we fight as one!

There’s only one Lightwarden left, but defeating it will be easier said than done. The region of Kholusia remains, the desolate area visited near the start of the journey, anchored only by the dazzling city of Eulmore. Unfortunately, things there are nothing short of dire, and you end up having to fight your way through the city in order to reach its vile ruler, Vauthry… who turns out to be the Lightwarden himself.

Alas, he sprouts wings and flies away. While flying is a thing in the game, it mostly exists for player convenience after you finish the plot in a particular zone, so you can’t just fly after him. Instead, you have to scale the massive cliff that bisects Kholusia — or rather, get the old machinery that used to do it working again. Well, whatever works.

While everyone’s running around trying to get said machinery working again, both Emet-Selch and Ardbert approach you. Emet-Selch starts by comparing you to a conqueror and ends up saying it’s a compliment, which says a lot about his view of the world, but of more interest is his reminiscing for the world as it once was, before the world was sundered into shards. It does quite a bit to humanize the man, to help you see his point of view of the world despite the countless atrocities he's committed.

Even Ardbert comments on it, when he has a chance to speak to you:

Ardbert: I don't know if you remember, but when we first met in this world, I was all but spent. I never thought to wonder why until now. I think it all just got to be too much. The guilt of causing the Flood... Knowing everyone hated me... But the worst thing was the solitude. Time wears you down, aye...but solitude eats away at you. It was this close to finishing me off. But as bad as it got, and as empty as I felt...I can't even begin to imagine what it must be like for Emet-Selch. All of which is a long way of saying: don't make a choice that leaves you alone. Nothing is worth that ─ especially not eternity.

In other words, hold fast to your convictions and don’t listen to the obvious bad guy. Thanks for looking out, Ardbert.

The good news is, you manage to reach the Lightwarden, even though it’s on a floating mountain in the sky.

The bad news is, you defeat it.

At first it seems like everything’s going to be fine. You take in the Light, as you have before, and the sky changes to show the stars… for a moment. All too soon, it changes back, and the Light begins to overtake you.

It might have gone fine, if the Crystal Exarch had been able to put his plan into motion. A staunch ally from your initial arrival in Norvrandt, the Exarch has made it clear that your survival is paramount. Indeed, he tries to steal the Light from you and send it into the rift between worlds, where it can affect no one.

At least, until Emet-Selch shoots him in the back. You didn’t really forget he was the bad guy, right?

One villain monologue later, you wake up back in the Crystarium. As always, Ardbert is there waiting for you. Unfortunately, it only takes a single look outside to see that the Light is once again pouring from the sky. It’s like none of your journey even mattered.

You’re okay, for the moment; your friends have managed to keep you from turning into an unholy abomination of Light. But it’s hard not to feel like a failure. Ardbert just tells you to get some fresh air, though, and shoos you out.

So you go. You talk to the various people of the Crystarium, reassuring them that you’re okay, and even though things seem so terrible, they take some comfort in it.

Eventually you end up at the old watchtower overlooking the amaro rookery when Ardbert finds you again. He offers reassurance, explaining how he questioned his role in all this up until he saw you bring the peoples of Norvrandt together as one. And when he holds his hand out for a fistbump, it actually connects with your hand.

Ardbert: As I thought. What happened between us was no coincidence. My story may be finished, but the fates have gifted me a minor role in yours. I suspected as much the moment I realized you could hear me. But it's hard not to doubt yourself when you're the man who caused the Flood... I was afraid to do anything more than watch for fear of making things even worse... ...But no longer. After all, the path I once walked is now yours to finish. For what it's worth, I cast my lot with yours. If you need a push, I'll be right there behind you; if you lose control, I'll do my best to stop you. So ─ let us be about it, hero.

What I really have to emphasize here is that the rest of the game is never so direct at making the player character feel threatened. The nature of the MMO genre means that the player character has to survive at all costs. And yet Shadowbringers deftly plays with this fact by making it really feel like somehow, you're going to be irrevocably changed by what happens to you in the story. Never mind that the gameplay isn't affected in the least: the story makes it feel like you're on the edge of something terrible.

Except you're not alone. You have Ardbert there to help you bear it. You don't really understand how or why, but that doesn't matter. He's here, and you don't have to do this all by yourself.

Down you head into the depths, to Emet-Selch's recreated Amaurot, the home he lost so long ago. You speak with the shades who inhabit it, ghosts of people long gone, and learn more of the man you're here to face. In particular, you meet a robed figure called Hythlodaeus, who claims to have been a friend of Emet-Selch. You listen, and absorb what he has to say, only for something unexpected to happen: he sees Ardbert with you.

Hythlodaeus: ...Ah, there was one last thing. You walk with another at your side, yes? Nay, I see no definite form...just the faintest suggestion of a second soul. I doubt it visible to anyone but me. Otherwise, I assume only you can see and hear this ethereal companion? Hm hm hm... Your connection is hardly a coincidence. In our time, the two of you were one ─ the color of your souls tells the tale. A hue that distinctive cannot be mistaken, no matter how thin the soul is spread.

Really, it only makes sense: of course the shard of your soul native to the First was likewise a hero in his own right. Of course the guy who looks identical to the stand-in hero of the game is literally you. Admittedly if you play a female character it can feel more jarring (as it did for me the first time through) but narratively, it explains everything about Ardbert very neatly. Ardbert really is you, reflected through a different lens. And he's just as willing to see this to the end.

At last you find Emet-Selch, and after he treats you to a vivid demonstration of how his world ended, you're ready to finish things. Only it's not that easy. Emet-Selch is a being of impossible power, wielder of magicks far beyond what you and your allies can accomplish. Each of the Scions tries to take him down, and each is summarily defeated. And you, roiling with primordial Light and on the verge of turning into a monster, are likewise no match.

You've come this far, but it's not enough. You begin to succumb to the Light. And in the blinding white, a figure appears before you, holding out an axe.

Ardbert: If you had the strength to take another step, could you do it? Could you save our worlds?

What can you possibly say but yes?

It doesn't matter that Ardbert is a ghost. He's a part of you. Neither of you are whole, but together you make up more than the sum of your parts. And together, you can bring an end to this.

You spend the Light inside you to overcome Emet-Selch's Darkness. And afterwards, beneath the newly cleared sky, you see Ardbert's axe disappear.

What most works about Ardbert's character, to me, is his conviction and desperation. From the beginning, even back in the Heavensward patches, you can tell that he believes wholeheartedly in his cause. He never set out to be his world's hero, but he didn't reject the mantle when it fell upon his shoulders. He will do anything to save his home, even if it costs everything he is.

Which is why watching him trudge alongside you throughout all of Shadowbringers works so well. He is the voice that the player character will never have. He puts words to all the things that you, as a self-insert MMO character, cannot begin to say. He's a foil, and an effective one, but what really sells it is the simple camraderie he offers. For all that the Scions are the Warrior of Light's closest companions, Ardbert is the one character who genuinely feels like the player character's friend without the need for your own interpretation.

Ardbert spends most of Shadowbringers stewing in all his mistakes. He's already dead — he died before you ever met him. But what remains of him is still the hero who tried to save his world. Of course he would give all of himself to see this through.

If only that was the end of it.

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