By now you've probably seen some of the juicy loot obtained from the Shadowlord campaign Ops battle, Fiat Lux.  The Alexander and Valefor servers recently unlocked this mission and info has been steadily forthcoming.  But in case you haven't checked it out yet I thought I'd summarize some of the info and offer a little advice for anyone with the ambition to attempt unlocking Fiat Lux themselves.


Requirements to Unlock and Participate
Fiat Lux is an offensive Campaign Operation to defeat the Shadowlord.  In order to unlock this Campaign Ops a nation must first have control of all 5 of its main areas (at least this appears to be the case so far).  While a nation owns its main territories it will dispatch army units to the Northlands for battle.  Next, their army must advance further and take control of both Beaucedine Glacier (S), Xarcabard (S).  Once that is done units will be dispatched to the Kindred stronghold itself in Castle Zvahl Baileys (S), and Castle Zvahl Keep (S).  At that point both Castle Zvahl areas must be taken.  Meaning that in the end one nation must control all 4 Northlands areas:  Beaucedine Glacier (S), Xarcabard (S), Castle Zvahl Baileys (S), and Castle Zvahl Keep (S).  Fiat Lux will then be available to any nation which has the capability to deploy troops to the northlands that week.  (By implication that means any nation who controls its main 5 regional areas).

For an individual player to accept the mission, you must have the top Campaign rank possible, Medal of Altana §§§§, to participate.

The Fiat Lux Battle
All 6 members of your party must flag the Campaign Ops to enter the battle.  Unlike the other 3 beastmen stronghold Ops, you do not need to farm enemies for a special key item to enter the fight.  Once that's done travel up to the Throne Room to enter the BC.

Someone has posted a really great video of the battle here (reposted from a Japanese site).

Essentially the Shadowlord can switch between a mode that absorbs physical damage or magical damage.  When he switches to absorbing magic he will switch to Greatsword and a big blue graphic will flash.  Once he uses physical absorption mode he will dual-wield swords and a red graphic will flash.  He can use a TP attack to summon 3 clones with relatively low HP.  A tier 3 AoE spell should be able to destroy all 3.  Here's the link to the acquired Wiki info for a more in depth list of his abilities and strategies.

Rewards
The whole point of doing this is the rewards that aren't obtainable anywhere else.  Here's what you can expect to find if you can successfully defeat the BC.


Nightfall rare/ex
DMG:85 Delay:444 "Regain" Additional effect: Terror
Lv 75 WAR, PLD, DRK

Nocturnus Helm rare/ex
DEF:24 STR+6 DEX+6 AGI+6 Attack+8
"Double Attack"+2%
Occasionally absorbs physical damage
taken
Lv. 75 WAR, PLD, DRK, BST, SAM, DRG

Nocturnus Mail rare/ex
DEF:49 STR+10 DEX+10 VIT+10
Accuracy+12 "Triple Attack"+1%
Occasionally absorbs magic damage
taken
Lv 75 WAR, PLD, DRK, BST, SAM, DRG


Hecate's Cape rare
DEF:4 MP+7 Magic Accuracy+3
"Magic Atk. Bonus"+3
Lv 74 WHM, BLM, RDM, BRD, SMN, BLU, SCH


Reign Grip rare
MND+3 CHR+3
Lv 74 All Jobs
Tiercel Necklace rare
Haste+1% "Subtle Blow"+5
Lv 75 MNK, THF, BST, RNG, NIN, BLU, COR, PUP, DNC


Allied Ring rare/ex
Experience point bonus: +150%
Maximum duration: 720 min.
Maximum bonus: 9000
Lv 30 Charges

The Allied Ring is not a drop from the battle itself.  (See the last portion of the "Taking Control of Campaign Areas" section for more info)  It's gained with Allied Notes after taking control of the Throne Room (S) area.  It's still unknown whether or not the ring can be recharged, but given that Anniversary Rings can't I think it's not likely.

Taking Control of Campaign Areas


Clearly the most difficult of all the challenges to overcome is simply taking the required Northlands areas.  Here's some rough advice that I hope can help give you an impression of what it takes.

Step one.  If you aren't already allied to San d'Oria in the past, join San d'Oria.  If you sincerely intend to put a lot of effort into this just face up to the fact that Sandy is almost certainly going to be the go-to guy.  Maybe you really have a thing for one of the other nations, or you just don't want to lose two ranks.  That's fine, but just be aware that you'll risk not having access to Fiat Lux if your nation has a bad week in Campaign.

It's important to realize that a fort is always susceptible to attack as long as there are enemies on guard.  The single most vital element to taking the Northlands is nothing less than an extremely hardcore group of players dedicated to killing Campaign enemies for hours on end.  That is the essential secret unfortunately.  If you want it, you're gonna have to put in some significant time with nothing to show for it in the short term.  This means convincing some friends or linkshell members to help grind on Campaign mobs constantly in and especially OUT of a proper Campaign battle.  (this is a modified form of a helpful quote posted here by Suiram)

Once a unit of enemies arrives there's a limit of one hour to get the fortification number down to 90% of what it was on arrival (e.g. 300 Fortifications > 270).  If you do that you will force their unit to retreat and your nation will gain influence.  Continuously killing off the campaign Beastmen will ensure a slow but steady increase in influence.  A helpful side effect of fighting enemies outside of a Campaign battle is that their AoE attacks will only hit the single target instead.  Once the zones intel message informs you of a unit being dispatched there's roughly 13 minutes until that unit spawns at that location. If you happen to have a separate mule account that can watch this stuff it can be useful for predicting when allies or enemies will appear.

When an actual Campaign battle starts it's also important to try to keep at least a few NPC's alive until you can get the enemy to retreat.  If you utilize them properly by setting mobs up into their incoming path they're a great tool to aid you in your fight.  Before the allies arrive pull an enemy off the fort and lead it directly into their oncoming path so they will stop to fight it. Now that you've assured their safety for a bit you can get a new enemy to sleep once they finish the first. Keep doing this and simply line them up like dominoes for the allies to topple.  Using an enemy can be a good tool to guide and position the Allied NPC's exactly where you want them. If you can keep hate on it over them you can position an NPC where you like.  This is useful for keeping them out of danger.

Capturing an area can begin many hours before the tally. As long as you start on Saturday evening (NA time) and no later than perhaps ~6 hours before tally occurs. Any earlier than that and it's likely that any influence you gain will ultimately be lost as the Allies lose without support.  Given the desirable status of the stronghold Campaign Ops it's possible that once you put a dent in the influence bar some players will take notice.  Over the course of the night different players and most likely Japanese time zone players may show up to help out.



Xarcabard (S) is a particularly dangerous area full of Imps and Amphiteres.  I recommend taking enemies south of the fort a bit into the open clearing at G-10 to avoid the inevitable random guy who will die on top of you with an Amphitere.  Otherwise you could just kill it and be free for about an hour until it respawns.

As long as your nation has 1 more point of influence than the Beastmen at the Campaign tally you will take the area.  Actually keeping the area may be another thing entirely.  Having areas beyond the main 5 will cause your nation to become stretched thin on resources and army units.  Just do what makes sense here as best as you can.  If hordes of mobs are attacking your fort, sleepga as many as you can manage.  If the fort is low on resources deliver supplies.  If it's fortification is low and no NPCs are showing up do Vanguard-X to send reinforcements and do Steel Reserve to increase fort levels.

Opening up the Fiat Lux Op also makes the Throne Room (S) vulnerable to allied control.  The Allied Ring item can only be acquired by taking control of this final area.  And since no Campaign Battles can take place there, instead influence is gained by defeating the Fiat Lux mission.  The Throne Room has the highest fortification and resource levels of any zone at a crazy 1000 points.  But if your server has already overcome the hardship of unlocking the battle itself, rest assured it's almost guaranteed the area will be taken due to the hundreds of people spamming the mission.  Unless your server is an utter failure it should be no problem.

Once the Throne Room has been taken, anyone can purchase the Allied Ring at a sigil NPC for 15k Allied Notes.


The Other Northlands Campaign Ops
Okay so aside from Fiat Lux there were several other Northlands specific Ops introduced to help influence your nations progress there.  If you're someone who can't sit around for hours killing Campaign mobs, Northlands Ops are a good way of helping out on your own terms.  Plus you get some exp, Allied Notes, and progress towards ranking up.  Win-win.  All of these Ops are particular to the Northlands areas only:

Hazardous Materials - Increases one areas local resources by 3.  Deliver supplies to a fort NPC under the effect of gravity, amnesia, and silence.

Kinslayer: Baileys and Kinslayer: Keep - Lowers the Kindred's Morale.  Kill one Shadowguard Demon in Baileys or Keep respectively.

Bailey Borer - Lowers areas fortification level.  Destroy one Zvhal fortilace structure in Baileys or Keep.

Frozen Flame - Lowers areas fortification level.  Damage a Kindred owned fort by spawning a snoll to explode on the fortifications.  This one is fun and so easy.

Slaughterhouse IV - Lowers Kindred recconnaisance levels.  Set a bomb at a Kindred fort and damage the fort with an explosion.  Another simple and fun Ops with bombs.

Vanguard-X IV - Increases one areas local fortification.  Escort two NPC's to the fort NPC which supplies it with reinforcements.

Crimson Domino IV - Increases one areas local resources by 3.  Deliver supplies to the fort given a special condition.

Steel Resolve IV - Increases one areas max fort levels.  Assist synthesis NPC's in protecting the fort against seige turrets.  Requires a mini game where you match NPC's to the proper crystal element.

Smokescreen V - Increases national funds, morale.  Simply participate in several offensive battles.

Aegis Scream V - Increases national prosperity, resources, and supplies.  Simply participate in several defensive battles.  This one is pretty nice because it raises 3 attributes in a single Op mission.

Conclusion
That's about it.  Good luck to anyone with enough balls to take up this challenge.  If you have any tips or corrections you want to point out leave a comment.  If you're interested in poring over even more info you can try a few of these older threads started on BGForums.
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