TW: sexual assault, slavery.
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Way of the Arcanist
-I know this job splits at level 30 into summoner (magic DPS) and scholar (healer). It’s a pet class.
-I’m especially curious to see how we harness the hostile primals like Titan and Ifrit. [Later edit: that must come with summoner, the level 30 dps job.]
-The arcanists’ guild is in Limsa Lominsa.
-They deal with arcanima, the science of “arcane geometries” and aether manipulation.
-South sea islanders created arcanima study. Limsa Lominsa’s leader feared that the art would die out, so she established an official arcanists’ guild.
-The guild leader is currently “unreachable.” I speak with the interim guildmaster, Mistress Thubyrgeim.
-She emphasizes strategy and analysis in combat. I can see how scholars will evolve from arcanists.
-The arcanist starts with some classic FF spells both old (Bio) and new (Ruin).
-My first pet is an emerald carbuncle. He casts area effect wind magic at range.
-I feared a pet class would require a ton of micromanagement, but that doesn’t seem the case. Most of carbuncle’s actions are automated, with one big attack I can control.
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What’s in the Box
-Practical test time, to inspect a practice box.
[Later edit: I don’t know what I expected storywise from the arcanists, but “magic customs agent” was not it.]
-Little enemies jump out from the box and attack.
-Someone was watching me fight. A woman with her nose literally in a book, suggesting all sorts of tactical pointers on my technique.
???: “Taking into account your current level of ability, factoring in the aetheric constant, multiplying by the number of opponents, then…” Etc.
-Her name’s K’lyhia. She’ll oversee my arcanist training.
-Back at the guild, the guildmaster tells me why K’lyhia was assigned to me. She’s smart with strategy but “overlooks other important aspects of life.” Maybe we can teach each other.
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Tactical Planning
-That was a practice round. Now I get to accompany K’lyhia on a real inspection.
-We’re examining wares of a goblin caravan that they’ll fight to keep us from.
K’LYHIA: “Should the goblins offer battle, you are to execute Combat Pattern 1345, otherwise known as ‘Stratagem Focus Fire.’”
…sure. Whatever lol.
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Over the Rails
-Alongside some mercenaries, we’re going to board a likely smuggling vessel. The Morningstar.
-I get access to the new Topaz Carbuncle pet for this. More single-target and defensive than Emerald.
CARBUNCLES ARE SO FRIGGING CUTE!
-The ship’s crew fights us HARD. 10+ sailors go down. What cargo are they protecting?
-Human cargo. They’re smuggling in a sinister-looking exiled pirate back to Limsa.
K’LYHIA: “B-but… you were caught… Exiled…” They have some history together. She’s paralyzed, terrified at him.
And his threats seem unusually personal and nasty.
-She’s in raw panic. She faints, and we escape.
-Back at the guild in Limsa Lominsa, the guildmaster sorta fills me in. The exiled pirate is Doesmaga.
“Once more he dares lay a hand on Foreseer K’lyhia… For K’lyhia, that man is a nightmare made flesh.”
[TW: rape, sexual assault.
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V pbhyq qrsvavgryl or jebat. Whfg zl vzzrqvngr gubhtug.]
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Pincer Maneuver
-K’lyhia has been missing. Her trail led to some guard who held her for questioning about Doesmaga.
-She was once his captive. “Few pirates sink to such depths of depravity as Doesmaga.” I figured.
-They were hoping she could guide their manhunt, but nope. Not much help, and they released her.
-Back at the guild, the acting guildmaster gives me more detail. Doesmaga was banished when a surprise inspection uncovered him as a slave trader. The assessor found dozens of slaves aboard his ship. Among them, a young Miqo’te.
Jesus.
-The still-as-yet-unmet arcanist guildmaster helped break K’lyhia’s daze with the gift of an initiate’s grimoire. That’s the same old grimoire K’lyhia uses to this day.
-Doesmaga threw that grimoire into the sea during our fight. Maybe if we recover it, it’ll help K’lyhia.
-Found her. She tracked a black marketeer who salvaged the Morningstar’s jettisoned cargo, including a tome.
-It’s actually a pretty tough fight. The black marketeer has just a tone of mercenaries to fight off.
-Whew. Got it back. The tome is water-logged and damaged though.
She’s devastated.
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Grimoire Fandango
-K’lyhia is still in a bad place. The person who helped bring her out of it the first time is the missing guildmaster, K’rhid Tia. He’s finally been spotted.
-The trail to find K’rhid is long and riddley.
“Seek the box at Fool Falls.
Dance a jig for your wooden audience.
Claim the secret from the opened heart.”
Arcanists seem like crossword fans.
-The riddles force me to dance at a random box, and then at a qiqirin. K’rhid was watching me.
-He’s a weird, genius, manipulative imp. “I do so enjoy seeing others dance in the palm of my hand.”
-He gives me a new tome for K’lyhia. Even from a distance, he’s kept an eye on arcanist affairs.
-I head back and find K’lyhia looking mournfully out on the ocean.
“My mind is ordinarily a whirlwind of probabilities and feints and counterattacks, but now there is naught but silence. This is how it once used to be… and perhaps how it always will be from now on.”
I really love how well this questline portrays the numbing impact on K’lyhia.
-I do a little dance for her - guildmaster style - then turn over my New Grimoire. It’s an updated version of her old one.
K’LYHIA: “With this gift, however, his message to me is abundantly clear: I am to shape reality into the one I desire.” She’s determined to defeat her captor.
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Sinking Doesmaga
-Doesmaga’s fleet is preparing for a long voyage. This’ll be our last chance in a while to take them out.
-K’lyhia proposes an intricate plan. One of those, “give a note to a fisherman, take his fish to a cook, take the cooked fish to someone else…” things.
It all leads to us getting an invitation aboard the Morningstar, with K’lyhia disguised as a dancer.
-We crash onto the ship, and it’s SO INVIGORATING to see K’lyhia right now.
“Prepare yourself, Doesmaga! With your defeat will I cast off the shackles you closed on my soul!”
-Doesmaga throws all his sailors at us. We take them down, the pirate included.
My favorite part is the poetic touch of her new tome glowing with fresh power through the fight.
-OMG THIS IS AMAZING. DOESMAGA TRIES TO ESCAPE, BUT K’LYHIA USES HER TACTICAL SKILL TO PREDICT EVERY SINGLE ESCAPE ATTEMPT BEFORE HE DOES IT. IT PISSES DOESMAGA OFF SO MUCH
-It all wraps up with the Lominsan guards surrounding his vessel. All perfectly ready for his attempts, thanks to K’lyhia’s planning. Victory, and a sense of closure for my mentor.
K’LYHIA: “I now understand… It is not enough to wish to shape reality; one must also have a complete understanding of the reality one wishes to obtain.”
A reasonable definition of wisdom.
-K’lyhia is ready to put her strategies to the test.
She sails off into the sunset to pursue the riddle-ridden path leading to the arcanist guildmaster.
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Random Stuff Around Eorzea
Some great player names:
Krimson King
Firstaid Cat
Jon Wane
Generic Gamer
Ambiguous Corncob
Luciferus Morningstar
Pokey Ball
Gerudoking Ganondorf:
A scantily-clad Miqo’te:
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Next time: I have two jobs open next. Scholar for healer, summoner for dps. Will focus on scholar first.
