The Sins of Antiquity

I...We must press on with our mission. Tataru, pray return to your duties at the Forgotten Knight.

Let us go and speak with Ser Aymeric, Forename. I worry for his well-being.

Optional dialogue

Tataru

Everyone's on edge these days. They're drinking more—which is good for business, admittedly—but they're doing it for all the wrong reasons...

Speaking with Aymeric at the Congregation of Our Knights Most Heavenly

Temple Knight Guard

An audience with the lord commander? Yes, yes of course...

Proceed to the Seat of the Lord Commander? (Yes/No)

Optional dialogue

Estinien

Curse those bloody whoresons and piss on their swiving round table.

I... Hm.

Ser Aymeric...

Start of voiced cutscene.

My friends. I am in your debt.

Think nothing of it. Your wounds are healing well, I trust?

Some wounds do not heal...

[Start of Echo flashback.]

The founding, the scriptures - a thousand years of lies - all to deceive the common man!

Nay, our own brothers and sisters - for the blood of the knights twelve flows within all our veins! you knew this to be true. You knew and you concealed it!

I should be interested to hear how you came by this knowledge. But yes, you have the right of it.

The architects of Ishgard, King Thordan and his knights twelve, entrapped and butchered the great wyrm Ratatoskr, that they might partake of her eyes, and thereby transcend their mortal limits.

Upon learning of their treachery, Nidhogg was consumed with a murderous - and justified - rage. I daresay you know what followed...

The great wyrm slew the king and half of his knights.

Aye...but Nidhogg was subdued, and his eyes plucked from their sockets by the knights that remained.

Their one mistake was to show mercy, for from his brother Hraesvelgr did Nidhogg receive a new eye, thus rejuvenating his form and empowering him to embark upon an eternal quest for vengeance.

...Whilst Thordan's son Haldrath took one of Nidhogg's eyes and learned to wield its power in defense of his people...

Thus was the first Azure Dragoon born. And ever since that time, his honored successors have risen to drive Nidhogg from our lands whenever the wyrm has returned to plague us.

I ask you, my son: will you answer for my sins? Will your son and his son answer for me as well?

What do you mean?

If a man cannot atone for his sins in the course of his all-too-fleeting life, must his progeny then be held to account? Must every subsequent generation be judged as well?

Thordan's betrayal of Ratatoskr was an unconscionable, unforgivable sin.

Should we, then, as his descendants, meekly surrender ourselves to an eternity of punishment?

Nay, say I. I would not see our children sacrificed in a vain attempt to appease an implacable foe.

Dragons are not like us, my son. To they who live forever, the wrongs of antiquity are as those of yesterday. No reparations shall ever suffice.

This fact alone should serve as ample justification for our actions, yet some refuse to see it as such. For men like you, who yearn to commit themselves to a nobler cause, a more compelling narrative is required.

This is your solution!? This is how you protect our people?

You have given us a lost cause! A death sentence! With your compelling narrative, you but doom our countrymen to give their lives for a lie!

And they do so gladly. Highborn and lowborn alike are proud to serve - to fight and die for this country.

And what would you say to them?

What would you tell the wives who have lost their husbands, the mothers who have lost their sons? ... That their loved ones died for naught?

I...

Over the course of a thousand years, countless men have donned these robes, and every one of them came to accept the necessity of this solution. Once, I hoped you might come to accept it as well.

Do not despair, my son. Soon I shall free us from the sins of antiquity...

And bring about the change you so fervently desire.

If he has spoken with others, I would have their names. Escort him to a cell and question him - thoroughly.

Zephirin

Your Eminence.

[End of Echo flashback.]

You saw something, did you not? A vision of the past?

So this is the power of the Echo. Would that it had shown you a finer moment from my past.

'Twas an exercise in futility, as you saw. Faced with the firmity of his conviction and his many ready rejoinders, my words deserted me. To be frank, I am embarrassed to recall it.

A friend once impressed upon me the importance of differentiating between words, deeds, and beliefs. Were he here, I suspect he would judge your father's "conviction" to be no more than rank, self-serving delusion.

Even so, I cannot help but wonder what manner of "change" he intends to bring about.

I have given some thought to that as well.

During the battle within the Vault, the Heavens' Ward demonstrated strange and unnatural abilities.

Aye, the manner in which Ser Zephirin struck down Lord Haurchefant was unlike anything I've ever seen before.

The spectacle called to mind King Thordan and his knights twelve as they are depicted in scripture - holy powers and all...

Mere fabrications...which have become objects of faith...instilled with the belief of countless devoted souls...

Seven hells!

If Lady Iceheart can use her own body as a vessel for summoning, I see no reason why others could not...

Are the Heavens' Ward truly so reckless?

Unbelievable.

As they fled, my father spoke of Azys Lla.

Though I know not what he intends, I fear no good shall come of it. his ambitions are too great, and his minions too powerful...

We must find the Heavens' Ward, and stop my father, before it is too late.

End of cutscene.

Start of cutscene.

(Master/Mistress) Forename, Master Alphinaud - I, Aymeric, lord commander of the Temple Knights of Ishgard, do hereby entreat the aid of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn.

Our aid in preventing whatever it is that the archbishop intends?

Your aid in bringing him to justice. Too much blood has been spilled for the lies he perpetuated. No more.

What will you say?

I shall pursue him to the end of the world if I must.

I thank you, Forename. I have heard many men make such pledges, but you - you speak in earnest.

Life for death. I will have Ser Zephirin's heart for what he did to Haurchefant.

Yes...yes, of course. You two were close, I know.

...

I make no claim to know the turmoil in your soul, but I implore you, Forename─in this darkest of hours, pray lend us your strength.

Much has changed since our order's founding, but our duty to combat the primal threat has not. If the archbishop and the Heavens' Ward are guilty of the crime of summoning, then Forename and I will stop them.

Would that I could join you in the pursuit, but alas, my father's absence has thrown our government into chaos.

Ever since the founding of our nation, there has been an archbishop to serve as a guiding light for the masses - a force for stability to counterbalance the High Houses' ceaseless maneuvering.

Convincing people to recognize the truth of our origins would have been difficult even with my father's support. The road ahead is that much more fraught with peril without it.

Yet walk it we must, for unity is more vital to our survival than ever. After all, Nidhogg's death did not mark the cessation of Dravanian hostilities. Far from it. We will have a great need of each other in the days to come.

Estinien

You may ever count on my lance, Ser Aymeric. To my dying breath, I shall defend Ishgard from the Horde.

If I may, Lord Commander, I would like to assist the Scions in their search for the archbishop.

Forename, Master Alphinaud, pray attend me outside.