Lothaire, a guard at Galvanth’s Spire, wants you to visit the Hedgetree.
Lothaire: I have another task for you, adventurer. I need you to head to the Hedgetree to the southwest of here and speak with Hearer Leonnie. Lothaire: After tending to the Hedgetree, the Hearer was scheduled to board a boat from the Mirror Planks… Well, the vessel’s departure time has come and gone, but there is still no sign of her. Lothaire: Knowing how absorbed the Hearer becomes in her work, I am not unduly concerned. Armelle, however, was responsible for organizing Leonnie’s transportation and is likely wondering if her wayward passenger is ever going to arrive. Perhaps a gentle reminder is in order?
Leonnie: Yes, what troubles you, my de─? Ah. Yes. The boat. I had quite forgotten. Leonnie: Hm? Oh, my task with the Hedgetree is well and finished, but the elementals murmur of a malevolent presence in the vicinity of the Tam-Tara Deepcroft. Leonnie: I must abide a while longer, that I might better divine the source of the elementals’ distress. Please inform Armelle that I shall be late in arriving.
Armelle: You bear a message from Hearer Leonnie? An evil presence in the Deepcroft? That does sound grave, indeed. Armelle: I shall organize a vessel for a later time, then. Perhaps a bell from now? Two? Better make it three, just to be safe. Thank you for your trouble.
In 1840, the highly British 3rd Earl of Rosse noted this object through his 0.9 meter—long telescope and sketched out what he saw. The drawing looked like a crab and so the Crab Nebula’s nome came to be. Eight years later, the 3rd Earl of Rosse had upgraded to a double—size telescope and was like, “oh wait no it doesn’t look like a crab” but no one cared, so that was that. The Crab Nebula is 6,500 light years away from us and is the fallout from a supernova that happened in 1054 AD. The effects of the supernova are still so powerful that the nebula keeps expanding at an incredible rate of about 1,500 km/s.
Leofric would like you to deliver an item to Horizon.
Leofric: As you may have noticed, I’m in no shape to leave Lost Hope right now. So, in my stead, I’d like you to return to Horizon and give this dagger to Fufulupa. Leofric: Although it’s just an old, ornamental dagger, it belongs with the Brass Blades of the Rose. Leofric: Aye, I should’ve given it to the boy before I came here…
Fufulupa: Ah, Marion! I received word from Captain Leofric the other day. Thank you for delivering the letter for me! Fufulupa: Wh-Why do you have that dagger!? Only a captain of the Brass Blades of the Rose is permitted to possess it! Fufulupa: Captain Leofric says I am to have it? There must be some mistake! Fufulupa: He couldn’t possibly mean to tell me that─ No, no, of course not. I am not worthy to wield it. Fufulupa: Nevertheless, I shall respect the captain’s wishes and take the dagger into safekeeping until he comes to reclaim it.
This cone—shaped nebula, 2,700 light years away from us and a neighbor of the festive Christmas Tree Cluster, stands an outrageous 15 light years high. If the Cone Nebula were the height of a 50—story skyscraper, our Solar System would be the size of a 10 cm drink coaster and our Sun would be the size of a silt particle, far too small to see with the naked eye.
Ahtbyrm is looking for a member of his crew and the items he was supposed to deliver.
Ahtbyrm: Where in the seven hells is that man!? Not once in twelve moons has he been late with a shipment, and now two whole turns of the sun without a single word. Ahtbyrm: A shipwright of mine─a young man named Fyrilsmyd─recently left Candlekeep Quay to retrieve several crates of supplies ordered from Limsa Lominsa…but has yet to return. Ahtbyrm: I have sent several missives to Haldbroda, but his replies are always the same. He does not recall ever seeing the wright, nor the supplies he was scheduled to collect. That man knows something, and I severely doubt he is telling me the whole truth. Ahtbyrm: As I cannot leave my post, I would ask you to travel to Candlekeep Quay in my stead and inform Haldbroda that if he insists on playing these games, I will personally see that he is transferred to Turtleback Island, where he can rot alone in the middle of the sea for eternity.
Haldbroda: Eh? Does that self-righteous dog Ahtbyrm doubt that I’ve never told him anything less than the truth!? Haldbroda: Turtleback Island!? He cannot do that…can he? Haldbroda: I swear on my poor nana’s grave, Navigator rest her soul, I know naught of this Fyrilsmyd, nor his precious supplies. Haldbroda: Hells, we here at the Quay have had enough trouble these past few suns, what with the sinking of that Lominsan cargo ship off the Salt Strand. I haven’t the time to take a proper piss, let alone make note of every scrag that wanders in off the Grip.
The strong interaction is, as suggested by its name, the strongest of all interactions. It is about a hundred times stronger than electromagnetism (and about a hundred trillion trillion trillion times stronger than gravity). How is it possible that we almost never hear about this interaction if it has such an immense strength? The problem is that its range is just billionth of a millionth of a meter. It may seem that a force with such a short range would never be able to influence our universe in a significant way, but the truth is that without the strong interaction, humans would never be able to exist.
As already mentioned, the universe was flooded with elementary particles right after the Big Bang. Those then started clumping together to create composite particles – quarks started forming protons and neutrons. But what caused them to attract? Why were quarks so keen on creating more complex particles? As you may already suspect, the attraction between individual quarks was provided by the strong interaction.
It does not end here, though. The strong interaction is to blame for another crucial phenomenon of our reality – the existence of atoms. We already know from the previous chapter that the same electric charges repulse each other. However, this means that protons in the nuclei of complex atoms should repulse and escape into all conceivable directions. But the strong interaction ensures that protons remain together. If electromagnetism were just a tiny bit stronger than the strong interaction, the existence of atoms would simply be impossible.
The final force, the weak interaction, may be the least known and the least interesting of all interactions. However, this is not to say it is not important. The weak interaction has the power to turn a neutron into a proton. Why would it do that? Within some atoms, there is an unstable ratio between the number of electrons and the number of protons in the nucleus. And the weak interaction is here to make sure that this instability is eliminated. When there are too many neutrons in a nucleus, the weak force simply turns one of them into a proton. This phenomenon is called the beta decay.
As we know from the first chapter, the number of protons in the nucleus determines what atom we are dealing with. But this means that any time an atom undergoes beta decay, which adds one proton into its nucleus, the whole atom changes into a different element. The weak interaction can therefore turn carbon into nitrogen or hydrogen into helium just by turning neutrons into protons.
And that is all. We have reached the end of the story of interactions. They make sure that our universe functions the way it does and without them, we would have never existed – perhaps with the exception of the weak interaction, which is the only one that does not affect the course of the cosmos in a significant way. Now, we can focus our attention on another fascinating element of our universe – huge fusion factories which are making billions of photons each moment.
Eylgar would like to impose upon the kindness of an adventurer.
Eylgar: You’re quite the compassionate adventurer, by the sound of it. Well far be it from me to look a gift chocobo in the mouth─I have need of a capable man like yourself. Eylgar: We received a peddler at the gates the other day─an excitable Lalafell that was sweating and swearing that he had been attacked by large winged beasts. Yet other than hornets, I know of no flying creatures in this region. Eylgar: If there’s any truth to what he said, it might prove problematic for other travelers. Follow the road south and see if you can find any evidence to support his claim. Eylgar: And, should you find something, kindly tell Lothaire to patrol his area sometime instead of just standing beneath the spire and staring at the godsdamned road. In those words.
Lothaire: …A northern vulture? Two? And they were defending a nest!? Lothaire: Well, I, uh…perhaps we could omit that last detail from any official reports. I would rather not give Eylgar any further cause to be cross. Lothaire: Thank you for slaying the beasts. You may rest assured that I will not permit this to happen again.
Keishinrei 