Mission: Knight of Gold (Treasures of Aht Urhgan)
-First step: find this pompous golden knight.
-A random Qiqirin (rat person) named Cacaroon has a lead and helps me find Raillefal.
-Raillefal is suspicious of everything. Aht Urhgan is surrounded by bloodthirsty enemies, needs mercenaries badly, and yet has only a small standing army. Good question.
-Cacaroon overhears this, and mentions the Astral Candescence as a potential source of the strangeness. “It is spinning, spinning, always spinning.”
-I head to the temple. It also has a spinny thing.
-A monk (?) named Nadeey says that it’s forbidden to see the Astral Candescence if you don’t worship Walahra.
-Raillefal arrives at this moment.
NADEEY: “My good prin—ah, knight.” Is Raillefal really a prince?
RAILLEFAL: “Is not the Walahra philosophy “from the void all things are born, to the void all things return” purported to be the fundamental tenet of existence? …Then if all things eventually return to the void, would it matter if that process was accelerated?”
His hunch seems that a believer wants to take the Walahran philosophy to an apocalyptic extreme.
-Raillefal clarifies that he came here as a mercenary to bring peace, but that he thinks the cause of the conflict here may be the Astral Candescence that the Walahrans are protecting.
-Nadeey kind of pushes Raillefal off, leaving him frustrated. Raillefal may be onto something.
-Someone else came recently asking about the Astral Candescence, a Yagudo monk. Nadeey refers me to the Shararat Teahouse.
-I head there and find Raillefal talking with a Yagudo monk named Gessho.
-Gessho heard about something called Astral Wind: “The wind arises whenever the Astral Candescence is set within its plinth, creating a sweet melody of unearthly timbre…”
-I like Gessho. He seems measured, calm, even poetic. He leaves and Raillefal sees me, sharing some of what he’s learned.
-Aht Urhgan is ruled by Empress Nashmeira II of the Majaab Dynasty.
-There are two capitals. Al Zahbi in the west (here), and somewhere else in the east.
-The sphere floating in the Walahra Temple is called the Gordeus. The Sage Walahra is said to have used the Gordeus to understand existence.
-I tell Raillefal that I know his secret, and get three options for what his secret is. Someone got Phoenix Wright in my FFXI.
-OMG I WANT TO PICK OPTION #1 CALLING HIM “A DEADLY TARUTARU.” But no. It’s #3. He’s a San d’Orian prince.
-I now get three options to say which specific prince he is. Prince Pieuje, Prince Trion, or Prince Halver. Uh. Idk who those are so I randomly pick Prince Pieuje.
“How could you mistake me for my good-for-nothing, arrogant brother?!” Whoops. He’s really Prince Trion d’Oraguille.
-Raillefal/Trion asks me to deliver a letter back to San d’Oria. The fate of our four nations depends on this! (Although since he’s constantly so melodramatic, it’s hard to know whether it really does.)
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Mission: Confessions of Royalty (Treasures of Aht Urhgan)
-I port to San d’Oria to deliver the letter to Halver.
-lolol Halver spends like a full minute ripping Prince Trion’s shitty handwriting. Rahal (from my dragoon quest long ago) overhears steps into interpret.
RAHAL: “Some days ago, Prince Trion abandoned the signing of some official documents. He placed a mannequin in his chair and fled the chateau in the dead of night.”
HALVER: “At least it was not a forest hare this time.”
Prince Trion is a weird dude, but seems more pompous jackass than evil so far.
-A San d’Orian ninja named Travialce has been shadowing Prince Trion to learn about his trip.
-Four years ago, Jalzahn - former Emperor of Aht Urhgan - and his wife both died due to illness at the same time. (I immediately assume this was not a natural death.)
-Aht Urhgan fights on two fronts. The eastern front and wars therein are at a stalemate, but that’s where the Aht Urhgan army is focused.
-When the Emperor and Empress died, the beastmen on the western borders took this chance to rebel against Aht Urhgan. They were joined by an army called the “Undead Swarm.”
-This sounds like a dangerous place for Prince Trion to be. The Elvaan summon a General Curilla to help retrieve Trion.
Kickass armor!
-She asks the question that’s been on my mind: why does Prince Trion care so much about the distant empire of Aht Urhgan?
-Trion visited there when the Emperor was healthy. An “incident” occurred, and… OH COME ON, YOU WON’T TELL ME WHAT THE “INCIDENT” WAS?? Grr. Not my favorite storytelling technique to be like, “Oh, there was an incident, but… let’s not talk about that now.”
-Another Elvaan dude enters the fray, Prince Pieuje. He reads Trion’s letter and deciphers his shitty handwriting.
PRINCE PIEUJE: “We must turn our attention to the Near East, where a battle on the scale of the Crystal War is brewing.” Yikes.
-The Astral Candescence is at the center of this. It emits a melody that fills those nearby with boundless energy. The Astral Wind.
-Everyone hears this and is like “Aha! Of course! Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” And I’m like “NO WTF, an energy boost sounds nice and all but what does it have to do with the war?
My best guess is that the Astral Candescence does something sinister. Raises the dead, controls minds, something like that.
-The next step is a meeting of all the nations’ representatives in Jeuno to discuss this.
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Mission: Easterly Winds (Treasures of Aht Urhgan)
-I head to the Jeuno palace to meet the reps. They hear the news about the empire under siege.
-Captain Volker of Bastok says that Aht Urhgan used to be called the Silent Empire. During the Great War 20 years ago against the Shadow Lord, the Empire’s army was bigger than the combined forces of the allied nations. They didn’t lift a finger to help, and Volker doesn’t want to help them now.
-Windurst’s representative, the rhyming Doctor Shantotto, says that Aht Urhgan helped plenty. They fought dangerous armies on their doorstep, and if they had come to help us, those armies would have been free to act.
-But Prince Pieuje isn’t here to ask for troops. His concern is the Astral Candescence. Volker is like me – namely, confused why an instrument with a melody from an unidentifiable source is such a big concern.
-Shantotto though is troubled. She seems to recognize this description. The problem isn’t the sound, it’s the Astral Wind.
PIEUJE: “It envelops those close by and fills them with a mysterious strength. There are few who can resist the lure of this energy.”
Again, this doesn’t sound too bad. Is the Empire of Aht Urhgan under siege thanks to a magical Red Bull? And if so, why not just destroy it?
PIEUJE: “Even if it posed a threat to your own citizens, if that treasure could one day be your salvation, would you not choose to protect it?”
How can this instrument be their salvation? I’m not sure yet.
-Another question from Prince Pieuje: if the Astral Candescence is so important, why not hide it in the palace? It’s sitting in a hall near the city walls, vulnerable to beastmen attacks.
-Shantotto suggests it has something to do with the Temple of Walahra. The Walahrans control the Hall of Binding, where the Astral Candescence is kept. They defend it with Serpent Generals, top-notch soldiers.
SHANTOTTO: “This is a huge game of ‘set the trap and wait.’
And the Astral Candescence is the very tasty bait!”
-Okay… but why does Aht Urhgan WANT Beastmen to invade the city?
-Don’t know. But the representatives here ask me to continue working with Salaheem’s Sentinels, grow in stature in the Empire’s eyes, and get close enough to learn wtf is going on.
-As the scene fades to black, we see “???” (gee I wonder who it could be that talks in rhymes) speak:
“That treasure is more than simple bait.
And astral relic will seal your fate.
The Empress goes too far in her game.
I’m curious to see how it turns out, all the same.”
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Next time: continuing to infiltrate Aht Urhgan.
