Summary: Wrapping up the Shadowbringers role quests. The mysterious sixth member of Team Ardbert.
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Shadow Walk with Me
-Interesting. There’s a new quest available in the role quest hub.
-That’s right! The four Cardinal Virtues are dead. Cause for celebration. [Later edit: I honestly thought this would be it. I assumed that this quest would just be “Congrats, you did it!” Lol nope.]
-A woman worker at this bar named Cyella offers to share a story that will fill in the gaps.
-She
talks about some vague “villain” behind the Warriors of Light in such a
hostile but pathetic way that I think she’s talking about herself, like
she accidentally messed up big.
-She takes me then to a tour
of where all these role quests centered. The story of Team Ardbert, but
with a new focus a sixth member of the group.
“An elven woman. Not half bad with a sword.”
In the flashbacks, she looks a lot like Cyella, but that was over a hundred years ago. Some ancestor?
-Seems like it. Her name was Cylva. We saw her on the outskirts of the other role quests.
-Cylva apparently pushed Team Ardbert towards becoming Warriors of Light for treacherous reasons.
-AHA! Cylva must have been the person watching from afar as Ardbert bonded with Lamitt.
-She was “the Shadowkeeper.” A new flashback shows her uncloaked as that evil puppetmaster, confronting Team Ardbert.
CYLVA: “[I did this] for you – for every one of you! To forge you into heroes worthy of [Hydaelyn’s] blessing, that she might choose you as Her champions.”
She points to each of them, describing the pain she put them through. “By your sacrifice, a warrior born!” She put them through these horrible and tragic events to become the Warriors of Light.
CYLVA: “I am the villain you seek. The keeper of shadows from a world shrouded in Dark. By our struggle will this world be shattered and its souls saved.”
I’m confused. She clearly has good intentions. Is she from the Thirteenth maybe, trying now to save the First from the same imbalance that crushed her world?
-Back in the present. Cyella reveals herself to be Cylva.
Cyella now clad in the same armor she wore in the flashback.
-I was right. She was a hero of the 13th. AND FRIENDS WITH UNUKALHAI! He was that dude from the Warring Triad quests, right?
-The Ascians convinced her to help tip the First towards Light, to hasten the Rejoining. She created the Warriors of Light, acted as the embodiment of Darkness, and wanted them to kill her.
That would have been enough. It was the Ascians’ Plan A to finish the 1st. But Ardbert refused to kill her.
“He chose mercy and love. My plan was undone.”
-She
lived on. Vauthry was the one who somehow reanimated the Warriors of
Light as Cardinal Virtues, and Cylva acted as Cyella to gather heroes
and put them to rest.
“And so I ask you now to grant me that which Ardbert could not. Death.”
-Oof.
I really don’t wanna. She did this with good intentions. The Ascians
are master manipulators, so I don’t blame her that much.
On the other hand, there’s no worse fate I can think of than eternal life. Death can be a kindness.
-I’m able to convince her to hold off from requesting death for now. She still can find purpose in spreading the truth of the Warriors of Light, honoring them.
(Side note: I wonder if Cyella knows anything about Gaia.)
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What a way to wrap-up the role quests!
I was skeptical as hell coming into these. Star Wars: The Old Republic (an MMO) went from fantastic class-based storylines to general Empire/Republic storylines in what’s often seen as a dull cost-cutting measure. Would this be the same?
No. These were better than most individual job storylines imo. Best of all, they tied perfectly into the overarching story of Team Ardbert. They felt like an intricate part of Shadowbringers rather than their own thing.
AND THE CHARACTERS!! The core characters in these were fantastic, with Giott perhaps best of all.
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A Fish Too Far [Moonfire Faire 2020]
-Eorzea’s summer festival is back! The Moonfire Faire. I’m especially excited because the teaser art is this goofy ass art of a bomb facing off against a shark.
-Sure enough, a shark has been disrupting the beach festivities. We see a Jaws-esque opening as swimmers flee an oncoming fin.
-A trio will help me out here. Ridiculously heroic music welcomes their entrance.
-The current plan is to use bombs to fight it off, dancing a fiery dance to control the bombs.
-The resulting FATE is super fun. Lots of us have to dance our butts off to encourage the bomb to blow up the giant shark. (btw, the shark is named Supershark and it has arms and legs.)
The Friendly Giant Bomb vs. Supershark.
-We still don’t know why it attacked, until a sailor wanders up with a baby shark friend that flopped aboard his ship recently. So Supershark was in all likelihood just looking for their kid.
BARTENDER: “Everything’s wrapped up in a neat little package, eh? No way these unresolved questions will come back and bite us in the arse?” Sure, absolutely. All set.
Surprisingly, it seems all set for now. No real follow-up for now.
LOL, the achievement I just unlocked is “Smile, you Son of a…”
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Great Player Names Seen Recently Around Eorzea
Trust Issues
Dragoon Altair
Government Android
Cutecurvy Cuty
Dicks Bigley
Max Heidegger
Zwynfalk Fhetnborgwyn
Alad Din
Saltee Squeeks
Raf Talia (I haven’t watched the anime, but I’ve seen some clips)
Infinite Tsukuyomi
Moon Daughter
Daddy Senpai
To Be
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Next time: The next 24 player raid in the YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse chain.
