Patch 4.3

"Under the Moonlight"

Expansion: Stormblood
Release Date: 4.3 - 22 May 2018
4.31 - 5 June 2018
4.35 - 3 July 2018
4.36 - 6 August 2018
Promo Page: Link
Patch Notes: 4.3, 4.31, 4.35, 4.36

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Introduction

Patch 4.3: Under the Moonlight is the third major content update introduced for Stormblood.

Notable Features, Additions, and Changes

Note: Not all content listed here will launch on the same day. This article is about the 4.3x season as a whole.

Main Story Summary (Spoilers)

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Lore

The arrival of imperial envoys in the land of Doma was as unexpected as their stated purpose: to negotiate peace. Lord Hien, eager to secure the release of his conscripted countrymen, cautiously accepted the agreement, and arranged for a prisoner exchange. Yet even as Doma was poised to welcome the breaking dawn, the shadow of the fallen Zenos enfolded all in darkness and uncertainty.

Gosetsu And Tsuyu

It was no secret that Gosetsu had returned from his ordeal rather the worse for wear. Despite his best efforts to conceal his condition, one day he collapsed in full view of others. Upon visiting the bedridden samurai, however, the Warrior of Light and his companions were relieved to find him well on the path to recovery. Yotsuyu, meanwhile, seemed much the same as when they had last seen her—a child in a woman’s body—and after spying on her from the shadows for a time, even Yugiri was forced to concede that Yotsuyu’s plight was genuine. Convinced, Hien decided that she would be allowed to live out her days in Doma as “Tsuyu.”

To this end, Hien needed to present Yotsuyu to the ambassador one last time to prove that her memory was truly gone. However, before they could do so, Yotsuyu somehow managed to leave the safety of the Kienkan and cross the river. At first, there were fears that her memory had returned and that she had fled, but in truth, she had traveled to Namai in search of the persimmons Gosetsu had enjoyed in his youth.

Alas, when she approached the people there, they recoiled in horror, for they recognized the former viceroy at once and thought her a vengeful spirit come to seek her revenge. When Hien and the others arrived to retrieve her, the villagers begged him to strike her down, to rid them of this canker, but he would not, and declared to one and all that until such time as her memories returned, she would be known as “Tsuyu,” and treated as a citizen of Doma.

That time was fast approaching, though, for upon hearing the villager’s accusations, Yotsuyu had fallen to her knees and begged for forgiveness, as if she knew within her heart that every word of it was true. She showed similar signs of recollection when she was later brought before Asahi, who had arranged a surprise reunion between his sister and the adoptive parents who had heaped emotional and physical abuse upon her since childhood. In spite of this, the ambassador did not object when she begged leave to return to the enclave, clutching the persimmon she sought to deliver to Gosetsu.

A Fate Embraced

When she returned to the Kienkan, eyes red from weeping, Yotsuyu spoke not a word, and simply sat and peeled the fruit she had brought for the grizzled samurai. However, when a maidservant looked in on her later, she found that the former viceroy had vanished without a trace. Hien cursed his naivety—doubtless it would have been a simple matter for one trained as an imperial spy to escape an unguarded room.

During a cursory search of the enclave, the Warrior of Light came upon Yotsuyu’s parents—her mother, dead; her father, dying. Through the power of the Echo, he saw that the former viceroy, having recovered her memories, had slipped away to end her own life. However, when confronted once more by her two tormentors, who remained utterly unrepentant to the last, she burst into laughter and resigned herself to a different fate. She turned the dagger she had intended for herself on her parents, and as she stood over their bodies, Asahi stepped from the shadows..and applauded. Promising her the power to seize a deeper vengeance, he led her away, leaving his own flesh and blood lying in the dirt.

In Darkness Blooms The Spider Lily

Despite this turn of events, Hien was determined to bring the Doman conscripts home, come what may. At Castrum Fluminis, he and his retinue met with the Populares delegation, and as Hien and Asahi set about trading pleasantries, it seemed for a moment that the exchange would proceed without incident..until Yotsuyu made her appearance. Declaring her intent to rule over Doma once more, she held aloft a Kojin relic, and began to draw upon crystals hidden within the surrounding supply crates, transforming at last into the primal Tsukuyomi. With no hope of besting such a foe, Hien ruefully turned his attention to evacuating the Doman conscripts, leaving the Warrior of Light and his Echo-blessed comrades to face Yotsuyu’s vengeful avatar alone.

But for all her defiant proclamations and righteous anger, a sliver of doubt remained. Unable to marshal her full strength at first, Yotsuyu called upon the specters of those who had made her suffer. They of Doma and the Empire—her parents, her brother, and even Zenos yae Galvus. Yet one came unbidden to join this multitude: Gosetsu, whose manifestation fought instead to protect her, to urge her to turn away from the brink. But it was not meant to be.

In the end, as Yotsuyu lay before the Warrior of Light, humbled and bereft of her celestial majesty, Asahi appeared and shot her in cold blood, seemingly bent on finishing what the hero had begun. Delighting in his victory, he mocked the Warrior of Lights futile efforts to salvage the peace treaty that had been invalidated by Yotsuyu’s act of sum-moning, before berating and beating his fallen sibling in a final fit of petulance. His triumph was short-lived, however, as Yotsuyu summoned the last of her strength to run her hated stepbrother through. Her hunger for vengeance sated, she turned her thoughts to Gosetsu before succumbing to her wounds.

Emissary of the Dawn

While Asahi lay dying, the Warrior of Light witnessed a vision of an encounter with Zenos, who by all rights, should have been dead and buried at the time. The ambassador had been dispatched to undermine the Populares by orchestrating a summoning and in so doing remind the Garlean people of the threat primals pose. Yet even as the Warrior of Light pondered how to break the news of this troubling development, Maxima, the late Asahi’s second-in-command, hailed Lord Hien from afar. To their relief, he had come to trade words and not blows, and as acting ambassador declared his intention to honor the original agreement between Doma and the Empire—for unlike Asahi, he was a true supporter of the Populares. Regrettably, he then confirmed their worst fears: Zenos was alive.

Suspecting Ascian involvement, Alphinaud offered to accompany Maxima back to Garlemald—much to his sister’s dismay. The Scion insisted that it would be the most effective means by which they could advance their agenda, and so Lord Hien designated him an ambassador of Doma that he might be afforded a measure of diplomatic protection in his travels. Thus did the Warrior of Light and the others bid farewell to the Garlean delegation, their relief at salvaging a chance for peace tempered by a sense of deep foreboding... ^[1]

References

↑ Encyclopaedia Eorzea: Volume II, page 63-64

[1] Encyclopaedia Eorzea: Volume II, page 63-64

[1]

Patch 4.3

Contents

Introduction

Notable Features, Additions, and Changes

New Content

System Changes and Additions

Miscellaneous