a realm re-ran - part 1

Lame title is lame. These are my notes for my ARR NG+ run, 75% for Rune lore purposes and since base game is a behemoth to even try and remember, 25% because I’m insane and I somehow miss ARR, and 25% me having the need to see Elidibus again. My math is wrong but I care about Elidibus that much to break math rules ok

PRE-ARR TIMELINE §

For a pre-ARR Rune lore referesher, see pre-ARR.

Year	Age	Event
1552	–	The imperial legion conquers and annexes Doma, a small border nation on the eastern continent of Othard.
1553	-	The XIVth legion advances on the Ala Mhigan border.
1554	0	22nd Sun of First Umbral Moon – Rúni Monnawesfv is born in a Viera village in the Skatay Range, located in Southern Othard.
1557	3	The mountain village of Ferndale is laid to waste by a recently awakened Nidhogg.
1561	7	The Eorzean Alliance is formally inaugurated. Twins Alphinaud and Alisaie are born to House Leveilleur.
1562	8	Archon Louisoix gathers twelve of his disciples and forms the Circle of Knowing, a secret society with a self-proclaimed goal of saving Eorzea from disaster foretold. Archons from the Circle of Knowing arrive in Eorzea. They split up and travel to each of the realm’s city-states. 1.0 begins here. A goobbue breaks free of its arcane fetters during a parade and proceeds to run amok the streets. Ascilia, one of the spectators, is orphaned at the age of twelve when her father is killed by the rampaging beast.
1566	12	Rúni approaches the village matriarch and tells her about him not being comfortable with his own body. The matriarch agrees to help him with a treatment of fantasia and allows him to switch over from village duties to Wood-Warder training.
1567	13	Rúni completes his fantasia treatment and begins training as a Wood-Warder under the Wood-Warder master (and unbeknownst to him, his brother) Thurin.
1569	15	Thurin is killed by a stray contingent of Garleans after attempting to fend them off. Rúni is kidnapped by the remaining Garleans and shipped off to Doma for experimentation, but he manages to escape only after a few short months.
1570	16	Rúni changes his name to “Rune Monna” and moves to Eorzea via ship in an attempt to escape Garlean presence in Othard. He then joins the Lancers’ Guild in Gridania and begins a small life for himself as an adventurer.
1572	18	The Seventh Umbral Calamity occurs.
1577	23	2.0 begins.

PART 1: HEAR, FEEL, THINK §

Part 1 (as called in NG+) makes up the very first quests of the game and are entirely dependent on which starting city you choose. Part 1 ends with the ability to visit other city states. As Rune started out as a lancer, his starting city state is Gridania.

• GAME CANON DIVERGENCE → After another successful quest done for the Adventurers’ Guild, Rune wakes up in a traveling cart with a peddler named Bremondt who tells him that he may have aether sickness. Two twins (aughhhhhhh) are in the other side of the cart, keeping to themselves and don’t engage in the conversation.
  • Apparently, while going through the whole hear feel think cutscene, Rune looked like he was having a nightmare to outsiders, which is an interesting tidbit
    • He asks Rune why he became an adventurer, to which he doesn’t give an answer.
      • Of course, the main reason for his arrival at Eorzea was to escape Othard and the Garleans, but he’s not gonna tell some stranger that. On top of that, he’s not entirely new to Eorzea either, and was present in Gridania during the Calamity.
        • Bremondt: Just remember, though: there’re more important things than fortune an’ glory. Such as breathin’. Ain’t no profit in bein’ dead, an’ that’s a fact.
  • During the conversation with Bremondt, moogles appear and ask if Rune knows why the woods have been restless as of late
    • Also mention that regular people can’t see moogles?? I don’t think this was ever addressed any more after this
• A skirmish breaks out between the Wood Wailers and the Ixal close to the cart as it moves on to Gridania. The cart eventually arrives to Gridania and the passengers part ways.
  • Bremondt: Here, I want you to have this─by way of thanks for keepin’ me company.
  • Bremondt: Hey─you never did tell me your name, did you? Well, here’s an idea…
  • Bremondt: Become the sort of storied personage I can brag about havin’ met, an’ I’ll consider us square.

The game canon divergence here is because Rune has actually lived in Eorzea for some time now (since he was 16 and now he’s 23), so the beginning of the game wouldn’t really make any sense for him.

• GAME CANON DIVERGENCE → Rune reaches the Guild and finds Mother Miounne, who welcomes him back and asks if he was successful in his quest. The quest in particular was to cull beasts that threatened the Hawthorne Hut.
  • After relaying what had happened to her, she tells him how proud she is of him and how much he had grown since his arrival at Gridania several years ago (technically 7 years ago, when he was 16).
    • As he had no family to call his own, she was quick to become protective of him as a mother would and initially refused his requests to become an adventurer due to his age at the time. It was only when he proved his combat prowess that she eventually relented. Even then, she would refrain from giving him more dangerous quests until he became 18.
  • She recalls with him how a joke she had said in their initial meeting led to a rocky start between the two of them.
    • While he was signing up to join the Guild, Miounne asks Rune to sign his name and not use an “amusing alias,” to which he internally gets nervous and apprehensive at. For a split second, he thinks that she may be a Garlean spy.
      • Mother Miounne: Oh, and I would appreciate it if you used your real name─there is a special place in the seventh hell for those who use “amusing” aliases.
      • Mother Miounne: …Rune Monna, hm? And you’re quite sure that isn’t an amusing alias?
    • From then on, it took him a while for him to fully trust her and realize that, no, she was not a spy, and that she was only joking with him at the time.
  • Miounne then informs him that the Bannock is seeking help from adventurers regarding sightings of a suspicious individual, whose sighting coincided with increased Ixal activity in the area.

What actually happens in-game?

Mother Miounne welcomes the WoL as a new adventurer and explains why adventurers are in need: bandits, the Ixal, and the Garleans up north all threaten Gridania asa whole. She also explains the Calamity and how people are unable to precisely remember the events at the time as well as the band of adventurers that helped save them.

• Upon visiting the Bannock, Rune is tasked with a mission to investigate the area where the suspicious individual is often seen, and runs into a Hyur woman and a Lalafell man. The group is then attacked by restless wildlife and Treants, who they manage to fend off, and they later find a dead Ixal chieftain nearby. The group part ways, not before the Hyuran woman tells him that the sword in a tree stump may be a clue that the Wailers can use in their investigation.

• After taking care of a few errands at the Bannock, Rune is tasked with helping a Hearer (idk what that is) and their guards being attacked by a “shadow.” (ASCIANS)

  • He arrives at the scene and encounters a black-masked Ascian. who used (creation??) magic to bring a pile of rocks to life.
  • Yda and Papalymo run in and OHHH BABY’S FIRST MIGRAINE
    • Rune witnesses a vision where the two come across a group of Ixali. The vision is set before the Calamity because Dalamud is shown in the cutscene.
      • P: It is as we feared: Dalamud’s anomaly is affecting life in the Twelveswood.
      • Y: You mean the disturbance in the aetheric flow?
      • P: The very same. The Garleans have a lot to answer for. The imbalance they have created is plunging the land into chaos, just as Louisoix forewarned.
      • Y: It’s no wonder the primals have started appearing…
    • The vision jumps forward 5 years where the two are seen discussing how the Twelveswood has barely recovered since the Calamity. The vision then jumps forward to the point in time where the two were headed for an aetheric disturbance where Rune was (the stump with the sword), and where they eventually first met not long after that.
  • The two help the Hearer recover and return him to Gridania. Papalymo, before leaving, says that there is something familiar about Rune.
    • P: Wait. There is something…familiar about you. Could it be that you are…?
    • P: N-Never mind. Doubtless my eyes are playing tricks. Till we meet again!

• Rune returns to Miounne, who congratulates him on the success of his quest and mentions an oncoming festival in a few days.

  • Mother Miounne: By the way, have you perchance heard about the coming festival? It is truly a splendid occasion, looked forward to by young and old alike, and one I heartily recommend that you take the time to enjoy.
  • Mother Miounne: Don’t be too disappointed if the recent troubles cast a shadow over proceedings, however. I fear nothing short of the mysterious interloper’s apprehension can prevent that…
  • Mother Miounne: But we were talking about you, Rune. You have made Mother proud. I expect great things of you, young man!

• She then sends him off to Bentbranch Meadows for another job. The woman he meets at Bentbranch says he was very highly recommended, which now gives me an image of Miounne enthusiastically telling them to hire Rune for the job.

• Several fetch quests later…

  • Signs of the Ascian were spotted again. Rune aids the Wailers in spreading around a missive amongst those stationed in Bentbranch.

RELATIONSHIPS §

MOTHER MIOUNNE §

Rune’s parental figure while he grew out of his later teenage years in Gridania. Having relatively recently arrived from Othard, his youthful features belie a scarred body and mind from past experiences – one that Miounne was intuitively aware of as soon as Rune tried to join the Adventurers’ Guild at age 16. Wanting him to even have a little bit of a childhood, she would refuse his requests and would eventually only relent once he was able to prove his combat prowess time and time again. She would find herself wondering: where in the world did he learn to fight so viciously at such a young age? What exactly did he go through to become so reticent and quiet when other children his age were much more lively? And why in the world was he alone without a family? She had endless questions for him, but she knew that only time will reveal the truths… that is, if he ever decided to ever tell her about it, anyway.

On his 18th (presumed) year of life and a year into his newfound adventuring life graciously granted by Miounne, the Seventh Umbral Calamity struck.

YDA §

Since the two are close to each other in age, Rune and Yda became fast friends and each others’ preferred sparring partner. While Papalymo was able to trust that Rune wouldn’t let Yda do anything too stupid to get herself killed, he kind of… just does so anyway (and kind of eggs her on to do it actually), much to the Lalafell’s eventual chagrin. She definitely helps bring out a more childish side in Rune, where normally the only other person able to do so would be Axi.

PAPALYMO §

Related §

External links and sources §

• Final Fantasy XIV: Game Script → a huge majority, if not everything, of my notes comes from here!
• A Realm Reborn Main Scenario Quests - Final Fantasy XIV Guide