Norvrandt

Norvrandt is the main setting of Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers. It is a region of the First, one of thirteen reflections of Source that was created when the goddess Hydaelyn banished the dark god Zodiark, and roughly analogous to Hydaelyn's Eorzea.
==Profile==
By the time of Shadowbringers, Norvrandt is the only region of the First that has not succumbed to the Flood of Light that has consumed the rest of the world, and is bathed in perpetual daylight.
While Norvrandt at its base is a perfect reflection of Eorzea from the time the worlds split, millennia have passed in the time since. This has resulted in drastic differences in the worlds' histories. Nearly everything familiar between the two worlds goes by a different name, cities appear where there were none in the other world and vice versa. Additionally, time runs at a different frequency on the First than the Source, with over 100 years passing between the time that Ardbert visited the Source and the Warrior sub-sequentially visiting the First in res.
===Geography===
The regions of Norvrandt are analogous to the geography of Eorzea:
*Eulmore to Limsa Lominsa
*The Crystarium to the Crystal Tower
*The Rak'tika Greatwood to the Black Shroud
*Amh Araeng to Thanalan
*Kholusia to Vylbrand
*Il Mheg to Coerthas
*Lakeland to Mor Dhona
*The Tempest to the Rhotano Sea
*The Divide to the Strait of Merithor
The familiar races of Eorzea also appear in Norvrandt, but their cultures have diverged drastically to the point of being alien, and they are known by different names:
*Hyur to Hume 
*Miqo'te to Mystel 
*Elezen to Elf 
*Roegadyn to Galdjent 
*Au Ra to Drahn 
*Lalafell to Dwarf 
*Hrothgar to Ronso 
*Viera to Viis 
*Amalj'aa to Zun 
*Sahagin to Ondo 
*Kobold to Mord 
*Goblin to Hobgoblin 
*Qiqirn to Qitari 
Some characters from Eorzea have counterparts in Norvrandt:
*The Warrior of Light to Ardbert
*Brendt/Brennan/Bremondt to Traveling Merchant
*Gerolt Blackthorn to Grenoldt
*Rowena to Mowen
*Wandering Minstrel to Minstreling Wanderer
==History==
Norvrandt was the only region in the First not consumed by the Flood of Light. The flood was caused when the Thirteenth shard was consumed by the Flood of Darkness, as the Ascians attempted to rejoin the shard into the Source. Due to this imbalance, the First became unnaturally and critically aspected toward Light. To prevent a second failure of the process and prevent a second version of the Void from being created, Ascians Mitron and Loghrif halted the Flood until Emet-Selch ordered them to create a Calamity to rejoin the First into the Source. To accomplish this, Mitron and Loghrif lured the First's Warriors of Light into battling the Shadowkeeper. 
The Shadowkeeper was a being that came to power within Lakeland, ancestral home of the Elves, after seizing power during a conservative bid to return to yesteryears of old, as noted in textbooks within the Bookman's Shelves. It is likely that the rise to power in a darkness aspected manner was a direct influence of the Ascians as a temporary stopper of the Flood of Light. The distrust of the Elves toward any races, including the Humes whom they were allied with, made the shift of power all too easy, enabling the Ascians to use them to their advantage in the tip toward light. After defeating the Shadowkeeper Ardbert used an Axe of Light to destroy Mitron as well. The light of the axe caused Mitron to transform into the first sin eater, Eden, and Mitron unleashed the Flood of Light.
The Flood consumed nine tenths of the First, and in a bid to prevent the loss of the shard, the Mother Crystal acted through Minfilia Warde and sent her to the First and halted the Flood along with the spirits of the First's Warriors of Light, save Ardbert. Although Norvrandt survived the Flood, for the next century, it would constantly be harassed by sin eaters, mindless creatures created through the Light, acting out of their basic instincts. The people of Norvrandt lived in constant fear of being attacked by sin eaters and becoming sin eaters themselves. This fear led to anger towards Ardbert and his companions for causing the Flood and allowing this misery. Over time, legends of the Warrior of Darkness would keep the people's spirits up.
In the city of Eulmore, Emet-Selch created a new plan to bring forth a Calamity. He manipulated the mayor of Eulmore to let his unborn child be influenced with the power of a sin eater, with promises that through this child his rule over Eulmore, and the remainder of the world, would be absolute. This child was Vauthry, who was able to maintain control of sin eaters. After eventually gaining the title of mayor, Vauthry would lure people into Eulmore to let them live in bliss before the inevitable end of Norvrandt by the Light, promising safety from the corruption while feeding those in the slum area outside of Eulmore a type of hand food called Meol, which contained the flesh of those who succumbed to Light within the city for one reason or another and became sin eaters. Eulmore was a heaven for some, but a hell for others that were pushed into a servitude class for an ever stagnant and vapid citizen class. Promises of citizenship and safety could easily be ripped out from under the serving class before they were cast out of the city, sometimes directly into sea.
	
Vauthry's rule was challenged when the Exarch began his attempts to summon the Warrior of Light from the Source. The tower's caretaker, the Crystal Exarch, having become the leader of the Crystarium that had built around him as he researched the tower, accepted those cast out from Eulmore and trained them in defense and culling of the sin eaters. This caused a cold tension between Vauthry and Crystarium, as Vauthry used the masses of sin eaters lurking the corners of the shard to coax people to the shanty town outside of Eulmore desperate for Sanctuary. During this time he raises Lyna, a Viis orphan from the ever constant war against the sin eaters that would later become the leader of Crystarium. From the Crystal Tower, the Exarch used a special magick to reach out into the Source, intending to summon its current Warrior of Light to combat the Light in the First. However, his first attempts managed to summon a number of Scions of the Seventh Dawn members to the First instead, each taking years of preparation that felt and seemed like they were only hours apart on the Source: Thancred Waters, Y'shtola Rhul, Urianger Augurelt, Alphinaud and Alisaie Leveilleur. He only summoned their souls, as their corporeal bodies remained in the Source. In his final attempt he summoned the Warrior of Light to the First, providing the souls of the Scions access to return home with their memories and aether carried within crystal.
Category:First locations in Final Fantasy XIV