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So I was doing the later parts of Shadowbringers’ main story quest when I got stopped in my tracks. I couldn’t progress without completing the expansion’s role quest, the new version of job quests for 70-80. Hadn’t started on it, but it seems like it’s time.
Let’s do the magic DPS role quest.
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Hollow Pursuits
-It starts in the Crystarium with an archer named Cerigg. I seem to remember that these role quests center on four bounty hunters chasing especially powerful sin eaters.
-Cerigg is hunting “the dread Phronesis.” I Googled the term. It’s a Greek word for “practical wisdom.” Sort of like street smarts, but with a virtuous angle to it.
-Phronesis is an especially nasty sin eater… OH! He was formed from the mage Warrior of Light.
-He’s one of four “Cardinal Virtues.” The others must also be sin eater versions of the Warriors of Light.
-Yeah, Phronesis used to be the archmagus Nyelbert. He wanders Amh Araeng.
-What’s scariest is that he retains his mage powers. He summons forth “hollows,” black holes that suck victims in.
-Huh. He doesn’t go out of his way to prey on people or settlements. He just shambles about, summoning hollows.
-The hollows make attacks on Phronesis tricky. They swallow up most projectiles that go near him. We need to neutralize these hollows to have a chance.
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A Voice from the Void
-Phronesis has been sighted nearby. Let’s shadow him, watch him.
-We lay out a decoy on his path and watch.
-There he is. He looks like his old self, but with alabaster skin and a white glowing aura.
-Cerigg sends the mannequin out to the Hollow… and yeah, he gets sucked in.
BOY’S VOICE: “Let me out… it’s so… dark in here…”
A KID IS CALLING OUT FROM INSIDE THE VOID JESUS
-The voice calls out as if it’s lost. Cerigg thinks the kid is lost between teleportation nodes.
-I channel some aether in, guiding him out like a beacon.
It works. An elf kid pops out and the hollow disappears.
-Whelp. Now we have a kid.
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Echoes of the Past
-The kid’s awake now. No memory of who he is or how he got sucked into the void. Just his name: Taynor.
-Taynor has some skill with magic. Here’s my early prediction: I think Taynor is a young version of Nyelbert. Some earlier, innocent version that split when Nyelbert became a Cardinal Virtue. Phronesis is instinctually putting up these hollows to try to reunite with his other self.
[Later edit: Well, no. But not totally off-base.]
-In town, Taynor meets a kid whose dad turned into a sin eater. The kid freaks out that maybe TAYNOR is infected too.
Taynor responded with raw incomprehension, as if the prospect was touching at some buried trauma. I take this as further support for my “HE’S PRE-SIN EATER NYELBERT” theory.
-The Echo flashback hits me. I see Taynor and two other mages near a hollow.
-One mage is a teacher. Taynor has been having trouble with these hollows, and the teacher encourages him to keep at it.
-OH! Nyelbert is the other boy in this flashback. Nyelbert encourages to keep practicing.
JESUS. If this happened when Nyelbert was just a kid, then Taynor’s been wandering the void for like 120 years.
-Back to the present. Our new friend remembers that he was part of a group of mages trying to open a hole to another world. Taynor and Nyelbert were both recruits.
-Cerigg is convinced that Taynor holds the key to defeating Phronesis. I agree.
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Nyelbert’s Lament
-The mage consortium wanted to summon forth great beasts. Lol – I’d assumed they were opening portals for some noble reason, but nope.
-They used planned breeding and mage marriage to produce magical talent. Ugh. Taynor and Nyelbert were the result.
-The experiment failed for Taynor. He tried opening a hollow and got sucked in. Wasn’t strong enough.
-Even though Taynor can’t summon voidsent, he thinks he CAN close Nyelbert’s/Phronesis’ hollows. With enough training and practice.
-We head out to the desert to start the training, when Phronesis himself sneaks up on us.
-He summons a hollow that starts to suck Cerigg in. STOP HIM TAYNOR
-Taynor tries, manages to shrink it at least. Whew. Aaaand yet another Echo flashback.
-A dwarft named Lamitt is here, along with Ardbert, Nyelbert, and an elvan woman named Cylva. They’re doing some bounty hunting, seeking a monster causing cave-ins and draining this mountain of aether.
-I mean, it sounds an AWFUL LOT like a primal. But I didn’t think the First had primals.
-Nyelbert wants to kill the creature for reasons beyond the bounty. Why?
AWWWW! This is the first meeting of Ardbert and Nyelbert I think. Their first team-up.
-This is surreal. I’m replaying this as Nyelbert with black mage abilities.
-He starts out all “fine I’ll join you for this one job, but I don’t really need you!” As we progress, Cylva saves my ass. As tanks do.
They all work well together. The Avengers are assembling.
-The hunter mark is Bovian, a minotaur-like beast. We take it out in a fun boss fight.
-But the tremors continue. Why? Was it not the source?
-It drops a powerful crystal, coursing with accumulated aether. That’s what drew Nyelbert. He’s seeking the power to save his friend from the void.
-Problem: If he takes this stone, the mountain collapses and all the miners die.
-It sounds like an easy thing, but he must really miss Taynor. He ultimately makes the right choice, crushing the crystal and restoring aether to the mountain.
NYELBERT: “Taynor… pray forgive me! I promise you this: as long as I walk this earth, I shall never, never give up hope.”
-Ardbert is impressed by Nyelbert’s sacrifice and decision. Wants Nyelbert to join up with his party, and search for Taynor along the way.
So that’s how their Warriors of Light came to be.
-I wake from my Echo flashback. Phronesis left.
-This is like that zombie trope, where the zombies mindlessly repeat their habits from life. It’s heartbreaking that Nyelbert’s sin eater habit is to keep trying to save his friend from the void.
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Taynor’s Training Day
-Taynor has been training and improving. He just lacks combat experience. He needs to maintain calm under pressure if he’s to close hollows while we’re fighting Phronesis.
-Hee! Cerigg got Taynor some new digs. He looks sorta like a fancy puritan.
-His combat skills progress from comically bad to comically not-the-literal-worst-ever. HE’S READY.
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A Tearful Reunion
-Taynor’s skills are ready, but he’s afraid. He knows that the cost of losing to a powerful sin eater like Phronesis is often to transform into one of those abominations himself.
-And he’s not just worried for himself. He’s worried what might happen to me and Cerigg.
-Anyway, let’s go. We find our mark in the Amh Araeng desert.
-PHEW WHAT A FIGHT! I love it deeply. Tons of dodging and positioning.
My favorite mechanic is that how Phronesis summons hollows. I have to keep away from them, but he summons energy balls that chase me. I have to lead them through the hollows to dissipate them.
-Phronesis drops a crystal on death. The drained crystal from the cave.
-Nyelbert’s shade appears.
“Forgive me, Taynor. Far and wide did I travel with my companions, all the while searching for a way – any way at all – to bring you back to this world. And yet, in the end, it was all in vain…”
-He fixated on his choice in the mountain. What if he had used the crystal to bring back Taynor? What kind of adventures might they have had together?
-He made a good choice. Unlike Caius in FFXIII-2, he didn’t sacrifice others to save someone dear to him.
-This is SO SAD!! Nyelbert’s Shade can’t see that Taynor is safe now. Just floats here expressing his shame and regret, how much he misses Taynor.
-Taynor pleads, throws his forgiveness at the Shade. It dissipates.
Did Nyelbert hear Taynor in the end? Did he know that everything turned out okay? I don’t know. I hope so.
-Taynor plans to walk the earth now, like Caine from Kung Fu. I hope we’ll see him down the line.
-Wait, not alone! Cerigg will join him. Good – Taynor deserves companionship.
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-So that’s the Shadowbringers magical DPS questline, the replacement for those jobs’ stories. I love how closely it tied to the story of Shadowbringers. Far more than prior job stories, which often used the setting but not the core story. I'll bet the other three quests deal with the other three Warriors of Light.
I was prepared to be disappointed, grumpy, and miffed. I REALLY like the job quests, felt sad that they were gone. But NOPE! This was frigging awesome, and I’m quite happy with it.
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Next time: returning to the main story quest.
