Players of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn staged a vigil across multiple servers in honor of a 29-year-old player who passed away over the weekend due to complications from renal failure.
The news that FFXIV player Codex Vahlda was in hospital and in a terminal condition came from Reddit user pattmyn. “The odds were one in a million something like this could have happened; Everything was otherwise under control and a donor was lined up already (his brother),” they wrote. Later, the original post was edited with the news of his passing: “For those who might not have seen the Kotaku article, Codex is no longer with us. Thank you, everyone, for your unbelievable support and well wishes.”
Before he had passed away, upon hearing the news of his hospitalization, players inside FFXIV started to gather outside the Night Sirens Free Company house on the Gilgamesh server, of which Codex Vahlda was a member. The steady stream of players arriving at the house was caught in a series of images as you can see in this imgur gallery. More players gathered in the Mist, Ward 1, Plot 30, and many other servers in order to pay their respects to Codex Vahlda as well, as is documented in this forum thread.
Reddit user pattmyn, who originally posted news of Codex Vahlda’s passing, also commented later that the crowds of players as depicted in those images were seen by those in his hospital room.
Later, as captured in the video above, on the beach outside the Free Company house, players aligned to spell “CODEX” on the sands and performed a light show to emulate those usually held during “The Rising,” which is an in-game event that commemorates the departed who lost their lives in the Calamity.
You can see more images from the players gathering in several different Final Fantasy XIV servers to pay their respects to Codex Vahlda below.