Tales from the Calamity Lore Discussion

[Anonymoose]

This one had a lot more perspective and emotion than new information, so I imagine I can have this final one annotated by the end of the day, easily. I'm going to need to work my way through a few past summaries and update, them, however, based on the one major piece of new info we got: Louisoix was absent from Eorzea from 1562 to 1572. I'm pretty sure my summaries never went explicitly out of their way to disinclude him from Yda, Papalymo, Thancred, and Y'shtola's presence, even though they did make it pretty clear that his "arrival" was a recent event.

I also thought Urianger's perspective was pretty interesting. I'd never fully realized in its own right how The Battle of Cartenau must have looked to the members of the Circle, who spent the battle in their assigned city-states offering prayer and then had their memories wiped by the bright white light. To them, Bahamut popped out of the Wonder Ball, Louisoix stuck to his original plan, and the invocation of the Twelve saved Eorzea. If this wasn't Althyk's doing, I imagine they're in for an even bigger surprise than we are at the end of the Coil.

A small aside, I love the quote “As Sharlayans, it is our task to observe—to chart the course of history, not to change it." from the son of the leader of the Circle of Knowing and the father of twins who split up to simultaneously disable the threat posed by fallen Dalamud, orchestrate Operation Archon against the Garlean Empire, and found their own Grand Company.

[Morningstar1337]

Something I noticed:

“Even had you not gained admission to the Studium—and made me exceedingly proud in so doing—these gifts would have been yours regardless. Here—one for each of you. When read together, these two grimoires form a single tome. Provided you support one another’s studies, I have no doubt that you will soon come to understand the lessons inscribed therein.” The volumes Louisoix gave to his grandchildren scant hours before his departure were curious indeed. Crafted such that the contents of one could not be deciphered without the other, they hinted at the impish humor which danced behind the ofttimes solemn visage of Sharlayan’s preeminent sage and scholar.

It makes me wonder if their books are the "key" of which Alphinaud spoke of.

[Alberel]

Something I noticed:



It makes me wonder if their books are the "key" of which Alphinaud spoke of.

I was wondering the same thing.

It makes a lot more sense now that the story has focused so much on how the twins have fallen out. Alphinaud wishes to complete Louisoix's work and live up to his legacy whilst Alisaie wants to find out what happened to him and avenge him. They ultimately both want the same thing (both paths would lead to facing Bahamut) but they no longer see eye to eye on how to get there and have entirely different motivations.

The fact that their grimoires contain a special knowledge of some kind that can only be accessed if they read both together suggests they're going to need to resolve their differences in order to get it. I just wander what it actually is... We've seen Alisaie use Ruin in T9 so we know they're arcanists. Could the books contain some special form of arcanima glyph?

[Anonymoose]

Could the books contain some special form of arcanima glyph?

I actually do think there may be some big-time foreshadowing here. They saved this tale for last, and it was fairly tame compared to Minfilia's entry, which makes me wonder if they truly wanted a simple uplifting sentiment, or if perhaps it'll be mind-blowing in retrospect. I could see you two being on to something with the grimoires; Louisoix gave them to them just as he left, it's the perfect place to hide a fail-safe only his legacies could discover in time if he didn't return.

Will you now find a use for the secret─for the key that only you and I hold?

I like that interpretation better than the others I've heard so far.

[Brine_Gildchaff]

... a fail-safe, contained within arcanima grimoires. A pair of books possibly containing some advanced/special form of arcanima glyph. Arcanima, which we know can be used to shape ambient aether into a living form that does NOT drain the aether of the land around simply by existing.

This is shaky at best, I know... but what if their "key" is some alternate method of summoning "egis" of the Twelve? A way to call forth their power without the dangerous and suicidal summoning method that Louisoux was forced to use at Carteneau?

(By the way, where and when exactly does Alphinaud say the line that Moose quoted? I'm afraid I don't remember, or else haven't reached it yet since I've yet to conquer Turn 9.)

[Anonymoose]

Where and when exactly does Alphinaud say the line that Moose quoted?

The full Second Coil is contained in the quest Another Turn in the Coil, and the quote is the final line of the post-Coil wrap-up, Alisaie's Resolve.

[Brine_Gildchaff]

The full Second Coil is contained in the quest Another Turn in the Coil, and the quote is the final line of the post-Coil wrap-up, Alisaie's Resolve.

Ah, that explains it, I'm still stuck on Melusine. (Then again, considering I only finally beat Twin last week, that's pretty quick progress...)

[Anonymoose]

I've decided to preserve each tale from the Calamity in my over-ambitious, likely-never-to-be-finished-solo project Loremonger. Relevant terms link to their wiki articles (though most are in dire need of fleshing out) and annotated footnotes have been added elaborating on the lore of topics mentioned in the installment (those I'd recommend reading)

The first pass of all five Tales is done, though I'm sure I'll tweak the footnote wording and formatting plenty over the ages. As expected, Louisoix's tale didn't include much to elaborate on (about as much as Kan-E's). I can't say this enough, if you bother with these and find any accidental misinformation or have any further questions or think that I missed an opportunity to ramble on and on about something, lemme know!

The Annotated Tales from the Calamity

Huge, huge thanks to the team for all the effort on these! XI's lore posts were always fun, but were often just tongue-in-cheek light roleplay for the sake of not being boring about information delivery and promotion. XIV's really gone out of its way to stay in character and expand the world for the sake of expanding the world, and we notice. Special thanks for all the little throwbacks to 1.0 hidden in these!

What next... I think I'm just excited to dive back into my Warrens of Lominsan Past (1.0 LL Summary) and move on to the other two cities and beyond. Believe it or not, between refining the transcripts and translations over freaking years, hints from Fernehalwes when he can find some scraps to throw our way, and some truly awesome gems hidden in these tales, I think I actually understand 99% of them now and will be able to give them a proper burial in Loremonger's archives.

Funny enough, at the moment, I'm just sitting here pondering about Linkshells. The final Tale specifically used the word linkshell. You don't see that very often coming from lore sources or even NPCs. We see the pearls from time to time, but the most in-depth explanation I remember was back in 1.0 and basically said "Minfilia's given out thousands of these things, but they aren't terribly reliable. Linkpearls are to voices as aetherytes are to bodies, other than that it's a total mystery!" Does anybody remember hearing anything about them or should we make a thread for it like we did how the athernet was restored and who's on the gil coin? Remember, lore-wise, linkshell technology is even a big part of Free Company communication! How are people running these shells if they're such a mystery!? Obviously, I mean, something something Sharlayan engineering something something based on old technology something something Allagans. But still. I'm imagining 1.0 Minfilia sitting at a table with this giant shell in her lap laughing hysterically while it spits out hundreds linkpearls for her recruits. "Ahahah! Go home, shellphone, you're drunk!"

[NoloeTazier]

One thing I noticed about today's - it says Minfilia gained the echo one year before her 18th nameday, which makes it 1567 of the Sixth Astral Era. I'd always assumed she was one of the first who got it in 1562 with the starshower (during which they make note that "the echo has sounded"). I thought that was why they kept mentioning that Minfilia was "one of the few survivors of the Fall of the Keeper," which I took to mean she was in Mor Dhona during the Battle of Silvertear Skies. I wonder what the significance of that was, then, if there was any.

I wonder about this too, Ascilia and Warburton are in Ul'dah with the whole premise of a greater threat than the Garleans. I always assumed Ascilia had the Echo and therefore held the answer and it's why Warburton risked so much smuggling her out of Ala Mhigo and bringing her to Ul'dah.

Edit: Also I'm sure you hit the nail on the head and we'll see them change it to Linkpearls lol it's why we have this forum to nitpick and scrutinize~

[Enkidoh]

Funny enough, at the moment, I'm just sitting here pondering about Linkshells. The final Tale specifically used the word linkshell. You don't see that very often coming from lore sources or even NPCs. We see the pearls from time to time, but the most in-depth explanation I remember was back in 1.0 and basically said "Minfilia's given out thousands of these things, but they aren't terribly reliable. Linkpearls are to voices as aetherytes are to bodies, other than that it's a total mystery!" Does anybody remember hearing anything about them or should we make a thread for it like we did how the athernet was restored and who's on the gil coin? Remember, lore-wise, linkshell technology is even a big part of Free Company communication! How are people running these shells if they're such a mystery!? Obviously, I mean, something something Sharlayan engineering something something based on old technology something something Allagans. But still. I'm imagining 1.0 Minfilia sitting at a table with this giant shell in her lap laughing hysterically while it spits out hundreds linkpearls for her recruits. "Ahahah! Go home, shellphone, you're drunk!"

I'm liable to regard the terms 'linkshell' and 'linkpearl' as meaning different things in the narrative, as gameplay wise naturally they're distinct ('linkshell' being the actual network and linkpearls being the devices that connect to it). But like how no one really uses the term 'world wide web' anymore when referring to accessing websites on the internet, and just use the term 'internet' to describe the same thing, how it was written in Tales of the Calamity is probably just using it as a generic term that transcends it's original use to cover different aspects of it's functionality.

As for where they come from, FFXI specifically stated that linkshells were literal, magical, shells, but here I'm not so sure. Cid revealed during the 2.0 storyline that they're actually radio devices, thus making it analogous to a mobile phone (after all, a phone-like tone is even heard when the player and npcs are shown using linkpearls in cutscenes!).

And given the fact that the Garleans use the exact same technology, I wouldn't be surprised if it's another example of Garlean technology that has filtered out into Eorzea (probably through the Ironworks) and cheaply released to the realm at large. But this is all just assumptions on my part.