The DarkLight Raiders

Ahh The DarkLight Raiders....how are they exactly? What's the lore behind them. I only know a tiny bit about them.

Sibold - Sole survivor, Warrior of the group. Hid under the bodies of his comrades. Wore Heavy DarkLight?

Thormoen - PLD. His sword and shield drops from the dungeons, at least in 1.0. Since he dropped a sword and shield, he must have been the PLD of the group.

That's all I know of. Do we have the names of the other Raiders? Do we know what jobs they were?

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Originally Posted by Sibold

More'n thirty summers've passed since I carried the standard of the Darklight Raiders into Cutter's Cry, but not a day goes by that I don't see the faces of the friends I lost that fateful day─Gerbald the Red and his loyal second, Aubriest Stillwater. Their personalities were that of night and day, but most believe that is what made the two inseparable. Symon the Sweet, always armed with a jab and jest; our ever ireful mage Chiran Zabran, as quick to cast as he was to temper; Thormoen Thousandgil, never has there lived a man with a tighter grip, be it on his sword or his coin; and let us not forget One-ilm Alesone......though I'm not sure she would have me telling you where she got that name. Gah hah hah! Though it's hard to fathom now, what with all the adventurers scamperin' about like rabbits in the spring, but there was once a time when bands of mercenaries were who the city-states turned to when in need of a blade─the Darklight Raiders being the biggest and best of them bands. Ishgardian-funded forays into hellish pits like the Aurum Vale would earn us a king's ransom in a matter of days, though it would only take a night of devil's play at the Mirage to see it gone from our purses. But so was the life of a Raider. That is, until we took that job at Cutter's Cry. My brothers and I had stood against herds of giant buffalos on O'Ghomoro, snurble infestations on the Pearl, legions of cold-blooded Sahagin from the abyssal depths of the Indigo Deep, but none of that prepared us for the horrors we would face in Bluefog (Now Hellsbrood Holes). None of it prepared us for the chimera. The bards still sing of the day seven of the realm's finest warriors set off into the bowels of that forsaken place...but only saw one return─Sibold the Stoic, spared by the beast so that he may warn all others who would be foolish enough to attempt to despoil the chimera's lair... Ah, my apologies. You did not come to hear the guilt-ridden ramblings of an old man...but, if you have a moment, I was wondering if I could ask of you a favor. The final wish of an ailing soul seeking peace with his past before departing on his journey through the Seven Gates. In each of the thirty summers since escaping from the maws of that terrible beast, I have returned to its lair to pay the proper respects to my fallen compatriots. However, the years have finally caught up with old Sibold, and try as I might, no longer can these bones make the trek alone. If it is not too much to ask, would you travel to Cutter's Cry in my stead, and place this bouquet of flowers upon the resting place of the Darklight Raiders?

You have done a noble thing today by helping to keep alive the memory of my fallen brethren...but in truth, it should have been I who placed flowers upon their tomb. It was I who helplessly watched as my companions were torn apart, one by one, by the razor-sharp claws of the three-headed monstrosity. I, who hid beneath the mangled body of my leader...my friend...until the beast was sated and had crawled back into the darkness of its lair. I should have fallen there with the other Darklight Raiders, my axe in my hand and my brothers at my back, but fear took hold of me─whispered into my ear that if I did not hide, I would never see my wife and unborn child again. And so, rather than face the fate spun for me by Nymeia, I heeded the voice...and ever since have I been haunted by that decision. Would that I had died a hero than lived a coward... Yes, I was there to witness the birth of my son... but he has grown knowing only that his father was a craven... a disgrace to his friends and his family. Though, I suppose this a fitting punishment for a man who betrayed his fate... Should you ever find yourself faced with a similar decision, may you have the courage to walk the righteous path.

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In Version 1.0, the Darklight weapons we now get from Wanderer's Palace were also available from Cutter's Cry, but were named after the people who wielded them. This allows us to extrapolate what classes they were (jobs had yet to come back to Eorzea).

Gerbald the Red - Lancer (Lance)
Aubriest Stillwater - Thaumaturge (two-handed staff and back-up shield)
Chiran Zabran - Conjurer (Plainsfolk Lalafell Male; Two-handed Staff)
Symon the Sweet - Pugilist (Claws)
Thormoen Thousandgil - Gladiator (Sea Wolf Roegadyn [TornMoon]; Sword and shield in a subligar, like a boss)
One-ilm Alesone - Archer (weapon called songbow? Remnants of the old BRD traditions before its resurgence?)
Sibold the Stoic - Marauder

A little more research and I bet we could figure out what races they were, as well.

Thanks for getting me to look into this, it's been on my to-do list forever.

Naming conventions suggest Chiran Zabran is the plainsfolk male rather than Aubriest.

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Originally Posted by Catapult

Naming conventions suggest Chiran Zabran is the plainsfolk male rather than Aubriest.

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Thanks; clicked the wrong line while going back and forth between tabs, lol.

Apologies for the double-post, but it seemed worth the bump.

After a bit of research and cross-referencing, I think I've got their names, classes, races, genders, and clans down. Naming conventions for the win! I went ahead and made a wiki page for what you requested - something I'm looking forward to doing more of in the future.

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Subsequent expeditions into the dungeon by adventurers in the present day finally resulted in the slaying of the Chimera and reclamation of the Raiders' remains, leading to a widespread trend among adventurers of wearing equipment styled after that worn by the now-legendary sellswords.

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Really? I thought the Darklight armor WAS the gear they wore. Afterall, in 1.0 the gear was found in the dungeons themselves, the same places the Raiders visited. Though, in 2.0, the Rev Toll merchant sells Darklight, is it the stuff they wore or the "stylized" armor?

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Originally Posted by Lucke

Really? I thought the Darklight armor WAS the gear they wore. Afterall, in 1.0 the gear was found in the dungeons themselves, the same places the Raiders visited. Though, in 2.0, the Rev Toll merchant sells Darklight, is it the stuff they wore or the "stylized" armor?

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Now that you mention it, it does sound like a pretty big assumption; I should change it back, I guess. It seemed like the best way to reconcile the fact that 1.0ers beat CC/AV and got Darklight, and then 2.0ers beat CC/AV and get nothing of the sort, whereas Rowena's apparently has enough to go around that she's set up a tent in the middle of Mor Dhona and that the darklight pieces aren't even the same pieces they used to be. SE's worked pretty hard to avoid direct retcons, so I figured that assumption was a happy medium for now.

However...

Ethics aren't really Rowena's thing. She gets her rare wares from spelunking adventurers and basically plays the Trading Game until she gets a pile of Allag artifacts to ship back to her mysterious Ishgardian benefactor. The relic armor (iLV90 AF) seems to be part of this benefactor's personal collection, but for now, yeah, let's just go ahead and say the Darklight was taken from the corpses of dead Darklight Raiders... though why Sibold hasn't come out there and made a scene about it, yet, is beyond me...

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Originally Posted by Anonymoose

... though why Sibold hasn't come out there and made a scene about it, yet, is beyond me...

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The dude's raiding days are long over. Heck, he can't even go to Cutter's Cry on his own any more, being forced to ask an adventurer to leave lillies there in his stead.

I bet he hasn't been to Mor Dhona or even seen Rowena's collection in quite some time.

Haven't you guys considered that the Darklight Raiders were once like the Adventurers that we are now? And by that I bet that they have like a grandcompany that made those armors, and they are not exactly the armors of the dead ones in cutters cry but instead remnants of the old stock piles that raiders guild had.

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Originally Posted by Aedrict

Haven't you guys considered that the Darklight Raiders were once like the Adventurers that we are now? And by that I bet that they have like a grandcompany that made those armors, and they are not exactly the armors of the dead ones in cutters cry but instead remnants of the old stock piles that raiders guild had.

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They were Mercenaries for hire, just like the Company of Heroes. The Darklight Armor was unique to this group hence the Darklight Raiders. In 1.0 we took on the Chimera that killed almost all of the Raiders and subsequently recovered the armor worn by them, course we also ran Aurums Vale for Darklight as well but that was a design standpoint for SE to have 2 dungeons to grind instead of just Cutter's Cry. Armor that Rowena has now is just replicas, after all who wouldn't want to look cool in Darklight (even though there was only 1 Cowl and 1 Corselet in 1.0).

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Originally Posted by NoloeTazier

Armor that Rowena has now is just replicas

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I arrived at the same assumption. For now, I've held back on making it official wiki material (see above conversation) seeing as SE might be trying to say that this is the original Darklight Raider armor that was just sold to Rowena; after all, Chimera is still in Cutter's Cry and Sibold still sends us out there to put flowers on the graves. I agree, though, that it's likely that we pulled the original armor out in 1572 and Rowena's been mass producing it since, lol.

Going to be sincere I want to gather more information on Rowena. She is like the ultimate weapons dealer, all in exchange of nothing but ancient allagan knowledge which may or not even be useful.

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Originally Posted by Skies

Going to be sincere I want to gather more information on Rowena..

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It all goes back to a wealthy Ishgardian she works for; it's him we oughta be worried about. I stand by my assessment: in Square Enix games, the worst people are often beneficent leaders of powerful cities and religious figures (including ones who are just self-righteous seekers of ultimate supernatural power). Ishgard is Jeuno with a pope. Somebody there is bad news. Is this dealer in league with them? We'll see...

There have been many hints in the game pointing to trouble in Ishgard.

Does anyone want to make a bet that Ishgard will try to summon The Fury in desperation, succeed, and we will put down one of the Twelve for once? But not before he parts us with some wisdom, of course.

But that's another thread, I suppose.


Anyway, it could very well be they are looking for a weapon to yield them some advantage on their War against the dragons. Maybe they'll bump into that dragon controlling mechanism.

Rowena deserve her own story quest