Reminisce: Bahamut Day 2023

A year ago this day on May 20th, marked the first event I had ever put together. I took a group of folks, whom most of which were the first time we ever met in Eorzea before, through all of the Coils of Bahamut for their first time. That event was simply named ‘Bahamut Day.’

This was prior to the Frendedex even forming, or even my big social event that happened over Moonfire Faire. Before this point, aside from when Vysk and I had a very lovely Valentine’s evening, we all had only interacted through Mastodon. I forgot exactly how this idea to plan this day came about, it might have had something to do with assisting Aikirees through it, but that’s speculation. Regardless, the idea was there, and I put it to friends and folks to see if there was any interest.

Within about 3 days, I had already over half a full party wanting to give this a go(!) I made notes of who was interested and was wanting to come along so that I could make sure that the amount would not go higher than the max the party would be allowed to do. It ended up being 7 of 8 as the final tally, so at that point it was just planning the day, and getting everyone together.

Once the day was upon us, I sent out the message over Mastodon, and everything began to gather in Ul’Dah since that made it the simplest place to meet up as well as just in case anyone needed to take care of the quest right-quick. I remember being so gosh darn nervous too, but once folks started arriving and we started chatting, it was almost like we’d known each other for a very long time!

The Event itself was taking on all 13 coils unsync’d so that way we could enjoy them at our current levels and see the entirety of the story in one sitting. There is a lot of story locked behind these, and it also helps explain some connection between Legacy Final Fantasy XIV and A Realm Reborn. There’s no real benefit from doing then sync’d anyway except for bragging rights these days and I wanted this to be a fun relaxing event.

The entire event was an absolute wonderful time. There were only two turns that gave us a smidgen of trouble: Turn 8, with its multi-level bounce pads, and Turn 9, which is infamous for its difficulty. Turn 8 was fairly comical overall, and most of the group ended up being broken into just two groups. The one larger group powered to the boss room, while the other consisted of Lywynn, and I. Lywynn was fairly low level at this time, so I had to make sure she didn’t get walloped by all of the spawning adds as we made our way towards the boss room to catch up with everyone.

Before each encounter, I’d try to explain the mechanics to the best of my ability (since I only kind of understand them myself), but aside from a couple of bosses, we’d hilariously melt them within seconds of attacking. As for the story, I’d let them all enjoy it at their own pace, while enjoying how much they themselves were enjoying the story unfold as we went along. Every so often, and between Coils, we’d take a brief break, chat about things (this is where the Notorious Monster Gazebo joke came from), and shoot the breeze about how things were going. It was all so wholesome and wonderful.

Then after about 5 hours, there we all were, staring down the Primal himself: Bahamut Prime. The final battle was about to commence. We all took screenshots and chatted a smidgen, including any necessary strategies, and then within seconds, it was over. After the final battle cut scene and victory remarks, they all departed to see the finale unfold.

Afterwards, we all gathered where the story concluded, I congratulated everyone on completing the entirety of The Coils of Bahamut, watched some Fat Cats have a ‘srs bsns’ meeting, and then we all headed out for the evening. I’ll never forget this day, nor this event and what ended up coming about thereafter either. So many events, friends, and stories came from this day, and I’ll always cherish the memories from it.