The Seventh Umbral Era
The Awakening: Five years after the Calamity (where the primal Bahamut devastated Eorzea), the Warrior of Light (WoL) arrives in one of the three city-states (Gridania, Limsa Lominsa, or Ul'dah).
The Primal Threat: Beast tribes summon their gods (Primals) using crystals. The WoL joins the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, a secret order dedicated to stopping this threat, and defeats Ifrit, Titan, and Garuda.
The Garlean Invasion: The Garlean Empire, a magitek-wielding superpower led by Legatus Gaius van Baelsar, invades Eorzea. They uncover the Ultima Weapon, an ancient Allagan machine capable of absorbing Primals.
Operation Archon: The Eorzean Alliance unites, breaches the Garlean strongholds, and destroys the Ultima Weapon. The Ascians (immortal, shadow-dwelling manipulators) are revealed as the true string-pullers orchestrating chaos to resurrect their dark god, Zodiark.
The Bloody Banquet: The Scions establish a grand company, the Crystal Braves. However, they are corrupted by Ul'dahn syndicates. The Sultana of Ul'dah is seemingly assassinated, the WoL is framed, and the Scions are scattered. The WoL flees north to the isolationist city of Ishgard.
The Dragonsong War
Asylum in Ishgard: The WoL is granted asylum in Ishgard, a theocracy locked in a thousand-year war with the Dravanian dragon horde led by the great wyrm Nidhogg.
The Hidden Truth: Through a journey with Alphinaud, the dragoon Estinien, and the heretic Ysayle, the WoL discovers the Dragonsong War is built on a lie. Ishgard's founding fathers murdered the dragon Ratatoskr for her immense power, triggering Nidhogg's eternal vengeance.
Fall of the Archbishop: Archbishop Thordan VII attempts to become a Primal god to forcibly end the war and rule the world. The WoL defeats Thordan and his knights at Azys Lla, a floating Allagan continent.
The Final Chorus: Estinien is possessed by Nidhogg's eyes. The WoL and allies eventually separate them, slaying Nidhogg's shade and bringing true peace between men and dragons.
Warriors of Darkness & Shinryu: A group of Warriors of Darkness from a parallel world (the First) arrive to force a Calamity. They are stopped and sent home. Meanwhile, a radical resistance leader summons a massive primal, Shinryu, to attack the Garlean Empire. The Scion Papalymo sacrifices himself to seal Shinryu temporarily.
The Liberation Campaigns
The Ala Mhigan Resistance: The Eorzean Alliance pushes to liberate Ala Mhigo from the Garlean Empire. They are brutally defeated by Zenos yae Galvus, the sadistic Garlean crown prince.
Journey to the Far East: To stretch Imperial forces thin, the WoL travels to the Far Eastern continent of Othard to liberate the nation of Doma. They rally pirate fleets, nomadic tribes, and the Doman resistance, successfully overthrowing the local viceroy, Yotsuyu.
The Fall of Zenos: Returning to Ala Mhigo, the Eorzean Alliance launches a full-scale assault. Zenos bonds with the captive primal Shinryu. The WoL defeats Zenos, who subsequently slits his own throat in a twisted sense of fulfillment. Ala Mhigo is liberated.
The Calling: Following the war, members of the Scions begin suddenly falling comatose, their souls violently pulled to an unknown destination.
The Black Rose Threat: The Garlean Empire fractures into civil war, but a faction begins producing "Black Rose," a chemical weapon that halts aetheric flow, threatening Eorzea with mass death.
The Warrior of Darkness
Crossing the Rift: The WoL's soul is summoned to the First, a parallel reflection of their world. Time flows differently here. The First is on the brink of being annihilated by a flood of Light and monstrous beings called Sin Eaters.
The Lightwardens: To save both the First and their home world (which would be destroyed if the First falls), the WoL becomes the Warrior of Darkness. They hunt the Lightwardens to restore night to the sky.
The Truth of the Ascians: Emet-Selch, an Ascian leader, travels with the WoL. He reveals that their world is shattered; long ago, it was a utopia destroyed by the Final Days. The Ascians summoned Zodiark to save it, then the world was sundered into 14 shards by the goddess Hydaelyn. The Ascians cause Calamities to rejoin the shards and resurrect their sacrificed people.
Shadowbringer: The WoL, overwhelmed by the Light they absorbed from the Wardens, manages to contain it and slays Emet-Selch in the phantom ancient city of Amaurot.
The Seat of Sacrifice: Elidibus, the final unsundered Ascian, summons spectral Warriors of Light to destroy the WoL. He is defeated and absorbed into the Crystal Tower.
The Telophoroi: Back in the source world, Zenos is resurrected. He allies with Fandaniel, a rogue, nihilistic Ascian. They form the Telophoroi, erecting massive towers to drain the land's aether and recreate the Final Days.
The Final Days
The Moon and Zodiark: The WoL travels to the Sharlayan motherland and then to Garlemald, finding the Empire completely destroyed by civil war and Fandaniel's machinations. The WoL travels to the Moon to prevent Zodiark's release, but Fandaniel forces a confrontation. Zenos slays Zodiark.
The Skies Burn: With Zodiark—who acted as a shield—dead, the Final Days return. The sky burns, and people are transformed into blasphemous monsters by negative emotion (Dynamis).
Time Travel to Elpis: The WoL travels thousands of years into the past to the ancient world (Elpis). They discover that Meteion, an empathic familiar created by the ancient Hermes (Fandaniel's past self), was sent into deep space to find the meaning of life. Finding only dead or dying civilizations, she concluded that non-existence is the only salvation and began singing a song of oblivion at the edge of the universe.
Ultima Thule: The Eorzean Alliance constructs a spaceship (the Ragnarok) powered by the Mothercrystal. The WoL journeys to the edge of the universe, confronts Meteion (the Endsinger), and defeats her with the aid of Zenos, who demanded one final, private duel to the death. The Final Days are stopped.
The Thirteenth: Following the universe's salvation, the WoL ventures into the Void (the Thirteenth reflection) to rescue a great dragon, Azdaja. They battle Golbez and his archfiends, ultimately breaking the cycle of darkness in the Void.
The Golden City of Tural
The Rite of Succession: The WoL travels west across the sea to the continent of Tural (The New World) to assist Wuk Lamat in the Rite of Succession, a peaceful contest to become the new Dawnservant and rule the unified nation of Tuliyollal.
The Cyber-Assault: During the rite, a massive, futuristic dome suddenly appears over the northern region of Heritage Found. A technologically advanced army from Alexandria (a nation from a different reflection) invades Tuliyollal, killing citizens to harvest their life force (soul aether).
The Endless: The WoL infiltrates Alexandria and discovers it is ruled by an AI recreation of their deceased queen, Sphene. Her objective is to conquer other shards and harvest their inhabitants' aether to eternally sustain "The Endless"—digital recreations of Alexandria's dead citizens residing in the Golden City of Living Memory.
Erasing the Past to Save the Future: To stop Sphene from consuming all parallel worlds, the WoL travels through Living Memory, systematically shutting down the servers maintaining the Endless, granting them peace. The WoL defeats Sphene's terminal core, neutralizing the threat and securing Tural's future under its new leadership.