Archived: Final Fantasy XIV: ARR-1

Description

It is the Seventh Umbral Era. Five years have passed since the Calamity, the falling of Dalamud, the unleashing of the elder Primal Bahamut, and the victory of the Alliance over the Garlean Empire. But the events of that day are clouded, and no one quite remembers just who it was that saved Eorzea. In the time that has passed, the three nations of the Alliance have reopened their borders, trade has resumed, and the world is trying to put itself back to normal.

But the dark places where evil springs forth are ever there. The beastmen plot and hoard and scheme to bring forth their Primals. Rumbles of discontentment are percolating among the nation states. The class warfare of old is returning, and the old status quo will bring Eorzea back into the open conflict it once held before the Garleans ever arrived in the first place. And while the Garleans pose a threat, much more sinister men are tugging those strings, waiting to reveal themselves.

But where there is dark, there is always light. Hope springs anew as adventurers once again ply their trade, working to better the people, bring hope back to the land and maybe help piece everything back together. Heroes banished to the future during the final moments of the Calamity find themselves in this new Eorzea, while new Warriors of Light rise to meet the challenges before them, armed with the gift of Hydaelyn, the mysterious Echo.

Welcome to Eorzea, land of adventure, magic, intrigue and crystals. May Hydaelyn shine on you always.

Theme Info

Coming soon. When it's relevant.

Lexicon

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Term	Definition
FATE	Full Active Time Events, just called FATEs by the Adventurers' Guild, are emergencies that come and go in the various regions of Eorzea. These are usually things that need to be handled right away and which only surfaced in the last few minutes.
Leve/Guildleve	A Leve, on the other hand, is a bounty, a quest, a job, something predetermined and that might have been there for a while, without being urgent. A Guildleve, as a distinction, is a repeatable quest, essentially "we'll pay you for each 10 skeletons you kill" rather than "kill 10 skeletons". These are fairly common in monster-infested areas, and an adventurer can earn quite the trust from a Grand Company grinding Guildleves.
Duty/Guildhest	A Duty is a difficult task, asking for groups of adventurers specifically to delve into dungeons, ruins, or even to help contain a larger threat, such as a Primal. A Guildhest, like a Guildleve, is something more repeatable and always open, allowing groups of adventurer to do good for the Grand Companies.
Levemete	Someone from the Adventurers' Guild responsible for collecting and distributing the various tasks adventurers can do.
Guild	A guild is an organization that oversees a particular discipline or aspect of life in Eorzea. The Adventurers' Guild handles adventurers, the Lancers' Guild handles training Lancers, the Archers' Guild trains Archers, etc. Most things have a guild, whether it's a combat path, a crafting or gathering profession, or even the various people who handle transportation across Eorzean, from airships to Chocobo.

Linkshells, Linkpearls and Free Companies

Linkshells are seashell shaped objects, magical in nature and linked to the Aether of Hydaelyn. A Linkshell is essentially two things: the physical object used to distribute Linkpearls, and a private communication frequency. By handing people Linkpearls, small jewels produced from a Linkshell, the owner of that Linkshell can allow people to speak on the frequency telepathically, as long as they're carrying the Linkpearl. This form of communication is extremely difficult to crack, but not foolproof. Linkshells are trivial to purchase and establish. Since a Linkpearl is needed to speak on a Linkshell, only the owner can grant access to theirs.

Linkpearls also double as Multiversal radios because magic.

A Free Company, meanwhile, is essentially a group or guild of adventurers and assorted people, given resource backing by one of the city-states or Grand Companies as they grow. Though they start as little more than groups of sellswords with a recognized name and brand across Eorzea, an active Free Company can eventually acquire assorted weaponry, armor or other physical backing from their supporting, chosen Grand Company, and past a point, they can hold real political weight in the world. It is not impossible for a Free Company to grow so large and famous that they could threaten one of the Grand Companies. Upon founding, a Free Company is given a Linkshell if they don't have one.

AQ

This is an FAQ, but without the F, because we haven't actually been asked these things frequently yet!

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Q. Can I app?
A. Yes! Yes you can.

Q. Anything?
A. Anything that's in A Realm Reborn or that can be put into it from other Final Fantasy games or Heavensward without disrupting stuff. This includes Warriors of Light, people with the Echo, people with jobs instead of classes, etc.

Q. What about Heavensward content?
Non-plot Heavensward content can be apped once it's out, like the Dark Knight, Machinist and Astrologian jobs. Spoilery or plot content should wait at least one month, but inclusion of Heavensward's plot while still in the early stages of A Realm Reborn might need a cast discussion first.

Q. Can I have a Chocobo even if I'm not in the cast?
A. Why not? It's just a big riding bird. Please note if you want it to be combat capable in any way, you'll need to upgrade app. FFXIV:ARR Chocobo, like their Final Fantasy Tactics counterparts, have access to healing and damage spells of varying potency, but only if trained and adventured with for a long time. Otherwise, they're really just mounts.

Q. How do the Soul Crystals work?
A. They let you bypass the training which would normally be needed to have a job instead of a class. Example: to become a Dragoon you'd normally have to train in Ishgard. Or you could just be a really good Lancer and get a Soul Crystal. Both are valid ways of attaining the job, but one requires a specific backstory while the other doesn't.

Q. What changes were made to this theme?
A. None at all. This theme is currently fully canon to A Realm Reborn, and takes place when the MMO begins. If and when changes occur they will be noted on this page in some fashion.

Q. Do I need to know 1.0 stuff?
A. Only if it appears in A Realm Reborn directly. If it's not in there, no, and in fact 1.0 information should be taken with a grain of salt if it doesn't appear in A Realm Reborn.

Q. Can I GM stuff once I app?
A. Absolutely, knock yourself out. FATEs, dungeons, leves and quests are there to be run. Beastmen, Garleans, pirates, whatever, that stuff is there for you to use, you really don't need to check with anyone first. Might be useful to keep a list of what's been run though, but that can come later.

Q. Does X work like it does in the game?
A. Probably, yeah. So leves, Materia crafting and spiritbonding, the Grand Companies, linkshells and linkpearls, the Aethernet and Aetheryte Crystals, Soul Crystals (for jobs), magical RPG inventory space, all that stuff is intact. Even FATEs are IC, essentially a warning put out by the Adventurers' Guild that something is going on and needs resolved ASAP.

Q. How powerful are the Primals?
A. No more than a singular Warrior of Light for the most part. What makes the Primals dangerous is not ridiculous firepower, it's the fact even when defeated they'll keep coming back. And the mind control! Can't forget the mind control. The Elder Primals are a bit more dangerous, but their threat really isn't enough one powerful hero can't save the day if it becomes necessary. Primals boss up by necessity of needing to accommodate many scene attendees, but that's not their assumed natural state.

Q. So the Garleans/Bahamut aren't the big bads?
A. It isn't currently clear who the big bad of FFXIV will be, and we likely won't know until the game shuts down. By the time this happens it's unlikely this theme will still exist, so you'll never see us impose our belief of who we think the theme 36 should be. Using standard MMORPG PL rules as discussed by Reliant once, it's likely that an end of expansion boss would be 35, a lot of significant characters would be 33-34, and there flat out wouldn't be a 36.

Q. Can I RP in your cast room?
A. Absolutely, go for it. The only thing we ask is that if you're going to do something significant like try to occupy an area, try to cause significant damage, or generally do something that would have lasting effects (like giving technology to a city-state, trying to crossover a theme with ours) then please consult with the cast first. The cast doesn't need to be around if you want to have social or fight another player in our cast room because it has an area you really want to use as a backdrop, we just want to know if you're planning something more substantial.

Q. Can I loot Garlean Magitek or other special stuff like that?
A. Yes, but you may be required to field an upgrade application if you want to loot an object of great power instead of a random gunblade. It's worth noting that Garlean technology functions on Ceruleum however, and only the city-state of Ul'dah has any, unless you can rope a good supply from the Garleans. If your character has tinkering or scientific powers however, working on your own, or with others, to adapt Magitek to suit your own power source is an option that's on the table.

Q. How much effect can we have on your theme?
A. As much as you're willing to put effort into it, within common sense, and as long as it creates RP instead of destroying it. An extreme example of something that could be pushed is giving the city-states better technology, better equipment and just more resources than the Garleans. On the other hand, permanently destroying or sealing a Primal, while not impossible, is unlikely to be considered too early on since it shuts down future RP.

Questions, concerns, comments, drop the cast an @mail and we'll discuss it together!

Things That Have Been Run

Although FFXIV: A Realm Reborn has a very high number of quests, they're not infinite in supply! This means that it's important to keep an eye on what's already been run, both from the perspective of what lore people have learned about and to prevent repetition.

Central Shroud

• Leve: Skeletons in my Deepcroft

South Shroud

• FATE: The Coeurl King