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Hello everyone and welcome back. Today's update will finally bring a close to the BLM story. So let's not waste any time!
Ginger. It is well you are here. My colleagues Dozol Meloc and Da Za would have words with you. Wait here while I fetch them.
To close voidgate, strong black magic you need. Ready for test, are you?
I'm always ready!
Very good. Squaaawk! You have sharp sense, like Dozol. Noticed, have you? Your aura. Strangeness, it has. Now, the voidgate. Gloom, it makes. Like black breath. Gloom drawn to black magic. Drawn to you. Like moth to flame. Black magic, it seeks, to corrupt and make own.
Losing strength, seal is. Black magic and voidgate share bond. Very deep. But must not leave be too long. Else other side maybe take you! Squaw-aw-awk. No fear yet! Still weak, Gloom is. Time, you have. Strong Ginger find next key!
Teach you, Dozol will, what must do. Many black mages, there were. Long ago. One more powerful than rest. Very powerful. Epic, even. Epic black mage. Black magic too powerful. Too dangerous. Wrong hands must not have. Know this, he did. Ciphered spells. Hid secrets. Dark way passed to few. Very few.
Teaching, writing, spread over realm. Lost to time, they were. Forgotten. One carved in stone. Stone of mossy pillar. Pillar in South Shroud. Squaaawk! Chosen Ginger is chosen! Unleash power of this black magic, you can. Key, it is! Key to end of Gloom!
Knowledge of my line, this is. Passed to Dozol from mother. From mother of mother. From mother of mother of mother. Four hatchings past. Strong mage, she was. Epic, even. Epic mage!
Dozol is very long winded.
Great love for dark art. More than anything. Joined with lizardmen to learn all. Named betrayer, she was. Chased from village. Squaaawk! Her words, Dozol keeps. Teach to strong Ginger now.
"Four magi meet, in barren land,
Old black powers have they, in hand.
Fate of all wicked, be made stark.
Path to light then lit by squaaawk!"
That her squawk. Not Dozol squawk. Should be dark, Dozol thinks. Good words. Deep words. Bring Dozol here, they did. To pass on. Not Dozol alone. Others come too. Other mages. Birdman. Lizardman. No matter. All wait for strong Ginger. Strong mind, you have, and heart. Help you, Dozol will.
Go to Gridania, you must. To Urth's Gift. Near pillar lurking beasts, there are. Slay them, you must. No need fear beast. Strong Ginger is strong! Da Za! Squaaawk!
I, too, am here to lend you my aid-help, hand, aid.
Wood danger for Dozol. For Ixal, Wailers wait. Wait with sharp spears. Go in place of Dozol, Da Za will. Decided, it is. Go now, you will! Squaaawk!
Urth's Gift is a high level area in the southeastern part of the South Shroud. It's the site of a trial that drops some neat looking gear. We'll eventually be covering that. Eventually.
A stone pillar covered in moss rises here. The Gem of Shatotto shines bright, revealing an inscription in the stone. As you approach it, you hear a voice ring out...
By the gem thou bearest shall the great and dark power of eld be bestowed upon thee. But those who seek this power must first prove their worth. Behold, the Gloom that would be thine undoing cometh! Stay the Gloom's encroach by thy hand. Only then shall the umbral wisdom of the ages be gifted unto thee.
Da Za shows up to help us out. Also behold my bad luck with dungeon drops. Ginger is level 45 here and is still wearing a level 36 chest that takes up both her hat and chest slots.
A bunch of portals open up!
That voice spoke true. Look! The Gloom gathers, Ginger. I sense there are fiends of evil about-nearby, close, about.
This fight has us nuking the different fissures.
Eventually the ones you don't destroy spawn adds that need to be nuked down. It's very exciting I assure you.
Da Za tries to help, but Ginger's spells are a lot more effective than his are.
This is Blizzard III in action by the way.
This is the third set of portals...
These void tyrants love their line AOEs. These guys mark the last enemies we need to kill. There's a bunch of them, though!
Well fought! The Gloom is scattered! Scattered is the Gloom! Let us return to Burgundy Falls. Yes, yes, Dozol Meloc awaits us-you, me, us.
While we're on the way back I want to take a moment to point out the sky here. This is what the skybox looks like around Urth's Gift, and on very rare occasions, the entire Shroud looks like this. I've only seen it happen once while I was playing and I was too slow to get the recording started.
When the sky looks all aqua and everything is all dark, that means that Odin has spawned and is patrolling around the Shroud. I'm not sure I'm going to get an opportunity to show him off as a world boss spawn because it's entirely at random and kinda hazardous for anyone under level 70.
Like I said, Urth's Gift/Fount always looks like that. It's just how it be there.
One zone to the south...
Gone from you, Gloom is. Worry for nothing, Dozol did! Squaaawk! Now go see Kazagg Chah, you must. Awaiting you, he is.
The gods are good to return you unharmed. The Gloom which threatened to taint this world does so no more. And I sense the darkness within you is reborn with a new power. Wield it well, Ginger of the black, and make of it a tool for our ends. Do that, and as the prophecy speaks, the way to light shall be lit by dark before you.
Thunder 3 is just a direct upgrade to Thunder 1. It's a powerful upgrade, but it's not exactly exciting and it doesn't really change the basic BLM rotation any. We also got a trait that automatically upgrades Thunder 1 to 3, so there's no work required on our part. We just now cast a more badass version of the spell! 
Naturally because this was the level 45 quest, we're not done with it yet. That was only part 1.
Let's get some job gear!
Ginger of the black, our brother Da Za has words for you. Pray wait a moment for him to arrive.
You have reclaimed the key from the depths of the Shroud-wood, forest, Shroud. Yes, you have done well. Very, very well. You are truly the black mage foretold by legend-oracle, prophecy, legend. It was such a legend of my people that brought me to this Thanalan. Such is what legends do.
"When four magi meet in a barren land,
Black powers of eld woven by their hand,
Shall see the fate of wickedness made stark,
And the path to light shall be lit by dark." Black, shadow, dark.
You have heard these words before. Yes, yes, here I found Kazagg Chah and Dozol Meloc. The words that brought us to Thanalan are the same-equal, identical, same.
It was one hundred years ago that a kobold first deciphered the legend-decrypted, decoded, deciphered. The great mage who did it was my own ancestor, 1st Order Patriarch Da Gu. Yes, yes, my very own.
Kobold society is very hierarchal. The 1st order is the apex of the tip top, and the 789th order is the gunk left after you lift up the bottom of the barrel. The Patriarch of the 1st order is the leader of all the kobolds on Vylbrand.
But he broke kobold law. The first patriarch must never leave O'Ghomoro. No, no, never. But leave he did. He set out from La Noscea to pursue this legend. And for that he was named traitor-betrayer, turncloak, traitor. None were drawn to the words of Da Gu. No, no, not a single kobold soul. They ignored his words. But when first I heard them, I felt strange-peculiar, odd, strange.
I felt I must do something. I could not simply be idle. I, too, left La Noscea, just as Da Gu before me. Yes, and I have come here to Thanalan. Now I see the legend is real. Yes, the words kept by Kazagg Chah, Dozol Meloc, and myself are true. You have appeared. That is no coincidence. No, no, none at all.
I am a kobold. Yes, yes, I am, and we kobolds are good at finding things-treasures, trinkets, things. I will help you where I can. Da Gu left behind many things when he left. Yes, many, many things. I was given a stone tablet. The others in my family thought it rubbish-dross, refuse, rubbish. Its surface has many scratches, you see. Yes, many, many. But I sense in it a great power.
Here, it may give some- Your gem! The light! It is illuminating the tablet. The scratches are...growing!? Mighty Titan, those are no scratches! No, no, not scratches at all. They are carvings! Words!
"Know thee, brave keeper of Shatotto's light,
As these very words wax plain to thy sight,
The seal what was cast doth shudder and sigh,
And the voidgate's dread sundering draws nigh."
"To ward against the creeping of the Gloom,
Thou needest great garb to stay any doom,
To this sacred wear thy thoughts must now tend,
Unto thy black command darkness shall bend."
This tablet was more important than I ever imagined. Yes, yes, much more. It seems to say one who would close the voidgate must first find this sacred garb-gear, armor, garb! And the names of places are written here as well. Yes, yes, these four places I know. You would do well to set out and gather the first three relics.
Legend speaks of this. It holds that an offering of blood must be given to the planar fissures-the blood of those who have lived life steeped in the black. Only then can the relics be won. Here, take with you an offering of my blood, Ginger.
Need Dozol's blood too, you do. Take. Take quick! Squaaawk! Before change mind.
And here is mine-my, me, mine. I would entrust it to no other. But be warned-one does not simply walk into these places. There are great dangers waiting. Do be careful. Yes, yes, very, very careful.
The first garb piece is in the middle of the amalj'aan stronghold.
Ginger studies the blade and so she slices the archer guarding the spot apart. Samurai is a fun job, y'all.
One down!
Way up in the North Shroud, up in the very high level northern part of the zone, Ginger can find the second piece of the garb.
Ginger knows all sorts of magic. She can cast white magic, she can cast black magic, and she quite frequently casts both at the same time. I'm bringing this up to mention that she has the Red Mage job. It's a Stormblood job, so whenever I get around to covering that expansion is when we'll talk about walking the path of the crimson duelist.
We'll be seeing Ginger a lot as a red mage across the postgame because it's probably my favorite caster of the bunch. Just a pity we can't get its trademark feathered cap until the level 70 job quest. 
I've been doing Red Mage a lot. It's already level 56 as of this recording. It didn't unlock until Ginger beat the Praetorium
Nuking a wolf with non-elemental phantasmal swords got us a pair of wizard pants.
Last up we have to visit the entrance of the kobold stronghold in Outer La Noscea.
This place is an industrialized hellhole.
For this one, Ginger decides to tackle things with fist wraps.
The last piece is some little wizard booties.
Back at Burgundy Falls...
I had no doubt you would return triumphant. Yes, yes, no doubt at all.
Braved the logging grounds, you did. Great, great strength, you have. Squaaawk!
I have awaited your return, Ginger. I have learned where it is that the fourth relic of our forebears rests-the land known as Thal's Respite. There, too, lies a planar fissure into which the blood of the fiends it births must be poured.
Thal's Respite is where Ginger taught the Cocos the meaning of courage.
Some voidtouched soldiers attack but they're no problem.
Thundercloud keeps proccing while I fight them. Each time thunder deals tick damage, it has a chance to let you cast one for free that refreshes the timer on the DOT and deals 100% of its over time damage up front.
We now have a wizard hat! But no robe.
Do you remember last update when I specifically mentioned Ginger's level 30 caster shirt and how it looks like a conjurer outfit?
Yeah that's the strongest non-robe-and-hat chest we have. It's not a huge deal but it is annoying. Thankfully there are some level 45+ options available to us. So we won't have to deal with this for long.
The dark which empowers at times obscures-such is its nature. Da Za claims his tablet names the Solace of the Gods as the location we seek, but none among us have ever heard tell of such a name.
"When a power worthy to relics claim,
Takes root in one of righteous end and name,
The Solace of the Gods will be made known,
And the last seed of the black mage be sown."
Da Za insists his reading is correct, and both Dozol Meloc and I trust in his ability. We will endeavor to decode these words, that you might see your quest to its end. The day of the void's opening shall come. Until then, Ginger, I ask only that you continue to walk the path of the black.
And now Ginger is a level 50 BLM! This glamour is one that I set up for RDM, but it's on the top end caster gear that she's wearing. This stuff is all item level 130, which is as high* as you can get for A Realm Reborn.
(There's i135 weapons you can get if you grind up a relic or kill the final raid boss of the "expansion.")
This won't take long. i115 MNK Ginger beat Widargelt so badly that the duty was over before it even began. And BLM Ginger is even stronger.
You have gathered the first four artifacts, Ginger. That is no small feat. Yet I fear little time remains. If the tablet of Da Za's great ancestor is to be believed, there is yet one more. Attempting to seal the voidgate before you have found them all would be the height of folly.
Our search for the Solace of the Gods continues. I have gone through all the records left by my great-grandfather, yet have discovered little. The only seemingly relevant passage I found was his last. He put it to paper some one hundred years ago, just before bidding farewell to his home. "The true power of destruction will be awoken in that most sacred of places."
The power of destruction is black magic, of course. But as to what is meant by this "awakening"... I fear I am at a loss.
Well...
Hm? You believe that Da Za's and Dozol Meloc's ancestors might know more? To be sure, they were witness to the same events. And it is true that they, too, left their homes one hundred years ago and were damned for traitors. It could be mere coincidence... But, no, I do not think that likely.
I fear this foreshadows our doom. Should you find aught else, I beseech you to tell me at once. I will also continue the search for answers. The tablet seems to suggest that the way to the Solace of the Gods and the final relic will be made known in time. Yet we can scarce afford to wait idly by.
Both Dozol Meloc and Da Za understand this urgency, and have already returned to their respective homelands to delve into the matter. And now, to your next task. You must return to he who first bound our four fates together-the prophet, Ququruka. Perhaps his words can guide us once more.
I didn't even realize it at the time, but there are several NPCs in Ul'dah who have things to say about this.
(Mamane) Solace of the Gods? There is no such place within the walls of Arrzaneth Ossuary. But the name... I recall having heard it before. Yes, there was a mage with Lalai who I overheard mention it. A Lalafell dressed all in black who... When he spoke there was...a darkness about his words.
Mamane is a lalafell who appraised a ring for Ginger on her first day in Ul'dah. He told her that it was worthless and offered to dispose of it "for her." Which means that he got very rich off its sale.
(Cocobygo) This place you seek... It has something to do with black mages? I know nothing of it, and the same goes for most folk around here, I'd wager. <shudder> That said, Lalai is always with that criminal who escaped the Pit. The dark arts are her trade. She might have the answers you seek.
(Yayake) Solace of the Gods? Black mage? voidgate? Gods, woman, you sound like a bloody cultist! What madness has that criminal filled your mind with? Follow him down this path and you'll wind up no better than Lalai. Ququruka's grip on that foolish lass is far too strong. For her, truth lost the battle to his lies long ago.
The quest itself points us at Lalai, so we'll go straight there.
Please, you must help me. Ququruka has disappeared! That man is no messenger of Nald'thal. He is a miscreant and a charlatan-one guilty of the most heinous of crimes. None had seen him for days. I became worried and entered his chambers to see that he was well, though he prohibited me from doing so. Within I found only evidence of his deception!
The records he had hidden were damning. I now know why he was condemned as the greatest criminal of his day. One hundred years past, he conspired with magi from the beast tribes to summon a creature known as Barbatos-a monstrosity that was meant to destroy all of Eorzea. Their plot was discovered by the Order of Nald'thal, and the voidgate was sealed before Barbatos could emerge.
I love this other lalafell looking at Lalai with polite interest.
Ququruka was cast into the Marasaja Pit for his crime, where he was to rot until his last breath. The Order was loath to let word of this spread, fearing others might someday seek to succeed where Ququruka failed. And so they left no record of the plot, save a few inscrutable documents-parchments intelligible only to those to whom the secret was known. These were the last words I found among the scribblings.
"Four is the answer. Four spells of black. Four artifacts of eld. The blood of four races. By four alone shall the true power of destruction be woken from the voidgate."
Ginger... Black magic is not the key to sealing the voidgate. It is the key to opening it! Ququruka used us to revive this dark art, and now means to finish what he began a century ago. What fools we were to believe his lies...
Please, Ginger, you must stop him before it is too late! Hurry to Nald's Reflection in southern Thanalan.
This entire cavern is sealed off for the duty.
Ququruka is busy summoning...
An ugly voidsent.
I love Ginger's hat.
Ququruka faints.
This will be a cinch.
Barbatos likes to use huge column AOEs.
But all we have to do is dodge them, kill adds, and then he goes down quickly. It's not quite the shutout that MNK50 was, but Ginger has it well in hand regardless.
It's next to impossible to see because mood lighting is apparently everything in XIV, but the four mages have surrounded Ququruka.
You! Deceived us all, you have! Squaaawk! Pay, you will!
You. You are one of Hetali Meloc's get, are you not?
Mother of mother of mother! Her name, you know!?
And you, Amalj'aa... Yesss, you are of the line of Kazibb Chah. I can see it.
And, kobold, through your veins courses the blood of Da Gu, does it not?
And last but not least-the black mage Ginger. Splendidly done. Few could have vanquished Barbatos as you have. No doubt you are all eager to hear what truly transpired one hundred years ago. Being a kindly soul, I shall tell you. I was an ambitious mage in my youth-insatiable in my thirst for knowledge of the arcane. In the course of my studies, I discovered ancient writings which told of a black magic. A magic capable of destroying as only the gods can.
It was innocent at first. Until it wasn't. But then questions began to arise in my mind that demanded answers. Where had all the black mages of old gone? Why had the existence of the art been hidden?
And so I probed. Endlessly. Tirelessly. The more I uncovered, the more it drew me in. There was such...power to be had.
I was not merely ambitious. I was also vainglorious. I desired recognition. Deference. By accomplishing that which no other could, I sought to make my legacy an eternal one.
Yet the pursuit of black magic was...trying. I would pass days, weeks, months at a time, unsure of how to proceed. And what little progress did come, came but slowly. It was then that I met your ancestors.
The Gem of Shatotto, the power to sense magic, the relics-all of these things I owe to them. With their vast knowledge, the slow crawl of my studies turned to leaps and bounds.
I daresay your ancestors sought the same recognition as I.
Kazibb Chah, ridiculed by the Amalj'aa for his ingenious analyses of worldly phenomena. Hetali Meloc, named a pariah for not sharing in the small-minded prejudices of the Ixal. Da Gu, a victim of his kind's idiocy, bound never to leave the land of the kobolds.
We toiled together, learning what we could. And learn we did. Much and more. Imagining we had gleaned all that was to be known, we prepared to hold a dark rite-one we believed would restore black magic to its fullest expression.
I do not know what came over me. I... Blinded by my own lust for power, I altered one of the incantations. It was...arrogant. Foolish.
Our command over the ancient powers we summoned was lost. I watched as the chaotic aether washed over my friends, ripping them apart, only to fuse them together into an...abomination.
No... You couldn't mean... That thing we just saw...
Yes. When I saw what my hubris had created, I mustered all of my strength to see Barbatos sealed behind the voidgate. Sealed-yet not defeated.
Yet I felt myself corrupted by the aether, and was unsure whether I could hold my powers in check. Fearful, I returned to Ul'dah where I manipulated the minds of a few thaumaturges of the Order into believing I had committed some terrible crime. Only with me confined to the depths of the Marasaja Pit could the realm be safe.
And there I remained-waiting. Waiting for the coming of one with the power to purify the aether of those three friends with whom I once shared a dream. I do not expect your forgiveness, but I am truly sorry.
No words, Dozol has. Squaaawk! Only squaaawk!
I am not long for this world. Here, take this relic while I still have strength enough to offer it.
The fifth artifact? Yes, yes, the fifth!
Welcome to the Solace of the Gods. Perhaps you know it better as Nald's Reflection, as most do. Truly remarkable, Ginger. You have succeeded...where many great mages...have failed. Mastered...what we sought...to master.
I can now rest...knowing that this power...is safe with you. It is for you...to set the hatreds of the past...aright. My time to join Thal...has come. May He greet me...as a friend.
Century-old plan, this was? Fulfilled his purpose, Ququruka did? Mother of mother of mother! Forgiven Ququruka, she has? Squaaawk! Think so, Dozol does.
Finished, this story is. Had much fun, Dozol did. Like mother of mother of mother! Grand fun she had, too, Dozol hopes. Farewell, Ginger. We meet again someday, Dozol hopes. Squaaawk!
Then it is over-finished, ended, over. We did all we could, and the souls of Ququruka and the others have been saved. The legends carried by my forebears have had their final chapter written this day. I confess, there is a sadness in that.
I am proud to call you friend, Ginger-brethren, sister, friend. Now and always, no matter how divergent our paths from here. Yes, yes, you are a true mage of the black now. Pray grace we kobolds in La Noscea with your presence someday.
I actually recorded this after finishing the kobold beast tribe quests.
To think, Ququruka carried that anguish one hundred long years. His crime was born of the hubris of youth, yet his atonement came from the wisdom of old age. His soul has found peace, and it is not our place to linger and disturb it. Come, let us return to Burgundy Falls.
Things have come to an end, it would seem. Both the threads which bound us all, and this tragic tapestry they wove. Most mysterious things, these lives we lead. Do you recall when the words of so many legends and prophecies first brought you to me? It was here, at these same Burgundy Falls. We have spoken much here since then, yet I never imagined this day would come.
I stand before you now with no regrets. I am grateful to the gods for letting our paths cross. Dozol Meloc, Da Za, and you, Ginger Pepper-I count you all as my brethren in black. Together, we have seen the souls of our ancestors given peace, and I, too, now feel a happiness I have never known.
You have become a true black mage, my friend. And more than that, a true friend, black mage. Let the dark art we share be a symbol of our bond, and that undying-in shadow or light, by day or night.
Ginger made friends for life. Good friends. True friends.
:sickos:
This concludes the black mage quests for FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn. In order to undertake the next series of quests, you must first meet the following requirements:
You must have completed the main scenario quest "Before the Dawn."
Once you have done so, the next black mage quest will be available from Lalai.
So Flare. At level 50, BLM AOE becomes all about Flare. It takes 100% of your current MP to cast, but it deals a metric fuckton of damage in a pretty wide area. At high enough levels, there are methods to actually chain-cast flare, including a mythical Quadruple Flare.
If you want to be strictly correct about it, in AOE situations you should probably do the following, assuming you're starting from 0. Lead off with Freeze to generate 3 umbral ice pips. Throw out Thunder II to put a dot on every enemy nearby. Slam Fire III to get into the burn phase. Then chain cast Fire II until you're very low on MP. Then wrap it all up with Flare. Hit Manafont if it's available, Flare Again. Finally Transpose, Freeze, repeat.
If you want to be as 
as possible about it, then just Freeze, Thunder 2, Fire 3, Flare, Manafont, Flare, Transpose, repeat. It's not nearly as effective but boy is it a hell of a light show.
Flare costs 1000 mana at a minimum, which means you need at least that much to cast it. So if you don't mind buying some very specific consumables, you can actually triple flare by using an X-Ether or Elixir to recover just enough mana for a third flare after the manafont Flare.
Quad Flare requires you to be above the mid-60s in level in order to get a specific trait. I'll cover that whenever I get around to Stormblood's BLM writeups.
Anyway, that's enough of that for now. What do you say we get around to some actual postgame content?
NEXT TIME: The very tiny amount of MSQ between 2.0 and 2.1, plus some mandatory trials.