I remember my father's words. How they rang in my ears as we left Castrum Abania behind and looked out over the lochs before us. Comrades brave and true. They had come from all across Eorzea to stand with us. To stand against oppression and tyranny. Twenty years the Empire had ruled us, but no longer. Liberty or death. Liberty or death.
The Lochs are a location in Gyr Abania introduced in Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood.
Profile[]
Story[]
Stormblood[]
After securing Castrum Abania, the combined forces of the Ala Mhigan Resistance and Eorzean Alliance push forward to the shores of Loch Seld, making camp at Porta Praetoria as they prepare to finalise their assault on Ala Mhigo, where Zenos yae Galvus and his XIIth Imperial Legion forces await.
Locations[]
Aetherytes[]
The aetherytes of this region are located in Porta Praetoria and the Ala Mhigan Quarter.
Areas[]
Settlements[]
Porta Praetoria[]
Formerly a checkpoint along the main highroad to Ala Mhigo, it was incorporated into the newly constructed Castrum Abania. Prior to the Garlean invasion, the area bustled with merchants bound for the Near East, but mercantile endeavors have since given way to military ones.
This area served as the Eorzean Alliance's forward base into the region during Operation Rhalgr's Beacon. Following the liberation, it remains a base and checkpoint along the way to the new headquarters at the Ghimlyt Dark.
The Ala Mhigan Quarter[]
A residential area situated to the south of Ala Mhigo proper, it was built to accommodate the city's growing population. As the newest district to be added, it is a considerable distance from the royal palace, and was expected to become an enclave for the less well-to-do. Under Garlean rule, it more or less retained that status, serving to quarter the Aan─those without citizenship. During that time, it was also known as the Peregrine Quarter─a reference to the derogatory name by which the imperial occupiers called Ala Mhigan natives.
The Saltery[]
This small town on the shore of Loch Seld was once home to salt miners that panned the shallows for precious 'white gold' to be exported to various other nations. Following the Garlean occupation it fell out of use and was eventually abandoned, however an initiative put forth by Sultana Nanamo Ul Namo and Syndicate member Lolorito following the liberation has seen the region's salt industry pick up, and thus the town has been reoccupied.
Weather[]
The Lochs' climate may exhibit any of the following weather conditions:
| Weather | Frequency or conditions |
|---|---|
 Fair Skies
|
40% |
 Clear Skies
|
20% |
 Clouds
|
20% |
 Fog
|
10% |
 Thunderstorms
|
10% |
 Quicklevin
|
Occurs when  A Horse Outside is active.
|
Places of Interest[]
Ala Mhigo[]
Once known as the strongest military power of Eorzea, Ala Mhigo has suffered under imperial rule for over 20 years. The original residents have been pushed into a new adjoining sector known as 'The Ala Mhigan Quarter', while the city proper, including the Royal Palace, have been made the homes for, originally, the XIVth Imperial Legion, and then the XIIth Imperial Legion, as well as other Garlean notables and Ala Mhigans that have adapted to their rule.
The Royal Menagerie[]
Theodoric, the Mad King, married a queen from a foreign land. The menagerie was built and filled with plants and beasts from her home to stave her loneliness. When Zenos yae Galvus became Viceroy, he killed the beasts, leaving naught but the crimson flowers. Following Ala Mhigo's liberation and the establishment of a new government, the Menagerie has been opened up to the public to indulge in it's beauty. After Lunar Bahamut razes the Menagerie at Fandaniel's command, it is closed off to the public.
Loch Seld[]
The main body of the great salt lake from which the region derives it's name. It is a remnant of the great flood that embodied the Sixth Umbral Calamity. The shallows near the southern lake shore allow for salt panning.
The Drowned City of Skalla[]
The ruins of a 5th Astral Era city state, a casualty of the War of the Magi. The ruins were flooded in the 6th calamity, but the Ala Mhigan Royal Family discovered a way inside. During the reign of the Mad King, the ruins were used as a vault for his vast fortune and a prison for those who opposed his rule, where his thaumaturges experimented upon them and turned them into horrid monsters.
The Ghimlyt Dark[]
There is only one land route from Aldenard to Ilsabard and it lies through Ghimlyt. Due to a confluence of harsh terrain and aetheroclimatic conditions, this land is almost perpetually shrouded in dark clouds, rarely seeing the sky poke through. As the main chokepoint into Eorzea, the region remains a contested war ground between the Eorzean Alliance and the Garlean Imperial Armies.
Activities[]
Duties[]
|
| Liberty or death! Now begins the battle for the future of a nation. Together with the brave men and women of the Eorzean Alliance and the Resistance, you and your fellow adventurers must enter the city and make for the castle where Zenos yae Galvus resides, and put an end to his reign of terror. |
 drowned city of skalla |
| Long ago, in the dawn of the Fifth Astral Era, the modest nation of Skalla was founded in the land of Gyr Abania. Over the span of several centuries, its people constructed a grand city of stone at the bottom of a steep-walled ravine, but even this natural defense could not protect Skalla from destruction during a terrible age of war. When the great flood of the Sixth Umbral Calamity later swept across the realm, the hollow ruins of the city were lost to sight, its remnants submerged beneath a raging sea. Haunting the depths of what is now Loch Seld, Skalla's silent walls lure adventurers into the salt-laden waters with the promise of mysteries unsolved and treasures unclaimed. |
 ghimlyt dark |
| For those who dare travel twixt Aldenard and Ilsabard, there is but one path, and it leads through Ghimlyt. A confluence of harsh terrain and aetheroclimatic conditions have shrouded the land in perpetual darkness, and it is here the decisive battle for Eorzea begins. Joined by their Far Eastern allies, the Eorzean Alliance battles desperately to fight back the seemingly endless waves of imperial troops. In a bid to change the tide of battle, the Warrior of Light has been called to the fray, but can they prevail in this land long since lost to the light? |
 royal menagerie |
| Shinryu, Ilberd's draconic god of vengeance, has been claimed by none other than Zenos yae Galvus, who has used his power as a Resonant to merge with the primal and bind it to his will. Transformed into a towering being of pure violence, his very existence poses a threat not only to Ala Mhigo, but to the entire world. All now falls to you and your comrades, for if you do not stop Zenos yae Galvus, no one will... |
|
| Though the original Ultima Weapon, piloted by Gaius Baelsar, was destroyed in the decisive battle at the Praetorium, Garlemald has been secretly developing its successor. Now, this diabolical melding of Allagan and Garlean technologies has been deployed to annihilate those who would oppose the Empire. At the behest of none other than Gaius Baelsar himself, you cross the scorched battlefield of the Ghimlyt Dark to halt this crimson menace before it lays waste to Eorzea. |
FATEs[]
| Name | Level | Location | Time limit | Objective |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Description Spawn conditions (if any) | ||||
 Off Their Yabby
|
69-73 | Loch Seld (x23 y29) | 15 minutes | Defeat the bonza yabbies. |
| The sweet, succulent flesh of yabby tails was so adored by Ala Mhigan royalty, that an area of Loch Seld was cordoned off to farm the crustaceans. With the fall of the city–state, the nets quickly fell into disrepair, allowing the wavekin to escape into the lake proper where they have since multiplied unchecked. Help is sought by local fishers in thinning the yabby population. | ||||
 Foul Bachelor Frogamander
|
69-73 | Loch Seld (x22 y31) | 15 minutes | Defeat the Frogamander. |
| Little scares the Empire, years of conditioning rendering their soldiers rocks in the face of even the worst of odds. For some reason, however, not even the hardest of Garlean commanders will muster the courage to stand against the bloated abomination that is Frogamander─archimandrite of the abaddons. | ||||
| Old Bucket of Boruta
|
69-73 | The Queen's Gardens (x30 y15) | 15 minutes | Defeat Boruta. |
| Locals say that only after a young maiden─grief-stricken upon learning that her father had promised her to an evil baron─flung herself from Lochwatch did the rogue rafflesia Boruta begin terrorizing the region. Is the seedkin a manifestation of the girl's anguish, or simply a creature invigorated after supping on the girl's spilled humours? Does it even matter? The flower is eating children! | ||||
| Dusk Till Abaddon
|
69-73 | The Queen's Gardens (x30 y30) | 15 minutes | Defeat the abaddons. |
| It has been three nights since the fishers of Loch Seld last slept. Three nights of incessant croaking so loud, even a turnip in each ear cannot muffle the noise. Croaking so thunderous, spines tingle and urns tumble from their boards above the kitchen. The culprits? Abaddons. The solution? Steel. | ||||
| The Smell That Leeched Her Heart
|
69-73 | The Divine Audience (x18 y13) | 15 minutes | Defeat the aroma leech. |
| The aroma leech is an efficient hunter, emitting a soft, pleasant scent that attracts many a skipping maiden, afield in search of pretty flowers to knit wreaths and garlands. Yet what those maidens find is naught but a slow, agonizing death at the sucking maw of a bloodthirsty monster. | ||||
| Tall Tale
|
69-73 | Loch Seld (x21 y25) | 30 minutes | Defeat Tall Mountain. |
| Ala Mhigan resident Tall Mountain woke this morning with the city watch at his door claiming he was under arrest for crimes he has no recollection of committing. At the same time, a burly, wan-faced Hellsguard appeared in the Lochs, covered from head to toe with blood that did not appear to be his own. Could this impostor be the true culprit? | ||||
| Taking Kurrea Business
|
69-73 | Loch Seld (x19 y21) | 15 minutes | Defeat Kurrea. |
| Come mating season while all other ninki nankas were caught in the throes of passionless rutting, Kurrea simply used the opportunity to feed, growing larger...and larger...and larger, until he was nigh abursting. Now that there is naught left to consume, he has taken to his second favorite pastime─the slaughter of innocents. | ||||
| Dude, Where's My Karya
|
69-73 | The High Bank (x10 y17) | 15 minutes | Defeat Karya. |
| As is the case with most ambulatory trees, warm, freshly drained lifeblood is what ancient Karya craves, the seedkin trapping its victims in its tangle of roots and branches, and keeping them alive with its own sickly sweet fruit so that it might sup slowly. | ||||
| Sisyphus Cooling
|
69-73 | The Pauper's Lode (x4 y27) | 15 minutes | Defeat Sisyphus. |
| A heretofore unseen golem has been sighted pushing boulders about nearby caves─caves from whose very walls the beast is believed to have been formed. By whom and for what purpose this lithic monster was given life is unknown, but those who have seen their kin torn in two by the massive creature's claws will tell you this: Sisyphus must die. | ||||
| Minotaurs on My Mind
|
69-73 | The High Bank (x26 y32) | 15 minutes | Defeat Asterion. |
| Until a fortnight ago, many Ala Mhigans believed minotaurs to be naught more than stories told to keep children from exploring the deadly caves surrounding the Lochs. When children began disappearing, people still blamed the caves, boarding their entrances so as to discourage the curious. When a giant minotaur was seen carrying a young Lalafell into the night, however, people finally knew Asterion was real. | ||||
| Dive In
|
69-73 | The Divine Audience (x20 y16) | 15 minutes | Defeat the specters. |
| So paranoid did the King of Ruin become in his final days, that not a day would go by where servants, aides, cooks─even kin─were not sent plummeting from the Divine Audience to their dooms. It is said that to this day, the Lochs are haunted by restless specters, bound to this realm by their wrath. | ||||
| Pounding Salt
|
69-73 | The Firkins (x8 y25) | 15 minutes | Defeat the salt anilas. |
| Since the Garlean invasion, the Firkins have remained in a state of disrepair─all attempts at rebuilding hampered not only by the occasional salvo of imperial cannon fire, but by the untamed salt anilas who have taken up residence in the crumbling buildings. | ||||
| Lalla Land
|
69-73 | The High Bank (x14 y13) | 15 minutes | Defeat Lalla Mira. |
| An ill wind blows down from the hills rendering all caught in its path...well, ill. The cause of this unnatural plague? Lalla Mira─a malevolent spirit of wind whose breath carries with it the very air of death. | ||||
| When It Pains It Pours
|
69-73 | The High Bank (x18 y33) | 15 minutes | Defeat the soblyns. |
| Long have scholars postulated as to why soblyns are so aggressive compared to their lowland cousins. One theory is that the corrosion to their metallic carapaces caused by the accumulation of salt crystals causes the creatures constant pain, leaving them in a perpetual state of frenzy. Or, it could simply be they are evil, evil beings. | ||||
| Sob Story
|
69-73 | The High Bank (x13 y23) | 15 minutes | Defeat the mixed-up soblyn. |
| A blend of six impurities in its shell have left one soblyn even more strung out than usual. One might leave the creature to its own devices and hope that it learns to live with its pain without further endangering the lives of the smallfolk who call Loch Seld home. Or, one might just put the poor thing out of its misery and hope the Lifestream has a better plan for it next time around. | ||||
| Par for the Course
|
69-73 | The White Aisle (x24 y22) | 15 minutes | Defeat the vepars. |
| A hungry fisher once said, “one vepar is never enough.” Said fisher was killed on a half-full stomach by the third vepar he attempted to reel that fateful autumn morning, giving rise to the adage, “a vepar dead is another night safe in bed.” | ||||
| Sip When I'm Dead
|
69-73 | Abalathia's Skull (x25 y9) | 15 minutes | Defeat the kaluks. |
| When kaluks cannot locate fresh lifeblood to drink, they take to the potter's fields where they probe the soil for freshly buried corpses. This, unsurprisingly, does not sit well with the relatives of the recently deceased. | ||||
| Who's Phoebad
|
69-73 | Loch Seld (x24 y31) | 15 minutes | Defeat the phoebads. |
| The salt crystals of Loch Seld make for perfect receptacles of errant aether discharge. When enough aether builds in these formations, it can give them life, but most often it is life in only the simplest sense of the word─driven by the basest of urges: sleep, hunger...murder. The phoebad do not belong on this realm. Send them back whence they came. | ||||
| Yabby Hunters
|
69-73 | Loch Seld (x18 y27) | 15 minutes | Defeat the Loch Seld Monster. |
| There are those who claim the Loch Seld Monster is no more than a hoax, contrived by enterprising Ala Mhigans to dupe rich foreign emissaries into spending sacksful of coin on excursions to find the beast. There are also those who have been sliced in half by the giant yabby's claws. Those are the true believers. | ||||
| Enemy Territory
|
69-73 | The High Bank (x13 y17) | 15 minutes | Defeat the chelones and loch nankas. |
| Territorial disputes amongst the diverse fauna of Loch Seld are as frequent as they are deadly, the latest featuring a school of chelone overtaking the lake bank several ninki nankas called home. Without a place to hunt and nest, the wavekin are moving towards a new territorial dispute─one between the nankas and a small fishing village. | ||||
| One Bad Mother Chukwa
|
69-73 | The High Bank (x13 y17) | 15 minutes | Defeat Chukwa. |
| Weakened by the epic battle that resulted in a large swathe of loch nanka territory being claimed by her school of chelone, murderous High Matron Chukwa is at her most vulnerable. If there is to be any chance of slaying this most foul of lake-beasts, it is now.
Spawn conditions:
| ||||
| Give Bees a Chance
|
69-73 | The Royal Hunting Grounds (x7 y9) | 15 minutes | Defeat the salt saprias. |
| Farmers of the Lochs look to the region's many bees and butterflies to help pollinate their meager crops. Sapria look to those same creatures to fill their fathomless bellies. As a sapria is not that satisfying in a salad, the smallfolk have asked that you save the bees instead. | ||||
| About Face
|
69-73 | The High Bank (x10 y13) | 15 minutes | Defeat Creeping Edila. |
| Named for the queen who saw to the construction of the gardens in which it now resides, Creeping Edila is said even to resemble Her Most Royal Highness, albeit before she made her face in the morning. | ||||
| No Time Is a Good Time
|
69-73 | Loch Seld (x26 y27) | 15 minutes | Defeat Serra. |
| With serrated teeth strong enough to rip apart even twice-plated Garlean warmachina, Serra is a force of nature not to be reckoned with lightly. Only those who favor unlasting glory over near-certain death need test their fortune in a battle of wits with this wavekin. | ||||
| Mazeless Runner
|
69-73 | Loch Seld (x28 y18) | 15 minutes | Defeat the Abalathian minotaurs. |
| A minotaur without a labyrinth is like a dog without a bone─prone to wanton killing sprees that most often end in the annihilation of entire villages. In other words, nothing like a dog without a bone. Slay the minotaurs. Prevent annihilation. | ||||
| Kingsgrave
|
69-73 | Loch Seld (x26 y12) | 15 minutes | Defeat the guard bhoots. |
| Ancient Ala Mhigan kings believed even after they died, the spirits of fallen enemies would harry them far into the afterlife. To combat this, they had their honor guard buried with them...whether they were dead at the time of the regent's passing or not. Several of those spirits, not overly pleased with the fates thrust upon them, still roam the land with vengeance in their hearts. | ||||
 Fate No Morpho
|
69-73 | The Royal Hunting Grounds (x7 y9) | 15 minutes | Protect the royal morphos from the abaddons. |
| A scholar once claimed that a butterfly flapping its wings in Gyr Abania gave rise to the storms that rocked Othard's eastern shores. If that were true, the amount of flapping caused by the royal morphos trying in vain to escape the gaping maws of hungry abaddons will see Doma under ten yalms of rain by moon's end. Just in case, you may want to slay those abaddons.
Spawn conditions:
| ||||
| I Can Feel the Earth Move
|
69-73 | The High Bank (x29 y35) | 15 minutes | Defeat the salt dharas. |
| Dhara feed by draining the soil of its earth-aspected aether, leaving the land brittle and prone to erosion. To prevent deadly sinkholes and landslides, the dhara must be dealt with. | ||||
| To Leech His Own
|
69-73 | The High Bank (x14 y19) | 15 minutes | Defeat the loch leeches. |
| Unable to bear the thought of his beloved leeches being disposed of by the Empire, the royal physicker liberated his blood-loving assistants on the night of the invasion by tossing them into the privy where they eventually swam their way out into Loch Seld. And there, for the past three decades, have the wavekin thrived, growing fat on the blood of hapless travelers and foolish children. | ||||
| Tellus a Tale
|
69-73 | The High Bank (x12 y27) | 15 minutes | Defeat Tellus. |
| Where Tellus walks, the ground moves─or so sayeth those who swear that the region's recurrent tremors are not, as scholars claim, movements of the land's crust atop rivers of molten rock, but in fact the lumbering gait of a modern-day giant. | ||||
| OK, Golem
|
69-73 | The High Bank (x14 y31) | 15 minutes | Defeat the dark clay beasts. |
| Though the Eorzean Alliance has claimed the Seventh Umbral Era concluded, there are still parts of the realm which suffer the lasting effects of Dalamud's fall. One such area can be found in the mountains circling Loch Seld where aetherial instability engenders mindless golems. | ||||
| Ancelot's Fear
|
69-73 | The Song of Kings (x16 y7) | 15 minutes | Defeat the royal ants. |
| The Empire's outlawing of religion in Ala Mhigo has seen sacred sites fall into ruin, those once tasked with their upkeep forced to abandon all labors of faith. As a result, locations such as the royal crypts are now overrun with creatures threatening to defile thousands of years of history. | ||||
| Ancelot's Folly
|
69-73 | The Song of Kings (x14 y6) | 15 minutes | Defeat the specter guards. |
| The chants of ceremonies that once assured that restless spirits remained beyond the corporeal realm no longer echo through the royal crypts, allowing specters and ghosts to return to the world of the living unmolested. If allowed to escape the palace halls, it will be but a matter of time before they descend upon the Loch's villages.
Spawn conditions:
| ||||
| Ancelot's Finale
|
69-73 | The Song of Kings (x12 y7) | 15 minutes | Defeat King Manfred the Dead. |
| Unaware of his own death, King Manfred has risen from his tomb to rule once again─or so that is what the evil spirit possessing the rotting corpse of the long-deceased regent wants you to believe.
Spawn conditions:
| ||||
| A Horse Outside
|
70-80 | Abalathia's Skull (x4 y15, x29 y9) The Highbank (x16 y22) Does not appear on the map. |
30 minutes | Defeat Ixion. |
| It is said on a mighty levinbolt doth the warsteed Ixion ride─thunder, the rumbling of his hooves as they pound the very heavens. Ware the coming storm, for hell descendeth.
Spawn conditions:
| ||||
Others[]
- An instanced area of the Royal Menagerie can be accessed by speaking with the Royal Menagerie attendant at coordinates (36, 32) in the Ala Mhigan Quarter once players have completed the quest
Return of the Bull. It is closed off following the events of the quest Futures Rewritten. - Participation in, and completion of A Horse Outside will award Ixion Horns that can be traded in Rhalgr's Reach for special rewards.
Enemies[]
Elite Marks[]
Musical themes[]
"Songs of Salt and Suffering" is the main theme for The Lochs. Aside from playing during the day in field, it plays in all residential/town areas until the Stormblood main scenario is completed. "Old Wounds" is the night theme for the region.
Gallery[]
Etymology[]
Loch is the Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Scots word for a lake or for a sea inlet.
Notes[]
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