Strange Apparatus.. Who built them? Are they relevant to Adoulin?

[Kote]

Back in the day we would trade chips and cores to create items and rune weapons. In the current Adoulin expansion a certain rune fencer had traveled to them all and engraved messages into them using runes at some time in the distant past. Considering they all work on a particular element and create Rune weapons among possible unknown other things. Who built them exactly? Was it an ancient form of Synergy?

The gist I'm understanding from Rune Fencer quests is they seem to respond to rune engravings of sorts. If so was this part of the Kulu/Zillart technology or derived from where Sverdhried Hillock had learned about rune engraving? Or vice-versa ?

The rune weapons do have some rune markings in their skins, but do not posess any elemental quality to them unlike Rune Fencer's or apparatus'. His messages made it seem like he'd never seen an elemental before. Neither did he know (to my knowledge) how the apparatus worked or what they did. Aside from being able to have it respond to elemental runes and record messages.

Does this mean theres a physical set of runes to go along with Rune Fencers elemental runes? Could they be used to engrave rune enhanced elemental gear or items? Out of the eleven in Quan. Eight are functional, two are not working (no power?), and one probably was used by the Kulu to blow up Fei Yin, and is partially destroyed as a result. If Sverdhried Hillock got eight of them to respond to his runes. Does this mean the other two non functional apparatus' could be made to respond to the energies of elemental runes?

Any thoughts if this could be connected to more Adoulin lore, or are they just forgoten gimmics from ROZ and COP?

[FaeQueenCory]

The Zilart built them.

And if you do the RUN AF quest... You learn that our Rune Fencer is basically a rediscovery of the lost Zilartian art.

Remember the battles with David Bowie?
Yup.
That's what Zilartian Rune Fencers' runes do: magic damage and absorb...
Pretty swanky right?

[Alhanelem]

the real mystery is still the three non-functional apparatuses.

[Karbuncle]

The non-functional apparati... apparatusses...appartuses? If i recall were just the ones that were baddly damaged during the rise of Sky and the explosion that crippled Delkfutt and Fei'Yin... Which would explain Fei'Yins unlit status, as well as Ranguemount(?) Pass. KRT's nonfunctional one is a bit harder to explain, but I'd like to think the deactive ones were just baddly damaged.

It should be noted KRT and Fei'Yin still have colors associated with them, Cyan and Carmine. While Rang is listed as "Unlit", but this may be coincidence and it could be the "Gray Chip"... mistaken for unlit. On that note, this deepens a bit, during CoP, they added 3 chips.

http://www.ffxiah.com/item/1693/cyan-chip
http://www.ffxiah.com/item/1692/carmine-chip
http://www.ffxiah.com/item/1694/gray-chip

These are drops from enemies in CoP zones, and all correspond to the non-functioning Apparatus. Interesting, no?

[MDenham]

The non-functional apparati... apparatusses...appartuses? If i recall were just the ones that were baddly damaged during the rise of Sky and the explosion that crippled Delkfutt and Fei'Yin... Which would explain Fei'Yins unlit status, as well as Ranguemount(?) Pass. KRT's nonfunctional one is a bit harder to explain, but I'd like to think the deactive ones were just baddly damaged.

It should be noted KRT and Fei'Yin still have colors associated with them, Cyan and Carmine. While Rang is listed as "Unlit", but this may be coincidence and it could be the "Gray Chip"... mistaken for unlit. On that note, this deepens a bit, during CoP, they added 3 chips.

http://www.ffxiah.com/item/1693/cyan-chip
http://www.ffxiah.com/item/1692/carmine-chip
http://www.ffxiah.com/item/1694/gray-chip

These are drops from enemies in CoP zones, and all correspond to the non-functioning Apparatus. Interesting, no?

Supposedly the non-functioning Strange Apparatuses were given the colors in the update that added those chips. (I don't remember where exactly I read this, but I believe it was on the FFXIclopedia talk page about the Strange Apparatuses.)

That said, the KRT and Fei'Yin units are... well, semi-functional in that they will still talk to you (and basically give a "I can't operate correctly, shutting down" message). The Ranguemont Pass one is entirely broken, implying that whatever affected these three is probably not linked to the Meltdown.

Still, more backstory to them would be nice, since we still only have bits and pieces of it (including the implication that the colored chips - both for these and for Limbus entry - are the byproduct of some process performed on the chips Ghrahs are made of).

[Vivivivi]

Can we get a lore focused ask the dev team Q&A?

[Olor]

yeah we could also ask about those cardian cards... what are they for?

[Lithera]

I know some of the cardian cards that drop off them are used for some quests. I can't think of which ones though.

[MDenham]

I know some of the cardian cards that drop off them are used for some quests. I can't think of which ones though.

Two of the Tens are (one for a quest line in Jeuno, and the other one in the "fetch all manner of random junk for the opo-opos" quest).