Where Kn∞wledge Leads

Where Kn∞wledge Leads

Quest giver

Urianger

Location

Ultima Thule (X:23.1, Y:11.6)

Quest line

Endwalker Main Scenario Quests

Level

89

Experience

 508,200

Gil

 909

Previous quest

F//εsh AbanΔon┨Δ

Next quest

Vic┨οry ̈ ̈ ̈╳, │̆││ε Lost
A Most Stimulating Discussion
Ending as One
Final Words, Final Thoughts

Patch

6.0

Links

EDB GT TC

---

Main Scenario Progress: 800 / 978 (81.8%)

   

Endwalker Progress: 102 / 155 (65.8%)

   

“

Something seems to be weighing on Urianger's mind.

— In-game description

Walkthrough

The title seems to read "Where Knowledge Leads" while containing the infinity symbol (∞) within.

Steps

• Speak with Urianger.
• Speak with G'raha Tia.
• Speak with Y'shtola.

Journal

• Something seems to be weighing on Urianger's mind.

• Before your party seeks out the Ea to hear the fundamental truth they discovered, Urianger bids you and G'raha Tia assist him in an investigation. To that end do you follow him outside the abode of the Ea, to the wellspring of regret.

• Upon arriving at the spring, Urianger confesses that the investigation was but a pretense to speak in private. He proceeds to review the nature of Meteion, presenting his theory that she visited the home worlds of both the dragons and the Ea while they yet lived. This allowed her to take their most heartfelt emotions as her own, and their fervent desire for the end is what terminates your path in Ultima Thule. Should you struggle to find the way forward, the Archon advises, you must seek those souls that yearn for oblivion more desperately than any other. Though he does not say the words, his readiness for what he knows will come is plain to you and G'raha Tia, and it is with a tinge of sadness that you watch him walk off.

• After a moment's silence, G'raha Tia sets out to join the rest of your comrades in Elegeia, and you follow on after him.

• With your party assembled, Coph-coodg and his fellows begin recounting their tale. They reveal that the universe has been expanding since it came into being, and will continue to do so until all heavenly bodies freeze over in an eternal ice age. The Ea could not find a way to prevent this eventuality, and thus did their society, once a bastion of science and enlightenment, fall stagnant. Believing that everything is futile, they came to yearn for the end, and now urge you to embrace your ignorance. But Y'shtola is not to be deterred from her pursuit of knowledge, and together with Urianger's unwavering resolve to aid his comrades, the two succeed in rekindling the light of an extinguished civilization. Your final destination is the dead star that looms high overhead. It is there that the true Meteion abides─there that she prepares her gift of death eternal for all life. Your gaze firmly fixed upon her lifeless domain, you press on in your quest to silence her song.

Dialogue

Optional dialogue

Y'shtola: Before we hear the climax of the Ea's tale, mayhap I should speak of...
Y'shtola: ...On second thought, it would only be a distraction. We will talk more when the time is right.

Accepting the quest

Urianger: Ere we join the Ea, there is one trifling matter I would fain investigate.
Urianger: [Forename], G'raha Tia ─ might I trouble you for your assistance?
G'raha Tia: But of course.
Urianger: My thanks. We shall head outside the abode, if you would kindly follow me.
Y'shtola: I know not what mischief you are plotting, Urianger...but I trust you have our best interests at heart.
Y'shtola: The rest of us shall go on ahead to Elegeia. Lest you worry, we won't start without you.

Optional dialogue

Y'shtola: Go on and assist Urianger with his mysterious task. We shall wait for you.

Alphinaud: There is naught but desert out there. What could Urianger wish to investigate?

Alisaie: As long as Urianger explains himself to you, then I shall be satisfied. Do lend him an ear in my stead.

G'raha Tia: A spring, and a sizable one at that... I hadn't noticed it amidst the dunes.

Speak with Urianger. (Cutscene)

Urianger: Aye, this place shall serve.
G'raha Tia: Is it the spring that you wished to investigate?
Urianger: Pray forgive me, my friends...but there is naught to investigate.
Urianger: 'Twas but a pretense to speak in private.
G'raha Tia: You have our undivided attention.

Urianger: As we have established, here in Ultima Thule, those denizens of ruined stars are recreated in their twilight days.
Urianger: Yet one question doth arise in my mind.
Urianger: So faithfully formed are the simulacra, they believe themselves yet amongst the living. How dost thou suppose this is possible?

 What will you say?
> Meteion has taken their hearts unto herself.
   G'raha Tia: I'm inclined to agree. If Meteion can take the emotions of others as her own, I daresay she would be able to recreate them more faithfully than had she relied on any historical account.
   G'raha Tia: By which logic, she must have visited them while they still lived ─ the dragons and the Ea both!
> Meteion made contact with them while they still lived.
   G'raha Tia: Of course! She must have visited the stars of the dragons and the Ea before either race perished in their entirety.
   G'raha Tia: Thus could she make their emotions her own, and with them create more faithful simulacra than had she relied on any historical account.
> I couldn't begin to guess.
   G'raha Tia: Wait... What if Meteion visited the dragons and the Ea while they still lived?
   G'raha Tia: If so, she could have made their emotions her own, and with them create more faithful simulacra than had she relied on any historical account.

Urianger: So too did I theorize and, upon that assumption, consider how those two races may have met their demise.
Urianger: According to thine own tale, Meteion perceiveth the emotions of those nearby as her own.
Urianger: A heightened sense of empathy intrinsic to her nature as an entelechy.
Urianger: In the course of her starfaring journey, if she encountered beings who strongly desired a cessation of their existence...
G'raha Tia: She would be powerless before that desire.
Urianger: Even as she possesseth the power to grant it ─ the power of dynamis.
Urianger: 'Tis my supposition that, overwhelmed by their longing for death, Meteion did unleash dynamis and ushered the dragons and the Ea unto their doom.
Urianger: Of course, such was not always the outcome; full many stars did she find already lost to ruin.
Urianger: In order to create a terminus, however, the fervent desire for the end is essential.
Urianger: Therefore, should you struggle to find the way forward, pray ask yourselves this: in the place where you stand, whose is the soul that yearneth most desperately for oblivion?
G'raha Tia: Why do you tell us this now?
Urianger: Ne'er again would I betray your trust. This pledge I did make to my comrades. In bringing thee into my confidence, I would remain true to my word.
Urianger: As for thee... Let us consider it my fitting reward for the secrets I harbored for the Crystal Exarch.
Urianger: I once placed my faith in thy chosen path, walking at thy side full knowing that we were bound for thy demise.
Urianger: I ask now that thou returnest the favor, and abide in faith as I fulfill mine own destiny.
G'raha Tia: If you say my debt has come due, how am I to refuse?
Urianger: 'Tis indelicate of me, I know full well, and I can but beg thy forgiveness.
Urianger: Yet even if I must needs go to such lengths, I cannot well feign ignorance of the answer I have found within...
Urianger: The answer to the question: in what moment might I stand strongest?
G'raha Tia: After all that we've been through, I will say only this.
G'raha Tia: Do what you must. Do what you must, and see your conviction through.
Urianger: I shall, my friend. I shall.
Urianger: Without further ado, then, let us go to join our comrades.

Speak with G'raha Tia.

G'raha Tia: ...
G'raha Tia: Let us be off too. To Elegeia.

Optional dialogue

Alphinaud: I understand you've taken care of business. If you are ready to begin, then so are we.

Alisaie: While we waited, we mentioned our star's situation to the Ea. They nodded sagely...or something to that effect.

Urianger: Come, let us hear the Ea's tale, and learn what caused such enlightened beings to crave nihility.

G'raha Tia: ...Don't mind me.

Coph-coodg: Oh, you are here already? Your comrades said you would be late...

Lah-laakh: We have prepared for our recounting. To facilitate comprehension, the information will be simplified to match your primitive minds.

Neh-needg: It would seem your star, too, has been plunged into a panic-induced cataclysm. We hope that our tale will not serve to exacerbate it...

Dew-deekh: Your companion in front ─ the one called Y'shtola. She seems the keenest to learn the truth. I pity her...

Speak with Y'shtola. (Cutscene)

Y'shtola: It seems everyone is accounted for. Shall we, then?

| Voiced cutscene | 
Y'shtola: Please, continue. Tell us about this truth you discovered.
Coph-coodg: Very well. Bear in mind, however, that the purpose of this conversation is not to impart scholarly knowledge. For such requires that you comprehend the subject matter ─ which you will not.
Coph-coodg: We will forgo the intricacies of our scientific methodology and deal only with the conclusion ─ the end of our society, and our world.
Lah-laakh: We acknowledge, with regret, that your star is in the midst of the same panic-induced cataclysm that befell Deneb III.
Lah-laakh: As such, in order to avoid causing undue distress, we will refrain from explicitly stating how much time you have remaining.
Y'shtola: You are entirely too kind. I pray you recount your tale as you see fit.
Coph-coodg: In the beginning, the universe was but a tiny particle. Then suddenly, this particle began to expand.
Coph-coodg: Having remained entirely in the bounds of your star, the phenomenon may be difficult for your kind to grasp, but this expansion has since continued unabated.
Lah-laakh: Speculating that the universe could not grow indefinitely, we sought to learn what might occur ─ and made a worrying discovery.
Lah-laakh: The stars will continue to spread apart, as will their finite thermal energies.
Lah-laakh: Eventually, all heavenly bodies will grow cold and freeze. No new stars will be born, and the universe will enter unto an eternal ice age.
Coph-coodg: In hopes of proving that this determination was erroneous, we scrutinized our research from all angles, even as we sought to avert the everlasting winter.
Coph-coodg: The endeavor proved fruitless. So infamously so, in fact, that it became synonymous with vain effort.
Coph-coodg: The universe as we know it would end, and there is no way to prevent it.
Lah-laakh: Beneath the weight of this knowledge, our society stagnated. Though we had time still, it was a “cold” comfort.
Lah-laakh: Why strive for anything when desolation is assured? When our wealth of wisdom, accumulated since the dawning of our kind, would be forever lost?
Lah-laakh: No civilization would rise from our ashes. No scholar recover our knowledge. In silence unbroken, naught would stir.
Coph-coodg: Intellect was once our pride. Overnight, it became our shame. Our works monuments to futility.
Coph-coodg: Immortality, our greatest invention, became a source of suffering. Rather than suffer on, many chose to unmake themselves by means of aetheric exsanguinaters.
Coph-coodg: Etched upon these stones are the testaments of such souls. Though many left no words at all, thinking it a pointless gesture.
Lah-laakh: Once we have obtained vessels of flesh, we likewise intend to vanish.
Coph-coodg: If you understand this ─ understand aught of our tale ─ you will abandon your quest for knowledge.
Coph-coodg: Ignorance truly is bliss. If you would cling to your illusory happiness, remain primitive and pure. It is the only way.
Y'shtola: So that's your story.
Y'shtola: While I appreciate your advice, I will not heed it.
Y'shtola: Convinced though you may be of this truth, it is yours and not mine. Indeed truth, I have ever believed, is in the eye of the beholder.
Coph-coodg: Are you suggesting that we have reached a faulty conclusion? That our science failed us?
Y'shtola: Hardly. As you yourself said, the subject matter is beyond my comprehension.
Y'shtola: And that, I accept, is true. I do not possess the knowledge to prove or disprove your conclusion.
Y'shtola: In my mortal years, I doubt I could even approach the wisdom of the Ea.
Y'shtola: But of one thing am I absolutely certain: I would not be happier in ignorance.
Alisaie: Y'shtola, no! You mustn't!
Y'shtola: The most important lesson I've learned...is that learning isn't simply passing one's eyes over words.
Y'shtola: Nay... 'Tis when understood for oneself that knowledge attains its true value.
Y'shtola: This is what has sustained me. Driven me onward in joy and wonder. In anger and sorrow.
Y'shtola: The universe may end, and all may be for naught. But I will live as I always have.
Y'shtola: I will always seek out new knowledge. And no conclusion of yours, no matter how grim, can dampen my desire.
Coph-coodg: I suppose it is only to be expected. Their feeble minds cannot fathom the terrifying gravity of it all.
Lah-laakh: But worry not. We consider it our duty to enlighten you, and we will not stop until you grasp the full extent of our despair!
Y'shtola: Keep calm, and listen well.
Y'shtola: Though my body will soon dissipate, there may be a way to restore it.
Y'shtola: Azem's magick. So long as our souls remain, you can use it to summon us back.
Y'shtola: But you mustn't, for it would mean losing our way forward. This, I only reveal so that you can promise not to invoke the magick.
Y'shtola: We came here knowing what victory may cost, so press on. Press on, and do not look back.
Urianger: I shall join thee. As subterfuge is not required, thou shalt not suffer for mine absence.
Y'shtola: Urianger... 
Urianger: My resolve hath never been as strong as thine. Full oft have I wavered in my decisions, and afterwards been stricken with regret.
Urianger: In spite of this, I may still stand with my comrades, supporting them as they attempt the greatest of feats.
Urianger: This truth, I have learned in the course of our journey.
Urianger: And many though my shortcomings may be, I may also claim to excel in prophecies. My studies into which have granted me the flexibility of mind needed to bend this malleable reality.
Urianger: Thus shall I hope... That thou mayest have the strength to resist, and our comrades the strength to continue.
Y'shtola: With you to urge us on, how could we possibly fail?

Meteion: What's this? An extinguished civilization...rekindled?
Alisaie: That's right! Our quest doesn't end here. We'll press on...and we will find you!
Meteion: There. That's where you'll find me.
G'raha Tia: Is that...another star?
Meteion: Of the stars we visited, most were already devoid of life. And where there was life still, the inhabitants wished for death.
Meteion: But even death, we learned, isn't truly the end. It is but a part of the cycle of rebirth.
Meteion: Souls return to the star ─ or in its absence, a larger flow. And eventually they are reborn.
Meteion: Alive again, to know suffering anew...
Meteion: True salvation lies not in dying. It lies in not being born.
Meteion: This is the gift I would give to you. To all life on beautiful Etheirys.
Meteion: To that end, we created an egg wherein life cannot quicken ─ that dead sun.
Meteion: Attain it if you can. Before your friends' emotions fade away ─ along with their protection.
| Voiced cutscene end |