ffxiv had a major patch which added tons of new things (story chapters, raids, dungeons, etc) but one of the unintentional additions was a bug that spawned a bunch of level 1 deers with no name in coerthas western highlands.
(the third image is the normal version of this enemy- note that it's called a steinbock, and it's level 50)
the . is called the . because it's what appears in the chat log when you emote at it;
the . has no purpose. it has no intention behind its existence. it exists to aimlessly wander through the snow, soon to be snuffed out by the cruel hands of square enix realizing they can't let a bug like this exist in their bestselling mmo in 2025. it is a temporary, wholly spontaneous spectacle. and it is beautiful. we all love the . #ourthe .
to leave off, here's a poem by a user on bluesky: