Two things I, as a newcomer, just noticed

First of all, I made a huge effort to pay attention to the Seventh Astral Era storyline, but there came a point when the unnecessary fetch quests took a toll on me. I plan on going back to some cutscenes and perhaps quest logs, I just don't know when yet. So excuse me if anything I say here is explained during those events.

First, I noticed that the broken aetherytes around Sharlayan use the 1.0 design, same as the ones present in the maps. At first I thought the map icons were kept for convenience, but then I arrived in the hinterlands and started wondering what exactly happened. Is it that the fall of Dalamud broke every aetheryte and they had to be replaced by the ARR variant? Is that why the ones in Sharlayan are broken, or could that have happened prior to the fall of Dalamud? I'm curious bc Sharlayan suggests the ARR aetheryte designs were not just a choice made by the developers in order to improve the game quality, but rather has some lore purpose I'm not aware of.

Second is Midgardsdormr and his little chat with Tiamat. During that cutscene he specifically says he brought dragon eggs from another star--or as we know here on Earth, sun. Remembering FFV's introduction to the concept of multiple worlds, could it be that the dragons in FFXIV come from another FF planet? Now, I know many things are just the franchise's common places, but for Mid to say he comes from another star, it made me wonder.

Thx in advance!

The Sharlayan of the Dravanian Hinterlands - which is actually a colony of Sharlayan proper, a nation further north and separate from Eorzea/Aldenard - was abandoned some 20-odd years back, when Garlemald made its play on the continent. Likely, the Aetherytes just fell into disrepair as a result of this. Their shape is probably meant to hearken back to their pre-Calamity origins; while the 2.0+ Aetheryte design may have lore behind it, I really don't think there's anything more to the design of the ones in the Hinterlands than that.

As for the dragons: we don't know what, exactly, Middy means by that. It certainly could mean he's from a different planet - dragon biology is definitely very alien - but nothing has been definitively stated one way or the other. Pretty much anything about their origins is speculation at this point.

The fall of Dalamud destroyed a lot of existing Aetheryte. Frome what I understand as the moon drew closer it started to draw Aether out of the ground. As Aetherytes are like Aetheric nodes, it cause the Aether to surge up out through them destroying or corrupting them. I don't know if that is true for the lesser ones and I am not 100% sure on this.

Afterward the city states had to recommission a lot of new Aetherytes to be made by Shalayan as they are the only group who currently knows how to make them. The fees you pay when you use Aetherytes are technically lorewise a fee charged by the city states to help pay the debt that the purchase of the new Aetherytes.

As for Midgarsormr's comments, we don't know for sure but I think its likely the Dragons are from another world. Exactly where and how they got here is still an unknown. Dragons are rather unique creatures as far as we have seen so far.

I believe in 1.0, prior to Dalamud's fall, Atamos (plural) attacked Aetherytes around all of Eorzea. Not sure why. It seems likely to me that since Colonial Sharlayan was abandoned that no one protected them, or replaced them when they broke. I also think the idea that they just crumbled over time holds merit as well.

Typically when characters speak of, 'Another Star,' they're speaking of one of the 13 Reflections of the Source. We're on the Source, and the 13 Reflections are other versions of the world we live on. The 13th reflection (or Star) fell to darkness and became the Void. It seems likely that is the Star Midgarsormr came from.

Weird as it sounds when people talk about stars they actually mean planet. We really don't know that much about the cosmos. Hydaelin is the planet, Zodiark is the moon and Dalamud was a fake moon built by the Allagans. The 13 reflections are like parallel dimensions, the aetheric sea swims around these fourteen dimensions and the interdimensional rift swirls around the whole damned thing. Whatever else is in a dimension beside Hydaelin and Zodiark is anyone's guess. Sure there are glowing things on the sky that are used in astrology and those might be actual stars, but for all we know they could be gigantic bioluminescent fungi that float in space.

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Originally Posted by Vexander

Typically when characters speak of, 'Another Star,' they're speaking of one of the 13 Reflections of the Source.

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It's generally not as specific as that - references to "this star" are generally just references to Hydaelyn as a location (and afaik references to "another star" are very rare - as in the only mentions of the reflections I can think of either call them reflections or "another world" instead of using the "star" reference, though there's likely a reference that has slipped my memory). The Ascians quite possibly mean it in that sense, given how and where they operate, but that would be by way of implication. Most others mean our Hydaelyn and only our Hydaelyn, without the other worlds being part of what they are talking about (especially since the reflections being a thing is a relatively new revelation for the player character and isn't exactly known to many).

Which means we really don't have much evidence regarding Midgardsormr's origin other than that it wasn't likely from this specific planet (and the dragons haven't exhibited any of the properties or characteristics of voidsent or other denizens of the 13th, so I'm curious as to why you believe it to be not only possible but likely).

As for the aetherytes, it's as Belhi said. As Dalamud drew close, the aetherial networks (the rivers of aether that flow under the ground) were thrown out of wack. Some of it was the doing of Nael van Darnus, who had been measuring and screwing with the network from the start to feed aether to the moon. After it got close enough, Dalamud itself was drawing aether to itself. You can see it rising during the scenes with the deaths of Garuda and Nael van Darnus himself (actually Eula Darnus herself).

The aetherytes in the game actually changed while the game was live - they became overaspected, warping the fabric of the corporeal world around those locations. Atomos would come through and start sucking aether out of the network through the aetheryte like it was a straw, tearing open rifts that caused voidsent to flood though. Teleporting at the wrong time would see you instantly destroyed by a mass of skeletons, ghosts, ogres, and the like.

The Calamity destroyed a ton of aetherytes, but many that were left were garbage. Some were destroyed by meteors, some were "radiotactive" (corrupted crystal), some warped, etc. If you go west from Mor Dhona, you can see the ruins of the 1.0 camp and see just what became of that particular aetheryte. You can see another in the western Highlands.

The Sharlayans repaired the network themselves, with Ul'dah footing most of the bill. This is why you have to pay to teleport - to repay this massive debt. You'll notice other aetheryte types around the realm, though - those have other origins.

As for Midgardsormr
This line was deliberately worded to confuse and cause speculation. It's the only such hint of its kind, making it more of a PLEASE LOOK FORWARD TO IT than anything. One day, the truth will be revealed. Is he from the original version of The Source? Is he from a godly realm? Is he from that dragon star that the Ishgardians like watchin' so much?

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Originally Posted by Anonymoose

As for the aetherytes, it's as Belhi said. As Dalamud drew close, the aetherial networks (the rivers of aether that flow under the ground) were thrown out of wack. Some of it was the doing of Nael van Darnus, who had been measuring and screwing with the network from the start to feed aether to the moon. After it got close enough, Dalamud itself was drawing aether to itself. You can see it rising during the scenes with the deaths of Garuda and Nael van Darnus himself (actually Eula Darnus herself).

The aetherytes in the game actually changed while the game was live - they became overaspected, warping the fabric of the corporeal world around those locations. Atomos would come through and start sucking aether out of the network through the aetheryte like it was a straw, tearing open rifts that caused voidsent to flood though. Teleporting at the wrong time would see you instantly destroyed by a mass of skeletons, ghosts, ogres, and the like.

The Calamity destroyed a ton of aetherytes, but many that were left were garbage. Some were destroyed by meteors, some were "radiotactive" (corrupted crystal), some warped, etc. If you go west from Mor Dhona, you can see the ruins of the 1.0 camp and see just what became of that particular aetheryte. You can see another in the western Highlands.

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Damn I wish I was around to see the game implode when 1.0 went down. :|

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Originally Posted by Miyha

Damn I wish I was around to see the game implode when 1.0 went down. :|

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You and me both. I missed a lot of sweet stories this way. Of course there are youtube and Moose, the sentient supercomputer, but it just isn't the same if you don't play it.

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Originally Posted by caelumsixsmith

Second is Midgardsdormr and his little chat with Tiamat. During that cutscene he specifically says he brought dragon eggs from another star--or as we know here on Earth, sun. Remembering FFV's introduction to the concept of multiple worlds, could it be that the dragons in FFXIV come from another FF planet? Now, I know many things are just the franchise's common places, but for Mid to say he comes from another star, it made me wonder.

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While the others in this thread have pretty much confirmed that it's very likely that the dragons come from another planet, from your text it sounds like you're asking whether they come specifically from another FINAL FANTASY planet? Like the very same world featured in Final Fantasy IV, or VII, or XIII?

In answer to that, I'd have to say that is extremely unlikely. While the various Final Fantasy universes have a tenuous connection by way of legacy characters like Gilgamesh traveling through "the Void", the cosmologies in each game are RADICALLY different, and were very much intended to be so. Fundamental things like the nature and existence of gods, constellations and their influences on the worlds, what souls are and what happen to them when you die - I could go on and on. Trying to work out how creatures from universes with such different laws work on Eorzea can be glossed over when dealing with guest characters (Shantotto, Iroha, Lightning) and gag characters (Gilgamesh) - but working things out with a major cornerstone race living in Eorzea could be a nightmare. Not to mention, most of the Final Fantasy worlds HAVE individuals called Midgardsormr, Bahamut, Nidhogg, and so on - equating those dragons with the dragon king and his eggs would be awkward, to say the least.

It is far more likely that Middy and his brood come from another star in THIS Final Fantasy universe, and is not indicative of any kind of bridge to Final Fantasy V, or whatever.

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Originally Posted by LineageRazor

While the others in this thread have pretty much confirmed that it's very likely that the dragons come from another planet, from your text it sounds like you're asking whether they come specifically from another FINAL FANTASY planet? Like the very same world featured in Final Fantasy IV, or VII, or XIII?

In answer to that, I'd have to say that is extremely unlikely. While the various Final Fantasy universes have a tenuous connection by way of legacy characters like Gilgamesh traveling through "the Void", the cosmologies in each game are RADICALLY different, and were very much intended to be so.

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Yeah as I said, around the Final Fantasy XIV setting is the interdimensional Rift. A sort of middle ground between the various settings. It is hinted that X and VII share the same universe (with X being in the past), and IV The After Years hints that the four elemental crystal set up of several early games was planted by the same creature. But generally the only way to connect is via the rift. Shantotto does it on purpose all the time. Gilgamesh does it regularly but most likely by accident, Omega is also traveling the rift while Shinryu (or rather A shinryu) actually lives in the rift. Dissidia FInal Fantasy and it's sequels and spinoffs are actually set in the rift. Cloud showed up in Tactics, Lightning and Iroha were dropped here for a time, so it is possible to travel. However one game never featured more than one setting. So if the Ivalice raid will be the actual Ivalice, that will be a first.

EDIT: There seems to be a confusion here between the Void and the Rift. The void is like hell and some settings have it, some settings don't. It is not the same as the rift. In fact the Void of FFV was sealed inside the Rift. The Void of FFXIV is the former thirteenth fragment, the homeworld of Unukalhai, where the Ascians turned everyone over to the dark side.

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Originally Posted by Miyha

Damn I wish I was around to see the game implode when 1.0 went down. :|

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Oh my it was a hoot and a half. I stayed until the servers went off line. With mobs pouring into Ul'dah that needed to be defeated and all the nodes needing defense from voidsent.

Those final weeks were truly the best time I ever had in an mmo. No trolling, ppl helping each other out and doing everything they could to participate and not complaining about little things. It was almost utopian.

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Originally Posted by MicahZerrshia

Oh my it was a hoot and a half. I stayed until the servers went off line. With mobs pouring into Ul'dah that needed to be defeated and all the nodes needing defense from voidsent.

Those final weeks were truly the best time I ever had in an mmo. No trolling, ppl helping each other out and doing everything they could to participate and not complaining about little things. It was almost utopian.

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AAAAAAH I wish I could have been there more. QQ

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Originally Posted by Miyha

AAAAAAH I wish I could have been there more. QQ

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Too bad that it got slightly ruined at the very end due to server crash lol. S-E was "smart" enough to allow anyone to log back on during the final moments.
But for what it was, it truely was like a once in a lifetime experience. Just the entire buildup till the very climatic end is something I'll never forget. I still have all the screenshots from those times saved up.

It was fun how it all started when a few people noticed how the star next to the moon had become bigger from one patch to the other. Only to see it grow larger and larger with each patch, until it was revealed to be a "giant meteor" coming down on us.

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Originally Posted by Vydos

Too bad that it got slightly ruined at the very end due to server crash lol. S-E was "smart" enough to allow anyone to log back on during the final moments.
But for what it was, it truely was like a once in a lifetime experience. Just the entire buildup till the very climatic end is something I'll never forget. I still have all the screenshots from those times saved up.

It was fun how it all started when a few people noticed how the star next to the moon had become bigger from one patch to the other. Only to see it grow larger and larger with each patch, until it was revealed to be a "giant meteor" coming down on us.

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I wonder if anyone made a "that's no moon" joke. Turns out it really wasn't a moon. :D

The thing that annoys me about them referring to Source and its Reflections as a "star" is that I then wonder just what then are those stars in the nighttime skybox supposed to be? The AST quest even suggests they're extracting aether from starlight, which makes me wonder then if there's life beyond the mirrors of Hydaelyn.

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Originally Posted by Zohar_Lahar

The thing that annoys me <...> what then are those stars in the nighttime skybox supposed to be?

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I knoooow. I have the same thought, regularly. Like, I get it - star is an archaic word for planet. That's fine.

But what about the other literal stars? The suns. Imagine if the entire universe was copied fourteen times at the beginning of this cosmology. Assuming Life doesn't begin and end with the Mothercrystal, that's fourteen times the likelihood of life on other planets, and Allag had starships, and Midgardsormr might be a pre-current-cosmology alien. Granted, having aliens in a medieval(-ISH) Final Fantasy would require some finesse, but that's so many open doors.

Imagine if an Allagan boomerang-generation ship suddenly showed back up one day.

"WE'RE BAC- Oh, hey, I told you the Dalamud thing would take care of itself!"

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Originally Posted by Anonymoose

Granted, having aliens in a medieval(-ISH) Final Fantasy would require some finesse, but that's so many open doors.

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Well, depending on how loosely you define "alien", that's been a recurring theme in Final Fantasy, most prominently in Final Fantasy IV. The Lunerians in that game were EXPLICITLY aliens who had come to settle the planet. FFIV was definitely a medieval-ish setting. The Terra/Gaia thing in FFIX is a weird example, but they ARE two different worlds (even if they are sort of technically attached to one another), and the inhabitants of one are pretty much aliens to the other. Aliens (specifically one alien, Jenova) were a big part of FFVII, as well, though it'd be a stretch to call that one medieval-ish. While not from deep space, all the monsters in FFVIII came from the moon. There's probably examples from other games I've forgotten, as well.

Anyway, I don't think that putting aliens into a Final Fantasy game really requires any kind of special finesse. They do it all the time!

If not for the fact that I'm rather heartily sick of Allagan stuff popping up all the time, I'd be totally in for the whole Allagan generation ship thing. Now THAT would turn the game on its ear! XD

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Originally Posted by LineageRazor

Fundamental things like the nature and existence of gods, constellations and their influences on the worlds, what souls are and what happen to them when you die - I could go on and on.

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Not that I actually think this, but it just occurred to me: What if the Cosmology of the FF "Universe" was like the universe present in Brandon Sanderson's novels? (Don't click on the tag unless you want something semi-spoiled from the body of work from Sanderson. I'm unsure how much of this is actually a surprise to people these days, but I don't want to ruin it for people who don't know.)

Several systems in the universe have are under the influence of Shards of Adonalsium. Each Shard makes the physics/laws of the world work slightly different. Once you move out of the sphere of influence of the Shard, the laws of nature go back to "normal." It is possible that the "mothercrystal" of each FF game is really just a Shard-like thing that controls how the world it's present on works. For all we know, this COULD be how the FF Universe is set up.

Like I said, I don't think this is the case, but it's a way to let people who want FF1-FFinfinity to be in the same universe to have their cake and eat it, too.