Mission: An Eternal Melody (Chains of Promathia, ch.2)
-My next mission here is to meet up with Prishe about the amulets. Her amulet is exactly like the one the Pale Boy who spread darkness to the mothercrystals gave to me.
-Prishe is here, and she continues to be the best.
“I’m not one to pry [about your situation.] To put it in other words, I just don’t give a damn.”
-But she does ask about the amulet. She’s surprised that I got it from a white-haired boy. She was expected me to say “a tall blonde chick.”
-She’s about to hand the amulet to me, but it explodes in a zap of light, making her drop it to the ground. Huh?
-At this moment, Elder Despachiaire shows up. Appparently he never talks to Prishe, thinking he’ll be punished by Altana for doing so. (She’s profane enough that she probably shocks most of the elders.)
-Despachiaire has a theory. That the dragon may be the same one portrayed in the “painting of Al’Taieu.” The scene swaps to the painting, which is indeed of a great dragon over a circular city.
-Cardinal Mildaurion, the savior of Tavnazia and the creator of the Tavnazian Cathedral, told a story about this.
-Prishe thinks this means the dragon might have been Bahamut. She sends me to find Ulmia (her bodyguard) so that we can meet up and plan our next steps.
-I ask around town, and Ulmia left the safehold for a part of the nearby Misareaux Coast called Snowmint Point, so I’m off to that new zone.
-Really digging the music here on the Misareaux Coast.
-I come across Ulmia. She’s playing the harp, singing that song about the creation of Vana’diel.
-The name of the song is the “Lay of the Immortals.” She thinks of it as a song of guidance even in the times of war and catastrophe.
-Nag’molada, the Jeunoan dude who may or may not be evil (leaning more and more towards “not evil”) shows up.
-She’s surprised that he knows of the song. He knows it by the name of “Memoria de la Stona.” And he knows a piece of it she doesn’t know, the much more depressing verse we’ve heard before:
“This age will not last. The great bane will devour the fair land of Vana’diel.
The ancient seal will be broken, awakening nightmares of ages past.
A tragic age of darkness will reign.
And yet, the gods will not wake from their slumber.”
-Just then, the earpiece/eyepiece that Nag’molada wears flashes blue. He suddenly says he has to go.
What the hell is that thing anyway? Some sort of communication device most likely.
-Before he leaves, Ulmia asks if that bleak verse is the final verse to the song. Nag’molada says no, but he says is in an interesting way:
“The next verse is beyond the limits of your mortal voice. Only the gods are allowed to sing forth its melody.”
Something about this sentence’s construction implies that Nag’molada doesn’t count himself as one of those whose voice is limited. Is he a god? A demi-god?
-I pass my message on to Ulmia, asking her to return to town for Prishe.
-I return to the Tavnazian Stronghold and get a cutscene. Prishe is walking with purpose (her default method of walking), and Justinius is freaking out: “Something left a second strange trail… and the trail leads right to Cape Riverne!”
So a second strange trail, implying it’s something similar to Bahamut’s trail. Yikes.
-Ulmia emerges. Apparently, the myth around Bahamut and Al’Taieu revolves around “the Gates of Paradise.”
OH SHIT OH SHIT HAHAHAHHA – PRISHE HAS GUTS THE SIZE OF A TANK
She doesn’t know what’s going on, so what’s her plan? TO GO FIND BAHAMUT AND JUST FUCKING ASK HIM.
-She asks for anyone with courage to come with us. Strangely enough, Nag’molada isn’t around – he was last seen…. Wait, what? Nag’molada was last seen talking to the trio of Tarutaru, and sending them off on some mission.
Okay. I’m turned around. I think Nag’molada is evil.
-Well. Maybe not. Prishe just seems jealous that the Tarutaru “smell an adventure” and went off without her. She wants to be part of the adventure!
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Mission: Ancient Vows (Chains of Promathia, ch.2)
-This mission is to travel to Cape Riverne on the Misareaux Coast. I think we’re about to get a face-to-face with Bahamut.
-Oh btw, in this zone (Misareaux Coast) I found an enemy that is a whole ball of nope: a Mantrap. It’s a mobile, flying Venus Flytrap with this toothy gaping maw that’s gonna haunt me.
-WHAT THE HELL??
-So we reached the coast, and the land is, like, destroyed. But not just that – it’s ripped out of the ground. There are tiny islands floating in midair and a massive chunk of land in the middle. It used to be Cape Riverne.
-There’s a white light hovering in mid-air. Prishe runs up to it because of course she does (“What the hell is that thing??”) and gets sucked in along with Ulmia.
-It’s a “spatial displacement.” I enter it.
-The zone I enter is the oddly named “Riverne – Site #A01.” We’re on one of the floaty islands.
-Nag’molada and the three Tarutaru here, and the Tarutaru are FREAKING RIGHT TF OUT that Prishe found them. “She’s found us, and boy, does she look mad!”
“She’s found us, and boy, does she look mad!”
-Okay. I’m just saying, if Prishe asked me to do anything, I’d do it for fear of dying a painful death. She is raging at these Tarutaru. Though beneath it all is at least some degree of caring – last time they went out adventuring alone, they got injured, and she thinks it’s too dangerous for them.
Nag’molada, you’ve really fucked up. No way Prishe is gonna look favorably on you now.
-I misread Prishe's “care” lol.
ULMIA: “Prishe… you’re not really worried about them at all, are you?”
PRISHE: “Hell right, I’m not worried. Why should I worry about what happens to those traitors? I don’t care who they are – if they’re in my way, they’re not on my side.”
-Nag’molada disappears into the next portal, and the Tarutaru follow.
-I continue through the next Spatial Displacement, to the next floating island.
-Unsurprisingly, all flying enemies here. Firedrakes, hippogryphs, and those floaty flytraps.
-Continuing west, hopping through various spatial displacements.
-Christ. This next displacement portal gives me a message: “You can sense the majestic presence of a terrestrial avatar on the other side of the spatial displacement…”
-YOLO
-It takes me to a cave (probably beneath one of the floating islands) called Monarch Linn. Battlefield time.
-Prishe and Ulmia enter. They hear singing. Ulmia recognizes the melody: “Memoria de la Stona.”
-Nag’molada is the singer up ahead.
-OH SHIT HIS SINGING BRINGS FORTH BAHAMUT
BAHAMUT: “How wonderful! I did not realize the Kuluu still tread the soil of Vana’diel.”
-The Kuluu are Gravi’ton Berisacci’s former race. So Nag’molada is a Kuluu.
NAG’MOLADA: “Almighty conqueror of the skies! I never imagined that my people would have the opportunity to stand before you once again!”
Again? When did they stand before Bahamut before?
-Aha! That old myth, about the gatekeeper who slammed the doors of paradise shut after humans tried opening it – Bahamut was that gatekeeper!
-Nag’molada says that Bahamut sacrificed himself to bar the humans from opening the Gates of Paradise.
-This is strange. I thought these two would be enemies, but no.
BAHAMUT: “I, too, feel the same [joy at seeing you], my Kuluu companion. I will never forget the battles we fought – side by side.”
-Bahamut has some sort of pact with the Kuluu. “The will of evil has unlocked the door to the abyssal nightmare, unleashing the Keeper of the Apocalypse. And the darkness brought forth by the keeper shall signal the end of the age of man.”
-Nag’molada is shocked to hear this for some reason. The darkness is the “Emptiness” he’s been fighting. A Dawnmaiden found the source of the Emptiness and created a “Chamber of Eventide” and left it in “the celestial capital.”
I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT’S HAPPENING.
-OH SHIT AN ARMY OF FOLKS DRESSED LIKE NAG’MOLADA SHOW UP ON AN AIRSHIP, TELEPORT AROUND BAHAMUT, AND WRAP HIM IN SOME KIND OF MAGICAL WEBBING
BAHAMUT: “Zilart! So it was not only the Kuluu who survived!”
-Okay. Best I can understand it, it was the Zilart who were so obsessed with opening the Gate of the Gods and the Gate of Paradise (not sure if they’re the same thing, but I assume they are). Nag’molada is a Kuluu (like the Tonberries used to be), and helped Bahamut to prevent the Zilart from reaching their goal long ago.
But these folks attacking Bahamut look like Nag’molada. Why is Nag’molada working with the Zilart?
-Some of the Zilart teleport down towards Prishe.
-A blonde woman leads the attack force OH WAIT – the “BLOND CHICK.” That’s who gave Prishe her amulet.
-I join the fray and take out three of the dudes. “Mammet 19 Epsilon” is their name. Are they robots?
-Prishe kills the three that attacked her, then sneaks up on one who was binding Bahamut and knocks him out. This breaks the web holding Bahamut.
BAHAMUT: “Foolish children! You will never break free from the chains of Promathia!”
-He lets out a roar, a blast of magic, and seems to teleport us away.
-The scene changes to that pale kid, standing on a snowy mountain. Bahamut speaks to him: “It matters not, how many times you come here; the result will be the same. Even with the power of the living immortals, your people will not be saved. You have already perished. The body you inhabit is nothing more than a decaying shell.”
The Pale Kid is defiant. He yells that he hasn’t given up hope. “We are alive! We were born for the purpose of living!”
-The kid walks to a weird door.
“The Paradise of Al’Taieu is no more, and the history of the Zilart is at an end. But now people will be set free. Free from the chains of Promathia…”
-The kid opens up this gate.
“Goodbye, Vana’diel.”
He walks inside.
-The scene changes again. This time, to Nag’molada in Delkfutt’s Tower, surrounded by those faceless minions. He’s talking to the blond woman. “What has become of Bahamut?”
THE BLOND WOMAN: “He has transported himself away. But I believe he will return to that land. It is woven into the destiny of his kind.”
Guessing “that land” is Paradise (Al’Taieu?) and “his kind” is probably gods.
BLOND WOMAN: “More importantly, Nag’molada, why did you go there? Was there something you wished to discuss with Bahamut alone? It was thanks to you that Bahamut slipped through our fingers.”
VERY interesting. So Nag’molada isn’t necessarily working in concert with these Zilart. He’s betraying them in some way.
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?”
This dude is definitely confusing. So ostensibly he’s working with the Zilart. Maybe he’s upset that his people all became Tonberries.
-The blond woman says she’s concerned with the welfare of the people of Vana’diel.
Anywa. Nag’molada says he has an idea on how to contain the Emptiness.
-After that whole thing with bahamut, I find myself in… South Gustaberg? Yeah. Prishe is here over my unconscious body, trying to wake me up. She then sees an airship and (thinking it’s the Zilart) chases after it to fight it lol.
-Title card for the next chapter in the expansion.
Chapter 3: A Transient Dream.
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What’s it All Mean?
Hoo-boy. So that was a TON of story dumped on me that I’m not sure how to process. But I want to try. There’s a temptation with complex plots like this to just let it wash over me and pick up the pieces at the end, but I’ll do my best to draw conclusions and keep things straight:
-The Zilart who attacked Bahamut were trying to save Vana’diel.
-The Kuluu with them, Nag’molada, was trying to betray that somehow.
-The “chains of Promathia” don’t necessarily refer to the chains binding Promathia, but rather the chains that Promathia laid on humanity to not push towards the Gates of Paradise.
-This is heavily tied to the Rise of the Zilart storyline.
-I think the Gate of the Gods from RoZ was different from the Gate of Paradise mentioned here. Maybe?
-The Pale Kid left Vana’diel for somewhere else, and this is very bad for Vana’diel.
-The Pale Kid is likely sympathetic despite his actions being bad for Vana’diel. I get major Prometheus vibes from him.
I have so many questions.
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Next time: the next chapter of Chains of Promathia.
