Mission: Desires of Emptiness (Chains of Promathia, ch.5)
-The zone I’m in now is “Promyvion – Vahzl.”
-Y’know, when Diabolos talked about his wonderful dreamworld paradise, I believed him. I’m beginning to think this is his dream world though, in which case – fuck Diabolos.
-Or not. I just checked the mission description, and it reads: “The Emptiness has trapped you and your companions. You must find them before you are able to continue your journey into the depths of Promyvion.”
So this isn’t a dreamworld. This is some kind of horrifying lost “bits and pieces” memory world within the Emptiness.
-The first couple of islands here follow the same structure as my last time I was in Promyvion. I have to find large glowing “Memory Receptacles,” kill them, and follow the “memory trail” that ports me deeper in.
-This place is just so disturbing. The creatures wandering around it for one thing, but even more the random patches of half-formed areas. Bits of buildings. Patches of mountains and snowy trees surrounded by nothing.
-I find a new thing, a strange locked area called a Memory Flux to pass through. It was imprisoning Tenzen. I break him out.
TENZEN: “So this is Emptiness.” Yup. Pretty bleak when you put it like that.
-I get stuck on the next island, backtrack a bit and find a new memory flux. This must be another prisoner? …yup. Sir Louverance is now freed.
-He’s still in shock with all the revelations he’s seen today. The mothercrystals beneath Vana’diel, the existence of the Zilart and Kuluu…
-I free Ulmia on the next island. Prishe next I imagine.
ULMIA: “This may sound strange, Detolilla, but as I lay dreaming, I am sure I heard Prishe’s voice calling to me. I believe she is somewhere deep in the bowels of this dreadful realm.”
-Further in we go.
-I find the Spire of Vahzl, likely the final part of this area. Boss incoming?
-There’s a gap between us and the tower. We’re stuck.
-We’re just about to backtrack, when the PRIME ASSHOLE Nag’molada comes by.
NAG’MOLADA: “Hrmph. It seems that Diabolos spoke the truth. Although I did think it strange that one could enter the Emptiness without being devoured by its darkness.”
Yeah. That is a bit weird.
-Nag’molada just met with Diabolos, in the dreamworld: Dynamis. Diabolos said that if our party works together with Nag’molada, we can escape this Promyvion, this realm of Emptiness.
-OKAY THAT’S FUCKING COOL. He opens the Eye of Altana, that box. Light shines out, and it creates a path bridging the void to the exit.
Nag’molada, you can stay not dead for now.
NAG’MOLADA: “Selh’teus… As long as I have breath in my body, I will find you. No matter what it takes!”
How did Selh’teus betray you? I’m esepecially shocked by this single-minded pursuit because Nag’molada HIMSELF betrayed the Kuluu from the sound of it.
-There’s a battlefield up ahead. Here we go.
-A dead end, but a pool of that smoky black Emptiness begins to emerge. Nag’molada is convinced it’s Selh’teus.
-The boss here is actually a trio of the abstract leggy-crabby-insectoid monsters that populate Promyvion.
-We take out the crabby beasts, and… well, no Selh’teus.
It’s Diabolos. What’s he doing here?
-He makes Prishe’s body manifest, floating in front of him. He has her.
DIABOLOS: “So we meet again, he who is one with Selh’teus…”
Uh. I thought that Nag’molada was, like, the opposite of that.
“Now that the light of the fourth crystal has been robbed, it will not be long before the land is infested by the Emptiness.”
-Diablolos seems to know what Selh’teus is up to. SHARE DUDE!
-It’s what I thought. Selh’teus’s goal is NOT about plunging Vana’diel into Emptiness. That is just a byproduct.
His true mission: “Selh’teus has come from Al’Taieu on a mission to protect the celestial capital.” He learned this by seeing Prishe’s dreams. He must have seen the visions she picked up from that communion with the statue of Promathia.
-So Al’Taieu is the celestial capital. Does that mean that it’s the same thing as Paradise or different? Protecting the celestial capital sounds like a good thing.
-Or… Nag’molada says that “the celestial capital” was destroyed when the Zilart tried opening the Gates of Paradise like 10,000 years ago. So it sounds like Al’Taieu was the Zilart’s capital maybe.
DIABOLOS: “Child of the Kuluu, Al’Taieu was not destroyed as you thought. It still remains intact – its residents alive – resting in a safe place.”
WAIT – DID DIABOLOS SUCK THEM INTO HIS DREAMLAND??
-Oh. Nm lol. Diablos says it’s beyond the fifth crystal. We haven’t heard anything about the fifth crystal yet beyond knowing that it exists somewhere, and Diabolos is telling us the truth behind all this can be found if we seek it out.
-Tenzen expresses hope at this, that maybe they can still open the Gates of Paradise. Diabolos gives a hearty laugh at this, and I don’t blame him.
DIABOLOS: “I must warn you. It is not your will that guides you to the gates… but the will of Promathia.”
Okay. Two things:
1)That’s fucking terrifying.
2)Didn’t he want us to stay away from the Gates of Paradise at all costs? So why would Promathia’s will be guiding us to them?
“You and every other soul on this world are slaves to the will of the Twilight God.”
Again. Fucking terrifying.
“And this is why Bahamut, keeper of the Gates of Paradise, has set out to destroy you.”
AHA!! I guessed something along these lines. When Promathia laid his curse on mankind for seeking to open the Gates of Paradise – the curse of strife, war, and the seeds of Emptiness in our souls – I thought he was just trying to stop us from opening the Gates.
But it sounds like Promathia had an ulterior motive. After all, if blocking us from Paradise were his only goal, Bahamut and the other Terrestrial Avatars would be totally on Promathia’s side.
However, Bahamut wants to destroy us. He thinks that because we’re cursed, we’re his enemies… and that Promathia will try to use the curse to drive us to attack the gates in some way.
TENZEN: “Lord Diabolos! Is there any way to break the chains that bind us?”
DIABOLOS: “There is… one way… Long ago, remnants of the Kuluu came to me and asked me to release them from the chains of Promathia. I did as they asked… However, the result was tragic. The Kuluu lost their original selves…”
WAIT ARE YOU TELLING ME THAT WHEN DIABOLOS BROKE PROMATHIA’S CURSE ON THE KULUU IT TURNED THEM INTO TONBERRIES? Jesus. [Later edit: Still not sure on this. I thought that when the Kuluu stopped the Zilart from opening the Gates of Paradise, it was the environmental fallout of the explosion that corrupted them.]
DIABOLOS: “Children of Vana’diel! Promathia’s curse is necessary for the survival of your species. Without it you would be nothing.”
“It is only a curse because that is the name you have given it. It is only your chains because that is what you make of it.”
Fair enough. I suppose strife has made the races of Vana’diel into tougher and sronger people. At this point, it’s just part of their character.
-Tenzen brings up a good point. While Diabolos may be right philosophically, the curse still sticks us with fatal choices:
Option #1) Bahamut sees us as cursed tools of Promathia and kills us.
Option #2) Bahamut sees us as cursed tools of Promathia but we somehow manage to kill him, and then the Emptiness proceeds to swallow all life on Vana’diel.
DIABOLOS: “There are no roads left for you to travel… Phoenix has been reduced to a mere fragment of her former self, while Fenrir, guardian of tomorrow, remains powerless.”
So we got Diabolos, Bahamut, Phoenix, Fenrir… does that leave Carbuncle?
Oh. Again, nm lol. “And Carbuncle, bringer of rainbows, still ponders over whether to lend his hand to your cause.” By “hand” you must me “adorable little rabbit paw.”
-Carbuncle is on the fence apparently because of the dilemma Tenzen brought up. If the races of Vana’diel are saved, Vana’diel falls to Emptiness. And if Vana’diel is saved from Emptiness, the cursed race of Vana’diel fall.
DIABOLOS: “We must learn from Selh’teus and the mistake he has made. In attempting to save both sides, he only caused them much pain.”
-So something about Selh’teus’s goal came as a result to “save both side.” The Kuluu and the Zilart? Are those the two sides? And how did Selh’teus attempt his goal? Again, my money is some bargain to draw power from the Emptiness to save each race.
???: “But that does not take away from the fact that he tried!”
This is the Emptiness. How is a mysterious new person entering the fray now?
OH SHIT IT’S PRISHE!!! SHE WOKE UP HI PRISHE!!!
-She is LETTING DIABOLOS HAVE IT HAHAHA GO PRISHE
“Diabolos! If you had anything close to a soul, you’d know that pain comes with the package. There’s no way around it, but it makes us who we are! You’re nothing but an empty shell. What happened to your soul!?”
She’s telling Diabolos, one of the terrestrial avatars and lord of dreams, to shit or get off the pot – to stop just hiding out in his dream realm and pick a side – and I love it. <3
DIABOLOS: “You know nothing, girl… If you are so adamant about your cause, then why not carry the pain of Vana’diel on your own? Sacrifice yourself for this world and its children! If you die, Bahamut’s pact would be broken and Vana’diel would be saved!”
What are you talking about? How would Prishe dying solve the dilemma we’re facing? Is this even an option?
OH AND BY THE WAY IF YOU END THIS EXPANSION WITH YET ANOTHER HEROIC SACRIFICE FROM A BADASS FEMALE CHARACTER, IF YOU DO THE LION THING AGAIN BUT WITH PRISHE THIS TIME, I WILL BREATHE FIRE AND RAGE AND BREAK THINGS
-Prishe hears this and takes it in. Her idea: “Kill… the Keeper of the Apocalypse…”
-Current theory: what if Cardinal Mildaurion is actually the Keeper of the Apocalypse? I’m almost certain now that Selh’teus is NOT the Keeper of the Apocalypse. Furthermore, Esha’ntarl (who I’m almost certain is Cardinal Mildaurion) was the one who told Nag’molada that Selh’teus is likely the Keeper of the Apocalypse, so this seems a misdirect.
-Fade to black as we zone out.
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-We escape Promyvion, and wake up in Beaucedine Glacier.
-omg it’s the frigging Tarutaru Trio that finds my body.
AND THEY FUCKING STOLE MY AMULET YET AGAIN.
-hahahahaha Nag’molada comes across them looting my body and they immediately return the amulet.
The game was trolling me. XD
NAG’MOLADA: “What I need to know is why you three activated the ruins of Pso’Xja.”
Lol what if it turned out that the Tarutaru Trio were actually collectively the Keepers of the Apocalypse.
-So they swear that they didn’t know what they were doing. They were just ordered to activate these ruins by…
Yup. By Lady Esha’ntarl.
-As the Tarutaru Trio freaks out about what to do, whether to wake me up or return to Prishe or what, Nag’molada ponders. Esha’ntarl wanted Pso’Xja activated. The fifth crystal is in Al’Taieu.
-I like this turn - that Nag'molada may be misled/confused rather than a simple villain.
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Next time: regrouping in Bastok with Cid. Then, presumably, trying to find this mysterious city of Al’Taieu.
