SE made relics available very early on in FFXI's lifecycle in 2003. They were the top weapons until 2010 when abyssea came out and gave us Empyrean weapons some of which were better then relics.

Relics created an artificial ceiling on weapons in FFXI in that no weapon released in that 10 year time span could be better then a relic or have higher damage on it.

Now we have FFXIV they released relics early on as well. Are we going to see a repeat of what happened in FFXI where every new weapon that comes out has to be worse then relics? Or will we actually see them come out with new weapons that are better then relics?