(Above photo allegedly taken by Voynomir Yovasch on October 3, 2022)
For months, reports of unusual sightings in Ishgard’s new Empyreum housing district have left residents bewildered and, in many cases, downright terrified. Perhaps you’ve heard them yourself - claims of a mysterious humanoid blue ghost, seen wandering among the estates, usually near Risensong Plaza, or even by the heated pools and massage tables of Snowsteep Springs.
While the identity and true nature of this spirit has eluded experts thus far, one characteristic seems to confuse people the most: The specter is shaped like an elephant.
The questions raised by such a peculiar manifestation are many, but luckily the arrival to Ishgard of the EMET-SELCH paranormal investigations team may very well shed light on what has now become known as The Mystery of the Blue Elephant Ghost.
Who You Gonna Call?
EMET-SELCH, also known as the Eorzean Manifestations Extermination Team: Special Evictions of Lingering Creatures and Haunts, is a fairly new organization established primarily to assist home and venue owners with problems of a more supernatural nature.
You may have read about them briefly in a previous issue of The Babbler. Their work identifying and managing the threat posed by Floor Reapers has earned them some prestige among Eorzea’s paranormal researchers (though many are still prone to writing it all off as nothing more than people’s overactive imaginations).
When it comes to Empyreum’s Blue Elephant, however, EMET-SELCH may have met their match.
“I know what I saw.”
One Ishgardian resident, a man by the name of Durrant Douraux, recently opened a cat-themed speakeasy in Empyreum’s north side. But what should have been an exciting new beginning for him has turned into a waking nightmare; he insists he’s witnessed the elephant ghost on more than one occasion, and each time it’s left him frightened beyond all rationality.
“It is quite possibly the most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen,” he told The Babbler. Douraux says he frequently sees the ghost emerge from behind a row of bushes near his venue. “It appears as if with the wind, and vanishes just the same!”
Speaking with two other business owners in Ishgard, a Hrothgar immigrant named Voynomir Yovasch and native Ishgardian Ylosie Pierriquet, it’s clear the appearance of this ghost is not just a matter of hearsay or odd whispers. Whatever it is, it seems to be a phenomenon with many witnesses.
“I was watering my onions outside my newly redesigned speakeasy,” Yovasch told me, his ears trembling slightly. “I saw out the corner of my eye, a blue figure walk down the steps, out there by the plaza. Others saw it too.” He explained, then, how the ghost vanished right before his eyes. “I know what I saw.”
Ylosie Pierriquet has a similar tale, but swears she came face-to-face with the blue elephant while preparing for a massage at Snowsteep Springs. “It just waltzed right up to the pool!” she said, “It was giant! And blue! And then it disappeared! The whole thing ruined my day, and then I had to go and work a shift at my speakeasy! How was I supposed to concentrate after that?”
The Investigation Begins
“It’s difficult to tell how an investigation will go,” says Quirky Rabbit, head investigator and liaison officer of the EMET-SELCH team. She’s been in the business for several years, and her work so far in Empyreum has been some of the most taxing yet.
As a Hellsguard Roegadyn, she’s had no end of experience with strange phenomena. “Just take a look at our history in the Farreach,” she says, “We have plenty of experience fighting back evil spirits.” Encounters with Floor Reapers have also been on the rise lately, with the influx of new estate owners, but Rabbit personally doesn’t view them as much of a threat. “They can be a nuisance, sure, but in the end they usually just like to talk about clothes.”
The Blue Elephant of Empyreum, however, is proving to be a much more sinister problem.
According to Quirky Rabbit and the EMET-SELCH team, it’s not so much the existence of the ghost itself, but rather the frequency of its appearances. “More and more people are claiming to see it every day,” she says. “It’s the uncertainty more than anything. What does it want? Why is it here?”
To answer that question, Rabbit and her team have set up a number of devices around Empyreum. If you look carefully, you may have already seen one. “They’re called aetherometers,” Rabbit says, “They measure surrounding aether levels in specific locations.” The team has yet to make contact with the blue ghost themselves, but through recording the stories of witnesses and placing their aetherometers at just the right locations, they hope to catch the ghost in the act soon enough.
As for what they’ll do at that point, only uncertainty remains. “The key is understanding what the spirit wants and what might be drawing it to this place. Perhaps the elephant experienced some trauma in its previous life, and now wanders Empyreum searching for closure.” When asked why the elephant would be humanoid and blue, the EMET-SELCH team admits that’s a hard question to answer.
“Spirits tend to take on ideal forms,” says Quirky Rabbit, “They appear as they would want to be seen. Or, perhaps, witnesses are seeing what they expect to see, and in this case, that’s a blue elephant walking on two legs and carrying a sword.”
The mysteries of the paranormal are extraordinary, indeed! While the EMET-SELCH team set the stage for their investigation, we’ll continue to watch their progress, and have an update for you next week!
