A visitor in your apartments...

[Dionysos]

Has anyone else noticed the bird that sometimes flies into your apartment in the Crystarium? It appears at random in various positions, and it took me a while to register its presence.

Spoiler: I've placed some spoilers over the images only because of some minor environmental spoilers for Shadowbringers.

Has anybody else noticed this? Is this something which happens in apartments elsewhere in FFXIV? I haven't really spent much time in the others.


Not sure if I should be taking this little visitor as a dark omen or the sign of a blossoming friendship.

 

[shivas]

this creepy shoebill shows up EVERYWHERE (ShB areas), people actually have theories (spoilers) about it

 

[Jake]

Apparently that's Emet. It appears all over during the MSQ. Make sense given the plot; he'd want to keep an eye on you.

I wouldn't really say this is a spoiler since it's just a side tidbit.

 

[Dionysos]

this creepy shoebill shows up EVERYWHERE (ShB areas), people actually have theories (spoilers) about it

Apparently that's Emet. It appears all over during the MSQ. Make sense given the plot; he'd want to keep an eye on you.

I wouldn't really say this is a spoiler since it's just a side tidbit.

Well this turned out to be considerably deeper than I anticipated!

I don’t remember noticing the repeated appearance of the shoebill. That’s VERY interesting. That it is the minion drop for Amaurot, that it points you towards the Exarch at Kholusia, etc, it certainly does lend itself to theory crafting.

Here is a list of sightings that I’ve just found by following a Twitter rabbit hole:

Spoiler: Sightings of the shoebill

https://twitter.com/x/status/1255258483626295299

[Best to click the Twitter thread and scroll down to see them all]

Wow….

Considering how long I spend scouring the environment for any little hint of something interesting to write about, I have no idea how I missed this.

Although I do not remember it, I must have seen the shoebill on the cliffs of Kholusia indicating towards the Exarch in my play through, if it is unskippable, but I do not remember noticing it during the binoculars/dart/etc mini-games. [After drafting this reply I went back to my PS4 (I record my entire FFXIV journey) and found that I did interact with the shoebill near the Exarch, but the scene which followed obviously pushed it from my mind.]


If this shoebill represents Emet-Selch (an idea which I love), then I wonder how. Earlier appearances are easier to consider. But what about post-MSQ Shadowbringers appearances? There are apparently a few additional appearances and then also the apartment visits in the OP.

Another possibility is that this shoebill is Emet-Selch’s familiar, or that he somehow transferred a part of himself into it before his death. Not quite his soul, but part of his essence in order to continue to observe the party and enact his other plan concerning Elidibus in patch 5.3.

The possible connection with Emet-Selch intrigues me a lot. I spent a long time analysing Emet-Selch as Hades last year.

Not that the ancient Greek Lord of the Underworld is actually affiliated with the shoebill (an African bird). The closest to a bird being directly associated with Hades that I am aware of is the screech-owl. Still, Hades being associated with omens, and metamorphosing or even simply employing a bird with an unnerving stare as a spy is fairly in-keeping with either the character or Greek mythology in general.

The FFXIV shoebill also stands completely still like a statue, and the comments people make about it in-game do emphasise this quality. This is just like the real bird, which can be completely still while hunting (apparently, following some brief research I just did on the internet – I’m no expert and know very little about the shoebill).

In short (in Owen Wilson's voice): wow.