Sinus Ardorum Spectacular!

Piercingway’s Tunnel and Gleamslope are no longer “unused content”. Unless you’re one of the laggards from Dynamis. Ha!

Trust me, when you’re here, you get a lot of time to let your freecam wander. For the uninitiated, a quick explanation: After completing the flagship Endwalker quest, the moon-bnuuys want to start colonising outer space, and start by colonising their doorstep. Sinus Ardorum is a group restoration effort (a la Ishgardian Restoration) with an interspersement of actual gameplay. As the server reaches new checkpoints, new facilities become available. I guess, in future, entire new regions will become available. If you’re not content with busy work, good work being its own reward, and a general sensation of community, this place will be insufferable to you.

Weddingway’s Bower

Lunar Nadir

To the northeast of the area (behind the cliffs, there is a new subarea. The Lunar Nadir, situated in this crevasse north of Weddingway’s Bower. (Pictured upper are the fast-travel checkpoints, and upmost is the Mech Bays of the main area.)
Crater!

The way to it is initially obscured by this pile of moon-rock. I assume the inaugural FATE will be to courier dynamite to it. And at time of writing, it is likely (50-50, for reasons explained later) going to be the next big-scale project. At least, if FFXIV-CGW’s data is accurate.
Nobody has thought to look under the carpet. Until now.

Nadir Lift

Entry is gained through the tentatively-modelled Nadir Lift. Short, but still too long to comfortably travel on foot. Not that you would want to - there’s a square of ground missing (through which the skybox can be seen). The platform bearing the shape and size of this void is hovering above ground a way’s away. Mind your step. A view from the backside.

From here on out, if any images show skybox, it is because the camera is out-of-bounds. With the exception of the Nadir Lift, the area is geometrically stable. Also worth remarking (perhaps moreso) at this point is that the gathering nodes for these areas are already placed. There is nothing to gather, and no bait-or-tackle that I own can be selected. Presumably, as is the case throughout Cosmic Exploration, these nodes will populate when a Cosmic Mission, Mech Op, or Red Alert has use of them.

Frozen Briar

Moving on, and moving clockwise from the Nadir nexus., we find the Frozen Briar. It’s a cave with a massive crystal in the middle. If the name is much to go by, it’s a crystal of Ice-aspected Aether.
I would love to meet the thing that is capable of charging a JO Crystal of this size.

Chlorophosvault and Fluffcourt

Out the backside of the Briar, and connected by Cosmorail, we have the Chlorophosvault, a mangling of three words (two of which pertain to plants, so you know without even looking at the below image that this cavern is rich in xenoflora).
Packed with fungi, moss, and those Spongois that the Loporrits decided the best extermination method is to drive a Tonka Truck through them. And if the upper half of the chamber looks distinctly fuzzier than the bottom, you’re not wrong. In fact, that area is named the Fluffcourt, for the large Cloud Mallow-like growths. There are three colours in this area and I’m not much of a fan of any of them. It’s a nice switchback, though.

Aetherial Falls

Going back to the nexus through Fluffcourt, we have the small and comparatively unremarkable Aetherial Falls. It’s a crater that you fish in. The water looks nasty. I’m still on Feast of Famine, I have absolutely nothing nice to say of fishing as a way of spending one’s time. Would YOU want to catch the sort of fish that could survive swimming in raw moon-sewage?

And a quick view of the sky.

Aetherial Falls would be entirely underwhelming and unfit to end the tour with, if that were indeed the end of the tour. But there’s an entire second area!

The Cosmoor

Recalling back to the Hub and going dead south past the Rock Slide, and going where likely no person has gone before (or will want to go for a pretty long time), we have this conspicuous mountainous outcrop. The other 50 percent. Bear in mind that I am still in-bounds at this point. You can walk here yourself if you want to rub your face against a Big Nothing.

Piercingway’s Tunnel

If we stick our faces through the Big Nothing, we find the aptly-named Piercingway’s Tunnel. I assume they’re called that out of a love of boring holes in rocks, and not through inflicting bodily harm. Although I’m now picturing a bunny with earstuds and nose-rings, and that’s pretty fucking goth. A view from the backside…piercing.

Gleamslope

Welcome to Gleamslope! A relatively much smaller area. One big crater, in fact. It looks like these two tiles delineate the start and end point of a Cosmocruiser circuit. As with the Nadir, this area also has plenty of gathering nodes and ponds to try. Also as with the Nadir, they are currently unpopulated, so there isn’t much to tell.
A gulch of potential. From above. Although, the lowest-most pond on the above photo is actually visible from our present-day map. This bean-shaped smudge here, in fact.
No, it’s not a coffee stain.

Heimdall Debris

Moving on, we have what looks like a fragment of Dalamud thrown particularly far. It has the name, Heimdall Debris. While this fragment is non-interactive, it is certainly significant. And if CBU3’s loc-team have any balls, they’ll make a joke about it recording the Etheiryans making moonfall. Get it? Because Heimdallr is supposed to watch for Ragnarök?

In actuality, the Heimdall is an Allagan observation satellite, tasked with watching (and eventually halting the breach of) Dalamud. A task that it was unable to complete. The bulk of the satellite is visible in Mare Lamentorum, in the crater to the east - Sinus Tormenti. So whoever shot Heimdall absolutely fucking felted the poor bugger if you had to drive and then take an entirely hitherto-unheard-of method of skateboarding to reach this bit.

This concludes the Ardorum Spectacular. May you be on the first Data Center to reach these new places. Especially if you’re Jenova. If you’re Cactuar or Fae, kindly abandon your attempts for the next three months. Thank you.