way to come back to win round two. It's repeatedly lampshaded how often they're called upon to deal with the latest world-ending threat, with a close friend, Haurchefant, is the first to call out everyone (even the Scions) for using the Warrior of Light like a primal-killing weapon. Over time, many authority figures apologize for how reliant they are on their hero.
  • A story quest in Stormblood has the Warrior teaching Wiscar how to deal with the monsters around Loch Seld. They can either tell him to Attack Its Weak Point or simply to hit it very, very hard.
• Willfully Weak:
  • After Ravana is defeated, Ysayle notes that it's the first time she's seen the Warrior of Light fight with their true strength since she first summoned Shiva, implying the Warrior of Light isn't fighting at full power unless it's something like a primal, an Ascian, or worse. This is further implied by a handful of story missions where you get a buff that states you're, "Breaking your limits as only a true Warrior of Light can", resulting in significantly heavier hits and constantly regenerating HP.
  • In Stormblood, Omega hypothesizes that this is the case as well. He then tries to force the Warrior to activate their true potential by putting them in a death trap or endangering their friends.
• With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility:
  • In Stormblood, Fordola cannot believe the Warrior's willingness to carry the fate of the world on their shoulders after all of the pain and suffering they've experienced. All of the Warrior's responses invoke this trope, with the third being the curtest and bluntest about it.
    Fordola: You.. y-you... All the power... all that pain... It's too much... too much for anyone! The things they've done to you. The lies, the betrayal, the endless fighting... yet there you stand, unbroken. How...? Why...?
    Warrior: Because I choose to.
  • In the Level 80 Summoner quest, Jajasamu asks the Warrior how they feel about constantly being at the front of the battle against primal summonings. The Warrior can respond by saying that they're happy to help to be of service or say that it's just the way of things of things. As someone with the Echo and the ability to defeat primals, they feel obligated to help.
  • The Dark Knight questline also examines the Warrior's feelings of duty and the burdens associated with their title. Fray, the embodiment of their buried resentments against those who have taken advantage of them as well as their self-love and self-esteem, rants and raves about how the Warrior shouldn't have to risk their life for others. Meanwhile, Myste, the embodiment of their grief and regret over the people they've killed and failed to save, implies that a part of the Warrior would like nothing more than to deny it all happened. Despite this, the Warrior refuses to forsake their responsibilities because even worse tragedies await should they lose the will to fight.
• The Worf Effect:
  • In the first two battles against Zenos, the Warrior of Light fails spectacularly. This is a rare instance of Cutscene Power to the Max used against you as, regardless of how well you do in the actual fight, the story shows you losing to within an inch of your life. Lore-wise, this is a combination of you being caught unawares by his threat level while being Willfully Weak and needing to tap further into your true potential to grow stronger.
  • They get hit with this again in Shadowbringers when pitted against Ran'jit, the general of the Eulmoran Army. Despite taking down every Physical God in Eorzea, Ran'jit is able to bat the Warrior aside with ease and force them into retreat.
• Workaholic:
  • Their Chronic Hero Syndrome and Thrill Seeker tendencies mean that it's rare for them to sit still for more than a few days before rushing off to do something, be it mastering a trade, fighting monsters, delving into dungeons, funding orphanages, building the Dezul Qualan with the Ehcatl Nine, or any of the other countless things they get up to as an adventurer. Lampshaded by Adalberta, who complains that the Warrior never seems to kickback at the bar to relax and only seems to visit to ask about work. Alisaie wonders if the Warrior even sleeps with everything they do, as the Warrior is running late to a scheduled get-together due to one thing or another they had to handle. Other characters also marvel at the Warrior's seemingly endless font of energy. But as the story goes on, the Warrior begins to hit even their considerable limits increasingly often, as shown by their wearier dialogue options, several of which ask for a chance to rest at the end of their latest battle.
  • This trait of the Warrior's is actually a point of concern for their friends and loved ones, who note that the Warrior would probably throw themselves at any battlefield they're needed until they either pass out from exhaustion or get killed. Hence why the Warrior's allies always sure to do their part to alleviate the burden on the Warrior and give them time to rest.
  • This is lampshaded by M'naago after a certain number of Custom Deliveries. Given that they're almost single-handedly providing the inventory being sold to provide cash for a widows and orphan fund (and the general tendency of players to play day-in and day-out in Eorzea time), it's justified.
    M'naago: By Rhalgr, Forename? Do you ever sleep, or do you just prefer to stay awake indefinitely putting us all to shame?
  • After finishing the investigation of Eureka Pagos, Krile tells the Warrior to get some rest before the next expedition. Should you go back to speak to her again, she'll thank them for their eagerness to help but reiterates that there's nothing left to do. She'll then ask if the Warrior even knows how to relax.
• World's Best Warrior: The Warrior of Light is considered far and wide as the best warrior in all of Eorzea, becoming a master in all the styles they pick, ranging from elite styles ^note  Such as the Ishgardian Dragoon and the Doman Samurai to incredibly dangerous and forbidden practices^note  Like the Mountain Tribe's Warrior or the Ishgardian Dark Knight. Combine all that with the Archmage above, and the result? There is no one in Eorzea that can claim to be superior to the Warrior of Light in combat by the end of Stormblood, and very few outside of it can actually match them. At one point, a few recruits from the Maelstrom say that they'll have earned bragging rights if they can just draw blood in a spar with the Warrior of Light, with the implication that they know that beating the Warrior is just out of the question.
• The World Is Just Awesome: One of their dialogue options in Endwalker can have the Warrior express this opinion to Venat in Elpis, declaring that the world is still beautiful even after years of conflict and strife.
• Worthy Opponent:
  • Various Legates and commanders for the Garlean Empire show some levels of respect for the Warrior of Light, particular in regards to their skill at slaying eikons (primals), and to a begrudging degree for having had a hand in stopping Garlemald's aggression against Eorzea.
  • There's dialogue options to feel this way about Zenos, returning his own opinion on the Warrior. When the chance for a rematch with Zenos comes up midway through the Stormblood story one of the reasons you can have them give for accompanying Yugiri on her assassination attempt is purely for the chance to fight him again, much to her shock. And when confronting Zenos at the end of Stormblood, Zenos gives a "Not So Different" Remark and the Warrior of Light can choose to accept Zenos for who he is - still a monstrous killer who needs to be stopped - but also an opponent they're going to relish fighting. Zenos is particularly pleased if you respond to him this way. At the end of Endwalker you once more get the chance to regard Zenos this way - he's downright giddy at the Warrior finally dropping the pretenses and admitting they just want to throw themselves at every challenge that approaches them, with a confident smirk on their face.
  • In the Paladin questline, the Warrior is clearly excited to participate in the Ul Cup with so many other skilled swordsmen. They're especially eager to enter their final bout for the title of "Eorzea's greatest swordsman", punching their fists together in anticipation with a huge grin of their face when they get the go ahead from Mylla and Nanamo to face Black Lotus or rather Aldis despite the latter's technical disqualification.
  • At the end of Shadowbringers the Warrior of Light can express this opinion about Emet-Selch and Elidibus, as knowing where they come from gives them a newfound perspective on the Ascians they've been fighting all this time.
  • In the Blue Mage questline, the Warrior is clearly looking forward to their match against Golden Goliath, the champion of the Fukumen Fighting Festival, whose ability to mimic the abilities of those he sees lets him combine Blue, Black, and White Magic into a devastatingly effective combat style. The Warrior enters the ring with a huge grin on their face and all of their responses are flippant and excitable.
• You Are Too Late: They usually cannot prevent the summoning of the primals because of this. They were also too late to stop Livia from massacring the scions, kidnapping the core members and killing Noraxia, but they were expecting to come back to a party, not a massacre, after defeating a major primal.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: While they don't say this out loud, the Warrior's bewildered face tells all when they're given a "device for storing information" most suited to them by the Twelve as part of their deal following the events of Euphyrosyne. The device? An Allagan tomestone.
• You Remind Me of X: A big number of Ancients are taken aback by their ressemblance to their original incarnation. Hythlodaeus can't help but open up to the Warrior in Elpis, Venat can't help but remark their similarities, and Themis keeps pointing out how much they remind him of this person. From what we know of Azem, they have good reasons to be taken aback, as constant rebirth really hasn't changed the Warrior much, from the Chronic Hero Syndrome to the Bunny-Ears Lawyer aspect.
• Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: To the people they're helping, the Warrior of Light is a compassionate and dauntless hero whose efforts are essential to the liberation and restoration of nations subjugated by the Garlean Empire. To the Garleans, they're a butcher and a monster whose name is whispered in the same hushed tones as Gaius van Baelsar's in Eorzea. The Garlean perspective isn't unreasonable, given that the Warrior kills scores of men and women, performs destructive acts of sabotage, and is willing to raid the camps of enemy healers while fighting on behalf of the Eorzean Alliance, Dalmasca, and Bozja.

Jobs

• Tank Jobs
• Ranged DPS Jobs
• Melee DPS Jobs
• Caster Jobs
• Healer Jobs

Disciples of the Hand and Land

Gathering and Crafting classes

Disciples of the Land / Hand serve the purpose of Item Crafting but are mechanically classes of their own, including having unique weapons or "tools" to equip. Disciples of the Land focus on gathering ingredients to craft with, while Disciples of the Hand use those ingredients. They cannot be picked as a starting class, and so are only available once the player has reached level 10 in a Disciple of War or Magic class.

---

The various Gathering and Crafting classes provide examples of…

• Absurd Cutting Power: In the final quest of the A Realm Reborn Blacksmith questline, the Warrior presents a cobalt winglet to an Ul'dahn gladiator whose poor weapon is holding him back. After admiring the sword's craftsmanship, the gladiator proceeds to demonstrate its sharpness by using it to effortlessly Clean Cut the blade of his old weapon.
• All Your Powers Combined: Two Armorer quests involve taking advice from other guildmasters to complete a pair of difficult orders. Sasapiku the monk wants head protection that's lightweight enough to not interfere with his movement. Beatin the carpenter suggests that, as different woods have different properties, there must be a specific kind of metal that suits your purpose. Geva the leatherworker advises being efficient with the materials and not using more than what you need. Then, Barberella the lancer wants a suit of armor, but it must be beautiful to suit her vanity. Redolent Rose the weaver tells you that the hue, shade, and texture can all make a world of difference, and Serendipity the goldsmith advises putting decorative embellishments on the parts of the armor that would be least likely to get struck in combat.
• Bag of Holding: While it's a standard for RPGs, acting as a crafter or gatherer can really stretch this trope to the limit? Need to carry hundreds of freshly cut logs? No problem. Enough iron ingots to outfit an entire army with armor and weapons? All in a days work. An entire freaking megalodon? Just gotta clear some space in their pockets. This is relentlessly lampshaded by the Skybuilders items acquired in the Diadem.
• Big Brother Mentor: They act as this to Cemi Jinjahl in the Stormblood Carpenter questline. When Beatin dispatches her to the Far East to study Hingan and Othard carpentry and practice serving clients, he sends the Warrior after her to make sure she stays on task. During this time, the Warrior prevents Cemi from losing sight of her tasks, crafts their own works to show how best to satisfy a client, and highlights her shortcomings so she can improve.
• Bulletproof Vest: Er, chainmail. Merlwyb has the final say in the armor-making contest between the Warrior of Light and Blanstyr at the end of the Level 50 Armorer questline. Much to H'naanza's alarm, Merlwyb tests the efficacy of the cobalt haubergeons by shooting them while her own men are wearing them. The bullet penetrates Blanstyr's armor, but pings harmlessly off the Warrior of Light's.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Being their own classes separate from the Disciples of War and Magic, these classes have gray icons to dictate their non-combat role.
  • For Disciples of the Hand, their current project is represented by a glowing ball of light, with multiple possible conditions (which affect the efficiency of touch commands) represented by the color of the glow. The project always starts in "normal" condition, represented by a white glow. For most recipes, there is a 25% chance of the condition briefly improving to "good", represented by a red glow and providing a minor boost, for one step before reverting to normal, and an even slimmer 10% chance of the condition improving to "excellent", represented by a color-cycling glow and providing a significant boost, for one step before deteriorating to "poor", represented by a black hole with a purple glow and giving a reduction in efficiency, for the next step (the only way poor condition will be generated) before climbing back to normal. Expert Recipes keep the "normal" and "good" conditions, which now apply to the effectiveness of actions and respectively indicate no change in action effectiveness and a 150% boost in quality, and exchange the other two for six others: "good omen", represented by an orange glow and guaranteeing "good" condition for the next step; "centered", represented by a yellow glow and giving a 25% increase to action success rate; "sturdy", represented by a cyan glow and giving a 50% reduction in loss of durability (stackable with Waste Not and Waste Not II); "malleable", represented by a blue glow and giving a 150% boost to progress; "pliant", represented by a green glow and providing a 50% reduction in CP cost; and "primed", represented by a purple glow and signifying that the next status granted by an action will last an additional two steps.
• Cool Teacher: In the Stormblood Goldsmith questline, the Warrior serves as a schoolteacher to a group of three Ala Mhigan refugees trying to become goldsmiths to find work once Ala Mhigo is reclaimed from the Garleans. While the actual programming work is performed by Emeloth, their guild-assigned assistant, the Warrior shows remarkable patience regarding their various quirks, creates masterworks as examples for the students to follow, and is eager to hear their concerns and encourage them.
• Didn't Think This Through: The Warrior and Emeloth make a new pair of glasses to address J'khebica's eyesight issues and to serve as a reference for the students of Crown Gemworks to follow. Only after the teachers finish do they realize that J'khebica will have to take them off to use as a reference, rendering it virtually impossible for her to replicate due to her awful vision.
• Elemental Crafting: The specialty of the crafting classes, naturally. In addition to the usual materials, all crafting also uses various types of elemental crystals, which come in three tiers: Shards, Crystals, Clusters. Back in A Realm Reborn, some recipes also have a specific elemental affinity, which was removed in Shadowbringers while their associated crafting actions is condensed to Brand/Name of the Elements.
• Famed In-Story:
  • The Warrior of Light's proficiency as a craftsman or gatherer grows throughout the storyline. By the end of each, they're recognized as masters of their craft. Their fame and reputation single-handedly turns the Blacksmiths' Guild's fortunes around, with orders coming from even the steel-hating nation of Gridania. The end of the Heavensward Leatherworker storyline also has Elde name her line of fashion goods after them to earn them recognition for their craft that her grandfather, who developed the leatherworking techniques used by the Leatherworkers' Guild, did not.
  • Subverted in Stormblood. Due to how far away Othard and Hingashi are, the Warrior's fame does not reach there. This comes up during the Culinarian storyline, where the sushi chef the Warrior asks to apprentice under sees them as a mere novice and refuses to give them the time of day. It's not until Dellemont, who happened to be staying at the same inn during the Warrior's visit, vouches for them that the chef decides to take them on.
• Forensic Drama: The level 50-60 and 60-70 quest chains for the Alchemist involves the Warrior of Light using their alchemy skills to help solve a mysterious murder in Mor Dhona and Ul'dah, respectively.
• Honest Advisor: In the Heavensward Leatherworker storyline, they become the main advisor for an Ishgardian merchant named Elde, who goes against convention in her country by selling high-quality products to highborn and lowborn Ishgardians alike. In addition to providing Super Prototypes of products for Elde's artisans to copy for mass production, they assist her in business dealings and criticize detrimental actions like ordering too many pieces of leather from the Twelveswood.
• Improbable Weapon User: Their primary tools are equipped to the weapon slot and can be used to attack, though doing so is never advisable. Some tools like hammers, pickaxes e.t.c. would make some sense; alembics and needles, not so much.
• Luck Manipulation Mechanic:
  • Crafters can use "Observe" to abstain from taking action for the turn. While this sounds silly on paper, the passage of turns allows an active "Manipulation" stack restore durability, or cycle through Condition, if you need to fish for Good or Excellent. Specialists also have "Careful Observation", which is solely used to cycle through Conditions due to lacking the turn passage as "Observe". They formerly had "Steady Hand", which increased the success rate of all their Synthesis and Touch actions prior to having most of them be guaranteed.
  • Gatherers have "Sharp Vision" and "Field Mastery", "Deep Vigor" and "Brunt Force", "Unearth" and "Leaf Turn", "Dredge" and "Prune", Nald'thal and Nophia's Counsel, and finally Mind of the Mountaineer and Pioneer. The first two sets of skills focus on the success rate of harvesting items, while the third, fourth, and fifth sets increase the rate of High Quality items. Mind of the Mountaineer and Pioneer does a little bit of both.
  • Fishers, meanwhile, have "Surface Slap", "Identical Catch", and "Patience". "Surface Slap" prevents you from hooking your last catch, narrowing down the pool of items that can be caught. "Identical Catch", meanwhile, guarantees you hook your previous catch. "Patience" is a stranger case in that while it increases the chances of High Quality fish, it also lowers hook efficiency, reducing the success rate of catching fish unless negated with Powerful or Precision Hookset. "Patience II" does the same as "Patience", but also increases the chance of catching the rarer, "big fish". Spearfishing has its equivalents in "Veteran Trade", "Identical Gig", and "Nature's Bounty" respectively.
• Mechanically Unusual Class:
  • They are not suited for combat at all, and strictly locked out of joining any Duty Finder queues, can't contribute to FATEs and get their own set of leve quests. There are no jobs associated with them either, they can't use any Disciple of War/Disciple of Magic cross-discipline skills, and they have no limit break. Instead, their skills are entirely centered around the mechanics of gathering materials or crafting items. Both categories also have their own types of energy, replacing the MP bar. Finally, their main means of gaining experience naturally has nothing to do with combat, instead, they gain experience for gathering and crafting items respectively.
  • Within their discipline, Fishers stand out for having their own system for gathering unlike Miner and Botanist who are basically carbon copies of each other, and the crafting classes mostly have all the same skills as well. The shift from class/job to role quests in Shadowbringers reflects this, with Fisher getting its own role quests no other job can do. And unlike their fellow Gatherers, Fisher's off-hand, a spearfishing gig, is only used to activate the spearfishing minigame and has no stats and no upgraded or higher item level variations (somewhat frustratingly to many, this also means that Fisher will always be at a comparatively lower item level).
• Named After Somebody Famous: Inverted. At the end of the Heavensward Leatherworker storyline, Elde decides to name her newest line of leather goods after the Warrior of Light, both as thanks for helping make her business a smashing success and to get them the recognition her grandfather did not.
• Non-Action Guy: None of the crafting or gathering classes are intended to fight. As a result, while acting as them, the Warrior of Light is seemingly incapable of wielding their martial prowess. This results in strange scenarios like the Oschon Raider's going out of their way to protect the World's Best Warrior or a botanist accused of heresy panicking over his trial by combat when the Warrior would be more than happy to champion themselves for him.
• Not the Intended Use: Crafting and gathering classes can fight. Their combat stats are too low to make them practical for fighting anything stronger than low-level mobs, and they can't use weaponskills or magic spells, but they can use their tools as weapons if need be.
• Pun: While making an ash box for a teahouse owner whose shop is frequented by smokers, Beatin notes that the Warrior decided to make a little carpenter's joke by constructing the entire thing out of ash lumber. Though he also notes that it's something of an inside joke, as most people wouldn't be able to tell what wood it's made from at a glance.
• Purple Prose: In the Endwalker Faculty of Medicine Studium Deliveries, the Warrior can describe the finalized form of their and Debroye's Mervynbread with a conventional simile or a much more lengthy description that veers into Food Porn.
  Warrior:[describing the flavor] Like streams of flavor, blending into a single river of ambrosial delight!
  [describing the texture] It's like natural law has been suspended to create this one moment of unparallelled, puffy-crusted bliss!
  [describing the aroma] It's a siren scent of savory temptation no mortal stomach can resist!
• Private Tutor: In the Heavensward Weaver questline, you're hired by a noblewoman to teach her daughter how to sew as party of her "maidenly" duties. Said daughter is a Tomboy who'd much rather be mending her clumsy boyfriend's wounds as a Conjurer than knitting robes in her room, instead asking you to help her play hooky while she pursues her dreams.
• Serial Escalation: The Fisher, true to their name, starts off fishing in the water. Then they start learning how to fish in the sand, then the clouds, then lava, then aetherochemical waste, and as of Endwalker, fishing in space and the freakin' edge of the universe.
• Supreme Chef:
  • A fully kitted out max level Culinarian WoL at the time of whatever the main expansion is is this, able to find the rarest ingredients whether they're in scorching deserts, arctic wastelands as well as the various monsters prowling the world, they can make a feast worthy of royalty. The Level 60 Culinarian quest has them winning the Dellemont d'Or with the first perfect ten.
  • Even when just starting out as a Culinarian, clients will rave about how perfectly everything you make is cooked, along with astonishment at your skill given how new you are.
• Stealth Expert: Funnily enough, the gathering classes put the Rogue to shame in this regard once they learn their version of it called "Sneak". Unlike "Hide", which breaks upon doing pretty much anything more than moving or jumping, "Sneak" persists through almost anything the gatherer does, allowing them to safely gather resources right in front of aggressive enemies, provided they're no higher than four levels above you and can aggro regardless. Prior to Patch 5.1, it was known as "Stealth", which imposed a movement penalty while hiding, and cannot be used while mounted. "Stealth" also periodically got upgraded through Traits, unlike the flat four level difference tied to "Sneak". Getting attacked while under "Stealth" also canceled it.
• Surpassed the Teacher: At the end of every A Realm Reborn storyline for the Disciple of the Hand and Disciple of the Land jobs, the guildmaster admits that they have noting left to teach you and that you're a fully-fledged master of your craft. Lyngsath, guildmaster of the Culinarians' Guild, admits that even if he were in the mood to compete in the Dellemont d'Or again, he feels he'd be pushing his luck with you in the tournament, implying that he sees you as an equal or even his superior as a culinarian. Wawalago also calls them the "absolute apex of the angler's art", though he later says they're the "second most skilled angler" he knows.
• Ultimate Blacksmith: Downplayed. In-story, a fully kitted-out Blacksmith job will have your name echoing across Eorzea and even into the steel-shunning nation of Gridania. Your work single-handedly turned the Blacksmiths' Guild's fortunes around and has people clamoring to own just one of your weapons. In-gameplay, craftable weapons face stiff competition from the latest and hardest dungeons as well as special gear like the Relic and Zodiac Weapons. You also can't pull off the same feats of wonder that other blacksmiths like Godbert and Gerolt can. In Ameliance's Custom Deliveries, she's concerned that the sheer quality of the Warrior's crafted and gathered goods would spoil the students at the Studium and make them dissatisfied with normal, non-commissioned goods.
• Weapon Specialization: Same as the combat classes, each of them is mainly defined by what they equip in their weapon slot, although as noted they use tools ill-suited for actual combat. Unlike the combat classes, however, all of them also have a secondary tool equippable in the shield slot. Miners, Botanists, and Fishers both need the secondary tool to access a secondary type of gathering node, while the crafting classes don't strictly need them but can't really pass up the significant stat boosts. That said, the secondary tool also offers a cosmetic change in some recipes, like a weaver using a spinning wheel to make cloth or yarn. Fishers in particular lacked a secondary tool until Stormblood, which introduced Spearfishing alongside swimming.
• Weapons of Their Trade: They can use their crafting tools to fight, but doing so is not recommended and will only work against the weakest of opponents.