The Fourth Colour- An Empty Vessel.

A new expansion seems to split the FFXI blogging community into two camps- those who cannot wait to blog about the latest sights and sounds of the new expansion, and those who are too busy playing with the new expansion to blog about it.

Guess which camp I fell in. ^^

In any case, a lot has happened in the last week. I went to Aht Urgan, explored the new continent, travelled the lands getting all the staging points activated, tried out a few merit camps (which since capped my xp points on my RDM!), participated in Assault, defended Al Zahbi in Besieged, and even started leveling Corsair!

Suffice to say, I'm very pleased with Treasures of Aht Urhgan. The new merit camps are both convenient to get to, at a reasonable price, Assault is very reminiscent of World of Warcraft's instancing (well, to a degree), which is something I've felt this game needed for a while, and Besieged is, well, although I think they made it a little too easy, at least the built up anticipation was nice the first time. ^^

I've already expressed my interest in leveling Corsair, and as a result, unlocked it and took it up to COR09. However, while the mechanic is certainly interesting, the one-minute cooldown in between Phantom Rolls annoy me, and don't really make Corsair active enough for my liking. For now though, it is a very nice balance in between a Summoner and a Bard, and some of the buffs are very unique and powerful. I particularly like how your party makeup affects the Corsair's abilities, too.

But I needed something different.

Recently however, BLU has been picking up more and more speed as one of the more powerful classes out there, and for good reason- to me at least, a BLU's versatility is unmatched. I've heard stories of BLUs filling all party positions, from healing, support, offensive magic, and even tanking. The Blue Magic points is a good way of keeping a BLU's power in check, and overall, the system intrigues me. I figure leveling up BLU would further complete my profile as a consumate mage, as well as give me a decent dose of melee to compliment my RDM solo.

Not only that, BLU is not only one of the more unique jobs out there, but also one of the most involved, thus giving me oodles to write about! Depending on how I feel about BLU, I could very well start yet another blog all about my experiences and discoveries as a blue mage!

And so, it was off to unlock BLU!



The Blue Mage quest is started from this NPC, Waudo, location on the second floor of (J-10) in the Aht Urhgan Whitegate. Upon meeting me, he wanted to take a divination, and so, the interrogation began...(with dramatic music, to boot!)

"What is destiny?"

"...If the loss of one life would save ten thousand, would you offer yourself without hesitation?"

"...A loved one is afflicted with a terrible illness and has little time to live. You are asked to end that life by your own hand."

As you can tell, not exactly the normal, run-of-the mill survey. In fact, I felt quite a number of questions pushed the moral bounds, but I could understand what Waudo was getting at.

In any case, I was asked to get a pinch of Valkurm Sunsand, which I inwardly groaned at, seeing as how I now have to travel all the way to the dunes (which is already bad enough), but now I have to hang around until there's a sandstorm? /grumble.

So I teleported over to the Crag of Dem, and caught a ride on a chocobo to the Dunes. Ironically, there was a call for a Raise as I was riding past, supposedly not too far away from me. I immediately thought back to Waudo's questions...

An unknown stranger calls for help while you're on a chocobo.

1) Dismount and go to his aid.
2) Ignore him and ride on.
3) Find somebody else to Raise.

Something along those lines, at least. For the record, I went along with option 2, figuring that one of the kazillion powerlevelers that plague the dunes now would get him. I had a change of heart, and turned back, and lo and behold, someone else had already Raised him. Guess my taru intuition is still there. ^^

Thankfully, I did not have to wait long before the sandstorms came. Actually, I believe I waited just ten minuets or so, before the sand started blowing, and the ??? appeared on the sandbanked boat. I took a pinch of the sand, and Warped back to Aht Urhgan!

Waudo then asked me to travel to the Aydeewa Subterrane to deliver the sunsand to a colleague of his. Fortunately, I had all the maps quested and completed of the path I would need to take, and so, headed straight down, where a luminous platform greeted me, and along with that, a Blue Mage who was kind enough to tell me that everything I had just done, was all really just a test to see how much I wanted power...



He went on about the test, what it stood for, what my going out of my way to complete the test stood for, all sorts of things. Eventually though, he came to one final point. If I were to achieve ultimate power, I must also make the ultimate sacrifice (well, maybe not "ultimate", but you get the idea. -_-). And then asked if I were willing to sacrifice everything for said cause, stretching out his hand in invitation.



I did a little taru gulp.

Reluctantly, I said yes, and took his hand. Things went black.

The next thing I knew, two alchemists (damn those Alchemists! >_<) were busy messy-wessing with my head! >_<



I had read about the history of the blue mages, and it wasn't exactly suitable for one's bedtime story. In fact, some parts of it were rather horrific.

...the initial attempts to graft beastly appendages ended in disaster. One subject’s face erupted in a mass of thrashing feelers. Another was transformed into a horrific mound of quivering flesh. Even if rejection of the transplants was somehow overcome, the subject’s blood was eventually tainted by the blood of the monster.

In a final attempt, the alchemists devised a brutal new technique utilizing the power of magic that fused the essence of a creature directly to the mortal spirit.
And thus blue magic was born.

Yeeeeahhhh...I certainly didn't want to think about what they were doing to my head! >_<

But eventually, it was all over. The mysterious Blue Mage to dragged me into all this stood, towering above me (as all other non-Taru do -_-), bringing me into this new realm of magic.



"Congratulations, Tuufless. Welcome to the ranks of the blue mages."