Why are there pixies, etc. on the First but not the Source?

Where have all the fae gone? Did they evolve into elementals? Spriggans? Harvested to make SCH soul crystals?

You could say that the pixies are the 1st Shard's answer to our Sylphs. Creatures of not quite human mindset who love pranks.

If i had to make a guess, they either:

1: Do exist, but in a area we don't have access to.
Or
2: Only exist because of a specific Event which only took place on the first.

From what i know and remember (correct me if i am wrong), the Pixies settled in on Il Mheg after the fall of the Voerburt Kingdom and turned its remaining citizens that didn't left into those humanoid grass bushes we see all over the place.

Pixies also seem to be born from the souls of dead children, and unless there is some sort of sidequest i missed out that states othetwise, there is no further information on this to prove Theory #2.

But the Sahagin and Ondo are clearly the same thing.
As are the Kobold and the Mord.

The Pixies and Sylph aren't remotely alike, and I don't just mean visually. The Sylph are their own race where as the Pixies are dead kids.

Accept the fact that the peoples, lands and lore of the First are not those of the Source.

If you must, consider the connection between the two as a set of parallel, non-synchronous universes.

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Originally Posted by DPZ2

Accept the fact that the peoples, lands and lore of the First are not those of the Source.

If you must, consider the connection between the two as a set of parallel, non-synchronous universes.

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Yes and no.

The same races exist even if their cultures have diverged, and the overall rules of how the world works are the same. The laws of physics (and the more magical sciences like aetherology) apply the same way in both.

If it is a "natural phenomenon" that the souls of children spontaneously turn into pixies, we should expect to see this happen in the Source as well, but we do not. Therefore either it is happening and we don't see it, or it is not happening.

If it's happening, where are the Source's pixies hiding?

If it's not happening, what caused it to happen in the First?

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Originally Posted by Iscah

If it's not happening, what caused it to happen in the First?

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Necromancer confirmed.

This is all spitballing here, so don't take what I have to say too seriously.

One possibility is that the Pixies underwent a radical transformation on the Source as a result of one or more calamities. It's possible that one or more calamities resulted in Source Pixie souls being too dense to remain as Pixies, and they took on new forms instead. Another is that Pixies themselves are the result of an emergent species. Perhaps every Reflection has Pixies and the Source never did, because of some quirk involving the Reflections' connection to the Aetherial Sea.

Maybe the Pixies on the Source are just hiding. Maybe the WoL is a Pixie in disguise.

While there are some beast tribes that exist only on the First, there are also tribes that exist only on the Source.

Other than the Pixies, the Source also doesn't have Nu Mou, nor do they have Amaro (which technically are their own tribe with those that regained intelligence).
On the other hand the First doesn't have Sylphs, Namazu, Ananta, Kojin, Vath, Vanu Vanu and even Moogles. Some of these I'm guessing existed before the Flood but there is no way to know which ones. Maybe they even had other beast tribes that don't exist in on the Source but those were also wiped by the Flood.

So Pixies are probably their own thing that only appeared on the First due to whatever made them come to be, same with Nu Mou and Amaro.

The first had namazu like creatures in ronka or came to ronka via the Qatari or rat race before the flood. You learn that in their beast tribe quests

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Originally Posted by Lumivyory

On the other hand the First doesn't have Sylphs, Namazu, Ananta, Kojin, Vath, Vanu Vanu and even Moogles.

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Moogles do exist on the First as well - they have blue poms and are seen even running a version of the Moogle Delivery Service (presumedly G'raha established it there based on the Source's one, but it still leads to questions as to how that can connect with the Moogle Delivery Service on the Source - presumedly it's similar to how retainer services are handled by Feo Ul, but that's a long shot).

Ananta and their lamia cousins not existing on the First makes sense though, given those were synthetic creations of the Allagan Empire same with the giants/gigas and so never had a counterpart form on the First when the Sundering happened (although it's possible some might have hitched a ride to the First via the Crystal Tower like the gremlins did). But as you said, a lot of beast races on the Source not being seen to have counterparts on the First can be just chalked up to being rendered extinct by the Flood of Light.

The first has moogles too. You see this in the quest series that unlocks the huntboard for Shadowbringers in the Crystarium.

I'm surprised no one is floating an suggestions of the Faeries of Nym having a relation to the Pixies. The Fairies are bound to the Scholar Job Stones, with ours canonically being named Lily. I've always been curious why Fairies don't spawn naturally without Scholar Job Stones, and it's likely many were bound. They've never got THAT deep into the fairies other than Lily previously belonging to the Tonberry that functions as our SCH mentor. And one of the other Tonberries trying to reclaim her Fairy which almost killed her due to problems with being a Tonberry. While I absolutely do see a sylphic connection, the sylphs are a sapient floral creature which could have been wiped out by the Ronkans for all we know. Pixies manifest out of thin air and are born, usually through an infusion of a child's soul. Fairies (and please someone tell me if I'm mistaken) we've never gotten a good origin on how they manifested, but they might manifest from more than just the soul's of children considering they're not as callous and lean toward wanting to help people.

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Originally Posted by Lumivyory

On the other hand the First doesn't have Sylphs, Namazu, Ananta, Kojin, Vath, Vanu Vanu and even Moogles. Some of these I'm guessing existed before the Flood but there is no way to know which ones. Maybe they even had other beast tribes that don't exist in on the Source but those were also wiped by the Flood.

So Pixies are probably their own thing that only appeared on the First due to whatever made them come to be, same with Nu Mou and Amaro.

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Someone hasn't done the Qitari story line~ I hate to throw Spoilers out there, but it is explained that at some point before the Flood, the Qitari encountered the Namazu counterparts of the first who tried to move into the Greatwood. How that interaction played out is lost to history... and for you to figure out with the Qitari. Anything that wasn't created by the Allagans may well have a counterpart. The Vath and the Vanu Vanu were probably lost in the Flood.

Heck, if fairies and pixies being related opens the way for a Feo Ul/Tyr Beq fairy glamour, I'm all for that idea.

Given that the Fae of the first can go between worlds trivially, they could pick to be anywhere, but choose the first. Maybe they actually thrive on the high light aether concentration?

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Originally Posted by Lumivyory

On the other hand the First doesn't have Sylphs, Namazu, Ananta, Kojin, Vath, Vanu Vanu and even Moogles. Some of these I'm guessing existed before the Flood but there is no way to know which ones.

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The first probably had most of the same tribes as the source. Barring the Allagan created ones (ixal, ananta, possibly sylph and gnath) and the dragons (who first came to Hydaelyn post-sundering) all the others probably existed on the first at but were lost in the flood.

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Originally Posted by Lumivyory

Maybe they even had other beast tribes that don't exist in on the Source but those were also wiped by the Flood. So Pixies are probably their own thing that only appeared on the First due to whatever made them come to be, same with Nu Mou and Amaro.

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We only see what we see and we don't know what we don't know. Maybe the fae do exist on the Source and we just haven't seen them. Maybe they existed in the past but were wiped out in one of the calamities (the Vanu got their image of Bismarck from somewhere, after all.) We just don't know.

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Originally Posted by ICountFrom0

Given that the Fae of the first can go between worlds trivially, they could pick to be anywhere, but choose the first. Maybe they actually thrive on the high light aether concentration?

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They don't physically manifest anywhere other than the First. Feo Ul does what she does through Dreams. Your pact allows her and her alone to bridge the gap and experience the Source through the Dreams of people close to you.

Attendant to their lore as manifesting from the souls of dead children (Along with the Fuarth being souls of the drowned), it could be the pull of the Lifestream on the First is significantly less strong than on the Source.

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They don't physically manifest anywhere other than the First. Feo Ul does what she does through Dreams. Your pact allows her and her alone to bridge the gap and experience the Source through the Dreams of people close to you.

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Tataru says that Feo Ul appeared to tell her about you while she was in the middle of working.

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Originally Posted by Lumivyory

While there are some beast tribes that exist only on the First, there are also tribes that exist only on the Source.

Other than the Pixies, the Source also doesn't have Nu Mou, nor do they have Amaro (which technically are their own tribe with those that regained intelligence).
On the other hand the First doesn't have Sylphs, Namazu, Ananta, Kojin, Vath, Vanu Vanu and even Moogles. Some of these I'm guessing existed before the Flood but there is no way to know which ones. Maybe they even had other beast tribes that don't exist in on the Source but those were also wiped by the Flood.

So Pixies are probably their own thing that only appeared on the First due to whatever made them come to be, same with Nu Mou and Amaro.

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Amaro are made by the Ronka mages, before they basically were just animals. No mou could be still out thereor just died out, we cant tell yet...

Sylphs might be the same then pixies, we know they dont give birth like we others do, so it might very well possible they are just the same as pixies, just evolved different due our calamitys and less light aether.

As said by others there are Moogle and those who did the Qitari beast tribe learned they encountered namazu - dont forget their native region just as the Ananta was amont the places destroyed by the light...

The Ananta are a native tribe of the saurce as well, its mentioned they were the base of the allagan Lamia...
Though we do know the Ixal are artificial made... as well might be Vanu and gnah, but they might have just evolved randomly as well.

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Originally Posted by ICountFrom0

Given that the Fae of the first can go between worlds trivially, they could pick to be anywhere, but choose the first. Maybe they actually thrive on the high light aether concentration?

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They can only after making a contract with us, someone whos aether they can trail there. As she explained they basically become a extension of us, thus allowing that. Normal creatures cant do that as we cant just take others between the worlds (at least not wit massive magics and tech).

Hmmmm. We didn't know about the Ananta, nor the Namazu, until Stormblood.

It's almost like there were undiscovered beast tribes that we suddenly found out about. I wonder if that might mean we don't have any idea what the rest of the world holds for us.

We know that there is at least one entire continent on the Source that hasn't been referenced by anything other than what our Blue Mage trainer has told us. Perhaps the pixies are from there. They certainly weren't in Voeburt until after the Flood.

Again, an event that occurred 10,000 years in the past, creating disparate non-synchronous realms, does not mean there absolutely has to be one-to-one correspondences.

As an aside, the level 55 gatherer quest for Fishing has this line:

Reyna: <sigh> Looks like Stenny's away with the faeries again ... [Sten appears to be standing while sleeping]

Who says that just because we haven't seen them, they don't exist?

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Originally Posted by Rannie

The first had namazu like creatures in ronka or came to ronka via the Qatari or rat race before the flood. You learn that in their beast tribe quests

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

Moogles do exist on the First as well - they have blue poms and are seen even running a version of the Moogle Delivery Service (presumedly G'raha established it there based on the Source's one, but it still leads to questions as to how that can connect with the Moogle Delivery Service on the Source - presumedly it's similar to how retainer services are handled by Feo Ul, but that's a long shot).

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Ah, totally forgot about these lol

And I suppose we could still encounter Source's versions of Pixies or Nu Mou when we venture into the new expansion, or it could be completely new beast tribes. For now we can only assume that they either don't exist or aren't in any area we have explored.
To be honest I'd like them to stay exclusive to the First, it's nice to have some differences.

It's been my theory that the severe tilt toward Umbral/Light on the First had some connection to why Fae appear (not just Pixies, but Fuath, as well). Any kind of magical technobabble could be employed to serve as a link; perhaps the tendency of light-rich aether to "still" causes freed souls to sometimes crystalize into a living form, like ice around a dust particle making snow. (This theory also supports the similarities between ice aether and Umbrally-charged aether noted when they were talking about restoring the ice element to the Empty during the Eden raids.)

I also like the theory mentioned earlier in this thread that the extra density all aether on the Source has (due to many Rejoinings) makes it unlikely or impossible for a soul to reform as a Pixie, instead forming things like Ghosts (I don't think we've seen any Ghost mobs on the First, interestingly).

Those are the main notable differences between the Source and the First, structurally, so I think they're reasonable theories!

EDIT: Oops, I didn't see the new page, so my original post (that there are Moogles on the First) is redundant.

I admit to some curiosity that the Viera on the Source are mostly in Othard, while the Viis of the First are in Norvrandt, half the world away. Given they have lengthy lives and are also deeply insular (and thus not likely to migrate), I have to wonder if this is actually a decision made out-of-universe to allow for the newly-designed race to appear in the expansion, rather than actual lore.

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Originally Posted by YianKutku

I have to wonder if this is actually a decision made out-of-universe to allow for the newly-designed race to appear in the expansion, rather than actual lore.

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It's almost certainly primarily a gameplay decision, but there are any number of legitimate lore reasons a move could have happened if they ever need to explain it. For all we know the Viera are native to Eorzea but moved out in the wake of one of the calamities.

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Originally Posted by YianKutku

EDIT: Oops, I didn't see the new page, so my original post (that there are Moogles on the First) is redundant.

I admit to some curiosity that the Viera on the Source are mostly in Othard, while the Viis of the First are in Norvrandt, half the world away. Given they have lengthy lives and are also deeply insular (and thus not likely to migrate), I have to wonder if this is actually a decision made out-of-universe to allow for the newly-designed race to appear in the expansion, rather than actual lore.

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Obviously, the meta reason is that they want exposition to the new races in the new content, but I suppose the non-meta difference would come down to the Ronkan empire whose knowledge they safeguard. Either it doesn't exists in the source, or all of its ruins have been long lost to one of the many calamities.

Also remember 12,000 years ago the Flood of Darkness tipped the balance of the remaining shards out of balance, and the first was tipped closest to light from the onset several millenia even before the flood. The elemental polarity being naturally shifted more towards light might have been an environmental factor that led to Pixies coming into existence.

It's also possible that Pixies did exist on the Source, but maybe were entirely wiped out in any of the 7 calamities that hit the world, whereas the First never had a calamity besides the Flood of Light.

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Originally Posted by Jonnycbad

Also remember 12,000 years ago the Flood of Darkness tipped the balance of the remaining shards out of balance, and the first was tipped closest to light from the onset several millenia even before the flood.

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12,000 years ago was the Sundering, by the Source's reckoning. The Thirteenth was flooded sometime after that, but time doesn't flow evenly across the shards so we can't be certain of that timeframe anywhere else - unless of course the various fluctuations of time roughly even out over millennia, which they well might.

In any case, several thousand years is plenty of time for tribes and races to spread differently on different shards with different histories.

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Originally Posted by LineageRazor

I also like the theory mentioned earlier in this thread that the extra density all aether on the Source has (due to many Rejoinings) makes it unlikely or impossible for a soul to reform as a Pixie, instead forming things like Ghosts (I don't think we've seen any Ghost mobs on the First, interestingly).

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I believe there is a quest in Kholusia that

has you defeat the ghost of a mother and her unborn child.

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Originally Posted by Jonnycbad

It's also possible that Pixies did exist on the Source, but maybe were entirely wiped out in any of the 7 calamities that hit the world, whereas the First never had a calamity besides the Flood of Light.

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This is my view. Especially considering that Bismarck, the fae, existed on both the First and the Source, although he appears to have died long ago on the Source.

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Originally Posted by Zohar_Lahar

Where have all the fae gone? Did they evolve into elementals? Spriggans? Harvested to make SCH soul crystals?

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One Word: Beavers.

And Yes THOSE are on the source.

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Originally Posted by Raiya

One Word: Beavers.

And Yes THOSE are on the source.

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Indeed - a beaver appears inexplicably in an Old Sharlayan quest and, the Sharlayan researcher studying it is perplexed about it (it's given no explanation as to where it came from).

And it appears the mystery is further deepened when it's shown that the Ancients, once again, had something to do with it, as a pixie appears during a certain sidequest later on in Elpis, with the bewildered Ancient researcher assigned to it having no idea who created it or where it came from, suggesting a lack of accompanyning paperwork of it's concept.

And it even turns into a beaver too, that the WoL immediately realizes, and the even more incredulous researcher basically throws in the towel and says in defeat "Now let us never speak of this again," so it's clear the Ancients just... swept it under the rug, leaving the mystery ultimately unsolved.

So, once again... "something something Ancients" are the cause.

i think it does say where it came from though its a bit vague. i cant rem when but on the first visit to the labyrinth when you got to the first aetheryte following the story theres a part where you can find soem students standing next to a box. if you talk to them they say they found an "odd creature" and brought it in to be studied. i think thats the beaver.

So, of all things, this got addressed out of nowhere! Or at least, a very closely related answer. Thanks, Anden.

Turns out that back when Voeburt was Voeburt, the fae hid with glamors and were only spoken of in fairytales. Chances are high the same is true of the Source's fae!

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Originally Posted by Cleretic

So, of all things, this got addressed out of nowhere! Or at least, a very closely related answer. Thanks, Anden.

Turns out that back when Voeburt was Voeburt, the fae hid with glamors and were only spoken of in fairytales. Chances are high the same is true of the Source's fae!

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I wonder if that's why the Slyphs enjoyed making people dance and enjoy going around using glamors. Think they have the same language on the source?

I have to wonder whether the moogles are actually a type of fae folk as well.

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

Indeed - a beaver appears inexplicably in an Old Sharlayan quest and, the Sharlayan researcher studying it is perplexed about it (it's given no explanation as to where it came from).

And it appears the mystery is further deepened when it's shown that the Ancients, once again, had something to do with it, as a pixie appears during a certain sidequest later on in Elpis, with the bewildered Ancient researcher assigned to it having no idea who created it or where it came from, suggesting a lack of accompanyning paperwork of it's concept.

And it even turns into a beaver too, that the WoL immediately realizes, and the even more incredulous researcher basically throws in the towel and says in defeat "Now let us never speak of this again," so it's clear the Ancients just... swept it under the rug, leaving the mystery ultimately unsolved.

So, once again... "something something Ancients" are the cause.

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It kinda works here since the whole thing is off the wall but... Im getting tired of "because ancients" lol.

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

And it appears the mystery is further deepened when it's shown that the Ancients, once again, had something to do with it, as a pixie appears during a certain sidequest later on in Elpis, with the bewildered Ancient researcher assigned to it having no idea who created it or where it came from, suggesting a lack of accompanyning paperwork of it's concept.

And it even turns into a beaver too, that the WoL immediately realizes, and the even more incredulous researcher basically throws in the towel and says in defeat "Now let us never speak of this again," so it's clear the Ancients just... swept it under the rug, leaving the mystery ultimately unsolved.

So, once again... "something something Ancients" are the cause.

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That's not how it goes, unless there was an actual appearance by a pixie that I completely forgot about, but I believe you are getting muddled with The Abyss Stares Back where we learn that the researchers just found the shoebill with no idea where it came from.

The pixies are referenced in Unexplained Mysteries – researcher sends you to find his "nymphai" which he refers to as familiars and there is no hint of a mystery behind their origin. You can only find beavers in the indicated search area, and the researcher seems like he might know why they transformed, but he doesn't explain himself and just tells you never to speak of it.

On a side note, I don't understand why we act quite so traumatised by the beavers. The pixies are terrified of them but we've surely recognised what's happening, and they've never caused us any harm.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

On a side note, I don't understand why we act quite so traumatised by the beavers. The pixies are terrified of them but we've surely recognised what's happening, and they've never caused us any harm.

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I mean, I can give you two answers there, on different sides of the fourth wall.

1. Because it's funny. The WoL has faced down murderous armies, demons, abominable parodies of gods, biblically-accurate angels, unkillable ghost wizards trying to destroy everything they hold dear, and the embodiment of depression and entropy, and yet the thing that gets them to react with revulsion and fear is beavers. (Well, and Rowena, which works on the same principle.)

2. In-universe, because it's unknowable. Yeah, we know that HAPPENS, but we don't know how, we don't know why, it seems harmless to us but we can't honestly be sure. It's something I generally call 'Doctor Who Horror', because it's something Doctor Who does extremely well; it's absolutely family-friendly and nothing clearly and recognizably horrifying is happening, but there's this intensely wrong feeling about it, a much more abstract fear. Sure, it's played as comedy for us (which Doctor Who tends not to do with this stuff), but it's genuinely just unsettlingly unknown to them.

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Originally Posted by SannaR

I wonder if that's why the Slyphs enjoyed making people dance and enjoy going around using glamors. Think they have the same language on the source?

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Originally Posted by Iscah

I have to wonder whether the moogles are actually a type of fae folk as well.

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Honestly I've been thinking about this ever since Shadowbringers.

In ARR, it's pretty clear that the game writers were going for "the fae folk" when it comes to first the Sylphs, then the Moogles: playful and cheerful on the surface, but with no sense of the frailty of mortals, or when a game stops becoming fun. A lot of the comments from NPCs warning us about Sylphs and Moogles are along those lines, implying that the Sylphs might have killed people before simply due to "playing around" and "mischief". (I can't recall the exact words, but if not "killed", then certainly "hurt badly".)

However, when we actually meet the Sylphs and the Moogles, they're relatively chill (tempered brethren aside) and quite understanding, and in fact we mortals are the ones who are more threatening to them.

So the Pixies of the First feel like the writers finally getting to show the "fae folk" archetype properly. Which does mean it might be possible that the Sylphs might have learned their alleged mischief-making from ancient proto-Pixies, but had it smoothed over by longstanding interactions with humans.

(I don't know what the deal with Moogles are. They exist on the Source and the First, so they probably have an origin in the Unsundered World.)