Preliminary DRG post.
50 Quest
Alberic asks for your help to train Heustienne, a Dragoon who aided you previously via overseeing your trials to get the Drachen Mail. Before you can meet her however, there is news of a dragon attack and you are sent to help while Alberic fetches Heustienne.Â
You arrive at the scene, Dragoons lay dead save one, you rescue that one and Alberic and Heustienne arrive just in time to witness your skill with the spear. Heustienne wants to train under you because as an adventurer, your spearwork has been honed against all sorts of foes as opposed to exclusively dragons and she hopes it would give her an edge against one of Nidhogg's commander Graoully who has recently been terrorizing the area.Â
you accept taking her as your pupil.
52 Quest
You are asked to seek out Heustienne to further her training and find her in Western Coerthas near the pike, she is on her knees, exhausted with more dragons closing in, you dispatch the remainders and help her to her feet. She apologizes for already starting off poorly but says she would have been capable of killing them all ahd she relied on her techniques instead of trying to emulate you. However, she says that she would not learn a thing if she did.
She asks you to demonstrate your handiwork once more and so you seek a live target. After dispatching the foe she is confused for it seems that your technique and hers is identical. Though Heustienne gains nothing, by reanalyzing your fighting technique you develop Battle Litany and tell her of it (which to me seemed like a hilarious dick move). Heustienne had never considered bringing out the strength of her allies, saying that Dragoons focus on individually hitting harder and faster.Â
She invites you back to the Congregation in Foundation so you can see where the Dragoons live. It is there you meet her father, a retired Dragoon that, as Alberic later explains, was of great skill and renown. it is clear Heustienne wishes to follow in her father's footsteps and her father even gives her the family lance Peregrinne to her. Alberic later tells you that Heustienne and Estinien were near equals and the only difference is that the Eye chose Estinien instead. Because of this, Heustienne tosses herself into battle constantly "Bordering on self punishment" in a desire to become stronger and defend Ishgard.
54 Quest:Â
Graoully has been sighted in Western Coerthas and Heustienne leads a Dragoon force out to meet him. Fearing for her safety, Alberic asks you to go as well. it was good that you did for of the force only Heustienne and Brucemont remain and Brucemont is severely wounded. You help Heustienne drive off the remaining dragons and she curses that Graoully is nowhere to be found despite all the losses. It is then that Graoully shows up from under a ridge and begins to fly off, Heustienne, Peregrinne in hand, boldly leaps to fight the Dragon, piercing its back and the dragon carries her off into the distance back towards Dravania.Â
It is a apparent many Dragoons have died this way for Brucemont hands you a piece of Heustienne's armor that had fallen off in combat as a way to give the news to her father. Upon giving the piece he does not accept that she had died for no one had seen her fall off. Alberic promises to keep an eye out for her.
56 Quest:
Alberic has sighted a Heretic in Western Coerthas carrying a lance that looked much like Peregrinne. He asks you to investigate. You meet up with Temple Knights that have tailed the heretics to a corner of Western Coerthas. Inside a cave you are greeted by an Aevis and a Heretic guarding a bound and dirtied Heustienne, stripped of her armor. Once you deal with the heretics and free Heustienne she tells you that the dragon had carried her off into heretic territory before she could hop off and that they overpowered and divested her of her spear and armor.
The person who has the spear is a heretic leader that had left moments before your arrival to speak with others. She says it is clear they plan an assault on Ishgard proper and that you need to warn them. She elects to remain behind in order to get more information but also asks you to relay to her father that she is indeed dead. Before setting off she winces in pain and shakes it off saying it is nothing.
Upon returning to Alberic and Montorgains (her father) you tell them of the heretic plot and regardless of remaining silent or telling the truth of Heustienne's fate, they find out that she is indeed alive and had elected to stay behind.
58 Quest:
Heustienne's father and Alberic go with you to seek out Heustienne and try to get her back. After searching you find her after a trail of carnage and dragon corpses and retrieved Peregrinne in hand. Finally confronted, Heustienne says that the Heretics forced her to drink dragon's blood and thus the inquisitors will find her to be a heretic regardless of how she had drank it. Not only that but her body is changing, wanting to turn but only Heustienne's will prevents her from doing so. Alberic says its only a matter of time since the mind must change once the body does. Begrudgingly they let her go.
60 Quest: Graoully has once again been sighted in Coerthas and as such Alberic concluded Heustienne would be there as well. You are sent to find her. She is about to square off against the dragon and you help her. After the fight Heustienne's father and Alberic beg her to return to Ishgard, that they would take the secret of the dragon's blood to their graves. Heustienne declines, saying she now has the power needed to fight the dragons and so would continue on her crusade. She departs.
Overall enjoyable quest line that led to a good deal of Dragoon related lore such as their barracks, the freedom of expression (your armor can be an odd color if you wish, you don't need to use the Dragoon lance) the general independence or solitary nature such that despite fighting in squads or groups they tend to fight for themselves or there are no Dragoon specific techniques designed for teamwork. Also you find that Dragoons of Ishgard are HIGHLY specialized to fight DRAGONS specifically. Given the highly variable nature of Dragons (as evidenced by the triple triad cards such as "ice dragon") perhaps Heustienne seeks out the WOL's fighting style since it has successfully squared off against all manner of foes.
Not only that, it seems Dragoons may not actually survive the leaps they make. Given that Heustienne could not hop off any time she liked and both Brucemont and her father concluded that if she had fallen off she'd die most assuredly. This either means Dragoons are even MORE inefficient, because every missed jump is a death sentence or its just the case for high flying aerial targets and say a jump on a ground target won't kill if missed.
Beyond Battle Litany, there is nearly no lore behind the new abilities beyond the inner dragon stirring within you. This leaves the new abilities up in the air as to whether or not they are Azure Dragoon exclusive.
Battle Litany would be atypical of an Ishgardian, especially since the WOL seemed to have personally invented it right there.
Blood of the Dragon may or may not be Azure Dragoon material depending on interpretations of the Dragon blood aspect that Dragoons take on in their armor.
Fang and Claw and Wheeling Thrust are just spear movements so most likely can be replicated in some form. How this extends Blood of the Dragon is not explained
Geirskogul also pops out of the blue, you just -learn- it after killing graoully with no mention of why or how. Given how it shoots a laser beam made of dragons, I'm inclined to believe that both it and Blood of The Dragon are Azure Dragoon abilities or the very least only known by the most elite of elite Dragoons, the sort of legends that get their own statues in Ishgard. I find the latter unlikely for both Blood of the Dragon and Geirskogul are, for all intents and purposes, Azure in color and as such would make sense as to why the Azure Dragoon is called as such. Especially since neither Estinien or Haldrath have Azure armor
50 Quest
Alberic asks for your help to train Heustienne, a Dragoon who aided you previously via overseeing your trials to get the Drachen Mail. Before you can meet her however, there is news of a dragon attack and you are sent to help while Alberic fetches Heustienne.Â
You arrive at the scene, Dragoons lay dead save one, you rescue that one and Alberic and Heustienne arrive just in time to witness your skill with the spear. Heustienne wants to train under you because as an adventurer, your spearwork has been honed against all sorts of foes as opposed to exclusively dragons and she hopes it would give her an edge against one of Nidhogg's commander Graoully who has recently been terrorizing the area.Â
you accept taking her as your pupil.
52 Quest
You are asked to seek out Heustienne to further her training and find her in Western Coerthas near the pike, she is on her knees, exhausted with more dragons closing in, you dispatch the remainders and help her to her feet. She apologizes for already starting off poorly but says she would have been capable of killing them all ahd she relied on her techniques instead of trying to emulate you. However, she says that she would not learn a thing if she did.
She asks you to demonstrate your handiwork once more and so you seek a live target. After dispatching the foe she is confused for it seems that your technique and hers is identical. Though Heustienne gains nothing, by reanalyzing your fighting technique you develop Battle Litany and tell her of it (which to me seemed like a hilarious dick move). Heustienne had never considered bringing out the strength of her allies, saying that Dragoons focus on individually hitting harder and faster.Â
She invites you back to the Congregation in Foundation so you can see where the Dragoons live. It is there you meet her father, a retired Dragoon that, as Alberic later explains, was of great skill and renown. it is clear Heustienne wishes to follow in her father's footsteps and her father even gives her the family lance Peregrinne to her. Alberic later tells you that Heustienne and Estinien were near equals and the only difference is that the Eye chose Estinien instead. Because of this, Heustienne tosses herself into battle constantly "Bordering on self punishment" in a desire to become stronger and defend Ishgard.
54 Quest:Â
Graoully has been sighted in Western Coerthas and Heustienne leads a Dragoon force out to meet him. Fearing for her safety, Alberic asks you to go as well. it was good that you did for of the force only Heustienne and Brucemont remain and Brucemont is severely wounded. You help Heustienne drive off the remaining dragons and she curses that Graoully is nowhere to be found despite all the losses. It is then that Graoully shows up from under a ridge and begins to fly off, Heustienne, Peregrinne in hand, boldly leaps to fight the Dragon, piercing its back and the dragon carries her off into the distance back towards Dravania.Â
It is a apparent many Dragoons have died this way for Brucemont hands you a piece of Heustienne's armor that had fallen off in combat as a way to give the news to her father. Upon giving the piece he does not accept that she had died for no one had seen her fall off. Alberic promises to keep an eye out for her.
56 Quest:
Alberic has sighted a Heretic in Western Coerthas carrying a lance that looked much like Peregrinne. He asks you to investigate. You meet up with Temple Knights that have tailed the heretics to a corner of Western Coerthas. Inside a cave you are greeted by an Aevis and a Heretic guarding a bound and dirtied Heustienne, stripped of her armor. Once you deal with the heretics and free Heustienne she tells you that the dragon had carried her off into heretic territory before she could hop off and that they overpowered and divested her of her spear and armor.
The person who has the spear is a heretic leader that had left moments before your arrival to speak with others. She says it is clear they plan an assault on Ishgard proper and that you need to warn them. She elects to remain behind in order to get more information but also asks you to relay to her father that she is indeed dead. Before setting off she winces in pain and shakes it off saying it is nothing.
Upon returning to Alberic and Montorgains (her father) you tell them of the heretic plot and regardless of remaining silent or telling the truth of Heustienne's fate, they find out that she is indeed alive and had elected to stay behind.
58 Quest:
Heustienne's father and Alberic go with you to seek out Heustienne and try to get her back. After searching you find her after a trail of carnage and dragon corpses and retrieved Peregrinne in hand. Finally confronted, Heustienne says that the Heretics forced her to drink dragon's blood and thus the inquisitors will find her to be a heretic regardless of how she had drank it. Not only that but her body is changing, wanting to turn but only Heustienne's will prevents her from doing so. Alberic says its only a matter of time since the mind must change once the body does. Begrudgingly they let her go.
60 Quest: Graoully has once again been sighted in Coerthas and as such Alberic concluded Heustienne would be there as well. You are sent to find her. She is about to square off against the dragon and you help her. After the fight Heustienne's father and Alberic beg her to return to Ishgard, that they would take the secret of the dragon's blood to their graves. Heustienne declines, saying she now has the power needed to fight the dragons and so would continue on her crusade. She departs.
Overall enjoyable quest line that led to a good deal of Dragoon related lore such as their barracks, the freedom of expression (your armor can be an odd color if you wish, you don't need to use the Dragoon lance) the general independence or solitary nature such that despite fighting in squads or groups they tend to fight for themselves or there are no Dragoon specific techniques designed for teamwork. Also you find that Dragoons of Ishgard are HIGHLY specialized to fight DRAGONS specifically. Given the highly variable nature of Dragons (as evidenced by the triple triad cards such as "ice dragon") perhaps Heustienne seeks out the WOL's fighting style since it has successfully squared off against all manner of foes.
Not only that, it seems Dragoons may not actually survive the leaps they make. Given that Heustienne could not hop off any time she liked and both Brucemont and her father concluded that if she had fallen off she'd die most assuredly. This either means Dragoons are even MORE inefficient, because every missed jump is a death sentence or its just the case for high flying aerial targets and say a jump on a ground target won't kill if missed.
Beyond Battle Litany, there is nearly no lore behind the new abilities beyond the inner dragon stirring within you. This leaves the new abilities up in the air as to whether or not they are Azure Dragoon exclusive.
Battle Litany would be atypical of an Ishgardian, especially since the WOL seemed to have personally invented it right there.
Blood of the Dragon may or may not be Azure Dragoon material depending on interpretations of the Dragon blood aspect that Dragoons take on in their armor.
Fang and Claw and Wheeling Thrust are just spear movements so most likely can be replicated in some form. How this extends Blood of the Dragon is not explained
Geirskogul also pops out of the blue, you just -learn- it after killing graoully with no mention of why or how. Given how it shoots a laser beam made of dragons, I'm inclined to believe that both it and Blood of The Dragon are Azure Dragoon abilities or the very least only known by the most elite of elite Dragoons, the sort of legends that get their own statues in Ishgard. I find the latter unlikely for both Blood of the Dragon and Geirskogul are, for all intents and purposes, Azure in color and as such would make sense as to why the Azure Dragoon is called as such. Especially since neither Estinien or Haldrath have Azure armor
