The Backstory of the Relics

I am doing the PLD relic, and I liked how SE gave each relic a story. Who owned it last, what it was used for, and stuff like that. Of course I didn't pay enough attention to the PLD relic story to remember it's history off-hand, I would like to know the stories of the Relics.

So, if you are doing a relic or remember the storyline from when you did it, I'd love to hear about them all.

(P.S. Kinda miffed we get Curtana and "Holy Shield"...could have used better names. I wish we got Oathkeeper instead of it's an awesome name, and Holy Shield just sounds blah!)

Well i think Curtana is a cool name, it's also known as the sword of mercy or Edward the confessor's sword. It's part of the british crown regalia and legends say that ogier the dane wielded it (ogier is the national spirit of Denmark, said to awaken from his slumber and defend Denmark when it's in peril). It was also made from the same steel as the legenday blades Joyeuse and Durendal. And Tristan was said to have wielded it before it was passed to Ogier.

Holy Shield is a bit boring though, could have been the aegis shield for example.

I'm working on the Black Mage relic quest, and while my memory's a bit fuzzy, here's what I remember:

The witch Shatotto (otherwise known as "Death's Handmaiden", among other pleasant names you're told from the BLM questline) was a master of magic. So much so that she was rather bored with casting 'mundane' spells. So she did some research and discovered a spell that allowed her to pluck a star from the sky and send it crashing to Eorzea. And that's precisely what she did (in the name of boredom, mind you): send a meteor plummeting into the planet. Her plan succeeded, and from that meteor she took a fragment of it and used it to craft her weapon, the Stardust Rod.

The things you can do when you're bored, huh?

From what I remember, and I don't have solid proof, but Curtana was forged at the same time as two sister blades (I'm gonna go ahead and guess that these were also Joyeuse and Durendal which might wind up being Legendary Weapons later on). One of which was given to each of the first three Sultansworn of Ul'Dah. This was actually fairly recently in history, as far as relics are concerned (I want to say only within the last era or so).

As far as real life is concerned, Curtana is actually a broken blade (said to have been done so by an angel so as to prevent wrongful killing) and is used by British monarchs when knighting. Kind of fitting that it's the Paladin relic...but...I guess I'm kind of stuck on Excalibur or something more heroic than the Sword of Mercy, personally. :/

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Originally Posted by Wolfandre

Joyeuse and Durendal

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We know the name of two of the three. Oathkeeper was the main sword that was originally forged, with Curtana and the unnamed sword being the other two.

Far as other weapons go, Gae Bolg is a special type of lance forged out of dragon bone and tempered in dragon blood. There are multiple Gae Bolg's in XIV's universe, so it makes sense in canon for multiple people to have them. The wings on the lance are supposedly used to help a Dragoon hone in the accuracy of their jumps. Sphairai are also in the same vein as Gae Bolg in that there are many pairs in existence (Or rather, there were before the order of Monks were all but destroyed.)

The first pair of Sphairai were originally crafted for Ivon Coeurlfist, who was a legendary Monk who created the fighting style of the same name (Coeurlfist.). He spent years fighting Coeurls in the mountains of Gyr Abania, and modeled his fighting style after their own. It's supposedly the most powerful and difficult to learn fighting style as far as hand-to-hand combat goes. At least that's how it's implied. In honor of Ivon Coeurlfist's legacy, Sphairai became a weapon synonymous with a Monk mastering the Coeurlfist, if memory serves me correctly. Naturally, their appearance was modeled after Coeurls (Much like the shoulderpads on Monk artifact armor.)

Bravura is a special type of axe forged out of a Meteorite. They're made out of a single piece of metal (So, no head attached to a shaft, just one giant hunk of meteorite), and are crafted so that the head of the axe is unbelievably heavy. The most famous person to use a Bravura went by the name Ironeater, and he was a Hellsguard mercenary who's skill was so impressive that it was said he could take on an entire army by himself (Again, if memory serves me correctly.) Might give some insight into how the Hyur in the opening cutscene is throwing all those Garleans around like ragdolls with his Bravura.

For anyone who has completed the White Mage Quests, Thyrus needs no introduction. It was the staff of A-Towa-Cant, your predecessor in White Magic and the same padjal whose garb you receive. The staff is made of petrified wood rather than a more mundane material, which gives it the appearance of stone. Speaking as a Geologist, that's some serious nature-power going on there.

The Artemis Bow belonged to Gilbert the Godsbow, most famed virtuoso in Gridanian history. It is said he had bow crafted to also be an instrument. The tuning keys on the harp also serve to fine-tune the bow, as changes in humidity can cause the wood to swell and warp over time. It was preciously kept at the God's Quiver until it got ransacked by a bunch of Ixal and the rest is history.
Your own mentor, Jehantel, appears to have an Artemis Bow as well, but it is not explained how. My guess is that it is a replica he had crafted himself to his own standards (or that of the moogles), although it is unlikely as practical as your relic reborn.

The Omnilex is a relic of the Nymian scholars, said to contain all the wartime battle tactics they had ever conceived. Many copies were made, but few have survived the test of time. The metal decorations on the bindings were also designed to help the scholar channel their aether when casting, making the tome far more useful than a simple treatise on battle tactics.

I can also understand why we aren't given Oathkeeper as our relic. The story would see us obliged to return it to the Sultansworn and failing to do so would not be very Paladin-esque. It would also wrap up the gaps in the Paladin quests, which would be a premature thing to do from a design and development standpoint.

The Bravura (WAR) we find was also one of many. The guild that manufactured thees died out without passing the secret of its production.

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Originally Posted by Catapult

The Omnilex is a relic of the Nymian scholars, said to contain all the wartime battle tactics they had ever conceived. Many copies were made, but few have survived the test of time. The metal decorations on the bindings were also designed to help the scholar channel their aether when casting, making the tome far more useful than a simple treatise on battle tactics.

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Are there 2 omnilexes? One for healing on SCH and one for DMG for SMN? Or is there one Omnilex that is the relic for both SMN and SCH?

The SMN Relic is the Veil of Wiyu, the gimoire of an ancient Allagan summoner who died fighting the elder primal Odin and the SCH Relic is the Omnilex.

Now that I think about it, it strikes me as odd that something by the name of OmniLex (All Law) is a compilation of bellic information instead of Law. Seems like they botched it on that one to me.

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Originally Posted by Rocl

The SMN Relic is the Veil of Wiyu, the gimoire of an ancient Allagan summoner who died fighting the elder primal Odin and the SCH Relic is the Omnilex.

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You can actually get the Veil of Wiyu as a treasure in Final Fantasy Tactics.

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Originally Posted by Endemerrin

We know the name of two of the three. Oathkeeper was the main sword that was originally forged, with Curtana and the unnamed sword being the other two.

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Bah. How in the world did I forget about Oathkeeper? Since I did, though, it strikes me as odd that they didn't follow real-life conventions with those three...and it's probably going to bother me for the rest of my days...

I'll eat my hat if the Oathkeeper ever becomes wieldable (since it's the same model as Curtana). I'll eat my other hat if the third sword isn't Excalibur.

Onto other subjects...Why was Oathkeeper preserved and cherished while Curtana was buried with its owner? And how did Oathkeeper last this long but Curtana was a pile of garbage when we found it? I'm not sure all of this makes sense, here.

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Originally Posted by Endemerrin

We know the name of two of the three. Oathkeeper was the main sword that was originally forged, with Curtana and the unnamed sword being the other two.

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Perhaps I read this incorrectly, but the text actually says that "when the first sultan of Ul'dah formed the Sultansworn, he had three swords forged from the same ore used to make Oathkeeper", one for each of the first three paladins. It seems like that means Oathkeeper + Curtana + two swords, one for each of the other two paladins.

So was the Oathkeeper the Sultan's sword? Since 3 swords were made from the Oathkeeper ore for the first 3 Paladins, no paladin ever held Oathkeeper. Maybe it's a family heirloom that belongs to the Sultana?

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Originally Posted by Lucke

So was the Oathkeeper the Sultan's sword? Since 3 swords were made from the Oathkeeper ore for the first 3 Paladins, no paladin ever held Oathkeeper. Maybe it's a family heirloom that belongs to the Sultana?

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the Oathkeeper was passed from head to head of the sultansworn until it was stolen if my memory is right

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Originally Posted by Mysteltain

The witch Shatotto (otherwise known as "Death's Handmaiden", among other pleasant names you're told from the BLM questline) was a master of magic. So much so that she was rather bored with casting 'mundane' spells. So she did some research and discovered a spell that allowed her to pluck a star from the sky and send it crashing to Eorzea. And that's precisely what she did (in the name of boredom, mind you): send a meteor plummeting into the planet. Her plan succeeded, and from that meteor she took a fragment of it and used it to craft her weapon, the Stardust Rod.

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It is also mention that when the meteor fell it sent out millions of fragments across the world. The Aether of the cosmic shards bound with the land forming dark matter. So all the dark matter in the game used for repairs were created because of Shantotto.