Balance unto All
Revision as of 22:04, 11 August 2024 by Maleficentabsinthe (talk | contribs) (added duty dialogue, formatted dialogue)
Balance unto All
- Quest giver
- Unukalhai
- Location
- The Rising Stones (X:6, Y:5)
- Quest line
- The Warring Triad
- Level
- 60
- Gil
- 5,000
- Previous quest
- The Fate of Stars
- Next quest
- The Last Pillar to Fall
A Deific Simulacrum - Patch
- 3.4
“Unukalhai has urgent news to share on the current state of the Warring Triad.
— In-game description
Rewards
- Unlocks
Steps
- Rendezvous with Unukalhai at the Flagship.
- Confront Sophia in Containment Bay P1T6.
- Speak with Unukalhai at the Rising Stones.
Journal
- Unukalhai has urgent news to share on the current state of the Warring Triad.
- According to Unukalhai, aetheric readings taken by Y'shtola in the aftermath of the VIth Legion's recent intrusion indicate that the eikon Sophia is close to awakening. Make haste to Azys Lla and rendezvous with the masked youth on the Flagship, in readiness to put the ancient goddess down.
- Barely have you joined Unukalhai when the ground begins to rumble to the sound of nearby battle. In the next moment, a breathless Krile appears and announces that Y'shtola and Urianger have engaged an unknown band of assailants. You hurry to the scene of the conflict to find a trio of strangers whom you determine to be thralls of the eikon Sophia. Though they do not linger long, they leave you with the words of an ominous prophecy, and the fear that their mistress may have already awoken in possession of all her terrible might. Time is of the essence. Summon your faithful comrades to your side and cast down the dread Goddess lest all be judged upon her scales!
- You have banished Sophia into the aether. Make your way back to the Flagship.
- Following your victory over the Goddess, Y'shtola muses on the reason for her rapid awakening─a question to which Unukalhai and Krile soon provide an answer. According to their investigation, the eikon enslaved the will of a careless Garlean soldier and commanded him to release her thralls. Allagan records also speak of a failed plot to exploit a flaw introduced into the machinery of Sophia's prison─a scheme that came dangerously close to being enacted millennia later. Even as you make your way back to the Rising Stones and Unukalhai, you are haunted by the thought of what might have come to pass had the Goddess been suffered to escape her fetters.
- You rejoin Unukalhai in Revenant's Toll, where you witness Y'shtola berating the masked youth for seeming to place you on a pedestal. Their differing views on what can and cannot be expected of you apart, all seem to agree that the last pillar of the Warring Triad must fall, and that only with its destruction will the world finally be free of the existential threat posed by Azys Lla.
Dialogue
Accepting the Quest
Unukalhai: Warrior of Light, if this world is to survive, we must needs move forward with our plan─another pillar of the Warring Triad must be toppled. Unukalhai: The question of which has already been answered. Following our encounter with the legatus, Archon Y'shtola detected erratic aetheric waveforms emanating from the sector containing the eikon Sophia, known simply as “the Goddess” in former times. Such readings can mean only one thing... Unukalhai: She is close to wakening. Let us return to Azys Lla forthwith and put an end to this primal deity lest she rise again in all her terrible glory. (Optional) Unukalhai: Make your preparations, Warrior of Light. The eikon Sophia stirs, and we must needs return to Azys Lla with all haste.
Rendezvousing with Unukalhai at the Flagship
Unukalhai: We appear to be the first to arrive. Shall we await our colleagues here?
Cutscene start
Unukalhai: Hm? Could the VIth Legion have returned...?
Krile: [Forename]! Unukalhai! Krile: We're under attack! Y'shtola and Urianger have engaged the foe not far from here!
The First Demiurge: Hah! Rarely is my shield thus tested! 'Twould seem the Allagans have not been lax in their recruitment!
The Second Demiurge: Think you so? Mayhap your arm merely withered whilst you lay idle.
The Third Demiurge: Still your tongues! We have stalled them long enough!
The First Demiurge: “With scales in hand, the Goddess shall arise, And righteously cast off Her cursèd pall, That She, with wrathful Wyrmking at Her side, Might judge and thence bring balance unto all.” The First Demiurge: Hear my words and despair, Allagans! Our Goddess is awoken! Your civilization has birthed the instruments of its own undoing!
Y'shtola: 'Tis well that you are here, [Forename]. I should like to know what our assailants were saying. You understood their words, did you not?
Urianger: 'Twas a Meracydian dialect, if mine ears do not deceive─though one which beareth scant resemblance to any spoken in recent times. As for our antagonists' meaning...I do gladly defer to those blessed with the Echo.
Krile: The one with the shield seemed to think we were Allagans. He recited what sounded like a verse of prophecy, then claimed that their “Goddess is awoken”... Is that about right, [Forename]?
Y'shtola: And might we assume that this deity of theirs is the very eikon we've come to topple?
Urianger: Aye. From their tongue, their words, and their attire, 'tis like that our antagonists were Meracydian─thralls to the Goddess Sophia and victims of the Allagans' incursions. Urianger: If, as Krile claimeth, they thought us agents of Allag, 'tis little wonder that they sought to bring us low.
Unukalhai: You suggest that Sophia's servants have been liberated from their containment!? Then we have no choice but to accept word of her awakening as truth.
Krile: Gods help us! The Warring Triad have proven formidable enough when we've roused them with a fraction of their true strength. Should Sophia break free at the peak of her powers, [Forename] and her/his friends won't stand a chance!
Y'shtola: Let us be about it, then. [Forename], Krile, Unukalhai─the three of you will make directly for Sophia's containment facility. Urianger and I will do what we can to occupy the eikon's thralls.
Unukalhai: Mistress Krile─do you perchance recall the words of the prophecy in its entirety?
Krile: Ah, let me see... I believe it was, “With scales in hand, the Goddess shall arise, And righteously cast off Her cursèd pall, That She, with wrathful Wyrmking at Her side, Might judge and thence bring balance unto all.”
Confronting Sophia in Containment Bay P1T6
Cutscene
Krile: I leave the goddess in your capable hands. Just watch out for her worshippers...
Duty Dialogue
Sophia: The unenlightened come... Sophia: Know you the full weight of death. Sophia: To me, my faithful. Sophia: Come forth, Scales of Revelation! Sophia: I would know the weight of your souls. Sophia: Can you bring...equilibrium? Sophia: I shall tip back the balance... Sophia: Sin must be balanced with suffering. Sophia: Daughter, be the bearer of my wisdom. Sophia: My revelations are lost...
Post Duty Cutscene
Y'shtola: I see the Goddess is no more. Well done. Once Krile and Unukalhai have rejoined us, we may safely depart. Y'shtola: ...One thing yet puzzles me, however. How did Sophia's servants come to wake from their slumber?
Krile: I believe we have the answer to that!
Unukalhai: We discovered the remains of a Garlean soldier in an adjacent sector of the containment facility. 'Tis like that the fool ventured too close to Sophia during the Empire's previous incursion, and was enthralled for his troubles. Unukalhai: Another reminder, if any were needed, as to the incalculable threat posed by these beings. The Goddess would not even have been conscious when she claimed the man's will. And yet his mistake granted her the means to release her servants, and would have resulted in her own liberation had we not been on hand to intervene.
Urianger: I do much wonder that the eikon's pawn was capable of so effectively manipulating the facility's containment systems. How came he by such rarefied knowledge?
Unukalhai: That too is easily explained. During our investigation, Krile discovered a subtle flaw in one of the mechanisms which held the Goddess in check. A flaw which had plainly been added intentionally. Upon examining the facility's records of the period, we were able to piece together the story. Unukalhai: It was a time towards the end of the Third Astral Era, when the peoples of Meracydia faced extinction at the hands of the Allagan Empire. Sophia, a being of incomparable cunning, was said to have communicated certain plans to her servants through the medium of a trusted oracle. Unukalhai: Following the oracle's instructions, they duly conspired with a rebel faction within Allag who, we believe, agreed to tamper with the prison intended for Sophia. And then the Goddess and her thralls chanced to be captured─though we suspect that this had always been their plan.
Krile: Indeed. The prison was situated at the heart of Allag, and we think they intended to attack the city from within. They would merely have had to wait for the rebels to exploit the weakness in their confines.
Unukalhai: But the conspirators' dealings with the Meracydians were exposed before they could enact their plot, and all were summarily executed. It seems that the flaw itself remained undiscovered, however, and might have remained so until the end of days had it not been for the actions of the archbishop, and subsequently the Garleans.
Krile: I cannot help but wonder what might have come to pass had their scheme been successful. Mayhap the answer lies in the prophecy.
Urianger: Krile hath the right of it. Its words may be deciphered thus: the “cursèd pall” speaketh of Sophia's prison, from which she was supposed to emerge at the agreed hour. The “Wyrmking,” meanwhile, can be none other than great Bahamut himself, then yet a prisoner, whom the Goddess did intend to unleash upon Allag to set right the scales of justice.
Y'shtola: A foolhardy plan. Had it come to fruition, the two of them would surely have razed the realm. Naught would have been spared the devastation, the Meracydians' homeland included.
Unukalhai: Their home already stood on the brink of oblivion. Mayhap they wished for naught else but to purge the poison of Allag with primal fire.
Urianger: The tale teacheth us that even the greatest of man's creations may yet be brought low by a single act of treachery. The Allagans were fools to place their trust in technological bondage. To shackle such beings is but to delay the inevitable. Naught save their total destruction shall free us from their menace. Urianger: Let us return now to the Rising Stones, and there consider the final step of this most needful task.
Unukalhai: The threat posed by this facility is far greater than you imagine, Urianger...and one not limited to the eikons themselves. Sophia's remaining servants must be put down.
Verification Node: <blip> <bloop> WARNING! Deactivating stasis chamber support systems will result in subject termination. Enter identification code to continue.
Unukalhai: ...
Verification Node: <blip> Identification code accepted. Subjects terminated.
Speaking with Unukalhai at the Rising Stones
Unukalhai: Is aught amiss, Warrior of Light? Archon Y'shtola mentioned that there was a matter she wished to discuss.
Cutscene start
Y'shtola: Well met, [Forename]. You will forgive me if I seem curt, but I would settle an account with our young friend. Y'shtola: While conducting a final sweep of Sophia's containment facility, we discovered that all of her remaining thralls had perished in their stasis chambers. This was your doing?
Unukalhai: Aye. It was. I chose to act upon the knowledge revealed within the tomestone we recovered. The true purpose of these prisons is far more horrifying than we first assumed... Unukalhai: The Allagans were not simply observing the eikons and siphoning away their energies─they were conducting experiments in preparation for a far more ambitious project. Unukalhai: If you'll recall, both the Fiend and the Goddess were imprisoned within massive spherical structures. These spheres were the prototypes which paved the way for the successful construction of an artificial celestial body...
Y'shtola: You speak of Dalamud.
Unukalhai: Aye. The eikons' cages are unmistakably of the same design as the red moon. To be plain: the research facility contains the seeds of three calamities which might feasibly be visited upon a chosen target. Unukalhai: Eliminating one of them necessitated the destruction of the Goddess's slumbering thralls─a distasteful task unbefitting one such as the Warrior of Light. Thus did I resolve to perform the deed myself.
Y'shtola: You have made your case, and 'tis apparent that we were not in full possession of the facts. Nevertheless... Y'shtola: Your notion of what may or may not be expected of [Forename] is presumptuous in the extreme. Y'shtola: When the Warrior of Light chose to join the Scions, she/he did so in the knowledge that she/he would be required to face and destroy not only the primals, but also their fanatical servants. That which you term “a distasteful task” is an essential part of our calling─a burden which every Scion is sworn to shoulder.
Unukalhai: ...I see. 'Twould seem I misjudged the depth of your resolve.
Y'shtola: No matter. Assuming I have made myself understood, we need not speak of it again. There is, however, one other subject which merits discussion. Y'shtola: You determined that Sophia's thralls were awoken by a Garlean soldier who had somehow gained access to the containment area, did you not? If that is the case, it seems highly doubtful that the interloper wandered into such a dangerous part of the facility by chance. Y'shtola: Dissidents within the Empire claim that the VIth Legion is rife with agents under orders to thwart the legatus's mission by any means necessary. Y'shtola: Lest you imagine that we have allies in Garlemald, I should clarify that their motive is wholly uncharitable. Regula van Hydrus rose to the top of the Garlean military on merit alone, and is fiercely loyal to the Emperor for recognizing his efforts. His compeers, by contrast, rose through the favor of the established order, and would accordingly do anything to see him fail.
Unukalhai: That they would be so reckless... You truly believe that the actions of these agents contributed to the recent crisis?
Y'shtola: Aye─and that they pose no less a risk to the realm than those loyal to the Emperor. Plainly, we must needs continue to do all in our power to prevent the technologies of Allag from falling into the hands of man. On that point, at least, we have ever been in complete agreement.