I Don't Understand the Light Theme

I am really enjoying SHB... but I am having trouble understanding what they are doing with the light theme.

No spoilers, I just don't get the "Forgiven" tag on monsters... or the "Sin Eater" taxonomy.

It seems like they are confusing elemental light and religion.... and it is confusing to me.

I don't understand why instead of this they aren't using names like "radiant" and "luminous".

To me, they seem to be confusing "holy" and elemental light, so there is this strange quasi religious connotation to stuff.

Maybe I am not far enough along in the story and they fix this- but I always loved how Secret of Mana kept light and dark as elements and left out that religious stuff.

Hopefully, those of you who are over achievers and finished the MSQ can let me know if it straightens out.... I really like the elemental concept and love the idea that elements are neutral primordial forces. This language and connotation might just be a localization issue.

It just feels like the game is borrowing heavily from D&D on the theme without any of the context. Maybe it's just me lol.... but I also don't want the same to happen with darkness/shade in a future expansion where they have some kid of evil connotation. I was never comfortable with them implying that shade/dark was bad and I don't want that to be a future theme. As both an AST and as someone that happens to love the nighttime and sleep, I happen to feel like darkness can be comforting, relaxing, and peaceful.

Well, Holy as a spell has always been a Light elemental attack since early Final Fantasy, and Alexander as a summon is also light aspected in earlier final fantasy games too. It's kinda just how it is at this stage.

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Originally Posted by NessaWyvern

Well, Holy as a spell has always been a Light elemental attack since early Final Fantasy, and Alexander as a summon is also light aspected in earlier final fantasy games too. It's kinda just how it is at this stage.

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Just to be clear - I get that the holy spell is light aspected.... but they seem to be applying that theme to all of light... when really, I just interpreted it to be a light based attack that was called holy....not that there was really any kind of affiliation between elemental light and any kind of religious concept.

The idea of light and religion or order is fairly D&D.... but I just expected it to be treated as any other element..... which is what is throwing me off. Instead of a theme based on "luminosity" (so far from what I see).... I have seen more of a theme around this quasi religious concept.

It's made clear, there's no religious connection that I saw. No good or evil, just balance (I think). And everything borrows from summat, even WoW....

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Originally Posted by ApolloGenX

but I also don't want the same to happen with darkness/shade in a future expansion where they have some kid of evil connotation. I was never comfortable with them implying that shade/dark was bad and I don't want that to be a future theme.

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Is.. this.. not the entire first storyline?

People on the First refer to one another as "sinner," so naturally the monsters that feed on their aether would be sin eaters. I assume that those that survive the attacks and have their aether overwhelmed by the infusion of Light are then considered to have their "sins" "forgiven". The greater the "sin", I assume based on willpower or strength due to the Cardinal Virtues, the more powerful the eater. It's been stated by the developers that Light and Dark aren't elements, but something greater.

We've also already had an equivalent storyline for Darkness, namely everything to do with Voidsent- the former inhabitants of the Thirteenth Shard.

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Originally Posted by Arrhin

It's made clear, there's no religious connection that I saw. No good or evil, just balance (I think). And everything borrows from summat, even WoW....

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Let me give another example - There are a lot of white feathered angel-like creatures. I wonder since we are talking about light if we will see prismatic creatures and abilities. I wonder if we will see lucent creatures, gleaming creatures, or radiant creatures. I wonder if we will see refracted creatures and diffused creatures.

So far, the theme has been very one dimensional and light is such a fascinating concept- I just feel like it has been whitewashed (sorry for the bad metaphor).

Just to be clear, I am loving the expansion so far... I am just hoping the theme goes beyond the traditional angelic/quasi religious archetypes.

I imagine the names are more a reference to how people feel rather than "that being the name it has always had since time immemorial". Like the Warriors of Light went so far, so single-mindedly marched forward, that they ended up bringing their own destruction. Now their sin comes for them, it's forgiven in their death (Sin Eater, Forgiven, Etc).

So it would be a rather recent (~100 years, iirc) naming scheme (made by those who live in the world). I mean this is evident in real life (names are made by humans, they mean/say something), but in games sometimes I think we take names as messages or general descriptions ("fire demon", is made of fire) from the devs and perhaps maybe we should go back to that concept that names are made by the people in the world (or at least that's how I've been reading it lol).

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Originally Posted by ApolloGenX

Let me give another example - There are a lot of white feathered angel-like creatures. I wonder since we are talking about light if we will see prismatic creatures and abilities. I wonder if we will see lucent creatures, gleaming creatures, or radiant creatures. I wonder if we will see refracted creatures and diffused creatures.

So far, the theme has been very one dimensional and light is such a fascinating concept- I just feel like it has been whitewashed (sorry for the bad metaphor).

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I think yer readin way to much into this, though I do share yer curiosity. As far as I can tell they're jus tellin a story about Balance, how a sway too far in one direction or the other, can be catastrophic. Whether the light is good or evil is irrelevant to that end. I also recall a conversation *no spoiler* that how the light and dark is perceived in the First is backwards to the Source, simply in language. So far, as far in as I am...there's no reference to one or the other bein "good" or "evil" specifically. That may change, I just got to the second dungeon

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Originally Posted by Arrhin

I think yer readin way to much into this, though I do share yer curiosity. As far as I can tell they're jus tellin a story about Balance, how a sway too far in one direction or the other, can be catastrophic. Whether the light is good or evil is irrelevant to that end. I also recall a conversation *no spoiler* that how the light and dark is perceived in the First is backwards to the Source, simply in language. So far, as far in as I am...there's no reference to one or the other bein "good" or "evil" specifically. That may change, I just got to the second dungeon

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Perhaps... but they could possibly release expansions that are all elemental based- and I am hoping they really expand the limits of what elemental means beyond the cliche.

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Originally Posted by ApolloGenX

Perhaps... but they could possibly release expansions that are all elemental based- and I am hoping they really expand the limits of what elemental means beyond the cliche.

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I really miss the elemental stuff from say, FFVII. Equip the right gear, heal yerself with FIRE!! Attack the boss with the wrong element...oops, you healed em,...better remeld or re equip! I think stuff like that would be interestin. It seems like they tried it a bit in Eureka...but..it's...Eureka.

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Originally Posted by ApolloGenX

I am really enjoying SHB... but I am having trouble understanding what they are doing with the light theme.

No spoilers, I just don't get the "Forgiven" tag on monsters... or the "Sin Eater" taxonomy.

It seems like they are confusing elemental light and religion.... and it is confusing to me.

I don't understand why instead of this they aren't using names like "radiant" and "luminous".

To me, they seem to be confusing "holy" and elemental light, so there is this strange quasi religious connotation to stuff.


It just feels like the game is borrowing heavily from D&D on the theme without any of the context. Maybe it's just me lol.... but I also don't want the same to happen with darkness/shade in a future expansion where they have some kid of evil connotation. I was never comfortable with them implying that shade/dark was bad and I don't want that to be a future theme. As both an AST and as someone that happens to love the nighttime and sleep, I happen to feel like darkness can be comforting, relaxing, and peaceful.

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Op, I think it's just you. We have Voidsent which are being from the world that was swallowed up by Darkness but did you complain about them looking like demons? Light, dark, it doesn't matter because too much in abundance in this game is harmful. Heavensward dealt with pseudo religious dogma. SHB is just a world devoured by primordial light element, no real religion tone too it other than what you read into it.

Perhaps it is merely falling under association. We Associate Light with things such as Doves, white, feathers and "Holy" aspects. The Literal flood of "Light" to the first shard is the polar opposite of the "Darkness" for ours and our "Void Sent" Monsters, which have Darkness themes such as Bat wings, the color Black and creepy or unsettling imagery.

Its just falling under Association of the aspects of "Light" and "Darkness" and what symbolic images those bring about.

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Originally Posted by Arrhin

I really miss the elemental stuff from say, FFVII. Equip the right gear, heal yerself with FIRE!! Attack the boss with the wrong element...oops, you healed em,...better remeld or re equip! I think stuff like that would be interestin. It seems like they tried it a bit in Eureka...but..it's...Eureka.

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They abolished it because Yoshi did not want a repeat of FFXI where there was 'Job favouritism' of players only taking Jobs like BLM for instance into dungeons and boss fights to use a certain elemental spell that the enemy was weak against (at the exclusion of other Jobs that couldn't use attacks that exploited elemental weaknesses), what were known as 'manaburn parties' (FFXI was notorious for exploits like that).

This is also why FFXIV 1.0 CNJ (who was the original elemental spellcaster) lost Thunder, Ice and Fire spells which were given to THM (the original version actually involved casting spells on the umbral and astral alignments: aka 'dark' and 'light'). Yoshi simply does not want players excluding each other from content based on their Jobs/classes, he wants everyone to have an equal chance gameplay wise.

Accordingly even though spells seem to have elemental names, gameplay wise they have none - all spells are 'typeless' as far as damage goes, so you can throw Fire spells aplenty at Ifrit for instance and it will still hurt him. It's simplifying battle mechanics, but remembering what FFXI was like, losing the elemental wheel is a small price to pay for much smoother combat and less 'meta Job' nonsense from other players.

As for the 'light apocalypse' theme of SHB, that's actually a rather common trope in fiction nowadays (it's essentially for the same reasons as to why there is increasingly in fiction a tendency to see so-called 'dark' or 'evil' characters in a more positive, or at the very least, sympathetic, light (no pun intended)). It's more now instead of the philosophical notions of 'light=good' and 'dark=evil', you can have 'good light', 'evil light', 'good darkness' and 'evil darkness', with SHB's story being very much having to become 'good darkness' in order to banish 'evil light'. Like a fire can bring warmth and light, but it can also burn and destroy, in the same way in the First the light has become too searing, too powerful and destroys more than it helps and becomes just as bad as the very darkness that is banishes.

At least, that's how I interpreted it. Or SE is just thumbing their noses at the alignment chart.

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Originally Posted by Arrhin

I really miss the elemental stuff from say, FFVII. Equip the right gear, heal yerself with FIRE!! Attack the boss with the wrong element...oops, you healed em,...better remeld or re equip! I think stuff like that would be interestin. It seems like they tried it a bit in Eureka...but..it's...Eureka.

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Mechanics like that existed in 1.0, but with how things changed to move it away from what was effectively a terrible XI remake, I'm sure you can see why they were left in the dust.

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Originally Posted by Daralii

Mechanics like that existed in 1.0, but with how things changed to move it away from what was effectively a terrible XI remake, I'm sure you can see why they were left in the dust.

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Was not possible in 1.0, too
You did less dmg with a fire spell on an fire enemy (i think 75% dmg), but still dmg. You didn't heal with fire, regardless of enemy type or equipment.

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Originally Posted by ApolloGenX

I am really enjoying SHB... but I am having trouble understanding what they are doing with the light theme.

No spoilers, I just don't get the "Forgiven" tag on monsters... or the "Sin Eater" taxonomy.

It seems like they are confusing elemental light and religion.... and it is confusing to me.

I don't understand why instead of this they aren't using names like "radiant" and "luminous".

To me, they seem to be confusing "holy" and elemental light, so there is this strange quasi religious connotation to stuff.

Maybe I am not far enough along in the story and they fix this- but I always loved how Secret of Mana kept light and dark as elements and left out that religious stuff.

Hopefully, those of you who are over achievers and finished the MSQ can let me know if it straightens out.... I really like the elemental concept and love the idea that elements are neutral primordial forces. This language and connotation might just be a localization issue.

It just feels like the game is borrowing heavily from D&D on the theme without any of the context. Maybe it's just me lol.... but I also don't want the same to happen with darkness/shade in a future expansion where they have some kid of evil connotation. I was never comfortable with them implying that shade/dark was bad and I don't want that to be a future theme. As both an AST and as someone that happens to love the nighttime and sleep, I happen to feel like darkness can be comforting, relaxing, and peaceful.

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I guess you could draw a parallel from the Flood of Light and Genesis Flood that was Holy in nature. But would not both things be murderous and horrifying to the people of the world?

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.p...LightIsNotGood

We associate light with purity and goodness, which is why the epithets are the way they are. The naming conventions are intentional misnomers. There are some religious nods in the Sin Eater designs. It was only some few centuries ago where people started depicting angels as these beautiful humanoid creatures that offer comfort and/or aid, but their original conceptions were godsdamned terrifying. One Biblical story has an angel descending from heaven and immediately asking people to "fear not/be not afraid". Why? Because angels are actually supposed to be hideous.

To digress from that point, this is just an inversion of the "dark is bad" trope. The Warrior of Darkness did mention that light and dark are two sides of the same coin and that a balance is required. With that in mind, it only makes sense that the cauterizing power of light is just as destructive as the crushing depths of darkness.

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Originally Posted by Felis

Was not possible in 1.0, too
You did less dmg with a fire spell on an fire enemy (i think 75% dmg), but still dmg. You didn't heal with fire, regardless of enemy type or equipment.

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Well it would be broken in an mmo if you could raise an elemental resistance enough to not just be immune to something but even heal off it.
Imagine if you could cheese fights like ifrit extreme or anything involving bombs cause someone overmelded fire resist materia to the extreme.

I should say that when I said religious themes- I was really referring to style, not story.

Maybe it is just me... I just came back from Europe, where we saw so many churches.... the abundance of feathers and angelic creatures just reminds me of recurring religious iconography. In any case, the style seems to bend more toward light as a concept and less toward light as an element, imo.

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Originally Posted by ApolloGenX

I should say that when I said religious themes- I was really referring to style, not story.

Maybe it is just me... I just came back from Europe, where we saw so many churches.... the abundance of feathers and angelic creatures just reminds me of recurring religious iconography. In any case, the style seems to bend more toward light as a concept and less toward light as an element, imo.

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The creatures of the light have always looked like that, though. Think back to Amdapor Keep Hard's second and third bosses. They look like the sin eaters do, and that's an ARR dungeon.

Not every work of fiction can, will, or should reflect everyone's particular worldview. However, they've done a pretty good job of demonstrating that any element or belief system can be bad when taken to the extreme.

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Originally Posted by ApolloGenX

I should say that when I said religious themes- I was really referring to style, not story.

Maybe it is just me... I just came back from Europe, where we saw so many churches.... the abundance of feathers and angelic creatures just reminds me of recurring religious iconography. In any case, the style seems to bend more toward light as a concept and less toward light as an element, imo.

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Because in XIV, Light isn't an "element" so to speak. There's only six elements: Fire, Water, Ice, Air, Earth, and Thunder. Astral ("Light") and Umbral ("Dark") are more like attributes, so any Light aspected monster or spell tends to lean more to the "Holy" instead of using Literal Light Spells (like what would be lasers). And SE has a thing of using said "Holy" designations for their Light spells, anyway: SD3 used Holy Ball and Saintly Beam for their tier 1 and 2 Light Spells, Alexander has a lot of religious imagery (Holy Judgement)...

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Originally Posted by ApolloGenX

I am really enjoying SHB... but I am having trouble understanding what they are doing with the light theme.

No spoilers, I just don't get the "Forgiven" tag on monsters... or the "Sin Eater" taxonomy.

It seems like they are confusing elemental light and religion.... and it is confusing to me.

I don't understand why instead of this they aren't using names like "radiant" and "luminous".

To me, they seem to be confusing "holy" and elemental light, so there is this strange quasi religious connotation to stuff.

Maybe I am not far enough along in the story and they fix this- but I always loved how Secret of Mana kept light and dark as elements and left out that religious stuff.

Hopefully, those of you who are over achievers and finished the MSQ can let me know if it straightens out.... I really like the elemental concept and love the idea that elements are neutral primordial forces. This language and connotation might just be a localization issue.

It just feels like the game is borrowing heavily from D&D on the theme without any of the context. Maybe it's just me lol.... but I also don't want the same to happen with darkness/shade in a future expansion where they have some kid of evil connotation. I was never comfortable with them implying that shade/dark was bad and I don't want that to be a future theme. As both an AST and as someone that happens to love the nighttime and sleep, I happen to feel like darkness can be comforting, relaxing, and peaceful.

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how far away are you in the story? because they will explain it.

the Source people worship the Twelve. The First basically worshipped the Light and later on the Darkness. kinda like pagan people used to worship aspects of Nature irl

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Originally Posted by ApolloGenX

I should say that when I said religious themes- I was really referring to style, not story.

Maybe it is just me... I just came back from Europe, where we saw so many churches.... the abundance of feathers and angelic creatures just reminds me of recurring religious iconography. In any case, the style seems to bend more toward light as a concept and less toward light as an element, imo.

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Then how would you personally depict "light"? You need to design a lot of enemies and bosses around this concept.

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Originally Posted by Edax

Then how would you personally depict "light"? You need to design a lot of enemies and bosses around this concept.

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Good question.... I suppose I was expecting things like

Luminous Shimmer
Gleaming Orb
Radiant Spark
Prismatic Warden
Lucent Guardian

Things like that... light based.

Although I am far enough along that they offered an explanation... of sorts.... except that I still don't understand what "primordial light" is, if not like an element. I suppose I was in a Secret of Mana frame of mind, where it is like an element.

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Originally Posted by ApolloGenX

Although I am far enough along that they offered an explanation... of sorts.... except that I still don't understand what "primordial light" is, if not like an element. I suppose I was in a Secret of Mana frame of mind, where it is like an element.

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It's a form of magic. Here on the source we called it astral energy, not light, with umbral being the equivalent dark magic. Straight from the wiki:

"Astral energy is the light-based polarity present in all six elements (see Chapter 4 of Essences & Permutations - A Treatise of the Six Elements). The opposite of Astral energy is Umbral energy. Astral energy can exist in all 6 elements, as demonstrated by the odd-numbered months of the Eorzean Calendar."

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Originally Posted by ApolloGenX

Let me give another example - There are a lot of white feathered angel-like creatures. I wonder since we are talking about light if we will see prismatic creatures and abilities. I wonder if we will see lucent creatures, gleaming creatures, or radiant creatures. I wonder if we will see refracted creatures and diffused creatures.

So far, the theme has been very one dimensional and light is such a fascinating concept- I just feel like it has been whitewashed (sorry for the bad metaphor).

Just to be clear, I am loving the expansion so far... I am just hoping the theme goes beyond the traditional angelic/quasi religious archetypes.

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So youre confused about light producing angelic seeming monsters but not confused about Darkness producing demon seeming monsters like Diabolos?

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Originally Posted by Kitya

It's a form of magic. Here on the source we called it astral energy, not light, with umbral being the equivalent dark magic. Straight from the wiki:

"Astral energy is the light-based polarity present in all six elements (see Chapter 4 of Essences & Permutations - A Treatise of the Six Elements). The opposite of Astral energy is Umbral energy. Astral energy can exist in all 6 elements, as demonstrated by the odd-numbered months of the Eorzean Calendar."

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Yes... and this is related to the explanation they give... I still don't see how it squares with the style of enemies. Aside from things being white... which I suppose is the thematic astral/white color palette, I don't understand the angelic/feathery theme, which to be follows more religious iconography as I stated than it does the overall description of polarity. Sure, some of it looks pretty neat, I am not saying that it doesn't... I just find the aesthetic a confusing choice.

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Originally Posted by kidalutz

So youre confused about light producing angelic seeming monsters but not confused about Darkness producing demon seeming monsters like Diabolos?

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I don't consider primals.... they can look like anything.... but yes- given the explanation, I don't know why dark would produce demonic style creatures, either. In fact, if they are not elements, and more of a polarity... maybe they would even look the same, but have different color themes...if astral and umbral are surrogates but not equivalents for good and evil....good and evil creatures might look the same...possibly color difference for stylistic flair, but you can't tell just by looking what something is...

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Originally Posted by ApolloGenX

Yes... and this is related to the explanation they give... I still don't see how it squares with the style of enemies. Aside from things being white... which I suppose is the thematic astral/white color palette, I don't understand the angelic/feathery theme, which to be follows more religious iconography as I stated than it does the overall description of polarity. Sure, some of it looks pretty neat, I am not saying that it doesn't... I just find the aesthetic a confusing choice.

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It makes equally as much sense as the voidsent who look like demons. Either way, as I pointed out previously, the light aspected creatures have looked like this at least as far back as ARR. So this isn't anything new, nor is it unique to the first, and the naming conventions are just related to the fact that the first used to worship the light as a religion.

Light carries these connotations, it's really nothing new. The devs aren't trying to make a religious statement here, nor have they ever. So many of the primals are named after entities that appear in several religions (Ifrit, Shiva, Odin, etc), but they don't really reflect what those beings are known for outside of a few ability names here and there. They are simply paying tribute to established mythologies and referencing them into their own, which Final Fantasy games have been doing since their inception.

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Originally Posted by ApolloGenX

I don't consider primals.... they can look like anything.... but yes- given the explanation, I don't know why dark would produce demonic style creatures, either. In fact, if they are not elements, and more of a polarity... maybe they would even look the same, but have different color themes...if astral and umbral are surrogates but not equivalents for good and evil....good and evil creatures might look the same...possibly color difference for stylistic flair, but you can't tell just by looking what something is...

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I wouldn't look too deeply into the fact that there are characters named Biggs and Wedge that fly in the Airship Enterprise either.

I thought this post was about the UI theme...lol

Think of it like this - the sin eaters and characters like Vauthry are exploiting this association to their benefit. Light is just a natural force in the world of FFXIV, but the denizens of that world (just as in ours) have a tendency to associate light with good, and so by branding themselves as "sin eaters" and their actions as "forgiveness" and "ascendancy" they get an advantage out of that over those denizens.

I don't really think that the naming conventions are meant to be purely religious, though Final Fantasy has always had a weird obsession with Evil Empires and Anti-Religious sentiments. That being said, we went to the World of Darkness in ARR and all of the Voidsent on the Source come from the World that was consumed by Darkness. The First is literally an opposite reflection of what happened to that world. The names they gave to the "Lightsent"/Sin Eaters most likely evolved from their worlds use of religious terms for higher beings, but when the flood of light came through they didn't change their names, they changed their connotation. I wouldn't look to far into it.

The only explicitly religious people you interact with belong to the Church of the Night's Blessed; that is, they worship the Dark. And it's very understated; aside from the comic relief character with the great serpent...

... and the reason the Sin Eaters are called that, and and have religious overtones, is because that's what Eulmore called them. And until we got there, what they said goes.

Here you go:

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NY: From my own personal experience with fantasy media, there typically seems to be a conflation of “light” or “justice” with the notion of “good.” It feels unilateral to me. Surely any force that goes too far in one direction can’t be entirely good, right? That’s why I figured that if there was too much “light” in the world of FFXIV, then there had to be some negative effects. The linchpin here is the Warrior of Light being so thoroughly active in their duties as the realm’s champion that their “light” has become overbearing, disrupting the balance. That’s exactly what happened in the First—the setting for Shadowbringers—and why it has been decimated by the Flood of Light. We felt that restoring that balance would make for a very Final Fantasy-like narrative.

In terms of enemy design for Shadowbringers, this was actually a big stumbling block for us. Some context: generally speaking, Japanese people tend to be rather…agonstic, so to speak, acknowledging aspects of all religions. On Christmas, we exchange presents with one another, but a week later, we’re at Shinto shrines making offerings for the New Year. We’re neutral in that sense. So when we think about the concept of “evil,” we have a comparatively large pool of ideas to draw from. Now, in designing foes that stem from a source of light that has become too powerful, it’s all too easy to immediately jump to the idea of a fallen angel. We specifically wanted to avoid that pitfall in Shadowbringers. Players will be fighting against the First’s “Sin Eaters,” yes, but they are not necessarily angels. It’s funny—when our artists first started conceptualizing new enemies, many couldn’t resist the pull of drawing meticulously feathered wings on their creatures. I feel that’s oversimplifying things. That’s why I had to ask them for several retakes whenever I saw those wings start to appear. I had to explicitly ask them to tone down the designs. Basically…I told them to come up with something super demonic-looking, and then make it white. (laughs) We definitely did struggle with this concept because it’s apparently been ingrained into our collective consciousness to associate white with “good” and black with “evil.”

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https://www.cgmagonline.com/2019/06/...naoki-yoshida/

A lot depends on whether you are talking about light and dark in spiritual or physical terms. For example, I do believe that on the spiritual level light is good and dark is bad. But on the physical level, there is no such moral involvement and a balance between the two is indeed necessary for a healthy world (For example, endless day would be as destructive as endless night.) The light in the first is just that, a physical light, massively out of balance.

It is interesting to note, as long as any religious questions are there, that in the traditional Abrahamic view God is a being of light who surrounds himself with darkness to prevent the purity of the light from harming humans, while satan is a being of darkness who masquerades as an angel of light.

Still... Something's not right with the situation in the first. (Spoiler below is based on what I know as far along as the first trial at level 73)

The people of the first insist that sin eaters are mindless beasts. But mindless beasts don't use swords and shields. When Tesleen was turned, she said 'I'm sorry Alisae' AFTER she was turned, implying her mind was still in there. When Titania was taken over by a lightwarden, she continued to act like a pixie (if twisted) implying her mind was still intact to some degree. And if light is passivity, then why are creatures made of passivity aggressive? I'm hoping for answers further along (assuming my stupid key ever comes) but right now something just seems very off.