Mission: When Angels Fall (Chains of Promathia, ch.8)
-I see Prishe just past the Gate of the Gods, in the Garden of Ru’Hmet. The others went on ahead, drawn by an alluring voice. NO. BAD. DO NOT FOLLOW THE ALLURING VOICE.
-Prishe chases after them to save their asses, giving me her amulet before she goes.
-So my mission here is to go to the five towers around this place and purify myself of the Emptiness inside to prepare to take on Promathia.
-I reach the top of the southeast tower. There’s a pillar at the top with a button that I push, and the screen goes white.
NAG’MOLADA: “Lady Yve’noile… I wanted to let you know… We who are abound in darkness are soothed by your light. You can never know how grateful. With the whisper of the soul I could have conveyed my thoughts to you completely.”
Aww! I like that even though Nag’molada has been a villain, it hasn’t been because he wants to rule the world or destroy everything. He is lonely. He lost the whisper of the soul, that perfect communication, and wants it back.
NAG’MOLADA: “I should be the one to attain perfection. I am the one who should lead the imperfect masses.”
Lol never mind fuck nag’molada
“Why does the betrayer ascend to a higher form while I remain flawed and incomplete?”
-Nag’molada wonders whether it’s his fault that he has become so flawed.
NAG’MOLADA: “No. My path has been true. It is the incomplete world that is in error.”
-Nag’molada is having this breakdown in the worst possible place. He’s having it in the Chamber of Eventide, in front of the vessel containing all the drained Emptiness. Essentially, he’s showing all these doubts in Promathia’s face.
“That’s it, isn’t it? This incomplete world exists for the sake of imperfection. That explains our existence. but I do not… will not…“
-Nag’molada’s obsession with perfection, with returning to a state of perfection and hating himself for not doing so, reminds me of a passage by one of my favorite writers, Roger Ebert (RIP). He wrote this about the movie “American Beauty:”
“Bening's character, a real estate agent who chants self-help mantras, confuses happiness with success--bad enough if you're successful, depressing if you're not.”
This is Nag’molada.
-Huh. I went to the next tower, southwest, and nothing happened at the top. Am I done already?
-No. This is getting a bit frustrating.
-AHA! I misunderstood. I didn’t have to climb every tower. I had to climb one specific tower.
-Found the correct tower.
[Later edit: I checked the guide, and it was race-specific. As an Elvaan I had to climb the northeast tower, but if I were a different race I would’ve needed a different tower. I like this. It fits with the lore established in the last expansion that each race of Vana’diel has a specific defining sin. A Tarutaru would get cleansed here of cowardice. Detolilla, an Elvaan, gets cleansed of arrogance.]
-At the top of the correct tower, the pillar opens up. Inside is an Eye of Altana, which itself opens and bestows upon me the Light of Mea. The light from one of the four Vana’diel mothercrystals.
-I head to the center of the Garden of Ru’Hmet. A Quasilumin here says that I need a Brand of Dawn and Brand of Twilight to continue.
-At the north end of this zone I find the Brand of Dawn, a shining symbol.
-The Brand of Twilight is much tougher to find. I have to navigate a series of tunnels and portals, but I reach it eventually.
-Both brands in my possession now, I take the elevator up to the top level. A path ahead of me.
-As I walk forward, the Tarutaru trio run towards me in terror. Terror of Tenzen.
-Tenzen stands ahead, sword drawn and the fallen (wounded?) bodies of Jabbos, Ulmia, Louverance, and Shikaree Z around him. I TOLD YOU NOT TO LISTEN TO THE ALLURING VOICE DUDE.
-Oh. Never mind. Tenzen’s okay. He hit the others with the flat of his blade only, to stop them from racing to the portal up ahead. Good job, Tenzen.
TENZEN: “Surely you have heard it? That voice has poisoned their minds.”
-oh no, the Tarutaru trio is poisoned by it also. It goes all Mirror of Erised on them.
“Our mother and father are waiting for us!”
“It says we can live happily ever after as one big family!”
“And we’ll never be sad or lonely ever again!”
….I feel bad for being annoyed with these guys. They’re kids. At their core, they’re lonely kids who lost their mother in a war.
-The wounded party members stir, describing what the voice tells them.
ULMIA: “He wishes to hear my song… the song that only I can sing…” She wants to be valued, so share her song with the world.
LOUVERANCE: “He needs my strength to rebuild this shattered city.” He wants to make up for the failures of his line, to rebuild.
SHIKAREE Z: “A perfect law… where no crimes will be committed… lies ahead… It offers a new way of life… for everyone…” She’s tired of constantly being a Sin Hunter, drowning in sin and judging it and killing. She wants peace.
JABBOS: “Power to… protect the weak. That voice… promises me power…” The power to protect the Moblins, those he cares about so deeply.
TENZEN: “To me it promises to teach the path of righteousness. A path that can be walked without the slightest regret or hesitation.” He feels wracked by guilt at the lives Phoenix has taken. He doubts whether his service to his empire is truly noble, and wants purity.
PRISHE: “And to me it promises… an end.”
Hfdajkslfadsjklfdas dammit I’m tearing up again
Poor Prishe has been going for so long, in her current form. She's tired. Christ. This game.
???: “The voice of the Emptiness is within you…” Selh’teus.
-Selh’teus warns us Promathia is calling to the Emptiness within us, but we’re still resisting. For now.
SELH’TEUS: “But when you stand before the Keeper of the Apocalypse and behold the form of the Twilight God, will you then be able to withstand his call?”
I mean, I will because I’ve got the purifying Light from one of those towers. But the others? I doubt it.
-The building shakes. It’s something awakening… but what Prishe describes as a “warm-up.” Probably not Promathia or the Keeper just yet.
-I take out a roomful of evil magic pots called Ix’deis, and move to a a door ahead of me, bursting with light. We enter.
-Nag’molada waits ahead.
-HOLY SHIT HE’S NOT ALONE. THAT’S PROMATHIA AHEAD, CHAINED UP
NOT A STATUE BUT ACTUALLY PROMATHIA [Later edit: Rather, it’s the Keeper of the Apocalypse, the incarnation of Promathia. Still not sure who that originally was. Just a coalescence of Emptiness, or an actual person? Like, underneath all of it, is some rando Zilart the Keeper?]
-Nag’molada is trying to tempt me.
“Your simple life as an adventurer has been turned upside down by these fools. You have been constantly hounded by cries of ‘Save the world! Save Altana’s people!’ They have even asked you to die for their cause.
“But you don’t really care about any of that, do you? You just wish to learn the truth. The truth that nobody can tell you. Am I right?”
I get a choice here. I can say “yes” or “no.” The purest answer would be no, that I’m not tempted, but I like the idea that Detolilla really struggles with this, that she DOES want to know the truth. Hell, as a player I find the whole cosmology of FFXI fascinating, so I kind of do want to know. Doesn’t mean I’ll let Promathia free or whatever to get the answer, but it’s honest to say yes.
NAG’MOLADA: “As do I. It is finally clear to me. Truth is the only bright point of perfection in this incomplete world. The only thing we can trust. Truth and nothing else. Only one who learns the truth – one who holds all knowledge – can discover the perfection of Paradise!”
And of course, this is Nag’molada’s temptation. The temptation that somewhere, somehow, he can find perfection.
“Lord Promathia! Teach me all the truths of creation!”
And just like that, Nag’molada breaks.
By the way, I LOOOOVE the framing of this shot. Nag’molada at this moment is standing directly in front of Promathia, eclipsing him entirely.
It looks just like the chains binding Promathia are right now binding Nag’molada.
-Nag’molada runs up and shatters the chains, shatters Yve’noile’s seal.
Promathia is unbound and the black binding cocoon around him slowly unravels.
-He’s quite beautiful. Purple, blue, and white wings unfurl from Promathia’s back.
-Promathia stretches out his hand, and opens a pool of Emptiness beneath Nag’molada. Nag’molada quietly sinks inside.
He re-emerges from the pool as a Quasilumin, which Promathia draws into himself. Absorbs him.
NAG’MOLADA: “(This is the truth? …This is the truth I never knew…? We are… We are… We are… Weee arrrreeeee….)”
SELH’TEUS: “Do not say it, Nag’molada!”
[Later edit: still not sure what “we are.” Maybe I'll learn next session.]
???: “I have found thee… My wayward children…”
-We get a glimpse of images across the world, cities across Vana’diel.
“I greet thee.”
Jeuno, Windurst…
“Return to thy father.”
-Promathia opens a portal above his head, and disappears into it.
Well. Shit.
-Selh’teus disappears in a panic, and Prishe is trying to process what just happened.
PRISHE: “What the hell did he mean!? Children… Promathia’s children… does that mean…? Resurrection and death… I can’t let that happen…!”
-With that, Prishe runs outside to chase down a god.
---
Next time: Promathia.
