Shadow Lord The Shadow Lord is the original and main antagonist of " Final Fantasy XI " . The bitter spirit of Raogrimm , a deceased Galka warrior , he is a large , demonic creature responsible for rallying the Beastmen in an effort to annihilate the Enlightened Races of Vana ' diel . He is therefore the cause of the Crystal War . Story . Origin . Ten years before the Crystal War the Republic of Bastok approached the Kingdom of San d ' Oria and the Federation of Windurst to propose an investigation of Fei ' Yin , a ruined Zilart city . The Republic dispatched three of its Mythril Musketeers to lead the party . First among them was Ulrich , a renowned Hume warrior with the potential to become captain of the Musketeers . Next was Cornelia , a Hume monk famous for aiding people great and small . Finally came Raogrimm , a Galka considered to be his race ' s greatest swordsman and entrusted with the memories of his departed kin as their Talekeeper . The Musketeers were joined from Mindartia by Iru - Kuiru , a Tarutaru white mage , and his mercenary companion Yow Rabntah , a Mithra ranger . San d ' Oria , on the other hand , sent only one person , an Elvaan knight named Francmage . These six heroes , for each was so regarded in his or her homeland , formed the Multinational Expedition to the Northlands . The party did not find success at Fei ' Yin , however . The ruins swarmed with strange devices and ghoulish beasts beyond what the group could handle . Frustrated at having trudged across the Beaucedine Glacier for no gain , they decided to detour through nearby Xarcabard to see what might lie there . Facing an empty wasteland , some of the expedition members wandered off on their own . Raogrimm and Ulrich found themselves together among the snowdrifts . For some time Ulrich had been quietly nursing a grudge with his companion . He was disgusted by the Galka ' s sympathy for Beastmen and embarrassed to admit that the Talekeeper was more skilled with a blade . Raogrimm also shared a forbidden romance with Cornelia when Ulrich wanted her for himself . Brimming with jealousy and influenced by the dark energies of Xarcabard , Ulrich attacked Raogrimm without warning . Quickly incapacitated , Raogrimm could only ask why his friend would commit such treachery . Ulrich replied simply that he ' d never liked the Talekeeper . He moved to deal a killing blow but Cornelia arrived and threw herself on the point of Ulrich ' s sword . Horrified at having run her through , Ulrich fled in search of the rest of the party . Raogrimm held Cornelia ' s dying body and wondered why she would sacrifice herself to protect him . With her last breath she reminded her love that there were people who needed him . He despaired as her life faded . In truth she had not saved him . Raogrimm had already sustained mortal injuries . As he followed Cornelia into death his rage and sadness resonated through the earth . These intense emotions touched a crystal far beneath him and awakened the energy slumbering within it . This power , possibly the might of the Dark Divinity himself , granted Raogrimm a new body and an army of Kindred soldiers . The Talekeeper therefore rose as the Shadow Lord , a being consumed both by the anger in Raogrimm ' s heart as well as the fury of all departed Galka whose memories he carried . Casting Shadows . The surviving members of the multinational expedition , having been told that their companions were lost to misfortune , retreated from Xarcabard before any more damage could be done . The four soon returned to their respective homelands . The Shadow Lord could not forgive their involvement in his and Cornelia ' s deaths , however , and turned his new powers to vengeance . Moving unseen across continents , he hunted those that had wronged him . In San d ' Oria Francmage had resumed his life as head of the noble Knights Mistalle . He could not sleep well and walked the city ' s corridors at night to clear his mind . The Shadow Lord found him in one such hall and spoke to him of what had occurred in the Northlands . The Elvaan insisted that Raogrimm and Cornelia had been lost in an accident . The Shadow Lord cut him down . Iru - Kuiru had been banished from his Windurst ministry and sailed to Elshimo Island to research the ruins there . The Shadow Lord discovered the white mage snooping around the Temple of Uggalepih , an already perilous lair of Tonberries . Iru - Kuiru had wanted to search for Cornelia and Raogrimm but the other expedition members had forced him to withdraw . He might have been able to heal Raogrimm if only his companions had cooperated . The Shadow Lord did not spare him . Yow Rabntah arrived in Olzhirya , the Mithran homeland , with a piece of magicite that she had secretly pilfered from Xarcabard . Her use of this prize sparked a civil war in the Gha Naboh Matriarchate , however , and the Shadow Lord found her awaiting judgment after being tried for her crime . The ranger had been the expedition member most capable of finding Cornelia and Raogrimm but had quickly given up the chase . The Shadow Lord took her life before the Matriarchate could see its justice served . Ulrich had perpetrated deception from the moment he killed Cornelia . He had misled his remaining companions and arrived in Bastok with his reputation intact . Without competition from Raogrimm he had become captain of the Mythril Musketeers . He obtained everything he had wanted but realized that an empty title did not relieve his crushing guilt . He sought solitude and was therefore easily dispatched by the Shadow Lord . Having tied these loose ends , the Shadow Lord returned to the Northlands and began recruiting Beastmen to supplement his Kindred army . The nearby Orcs did not flock to his banner , however , and the Shadow Lord engaged them in the War of Savages . His demons triumphed over the Bloodwing Horde and their leader , Doggvdegg , was imprisoned in Castle Zvahl Keep for a year . Afterward the Orc would be compelled to lead his people under the Shadow Lord ' s command . While Doggvdegg stewed the Shadow Lord looked to Mindartia and demanded the obedience of the Yagudo Theomilitary . Their leader , Tzee Xicu the Manifest , initially planned a resistance but was awed by the forces the Shadow Lord had assembled . She therefore pledged her loyalty to the growing Confederacy . With the Yagudo , Orcs , Quadav , and Gigas supplementing his ranks the Shadow Lord was prepared to march on the great nations of the Middle Lands . The Crystal War began as the Shadow Lord launched simultaneous attacks on Bastok , San d ' Oria and Windurst . Individually the nations were no match for the Beastman Confederate and suffered devastating losses in the opening battles . Archduke Kam ' lanaut of the Grand Duchy of Jeuno convinced them to unite as the Alliance of Altana , however , presenting new difficulties for the Shadow Lord ' s army . When the three nations rallied to Jeuno ' s defense much of the Confederacy ' s momentum was lost . The Alliance eventually massed in Xarcabard in an effort to end the war at its source . Before the fighting commenced the Shadow Lord was visited by Lady Lilith , a woman with demonic features and powers not unlike his own . She offered him additional troops and he agreed not to interfere with whatever business she had at Castle Zvahl . Not knowing what to make of Lilith as she warped away , he prepared to deal with his conventional adversaries . The three nations attempted to divert his attention with a frontal assault while a strike force led by Ragelise B Baloumat stormed the castle . The Shadow Lord subverted this plan by leaving his fortress unattended and taking to the field himself . He descended upon the diversionary force at the gate and effortlessly blasted through scores of Alliance soldiers . His laughter echoed across the snow as they frantically retreated . Ultimately the Shadow Lord was undone by a much smaller party led by Volker , Ulrich ' s nephew , and Zeid , a Galka dark knight . The Shadow Lord underestimated them and , once cornered , was vanquished in his own throne room . His Kindred soldiers vanished with his defeat and the remaining Beastmen lost all hope of overcoming the Alliance . The Orcs would stubbornly prolong hostilities for another year but Vana ' diel as a whole was spared the Shadow Lord ' s wrath . Twenty years after the Crystal War , rumor spreads that the Shadow Lord will return . Barriers erected by the Alliance to prevent such a revival are shattered by unknown agents and magicite is delivered to Shadow Lord ' s resting place inside Castle Zvahl . His spirit awakens and soon his entire body rises from its tomb . The resurrected Shadow Lord finds Zeid and a few adventurers waiting for him . He paralyzes Zeid and attempts to destroy the knight ' s companions . He does not have the strength he wielded during the war , however , and falters against these common soldiers . The weakened Shadow Lord promises to continue his campaign until the fires of wrath consume him . Zeid , having finally deduced the demon ' s original identity , responds by calling out to Raogrimm . After a moment of resistance the Shadow Lord ' s shell fades away and the lost Talekeeper emerges . Restored to his senses , Raogrimm briefly speaks with Zeid about the rage that lurks in the hearts of their people . They are then interrupted by the unanticipated arrival of Archduke Kam ' lanaut and his brother Eald ' narche . The latter teases the Galkas for not putting on a better show and reveals that he had arranged the Shadow Lord ' s resurrection in order to remove the demon ' s unwitting interference with the planet ' s crystal energy . Eald ' narche confirms that the Shadow Lord is no longer an obstacle and the brothers summon the Crystal Warriors to execute the witnesses . Unwilling to see Eald ' narche succeed , Raogrimm orders Zeid and his friends to flee while he delays these new enemies . Drawing on the powers slumbering within Xarcabard he becomes the Shadow Lord once more . The Crystal Warriors easily destroy him , however , and Raogrimm glimpses Cornelia ' s spirit as he finally departs the mortal world . Subsequently the Shadow Lord ' s memories are channeled through Verena as part of Eald ' narche ' s schemes . The essence of the Shadow Lord meanwhile rejoins the mothercrystals . This later emerges with other villainous souls as they seek to merge into a Keeper of the Apocalypse . Zeid and Aldo defeat this echo of the Shadow Lord before it can become any greater threat to the world . Towering Darkness . When Raogrimm had first undergone his demonic transformation a piece of his spirit had broken away and taken root in the dreamworld of Dynamis . Over the next thirty years this lonely shard had grown into a new Shadow Lord in its own right . Fortunately , this towering darkness , the Dynamis Lord , cannot pass into the real world as an incomplete soul . Once the original Shadow Lord is defeated and Raogrimm relieved of mortality , however , the splinter needs only to absorb what remains of the Talekeeper to unleash itself upon Vana ' diel . Feeling the pull of his dark counterpart , Raogrimm ' s spirit calls for aid . The ghosts of Cornelia and the other expedition members communicate through the dreamworld and organize an army of adventurers to oppose the Dynamis Lord . They march across shrouded lands resembling their home nations and the frozen north before meeting the new lord of shadows in an illusory Xarcabard . Accompanied by two dragons , the Dynamis Lord rages against the interlopers but falls to their overwhelming offense . With the last vestiges of darkness banished , Raogrimm is finally free . Since his spirit remains incomplete and therefore cannot leave Dynamis , he is tasked with maintaining a vigil over the dreamworld by its creator , Diabolos . The remnants of the other expedition members join him in this duty . The six companions embark on their eternal watch as the adventuring army fades back to reality . Gameplay . The Shadow Lord is fought in Mission 5 - 2 by all three nations as the Final Boss of " Final Fantasy XI ' s " original storyline . An alternate version of him , the more powerful Dynamis Lord , is confronted by players who defeat the Shadow Lord and subsequently navigate the first six Dynamis areas before reaching him in Dynamis - Xarcabard . The Shadow Lord is also fought in a Campaign Ops called " Fiat Lux " . This battle can only be accessed by players who have attained the highest allied decoration , the Medal Of Altana ∮∮∮∮ , on a server that has captured the required areas in that week ' s Campaign Tally . Other appearances . The Shadow Lord has appeared in the following games throughout the " Final Fantasy " series : Non - " Final Fantasy " guest appearances . The Shadow Lord has made key guest appearances in the following non - " Final Fantasy " games :