Castrum in Coerthas?

http://i.imgur.com/1EzMjkVl.jpg

I was wandering about Coerthas, near Monument Tower, when I spotted this on the horizon, at first I thought perhaps it would be Cape Westwind, but that seems quite unlikely seeing as there is a huge distance between Coerthas and Western Thanalan, not to mention, Cape Westwind was at sea level, unlike this base. Also, I don't recall this base being mentioned in the main questline. I wonder if it will become more prominent in the future, as it looks like it could be in Western Coerthas Highlands/Falcon's Nest.

Yea wow, obious that is not cape westwind. I'm sure we will have more info about that on the future

imagine the kind of things they could do with that tower, all the dungeons, raids, and brand new area just for exploration. what if they turned it into a free roam dungeon, where you have the xp and difficulty of dungeons, but it wasnt instanced and you could free roam like anywhere else, possibly new sanctuaries. make the enemies get harder as you get higher in the dungeon, no level requirements, a special boss or two at the top, with bosses every few floors. thats probably what i miss the most about this game, it doesnt have some of the elements that made the others so great, like the ability to free roam and go absolutely anywhere, and not being in an instanced raids.

i know thats not easy, but given time, its definitely possbile.

Well sory if going outside the topic, but I'm sure that we are going to see new things about coerthas. Most probable in 3.0, that castrum sure is one of the few emaining ones, also I think that Falcon's nest could be tha battle ground of the new primal, who knows

Ishgard maybe.

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Originally Posted by Tohf

Ishgard maybe.

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you saing that castrum is Ishgard? really >.> ?

Lol no, ishgard is near whitebrim, It's the glowing castle with the big ass bridge and door of judgement or whatever it's name is.

But is clearly not westwind you wouldn't even be able to see thanalan from the summit of coerthas's mountains anyway.

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Originally Posted by Bauti

I knew it already, I was asking to Tohf, i got confused with his coment hahaha

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Oh I thought you were having a "seriously? -_-" moment not that you were confused x3

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Originally Posted by Chewy2nd

Yeah, I only thought it Westwind when I first caught a glance of it, but it's pretty obvious looking at it that its a completely different Castrum, lol. It's interesting that there seems to be a base that the rest of Eorzea doesn't have a clue exists.

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It's not that surprising actually considering that ishgard left the eorzean alliance about 15 years ago and that the other cities are busy with their own problems, I doubt ishgard even bother with an area they can't even access anymore (the ice wall blocking the path to western highlands or was it lowlands?) being busy with their "holy war"^^'

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Originally Posted by Phyllo

Lol no, ishgard is near whitebrim, It's the glowing castle with the big ass bridge and door of judgement or whatever it's name is.

But is clearly not westwind you wouldn't even be able to see thanalan from the summit of coerthas's mountains anyway.

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I knew it already, I was asking to Tohf, i got confused with his coment hahaha

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Originally Posted by Phyllo

Lol no, ishgard is near whitebrim, It's the glowing castle with the big ass bridge and door of judgement or whatever it's name is.

But is clearly not westwind you wouldn't even be able to see thanalan from the summit of coerthas's mountains anyway.




Oh I thought you were having a "seriously? -_-" moment not that you were confused x3

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Yeah, I only thought it Westwind when I first caught a glance of it, but it's pretty obvious looking at it that its a completely different Castrum, lol. It's interesting that there seems to be a base that the rest of Eorzea doesn't have a clue exists.

If you talk to some of the NPCs in Monument Tower (or maybe it's from one of the guards when you walk by them), they'll mention how they need to be doubly watchful, keeping an eye on both the Garleans and the Dravanians. I didn't notice it myself until a few days ago when I was walking around Coerthas, hunting Biast's for one of my Animus Books.

Don’t forget in 1.0 Coerthas was MUCH larger.

http://i.imgur.com/WNqoIt2.jpg

It is quite possible that what you see lies beyond the other side of the avalanche blocking snowcloak from the western part of coerthas. It is a likely place for a map expansion in the future when people figure out how to tunnel/break through the barrier.

We are not forgetting don't worry ^^ we even mentioned it a few times xD
But yeah according to the direction I'd say that it's located in the tiny bit of land north of falcon's nest if not in falcon's nest itself.

Mysteltain, yeah according to old map references for 2.0 ( thanks to ffxiv maps awesome comparisons ) the garlean do have a castrum in west.highlands, the question is how the hell did they got there xD

Well the (cough)Stargate at Cape Westwind has to go somewhere dinnit?

(Yes, I know, it only supposedly transports you across the bay to the outpost. But hey. Stargate...)


... can Garleans use Aetherytes?

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Originally Posted by Phyllo

Mysteltain, yeah according to old map references for 2.0 ( thanks to ffxiv maps awesome comparisons ) the garlean do have a castrum in west.highlands, the question is how the hell did they got there xD

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Airship, probably.

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Originally Posted by Alice_89th

Airship, probably.

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Remember what happened last time they tried to use air ships to go near mor dhona through coerthas? XD

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Originally Posted by Wadoka

... can Garleans use Aetherytes?

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My guess is probably not.

In order to use Aetherytes, you and your soul must be heavily attuned to aether. In 1.0, this was called Anima, and was a visible, trackable number. The more you used the Aetherytes, the more you were metaphysically exhausted and needed time to recoup. You can match this info to the lore post around here somewhere about teleports.

Anywho, pureblooded Garleans don't have Anima. Eorzea is a land absolutely rich in aether, and the Aetheryte network is unique to Eorzea because of that. The Garleans simply aren't from Eorzea and simply don't have the metaphysicality to do this. It is for this same reason that pureblooded Garleans cannot use magic and rely on magitek instead. You can also follow the advent of an individual with a similar ailment in the Thaumaturge questline.

As for the bulk of the Garlean army, however, they probably can, as it is made up of conquered nations. The individuals we primarily see are oppressed and absorbed Ala Mighans, so THEY would be able to use the aetherytes, assuming they were attuned to the aetheryte network. And considering that thing was rebuilt from the ground up after the Calamity, I don't think these individuals would have had the opportunity to attune.

Here's hoping it'll open up alongside the Castrum in East Shroud at some point.

The castrum in the east shroud is blockading the way to Ala mhigo, and the upcoming extension is about ishgard, so there are chances that it's for a bit later :/

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Originally Posted by Phyllo

The castrum in the east shroud is blockading the way to Ala mhigo, and the upcoming extension is about ishgard, so there are chances that it's for a bit later :/

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One question, is that castrum still operational by Gaerlans or according to the Main Scenario, remember "operation archon", has been taken by Twin Adders( Grindania ) ?

Technically, the goal was to prevent them from hindering the warriors of lights fight in northan, but we don't know if they just held them off or actually defeated them.

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Originally Posted by Phyllo

Technically, the goal was to prevent them from hindering the warriors of lights fight in northan, but we don't know if they just held them off or actually defeated them.

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Yea it would be weird that they could taken the Castrum and still we dont have an open path to Ala M'higo

http://i58.tinypic.com/11ih4sy.png

If you look out of Monument tower at the direction of the Castrum (red arrow on image) you can see it lines up with that little spot of land from the 1.0 Western Highlands (circled in red). Now I didn't play 1.0 long enough to pay attention to what this area was, but maybe someone who did can shed some light on it.

I think that area is Falcon's Nest, there's a Coerthas map here that is clearer. So it's possible the Garlean's took over that area in the chaos following Dalamud's fall.

On the subject of Falcon's Nest, what was exactly in the area. I don't remember visiting it in 1.0. If we know what was there then we can figure out what made them interested in basing in that particular point outside of isolation for a gate.

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Originally Posted by Phyllo

Remember what happened last time they tried to use air ships to go near mor dhona through coerthas? XD

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Yes, but the attack happened when they were at Silvertear lake by the looks of it. Don't know whether they were attack before that or not.

But if you want other options, they don't need to fly over either Coerthas or Dravania or Mor Dhona to get there, although that would be one hell of a detour. Or they could have always sailed there from Vylbrand. No idea what the Coerthas coast looks like though.

I've never been there back in v1's alpha, dont even know if you could access it back then but I think besides a few lakes there are no coasts in westhighlands

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Originally Posted by KylePearlsand

On the subject of Falcon's Nest, what was exactly in the area. I don't remember visiting it in 1.0. If we know what was there then we can figure out what made them interested in basing in that particular point outside of isolation for a gate.

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The Falcon and Owl's nests had various Ishgardian NPCs. There was also the "shephard" guild icon. One also had a female NPC who talked about "ladies of Ishgard taming beasts and using them as pets."

As for the Castrum there's no information yet sadly, hopefully we'll get to the Western Highlands of Coerthas someday and hopefully Nidhogg appears soon. The island in the lake was clearly a reference to him "The Dreaming Dragon."

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Originally Posted by Phyllo

I've never been there back in v1's alpha, dont even know if you could access it back then but I think besides a few lakes there are no coasts in westhighlands

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I never played 1.0 so I have no idea what the west highlands map looked like, but the official art of the Eorzea worldmap shows that Coerthas has a coast. And if the map is anything to go by the land flattens near the coast and there is some sort of river delta. Some nice people have deciphered the writing there and it looks like it says "Yafaem Saltmoor ".

Looking at the old west Coerthas Higlands map there are definitely some rivers and lakes but it looks like we are not far enough to reach the flats before the coast yet. None the less, Coerthas has a coast and they could have entered the west highlands from there. There is a Castrum in Eastern La Noscea after all, so all they would have to do is cross the Strait of Melthor.

based on wikia, it looks the same..

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/G...rlean_Base.jpg

http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2...rlean_Base.jpg

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Originally Posted by Bauti

Yea it would be weird that they could taken the Castrum and still we dont have an open path to Ala M'higo

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Lore wise, how is it possible a primitive people aka grids who use only wood and little steel can understand how to open an mechanized steel gate?

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Originally Posted by Empressia

Lore wise, how is it possible a primitive people aka grids who use only wood and little steel can understand how to open an mechanized steel gate?

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Ok reallly? Grindania ppl primitive? ok If Eorzeans were primitive they would have been wiped out already and the gaerlan empire would have taken eorzea long ago hahahah. Common a gate? dont joke with me >.<

I can't even see CT from the highest point in Coerthas.

From the Lore Train interview with Koji Fox

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F: There’s a silhouette visible from Monument Tower in Coerthas that looks exactly like Castrum Marinum, but the size and angle seem to be all wrong. Does Marinum have a twin out there?

KF: Oda-san says that this is a place called Castrum Aquilonis. The Empire started building it, but it was way too cold; the climate was way too harsh. They stopped halfway through, it’s now abandoned. That’s all I can say, because that’s all that’s been written.

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Read more here

Would be interesting to explore

Might be a ninja bump but just Noticed this place on my way through Coerthas on an alt today, was wondering what it was until I stumbled across this thread, I wonder if they'll ever do something with it like a dungeon or something in the future...

Arise thread long since dead you have work to do.

Honestly chalk it up to a remnant leftover from the XIVth legion it will most likely have zero significance going forward and most likely all imperials stationed there have been abandoned grisly as that sounds. (Personal headcanon Gaius was there briefly with Ultima weapon just before descending on Garuda's domain).

Maybe it can get turned into a Rival Wings-style PVP map using salvaged Garlean machina in place of the goblin/Alexander bots. Write it up as training the Grand Companies to better stand against the Empire's tools of war. Could be kinda cool.

But most likely it's just another piece of old story that isn't planned to come back any time soon.

I dunno a friend said its from 1.0 and due to instant enviroment change after calamity the place is not safe due to the harshness of weather and are not well equiped or something.. so they left it.

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Originally Posted by Johaandr

I dunno a friend said its from 1.0 and due to instant enviroment change after calamity the place is not safe due to the harshness of weather and are not well equiped or something.. so they left it.

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It's more accurately from the interim between 1.0 and 2.0, according to the lorebook. So the XIVth Legion started building it after the Calamity (and the corresponding climate changes), and then abandoned it due to poor climate, which seems like a waste of resources.