FFXI Plot-holes and unclear issues

[Fereydoon]

I honestly have no idea how far an airship can travel, I know they can go as far as Aht Urghan, but they did shoot us down, no? Or was that using Alexander?

[Suteru]

Pretty sure the airship was shot down by Alexander. That is a good question about range, though.

[Fereydoon]

I'm also fairly certain an airship can't carry as much as a boat can, remember we ride Cargo Ships not passenger ships. So it's possible even if it could fly that far, it's not exactly feasible to do so.

[Niiro]

We do?

Why is it called the air ship travel agency then?

[Raldo]

Screw distance, the icy weather probably just mucks up the propellers keeping the darn things afloat. I doubt you can fly a helicopter around the arctic without some fancy equipment; certainly not in crappy weather.

[Fereydoon]

We do?

Why is it called the air ship travel agency then?

I meant for the actual ferry's, not the airships, sorry.

[Qeomash]

If I remember, the first airship was completed right at the end of the war. They had planned to use them to stage the invasion of Xarcabard, but the Shadow Lord draining his army to Tavnazia made that a moot point so they just flat out invaded.

[Aldoras]

rewatching the opening video, i just realized that Aldo found a way to bring hundreds of ppl to Blueblade Fell before CoP was even out - how did he do that?

[Fereydoon]

rewatching the opening video, i just realized that Aldo found a way to bring hundreds of ppl to Blueblade Fell before CoP was even out - how did he do that?

He runs the Tenshodo, I imagine he can kinda just do whatever he wants. It's possible he also completely missed the people of the safehold when he went.

[Eurell]

Or that it was just some artistic liberty at the end of the video lol.

[Spira]

doesnt really say when along the timeline that is in 'present day".. so it could be after CoP.

but srsly, according to the development schedule they revealed for FFXI, the FMV was made prior to the release of FFXI, like a few months before and they didn't really get very specific direction in terms of the way certain things were portrayed. i guess it also overdramatized abit.. like how the behemoths in the game really aren't that big, or how BLMs couldn't groupcast (until meteor was introduced, and when they first developed it they made it look just like the FMV one) and so on...

The quality of FMVs hadn't hit its pre-HD plateau yet.. so you could kinda say its a piece of its history that will remain incongruent with the actual game.

i hated how the camera switched to an aerial view of tavnazia when they said "and the grand duchy of jeuno" as if to imply that THAT was jeuno. i was so disappoint when i reached Jeuno and realized it wasn't it lol

[Spira]

weird, it doubleposted

[Septimus]

Thanks so much, that's what was tripping me up when I was re-reading the plot. My order of events seemed way to fast. Also for referring to her as "The Abhorrent One" the townspeople sure take orders readily from Prishe. In my experience the sort of stigma that gets you a fancy name like that doesn't wear off in the span of a decade.

The whole "Magicite/Star of Tavnazia/Chunk of Protocrystal" gets muddy for me, but rereading my plot summary this is the way I understand it:

The Star of Tavnazia (SoT because i'm tired of typing it out) was found well before or during the northlands expedition. A fragment of this made its way to the Mithran homeland, and that's how the Mithra originally knew of it and began investigating. Another fragment found its way to Cid by way of the Jueno Zilart for 'research'. The SOT is whats in the box you find in the Aquaducts. The cardinal put it there after sealing them, but not before breaking off the fragments that find their way to the plot points mentioned.

During their investigation before the crystal war they ran into the cardinal who told them about the Star of Tavnazia. Smooth move there. That's how the Sin Hunters, wanting to destroy the Star/any fragments to prevent a resurrection of Promathia.

Sometime between the Expidition 30 years ago and the crystal war is when Prishe would have been fused with the Magicite created when the cardinal tried to Banish the emptiness inside her. The Star wasn't used in this accident, rather the magicite in Prishe was created by the accident.

The SOT originally came from the protocrystal, which is just reffered to as magicite in the snoll BC. There's some business there about the dark divinity, and we know from TAU it's Odin but the magicite in the CS is essentially what's left over from what the expedition found.

The reason Prishe abosrbs it all is so that she can contain all of Promathia's essence. The CoP crew don't know until the end of the story that all life has the essence of Promathia.

I have been rewatching CoP cutscenes on YouTube (wotgAshiee has all of them and a lot of other missions), I am starting to think that I need to write all of the revelations down somewhere, but I am also seeing where things were said that I kind of remembered about couldn't quite quote. Once more, some of the CoP story isn't consistent- for example, Cid says that the person who gave him the piece of Magicite said that it was found in the Northlands, but when Prishe finds the Magicite in Bearclaw Pinnacle, this is her dialog:

Prishe: "You've come back...
Welcome home, my little lost magicite..."

If the Star of Tavnazia did not originate from her magicite, that line doesn't make sense.

This is the timeline I can give you from what I remember and just rewatched.

A fragment from the Star of Tavnazia was stolen and sold to Bastok, prompting the Northlands Expedition. During the Expedition, the Mithra gets a fragment of the Magicite and takes it home with her. The Mithras study it and realize its terrible power, and sent the Sin Hunters to speak to the Cardinal who showed them the Star of Tavnazia.

What was used in the ceremony that sealed Prishe's Emptiness was not the Star of Tavnazia, but the Eye of Altana. (This is the box we found in the Aqueducts, Nag'molada used it to create a path in the Spire of Vahzl.)

Magicite is pretty much the opposite of the protocrystal, Magicite is crystallized Emptiness whereas the light of the protocrystal banishes the Emptiness.

Oh, also rewatching I saw that Prishe was already age-locked (possibly for a while) when she first met Umlia who was a small child, so Prishe is a fair bit older her. (This is good to know.) I am going to watch more tonight.

[Apelila]

The Eye in that ceremony - they never did explain exactly what it was did they?

[Sagacious Sundi]

The eye is that box thing, right? From the Tuning Out quest:

Ildy-Goldy: Justaru as a great crystal of fire lies hidden in the Yuhtunga Jungle, a crystal of darkness supposedly exists in the Northlands.

Ildy-Goldy: Ve are certain this dark protocrystal vas the sin hunter's destination.

Romaa Mihgo: Your instincts were correct.
According to the legends, the god that slumbers within that crystal is the closest to waking...

Romaa Mihgo: Our legends say that in the ancient past, the deity within the crystal of darkness awoke...

Ildy-Goldy: Vone of the sleeping gods--vone of the great beings--vas avake!?

Romaa Mihgo: It is said that the deity was led again into slumber by the light of a certain box.

Romaa Mihgo: However, the sleep of this divinity is shallow, and he will answer the questions of those who appear before him...

Later in the quest:

Kamui: The Uleguerand Range, north of Xarcabard, would become the staging point for the Orcish Campaign.

Kamui: To halt this invasion, the Tavnazian Navy took to the seas while King Ranperre led an army overland...

Kamui: The snowy plains ran red with uncounted bloody skirmishes fought in the defense of Quon.

Kamui: In the midst of the vicious battle, a San d'Orian soldier slipped and fell into a crevasse.

Kamui: As he wandered in search of an exit from the winding tunnels, the soldier noticed an ephemeral voice calling to him.

Kamui: The soldier began walking in the direction of the voice, and eventually stumbled upon an unexpected sight. Right before him lay a frozen lake, glowing with an eerie light...

Doesn't really explain who made it, but apparently it was used to seal Odin?

[Apelila]

They could be talking about Daibolos but yeah, thats what made me think it was part of the Odin Crystal

[Qeomash]

Was it ever explained why they shattered the Odin crystal?

A cutscene with Aldo's sister in Selbina shows her (from POV) approaching the intact crystal at Bearclaw pinnacle with a bunch of Demons around it. She sang whichever verse of the Lay she knew, shattering the protocrystal.

[Spira]

probably for the mere reason of wanting to awaken their god..
afaik the kindred are sworn to Odin.. so that may be the reason why they'd want to free him

i doubt all the 'they say' statements of various race legends can be taken for a fact because, well.. we know where Odin ended up... but then again he did it 800+ years ago even when he was within the protocrystal, and he had no problems talking to Raogrimm from within the crystal either. i guess thats a slight plot hole.
That or what the tuning in out quests are trying to say is that Odin's protocrystal was shattered quite a long time ago, but someone used the Eye to seal him into a protocrystal again in bearclaw.. hence his ability to communicate outside so well... would line up with the fact that the eye was already in Tavnazia 30 years prior, but was intact during the crystal war 10 years later..


...about Cid, he corrected himself later on, saying that the star of tavnazia wasn't found in the northlands, it was the box (Eye of Altana) that was found there. The Star of Tavnazia is most definitely Prishe's embedded magicite. The shard that was broken off was sold to Cid, who gave it to the Expedition members to track down more of it, hence it remained in the northlands.

I'm not sure where the Mithra's shard came from tho.

There is some inconsistency with the dates tho. According to Carbuncle he sensed the arrival of the Keeper 30 years ago (tho this is probably an approximate) tho after some time it vanishes..
its possible she wasn't born the keeper but became it after a certain age, but she did mention she used to crave the will of promathia.. reunion lol, so its likely Carbuncles estimate is wrong, because 30 years ago is the approximate date of the expedition and that was after her emptiness was magicited

[Tarage]

From what I understood the Keeper was never named. It was just some random dude that we never see. Prishe was THOUGHT to be the keeper but she never was. I could be remembering things wrong though.

[Apelila]

Prishe had the potential to be a keeper. When they used the EoA to 'baptize' the emptiness out of her, accidentally crystallizing it into the Magicite it was caused by Promathia's influence. The true keeper was the incarnation of promathia that's cocooned up in the Palace / absorbs Nagmolada. Until the crystal line was reawakened 30 years prior, there was no connection from Vanadiel to Al'Teau.

I've been using the summary on gamefaqs as well as the wayback version of 'history of vanadiel" but that one's annoying to navigate. Go read the gamefaqs plot summary starting at chapter 29 for a good summary of the dialogue from that scene.