Not along ago I was messing around with an FFXI zone viewing program (EWH) when I noticed something. Some rather basic things seemed to be missing, such as Outer Horototo Ruins, non-rental Mog Houses, and various airship routes. I began to wonder if perhaps the programs creator hadn't been as thorough as he could've been. My interest was piqued so I set out to comb over the games data and find out where they were.

I did eventually pin down the location of the MH, and airship zones, however I also happened to find the files for Mordion Gaol and The Last Stand. Pretty neat, seeing as how they are some of the most unknown areas in FFXI. Unfortunately there's probably a good reason for them having been ignored for so long. They're utterly boring!

Most of you have almost certainly seen pics of Mordion Gaol or taken an involuntary trip there yourself. The only bit of info worth noting here is that the entire area is only 12 such rooms total. Each room is separated to make 4 rows of 4. 12 measly rooms to hold all the trouble makers on a server of 2500+ players seems a little surprising. Then again you could probably cram a good few dozen people into a cell if you had to.

The Last Stand is fairly mysterious. Usually it's said to be a testing area for Square to try out battlefields, and I think that is the most likely explanation. Unlike a couple of the other old testing areas, The Last Stand appears to still be in use and active as it was mentioned in a zone maintenence announcement not long ago. Additionally it has its own dialogue file as well, not that it's of interest but it supports the idea that is still actively used in testing.




So how do I know this area is The Last Stand? Well... I don't. I'd say I'm about 90% certain however. I came to this conclusion based on a picture someone posted on KI years ago. They had gained access to the zone in the game itself and stood upon a platform exactly like the ones shown here. Other than that I do know this zone isn't any other known area, so it seems reasonable. It could be it's been ignored because it simply looks just like Horototo Ruins, so someone not paying attention would think that's what it is and move on. The layout and setup is not at all like Ruins though.


The zone itself is extremely simple and uses the same textures as Horototo Ruins. Platforms flank the largest center room. Disconnected from the main room at each of its four corners are four medium sized rooms, and finally four smallest rooms further out.

Here's one more thing I thought I'd bring up while were at it.



A handful of you might remember this gulch background! This isn't new by any means but not many are aware of it. Originally , when FFXI was released in Japan, the game featured a showy high polygon model when you job changed. As I understand it, the scene used this area. Kinda cool, eh? Shame they can't find something to use it for again.





So there you have it. Not terribly exciting, but I hadn't seen these zones explicitly displayed before. It's interesting simply for the sake of curiosity more than anything.

Ironically the Outer Horototo Ruins are still MIA.

*Please do not leave comments requesting help with the program. If you like there is a thread for that on KI here. I plan to upload an updated version of the program soon there with a full English zone list and the above areas added.