Deciphering Louisoix's Journal

[HakuroDK]

SPOILER WARNING.
IF YOU HAVE NOT COMPLETED THE MAIN STORYLINE UP UNTIL THE END CREDITS,
PLEASE LEAVE THIS THREAD IMMEDIATELY.

Hey, folks! Burning Passion here! I figured I'd take some time to analyze something I spotted recently. As part of Yoshi-P's "Happy New Year" post, he also included a very interesting graphic.



For those who can't see the image above, it reads:

Lances of light herald the dawn,
Beckoning shadows deeper still.
Splendor dances with shades
Unsheathed, a rime kissed blade
Spills crimson o'er fields of white.

-From the journal of Louisoix Leveilleur

Now, I am fascinated with this sort of thing and I figured I'd attempt to decipher this poem verse and reveal its secrets!

Lances of light herald the dawn. - This tells of the Warriors of Light heralding the dawn of a new era, which is essentially what happened at the end of the 2.0 storyline (once you finally, truly take down Gaius van Baelsar and destroy Castrum Meridium).

Beckoning shadows deeper still. - This is a clear reference to the Ascians and their ultimate goal to summon Zodiark as well as many other powerful foes who await in the future that threaten Hydaelyn.

Splendor dances with shades - Light and darkness will clash with each other... or join forces. That part isn't quite clear on which.

Unsheathed, a rime kissed blade - Something about a frozen blade or sword, or perhaps a being of ice and snow being used as the weapon of someone else, perhaps as a puppet?

Spills crimson o'er fields of white. - Obviously, this one implies that blood will be spilled on a field of white. "Field of white" could be two things. The obvious answer would be Coerthas. The less obvious answer would be if a certain battlefield were to be coated in ice and snow by the possible figure in the previous verse.

So just to recap, here's my VERY rough translation of what I think it to mean:

In the dawn of the Seventh Astral Era,
There are more powerful foes hiding within the shadows preparing to strike.
Light will combat/ally with darkness.
A being/object of ice and snow
Shall spill blood in a frozen tundra.

Feel free to reply, remarking on what this could mean, or to tell me that I am completely wrong. But you're not allowed to tell me I'm wrong without giving your own theory!

As for my theories on what this means... the Ascians have conquered and harnessed the power of an Ice Primal. This could mean Shiva or, if the Ascians are purely interested in Ivalician lore due to their worship of Zodiark, they could summon Mateus instead. And when they summon this new primal, they will unleash its power unto Coerthas or they will find a new battlefield for which to test the Warriors of Light.

Of course, the part about "Splendor dances with shades" could mean that you may find yourself in a temporary alliance with Garlemald, though I'm still not entirely sure.

[LazyMemories]

I think you hit the ballpark, nice read

[Enkidoh]

The thing is, Square Enix deliberately makes these teasers ambiguous for this reason - to get us obsessive players speculating and to hopefully keep interest in the game throughout the new year. It should be noted that most of the fan theories about the previous Lousioux journal entry (released at the beginning of last year) turned out completely wrong though (some of them were downright laughable, but the journal entry in hindsight

just hinted at how the main scenario in ARR would play out - that the player would be blessed by Hydaelyn as 'the blade of light' - which was literally mentioned in the ending scenes - and the 'blade of might' being Gaius and the XIVth Legion who opposed them.

.

Because my theories are normally either woefully inaccurate or later turn out disproved anyway, I'm not going to speculate on this new journal entry as a result and just 'see how things turn out'. It's going to be an interesting year in Eorzea in any event.

[HakuroDK]

snip

Well I think it's fun to speculate and decipher. Shutting me down like that is kinda killjoy-ish behavior. Now I'm all sad and stuff. I might even cry!

But in all seriousness, I think I'm right about the primal Shiva or Mateus making an appearance at the very least. Either that, or it's another ice-themed character from Final Fantasy lore (Black Waltz 1?), or it's a completely new character with an ice theme.

I don't even care if I'm actually right or not. I just like to think of the possibilities. Besides, it's not like the devs aren't watching the forums. Who knows? Maybe some of this speculation we come up with will end up catching the ear of the right people and they might actually decide to use some of our theories as ideas in distant patches and expansions.

[Enkidoh]

You're right though that it is fun to speculate though - I wasn't trying to dissuade you from theorizing that, really I could have been a little more delicate with my earlier post. I'm really sorry about that.

As for the possibilities of an ice Primal, Shiva was already confirmed as a Primal for the game ages ago (images were shown on the developer's blog of her in-game model during the early rendering stage), so it's entirely possible she'll be added sometime this year, if that is what the journal entry is indeed hinting at. Mateus on the other hand... considering Belias already has appeared during the SMN Job quests as a palette swap of Ifrit-Egi, I'm liable to believe SE will probably do the same thing and just use Mateus for a future 'Shiva-Egi' fight for SMN, as well as the rest of the FFXII Espers for that matter.

[Dyvid]

Well if it's meant for the entire year and not just 2.2, I think we'll be seeing a push toward Ishgard in the region of Aldenard. Eorzea really does have a lot of room for expansion. I do remember Yoshi-P saying that 2.3 is going to be Shiva and Ramuh and that 2.2 would have Leviathan and something else. The question is what is the something else. Beastman we know of that don't have primal is Goblins, Dragonkin, Mamool Ja, Ogre, and Qiqirn.

[Sotek]

Splendor dances with shades
Unsheathed, a rime kissed blade
Spills crimson o'er fields of white.

I took this to refer to the Coil storyline. Go to Boulder Downs in Coerthas, that's your crimson o'er fields of white. An unsheathed rime kissed blade would be the fragment of Dalamud, also at Boulder Downs; unsheathed from Dalamud, rime kissed in Coerthas. While that all works, I don't think it's the true meaning of the lines.

Splendor I take to mean Ishgard, shades the Allagan; Ishgard has an interest in that lump of Allagan technology lying right on their doorstep. Technology that trapped the Dragon God? Yeah, that wont help with their war with the Dragons...
Unsheathed, a rime kissed blade, the rime kissed part remains the same as I previously stated, but unsheathed instead refers to it being excavated rather than falling from Dalamud.
Spills crimson o'er fields of white refers to the fact that we'll be fighting there. Coil Turn 6+ will be located at the fragment of Dalamud at Boulder Downs, we'll be fighting there and spilling blood in Coerthas because of this.

Minor Coil Spoilers;

In the cutscene after beating Turn 5s boss Alisaie comments that the contraption around its neck was controlling it; that the Allagans could control Dragons, more so that the people of Ishgard would kill for such technology. Hint Hint!

[HakuroDK]

snip

Oh... oh, that's good! That's a very good theory!

[Dyvid]

Necro'ed this post because while searching for info on Frontlines PvP I found this little gem.
"Dragon Battles of Ishgard: Campaign of battles against the dragon horde in the defense of Ishgard, with participation possible as any of the four Disciplines."

[Razzle]

*spoiler*

I think it leans more light will ally with darkness and not combat seeing how the mother crystal appeared to be evil in one of the ending cutscenes (she was dark-redish lol), and in the story after 2.1, there was a white ascian guiding the player and testing his skills. And he doesnt look like a bad guy.