Originally posted June 2nd, 2020
Some general thoughts:
Right, onto my story summary!
I'm going to try to do this without copying/pasting from the wiki so much, because that just makes things overly long. And I think I remember enough to summarize without relying on the wiki.
There seemed to be at least three story arcs happening in these patches:
Post-ARR quests ended with the Scions being scattered as they attempted to escape from Ul'dah palace, so for most of Heavensward it was just you, Alphinaud, and Tataru. Late in Heavensward it was discovered that Y'Shtola was lost in the lifestream; with the help of her sister, you were able to extract her from it.
The beginning of the post-HW story starts out with news that Thancred may have been located. Seems that word of a grizzled rogue in Gnath territory has been making the rounds. You investigate these rumors, and find out they are true.
When Y'Shtola and Thancred were escaping together, Y'Shtola used powerful teleportation magic to send Thancred away. The magic worked, but this lead to Thancred appearing far away "in the altogether" (his words). It also appears that Thancred's aether has been diminished, leading Y'Shtola and Krile to wonder if he's capable of performing magic any longer.
Thancred had emerged in Gnath territory. He fashioned himself a pair of daggers and set about hunting, clothing himself with rude skins from his kills. Eventually he started trading with the friendly Gnath for better clothes and other supplies.
You're rejoined with Thancred in the feral Vath's homelands. Rumor is that they have summoned their primal again, so you go to investigate it. There you discover a group calling themselves the Warriors of Darkness, who have killed the primal before you could attend to it yourself. During the ensuing fight, Thancred makes a dramatic entrance from above, and rejoins the Scions for good.
The next Scion you hear news about is Minfilia. I'm straining my brain to remember exactly how this went, but: Y'Shtola asks for help from Krile, who I believe is a fellow Archon (or at least, was a fellow student at Sharylan (sp?)) and who is a dear friend of Minfilia's. Krile suggests that traces of Minifilia's aether might be found, similar to how they followed Y'Shtola's aetheric trail and pulled her out of the lifestream. So you go back to the tunnels under Ul'Dah where you last parted with Minfilia, and do discover some traces of her aether.
And now I really forget what happened next, but eventually you, the Warrior of Light, experience the Echo kicking in, and you are back in that mystical space before the mother crystal, speaking to a being called the Word of the Mother, who looks a lot like Minfilia. It appears that Hydaelyn took Minfilia for her own.
And now I am going to copy from the wiki, because I couldn't remember what The Word of the Mother said and it's pretty important:
Once more, you bask in the light of the crystal, in the midst of the aetherial sea. A voice, familiar yet strange, welcomes you; Minfilia's at times, but at others... She calls herself the Word of the Mother, and with one will do they tell you a tale of the beginning -- of when Light and Dark dwelt as one, before Zodiark's covetousness forced Hydaelyn to banish Him to the distant heavens. Not only was the star sundered in so doing, but the barriers between realities as well, giving birth to reflections of the source, wherein shards of light and dark were scattered. To restore Zodiark to His former glory do the Ascians ever labor, and each Calamity marks a Rejoining -- the obliteration of a reflection, and a triumph of the Dark. Alas, before she can say more, the Word cries out in pain, and the Mothercrystal shudders. Your Crystal of Light, whose power she drew upon, is all but spent, and she has no choice but to return you to the tower. With a final desperate plea, the Word bids you farewell, before shattering into a thousand thousand pieces.
So, you've discovered Minfilia's whereabouts. The last two Scions missing are Yda and Papalymo. We see them a few times in cutscenes; they are together, dressed in shabby clothing, obviously up to something but we do not know what. Later on, you are reunited with them at a speech being given by the Griffin (more on that later); it turns out that they have been hiding out with the Ala Mhigo resistance fighters. They rejoin the Scions at this point.
Heavensward ended with Ser Aymeric signing a treaty, bringing Ishgard back into the Eorzean alliance, but tensions are still high around Ishgard. Early on in these patches, you're sent to treat with Vidofnir, who she responds rather coolly at first. It is only after your experience with the Warriors of Darkness and Ravana in Vath territory that Vidofnir agrees to come Ishgard.
You go back to Ishgard, only to find it burning. A rebel faction calling themselves the True Brothers of the Faith have seized control of the Vault, and taken the refugees sheltering within hostage. You enter the Vault and succeed in rescuing most of the hostages. Your assault takes you to the top of the Vault, where one of the priests has one last hostage held. He dangles her over the roof, eventually letting go and she falls, but Vidofnir swoops in and catches the girl on her back, landing safely on the ground. This is witnessed by many of the people of Ishgard.
Aymeric has planned a ceremony to take place at Falcon's nest and to be attended by you and Vidofnir. So you go to Falcon's Nest, and while there you learn that a party of Convictors have vowed to shoot down any dragon that approaches near. This can't be allowed to happen, so Lucia and Artoriel go to stop them, leaving Emmanellain in charge...
You're encouraged to rest and take part of the food and drink in the tavern. As you do, you fall into a slumber as your mead had been spiked. In your sleep, the Echo kicks in and you see a flashback of several Ishgardians who lost family members in the Dragonsong War... one of whom served you the mead. Thancred finds you and rouses you from your slumber. You exit the tavern to find the woman who served you is now literally shouting from the rooftops. Emmanellain, in a panic, orders a knight next to him to stop her, and the knight shoots her with an arrow, hitting her in the arm. This causes rather quite a lot of unrest, and the peace ceremony is called off for now.
Shortly after this, the other members of the Eorzean alliance propose joint military exercises. A Grand Melee occurs, and you fight for Ishgard. It comes down to you and Raubahn, and you win. The resulting victory does much to bolster the Ishgardian people's faith in Ser Aymeric. Aymeric declares that the peace ceremony is back on, so you go back to Falcon's Nest.
During the ceremony which is attended by Vidofnir, a mural is unveiled high on the stone wall depicting a dragon and man. The people cheer, but then Estinien, the eyes of Nidhogg fused to his body, leaps down from on high and drives his lance into Vidofnir's back, the white dragon's blood painting the relief a deep red. Aymeric attempts to loose an arrow at Estinien, who swats it away. He then transforms into a dragon, and flies away after declaring that the Dragonsong War is not over.
Luckily, Estinien's strike on Vidofnir was not fatal; she will live. You then have a private meeting with Alphinaud, who wants to talk to you alone, not as a Scion but one friend to another. Alphinaud is determined not to give up on Estinien, but to somehow save him.
For this to occur, Alphinaud believes that you have to pull the eyes off Estinien, but how can you fight him when he is in the form of a dragon? With counsel with Aymeric, it is proposed you get the help of Hraesvelgr. So you meet with the great wyrm, who is disinclined to help... unless you pass his trials first. You, Aymeric, and Alphinaud are all put to separate trials against three dragons, you against Hraesvelgr himself, and you all win. Hraesvelgr agrees to help.
You return to Ishgard just in time. Nidhogg had summoned his brood and they are attacking the city, much damage sustained. With Hraesvelgr's help, you succeed in subduing Nidhogg; successful because Hraesvelgr has given you one of his eyes to wield against Nidhogg.
Nidhogg reverts back to Estinien, and you and Alphinaud attempt to wrest Nidhogg's eyes from Estinien's armor. You are having difficulty, but then visions of Haurchefant and Ysayle appear and help out, and you succeed in removing the eyes, and pitch them into the Sea of Clouds to be lost forever. With that, the Dragonsong War has come to an end.
Estinien is in bad shape, but with time makes a full recovery.
So, when you were investigating the news that the Vath had summoned Ravana, you came across the Warriors of Darkness. They appear to be going around Eorzea fighting the primals in your stead. Cutscenes also show them talking to a white-robed Ascian. During one such cutscene, you see Alisaie in the shadows listening in on them. She's successful in eluding them for a while, but eventually they clue in on her presence, and the Ranger of Darkness shoots her with a poisoned arrow. Thancred, who has also been following the Warriors of Darkness, rescues her and takes her to Fortemps manor.
Alisaie has the strength left to warn you of Garuda's imminent summoning in Xelphatol, where the Warriors of Darkness plan to vanquish Garuda. You get to Xelphatol before the Warriors of Darkness and are able to stop the summoning from fully happening. The Warriors of Darkness arrive shortly after, and here I'm going to copy from the wiki again as it's pretty important:
He claims that he and his comrades hail from another world -- a reflection of the Source -- in which the power of Light is far greater than that of Dark. There, they easily bested their Ascian counterparts, only to discover that they had upset the primordial balance in so doing, triggering a flood of Light which now threatens to consume all that they sought to protect. If nothing is done, their world will soon give way to a void... as did the Thirteenth, when the Dark rose up unopposed. And so, to prevent this fate, they joined hands with the Ascians and came to the Source. Here, they intend to bring about another Umbral Calamity, for only through such unbridled destruction may the barriers between planes be broken down, and the First and the Source made one.
You then learn the Kobolds may be fixing to summon Titan, so you go to Camp Overlook. A kobold childling has entered the camp; after chasing it for a while, you corner it and talk to it to discover its parents have been captured by the Kobold Overseer, to be used as part of the summoning ritual. The childling shows you were the crystals have been stored for the ritual, and you retrieve two of the three stashes, discovering in the process that the crates used to have Ishgardian markings on them that had been removed.
You teleport into the Navel to confront the Kobold Overseer, but during your confrontation the kobold childling discovers his parents have been murdered, and his grief is strong enough to summon Titan, though a rather weak version. So you fight a Titan imbued with the grief of the childling, and manage to vanquish him. Alas, the childling is shell-shocked and will not talk. It is feared he may have been tempered and will have to be put to the death, but Alisaie (who has made a full recovery) speaks with him and is able to get through to him.
Afterward, you find out that the Ala Mhigo resistance is flaring up again, under a leader calling himself the Griffin. You discover this as you are talking to Urianger in the Waking Sands. Just afterward, Thancred contacts you on linkpearl to report the same information. Alisaie is suspcious of Urianger, for she had seen him talking to the Ascians at the Great Library and believes he may have turned his cloak, so she asks Thancred who else he told this information to. Answer: no one.
You go to Little Ala Mhigo to find out more information about the Griffin, and go to a speech of his at Qarn. There you are finally reunited with Yda and Papalymo, who have been working with the resistance for some time. Yda and Papalymo introduce you to the Griffin, you and Alphinaud playing the part of ordinary adventurers. You discover that a large amount of crystals have been delivered to Zaha'rak to summon Ifrit.
So you go into the Bowl of Embers, but discover it strewn with the bodies of the Amal'jaa. It was a ruse by the Warriors of Darkness to get you to come, for they believe if they can kill you, the Warrior of Light, then your death will plunge the realm into chaos and bring about another Umbral Calamity.
In the ensuing battle against the Warriors of Darkness, they call upon the Echo many times and are revived repeatedly after you fell them. Also, Alisaie states that she is not the girl she once was, and summons a glowing sword from her spellbook, asking everyone to infuse it with their aether so she can strike the Warriors of Darkness down.
You defeat the Warriors of Darkness eventually, but they pull out crystals... and it becomes clear that they are already dead, having given their lives to save their world. You pull out your own crystal, and the whole party, along with the Warriors of Darkness, are transported to that mystical plane again in front of the Mother Crystal, where you speak with Minfilia, now acting more like herself but still looking like the Word of the Mother. She recognises the party, and is glad to see everyone again, but... she states she will travel with the Warriors of Darkness back to their world and save it, to prevent the First from being lost to the Void. One life for one world. Before she leaves, she gives you Tupsimati, Master Louisoix's broken staff.
After the meeting has ended, you go back to the Rising Stones, and it's there that Papalymo asks you to entrust Tupsimati to him. You do.
Shortly after, a council of Eorzean leaders is called because of another looming threat: the Griffin is planning to scale Baelsar's Wall in Gridania in an attempt to recapture Ala Mhigo. Doing so will surely lead to war against the Garlean Empire, who now hold the wall.
Hoping to convince the Griffin to abandon his course before war engulfs the realm, it is decided that Papalymo, Yda, Thancred, and Yugiri will brave the secret tunnels beneath Baelsar's Wall, and endeavor to confront the Resistance leader directly. You, meanwhile, are to stand ready in the Black Shroud for whatever eventuality may arise.
Unfortunately, fighting breaks out along the wall, and reports indicate the people fighting are dressed in Grand Company uniforms, which will only serve to drag the Eorzean Alliance into the fighting. Alphinaud races through the tunnels after the infiltration party, while you scale the wall to try to stop the Griffin yourself.
The real Griffin turns out to be Ilberd, the Ala Mhigan who never gave up on his desire to recapture his homeland. You fight him at the top of the wall, and do succeed in apparently defeating him, but he produces Nidhogg's Eyes...his plan all along has been to do a summoning ritual and summon a very strong primal.
Papalymo now steps forward with Tupsimati, saying that he will follow in Louisoix's footsteps and use powerful magics to bind the resulting primal, just like Louisoix did with Bahamut. Yda is distraught at this, but Papalymo tells Thancred to take her away and Thancred picks up Yda and you all escape on Hilda's airship, leaving Papalymo behind, who does indeed use his magic and encases the primal in a shell.
The Eorzean Alliance meets again shortly afterward, to figure out what to do next, but Nero barges into the meeting. He tells Cid (also at the meeting) that Cid already knows what they have to do: use Omega, an Allagan artifact, to combat the primal summoned by Ilberd. It is agreed to, though Nero will be closely watched because no one trusts him.
So you travel to Carteneau where Omega resides, but upon getting there you are discovered by a party of Empire soldiers. Nero and Cid go further in, leaving you and the rest of the party to fight. After you win (with the help of a magitek from Nero) you enter into Omega's control room.
There, Yda questions what must be done. You've given a choice in how to answer her; I chose to ask her what she believes should be done. She responds by asking Cid if this is the button to press to unleash Omega. Once getting affirmation, she strikes the button with her fist.
Omega is unleased, just as the primal breaks from its shell. There is a fierce battle between the primal and Omega in the heavens. Eventually, they both fire beams at each other; they then fall, landing somewhere beyond the Wall. As they do, Yda laments that Papalymo is truly gone, and her Archon tattoo disappears from her neck.
There is another meeting of the Council members, who agree to secure the Wall while confusion remains after the battle between the primal and Omega. The Domans have been calling the primal "Shinryu", and that name sticks. You go to the spire in the East Shroud to take stock of the wall. At the top of the tower is Yda, who still seems despondent over Papalymo's sacrifice.
But Yda then removes her mask and helmet. Her long hair falls around her shoulders, and she reveals that she is not really Yda. Yda was her older sister, and a member of the Ala Mhigo resistance. Her true name is Lyse, and she pledges to liberate Ala Mhigo.
AND THAT IS THAT. I'm proud of myself for doing this summary mostly from memory! I always did wonder who the woman on the Stormblood banner was. It didn't look like Kan-e-Senna (sp?) or the Admiral, but I wondered if maybe I was wrong and it was then and Stormblood would be like FFXI's Wings of the Goddess, which used time travel to flash back to the war (I wondered if Stormblood would be a flashback to the events of the Calamity). But I now know that the woman on the banner is Lyse, and so Stormblood must be about the liberation of Ala Mhigo. I'm excited to see the new areas.
I started typing this at 12:05 p.m. It is now 2:24 p.m. So even without writing every single detail by following the wiki, it still took 2.5 hours to write. Wow.