Gelmorra And The Duskwight

[Angellos]

Let me begin by saying Endwalker has been an IMMENSELY wonderful expansion with so much wonderful lore. With that being said: Now that we know we are going to be delving into the history of Etheirys - there are a few things that I didn't hear our dearest friend from another place, another time, mention.

Will we ever delve in depth into Gelmorra and the history of the Duskwight? There are so many unknowns in regards to the most unrepresented race in the game: The Duskwight.

There had been plans in 1.0 for other Gelmorra based dungeons. I truly hope that there are future plans to delve into that wonderful tidbit of lore, and to let the Duskwights have their time to truly shine. Any teasers, Yoshi?

[Cleretic]

Fun fact: Out of all named Duskwight-model elezen in the game, there might be more NPCs that were mistakenly set as Duskwight than we have genuine, still-living Duskwight. There are definitely more Ishgardian NPCs set to be Duskwight for aesthetic diversity than there are actual named Duskwight; because Ishgard closed their borders before the Gelmorra/Gridania split, they can't be genuine Duskwight. (The most famous of those would be Ysayle.)

That said, while I've constantly been almost comically disappointed, I do have faith that they want to do something with this sometime. Nearly every single expansion has a little bit of Gelmorra/Duskwight Lore to remind us that they're not forgotten; ARR had Tam-Tara, Toto-Rak and the Lancer questline, HW had the Palace of the Dead, Shadowbringers had that one Dancer quest, and Endwalker had talk about the actual events that led to the Gelmorra/Gridania split. They aren't forgotten, they're just neglected. And in fairness, perhaps we only notice the Duskwight are neglected because they're one of the few subraces that originally hail from somewhere we've actually been.

All that said, I will caution you: we actually can't say 'there had been plans in 1.0' about nearly anything. We only properly know a few things things about the original plans for post-launch FFXIV 1.0:

1. They didn't get to do it,
2. They wanted to do Musketeer and Arcanist,
3. For some reason naval battles were on the list.

There's no actual proof that they were definitely 100% going to do Gelmorra Stuff. However, we can reason they had more interest in Gelmorra Stuff than ARR did, going by the fact endgame currencies were Gelmorran and the game's existing content included a third Gelmorran dungeon. For presumably a number of reasons, Gelmorra got shuffled back in priority when Yoshi-P took over.

[Angellos]

Fun fact: Out of all named Duskwight-model elezen in the game, there might be more NPCs that were mistakenly set as Duskwight than we have genuine, still-living Duskwight. There are definitely more Ishgardian NPCs set to be Duskwight for aesthetic diversity than there are actual named Duskwight; because Ishgard closed their borders before the Gelmorra/Gridania split, they can't be genuine Duskwight. (The most famous of those would be Ysayle.)

That said, while I've constantly been almost comically disappointed, I do have faith that they want to do something with this sometime. Nearly every single expansion has a little bit of Gelmorra/Duskwight Lore to remind us that they're not forgotten; ARR had Tam-Tara, Toto-Rak and the Lancer questline, HW had the Palace of the Dead, Shadowbringers had that one Dancer quest, and Endwalker had talk about the actual events that led to the Gelmorra/Gridania split. They aren't forgotten, they're just neglected. And in fairness, perhaps we only notice the Duskwight are neglected because they're one of the few subraces that originally hail from somewhere we've actually been.

All that said, I will caution you: we actually can't say 'there had been plans in 1.0' about nearly anything. We only properly know a few things things about the original plans for post-launch FFXIV 1.0:

1. They didn't get to do it,
2. They wanted to do Musketeer and Arcanist,
3. For some reason naval battles were on the list.

There's no actual proof that they were definitely 100% going to do Gelmorra Stuff. However, we can reason they had more interest in Gelmorra Stuff than ARR did, going by the fact endgame currencies were Gelmorran and the game's existing content included a third Gelmorran dungeon. For presumably a number of reasons, Gelmorra got shuffled back in priority when Yoshi-P took over.

Actually, we do know that they were planning on more Gelmorra themed dungeons because you can watch videos of the inside of those dungeons. (They also come with some really neat looking Gelmorran technology that I'm absolutely dying to know about.) So, they did plan for it: But yeah, game got wiped and (thankfully) redone.

Either way, I would definitely love to see more Gelmorran/Duskwight lore. They're an underrepresented (And because of it, under-played race.) I hope they don't get neglected even more. I am however glad to see we'll be delving into the Seawolves and Aerslant: That was another grey area we hadn't touched.

[Kolsykol]

I really wish they could get explored more, I really like the '' dark elf '' thing.
I kinda wish that if you played one too there was extra dialogue from people having a negative reaction to you considering their reputation.

[thegreatonemal]

Is there even much to go into? They share the same history with Wildwood, they just chose to shun the elementals and stay within the underground city.

[Vyrerus]

Is there even much to go into? They share the same history with Wildwood, they just chose to shun the elementals and stay within the underground city.

Well, in the modern day they live among the Wildwood and Hyurs, but they're treated with racism to the point that many are automatically assumed to be thieves, bandits, etc.

Even the MSQ has a leg around the Ilberd and Crystal Braves getting shady arc where Ilberd and the corrupt Braves insist that a group of Duskwight Bandits have made away with most of a weapons shipment, iirc.

In Gridania it is said that Duskwights are treated similarly to Ala Mhigan refugees. This means that there are Gridanians all the way up to hearers picking bones with Duskwights, and trying to claim that the Elementals don't want them in the Shroud.

Also, they're generally hotter than Wildwood, and in general slept on by the playerbase (of course, Wildwood are slept on too, as are Elezen F in general, so...).

[Cleretic]

On top of all of everything Vyrerus said (okay, maybe not the 'Duskwight are hotter' part), there's some interesting questions to ask about the actual split. Why did so many people choose to stay underground that it essentially created a whole new subrace? That's a lot of people looking at what seems to be a pretty good offer, and declining it very strongly, for at least enough generations to cause actual physical differences. That's clearly not a decision made lightly, they planted their goddamn feet for a reason, and to this day we still don't know why. I think a lot of us fill in that blank with something world-changing, and sure, maybe they knew truths about the Elementals or the Shroud that we didn't, but even if it's not the tale of a people just steadfastly refusing to leave their homelands for generations is a strong one with a lot of potential value to it.

Even beyond that and just into basic details about the civilization, we have curiously little. Like, collating everything I know about the places we've been, all I know about their society is 'they had at least one graveyard'. We don't even know what they used the Thousand Maws of Toto-Rak or Mun-Tuy Cellars for. We don't know their form of government, combat styles, religions, anything like that. There are so many potential plot hooks if they were inclined to write anything about it, and they just... haven't.

[Enkidoh]

There is some clues to Gelmorran society and it's structure though - it was apparently a monarchy with a king as it's head of state, who could be benign but also could be tyrannical (based on a tomb for someone named 'King Galvanth the Dominator' in Tam-Tara Deepcroft), their country's crest appears to be actually a prototype for Gridania's flag (Gridania merely added the twin snakes to the design to represent the coming together of hyur and elezen in the society), and based on the names at least, Mun-tuy Cellars was probably a food storage/preperation area, and Thousand Maws of Toto-Rak was the nation's prison, a literal dungeon (which Gridania merely inherited), along with the smaller Spirithold. We know the ruin that the Palace of the Dead ended up spatialy occupying was once part of Gelmorra's residential area (an early sidequest in South Shroud states that).

There is still a lot of missing info about Gelmorra though, and some of their ruins are still to this day downright engimatic (like the famous eponymous Gelmorran Ruins in the North Shroud, mysterious even before the Calamity), so it would be nice if SE does finally fill a lot of the blanks still existing with this past society, as it will go a long way to explaining many of the current issues plaguing the Black Shroud and it's diverse peoples.

[Lihtleita]

tell us what that weird humming in north shroud is. also what is amber scale rock? can we ever go back to west shroud? if the sword is odin, where does the horse come from?
as much as i loath the gridanians, everything concerning the padjals, elementals and the shroud this expac makes me want a definitive gridania/gelmorra expansion, or at least a couple of patches for a story arc.

[TheMightyMollusk]

if the sword is odin, where does the horse come from?

The same place as Ifrit's nails, Titan's bomb boulders, Ravana's swords, etc.