Summary: Starting the patch 5.2 main story. Gaius’ past projects and children return. The trial against Ruby Weapon.
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Old Enemies, New Threats
-Time to check out patch 5.2’s new main story quest content.
-Maxima arrives back at Scion HQ in Mor Dhona. He’s the Populares defector from Garlemald. He reports back on the chaos there, the civil unrest post-regicide.
-We head to Ala Mhigo, to meet with Gaius and Raubahn.
GAIUS: “The Empire is developing a new Ultima Weapon.” OHO! I know this patch brings Ruby Weapon in some form. Maybe this is how. I’ll bet that the Ultima that Estinien fought in Garlemald is a prototype for Ruby.
-The Empire’s VIIth Legion (hehe, like FFVII) is researching this new weapon. It was nearly annihilated back at the Battle of Carteneau.
They had a shift in leadership. Who’s running it now? Some XIV-version of Hojo?
-Apparently, this weapon is just one of a number in development. So maybe we get Ruby Weapon now, and in a future patch will be Emerald Weapon or Diamond Weapon.
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Ruby Doomsday
-I meet Gaius at the Ghimlyt front.
-Ruby Weapon sounds like a souped-up version of Ultima. It can absorb aether, has whiplike claws, and more. (I never had any legitimate attempts against him in VII, but I remember seeing its claws.)
-It’s clear Gaius sees this as a symbol of his own failures within the Empire. His chickens coming home to roost.
-Scene change, to a magitek engineering facility.
-OKAY RUBY WEAPON LOOKS COOL AF! The red parts look weirdly fleshy.
-In the proto-ultima fight we saw as Estinien, someone – looking like a tortured, unwilling subject – was fused to the top. Is someone similarly fused to Ruby?
GUTSY FEMALE VOICE: “Ruby Weapon, code name ‘Darnus.’ Ready for launch!” Sounds like it.
That was a TOUGH ONE! I’m going into these unspoiled, without guides or anything, which makes them mechanically tricky (and fun, no regrets despite my many deaths).
But that SECOND PHASE Y’ALL HOLY SHITTTTT. Just blew me away. Ruby Weapon’s core overrode the engineer and she became some weird phantasmal Nael van Darnus, the Bahamut-tempered imperial from the Binding Coil of Bahamut.
(I did this in part 110, back in September of 2018: http://coldrungaming.blogspot.com/2018/09/ffxiv-p...
But what was that??? I have so many questions. Was it, like, a Nael primal, summoned by the Empire’s data on her as well as its faith?
AND SHE WAS DROPPING FUCKING DALAMUD ON US! I couldn’t believe the visual of this fight.
And why was she disappointed when Dalamud dropped?
And what IS Dalamud anyway? This I feel like there’s probably an answer for that I just don’t remember. Is it another name for Bahamut?
-A pair of Au’Ra imperial soldiers appears, clad in red leather.
OH SHIT GAIUS’S KIDS
Wait. Gaius isn’t Au’Ra. Are they adopted? Allie, Alfonse and Rex.
-Echo flashback. We see them as kids. Gaius saved them, on the road near Werlyt, but their homeland (Werlyt) feared the Garleans. These kids are grappling with that.
ALFONSE: “Lord Gaius is different. I know he is.”
REX: “you’re right. He always says that the strong should lead the weak. Maybe that’s why he took us in.”
It’s a similar conflict we saw with someone like Fordola or Yotsuyu, but this is driven more by love and admiration than by fear and desperate need.
They all vow at that moment to join the Imperial army, to repay Lord Gaius and become like him.
-Though I just did the math. There are five kids in this image. Only three in the present time.
-Back to the present. They’re shocked he’s alive.
-Allie starts to share something, before Alfonse (the older “brother”) stops her. They’re not on the same side right now as Gaius.
-They turn to leave, but Gaius has one final question: who was piloting Ruby Weapon? It clearly wasn’t Nael van Darnus returned from the grave. Who was it? Some poor possessed rando engineer?
-OH SHIT I’LL BET IT WAS ONE OF THEIR OTHER SIBLINGS
-Yup. An Au’Ra named Milisandia. So there’s these three, Milisandia, and maybe the fifth kid is preparing to pilot Emerald Weapon or something.
-Alfonse says they all just want to finish what Gaius started.
ALFONSE: “And while we shall never forget all you have done for us, the next time we meet, it shall be as enemies. Goodbye, Father.”
Well JESUS. Way to drive home the persistent mistakes of Gaius’ past.
-They hop into an imperial ship and fly off.
-Hi Cid! Gotta be weird for him and Gaius to see each other in this context.
-Interesting. As Cid’s biological father became obsessed with the Meteor Project, Gaius even took him under his wing.
CID: “I blamed Gaius as much as any of them, perhaps even more, for the barbaric acts carried out in the name of conquest. But when we met at the Praetorium, all the hatred that had been festering inside me seemed to fade away, and I remembered the man I once respected.”
-Cid inspects Ruby Weapon’s husk and finds the frankly horrifying result: Millsandia was fused with Ruby Weapon’s core at the end, her last moments spent in agony. Nael’s data was implanted into Ruby Weapon and (at the end) directly into Millsandia.
-At the end, Valdeaulin – one of the dudes guarding/helping Gaius – prods Gaius. Asks if these events have stirred pleasant memories of the Empire, and then directly threatens that if he tries to return to help the Empire, Valdeaulin will kill him.
I could definitely see Gaius returning to the Empire. I’m thinking of how he reacted to the Emperoer with such reverence. Hopefully he’ll end up being a leader of a future allied Garlemald
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Meanwhile, in the Werlyt magitek installation…
-Gaius’ “children” gather. They’re worried, conflicted, about where the Weapons project is heading. Some want to abandon this, others want to get rid of the Eorzeans and get back to peace amongst each other’s company.
REX: “I think you’re forgetting whose turn it is next! With me at the helm of the Sapphire Weapon, it’ll be over before you know it.”
I wonder whose memories, whose date, will drive Sapphire.
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The Way Home
-Krile sends me off to the First to let the others know about the new Weapons and Zenos’ return.
-In the First, the Crystal Exarch has made progress on finding a way home for the folks stuck here. He crafted a crystalline “spirit vessel.”
Our last step is to find a way to transfer the souls into the vessel.
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Random Stuff Around Eorzea
Some great player names:
Yellow Pikachu
Happy Uncle
Potato Tempest
Uneecorn Goat
Lance Drizzle
T’he Fool
Cereal Kill’er
Lago Morph
Great Taco
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Next time: continuing to explore 5.2’s storyline in the First.
