CG Midlander

[NoloeTazier]

True, but according to the cutscene, Gaius was clearly there watching the outcome of what was going to happen. It was made pretty clear he was going to be in ARR anyway, it just seemed weird that he was present at the battle and managed to survive, and I'm sure Louisoix didn't go out of his way to save him.

He was on an airship pretty far away, he wanted to see Van Darnus' plot enter fruition and see what he would possibly be up against. Like I said in another thread, the Grand Company leaders were even closer to the fight and they survive.

You dont want me taking time theory...believe me..

But anyways....if we (you/me and our companions) survived a fire blast from an airship that exploded in a humongous ball of exploding fire... Im pretty sute Hyur dude can survive the fall XD

Go for it, more input from people doesn't hurt. I'm with Anonymoose on the Opening Movie though. He used the power of The Echo and was there to see what happened (maybe his intervention prevented the other Lalafell, Elezen, and Roegdayn from being killed by the Malboro). He didn't fall to his death, merely fell out of The Echo.

One of my biggest questions...WHERE WAS URIANGER?

[Anonymoose]

As far as the CG Midlander mystery, I think he and his party as supposed to represent us adventurers as a whole in being teleported away to be saved to confront Bahamut later on.

Yeah; it's starting to look like they don't have any true lore, which makes me kinda bummed. It creates a rift between the game we play and the game we see, if that's the case - people that are supposed to be us but aren't us are doing the things we're supposed to do, lol.

If they were characters with their own stories, we'd be fighting in different places at the same times with the same goals; they'd be the people we're aspiring to be like, and their actions would show what was going on in places that we couldn't be at the time. And, on top of that, we'd be able to meet them sporadically in-game to secure that link between the video and the gameplay.

1. I wonder how they're going to explain what Bahamut has been up to during the time we've been in limbo.

2. What was Atomos' role in 1.0?

3. This question will probably answer itself, but how did the Empire get out of the attack unscathed? Maybe they didn't and are in the same situation as the other citizens of Eorzea; rebuilding their forces and preparing for another conquest. But this again kind of ties back into #1: What's going on with Bahamut that would allow them to still remain an antagonist?

I'm gonna work through this one backwards

#3 - They didn't. They got absolutely owned. The VIIth legion is no more. Gaius, however, didn't come with the XIVth Legion. He said (during 'Livin' on a Prayer') that he would be watching from "on high" to see the outcome of the battle. He came with one airship, stayed far enough away that (even if Dalamud made impact) he'd be able to get away, and as soon as Bahamut showed up, he hauled ass back to Ala Mhigo.

#2 - I'm not very clear on that either, so if we're supposed to know, I'll leave that one to Ferne. There wasn't even much lore about it, and in-game the only time it was referred to by name was the name floating above its head. All we know that is that (1) it came from another world (2) it enjoys consuming aether (3) either it consumed aether at such a pace that the networks flowed backwards (over-aspecting all crystallization in the area) or the aether network was already in chaos due to the in-game events and it just showed up for a free meal, and (4) It's rapid consumption of this world's life energy tore a hole to The Void through which all manner of beasts that live there were able to get through. (5) I don't believe that Atomos himself is Voidsent, as he was sustained in corporeal form by aether, and until now we've understood Voidsent as crossing over, not materializing due to our life energy. (though, this, too, could be the case depending on what SE has to say in the future; it's up in the air).

#1 - We'll know sooner or later, but for now I'll assume that he destroyed a bunch, took a rest, probably retired for a bit to the area of the map known as Wyrmking's Perch to loom over us like some sort of henge to raise anxiety and make ARR feel unsafe.

You dont want me taking time theory...believe me..

I stick to my original assessment on theories - we're not trying to find out something we can say really happened, we're just trying to come up with as many things as possible that fit all of the constraints on the story that are given by SE. The day you accept literally anything that isn't explicitly stated in the story as a fact is the day that SE adds something directly contradicting one small point that brings down your whole house of cards.

We're trying to understand all of the information SE gives us in its proper context; so by coming up with theories that (will never not) have errors, we correct those errors and thus correct our improper understanding of the game. If we come up with something that later comes to fruition, that's a fun little win, but it's not the goal.

Think of it like a puzzle that you only have 1/10th of the pieces to so far. We're not trying to make our own pieces, we're just trying to make sure the pieces we do have are put in the right place.

We end up in the Localization forum when no one can arrive at a definitive conclusion for a past event that seems to be case closed - because that means that there's a chance that localization didn't go exactly as intended (i.e. too vague, a wrong word, no discernible pronunciation or syntax - etc.)

One should do their best not to end up here with easily answered queries or questions that shouldn't have answers yet; which I admit is a territory we've wandered into in this thread while we wait for Ferne to get back to us on information from the introduction cinematic, which doesn't seem to be gospel at this point.

One of my biggest questions...WHERE WAS URIANGER?

... ... Good question.

I'd always pinned him as being the Paragon that went to the beast tribes. Maybe he was slinkin' off to do ... slinky things.

[Zenaku]

Seeing all the tattoo people praying to a stone maybe they really are demigods and there was praying to there parents. It make sense how louisoix can summon the power of the twelve to remake dalamud around bahamut.

[NoloeTazier]

I'd always pinned him as being the Paragon that went to the beast tribes. Maybe he was slinkin' off to do ... slinky things.

I kinda thought that too, Louisoix knew a lot about the Primals, Urianger was basically Louisoix's right hand man so he could have easily passed on the information to the beastmen. I mean after all npc's were talking about a wandering Archon telling tales, maybe the reason he was wandering around was because he was spreading the stories and truths to the beastmen. Louisoix could never be seen consorting with the beastmen because he's suppose to be on "our" side.

Seeing all the tattoo people praying to a stone maybe they really are demigods and there was praying to there parents. It make sense how louisoix can summon the power of the twelve to remake dalamud around bahamut.

Yeah, I'm still for the The Twelve 'altars' being nothing more than an ancient sealing weapon. According to lore The Twelve were here long before the Allgans so I can't say for a fact that they didn't play any part. But I still view the 12 stones as nothing more than technology built by the Allgan Empire to seal Bahamut after he was unleashed (summoned perhaps by Dravnians who worship him?). The Crystal Tower is a tomb of an Allgan king and one of the 'altars' is associated with him, so I just can't see that being in any way a divine intervention. It would make sense for those descendants of the Allgans to pass down this knowledge, keep it in a sacred place like Sharlayan. An easy way to make it so people won't disturb the 'altars' name them after The Twelve and people would be more than willing to protect them.

[Zenaku]

I kinda thought that too, Louisoix knew a lot about the Primals, Urianger was basically Louisoix's right hand man so he could have easily passed on the information to the beastmen. I mean after all npc's were talking about a wandering Archon telling tales, maybe the reason he was wandering around was because he was spreading the stories and truths to the beastmen. Louisoix could never be seen consorting with the beastmen because he's suppose to be on "our" side.



Yeah, I'm still for the The Twelve 'altars' being nothing more than an ancient sealing weapon. According to lore The Twelve were here long before the Allgans so I can't say for a fact that they didn't play any part. But I still view the 12 stones as nothing more than technology built by the Allgan Empire to seal Bahamut after he was unleashed (summoned perhaps by Dravnians who worship him?). The Crystal Tower is a tomb of an Allgan king and one of the 'altars' is associated with him, so I just can't see that being in any way a divine intervention. It would make sense for those descendants of the Allgans to pass down this knowledge, keep it in a sacred place like Sharlayan. An easy way to make it so people won't disturb the 'altars' name them after The Twelve and people would be more than willing to protect them.

That make sense but sadly it seem boring it be more funs if the twelve are real but what you say does make sense.

[Anonymoose]

Yeah, I'm still for the The Twelve 'altars' being nothing more than an ancient sealing weapon.

I think that it was the ritual itself that was the weapon. Louisoix admits in 'Living on a Prayer' that it was his Circle of Knowing that recently carved the symbols of The Twelve into the old stones around Eorzea and that they were to be used as conduits to channel the prayers. That's why they didn't glow, at first.

If you pull up the master map of Eorzea and place the symbols on that map, you'll notice that all the Circle of Knowing did was form a circle around Mor Dhona - the place with the highest concentration of aether in our land.

They ritualized a fail-safe to protect our area, and then couldn't muster enough power behind it to overcome Bahamut's influence. Seeing that he'd led personally us all to this destruction on false hope (not that this wasn't a war that could be lost, but that our gods would see us through it), Louisoix re-diverted what energy was left to be called upon into summoning the powers of just Althyk (deity of change, space, and time).

Symbol Seen Here

Knowing that they'd failed in preventing the Umbral Era, he saves those who fought under his leadership, trusting that the work they've done will at least give us another chance at eventually establishing the Seventh Astral, so he smiles as the magic fades around him.

[NoloeTazier]

Louisoix admits in 'Living on a Prayer' that it was his Circle of Knowing that recently carved the symbols of The Twelve into the old stones around Eorzea and that they were to be used as conduits to channel the prayers. That's why they didn't glow, at first.

Ah man, this is why I hate speeding through quests lol. I totally missed this part. That changes everything in my theory. Thanks for the clarification. So many questions, makes me want to view every single CS and read every bit of npc dialogue.

[Catapult]

Cor, Moose. You've put into words what was going through my brain. That reeked of an epic-level arcanist spell cast by Louisoix, invoking the power of aetherytic beings through them.

And I wouldn't write off the Twelve's existance as a hoax either, not when in Gridania quest #3, a moogle brings a message from the great arbor spirit Everschade that denotes those beckoned by the wood as messengers of Nophica herself.

More to the point though...

It seems as if we have our foundation for the arcanist class having the summoner job.

On a slightly related note, we may have also stumbled upon the foundation of Ishgard's war against dragonkind: Bahamut. I dread to think how Ishgard might react to all this.

Let's also recall what two jobs are missing from our CG videos: Monk and Dragoon. On the latter, I find it somewhat curious that the marketing team would neglect to show off what is arguably the most popular job in FF history. Unless, of course, they had a bloody good story-based reason to do it. Kind of like not showing arguably the most popular primal, Bahamut, in promotional material (and also leaving out Shiva - what's up with that?).

[Anonymoose]

Ah man, this is why I hate speeding through quests lol. I totally missed this part. That changes everything in my theory. Thanks for the clarification. So many questions, makes me want to view every single CS and read every bit of npc dialogue.

That's a perfect example of the reason I stress so hard that everything we talk about here as far as theories go is only to understand what already exists in context. ONE LINE by SE, and even the best speculation all comes crashing down in a spectacular case of Silent Hill syndrome XD

Will respond to Cata soon, just rushing out the door atm :P

[whoopeeragon]

Another theory I saw earlier on in the topic was the prison Dalamud was the one absorbing the aether of the failed primals such as Garuda and Ifrit. As the ending FMV ended, a horse whinnying, a screech and some low growls could be heard. This may be stretching it, but it heralds that at least, at the end, Odin and Garuda and Ifrit came to the scene of destruction. But how?

Since the prison was blown up by Bahamut's megaflare, the pieces of the prison slammed into the ground. The remaining aether leaked into the ground. We see pieces of the prison weakening in the beginning hitting Coerthas, and we definitely see the remains of the prison slam into Thanalan. Since the primals draw on the aether, would this have awakened the primals from their abstract state?

It remains a question whether it was the prison was the one absorbing aether to maintain it's function, or was it Bahamut absorbing it. It could be both, aether filtering through the walls in order to reach Bahamut. As the ending implies that the Twelve was the one who originally sealed Bahamut in the prison, and the Twelve required aether for their work, that also would imply that the prison needed aether to maintain it's seal. And Bahamut being a primal at it's core would need aether to grow stronger as well.

About Althyk's role in this; it seems that just because Louisoix could use Althyk's glyph doesn't mean he's the only person capable. What if the whole Circle of Knowing could use it, seeing as Echo is a deep measure of them? Would that mean the players, as a result of Echo, also gain the ability to manipulate time? (maybe even herald the lore inclusion of Time Mage)

This was a lot of information to digest - I'm going to bookmark this thread and slowly absorb and categorise events in my own notes.

Oh, and for lore hunters, there are a few continents/landmarks mentioned ingame that I picked up. You may or may not have them in your notes, but sharing is caring.
- Meracydia
- Gardens of Xarakish
- Floating Lakes of Voor Sian Siran