Summary: Ryne initiates a (headcanon) romance with Gaia, possible Oracle of Darkness. The 5.2 Eden’s Verse raids.
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Away with the Faerie
-The girl we brought back from the Empty has woken up.
-Her name is Gaia, supposedly a Eulmoran citizen with memory loss. That surprises me. I assumed she’d be a denizen of the 13th.
-Thancred visited Eulmore and confirmed her background.
-Hee! I love her design. And her personality seems constantly annoyed, which is also great.
-She describes a “faerie” inside her, talking to her.
GAIA: “I can’t see it, but it’s as though there’s someone else inside me. And I can hear its voice in my head. It whispers to me and lets me use its power.”
So who is Minfilia to Gaia’s Ryne? An Ascian?
-She thinks her “faerie” reacted somehow to Eden’s rise. It wants something from Eden.
-On our way over to Eden, an antlion attacks her. She banishes it with some sort of red/purple magic.
GAIA: “What… am I?” No clue, but Thancred’s “Oracle of Darkness” guess sounds reasonable about now.
-This faerie has always been with her. Every so often it rips holes in the air, drawing out creatures and dark energy and weird blades and armor. Sounds like she has a parasite from the Thirteenth.
-When we arrive at Eden, we even get a glimpse into her internal thoughts.
“The bringer of the Flood, the first sin eater. Would it lead me to my past, or my future?” Almost as if she’s becoming the protagonist of the quest line.
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Blood and Thunder
-Gaia is in a kind of panic. Like she has limited time to do whatever she needs to do.
-Interesting! She doesn’t even remember her name. When Thancred asked, her faerie whispered “Gaia.”
-Anyway, she’ll tag along while we continue with our mission of restoring the Empty. Water and earth are on track. What’s next? Lightning.
-OMG I LOVE MY TWO OPTIONS WHEN RECALLING MEMORIES OF RAMUH:
1) He’s half man, half beard, and another half beard for good measure.
2) I spent most of the time chasing after orbs, with varying degrees of success.
-We’ll fly towards the site of the “Gandof Thunder Plains” for the next location. FFX reference? It used to be blanketed in storm clouds, constantly barraged by lightning.
-Eden’s Verse: Fulmination is now available.
Note: I edited/merged all the Eden clips together here, for all four fights:
-What an awesome design! He’s like a cross between Ixion and Ramuh, two lightning entities in Ququshu’s mind. Took me a few deaths to understand how to deal with the staff mechanic, but it was similar to Titan’s giant rock doing a huge blast of damage.
-No huge changes in the world. Just a bit more humidity in the air.
-Wind is next, to spread and stir these changes. Garuda 2.0?
-The faerie hasn’t stirred within Gaia yet. She’s concerned.
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Into the Firestorm
-The quest name is “Firestorm” – so… Ifrit, not Garuda time?
-Ah. Normally, the heat in the atmosphere would cause water to evaporate on the surface, eventually turning to rain. We need both wind- and fire-aspected aether.
GAIA: “Why don’t you just draw out both elements together?” WOOOO I like how you think!
-Ryne feels conflicted about Gaia. Wants to befriend her, but Gaia hasn’t made it easy. Still… Ryne is all about building a brighter future, and that carries over both for Gaia personally as well as the Empty.
-THIS IS FRIGGING ADORABLE. WE GET TO SEE RYNE TRY ASKING GAIA OUT ON A (friend?) DATE
-It doesn’t quite work. Gaia finds the attempt shallow, since they could all die soon. And presumptuous, as if Ryne knows what Gaia wants when Gaia doesn’t know herself.
GAIA: “Until I find the truth, I can never be free!”
RYNE: “Then we’ll find it together!”
I know I have enough ships already, but… yeah, sorry, I ship it.
-Anyway, we board Eden and fly towards Ashfall, a land that was once full of wind and blazing heat.
-The fight is against Garuda and Ifrit together, in Eden’s Verse: Furor.
-I LOVE THIS FIGHT SO MUCH! The music calling back at least to Garuda (and maybe Ifrit?), the mechanics hearkening to each and made their own in that mindblowing combination as they Voltroned together.
Ifrit + Garuda = Raktapaksa.
-The crystal has changed color to green and red, and the rain pours down.
-Ice is next. That’s the last of the main ones, but I think a twist awaits.
-Gaia still feels like shit. We’re close to restoring the Empty, and she’s just been sitting here.Maybe we’ll also have to restore dark and light elements somehow, and she’ll be the key to restoring dark.
-She looks up at the first sin eater:
“So, almighty Eden, you can mend this broken world, but you can’t restore one girl’s memories!? Give me back my life, damn you!”
-The “faerie’s” voice suddenly reactivates. Urges her to extinguish this accursed light.
It also urges her to reclaim her memories and fulfill her destiny, which is enragingly vague to her. (Right there with you.)
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Heart of Darkness
-She feels worse than useless.
“Gaia, the Oracle of Darkness, bringer of misery and death! A monster. It’s no wonder they left me. Mother, Father… And next, it’ll be all of you. Then I’ll be back where I started, where I’ve always been. Alone.”
-She steps outside, atop Eden to be alone. (Or as alone as one can be with a “faerie” in one’s head.)
-Crap. She remembers something, and grabs her head screaming. Another void portal opens.
“The Darkness that dwells within you, Gaia. The accursed Spawn of Light are drawn to it…” Sin eaters?
“Now the time of the Awakening has come!” The purple crystal in the sky channels something into her as tiny moth-like sin eaters flit about.
-We bring Gaia back inside. She collapses, unconscious. Meanwhile, we have a flock of sin eaters to deal with. Time for Eden’s Verse: Iconoclasm.
-WHEW that was stressful! But my experience in Dun Scaith with Ferdiad Hollow helped a lot. I felt good about recognizing and dealing with the portal mechanic.
And I loved the visuals of the sky looking like Kefka’s final phase, the boss with swarmed by those paper airplanes.
-Back inside, Gaia is still unconscious.
-We see her perspective. She’s sitting alone in a void, even her faerie gone.
“Endless silence, endless darkness… is this what death feels like?”
She sinks into the void. Yearns for death.
???: “Gaia!”
-Ryne’s face appears over her. Pleading for Gaia to come back. That she CAN have a life here. With coffee cakes and nonsense and people. I’m torn between whether finding this to be cheesy or effective. It’s a bit of both.
-She wakes. Ryne embraces her.
GAIA’S THOUGHTS: “The faerie fell silent, only to be replaced by Ryne’s voice ringing through my head. I never thought I would be so glad to hear it.”
HOW COULD YOU NOT SHIP THIS? And I don’t have any illusions that the game will actually include a same-sex relationship, but still.
[Later edit: It helps mitigate things a bit for me that FFXIV doesn’t include many hetero romantic relationships either among the main NPCs.]
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On Thin Ice
-If Ryne hears the voice of Hydaelyn, is Gaia channeling Zodiark? She may be marked in some way, but Gaia can still choose how to deal with it.
-We’ll put that aside for now to restore the last element, ice.
-I’d almost forgotten how different Shiva was from the other elemental primals. That story of Ysayle as her vessel, of Shiva and Hraesvelgr’s bond.
What a great story that was. It’s easy for me to underrate Heavensward compared to Stormblood since, comparatively, I spent far less time in HW whereas I got to experience SB when it was current. But I do understand why so many people prefer it.
-The tale inspires Ryne. She wants to serve as Ysayle here to draw out Shiva. This may also help avoid relying overmuch on Eden itself, lest it start consuming aether willy nilly.
-Here we go. Last fight of this tier: “Eden’s Verse: Refulgence."
-hoooooly shit what an ENDING AND WHAT A FIGHT! GAIA SAVED HER WITH THE POWER OF LOVE (and darkness)
-Come on. This is 10000% a romance, whether the game acknowledges it (which it won’t) or not. I loved seeing this interpretation of Shiva through Ryne.
[Later edit: It didn’t click with me when I was playing through because I was in such a panic about the mechanics and overwhelmed by the fight, but… this wasn’t just against Shiva. This really looked like a Hydaelyn boss fight.
It’s not even really subtle. That form with loopy white wings she kept shifting into, like what we saw in the various wall paintings of Hydaelyn vs. Zodiark? The purifying crystal phase? I don’t know exactly what to make of it, but it really felt like this was the unrestrained destruction of Light trying to wipe out the First and finish Emet-Selch’s work.]
-Thancred looks on at Ryne growing into new relationships like he’s a proud dad.
-Gaia seems relaxed and happy at this moment.
GAIA’S THOUGHTS: “But my life was never meant to be so simple.” Oh shit what twist is coming.
-We head back outside. The Empty is no longer so empty. There’s fire and greenery and water and snow and clouds and ice… It has a long way to go – decades – but it’s a good start.
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Life Finds a Way/Worlds Apart
-Things are looking up. The greenery is returning, and Ryne and Gaia have developed a growing bond. Each saving the other in turn.
-Meanwhile, Urianger asks to meet me, Ryne, and Gaia in the Crystarium.
-Their tethers to the Source are dwindling. He and Thancred will go before long.
-No idea what comes next. This was the last bit in rejuvenating the Empty using elemental primals. The main mysteries left are what to do with Eden now, and resolving Gaia’s nature.
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Some Great Player Names Around Eorzea
Meow Bringer
Pheenix Down
Mal Practice
Train Man
Konan Barbarian
Epcot Ball
Bigdead Alive
Bullroth Hammerschlag
Dirt Eater
Yolo Swagmoney
Electrical Frying
Winters Blue’rose
Riddler Boy
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Next time: Not sure! More crafting quests, or the relic quests if those are introduced soon.
