The Unending Codex
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Spoiler Warning : This article contains spoilers! |
The Unending Codex
“Accessible from your Collection, the Unending Codex puts vital information about in-game terminology and characters at your fingertips. Review this handwritten record of key concepts from your journey thus far whenever you fear the details of past adventures are slipping from your grasp.
— In-game description
The Unending Codex is unlocked during the quest 
Newfound Adventure, with new entries added as the story unfolds. These lore entries summarize important characters and concepts in the Main Scenario Quests up to the end of the initial release of Endwalker (patch 6.0).
The Codex can be accessed from the Collection feature in the Main Menu → Duty tab.
Entries
Tataru
The Scions of the Seventh Dawn
Coinkeeper
Though publicly known as the organization's receptionist, Tataru also serves as the Scions' coinkeeper─a role she executes with an enthusiastic cunning that borders on the terrifying.
Born to Ul'dahn merchants, the young Tataru had everything a Lalafell could ask for─until her family lost it all to bankruptcy. Plagued by debt and still smarting from this abrupt introduction to the harsh realities of the sultanate, she apprenticed herself to a lapidary at the age of twelve, and henceforth supported the household with her meager earnings. It was during this period that she met Minfilia─a miner come to sell gems and ore─who would later recruit Tataru to oversee the Path of the Twelve's finances.
Tataru, in turn, resolved to use her newfound position not only to accrue personal wealth, but also to serve others. Indeed, when the Path of the Twelve relocated to the Waking Sands, and her role was expanded to include secretarial duties, she used her considerable social acumen to build relationships and increase its influence. As the organization slowly but surely grew into an association of like-minded and gifted souls, she was instrumental in seeking out potential members blessed with the Echo.
After the Seventh Umbral Calamity, when the Path of the Twelve merged with the Circle of Knowing to form the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, Tataru continued her tenure as secretary and coinkeeper combined. When the political situation in Ul'dah drove the Scions from their headquarters for a time, she journeyed with Alphinaud and the Warrior of Light to Ishgard, that they might there regroup and rebuild the organization. Later, she accompanied a contingent of Scions to the Far East, where she established ties with the East Aldenard Trading Company's Kugane branch in order to fund local anti-imperial resistance efforts─one of her many laudable ventures on the Scions' behalf.
Privately, Tataru has long regretted her inability to assist her comrades in martial endeavors, and thus sought to train as an arcanist. Alas, these efforts met with misfortune, including the escape of her Carbuncle companion, and so she has since resolved to provide financial support through trades such as mining and weaving. In so doing, she has become something of a master artisan─going so far as to establish her own boutique in Old Sharlayan─yet she always manages to find the time to fashion new outfits for her Scion friends when they stand poised upon the threshold of journeys new.
The Scions of the Seventh Dawn
This secret society was the product of a merger between the Circle of Knowing, led by Louisoix Leveilleur, and the Path of the Twelve, led by Minfilia Warde, following the Seventh Umbral Calamity.
Working in concert with the leaders of Eorzea, the Scions strove to address the myriad problems that plagued the realm, be it the godlike primals, the imperialistic Garleans, or the scheming Ascians─beings who have long shaped history from the shadows. As a means to achieve its objectives, the society sought out those blessed with the Echo, a mysterious power with myriad manifestations, the most notable of which was the ability to walk in the memories of others. It was for this reason they extended an invitation to the Warrior of Light.
On account of their contributions in dealing with several primals and the XIVth Imperial Legion, the Scions' existence became public knowledge. Utilizing their newfound reputation, Alphinaud Leveilleur founded the Crystal Braves, a military organization intended to pave the way for a unified Eorzea. However, the society's activities had made it the target of a Monetarist faction of Ul'dah, and an elaborate betrayal by Alphinaud's presumed allies resulted in the Scions being framed for the sultana's assassination. Though branded fugitives and scattered for a time, they eventually learned of a plot within a plot that saw the monarch put into a deep slumber rather than slain, and succeeded in clearing their names.
Their honor restored, the Scions went on to become key players in the liberation of Ala Mhigo and Doma from imperial rule, and after helping to avert the Final Days, they judged their mission fulfilled. So it was that they announced their disbandment─at least outwardly─and retreated from plain sight to labor in secret once more.
The Final Days
This dreadful calamity befell the star in the distant past, when it was known as Etheirys.
In that shining age, men had the power to manifest anything at will, even living beings, and through this miraculous creation magick their civilization thrived. One day, however, following a keening sound from the land, their magicks ran rampant, giving form to eldritch horrors born of fear and despair. Their blissful lives became a waking nightmare, and mankind was driven to the brink of extinction.
The Convocation of Fourteen, the people's chosen representatives, observed that the phenomenon manifested where the celestial currents, the star's outermost flow of aether, had grown weak and stagnant. In order to address this deficiency, they summoned forth the mighty Zodiark to exert control over the laws of creation. Though this act demanded a high price─the sacrifice of half of mankind's remaining number─the vast majority willingly rendered up their lives, and thus were the Final Days forestalled.
Over the intervening millennia, this star-encompassing calamity had faded from memory. But faced with its second coming as engineered by the Telophoroi, the Scions of the Seventh Dawn embarked upon a desperate quest for the truth. At length, they discovered that an ancient named Hermes had created Meteion, a being capable of traversing the great expanse, to ascertain the meaning of life by seeking out other civilizations in the universe. Alas, Meteion and her sisters found naught but despair, driving them to conclude life was suffering and death the sole mercy. Fleeing to the edge of existence, they became the Endsinger, and proceeded to unleash the power of dynamis, an esoteric energy set in motion by feelings, to usher all stars to their doom, that life need not continue in vain.
Despite seemingly insurmountable odds, the Scions held fast to hope, and amidst darkest despair lit the way for their champion as they confronted the Endsinger at her nest. And at the end of a fierce battle, they emerged triumphant, and put an end to the Final Days once and for all.
Estinien
Scion of the Seventh Dawn
Dragoon
One of Ishgard's most capable knights, Estinien─called “Wyrmblood” by many─once led his order as the renowned Azure Dragoon.
Estinien's origins are humble, having been born to a family of sheepherders in the eastern highlands of Coerthas. However, the course of his pastoral life was forever changed when his village of Ferndale was razed by the great wyrm Nidhogg─an attack which claimed the lives of his parents and his brother.
Bereft of home and family, the orphan of twelve summers was taken in by Alberic, then holder of the title of Azure Dragoon. The two proceeded to forge a complicated relationship. A martial instructor, an adoptive father, and a flawed knight─one who failed to protect his family. To the young Estinien, Alberic was all these things and more.
When his training was complete, Estinien joined the Temple Knights. So focused was he on the fight against the Dravanian Horde that he scarcely remembered the names of his companions. His sole friendship was with Aymeric de Borel, a knight of similar age who shared Estinien's passion for the cause. Estinien's prowess saw him rise through the ranks, first becoming a dragoon, and later inheriting the title of Azure Dragoon once held by his foster father.
Like all Azure Dragoons, Estinien would carry with him the Eye of Nidhogg─a relic torn from the wyrm's head over a thousand years ago. Though the Eye conferred power to the bearer, it rendered them vulnerable to Nidhogg's influence, and his undying hatred threatened to consume Estinien's very soul. Only through constant vigilance and strength of will did Estinien maintain a grip on his sanity─though there were occasions when he came perilously close to succumbing to Nidhogg's rancor.
In the midst of the Dragonsong War, Estinien offered to accompany the Warrior of Light and Alphinaud Leveilleur in their quest to convince the Dravanians to renounce their thousand-year campaign of vengeance. Though he did not believe they would succeed, Estinien nevertheless agreed to eschew violence─unless circumstances forced his hand. They were later joined by Ysayle, leader of the heretics, who similarly believed peace an unlikely prospect, but one still worth pursuing in earnest.
Estinien traveled with the others to the Churning Mists, where they sought an audience with Hraesvelgr, brother of Nidhogg. From the great wyrm they learned the truth of the Dragonsong War: that it was King Thordan of ancient Ishgard who drew first blood when he and his knights murdered the great wyrm Ratatoskr, and subsequently devoured her eyes so that they might claim her power for themselves. Yet in spite of this truth, the fact remained that Nidhogg was intent upon the destruction of Ishgard, and if he could not be persuaded to yield, they had but one recourse. In the end, the Azure Dragoon succeeded in hunting down and slaying his archenemy, presumably ending the thousand-year war.
Upon their return to the capital, Estinien and his companions discovered that Archbishop Thordan VII had plotted to wield the power of a primal to transform himself into an eternal god-king and bless the world with his twisted idea of harmony. They pursued the archbishop to Azys Lla, where they put an end to his machinations once and for all. However, in the wake of the battle, Estinien succumbed to the all-consuming hatred within Nidhogg's two eyes, transforming into a vessel for the wyrm's shade that would marshal his forces for a final assault on Ishgard. Following his defeat on the Steps of Faith, Estinien regained partial control and urged Alphinaud and the Warrior of Light to kill him, but instead the two tore the eyes from his body, casting out Nidhogg's shade and saving the dragoon's life.
With his homeland entering an age of peace, Estinien renounced his title of Azure Dragoon and set off on a journey of his own. Even during these wanderings, though, he stayed abreast of the Scions' activities, and participated in both the liberation of Ala Mhigo and sabotage efforts within Garlemald. In time, he gave in to the relentless solicitations of Tataru and Krile, officially becoming a Scion and working tirelessly with his comrades to deliver the world from the calamity known as the Final Days.
Following his long journey from archnemesis of dragons to their friend and brother, Estinien renamed his lance Nidhogg after his fallen foe. Though he is still a lone wolf at heart, he travels more often with others than before─such as to the isle of Thavnair, where he has forged a new friendship with Vrtra, another of the first brood.
G'raha
Scion of the Seventh Dawn
All-rounder
A relatively recent addition to the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, G'raha Tia hails from Corvos in southern Ilsabard, where the Allagan Empire once flourished during the Third Astral Era. Although the Miqo'te were once forced to toil in obscurity for the glory of Allag, G'raha Tia's tribe, ever proud, devoted themselves to the study and preservation of arcane secrets. Thousands of years later, when Corvos was conquered by the Garleans and brought under the jurisdiction of the illustrious House Darnus, a young G'raha─heir to vast stores of Allagan knowledge and the last child born with the Allagan Eye, was given into the custody of the Students of Baldesion. After acquiring Sharlayan citizenship and freedom from more mundane duties, G'raha concentrated on his education, earning his Archon's mark for his groundbreaking research into ancient arcane wisdom. Owing to these qualifications, G'raha Tia was tasked with the vital duty of investigating the Crystal Tower, the most fascinating and forbidding of the surviving relics of the Allagan Empire. It was during this expedition that he met with Rammbroes of the Sons of Saint Coinach, Cid Garlond of the Ironworks, and the Warrior of Light─an occasion which led to the formation of the fellowship known as NOAH.
With his newfound companions he laid bare the secrets of ancient Allag, and learned from the awakened clones Unei and Doga that the eye he inherited was in truth the Royal Eye, the unmistakable mark of the Allagan imperial family. With it, he could control the Crystal Tower itself, per the wishes of Salina, the final princess of Allag, who had chosen to pass down this gift and place her trust in future generations.
Judging that mankind was not yet ready for the secrets of the Crystal Tower, G'raha Tia sealed himself within it, in the hope that he might awaken in an age when his fellow man had set aside their differences─when they might truly comprehend and wield the Allagan knowledge for the benefit of all.
Alas, when G'raha awoke from his slumber two hundred years later, the world had been ravaged by tragedy and death, for the Eighth Umbral Calamity had come to pass. Biggs─third of his name and eighteenth chairman of Garlond Ironworks─had cracked the tower's wards, seeking to harness the power within to develop a means of time travel, that they might forge a future in which the Calamity had never occurred. G'raha agreed to lend them his aid, and so it was that he and the Crystal Tower were transported into the past─not of their world, the Source, but of the reflection known as the First, where fate would once again see him reunited with the Warrior of Light.
The First, for its part, had suffered a calamity no less daunting than that of the Source. A Flood of Light had nearly extinguished all life, and what little remained was beset by horrors born of the phenomenon known as sin eaters. Unaged due to his symbiosis with the Crystal Tower, an ever-youthful G'raha Tia took the initiative in building the Crystarium─a city and bulwark of hope where he and his growing community would stand against these foes.
For a hundred years, the Crystal Exarch─as G'raha Tia had come to be known─laid the groundwork for the coming battle, for he had always known that he could not triumph without the Warrior of Light. When the time came, he summoned the champion and their allies─albeit accidentally─from the Source, assembling a formidable alliance to take up arms against the Lightwardens and reclaim the long-absent night sky.
The final step in G'raha Tia's plan would have seen him render up his own life for the preservation of the First and the Source. Blessedly, this sacrifice did not come to pass. Ultimately, the Warrior of Light and their brave companions succeeded in laying low the Ascians Emet-Selch and Elidibus, ending the threat of an Eighth Umbral Calamity and giving the First hope for a brighter tomorrow.
When the Scions at last returned to their own world, they did not do so alone. G'raha Tia had conceived a method in which his memories and essence in the First could be merged with his past self still sleeping within the Crystal Tower of the Source. The awoken G'raha Tia eagerly joined the ranks of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn and proceeded to employ his ample knowledge of all things Allagan, as well as the leadership skills he honed as the Crystal Exarch, to provide invaluable guidance and support to his companions. In particular, his decisive actions in Thavnair during the Final Days ensured the survival of countless innocents.
After the de facto disbanding of the Scions, G'raha Tia joined Krile in helping to rebuild the Students of Baldesion. However, he has not yet shaken his wanderlust, and will not hesitate to seize any opportunity to embark upon a new journey with the Warrior of Light.