I Wandered Sharlayan as a Minstrel

See also: Songs in the Key of Kugane and Minstrel from Another Mother

Quest giver: Wandering Minstrel
Location: Old Sharlayan (X:12.7, Y:14.3)
Level: 90
Required quest: Endwalker
Patch: 6.0

“

No description available.

— In-game description

I Wandered Sharlayan as a Minstrel is a level 90 quasi-quest that serves as an unlock method for extreme-difficulty trials and ultimate-difficulty raids in Endwalker. There are no steps to this quest: talking to the questgiver both accepts and completes the quest.

Though the quest is "completed" upon talking to the Wandering Minstrel, players must go back and talk to him again each time they complete the necessary prerequisites in order to unlock the associated extreme- or ultimate-difficulty encounter.

Unlocks

Dialogue

Wandering Minstrel: <gasp> Who should stand before me but the savior of the very star─the inimitable ender of the end! Your deeds are sung of far and wide, my friend!
Wandering Minstrel: As I understand it, your quest for the world's salvation brought you to Sharlayan. I, too, am here on a quest of sorts─the quest for musical inspiration.
Wandering Minstrel: Alas, magnificent though this repository of knowledge may be, I find there is only so much inspiration I can derive from tomes...
Wandering Minstrel: But where tomes alone fail to inspire, living words may yet spark the imagination!
Wandering Minstrel: So I beg you, will you not regale me with the tale of your quest to deliver the star? If such an adventure isn't fit to be an epic, I would not know what is!
Wandering Minstrel: Drawing upon both your firsthand account and the knowledge I attain here, I believe that I shall be able to weave the most marvelous of verses!
Wandering Minstrel: Should you be willing, pray let me know. I shall continue my research here in the meantime.

Talk about Zodiark.

Wandering Minstrel: Greetings, my friend. If you have a tale to share, this minstrel is all ears!
Wandering Minstrel: Oho, what manner of thrilling adventure might this be?
Wandering Minstrel: Good gods, a battle on the moon with Zodiark, eldest and mightiest of primals... I pride myself on my imagination, but your feats transcend aught my mind could possibly conceive.
Wandering Minstrel: Against all odds, you struck down the puissant being, yet triumph quickly turned to tragedy, for Zodiark's fall proved to be the trigger for the Final Days...
Wandering Minstrel: ...Yes. Yes, the words well up within me. Pray lend them an ear.
Wandering Minstrel: Born of ancient men, a divinity was freed,♪
Their hopes unrequited, they knew no reprieve.♪
Wandering Minstrel: Born of mortal men, a champion did arise,♪
Ascending to the heavens, ruination to defy.♪
Wandering Minstrel: That the ancients should sacrifice half their number to save the star... The strength of their resolve makes me tremble in admiration.
Wandering Minstrel: Even as it saddens me to think that one of their own would seek to lay it all to waste, so deep was his despair...
Wandering Minstrel: Not having lived their lives, I feel decidedly unworthy to speak of their hearts. Better that the whole truth remain with you, and you alone.
Wandering Minstrel: Let it suffice for me to honor a fragment of their hopes and dreams in song, that their lives and sacrifice may ever be remembered.
A new high-end duty has been added to the Raid Finder.

Talk about Hydaelyn.

Wandering Minstrel: Greetings, my friend. If you have a tale to share, this minstrel is all ears!
Wandering Minstrel: Hm-hm, this promises to be a most rousing adventure!
Wandering Minstrel: In order to prove your readiness to avert the Final Days, you undertook a trial imposed by no less a being than the will of the star, Hydaelyn Herself...
Wandering Minstrel: It staggers the mind to imagine such an encounter, to say naught of the thousands of years that Venat had resolved to wait.
Wandering Minstrel: ...Yes, I daresay I have a song. You will listen to it now, of course?
Wandering Minstrel: Though eons apart, two kindred souls met,♪
Apart they would walk, all life to protect.♪
Wandering Minstrel: Eons thence, their paths would converge,♪
As goddess and mortal, to silence the dirge.♪
Wandering Minstrel: For time beyond counting, Hydaelyn waited for you in patience and faith. And when at last you were reunited, even as She desperately wished for you to surpass Her, She knew She could not hold back─and did not.
Wandering Minstrel: Hers was an unenviable burden...and a noble sacrifice. Tears well in my eyes to imagine the hardships She has had to endure.
Wandering Minstrel: But it comforts me to know that Her long journey was not in vain. That Her hopes passed on to you.
Wandering Minstrel: This tale is an epic among epics, and full honored am I to have been given the chance to weave a song for it. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you.
A new high-end duty has been added to the Raid Finder.

Talk about the Endsinger.

Wandering Minstrel: Greetings, my friend. If you have a tale to share, this minstrel is all ears!
Wandering Minstrel: A battle at the edge of existence, you say? Against a fearsome being known as the Endsinger...
Wandering Minstrel: It goes without saying that I should like to hear about this! Pray, recount to me the tale of your mission from beginning to end!
Wandering Minstrel: Good gods... I had known about the chaos of the Final Days, but never could I have imagined the events which brought them about.
Wandering Minstrel: I do wonder, though... Where might this Ultima Thule be located?
Wandering Minstrel: Lest you misunderstand, I speak not of its physical location. If we wished to know that, I daresay we could have the coordinates from the Loporrits.
Wandering Minstrel: Nay, my friend. What I speak of, rather, is its essence.
Wandering Minstrel: According to your description, 'tis a space where emotions dictate reality. It seems to me that, in such a place, it would be nigh impossible to draw a line between what is real and what is felt.
Wandering Minstrel: In nature, there is a phenomenon wherein the structure of a massive object may resemble that of something diminutive.
Wandering Minstrel: Might it not be possible, then, that the structure of the sea of stars resembles that of the heart and mind─of the complex mechanisms that govern our feelings?
Wandering Minstrel: On the assumption that it is so, I am led to wonder: what was the true nature of the Endsinger?
Wandering Minstrel: What was it exactly that you defied at the edge of existence?
Wandering Minstrel: Haha, these are just the wild ramblings of a minstrel. Pray do not lose sleep over it.
Wandering Minstrel: Still, I must say that the idea of an entity that hoards despair has quite roused my imagination. For instance...
Wandering Minstrel: Had the Endsinger succeeded in gathering but a few more stars' worth of despair─nay, perhaps even that of a few more souls─might the outcome have been different?
Wandering Minstrel: Yes, I believe I shall explore such an eventuality in song!
Wandering Minstrel: The light of hope kindled by your comrades is brilliant. Alas, so dark is the despair you face, not even that light can pierce it...
Wandering Minstrel: An inexorable verse of oblivion, performed at the farthest reaches of existence... I shall name it: the Endsinger's Aria!
A new high-end duty has been added to the Raid Finder.

Talk about Barbariccia.

Wandering Minstrel: Greetings, my friend. If you have a tale to share, this minstrel is all ears!
Wandering Minstrel: Good gods, a battle in the void! You've certainly wasted no time seeking out newfound adventure... By all means, regale me with the thrilling details!
Wandering Minstrel: A world without death, where the strong devour the weak... And a woman touched by Darkness, who possesses the power to seal voidsent... Fascinating stuff indeed.
Wandering Minstrel: But this archfiend Barbariccia, as cruel as she is ravishing... Though she is fearsome enough by your account, I cannot help but wonder: what if she had devoured more of the great wyrm's aether? How terribly bright might her soul have shone then?
Wandering Minstrel: ...Yes, they come to me, the beginnings of a new verse. Pray listen, if you will.
Wandering Minstrel: In armor black, from shadowed lair,♪
The knight, with steely voice, declared.♪
A dragon's freedom he did steal,♪
Vict'ry in his crusade to seal.♪
Wandering Minstrel: Wind made flesh, the archfiend fair,♪
Her pride, her long and lustrous hair.♪
On dragon soul she feasted well,♪
A tempest freed to toll the knell.♪
Wandering Minstrel: Fighting to devour. Devouring to fight. Should the day come when this wheel is broken, would a voidsent greet her end with a wail of anguish? Or would she heave a sigh of relief?
Wandering Minstrel: Whichever it may be, 'tis ironic to think that a soul who had sought freedom, and for so long, should end up being imprisoned in cold crystal.
Wandering Minstrel: Thus I would sing of that final battle. For in that lightless world, 'tis in such a moment, I believe, that their lives shine the brightest.
A new high-end duty has been added to the Raid Finder.

Talk about Rubicante.

Wandering Minstrel: Greetings, my friend. If you have a tale to share, this minstrel is all ears!
Wandering Minstrel: The voidsent thought to cross the rift and launch an assault on our world? Goodness, and here I thought you might find a reprieve from your dealings with the void and its denizens. Pray, tell me more.
Wandering Minstrel: I see... Theirs was a world bereft of true death, and so they sought its release in ours. A most curious impetus to take action, would you not agree?
Wandering Minstrel: And this Rubicante... He too was prepared to embrace his end with open arms. Yet I cannot help but wonder: had he drank deeper of the dragon's aether, how brightly might his soul have burned ere it flickered and failed?
Wandering Minstrel: Hmmm... I do believe this quandary has inspired the makings of a new verse. If you might lend me your ear a moment?
Wandering Minstrel: In armor black, the knight did ride♪
To claim lands wherein death resides.♪
Thither would his people know♪
The silent gift of death's great flow.♪
Wandering Minstrel: Honor bound, a fiend of fire.♪
Forged in battle, honed by ire.♪
He stood defiant, soul ablaze,♪
Heart heavy with sins of bygone days.♪
Wandering Minstrel: In another life, one might say he had the heart of a hero true. A heart broken, perhaps, by the bitter truth that the void could not be saved without sacrifice.
Wandering Minstrel: Yet he was willing to offer up his soul to become a monster, dying to uphold his ideals. A heroic sacrifice in his eyes, no doubt.
Wandering Minstrel: The circumstances of his death aside, I believe such a noble soul is worthy of remembrance in song, that people may look back on the man that he was rather than the beast he became.
A new high-end duty has been added to the Raid Finder.

Talk about Golbez.

Wandering Minstrel: Ah, the knight clad in armor black... Pray tell me of your encounter with him beyond the veil─and spare no detail.
Wandering Minstrel: So the true motive for his crusade was the salvation of his brethren. Thus did he pervert Azdaja's yearning to return home into a force capable of breaking down the barrier between worlds.
Wandering Minstrel: For one that speaks of deliverance, concocting a plot that would condemn the souls of another world to death rings decidedly unheroic...
Wandering Minstrel: Nonetheless, I feel inspired with a new verse. Pray lend me your ears.
Wandering Minstrel: For home, the shackled wyrm did yearn,♪
Stained by shadow, her nature turned.♪
In darkness did her captor swear,♪
To claim his kind their stolen share.♪
Wandering Minstrel: Only salvation would suffice,♪
Another world to pay the price.♪
Hailed hero, or branded villain,♪
Deeds never to be forgiven.♪
Wandering Minstrel: What could have driven him to such ends? To sacrifice the very souls he hoped to save? To give rise to an entity born of such sorrow as Zeromus?
Wandering Minstrel: He is worthy of contempt for his deeds, of that, there is no doubt. Yet all was done for the salvation of his people... One cannot help but be drawn to such a tale.
A new high-end duty has been added to the Raid Finder.

Talk about Zeromus.

Wandering Minstrel: The dread beast Zeromus. 'Twas a battle that shook the very heavens, I'm sure. Naught less would befit an adversary named for a fallen champion of the Thirteenth. If you are willing to share, a captive audience stands before you.
Wandering Minstrel: Hoho, so you countered baleful Dark with resplendent Light. And what a fascinating twist to the tale for Zero, denizen of the void, to wield it. To be possessed of the strength of spirit to forge her own future in so brazen a fashion!
Wandering Minstrel: Though in truth, knowing she is part voidsent, I would have expected the Light to refuse her outright. I shudder to think what might have happened if it had. To her, to Azdaja, to this very star...
Wandering Minstrel: From musings of darkest despair springs forth a song of hope. If I may...
Wandering Minstrel: From dregs of Dark did Zeromus rise,♪
To claim the flesh of wyrm as its guise.♪
Bereft of death, its kin left to weep,♪
As fiend unleashed sought home and release.♪
From selfsame shade did rise a dark knight,♪
A void-kissed child now graced by the Light.♪
'Twas she who dared to defy her fate,♪
And by her hand damnation's wheel break.♪
Wandering Minstrel: For a mercy, it seems Zero has found a way to save not only her voidsent kin, but her home as well. And while Golbez may have committed terrible deeds, that he yet lives means that he may yet do good.
Wandering Minstrel: The nigh-fathomless Darkness of Zeromus contained within the memoria crystal shall pave a path of newfound hope.
Wandering Minstrel: An arduous path, to be sure, but one they shall walk together. And at journey's end, I pray, the Thirteenth will flourish with life once more.
A new high-end duty has been added to the Raid Finder.

Talk about the Dragonsong War.

Wandering Minstrel: The Dragonsong War, you say?
Wandering Minstrel: Quite some time has passed since that conflict drew to a close.
Wandering Minstrel: But having now survived the threat of the Final Days, I believe we may reflect more deeply upon the emotions that had driven man and dragon both. By all means, recount your tale for me.
Wandering Minstrel: I see, I see...
Wandering Minstrel: I profess to weave words for a living...but on this occasion, they utterly fail me.
Wandering Minstrel: Yet this much, I will say: like an unwatched fire, pain and loss mustn't be left untended. For they were the embers that kindled a thousand-year conflict.
Wandering Minstrel: Tell me, my friend. Have you ever dwelled on that dark moment? Dwelled on what may have come to pass if the life which was lost was spared instead?
Wandering Minstrel: 'Tis said there are no ifs in history, yet man is wont to cast his mind towards the path not walked.
Wandering Minstrel: In acknowledgement of this, I would sing of alternate eventualities...
Wandering Minstrel: By naught but vigilance may silver mail endure,
Javelin's point never touch a comrade pure.♪
Wandering Minstrel: Look back upon the paths we failed to take,
And prepare for the trials that lie in wait.♪
Wandering Minstrel: As you may have noticed, I drew inspiration from the words the Archon Louisoix wrote in his journals in allusion to the Dragonsong War.
Wandering Minstrel: Some may dismiss the exercise as wishful pining. But by thus reflecting upon the past, I believe that we shall be better braced for the future.
Wandering Minstrel: So when you have a quiet moment, perhaps you too might look back and imagine it—the tale as it might have unfolded...
A new high-end duty has been added to the Raid Finder.

Talk about Omega.

Wandering Minstrel: Ah, the dreadful machine of war. Pray describe its every detail, that I might conjure an image in my mind.
Wandering Minstrel: A four-legged entity, armored as if in a shiny black carapace. Like a beetle forged from darkened steel...
Wandering Minstrel: Hmmm. Why does that description sound so very familiar?
Wandering Minstrel: Ah, yes! I have seen this contraption trundling about town!
Wandering Minstrel: Yet surely that cannot be the same deadly Omega of which you speak? Such a tiny thing, and its chocobo-like companion seems so sweet and inquisitive.
Wandering Minstrel: ...Fascinating. You say Omega's prime directive was to improve itself through battle. Thus did it conduct an “interdimensional experiment” following its awakening in the present day.
Wandering Minstrel: A process through which it hoped to define─and ultimately adopt─the intangible strength of mortal spirit...
Wandering Minstrel: And the being known as Alpha was created to facilitate this pursuit?
Wandering Minstrel: Yet how does one define the heart of man?
Wandering Minstrel: We never question that we all possess such heart, and I have witnessed myself how unyielding hope can manifest with palpable effect.
Wandering Minstrel: The underlying concept, however, is nebulous at best. If we lacked the terms to describe it, would we even recognize its existence within ourselves?
Wandering Minstrel: Put another way, should we lack the means to be aware of such indefinable strength, could it still potentially exist?
Wandering Minstrel: Pray excuse my philosophical musings. I am merely entertaining the possibilities.
Wandering Minstrel: Yet what is a minstrel for, if not to entertain the idea of that which might be?
Wandering Minstrel: If Omega's experiment had continued a while longer, would it have arrived at the answer it sought? Let us imagine the tableau...
A new high-end duty has been added to the Raid Finder.

Default

Wandering Minstrel: Greetings, my friend. If you have a tale to share, this minstrel is all ears!
Wandering Minstrel: ...Nothing for now? Not to put undue pressure upon you, but the folk here are quite taken by the songs inspired by your tales. They await the next with bated breath, and I hope to be able to deliver ere long─with inspiration from your good self.

I Wandered Sharlayan as a Minstrel

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