Patch 4.1 - Final Fantasy XIV Online Wiki - FFXIV (2024)

Introduction

Patch 4.1: The Legend Returns is the first major content update introduced for Stormblood.

Notable Features, Additions, and Changes

New Content

• Main Story: The Legend Returns (11 quests)
• Side Story: Even Further Hildibrand Adventures (1 quest)
• Alliance Raid: The Royal City of Rabanastre, the first part of the Return to Ivalice story and raid series
• Dungeon: The Drowned City of Skalla
• Trials: The Minstrel's Ballad: Shinryu's Domain
• Ultimate Raid: The Unending Coil of Bahamut (Ultimate) (4.11)
• PvP new mode: Rival Wings (4.15)
• Beast Tribe Quests and Reputation: Kojin

System Changes and Additions

• Squadrons - Command Missions added
• Custom Deliveries - M'naago added
• Treasure Hunt - The Hidden Canals of Uznair (access via Timeworn Thief's Map)

Miscellaneous

• Housing - Shirogane plots available for purchase
• Performance - new mode that allows Bards to play music (4.15)
• Friends List now supports cross-world friends (within the same Data Center)
• Veteran Rewards system overhauled. Achievement Certificates added.
• Beast Tribe currency and Venture inventory items converted into promissory notes that can be exchanged into the new Currency menu.
• Players can now swim in all residential areas.

Note: Not all content listed here will launch on the same day. This article is about the 4.1x season as a whole.

Main Story Summary (Spoilers)

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Lore

The liberation of Ala Mhigo signaled the end of an era of tyranny. On the cusp of a new age of freedom, her people had to decide how they would greet their future and reconcile with their past. What path lay ahead for Lyse and her efforts to rebuild the nation? What choices plagued Fordola from within her prison cell? And to where would Raubahn return, now that the dream for his homeland had at last become a reality?

The Mad King's Trove

Following Ala Mhigo’s liberation, Lyse Hext and the Resistance struggled to address one key issue: leadership. There was no obvious candidate to lead the newly liberated Ala Mhigo. Everyone needed to have a say in the matter, and so despite having returned to Rhalgr’s Reach for a time, Lyse was needed in the city. The Warrior of Light was half-inclined to join her, if only to offer moral support, until Arenvald dangled the promise of new adventure before him.

In the days before his fall, King Theodoric was reputed to have hoarded the personal wealth of his executed kinsmen, but not a single coin of this fabled fortune had ever been found. Needless to say, Arenvald was determined that he, Alphinaud, and the Warrior of Light should be the ones to uncover the mad king's trove. After performing a cursory investigation, the three surmised that it might be somewhere within the submerged remnants of the ancient city of Skalla at the bottom of Loch Seld. Retrieving it would be no easy task, however, as they also believed Theodoric had his kinsmen cursed and cast into the depths not only to punish them for their imagined crimes, but to have them serve as guardians over his treasures.

While scouring the depths of Loch Seld, they discovered a passage leading directly beneath the palace foundations. Such a find warranted further investigation, and while they were briefly separated during their search, the adventurers managed to overcome the monstrous denizens of Skalla and find the fabled treasure of the mad king.

Arenvald had not embarked upon this quest for gold or glory, but because he knew all too well what poverty and hunger could do to a person. With Theodoric’s gold, he hoped to spare his countrymen the shame of living as he had. On his return, he implored Lyse to use it to alleviate the suffering of Ala Mhigo’s poor, and with Alphinaud’s assistance, she would do just that.

Portrait of the mad king Theodoric, recovered from the trove within the Drowned City of Skalla.

The Butcher's Blood

Passion and rage had brought the Ala Mhigan people to their feet and carried them to victory. But now that the war is over, all the unspent fury was being channeled into vengeance. Mobs formed to target those who had cooperated with the Garleans—at first to harass and insult, until someone resorted to violence.

Fordola rem Lupis, former commander of the Crania Lupi, was another target for those seeking to punish collaborators in the name of justice. Though she and her soldiers had aspired to be imperial citizens, they were born Ala Mhigan, and to their countrymen, they were traitors of the worst kind. When word spread of her captivity, an angry mob gathered to demand her immediate execution. At this critical juncture, however, Lyse feared that sending Fordola and other prominent prisoners to the gallows would only encourage the people to purge their society of any and all believed tainted.Raubahn Aldynn then addressed the crowd and told them that now was the time they must decide what manner of nation they would build for themselves, and for generations yet unborn. Would their children’s children remember them as a people who held fast to their principles, or one who cast them aside when tried? Fortunately, his words served to quell his kinsmen’s rage, if only for a time.Despite this unrest, there was much cause to be hopeful for the nation’s future. Not only would the poorest among them benefit from the treasure found in the ruins of Skalla, but Nanamo Ul Namo, with the support of Lord Lolorito, delivered a proposal to the interim government that they work together to redevelop the Saltery in a joint effort that would enrich Ala Mhigo and UV’dah.

The resonatorium, where Krile Baldesion was held for a time, was a research facility where scientists attempted to imbue test subjects with an artificial recreation of the Echo, Said subjects were referred to as “the Resonant.”

A Home For All

Lyse was determined to build a country where everyone, regardless of race or origin, could live side by side in peace, and to that end, she organized a summit in which refugee and village leaders, as well as representatives of the beast tribes, would gather to decide Ala Mhigo’s future. As a gesture of respect, an invitation was extended to the Qalyana, who had summoned Sri Lakshmi, with the expectation that they would refuse. To the surprise of all, however, a contingent came to Ala Mhigo, and so were allowed to take part.

Also, in the midst of the meeting, the Qalyana broodmother somehow summoned forth another incarnation of Sri Lakshmi, plunging the throne room into chaos. Too late all realized that the guards entrusted with keeping the area free of crystals had themselves been enthralled. As the only warriors present blessed with the protection of the Echo, the Warrior of Light and Arenvald occupied the primal whilst their companions defended the visiting envoys from the Qalyana and the enthralled guards.

Try as they might, however, the need to protect their allies from the primal’s baleful influence rendered them powerless to wrest the initiative from their foe—until, that is, Fordola arrived to even the odds. The three engaged Sri Lakshmi together, and succeeded at last in banishing her to the aether. The battle was over, but the Butcher still stood before the Scions, free of her fetters, weapon in hand..which she then cast to the ground before returning to her cell of her own accord.

With the danger passed, Lyse and the envoys resumed their meeting, and eventually came to the decision to form an elected government. This would have marked the end of General Aldynn’s time in Ala Mhigo had Nanamo not subsequently dismissed him as leader of the Immortal Flames and stripped him of his seat on the Syndicate in an act of kindness that left Ala Mhigo’s dearest son free to return home for good.

So it was that Lyse declared her time as commander of the Resistance over, and that she would invite Raubahn to take her place. With Nanamo’s project to resettle Ala Mhigan refugees also proceeding apace, all agreed that the seeds of hope had at last begun to quicken in the war-torn land.^[1]

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