The Heart of Sabik

In the Praetorium we disocver that Ultima Weapon's core is some sort of device called the Heart of Sabik. Does anyone have any theories for as to what this thing actually is?

As a quick run down we're told:

• it pre-dates the Allag empire.
• even the Allagans themselves didn't truly understand it, seemingly only capable of using it as an energy source.
• it absorbs aether to use as a fuel source, specifically that of the Primals.
• the Ascians seem to be very familiar with it and Lahabrea knows how to activate it.
• charging it with aether somehow advances the Ascians' plan to have Zodiark 'reborn'.
• Lahabrea specifically refers to Ultima (the spell) as being 'a sliver of [Zodiark's] power.'

It seems to me that this is actually an Ascian device of some kind; the links to Zodiark make this quite clear in my opinion. This then begs the question of why it is integrated into an Allagan weapon?

Were the Ascians using the Allagans to some end just as Lahabrea is using the Garleans? Could Ultima actually be what wiped out the Allagan empire?

Thoughts?

I have a theory that all advanced civilizations of Hydaelin came to be through Ascian influence. It makes sense to me, because they all eventually suffer from hubris leading to the Umbral eras. It may be more complicated than this, but it isn't hard to tell a story where the Ascians are the ones pushing us towards our doom.

But more to the point, we know the Allagans first learnt and had to fight Primals when invading the southern continent of whatsitsname. Besides Summoners, one of replies was the Ultima Weapon.

Where did they get the Heart? I don't know. From the dialogue, it seems like the Heart was either i) given/found, ii) fortuitous and accidental research or iii) told how to be created. I'm inclined to say to say it was either given or found, because there seems to be only one.

As for the fate of the Allagan... I doubt it was Ultima. The fact we recover it pretty much intact (Garlemald didn't change much, by the looks of it), indicates it wasn't the object of counter-attacks.

When Gaius says "Lahabrea, what have you done?", this makes me believe the Weapon did not previously come with the Heart and the Garlean's simply threw it in after excavating and repairing it without a second thought because Lahabrea said so.

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Originally Posted by Toranja

Garlemald didn't change much, by the looks of it

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Originally Posted by DragonSlayer45

this makes me believe the Weapon did not previously come with the Heart

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Both points relevant to some stuff I said in Thread: Ultima Weapon a little bit ago; it seems to me that much of Ultima Weapon was in disrepair, but Nero got it up and running again with a little help from Gaius' shady alliance with the Ascians. Praetorium shows that they have a pretty good supply of back-up parts with those legs busting out of the walls everywhere, and the outer shielding of the restored Ultima Weapon is reminiscent of The Black Wolf's personal armor. I do agree that Lahabrea provided the heart - and that it may not have been the first time he lent out some technology without fully explaining its purpose.

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Originally Posted by Anonymoose

Both points relevant to some stuff I said in Thread: Ultima Weapon a little bit ago; it seems to me that much of Ultima Weapon was in disrepair, but Nero got it up and running again with a little help from Gaius' shady alliance with the Ascians. Praetorium shows that they have a pretty good supply of back-up parts with those legs busting out of the walls everywhere, and the outer shielding of the restored Ultima Weapon is reminiscent of The Black Wolf's personal armor. I do agree that Lahabrea provided the heart - and that it may not have been the first time he lent out some technology without fully explaining its purpose.

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Whilst the Garleans likely modified the Weapon a great deal in its repairs I'm quite certain the heart was there already. Lahabrea's reference to the Allagans being unable to understand it makes it pretty clear they were the ones who installed it, though yes likely with his help.

To be honest what I'm most curious about is how it serves the Ascians' goal of resurrecting/releasing Zodiark. The only thing I can think of is that it would weaken Hydaelyn by essentially stealing the aether to serve Zodiark instead of her. That or it will somehow weaken the barriers between Eorzea and the void, which is where I'm beginning to think Zodiark and the Ascians originate (especially given their propensity for summoning voidsent and the Ascian need to take hosts which is very similar to a voidsent in the THM quest line).

Do notice that Ultima was a spell so powerful that Hydaelin could not shield you frm a second blast because the first drained it too much.
The Heart of Sabik is a weapon, a weapon powerful enough to leave a world-entiety like Hydaelin staggered, and with sufficient rate of fire to actually take a shot in that period of time.

I believe the Heart of Sabik is to Zordiak as the Elemental crystals we collect is to Hydaelyn. We create a blade of light to defeat Lahabrea, but it doesn't vanquish him. Perhaps he was shielded by Zordiak like the protagonist is by Hydaelyn?

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Originally Posted by DragonSlayer45

When Gaius says "Lahabrea, what have you done?", this makes me believe the Weapon did not previously come with the Heart and the Garlean's simply threw it in after excavating and repairing it without a second thought because Lahabrea said so.

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I took it more as a "There's something odd going on here! What have you done?" I assume that Gaius can tell Lahabrea is taking control of the Weapon, and can probably even feel it preparing for Ultima. I also took Gaius's "This isn't what I wanted" after the final battle as a sign that he preferred a clean conquer to a messy destruction, and Ultima certainly doesn't fit into that plan.

Oh mournful voice of creation...

I run with the fringe theory that the Ascians pre-date the First Astral Era, and by extrapolation pre-date Hydaelyn.

I postulate that the Heart of Sabik also pre-dates these and is an important, sacred artefact associated with their mournful voice of creation.

I ran the Praetorium today, to help a friend, and I used the opportunity to watch all of the cutscenes there again. This time, when the camera was passing through Ultima Weapon's tail, I noticed that it actually resembles a dragon quite a bit. In fact, the texture resembled Bahamut's to an uncanny degree.