History FinalFantasyXIV / TropesPToR

* PillarOfLight: [[spoiler: The confrontation between Omega and the newly-born Shinryu at the end of ''Heavensward'''s story concludes with their BeamOWar unleashing one, with the backlash knocking both out of commission and sending the two crashing down on the far side of Baelsar's Wall in Gyr Abania, where they will be encountered in ''Stormblood''.]]

* PurelyAestheticGender: The Warrior of Light can be either male or female, and it will have no effect on their stats whatsoever. Although races have a few (negligible) points of difference in starting stats, there is no stat difference at all between genders. There's a few pieces of cosmetic gear that can only be worn by men and some that can only be worn by women, but these are all at Level 1 and only for the purpose of glamours. And recent patches have removed the gender lock on many of these.

* PurelyAestheticGender: The Warrior of Light can be either male or female, and it will have no effect on their stats whatsoever. Although races have a few (negligible) points of difference in starting stats, there is no stat difference at all between genders. There's a few pieces of cosmetic gear that can only be worn by men and some that can only be worn by women, but these are all at Level 1 and only for the purpose of glamours.

** Dear God. The dyeing of armor simply makes it ''worse'', as players can't tell what color an item will be before buying it/accepting it from a quest reward, and don't unlock the ability to dye armor in the first place until level 15. Those first fifteen levels are eye-searing. A patch somewhat alleviates the problems by showing the player what color the gear is dyed in via the item window. However, if it's not the colors, then it's the type of gear worn. For example, it's possible for a mage player to wear a robe, a pair of tights, sandals, mittens, and a straw hat with a flower on it. Even if you have matching colors, they won't matter if you look ridiculous with the kind of gear you wear and it gets even worse when you get gear that ''can't'' be dyed at all; most of the unique gear are unable to be dyed. Hope you enjoy looking gaudy and mismatched! Patch 2.2 finally fixes the problem by allowing players to glamour their gear to take on the appearance of another piece of gear without affecting their stats. However, patch 3.1 brings back the trope in spades with gear obtained from the Diadem where ''all'' the gear found there have randomized glamours. Luckily, you can remove the glamours and replace them with your own.

* PlotParallel: The events in ''Endwalker'''s level 90 dungeon, [[spoiler:the Dead Ends]], parallel the events of the entire game up til that point. [[spoiler:The "sixth end", a race of seadwellers dying of disease, mirrors the 13th and the First dying of Floods of Darkness and Light respectively; the "eighth end", a world torn apart by war, is reminiscent of Garlemald's war against the rest of the world; and had the Final Days not happened, the Ancients were heavily implied to be on a societal trajectory towards the same situation as the "seventeenth end", a race with NothingLeftToDoButDie.]]

** Dear God. The dying of armor simply makes it ''worse'', as players can't tell what color an item will be before buying it/accepting it from a quest reward, and don't unlock the ability to dye armor in the first place until level 15. Those first fifteen levels are eye-searing. A patch somewhat alleviates the problems by showing the player what color the gear is dyed in via the item window. However, if it's not the colors, then it's the type of gear worn. For example, it's possible for a mage player to wear a robe, a pair of tights, sandals, mittens, and a straw hat with a flower on it. Even if you have matching colors, they won't matter if you look ridiculous with the kind of gear you wear and it gets even worse when you get gear that ''can't'' be dyed at all; most of the unique gear are unable to be dyed. Hope you enjoy looking gaudy and mismatched! Patch 2.2 finally fixes the problem by allowing players to glamour their gear to take on the appearance of another piece of gear without affecting their stats. However, patch 3.1 brings back the trope in spades with gear obtained from the Diadem where ''all'' the gear found there have randomized glamours. Luckily, you can remove the glamours and replace them with your own.

* ReformationAcknowledgment: Fordola is made a BoxedCrook following the liberation of Ala Mhigo from Garlean rule. Given her countless abuses as a WellIntentionedExtremist attempting to drag her country kicking and screaming to prosperity under Garlean rule, the Ala Mhigan citizenry remain wary of her even after she tries to turn over a new leaf. Despite this, she willingly acts as a primal-killing weapon for the Ala Mhigan Resistance, going back and forth from her cell without complaint even with the ExplosiveLeash around her neck. But by the end of the ''Endwalker'' healer role quests, [[spoiler:her actions have earned her enough trust to remove her strangulation collar. She then joins the Warrior of Light and the Ilsabardian Contingent in putting an end to the last blasphemy in Garlemald.]]

* RealitySubtext: During the delayed 2021 Halloween themed All Saints Wake event[[note]]Originally set to November, which was already late, got pushed back to January instead due to Endwalker's delay[[/note]], the Investigator explains to you that the Continental Circus has been conspicuously missing. This is in reference to the fact that the All Saints Wake event of 2020 was straight up cancelled because of Covid-19.

** RelaxOVision: One of the gathering-based Studium quest chains you can take involves helping a student, T'laqa Tia, with his research into aetherology. The reason he needs assistance is T'laqa Tia is ''very'' prone to aether sickness, such that he can't use any of the aether based transportation or teleportation systems the player makes liberal use of. When demonstrating just how bad he has it, the scene is replaced by a screen of himself in a field of flowers looking at a fairy as the dialogue makes very clear he's losing his lunch everywhere.

* {{Retcon}}: In Stormblood's ''Return to Ivalice'' raid questline, an important plot element is that people's emotions, desires, etc. are comprised of what's called incorporeal aether, a variant of the aether that makes up one's soul, and this incorporeal aether influences aetherically sensitive objects like auracite and can be detected by aether monitoring equipment and so on. Early on in Endwalker, the player is treated to a literal lecture on how things like thoughts and memories are distinct from one's aether and not comprised of aether at all. The reason why this change occurred is fairly obvious, as later on [[spoiler:the plot hinges on Dynamis, a power that is fueled and directed by emotions but is incompatible with aether. Obviously that wouldn't really work if, as previously stated, emotions ''are'' aether.]]

* RealityWarper: Primals on some level seem to be capable of this. A notable example would be the [[spoiler:Tsukuyomi fight. The battle begins in the middle of an Imperial castrum, yet as the fight enters the final phase, the arena shifts into a wooden platform outside in the middle of a forest. Yet after she is defeated, you are back in the castrum.]]

** This [[spoiler:"Creation Magic"]] also explains the crafting system, as well as why the Primals need so many crystals. [[spoiler:The pre-split original world had beings strong enough to do creation magic with their own power. In the fragmented world of the Source and the fragment worlds, external aether is required -- crystals. This is why crafting requires crystals, and why primals can only be summoned -- or rather created, as had already been revealed in ''Heavensward'' -- with vast amounts of the same.]]

** In ''Shadowbringers'', the Warrior of Light seems to catch the attention of a rather irate-looking shoebill stork. While at first it shows up in reasonable places, things start getting strange when it shows up at The Tempest, which is [[spoiler:an air bubble at the bottom of the sea]] which it probably shouldn't be able to reach. Then [[spoiler:it drops as a minion from Amaurot]], which it ''definitely'' shouldn't be able to reach. Regardless if you get the companion pet or not, it'll keep showing up as an EasterEgg for the rest of the expansion until 5.3's MSQ is finished, where it takes to hanging out near your inn room in the Crystarium, eventually making itself at home on the table and even eating the sandwich the Crystal Exarch left for you!

** Ironically, this whole pretext [[spoiler: is revealed to be a ''lie'' designed by the Ascians, who secretly founded the Empire as a tool to cause further Calamities. Not only do the Asicans actively aid beast tribes and rogue elements such as the Ishgardian heretics and the Ala Mhigan rebels in summonings, but they falsified the truth behind the Burn to make it look like it was a result of excess aether consumption by Primals. It was in fact caused by Allagan tech; ''another'' evil empire the Ascians had a hand in. With the Garleans effectively brainwashed into thinking the rest of the world are primitive savages who need to be conquered to stop the world's destruction, this allows the Ascians to fuel a ForeverWar between Garlemald and the rest of Hydaelyn's inhabitants...allowing for more opportunities to cause Umbral Calamities.]]

* PacifismIsCowardice: Sharlayan has an extremely strict non-interventionist policy, its leaders declaring that the nation will only record history, not make it. As such, it refuses to help Eorzea against the Garlean Empire, deriding the Eorzeans as savages and barbarians for resorting to a war of defense. Louisoix and the Circle of Knowing left Sharlayan because they got tired of this HeadInTheSandManagement regarding the crises going on around the world. [[spoiler:Even when TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt is upon them, the Sharlayans continue to remain TeamSwitzerland [[StupidNeutral even though their nation will be in ruins too]], much to the Eorzeans' bewilderment.]]

** That said, [[spoiler:the trope is ultimately subverted as of ''Endwalker'', because the above stated pacifism stance from the high council of Sharlayan is a ruse for what they're really doing: building a generational ship to save humanity from the Final Days. They can't divert any resources from that mission and they also literally can't tell anyone about their plans due to a magical charm placed on them to protect the project. That said, they are still genuine in their stance that the world outside Sharlayan is filled with violent savages, and it takes some character development for Fourchenalt to realize that there is value in taking action, even if it involves violence, to bring about a greater good. Specifically when the Warrior of Light finds a way to save their planet that would stop them from needing to flee.]]

* PointOfNoReturn: Completing the main story quest "Death Unto Dawn", which takes you from ''Shadowbringers'' to ''Endwalker'', and having at least one week of playtime in-game will cause that character to permanently lose their status as a new account. This newbie status is represented by the two-leafed sprout icon next to your name; reaching the playtime and completing the duty will give you a message that the game no longer considers you new, and the sprout will vanish. Before this point, you could toggle the sprout on or off with the [=/nastatus=] command in the chat box. But once you reach ''Endwalker'', this command no longer works, and the sprout is gone for good.

* PointOfNoReturn: Completing the duty "Death Unto Dawn", which takes you from ''Shadowbringers'' to ''Endwalker'', and having at least one week of playtime in-game will cause you to lose your status as a "new player" if you still have it. This newbie status is represented by the two-leafed sprout icon next to your name; reaching the playtime and completing the duty will give you a message that you're no longer new, and will cause the sprout to vanish. Once the sprout is gone, there is no way to regain it for that character.[[note]]Before this point, you can toggle the sprout on or off with the /nastatus command; once you reach ''Endwalker'', it's gone for good.[[/note]]

* PossessingADeadBody: Ascians can do this, in addition to possessing living people, as shown when [[spoiler:Elidibus possesses Zenos after his death]].

* PostFinalBoss: [[spoiler:Lahabrea is the post final boss to the Ultima Weapon for the 2.0 story line. Lahabrea's attacks are not too threatening and the party has the blessing from the mother crystal, which grants them boosted power and HP regeneration. Compared to the Ultima Weapon, Lahabrea is a total joke.]]
** From a narrative perspective, [[spoiler:Tsukuyomi]] serves as this to the ''Stormblood'' expansion, compared to Nidhogg who was essentially the FinalBoss of the ''Heavensward'' storyline. Compared to King Thordan for instance, who narratively is more of a ClimaxBoss in the ''Heavensward'' storyline, the battle against [[spoiler:Zenos as Shinryu]] definitely concludes the main storyline of Stormblood, with the patches 4.1-4.3 essentially wrapping up most of the loose ends, with [[spoiler:Yotsuyu as Tsukuyomi and her brother]] being the final ''Stormblood'' plot thread to tie up before 4.4-4.55 set up the next expansion, just as 3.4-3.55 set up ''Stormblood''. Shadowbringers zig-zags this with [[spoiler:Elidibus]] as while narratively he's the tying-up-loose-threads boss, difficulty-wise he's on par with [[spoiler:Hades/Emet-Selch]].

* PlotParallel: The events in ''Endwalker'''s level 90 dungeon, [[spoiler:the Dead Ends]], parallel the events of the entire game up til that point. [[spoiler:The "sixth end", a race of seadwellers dying of disease, mirrors the 13th and the First dying of Floods of Darkness and Light respectively; the "eighth end", a world torn apart by war, is reminiscent of Garlemald's war against the rest of the world; and the "seventeenth end", a race with NothingLeftToDoButDie, is what the Meteia hivemind thinks the Ancients would have reached eventually.]]