All the other things I didn't cover in the last two, which is basically the music, the notes on the ground, and the story of the raid.
MUSIC
FFXI's music is so goddamn good, you guys. I encourage you to go listen to the OSTs on Youtube or something. My personal favorites are still "Selbina", "The Sanctuary of Zi'Tah", "Griffons Never Die", and "Ronfaure".
Windurst
The music before the battle against Shantotto is the Windurst theme, "The Federation of Windurst".
During the battle against Shantotto it's "Feast of the Ladies". It's from the final fight in the A Shantotto Ascension story.
Al Zahbi
Before the Besieged battle starts, you hear the theme of the Al Zahbi zone, "Bustle of the Capital".
When the fighting starts, it changes to the Besieged theme, "Fated Strife".
And when the fighting is over, it changes one more time to "Vana'diel March #4", an arrangement of the original FFXI title theme for Treasures of Aht Urghan.
Aldazaal Undersea Ruins
At the start is the theme for the zone, "Forbidden Seal".
The battle with Alexander uses "Ragnarok". As you might expect, it's the song used during the final battle against it in FFXI. (Easily one of the best songs in all of FFXI.)
Garden of Ru'Hmet
Before and after the fighting, it's "Gates of Paradise - The Garden of Ru'Hmet". (Note: this one can't be bought with Tattered Scores. It was added back during Eureka.)
The music during the fighting is "Battle in the Dungeon #3".
Empyreal Paradox
During the fight with Promathia, it's "A Realm of Emptiness", which played during the second phase of the Promathia fight in FFXI.
Abyssean Empyreal Paradox
The fight with Shinryu is simply, "Shinryu".
And finally, when fighting the Hollow King, it's an original song called "The Wyrm Who Would Be King".
NOTES
The first note is above the Auction House in Windurst. The text is talking about Shantotto, and it's specifically referencing a series of quests from FFXI. In them, Shantotto places a curse on a "peeping tom", and then later has to remove it when she realizes it's more deadly than she intended.
The next two notes are in Al Zahbi. The first is on the right when you first enter the zone, and is about Salaheem's Sentinels, a mercenary company run (with an iron fist and mace) by Naja Salaheem. The second is in the Bastion area with the exit to the next zone, and is about the Five Serpent Generals.
Also, there's some NPC shades here that have different dialogue before and after the Besieged fight. They're mostly about the Serpent Generals, but one asks if you want to be their test subject. I'm pretty sure this is a reference to an NPC called Shihu-Danhu. They were one of two NPCs in Al Zahbi that could teleport you to Jeuno. Shihu-Danhu did it for free, but he might randomly send you a zone just outside Jeuno. The other NPC required a fee, but always sent you to Jeuno.
The fourth note is in the Aldazaal Undersea Ruins and is near when you enter. It's talking about Salvage. Imbued cells were items you found that would remove restrictions placed on your character during a mission (example: being unable to equip body gear). Alexandrite were required for upgrading Mythic Weapons, a second set of Relic weapons introduced in Treasures of Aht Urghan.
(You needed 30000 alexandrite. Plus a bunch of other stuff. For the second of 5 quests. And fairly sure that's per weapon, assuming you're mad enough to do multiple Mythics. Plus, that's just to get them to lvl 75. Later on they could be upgraded up to 99. And then up to ilvl 119, and I think some upgrades after that? And all those upgrades required additional stuff to do or gather. FFXI relic grinds do not fuck around.)
The last note is in the Gardens of Ru'Hmet, and is near where you enter. The text is from the prologue of FFXI. It's basically the first part of the creation myth of Vana'diel.
STORY
Not much to say, really, but I'll note a few things:
Overall, rather little in this story went as I was thinking. For one, I was expecting the reveal for Alxaal would be that he was a real person from Vana'diel. But him in-game being an amalgamation of the memories of all adventurers in Vana'diel, including THE adventurer (i.e., the PC) is a neat idea. It basically makes him a representation of FFXI players. And obviously, it helps him put into context the things that are happening and the foes you're fighting in the raids.
I'm also kinda surprised there was nothing of Altana herself? While I wasn't expecting her to physically show up, I was starting to think that she might be aware of what was going on and was observing. And maybe we might get some dialogue from her at the end.
I thought it was cute that the story ends with "your character will find a way to visit Vana'diel to see Alxaal and Prishe again" as an invite to play FFXI. Just... y'know, a terrible pity it's another full subscription to do so, SQEX.
Shantotto is a former Minster of Magic and a hero of the Crystal War. She's involved in the BLM quests and the later parts of the Windurst storyline, and she also appears in Chains of Promathia, Treasures of Aht Urghan, and Wings of the Goddess. And she's frequently the FFXI representative for crossovers.
She's arguably the most powerful person in all of Vana'diel, and she knows it. During the Crystal War she went off on her own, more or less forced a group of mage soldiers to follow her, and proceeded to go straight into enemy territory and win several battles.
Her habit of rhyming her speech is unique to English dialogue.
The idea of a giant Shantotto, magical doll clones, and her ability to cross to different dimensions comes from a mini-expansion in FFXI that focused on her, called A Shantotto Ascension - The Legend Torn, Her Empire Born. A giant Shantotto (again a magic doll) was also your opponent in a FATE in the first FFXI x FFXIV crossover back in 2014, Burgeoning Dread.
Of the attacks she does, only Vidohunir carries over from FFXI. It's a staff weaponskill that's acquired from a quest and can only be used by BLM.
In the JP dialogue, Alxaal is more respectful to her, and refers to her as hakase, which I think here means "professor". Also, it kinda seems like in the JP dialogue that Shantotto is pretending to be a refined lady. When she first does the closing walls mechanic, her manner of speech slips a bit and she has to correct herself, and her "Ohohohoho" laugh feels more forced.
Shantotto's JP VA is Megumi Hayashibara, who has been doing voice acting since the late 80s and done lots of well known roles. She's the voice of Rei Ayanami, Ranma Saotome (female), Lina Inverse, and Faye Valentine, just to name a few.
Besieged
As I mentioned before, Besieged is an event where a horde of beastmen invades Al Zahbi. Players have to fight off enemies along side NPC characters, most notably the five Serpent Generals. (From what I remember, it was a fairly chaotic thing, and I think I usually died to AoE attacks I never saw due to lag.)
There's three different groups of beastmen that can invade, and in this raid, the alliance fights the Undead Swarm. The mobs you fight match up with what you'd face in FFXI during a raid at level 8 or above.
Waves 1 and 2 are mostly normal enemies, though Pining Abazohn is a boss level monster that would seek out the Serpent Generals. And I think Lamia Jaegers were higher tier enemies.
In Wave 3, Lamia No.2 is a higher tier boss enemy, and would summon the Nemean Lion.
And finally, Medusa is the leader of the Swarm. Her dialogue when she spawns is from a cutscene that could play at the start of a Besieged attack.
In FFXI, the fighting wasn't confined to the Ulthalam Parade. Also, if all five Serpent Generals were defeated, the Hall of Binding would open, and players would have to prevent any monster from getting in and getting to the Astral Candescence, or the defense would fail.
Players kept records of winning streaks for Besieged, and the server I was on, Lakshmi, had one of the longest along with Siren, I think. (we didn't count losses that occurred after server maintenance). Sadly Lakshmi eventually lost theirs, but I think Siren hit 2000 straight wins at some point.
Tiny little thing, if you watch the NPCs on the sides fighting enemies, you'll see a BLM casting a Wind element spell of some kind. Probably Tornado?
Alexander
Alexander is one of eight godly beings that were created by the True Crystal. Then when that crystal was split apart and Vana'diel was created, they went into a deep slumber on the Astral Plane. Thus, they're called the Sleeping Gods. If those gods ever fully awaken, they would try to restore the world to how it used to be, just a single realm where the gods dwell.
Fun bunch! As players, you can find the protocrystals of six of them (Ifrit, Shiva, Titan, Leviathan, Ramuh, and Garuda) and challenge them to a fight, and if you win (against a fraction of their real power, mind you), you're able to summon an avatar of them as a SMN.
Alexander is the Light Divinity, directly opposed to Odin, the Dark Divinity. Certain events (that I'm finding conflicting explanations of) caused both of their Protocrystals to be destroyed, so they're not as deeply asleep as the other six. Odin stays in a realm called Valhalla, while Alexander is in the Astral Plane because it doesn't have a physical body after the battle of Ragnarok.
Several of his attacks share names with ones from FFXI, and given it's the Light Divinity, they're all light or holy themed.
All its dialogue during the fight is from the story fight against it in FFXI. Even the "ΩΩΩΩΩΩΩ" during the mid-phase ultimate.
Promathia
The Twilight God, counterpart to the Dawn Goddess.
One thing I'm not certain of is his connection to the Emptiness. I vaguely remember that, at some point, he got infected by it. I've also found some references that he deliberately absorbed it? And I've found stuff that implies it was always part of him, but I really don't think that's correct.
In any case, the main fact is that the Emptiness was going to kill him, and worse, Promathia now desired his own death and the death of all other things. To prevent this, Altana took the Emptiness inside him and placed a part of it in every living being. This effectively made Promathia the father of all living beings, just as Altana was the mother. Promathia himself was then sealed away to prevent him from re-claiming the Emptiness and destroying all life.
In FFXI, his fight is in two phases, just as it is here. Again, most of his attacks just share names with ones from FFXI. But there are some things to note:
In the first phase of the FFXI fight, he'd use Comet, and in the second phase, Meteor. And here in the raid, the tankbusters in the first and second phase are Comet and Meteor respectively.
In FFXI, Bastion of Twilight and Wheel of Impregnability would give Promathia magic immunity and physical immunity respectively, and would have a green or red/orange ring underneath him while it was in effect. Obviously in the raid they get the same colored ring underneath, but it goes a bit further than that. The "magic immunity" one forces you to run in close, which arguably interrupts casters, while the "physical immunity" one forces you to stay away, which prevents melee attacks. So I think it's a nice way to mimic those effects.
Also, little thing, at the start of second phase, Alxaal is surprised that Promathia absorbed the darkness. I honestly wonder if something has been lost in translation there, cause I feel like that shouldn't be something abnormal.
Shinryu
Shinryu is the final boss of the Abyssea story, and they also show up in the Rhapsodies of Vana'Diel story. As I mentioned before, it's an alternate version of Promathia that absorbed the player character and Selh'teus, transformed into this new form and then ravaged the world.
His appearance in the raid is slightly different than in FFXI. The FFXI version didn't have the bright markings on its wings or body, the sigil behind its head, or the petal-like parts of Promathia's wings on its own wings.
The FFXI fight didn't have two tiers, and the raid version only shares two attack names. Though the second phase against the Hollow King shares a few more.
Not much to say about this one besides what I already have here and in the previous one, but I will note that the Hollow King kinda looks like a two-headed Bahamut to me.
It's our final tour of the world of Vana'diel. Unless you wanna pay an extra $12 a month, that is.
This post will talk about the locations featured in the raid. A second one will talk about the bosses and the story of the crossover. (And I'll probably make a third to cover minor stuff like the notes on the ground.)
A heads up, this one is long, but bear with me.
Windurst Walls
One of the four areas of the city of Windurst. The massive tree tower in the center is Heavens Tower, and is the location for a number of government functions as well as the home of the leader of the Federation of Windurst, the Star Sibyl.
From where the alliance enters, behind them is a path to the residential area. To the right is the North Auction House and a path to Windurst Woods.
From the spot the alliance is launched to the arena, normally there would be bridges on the left and right that head to the areas circling Heavens Tower. Out there are manors for current and former Ministers of Magic and the Jueno consulate building (plus a path to Windurst Waters). Worth noting that the first building you see to the east of the arena is Shantotto's manor.
You can't see it, but behind Heavens Tower is a manor called the House of the Hero. It belonged to Karuha-Baruha, a Minister of Magic who died during the Crystal War after summoning Fenrir.
Al Zahbi
We're in the Commoner’s Ward of the fortress city of Al Zahbi, capital of the Empire of Aht Urghan. Where the alliance enters from is the Victory Gate, which would normally lead to the Merchant's Ward.
Treasures of Aht Urghan introduced Besieged, a re-occurring event where Al Zahbi can be invaded by beastmen that are trying to steal the Astral Candescence. Players fight alongside NPCs to defend the city, and if the beastmen win, the Astral Candescence is taken and players lose access to some benefits and services until it's recovered. NPCs can also be captured and have to be rescued.
The area the alliance fights in is called Ulthalam Parade. The Astral Candescence is kept in the Hall of Binding to the north of there. When the alliance leaves, they head into an area called Bastion. If you went up the stairs, there would be entrances out to Wajaom Woodlands and Bhaflau Thickets.
Alzadaal Undersea Ruins
A collection of underwater ruins that connect to several other locations around Aht Urghan. You enter it a few times as part of the story of Treasures of Aht Urghan, and it's also where Salvage and Nyzul Isle Investigation missions take place.
Fun fact! The ruins are actually the remains of Alexander's first body (he was huge!), built by the Alzadaal Empire that worshipped him. The body he has in Treasures of Aht Urghan (and this fight) was built from the remains of his old body and parts taken from Proto-Ultima and Proto-Omega.
That first incarnation of Alexander fought Odin in a battle that ended in their mutual defeat, wiped out the Alzadaal Empire, and caused a storm that blocked out the sun for an entire year.
Garden of Ru'Hmet
This area is inside the capital of Al'Taieu, located in the upper floors of the Grand Palace of Hu'Xzoi.
You come here at the end of the Chains of Promathia storyline. It requires navigating some labyrinthian areas and dealing with lots of dangerous mobs that are True Sight and True Sound.
For example, the Aw'aern and Aw'zdei you fight here. The Aw'aern appears to be the Polearm variant of that mob, which is funny because it uses a move, Glacial Splitter, that only Sword variants have. Aern enemies in FFXI would sometimes reraise after you killed them. Thankfully this one doesn't.
Empyreal Paradox
This is the name of the battlefield where you fight Promathia.
If I understand everything correctly (and I probably don't), the "paradox" part of it is because the capital of Al'Taieu and the region it's in, Lumoria, exist simultaneously in space above Vana'diel and also sunk beneath the Sea of Shu'Meyo.
...
Look, weird/bad things happen when millenia ago someone blows up one part of a network of towers as they're channeling massive amounts of energy to open a gate to the realm of the gods.
In any case, as you might notice if you look down during the fight, you are above Vana'diel. I've had some trouble getting a nice good long look at it, but:
The crescent shaped island is Qufim Island.
Southwest of that you'll see a small circle with lines connecting to it. That is Jeuno (the lines are the bridges that connect it to the continents).
The two continents connected to Jeuno are Mindartia and Quon. Quon is west of Jeuno and is the bigger of the two continents.
You can likely also see the islands of Kuzotz and Elshimo as well. Kuzotz would be southwest of Quon, is mostly desert, and is where the Galka are originally from, while Elshimo is southeast of Mindartia and has a large Mithra settlement, and also the absolute shitholes that are Yuhtunga and Yhoator Jungles.
Promyvion
During the mid-phase of the Promathia fight, the battlefield changes to Promyvion. If you look out in the distance during this phase, you'll see what a Promyvion zone looked like, i.e., the floating islands and a ghostly white tower (known as a Spire). Since this raid is Windurst, I kinda wonder if they based it on or just specifically used the Promyvion - Mea zone (which was accessed from the Crag of Mea, the nearest crag to Windurst).
Promyvion is a region created by the Emptiness, and surrounds the four remaining Mothercrystals that are located beneath the lands. I think it's essentially a place created from leftovers of Vana'diel that the Emptiness has consumed, and it's filled with monsters that are created from the memories of people lost to the Emptiness.
Promyvion zones used to be capped to lvl 30 for Mea, Holla, and Dem, and I think to lvl 50 for Zvahl, and were all pretty difficult. As such, they were a pretty significant roadblock for players to progress the Chains of Promathia story. Nowadays there is no level cap.
Alxaal calls the Emptiness "the darkness of man's heart made manifest". Personally, I remember it being more like the opposite of life. Not the Void, or a corruption, but simply non-existence. But! a) It's been over a decade since I did the CoP story, b) I can't claim I fully understood it back then, and c) they have expanded / retconned the FFXI lore since then.
Abyssean Empyreal Paradox
The version of the Empyreal Paradox in Abyssea. Apparently it's on the moon!
Abyssea is a parallel version of Vana'diel. Its history was the same until the fight against Promathia, where that world's version of the player character failed to defeat them.
Promathia absorbed a Kuluu named Selh'teus (and maybe others) and transformed into Shinryu, slaughtered everyone except that world's version of Prishe, laid waste to the land, and turned the skies crimson. As such, the lands of Abyssea are broken and crawling with monsters.
Notably, during the cutscene that happens mid-battle, I'm pretty sure that Shinryu consumes the Galool Ja Ja shade the same way it did Selh'teus. But in this case, the shade is able to take control, probably because of Sareel Ja's influence.
Had a thought midway though 7.5, and wanna get it down before it slips outta my head.
Dropping it under a read more in case people haven't played through that or watched the Evercold teaser.
I don't think "re-uniting the stars" means re-joining the shards with the Source. I wonder if instead it means re-creating the Convocation.
Cause I was thinking we're probably not gonna actually do a re-joining. While that would be neat cause it could potentially lead to the devs doing another re-do of the game world, it feels unlikely? How would that work? We'd still need to access older locations for certain content, right?
So what else could "stars" refer to?
And then I remembered that back in 5.3, when we picked up all the Convocation crystals, the Hythlodaeus shade said "I see you have been collecting stars".
Now, why we'd re-create the Convocation, I don't exactly know, but it's an interesting thought.
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