Day 10 – Esprit’s Halloween (2022). This was the last performance I was able to make of theirs before their self destruction the following year. The things they did in this show were mind blowing. The trickery of using the backdrop to have people move in and out of the stage area was so darn clever!
Every single one of their performances for this show were some of the very best I have ever seen in all of my time seeing these. They kept raising the bar and this was pretty high up there. A lot of the tunes were very memorable like the Ghostbusters Theme or This is Halloween. They even did a Five Nights at Freddy’s one with one of the dancers even dressing up as Markiplier to open it with.
Even with this being the last one I ever saw them do, it was still very wonderful to see everyone one last time together on stage like this; even with it being a smidgen bittersweet.
Day 11 – A friend of our friend who has the Silent Hill 2 themed Private Chambers invited a lot of us to her Birthday Slumber Party that was being held at their Free Company Estate. We we’re able to go and celebrate with her, and it turned into such a fun night with everyone!
Day 12 – Before my feelings towards all of this shifted, way back in 2020 when I saw my first bard troupe perform, I was very fascinated by it. Aikirees and I would always stop in towns just in case there was someone playing and then stick around for a moment or so just to listen. Usually was a very nice way to end an evening of adventuring.
There was one group that decided to follow us on Twitter (before our departure from that platform), and we did the same. Their name was Forty Forties PAPOTTE and they are a group that performs specifically Final Fantasy music. Since they were based on the Japanese Data Center, it was nil impossible for us to see a show, until several years later they popped up across all of them and performed around the world.
Aikirees and I managed to catch their show on Primal one night and I was so happy we were finally able to!
Day 13 – Once Data Center Travel was available, we spent an evening hopping around trying to say hi to some of our friends on Primal and Crystal. While we didn’t get to see anyone, we did pay visits to their abodes. This one, in particular, was a friend we made over on Crystal and she made her private chambers into that of the hotel room from Silent Hill 2, and it is incredibly well done!
We have had a chance to go back and see its progress much later on, but not since and there has been some turbulence between us that hasn’t helped either. Perchance one day we might be able to catch back up.
It’s almost done now: Rank 19 and this should be the last week before Rank 20. It’s been a really good journey all this way developing our Island Sanctuaries. Never thought upon arriving on the island and just barely understanding how to build the first cozy cabin, we’d be standing here at a multi-level hideaway filled with all these neat little things.
It really was the one of best ending projects we’re currently trying to accomplish to Endwalker we could have asked for.
Day 14 – Prior to founding EOCA, we both were in another Free Company on another server. The name of that FC is Risen Ashes, and we made a lot of friends there for in which a few we still keep in touch (or try to rather). Thanks to this Free Company, I was able to be introduced to the Burgundy Room, which spawned off to meet so so many wonderful folks that I ended up becoming friends with over the years.
EOCA would not be EOCA it it wasn’t for Risen Ashes, and so one evening we finally were able to meet up with our old Free Company leader and catch up about what’s been going on. Haven’t really had a moment to head back to chat, but perhaps one day down the road.
After a week, between all four of us, the first EOCA airship has finally been created! Aikirees held the pieces until it was fully completed, whereas Lizicus and Laureine finished the final part this evening. The naming of the airship was asked across everyone with the prompt for ‘favorite starship name,’ and Voyager was the first one said.
The accent for the gondola section was picked to be black with the dirigible part to be pink: representing both Juli and Sirena respectively. Shortly thereafter, it was sent out on its first ever maiden voyage!
Very morning hours, the U.S.S. Voyager took maiden flight!
This is a very exciting time for EOCA, as we’ve never been able to do airship missions before, and I’m certain they’ll be another airship down the line and it will be picked/voted for the name once again. Safe travels, little Voyager; explore the sea of clouds and boldly go where none of us have gone before!
Day 15 – We were so excited to see that Hildibrand Manderville had finally made his grand return, that we had to dress up for the occasion. He was sorely missed during Shadowbrringers, so him coming back during Endwalker was a very ecstatically happy warm welcome.
One thing of note we’re trying to accomplish before Dawntrail is a long forgotten project of building our very first airship for EOCA. Literal years ago now, when I acquired HQ, Aikirees and I started on this project and then long forgot about it until recently.
We’ve been working on it when we can, and then here comes Lizicus with Laureine burning the literal midnight oil to help get this project a bit close to being actual reality. Not long now, and we’ll be able to embark on voyages soon enough.
Day 16: Esprit Presents: The Flower Festival. The decor for this show was phenomenal, and the songs were all just so beautifully choreographed together. Was also really lovely seeing other old friends I hadn’t gotten the chance to see in a long while either.
If I recall, this was the one I was able to hang-back for a spell after the show and chat with a few of them too. All in all, it was a very memorable evening for certain.
Day 17’s – The day Eorzea Cartographers got the HQ house. We scoured the plots right after Empyreum was opened up to the public to pick out the perfect place for our Free Company’s new home. We finally found one, put in to the housing lottery and when it came up, we had our new place!
Was a really and truly exciting moment; from there, we spent a lot of time planning the entirety of it, gathering & crafting as much as we could do, and then placing all of that hard work. It took a few months of on and off working on it, but it paid off in spades at the end.
Highly doubt we’ll ever move HQ, as it’s just become such a part of EOCA as the name itself.
Episode XXXVIII! – Sometimes research and development comes with a cost. In this case, it came with a temporary loss of my ears and the added bonus of Aikirees’ amusement. Be careful what one drinks, it could have rather… unique results.
For Day 18, the last day of the original Cape Westwind Trial, Aikirees and I paid our respects to it one last time.
The reasoning as to why this was a memorable moment is before this patch, it was an 8-player trial and the first one everyone encounters during the Main Scenario Quest. It was such an easy trial that it got joked and meme’d to pieces. Was always such a hoot seeing a couple of sprouts with us and a few of us talking it up like it was some really difficult fight about to beheld and then it ending in literal minutes.
The best one I ever did was someone literally put placement markers on the ground, something one would mostly do during an extreme trial or a savage run. It was great, and a lot of fun silly memories taking this poor feller on as we all kept forging ahead.
Day 19, I chose the first Esprit performance I got the chance to see, MacroCosmos. Esprit and I had an interesting history, as a lot of people that were former Burgundy Troupe members splintered off to create Tech Step and then Esprit shortly thereafter Tech Step severely self-destructed. It wasn’t… pretty to say the least and I had to watch as a bunch of friends turned to enemies.
Anyway… – finally being able to see old friends perform again got me all excited as I hadn’t seen a lot of these folks since the fallout. The show was absolutely amazing and seeing what everyone came up with for their numbers all within the game’s parameters is always such a treat!
Thankfully, before Esprit’s ultimate ending, I did manage to see a couple more of their performances, and they kept getting better and better along the way.
I did this for the countdown to Endwalker way back when, and want to do it again for leading up to Dawntrail. I have picked out 20 of the most memorable moments from all of Endwalker and chronologically organized most of these. The last 5 or so are out of order, but are pretty important ones of the bunch. Some of these are retroactively posted, so I added the tag 20tillDawn to help with that.
With that, for Day 20, it was the first event I went to in Endwalker: Stellazzio Presents, The Henderson Horror Hall. Stellazzio Virtual Theater put on some of the most stellar shows, and this was no exception. The acting, the voiced dialog, the way the scenes changed and the great use of in-game practical effects along with the stage hands really brought this whole thing to life!
I was so blown away by this show that I had really wished I didn’t miss any of their previous ones as this was their absolute last one they ever did. There have been a few theaters that have appeared as spiritual successors, like the Firebird Theater, but never got a chance to see any of those yet. This was also prior to Datacenter travel, so another of the Kosmikros clan went in our steed.
A fair bit ago, during all of the major project planning and initializing, we achieved Rank 15 on our Island Sanctuaries! Comparatively there wasn’t really a whole lot different going on for how we went about attaining island experience, but what did help speed that up were the upgraded granaries and workshops as the ranks went up to 4 and slowly gaining access to those higher rank ones. Speaking of the workshops themselves, once we discovered that we could copy and paste entire agendas from one day to another was a huge game-changer for how we were able to quickly get the next week all scheduled out!
The Rank 4 Cozy Cabin.
The Rank 12 story quest was absolutely adorable and probably my favorite one thus so far with it having Sadu and Cirina pay a visit to the island along with Tataru. Aside from newly acquirable ranks for the workshops, granaries, and the cozy cabin itself, a new area was also accessible during this time named the Mountain Hollow. It really just allows for more gathering of resources to upgrade things, but it was just neat that there was a whole other new area to peak inside and explore along the way.
At around Rank 13, the final small area was able to be accessed for the final landmark spot and facility spot. By this point we already had maxed out the amount of granaries we could make (I recommend doing this sooner than later if one is starting Island Sanctuary), so we plopped down the last workshop we could make as well as the last landmark. Aiki and I picked a really neat looking clock tower for this last landmark plot. From here, it just becomes managing four workshops and two granaries weekly to keep the experience and cowries flowing to continue ranking up Island Sanctuary.
This isn’t really a daunting task for us, as we just keep the workshop agendas consistent week-to-week. This doesn’t give the best min/max results, but it’s positive progress nonetheless and this whole place is supposed to be relaxing anyway. Later on, we did start to tinker with island glamours, but before Rank 15, we just left everything alone as it was upgraded. In that regards, I think Cozy Cabin IV is by far my favorite looking cabin.
The Rank 15 quest rounded out the end of the journey thus so far. This was a fairly meaty story quest compared to the prior ones, having Emmanellain and Sicard pay a visit to the island this time around. I do rather enjoy their chemistry and taking them around the island to certain spots for chatting was a nice change. It ends with a really neat ‘old movie stylized’ cut scene encapsulating what we all did during that day on the island.
The outfit for this one I absolutely adore (you get an outfit per story quest except the last one), but sadly cannot wear the really awesome looking steampunk style top-hat.
Please…?
Perhaps one day, but for now, there’s only 5 ranks left till the end, and so far that has been going at a nice relaxing pace. We’re still really enjoying the relaxing feel of Island Sanctuary, and once we hit Rank 20, we’ll probably still return to our island getaway from time to time to just enjoy the scenery.
When you catch up with your younger sister, who offers you a lift on the back of her Shadow Pupper that may or may not want to eat your face. In these moments, it’s far better to maybe just consider walking or taking one’s own mount than potentially take this kind of gamble.
After what felt like forever, our major project came to a resoundingly satisfying solution over Memorial Day weekend. This past week has been doing a lot of tweaking, and with that all have been mostly addressed by last Friday, Aiki and I were able to catch up with Juli and Hun at the Gold saucer for the rest of the evening. We got there kind of on the tail end of the evening, so Aiki was able to do two GATEs where as I came along for the last one.
We all stayed there a bit longer thereafter chatting/dancing, and then gathered together to take some absolutely wonderful photos with the above one being taken by Juli herself. I’ve really missed these little moments, even if we we’re there for as long, it was just so nice to all be back together once again.
