---
A Song of Bards and Bowmen [this quest originally posted on 1/5/18]
-I’m curious how archer will transition into bard. Dragoon seemed a reasonable transition from lancer, black mage a natural evolution of thaumaturge. But archer to bard?
(This is putting aside Bard the Bowman in “The Hobbit.”)
-On a separate note, I am REALLY excited to try bard. Bards are both rare and in MMOs and consistently interesting. It was the coolest class in EverQuest by a long shot, a high-difficulty jack-of-all-trades. Lord of the Rings Online’s minstrel class was also great, if more straightforward as a healer or damager.
Is that it? I can’t think of many other instances of MMO bards. So I’m pumped to try one in FFXIV.
-The quests start at the archery guildmaster. Jehantel the Godsbow recently returned to Gridania. Jehantel was a legendary archer and has become a great bard too, skilled in raising others’ morale and inspiring others.
-The Archers’ Guild has tried to convince Jehantel to teach its students, but he’s said no. Sounds like he’s about to get a new, Lalafell-shaped student. *brushes off shoulder*
-I find him in the woods near the city. An older guy. He gave up archery for the more peaceful art of being a bard.
-Jehantel asks me to go see a wandering moogle who will assess my potential as a bard.
-He approves. Jehantel gives me a crystal, the Soul of the Bard. A gift from the moogles.
JEHANTEL: “The Soul of the Bard harbors memories of the past – verses and refrains sung by the bards of old.” As I grow/level up, new songs and old refrains will reveal themselves to me.
---
The Archer’s Anthem
-So why did Jehantel specifically abandon archery for bardery?
JEHANTEL: “That I took an arrow in the knee is what most folk believe…” LOL
-He found music to be especially powerful in an age of cynicism. It’s become diminished of late, something only played to kill time.
“There was a time when song could shape the outcome of conflict.”
-Archers had a difficult task in combat. Constantly staying focused, trying to tell friend from foe from afar. One particular archer in that situation gained control of his own emotional chaos by singing.
The song calmed him, inspired his comrades, and granted peace to the dying.
-His success gave rise to minstrels more widely. Their power diminished as singers turned professional. They divorced the music from its role in combat, “and so their songs rang hollow.”
-Jehantel sends me out to kill some ghosts lingering in the forest.
My songs to bring peace to the dead.
---
Bard’s-eye View
JEHANTEL: “Call me a spoony bard, but as a man in the winter of his years, it gives me great joy to observe an adventurer in the spring of hers.”
It was only a matter of time between they brought out the “spoony bard” line. XD
-He remembers a bard who came to his town when he was a child. They sang a beautiful, sorrowful song that captured the hearts of many that day.
-Many archers turned to music in peacetime, singing passionately of the wars from their own perspectives. They succeeded, made beautiful music. Popularity was their downfall.
“Over time, each song was shorn of verity, till the bard’s repertoire contained not one shred of truth.”
-The moogles noticed this decline. They’re patrons of the arts, and they feared we might be losing the power of song. They’re the ones who safeguarded the Souls of the Bards, the job crystals.
-One specific song recounts the Massacre of Griffin Crossing, in which countless Gridanians died. He’ll teach it to me if he can convince me the song won’t be wasted on me.
---
Doing It the Bard Way
-Jehantel is ready to teach me the Ballad of the Vainglorious Fool. A tale of a Gridanian archer of great skill and greater hubris.
-The archer’s entire regiment was killed in the Massacre of Griffin Crossing.
“Standing guard in dead of night.
An archer, wearying of the sight.
Drunk on pride and starved of glory,
Forsook his post to claim victory.
Ten score yalms had the archer crept,
When shrieks rang out whence his comrades slept.
For he was not there to see the knives,
Nor to ring the bell and save friends’ lives.”
A clear lesson to stand one’s post for the sake of one’s comrades. But hearing isn’t enough. He brings me with him to the sight of the massacre, to help lay restless spirits there to rest and remember them.
-We arrive and a single beastman attacks. Jehantel draws his bow back… and gets a flashback. His friends falling beside him as he drew his bow.
OH SHIT HE’S THE “VAINGLORIOUS FOOL”
-He stops attacking. “That a sin of the past would be beget another… Forgive me, Ququshu.” He runs.
-This is legitimately creepy. We see a flashback on a black background, as he remembers those companions whose death his hubris cause. They rise, staring at him in judgment.
-It’s a lesson on the role of the archer and the bard. I’m meant for support, for the back lines.
-I really, really like this direction for the story. I should have seen it coming and didn’t.
---
Pieces of the Past
-My last task is to gather the “choral attire,” entrusted to Jehantel by the moogle Pukno Poki when they first met.
-Jehantel had this gear so brutally depressed after the massacre that he tossed the garb to the winds. Let’s see if I can be worthy of it.
-I go on a quick little scavenger hunt around Eorzea, picking up some of the missing choral pieces. Not a full set, but a start.
Dapper.
---
Requiem for the Fallen
-The only missing piece of choral attire is the shirt.
-Jehantel put down his bow, vowing to never again set foot in the Twelveswood. He’s ready to forsake that oath to impart his last knowledge to me.
-Jehantel’s been on quite a journey since he betrayed his regiment. From sorrow and despair, to seeking peace, to finding it.
Personal peace isn’t enough though. He’s been seeking some form of restorative justice too.
JEHANTEL: “Now I believe I can offer a requiem worthy of my comrades. To do so, however, I require one last favor of you, Ququshu.”
-I escort him to Coerthas, to sings in memory of his friends.
-Beastmen see us and attack. Jehantel cowers at first, unable to pick up a bow again. I’m hesitant to get clinical, but it definitely presents as a form of PTSD. We literally see flashbacks through his eyes as he touches his weapon.
-One of the beastmen is about to kill me when Jehantel steps in with a saving shot. He’s back. He seems shocked himself that he can now wield his bow again.
He even turns into “Jehantel the Godsbow” for the second part of the fight.
JEHANTEL: “Yet another melody resounds within you… As equals, let us together give praise to life and all the joy that it brings.”
-The level 50 gear set I’m given is my favorite gear set I’ve seen thus far.
The bright coloring, the design, everything.
---
Random Stuff Around Eorzea
Some great player names seen around:
Blueberry Pancake
Puni Ponpunipon
Nintendo Switch
Umber Fillory
-Wind-Up Cloud:
-Lalafell maid player:
---
Next time: continuing to the bard 50-60 quests.
