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Il Mheg, the Faerie Kingdom
-We travel north to a green forest. The former site of the Kingdom of Voebert, and a haven for fae folk folk since the sin eaters came.
I LOVE FAERIE STUFF. Some of my favorite parts of the Dresden Files were about faeries - their rules, tricks, customs, pacts.
-This is a light-suffused green forest with a castle.
-Urianger lives in Il Mheg. He seems most likely to fit in with faeries, loquacious and poetic.
We have two goals now, before Eulmore decides to pursue us:
1) Rendezvous with Urianger.
2) Eliminate the Lightwarden of this land.
-Alisaie wants to know why Minfilia left Thancred behind, leading to her capture by Eulmore. She looks at me: “You. The hero from another world.” She sensed she was supposed to meet me.
-Suddenly, voices chatter from the forest around us. Playful, Scottish [Non-rhetorical question: or are they Irish? I’m bad with accents] voices. “Put away that frown and have some fun with us!”
This is our welcome to Faerieland I guess lol.
-Minfilia and Thancred have been here before, but they can’t remember the way to Urianger. The pixies’ magic is affecting their memory.
-Thancred finds some “looking grass” to uncover the faeries… and they’re SO CUTE!
-Urianger won the right to stay in Il Mheg by participating in a seven day riddle contest. That sounds like faeries all right.
-They’ll lift the spell on us… after a few chores, of course. Frigging faeries.
-The chores are standard MMO kill/collect fare, but give a good sense of faerie trolling The pixies remind me of moogles far more than the Source’s sylph beast tribe.
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Unto the Truth
-Minfilia brings the light atmosphere down: pixies are apparently born from the souls of those who died as children.
“Though they don’t have memories of their previous lives, the desire to have fun remains, imprinted on their souls.”
I’m unsure if this is myth or fact. Probably somewhere in between, closer to fact.
-These pixies have no real intention of letting us go from their “chores” any time soon. They’ve having too much fun screwing with us. I need back-up, so I call in Feo Ul. She’s the one I formed a pact with in the Crystarium.
-I summon her through the most DEVIOUS quest challenge: typing a full sentence with a PS4 controller.
“O loveliest of branches, grant me your succor!”
-She flits in, pissed that it took me so long. But she’s here.
-Feo Ul marches up to the other pixies and lays down the law. Our mortal band belongs to HER and HER ALONE. We’re for her amusement. Other pixies better not bother us.
LOLOL - She threatens to throw my inventory over their village if they don’t leave me alone. “Cold, hard metal! Furry, festering food! Stinky, sweaty smallclothes!” This cows them, and they lift their magic.
I’m not sure what the full nature of our pact with Feo Ul is. Is it just that she helps us with logistics and we amuse her from time to time? I doubt there’s anything sinister awaiting.
WHOA! That washed-out glow is gone. It was the pixies’ magic. The true Il Mheg is revealed.
Good. The washed-out look was pretty, but hard to see stuff in like enemy telegraphs and text.
-Thancred and Minfilia now remember the way to Urianger.
-We reach his home. HI URIANGER! He’s an astrologian, as we saw in the trailer.
-He tells us of the vision he glimpsed: the Eighth Umbral Calamity.
-In his vision, the combined forces of Eorzea and the Far East fought Garlemald hard. When the Empire had its back to the wall, it used Black Rose.
“The gas took on a life of its own, wreaking untold carnage not only in Eorzea, but in the provinces of the Empire besides.”
The poison spread to soldiers and civilians alike, decimating civilization. Even the soil itself died. Anarchy reigned, and even the Scions died. Ququshu, too.
-Urianger has spent his time here exploring how the First is tied to Black Rose’s unusual potency.
-He shows us a map of an elemental wheel. Standard FF magic stuff, split between astral (active) and umbral (passive) force.
The First uses different terms. “Darkness” instead of “astral,” “Light” instead of “Umbral.” We focus on the effects while they focus on the source of the effects. Light causes peace/an umbral state, dark causes aetheric activity/astral state.
AHAAA! So this would be an “umbral calamity” because it’s caused by Light-related elements, thinning rather than overwhelming of aether.
[Later edit: User Noybusiness on the Mark Spoils site posted a clarification that I'll include here in its entirety:
"Not quite. It's always called an Umbral Calamity. The period of upheaval (where aether is scarce) that follows is called an Umbral Era and the period of stability (where aether is abundant) after that and before the next Umbral Calamity is called an Astral Era. As we saw in the planetarium in the Crystarium, each of the Umbral Calamities has had a different elemental association. This will be the Eighth. Bahamut's release from Dalamud was the Seventh Umbral Calamity, ending the Sixth Astral Era. The following upheaval was the Seventh Umbral Era, which was shorter than most Umbral Eras. We're now in the Seventh Astral Era. People in the Source associate Umbral (the word means 'shadow') with Darkness and Astral (the word means 'star') with Light, in reverse of how people in the First reckon it."
Thanks!]
-The pre-calamity aetheric thinning we’ve seen is due to the First’s overwhelming Light, stifling the movement of aether in the Source. That makes sense.
And Black Rose functions by halting the circulation of aether within living beings. That also makes sense. So if we cease the overwhelming Light, we stifle Black Rose’s power.
-The next Lightwarden in Il Mheg is in a nearby stronghold. Urianger will join us to help.
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Courting Cooperation
-The Lightwarden’s stronghold is Lyhe Ghiah. We’ll need pixie cooperation to access it.
-Urianger’s been spending his time in Il Mheg well! He crafted White Auracite with the land’s aether to trap any Ascians we meet down the line.
I’m confused. He calls this an aether-rich land but I thought the Light sapped its aether. Maybe Il Mheg specifically is the aether-rich part.
-Thancred lost his ability to manipulate aether on coming to the First. That’s why he picked up his gunblade. Minfilia imbues his ammunition with aether. She’s got some skills.
-He met this Minfilia three years ago, rescuing her from Eulmore and fleeing to Amh Araeng. She had no clue who he was… then Thancred’s Minfilia awakened. The Oracle of Light.
-I’m then hit with my first Echo in a while. Flashback to that moment with Thancred and Minfilia.
ORACLE OF LIGHT: “My dearest Thancred… As I am now, I am no different from an Ascian. This child is but a vessel. One of many that I have used… In my name, each has died never having lived her own life.”
Man, screw Hydaelyn for putting our Minfilia in this position. Even if she’s using her for good and necessary purposes.
ORACLE OF LIGHT: “I have taken enough from these children. I will take no more.” Even our Minfilia is sick of this cycle.
-If the First’s Minfilia tires of Fighting, it sounds like the Oracle will leave her be. And if she decides to fight, if she herself wants to, the Oracle will imbue her with all the powers previously used for rebirth.
She’s all in.
-This is really hard for Thancred to hear. He was hoping the story would somehow end with his Minfilia returning to the Source. That’s… yeah, that’s not gonna happen.
-FHDJKLSFHLF WE JUST SAW A FLASHBACK OF THANCRED AND MINFILIA GROWING UPTOGETHER AND IT’S FRIGGING ADORABLE!
xD Jne8v.jpg">I’m not quite sure what their relationship was. Thancred certainly sounds like he has at least some seeds of romantic interest, but after talking with friends, it sounds more like a sibling relationship.
ORACLE OF LIGHT: “Now I ask that you do the same for her. Protect her. Teach her. Stand by her as you stood by me.” Thancred was her protector.
-Then this Minfilia awakens, and that’s that for the conversation. All the closure Thancred’s gonna get for the moment.
-Back to the present. Minfilia had no recollection of that conversation.
Jesus, what a burden on this poor girl.
-Urianger gives some gifts to the pixies, and they accept. They’ll help us.
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Random Stuff Around Eorzea
-Some great player names:
John Crighton
Kittykat Purry
Big’guy For’u
A beauty of an enemy:
TW: arachnophobia. https://i.imgur.com/cBmijvb.jpg
Pre- and post-lifting of faerie magic:
A living flower basket, because of course that’d be a monster in faerie land.
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Next time: towards the Il Mheg Lightwarden.
