@@natoriousthehopeful2786 Hate is a strong word for it (at least, I think so). Even as someone who's left several comments voicing complaints about Stormblood on these videos, I still would probably rate it at an 8/10, which is solid. Not as solid as the 9s, 10s, or even 11s I would consider giving other parts, but still. There's a lot of good in here, just a fair bit of bad and/or questionable stuff too. I think a lot of us simply wish that it could have been better than the 'good' it already is. To paraphrase a quote from another character later on: "If we sound harsh, it's because we care." That's how I feel about it, at least.
It's time to take to the last zone in Stormblood, Playfriends. The XII Legion is down to their last stronghold, but it's a doozy: Ala Mhigo itself. This is your spoiler free lore comment! 4:35 - COSTUME CHANGE! Lyse is finally wearing the fancy outfit she's got in the Stormblood trailer and Amano's artwork! And we get to see our character reenact the sparring on Rhalgr's hand from the trailer too! Some notes on Lyse's new outfit: in some scenes, she's depicted fighting bare handed, but in others, she's wielding a single blade mounted on her right hand. It seems similar to an katar, and as far as I know, there isn't an obtainable weapon like it in game. There are katars for monks, but those have additional blades, and Lyse is unique in that she only wields a single weapon which folds out, rather than two. I have no idea what dictates when she has it or not, but you can actually see her deploy it in battle at 22:45 , similar to a character drawing their weapon. Finally, you can get your own version of Lyse's outfit (and her hairstyle)! It's from the cash shop for 15 USD, and restricted to female characters. 6:22 - I am pretty impressed with the editing to swap in for Monk in the video, that's some clean cuts. Nice work Dan & Carrie! 12:00 - For once, I think Dan's luck with weather helps make The Lochs look *more* imposing, with all that storm and lightning. 17:25 - In this instance "Aan" stands for their "rank" under the Garlean system. This rank is sometimes confused for a middle name. Aan are slaves or people of occupied territory and are non-citizens, similar to peregrinus of the Roman Empire (given the similarity to Rome, they may actually be called peregrinus). M'naago is a bit more sanguine than I would be; an Aan may serve in the military to gain citizenship, and would undoubtable have family in the Aan rank. There's no real guarantee that there won't be sympathizers in the Ala Mhigan quarter. 20:25 - This helps detail what The Lochs are, while also moving the plot and intrigue forward. The Lochs are a series of salt water lakes, with Loch Seld being the main body of the region. Salt from Loch Seld was produced and stored at the saltery before sale and transport, and Ala Mhigan salt was once a notable export from the city-state. Just don't ask me why they used the Celtic (?) word, Ala Mhigo can be a weird mash of cultures from our world. 24:05 - I've done this too, but in a combat instance, clicking on NPCs doesn't usually provide dialogue. If you walk by, they may pop up speech bubbles, but that's it. Next time: Just keep swimming...
To expand on the titles, rank proceeds alphabetically. Most Garlean Citizens are "bas", making "aan" beneath even them. Tribuni like Nero and Livia are "tol". Legati, leaders of entire legions, are "van". It goes all the way up to "zos", the Emperor, and "yae" for those in the line of succession.
As I mentioned in a comment on the last video, Ala Mhigo is something of a melting pot, now thoroughly stirred. It was founded by refugees from the Sixth Umbral Calamity (the Calamity of Water). These refugees were found adrift and rescued by Nyunkrepf Nyunkrepfsyn as he sailed his ark toward Eorzea. They could reasonably be expected to hail from many different lands, and all ended up on Mount Yorn when Nyunkrepf teleported them away from a tidal wave. While some left with him, others no doubt remained and influenced local culture and naming conventions. In short, the Lochs have Celtic names is because people who spoke a Celtic dialect happened to settle there. Where did you think Fordola got her red hair and green eyes? ;)
The Lochs have an special event where the climate gets dark and stormy no matter what time it is When it happens, Ixion has spawned It also spawns random aoe puddles that deal a looot of damage if you are in the sb level range To damage ixion you have to do another side activity, treasure maps, to get an stigian ash Without it, Ixion has a shield that blocks all damage Very much another group activity that requires many players to clear Gives an Ixion mount as well as a barding for your chocobo, horn included
@@Caterfree10 It's not as bad if you're in a discord that sends you alerts whenever the event is up. Without the player-driven organization setting start times, spawning and scouting, it would be a huge pain...
The middle part of Garlian names are a sign of social status that can change with a change in standing. "Aan" is a non-citizen that resides in an occupied territory (EX: John Aan Smith)
17:28 Aan is the Garlean term for slaves and the people of annexed territory. It's kind of a title similar to van (Commander- Gaius van Baelsar), tol (Secondary Commander- Nero tol Scaeva), yae (heir to the throne- Zenos yae Galvus), or zos (Emperor- Varis zos Galvus)
- as cool Ralghar's reach there's 2 things that bother me greatly about it: 1, with how comically easy to compromise is wild they went back to make it a central hub, without any sort of reinforcement; and 2, I'm mad you can't actually climb to the Hand - oh hey they're doing that thing from the opening! except is a cooler & cuter Lalafel - ohhhh i was thinking Ala Mihgo was the name of the country this entire time - 14:12 "Nods is lack of Voice actress" who knew Solid JJ was a guest writer in this arc 🤣
All of the realms in Eorzea are city-states, so there's no geopolitical distinction between Ala Mhigo the city and Ala Mhigo the state. If you like you can think of it similarly to New York City and New York state. Likewise for Gridania, Ul'Dah, and so on. More broadly, there are names for the geographical regions in which each city-state sits, such as Ala Mhigo residing in the Gyr Abania region of the Aldenard continent, or Doma in the Yanxia region of the Othard continent. For a real life comparison, consider Spain being located in the Iberian Peninsula of Europe.
5:15 If anyone wonders what "Not your style" option does. (Because apparently everyone I know picked the first.) . . . . She aggrees with you."I know, what's with the frills and all?"
Looking forward to the next episode. I remember there was a fun reference in some of the optional dialogue that made my day when I read it. So long as Durmin keeps chatting with the other Scions we'll hear it.
I feel like there should be more story about how screwed ala mhigo was before being conquered. You had a Mad King who attacked gridania, expanding his terrotory and commiting a bunch of attrocities along the way There's a reason why the other cities may be reticent to help ala mhigans and it would help us sympatize a lot more if it didn't look like they were shunning immigrants/refugees just because/economy/idk The 3 cities are still very wrong to hold ala mhigan citizens accountable for a monarch, but at least we'd have something
Songs of Salt and Suffering is one of my all time favourite themes in Final Fantasy XIV. There's a beautiful cover of the night theme done by Terry:D, who has a catalogue of amazing FFXIV covers: th-cam.com/video/K8e2QHwxOaY/w-d-xo.html
I like the Lochs as an area. it is a truly beautiful area. However, I think it is underused overall, in that it is too big for the amount of action that actually takes place there. Other areas in Stormblood give you bits and pieces to explore as the story goes on, which I think is better for the play experience. I wind up remembering more about the other areas in the expansion than I do the Lochs. It's a shame, really. There are a lot of really great parts of this map, but you don't really spend time there.
The last area in each expansion seems to have this happen to it. HW and the floating island. StB and the Locks. ShB and *spoiler*, endwalker and *spoiler*
I can def get seeing that as a problem, but I think what the devs probably intend is for the unexplored parts of the last area to be a reward for the players who want to explore and make discoveries on their own time. Ie the more thorough type of players who want to see everything. Think of it like cerulean cave or Mt Silver in Pokémon, big areas with significant stuff in them but you never have to go there during the story. However this is assuming these areas you’re talking about have some non story content in them.
@@ICountFrom0 Endwalker's spoiler region has a tribe questline at least, and the Lochs have Ala Mhigo proper which gets visits often during the story. ShB's last area on the other hand... Beautiful place, but not a lot to do in it after 5.3 :(
17:26 Garlemald has a soft caste system- your rank very much depends on what you do for a living and what skills you have. At the same time, I'm calling it a "soft" caste system because there IS a degree of social mobility- the one most discussed in game is how one can win citizenship by serving in the Garlean legions for 20 years. Aan are pointedly NOT citizens- they're the non-Garlean, non-citizen residents of conquered territories. As such, they're the second lowest within the bounds of the system, only outranking viators, traitors to Garlemald itself. Aan aren't necessarily slaves, though they CAN be, and they're the ones we've generally seen suffering in game.
It is time for another final fantasy Friday question, and this one may be a LITTLE morbid: which character in the series had the most obvious death flags (I don't mind spoilers as long as they aren't 14 related)?
Tbh I kinda suck at noticing death flags, but considering I didn’t notice FFV’s Galuf’s when I wasn’t spoiled on his death, I think his wins by default lol.
Aan are the slaves and conquered people that have no citizenship rights They may ascend like fordola through military prowess, but those get second class citizenship
There are books in the Gubal Library dungeon that explain some of the Garlean honorifics and hierarchy, for those interested in such things. A very simplified version is, the later in the alphabet the first letter is, the higher the rank. Zenos Yae Galvus is second only to the Emperor himself, Varis Zos Galvus, for example.
0:43 I once read war-related PTSD described as (pardon my poor rephrasing) "realizing you were the monster". It was in the comments of a video related to the USMC's actions in the Pacific, very much not for the faint of heart. 4:50 No notes. 6:32 Wait, really?! You get to do the thing?! 7:16 So, question: Did the game "remember" your monk outfit, did you somehow swap jobs and costumes in the cuts, or did the game use a "this is the monk gear for this level" trick? 8:52 What we'd do stuff she wouldn't? 12:21 I love how her walk cycle works with the new outfit. The last one bothered me because how do you walk like that in plate boots? Those usually don't flex in the right places. 12:34 🎶Call to arms, banners fly in the wind! 🎵 14:45 Not a criticism, but recent gaming has my inner strategist firing on all cylinders, as such,, here's my unsolicited, uneducated-in-Eorzean-military-composition approach: Start with the artillery, with the Temple Knights still guarding the guns. The Seedseer's mages can provide additional support until the gate falls, and then the main force can move in and capture the opening, which would allow the "vanguard" to start the street fighting. The main force would reinforce, and the archers can take up positions on the walls, with the mages providing ranged support inside. No other changes. 15:57 I cannot shake the similarity between the Garlean Empire's insignia, and the Infinite Empire's (and Revan's Sith force's) insignia.
A caveat on your strategic considerations--you may be misunderstanding Gridania's "mages". The conjurers of Gridania are primarily healers. While they have some offensive capability, they're not suited to providing significant fire support. Their job is basically to turn the front-line fighters of the Brass Blades into Wolverine by constantly healing them, while the archers pincushion soft targets--like reaper pilots. The Empire also has some conscripted magical healers, but not nearly as many; they rely on numbers and magitek mechs to win battles against the magically adept Eorzeans. With archers neutralizing the armor by taking out pilots and the conjurers supporting the foot soldiers, the Eorzeans should be able to turn the fight outside the gates into a very one-sided battle of attrition. (The Eorzean artillery is relatively slow-moving and vulnerable to Garlean mechs, and it needs line-of-sight on the gates, so they need to clear defenders outside the walls in order to bring it safely into position.)
@@forcesinbalance5685 That's fair. This LP and comments are my entire interaction with this game's lore. I was working under the assumption that the artillery was going to be akin to stuff like was employed during the siege of Vienna, and that someone in Eorzea would have a "black mage corps". I'd basically considered Garlemald's mages as "negligible but present".
@@the6ofdiamonds Then a lore dump is in order! (Feel free to read or ignore as much or as little as you please.) The artillery is coming from the Maelstrom and the Temple knights. The targets these groups design their guns for are mainly ships at sea and dragons in flight, so I would expect most of them to be direct-fire--that is, they're designed to shoot straight at a target, not lob projectiles in high arcs like a mortar. They need line of sight. The reason there is no substantial black mage corps is more complex, and goes back to the Calamity that landed refugees in Gyr Abania--the Sixth Umbral Calamity, the Calamity of Water. This Calamity was precipitated by a three-way war of magic: the Black Mages of Mhach, the White Mages of Amdapor, and the Scholars of Nym. Nym was mostly on the defensive and eventually taken out of the war (detailed in Scholar quests). The magical conflict between Mhach and Amdapor escalated until it triggered a cataclysmic flood. In simple terms, White Mages use Earth and Air magic, while Black Mages use Fire, Ice, and Lightning, and between them, the two sets of warring casters drained so much of the aspected aether of those elements that Water was left overwhelmingly dominant, giving rise to tidal waves and enormous floods. In the wake of the Calamity, both Black and White magic were forbidden and their secrets lost. All that remains are Thaumaturgy and Conjury , which have similar spells, but which are limited in power because they do not draw freely on environmental aether like Black and White magic. Instead, thaumaturges draw solely upon their own personal aether, and conjurers may use both their own aether plus that granted to them by cooperative elementals. This prevents them from draining the land, but it means that if they try to wield the more potent spells like the magicians of Mhach and Amdapor, they'll end up draining themselves to death. Unless the WoL revives the forbidden arts by becoming a Black Mage or White Mage (in the job quests for those jobs), there simply _aren't_ any magicians with those abilities. The Eorzeans can field disproportionately more magicians than the Garleans, but no force that can throw around really large-scale offensive magic.
I appreciate the editing you had to do to seamlessly transition into the monk gear for that one cutscene.
That cut was so smooth
I genuinely really love Lyse’s new outfit here. Up until newer upgrades we get later, this is easily my favorite among the Scions.
Hard agree 💯
Stormblood has done wonders for her character development: I don't get why people hate it so much
@@natoriousthehopeful2786 Hate is a strong word for it (at least, I think so). Even as someone who's left several comments voicing complaints about Stormblood on these videos, I still would probably rate it at an 8/10, which is solid. Not as solid as the 9s, 10s, or even 11s I would consider giving other parts, but still. There's a lot of good in here, just a fair bit of bad and/or questionable stuff too. I think a lot of us simply wish that it could have been better than the 'good' it already is.
To paraphrase a quote from another character later on: "If we sound harsh, it's because we care." That's how I feel about it, at least.
@@AlphaoftheDeluge Fair enough
Lyse, now serving:
1. Her country
2. Looks
3. THESE HANDS
'Let me go get my monk gear' AND THEN WE GET THE SCENE FROM THE TRAILER!!! Props to you for the editing, and the attention to detail, I love it ^^
It's time to take to the last zone in Stormblood, Playfriends. The XII Legion is down to their last stronghold, but it's a doozy: Ala Mhigo itself. This is your spoiler free lore comment!
4:35 - COSTUME CHANGE! Lyse is finally wearing the fancy outfit she's got in the Stormblood trailer and Amano's artwork! And we get to see our character reenact the sparring on Rhalgr's hand from the trailer too! Some notes on Lyse's new outfit: in some scenes, she's depicted fighting bare handed, but in others, she's wielding a single blade mounted on her right hand. It seems similar to an katar, and as far as I know, there isn't an obtainable weapon like it in game. There are katars for monks, but those have additional blades, and Lyse is unique in that she only wields a single weapon which folds out, rather than two. I have no idea what dictates when she has it or not, but you can actually see her deploy it in battle at 22:45 , similar to a character drawing their weapon. Finally, you can get your own version of Lyse's outfit (and her hairstyle)! It's from the cash shop for 15 USD, and restricted to female characters.
6:22 - I am pretty impressed with the editing to swap in for Monk in the video, that's some clean cuts. Nice work Dan & Carrie!
12:00 - For once, I think Dan's luck with weather helps make The Lochs look *more* imposing, with all that storm and lightning.
17:25 - In this instance "Aan" stands for their "rank" under the Garlean system. This rank is sometimes confused for a middle name. Aan are slaves or people of occupied territory and are non-citizens, similar to peregrinus of the Roman Empire (given the similarity to Rome, they may actually be called peregrinus). M'naago is a bit more sanguine than I would be; an Aan may serve in the military to gain citizenship, and would undoubtable have family in the Aan rank. There's no real guarantee that there won't be sympathizers in the Ala Mhigan quarter.
20:25 - This helps detail what The Lochs are, while also moving the plot and intrigue forward. The Lochs are a series of salt water lakes, with Loch Seld being the main body of the region. Salt from Loch Seld was produced and stored at the saltery before sale and transport, and Ala Mhigan salt was once a notable export from the city-state. Just don't ask me why they used the Celtic (?) word, Ala Mhigo can be a weird mash of cultures from our world.
24:05 - I've done this too, but in a combat instance, clicking on NPCs doesn't usually provide dialogue. If you walk by, they may pop up speech bubbles, but that's it.
Next time: Just keep swimming...
20:25 The Lochs also hide an aspect that Durmin will most likely discover in the next episode
To expand on the titles, rank proceeds alphabetically. Most Garlean Citizens are "bas", making "aan" beneath even them. Tribuni like Nero and Livia are "tol". Legati, leaders of entire legions, are "van". It goes all the way up to "zos", the Emperor, and "yae" for those in the line of succession.
As I mentioned in a comment on the last video, Ala Mhigo is something of a melting pot, now thoroughly stirred. It was founded by refugees from the Sixth Umbral Calamity (the Calamity of Water). These refugees were found adrift and rescued by Nyunkrepf Nyunkrepfsyn as he sailed his ark toward Eorzea. They could reasonably be expected to hail from many different lands, and all ended up on Mount Yorn when Nyunkrepf teleported them away from a tidal wave. While some left with him, others no doubt remained and influenced local culture and naming conventions.
In short, the Lochs have Celtic names is because people who spoke a Celtic dialect happened to settle there. Where did you think Fordola got her red hair and green eyes? ;)
The Lochs have an special event where the climate gets dark and stormy no matter what time it is
When it happens, Ixion has spawned
It also spawns random aoe puddles that deal a looot of damage if you are in the sb level range
To damage ixion you have to do another side activity, treasure maps, to get an stigian ash
Without it, Ixion has a shield that blocks all damage
Very much another group activity that requires many players to clear
Gives an Ixion mount as well as a barding for your chocobo, horn included
Good god. Idc abt barding, but I am SO GLAD the last tomestone event had the Ixion mount bc that sounds tedious as heck tbh.
@@Caterfree10 It's not as bad if you're in a discord that sends you alerts whenever the event is up. Without the player-driven organization setting start times, spawning and scouting, it would be a huge pain...
12:18 To stand against "depression" and tyranny
It's so cool how they recreated the Stormblood trailer!
A Dan that is excited about the soundtrack is a good Dan.
Mm, that music. I do so love visiting the Lochs, if only for that theme music.
The middle part of Garlian names are a sign of social status that can change with a change in standing. "Aan" is a non-citizen that resides in an occupied territory (EX: John Aan Smith)
So... that's another episode under Loch and Key? :runs away:
Pretty new dress for Lyse, and REVOLUTION!!
17:28 Aan is the Garlean term for slaves and the people of annexed territory. It's kind of a title similar to van (Commander- Gaius van Baelsar), tol (Secondary Commander- Nero tol Scaeva), yae (heir to the throne- Zenos yae Galvus), or zos (Emperor- Varis zos Galvus)
You're right about how good the night time music is for the last location. I really do need to try and check out some of the soundtrack.
- as cool Ralghar's reach there's 2 things that bother me greatly about it: 1, with how comically easy to compromise is wild they went back to make it a central hub, without any sort of reinforcement; and 2, I'm mad you can't actually climb to the Hand
- oh hey they're doing that thing from the opening! except is a cooler & cuter Lalafel
- ohhhh i was thinking Ala Mihgo was the name of the country this entire time
- 14:12 "Nods is lack of Voice actress" who knew Solid JJ was a guest writer in this arc 🤣
All of the realms in Eorzea are city-states, so there's no geopolitical distinction between Ala Mhigo the city and Ala Mhigo the state. If you like you can think of it similarly to New York City and New York state. Likewise for Gridania, Ul'Dah, and so on.
More broadly, there are names for the geographical regions in which each city-state sits, such as Ala Mhigo residing in the Gyr Abania region of the Aldenard continent, or Doma in the Yanxia region of the Othard continent. For a real life comparison, consider Spain being located in the Iberian Peninsula of Europe.
5:15 If anyone wonders what "Not your style" option does. (Because apparently everyone I know picked the first.)
.
.
.
.
She aggrees with you."I know, what's with the frills and all?"
Looking forward to the next episode. I remember there was a fun reference in some of the optional dialogue that made my day when I read it. So long as Durmin keeps chatting with the other Scions we'll hear it.
28:00 The first four notes of this theme’s melody perfectly matches The Highwind / Cid’s Theme from FF7.
I feel like there should be more story about how screwed ala mhigo was before being conquered.
You had a Mad King who attacked gridania, expanding his terrotory and commiting a bunch of attrocities along the way
There's a reason why the other cities may be reticent to help ala mhigans and it would help us sympatize a lot more if it didn't look like they were shunning immigrants/refugees just because/economy/idk
The 3 cities are still very wrong to hold ala mhigan citizens accountable for a monarch, but at least we'd have something
That's actually covered in one of the Stormblood job quests, specifically Bard.
Songs of Salt and Suffering is one of my all time favourite themes in Final Fantasy XIV. There's a beautiful cover of the night theme done by Terry:D, who has a catalogue of amazing FFXIV covers: th-cam.com/video/K8e2QHwxOaY/w-d-xo.html
I like the Lochs as an area. it is a truly beautiful area. However, I think it is underused overall, in that it is too big for the amount of action that actually takes place there. Other areas in Stormblood give you bits and pieces to explore as the story goes on, which I think is better for the play experience. I wind up remembering more about the other areas in the expansion than I do the Lochs.
It's a shame, really. There are a lot of really great parts of this map, but you don't really spend time there.
The last area in each expansion seems to have this happen to it. HW and the floating island. StB and the Locks. ShB and *spoiler*, endwalker and *spoiler*
I can def get seeing that as a problem, but I think what the devs probably intend is for the unexplored parts of the last area to be a reward for the players who want to explore and make discoveries on their own time. Ie the more thorough type of players who want to see everything. Think of it like cerulean cave or Mt Silver in Pokémon, big areas with significant stuff in them but you never have to go there during the story.
However this is assuming these areas you’re talking about have some non story content in them.
@@ICountFrom0 Endwalker's spoiler region has a tribe questline at least, and the Lochs have Ala Mhigo proper which gets visits often during the story. ShB's last area on the other hand... Beautiful place, but not a lot to do in it after 5.3 :(
17:26 Garlemald has a soft caste system- your rank very much depends on what you do for a living and what skills you have. At the same time, I'm calling it a "soft" caste system because there IS a degree of social mobility- the one most discussed in game is how one can win citizenship by serving in the Garlean legions for 20 years.
Aan are pointedly NOT citizens- they're the non-Garlean, non-citizen residents of conquered territories. As such, they're the second lowest within the bounds of the system, only outranking viators, traitors to Garlemald itself. Aan aren't necessarily slaves, though they CAN be, and they're the ones we've generally seen suffering in game.
5:24 Do not simp the hot punch waifu. Do not simp the hot punch waifu. Do not simp the hot punch waifu. Do not simp--oh, who am I kidding
So many sidequest markers.
It's triggering my completionist OCD.
It is time for another final fantasy Friday question, and this one may be a LITTLE morbid: which character in the series had the most obvious death flags (I don't mind spoilers as long as they aren't 14 related)?
Tbh I kinda suck at noticing death flags, but considering I didn’t notice FFV’s Galuf’s when I wasn’t spoiled on his death, I think his wins by default lol.
@@Caterfree10 I am kind the same way tbh.
Yuna in FFX 🙃
@@wavesofbabies Hold up, she died? Didn't she get the MC role in the sequel?
@@natoriousthehopeful2786 no she didn't die. But she has the most obvious death flags throughout the game.
Aan are the slaves and conquered people that have no citizenship rights
They may ascend like fordola through military prowess, but those get second class citizenship
It's very much like the romans did it
There are books in the Gubal Library dungeon that explain some of the Garlean honorifics and hierarchy, for those interested in such things. A very simplified version is, the later in the alphabet the first letter is, the higher the rank. Zenos Yae Galvus is second only to the Emperor himself, Varis Zos Galvus, for example.
0:43 I once read war-related PTSD described as (pardon my poor rephrasing) "realizing you were the monster". It was in the comments of a video related to the USMC's actions in the Pacific, very much not for the faint of heart.
4:50 No notes.
6:32 Wait, really?! You get to do the thing?!
7:16 So, question: Did the game "remember" your monk outfit, did you somehow swap jobs and costumes in the cuts, or did the game use a "this is the monk gear for this level" trick?
8:52 What we'd do stuff she wouldn't?
12:21 I love how her walk cycle works with the new outfit. The last one bothered me because how do you walk like that in plate boots? Those usually don't flex in the right places.
12:34 🎶Call to arms, banners fly in the wind! 🎵
14:45 Not a criticism, but recent gaming has my inner strategist firing on all cylinders, as such,, here's my unsolicited, uneducated-in-Eorzean-military-composition approach: Start with the artillery, with the Temple Knights still guarding the guns. The Seedseer's mages can provide additional support until the gate falls, and then the main force can move in and capture the opening, which would allow the "vanguard" to start the street fighting. The main force would reinforce, and the archers can take up positions on the walls, with the mages providing ranged support inside. No other changes.
15:57 I cannot shake the similarity between the Garlean Empire's insignia, and the Infinite Empire's (and Revan's Sith force's) insignia.
A caveat on your strategic considerations--you may be misunderstanding Gridania's "mages". The conjurers of Gridania are primarily healers. While they have some offensive capability, they're not suited to providing significant fire support. Their job is basically to turn the front-line fighters of the Brass Blades into Wolverine by constantly healing them, while the archers pincushion soft targets--like reaper pilots.
The Empire also has some conscripted magical healers, but not nearly as many; they rely on numbers and magitek mechs to win battles against the magically adept Eorzeans. With archers neutralizing the armor by taking out pilots and the conjurers supporting the foot soldiers, the Eorzeans should be able to turn the fight outside the gates into a very one-sided battle of attrition. (The Eorzean artillery is relatively slow-moving and vulnerable to Garlean mechs, and it needs line-of-sight on the gates, so they need to clear defenders outside the walls in order to bring it safely into position.)
@@forcesinbalance5685 That's fair. This LP and comments are my entire interaction with this game's lore.
I was working under the assumption that the artillery was going to be akin to stuff like was employed during the siege of Vienna, and that someone in Eorzea would have a "black mage corps". I'd basically considered Garlemald's mages as "negligible but present".
@@the6ofdiamonds Then a lore dump is in order! (Feel free to read or ignore as much or as little as you please.)
The artillery is coming from the Maelstrom and the Temple knights. The targets these groups design their guns for are mainly ships at sea and dragons in flight, so I would expect most of them to be direct-fire--that is, they're designed to shoot straight at a target, not lob projectiles in high arcs like a mortar. They need line of sight.
The reason there is no substantial black mage corps is more complex, and goes back to the Calamity that landed refugees in Gyr Abania--the Sixth Umbral Calamity, the Calamity of Water. This Calamity was precipitated by a three-way war of magic: the Black Mages of Mhach, the White Mages of Amdapor, and the Scholars of Nym. Nym was mostly on the defensive and eventually taken out of the war (detailed in Scholar quests). The magical conflict between Mhach and Amdapor escalated until it triggered a cataclysmic flood. In simple terms, White Mages use Earth and Air magic, while Black Mages use Fire, Ice, and Lightning, and between them, the two sets of warring casters drained so much of the aspected aether of those elements that Water was left overwhelmingly dominant, giving rise to tidal waves and enormous floods.
In the wake of the Calamity, both Black and White magic were forbidden and their secrets lost. All that remains are Thaumaturgy and Conjury , which have similar spells, but which are limited in power because they do not draw freely on environmental aether like Black and White magic. Instead, thaumaturges draw solely upon their own personal aether, and conjurers may use both their own aether plus that granted to them by cooperative elementals. This prevents them from draining the land, but it means that if they try to wield the more potent spells like the magicians of Mhach and Amdapor, they'll end up draining themselves to death.
Unless the WoL revives the forbidden arts by becoming a Black Mage or White Mage (in the job quests for those jobs), there simply _aren't_ any magicians with those abilities. The Eorzeans can field disproportionately more magicians than the Garleans, but no force that can throw around really large-scale offensive magic.
💙
i really hated that theme! pwapapwapapwapapwapapwapapwaPAPWAAAAAAAA ... over and over and... i honestly couldn't finish stormblood fast enough!
I have no idea what theme you are referring to