Gulool Ja Ja's Legacy: A FFXIV DT Rewrite + Expansion Concepts [Fanfiction]

Ch8: Into the Purple Dome

The whole of Tural was naturally in turmoil. The purple dome's appearance in the north was extremely unsettling. Word from the seers of the Yok Huy painted the purple dome as the hand of the 'Golden City'.

The population of Tural needed some time to parse through this information. For years, they had been entranced by tales of the 'Golden City', letting their imaginations conjure up fanciful details. It was only now that they began to understand that which can appear as gold can be rotten on the inside.

The Warrior of Light awoke from slumber in darkness, and decided to check on Wuk Lamat. Both Koana and Wuk Lamat had been working overtime and through long nights the past few days to steady the ship.

The throne room turned out to be empty, and thus the Warrior of Light climbed the steps, relying on intuition to search for the Second and Third Promise.

The Warrior of Light kept climbing, finally setting foot upon the roof of the Vollok Shoonsa. There, Wuk Lamat stood looking out towards the seas to the east. During the day, these waters sparkled like gems, but as it is still dark, these waves are now ominous and tumultuous.

The Warrior of Light picked up sniffling sounds coming from the female hrothgar. Upon noticing the Warrior of Light who silently stood next to her to also stare out into the dark seas, Wuk Lamat gradually regained her poise.

"I still... find my older brother's attack on Tuliyollal, and his taking of father's life to be incomprehensible," Wuk Lamat finally expressed. "Why would he take such action? For years, he risked his life protecting the people, a respectable commander of the landsguard..."

"As for Koana... as usual, he retreats to his research, his science when facing these sorts of situations. Deep down, he thinks himself socially inept, but the people certainly recognize his genuine desire to improve their lives through technology..."

Zoraal Ja's course of action...? It is indeed quite incomprehensible on the surface, but the Warrior of Light had experienced this situation at least once before-- Ilberd.

Thus, the Warrior of Light regaled Wuk Lamat with the beginning and the final moments of the Ala Mhigan madman.

"So you say this... Ilberd. His relentless desire to free his home, Ala Mhigo, led him to resenting his very own people for not being willing enough to spill the blood necessary for it? It led him to even sacrifice their lives to summon a supernatural being? It led him to resent an ally in a man named Raubahn, who could have influenced the soldiers of the neighboring state of Ul'dah?"

The Warrior of Light nodded, and Wuk Lamat sank into silence, her mind wrestling with the existence that is Ilberd. Gradually, she developed an inkling of an understanding.

"It's... obsession, isn't it?" she muttered. "When the mind becomes too obsessed with an idea... all else falls away. Overtime, it gradually corrupts your soul and distorts your mind in ways unimaginable. Yet, behind it lies a certain twisted logic."

"Unfortunately," the Warrior of Light sighed.

"I've always preferred to wander the lands of Tural in my caravan, carefree and at peace," Wuk Lamat said. "If I became overly obsessed with this state of being, this state of peace... would I then take inexplicable actions to achieve it, ultimately to my own detriment?"

"And my brother, Zoraal Ja," she continued. "I know he always strove to prove himself. I know Mamook sees one-headed mamool ja as lesser. That must be his obsession. If... if my father, a two-headed, is considered the best of two-headed mamool ja, having united Tural... and if Zoraal Ja's mind became twisted by an obsession to overcome the status of a two-headed..."