Originally Posted by
Nalien
It's a wild theory, and checking early Coil dialog makes me doubt it somewhat, though the guards dialog makes zero sense to me in the English localization. He talks of chaos and carnage as if he'd just witnessed a Primal, when I really doubt he saw Bahamut (and even if he did, would he not instantly identify "a Primal" as Bahamut?).
One other theory is that Ifrit effectively is Belias, just remolded by a new set of followers, same being true for all the elemental Primals (so Mateus = Shiva). It would explain why Belias-Egi was just an emo Ifrit-Egi, though other than that there isn't much to base it on. If we knew which Paragons taught which tribes to summon their Primal it might hold some weight (Loghrif would have taught the Amalj'aa, Mitron the Ixali, for example). Interestingly when it comes to Shiva after her defeat an Ascian does mention that "Lahabrea will be pleased", which indicates Lahabrea had some interest in the summoning of the Ice Primal... Hardly irrefutable evidence, but it makes for some nice theory crafting.