#ffxiv 1.0 dungeons

[before-calamity]

The Mun-Tuy Cellars

Hey! I'm doing a Saturday Stream of FFXIV 1.0 on December 9, 2023 at 10am! Come and watch me dig up information on lost skills, explain how I get everything to work, and we're gonna explore some places. Check it out at http://twitch.tv/maria_puddingway. The Mun-Tuy Cellars in 1.0 are different than the version you see in Modern XIV, which bridges South Shroud to East Shroud. This version is a world dungeon and is of Gelmorran design. It was destroyed in the Calamity and rebuilt, because the Gridanians loved using fermented Mun-Tuy beans in their food, and needed a new place to ferment them.

These cellars are outside of Camp Emerald Moss, which would've been in West Shroud, which isn't seen in the game. Quarrymill, which is where the new cellars in modern FFXIV are located, is in South Shroud. Read on to see more about this world dungeon...

The map is confusing like everything else in FFXIV 1.0. This isn't even FFXI design, this nightmare reminds me of the like you see in Dragon Quest 2.

These round rooms are all the same and all copy-pasted, and reminds me of something you'd see in Tam-Tara Deepcroft, although I'm not sure if a similar style room is there.

Here's where the magic happens! Jars of Mun-Tuy beans fermenting in a cold, dank cave. It's weird that this is like an actual brewery, but monsters have taken it over. You'd think that...ya know, the supply of bean-related goods would've dried out by now, unless the fact that the cellars were overrun were because of the incoming cataclysm.

Lastly, you also see these big kegs, which honestly? Quite cool looking and there's nothing really like this in ARR.

[rainofaugustsith]

Who is a shard?

Just for fun, I keep a running list of everyone I think may be sundered in FFXIV. Best guesses right now.

Warrior of Light (S) - Ardbert (F) - Zero (13th) OR Warrior of Light (S) - Ardbert (F) - Golbez 1.0 (13th) 

OR BOTH 

If the Warrior of Light IS a Golbez, I believe it's the one who was in the memoria crystal and became Zeromus. 

- In the First, the Warrior of Light barely escapes succumbing to the Light and becoming a Lightwarden. - In the 13th Golbez 1.0 succumbs to the Darkness and does become a voidsent. We have a parallel there. 

Golbez is also recognised by passerby in much the same way as the Warrior of Light on the Source. In the Lunar Subterrane dungeon, passerby seem to recognize the Warrior of Light as Golbez. 

However: 

- The Warrior of Light's personal crystal from Hydaelyn resonates with Zero.  - Zero has an extraordinary trust of the Warrior of Light.  - Zero's dialogue in the last sequence is very Warrior of Light-esque.  - Zero as a reaper avatar did not voluntarily work with Zenos. If she shares a soul with the Warrior of Light, it would explain why Zenos wanted her. He's obsessed with the WoL, after all. 

- Zero was thrown into the rift to avoid being killed, exactly like the Warrior of Light before ARR. 

During the final dialogue between Zero and Golbez 2.0, the Warrior of Light is not seen, and there seems to be an Echo flicker. Zero also finds the strength to regain her form as a paladin. It could possibly be because the Warrior of Light lent her strength to Zero and briefly merged with her. 

I feel like there's a possibility an Azem shard from another reflection somehow ended up being filtered to the 13th - perhaps as an attempt by Hydaelyn to give them help and avoid destruction. Hydaelyn would have been at her most powerful and we know that even after Shadowbringers she has enough power to bring Minfilia and Emet-Selch's souls back to the aetherial sea on the Source. So this would have been simple for her when the 13th was going downhill.  The names Zero and Zeromus are very similar and we know SQEnix doesn't choose names randomly, so maybe this is meant to pull the player toward realizing both are Azem shards.

Minfilia (S) - Ryne (F) - Golbez 2.0/Durante (13th)

Minfilia and Durante both have the same braids on the sides of their heads - just opposite- the same hair color and the same eyes. -

In Shadowbringers, Minfilia refers to the WoL as her "dearest friend" and is very affectionate toward her even after they've just met in ARR.

If your WoL has carried over from 1.0, Minfilia remembers the WoL clearly when nobody else, including those with the Echo like Papalymo, does not.

Minfilia, as Antecedent of the Scions, is also really successful at bringing together a lot of disparate recruits.

In addition, while Minfilia in the Source is not a fighter, she does stop the entire Flood of Light on the First with the Warriors of Darkness' help. Also, her numerous incarnations in the First all are documented to have fought very successfully against Sin Eaters. 

Minfilia in the First stops the Flood of Light. Her shard in the 13th causes the Flood of Darkness. It really makes sense and brings things full circle. 

Yotsuyu (S) - Barbariccia (13th)

Zenos (S) - Vauthry (F) - Cagnazzo (13th)

Cagnazzo is depicted as being someone who gets off on fighting, believes in no one, and is searching for the perfect fight to fulfill him. That forms the core of his identity. I don't think they could make this any clearer. 

- Vauthry was turned into a monster by his parents and Emet-Selch; Zenos was turned into a monster by his father and Emet-Selch. 

- Vauthry controls those in and around Eulmore by feeding them meol, which when activated turns them into his unwilling servants. Zenos controls those in and around Garlemald with his towers, which when activated temper anyone who isn't protected and turn them into his unwilling servants.  - Both the towers and the meol are made with body parts of the dead.

Both think of absolutely nothing but their own gratification and see those around them as mere tools to be exploited. 

Hautdlong (S) - Traynor (F) - Rubicante (13th) OR  ???? - (S) - Nyelbert (F) - Rubicante (13th) Hautdlong (S) - Traynor (F) - Unukalhai (13th/F)

Rubicante is a noble mage who watches his friend die and mourns for him forever. That's the story of Traynor and Nyelbert exactly. Traynor and Unukalhai are obviously kindred spirits - when U. comes to the First, Traynor comments that he can work with U. like he's known him forever. As though he's Nyelbert's shard.

Urianger (S) - Cyella (13/F)

Both are Elezen with grey hair and questionable pasts. - Cyella betrays her friends to try to save her world, but make amends and saves them in the end by rescuing their bodies from possession as the Cardinal Virtues.   - Urianger betrays his friends to try to save his world, but makes amends and saves them from being defeated by the Warriors.  - In the scenes where the Warriors of Darkness fight the Scions, Urianger appears as the sixth "Warrior," in the spot Cylva occupies with the WoD on the First. 

Haurchefant (S) - Ser Tolas (F) Both are noble Elezen knights who are fast friends with the Warrior of Light/Darkness. Tolas is more contemplative, perhaps, but he also gets the Warrior of Darkness to go sit in the spa with him after just meeting them, as though they're really comfortable and get along well.

Lalai (S) - Lamitt (F)

The most obvious of the parallel souls they show with the Warriors of Darkness. - They look almost identical  - Both leave their homes in search of forbidden knowledge and have to more or less teach themselves - Both are seen as pariahs by their peers - Both are possessed - Lamitt's body by the Cardinal Virtue (evil); Lalai's body by Shatotto (good).  - Both have a very significant unmasking scene - Lamitt has an unrequited crush on someone.  - Someone has an unrequited crush on Lalai.  - Lalai: black mage - Lamitt: white mage - Lamitt: cast out and finds found family - Lalai: accepted and finds found family

Solkzagyl (S) - Branden (F) Leih Aliapoh (S) - Renda-Rae (F)

Gerold (S) - Grenold (F) Rowena (S) - Mowen (F) Drusilla (S) - Lorathia (F)

[alannah-corvaine]

12 & 21? 💕

Get to Know Me: FFXIV Edition

12. Best Dungeon?

So my criteria for this is based solely on vibes and atmosphere, rather than mechanics, boss design, or story, and really it's just my favorites rather than objective best, but whatever.

For me it's Dusk Vigil and The Dead Ends.

21. Starting Class?

Oh god, okay, this is a whole story on its own.

So before I joined FFXIV, I played World of Warcraft for roughly 5-6 years, and for most of that time I was a healer main (disc priest). And so when I eventually decided to try this game, I wanted to continue playing the same role.

Except I couldn't figure out which class was supposed to be the healer. There was nothing that resembled a holy priest or paladin, no druids or shamans, and I completely misinterpreted the conjurer description as being elemental magic dps. Scholar?? Had no idea what that was.

So instead of just asking my friend who'd been playing since 1.0 or just like...googling it, I ended up rolling thaumaturge. I don't even remember why at this point, but I got to level 42 before my friend finally pointed out that CNJ was the healing mage I actually wanted and only then did I reroll. At least I had most of the cross-class skills already leveled. 🤡

And then instead of writing all that off, I took that experience and rewrote it into Alannah's backstory, so that's why you have a white mage who's obsessed with thaumaturgy.

@myreia thank you for the ask!!

[tishinada]

tell us more abt kass??

Oh, thank you!

While all of my ffxiv characters are *the* wol in their own universes, I decided that in her universe, Zas was not part of the group who was at Carteneau, but instead had the Echo awakened by Bahamut's attack.

Instead, Kass (Kassiya Storm, technically, though that wasn't the name she was born with) and several of my others made up that group and play a role in Zas's own story as adventurers who befriend her (they make up most of the people she "summons" for dungeons and trials, for instance.)

So Kass has a divergent background. In both of them, she was born into a relatively wealthy Ul'dahn family, but the recognized heir was hostile to her and she realized very young that she wouldn't be safe once they inherited, and she wasn't that interested in the family business anyway. By her mid-teens, Kassiya had carefully built a reputation as a ne’er-do-well by Ul’dahn standards. Outwardly, she only dabbled at learning the goldsmith’s and alchemist arts while apparently spending most of her time carousing with low-born gladiators and miners or hanging about the weavers guild, critiquing people’s taste in clothing.

In reality, she studied both alchemy and goldsmithing intensely, poring over borrowed books while eating meals alone in her room. She made and stashed small pieces of jewelry as a kind of portable savings for the future. Nothing splashy or really valuable that might attract attention and questions about where she got them, though. Initially the gladiators were nothing more than a means to create a scandalous reputation, to reduce the perceived threat she presented. She became close friends with Milla, the future guildmaster of the gladiators guild after a drunken joke about from a gladiator about teaching the fashionable little miss (Kass) what it really meant to swing a sword that ended with her knocking the sword out of the novice gladiator’s hands. Milla secretly began teaching her sword and shield, and Kass began wearing a mask to enter novice matches under the name, Kassiya Storm, wearing bright pink, a color she never wore under her own name.

Kass stored all the things she needed to start over with Milla, and Milla found her a weak fantasia potion (I mean, they're in-game, obviously they get used lol). When the time came, Kass used it to make enough small changes to her appearance that she wouldn't get a second glance from her own family (pink hair, pink eyes, different eye and ear shape).

She went directly to Limsa Lominsa, traded her sword and shield for an axe and began to train as a marauder, supporting herself at first by doing odd jobs and selling a piece of jewelry here and there. She got her tattoos. And she created a new "past." She found that it was relatively easy to ask about places people had been in the year or two before she left Ul'dah, then wait a few days until they were drinking together and tipsy to bring up some “meeting” they’d had in that place during that time, usually a funny “incident”. They usually just assumed they’d forgotten and accepted Kass’s story, and later they often did remember the incident. The drunker they were, the more likely them to unconsciously invent the memory. (Memory is very unreliable.) So anyone looking for Kass would dismiss her because she wasn't a recent arrival, as far as anyone remembered.

And then she falls into the events of 1.0, becomes the leader of the Warriors of Light, ending at Carteneau when Louisoix sends them away.

At that point it diverges. Louisoix apparently wanted them far away and they end up in the Ruby Sea with effectively not much more than their armor and weapons and a little money, with most of them injured. In her own timeline where she has a powerful Echo, they make contact with the pirates there and manage to barter for passage to Kugane, which is the home of one of their group, and heal up there. Eventually, they discover no one remembers them in Eorzea, and they go their own ways for the next few years until the Echo draws Kass back to Limsa Lominsa at the beginning of ARR. The group slowly reforms around her throughout the course of ARR, HW, and Stormblood.

In Zas's timeline where she has a weak Echo and few of the gifts, several of them were captured by a Garlean patrol, the others organize a rescue but it took long enough that two of them sustained injuries that were permanent. The entire group spent a year in Kugane while those two healed. Almost everyone except Kass retrained into something else.

It was about the end of this year that Kass first ran into a young Duskwight mercenary named Zas who had arrived on a ship from Eorzea, and recognized her from the one and only Echo vision she'd ever had. So she befriended her and gave her a lot of advice on how to protect herself (particularly advice about contracts because Zas was not at all prepared for navigating that sort of thing.) One or another of this group managed to stay near her for the next few years, and when the events of ARR began, they all finally returned to Eorzea, the one place they had avoided after discovering no one remembered them.

In either universe, Kass and Papalymo had had a budding relationship before Carteneau, so she finds running into him particularly painful. Even though he finally remembers her after the Praetorium and begin tentatively exploring whether or not they would revive their that relationship and try again, it's only a few months before he vanishes. And they reunite SO briefly before the Wall...

Her close friends are the only ones who are aware that Kass is extremely well educated for a merc and knows all the ins and outs of high society etiquette, etc. She was often the one to negotiate contracts for them, and had a reputation for understanding the fine print. She reads voraciously and like Zas, she tends to have a public and a private persona. Publicly, Kass is loud, brash, hard drinking, cusses, and always ready for a fight. Privately, she dabbles with alchemy and delicate mechanisms like music boxes, and loves poetry and pink.

That's probably way more than you wanted, lol, but thank you! Obviously I really love Kass.

[berryzawati]

Variant Dungeon Wishlist

Ever since the introduction of Variant dungeons I’ve been thinking about which places we could visit in the future and which npcs could accompany the wol.

Personally there’s still a lot of places I wanna visit in the future and so many characters I wanna spend time with, so I made a little list of npcs with whom we could run future variant dungeons with:

Lyse (& alternatively Raubahn)

I wanna see more of Gyr Abania and Ala Mhigo. It is my favorite place in all of Eorzea and Ala Mhigo always gets shafted by the devs and fandom. Because of that I’m itching to learn more lore and this type of content would be the perfect opportunity to do just that.

Because of my wol’s lore I’ve taken a great interest in the monk job lore and the Fist of Rhalgr, so if there’s an aspect of Ala Mhigan culture I’d choose for a Variant Dungeon it’d be monk lore. Though because I feel Ala Mhigo got the shorter end of the stick I’d take anything. I’m also up for more Lyse lore and maybe M’naago makes an appearance in the notes?

Kan-E-Senna

The sole reason why I want to run a Variant Dungeon with Kan-E-Senna is because this could be another opportunity to learn more about Gelmorra. Gelmorra was a focus in FFXIV 1.0 with its various locations (including unfinished dungeons!) but has been shafted in favor for Allag since 2.0.

The only times we get to see parts of Gelmorra are during Tam-Tara (which was about the Lambs of Dalamud), Toto-Rak and the Palace of the Dead. None of these instances focus on the culture of Gelmorra and the details as to how the Duskwight Elezen and Wildwood Elezen started to live apart.

And since Duskwight Elezen are extremely underrepresented, it is only fair to at least give their home another try. Kan-E-Senna is not an Elezen and theoretically be a neutral party in this conflict. That is if the dev team ever wants to write about Gridania’s political problems…

(Besides, I like Kan-E-Senna, she needs more screentime in this game…)

Aymeric

Honestly I just want more Aymeric screentime, no matter how. I don’t mind either staying in Coerthas or Dravania but if we do, I’d want to explore new aspects of these places. I’ve personally have my fill of the thousand year war against the dragons and I’d rather see something new. And a new private side of our lord commander! Possibly a look at his cat? Who knows!

Maxima

I wanna learn more about Garlemald, especially the Garlemald before Zenos and Fandaniel destroyed everything there. Alternatively I’d love to learn more about the Garleans before the founding of the Garlean Empire. The Garlean race has lived in Goug as well as Corvus, I’d love to learn more about their lifestyles from way back then.

But personally I’m also a huge sucker for Maxima and I wanna spend more time with him…

Yugiri

I wanna see more Far Eastern place and I love Yugiri! And I wanna visit a ninja village! Yugiri is a ninja, so she’d be the perfect candidate. I want to learn more about the ninja of Doma and frankly this is just me hoping to see Oboro, Tsubame and Karasu again.

Alternatively we could learn more about Sui-no-Sato again? The lives of the people there are extremely fascinating to me and Shisui was such a stunning dungeon. Wouldn’t mind seeing something like this again.

On a last note… It seems only people who only appeared in the msq are qualified for variant dungeons but I’d also would love to see other characters too like job quest characters or characters you meet during raid content like Mikoto from the Ivalice raids and Bozja but for that she has to appear in the main story first, it seems… that makes sense but my heart is still a little broken lol

[spiribia]

i get your arr post but i do have to mention that as someone who tried to get into ffxiv during the first free trial it. it sucked the life out of me and made me conclude the game is very bad im sorry. i think an aspect that kinda gets lost here is the gameplay. think about what your hotbar looks like then the dungeons and trials you unlock (in the worst case only until level 30 like the first free trial). it just. isnt very fun to press like 3 buttons while there are no mechanics and you just kinda stance there. as someone who was also playing gw at the time it just made me go wow this is still incredibly dated and boring as hell(i saw the horrors of 1.0). the first time the game made me go hey maybe there is something here after all was literally keeper of the lake because the last boss actually did things and you almost have a kit at that point. im sure a lot of it is also the whole "need to show emitnsquelch to my bestie" syndrome but. for me personally it really was that miserable of an experience i wont lie 💀.

like i said people have legitimate grievances with the beginning, and it's not going to be universal for everyone. i know people do actually get turned away by it, just as i've seen a lot of people get turned away by the intro to every other mmo i've played. myself i didn't have an issue with the introductory 3 buttons gameplay - game combat in general isn't really something that i'm that interested in, but i know that's important to a lot of people. what i mean is that a lot of ffxiv fans that i've seen fret about ARR being such a roadblock are ultimately people who played all the way through it until the end regardless. ffxiv had a massive playerbase even before the free trial expansion

[thetoxicgamer]

Expand Baldur’s Gate 3 with over 50 races from DnD and even FFXIV

In contrast to Baldur's Gate 3, which is set in the realm of Faerûn, Dungeons and Dragons features a vast multiverse of locations, people, and stories. Due to a massive RPG game mod, you may now choose from over 50 races throughout the DnD world, which is amazing. Previously, the races you could play as in Baldur's Gate 3 focused on the Sword Coast. With many gamers finishing their first Baldur's Gate 3 session, this is the ideal moment to use this mod to play as a completely different character. One Baldur’s Gate 3 mod already lets you play as an honest-to-goodness skeleton in Larian’s excellent adventure, but this is next level. Fantastical Multiverse from modder ‘DungeonsAndSouls’ has seen a 1.0 update now that BG3 is out of early access, and it includes a staggering 54 races from across the DnD multiverse and beyond. “Playable races from Legacy, Grim Hollow, and my Homebrew have been adapted to be relevant for any class in any world in the multiverse,” DungeonsAndSouls writes. “All races are revised or made compatible with the new era of DnD if they are not officially updated to the One DnD format or Monster’s of Multiverse Fantastical Race already. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RqYrvExVT0 “Races found in One DnD have been upgraded to their new version. This means Baldur’s Gate 3 vanilla races have been upgraded to their new versions but still keep the racial tags they have in Baldur’s Gate 3.” As a lot of this comes from homebrew material, there are even a few Final Fantasy 14 races now playable in Baldur’s Gate 3, but the roleplaying possibilities are now even more endless with all these extra DnD races, which you can see below. I want to play as a Minotaur and I want to play as one now! All new Baldur’s Gate 3 races in the Multiverse mod - Elf (Revised Unearthed Arcana 2024 PHB) three Subraces - Pallid Elf - Sea Elf - Shadar-kai - Avariel - Grugach - Tiefling (Revised Unearthed Arcana 2024 PHB) nine Subraces - Githyanki (MoTM) - Dwarf (Revised Unearthed Arcana 2024 PHB) - Duergar (MoTM) - Half-Elf (Mark of Detection) - Half-Elf (Mark of the Storm) - Gnome (Revised Unearthed Arcana 2024 PHB) - Dragonborn (Revised Unearthed Arcana 2024 PHB) - Dragonborn (Gem Dragonborn (FIZBAN’S)) - Half-Orc (Mark of Finding) - Goliath (Revised Unearthed Arcana 2024 PHB + MoTM) - Orc (Revised Unearthed Arcana 2024 PHB) - Aasimar (MoTM) - Genasi (Air, Earth, Fire, Water)(MoTM) - Bugbear (MoTM) - Changeling (MoTM) - Firbolg (MoTM) - Githzerai (MoTM) - Goblin (MoTM) - Kobold (VGTM + MoTM) - Minotaur (MoTM) - Shifter (MoTM) - Triton (MoTM) - Yuan-ti (Pureblood + MoTM) - Kender - Astral Elf - Lineages (Dhampir, Hexblood, Reborn) - Kalashtar - Verdan - Vedalken - Locathah - Laneshi (Grim Hollow) - Ogresh (Grim Hollow) - Downcast (Grim Hollow) - Dreamers (Grim Hollow) - The Disembodied (Grim Hollow) - Krsnik (D&S) - Moroi (D&S) - Mušḫuššu (D&S) - Tydelvian (D&S) - Lunari (Hemato-Kai + Crepusriel) (D&S) - Gwŷddpāla (D&S) - Nephilim (D&S) - Malformed (D&S) - Hyur (FFXIV x D&S) - Elezen (FFXIV x D&S) - Roegadyn (FFXIV x D&S) - Garlean (FFXIV x D&S) The massive BG3 races mod is available in 1.0 form right now, and keep in mind that it requires a handful of other mods to get working. I really want to try out either playing as a Minotaur or Kobold, if I’m honest. If you need a little help in the Forgotten Realms we’ve got the best Baldur’s Gate 3 builds for your deserted playstyle, alongside the most optimal Baldur’s Gate 3 settings for your PC considering Act 3 is causing a few people some trouble. Read the full article

[missingmywing]

@strangefellows made a direct attack against me so alas, take my wips. XIV has taken over my life and I’ve created a sprawling verse of the butterfly effects and accidental Ascian untempering and recruiting so that’s what most of these are lol, though none of them are published yet.

You once again get an essay length response because it’s me.

Rules: Share the first lines of ten of your most recent fanfics and tag ten people. If you have written fewer than ten, don't be shy and share anyway.

It was time. There was an underlying buzz of energy amongst the Shadows within the Palace, and Arsène and Izanagi leaned against one of the upper walls on the outside of the fortress, looking out over the forest around them as the other ultimates of their arcana ensured everything was organized.

-First paragraph of chapter 4 of Shadows Within. It’s finally infiltration time! Which means that Arsene and Izanagi are Plotting.

2. Etheria didn’t know what compelled her. She should have known better.

Hadn’t the shard of Themis - of Elidibus - in the tower told her?

“The reality you wish to save - the reality to which you must return - exists as a result of the Final Days. You cannot reshape the past to undo the tragedies of the present. Cannot unmake the sorrow and suffering fated to come.”

She’d thought he’d meant that the events were unchangeable. That the past was set in stone, and she wouldn’t be able to affect it. But wasn’t G’raha the direct contradiction to that idea?

First section of Two Steps Back, one of my time travel fics in which my main WoL messes up in Elpis and creates a split timeline bc she panics and destroys Kairos. The Convocation quickly gets involved and oh look, now she has two timelines’ Final Days to avert. Azem is delighted at her involvement though, so there’s that.

3. As she slammed face-first into the ground, Etheria took several moments to comprehend what had just happened.

Cierread, a Sharlayan scholar studying the mechanics of time, had recruited her to help him investigate a dungeon that supposedly had tomes created by a former scholar who had been studying the subject as well. It had been a relatively routine run, they’d collected the tomes without undue issue, only to find them locked by magicks.

She’d ended up calling the other Scions for aid after the rest of the Sharlayan library had failed them - well, she’d mostly called on G‘raha and Y’shtola, as well as Themis and Heph, but the others had ended up there either by circumstance or curiosity - but when they had managed to force the first of the tomes open-

First section of Antics of Chronology, my second time travel fic that’s… well it’s supposed to be a much more humorous take on time travel shenanigans but it’s rapidly turning serious as per usual, so we’ll see. Basically I take the post-EW Scions and yeet them back to ARR, and they have to deal with the consequences and figure out what to do now. Etheria looks up from landing and sees Ifrit and goes “oh no”. (And just as a fun tidbit, Cierread is my versions Source shard of Nabriales and he did come back with the rest of them, so that’s going to be a fun interaction when he shows up with Moenbryda XD)

4. She awoke slowly, dry heat shifting uncomfortably around her in what should have been a cooling breeze, but wasn’t. It-

What was going on? She’d been… been…

… at her computer?

Yeah, she’d been at her computer, on vc with her FC, waiting for the new update for the 6.1 patch to finish downloading, and then they’d all hit play together and… and…

White.

Hear… feel… think…

The adventure continues.

What…?

First section of Fantasy’s Dawn. Aka Log Horizon, but it’s FFXIV and everyone wakes up in their avatar at the beginning of 1.0 (for legacy players) or ARR (for non-legacies) with each WoL having their own self-contained MSQ that adjusts to their own actions - except our main six heroes who somehow share an MSQ instance. Everyone is left scrambling trying to figure out how the metaphysics even works, and how much control they actually have over the world and story. (A lot, it turns out, to the horror and amusement of many.)

5. It wasn’t that Etheria didn’t trust Urianger’s judgement, or his expertise in aetherology, but she still maintained that they should have done fire directly after water, before moving on to earth and then wind, and then lighting. He’d gone into a lecture about aetheric flow and why activating directly opposing elements together could potentially do more harm than good, either canceling each other out or clashing and causing rebounds.

And she understood that - she did - but that was mere speculation and it now left them with their conundrum of lightning priming the area for life, but nothing actually growing.

Windburn, part of my exploration of how Eden goes in my main verse, this is the lead-in to the Ifrit-Garuda fight and my WoL’s terror at fighting not one, but both of them because she has very very bad memories of them both.

6. It had been quiet since the appearance of Mitron, none of them quite sure how to handle the situation. Hephaistos especially had been quiet - that stiff stoicism and clipped logic that spoke to a guilt he refused to admit to, something that she and Thancred had talked about following the events in Eden earlier.

They were all returned to Ahm Areng, for the moment, with Mitron still unconscious from her battle with him. It had been… different from her other fights with the Ascians. There was no precise calculation, no higher goal, no intent for the world at large.

He’d been frantic, focused solely upon Gaia, and his thought process had been disjointed and difficult to follow.

Paradise Forfeit, skipping to the halfway/end point of the Eden raids, which went slightly different from canon thanks to Lahabrea being untempered and Etheria more aware of the situation in general, so Gaia gets shielded and doesn’t lose her memories. Mitron his ass kicked a bit sooner too, and dragged out of Eden to be stabilized. It’s an exploration of Artemis letting Gaia go and finding his own stability, in the lead up to 5.3 (bc I place my Eden raids together in the span between 5.0 and 5.3 for streamlining reasons in this verse).

7. They knew. They all knew - had known from the moment they’d heard him speak at the gate.

But none of them could even begin to guess the details. How G’raha was here, how the Crystal Tower was here - it made no sense. The Crystal Tower was still standing tall and cold next to Silvertear Lake back home - closed, sealed, with G’raha most certainly still inside.

The theory they felt held the most weight, currently, was one Aella and Yiskah had formulated based on the Exarch’s words - that he was from a time removed from their own. Likely some years in the future, and he had been summoned to this world along with the tower and awoken upon arrival - thus making his earlier claim that he’d summoned the tower from a random point in time technically not an absolute lie - not that they would let him get away with that once they eventually confronted him about this.

Orchestrations, my SHB case study of Etheria’s relationship with the Exarch and Urianger and their plots. G’raha can’t get away with shit with my WoLs, sorry G’raha. Aella and Yiskah are archons who helped him with his own thesis and he with theirs, and S’ohlis has been pining since the CT raids. Etheria can sense aether, and Vale and Rosalia are a mercenary and pirate, they can recognize voices and tell when someone’s lying.

8. Etheria wasn’t entirely sure what to expect as she led the way up the stairs of the Crystal Tower, into the Ocular where the other three stopped. Themis in particular appeared wary of entering the Umbilicus - not that she could blame him. The version of him that was the piece of his soul she and the Exarch had sealed within the Tower was… Elidibus. While he had still retained some of his memories and mentality of his time as an Ascian, the majority of it had remained with the piece of his soul they’d pulled away; while the memories of his life before the summoning of Zodiark that he had reclaimed from his brief fall into the lifestream before Hades and Etheria had pulled him back as the him of here and now.

None of them were sure how the piece of Elidibus in the tower would react, or how their souls would react together.

Unto Elpis, as the name says it’s the lead-in to the jump back to Elpis in EW for Etheria in my main verse. Not much to say, other than poor Themis is in for a rough bit of adjusting to getting all the rest of his memories of the post-sundering back at once.

9. Azem had to admit, they weren’t… entirely sure how they were going to approach Lahabrea. Not that they were at all adverse, but they wouldn’t have gathered the boldness, the audacity, without Hyth’s prodding. The man was stern and focused on his work above all else, and certainly not the type to fool around. Especially with Azem, who was undoubtedly the greatest headache for him more often than not.

Styx knew that he didn’t hate them, or even truly dislike them, for all that he was often the first to criticize their methods and actions. But that didn’t change the fact that they were in opposition more often than not and that he would likely respond scathingly to a “distraction from their duties”.

Then again, perhaps it was simply a matter of constraints to work around.

The Lahabrea chapter of I Próklisi, a fic with the premise of Hyth going “Hey Azem, bet you can’t seduce the whole convocation” and Azem going “CHALLENGE ACCEPTED”. It’s a silly ridiculous premise that’s supposed to be generally lighthearted, but is… okay honestly it’s mostly a character study in Convocation dynamics, general lore, and character headcanons wrapped up in a thin veneer of smut. For example, I got less than a quarter into this chapter and was trying to plan ahead and just stopped to stare at Lahabrea and go “oh you have so much trauma from Athena don’t you” so. I can’t even say these are “plot what plot” because while there’s no real overarching plot, each chapter is definitely going to have a character based subplot.

10. Would that the rest of the Convocation was as easy to approach as Mitron and Loghrif, Azem thought ruefully to themself as they considered who to approach next.

There was always Nabriales, of course. They and Aion had casually tumbled into bed - well they usually didn’t make it into a bed; offices or debate rooms or far flung corners of the star were far more common - together several times. If they asked if he was up for it, chances were low he’d be uninterested.

That was kind of defeating the point of the challenge, though - it wasn’t supposed to be easy.

(The fact that Hyth had strongly implied that he’d managed it made them very curious about the stories there.)

The Fandaniel chapter of I Próklisi, though Azem doesn’t decide on him in the opening paragraphs. So far it’s just Azem worrying if he’s adjusting to Amaurot and the Convocation seat okay, inviting themself over for dinner, and then going to check with his lover (Asclepius, the ancient of my other WoL Yiskah) to make sure their overtures wouldn’t be overstepping bounds. I’m 2k words in and haven’t even gotten to the dinner, it’s just talking about boundaries and comfort levels so far. If that gives you any indication of what this fic is. XD

Uhhh who to tag.... @mirintala, @up-sideand-down, @boomchickfanfiction, and recent writing you feel like sharing?

[voidsentprinces]

Looks like Duskwight lads and ladies are the cryptids of the FFXIV world, I mean why wouldn't they be? Wildwood pretty much have two major settlements Gridania AND Ishgard is basically an entire expansion about them. Yeah I know there is a difference between Ishgardian and Wildwood Elezen but like...that feels like splitting hairs. Meanwhile, we have one major Duskwight locked behind a Shadowbringers side quest whose entire backstory is told in a single screenshot of him standing next to the tree in Ala Mhigo and a burnt down Praetorium. Duskwights have an unreleased dungeon from 1.0 and Palace of the Dead.

Meanwhile, the catboy/girl game has a lot of cat boys and girls. Not too big a surprise. Bigger surprise is theres more of them than the more often memed upon Lizard Folk.

[tarofel]

I'm right now feeling The Want to critique FFXIV more soooo.

Dungeon Design - A History

I'll quickly mention and then ignore 1.0 because... wow it looks a bit messed up and probably not terribly fun (but interesting). Anyways...

ARR: They were allowed to Do Things to make dungeons different. Different amounts of minibosses, having different paths occasionally, optional content and treasures. I won't defend leaden or how easily missable needed items or obtuse mechanics were, but by simply removing them instead of fixing them they've been made worse to me. I even dislike what they did to that first boss of Aurum Vale. Learning about there being AOEs that weren't telegraphed is pretty important, and probably needed a better method or some change, but instead was removed.

Post-ARR to Stormblood: Basically I think of this as one category. They decided no more unique things for dungeon gameplay, only set-pieces and maybe occasionally some different enemy patterns. There are some gimmicks from time to time but nothing that intrusive. 3 bosses every time as well. The dungeon design varies from okay to boring as heck.

Shadowbringers: This was when the formula was made even stricter. Pulls are 2 groups of enemies of similar size, maybe a third. Or maybe it will force you to take groups one-by-one for a long time. It was the only way they felt any different from each other so it started falling off more in my opinion. At least Mount Gulg has that one pull where you can take the entire world with you.

Endwalker: Whatever there was that was unique between dungeons in Shadowbringers is gone. It's all the same. 2 groups to pull, 2 groups to pull, boss, repeat 3 times. That's every dungeon. I was semi-excited about variant dungeons, but guess what? Pull a group, pull a group, boss, repeat. Am I crazy for saying the Sunken Temple of Qarn is one of my favorite dungeons?

Again, not saying that base ARR dungeons are the peak of dungeon design, but a lot of the time I find myself thinking I'd have more fun if I played an earlier dungeon at current level than any other dungeon. Granted, boss design has improved, obviously, but if I wanted to focus on bosses I'd look at the trials. If I were comparing those I'd say remove dungeons entirely and just have 8 trials per expansion release (sounds really gross lol). In summary, like a lot of different areas in FFXIV, dungeons got overly simplified and boring when they already weren't that spicy to begin with. I truly wonder what other people see in dungeons and other areas of the game that I don't right now.

[siderealcity]

ARR is far from bad. ARR is doing a number of amazing things which I think fly under the radar for most people.

Long, rambling post, more under the cut.

First of all, ARR is trying to establish the setting, characters, and stakes for new players, while simultaneously presenting a story about an apocalypse that you narrowly averted to players who were present for 1.0. At first glance to a new player, the MSQ seems like a straightforward play on the generic fantasy adventurer trope. You arrive, new in town, and literally go to the tavern to get your quest. But if you're paying attention, there are numerous indications that you may have done this all before. It's kind of a huge risk for the developers, making the MSQ center around tying off the loose ends of the Dalamud story that relatively few people ever saw or ever will see. But they do it, and they manage to keep it from ever feeling as though you, the new player, are just secondary to a story about Louisoix, or the Alliance leaders, or the Archons. And it makes a very deliberate point of ending 2.0 on a cutscene of the world declaring that things have changed for the better because of what you've done.

Secondly, I think people don't grasp just how much more story-centered ARR is than pretty much any other MMO. Even having a singular main story is not the norm for the genre. But ARR takes it further: everything has a story. Class quests? When every other MMO out there has been removing them? Oh, we got class quests. Unlocking mounts? Little plot event with a cutscene, gated by the MSQ. You even name your chocobo. Crafting? Oh, every single type of crafting has a plot. Several. Several plots. And so do all the gathering activities. The glamour system? Has a quest, and an MSQ prerequisite. Hair stylist? Same deal. How do you use the auction house? Advance the MSQ. It's largely the genre convention at this point that after a while, those quest requirements are removed, so new players can "get to the real game" faster.

But this is the game. And that's why those speed bumps have been left in, even as they've made leveling faster and smoothed out the length of the 2.X MSQ. Because they need to retrain players familiar with how MMOs work to understand that the endgame is not the only game. Everything in FFXIV is the game. The old content remains valid. In most MMOs, the old dungeons just don't get run after an expansion launches. Old expansion areas die. Of course players rush to reach max level, that's the only point at which the game is still alive.

ARR is a weird and sometimes awkward adjustment for players because it is actively trying to teach you to stop playing the game in the way you've been trained to play MMOs.

And did I mention how much worldbuilding it's trying to do? Like, FFXIV is technically part of a franchise, but no two games in that franchise actually share... pretty much anything in terms of IP. There's chocobos, usually? And a guy named Cid. And everything else changes. It can't lean on players being familiar with anything. Not every FF game even has crystals in it. By the time you get to Heavensward, you have context. You've never been to Ishgard before, but you have met Ishgardians. You've fought dragons. You know what beast tribes are, and how they usually get treated. You know what primals and Ascians are. You've heard of Allag, and you know the kind of shit they got up to. You know what a Calamity is, and what the stakes might be if Thordan causes one. Nobody needs to explain to you why it's important that you get your blessing of light back, or why it might be a sign of something terrible that you can't hear Hydaelyn's voice anymore. Heavensward can afford to be laser-focused on a few characters and their personal struggles because we already set up everything else.

So, yeah, it doesn't have to be anybody's favorite part of the story by any stretch, but ARR is not bad. It is doing a lot of work, remarkably well, to make all the story that comes later feel that much better.

p.s. it's been said a hundred times but apparently always needs to be said again: you're free to think ARR is bad (If You Actually Played It) but omg don't go around presenting it like it's the be-all, end-all, undisputed, unbiased, objective truth.

I'm forever glad I played when it came out and didn't have to deal with that shit because I can't imagine what it's like to be told over and over 'the game starts bad but just keep going'.

If people hadn't absolutely loved ARR we wouldn't be here now.

[before-calamity]

Aurum Vale

Oh boy. We covered Aurum Vale before, but weren't able to get past the entrance.

1.0 has four instanced dungeons, all of which are in 1.0: Aurum Vale, Cutter's Cry, Dzahmael Darkhold and Thousand Maws of Toto-Rok. Before, I wasn't able to get past the entrances, but now I know how to get inside, and took pictures of all four of them.

Instanced dungeons in 1.0 are different than the linear counterparts in ARR. There are bosses, dungeon ends when you beat one. Bosses have a different condition to spawn. There are trash mobs like you'd expect, and treasure chests all around. You also get a number of treasure chests after a boss battle, depending on certain conditions you've accomplished in the dungeon. In ARR, after fighting a boss, the treasure chests that spawn might be off-center, and that's because you'd used to get more in that same dungeon in 1.0. Chest contents *are not* random. Finally, dungeons can be run by 4-8 players.

Anyways, I got inside Aurum Vale, and it's everything you'd expect.

First, I got into a weird area that was outside the map. It felt like I entered through the "back" door. I'm attributing this to how I got into the dungeon in the first place - it was a bit of a hack of basically glitching through the wall. But the fact that there is actual cave here is interesting to me, even if it's not mapped out. Getting into the dungeon proper meant going through a barrier, seen in the bottom picture above. It makes me wonder if part of the dungeon got cut, because I didn't have this issue with the other dungeons I explored. It might be a case of simply the map not loading correct. But it looks like Aurum Vale, at least the parts towards the end, such as leading to and away from the last Morbol nursery. You'll notice the distinct puke green hue in that last picture.

Oh yep. The aurum pools exist. Because of lack of scripting, they don't actually do anything, and you can run around in the pee all you want.

There's a few boss rooms, such as this one, that reminds me of the boss room you fight the giant. By the way, the bosses in Aurum Vale, if I remember correctly are the same ones you fight in ARR - the ochu, the giant and the malboro.

Aurum Vale is huge in 1.0, and one floor (?) or section has these two complete sections on it. You can see that I'm in the bottom one, but I have no idea how to get to the top one. It's either the case of a hidden cave, or teleport, which might makes sense because...

There's magitek in Aurum Vale! If you remember old Toto-Rok in ARR, you'll remember that you had to collect photo cells that will deactivate barriers in each boss rooms. *All of the released* of the instanced dungeons in 1.0 have this mechanic, so having some sort of teleport isn't necessarily out of the question. There's another boss room I found with the aurum stuff in it, similar to the first or last boss room in ARR, but I didn't take a picture of it. Honestly, this was all I could really take of it. Somehow I ended up going off the map again, and then got lost and couldn't figure out how to head back. I try not to use "debug" skills when I can, or warping. Reason for this is because if you warp to a place out of bounds, it basically shuts the server down, and then *all* characters are unuseable, the client crashes when you load them up. It's a pain in the ass to fix, honestly, so I try to be careful with what I do, and rely on physically moving place to place, unless I'm trying to get across a barrier.

And that's Aurum Vale in 1.0. Did you enjoy this dungeon in ARR? Would you want it to be a bigger place?

[spinneryesteryear]

My bet's on Gelmorra for the Endwalker 24-man raids, actually.

[valentine--heart]

[theozilla]

Alright, after having slept on it, here are some of my (basically spoiler free) thoughts on base Dawntrail/7.0.

First thing I want to clarify, when I said that base Dawntrail is tied/almost tied with base Heavensward, I mean that more in terms overall game/expansion experience/enjoyment, if I was just talking about central plot engagement, I can more easily say I prefer base Heavensward (though I would also say Heavensward is also more dependent on its 3.1-3.3 patch MSQ to make it a complete story than the other expansions), but the age of Heavensward and some of its more tedious gameplay-story linked elements makes the overall enjoyment closer to a tie with Dawntrail. Now this isn’t to say that Dawntrail’s MSQ isn’t good or even great at times, but I also wouldn’t say it’s amazing and regularly great like ShadowBringers and Endwalker were more regularly, though Dawntrail also certainly isn’t trying to reach the same heights as the previous two expansions either. Anyways the first half of Dawntrail is relatively simple but it still has a good story and pathos and does some great worldbuilding in general. Wuk Lamat is most certainly the main character of the story, with the WoL playing a supporting role, which largely works. Wuk Lamat’s English voice acting is also pretty good and fine all around. I wouldn’t call her performance amazing, but it is in no bad or even mediocre. The English voice acting of the entire cast in general I’d say is par for the course in terms of quality, so I don’t agree with some of the sentiments I’ve seen that it is worse than the previous expansions. It’s not trying to reach the same emotional highs of the previous two expansions, so the vocal performances reflect that, so maybe that’s what some people have meant when they felt the voice acting wasn’t as good. Dawntrail’s plot gets much denser during its last third and is where the tension and intrigue really get going, and I’d say it largely works. While I do agree that Dawntrail has some similarities and some degree of repetition to the previously covered concepts and thematic thrusts of ShadowBringers and Endwalker, I would say that there still distinct and unique enough to stand as its own thing (while also having some blatant inspirations and homages to Final Fantasy IX). The only time where I felt the similarities felt overly repetitive was when the final MSQ dungeon ended up being another "traveling through memories" dungeon. Which to be clear, I am not opposed to that type of dungeon being a regular genre of dungeon in FFXIV, but I don’t think it should always be used for the final MSQ dungeon of a base expansion. On the topic of dungeons, the difficulty spike of Dawntrail’s duties was definitely noticeable for me, I don’t think I have ever wiped so much to dungeons bosses since when I  was first starting out with FFXIV in the ARR MSQ (I first got into FFXIV when the Stormblood expansion came out to be clear), though I don’t know if doing them on Trusts/Duty Support  makes them more challenging than if I did them with the duty finder. Now to be clear, the difficulty spike was not a bad thing, it was just right amount of increase in difficulty where it was more challenging/punishing than before but still fun to play and improve with, if the difficulty spike was much more it might have gotten to the point where it might have gotten a little too frustrating for me personally, but as of now it was just the right amount off difficulty increase to still be fun for someone like me who rarely does savages/extremes (at least not since the Heavensward content). I figure Dawntrail being the lowest rated FFXIV expansion (not counting 1.0 Legacy) is largely due to it coming off and after the extremely strong story showings of ShadowBringers and Endwalker and seeming more comparatively lesser in quality than it actually is, as it is definitely better than ARR’s story (and I say that as someone who likes ARR and its story overall, like it is a solid -B levels of enjoyment) and at least as good as Stormbood’s (and I personally find Dawntrail solidly better than it).

Just finished base Dawntrail/7.0 this evening. I will post some more in depth thoughts tomorrow. But for now I’d say I liked it more than base Stormblood/4.0 & it’s tied/almost tied with base Heavensward/3.0. (ShB & EW are still my top favorites, with EW slightly edging out ShB).