#yak tel

[i-am-spark]

Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail - Lower Yak T'el

[sightseeinglog]

[parthenosvenus]

*walks into new ffxiv zone* god this music is so good

[aethercurrentsshaaloani]

FFXIV Aether Currents: Yak-Tel Guide

Guide to locating Aether Currents in Yak-Tel. Visit: https://www.mithrie.com/ffxiv/aether-currents/yak-tel.php

[uldahstreetrat]

I just think it would be cute if Ophianne brought back some flowers from Yak Tel to wear in her hair for a bit ♡＾▽＾♡

[akiraizumi]

Yak Tel

[nagunkgunk]

look at this tiny beast

rank 4 yak tel fate kityyyyyy

[mirandra]

- Yak Tel -

[yuri-cocaine]

trucking along on msq

-bakool ja ja i owe you an apology. i wasn't familiar with your game.

-i ran into some fuckass weirdo who held up the whole run of skydeep cenote to complain about how much they hate msq. holy shit ive never seen anyone do this even for arr and sb. i tried vote kicking but it didnt work :/ block v'runja raqu on balmung to save yourself a big headache

-every zone is gorjus but my fav zone so far is urqopacha, fav zone music is kozama'uka, and fav towns are in yak tel. theres something really cozy about hroth town and mamook is a beautiful stonework city in a blue magical forest. mamook reminds me of lost city of amdapor but Blue. ive headcanoned yuma's hometown of camoa village to be something similar so maybe i can gpose in mamook instead of queueing into amdapor

-zoraal ja is my failhusband. all he does is scowl and want everyone to die in a big war. talking to everyone in the landsguard hq is kinda funny bc they're all like uhhhhh when's commander zoraal ja coming back. is he even coming back or...???

-awwww im glad wuk lamat made koana co-dawnservant ;w; now they can build infrastructure

-gulool ja ja's "oh right" when he tried looked at his brother's head and stopped casting his big fireball is rly sad now bc his brother isn't asleep, he's dead :( imagine living with your brother's dead head grafted onto your body for three years. what if it....starts to smell bad......

-as much as i like wuk lamat, i really didnt enjoy the feats so im really excited to travel xak tural with erenville. shaaloani's desert landscape is also gorjus with the graphics update bc before all that sand would just be a badly textured lump (sagolii desert...)

-the fact that ppl in shaaloani have american accents is taking me out LMFAO

-my theory for why erenville has such a strong icelandic accent is bc in addition to taking an eastern viera name, he also copied the eastern viera accent. as for why vieras living in othard have icelandic accents, uh...other than it being a carry over from ff12, maybe viera language is just. icelandic. but in dalmasca.

-ive always thought sharlayan is the scandinavia of etheirys but they're also greek-ish so who even knows at this point.

-in elpis, there's a sidequest where an ancient has a yellowish cactuar called notos 626 and he couldn't think of a suitable name for it. in urqopacha, the same kind of cactuar is all over the place and they're called notocactuar!!! so in the end, i guess he never named it :0

-why are the nopalitenders so fucked up.......estinien likes eating them tho

-i bet my cowboy boots that the sheriff in town is corrupt and it's up to a rootin' tootin' by god be shootin' young upstart to challenge him and restore peace to the wild west

-and by that, i mean the wol. wol will restore peace. i love that erenville just does not fight at all, so when those mad max from shein lookin ass bandits threatened to hang erenville up by the ears i got so protective of him LMFAO eat the full force of my level 100 burst bitch

-im not fucking bakool ja ja

[nianeyna]

I kept a bullet-pointed liveblog in a notes document as I played the new ffxiv expansion. now I have finally finished the story so I can share with the class without fear of someone responding to me with spoilers. speaking of which everything below is dawntrail spoilers, for the entire expansion, in case that wasn't clear.

⬇️ SPOILERS. FINAL FANTASY XIV DAWNTRAIL SPOILERS BELOW. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED ⬇️

Dawntrail Liveblog

- ok so the mean claimants are obviously not going to win, but catboy promise is a dark horse. also not ruling out "nobody wins"

- Urqopacha is super cute

- CAMPFIRE SCENE!

- Erenville's deal continues to be very mysterious no matter how much he contrives to appear to be telling us about it

- lol Erenville dialog: "I spoke too much" YOU BARELY SAID ANYTHING BABE

- Kozama-uka is sooooo pretty

- I like how the entire first dungeon was totally unnecessary since we would have got there FASTER if we'd just stuck around and helped Alisaie and Erenville repair the boat lmao. but that's not how the WoL does things!!

- CAMPFIRE SCENE!

- erenville lurking in the background... siddown boy lmao

- unknown dude: hey you uh... forgot something. yeah back there. come with me and get it this is definitely not a trap

- oh no it was a trap! who could possibly have predicted this??

- awwww, Koana. wasn't sure about him at first but he's just a cute little muffin isn't he

- wuk lamat getting all excited about eating the xibruq pibil was so cute omg. she just likes food!!! I appreciate that in a woman

- oh shiiiiit wuk lamat origin story?! dun dun dun...

- aaaaaand solo duty... ulp

- haha get wrekt

- CAMPFIRE SCENE!

- the mamool ja should look into tourism... this place is pretty as hell

- ok koana shooting the tablet was a pretty cool move

- have my doubts about the golden city being in yak tel... like if it was there why'd they go to xak tural then

- ok, I guess it... was there? or... the *entrance* was there... according to gulool ja ja, anyway...

- road trip alone with erenville be still my heart!

- out of context erenville quotes: "this is your first time, so let's take it slow"

- no need to apologize erenville... you can drag me into anything you want

- oh wow this is really fucking sad. wow. I wasn't expecting that!

- the ridiculous train plan is cheering me up a bit thank god (editor's note: it didn't last)

- sigh... there always has to be at least one zone per expansion that's all dark and gross-looking. did they sign a contract to that effect or something??

- I can't believe how mean this plotline is to erenville

- this is fucked up... this is so fucked up

- npc: "sorry to darken the mood" NO THAT'S FINE I DON'T THINK THE MOOD CAN GET ANY WORSE!!

- I want to rip Spene's crown off and push her off a cliff. her little I'm so cute and innocent and helpless act makes me want to puke.

- CAMPFIRE SCENE!

- if any more parents die in this story I am really truly gonna lose it

- YES finally we get to fight these horrible people. machine army. whatever.

- I hope the next trial is sphene... I want to kick sphene's ass SO bad

- well there goes otis which brings the fucking dead parent toll to at least 4

- finallyyyyyy made it out of heritage found... *collapses onto the floor of tuliyollal like a shipwrecked sailor reaching land*

- (ok obviously I've technically been back to tuliyollal while I've been doing these godforsaken quests but THIS IS DIFFERENT!)

- we didn't fight sphene but the prospects are looking really good for me getting to punch her in the face soon. probably not literally like we got to do with zenos, but I guess you can't have everything :(

- wow sphene really BELIEVES she's just a helpless little girl. fucking incredible.

- next expansion let's have a final zone NOT populated entirely by ghosts. change it up a little

- so should I count namikka and cahciua's deaths twice on the parent death toll scoreboard or what

- you know what I still don't get. is why the yok huy went to xak tural to look for the golden city. *why did they think it was there*? I mean heritage found is there *now* but it definitely wasn't hundreds of years ago!

- that face on the tower looks more like meteion than sphene tbh

- two more dead parents!

- I can't. believe. sphene erased herself before I could beat her ass. this is the most unfair thing that has happened in this expansion, and it is up against some STRONG contenders

- it's just not satisfying to pummel a weird robot that has none of her memories!

- oh sphene's SORRY? *loudest fart noise ever*

- it's a good thing wuk lamat is here to be nice cause if I had to do it I'd throw up

- "their lives remain unchanged"? uh.... we shut off the afterlife. which was a real physical place you could go to. I feel like that changes things a bit!

- I DID IT I'M OUT CREDITS ROLLED UP I'M DONE THANK GOD

First half I rate: 9/10

Second half I rate: 3/10

Overall I rate this expansion: 5/10 I guess

Up until the lightning dome appeared I was having a blast. after that the gameplay experience became one of gritting my teeth so I could get out and be done with it. all the alexandrian zones are dark and unpleasant to be in, which would have been bearable except the plot was literally nightmarish and any new characters I didn't hate either died or were already dead (except gulool ja, who's cute of course, but his story was still pretty upsetting in a different way). This is not to say the writing was bad, because I don't think it was. In the alternate universe where I was LOOKING for a tragic existential horror game I might have even really liked it. However I really really wasn't looking for that at all, so in the real world I feel pretty betrayed and upset. There's a line between "plot twist" and "false advertising" and I think they left it behind in the dust.

But hell, at least we got 4 campfire scenes.

[redtomcat]

My cool bro

Stronk black mage!

To be honest, after all changes I like black mage more than dragoon...

What does this pointing minion mean, Erenville?

How to deal with tall people, volume 2

Fluffy!

Blue forest, Yak Tel

[i-am-spark]

Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail - The Skydeep Cenote

[loftycrimes]

day four safe harbor

In the waters of Yak Tel

[khajiitclaws]

Sorry for bad photo but

Spotted the guys from the new alliance raid in Yak Tel!

[linelpisffxiv]

I really really want to know what the writers were thinking when it came to Zoraal Ja. Like... realy really. They keep trying to explain him in-universe... but he never felt like a threat to me, so him trying to be the big bad of the second half never worked. I kept eyeing Sphene cuz there was just so much about her that didn't add up in a completely different way.

But like... when Wuk Lamat was like "One of my brothers wants to take over Garlemald" I was just...

Lin: Who was the flagbearer of the ship you used to get here?

WL: I think it was Sharlayan, but the captain was from Vylbrand

Teri: Okay... are there any long distance ships under the seal of Tuliyolal?

WL: No. All our ships are short distance because most of our harbors have shallow waters filled with reefs protecting them. We don't even know where we would keep the ones Koana wants to make, so he mostly works with land-based logistics and some aerial, but those also are very finicky when it comes to the winds over longer distances. We can barely get to northern Yak Tel and Southern Yyasulani from Tuliyolal using them.

Teri: How far apart are Tuliyolal and Yyasulani?

WL: It takes about twelve hours by airship, but the train is a lot faster, if more limited in scope, at about six hours between the stations, and only about two or three hours by Rroneek between Tuliyolal and the Shaloaani Station.

Lin: Who are your primary trading partners?

WL: I think it's mostly Old Sharlayan, given father's closest friends are from there, but there's some recent trade with Eorzea, but even then that's mostly via Old Sharlayan.

Lin: Do you know of Old Sharlayan's treaties?

Like, with both of my WoLs who are at this point I have any lore for this goes on a while, basically breaking down that the current political situation between Aldenard's countries and Garlemald pointing out that Zoraal Ja is, in short, full of shit. At best he's got one person with any capability for engineering, and we don't know if that's his main focus or he just contracted it out to Sharlayan engineers and had them train the Turali people. How economically dependent they are on the countries between Garlemald and Tural and how no one with polital capital will put up with that, so at best they'd have like ten ships willing to risk ferrying them to Werlyt and they'd need a better set of armed forces, and the climate is the opposite of the central part of Tural. They'd need primarily the people of Yyasulani and Urqopacha, and one of those doesn't have people who would both be willing to fight under his banner.

Lin: He'll be deposed within five years if he tries. You and maybe your other brother are allowed to hang with me until then because your heart's in the right place, but you really need some lessons on politics and geography.

WL: I don't want my people to suffer for that time! I want to win to keep them safe from his threats even if you're right.

Lin: -Sighs- Oh dear. Well, most of what I learned over the past seven years has been really a trial by fire as a hero. I could mentor you as we go, but you need to put in the work and not just have me fight your battles for you. I'm not going to be your champion. You need to be that. I'll be your mentor and assist you, but anyone I back will win too easily if I put my all into it and it's mostly fighting.

(Teri comes to a similar conclusion about WL)

But yeah... I thought Koana posed more of a threat than Zoraal Ja did in the first half given his overenthusiastic love of technology causing friction with some of the groups within Tural.

And as I said, nothing about Sphene added up. Why the heck would a queen be walking around by herself with no escort in a place where thunder can strike anywhere and wild beasts roam? Why would she know where the local resistance is? Why would even they be cool with her even though they predate Zoraal Ja showing up and stealing all the military tech? Her motions were jerky and changed randomly even worse than MMO animation jank usually is. She screamed evil all over.

And I mostly don't think DT had bad writing. Just about fucking Zoraal Ja.

[meandering-mind]

Hunt Mob in Yak Tel.