We all got together last night for some more Heavensward bird hunting that went incredibly well, and then ended the night taking a relaxing moment to end the weekend. Ultimately atop the entrance archway to EOCA HQ.
It’s been an incredibly long journey to this point. Aikirees and I both started on completely different worlds at different times. Met some incredibly wonderful folks that became friends and helped kick start making maps for events and places. Grew even further from that into what would become Eorzea Cartographers, and the eventual Free Company once we both made it to the same world with the Cousins.
Even after all of the drama, darkness, leaving one social media for another, and meeting so many wonderful folks in the process, here we (almost) all are as EOCA. This being where we ended up, I honestly would not want it any other way.
I’ll probably do more of these as time goes on, but also just a heads up that from here on out, posts will start to show scenery based photos from various areas around Dawntrail up to the second to last zone. It will not show the last zone nor anything to do with the Main Scenario Quest unless specifically warned about with a spoiler disclaimer.
That’s not related to what this post is about, I just wanted to give a forewarning about images upcoming. However, with that being said & addressed, I’ve noticed some replies here, as well as us crossing paths with folks around Eorzea and beyond since my Mastodon hiatus. Just wanted to take this post & time to basically say ‘We see y’all, and thank you.’ I know I’m pretty not great at responding right in the now as either 1) I forget due to something coming up or 2) see it and don’t have that moment to reply, for in which it loops back to #1.
I’m going to start with the responses posted here; hopefully y’all don’t mind, but if y’all do please let me know! Caius, I got really emotional upon reading your response to Bahamut Day 2023. I’m really thankful and happy to have met you as well, and that day was such a wonderful memory for you too. I’m pretty certain everyone was a variable of nervous that day (I know I was!) Hopefully everything has been going well on your end, and I still remember crossing paths with you in the Gold Saucer that one evening before having to scurry off on tasks. Hugs & thanks for everything.
Sirena, just… thank you, Hun – for all the countless things you do. You and Juli both, thank y’all and love y’all lots. I think Aiki is mostly adapted to her new form, and the part of the tale we’re not sure about should come to light soon. I’m really happy you loved the tree; that’s one of my favorite festive items to put up each year – think that was the 2nd year too. We’ll have it up again this year as well! I know we squee’d a ton about Super Mario RPG – that was such a fun game to go back through again! Keep kicking tail, you know you got this; we’ll always be there to have your tail, and cheer you on too.
As to those I’ve ran across in Eorzea. T’lapka, eventually we’ll cross paths again, but thank you for wishing all of us a Happy New Years 2024, and I really hope your year is going wonderfully. Akari, I think the last couple of times you came around, I was either so gosh darn tired or dealing with technical issues. Always wonderful to see you, as well as Ellany! I know the last few times Ellany was around, I think it was just Lizz and Laureine busy running about through Dawntrail. Look forward to seeing your amazing drawings once again. Keep kicking tail, especially in your Extremes and Savage runs!
Donald, aside from the last time when we were in Solution Nine, I think we’ve crossed paths the most but usually been away from the keyboard, engrossed/distracted, or attempting one but being away more so! Hope everything is going well, give extra pets to your carbuncle for us! Azelma, I believe you and I crossed paths once in Gridania, but not entirely sure, if so my apologies – was dealing with a technical issue at the time. Always wonderful to catch up with you, and the couple of times we’ve been able to in the past have been incredibly nice to do. Hopefully soon again we can, but in the meantime – hope everything has been going wonderfully!
Michael, I’m still curious as to how y’all enjoyed House 2; still need to watch that one myself – perhaps this October. The Fish Percolator is still safely up and running in the ~ARCHIVES~ as well… somehow. Still bewilders me to this day, but I love the fact that it does. Hope you’ve been well on your adventures, and hopefully we’ll cross paths soon too. Albeit we might just mysteriously stop by the Inspector’s abode one night in the meantime. Congrats on finishing Endwalker recently, and that your journey through Dawntrail is absolutely a blast!
I think that’s everyone that’s either commented here or we’ve seen around. Thank y’all so much, and to everyone else – miss y’all lots. I know I’ve been saying for a long while now that I’ll return to Mastodon eventually, but every time I’ve tried to something happens™ and causes another delay. It will happen, but I just don’t know when yet. Hopefully though y’all are doing well and continue to! Keep being your absolute best ‘zee awesome’sies’ as Aikirees would say, and keep kicking tails.
Day 5 – The entirety of the Frendedex. Initially I was going to put these all separate, but I would have had to start at 30 days instead of 20 to do so. The sheer amount of folks, friends, and memories I made across the entirety of the group we ended up calling the Frendedex is just astronomically heartwarming. Just about everyone we all met was through Mastodon itself as well, and all the things that we did and I know still continue to happen, is just so wonderful.
Camp Bronzelake Evening – one of the earliest and technically pre-Dex event.
Generally early on, they were small social gatherings just to shoot the breeze and see how everyone was doing, but not long they began to include running content and helping folks out do certain objectives. Treasure Maps being one that has been done quite a few times before and after my absence.
As we kept having these events, social or content-based, the number of folks kept getting bigger and bigger as word started to spread about the Frendedex’s existence across the Fediverse and beyond. The ones I mostly assembled were on the social-side to just gather and relax/chat about anything really. Sometimes it’s just nice to sit with a bunch of friends after a long week and just talk about things, and the subject matter widely ranged far beyond the scope of Final Fantasy XIV! It was really neat to hear what someone was doing outside the world we all have come to partake in together.
After a while, we even expanded to include the European Data Centers, and we spent the day over there having a very wonderful time with all of our friends that primarily played over there. There are countless memories and moments from all of these times we gathered that are so very cherished. What we accomplished throughout 2023 was nothing less that phenomenal.
The Frendedex has to be one of the biggest highlights of Endwalker and just Final Fantasy XIV in general in terms of all the things we did and friends we made a long the way. All the other events that spun-off from the initial ones was just as heartwarming to see and hear about as well.
So many friends, memories, and moments made during it all. I really do miss everyone, and I’m hoping once all the Dawntrail dust settles, we’ll be able to see everyone once again shortly thereafter.
Even if it’s just around a small firepit to catch up and watch the stars.
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.
I meant to do this shout out last week once it was initially posted, but derped out with everything else happening (sorry!!) Over the course of 2023 on Mastodon, we started up a community that is wholly within the social media platform for all of us who adventure around Eorzea and beyond. It’s a fairly loose and very low pressure community with no mandatory obligations of any sort; we just gather from time to time for social events and getting together to do group content as well.
Bearmine, the wonderful artist and good friend behind the work above, suggested creating a Cross-World Linkshell (CWLS) to make it easier to keep in touch while in-game. The group of us agreed and made some remarks that adding our friends to the CWLS would be akin to collecting everyone in a Pokedex from Pokemon. Nearly moments later, I chimed in with the comment ‘Frendedex!’ which became the name of the CWLS and our little (at the time) community.
A little bit later on, I decided to create a logo for our community for folks to use in various things: whether it was for posts, flyers, blogs, etc., and I got feedback from everyone in regards to the design. After a few revisions based on said feedback, the logo was completed soon thereafter. Bearmine asked for a vector copy to do something with it, and what came of it is that absolutely beautiful scenic rendition!
I highly encourage y’all to check out their work, and the link directly to the Tome of Frendedex with higher resolutions renditions is right here!
