In Search of Iceheart
-The dragoon Estinien, Alphinaud and I set off to find Iceheart. We wind up in the heretic hideout of the Akh Afah Amphitheater.
-The amphitheater is BEAUTIFUL. An icy arena with a bright night sky behind us.
-We came in peace but the Dravanians just see us as attackers. I don’t blame them. We have to fight.
-The defeated Dravanians then retreat to Dreaming Dragon, an ashen isle where a great old dragon is said to sleep.
-But if we go there, they’ll just see us as hostile. We need to find Iceheart directly. We first hunt for more leads and we check in with some ranger dragoons called Convictors.
-The Dravanians have been recruiting. They promise freedom, which appeals to some of the lower-paid soldiers in the Ishgardian military. Interested recruits light a signal fire to indicate their interest.
Let’s do that.
-IT WORKS! Iceheart herself arrives.
-She’s not optimistic about peace. Flashback time!
-1,000 years ago, an Elezen tribe sought to claim Coerthas. But dragons already lived there, so a war ensued.
This is already wild. It positions the dragons as the invaded and the Elezen that presumably became Ishgard as hostile invaders.
-The war would have continued but for the efforts of Shiva. She attempted to parley with the dragons and learned that they were intelligent, reasonable. She even grew to love the great wyrm Hraesvelgr.
-Shiva’s people shunned her, and Hraesvelgr (an immortal) feared death would take his new soulmate.
-Shiva asked the wyrm to consume her so that their spirits could join for eternity. As you do.
-Hraesvelgr is beautiful! He’s got branching feathered wings and stegosaurus scales.
-Hraesvelgr reluctantly did as Shiva asked. This entwining of souls touched both Elezen and dragon. The war stopped, and the two sides lived in harmony for two hundred years.
-Trouble hit after those 200 years. Wyrms are said to hide their long-life behind their eyes. A group of greedy Elezen knights heard this and attacked, taking the great wyrm Nidhogg’s eye.
Wow. If she’s telling the full truth (an if, but not a big if), that really changes things.
-It also explains Nidhogg’s unwillingness to give up the fight so easily. He won’t rest until he gets his eye back.
-Estinien begs to differ. He’s carries Nidhogg’s eye with him, and has been away from the city for a while. So why is Nidhogg focused on Ishgard rather than pursuing the eye?
ESTINIEN: “Reason has all but left him… the dragon’s thirst for vengeance will not be quenched by aught less than a sea of blood.”
-Alphinaud thinks if Nidhogg is lost to reason, what if we instead contact Hraesvelgr? He hasn’t aided the invasion of Ishgard. He may be more open to peace.
(…didn’t we just kill/dissipate his beloved Saint Shiva?)
Lady Iceheart agrees to this. She’ll take us to see Hraesvelgr in Dravania, homeland of the dragons.
UHHH WHAT? A LIGHT ERUPTS IN MY CHEST AND I’M IN A TRIPPY CRYSTAL DREAM WORLD
-A circle of crystals spins around me. One lights up, energy connecting me to it.
The dream fades just as quickly.
-I start walking with the others towards Dravania.
Midgardsormr appears out of earshot, commenting that Hydaelyn’s blessing still stirs within me.
”Thy will to succeed grants thee unusual fortitude. But will it be enough…?”
Still dunno what his deal is.
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Where the Chocobos Roam
-The path to Dravania starts in the most wonderful place: the Chocobo Forest.
-The specific part of Dravania we’re heading towards is in the shadow of the dragon homeland, Sohm Al.
-There’s a new race here to deal with, the Gnath. Like a cross between ants and giant crab monsters.
-This is where Lady Iceheart – excuse me, Ysayle – first met Hraesvalgr.
-As we journey, Ysayle and Estinien are at each other’s throats. She sees this region’s dragon statuary as hearkening back to a peaceful time between dragon and man. Estinien sees it as representative of dragon tyranny.
There’s some reckoning between these two coming. Or maybe one of them will have a come to Jesus moment. (My money’s on Estinien learning that dragons aren’t as universally bad as he thought.)
-We meet one of Hraesvelgr’s lieutenants, a gorgeous white horned dragon named Vidofnir. Her wings are the normal leathery kind, not feathery like Hraesvelgr’s. Maybe Hraesvelgr’s feathers denote some sort of higher class/rank.
-She won’t approach Hraesvelgr about peace just yet because she can’t leave her post. She’s on guard against a god the Gnath summoned. A primal. Sounds like something we can help with!
-We reach out to a delegation of Gnath, and they are SO CUTE!
I have no clue what the Gnath’s primal will be. Something earthy, undergroundish, insectoid. I’m at a loss. Unless it’s, like, a primal version of the recurring Antlion boss I first met near Damcyan in FFIV.
-This particular friendly group of Gnath is the Vath. “We are the Nonmind.” The other Vath who summoned the god are “Onemind,” a Borg-esque hive mind.
The music in the Vath hive is playful and adorable.
-The Onemind feared the dragons. Then “the black-robed men” (Ascians no doubt) convinced the Onemind to call forth their god.
-Immediate regret. At least, from the Nonmind. The god gave the Gnath influence but hungers constantly hungers for crystals beyond the rewards of the war.
-I have to level up to get to the next story quest, so gonna call this session here.
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Random Stuff Around Eorzea
-There’s a new mechanic in Heavensward. Zones have “aether currents” scattered throughout – some just sitting in the zone, some as quest rewards.
When I attune to them, a thing happens. Flight maybe? Haven’t completed a zone yet, but I think it’s some kind of black chocobo flight thing.
-Most hubs/towns have a chocobokeeper. You pay a small fee and hop a chocobo to fast travel to some other hub with a chocobokeeper.
The dragon hub with Vidofnir has the same thing, except instead of an actual person tending chocobos, there’s a mystical chocobo statue that’s like an instrument.
The sound summons a chocobo, and it “suggests” you leave the normal fee at the statue.
-A non-hostile yellow dragon chilling by Vidofnir:
-Bulbasaur worships dragons now:
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Next time: investigating the Gnath primal.
