Category:Unions

Unions are special groupings of players that can be joined during a Campaign Battle. After the battle has ended, qualifying players registered to a Union will be eligible to cast lots for Union-specific spoils based on their contributions to the battle.

Participating in a Union

To register, a player with Allied Tags must speak to a Campaign Arbiter and choose their desired Union. You may change or resign from a Union at any time during the Campaign battle.

List of Unions

The following Unions are available:

• Adder Union
• Bison Union
• Coyote Union
• Dhole Union
• Eland Union

Spoils of War

• Each union is equal to the other, that is there is no union-specific loot. Unions are simply letters A through E to split everyone up.
• What can drop overall is dependent on the force(s) being fought during the time of the campaign battle. Each batallion has its own specific potential drops.
  • Drops are not be dependent on the area they are being fought in save for Dynamis currency, which will only drop that nation's currency in that nation's zones. Dark Kindred in northlands campaigns may drop all three. Other beastmen will still only drop their nation specific currency.
• What loot your union exactly gets is dependent on the the enemies killed during a battle.
• 1500 Total Union XP is needed to gain access to the union coffer.
• Normal monsters, when killed, have a chance of adding an item to the loot pool of the union that landed the killing blow.
• Notorious Monsters will always add one of their own specific items to the loot pool of the union that landed the killing blow.
  

Please refer to the talk page for more information as it is gathered.

Item Distribution

To be eligible to lot for Union treasure, a player's contributions to the battle must be evaluated at a certain level or higher (see talk page for a discussion of these requirements).

At the end of the battle, each Union with eligible players (and any spoils) will receive a Coffer with its respective name (for example, "Eland Coffer"). Any member of a union can open its coffer, and its items will appear in the treasure pools of all of its members.

Unions and Party/Alliance Treasures

When a union member joins a party, or when a member of a party joins a union, all items in the party's treasure pool will be distributed randomly to members (with the exception of the union member).

• It is recommended that your party finish distributing items before joining a union or inviting members of unions.

When a party has a union participant as a member, party members in the same area will be unable to obtain items from standard monsters.

• This restriction will cease to apply if the union member loses their lot privileges for any reason.

Number of participants in a Union

At current there is no limit to the amount of people who can join a Union. The number of people in a union is a two-sided blade however, and should be considered when choosing a union to join. This is the case because:

• Bigger unions may rake in more kills during a single campaign battle, possibly resulting in more rewards.

but

• Bigger unions will also have more people contesting for the same treasure pool.

This means joining a bigger Union increases the odds of the loot being good but decreases your odds of actually getting some of the loot.

Location of Union chests after battle

You have roughly 10 minutes to open a campaign coffer before it disappears.

• Xarcabard (S) : (infront of the fort, when I say front I mean where the Campaign Fortification Flag is)
• Beaucedine Glacier (S) : (infront of the fort)
• Batallia Downs (S) : J-7, south side of fort, opposite of C.A.
• Rolanberry Fields (S) : J-7, East side of tower
• Sauromugue Champaign (S) : H-7, West side of the campaign tower.
• Jugner Forest (S) : I-8, infront of the fort.
• Pashhow Marshlands (S) : North of the Fortification
• Meriphataud Mountains (S) : In front of the tower.
• Vunkerl Inlet (S) : (infront of the fort)
• Grauberg (S) : (south side of the fort)
• Fort Karugo-Narugo (S) : H-8, Right behind C.A. at the fort
• East Ronfaure (S) : (infront of the fort)
• North Gustaberg (S) : (infront of the fort)
• West Sarutabaruta (S) : H-6, Behind the Fort/C.A.
• Garlaige Citadel (S) : I-8 of Map 2, the Top Left corner of that square.
• Crawlers' Nest (S) : I-10, in the (closed off) tunnel leading down to the Strange Apparatus area.
• Eldieme Necropolis (S) : I-8, near where Red Axe stands
• Windurst Waters (S) : Near West Sarutabaruta (S) exit.
• Bastok Markets (S) : E-8 Near Sonia.

It's a Hard Luck Life‎

One morning, I checked the delivery box at my Mog House to find a package bearing what had become a very familiar stamp from the auction house. Sigh. Not again... The package, of course, was a weapon I had put up for sale that apparently no one else in the world wanted, either.

Surely, all adventurers have had such moments of despair. Seeing this as an ideal time to hear other people's tales of woe, I left my Mog House. Almost immediately after stepping out the door, a shouted request for a teleport entered my ears. I quickly tracked down the source of the voice, a flustered thief named Sirokuma who proceeded to tell me about his dilemma.

Apparently, he had been planning for a confrontation with a certain demon at Castle Zvahl for quite some time. But despite careful preparation, he managed to oversleep on this, the day of battle. Call it fate, destiny, or kismet, but I had already found exactly what I was looking for.

After a brief negotiation, we agreed that I would give him a free teleport to his destination, and he would allow me to accompany him so I might cover the event.

Unfortunately for the both of us, the demon in question never appeared that day. It is not an altogether uncommon occurrence, but it nevertheless provided us with a quaint little hard luck story. After we parted ways, I asked several other adventurers about their unfortunate experiences.

"During my training days, I used to wear Conquest armor," said Kaientag. "People used to always mistake me for a mage, and invite me out on hunts. Let's just say we were mutually disappointed."

The adventurer above hailed from Windurst, where most Conquest items are mage-oriented.

Animal lover Yuwa lamented, "Few people understand the special nature of beastmasters. I usually end up hunting alone in a remote area."

Indeed, beastmasters do possess a unique style of fighting. Surely, more than a few adventurers have been saved by their distinctive skills when a group of monsters impeded their paths.

Novice treasure hunter Seshiru remarked, "That exorbitantly expensive pirate treasure map I bought in Kazham is worth a few tears." Ah, a kindred spirit! Do not despair so, for I am another who was seduced by those enticing words...

"During my first days as a bard, my songs often failed, much to the lament of my party," sighed Chrona. "So, I trained real hard to be effective in battle, but then they told me just to stick with ballads!"

Perhaps the greatest shame and misfortune that bards could face is having their songs ignored ("No, no, listen! The good part's coming up!").

"After a grueling battle, I finally beat Maat," recounted tragic hero Gallve, "but then I died from the poison he inflicted on me moments before the battle ended, and he didn't accept it as a victory!"

Win the battle, but lose the war--sadly, such scenarios are more commonplace than one would think.

"I found a treasure chest and gleefully went in search of a key," said Juli, "but when I finally returned with one, the chest was empty."

Treasure chest keys can become quite a burden on an adventurer's Mog Safe, but few can bring themselves to throw them away.

As I listened to these tales of blunders and mishaps, one thing I noticed was that all the adventurers sounded happy and amused when they told me their hard luck stories, almost as if they were some source of pride.

So what is the reason behind the adventurers' smiles when they tell these rather embarrassing tales? One adventurer I talked to, a white mage named Baptize, provided valuable insight.

One fine day, this mage headed to Gusgen in hopes of discovering a mother lode in the mines, but he quickly found himself marauded by vicious monsters, and was forced to flee for his life.

Strangely enough, this did not dissuade Baptize from returning to the mines. On the contrary, he began visiting Gusgen on a regular basis.

As time passed, Baptize matured into a seasoned adventurer.

Then one day he realized that the monsters in Gusgen were no longer a match for him, and it was that very same day that the mage stopped going there.

On the day I spoke with him, the mage appeared severely battered. With a small laugh, he said, "I was just mining over at Ifrit's Cauldron, and some monsters there just beat me to a pulp."

Apparently, Baptize had become addicted to the thrill he had encountered during his first time in Gusgen, and was now reliving it in another locale.

As I stared at the brand-new sparkling pickaxe on this daring soul's back, I came to a realization. Hard luck stories are not merely events we look back on and regret--they are also valuable, not to mention exciting, experiences that help to keep us on our toes during our adventures.

When I returned home that day, I asked my husband about his hard luck story, and he spouted this one-sentence gem:

"My bride was late to our wedding."

No Comment.

History

FFXIclopedia was the brainchild of Ganiman, a Tarutaru Red Mage, resident of the Phoenix Server and Leader of the linkshell Avengers. The leading FFXI information site at the time, Allakazam, was bogged down with slow load times, poor and out of date information, and a constant stream of intrusive advertisements. Similar problems plagued Somepage, a database site that was full of advertisements for Real-Money Transfer (RMT) groups. Ganiman started a wiki project for Final Fantasy XI using the Mediawiki software in November of 2004 with the name FFXIclopedia – a name suggested by Mierin, a fellow member of Avengers.

At its inception, FFXIclopedia had fewer than five articles. From November 2004 until March 2005, FFXIclopedia saw little progress as the site was not only unknown, but empty. In March 2005 a small group of dedicated users decided to populate FFXIclopedia with information and FFXIclopedia saw its first mini explosion of both users and articles. By the middle of March 2005 there were 850 articles posted on the FFXIclopedia wiki, and by the end of that month, more than 1500. The increase in articles and information led to new users and new contributors, and to almost exponential growth. By the middle of May 2005 there were more 3000 articles and by the middle of June more than 6000 articles. While FFXIclopedia had grown tremendously, much of the basic FFXI information was still being added by only a small group of users.

The second explosion occurred in October 2005 when the FFXIclopedia's Adventuring Fellow Guide was created. This soon became the premiere source of information about this new addition to FFXI and the wiki format shined as new information was constantly emerging – alongside rumors – and the guide was able to keep up with the ever evolving ebb and flow of information. The popularity of the adventuring fellow, and of the guide, led to a major influx of users. Unique visitors to FFXIclopedia, which had been rising steadily, doubled from ~8000 to ~16000 in that month alone.

From that point forward the site grew at an almost out of control rate and by January 2006 there were almost 10,000 articles and 25,000 unique visitors using more than 20GB of bandwidth. The FFXIclopedia was too big to be just an extension of the Avengers website and so a donation drive was held on the wiki to expand it to it's current domain, FFXIclopedia.org. Once on its own domain and server, additional improvements were quickly implemented, including the forums and blog system.

The third explosion of users and information for FFXIclopedia occurred in May of 2006, when Allakhazam officially announced that it has been bought by the same company that owns IGE, a well known RMT group. Fans of Allakhazam expressed their outrage and migrated to FFXIclopedia. While FFXIclopedia had been steadily growing during the first quarter of 2006, May 2006 saw an increase of 20,000 unique visitors to 65,000 and increase of almost 30GB of bandwidth to 75GB.

The exponential growth has continued, with the FFXIclopedia having more than 230,000 unique visitors and using more than 600GB per month in January 2007. In 4th quarter of 2007, wikia.com acquired the FFXIclopedia domains, and has been instrumental in stablizing the backend and providing a number of significant enhancements to the user interface. Growth has continued, and for the 30 days from mid-April to mid-May 2008 the wiki has seen more 420,000 unique visitors pass through.

This tremendous growth is not without bumps in the road. The Mediawiki software allows users to edit what another user has written, and at times such changes can be contentious. Users have debated with passion and sometimes with personal attacks. While debate over the information is not only good, but necessary, personal attacks are not tolerated. Dedicated contributors to the FFXIclopedia wiki have unfortunately stopped contributing due to personal attacks from other users. In addition to these difficulties, copyright issues have been raised concerning the source of information and user contributions to the FFXIclopedia wiki. At the inception of the FFXIclopedia wiki, various copyright issues were arguably unclear, and were challenged by certain contributors who felt that their additions to the FFXIclopedia wiki could not be changed without their permission. Such an interpretation defeats the purpose behind the collaborative nature of the FFXIclopedia wiki – which is intended to allow any user to update the information contained on the site. In March 2005 the FFXIclopedia wiki adopted the GNU Free Documentation License with the intention that all non-copyrighted information posted on the wiki is allowed to be edited, copied and distributed.

The Wiki

The main information section of the site. The wiki is where the 30,168 articles about Final Fantasy XI reside. In addition to the FFXI content, we have expanded the wiki to include certain fun activies, such a the never ending quiz, friending, gifting, and receiving awards for various actions in the wiki. We've also implemented an 18 level ranking system in the wiki - which can be seen at Help:User Levels.

The Forums

General forum courtesy must be followed at all times. That's the basic rule. Moderators and administrators are active participants and enforcers of the forum rules.

Forum Ranks:

• The number of posts you have determines your rank.

0-49: Too Weak

50-249: Easy Prey

250-749: Decent Challenge

750-1499: Even Match

1500-2499: Tough

2500-4999: Very Tough

5000+: Incredibly Tough

Moderator: Impossible to Gauge!

The Blog Section

Typically dealing with your life in Final Fantasy XI, each member is permitted to have their own blog. To start your own, please go here.

The Chat Area

Administration

Retired