Stilshrine of Miriam
-Encountered a regular in enemy in Paramina Rift called a Twintania. That was a boss back in FFV.
-The Kiltias warn that the Sword of Kings was never meant for spilling blood. Perhaps a coming test.
-A Pedestal of the Dawn asks me to touch it once I have the blade. I do so without the blade, but it only summons some zombies lol.
-This shrine feels a bit Babylonian, or maybe Egyptian.
-Already stuck. There’s a way point here with the message: “Nethicite-bearer, embracer of Dawn’s light. I summon you.” I try making Ashe the party leader and having her equip the Dawn Shard, but no luck. The way stone doesn’t activate.
-A locked door says it only opens to the Treaty-seeker in times of strife. I bring some zombies down to the door to fight, but the door stays locked.
-AHA! I had to use the Dawn Shard at the Pedestal of the Dawn. Makes sense.
-Got the Countdown technick. I rarely use that in games, but learned (oddly enough from FFX-2: Last Mission) how much faster it can be to use that against massive enemies.
-Green crystal? lol never mind, it’s a mimic. At least a real crystal spawns when it dies.
-There’s another puzzle here that takes me a bit to figure out. Statues are scattered throughout, and I have to rotate them to face a blade. The blade is a giant sculpture blade in the middle of the Stilshrine.
-Boss time – Vinuskar. A really cool design with what look like snake tentacles off a floating center and a human head at the end of one of the tentacles.
-She has an anti-metal aura, but I chunk her down so quickly I don’t have time to deal with it properly.
-Her bestiary calls her a manufacted dragon of iron.
-I rotate the final statue and the way past the colossus opens.
-Another boss. This definitely feels Shiva-esque. A frozen room with a woman in the middle.
And yet, it’s NOT Shiva. It’s “Mateus.” Like, the Big Bad of FFII?
-Mateus is surrounded by little ice enemies, so I break out Ashe for Thundara. It clears them quickly. I also equip half ice damage items on everyone. [Non-rhetorical question: do those effects stack? I’m assuming not.]
-I disable the Thundara gambit on Ashe because Mateus has Reflect. She goes down soon.
HAHA YESSSS ESPER #2!! “Mateus, the Corrupt.”
-Mateus’s bestiary is fascinating. She’s a scion of darkness within the underworld, and she opposes “Lahabrea, Abyssal Celebrant and scion of light.” LOLOL SO ONE OF THE FFXIV BIG BADS WAS A SCION OF LIGHT IN FFXII? XD
-Wait. I’m confused. Is Mateus that person who got corrupted? Most of the bestiary entry makes it seem this way, but two things are throwing me off:
1) The latter part of the entry: “Then in his cowardice did he bind a Goddess of the Demesne of Ice, and using her as a living shield, he challenged the gods. Defeated before their might, he fell screaming into the depths of hell, there to be imprisoned for eternity.” This living shield Mateus used seems to much better describe the esper we fought.
2) The gender. The person who became corrupt is male, but this esper seems to present as female.
I really think that this is the bound Goddess of the Demesne of Ice (Shiva probably?) but the game is labeling this esper as Mateus, not Shiva. Hm.
My next question: who to give Mateus to? Who benefits the most?
Vaan: nothing new
Balthier: nothing new
Fran: Access to Curaga, Regen, Esuna, and Cleanse.
Basch: nothing new
Ashe: Hand-bombs 3
Penelo: nothing new
Fran wins.
-Before I finish, let me check out the bestiary for this place.
-Darkmare is my favorite fiend in the game. It’s like a horse with beautiful coloring, blue/purple flames on its hoofs and six tentacles.
-Dragon Aevis entry: “’Aevis’ summons to mind the word for ‘demon’s armor’ I the ancient tongue.” So is the Archaeoaevis boss in FFV, like, an armored dragon?
-The Blood Gigas is a headless giant. “It views the world through the eye enchained across its chest, the pupil of which is said to be a window onto the underworld.” Yikes.
-Sage Knowledge, Centurio: Montblanc founded Clan Centurio. He’s known for his acceptance and the cooperation he fosters between races. Centurio’s ranks include a nu mou (those adorable acolytes from Bur-Omisace), Ma’kenroh (not sure what that is), and a viera.
Sage Knowledge, the Stilshrine of Miriam: Constructed during the Galtean Alliance to honor the ancient god of swords and martial might. Must be Miriam herself.
-We approach a final shrine thing with a sword inside a clockwork mechanism.
-It reacts to the Dawn Shard. The clockwork stops, and the sword descends into Ashe’s hands.
-Time to try it out on the Dawn Shard, to see if the sword can shatter nethicite.
-The nethicite bleeds mist. It fears the sword, and in an act of self-preservation, the nethicite projects an image to Ashe of her dead husband shaking his head. Dick move, Dawn Shard.
-Ashe doesn’t shatter it, but at least this proves it CAN shatter nethicite. Ashe must still hope to use the nethicite herself.
-This time, the image is just for Ashe. Vaan saw nothing.
-We exit. And CRAP – Imperial airships swarm above us. A frigging fleet.
-Smoke is on the horizon. We see a judge on the airship say: “The Empire’s debts grow legion.” Not sure what this means.
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Bur-Omisace on Fire
-I teleport back to Mt. Bur-Omisace. Wounded people are by the crystal, talking of the Empire’s attack and invasion of this holy place.
-The temple is burning. This is brutal – the Judges cut a swath through the refugees and Kiltias.
-Relj is still here.
The imperial invasion confirms everything she feared about humes. Hey Relj, #notallhu-! *takes a claw to the throat*
-We head into the temple. A Judge stands over the corpse of the Gran Kiltias. He came for the Sword of Kings.
-He’s possessed! We catch a glimpse of the phantom we saw in Mjrn.
Not sure whether this is “possession” exactly. Dunno whether those nethicite phantoms are sentient or just an environmental thing, like a toxin. Leaning towards the former.
-Fran and Balthier notice the Mist emanating from the Judge. He laughs this off.
“The power of manufacted nethicite is the power of man!” He doesn’t want to consider the idea that something is controlling or influencing him.
-I adore how uniquely hyper-serious FFXII’s tone is. This Judge is the kind of person who can use “Hark!” with complete sincerity.
-The Judge believes Vayne Solidor is the next true Dynast-King. “He shall defy the will of the gods and see the reins of history back in the hands of man!”
I can’t help but think of that West Wing line: “Hubris always wins in the end. The Greeks taught us that!”
-Ah, Judge Bergan! That’s the guy’s name. He’s the one who Drace said had “inhuman strength.” Now we know why.
-We take out Bergan and his subordinate Judges. Apparently, Bergan had laced his very bones with nethicite. Ok, Wolverine.
-Al-Cid is alive but wounded. Judge Gabranth took Larsa away.
-I like that Al-Cid doesn’t cling to the whole “smooth operator” thing. He still gets in a flirty line or two, but mostly out of habit. He’s hyper-focused on Rozarria and (I believe) Ivalice’s best interests.
-The Rozarrian War Pavilion is planning a pre-emptive strike. Al-Cid asks Ashe to accompany him back and help dissuade them from war.
-She says no. She still has shit to do here. Wants to use the Sword of Kings to kill the Dusk Shard.
-Balthier thinks it’s in Archades, in the Draklor Laboratory. We’re heading into the heart of the Empire.
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Next time: Checking out the next esper, seeing if new hunts await, and moving to Archadia.
