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City of the Ancients
-Y’shtola has me check out some of these structures down.
-They’re made of sturdy stuff. Unscratchable, even by a sharp knife. The windows have odd shapes too.
-WAS THIS PLACE BUILT BY THE ASCIANS?
-These structures look like the ones in the Qitana Ravel mural, when we learned about Ascian history.
-There’s something oddly terrifying and Lovecrafting about searching underwater here. Like I’m exploring R’lyeh, seeking its strange, non-Euclidean geometry. The ruins of a great race, with some sleeping god lurking just out of sight.
-Yup. This is the ancient Ascian civilization. Pre-Ascian, rather.
Y’SHTOLA: “What the Ondo saw shining in the abyss was, in all likelihood, yet another remnant of this age-old civilization.”
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The Light of Inspiration
-The Ondo want to light the way to the ancients’ land. They ask me to find some lost artisan to help.
-Ah! That’s the Grenoldt we heard about back in the Crystarium.
-I find him at a structure down south called the Workbench.
It looks like my mini-Y’shtola minion hopped into his lap to snuggle.
-He seems to know about the Ondo’s lamp request already… ah, he was commissioned! He’s just been procrastinating with a case of… uh, sculptor’s block? Crafter’s block?
-The lamp has to be bright, like it’s full of the spark of life.
-OH SHIT. He wants me to inspire him with a tale, specifically from a role quest. I haven’t started those yet. I’ll go do the magical DPS 70-80 quest line. I’ll be back.
*one week later*
-What a great storyline! Really strong. See part 167 for those quests.
-I show present Nyelbert’s crystal, a remnant of that story. It inspires him.
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The Illuminated Land
-He and crafts quite a beautiful reef-looking lamp.
GRENOLDT: “Give me the chance, an’ I reckon I can weave the crystal’s saga into other things as well!”
-I can now access his forge. It’s where I get equipment rewards from role quests. This probably means that if I return to him on other magic DPS jobs at 80, I’ll get their gear.
HELL YES THE RED MAGE REWARDS ARE AWESOME!
-It’s “Weathered” gear. This tells me that eventually I’ll get a way to upgrade it into relic gear.
-Anyway, the Ondo are happy with this new lamp. They ritually set it up.
-Ardbert pops by, asks if the crystal I gave Grenoldt belonged to one of his friends. I was wondering when we’d relate the role quest story to Ardbert, and the answer is now.
-Hearing it makes him wistful. He didn’t know this story about his friend until now. “I didn’t expect death to teach me so much.”
-Our initial goal here is fruitful. The Ondo now trust us. Let’s learn more about this place.
-It really sounds like an Ascian city is here that Emet’s trying to bring back. Which is kind of sad? All the dead Ascians aren’t coming back with it. It’ll just be a shell.
-The Ondo finish their ritual and come tell us a bit about this “Illuminated Land.”
-A light appeared recently in a great trench to the west. They looked and saw a whole city, with buildings similar to the nearby ruins.
TOLSHS AATH (the Ondo): “We understood at once – the ancients had risen.”
-Team Scion treks down there, and it’s awe-inspiring. This deep sea trench lit by neon flora.
XIV does justice to the underwater environment.
-We reach the ancients’ city, and… Hooooly shit.
I assumed we’d see some nice stone ruins. This is a full-fledged CITY though!
-Even Y’shtola can see this, with her aether-sight. The structures pulse with aether.
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The End of a World
-JESUS I CAN’T GET OVER THIS PLACE!
-As I approach a door, a mechanical voice echoes out: “Ququshu Qushu recognized… Welcome to the city of Amaurot.”
How tf does it know me? Does it recognize the fragment of me passed down via Hydaelyn, or did Emet program it to recognize me just to creep me out? Probably the latter.
-I recognize the name Amaurot. That’s the name of the main Ascian city.
-We start into the city proper. A ghostly robed giant stands in a square.
-It seems friendly enough, though thinks we’re children.
Emet-Selch said that when Hydaelyn fractured the world, we were reduced in strength, intelligence… I assume size as well. This must be what a pre-fracture person looked like.
Though if that’s so, why do the Ascians look like us? Just to blend in? Emet’s real form may be different.
-The sound design is incredible. The giant’s voice is like a multitude of alien sounds and horns shoved together. We don’t know the language but can understand it all the same.
This is feeling more and more Lovecraftian.
-We’re right now in the Polyleritae District, with the institutions vital to the “management of our star.”
-THE GIANT’S FACE IS SO COOL! Looks like a mix of an alien and a bird.
-The city’s ruler is a “Convocation of Fourteen.” A council, not an absolute ruler.
ROBED GIANT: “Emet-Selch is a member of the Convocation. Were you hoping to witness its deeds firsthand?”
-The giant speaks as if the Final Days are drawing near. I assume it’s a ghost, trapped in the final days before that catastrophe was about to hit. A few days before Zodiark’s creation.
-Seriously, the voice of the robed giant gives me goosebumps.
-Y’shtola this these aren’t ghosts, but rather aether-woven constructs. Emet-Selch made them just as he reconstructed the rest of this city.
-We walk the city, talking to some of these giants to learn more.
-Lahabrea is the council’s speaker, and Elidibus the emissary. Roles they retained as Ascians.
-Loghris and Mitron are also on the council. I seem to remember them as being the two Ascians previously assigned to the First.
-There’s a rumor that a seat on the Convocation will soon be left vacant. Maybe someone will sacrifice themselves to create Zodiark.
ANXIOUS AMAUROTINE: “’Tis said [the catastrophe] starts suddenly, a cacophonous keening from beneath the earth. The sound distorts all living things within earshot, and wrests from us control of our creation magicks.
“Once that happens, all is lost. Fear, pain, despair… every dread impulse is siphoned from our minds and given substance: an eternal fall of fiery rain; an incessant spawning of nightmarish beasts.”
So it’s something that comes from beneath the ground, jiu-jitsus their magic away, and turns their nightmares real. Very “Sphere.”
-The giant says it’s “as if the star itself has fallen ill,” and the Convocation plans to grant the star will.
Is that why Zodiark turned out nasty? Because whatever was infecting the star infected Zodiark too? I mean, I guess I don’t know for SURE that Zodiark is a baddie, but he sure sounds like it. Whatever saving he brought to the start still made some create Hydaelyn in opposition.
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Random Stuff Around Eorzea
-I like how this player’s costume (white shirt with yellow hair) makes him look like his moogle, white body with yellow pom:
-The adorable Yukinko Snowflake minion:
-Awesome player names from around Eorzea:
Hall of Fame
Manbutts Mcgee
Booty Mcstrudel
Also Great
Yanberry Tonberry
Coco Chanel
Crusty Tater (gross, though still not as bad as Curry Parmesean)
Marceline Butterfly. This feels like a reference to something, but IDK what.
Mage Schmage
Nitro Brew
Sir Zantetsuken
A lalafel named Missing Child (seen by my friend Raq)
Bluecat Supreme:
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Next time: Continuing through Amaurot.
