Ĵwlŷs Kæsar: A FFXIV Tragedy and Annotary in Five Acts (Part 2 of 6)
Act I and Annotary
Act I
Scene 1
(Enter Vlaẃŷs, Merwlys, and certain rekhŷtå,1 including a Mechanic and a Processor, over the stage.)
VLAẂŶS
Hence! Home, you idle wildlings, get you home!
Is this a holiday? What, know you not,
Being mechanical,2 you ought not walk
Upon a laboring day without the sign
Of your profession?—Speak, what trade art thou?
MECHANIC
Why, sir, a mechanic.3
MERWLYS
Where is thy gasket puller and thy smock?
What dost thou with thy best apparel on?—
You, sir, what trade are you?
PROCESSOR
Truly, sir, in respect of a fine workman, I am but, as you would say, a processor.4
MERWLYS
But what trade art thou? Answer me directly.
PROCESSOR
A trade, sir, that I hope I may use with a safe conscience, which is indeed, sir, a lifter of high filth.5
VLAẂŶS
What trade, thou knave? Thou naughty knave, what trade?
PROCESSOR
Nay, I beseech you, sir, be not out with me. Yet if you be out, sir, I can lift you.6
MERWLYS
What mean’st thou by that? Lift me, thou saucy fellow?
PROCESSOR
Why, sir, process you.
VLAẂŶS
Thou art a wasteman,7 art thou?
PROCESSOR
Truly, sir, all that I live by is with the biobag. I meddle with no merchant’s matters nor beastman’s matters, but withal I am indeed, sir, a healer of great Allag’s streets: when they are steeped in iniquity, I cleanse them. As proper men as ever trod upon imperial asvalt8 have gone upon my handiwork.
VLAẂŶS
But wherefore art thou not on thy truck9 today?
Why dost thou lead these men about the streets?
PROCESSOR
Truly, sir, to entice them to abandon care, to get myself into more work.10 But indeed, sir, we make holiday to see Kæsar and to rejoice in his triumph.11
MERWLYS
Wherefore rejoice? What spoils, what rag, or slag?
What tributaries follow him to Allag
To grace in captive bonds his great ship’s hull?
You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things!
O you hard hearts, you cruel men of Allag,
Knew you not Pompê? Many a time and oft
Have you climbed up to spires and arcologies,
To rails and landing pads, yea, to vent stacks,
Your infants in your arms, and there have sat
The livelong day, with patient expectation,
To see great Pompê pass the streets of Allag.
And when you saw his flagship but appear,
Have you not made an universal shout,
That Đross trembled underneath her banks
To hear the replication of your sounds
Made in her radiluscent12 shores?
And do you now put on your best attire?
And do you now cull out a holiday?
And do you now strew flowers in his way
That comes in triumph over Pompê’s blood?
Be gone! Run to your modules, fall upon your knees,
Pray to the Twelve to intermit the plague
That needs must light on this ingratitude.
VLAẂŶS
Go, go, good countrymen, and for this fault
Assemble all the poor men of your sort,
Draw them to Đross’ banks, and weep your tears
Into the channel, till the lowest stream
Do kiss the most exalted shores of all.
(All the Commoners exit.)
VLAẂŶS (continued)
See whe’er their basest mettle be not moved.
They vanish tongue-tied in their guiltiness.
Go you down that way onto Crystal Tower.13
This way will I. Disrobe the ştylsymå,14
If you do find them decked with ceremonies.
MERWLYS
May we do so?
You know it is the Feast of Drunkenness.
VLAẂŶS
It is no matter. Let no ştylsymå
Be hung with Kæsar’s trophies. I’ll about
And drive away the vulgar from the streets;
So do you too, where you perceive them thick.15
These growing drake scales plucked from Kæsar’s hide
Will make him fly an ordinary pitch,
Who else would soar above drav’nŷrå16 and men
And keep us all in servile fearfulness.
(They exit in different directions.)
Scene 2
(Enter Kæsar, Ant’wyns for the course, Kalvwrnya, Portya, Dekŷs, Kåkorô, Brwtys, Kasŷs, Kaskå, an Oracle; after them Merwlys and Vlaẃŷs and rekhŷtå.)
KÆSAR
Kalvwrnya.
KASKÅ
Peace, ho! Kæsar speaks.
KÆSAR
Kalvwrnya.
KALVWRNYA
Here, my lord.
KÆSAR
Stand you directly in Ant’wyns’ way
When he doth run his course.—Ant’wyns.
ANT’WYNS
Kæsar, my lord.
KÆSAR
Forget not in your speed, Ant’wyns,
To touch Kalvwrnya, for our mages say
The barren, touched in this mad-drunk chase,
Shake off that sterile curse.17
ANT’WYNS
I shall remember.
When Kæsar says “Do this,” it is performed.18
KÆSAR|
Set on and leave no ceremony out.
(A sennet flourishes offstage.)
ORACLE
Kæsar.
KÆSAR
Ha! Who calls?19
KASKÅ
Bid every noise be still! Peace, yet again!
KÆSAR
Who is it in the press that calls on me?
I hear a tongue shriller than all the music
Cry “Kæsar.” Speak. Kæsar is turned to hear.
ORACLE
Beware the plexus of Thaliak.20
KÆSAR
What man is that?
BRWTYS
An oracle bids you beware the syvekh21
That sits above the saintly Scholar’s waist.
KÆSAR
Set him before me. Let me see his face.
KASŶS
Fellow, come from the throng.
(The Oracle comes forward.)
Look upon Kæsar.
KÆSAR
What sayst thou to me now? Speak once again.
ORACLE
Beware the plexus of Thaliak.
KÆSAR
He is a dreamer. Let us leave him. Pass.
(Another sennet flourishes. All but Brwtys and Kasŷs exit.)
KASŶS
Will you go to see the order of the course?
BRWTYS
Not I.
KASŶS
I pray you, do.
BRWTYS
I am not gamesome. I do lack some part
Of that quick spirit that is in Ant’wyns.
Let me not hinder, Kasŷs, your desires.
I’ll leave you.
KASŶS
Brwtys, I do observe you now of late.
I have not from your eyes that gentleness
And show of love as I was wont to have.
You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand
Over your friend that loves you.22
BRWTYS
Kasŷs,
Be not deceived. If I have veiled my look,
I turn the trouble of my countenance
Merely upon myself. Vexed I am
Of late with passions of some difference,
Conceptions only proper to myself,
Which give some spark, perhaps, to my behaviors.
But let not therefore my good friends be grieved
(Among which number, Kasŷs, be you one)
Nor construe any further my neglect
Than that poor Brwtys, with himself at war,
Forgets the shows of love to other men.23
KASŶS
Then, Brwtys, I have much mistook your passion,
By means whereof this breast of mine hath buried
Thoughts of great value, worthy cogitations.
Tell me, good Brwtys, can you see your face?
BRWTYS
No, Kasŷs, for the eye sees not itself
But by reflection, by some other things.
KASŶS
’Tis just. And it is very much lamented, Brwtys,
That you have no such mirrors as will turn
Your hidden worthiness into your eye,
That you might see your shadow.24 I have heard
Where many of the best respect in Allag,
Except immortal Kæsar, speaking of Brwtys
And groaning underneath this era’s25 yoke,
Have wished that noble Brwtys had his eyes.
BRWTYS
Into what dangers would you lead me, Kasŷs,
That you would have me seek into myself
For that which is not in me?
KASŶS
Therefore, good Brwtys, be prepared to hear.
And since you know you cannot see yourself
So well as by reflection, I, your glass,
Will modestly discover to yourself
That of yourself which you yet know not of.26
And be not jealous on me, gentle Brwtys.
Were I a common button,27 or did use
To stale with ordinary oaths my love
To every new protester; if you know
That I do fawn on men and hug them hard
And after scandal them, or if you know
That I profess myself in banqueting
To all the rout, then hold me dangerous.
(Another sennet flourish and a shout follows.)
BRWTYS
What means this shouting? I do fear the people
Choose Kæsar for their king.
KASŶS
Ay, do you fear it?
Then must I think you would not have it so.28
BRWTYS
I would not, Kasŷs, yet I love him well.
But wherefore do you hold me here so long?
What is it that you would impart to me?
If it be aught toward the general good,
Set honor in one eye and death i’ th’ other
And I will look on both indifferently;
For let the Twelve so speed me as I love
The name of honor more than I fear death.
KASŶS
I know that virtue to be in you, Brwtys,
As well as I do know your outward favor.
Well, honor is the subject of my story.
I cannot tell what you and other men
Think of this life; but, for my single self,
I had as lief not be as live to be
In awe of such a thing as I myself.
I was born free as Kæsar; so were you;
We both have fed as well, and we can both
Endure the northern cold29 as well as he.
For once, upon a raw and gusty day,
The Silvertear30 aglow, chafing with her shores,
Kæsar said to me “Dar’st thou, Kasŷs, now
Leap in with me into this glimm’ry flood
And swim to yonder point?” Upon the word,
Accoutered as I was, I plunged in
And bade him follow; so indeed he did.
The torrent roared, and we did buffet it
With lusty sinews,31 throwing it aside
And stemming it with hearts of controversy.
But ere we could arrive the point proposed,
Kæsar cried “Help me, Kasŷs, or I sink!”
I, as was Xandê, our great emperor,
Did from Allag’s Rise upon his shoulder
The fawning Æmon bear,32 so from the Lake
Did I the tired Kæsar. And this man
Is now reborn an êkon,33 and Kasŷs is
A wretched creature and must bend his body
If Kæsar carelessly but nod on him.
He had a fever when he was in Othard,34
And when the fit was on him, I did mark
How he did shake. ’Tis true, this god did shake.
His coward lips did from their color fly,
And that same eye whose bend doth awe the star
Did lose his luster. I did hear him groan.
Ay, and that tongue of his that bade the All’gans
Mark him and write his speeches in their tomes,
“Alas,” it cried “Give me some drink, Titånŷs,”
As a sick auri girl.35 Oh Twelve, it doth amaze
A man of such a feeble temper should
So get the start of the majestic star
And bear the wand36 alone.
(Another shout and sennet flourish.)
BRWTYS
Another general shout!
I do believe that these applauses are
For some new honors that are heaped on Kæsar.
KASŶS
Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like the Colossus,37 and we petty men
Row beneath his huge legs and peep about
To discover ourselves fathoms deep interred.
Men at some time are masters of their looms.38
The fault, dear Brwtys, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
“Brwtys” and “Kæsar”—what should be in that “Kæsar”
Why should that name be sounded more than yours?
Write them together, yours is as fair a name;
Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well;
Weigh them, it is as heavy; conjure with ’em,
“Brwtys” will raise a fiend as soon as “Kæsar.”
Now, in the names of all the Twelve at once,
Upon what aether doth our “Kæsar feed
That he is grown so great? Age, thou art shamed!
Allag, thou griev’st thy breed of noble bloods!
When went there by an age, since the Long Night,39
But it was famed with more than with one man?
When could they say, till now, that talked of Allag,
That her wide roads encompassed but one man?
Now ‘tis Allag indeed, and room enough
When there is in it but one only man.
O, you and I have heard our fathers say
There was a Brwtys once that would have brooked
Th’ eternal Scathach40 to keep her state in Allag
As easily as any king.
BRWTYS
That you do love me, I am nothing jealous.
What you would work me to, I have some aim.
How I have thought of this, and of these times,
I shall recount hereafter. For this present,
I would not, so with love I might entreat you,
Be any further moved. What you have said
I will consider; what you have to say
I will with patience hear, and find a time
Both meet to hear and answer such high things.
Till then, my noble friend, chew upon this:
Brwtys had rather be a villager
Than to repute himself a son of Allag
Under these hard conditions as this time
Is like to lay upon us.
KASŶS
I am glad that my weak words
Have struck but thus much show of fire from Brwtys.
(Enter Kæsar and his train.)
BRWTYS
The games are done, and Kæsar is returning.
KASŶS
As they pass by, pluck Kaskå by the sleeve,
And he will, after his sour fashion,41 tell you
What hath proceeded worthy note today.
BRWTYS
I will do so. But look you, Kasŷs,
The angry spot doth boil on Kæsar’s brow,
And all the rest look like a chidden train.
Kalvwrnya’s cheek is pale, and Kåkorô
Looks with such marmot and such fiery eyes
As we have seen him in the Sýrkos House,
Being crossed in conference by some Sýrkŷtå.
KASŶS
Kaskå will tell us what the matter is.
KÆSAR
(Out of Brwtys’ and Kasŷs’ earshot.)
Ant’wyns.
ANT’WYNS
Kæsar.
KÆSAR
Let me have men about me that are fat,
Slick-headed men, and such as sleep a-nights.
Yond Kasŷs has a lean and hungry look.
He thinks too much. Such men are venomous.
ANT’WYNS
Fear him not, Kæsar; he’s not dangerous.
He is a noble Allagan,—well given.
KÆSAR
Would he were fatter! But I fear him not.
Yet if my name were capable of fear,42
I do not know the man I should avoid
So soon as that spare Kasŷs. He reads much,
He is a great observer, and he looks
Quite through the deeds of men. He loves no jolosym,43
As thou dost, Ant’wyns; he sings no poems;44
Seldom he smiles, and smiles in such a sort
As if he mocked himself and scorned his soul
That could be moved to smile at anything.45
Such men as he be never at heart’s ease
Whiles they behold a greater than themselves,
And therefore are they very dangerous.
I rather tell thee what is to be feared
Than what I fear; for always I am Kæsar.
Come on my right hand, for this ear is deaf,
And tell me truly what thou think’st of him.46
(Sennet. Kæsar and his train exit, but Kaskå remains behind.)
KASKÅ
You pulled me by the cloak. Would you speak with me?
BRWTYS
Ay, Kaskå. Tell us what hath chanced today
That Kæsar looks so sad.
KASKÅ
Why, you were with him, were you not?
BRWTYS
I should not then ask Kaskå what had chanced.47
KASKÅ
Why, there were pauldrons offered him; and, being offered him, he put them by with the back of his hand, thus, and then the people fell a-shouting.
BRWTYS
What was the second noise for?
KASKÅ
Why, for that too.
KASŶS
They shouted thrice. What was the last cry for?
KASKÅ
Why, for that too.
BRWTYS
Were Empire’s pauldrons offered him thrice?
KASKÅ
Ay, marry, was ’t, and he put it by thrice, every time gentler than other; and at every putting-by, mine honest neighbors shouted.
KASŶS
Who offered him the pauldrons?
KASKÅ
Why, Ant’wyns.
BRWTYS
Tell us the manner of it, gentle Kaskå.
KASKÅ
I can as well be ablated48 as tell the manner of it. ‘Twas mere foolery; I did not mark it. I saw Marq Ant’wyns offer him pauldrons (yet ‘twere not pauldrons neither; ’twas one of these epaulets), and, as I told you, he put them by once; but for all that, to my thinking, he would fain have had them. Then he offered them to him again; then he put them by again; but to my thinking, he was very loath to lay his fingers off them. And then he offered them the third time. He put them the third time by, and still as he refused it the rabblement hooted and clapped their chopped hands and threw up their sparkling linkpearls and uttered such a deal of stinking breath because Kæsar refused the gift that it had almost choked Kæsar, for he swooned and fell down at it. And for mine own part, I durst not laugh for fear of opening my lips and imbibing the bad air.
KASŶS
But soft, I pray you. What, did Kæsar swoon?
KASKÅ
He fell down in the Aģorâplex and foamed at the mouth and was speechless.
BRWTYS
‘Tis very like; he hath a genetic flaw.49
KASŶS
No, Kæsar hath it not; but you and I
And honest Kaskå, we have the genuflecting flaw.50
KASKÅ
I know not what you mean by that, but I am sure Kæsar fell down. If the tag-rag people did not clap him and hiss him, according as he pleased and displeased them, as they use to do the players in the theater,51 I am no true man.
BRWTYS
What said he when he came unto himself?
KASKÅ
Marry, before he fell down, when he perceived the common herd was glad he refused the pauldrons, he plucked me ope his chiton52 and offered them his throat to cut. An I had been a man of any occupation, if I would not have taken him at a word, I would I might freeze in hell53 among the rogues. And so he fell. When he came to himself again, he said if he had done or said anything amiss, he desired their Worships to think it was his infirmity. Three or four feralyns54 where I stood cried “Alas, good soul!” and forgave him with their tails curling.55 But there’s no heed to be taken of them; if Kæsar had stabbed their fathers,56 they would have done much and more.
BRWTYS
And, after that, he came thus sad away?
KASKÅ
Ay.
KASŶS
Did Kåkorô say anything?
KASKÅ
Ay, he spoke Ekkadite.57
KASŶS
To what effect?
KASKÅ
Nay, an I tell you that, I’ll ne’er look you i’ th’ face again. But those that understood him smiled at one another and shook their heads. But for mine own part, it was Ekkadite to me.58 I could tell you more news too: Merwlys and Vlaẃŷs, for pulling scarves off Kæsar’s ştylsymå, are put to silence.59 Fare you well. There was more foolery yet, if I could remember it.
KASŶS
Will you sup with me tonight, Kaskå?
KASKÅ
No, I am promised forth.
KASŶS
Will you dine with me tomorrow?
KASKÅ
Ay, if I be alive, and your mind hold, and your dinner worth the eating.60
KASŶS
Good. I will expect you.
KASKÅ
Do so. Farewell both.
(He exits.)
BRWTYS
What a blunt fellow is this grown to be!
He was quick mettle when he went to school.61
KASŶS
So is he now in execution
Of any bold or noble enterprise,
However he puts on this tardy form.
This rudeness is a sauce to his good wit,
Which gives men stomach to digest his words
With better appetite.62
BRWTYS
And so it is.63 For this time I will leave you.
Tomorrow, if you please to speak with me,
I will come home to you; or, if you will,
Come home to me, and I will wait for you.
KASŶS
I will do so. Till then, think of the star.
(Brwtys exits.)
KASŶS
Well, Brwtys, thou art noble. Yet I see
Thy honorable mettle may be wrought
From that it is disposed. Therefore it is meet
That noble minds keep ever with their likes;
For who so firm that cannot be seduced?64
Kæsar doth bear me hard, but he loves Brwtys.
If I were Brwtys now, and he were Kasŷs,
He should not humor me. I will this night
In several posts upon his pad alight,65
As if they came from several citizens,
Writings, all tending to the great opinion
Allag holds of his name, wherein obscurely
Kæsar’s ambition shall be glancèd at
And after this, let Kæsar seat him sure,
For we will shake him, or worse days endure.66
(He exits.)
Scene 3
(Thunder and lightning. Enter Kaskå and Kåkorô.)
KÅKORÔ
Good even, Kaskå. Brought you Kæsar home?
Why are you breathless? And why stare you so?
KASKÅ
Are not you moved, when all Hydaelyn’s sway
Shakes like a thing unfirm? O Kåkorô,
I have seen tempests when the scolding winds
Have rived the armor’d spires, and I have seen
Th’ ambitious ocean swell and rage and foam
To be exalted with the threat’ning clouds;
But never till tonight, never till now,
Did I go through a tempest casting fire.
Either civil strife kindles the heavens,
Or else the star, too saucy with the Twelve,
Incenses them to send destruction.
KÅKORÔ
Why, saw you anything more wonderful?
KASKÅ
A common slave (you know him well by smell)67
Held up his left hand, which did flame and burn
Like twenty torches joined; and yet his hand,
Not sensible of fire, remained unscorched.68
Besides (I ha’ not since put up my blade),
Against the Sýrkos I met a lion,
Who gazed upon me and went surly by
Without annoying me. And there were drawn
Upon a heap a hundred ghastly women,
Transformèd with their fear, who swore they saw
Ģôģanå march the streets with eyes thrice bloomed.69
And yesterday, cloudkin of night did sit
Even at noonday upon the Aģorâplex,
Hooting and shrieking. When these Syđ’şutå.70
Do so conjointly meet, let not men say
“These are their reasons, they are natural,”
For I believe they are portentous things
Unto the climate that they point upon.
KÅKORÔ
Indeed, it is a strange-disposèd time.
But men may construe things after their fashion,
Clean from the purpose of the things themselves.
Comes Kæsar to the Sýrkos tomorrow?
KASKÅ
He doth, for he did bid Ant’wyns
Send word to you he would be there tomorrow.
KÅKORÔ
Good night then, Kaskå. This disturbèd sky
Is not to walk in.
KASKÅ
Farewell, Kåkorô.
(Kåkorô exits.)
(Enter Kasŷs.)
KASŶS
Who’s there?
KASKÅ
An Allagan.
KASŶS
Kaskå, by your voice.
KASKÅ
Your ear is good. Kasŷs, what night is this!
KASŶS
A very pleasing night to honest men.71
KASKÅ
Who ever knew the heavens menace so?
KASŶS
Those that have seen Eorzea full of faults.72
For my part, I have walked about the streets,
Submitting me unto the perilous night,
And thus unbracèd, Kaskå, as you see,
Have bared my bosom to the thunder-shard;73
And when the violet lightning seemed to open
The breast of heaven, I did present myself
Even in the aim and very flash of it.
KASKÅ
But wherefore did you so much tempt the heavens?
It is the part of men to fear and tremble
When the most mighty Twelve by tokens send
Such dreadful heralds to astonish us.
KASŶS
You are dull, Kaskå, and those sparks of life
That should be in an Allagan you want,
Or else you use not. You look pale, and gaze,
And put on fear, and cast yourself in wonder,
To see the strange impatience of the heavens.
But if you would consider the true cause
Why all these fires, why all these gliding ghosts,
Why cloudkin and beastkin change their kind,
Why old men, fools, and children calculate,
Why all these things change from their ordinance,
Their natures, and preformèd faculties,
To corrupt’d quality—why, you shall find
The heavens hath infused them with these voidsent
To make them instruments of fear and warning
Unto some primal state.
Now could I, Kaskå, name to thee a man
Most like this dreadful night,
That thunders, lightens, opens graves, and roars
As doth the lion in the Crystal Tower;
A man no mightier than thyself or me74
In personal action, yet prodigious grown,
And fearful, as these strange eruptions are.
KASKÅ
‘Tis Kæsar that you mean, is it not, Kasŷs?75
KASŶS
Let it be who it is. For All’gans now
Have thews and limbs like to their ancestors.
But, woe the while, our fathers’ minds are dead,
And we are governed by mad sylphlings’ whims.
Our yoke and suff’rance prove us sajâgyş.76
KASKÅ
Indeed, they say the Sýrkŷtå77 tomorrow
Mean to establish Kæsar emperor,
And he shall don pauldrons by sea and land
In every place save here in Aldenard.
KASŶS
I know where I will wear this dagger then;
Kasŷs from bondage will deliver Kasŷs.
Therein, you Twelve, you make the weak most strong;
Therein, you Twelve, you tyrants do defeat.
Nor crystal spire, nor walls of tempered glass,
Nor ventless gaol, nor circuits of gold,
Can be retentive to the strength of anima;78
But life, being weary of these mortal bonds,
Never lacks power to dismiss itself.
If I know this, know all the star besides,
That part of tyranny that I do bear
I can shake off at pleasure.
(Thunder still.)
KASKÅ
So can I.
So every bondman in his own hand bears
The power to cancel his captivity.79
KASŶS
And why should Kæsar be a tyrant, then?
Poor man, I know he would not be a wolf
But that he sees in us all karakul;
He were no lion,80 were no Allagans hinds.81
Those that with haste will make a mighty fire
Begin it with matches. What trash is Allag?
What rubbish and what offal, when it serves
For the base matter to illuminate
So vile a thing as Kæsar! But, O grief,
Where hast thou led me? I perhaps speak this
Before a willing bondman; then, I know
My answer must be made. But I am armed,
And dangers are to me indifferent.
KASKÅ
You speak to Kaskå, and to such a man
That is no sneering telltale. Hold. My hand.82
(They shake hands.)
Be factious for redress of all these griefs,
And I will set this foot of mine as far
As who goes farthest.
KASŶS
There’s a bargain made.
Now know you, Kaskå, I have moved already
Some certainly the noblest-minded All’gans
To undergo with me an enterprise
Of honorable-dangerous consequence.
And I do know by this they stay for me
In Pompê’s Park. For now, this fearful night,
There is no stir nor driving in the streets;
And the complexion of the element
In favor’s like the work we have in hand,
Most bloody, fiery, and most terrible.
(Enter Kynnå.)
KASKÅ
Stand close awhile, for here comes one in haste.
KASŶS
‘Tis Kynnå; I do know him by his gait.
He is a friend.—Kynnå, where haste you so?
KYNNÅ
To find out you. Who’s that? Måtelys Kymrå?
KASŶS
No, it is Kaskå, one incorporate
To our attempts. Am I not stayed for, Kynnå?
KYNNÅ
I am glad on ’t. What a fearful night is this!
There’s two or three of us have seen strange sights.
KASŶS
Am I not stayed for? Tell me.
KYNNÅ
Yes, you are. O Kasŷs, if you could
But win the noble Brwtys to our party—
KASŶS
(Handing Kynnå several mnemkârtå.)83
Be content. Good Kynnå, take these mnemkârtå,
And look you lay it in the Viceroy’s chair,
Where Brwtys may but find it; and throw this
In at his window; set this up with tape84
Upon old Brwtys’ joleģos.85 All this done,
Repair to Pompê’s Park,86 where you shall find us.
Are Dekŷs Brwtys and Trebonŷs there?
KYNNÅ
All but Måtelys Kymrå, and he’s gone
To seek you at your house. Well, I will hie
And so disperse these mnemkârt as you bade me.
KASŶS
That done, repair to Pompê’s Syneplex.87
(Kynnå exits.)
KASŶS
Come, Kaskå, you and I will yet ere day
See Brwtys at his house. Three parts of him
Is ours already, and the man entire
Upon the next encounter yields him ours.
KASKÅ
O, he sits high in all the people’s hearts,
And that which would appear offense in us
His countenance, like richest alchemy,
Will change to virtue and to worthiness.
KASŶS
Him and his worth and our great need of him
You have right well conceited. Let us go,
For it is midden-night,88 and ere day comes
We will awake him and be sure of him.
(They exit.)
Rekhŷtå – Commoners.
Mechanical – An archaic adjective meaning “working class,” or in this context a synonym for “socially compliant” rekhŷtå.
Mechanic – Likely a term for the “working-class” version of an engineer, with the skill to fix extant magitek but not the background knowledge to understand the inner workings of the magitek they must continually repair and maintain in working order.
Processor – Likely a waste processor, often perceived as the “lowliest” among the Allagan working class professions, despite the monumental importance of that profession to the healthy functioning of any urban community.
Ha! Fuck yeah! 😹
Pfft! 😹 I’mma have to stop live-tweeting, cuz I’m gonna be at this all play at this rate.
Wasteman – Likely a classist slang term for a “waste processor,” stated in order to diminish the man and mock his unapologetic (and justified) pride in his own work.
Asvalt – An advanced form of viscoelastic concrete developed for use in paving Allagan city and country roadways. Such streets were phenomenal for use by both chocobo and by rotigrade (using wheels for locomotion) magitek vehicles. Asvalt could expand and contract with differences in environmental temperature and distributed load weight by deforming plastically without fracturing.
Truck – A massive, rotigrade magitek vehicle used for the collection and processing of organic and inorganic waste across the urban centers of Allag.
You can almost see the slogans: “Consume! Litter! It’s great for the economy!” 🙃
Ĵwlŷs Kæsar became the last living Trŷmẃyr of Allag following the deaths of Krasys during his campaign in Othard and Pompê in Gyr Abania at the tail end of the Allagan Civil War. A rather short-lived and rather hilariously misguided experiment in oligarchical compromise, the Trŷmẃyråt (which we might spell “Triumvirate” in Eorzean for simplicity’s sake) was an attempt to balance the power of three patrŷt generals whose coffers—and those of their direct subordinates and allies—had become fat with the Allagan Republic’s conquest of the Three Great Continents.
Only two trŷmẃyratå ever existed in the history of Allag. The first trŷmẃyråt consisted of Gŷs Ĵwlŷs Kæsar, Næys Pompeŷs Mađnys (Pompê the Great), and Markys Lyşynŷs Krasys. For seven years, the balance of power between the Trŷmẃyråt—with their power restricted largely outside of the bounds of mainland Allag—and the waning Sýrkŷtå. About nine years prior to the events of this play, however, the Khagan of the Auri tribes of Namâtala (likely from Proto-Auri Na’ama-tala, meaning “Night’s Rest,” a river basin that once lay where today we find Othard’s aptly named “Burn”) felled Krasys in single combat, putting a sudden halt to the Allagan conquest of Othard. The sudden death of one Trŷmẃyr unbalanced the entire power structure of Allag. This unbalance was tipped further towards Ĵwlŷs Kæsar when his armies arrived in Namâtala and—within three years—had killed their Khagan and broken the auri tribes of both Namâtala and the Azim Steppe to its northeast. On behalf of Krasys, Kæsar uprooted the Au Ra entirely from Namâtala, whereupon he commissioned the construction of an Allagan industrial sector that would later become the foundation for the floating continent of Azys Lla.
Kæsar’s new and unquestionable popularity on account of his actions in Othard led directly to the Allagan Civil War. Four years prior to the start of the play, Kæsar killed Pompê in airship combat over modern day Gyr Abania in the Battle of Varsâlys. One year prior to the start of the play, at the exceptionally destructive Battle of Arýt, Kæsar and his armies routed Pompê’s sons from the Allagan colony of Arýt (modern-day Werlyt), where he had them humiliated, drawn, then quartered with wyndẁýllå (literally “wind wheels,” or “hover-bikes”) for their defiance. Upon the deaths of Pompê, any remaining Allagan military resistance against Kæsar had been obliterated, and Kæsar had effectively become the most powerful man in all of Etheirys in fact, if not in name.
I just had to take a second to remind us all that Ĵwlŷs Kæsar was popular among the Allagan people for genocide and the godsdamned bleaching of a native auri homeland, so there are zero good guys in this story.
Radilucent – An adjective referencing the present condition of the Đross, a massive industrial canal system that diverted water from Silvertear Lake to cool the Empire’s aetherochemical power stations. By the late Third Astral Era, the Đross was so polluted with runoff that it glowed a sickly yellow-green. While the Fourth Umbral Calamity would later collapse and bury the canal networks, Silvertear Lake itself remains, guarded by the great wyrm Midgardsormr, as an eternal testament to the font of Allag’s aetherochemical might.
Crystal Tower – While the Sýrkos House (constructed by the First Emperor Xandê centuries prior) physically existed during Kæsar’s time, it was a much smaller capitol building and used for governance by the 100 Sýrkŷtå elected by the patrŷtå. It was not until the Late Allagan Period resurrection of Xandê by the technologist Æmon that the Sýrkos was destroyed and rebuilt as Sýrkos Tower, the era-ending solar battery known to modern historians. Any mention of the Crystal or Sýrkos Tower in this text can only be interpreted as anachronistic. Since Morvelet was likely aware of the anachronism of placing the Crystal Tower in the Middle Allagan Period, conflating both the Sýrkos House and the Sýrkos Tower was undoubtedly a purposeful choice by the author.
Ştylsymå – The plural form of the High Allagan singular word ştylsym—a portmanteau of the High Allagan words ştyll, meaning “static,” and symywlêt, meaning “simulation.” A ştylsym could be any “still” representation of a person, legend, or deity of any dimensionality or thematic resonance. In this case, it likely refers to a diverse array of simulations, including perhaps portraits, photographs, posters, and even joleģos (see “Act II”).
I hate these guys soooo much. —Maxx
Me too, but are we allowed to say so here? —Shaido
Who’s gonna stop you? —Maxx
I… Hmm. —Shaido
Drav’nŷrå – The Allagan name for the Dravanians—the dragonkin of Dravania.
On my way out the door, Shai, I’mma touch you. —Maxx
I’m going to be very mad and very surprised if I am somehow pregnant tomorrow. —Shaido
NGL, me too, bud. Me too. —Maxx
Wait. Is Mom Kaesar? 🤔
The next time someone calls my name, I’m 100% answering them like this: “Ha! Who calls?!” —Maxx
And I’ll say, “It is I!” —Shaido
So, next Saturday then? —Maxx
What? —Shaido
“Beware the plexus of Thaliak.” – We debated for some time what Morvelet meant by this phrase. Given later uses, and similar uses of chakras (i.e. somatoaetheric vertices) for markers on the Eorzean calendar moon, the most likely possible interpretation follows: Thaliak is the god that rules over the third month of the year. The plexus is the center of the spiritual body (i.e. soma). Therefore the plexus of Thaliak refers to the center point of the third month of the year, the 16th Sun of the Second Astral Moon.
Ged’syvekh – These are the seven (ged) somatoaetheric vertices (syvekh) of the somatic chord (the “spinal column” of an individual’s spiritual body—what the Allagans called sah and what we presently call the soma). These somatoaetheric vertices were the effective equivalent of what the Fist of Rhalgr and modern day monks refer to as “chakra,” evidencing that knowledge of chakra predated the Fifth Astral Era. Some etymologies of the Eorzean word “seven” imply that it may have derived from the Vulgar Allagan word sevec (from High Allagan syvekh), likely once the High Allagan ged had been lost to time.
OK, seriously, like all of these Allagans are toxic AF, but this emotionally mature dude-on-dude affection is giving me life. My fellow dudes, this could be the one thing worth saving in all of Allag. Let’s make it happen, y’all. Turn to the side—right now—and tell your brah how much you love them. Do it, cuz otherwise we’re all gonna know you’re just in the closet and too chickenshit to admit it. Real men know how to fucking hug another man without making it weird.
Are you forgetting your shows of love to other men? If so, that’s sad for the other men in your life. ‘Be cool if you were nicer to them. Just sayin’. 🤗
Shadow – A word with a double-meaning in Allagan. The Allagans referred to the shadow (şut) as the ephemeral, demimaterial effluvium produced by and often left behind by a soul as it travels through the star and becomes existentially entangled with other entities upon it. The shadow eventually became a word meaning “the effect that a person leaves upon the star,” not just the name for the demimatter it once referenced. Only in the Fifth Astral Era did the word “shadow” acquire its more negative connotations, more focused on the “darkness” implied by it than on its philosophical and scientific origins.
The Third Astral Era.
I feel like you said this to me once in different words, Shai. —Maxx
Oh I wouldn’t know. I can barely make sense of the words we’ve got. 😅 —Shaido
Button – An archaic word meaning “butt,” as in “the butt of a joke.” Notably, Allagan fashion had not used buttons in several decades (as of the time the play is meant to take place), and buttons on one’s clothes had become a symbol of poverty or being out of touch with the times: a subject of mockery and ridicule. The last piece of common Allagan fashion to lose buttons was the undergarment, which retained a button-flap until it was replaced entirely by the advent of the zipper and other magitek adhesives. This is likely how the word “butt” became associated with the human rear end, and later with other objects that taper to a blunt end. Eorzean appears to have adopted the word “butt” in place of the earlier Middle Eorzean ars rather late, some time during the early Sixth Astral Era.
This is how Shaido flirts. —Maxx
What? What?! No, I don’t! —Shaido
😈 —Maxx
The highlands of northern Ilsabard hold areas with some of the wildest temperature variations on the surface of Etheirys. It is the only region of the star where humans live within such extreme environmental fluctuations. Temperatures in the Ilsabardian Highlands reach up to average annual lows of –48°C and average annual highs of 23°C. During the Final Days, in 9:7AE, Sharlayan scholars measured record lows of as little as –67.8°C near the Garlean village of Lapis Manalis, although such umbral-borne extreme temperatures have been smoothing out since atmospheric aether has had a chance to restabilize and aether currents the chance to heal over the past 5–6 years.
For anyone who does not know, Sharlayan measures temperature in degrees Cylemet (°C)—from High Sharlayan cyle, meaning “chill”; and gamita, meaning “measure,” “limit,” or “fitness.” The Cylemet scale is a centigrade temperature system defined by the freezing point of water at 0°C and the boiling point at 100°C under standard atmospheric pressure (i.e. average atmospheric pressure at sea level across the surface of Etheirys). Today, the Cylemet scale has been further standardized in combination with the newly developed Kelvin scale (developed by the Veena aetherologist Kelvin Copihwesfvm, Æ.W., in 11:7AE), where a one-degree interval in Cylemet (1°C) is exactly equal to one Kelvin (1°K).
Silvertear Lake – One of the most powerful fonts of aether in all of Etheirys. Once guarded by Midgardsormr—the Father of all Dragons—prior to his death protecting Eorzea from the Garlean Empire in 1562:6AE, Silvertear Lake served as the primary source of both water and aether for Allag throughout the Third Astral Era.
Rahle’a Dhivri of Allag. If you’re reading this: “Lusty sinews.” You’re welcome. 😎
One of many of Morvelet’s anachronistic references: the tragedy Ĵwlŷs Kæsar was set in the late Middle Allagan Period, just prior to the fall of the Allagan Republic and the birth of the Second Allagan Empire, which would in turn usher in the Third Astral Era’s Late Allagan Period. Conversely, the technologist Æmon (now spelled Amon) was born only during the final century of the Late Allagan Period, just prior to the end of the Third Astral Era and the arrival of the Fourth Umbral Calamity.
Êkon – An eikon, the Allagan and later Garlean word for “primal.”
Likely during Kæsar’s Othardian campaign—a three-year span of time ending about six years prior to the start of the play.
An odd insult—for anyone that’s actually ever met a sick auri girl. My adopted little sister is eleven years old, she’s Raen, and she gave me a black eye because I surprised her while she was experiencing a migraine during this year’s cold season. The bruise is gone, but it’s still sensitive. Six auri girl slugs are no joke.
As stated earlier, Kæsar had become popular in Allag for his success in conquering the auri people of Othard, but they had been able to effectively hold back the might of the Allagan Republic for sixty years before they made a mockery of the wealthiest Trŷmẃyr in Allagan history by killing him and then parading about with his head on a spike, so I expect this statement is nothing but a fuck ton of cope from our green-eyed little buddy Kasŷs here.
The irony of Kasŷs’s comparison would not have been lost on a Fifth Astral Era audience. Namâtala had been the cultural heart of the Raen people for generations before the Republic’s scorched-earth policy and later monstrous acts by the Second Allagan Empire turned it into the Burn we know today. To use a “sick auri girl” as a benchmark for weakness—when those girls were the ones pulling survivors from the rubble of a fallen homeland—is the height of Allagan Cope (with a capital “C”).
To “bear the wand” – In the Third Astral Era, to “bear the wand” meant to be officially recognized as the winner in a contest or a war. The mage’s wand (a rod-like aetheric focus similar to those in use in the present day) was a symbol of victory and triumph over nature, and this symbol was often seen used in Allagan festivities and sports contests.
The Colossus of Korẃys – Another of Morvelet’s anachronistic references, the Colossus of Korẃys (renamed Locus Amoenus during its occupation by the Garlean Empire, then Corvos again after the Empire’s fall) was a colossal statue of Emperor Xandê, commissioned in the final century of the Third Astral Era in order to celebrate the triumphant emperor’s resurrection from death. The statue stood at such an immense height that one of Xandê’s legs stood on the Corvosi peninsula while the other stood on the island of Thavnair. His form towered over the still-significant trade route through the isthmus that spanned the space between the Colossus’s legs. Today only the right foot of the Colossus remains, known as the Anchorite at Corvos. The rest of the statue, including the left leg that once stood upon Thavnair, have long been lost to time and calamity.
Funny story: Later in the play we actually go to Korẃys, and there is notably neither a Colossus there, nor is the Allagan region even called Korẃys. You know Morvelet’s a badass because he will look at his fans right in the face and tell them he doesn’t give a shit that “the lore isn’t internally consistent.” What an icon.
A reference to Nymeia’s—the Spinner’s—loom, or Fate itself.
The Long Night – A reference to what would have been perceived both “primordial calamity” and “creation story” to Kasŷs and Brwtys. “The Long Night” more than likely refers to the First Umbral Calamity, when both night and day became obscured by an unending, gray, howling sky and darkness. The first human tribes (i.e. “the races of man,” if you don’t mind excluding women 🤨) that emerged following the Sundering hid in caves from the threats the lack of solar aether had caused to spawn in the ruined fields and sky of the nascent reflections of Etheirys. It was during this period that the first humans re-discovered primitive Ancient techniques for the invigoration and use of fire aether (i.e. friction-based ignition).
While Scathach (Şkædâkh) is best known for pacts made with the mages of Mhach during the Fifth Astral Era, Allagan aetherologists of the Third Era frequently trafficked with high-ranking voidsent. Recovered tomestones confirm that the Second Allagan Empire had categorized Scathach as a Tier I voidsent—equivalent in power to voidsent such as the Cloud of Darkness and Diabolos—at least seven centuries prior to the fall of Allag and the Fourth Umbral Calamity. Consequently, this reference may appear anachronistic but may, in fact, be completely accurate.
Kaskå? A-are you my husband reincarnated? 😹
I love you, Gladjen, please don’t change the locks. 😅💜
“I’m not afraid. No, sir. Not afraid at all. But if I were afraid…” Fuuuuck. The coooooope!
Jolosym – A form of plurisensory media where one’s physical environment is magitechnologically altered with demimatter in order to simulate fictional or non-fictional environments and narratives. We may consider renaming our holochoral simulations to “holosims,” cuz the name ain’t half bad… 🤔
The traditional role of a bard was effectively “singing poetry.” The lead transcreator, a bard himself, is delighted to see the practice date back to at least the Third Astral Era.
Now that reminds me of you, Maxx. —Shaido
I love you cuz you see me. 💜 —Maxx
Gods, shoot me if I’m ever like this. —Maxx
Could I just tell you not to be instead? —Shaido
Yeah, sure, if it’s easier. —Maxx
Oh, good. —Shaido
“I wouldn’t be asking if I did, now would I? Smartass motherfucker,” said Brwtys in conversational Eorzean.
Ablation – A form of state-sponsored execution that resulted from exposure to a concentrated beam of astrally-polarized fire and electrical aether. It was commonly used because while the pain experienced by the victim was excruciating, it was also over within 3–6 seconds and resulted in no physical remains and a sterile execution stage ready for reuse after a five-minute maintenance checklist.
“Genetic flaw” – Likely a reference for some kind of physiological disorder or malady resulting specifically from genetic (as opposed to ikrinetic) inheritance, as with some forms of epilepsy.
I feel like Morvelet is writing this pun out to be obvious and so that we all know how obvious it is. Kasŷs is trying to be clever, but we all know he’s full of shit at this point, and I love that Morvelet is under no delusions that his audience does not see through Kasŷs completely. Morvelet shamelessly hides nothing and dares you to see it early.
Would. That’s all I’m saying. If you know, you know.
So, like, I went searching instantly to see if theaters had been missing from the Middle Allagan Period and, no, they were not. So WTF, Kaskå? Then, my mistake, I am reminded that the word here is “use” (present) not “used” (past), and therefore Kaskå is referring to what actors in plays frequent to do, rather than waxing nostalgically about what they used to do in the past.
And this is how your own linguistic assumptions can sometimes lead you in totally odd-ball directions. Thank you, Shaido, for your keen and ever-questioning eye. 🥰
Chiton – A tunic-like garment worn in ancient Allag during the Middle Allagan Period. It was typically made from cotton, velveteen, or vanya silk and draped around the body, secured at the shoulders with magnets and at the waist with a belt.
Likely a reference to the icy hell of Halone, the Allagan goddess of strength, courage, and heroism.
Feralyn – An Allagan anti-miqo’te slur deriving from the Allagan word meaning feral (ferål).
I am staring daggers at Kaskå. 😾
Prior to the Allagan discovery and invasion of Meracydia, the only miqo’te known to the Allagans were the Seekers of the Sun (Tawhātam, literally “Those Who Hunt for the Summer” in Proto-Kwan-Tukkup-Puku, the reconstructed ancient language of the Tawhātam people) who had been natives of Amukawi (“the Hunting Wilds”), a loose breadth of land spreading from northeastern Eorzea to northwestern Othard during the First and Second Astral Eras. This land was collectively controlled by the 36 Tawhātam tribes—ten of which are believed extinct in the present day, but only half of which you’re right about—that emerged following the emergence of the sun at the start of the First Astral Era.
The Tawhātam emigrated into Eorzea after the Solar Scathe turned the Ilsabardian northern highlands into a lifeless desert, only to meet persecution at the hands of the Allagan Empire. Consequently, this insult indicates that miqo’te would sell out their own Nunhs for Kæsar’s favor. The reconstructed language named Proto-Kwan-Tukkup-Puku appears to be the parent language of what later became the languages of the Ziz (Kwan, literally “Hunter of the Air”), Jaguar (Tukkup, literally “Coeurl of the Highlands”), and Hipparion (Puku, literally “The Big Pup that Carries Us”) Seeker tribes respectively.
Note: The translation team returned during our second edit of this play to discover this footnote. To this day, we do not know who wrote it. We have chosen to leave it here so as to include the Reader in this mystery we remain stumped by.
Ekkadite – The democratic city-state of Ekka was said to exist somewhere in the region immediately south of present-day Garlemald. It was a nation of Roegadyn whose own culture came to highly influence some parts of Allag’s on account of their long history of war, diplomacy, and conflict during the first half of the Third Astral Era. It was through the Ekkadites (Ekadŷtå) that Thaliak the Scholar came to become the patron god of Allag.
“It was Ekkadite to me.” – During the Fifth Astral Era, after the glaciers receded and revealed many lost Allagan ruins, early scribes became proficient in the nascent, academic language called Neo-Allagan, but they had little—if any at all—knowledge of the far older Ekkadite alphabet or language. When a scribe or student encountered an Ekkadite quotation in an Allagan text, they would write “Ekadý pwgt; nå şadag tw’gyv” in Neo-Allagan. Literally, this means “Ekkadite it is; it-one does not read.” The indirect pronoun gyv means “it,” and the contracted pronoun preceding it, tw’, is the direct third person pronoun “one.”
We couldn’t suss out whether this meant “censured,” “exiled,” or “executed.” Personally, my preference is ablated. 😈
Gods, how do I both hate this dude and want his energy? 😹
If anyone that remembered me going to school was still around, I’d like to think they’d say this about me. 💜 —Maxx
Didn’t you graduate as an Archon like a year-and-a-half ago? —Shaido
Yeah, but that was just my new thesis defense, not “going to school.” —Maxx
I think this is true about you. —Shaido
I do have a saucy, good wit. 😎 —Maxx
“And so it is.” — Literally, “Bet,” in Olllld.
Gods, does it really sound that shitty when I say it? —Maxx
I mean…I wasn’t going to say anything. —Shaido
“In several posts upon his pad alight” – This appears to be a reference to digital “forums” where Allagan citizens would be able to post comments directly to members of the patrŷtå regarding their quotidian concerns. These forums were often used for lobbying Sýrkŷtå as well, including by foreign parties with diplomatic access to Allag’s forums.
Pads were datapads that individual citizens could use to access forums, transmýtå (“transmits” or “communiques”), and other readily available data. Because they lit up when observed directly, a “pad alight” references a pad either ready to use or with an active notification light blinking.
This is all a very pretty way of saying, “I’mma do a social media misinformation campaign!” And I think we all have a lot to be grateful for that social media’s only just starting to be a thing for us. Pray for your players, though; they’ve gotten so good at misinformation, some of them elected a Spongebob Squarepants-shaped Roegadyn who dyes his marmot-fur toupee every Loporrit’s favorite color to be their head of state.
Humans are a problem in every multiverse, I swear.
This is likely an insult about the slave’s hygiene. Morvelet spends a great deal of time characterizing every patrŷtå as a hypocritical piece of shit, and we wholly support him.
An interesting historical note follows. The practice of exogenic thaumaturgy (i.e. thaumaturgy empowered by environmental protoaether) was first developed by Shatotto Shato, the first archmagus of the city-state of Mhach during the Fifth Astral Era. Because the crystals necessary to funnel mass quantities of protoaether through the soma (“spiritual body”) safely had not yet been invented, no mortal human being without an awakened Ma’at (i.e. Echo) could have, at this time in history, manifested a fire around their hand while also preventing their hand from burning right along with the fire.
The Allagans had mastered many forms of thaumaturgy—endogenic (“from inside”), enchoretic (“from a vessel”), or graphogenic (“from a pattern”) thaumaturgical schools were all taught in Allag. By the Late Allagan Period, some magic academies in Allag taught metagenic (“from beyond”) thaumaturgy as well, permitting advanced summoning from the Void and other realms beyond known space and time.
It is easy to forget that while Allag was magitechnologically advanced, their thaumaturgical knowledge was only a decade or two ahead of ours, even by the end of the Late Allagan Period. The democratization of thaumaturgy brought about by Shato’s invention of mage soul crystals blew open a door the Sixth Umbral, Sixth Astral, and Seventh Umbral Eras failed again and again to close. And we—the Eorzeans of the Seventh Astral Era—will likely outpace the Allagans in both measures (i.e. magitechnologically and thaumaturgically) within the century.
Addendum: The subject of Ascian masks came up in our discussions. Their function appears similar in principle to the function of mage soul crystals, and we just found that interesting. Humans may have reinvented the proverbial wheel by inventing the soul crystal. Avenues for further research…
The Ģôģanå – Otherwise known as the Gougan people, ancestors of the modern-day Garlean people, were refugees from the Kingdom of Ivalice (Ydwulmac, late Ivalician; Ýẃâllan, Allagan), transformed by the “Thrice-Tongued Curse” of the High Seraph Ultima. The curse—symbolized by three flames representing the theft of spirit, hope, and power—manifested as a biological horror. Their two hyuran eyes were often “bloomed” over by a distinctive, cancerous crimson growth: a network of throbbing capillaries that coiled like parasitic vines across the face. This ocular mutation was accompanied by the eruption of a third, ellipsoid ruby-like eye and total aetheric calcification, rendering all Ģôģanå and their descendents unable to manipulate aether in even the simplest of ways. To the Allagans, the Ģôģanå were considered a cursed and untouchable people, and they were kept sequestered in the land upon which they made landfall, which the Allagans named Nýoģôģ. By the beginning of the Fourth Astral Era, Nýoģôģ had become known universally as Corvus.
This is all very tragic, so here’s a palate cleanser. Check out the footnote number. Yeah, see? NOICE. 😼
Syđ’şutå – An Allagan word meaning “The Shadowless People,” or the “people” (-å, suffix) “without” (syđ’-, prefix) “shadow” (-şut-). This is likely a derogatory term for Ascians generally, although it was likely only used to refer to the Black-Masked Ascian (Daşrajå) underclass. If an Allagan knew they were engaging with a Red-Masked Paragon (Kamrajå), they would likely show deference, if for no other reason than on account of the spine-chilling terror soaking their bodies with piss and sweat.
I love this man! What a cynical shithead! 😹
So, yeah… We had to take a second because Shaido had the idea that maybe Morvelet was foreshadowing the Fourth Umbral Calamity with this line, and it’s so much more. Morvelet allows Kasŷs to “see the faults” in the system of governance under which he lives, but Kasŷs is also a patrŷt—thus, a classist and a racist. So Morvelet lets him see and phrase the faults he witnesses in ways that parallel the way that the calamity only the audience knows lies in the characters’ future played out and so that audience can witness Kasŷs’s faults plainly from this side of the fourth wall.
Well, not the fourth wall. This specific one between me and Kasŷs. What are you at now, like three degrees of separation? What even is real anymore? Fuck you if you think I’m fictional and you’re not. 😾
Thunder-shard – A lightning-aspected aether crystal. During the Fourth Astral Era, it was believed that lightning storms were the result of “thunder-shards” coalescing in the upper atmosphere. The mythology of this pseudoscientific narrative remained in the public consciousness throughout much of the Fifth Astral Era, it seems, although by that point no one believed the story was true and the word “thunder-shard” was only used in metaphor, as here.
He is so motherfucking petty.
They all know. 😹
“Seriously, Kasŷs? Kæsar again? GET OFF HIS FUCKING DICK, KASŶS!”
Sahagish (Sajâgyş) – A pejorative adjective comparing a Hyur or an Elezen to a Sahagin (Sajâg) male of the subspecies. In the Third Astral Era, the Alagans considered Sahagin (Sajâgå) to be a primitive, savage race of servile “beastmen” who—outside of the presence of their god Leviathan—were pathetic, cowardly, and forever moist. The Allagans were primarily Hyur Supremacists, and most of their views of other Spoken races were offensive and gross.
Interestingly, as the play moves towards a coastal location, the metaphors in the play shift from “fire/progress” to “water/decay,” so this use of sajâgyş by Kasŷs may represent foreshadowing. Morvelet was famous for giving away his endings at the beginning and it never mattering because they were still awesome.
The Senators.
Anima – A form of highly-condensed aether produced by the soul and other forms of life across the star either naturally or by manifestation (i.e. magic, summoning, etc.).
Big foreshadowing to an event involving a bondsman’s hand in the final act of the play. We shall say no more. 🙀
Lion – A beastkin that may have had an Eorzean variant at some point between the Third Astral Era and the present. Sadly, the only surviving lions on Etheirys are presently in the Far East.
Hind – An archaic word for the antelope doe, which currently dominates large swaths of the Black Shroud and the Coerthas Highlands. While the antelope had become endangered following the Seventh Umbral Calamity, joint Eorzean efforts have restored the antelope population to Sixth Astral Era sizes.
That’s friendship right there. Man sees his fellow man in pain: “Hold my hands, brah.” I fucking love this. 💙
Mnemkârt – A mnemkârt—which the Allagans pluralized mnemkârtå and we might choose to spell “mnemcard”—derives from High Allagan mnemosýn (meaning “memory”) and High Allagan kart (meaning “card,” as in a flat, stiff piece of paper or other printable material.
Tape – A sticky, synthetic strip of material used to alchemically adhere objects to one another.
Joleģos – Derived from the High Allagan prefix jolo-, meaning “three-dimensional,” and êgos meaning “idealized form” or “essence.” A joleģos (singular) was a demimaterial ştylsym (literally “static simulation”; see above) akin to a statue, only it was designed to make the patrŷt represented appear as a god-like figure. Only the patrŷtå who had received the greatest Allagan honors were depicted on public jolegý (plural) that likely stood where the Eight Sentinels stand in the present day, on the ornate path towards the Sýrkos House.
Near as we can tell, Pompê’s Park was likely immediately adjacent to the Aģorâplex.
Syneplex – A sensory entertainment venue where individuals could experience pre-built or custom narratives via a variety of contemporary (e.g., jolosyms/holosims) or classical (e.g., film, radio) media. More than likely it was one of the many venues available within Allag’s Aģorâplex, the largest and most popular on the star.
Midden-night – At first we thought this was an archaic way of saying “midnight,” but Morvelet was actually being playful with words and vulgarity. A midden is Middle Eorzean word meaning “unclean matter,” and it is what the dung heaps made by aldgoats herds were often called on account of both their great mass and stink, and also because if you carefully fermented its contents under the hot Thanalan sun, you could have yourself some midden clay for finely-smelling, strong, and workable bricks. And now you know: in the Fifth Astral Era, some southern Eorzean homes were made with poop. Giant mounds of aldgoat poop.
Also we’re pretty sure Kasŷs is calling midnight the “shittiest” part of the night, which is making Shaido think Kasŷs might be experiencing depressive symptoms. Not enough symptoms, I say!