Rundown/Summary of Void Ark triology

[Alynn]

Just as title explains, would someone kindly take the time to give me a rundown of how Void Ark/Weeping City/Dun Scaith are all connected? Thanks! I wanted to read the story but wikia isn't particularly helpful, nor can I reread the quests.

[Anonymoose]

I'm not sure how thick of a rundown you'd like, but let's start with the basics way more than I intended:

Going mostly off the top of my head here so I'll be back to edit if I find mistakes or info that I missed; regulars, feel free to correct me if I botched anything in the meantime (looking good so far, I think...?).

The War of the Magi (primarily fought with magicks, soulkin, and voidsent) culminated in the Sixth Umbral Calamity ~1600 years ago, whereby a great flood is said to have washed over much of creation. As the waters rose, the city of Mhach (rooted in black magic and voidmagicks) bound a great deal of voidsent and used their energies to power the Ark, which was intended to fly the survivors over the waters and deliver them to the safety of the floating city of Dun Scaith (probably-butchered pronunciation: Done-Skah) in the Sea of Clouds.

High Voidmage Cessair, who had been put under house arrest for speaking out against the war and the use of voidsent as more than a deterrent, was released by The Coven (Mhach's ruling body) to oversee the Ark's flight and the voidsent's bindings, but this plan went awry.

Mhach had based much of their void technologies on knowledge gleaned from voidsent they contracted; knowledge which was taught to them deliberately flaws and designed to eventually fail (voidsent want nothing more than a free foothold in our realm through which to consume and thrive upon our world's aether). So Cessair's binding of the Shadow Queen Shathach (probably-butchered pronunciation: Ska-HAWK) didn't work out, the voidsent escaped and killed a bunch of people, and the rest sacrificed their life energy to re-bind them. Since then, the Ark has floated adrift in the skies under the watch of Cessair's enchanted cat familiar, Cait Sith (probably-butchered pronunciation: ket shee).

Diabolos had been summoned by Cessair as a threat to Amdapor, but the ruling body of Mhach overruled her wishes and sent the voidsent to destroy the Ancient City; much of its mission was accomplished, but he was sealed in the Tower of White ... until ~1600 years later when the Elementals' spell to bind and conceal Amdapor's ruins fails and he starts to awaken, only to be slapped around by the Warrior of Light before escaping as cloud of bats.

Diabolos eventually finds the Ark and starts waking up the voidsent, by which time the sky pirates have already caught wind of it. The Warrior of Light teams up with one team of sky pirates (Redbills) and tries to plunder the Ark in a race against another crew (Talons), but Diabolos escapes with Scathath's coffin and puss joins the team, instead.

The captain of the Talons steals the compass the Redbills were using to track the "ghost ship" and follows it to the ruins of Mhach, only become overrun by the voidsent there and seek rescue from the Redbills.

Puss recommends heading to the ruins of Mhach regardless, because now that the city is now exposed, Diabolos will likely try to seize the only thing that can send him (and Scathach) back to the void: The Nullstone, a device created and cloistered away by Mhach that could destroy the vessel of any voidsent and nullify any pact made to bring it here, developed to be the ultimate motivation to not pull anything tricky. (Or, as the case may be, just make them be really subtle about it.)

Raiding Mhach, a bunch of voidsent are slain, an ancient spell-tech weapon known as Ozma (which, if you look closely, still has a massive piece of Nym that it ate inside of its black hole paradox shade world thing) is disabled, a monstrous voidsent-blood-drinking immortal Mhachi named Calofisteri is killed, the Nullstone is recovered, the Talons' leader is saved (who escapes with little more than the book that led her there), and Puss lights our old friend Ferdiad (who was manipulating the Lambs of Dalamud from Amdapor Keep if you recall) on fire, but doesn't manage to take him out.

Radlia's book turns out to be from Dun Scaith, which Cait Sith presumes must now be Diabolos's new stronghold. (Allegedly) drawn to the uttering of his name, Diabolos appears and steals the Nullstone and starts attacking Redbills, but is chased off when Radlia and the Talons show up with their flagship.

Leaving Leofard behind to heal, they chase Diabolos back to Dun Scaith, take out Ferdiad, get interrupted by Proto-Ultima (allegedly mistaking powerful voidsent for primals, blamed on their immense power and perhaps 5 millennia without a tune-up or recalibration), and slay Scathach, only for Diabolos to absorb her remains and finally becomes King of the Shadow Court. The voidsent gains the upper hand in battle against the Warrior of Light, allies, sky pirates, et al., but Leofard crashes his manacutter into him and Puss vaporizes him (allegedly obliterating him).

All said and done, the sky pirates settle back into their lives, Puss joins the Redbills, the Warrior of Light moves on to the next project.

The game seems inconsistent about whether Diabolos's essence or just his corporeal vessel was obliterated by the nullstone. Personally, I'm hoping that everyone believes it was the former but it's truly the latter. Even though I got the Amdapor rematch I desperately wanted; now I want one more. How often do you see Diabolos rise from a mere officer of the Shadow Court to self-proclaimed SHADOW KING? Let him settle into that title and come back for us after the Main Scenario ends and the Ascians are dealt with - one last battle at LV99. Maybe by then he'll have whipped up some dreamworlds for us to deal with.

[Alynn]

Thanks so much Moose ^_^

[Wyldkat99]

Some Handy Dandy pronunciation aids for you.

Dun Scaith
Scáthach

[Yuella]

what if you do Void Ark before clearing the Amdapor dungeon? anything different?

[LineageRazor]

what if you do Void Ark before clearing the Amdapor dungeon? anything different?

Unlikely. SE has pretty much set a standard: if content appears in an earlier patch, all the events of that content is assumed to occur before events of content of later patch. This was seen most clearly during the CUL level 50 quest, which can result in some really awkward stuff if you do it after the Main Scenario events of 2.55, but before the events of Heavensward.

There are some exceptions to this (such as changes to Alisae's dialog depending on whether you've completed Coil), but in general don't expect SE to bend over backwards when content is done out of order.

[Mholito]

what if you do Void Ark before clearing the Amdapor dungeon? anything different?

The Shadow of Mhach questline has some lines of dialogue that acknowledge your previous encounter with Diabolos if you've already cleared the Lost City of Amdapor. The Lost City has no difference if you do it after the Shadow of Mhach questline though.

[PArcher]

Unlikely. SE has pretty much set a standard: if content appears in an earlier patch, all the events of that content is assumed to occur before events of content of later patch. This was seen most clearly during the CUL level 50 quest, which can result in some really awkward stuff if you do it after the Main Scenario events of 2.55, but before the events of Heavensward.

There are some exceptions to this (such as changes to Alisae's dialog depending on whether you've completed Coil), but in general don't expect SE to bend over backwards when content is done out of order.

I want someone to do the DRG 30-50 storyline after completing 3.3. That has got to be fun

[Konungarike]

I want someone to do the DRG 30-50 storyline after completing 3.3. That has got to be fun

I have, and it is. ;D

[Alynn]

Thanks for the replies! Also I spent a lot of time flying around in the Churning Mists looking for Void Ark and Dun Scaith. I was hoping I'd be able to see it somehow just like how we can see the Aery in the Sea of Clouds. Is that possible or is it all in my head? (I vaguely remember someone posting a picture of the Void Ark somewhere covered by clouds).