It’s been more than a year since Final Fantasy XIV’s latest expansion dropped, and I can’t stop thinking about it. So far the only writing I’ve done on Shadowbringers is in a 2019 GOTY list, but it’s only gotten better since then. If I can take the time to write about Ratatouille on the PS2, it seems only right I take some time to discuss something good as well.

For those who are curious what all the fuss is about but don’t want to play 500 hours of an MMO to find out, this article is for you.

"Yeah, why won’t FFXIV players shut up about Shadowbringers?"

In order to appreciate the revelations laid bare in Shadowbringers, we have to go back to the start. We call the first batch of content in Final Fantasy XIV "A Realm Reborn", or ARR for short.

"What’s up with the whole Realm Reborn thing, anyway?"

The original launch of Final Fantasy XIV was an unmitigated disaster. Square Enix shut the whole thing down for a year and redesigned it, hence the “Realm Reborn” subtitle. In fact, the destruction and subsequent rebuilding of the world factors into the plot. More on that later.

Here’s the broad strokes -- there are a number of beast tribes in Eorzea that aren’t taking kindly to nearby City-States expanding into their regions. The most cataclysmic action these tribes sometimes take is to summon a Primal, a God of sorts to fight on their behalf.

(All the primals will be very recognizable to Final Fantasy fans).

The player character, known as The Warrior of Light, joins the Scions of the Seventh Dawn to prevent these godlike beings from ravaging the world.

Behind the scenes, however, are the Ascians.

"Uh, is this Kingdom Hearts? This is Kingdom Hearts, right? You slipped a picture of the Organization in here and thought I wouldn't notice."

No. God, no. But I see where you’re getting that.

These robed figures are stoking chaos everywhere, but in a more subtle fashion. Their ultimate goal is to trigger what they call “the Eighth Umbral Calamity” and destroy the world. However, despite numerous cutscenes where the Ascians chat with one another, their overall reasons for wanting to scourge the planet remains unknown. For now, they simply provide the means and opportunity to any agents of chaos who crop up in Eorzea, and assist the tribes in summoning these beasts.

"Wait, eighth Umbral Calamity? What the hell happened to the last seven?"

Listen -- we’re not going to go into all of these in detail. FFXIV lore hounds will be able to tell you about each and every one, but for now just know Seven Calamites have already occurred. The Seventh one, in fact, is what marked the end of FFXIV 1.0 and has become the in-game explanation for the great relaunch. Bahamut was summoned, everyone had a very bad time, but thanks to the sacrifice of the Scions former leader Louisioux, the world managed to carry on.

(That’s this guy, being incinerated. Or checking his phone in the middle of the night with the brightness at full.)

Shadowbringers revealed there are many universes running concurrent, each one called a shard. Each Calamity has erased one of these shards from existence, effectively wiping out an entire world-full of people. When this happens, the effects are felt back in “The Source” -- that’s where we’re from -- in the form of a cataclysmic event.

The Ascians have had a hand in every single Umbral Calamity thus far.

Remember this little detail for later.

"What about the two other expansions no one seems to talk about?"

There are indeed two other expansions. Heavensward and Stormblood. They were... good. Well, I think one of them was good. Regardless, neither changed something fundmental about our understanding of Eorzea so far. We will have to get into them, though, to get you up to speed.

Little bit of a lightning round here. The truth is there’s an extensive amount of non-Ascian content in these expansions that’s irrelevant for our purposes. We’re only concerned with Ascians here.

Good content I’m glossing over, but this isn't supposed to be a primer on all of Final Fantasy XIV. we’re here for broad strokes.

Post-Realm Reborn

The Scions -- a.k.a your fam -- observe defeated Ascians don’t die. Instead they return to a space between worlds and regenerate. After some R&D, the scions perfect the use of White Auracite to capture an Ascian’s soul as it tries to escape into the nether, sort of like a pokeball or Ghostbuster trap.

An Ascian named Nabriales attacks the Scion’s headquarters and becomes the first test subject -- and the first dead Ascian. White Auracite confirmed Ascian exterminator. Got ‘em.

Heavensward

Many bad non-Ascian things happen, and the Warrior of Light is forced to seek refuge in the city of Ishgard. Here the Holy See rules over all, and wouldn’t you know it, King Thordan the Seventh has Ascians whispering in his ear.

The Warrior of Light ultimately confronts two Ascians at once in this expansion. They do a little fusion dance number and become... ASCIAN PRIME.

Then Ascian Prime gets their ass kicked. The two Ascians separate. The Warrior of Light and his crew successfully encase Igeyorhm in White Auracite and kill her, while Lahabrea gets absorbed by King Thordan VII.

It’s a whole thing we’re not going to get into.

If it’s not clear, The Ascian’s plans are going quite poorly at this point. The remaining Ascians retreat into the shadows to devise a new strategy, which explains their notable absence in...

Stormblood

Not much Ascian activity happens here. This expansion focuses on rebellion efforts in Doma and Ala Mhigo, two places you will have heard much about by this point as an FFXIV player.

But you aren’t, hypothetical reader, so we can just move right on.

Near the end of Stormblood, your allies begin falling into a comatose state. One by one they collapse, their bodies lying dormant until...

SHADOWBRINGERS

It ends up your allie’s spirits were summoned to another world. Specifically, The First. Shard number one in this multiverse, and a shard the Ascians have come dangerously close to extinguishing. A flood of light threatens to engulf The First, and your efforts are needed to stop it. The Crystal Exarch has summoned heroes from another world to help win the day.

Enter...

Hello. Who is this tall, dark, salt-and-pepper brooding glass of water?”

Emet-Selch.

Emet-Selch is an Ascian known as an “Unsundered,” the most powerful form of Ascian. He adopts a different approach from his predecessors. He seeks to understand, to communicate. He travels with your company for most of Shadowbringers, serving as a guide and educator, and even helps out occasionally. When he feels like it, at least.

It’s through Emet-Selch you finally learn the Ascians motives.

THE GREAT SUNDERING

Long, long Ago, the Progenitor race known as The Ancients faced a dire calamity. An apocalyptic event loomed over the entire world. In order to save life itself, The Ancients sacrificed themselves in great numbers to create two primals -- Hydaelyn and Zodiark. Zodiark’s goal was to destroy new life and bring back those sacrificed to stop the calamity, while Hydaelyn was summoned as a countermeasure by another faction of Ancients to protect new life, and give it lease to flourish.

Hydaelyn ultimately won, but the battle culminated in a Great Sundering which split the world into thirteen shards.

The same shards The Ascians have been eliminating with each Umbral Calamities.

THE GREAT REJOINING

With each extinguished shard, the Ascians bring the world closer to what they call The Great Rejoining, a time when all the shards will be reunited in The Source (That’s where you’re from) and the worlds will be made whole again.

As Emet-Selch puts it, he considers the living beings within each shard as barely human. They are 1/13th of a proper soul, and thus do the Ascians give them no moral consideration. All this death and catastrophe, while unfortunate, is a necessary step to restore the world to its proper order, and bring back The Ancients.

(This is also the meaning of Emet-Selch and Elidibus’ titles -- they avoided the great shattering and were gifted great power to carry on The Ancient’s will.)

This is the genius of Shadowbringers -- it recontextualizes everything that has happened over the six years of story and conspiracy. The Ascians goals and ambitions become clear, what is at stake becomes known, and perhaps even more enlightening, it is revealed the Progenitor Race is the very one trying to bury you back in the metaphorical soul dirt.

Emet-Selch is your God Daddy. He has seen the way your kind has used the gift of life his family granted you, and has found you all wanting. You have been deemed undeserving of their sacrifice, and thus Emet is desperately trying to restore the world once lost.

"Wow, what a hellscape. What's this place held together by wishes and hope?"

At the end of Shadowbringers, Emet-Selch sends your party on a front-seat tour of a collapsing Amaurot -- the city of The Ancients. This culminates, as you might imagine, with a showdown with Emet-Selch himself.

(Brief aside -- Amaurot is the name of the city in Thomas More’s Utopia.)

Up until now, defeated Ascians have mostly shouted fairly stereotypical nonsense as they were encased in their white auracite graves. But now you are fighting someone you understand. And he, in turn, has learned much from you. .

Emet-Selch’s defeat feels far less triumphant. He faces his end with grace and dignity. As Emet-Selch realizes his end has come and the dream of a returned Amaurot will remain unrealized, he has one final, simple request.

"Remember Us. Remember that we once lived."

He has revealed unto you the world lost and sacrificed to preserve yours and thine. The Dream of a restored Amaurot will never be realized, but through you, the memory of the Ascians and all they sacrificed can carry on. .

Shadowbringers taps into a very human desire with this culmination, I think. We only have so long in our lives, so many days and hours to be. Since the secret to immortal life continues to elude us, the best we can hope for is simply to be remembered when we’re gone. To know our lives had meaning beyond the date on the tombstone.

And thanks to the power of Shadowbringers, Emet-Selch got his wish. He has become an iconic, beloved villain, because for once we got to know our Ascian friend and all he has endured. For 13,000 years, the hopes and wishes of his dead kin rested firmly on his shoulders.

But unfortunately, there can be no compromise. As your lives are 1/13th the souls of his kind, your life must be extinguished to bring about the change Selch desires. Your existence is diametrically opposed to his ambitions.

Hence, the tragedy.

Wow. Bummer. So that’s it, then?

Almost. There’s one more element worth discussing in Shadowbringers, one that has unraveled slowly over the course of a year.

ELIDIBUS

One of the only remaining Ascians returned to The First after Emet-Selch’s defeat to try and take up the mantle.

Elidibus has been nothing but one of the biggest problems to us ever, and in previous expansions, practically nothing but a cardboard-chewing Final Fantasy stereotype. In ARR and Heavensward, he spoke in vague generalities about lofty ambitions and a bright future in the service of Zodiark. It’s never very clear exactly what he’s fighting for.

Shadowbringers ends up using this to garner sympathy for Elidibus -- for 13,000 years, he has been struggling to bring about The Great Rejoining like Selch. Now all his friends are gone and dead, white auricited into oblivion. It has been so long, Elidibus doesn’t even really remember why he’s doing this. Like someone suffering from dementia, he repeats the actions he has done his whole life without thought. When asked to reflect on why he carries on before the final confrontation, he has no answer. Instead he gets lost in thought.

As Elidibus fades, the Warrior of Light provides him with the soul crystals of his friends. It is, I think, one of the more heartbreaking scenes in Final Fantasy XIV.

In his final moments, Elidibus wishes for his friends to be present one more time. To have achieved his goal and brought them back to the world.

But another day dawns, and they are not here to see it. Elidibus joins his kin in death, clutching their soul crystals tight as he goes.

With that, FFXIV puts to rest the entire Asican saga.

(Well... sort of. Looks like we'll have to deal with the crazy jester man here.)

CONCLUSION

Never in my wildest dreams did I think FFXIV would make me care about the Ascians. Pre-Shadowbringers, I would’ve told you all the interesting stuff happens after A Realm Reborn, and between any scene that begins with “meanwhile in Garlemald,” or opens with a bunch of robed figures prattling on about Zodiark.

But now, I feel like the content I previously thought a bore is key. Shadowbringers has managed to justify what I previously thought of as a five year snooze-fest -- it’s no easy feat.

And so I thought I would end this article by celebrating the Final Fantasy XIV team. Certainly the localization crew deserves a fair amount of credit for doing the script justice, not to mention credit owed to Rene’ Zagger for his performance as Emet. But I mainly wish to highlight the Main Scenario Writer, Natsuko Ishikawa, for achieving the impossible.

At Pax West 2019, the staff introduced themselves one at a time for a design panel. When her title appeared, she received a standing ovation that moved her to tears.

She earned it and then some.

So, if you’ve been curious about Final Fantasy XIV and the wild amount of acclaim it’s been getting recently, I hope this has helped. The game is now free to play up to level 60, so if you ever feel a desire to see it for yourself, Eorzea awaits.