Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail story and ending explained

Dawntrail is the newest expansion for Final Fantasy XIV. Offering a massive story for players to experience that spans six zones, ten new levels, and much more, the roughly 40-50 hour undertaking sees much change for the Warrior of Light and friends as they venture into the new world of Tural, meeting new allies and making enemies along the way.

Looking to get a rundown of what happens in Final Fantasy XIV’s Dawntrail? We’ve got you covered. This guide discusses most of the main points in the plot of Dawntrail but will skip out on some specifics to save you time. Spoiler warning for the MSQ of Final Fantasy XIV’s Dawntrail ahead.

The Rite of Ascension

The story begins with the Warrior of Light accompanying Wuk Lamat and Erenville to the new world of Tural. There Wuk Lamat plans on participating in the Rite of Ascension, a competition held by her father Gulool Ja Ja.

While there, we meet the other contestants in the Rite of Ascension, Koana, a Miqo’te, brother to Wuk Lamat. He plans on advancing Tural through technology found throughout his time in Sharlayan. Wuk Lamat’s other brother Zarool Ja is much the opposite, however, planning on showing the folly of war to instill fear in other nations.

The newcomer of the bunch is Bakool Ja Ja, who was selected by his people to represent them in the competition.

Once gathered, Gulool Ja Ja tasks everyone with finding the door to the mysterious Golden City. Opening the door to it would require them to collect seven keystones, each being held by the various people of Tural.

This involves retracing the same steps that he took when uniting the nation. Once they arrive, an elector would provide them with a challenge they must complete in order to gain the keystones.

Wuk Lamat’s Victory

Wuk Lamat is able to collect the seven keystones, with Koana giving up his keystones to assist her in the final trial.

Bakool Ja Ja’s attempts at stealing Wuk Lamat’s keystones eventually ended in defeat, with Wuk Lamat able to overpower the Mamool Ja. Similarly, Zarool Ja attempted to forcefully take one of the keystones from an elector, resulting in his disqualification from the competition.

Wuk Lamat uses her keystones to open the door, finding the entrance to the Golden City, winning the Rite of Ascension, and being crowned Dawnservant. She invites Koana to share in the role of Dawnservant together and he accepts.

Disgruntled by his loss, Zarool Ja steals some keystones, alongside a mysterious artifact, and is able to open the gate to the Golden City. He makes contact with an unknown character.

The attack on Tulliyollal

Sometime later, the Warrior of Light and Erenville discover a massive purple sphere appearing in Tural. However, they don’t have time to explore it, as they’re called back to Tulliyollal, which is currently under attack by mysterious forces.

We discover that Zarool Ja is the leader of the attack, and with the help of his newfound technology, he’s able to take down Gulool Ja Ja. Zarool Ja has a strange circular object attached to his head, which gives him the power to revive after being fatally wounded.

With Gulool Ja Ja dead, Wuk Lamat vows to take revenge for her father and for her people. So they plan to infiltrate the purple sphere by brute forcing their way through Zarool Ja’s defenses.

Heritage Found

Once inside the purple sphere, we discover Heritage Found. A mix of Tural with the unknown city of Alexandria. It is learned that Heritage Found is actually a part of another reflection, and time passes differently there.

It’s revealed that over 30 years have passed for those inside Heritage Found, despite it being mere hours on the other side. As such Zarool Ja has had a child, named Gulool Ja, and has also been crowned king of Alexandria.

We also meet Sphene, the queen of Alexandria, who like Wuk Lamat would do anything to protect the people of Alexandria.

Regulators

We learn from the people of Alexandria that the circular discs on their heads are called Regulators, and are capable of bringing people back to life through the transferal of souls and memory. This is what Zarool Ja did when killing his father Gulool Ja Ja.

However, each time a person comes back to life via this method, they use up a human soul, which in essence is someone else who had died before them. Similarly, the Regulators can also contain beast souls, which grant the user ridiculous amounts of power depending on what beast’s soul they’ve devoured.

This does come with a caveat, as devouring too many beast souls can cause one to lose track of their humanity, turning them into something else completely.

It’s discovered that the attack of Tulliyollal was not only orchestrated by Zarool Ja, but was agreed upon by Sphene, who wanted to harvest the souls of the people there for their Regulators.

The Endless

Similarly to the Regulators, we become familiar with the term the Endless. These Endless are people who have passed away but have had their memory transferred over to a robotic body, essentially becoming a facsimile of who the person once was.

We learn that Sphene is one of these Endless, and she is able to take over any of the robotic Alexandrian soldiers at any time. However, because Endless aren’t able to produce souls, they come at a massive cost to the soul economy.

Taking down Zarool Ja

Eventually, the Warrior of Light and Wuk Lamat formulate a plan to take down Zarool Ja. We head through the massive spire called Everkeep, where we finally come across Zarool Ja sitting on his throne.

Engorged on massive amounts of souls, Zarool Ja takes on the Warrior of Light and friends, eventually falling.

Sphene then appears, saying she won’t stop protecting her people, and would give up all else if she needed to in order to preserve the people she loved.

Living Memory

Sphene steals the artifact from Zarool Ja’s corpse and plans to use it as a way to open up more reflections and harvest the souls from there too. She disappears into a new zone, titled Living Memory. Living Memory is the recreation of four wonderful almost theme park-like zones, where the Endless can eventually come back and enjoy the time without death.

Before she leaves, she mentions to the Warrior of Light that she’ll stop at nothing, even completely removing the original Sphene’s memory so that she can complete her objective of protecting her people.

While trying to stop Sphene, we enter into the Living Memory and try to wipe the main memory tower there. Unfortunately, Sphene stops us in the process, so instead we focus on taking down the four memory towers located around the zone.

There we meet a bunch of various Endless, including Wuk Lamat’s caretaker Namikka, Krile’s parents, and Erenville’s mother Cahciua. We speak more to the Endless and learn about their past, and what they yearn for.

Eventually, we wipe each memory tower in the zones, releasing the memories of the Endless and causing them to disappear. This means saying goodbye to the memories of many characters close to the party, resulting in a tearful departure.

The final memory tower

Without being able to wipe the main memory tower, we instead infiltrate it, going through Sphene’s memory of what happened to her beloved city, and their efforts to preserve it. However, we’re a bit too late, as Sphene’s memory has been wiped, and all that remains is the primary objective of preserving and protecting the people of Alexandria.

There we have a final showdown against Sphene, with Wuk Lamat, Krile, and Graha’Tia being forcefully removed. Wuk Lamat is able to break through, coming in to reason with Sphene in the midst of the battle. There we eventually take down Sphene and are able to have a conversation with her memory partially restored. She explains that she herself will disappear with the final memory tower, so she is nearing her end.

Sphene apologizes to the Wuk Lamat for the pain she’s caused. Wuk Lamat shares that even though their nations are worlds apart, she holds similar ideals to one another. Sphene says that, even though their time together was brief, she treasures their time together, even if it will disappear alongside her.

Sphene asks Wuk Lamat to take care of her people, with Wuk Lamat promising to take good care of them and to never forget the Endless. And with a final thanks, Sphene restores the artifact, handing it over to the Warrior of Light. But before we’re able to make our final remarks and say goodbye, she ejects us from the tower, saying her final goodbyes to her beloved Alexandria.

Dawntrail

With the grand adventure coming to an end, we learn more about what happened to Tural and Tulliyollal. With the nations coming together to celebrate their differences and diversity, and Wuk Lamat and Koana serving together as Dawnservant.

The Warrior of Light keeps the mysterious artifact, which may potentially lead to our next journey.