Elidibus and the First Warrior of Light (Spoilers)

Since Elidibus was the first WoL, did he travel two and from the Source and First, and maybe even other worlds spreading the legend of the WoL across them in order to inspire future generations of mankind to rise up and take his place so he could then subsequently guide them.

I ask this question because Elidibus as the WoL not only shows up in the picture book the head Librarian in the Crystarium reads to us, but his armor is also obtainable back in the early 2.0 Crystal Tower Raids as the "Armor of Light", save for his helmet which is replaced with a tiara.

I harbor some doubt that we're actually supposed to run very far with that implication to begin with.

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Mowen
This, my friends, is Norvrandt's oldest epic. The original tale of the struggle between good and evil. In a time when all lay shrouded in Darkness, a prophesied hero rose to deliver the world from its doom. Fighting in the name of the Light, the hero styled himself its foot soldier. And thus did he come to be known as “The Warrior of Light.” Curiously, in the centuries that followed, other heroes appeared who claimed the selfsame epithet, despite sharing no discernible connection with their predecessors. And in time, Warrior of Light came to be a name accorded to all men and women of uncommon skill and valor.

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First things first, this all goes back to Final Fantasy I. The phrase "shrouded / veiled in darkness" and a prophesied hero being the world's only hope is the opening of that game. The armor of the Warrior of Light is the concept art for the Knight class from Final Fantasy I, which is also the cover of the Japanese game.

Where I think it goes sideways is that English was the only language that chose to omit a reference to "the Crystal"

クリスタルに導かれし光の戦士 - The Warrior of Light, guided by the Crystal
Krieger, gesegnet vom Licht und geleitet vom Kristall - The Warrior, blessed by the Light and guided by the Crystal
le Guerrier de la Lumière, béni du Cristal - The Warrior of Light, blessed by the Crystal

Whether we call them Zodiac Braves or Archons or Warriors of Light, the label always eventually get applied to people who are heroes but are not Hydaelyn's chosen, yet the associations remain. I believe that the stories are originally of Hydaelyn's champions, but that Elidibus is (by virtue of being connected to a primal summoned from a desire to save the world) able to tap into the spiritual vigor and zeal of any who wish to save the world, and that he is thus appropriating the guise generic hero as his armor, which is a fitting foil to us, who have adopted the cloak of darkness for Shadowbringers.

We do know that Elidibus sometimes curbed Darkness when it was ascending too high, and adopted the guise of fighting for the Light to bring out heroes and tap into their power. Hells, we saw kinda him doing it live in the Warring Triad arc. But the references to "The Crystal" and "The Light" in those lines make me doubt that Elidibus is necessarily the First Hero of Norvrandt.

I didn't get the impression Elidibus was literally the first WoL either, he just became a Primal in his shape same as Ysalye took Shiva's shape.

The thing with Elidibus is that he is already part of a primal when all that goes down: Zoidark. Which... really begs the question of what desire caused Zoidark to be summoned to begin with. And... I don't think it can be much different than the desire that Elidibus uses to make himself look like the WoL. That is.. saving a realm from destruction.

So I think Zoidark was summoned the same desire and Elidibus has been going around taking advantage of people having faith/belief in the idea of a world savior. Because that faith/desire helps keep Zoidark around, same as the faith/desire in oh... Bahamut and the Warring Traid, kept them around. Zoidark needs people to believe in the idea that gave birth to him. Which seems to be "save the world even if it causes you to sacrifice for the greater good".

Ironically, we spend a lot more time helping other people save their own world (even all the way back in ARR, we are fighting with other people rather than for them). And there are some sacrifices we aren't willing to make. So our brand of heroism doesn't give rise to people having faith/belief in the ideals that gave rise to Zoidark.

When we take a look into Elidibus' memories in Anamnesis Anyder, we see him looking at a vision of the original Warrior of Light and stating:

"Sundered though you may be, you fought for the world's salvation. For hope. Hope. It swells within me. Empowers me. Now, now I may carry out my mission."

Based off of this, it makes more sense to me that one of Azem's shards was the original Warrior of Light on Norvrandt. Elidibus just took inspiration from the WoL/Azem and used it to turn himself into that figure, similar to Archbishop Thordan VII turning into King Thordan.

The simplest explanation is that Elidibus, in trying to counter the Warrior of Darkness (us), uses a trope that has long been part of Norvrandt legend to pattern himself as the Warrior of Light.

I doubt that the book we see, with its artist's drawing of the fabled hero, is to be taken as a literal depiction of the original Warrior of Light on the First.

I point out that everyone who has read Sherlock Holmes books and stories has an idea of what he looks like. Actors who have portrayed him in movies and video games rely on artists' drawings, in particular those of Sidney Paget. Did Sherlock Holmes actually look the way he is was drawn? Without a photograph (which Conan Doyle does not provide), we will never know ...

[The last paragraph only slightly tongue-in-cheek, with apologies to Sherlockian's everywhere]

Come to think of it, Omega did try a simialr stunt in Alphascape (twice)

For years players have theorized if enough people believed in the ideal of the Warrior of Light if that would make a primal of us and now we finally see that concept in the game except it was hijacked and purposefully stoked by Elidibus

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Originally Posted by Hank_Hotspur

For years players have theorized if enough people believed in the ideal of the Warrior of Light if that would make a primal of us and now we finally see that concept in the game except it was hijacked and purposefully stoked by Elidibus

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I'm so glad I'm not the only one laughing at this, lol.
After we all beat the trial I sent a bunch of lore friends, "Hey. Hey. ... The Warrior of Light is a primal." and got a bunch of angry groans and boos.

And of course Rocl's favorite emoji:

https://cdn.discordapp.com/emojis/35...824651.png?v=1

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Originally Posted by TuskenRaider

When we take a look into Elidibus' memories in Anamnesis Anyder, we see him looking at a vision of the original Warrior of Light and stating:

"Sundered though you may be, you fought for the world's salvation. For hope. Hope. It swells within me. Empowers me. Now, now I may carry out my mission."

Based off of this, it makes more sense to me that one of Azem's shards was the original Warrior of Light on Norvrandt. Elidibus just took inspiration from the WoL/Azem and used it to turn himself into that figure, similar to Archbishop Thordan VII turning into King Thordan.

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This was my interpretation as well.
The first WoL was a sundered being who Elidibus saw and admired. He later took the mantle of WoL himself at times when he needed to balance the scale.
Though that first WoL wasn't necessarily in Norvrandt. He could have been on the Source or any of the Shards. Elidibus can freely travel between them after all.

on a slightly related note, chaos (whom we fought in alphascape 1 )at least i am pretty sure was the end boss in ff1. Though i am not sure elidibus fought him. Don't know why he blames us for lahabrea. Tech that was thoridan. Sure he was weak from fighting us and well he does like to switch bodies around a lot which also didn't help.

I may be wrong but my personal head canon has always been that a lot of oldest tales, specially ones that we share with other shards i.e. The Warrior of Light, could possibly be fragmented memories of the time before the Sundering. Specially now with the fact that Azem was always running about being a Warrior of Light type and even his/her name even ending up transforming into Azim and Azeyma. Elidibus may have just capitalized on those fragmented memories to create the WoL legend that all the Shards know. Since there was that hero worship thing, it's possible that like Emet-Selch he didn't want Azem to be lost to time because he decided that the Convocation was wrong.

EDIT: Thank you everyone who came here to answer questions! I usually tend to forget to reply on Lore section of the forums so I apologize if offended anybody if I didn't. And sorry if that last part came off weird. I always feel really bad when I don't reply to others who have kindly replied to me about my questions on these forums. ^^;

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Originally Posted by TuskenRaider

When we take a look into Elidibus' memories in Anamnesis Anyder, we see him looking at a vision of the original Warrior of Light and stating:

"Sundered though you may be, you fought for the world's salvation. For hope. Hope. It swells within me. Empowers me. Now, now I may carry out my mission."

Based off of this, it makes more sense to me that one of Azem's shards was the original Warrior of Light on Norvrandt. Elidibus just took inspiration from the WoL/Azem and used it to turn himself into that figure, similar to Archbishop Thordan VII turning into King Thordan.

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Yeah, this is the part here that confused me when Elidibus was shown observing the original WoL in a flashback. I had assumed after all he said during that Flashback and him rapidly zooming in onto the WoL that Elidibus had taken over his body at some point and assumed the role of WoL for the first time under the originals name.

This is what sparked me to think if this WoL were on the First then maybe through Elidibus he somehow found his way to the Aource during the reign of the Allagan Empire and that's why we find his armor in one of the Crystal Tower Raids.

I kinda like the idea of Azem or shards of Azem as the progenitor/s of the Warrior of Light legend, and to be fair the OG Warrior of Light presumably lived so far in the distant past that the soul could've reincarnated any number of times before Ardbert.

It wouldn't surprise me if each time Azem was reincarnated in different forms throughout the shards that they we needed up taking up the hero role. Prior to Shadowbringers there was always kind of statement regarding the WoL tendency to engage in heroic and selfless behavior almost by nature. Even Ardbert, who was initially antagonistic, was doing what he did to try to save his world from the light. It seems like just as the memories of past drive the Ascian's actions, it seems like we are partially driven by Azem's own drive to save the world in his/her own way.

Frankly, that's what I expected Azem purpose in the story to be: Seeking another path that differs both from the Ascian's and the Summoners of Hydaelyn.

Guys Elidibus "is" a WoL and truly "is" the 1st WoL, cus if you remember, back in the ancient days Elidibus "Sacrificed" himself to help save his people, if that does not bespeaks the actions of "A Warrior of Light True", then I don't know what is?... Elidibus was indeed hailed as a hero for sacrificing himself to help save his world, and that my friend is a true Warrior of Light in all it's greatness, so Elidibus truly was the "1st Ancient Warrior of Light" even Elidibus himself admited in "1st coming up with the Warriors of Light and Even becoming them" So Yes Elidibus really was the "True 1st Warrior of Light." Sure our Azem helped save people but they never sacrificed themselves for the whole of humanity like Elidibus did, so Again Elidibus truly was and is the "1st and true Ancient Warrior of Light".

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Originally Posted by PastelGothGuy01

Guys Elidibus "is" a WoL and truly "is" the 1st WoL, cus if you remember, back in the ancient days Elidibus "Sacrificed" himself to help save his people, if that does not bespeaks the actions of "A Warrior of Light True", then I don't know what is?... Elidibus was indeed hailed as a hero for sacrificing himself to help save his world, and that my friend is a true Warrior of Light in all it's greatness, so Elidibus truly was the "1st Ancient Warrior of Light" even Elidibus himself admited in "1st coming up with the Warriors of Light and Even becoming them" So Yes Elidibus really was the "True 1st Warrior of Light." Sure our Azem helped save people but they never sacrificed themselves for the whole of humanity like Elidibus did, so Again Elidibus truly was and is the "1st and true Ancient Warrior of Light".

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You're taking the words of Elidibus, a known liar who was at the time clearly speaking in evocative metaphorical statements, as someone speaking direct, immutable truth.

Elidibus does not always lie though, and did we not find out later on in the game that "Elidibus" did sacrifice himself to become "Zodiark's heart" to help save his people?... Even in the records of Anyder we see a hologram of the ancients talking to Venat on how Elidibus too sacrificed himself to become Zodiark's heart to help save everyone, and even in the ending of the Pandaemonium story raids Erichthonios also says that Elidibus was preparing himself to sacrifice himself to save everyone by becoming Zodiark's heart, and did we not also hear that the final days was averted, if only for the time being and thanks to Elidibus becoming the sacrificial lamb for this purpose, even Emet-Selch says that he considers Elidibus and the other souls that sacrificed themselves to help save the world Heroes, when we tell him of the future events in Elpis, all these passages mention Elidibus mostly as the one who sacrificed himself to help save everyone by again becoming Zodiark's heart.

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Originally Posted by PastelGothGuy01

Elidibus does not always lie though, and did we not find out later on in the game that "Elidibus" did sacrifice himself to become "Zodiark's heart" to help save his people?... Even in the records of Anyder we see a hologram of the ancients talking to Venat on how Elidibus too sacrificed himself to become Zodiark's heart to help save everyone, and even in the ending of the Pandaemonium story raids Erichthonios also says that Elidibus was preparing himself to sacrifice himself to save everyone by becoming Zodiark's heart, and did we not also hear that the final days was averted, if only for the time being and thanks to Elidibus becoming the sacrificial lamb for this purpose, even Emet-Selch says that he considers Elidibus and the other souls that sacrificed themselves to help save the world Heroes, when we tell him of the future events in Elpis, all these passages mention Elidibus mostly as the one who sacrificed himself to help save everyone by again becoming Zodiark's heart.

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You would have a bigger point if Elidibus had been the sole sacrifice to become Zodiark. Remember Loghrif was the original person for the job as they didn't want to put such a heavy burden as being the equivalent of being an Eva pilot onto someone many of the convocation saw as a little brother. Until he volunteered and pleaded his case. There wouldn't be a Zodiark for him to be the heart of if those in that initial wave of sacrifices hadn't also chosen to volunteer to become the body.

True, but the stuff they did is equal to What a Warrior of Light wouid do for the people they cared for, so even if Elidibus is not the only WoL we can still call him one of the "1st" Ancient Warriors of Light and he was seen as a leader of sorts, heck when he became part of Zodiark the people worshipped him as a god of sorts, besides he is the one that is mentioned more times then the others when it comes to "The Warriors of Light" and the whole stuff with Zodiark, while the others remain as somewhat of a foot note, the spotlight mostly being on Elidibus with the whole him being Zodiark's heart thing, and the story gives him far more importance then the others as again Zodiark's heart cus in order for Zodiark to Work properly Elidibus was needed as Zodiark's heart and will, cus if not Zodiark wouid be nothing more then a husk without his heart, his heart being Elidibus.

After EW, one could interpret the original Sundered WoL as being us in Elpis.
Elidibus grew to idolize us during the Pandemonium raid and created the mantle that would end up being ascribed to us and paradoxically inspire its creation.

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Originally Posted by Anonymoose

I harbor some doubt that we're actually supposed to run very far with that implication to begin with.

First things first, this all goes back to Final Fantasy I. The phrase "shrouded / veiled in darkness" and a prophesied hero being the world's only hope is the opening of that game. The armor of the Warrior of Light is the concept art for the Knight class from Final Fantasy I, which is also the cover of the Japanese game.

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Originally Posted by JeanneOrnitier

I didn't get the impression Elidibus was literally the first WoL either, he just became a Primal in his shape same as Ysalye took Shiva's shape.

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Him dressing up as the first warrior of light and the villian for ff1 is none other than chaos in alphascape 1.