Between the Calamity and A Realm Reborn

Hello all!

I'm currently doing research for a tabletop RPG game that I am planning on having set in Eorzea. I've got a 50-page document that details things like racial stats, classes, weapons and items, etc. But the one thing I'm having trouble finding is what actually happened during the period in which I set the game!

I currently plan on running the game during the time period between the Calamity and the beginning of A Realm Reborn, focusing at first on La Noscea about 6 months to a year after the Calamity. In my version of the world, La Noscea became a temporarily popular refugee hub because of the mistaken belief of those on the mainland that it was spared from the Calamity's wrath. I've not found anything in game that suggests this, but I figured it would make at least some sense.

Beyond that though, the only events that I can recall specifically taking place during this time are the failed awakening of Alexander... and that's about it. Some ideas I'm considering exploring for the party at early levels involve the cultists that you find in Tam-Tara. Later, I'm thinking about having them go off exploring Mhach, and potentially some primal battles that got 'swept under the rug' by the governments due to not wanting to cause a panic. (As a side note, the Player Characters are not going to have the echo, so fighting Primals will be an extreme risk for them. I also don't plan to have all of the Primals be ones that we find in-game already.)

Does anyone have any information on potential lore events I should be aware of as I plan for this time period in Eorzean history, or even just potential things that you think would be fun to explore?

I have one main critique, if you watch "The End of an Era" or "Flames of Truth" cutscenes on SE's Youtube Channel then you'll see that, outside of Mor Dohna, Limsa Lominsa and Gridania were by far hit the Hardest by the immediate fallout of Dalamuld's Explosion thus why so many sought Ul'dah out due to it surviving, relatively unharmed, thanks to "The Great Gobu Wall". (Which, Fun Fact, was an actual thing done by players in 1.0).

So few people would have gone to either Gridania or Limsa seeking shelter.

As for the Lambs of Dalamud (The Tam-Tara Cultists) we know very little about their activities post fall so any head cannon you make is fair game. Though Primal Summonings were always answered by mass military mobilizations pre-WoL so those would be hard to avoid notice. (Maybe make a portion with the Company of Heroes as they Battled Titan, that seemed to be in the 5 year intermission)

Other than those points, almost anything you could think of within the limits of the Lore I'd consider fair game since the first 4 years of the 7th Umbral Era are pretty much glossed over as "Putting thing back in order". Though I'd also avoid Machi at least until it's mentioned again in the game. It is very likely that the 2nd or 3rd 24-Man Raid may be The City/Ruins of Machi.

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Originally Posted by Kaiser-Ace

thus why so many sought Ul'dah out due to it surviving, relatively unharmed

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I don't know if I would take it that far. The game treats the cities relatively equal in regards to suffering wrought by the Calamity. As far as I remember, at least, people flocked to Ul'dah because it of its wealth. If you've lost everything, you go where there might actually be resources available. You go where you have your best chance; where people have the most. The Great Goobbue Wall was definitely a thing, but the NPC who referred to it implied more that it was a heroic tale that he'd taken for a myth, not that it'd actually made a difference.

As for the Lambs of Dalamud, they rose in every corner of the realm before consolidating on Amdapor Keep, so you have a lot to work with. As the Calamity approached, you could find them in Ul'dah (working out of the Sil'dih Aqueducts) and in La Noscea (working out of Mistbeard Cove, now part of Sastasha).

As for the time between, I recommend just walking around the fields and talking to every What do you do here? What kind of place is this? NPC you can find. They're stuffed with excuses for why the place doesn't look like the rolling, monotonous landscape it did in 1.0, giving plenty of hints as to what happened in-between. The invasion of the XIVth, the restructuring of the cities after the reformation of the Companies, the decline of the Elementals, the loss of Western Na Noscea to the Sahagin, why certain areas were rebuilt over others and/or in certain ways, the loss of the Company of Heroes and the increase in primal activity... lots to work with.

However, I'd try to steer clear of anything revealed since the beginning of ARR unless it was specifically mentioned to have happened earlier or confirms that the right people did have knowledge about it earlier. There's a huge risk of dragging in anachronisms resulting in anything from implausibility to cheesy fanon. Technology was farther behind. Gear was simpler and more standardized. There was very little shared cultural knowledge about the past. The fact that Allag existed at all was a faerie tale until a hundred years ago. Dalamud was created by the Twelve and had been there since the dawn of time. Cid handed the one tomestone that turned up in La Noscea to Gaius because he figured it was worthless. (Whoops.)

Trace the knowledge of Mhach, for example. Think of who've even been able to name them, thus far: an Ishgardian with access to Sharlayan knowledge, a Nymian tonberry, and a Mhachi familiar. Between 2.0 to 3.0, everyone who brought them up knew them only as a vague force in the War of the Magi. The Black Mages or the Enemies of Amdapor or the Ancestors of Balah'dia or those somehow associated the knowledge of Death's Handmaiden, Shatotto. You'd have to tread pretty carefully to mention it.

Thanks on that Moose Sensei, I would have simply assumed that the two hardest hit cities were the poorer choices but at the same time Ul'dah may have been seriously messed up to but had the men and money to repair faster.

Ul'dah was in fact directly damaged during the Calamity, you can even see it get hit during End of an Era. This also explains why there is now a third gateway into the city (the Gate of the Sultana) where there was none originally 'pre Calamity' - it was added into the empty space caused by the damage to the city wall during that terrible day, and why the Hall of Flames is now located in an open colonnade where formerly the Waking Sands and the Market Wards were located.

As well, it's even mentioned in Tales From the Calamity that Ul'dah was damaged (in the story about Nanamo and Pipin), making references to rubble in the streets and 'carnage everywhere' and the city state authorities struggling to help the injured, none the less made worse by the fact rioting broke out among the survivors in the immediate aftermath which only added to the misery.

Of course it didn't take massive damage, but it certainly didn't escape the fall of Dalamud unscathed, as you mentioned Kaiser their massive refugee influx (meaning lots of cheap labour) coupled with them being the centre of finance and industry in Eorzea meant they were able to recover from the disaster far more rapidly than the other two citystates.

Actually, I think it's fair to infer that Ul'Dah was the least badly hit of the three city-states. The city itself may have suffered heavy damage, but the Thanalan desert appears to have emerged from the Calamity largely unscathed. The worst that seems to have happened is climate change in Eastern Thanalan, where it now rains a lot more frequently that it used to (and that's not altogether a bad thing).

In contrast, large parts of La Noscea were torn up, forcing the construction of expensive sky lifts in Middle La Noscea in order to restore the passage of trade caravans. The surging seas also destroyed most of the Lominsan Navy, and salted the earth in Western La Noscea, leaving once fertile lands near barren*. An entire settlement there was completely wiped out, allowing the sahagin to terra-form the entire area into a spawning ground.

The damage was arguably the worst in the Twelveswood. Gridania survived largely intact, but so much of the forest was destroyed that it's almost a misnomer to continue calling it the "Black Shroud".

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All that said, I fully support starting the campaign in Limsa Lominsa (but I'm biased :p ). When developing my character's backstory, I had assumed the Calamity triggered massive tidal waves that struck as far south as Cieldalaes, where Lyland comes from. That's not as far-fetched as it may seem, given that something of that sort must have happened to cause the destruction of most, if not all, of the Lominsan Navy. The sudden loss of so many ships had drastic strategic implications for the region, and that was felt most acutely in the few settlements that exist in the Ciedalaes, which I've always assumed to be under Lominsan protection, rather than direct rule.

I especially like the idea of exploring what happened to the Company of Heroes. The game portrays them as sentimental fools — or, at the very least, that was how they appeared to Alphinaud and Y'shtola — but if I recall correctly, P'ebaloh (Gegeruju's chief secretary of sorts) hinted that she was so traumatised by their encounters with Titan and Leviathan that she eventually had to leave the Company. That's dramatic material just waiting to be explored further, I feel.

As for Mhach, I'm not so sure. I get the feeling that much of what we currently know of the city of black mages is only just emerging. Which means the average Eorzean is unlikely to have even heard of the ancient civilisation in the immediate aftermath of the Calamity. It's more likely — especially since you're starting the campaign in La Noscea — that your adventurers will first encounter the ruins of Nym, and from there discover their first vague hints of the War of the Magi.

The bigger, more profound discovery at this time would be the re-surfacing of Allagan ruins throughout Eorzea. That's something worth exploring, as by the time ARR begins, interest in the Third Astral Era civilisation has hit a peak, with a whole new Order dedicated to its research.


* Oops. Just checked my notes, and I realised I made a mistake here. It was Leviathan and not Bahamut that destroyed Western La Noscea and Halfstone, shortly after the Calamity. Merlwyb recounted this prior to the WoL's confrontation with the primal in Patch 2.2. Small but important detail, depending on how closely you want your campaign to stick with canonical lore.

This is all fascinating stuff! Thank you all!

In regards to beginning in La Noscea, I definitely still plan on doing so, but I will probably omit the part about refugees. There are plenty enough people who will need helping there without that plot detail, and it could add an interesting twist to Ul'dah when the party arrives there. For some reason, I missed the detail that Ul'dah was a refugee center during the Calamity, as I had tied it more strongly with the Highlanders' fleeing from Ala Mhigo. I'm just going to have to find a better reason for all of the party to have been in Limsa - not too difficult, as I'm sure at least some manner of recruitment for recovery efforts was out there.

In regards to Mhach, you all gave me a lot to think about. I'll probably hold back and save Mhach for later, if at all - there's plenty of content to explore outside of that. My original intent was going to be to have the 'leader' of the Lambs of Dalamud be a direct descendant of a Mhachi warmage, who was using the group as a means to gain more and more magical power under the auspices of a cult dedicated to Dalamud. He was kind of insane, but in a more Lawful Evil type of way - he thought he could bring back some remnant of his ancestors' power. I might still try to work in a similar storyline, but leave Mhach out of it.

I had forgotten the plot detail about Leviathan destroying Limsa Lominsa as well! That gives me some ideas for how to work in the Sahuagin, and how to begin the Allagan ruins exploration storyline too.

One thing I learned after poking around a bit in-game yesterday - it does seem that the aetheryte network is damaged somewhat, given that Revenant's Toll was taken completely offline by the Calamity. I didn't want to give my players easy access to teleportation until it made sense, so having this actually be something they can work towards might be a good way to encourage them to move around (running protection for Aetheryte reconstruction missions, and facing heavy resistance from Beast Tribes who want to take those sweet, sweet crystals for themselves.)

Again, thank you all!

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Originally Posted by FaerieAura

One thing I learned after poking around a bit in-game yesterday - it does seem that the aetheryte network is damaged somewhat, given that Revenant's Toll was taken completely offline by the Calamity. I didn't want to give my players easy access to teleportation until it made sense, so having this actually be something they can work towards might be a good way to encourage them to move around (running protection for Aetheryte reconstruction missions, and facing heavy resistance from Beast Tribes who want to take those sweet, sweet crystals for themselves.)

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The original (1.0) aetheryte network was indeed completely destroyed during the Calamity - when you first sign up with the Moogle Delivery Service to use their inboxes the Delivery Moogle explains that is why the Moogles started a mail service in the first place, due to the sudden lack of communication (it wasn't just the aetherytes that were destroyed by the Calamity either - linkshells were also destroyed, an interesting explanation for why gameplay-wise player characters being transferred into ARR from 1.0 lost any linkshells they had active in 1.0).

Basically the aether released with Dalamud's fall/Bahamut's release and rampage and the... end result, caused the existing aetheryte and linkshell networks to explode into a mass of aetheric energy (hence the weird crystalline structure at the ruins of Camp Revenant's Toll where the aether that erupted from the aetheryte after exploding coalesced and crystallized). However it's not the only ruined aetheryte still surviving into the present day - Camp Riversmeet in the Coerthas Western Highlands still has it's original 1.0 aetheryte more or less intact, although it's still been rendered inoperable due to aetheric crystallization.

It's not entirely certain what happened to the remains of other aetherytes, although one other ruined 1.0 aetheryte camp still exists in game, albeit bereft of it's ruined aetheryte - the ruins of Camp Iron Lake next to the modern Camp Overlook in Outer La Noscea, but the remains of it's aetheryte are nowhere to be seen, suggesting that the citystates removed the remains of their old aetherytes sometime in the period following the Calamity. Another explanation is that... they might have actually started to actually levitate out of the ground (like the Floating City of Nym), as shown in this official concept art of a ruined 1.0 aetheryte camp with a levitating aetheryte that has been chained to the ground to stop it floating away. Sadly though, it seems that concept was not followed through in the actual game.

And finally, it was officially confirmed (here in fact ;)) that the new, current aetheryte network was funded by 'a group of certain influential Ul'dahan businessmen' (hence the fee you pay each time you use one - it's a tax that goes towards paying off the enormous debt the citystates incurred to these said businessmen to fund the reconstruction). This is after all why Vesper Bay never had an aetheryte built - it was a snub to Minfilia and the Scions of the Seventh Dawn because they refused to accept bribes from Lolorito (who owns, among other things, the East Aldenard Trading Company, the largest merchant/transport corporation in Eorzea), and thus instead of an aetheryte he had an ostentatious statue of himself erected there, effectively laying his own ego over the good of the realm.

Anyway, I hope that infodump wasn't too confusing for you. :)