My art, digital. Two wolves, the Orion constellation above the darker wolf’s head

Orion comforts a fallen Packmate- 2023

Comic page, two feral wolves starting to loose their shape

Comic page, paws Turing into hands. A werewolf. Text says ‘there’s a change in their blood’

Pages 4 and 5

Happy Werewolf Wednesday all

Title: Irrational Attackers and you: A (potential) explanation for why you keep getting 90k'd Is this actually a DDOS? Or does SE just have bad servers? There is no reason to believe it is anything other than a ddos attack In the last few weeks FFXIV has been kicking people off NA servers with 90k errors, this is confined to NA, and even if there have been some on EU/OCE/JP, it is orders of magnitude less common. There is no logical reason to assume the server software is different in each region, and since it it possible for both JP and NA to visit OCE, that is vanishingly unlikely. Earlier today, when world first racers were getting 90k's they tried to data center travel to Materia to raid. The 90k errors then stopped on NA, and started on OCE. Once they gave up and returned to NA, so did the 90k's. This is as close to evidence of a ddos attack as anyone who doesnt work for square enix can get. That also means it is provider agnostic, as NTT America does not operate in Australia.

So that's the "how", now for the "why" In threat modeling, there are two kinds of attackers, rational, and irrational. Rational attackers are great (well, in terms of prevention), they are easy to understand, and can even be worked with at times, they are typically limited to actual hacking/unauthorized access attacks, but a rational attacker ddos could be "im ddosing you, pay me 3 million in bitcoin and I will stop" This isnt very likely, as typically those demands are public to put pressure on the target company, but it is possible if they just sent SE the ransom directly... but again, unlikely. An irrational attacker is FAR more likely, this doesnt mean somebody who is completely insane and has no reason, but someone who cannot be negotiated with, they just want to break things. If a rational attacker is a burglar breaking into your home, an irrational one is a drunk teenager trying to throw a rock through your attic window. In this case, I think its pretty clear whats going on. It is someone (or a group) that does not care about money, with no public ransom, and enough resources to repeatedly crash isp nodes (often multiple at a time) they are burning money to bring servers down for no gain. They are also willing to risk felony cybercrime charges (which this definitely counts as).

Now the big question, how do you stop an irrational attacker? You dont. You hope they get bored or lose interest. There are some over very high profile mmo ddos incidents, with the most recent famous one being the WoW hardcore classic streamer guild "OnlyFangs" Whenever they pulled a raid boss, the wow servers went down, it was 100% predictable, there were no exceptions. This wasnt because their guild was specifically cursed and making the servers crash, there was just.... a guy(s) who wanted their characters dead. This only stopped after the streamers decided to stop playing hardcore, because it was hurting the game for everyone. Possible culprits Literally anyone with money, I suspect based on timing its someone who really wants NA to lose the world race? but it could also just be someone who wants to hurt FFXIV's reputation, and messing up the world race is the easiest way to do it

But why is it only ffxiv? It isnt, its just that taking down any game costs a lot of money, so its very rare, even if you are just running a server for a few friends, you could be ddosed, it would just cost them far more to kill the server than it costs you to run it. There are obviously DDOS solutions, but they really only work for website, and the solution for something that needs server connection is an active and ongoing problem, its (part of) why so many competetive games switched to peer-to-peer hosting, if you kill the host it only affects that one game, not the entire server. Some more recent examples of non-ffxiv games taken down by ddos Albion online, basically unplayable for several weeks in early summer last year after a mass ban of rmt accounts World of warcraft earlier this week, im not sure why, but blizzard publicly acknowledged the cause on the launcher League of legends also earlier this week, actually no clue on this one either edit: they forgot to renew client license, they did get hit with one ~3 months ago though that also took down steam None of this is confirmed, I am just a third party with no insights into SE internals, using my experience with devops and cybersecurity to put pieces together

I stumbled upon a thread on the FFXIV subreddit that I encourage everyone who is frustrated with the DDoS’ to read, as it goes over why this is a complicated issue with no real easy solution

www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comm...

Hamster comic reads ‘I’ve lost count of how many days I’ve spent in this rodent body. Time moves differently here. My estimate is one more human year to find Fenrir and release him so that I can gain my God form’

One eyed hamster page that reads Odin The All Hamster

Hamster comic that reads ‘This is now my third residence with a human. This particular female seems overly attentive’

Comic page that reads ‘ Human offers me tribute of song. Hold me closer tiny hamster, sing us a song you’re a hamster man, Rhythm is a hamster, it’s beginning to look like hamster’ And of treats. This pleases me

A month ago I adopted a one eyed hamster from my local animal shelter

My art, digital. A crow sits on a human skull in the snow

Sleep until spring-
2022

Hey guys, If anyone would like to donate to a good cause @calacademy.bsky.social has a fundraiser ongoing right now, and it's being matched 5x right now by an anonymous generous donor! So even if you can only a small amount, it adds up :>

give.calacademy.org/campaign/750...

like in the middle of the trial I saw the modified boss dialogue and just started crying in the club. blinded with tears.

it took a while for the game to really make me CRY-cry, but the things that really fucked me up:

1) collecting the Scions' bodies at the Waking Sands
2) going to Azeyma's stone to pray for justice after that
3) Wilred dying
4) Minfilia in 2.55
5) I DID cry, physically irl, during the Ga Bu plot.

Digital art, my work. A wolf/skeleton. Surreal

Divisive- 2025
Wanted to draw something today and this fell out

Digital drawing, my art. A giant bat winged wolf destroys a city. He has a glowing sword through his snout

Fenrir’s Revenge- 2025

The battlefield 🗡

Final Fantasy 14 Heavensward tenth anniversary sweepstakes. Banner shows an opened black box containing a silver pendant styled after Haurchefant's broken shield. In the background is an illustration of Ishgard.

We're celebrating Heavensward's 10th anniversary with a sweepstakes!

➡️ Visit sqex.to/Bh9Yc
🔔 Follow, repost, or view various #FFXIV pages
🎁 Chance to win a silver pendant!

For full terms and conditions, please see the official rules at sqex.to/VoQDt.

"Seat Of Sacrifice"

#ffxiv #themis #lahabrea #WoL #yonart

I had the absolute pleasure and honour of illustrating the wraparound cover for @ffxivthemiszine.bsky.social ! Thank you for having me and for believing in me!

I appreciate that Tomino opened his mouth and the Wow Cool Robot/War Is Bad meme literally fell out

Casual reminder that Congress has the sole constitutional authority to declare war, not the president or his shadow presidents.

Call your reps -->
5calls.org/issue/iran-i...

anon ask on tumblr: how do you win the idgaf war when it comes to shipping? user beybuniki answers: I’m 28

opened tumblr & there’s this gem

Seeking salvation from a violent god.

Over defensive and always in the wrong place.
(2022)

NEW. Do you remember this story I shared on Chesapeake?

I can now confirm that:

1. The GOP sheriff (“Detain ‘Em Dave”) lost in the GOP primary yesterday to someone who wants to be even *more* of a hardliner on immigration.

2. No Democrat or independent filed by yesterday's final final deadline.

Digital art, my work. A crying women’s face who wears a headdress of animal teeth and bone. Snakes and an angry wolf head. Surreal comic book style

The shape falters- 2025

snarling tiger with trans flag colored stripes holding a ribbon that reads "no law can stop our existence"

canid like beast breathing fire in the colors of the lesbian flag with text that reads "i will not apologize for my nature"

banded snake shedding its skin, revealing the trans flag colors partially obscured by roses. text below reads "remake yourself"

purple and yellow hyena with text that reads "biology was never binary"

Reminder that I have this year's (and past) pride posters available for download in my Ko fi shop for $5+ - hi-res versions + PSD files you are welcome to edit with your flag's colors. Use em to:

Make your own posters/flyers
Patches large or small
Stickers
Whatever!

ko-fi.com/mxmorgan/sho...

My art, digital. A werewolf mid shapeshifter

Keeping shape feels more and more difficult these days.

My art, digital 2022. A werewolf

Werewolf Wednesday??? THERE WOLF WEDNESDAY

My art, digital. A red women floats towards the moon and is followed by two wolves

When I was little I remember vividly being distraught that I couldn’t return to the forest. I was desperately homesick and was so sure my wolf family were waiting for me. As an adult I still cannot shake the feeling that I’m disconnected from something profound that can only be found in nature

My art, digital. A women seeks answers from a large nature God with a deer skull face and giant feathered wings

A longing to return to a place I have no memory of. A home I can never reach in this body.
-my art, 2023

A warrior woken stands on the skull of a fallen beast. The caption reads ‘off with his head’

OFF WITH HIS HEAD -2025

Something on the inside grows-
2024

A piece expressing the inevitability of not processing that what hurts you. It’s about mental health.

My art, digital. Comic style page of a women shapeshifting into a werewolf

Growing pains- 2025
I’m feeling so unsettled and restless in my skin at the moment. It’s time for change.