Golden city

Golden city is a legend introduced in Final Fantasy XIV. It was believed it was hidden somewhere in Tural.
== Origin of the legend ==
The legend of the golden city originated from the Yok Huy, a people of giants, who once ruled Yok Tural, and held all other races under their heel. Yok Huy dreamed about the city of gold, where people lived in an eternal happiness, and in the middle of the city was a statue of a goddess.
When Yok Huy began to expand to Xak Tural, it was because they sought to find the golden city in there. But their conquest of Xak Tural ended in disaster, when a disease started spreading among them. While the disease was fatal to Yok Huy, other races were either immune to it or only suffered mild symptomps. Because of this, Yok Huy retreated back to their homelands in Urqopacha, and their conquests also ended. From that moment on, the Yok Huy never again dreamed about the golden city.
The Ascians were aware of the legend, and in his final moments in Ultima Thule, Emet-Selch suggested the Warrior of Light to see the fabled golden cities of the New World for themselves.
== The truth ==
In truth, the golden city is actually Living Memory, a place in another reflection of the Source. Long ago, the kingdom of Alexandria within this reflection existed. But then the reflection was covered under constant thunderstorms, which raged endlessly, and everyday life became a struggle. But then a black ore called electrope was discovered, and that it was capable of absorbing lightning energy. When it was imbued with arcanima, it could also transform lightning to other elements. Electrope became a salvation for the world, but it soon brewed a war called the Storm Surge, when all the nations desired more of it. The war saw the kingdom of Alexandria fall to ruin, and after the neighboring kingdom of Lindblum activated a superweapon, which caused lightning to run rampant across the world, most life within the reflection was lost.
However, Alexandria survived thanks to the efforts of a group called the Preservation. They were able to use electrope to cover Alexandria within a dome that kept its people safe from thunderstorms. And they also succeeded in using electrope to extract souls from the deceased, extract memories from them and then store them for future use. A massive structure called the Everkeep was eventually constructed with electrope, that had twelve levels. Levels one through eleven were used by the living in various ways, but the top twelfth level was Living Memory. Here, the Preservation used the memories extracted from souls to create facsmiles of the deceased Alexandrians, where they would "live" eternally in happiness. These facsmiles were called the Endless. The place was constructed with electrope and utilized in such a way, that it would mirror Alexandria at the height of its existence. It had golden hue and in the middle of it standed Meso Terminal, which was constructed with an image of Alexandrian Queen Sphene. The place was very much according to Yok Huy legends about the golden city.
The entrance to the golden city was constructed with electrope within Skydeep Cenote in the forests of Yak T'el in Tural. The purpose of this gate was to open a way to the Source so that the Preservation could steal living aether from it in order to maintain the Endless, since they required a constant supply living aether from living souls to be maintained. But the gate was opened only once before the events of Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail.
Category:Final Fantasy XIV