FFXIV story/lore thread

[Rocl]

EVERYTHING IS SPOILERS
This phase I took roughly 300 screenshots of dialogue and completed the main scenario so, I feel a bit better recapping/theory mongering.

• IN NORTH GARLEMALD BORN AND RAISED

Also, isn't "Tribuni" just a plural of Tribune? So, they 3 new bad guys aren't Legatii (or whatever shit) but Tribunes instead?

I'm awful at like Roman military structure and shit, so yeah you're right. It appears Livia, Nero, and the other power ranger are Tribuni. From basic wikipedia skimming, Gaius is in charge of all of them. The 3rd Cohort (probably of the 14th Legion) are stationed sporadically throughout Eorzea. The 14th Legion's base seems to be Castrum Occidens in La Noscea.

Nero Tol Scaeva appears to be in charge of Gaius' intelligence/spy unit; Frumentarium (which is another callback to the very Roman make up of the Garlean Empire). He also is in possession of the 7th Legion (Nael's, if you've forgotten) data and instruments. I'm curious if another legatus was posted or if the entirety of the 7th Legion was lost in the Battle of Carteneau. Anyways, Nero is in the loop enough to find an Ala Mhigan spy within minutes of landing at Occidens. Dude's a killer.

Nero follows us to Paglth'an (well maybe it's Zahar'ak) when the Amalj'aa summon Ifrit. Well, technically, he didn't seem to know we'd be there--like I said, he's an intelligence operative though, so it's not surprising he'd know the Amalj'aa were summoning this particular day. He's a bit bored with Ifrit (and aren't we all?) but of import is he mentions Ul'dahn countermeasures. This implies Ul'dah is somehow stifling Ifrit's power level.

Gaius is acting alone in his conquest of Eorzea. Livia says so herself that the political instability in Garlemald will prevent any aid. She also mocks Nero's use of Nael's data. Observing Ifrit seems to be Livia/Nero's objective--well, not really. Nero proclaims that they've achieved their purpose but is, of course, worried about our interference. If I had to wager they (The 14th Legion) are stoking the fires of internal unrest, much like they did in Ala Mhigo. They might be aiding either the Amalj'aa or the traitors, but I'm willing to bet they have a horse in that race.

Anyways Livia reminds Nero quite sternly he has a certain task assigned to him by the Legatus and he must needs focus on that instead of his newfound interest in us. She also reminds Nero he'll be put to death if he fails and she'll kill him herself. Nero's next line is interesting "A woman in love is not to be crossed;" is Livia banging Gaius? Perhaps Nero himself? The obvious answer is Gaius, but I can't shake the feeling Nero and her are bumping codpieces either--in a "I'd rather kill you than some random executioner" kind of way.

• LET US SPEAK OF PRIMALS AND ECHOES AND AETHERIAL THINGS:

Ifrit pulls his same spiel from Lord Errant. It's ridiculously similar to the original text from 1.0 (well, not ridiculously, but enough that it hits almost all of the same plot points). We are spared Tempering (which is a phrase actually in 1.0 as well, which I had forgotten) by some unknown force--the Echo, naturally. The initial conclusion is we've sworn ourselves to another God, but Ifrit isn't a dummy, he figures out we are godless blessed (another phrase carried over from 1.0). Your soul can belong to but one God, so Tempering wouldn't work if we worshiped Leviathan, Titan or Garuda. However, Ifrit cannot discern any "taint of Another" on us--and again, like in 1.0, he mentions that the Paragons warned him about us.

Let's digress and dissect Primals themselves. We know they love to gobble aether. We know crystals are a more concentrated and powerful form of aether. We know Primals desire aether and adulation and prayer. But wait, why the latter!? Primals do not exist corporeally without prayer. Does this sound familiar to any of you who played and prayed to the Twelve during 1.0? Primals exist in a static body by the pleas of followers. Without the unwashed masses to acknowledge their godhood (or godhead, if you wanna follow the Amalj'aa archaisms) a Primal is simply dispersed amongst the aether. When do people pray? During times of great unrest, during huge upheavals, when you need your god most is when chaos and calamity and the like knock on your door.

This isn't enough to satisfy Primals, as voluntary givings often aren't enough. Could you imagine a country to sustain itself off charity instead of taxes (*'3') And so Primals steal and 'temper' souls. They brainwash (or more likely SOULWASH AMIRITE) beings who are not so keen to worship. In a sense, they are bestowing their blessing upon the unmarked souls much the way we were mysteriously blessed by the Echo. (Insomuch as they have the same "maximum occupancy: 1" deal) This is actually a really nifty point. We know of the Tempered captives of the Amalj'aa (and there is a whole camp of them near Zahar'ak); there's also the Serpent Reavers who live among the Sahagin. The Ixali stronghold isn't present to us in Beta, and neither are the Sylphlands or U'ghomoro Mines. The pink-purple Sylphs are quite obviously those Sylphs who summoned Ramuh. The Sylphs were pushed to summoning their Primal by the encroaching Garlean Empire (3rd Cohors appear around the Sylphlands) and the destruction of the Twelveswood during the Calamity can't have helped their situation. By doing this just once the Sylphs have begun to turn themselves into another mindless beast tribe placating a Primal. Once you go black you never go back, etc.

The biggest reveal from all this is that Tempering is eternal. Your very life aids the Primal's strength. Though we saw men Tempered in Lord Errant during 1.0; we were able to strike sense into them--it appears this has either been retconned or just simply a mistake. (As in, we/our companion didn't realize they weren't or I'm retarded personally) Only by killing the Tempered is their link severed. Considering we're "blessed" slash "tempered" I'm imagining our blessing/Primal is Hydaelyn itself--the crystal and all that jazz. So our very being doesn't imperil the realm but strengthen it. I prefer this theory to the idea of the Twelve or Siren. There's no clear answers regardless.

Do you remember Bahamut? The Lambs of Dalamud?

You see, the Lambs of Dalamud do not fear death, for it is written that the Hound will remember the scent of the blood of those who offered themselves to guide Him back to the corporeal realm.

Their blood, their lifeforce, their AETHER. The Lambs of Dalamud, and Nael himself, are tempered servants of Bahamut I bet you my bottom dollar. How did Bahamut temper these from afar? Who knows! Nael called out for Dalamud after United We Stand and got reddened, so I suppose it's somewhat like getting blue flamed.

Nael himself says "The crimson light shall suffuse you, cleansing the filth of your flesh and bone--aye, and your very existence. When that time comes, you shall know bliss as your mortal mind can ill comprehend. In the name of House Darnus, I shall bring the wisdom of ancient Allag to bear and make ready a feast in honor the divine!" Ahhhh now Darnus is fucking wacko, but he seems to be eerily similar to our Masked Maligners. "The realm has seen six cycles of death and rebirth, yet man refuses to learn from his mistakes. Ever does he find a way to defile the sanctity of creation, and so the cycle must persist. But no more, for I shall halt the turning of this wheel of darkness! He has willed that it be so, and so must it be! Dalamud's coming shall cleanse the realm of its foul taint! Only the wicked would refuse His gift of purity!"

Our Masked ??? is glad Bahamut has been freed, and glad is he hungrier than ever. "It has begun. Soon the planet will regain its true form." Is the foul taint humanity; is the planet's true form endless aether? (*'~')

Also credit to my main man solracht for pointing out we see Cid in the beta, disguised as a gravedigger.

• I AM LEGACY, NOT SOME PEASANT DAMNIT MINFILIA

I absolutely abhor Minfilia's aside "I remember you, even if no one else does" It bothers me because she chalks it up to Louisoix's magicks which is fine and dandy or whatever but I hate that she acknowledges & knows who I am but still treats me like a peasant. I was thinking that maybe those blessed with the Echo might be the only who remember but I can't remember if the Circle of Knowing was blessed as well. This reminds me: why did the Sharlayans leave? Minfilia remarks when the realm began to fall into chaos the Sharlayans fled Aldernard for their homeland. I'm annoyed the Circle of Knowing and Path of the Twelve merged into the Scions of the Seventh Dawn. You knew they were going to converge eventually regardless, but I guess it's just sort of a let down that it happened offscreen for those 1.0 players. Also Tataru fucking had our names in the book but didn't recognize us fffffffff.

Spoiler: show

I'm going to bet Alphinaud and Alisaie are blessed as well, more than likely with the Echo ofc. Alphinaud calls them "students of history" and they are outfitted with aetherial goggle things like the Circle of Knowing-- but they are operating independently of it so it seems so far. Of course, considering their lineage, it is easy to see how they obtained this goggles. I should also point out these goggles are not new. In order to slay Ifrit during the Grand Company line in 1.0 you collected powerful crystals from various NMs for Louisoix to craft you some goggles to see an Aetherial node at Apkallu Falls. Louisoix was such a pro he could see it w/o the goggles, but we needed them cuz we were noobs. So it is that normal mortals need them as well, as Louisoix alone seemed to be able to see aether in its entirety without help.

The Remembrance speeches were insulting. In a way, I think they were supposed to be to 1.0 players, lol. I feel like Raubahn is a completely different character now--no doubt he's had to change since the Calamity as even during the Battle of Carteneau cutscenes he seemed a different man. He only got badass for a minute and god let me tell you how boiled my blood was. We were missing a padjal in Kan-E-Senna's speech, O-App-Pesi. I agree with Alisaie anyways, the Grand Companies are mere shadows of what they were in my day in the Eorzean Alliance!

Back to the twins, Alphinaud is all reason and logic and the long game while Alisaie seems to be more emotionally driven. He mentions the realm bleeds still, and by omitting some details the pill is easier to swallow--she seems more driven to find a way to save the world. A quicker way, more befitting what she feels does honour to their Leveilleur lineage. Well, I could be extrapolating into my own headcanon now so let me take a step back. The twins (are they twins? who knows!) are bound together to be our new saviours (*'~') I for one look forward to Louisoix1 and Louisoix2.

Cid is missing! However, this somehow eludes the Imperials, who believe Biggs & Wedge's Tiny Bronco is a new design of Cid nan Garlond [in case you forgot!]. Though this could be a simple case of a random grunt not knowing what the fuck.

Urianger still recites prophecies! Yet, what he recites now (in boldface) is from Louisoix's journal..

Dawn may yet banish the darkest night,
Yet ever shall primal desires burn.
Two swords shall vie to lay them low–
A blade born of light, and a blade forged of might.
Alas, man may entrust his fate unto but one

He only makes mention of the first phrase, which is bolded. A nice cheery change of pace for the creep, don't you agree? The interesting bit is now "two swords shall vie to lay them low." We can assume 'them' = 'primal desires' so are the two swords the twins? Or is it referring to the Scions of the Seventh Dawn (and us, to a lesser extent) being a BLADE BORN OF LIGHT and the Garleans being a BLADE FORGED OF MIGHT as both seem intent to deal with the Primal threat?

Also, Urianger, if I recall correctly, is the only person who mentions Bahamut aside from our Masked Maligner. Though he doesn't do so by name, simply "wyrm of midnight; of breath infernal...for some a legend made flesh; for others an insidious symbol of memory lost." Anyways, the point being people know the Battle of Carteneau is when shit went down, that's when the Calamity happened/begun. Very few, if any, seem to ascribe the destruction to Bahamut. We do know though that Bahamut only raged during that brief moment of time and was enveloped in a white light at the end... much like we were... and so were the Commanders of the Grand Companies... could it all be Louisoix? Was he THAT badass? tbh I never cared for him before End of an Era but I'm hoping it is his doing now. I also hope to god beyond gods that he stays dead. I don't even particular want Echo scenes with him unless it's super creepy and he knows we're there and he's dead.

Why is Halatali populated with beasts from the Coliseum?
Why do we save a Goblin village from Dragons in La Noscea's Brayflox's Longstop dungeon?
Who are the Noble Whoresons in Northern Thanalan? The Redbelly villains? The Coeurlclaw poachers? The Corpse Brigade? Why are there derelict Imperial Juggernauts in Little Ala Mhigo?

Seeing Northern Thanalan and the devastation befallen it at Raubahn's push again Castrum Meridianum is pretty fucking gnarly. For the record 3rd Cohorts patrol here and the aftermath in the East Shroud near the Sylphlands (which I'm guessing is from either Carteneau or the 1.0 Imperial invasion into Nine Ivies where we save the podlings etc). Almost all of the Imperial Strongholds are built near/on orange aether which seems to be a direct result of Dalamud's collision.

Extra Credit: I took some screenshots of the seagull statue in Limsa Lominsa because it had Eorzean text on it, but I can't make out two words. Underlined text is shoddy work too.

Borne ?? ???? by wing divine, in the halls of the Twelve be heard

Frediswitha, former Quartermaster of Drybone, still resides in the now town, and has dialogue if you're Legacy. (Actually, it may be an everyone thing, but I didn't test Late Burger.)

Spoiler: show

[Lucavi]

^ That final SS is one that I spent some time thinking about in beta, despite not spending a ton of time with 1.0. I remembered that name, but I wasn't used to seeing the NPC dressed like that.

[Rocl]

http://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/w/image...rediswitha.jpg

[Gokulo]

Hmm, I somehow missed the part where Minfilia said that O.o

[Rocl]

Hmm, I somehow missed the part where Minfilia said that O.o

I know some people said they didn't get the Legacy opening CS despite being qualified, it may have something to do with that. Did you?

[Gokulo]

Oh I get it now, I actually only read the story when playing a new character last week. This week I button-rushed my way through it on my legacy kitty, that's why. Forgot that there may be such differences. Oh well, gonna focus on that in P4.

[Rocl]

So here's a story:
Friend says "lol this npc is totally Cid" and I believe him cuz I didn't pay attention to the NPC. Then I make my huge post and get a message saying "shit was jokes omg lol u dumb" so I edit post to not look like a retard. Then I find a picture of the NPC in question

http://cdn.guildwork.net/albums/imag...6f6e699929.jpg

THE NAME'S CID GARLOND IN CASE YOU'D FORGOTTEN


MORAL; DONT FUCK WITH ME ABOUT LORE

[Viena]

A couple of months late, but going through this thread and finding out about the naming conventions was a pleasant surprise.

I always had some admiration for XI's name generator ability to keep a distinct style for each race and gender and yet be flexible enough to generate names for thousands of players and NPCs (I think it's reasonable to assume that the devs used the very same algorithm to come up with names for many, if not most of the game's NPCs). A while ago I looked if I could find some clues on its inner workings, but I ended up empty handed. I was hoping I could find an off-game name generator somewhere.

It's definitely nice learning a little bit on how they do it (and many of these patterns are surely used on XI).

[Rocl]

I was hoping I could find an off-game name generator somewhere.

http://fandango.exp.jp/name-generator.php

It's a bit iffy, but probably pretty lore appropriate. (A male sun seeker will always be surname Tia etc)

[Viena]

http://fandango.exp.jp/name-generator.php

It's a bit iffy, but probably pretty lore appropriate. (A male sun seeker will always be surname Tia etc)

Thank you, sir!

[Deuce]

So, we learned some new stuff about our three new Garlean Tribuni today, some of which is a little interesting.

Finally have some more concrete information on Livia sas Junius's relationship with Gaius. Apparently Livia was, "raised by Gaius van Baelsar after being orphaned by war," which makes me wonder about her origin. Were her parents killed at the expense of Garlean conquest? Or were they Garlean citizens or even soldiers killed in battle? The next couple of lines are interesting as well, "Livia devoted herself to the arts of soldiery, that she might repay her adoptive father." I'm not one for conspiracy theories, but this cries a revenge angle to me. It might also explain why she devoted herself to "soldiery", so that when the time came, she would be able to kill Gaius herself.

Also, I think we may have known this before, but are Roegadyn considered a subhuman race in Garlean society? Rhitahtyn Sas Arvina's bio states Gaius recognized, "the mercenary's exceptional martial prowess than the origin of his birth." So does this origin refer to his race? Or is it a reference to his nationality? Coincidentally, both Lavia and Rhitahtyn share a common title, "Sas", which may imply they are from the same place. Perhaps they're Ala Mhigan converts and Rhitahtyn's "origin" refers to a former noble family of his city state. We know that Gaius has spent a considerable amount of time there so it is entirely possible. Conquest of Ala Mhigo was at least 20 years prior to the ARR storyline as well.

One other point. A wikipedia article on Tribuni in the roman legions states that there are six tribunes in a legion. So far we know of only three serving under Gaius. Perhaps there will be more to come, perhaps not. Either way, it'll be interesting to see how closely SE will follow Roman military hierarchy when describing the Garlean Empire.

[Lokus]

I took the origin of Rhitahtyn Sas Arvina to mean his actual birthplace and not his race so most likely a conquered area. Seems like the Empire views native Garleans with higher regard. So far in FFXIV, most discrimination between characters deals with city-states and who you associate with as opposed to race as was the case in XI.

[Rocl]

Elezen in Gridania are kind of snooty in the Archer quest, but that seems to be one guy being a racist prick

[miokomioko]

Wildwood = snooty as fuck (example: ARC quests)
Duskwight = outcasts and shit (example: LNC quests, plus Busccaron's Druthers is a noted safe-haven for their kind.)

[Manako]

yeah Elezen seem to be the most racist as always, I think some Miqo NPCs are pretty insular but I think its more xenophobia than outright racism. I think lore wise Highlander F take flack for being so muscular, that being a halfbreed is considered a negative thing.

[miokomioko]

Since the ARC quests, I felt like Miqo'te had that "Native American" feel regarding the Black Shroud. Polarized between aggressive, xenophobic resistance to modern society and the passive/apathetic.

[Godsleftsock]

Uldhan lalafells are greedy money grubbers

[Jinn]

Why does nobody care that they just told us who The Paragons are in the "Key Enemies" section

http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/world/threats/key-enemies

Edit: This was the only info I remember ever getting on The Paragons back in 1.0 days.

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/P...Fantasy_XIV%29

[Rocl]

Because if you did the quests in Beta you'd know the Paragons were Ascians already.

In fact, each city-state has their Archon say something like

THE PARAGONS--OR ASCIANS TO GIVE THEM THEIR TRUE NAME, BRINGERS OF CHAOS

and when you defeat the Masked Mage

THAT THE WISDOM OF THE PARAGONS BROUGHT LOW BY MORTALS...

We've known for a while now, that's why

[Jinn]

Which ones @_ @?

I'm pretty sure I did them all.