Tales from the Dawn #4: "A Question of Death" (Jullus)

[SannaR]

Yay a non Ancient story! I'm glad someone found that poor guy we got the key from. Also yay more Royal family names. Is this the first time we see the name Lucius? I had a small laugh cause if so then Hi XV. I think the earliest we will see more of the twins and Jullus is on the tail end of 6.3. They're the only non B team Scions you can readily poke on the world map that we haven't touched in with since the end of 6.0. Everyone else is either on an instanced map or in a location the devs don't allow us to poke whenever we want to. I do wonder who the Garleans worshiped before religion wasn't allowed while also needing to hold the Royal family in reverence at all times.

[Vyrerus]

Some musings based around the ending to this wonderful story we were given on second more awake read:

The part I'm referencing.

but one inscrutable passage had stayed with him:

"Let this be my final gift to you. In death, my love."


In death we have the power to bequeath the life we might have had─the possibilities and potential─to others. To grant them what they need to go on...or so the poet said.

Was your key one such gift?

Would my mother, my brother, my sister─would they tell me to accept theirs?

Lord Quintus, with his suicide? My comrades, whom I failed? My countrymen, gone without a word?

Did you leave your lives, and your love, to me?


The dead do not answer, yet the wound within ceases its bleeding for a time.

If that is our truth...

"Then let it be our meaning. Let it be the chain which binds us through generations. Live on in me, as I would have in you."

And perhaps...

"Perhaps we may yet live on in others."

The dead do not answer, but light shines through the broken ceiling, and Jullus follows it to behold a brightened sky. His comrades at Tertium will be waking soon. In apology and gratitude, he offers one last silent prayer to his kinsman ere departing.

Be at peace─and know that you are with me.

Jullus stands, and forges ahead into the dawn.

There are so many layers to this if you think about all of the people we've lost throughout the story of FFXIV.

Louisoix. Haurchefant. Papalymo. Hades. Elidibus. Venat. Zenos. Midgardsormr.

Each of them fought for what they loved and desired, and upon each of their deaths we were gifted something. Be it the potential to live on, or a crystal or a teleporter key.

And they are not alone in that, with side stories and characters taken into account.

It's dripping with depth. I feel like it's the theme Endwalker wanted to have, since we can only forge ahead with the leavings of our past. Our loved ones.

I feel like there's so much more to say, but I'm having a hard time articulating my thoughts on this. It's moved me to tears.

[SentioftheHoukai]

Hmmmm.... I'm honestly having a fair bit of difficulty forging my thoughts into words for this story. I guess the most articulate and accurate thing I can say is that it's left me feeling.... ambivalent? I dunno. I CAN tell you that this is the first short story that I didn't procrastinate for days to read out of a general lack of interest in the topic matter revealed. I'm as usual not even remotely surprised they were incapable of not falling prey to inserting their 'FORGE AHEAD' message at the end, but I've since come to accept this is the Eorzea we live in now. Doesn't do much to improve my general day to day mood, but then what does?

I suppose in the end I need more from Garlemald in story to deliver a full, proper verdict on just how I feel about this short story. The other three were all too easy to formulate my thoughts on, the Watcher I have little and less interest in. Hermes is dead and dusted and boy am I happy about it for he deserved nothing less. Erenville's was okay, I liked it but the character himself is a bit boring and bland as of now and I want them to expand on him more.

On that, I am also not surprised that provinces are reclaiming their independence and autonomy but at the same time the short story isn't giving us any details or names of the places or that any substantive political movement is being made i.e recognizing the new nations on the world stage or a freed province invading another a la Landros, Bojza, and Dalmasca. Got to leave the board blank so that later patches and expansions have some freedom to create. Though I do find some dark humor in that 'Independence from the Garlean Empire' will soon be probably the most wildly and commonly celebrated holiday in Etheirys.

It becomes far less humorous when you realize what may very well soon happen to these now relatively defenseless, leaderless, nationless, and perhaps most importantly aetherless and magickless Garlean soldiers and citizens left in the lurch by their nation's passing into history. Corvos in particular's resolution may not be as stable and pretty as some think.

It will definitely be a long road for the Garleans, whatever the case. Their inability to use aether is liable to make them very appealing targets for their neighbors now that so much of their magitek is gone.

Absimiliard has the right of it, here. When you consider just how many Eorzeans wished to link up with the Ilsabard contingent for the sole purpose of revenge-driven murder, I cannot begin to worry for those non-soldiers in regions no longer protected by the nation of Garlemald and it's resources. Keep in mind, that places like Corvos, Dalmasca, and Bozja etc. are places where the Eorzean Alliance and the various city-states don't really have any form of direct control/influence over what happens there. That's not even mentioning places further out into Ilsabard we haven't even seen yet. Historically, those who were apart of now-broken Empires tend to be treated extremely poorly by those who saw themselves as oppressed. I just how dynamic of who is the oppressor does not change, as it has already once before in Eorzean history. We all know from Endwalker alone just how little the protagonists take the past into proper introspection when decided how to deal with the travails of today.

[Absimiliard]

The most likely outcome is a resurgence of the same abuses that paved the way for the Empire's birth in the first place. They are now almost as helpless as their ancestors were when robbed of their lands, butchered like animals, and abducted en masse to be worked to death as slaves.

[thegreatonemal]

The most likely outcome is a resurgence of the same abuses that paved the way for the Empire's birth in the first place. They are now almost as helpless as their ancestors were when robbed of their lands and abducted en masse to be worked to death as slaves.

If that was the case then we wouldn't have gone up there to help them. The rest of the continent is rather busy with rebuilding/reorganizing themselves after 50 years of Garlean oppression.

[Absimiliard]

Have you ever seen what happens when an oppressed people gain their freedom? The first thing on their mind is normally revenge. Rebuilding may take to priority early on so as to make certain their needs are being met, but what do you think comes after? Or am I expected to believe people of Etheirys are above such petty things?

[thegreatonemal]

Have you ever seen what happens when an oppressed people gain their freedom? The first thing on their mind is normally revenge. Rebuilding may take to priority early on so as to make certain their needs are being met, but what do you think comes after? Or am I expected to believe people of Etheirys are above such petty things?

That's not what happens normally. There might be a fight for independence to free themselves. Slaves in America didn't up and kill all the white people after the civil war. After the fighting died down in Hati, they didn't go hunting down any french people as two examples from the real world. So yes, As it was stated in game already, nobody cares about making the Garleans suffer.

Just to put this thing to bed real quick. Nobody but the Garlean's care about ceruleum So no one would be invading them for that. The garleans used it to heat their homes before they used it in weapons to make up for not being able to use magic. Using fantasy oil just sounds like extra steps when you can cast fire1 if your cold at night.

[SentioftheHoukai]

Nice way to fan the flames and bring up said topic many are tired of retreading

Gonna have to call Goobue Poo on this one, new-old friend. We certainly weren't the ones who mentioned how funny it would be to see a holiday based on cultural erasure. Not that the Garleans have much culture left to erase~

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It's not gonna stop being offensive any time soon, these double standards. Of that, I can assure you.

That's not what happens normally. There might be a fight for independence to free themselves. Slaves in America didn't up and kill all the white people after the civil war. After the fighting died down in Hati, they didn't go hunting down any french people as two examples from the real world. So yes, As it was stated in game already, nobody cares about making the Garleans suffer.

Pretty sure they stated the polar opposite (psst psst, Ilsabard Contingent), but you go ahead and believe whatever you darn well please. That is your right as a sovereign citizen and general overall human being.

Just to put this thing to bed real quick. Nobody but the Garlean's care about ceruleum So no one would be invading them for that. The garleans used it to heat their homes before they used it in weapons to make up for not being able to use magic. Using fantasy oil just sounds like extra steps when you can cast fire1 if your cold at night.

I'm sorry, but who are you to "put this topic to bed" anyway? Say what you will, nobody's obligated to cease speaking of a frankly rather relevant topic merely because one poster finds it distasteful. Also, we have a literal mountain (a ceruleum and Magitek mountain, also known as Garlond Ironworks) proving this is simply not the case. What precisely do you imagine the airships that Eorzea hath since grown fond of runs off of since their introduction into polite society, anyway? Merely curious.

[AwesomeJr44]

I'm sorry, but who are you to "put this topic to bed" anyway? Say what you will, nobody's obligated to cease speaking of a frankly rather relevant topic merely because one poster finds it distasteful.

Whoa whoa whoa! Senti! That's no random poster! That's the Great Oatmeal! You should show him more respect and let him put topics to bed if he wishes, lest he use the power of oats against you!

We also saw it with the end of the Dragonsong War with many Ishgardians still desiring vengeance for their fallen and working from the shadows to undermine attempts at forging peace with the Dravanians.

We also see it in the present day in our world with people using social media to rant about things that happened before they were even born and demanding 'retribution' and 'reparations' from people who have no direct ties to the supposed misdeeds in question.

True, we've seen this in-game before AND in our real world many times before. I'm not sure why some think that anti-Garlean discrimination wouldn't be a concern for the displaced Garleans going forwards. I think people have a problem understanding that an oppressor can very easily become the oppressed after their power has been removed. That's exactly what happened when the Garlean empire came to power. The people who were the oppressors, oppressing the Garleans, became the oppressed as the Garleans sought revenge. It is very possible that this happens again in the future, with anti-Garlean discrimination once more pushing the Garleans into a corner where they create another empire.

[Denishia]

We certainly weren't the ones who mentioned how funny it would be to see a holiday based on cultural erasure. Not that the Garleans have much culture left to erase~

The Garleans conquered people and regions in Ilsabard, Othard, and Aldenard that were not Garlean (even Corvos was pointed out in-game contrary to Garlean claims to have people that claimed it as a homeland long before the Garleans and whom were still living there when the Garleans invaded). The Garleans actively engaged in cultural erasure; that’s one of their Empire’s core characteristics (and the first religion and traditional government and practices like Jobs that was suppressed was their own). So yes, that the other conquered Garlean regions will be like Dalmasca, Doma, Werlyt, Bozja, Corvos, Ala Mhigo, and Xangia is something I will be pleased with. And they all have rightful reason to resent their conquerors or not, and there is a plethora of ways to take the story of their liberations and how they chart their post-Imperial freedom. Landros for example tried to conquer its neighbors and be Imperial Garlemald lite. The countries aligned with the Scions, so far, haven’t. And the Scion-allied Eorzean Alliance is right now in Garlemald itself explicitly to protect the Garleans there from being exploited or invaded by others. Time will tell if that effort is successful or continues. Or what stories FFXIV wishes to tell outside its borders, if it’s not a rehash of what’s already been done with all of Stormblood, Ivalice, Bozja, and Werlyt.