Palace of the dead lore?

[Recon1o6]

I was wondering what do we know about the POTD since I can't find much lore on it

I know nybleth used floor 100 as a personal laboratory. From there he sent Edda to go fight us.
The palace is at least partially located underneath the tam tara deepcroft.
Presumably the place is gelmorran given this and how it has aetherial siltstone in its pottery.

Here's my questions

Did the necromancer cause the curse that requires aetherpool armour/weapons or was it something else?
Is floor 101+ the underworld?
What is that dragon soul you can get at the bottom? Do we know whose it is?

Speaking of...what the heck is happening the further down you go. Its like existence is fading but then as you get to floor 200 suddenly there's a whole forest expanse with ruins.

Is the dungeon itself alive?

[Cilia]

There really isn't any information on it in-game, other than (at least some of the top layers) are built on Gelmorran ruins and given how some dead NPCs can appear as rare spawn mobs it may be some kind of purgatory.

Little else is explained about it, but that's kind of what makes it so interesting and frightening.

There may be more information on it in Tactics Ogre (from which it and Nybeth both originated), but I don't know about that given my general disinterest in Matsuno's works.

[Naoki34]

Read your quest to access the palace of the dead, but there will be nothing more.

[WhiteArchmage]

So, the items you can get are the Firecrest and the Glass Pumpkin, I don't remember a dragon soul (though Dragons ARE involved in PotD in the Ogre saga, more on that later)

The Firecrest is an important item in the Ogre saga, being a relic used by the hero of the mythical Ogre Battle (not the game of the same name, rather the battle against the underworld in the backstory). Destin Faroda, the hero/ine of the original game, can find it but doesn't know how to USE it. Denam Pavel (Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together) and Alphonse Loeher (Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis) can use it as the Ultimate Accessory. Never played Ogre Battle: Person of Lordly Caliber so idk if it's there, too.

The Glass Pumpkins are tied to the PotD: they show up there and are also connected to the legendary Witch Deneb: In LUTC, you need to sell her 30 pumpkins to recuit her in her special Wicce class. In TKOL, you need to sell 5 to her shop to get the Firecrest. And in March of the Black Queen, she gifts you one after a side-quest (the item lets Witches recruit Pumpkinheads, Deneb's recurring minions, and VERY HEAVILY IMPLIED to be young men she kidnapped and replaced their heads with pumpkins in MOTBQ; in the other games they're implied to be pumpkins she gave life to with magic).

As for Dragons... well... this is the part that's likely completely unconnected to XIV. The PotD in LUTC was originally built by the Dragon Lords, and their legendary forgemaster made most of the machinery inside. As such, the PotD is especially known for studies into necromancy and dragon magic. Which... is completely against what we know of dragons in XIV. One thing that likely DOES carry over, is that the lowest floor of the PotD is Floor 100, where Nybeth holds his altar, and on that floor (floor 114 in the remake) there is a portal to the Abyss/Underworld (named a Chaos Gate). PotD was originally named Hellgate in the SNES release.

I COULD theorize that floors 101+ are indeed in the Abyss/Underworld, with Floor 200 being a floor of respite as the abyss acknowledges your strenght and lets you go (something that doesn't QUITE happen in LUTC... in the remake, you go to the lowest floor rescue one of your allies that sent himself to the Underworld for reasons... which considering he used the OTHER Chaos Gate in Valeria to get to the Underworld...). But that is purely speculation based on the different layouts Floors 101+ can have.

Edit because I can't believe I forgot this detail: Chaos Gates don't just connect to the Underworld, they also serve as gateways to HEAVEN. The 3 Dragoons in Ogre Battle: MotBQ are found on Floating Islands connected by Chaos Gates, those "Sky Islands" served as their place of retirement after the Ogre Battle, since they were barred from Heaven thanks to Fenril giving humanity her sword Brynhildr (which is a plot point in several of the games). This is again just theorizing, but the portal from floor 199 to 200 could indeed connect to a sort of Paradise of tranquility before you leave the Palace.

[Recon1o6]

That's a lot more than I expected whitearchmage, thank you!

The dragon question I had, that's because the firecrest holds the description "An artifact believed to house the soul of a legendary dragon"

[WhiteArchmage]

That's a lot more than I expected whitearchmage, thank you!

The dragon question I had, that's because the firecrest holds the description "An artifact believed to house the soul of a legendary dragon"

You're welcome, I tend to gush about Matsuno games.

Also... I can't believe I'm wearing the earring and didn't notice/forgot about that description... had to check the descriptions of the thing, and in Knight of Lodis it says: "Red gem confining the soul of the Divine Dragon. A sacred treasure." I was going along with the description in Ogre Battle, that just says "What's the name written here? FIRESEAL?" which is supposed to be a powerful spell (also how the thing was first translated because SNES and character limits). I'll need to check the description in Let Us Cling Together when I get my PSP working again...

I was thrown for a loop because KoL is specifically the one game in the Ogre saga that Matsuno WASN'T involved with... and the "Divine Dragon" would be one in the backstory for one of the three Dragoons... but that's entirely unconnected from the Firecrest afaik. Ofc, considering Matsuno was NOT involved in writing the PotD storyline, it's probably just a nod that won't be relevant unless the dev team chooses to revisit the Ogre saga.

[Vyrerus]

Ogre Battle Gushing <3

The Firecrest in Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber is just a hidden item on the map that gives +20 to all resistances, and it has the same description, "Legendary red gem that holds the spirit of a divine dragon."

[Jandor]

There really isn't any information on it in-game, other than (at least some of the top layers) are built on Gelmorran ruins and given how some dead NPCs can appear as rare spawn mobs it may be some kind of purgatory.

I assume the dead NPCs are a result of Nybeth's experiments. Would make sense that Edda wasn't his first attempt.