Etched in the Stars

Quest giver: Peculiar Crystal
Location: The Tempest (X:13.8, Y:36.5)
Quest line: Post-Shadowbringers Main Scenario Quests
┗ The Voyage Home Quests
Level: 80

Experience: 22,440
Gil: 0
Previous quest: Faded Memories
Next quest: The Converging Light
Patch: 5.3
Links: EDB GT TC

Main Scenario Progress: 673 / 978 (68.8%)

Shadowbringers Progress: 132 / 157 (84.1%)

“

A peculiar crystal lies on the Capitol's polished floor.

— In-game description

Rewards

Choose one of the following options:

Steps

Examine the crystals.
Search for crystals.
Search for more crystals.
Search for yet more crystals.
Search for yet still more crystals.
Examine the crystal.
Speak with Y'shtola.

Journal

Dialogue

Accepting the Quest

A peculiar crystal lies on the floor. Upon its surface, an array of lights twinkle like a tiny constellation of stars...
Crimson Crystal: ...day forth...bring honor to the seat of...
The distorted voice of an ancient rings out in your mind. A moment preserved in the crystal, it would seem.
You notice something else glinting up ahead.

Examine the crystals

You find three more crystals lying on the floor. Though they differ in color and decoration, each is identical in shape.
You focus on the crystals, and find that the words they hold ring clearer than before.
Yellow Crystal: Behold, my friends.
Yellow Crystal: Embraced by the earth and caressed by the wind, vibrant life flourishes. All is right in creation.
Green Crystal: There can be no greater joy than to use our wisdom for the good of our people. No greater pride.
Grey Crystal: May all know happiness, now and forevermore.
There do not appear to be any more crystals in the hall. Perhaps it would be wise to continue the search outside.

Search for crystals

Your instincts serve you true, and you discover another two crystals.
As you reach out with your consciousness, new voices begin to echo in your mind...
Pale Green Crystal: The heavens are ablaze and the land rent asunder. What will become of the world? Is life itself to be denied?
Purple Crystal: Come what may, we must not surrender to despair. If we but hold fast to hope, we may yet find a path to salvation.
The voices tell an incomplete tale. Might more remain to be found?

Search for more crystals

You soon discover two more crystals. Rather too soon, in fact, as if someone wanted you to find them...
Blue Crystal: Everything burns. Crumbles. Decays. I hear the lamentations of my brethren. And soon there will be only silence.
Tuequoise Crystal: We will deliver our star from its doom, this we swear. So please, dry your tears.
Whatever awaits at the end of your search, it is plain you have yet to find it.

Search for yet more crystals

Sure enough, your persistence is swiftly rewarded, this time with three crystals.
Sky Blue Crystal: The time is come. We shall rewrite the laws of creation. And we shall save our star.
Colorless Crystal: From this life, our savior born... May I be worthy of the honor.
Pink Crystal: I feel my soul turning. Slowly but irrevocably. And the power I wield begins to seem terrible... But this is right. It is right.
The tale the crystals weave seems to near its end, but it isn't over yet...

Search for yet still more crystals

With almost melancholy inevitability, the twelfth crystal soon reveals itself to your questing eye.
Scarlet Crystal: Though salvation is ours, it came at great sacrifice. All that remains is to pray...
Scarlet Crystal: To pray that we will one day meet again, beneath a blue sky.
Judging by its testimony, it would seem the voice was recorded in the wake of the Final Days.
As you scan the area, another glint catches your eye.

Examine the crystal

Crystal: Gone is the brilliant radiance of life, replaced by the sickly glow of malformed creatures.
Crystal: Is this to be how it ends? For we who loved the star with all our being?
Crystal: No. I will not suffer it to be so.
???: Well, well. We meet again, my new old friend.
Hythlodaeus: How good of you to remember.
Hythlodaeus: Heh heh... I see you have been collecting stars.
Hythlodaeus: I speak of those crystals. They have constellations etched upon them, yes?
Hythlodaeus: High in the heavens, those stars shine their guiding light down upon the lives below. Fitting symbols for the Convocation of Fourteen, would you not agree?
Hythlodaeus: As you will have gathered, each crystal bears an account of the life of a member of the Convocation as remembered by the unsundered.
Hythlodaeus: Lest you worry, they aren't concepts; they are far too incomplete to be so. But they suffice for imbuing memories within sundered souls, that they might be restored to their office.
Hythlodaeus: Keep them. I am sure Emet-Selch wouldn't mind.
Hythlodaeus: So, how fare you of late? You are feuding with Elidibus this time, I believe?

Hythlodaeus: Hm... I shall refrain from passing comment on your struggle. It is not my place to do so, long-departed as I am.
Hythlodaeus: But if I may give voice to a personal desire...I would rather you lived.
Hythlodaeus: If you do not, how will you keep your promise to Emet-Selch? The promise to remember?
Hythlodaeus: It must weigh heavy, the burden of all those memories.
Hythlodaeus: To one who has lived a life such as yours, I can well imagine how Elidibus's existence might seem hollow─how empty his single-minded pursuit of a half-forgotten cause must appear...
Hythlodaeus: But know that his devotion is not without reason. Even if he himself can no longer remember what that reason is.
Hythlodaeus: Well, that is quite enough talk about Elidibus. I would see if you can reunite the wayward stars.
Hythlodaeus: I mentioned before that there was a member of the Convocation who opposed Zodiark's summoning and defected. One whose office was left vacant...
Hythlodaeus: Defectors having been deemed unworthy of commemoration, no crystal exists for the individual in question.
Hythlodaeus: ...Or shouldn't exist, at any rate─and wouldn't, had a friend not created one in secret.
Hythlodaeus: A crystal bearing the forgotten name of his/her office, along with a magick of his/her own conceiving ─ a singular incantation embodying his/her spirit.
Hythlodaeus: Among all the offices, the Fourteenth was most unusual. For while the rest sat in Amaurot, its holder was charged with gaining an intimate knowledge of the wider world.
Hythlodaeus: In the course of his/her duty, he/she traveled the length and breadth of every land, and befriended countless folk.
Hythlodaeus: He/She encountered troubles too, of course. Matters which he/she could simply have referred to the Convocation. But that was not his/her way.
Hythlodaeus: Nay, more often than not, he/she would call upon his/her comrades, and together resolve matters themselves.
Hythlodaeus: Such is the magick sealed within that crystal ─ the magick to summon the stars to your side.
Hythlodaeus: In time of greatest need, should you wish upon it with all your heart, it will surely answer your call.
Hythlodaeus: And now it is where it belongs.
Hythlodaeus: Oh, there is no need for thanks. But nor will I hear any complaints about it either.
Hythlodaeus: After all, I cannot say whether I act of my own volition or by the will of my recreator!

Y'shtola: I was wondering where you had disappeared to.
Y'shtola: Is something troubling you?
Y'shtola: ...No? Very well.
Y'shtola: I have everything. Let's hurry back to the surface.

Speak with Y'shtola

Y'shtola: Ahhh... Fresh air at long last. I would celebrate my return to dry land with a pot of tea ─ had we the luxury of time.
Y'shtola: But we must be prepared for Elidibus. Given what we know, it is plain he will not be deterred from his course.
Y'shtola: And nor would I, were I him. Not if it meant forsaking everything I loved.
Y'shtola: That said, I have not forgotten how Emet-Selch sought to find common ground with us, for all our misgivings.
Y'shtola: Ultimately, our differences were not to be bridged, of course, but one must always try. Emet-Selch understood this, and if his gesture resonated with you, perhaps you might consider reaching out to his brethren.
Y'shtola: Though it may all be for naught, you of all people know that there is no such thing as a foregone conclusion.