Revelations from Patch 6.3: Gods Revel, Lands Tremble

[Cleretic]

In regards to Alisaie

I thought her behavior fit her. She's always looking for ways to improve her skills. As she strives to be as good as the WoL one day and maybe try and surpass us. So her missing out on an opportunity to do so makes sense. Then there's her friendship with G'Raha where to me at least it's part siblings and part rivalry. As they both highly enjoy going on adventures with the WoL. Her choosing to like Zero I think was decided on Zero saying she didn't enjoy being Zenos's avatar. Like if Zero at the time had any say in what she was doing back then she probably wouldn't have popped out back then. That and if the WoL a person she looks up to is fine with Zero a half voidsent no less being around then they can't be too bad. Yes, Zero did try to kill them, but technically the WoL also did and she nor G'Raha seem to be bothered by the fact.

I think it's also worth remembering where Alisaie is as a person right now.

For most of the time we've known her it's been in high-pressure situations with pretty large things to worry about, and she's not really the type to put those aside for more than casual conversation; it's always weighing on her. But right now, we're seeing her in probably the most relaxed state she's been in since before the game's story started. Garlemald's not in a great state, but it's stable; she doesn't have some encroaching terror or occupied army to worry about. Naturally she'd be a lot more relaxed and playful than we're used to!

And as for her and Zero getting along... yeah, that makes sense, looking at the two as people. To Alisaie, not only is Zero someone who immediately just went 'yeah Zenos sucks' right off the bat, she's with trusted friends, and is probably almost refreshingly guileless. She's been in Garlemald with Alphinaud for the last who-knows-how-long, someone that blunt is probably quite refreshing. And to Zero... well, Zero's pretty simple with how transactional she is, she probably just identified Alisaie as 'this is the person I need to learn from, I'll talk to her'. Makes sense, everyone else in Garlemald is clearly benefiting somehow (Alphinaud maybe less distinctly but he doesn't give direct enough answers anyway), but Alisaie's just sorta... there, helping because she wants to. And after that initial draw, of course they'd get along, they're similar enough as people to work well together.

[YianKutku]

It's been a very long time since I really looked into the matter, but there's a bit of confusion I had regarding the Myths Of The Realm quests and what I thought was old lore from 1.0. If anyone is familiar with both, I'd appreciate a clarification.

According to Althyk, in the post-raid cutscene, they "scattered eternal stones throughout Eorzea" that held the informational keys to the monument in the Phantom Realm. Althyk also notes that these stones have turned into objects of worship at the present time. Snoegeim immediately identifies these as the stones bearing the marks of the Twelve.

Except based on what I heard about 1.0, the various stones bearing the marks of the Twelve around Eorzea were placed by Louisoix in his anti-Meteor plan. (Or at least Louisoix told Urianger to put them there, if I recall correctly.) The implication, based on the way this was phrased in lore discussions, was that it didn't quite matter where these marks were placed, but just that they were placed at all, to give the people a focus for their prayers. So I assumed the marks of the Twelve were carved into a bunch of random (well, semi-random; they'd have to be sturdy, easily-accessible, and also placed in a location that made sense for the given deity) rocks, which people prayed at while Louisoix was doing his thing at Carteneau.

I believe there's also the Eternal Bonding ceremony requiring players to make a pilgrimage to these marks, but I've never done an EB and I don't know if these are the same marks.

Which leads into my question: are these the same marks? Are there two sets of Twelve marks across Eorzea, one made by Louisoix, and one made by the Twelve themselves?

The other possibility I figured was the marks Louisoix carved into the stones just happened to be the same stones that the Twelve used for their information storage, by chance or intention. Which in turn could be interpreted in two ways: either Louisoix knew these stones were special and picked them, or the stones were themselves not particularly special until Louisoix picked them, at which point the Twelve went "oh, we can use those" and stored the information then.

I think that makes this a soft retcon about the significance of those stones, which I believe Moose calls an "addition retcon". Of course, I don't know if this is actually the case, so I have to ask.

[SannaR]

The stones we visit in the quest are the same as the ones you pray to during the date setting phase of the Eternal Bonding quest.

[SannaR]

Xelphatol and Baelsar's Wall yay done with dungeon updates until 6.4 when I'm sure they'll start in on SB ones.

I guess in Xelphatol I didn't realize that the 2nd boss was female as both the Fortemps Knight and Alphinaud use she and her pronouns when speaking of the boss. Both the Knight and the Banneret will make you sniffle if you really liked Haurchefant. As the Kinght will say while using Circle of Scorn "Brave like the Silver Fuller!" And the Bannerwt when LBing will say "For Lord Haurchefant!". Alphinaud and the Fortemps crew is amazed and give the Icali props for fortifying the cave and having a mechanical lift. There's not much different in the way that mechanics happen except the new going to be launched into the air marker appears during the first boss when you need to pop their balloon. It's the same look as the one thar happens during the fight with Althyk and Nymeia. The Banneret has to be just over 20 as they use the grown up Elezen model, but still has the baby face like Emmanellian. The Banneret must also be like any Ishgardian lancer and look up to Estinien as he has a slight twist on Estinien's line of don't underestimate me. Instead of me it ends with us. Oh the only real notable change is the war balloons don't lea e and aren't targetble at all. The Fortemps Archer wishes her arrows could pierce them.

The Magitek Predator makes its debut here as some of the Scion crew make note of never having seen it before. Doing all of the lv 60 dungeons that have the non named Scion crew the thm uses demi versions of various spells like demiflare and demiblizzard III. I guess this is to show that due to not having a blm soul stone they have to cast a semi water down version of the spells. I know there's no way the the Scion conjure could know about Hythlodaeus, but I thought it kind of funny that when they cast Aero II they say a line akin to what Hythlodaeus tends to say. Hythlodaeus says "I see you opening" and the conjure says "I never miss an opening." I didn't really notice any new markers during the run. I did notice however that during the two times on the moving platform it now will choose to move and then bring out the 2nd wave when you're dealing with the side gates.

One thing I thought was funny about ARF is when you get attacked on the one lift the thm and mrd both joke about how that seems to happen more often then not.

[Cilia]

It's been a while!

Anyway.

MSQ

Short and pretty uneventful. Other than some character focus on Zero there wasn't much substance to it, and there was no real forward momentum. Fortunately this filler arc should conclude next patch, fighting Golbez on the Thirteenth's red moon in its Cradle of Darkness. (Somehow. We don't have a way to get to the Thirteenth anymore, much less transport to the moon.)

Disappointing, but it's just filler and XVI crunch time, so that's to be expected.

Myths of the Twelve

Interesting, though as always there's not much forward momentum until the final tier.

Twelve all but confirmed to be the rest of Venat's collaborators raised up to godhood. Not sure why they're insisting on fighting us. Deryk implied to be an avatar of the missing Thirteenth God, the Watcher? Whatever his deal is, having fought Althyk and Nymeia in tandem we're going to need another boss for the last tier...

Ever so slightly disappointed the minion is Valkyrie Goddess (Halone) instead of Big Tiddy Mommy Goddess (Nophica), but I guess we can't have everything...

[rainichan]

Just two lines that stood out to me in the last Golbez cutscene:

"..and you have played your parts to perfection." - Golbez

"And played your role to perfection." - Fandaniel/Zodiark

"Hereon, I shall walk alone." - Golbez

"Henceforth, he shall walk." - Hydaelin

Maybe just coincidence that the wording is so similar.

Someone on reddit also pointed out that

we've (likely) met Althyk and Nymeia before, in Elpis

so I wouldn't count some of it as coincidence. Perhaps the "Henceforth, he shall walk" is, but Fancy Dan was one of the sundered Ascians... never know who his Shard on the 13th is.

[Alleo]

When that happened I was actively thinking

"It's gonna be a tomestone, isn't it?"

And then actually cackled irl about it. Well played. In-story, I think the WoL's thought process was closer to:

"A device meant to store information? That sounds an awful lot like-oh no...don't think of a tomestonedont'thinkofatome-DAMNIT!"

I loved the scene too. We cant escape the Rowena curse.

There has been quite a few scenes this patch that made me laugh or giggle and I really enoyed doing the story quests.

Rework for Aetherochemical Research Facility

I liked what they did there. It is nice to run this with NPCs, especially since I need huge amount of tomestones for the ARR relics at the moment.

I also love the dialogue the NPCs have in this. One is annoyed that we have to fight monsters again in a elevator and the tank agreed to that. Makes it feels much more real.

The second boss is so much better since you know get hints how many people you need in the marker to survive it and that other attack has been changed to a "stack marker".

The two Ascians have new dialogue that hints at what they want with the calamities and the fight got changed quite a bit.

All in all I enjoyed running it.

It's been a while!

Anyway.

Myths of the Twelve

Interesting, though as always there's not much forward momentum until the final tier.

Twelve all but confirmed to be the rest of Venat's collaborators raised up to godhood. Not sure why they're insisting on fighting us. Deryk implied to be an avatar of the missing Thirteenth God, the Watcher? Whatever his deal is, having fought Althyk and Nymeia in tandem we're going to need another boss for the last tier...

Ever so slightly disappointed the minion is Valkyrie Goddess (Halone) instead of Big Tiddy Mommy Goddess (Nophica), but I guess we can't have everything...

About Deryk

I have seen a few people state that he might be the watcher but I am not sure where that comes from? I guess its a bit sus that they show his face when we get the revelation about the missing god but other than that, it seems that there are much more hints that he is Oschon.

He is seemingly a adventurer that travels alone, who summons a map (or scroll) when he has to think about storing information and he helps people that he meets with some great advise. Sounds so much like Oschon to me.

I am not saying though that he is 100% not the watcher but I would find it a bit strange that they drop so many hints at him being Oschon when in reality he is another god.

I guess in my mind the person the watcher had been in the past seems to not be much of a traveling guy unlike Venat. So him chosing a avatar that is bascially a explorer seems a bit off.

[Jettinson]

Hexeyes sidequest

Cagnazzo and Rubicante backstories are definitely my favorites, bored roe fisherman decides to fist fight fully armored people? We got our real Warrior here! Rubicante being an Au Ra that cares a lot for the people and uses terrifying magic, loses his brother and still get something positive from the small girl that he rescued? I love it. Even in their voidsent form they kinda have a better and more lovable approach, I felt sad with Rubi with the torch and I love how the hexeyes pretty much were close to them

[Fenral]

It's been a while!

It has! I am finally past the "You haven't logged in" lockout, so I can say things, too.

MSQ:

Golbez on the moon is one big "of course they did" moment, but it fits with this expansion's general tone of just going there. So is he a Fandaniel fragment, still trying to end everything? A shard of Zodiark adapting his original directive to the circumstances of the 13th? An entirely unrelated plot-usurper? Not much happened this patch, really, but FFXIV hasn't lost any of its cliffhanger game.

The most surprising break from pattern here was fighting a second Fiend as a dungeon boss. If Golbez isn't our 6.5 final boss... should we be worried? Or are we going to fight Golbez and Zeromus in separate patches. We have a Zero, and there's probably a Zemus out there somewhere. An end-boss tier threat getting loose on the Source would be a pretty big shakeup to lead into 7.0, but they kind of already did that with Shinryu.

I have this weird nagging feeling that we're heading for a return to the state of the Scions at the start of Heavensward, at least as a fully underground organization (rather than a pile of bodies). We're already sort of there with the faked "disbanding," but if the world were to get to a point where seeing us together meant calling the guards on us... No basis for this, yet, but leaving it in writing in case something comes of it.

Filler it may be, but I've gone from "Where are they going with this?" to, "I want to see where this is going," and that's never a bad thing.

But on this one point...

MSQ

Fortunately this filler arc should conclude next patch, fighting Golbez on the Thirteenth's red moon in its Cradle of Darkness. (Somehow. We don't have a way to get to the Thirteenth anymore, much less transport to the moon.)

You might have the order backwards. We don't need to rediscover space travel at all if we go to the 13th from the moon. We still need an excuse to check on Thancred and Urianger this patch cycle, so they're likely to be our next stop.

Myths:

I don't have much to say on this that others haven't, except that I need a Dalamud mount yesterday. The goodest boy. I want to ride on his big, fluffy paw. Please, please, please, Yoshi-P.

Anyways, we know that the Ancients were especially vulnerable to Dynamis, basically the energy of emotion. It was suggested that worship generates Dynamis, so if that Dynamis were to be focused on an unsundered Ancient, maybe the result would be what we have in the Twelve: powerful beings completely at the mercy of their worshipers. The Watcher, being unnamed and unworshiped, serves as the control sample and remains as he originally was.

Perhaps the real reason the Ancients and Sundered can't coexist is because the Ancients would be too susceptible to the ambient Dynamis generated by the Sundered. Makes me wonder what's going to happen with all those unsundered souls that returned to the Lifestream. Imagine if people started focusing all their hopes and fears onto an Unsundered god-baby?

I didn't manage to screencap it, but G'raha does a /cheer at you as you enter the last boss arena, assuming you don't run too far ahead of him. 10 years overdue, but we finally get to run a 24-man with the original 24-man NPC.

[Iscah]

Filler it may be, but I've gone from "Where are they going with this?" to, "I want to see where this is going," and that's never a bad thing.

I hadn't thought of it that way, but yeah. This is the point where we've started seeing the pieces coming to the point of guessing where the plot is going, rather than just things being set up with no clear direction yet.

But on this one point...

You might have the order backwards. We don't need to rediscover space travel at all if we go to the 13th from the moon. We still need an excuse to check on Thancred and Urianger this patch cycle, so they're likely to be our next stop.

That is a really good point. I'm not sure if it's narratively too simple a solution to get to the moon that way, although they still have to think of it themselves AND work out how to break through the rift, if Golbez doesn't do it for us from the other side.

Myths:

Anyways, we know that the Ancients were especially vulnerable to Dynamis, basically the energy of emotion. It was suggested that worship generates Dynamis, so if that Dynamis were to be focused on an unsundered Ancient, maybe the result would be what we have in the Twelve: powerful beings completely at the mercy of their worshipers. The Watcher, being unnamed and unworshiped, serves as the control sample and remains as he originally was.

I didn't manage to screencap it, but G'raha does a /cheer at you as you enter the last boss arena, assuming you don't run too far ahead of him. 10 years overdue, but we finally get to run a 24-man with the original 24-man NPC.

I thought it was that Ancients were un-vulnerable to dynamis under normal circumstances, which is why the others couldn't trace Meteion after she vanished, but we could.

Also, I will have to do a run of the raid deliberately watching Raha at some point.

I wonder if they would ever revisit CT and add him into those raids?