Sword Art Online 2’s finale [Spoiler alert for those who haven’t seen it, just skip past this paragraph] ended with the players of an MMO all gathering to mourn a dying protagonist’s final moments in life and on the game. While it was just an emotional scene in the show, it turned out to be bittersweet and touching moment of the community gathering to honor the last moments of a fellow player.
Codex Vahlda is a Bard on the Gilgamesh server of Final Fantasy XIV, Square Enix’s most recent MMO, and according to a real life friend of Codex, he was suffering from a medical condition but would be, “passing away far before his time (only 29 years old) of complications from renal failure. 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)”. Renal failure, also known as Kidney failure, causes the kidneys to be incapable of properly filtering waste products from the bloodstream.
Upon their Free Company (guild), the Night Sirens, receiving news of Codex’s condition, his friend began noticing players paying their respects to Codex at their in-game house.
Eventually, they noticed more and more players appearing to honor the dying community member, eventually reaching 80 before multiple posts on Reddit about how each group of players were paying their respects would skyrocket the event into so much more.
Players from across all servers were holding community events to show their support for Codex and his friends and family. One such event that gained notoriety was the Excalibur server, who all managed to organize to dance and perform in respect for their fellow passing player.
The players of FF14 showed us that even if they didn’t know him, his passing will still be mourned by and large, showing us that even in dark times, a shining light can appear, showing that we all wish the best to Codex Vahlda, his friends, family, and all others going through tumultuous times.