a shared journey

For all that Ardbert says he’s coming along, you don’t actually see him in the first two areas you visit. Though he does provide narration as you enter, e.g. for Kholusia:

The whistling breeze, mute. The pounding surf, frozen. Time itself takes a breath... At light’s edge, all is perfectly still. The world captured in a painting, locked in a moment. Music, faint and fleeting, drifts coastward on the lifeless air. And in the distance, beyond the broken earth, a city beckons...

Now, all expansion zones have a narrator who remarks on some general features of the terrain or the plot points that have brought you there, but Ardbert’s stand out for how dreary they are. In this one, for instance, you can feel the emptiness of the horizon. It will perhaps not surprise you to learn that Kholusia is desolate under the blinding light above, with few structures save a strange city that seems to rise from the waves. It’s a strange place bereft of hope, and Ardbert doesn’t shy away from that in his narration.

Regardless, Ardbert doesn’t reappear until after you defeat the first Lightwarden. Rather than comment on the return of the night (at least over Lakeland), he instead asks after your friends Alisaie and Alphinaud, who he remembers from the Source.

Ardbert: Then I suggest you keep them close. It's when you charge ahead trying to save someone else that you lose those you love. Not that you need telling, I'll bet you've lost plenty. But I wonder...what will it cost you this time? I don't remember when it was that I learned regret wasn't worth the bother. You get numb to it all over the years. The lost comrades, the broken promises, the abandoned principles ─ just more nagging burdens to ignore.

Cheerful, Ardbert. But it speaks a lot to his frame of mind, and the game itself gives a bit of context here. Immediately before you see Ardbert, the game informs you that you need to do one of the role quests to beat this expansion. These quests are about chasing down the Cardinal Virtues — sin eaters who used to be Ardbert’s friends and companions, his fellow Warriors of Light. There’s little left of his friends but monsters, and as usual, you’re the only one who can help put them to rest.

But not all of Ardbert’s friends are gone.

Your next destination is Il Mheg, the faerie kingdom. In Ardbert’s time it was the kingdom of Voeburt, which is the First’s analogue to Ishgard. Ardbert even tells you briefly about Voeburt, making it clear how much he misses it. But the kingdom is long gone, and instead fae folk roam the lands — pixies, Fuath, Nu Mou, and amaro.

The fae folk are scattered about Il Mheg in their own individual enclaves. North, in the ruined town of Wolekdorf, live the amaro. In the First, amaro are akin to chocobos — they’re big feathered creatures who deign to give people rides. Except the amaro of Il Mheg aren’t like the trained amaro back in the Crystarium. Here, amaro can talk.

Most notable among them is their leader, Seto. You initially meet Seto because you’re trying to get a certain item so you can enter the castle in the middle of the region and fight the Lightwarden; the key has been split into separate pieces held by the four fae tribes of Il Mheg. But Seto does not wish for you to have the item you seek. Not out of malice, but rather concern: Seto doesn’t want you to get hurt.

As is usual with these scenarios, you help out around the area and prove your worth. Eventually Seto asks you to do a favor for him: retrieve a medallion he’d lost in the lake. You do so, and Seto thanks you and explains the medallion’s provenance: it was given to him by a traveler who he once journeyed with, a man called Ardbert.

Seto: Everyone blamed him for the Flood. Him and his comrades. Some few spoke up for them ─ of the many whose lives they had touched. But as the years went by, their voices were drowned out by those who only uttered the adventurers' names as a curse... It was too much to bear. And so I left behind men and their lies and came to this place.
Ardbert was a trusting soul, constantly being drawn into the troubles of others. Yet in spite of this, he never thought twice when he saw someone in need. He always tried to help. It was no different then. The world needed heroes ─ it needed him. And yet... He was a good man. He deserved to be happy. I wish I could have told him that, at least...

To really twist the knife deeper, Ardbert is standing right there listening to Seto tell you this. At the end, he’s so overwhelmed with emotion that he turns and walks away, with no one but you ever knowing he was there at all.

This is, beyond anything else, the true tragedy of Ardbert’s character. He carries so much guilt for what happened to the First, but he can no longer affect the world or anything in it. All he can do is listen as other people talk about him and his deeds. Seto is one of the very few who remembers him with kindness rather than hatred, but he can’t even reach out and connect with his one remaining friend.

At least he’s got you.

When you return to the Crystarium, you find a most surprising guest: the Ascian Emet-Selch, who seeks to join your party in the name of finding common ground. This is the equivalent of the final boss joining your party, and it’s a lot to take in.

Ardbert, who’s waiting in your room, is quick to make his opinion of the Ascian clear.

Ardbert: It's Emet-Selch we should be concerned about. When our world was about to be consumed by Light, the Ascian in white appeared before us. He said that the only way for us to live on was to bring about the Rejoining. Desperate as we were, we heeded his words, not realizing that the Flood was of the Ascians' own making. They cannot be trusted. None of them. But Emet-Selch had one thing right: one should not fight blindly. That's what we did. And it cost us everything we held dear.

What I find particularly noteworthy about this dialogue is that by now, Ardbert clearly counts himself as your ally. It’s not that he was being particularly antagonistic before, but there’s a big difference between talking to someone and counting yourself among them. His words are meant to steer you away from making his mistakes, so that his world might be saved.

In a lot of ways, it’s easy to see Ardbert as living again through you. You’re in this together, after all.

The other notable dialogue in this section is that you can talk to Ardbert about Seto. This is one of those scenes that changes based on which dialogue choice you pick; you can see all three options at the bottom of this page. Ardbert is kind enough to ask after your chocobo, who you have had as a companion since the early hours of the game.

Amusingly, his other dialogue option brings up memories of one of the worst parts of ARR’s fetchquests. Apparently some things are the same across all worlds.

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