[Symbios]

I just finished CoP about...2 weeks ago, I believe, and I left the story alone for a while, but I have to say that I still don't understand a few parts of it. Considering that I did CoP over the course of nearly a year, you probably should understand that by the time I got to the next cutscene, sometimes I had forgotten what had happened 2 or 3 cutscenes back.

To me, I can understand why people like CoP's story the most because of its epic feel, but I also feel that it's full of plot holes and incredibly convoluted for no reason whatsoever. Keep in mind of course, I haven't done Storms of Fate or Apocalypse Nigh, mainly because it's impossible for me to find 18 people with the resources I have, unless I want to be shouting for weeks, if not months.

My biggest question is, what exactly was the justification Prishe had for taking all of us to Al'Taieu? If I recall correctly, the whole reason Bahamut wanted to blow the crap out of us was because he didn't want Promathia to be resurrected, and thus take the world back into the state of paradise- but the only reason that Prishe wanted to go to Al'Taieu was because she was under the impression she was the keeper to restore Promathia back to life so we could...uh, kill him.

It just seems kind of futile that Prishe would make this sort of the decision in the face of fighting the Wyrmking- why choose the Twilight God over a Terrestrial Avatar?

The last cutscene explains that the five races was created from the emptiness inside the 5 shards of the mothercrystal (Or some shit like that), thus we're all children of Promathia. Then, who the hell are the Zilart and Kuluu? Or did they just exist before the emptiness existed? How does it make sense that the Kuluu have emptiness within them and the Zilart don't, if the emptiness was split amongst the five races? On that note, where'd the beastmen come from?

Er, I also forgot what the importance of the Memora de la S'tona (Or however the crap you spell it) is. It's used to open the gate to Al'Taieu?

Last small question, who's Louverance (fake) supposed to be? I know that the real Louverance is the one you didn't travel with, a knight from a fallen noble family, so just wondering who the fake Louverance is and why he would take up his name.

[renzuko]

arg...i forgot his name, but he's the leader of that group of thieves from thf af

his name is up here somewhere...im pretty sure just like real louverance, he's the son of a...i know i had it all worked out, cuz i was wondering who he was after i beat cop, but i cant seem to find any of it anymore ;.;

[pathwriter]

You only just now finished Chains of Promathia? I'm shocked, given you have Usukane. Anyhow, I sympathize on the story problem. I completed CoP over the course of a month and the whole thing was coherent as a result, although I've since forgotten the finer details like the ones you're asking about.

Prishe wanted to deal with Promathia instead of Bahamut because, I think, she prefers to treat the disease rather than the symptom. The exact nature of Promathia is poorly understood even by immortals, but the idea is that by executing him, his latent threat is removed (because the Keeper lives in a reincarnation cycle or something like that). The logic is a little weird given the consequences of killing the Twilight God.

The Kuluu are Zilart; the Zilart are the original people of Vana'diel. In theory, if Paradise is restored, the Terrestrial Avatars will become beasts, the five races and the beastmen will disappear, and the Celestial Avatars will reign over the Zilart. Emptiness is a part of Promathia and Promathia always existed, so the loss of the whisper of the soul or whatever Zilart telepathy is called was a sign of Promathia's increased influence on the world. Promathia always existed, same as Altana, at least in theory.

Memoria de la S^tona has some power over the gods, up to and including Promathia. I think it's the song of creation.

I'm pretty sure Renzuko is right that the false Louverance is the infamous rogue. I cannot find his name anywhere, but he is a part of San d'Oria's history and is spoken about in a couple quests. Basically, there was a band of really effective thieves and he was their leader.

Kerrigan, a player who used to be on Asura, compiled a bunch of the story at least through the end of Chains of Promathia. Unfortunately, his original site went down a rather long time ago. This is the most up-to-date mirror I could find: http://filebox.vt.edu/users/adrussel/ffxi/history.htm

[Kandi_]

yeah, similar here.

the only thing that confused me rly... was...

if the races are going to disappear when the world goes back to being sea...

why is it the races, and us the players, can go to the real world (Sea)

im sure its either;

im a retard, and dont get it.

or its more like FFX, and even the dreams can be solid on the outside world, as long as their remains a dreamer.

[renzuko]

i think that's why fake louverance tried to avoid goldmane, aka, the chebukki's father

A-HA!!!!

http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Atarefaunet

FAKE LOUVERANCES NAME IS ATARFAUNET!

[Corrderio]

Prishe wanted to deal with Promathia instead of Bahamut because, I think, she prefers to treat the disease rather than the symptom. The exact nature of Promathia is poorly understood even by immortals, but the idea is that by executing him, his latent threat is removed (because the Keeper lives in a reincarnation cycle or something like that). The logic is a little weird given the consequences of killing the Twilight God.

I also believe it was because how Selh'ethus or w/e that kid's name planned to deal w/ Promathia. In order to stop the 5th mothercrystal from tapping into the crystal line he needed the light from Mea, Dem, Holla, and Vahlz, however due to him absorbing all that emptiness he couldn't touch them. So he uses your character as a vessel of sorts. And plans to kill you, release the light, then stop the 5th mothercrystal. However Prishe felt different about it and wanted to stop Promathia once and for all.

[Varizen]

Close Corr. Selh'teus didn't plan to actually kill you, just let you gather them and follow you and then steal them. Unfortunately there was so much distrust surrounding him, Tenzen, also driven further into frustration by the loss of Phoenix, decides the best course of action is to kill you and take them from you. It's been a while since I've done it as well.

Ono got about everything right. To add on to what he said, Promathia was the vessel that absorbed the emptiness when Altana chose to break the One Crystal into 5 when the threat of emptiness first manifested. But of course... he was only a seal of sorts, and like all seals, they weaken over time. As his rebirth came closer, some Zilart lost their telepathy and became Kuluu. Selh'teus was one of them and Phoenix approached him with a plan that might stop things to which he agreed to. He absorbed all the emptiness they had been researching and holding back from encroaching, which killed him, and then Phoenix revived him.

Fearing the revival of Promathia though, Nag'Maloda made a pact with Bahamut that should the Keeper of the Apocalypse appear, Bahamut would save humanity, to which Bahamut decided he'd save them from a fate worse than death by killing them. Meanwhile, the Brothers were enacting a plan to open the gate of the gods, to which many Kuluu didn't agree with and they sabotaged the plan by destroying Fei'yin. ALSO at the same time, Some Kuluu feared a rebirth of Promathia and requested Diabolos break the chains what bound them to him, to which he complied, and they were changed into tonberries. Realizing that doing that wouldn't work, Diabolos's opinion was the only way to save people was to draw them into the dream realm and let them sleep for eternity. And then Carbuncle's plan was to start a war by waking the celestials, but his plan got side tracked and he decided 1st to use them to revive Fenrir.

My understanding of it was the Louverance that traveled with us was in fact the fake and the real one was the incompetent fool. My understanding was the fake one faked his own death and was the monk that spoke to you before leaving in Sandy.

[Symbios]

Promathia was the vessel that absorbed the emptiness when Altana chose to break the One Crystal into 5 when the threat of emptiness first manifested.

From how I heard it, they said that the emptiness is what's used to REVIVE Promathia, because it had been drained to create the five races (Thus we are all children of the Emptiness, aka Promathia). How is he a seal for the Emptiness if it had been split amongst the races already? If Selh'teus was the one who drained the emptiness, why did it need to be used to create the five races (The exact point in time the five races were born is kinda vague too, am I to understand that the five races are basically the new Kuluu?)

Fearing the revival of Promathia though, Nag'Maloda made a pact with Bahamut that should the Keeper of the Apocalypse appear, Bahamut would save humanity, to which Bahamut decided he'd save them from a fate worse than death by killing them.

Promathia needs to drain all of the emptiness from us to be reborn and thus recreate paradise, I'm assuming that Bahamut only wants to kill us for more selfish reasons- he wants to stay a terrestrial avatar.

And then Carbuncle's plan was to start a war by waking the celestials, but his plan got side tracked and he decided 1st to use them to revive Fenrir.

....Huh? How is killing the celestial avatars going to help with stopping Promathia's rebirth? I'm sure paradise can exist just fine even without the celestial avatars. =P

My understanding of it was the Louverance that traveled with us was in fact the fake and the real one was the incompetent fool. My understanding was the fake one faked his own death and was the monk that spoke to you before leaving in Sandy.

That much I understand, just was wondering who Louverance is, and from what I have observed (I'm THF 75, the AF quests don't tell you jack shit, heh), there's nearly 0 information on who he is.

EDIT: Mmph, here's one of the important things from the end of the expansion.

In ages past, a sentient jewel, enormous and beautiful, banished the
darkness. Its many-colored light filled the world with life and brought
forth mighty gods.
However, the arrival of death implacable brought an end to the God of
Twilight.
Aglow with the essence of love eternal, the dawn goddess sought to
restore the lost divinity.
Upon the fallen deity, Altana bestowed the light of the true crystal.
In the bodies of mortal uncounted was the Twilight God reborn.
The true crystal shattered into 5 parts, its holy light extinguished.
Paradise was no longer.
Thus was born the world of Vana’diel.

Mmmph...how can Vana'Diel have only been born by the emptiness creating many lives if the emptiness is what removes the voice of the soul from the Zilart? This would only make sense if paradise was re-created after the Zilart disappeared, which we know didn't happen.

[[Saitou]]

From my understanding(feel free to criticize), the reason they went to Al'Taieu was to destroy the Keeper of the Apocalypse. Their original plan to break the pact was to destroy the Keeper. However, they were wrong about Prishe's true identity. Bahamut reveals(during their meeting at the end of PM 6-4) that Prishe is not the Keeper of the Apocalypse and that the true Keeper has been asleep in Al'Taieu for ten thousand years. The previous information given to you by the elvaan priests lead you to believe that she is the Keeper of the Apocalypse, but they're actually wrong(what a surprise.. just as they were wrong about Lightbringer opening the gates to paradise).

With Bahamut's revelation, they set out to Al'Taieu hoping to defeat the Keeper and break the pact, thus saving the races of Vana'diel from annihilation. Although the the name of the mob in 8-4 is Promathia, they say that it is not him(during one of the cutscenes before Nag'Molada is absorbed by the Keeper)-but rather that the Keeper's resemblance is that of Promathia. The reason for the Lay of the Immortals, also known as the Memoria De La S^tona, is that when sung before the Keeper, it will allow the Gods to materialize in their world. However, they never sing the Lay of the Immortals before the Keeper and thus Promathia himself does not descend upon them.

Carbuncle never wanted a war between the races and terrestial avatars. The reason for "Tenzen's Path" is to persuade Carbuncle to do something and pick a side because Carbuncle was unable to decide between saving the races or saving the land of Vana'diel. At the end of Tenzen's talk with Carbuncle he joins your side, shows you were you can find power, and asks you to speak with Fenrir for more information.

Perhaps some Pre-History can clear up the rest:

The Gods of Vana'diel have existed since the beginning of time. It is when the crystal split into five pieces that the Zilart were born on Vana'diel. They were a race of great blessing, knowledge, and power. However, not all were born of pure light. The ancients that were born without the "whisper of souls" were known as the Kuluu, as well as the Zilart that lost the ability of the "whisper of souls". You must remember that balance must exist in any world. Where there is light, there must also be darkness. Thus, the emptyness has always existed to balance out the world. If you think of the two Gods as symbols, Atlanta represents light and Promathia represents darkness.

Before the five races were born, the only ones that existed on Vana'diel were the Zilarts, the Kuluu, and the Dawnmaidens(the maidens that served Atlanta herself). The Zilarts believed that when rejoining the power of the five crystals, the gates of paradise would open and they would live in that perfect world. However, the Kuluu and the Dawnmaidens did not agree with the Zilart and they sabotaged their plans by attacking the fifth ark as the Zilart were opening the gates. The fifth crystal went out of control as a result and caused the city of Al'Taieu(which lies above the crystal) to sink into the sea and even into another dimension(which is why you enter Al'Taieu through a Dimensional Portal and why you see Vana'diel below you during the PM 8-4 fight).

It was believed that in the bright light both the Zilarts and Kuluu- the ancients- were destroyed. Though most of them were, indeed, wiped from Vana'diel, a few still survived(the Society and Kam/Eald)(Some Kuluu became tonberries as a result of their help from the terrestial avatars-as mentioned by ZM4 and Diabolos-during their attack to thwart the Zilarts plans to open the Gate of the Gods) but Atlanta wept five tears for her fallen children. Those five tears are said to be the five races of Vana'diel. However, we were born imperfect because of the power lost by the crystals during the Zilart's attempt to open paradise and because Promathia cursed us with 5 imperfections(One per race: Arrogance, Apathy, Envy, Cowardice, and Rage). This curse is also known as the Chains of Promathia.

There is more information to be said and I know I haven't spoken about Nag'molada and the reason for his actions, but I'll stop here. If you still don't understand and have some questions or if you want to discuss what I've said, send me a PM. I hope this has helped you to better understand some of the steps taken in the CoP storyline.

[pathwriter]

Just because I happened to have completed the storyline recently, I do feel like pointing out that the reason the Papsque was wrong about Lightbringer was because Kam'lanaut (or maybe it was Eald'narche) told him that.