Quest: First Contact (Abyssea)
-Joachim sends me to meet a mystery man in La Theine Plateau.
???: “Arrrg. Fancy seein’ someone in these parts.”
HAHAHAHA IT’S FUCKING ABYSSEA!GILGAMESH
He says “the lil’ mistress” assigned him the task of measuring how much I could help Abyssea. WAIT. WAIT WAIT WAIT. IS LION THE LITTLE MISTRESS?
-I’ve passed “mistress’” test by killing the zone bosses of Abyssea.
-There’s apparently no Abyssea!Detolilla. Not sure why.
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Quest: An Officer and a Pirate (Abyssea)
-The next day, Joachim sends me to meet Gilgamesh in the Hall of the Gods.
-He introduces me to the boss: it’s Abyssea!Esha’ntarl! Not Lion, but still pretty awesome. She’s helped during Chains of Promathia.
“The cataclysm that has ravaged the land – it is a thing spawned from the will of Promathia.” OH SHIT PROMATHIA IS BACK
-Promathia’s awakening in Abyssea caused this swarm of earthquakes and beasts and the reddening sky.
-In our world, Esha’ntarl helped avert this. In Abyssea, she failed somehow.
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Quest: Death and Rebirth (Abyssea)
-Promathia wants to eliminate the mortal realm and return to Paradise. The Abyssean hordes are emissaries of the Twilight God.
-Part of this process is that the five separate mothercrystals will merge somewhere.
ABY!ESHA’NTARL: “The place I speak of is none other than the moon.”
lolololol hi FFIV
Promathia’s Celestial Capital of Al’Taieu has ascended to the moon. Idk why, but it’s fucking cool. She thinks we can reach it through Cavernous Maws.
-The creatures guarding these particular Maws are Caturae, an especially odd and dangerous monster type.
I have to kill all six Caturae on Abyssea to open the lunar way and take on Abyssea!Promathia.
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Mission: Meeting of the Minds (Seekers of Adoulin)
-I meet Adoulin’s leaders for dinner in the castle. It’s a diverse crowd – Tarutaru, Galka, everyone.
-There’s heated debate about whether to push ahead with the pioneering effort.
PRO: Pioneering improves wealth, resources, exploration.
CON: Pioneering harms nature, betrays tradition, ignores their former king’s dying request.
-Adoulin was established over 100 years ago. Population has started to explode since colonization started recently.
GRATZIGG (the peacekeeper head): “But is gaining all that land worth breaking the ancient pact?”
This pact no doubt relates to the expansion’s lurking threat.
-Grand Chancellor Ygnas is King Adras Adoulin’s descendant. King Adras vowed to leave the land alone, but Ygnas reneged on that, starting the pioneer effort. Ygnas isn’t at dinner now.
“Arciela V. Adoulin, daughter of the former royal family and sister to Grand Chancellor Ygnas, has entered the hall!”
IT’S THE BADASS WHOM WE MET UPON FIRST ENTERING ADOULIN!!
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Questing Around (Seekers of Adoulin)
-More reputation-building before I can continue, so more small quests.
-LOL I SEE YOU, FFV REFERENCE – one of the quests has me help Cid’s son.
“His really-weal name is Midras, but doesn’t it sound wrong to call him ‘Mid?’”
-The quests here continually revolve around the questions of whether to explore around Adoulin or not.
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Mission: Budding Prospects (Seekers of Adoulin)
-A pioneer tells me about Leafkins (cute little sentient leaf balls – sort of like Tangela in Pokemon).
-Nature has been odd lately. Rivers drying up, flora changing, worse. I need to seek out the Queen of the Leafkins for advice.
-I go to the Mummers’ Coalition to learn more.
-UHHH IS DRACULA IN FFXI? The head of the Mummers’ Coalition is a dude named Teodor, and he looks like a classic elegant vampire. Preternaturally pale skin, a ruby-tipped cane, the works.
-The first king of Adoulin recklessly explored the wilds around the city, cutting and killing. He defeated some especially nasty wildkeepers, the Naakuals, and earned their fealty. He pushed on, delving deep into the forest’s sacred places.
Too deep. Something stopped him. Years later, his dying words: “Never again must man tread upon the land of Ulbuka.” Did he discover a Balrog or something?
-This is the “ancient pact” of Adoulin, one inscribed on a sword passed down along his bloodline. Only someone on that line can nullify the pact. Each successive king swore to uphold the oath.
-Eventually, the government changed. The King’s descendants - the Order of Adoulin – are just one of twelve noble houses now.
-Ygnas is the current leader of the Order of Adoulin. He overturned the ancient pact and recommenced the colonization of Ulbuka. A new age of pioneering and progress – but one that seems to have awakened whatever stopped the first King Adoulin.
-Although Ygnas forsook the ancestral blade of King Adoulin, it wasn’t lost. His sister Arciela took it up.
-The Leafkins’ queen likely knows about this ancient pact. Let’s use the sword to talk with her.
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Mission: In the Presence of Royalty (Seekers of Adoulin)
-I find Arciela in Cirdas Caverns. She has the royal sword, Ortharsyne.
-She’ll join me to talk to the leafkin queen.
-We find the Leafkins in the forests of Yorcia Weald. They stop attacking after seeing Ortharsyne.
-I LOVE THE DESIGN OF THE LEAFKIN QUEEN SO MUCH!
She communicates telepathically: “<Welcoooome, children of Altana. I am Rosulatia, and I serve the leafkin as the great motherseed of the World Tree.>”
-We’ve been inadvertently harming this World Tree, Yggdrasil.
-Two World Trees support Vana’diel. One is here in Yorcia Weald, Yggdrasil.
“<It is through her bark that we have sealed the darkness that once gripped the land far beneath the surfaceee. But the World Tree to the north is no mooore. Her child – our mother – clings to life, but has been stricken with a vile taint for many years.>”
-Not any normal sickness – a demonic corruption. She sends me to the forest’s heart to learn more.
-We reach the spring and see a string of visions, images.
-An image of a far away land, Rhazowa with a great tree. The Founder King took a part of that World Tree with him and planted it here in Adoulin.
ROSULATIA: “<This sereeenity was not to last. Tragedy soon came to Rhazowa.>”
Orcs invaded Rhazowa and burned the first World Tree. Her child, Yggdrasil, was still tied somehow to the Rhazowa tree. It weakened as her twin withered.
-Yggdrasil used her protective energy to throughout Ulbuka to support all Vana’diel. This World Tree is now on the brink of death. Its tendrils spread throughout Ulbuka, supporting all life on Vana’diel. It now lies on the brink of death. If Yggradsil dies, so goes Vana’diel.
-So how do we save the World Tree? Rosulatia doesn’t know. She tells us to “<Aaask… the king…>”
-The king of the Leafkins, or the ancient dead king Adoulin? Not sure. She leaves us with this mystery.
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Next time: It’ll take some grinding to prepare to kill the Caturae in Abyssea. So next time, I’ll continue with Adoulin and maybe start the final chapter of Rhapsodies of Vana’diel.
