The First Flight of the Excelsior
-We prepare to depart. Y’shtola warns Estinien about the rage within the Eye of Nidhogg.
-Urianger approaches, bearing… a crystal? Yeah, it looks like one from the visions I’ve been having.
-No, it’s “white auracite.” Just what we’d been looking for to help trap an Ascian iirc. He found it with Moenbryda’s stuff.
-Cid’s ready to go. He’s improved the ship and renames it the Enterprise Excelsior.
-We fly to Azys Lla.
-Estinien feeds the power of the Eye of Nidhogg into the aetheric cannon we’ve build. It threatens to overwhelm him.
”Ugh… No… You will not claim me! I am the master!”
-Success! Estinien channels the Eye’s energy into a spear, and we destroy the shielding.
-An Imperial battleship was lying in wait and chases us in.
-Wedge thinks we’re all about to die, and yells out “TATARUUUU!” AHOY MATEYS WELCOME TO THE GOOD SHIP TATADGE! SET SAIL!
-We’re under heavy fire.
-And then, we get some outside help. Ysayle soars to the rescue on Hraesvelgr’s back.
YSAYLE: “Much blood has been spilled in my name. And for what? For a false cause that I created for want of the warmth of companionship. Saint Shiva… Hraesvelgr… Pray forgive this fool.”
SHE DIVE BOMBS THE IMPERIAL SHIP, STILL JUST IN YSAYLE FORM
“Fill this vessel with your light! Still the hatred within our hearts and bless us with eternal grace!””
-She becomes Shiva once more. Or something like it.
-She twirls gracefully through a rain of imperial bullets, freezing them. Giving us a chance to escape.
-She eventually does a self-destructive attack, turning herself into an icicle to pierce the Imperial ship.
-And that’s it. She takes too many hits. Projectiles and bombs explode against her. She falls unconscious from the sky, and dissipates.
NOOO I LOVED HER Her unspoken love with Estinien will now never be consummated.
[Non-rhetorical question: I still don’t understand what Shiva’s deal was. If it’s not spoilery, if it’s not explained or clarified later, what was the creature that inhabited Ysayle? Was it really Shiva, or just some neutral/benevolent spirit taking her form?]
-Welp. We’re here now. Azys Lla.
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Systematic Exploration
-I wasn’t sure whether Azys Lla would but a zone, dungeon, or raid. It’s a full zone. I love the futuristic design and color scheme!
-We start exploring and find a half-buried orb, a “sentinel.”
-LOLOL WEDGE WAKES IT AND IT IMMEDIATELY THROWS OUT A TERMS OF SERVICE AGREEMENT
We have to legally acknowledge risks on its island such as permanent harm and death.
-Now we have a friend and guide on this island.
-It tells us a bunch about the island’s status. The imperials are somewhere fighting off the security system, and inside the research facility is something called “Triad Control.”
There are two things from FF’s past that jump out to me here:
1) FFVI’s Warring Triad
2) FFIV’s CPU defense system, with its attack orb, defense orb, and main CPU. A triad, but not called a capital-T “Triad” like the Warring Triad.
-lol two seconds later: “It’s a regulation facility for the ‘Warring Triad’ test subjects.” I have my answer. That’s where the archbishop is heading. Off we go.
-Elementals are all over FFXIV. Lightning sprites, earth sprites, etc. Tame passive mobs. And yet, they still freak me out just based on my memories of elementals in FFXII. Those were NIGHTMARES.
-Some new enemies wander this part of the zone. Janky-looking clockwork paladins and engineers.
Later parts of the island bring more advanced mechs.
-Azys Lla is divided into quadrants. Alpha Quadrant was mechanical, Beta Quadrant has “chimerical life-forms for both military and household applications.”
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Close Encounters of the VIth Kind
-The Imperial VIth legion is here. A nice little nod to an FFVI-based story.
-Regula van Hydrus is ready to lead some imperials to the main research facility. He’s after the ability to control “eikons” that’s in this place.
-I continue through this quadrant until I come face to face with Regula himself.
-Sweet! He’s got a gunblade
-Regula seems to be one of those honorable “1v1 me bro” types at first. …well, until his troops jump into help midway through.
-Regula survives and leaves. My buddies Alphinaud and Estinien hold off the imperials, guarding my escape.
I push on alone to the Delta Quadrant, the next part of Azys Lla.
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Fetters of Lament
“Welcome to the Delta Quadrant, where methods are developed for mastering dragons.”
-The guidance node tells me a dragon destroyed a facility over 2,000 years ago. Bahamut?
-For the first time in a while, Mini-gardsormr pops up.
I love the casual riot of colors in Azys Lla.
He hates this place. Steeped in dragon misery. The Allagans sound just as bad as the Ishgardians to dragons.
-This island is full of stasis prisons trapping dragons inside.
-The first one I find is Tiamat?? I thought I took her earlier in this expansion. Maybe it was just a similarly named dragon. [Later edit: I fought Tioman before, not Tiamat.
For scale, me and Mini-gardsormr next to the bound Tiamat.
-This is really sad. Tiamat is Midgardsormr’s daughter.
-Tiamat has been trapped here for millenia. She’s got a story.
-Long ago, her father came here with seven eggs. The first brood.
-She and her brood-brother Bahamut journeyed south to Meracydia, bringing many new dragons into the world.
-Then the Allag came, five thousand years since. They slaughtered her children and killed Bahamut too. She despaired – and then the Ascians came to her.
They offered to resurrect Bahamut with dark arts. She accepted.
This was a mistake.
-This was some “Pet Sematary” bullshit. He came back, but he came back wrong. And worse, the Ascians gifted the Allagans the means to entrap the resurrected Bahamut.
TIAMAT: “The beings thy kind call gods are but specters of thy mind’s creation, given form at great cost to Hydaelyn.”
This seems like a huge reveal. I’m just not sure what to do with it.
So Hydaelyn is the big mother goddess, and she gave birth to the gods… but gave birth to them from our minds? Cause we imagined them and she made them, or something else? Hm.
“Many such beings yet slumber across the land, brought to heel by the selfsame empire that bound me. They must not be released into the world.”
-In order to stop the conflict, Tiamat advises me to defeat the Ascians and “deliver the weak of will from the bonds of their dark influence.” Defeat other creatures similar to the resurrected Bahamut that the Ascians have under their thumb.
-Poor Tiamat. She’s wracked with guilt here and not allowed to die.
-With that, the final crystal lights up in my dream vision world. Full power.
-Hydaelyn’s voice comes back, full force. I have her full blessing again.
-I snap out that vision. Mini-gardsormr gives me his blessing too. He thinks I’m worthy to bear Hydaelyn’s Light. He offers to lend me his wings. (Whatever that means.)
-OH SHIT HAHA MINIGARDSORMR GREW A BIT AND NOW IS MOUNT-SIZED!
HELLLL YES ME AND THE FATHER OF DRAGONS JUST DOING OUR THING
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Random Stuff Around Eorzea
-My Dark Knight’s leveling gear is… not the most intimidating:
You vs the dark knight she tells you not to worry about.
-CHECK OUT MY FRIEND’S LITTLE PINK LION
This feels like a reference, but I’m not sure to what:
Ququshu’s badass level 60 dragoon gear:
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Next time: towards the Warring Triad.
