Nael deus Darnus

Do you think we'll ever find out the significance behind Nael deus Darnus taking on the form of what is assumed to be Bradamante?

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Originally Posted by VargasVermillion

Do you think we'll ever find out the significance behind Nael deus Darnus taking on the form of what is assumed to be Bradamante?

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Though we don't know who she is, we did get confirmation that she's not Bradamante.

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Originally Posted by Gamer Escape Interview with Koji Fox E3 2014

[Y]ou can think that Nael started going crazy after that whole incident with Bradamante. As for that being Bradamante, that isn’t. That isn’t. As for who it might be… speculate speculate speculate! As for Nael van Darnus being a female… up until recently, no one has seen under that mask, so when you never see what’s under a mask, people start to assume things. So, yeah! What really was under the mask of Nael van Darnus?

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What do we know from in-game text? Nael says the body isn't his own, Urianger says that Bahamut brought him back as the wrong gender, and everyone who's ever met van Darnus still refers to him as a male - even Baelsar, who I assume saw him maskless several times. So unless there was some crazy convincing Joan of Arc stuff going on, I'm going to say that this Garlean female hyur was actually... I have no idea.

I really liked the theory that Nael was thinking back on Bradamante as he died and those thoughts were taken along with the essence of him that Bahamut captured and infused into the corporeal reincarnation of it. But if not Bradamante, then whom? Who could possibly be more appropriate? His own mother, perhaps? Memories called forth from Bahamut's protection and guidance and charge of Nael deus Darnus protecting his beloved children?

Perhaps it is Bradamante but not though, and Bradamante and Nael pulled the old switcheroo on everyone; He thinks of whoever it was he slew in her place and ended up looking like the fake Bradamante, or it isn't Bradamante because Bradamante isn't Bradamante anymore. Bradamante...

Based on what we know of Nael I'd say it has to be related to Bradamante in some way though, either that or we have literally nothing to go off... Perhaps Nael orphaned a child when he slew Bradamante and he was thinking of her? If it really isn't Bradamante then that's the only thing I can think of which isn't just a complete guess. Whomever Bradamante was should have been important enough to him for him to carry around a constant reminder in his weapons name, assuming he named it - could have been named by those around him with him not really caring.

Actually, another possibility is that it was someone from Bahamuts past... Bahamut changed Naels form to something more familiar, rather than Bahamut messing up because Nael was thinking of someone.

This is a long way off but perhaps we'll meet someone within the darnus family later on in the story, maybe a certain under cover garlean knows more? garlean expansion? Guess we'll have to just wait and see.
EDIT: The line where he mentions the despair he felt as a 'frail child' may be expanded upon. Would be strange to throw that in otherwise.

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Originally Posted by Nalien

Actually, another possibility is that it was someone from Bahamuts past... Bahamut changed Naels form to something more familiar, rather than Bahamut messing up because Nael was thinking of someone.

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This is also a possibility.

Yeah, if not Bradamante then maybe it might be who Bahamut thought Nael looked like under that mask?

To take things further it may be from Bahamuts own past before his sealing? If Nael Darnus have Allagan blood then perhaps this lady was the 1st of the Darnus line that communicated with Bahamut and then eventually passed that knowledge to her descenents ala g'raha tia's alagan blood memories

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Originally Posted by VargasVermillion

The line where he mentions the despair he felt as a 'frail child' may be expanded upon. Would be strange to throw that in otherwise.

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That... Perhaps makes me think it was simply his mother...

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Nael van Darnus>> The weak can do naught but weep under the pall of their own misery. As did the frail child I once was...

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Tales are oft told in hushed whispers of van Darnus’s swift rise to power upon the abrupt death by illness of his sire, whose body had no sooner grown cold than his closest aides were put to death.

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What exactly did he have against his fathers aides and/or father? Did he perhaps lose his mother because of them somehow? That would certainly explain his misery as a "frail child" and his apparent bloody rise to power. Perhaps Bradamante simply reminded him of his mother in some way, although the fact that he supposedly slew her makes that even more dark, though could explain the namesake.

Oh, and it's perhaps worth considering that the entire van Darnus plot line was heavily influenced by Final Fantasy VII, with Nael making a fair few allusions to everyones favorite mommies boy. Rather than his mother being the source of his madness (since that was Bahamut), perhaps this time his mother represented his last shred of sanity. Hence the mix up upon his defeat.

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Originally Posted by Nalien

Perhaps Bradamante simply reminded him of his mother in some way, although the fact that he supposedly slew her makes that even more dark, though could explain the namesake.

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Could of been an honor bound duel or something, we know little of the circumstances behind the fight he had with Bradamante or garlean culture as a whole for that matter.

Could it be the one who killed Bahamut? Like, a Meracydian warrior from Bahamut's past?

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Originally Posted by Nalien

What exactly did he have against his fathers aides and/or father?

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This is an inference, so don't take it as the whole story, but it looks like it was just to get them out of his way. Withing risking becoming a rambling mess by getting too deep into it, House Darnus was descended from Allag and had access to a lot of information and recovered relics. Nael's father used it to revive magitek in a way Garleans could use and helped found the Empire upon it. One of the relics, the Lunar Transmitter, was restored in such a way that Nael was there the first time it was activated and he was enthralled by Bahamut, who very gently twisted Nael's own ambitions (recreate Meteor, destroy Eikons) to result in the elder primal's freedom via the fall of Dalamud. Using the Lunar Transmitter to re-create meteor was ambitious and ruthless. The way Darnus' story is told, it sounds like it may be as simple as that the elder Darnus would have in some way prevented either Nael's rise to power or persuasion of the Empire to act on his plan, perhaps by refusing to let their family's legacy be used in such a horrible way, perhaps because he knew something about Nael's change, I'm not really sure.

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Originally Posted by Nalien

That... Perhaps makes me think it was simply his mother...

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Hm... Interesting... /chinscratch

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Originally Posted by Nalien

Perhaps Bradamante...

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I haven't entirely let go of the search for a clue here, but so far nothing lights the bulb, so to speak.

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Originally Posted by WyrahFhurrst

Could it be the one who killed Bahamut?

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If it was a non-Garlean, or pre-Garlean, from Bahamut's time, we'd have a whole boatload of new questions about that third eye.

Unless the form was from Bahamut's past, and the third eye simply came from Nael influencing his own form. Like an emblem showing that he was still him, while wearing a new physical form.