Trying out Final Fantasy XI

Adloquium · Jul 14, 2023

Ulmia is standing on the cliff overlooking the sea, in the Misareaux Coast zone, playing her harp and singing. It's the same opening narration lines again, which seem to be getting used quite often whenever FFXI wants to remind us of the background lore of the primary mothercrystal in Vana'diel. Despite that, only the first lines are the same, and the following verses keep changing throughout the story. Everything is the same up to the line "That world was called Vana'diel", occasionally with "Our world, Vana'diel" following that, but not always. This applies for the opening cinematic cutscene narration for FFXI, and the mysterious appearance of the mothercrystal in the skies in the Crystalline Prophecy cutscene upon entering Jeuno.

To remind everyone, the common lines that remain the same throughout are as listed in the screenshots:

It all began with a stone, or so the legend says.

In ages past, a sentient jewel, enormous and beautiful, banished the darkness.

Its many-coloured light filled the world with life and brought forth mighty gods.

Bathed in that light, the world entered an age of bliss until, after a time, the gods fell into slumber.

That world was called Vana'diel.

Meanwhile, back when we first entered Fei'Yin in the base FFXI story (possibly backported retcon as part of Rhapsodies Of Vana'diel), the song "continued" with lines like "The great bane will devour the fair land of Vana'diel", and so on until "We await the awakening of the Warriors of the Crystal", which was repeated and recontextualized with Rise Of The Zilart. This particular song was titled "Warriors Of The Crystal", according to Lion and Zeid during that cutscene in Fei'Yin.

The common lines for that variation are as follows:

However, this age will not last.

The great bane will devour the fair land of Vana'diel.

The ancient seal will be broken, awakening the nightmares of ages past.

The blood of innocents will soak the earth, and the world will fall into fear and despair.

But as one bright star shines through the clouds at night, as one song rings clear above the roar of beasts, we hold to one hope in these darkest of times.

The "original" ending was about the Crystal Warriors, which took on a sinister meaning during Rise Of The Zilart:

That they will come, with the wisdom of ages and the strength of thousands, to deliver us from our plight.

We await the awakening of the Warriors of the Crystal.

And when we completed Rise Of The Zilart, the lines about the Crystal Warriors were replaced by a more uplifting version extolling the player character:

That star is you, and the song is yours.

And someday, that hope will become our dreams... our prayers...

Shine forth, star of hope! Let your song ring out across all of Vana'diel!

And what was split asunder will once more become whole. Complete and inseparable for all eternity.

Based on what we've seen so far, the first part of the song up to "That world was called Vana'diel" is well-known, including being broadcast by mysterious sky crystals in the Crystalline Prophecy cutscene. The second part about the Crystal Warriors, particularly the version about them, is also known, but perhaps as a separate song entirely, even though it kind of starts in the middle of a story. It's a little strange that neither Zeid nor Lion comment on that, back in Fei'Yin, despite the doomsaying verses. The third version, about us being the "star of hope", thus far only exists as a narration out of universe, unremarked by anyone else so far.

Here, we learn a name for the first part of the song: the "Lay of the Immortals". I'm curious about Ulmia describing it as being passed down through the Tavnazian Cathedral, since it sounds like the song is universal across Vana'diel, or at the very least in the Middle Lands. Given the continuance of religious observation from before the Crystal War, when Tavnazia was still an extant polity, it sounds peculiar for Ulmia to refer to it as particularly Tavnazian, regardless of the twenty years of isolation since then.

Ulmia also refers to it as a "song of guidance", but I'm not sure what it actually guides. For the part specifically referred to as the "Lay of the Immortals", it's just a recounting of a creation myth. Perhaps there are further lines for this "Lay of the Immortals" that Ulmia was singing, and which are only known in Tavnazia, either before or after its destruction.

Nag'molada joins in the scene, with his own commentary about the song.

Nag'molada: Even after the longest of trials, there are some things that will never be lost. How very nostalgic.

In a place quite similar to this one, a song was born in an age when such things did not exist. Amazing to hear the birth of song, the first song...

Ulmia: The birth of song?

Is it possible that you know of this lay?

A tragic age of darkness will reign. And yet, the gods will not awaken from their slumber...

That world was called Vana'diel.

And now we have yet another variation. This one differs earlier than the ones from Rise Of The Zilart, omitting the "blood of innocents" bit, and contains no uplifting verses about hope, whether for the Crystal Warriors or us as the star of hope.

We technically knew the name "Memoria de la Stona" from the Crystalline Prophecy cutscene, although here there's an extra carat in the title that I'm not sure about. Is it an official part of the title, or is it a weird formatting issue with the game's font? And is "Memoria de la Stona" the whole thing, including the "Warriors of the Crystal" portion? And which version is the most accurate, or is it one of those cases where different cultures have different verses and interpretations throughout the ages?

Ulmia: One moment! You must tell me one thing. Is that how the song ends...?

Nag'molada: No, the song continues.

But the next verse is beyond the limits of your mortal voice. Only the gods are allowed to sing forth its melody.

This scene feels like it shows Nag'molada in a rare unguarded moment. He sounds like he cares about the song quite deeply, enough to sing it in front of relative strangers, and yet he can't find the composure to explain it. I'm reminded quite strongly of how certain characters in FFXIV talk about the world that was: wistful and sad, wishing for a return to days long past, while knowing that it will never happen.

Nag'molada wanders off, leaving Ulmia to puzzle over what this talk of gods means. But we're here to fetch Ulmia, so we head back to the Tavnazian Safehold, where another situation is developing.

Justinius: Prishe! Did you look at the sky!? Something left a second strange trail... and the trail leads right to Cape Riverne!

Prishe: Yeah, I saw it. Left by another dragon, right? How many of those things are there, anyway?

Another dragon? Given how seriously everyone is taking it, I'm assuming "dragon" here refers to major ones like Bahamut, rather than the generic critter types roaming around, or the Dragoon wyverns. The equivalent of FFXIV's First Brood, in other words, of which FFXIV's Bahamut was also a member. There, it was known (at least among in-universe scholars) that there were seven members of the First Brood, so "another dragon" of that size and power would not be that much of a surprise. Here, I don't know what the state of draconic research might be in FFXI, DRG questline aside.

We kind of already dealt with the Gates of Paradise, Ulmia. Or at least the Gate of the Gods, which is technically still there, available for grinding to level 80 or so.

I did not expect the "Gates of Paradise" phrasing here from Ulmia, since thus far I'd only heard it in relation to the Church in San d'Oria, Zilart influences aside. Pieuje keeps talking about it, while Shamonde at least pays lip service to the concept when talking to Pieuje.

I'm also surprised that Prishe is suggesting "asking Bahamut". I don't know if this is a euphemism for "beat up Bahamut until he gives answers", or if they're sincerely going to ask Bahamut, who was rather dramatically talking about spilling the blood of the gods upon the soil of their creation when he first appeared. The Tavnazians did seem to have some history with Bahamut, in the form of a painting of "Al'Taieu", as Despachiaire had reminded Prishe about, and which sounds very Zilart-era. So perhaps the Tavnazians have a good reason to believe Bahamut will listen to their questions, rather than immediately Megaflaring them on sight.

Prishe dramatically calls for volunteers to join her in this mission, and is met with an awkward silence.

Nonplussed, Prishe mutters that she assumed the three Tarutaru would at least respond. Which implies Prishe does think the Tarutaru trio can handle themselves in a dangerous situation like a probable dragon streaking across the skies and landing nearby. This, despite the utter lack of anything resembling trustworthiness or reliability that the Tarutaru trio have displayed, to the player and the characters.

Justinius: Now that you mention it, that stranger is not here, either.

Tressia: Wait a second -- I just saw him outside. The creepy-looking guy in the black robe, right?

Prishe: Where did you say you saw him?

Mengrenaux: I saw the stranger as well. He was speaking with the three Tarutaru.

Parelbriaux: Prishe, they packed their bags and left the safehold a few minutes ago!

As I said earlier, we can trust Nag'molada to do the most ruthless thing he can. Exactly why he chose the Tarutaru trio as his tools in this instance is less certain, since surely he has already seen how useless they are. Possible speculation is the Tarutaru trio are easily influenced, especially by someone unscrupulous enough to lie to them, and they seem like the sort to go directly from "you're a bad person, because you look like a bad person" to "you make sense, we will follow you to the ends of Vana'diel". And stupid though they might be, the Tarutaru trio are citizens of the Tavnazian Safehold, and might know interesting things about the zones around Tavnazia.

I just kind of feel like there are surely more efficient and reliable ways to go about it, rather than going through the effort to trick the Tarutaru trio.

Thankfully the people of Tavnazia have understood that Nag'molada is not our friend, and we just happened to be with him due to circumstances outside our control. So we're still considered trustworthy, even as Nag'molada has disappeared suspiciously along with the troublemaking Tarutaru trio.

Our destination this time is the western exit of Misareaux Coast, where Cape Riverne is allegedly located. As it turns out, there is no zone called "Cape Riverne". Instead, upon clicking on a "Dilapidated Gate" interactable, we are sent to a zone called "Riverne - Site #A01".

Evidently something has gone rather awry with reality in Cape Riverne. The timeline of events would suggest this is caused by the alleged dragon that was flying towards Cape Riverne; the other potential cause is Nag'molada, but if he had that sort of power he'd have been using it earlier rather than ingratiate himself to the Safehold. Neither Prishe nor Ulmia know what is happening, which is exacerbated when they are accidentally teleported away by a portal.

Riverne Site A01 (and according to the wikis, other Riverne Sites as well) is, like Promyvion, navigated via portals. Unlike Promyvion, Site A01 has a couple of large landmasses as well as a bunch of smaller islands; the entire place is shrouded in dark mist below, so I get the impression the islands are supposed to be floating, while the landmasses are still connected to the ground.

The portals are called "Spatial Displacement", which come in Stable and Unstable variations. Most of the portals are Stable, and I just need to click on them to pass through. Enemies here are also 40-50, and like Phomiuna Aqueducts, I still need to grind drops to proceed further: in this case, Giant Scales from Firedrakes, two of which are needed to stabilize the Unstable Spatial Displacements and reach the end. We start from the eastern edge of the Site A01 map, and we need to get to the west, where there's an exit to the north side of the western edge. Much more straightforward than the tunnels of Phomiuna Aqueducts.

When we reach the last island before our destination, we catch up with Prishe and Ulmia, who are no worse for wear.

Cherukiki: We'll go home, but only if Prishe promises not to punish us!

Prishe: Punish you!? Go home now, and I might just not kill you!

How many times have I told you that you're too young to go off adventuring on your own!?

Ulmia: Exactly! Do you not remember the last time you went out alone? It took over a month for your wounds to heal!

As we can see, throughout this exchange of insults and threats between the children, Nag'molada is just silently in the background, fiddling with the final Spatial Distortion.

There's probably a fair bit to explore here regarding the relationship between Prishe and the Tarutaru trio, regarding whether they actually care for each other underneath the harsh words, and the precise hierarchy of authority between them. There might be a side examination of Prishe being labelled as "abhorrent one" by the adults, but the children seem to interact with her fine, taking into account Prishe insisting on exerting her authority over them.

But again, I have to be honest and admit I'm just not interested in the Tarutaru trio at the moment. I might change my mind in the future if new information arrives, but as it is I don't care about what happens to them. At the most, I care only enough to want to avoid dealing with them unless absolutely necessary.

Speaking of ignoring the children, Nag'molada finishes whatever he was doing to the portal, and goes through. The Tarutaru trio, running from Prishe, go through as well, and the rest of us give chase.

Interacting with the portal gives us a message. I took a screenshot of it because I vaguely recall "terrestrial avatar" being a particularly significant detail, but I'm not quite sure where I heard it before, or what it means. "Avatar" here is the same word used as the beings we make SMN pacts with, which might be related to the "sleeping gods" that are mentioned in the "Lay of the Immortals"/"Memoria de la Stona" verses. Or, for that matter, Bahamut declaring that he wants to kill those gods back when he first appeared.

I'm trying to separate what I know about FFXI from what I'm very familiar with from FFXIV, which might cause me to miss obvious connections, especially since FFXIV likes to use references to FFXI in certain lore similarities. In FFXIV, the classic Final Fantasy summons are called "Primals", which are explicitly described as the gods of various tribes as imagined by them; a distinction is made between the gods that the tribes worship, and the Primal versions that appear when summoned by those tribes. For example, the Amalj'aa worship Ifrit, but the Ifrit that gets summoned by them is just what the Amalj'aa think Ifrit would be like during the time of summoning. Other Amalj'aa recognize that the summoned Ifrit is different and separate from their god.

So putting aside the FFXIV-specific lore about Primals vs the gods they are inspired by, it would make some sense in FFXI for the Avatars we fight for the SMN pacts to be the "sleeping gods" mentioned by "Memoria de la Stona". They're certainly sleeping, they believe themselves to be godlike, and their role as gods is similar to what FFXIV has assigned to the classic Final Fantasy summons.

The specific term "terrestrial avatar" makes me think the "terrestrial" part is significant somehow, but more than that I do not know.

Going through the Spatial Distortion portal leads us to a zone called "Monarch Linn", which is a BCNM arena, complete with BCNM fight timer.

Nag'molada is singing "Memoria de la Stona", which catches Bahamut's attention, as Nag'molada intended.

Nag'molada: Almighty conquerer of the skies! I never imagined that my people would have the opportunity to stand before you once again!

Many millennia ago, when the Gates of Paradise were on the brink of opening, you sacrificed yourself and became the bar that held it shut. When I witnessed you fall into the north sea...

In the decades that passed since I arose from my sleep, I have never been as happy as I am this moment.

Bahamut: I, too, feel the same, my Kuluu companion. I will never forget the battles we fought -- side by side.

Over the centuries, the world has become cluttered with several new forms of man.

However, if the Kuluu still exist, then I can assume our pact remains intact.

More terms and titles we need to keep track of, but the repetition here indicates we'll learn the truth of them in this expansion. From Bahamut's speech, we can infer the existence of "the will of evil", which might be an overarching mastermind for the events of this plotline. "The abyssal nightmare" might refer to the void where demons come from, and the "Keeper of the Apocalypse" is clearly someone or something we will have a boss battle against eventually.

Given Nag'molada's insistence that the mysterious white-haired boy brings the Emptiness with him, there is a distinct possibility he is the "Keeper of the Apocalypse". We still don't know whether the boy is an ally or antagonist, so it could go any direction.

Bahamut is also familiar with Yve'noile, the representative of the Dawnmaidens. Apparently she created "the Chamber of Eventide", which Bahamut thinks is a bad place, and which Prishe seems surprised about. I don't know what the "celestial capital" refers to; I would guess it's a city in the skies, which would fit Tu'Lia closely. So we might be returning there.

We learn Nag'molada is Kuluu, which isn't completely impossible; the other Kuluu are now Tonberries, but it would be alarming of every member of the Kuluu were affected. Nag'molada likely was trapped in stasis like the Zilart princes, and woke up only when the Northern Expedition happened and Raogrimm became the Shadow Lord.

We also learn more details about the Kuluu raid on the Northern Ark that disrupted the ritual to open the Gate of the Gods. According to Nag'molada, Bahamut assisted in that raid, which eventually led to the destruction of the Northern Ark and the thwarting of the Zilart princes. Grav'iton had implied every Kuluu that survived devolved and mutated into Tonberries due to the energies from the local mothercrystal, but maybe she was speaking generally, and there were other scattered Kuluu survivors.

It's surprising that Nag'molada managed to hold a position of some authority in Jeuno, which until recently (ie our involvement in the Rise Of The Zilart expansion) was ruled by the Zilart. I would assume the Zilart princes would look poorly upon a member of a group that was directly responsible for foiling their plans, but maybe there were lots of desperate negotiations, perhaps along the lines of Nag'molada pretending to switch sides to the Zilart princes. Based on this conversation with Bahamut, Nag'molada still truly believes that the Kuluu did the right thing in stopping the Zilart, so any alleged alliance with the Zilart princes was just a ruse.

And then an airship pulls up and starts depositing people onto Monarch Linn via short-range teleportation.

They start casting magic, trapping Bahamut in webbing. Bahamut identifies them as Zilart, as he begins struggling against his bonds.

The scene likes to swoop around, and my screenshots showing the relative positions of everyone all came out horribly due to the cutscene effects, but the player character entered Monarch Linn in a different part than Prishe and Ulmia did, and the Tarutaru trio are in another different area as well. The Generic Model Armathrwn Members teleport in front of Prishe and us.

All while their apparent commander watches from the airship. She's not hooded and she has a non-generic model, so we know she's important.

The Generic Model Armathrwn Members turn out not to be human (or Zilart) at all: their critter nameplate label is "Mammet-19 Epsilon", and the BCNM battle has us fight three of them at once. This would probably be a major challenge for at-level players, simply because there are three of them of equal threat, rather than one single boss plus adds to concentrate attacks on. Once again I am thankful that I'm level 99 and ilevel 117, so I don't have to worry about the difficulty.

Also on closer look at the screenshots I took, these enemies are not completely generic. They have a mostly blank faceplate instead of a barely-modelled generic face, so we can tell that they're mammet automatons.

Upon defeating the Mammet-19 Epsilon automatons, there's a cutscene showing Prishe triumphant over her group as well. She sneaks up to one of the other Mammet-19 Epsilons currently busy restraining Bahamut, and punches them out.

This weakens the restraints enough for Bahamut to break free.

He is not happy.

With that expansion title drop, Bahamut roars, which teleports everyone present away: the Tarutaru trio, Prishe, Ulmia, and ourselves.

Adloquium · Jul 16, 2023

While we are being teleported by Bahamut's spell, we are shown another cutscene, in some indeterminate time. I'd also say it's some indeterminate place, but it looks like one of the Northlands zones of Fauregandi and Valdeaunia, so it's probably there. Which makes sense, given how everything that has happened in base FFXI, Rise Of The Zilart, and apparently Chains Of Promathia all have their roots in the Northlands.

The mysterious white-haired boy is wandering in this white wasteland, which is a really good piece of cinematic framing, given his pale colour scheme and simple dark clothing. As he wanders, Bahamut is taunting him, and implying some sort of eternal struggle or time loop.

The boy shouts back in defiance, in the first display of intense emotion we've seen from him so far.

I am already predisposed to siding with the boy's arguments here, that the purpose of living is to live. It's a consistent theme throughout all of FFXIV, starting from the very first opening cinematic ("Tell us why, given life, we are meant to die helpless in our cries") to the latest expansion cinematic ("Should we lose our way, tire of all this pain, we won't be afraid to forge ahead"). Life is pain, survival is suffering, and death is the only promise at the end, but that still requires you to live. Struggle through life, and your reward is living. There's more elaboration in FFXIV's story about this, like how one benefit of continuing to live is you get to help other people with their own despair, just as they can help you with yours, but the basic message is the only "purpose to live" anyone should need is to live.

There's also another title drop, soon after the first, so clearly "the chains of Promathia" is deeply portentous and important for this expansion.

The boy mentions "the paradise of Al'Taieu". This is quite close to the persistent talk among religious people in the setting about "the Gates of Paradise", which in turn I interpreted to be equivalent to "the Gates of the Gods" that was the floating island of Tu'Lia. And based on what we learned in Rise Of The Zilart, the Zilart princes intended Tu'Lia to "open" (probably metaphysically rather than physically and literally) the way to "paradise". Putting it all together, I speculate that the paradise that Tu'Lia was meant to open the way to is this Al'Taieu.

We also saw a "painting of Al'Taieu" during the conversation between Despachiaire and Prishe, which featured a dragon that is obviously Bahamut flying over a white city. It's not Tu'Lia, since next to that painting is another one, depicting the opening of Tu'Lia with Delkfutt's Tower and the Arks under it, and they don't look similar. Given the abstract nature of paintings in FFXI (due at least in part to Playstation 2 textures), it's difficult to discern any details.

Ominously, there's a big sunburst above Bahamut in that painting of Al'Taieu. In other contexts this may indicate illumination and light and general resplendence, but given this is Bahamut, there's a distressingly high probability it's Megaflare.

Back to the cutscene, the boy stands in front of a door, which opens to reveal a corridor and another door within.

???: Goodbye, Vana'diel...

Another cutscene. Nag'molada walks through a door in what looks like a cermet-built location, like the Crags or Delkfutt's Tower. Armathrwn Mammets guard it, and they just glance at him as he walks past, so he's supposed to be here.

He's meeting with the woman commanding the Armathrwn Mammets, who scolds him for going off on his own and meeting Bahamut. The woman wanted to capture Bahamut for some reason, and Nag'molada's unsanctioned meeting caused complications that led to Bahamut's escape.

Nag'molada: Are you concerned because I am Kuluu? Can you still not accept the fact that your people have fallen as far as mine?

Your stance is foolish, given that this obstinacy is proof of your degradation.

While under the constraints of the usual framing as A Dramatic Meeting Between Villains Who Know More Than The Player, there are some things we can still speculate about.

First, it's almost certain the woman is Zilart. Bahamut identifies her (and the Armathrwn Mammets) as such, even though from my player perspective I can't see much indication visually that marks them as such. Then again, the Zilart princes had been ruling Jeuno for thirty years without aging and nobody thinks this is particularly suspicious, so maybe Zilart project an aura of trustworthiness and "just one of the regular people" that is borne out by their design.

However, the Zilart woman is not a fanatical devotee of the princes' goal to achieve paradise at the expense of everyone else on the planet. Rather the opposite, according to her: she is primarily concerned with "the welfare of the people living in this world of Vana'diel". It's likely when Raogrimm became the Shadow Lord thirty years ago, the group that were awakened in the Northlands Ark included more than just the two Zilart princes, but several other Zilart and Kuluu survivors. Most of the Kuluu were warped into Tonberries, but at least Nag'molada was not, whether by circumstance or luck.

Since the Zilart princes were in a position of authority in ancient times, and exerted their authority both old and new in the present time, the other Zilart had little choice but to follow them, especially since Eald'narche specifically was stated to be almost godlike in personal power. With them gone, though, the other Zilart can be more open about their own goals and desires. For this woman, she intends to act as a steward to the star, as far as she can with her own personal and political power. Possibly we might see other Zilart with their own schemes in future content.

Nag'molada also brings up the biggest issue: the Zilart and Kuluu are gone. The Kuluu technically still exist in significant numbers as Tonberries, but they're no longer able to do Kuluu stuff. We don't know how many Zilart are left, but the number is probably tiny, not counting deaths and defections. So Nag'molada is trying to convince the Zilart woman that all the old grudges and conflicts are irrelevant here, and none of them mean anything in the present day. Whether this is something Nag'molada truly believes, or if he's just deflecting from his admittedly unusual insistence on meeting with Bahamut, is uncertain.

There's the bit where Nag'molada is taunting the Zilart woman about "a certain personage". That implies Nag'molada and the Zilart woman have enough of a history that Nag'molada knows who this "certain personage" is, and how important they were to the Zilart woman. Someone from the times of the ancients, perhaps? Maybe the Zilart woman is choosing to be a steward to the star in memory of them, in defiance of the Zilart princes.

Nag'molada is still confident he can handle the mysterious white-haired boy, although given his track record so far, it seems like a bad idea to trust him. Nag'molada has proven unprepared to deal with anything unexpected that the boy has done, like touching the mothercrystal or teleporting people to Tavnazia. Instead, Nag'molada assumes he can just kill anyone troublesome enough to get in his way, without bothering to make sure they can be killed with the resources he has. The doubt comes twofold: Nag'molada has proven himself too ruthless to be effective, and also too incompetent to be effective.

Even so, Nag'molada's assertion that he has an idea of how to deal with the Emptiness is enough to get the Zilart woman's full attention. Which is fair, since that's what we're also trying to do with Rhapsodies Of Vana'diel.

At this time, we find ourselves in a dusty hellhole, according to Prishe. Also known as South Gustaberg, according to the UI. Honestly, I agree with Prishe.

I'm mildly amused that PS2 textures and environments means the player character is clipping through the terrain, when we're face-down on a slight slope. It makes me think we're literally buried halfway in the dirt.

Prishe runs off to 1v1 the airship, leaving us behind.

It makes sense that the survivors of Tavnazia do not know what airships are, or at least what they look like. We do have to start with the assumption that Tavnazia is very isolated, to the point where any information they ever get are limited to people who are just as ignorant about most of the world, for handwavey reasons: even the occasional castaways who make a life in the Safehold appear not to have mentioned the development of airships by Jeuno in the years since the end of the Crystal War. Given Despachiaire's comments about the news we bring from the mainland, the last castaways might even have arrived in Tavnazia before airships were a thing.

When we can move again, we pursue Prishe to Port Bastok, where she is haranguing the nonplussed employees of the airship agency. I'm not sure whether Prishe is asking to find the "owner" of the airship because she wants to punch the owner, or if she wants permission to punch the airship.

The airship agency employees handle this Sassy Lost Child as best as they can, sending her to Cid and thus no longer their problem. Prishe promptly runs off to find the "Mentalworks" (as she heard it), and we have to catch up once again.

Naji: So we threw the vagrant into one of our holding cells.

Ayame: Lady Cornelia has been keeping the girl company. Master Cid, have you sustained any injuries?

Cid: I'm fine, I'm fine. But it's our little guest that I'm worried about. She seems pretty confused and upset. I was going to let her rest a while before I tried talking to her.

Oh, don't worry. She hasn't done anything wrong, and there are no plans of punishing her any further.

She'll be let go once we've sorted a few things out... Do you know what she was yelling about earlier?

All this nonsense about airships and Wyrmkings... I couldn't make heads or tails of it...

I can see where the Bastokans are coming from: Prishe is clearly agitated and incoherent, and she needs some time to cool down and collect her thoughts. "Holding cells" might be the best they can do on short notice to keep her from running around in a panic, and they even sent Cornelia to keep her company, so they do intend to follow up. "Protective custody" is the term that comes to mind, although the protection is from oneself: the Bastokans are keeping Prishe restrained until she calms down, and also sends Cornelia as a companion to look out for Prishe's wellbeing.

Naji calling her a "vagrant" is probably just Naji being Naji. We know he has a persistent habit of putting his foot in his mouth, a bit like Prishe herself.

We can also piece together why Prishe is so agitated: the first time she sees an airship is when one of them deposits chalk that tried to restrain Wyrmking Bahamut, as well as attacking her (and us). So in her experience, airships equals enemy. And she doesn't know that airships are common enough that they're everywhere, or at least run frequently on established routes plus possibly some in private hands. In Prishe's view, this is an organization or state launching an undeclared war.

With Prishe safely in one spot for the time being, we presumably fill Cid in on the missing context.

Cid: What!? Armoured airships? Hooded scientists?

Well... the scientists are probably the ones from Jeuno. As for the airships, all I can think is that they might be the ones modified for battle during the Great War. But that project was cancelled after the allied forces defeated the Shadow Lord's armies.

I know because I was a member of the project!

Cid: I was determined to find out, so I started watching them every chance I got.

It wasn't long before I noticed that they were conducting a lot of strange experiments around the Crag of Dem, but I couldn't put my finger on exactly what they were doing...

And now they've restarted the project! But why are they sending airships to Tavnazia...?

Cid: But I need you to tell me, who is this Bahamut you keep talking about?

Cornelia brings a recovered Prishe back to Cid, and Cid acknowledges that their handling of Prishe might have been a bit rough. I like that Cid is implied to acknowledge that it was necessary to temporarily hold Prishe in custody, but he doesn't condescend by saying it was "for her own good" or any such thing.

Prishe has also calmed down enough to speak in longer sentences. I get the impression Cornelia is chaperoning Prishe here in the same way Ulmia was before, and Prishe largely needs a caretaker to make sure she doesn't go running off at the slightest impulse.

Prishe: Oh, you mean the Wyrmking. Well, everything was all fine and dandy until one day, all of a sudden, this huge dragon appears over my hometown.

We were going to meet this dragon and try to knock some sense into him when out of nowhere, a huge airship contraption with all these guns and cannons flies up.

We were right in the middle of giving the guys from that ship a sound beating until poof, I'm warped to this hellhole.

I'm a little puzzled by how Cornelia knows, from Prishe's description, that the airship was owned by the Duchy of Jeuno. We know, because we've seen Nag'molada ordering Wolfgang around, and the Armathrwn Society is a Jeuno organization. Cid also just mentioned that airships for war were being developed by Jeuno.

But Cornelia has been with Prishe this whole time, and we've heard from Cid that Prishe's powers of description are lacking. Prishe might have been able to give more details if Cornelia had been asking offscreen, but then our fight against the Jeuno airship would not have been that much of a surprise; that we were fighting is likely a more relevant part of the story than what the people we were fighting looked like.

I assume Cornelia has also been filling Prishe in on the state of the world offscreen, since Prishe accepts that Jeuno is a major nation and thus cannot be soloed like she tried to do with Bastok.

Also it's slightly hilarious that my speculation about Prishe intending to "talk" to Bahamut, back in the Safehold, was indeed her wanting to beat up Bahamut until he spills answers. To use a meme, Prishe's hands are rated E for Everyone.

Cid: If that dragon was actually Bahamut, then we can conclude that the two events are in some way connected.

Prishe runs off, as Cornelia yells at her that Prishe likely has no idea how to get to Jeuno in the first place. As I said, Prishe needs a caretaker.

Speaking to Cid again after the cutscene has him ponder what he just heard. At this point I assume that if we end up flying to the edges of the universe during the course of FFXI's story, there will still be a Tenshodo representative there, and the Tenshodo had already been there since the beginning. It happened with Escha, it's happening with Tavnazia, it might well happen with anything.

Our obvious next stop is Jeuno, at the Tenshodo HQ. Where we don't really get a chance to do anything before Wolfgang barges in.

Oh dear.

Adloquium · Jul 16, 2023

Before we can answer this charge of treason, Aldo strolls out like the master of his domain that he is.

And Prishe pokes her head around the corner.

Prishe: Ah! It's the dead lady!

Hey! It's me! Don't you remember...

Whoa!

This is a bit of a strange cutscene. Prishe identifies us as "the dead lady", likely because she dismissed us as dead when we first reappeared in South Gustaberg. But we were right there talking to Cid, and when Prishe and Cornelia arrived from detention to expound further. Even if she now labels us as "the dead lady" from now on, of course we remember her, as she should know.

The only speculation I can think of is Prishe was so focused on whoever is in front of her, in that case Cid, that even after she calmed down somewhat, she literally did not notice us standing there.

The other possibility is this is another case of FFXI not bothering with making sure the NPCs acknowledge the presence of the player character, and instead pretending the player character is an invisible mobile camera. I'd complained about it before in base FFXI, but it's disappointing to see it happen here again, if this is the case.

Incidentally, Prishe is dragged away from spying on us by one of the Tarutaru Tenshodo NPCs, hence the "whoa". The doors close behind Aldo, so she can't continue to spy for now.

I can understand my player character being calmer than she would be otherwise, because Wolfgang has already proven himself to be nothing more than an unthinking tool for the authorities in Jeuno. He follows orders no matter how silly they are, and everything he claims as justification for those orders are just window dressing. My character knows it, Cid knows it, and Aldo surely knows it. I'm even a little surprised Aldo is so polite to Wolfgang, given Wolfgang was the one who kidnapped Verena on Eald'narche's orders. Aldo is much more professional than I would be in his situation.

I'm also expecting a plot development some time in the far future where Wolfgang redeems himself, or at least attempts to, by finally questioning his orders and choosing not to follow the horrible ones. This would not be a full redemption arc, but it would at least begin his atonement. The mentions of Wolfgang's past as good childhood friends with Monberaux, and his reluctance to disobey orders due to some history about his father, all point to that plot direction.

The charge of treason is also highly amusing, due to the confused bureaucracy. Technically, we are guilty of acts that Jeuno might consider treason: we killed the Archduke Kam'lanaut, and also his brother Eald'narche, along with preventing them from achieving their goals. That the goals of the brothers involved wiping out almost all life on the planet is a mitigating factor, but that's the sort of thing that would be recorded in a proper court proceeding, so having us answer to the charge of treason in a trial is reasonable to consider.

However, "treason" is also the wrong charge, because we are not citizens of Jeuno. Indeed, Wolfgang acknowledges that he had to get authorization from our "home nation", in this case San d'Oria. So it is not possible for us to commit treason against Jeuno, because we have sworn no oath of citizenship or loyalty to Jeuno. "Assassination" would fit, or perhaps "lese-majeste". "Premeditated murder" also might work, but that goes into debates on what constitutes murder in the faux-medieval setting of FFXI, where the primary means of interacting with the world is fighting enemy critters for experience. An argument could be made that Kam'lanaut was still alive at the end of our battle, and Eald'narche was the one who caused Kam'lanaut to expire from despair, but that's the sort of thing that would need lawyers to work out.

"Conspiracy" is a fair cop. Especially since we planned to stop Kam'lanaut and Eald'narche by consulting a literal pirate.

We adjourn to Aldo's office.

Prishe: What were you supposed to do? What was I supposed to do? The only person I could trust -- hell, the only person I knew on the mainland -- was Grezzo.

He told me that any time I was in trouble, he and the Tenshodo would help me out.

But now he's gone and...

Oh well, you'll still get us a boat so we can go home, right?

Aldo: Hmmm... That's not going to be as easy as it sounds. I still have nautical maps charting the way to the Sealion's Den, but they're outdated. The currents in that area have changed a lot over the past twenty years...

It would take one hell of a navigator to make it to Tavnazia in one piece. But then again, I only employ the best of the best.

It sounds like the late Grezzo was the only contact Tavnazia had with the mainland, and he chose not to inform anyone else about the existence of the Tavnazian Safehold, while still promising help should Tavnazia required it. I feel he should have at least informed the rest of the Tenshodo, given Grezzo used the name of the organization in his promise of help.

It's also uncertain what this contact with Grezzo is like for Tavnazia: he gave them at least one painting, of Al'Taieu, which depicted Bahamut. So Grezzo would have had to obtain this painting from somewhere, and be aware that it depicts Al'Taieu and Wyrmking Bahamut, and that this is important for Tavnazia to have. All of this is not outside the realm of possibility for Grezzo to organize, except that he somehow managed to leave no evidence about his meeting the Tavnazians, even among the Tenshodo.

I'm withholding speculation on how long ago all this happened for now. We don't know how long ago Prishe met Grezzo, and while it's obvious Prishe is chronologically older than she looks, there's no concrete evidence that all of this happened long enough ago that Prishe would "look too young" to have met Grezzo. We don't know when Grezzo died, unless there's some dialogue about it that I never managed to find. Grezzo is evidently secretive enough that I can certainly believe his refusing to reveal to the Tavnazians current events on the mainland.

Aldo commenting on the dangers of navigating to Tavnazia is a handwave explanation of why the Tavnazians have been cut off. "The currents have changed and so it's dangerous until we chart them out again" sounds like the kind of thing that shouldn't pose that much of a hurdle to exploration and trade, but I can't prove that either, so it's about as good an explanation as we're likely to get. We know there are expeditions to literal other continents, like Aht Urhgan and Adoulin, as per the expansions. Maybe the route to Tavnazia is just not seen as profitable enough, and charting that route is not seen as profitable.

Aldo: And I don't care if you tag along, but that's not for me to decide. You'll have to get the customer's permission.

Prishe: Oh well. As much as I was looking forward to a private cruise, I guess I can't complain.

Aldo gives up on trying to have an intelligent conversation with Prishe, and tells her to go sightsee around Jeuno until the ship is ready. Prishe happily leaves to do just that, hoping to see us again "if you're still alive". Aldo advises us to go turn ourselves in to the Jeuno authorities to prove our innocence.

The suggestion to stay in Tavnazia until the authorities stop looking for us reminds me of the justification for moving to Ishgard for the Heavensward expansion of FFXIV. The idea there is Ishgard is famously isolationist, and we had (due to being the usual helpful adventurer) gained their trust, so we get to hide out in Ishgard, but the authorities looking for us can be turned away with Ishgardian indifference.

However, FFXIV also didn't want to gate players off from the other areas of the world, especially since our becoming fugitives is in the gap between the last patch story before the expansion, and the expansion itself, with the real life time gap that implies. So we could still run around the city-states where we're allegedly wanted criminals, but the guards alternately tell us they don't believe the charges against us, or recognize that we're a seasoned adventurer and so we're likely to cause a lot of damage if we resisted arrest, so they all just pretend they didn't see us. And that's about all the gameplay effect that being fugitives has.

I mention this because I'm reminded of it now that we're a wanted criminal in Jeuno. Nobody in Jeuno has anything new to say to us. Nobody in San d'Oria has anything new to say to us, for that matter; I tried Rahal and Curilla, as the ones who are available to talk to outside of quests, but they're still in their "thank you for defeating the Shadow Lord" dialogue (well, Rahal also has DRG quest comments). So much for Wolfgang obtaining permission from San d'Oria to charge us with treason to Jeuno.

At the palace in Ru'Lude Garden, clicking on the door to the audience chamber has Wolfgang tell us to wait.

Wolfgang: We were beginning to wonder when you would arrive, Miyoto.

The duke vicarious is meeting a messenger from the East as we speak. When she is finished, you shall be next. Until then, you shall be kept in custody.

We last heard the term "duke vicarious" from Gilgamesh, in the context of a man from the East, Tenzen, meeting said Duke Vicarious to seek help regarding the Emptiness. This was part of Rhapsodies Of Vana'diel, and available near the start of Rise Of The Zilart. It was also the first time we saw Prishe, as a mysterious purple-haired woman.

Some rearrangement of the timeline might be in order, because this is probably that meeting with the Duke Vicarious mentioned during Rhapsodies Of Vana'diel. It's not that much of a rearrangement, since that particular Rhapsodies Of Vana'diel scene was quickly followed by a story-block where Iroha tells us to go do Chains Of Promathia. So I can just pretend that Rhapsodies Of Vana'diel scene, which is supposed to take place after Siren's defeat, instead happens after this Chains Of Promathia scene with Tenzen.

We now know the name of the Duke Vicarious: Esha'ntarl. We also now know the mysterious Zilart woman who was commanding the Armathrwn Mammets is Esha'ntarl the Duke Vicarious.

She's pretending quite hard that everything is perfectly fine in Jeuno, since attempting to relay words to Kam'lanaut at this time would require some sort of necromancy. Which might actually work, given Borghertz et al.

Esha'ntarl assures Tenzen that the two Generic Armathrwn Members (non-mammet) standing beside the throne will be witness to anything Tenzen says, so there's no worry about Esha'ntarl not passing on the message. Tenzen hesitates, but continues.

Tenzen: While short, my message is not a simple one. It is critical that the duke fully understands the grave nature of the situation that lies before us.

What I am about to say does not only affect my homeland, but the countries to the south and west, as well as this fair land.

The Emptiness is closing in. It has already appeared in the far reaches of the Eastern Empire. I can assume that the same is true of the outlying areas in the southern and western lands.

The phenomenon started small, but in recent months it has begun to grow. Like sap oozes slowly from a tree, the Emptiness spreads across my country, swallowing whole the hills and forests.

Esha'ntarl: Your report of this "darkness" -- this Emptiness -- it is not news to us. In recent weeks, there have been reports of similar phenomena occurring in the areas around Jeuno.

However, these reports state that the Emptiness, as you call it, is localized. That is why we have chosen to withhold this information from the public until it can be further researched. If it is true that the Emptiness has begun to spread, though, an immediate investigation may be necessary.

Shall the Duchy prepare a team?

Tenzen looks up from his respectful Samurai Kneeling stance at this, clearly alarmed.

Tenzen: ... You... do not know why the Emptiness has appeared?

Esha'ntarl: Unfortunately, our scientists have not yet come to any concrete conclusions. If your empire has any definite data, we would be delighted to hear it.

Esha'ntarl: The five shards -- the mothercrystals -- are what support our world.

We, the Duchy, have taken it upon ourselves to inherit the will of the ancients and protect the Zilartian ruins and the crystals they hold.

We have kept this information from the nations of Bastok, Windurst, and San d'Oria to shield the mothercrystals from those who may wish to wrongly use their power for personal gain.

I see that the Eastern Empire has learned of the crystals' existence, and therefore we can no longer trust you, either.

There is some tremendous irony here about Esha'ntarl, an actual Zilart, pretending that all the Arks/Crags holding the mothercrystals are "Zilartian ruins", since we learned from Rise Of The Zilart that at least Delkfutt's Tower pre-dates the Zilart, and all the mothercrystals certainly do. A sort of deception by generalization, here.

And it is a testament to Esha'ntarl's diplomatic poker face that she can say the Duchy of Jeuno are trying to "shield the mothercrystals from those who may wish to wrongly use their power for personal gain", when Jeuno was literally created as a means for Kam'lanaut and Eald'narche, ie Esha'ntarl's former bosses, to use the power of the mothercrystals for personal gain. The Zilart princes might claim their plans are not for personal gain, with "the Gate of the Gods" supposedly open for everyone, but their actions proved they were looking for paradise for themselves, and did not care about everyone else dying in the process.

The player would know by now (assuming we've done Rise Of The Zilart) that Jeuno was not keeping the mothercrystals secret for the sake of the safety of the world, but because the Zilart princes were planning on using them to open Tu'Lia and beyond. Esha'ntarl might believe in actually safeguarding the planet, but she had to know her bosses were only in it for themselves. If not at the time, then certainly by now.

It's likely all part of pretending the Archduke is still alive and just momentarily indisposed, and certainly not a maniac willing to wipe out the world to achieve paradise. I'm not sure how far they can take that deception, but we'll probably never know due to the time bubble most MMORPGs exist in.

Esha'ntarl: Very well. I can tell you one thing. The Duchy is currently in search of a boy. This boy is thought to be connected in some way to the Emptiness.

Even though he is not one of us, he has already found a way into three of the Zilartian ruins, the Emptiness following in his path.

We here believe that this boy is the Keeper of the Apocalypse of which you speak.

It's finally our turn to meet Esha'ntarl. Conveniently, Esha'ntarl also manages to turn the discussion into aiming Tenzen at the mysterious boy, implying that he's responsible for the spread of the Emptiness, despite previously saying the scientists of Jeuno still do not have enough data.

I assume we, the player character, did not get a good look at Esha'ntarl during the attack on Bahamut. We certainly give no indication of recognizing her.

Esha'ntarl: However, if we learn that San d'Oria is behind this threat to the mothercrystals and the well-being of all those residing on Vana'diel...

Whether allies or not, Jeuno will be forced to take action against the nation. We will destroy them.

But this is still nothing more than speculation. If we had the time to conduct a proper investigation, it would be the first thing we did. Unfortunately, time is one luxury we do not have.

Tenzen: And that is why we must capture the boy immediately to learn of what he knows...

I'm actually impressed. Esha'ntarl is essentially holding our home nation hostage to force us to go hunt down the mysterious boy.

It does require the player to care about their home nation, or at least their good name in their home nation. At the least, for the purposes of progressing the story, we can suspend disbelief enough to assume we care. I do think in a more modern MMORPG (with more ability to code in frequent player inputs), the player could have a choice in how to respond, between asserting their innocence, agreeing to the justification of clearing their home nation's name, or refusing to participate in this political farce while conceding that the mysterious boy still needs to be found. The end result would be the story continuing as usual, but the player gets to characterize their response.

I'm guessing this is Esha'ntarl's way of making sure Nag'molada doesn't mess things up by blundering in, the way he did the past three times. Now, we the adventurer are cooperating with the hunt (willingly or otherwise), instead of being seen as an obstacle to be worked around or eliminated. Attempting to prevent the boy's escape by chasing him has not worked, laying a trap for him has not worked, killing him has not worked, as Wolfgang could testify. I don't know if Esha'ntarl knows how to capture the boy either, which is why she has delegated that problem to us.

Esha'ntarl: Mythril Musketeer captain, Ulrich, from Bastok...

Again with that Northlands Expedition. I'm curious if Esha'ntarl knows that we know about the Zilart, including how the Northern Ark was destroyed. Either way, I suppose she can't reveal it in front of others.

The suggestion to find one of the "original members" of the Northlands Expedition is somewhat odd, given Esha'ntarl knows it was thirty years ago, but does not seem to know what happened to the members afterwards, viz they got murdered supernaturally by the Shadow Lord. Even survivors would be quite old by now.

Also Esha'ntarl is missing one member, Yow Rabntah, who I believe is also associated with Windurst. I don't know if her omission is significant.

Morganite · Jul 21, 2023

Adloquium said:
"blue portals?"

Blue portals!

Touch a pincerstone nearby (usually up a flight of stairs) and they turn on temporarily. I'm *pretty* sure they can be used by anyone, not just the player who touched the pincerstone. And there's no message when you do that, just an animation.

Of course, this may or may not matter, because I'm not sure how likely you are to need to go back there for anything I think you're planning on doing.

Adloquium said:
Kind of. I know they're around, and I know they can store items for me, but I'm fuzzy on the details of how to keep track of everything they've stored, in terms of player knowledge.

Well, each slip stores a certain type of item, and you can trade it to the moogle to see what's on it. (And there's a windower addon to search your inventory that will also search what's on your slips, if you're into benign TOS violations.)

The main advantages compared to the older storage NPCs is that porter moogles will handle a lot more stuff, including many types of new and upgraded equipment, and you can take out individual pieces of a set instead of having to store the whole thing at once.* And also that they stuck them all over the place, including in your mog garden, so the convenience level is higher.

*This last part was, from what I can tell, why a lot of people weren't fans. It's pretty rare for people trying to even lightly optimize to have a use for every piece of a job's AF or relic.

Adloquium said:
I don't know how much contact Tavnazia has with the rest of the world; the situation with the merchants and what Despachiaire says seems to indicate that there is so little contact the only information they ever get are from lost individuals like us. Given the continued lack of contact, that means the other lost people never returned to the mainland to inform others that there's this community of people in the ruins of Tavnazia who are desperate for trade.

It sure looks to me like the painting they got from the Tenshodo was before Tavnazia was cut off. As for the lost people... my no-prize explanation is that before this, the portals moved around enough that even those who made it back couldn't provide a return route, so even if they were believed it didn't amount to anything.

Adloquium said:
Justinius warns us not to go to the entrance to the aqueducts, which in the usual RPG fashion means that's our next destination.

At least you get permission first! Sorta.

Adloquium said:
Makes sense for a child who's just tossing out words without thinking of whether they make sense, but it's awkward to call the trio "children" when they're about the size of adult Tarutaru, rather than the tiny models for child Tarutaru.

I think maybe they're supposed to be teenagers, or somewhere in there.

It makes me wonder how their height/scale compares to Tarutaru PCs. I know the game engine would allow making their models smaller to represent not being adults, but it'd be a bit awkward to check.

I'm *pretty* sure I remember other don't-seem-like-adults Tarutaru NPCs that don't use the tiny models, but I can't think of where at the moment.

Adloquium said:
The Star Onion Brigade do try to keep their goal of "upholding justice" in mind, even if they're going about it in a "little kid misunderstanding" kind of way.

At least the SOB is actually going after someone who is actually a criminal, and on at least one occasion does stand against a genuine injustice. (And I don't know if I've said it before, but if you ever decide to do Windurst's mission line, it might be worth doing the SOB questline first. It's not a huge deal, but it does explain something that happens.)

Adloquium said:
All of which, as it turned out, was entirely dialogue fluff.

Of course, it was mechanical once. Originally, the aquaducts had a level 40 cap. Oddly, I don't think any of the other level capped areas got a diegetic explanation the way this one did.

Fomors in CoP (and only in CoP) have two interesting mechanics that... can largely be ignored in the no-level-caps world.

First up, they have a cumulative hate mechanism. Unlike most undead, Fomor aren't aggressive... until you kill a few of them, and then they'll start trying to kill you right back. Kill even more, and their aggro range increases too, though sources disagree on the details. (Some used to say that they'd eventually become truesound aggro, but this seems to have been incorrect.) Killing beastmen and tauri in the region reduces fomor hate. But since they won't pick a fight with sufficiently high level characters, it usually doesn't matter.

The other thing fomor do that's unusual is that they form parties. Some are just regular single enemies, but others spawn in (preset) linked groups that travel together, and if you attack one, the others will join in, even if they wouldn't aggro on their own. It's an interesting mechanic that I'm surprised they didn't make more use of in the future. Despite there being plenty of enemies that belong to social species, I can't remember any other examples of group aggro like that other than NMs.

Aquaducts was also one of those zones that could make a beastmaster feel like a real badass. Fomors here are at suitable levels for a 40 cap party, but a BST could charm and familiar one of the strong slime mobs, and use it to successfully (if slowly*) farm single fomors. Since a very nice piece of armor for the job (by the standards of the time) required a drop from Fomor Beastmasters, I spent a fair amount of time farming that way. Got the bronze key for when my LS went to do the mission too, in fact. They were also pretty good against the boss; it was theorized that a BST trio could probably win the fight, though I never heard of anyone trying it.

*Enemies in most 'inside' areas repop every 16 minutes. Familiar lasts 30 minutes and took two hours to recharge. So it was, fight two, then log off and do something else for an hour and a half. But much easier than trying to get a party together to farm fomor.

Adloquium said:
This is exacerbated by ladders

These ladders were major anxiety fuel back in the day, since it was very hard to be sure that you'd have time to get down and to a safe spot before a Stegotaur saw you. A BST with a slime pet could beat one if they were careful, but it was slow and risky and you had to get past at least one to even *reach* the slimes.

Adloquium said:
According to the wikis, it supposedly has a Doom mechanic, which I can understand would make it a real challenge for at-level players.

All Tauri have that move, actually. (And there are higher level ones out there, though I don't know if you'll find yourself compelled to fight any.) It's main gimmick is that it's a gaze attack, so if you aren't in the enemy's frontal cone *and* facing it, it does nothing. So if you're paying attention, it's not too hard to avoid, but the window is pretty narrow, so pulling a pet back to keep it from getting hit requires you to really be on the ball.

The Minotaur's interesting trick is that when you aggro it, it'll pull everyone in your alliance (and their pets if any) to it. So a pretty common trick was for one person who was good at dodging aggro to sneak over to it's area instead of the entire group having to fight their way through.

When I did it, I think we had... something like 14 people there. Probably overkill even in those days (especially with two BST with charmed slimes), but it was a lot of fun, doing something in a big group that was actually new to all of us.

Adloquium said:
I assume it's a long-running problem with MMORPGs that try to contain some sort of story where the player character is sent to some faraway land, and thus without their usual support structures: the story wants to praise us for overcoming an obstacle "alone", but gameplay means we kind of need other people to help us overcome that obstacle.

There might also be a translation issue involved. I remember in my Atelier Rorona LP commenting on a phrase that suggested Rorona had gone out adventuring with three other people when the game only allows two other party members at a time; someone suggested that the Japanese phrase used was probably a certain one that wouldn't have the same implication. Even if it's going the other way, I could believe that the Japanese dialogue might use a word that at least allows the possibility of a group of adventurers, rather than a single one.

Adloquium said:
This does confirm the description in Theatrhythm Final Bar Line of Prishe being a "pariah". We still don't know the details, but Prishe is certainly bothered by it, even if she tries hard to put it aside.

There's an interesting contrast between this and how she seems to be highly respected by a number of others in Tavnazia, not limited to the younger ones. I have to admit though, I don't remember exactly what was going on with this...

Adloquium said:
Another dragon? Given how seriously everyone is taking it, I'm assuming "dragon" here refers to major ones like Bahamut, rather than the generic critter types roaming around, or the Dragoon wyverns.

I don't think most of those are considered 'proper' dragons. Like, in the terms used in the Bestiary on the wiki (which I believe are all based on the in-game usages) wyverns and stuff (including the drakes in Riverne) are of the dragon type, but Bahamut and so forth are of the dragon family, which at the time contained only unique or special event mobs. (And there still aren't a lot of non-unique ones.)

Riverne A was originally a level 40 cap area. While the enemy levels here could nominally support a solo BST, I couldn't make it work when I tried. Between truesight aggro, annoying enemy distributions, and flytraps being resistant to charm, it just didn't work out. Which annoyed me, because I was hoping to farm up scales in advance like I had the bronze key for that mission.

Adloquium said:
They start casting magic, trapping Bahamut in webbing.

This whole sequence doesn't make much sense to me. Maybe it *should* have, but we're getting very close the point where I stalled out for literal years. I'm not sure what the point of trying to restrain Bahamut was, or why we would have decided to intervene. (Other than Prishe liking him, I guess.)

Anyway, the Mammet fight was a pain. Handling multiple enemies at once isn't something FFXI threw at you a lot until CoP, and the usual strategy (keep them asleep until you're ready for them) wasn't quite viable here. Most strategies I heard about involved having four people focus on a single mammet while the other two party members kite the others. And in fact, I was a kiter in my group's run, but I didn't do a very good job of it. BST can kite well, but there's a couple different ways and I wasn't fully prepared to handle everything that was going on. I believe I could have done better in a second attempt... but we won thanks to the other kiter being a very good RDM who was able to help cover the gaps with mine, so we won and there didn't have to be another attempt.

Adloquium said:
Struggle through life, and your reward is living.

Reminds me of a line one of the merchants in Kazham has.

Toji Mumosulah said:
Things meant to live will live. Things meant to die will die when their time has come. However, this does not mean you should cease your strrruggle for life.

(Though I'd remembered her as being a weapon merchant, which might make that seem a bit self-serving, but that was incorrect.)

Adloquium said:
Since the Zilart princes were in a position of authority in ancient times, and exerted their authority both old and new in the present time, the other Zilart had little choice but to follow them, especially since Eald'narche specifically was stated to be almost godlike in personal power. With them gone, though, the other Zilart can be more open about their own goals and desires.

It's not a bad theory, except that you don't have to have beaten RotZ to get this far, and I don't think this cutscene changes either way. I think both groups must have been hiding at least some of their intentions, and so each felt they could work with (or at least mostly ignore) the other.

(If the wiki is to be believed, the cutscene in Jeuno with Esha'ntarl doesn't change either. That being said, I'm pretty sure there are other "go check in with the big bosses in Jeuno" cutscenes in the later expansions that do branch based on RotZ progress.)

Adloquium said:
"Protective custody" is the term that comes to mind

Or "drunk tank".

. o O ("Go home, Prishe, you're drunk.")

Adloquium said:
There is some tremendous irony here about Esha'ntarl, an actual Zilart, pretending that all the Arks/Crags holding the mothercrystals are "Zilartian ruins", since we learned from Rise Of The Zilart that at least Delkfutt's Tower pre-dates the Zilart, and all the mothercrystals certainly do.

I'm a little confused by your phrasing here. Are you suggesting that Delkfutt's tower houses one of the mothercrystals? (Because it does not.)

You'd think that the claim about them being in Zilartian ruins would make it seem suspicious that she couldn't just tell us this stuff instead of sending us on a research mission, but then the PC wasn't technically in the room for that part.

Adloquium said:
Conveniently, Esha'ntarl also manages to turn the discussion into aiming Tenzen at the mysterious boy, implying that he's responsible for the spread of the Emptiness, despite previously saying the scientists of Jeuno still do not have enough data.

To be fair, "Wolfgang hit him, and then a whole bunch of darkness came out" is at least suggestive.

Adloquium said:
It does require the player to care about their home nation, or at least their good name in their home nation.

And to consider the threat plausible. ~~Eh, I don't know, I think Prishe could probably solo Jeuno...~~

Well, I think this is one of those times where my character-thoughts were "Yeah, you're full of shit, but you want me to do something I think is worth doing, so I'll go along with it."

Interesting that the wiki suggests that you can finish RoV at this point. I really don't think that makes sense storywise. But then that goes for a lot of it's lockouts.

-Morgan.

Adloquium · Jul 21, 2023

Morganite said:
It sure looks to me like the painting they got from the Tenshodo was before Tavnazia was cut off. As for the lost people... my no-prize explanation is that before this, the portals moved around enough that even those who made it back couldn't provide a return route, so even if they were believed it didn't amount to anything.

I'm very ignorant about the timeline, to be honest.

We know the destruction of Tavnazia happened some time during the Crystal War, which happened "twenty years ago", although I don't remember how long that war lasted and whether the "twenty years" is from its start or its end.

The implication from the Safehold inhabitants is there had been no meaningful interaction from the rest of the continent ever since the destruction of the Marquisate. We know the Marquis himself did die on the mainland, as did enough Tavnazians to be the targets for "put down the undead" quests. According to Gilgamesh in the SAM AF questline, most of these were Tavnazians who died in the escape, and Gilgamesh's pirates in Norg are the ones who survived.

The big question is "Grezzo of the Tenshodo". For Grezzo to give the painting of Al'Taieu to the people of Tavnazia before the Marquisate was destroyed, this would have been before or in the early days of the Crystal War. Which means the Tenshodo pre-dates all of this, and knew enough about the "truth of the world" (ie the Zilart) to identify the significance of the Al'Taieu painting. And Grezzo knew all of this, but still did not tell anyone else in the Tenshodo about the Tavnazian Safehold.

We also know Grezzo visited the Safehold after it was cut off, because Grezzo told Prishe, personally, to go ask the Tenshodo for help if need be. It's possible for Prishe to be old enough to have been around for the fall of Tavnazia, twenty years ago, but it stretches plausibility that Prishe would be important enough back then for Grezzo to talk to her specifically.

And now that I'm writing this all out, I'm even more confused that the literal pirates of Norg, ie people who make a living sailing (and plundering), and who are allegedly descended from a destroyed nation, have not tried sailing to that nation in the twenty years since. Aldo says the currents have changed in the past twenty years, but surely people who are on the sea all the time would be aware of this and have adjusted around it.

Morganite said:
I think maybe they're supposed to be teenagers, or somewhere in there.

It makes me wonder how their height/scale compares to Tarutaru PCs. I know the game engine would allow making their models smaller to represent not being adults, but it'd be a bit awkward to check.

One way of checking is to summon the Trust Alter Egos, I think. I picked up the Tarutaru Trio during one of the Alter Ego events (using Sparks to convert to whatever currency I needed). I could summon one of them, then summon Apururu or something, and check.

I literally just thought about this, so let me log in quickly:

But yeah, at a glance, the Tarutaru trio look like they're about the size of adult Tarutaru, which makes sense; teenagers are often the same general height (or taller, thanks to better nutrition) to adults.

Morganite said:
At least the SOB is actually going after someone who is actually a criminal, and on at least one occasion does stand against a genuine injustice. (And I don't know if I've said it before, but if you ever decide to do Windurst's mission line, it might be worth doing the SOB questline first. It's not a huge deal, but it does explain something that happens.)

Having done more quests involving Nanaa Mihgo, including the THF AF questline, I can see how she's definitely an actual criminal, who does things that are definitely against the law and any reasonable interpretation of a rules-based society... but to be honest, she's criminal in the sense that Team Rocket are criminals. She does crime, but not seriously in a meta-narrative sense. She's both very competent at the skills for committing crimes, and incompetent at the luck for making sure the crimes stick.

So the Star Onion Brigade going against Nanaa Mihgo is pretty smart, if only by coincidence. The Star Onion Brigade's rationale for going after Nanaa is entirely circumstantial, and they don't actually know the details of the actual crimes she has committed. Meanwhile, their attempts at "going after" Nanaa amounts largely to harassment and pranks, which annoy and inconvenience her. And Nanaa knows who is responsible (because the Star Onion Brigade are not exactly master tricksters themselves), but everyone knows (both in-universe and out-of-universe) she's never going to retaliate in any serious way. It's all in good fun, narratively.

This is in comparison to other characters and factions in the THF AF questline, so there's the juxtaposition of how "serious" it all can get.

I do have to admit your description of the Star Onion Brigade story is making me reconsider it, and maybe I'll check out the rest of it. Possibly this is also influenced by how well the Star Onion Brigade come off compared to the Tarutaru trio.

Morganite said:
All Tauri have that move, actually. (And there are higher level ones out there, though I don't know if you'll find yourself compelled to fight any.) It's main gimmick is that it's a gaze attack, so if you aren't in the enemy's frontal cone *and* facing it, it does nothing. So if you're paying attention, it's not too hard to avoid, but the window is pretty narrow, so pulling a pet back to keep it from getting hit requires you to really be on the ball.

Ah, okay. I know the similar enemies (same model, same or similar names) in FFXIV also tend to have Doom or some such mechanic.

It's just that Doom in FFXIV almost always has a way of cleansing it off, with the exceptions largely being instant "you failed this mechanic, now die". The Doom itself is a mechanic, and there are different variations for how to cleanse it; in many cases it's just a status effect (that kills you once it counts down) which should be removed by Esuna, while in other cases you have to do a rather obvious action (standing on lighted pads is the common one) to cleanse it.

Meanwhile, I don't know if FFXI provides a way to cleanse Doom, or if it's the equivalent of a failed mechanic check. As you say, it's a gaze attack, which occurs all the time in FFXIV as well, but FFXIV has a much different pace and mechanic of gameplay, so spinning your character around to avoid the gaze is trivial. Meanwhile, as far as I can tell, FFXI requires you to unlock the targeting, then move your character, all quite slowly and deliberately. So you'd have a much shorter grace period for recognizing the attack and turning away.

Tangentially, pets getting caught in mechanics was definitely a problem in FFXIV as well, to the point where in the current iteration of the game, there are no longer any real pets, as opposed to visual effects for spells that appear to involve pets. As someone who gravitates towards pet classes, I'm of mixed feelings on it; the skill floor and ceiling has definitely been lowered, but I also hated how sometimes my pet would die from a roomwide AoE and there was nothing I could do about it, requiring MP and time spent summoning it again.

Morganite said:
There's an interesting contrast between this and how she seems to be highly respected by a number of others in Tavnazia, not limited to the younger ones. I have to admit though, I don't remember exactly what was going on with this...

I did notice how everyone in Tavnazia consulted Prishe, despite Prishe's Prishe-ness. They clearly trust her, so there's definitely more to her than the "impulsive reckless child" that she acts like. Every time there's a new development in the vicinity of the Tavnazian Safehold, everyone waits for Prishe to make a decision about it, and when Prishe returns, they crowd around her to give status reports.

This includes Despachiaire himself, who was the one Prishe brought up the "abhorrent one" insult to.

For an alleged pariah, Prishe is more popular than other allegedly popular characters (eg Justinius).

Morganite said:
I don't think most of those are considered 'proper' dragons. Like, in the terms used in the Bestiary on the wiki (which I believe are all based on the in-game usages) wyverns and stuff (including the drakes in Riverne) are of the dragon type, but Bahamut and so forth are of the dragon family, which at the time contained only unique or special event mobs. (And there still aren't a lot of non-unique ones.)

Memes aside, it kind of makes some sense in-universe. In FFXIV, there are a lot of "dragons" which are colloquially labelled as such, but the in-universe taxonomy is quite specific that only creatures of a certain lineage (from Midgardsormr, the Primogenitor of Dragons) count as dragons. Everything else are either artificial imitations of dragons, or just look draconic, eg dinosaurs.

But to the average inhabitant of the setting, it looks draconic, and so it's called a "dragon". In FFXIV this has led so some character moments, like the FFXIV version of Seiryu having to tiredly insist that he's a snake, not a dragon. I'm curious if there are examples of similar events in FFXI, or if there's no official attempt in-universe at a proper taxonomic classification of critters in the setting.

Morganite said:
This whole sequence doesn't make much sense to me. Maybe it *should* have, but we're getting very close the point where I stalled out for literal years. I'm not sure what the point of trying to restrain Bahamut was, or why we would have decided to intervene. (Other than Prishe liking him, I guess.)

My guess is the Armathrwn Society of Jeuno, who I would assume is the cover for "survivors of Zilart and their assistants", would know about Bahamut dramatically rising from the ocean in that cutscene and declaring war on the gods. I also assume someone would have heard him, or it would be a little sad for Bahamut to emerge and make his speech to an audience of zero.

So attempting to capture Bahamut for interrogation or custody makes some sort of sense, especially if the Zilart remember Bahamut from his alleged role in the Meltdown. It also seemed to be working, until Prishe punched out one of the mammet casters and unravelled the whole thing. Poor planning on Jeuno for a single point of failure, but it's still a better attempt than what Nag'molada had been doing up until then.

Morganite said:
Or "drunk tank".

. o O ("Go home, Prishe, you're drunk.")

"Drunk tank" was definitely the term I was looking for.

Morganite said:
I'm a little confused by your phrasing here. Are you suggesting that Delkfutt's tower houses one of the mothercrystals? (Because it does not.)

You'd think that the claim about them being in Zilartian ruins would make it seem suspicious that she couldn't just tell us this stuff instead of sending us on a research mission, but then the PC wasn't technically in the room for that part.

This is definitely me misunderstanding things. I did think Delkfutt's Tower had one of the mothercrystals, but on re-reading my own thread, I realized that this was never claimed or implied, and I just assumed incorrectly.

My excuse is there have been said to be five mothercrystals in Arks/Crags, not including the possible Prime Mothercrystal that talked to us in the Rhapsodies Of Vana'diel cutscenes, and which is likely intended to reference Hydaelyn from FFXIV. So I counted the three in Holla, Dem, and Mea, and the one Northlands one that used to be in an Ark until the Kuluu raided it and caused the Meltdown... which leaves one more mothercrystal unaccounted for.

I'm assuming the five mothercrystals are of equal (metaphysical) size and stature, to account for the equality between the Five Races, rather than one being privileged over the others. So the hypothetical Prime Mothercrystal, which is the one likely being sung about in Memoria de la Stona, would not be included in this count.

I'm also assuming we'll find out the location of the fifth mothercrystal some time during the story. I do find it surprising that nobody in the main story seems to have mentioned it yet, unless it's been mentioned in passing and I just completely forgot about it. Which would itself be odd, since surely an entire mothercrystal would be a big deal.

Morganite said:
And to consider the threat plausible. ~~Eh, I don't know, I think Prishe could probably solo Jeuno...~~

Well, I think this is one of those times where my character-thoughts were "Yeah, you're full of shit, but you want me to do something I think is worth doing, so I'll go along with it."

And then there's the sudden disappearance of any claims about "treason", which was the entire justification for Wolfgang to bully us into "turning ourselves in" at the palace in the first place. Making it even clearer that Wolfgang's allegations were nonsense, and only an excuse to get us to the palace so Esha'ntarl can force us to go look for the mysterious boy.

At which point my character would have gone "do you people not have regular messengers and reasonable invitations? Do you only think in terms of blackmail and duress?"

Even the authorities in San d'Oria had nothing to say about this alleged charge of treason which Wolfgang claimed they had totally agreed with. I don't know if this is due to tech limitations preventing changes in NPC dialogue, or if Wolfgang was lying for... no known reason.

Morganite said:
Interesting that the wiki suggests that you can finish RoV at this point. I really don't think that makes sense storywise. But then that goes for a lot of it's lockouts.

As far as I can tell, Rhapsodies Of Vana'diel is attempting to accomplish several things at once:

Tie together all the stories of FFXI thus far into an overarching plotline, underlying the existing expansion-specific plotlines already in place.
Provide several important quality of life improvements for players, gating each of them behind story and level progress. They chose to do this via reward key items.
Provide these reward key items after a gameplay challenge unique to Rhapsodies Of Vana'diel itself, rather than just giving them out after a series of cutscenes.
Have the Rhapsodies Of Vana'diel story make sense both for new players, and for players who have finished all the content thus far, and for players who have one expansion but not another.

I think these objectives conflict with each other a great deal, within the limitations of how FFXI works and what the devs were used to designing. So sometimes they had to prioritize one above another, and occasionally they succeeded at none of it. The obvious plot holes and retcons just make things confusing, even if we're generous and keep in mind how a lot of it was written assuming foreknowledge of the rest of the game's events.

But the gameplay improvements are so good that it doesn't make sense for a new player to forgo them, unless they had a veteran group handholding them in place of those quality of life improvements.

Personally I think the biggest obstacle is trying to insist the Rhapsodies key items must be awarded only after gameplay challenges. I assume there would have been pushback if they made the quality of life universal, and had the rewards for Rhapsodies Of Vana'diel just being able to experience the new story, so the other option is simply to be able to award them after no-gameplay cutscenes. Or separate the key items from Rhapsodies Of Vana'diel progress entirely.

Morganite · Jul 21, 2023

Adloquium said:
We also know Grezzo visited the Safehold after it was cut off, because Grezzo told Prishe, personally, to go ask the Tenshodo for help if need be. It's possible for Prishe to be old enough to have been around for the fall of Tavnazia, twenty years ago, but it stretches plausibility that Prishe would be important enough back then for Grezzo to talk to her specifically.

Eh, I'm still pretty sure Grezzo's last contact was supposed to have been before they were cut off. And she doesn't need to be important for him to pay attention to her, I could easily imagine her trying to punch him (or some other act of Prishe-like impulsiveness in his vicinity), he decides he likes her spunk, and then the rest of it follows. But it's just way too weird if Grezzo had been there afterwards and just not told anyone.

Adloquium said:
And now that I'm writing this all out, I'm even more confused that the literal pirates of Norg, ie people who make a living sailing (and plundering), and who are allegedly descended from a destroyed nation, have not tried sailing to that nation in the twenty years since.

Seems like a combination of no one thinking there's any reason to go there, and with the Tavnazian remnants being based underground, there not being anything that would be visible from sea to indicate that there were survivors.

Adloquium said:
I picked up the Tarutaru Trio during one of the Alter Ego events

Huh. I coulda sworn they were CoP progress locked. *wiki check* Okay, one ~~specifically the only one I had any actual use for~~ is locked by CoP progress, but the other two aren't. That makes about as much sense as the trust system ever does.

Adloquium said:
Meanwhile, I don't know if FFXI provides a way to cleanse Doom, or if it's the equivalent of a failed mechanic check.

Cursna can work, as well as some consumables (holy water/hallowed water). None are completely reliable. And in some cases (not with tauri) if you kill the mob first it wears off. There's gear that can help, but in a lot of cases you really want to be avoiding it in one way or another.

Adloquium said:
As someone who gravitates towards pet classes, I'm of mixed feelings on it; the skill floor and ceiling has definitely been lowered, but I also hated how sometimes my pet would die from a roomwide AoE and there was nothing I could do about it, requiring MP and time spent summoning it again.

I can understand how they might have decided to punt on the whole issue, since FFXI had trouble with it too. They seem to have had real trouble balancing "pets durable enough to not die to the AoE that's common in big fights" and "durable enough to be way too strong a tank" for BST. Especially since pet healing is... kinda weirdly balanced.

Interestingly, it seems like iLevel BST pets are very likely to resist Doom and other instant-or-near-instant death attacks in lower level content... which would make sense, except that a lot of times the *player* would be affected by it despite the level gap. It seems like level difference plays a bigger role in a lot of calculations for pets than for players. Good for pet users that outlevel the enemy, but a bit unfortunate for those jobs when it comes to the current endgame.

Is this a bird?

Even that, there's a certain logic to it. Part of it's that the same stuff is supposed to be a kind of "what kind of things eat them", which... well, I don't know why amorphs, but the basic idea works - there's overlap between what eats birds and what eats bats. And bats also fall into the "has wings, so stuff that would tear up their wings is rough on them" group that explains why most members of the type are vulnerable to piercing damage.

I don't think it has much presence in dialogue though, just in game mechanics.

Adloquium said:
Poor planning on Jeuno for a single point of failure, but it's still a better attempt than what Nag'molada had been doing up until then.

Hey, Nag'molada's the one who's getting things done this time. He had a cordial conversation going with Bahamut and was getting useful information until the airship came along to ~~stop them from giving out spoilers~~ break up the party. It might have worked better if they'd just left him alone to do his thing.

Adloquium said:
So I counted the three in Holla, Dem, and Mea, and the one Northlands one that used to be in an Ark until the Kuluu raided it and caused the Meltdown... which leaves one more mothercrystal unaccounted for.

Understandable. I was thinking the last one had to be Yhoat (it's not), since that's where the last teleport spell location is. Which isn't correct, but... well, there's an answer eventually.

Adloquium said:
Even the authorities in San d'Oria had nothing to say about this alleged charge of treason which Wolfgang claimed they had totally agreed with. I don't know if this is due to tech limitations preventing changes in NPC dialogue, or if Wolfgang was lying for... no known reason.

Wouldn't surprise me if both in- and out-of-character they assume you'll just head over immediately. After all, you're more or less right there already. They probably oould have made it all one cutscene, except FFXI doesn't like to do cross-zone stuff in the middle of cutscenes that way.

Adloquium said:
Do you only think in terms of blackmail and duress?"

Given how she was going at Tenzen before the PC came in, I think signs point to yes. Though it feels a little shoehorned. Like, maybe worrying about other nations misusing the crystals isn't an entirely unreasonable concern. (And a recurring theme in the larger franchise for that matter.) But Tenzen's people would basically have to invade first, and they currently have bigger problems, so it seems a bit silly to jump to that immediately. Especially with the risk of 'great, now you've given them the idea'.

Adloquium said:
But the gameplay improvements are so good that it doesn't make sense for a new player to forgo them, unless they had a veteran group handholding them in place of those quality of life improvements.

Mmm. When I was thinking about doing something like this thread (except my planned hook was "Write it as though it's the DDLC cast playing the game"), my plan was to write it as though a good chunk of the QoL didn't exist while doing so, but use all the tools behind the scenes because not doing so would be awful.

Though the counterpoint to this is that you don't really have to get all *that* far into RoV in order to get a first job to 99/117 and crush most pre-Adoulin mission content. A lot of the later Rhapsodies KIs give you stuff that helps speed up additional jobs, speeds up doing old endgame events, or helps with new endgame, but they won't make a big difference for someone starting out. Like, I'd say only the first two Rhapsodies are hard to put off until you've cleared CoP*. And even the second could be done without if you're willing to do old school Maat. (Admittedly a tougher proposition in these days, but some of the jobs that have easier fights could probably swing it.)

*Which is pretty much what I'd advise anyone asking me to try and do. RotZ informs some of CoP even if they don't block, and CoP obviously has some major significance to the ongoing RoV plot due to the Emptiness being a major element in both, but the rest of the expansions are more self-contained. (And I don't think anything in what passes for Abyssea's plot connects to RoV at all.) And I'd definitely advise moving along with RoV before doing Adoulin, because there's a trust later in there that both makes a lot more sense to have show up when you've done CoP even if you don't *technically* need to, and is massively helpful if you're trying to solo some of the fights in that expansion.

Adloquium said:
I assume there would have been pushback if they made the quality of life universal,

I'm not sure. You've always got the 'uphill in the snow both ways' crowd, but in general the QoL targeted things that most of the playerbase was already not a fan of*. Lots of which wasn't gated behind RoV, so mostly it just feels like 'that's what they decided to do'.

*Did you know that the player base running speed used to be half of what it is now?

-Morgan.

Adloquium · Aug 30, 2023

I know it has been a while since my last update. The only excuse I have is I've been experiencing a weird sort of burnout that is tangentially related to FFXI: I am, at the moment, tired of fantasy settings.

It's a very weird case of burnout. I've not been playing FFXI because I'm tired of all fantasy settings, rather than just FFXI. I mentioned in the Baldur's Gate 3 thread pre-release that I'm "fantasy-ed out", which is about the best way I can describe it, and continues to this day. The aversion to fantasy applies outside of FFXI; I've stopped playing FFXIV (my favourite game) too, because it's also mostly fantasy. The whole thing seems to have begun in the middle of some random stealth archery in Skyrim, when I suddenly felt tired of it all and stopped, and then I realized I couldn't bring myself to play FFXIV or FFXI either, or even look forward to Baldur's Gate 3.

Empirical testing hints that my definition of "fantasy" in this context is dependent entirely on aesthetics, rather than story or themes. The usual "stone and timber" construction aesthetic of most fantasy makes me feel tired, while seeing evidence of commonplace electronics and plastics makes me feel happier, even if the characters still use magic and swords.

This does mean I'm actually perfectly fine if I stuck to Tu'Lia. Of course, there's nothing for me to do there, other than maybe grinding out elemental crystals in Ru'Aun Gardens.

As such, I'm mostly writing this update just to get something out, since I doubt I'll be able to concentrate on it when Starfield is about to release.

-----

Tenzen: I would ask Iroha to tell me what she knows.

This cutscene actually begins immediately after the last one; the wikis say it's triggered by being outside the audience chamber entrance, which is coincidentally where the game puts us after the previous cutscene. The mention of Iroha means this is a part of Rhapsodies Of Vana'diel, which means Tenzen has to carefully avoid mentioning why he acted like he had no idea who we were back in the ducal audience chamber, when we'd met before in Gilgamesh's office. "We're all too busy to greet each other properly" is as good a handwave as can be expected under the circumstances.

Or we could headcanon it by rearranging cutscene order, although I don't know what the best timeline would be given how each cutscene might refer to each other in chronologically bizarre ways.

At mention of her name, Iroha walks up.

Tenzen: ... You mean to say that I was swallowed up in the Emptiness.

Iroha: Not just you. Everyone.

Tenzen: I thought myself better prepared for this. So such a future does come to pass.

Then that means... I failed.

Iroha: Sir Tenzen, lift your head.

In my era, you and the master were revered as heroes of the highest caliber.

It was not any failure on your behalf. When darkness poured forth from the crystal, there was nothing you could have done to stop it.

Secluded on that small island, I was unable to stem the rising tide, and the world was torn asunder...

Tenzen takes Iroha's presence surprisingly calmly, even if he had been briefed on her coming from the future. I say "surprisingly" because we've seen that Tenzen is the hot-blooded shounen protagonist sort, willing to overcome obstacles with GUTS and PASSION. As he immediately does once he gets over the immediate despair of Iroha's description of the future.

When Tenzen declares his BURNING DETERMINATION to save the future, the Reisenjima Orb we carry suddenly shines brightly, startling all present. The light quickly fades, and Iroha quickly identifies the initial burst of light as Tenzen's passion bringing "new life into the orb", while noting that "the light remains ever pale" after that burst. She suggests this is because Tenzen has yet to meet Prishe.

Kagero the Expository Ninja drops in to inform Tenzen that Prishe is off touring Jeuno, and should be amenable to meeting at the port. Which is set as our next destination, and Tenzen and Kagero walk off.

Before we follow, Iroha stops us for a quiet word.

Iroha: Master, the fire in Sir Tenzen's heart is evident. You must meet with Prishe without delay.

I must confess that the only reason I am standing here today to aid you...

... is that I received a benevolent puissance when you and Sir Tenzen visited me on Reisenjima during the ultimate conflict.

Yet I must reiterate that I do not exist in this era.

My presence has caused the wheel of fate to spin, and I fear that it may not come to rest in an advantageous position.

I've noticed FFXI often emphasizes certain metaphysical concepts that feel like they don't really need to be elaborated so much. On further thought, I think this might be due to FFXI assuming players haven't been exposed to all the time-travel stories and concepts that have become popular in the years since then. Here, Iroha seems to be saying her presence in our time (ie her past) will already have changed the future, and nobody knows whether this change is for the better, or even if it will be significant. Iroha hopes our general heroism will lead to a positive change, but she cannot be certain.

This is a fairly familiar idea in SFF stories since long before FFXI, but I concede it might be useful for FFXI to assume players might not know about it yet. In more recent media, I assume something like this would be relegated to a couple of offhand lines, probably in the middle of a discussion about how time travel in that particular setting works (eg multiversal or closed loop).

More interesting is Iroha clearly forcing herself to appear fine, when she's obviously suffering from some debilitating condition. Given the contexts in which Iroha shows the player her moments of weakness, it's almost certainly related to her time travel. I would guess being in our time requires some major power draw that Iroha is paying the price for, which is why she keeps appearing and disappearing.

Anyway, to Port Jeuno, where we get a cutscene upon zoning in.

Given the intense hints the game has given us so far about Prishe being older than she looks (or acts), I have the strong impression she is deliberately playing up how Tenzen appears older than her, because Prishe wants to mess with him. Because Prishe is very Prishe.

There is a brief moment as our character explains what is going on via the time-honoured method of hand gestures.

I'm a little unclear on whether Prishe had paid attention back when she was sneaking up on Nag'molada, and thus knew what the "Emptiness" referred to, and our explanation linked that to Tenzen's situation. I'm assuming as much, even though it would also not surprise me if Prishe had to have the Emptiness explained to her again after completely forgetting about it.

Prishe: This ambassador from the void guy, yeah. I've half a mind to rip that mask from his scrawny little neck and expose him for the sham he is!

Tenzen: Would that our paths had crossed, but I know only his name.

And that Lady Miyoto and Lady Iroha sparred with him.

Prishe: And!? Did you pop him a new one?

Thinkin' he can just snatch victory like candy from a babe, no doubt!

Let him do what he wants, I say! I'll mangle his face so bad he'll never dare to remove that mask!

Tenzen: This is no time for nonsense. That man can call forth voids at will.

I had to consult the previous posts of this thread to confirm that Prishe has never met Volto Oscuro or any ambassadors of the void. So her anger at him is based entirely on our description of our encounters with him, which means "a guy with a mask tried to set a mind-controlled Siren on us" is enough to cause Prishe to spout her bloodthirsty invective.

This also means we've probably informed Prishe about Zeid, although I'm not sure this will be relevant in any cutscenes outside of Rhapsodies Of Vana'diel.

As expected, Prishe's bloodlust is enough to make the Reisenjima Orb shine. Prishe stumbles and falls backwards, but recovers once the glow fades.

I want to note that Ulmia happens to be here, in this cutscene, accompanying Prishe. We've not seen any sign of Ulmia ever since we were teleported along with Prishe to the outskirts of Bastok, so her being here without comment is definitely a Rhapsodies Of Vana'diel thing. I'll go into a bit more detail later.

Anyway. This is another case where what the game tells us to do is not what the wikis say we should be doing. Here, Prishe suggests searching for Iroha in Lower Jeuno. However, the place we're actually supposed to advance the quest is in Upper Jeuno; I assume there's probably some potential running around and asking NPCs about Iroha if we were following the game blindly, rather than cutting it short by consulting the wikis.

The place we have to go is the Marble Bridge tavern. Which is incidentally one of those things which could only happen in a MMORPG of FFXI's time, in that the Marble Bridge only allows specific types of players into the establishment every Vana'diel day: only Samurai one day, then only Mithra the next, then only San d'Orians the third, and so on.

Fortunately, we don't actually need to enter the Marble Bridge for this quest: we just need to click on the door, and we get the next cutscene.

Where Volto Oscuro is observing us from the roof of the Chocobo ranch, presumably because it provides the best view of our running around Jeuno while also being dramatically elevated.

We do spot him, and while we're rushing to his location, he does... something. It's not clear exactly what, but the cutscene suddenly flashes white, and we see one of the still pictures often used to describe the effects of the Emptiness in Iroha's time (the one with a bunch of people looking at a ruined city), then we're shown our character down on the ground. Presumably this means Volto Oscuro attacked us from a distance somehow, which knocks us out completely.

While this is obviously a Rhapsodies Of Vana'diel cutscene, it suffers from the same cutscene direction as what I've complained about in Chains Of Promathia: a lot of swooping camera angles and quick movement, along with distortion of the picture and quick fades, all to give an impression of action within the limitations of the FFXI engine, but all overdone to the point of confusion. The screen flashing white followed by our character out cold is enough to indicate that Volto Oscuro attacked us, but the zooms and spins and blurring of visuals just makes it muddled. It gives the same impression of someone who just discovered WordArt and slide transitions in Powerpoint.

Volto Oscuro teleports down next to us in a puff of dark smoke, and starts doing something ominous and purple, either casting a spell or draining us of energy or some such. We never find out what, because Tenzen immediately challenges him.

Volto Oscuro: And you, Tenzen... will lead them there.

With that uninformative accusation, Volto Oscuro points to the side, towards the Chocobo ranch, before vanishing in another puff of dark smoke.

Tenzen rushes to where Volto Oscuro was pointing, to see Iroha on the ground, glowing uncomfortably.

This picture is a little hastily taken, but I wanted to mention how this cutscene is both surprisingly thoughtful (especially given the complaints I just talked about), yet limited by its tech. Iroha suddenly appearing in the middle of a populated area should cause some reaction from bystanders, and this does happen: random unnamed and incidental NPCs who happen to be standing around the area in Upper Jeuno do react to Iroha in this cutscene, mainly with expressions of alarm and concern.

However, note the child Hume there, namely Osker from the BST questlines and its prerequisites. He's just standing there, staring blankly ahead, either because he's a quest NPC and thus cannot be programmed to emote to Iroha's presence, or because he's using a child model and thus lacks the necessary emotes. The Chocobos who should also be in the Chocobo ranch area are also conspiciously missing.

Tenzen rushes down, accompanied by our character, who seems to have recovered offscreen enough to follow.

With that, Iroha vanishes again.

Tenzen: Yet my blade sings the praises of that young woman, feeling that in the future she may be Phoenix incarnate.

Though only a portion of its energy was entrusted to it, let there be no doubt: in the future, Phoenix will have fully revived.

The awe is... indescribable.

But this is no time to wax poetic.

Once whole, Phoenix's life force will be without peer, and not even the greatest darkness can overcome it.

Not even the Emptiness that strangles the Far East.

Miyoto, seeing what has happened to Iroha, and knowing what my blade has told me, there is only one logical conclusion.

We must wrest Phoenix's blessing back from the ambassador of the void!

Phoenix Blade, please guide us in these bleak times.

Between this and what Iroha had been telling us back at Ru'Lude Gardens, it's becoming clear that Iroha's ability to travel back in time has something to do with this power of Phoenix, and this power was gifted to her by our future selves and Tenzen, in her time. I'm a little curious about how Phoenix is stated to be an avatar, which places it among the same category as Titan, Ifrit, Shiva, etc. These are the "sleeping gods" that keep being mentioned in Memoria de la Stona, and we fight them for SMN purposes, where they're very sleepy and very much assigned elementally.

I think Fenrir and Carbuncle are the representatives for Dark and Light respectively, even though they appear to be awake and fine. I'm willing to reconsider that, due to the "not sleeping" aspect, so maybe Phoenix is also a part of this "not a sleeping god" grouping, but that does mean the Light and Dark elements of the FFXI elemental wheel appear to be unrepresented. And then there's Siren, who claims to be an avatar as well.

I'll probably learn more about this. I'm just worried that it's going to be locked behind group content that I can't power through with Trusts.

Prishe and Ulmia arrive. Prishe's bloodlust remains unabated.

Ulmia: I do not know, but he muttered something about an "Astral Candescence".

Prishe: I'll give him a couple good chops next time he shows his face around here!

He mighta been alone, but that decisive tone of voice -- he definitely was talking with someone.

Tenzen: An Astral Candescence... The name is not altogether unfamiliar.

Prishe: I've got a couple... errands to take care of here, but save me a piece of that masked bugger for later!

I can't help but wonder if someone... or something... is controlling him.

Ulmia: Miyoto, may your journey be a safe one.

In other words, Rhapsodies Of Vana'diel now wants us to go to Treasures Of Aht Urhgan to continue its plot. Prishe will remain in Chains Of Promathia, at least for the moment; given how Zeid hasn't shown up in this current phase of Rhapsodies Of Vana'diel yet, I'm assuming if we see Prishe again in that context, it will be in Gilgamesh's office or something.

I forgot if I've mentioned it in this thread before, but I actually already have access to Aht Urhgan. The NPC in Tenshodo HQ wanted one of a variety of items, and the easiest to get is a Coffer Key from a beastman stronghold. I'd been farming them so many times for Job AF purposes that it felt a bit anticlimactic to just buy one from a Moogle via Rhapsodies Of Vana'diel key item unlocks. According to the wikis, if I had held off until this part of Rhapsodies Of Vana'diel, I could just ask to follow Tenzen and get Aht Urhgan access for free.

With the Boarding Permit key item, Aht Urhgan is reachable via a ferry from Mhaura. This can be a bit confusing, because it's from the same docks as the ferry between Mhaura and Selbina. I think it alternates, with one ferry going to Selbina and the next going to Aht Urhgan.

Before that, though, there are two more cutscenes to go through, and I must admit I completely missed taking screenshots of one of them. That one is obtained upon zoning into Northern San d'Oria, and shows Ulmia happily looking around like a tourist, before heading towards the cathedral in search of answers about the Gates Of Paradise.

That cutscene is the reason I was looking askance at Ulmia being present in Jeuno, during the Rhapsodies Of Vana'diel cutscenes. Going by the Chains Of Promathia cutscene in Northern San d'Oria, I believe the intended sequence of events is everyone present at the confrontation with Bahamut at Riverne was teleported to various locations: Nag'molada returned to Esha'ntarl and Jeuno, Prishe and our character was sent to Bastok, and Ulmia was sent to San d'Oria. How the teleportation managed to send everyone to a place of relative safety is uncertain, and I don't know if we'll get a lore answer, or it's just for convenience's sake.

The other cutscene involves the final group present at Riverne: the Tarutaru trio.

Kukki-Chebukki: That this is our homeland, too?

Cherukiki: You're hopeless!

Kukki-Chebukki: I'm kinda hungry.

Cherukiki: Yeah, me too.

Makki-Chebukki: ...

Let's go look for our father!

My biases means I am also interested in what Ulmia will learn at San d'Oria's cathedral that differs from Tavnazia's own, and also uninterested in what the Tarutaru trio are doing. Sadly, it looks like we'd have to complete both to progress the story.

Trying out Final Fantasy XI

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Morganite

Happiness is a large book.

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Morganite

Happiness is a large book.

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