Mission: Fall From Grace (Rhapsodies of Vana’diel)
-Siren’s plume transports me to Al’Taieu, where Selh’teus keeps watch. Vortexes eat away at it.
-In Iroha’s future, an event occurred called “The Reckoning.” I made a decision that left Iroha alone in Reisenjima. Now I want to ask Altana how to avoid that future.
-Selh’teus says that Altana herself can’t be reached. Even the avatars can’t reach her.
-But he has an idea. “What if we could create a crystal that could banish the Emptiness?” Selh’teus has traversed various alternate dimensions, each time drawing a small fraction of crystal energy from them. He now has enough to create a new mothercrystal.
-Right now though, Tartarus is absorbing this world’s light. We have to stop that.
SELH’TEUS: “Seek out the one whose dominion over magic is absolute.”
So the plan is first find a magic-user to help stop Tartarus from draining Vana’diel’s light, create a new mothercrystal to banish the Emptiness around Reisenjima, and then try to contact Altana.
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Mission: Banish the Darkness (Rhapsodies of Vana’diel)
-Yaaay! Prishe is helping still, and I see her in Norg.
-Iroha knows about that new Reisenjima crystal from her future. But it alone didn’t stop the Emptiness.
-Gilgamesh thinks Shantotto is Selh’teus’ master of magic.
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Mission: Over the Rainbow (Rhapsodies of Vana’diel)
-To Windurst. Shantotto is charming/terrifying as ever.
“For your sake, I hope you aren’t such a bore.
I’m getting quite tired of cleaning blood off the floor.” #BlackMetalTarutaru
-Shantotto has heard of Tartarus. Another Tarutaru, Koru-Moru, created an evil-seeking contraption, and Shantotto wants to use it to find Tartarus.
[Later edit: I wonder whether there’s a connection between Tarutarus and Tartarus. I doubt it.]
-The device points towards the Escha Ru’Aun vortex in Tavnazia.
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Mission: Eddies of Despair (Rhapsodies of Vana’diel)
-I go to Escha Ru’Aun, and there are vortexes all over the place.
-A team of Bastokers is here, including Cid. His survey here shows that the longer you stay in Escha, the more your spirit slips away. You also lose all sense of time.
-I work my way around all the islands of Escha Ru’Aun. On the last island, Balamor appears.
-His design is PHENOMENAL. I just noticed that his stomach is a row of teeth.
-Balamor is holding Volto Oscuro captive on the other side of the vortex, using him as a power source.
-Selh’teus arrives. Balamor says he wants to create a “world of [my] own making.” So THAT’S why he created these vortexes, drawing power to Tartarus.
BALAMOR: “I’m sick of reading parts that have been given to me by others, so I’ve decided to draft my own narrative!” Okay, Hamilton.
-lolol I like Balamor. “Look at your Vana’diel – Emptiness this, all-consuming void that – it’s halfway between a tragedy and a comedy of errors!”
-Balamor wants to create a world of one rule: power. Whoever has the power of the crystals has the right to rule. He draws in void power and prepares to fight us.
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Mission: Pretender to the Throne (Rhapsodies of Vana’diel)
-It’s kind of a tough fight, and we take him down, shoving him through the vortex out of our world.
-The vortexes around this place sucking in energy disappear. It’s time now for Selh’teus to craft that new mothercrystal.
-lol WHAT?? I just got Balamor as an alter ego to summon for my party!
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Mission: Banished (Rhapsodies of Vana’diel)
-Rergrouping in Norg.
-What happened to Volto Oscuro? He’s probably free. Let’s start on that new mothercrystal. To Al’Taieu!
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Mission: Call of the Void (Rhapsodies of Vana’diel)
-We are in Al’Taieu, in the celestial “Empyreal Paradox” where we fought Promathia. It’s beautiful.
SELH’TEUS: “I will become the crystal itself.” Crystals are living beings. Rock + magic isn’t enough. And yet, his mind and spirit will remain intact even as the crystal.
He dives into the nascent crystal.
OH SHIT VOLTO OSCURO IS HERE! He starts in Galka form, then rips apart, becoming a Mithra, then a Tarutaru, then… me??
VOLTO OSCURO: “I am… Detolilla. I am the future you. You created me… a stronger you… that we might claim victory against the darkness.” Lilisette chose to become Lilith in her desperation, and it sounds like I eventually choose to create Volto Oscuro. I wonder if that’s “the Reckoning.”
-He turns back into his Elvaan form. He’s no longer called Volto Oscuro – now, it’s “Disjoined One.”
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Mission: Both Paths Taken (Rhapsodies of Vana’diel)
-We take him out. The fights are starting to get tougher.
-His body starts to erupt in purple light. I walk up to him, and my body erupts in white light.
-I go unconscious, and we see Iroha screaming “Please, please don’t go!” as I drift away. Fade to black.
???: “The hands of the clock turn back, only to stride forward once more. To think we were to meet…”
The mystery person is bathed in golden light. OH SHIT IT’S ME FROM THE FUTURE OR SOMETHING
???: “…in a place beyond time.”
-She’s bathed in a golden light, and sends some into me. Resurrecting me.
???: “Meet… Altana…”
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Mission: The Man Behind the Mask (Rhapsodies of Vana’diel)
-Regrouping in Norg. I love that this questline puts Prishe, Gilgamesh, and Nashmeira in the same room.
-The Disjoined One/Volto Oscuro actually killed me. Iroha tried to use Phoenix’s power to bring me back, but my body disappeared into the void.
-Iroha left. She’d given me up for dead and left. Zeid and the Tenshodo are searching for her.
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Mission: Uncertain Futures (Rhapsodies of Vana’diel)
-I teleported into Bastok, and got probably the last thing I expected: a cutscene with the Shadow Lord.
“Despite betrayal by those I once called my own, I refuse to yield until humanity’s blight is purged from this land.”
THEN KAM’LANAUT!! “Simply opening the Gate of the Gods would bring the Zilart what they have been denied for over ten thousand years.”
AND EALD’NARCHE, IT’S VILLAINPALOOZA WTFFFF “We were born in Vana’diel and exist only due to her endless bounty. And yet our very presence here is an affront to her.” This is basically the end of 7x01 of Buffy.
Each of these villains appears to me, summarizing why they did what they did.
Nag’molada’s up next. “There is one secret to humanity’s success: ambition. Imagining a better future, strives ever onward in search of it.”
Then Grand Vizier Razfahd from Aht Urhgan. “I claimed ever greater power in pursuit of my goals until my time, too, ran out. All I wanted to do was protect my countrymen… my homeland…”
And Lilith. “I channeled my love for my homeland into power. When I fell before you… did it mean everything was for naught?”
They’re talking to me. All these past Big Bads are in the void, addressing me.
And now the Disjoined One.
“I have sought [these apparitions] to manipulate their essences for my own ends. Dark, infernal forces, serving as a counterbalance to the light you hope to make manifest. And now is the time for me to fill you with that energy. Come.”
-His various Galka, Hume, Mithra, Elvaan, and Tarutaru surround me.
“You don’t really think you can save the world, do you?”
“At best, you might buy it a few more phases of the moon.”
“Even should I fall, there is a grand legion aching to take my place.”
As each speaks, it dissipates, and purple black energy dives into me. The Disjoined one is using all my past enemies and struggles to infuse me with doubt and hate. This is brilliant.
(Though I do have to laugh at his Tarutaru form that mixes the cute Tarutaru speech patterns with nihilism: “Pandora’s box-wox has been opened, overturned, and shake until nothing remains inside. Perhaps not even your precious-wecious ‘hope.’”
And then, after all these doubts and despairs infuse themselves, that light version of myself appears.
???: “No matter how deeply darkness has penetrated your soul, no matter how much you want to give up, you must not. You cannot. Hope is something seized, not given. Whether surrounded by friends or walking a hard road alone, there is unshaking value in seeing your path to its conclusion.”
-The scene changes. An intensely beautiful bamboo forest, some new zone. Iroha is here. I run up to her, and she disappears in a burst of light.
“Detolilla, this rhapsody is yours to sing.”
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The Path to Finish Final Fantasy XI
I’ve come a long way in this game. I’ve beaten the base game’s Bastok missions, “Rise of the Zilart,” “Chains of Promathia,” “Treasures of Aht Urhgan,” and now “Wings of the Goddess.” I’ve made good progress on “Rhapsodies of Vana’diel.”
I’m going to pause “Rhapsodies of Vana’diel” for the moment. I’ve completed chapters one and two, and don’t want to start chapter three until I finish the rest of the expansions.
My next targets are the add-on packs. I’ve started these, some more than others.
“A Crystalline Prophecy” – got the intro cutscene.
“A Moogle Kupo d’Etat” – Made decent progress before getting stuck.
“A Shantotto Ascension” – got the intro cutscene.
“Visions/Scars/Heroes of Abyssea” – nothing
“Seekers of Adoulin” – Got an intro quest. Something about pioneering/exploration.
“Seekers of Adoulin” is a full expansion. The rest are shorter add-on packs. How short? I have no idea. Maybe they’ll each take two sessions, maybe five sessions, dunno.
I also know that the Abyssea packs don’t have much story. Idk what that means, but it’s something I heard in game.
So yeah. My plan is to work through the add-on packs, then Seekers of Adoulin, and Rhapsodies of Vana’diel to finish up this massive and wonderful game.
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Next time: “A Crystalline Prophecy.”
