Question regarding the Shards and the Cosmos

Apologies if this was already asked or is a dumb question but I was wondering exactly how the different Shards function on a cosmic scale.

We know they are reflections of the Source. We also know that there's an actual universe in XIV, as demonstrated by the existence of Astrologian and Omega and Midgardsormr who traveled actual physical distances to reach the Source from other, inhabited worlds, no dimensional hopping tomfoolery involved.

But what if inhabitants of the shards were able to space travel? Could an inhabitant of the First meet with an inhabitant of the Second if they both traveled to the moon? Is the XIV cosmos shared between the Shards or did Hydaelyn make reflections of the entirety of the XIV universe, thirteen times over? I know Hydaelyn is a powerful entity but such a feat seems pretty farfetched.

This is brought up quite often...

... suffice to say we don't have the most concrete answer, but in simple terms it's been called a local phenomenon. The dimensional fracture is entirely centered on Hydaelyn; to an outside observer, they'd just see a different shard (or the Source) each time they blinked.

Hard to explain beyond that.

The splitting only affected our local system. Now is the Moon also split I'm not sure and the dev's are very vague on almost everything else outside of our local system or if you coming from the outside could see anything besides the source due to the other shards resonating at a different frequency or whatever that only get's disrupted seemingly only when cataclysmic stuff happens.

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Originally Posted by Addicted

Is the XIV cosmos shared between the Shards or did Hydaelyn make reflections of the entirety of the XIV universe, thirteen times over? I know Hydaelyn is a powerful entity but such a feat seems pretty farfetched.

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Hydaelyn didn't "make" any of it. It was (as far as we are aware) an unintended consequence of banishing Zodiark from the aetherial sea, which somehow shattered reality into multiple planes.

lol, I asked this the other day.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...Shard-question

Short answer: We don't know.

While it's almost certainly not true (more so since we probably would have seen it during the HW Moon cutscene.) I like to think that if someone was viewing Hydaelyn from space the planet would look VERY strange, almost like a broken mirror. But in 4d.

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Originally Posted by Dualblade

While it's almost certainly not true (more so since we probably would have seen it during the HW Moon cutscene.) I like to think that if someone was viewing Hydaelyn from space the planet would look VERY strange, almost like a broken mirror. But in 4d.

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Maybe the moon got caught in it too.

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Originally Posted by Jandor

Maybe the moon got caught in it too.

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Given Zodiark is sealed there it could be the edge of it, yeah.

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Originally Posted by Jandor

Maybe the moon got caught in it too.

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Wouldn't that be weird? If Zodiark is in it?

I kind of assume that from outer space, only the Source/Hydealyn planet would appear (and any subsequent space travel from somewhere to Hydealyn would Land on the Source). Because the shards are reflects of a given world, not separate entities. That way, Shards see the "real" stars and outer universe from their world. But there's no getting out, as they could not exist without the Source... or if they get out, they would cross a one way dimensional border that makes it impossible to land back on any other world but the Source. And in my mind that's why Omega and Middy landed on the Source, and not on a Shard (assuming they arrived after the split, but I might be wrong?)
I don't know if this makes sense?

I would personnaly go with the 4D space explanation with the shift only being local, however I have the feeling people at SE will go with the wavelength explanation since most people seem to respond better to that.

However, we still don't know why the balance of light / darkness changes on each shard.
What caused this new equilibrium within each shard?

The whole thing about 4d / wavelength is usually used to explain why they can coexist at the same space and time, no why we'd have a gradient of light vs darkness balance ratio

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Originally Posted by Mansion

And in my mind that's why Omega and Middy landed on the Source, and not on a Shard (assuming they arrived after the split, but I might be wrong?)

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I was actually wondering about this, in that I was considering the reasons why Midgardsormr and Omega would be on the Source instead of a Shard, and then I realized that I don't actually know whether they arrived after the split, or if they arrived before. Or rather, Midgardsormr is the important one for this discussion, since I can imagine Omega might be a couple of thousand years behind him, and decided to dive through dimensions via Tech Trickery just so it could chase down Midgardsormr.

And then I was wondering how that squared with Midgardsormr apparently having a covenant with Hydaelyn in specific, rather than Hydaelyn and Zodiark. And now I am imagining Midgardsormr to be the cause of the split, like maybe Zodiark is allergic to space dragons or something and cannot live in the same house anymore.

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Originally Posted by YianKutku

I was actually wondering about this, in that I was considering the reasons why Midgardsormr and Omega would be on the Source instead of a Shard, and then I realized that I don't actually know whether they arrived after the split, or if they arrived before. Or rather, Midgardsormr is the important one for this discussion, since I can imagine Omega might be a couple of thousand years behind him, and decided to dive through dimensions via Tech Trickery just so it could chase down Midgardsormr.

And then I was wondering how that squared with Midgardsormr apparently having a covenant with Hydaelyn in specific, rather than Hydaelyn and Zodiark. And now I am imagining Midgardsormr to be the cause of the split, like maybe Zodiark is allergic to space dragons or something and cannot live in the same house anymore.

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/summon "Anonymoose"

ENLIGHTEN US PLEASE

I briefly checked the wikis before posting and they don't have the info.
My reasoning is the split was 12 000 years ago. The dragon song war is a thousand years old. So Middy's brood was around at that time. We also know the Allagans interacted with Tiamat / Bahamut and Omega, so it's older than their age too.
Everything about Middy, the Brood and Omega is conveniently after the Split.
But still, we don't know much about what happened in the early Calamities times either.

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Originally Posted by Mansion

Wouldn't that be weird? If Zodiark is in it?

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Doesn't have to be. Even if there are thirteen reflections of the moon, that doesn't mean that there are thirteen reflections of Zodiark. After all, the planet is also reflected thirteen times, and as far as we know Hydaelyn is only found in the Source.

I think it's pretty likely that area affected by the split includes at the very least the moon, and possibly more (the solar system?). That might seem like a lot of area to cover, but on a galactic scale, it's still a pretty tiny chunk of the cosmos.

So I'm not Moose, but I DO have the Encyclopedias!

In the first one there are two different versions of Midgarsomr's appearance on Hydaelyn. According to the Twelve creation myth when water was created by the gods Midgarsomr rose from that, which would put him in the First Umbral Era after the split. HOWEVER, they also have an account from dragons that he came from "a time before time" when Hydaelyn was still a newborn star. Which for me would put him as having come before Hydaelyn sealed Zodiark as a moon.

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Originally Posted by Dualblade

So I'm not Moose, but I DO have the Encyclopedias!

In the first one there are two different versions of Midgarsomr's appearance on Hydaelyn. According to the Twelve creation myth when water was created by the gods Midgarsomr rose from that, which would put him in the First Umbral Era after the split. HOWEVER, they also have an account from dragons that he came from "a time before time" when Hydaelyn was still a newborn star. Which for me would put him as having come before Hydaelyn sealed Zodiark as a moon.

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In regards to the bolded part, we still have some issues:

Is the Sundering the 1st Calamity? This is, hard to completely define at the least. The Sundering occurred 12000 years ago as according to Yoshi-P during JP fanfest. It caused the creation of 13 shards, or mirrored worlds. The Ascians call the 7th Calamity the 7th Rejoining, which we learn means the return of the aether of a Shard to the Source. We are told by the Word of the Mother that the Calamities are ALL Rejoinings (maybe misremembering things here) or more specifically she had failed to stop them "seven times", which would mean that the First Calamity caused a Shard to be rejoined as well. Now if the First Calamity was also the Sundering, then that would mean the a Shard was created and then destroyed almost immediately by the Ascians... which doesn't make sense to be honest.
It makes more sense if the Sundering and the 1st Calamity were separate events, with the time between being the 'Age of Gods' that we know so little about, and which would be prime time for Midgardsormr to arrive from space with his eggs and forge his pact with Hydaelyn. Also in regards to dragons stating a 'time before time', that could just mean from a time before the 1st brood was hatched.

Needless to say, more than likely a few of the queries around the Sundering will be answered through Shadowbringers.