FFXIV story/lore thread

[Lujei]

So, I might be completely off my rocker here, but

Spoiler: show

that Ascian in the Warrior of Darkness cutscene - am I the only one getting vibes that the Ascian is your character in whatever timeline they come from?

For an Ascian supposedly prominent enough to be compared to Lahabrea, which is exactly what it says in your journal, it seems odd that he/she isn't named when every other influential Ascian we've seen has been - Altima, Emmeroloth, Pashtarot, and both Nabriales and Igeyorhm well before they were formally introduced.

Also, not really spoilery, but I'm confused about the Blessing/Echo discussion with a certain someone, where she says the Echo weakens as Hydaelyn's Blessing does. By all previous accounts, the Echo and Blessing are separate things, so if she was correct, wouldn't the Echo have weakened throughout 2.X when it was mentioned that Hydaelyn was waning during 2.2ish? But nothing of the sort was implied - in fact, we were shown quite the opposite, our Echo was unaffected and we could understand Nabriales and view memories unhindered.

Is this just XIV going unreliable narrator on us and trying to be vague and mysterious like they are prone to?

[Gokulo]

Wrong tag

[Lujei]

oops, fixed. That's what i get for posting at 4am.

[Rocl]

3.1 spoilers obviously

MSQ

Spoiler: show

I figure Yda and Papalymo are in Ala Mhigo, helping the Resistance. (The NPCs in Rising Stones seem to hint toward this as well-- they mention believing Ala Mhigan refugees in Ul'dah helped spirit the Scions away.)

Elidibus and Urianger's book is another nod to XII. "Gerun" was the leader of the Occuria. The Occuria, of course, created the Espers in XII -- including Zodiark.
Confusingly, the book is in the Forbidden wing of Gubal, which means the Sharlayans found it dangerous.

The most likely scenario is the book contains the "true history" of the beginning of the Hydaelyn--more than likely a very different tale than we're presented with the Age of Gods.
I suspect Matoya's Crystal Eye is a Crystal of Light from the First Umbral Era, since she's a nod to FF1 (which would make it extremely powerful).

Krile's speech to Matoya was awful and likely a fault of localization. Hydaelyn is the "Light" and she received a gift (the Echo) from "the Light"-- a blessing of Light. It's troublesome wording but I believe her not to be possessed of the Blessing. She has a blessing of Light, not a Blessing of Light. Rather irksome nonetheless.

Thancred's one good eye has been whitened like Y'shtola's. I wonder if this is indicative of a similar blindness or just a "hint that not is all as it was."

Edmont is fucking savage tho, poor Artoirel. Right in the front of everyone lauds his bastard son above all else compares the Lord Commander to be a favorite son in front of his own kin. Fuck, man. It looks like both of Haurchefant's brothers will get fleshed out, which is rather nice.

We also never saw wtf happened to the priest who tossed the girl off the building.

The return of Alisaie is fucking hype as shit though, and if you disagree you are wrong.

Also I don't remember if it's changed since 3.0, but Urianger is no longer idly reading in the Waking Sands. I mean he's there, but it's weird to see him without his nose in a book.

Void Ark

Spoiler: show

The Void Ark story was surprisingly good to me. I wasn't expecting a helluvalot and when I saw Diabolos summoning a trash pack I was pretty bummed. The way they introduced Cait Sith and incorporated a lot of Irish mythology to match Cait Sith was p baller too. RIP Ivalice Espers as Primals though-- unless they decide on Queklain instead of Cuchulainn.

Dealing with Mhach and the War of the Magi this way is pretty cool too. Like Leofard said "beats the hell out of collecting allagan tomestones"

Overall, sort of disappointed in the patch's story but it serves to set up a lot of shit going forward. I'm a sucker for the solo quest battles w/ NPCs though.

[Kaslo]

I wished you had broken that spoiler up to be 3.1 MSQ Spoiler, and Void Ark Spoiler

[Rocl]

I wished you had broken that spoiler up to be 3.1 MSQ Spoiler, and Void Ark Spoiler

eh when I labelled it "3.1" i figured that might drive point the home it's for the entirety of the patch lol. my bad.

[Eludi]

Spoiler: show

Alisaie was the best part of MSG easily

[Kaslo]

eh when I labelled it "3.1" i figured that might drive point the home it's for the entirety of the patch lol. my bad.

No worries lol

I got through MSQ before work and only unlocked void ark.

[Lujei]

I was a bit disappointed by this patch's story, too.

I guess I'm over the Dragons in general. I find just about everything else more interesting.

[Kaslo]

It felt a lot like a patch to setup later patches.

[agrotc]

Spoiler: show

Echoing the Alisaie teaser was definitely the best bit. I just hope they're not building up Yda to go all "muh Ala Mihgo" on us.

[Sho]

Would not be surprised if 3.15 gives us more story. That or 3.2 will be exceptionally story heavy. This patch seems uncharacteristically short. Unless I'm remembering 2.1 being just as short.

[Lujei]

The only thing worthwhile that came out of 2.1 was introducing Elidibus. It was basically all filler other than that.

[AlastorTGN]

Spoiler: show

Ravana jobbed harder to WoD than Shiva jobbed to Ravana, I mean that cutscene was cool and all, but still

Krile is adorable.

[Zarris]

There was some interesting foreshadowing in the ending and the stinger.

Spoiler: show

As a FFVI fan I was afraid they would shoulder the Triad off into side story territory but now that doesn't seem to be the case. Though it's not much to go on, from what was mentioned with the Triad and the Garleans it sounds like the Empire is preordained to wake them up. Given the parallels to VI, this could end up being a 2nd Calamity, and it sounds like Elidibus is trying to convince Urianger to work with them under the pretense that "No, you can't stop it, but work with us and you might be able to provide some damage control".

Another fun bit about the Triad, anyone else notice that they have Plants growing all over them now? I wonder if each .x will change them a little more each time.

As for Yda and Papalymo, it definitely sounds like something with the Ala Mhigan resistance. Bet it is setting up 4.0 to be about liberating Ala Mhigo itself.

[Rocl]

2.1 was pretty short storywise, there was a lot of filler and dumb shit like "do guildhests" but it also had the Moogle fight (but they've said they're trying to avoid 8-man duties in MSQ now)

Spoiler: show

Pretty sure the tower between the Triad grew another wing, too

[Lujei]

Wait, why are they trying to avoid 8-person trials in the MSQ?

Are they going for those neat little solo or solo-with-NPC-aid instances instead?

[agrotc]

YoshiP said something about not wanting to lock content behind the MSQs because people would just rush through them in order to unlock whatever it was and not pay the story any mind.

[Alkar]

Void Ark

Spoiler: show

The Void Ark story was surprisingly good to me. I wasn't expecting a helluvalot and when I saw Diabolos summoning a trash pack I was pretty bummed. The way they introduced Cait Sith and incorporated a lot of Irish mythology to match Cait Sith was p baller too. RIP Ivalice Espers as Primals though-- unless they decide on Queklain instead of Cuchulainn.

Dealing with Mhach and the War of the Magi this way is pretty cool too. Like Leofard said "beats the hell out of collecting allagan tomestones"

Spoiler: show

Maybe it's another Titan/Acheron/Phlegethon situation? Or is it the same in Japan as well?

[Rocl]

I don't play the games in other languages, nor am I 100% sure how I'd check that sort of thing. If it's a "similar situation" though we won't know until it happens. As it stands, the name definitely fits the mythology they're drawing from.