Echoes of Vana'diel FFXI Alliance Raid

[Atelier-Bagur]

The gearsets might be a bit too plain/pixelated with how well they've been doing textures since Shadowbringers. We have a taste of XI gear from Eureka with Osode, Optical Hat, Scorpion Harness, and I think the boots and cassie earring?

They have to put in "E.Body" for the tanks, the drama that one piece of gear created among hardcore nerds was astounding. Knowing how they create these raids, I wonder if we get one where we start in Zi'Tah and we fight our way to Sky and slay Kirin as the final boss. Another we could do is participate in Dynamis Zones all the way until Shadowlord, or the past of the whole War during Wings of the Goddess.

There's so much more in XI that it would be hard to cover all the good parts in three 24 man raids. Also, hope they allow free roam like they did with Nier raid.

EDIT what hurts from this announcement is that we have a full year before 7.1 to even play it. Think about that.

you do realize the 7.0 graphical update are also touching up gear right?

[Raikai]

They'll have THREE aiming set opportunities, please let at least one of them be the Dancer AF set from XI.

Let DNC for once in a lifetime be catered with the aiming set (Plus it looks kind of appropriate to BRDs as well).

[Mayhemmer]

They'll have THREE aiming set opportunities, please let at least one of them be the Dancer AF set from XI.

Let DNC for once in a lifetime be catered with the aiming set (Plus it looks kind of appropriate to BRDs as well).

After seeing that slide with the potential Dancer af gear, saaaaame. I'll take the XI version.

[Raikai]

After seeing that slide with the potential Dancer af gear, saaaaame. I'll take the XI version.

I Liked that slide... I know WHMs are probably exhausted of getting the same silhouette over and over, but for DNC, it's all right because they're still kind of fresh. But in spite of that, I'd take my chances as a DNC main on a brand new silhouette, like they said in the Keynote they decided not to go for lol.

[Cidel]

Honestly more interested in this than whatever faux-Kirit- I mean "Viper" thinks its going to be.

While it would be nice to see many of the XI's AF gear return, I find that to be at odds with their staunch, shallow excuse of "we don't want to confuse people with players using glamour from different roles/jobs" whenever they justify not removing the role-lock for glamour; like a XIV SCH wearing XI's WHM AF. So I question them if they open that can of worms.

I also would expect them to be rewarding the "neutral-looking" gears like the Duende Cotehardie, Yigit Gomleks, Dalmaticas, Nashira Manteels, Oracle's Robes, Royal Redingote, etc. for casters/healers for examples.

What I'm a little more concerned about is if they're going to do weird things like make one raid give Noble's Tunic for healers and casters get a weird recolor of it, and then the next raid casters get the Weskit and healers get a weird recolor: like they had done for the Ivalice alliance raids... I would love to see them give a unique gear set per role this time around, but that's a standard too high to be holding them, especially coming from Endwalker...

They have a lot of locations to work with for a scenic, guided route between bosses, such as Al'Taieu (aka. "sea") into Hu'Xzoi... Or Ru'Aun Gardens into Hall of the Gods for fight locales, etc...

So far the only thing that caught my eye. I'll be cautiously optimistic.

[Rongway]

My money's on Vana'diel being one of the 14 shards. I'm sure they can crowbar that in with the original story. Multiverses already exist in Vana'diel anyway.

The Eleventh shard happens to still be available for something like this; however, even if they did say “The Eleventh is Vana’diel” it would be an FFXIV place that just happens to also be called Vana’diel; it would not be the Vana’diel that is the setting of FFXI.

I don’t think this is outside of the realm of possibility, since someone suggested we visit the other Reflections some day but I think it’s more likely we’ll just see some locations in Tural that are geographically similar to the parts of Vana’diel that will be featured in the raids.

[Vyrerus]

I played FFXI for a decade.

As someone who has played FFXI for two decades I am honor bound to correct you.

Windurst's missions start out about the Cardians going nuts, but they're actually about Windurst staying afloat under the rule of a tyrannical false seer, The Star Sibyl, who wrongfully imprisons a major NPC for the fear he will reveal her by revealing what is driving the Cardians nuts. It delves into Windurst's true origins and the origins of the Summoner class a bit, too.

San d'Oria is about San d'Oria's ties to Tavnazia and the Lightbringer sword which more or less causes a magical nuke to go off when it is unsheathed.

Bastok's missions are the ones most closely bound to the Galka and the events of the Crystal War, what with The Shadowlord actually being a Galka and all. It involves a lot of interpersonal drama between Galkans, a new Talekeeper, and a fight with Zeid who is canonically one of the people who defeated The Shadowlord 20 years prior, who absorbed some of his powers and is also the DRK mentor.

These are their individuals storylines which are finished with ranks 6 to 10.

All three of them have story lead up to your own adventurer defeating The Shadowlord in the present day, which finishes off Ranks 1 through 5, with their ranks 6 to 10 storylines only hinted at prior to that.

Rise of The Zilart: Taking place right after the events of defeating The Shadowlord, it is revealed that the Archduke of Jeuno and his little brother are actually ancient Zilartian Princes that lived into the modern era via Zilartian stasis pods within The Tower of Delkfutt. They are responsible for The Shadowlords revival, but sought to dispose of him because he was causing energy interference with The Crystal Line. They raise the Warriors of the Crystals, The Ark Angels, and they set about restoring the floating fortress of Tu'lia. Their plans are to restart the Crystal Line and join Vana'diel to Paradise, The Realm of The Gods. In doing so, this will destroy Vana'diel as it is, because it is imperfect.

Chains of Promathia: Bahamut rises out of The Sea of Shu'Meyo, which is the body of water that surrounds Qufim Island and Delkfutt's Tower. At the same time, an experiment the Zilart are doing in Delkfutt's Tower goes awry, and a mysterious boy covered in darkness comes out of the Crystal Line. You are compelled to follow this boy and become a fugitive to Jeuno for a time. By following him you learn about The Emptiness and Promathia and their connection to The Mothercrystals. What the Mothercrystals actually are. And it culminates in a final battle against the Twilight God Promathia, where only The Adventurer, that boy, and Prishe are able to battle him, as they are the only party members able to withstand his psychic influence.

Treasures of Aht Urhgan: You use your Tenshodo connections to gain passage to The Near East in order to seek out what adventures are to be had in Aht Urhgan. Upon arrival, you quickly find your way into the mercenary company, Salaheem's Sentinels. In the course of your work with them you become entangled with being Aphmau's bodyguard. Aphmau's disguise is that of the court puppetmaster, but her real identity is gained fairly quickly. You have to help her stop her brother The Grand Vizier from reactivating the Ruins of Alzadaal, which are actually segments of the original vessel for the light god, Alexander, whose astral essence has to have a sturdy body to have a presence in Vana'diel. This is tied to the Astral Candesences which emit an energy frequency that causes life around them to flourish and also seek them out. Related to this is Odin, who is the dark god of the conquered Kingdom of Ephramad. He contested Alexander 900 years prior, when Alexander had the whole of Alzadaal as his entire body and was capable of flying high in the sky. Odin struck him down then and seeks to do the same to prove he is mightier still. This is juxtaposed against the Empire of Aht Urhgan having almost total dominion over the descendants of Ephramad.

Wings of The Goddess: You travel back in time 20 years to a point where timelines converged. I'll correct your misconception about Dynamis here. Dynamis is not an alternate timeline. Dynamis is an alternate reality dreamland created by the terrestrial avatar Diabolos. When The Shadowlord died, his spirit came to be entrapped there along with the spirits of many beastmen from the Crystal War. The darkness from his and their souls contaminated Diabolos's Dreamland, turning it into a desolate place filled with the spirit of hatred. The Dynamis Lord is the side of his soul that cannot let go of his hatred.

Now that, that is out of the way, in Wings of the Goddess you travel back to the actual Crystal War by venturing through Atomos which is linked to all dimensions and versions of Vana'diel by being centered in The Walk of Echoes. In this storyline you team up with Lilisette, a Half Hume, Half Elvaan Dancer who is also from the same present as you. You come to notice that even with your efforts, the war is going strangely, not how it was written in your history books. You then encounter Lady Lilith, a dark shrouded redhead with batwings from an alternate present, that she considers the true Vana'diel, where the Allied Forces lost, and the war went much more like how it's going in WoTG. You then go on to fight her and her minions across several missions for the right to exist, as Atomos can be influenced to eat the present you are from.

Seekers of Adoulin: You travel far to the west to the wild land of Ulbuka, where the Sacred City of Adoulin has been trying to tame the land for a couple of hundred years. It was founded by King August, who brought a tree cutting from the Yggdrasil of Rhazowa to Adoulin in order to preserve and grow a new one since the Orcs burnt down the Yggdrasil in Rhazowa. As it turns out, the Naakuals who rule the wilds of Ulbuka are actually animals from an extra dimension called Tartarus, where the villain for the expac, Hades, comes from. August was able to defeat all of them and turn them to his side to guard the Serpentine Labyrinth of Ra'kaznar from being accessed, as it is a vessel or structure from Tartarus itself. He then sealed Hades at the cost of his own life. Your adventurer arrives in Ulbuka as the government and royalty are trying to decide on whether or not to try and make a full incursion into Ulbuka's wilderness in order to enrich the city and expand its ability to trade with other nations. So it's a tale of pragmatic politics wrapped up in an otherwordly battle.

[Nestama]

Myeah, there's no way FFXI is a shard of FFXIV. Lore in FFXI heavily conflicts with FFXIV's.

Cloud of Darkness especially, since that seems to be a being that travels the universe "destroying" all worlds it makes contact with (confirmed by Balamor in the Rhapsodies of Vana'diel story). Then there's the alternate futures and realities of Vana'diel. Abyssea is an apocalyptic future (a playable bad ending to Chains of Promathia, in a sense) and Shantotto learns how to use dimension travel magic... though accidentally swaps places with her tyrannical counterpart (who then splits in two: Domina and Belle Shantotto).

Then there's how the playable races and Beastmen were created, the Zilarts themselves, etc.

[Cach]

Well, I guess the XI crossover events will become canon?
Shantotto (or at least a version of her) has already been on Eorzea. So maybe they'll start to build from there.

I only tested FFXI for a couple of months, couldn't really absorb any lore, mmm... I wonder if there are any good videos about that.

[SannaR]

Dang Vyerus you act like Catwho got everything wrong about the various stories of XI instead of give a shorter summary.

Anywho I didn't have this in mind when thru had said the raid would be more FF than even Myths were. Not sure if I did have an idea what for a "I put some FF into your FF" that'll be the most FF you can get. As I said in another thread I'm not sure how I feel about more XI. I just hope they blend it in akin to how they did it with Ivalice. Otherwise you all might get to see all my bitterness I have about more so the playerbase back when I played XI color my opinion of this raid than the game itself. I just hope it's not a retread just with an XI lense as there's a lot of things XIV and XI have done similar.