The Masked Mage

[Hestern_Nestern]

I was under the impression that the guy who's supposed to be long dead is Xandes. Supposedly, he's a dead Allag emperor that was entombed underneath Silvertear Lake... but look at Xande for inspiration. He's not dead, he's just in "cryostasis." It would also explain the concept art of Cloud of Darkness.

"The slumbering Allag emperors are surely turning in their graves." - Nael van Darnus

Subtle reference?

Couldn't Xandes and the Masked Mage be one and the same? Maybe even Xandes, the Masked Mage, and Cloud of Darkness, but all different forms of the same entity? *tilts head*

Like maybe Ascians aren't born, but made, sort of thing, and Xandes was made into one of them, thus becoming Masked Mage, and maybe at some point in the game he morphs into Cloud of Darkness, or something.

*scratches head* I am more imaginative than I am practical. He he.

[Bigpurpleharness]

****Spoilers***** Highlight the text below to read. :P

He mentions seeing Bahamut prior to the most recent summoning of Dalamud, does anyone know when that was? I believe the exact quote was, "To think I would live to see Bahamut again...."

[Agrotc]

****Spoilers***** Highlight the text below to read. :P

I would think that'd be around the same time he was imprisoned in Dalamud, so presumably at the height of the Allagan civilization.

[Anonymoose]

The longer this game goes on, the more I realize that this is all about aetherial balance. Aether is the fabric from which all life is woven, it is the basic unit of reality. When the six elements are in balance, life thrives, and when it is imbalanced, life is threatened and the world is in danger of being torn asunder. Think of it like a canoe shaken to capsizing.

Allow me to propose a new theory:

The prophecies foretold an era of chaotic imbalance representing each of the six elements, but some predicted a seventh as well, later confirmed by the discovery of the Seventh Verse of the Divine Chronicles and then the arrival of the era itself. This cognates exactly with the Seven Hells. Eorzeans believe that the first six hells are each dominated by a single element, but in the seventh resides the lord of the underworld, the Black Warden. This is the force that drives eternal oblivion, which is arguably the exact opposite of the life bestowed by aether.

Now, beyond the light of the crystal (itself composed of aether) lies what is known as the void. Some believe that the voidsent monsters we see in Eorzea are sent by an outside force that seeks to imbalance the realm. This force is likely the Ascians, who we know want to see the realm destroyed and the crystal dark. Posing as Paragons, the saints of the beast tribes, these shadowless entities from beyond the crystal's light encouraged the summoning of primals, which consume the realm's aether and drive the aetherial balance offcenter (thus into an umbral era).

Now, look again at the masked mage. Using the knowledge and power of the Paragons, he drives the beasts of the realm mad by destabilizing the aether and later requests the aid of some greater dark force and uses it to summon voidsent. Now, look back to Urianger Augurelt. When he first came to Eorzea, he lied his cryptic ass off about who he was and what he was doing there so he could act as a diversion while his comrades established the Grand Companies. One of the lies he told was that he was a member of a group of mages that were aligned with the seven demon lords of the seven hells who sought only to plunge the world into chaos.

Starting to add up?

I used to joke about how the Seventh Umbral Era seemed like when we would finally be forced to clean up the mess that every other era has been putting band aids on for thousands of years, but I think that's actually more correct that I anticipated.

This is the umbral era of oblivion and our last stand against the Ascians to save the source of all life, and that masked bastard was the first casualty to the Adversary.

[Mjollnir]

The end of your tale is just the beginning of another... The tale of the crystal's demise!

Ahahahaha. Hahahaha. Aha. Ah.

Gosh, wouldn't it be terrible if our heroic but repeated deaths were draining that poor crystal dry? On the one hand, it needs us alive and well-trained to stand against the Ascian threat, on the other, by keeping us alive, it's slowly weakening. Dilemma!

Can't make sense of that quote otherwise. Unless...

The end of your tail is just the beginning of some others... The tails of the crippled old mice!

Ahahahaha. Hahahaha. Aha. Ah.

Secret of Nym. I saw it in an Echo.

[Hestern_Nestern]

Okay so because I want to be crazy and propose weird theories about who Masked Mage is, I will give you these two images:



OR



And yes, neither one of these makes sense, which is PRECISELY why I suspect it the most! Yes, Derplander has been hiding secrets from us!!!! Nevermind the fact that Derplander is a representation of us...and doesn't appear in the game itself...or...well all those logical incongruities ASIDE!

Ahem.

OR IT IS ALFINO/ALPHINAUD! Come on, people. He looks way too innocent! And look at his lips! THEY ARE TOTALLY THE SAME LIPS as this dude:



Did anyone else notice that there are two Alfino/Alphinauds?? I think one of them is a female, though. Sister? An evil sister, clearly, equally fond of creepy masks! YES! I have uncovered it all!!!

MAKE WAY, Anonymoose and Catapult (and those other loremongers I can never remember), I am moving in on ya territory, ya awful ahrimans, ya!!! DESTROYING THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AT DA SAME TIME, TU! YO! BETTA RECOGNIZE!

[NoloeTazier]

Okay so because I want to be crazy and propose weird theories about who Masked Mage is, I will give you these two images:



OR



And yes, neither one of these makes sense, which is PRECISELY why I suspect it the most! Yes, Derplander has been hiding secrets from us!!!! Nevermind the fact that Derplander is a representation of us...and doesn't appear in the game itself...or...well all those logical incongruities ASIDE!

Ahem.

OR IT IS ALFINO/ALPHINAUD! Come on, people. He looks way too innocent! And look at his lips! THEY ARE TOTALLY THE SAME LIPS as this dude:



Did anyone else notice that there are two Alfino/Alphinauds?? I think one of them is a female, though. Sister? An evil sister, clearly, equally fond of creepy masks! YES! I have uncovered it all!!!

MAKE WAY, Anonymoose and Catapult (and those other loremongers I can never remember), I am moving in on ya territory, ya awful ahrimans, ya!!! DESTROYING THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AT DA SAME TIME, TU! YO! BETTA RECOGNIZE!

Siren.

On a serious note, I'm probably complete wrong with this theory as of Phase 3, but I wanted to say it before but I forgot. The 2 new Elezen teens/whatever are probably Archons, representing the Twins Nald and Thal. After all they share similar characteristics to the Archons from 1.0. They arrive with us (sure it's in an Echo) on our voyage to the city-state we chose. If Louisoix is Thaliak, Ahldbhar is Rhalgr, the Twins being Nald and Thal...then yeah. That's as far as I got with labeling the rest of the Circle of Knowing Archons.

[Hestern_Nestern]

Oh...that...that makes a lot more sense than my theory. Ahem.

Hey...if every primal is summoned by a certain group or what-have-you, does that mean that someone summoned Odin? Is it established in the canon that someone has to summon the primal first in order for them to come to Hydaelyn or have there been instances where a primal comes unbidden to this world?

[Hanzzo_Kai]

Is it confirmed somewhere that the set of twins from the Clan of Dawn are the same in each opening? I was thinking that there are a bunch of members and the Alfino/Alphinaud character may be their leader?

[Kinseykinz]

If you get far enough in the storyline, it's beyond obvious the twins are the 'grandchildren' of a very special 1.0 friend. But there are far too many spoilers in this atm to discuss it further.