May You Ever Walk In the Light of the Crystal: Let's Play Final Fantasy XIV!

So, we all remember what happened back in 2010, right? That thing where Final Fantasy XIV came out, and it was critically panned for being basically unfinished out the gate?

Well, someone here remembered, and we love him for it. TheSL graciously took us through the story of 1.x, which at the time, was still being maintained and prepped for its eventual rebirth into the game that 14 million people are playing now. If you're interested in the story of how things went down, I recommend checking out TheSL's previous LP for the in-game story of how things went down, and a series of documentaries by Noclip, "The Death and Rebirth of Final Fantasy XIV".

But enough looking backward! This is A Realm Reborn from the ashes of the fall of the red moon Dalamud, the sundering of the Elder Primal Bahamut, and Archon Louisoix's sacrifice to save the realm. In-game, that was five years ago, and now, Eorzea is awakening to itself once again. People are heading out into the world to rediscover the history of their land, now changed forever by Bahamut. But they will never forget the sacrifices of those who fought the Garlean Empire's advances on Carteneau. Y'know...like...wossername. As will be revealed, those heroes are in the people's memories, but they cannot call to mind the details of their faces.

It is this world that our new hero or heroine awakens to, ready to make his or her mark. What I need from y'all is the answers to the following questions:

1. What race and gender is our new hero?
2. What combat class do they focus on?

My intention is to keep this rolling all the way through the current expansion, and to enlist the help of our very own Free Company, The Talking Tyrants on the Sargatanas server, to proceed through the game. If you want to get in on the action and be seen in the videos and screenshots, feel free to pop on to that server and send whatever I name this character a friend request!

Race and classes in the posts to follow!

This 12 minute video of the introductory cinematics, and the "Answers" trailer from the end of 1.x will give you the lore introduction to the Realm Reborn.

Races of Eorzea and Beyond

Despite what the character creation menu might suggest, the races of XIV are interchangeable and you're not going to screw yourself out of a build or plan. Any race can play any class and be successful.


Hyur
The ubiquitous "generic human" race. Serious lack of pointy ears or fur or tails or whatever. The main character you see in the various trailers for Final Fantasy XIV is depicted as a male hyur, affectionately called "The Derplander".


Elezen
Hailing primarily from the northern nation of Ishgard, the Elezen are your elf analogue. Affectionately called "giraffes" by players, owing to their pronounced necks.


Lalafell
The short and rotund race, analogous to the Tarutaru of Final Fantasy XI. You see them most commonly in the city of Ul'Dah, jewel of the deserts of Thanalan. Players call them "potatoes", or the lore-compliant "popotoes".


Mi'qote
The expy of the Mithra of Final Fantasy XI, now with boys! The male mi'qote have a stereotype of being horny airheads, and that couldn't be further from the truth. Just keep away from the Balmung server's Quicksand bar in Ul'Dah at night... You see a lot of Mi'qote in Gridania, the verdant forest city in the Twelveswood.


Roegadyn
The analogue of the Galka from XI, now without tails. And beautiful ladies now! The lady Roegadyn, or "Roegadame," is a low-key popular choice among the Talking Tyrants. Roegadyn are most commonly seen in the lands surrounding Limsa Lominsa, the city of La Noscea.


Au Ra
Introduced in the second first expansion, Heavensward, the Au Ra hail from the far east continent of Othard, in the steppes of that land. It's canon that they show affection by rubbing their horns together, Producer Naoki Yoshida said so.


Hrothgar
Based on the Ronso of Final Fantasy X, the Hrothgar are my personal choice. The player options are male-only, unfortunately, and their customization in appearance is somewhat limited. They hail from lands currently occupied by the Garlean Empire, and they developed the style of gunblade combat that Garlemald appropriated for their own use.


Viera
From Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and Final Fantasy XII, the Viera are the tall bunny women (and men you're not allowed to see) of lands occupied by Garlemald in the Far East. A lot of Roegadames "turned traitor" for a while and Fantasia'd into Viera.

Classes

Final Fantasy XIV is a class-based game, where your class dictates what skills you obtain. Once you attain level 30 in a class, you have the ability to transition into an advanced version of the class, called a Job, complete with a Job Crystal like this is Final Fantasy V. Your selection of class determines what role you take in combat: Tank, DPS, or Healer. It also determines what city you begin in, and how the story plays out for the first few hours.

Tanks


Gladiator/Paladin - Ul'Dah
Gladiators, and later, Paladins, fight with a sword and shield, and focus on a mixture of physical and magical damage, and protecting their allies in a variety of ways. The order of Paladins in the game, the Sultansworn, hail from Ul'Dah, and, as you might guess, are charged with the protection of the current ruler of the city-state, the Sultana Nanamo Ul-Namo.


Marauder/Warrior - Limsa Lominsa
Marauders and Warriors fight with huge axes, and protect their allies by being the biggest, scariest-looking mean sumbitch on the field, and can briefly turn into a feral buzzsaw of death and blood. Marauders train in Limsa Lominsa and generally have a career path into the Lominsan protection force, the Yellow Jackets. Rumor has it that there is a Roegadyn man who is possessed by the beast within, training his mind and body near the La Noscean village of Costa Del Sol.

Healer


Conjurer/White Mage - Gridania
Conjurers and White Mages use staves to channel life energy and the elemental energy of water, wind, and earth to heal allies' wounds, and attack enemies. Conjurers train under the tutelage of the Padjali of Gridania, and those who show promise may find even greater power of healing.

Please note that, yes, there is only one healing class to start the game with. However, that will be addressed shortly.

DPS (Damage Per Second)


Arcanist/Summoner/Scholar - Limsa Lominsa
Arcanists can be considered the strategists of the battlefield, by shunting their primary source of damage from themselves to a condensed form of their aether, a summoned carbuncle pet. Upon reaching level 30, you have a choice of going to one of two specializations, either dealing more damage with even more powerful summoned creatures, or focusing on the strategic aspect, honing your healing abilities to become a strong supporting teammate.


Thaumaturge/Black Mage - Ul'Dah
The Thaumaturge's Guild is lead by a quintet of Lalafellin spell slingers that are charged with monitoring the incursion of the Void into the world of Hydaelyn, and dealing with the threat. Adherents will learn all about the elemental forces of fire, ice, and thunder, and the balance between the three to create a clever fighting style of "NOT THE FACE, PLEASE". Not all followers of thaumaturgy are sanctioned by the Guild, and through them, ways to even greater power are possible...


Archer/Bard - Gridania
The archers of The Gods' Quiver in Gridania are expert marksmen, able to hit their target from yalms away. They're expert poisoners and able to apply a debilitating poison to their arrows. In addition, the bow is the preferred weapon of battle musicians, capable of inspiring their allies to greater heights of combat prowess. Maybe someone in the Twelveswood knows something about it...


Pugilist/Monk - Ul'Dah
The Pugilist's Guild teaches a flashy style of unarmed fighting, developed from a mixture of martial arts from all over the land. Pugilists dance around their opponents, raining down lightning-quick blows. Part of any martial art is the study of incorporating new techniques from other fighting styles into your own, and there is no better group of fighters, the Fists of Rhalgr of Ala Mhigo. But with the occupation of Ala Mhigo by the Empire, those fighters are hard to come by...


Lancer/Dragoon - Gridania
The Lancer's Guild provides spear training for the Gridanian Grand Company, The Order of the Twin Adder. But the true experts of fighting with a spear are the Dragoons of the reclusive Ishgard. The Holy See does keep garrisons outside the walls of their city, and perhaps someone there knows these techniques developed over centuries of their war with dragons...


ROGUE/NINJA - Melee DPS
Rogues eschew brute strength for quick, precise strikes to a foe's weak points, and, commensurately, wield daggers to enable such a fighting style. Always keeping an eye out for opportunity, they can also increase the chances of an enemy dropping an item. It's not entirely clear how someone would join a clandestine guild of thieves and assassins, but such a guild is likely found in a den of pirates...

Ninja take the silent, swift, and precision strikes to the next level, but have a flair for the dramatic. They utilize a style of magic that uses one's own body as a conduit for Aether to control all six natural elemental forces, through the use of hand gestures, called mudra. The art of Ninjutsu is relatively new to Eorzea, coming from Othard, a land far to the east of Aldenard. Naturally, with such similar fighting styles, the Rogues of Eorzea might know someone from Othard that practices the art of the ninja...

SAMURAI - Melee DPS


Samurai are experts of the blade, using quick and precise strikes to attack a foe's vital areas. While Samurai aren't exactly going to be carving up organs in alphabetical order, that kinda gives you the gist of what they're about. They have a slightly complex combo tree that gives them resources to put toward a powerful single strike. Obviously, they wield a katana, a curved blade made by craftsmen in the far eastern lands of Hingashi and Othard. Recently, an older hyur gentleman with a fighting style matching this description has been making a name for himself in the bloodsands of Ul'dah.

RED MAGE - Caster DPS


Red Mages are a product of the War of the Magi. In the aftermath, white mages and black mages of the nations of Amdapor and Mhach came together to research how their powers overlapped with each other, and this eventually evolved in to a completely new style of magic. By using a spell focus and channeling magical energy through an enchanted rapier, this fighting style was seen as flashy, but very esoteric, and it did not see widespread adoption until fairly recently. A mi'qote vigilante has been operating in the vicinity of Ul'dah, righting wrongs that the corrupt Brass Blades may see as beneath their notice.

The one part of my LP with the Ascians in it, hoo boy. It looks kind of weird in retrospect after *this* version of the game:



And then they didn't even use that model in the redo until Aetherochemical Research Facility in Heavensward.

I was gonna vote for a potato just for you, but I changed my mind

Lady Au Ra Summoner, please! Because two horns isn't enough.

Please keep in mind that I will be introducing the expansion jobs as they come up, and between each major arc of content, I'll give everyone the opportunity to change our hero's job. So, at the end of 2.0, the end of 2.x, 3.0, 3.x, 4.0, and 4.x, and 5.0, there will be opportunities to switch it up.

One notable absence that can be obtained fairly early is Rogue, which can be upgraded to Ninja. The plan to open the expansion jobs up will be as follows:

2.x - Rogue/Ninja, Samurai, Red Mage
3.0 - Dark Knight, Astrologian, Machinist
4.0 - Dancer, Gunbreaker

Wow, quite a project. It will be nice having a review since I skipped like 95% of the chit chat in this.

Race/Class: I've seen the early game in Limsa Lominsa and Gridania, so my vote is for something that starts anywhere else.

I think... you need a Lalafell dragoon.

Lalafell pugilist girl.

Hrothgar samurai

Samurai won't be available until I get to the 2.x content. I have to be level 50 to even unlock it.

Oh, I figured "X" would encompass 2.0 as well. I kind of lump all the pre-HW post 1.x stuff in as 2.x in my head.

I guess monk then because to this day I've never figured out a good rotation on that job.

Paladin for Uldah starting story, and so people can see how tanks work in FFXIV (aka way differently than other mmos).

Roegadame because they are the best race and if I weren’t so attached to my dorky derplander I would have made Sera my main.

There is no good rotation on mnk. Apparently it’s a selling feature.

Yeah, it's either an updated version of the same one running all the way back to ARR or you do the one that requires incredibly good ping and frame-level execution.

And yeah, Roegadame pally sounds like a good fit.

So once upon a time I did make an alt on Sargatanas cause I thought it could be fun to start over, but quickly gave up that idea because of how daunting it would be to start over. Anyway that character was a female Lalafell Gladiator so that's my vote.

That sounds good to me.

Also, thanks for running this, Tir! I dearly love FFXIV, and I can definitely never play it again because I'm not a good fit for online games. It'll be nice to revisit the world and see what's new.

If I played this, I'd probably play as either a potato or a Viera, so...

I like Thaumaturge

The votes are in, and the Roegadame just barely beat out Lalafell! And it looks like we're kicking off as a Gladiator in Ul'Dah. Alright, gimme some time in the character creator...

After selecting our character's appearance, we are given a few more fluff options to round out the character. This might've meant something back in the day, but this is mainly for roleplaying purposes, and one very notable event that players can attend in-game, and one that our heroine might get a chance to get into! The Hydaelyn calendar is fairly close to our own, being able to be separated into twelve 32-day months, which is determined by the moon revolving around the astral and umbral poles of the planet. Nice and convenient of the heavens, eh? I usually just pick this stuff at random.

Following that, we are then prompted to select our guardian deity.



Hydaelyn has twelve commonly acknowledged gods by the player races of the world, each with its own relationships with the others and portfolios. Some rise to prominence at various places of the world. For example, Nald'Thal, guardian deity of Ul'Dah, carries the portfolios of the underworld and commerce. As Ul'Dah has a large mausoleum under the city, and is a bustling mercantile metropolis, this is an obvious symbiotic relationship. I went with Althyk, the god of time.



Roegadyn naming conventions are based on the ancient Roegadyn language that they spoke before coming to Eorzea. Our heroine, Satznswys Rosnsathwyn (SAHTS-n-swees ROSS-n-sahth-winn) roughly translates to "Dancing Sister, Daughter of Rosnsath". Roegadyn surnames are Viking-esque in how they are determined (Leif Erikson).



So now we have a name, a server, and a beat up sword! Let's get to adventuring!

A REALM REBORN CHAPTER 1 - Hear, Feel, Think


Our story begins with a dream sequence, with Satznswys hearing a feminine voice beseeching her to hear.


She's accosted by a man in a black cloak, and the voice tells her to feel, in addition to hearing.


One flashy transformation later, she's got a sword and shield made of light, and is ready to face the man in the cloak. The voice tells her to think, too.


But as dreams must, they vanish when some guy wakes you up.


Seems like we've negotiated passage with this merchant, Brendt, who wants to strike up a conversation, since our mutual traveling companions, a pair of Elezen twins, are asleep or keeping to themselves.


The carriage is stopped by the Brass Blades, obstensively Ul'Dah's analogue to a police force, and, predictably, they shake down our new merchant friend for herb and bribes.


This is interrupted by an assault by the Amaljaa, the lizard-folk of Thanalan. While the Brass Blades might be corrupt, they still stick to their duties.

Later, Brendt asks why we became an adventurer. Satznswys is unsure how to answer.


Finally, we arrive at Ul'Dah.

We're given an option to select either keyboard/mouse controls or gamepad. I personally use a PS4 controller, so that's with what we'll be using.


At the bottom of this screenshot, you'll see the Cross Hotbar. Each one of those squares corresponds with pulling either the L2 or R2 triggers, and pressing the face button or D-Pad arrow to activate the action depicted by the icon. I'll be fiddling with this, to be sure.

We're not actually in Ul'Dah proper yet. We're actually in an instanced version of it to allow us the time and space to get used to the controls before setting us out into the bustling streets and buildings of the live server.

The window at the top left is the Active Help system. It gives you information about things you're doing at the moment as a pseudo tutorial. I'll be turning these off.


Our first quest is to check in with Momodi, the proprietess of the Quicksand tavern, and hub for the Adventurers' Guild, where all good adventurers make their start. Bringing up the map with the square button, we can see the quest objective in the building directly ahead. The compass minimap in the top right will show quest objectives on the current map, and point you in the direction you need to go. That green check mark Quest icon means that the next interaction will complete the quest.


Momodi takes it upon herself to operate the Adventurers' Guild in Ul'Dah and steer greenhorn adventurers right. She lays out the various woes in and around Ul'Dah: the Amaljaa raids, the encroaching Garlean Empire.


We learn about the five-year history of what has gone down since the red moon Dalamud fell, and how nobody can remember the brave heroes, the Warriors of Light, that put their lives on the line at the battle of Carteneau. But that's why all three city-states of the Eorzean Alliance pay great respect to those who take up the adventurer's mantle.


The ink has yet to even begin to dry on our name in Momodi's register when we hear a disturbance in the tavern.


Momodi watches this with almost dispassionate bemusement, and says that as long as we keep our nose clean, we won't end up like the poor sod who's up to his earballs in gambling debt.


With that our very first quest is complete, and you'll notice, now that Momodi's got a new quest icon above her head. This meteor-shaped quest is the Main Scenario Questline marker. Up in the top left, you'll see the Main Scenario Quest(MSQ) guide, which gives the player a quick button to see where the next MSQ location is.

The biggest piece of advice any veteran XIV player will give is to prioritize completing the MSQ. All of the content in this game is gated behind the MSQ in some fashion. But anyway, let's get on with it!

Momodi tells us to do three things to settle into life here in Ul'Dah: First, visit the Aetheryte plaza in the city. This will allow us to teleport to the city whenever we want. Second, to visit the Gladiators' Guild, to start our training in swordplay so we don't look like a damn fool waving this bit of metal around. And third, Sapphire Avenue Exchange, the biggest marketplace in the city, where we can obtain equipment and sundries.

At this point, we are quietly dropped into the actual Ul'Dah, where we can see and interact with other players, and we're off!


After setting up my HUD and hotbars and futureproofing them a little bit with my preferred controls, I decide to detour to the Ruby Road Exchange, where the postmoogle is, which is the in-game messaging service that lets you send notes and items to people on your friends list. In addition, it lets you receive rewards from the various campaigns and ongoing promotions. In fact, Satznswys has so much mail the moogle has to hold some of it!


After claiming her mail, Satznswys has lots and lots of stuff!


Like miniature Final Fantasy characters!


And very familiar outfits!

But there's some important accessories we needed from those letters to make our early game a lot easier.



The feathered hair clip and the crystal earring she's wearing are both stylish, and will boost the experience she gains from level 1-25, and the earring from 1-70! These effects stack, and will stack with another accessory we'll be getting later that will boost XP gains from 1-30! But I'm getting ahead of myself.


Down the street from the Ruby Avenue Exchange is the Aetheryte plaza, where we attune to the aetheryte. A helpful Brass Blade comes along to give us the scoop. tl;dr, these giant crystals act as waypoints to teleport to, and for a fee dependent on the distance you wish to travel, you can teleport from anywhere except instanced duties to one of these aetherytes. In addition, you have the option of setting a home point, where if you are defeated or cast the Return spell in the open world, you can return to your designated home point.

Further down the street, we find signage for the Gladiators' guild. Lulutsu here gives us the skinny.



Be on the lookout for quest icons that are blue and has a little plus icon next to it. I call these quests "Quest Plus"es, because these quests should be a priority as well as the MSQ progression. These quests will unlock some kind of content behind them, whether they be optional dungeons, new classes, trials, and so forth. All of the side content in this game that isn't gated by the MSQ will have this icon. Lulutsu tells us to say hello to the Gladiator guildmaster, First Sword Mylla.



She gives us our first task in the Gladiator questline: slay rodents and bugs outside town. Easy peasy.

Heading back out to the Gate of the Sultana leading into Western Thanalan, we earn our first achievement. Achievements are a thing in this game and can grant you titles, mounts, minions, and clothing.



See that Star Marmot down there? He's got a quest icon above his head, meaning the enemies you need to kill for quests are clearly marked. Alright, let's get to choppin'!

The main piece of advice that you should take in playing FFXIV is to keep the GCD spinning and always be using abilities. Most of your attacks will be on the global cooldown (GCD), which defaults to 2.5 seconds, but is adjusted by the skill speed and spell speed stats. As you gain levels, you'll start picking up new skills that will be off the global cooldown, or OGCD. Optimizing your combat is learning how to weave these OGCD skills between your GCDs to keep that GCD spinning.

Killing three Star Marmots is enough to complete that part of the quest objective, and earns Satznswys her first level up!



She also picks up a new skill, Fight or Flight, our first OGCD skill. It takes a minute to cool down, and grants a 25% bonus to physical damage for 25 seconds. Nice!



Also, note that whenever you mouse over an icon of an item or skill, a tooltip will appear to give a description of the item or skill. A fun pastime is reading the tooltips of items to get little snippets of world lore, or silly memey jokes by the localization team.

We pop over to Central Thanalan to finish the rest of Mylla's requests.



Stabbing a few more huge hornets and shrews, we finish the quest! I decide to head around the curtain wall of Ul'Dah to the Steps of Thal to enter the city from the other side, so I can pick up the Sapphire Avenue Exchange quest objective on the way.



Seseroga here tells us the skinny of the marketplace. You can find basic gear for a variety of character level ranges between 1 and 50, and various consumables, crafting materials, and other sundries.



Every piece of gear in the game has two levels to consider: character level requirement, and item level. Item level denotes its relative power level, so the higher the i-Level a piece of gear, the stronger the stats on it. The character level requirement requires a character to be a certain level or higher to use the gear. For example, this Hard Leather Harness requires me to be a Disciple of War of level 12 or higher to use it. And I would be remiss if I did not mention that high quality gear of the same name has the same i-level and character level requirements, but confers higher stats. The only way to obtain high quality pieces of gear is through the game's crafting system, which I simply do not have the time or space to explain right this minute. I'm sure that someone around here will bash through a wall to talk about crafting though...



Mylla is impressed with our ability to slap giant bees with a sword, and hands over a Hunting Log, and enough experience points to push us to level 3.



The Hunting Log is a source for novices of particular classes to get practice with their skills. Completing the hunting log can grant a decent chunk of XP. Each rank tier has a bunch of critters to kill, some of which we've already seen. Once we've attained a certain level and completed all the hunt logs, the next rank will open up for more critters to hunt!



Satznswys decides to take a tour around the town and check out the Aethernet shards all over town. These are free teleport nodes that you can warp to within the city to make getting around easier. Know that your next destination is right near the Gladiators' Guild? Just touch the main aetheryte or any of the aethernet shards in town, and you'll be there in a jiffy!



Once you've attuned to every aethernet shard in town, you'll get a few bonus destinations: a direct line out of town via any of the gates, and the airship ticketing office. The latter we won't be using for a while, but the gates will let Satznswys get back out on to the killing fields to thoroughly knock out the rest of her hunting log!



Here's what the hunting log marker looks like.



Knocking out a few hunts gets enough XP to put Satznswys to level 4, and gives her a new attack: Riot Blade! This is a combo skill that deals more damage if the last GCD skill you used is Fast Blade. For most battle classes, there will be some sort of combo that you cycle through to maximize the damage you deal.



A few more hunts down, and Satznswys advances to level 5, and with it, she unlocks the next step in the Gladiator quest line. After the introductory quest for every class, from level 5 to 50, there will be a new quest available for you to complete, and it is highly recommended that you do, because you'll get equipment and most importantly, new skills, commensurate with your advancement. The scheme changes a bit over level 50. So we break off killing stuff to go pick that quest up from Mylla.

Momodi has sent word over to Mylla that there is a group of Lominsan ruffians causing trouble. Mylla instructs us to get rid of them without using violence, but by our sheer force of personality. She also tells us that our role in combat is not solely to kill the enemy in front of us, but to aid and protect those alongside us. The tank roles have high health and defense, which are to be used to make the enemies focus on us rather than the squishy healers or DPS people.

However, the fastest way to make yourself the most threatening thing in the fight is to hit everything fast, and deal as much damage as possible. Therefore, it's a tank's responsibility to deal as much damage as possible to keep the enemy from finding an easier target. In Final Fantasy XIV, Everyone Does DPS.

We chase off the Lominsans, but one inside the Quicksand proves to be a bit more stubborn.



Our mysterious stranger here bears a unique blade that this ruffian recognizes, and quickly bails based on this guy's reputation alone. He introduces himself as Aldis, a former member of the Gladiators' guild turned wanderer. He excuses himself to, in no uncertain terms, have the sex. We check in with Momodi to resolve both the job for the Gladiators' guild and to report back on our tour of the city. In addition to telling us not to talk to Mylla about seeing Aldis (apparently, they have some kind of history), Momodi is pleased that we've gotten a feel for the city, and then tells us to head out of town to meet a man named Papashan. We'll get on that in a moment but first...



Back in the Guild, Mylla tells us that her people saw the Lominsans flee town and were regrouping in Western Thanalan, and that we need to go deal with them now that they're outside the city walls. We find the villain near Scorpion Crossing, having harrassed and stolen a merchant's goods. A few slaps with sharp metal puts him on the ground, and we retrieve the merchant's stuff. He quickly thanks us, and we report back to Mylla in town.



In addition to the usual experience and gil reward, we get a new sword, a slight upgrade over the dull slab of iron we were bashing people with.



Satznswys makes the hike out to the settlement of Horizon in Western Thanalan and attunes to the aetheryte there, allowing her to freely teleport around the world she's explored.



Some clever positioning and manuevering, and Satznswys earns another notch on her hunting log, and enough XP for level 6, giving her the Total Eclipse attack.



This is a quick whirling blade attack that hits all enemies around her, and is key for establishing threat on multiple enemies at once.



Taking out the last few hunts on the log, Satznswys makes it all the way to level 8, and earns her first Role Action, Rampart. This skill reduces all incoming damage by 20% for 20 seconds. Role actions are actions that are shared across all the classes in a role (Tank, Healer, Melee DPS, Ranged Physical DPS, and Magic DPS). If we're in the thick of it (which we should be as the tank), hitting Rampart and other defensive cooldowns can mean the difference between winning and a party wipe and a group of angry players.



Since we're in the neighborhood, let's check in with Papashan like Momodi told us.

Papashan is an old soul who lived through the Calamity of Dalamud and its intervening years, and works tirelessly to restore Ul'Dah to its former glory. Reflecting on the time he's spent working to this end, he then gets to the point of the job he sent word to Momodi for: delivering food to sentries in the area.



Hey, it's a living.

Satznswys makes her Doordash deliveries, and finally, Papashan gets to the point: a noblewoman from a prestigious house in Ul'Dah has gone missing, and he and the Sultansworn are out here looking for her. He kept things vague to prevent more unsavory types from finding out about this work and perhaps trying to cash in on a ransom. He gives us a name and a direction: Lady Lilira, and to start the search near the Sultantree in the area.



Here, in the shade of the Sultantree, we find a hooded Lalafell, in a glowy aura. This glowy aura means that to proceed, you'll need to go into a solo instanced mission. If you fail, you'll have to try again from this point. But we're scrappy. Let's do it!



She yells at us to show ourselves, but when the camera reverse angles, we see that there's a hyur man standing behind us! He's a sneaky one!



She has none of his snark and tells him to buzz off. the white-haired man says nothin' doin'. He mentions an aetheric disturbance, as though the dead were watching. Ominous!

Apparently, this man has been enlisted by Papashan as well, so our job complete, time to return to Papashan with our wayward noble and...



Of course I spoke too soon.

The Handsome Stranger here will take care of the tanking duties against this monster, though as the fight progresses, some additional lesser monsters will show up, and he'll ask you to deal with them.



After the battle, there's a crystal on the ground.




Whoaaaaaa. Just like the dream!

The voice from the dream finally has a name: Hydaelyn, the spirit of this world. She beseeches Satznswys to find the Crystals of Light to banish the darkness set to swallow all life in the world. And it looks like this one was the first.



We awaken to the Handsome Stranger and Lilira discussing the creature that attacked. A creature of the Void, as far as he knows. He mumbles some cryptic thoughts to himself, and then excuses himself, leaving us to escort Lilira back to Papashan. Lilira has none of it.

The Handsome Stranger heads off, saying he suspects we'll meet again. We return to Papashan to find Lilira being admonished by the elder Lalafell.



The seneschal and all three of the Sultansworn escort her away. She must be someone of importance.



We get a name for the Handsome Stranger: Thancred. An investigator of aetheric disruptions. Papashan thanks us and sends us off to our next objective.



We'll get into it next time!

How much did Thancred pay you to refer to him as “Handsome Man”?

Don't do it, next time slap Thancred!

Thancred was the best NPC in 1.x and continues to be to this day.

Hey don’t look at me like that. I like Thancred a lot even if he needed constant slapping with the way he was essentially emotionally abusing Minifillia in ShB.

I got a comment that the images are a little janky, and I'll be doing image processing a little different in the next update.

I assume nobody in the FC messaged me about this LP because they didn't want me to create thirty puppet accounts to vote catboi. At least Roe came out on top!


Anyway, McDohl, you're barking mad for doing this but I'll be reading. Good luck!