Revelations from SHADOWBRINGERS

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Originally Posted by Xia_Thas

Next we aim for literal God from FFXIII-3

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Would Viera characters get the name Bunnyvelze?

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Originally Posted by EdwinLi

Will of the planet you mentioned..

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Is Zodiark really the will of the planet? I mean we have found out through Ysayle summoning Shiva and Gilgamesh "summoning" Enkidoh that the beings that come forth aren't the real deal. Hell white dragon (I cant spell his name right now nor am I even going to try) basically told Ysayle that she was just for lack of a better term creating what she thought Saint Shiva was and would have acted and was just a fake or pale imitation. That goes the same for Bahamut after his summoning by Tiamat at the instigation of said Ascians. Basically what I'm saying is how can it be the will of the planet itself when the planet didnt manifest Zodiark. Zodiark was created by men or amaurotians or whatever you want to call them and they were the ones that determined what the will of the star should be...

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Originally Posted by Rannie

Is Zodiark really the will of the planet?

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Yes and no. I'd say it's somewhat different from the scenario with Shiva and Bahamut, simply because Shiva and Bahamut actually did exist prior to their summoned versions.

Presumably the planet had no will before. A rock has no face, but if I slap a pair of googly eyes on it? Now it does. Can certainly argue it's a fake face, but it never had one before, so... I'd say it's different from the Primals we've encountered thus far, they're attempted Recreations, Zodiark (and presumably Hydaelyn) are just straight up new Creations. Perhaps a better example would be the Internet... There was no World Wide Web prior to its invention, then suddenly there was. Can you argue it's not the World Wide Web? Certainly, but it would almost certainly be semantics about how there is no cosmic spider weaving a web around our planet.

The Ancients gave the planet a will, it is the will of the planet due to a lack of an objection, the role was vacant after all. Hydaelyn is the objection though, I imagine, and a rightly placed one... If the will of my planet kept casting Demi on the remaining population, I'd be incline to throw it away for a new one, too.

They are creations yes but they are still being limited by said creator, just like the internet is limited as well, it may not seem so and its constantly being improved upon but in the end it still only does what it was designed to do by the one that it was created by. All primals are that way including Zodiark and Hydaelyn. They were created only what some people thought that the will of the planet should be but it also doesnt mean that it is what the true will of the planet is.

Right now we can only surmise that the planet itself has no sentience, and some people have hypothesized that the sound that was heard and caused a disruption in their creation magics was the planet itself crying out (like what was happening in ffvii).

Ugh being tired and wanting to sleep makes me think too much... I think I shall go to bed soon before my wanna be philosophical mind plays much more at being a philosopher and or just stop thinking about it entirely lol

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Originally Posted by Nalien

The Ancients gave the planet a will, it is the will of the planet due to a lack of an objection, the role was vacant after all. Hydaelyn is the objection though, I imagine, and a rightly placed one... If the will of my planet kept casting Demi on the remaining population, I'd be incline to throw it away for a new one, too.

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This is a great way of putting what Zoidark was doing.

The entire point of summoning Zodiark was to give the Star sentience. And the people doing that were members of a race that could create literally anything with Creation Magic and enough aether. I'm ver, leery of calling anything created that way "fake". Aether is the building block of everything in FFXIV. We've known everything physical was made out of aether for a long time now. The Return to Ivalice raid revealed that even things associated with consciousness (thought, memory, emotions) are also created with aether and can be altered with aether. We see in the Amaurot quests that the Ancients were created entire species with Creation Magic which were as real as already existing species. And they were creating everything from simple physical things to autonomous figures that specific were created not to have emotions. And the creatures created by the Ancient's Creation Magic going out of control in the Last Days were certainly real.

So do I think Zoidark and Hydalyn are the "real" Wills of the Star right now. Yeah. Until we learn more information at least.

Speaking of Revelations...

With this expansion having FF8 themed stuff, maybe we may have the Hildibrand Season 6 for 5.X show us how Gilgamesh ended up as his FF8 self.

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20140310002041

Of course that means we may see a dark scene where he gets his arms chopped off and a funny scene on how he got his cardboard arms (most likely a gift from Nashu and Hildibrand) to replace his arms.

It would be even neat if they had a after credit scene where we see Gilgamesh wander in the Rift then experience the FF8 moment when he grabbed Odin's Sword and we hear Squall's line after Odin was defeated by Seifer but in his point of view for the events and ends the scene the moment he enters the world of FF8.

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Originally Posted by Rannie

They are creations yes but they are still being limited by said creator, just like the internet is limited as well, it may not seem so and its constantly being improved upon but in the end it still only does what it was designed to do by the one that it was created by. All primals are that way including Zodiark and Hydaelyn. They were created only what some people thought that the will of the planet should be but it also doesnt mean that it is what the true will of the planet is.

Right now we can only surmise that the planet itself has no sentience, and some people have hypothesized that the sound that was heard and caused a disruption in their creation magics was the planet itself crying out (like what was happening in ffvii).

Ugh being tired and wanting to sleep makes me think too much... I think I shall go to bed soon before my wanna be philosophical mind plays much more at being a philosopher and or just stop thinking about it entirely lol

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They made it certain that Zodiark and Hydaelyn had the power to alter the very fabric of reality on the world so they both can become the Will of the Planet once created.

It is still unknown what the Original Will is but at the Final Days the Original Will was already mentioned to practically given up on living and thus the planet began to die which is why they had to create Zodiark to replace the Original Will.

Compared to the Primals we defeated in the past, Zodiark was made so powerful he required 1/3 of the entire remaining population of the Planet just to summon.

As the current Will of the Planet, Zodiark and Hydaelyn are following their nature by maintaining Life on the Planet (though they have opposite priorities with Zodiark focus is to preserve the Past and Hydaelyn focus is to preserve the Future) and preventing the Original Calamity from returning.

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Originally Posted by EdwinLi

It is still unknown what the Original Will is

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It's still unknown if there is an Original Will - but more likely there isn't, at least not that the Ancients recognised prior to creating their "will of the star made manifest", which implies that there wasn't one before. Or if there was, Zodiark is intended to be its corporeal form.

So anyone think we may fight Seifer as a Trial boss in Eden raid as a "Oracle Knight"?

or at least be a character in Hildibrand season 6 for 5.X to be the serious character (with childish dreams of being a Oracle Knight) which gives us a opportunity to recreate Gilgamesh FF8 appearance as a cutscene where Hildibrand royally fails to beat Seifer and his weapon ends up in Gilgamesh hands and he appears just like in FF8.

Thancred looks a lot more like Seifer than Squall.

If we fight a "Oracle Knight", i see him being more close to Squall than Seifer.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

It's still unknown if there is an Original Will - but more likely there isn't, at least not that the Ancients recognised prior to creating their "will of the star made manifest", which implies that there wasn't one before. Or if there was, Zodiark is intended to be its corporeal form.

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I'm certainly leaning towards there being none prior to Zodiark. If there was one, I'd expect greater resistance to Zodiark being created... I can see the Terminus event being retribution from the original Will of the Star for the Ancients hubris, just as much as I can see it simply being the direct result of their hubris in making something they shouldn't... If it was the result of the original Will though, it gave up rather easily... Zodiark was created and poof, problem over... You'd think if it was punishing them for the hubris of their Creation Magic, it would take even more of an issue with them creating something like Zodiark... Instead the only clash of Wills we saw was as a result of the Ancients themselves, between Zodiark and Hydaelyn, when some Ancients realized that ritualistic sacrifice on a genocidal scale probably isn't the best model to rebuild their society on...

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Originally Posted by EdwinLi

Of course that means we may see a dark scene where he gets his arms chopped off and a funny scene on how he got his cardboard arms (most likely a gift from Nashu and Hildibrand) to replace his arms.

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This is perfect, we can have a case involving First-Ilberd as the culprit.

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Originally Posted by Zackneifein

Thancred looks a lot more like Seifer than Squall.

If we fight a "Oracle Knight", i see him being more close to Squall than Seifer.

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I imagine it'd boil down to themes more than anything; the sorceress chose Seifer to protect her, while Squall chose to protect his sorceress. Thancred's much closer to Squall in that regard.

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Originally Posted by Daralii

I imagine it'd boil down to themes more than anything; the sorceress chose Seifer to protect her, while Squall chose to protect his sorceress. Thancred's much closer to Squall in that regard.

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Not to emntion their theme match as well...

Thancred is the Oracle Knight for Ryne (the Oracle of Light) as Squall was the Sorceress Knight for Rinoa (The Sorceress of Light). The part of 5.0 story was not only Thancred being a Father to Ryne but also her personal "Knight" on their journey.

You know, Thancred and Urianger have been playfully butting heads a fair bit lately... Now we have an Oracle of Darkness who'll maybe be in need of a Knight of her own...

Can Urianger please give Thancred a Squall-styled facial scar with a Card-induced paper cut?!

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Originally Posted by Nalien

This is perfect, we can have a case involving First-Ilberd as the culprit.

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Need to be something better and with more feels for this....

Maybe Greg encounters a clone of Type-0 Enkidu and for a moment hesitated because of the PTSD about the Original Enkidu's death which then leads to the Fake Enkidu chopping off Gilgamesh's 3 arms while Nashu, WoL, and Hildibrand watch in horror as either Nashu or Hildibrand scream out Gilgamesh's name. After that the story may provide us the Echo visions showing the story about how Gilgamesh watched helplessly as his friend Enkidu died then a few echo visions showing a bit more about why Gilgamesh is like how he is now then end it with the moment when Gilgamesh met the Beast Enkidu in the Rift.

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Originally Posted by EdwinLi

Need to be something better and with more feels for this....

Maybe Greg encounters a clone of Type-0 Enkidu and for a moment hesitated because of the PTSD about the Original Enkidu's death which then leads to the Fake Enkidu chopping off Gilgamesh's 3 arms while Nashu, WoL, and Hildibrand watch in horror as either Nashu or Hildibrand scream out Gilgamesh's name. After that the story may provide us the Echo visions showing the story about how Gilgamesh watched helplessly as his friend Enkidu died then a few echo visions showing a bit more about why Gilgamesh is like how he is now then end it with the moment when Gilgamesh met the Beast Enkidu in the Rift.

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...People. This is GILGAMESH we are talking about. Does he need a valid reason to glue fake arms to his cloak?

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Originally Posted by Ilenya

...People. This is GILGAMESH we are talking about. Does he need a valid reason to glue fake arms to his cloak?

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This is Shadowbringer era.....

It is Truely the darknest Time.......Storyline.

So, odds that the Terminus was caused by some sort of Cosmic Parasite?

Or that there actually was an original will of the star that Zodiark replaced, and the reason that was needed was because the parasite flat out killed the original?

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Originally Posted by Mixt

So, odds that the Terminus was caused by some sort of Cosmic Parasite?

Or that there actually was an original will of the star that Zodiark replaced, and the reason that was needed was because the parasite flat out killed the original?

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Suddenly we have Chronotrigger in FFXIV.

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Originally Posted by Ilenya

Suddenly we have Chronotrigger in FFXIV.

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NGL when we went into the last MSQ dungeon and there were meteors raining down on the battlefield and later the planet, the only thing I thought of was "Destruction rains from the heavens!"

I would be so hyped if Chrono Trigger was ever incorporated into FFXIV lore, but I have no idea what the rights status on that property is.

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Originally Posted by YianKutku

NGL when we went into the last MSQ dungeon and there were meteors raining down on the battlefield and later the planet, the only thing I thought of was "Destruction rains from the heavens!"

I would be so hyped if Chrono Trigger was ever incorporated into FFXIV lore, but I have no idea what the rights status on that property is.

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There is also the fact that FF7 had a meteor that dropped an alien parasite that wanted to hijack the planet and use it as a means of transport to other planets.

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Originally Posted by TankHunter678

There is also the fact that FF7 had a meteor that dropped an alien parasite that wanted to hijack the planet and use it as a means of transport to other planets.

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Or Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, where the plot was caused by a meteor containing some of another planet's lifestream crashing into Earth and the souls within it antagonizing humanity as phantoms.

Or Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, where the instigator of the game's conflict (though not its main antagonist) was literally named "Meteor Parasite," crashed on the planet, and began spreading toxic miasma that the game's main antagonist (Raem) took advantage of to sate his appetite for painful memories.

... come to think of it, meteors with unwelcome guests crashing into planets is relatively common in fiction.

Sarcasm aside, a lot of the Amaurot dungeon takes cues from the Book of Revelation, from the "names" of the locations, to fire raining from the sky and the rivers turning to blood, to the bosses being identified as "Beasts." Notably the final boss is named "Therion," which is one of the many names attributed to the Beast of Revelation.

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Originally Posted by Mixt

So, odds that the Terminus was caused by some sort of Cosmic Parasite?

Or that there actually was an original will of the star that Zodiark replaced, and the reason that was needed was because the parasite flat out killed the original?

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I'm still inclined to think the Ancients borked something, since that whole mention of the "keening" of the earth made me think of the Elementals flooding the Source in retribution over the War of the Magi. And of course the First getting overtaken by a Flood of Light. It's almost like the Final Days was a flood itself.

Plus, right before we head for the Tempest, Feo Ul mentioned how the immortal fae had to balance what they create and destroy. In Amaurot, the immortal ancients were doing a lot of creation but apparently little destruction.

Well, Zodiark had to rewrite the laws of the planet anew so I'm more inclined to believe that a third party was responsible for the plight of those who resided in Amaurot and the other cities at the time. It'd be a bit disappointing to me if it was pushed that they were somehow at fault for their situation, even if it was an unintended consequence. By all accounts, their society regulated their powerful magic rather well after all. That their civilisation fell is a huge tragedy - that attempts to preserve it failed is even more so.

Well it could be both. The start of it was out of their hands. Maybe it was a third party or maybe the planet simply was dieing? I mean planets do have lifespans too and it could just be that the planet was "crying" out in his last days. This sound then and maybe some starting catastrophes created a huge amount of fear in the people around the world. And as we learned, the ancient ones can create really bad things when they are fearful. I can imagine that this then started a chain of events. One city heard that sound -> fear -> monster coming from their own minds and other catastrophes. (We know that Ascians can summon meteors too) Then other cities start to talk about this, fear takes over in their minds and make it worse. Amaurot hears about this but continues to only discuss if they should help or not and caught one of the created monster to study it. They only seemingly do something when its right at their own door and the world is already beyond saving.

Also its interesting to see how they do handle bad situations. The side dungeon shows an NPC that cant believe that something went wrong, while inside the building Ancient ones die left and right to their own creations. (Funny how such a strong race seemingly die so easily to these creations) At the end the NPC is still not overly concerned with the situation, even though a huge beast got out (and stayed out since we can fight it) and quite a few Ancient ones died..They might have been powerful but the quest already showed that they were far from perfect and that simple things could change their creations immensly. Also they too had human emotions, including the negative ones and they were forced to wear the robes in the fear that individuality could lead to negative outcomes. I have no problem seeing that not every single being on the planet would conform to this.

Also if Zodiark had to rewrite the laws of the planet then wouldnt he destroy the source too, to stop it from happening again? And with that, even if it had been a third party, it would not be important to our story anymore.

Of course it could also be like Zohar_Lahar pointed out and they just used too much of that power over time. No matter the regulations you will always have those that dont care about this. And we do know that they too had people without that huge amount of aether. (Which is why that one NPC has a solution for us) Maybe those tapped a bit into the life of the planet itself and over a long time this small amount can leave traces. This could then be used as a lesson to learn from: Its better not have that amount of power and be happy with the way we are now.

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About something else: I watched a stream again about the shadowbringer story and I saw a interesting scene (which I did kinda forgot). Ryne talks in Il Mheg about her role. She says that if we could not be summoned, she would be the one to kill the Lightwardens.

So I started to wonder: Why did nobody, even her, ever think about the possibility of sharing the light? First I thought that she might not be able to hold in much because she is just 1/14 of the soul, but after joining with Minfilia (a source soul, who had 8/14 too) she should be on the same level as we are. Which means that after the joining and getting her own name, she could have easily taking in some light, right? Why not (seeing how it hurt us) at least help with the last two? Why not have at least a scene where she tries to do that but we stop her because we believe that its our burden alone? The light never was fully great for us but only after the last two lightwardens, did we truly felt it and have it negatively impact us.

I know its probably because the plot had to go a certain way but I dislike it when it feels like such solutions are completely overlooked. Or did I miss something?

Also another question that then popped up. Why was the crystal exarch not turned into a lightwarden? We know that anyone without the blessing would turn as soon as they got the light into them. He came and took a bit of this light out of us until he was stopped so why is he still fine? Also would he have really managed to even reach a place to die before truly turning?

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Originally Posted by Alleo

Also another question that then popped up. Why was the crystal exarch not turned into a lightwarden? We know that anyone without the blessing would turn as soon as they got the light into them. He came and took a bit of this light out of us until he was stopped so why is he still fine? Also would he have really managed to even reach a place to die before truly turning?

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He was winding up for the teleport and extraction to commence at the same time. He was going to instantly turn into a lightwarden when he yanked all the light out at once, but the teleport into the rift needed to happen at the exact same moment so that instead of attacking his friends he just dies in the rift. He was literally balancing 2 spells at the same time. So he did not get to do either when he got interrupted by being shot in the back.

Well, we have no evidence that Ryne or anyone else in our circle is an original Amaurotine soul. In fact it stands that there can't be that many full 1/14th souls around. Plus Ryne doesn't have our full plethora of Blessings that help shore up the strength of our soul.

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Originally Posted by Alleo

So I started to wonder: Why did nobody, even her, ever think about the possibility of sharing the light?

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I've been wondering something similar, in regards to the White Auracite Urianger made for us in Il Mheg. I've not found much information, unfortunately, on why that wouldn't work.

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Originally Posted by Ilenya

I've been wondering something similar, in regards to the White Auracite Urianger made for us in Il Mheg. I've not found much information, unfortunately, on why that wouldn't work.

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The White Auracite was explicitly prepared for dealing with Ascians. So it was basically held in reserve, especially after Emet showed himself.

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Originally Posted by TankHunter678

The White Auracite was explicitly prepared for dealing with Ascians. So it was basically held in reserve, especially after Emet showed himself.

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Which is fine...But did no one think to try? Did it take Urianger that long to make one that they couldn't make a second to test? Heck, how did he even know there would be an Ascian there, considering the known Ascians on the First were dead? I mean, logically there would be the moment we started playing with their plans, but still, there's a thing we know can hold aether. Why are we not testing things?

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Originally Posted by Ilenya

Which is fine...But did no one think to try? Did it take Urianger that long to make one that they couldn't make a second to test? Heck, how did he even know there would be an Ascian there, considering the known Ascians on the First were dead? I mean, logically there would be the moment we started playing with their plans, but still, there's a thing we know can hold aether. Why are we not testing things?

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It does seem like white auracite takes a lot of preparation (IIRC Urianger mentioned having set up in Il Mheg specifically because it was aether-rich and ideal for creating it) but it's also about the nature of how it functions.

From memory, it was covered in 2.X that the auracite could only hold aether for a short period of time - which is why Moenbryda put a lot of effort into building the separate aetheric siphon device that would allow them to gather aether after trapping the Ascian in the auracite.

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Originally Posted by Ilenya

Heck, how did he even know there would be an Ascian there, considering the known Ascians on the First were dead?

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Urianger pretty much said he was expecting Ascian interference, considering the entire reason the Exarch summoned them to the First was to stop the 8th Rejoining.

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Originally Posted by Deusteele

Well, we have no evidence that Ryne or anyone else in our circle is an original Amaurotine soul. In fact it stands that there can't be that many full 1/14th souls around. Plus Ryne doesn't have our full plethora of Blessings that help shore up the strength of our soul.

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Well she herself said that she would have dealt with the Lightwardens if we did not come. That makes only sense if she has the Blessing. Also as I pointed out she rejoined with Minfilia, who is from the source so thats at least 2/14 of the souls and it was never really stated that only those with Amaurotine background would have more parts of their souls back, just that the calamities and their rejoinings brought us to 8/14 before Shadowbringers. Which gives it a high chance that anyone on the source has already more parts of the souls back because we got no evidence that only certain people can combine their souls back together. (Also Minfilia was one of the few who also had the echo)

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Originally Posted by Zohar_Lahar

Urianger pretty much said he was expecting Ascian interference, considering the entire reason the Exarch summoned them to the First was to stop the 8th Rejoining.

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While I can agree with the mentioned comment that it could take too long to make the Auracite to risk spending it on something that may not work, unless that was specifically the case (It may be. We've only seen three of them, and with a seemingly long period of time between), there's no reason it couldn't have been tested, specifically on Titania (Post gaining Auracite, pre-Emet Selch introduction).

Granted, if it turns out either it takes a long time to make or Urianger was in Il Mheg for a lot less time than I initially thought (It's possible, I suppose) and there just wouldn't have been enough time to make a second Auracite, then the train of thought doesn't matter much. I still wonder if it could have absorbed the Light from the Lightwardens. Even taking one out that way and tossing the Auracite into the Void would have been interesting if it could have been spared.

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Originally Posted by Ilenya

While I can agree with the mentioned comment that it could take too long to make the Auracite to risk spending it on something that may not work, unless that was specifically the case (It may be. We've only seen three of them, and with a seemingly long period of time between), there's no reason it couldn't have been tested, specifically on Titania (Post gaining Auracite, pre-Emet Selch introduction).

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The thing is, the testing on the limits of white auracite has already been done - by Moenbryda back in post-ARR, who was an expert in the field. It's a temporary holding mechanism, not a seal. And if you did successfully "take one out and toss the auracite into the void" then what are you going to do about the other four?

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Originally Posted by Alleo

Well she herself said that she would have dealt with the Lightwardens if we did not come. That makes only sense if she has the Blessing. Also as I pointed out she rejoined with Minfilia, who is from the source so thats at least 2/14 of the souls and it was never really stated that only those with Amaurotine background would have more parts of their souls back, just that the calamities and their rejoinings brought us to 8/14 before Shadowbringers. Which gives it a high chance that anyone on the source has already more parts of the souls back because we got no evidence that only certain people can combine their souls back together. (Also Minfilia was one of the few who also had the echo)

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Well, if she effectively joined with Minfillia, she is like us, 9/14, since Minfillia is from the Source, so 8/14 herself.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

The thing is, the testing on the limits of white auracite has already been done - by Moenbryda back in post-ARR, who was an expert in the field. It's a temporary holding mechanism, not a seal. And if you did successfully "take one out and toss the auracite into the void" then what are you going to do about the other four?

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Note that until we actually took in Innocence/Vauthry's Light, we were at the time more or less in control of the Light we had inside us. There may have still been a risk of losing control, but if we only had 4 Lightwarden's worth instead of 5, it is altogether possible that, between the lesser Light and Ryne's skills, we could have planned for something more permanent. We'd have time.

Potentially, anyways.

I'm not sure if testing it on the scale of holding the Light, even for a little, was ever done or could have been done, and it rightfully could have been too weak to hold it. We'll never know, but that won't stop me from being curious about it.

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Originally Posted by Zackneifein

Well, if she effectively joined with Minfillia, she is like us, 9/14, since Minfillia is from the Source, so 8/14 herself.

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Which I too believe that is what happens thus I wonder why she could not have been the one to take in at least one Lightwarden.

Again, we have no evidence that anyone other then the WoL is an Original Amaurotine. I do believe that there are possibly some other Original's running around the Source, but they would few and far between. The Ancients population was far more then decimated during then End of Days. They lost not only the rest of the world's population, but also three-quarters of the only city remaining.


Regarding Ryne absorbing the Warden's light, our best evidence comes from the game itself.

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Ryne
Extinguishing it is out of the question. Even at her strongest, Minfilia could only hold back the Light.
I might be able to suppress it...but I don't know for how long.

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MSQ: More then a Hunch


In that even after this conversation, when we fight Innocence she doesn't attempt to absorb his light. So it appears that for whatever reasons she couldn't. Why? Unknown at present.

Also still trying to find any confirmation that she actually reunited with Minfilia's, then seperate and distinct, soul. The only dialogue I could find was Minfilia giving her the last remnants of her power, the last bit she uses to ensure her reincarnation. This suggests to me, that Ryne, rather then being a seperate person that can fuse with Minfilia's aether, is Minfilia's soul. Similar in nature to Ascian/WoL's, passing through the Lifestream with out merging with it, or even entering the Void, allowing propagation through the ages.

Personal questions remaining:
Why didn't they use the White Auracite to absorb the Warden's aether? Thoughts range towards "like repeling like". Maybe the auracite traps the aether in a stasis that is too similar to the Wardens aetherial state?

How many Amaurotine's where left before the Sundering? We know that they lost 75% of the remaining residents to Zodiark's summoning and then to refilling the Lifestream. Then an unknown number after that to Hydaelyn's summoning. How many were left after the summonings? After the Sundering? Could it have been down to the last four?

OK, wow, this is interesting. So I just finished the final conclusive role quest playing in German, and there is a whole plot point missing in the English version.

As we know, Cylva groomed each member in Ardbert's party into becoming a WoL by having them sacrifice a part of their soul. Now what is missing in English is how Cylva secretly absorbed these parts to power up herself. This is most notably during the echo flashback were she confronts the party as the Shadowkeeper. In English she basically just repeats the "By his/her sacrifice, a warrior born!" line while going over all the party member, but in German she says this:

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Die Sehnsucht die Nyelbert fortwarf. Durch seine Kraft wurde es mir möglich, Frieden mit der Dunkelheit zu schließen.

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The yearning Nylebert threw away. Trough its power I was able to make peace with the darkness

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Die Freiheit die Renda-Rae von sich stieß. Sie befreite mich von der Fessel, die das Leben einer Sterblichen bedeutet.

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The freedom Renda-Rae discarded. It freed me of the shackles life as a mortal brings

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Die Mildtätigkeit die Branden aufgab. Ihre Zärtlichkeit gab meinem zerborstenen Leben einen Teil seiner Form zurück.

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The charity Branden gave up. Its caress gave my shattered life back a part of its shape

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Die Tradition, die Lamitt von sich schleuderte, stärkte meine Bindung zu dieser Welt und war der Schlüssel zu den Kräften von Gestern.

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The tradition Lamitt rejected, strengthened my bonds to this world and was to key to the powers of the past

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Und du, Ardbert? Du wirst nun selbst einen Teil deines Herzens aufgeben: die Freundschaft!

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And you Ardbert? You too will now give up a part of your heart: friendship!

If everything would've gone as planned, this final power-up from Ardbert would've given Cylva the strength to defeat the whole party and thus keep the first in a state ready to be rejoined. But as we all know Ardbert held onto his friendship by sparing her life. Another notably different line in her dialogue after the echo scene is:

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Meine Heimat ist die dreizehnte Splitterwelt. Sie wurde von einer Flut der Dunkelheit verschlungen... weil ich und meine Freunde sie nicht retten konnten. Weil wir keine wahren Helden waren

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My home is the 13th shard. Destroyed by a flood of darkness... because I and my friends couldn't save it. Because we were no 'true' heroes

note: she calls Ardbert's friends true heroes after they obtain their crystals and become Warriors of Light, and also refers to the player as such, so this could imply that she and the other heroes of the 13th shard failed since they never had the time/chance to obtain their own crystals of light.

Thank you for sharing and translating this.

It cast an interesting light on what happened, but it's still not clear how it would have worked. From what I understand, by striking the mortal blow on Cylva, Ardbert would have gotten his Light Crystal. Wouldn't that tipped the balance toward Light even further? How can Cylva win by being killed and lose by being alive? How and when did Ardbert got his Light Crystal? What triggered the flood if Cylva's plan failed?