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

[JeanneOrnitier]

(My guess is that they're the crafting tribe.)

That would make sense, though they'd probably be the most un-tribe-like tribal quest, lol.


Here's a visual of the Galvus family tree:
https://twitter.com/ritostime/status...97952171290624

[Absimiliard]

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.

[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.

[RyuDragnier]

That would make sense, though they'd probably be the most un-tribe-like tribal quest, lol.


Here's a visual of the Galvus family tree:
https://twitter.com/ritostime/status...97952171290624

It's possible they may not be a tribe, but be another Restoration area like Doma and Ishgard. PLEASE let this be the case.

[Lauront]

Probably the story I enjoyed the most of the batch. I'm glad they fleshed out some aspects of life in Garlemald prior to its fall, like the entry on Unity Day, the make-up of the imperial family, the tidbits about Solus as emperor, the contrast between the two strains of the family, and how Jullus reflected on Zenos's senseless act of destruction, as well as describing his own personal tragedy.

Pretty good! I feel like I find the way EW advocates coping with loss to be just a little immature - showing disinterest in what the actual feelings of the now-dead were in favor of conceptualizing them as having died for and living on though you feels like a decent coping mechanism, but might be be so great in terms of further developing empathy and learning to look the complex tragedies of the world in the eye. Still, it's a sweet story all the same that'll probably touch a lot of people.

Sounds like a lot of the Garlean government is still intact in the provinces, as you'd expect with just the capital getting blown up. Even if the Empire is finished, it doesn't seem like we're done dealing with its legacy.

Yeah, agreed, even if I liked the final touch of the elegy and I do find the sentiment moving in its own way. The world is a bit strange, in the sense that the 'dead' will eventually be with you in some sense or other given its soul resurrection mechanism, itself described as agnostic to vice or virtue in its workings, but even so there is still death in the sense that the person those surviving the death knew is now gone for good, and certainly once the Aetherial Sea has worked its powerwash "magic".

I'd like to say this mentality makes some manner of sense for the Garleans, because of their history of persecution as a result of their general inability to manipulate aether and thus, their mindset of being against the entire world, and their answer to avoiding further persecution being to retain a position of unassailable strength, such as that which an empire could provide, even if it meant thereby becoming the aggressors; I think the below quote sums up their driving mindset well, whether one takes it as rooted in their history, a founding mythos or, as is probably the case, a bit of both. So it helps form a type of strength that lets them cope with the sheer amount of bloodshed they no doubt endured to find a foothold as a kind of fertiliser for the well-being of their future generations, and show a kind of posthumous gratitude to the sacrifices of the departed. Equally it is not exactly an approach that is conducive to empathy so much as pressing forward to get the (bloody) job done. It's great for the purposes of steeling resolve when there's less time to stop and think about it and when there's wars to be won and plenty of (arguably) senseless death that accompanies it, but ultimately it doesn't undo the tragedy involved upon further reflection and, yes, even encourage one to stop short of that.

They led us to greatness. We who formed the vanguard of history's grand march forward. His city was the heart of the world, through which flowed blood stronger than steel─a bond between countrymen that would remain unbroken even should their every enemy join together to oppose them. Glory be to Garlemald.

It's great to see the story end on a bittersweet but hopeful note - the surviving Garleans will carve a place for themselves within Etheirys one way or another. It'll be interesting to see where the dangling plot thread of Jullus working with Alisae and Alphinaud leads when the MSQ's pick that up again.

I do hope they touch upon those provinces where the Purebloods choose to make their new homeland(s) at a future juncture rather than just drop it. Especially since there was a mixture of attitudes towards the empire, depending on how the province was treated by it.

[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?