Ring of the Lucii



The Ring of the Lucii is a key item in the Final Fantasy XV Universe that appears in Final Fantasy XV and the feature film Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV. It symbolizes the power of the kings of Lucis, and it is handed down from generation to generation. The ring contains the collective power and wisdom of each Lucian monarch and grants its immense power only to those it deems worthy.

According to legend, the Ring of the Lucii was bestowed upon the kings of Lucis by the gods of Eos. It allows its wearer to channel the power of Insomnia's Crystal. According to the Final Fantasy XV Ultimania, astrals created the ring of light, and provided it as the mark of the king to Lucian royalty.

Story
The Cosmogony books that chronicle the legends of Eos posit that before falling into eternal slumber, the Six gave mankind a ring. The ring is said to have passed from person to person, but none were fit to inherit its power. It eventually found its way into the hands of a person deemed worthy, whom people thus saw fit to rule and he became the first Lucian king. The ring has been passed down the royal generations and is worn by the reigning king.

A hundred-and-fifty years ago, the king erected a magical barrier across the kingdom of Lucis to keep it safe from the Niflheim Empire. The king upholds the magic barrier with the power of the Ring of the Lucii, but doing so drains the king's own life-force.

Regis Lucis Caelum became the king thirty years ago. During this time the Wall shrunk, now only covering the crown city of Insomnia, and the outlands were left vulnerable as the war against the Empire intensified. Upholding the Wall accelerates Regis's aging, and after thirty years of holding the Wall with the ring's power, he looks beyond his fifty years of age and his health is failing.

During the fall of Insomnia, Imperial General Glauca severs the Ring of the Lucii from King Regis's hand. Ravus Nox Fleuret picks up the ring and attempts to obtain its power, but is deemed unworthy and drops the ring as his left arm is severely burned. Taking the ring with him, Regis flees down a secret passageway with Nyx Ulric and Lunafreya Nox Fleuret. Once clear of Niflheim's forces, Regis gives the Ring of the Lucii to Lunafreya and asks her to give it to his son, Noctis.

In Section D of Insomnia, Nyx is attacked by one of his fellow Glaives, Luche Lazarus, who seeks to take the Ring of the Lucii. Luche he is tricked into putting it on by Lunafreya. Deemed unworthy of the Old Wall's power, Luche is burned alive. Nyx's superior, Titus Drautos, reveals himself to be Glauca, and attempts to claim the ring. Nyx puts it on and finds himself in another dimension, where he speaks to the deceased Lucian kings and faces their judgment.

When the kings see Nyx fights for the future, at the spirit of King Regis's urging, they grant him their power in exchange for his life. Nyx passes the ring to Luna for safekeeping, then uses the Ring of the Lucii's power to engage Glauca. The resulting battle sees Glauca fatally stabbed by Nyx, with the Empire's daemons destroyed by the Old Wall, summoned effigies of the past kings and queens of Lucis. Nyx dies at dawn as part of the blood price of using the ring's powers.

After Luna escapes Insomnia, she reunites with Gentiana and her two dogs outside the city gates. She is exhausted, but has the Ring of the Lucii. She eventually makes her way to Altissia where she speaks with her brother Ravus. She asks him to take the ring to Noctis as she is collapsing from the strain of her duties, but he turns away at the sight of it, and says delivering the ring to the Chosen King is her duty.

After the clash between Titan and Leviathan levels Altissia, Noctis finds himself in a dreamlike dimension with his betrothed, Lunafreya. Transformed into his childhood self, Noctis grieves over his inability to save her. She comforts him and gives him the Ring of the Lucii before fading into the Astral Realm. Noctis awakens back in Altissia with the ring in his hand. He won't wear it however, feeling the burden of it overwhelming.

In Gralea, the capital of Niflheim Empire, Noctis is forced to adorn the ring when his powers cease to work, and wields its powers to fight the daemons and magitek troops at Zegnautus Keep. A decade later, Noctis uses the ring to commune with his ancestors before giving his life to end the Starscourge as the True King.

As the kings of Lucis die, their soul enters the ring and next king can wield the collective powers of his forebears with it. Thus little by little the power concentrates until it accumulates enough for the final king to the become the True King to purge the Starscourge from Eos. After dying, Noctis finds himself standing before Ardyn Izunia in the afterlife, a Lucian king that became corrupted by daemons and was made immortal, and now exists as the embodiment of the darkness that shrouds Eos. Noctis uses the ring to destroy Ardyn's spirit before vanishing in a burst of light. The Lucian bloodline has ended, and the Ring of the Lucii disintegrates.

Abilities
As depicted in Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV, when worn, the Ring of the Lucii sends those who are not of royal blood to another dimension where they converse with the Lucian kings of old and face their judgment. If the ring rejects its wearer, he is burned alive. If it accepts him, the wearer gains great magical power, as well as the ability to activate the Old Wall, enormous statues of the deceased Lucian kings strewn about Insomnia.

The Ring of the Lucii links the Lucian lineage and their powers to the mortal world even from the "realm beyond". It is unknown if each ring-bearer gains different powers from the ring, but King Regis and Noctis use different magic with it. When Noctis first puts the ring on, and when he uses its powers to defeat enemies, he hears whispering sounds–likely the spirits of the old kings.

Wielding the ring's powers has glowing cracks appear on the ring-bearer's body, and the more the wielder uses the ring the more apparent it becomes. King Regis's face is scarred, perhaps due to this. Crystalline cracks that glow red appear on Nyx Ulric's face and soon all along on his arm as he commands the Old Wall after gaining the old kings' blessing. A similar effect engulfs Noctis's character model in Final Fantasy XV if the player wields the ring as their weapon for extended periods, but the effect fades and does no lasting "damage" to him. After Noctis destroys Ardyn in the afterlife with the power from the ring, he glows similarly and disperses into light.

Gameplay
In Final Fantasy XV, the Ring of the Lucii offers players access to Ring Magic, a different type of magic than the grenades that can be concocted through Elemancy. It is unlocked in Chapter 13, and uses MP. The ring is equipped in a weapon slot, and the player can point-warp with it. The ring can only be equipped by Noctis.

When the player wields the Ring of the Lucii in battle, "soul crystals" like seen in the Fabula Nova Crystallis: Final Fantasy series float in the air. This signifies the bonding of the souls via the Crystal, concept from which the ring draws its power.

With the introduction of Chapter 13, Verse 2 as part of the free update released on March 27, 2017, the powers of the Ring Magic have been boosted, making the ring's spells much more powerful than they were prior to the update. The ring can also now be brought to New Game+.

Some players have reported bugs of instant death from Death not healing HP and Holy not recovering MP as they are supposed to do.

Death
Death is used with the attack button when locking onto an enemy with the ring in the weapon slot. It deals damage, slows the enemy down, and applies a debuff that instantly kills the enemy when fully applied. When Noctis is not casting it, the effect of this invisible debuff gradually wanes. When the "instant death meter" is full, the enemy dies and Noctis recovers half his maximum HP. If the enemy dies from the damage Death deals, Noctis doesn't get healed. Some rare enemies are immune to the instant death, but even most bosses are susceptible. Casting Death consumes MP by a fixed percentage, and thus maximum MP is irrelevant. The rate is roughly 5% per second.

The damage and instant death rate are affected by Noctis's Magic stat and the enemy's hidden "death resistance" stat. Death works is at its maximum capacity when Noctis has roughly 500 Magic and increasing his Magic beyond will not boost Death further. Death ignores buffs obtained from eating food.

Patch 1.06 dramatically improves the instant death rate, removes most immunities and makes Death deal more damage.

Holy
Noctis instantaneously smites foes with sacred energy and deals holy damage to nearby enemies when Noctis dodges their attacks with the ring equipped in the weapon slot. Damage scales with Noctis's Magic and level. Holy is activated by tapping or holding down the Phase/Defense button, and is a counterattack. Should the Phase/Defense button be held without Noctis being attacked, he will walk cautiously like in Phase Mode, but will be in a focused state to ready the spell when pressed to do so. Doing this gradually drains his MP at a rate of 10% per second. If Noctis successfully counters an enemy with Holy, he will recover 15% of his maximum MP (10% before Patch 1.06). Unlike phasing, this does not work against bullets.

Blinking (timing the dodge perfectly) makes Noctis do an especially strong Holy that deals 15 times more damage (thus it almost always hits the damage cap) and recovers 40% of his max MP. If far away, Noctis will teleport close to the enemy. This frequently puts enemies to Vulnerable.

After patch 1.06 Holy's normal damage was halved, but its MP recovery was boosted and the recovery time between casts was removed. The patch adds the improved Holy activated via blinking.

Alterna
Alterna is the final spell Noctis learns on the ring. It can be used on wide areas that have enough room for the spell to go off, and is used by locking onto the enemy and using the warp button. Tapping the warp button has Noctis do a short-range teleport that costs MP.

Alterna has Noctis temporarily break open the fabric of reality, creating a crystalline gate into another dimension that ejects enemies from the battle entirely. Casting it costs a full MP bar. There are no enemies that are immune to Alterna, but the chance of it working is random and Noctis's Magic stat doesn't appear to affect it.

After the 1.06 patch it has a chance of working even against superbosses and story bosses such as Adamantoise, MA-X Angellus-0 and the penultimate boss. The patch also improves the overall chance of it working on any enemy.

Creation and development
In early promotional material for Final Fantasy Versus XIII, Noctis is seen wearing a ring on his right hand. Repurposed for Final Fantasy XV, the ring was made important to the game's story.

Final Fantasy Brave Exvius


The Ring of the Lucii is an accessory and Noctis's Trust Master Reward. When equipped it grants MAG+3, SPR+3 as well as the abilities Alterna, Holy and Death. Similarly to Final Fantasy XV, the Ring of the Lucii increases the unit's evasion by 25%, and when activated deals Light-element magic damage to the attacker and restores 40 MP to the user.

Puzzle & Dragons
Noctis's Ring of the Lucii appeared as part of the Final Fantasy collaboration.

Merchandise
Square Enix has released the Ring of the Lucii as official merchandise. Unlike in the game, the ring is on a chain.


 * Product Size（Body part）：　approx. 22.85×26.87(mm) Weight：8.7g
 * Chain Length(Incl. Fastener)：　approx. 470(mm) Weight：10g
 * Ring Size：　Size 18 (Japanese size)
 * Material: 925 Silver

Etymology
Luci is the plural form of luce, an Italian word for "light". It is derived from lūcem, a Latin word and the accusative form of lūx, which means "light."

Trivia

 * The Ring of the Lucii resembles the Solomon Ring from Final Fantasy VIII, which, according to its description in the Occult Fan, used to belong to a royal family.
 * The crest of the ring resembles Bahamut when Noctis meets him, with multiple swords around a figure holding a sword down the middle. This suggests the crest is of Bahamut, or a Lucian king stylized after Bahamut. Bahamut appears to be the leader of the astrals.
 * s have appeared in stories since . Some of the more famous ones include in 's book, the  of which the Final Fantasy VIII Solomon Ring is based on, and the  from J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth universe. Magic rings occur in a myriad of modern fantasy stories as incidental objects, as well as central parts of the plot. The main magical objects in the Final Fantasy series are usually the crystals, but previous magic rings have been the magical mythril ring in Final Fantasy III used to seal the Djinn and remove the curse on the people of Sasune and Kazus, the Carnelian Signet in Final Fantasy IV that turned out to be an incendiary bomb, and the Solomon Ring in Final Fantasy VIII that hosts the GF Doomtrain.