Final Fantasy XI: Days of Starlight or #FFXIDoS OR #FinalFantasyXI:DaysOfStarlight

[Editor's note: hiya, Sys here. This is a voice over script for a YouTube video. I've noted a couple of spots where I use expressions like 'this video' or 'this channel', but I've left them unchanged (and probably missed some others) and added this note in the beginning to explain why the text flows weirdly at spots; this isn't the format I was envisioning when I was writing it.]

In darkness,
seek joy.
Surrender not to sadness, and see beyond despair.
Walk free, and bear the light for others to follow.
Together,
raise it aloft and let it shine,
till the end, blinding and radiant.

As fragmented,
imperfect beings,
yours is a never-ending quest.
A quest to find your purpose,
knowing your end is assured.
To find the strength to continue, when all strength has left you.
To find joy, even as darkness descends.
And amidst deepest despair, light everlasting.

We too are miracles, each and every one of us.
Born of the warm breath of life that traverses the heavens,
swirling through eternity.
When I fully grasped the improbability of our existence, nothing felt impossible any more.
If it could be imagined, it could be done.

Lands that stretched on forever.
Skies one could drown in.
The heartbeat of nature, silent yet strong.
And amidst it all a people.
Beacons of light and life.
Laughter that warmed my heart like naught else before.
They are my meaning and my purpose.
My love.

These are the words of Venat, from various points throughout Final Fantasy XIV's Endwalker expansion. They are the words that have, now looking back on the time of me hearing her speak them for the first time, changed my life for the better.

And they are the words that eventually led to the FFXI social media community event, #FFXIDaysOfStarlight, FFXIDoS for short.

Hiya. My name is Systina and today I'd like to talk a little bit about the community event I first envisioned and about its future.

It was about a week before the start of December in 2024. The hype around FFXI was building up, due to the FFXI Adventurers' Survey and the release of the first alliance raid of the Echoes of Vana'diel raid series in FFXIV happening both in November.

I was following the FFXI discussion on reddit and most importantly to this story, on Bluesky. Bsky was just gaining popularity and I'd chosen to make an account for this Youtube channel on there, just in case someone wanted to reach out to me and mostly to just see what's going on. FFXI had a pretty good little community on there and it built itself up, little by little, every day. From what I remember, a lot of the discussion was actually surrounding the Jeuno raid in XIV, and it clogged up the Final Fantasy XI Feed for a few weeks. But, in between the screenshots of the high quality remodels in XIV, were screenshots of people installing PlayOnline. Asking for help with the setup process and what to do with the first few hours of their time in Vana'diel. And I saw people answering their questions, validating their struggles and sending the resources that I'd been sent towards just a few short months back.

I got this strong, all encompassing desire to do something. To welcome the new adventurers, to reinvigorate the old players, to show Square Enix that there is strong community support for their ancient MMO, even in the English speaking internet.
That desire manifested itself into a blind messaging spree, with me asking people I saw posting a lot vaguely if they'd be interested in putting something together.

And somehow, even to this day I can't really explain how, it ended up in a few days with a basic, unkempt and non-organised discord server with around 5 people.
And together, we made the Question of the Day-posts that became the most visible and activating part of the whole community event.

At the end, I feel like I contributed very little. But that doesn't really matter. Because everyone did as much or as little as they wanted to, contributed as much as they were able and willing. And it turned out to be a fantastical and majestic December.
The QotDs got so many more responses than I could have ever imagined, on bsky, on reddit and on twitter. There were fanart and screenshots. There was the birth of the Azure Skies linkshell on Bahamut. I learnt so much about FFXI from people sharing their experiences with the game. It truly was a time of wonder, for me and for others.

This isn't an objective retelling of the history of FFXI:DoS 2024. I had wished to try and make that video, but I am unable to do that this year. I feel I may be unable to do much of anything for Days of Starlight, except for the following declaration of my wishes and desires and dreams. I've been living maybe the best year of my relatively short life this year and reality has caught up with me. My efforts are needed elsewhere than with FFXI:DoS.
However. FFXI:DoS is a community event. And I am not the sole member of the FFXI community.

Because the nature of FFXIDoS, the core idea behind it, was always "let's do something small together, for the enjoyment of others, to show everyone; Square Enix, people curious about trying XI for the first time, people who haven't touched it since the 00s, and everyone in between, that there is community here".
So, I would like to speak to you, directly. You can keep it going, by doing something small or big, with your time in this world or in Vana'diel, and sharing it with other people, in some way.

If FFXI has brought you joy, calm, laughter, frustration, embarrassment, please share it. You might not change the world or strengthen FFXI's position in the eyes of the wider gaming community on your own; but we have done so, together.

Who is the we I'm referring to? I do not know. But I'm very curious to know more about them, about every single one of them. The bonds forged in and now, with social media enabling discussion with a wider circle of people, around Vana'diel change people for life, even if they might not consciously feel so themselves.
It has changed me. It has changed a lot of the people I've talked with. It's very special in the way it impacts a person, if they are willing, eager even to be taken for a walk, an adventure through FFXI. The game gives them tools, other players guide them in how to use them and they go on to make their own fun, alone, with trusts, with other players like them. Perhaps one day I'll discuss how I find FFXI so beautiful and unique with more words and facts, but for now, I'd like to hear your thoughts. I'd like to see you share them with other people in this community as well.
I'd like to see friendship and discussion and shared projects and interests.
So, I'm extending my hand, to you.
You do not need permission from anyone. You do not even have to take my hand. It's there, if it's easier for you to imagine grasping it, to start something.
I have been scared, terrified in my life, of being seen as needy or opportunistic or simply not good enough, not creative enough, not dedicated enough, to do anything. I do mean, anything.

However, now I believe creativity is something all humans are born with. It is integral to our historical and on-going survival as a species on the planet Earth. That planet, I feel and think, is burning, crumbling and rotting around me, and sadly, the vast majority of my people, my species, is simply closing their eyes and ears from the pain of it all, in order to not be terrified to their core.
I've faced that terror. Felt it with every cell of my being, in every muscle in my physical body. I felt it for years. It was the prevailing feeling I had, every day, and it stopped me from living life, anywhere but in Eorzea.

So when I say I'm extending my hand, I'm reaching out for yours and asking for you to grasp mine back. In it, I hold a ball of light, while darkness surrounds us all.
That ball of light is my one of my deepest desires and fondest memories; 2024's Final Fantasy XI: Days of Starlight-community event.
Please, take it and remember it.
Please remember it, when you feel like the darkness of life surrounds you, the worry and the stress and the hustle and hurry.
May it give you strength to keep walking on.
To find the strength to find a path you wish to walk on.
To find the strength to make your own ball of light, that brings you more joy than anything you've ever seen before. It brings you joy unlike anything you've ever before, because you made that. It is yours to do anything you wish with.
And I hope, with all my heart, that you have found the strength to raise it aloft, for others to see, to find joy in and to inspire them to repeat this cycle, over and over again.

So, if you come across this video [EN: or this pastebin!], or hear about that time FFXI players celebrated Starlight together on social media, even if it has been years and years since the last time, you're more than welcome to start it all up again.

As my last decree as a sort of authority on this event hashtag, I make the following guidelines for the future. It is my desire these be followed by the people posting creations of any kind under the hashtag #FFXIDaysOfStarlight, its variational spellings or the shortened version #FFXIDoS. The exact wordings are to not be taken as gospel; the words we use to describe the world around us change over time. These guidelines may be rewritten in the future to better, more specifically serve their purpose: to keep dipshits out and welcome the curious and joyful.

1. Act in good faith, first presume that from others as well
People have diverse backgrounds and have different opinions. Respect that and be respected in turn. Should someone repeatedly act in bad faith, offensively, after being kindly told to stop and examine their actions, blocking and moving on is the only valid course of action.

2. Human rights are not a matter of opinion or debate
It saddens me that I have to even write this out, but with the way the world is in 2025, it needs to be stated very expressly. Anyone's gender identity is not a matter of debate. Anyone's sexual identity is not a matter of debate. Anyone's racial identity is not a matter of debate. Anyone's cultural identity is not a matter of debate. Let people be who they are.

3. "Retail vs. private server?"
There is no universal 'real' FFXI experience, it means different things for different people. Retail and private server have different qualities, which makes some prefer retail over private server and vice versa. Both are valid ways of enjoying FFXI, just as much as just not playing it at all is valid. There is to be no debate on which is 'better', that debate has been talked to death already and this event is not about that. It's about sharing your feelings, experiences and creations; both retail and private server players are welcome to do just that.

4. Mature or/and sexually explicit content is allowed, with additional tags/disclaimers/Content Warnings (CW)
With the current social media landscape turning towards censoring these aspects of human behaviour, this also needs to be stated expressly. If you're posting creations that could be considered 'mature' and/or 'sexually explicit', tagging that content as such is helpful to other people, who might not want to come across this specific type of theme, so they can block the tag and not have to see stuff they don't want to see. This guideline exists to foster good internet practices, by respecting other peoples' limits and giving them the option to filter what stuff they see, and in firm defiance the current wave of internet censorship. Your freak stuff is welcome, please just tag it as such for the comfort of others.
Have fun!

5. As long as it doesn't conflict with any of the other 4 guidelines; go ham. Enjoy it.

In true FFXI player fashion, I appear for a split moment for the first time in 11 months and I will now disappear, back into the aether where I came from. If you'd like to hear from me a bit more actively, feel free follow me on Bsky. I repost FFXI things (and cute women) And feel free to celebrate Final Fantasy XI: Days of Starlight in whatever way feels meaningful to you; that's the true spirit of the season. If you ever feel like you need a push forward, this video [EN: THIS pastebin!!] is here for you.
Toodles.

[EN: my bsky is systinya.bsky.social and my youtube is systinaFF
Y'know, just in case this shows up as a random search result a few years from now and someone is curious about the whole thing. Reach out, I'll probably yap your ear off very happily ^^]