Sky’s the Limit
-The first Heavensward quest starts with my old dragoon trainer, Ser Alberic. Dragons are attacking Ishgard. I go help a dragoon regiment.
-After I save them, a mystery dragoon arrives, thanking me. Heustienne of the Order of the Knights Dragoon.
-I like the piano that accompanies her.
-Interesting! She saw me fight and noticed that my style is more diverse/eclectic than someone who just trained within Ishgard. She wants to join me as my pupil.
-Sounds like she’s destined to fight a huge dragon that’s been on the attack named Graoully. I’ll help her prepare.
-I immediately like that the game acknowledges that I’m the Azure Dragoon from the ARR questline and starts me as teacher in Heavensward rather than student.
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Heart of Justice
-Ser Alberic warns me to be a patient teacher with Heustienne. She’s a great dragoon, but one who has only fought in one style. Adaptation may challenge her.
-I find Heustienne struggling out in the wild against a trio of dragons. She was trying to improvise my techniques even before I taught her.
“Had I but fallen back on my tried and trusted techniques, I would have made short work of their ilk. But what would I have learned then? Nay, what I know is no longer enough.”
This is the BEST attitude. She’s willing to attempt new things even if they bring fewer short term results.
-We train a bit, then return to the “Congregation,” the barracks where the dragoons of Ishgard live.
-Her father, Montorgains, is here to visit.
He wants her to be careful and safe, while she wants to honor him with her work as a dragoon.
-Ah, he used to be a dragoon! And he adopted her.
-I check in with Alberic later. He tells me that Heustienne was a prime candidate for Azure Dragoon, but Estinien was chosen over her. She trains now with a “fervor which borders on self punishment.”
An ominous motivation.
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Sworn Upon a Lance
-Graoully’s horde is advancing on Ishgard. Heustienne is psyched, though her dad warns her to be careful.
-Montorgains hands down his old lance to her: Peregrine. Aww.
-She’s overwhelmed by her father’s faith, specifically because he’s her adoptive father. She must still have doubts about whether she “counts.”
HEUSTIENNE: ”Wh-why, this lance was bestowed upon your forebear by the archbishop himself! I am no true child, yet you would entrust me with the family treasure…”
-We head off to battle, taking out swarms of wyverns. No Graoully though.
-OH SHIT THAT’S GRAOULLY, RISING UP SUDDENLY
HEUSTIENNE LEAPS ONTO HIS BACK AND PLUNGES HER SPEAR INTO HIS BACK AS GRAOULLY SOARS AWAY, YOU ARE AMAAAZING HEUSTIENNE
UH COME BACK PLZ WITH MY STUDENT??
-I return to Ishgard to deliver news of this, um, development to her father. He’s upset, and determined to find her. Convinced she’s still alive. (So am I.)
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Dragoon’s Errand
-The dragoons searching for Heustienne may have a lead. They fought a heretic wielding a lance similar to Peregrine. Has Heustienne been converted to the dragon cause, or did a heretic pilfer the lance?
-I follow the swath of knight-heretic battle until I find Heustienne in a cave. Injured? Hard to say.
-She tells me how she slammed into Graoully, holding on to Peregrine for dear life. She couldn’t safely dismount. The dragon bore her straight into heretic territory and they took her weapon.
Whew. I feared she had gone over to the other side for a sec.
-The heretic who took the lance is an enemy leader planning an attack on Ishgard.
-This is odd. She wants me to help stop the heretics, but also wants me to not tell anyone where I got the information, leave her behind, and tell folks she fell in battle. Is it shame that she got thrown? She shouldn’t feel that! She took down Graoully!
-Heustienne is definitely injured and trying to downplay it. She leaves the cave.
-I return to the Congregation, the dragoon HQ in Ishgard, to report news of Heustiennes’ “death.”
-Then the worst task: delivering the news to her father. I don’t understand why she asked me to do this but guess I have to trust her.
-Oh. Lol. I’m apparently a shit liar, and Montorgains susses out that she chose not to return. He reacts to this well. He too trusts her, trusts that she’ll return home in time.
-Alberic thinks she wants to go and recover Peregrine and finish off Graoully on her own. Makes sense, given her pride.
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Sanguine Dragoon
-The heretics we’re pursuing are the Bloodbearers, led by Matheonien. This group can all assume the form of dragons by drinking dragon blood – hence, “Bloodbearers.”
-… huh. This is surprising. We track the Bloodbearers down, but Heustienne beat us to the punch. She already found and killed them, and retook Peregrine.
This should be a good thing, but it’s concerning. Did she drink dragon blood to do it? No way this wraps up so neatly.
-Yuuuup. She drank dragon blood. It wasn’t her choice though! They forced her to drink it when she was captive.
-Heustienne is determined not to return to Ishgard. She’d be accused of heresy, and the stain would spread to her parents too.
-She plans to take down Graoully solo.
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Dragoon’s Fate
-Graoully’s been sighted, with Heustienne cutting through a swath of Bloodbearers to reach him. I follow to help my student.
-Showdown time with Graoully.
-This is an AWESOME fight. A two-person raid with steadily increasing difficulty since Graoully throws more and more crap for me to dodge.
-Victory! But… she’s not doing great. The dragon blood eats at her.
“I did it… I resisted the dragon within and fulfilled my duty.”
-HELLL YES! The lure of the dragon’s blood in her is much like the constant temptation to give in faced by the Azure Dragoon. That temptation just over the corner.
-Her father, Montorgains, approaches to Heustienne’s surprise. He accepts her, even with this dragon blood coursing through her veins.
HEUSTIENNE: “Thank you, father. Your faith in me lends me strength. However long it takes, I shall conquer the lure of dragon blood to stand before you once more. Till that day, I shall roam the land and smit our foes with their own power. This I swear upon my forefathers’ lance!”
Like a true dragoon.
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And that’s it for the dragoon in Heavensward! That was a neat little story, introducing me to Heustienne and upgrading my role from student to teacher. Not nearly as epic as the “A Realm Reborn” dragoon story, but it didn’t try to be.
The ARR story was an epic legend starring Ququshu Qushu. The Heavensward story was a short story starring Heustienne. Both succeeded at what they tried to do.
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Next time in job stories: I’m actively working on the starting dark knight story, and learning to tank with the help of my friends @aproustian and @Almaeron.
