XIVFMN November 2025 Spotlight Interviews: FauxyDoodles & Muoncake

FauxyDoodles

Tell me a bit about your history playing XIV! What pulled you in, and what inspired you to start creating art and merch for it?

Well, it started back in Stormblood – I believe that they’d come out with a physical release of the “collector’s edition” of all three expansions together in one disc and it was on a step discount for the anniversary. I hadn’t played any FF games since FFX2 but I had heard a lot of good things from my friends and decided to give it a try. My roommate at the time already had a character and carried me through most of the ARR content, and went I got to Heavensward and met Aymeric and the dragons…. I was LOCKED IN. I’ve been playing ever since so I guess it’s almost been 9 years??

As for the art/merch, I loved drawing my WoL Yesu and my friends’ WoLs on our adventures, in different outfits, and I was a big sucker for the minions but, at the time, didn’t see any merch of them. So, as I’m want to do for most of the things I make, I wanted to make my concepts a reality and here we are!

How does your personal creative outlook or style influence the merchandise and art you create (XIV or otherwise)? What do you hope people take away or feel from your work?

My personal outlook reflects SO much in my artwork I create. Most noticeably when I combine multiple fandoms together into one. One of the first things I created for FFXIV was a fanzine of all the Kingdom Hearts characters as different classes. It’s still one of my favorite things of made and, though much of the artwork is outdated now, it’s always fun to see people comment on the classes I chose for which character and just how naturally it fits together. I’ve done similar things for Pokemon, different anime series I adore, and more. I just hope people get a sense of joy from my work and can feel how much fun I had making them! I love when I see people that have purchased my merch at conventions out in the wild and they mention how much they still love it – I couldn’t ask for anything more ;w;)~

Is there a piece of art you’ve created that you are especially proud of – for example, a piece that pushed or “leveled up” your skills, or one that was particularly popular, or perhaps something that came out exactly as you had imagined it?

I think the FFXIV merch I’m most proud of is the light-up G’raha tia keychain with the Crystal Tower. That one went through SO many iterations, set-backs in production, file corruption, everything… but when it finally came together, it’s such a unique and lovely tribute to his story and character (and the added personalization of the little crystal you get to choose to add on), that I can’t help but get excited when people get it. SADLY, the company I work with doesn’t make those type of keychains anymore, so when they’re gone, they’re gone forever… I’ve tried to salvage it with a new design (a glow in the dark pin), but like its predecessor before it, it’s going through the same growing pains. Hopefully it’ll make it through and honor the memory of the original.

What is a future project you hope to pursue, whether in fandom spaces or in your personal work?

So I’m a zoologist by trade, and absolutely adore the creature design in FFXIV, and so I LOVE seeing the FFXIV creature zine that comes out every year. There are some amazing artists and creators in there, giving those lovely creatures their due. I would love to have the opportunity to participate in a project like that involved with the great artists and merch-markers of FFXIV!

Since you’ve designed a variety of merch – enamel pins, shaker charms, standees, even pillows – what is your favorite type of merch to design so far? Is there a type of merch you’ve created that you wouldn’t be interested in pursuing again?

My favorite type of merch I’ve designed are customizable shaker charms! I do them for a number of gacha games where they’re able to choose the characters they enjoy and put them in a cute little vessel before shakin’ ‘em around! It’s almost like a little sneak-peek into the mind of the person who buys them and often sparks fun conversations: who their faves are, why they like them, and even hopes and wishes for the characters in the future. I especially love when cosplayers get them as they’ve obviously found a strong connection with them. I hope to be able to make something like this for FFXIV at this point… Maybe with minions or mounts? We’ll see…

As far as ones NOT to make, I haven’t run into anything I wouldn’t make just yet, but I do want to try and branch out in designs in the future!

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Muoncake

Tell me a bit about your history playing XIV! What pulled you in, and what inspired you to start creating art and merch for it?

The way I got into FFXIV is a bit of a long story! Originally, I was making fanart for Monster Prom and met a friend group there. It later extended and I was invited into their friend group and I found out about the game there! They had the cutest male au ra and I wanted to become one too! Next thing you know, I’m playing free trial, attached to my miqo’te and I haven’t stopped playing the game since starting in post Stormblood. Fast forward a bit, I’ve drawn my OCs a lot as every other artist has in their life and thought to myself after playing Dawntrail, “hey I really like this little green guy.” Eventually Koana became my first merchandise because everyone seemed to like the way I drew him! I also drew G’raha Tia from time to time prior, he’d also be considered my first inspiration for fanart in general.

How does your personal creative outlook or style influence the merchandise and art you create (XIV or otherwise)? What do you hope people take away or feel from your work?

I really like cute things. I am obsessed with plushies and small little trinkets I can buy and show around my room or personal space. When I think of the art I make, it reflects my interests cause I just want to show that one person. I try to keep my style while retaining the character’s image and likeness, if they don’t look like the person in the face then I can’t say I’m doing a good job at creating for them. It’s why I gravitate to FFXIV because I feel like there is still a likeness in the way I portray or draw the characters while retaining my own stylistic choices. It could be said for a lot of anime-style-esque characters, but I think it’s a cherry on top that I’m also deeply interested in the fandom space myself. I just want people to glimpse at my art and think, “yup. That’s them.” without having to think too much.

I had several phases of art style changes in my career. I feel like a lot of these changes adapt to my work environment and how much I yearned for a specific kind of growth or stylistic choice. I also have this weird feeling that every time I work on a piece for someone else, it usually turns out way better than my personal work. So I do have a specific piece I’ve done that was of my OC that I was really excited about finishing that really felt like I pushed my boundaries. It’s a mashup of my FFXIV OC and an outfit from another game I really liked at the time, Granblue Fantasy. It was probably during a height of creativity that pushed my painterly style in a specific direction. I feel like a lot of my newer stuff is just a watered down version of what I envisioned for myself and I do hope I’d be able to recreate that feeling I had though in the future!

What is a future project you hope to pursue, whether in fandom spaces or in your personal work?

I have a lot of ideas I’d like to execute that just comes from past interests and I think one that I really would want to pursue as a future project is a webtoon or manga format of my OCs in an original story setting! I saw a webtoon of someone’s WOL story and I was really invested in that idea of telling my own FFXIV OCs in their own little world or bubble and I hope I could do that one day, whether it’s grounded in Eorzea or my own little fantasy world.

Since photocards are so popular in kpop spaces especially, do you have a particular musical group or photocard style that inspired you to start creating them for FFXIV characters and commissions?

I don’t actually like collecting K-POP photocards I’ll admit right away. I think a lot of pain points for it is mainly how expensive they can be, but also I just hate how some idols and companies frame photocards. I love the concept, but the execution of some photocards can make you feel like, “Ah I wish they were closer in the picture, I wish they did more with this.” So when I started making photocards, I wanted to make them how I liked them! They’re meant to feel a little personal when you look into them, not all of them are, but the closeness is there in all of them.I wish I did more “candid” artworks but it’s hard to force that! There is the generic face card and then you have a couple themed ones. The point of this is to add some variety for what you may want to portray or show off, whether it’s for a special occasion or not. I think that’s what I find appealing about photocards and I hope that people find that comfort in the ones I made.