Premise:
With the death of Hydaelyn, the remnants of her summoners who endured as the twelve begin to war amongst each other and the fighting going on in the Unseen Realm threatens to spill over into the material world as the gods battle each other for supremacy. Some gods remain neutral, however.
Act 1 –
Reports of strange happenings in Ul’dah reach the WoL’s ears and they make for the Sagoli Desert, where they witness a mirage tower fade in and out of existence, surrounded by a tempest of thunder and lightning. They also see a vision of a burning city they mistake for Ul’dah, along with a mighty hand that crushes the city in a barrage of thunderbolts. The WoL fights waves of phantom soldiers as they press on to Mor Dhona, and accidentally come upon the Unseen Realm by way of Silvertear Lake.
There, the gate to the Heaven of Lightning has been forced open and is left smouldering, entering the first of the raids. The WoL finds themselves at the base of the Mirage Tower, which is filled with numerous clockwork soldiers. Midway through their climb, they encounter Byregot, whose appearance is that of a half-man, half—automaton whose mechanical workings have been unmasked by severe burns. He rebukes the WoL for their trespassing and fights until he comes apart and ceases to function, as the lower levels of the Mirage Tower are engulfed in flames.
At the top of the tower, they find the grizzled old god Rhalgr locked in combat with Azeyma and Nald’thal both, who are surprised at the appearance of the WoL. Nald’thal takes this opportunity to drag Rhalgr, caught off guard, into the Heaven of Fire while Azeyma remains behind to lay low the WoL and their party. After a battle akin to a great dance, she exhausts the lasts of her energy in trying and failing to flee into the now open portal to the Heaven of Fire.
The WoL presses on and witnesses Rhalgr being tortured by chains set upon him by Nald’thal, after defeating several of his heavenly generals, Rhalgr breaks free of his restraints. Rather than thanking the WoL, Rhalgr accuses them of “meddling in the conflict” and duels them. However, the feat of destructive magics proves too much for the wounded deity and he perishes, with Nald’thal absorbing his powers and retreating into his inner sanctum – at the heart of the city in the Heaven of Fire.
There, the WoL engages in a fierce battle against the twin deity, who torments them with not only his power over flames but also the corpses of the heavenly soldiers that perished in the fighting. Eventually, Nald perishes before Thal and Thal takes on the gruesome appearance of a Lich. The Heaven of Fire is plunged into darkness, and with his dying breath he curses the WoL, mocking them as incapable of stopping the great war which has only just begun.
Act 2 –
As spring unexpectedly begins to return to Coerthas, the people of Ishgard are initially jubilant. However, the land soon turns against them and soldiers of ice begin to stalk the highlands. The WoL returns to the Unseen Realm and enters the Heaven of Earth. They find golden fields littered with countless fallen combatants, and face off against Nophica who uses her powers to send legions of progressively more Earth-aspected beings after them before the fight is interrupted by her nemesis, Halone.
Halone murders Nophica and charges ahead, with the WoL in pursuit. Althyk senses their presence but with Halone already retreated back to the Heaven of Ice, he faces off against the WoL. As he nears his demise, the previously neutral Nymeia attempts to save him from certain death. However, her intervention fails and she is forced to flee back to the Heaven of Water as the WoL presses on to the Heaven of Ice.
The WoL then duels Halone and her own order of knights before a tremor shakes the Heaven and Halone collapses onto one of her own lances, Althyk’s final act of revenge for killing Nophica. As the WoL continues to face off against Halone’s vengeful soldiers, they are stalked by a dark presence in the palace within the Heaven of Ice. Upon coming to the throne room, they witness a wounded Menphina trapped beneath a fallen chandelier. Dalamud then attacks them to keep them away from his mistress, and due to his increasing bloodthirst the WoL is forced to slay the hound as the final battle in the raid.
After paying their respects to Dalamud and understanding why he was so desperate to protect Menphina, the WoL attempts to free her from the rubble. Looking upon them, Menphina gazes into their heart and laments that she was unable to truly fulfil her function as the goddess of love, and regrets that her worshippers caused such discord in Eorzea in recent times. The WoL is then prompted with the choice to either forgive her or to reject her, but regardless of the outcome she acknowledges that it is too late for her to right the wrongs of the past and asks that the WoL end the conflict between the gods, by any means necessary.
The WoL then leaves the Unseen Realm and returns to Eorzea.
Act 3 –
After reports of unusual weather in Limsa Lominsa, the WoL arrives to find that the city has been under constant rainfall for the past several weeks. Lately, the winds have also begun to grow fiercer and fiercer making navigation by sea practically impossible. At the beach, the WoL witnesses a kraken of enormous size attacking ships, whereupon it is assailed by arrows raining down from the heavens above.
Realizing this is yet another battle between the remaining gods, the WoL returns to the Unseen Realm and enters the Heaven of Water. Nymeia appears again to halt their progress, but is forced to retreat after expending most of her energy in the fight against the WoL. The WoL mounts a ship conjured from nowhere that guides them into the heart of the tempest, where the Kraken speaks to them in the voice of a woman.
It is revealed that the monstrosity is in fact the cursed form of the Llymlaen, who was hexed by Thaliak in response to her invasion of the Heaven of Wind. While initially hesitant to attack the WoL, another arrow from Oschon pierces her side and she loses any remaining control she had over her body. The WoL is forced to slay her, and she reverts to her original mermaid-like form upon her death.
Thaliak congratulates the party for their efforts, but shortly afterwards dematerializes the ship upon which the WoL stood and sends them plummeting into the ocean. The WoL survives this due to the blessing of the Kojin, and what Llymlaen uses the last of her strength to propel the WoL upon a massive wave that spirits them away to the Heaven of Wind. Thaliak exhausts an army of familiars trying to bar their path before facing off against them himself, finally being destroyed when his own spell reflects back against him.
The final god, Oschon awaits the WoL at the end of their path and challenges them, as a contest between two fellow wanderers. He is the only God to change jobs mid-battle akin to Hydaelyn’s fight, but after a bitter struggle the WoL emerges victorious. The Heaven of Wind collapses upon itself and the WoL retreats back to the Unseen Realm where the last surviving goddess, Nymeia, awaits.
There she reveals the truth of all things – that the Twelve were in fact the enduring remnants of Hydaelyn’s summoners who managed to persist as beings made of Dynamis. Even though their souls were no more, that which could be called a “spirit” remained. Such spirits make their way to the Unseen Realm and then onto its respective Heaven or Hell upon their deaths while the soul that granted them life is returned to the lifestream. While the soul is purged of memory, the spirit is not. However, as spirits cannot truly die a second time, the essence of the Twelve still endures in a greatly reduced way.
As the goddess of Fate, she reveals that she worked tirelessly to steer mankind back towards an era of peace if not enlightenment, but that no such plan could ever materialize due to the imperfect nature of man and the knowledge of the future to which Hydaelyn alone was privy. She speculates that she herself may have been made little more than a puppet to inflict untold suffering onto mankind unconsciously, despite her strong desire to help mortals. So many years of conflict that tainted the worship of the other gods likely corrupted each in turn, but that their followers who still lived and prayed to them still might one day manifest them again as more benevolent beings, ones that will hold more true to their functions.
The WoL is then given the choice to accept this or reject this idea, but regardless of the outcome Nymeia declares that for this to come to pass, an additional check on the Twelve must come into being. She asks the WoL to recall his memories of Hades and Hythlodaeus, and of Azem’s other memories of the Convocation. She commands them to keep their memory alive, as beings so highly respected in the world of the Ancients, the power of Dynamis might one day shape them into beings akin to the Twelve so long as their legend grows to similar prominence. Though this too may take centuries if not millennia, the WoL agrees to plant this seed so that the future might be guided by a pantheon of deities worthy of being the protectors of Etheirys.
Originally Posted by Valkyrie_Lenneth
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