The Barheim Passage

28. Barheim Passage: Steeling

GENUS: Avion
CLASSIFICATION: Steeling

[1/2] Observations

Being an avion possessed of clawed hands and a deep purple hue as though 'twere cut from the dark cloth of night.

From the records of the naturalist Merlose: "Liveth they in the dark places, feeding on the life-humors of other monstrosities."

It is known to modern natural philosophers that they are not "guided through the black by the devil's hand" as was once suggested, but instead that they employ a cry of such high pitch that it is as silence to hume ears, and by its echoing do they navigate with uncanny precision.

It is a peculiarity of their ilk that they hunt often in packs, whence comes our common expression "Wings o' leather, flock together."

[2/2] Sage Knowledge (14 of 78)

Airships

Airborne craft, developed by moogles centuries ago. They float by the power of the skystone, and are given direction and speed by means of propeller or glossair ring.

Currently, they are one of the most popular forms of transport in Ivalice, and the skyroutes are comfortably the busiest of the highways linking the major cities.

Airships range in size from private yachts to giant military warcraft.

Unable to fly in jagd, where skystone is ineffective.

29. Barheim Passage: Suriander

GENUS: Beast
CLASSIFICATION: Toad

[1/2] Observations

Being a carnivorous beast commonly dwelling near shallow bodies of water.

Though their feet lack the webbing of other aquatic creaturs, the fins on their tails can be threshed in a sideways manner, propelling them with frightening celerity.

Their horns being used to contest dominance over females, and determining standing in the herd by virtue of length. Such with smaller horns learn swiftly to keep out of harm's way. While they are normally quite docile, during the mating season they can be easily agitated, and attack asudden with a great whooping cry.

[2/2] Sage Knowledge (44 of 78)

Nalbina Fortress & Dungeons

A great dungeon, created when the Archadian army sealed off the lower levels of Nalbina Fortress. Originally a complex lowtown region. In addition to the usual collection of petty thieves and murderes, its inmates include political dissenters and prisoners of war from the Dalmascan and Nabradian armies, all thrown together without discrimination, separation, or order. An oubliette has been created in the depths of the fortress to hold those prisoners whose cases await judgement before the Court of Archadia.

30. Barheim Passage: Mimic

GENUS: Insect
CLASSIFICATION: Mimic

[1/2] Observations

Being an insectoid with four sharpened limbs and a hard, metallic shell.

Preferring to feast upon brains of high intellect, whereby they may improve their own faculties. By arranging their own carapaces to resemble a coffer, they wait for unwitting prey to "open" them, thereby proving some modicum of intelligence, and thus suitability for consumption.

It is most often humes, wracked with base greed, who fall prey to this simple but efficacious ruse, which in turn has made humes the mainstay of the mimic's diet.

[2/2] Sage Knowledge (11 of 78)

Electricity and Magick

With the discovery and harnessing of electricity, it was suddenly possible to operate devices of a far larger scale than ever before conceived.

However, the vast quantity of solid fuel required to generate electrical power, and the development of methods to artifically condense Mist, led to the latter supplanting the former as the dominant usable energy source in Ivalice.

Only the most energy-hungry devices still use electricity today.

31. Barheim Passage: Zombie

GENUS: Undead
CLASSIFICATION: Zombie

[1/2] Observations

Being a corpse exhumed, bound by foul magicks, and enslaved. The corruption of the flesh is advanced, its stench both rank and cloying withal.

As exposure to the sun's rays speeds this decay, they are oft conditioned for nocturnal activity.

Perhaps due to this, they seem to shun even the lesser light of candles &c.

[2/2] Sage Knowledge (9 of 78)

Mist

Naturally occuring energy, found in almost all regions of the world, affecting all living things, the climate, and even the land itself.

Magick is but one of the diverse methods of harnessing the power of Mist, the most common being via its controlled release from magicite, an ore known to hold high concentrations of condensed Mist within its crystalline structure. For larger effects, a greater amount of Mist is required, making particularly rich magicite a valuable commodity.

There are marked regional differences in the amount of Mist contained in the atmosphere and soil. While typically invisible to the naked eye, high densities of Mist will occasionally manifest in very visible phenomena.

The highest concentrations of Mist can even do damage, leading to over-rapid changes in the environment, and violent behavior among animals and those more sensitive to Mist's effects.

32. Barheim Passage: Tiny Mimic

GENUS: Insect
CLASSIFICATION: Mimic

[1/2] Observations

The wandering nature of these creatues has been attributed to their apparent predilection for hunting prey of high intelligence. From their diet of Nature's intelligentsia, they receive nutrients to aid their own development, and it so follows that fledglings are often vapid and dull. Some strains, however, such as the tiny bug, never leave the larval stage, and so die as poor of wit as they were when they were born.

[2/2] Talk About Town

I should think you know by now that arrows, shot, and the like are a prized commodity in these parts, eh?

Most of them, you see, must be imported from other lands! We've none but ourselves to blame, mind you. If only there were a few more people here with the skill to craft them...

Aye, that's why you'll be going to the bazaar for your munitions. Bring some scales or fangs and you'll get what you need.

Gobalta, Merchant

33. Barheim Passage: Skeleton

GENUS: Undead
CLASSIFICATION: Skeleton

[1/2] Observations

Many are those who bear burdens through life, and fail to relinquish them at the moment of death. Weighted down, they attain not heaven, but are cast aside to wander the land as skeletons.

Robbed of the pardon of flesh, they are cursed to walk for eons, till their very bones are reduced to ash.

Only when they are undone and gone from this world, and nothing remains to bear that which they should not have borne, will they permit themselves eternal sleep.

[2/2] Sage Knowledge (8 of 78)

Bazaar Goods

Loot from monsters and the like are crafted into articles fit for sale.

Some of these are little more than refinements on the base materials.

Others require crystals, concoctions, and alchemy to produce. Few require too much skill or effort, though, making crafted articles a common sight at market, their quality, of not quite their appearance, being hardly distinguishable from that of regularly produced goods. If one is lucky, one might find some articles selling for below the going rate.

34. Barheim Passage: Battery Mimic

GENUS: Insect
CLASSIFICATION: Mimic

[1/2] Observations

What strange manner of creature, to so readily absorb the crackling power of electricity!

Having absorbed an appropriate amount of nourishment from their feast of lightning, they dischare spectacularly, this being their primary form of excretion. Forgoing food of substance, their life-span is pitifully short.

[2/2] Aletap Rumors

Witness the marksman! You'll find the steadiest of arms and truest of aims belong to the most cautious, cowardly fellows of the bunch. These be they that use silent shot and like trickery to make sure that, when that one killing shot misses its mark, it draws no unfriendly attention. Just between you and me, I've found through plentiful study that this shot be made with magickal processes of a most special variety, requiring darkness drapped within a certain kind of scale! A scale!

Ffrimllad, Mage

35. Barheim Passage: Specter

GENUS: Undead
CLASSIFICATION: Ghost

[1/2] Observations

The shapeless emotion of fear, coalesced and made manifest by magicks.

Fear remains in traces for a time where men have been slaughtered, and it is there, in aceldama, where specters are known to arise.

As their bodies are composed of little more than fear itself, other emotions are anathema to them, and liable to incite attack. In defense of their very substance, they will rend their victim's soul from its bodily cage, leaving naught behind but fear. Thus are new specters born.

[2/2] Aletap Rumors

The markets are astir with the news that a great storm of some duration has made it impossible for the lands by the Eastern Sea to fish.

When the storm breaks, 'twill be a rush on the waters. No doubt why everyone and his cousin is looking to get their angling supplies in good order. If you've any horn or foul flesh to be sold for bait, now's the time!

Why, they're selling for as much as it costs to buy an imported javelin or the like, I hear. There's never been a better time to sell!

Soma, Apprentice Swordsman

36. Barheim Passage: Tiny Battery

GENUS: Insect
CLASSIFICATION: Mimic

[1/2] Observations

Gaze upon the larval form of the battery mimic and despair. Wracked with hunger from the moment of birth, every moment of these poor creatures' lives is spent in pursuit of sustenance. Technically, they can be considered to be in a constant state of starvation until maturity, and are prone to attack any perceived obstruction to their feeding. On rare occasions, a tiny battery possessing a modicum of intellect is born. Theories that these gifted grubs become queens have gained some following of late.

[2/2] Street Corner Musings

When things want craftin', a rock what's got magic in it, even a sniff, is the order o' the day.

Now you don't need to know what to do with it, but you do need to know this:

Adventurers need society just like society needs adventurers. "What's that got to do with the price o' potions, Leryll?" I hear you ask. Well, them very same stones what you adventurers earn an honest gil floggin' at market just happen to make the world go 'round, too. Simple as that.

...How'd you know my name, anyway?

Leryll, Archer

37. Barheim Passage: Mimeo

GENUS: Insect
CLASSIFICATION: Mimic

[1/2] Observations

Being a creature whose substance is almost entirely metallic.

That its parts so close resemble commonly worked metals assists its camouflage. Few are they who deem an unmoving lump of iron to be just cause for alarm, and so do the corpses of the foolish congregate around such innocuous deposits.

[2/2] Sage Knowledge (10 of 78)

Terrestrial Conveyances

We all are told at one time or another, but how many of us recall that Ivalice is covered with mimic-germinites? Easy to forget, as they have little impact on living creatures, but any moogle worth his hammer could tell you the horribly corrosive effect the little devils have on the metals most often used for engines and vehicles.

All the better for airships, which fly above the germinite clouds, yet a sorry state of affairs for those who would make their journeys on land.

The next time you see a party traveling by chocobo and chocobo-led wagon, you will know why they're the preferred means of overland transport, won't you.

38. Barheim Passage: Flan

GENUS: Amorph
CLASSIFICATION: Flan

[1/2] Observations

Being an amorph, coated in slime, its eyes and mouth having a most evil aspect.

They know no distinction of sex, instead absorbing prey until enough bulk has been gleaned, whereupon they divide their mass, creating offspring in this manner. Recent research has shown striking similarities in the magickal ordering seen in naturally occurring Mist, leading some to believe that their generation is tied to Mist at a fundamental level.

[2/2] The Town Crier

The Iron Stomach, a guild of tasters known for its roster of legendary chefs, has announced a new dessert!

Called "flan" after the creature of the same name, and fashioned to look much like its namesake, its popularity is rising as a hunter's treat.

In an astonishing example of creature influencing dessert influencing creature, it has become common practice to refer to the darkened region near the flan's head as "caramel," a truer sign of the dessert's popularity than any of its creators could ever have hoped for.

39. Barheim Passage: Skull Defender

GENUS: Undead
CLASSIFICATION: Skeleton

[1/2] Observations

Being the corpse of a fallen warrior, plated in armor of pale bronze. Brave and eager for battle in life, they continue to lust for war in undeath.

From their preferred haunts of man-made caves and mines, some skull defenders are thought to be fallen hunters, slain in their quest for a mark.

[2/2] Aletap Rumors

Rumor has it that the island nations to the west lack the iron to make decent quality fishing goods. Apparently, they use one grade of iron for the weapons they export, and a cheaper grade for the goods they use in their everyday lives.

Seems to me, they could lower the quality of their iron swords and solve the problem, but I think they've too much pride for that.

Tor'Na Moode, Swordsman

40. Barheim Passage: Bomb

GENUS: Fiend
CLASSIFICATION: Bomb

[1/2] Observations

An ensorceled weapon for use against mages in days past, left to grow wild. Known to react swiftly to the presence of magick, the action of which triggering the explosive energies contained within.

Notwithstanding, the release of said energy leads to an explosion of a physical nature, making it greatly effective against targets who rely upon magickal protection. Many are the mages who hesitate to work magicks around bombs and their ilk.

[2/2] Sage Knowledge (45 of 78)

Barheim Passage

An underground passage beneath the fortress at Nalbina. Originally a railway to carry goods into the fortress, the passage was closed with the introduction of airships as the primary means of transport.

The abandoned railway line is now rife with Mist, and the dwelling place of many fell beasts.

41. Barheim Passage: Dead Bones

GENUS: Undead
CLASSIFICATION: Skeleton

[1/2] Observations

The fate of such who sought to barter with demons for exemption from death, yet were found by the Reaper all the same. Their souls filled with dark energies, they are cursed to live another life, a half-life, as punishment.

To add to their torment, the dark energies within them slowly devour their being, causing endless pain. And so people speak of these tortured souls, these dead bones, with pity, relieved that their fate is theirs alone.

[2/2] Mysteries of the Ancients

Why did the ancients perish? Given what we know of their strength and power as a race, it is difficult to fathom.

The level of technology and magickal potency exhibited by their relics are, in many ways, far superior to our own. So, why did they die? Could it be that, for all our preparations, a similar fate awaits us? To solve this riddle, it is imperative that we study what ancient bones are left to us, and thereby shed light upon a past which may predict our future.