Operation Archon - what else happened?

[Tregarde]

Anyone who's finished ARR's first campaign knows the general idea of Operation Archon - the leaders of Eorzea reject surrender, and unite to fight. The Grand Companies, supported by Free Companies, conducts a three pronged attack to weaken the Garlean forces, and open the way for the Warrior of Light to destroy Ultima Weapon.

 

We all know how things played out from the Warrior of Light's perspective (and the very cut-scene heavy Duties). The real question I have is... what ELSE do we know of Operation Archon? We know that Gridanian forces attacked the rail lines, Limsa forces attacked coastal forts, and Ul'dah pushed through to Gaius' stronghold.

 

While we know a little of the Limsa and Ul'dah attacks, there's a lot about them we do not know (troop compositions, causalities, etc.) As far as I can tell we know basically nothing of the Gridanian battle, other than it was successful.

 

I ask because I'm working on how to integrate Operation Archon into my characters histories. After all, in-game time it happened a couple years ago, and it was a pretty big deal. I'm sure others might like to know more also. I'm particularly curious about the Gridanian side, since so little was revealed (and so far internet searches haven't helped).

Edited March 28, 2018 by Tregarde

[Warren Castille]

There might be some information in the lore book about it, but alas I don't have a copy handy to check. If there isn't, though, there's actually a lot of leeway to play with there. While XIV can be infuriating in how much it doesn't tell us, the silver lining is that that makes a lot of the grey area our personal playground.

[Kieron Lohengrin]

5 minutes ago, Tregarde said:

Anyone who's finished ARR's first campaign knows the general idea of Operation Archon - the leaders of Eorzea reject surrender, and unite to fight. The Grand Companies, supported by Free Companies, conducts a three pronged attack to weaken the Garlean forces, and open the way for the Warrior of Light to destroy Ultima Weapon.

 

We all know how things played out from the Warrior of Light's perspective (and the very cut-scene heavy Duties). The real question I have is... what ELSE do we know of Operation Archon? We know that Gridianian forces attacked the rail lines, Limsa forces attacked coastal forts, and Ul'dah pushed through to Gaius' stronghold.

 

While we know a little of the Limsa and Ul'dah attacks, there's a lot about them we do not know (troop compositions, causalities, etc.) As far as I can tell we know basically nothing of the Gridianian battle, other than it was successful.

 

I ask because I'm working on how to integrate Operation Archon into my characters histories. After all, in-game time it happened a couple years ago, and it was a pretty big deal. I'm sure others might like to know more also. I'm particularly curious about the Gridanian side, since so little was revealed (and so far internet searches haven't helped).

 

ARR, Heavensward, and Stormblood all take place within a few months of each other, not a couple years ago. Official ingame time is still 5 years after Carteneau.

[Warren Castille]

22 minutes ago, Kieron Lohengrin said:

 

ARR, Heavensward, and Stormblood all take place within a few months of each other, not a couple years ago. Official ingame time is still 5 years after Carteneau.

While not wrong, this is completely stupid and I don't know anyone who uses that in their RP.

 

Edit: Spoilery post containing a lot of complaining about this:

Spoiler

1) Yet another example of the timey-wimey thing. Nanamo specifically mentions Ala Mhigo 20 years ago and the Calamity 5. It feels really strange for the main story to mention that, since that means the entireties of 2.x, 3.x and 4.0 all took place in a single year? So the rejoining of the Alliance, the raid on Castrum, the primal situations, all of the Iceheart thing, the Ishgardian call to arms, the forging AND destruction of the Crystal Braves, our adventures in Ishgard, the entire journey across all of the HW zones, several terse negotiations with hostile factions including DRAGONS, ended the actual war, forged a new government, relocated all of the missing Scions from a few points ago, started a revolution, ended a revolution, unearthed Omega, killed a couple more primals, discovered Rhalgr's Reach, brought together numerous Resistance cells, took an allegedly-long journey across half the known world by boat, helped form another revolution, ended a tribal battle, made an alliance with those people, overthrew Doma, returned to Rhalgr's, lead one more revolution, overthrew Ala Mhigo, and killed an insane dragon god.

 

In one year.

 

Right. WoL doesn't get days off.

 

Edited March 27, 2018 by Warren Castille

[Valence]

I do use that in RP, and I guess my RP is stupid (I tend to agree that time is a bit compressed at times in their story). /shrug

 

Time ellipsis is the way to go. The same time bubbles they use. Also, there is a little over a year past now. Something like a year and a half since the start of ARR.

 

 

 

There is not much on the details of Operation Archon and what happens around in the lorebook. It just tells what is told in ARR.

[Warren Castille]

1 hour ago, Valence said:

I do use that in RP, and I guess my RP is stupid (I tend to agree that time is a bit compressed at times in their story). /shrug

 

Time ellipsis is the way to go. The same time bubbles they use. Also, there is a little over a year past now. Something like a year and a half since the start of ARR.

 

 

 

There is not much on the details of Operation Archon and what happens around in the lorebook. It just tells what is told in ARR.

I wasn't trying to come at anyone's RP, but the sheer number of impacting events is just too much to pretend this was in a calendar year. That's just logic and politics (two things that don't work together, hence the squished timeline being dumb).

 

Edited edit: Just counting the stuff I posted (which ignores everything leading up to lv50 quests) that's 27 events in 52 weeks. A major milestone happened every two weeks, give or take, up to and including starting a war and finishing one.

Edited March 27, 2018 by Warren Castille

[Tregarde]

4 hours ago, Kieron Lohengrin said:

ARR, Heavensward, and Stormblood all take place within a few months of each other, not a couple years ago. Official ingame time is still 5 years after Carteneau.

 

3 hours ago, Warren Castille said:

While not wrong, this is completely stupid and I don't know anyone who uses that in their RP.

 

Edit: Spoilery post containing a lot of complaining about this:

~snip~

 

 

Wow.  Okay... I guess I'll just keep when things happened a bit ambiguous. I know that game devs don't always update dialogues, but I would have expected that when you're in the expansions they would have moved the calendar a little. It does seem ridiculous that ALL that happened in such a short amount of time.

 

As for Op Archon, if no new information comes forth, I can work with an idea I have. It won't be anything ridiculous. Just some people fighting for their lives and their home.

[Silmanos]

Yeah the timeline given by the devs is a bit ridiculous. Especially when you are given a certain passage of times in several spots. Such as iirc from the MSQ from 3.3 to 3.4 it's stated that several months have passed due to the events happening in Ishgard, and then again during the SB portion for travel. So take those moments out of the equation and you are looking at most of the major events happening in like 6-8 months which is even more ridiculous.

 

Edit: The majority of the people I rp with all go with irl time being in game time. It makes things a bit easier, especially when you have people who have been actively rping their character for 4 years straight.

Edited March 28, 2018 by Silmanos
Addon

[Kieron Lohengrin]

Roleplayers tend to cherry pick what they want from official continuity. Such as time travel canonically being a thing, or how PCs enjoy hanging out with orphans and having tea parties.

 

The present (Seventh Astral Era) is a very interesting period, as quite a bit happens in a short span - Ishgard opening up, the Padjal asking you for help in cleaning out their basement, and living sentient spirit weapons being mass produced by Rowena for profit. Never mind the stuff that goes unexplained, such as where your dimension-hopping mecha horse comes from. Being ambiguous and vague in writing out your timeline certainly helps, but don't let that deter you from incorporating events like Operation Archon and more. The game contains a vast amount of delightfully ridiculous elements beyond the MSQ, catered to adventuring / exploring types.

[Valence]

12 hours ago, Warren Castille said:

I wasn't trying to come at anyone's RP, but the sheer number of impacting events is just too much to pretend this was in a calendar year. That's just logic and politics (two things that don't work together, hence the squished timeline being dumb).

 

Edited edit: Just counting the stuff I posted (which ignores everything leading up to lv50 quests) that's 27 events in 52 weeks. A major milestone happened every two weeks, give or take, up to and including starting a war and finishing one.

 

Well, if we're to talk about logic and suspension of disbelief, even without coming at anyone's RP, maybe the problem of the majority of RPers is that they are roleplaying a whole lifetime of events rather than a shorter timeframe. I don't have that problem because I don't play a "sheer number of impacting events". 

 

To everyone what floats their boat and all, but you'll excuse me for thinking that even when you roleplay over a timeframe of a year IRL = a Twelvemoon, such a number of life shattering events seems a bit over the top to me. I don't see that much difference between one year and a half and 4-5 years (most RPers don't have 4-5 years anyway, 2 or 3 at best and that's already super old compared to most).

Edited March 28, 2018 by Valence

[Warren Castille]

9 hours ago, Valence said:

 

Well, if we're to talk about logic and suspension of disbelief, even without coming at anyone's RP, maybe the problem of the majority of RPers is that they are roleplaying a whole lifetime of events rather than a shorter timeframe. I don't have that problem because I don't play a "sheer number of impacting events". 

 

To everyone what floats their boat and all, but you'll excuse me for thinking that even when you roleplay over a timeframe of a year IRL = a Twelvemoon, such a number of life shattering events seems a bit over the top to me. I don't see that much difference between one year and a half and 4-5 years (most RPers don't have 4-5 years anyway, 2 or 3 at best and that's already super old compared to most).

 

You're conflating my complaint about the MSQ timeline with other people's roleplay. If people want to live in the MMO timebubble that's their prerogative but it doesn't change the fact the WoL has done an insane number of literally-world-changing things and that doesn't even delve into the side stories, raids or relics. I know SE doesn't make this game for roleplayers but it makes the worldbuilding seem pretty shakey, which is entirely my opinion.

 

Fighting a new primal threat every three or four months seems reasonable given the way the world is designed. Remember, prior to Ifrit being summoned way back at level 20 there hadn't been any primals summoned in years and years. And then after Ifrit pops up, a dozen of them and several elder gods all show up, one after another. I know suspension of disbelief varies person to person but...

[Valence]

On 3/27/2018 at 10:36 PM, Warren Castille said:

While not wrong, this is completely stupid and I don't know anyone who uses that in their RP.

 

 

Well I was answering to that really. If you find the lore and story stupid, and decide not to use it into your RP, it's up to you of course. 

[Warren Castille]

13 hours ago, Valence said:

 

Well I was answering to that really. If you find the lore and story stupid, and decide not to use it into your RP, it's up to you of course. 

 

You're misinterpreting again. My issue isn't the story or the lore or the world, it's the ridiculous pacing SE confirmed (despite past interviews being timey-wimey about it) and the fact it was unnecessary to pointedly state. I suppose if you want to include that one sentence as "the story and lore" than okay, I've got one problem with it, but that's splitting hairs.

Edited March 29, 2018 by Warren Castille

[Valence]

I find the time a little compressed and the pacing hectic but otherwise, I'm not totally sure why people are so hung up about that when in RP they always do it way, way worse from what I've seen.

 

I don't mean that as an offense to anyone. It just confuses me a great deal.