Spoilers - plus help I don't understand the warriors of darkness storyline

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by myahele

I am abit confused now.

Elidibus says that people have survived the Rejoining 7 times now. Is he referring to the people from the Source world? Or the souls of the people in the destroyed world that have Rejoined

http://i.imgur.com/0GKJaZy.png

---

I think he means mankind in general.

I have a couple of questions - have any Ascians aside from Elidibus talked about balance? And what do WoL on the shards fight against? I've seen a few posts that seem to say calamities only happen on the source, so what are the WoL and Ascians fighting about on the shards?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Zorzi

have any Ascians aside from Elidibus talked about balance?

---

Not really. Lahabrea tried for a few minutes in the Praetorium but he went back to "Darkness shall consume everything! Muahahah! Time compressioooon!" pretty fast. As of the fight in the Aetherochemical Research Facility, that's still his company line. They agree that the Rejoining shall make the world whole and the Lord Zodiark shall be reborn, but while Elidibus talks of balance (at least in terms of the Reflections), even Lahabrea shouts things like "Chaos shall reign forevermore!", more in line with Nabriales and his "Insatiable hunger of the void! Devour all light and return this world to perfect darkness!"

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Zorzi

And what do WoL on the shards fight against?

---

This is a big question for me right now. We saw the Warrior of Darkness in an Echo (still on Hydaelyn's payroll) playing out our scene with Lahabrea against another overlord. It can be assumed that he was breaking a Dark Crystal and casting the Ascian from their realm. We've never heard of any other Ascians being annihilated like we've done with Nabriales and Igeyorhm; likewise no overlords are missing (and they've said that, aside from Lahabrea, they are the ones from other worlds). I assume that the Warriors of the First cast them out of who they were possessing and thwarted their plans and influence.

This is why I'm really miffed that we've (seemingly) concluded the Warriors of Darkness arc without ever confirming who that overlord was. Emmerololth? Pashtarot? If it's one of these names, we know he's of the Council of Fourteen - Lahabrea's equivalent on the First, possessing someone and raising minions and stirring up trouble. If not...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Zorzi

I have a couple of questions - have any Ascians aside from Elidibus talked about balance? And what do WoL on the shards fight against? I've seen a few posts that seem to say calamities only happen on the source, so what are the WoL and Ascians fighting about on the shards?

---

Lahabrea mentions it.
http://img2.finalfantasyxiv.com/acci...6efc220bdd.jpg

Though his idea of balance might be different from Elidibus

From the one line we get regarding the Warriors of Darkness' reason for formerly opposing the Ascians, it sounds like they just puppeteer history on the Reflections.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Arbert

This day we reclaim the reins of history! This day we rid ourselves of the Ascians forever!

---

They would likely do this to maintain relative balance, lest a Reflection become drowned by Light or Dark and become a Void. We know so little about the Reflections that there isn't much to do but guess at this one, lol. Maybe they trigger Calamities on the Reflections... but I can't fathom why they'd do so, given the Reflection needs to survive to have its Shard Rejoined. (Again tying into why they don't want Voids of either flavor.)

Lahabrea mentions the aetheric imbalance, though what exactly he means remains unknown. He makes it sound like a natural disaster will occur if the aetheric imbalance is not mended by complete Rejoining, and may be correct; the Light seems weak on the Source, but we never do anything but banish the Dark. Elidibus also mentions the balance is tipping toward Light in the ending of Heavensward, so they may be right... though what exactly that means is the question. (I have no answers because there's still no evidence to draw a conclusion from; we now have most of the "how" behind the Ascians' actions, but the ultimate "why balance the Source?" remains.)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Cilia

Lahabrea mentions the aetheric imbalance, though what exactly he means remains unknown. He makes it sound like a natural disaster will occur if the aetheric imbalance is not mended by complete Rejoining, and may be correct

---

I struggle with Lahabrea's seeming inconsistency pretty regularly. It's such an important scene that I doubt they'd let it slide if it was less-than-accurate, which leaves only the possibility that it's less-than-clear, or that Lahabrea is less-than-thorough. The best guess I have (today) is that half of his speech is focused on the Praetorium-Present (we've been spreading Light and preventing a Rejoining) and the other half is focused more on the long-term goal (the Rejoinings must take place in order for Zodiark to be reborn). In the meantime, stopping the Rejoinings is, to the Ascians, the preservation of an aberration - and Hyadelyn's support of it a cancer on the fabric of the universe.

He seems pretty adamant that once Zodiark is reborn, however, Hydaelyn is going down - complete excision. Elidibus doesn't necessarily deny this, but he frames it prettier - lacking in Lahabrea's "Chaos shall reign forevermore!" and focusing on "Hydaelyn will regain Her original form." Unless Zodiark originally did have a dominant say in things...? We haven't really any hints that he used the power he took, though, or that he had it for very long. It might be too soon to be waving that flag around, lol.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by myahele

Lahabrea mentions it.
Though his idea of balance might be different from Elidibus

---

I wonder. He says that the way to fix the imbalance is remove Hydaelyn entirely (although, if Hydaelyn is the 'planet' in the same way Zodiark is the 'moon', how do you burn Hydaelyn out of Hydaelyn? He specifically says "planet"...) Either way, that doesn't sound too balanced to me. This does bring up why I asked though - all the Ascians seem to work together to bring Zodiark back, but it seems like the Ascians, excluding Elidibus, are doing it for Zodiark's domination. Is Elidibus the only one who wants them to be rejoined equally, into whatever existed before the split?

The problem with Lahabrea's mention of imbalance is that it is incredibly vague; it's up there in the picture with him before the fight in the Praetorium. All he really says is that there's an imbalance that will warp the physical and aetheric laws of the world, and that resolving it means resurrecting Zodiark because only He has the power to banish Hydaelyn, who is the cause of it all - thus the Calamities, necessary to break down the dimensional barriers and Rejoin a Shard with the Source.

The problem with that is, we haven't seen any evidence he's telling the truth. Aside from that mention of an aether reading being weird before we found Wilred's body (a dangling plot thread that's yet to be resolved), nothing we've seen suggests anything of the sort. It'll get worse and start messing with reality, Lahabrea says, but here we are X months later and still nothing. Then again, being immortal, the Ascians likely see the long game much clearer than we do.

If I had to guess I'd say Zodiark was always weaker than Hydaelyn; they always coexisted in a balance, but who says the balance wasn't tipped in Her favor? She'd have to be more powerful to banish Him before He started doing stuff with His new power, and if Zodiark's desiccated corpse really is the moon, which is much smaller than the planet, it would suggest Zodiark always had the short end of the stick until He struck out to even (not balance) the scales. Since Darkness is part of everything... banishing Zodiark would naturally create a distorted world, and thus the divergent Reflections / Shards created as a consequence.

... ehh, whatever! The only new information we really got was that it is totally possible to make a Flood and Void of Light, and that a Void of either polarity is not something Elidibus or Zodiark can take advantage of. Everything else is still the same. (And the moon is totally Zodiark's desiccated corpse! It's not Menphina!)

EDIT
And that the Thirteenth Reflection became what we know as the Void because of a Flood of Darkness. That's all we really learned. In 3.4.

This is very off topic but a comment by a fc member got me thinking. Since the Void actually is a reflection and clearly there is some way to travel between the two, I started wondering if maybe the origins of the Au Ra are literally voidsent who settled in Hydaelyn, ala. Ultros, or perhaps even refugees from a world collapsing into void.

I am also confused about the Warriors of Darkness. We've seen them in trailers fighting here, on our world. https://youtu.be/h542YbZuwkQ
So did they come over before our Calamity? And if they wanted the darkness to win, why are they fighting on our side?