just finished all of A Realm Reborn solo after clearing crystal tower with a group of other solos. i never thought i'd be back at the start of heavensward ever since i first started playing the game, but here i am, at the steps of faith again, about to head into the city of ishgard for the first time once more. the trials that i went through to get to this point, the hundreds of items i crafted, the days spent in palace of the dead, the clutch moments of killing bosses, and the thrill of overcoming dps checks -- ultima weapon's especially -- was invigorating. the time spent in aurum vale, grinding my blue mage up to level 80 while at the same time accumulating company seals to craft the best gear for crafters and gatherers, my mad dash to get samurai to level 60 just to be able to get best in slot right as the stream finally started, gambling at mutamix and getting the exact right materia to finish all of the 1-50 crafting quests. the solos i met along the way, people so much farther than me only for me to meet them at the same exact roadblock we all stood together at. and for us to cross that threshold together. we might have been solos, not interacting with each other in order to maintain the spirit of the challenge, but we weren't alone by any means.
and now a new frontier stands in front of us, from our first enemy in ravana, the stumpingly impossible wall in nidhogg and bismark, to hopefully our match atop baelsar's wall with the griffin himself and into the sunset of stormblood, i cannot wait for this chapter of the story, for the strategies and community that will spring from our combined efforts in the mid-day sun of ishgard.
the sun rises on a new day. we shall meet with it, and rise even higher, joining our voices into the chorus, and our hearts will rise into the heavens.
