Mission: Head Wind (Chains of Promathia, ch.5)
-I head through Attohwa Chasm to a new area, Boneyard Gully. Battlefield ahead.
-Another Mithran tracker is here, Shikaree Z, here. She’s looking for Cardinal Mildaurion.
SHIKAREE Z: “Mildaurion must be found and punished for her sins before the whole world ends up like this barren land…”
More signs pointing to Mildaurion being a major villain.
-Shikaree X is with her, calling Shikaree Z “sis.” THAT’S why Shikaree X is after Prishe. She thinks Prishe will be able to help find the cardinal.
-Just then, Prishee arrives with Shikaree Y. Prishe clearly knows Shikaree Z, calling her “Miss Tracker.”
SHIKAREE Z: “This girl is no friend of mine. She is the youth that manipulated the Tavnazian Cathedral alongside Cardinal Mildaurion.” No way. I believe that’s how it looked, but Prishe wasn’t in on whatever shenanigans Cardinal Mildaurion engaged in.
SHIK. Z: “When the Wyrmking returns, a new war will commence between the Wyrmking and Altana’s children. Before that happens, we must wake the sleeping gods with the Lay of the Immortals and beseech their aid!”
-The Lay of the Immortals is meant to be a cry for help.
-The Mithran Trackers aided Prishe somehow, and now feel betrayed. “Who ever would have believed those plans involved rrresurrecting the Twilight God with the Lay of the Immortals?”
-Prishe protests, swearing she and the Cardinal never intended to wake up “your fusty old gods” (lol) but also that they never messed with Promathia, never tried to wake him.
-The Shikaree sisters have some pretty heavy evidence though against Prishe. That Ulmia sings the Lay of the Immortals. That the magicite embedded within Prishe is the same material that was used to revive the Shadow Lord.
-Like. This is all fair evidence. It’s just not true. Prishe is friends with Ulmia because she felt sorry for her one day, hearing her sadness. Prishe has magicite because… well, IDK, but I think it’s the Cardinal up to something, not because Prishe is at fault.
-The Shikarees demand “payment for a single crime. The crrrime of singing the Lay of the Immortals. You will be held responsible for the sins of Mildaurion!”
What did that do, though What were Mildaurion’s sins? My best guess at this point: Mildaurion convinced Ulmia to sing the Lay of the Immortals, which somehow brought about the destruction of Tavnazia.
-Battle time.
I take out the three Shikaree sisters. They’re wounded, but not dead.
PRISHE: “I know exactly what you girls are trying to get at. You want to save everyone – save Vana’diel. I know I’m right ‘cos I feel that way too.
“We thought bringing back Promathia was the only way.”
OH SHIT OH SHIT, PRISHE WASN’T AN UNWITTING PAWN; SHE WAS IN ON IT
SHE LEGIT WANTED TO RESURRECT PROMATHIA
PRISHE: “If you want me to pay for that crime, I’m happy to do it. But not for you. Not for your terrestrial avatars, not for the sleeping gods, and definitely not for the beastmen. I’ll do it for me. Because my crime was abandoning myself.”
What does this mean? Does this mean that she abandoned some ethical core to help Cardinal Mildaurion? Or a more literal abandonment? I’m thinking back to that moment in Prishe’s Promathia-induced memory where the Cardinal put her hand on Prishe’s shoulder and said something about Prishe “pouring herself out…”
HFDJSLFHDSJKLFDS WAIT WAIT WIAT – ok, what if…what if Prishe was intended to be the avatar of Promathia’s resurrection? That would explain the role of the Emptiness, the black magicite embedded inside her chest. It could have been a way to somehow “pour out” Prishe, hollow her out, and make room for Promathia’s resurrection. Hoo boy.
Like. This is still just a guess, but it feels possible.
-Prishe demands to know from the fallen trackers: where is the “Star of Tavnazia?” She doesn’t get a verbal answer, but seems to turn on her psychic powers and get a vision plucked from the trackers’ minds. The vision shows a snowy landscape, continues into a cave, and we see a star with a tornado of power coming out of it inside the cave. The Star of Tavnazia. Magicite.
-Prishe recognizes it. The Uleguerand Range. She runs off, and the three Mithra sisters follow her in pursuit.
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Mission: Flames for the Dead (Chains of Promathia, ch.5)
-I head to the Uleguerand Range, a new zone. This is a nightmare to navigate, even with a map. Without a map showing the hidden paths to travel and the temporarily-appearing hole to jump in? Never would’ve found the right area. Never.
-I reach the cave with the Star of Tavnazia in it apparently.
-Ah. The “Star” I saw before was only a windy barrier constructed by the beastmen to keep intruders (read: us) out. Prishe rips past it.
-She tells us about the Star of Tavnazia. It’s magicite, with special Emptiness sealed inside. A piece of this magicite was stolen and sold to Bastok before the war. The Multinational Expedition that came here 30 years ago had the chunk of magicite with them, and they were “poisoned by the voice of darkness sealed within the stone.”
Does that explain why Ulrich went wild, killing Raogrimm and Cornelia for seemingly no reason?
-The voice said: “Give into thy desires.” “Return to thy true self.”
PRISHE: “That voice beckons to the darkness within us, over and over…
-The voice was Promathia. The Twilight God. No wonder the members of the expedition met with ill fates.
-At this moment, Louverance arrives. He overheard. This interests him GREATLY.
LOUVERANCE: “I am Louverance N Mistalle. Francmage M Mistalle, Royal Knight and member of the allied expedition, was my grandfather.”
PRISHE: “So you’ve finally come back. Did you manage to avenge your grandfather’s death?
LOUVERANCE: “How did you know about that!? Could it be that you’re…?”
PRISHE: “You got it, buddy. It’s your unlucky day. I’m Prishe, and this here’s Detolilla.”
-I’m confused again. “could it be that you’re…” who?? Do Prishe and I just have a reputation, or does Louverance think this “Prishe” is actually someone else?
-Prishe wants Louverance to tell her “the lowdown on the big boss behind the Kindred of the Northlands. The Mithra seem to think that it’s Promathia, but I know better than that.”
-Is she talking about the Shadow Lord? Raogrimm?
PRISHE: “So who the hell is it? He’s called the Divinity of Darkness by the beastmen, apparently.”
I mean, it really sounds like she’s talking about the now-dead Shadow Lord.
LOUVERANCE: “The legends of the northern islands tell that the Divinity of Darkness slumbers in this land. At some time in the past, the Shadow Lord followed the voice of this sleeping deity to its source.”
-AHA!!! So it’S NOT the Shadow Lord. It’s someone that LED the Shadow Lord. Someone higher up. And yet, not Promathia.
I really have no idea! Even thinking back to the lore of past FFs, what “evil gods” really were there? Is it going to be someone like Chaos?
-A boss attacks us, a Snoll Tzar (a big white Bomb type enemy), and it goes down.
-We even get an assist from, of all people, the Shikaree sisters. Yay! They’re awesome.
-The Shikaree sisters have heard of an “enormous crystal of darkness” that should be here.
-…up ahead. There. Deeper in the cave, we see a pile of black magicite shattered.
Light begins to pour out of it. A shard lifts into the air.
SHIKAREE Z: “I will never forget that stone! It is the magicite that drove the allied expedition members [wild]!”
PRISHE RUNS UP TO IT
WHY
WHAT ARE YOU DOING PRISHE
PRISHE: “You’ve come back…”
WHAT WHAT
PRISHE: “Welcome home, my little lost magicite…”
UHHHHH
HAVE I BEEN PLAYED?? IS PRISHE THE VILLAIN?
No. I won’t believe it. Maybe she’s been possessed, maybe the black magicite embedded within her is corrupting or taking her over, maybe it’s this mysterious evil sleeping deity controlling her, but I do NOT believe it’s Prishe. Not really.
-The magicite descends into Prishe’s waiting arms. The screen blazes white. The Shikaree sisters flee, but Ulmia wants to follow her friend and learn the truth.
-I have to head back to Bastok. Holy shit, what a cliffhanger the game just pulled on me. I think I’ll have to do the Al’Taieu and Carbuncle quests before I can find out what exactly happened here.
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Next time: starting either the quest to ask Carbuncle for help or the quest to investigate the celestial capital of Al’Taieu.
