Summary: Starting the 5.5. main story quest. Fordola returns. Winning over and freeing Tiamat.
This picks up from the 5.4 main story quest I last did in December 2020: http://coldrungaming.blogspot.com/2020/12/ffxiv-p...
---
Unto the Breach
-Thancred
and Urianger have finished up their tour of Garlemald and are returning
to Scion HQ. This is also in the aftermath of a potential cure for
primal tempering.
-The capital is in rough shape. The Garleans
are working to transform the imperial palace into… something? Sounds
like a vague nightmare structure.
THANCRED: “[The builders]
swarmed the place like so many insects, working with nary a word
exchanged between them. No one overseeing construction, no one barking
orders. It was as if they were possessed… or tempered.” Creeeeepy.
-We check in at Ala Mhigo for a full Alliance leadership meeting.
-Lyse
shares that the party that went to investigate Fandaniel’s towers came
back tempered and hostile. At least we now have a way to cure that.
-I’d
almost forgotten the words of the tempered we saw at the end of 5.4:
“Glory be to Garlemald.” Almost as if GARLEMALD ITSELF were the primal.
-Across
the world, beast tribes have recently been enslaved and brought to
those towers. A world-wide army of pro-Garlean tempered in the works.
-HI
FORDOLA I MISSED YOU!!! I assumed she was dumped from the plot back in
Stormblood altogether. Which was sad because I frigging loved her
character and arc.
-The
Ala Mhigan Arenvald will escort us along with Fordola. She’s still a
prisoner, but not coming here unwillingly necessarily.
-Her motivation seems threefold:
1) She’s a prisoner and she has to do stuff, to some degree.
2) Arenvald saved her and she owes him.
3) She basically sacrificed her soul to Garlemald and wants to know more.
-While
Fordola and Arenvald check out the towers, we also have to investigate
Lunar Bahamut. Estinien is looking into that, so I’ll go catch up with
him.
---
Here Be Dragons
-Found him in Ishgard. Still a bit weird to see him without the helmet, despite it having been a while.
-LOLOL ESTINIEN MISTAKES ALISAIE FOR A “MORE RUGGED” VERSION OF ALPHINAUD AND SHE FLIES INTO A RAGE.
I hope this urges her to embrace the dark arts of reaper in Endwalker.
-I also like how G’raha fanboys over Estinien. Another legend he gets to meet.
-Estinien
is heading to Azys Lla. Oh right, Tiamat (Bahamut’s mate) is imprisoned
there! Maybe she’ll be able to shed light on the whole Lunar Bahamut
thing.
-Something about Alisaie’s annoyed rage at Estinien now makes me think she may have a little crush. Who could blame her?
-Tiamat
sounds like a potential ally. We know she no longer hates mankind and
feels dominated by her guilt for resurrecting Bahamut.
---
Righteous Indignation
-Tiamat as no idea
what’s been happening recently. Wasn’t her who summoned Lunar Bahamut,
but she thinks it must have been another Meracydian dragon.
-Sounds like Fandaniel has managed to control the Meracydians who kept Bahamut’s form intact.
-God,
Tiamat is SO MAJESTIC! Her echoing voice, her look, the works. I love
seeing her here, wings outspread against Azys Lla’s green sky. Please
let us free her.
ESTINIEN: “We came here to ask mighty Tiamat
of the first brood, consort of Bahamut, mother of the dragons of
Meracydia, what she intends to do about the crimes committed against her
children!”
-ESTINIEN IS ON THE SAME PAGE AS ME LET’S FUCKING GOOOOOO
-Still,
she’s afraid. Understandably so, since she’s specifically afraid that
if she met another Bahamut (or whatever Lunar Bahamut is), he’d temper
and use her for destruction.
-OH RIGHT, I FORGOT!!! We have a cure for tempering now. This really changes the game.
-She’s on board. Hell. Yes.
tfw your plan to win over an ancient dragon works
-But she’s still in prison. How do we break her out? And how do we know if the porxie cure will work on someone like Tiamat?
-Now to free her from her prison. This involves tinkering with the different Allagan security measures.
My
favorite part here is when I get the chance to give my name to the
security node and I get a few choices. I choice “Estinien Wyrmblood.”
As Ququshu says this, she strikes a broody and emo Estinien impression. XD
---
For Vengeance
-While dealing with the
security tech, Estinien notes the danger of the Ascians. Wants to know
what I plan to do with him, whether I’ll try to come to some kind of
accord with Fandaniel.
I frigging love this dialogue option the game gives me:
“I will try, yes. And if that fails, I’ll remember him.”
Emet-Selch is really one of the great FF characters of all time. RIP.
-Back
to Tiamat, and the anti-temper treatment we give her seems to be
working. She’s remembering her past, pre-tempering. How the Ascians
fucked everyone over, manipulating the Allagans against the Meracydian
dragons.
-omg we even get a flashback to Bahamut and Tiamat playing with their kiddos, adooorbs
-I
actually feel pretty bad for Tiamat. So many of her kids are beyond any
possible tempering cure, given how much the Allagans messed with them.
-…it works. The security measures are removed, her prison is released. Tiamat is free.
TIAMAT: “For vengeance and atonement… I rise.”
SHE’S SO BEAUTIFUL (even if Azys Lla is still the ugliest sky in the game imo)
-On
the linkshell, we learn that Lunar Bahamut has been spotted heading to
an Amal’jaa hub leading a host that includes dragons. Let’s roll.
-And in the coolest method of transportation ever conceived, Estinien dragoon jumps onto Tiamat’s back.
---
Random Stuff Around Eorzea
Riddle me this: how many lalafells can you fit in a box? 
The most fantastical and imaginative food in Eorzea: 
---
Next time: confronting Lunar Bahamut.
