Revelations from the Occult Crescent's north horn.

[Zero-ELEC]

A non-MSQ patch with with interesting "lore"? Heavens forbid! Or forfend, I guess.

"Shrine of Spheres" occult record:

According to the Shrine of Spheres occult record, one of the city-states of the 5th Astral Era apparently survived and hid itself from the world.

Also red mages existed before the War of the Magi, somehow. I wonder if the Crimson Duelists simply rediscovered the art or were inspired by it or practiced it and the records of the actual origin were lost?

"Suspended Masonry" occult record:

The mages of Nym were actually planning on surviving the flood by taking their city aloft. I guess they had hoped their efforts to stymie the flood would give them enough time...

"Pallmagia" occult record:

Skalla had blue mages, huh.

Anything that has caught your eyes?

[Cleretic]

Anything that has caught your eyes?

In the record for the Unhallowed Halmet (which I'm 90% sure is an SNES FF town in layout but I couldn't peg which), we get an... odd detail, that could mean anything, but to me sounds like something very specific.

We learn that the source of Mhach's original power is an artifact that was hauled out of the sea, and then a 'demon' came out and promised arcane knowledge. (Their quotes, not mine.) This gave them the chance to study and invent all new forms of magic, most notably Shatotto's black magic. Now, the identity of 'the artifact' and 'the demon' could be anything, although I do think it's notable that voidsent and void magic are nowhere in this entry, and we know separately that Shatotto was not a practitioner of it. So this could be a number of things that we both have and haven't seen.

...but what stands out to me is that this is exactly how Eureka works, as we saw in Stormblood Eureka itself. And one of the big questions about both Eureka and Mhach are how exactly they connect, because Mhach has Ozma, the original of which we know came from Eureka. So, sounds like we might have our answer to that one.

[RavLandslide]

"Suspended Masonry" occult record:

The mages of Nym were actually planning on surviving the flood by taking their city aloft. I guess they had hoped their efforts to stymie the flood would give them enough time...

It's weird cause this kind of contradicts what the Archive says in one of the cutscenes in North Horn.

He talks about how what we see in North Horn is the result of "the Architect" messing with the Aetherial balances to try and "predict" (because he did this all before the Fifth Astral Era ended) what would happen to the city states when the flood would happen. So I guess it's still kind of undecided if Nymians actually made Nym float on purpose or not.

[MikkoAkure]

Also red mages existed before the War of the Magi, somehow. I wonder if the Crimson Duelists simply rediscovered the art or were inspired by it or practiced it and the records of the actual origin were lost?

I think Red Mage is just included because the whole point of the gameplay is FFV jobs, which is why Scholar wasn’t included. I don’t think it’s meant to have any lore ramifications and it’s just one of those FFXIV things you’re not supposed to think about.

[Zero-ELEC]

In the record for the Unhallowed Halmet (which I'm 90% sure is an SNES FF town in layout but I couldn't peg which), we get an... odd detail, that could mean anything, but to me sounds like something very specific.

We learn that the source of Mhach's original power is an artifact that was hauled out of the sea, and then a 'demon' came out and promised arcane knowledge. (Their quotes, not mine.) This gave them the chance to study and invent all new forms of magic, most notably Shatotto's black magic. Now, the identity of 'the artifact' and 'the demon' could be anything, although I do think it's notable that voidsent and void magic are nowhere in this entry, and we know separately that Shatotto was not a practitioner of it. So this could be a number of things that we both have and haven't seen.

...but what stands out to me is that this is exactly how Eureka works, as we saw in Stormblood Eureka itself. And one of the big questions about both Eureka and Mhach are how exactly they connect, because Mhach has Ozma, the original of which we know came from Eureka. So, sounds like we might have our answer to that one.

...Oh, that hadn't even occurred to me.

I think Red Mage is just included because the whole point of the gameplay is FFV jobs, which is why Scholar wasn’t included. I don’t think it’s meant to have any lore ramifications and it’s just one of those FFXIV things you’re not supposed to think about.

From a Doylist perspective that's true, but all soul shards have Watsonian explanations, even small excerpts descriptive of the personality of the person from whom the soul shard came from. In the phantom red mage's description it explicitly calls out a red mage:

These recollections of a witty wandering red mage will allow you to wield black and white magicks in perfect balance.

[Voidmage]

In the record for the Unhallowed Halmet (which I'm 90% sure is an SNES FF town in layout but I couldn't peg which), we get an... odd detail, that could mean anything, but to me sounds like something very specific.

We learn that the source of Mhach's original power is an artifact that was hauled out of the sea, and then a 'demon' came out and promised arcane knowledge. (Their quotes, not mine.) This gave them the chance to study and invent all new forms of magic, most notably Shatotto's black magic. Now, the identity of 'the artifact' and 'the demon' could be anything, although I do think it's notable that voidsent and void magic are nowhere in this entry, and we know separately that Shatotto was not a practitioner of it. So this could be a number of things that we both have and haven't seen.

...but what stands out to me is that this is exactly how Eureka works, as we saw in Stormblood Eureka itself. And one of the big questions about both Eureka and Mhach are how exactly they connect, because Mhach has Ozma, the original of which we know came from Eureka. So, sounds like we might have our answer to that one.

You know, I wouldn't be surprised if that has Ascians written in it.
This was basically the start of the Mhach empire and their whole stick was building civilisations up. Them in some way introducing void magic or BA stuff wouldn't be surpising.

The whole ending of OC together with this kinda also reads like a "door left open for the future".

The knowledge left on the island because it's too dangerous but could come in handy for future disasters.

[Cilia]

Anyone wandering around the North Horn and checking the map may be curious as to the "Subterrane" underlayer and what's in it. In order to access this region, head to the small house in the southwestern part of the Unhallowed Hamlet, then sneak inside and dodge the Knowledge 45+ enemies on your way down. The tunnel leads beneath Shadowdeep to the Dark Territory, an eerie Dark-aligned area infested with powerful voidsent enemies.

The Occult Record for the area, found about halfway through the region, states that it's been claimed as a territory for vicious voidsent, and suffers from "the corrupting influence of another realm" that has caused "it's structures and even the very ground [to erode] into an unknown substance." Even without the nightmarishly powerful voidsent, it's a very creepy place - a black void stretching out seemingly infinitely, the ground and structures some kind of ashen material with "trees" made of similarly ashen arms here and there. It's reminiscent of Palace of the Dead's final Floor 200 (similarly Voidsent-infested) and the Promyvion zones of FFXI.

... the second half of the Occult Record posits that Voidsent "domains" consist of both physical spaces claimed by voidsent and pocket dimensions especially powerful voidsent are able to create (e.g. Enuo, presumably the Cloud of Darkness).

Go check it out if you got the stones to slalom around the voidsent nearly 10 Knowledge levels over the cap!

[Cleretic]

Go check it out if you got the stones to slalom around the voidsent nearly 10 Knowledge levels over the cap!

If you've got the patience you can just use Hide with Ninja and walk through, everything down there has sight-based detection.