FFXIV Shadowbringers Story Summary
Chapter 2: Realpolitik
After defeating the first Warden of Light, the team comprised of the twins, the Crystal Exarch, and the hero decides the course of action is to rescue a young woman under the care of Thancred known as… Minfilia! No, it’s not the Minfilia of old… at least not exactly.
The Minfilias
When Minfilia, known to the people of The First as the Oracle of Light, stopped the flood light, she gave up a part of herself that could be reborn over and over again to serve as an inspiration to the people of The First to continue fighting. Each reincarnated Minfilia looks like the original but does not share her personality or powers.
Some Minfilias over the years have been heroic and aided in fighting the Sin Eaters until their last breath, and some have rejected the call. Either way, considering Minfilia does have a connection to the Oracle of Light, it’s important that she is in the right hands.
Unfortunately, this current iteration has been captured by Eulmore, and The Crystal Exarch has a mind to rescue her. Also, considering in the time since he arrived at The First Thancred has been Minfilia’s caretaker, it stands to reason that it’s a good opportunity to link back up with him as well.
The good guys stage an elaborate plan to rescue Minfilia from her Eulmore captors that wish to just hide her away and are able to rescue her. However, they have a run in with the extremely powerful Eulmore general known as Ran’jit.
He is a loyal underling of Lord Vaughtry and aggressively supports his leader’s agenda of not messing with the Sin Eaters. An attack on the Sin Eaters is considered an act of defiance against Lord Vaughtry, and Ran’jit will use the powerful Eulmore army to persecute anyone that does not fall in line.
Il Mheg
Thancred comes to the rescue and helps the group escape to Il Mheg, home of the fae folk including the Pixies. While the fae folk aren’t necessarily aggressive, they are extremely mischievous and their pranks can lead to dangerous situations.
It’s not an entirely bad development, though, as this is where Urianger calls home, and the group wanted to get here eventually anyway. Now is as good a time as any to get him on board.
The pixies that call this area home cause the group some trouble, but a pact that the hero of The Source made earlier with a prominent pixie named Feo Ul proves to be extremely helpful because she is able to convince the other pixies to stop pranking the group and help them find Urianger.
A Vision of the End
After finding Urianger, he tells the group of a vision that he had while crossing the space between worlds. A vision of an Eighth Umbral Calamity that will not only mean the end of The First but The Source as well.
The group deduces that there are thirteen shards, or worlds, split from the original source world. Whenever a shard experiences a world-ending calamity such as the flood here on The First, it is absorbed by The Source which can lead to serious problems. This has happened before with disastrous consequences.
In the case of The First and The Source, heavy amounts of Light aspected energy is being absorbed by The Source due to The First’s impending doom. This is affecting the Aether of the people of The Source to the point where it is making the people more susceptible to the Garlean’s Black Rose poison, which is on the verge of being produced in mass quantities on The Source to be used in an impending war with the City-States of Eorzea and their allies.
While Estinien and Gaius are working together to slow down the Garleans by disrupting their Black Rose production facilities, they can’t hold them off forever.
Should the rejoining of The First and The Source be completed, Black Rose will ravage The Source and ultimately lead to the end of that shard as we know it as well.
So in essence, the fate of The First and The Source are intertwined. In order to save The Source, the group must first save The First from the Flood of Light. This means killing all of the Wardens of Light and restoring the Darkness on this world. Their purpose is now clear.
Since they are already inIl Mheg, they might as well start by vanquishing the Warden of Light in this area, which happens to be the corrupted pixie king, Titania, who is sealed away in a massive castle.
Gathering the Relics of the Fae
In order to break the seal, they must gather an artifact that is kept by each of the four major groups of fae folk that callIl Mheg home: Pixies, Nu Mou, Amaro, and Fauth.
The pixies are motivated by Feo Ul to cooperate and they give up their artifact without problem because they believe it will be entertaining to watch regardless of the outcome –whether the group is killed by their insane king or emerge victoriously. Either way, it’s a win-win, they believe.
The Nu Mou are a friendly fae folk that love humans. So too do the bird-like Amaro, who have a deep relationship with humans given that they replace Chocobos as the primary mount in this world. After helping them with a few tasks they both give up their relics.
The Fauth are the trickier ones as they are also mischievous like the pixies. These frog-like creatures are the souls of drowned children come back to life. They agree to give up the relic but first put the group through the wringer by inviting them to their lair and nearly getting them all drowned. Ultimately though, they get that relic as well.
With all four relics in hand, the group challenges Titania and after a hard-fought battle, they triumph and return the night sky toIl Mheg.
When a pixie king is defeated, the one who defeated them may take over as new king. The player character has no interest in this so Feo Ul takes over instead, giving the group a powerful new fae ally.
This is good timing because the Eulmore army has caught up. However, this also angers the fae folk as they don’t take kindly to this kind of negative & aggressive energy in their homeland. They torment the Eulmore soldiers until they are forced to retreat.
The group returns home to the Crystarium safely. But on their return, they are greeted with an unexpected face: the powerful Ascian Emet-Selch, the one who founded the Garlean Empire on The Source.
Emet-Selch
Emet-Selch, at least on the surface, isn’t interested in being an enemy of the group. While he admits the plan to flood The First with light was his idea and by killing the Wardens of Light they are messing with that, he is genuinely intrigued with the group’s tenacity and potential and simply wishes to peacefully observe them. He hopes that he can learn about the group’s motivations and that they too can learn about why the Ascians do what they do.
Considering Ascians can easily slip in and out of view, the group doesn’t really have much of a choice whether they like it or not. Emet-Selch often appears from this point on mostly to lecture them about the good ol’ days which we learn more and more about as the story goes on.
The group decides their next step should be to find Y’shtola in the Rak’tika Greatwood and defeat the Warden of Light there.
The hero goes to sleep. Or at least tries to. He is once again visited by Ardbert and the two continue to have a heart to heart about their personal struggles.
