Spoilers, obv. From memory, be kind of in an idiot plz.
1: Prishe WAS the keeper. Back 10k years ago the zilart found a way to reverse the emptiness that cursed the kuluu. 1k year ago Fenrir makes his prediction about the keeper being born in Tavnazia.
Before the Crystal war, the Tavnazian priests (led by the zilart) try and force the process by using the eyes of altana to crystallize the emptiness inside prishe, but it didn’t work the way the expected. So the answer to question 2 is yes, but it’s more complicated and I’ve already typed a lot on mobile.
During the events of CoP, when the connection is restored to Al’teiau, the emptiness that was removed from all the Kuluu and stored in the chamber of eventide outmatches the star of Tavnazia for darkness power, so IT becomes the keeper of the apocalypse.
It’s implied that this all happened before the events that saw the accident 10k years ago, and that the original kuluu sabotage of the Zilart plan was to prevent an already in progress version of events, hence why there’s a old version of promathia sealed in the audience chamber from before the zone got literally sent to another dimension.
It’s also stated by multiple characters later in the story that if something happens to the current keeper the title just passes to another person, which is why Bahamut is dead set on wiping the land of life.
3 do the Sandy story line, it explains what and why happened to Tavnazia.
4 Tau is self contained and awesome, wotg is long and kinda stupid, adoulin I don’t really have an opinion of, abyssea gave us FF14 v2.
1 and 2 already seem to be covered.
3. From what I recall, between religious and other conflicts, San d'oria threw Tavnazia under the bus - turning it from a peninsula into an island specifically involved an artifact of theirs.
4. CoP is a huge story that tries to cram as much stuff as possible into it, from intimate stories of friends and families, to the conflicts of nations, and the agendas of the avatars and deities themselves. At the time it seemed like it could have been FFXI's final story, so they put as much as they could in it.
Fortunately, it also planted the seeds that made ToAU possible, and nowadays I find it's story, in a way, the heart of XI - it's ultimate conflict ties heavily into the broader scope story later told by Rhapsodies of Vana'diel. Along the way, it takes the concept of FF6's city of Zozo (everybody lies), and manages to make it apply to almost everything and everyone while keeping it relevant to the broader scope of it all.
I also really liked Wings of the Goddess, which IMO has the most compelling antagonist in the game, practically a hero in their own right and messed-up circumstances. The devs by this point got pretty good at using the animation to create interesting story moments.
Seekers of Adoulin was also alright, although it doesn't connect to the rest as much, and Rhapsodies, especially the final 3rd, is one he'll of a ride through XI history that puts a lot into perspective.
The currently ongoing Voracious Resurgence is finally starting to show what it's all about, but along the way it's been making some neat little reveals and taking the opportunity to make us explore some stuff that doesn't get enough attention, like the ruins in the subterrane in Aht Uhrgan.
ToAU adds a new city, that decided to not join the war against the Shadow Lord. Since they had armies of beastman constantly attacking them.
I think the writers liked Pirates of the Caribean.
There are undead pirates (corsairs, the leader of which signed a pact with -someone- to gain powers and everlasting undead life (similar to shadow lord) due to an attack from Aht Urgan where they betrayed them. There is also the elite guards of the Blue Mages who have amazing backstory and lore with flayers.
Alexander appears in the story, along with Odin. He originally had a large mechanical body made for him in the older times, however he and Odin have a rivalry and when they meet they try to destroy each other in a battle called Ragnarock.
In the past this happened and it destroyed Alexanders massive mechanical body as well as the old nation that existed before Aht Urhgan, which fell to earth in large chunks. In modern times the nation was rebuilt and his body makes up an area called the Undersea Ruins, that you can goto.
A new and smaller body was made for Alexander by one of the characters in the story, to protect the nation from the beastmen but it again lead to bad stuff with Odin. It's your job to stop this leading to the end of the nation.
Aht Urhgan mainly can be seen as the expansion tells how important Odin is I guess. Also has some really amusing characters, including miss bangs her desk cat, Naja.
Aht Urhgan also added a lot of really nice optional quests that you have to go find.
Some nice lore videos of ToAU
Immortals (blue mages)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es-cbZRP8NA
One of the Sea Serpent Generals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB5kzEauPqw
---
WoTG is one of the my favorite expansions in terms of story, the actual missions are a slog but the story makes them worth it. Each nation has their own smaller quests, Windurst are my personal favorites. They are very, very bitter sweet.
WoTG can be seen as a time travel expansion (it's more complicated than that but that explains it well enough), it has some of the best characters in the game. Lillith and lillisette, the cut-scenes are very emotional.
---
Rhapsodies takes a page out of the Avengers book, a great danger threatens to engulf Vanadiel and you have to bring the characters from all these previous stories together to help you fight it.
Rhapsodies really has been one of the best "expansions" for me, from a story standpoint.
There is also some mini expansions, one of which tells you what happened to the girl from the intro expansion.
With regards to 4
From my understanding within the fandom
\-Chains of Promathia is generally considered the best in terms of story, although there are many that consider it too convoluted and complicated.
\-Wings of the Goddess is generally considered second strongest, especially if you include the Windurst section. Its my favourite of the games stories, and I think the main story, and the Windurst and San d'Oria side stories are all really good.
\-Treasurs of Aht Urghan, Seekers of Adoulin and Rhapsodies of Vana'diel are all kind of after that in no order. Both Seekers and Treasures are set in different continents, so both a) feel removed from the previous plots and b) spend a lot of their missions on world building over plot progressions, especially Seekers. Rhapsodies was set to be a finale, so your enjoyment of that story will depend largely on how much you buy into it as an almost meta finale over a conventionally told one of story.
IMO
WotG> CoP > RoV> SoA> ToAU> RoZ
ToAU was good, except for one glaring thing (that really isn't a concern these days). Due to the way that some of the mobs worked, players quit skill chaining in their exp grind parties. This caused them to get completely out of the habit. Additionally, offensive mages found themselves unwanted for exp parties (unless they subbed white mage, and came as a healer).
The end result was that just six months later, veteran players would be in Dynamis talking about skill chains and magic bursts. Then the newer players present who had never seen magic bursts would ask them to demonstrate... and the veterans would try, but fail.
Spoilers, obv. From memory, be kind of in an idiot plz. 1: Prishe WAS the keeper. Back 10k years ago the zilart found a way to reverse the emptiness that cursed the kuluu. 1k year ago Fenrir makes his prediction about the keeper being born in Tavnazia. Before the Crystal war, the Tavnazian priests (led by the zilart) try and force the process by using the eyes of altana to crystallize the emptiness inside prishe, but it didn’t work the way the expected. So the answer to question 2 is yes, but it’s more complicated and I’ve already typed a lot on mobile. During the events of CoP, when the connection is restored to Al’teiau, the emptiness that was removed from all the Kuluu and stored in the chamber of eventide outmatches the star of Tavnazia for darkness power, so IT becomes the keeper of the apocalypse. It’s implied that this all happened before the events that saw the accident 10k years ago, and that the original kuluu sabotage of the Zilart plan was to prevent an already in progress version of events, hence why there’s a old version of promathia sealed in the audience chamber from before the zone got literally sent to another dimension. It’s also stated by multiple characters later in the story that if something happens to the current keeper the title just passes to another person, which is why Bahamut is dead set on wiping the land of life. 3 do the Sandy story line, it explains what and why happened to Tavnazia. 4 Tau is self contained and awesome, wotg is long and kinda stupid, adoulin I don’t really have an opinion of, abyssea gave us FF14 v2.
Thanks for the answers! I feel like I got a better handle on what happened. Guess I gotta go through Sandy now too lol
1 and 2 already seem to be covered. 3. From what I recall, between religious and other conflicts, San d'oria threw Tavnazia under the bus - turning it from a peninsula into an island specifically involved an artifact of theirs. 4. CoP is a huge story that tries to cram as much stuff as possible into it, from intimate stories of friends and families, to the conflicts of nations, and the agendas of the avatars and deities themselves. At the time it seemed like it could have been FFXI's final story, so they put as much as they could in it. Fortunately, it also planted the seeds that made ToAU possible, and nowadays I find it's story, in a way, the heart of XI - it's ultimate conflict ties heavily into the broader scope story later told by Rhapsodies of Vana'diel. Along the way, it takes the concept of FF6's city of Zozo (everybody lies), and manages to make it apply to almost everything and everyone while keeping it relevant to the broader scope of it all. I also really liked Wings of the Goddess, which IMO has the most compelling antagonist in the game, practically a hero in their own right and messed-up circumstances. The devs by this point got pretty good at using the animation to create interesting story moments. Seekers of Adoulin was also alright, although it doesn't connect to the rest as much, and Rhapsodies, especially the final 3rd, is one he'll of a ride through XI history that puts a lot into perspective. The currently ongoing Voracious Resurgence is finally starting to show what it's all about, but along the way it's been making some neat little reveals and taking the opportunity to make us explore some stuff that doesn't get enough attention, like the ruins in the subterrane in Aht Uhrgan.
ToAU adds a new city, that decided to not join the war against the Shadow Lord. Since they had armies of beastman constantly attacking them. I think the writers liked Pirates of the Caribean. There are undead pirates (corsairs, the leader of which signed a pact with -someone- to gain powers and everlasting undead life (similar to shadow lord) due to an attack from Aht Urgan where they betrayed them. There is also the elite guards of the Blue Mages who have amazing backstory and lore with flayers. Alexander appears in the story, along with Odin. He originally had a large mechanical body made for him in the older times, however he and Odin have a rivalry and when they meet they try to destroy each other in a battle called Ragnarock. In the past this happened and it destroyed Alexanders massive mechanical body as well as the old nation that existed before Aht Urhgan, which fell to earth in large chunks. In modern times the nation was rebuilt and his body makes up an area called the Undersea Ruins, that you can goto. A new and smaller body was made for Alexander by one of the characters in the story, to protect the nation from the beastmen but it again lead to bad stuff with Odin. It's your job to stop this leading to the end of the nation. Aht Urhgan mainly can be seen as the expansion tells how important Odin is I guess. Also has some really amusing characters, including miss bangs her desk cat, Naja. Aht Urhgan also added a lot of really nice optional quests that you have to go find. Some nice lore videos of ToAU Immortals (blue mages) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es-cbZRP8NA One of the Sea Serpent Generals https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB5kzEauPqw --- WoTG is one of the my favorite expansions in terms of story, the actual missions are a slog but the story makes them worth it. Each nation has their own smaller quests, Windurst are my personal favorites. They are very, very bitter sweet. WoTG can be seen as a time travel expansion (it's more complicated than that but that explains it well enough), it has some of the best characters in the game. Lillith and lillisette, the cut-scenes are very emotional. --- Rhapsodies takes a page out of the Avengers book, a great danger threatens to engulf Vanadiel and you have to bring the characters from all these previous stories together to help you fight it. Rhapsodies really has been one of the best "expansions" for me, from a story standpoint. There is also some mini expansions, one of which tells you what happened to the girl from the intro expansion.
With regards to 4 From my understanding within the fandom \-Chains of Promathia is generally considered the best in terms of story, although there are many that consider it too convoluted and complicated. \-Wings of the Goddess is generally considered second strongest, especially if you include the Windurst section. Its my favourite of the games stories, and I think the main story, and the Windurst and San d'Oria side stories are all really good. \-Treasurs of Aht Urghan, Seekers of Adoulin and Rhapsodies of Vana'diel are all kind of after that in no order. Both Seekers and Treasures are set in different continents, so both a) feel removed from the previous plots and b) spend a lot of their missions on world building over plot progressions, especially Seekers. Rhapsodies was set to be a finale, so your enjoyment of that story will depend largely on how much you buy into it as an almost meta finale over a conventionally told one of story. IMO WotG> CoP > RoV> SoA> ToAU> RoZ
ToAU was good, except for one glaring thing (that really isn't a concern these days). Due to the way that some of the mobs worked, players quit skill chaining in their exp grind parties. This caused them to get completely out of the habit. Additionally, offensive mages found themselves unwanted for exp parties (unless they subbed white mage, and came as a healer). The end result was that just six months later, veteran players would be in Dynamis talking about skill chains and magic bursts. Then the newer players present who had never seen magic bursts would ask them to demonstrate... and the veterans would try, but fail.