So I'm trying to extrapolate the timeline of events that cover how Ardbert, Lamitt, Branden, Renda-Rae, Nyelbert, and Cylva came together to go on adventures throughout Norvrandt and eventually take on both the Shadowkeeper and the Ascians Loghrif and Mitron.
From what I've been able to extract from the Cardinal Virtues quests, various short stories, and the MSQ, I think this ought to be the critical path of events that ultimately leads to the Flood of Light.
The rest of the story then proceeds from there, with Team Ardbert working WITH the Ascians on the Source, then getting manipulated by Urianger, then petitioning Hydaelyn through her emissary Minfilia to take them back to the First. Once there, Minfilia stops the Flood of Light, requesting the souls of Branden, Renda-Rae, Nyelbert, and Lamitt to do so. Ardbert, expecting the same fate, is surprised when Minfilia denies him the opportunity, though she does not explain why before vanishing. With the Flood halted, Ardbert wanders Norvrandt as a bodiless shade.
Which brings us back to the start of Shadowbringers, where the Warrior of Light enters, is reunited with Ardbert, and eventually learns that they are both fragments of the same Amaroutian soul. After our final conflict with Elidibus, we know that soul was the fourteenth member of the Convocation, Azem.
So I think the main thing is that we've got the general framework of MOST of a regular FF game, except for the part where Ardbert and his friends ultimately lose after the final boss fight. The only key detail missing is exactly when Ardbert picks up his crystal.
... Unless there's some other key detail I'm missing. Am I missing anything?
submitted by /u/unlimitedblack
[link] [comments]
Continue reading...
From what I've been able to extract from the Cardinal Virtues quests, various short stories, and the MSQ, I think this ought to be the critical path of events that ultimately leads to the Flood of Light.
- Nyelbert is the product of a decades-long project from a school of mages to create portals to the Void. While Nyelbert is able to create these portals, an accident during training causes a portal created by his friend Taymor to go out of control, sucking Taymor into the void. Nyelbert commits himself to finding a way to free Taymor.
- Renda-Rae develops a reputation for hunting big marks, and she and her two companions attempt to take down Balam-Quitz. They fail, and only Renda-Rae survives the encounter.
- Branden is a new knight in Voeburt, and is chosen by the impulsive Princess Sauldia as her bodyguard while she investigates a series of murders driven by a mysterious curse. At one point, Branden fails to protect Sauldia from an attack, and is banished from the order and Voeburt.
- Lamitt’s sister is afflicted with the Stoneblight, causing her to be sequestered in the Plaguewarrens with the other afflicted. She decides to leave Tomra to seek the magic that will let her help her sister and the others.
- Ardbert sets out alone on an adventure in Kholusia and nearly gets killed by hobgoblins. Lamitt heals him up, and they strike up a partnership to adventure together.
- Ardbert and Lamitt happen upon the mystery of the Jade Fox, a jewel counterfeiter in Amh Araeng. They enlist Branden to help dispel the illusions on one of the counterfeits, which leads them to the counterfeiter, Lamunth. Ardbert notices Lamunth’s abused amaro, Seto, and claims him as part of his reward.
- Seto becomes part of Ardbert’s party, aiding in their quests in various ways.
- Renda-Rae joins the party after hearing of their success taking down monsters in the region.
- Cylva joins the party in Lakeland, while searching for a daughter of noble lineage.
- Nyelbert joins last, having previously been a rival of Ardbert’s party. While investigating the quakes in Amh Araeng, Nyelbert agrees to team up with Ardbert's party, eventually discovering the aetheric artifact at the heart of the quakes. Nyelbert knows that the artifact's power would give him the resources he needs to call Taymor back from the void, but taking it from the mountain would cause it to collapse, killing everyone living on or around it. He chooses instead to destroy the crystal and return its aether to the mountain, the most prudent choice. Impressed by this, Ardbert invites Nyelbert to join them in their adventures, and they'll help him seek a way to save Taymor as well.
- Nyelbert’s sacrifice earns him his Lightning Crystal.
- Nyelbert's name as a sin eater, Phronesis, refers to the Cardinal Virtue of prudence and wisdom.
- Renda-Rae grows content traveling with Ardbert's party, but hears that Balam-Quitz has been spotted in the Rak'tika Greatwood, causing havoc once again. She debates asking her friends to aid her in hunting down the monster, but opts instead to try and defeat it herself rather than risk losing companions to Balam-Quitz again. While Rae developed a special weapon that keeps Balam-Quitz's roar from stunning her as it did before, she isn't able to bring the beast down on her own... which is when her party arrives to aid her, helping to defeat the monster at last. Rae confesses that she didn't want to lose her friends, but her friends reply that losing her would have hurt them, and that's why they have to stick together. Rae accepts that losing her friends before was not her fault, and that having the courage to fight alongside her friends is what she truly needs to do.
- Renda-Rae extracts her Wind Crystal from the monster’s corpse.
- Renda-Rae's name as a sin eater, Andreia, refers to the Cardinal Virtue of courage and spiritual resilience.
- Having discovered that the court mage Tadric was behind the curse murders in Voeburt, Branden returns with Ardbert's party to bring him to justice. Despite Tadric warping dozens of his followers into monsters to throw at the party, Branden emerges triumphant. But as a final act before death, Tadric curses Princess Sauldia, who had entered at precisely the wrong time. Tadric dies, Sauldia is quickly beginning to warp into a monstrosity, and orders Branden to kill her. Branden struggles with this, sworn as he was to protect the princess, but ultimately follows the order.
- Branden discovers his Ice Crystal when the void-corrupted form Sauldia took dissipated.
- Branden's name as a sin eater, Dikaiosyne, refers to the Cardinal Virtue of justice.
- Cylva wasn't present during the fight with Tadric, as she was busy working with the royal knights to fight Tadric's monsters. She'd been tasked with securing the safety of Pauldia, Sauldia's younger sister. When she discovered the princess, however, she found that she'd already begun to change. Beq Lugg, another nu ou court mage in Voeburt, begged Cylva not to kill Pauldia, pleading that they could reverse the transformation. Cylva then dragged the transforming Pauldia to a gaol cell before heading off to join the party as they faced Sauldia's fate.
- Pauldia raves within her cell, revealing that she had manipulated Beq Lugg to learn the secrets of the soul that Tadric used as the basis for the curse. Tadric had warped Pauldia's heart with dark magic, compelling her to do this out of resentment for her sister, but as the curse takes her, Pauldia realizes what she's done and begs Beq Lugg's forgiveness before succumbing. Beq Lugg, devastated that their kindness to Pauldia had been manipulated so, left Voeburt and the domains of men behind in regret.
- Lamitt learns that secrets held within the Ronkan ruins hold the answer she needs for the plague afflicting her sister and many of the other dwarves. While Nyelbert and Ardbert are diverted elsewhere, Cylva, Ardbert and Renda-Rae aid Lamitt in defeating the Ronkan guardian Yxtlilton. From the knowledge that the guardian protected, Lamitt extracts the magic she needs, and the party reunites to return to Tomra.
- The magic works and Lamitt's sister is healed, along with all the other afflicted dwarves. However, the dwarven elders hold firm that Lamitt disobeyed dwarven law by venturing into the outside world, and for this is banished. Ardbert and the rest of the party protest this, as do the dwarves that had just been saved by Lamitt's crime, but Lamitt stops them. She admits that she anticipated the elders would reject her for this, but did it anyway because saving her sister and the others was more important than being a dwarf. That in mind, she tosses aside her helm and beard, revealing her face to Ardbert and her companions for the first time. The previously-plagued dwarves, who had all removed their helms because of the stifling heat within the Plaguewarrens, agree to go into exile with Lamitt, since they'd already been rejected by Tomra's elders.
- Lamitt discovers her Earth Crystal when she accesses the Ronkan knowledge, rather than from defeating the guardian.
- Lamitt's name as a sin eater, Sophrosyne, refers to the Cardinal Virtue of temperance.
- Ardbert and his friends eventually learn that all of the challenges they'd gone up against and more were linked to a mysterious figure called the Shadowkeeper, who was responsible for driving the world to brink of chaos. Over time, they discover the truth: Cylva was the Shadowkeeper all along. A survivor of the Thirteenth shard, which had been flooded with Darkness, she had been brought by the Ascians to the First to locate and bring together the Warriors of Light, giving them a darkness to unite and fight against. Once they had succeeded in bathing the world in light, her job was to kill them at the proper moment, keeping Norvrandt on the cusp of being overwhelmed with the power of the Light, to align with the Ascian's intended calamity on the Source.
- Cylva ultimately wasn't able to defeat Ardbert, who chose to spare her life rather than killing her for her betrayal. This, however, set the stage for the world to be flooded with light.
- The Shadowkeeper's Ascian sponsors, Loghrif and Mitron, attempted to salvage the Rejoining by coming for Ardbert and his party, but were also defeated in the process.
- At some point, Ardbert acquires his Fire crystal. It's not clear if he gets it from sparing Cylva's life or from defeating one (or both) or the Ascians, but he certainly has it no later than this point.
- The Flood of Light begins to scour the world, closing in on Norvrandt. The Ascian Emissary Elidibus appears to Ardbert's party, offering them a last chance to save their world: if they cross the Rift, and aid Elidibus by opposing the Warrior of Light, the Rejoining may let them undo the damage of the Flood of Light. To do this, however, Ardbert and his friends must sacrifice their lives to cross the Rift. They accept, and become "the Warriors of Darkness."
The rest of the story then proceeds from there, with Team Ardbert working WITH the Ascians on the Source, then getting manipulated by Urianger, then petitioning Hydaelyn through her emissary Minfilia to take them back to the First. Once there, Minfilia stops the Flood of Light, requesting the souls of Branden, Renda-Rae, Nyelbert, and Lamitt to do so. Ardbert, expecting the same fate, is surprised when Minfilia denies him the opportunity, though she does not explain why before vanishing. With the Flood halted, Ardbert wanders Norvrandt as a bodiless shade.
Which brings us back to the start of Shadowbringers, where the Warrior of Light enters, is reunited with Ardbert, and eventually learns that they are both fragments of the same Amaroutian soul. After our final conflict with Elidibus, we know that soul was the fourteenth member of the Convocation, Azem.
So I think the main thing is that we've got the general framework of MOST of a regular FF game, except for the part where Ardbert and his friends ultimately lose after the final boss fight. The only key detail missing is exactly when Ardbert picks up his crystal.
... Unless there's some other key detail I'm missing. Am I missing anything?
submitted by /u/unlimitedblack
[link] [comments]
Continue reading...