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Isn't the original Pandaemonium kind of in its own pocket dimension? That teleporter we take to get to it from Elpis seemed to take us into another reality where the very air was different from that of Elpis, after all. The sky there was dark stifling. My money would be on it being subterranean or in the Interdimensional Rift somewhere.
It's definitely a loose thread the writers are leaving themselves when they need a cheap and easy filler.
It's part of why I joked about it being related to Lea Monde. That place in Vagrant Story was practically in a pocket dimension, and was a Genius Loci.
My speculation is that Pandaemonium was where Labyrinthos currently is. It sorta makes sense, both are underground research facilities that are near the Underworld/Aetherial Sea. Plus Athena placing it there doesn't seem coincidental. I mean why not just create Pandaemonium in Azys Lla then.
I like this, especially with the Elpis-Azys Lla parallel to give a justification why it appears in the Aetherial Sea so nearby; I also like the idea that surface geography doesn’t align when you go into the Aetherial Sea.
If the real Pandaemonium survived the Sundering, it is dangling as a plot hook, but one I doubt they’re in any hurry to use just yet, and one that will be tacked onto some completely different plot, as Ivalice provides the Ultima High Seraph to give some flavor to Athena. And the Lea Monde suggestion makes sense, as a nice parallel connection.
8.0 when it gets around to the Pandaemonium Ultimate could use that as a what-if Athena fully powered instead of recreating Pandaemonium via transforming a section of Aetherochemical Research has found the surviving real place, thus handwave to include earlier floors and make everything harder.
Kind of an inverse of the Omphalos. Which makes sense with Pandamonium being the hell to the 12's heaven. Thematically speaking within the patch content, I mean; not that Panda is the actual 7 hells.
... Though apparently Athena does say the term "7 hells" at some point, so maybe there is some kind of connection between the facility and the myth of the 7 hells of the Twelve? I dunno.
She says it as part of her incantation to cast [Theos's] Ultima, which is a callback to Lahabrea's casting of the spell after the first fight against the Ultima Weapon, both using the Heart of Sabik as a catalyst.
Given there's no true divinities in XIV's setting (that we know of, yet) and all souls return to the Underworld / Aetherial Sea / Lifestream, they really should know better, but that line was probably written before this much worldbuilding was done so...Quote:
Originally Posted by Lahabrea / Athena
On topic, like all remnants of Amaurotine civilization Pandaemonium was more than likely destroyed either in the Final Days or the Calamities on the Source. It might be possible to find some weathered ruins on some of the reflections, but despite their superior construction quality even Amaurot itself was in extreme disrepair on the First. Granted that was underwater, but even so.
Thinking about it, I'd actually say that Pandaemonium has an even lower chance of being intact than any other Ancient building, because it's specifically intended to house dangerous creatures. If something like the Phoinix or Hippokampos survives when the warders don't, it's only a matter of time until it breaks out and does some serious damage, to both the land and the building itself.
Hell, look at the Proto-Carbuncle's fight; that thing had already wrecked its confines. If there's even one thing in that castle that's on the Proto-Carbuncle's level after the sundering, I wouldn't just call Pandaemonium a write-off, I'd give up on a good several miles around it.