Some History on the Physical Guildleve Plates

[Bayohne]

A player had some questions regarding guildleves and mentioned that the official site explained that guildleves are plates that are inlaid with stained crystal, but was curious how the actual leve content is inscribed within them. Foxclon was able to track down someone from the Lore team to provide some insight into the physical guildleve plates that I think some of you will find interesting.

First, there are two types of details regarding Guildleves; that which is displayed on the plate and that which is not.

• Issuing city-state (Lower right of the plate)
  This is the name of the city state of the adventurer’s guild that issues the leve.
• Theme (Top of the plate)
  This theme is shown through words of highly virtuous deeds performed by people known as sages in the past. The stained crystal picture also has an image of the sage.

The above two types of details that are displayed. Besides this, specific information such as leve content and rewards are not physically written onto the plates. This information is shared with the adventurer directly from the person at the adventurers' guild counter. Similar to how you can check your journal for general quest content, the idea is that you’re recalling the content that you remembered (from your notes perhaps?).

A player also asked about starting a leve at an aetheryte, how the plate image is displayed above your head and asked for more info about that.

Momodi and other NPCs tell adventurers that within aetherytes exists the key to unlocking the power of guildleves. In order to carry out duties outside of the city-state, or that are very far away, a magic seal is applied to leve plates.

The aetherytes and aetherial gates function as a key, and by having them resonate when you complete your duties it is possible to open an aetherial node to return with. This is what the animations above your head signifies.

This is standard amongst adventurers, so even for duties within city-states that don’t utilize aetherial nodes, the same thing takes place when the leve begins. This is a kind of “wish” that you will complete your duties safely and return.

As a matter of fact, aetherytes are referred to as the manifestation of the planet’s lifeblood, which is made up of aether. Due to this, leve plates are also made of crystal which makes it easy for the two to resonate. NPCs at the counter of the adventurers' guilds will explain other things about aetherytes, too. We plan on posting an article on Lodestone in the not too distant future discussing methods for intercity-state travel with aetherytes.

We’re currently working really hard behind the scenes on reading material you can read while in-game. While we can’t promise a time period for it, we will be sure to let you know when we can offer up some more details!

[Delmontyb]

I hope that by reading more in game also ties into a in-game news paper. While it's nice to read this information on the lodestone, it would be great to pick up a paper (or have it delivered to the players macro menu) and allow us to read lore updates, etc much like we do on the website today.

I've posted other ideas about this before, so I won't go into them now, but thanks for the lore update Bay!

[Biggs]

Thats awsome. I am all for as much in-game lore as I can get my hands on. I feel like the current game still feels a little empty as far as culture and lore goes. It has certainly improved since launch but, I still have no idea where the red Roes are from in relation to whats on the current map. Also, any time I can gleam something from npc conversations during quests that helps to flesh out the cultures around me, it adds to game immersion. The paper Idea is awsome btw Delmonty. I would much rather see all the stuff they put on the LODESTONE in the game rather than on the site.

Why do the guards in Ul'dah dress the way they do? Whats going on inside the Syndicate? Where are the ships pulling into and out of LL coming from and going too? Things like this would really add to the game world feeling more alive.

[Zetsumei_Tsunarashi]

I always found it curious that we had these GM "reporters" but there was no actual newspaper in-game for them to be reporting to.

Perhaps when they add mailboxes in 2.0 we could have a weekly newspaper sent to us in the mail.

[Davorok]

Perhaps when they add mailboxes in 2.0 we could have a weekly newspaper sent to us in the mail.

Perhaps there will be a newspaper in our rooms at the Inn?

[Catapult]

Ferne has hinted at more readable material for some time. Good to see it coming through the pipelines.

[Rane]

Thank you for the lore update, Bayohne. It's always nice to get insight into what's supposed to be going on in the world.

With that said, the way guildleves are worked into the overall logic of the game world is pretty awkward. Someone at the leve counter tells you to go kill 8 moles, but for some unexplainable reason you can't go and kill those 8 moles until you touch a card to a crystal.

So you touch a card to a crystal, and it "resonates", but what does that mean? Um...OK...best not to think about that...now, for whatever reason, the game will let me do what the NPC told me to do. So I kill 8 moles, at which time the leve plate decides to whip up an aetherial node, because....because it knows...um... Well, never mind. So then I get some items, even though there's no one around to actually give me items...

So guildleves are a gameplay element. That's what they are, and unfortunately they don't make total sense in terms of the internal logic of the world.

Ideally, gameplay systems in an MMO should avoid breaking the internal logic of the game world as much as possible. That's what helps make the world seem more "real". However, guildleves are what they are, and it's probably too late to change that now.

I would like to say that it seems that better care has been taken to ensure that new systems make sense within the game since Yoshida took over. Also, I think that the new story elements make much more sense and are much better explained than the original main and class quest storylines. It makes experiencing the seventh umbral era storyline a lot of fun, so thank you!

Overall, I think things are looking up for the future believability of the game world. I'll just try not to think about the guildleves.

[Rukkirii]

The Lore Team answered a follow-up to the previous Guildleve post where a player asked what the red symbol that appears in the top left of the Guildleve is. In case you were curious, that symbol is actually a wax seal (the wax you put down so you can put a seal in it with a stamp). The seal is used to show that the request is one that you have previously completed in the past (besides local leves).

[Davorok]

...So you touch a card to a crystal, and it "resonates", but what does that mean? Um...OK...best not to think about that...now, for whatever reason, the game will let me do what the NPC told me to do. So I kill 8 moles, at which time the leve plate decides to whip up an aetherial node, because....because it knows...um... Well, never mind. So then I get some items, even though there's no one around to actually give me items...

For me it's not so much that the Guildleves make no sense but rather it's the Aetherites and Aetherial Nodes that make no sense. If it was an NPC at the camp or in the field/cave that gave us the targets and the rewards, it wouldn't be so ethereal.

Simple solution: Teleport back to Camp/Field NPC 1st, then receive reward.

[Skies]

Thank you for the lore update, Bayohne. It's always nice to get insight into what's supposed to be going on in the world.

With that said, the way guildleves are worked into the overall logic of the game world is pretty awkward. Someone at the leve counter tells you to go kill 8 moles, but for some unexplainable reason you can't go and kill those 8 moles until you touch a card to a crystal.

So you touch a card to a crystal, and it "resonates", but what does that mean? Um...OK...best not to think about that...now, for whatever reason, the game will let me do what the NPC told me to do. So I kill 8 moles, at which time the leve plate decides to whip up an aetherial node, because....because it knows...um... Well, never mind. So then I get some items, even though there's no one around to actually give me items...

So guildleves are a gameplay element. That's what they are, and unfortunately they don't make total sense in terms of the internal logic of the world.

Ideally, gameplay systems in an MMO should avoid breaking the internal logic of the game world as much as possible. That's what helps make the world seem more "real". However, guildleves are what they are, and it's probably too late to change that now.

I would like to say that it seems that better care has been taken to ensure that new systems make sense within the game since Yoshida took over. Also, I think that the new story elements make much more sense and are much better explained than the original main and class quest storylines. It makes experiencing the seventh umbral era storyline a lot of fun, so thank you!

Overall, I think things are looking up for the future believability of the game world. I'll just try not to think about the guildleves.

First off, a little explanation of "Resonance". It's a property of anything that vibrates (that is, everything). If they're in the same frequency (or a multiple thereof) then they are resonating. RL crystals are, far as memory recalls, the solid material that resonates the easiest with human voice (as a curiosity). So the crystal-infused card and aetheryte resonating would mostly mean that the card has been 'registered' with the aetheryte.

Actually "Why can't I kill 8 moles before touching the card to the crystal", it's actually explained somewhere in-game or the flash site or somewhere else. Leves are 'permissions' (quite literally, a 'leve' is a very old word for permission) to do official work. Getting there and synching with the aetheryte is the equivalent of you going over to the officer there going "Bro, i'm here to do that job" and he says "Okay, go ahead" and you can do it officially.

Getting your rewards is, I presume, the function of the Aetherial Gate (which is... An extension of an Aetheryte far as I remember) that pops up. In function it looks like the leve card also serves as a 'homing point' for whatever arcane teleport spell that XIV uses.

And, well, that is how I understand it, at least.