u/veggievoid

To establish a baseline, Abyssea asked the question: "what if the worst-case scenario happened in CoP?" The heroes of Abyssea lost, Selh'teus was absorbed by the Keeper which allowed its transformation into the god Shinryu, and Prishe was forced to live an immortal life rather than regaining her mortality.

It's the B storyline to the A storyline we played out. But aside from just switching the best-case outcome to the worst-case, it also switched Prishe's role in the story. She went from an immortal wishing for an "end," to an immortal who now watches over Abyssea for all eternity, alone in another dimension as she's left grieving for what she's lost.

Thinking about that, her role has now become analogous for Altana, rather than Promathia's incarnate, which I thought was fascinating. I hated how Abyssea concluded Prishe's storyline for the longest time. But once I had this realization, I've come to appreciate it as a deeply tragic, thematic mirror of Altana's situation.

Anyone hear any news about if Twin Peaks is coming back? I know Mark Frost has made some comments about being open to it but thought I’d ask.

Hi, I was wondering if someone could help remove the page fold and staple holes going down the mid-left side of this double spread, please? Budget is $15:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZjMklGtwOo4sjlFQlJ6Z0c3_2AYIrjyQ/view?usp=drive_link

Uploaded to my drive as the file size/resolution are larger than what reddit allows.

Here are some additional reference images without the page fold or staple holes, to fill in some of the missing information:

Even higher resolution ref image: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mv800gwo0NVS-Rz1-Ww55LBHprR1rMkS/view?usp=drive_link

Lower resolution ref image: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ihkk3Lo67xL9yjP7keRyaxFqAQT6u6Ox/view?usp=drive_link

Thank you for any help!

Edit: Just for additional clarity, I'm only referring to the hard vertical line and the staple holes along it for what I'd like removed. Not the page fade.

Was interested in getting a high-end Xerox laser printer, but I wanted to test out printing photos on one at Office Depot first to see the quality. I liked what I saw, but the person behind the counter didn't know what model the printer was. Anyone happen to know what model the self service Xerox's are? I couldn't see a model number when I looked. Thanks.

Back when Paradise existed, Promathia absorbed the Emptiness, subsequently causing his own death. Altana, in an act of love, used the power of the true crystal on Promathia's corpse, banishing his Emptiness and creating the Ancients.

Fast forward to CoP, Selh'teus revealed that Yve'noile planned on absorbing the Emptiness from the Chamber of Eventide. Nag'molada, believing her eternal slumber was a result of this, rebuked with: "And you let her commit this act!? Lady Yve'noile is not to blame! She built the Chamber of Eventide in the name of love! She tried to rescue us from our fate!"

The operative word being love. In an act of love, Yve'noile also banished the Emptiness from within the Kuluu through the creation of the chamber. Furthermore, Mildaurion revealed in the mission Dawn that Yve'noile had even witnessed Altana's true form: "The Dawn Maiden Yve'noile has memories of witnessing the true form of the great goddess Altana."

However, Selh'teus immediately corrected Nag'molada, and mentioned how he intervened by becoming the sacrifice instead: "You speak the truth. We Kuluu are at the beginning of all of this. That is why I absorbed the Emptiness from the chamber... I sealed it within me, and departed this life."

By absorbing and sealing the chamber's Emptiness within himself, Selh'teus also subsequently caused his own death. And just like Promathia, he also sought his own resurrection. Nag'molada immediately followed up with: "You...died? But...you're still...?" Which is then answered by Prishe: "Phoenix... Phoenix was with you, right? She brought you back to life."

Taken altogether, this demonstrates some really interesting parallels. But more than that, if we infer from Selh'teus' actions that Promathia also made a necessary sacrifice to stop a greater threat when he absorbed the Emptiness, then that introduces an ironic twist.

For instance, if we assume the theory that Promathia sacrificed himself to stop the Cloud of Darkness is true, then that means Promathia became the very thing he sought to destroy by perpetuating a cycle where Selh'teus was forced to make the same choice to stop him.

And on a more thematic scale, this goes along with how the same tragedies appear to unfold time and time again: the creation of the Ancients led to the Zilart/Kuluu schism, which led to the Meltdown, which led to the creation of the five individual races, which led to a schism between those five races, which led to the Crystal War, which led to several more tragedies unfolding, and so on.

What a waste.

I'm trying to print off a replacement Xbox 360 manual, but I'm not exactly sure what type of consumer-grade paper would be best.

Based on the sheen, it appears to be double-sided semi-gloss, and based on the thickness, it appears to be somewhere around 100GSM. But nothing like that seems to be available for buying on a consumer level.

Overview: This is an attempt to translate the Ultimania into English via OCR through LaraTranslate. More detail provided at the chapter 1 link: https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxi/s/HKDspLuhCi

Chapter 2 link: https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxi/s/fAWFf4JMvP

Chapter 4 link: https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxi/s/34MsdN4Kgt

I have the scans for Life in Vana'diel, along with a few other books as well. Will try to get around to uploading these at some point.

There will be major spoilers for Final Fantasy XI below, so please read at your discretion.

Final Fantasy XI's story inadvertently tackled the idea of what would happen after Maelle's ending before Expedition 33 was conceived, which is the continuation of the cycle of grief. Let me explain.

From a high level, the overarching story of E33 is surprisingly similar to Final Fantasy XI's core story. They both tackle themes of isolation, the cycle of grief, depression, and even suicide.

The thrust of XI's story is that in the beginning, there was a place called Paradise powered by the light of a primordial crystal. It was inhabited by two gods: Altana and Promathia. Promathia committed suicide, which caused Altana to fall into a depression. In her grief, she forsook Paradise by stealing the power of the primordial crystal to revive the fragments of Promathia's corpse. As a result, Paradise was destroyed and the world of Vana'diel was created in its place, along with the first race of people from the fragments of Promathia's corpse, the Ancients. She did this so she could watch over what remained of Promathia in a new world.

In this case, Aline is represented by the character Altana, and Verso/Painted Verso are represented by the character Promathia. Both Aline and Altana forsook their original worlds for manufactured ones, where they would create and watch over the people who would inhabit the manufactured worlds, which contained the last remnants of their loved ones. Neither Altana nor Aline could let go after the loss of a loved one, which led to them imprinting their grief onto the people of another world, which then led to the cascading effect of more cycles of grief occurring.

In XI's case, Altana's creation of the Ancients led to a schism where the Ancients eventually went to war with each other and wiped each other out, which led to the creation of several new races of people, which led to a schism between those several races, which led to another war, which led to several more tragedies unfolding, and so on.

Furthermore, the origins of Vana'diel and its people were unknown until the expansion "Chains of Promathia" released, wherein the titular "chains" of Promathia were revealed to be a literal and metaphorical characteristic of the human condition. The world and its people were born out of the tragedy of Promathia's death, whom Altana grieved for, and as long as they existed, so to would the cycle. Same as Aline and the people of the canvas after Verso's death.

Which is where the moral dilemma of XI and E33 intersect. Painted Verso was an incarnation of the real Verso, and he sought to break the cycle of grief by ending the canvas and forcing Aline back to the real world. In XI, Promathia also had a mortal incarnation (known as "the keeper") that lived in Vana'diel, and sought to break the cycle by ending Vana'diel, which would return the world and Altana back to their original states in Paradise. In both cases, the continued existence of the manufactured worlds ensured the cycle of grief would continue. And how was Promathia's incarnation going to end Vana'diel? Same as how Painted Verso planned on ending the canvas, through suicide. Promathia's incarnation planned on killing itself, which would cause the world of Vana'diel to revert back into Paradise.

But as one of the main characters of XI said (Prishe): "Pain comes with the package. There's no way around it, but it makes us who we are!" And so, like the people of the canvas, the people of XI fought for their continued existence in their manufactured world. In E33, the moral dilemma of whether it's better to continue the cycle or break it at the cost of the inhabitants lives isn't answered. Instead, you're given a choice between two outcomes.

However, XI took the stance that the inhabitants and their world deserved to keep living. Promathia's incarnation, who also served the role of Painted Verso, was thwarted, and Vana'diel and its people won their right to continue existing. But if we consider the angle that Altana hasn't moved on from her grief, and that she watches over a manufactured world filled with people made from her dead love as an unhealthy coping mechanism, it's up for debate as to whether that was the morally correct outcome.

Regardless, while this does wrap up the core story of XI, there are additional stories disconnected from the core that continue afterwards. And indeed, the cycle does never end for Vana'diel. Both the world and its people continue to go through one tumultuous time after the next. But XI makes the case that this was an existence worth fighting for, because even though it invites a cycle of never ending tragedy and grief, it's also what defines people and inspires them to greatness.

Which, lastly, got me thinking about the positive effects the cycle of grief had on E33 and whether XI's summation could also be applied. And I think it does. "For those who come after," the cycle also inspired the people of Lumière to achieve many great things. Each expedition iterated on the last with a multitude of inventions and advancements in scientific research. It led to the discovery of new species and inhabitants, with the people of Lumière meeting the Gestrals and some of Verso's other creations. So then that begs the question: if the continuation of life is defined by continual pain and suffering, is that life worth living if the pain and suffering is what helps us achieve greatness?

This isn't by any means exhaustive, and hopefully more people can help add to this, but I thought it might be helpful to list some side quests that integrate with the main story missions. A lot of important information is relegated to side quests (by design) which can make some of the storylines feel kind of confusing. These are just some of the ones I could think of off the top of my head that I'd recommend doing (job listings refer to unlocks, AF questlines, and unique limit breaks, where applicable):

Base rank missions / Rise of the Zilart

• Warrior / Monk / Bastok rank missions: Provides some backstory for the Shadow Lord storyline
• Red Mage: Ties in with San d'Oria rank missions
• Dynamis-Xarcabard questline: Epilogue to the Shadow Lord storyline
• Divine Might: Slight variation/expansion of Zilart mission 14 (doing this completes the mission too)
• The Moonlit Path / Fenrir questline: Epilogue to the Windurst rank missions (ties in with the Summoner storyline too, of course)

Chains of Promathia

• Important Tavnazia lore
  • White Mage (San d'Oria ranks cover same info)
  • San d'Oria rank missions (ties in with Louverance)
• Louverance
  • Signed in Blood questline
  • Over the Hills and Far Away
  • Thief
• Shikaree sisters
  • X Marks the Spot
  • Tango with a Tracker
  • Tuning In questline (provides some pretty crucial info on other stuff too)
  • One Good Deed
• Jabbos
  • Out of the Depths questline
• Chebukki siblings
  • Chasing Dreams questline (ties in with Louverance and the Thief storyline)
• Apocalypse Nigh questline (epilogue to CoP/RotZ)

Treasures of Aht Urhgan

• Corsair / Blue Mage / Puppetmaster: Provides a lot of supplemental lore and background information to the main story
• Saga of the Skyserpent questline: Huge lore dump, somewhat of a pre-sequel to the main story.
• >!Alexander (Waking the Colossus) / Odin (The Rider Cometh) summon quests serve as an epilogue to the main story. This includes the Unwavering Resolve questline as well.!<

Wings of the Goddess

• Ranger: Ties in with the Windurst [S] missions
• Dragoon: Ties in with the San d'Oria [S] missions
• Windurst rank missions: Ties in with Windurst [S] missions (recommend doing in tandem with Ranger)
• Champion of the Dawn questline: Epilogue to WotG
• Scholar: Ties in slightly with Bastok [S], also provides some general lore and explains why Scholars don't really exist in present-day Vana'diel.

The Voracious Resurgence

• Summoner: Basically a prequel

Really interested in hearing first time players' thoughts on the game.

What holds up for you? What doesn't?

What changes would you like to see? What should stay the same?

How are you liking the game?

And by that I mean, Chains of Promathia inadvertently tackled the idea of what would happen after Maelle's ending before Expedition 33 was even conceived, which is the continuation of the cycle of grief. Let me explain.

From a high level, the overarching story of E33 is surprisingly similar to CoP. In this case, Altana represents Aline, and Promathia represents Verso, Painted Verso, and Renoir. Both stories tackle the themes of isolation, the cycle of grief, depression, and even suicide.

The thrust of CoP's story is that Altana fell into a depression after Promathia's death. In her grief, she forsook Paradise for Vana'diel and created the Ancients from his remnants, so she could be close to and watch over what remained of him.

Similar to Expedition 33, no? Aline forsook the real world for the painted one, where she would create and watch over the people who would inhabit the canvas, which contained the last remnants of Verso.

Neither Altana nor Aline could let go after the loss of a loved one, which led to them imprinting their grief onto the people of another world, which then led to the cascading effect of more cycles of grief occurring. In FFXI's case, Altana's creation of the Ancients led to the Zilart/Kuluu schism, which led to the creation of the five individual races, which led to a schism between those five races, which led to the tragedy of Raogrimm/Cornelia/Ulrich, which led to the Crystal War, which led to several more tragedies unfolding, such as the events with the Mithran Firetribe, Karaha-Baruha and the Star Sybil, and so on.

Which is where the moral dilemma of CoP and E33 intersect. Renoir and Painted Verso sought to break the cycle of grief by ending the canvas and bringing Aline back to the real world. Promathia sought to break the cycle by ending Vana'diel and bringing Altana back to Paradise. In both cases, the continued existence of the canvas and Vana'diel ensured the cycle of grief would continue. And how was Promathia going to end Vana'diel? Same as how Painted Verso planned on ending the canvas, through his suicide.

Diabolos revealed that the "chains" or "curse" of Promathia was a defining characeristic of the human condition. People were born out of the tragedy of Promathia's death, whom Altana grieved for. Same as Aline and the people of the canvas after Verso's death.

But as Prishe told Diabolos, pain is a part of the package and makes people who they are. And so, like the canvas people, they fought for their existence. In E33, the moral dilemma of whether it's better to continue the cycle or break it at the cost of the inhabitants lives isn't answered. Instead, you're given a choice between the two outcomes.

However, FFXI took the stance with CoP's ending that the inhabitants deserved to keep living. Promathia, who also served the role of Renoir and Painted Verso, is thwarted, and Vana'diel and its people won their right to continue existing. But if we consider the angle that Altana hasn't moved on from her grief as a result, it's up for debate as to whether that was the morally correct outcome.

Regardless, we know that after the events of CoP, the cycle does indeed never end. Vana'diel and its people continue to go through one tumultuous time after the next. But FFXI makes the case that this was an existence worth fighting for, because even though it invites never ending tragedy and grief, it's also what defines people and inspires them to greatness.

Overview: This is an attempt to translate the Ultimania into English via OCR through LaraTranslate. More detail provided at the chapter 1 link: https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxi/comments/1t35wxx/project_english_ultimania/

Since it's an AI-based translation, it's prone to errors. If you notice anything egregious, let me know and I can perform a manual correction.