The Celestia Citizen (“Merry New Year” Edition)

Hello, my fellow Celestians! And welcome to another edition of the Celestia Citizen!

For this month’s theme, as this newsletter was a bit late in coming (with December virtually skipped over for one at start of month), I opted for a theme that would reflect the long quiet between November to this new year. And there was one thing that came to mind.

There have been many Christmas movies recommended, a couple of New Year’s movies, and hardly any Thanksgiving movies (aside from Planes, Trains, and Automobiles; and another obscure one called Dutch). However, one movie stands as more of a multi-holiday one, set around Thanksgiving, and overlaps with Christmas and New Year’s.

Released in 1983, Trading Places released on a $15 million budget and made $120 million at the box office. And it also features a few fun tidbits about it.

The movie was initially written with Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor in mind to play the roles of Louis Winthorpe and Billy Ray Valentine, following their collaboration on Stir Crazy in 1980
The movie was Eddie Murphy’s second feature film role, following after the success of his first feature-film role 48 Hrs in 1982
The movie’s title has a double meaning – Aside from the exchange of circumstances that the two main characters are put through, the concept of setting at various ‘trading places’ also plays into this (such as the stock exchange, and a trading house, and trading being the central focus of work in-movie)
The “Eddie Murphy Rule” – Government information being used for commodity markets trading was not illegal during the time the movie was set, nor was it made illegal until 2010 when the Wall Street Transparency & Accountability Act was implemented, as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. This was implemented under a specific ‘rule’, that was inspired by the movie.

However, as the movie’s progression is set “so close to Thanksgiving” for its opening scene, and it progresses through to Christmas and to New Year’s, one could say it is a holiday movie that is versatile. And as such, it is one movie that is certainly worth the required watching to get into the spirit of the holidays.

With that, it is time for our monthly newsletter!

Final Fantasy XIV News

Patch 7.4 (Released 12/16): Link

PvP Series 10 (Starting with Patch 7.4): Link

Heavensturn 2026 (12/31 to 1/15): Link

New Year’s Greetings from the Director & Producer (Yoshi-P): Link

Free Company News and Social Events

Discord Tag – Celestia now has a Discord Tag for use. If you have the Tag feature available for your Discord, feel free to go to Server Tags and apply “CEL” to your Discord username!

New Officer! – Please welcome Rylog Kreiss as our newest FC officer, running our Normal & 24-Man Raid Events!

Officer Recruitment – Celestia is currently looking for Officers for various tasks and events! Please refer to the Advertisement in the FC Announcements channel in Discord!: Link

Member Recruitment – As always, Celestia is open to enrollment for new members! Have a friend who plays but needs an FC or a change of one? Meet someone while doing content that doesn’t have an FC? Happen upon a poor unfortunate soul while cruising the cities and towns in-game? Send them our way! Just be sure to notify an Officer when and if you have someone wanting to join!

FC Buff Rotation – Pictured below is the current FC buff schedule that will be in rotation for the FC. The current schedule will be included here for the newsletters, and also included in the FC Announcements on the Discord server.

Tuesday 8-Man Event – For our recurring 8-Man event, scheduled at 8PM EST/EDT, please refer to the Discord server link here for this specific signup (rotation will include current raids, old content, maps, special runs, etc.): Link

Friday FATE Farm – Celestia currently is running a weekly FATE farm, occurring every Friday around 8PM EST/EDT. The FATE Farm event includes any content that involves FATEs. The specific zone for farming will be chosen each week. Please signup via Discord and under our “all signups” channel when the next event is posted: Link

Saturday Map Runs – Join us every Saturday as of 5PM EST/EDT for Maps. Requirements to attend are Level 100 combat job, and have access to all zones. Refer here for the link to the Discord server and the direct invitation through Sesh: Link

Free Company Darts Contest – As a precursor to the annual holiday party, Celestia held its annual Free Company Darts contest in the Coerthas Central Highlands. The winners are as listed:

1st Place – Rivard Runari (closest to the target)

2nd Place – Loof Merrow (second closest)

3rd Place – Kazuo Akagi (third closest)

Costume Contest – For the costume contest, two themes were evaluated.

The winner for Christmas Costume was Nyrith Samandri. For those interested in replicating the full glamour, refer to the Holiday Punch outfit here: Link

The winner for Anything Goes was Rylog Kreiss.

Here is a photo of our two winners, side by side.

And lastly, here is a snapshot of all of our participants within the Christmas Costume and the Anything Goes contests, respectively.

Free Company Holiday Photo – Here is a snapshot of the Free Company gathered for our annual holiday celebration.

Holiday Glamour (FC House – Halloween) – Attached are some snapshots of the Christmas 2025 glamour for the main FC house, including the glamorous Scion Cafe off to the right as you enter the house.