When starting the game, players are only given access to 6 of the 22 jobs. These are the classic Final Fantasy 1 jobs: Warrior, Thief, Monk, White Mage, Black Mage, and Red Mage. The others must be unlocked- here’s the questline for one of them, alongside some backstory for a character seen in the Windurst story.
A Ranger’s Story: The Sin Hunters
The Mithra are not native to Windurst, but are rather from a continent far to the south. They have their own home away from home in the Windurst Woods however, where their chieftainess, Perih Vashai, resides.
There are some rumors that the aging chieftainess plans on passing her position onto the Sibyl Guard Semih Lafihna, but they are just that- rumors.
Many of the Mithra who live in Windurst now only came during the Crystal War, and a great deal of them lost their lives in the Meriphataud Mountains during the war. These days, the Mithra of Windurst Woods often ask any adventurers who pass through the mountains to bring back any twinstone earrings they might fight there, so that they may honor the Mithran warriors who left them behind. Rapifafa herself had come across a few of these in her adventures.
The Mithra are known for their dexterity and their tracking abilities. On one of Rapifafa’s trips to the Mithran community, Perih Vashai senses that Rapifafa potential in learning these skills, and is willing to teach her some of them. First, she tells Rapifafa that she must be accepted by nature as the Mithra are, by watching nature take its course. Rapifafa asks some of Perih Vashai’s followers to shed light on these words, and they tell her that she must travel to the Sauromugue Champaign to witness the death of an old tiger as part of the learning process.
Rapifafa finds the home of these tigers, and finds the oldest sabertooth within. The sabertooth does not attack her, but rather spends its final moments near the bones of other tigers that had come before it. After it dies, Rapifafa takes one of its teeth as proof of her deed.
Upon her return, Perih Vashai explains that the fangs of a hunter are the same as its life, for without the fangs it can no longer live. The fang, however, is left behind. Perih Vashai fashions the fang Rapifafa took into a necklace for her, telling her that as a Ranger, she must live by the fang and die only leaving the fang behind.
Some time after Rapifafa starts her training as a Ranger, Perih Vashai gives Rapifafa another task. She hands Rapifafa a strange earring and tells her she is to take it to Semih Lafihna, who is on an investigation in the Ranguemont Pass.
Rapifafa questions one of the guards in the pass, who tells her that he had seen Semih Lafihna pass through. Apparently the guard had seen some strange creature of darkness wrapped in robes.
When he tried cutting into it, it did not spill blood, but light. With the break of dawn, the creature disappeared. He told the story to his captain, but he would not believe him. However, Semih Lafihna traveled here seeking the creature as soon as she heard the rumor. She told the guard it was a “bearer of darknessâ€, and searched the pond where he had spotted it for some of the sand that fell from the creature. She could not find any, but the guard tells Rapifafa that perhaps she could find some.
It takes Rapifafa some time, but she finds some of the glittering sand that fell from the creature after a lengthy search. She takes it back to the guard, who asks her to take it to Semih Lafihna. There was another merchant who claimed to have spotted the bearer of darkness in the Jugner Forest, so it was likely Rapifafa would find Semih Lafihna there as well.
Rapifafa finds the merchant, who tells her that he saw the strange shadow near a tree during a full moon.
Rapifafa finds the tree- it has a hint of sparkling dust on it, resembling the glittersand.
As she was told, Rapifafa also soon found Semih Lafihna. Semih Lafihna says she can’t reveal much about the shadow due to security concerns, but Rapifafa tells her that’s not what she came for, and hands her the earring.
Semih Lafihna seems excited at first to see the earring, comparing it to a similar one she keeps herself, but just as quickly changes her expression to disappointment, and then confusion. Their conversation is soon interrupted by someone in the shadows.
The mysterious Mithra introduces herself as Shikaree M, a Mithran Tracker. She has come from the Mithran homeland to the south, tracking a sinner who lives amongst the tribe in Windurst. 20 years ago, the sinner and her daughter were both hunted down by another Tracker. However, that Tracker lied- before her own death, she confessed her own sin, that she let the daughter live- Shikaree M believes Semih Lafihna is that daughter.
The Sibyl Guard is quite an anomaly- while most Mithra orphaned by the war were simply sent back to their respective homes, the few which would form the guard were taken in by Heaven’s Tower. Of these orphans, only Semih Lafihna’s parentage is not recorded- Shikaree M declares that a sinner must be punished, regardless of memory, and takes out a handful of king’s tear moths to judge her sin.
Semih Lafihna does not carry the scent.
Shikaree M apologizes for her mistake, and turns to continue her hunt. Semih Lafihna, however, actually looks somewhat disappointed by the ruling- she once again does not know her own origins.
Rapifafa returns to Perih Vashai to report, but they are soon interrupted by Shikaree M.
Perih Vashai assures the hunter that they are seeking evidence of the daughter’s demise, but Shikaree M bluntly states that she does not trust the chieftainess, that she in fact struck a deal with the sinner. Aside from the fact that Perih Vashai lost a Mithran treasure called the Bow of Light long ago, she also assumes that Vashai sympathized with the sinner’s plight because her own daughter was of a similar age. Shikaree M reiterates that she will not return home until she has hunted down the sinner before leaving.
Semih Lafihna arrives just as the Sin Hunter leaves, saying she is here as a peacekeeper of Windurst. She asks the chieftainess if the sinner’s daughter is truly dead, and Vashai repeats the claim she made with Shikaree M. Lafihna is a bit puzzled at Vashai’s concern for her given the claim, but Vashai only answers with silence. Lafihna doesn’t pursue the inquiry further and returns the earring. As she turns to leave, she takes tells Vashai that she has no interest in becoming chieftainess after her.
Vashai turns to Rapifafa, assuring her that such conflict amongst the Mithra are a rarity, but this incident was unlikely to be over.
Rapifafa returns to her Ranger training, but a few days later Perih Vashai tells Rapifafa that the Mithra who knows the fate of the sinner’s daughter has been found in Mhaura. The Tracker had already set off in search, so Vashai asks Rapifafa to follow.
Rapifafa finds the Mithra called Koh Lenbalalako. It seems the Tracker had already spoken with her, and she gives Rapifafa the same information.
A Mithran tribe called the Fire Tribe lives on the southern continent. About 30 years ago, the chieftainess of that tribe committed the sin of killing a fellow tribe member. She spent a decade atoning for that sin, before escaping from prison with her daughter in tow.
At the time, Lenbalalako was an escort for people and supplies between Jeuno and Windurst. It was during that time a woman and her child slipped into her company. There was no shortage of refugees during the war, so she thought nothing of it.
As luck would have it, that same supply run was attacked by Yagudo in the Meriphataud Mountains, and they were all taken to Castle Oztroja. One by one, the Mithra were taken away from their prison, until only Lenbalalako and the sinner’s daughter were left behind. Perih Vashai arrived in time to save the two of them, but despite Lenbalalako’s efforts the child died from her grief, and was interred in the Eldieme Necropolis.
Shikaree M interjects- clearly she's not a very trusting person. She wishes to confirm the veracity of the story, but the Eldieme Necropolis isn’t a place to be ventured into alone, so she asks Rapifafa to meet her there.
At the Necropolis, Rapifafa and Shikaree M search each of the tombstones, eventually finding the name Syu Befrathi- the sinner’s daughter.
Shikaree M uses her moths on one of the nearby graves to confirm the story- it seems the daughter was indeed interred here, and she even finds a correct twinstone earring. With that, Rapifafa and Shikaree M return to Perih Vashai.
Shikaree M is still not satisfied however- she wants to know where the other half of the earring is. Vashai tells her that the mother’s body was never found, because she perished in Castle Oztroja. The Yagudo King forced the prisoners to fight his soldiers, and then tossed the bodies into a large pond near the top of the castle. Shikaree M asks Rapifafa to search Castle Oztroja for the earring.
Rapifafa travels to the Meriphataud Mountains, and then to Castle Oztroja. She finds the pond as instructed, and after wading through the remains, finds an earring similar to the one she saw in the tomb. With that, she returns to Perih Vashai.
Shikaree M compares the two earrings, and seems satisfied. However, it seems she has one more question, about the “Bow of Lightâ€. Shikaree M had questioned one of the witnesses to the rescue Perih Vashai led at Castle Oztroja, and this witness mentioned that the prisoners at Oztroja were saved by a bow loosing arrows of blinding light. Apparently, this was also how Vashai lost her eyesight.
Shikaree M demands that the bow be returned to the homeland, but Vashai does not answer. Shikaree M tells Vashai that she will give her some time to think on the matter, and turns to Rapifafa and rewards her for her help before leaving.
Rapifafa’s returns to her Ranger training, finding other pieces of a Ranger’s armor.
A few days later, Semih Lafihna pays another visit to the chieftainess.
Vashai guesses she intends to ask about the Bow of Light, but Lafihna instead asks about her past. All the talk about the Bow of Light made her realize that all the Sibyl Guards were prisoners in Castle Oztroja 20 years ago- the Sibyl Guards were taken in by Heaven’s Tower to prevent the secrets of the Bow of Light from spreading. Yet somehow, all the other Sibyl Guards remember being saved by the Bow of Light, and she does not. What’s more, Lafihna has a clear recollection that her twinstone earring was switched with another one during the Great War.
Vashai clearly knows the answers to all of Lafihna’s questions, but instead of directly answering, she instead hands her the twinstone earring that she had asked Rapifafa to give her a few days past, and directs her towards Koh Lenbalalako in Mhaura- whatever the truth is, she doesn't feel comfortable revealing it in public. Rapifafa decides to follow Lafihna to Mhaura.
Semih Lafihna is a bit annoyed that Rapifafa decided to tag along with her, but she soon gets over it. Lafihna asks Lenbalalako about the mysterious earring, and she is told that the earring is the same one she had swapped out when she was a child- it is her original earring. It was done at Lafihna’s mother’s request. When the sinner and her child arrived in the central lands, Perih Vashai was deeply troubled over whether to send them back to the homeland or not. In the end, Vashai approached Lenbalalako, and they decided to report to the homeland that both the sinner and the daughter had perished in Castle Oztroja. To complete the deception, they swapped Lafihna and her mother’s earrings with the sinner and her child’s earrings. They were not aware that the Sin Hunters would have other methods of detecting a Mithra’s sin, which was why Vashai gave that initial task to Rapifafa to swap Lafihna's earring.
Lafihna accuses Vashai and Lenbalalako of doing this so they could have the Bow of Light for themselves, and Lenbalalako answers by saying that at this point, it’s doubtful Lafihna would trust anything she would have to say. Instead, she tells Lafihna that the second earring that forms a pair with her original earring is in the Northlands, where Lafihna’s was told her mother died. Lafihna is not terribly excited at the prospect the mother who abandoned her continues to survive in the northlands, but she cannot simply let this matter go, so she leaves.
As soon as Lafihna leaves, Lenbalalako tells Rapifafa the real story.
When Lenbalalako and all the other Mithra were trapped in Castle Oztroja, the Fire Tribe chieftainess, Nhev Befrathi, managed to escape alone. With her daughter Syu Befrathi still in the clutches of the Yagudo, she went to plead with Perih Vashai to save her. It was then Perih Vashai used the Bow of Light to defeat the Yagudo, but at the cost of her own sight. In that same battle, Nhev Befrathi lost her life. With the child Syu Befrathi and the Bow of Light left over, they were forced to tell one lie after another to safeguard both.
With her story complete, she asks Rapifafa to take a gold earring and travel to the northlands to give it to Syu Befrathi.
Rapifafa travels to the north of Quon past the Ranguemont Pass and arrives in Xarcabard, and soon catches up with Semih Lafihna.
Lafihna is glad to have some company this time, and tells Rapifafa that she found a broken arrow glowing with a strange light. Lafihna tracks the arrow to a cave near Castle Zvahl, where they find the woman they have been looking for.
Semih Lafihna is surprised to see Syu Befrathi, but Befrathi is aware of what Lafihna is searching for, and decides to give them the information they seek.
The Bow of Light is a famed Mithran weapon, but it was not originally what the Fire Tribe chieftainess carried. About 30 years ago, Yow Rabntah found a strange stone in the northlands, and took it back to the homeland, where she used it as a base for constructing the bow’s shaft. It far exceeded the power of the Bow of Fire the chieftainess of the tribe originally used, and was named the Bow of Light. Contrary to the name, however, it did not bring light, but stole it. Nhev Befrathi believed that the bow was cursed, and that it should’ve been returned to the northlands, but the tribe was already divided over whether or not to keep the bow.
Before the issue could be resolved, the strange stone summoned a fiend which killed Yow Rabntah, and Nhev Befrathi was blamed for the death. Ten years after her imprisonment, Nhev learned that the fiend was, in fact, the Shadow Lord, and she escaped from prison, hoping to exact revenge for her people. The rest of the story was as Rapifafa had heard before. While Nhev Befrathi failed in her task, Syu decided that she would instead carry on her mother’s legacy, hunting in the northlands for the rest of her days.
With her story complete, Syu Befrathi hands the Bow of Light to Semih Lafihna- she has already removed the strange stone- the Magicite- from it, so it can be returned to the Tracker to take back to the homeland without concern. She also takes off her earring, telling Semih Lafihna that it was given to her by Perih Vashai to conceal her identity. At that, Semih Lafihna takes out her original earring and compares- they are a perfect match.
Rapifafa hands the gold earring to Syu Befrathi, giving her a new identity, and travels back to Windurst with Lafihna.
Shikaree M is thankful to Semih Lafihna and Rapifafa for their work finding the Bow of Light, and rewards Rapifafa with something appropriate of a Ranger.
With that, the Tracker leaves for her next hunt.
Perih Vashai comments that it was likely that the Tracker’s primary objective was to destroy the Bow of Light, with the sinner was only a secondary objective. Magicite is able to awaken feelings of envy and jealousy within the Mithra. The Befrathis were able to resist its influence, but many others were not able to. In Vashai’s case, she had closed her eyes to the power of the bow as she drew it, and lost her sight forever.
Even decades after the defeat of the Shadow Lord, the stones that lie beneath his castle continue to destroy the lives of his foes.
