A series of blog posts not quite as swift as the morning river.<<Previous | Archive | Next >>───────────────────────────────────Were the Naadam the "three games of men" of its Mongol namesake, it might have been a bit of a challenge. Lyse could cinch the wrestling event for us and Dominique could perhaps deal with the horse racing, but archery would be a tricky proposition. Instead, it was a massive battle where our hero had to take on dozens of foes and survive against all odds, or, to use the more common name for this sort of event, "Tuesday at the Duty Finder". All hail Dominique Allard, Khagan of the Xaela!
Oh, I'd be lying if I said that it was a smooth ride in its entirety. There was that idiot Grynewaht, just a tad bit too late to provide in-fight entertainment with his Garlean contingent but just in time to get meteored for his trouble by khatun Sadu of the Dotharl, as well as the errands of the Oronir which included alleged spying on the Dotharl. Stealth is a difficult proposition with Gosetsu as your partner, but we hardly needed it. The blue tribe saw no need to hide its plans nor its belief in reincarnation and cavalier attitude towards the gender and preservation of the fleshy bodies currently holding the immortal soul — a philosophy endearing to Dominique, I suspect. I wish I could say a lot of these quests were padding... and you know what, I'll say it, in spite of my current obsession with the Xaela! I reckon the writers wanted to sow the seeds of the steppes into the players for some future reaping, but did they really need to have us fetching incredibly spherical lost lambs? Anyway, I set out to do every single sidequest in the Plains.
Look, I have made some very large claims earlier and I wanted to dig for any scrap of lore that might have proven or disproven them, and as for our new Khagan, the title has some heft to it. What manner of an ignorant foreigner would be dubbed a leader and not do the work of leaders before leading their people into death? Our hero had just seen the regrets of Ompagne. The steppe lacked not in its petty problems that could be helped by serving and slaying. This saw us meet the furtive Uyaghir (so easily missed in their cave of penitence), help a man swap from Gladiator to Monk, walk in a straight line, and assist a suicide! Dominique didn't even get a full level's worth of XP for all this. Come now, Squeenix.
Regardless, it was a pleasant experience to get to know the Xaela, if unrewarding in both answers and numbers. The one thing of pertinence to my current obsession was knowledge on The House of the Crooked Coin, a crystal cave I made mention of earlier. It is apparently thought to be a remnant of Nhamaa once used to prevent some calamity and dying within it, the Dotharl say, cuts one's soul off from the cycle. I leave it as an exercise to the reader to connect it to one of the quests from the preceding paragraph. One new question did open up, though: The mystery of Dhoro Iloh.
This was a barren settlement hidden away in the corner of the map, inaccessible without flying if you happen to be a coward. Nothing lay there save a sole aetheryte and I found my curiosity rise as I went through the sidequests without it ever becoming a factor. Resigned, I eventually made my way through the MSQ and set off back to Yanxia to do unto Doma Castle what the Mongols did unto Alamut and... why is there a "Floundering Namazu" here and why is it giving me a crafting quest?
Meet Gyoshin, Namazu artisan, crafter of crafts, the severely dehydrated! We got him back to his fishy buddies for some enmoistening and found new "friends" in Gyorei and Seigetsu the Enlightened. Gyofun to his enemies, by the way. The Namazu, this literati told us, originated in the steppe, and it was Gyoshin's vision that the Namazu had to hold a seven-year festival there for the seven hundred and seventy seventh anniversary of their tribe's birth! If they didn't, disaster would await the fishkin in seven years! Don't tell them how long it has been since Stormblood's release, if you would be so kind. We just had to negotiate this matter with the Xaela and oh okay the Mol saw this coming and had Dhoro Iloh ready for them. Huh. Guess the festival is afoot, then?
I did say I will do EVERY sidequest in the Plains...
───────────────────────────────────OPEN QUESTIONSThe questions section remains as open as the steppe. This would be nice if I were a horse, but neigh, 'tis not the case.
WHY DO REJOININGS WEAKEN ONLY HYDAELYN?
WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF ASCIANS?
WHAT ARE THE PRECISE MECHANICS OF FLOODS AND CALAMITIES?
WHAT IS UP WITH SHINRYU?
ARE KAMI PRIMALS?
WHAT IS YOTSUYU'S TRAGIC BACKSTORY?───────────────────────────────────CRACKPOT THEORIESThe circumstances of the last blog post had a 3AM sleepless search for truth. Please understand, these things take time to recharge.
───────────────────────────────────I need to keep swimming, eh, dear readers? Or waddling with funny sounds, as the case may be. I will link no socials, as I have some rotund fish that I am attempting to impolitely avoid.
