the shifting oubliettes

what the hell is an oubliette?
and why are they shifting?

an oubliette, or at least, the top image result when you search “oubliette” on google.

turns out an oubliette is French word for a specific kind of dungeon, or cellar.
oubliettes, specifically, only have one entrance and exit: a hatch in the ceiling.
sounds terrifying, frankly.

i bring up the “shifting oubliettes” in reference to the FFXIV treasure dungeons:
“The Shifting Oubliettes of Lyhe Ghiah.” Lyhe Ghiah is a fae name, and the dungeons
are recognized to exist in the fairy inhabited land of Il Mheg (or at least nearby).
you’re brought to Il Mheg as the main character of FFXIV in the Shadowbringers expansion,
which released to the public in the summer of 2019.

as is commonly mythologically associated with fae, the fairies of FFXIV are tricksters.
they use illusion magic to fuck with people who come to their land, and pay no mind
to the potentially harmful repercussions of such magicks being used.

thus, the setting of the treasure dungeons, which are released every expansion as a set
of randomly generated instanced content where you fit similar-ish enemies in similar-ish
areas every time you enter them, finds a comfy setting to use thematically.

but for me, when i think of the shifting oubliettes, i’ve come to think of them as the
many doors that come with making decisions in life. every time we make a choice,
mundane or otherwise, a new version of ourselves is made, and a different version of ourselves
ceases to culminate in the reality we continue to witness.. like the shifting doors of lyhe ghiah,
the plethora possibilities of life constantly surround us, even as we do stuff like choosing
what socks we’re going to wear tomorrow.

not really anything conceptually significant here. just a thought pattern i have.

thanks for reading today’s post.
myriad worlds…