1.X Storyline

[Anonymoose]

If you like reading, I wrote one a while back that's a bit different. Most of 1.0's story was stripped for parts or relegated to side stories that were never finished and never came up again. As far as relevance to A Realm Reborn goes, most of them can be summed up in mere sentences (unless you've dug into them enough to actually make the connections the game never did). My summary, however, focuses on smoothing out all the parts that remained relevant under Team Yoshida (the original main scenario and then everything from the re-establishment of the Grand Companies).

To get that job done, I ended up just telling it from the perspective of the Empire. Considering that all we knew about the Echo was that something gave us some weird power, I didn't even end up mentioning it by name (or Minfilia); just hinted that those singled out and organized by Louisoix were somehow gifted and important. The part that makes me recommend it, though, is that the project ballooned into something way bigger than I expected and the XIV lore team fact checked it to make sure everything was accurate and canon (because Koji Fox and Banri Oda really, really care about the people who care about their world).

The Rise and Fall of the White Raven

EDIT:
As for the intros that I didn't include there? They were all Echoes. Your character shows up in town, gets the Echo, sees a bunch of visions from ten years prior, confuses everyone by mistaking the events for preset day, passes out in public a lot, and ends up brought before Minfilia because hey, another one of those weird people with our weird power showed up.

CITY INTRODUCTIONS:

Ul'dah
Minfilia's father (Warburton), a double-agent of the Ala Mhigan resistance working from inside Garlean espionage circles, flees to Ul'dah looking to pass off information suggesting that primals will soon rise in Eorzea. The city is mostly shut down for a parade when he gets there, so he and his daughter decide to check it out. Midway into the parade, a goobbue bound for the Colisseum breaks free and goes on a rampage throughout town, trampling Warburton to death. The tragedy was revealed to be a plot by a naive group that sought to become heroes of the people (including a master goldsmith, a coliseum champion, a famous singer, and sons of the Miners' guild). Digging into the matter leads Thancred (in Ul'dah on assignment to look for anything and everything that might lead to Calamity) to a second Garlean spy, who at first attempts to flee with Minfilia (thinking her father to be loyal and knowing the primals were coming), but ultimately leaves her behind. The goldsmith then tried to raise Warburton from the dead using a magicked dagger stolem from Lolorito, but ended up getting himself killed by a cowled assassin and breaking the dagger. His girlfriend took in Minfilia as her own daughter, since they were both left alone and she felt terribly guilty.

Gridania
Yda and Papalymo arrive to commence their end of the calamity investigation, but crash their airship into the forest and have to be rescued by E-Sumi-Yan, who seemed to handle much of the city's affairs in the Seedseer's absence (in times of peace, the lived amongst the wood). Gridanian leadership concocts a complex web of lies to hide the fact that they are aiding the Ala Mhigan resistance, pretending that various members of the city have been spirited away by the Elementals to become wildlings (those claimed by the wood, usually for incurring its wrath). One girl's loneliness at the loss of her brother (fake wildling) leads her friend (whose parents are fake wildlings) to set a tree on fire to prove that the Elementals aren't real. The Elementals, however, go full Greenwrath on him and a ceremony is held to prevent him from being taken as a wildling himself. To prevent further chaos, the girl's brother is "captured" by Gridania and "cleansed" alongside the boy. (Fun Fact: The brother, Dunstan, goes on to win glory as a commander within the Wood Wailers and gets a spire named after him in A Realm Reborn).

Limsa Lominsa
This one was the most important, most convoluted, and most unfinished tale - featuring Ascians and a relic akin to Louisoix's staff, Tupsimati. I wrapped it up in this summary, expecting the Seal Rock PVP to give us at least one or two more answers that it did.