• Fall of the Land of Noi

• The Great Plague

• Above and Beyond

• The Allagan Detective

Once upon a time, far far away from Eorzea was the prosperous land known only as Noi...

Noi was said to be a land of the learned. Even the lowest of laborers and brigands were scholars of the arcane in their own right, its lands defended by its innumerable mage lords and a single king only in name.

Magic was the lifeblood of Noi. Various complex spells and rituals known only to its citizens kept its much larger neighbors at bay.

One day, a Great Plague ravaged the people of Noi. So potent was this affliction that those cured in the morning would succumb to it once more by nightfall. While the Plague itself was of little concern to the people of Noi initially, soon the common healers found their stores of aether used to cast their magicks all but run dry.

This, however, was a great boon to the mage lords. The more powerful mages were able keep their followers healed while the lesser faltered. The Plague became a way to consolidate power into the hands of the most potent mages.

On the streets, whispers of foreign invasion rallied the people of Noi under the banner of fewer and fewer great mages capable of keeping the people healed and safe.
By the time war finally broke out with the neighboring country of Fray, Noi was ruled only by a handful of elite.

News from the far edges of the Noi spoke of Fray hordes numbering the hundreds of thousands pouring through the defenseless border. Volunteers were levied to stem the tide of the enemy invasion.

At the border, these Volunteers met only a sea of Fray soldiers and campfires. Wasting no time, the mages of Noi unleashed devastating magicks upon their foe. The enemy did not flee however, but surged forward. After a fierce battle, the small army Noi Volunteers were victorious.

When they examined the battlefield, they found the enemies were mostly conscripted militia and barely armed. They had little time to ponder why such a poorly equipped and trained mob would choose to fight to last man before they were soon set upon by another band.

Time after time, the Volunteers fought the Fray conscripts to the last, by the week’s end, the Volunteers found themselves well within the Fray borders, no more soldiers to meet them on the battlefield. In fact, the lands of Fray were all but lifeless. Everywhere, they witnessed the ravages of the Great Plague. Upon entering the Fray capital, they found only long rotted corpses.

It was only then that it became clear to the Volunteers that what they faced was not an enemy army but the last refugees of Fray who sought to escape the Plague. Overzealous in their defense of Noi, they ignored all the signs to the contrary during their battles. While some within the Volunteer regiment sought to investigate further, others were content with returning to Noi.

Some suspected foul play within Noi for this atrocity, others went a step further in suggesting it was a powerplay by the Elite. There were also those who refused to entertain such a notion, quick to accuse others of treason. The vast majority of the regiment simply settled within the Fray capital and waited for further orders.

However, no further orders would come for the Volunteers as they were soon set upon by their own, freshly arrived from Noi. When attempts at ceasefire or parley failed, the Volunteers were forced to defend themselves. Despite being outnumbered, the Volunteers were able to withstand the onslaught.

The Volunteers learned from captured Levies that the mage lords had united after the "news" broke of a coup by the Volunteers following the capture of Fray. They were all now branded traitors and to be exterminated. The revelation shocked many in the Volunteers, and some immediately set out to clear their names against the advice of fellow soldiers. They would never be heard from again. Others broke rank and fled in the dead of the night.

Of the remaining Volunteers, few chose to fight directly, as their numbers were limited and there was no doubt they were being used in some political scheme by the lords of Noi. Unwilling to be pawns in this scheme, many of the remaining Volunteers vowed revenge and disappeared into the night.

Among them were those who began to doubt the truth of the Great Plague and searched for answers in the ruins of Fray as well as the hallowed halls of Noi political centers. One such mage discovered that the Plague had long had a cure whose knowledge was hidden from the public. This would allow for the temporary treatments given to benefit the Elite.

In a great act of defiance, the mage committed all he knew of this history to a single Tome and cast it into a dark chasm deep beneath their lands. What happened next in this old tale has changed many times throughout the history of its performance by bards from different periods and origins. However, they all agree that what the mage did forever changed the lands they called Noi.

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Once upon a time in a realm beyond the mirrors there was a magical land known as Below. After devastating wars, the great Sages left Below to heal and migrated to the land of Above.

The land of Above was a paradise of golden halls and gleaming spires. The Sages of Above, in their desire to share the fruits of utopia created the Children in their images and showered them with love and knowledge. The Children prospered under the nurturing of the Sages.

As time pass, ennui slowly called the elder Sages to eternal slumber, leaving the lands of Above and Below to their Children wishing only that the Children may forever prosper and be happy.

Inexperienced in the ravages of war and the temptations of power, the prideful and ambitious First Born Children expanded across Above and Below. As the rightful Masters of Above and Below, what tasks they deemed beneath them were soon relegated to their Children. From cleaning to warfare, the First Born charged their Children with keeping the First Born Utopia operating.

As the Children of the First Born grew to met every challenge in the ever increasing burden of servitude, they soon began to question and challenge the legitimacy of the First Born's rule. Ever so cunning, the First Born began elevating their loyal Children and withheld the power of magic from the rebellious.

Though the First Born's ploy crushed the rebellious Children. No Tyrant Rules Forever.

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Once upon a time in Eorzea during the height of the great Allagan Empire...

There was a great detective by the name of Xiph and his partner Cepa. It was a dark twilight and the skylines of the city was smothered by rain cloud when the pair was approached by the bewitching magician and technologist Lady Hyne. Lady Hyne asked the detectives to find her husband Argus, who has recently returned from a trip to Meracydia.

Cepa agreed to escort Lady Hyne home while Xiph tried to decipher the journal. Next morning, Xiph was contacted by the City Guard Captain Phlego that Lady Hyne's home was set on fire, she was missing and Cepa found burnt to death. While Captain Phlego believe Lady Hyne committed arson if not murder and escaped, Xiph sees neither motive nor evidence to Captain Phlego's claim and instead believe she was kidnapped. Xiph asked the Captain to give him time to prove his case and Phlego agreed.

Searching the burnt out home of Lady Hyne, Xiph finds every copy of a statuette of a Crystal Hand were smashed. With the help Captain Phlego he traced the statuettes' origin to a local merchant who was seen speaking to Argus days before his disappearance. Just as they arrive, they saw the merchant was holding Lady Hyne hostage, surrounded by City Guards. Seeing the arrival of Xiph and Phlego, the merchant panics and threatens to destroy the entire city block with aetherochemical weapon but was quickly killed by a lightning fast attack from Captain Phlego.

Lady Hyne explains that she was kidnapped by the merchant over some unknown dealings of Argus and she managed to almost escape the merchant's warehouse before being recaptured, but she managed to capture the attention of the City Guards just in time before the arrival of Xiph and Phlegon. With Lady Hyne's name cleared and her person secure, Xiph returns to unravel the disappearance of Argus. That night, Xiph found a suspicious warehouse address left in the account books of the merchant.

Xiph immediately heads to the address only to find the corpse of the City Guard Captain Phlego. From the warehouse he hears familiar voices as explosions from inside flattens the building. In the ruins of the warehouse he finds his presumably dead partner Cepa engaged in combat with someone who appears to be Argus. The two are fighting over a statuette of the Crystal Hand.

Against his better judgement, Xiph immediately intervenes to help Cepa and the two subdue Argus who shouts that the statuette must be destroyed to protect the future of Allag. Cepa quickly kills Argus in cold blood before Argus can continue. Xiph demands an explanation only to narrowly avoid being fatally stabbed by sheer luck. The two former partners engaged in a duel with Xiph narrowly avoid deaths as he tries to survive a physically superior Cepa who appears to be slowly altered by the Crystal Hand.

It was then that Lady Hyne arrived in an unmarked ship with a contingent of automaton soldiers. Joining forces, they narrowly defeat Cepa whose dying body is unable to contain whatever energy is causing his change and exploded in a radiant pattern of Allagan blue.

Lady Hyne picks up the statuette that miraculously survived the explosion and thanks Xiph for playing his part. She explains that she is not Lady Hyne and Hyne never existed. Xiph answers that he knew from his search through Argus' home, and the chain of coincidences were too convenient. The mystery woman admits that much of the events that unfolded were to serve to misdirect anyone who wishes to find and go after the real Crystal Hand. It was only convenient that Phlego and Cepa were greedy and curious enough to further muddle the hunt for the real Crystal Hand.

As the mystery woman board the ship, she turns around and bids Xiph farewell. She explains that they will not meet again, and no matter what he thinks, he has done the Empire a great service, perhaps even saved it. Because the higher an empire rises, the greater the fall, and for the Allagan Empire, the fall has already begun. The Crystal Hand is the literal key to their future salvation. The secrecy of her plans must be protected.

Xiph can only listens in silence and turns to walk away. It was on that day when the first snow of the century begins to fall and the beginning of the Fall of Allag in earnest...

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