How many Calamities have been accounted for?

[Lium]

This is more of a question for the lore aficionados out there. But as the title says, do we know what caused all seven Calamities?

We know of one through the MSQ, and that's the Calamity that launched us into 2.0. We learned of one Calamity through the Crystal Tower Alliance raids. Emperor Xande unleashed the energy of Dalamud, which wiped out the Allagan Empire. We know of another Calamity through the BLM job quests. A group of black mages caused one. I can't remember why. I have to re-watch the BLM cutscenes.

So, as far as I know, that's three out of the seven Calamities accounted for. What about the other four?

[WrenElessedil]

I don't think we know the actual causes of the other calamities so far. The first Encyclopedia Eorzea describes what was happening around the time for them and how people thought it was the gods punishing humans, but doesn't say their actual causes. AFAIK we only know the three you stated: 4th (Xande), 6th (Mhach and Amdapor), and 7th (Bahamut).

[Mhaeric]

I could have sworn there was mention in the 5.0 story of one other one. I don't think there were a lot of details aside from the world and the element it was associated with.

[JeanneOrnitier]

First Calamity was Wind and I'm pretty sure nothing is known at all. That would have been the Ascians' second attempt at a Rejoining, after the failed first attempt with the Thirteenth.

Second Calamity was Lightning. Generations of nature being despoiled as man expanded and became civilized threw nature out of balance until it hit back with volcanic eruptions that spat out ash that turned the sky dark, which in turn created lightningstorms that lasted a year.

Third Calamity was Fire. The Second Calamity had led to a religious age of people fearing the power of the gods, but that in turn led to holy wars being waged as different religions fought each other for control. "Towns were burned, children sold into slavery, all while men and women died in the thousands. With no one to tend the fields at home, crops withered, leaving those few who had not marched to war to starvation." The Calamity itself was the sun expanding so much that the heat sapped away the life of the land. The only cause we are given for it is the gods grew tired of mankind's fighting, so clearly that's not accurate.

Fourth Calamity was Earth. Dalamud's power backlashing against the Crystal Tower caused a massive earthquake that decimated Allag.

Fifth Calamity was Ice. We don't know the cause but we know the accompanying Umbral Era was an ice age that froze the oceans.

Sixth Calamity was Water. The War of the Magi upset the balance of aether until there was a massive flood.

Seventh Calamity was all of the elements aspected toward Astral (Darkness). That's Bahamut.

The Eight Calamity in the bad future we stopped with Shadowbringers was all of the elements aspected toward Umbral (Light). The Black Rose, its power amplified by the light aether flowing in from the First, killed thousands of people including the WoL and Scions, and stripped life from the land, leading to the collapse of civilization and centuries of people fighting each other for what little resources remained.

[Lium]

First Calamity was Wind and I'm pretty sure nothing is known at all. That would have been the Ascians' second attempt at a Rejoining, after the failed first attempt with the Thirteenth.

Second Calamity was Lightning. Generations of nature being despoiled as man expanded and became civilized threw nature out of balance until it hit back with volcanic eruptions that spat out ash that turned the sky dark, which in turn created lightningstorms that lasted a year.

Third Calamity was Fire. The Second Calamity had led to a religious age of people fearing the power of the gods, but that in turn led to holy wars being waged as different religions fought each other for control. "Towns were burned, children sold into slavery, all while men and women died in the thousands. With no one to tend the fields at home, crops withered, leaving those few who had not marched to war to starvation." The Calamity itself was the sun expanding so much that the heat sapped away the life of the land. The only cause we are given for it is the gods grew tired of mankind's fighting, so clearly that's not accurate.

Fourth Calamity was Earth. Dalamud's power backlashing against the Crystal Tower caused a massive earthquake that decimated Allag.

Fifth Calamity was Ice. We don't know the cause but we know the accompanying Umbral Era was an ice age that froze the oceans.

Sixth Calamity was Water. The War of the Magi upset the balance of aether until there was a massive flood.

Seventh Calamity was all of the elements aspected toward Astral (Darkness). That's Bahamut.

The Eight Calamity in the bad future we stopped with Shadowbringers was all of the elements aspected toward Umbral (Light). The Black Rose, its power amplified by the light aether flowing in from the First, killed thousands of people including the WoL and Scions, and stripped life from the land, leading to the collapse of civilization and centuries of people fighting each other for what little resources remained.

Awesome explanation of the Calalmities. Thanks for this!

[Anonymoose]

<snip>

Awesome explanation of the Calalmities. Thanks for this!

Not only a concise rendering of the knowns,
but an accurate accounting for the oft overlooked elementality of Calamities in spite of the recent associations with Light and Darkness!

A few small liner notes that seem like relevant tack-ons.

- For some calamities we don't really have a good sense of how widespread they were, with hints such that even SE might not have fully committed to which were global and which were regional but mistakenly assumed to be global. Far Eastern NPCs aren't as helpful as we'd hoped here.

- History so poorly remembers the time between the Great Sundering and the First Umbral Era that during some eras of the game's development some people assumed they might be the same event (almost certainly impossible). What happened in this era of Prehistory remains ambiguous, but I like to think it had something to do with some tragic truth about Twelve's true nature and where it went having them around after the fall of Zodiark. The First Umbral Era is, after all, remembered as the catalyst for "the gods leaving".

- The fourth Calamity was an act of desperation. Xande - backed into a corner as the Warriors of Light laid siege to his stronghold - fully discharging Dalamud into the Crystal Tower and trying to throw the voidgate open all at once. Instead, the tower buckled and discharged that energy into the planet.

- If we try to account for which worlds were consumed in which Calamities, there seems to be no real rhyme or reason to it ... but there's a suspicious overlap in the number of the world and the element associated with it. For example, the fifth Calamity was ice and marked the rejoining of the Sixth. Compare to FFVI's infamous snow march opening. And the sixth was water marked the rejoining of the Tenth. Compare to FFX's infamous blitzball opening.

[MrThinker]

Not only a concise rendering of the knowns,
but an accurate accounting for the oft overlooked elementality of Calamities in spite of the recent associations with Light and Darkness!

A few small liner notes that seem like relevant tack-ons.

- For some calamities we don't really have a good sense of how widespread they were, with hints such that even SE might not have fully committed to which were global and which were regional but mistakenly assumed to be global. Far Eastern NPCs aren't as helpful as we'd hoped here.

- History so poorly remembers the time between the Great Sundering and the First Umbral Era that during some eras of the game's development some people assumed they might be the same event (almost certainly impossible). What happened in this era of Prehistory remains ambiguous, but I like to think it had something to do with some tragic truth about Twelve's true nature and where it went having them around after the fall of Zodiark. The First Umbral Era is, after all, remembered as the catalyst for "the gods leaving".

- The fourth Calamity was an act of desperation. Xande - backed into a corner as the Warriors of Light laid siege to his stronghold - fully discharging Dalamud into the Crystal Tower and trying to throw the voidgate open all at once. Instead, the tower buckled and discharged that energy into the planet.

- If we try to account for which worlds were consumed in which Calamities, there seems to be no real rhyme or reason to it ... but there's a suspicious overlap in the number of the world and the element associated with it. For example, the fifth Calamity was ice and marked the rejoining of the Sixth. Compare to FFVI's infamous snow march opening. And the sixth was water marked the rejoining of the Tenth. Compare to FFX's infamous blitzball opening.

To top all of that off is a minor note regarding the First Calamity found in Encyclopaedia Eorzea Volume 1, in which the elder moogles of Moghome give tales of a 'wind-driven disaster previous to the other known calamities'.
Prior to this, scholars assumed the elementality to be wind by process of elimination. The moogle tale is, so far, the only possible match for a record of the First Calamity.

[JeanneOrnitier]

I have to wonder if the Eight Calamity would have screwed the Ascians over in the long run. Even 200 years after it the land and civilization hadn't recovered, so I have to wonder if in that situation things would ever stabilize enough for the Ascians to set up another Calamity ever again.

[TheMightyMollusk]

Considering how close the First was to being consumed by the Flood of Light, they may not have had a choice. Only literal divine intervention prevented it from becoming another dead shard like the Void. They're immortal, so they can wait for the Source to re-stabilize, but they can't revitalize a dead shard (as far as we know, anyway).

[Lium]

- The fourth Calamity was an act of desperation. Xande - backed into a corner as the Warriors of Light laid siege to his stronghold - fully discharging Dalamud into the Crystal Tower and trying to throw the voidgate open all at once. Instead, the tower buckled and discharged that energy into the planet.

This makes me think about the eighth Calamity that we prevented in Shadowbringers. The bad future was brought on by Black Rose, which was only used when the Garlean Empire had its back up against the wall. The Eorzean Alliance, led by the WoL, had pushed them to the brink of defeat, and in their desperation, they used the gas.

That's why during the fight against Elidibus/Zenos, when we receive the Call from the Exarch, he tells us that down that path is only woe, or something to that effect. This despite the fact that we had just beaten Elidibus. But what the Exarch was alluding to was that the Alliance would in fact, beat the empire all the way to the gates of Garlemald. But what happens next would be a Calamity.

I wonder if that's the Ascian way. Create a superpower to control the world, sow chaos, then manipulate events that actually cause that superpower's downfall. And in their last moments, they do something that triggers a Rejoining.