The Single Most powerful *thing* in FFXIV?

Ancients top it.
Hades was barely beaten by all of First’s light + 8 Wols;
Hephaistos/Athena both achieved desired Godhood and may have been on Hydalyen’s level or above it(Lahabrea noted that Athena could easily erase you from existence);
Hydaelyn is capable of splitting apart anything and create celestial bodies;
Eden’s eternal breath, which is basically supernova;
Zodiark has complete mastery over reality
and the only one who managed to save a planet doomed by song of oblivion

If we're referring to power in the sense of raw combat potential, you'd be hard pressed to argue that anyone has refined the application of aether to combat any more than Omega. We're talking an entity that has fought countless battles, destroyed entire civilizations, and endlessly studied all of their opponents' techniques in simulation in the quest to become stronger. This is the upper boundary of aetheric power, and merely wielding aether alone isn't going to surpass it.

And yet, even Omega broke through that limit and became stronger for the first time in ages, through simply learning how to wield dynamis. That's worth reflecting on. I think the strongest is going to be someone or something that can wield both forces of nature with equal deftness.

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Originally Posted by Lyth

And yet, even Omega broke through that limit and became stronger for the first time in ages, through simply learning how to wield dynamis.

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Did it, though? I never got the idea that it did. I think by the end it recognized Things Heroes Do When They Win, but was just following those actions by rote without completely understanding why (and confusing dramatic logic with actual logic, i.e. vocalizing its attack names).

Did it ever actually do anything that even sort of plausibly looks like 'wielding dynamis'? Or are we mistaking an Ultimate for canon again?

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Originally Posted by Cleretic

Did it ever actually do anything that even sort of plausibly looks like 'wielding dynamis'? Or are we mistaking an Ultimate for canon again?

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It only recreated enemies based on information it had.

Omega never had any knowledge of dynamis, since even the omicrons failed surviving the final days, and required recreation to be revived.

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Originally Posted by Cleretic

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Why wouldn't TOP have a ring of truth to it, though? If even our minds can conceive of it, then Omega's already done a simulation of it. Our ability to use dynamis was what threw off Omega's calculations in the first place. Doesn't the retelling recontextualize the entire interaction between Alpha and Omega? It's only now that we have the missing piece of the puzzle.

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Originally Posted by Lyth

Why wouldn't TOP have a ring of truth to it, though?

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I knew it.

TOP cannot be considered evidence because it's in-universe fanfiction written by a man with absolutely zero relevant credentials relating to dynamis or alien robotics/cybernetics. That's not even me being presumptive, Ultimates are, as stated in-game, the Wandering Minstrel writing a trumped-up non-canon nonsense tale. Remember when DSR was literally a fix fic?

Omega doesn't know crap about dynamis. And the Wandering Minstrel doesn't know crap about Omega.

Yoshi-p is to the Wandering Minstrel as Richard Garriott is to Lord British. It's in-universe fiction written by the in-universe avatar of the man who oversees all the in-universe fiction, including dynamis and alien robotics.

Back in Alphascape, we didn't really understand what Alpha was or why he was able to save us using the power of the fluff hierarchy, because we didn't have the language to describe such phenomena. Now we know. He's the dynamis to Omega's aether. The retelling gives you new insight into an old story.

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Originally Posted by HiraishinNoJutsu

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Most powerful? 1.0 Bahamut blast that shut down the servers till ARR 2.0