New Tales from the Storm (August 18)

[Naria]

While I liked Fordola more in this story than I was expecting the character I really hope that we see more of in the Garlean-themed expansion is Arenvald. He can fill the role of a character/child of two nations but without all of the mixed feelings from audience that Fordola brings. Especially since Gaius will be presumably filling the villian-turned-protagonist role. That said I don't think that we have seen the last of Fordola in game either. Of the two I think that Arenvald's arc has more potential (being largely unexplored) and I hope he doesn't get thrown under a bus to further Fordola's arc since the two are being set up as foils to each other. Fordola is a much better foil for Arenvald then she was for Lyse. I prefer they continue that path with the two of them but if they have to kill one off I'd rather they play death=redemption straight with Fordola and contrast that with Yotsuyu's death ending her chance at redemption.

That said I've enjoyed this Tales from the Storm series and am excited for the final installment.

[Remedi]

Well I suppose we can have SMN for our squadron then

[Theodric]

The forced conscription angle is very interesting, especially with the 'Battle Royale' style collar that promises a very traumatic death in exchange for non-compliance. It also highlights once again that the Eorzeans do not shy away from forced conscription and painful torture even when they condemn others for resorting to such measures.

That Primals are shown to be a continued threat is not entirely unexpected. It does show that the hostile elements of certain Beast Tribes will not back down, though. Which begs the question as to how such a cycle can even be brought to an end.

[ObsidianFire]

I can't find anything that suggests that it's forced conscription. It sounds like it was the most practical way Raubahn could make a system for people to demonstrate who they were really loyal to and still keep an eye on what they were doing. Ironically, it's pretty much what Garlamald is doing (or says they are doing). As in, serve in the Garlean Legions for 20 year and don't screw up and you'll have earned citizenship by the end of it. Although I get the feeling the conscription won't be anywhere near that long... There's probably also the added benefit that most of the convicts were probably in the Garlean Legions anyway, so asking them to fight to prove they no longer serve Garlemald isn't asking them to do anything too crazy. If anything, it sounds like the idea is to give the people who really didn't want to serve Garlemald in the first place an opportunity to get pardoned. Obviously there's going to be some people who don't want that and some people who'd use that opportunity to undermine the Alliance, but there's certainly people who'd jump at any chance to prove that they never wanted to be part of the Garlean Legions in first place.

It's nice to see the Scions going back and doing Scion stuff like killing primals again. It's also nice to see how far primal killing tactics have come since the days of 1.0 and the Company of Heroes. Y'mhitra and the other NPCs from the SMN quests must be really happy to see that art flourishing like they hoped it would.

[Theodric]

I was more referring to the whole 'slowly and painfully choke the life out of someone' using a magical collar for non compliance. That's a rather cruel and unusual punishment, even when accounting for someone who is a criminal.

[Iscah]

I don't think Fordola's appearance here will mean that she doesn't make any further appearance in the near-future MSQ. Perhaps we'll get some of the same information in another form, but this still serves to flesh out the idea of what she's been doing recently, that might just be alluded to otherwise. While also bringing the focus back onto her and Arenvald after they may have been 'out of sight, out of mind' to the average player.

The story has to be extra-detailed about what's going on, of course, because reading this right now in pre-4.4, things have changed since we last saw her in the game.

Interesting to see that her Echo is still, far as we can guess, not controlled

I don't think any major changes to the state of her control over her Resonance will happen "off-screen" in something like this. It seems like the sort of thing that needs to be highlighted in-game.

(Thaumaturges can make exploding collars. Or maybe not exploding but still lethal and that is. Surprisingly subtle. And creepy.)

Thaumaturges are pretty creepy in general. Have you done their class quest?

And because I am a sucker for this kinda thing and had to check, Arenvald remembers the names of his dead Scion pals, so to hell I go.

Why wouldn't he? They're his close friends - those two specifically. He's distraught for most of ARR after they died, questioning why he's the one that survived. (As of my current progress with my alt in Heavensward, he's still talking about them and saying he has to "earn this".)

Having just started another alt character, they are actually the first 'minor Scions' present - all three of them together, from the first time you enter the Waking Sands.

If nothing else, this suggests that the squad was formed, whether or not the WoL directly involved (in the case of players who did not level up their summoners to 70).

I've thought about this generally, because I think it's necessary that all the class quest events happen whether you are directly involved in them or not.

The best comparison I can make is the Kingdom Hearts games where each world is "here's a Disney movie but we pushed the hero out of the way so Sora can be the main character".

Basically, any job quest we take on is the "Kingdom Hearts version", except we can only guess at how it played out otherwise.

(eg. I like to think that the White Mage questline actually involved Sylphie as the chosen mage.)

Specifically for summoner, it's a bit harder to place since the player-substitute needs to have fought all the primals, otherwise I'd suggest Y'mhitra. Though overall the plot is more tied to MSQ than most of the job quests, so I'm more inclined to just think it's one of the things we did actually do. Totally not influenced by my own class choice.

But overall this is probably a whole separate topic on its own. Someday I'll get around to writing it.

I fear for [Arenvald's] narrative safety something fierce, lol.

I think I am okay with this if it involves seeing a reunion with A'aba and Aulie.

Either that or a near-death experience where they tell him to get up, he's not joining them today.

...

I really want to see that now.

The forced conscription angle is very interesting, especially with the 'Battle Royale' style collar that promises a very traumatic death in exchange for non-compliance. It also highlights once again that the Eorzeans do not shy away from forced conscription and painful torture even when they condemn others for resorting to such measures.

---

I was more referring to the whole 'slowly and painfully choke the life out of someone' using a magical collar for non compliance. That's a rather cruel and unusual punishment, even when accounting for someone who is a criminal.

Cruel and unusual punishment, yes, but still the motivation behind their "conscription" is very different. It's not really comparable to the apparent situation of Garlemald forcing conquered populations into their army. That takes free people and makes them not free. This is almost the opposite - giving freedom (or something relatively like it) to someone who would otherwise be rightfully in prison.

There's also a possibility the collar doesn't *actually* do that and might just be used stun her or something, but they make it sound more threatening so conscripts really won't want to contemplate escaping.

That Primals are shown to be a continued threat is not entirely unexpected. It does show that the hostile elements of certain Beast Tribes will not back down, though. Which begs the question as to how such a cycle can even be brought to an end.

Wild idea - is this going to end with some sort of massive aether-destabilising event that will change how/if primals can be summoned? Or we figure out how to banish their particular aether into the void, or something.


...is there one Lifestream that flows through all the shards? Or are they gated off like the worlds themselves? (Any chance of safe inter-shard travel if we can really master the Echo? Preferably without being stuck in the aetherial sea like Minifilia afterwards.)

[TinyRedLeaf]

I've thought about this generally, because I think it's necessary that all the class quest events happen whether you are directly involved in them or not... Specifically for summoner, it's a bit harder to place since the player-substitute needs to have fought all the primals, otherwise I'd suggest Y'mhitra. Though overall the plot is more tied to MSQ than most of the job quests, so I'm more inclined to just think it's one of the things we did actually do.

Well, sure, if other players want to think of it that way, by all means. But having the summoner squad specifically highlighted in an official side story gives the job-class a veneer of canonical veracity that other classes/jobs don't enjoy, you know? (Well, other than for dragoons, at least.)

And yes, because of the way the levels 30-60 summoner quests are closely linked to events in the MSQ, I can't have been the only one to have thought that the summoner was meant to be a poster class at one point or another, especially during ARR. Of course, we all know it didn't turn out that way, but I still have my head-canon. And I'm chuffed that it remains not just in-line with official events, but is even bolstered by them.

By the way, even if the WoL wasn't a summoner-main, I don't think it would be necessary for Y'mhitra to stand in as a substitute. More likely than not, her need to find someone who has firsthand experience of encountering — and surviving — a primal, would have taken her to the Immortal Flames sooner or later, to find likely candidates. Either that, or Captain Wolf's investigation into the mystery of a certain rogue summoner would have led him to Y'mhitra eventually, to seek help in tackling the emerging threat.

[Iscah]

I don't think it would be necessary for Y'mhitra to stand in as a substitute. More likely than not, her need to find someone who has firsthand experience of encountering — and surviving — a primal, would have taken her to the Immortal Flames sooner or later, to find likely candidates. Either that, or Captain Wolf's investigation into the mystery of a certain rogue summoner would have led him to Y'mhitra eventually, to seek help in tackling the emerging threat.

Ah, that's a good version! The ARR summoner plot may not have even happened directly, and perhaps the summoner squad are the first new practitioners of the art.

Or maybe they formed earlier, at the point where our quest would have started, and went through the whole questline as a group.


And yeah, the summoner quests were pretty good at feeding my headcanon too! From the start it's seemed like it really fits as 'the' class for the main character. Particularly with that giant pattern we see in our visions with the crystals - that's got to be a seriously powerful arcanist geometry-spell, right? And then we actually cast it when we defeat Lahabrea at the end of ARR. Also acquiring "dragon powers" (Dreadwyrm Trance) in the course of Heavensward fitted so well.

(It got a bit lost in Stormblood though.)

[ObsidianFire]

Next one's out! And it's about how Cid and Nero met for the first time!

[YianKutku]

The Cid And Nero Techbromance Show.

Is there any indication of when the last part of the story takes place? "Final confrontation" is kind of vague, since we've had a lot of "final confrontations" involving Cid and the Ironworks in ARR and beyond (when Cid is bearded).