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In His Garden
-The Crystarium’s mood is grim. The Light sky has returned, and the Crystal Exarch is gone.
-The townsfolk mention an absent genius who might help, Grenoldt. [Later edit: This mention is the last we hear for now. Perhaps this is a story thread that’ll pick up later.]
-At least Ardbert’s nearby for advice and encouragement.
-We pound fists, and light bursts at our touch. Two Warriors of Light.
ARDBERT: “My story may be finished, but the fates have gifted me a minor role in yours.”
-He played a role in the initial Flood of Light. He knows what I’m going through. I’m finishing his path.
-Then the BLESSEDLY WONDERFUL Feo Ul arrives to chide me.
“Look at what you’ve done to your aether! It’s a mess! And you have cracks running all through that pretty soul of yours.” I guess they can switch between Titania and Feo Ul forms at will.
-They even offer me their throne – Ququshu, King of the Faeries! – if I want to hide in Il Mheg.
No thanks, but that’s wonderful that you’d ask.
-Let’s learn more about the Crystal Exarch from the citizens. Some clues may lie there.
-Captain Lyna has a lead. The Exarch gave her a key to the Crystal Tower’s heart, the Umbilicus.
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The Unbroken Thread
-The Umbilicus looks like a personal library. As I enter, an Echo flashback hits me.
-We see G’raha Tia (the Exarch) talking to Urianger, presumably when he first brought Urianger over.
-The Exarch recounts his story. Cid Garlond tried everthing possible to calm things, some studies rooted in time travel. He came up with theories about travel between worlds.
-Wait. I’m having trouble processing this, but I think G’raha is saying he came from the Source world in the future, post-Calamity. Cid died and others took up his ideas.
Two centuries after the Eighth Umbral Calamity (Black Rose iirc?), Cid’s descendants roused the Crystal Tower and the sleeping G’raha.
-By then, scholars had learned that the First’s destruction precipitated the Calamity. G’raha used that knowledge to travel to the First, one century before it Rejoined the Source.
-Urianger is knocked for a loop by the enormity of all this. Me too, bud.
-He also brings up something I hadn’t thought of: a time travel paradox. G’raha’s plan came about thanks to years of post-calamity experience. If G’raha manages to use that experience to stop the calamity from occurring, then…?
I mean, you could go forever in loops with this time travel stuff, but in the context of the game world it seems like G’raha would get wiped out should he succeed, but the Calamity would still stop.
-G’raha yammers on about how inspiring to the future I was as the Warrior of Light and blah blah blah. Tbh, the “Warrior of Light is the savior of all and is the greatest thing since sliced bread” talk irritates me.
Idk how they tone it down with all the stuff I’ve done in canon, but I’d love for XIV to find a way to make me more of just a cog in the machine. Anyway.
G’RAHA: “When… the last of the Lightwardens lies slain, I will absorb their corrupted aether. And then I will die.”
G’raha roped Urianger as an accomplice. What a burden, knowing that every step Urianger helped us take was leading to this good guy’s death.
-This is why Urianger agreed to take the Exarch’s story and disguise it as a vision he saw himself. To hide the Exarch’s identity.
-The Echo flashback ends. Let’s go after the Exarch and Emet.
-They’re in the Tempest, in the stormy seas around Kholusia.
-I start to leave alone when the Scions catch up. Urianger throws himself on his knees in apology.
-Not like it matters right now. We’re on a short, unstable ticking clock. No choice but the incredibly risky plunge towards confronting Emet-Selch in the Tempest.
-The whole of the Crystarium converges on our group to lend their support. We’ve tried keeping the whole “Ququshu is the Warrior of Darkness” thing from them, but they kind of noticed that the night sky returned wherever I went. The jig is up.
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To Storm-Tossed Seas
-Urianger will seek help from the Fae to reach the sea bottom safely.
-We head a densely-wooded island near the city. It has eye-like stone slits… is this a big faerie?
-LOLOL THIS IS THE FIRST’S BISMARCK! I’ve fought the primals in the First for so long – hostile, wish-created imitations – that I forgot there were originals in the first place. At least, I assume that’s what this Bismarck is.
-Urianger tries asks for help, but Bismarck just wants to sleep until the world dies. I’ve had mornings like that. No judgment from this Lalafell.
-So we call in the big guns. Feo Ul. They’re super happy that their sapling finally asks for help.
FEO UL, to BISMARCK: “Let their wish by thy king’s command.” Bismarck happily complies.
-They take flight… and what a thing of beauty. Forested top, runic bottom. Triumphant FFIV music plays.
-And in one of my favorite touches, we switch perspective to some dockworkers. They see the majesty of Bismarck flying and we’re right with them in that moment.
I can see the viral reaction video on YouTube now: “Kholusians SHOCKED – They CAN’T BELIEVE this! XD”
-HEE! Just hit me that the FFIV music is playing at a Big Whale. (The Big Whale was FFIV’s whale-shaped spaceship.)
-Bismarck dumps us at a cove underwater and peaces out.
-…wait… it’s not a natural cove. Their breath created a dome, safe for breathing. Thanks, Bis.
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Waiting in the Depths
-We’re generally near Emet-Selch, but the Tempest is a huge new zone. A breathable sea bed.
-It’s funny. I’m dabbling in World of Warcraft, and their most recent patch includes a very similar situation. An endgame zone on a seabed, traversable thanks to a bubble of air.
-The Ondo here (the First’s sahagin) even look like WoW’s Ankoan. I don’t have any real conclusion here. I don’t think one game stole from the other, or that one’s better or worse. Just a neat confluence.
XIV’s Ondo.
WoW’s Ankoan.
-They’re not hostile, but aloof. One asks if we’re “emissaries of the ancient ones.” Ancient ones?
-We clearly don’t know what they’re talking about, and they don’t want to elaborate just yet.
-But we need their help to find Emet-Selch’s HQ, so we gotta build relationships with the Ondo.
THANCRED: “…I smell chores.” LOLOL, a genre-savvy character, that one.
-We also have to make up for messing with their ecosystem via Bismarck’s bubble. For instance, there are hostile crabs that the Ondo can normally outswim. Not so any longer with the lack of water.
-The music down here is so good! It’s a light, lilting acoustic guitar.
-The Ondo initially came from seas to the south. The Flood destroyed that region. The survivors came to this area, the Tempest, taking the strange existing structures as their new home.
PAUSHS OOAN (our Ondo friend): “The ancients had chosen us to ssserve as caretakers of their eternal sssanctuary, until sssuch time as they returned.”
Five bucks says that this eternal sanctuary is where Emet-Selch is right now. The Ascians may well have even been those “ancients.”
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Random Stuff Around Eorzea
-Found a player named Unholy Aspirin.
-The puns in Shadowbringers continue to bring it. I helped someone on two underwater quests. In “Coral Support,” we helped him collect coral. In “Low Coral Fiber,” we fought off local wildlife for the remaining coral supplies.
-Flying through Shadowbringers is like living in a painting:
-I love underwater zones, especially ones like this that forego the inconvenience of swimming. They incorporate an alien, neon beauty, and the Tempest nails that:
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Next time: Continuing to explore the Tempest, pushing towards Emet-Selch.
Personally, I don't mind the hero worship here because hero worship is just part of G'raha's character but yea I do sort of agree with not liking it otherwise (It's part of why Oblivion is my favourite Elder Scrolls game)
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