Announcing the Winners for the Tales from Eorzea Contest

The Community Team was thoroughly terrified after reading all of your scary stories, but we managed to pull ourselves together after trembling and shaking in the corner of the office to cast our votes for our five favorite stories.

Everyone’s stories and screenshots were superb, and they have made a wonderful segue into Halloween next week! Congratulations to the winners below on an eerily good job!

(in order of post number)

Calmcacil Desmarais’s Entry:

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Originally Posted by Calmcacil

http://static2.finalfantasyxiv.com/a...UutYdHF4Dw.jpg

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King Arthur’s Entry:

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Originally Posted by LordAmel

http://static2.finalfantasyxiv.com/a...Uvyyxz1_2s.jpg

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Charmin Yummyberry’s Entry:

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Originally Posted by Charmin

http://static2.finalfantasyxiv.com/a...UwbC7a67wQ.jpg

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Pandemic Fleetfoot’s Entry:

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Originally Posted by Panda6243

http://static2.finalfantasyxiv.com/a...U0rymbGf9Q.jpg

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Ursus Maritimus’s Entry:

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Originally Posted by Ursus

http://static2.finalfantasyxiv.com/a...U03BXIfogs.jpg

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GMs will be in contact with you to deliver your Scarf of Wondrous Wit :)

Winners chosen in less than a day? You guys are getting better!

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Originally Posted by Jacien

Winners chosen in less than a day? You guys are getting better!

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Thread was twice as long, but the other half was full of trash Camate had to delete.

You guys just made Pandaemic Fleetfoot's day! :D I left this thread up on his computer to find when he got home last night and he is super ecstatic! ^_^ He literally jumped on top of me while I was sleeping to tell me the good news. haha

I am extremely honored to have been chosen! Thanks go out to my friends (Richter Sarkany and Elsa Friis) and my brother (Crelyos Highwind) who helped me take the screenshots and encouraged me the whole time, I really couldn't have found the courage to put myself out there without them. It was a truly enjoyable experience writing about a game and series I've thoroughly enjoyed nearly all my life. Hope everyone enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing!

Grats to the winners :)

Wow this is great news to see! I really appreciated the chance to compete as I had in the prior events. It was really tough writing a song but I took some time to research sea shanties as well as the lore of Mistbeard in order to combine the two. I tried to use the limits of words and pictures to the best advantage I could. A fun challenge! I want to give credit where it was due in terms of the pictures:

CAST
Charmin Yummyberry - Writer/Director/Photographer, Himself, Current Mistbeard
Tansy Lovage - Co-Director, Costumer/Seamstress, Fireside Friend
Dibs Dadibs - Hapless Plot Device (and awesome panic poser in last picture), Fireside Friend
Cherry Phox - Fireside Friend
Priscilla Clark - Fireside Friend
Riddle Lin - Fireside Friend
Paiway Rheingau - Fireside Friend
Haxaan Shivar - Past Mistbeard
Xuxa Meneghel - Deflowered Sultana
Binc Lorik - Fuming Sultan (See his gear and crown specifically? He means business!)
Moby Wey - Mimidoa the Cannonboy (and future master blacksmith in Limsa Lominsa.)

BACKSTORY
Mistbeard was an interesting bit of lore that caught my attention, especially being an adopted Limsan. Unfortunately there wasn't too much to go on, and what existed was shrouded in rumor and poetic license. But, to continue the tradition of seaborn tales (especially set to music to make labor easier - somewhat like the constant hammer in the Navigator's Hymn music from the game) I took a basic couplet scheme, "localized" it to Limsa, and tried my best to make the cadence smooth with a chorus that was relevant in the rise, fall, and rebirth of the captain.

So the scene starts innocently enough with my friend seeing what I "found" in Shposhae. I foreshadowed a bit that this is "version two" of the song as Charmin was in the unique position to add onto it at the end. The song starts with a dire warning to catch attention then it describes Rycharde's rise to fame and infamy. After narrowly escaping Ul'dah (and losing his eye in the process, it is kind of hard to notice but there is no eye patch in the first picture of him wooing the sultana but there is in the second when he bids goodbye to his mate) he put on the eye patch. Stat-wise this makes you more resistant to paralyze. So what better way to describe this in lore than to lose fear and other restrictions you place on your mind and body due to natural survival instincts?

Now inheriting the title of Captain Mistbeard the bepatched man guides his armada into parts unknown where he pays for his hubris and loses almost everything and everyone he holds dear. All that survives is his loyal cannonboy (who loses his hearing in one ear) and his plundered loot (specifically the "plundered" set which is ridiculously hard drop-rate-wise to get. Also apparently the captain loves frumenty because...geeeeeeeeze...). Not wanting to lose his last member of his crew in a moment of lucid thought he bids goodbye to the boy who goes on to lead the Blacksmith Guild. The captain, distraught and eager to claim his lost fame back, tries to pull one last trick...

...And dies in the process. The coeurl at the very bottom ate the captain (and apparently ALL the sahagin) or otherwise separated him from his patch with Rycharde to never be seen again (conspiracy theory has it he may be the same Rycharde you see in an Ul'dahn quest who wants revenge for being ousted from the Syndicate...great discussion thread with community leader feedback regarding that topic here in the forums). Thusly, Charmin having defeated the great beast recovered the eye patch.

At the end of the song Charmin dons the cursed item and becomes the next Mistbeard, presumably to follow the same fate as the others before him. Dibs, the friend who first questioned him is caught in a golden moment of panic akin to Shaggy's best "Like zoiks, guys!". The old cycle is complete and like any good legend begins again. The rise, the fall, and the tragic death that we should learn from but never seem to do.

Thanks to you all in the forums, the population of Aegis, my linkshell(s) and friends, and cute little Charmin Yummyberry for being the unwitting victim of circumstance.

._. my snurble story wasn't scary enough. i guess this is what i get for avoiding the obvious topics.

Sweet, I'm glad you liked my story!

However, since I just found out, and I've got about a four hour window to sign in between now and when the last save happens tomorrow, is there a way to contact a GM and let them know when I'm on so I can enjoy my scarf for a little bit? ^^

You all won, so you're all cheaters! :P

Congratulations