Lore Primer: the Shadow of Mhach

Patch 3.5 is just around the corner, and with it comes the third and final entry of the Shadow of Mhach raid series: “Dun Scaith.” Like its predecessors before it (the Void Ark and the Weeping City of Mhach), Dun Scaith will be a level 60, 24-person raid. Although the details of its gear-drops have not been confirmed—aside from their appearance—it’s likely that the raid will yield one piece of i260 gear per week.

In light of Dun Scaith’s impending release, I thought it might be helpful to revisit the story behind this raid series. At bottom, this series sees the Warriors of Light assisting Leofard, his band of sky pirates, and Cait Sith in preventing the voidsent Diabolos from reviving the Shadow Queen Scathach. If none of that really makes sense to you, fear not! Let’s unpack it, starting from the very beginning: the ancient city of Mhach and the War of the Magi.

Mhach

The Mhachi civilization existed during the Fifth Astral Era and was located in the Yafaem Saltmoor northwest of Mor Dhona. They were renowned for their voidmages, who wielded exceptionally powerful destructive magicks. In their never-ending quest for power, the Mhachi voidmages endeavored to summon and control voidsent, which they commanded to attack their enemies in the War of the Magi: the city-states of Nym[1] and Amdapor[2]. As a safety precaution against the voidsent that slipped the reins of their Mhachi masters, the voidmages developed a magical artifact known as the Nullstone—which had the power to banish the voidsent—and secured it within a great pyramid in the city proper.

During the War of the Magi, the Mhachi voidmages learned that a calamity would soon engulf the world in the form of a great flood (the Sixth Umbral Calamity). Seeking to evade the destruction of their civilization, the Mhachi prepared a giant ark to take to the skies. To power the ark, the voidmages bound a thousand voidsent within the vessel, including the Shadow Queen Scathach. However, the move proved to be disastrous, as the Shadow Queen was too powerful for the Mhachi voidmages to control, and the High Voidmage Cessair Blackwind was unable to bind her within the Queen’s Coffin. Realizing the error of their ways—and seeking to prevent the Shadow Queen from being unleashed unto the world—half a hundred Mhachi voidmages sacrificed themselves in order to seal the Shadow Queen and the thousand voidsent within the ark, which then disappeared into the sky.

Jumping to our current time period, the Seventh Astral Era, what we now know as the Void Ark has been drifting through the Sea of Clouds under the watchful gaze of Cessair Blackwind’s former familiar, Cait Sith.

The Void Ark

As Ishgard and other factions began to increasingly use airships to explore the Sea of Clouds in the beginning of a “Great Sky Age,” the ark came to be known as a ghost ship. This attracted the attention of sky pirates, who initially assumed it to be a relic of ancient Allag, and who hoped it might contain valuable treasure. As the first men to explore the ark never returned, the sky pirate Leofard sought out the Warriors of Light for aid in exploring the ghost ship.

This officially brings us to the first raid in the Shadow of Mhach series: the Void Ark. During this raid, the Warriors of Light encounter the hordes of voidsent that had been sealed within the ark by the Mhachi voidmages, including Cetus, a voidsent that takes the form of a giant black manta ray; the voidsent Irminsul & Sawtooth; and the grotesque voidsent Jabba the Hutt—ahem, Cuchulainn. Following this last battle, the Warriors of Light reach the heart of the Ark: the Queen’s Bedchambers, where the Shadow Queen’s colossal coffin is contained. Yet before the Warriors of Light can claim the coffin, they are attacked by the guardian of the Coffin: the uncomfortably sexualized Echidna.

Following the battle with Echidna, the Warriors of Light are contested by the powerful voidsent Diabolos, who had escaped from his confinement in the Lost City of Amdapor and who was responsible for awakening the lesser voidsent on the Void Ark. Diabolos then seized the Queen’s Coffin with dark magic and fled through a Voidgate. Following the events of the Void Ark, Cait Sith beseeches both the Warriors of Light and the sky pirates to find the Queen’s Coffin before Scathach is released into the realm.

The Weeping City of Mhach

As the floodwaters of the Sixth Umbral Calamity receded, Yafaem became swampland and the waterlogged ruins of the once-great Mhach—the home of the Mhachi Nullstone—became known as the Weeping City.

Fearing the power of the Nullstone, Diabolos sends the voidsent lords Forgall and Ferdiad—recently freed from his imprisonment within Amdapor Keep—to the ruins of Mhach to obtain the Nullstone and to ensure that the voidsent could stand unopposed. Leofard and the Warriors of Light gain insight into these events from a rival sky pirate organization, who reported that voidsent were discovered invading the ruins of Mhach in search of a powerful artifact. Upon learning this information, Cait Sith immediately recognized that Diabolos and his fellow voidsent were attempting to secure the Nullstone, thereby robbing the Warriors of light of a potent weapon. As a result, Leofard and the Warriors of Light agree to journey to the ruins of Mhach in order to stop the voidsent from carrying out their plans.

This officially brings us to the second raid in the Shadow of Mhach series: the Weeping City of Mhach. During this raid, the Warriors of Light again encounter hordes of voidsent, including the ghosts of Mhach and the Spider Queen voidsent Arachne Eve. Shortly after battling the Spider Queen, the Warriors of Light encounter Diabolos’s faithful voidsent, Forgall—who was in the process of breaking the seals on the Tomb of the Nullstone.

After defeating Forgall, the Warriors of Light enter the Great Pyramid of Mhach and advance towards the Tomb of the Nullstone. They encounter multiple guardians as they progress, including the towering Headstone and the ancient defense mechanism known as Ozma—a powerful creation that the Mhachi used to devour entire cities. Following the defeat of Ozma, the Warriors of Light are finally able to enter the Tomb of the Nullstone. There they encounter the final guardian of the Nullstone, Calofisteri, an immortal sorceress who had augmented her form with the power of the Void.

Upon defeating Calofisteri, the sorceress-guardian relinquishes the Nullstone. Just as Cait Sith claims the artifact, however, an unwelcome reunion ensues as the voidsent Ferdiad appears to challenge the Warriors of Light. Nevertheless, Cait Sith is able to utilize the power of the Mhachi Nullstone to smite Ferdiad and send him into retreat.

Back at Leoford’s sky pirate base, you learn that Cait Sith gained possession of a tome possessing ancient Mhachi secrets that a rival sky pirate organization had plundered in the Sea of Clouds. Meanwhile, Ferdiad reports his failure to Diabolos, who states the time for skulking the shadows is over.

Dun Scaith

After analyzing the ancient Mhachi tome, Cait Sith learns of another haven created by the Mhachi to avoid the calamitous floodwaters: a floating island refuge known as Dun Scaith. Of course, with the disaster that befell the Mhachi in connection with the Void Ark, the island’s intended residents never arrived.

Upon learning this information, Cait Sith becomes convinced that Diabolos has claimed Dun Scaith as his own and that he is hiding the Queen’s Coffin in this refuge while continuing his efforts to overcome the Mhachi seals and release the Shadow Queen.

Armed with this new knowledge, we finally find ourselves at the third and final raid in the Shadow of Mhach series: Dun Scaith. What will the Warriors of Light discover in Dun Scaith? Will they overcome Diabolos? Or will the Shadow Queen emerge to destroy all life as we know it (or whatever else voidsent Queens aim to do)? Only time will tell! However, images from the raid reveal that we can once again expect to battle the noble voidsent Ferdiad.

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[1] The Mhachi effectively defeated the Nym by unleashing a devastating plague on the Nymians, transforming many of them into tonberries. Recall that the Warriors of Light encountered the tonberry remnants of the Nym while traversing the ancient Nymian structure known as the “Wanderer’s Palace.”

[2] Amdapor was the birthplace of white magic, a development necessitated by the dark magicks employed by the Mhachi. In their warfare against Amdapor, the Mhachi unleashed the voidsent lord Diabolos and the voidsent noble Ferdiad. Although largely decimated by the War of the Magi and the Sixth Umbral Calamity, the white mages of Amdapor were nevertheless able to temporarily stave off their destruction by binding Diabolos and Ferdiad into the ruins of Amdapor and Amdapor Keep, respectively. Recall that the Warriors of Light first encounter these voidsent in the Lost City of Amdapor and Amdapor Keep (Hard) duties.

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That’s all, folks! Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for future lore primers!