Celestial Nights

From PlayOnline.com:


The Celestial Nights event has begun, kupo!

There is a legend that tells of a river formed from the infinite stars of the night sky. Here is the story behind Celestial Nights--a custom resurrected from the mists of the ancient past.

* * *

Long, long ago, there were two nations whose borders lay on either side of a mighty river that ran from north to south.

The nation on the west bank of the river flourished with a thriving trade in exquisite woven goods. Even among these masterful craftsmen, Princess Amdina, the daughter of the Emperor, was famous for creating the most intricate and breathtaking tapestries. Such was the delicacy and artistic brilliance of these pieces that all the rich merchants and nobles of the land, not to mention the royalty of distant countries, were spellbound by their beauty and competed to find favor with the Imperial house.

It was a sweltering summer afternoon when the princess, weary from several days of weaving, decided to take a walk along the bank of the river to clear her mind and refresh her spirit.
The rush and roar of the river was a novel delight for Amdina, who had rarely left the grounds of the Imperial palace. Frolicking in the shallows with her handmaidens and oblivious to the passage of time, the princess was startled by the sudden appearance of a magpie that came to rest on a rock before her. Amdina had often woven the illustrations of such birds into her tapestries, but she had never before beheld one in the wild. Hoping for a closer look, Amdina began to approach the magpie, but it spread its wings and launched itself into the air before she had taken a single step.

The princess watched as the magpie soared to the other side of the river and landed next to a young man fishing in the swift waters. To Amdina it seemed that the bird and the sun-browned youth were quite familiar with one another.
This was the first time the sheltered princess had laid eyes upon a citizen of the eastern nation.
Catching sight of Amdina, the young man smiled broadly and waved. The princess, flustered by the encounter and unable to respond, quickly turned and left the river behind her.

From that night onwards, Amdina no longer weaved her tapestries.
The Emperor, concerned for his suddenly oft-sighing and reclusive daughter, summoned a multitude of esteemed physicians to examine the princess. None could discover the cause of her malaise.
Only Amdina herself knew the cure for her condition--she must once again visit the banks of the river.

One evening, after feigning illness and excusing herself from dinner, Amdina slipped out of the palace alone.
She hurried as quickly as her slippered feet would carry her, but by the time she reached her destination, the night sky was ablaze with stars, and by their faint light the river appeared to meander through the countryside like an immense, onyx serpent.

As she broke the surface of the water with tentative toes, Amdina understood the compulsion that had drawn her to this place. On the far bank of the river, a young man stood holding a lantern aloft, the soft glow revealing the form of a magpie by his side. It was the very same youth Amdina had encountered those many days ago.

The young man began to slowly swing the lantern in a semi-circle before him. Had he seen her? No, the distance was too great, the light of the lantern too weak. And yet Amdina waved anyway. She waved with grim determination, as if by the very force of her will she could recapture the moment she had lost the first time they met.
Amdina smiled then, just as the youth had that day, turned her back to the river, and started to walk away.

A flurry of feathers brought the princess to a halt. The magpie had landed directly in her path, a piece of white cloth visible around its neck, its head cocked in an inviting manner. Amdina bent down and untied the cloth with trembling fingers. The magpie chirped in seeming satisfaction and took to the sky once more.


What the princess had taken to be cloth was actually a pure white sheet of neatly folded papyrus, the quality of which she had never seen before. Amdina carefully opened the note to find a single vertical line of elegant characters.

"A message from the youth across the river!" she thought, excitedly.

The princess returned to the palace as quietly as she had left. She then secluded herself within the library and set to work, painstakingly deciphering the note character by character.
When dawn finally found her, she sat unmoving in the same chair, a single tear shining upon her cheek. Though deceptively brief, the strange message had translated into a touching declaration of love.

Amdina now left the palace every night to exchange poems with her newfound companion, the ever-present magpie bearing their thoughts and feelings across the waters of the river. At first they wrote in their mother tongues, and then eventually in the language of the other...

But this gentle expression of budding love would come to an abrupt end. The Emperor, suspicious of Amdina's sudden and enthusiastic return to weaving, wrung the secret of the matter from her handmaidens.
Further investigation led the Emperor to an astonishing fact: the youth with whom his daughter exchanged poems of devotion was none other than Prince Yahiko--the royal son of a rival nation's ruler and a fierce opponent on the battlefield.

Consumed with rage, the Emperor confined the princess inside the highest tower of the palace and put forth his terms: if she could weave one hundred tapestries worthy of purchase by the nobles of the empire, he would permit her to once again visit the banks of the river...

"He will be awaiting me this day, as he has waited on every other," she thought with desperation, and began weaving tapestries in frenzied haste.


She worked with pause for neither food nor sleep, but the ceaseless labor exacted a heavy toll: on the morning Amdina completed her one hundredth tapestry, her head dropped to her chest and her bleeding fingers stilled, never to move again.
The very last tapestry she had woven depicted a celestial river formed of countless stars in which a pair of magpies flew side by side into eternity.

But the tragedy did not end along with Amdina's life.
Several months later, the Emperor's army had invaded the nation to the east--Amdina's father had convinced himself of his enemy's responsibility for her death. Prince Yahiko was part of the force that rode forth to meet this invasion, but he was slain by a stray arrow that found its way past his shield. His mind was not on the battle, but filled with thoughts of his lost love...

When the citizens learned of the events surrounding the prince's death, they expressed their grief by decorating bamboo stalks with poems written on colored strips of paper and planting them along the river. The people of the western nation, upon seeing the actions of their neighbors, began to imitate the custom. Before long, both banks of the river were covered in seemingly endless rows of decorated bamboo. The love and loss of the young couple had united the two nations in an outpouring of mutual grief.


Rumors of the event along the river soon reached the western court.
Incensed that his people should participate in the customs of his enemy, the Emperor mounted his chocobo and galloped towards the border to witness the madness firsthand.
The scene that greeted the Emperor left him awestruck--the great stalks of bamboo on either bank had bowed under the weight of their messages and appeared to form a bridge between the two nations.


Humbled and shamed, Amdina's father at last dispatched a messenger of peace to the ruler of the eastern court.
With the consent of both countries, a day was set aside every year when citizens could freely cross the river and renew the bonds that had been forged in shared tragedy.

* * *

In the years to come, the river in the tale slowly became the legendary celestial river now famous in lands across the world, kupo.
No one can say for sure where that mighty river, and the nations that bordered its waters, actually existed, kupo. The only thing that remains is the custom of summer "Celestial Nights" when people write poems to distant loved ones and tie them to bamboo stalks that symbolically span the river in the sky.

The M.H.M.U. has enlisted the cooperation of the nomad moogles in an attempt to recreate this heartwarming tradition, kupo.
We hope this event will give you a moment away from your adventures to remember old friends, and even create the opportunity to reunite dear companions, kupo!
Illustration by Mitsuhiro Arita

Participation

In keeping with the theme of the Celestial Nights story, each World Portal on the Linkshell Community site will be decorated with stalks of bamboo.
Thoughts are brought to another level of meaning when you put them into words. Just as the prince and princess in the legend expressed themselves through words, why not try composing a poem of your own?
Once these stalks of bamboo become heavy with poems and messages, something special might happen somewhere within Vana'diel!

Composing a Poem

Choose a theme from the list below, and write a poem in the haiku style describing events and emotions from your life in Vana'diel. A haiku is written with three lines of five, seven, and five syllables respectively.

Themes: Adventure, Friendship, City, Synthesis, Harvest, Dungeon, Battle, Chocobo, Conflict, Quest, Mission, Assault, Besieged

Example:
- Adventure
Seeking for party
Alright! I got an invite!
Their reply: mistell

Displaying Your Poem

Once you've composed your poem, it's time to write it down on a strip of colored paper and hang it on the World Portal bamboo!
Follow the steps below to display your poem:

1. Log in to the Linkshell Community site!
First, log in to the Linkshell Community and take a look at the bamboo stalks decorating your World. Clicking on the strips of paper will take you to that Community's "official" thread where you can see the poems everyone has created.

2. Create an "official" Celestial Nights thread!
Next, create a new thread on the message board for your Community. By creating a thread following the below requirements, a strip of paper containing your Community's poems will be displayed in a random position on the World Portal bamboo.

Category: Official
Title: Celestial Nights
Comment: As in the example above, choose a theme, and enter your poem

*Each Community is restricted to one official thread.
*Official threads cannot be set to "Private."


3. Write your poem in the official thread!
Once you have created an official thread, the members of your Community can enter their poems (comments)!

*You must be logged in to the Linkshell Community in order to enter a comment.

We look forward to discovering the poets hiding among Vana'diel's adventurers!
Click here to access the Linkshell Community.

Event Details

Celestial Nights will commence at 1:00 on June 29, 2007, and continue until 1:00 on July 17, 2007.

*The special event in Vana'diel will begin once the bamboo decorating the World Portals are completely covered with Community poems.

Event within Vana'diel

Worlds that have completely covered their bamboo with poems will be rewarded with a special event in the following areas:

Southern San d'Oria
Northern San d'Oria
Bastok Mines
Bastok Markets
Windurst Waters
Windurst Woods

Comments

Post Comment
BS
# Jan 15 2008 at 8:45 PM Rating: Decent
okay so ignore that reply from me
Prizes
# Jul 13 2007 at 5:15 PM Rating: Good
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61 posts
Woo finaly opened on Sylph server

Prizes so far are 3 new furnishings.
Red
green
and blue bamboo
they sparkle and give enhancement money
Time
# Jul 02 2007 at 9:05 AM Rating: Good
I think SE won't implement the rewards after a certain amount of time.

The mystery of the rewards are the main thing that driving us (yes me too) in writing haikus, or the very least checking that website about our own server bamboo tree.

Actually if i'm not mistaken you should post your wishes in the bamboo tree in Japan. I forgot in what festival tho

-11
Time
# Jul 02 2007 at 7:33 PM Rating: Good
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417 posts
Tanabata Festival every July 7
Time
# Jul 04 2007 at 9:52 AM Rating: Decent
oh yeah rite sorry didn't read the wiki first

^_^
Happy Tanabata 7/7/2007
# Jul 02 2007 at 2:04 AM Rating: Good
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417 posts
SE just want to share the celebration of Tanabata this year. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanabata
hmm
# Jul 01 2007 at 10:15 PM Rating: Decent
Sony Entertainment..LOL OH My...that's a 'creative' one! LOLLL
Sylph Tree is full
# Jul 01 2007 at 9:34 AM Rating: Decent
It seems the tree on Sylph server is completely full yet there's nothing new happening or event moogles popping... Has anything happened on any other servers yet?
...
# Jul 01 2007 at 1:15 AM Rating: Decent
... and one cannot delete posts completely. :P

Edited, Jul 1st 2007 4:18am by TesseractE
Server-Wide Cooperation
# Jul 01 2007 at 1:14 AM Rating: Decent
I guess 'File not Found' means 'I've submitted the post, but I'm gonna tell you, silly user.'

Edited, Jul 1st 2007 4:17am by TesseractE
Server-Wide Cooperation
# Jul 01 2007 at 1:13 AM Rating: Decent
Keep in mind folks that the last server-wide collaboration event gave us Outpost Warps.

I don't want to think of what my FFXI life would be like without Outpost Warps.

If anyone on Midgardsormr wants my help in writing Haikus, just lemme know.

Heh... It's a shame it isn't just how many Haikus there are. We've got some prolific writers in our LS.
Hmm.
# Jun 30 2007 at 12:58 PM Rating: Decent
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304 posts
While the rest of you are complaining about 'having' to write a haiku, I'm eagerly looking forward to what the special event is going to be.

Nobody's putting a gun to your head and forcing you to participate.

Yeesh, just because the event doesn't give you FAT LEWTS doesn't mean it's worthless. I thought it was a nice story, if a bit sad.
O_o;
# Jun 30 2007 at 12:27 PM Rating: Decent
I just thought of something.... SE won't make the game 'windows friendly' for PC users... so now we have to totally log out of the game to do an event?

Didnt they say they were gonna make PC version 'window' accessable?

....also only one haiku per LS? Yep deffinatly a way to get more people to sign up for the LS community. /sigh
O_o;
# Jul 01 2007 at 4:11 PM Rating: Decent
No one can be sure whether the number of haikus per LS has any affect on filling the tree. Yes only one ribbon shows up for each LS, but perhaps more haikus in the thread gives it more "weight". As for SE not adding windowing to the PC version...I won't even bother going into that argument...it's been driven into the ground.
event activation
# Jun 30 2007 at 12:26 PM Rating: Decent
does anyone know for certain how many commuties have to post a poem for the event to start in that server?
O....M....G....
# Jun 30 2007 at 8:57 AM Rating: Default
I honestly cannot believe what I just read. The "event" requires you to log out of the game to write #@$&&*# POETRY??? (/sigh)

I didn't realize what they are doing at first. But, now I see that their linkshell community site is such a dismal failure, that somebody who is about ready to lose his job at SE for pouring resources into the site has created this "event" in a last ditch attempt to get his boss to think that he really came up with something.

And the reward? A special "EVENT" in some area of Vanadiel?!?! WTF?! WTF? Will I get to look at a pretty celestrial stream somewhere in Vanadiel? OOOOOOOO!! I can't wait, that's way better than getting a piece of equipment that I can use at least during low-levels or skill-ups. !!FAIL!!

Thanks, SE. Thank you very much, for wasting my time in making me read that drivel.

P.S. SE, can you at the very least PLEASE get rid of the spook-bot named Howlingwind on Hades? I have turned his *** in twice now, and he is still allowed to sit on Spook. Maybe you can punish him by making him write some poetry.....
O....M....G....
# Jul 01 2007 at 4:05 PM Rating: Decent
Actually the Linkshell Community is very popular from what I can see. Hardly a failure. I for one love it. Sure some LSs have their own websites for LS communication, but not every LS has someone with enough net saavy to set something like that up. You actually have to purchase a domain if you want things like a message board since they require access to SQL servers etc. The Linkshell Community is SE handing you a little piece of the net for your Linkshell at no extra cost.

I'd also like to add that it's still in Beta form and I can only imagine that once it hits an official version they'll integrate it into the POL Viewer. They just don't want something potentially buggy tied to the Viewer. As for the event...YES it is something to entice people to check out the LS Community. But they aren't trying to ***** people who don't have computers. They're just fully aware that something like 85 to 90% of homes these days have at least one computer/laptop.

Those who can't actively participate in the haikus will benefit from the in-game portion of the event. I wouldn't worry too overly much about a server not managing to fill their tree. They should all manage it easily so all servers should get to have the event, whatever it may be. Who knows...there might be a cool prize. As someone said above here, the last time there was any kind of "competition" between servers like this, it was the Christmas Tree hunt where the first server to kill the wandering Tree got Outpost Warps activated. I'd call that a pretty nice gift. THey turned around and gave it to all servers not too long after.
Scam....lol
# Jun 30 2007 at 8:04 AM Rating: Default
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95 posts
double post, sorry

Edited, Jul 1st 2007 1:29am by babbott
Hmmm
# Jun 30 2007 at 8:02 AM Rating: Default
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95 posts
I think this is just an attempt to get more people to visit their website and the Community Linkshell site. There's a lot of people that play that don't have access to the web besides their PS2 and Xbox360. I think it's kind of dumb to require you to do this outside of the FFXI server you're on in game. I don't know, maybe it'll end up being alright and worth while to those of us do what the "event" asks of us. I most likely won't, I have a family reunion to go to. lol Peace.
lol@noob
# Jun 30 2007 at 7:57 AM Rating: Decent
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3,644 posts
Quote:
in case you didn't know.. SE = Square Enix... not Sony Entertainment.... damn arrogant ppl


lmao..his/her post made me laugh so f'en hard.
Way to be the noob Aldeilla.

I guess you live in a town w/o a Library. And one w/o computers that are hooked up to the net, and cost you nothing to use.
BS
# Jun 30 2007 at 4:31 AM Rating: Default
jeebus

Edited, Jan 15th 2008 11:27pm by Aldeilla
BS
# Jul 05 2007 at 12:33 PM Rating: Good
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331 posts
No computers, what?
People like this exist still?
Go to library.
BS
# Jun 30 2007 at 5:33 AM Rating: Decent
Aldeilla wrote:
Are they f**king kidding? If this was their idea the whole time why didn't they just say that before this "event" started.. What about the people who don't have computers? WAY TO ***** PEOPLE WITHOUT COMPUTERS SE!

here's a poem for ya

Sony Entertainment
I'm disappointed
This "event" blows.


Edited, Jun 30th 2007 8:35am by Aldeilla



in case you didn't know.. SE = Square Enix... not Sony Entertainment.... damn arrogant ppl
BS
# Jan 15 2008 at 8:23 PM Rating: Decent
yuk

Edited, Feb 23rd 2008 11:24pm by Aldeilla
Ploy ?!?
# Jun 29 2007 at 7:42 PM Rating: Default
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336 posts
Quote:
Not meaning to sound mean.... but does anyone else think this is just a ploy to get more people to use the Linkshell Community? >.>

PLEASE tell me they are still going to have Summer Fest this year. /sigh


I don't think this has anything to do with Summer Fest. It's more of an "Extra Event" that is most definatly a ....

Quote:
ploy to get more people to use the Linkshell Community
blastfurnace
# Jun 29 2007 at 6:45 PM Rating: Decent
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951 posts
You don't get the event unless your server fills its tree
....
# Jun 29 2007 at 6:18 PM Rating: Decent
Not meaning to sound mean.... but does anyone else think this is just a ploy to get more people to use the Linkshell Community? >.>

PLEASE tell me they are still going to have Summer Fest this year. /sigh
event...yeah right
# Jun 29 2007 at 5:12 PM Rating: Default
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369 posts
-.-
zzzzzzzzzzzzz.....
Event eh?
# Jun 29 2007 at 3:30 PM Rating: Decent
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220 posts
Can they really call this an "event" when it's not in game? Or am I missing something? I play on PS2...so how does me logging into ls community on PC and writing a poem have anything to do with an "event" in Vana'diel?

I dunno, I read the "rewarded with a special event" deal, but I assume that will be at the end...I'm just confused. I guess I just expected something along the lines of the ole swimwear gear etc. of years gone by for this "event".

Hey I'm all about rockin a haiku or two (that rhymed! >.>) but I wish they just made this it's own lil dealy outside the game and didn't try writing it off as an "event".

But seriously...am I missing something here?
Unicorn!
# Jun 29 2007 at 12:40 PM Rating: Good
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551 posts
Heehee, Unicorn's looks pretty full. Guess we got a lot more people interested in RP, story, events, and other such stuff. Hope Ragnarok gets the event!
Slow going.
# Jun 29 2007 at 10:17 AM Rating: Good
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304 posts
Ragnarok only has one other thread along with my own. -_-
Slow going.
# Jul 03 2007 at 11:54 PM Rating: Decent
Oh My God!
"Event" they call this, heh?
More like; Meh!
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