Summary: General Ran’jit. Rescuing the Oracle of Light from Eulmoran forces. Thancred.
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An Unwelcome Guest
-Eulmore has sent its military to Lakeland. Unsurprising; they’re unhappy about night’s return because Lord Vauthry relies on the sin eaters for power.
-Before receiving the Eulmoran emissary, the Crystal Exarch casts invisible on me and the twins. He doesn’t want to show his hand.
-The emissary is the Eulmoran Army commander, General Ran’jit. He looks frigging awesome. I love the earrings and the facial hair.
-The Exarch doesn’t screw around. He admits that the Crystarium is happy at the night’s return. No fear.
-I don’t think Ran’jit has any love for the sin eaters. He just thinks the world is doomed no matter what, and fears destroying the Lightwardens will just shatter Lord Vauthry’s peace with them.
I can imagine him as a potential ally down the line.
-As he leaves, Ran’jit asks after Eulmore’s escapees (Alphinaud and myself). “Should they reveal themselves to you, I bid you hand them over at once.”
…shit. He sees through the invisibility.
-The viera Captain Lyna heard reports that Eulmoran forces took a prisoner: the Oracle of Light, Minfilia. I sorta expected this from the trailer, even if I didn’t know how she’d come into play.
LYNA: “Having mentored generations of Minfilias, it would not surprise me if he had made her capture his chief concern.” …generations of Minfilias? The Exarch directs me to the library to learn more.
-Librarian Moren tells the story. A hundred years ago, Minfilia stopped the Flood of Light. She became revered as the Oracle of Light.
She disappeared, but 15 years later she popped up again.
Moren is using a children’s book for reference. The sin eater illustrations are somehow even creepier for it. We see the agonized faces trapped inside the sin eater bodies.
-Anyway, sin eaters destroyed the Kingdom of Voeburt, but a young girl there was immune to their touch. She matched the description of Minfilia, and was hailed as the Oracle reborn.
-That Minfilia enlisted in the Eulmoran Army, vanquishing countless sin eaters. She died in combat, whispering with her dying breath: “Minfilia will return.”
Getting major Yeul vibes from XIII-2 here with this cycle of sacrificial Minfilias.
-The cycle continued to repeat. More Minfilias. They share traits and skills, but not memories. All Minfilias grew up as normal girls. When they learned the truth, some embraced their fate and others ran from it.
MOREN: “But all were made to face the sin eaters, and all died to keep our hopes alive.” Jesus. It sucks to be a Chosen One.
-The Eulmoran Army found the current Minfilia about 10 years ago. They imprisoned her; by that time, Eulmore had stopped fighting the sin eaters. Her existence was a threat.
-Then three years ago, someone rescued her! I’m guessing that’s one of the Source folks brought over.
-We leave the library. Alphinaud confirms that Thancred rescued Minfilia (as I should have remembered from the trailer). They’ve wandered the land since.
Now with Minfilia captured again, Thancred must be trying to rescue her.
-The Exarch confirms for us that the Eulmorans aer holding her at Laxan Loft before flying for Eulmore.
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The Crystarium’s Resolve
-The Exarch wants to rely on the Crystarium forces for this rescue, not the Scions. He doesn’t want to show Eulmore that we exist until it’s absolutely necessary.
-He summons the Crystarium’s leaders, and they’re ready to GO! The night’s return energized them.
Maybe they can’t beat the Lightwardens, but they can fight Eulmore.
-The rescue strategy: deploy amaro to delay the Eulmoran airship’s departure, then scatter “dream powder” to put a large part of their forces to sleep, clearing the way for a smoother rescue.
-The Scions we’ll support in Captain Lyna’s guard, disguised as regular troops.
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The Oracle of Light
-I go meet Captain Lyna for the upcoming operation, inoculating ourselves against the dream powder.
-The camera zooms into the Eulmoran encampment… THERE SHE IS! HI MINFILIA!
-Our amaros use Dream Powder. It’s super effective! Many Eulmorans conk out quickly.
-So many MMOs structure these big infiltration instances as the player(s) against the enemies. FFXIV, better than any other game, does such a great job showing us fighting alongside many others. A small part of a large fight.
-The Eulmoran casters use “Ronkan Fire.” I also see players with Ronkan minions. Some sort of FFV tie. Ronka was an old, advanced civilization in that game.
-Lyna and I reach Minfilia, unshackle her. She’s shaken but ready to escape.
-General Ran’jit cuts us off. Here we go.
-He WIPES THE FLOOR with us. Destroys the twins and Lyna quickly, then it’s me versus him.
Sort of. He has a pet with him, one of those east Asian-style coiled dragons. Gukumatz.
Its combat mechanics are very similar to another coiled dragon, the Alte Roite fight in Stormblood’s Omega raids. Ran’jit drops fire in the arena while Gukumatz blows me around. Tricky positioning.
-It’s a no-win fight. I survive a while, then he hits me hard and ends it. He’s got Zenos-levels of power.
-THANCRED SWOOPS IN! He surprises Ran’jit, but then Ran’jit does that martial arts taunting thing of keeping his hands behind his back and dodging Thancred’s slashes.
This is like Morpheus versus Neo immediately after he learned kung fu.
-Thancred teleports us out! No clue how. I doubt it’s a gunbreaker thing.
-Ran’jit is pissed. He prepares to launch a pursuit, when… “Break!”
The Crystal Exarch stops him in his tracks. This has gotta be so frustrating for Ran’jit.
-The Exarch is holding a cube. A power source? It stops glowing, drops. Used up.
btw this music is hype afffFFFFF
-The Exarch warns Ran’jit to not pursue the Oracle. “Your quarry goes to a place where even Eulmore dare not bare its steel. Il Mheg, the faerie kingdom.”
-Scene change. Someone sitting on a cliff, complaining about recent events.
-WAIT I KNOW THIS VOICE, it’s the Ascian who founded Garlemald, Solus.
-He’s miffed by this whole Exarch-Bringing-the-Warrior thing. But even now, he’s formulating a plan. “One which does not require bloodshed.” Gonna try to puppet me to do something, eh?
-I should have expected this. It makes sense, given the Ascians’ world-hopping abilities.
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Random Stuff Around Eorzea
Some great player names:
Esuna Matata (a healer, of course)
Defiant Johnson
Dusty Bucket
-I saw someone with an incredibly rare minion, the Wind-Up Bahamut. It wears an Dalamud helmet and has an adorable animation where Dalamud floats up and he jumps up to put his head back inside:
-The Amaros (four-winged mounts in the First) are growing on me:
Instead of “kweh,” they go “gwee.”
-The First has small, hovering versions of malboros. They use “Worse Breath.”
-I love Lakeland’s pastel palette:
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Next time: Il Mheg, the pixie forest.
