Campfire Discussion: Opening Cinematic Theories

[Anonymoose]

First things first: Devs are welcome (read: encouraged) to answer any of these questions should they see fit; we always love it when a dev sits at our Lore Campfires and dishes out some canon.

TL;DR Version: Questions We Keep Seeing
- What AG do we see here?
- Where are they fighting?
- Is that Bahamut?

I see these questions as worth finding the answers to, but when they come up in the forums, they often only show up for a half a page or so before we get back on topic and forget about them - so let's wrap them up here. I'll add alternate theories and more questions, should they arise, to the OP as we go along.


My Analysis:
Three players gather at the Ishgardian Adventurers' Guild and choose to tackle a guildleve in Mor Dhona (Likely then a region of Coerthas).

Evidence:

• It's not an AG we've seen so far.
• On his map, The Elvaan centers his gaze first on central north Aldenard.
• The camera pans over (presumably) Silvertear Falls into Silvertear Lake.

Engaged with the Marbol there, the party is interrupted by a fleet of Garleans moving south, engaged in battle with the wyrms of Dravania over the heart of Mor Dhona.

Evidence:

• When the Hume wakes aboard the Imperial Juggernaut, the sun is fading from view as night falls. This means that when we first see the airships sweep over the battlefield of the party's levequest, the sun is just beginning to set. If the sun sets in the west, the empire is moving south.
• The Empire's only stronghold on our continent is Ala Mhigo, which means they likely went around Gridania, through the Rothlyt Sound, and into Coerthas, hoping to catch the King of the Primals off guard.
• On the map, the Dravania has a wyvern/wyrm right above it. Seeing as there aren't many in Coerthas, but the Wyrmking does /PERCH/ there - I assume the rest are hanging out back there somewhere.
• When we see the battle raging, we can clearly see the crystals visible in present-day destroyed Mor Dhona sticking out of the ground.
• The airship crashes here, and we can go see it still there in Mor Dhona, making the rest of this just as likely.

The Wyrmking Bahamut descends on the Garlean armada and tears it to shreads, crashing down into Mor Dhona and dying/going dormant as the entire area is destroyed.

Evidence:

• He's still there.
• When the dragon 'dies,' he explodes into light and other primals (Specifically: Ifrit and Titan) fly outwards. This would be in line with the rest of the primals being "freed" from the reign of their leader, presumably making this great beast the Wyrmking Bahamut.
• The Grand Company page clearly says the Garleans were met with a Primal after they had conquered Ala Mhigo. I believe that the appearance of Bahamut over Coerthas, where we know Ishgard has already been battling back the scalekin (likely from Dravania) is what tempted them to ignore the conquest of Gridania and strike fast and hard at the heart of the false gods.

Who challenges my analysis?
Who has more questions?
Who has alternate theories?

[Rhomagus]

Who challenges my analysis?

I challenge!!!!

When the Hume Hyur wakes aboard the Imperial Juggernaut,

Who has more questions?

On the map, the Dravania has a wyvern/wyrm right above it. Seeing as there aren't many in Coerthas, but the Wyrmking does /PERCH/ there in present day Mor Dhona

... that is all, but I'm not sure about that last part. Did you mean to say that he "perches" over Dravania or Coerthas?



Great analysis. I might come back later to add my thoughts. I agree with the name allocations to the areas.

[Konachibi]

I'll admit my two thoughts on it.

I don't think it is Bahamut, it'd be an unusual choice for S.E to let one of their trademark monsters die before the game even began, unless of course the story eventually moves into a point where he's resurrected once all the primals are defeated.

Though personally I'm hoping it's a different dragon and at some point there's a cut-scene where it fights against Bahamut, a giant dragon brawl would be an awesome sight to see through this graphics engine

[Catapult]

It doesn't always have to be Bahamut.

But it might be. We don't know yet.

[Konachibi]

It doesn't always have to be Bahamut.

But it might be. We don't know yet.

Nicely pointed out (b'.')b

Had completely forgotten about him.

[User201109011315]

On the topic of the primal:

Bahamut isn't always as Serpentine-looking in FF titles, so it may be Shinryu. However, considering that Ifrit is rather unusual in FFXIV also, it's really anyone's guess which Primal was summoned.


On topic of Adventurers Guild:

Anyway, given that the Hyur is using the echo in the cinematic, it is possible that he was transported to a completely different region while using it, in which case the Adventurer's Guild may not be local to Coerthas and hence not Ishgard. However, since the Hyur uses the AG-issued guildleve as "inspiration" for his echo, it's probably most likely that the echo he is experiencing is local. But technically speaking, it's not a given.

On Primals being freed after explosion:

My theory was that Garleans were using "Eikons" to power some of their machinery. (Which might explain why we experience the Echo in the first place. Our primal - possibly Siren, hence 'echo' - may be captured by the Garleans and is calling out to players to set her free).

However, that's a little out-there.

[Alaltus]

The way i see the whole scene with what could be Bahamut is that if he is Bahamut it maybe that he is the king of the summons like he has been in some previous games and he was attacking the garleans to free his brethren. The other primals being trapped within that large garlean ship and freeing them when his body crushes open the ship.

[Avraym]

I think you are being over-analytical and most likely reading too much into a cinematic that has little relevance to the game itself.

But i do like your post

[User201109011315]

Yeah, im sure they didn't micromanage the direction of the sun when they made the video. They were probably just like "I think I speak for everybody when I say the sun looks best here" and then threw the thing together.

[AdvancedWind]

I think you are being over-analytical and most likely reading too much into a cinematic that has little relevance to the game itself.

But i do like your post

Actually, the cinematic has quite a bit of relevance to the game; It shows us about Guildleves (central to the game on launch), it shows us the echo, we see Silvertear Falls / Mor Dhona before it was turned into what it is today, we get to see a bit of the Empire's might AND as a bonus we see what - could - be the origin of the Primals, not to mention Bahamut / Shinryu.