The capitals of the three nations are buzzing again tonight with Starlight Celebration festivities.
Once beyond the brilliant lights bathing the city streets, you can raise your eyes to the heavens and wonder at the countless points of twinkling radiance filling the night sky.
This celestial splendor is a blessing from the stars--a wonderful phenomenon to celebrate.
Hmm? You're more worried about the fate of those troublesome treants?
There is nothing left to fear. With the help of all those industrious adventurers, things are completely under control. And, of course, we've figured out where the treant trouble came from--they turned out to be our missing main trees!
But how did those beautiful trees transform into terrible treants in the first place?
If you were one of the participants in this year's Starlight Celebration, then you already know the answer. It was all the fault of those moogles who were begging for the encouraging cheers of adventurers.
These nomad moogles traveled here from a continent beyond the ocean. They had left behind their beloved mountain ranges, and arrived in the city of Windurst just as the previous year's Starlight Celebration was in full swing.
The festive decorations, the happy couples and families, the splendid, eye-catching main tree...
The grand scale of this blessed celebration, along with the colorful and luminous decorations proved to be a little overwhelming for the nomad moogles after their exhausting journey.
It was the strident voice of a young man that stopped the weary moogles on their way to fleeing the bustling streets.
"Happy Starlight Celebration!"
The youth wore a red cap and red clothes, and carried a large sack over his shoulder--a smilebringer.
"May the light of the stars guide your way."
Grinning gleefully, the smilebringer handed each of the moogles a package bound with a pretty ribbon--their very first Starlight Celebration gifts!
This chance event led the moogles to embrace the festivities wholeheartedly. Three of the youngest and most curious nomad moogles--siblings, in fact--were particularly affected.
"A present...for me, kupo!?"
"Smilebringers are sensational, kupo!"
"I want to wear a red cap and bring happiness to people too, kupo!"
This joy and wonder eventually transformed into an unquenchable desire to become a smilebringer. And that's where the trouble began...
It was one fateful evening, when the children of Vana'diel had begun counting down the days remaining until the next Starlight Celebration. The three Moogles put into motion a preposterous plan that would allow them to become smilebringers...
The first step of their scheme involved appropriating three "improved" treant saplings from the Rhinostery, and grafting them onto the main trees found in each of the capitals.
You can guess what happened next! The trunks of the trees molded into faces, branches became arms, and roots became legs. Instant treants!
Pulling their new limbs from the soil, the treants shook the very ground as they took their first steps around the towns. Havoc ensued.
In the midst of this chaos, the first day of the Starlight Celebration dawned upon a panicked populace. Taking advantage of their orchestrated confusion, the three moogles slipped into their smilebringer costumes and began handing out presents, as bold as you please!
And so their plan had succeeded without a hitch--or so the moogles had thought. There was one thing they had forgotten--the natural regenerative powers of trees.
Within the shell of the rampaging treants, the trees were recovering their strength and rejecting the transplanted saplings.
With the trees returning to normal, the moogles must be panicking indeed. If their diversion was lost, their flimsy smilebringer disguises would soon be noticed and the game would be over.
Adventurers are seeking the false smilebringers even as we speak. Unbeknownst to the three brothers, the real smilebringers are on to their ploy, and are cooking up an appropriate punishment for the moogle masterminds. Perhaps a task that involves delivering presents to hermits in the Uleguerand Range or wandering explorers in the Altepa Desert...
Perhaps feeling some responsibility for their young relatives, the other nomad moogles offered to help the smilebringers, and began delivering presents on their behalf. Maybe you, too, will find a gift waiting in your Mog House sometime in the near future!
And yet, the nomad moogles seem almost ecstatic with their delivery duties...
Once the three see the joy on the faces of their elders, it's entirely possible they will abandon their plan and take up their punishment willingly!
Which, when you think about it, is exactly what they wanted to do in the first place...
This year's Starlight Celebration is almost at an end.
Have you wished upon a star yet?
Illustrations by Mitsuhiro Arita
