Dreadnought Leviathan



The Dreadnought Leviathan is an airship that serves as an unrevisitable dungeon in the land of Ivalice in Final Fantasy XII. It is the flagship of the 8th Imperial Fleet of the Archadian Empire.

The ship also appears in the manga adaptation, and because the manga was cancelled, the events there serve as its ending.

Final Fantasy XII
The Leviathan is the flagship of the 8th Imperial Fleet of Archadia, led by Judge Ghis. After the Resistance is caught trespassing the Royal Palace of Rabanastre, Princess Ashe is captured and taken aboard Leviathan. Vaan's party is sent onboard the ship by Marquis Ondore to save her.

Vaan, Basch, Balthier and Fran meet with Ghis and Ashe, Ghis revealing Ashe's true identity as the princess of Dalmasca, although she has no proof of her lineage. Basch tells about the Dusk Shard of the Dynast King Raithwall, and how he was instructed to deliver Ashe to it by the late king Raminas B'nargin Dalmasca if needed. In return of divulging its location he wants their safety guaranteed, but Ashe objects, as she still thins Basch was the one who murdered Raminas. The Goddess's Magicite—really the Dusk Shard and a powerful piece of deifacted nethicite—in Vaan's pocket reacts to Ashe presence. Ghis is delighted the party has delivered it to the Empire and seizes it.

The captives are sent to be detained with Ashe quartered separately. Vaan's party sets her free and set out to escape the ship with the help of the Resistance member Vossler York Azelas, who has infiltrated the imperial forces in a disguise. During their escape Vaan is reunited with his friend Penelo, the true reason he had wanted to come aboard the flagship. Penelo had been taken to the ship as Larsa Ferrinas Solidor's guest, a boy who had traveled with Vaan's party earlier under a pseudonym. Larsa gifts Penelo—whom he had befriended during the time they had spent together—with a piece of manufacted nethicite, a top secret Archadian invention, calling it a "good-luck-charm". When the party battles Ghis to escape the ship, the piece of manufacted nethicite disables Ghis's magick.

The Empire recaptures the party when they acquire the Dawn Shard and it is revealed Vossler is a turn-coat. It is revealed the Leviathan can fly on the jagd thanks to Archadia's manufacted nethicite technology. As the party is brought before him again, Ghis steals the Dawn Shard from the party to test its power by putting the piece of nethicite in the ship's engine. At first the tests prove promising, but soon the shard reacts violently, compressing the Leviathan and incinerating the entire 8th Fleet in an explosion of Mist. Fran goes berserk from the Mist spewed by the Dawn Shard, and the group incapacitates their guards and escapes on a carrier ship before the Leviathan is destroyed, but they are forced to leave Vossler behind. Basch promises his old friend that he will protect Ashe in his stead.

The Dawn Shard devastates the entire fleet and is left glinting mid-air at the center of the explosion. Balthier turns the carrier ship around to return and collect it, but the Dawn Shard has expelled its Mist and become lusterless. Leviathan's destruction is a blow to Vayne Carudas Solidor, the Emperor Gramis Gana Solidor's son, as well, as he was the one on the hunt for the nethicite, and he is recalled to Archades from his post as Consul of Rabanastre. Balthier's private airship, the Strahl, was also damaged in the explosion despite being docked further away from the impact site, and the party is left without means of private air travel until Nono, Balthier's mechanic moogle, will fix it.

Final Fantasy XII manga
Vaan, Basch, Balthier and Fran are sent aboard the Leviathan by Ondore. The four meet with Ghis and Ashe, Ghis revealing Ashe's true identity as the princess of Dalmasca. Ghis tells the party the cooperation of a royal family member would be valuable to Vayne, the son of the Emperor Gramis Gana Solidor, but Ashe has no proof of her lineage.

Basch tells about the Dusk Shard of the Dynast King Raithwall, and how he was instructed to deliver Ashe to it by the late king if needed. The Goddess's Magicite—really the Dusk Shard—in the group's belongings reacts to Ashe's anger over Basch's willingness to cooperate, and reveals itself. Ghis seizes it and orders the group imprisoned, Ashe quartered separately.

As the Imperial soldiers escort the group away, Basch reminisces of a war in Landis against the Urutan-Yensa, when he fought full of youthful pride and was nearly killed for it due to his inexperience and ignorance. Vossler saves the group disguised as an Archadian soldier, and he and Basch ally to protect Ashe. The group flees to the airship deck and Penelo and Larsa arrive, Larsa surprised to learn both Ashe and Basch are alive. Larsa wishes to protect the Empire from a "distortion" within that the news of their survival has aggravated, and gives Penelo a piece of manufacted nethicite to protect her.

Ghis arrives, and Vossler takes Larsa prisoner to stay the Judge's hand. Ghis attacks with a spell, declaring Larsa is prepared to die as an Imperial, but the spell is absorbed by the nethicite Larsa gave Penelo. Basch wounds Ghis and Balthier starts the airship. The group escapes the Leviathan, Larsa ordering Ghis to report the incident since the escapees have no proof of their identities, commenting there need not be a report of Larsa's capture and Ghis's reaction to it.

After Ashe's party is re-captured, they are brought on the Dreadnought Leviathan and Vossler hands the Dawn Shard to Ghis, revealing Vayne has agreed that Dalmasca shall be restored with Ashe as ruler in exchange for the shard. Ghis orders the shard tested to verify its authenticity while Vossler takes the party to their quarters. He tries to explain himself to Ashe, but she refuses to listen. Fran goes berserk from the Mist spewed by the Dawn Shard during testing, and the group incapacitates their guards. Basch and Vossler duel as the party flees to the airship bay. When a group of Imperial gunners halts them, Ashe summons the Esper Belias, entering a trance-like rage.

Vossler gains the upper hand against Basch using Balance magick and shatters his sword, but through willpower and the Mist around them, Basch creates a blade of Mist from the hilt of his sword and continues to fight. The two clash and Basch impales Vossler, Balance not activating since Vossler did not make physical contact with Basch's incorporeal weapon. Vossler entrusts Ashe's protection to Basch, telling him she's currently too weak to hold the throne, and Basch must aid her in her mission. The Dawn Shard causes a chain of system failures and explosions through the airship. Ashe awakens from her trance and sees her arm where Belias glyph appeared has grown bulbous and deformed. She dismisses Belias, causing her arm to be cut to a stump below the elbow.

A wounded Ghis begins to climb and tries to deactivate the Dawn Shard's reactor, but Vossler stabs his sword into Ghis' hand to stop him, telling him they will die together. The airship explodes and obliterates the rest of the fleet as Ashe and her friends flee in an airship back to Dalmasca. An ending narration says that Dalmasca has taken the first step on its road to revival. Because the manga was cancelled, Chapter 19 serves as the ending to the adaptation.

Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings
A second Leviathan was built and is used by Ashe and Basch to join up with their friends. This Leviathan, though built by the Empire, was made as a Dalmascan flagship for its queen, Ashe. It serves as a connection between Lemurés and Ivalice.

Grinding spot
After rescuing Ashe, the alarm will go off and endless soldiers will emerge. This is a decent spot to grind levels. If one is near death, they can simply return to the cell block and use the Save Crystal and repeat the process. Seeing that the only enemies that come are soldiers, this spot makes good use of gambits and chaining.

Treasures
During the player's visit on the Leviathan the player can discover numerous treasures that have a chance of containing new weapons. Since the player visits this location before they can obtain the Diamond Armlet there are only normal treasures.

The treasure in the southwest corner of the Port Section has a 90% chance of spawning, 60% to contain gil, but when it has items, it can be either a Reflectga Mote or Handaxe. A treasure in the northeast part of the Starboard Section can contain a Killer Bow. The other treasures have common items and a few gambits, unless they contain gil.

In the Sub-control room there are two treasures that always spawn and once claimed, will never respawn. The other can contain an Assassin's Dagger, and the other an Ancient Sword.

In the International Zodiac Job System version, the Diamond Armlet can be obtained much earlier, so it can be used onboard Leviathan to obtain Meteorites and Knots of Rust. Most items are the usual mixture of healing items, magick motes, and attack Fangs. However, there are several weapons and armor.

In the Port Section there is a Partisan and a Crossbow. In the Large Freight Stores there is a Ringmail and a Shepard's Bolero. Several pieces of iron equipment, such as sword, helm, and armor, can be found in the Starboard section. In the Sub-control Room there is a Vega and a Zwill Blade.

The chests that do not respawn in the International Zodiac Job System are a pair of chests in the Large Freight Stores that contain Reflectga Motes. Chest #11 and Chest #19, which contain Sleep and Infuse, respectfully, also do not respawn. Opening those two causes two chests in the Ogir-Yensa Sandsea to disappear forever. However, those lost chests also contain Sleep and Infuse, so the player loses nothing.

Large Freight Stores

 *  - Chest does not respawn.

Starboard Section

 *  - Chest does not respawn.
 *  - Opening this chest causes Chest #4 in the Ogir-Yensa Sandsea to disappear forever. Inversely, if Ogir-Yensa Sandsea chest #4 has been opened, this chest will disappear forever as well. However, both chests contain the same treasure.

Sub-control Room

 *  - Chest does not respawn.
 *  - Chest does not respawn.
 *  - Opening this chest causes Chest #2 in the Ogir-Yensa Sandsea to disappear forever. Inversely, if Ogir-Yensa Sandsea chest #2 has been opened, this chest will disappear forever as well. However, both chests contain the same treasure.

Enemies

 * Imperial Gunner
 * Imperial Magus
 * Imperial Swordsman
 * Imperial Hoplite
 * Mastiff
 * Judge (event boss)
 * Judge Ghis (boss)

Non-player characters
After the plot events on the Dreadnought Leviathan, the moogle Tetran will show up in Eruyt Village. He will appear regardless if the player let him out of the cage or not.

Tetran
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Weapons

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Armor
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Accessories

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Magicks

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Ammunition

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Technicks

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Items

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Gambits

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Musical themes
The background theme for Leviathan is "Defying the Empire".

Etymology
The airships in Final Fantasy XII are allusions to previous Final Fantasy games, the Archadian Imperial Fleets being named after summons. The Dreadnought was a battleship in Final Fantasy II, and Leviathan is a recurring aquatic summoned monster.

Leviathan (FFXII)