One Life for One World
-Our party prepares to stop Ifrit’s resummoning.
-The “Masked Man” (clearly Urianger) watches. He’s just as extra as Urianger:
“The players gather to assume their marks on a stage wreathed in flame… Ere long, the curtain shall rise, and the drama of which I am author, gods forgive me, shall at last be performed.”
From leading man to author. [Later edit: my friend told me the voice actor changed, which makes sense why the Masked Man eluded me. I was listening for Balthier’s voice.]
-OH RIGHT! This is part of his plan Ququshu to her death. There’s something more going on here. He’s not just going to hope Ifrit does the job. I’m expecting an ambush from the Warrior of Darkness.
-We head towards the summoning place and find no Amal’jaa inhibiting our paths. Thancred smells a trap.
-The Warriors of Darkness are here. They slaughtered the Amalj’jaa guarding his place.
-They’re giving up the long game of killing primals and driving the beastmen to despair and Zodiark, and just trying to kill the Warrior of Light directly.
WOD: “One life for one world. A fair exchange – wouldn’t you agree?”
-They attack. My favorite part is when the Ranger of Darkness shoots a blazing arrow at Alphinaud. He summons Carbuncle for protection and the adorable little squirrel creature catches the arrow in its mouth.
-Alisaie summons some glowing holy sword from the aether and she is SO FUCKING COOL!
-It becomes an actual intense fight. They keep reviving and eventually chain us.
-Someone steps in and saves us from the finishing blow. It’s… Urianger?
“But say, Warrior of Darkness, and speak true – what dost thou believe? That rendering up the souls of thy world in service to the Rejoining will grant it salvation? Nay.”
Aha! He was a double agent for us all along.
-The Magus of Darkness winds up for a huge spell. Alisaie asks me to channel aether into her blade for protection.
-The fight is challenging. We have to fend off all five of them, and every once in a while click an item that channels energy into Alisaie’s weapon.
-Victory!
-The WoD reveal their crystals. Just as the Ascians flee into the rift with Crystals of Darkness, these WoD came to this world with crystals of light. They could only do so by sacrificing their lives. They’re something else now. Not regular living beings.
-The WoD give us a bit of their personal history. They never set out to be Warriors of Light. They just kind of were adventurers who stumbled into it via an escalating series of odd jobs. SOUND FAMILIAR?
“We did everything right, everything that was asked of us, and still - still it came to this!”
-They’re frustrated and determined. They’ve sacrificed, brought their world to the brink of destruction through their sheer goodness (if I understand correctly) and now they have to save that world.
-They raise their Crystals of Light. I raise my own. They shine, and… does mine cancel theirs?
-It doesn’t. We all find ourselves in that mystic Hydaelyn space. Me, Urianger, Thancred, the Warriors of Darkness too.
-Urianger begs an audience with Hydaelyn, via Minfilia.
-Hydaelyn listens. “Though many are lost, there are those we can yet save… Whom I can yet save…”
-Goddess!Minfilia appears. She addresses the WoD.
“Blessed children of the First. The light of your world hath grown blinding in its radiance, but it is not yet absolute. I will hie me to your world, and there take unto myself the Light which riseth evennow to drown it, as Darkness once did drown another.”
[Non-rhetorical question: is the “First” here, the WoD’s world, called so because it’s the first world created after the Big Bang-style division when Hydaelyn and Zodiark split?]
The WoD is enraged. He charges her with an axe.
Holy shit. He basically just charged God.
-He’s angry at being yanked around. Like, NOW she’s answering their prayers?
Minfilia responds. She’s labeled now as “Minfilia,” no longer “Word of the Mother.” Hydaelyn has grown strong enough to free Minfilia, that she might be Hydaelyn’s emissary. She couldn’t intercede before I guess.
-Urianger learned a while back that this other world, the First, existed. He sought to save that world. “And thus did I labor to set Light against Dark.” All his seeming betrayal and treating with both sides was for this very moment. Nice job, Urianger.
He feels especially guilty because he knew that his goal would likely require Minfilia’s permanent journey. Jesus. He was really planning this SUPER far in advance.
URIANGER: “One life for one world.”
-She says her goodbyes to us. She summons me… a thing? “Tupsimati.” I’m not sure what this is.
[Later edit: oh right! It’s part of Louisoix’s broken staff.]
“Keep to the path, should you ever have need of it.”
-The Warrior of Darkness looks to his comrades to see if they approve the plan. I like how some of them just shrug like, “I guess?”
-The WoD asks Minfilia to take them with her.
-They say goodbye to us too.
WARRIOR OF DARKNESS: “We were blind to the truth once. So I tell you this, as one fool to another. Light, Dark, it doesn’t matter. What matters is how you choose to use them. We made our choice, and you see what came of I t. So please… forge a different path. Seize a better fate.”
-The WoD blink into floating motes of light.
-Minfilia promises to somehow repay all we’ve done, once she’s saved that world.
-Scene change, to Minfilia’s mother, tending bar. She hears Minfilia’s voice: “Thank you, Lhaminn. For everything.”
AWWWW!
-Scene change as we pop back to reality in the Ul’dah desert.
-It hits Alphinaud that the Warriors of Darkness sacrificed their lives for the ability to travel to our world, to travel like the Ascians. Their wish to return to their own world is a literal death wish. A death that allows their souls to rest in their own world.
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An Ending to Mark a New Beginning
-Yda, Papalymo and I talk to Gundobald, the leader of the Little Ala Mhigo settlement. He hasn’t seen Yda since she was a fiery Resistance kid.
Oh no. She must feel like she’s abandoned them to work for the Scions.
-We all regroup in Mor Dhona. This is our first (relatively) full Scion meeting in a while.
-Krile appeared initially to help us find Minfilia. She’s joining us now on a more permanent basis.
-Urianger feels guilty for having deceived us, tries to leave, but Thancred shuts that down.
-There’s still plenty for us to do. The Amal’jaa are active. The Griffin and the Ala Mhigan Resistance are a thing. And there’s the new imperial viceroy of Ala Mhigo.
-Woohoo! Alisaie will stay on as well. She’s great.
-Papalymo asks that we entrust Tupsimati to him.
“Clouds gather upon the horizon, and as Master Louisoix’s disciple, I would keep it close at hand to keep an eye out.”
-Papalymo delivers some overall narration that focuses on “hope” as we see Yda huddled in a corner. This Ala Mhigo plot is not over.
-As if to build on that thought, we see the Griffin speaking with the False Griffin. “The coming battle shall be our greatest yet, and I intend to stand with you all on that glorious day.”
The False Griffin walks away, and Elidibus appears behind the true Griffin. “True believers are so readily led.”
DAMMIT ASCIANS, STOP DOING THINGS
ELIDIBUS: “Be it host to a surfeit of Light or Dark, a world bereft of equilibrium is but a void in waiting. And a void is of no use to my master. I shall follow Her emissary with great interest.”
[Later edit: I’m still trying to parse this, but I think Elidibus is saying that he doesn’t want a world consumed by dark OR light. Zodiark thrives on the chaos and conflict that can only be present in at least a somewhat balanced world.]
-Elidibus presents a gift to the Griffin for his help. The frozen eyes of Nidhogg.
I KNEW WE SHOULDN’T HAVE JUST THROWN THEM OFF A BRIDGE AND HOPED FOR THE BEST! Ugh. It’s like the Scions of the Seventh Dawn haven’t read Lord of the Rings.
-Scene change to some sunny, rocky place full of Allagan ruins and devices.
???: “Hmph. So it was here all along…” A new character. They smile.
It’s Nero tol Scaeva, Cid’s rival in the Garlean empire who we fought at the end of “A Realm Reborn.” Ruh-oh.
I’m curious where they go with the Empire here, but also apprehensive. The Empire is not my favorite FFXIV villain. Their names and history all kind of bleeds together for me. I have a hard time separating my Nero tol Scaevas from my Gaius van Baelsars. I don’t even remember the name of the new emperor.
Let’s see what they do with it.
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Next time: the Ala Mhigan crisis boils over.
