Eorzea, Garlean Empire, Mages, and oh my!

[ashkir]

Hello everyone I apologize for going off topic about this board and not asking about quests, etc. I want to ask ab out lore, the story line. I'm trying to get a grasp of the lore in this game, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. I have some screenshots as well, which I'll share as I ask my questions. Input is very much welcome. Also, just a warning to other new people like me, this thread may contain spoilers. I am okay with things being spoiled to me, so don't feel bad about it if you reply to me! 

 

Okay, firstly, Kan-E-Senna had spoken about these people who came from another realm that defended Eorzea, they look like silhouettes, so I'm guessing basically mystery heroes that defended Eorzea and took so little credit that the Gridanian people (or the Eorzean?) call the Warriors of Light. It seems the people have very high respect for them:

[align=center]http://31.media.tumblr.com/0f8cf02e80cfbe19d0c2495aafd889a3/tumblr_msszuwUzyY1qdyjp3o1_1280.jpg[/img][/align]

Who were they? And where did they come from? Now, secondly why did I (my character) start glowing, illuminated by the glow of the crystal? And end up with a crystal in my hand as seen here?

[align=center]http://31.media.tumblr.com/3612a6a96b4a50726cbd6a09585ddc52/tumblr_msszhptfsu1qdyjp3o4_1280.jpg[/img][/align]

So, who exactly is this Masked Mage that I slayed? This other mage... mage looking guy with a reddish mask. Screenshot here Who is he? The game keeps referring to him as ???.  

[align=center]http://31.media.tumblr.com/428554ed8ad36543f5feffd295bfa028/tumblr_mst0zlvMYy1qdyjp3o3_1280.jpg[/img][/align]

So now, the Garlean Empire... Who are the Garlean Empire? Are they from another realm? Their technology looks advance and the cinematic looked like space a bit. So, they went to war with Eorzea? Why would they take down an entire moon to try and destroy them?What is the conflict? I'm guessing there were two conflicts, this from 15 years ago (Edit: Raubahn said it was 50, who is right?), and another one from 5 years ago (the calamity?). This dragon that Merlwyb Bloefhiswyn (How the heck do you pronounce that?) was talking about, the one that tried to create an eighth hell... was this that dragon? And did the dragon fight for Eorzea, Garlean, or was it opposing both sides?  

[align=center]http://25.media.tumblr.com/05aa442973376d0076c24dc7e3d40af8/tumblr_msszl407Mr1qdyjp3o7_1280.jpg[/img][/align]

Now, these fellas, Yda and Papalymo (I hope I spelled that right), so anyways, who exactly are they? They always show up and they leave so little besides where they're from... So, um, they raised more questions to me. Why are they traveling around like this, what are they doing? Are they researchers? Overseers? Or just heroes on an adventure? Now, they referred to the Masked Mage as the Lahabrea of the Asician (or Ascians? I hope I spelled that right...) what is that? Now, they keep talking about me, my character, Drystan Ashkir in the third person, like you can't be or you are... like they know more than I do... What is this? What are they talking about?

[align=center]http://31.media.tumblr.com/decf67aad436300d023bf5e23d264105/tumblr_msp1r5ZUhZ1qdyjp3o5_1280.jpg[/img][/align]

What is this outfit I saw myself in at the beginning of the game? Was I something else before?

[align=center]http://31.media.tumblr.com/cad0acc5b7ad4919fc9407ed1043d9e9/tumblr_msp1r5ZUhZ1qdyjp3o1_1280.jpg[/img][/align]

[align=justify]At the beginning, why was I coming down from the skies to Earth? Where did I come from (Hyur Archer), what land do I hail from? I don't know any of these. It was just a boring trip and meeting a Moogle who seemed surprised that I could see them. Why can't everyone see Moogles? What exactly are they? Are the Hyur a younger race? And when Kan-E-Senna stated I have basked in the mother's light, was this the blue lights I saw at the beginning and around the level five quest? When I touched a light, I saw a giant crystal?

 

Sorry! I know this is a lot! I just want to get my coins straight. :3. I do apologize for the screenshots being small, if you click on them it should show a larger version. But, Tumblr resizes them. I am playing in a much higher resolution as seen here. [/align]

[YesGood]

Whoooo... I can answer a couple of these, but man, what a list!

 

Okay, first off:

 

Okay, firstly, Kan-E-Senna had spoken about these people who came from another realm that defended Eorzea, they look like silhouettes, so I'm guessing basically mystery heroes that defended Eorzea and took so little credit that the Gridanian people (or the Eorzean?) call the Warriors of Light. It seems the people have very high respect for them-

 

These are the adventurers from 1.0 who went to war at the Battle of Carteneau to stop the Garlean Empire from trying to bring down Dalamud. During the open cinematic or the FFXIV ARR cinematic (End of an Era), you get to see the whole thing go down and, if I'm not mistaken, you'll recognize all the same adventurers from the 1.0 Cinematic.

(The Roegadyn Paladin, the Lalafell White mage, the Miqo'te Bard, the male Elezen Black Mage, and the Hyur Marauder. There's also a female Elezen but I'm not entirely sure that I saw her. She might be a Dragoon in End of an Era?)

 

Louisoix, leader of the Circle of Knowing and a worshipper of the god Thaliak god of wisdom and knowledge, tries to contain Bahamut who burst forth from Dalamud due to the Garleans meddling with the help of the rest of the Circle of Knowing ( http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Circle_of_Knowing )who were located at other shrines (The Miqo'te Y'shtola, the Lalafell Papalymo, the Hyur Pugilist Yda with the mask, and the Hyur male Thancred that you asked about further down - Each represents one or another of the gods, I believe, and during 1.0 when you started in whichever of the three main cities, you would run into one of them. The male Hyur was in Ul'dah, the Lalafell and Hyur female were in Gridania, and the Miqo'te was in Limsa Lominsa, I believe). This inevitably fails and in an effort to save as many of the brave adventurers as he can, he basically teleports them through time using Thaliak's power. The NPC who mentions this quest, at least in Ul'dah, goes into telling about how no one can quite recall what happened, only that brave heroes went to fight and there was a lot of devastation.

 

On the matter of the Circle of Knowing, the only one that doesn't show up in the End of an Era is http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Urianger Urianger who looks a lot like, and may be, the masked mage you see in the opening when you first start a character and you're hovering in space. Incidentally, he is a representative of Nymeia, the spinner of fate, so if that -is- him, then it may be connected to the fate that you're subconsciously realizing during the vision.

 

The Garlean Empire was, originally a small nation that ended up getting a huge technological advancement spearheaded by their, now, Emperor.

 

Later on, Garlean airships started dropping linkpearls in all the major city states of Aldenard and Vylbrand, stating that the beast tribes of Eorzea are plotting to call their eikons to attack the Empire, and offering protection to all states that accepted to be ruled by the empire and take arms against the beast tribes.

More recently, the Garlean Empire has dispatched legions throughout Eorzea. Units have been engaged in combat within Thanalan, as well as the Black Shroud. One legion, led by the notorious Nael Van Darnus - Legatus of the VIIth Legion - has invaded the Ishgardian stronghold known as the Dzemael Darkhold, securing the vast crystal deposits located inside the caves for Ceruleum harvesting, which then may be used by the Empire to summon their own Primal.

 

So the reason they brought down Dalamud was to free Bahamut, the primal within it. Basically, they've had it out for the Beastmen and I assume they thought they could control a Primal and use it to devastate the city-states in order to take them over.

 

About the outfit you see in the beginning is a Bard outfit which is the advanced class for a Hunter. Basically, it's assumed that you were one of the adventurers from the Battle of Carteneau who was preserved (For five years?) by Louisoix's spell. You don't remember this at first, through the story, so you're basically a no-named, amnesia-suffering, adventurer.

 

That's pretty much all I've got answers for. While you're floating around (which I assume is a dream) I think it's a memory of when you were being teleported. The Crystal is probably related to the gods somehow, and I feel I should know how, but I'm afraid to say because I could be wrong. Q_Q

 

I chose not to hide these things-- mostly because, for an RPer, some of them may be very important to know, such as the Garlean mess. Sorry about that.

[Torvhan]

SPOILERS ABOUND

 

 

 

So for some primers are some threads or sites which helped me figure out what was going on.

 

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/11/24/the-mog-log-the-story-so-far-and-yet-to-come-in-final-fantasy/

 

-This massively post explained simply some of the things that happened in some of the original ARR trailers and the old game,and was what helped me figure out what was going on.

 

http://ffxiv-roleplayers.com/showthread.php?tid=1615

 

-From the RPC, RP forums by resident lore expert Merri. This is a more indepth look at the story from 1.0 which may help.

 

To answer some of your questions:

 

The warriors of light are the "legacy" player characters who participated in the Battle of Cartenaeu, the people who were sent through time by Louisoix (the old man) in the trailer. Though I haven't seen the reason in game reason for the loss of memory, I personally believe their faces were forgotten due to the fact that they were removed from "time" during the five years, and that after their return people will begin to remember them.

 

The crystal stuff is your a "crystal bearer" you gain a bit of power by being chosen by planet as one of its champions. This is a common connection with other final fantasy games, many of them feature the crystal bearers.

 

I have no clue who the masked man is yet, as I haven't gotten that far in the story yet.

 

The Garlean Empire is from another continent, and pretty much they're attempting to conquer the world, or "save it." They use magitech an advanced form of technology and magic combined since most Garleans can't use magic. They decided to drop the moon "meteor" cause the war wasn't really going in their favor at the time, I believe and some of the crazier people in charge figured it would be easier to just wipe out Eorzea. The dragon destorying the ship and the one that popped out of the moon "Bahamut" are different. Bahamut was the dragon trying to turn the world in to the "eighth hell" The serpentine dragon destroying the ship in essence was fighting for Eorzea, but for the beast tribes. If you have more indepth questions about the Garlean Empire, Merri knows a lot more about specifics.

 

I won't spoil who Yda and Papalymo are, around level 20ish the main story will introduce all of them and what they are doing.

 

The outfit is the Artifact gear, for the job which is attached to your class. Essentially what you will be in the future should you stay on your classes path.

 

These floating scenes are "visions" of a sort where you are communicating with Hydaelyn (the planet.)

 

 

 

 

Hope this was helpful.

[ashkir]

Oh my god, guys! This is amazing! Thank you! I feel so random like jumping about. But, this makes so much more sense. And this class system confuses the heck out of me! The game isn't really straight forward with it. The classes confuse me so much.

[shdwsng]

The class system is a bit confusing, but not as bad as it seems. Basically, you make it to level 30 in one class, and it gives you the chance to open up levels in other classes. Once you hit level 15 in a specific secondary class, it allows you to take up a Job. Jobs are the classic FF classes such as White/Black Mage, Dragoon, Paladin, etc. For example, a Gladiator is the early-game tank, but you can pull from other skillsets to lay down a beating. The Job tied to Gladiator is Paladin, which is a straight-up Holy Tank of I Can Survive Almost Anything. Much more focused on survivability and threat management as opposed to hurting things.

 

Also, the second link in the massively spoilered post? Yeah. Read that. No, seriously. Go read it NAO as it basically explains the story of FFXIV version 1. Quite honestly, it sucks that the back end was so buggered up. The lore behind FFXIV 2.0 is rather awesome, and a welcome return to the grandness of Final Fantasy.

[ashkir]

So I have a question. Who was that elf (Sorry I can't spell that race) guy, the mage that casted something and smiled at the end making the heroes disappear? I'm guessing he's the one responsibile for making me reappear?

[Khaze'to Zhwan]

About the outfit you see in the beginning is a Bard outfit which is the advanced class for a Hunter. Basically, it's assumed that you were one of the adventurers from the Battle of Carteneau who was preserved (For five years?) by Louisoix's spell. You don't remember this at first, through the story, so you're basically a no-named, amnesia-suffering, adventurer.

 

Thats not quite correct, yes thats the bards outfit but through the story you prove to be a powerful ally you are not a 1.0 adventurer with amnesia, strictly speaking of course you can RP what ever you want.  You are a newcomer to the city in the story and eventually reach the same status but thats it, no amnesia or anything like that.  Legacy players got their own cut scene explaining what happened to them during/after the time skip.

 

So I have a question. Who was that elf (Sorry I can't spell that race) guy, the mage that casted something and smiled at the end making the heroes disappear? I'm guessing he's the one responsibile for making me reappear?

That would be Louisoix, already mentioned in Siobhains post

[ashkir]

Thanks everyone! The massively link helped. So there seems to be 3 cinematics? The game's opening one. One you see when you afk on the login screen, and the 1.0 on Machinima? Those were cool, and answered some questions (though rose) a lot more to me. 

 

The story seems to be well thought out. The hyur archer guy seems to be the main focus of them all. Is he supposed to be "us" in relationship to us/Red in pokemon?

 

Edit: Reading massively link still. It's explaining a lot!