Menphina

Menphina, the Lover, is one of the Twelve in Final Fantasy XIV. She is the keeper of the once-twin and now-lone moons and the goddess of love, commands the element of ice and is associated with the First Umbral Moon (second month). She is depicted as a maid carrying a round skillet. Her symbol is the full greater moon. Menphina is daughter of Althyk and Nymeia, the younger sister of Azeyma, and the divine lover of Oschon.
==History==
===Creation myth===
In the beginning there was neither light nor darkness. Eventually Althyk and Nymeia emerged. Althyk, seeking companionship, took the youngest goddess under His wing and cared for Her as if she were a daughter. However, as Nymeia grew, so did their love, until it could no longer be contained, culminating in the birth of two daughters, Azeyma, the sun, and Menphina, the moon, and with their advent, day and night was conceived.
When the Twelve considered their work in Eorzea complete, they proceeded to create a realm in which they could reside and watch over their creation, thus leaving the rule of Eorzea to mankind. This realm is known as the seven heavens that were associated with each of the six elements. In the center of the Heaven of Ice rises a lofty palace of ice carved by Halone's spear from the ice formed of moonbeams collected by Menphina. Here reside epic heroes and gallant knights, the benevolent and the faithful. From Halone's gelid palace do piercing icicles plummet to the Pit, creating the Hell of Ice. Here suffer cowards, deserters, and adulterers. This Heaven is represented in Sharlayan astrology by the constellation of the Spear.
===Eorzean worship===
Many believe that the moon is the embodiment of Menphina and some even call the moon by the goddess' name. The Keeper of the Moon Miqo'te traditionally worship Menphina. She also receives prayers from those who need assistance with their love life.
Menphina has three saints canonized by the Council of Loetstym. The first is Saint Thalysa, a baker who invented a new way of baking bread to stretch mercenary's rations without needing more ingredients than normal. The second is Saint Mocianne, an herbalist who got medicine to her neighbors in spite of a medicine monopoly by disguising the herbs in flower garlands. The third is Saint Randolfe, a bastard son of a king who inspired loyalty from an assassin by being selflessly noble to the other people around him.
Dalamud was an artificial moon built by the Allagan Empire to imprison the elder primal Bahamut. Due to the Fourth Umbral Calamity, any information about it was lost. Because Dalamud orbits the greater moon, it came to be related to Menphina as her loyal hound, and as such appeared in many religious works of art. When Dalamud crashed into the planet causing the Seventh Umbral Calamity, numerous theories entered into circulation seeking to explain the anomaly. The discovery of Dalamud's true origin forced many of the realm's most devout began to question their faith.
The approach of Dalamud has caused the sect known as the Lambs of Dalamud to rise from the shadows. The Lambs' doctrine teaches that the Loyal Hound would one day return, and only those who had proven their loyalty in life would be spared and taken to their rightful place among the stars. They believe that the Loyal Hound would be attracted to the smell of freshly spilled blood, and thus demonstrate their loyalty through self-sacrifice. When the color of the Lesser Moon changed to crimson, they began to kidnap citizens to offer as sacrifices.
Archived Lodestone - The Last Word - Wolves in Sheep's Clothing The Lambs of Dalamud all but disappeared from the public eye immediately after the fall of the Lesser Moon. Only smaller factions remain that continue the blood rites.
In preparation for the Seventh Umbral Calamity, the archon Louisoix Leveilleur carved the symbols of the Twelve across Eorzea and encouraged adventurers to pilgrimage and pray to the Twelve. When the Calamity arrived, Louisoix used the accumulated aether from the prayers to summon a primal manifestation of the Twelve in an attempt to defend the realm from the elder primal Bahamut.
==Characteristics==
===Appearance===
Menphina takes the form of a pale-skinned, petite young woman with light blue hair held up in twintails. She wears a golden tiara, a white dress with ice-blue linings, and a golden gauntlet that covers her entire right arm. From the knee down, her legs take an icy color as if affected by frostbite.
Her disguised form is a bunny.
===Personality===
Being a goddess of love, she represents love in all its aspects, both familial and romantic, and is not particularly fond of fighting. Like the other Twelve, she considers the mortal races her children, but she is noted to be especially amiable to them. When meeting a repentant ex-cultist from the Lambs of Dalamud while travelling with the Warrior of Light, she subtly breaks the Twelve's vow of non-intervention and speaks to him while his back is turned. Menphina is described as winsome by Halone and is thought of as everyone's youngest sister.
==Gameplay==
After creating a character and choosing a birth date, players must align to one of the twelve deities. Originally, this slightly raised the character's elemental resistances based on the element of the chosen deity. As of Patch 4.2, elemental resistance stats were removed, leaving this decision with no in game effect.
===Battle===
Menphina is faced as the final boss in the raid.
After an intermission phase at the estimated halfway point of the fight, she will be joined in by her loyal hound Dalamud. Both are treated as the same entity and share HP. Dalamud's main attack is a telegraphed claw swipe that will cover a large chunk of the arena, restricting the safe spots from Menphina's attack.
===Triple Triad===
===Miscellaneous===
The "Living on a Prayer" quest in version 1.0 required the player to visit all the Twelve symbols throughout Eorzea. Once completed this rewarded with the ring of one of the Twelve, this included the . Although the original quest was removed with the relaunch of the game, in patch 2.45 the quest was added, which repeats the same pilgrimage through the marks of the Twelve. The mark of Menphina is located near the Steel Vigil in Coerthas Central Highlands. Prior to the Calamity, it could be found in one of the stone stacks at Gwyr-Aen in Coerthas.
The removed Botanist action increased the drop rate of ice shards, ice crystals, or ice clusters while gathering. The Astrologian card represents the Heaven of Ice, the card artwork describes Halone in her palace of ice, in the background you can see the moonbeams next to Mephina's mark.
 is an earring earned by pre-ordering the Endwalker expansion. It increases the EXP gained by 30% by the equipped job up to level 80.
==Behind the scenes==
During character creation, the Menphina's description in version 1.0 said that she is keeper of the "twin moons". This referred to the Greater Moon and the Lesser Moon Dalamud. In A Realm Reborn the word "twin" was removed from the description.
Dalamud has long had a place in the Eorzean mythos. Before its fall, there were various legends about its, while some believe it was Menphina's daughter, others swear it is her lantern. The most popular tale said that the moon was Menphina's loyal hound, ever vigilant in its watch over the goddess. Since time immemorial, the two would have been engaged in an unending dance across the heavens. Since Dalamud began to take on a crimson hue, numerous theories have entered into circulation seeking to explain the anomaly. Many have believed that Menphina's hound was bathed in the blood of a vile demon who had designs on his mistress' life, even as others swear that the changes presage the Seventh Umbral Era. Yet another theory, originating in the Holy See of Ishgard, claims that the phenomenon signals the awakening of the great wyrm Nidhogg, who has lain in deep slumber for the past two decades.Archived Lodestone - The Raven: Dalamud Nigh During the advent of Calamity, many started calling Dalamud less flattering things like "Menphina's Bastard Hound".
The lesser moon Dalamud was built by the Allagans. However the symbol of Menphina depicted on the Allagan Runestones already showed two moons. When asked about this, Koji Fox could not answer and said that the symbol maybe represents the moon and its reflection in Silvertear Lake.Gamer Escape - Fan Fest 2018 Interview with Koji Fox
There are stories that mention a curious Oschon sneaking peeks at a bathing Llymlaen, to which the goddess replies by throwing a knife at the peeping Wanderer. The incident led Oschon taking Menphina as His lover.
Moon daisies are often hung to rafters, trees, or other elevated locations to represent the celestial body when performing holy rituals to the goddess Menphina during daylight hours.
Some say that the Bismarck's gourmets learned something of the divine concoctions made by the maiden servants of Menphina.Archived Lodestone - Valentione's Day: The Bonds of Love
==Gallery==
FFXIV Menphina Stone.jpg|Stone with Menphina's symbol in version 1.0.
FFXIV The Spear Constellation.gif|The Spear constellation.
FFXIV AST The Spear Card.png|The Spear card.
==Citations==
Category:Characters in Final Fantasy XIV
Category:Deities
Category:The Twelve