Summary: Bismarck goes down. Thordan and his Ascian friend hijack the key to Azys Lla. Finding Y’shtola. Trying out squadrons.
Bolt, Chain and Island
-Our next attempt against Bismarck goes much better, along with our groups super badass ultra mega healer, @hatstand4510.
-The fight on the floating island alternates phases. We kill Vundu adds or mini dragon adds, fire tow cables to pull Bismarck close, and hop on his back to attack him directly.
-The Bismarck fight is aesthetically wonderful. The music is space-agey. Just as the heavy metal sound fit Ifrit, this music fits a sky whale fight.
-The colors are gorgeous too. Weather changes as the fight progresses, from open sunny skies towards storm and torrential downpour.
-The victory doesn’t feel great. He’s still a big beautiful whale, a corrupted version of something that once was pure.
-The key drops from Bismarck’s stomach.
-Before I can pick it up, I get another of those crystal flashbacks I keep getting at key plot points.
-I stand once more in a circle of crystals. Some of them are lit up from before. A new one lights up now.
-A voice speaks. I can only hear bits and pieces.
“All made.. Darkness… like to none… known… Hark… receive… blessing… more…”
I think it’s Hydaelyn’s voice, coming through once more. I’d been severed from it since the end of ARR.
-I wake back to the island.
-An Ascian named Igeyorhm, and Archbishop Thordan step out of the shadows.
-This thing I hold now is the “key to Azys Lla and the secrets of Allag.” Iirc, Allag is an ancient and advanced civilization. Ultima Weapon was found buried in the ruins of Allag.
-Igeyorhm stuns me with a purple zappy light thing. It’s not as effective as she expected. Seems I’m slowly but gradually regaining Hydaelyn’s blessing.
That’s why I heard the broken words of Hydaelyn from before. I’m building my connection to her back up.
-Igeyorhm still hurts me enough to knock the key out of my hands. She floats it over to Archbishop Thordan.
THORDAN: “Now that the key is within our grasp, the path to the heavens shall at last be laid bare!”
This is giving me MAJOR vibes from FFXI, where one of the main villains tried breaking into heaven.
-The key unfurls. It blasts a laser at the sky, and Thordan laughs victoriously.
-An airship comes to pick him and the Ascian up. Thordan is ready to right the wrongs of antiquity, to reclaim the reins of history.
-HOLY CRAP THAT’S COOL!!!
We get a glimpse of what must be Azys Lla, a floating mechanical city in the sky. Also reminds me of FFXI, where the gateway to heaven rested in Tu’Lia, a floating ancient city.
Bolt, Chain and Island
-Our next attempt against Bismarck goes much better, along with our groups super badass ultra mega healer, @hatstand4510.
-The fight on the floating island alternates phases. We kill Vundu adds or mini dragon adds, fire tow cables to pull Bismarck close, and hop on his back to attack him directly.
-The Bismarck fight is aesthetically wonderful. The music is space-agey. Just as the heavy metal sound fit Ifrit, this music fits a sky whale fight.
-The colors are gorgeous too. Weather changes as the fight progresses, from open sunny skies towards storm and torrential downpour.
-The victory doesn’t feel great. He’s still a big beautiful whale, a corrupted version of something that once was pure.
-The key drops from Bismarck’s stomach.
-Before I can pick it up, I get another of those crystal flashbacks I keep getting at key plot points.
-I stand once more in a circle of crystals. Some of them are lit up from before. A new one lights up now.
-A voice speaks. I can only hear bits and pieces.
“All made.. Darkness… like to none… known… Hark… receive… blessing… more…”
I think it’s Hydaelyn’s voice, coming through once more. I’d been severed from it since the end of ARR.
-I wake back to the island.
-An Ascian named Igeyorhm, and Archbishop Thordan step out of the shadows.
-This thing I hold now is the “key to Azys Lla and the secrets of Allag.” Iirc, Allag is an ancient and advanced civilization. Ultima Weapon was found buried in the ruins of Allag.
-Igeyorhm stuns me with a purple zappy light thing. It’s not as effective as she expected. Seems I’m slowly but gradually regaining Hydaelyn’s blessing.
That’s why I heard the broken words of Hydaelyn from before. I’m building my connection to her back up.
-Igeyorhm still hurts me enough to knock the key out of my hands. She floats it over to Archbishop Thordan.
THORDAN: “Now that the key is within our grasp, the path to the heavens shall at last be laid bare!”
This is giving me MAJOR vibes from FFXI, where one of the main villains tried breaking into heaven.
-The key unfurls. It blasts a laser at the sky, and Thordan laughs victoriously.
-An airship comes to pick him and the Ascian up. Thordan is ready to right the wrongs of antiquity, to reclaim the reins of history.
-HOLY CRAP THAT’S COOL!!!
We get a glimpse of what must be Azys Lla, a floating mechanical city in the sky. Also reminds me of FFXI, where the gateway to heaven rested in Tu’Lia, a floating ancient city.
---
A Difference of Opinion
-Alphinaud is optimistic. We didn’t get the key, but at least we saved the world from another primal. Let’s go tell Chief Sonu in Ok’Zundu of our victory.
-Shit’s already gone down in Ok’Zundu. Imperial troops captured and secured the town.
-An Imperial with a SWEET looking helm named Regula van Hydrus leads the group.
-She’s not even the highest ranking Imperial here. The new emperor himself is present, Varis zos Galvus.
Regula is in front with the MagmaJudge helmet, Emperor Varis behind her.
-Varis verbally defends his (and the empire’s) actions. He sees the empire and the Scions of the Seventh Dawn as simply approaching the problem of the primals (or as he calls them, “eikons”) from different angles.
VARIS ZOS GALVUS: “’Tis my solemn charge as emperor to bring the eikons to heel. If this requires the extermination of certain elements, then so be it.”
-His troops take this as his queue to move in on the Zundu with weapons.
-DUDE WAIT! These aren’t Bismarck’s thralls! You want to take out the Vundu, not the Zundu.
-A sudden missile strike knocks out the Imperials. No way was that Cid’s Enterprise, was it? I didn’t think it had that sort of firepower.
-HI LUCIA! Lucia of the Temple Knights of Ishgard drops down riding Imperial Magitek armor.
-The Emperor and Regula board a small transport and fly back up to an Imperial battleship high above.
-So we sort of knew the Imperials were lurking. Now we know they’re after Azys Lla. Shocking though that the Emperor himself leads this expedition. We didn’t see the last emperor at all in FFXIV. At least, not in “A Realm Reborn.” [Non-rhetorical question: did players fight him in the original launch of FFXIV?]
-We regroup at the Enterprise. Alphinaud updated Chief Sonu, and the Zundu are quite happy with Bismarck’s demise.
lol my quest reward for this is a little wind-up Cid minion
---
One Good Turn
-The Archbishop’s ship headed to Azys Lla. We follow.
LUCIA: “I did not think that I would ever have occasion to pilot a suit of magitek armor again.”
We don’t know much about her. Was she an Imperial once?
Revealing the tell-tale Garlean gem on her forehead.
YUUUP. She was born as “Lucia goe Junius,” a citizen of Garlemald. Sister of Livia sas Junius, a tribunus we took in the Castrum Meridianum dungeon back in “A Realm Reborn.”
-Livia became a soldier. Lucia became a spy. Lucia initially came to Ishgard in that capacity, searching for the key to Azys Lla.
Then she met Ser Aymeric.
A Difference of Opinion
-Alphinaud is optimistic. We didn’t get the key, but at least we saved the world from another primal. Let’s go tell Chief Sonu in Ok’Zundu of our victory.
-Shit’s already gone down in Ok’Zundu. Imperial troops captured and secured the town.
-An Imperial with a SWEET looking helm named Regula van Hydrus leads the group.
-She’s not even the highest ranking Imperial here. The new emperor himself is present, Varis zos Galvus.
Regula is in front with the MagmaJudge helmet, Emperor Varis behind her.
-Varis verbally defends his (and the empire’s) actions. He sees the empire and the Scions of the Seventh Dawn as simply approaching the problem of the primals (or as he calls them, “eikons”) from different angles.
VARIS ZOS GALVUS: “’Tis my solemn charge as emperor to bring the eikons to heel. If this requires the extermination of certain elements, then so be it.”
-His troops take this as his queue to move in on the Zundu with weapons.
-DUDE WAIT! These aren’t Bismarck’s thralls! You want to take out the Vundu, not the Zundu.
-A sudden missile strike knocks out the Imperials. No way was that Cid’s Enterprise, was it? I didn’t think it had that sort of firepower.
-HI LUCIA! Lucia of the Temple Knights of Ishgard drops down riding Imperial Magitek armor.
-The Emperor and Regula board a small transport and fly back up to an Imperial battleship high above.
-So we sort of knew the Imperials were lurking. Now we know they’re after Azys Lla. Shocking though that the Emperor himself leads this expedition. We didn’t see the last emperor at all in FFXIV. At least, not in “A Realm Reborn.” [Non-rhetorical question: did players fight him in the original launch of FFXIV?]
-We regroup at the Enterprise. Alphinaud updated Chief Sonu, and the Zundu are quite happy with Bismarck’s demise.
lol my quest reward for this is a little wind-up Cid minion
---
One Good Turn
-The Archbishop’s ship headed to Azys Lla. We follow.
LUCIA: “I did not think that I would ever have occasion to pilot a suit of magitek armor again.”
We don’t know much about her. Was she an Imperial once?
Revealing the tell-tale Garlean gem on her forehead.
YUUUP. She was born as “Lucia goe Junius,” a citizen of Garlemald. Sister of Livia sas Junius, a tribunus we took in the Castrum Meridianum dungeon back in “A Realm Reborn.”
-Livia became a soldier. Lucia became a spy. Lucia initially came to Ishgard in that capacity, searching for the key to Azys Lla.
Then she met Ser Aymeric.
“’Twas his usefulness to my mission which prompted me to approach him, but I soon found myself drawn to him for other reasons.”
-He inspired her. He started off in a rough spot as the bastard son of the archbishop, and rose above it without complaint.
She eventually confessed to Aymeric and he accepted her into his service for real.
It’s hard for me to tell if this is a purely platonic relationship. My best guess right now is that she may have some one-sided feelings for Aymeric, but not sure. Could go either way.
-We arrive the Allagan structure of Azys Lla.
-As we draw near, we crash into some electric barrier. We turn back.
-The “key” to Azys Lla now makes sense. That must have allowed the Soleil to pass through the barrier.
---
An Engineering Enterprise
-Back in Ishgard to brainstorm ways to pass the barrier. Cid doesn’t know how.
-“Archons” are experts on this engineering. Not sure what an archon exactly is, but I think some of the Scions might been archons? Idk.
-Back to Ul’dah to check on progress finding the missing Scions (Minfilia, Thancred, Y’shtola).
-Marshal Pipin found a lead in the collapsed tunnel bneath the city. Among the Crystal Brave bodies, he found Y’shtola’s wand.
-Urianger scans the wand.
It was used to cast “Flow,” a risky teleport spell. Flow disperses the caster’s physical form and sends them flying through the Lifestream (lol hi VII!) without much control.
-We track her path in the Lifestream to the Twelveswood. Gridania’s Elder Seedseer, Kan-E-Senna, is in touch with the elementals, and the elementals have direct access to the Lifestream.
This whole subplot touches on one of my personal fears: incorporeality. It’s not always a fear, but ever since I read Stephen King’s short story “The Jaunt,” I just… yeah, I can’t deal with it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jaunt
-The elementals can’t hear language. They need someone whose aetheric imprint is similar to Y’shtola’s.
-Her half-sister, Y’mhitra, lives in Gridania. Same father, different mothers. Noting that here in case it matters later.
-Kan-E-Senna conducts ritual with help from NPCs I know from the white mage job storyline. Nice continuity.
-The ritual itself is quite beautiful. Lots of sparklies. The three white mages concentrate, commune with the elements, and pull Y’shtola from the Lifestream.
-Y’shtola emerges from it naked and unconscious. Success! Welcome back to the physical world.
-After some recovery time, she is ready to address our problem. She doesn’t herself know how to bust through the barrier… but her former Sharlayan master might.
MATOYA.
HER FORMER MASTER IS MATOYA LOLOL (the witch who had like the second quest in Final Fantasy I). I wonder if Matoya will be sighted or not in FFXIV.
-He inspired her. He started off in a rough spot as the bastard son of the archbishop, and rose above it without complaint.
She eventually confessed to Aymeric and he accepted her into his service for real.
It’s hard for me to tell if this is a purely platonic relationship. My best guess right now is that she may have some one-sided feelings for Aymeric, but not sure. Could go either way.
-We arrive the Allagan structure of Azys Lla.
-As we draw near, we crash into some electric barrier. We turn back.
-The “key” to Azys Lla now makes sense. That must have allowed the Soleil to pass through the barrier.
---
An Engineering Enterprise
-Back in Ishgard to brainstorm ways to pass the barrier. Cid doesn’t know how.
-“Archons” are experts on this engineering. Not sure what an archon exactly is, but I think some of the Scions might been archons? Idk.
-Back to Ul’dah to check on progress finding the missing Scions (Minfilia, Thancred, Y’shtola).
-Marshal Pipin found a lead in the collapsed tunnel bneath the city. Among the Crystal Brave bodies, he found Y’shtola’s wand.
-Urianger scans the wand.
It was used to cast “Flow,” a risky teleport spell. Flow disperses the caster’s physical form and sends them flying through the Lifestream (lol hi VII!) without much control.
-We track her path in the Lifestream to the Twelveswood. Gridania’s Elder Seedseer, Kan-E-Senna, is in touch with the elementals, and the elementals have direct access to the Lifestream.
This whole subplot touches on one of my personal fears: incorporeality. It’s not always a fear, but ever since I read Stephen King’s short story “The Jaunt,” I just… yeah, I can’t deal with it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jaunt
-The elementals can’t hear language. They need someone whose aetheric imprint is similar to Y’shtola’s.
-Her half-sister, Y’mhitra, lives in Gridania. Same father, different mothers. Noting that here in case it matters later.
-Kan-E-Senna conducts ritual with help from NPCs I know from the white mage job storyline. Nice continuity.
-The ritual itself is quite beautiful. Lots of sparklies. The three white mages concentrate, commune with the elements, and pull Y’shtola from the Lifestream.
-Y’shtola emerges from it naked and unconscious. Success! Welcome back to the physical world.
-After some recovery time, she is ready to address our problem. She doesn’t herself know how to bust through the barrier… but her former Sharlayan master might.
MATOYA.
HER FORMER MASTER IS MATOYA LOLOL (the witch who had like the second quest in Final Fantasy I). I wonder if Matoya will be sighted or not in FFXIV.
---
#SquadGoals
-I (somehow) recruited a rogue to join my “squadron.” This is an NPC team I got a while back that I haven’t explored really.
-There are four NPCs in my squadron. I can have up to eight.
-There are special squadron missions I can send them out on. Sounds a bit like the errands/dispatch in the Tactics series.
-For now, I can send them on basic training missions to boost mental skills, physical skills, and coordination. Not sure where this all leads, but I’m definitely curious.
---
Random Stuff Around Eorzea
A dapper miqo’te hard at work crafting:
A quizzically regal chocobo:
A creeeeeepy mini-Kefka minion:
A white mage and warrior dancing together:
All hail the Noble Sloth:
A player who warped in from Final Fantasy Tactics. If he’s as overpowered here as he was there, I want him on my raid team:
My slick new manacutter mount:
---
Next time: Seeking Matoya’s helping to pursue Archbishop Thordan in Azys Lla.
#SquadGoals
-I (somehow) recruited a rogue to join my “squadron.” This is an NPC team I got a while back that I haven’t explored really.
-There are four NPCs in my squadron. I can have up to eight.
-There are special squadron missions I can send them out on. Sounds a bit like the errands/dispatch in the Tactics series.
-For now, I can send them on basic training missions to boost mental skills, physical skills, and coordination. Not sure where this all leads, but I’m definitely curious.
---
Random Stuff Around Eorzea
A dapper miqo’te hard at work crafting:
A quizzically regal chocobo:
A creeeeeepy mini-Kefka minion:
A white mage and warrior dancing together:
All hail the Noble Sloth:
A player who warped in from Final Fantasy Tactics. If he’s as overpowered here as he was there, I want him on my raid team:
My slick new manacutter mount:
---
Next time: Seeking Matoya’s helping to pursue Archbishop Thordan in Azys Lla.
