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  1. #1
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    Adoulin Story and Misc. Lore Thread

    I guess this subforum has become the de-facto plot and lore discussion place so how about a thread for SoA. Just a couple things I noticed that seem noteworthy:

    *It had seemed like Adoulin (the city) was located on that larger island chunk just off the coast of the mainland, but then it occurred to me that the big gate you exit from is a dirt path into the jungle. Like you can see the trail looking through the exit both ways from Ceizak/Western Adoulin. It must be that Western Adoulin sits on the mainland with the Big Bridge crossing to Eastern Adoulin located on the island. I dunno I guess maybe this was obvious from the start but I hadn't thought about it until now.

    (Also the rent-a-room guy mentions that the rooms are actually located on the various small islands taken by boat. That's why the zone-line to the MH just sort of looks like it goes to an open area with water.)

    *One of the kids in East Adoulin mentions seeing a "black beast" in the city, and the general rumors NPCs talk about involve suspicious people and the king Ygrslehladlh whatever being missing. Seems like they would be connected.

    *The story hasn't really gone anywhere yet but there are suggestions of the villain being some kind of "puppet master" that has powerful evil influences or something. Also the Anomoly Expert is a talking mannequin who has dialogue where she talks to herself/someone else about why she wants you to get stuff from Delve.

  2. #2
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    YAY an adoulin lore thread.
    I've been wanting to put some thoughts out.

    I'm pretty sure your observation is correct. Western Adoulin sits on Ulbuka mainland, and thus requires the great walls of Jorius Yett to prevent the jungle from overrunning the place. Adoulin Castle and like are on an island of its own, connected by a big bridge. Mog houses and residential areas are scattered across the Adoulin archipelago. This includes Mog Garden and also explains why the mog house entrance is referred to in some quests as dock to residential area.

    The umbrils are very closely connected to the main antagonistic forces in Seekers of Adoulin.
    In the quest involving Pioneer maester Lhe Langavo (i love her character), you see that her friend was kinda attacked and taken down by Umbrils in the jungle...

    This is in turn linked to the mysterious {U} areas which can be reached by Skirmish and Delve.. which is apparently tied to the main setting of SoA as well. I can't say much for the story missions since practically nothing has happened there.

    Delve in particular appears to drops hints at the Yggdrasil, which was shown in the original SoA trailer as a new topic of adventure. It's also mentioned in the lore behind the Laevateinn as being the tree that the staff was crafted from. Nonetheless, i can't think of any other root word (lol pun) for yggrete and yggzi.

  3. #3
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    I am a little disappointed that we are already dealing with alternate dimensions so early in the storyline. I am hopeful that [U] is for Underworld and Hades is the main adversary 'experimenting' on Adoulin for some unknown purposes. I wonder if Sidh and her five GEO apprentices that mysteriously disappeared are tied to this? Apparently before she cast her spell, Ulbaka was devoid of the monstrous plant growth. Did her actions create the mess we have now? Did her sacrifice make her into Hades or summon him to our plane????

    So many questions!

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    Quote Originally Posted by Spira View Post
    Delve in particular appears to drops hints at the Yggdrasil, which was shown in the original SoA trailer as a new topic of adventure. It's also mentioned in the lore behind the Laevateinn as being the tree that the staff was crafted from. Nonetheless, i can't think of any other root word (lol pun) for yggrete and yggzi.
    Do we know how long ago Balrahn lived? Or how long Adoulin had been in isolation? Knowing one or the other would give us a clue regarding the history of Ulbaka, since Laevateinn may presumably have left the continent (or been taken) prior to it being sealed off. Achtelle was somehow able to leave during the Crystal War, so it's not impossible that the staff was smuggled out when Adoulin was locked down...

    Quote Originally Posted by Gwynplaine View Post
    Also the Anomoly Expert is a talking mannequin who has dialogue where she talks to herself/someone else about why she wants you to get stuff from Delve.
    It's been a few years since I did it, but wasn't the NPC who makes mannequins some sort of necromancer? Seems to tie in with rumours of Hades lurking about.

    I'd like to know a bit more about the Velkk. Do they have a stronghold? Or even any kind of society? Their presence on Ulbaka pre-dates Adoulin, so perhaps they know what changes have occurred that's led to the current goings on.

  5. #5
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    So if Adoulin is divided by what I'm assuming is salt water (more or less open ocean), how does Rala work? I could see that long narrow bit in the middle being where it's sort of "inside" the Big Bridge, but the whole thing seems kind of iffy assuming it's in freshwater for their little farming operation. Made watertight and then flooded? Growing nothing but kelp variants down there? I guess it can be made to fit, but it seems kind of worrisome.

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    The waterways are probably an aqueduct that gets fed from a mainland distributary and gets capped at the far end so the ocean doesn't seep in. It'd make sense since the rich folk up on the hill in East Adoulin are going to want fresh water for their bathings and whatnot. Even the people in Western Adoulin were stuck behind that wall for the longest time unable to go out to get water, and the water table that close to the coastline is going to be salinated as hell so wells aren't going to be much use. The king at the time the wall was going up probably had the foresight to set up a way to funnel water into the city safely, and that'd be what I'd guess the waterway is.

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    The latest missions explains exactly what the waterway is for.

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    It's maybe a little early for new patch plot discussion, but...
    Spoiler: show
    Wasn't Deathborne Xol supposed to be, broadly speaking, a good guy? Or at least not Hades' right-hand man anymore? Was he working deep cover for Hades to betray August in the failed Serpent Labyrinth expedition, or is he under deep cover now and about to betray Hades? And if he's not Teodor, which is not a definite thing but seems less likely than it did yesterday, then I'm not sure what role there is for Teodor in a plot that sort of implies it's one or two patches away from resolution. There's still two other "Xol"s in the Triumvirate, but if Deathborne is acting like this, not much chance for the other two to be any better. Or maybe they're all named Deathborne Xol to be as confusing as possible, this one is one of the bad two, and Teodor is the good one?

    The several reveals in this patch did not go quite the direction I was expecting, and even though it's basically at the "ok hero, time to enter the Last Dungeon" point, it seems like there's an awful lot of backstory/what's-REALLY-going-on-this-time-for-serious being held back. And a lot of characters without enough resolution for the setups they've been given. And a lot of no explanation for how the whole Yggdrasil/Hades/etc lore fits in to the world lore that we already have. I'm a little worried it's about to take the ToAU route and say "screw all that side stuff we've been waving our hands at vaguely, THIS IS HAPPENING."

    Which is not at all to imply that the cutscenes and plot wasn't awesome this time around, because it was awesome. I don't know if Xol's personality and dialogue is in the JP version, or if it was a product of the translation team, as sometimes happens, but it's pretty amazing. "And now for something completely different", indeed.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Aumaan_Kujata View Post
    Spoiler: show
    I'm a little worried it's about to take the ToAU route and say "screw all that side stuff we've been waving our hands at vaguely, THIS IS HAPPENING."
    Hated that in ToAU... all the final part felt so rushed because of that. They put such big, ambitious premises and then it all fell down as being rushed and simplistic.
    At least it felt that way to me back then.

    I'm afraid it's gonna go the same way here... too many open things, no way they're gonna manage to tie up all the loose ends into what seems like... I dunno, 2 more patches left before the end? Or something like that.
    Shame shame shame, so far I found the story very compelling and with good potential of integration with the rest of the FFXI story.

  10. #10
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    TOAU story felt rushed. They BARELY touched on Olduum and their civilization and they hardly fleshed out Alexander and Odin's agendas.

  11. #11

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    Probably been mentioned before, but the Sandy WOTG questline (last quest) mentions Excenmille journeying into Razhowa to fight the orcs or whatever, and Rahal says he would follow him there or to Ubulka or something to that effect.

    Not exact words, but yea.

  12. #12
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    rewatched the Adoulin reveal trailer:

    - the 7 Native Warlords: prolly means the Naakual
    - Tartarus: The serpent labyrinth, the gate to hell is in adoulin!
    - 12 great houses: obvious
    - Yggrdasil: the great tree
    - _ _ zowa in the north: dont know what that is meant to be
    - _ _ rk Overlord: prolly Dark Overlord as in Hades
    - Ancient King: August

    I cant see/guess what the "____zowa in the north" is meant to be

  13. #13
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    Rhazowa....

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kyte View Post
    Rhazowa....
    the orcish empire, but the story doesnt evne involve them that much, ecxept for burnign down the tree, thats it, why would they include that as a main point in the trailer oO. All the other points are essential key points in adoulin/story. we didnt even encounter one single orc. good point finding that out so quick

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    Anybody felt like they wanted to kick the ass of all of the 12 members (well... 11) after Arciela's outburst?
    They defined it a childish reaction... well it sure was an OVERreaction, but asbsolutely legitimate. Aren't her words 101% true? They totally are.
    Fuck those selfish, paranoid guys.
    If I were Arciela I'd turn into a tyrant goddess of war and let my sword of retribution rightfully fall upon their heads >____>

    That cut-scene was absolutely fantastic, the way it's orchestrated, the direction... one of the best Cut-scene ever in the whole story of FFXI, for my tastes. Cheapeau.
    Even if I already know too much stuff will be left loose when this expansion will reach its end, which will come too soon, I can already say that it's been a great expansion story wise, at least for my tastes. Really really really loved the story, the background, the character, the direction and all the small interactive bits (the sidequests, the Ergisade thing, the bits we get every couple of months on the Website etc).
    Chapeau again, really nice work, so much better than WoTG (which suffered too much from different authors work on different parts of the story, and from too much watering down of the content) and I'd dare to say even than ToAU, given what I talked about in my previous post.


    Not sure what I can say about RoTZ and CoP... those stories were so much simpler and SE's devs were way more immature in creating cutscenes, directing them etc. Also many parts are utterly confusing, but... it's all so incredibly seamless with the "core" story, it's hard not to love it.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Damane View Post
    the orcish empire, but the story doesnt evne involve them that much, ecxept for burnign down the tree, thats it, why would they include that as a main point in the trailer oO. All the other points are essential key points in adoulin/story. we didnt even encounter one single orc. good point finding that out so quick
    I think they mentioned the Rhazowan vikings (ouschrahd galka) briefly at some point but yeah, Rhazowa is so far not really a major plot point. Maybe it will be?

  17. #17
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    Wasn't Rhazowa also where Sverdhried went to study runes and became a rune fencer? Or was that just north Ulbuka somewhere?

  18. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by Priran View Post
    I think they mentioned the Rhazowan vikings (ouschrahd galka) briefly at some point but yeah, Rhazowa is so far not really a major plot point. Maybe it will be?
    I remember mention of those Owtfever Galkas as well, I think it was in the description of Adoulin's populace, and maybe something in one of the tribune style articles, or one of the side quests. For what it's worth, I remember Spira .dat mined a new orange Orc model many updates ago, but I can't find it listed there now.

  19. #19

    Quote Originally Posted by Sechs View Post
    Anybody felt like they wanted to kick the ass of all of the 12 members (well... 11) after Arciela's outburst?
    They defined it a childish reaction... well it sure was an OVERreaction, but asbsolutely legitimate. Aren't her words 101% true? They totally are.
    Fuck those selfish, paranoid guys.
    If I were Arciela I'd turn into a tyrant goddess of war and let my sword of retribution rightfully fall upon their heads >____>
    Probably need to think of how all of this has been seen from their perspective. Most of them have been sticking around town surrounded by political circlejerking the whole time so they're bound to be a bit paranoid.

    The problem I have is every time a story feels like they need to have skeptic character(s) even if it makes no sense. We're in a fantasy world where magic spells and ridiculous creatures are the norm, so having people doubt Arciela's story about a talking dragon and Leafallia is kind of a silly bit of writing, especially considering how all of them were present to watch Ygnas get turned into a Leafkin. It makes more sense in a work where magic feels like a less common thing like A Song of Ice and Fire, not so much here.

  20. #20
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    The doubt isn't real, he's feigning disbelief as leverage to smear his political opponents. At least that's what I think. If people believe her fantastical story, it invalidates everything they've been campaining for(for/against colonization) and makes the orders seem incompetant(they're all fully grown, well experienced ministers of the state being one upped by this upstart girl who frolicks in the forest all day) nobody wants to lose funding or have their order appear unnecessary.

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