An Eorzean Timeline.

[Myranda]

So why would the moons and years go from light to dark but the eras go from dark to light...??? I know this may seem trivial but does seem a bit confusing...even after reading the op from the other thread even the op was a bit confused before he just accepted and wrote the timeline.

I think you've just summed up the situation. There's no official clarification as to why this is so, and we've all just flipped the table and have gone into "deal with it" mode.

[Allistar]

lol...oh the timeline discussions are amazing...truly what an rpg is all about...

[Tinks]

OT of current discussion ish... Alright, I feel like I'm super late to the party with this one, and I can't even imagine it hasn't been noticed so please just humor me anyway

So I read this: 1022 to 1422 --- Ixali are exiled from the Twelveswood by the Elementals. They travel to the canyons of Xelphatol. Their young begin to be born without the feathers on their wings that catch the winds and allow them to fly.

And then I looked up a picture of the Ixali from 1.0 and compared it to the Yagudo from FFXI and they are strikingly similar. I know at some point I'd read speculation (or something of the sort) about FFXIV 1.0 initially having some sort of lore tie in to FFXI and I'm curious if anything ever came of that? Presumably, this is just entirely creative coincidence, but it struck me and I couldn't ignore it.

[Obsy]

[...]we've all just flipped the table and have gone into "deal with it" mode.

That's pretty much my logic. At least with the Astra/Umbral confusion.

I'm likely to believe that as far as eras go (which are obviously the over-arching theme when it comes to timeline stuff) it's far more romantic--even biblical--to have light emerge from the darkness. Why that doesn't apply to moon phases? My guess is because each one is short term, it seems more natural as a time-keeping mechanic to go light-dark, light-dark, up-down, up-down...

...B, A, Select, Start.

[NoloeTazier]

Question...astral--> umbral...so technically 1st astral --> 1st umbral--->2nd astral-->2nd umbral...am I right?

Sorry I guess I should have copy/pasted the first part of the actual post talking about the Eras.

First let me explain that the Final Fantasy XIV history tells us that things started with The First Astral era started with the wandering tribes coming to Eorzea and the Twelve welcomed them. Then they began to war and the Twelve left Eorzea. Now if we take this and go with the the repeating pattern we get: First Astral -> First Umbral -> Second Astral -> Second Umbral -> Third Astral -> Third Umbral -> Fourth Astral -> Fourth Umbral -> Fifth Astral -> Fifth Umbral -> Sixth Astral -> Sixth Umbral. But this does not line up correctly since we know we're in the Sixth Astral which turns into the Seventh Umbral. Since there's so little known, I can only expand on what I do know and understand. Thank you.

I'll go ahead and add that to my original post, sorry for the confusion.

[NoloeTazier]

Endemerrin is correct about Ququruka. He didn't plot to destroy Eorzea. He sought to unlock the secrets of black magic. You can't blame society for drawing conclusions after he stupidly messed up his masterwork and created an abomination out of his colleagues. What Yayake and Lalai know is not first hand knowledge. I would put a greater weight on Ququruka's dying confessions.


You also have the wrong date on the first appearance of a primal that stopped the Garlean advance. 1557, not 1562. The battle of Silvertear Skies marks a notable exception to a 15-year period of inactivity from the Garleans.

I'll change the Qurquruka post, I guess I just took differently than everyone else did. Lust for power after all.

1557 is the year the Garleans were able to finally capture Ala Mhigo with the little resistance that was put up. And it would take a few years before the VIIth Legion could be created by the brainwashed children and adults of Ala Mhigo. It's only stated that "shortly" after the advance was halted by a Primal. It doesn't list the year and as far as we know Primals cannot be summoned until after the Battle of Silvertear Skies. Of course the exception could be made for Elder Primals like Bahamut and Odin, but we're not told it was Odin who was summoned to stop the advancement. "Shortly after" could also describe 5 years later after the Battle of Silvertear Skies and the release of the Primals as we know it. I highly doubt the same year the Empire took over Ala Mhigo that they would immediately advance into the rest of Eorzea without scouting ahead and securing a better foothold...a.k.a. the aether rich Mor Dhona from which they could harvest the Aether and make as much Ceruleum as they wanted. So I think you could argue anywhere from 1557~1562, I'll change it to show both since it could be either.

[Mtoto_Wamoto]

You could add an event to 1552 since there is nothing on the time line currently:

Quoted from Erik during the Monk storyline. I've bolded the event in question.

The brothers and sisters of the monkhood are those souls training in the service of Rhalgr, god of destruction among the Twelve. The Fist of Rhalgr is their order. Through rigorous training of the mind and body, and with constant invigoration and refinement, it is believed that one can approach the sublimity of Rhalgr himself. Such is their power of concentration that they are able to master the aether within their bodies and channel it in a manner that grants them immense destructive power. The monkhood insists on calling this internal essence “spiritual energy” or “life force”.

Over time, the Fist of Rhalgr evolved into a sort of clergy with martial proclivities. This was no doubt a result of their main temple being located in Gyr Abania region plagued by warfare where knowing how to protect oneself is essential to survival. As the years passed, however, what began as a simple group of religious fanatics fighting to protect themselves grew into an ambitious organization of religious fanatics taking part in the region's power struggles. Those in power in Ala Mhigo grew understandably wary of these war priests who proclaimed all their fights to be fought in the name of a god, and who employed deadly force without the slightest hesitation. And so, rather than make enemies of the monks, they decided instead to use them to their benefit.

Through affiliation with the Ala Mhigan royal family, the Fist of Rhalgr was incorporated into the nation's standing army. This not only granted the monks a great deal of power, but furnished them with all of the rights accorded protectors of the citizenry. And their political influence was still growing.

The power of the Fist of Rhalgr grew unchecked in Ala Mhigo, and it was eventually named the state religion. After this, its influence over political, economic, and cultural spheres of life became even more considerable. Needless to say, this did not sit well with one and all. Among them was the last and most ugsome of Ala Mhigan royalty, the King of Ruin - Theodoric. The rise of the Fist meant a potential rival for power, and he would not suffer the monkhood to encroach on his prerogatives.

To counter their claims of religious righteousness, he simply conjured his own out of thin aether, proclaiming that the throne was his by divine right, given him by the word of Nymeia herself - wife to Rhalgr. He then banned the worship and likenesses of Rhalgr and all other gods, and demanded that the prayers and praises of Ala Mhigo be given to Nymeia and her alone. In doing so, he sought to establish his own absolute, uncontested rule. Naturally, the Fist and other worshippers of Rhalgr throughout the nation rose in protest, precisely as Theodoric had known they would. He used the uprisings as a pretext to imprison several high-ranking monks, whom he then tortured until they confessed their order's plans to topple his rule.

In 1552 of the Sixth Astral Era, Theodoric led a vast army to the site of the monkhood's main temple and surrounded it. Monks and novices and devotees, including the elders, refugees seeking shelter after the fires of war had turned their homes to ash, servants and peasants hired to do no more than till the fields - none were left alive. The monks fought heroically, but were hopelessly outnumbered. With the massacre of that day, nearly all of the monkhood perished. The elders, the keepers of the tradition and its knowledge, resided within the temple grounds.

It was thought that all versed in the ways of the chakra were lost, but perhaps the end of the Fist was not the end of the monks after all.

[Enkidoh]

1557 ---[list]After inciting unrest within the masses of Ala Mhigo, the Garleans are able to capture the city and proceed to occupy it.

This is one thing in the lore which is actually contradictory and has been bugging me for a while now, as the actual information stated in 1.0 mentions it differently. All the original information upon 1.0's release, and how it's stated by NPCs in game (particularly during the later Path of the Twelve scenario quests), state that Ala Mihgo was actually directly invaded and defeated - that their armies directly invaded with magitek technology and that Ala Mihgo's armies, despite fighting bravely, were no match for the sheer power of the Garlean's machina.

Specifically, during the quest 'Lord Errant', Minfilia explicity states this when she is talking to the Path about the Imperial linkpearls being dropped over the Eorzean cities:

"As you all know, and some of you may personally recall, it was not five and ten summers ago that the Garlean Empire launched an offensive on the northern city state of Ala Mihgo. You will have heard stories of how the men and women of their armies did their best to repel the enemy, only to find that their iron blades and modest magics no match for the Empire's machina. And you will have gleaned from such tales just how swiftly the entire region fell under Garlean control."

However, as is known the main FFXIV website now states that Gaius employed subterfuge and cunning to create civil unrest and virtually topple it's government, allowing the Garleans to occupy Ala Mihgo 'without the need for a protracted siege'.

So, which is the correct version? Is Minfilia's version actually correct, and the story about Gaius's bloodless overthrow of Ala Mihgo's government, interestingly, nothing more than Imperial propoganda designed to make him more sympathetic than he actually is?

After all, Gaius's callousness is plainly shown during Future's Perfect, having slaughtered the entire Resistance, and goes to do the same to the player and their Path Companion, not caring whether they were truly enemies or not (and for that matter, goes for overkill by calling down an airstrike from his airship after the Circle of Knowing actually manage to make him sweat).

So the idea he managed to conquer Ala Mihgo without violent conflict (despite all the evidence to the contrary) seems a little ridiculous. And also considering that Minfilia, being an Echo user, could easily verify the information by simply viewing the memories of any Ala Mihgan (ala, the player's Path Companion) as well, hence making the Gaius story seem even less believable. Yet there is no mention about Gaius's overthrow of the Ala Mihgan government anywhere in the original game.

I'd really like Ferne to clarify this as the information on the website seems contradictory to the information from 1/0 that I've stated (I guess I'm just very intrigued by how Ala Mihgo fell as I've decided to have Ala Mihgo as my character's birthplace so I want to have the details as correct and accurate as possible).

[NoloeTazier]

Snip~

Good catch. Not sure how I missed that from Erik.

Snip~

To be honest, it was a bit of both. With the people upset that the Ala Mhigan King just recently slaughtered the Monks, there would be that bit of unrest. With Garlean spies inside the city and stirring the pot of the civil unrest, it would be easy for the Garleans to take over. Not to mention without the Monks, Ala Mhigo lost it's more prominent military strength. The Garleans clearly waited for the opportune time to attack and you would have people who entirely disagreed with the slaughter of the Monks.

Quoting Sun Tzu on this.

The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.

So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong, and strike at what is weak.

The Ala Mhigans had already lost before they truly lost. Without the Monks they stood no chance.

[Catapult]

Now I'm wondering if the whole affair with the Order of the Fist of Rhalgr was actually stirred up behind the scenes by Gaius.

It would be genius.
Stir up trouble, lead a city to topple its own strongest military force, give them a few (5) years to mop up or exile the remnants of the order, get them properly complacent with a little misguided diplomacy and then just waltz on in with the army you've had ten years to establish while they were occupied with internal banter.
FTW!