I’ve been playing through Final Fantasy XI for the last couple of weeks because I found out that my friends were starting new characters.

For those of you who don’t know, Final Fantasy XI is a MMORPG… otherwise known as a massive, living, breathing world… in which players fight alongside each other to complete quests, kill Notorious Monsters, and to gain precious Experience Points, among other things. I play on the Cerberus server, in case anyone reading plays this game.

This is my character Ninevan on the Airship to Kazham, admiring the beautiful landscape in front of me. This picture should sate your graphical appetite.

About the same time I got my Kazham Keys, I got a Chocobo License, and I immediately proceeded to run about the countryside in glee with my feathered friend. I came across all kinds of weird and interesting creatures, such as this living tree:

After my excitement with the Chocobo ceased, I went about levelling with some friends for a while in hopes that I would reach level 30 and be able to finally access advanced jobs, such as the Dragoon.

After I finally hit 30, I realized that I had to go on a freaking quest to actually become a Dragoon, which kinda pissed me off, but made it more rewarding. The quest is suuuuuuper loooooong, but luckily I had some mates from my LinkShell (a.k.a., Guild) help me out, and so I was able to finish the quest in only one or two hours.

And so my Dragon was born, and I became a happy man. (Special thanks to Thantatos and Pasoheso for help with the quest!)