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The Elemental Plane of Water: Return of No Man's Sea

“The legend of Davy Jones’s locker comes from the Elemental Plane of Water. Umberlee’s aquarium is more like it. Anything that sinks to the ocean depths ends up there. Don’t bother though. Whatever it is you’re looking for, you’ll never find it. Those watery depths are infinite, you’d have more luck searching the sea itself.” – Fernando de Magalles, warning them away.
“A map! You fools have a treasure map! And a globe! Hahahahaha! You're like children on the shore, finding pebbles and shells whilst the great ocean of truth lay before them, undiscovered. Let me help” - I, Sinbad the Sailor, guiding them.

Discovery

The plane of water is boundless ocean with specks of civilization in between. Any idiot can get there- just dive deep enough- but not getting lost and actually coming back is another matter entirely.
Great bubbles of air sometimes accumulate with islands and jungles and pirates and generations go by without them ever realising how insignificant their world is. They circumnavigate their bubble and they think they’ve mapped the entirety of the plane of water with their globes. Poor insignificant fools.
The plane of water is so many things and more: the Sea of Worlds, the Isle of Dread, the floating outposts built on wood and coral, towns inside the bellies of whales or sea monsters, the Sea of Ice, the Darkened Depths, the Silt Flats, the sunken planets, the nomad clans, and, of course, the City of Glass. The City of Glass is the "Sigil of the elements", the greatest city in all the inner planes, wealthier than any Prime Material country and far more populated than the City of Brass!

Survival

Basics

In many respects, the plane of water is the safest of all. Thirst isn’t a problem if you stay away from the salty areas. Light shines from all directions as if you were just below the surface of a lake on a sunny day in the Prime Material. No gravity except a slight tug towards anything bigger than a ship if you’re really close. You can carry your food around: any wooden barrel with decent buoyancy weighs nothing and you can tie it to a rope. What’ll kill you is the overwhelming vastness of it. I had a friend who was swept off the deck of the ship by a freak current. Once he’d gone about 60 feet from us, we couldn’t see him anymore and there was no chance of finding him. He probably floated for days before starving. If he found a coral reef or a seaweed ball, he’d have enough raw fish to live for months or years. Until scurvy or slavers got him really. If he was lucky, he was swallowed by a kraken before he knew what killed him. The lack of fire is a problem though. Cooking, metal-working, keeping warm, reading, smoking, signalling, branding,… all of that is so difficult, you just wouldn’t believe. It’s why everyone converges around the air pockets I suppose.

Breathing

Oh, breathing? Obviously you can’t breathe, you dolt! It’s water! What did you think? Most are happy enough staying in the City of Glass or in some prosperous bubble in the Sea of Worlds. We travellers need to get Water Breathing somewhere. Not from the party wizard because it’s got a verbal component and I’d like to see her cast with her mouth full of water. Not from the Glass Nixies either: they can undo their spell any time they want so there’s a better than even chance they’ll keep you as a slave, dependent on them for your every breath. No. We’ll have to buy you rings of water breathing. If you can’t afford that, you’ll have to settle for decanters of endless air to make a bubble around your ship.

Hazards, combat and “weather”

It’s not all smooth sailing and calm seas. Doldrums are dangerous but so are currents if you don’t know them. Some currents plunge you down to the Darkened Depths, others trap ships in century-long loops. That’s how you get Flying Dutchmen, ships maintained by the undead skeletons of the crew. Then there’s salt patches, ooze patches, steam and whirlpools. Places that boil you alive and others that freeze you to death. Always be on the look out for red tide or it’ll blind you and melt you. Finally, there’s the sea monsters. You can feel their pull long before you see them: aboleth, kraken, giant squid, leviathans, giant darkmantles, dragon turtles, dragons, giants, and -if rumour is to be believed- gods themselves and a tarrasque.
Don’t expect to be able to fight any of those or even the average sahuagin: ranged weapons fail, melee attacks become slow and ponderous and magic words must be pronounced differently underwater. Tridents, nets, sharks and other swimmers on the other hand become deadly. You’ve been warned.

The Locals

There are countless people there: merfolk, countless kuo-toa, merrow serving their dark overlords, aquatic myconids, nixies, ruling Marid, sea-centaurs, savage suahagin, aquatic elves and all the humanoid races really. There’s even the odd beholder, flumph, colonising mindflayers, hags and harpies.
Actually, it’s better if I talk about each location in turn instead of speaking in general terms. You’re going to have to search everywhere anyway so you might as well know.

City of Glass

The City of Glass is a great metropolis enclosed within a sphere of hardened water, a nigh unbreakable barrier that protects the city. Half is underwater, half is filled with air, depending on the districts. This inter-dimensional trading hub is filled with merchant ships and portals to every other plane. That’s where we’ll start our journey. Each race and each great merchant family have a “House”; every five years, each House elects their leader to sit on the ruling Council. It is highly cosmopolitan with every kind of air breather and water breather from halflings to giants, fae to merfolk.

Sea of Worlds

The great bubbles of air your “maps” come from. There’s too many to list them all and they’re far too varied to say much. Imagine a giant bubble of air the size of a planet with bits of rock and earth trapped on the edges by the surface tension, always half in and half out, with an air-breathing civilization living on one side of the "island", trading with a water-breathing one under their feet. They're littered with unexplored islands, coves, plains, beaches and jungles. Many become wealthy because air lets you have forges and agricultural land. Metal and timber are so rare in the Plane of Water that they'll trade for pearls and gold. Of course, fire, soil and metal attract wealth but wealth attracts pirates and some bubble-worlds are nothing more than raiding bases and hideouts.

Isle of Dread

We’re not travelling to the Isle of Dread. Out of the question. I’ve shipwrecked there enough times to do me a lifetime. It’s one of the largest bubble-worlds out there, a continent crawling with dinosaurs, undead, strange natives, warring kingdoms and the odd lunatic trying to find the City of Gold. I came back from the Valley of Diamonds myself, but I repeat. It. Is. Not. Worth. It. Not unless you’re in desperate need of riches or have a desire to meet an exciting end.

Citadel of Ten Thousand Pearls

“The Citadel of Ten Thousand Pearls is the greatest of Marid communities and the seat of the Coral Throne. From this court emanates the wise rulership of the Great Padishah of the Marid, the Keeper of the Empire, the Pearl of the Sea, the Parent of the Waves, the Maharaja of the Oceans, Emir of All Currents, and so forth.” Which is to say, it’s a dangerous nest of backstabbing courtiers with a lot of wealth and magical power but no capacity to enforce their claim to ownership of the plane beyond their walls. Even other Marid only pay lip service to the Padishah’s edicts.

Floating outposts & sunken cities

Remember what I said about any large body pulling smaller things to it? A patch of coral or seaweed can snowball into a great reef or deep jungle with shoals of fish living in them. Some folks let ships or specially-constructed wooden structures grow into floating castles; sunken cities or rocky “planets” become moving metropolises, messy amalgamations that house millions within their towered homes or interior caves. Obviously, it’s mostly merfolk and water-breathers but all the large ones have water-tight centres filled with air for guests, books or artisans. In this manner, most of the plane’s inhabitants are nomads of a kind.

Travel

So now that you know what to expect, we need to organise how you’re getting there. Obviously, the easiest way to would be to sail a ship over a trench or whirlpool, tie yourselves to the deck and then sink the ship. The problem being that even if you come out the other side alive, you could end up anywhere. If you’re lucky, you’ll end up in the plane of Surf, Steam, Alcohol or even the Silver Sea. If you’re not, you’ll be trapped in the Plane of Salt, in the Ice Sea or in the Darkened Depths of the Plane of Water. Most likely, you’ll be adrift in the middle of nowhere and utterly lost. Worse, you won’t have any way back.
Which is why we’ll travel to some port cities I know and ask to use a portal to the City of Glass. If you’re desperate, we can use the passage below Umberlee’s temple in Waterdeep.
The City of Glass is a bit out of our way but travel around the plane itself isn’t difficult if you’ve got money. Any sufficiently large ship can be given its own bubble of air which stays with it and we can buy a few hippocampi. Otherwise, we’ll join a caravan, reach a nomad city, or rent transport. Worst comes to worst, we’ll hitch a ride with some merchants and hope not to be sold as cargo or attacked by pirates.

Politics & Religion

Politics? Fah, nothing you shouldn’t get very far away from. Obviously there are covert wars between factions to control the Council of the Glass City and the throne of Padishah but nothing worth knowing about. Vipers the lot of them. I suppose the Marid are still bitter about losing the Glass City but they’re not stupid enough to try and take it back now that they have a fleet and an empire. Besides, the plane is too big to fight over, everyone does their own thing and it’s live and let live. Let me break it down for you:
As for religion… half the races have their own deity but the cult of Umberlee is predominant. Everybody lives at the mercy of the sea. Praise be to the Queen of the Depths and Wavemother.

Journal

I was never one for writing things down, I prefer telling my stories in person. Sorry to disappoint. One of my companions made sketches at the time, let me see if I can find them… aha!
  1. Mermaid, merman and merchild
  2. The Pirate Chronicler has found a beautiful relic on the sea bed.
  3. Crab monster
  4. New to town? You'd better leave before the Council's Legion arrive.
  5. Castle on island
  6. Sunken city and deepsea forest
  7. A Corsair and a Monk
  8. Even Beholders must adapt to survive here.
  9. Shhh!
  10. Abyssal Phoenix
  11. Mind flayer outpost in Aboleth waters
  12. Turn back!
  13. Beware Charbydis
  14. Painting: "Umberlee Inspecting Her Domain"
  15. City at low tide
  16. Tortuga Island and sisters both smaller and larger
  17. Some sketches of the City of Glass: outside and inside
  18. Very little lives near the Ice Seas
  19. Look out! Ghost ships can be empty but sometimes have ... skeleton crews or worse.
  20. In covert wars, some resort to magicks dangerous and dark.
I could go on but I can see I'm boring you.

Mysteries

NPCs

Bruno Montgomery. This grizzled old captain sails his Artic Tern from port to port, looking for something. He says he has three tasks he must complete before he dies and that one involves a “great treasure”.
The Avenger. Nobody knows whether this is the name of a giant construct or of a new kind of ship. It looks like a giant ray mantis and has an electric tail but it is clearly mechanical in nature and has attacked a number ships.
Mādhava of Sangamagrāma and The Marvellous Merchiston are two wizard-mathematicians, currently in hiding. Every major power has placed a bounty for their capture without specifying why; rumour has it they have a powerful spell tome known as “The Log Book”.
Jade Ibn Jalal of House Drake is the current Leader of Council in the City of Glass. She suspects other merchant Houses (the giants and kuo-toa in particular) of capturing and selling fellow citizens into slavery. She’s technically the City’s ruler and empowered to investigate this but in practice, she dares not move against such powerful factions openly. The guardian of the law and Chief Justice is looking towards more unsavoury methods…
Sk’Beshaba Chesk, the “Drowning Traveller”, is a githyanki spy with urgent news. The Illithid have captured an aboleth and intend to feed it to an elder brain. Regardless of who subsumes who, this freak joining will spell disaster. She is unsure whether she should try to stop this unnatural fusion herself or follow orders and warn her people.

Encounters in ports

  1. A kuo-toa begins loudly trying to convert you to some foreign religion. It’s actually a distraction for something else.
  2. A polymorphed Marid is watching you and testing you. If you are worthy, it will offer a wager. If you win the wager, you shall have a single wish; if you lose, you will join its collection of slaves.
  3. A cartographer will pay handsomely for tales of your travels. Secrets might even be on offer: hidden coves, treasure maps, trade routes, strange stories…
  4. Rumour has it that the island is drifting towards a sea monstehazard but the authorities refuse to evacuate. Locals keep asking you whether you can transport them out.
  5. An internationally wanted criminal has just arrived in town but nobody knows what they look like or what crimes they committed in distant seas.
  6. Dwarven sailors try to recruit you as deckhands to voyage to the Sea of Ice on a fur-trapping expedition.
  7. A cleric is leading a procession to Umberlee. They sing her praises and mourn for their own souls, trapped in an endless watery grave.
  8. Heralds shout for all to make way for a travelling dignitary. Rumour has it they’re rich enough to buy the whole port and everyone in it.
  9. Merfolk approach you discretely. A mermaid has gone missing and they suspect foul play.
  10. A tragedy has befallen a nomad city as it went past the port, causing an exodus from the collapsing structure. The sudden influx of refugees is flaring up racial tensions.
11-12. GM describes the sights of the port.
13-14. GM describes the sounds of the port: hawkers, criers, seagulls, port bells, the hubub of civilization and distant fog horn.
15-16. GM describes the smells of the port: seaweed, salt, brine, cargo, sweat, human waste, fish,...
17-18. GM describes the tastes of the floating food market and the local wares.
19) A ship had to be quarantined because of a plague on board. The situation is contained and there is no reason to panic.
20) A storyteller on a street corner is paid coppers to tell tales of treasure and adventure. He's just about to start a romance and he wants someone from the audience to play the villain.

Encounters at sea

  1. A merchant ship with barrels in tow, weightless merchandise. They have wares to sell you.
  2. Same as above but the barrels contain slaves trapped in nets.
  3. A ghost ship was briefly sighted. Is it hunting you?
  4. A suahigan hunting party begins harrying the back of your caravan or snatching stragglers. Beware! If anyone spills blood, they shall enter a murderous rage.
  5. A shipwreck floats ahead with some helpless sailors bobbing alongside. One of the shipwrecked is secretly a changeling.
  6. A jungle of seaweed blocks your path. Closer inspection reveals aquan elves hidden within (Perception 20).
  7. A barrel floats in the middle of emptiness. It unfolds into a small shrine filled with wine, an offering to Umberlee for safe passage. Will you steal from the gods? Or make an offering in return?
  8. A long-dead corpse floats by.
  9. A lone treasure chest floats by. Roll for loot from the DM’s Guide.
  10. A shoal of fish suddenly rushes past the ship. Did something scare them? (Yes. Giant Sharks are the Bullette of the seas.)
  11. Prepare to be boarded: pirates!
  12. Prepare to be boarded: slavers!
  13. Prepare to be boarded: tax officials of the Marid Padishah are collecting tribute.
  14. A ship bearing the flag of the Glass City hails you. They’re tight-lipped but the Glass agents are looking for something. Smugglers perhaps?
  15. Merfolk hail you. Look out: merrow have raided ships around here.
  16. The captain is making an example of a subordinate, they will be keelhauled (dragged against the underside of the ship). At the next offense, they shall be marooned or thrown overboard.
  17. Dolphins follow the ship for a while, a rare event. Some claim it is good luck. Others point out that dolphins need air and so can’t be natural to this plane; something is afoot.
  18. Mermaids follow the ship for a while, singing. Some of the sailors slow the ship to a halt and swim out to them. The sirens (harpy statblock) carry them off to rip them apart.
  19. A scout spots you and tells you that a nomad city is coming behind it. If you’re not stopping there, give way.
  20. Nothing appears. As always, it’s bright but you can’t see past 60 feet or so. You could be gliding past silent monstrosities or over uncharted isles and you’d be none the wiser. Or you could be in the middle of a vast desert of water and sheer nothingness that goes on forever. All you have are ominous gurgling noises and your imagination to fill the blanks. And the unknown is creepy.

Environmental hazards

  1. A current threatens to sweep you off the deck/away from the rest of the party. Strength save DC 15.
  2. You go through Red Tide. Constitution saving throw versus poison to avoid going blind.
  3. You go through a Salty Spot. All wounds re-open, lose 1HP for every HP already below max. If this would bring you to 0 hitpoints, you are dried up but stabilised. Every hour spent in a Salty Spot without drinking fresh water inflicts a level of exhaustion.
  4. You meet a Hot Patch. Take 6d6 fire damage.
  5. You meet a Cold Patch. Take 6d6 cold damage.
  6. You skirt the edges of the Darkened Depths. There is suddenly no light. You hear a voice compelling you to join it down deeper; make a Wisdom saving throw, DC10. On a success, the malevolent voice subsides. On a failure, you must pretend to no longer hear the sweet voice even as you obey it and try to drag as many others down with you.
  7. You belatedly realise that you’re being carried by a doomed current: if you don’t escape it now, you’ll be trapped forever on a loop.
  8. You are stuck in doldrums. Wait a day, maybe the currents will change? You’re dead if they don’t.
  9. A lucky current and fair “winds” favour you: your journey has been hastened by about a day.
  10. You’re being reeled in by something big. All hands on deck to avoid be eaten by some unseen sea monster.

Toolkit for DMs

Inspiring works

Useful homebrew:

"But how will we find this island among so many worlds?" they finally asked. And I answered, "We will search high and low but I will recognise the island when we see it for I have been there before on my First Voyage. For that is the map of the back and belly of a whale the size of a mountain." - From Chronicles of Sinbad's Seventh and Final Voyage
Bought to you by The Atlas of The Planes. Write your own entry!
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JoJo's Bizarre Adventure OC Tournament #4: R5M4 - Demis Roussos and Hadrian Moore vs. ???

The epilogue is in for Match 3...
The winner is Schioppo Fucile and M.I.A., with a score of 69 to Riko Pipopapo’s 61!
Category Winner Point Totals Comments
Popularity Schioppo Fucile and M.I.A. 28-12 Schioppo and M.I.A. certainly left their impact on the popular vote, winning the category 9-4! We’re also incredibly proud of and thankful for the turnout, with 18 of our most frequent voters busy in the strat room, you all came out in force!
Quality Riko Pipopapo 22-24 Reasoning
JoJolity Riko Pipopapo 19-25 Reasoning
Location - Downtown San Francisco, CA:
The sun was still high in the sky of San Francisco, though none could see it through the thick cover of clouds that filled the sky. The dark masses seemed to spill an endless amount of rain down to the city. Unfortunately to Nate Selleck, it was just rain. Just rain. Just. Rain.
It echoed through Nate’s head as the water soaked his hair, his shirt, rolled down his skin. This was not the advent of the new future he had wanted for the world. It was just rain. A dried splatter of blood washed away, a remnant of what he had done to get here, and a reminder of what he was willing to do to keep moving forward.
Passers by were few and far between as he hobbled to the parking garage, but between the downpour and his disheveled appearance, none could recognize their Governor as he moved to his car. His Stand, taking a new form, opened the door of his car and ushered him in, Nate not paying much mind to the leather seats as he sat. Damp, cold, and alone. The emotions of everything that had just happened hit Nate all at once.
The failsafe that had activated, that madwoman could have taken his life…he remembered the high he felt when the XPLICIT flowed through his veins. The despair and the failure screamed in his mind, louder than any of his thoughts of resolve… they clouded him. He remembered the feeling of his stand’s arm breaking through skin, and flesh, then bone… He took a life. He was overcome with emotion.
Nate wept.
He knew he was right. People were out to stop his plan, to kill him, they were afraid and violent because they were ignorant, they had no idea of the potential good his plan could bring to the world. He could restart, he could rebuild, he knew that much…he just never thought he’d have to kill someone to do it.
His solemn thoughts were broken by the sound of a phone ringing coming from his car’s dashboard. He wiped his tears and looked at the screen: it was his wife. He hurriedly answered.
“Nate! I was watching the news; It said there was a terrorist in San Francisco, in Lyte Headquarters! Are you alright?!” Maria yelled frantically.
Nate sniffled, nodding to himself. “I-I’m alright, Maria. I managed to get out of the building before anything happened…I-I’m sorry this happened. I never told you…about my work, what the project was. These terrorists were after me, the company, because they wanted to stop it. I’ll tell you everything when I get home…I’ll make sure we’re safe. I love you, Maria.”
“I love you too, Nate... Whatever all this is, I support you. Just, please get home safe. Please.” She said, beginning to cry.
“I will. I’ll be back soon, Maria. I promise.”
Hanging up the phone, Nate broke once more. His breath was heavy, his thoughts panicked. He quickly dialed on his phone, and another call began.
“Governor Selleck?! Is everything alright?” A man said over the phone.
“Yes, I’m fine, but this is urgent. I’m heading out of San Francisco, and I’m within vicinity of the terrorist; I feel I might be followed, there’s more of them. I need everything you can spare from the State Guard ordered to the Golden Gate Bridge so I can escape safely.” Nate said, taking deep breaths and speaking as calmly as he could.
“Yes sir, right away! Stay safe, Governor Selleck”
“Thank you.” Nate said, promptly hanging the phone up.
He sighed, staring forward. He had to go now, that much he knew. He started his car, turning the self-driving off and adjusting his mirror. He pulled out of the parking garage, and began his drive towards the Golden Gate.
Location - Linkin Park:
Linkin Park was quiet, and tense. The attack on Lyte headquarters, the chaos that Nate had caused, the fighting in the streets of San Francisco. The gravity of the situation had cast a pall over the already dour proceedings.
Kaito sipped from a soda, his tenth that day since they returned from Wilkinson. He reclined on a sofa in a fake repose, nervously clenching and unclenching his hands. Kris bounced on the balls of his feet, pacing here and there. Demis looked at the news feed, as Djimon and Alex pored over a map of the city.
David Sides sat in an uncomfortable chair. His phone had been ringing off the hook for hours, about responses to the terrorist attack, about the governor.
The governor he was going to help remove. He slicked back his hair, affirming some of the latest news, giving a few orders to maintain positions, and shutting the phone.
Sides stood, the attentions of those left in the room on him. “I’ll keep this brief. Selleck called the State Guard, to protect himself while he flees the city. If he gets out, we’ll have no chance of catching him. He’ll slip through our fingers, and escape.”
“So you just need some of us to beat him up?” Kaito asked, standing up. “I can totally kick his crap in.”
“In a few hours maybe,” Kris stated, a worried look in his eyes. “You took some hard hits against Tom. So did I, and I know I couldn’t act at top performance.”
Kaito settled down, a muscle in his jaw working. “But someone has to go there. Someone has to do this.”
“...Yeah.” Kris muttered. “I… I think I have to step out for a bit. Call someone.” He looked around for any dissention, and sidled away.
On a couch away from the group, Demis lay on his back, continuing to look at the news on his phone. Terrorist attacks. Deaths. Stand battles in the streets. Would this become his new normal? Would this become his life from now on? Would this spread back to Sweetwater as well?
M.I.A. was still out, and the team was short-staffed. Kris and Kaito were still recovering.
“That leaves me then,” he mused quietly. Now the room’s attention was on him, a pressure not dissimilar to one he had felt before. All of this was crazy…terrifying even. But an even stranger calm had settled over him, his response to that pressure coming with a natural ease. He swung his legs over and stood up, rolling out his left arm. “Someone has to go out against him, and you’ve all done a lot already. All of you. It’s only fair that I help out.”
The room remained silent, save for the low, steady ticking of Demis’s heart ringing in his ears. Sides pursed his lips in thought, his eyes flicking to a graffitied rendition of the team’s sigil on the wall. They had to act fast, but they certainly had the means to do so. He turned to Demis, nodding in acknowledgement. “We leave in 5, meet me at the base’s west exit.”
Location - San Francisco:
Tunde threw another handful of pages into the air, Dust Breathers springing to life and rushing off into the distance around them. For the past hour, they had been constantly hounded by police in their escape, and were now slinking between alleyways. Gioia’s arm hung in a makeshift cast with fabric taken from an awning, and several of Tunde’s fingers were bound together to prevent them breaking more. ｢Love Kills｣ pulled down a wall, blocking the alleyway from any intruders, at least for the time being.
“Nate left the tower, and spent about ten minutes finding a car.” She reported. She had already shared the news of Lennox’s death and Selleck’s escape. “We’ve been harassing him when we can, but it’s been hard enough escaping the police.”
“That’s fine.” Niyaz stated, on the other end. “Do you know where his ‘path’ is?”
Gioia stayed silent for a moment. “Tunde thinks he’s getting out of the city, but that’s about it. We haven’t had a moment to think.”
“Of course, perfectly understandable.” Niyaz’s voice murmured through the phone, and silenced. He had hung up. A crunching came from the rudimentary blockade in the alley, Gioia tensing up as Tunde smiled warmly. A massive arm punched through, dragging the rubble away, to reveal the ever-peaceful face of the Mona Lisa, fused to the front of a boat. Arms stuck out of its sides, one crushing a police car. Niyaz stood on top, surrounded by Lisa Faces.
He held out a hand, and snapped it to his forehead. “Come aboard.” He ordered, the boat picking up Gioia and Tunde and depositing them carefully on deck. “Though our quarry may not be dead, your efforts and Andrew Lennox’s sacrifice…they have forced Selleck, that little cretin, to flee from his castle. He is a routed general, and one we can still cut off.”
He hesitated. “Ah, Gioia, your phone is ringing.” He pointed out, sitting down casually as the Lisa Faces tore into the guts of police cars. “Do take a seat, we will be moving to the Redoubt Oscar and… and Mr. Hawkes have set up downtown. A forward operating base. There, I’m certain you will be inoculated far from the front. It is just that a beleaguered platoon must be given some time on leave. You have already done enough for us, Arancini, and O Santos.”
Tunde sat down quickly, Gioia sitting more primly. She glanced at the phone, eyebrows raised. “Kris?” She muttered, accepting the call and putting it on speaker. “What is it?” She asked.
“Hi, uh, Gioia.” He whispered into the receiver. “I just stepped out from a meeting… you were with Lennox, in the tower. Right?”
She nodded, though Kris couldn’t see her. “I was with him. He’s likely to be given the blame for it, though.”
“...So you’re the one who forced Nate out. What happened there?”
“We set him back.” Tunde mused, gingerly patting her blooming bruises. “The first act is over and the actors have taken their bows.” She grinned in response to Gioia’s glare. “And along with my dear ally never wishing to hear about plays again, California should be safe from XPLICIT, for at least a few more hours.”
“But hardly safe from its corrupt so-called ruler.” Niyaz stated. “Which brings to mind, you do not have the bearing of a social call.”
“That obvious, huh?” Kris said. “Tunde and…Genghis, right? Well you sure know how to pick ‘em, Gioia.”
“Niyaz. And why did you call, this is hardly the time to mince words.”
“Yeah. Sorry.” Kris paused. “You chased out Nate, but he’s escaping soon. We only have a few minutes. He’s heading for the Golden Gate Bridge. He has the State Guard on the opposite end, and if he reaches them, I don’t think we’ll be able to keep up past that.”
“So he’s going to escape.” Niyaz said.
“I get you’re probably suspicious of me… but.” Kris paused. “I’m telling you this cuz… I don’t think what you guys want is the worst option. The worst option, I think, is him getting away. There’s so much chaos going on, I wanted to, uh, clear the air a little. So that Nate doesn’t get to slip through the cracks.”
“He’s telling the truth.” Gioia said, eyes sharp. “Based on his movements… yeah, Selleck is going to the ‘Golden Gate’, I’m certain of it.”
“And you’re not going.” Niyaz responded. He held up a finger to her protest. “Not until you heal, am I letting you go to fight him. I’ll not allow an ally, my allies, on a suicide mission.”
“...Fine.” Gioia grumped. “Thank you so much for the information, Kris, I’ll call you back, alright?”
“I’m pretty sure the others are going to get on me anyways if I spend too long, I’ll be helping out my side. I think Schioppo… ah, sorry, shouldn’t talk about that, but one of my teammates met him, he’s safe. See you soon!”
The phone clicked off, and Gioia fluidly snatched it up, relief clear in her body language. “Who can we get there?” She asked.
Niyaz looked at the Redoubt, quickly approaching. “Most are off on various missions, things are so busy. So busy smashing what they can… but Hadrian. Yes, indeed, Hadrian has taken little damage from previous raids, he should be able to.”
“As long as we have someone.” Tunde said, an odd bite to her voice. “Someone needs to cut that charlatan off.”
Location - Golden Gate Bridge:
Nate rushed down the road, pushing his car as far as it would go while still keeping it in control. The road was mostly clear, the area having been evacuated, but much to his frustration, his attempts to get into contact with his conspirators outside of the city had turned up nothing but voicemail and disconnections. He grit his teeth.
“Look on the bright side… The media has been avoiding this whole area for the time being, so I didn’t have to worry about being stopped and questioned for once… Ha… I think this is the first time I’ve ever crossed Golden Gate without some paparazzo snapping my picture. Ha… Ha…”
He forced his face into a slight grin, but the facade faded fast, as his lips curled into an ugly grimace. He slammed his car’s steering wheel, in an uncharacteristically genuine display of frustration.
“Dammit… Dammit! Why?! Why did this have to happen to me…” He fought hard to hold back tears of frustration, displays of his feelings that he had done his utmost to hide from his family and employees, but which now flowed freely in his quiet isolation. “These… These… Assholes! So scared of progress… So terrified of the future! DAMMIT! Surely there’s someone out there worse?! Some warlord in a third world hellhole you could stop! I’m trying to help! I’m trying to help you people… I’m trying to help everyone! Why…”
He felt himself on the verge of sobbing. He had always been accustomed to putting on faces; to sell his products, to lure investors, to get the greenlight on his big projects, but for the first time in a long time, he let his true face fly free. He felt in equal measures anger and sadness, frustration and despair. He turned his eyes away from the road to dry them on his sleeve.
“My men will be on the other side of this bridge… Can’t let them catch me like this. If we’re gonna get past this hurdle, morale is going to be—”
KRRRRRSHA
The sound of metal screaming on black pavement drowned out even Selleck’s own thoughts, as his car came to a nearly full stop instantly, and the airbag exploded outwards like an iron bar to the chest. It popped near instantly, and as it rested down on Nate Selleck’s lap, it felt more like a lead blanket than a nylon pouch as it restrained his legs. After the loud explosion of the air back, four more pops echoed inside the car as it sank ever so slightly, the tires bursting as if under extreme pressure. The car bent and shuddered with a spine-tingling metal creak, as the hairline fractures began to form in the front windshield and the windows.
“What… Is… This…?”
Nate tried to exclaim as his heart pounded, but found himself short on breath near instantly. It took extreme effort to even open and close his jaw. The creaking noise became louder, a near constant humm of danger. Looking around, with some difficulty as even keeping his eyelids up was becoming an extreme chore, Nate noticed a second car in the road, which he had missed when he took his eyes off of it. An almost antique thing, it had completely crumbled, caved in on itself. The roof was completely collapsed, and the wheels had bent and burst off their axles, looking distressingly like the car had been removed halfway through it being compressed into a cube. It was with no small amount of terror that the Governor noticed the metal in his own car begin to bend and morph, as the glass windows became even more cracked and shattered.
He could barely move his own body, let alone with the remains of the airbag on his lap. His heart pounded, and his survival instinct kicked in; almost involuntarily, he summoned the limbs of a Stand to tear away the burst safety device, and crash through the door. Its movements, too, were restricted as great weight pressed down on it from all around, but with great strength it created an escape, which Nate dived through with all the power his body could lend him, slamming with an especially hard thud as his body met the road. He struggled to pull himself up.
“You know…”
A woman’s voice echoed around, a dour and gruff cadence behind it. Nate, having risen to his knees, scanned for its source.
“I was a little worried, setting myself up on a bridge. If these wires start to come loose, or those girders start to bend a little too much, this whole shit goes down in a chain reaction… But I’m surprised. I guess it’s built well, to handle weight like this.”
From behind the broken down vehicle stepped Pão de Queijo, a pair of red sunglasses hiding her eyes.
“Better built than your car, at least.” She quipped, punctuated by Selleck’s getaway vehicle finally collapsing under its own weight.
“You… You’re that… Criminal from Brazil…!” Nate said in anger, rising unsteadily to his feet, doing his best to keep his breathing even under the intense weight.
“Is that what you remember about me? ... I’m flattered.” Pão said, her voice seemingly dull dripping with contempt just under the surface.
“You… You can’t stop me! You have no chance!” Nate yelled, flustered by the appearance of yet another rival hoping to crush his dream of the future.
“Shut the hell up.” Pão calmly responded in kind. “That’s what I hate about all you rich and powerful bastards. It’s like you can’t help but look down on everyone around you, like you think you’re the hottest shit around. It pisses me the hell off.” Her tone could kill, though it likely wasn’t the only thing.
“Still,” She continued, “I’m pretty surprised you even managed to make it this far, with all the people in town gunning for your head. Didn’t think I would even have to end up doing anything today. It almost makes me feel bad, even. You got so close, too. You had a whole posse waiting for you just on the other side of this bridge.”
The red sunglasses on Pão’s face slid down slightly, revealing a look of utter murderous contempt in her eyes.
“’Had’” She pushed the glasses pack up.
The implication of her words sent Nate’s mind reeling. He scanned her body; not a single scratch on her. Flawless, without injury.
“But… Some of those men were Stand Users! How did you…?!” The fear in Nate’s voice was palpable. Yet, he still managed to stand, taking a step towards Pão.
“You that eager to die…? I’ll show you, if you’ve got the spine for it, you damn coward. You’re not getting to the other side of this bridge.” Pão crouched down, assuming a fighting stance.
“Coward…?” Nate’s teeth scratched together, grinding. “How… DARE you!” Nate summoned his Stand in full body, clenching his fists. “You don’t know a damn thing about me! And… You’ll never stop me! I’ve grown! I’ve evolved! I’ll take you down where you stand, you damn criminal!”
“... You think you’re the only one?”
Like a runner beginning a sprint, Pão rushed for Selleck, almost too fast for him to even see, let alone move his body to react to in this state of increased gravity. In a blink, the gang leader closed the ten meters between them, cracking her fist against Nate’s jaw in a devastating gazelle punch. Despite the increase in gravity, Nate still found himself flying through the air, propelled by the power of his opponent. From Pão’s body emerged her ｢Tribe Called Quest｣, the imposing physical monstrosity swinging its forearm at the center mass of Nate’s new evolution, sending it flying away as well. Nate tumbled briefly, pulling himself back up to his knees with no small difficulty and calling his Stand back to his side for safety.
Pão de Queijo stood up straight, holding her fist in front of her body.
“Unrestrained movement in ten times Earth’s natural gravity… How’s that for ‘evolution’?” She asked condescendingly. “And that’s not the only area where I’ve experienced growth…” The arrows that adorned her brutal Stand’s body began to glow in affirmation of her claims.
“... Did you ever even stop to think about those ‘damn criminals’, you trash? That you used to test your little future. Who you might as well have ordered dead. Always… You people can’t stop looking down on others. Some of those people were mine, dammit!” Pão raised her voice, shouting over the empty bridge between the two of them. “They were my Brothers! My Sisters! I gave them a home, and in return, they gave my quest purpose! My life purpose!” Pão assumed a fighting stance.
“So now… I’m finally gonna pay them back. You’re not gonna leave this damn bridge alive… But screw it.” Pão opened her hand, giving a ‘come on’ gesture to the prostrating Selleck. Her lips curved upwards into an uncharacteristic and truly terrifying smirk. “But I’m sick to shit of all this damn talking. I’m your grim reaper, I’m your past mistakes, I’m your absentminded cruelty coming back to bite you in the ass. Call me Karma. I’m your destiny…”
“So bring it the hell on!”
Location - Golden Gate/San Fran Bay:
For all the vehicles that Sides had been able to get Uncivil Umbra, this was the most unorthodox of their modes of transport. A police speedboat had been prepared for them at the far west end of the Golden Gate Park, at the Ocean Beach in particular. A straight drive to the bridge from the park was only a few miles, but the streets were teeming with officers of questionable allegiance.
And so, the shortest path was a detour.
Remolded by ｢Thriller｣ and powered by ｢Nature Boy: ACT 3｣, the speedboat cut through the Gulf of The Farallones, much faster than it would normally would be able to. Alex and Demis sat in front, steering the boat to the bridge in the distance, while Djimon and Sides sat in the back. Rain streaked down the boy’s visor as he stared out over the water.
“Penny for your thoughts?”
Djimon perked up at the question, posed by the Attorney General next to him. He shuffled awkwardly in his seat at the sudden attention, unsure of quite how to respond. “Just...worried, I guess,” he murmured plainly. “Even if we beat Nate, like, what comes after? Breaking it down, sure, but…do we get to go back to our normal lives? I can’t help in prosecuting Lyte, but I’m not sure if I can go….”
Demis nodded. “Starting the next semester, relaxing with Millie. Staying in contact with Sweetwater, I have all of these responsibilities but…when will the next thing come up. When will I have to do this again. This has to be done, but...”
“You’re afraid of not being the same people when you go back to normalcy.” David said, posture ramrod straight. “This combat is nothing like I’ve ever seen. That children like you would have to be involved, that these… abilities you have caused so much grief.”
“After all of this is over, you should go back home,” he said. “The reality of fighting, of combat, is that it’s so easy to see it as a never ending path. That even when you get back, there will be more combat, more fighting, that you can never lose your edge, ever, or when you’re called back you won’t be ready. Or that you'll never be able to go back.”
“Once this day is over, you should go back home. I can take care of everything from here. You won’t be able to help me, so you shouldn’t feel forced to. Go home, and relax.”
“...Maybe.” Djimon said, adjusting his visor. Demis looked over at him, at Sides. That’s right, this wasn’t forever. There was no way he was going to let this become his new normal. He knew what normal life was, knew what it should be. Relaxing with his friends, sleeping in, studying for hours at a cafe, he wouldn’t let Lyte take that away from him. Wouldn’t let Nate force his vision onto the world like that.
“You look determined.” David mentioned. “Both of you. I may not understand much of this, what’s going on. But to fight, even though you shouldn’t be forced to…I’m proud of you. All of you.”
The boat slowed to a stop next to a pier, the bridge itself hanging above and protecting them from the rain. Selleck was surely still there as well. “Looks like your stop,” Sides murmured as he looked upwards. The bridge has over 60 meters of clearance above the water; his remaining in the boat was fine—he was needed on standby—but getting up there unnoticed would be difficult...
“Here.” Alex stood up, ｢Nature Boy: ACT 1｣ manifesting behind him. The Stand gripped its user’s wrist and extended a hand to Demis. He looked up at the metal column and back to Alex, the gears quickly turning in his head. Once ｢Nature Boy｣ had a steady grip, it took a breath and propelled the three of them upwards, clearing dozens of meters at once. As they began to fall however, a set of springs tethered them to the column which stretched taut before snapping back them upwards then disappearing, the duo propelled further by another blast of air. Rappel, propel, rappel, propel, rappel, propel...
A boat, manned with Lisa Faces, cut through the waves, the three on board soaked with rain. Hadrian sat up front, the rain did nothing to halt him. Niyaz was in the back, splitting his attention between the boat and his map. The edifice of the Golden Gate loomed above them.
Hadrian stood with his oldest ally, Jack. Jack had sustained damage in the morning, but had been well enough to come with him to support.
“This is it.” Jack muttered. “We’re so close. Once today is over… well all of it will be.” He rubbed the bandages around his stomach. “Hey, once we deal with Nate, the other guy on our list is gonna be nothing in comparison.”
Hadrian nodded. His life was ebbing away now. He could feel it, a grey pall over his heart. “This isn’t… going to be easy though.” He said. “None of it is. He killed Andrew, so quickly… but I have to fight him. If I don’t do this, I’m… I think the only one in this city that can, at this point. I don’t have a choice.”
Jack nodded. “Yeah. Uh, maybe. But with your power, and the other team is probably here too… you’ll have allies. Even if I can’t help you properly, I’ll be here too.” He hugged the stock-still Hadrian. “We’re, we’re going to make it through together, man. I’m not going to let you deal with any more bullshit, I promise. And Nora will be waiting too. Drown you in sweaters, probably.”
“So much confidence in me?” Hadrian chuckled. “Yeah. I need to do this, and now that I got a taste of it again, I can’t let my life slip away now.”
The boat slowed, and stopped, below the bridge. Niyaz climbed up to the front. “I think we’ve made it.” He said. “To have cut off the retreat of the enemy. And all that is left is to crush him. Are you prepared?”
Hadrian took a shuddering breath. “It doesn’t matter if I am.” He said. “Bring me up.”
“Fight valiantly, and come back safe, my ally. I have the utmost faith that you can carry this out. We will remain nearby once you complete the task… and to provide as much aid as is capable. But under these conditions, I fear that won’t be much.”
“I said my piece already. Kill ‘em dead, partner.” Jack said, with a wink.
“...Thanks. I’ll be back.” Hadrian said, a sense of finality about him.
Lisa Faces grabbed his arms. Massive wings arched behind them, and they pushed off the boat. They took flight, dragging him up, up, and up through the torrent of rain. No matter what, this would end here, with him. He had to make it.
He had to survive.
Location - Golden Gate Bridge:
The pouring rain, intensity ever increasing, did nothing to stop the State Guard that had been making their move towards the Golden Gate Bridge. The general was on the ground, directing them as his cell went off. A quick glance at the screen and a surprised smile on the general’s face confirmed the caller’s identity: “Sides! It’s been a while! We were just moving in on the bridge to escort the governor and further evacuate the area, as requested,” the General said gruffly.
Still down on the water, Sides shook his head. “Sorry to come out here so abruptly, General, but there’s been a change of plans. The governor wasn’t able to get a hold of you before the storm got worse, but he’s let me know that he wants the end of the bridge barricaded. It’s urgent, the terrorists are still at large in San Francisco and we need a perimeter set up so they can’t get through.”
The General took off his cover, scratching his head. “Uhh, that’s…strange. But, Governor Selleck is a strange guy in general…I’m not going to disobey a direct order. Alright, Sides, I’ll reroute my men and hold off the end of the bridge. Thanks for letting me know.”
Sides nodded. “Of course, General. Stay safe out there.”
As he hung up, Sides smirked. All according to plan.
Meanwhile, through the downpour, Nate couldn’t see much in the distance, but he could distinctly see the troops that he was waiting on, the ones he figured were his free ticket out of the area, completely turning around and heading in the opposite direction.
“What... the fuck? Where the hell are they going?!” He yelled, the anger creeping up on him once again.
The ground around him was cracked, broken to rubble in some places, and the mass amount of gravity had taken a toll on him. Blood leaking from the side of his mouth, and his adversary lay on the ground behind him; both of them had clearly taken massive beatings, but Nate was the one left still standing. Somehow, despite the gravity, the raw strength and abilities of his opponent, he had done it.
He wiped the blood from his mouth. Notably, he was missing a pinky finger, blood spilling from the wound. Nate grunted, looking towards the troops on the other side. He had to head that way… but why were they heading back? Who could have ordered them to do that?
Nate heard sirens in the distance. Someone must have heard the commotion and called the police… if they saw him, how injured he was, they’d try to help him. Take him to a hospital. Then they’d question him. They wouldn’t understand, they could never understand. Neither side of this bridge was safe.
“Fine… if I can’t cross either side, I just need to find a better way. I… I could go off the side. Yeah! If I can just get to the middle, and get off the side… I can get the hell out of here. I can get home.”
Nate began sprinting towards the center of the bridge. If he could get into the bay, he could surely use his stand to get himself safely to shore. He’d get back home, he’d get somewhere safe. He just conquered the odds against a mighty opponent in that fight, he could do it again!
Unfortunately, in the center of the bridge that Nate sought, another one of his ‘obstacles’ was developing. Namely, several valiant fighters approached the center of the bridge through the bay. Hadrian Moore and Demis Roussos, both accompanied by their allies, approached the center of the bridge by boat, close, yet unable to see each other through the downpour.
Simultaneously and on opposite sides of the bridge, Hadrian and Demis arrived. The Lisa Faces detached, placing him on the bridge. Demis and Alex climbed up as well, Alex taking one look at the EMTs and glancing to Demis.
Demis nodded, and Alex immediately went back under, to make his way over to them, to see what he could do to help. Demis reached behind himself, feeling the ticking key on his back. Almost there.
They spotted each other, recognizing the other instantly. Both walked forwards, Stands out.
“Hey.” Demis called. “You’re the person sent by the ‘other team’?”
Hadrian nodded. “Yeah. I’m here to kill Selleck.” No use mincing words. There wasn’t time, there was never time. “Are you going to try and stop me?”
Demis pursed his lips. “I don’t feel too confident in taking this on myself. And I’m not going to attack you.”
“Yeah, this is too important.” Hadrian looked to the far side of the bridge. “We’re the last line of defense, right?”
“This is it, I think.” Demis said. “I… really think this is it. There’s nobody else to help, but he’s trapped here too.”
Hadrian extended a hand, which Demis readily took. “We’re trapped here with him, him with us. And we can’t let him escape.”
“Yeah. Let's do this.”
Hadrian and Demis stood together once again, and awaited Nate.
Soon enough, the man came. Sprinting across the bridge, he spotted two figures in the rain and slowed down, squinting. Rubbing the rain away from his eyes, he couldn’t quite recognize who these people were, but he felt it inside his heart: These men were Stand users, and they were here to stop him.
“There he is!” He heard, from one of them. Definitely, 100% there to stop him. He clenched his hands, his teeth in anger.
“I don’t know who you are! I’m losing track of all the people who have tried and failed to stop me… But, I’ll give you one opportunity to get out of here, now!” Nate said, boisterously, his achievements so clear to see.
Hadrian stepped forward, sneering. “Bullshit! Your plan failed! Gioia and Tunde told us all about it! You’ve failed, and now you’re scurrying away to try it again! We’re not going to let you do that!”
Demis stepped forward putting his hand on his ally’s shoulder. “That’s right. You’re going down, right here, right now.”
“By any means necessary.” Hadrian said firmly.
Nate sighed.
“Well… There goes my idea of an easy escape, huh? Fine. I guess I’ve gotten enough experience mopping up you interlopers. After all, your terrorist friend lay at rest in Lyte Headquarters with a sizable hole through his abdomen, and that criminal scum you sent here to stop me is lying unconscious on the pavement not too far back. Were they the best you had, or are you going to put up a fight?” He said, a snide air of confidence around him.
Hadrian scowled, and there was a brief silence filled only by the shower of rain hitting the pavement, and the ticking of a spinning key.
“You… You’re so desperate, aren’t you. To throw us off, to make us angry. This last vestige of control is all you have, before you fall victim to the cold realization that you’ve completely and utterly failed. Well, it won’t work!” Demis said, further advancing towards the governor.
Nate sneered at Demis’ declaration. The gall, the audacity! His heart burned with the insults, the humiliations piled on him. He was the pinnacle of Stand users! His ability was the pinnacle of years of advancement, and to have his gift thrown in his face, his brilliance maligned.
They didn’t have the right. These fools didn’t have the right to look at him, let alone laugh in his face. Murderers, criminals, the lot of them. They’d all regret their actions in time.
“So. You’ve made your decision then? To go down in history as pariahs who stood in the way of progress, foolishly stood before me in the pouring rain, just to fall in the cold, damp solitude? Don’t you have families, friends to go back to? You can stop now and go back to them, you know. That’s what I’m going to do.” He attempted a smile, a flash of charisma. It bounced right off.
Hadrian shook his head, clenching his fists. “No, you’re not. The only place you’re going, Nate Selleck, is hell!”
Nate returned to a solemn frown. “Fine. Clearly you… you IDIOTS won’t listen to reason. You’ve made your decision, and there’s no going back! I’ve learned from my mistakes, and I am not going to lose again.”
Even through the rain, a shining light emerged that broke through the dreary mist. Demis and Hadrian shielded their eyes with their hands, taking a moment to adjust as the light died down.
When they could see again, they saw Nate’s stand, a floating obsidian figure with a sun enclosed by some kind of gyroscope where its head should be. Light bounced of its reflective surfaces.
“Witness my evolution. My next “Act” if you will. This is ｢MK Ultra: Exogenesis｣! And he will herald in a new future for humanity, whether you wish to stop it or not! You have no more chances, this is your reckoning!” Nate beckoned, gesturing his to his Stand grandly.
“You’re just as crazy as I thought!” Hadrian yelled, thrusting a finger at Nate.
“We’re going to stop you alright. Your crazy delusions end here!” Demis said, backing Hadrian in turn.
Nate smirked, basking in the light of his Stand. He broke into a hearty laugh, walking towards the duo.
“You’ve made the point abundantly clear to me. You wish to stand in the way of progress. You’re about to learn a very painful lesson, however… Those who stand in the way of progress…”
Nate clenched his fist, his missing finger a symbol of his resolve. The light framed his figure, lit dramatically in the downpour, shadows cast over his face.
“Are bound to be run over by it.”
Location: The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, CA. Each side of the bridge has four lanes and sidewalks for a total width of 27 m. There are cars scattered around, though the owners have left with the key and other valuables. The cars are spaced two to three car lengths apart from each other per lane. The bridge is wet with rain, and rain is still coming down. It’s sunset, but conditions are very much visible.
The players and Nate are 30 meters away from each other and both 15 meters away from the center of the bridge.
Goal: RETIRE the opponent!
Image: Nate Selleck, User of ｢MK Ultra: Exogenesis｣
Team Combatant JoJolity
Uncivil Umbra Demis Roussos “The thing that’s peeking through the crack… could it be?” Your skill with mechanics, your hard-won knowledge, can be useful here, right? Make good use of the cars and/or anything in them.
La Horde Unie Hadrian Moore “It merely powered up! It’s a threat, but I can still predict it!” This new Stand of his is faster, stronger, and more precise than your ｢On Mercury｣...but you still have plenty of mobility to avoid it. Stay mobile, and stay unpredictable in both your movement and attack patterns!
Guiding Lytes Nate Selleck “The arrow didn’t reject him for being unqualified! No, far from it, the arrow belongs to Giorno for eternity!” You’ve reached the peak of your evolution, and the world will bare witness to your power. Use all aspects of your Stands’ forms and abilities to their fullest!
Link to the Official Player Spreadsheet
Link to R5 Match Schedule
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References and origins from the Sigmascape fights

As with many things in Final Fantasy XIV, the Omega raids borrow heavily from other Final Fantasy games for content and references. Sigmascape is particularly full of references to Final Fantasy VI, with the scenarios, mechanics, and ability names for the four fights pulling from fights with the same enemies in that game. As such, I thought it'd be fun to go over the four fights and talk about where the various references came from.
Sigmascape 1.0: Boss: Phantom Train
In Final Fantasy VI, the Phantom Train was an entity fought by the monk Sabin, the samurai Cyan, and possibly the ninja Shadow, as they fled the land of Doma and the Gestahlian Empire occupying it through the Phantom Forest. Sabin and crew boarded a mysterious train they found in the woods, despite finding it weird that a working train was there at all after the Empire's efforts to destroy Doma's railway system. They only realized their error after boarding; they had stepped onto the Phantom Train, a spectral vehicle whose eternal job it is to ferry the souls of the dead to their eternal rest. As a side note, the war with the Empire had been so bloody that the train had been running nonstop for some time. In an effort to avoid being taken along with the actual dead, Sabin and his crew fight their way to the main engine of the train in an effort to shut it down and escape. However, they are then attacked by the train itself for interrupting its duty. The encounter in FFXIV shares many abilities with the train in FFVI, and re-enacts several scenes from the dungeon.
Sigmascape 2.0: Boss: Demon Chadarnook
In FFVI, Chadarnook is a strange entity the party encounters while trying to locate the young artist Relm Arrowny and bring her back into the group. They find Relm in the mansion of the extremely wealthy artist Owzer, who has commissioned her to paint a portrait of a goddess who has haunted his dreams ever since he bought a mysterious glowing gemstone. When the party meets with Relm and Owzer, a voice echoes from the portrait she is painting; the painting's perfection, and the magic stone, have attracted the attention of a painting-dwelling demon named Chadarnook, who claims the goddess for himself and attacks the party for intruding.
  • The battlefield where the Chadarnook fight takes place is inside the art studio of an opulent mansion. The stairs leading up to the battle platform from the south side resemble the same stairs found in the last room of Owzer's Mansion in FFVI.
  • The duty action for the Chadarnook fight in FFXIV is facilitated by Nero's invention; the Chocobo Brush. The whole thing is a long reference to Relm and her magical ability. She is a Pictomancer; a naturally-born mage who has the ability to paint portraits infused with magic that cause the thing painted to briefly manifest in the real world. When the party in FFXIV completes sketches with paint from the Chocobo brush, the items or creatures depicted burst to life and perform a single action, just like the effect of Relm's Sketch ability. Also, the Chocobo Brush is a Brush-type weapon found in FFVI, as part of Relm's initial equipment.
    • In addition to this, you can actually see Relm in Sigmascape 2.0 if you peer down the hallways on the west or east sides of the room at the right time; a Relm minion can be seen chasing a Wind-up Ultros. Possibly threatening to paint his portrait again.
  • When the party begins the battle, Demon Chadarnook proclaims "I have claimed the woman in the painting! She's mine! You can't have her!" This is exactly what the demon proclaims at the start of the fight in FFVI.
  • In FFVI, the Demon periodically switches places with the Goddess, who cannot be killed and retaliates with debilitating attacks if attacked. In FFXIV, the Demon switches with the Goddess as the battle starts, and the latter can't be attacked at all.
  • The Goddess's attacks in FFVI include Lullaby, Last Kiss, Poltergeist and Entice. All of these are translated into the Savage version of the Chadarnook fight in some way or another.
    • Lullaby induced Sleep on the party in FFVI. In FFXIV, it instead drains the party's MP and TP until they are unable to act, and can only be dispelled by the Siren painting.
    • Last Kiss induced Doom on the target, forcing them to die after a few seconds. In FFXIV, this is instead a hard-hitting attack that must be passed to someone capable of surviving it.
    • Poltergeist was a dangerous counterattack that would inflict HP Leak on the entire party, afflicting them with a damage-over-time effect that could not be dispelled until the battle ended ("Waste away until your end!"). In FFXIV, the Goddess instead uses Poltergeist to summon an actual spirit that attempts to kill its target in a more direct fashion, though the reaper's slow advance towards its target does resemble the slow HP drain, in principle.
    • Entice charmed the targets hit. The closest to this technique in the FFXIV fight is Divine Lure, which forces anyone looking at the Goddess to walk to her.
  • Chadarnook the Demon actually doesn't have many attacks that featured in FFVI, which largely consisted of Lightning spells. However, one attack, Flash Rain, has variant names sprinkled throughout the encounter, with attacks like Flash Fire and Flash Gale.
  • Fun fact: the goddess within the magic stone, and depicted by the goddess painting in FFVI was Lakshmi, who is already in FFXIV as a Primal. There don't appear to be many similarities between the Primal and the Goddess in the Chadarnook fight, aside from possibly Divine Lure functioning similary to Lakshmi's Divine Desire.
Sigmascape 3.0: Boss: Guardian
In Final Fantasy VI, the Guardian was a defensive magitek-empowered robot employed the Gestahlian Empire to defend key locations in their city, or for particularly important missions abroad. In the first half of the game, you only ever encounter the Guardian when you wander into places that you're not meant to be in at that part of the story. At those times, the guardian is running a combat program meant for repulsion of invaders, and is completely invincible, requiring you to either run or die. Towards the end of the game, you encounter the Guardian one more time, in Kefka's tower of ruin. At that time, you can finally have a proper fight with the robot, in which it runs various combat programs based on other enemies in the game.
  • In FFVI, starting a battle with the invincible, story-mandated version of the Guardian would prompt the message "You will go no farther!" In the SNES version of the game, this was translated as "Won't let you pass!". "Won't Let You Pass" happens to be the name of the quest that unlocks Sigmascape 3.0 Normal in FFXIV's Omega storyline.
  • Atomic Ray, Magitek Ray and Missile Simulation existed in Final Fantasy VI as the Atomic Ray, TekLaser, and Missile attacks, all of which could be used by Guardian in its Basic combat program configuration.
  • Three of the enemy-based combat programs used by Guardian in FFXIV were used by it in its battle in FFVI, with only the Bibliotaph program being wholly unique to FFXIV.
    • Ultros has been seen before in FFXIV, as part of the Hildibrand storyline. In FFVI, he was a strange octopus encountered in the Lethe River who, for some reason, chooses to antagonize the party over and over again. Guardian steals several of the bad octopus's signature attacks in FFXIV, and can summon a copy of the same.
    • Ink was a physical attack that could inflict Blind status.
    • Tentacle was a dangerous physical attack that could hit multiple party members at once.
    • When summoned by Guardian, Ultros will say "I have more lives than I do arms!" He says this in FFVI at the start of the third boss fight the player has against him, calling attention to his weird persistance as a recurring enemy.
    • When someone picks up Ultros's aggro, he starts ranting that he hates muscle-heads like you. This was his response to being attacked by the Monk character Sabin in FFVI
    • Dadaluma was encountered in FFVI when the party investigates the mountain-situated city of liars and thieves: Zozo. For all intents and purposes, Dadaluma appears to simply be a thug who attacks the party on a whim; it's unknown how or why his data was loaded onto the Guardian.
    • In FFXIV, Dadaluma is portrayed like a monk, and is given the Aura Cannon attack. However, in FFVI, he mainly attacked by throwing knives at the party. He does however have the Shockwave attack, which is used by the Guardian upon starting the Dadaluma program in FFXIV
    • When he's summoned by the Guardian, and when encountered on the way to the Sigmascape, Dadaluma says that he hates fighting and should let the party pass. He says the same thing in FFVI immediately before attacking the party. This is because of the strange tendency for everyone in Zozo to lie all the time; Even about pointless things like the time of day.
    • Air Force was a magitek machine created by the Ghestalian Empire in FFVI, to head their imperial air force.
    • In addition to Missile (which Guardian already has), the Air Force's most unique attack is Diffractive Laser, which is used by Guardian upon starting the Air Force program. The attack is also used (albeit with a different shape) by Air Force itself when the Guardian summons it to the battlefield
    • When using Diffractive Laser, Air Force launches the attack from the face on its underside. This was a separate enemy in FFVI, called the Laser Gun. As in FFXIV, the Laser Gun was the part of Air Force that actually used Diffractive Laser.
Sigmascape 4.0: Boss: Kefka
Kefka is the main antagonist and final boss of Final Fantasy VI. He is introduced to the story in a seemingly innocuous fashion; even after he attempts to burn down castle Figaro and perpetrates a horrendous war crime in poisoning the people of Doma, he still seems to be a jester and attack-dog for the real enemy, Emperor Gestahl. Until he kills Emperor Gestahl and steals the magical power of the trio of gods known as the Warring Triad, that is. For a year after that event, he rules over a broken and downtrodden world as a God of Magic, seeking some meaning in the power he has attained. When the party finally reunites and invades Kefka's tower of ruin to confront him, he directly challenges their will to live and the purpose of life existing at all, and begins the final battle, determined to destroy everything should he win.
  • Shortly before the battle with Kefka begins in Normal mode, Nero relays to the player an exchange between Kefka and some unknown hero. The quotes given were spoken directly before the final boss battle in FFVI; the hero who tells Kefka that hope will never truly die is Terra Branford, the main character of the game's first half and ending.
  • Kefka's model for the battle is taken directly from Dissidia NT; his "lounging in the air" pose, over-acted kick, and his prancing walk cycle are taken from his animations in that game.
  • Kefka's habit of decieving the party with his spells, as well as putting humorous names on top of normal spell names, comes from the Dissidia games, wherein he uses spells meant to confuse the enemy. These included Fire spells that slowly follow the enemy, or a Blizzard spell that stops short of the enemy before suddenly shattering into shrapnel. In FFXIV, his trickery is confined to AOE markers that lie to the player.
    • His spells no longer decieve the enemy or use humorous names when he ascends to his God form. It even causes his Hyperdrive attack to use a straight-laced animation of magical rays instead of dropping pots and pans on the target. This is strangely a departure from his portrayal in Dissidia, wherein taking God form made his spells more deceptive.
  • Throughout the Savage encounter, Kefka regularly uses a raidwide attack called Light of Judgement. In FFVI, this was not a spell Kefka used on the party; instead, it was one of the ways he cowed the population when ruling as a god. Any towns that defied his will would suffer a destructive bolt of light fired upon them from Kefka's tower, which could kill people and level buildings. Before the final battle, he unleashes this same attack on the world at random as a prelude to his promised destruction of the world. In the Dissidia games, Light of Judgement was made into Kefka's ultimate attack, depicted as a huge column of light erupting on top of his enemy.
  • During the fight, Kefka summons a huge tower of stone effigies that perform various attacks for him. This is a direct reference to the final battle of FFVI, which took place in four stages. The first three stages of the battle were against different tiers of this tower of stone effigies, with Kefka waiting in the heavens above the tower.
    • The first tier of the tower consists of a demon-like statue. In FFXIV, it retains the Shockwave attack that it had in FFVI, in the form of an attack that attempts to push the party off the ledge. It is even used by the same arm that would use that particular ability. Its ability to exchange the sphere's position during the cast time might be in reference to the first tier's ability to use Reverse Polarity (which would switch the party's positions).
    • The second tier consists of a bizarre amalgamation of figures, known as Power, Machine, Magic, and Tiger. In the Savage difficulty, this statue will target players the gravity spell Gravitas; Magic would use Graviga in FFVI.
    • When Kefka is calling the second tier to attack half the arena, he proclaims "Scorch just half for twice the fun! Run, run, or you'll be well-done!" The second sentance was something he said to taunt Emperor Gestahl while he was goading the Warring Triad to kill him with lightning and the emperor was running for his life.
    • The third tier consists of a bizarre re-imagining of Michelangelo's Pieta statue, but with Kefka in place of Jesus Christ. The two figures in the statue are known as Lady and Rest.
  • The fight with God Kefka contains a large number of attacks that he had in the original game, or are inspired by other attacks in FFVI.
    • The fight with God Kefka begins with him casting Heartless Angel, which reduces the entire party to 1 HP. This was the same in FFVI, and as in FFXIV, he only was guaranteed to use it on his first action.
    • Celestriad consists of casting many spells in rapid succession (every version of his Firaga, Blizzaga, and Thundaga spells, specifically). The Celestriad was an accessory in FFVI, which reduced the wielder's MP costs to 1 MP for any spell cast. This would allow the user to cast spells nonstop without worrying for their resources. The fact that the Celestriad attack used by Kefka consists of 3 types of spells at the same time may refer to the accessory's name, which means "three stars". The Celestriad has inspired the creation of other accessories with similar effects in Final Fantasy games, including the Single Star and Twin Star in Final Fantasy IV The After Years.
    • Trine was a spell used by both Kefka and the Rest statue in the original game that consisted of a golden triangle rotating through space, though in FFVI, it did not deal damage, instead afflicting the party with many status ailments.
    • The Wings of Destruction attack used throughout the God Kefka fight has its origin in the Havoc Wing physical attack used in the original game.
    • Forsaken was Kefka's ultimate attack in FFVI, which looked like a wave of white and red energy exploding throughout the battlefield. Bizarrely, during the windup for the attack, a large head resembling Kefka's would appear on the battlefield. The Dissidia games interpreted this as a close-up on Kefka's face as he laughs. FFXIV instead makes us deal with actual giant severed heads as additional enemies.
    • Prior to Forsaken going off, Nero warns us that "He's gone beyond chaos! The end approaches!" As with Nero's warning about Neo Exdeath's Almagest attack, this is him paraphrasing a line spoken by Kefka himself in FFVI. Kefka would telegraph Forsaken by saying "Beyond chaos, the end draws near..."
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Esper Guide - What? Where? How?

INTRO

Whether you just got Siren, are waiting for Odin to be finally available, or trying to beat Bahamut without getting your face Megaflared in - there are always some questions that are left to be asked. This guide will hopefully help address some of those questions - while it is primarily geared towards GL people, I am including information on JP Espers and applicable strategies.
This subreddit, ExviusWiki, Altema, and Famitsu (as well as their respective forums) have been extensively utilized as basis of information contained within this guide. All credit for content goes to them! Images I use from their site are re-upped onto imgur instead of hotlinking.
As with my previous guide - I can't keep personal opinion and recommendations completely out of guides. But I do indicate where it is my personal preference to do something in a certain way - with why.
Please do discuss, criticise, and comment below! Community guides have to be a group effort. =)

CONTENTS

Please use CTRL+F to jump to relevant section using the X##.
Espers not yet available in GL are noted with a * in tables

General Info

X1.0 The Basics
X1.1 What do they do
X1.2 How to get them
X1.3 Leveling/Training
X1.4 Where to get Magicite
X1.5 Tip for leveling
X1.6 Equipping Espers

Espers

X2.0 Siren
X3.0 Ifrit
X4.0 Golem
X5.0 Shiva
X6.0 Ramuh
X7.0 Diabolos
X8.0 Carbuncle
X9.0 Odin
X10.0 Titan
X11.0 Rakshimi
X12.0 Tetra Sylpheed
X13.0 Conclusion and Bahamut
Useful Tables:
Y1.0 - Magicites - EXP, # Needed, Colours
Y2.0 - Esper stats & Function

X1.0 - BASICS

Espers (either as 幻獣 - Genjuu, which translates to mystical beasts, or 召喚獣 - Shoukanjuu, summoned beings/beasts) were first introduced in FFIII - although Bahamut did appear in FFI as a NPC. Since then, they have been utilized in many different ways - having varied mechanisms associated with them.
Some games they would pop by whenever you wanted (as long as you had the MP!) and smack the enemy around for an attack (or more if you had them progressed.) Other games, they would stick around and initiate some serious beatdown until they were recalled or beaten. They weren't always on your side either - sometimes requiring you to kick their ass first before they would allow you to command them - as in FFBE.
There are currently 12 available Espers in JP, and 7 in GL - with Odin around the corner bringing the count up to 8 for GL soon. Once you beat an Esper in FFBE - it can be equipped to a unit on the unit screen, providing additional benefits to that unit in the form of stats, skills, elemental resistance (positive and negative!), and access to summoning the esper when the esper gauge is filled.

X1.1 - What do they do?

(further details are included in appropriate sections below)
  1. Unique "Esper Skill" - each esper has it's own special action which can be used once the Esper gauge is filled. Some are simple damaging skills, others have special effects or buffs associated with them.
  2. Stats - an equipped Esper adds 1% of their stats to the equipped unit, while not a lot - it still does make a difference.
  3. Learned Skills - as a Esper levels up, you can improves stats and teach it new skills - which can be used by the equipped unit. This is, in my opinion, the strongest benefit of Espers - as it allows units access to a lot of skills that they wouldn't be able to learn/use otherwise.
  4. Elemental Resistance - equipped units gain resistance to the element of the Esper, and elemental weakness to the opposing element. Some Espers do not have elements - therefore are not impacted by this.
N.B - most Esper damage (by their Summon skill) tends to be rather lackluster. Don't really depend on them for damage numbers but rather other benefits. These will be discussed in the Esper sections.

X1.2 - How do I get them?

The first Esper you get is part of the story - Siren. You kick her ass in a tower and she is yours. For others, unfortunately, you have to explore the world a bit in order to identify where they are hiding, and then kick their asses. In each esper section below, I will provide details or links to how to find them.
Once you defeat Siren - there is a new menu option available on the Main Screen named "Espers". This is where you can view all of your Espers - and if you click on them, it shows another window with their stats and the option to level them and train them.

X1.3 - Leveling? Training?

Espers are leveled up (called "Enhance" in the game) by feeding them Magicites - magical power containing stones that you find all across the world. Just like with units, Espers also have star levels - although with a maximum of 2 stars only so far. It takes 30 levels to max out the 1* and 40 levels for the 2*.
Once 1* is maxed - you can go back to the area where you first fought the Esper, and there will be a new dungeon available there to fight a stronger version of the esper. If you win the fight, you get access to the 2* version!
Skills/stats learned as a 1* carry over to 2* and so do the leftover SP.
N.B. - not all Espers have their 2* available right from the start, but rather it is added later. Currently in GL, all available Espers can get their 2*. For JP, only Bahamut cannot.
Currently, there are a total of 18 types of stones which can be broken down into 3 tiers: Magicite Shards, Magicites, and Megacites. In addition, Magicite Shards and one type of Magicites are colourless. The rest of Magicites and Megacites are available in 8 different colours.
All stones provide a specific amount of exp when fed into an Esper, with coloured stones providing additional exp (1.5x) for specific Espers.
(Y1.0)
Tier EXP (1.5x) # to max 1* # to max 2* Total
Magite Shard 100 (N/A) 1804 2722 4526
Magicite 300 (N/A) 601 907 1509
Coloured Magicite 600 (900) 301 (200) 454 (302) 755 (502)
Megacite 1,200 (1,800) 150 (100) 227 (151) 377 (251)
Value in brackets for "# needed to max" indicates if appropriate coloured stone used.
Colour Esper Bonus
Red Ifrit
Blue Siren
Green Tetra Sylpheed*
White Carbuncle
Black Diabolos
Yellow Ramuh
Orange Golem, Titan
Violet Shiva
Odin\, Rakshimi*, and Bahamut* - do not get any bonus EXP from specific colours.
As each Esper is leveled - it will gain Skill Points (SP) which can be used to "train the esper" which increases it's stats and teaches useful skills. Each Esper has it's own unique skill board where it's SP is used. (SP is not shared among Espers)
Important things to know:
  1. SP is limited - you cannot learn everything on the board
  2. Skills > Stats - as only 1% of Esper stats are carried over, the benefit of getting stats is limited. As spending 30 SP to get +30ATK, means your unit will actually only gain +0.3ATK. Whereas, skills are useful right off the bat. That being said - once you have gotten the skills you want and the Esper is maxed out, feel free to buff up stats as you would like!
  3. GL - NO option to reset board available yet. Decide carefully what you want the Esper to learn.
That being said, it isn't game breakingly horrible if you learned the wrong thing as in JP - you can reset the esper board for 100 lapis per Esper (first time is free). Which means that this functionality will come to GL in the future (probably a while but!) Secondly, we do get a sufficient amount of SP for most Espers that allows some flexibility - a few wrong panels is not a big loss. And thirdly, while some Esper skills do improve gameplay significantly, they are not crucial.
Plus, never forget this is a game. =)

X1.4 - Where do I get the stones?

Magicites can be obtained from several different sources:
  1. Collection points in exploration dungeons can drop magicites in additional to other materials
  2. Arena Medals - can be exchanged for magicite on the arena board
  3. Mog King Events - time to time, the great almighty Mog King hosts events where he exchanges event currency obtained from dungeons/monsters for an assortment of items. Magicites are included in these item lists from time to time.
  4. Vortex - on GL, time to time there is a special Vortex dungeon called Chamber of Sacred Crystals which drops magicites. On JP, this dungeon is accessible any time in the Vortex (欲望の狭間 - Vortex of Desires 魔石の間) - but follows the daily one free vortex rule. You can access one Desire vortex daily for free, additional openings on the same day require 100 lapis.
  5. Event Raid Gachas, which are special summon banners associated with Event raids can also drop magicite in relative abundance.
So, where is the best place? Depends on which resource you value more - Time or NRG. For always accessible sources:
The NRG efficient method is to collect collection points in Phantom Forest - Exploration - this map drops a significant amount of Green magi/megacite in addition to colourless. The sheer amount of stones you get makes up for the non-matching colour. In addition, it only contains relatively weak enemies - you can take your TM Farming party (Chimera may cause issues for some, so take a strong friend if your TM party doesn't cut it) - and is relatively small and straight forward.
On JP - Bahamut Island Zones are very NRG efficient due to high rate of megacite drops from CPs. You can start it on one, and go all around.
For time efficiency, the best method is to run Chamber of Sacred Crystals ADV (15 NRG). But as this chamber is not available all the time in GL - you may have to resort to Phantom Forest runs or specific colour hunting.
If there is a raid Gacha available that drops stones - prioritize the raid dungeon more so than either one noted above.

Should I level one to max first? Or all together?

This is honestly a personal opinion section. Feel free to skip. My opinion is that you should try to get Espers to 2* first.
This is because most Espers learn their most useful skills at 2*. If you power through the 1* stage and not use any SP - when you crack open 2* you can learn a bunch of useful skills and utilize the Esper more. Some Espers may require a bit more leveling after 2* to get all the skills that are good - but early leveling is very easy.
Once you get all the skills, don't max out the Esper - move on to the next to get all their skills. Preferably in the following order (but adapt as needed):
GL:
Ifrit > Golem > Diabolos > Ramuh > Carbuncle > Siren > Shiva
JP:
Bahamut > Odin > Ifrit > Golem > Diabolos > Ramuh > Titan > Carbuncle > Rakshimi = Tetra = Siren > Shiva
Shiva is at the bottom of either list because she really doesn't have any useful skills. She should be maxed once you are done getting useful skills for other espers as her primary benefit is from her stat bonus.

X1.6 - How do I equip them?

On the "Units" screen - there are 5 spaces under the unit slots which can be filled with collected Espers.
The Esper equips are shared between all 5 parties in GL - for JP, you can set up different Espers for different parties in the same way as units can vary between parties.
Things to be aware of:
  1. Clicking once on the Esper in [this](screen), opens up the selection screen where you can change them. If you choose an Esper equipped to another slot in the same party - they will be switched. In addition, clicking and holding an esper on the selection screen takes you to their stat/training/leveling window.
  2. By clicking and holding an Esper on the same screen, you can move them around to another unit space without opening up the second pick window.

X1.7 - Who should I equip with which Esper?

Espers can be classified based on which type of unit their stats and skills assist most when equipped. Below are two tables, first one summarizes max base stats at 1* and 2*, and the second one provides a GENERAL recommendation of what class should get which Esper. As some Espers can be used for more than one type of class or don't really fall into the breakdown. More detailed explanation and uses will be noted in each specific Espers' section.
(Y2.0)
Esper HP MP ATK DEF MAG SPR SP
1* Siren 2,000 2,500 1,300 1,500 2,500 2,500 71
2* Siren 3,000 3,400 1,800 1,900 3,600 3,600 305
---
1* Ifrit 3,000 1,800 3,700 2,100 1,600 1,600 100
2* Ifrit 4,500 2,200 5,250 2,800 2,100 2,100 373
---
1* Golem 3,500 3,400 2,500 3,000 1,300 1,300 158
2* Golem 5,500 4,300 3,200 4,500 1,600 1,600 470
---
1* Shiva 2,300 4,200 1,500 1,800 3,800 3,800 129
2* Shiva 3,300 5,900 2,100 2,300 4,500 5,400 441
---
1* Ramuh 1,800 4,400 1,000 600 4,100 2,500 158
2* Ramuh 2,800 6,200 1,600 1,100 5,900 4,500 470
---
1* Diabolos 2,800 4,300 1,200 1,700 3,700 2,300 158
2* Diabolos 4,300 6,000 1,500 2,300 5,300 3,100 470
---
1* Carbuncle 2,200 4,000 1,200 2,400 2,800 4,000 158
2* Carbuncle 3,500 5,700 1,800 3,200 4,300 6,000 490
---
1* Odin 3,400 2,900 4,200 2,900 4,200 2,900 158
2* Odin 5,125 3,920 6,100 4,220 2,030 2,200 490
---
1* Titan 4,000 1,600 3,900 2,700 1,500 2,700 158
2* Titan 6,000 2,000 5,300 4,000 1,800 3,200 490
---
1* Rakshimi 3,200 3,700 1,400 1,900 2,300 3,900 158
2* Rakshimi 4,800 5,000 2,000 2,400 3,400 5,700 490
---
1* Tetra Sylpheed 2,600 3,800 2,000 1,500 4,200 2,600 158
2* Tetra Sylpheed 4,000 5,400 2,600 2,000 6,000 3,500 490
---
1* Bahamut 6,400 6,300 6,000 6,000 6,000 6,000 75
Unit Type Useful Esper
Physical DPS Odin, Ifrit, Golem, Diablos**, Titan
Magical DPS Shiva, Ramuh, Diabolos, Rakshimi*
Healer Tetra*, Carbuncle, Ramuh, Shiva
Tank Golem, Titan
Balanced/Misc Siren, Bahamut*
(** - situational, more details in Esper section)
Remember to take into account what kind of damage the enemy deals. If you are against an enemy that deals a lot of Lightning damage - use Ramuh, and not Siren. Ramuh will increase your resistance to Lightning - whereas Siren will reduce it.
Esper Elemental Resistances are noted in the Esper sections below.

How do I use them in battle?

The skills, elemental impact, and stat bonuses are innately applied to the equip unit - so you don't have to do anything special to take advantage of that.
To use an Esper's summon skill - you have to fill up your party's Evoke Gauge. This is done in a similar manner to Limit Gauges. Once the gauge is full, the option to summon an Esper will be available for any unit equipped with one.
BUT you can only summon one Esper per gauge, one summon empties it completely so cannot select to summon more than one Esper at the same time.
Simply put, hit enemy to get Esper stones to drop which fill up the gauge.
In addition, there are a few characters that can help fill up the Summoning Gauge:
Rydia
Garnet
Both of these characters can use their Limit Break to increase the summon gauge - can be useful when a dungeon mission requires Esper-related criteria.
So, now you know the basics of Espers, let's get started on specific ones.
For the recommended skills section, this is based on my opinions. They are not noted in any specific order - the recommendation rating is out of 5 *s. The rating also takes into account what other skills that esper has available (therefore is relative to what is accessible per esper)
Some skills that are required to unlock better skills. So while they may be rated low - you may still need to get it.
A lot of comments like support skills (De-protect/shell, Imperil) - especially for added utility while using low-level bonus units for Mog King Events. For more details and better discussion please read the comments to see discussion on these as well
GL Esper simulator link created by dbarchitect : http://ffbedb.com/tool/simulator
Example set of trees using the tool above made by Gunnerkiller

X2.0 - Siren

Overview

Type - Balanced Stats
Elemental Impact: -50% Thunder | +50% Water
Bonus Colour: Blue
Summon Skill: Lunatic Voice - deals water damage (500/700) to all enemies and chance to inflict sleep (50%/70%)
Can be useful in the Arena and for some PvM scenarios, if the enemies are susceptible to sleep.

General Summary

Overall, the stats that Siren brings to the table are a bit less appealing than other available Espers. Most uses of Siren will be requiring her increased water resistance and/or obtained skills. Specifically, her songs (confuse, sleep, attack) and dispel can add significant utility to a party lacking versatility.

How to Obtain

Story - don't need to do anything special, you get her near the start.

Recommended Skills

1* Siren
Alluring Air [ゆうわくのうた] - Confuse (30%) to All Enemies
Rating: ★★★
Great skill to have in the arena - AoE Confuse. Equip her on your healer or tank/support, so they have something useful to do in between buffs/heals.
2* Siren
Dispel [デスペル] - Remove all status effects from one enemy.
Recommend Rating: ★★★★★
Get it. Just get it. It allows you to obtain a very useful and many times lifesaving skill and put it on characters that may not have it otherwise.
Buffed NeinBeast killed all your party but Refia and Luneth who are both about to die? Get Refia to heal you up/raise, while Luneth uses Siren's dispel to get rid of the buffs and stabilize!
Now - you won't really be using Siren on DPS all the time, but when you need to you can to get access to extra Dispel units.
Deshell [デシェル] - Decrease SPR (20%) for 3 turns for one enemy
Rating: ★★★
Useful debuff to have around and deal a bit extra damage when using a mag team. Nothing special.
Attack Song [攻撃の歌] and Defense Song [防御の歌] - 40% increase in ATK/Def (respectively) for 3 turns.
Rating: ★★
These two songs aren't anything call home about - they are honestly only useful until you get your units leveled to access better buffs or don't have units that can buff these two stats yet. But since Siren doesn't really have much else to offer... doesn't hurt to get them.

X3.0 - Ifrit

Overview

Type - Physical Attacker
Elemental Impact: -50% Ice | +50% Fire
Bonus Colour: Red
Summon Skill: Fire physical damage (900/1,900) to all enemies.
Don't bother summoning Ifrit other than to enjoy his animation, or meet a mission requirement (Summon Esper / Summon Ifrit / Fire damage).

General Summary

Overall 3rd highest ATK (Bahamut*, Odin* are higher) among Espers, as well as being able learn two Killer abilities (+50% damage vs specific enemy type) makes Ifrit a great Esper for Physical DPS.
In addition, his resistance to fire can be useful against the Dark Ifrit/Siren trial as well - as extra fire resistance helps a lot.

How to obtain

Dungeon: Inferno Hollow [炎風の洞窟]
To unlock:
  1. Go to Port City Lodin, speak to the two people noted here in order. After you speak with #2 - you will be able to access a new town, Ordol Port [オードル港]
  2. In Ordol Port speak with the little boy.
  3. This will open up Inferno Hollow [炎風の洞窟] on the world map.

Recommended Skills

1* Ifrit
...Nothing really.
2* Ifrit
Beast Killer [ビーストキラー] and Plant Killer [プラントキラー] - increase damage against beast/plant (respectively) type enemies by 50%.
Rating: ★★★★★
GET THEM. 50% damage increase is an automatic yes, even if it is type-limited; both types are relatively common. Including some trial bosses.
Just get these two and don't argue.
Raging Fist [爆裂拳] - Deal 120% damage with ignore def 25%
Rating: ★★★
Useful skill in the Arena nowadays - if a tank is covering (or zombie covering) a almost dead character, use Raging Fist. Ignore Def abilities also bypass tanks.
Power break [パワーブレイク] - 120% damage and 3 turns -15% ATK for one enemy
Rating: ★★
Meh - not great among so many units with proper break abilities but doesn't hurt to have it sitting around in case you need it. As stats don't contribute much, using SP on this isn't bad.

X4.0 - Golem

Overview

Type - Physical Defense / Physical Attacker
Elemental Impact: -50% Wind | +50% Earth
Bonus Colour: Orange
Summon Skill: Decrease physical damage (50%/60%) taken for all allies for one turn.
Useful summon skill especially when you can time it with big physical damage moves that some bosses might throw your way.

General Summary

Golem is a very versatile and useful Esper - from his usable summon skill, to high atk/hp/def, add in pretty decent ability selection means that he can basically be used on anybody depending on the situation. Primarily, he should be sitting on your Tank or Physical DPS (as he also learns 2 killer abilities). But if you need extra HP on a squishy healer or support - toss him there too.

How to obtain

Dungeon: Zadehl Southersands [ザデール砂漠・南部]
To unlock:
  1. Speak to this guy in Zadehl Westersand - Exploration.
  2. Go get him some water from here and then take it back to him.
NOTE - for some JP guides, it is noted that person in #1 may not always be there, and that it is recommend to speak with everybody in コルの村 just in case. GL guides do not seem to indicate this.
NOTE2 - you have to complete the exploration after you finish dealing with him, you cannot "Give Up".
After the steps above - Southersands will show up on the world map, where you can fight him.

Recommended Skills

1* Golem
Nothing.
2* Golem
Bug Killer [ムシキラー] and Stone Killer [ストーンキラー] - +50% damage against insects and stone type enemies (respectively)
Rating: ★★★★★
Get them. Just do.
Provoke [挑発] - Active Ability - Increases caster's chance (70%) to be targeted by enemies for 3 turns
Rating: ★★★★
Very useful skill to have on tanks which may not learn any attraction abilities innately - Cecil for example is great for this. These skills also stack with other attraction skills, which becomes useful later on when you want your tank to soak up specific attacks.
You can even use it on your golem-equipped DPS (no tank setup etc) - same principle, let that DPS die to a big attack (or instant death attack) that you know is coming. Better to have DPS die than a healer.
Of note, this is primarily for single target attacks - does not impact AoE.
Cover [かばう] - 30% chance to proect one ally
Rating: ★★★
I did NOT get this personally. I don't like the chance of using Golem on my DPS and my DPS end up covering my actual tank.
That being said, it is a good ability which shines on tanks. If the tank doesn't have a cover skill - takes place of it.

X5.0 - Shiva

Overview

Type - Magical DPS / Healer / Mag Def
Elemental Impact: -50% Fire | +50% Ice
Bonus Colour: Violet
Summon Skill: Ice magic damage (680/1,680) to all enemies.
See Ifrit description.

General Summary

While Shiva lacks a set of useful skills, she makes up for it in raw stats (MAG/SPMP) - great Esper to equip on your mag dps or healers.

How to obtain

Dungeon: Lanzelt Mountains
To Unlock:
  1. Defeat Frost Dragon (dungeon boss) in Wolfsfang Peak - Exploration [雪狼の牙] - DO NOT EXIT DUNGEON YET!
  2. Once Frost Dragon is defeated, a message will come up saying something about a sound. This will open up a new path [middle circle is the opened path, top right circle will lead to an exit
This is will unlock Lanzelt Mountains on the World Map.

Recommended Skills

She is the only Esper I recommend getting MAG+ and MP+ on instead of any skills. you may wish to get Libra.

X6.0 - Ramuh

Overview

Type - Magical DPS / Healer / Mag Def
Elemental Impact: -50% Water | +50% Lightning
Bonus Colour: Yellow
Summon Skill: Lightning magic damage (700/1,700) to all enemies.
See Ifrit description.

General Summary

Great MAG, MP stats as well as SPR - perfect fit for Mag DPS. Works on Healers as well - especially if you have dual cast on the healer, combined with Osmose from Ramuh's skillset = byebye MP worries.

How to obtain

Dungeon: Thunder Summit [雷鳴響く頂]
http://imgur.com/OXL8Aov
  1. Speak to lady @1 in Felicitas Town [ナシャトの町]
  2. Speak to the mother and son @2
  3. Speak to the old man @3 - who will give you a quest for Turbo Ether [エーテルターボ], get him one.
Dungeon will appear on World Map

Recommended Skills

1* Ramuh Libra... but really nothing.
2* Ramuh
Dispel [デスペル] - Remove all status effects from one enemy.
Recommend Rating: ★★★★★
As with Siren (copy pasted):
Get it. Just get it. It allows you to obtain a very useful and many times lifesaving skill and put it on characters that may not have it otherwise.
Buffed NeinBeast killed all your party but Refia and Luneth who are both about to die? Get Refia to heal you up/raise, while Luneth uses SirenRamuh's dispel to get rid of the buffs and stabilize!
Osmose [アスピル] - Deal magical damage and steal mp (30%) from one enemy
Recommend Rating: ★★★★★
Great skill to have on MAG dps and Healers as it resolves worries about MP. Since both of those units are who will be using Ramuh - GET IT.
De-Shell/Protect can be useful but low-rating.
Bio - if you don't have anybody with dark damage for mission criteria.
May wish to use leftover SP on MAG/MP instead.

X7.0 - Diabolos

Overview

Type - Mag DPS / Phys Attacker - situational
Elemental Impact: -50% Light | +50% Dark
Bonus Colour: Black
Summon Skill: Dark magic damage (720/1,720) to all enemies.
See Ifrit description.

General Summary

Great MAG and MP stats with useful killer abilities, leading to a primarily MAG DPS esper but situational used on Physical DPS due to 2 x killer abilities and darkside skills (Demon/Human + Arena use). Also learns Dispel and Osmose - adding utility and self-mp recovery on the unit.

How to obtain

Dungeon: Wicked Peaks [魔の山]
To unlock:
  1. Speak to these people in Industrial City Dilmagia [ディルマギア工業地帯]
Dungeon will appear on World Map

Recommended skills

1* Diabolos
Biora [バイオラ] - 140% Dark damage to all enemies with chance to poison
Rating: ★★
Not really essential but useful to have around skill. Helps meet the mission requirements for Dark damage + poison is useful in Arena and with some bosses. In the hands of a high mag user - can be painful as well.
2* Diabolos
Osmose [アスピル] - Deal magical damage and steal mp (30%) from one enemy
Rating: ★★★★★
Great skill to have on MAG dps and Healers as it resolves worries about MP. Since both of those units are who will be using Ramuh Diabolos - GET IT.
Man-Eater [マンイーター] and Demon Killer [デーモンキラー] - +50% ATK vs HumanséDemons (respectively)
Rating: ★★★★★
No brainer - as with all the other killer materia, get it. It increases Physical DPS' damage significantly.
Darkside [あんこく] - 30% caster HP to deal 150% dark physical damage to all enemies
Rating: ★★★
Great skill for finishing off or aiming for 1 turn skills in Arena - works with DW. Can hurt, but adds nice AoE ability to characters that otherwise may not have any.
Reduce Encounter [エンカウント率減少] - reduce chance to encounter monsters in explorations by 25%
Rating: ★★★
Remember - you cannot turn passive skills off. So if you get this and need/want to farm monsters in explorations - you cannot take Diabolos. Useful skill for annoying exploration maps - helps with collecting mats etc from collection points or rushing through to the boss.
I haven't gotten it in my GL account, but got it for my JP account.

X8.0 - Carbuncle

Overview

Type - High SPR / Support
Elemental Impact: -50% Dark | +50% Light
Bonus Colour: White
Summon Skill: Reflect 1 magic spell received for 2/3 turns for all party members
Pretty useful summon skill - cast it when you know the boss is casting a big spell soon IF IT CAN BE reflected...sobs
The offensive use of reflect is probably a lot more utilized than defensive. Use Carbuncle's skill - then use a -GA skill on your own party. This will cause the spell to be reflected by # of party members.
WARNING - there are some magic that isn't reflected (basically anything that says "ignore def" in it's description such as Meteor, Wicked Light, etc). In addition, healing magic is also reflected - so don't use Curaja with reflect on!
WARNING #2 - Shield only lasts for one magic as well - if you dualcast with both targets on your own party - YOU WILL EAT THE SECOND SPELL DO NOT FORGET TO SWITCH TARGET. In fact, if you are dual casting - target the enemy FIRST and then switch target to your own party. It is harder to do (due to timing) but it is A LOT safer as if you can't switch in time you don't take damage, the enemy does.

General Summary

As you can see from above, his summoning skill has some utility for mag-atk based parties. He himself is rather useful to be on Healers/Support characters or even tanks - as the high SPR and MP can improve survivability of tanks against Mag atk based enemies.
In addition, the BAR-X-RA spells Carbuncle can learn are very very useful to have.

How to obtain

Dungeon: Carbuncle Grove [カーバンクルの森]
Pre-requisite: have to have cleared Water Shrine [水の神殿](Exploration not needed)
Guide Pic
  1. Speak with Man @1
  2. Take the north west "exit" from the town screen (towards caves) - there will be a fight against some weak enemies
  3. Go into the cave towards #2 and meet Carbuncle
  4. Go back to Man@1 and speak to him
Dungeon will appear on World Map.

Recommended Skills

1* Carbuncle
Nothing really as usual...
2* Carbuncle
Barblizzara [バブリザラ], Barthundara [バサンダラ], and Barfira [バファイラ] - Increase corresponding elemental resistance by 50% for all allies.
Rating: ★★★★★
Get them all. They will be used time and time again until we can get better support units - and even then having these on a second unit for backup is great. I mean yeah, CoD's omni is great, and Tilith - but for GL - CoD is a niche unit most of the time for human bosses, and Tilith isn't the best due to being 5* right now.
Even with good/better support units (Rikku, Marie, etc) in JP - doesn't hurt to stick this on your healer with Dual Cast and help out if support has to do other things (Prep skill or debuff etc).
Dispel [デスペル] - Remove all status effects from one enemy.
Rating: ★★★★★
As with Siren/Ramuh (copy pasted):
Get it. Just get it. It allows you to obtain a very useful and many times lifesaving skill and put it on characters that may not have it otherwise.
Buffed NeinBeast killed all your party but Refia and Luneth who are both about to die? Get Refia to heal you up/raise, while Luneth uses SirenRamuhCarbuncle's dispel to get rid of the buffs and stabilize!
Cura [ケアルラ] - Heal all allies
Rating: ★★★
Useful skill to learn, with this and the BAR spells on a tank = mini cecil with support abilities.

X9.0 - Odin

Overview

Type - Physical Attacker
Elemental Impact: None
Bonus Colour: None
Summon Skill: Physical Damage (1000%/2000%) to all enemies + (Chance to instakill enemies)
I love his summon skill - it has saved my bum a few times in the Arena. All my team statused/dead except for one DPS on Odin? May as well do the hail mary and call Odin and flip the game around by killing everybody.
I have yet to use it in PvM - but Arena you will and should use it!

General Summary

Tied at the highest ATK stat with Bahamut, good HP, good DEF as well with a modest MP increase. Add in two killer abilities and BladeBlitz for AoE attacks? GREAT Esper for Physical Attackers.
Ifrit, Golem, and Odin should be rotated around depending on killers needed. BUT if none are needed - use Odin for your best attacker.

How to obtain

Dungeon: Eroded Castle [朽ちた古城]
  1. Speak with the following people in Downtown Zoldaad.
Dungeon will appear on World Map.

Recommended Skills

1* Odin
醒夢 [Fingersnap] - damage and dispel one enemy (can be used on allies!)
Rating: ★★★★
As you have probably noticed by now, I rank dispel abilities relatively high. This is because later bosses are annoying with their buffs and if you don't remove them - you can EASILY wipe. Considering your healer will be busy raising/healing, support dispel may be dead, and the secondary attackebuffer with the AoE dispel materia is also busy... may as well allow your main attacker with Odin to have a dispel attack as well.
2* Odin
Dragon and Undead Killers [ドラゴンキラー and アンデッドキラー]
Rating: ★★★★★
Get them.
Blade Blitz [ぜんぎり] - 140% damage to all enemies
Rating: ★★★
I find this skill very useful in JP - especially as some of the best chainers/finishers can be single target (Orlandu, Aileen, etc) - this being on Odin is great. Increases attack for the DPS + Gives them an AoE skill for trash mobs.
Lance [りゅうけん] - 80% single target damage with 30% HP and 10% MP absorbed.
Rating: ★★★★
Great skill to have especially in longer trials. While you will almost always bring a MP recovery unit to help out, having the ability to get some extra MP in between turns when the support unit may be preoccupied is essential. Works in the Arena as well (both when you run out of MP and to make others run out!)

X10.0 - Titan

Overview

Type - Physical Defense / Physical Attacker
Elemental Impact: -50% Wind | +50% Earth
Bonus Colour: Orange
Summon Skill: Deal Earth damage to all enemies
See Ifrit Skill Description.

General Summary

Golem's twin brother - with more HP, ATK, and SPR. Add in a few more AoE attack skills and Barstonra. Unfortunately, he also lacks killer skills.
Titan is great for what he is made to do, go on a tank or dps. He can help out squishy support units with his high HP stats as well.

How to Obtain

Dungeon: タイタンの洞窟 [Titan's Cave]
Prereq: Completed all of Missidia Story Line [ミシディア]
  1. Go to ミシディア地下道 exploration [Missidia underground path] and speak with the black mage noted here
  2. This will bring the Hidden Black Mage Village appear on the World Map
  3. Go to the Village and speak with these two
Dungeon will appear on the World Map

Recommended Skills

First Star - none as usual...
2* Titan
Honestly, Titan is hard one to skill up - as other than Barstonra, there really isn't much to be like GET! I do recommend:
バストンラ [Barstonra] - 50% elemental resistance up against Earth damage
ジオクラッシュ [Geocrush] - 90% single target earth damage with 30% chance to paralyse
激震 (Earthquake/Tremor] - 160% earth damage to all enemies
Stonra - 140% earth magical damage to all enemies
The AoE is primarily the same function as bladeblitz on Odin. Barstonra is useful. Geo... you can get if you like. Feel free to feed rest SP into HP/ATK.

X11.0 - Rakshimi [Currently JP only]

Overview

Type - Healing/Support
Elemental Impact: None
Bonus Colour: None
Summon Skill: Heals 50%/75% Hp for all allies
Relatively useful skill - great on a non-healer unit, okay to good on a healer. As most top class healers will have better healing abilities or combinations than 75% but if your healer does not, or you wish to save MP good time to use it.

General Summary

High SPR, MP and HP stats - pretty good esper to use on a Tank against enemies that may inflict a lot of magic damage. She also learns pretty decent support skills (blocking various stats for 3 turns; MP Recovery 30 MP / Turn) as well as Cura and Auto-Regen. All which are useful skills to have on a Mag Tank.
Another benefit of Rakshimi is that she has no elements - which is very useful against some bosses which can spam all kinds of elemental attacks.

How to obtain

Dungeon: 主なき地下城内部 [Lordless Underground Castle]
  1. Speak to this guy in ダグルの村
  2. Speak to this guy in 地下の町ガベラダ - he is in the pub top right corner.
Dungeon will appear on the World Map.

Recommended Skills

1* Rakshimi
As always - nothing really.
2* Rakshimi
復魔の囁き [Whispers of returning magic] - apply 30 MP/turn recovery buff on one ally.
Rating: ★★★
It isn't really game breaking, but it does stack with auto-refresh (but not other buff mp recoveries like Noctis' Cover skill) - can make life a bit easier if your primary MP support unit is down or cannot recast when you really need to get MP back soon.
ケアルラ [Cura] - heal all allies HP (400 base / x3)
Rating: ★★★
Rounds off the support abilities for Rakshimi - status + MP + HP. Again, not game breaking, but a useful set of skills to have on a secondary or tertiary support unit.
惑わずの守り [Anti-confusion defense], 痺れずの守り [Anti-paralysis defense], 固まらずの守り [Anti-stone defense] - +100% resistance to respective status ailment for 3 turns.
Rating: ★★★
If you have a Marie - you really won't be needing these at all, since her skill covers them all (with enhancements) for a longer period of time and brings more utility as well. BUT it is nice to have a backup support that can cast them as well since all 3 ailments are very annoying as they can hurt your party badly. Especially since 2 of them are not impacted by enemy actions (confusion can be removed if hit by physical).

X12.0 - Tetra Sylpheed [Currently JP only]

Overview

Type - MAG DPS
Elemental Impact: -50% Earth | +50% Wind
Bonus Colour: Green
Summon Skill: Deals wind damage to all enemies
See Ifrit Skill Description

General Summary

Tied for the highest mag atk for all espers (Bahamut 1* also has 6000 base MAG - but Bahamut also has another star level to go...). So primarily should be on a Mag DPS. Brings a useful 200% Wind AoE attack skill to the table and Bird Killer - for when you do put it on a Physical DPS. Useful esper for the Dark Esper trial.

How to obtain

Dungeon:シルフの洞窟 [The Sylph's Cave]
  1. Clear the 残陽の雲海 [Sunset Cloud Sea] exploration
  2. Go back to 幻影の町 [Town of illusion] and talk to the soldier "ghost/illusion" right in front the crystal at the entrance.
  3. Go back to the exploration in step 1, and after you defeat the boss DO NOT EXIT USING THE MESSAGE, instead walk to the exit and an event will occur
Dungeon will appear on the World Map.

Recommended Skills

バードキラー [Bird Killer] - +50% damage vs Bird-type monsters
Rating: ★★★★★
Get it.
バエアロラ [Baraerora] - Increase wind resistance by +50% for all allies.
Rating: ★★★★
Useful support skill to have - while there are many units that provide better elemental buffs (especially by the time you get here) but never hurts to have extras. Plus she really doesn't have much other selection...
かまいたち [Whirlwind Cuts] - 200% wind damage to all enemies
Rating: ★★★
Good AoE skill worth getting.
カモフラージュ [Camouflage] - Reduce chance of being targetted
Rating: ★★★
As Tetra will probably be used on a squishy mage, doesn't hurt to increase their chances of surviving especially with passive skills.
For leftover SP - use it on MAG.

X13.0 - Conclusion and Bahamut

I hope this guide helps somebody! I am almost at the character limit (again), and don't want to squish Bahamut into here - as I really do want to make a guide on how to get him. Which alone is going to take a lot of space. But on how to defeat Bahamut read my comment here:
https://www.reddit.com/FFBraveExvius/comments/5s5imj/esper_guide_what_where_how/dh1355i/
Please do comment below on things you disagree/agree with - other tips, tricks, etc that I may not have mentioned.
Appreciate your time in reading this.
Version Date: 02-May-2017
submitted by realised to FFBraveExvius [link] [comments]

The Elemental Plane of Water: Endless Sea

“The legend of Davy Jones’s locker comes from the Elemental Plane of Water. Umberlee’s aquarium is more like it. Anything that sinks to the ocean depths ends up there. Don’t bother though. Whatever it is you’re looking for, you’ll never find it. Those watery depths are infinite, you’d have more luck searching the sea itself.” – Fernando de Magalles, warning them away.
“A map! You fools have a treasure map! And a globe! Hahahahaha! You're like children on the shore, finding pebbles and shells whilst the great ocean of truth lay before them, undiscovered. Let me help” - I, Sinbad the Sailor, guiding them.

Discovery

The plane of water is boundless ocean with specks of civilization in between. Any idiot can get there- just dive deep enough- but not getting lost and actually coming back is another matter entirely.
Great bubbles of air sometimes accumulate with islands and jungles and pirates and generations go by without them ever realising how insignificant their world is. They circumnavigate their bubble and they think they’ve mapped the entirety of the plane of water with their globes. Poor insignificant fools.
The plane of water is so many things and more: the Sea of Worlds, the Isle of Dread, the floating outposts built on wood and coral, towns inside the bellies of whales or sea monsters, the Sea of Ice, the Darkened Depths, the Silt Flats, the sunken planets, the nomad clans, and, of course, the City of Glass. The City of Glass is the "Sigil of the elements", the greatest city in all the inner planes, wealthier than any Prime Material country and far more populated than the City of Brass!

Survival

Basics

In many respects, the plane of water is the safest of all. Thirst isn’t a problem if you stay away from the salty areas. Light shines from all directions as if you were just below the surface of a lake on a sunny day in the Prime Material. No gravity except a slight tug towards anything bigger than a ship if you’re really close. You can carry your food around: any wooden barrel with decent buoyancy weighs nothing and you can tie it to a rope. What’ll kill you is the overwhelming vastness of it. I had a friend who was swept off the deck of the ship by a freak current. Once he’d gone about 60 feet from us, we couldn’t see him anymore and there was no chance of finding him. He probably floated for days before starving. If he found a coral reef or a seaweed ball, he’d have enough raw fish to live for months or years. Until scurvy or slavers got him really. If he was lucky, he was swallowed by a kraken before he knew what killed him. The lack of fire is a problem though. Cooking, metal-working, keeping warm, reading, smoking, signalling, branding,… all of that is so difficult, you just wouldn’t believe. It’s why everyone converges around the air pockets I suppose.

Breathing

Oh, breathing? Obviously you can’t breathe, you dolt! It’s water! What did you think? Most are happy enough staying in the City of Glass or in some prosperous bubble in the Sea of Worlds. We travellers need to get Water Breathing somewhere. Not from the party wizard because it’s got a verbal component and I’d like to see her cast with her mouth full of water. Not from the Glass Nixies either: they can undo their spell any time they want so there’s a better than even chance they’ll keep you as a slave, dependent on them for your every breath. No. We’ll have to buy you rings of water breathing. If you can’t afford that, you’ll have to settle for some cheap decanters of endless air.

Hazards, combat and “weather”

It’s not all smooth sailing and calm seas. Doldrums are dangerous but so are currents if you don’t know them. Some currents plunge you down to the Darkened Depths, others trap ships in century-long loops. That’s how you get Flying Dutchmen, ships maintained by the undead skeletons of the crew. Then there’s salt patches, ooze patches, steam and whirlpools. Places that boil you alive and others that freeze you to death. Always be on the look out for red tide or it’ll blind you and melt you. Finally, there’s the sea monsters. You can feel their pull long before you see them: aboleth, kraken, giant squid, leviathans, giant darkmantles, dragon turtles, dragons, giants, and -if rumour is to be believed- gods themselves and a tarrasque.
Don’t expect to be able to fight any of those or even the average sahuagin: ranged weapons fail, melee attacks become slow and ponderous and magic words must be pronounced differently underwater. Tridents, nets, sharks and other swimmers on the other hand become deadly. You’ve been warned.

The Locals

There are countless people there: merfolk, countless kuo-toa, merrow serving their dark overlords, aquatic myconids, nixies, ruling Marid, sea-centaurs, savage suahagin, aquatic elves and all the humanoid races really. There’s even the odd beholder, flumph, colonising mindflayers, hags and harpies.
Actually, it’s better if I talk about each location in turn instead of speaking in general terms. You’re going to have to search everywhere anyway so you might as well know.

City of Glass

The City of Glass is a great metropolis enclosed within a sphere of hardened water, a nigh unbreakable barrier that protects the city. Half is underwater, half is filled with air, depending on the districts. This inter-dimensional trading hub is filled with merchant ships and portals to every other plane. That’s where we’ll start our journey. Each race and each great merchant family have a “House”; every five years, each House elects their leader to sit on the ruling Council. It is highly cosmopolitan with every kind of air breather and water breather from halflings to giants, fae to merfolk.

Sea of Worlds

The great bubbles of air your “maps” come from. There’s too many to list them all and they’re far too varied to say much. Most attract chunks of earth that become “islands” for those living within them so imagine any place with islands -the Southern Seas perhaps- and you’re not far off. The overwhelming majority are very wealthy as they're surrounded by traders who have more gold and pearls than they know what to do with but are desperately lacking forges to work metal or agricultural land for food and timber. Of course, all this fire, soil and metal attracts wealth but also pirates and some bubbles are nothing more than raiding bases from which to attack other worlds.

Isle of Dread

We’re not travelling to the Isle of Dread. Out of the question. I’ve shipwrecked there enough times to do me a lifetime. It’s one of the largest bubble-worlds out there, a continent crawling with dinosaurs, undead, strange natives, warring kingdoms and the odd lunatic trying to find the City of Gold. I came back from the Valley of Diamonds myself, but I repeat. It. Is. Not. Worth. It. Not unless you’re in desperate need of riches or have a desire to meet an exciting end.

Citadel of Ten Thousand Pearls

“The Citadel of Ten Thousand Pearls is the greatest of Marid communities and the seat of the Coral Throne. From this court emanates the wise rulership of the Great Padishah of the Marid, the Keeper of the Empire, the Pearl of the Sea, the Parent of the Waves, the Maharaja of the Oceans, Emir of All Currents, and so forth.” Which is to say, it’s a dangerous nest of backstabbing courtiers with a lot of wealth and magical power but no capacity to enforce their claim to ownership of the plane beyond their walls. Even other Marid only pay lip service to the Padishah’s edicts.

Floating outposts & sunken cities

Remember what I said about any large body pulling smaller things to it? A patch of coral or seaweed can snowball into a great reef or deep jungle with shoals of fish living in them. Some folks let ships or specially-constructed wooden structures grow into floating castles; sunken cities or rocky “planets” become moving metropolises, messy amalgamations that house millions within their towered homes or interior caves. Obviously, it’s mostly merfolk and water-breathers but all the large ones have water-tight centres filled with air for guests, books or artisans. In this manner, most of the plane’s inhabitants are nomads of a kind.

Travel

So now that you know what to expect, we need to organise how you’re getting there. Obviously, the easiest way to would be to sail a ship over a trench or whirlpool, tie yourselves to the deck and then sink the ship. The problem being that even if you come out the other side alive, you could end up anywhere. If you’re lucky, you’ll end up in the plane of Surf, Steam, Alcohol or even the Silver Sea. If you’re not, you’ll be trapped in the Plane of Salt, in the Ice Sea or in the Darkened Depths of the Plane of Water. Most likely, you’ll be adrift in the middle of nowhere and utterly lost. Worse, you won’t have any way back.
Which is why we’ll travel to some port cities I know and ask to use a portal to the City of Glass. If you’re desperate, we can use the passage below Umberlee’s temple in Waterdeep.
The City of Glass is a bit out of our way but travel around the plane itself isn’t difficult if you’ve got money. Any sufficiently large sho can be given its own bubble of air which stays with it and we can buy a few hippocampi. Otherwise, we’ll join a caravan, reach a nomad city, or rent transport. Worst comes to worst, we’ll hitch a ride with some merchants and hope not to be sold as cargo or attacked by pirates.

Politics & Religion

Politics? Fah, nothing you shouldn’t get very far away from. Obviously there are covert wars between factions to control the Council of the Glass City and the throne of Padishah but nothing worth knowing about. Vipers the lot of them. I suppose the Marid are still bitter about losing the Glass City but they’re not stupid enough to try and take it back now that they have a fleet and an empire. Besides, the plane is too big to fight over, everyone does their own thing and it’s live and let live. Let me break it down for you:
As for religion… half the races have their own deity but the cult of Umberlee is predominant. Everybody lives at the mercy of the sea. Praise be to the Queen of the Depths and Wavemother.

Journal

I was never one for writing things down, I prefer telling my stories in person. Sorry to disappoint. One of my companions made sketches at the time, let me see if I can find them… aha!
  1. Mermaid and merchild
  2. The Pirate Chronicler has found a beautiful relic on the sea bed.
  3. Crab monster
  4. New to town
  5. Castle on island
  6. Sunken city, deepsea forest and throne room
  7. How did those monsters get in? There's so many of them!
  8. Burning chasm
  9. Shhh!
  10. Abyssal Phoenix
  11. Mind flayer outpost in Aboleth waters
  12. Turn back!
  13. Beware Charbydis
  14. Painting: "Umberlee Inspecting Her Domain"
  15. City at low tide
  16. Tortuga Island and sisters both smaller and larger
  17. Some sketches of the City of Glass: outside and inside
  18. Very little lives near the Ice Seas
  19. Look out! Ghost ships can be empty but sometimes have ... skeleton crews or worse.
  20. In covert wars, some resort to magicks dangerous and dark.

Mysteries

NPCs

Bruno Montgomery. This grizzled old captain sails his Artic Tern from port to port, looking for something. He says he has three tasks he must complete before he dies and that one involves a “great treasure”.
The Avenger. Nobody knows whether this is the name of a giant construct or of a new kind of ship. It looks like a giant ray mantis and has an electric tail but it is clearly mechanical in nature and has attacked a number ships.
Mādhava of Sangamagrāma and The Marvellous Merchiston are two wizard-mathematicians, currently in hiding. Every major power has placed a bounty for their capture without specifying why; rumour has it they have a powerful spell tome known as “The Log Book”.
Jade Ibn Jalal of House Drake is the current Leader of Council in the City of Glass. She suspects other merchant Houses (the giants and kuo-toa in particular) of capturing and selling fellow citizens into slavery. She’s technically the City’s ruler and empowered to investigate this but in practice, she dares not move against such powerful factions openly. The guardian of the law and Chief Justice is looking towards more unsavoury methods…
Sk’Beshaba Chesk, the “Drowning Traveller”, is a githyanki spy with urgent news. The Illithid have captured an aboleth and intend to feed it to an elder brain. Regardless of who subsumes who, this freak joining will spell disaster. She is unsure whether she should try to stop this unnatural fusion herself or follow orders and warn her people.

Encounters in ports

  1. A kuo-toa begins loudly trying to convert you to some foreign religion. It’s actually a distraction for something else.
  2. A polymorphed Marid is watching you and testing you. If you are worthy, it will offer a wager. If you win the wager, you shall have a single wish; if you lose, you will join its collection of slaves.
  3. A cartographer will pay handsomely for tales of your travels. Secrets might even be on offer: hidden coves, treasure maps, trade routes, strange stories…
  4. Rumour has it that the island is drifting towards a sea monstehazard but the authorities refuse to evacuate. Locals keep asking you whether you can transport them out.
  5. An internationally wanted criminal has just arrived in town but nobody knows what they look like or what crimes they committed in distant seas.
  6. Dwarven sailors try to recruit you as deckhands to voyage to the Sea of Ice on a fur-trapping expedition.
  7. A cleric is leading a procession to Umberlee. They sing her praises and mourn for their own souls, trapped in an endless watery grave.
  8. Heralds shout for all to make way for a travelling dignitary. Rumour has it they’re rich enough to buy the whole port and everyone in it.
  9. Merfolk approach you discretely. A mermaid has gone missing and they suspect foul play.
  10. A tragedy has befallen a nomad city as it went past the port, causing an exodus from the collapsing structure. The sudden influx of refugees is flaring up racial tensions.
11-12. GM describes the sights of the port.
13-14. GM describes the sounds of the port: hawkers, criers, seagulls, port bells, the hubub of civilization and distant fog horn.
15-16. GM describes the smells of the port: seaweed, salt, brine, cargo, sweat, human waste, fish,...
17-18. GM describes the tastes of the floating food market and the local wares.
19) A ship had to be quarantined because of a plague on board. The situation is contained and there is no reason to panic.
20) A storyteller on a street corner is paid coppers to tell tales of treasure and adventure. He's just about to start a romance and he wants someone from the audience to play the villain.

Encounters at sea

  1. A merchant ship with barrels in tow, weightless merchandise. They have wares to sell you.
  2. Same as above but the barrels contain slaves trapped in nets.
  3. A ghost ship was briefly sighted. Is it hunting you?
  4. A suahigan hunting party begins harrying the back of your caravan or snatching stragglers. Beware! If anyone spills blood, they shall enter a murderous rage.
  5. A shipwreck floats ahead with some helpless sailors bobbing alongside. One of the shipwrecked is secretly a changeling.
  6. A jungle of seaweed blocks your path. Closer inspection reveals aquan elves hidden within (Perception 20).
  7. A barrel floats in the middle of emptiness. It unfolds into a small shrine filled with wine, an offering to Umberlee for safe passage. Will you steal from the gods? Or make an offering in return?
  8. A long-dead corpse floats by.
  9. A lone treasure chest floats by. Roll for loot from the DM’s Guide.
  10. A shoal of fish suddenly rushes past the ship. Did something scare them? (Yes. Giant Sharks are the Bullette of the seas.)
  11. Prepare to be boarded: pirates!
  12. Prepare to be boarded: slavers!
  13. Prepare to be boarded: tax officials of the Marid Padishah are collecting tribute.
  14. A ship bearing the flag of the Glass City hails you. They’re tight-lipped but the Glass agents are looking for something. Smugglers perhaps?
  15. Merfolk hail you. Look out: merrow have raided ships around here.
  16. The captain is making an example of a subordinate, they will be keelhauled (dragged against the underside of the ship). At the next offense, they shall be marooned or thrown overboard.
  17. Dolphins follow the ship for a while, a rare event. Some claim it is good luck. Others point out that dolphins need air and so can’t be natural to this plane; something is afoot.
  18. Mermaids follow the ship for a while, singing. Some of the sailors slow the ship to a halt and swim out to them. The sirens (harpy statblock) carry them off to rip them apart.
  19. A scout spots you and tells you that a nomad city is coming behind it. If you’re not stopping there, give way.
  20. Nothing appears. As always, it’s bright but you can’t see past 60 feet or so. You could be gliding past silent monstrosities or over uncharted isles and you’d be none the wiser. Or you could be in the middle of a vast desert of water and sheer nothingness that goes on forever. All you have are ominous gurgling noises and your imagination to fill the blanks. And the unknown is creepy.

Environmental hazards

  1. A current threatens to sweep you off the deck/away from the rest of the party. Strength save DC 15.
  2. You go through Red Tide. Constitution saving throw versus poison to avoid going blind.
  3. You go through a Salty Spot. All wounds re-open, lose 1HP for every HP already below max. If this would bring you to 0 hitpoints, you are dried up but stabilised. Every hour spent in a Salty Spot without drinking fresh water inflicts a level of exhaustion.
  4. You meet a Hot Patch. Take 6d6 fire damage.
  5. You meet a Cold Patch. Take 6d6 cold damage.
  6. You skirt the edges of the Darkened Depths. There is suddenly no light. You hear a voice compelling you to join it down deeper; make a Wisdom saving throw, DC10. On a success, the malevolent voice subsides. On a failure, you must pretend to no longer hear the sweet voice even as you obey it and try to drag as many others down with you.
  7. You belatedly realise that you’re being carried by a doomed current: if you don’t escape it now, you’ll be trapped forever on a loop.
  8. You are stuck in doldrums. Wait a day, maybe the currents will change? You’re dead if they don’t.
  9. A lucky current and fair “winds” favour you: your journey has been hastened by about a day.
  10. You’re being reeled in by something big. All hands on deck to avoid be eaten by some unseen sea monster.

Toolkit for DMs

Inspiring works

Useful homebrew:

"But how will we find this island among so many worlds?" they finally asked. And I answered, "We will search high and low but I will recognise the island when we see it for I have been there before on my First Voyage. For that is the map of the back and belly of a whale the size of a mountain." - From Chronicles of Sinbad's Seventh and Final Voyage
Bought to you by The Atlas of The Planes. Write your own entry!
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