Limsa Lominsa Reaches Out

It's impossible to miss that our alabaster spires now host a scant crowd where once they bustled with life and activity. Who else remembers a time when the Aftcastle was a cacophony of Maelstrom's soldiers shouting, hawkers crying for shoppers to visit the Alley, and young lovers trying to whisper sweet nothings beneath the din. I do! I remember when Eorzeans scrambled to claim a slice of our prime real estate by the sea, a time before the gilded promises of the Immortal Flames lured away the adventurers to dry Thanalan. Limsa Lominsa was once a thriving, beating heart, and I shed a tear to see its platforms and walkways devoid of the people that were our lifeblood.

And I'm not alone. Just recently I was given the rare opportunity to interview our own Maelstrom Admiral Merlwyb Bloefhiswyn, and even she agrees that Limsa Lominsa is suffering a depression unlike any before. "I don't think our people are taking into account just how much the heavy emigration hurts us," says the Admiral, as she sits across from her desk, fixing me with her steely gaze. "It's not just soldiers we're losing, but commerce deflates as well. Our economy relies on Hawker's Alley and the guilds' due collections. We're losing gil, and we're losing it fast."

It's true, dear reader. In yesteryear such a problem never existed. Each pirate band went and ransacked wherever they liked, enjoyed the spoils, and Limsa Lominsa prospered for it. But with the foundation of the Eorzean Alliance, pillage isn't exactly a friendly diplomatic option. Many pirates have taken to soldiering and labor, and for every one that remains within our fair city, four more move onto Ul'dah where gil is said to be matched only by their quantity of sand. The sad reality is that we need the adventurers to come back to Limsa Lominsa.

"Mist realty sales helped some," explains the Admiral as I pose the question: just how do we bring the people and money back to Limsa Lominsa? "But it's not enough. Those same adventurers and small companies buying up plots by the sea still do their shopping in Ul'dah. What we need is a reminder that La Noscea is still a wilderness of land and ruins, ripe for the picking."

This reminder, she goes onto explain, is a new initiative taken by the leadership of our fair city, and a bold initiative it is. Under the guidance of the good Admiral, a new central linkshell has been established and from it has been produced a truly remarkable number of pearls. "Everyone gets one," declares Admiral Bloefhiswyn. "Maelstrom officers, traders, ordinary citizens, crastsmen. If you reside or maintain a business here, you'll be issued one of these new pearls."

I hold one of these new pearls even now, dear reader. It's a deep stormy sea-blue, like the ocean that we know and love. In it I see a small jewel that could be no more significant than the millions of pearls that lay unknown beneath the waves. But I also see the core that once made our city great, and can do so again. The sea, or livelihood, a spirit unmatched by the xenophobes of Gridania or the corruption of Ul'dah. So I take up my new pearl, my new connection to every Lominsan citizen that dares to weather the storm, and I proudly call into it, "Hello, my name is Petyr Winsome and I love Limsa Lominsa!"

Will you answer my cry?

Petyr Winsome

[The previous article appears in both the Harbor Herald and the Tonberry's Lantern. Shortly following the publication, citizens and business owners in Limsa Lominsa are visited by a moogle, each delivering their new Limsa Lominsa linkpearl.]

\\Balmung players who would like said linkshell should contact Sion Gyr, Aysun Demiir, or Arielle Beaudonet in-game.