What are "The Elementals" of the Black Shroud?

People fall for the Long FFXIV con about the Black shroud being just forest boring instead of wising up that it's your casual, unapologetic, neighborhood eldritch location.

Location ruled by one of the remaining biggest mysteries in the series.

We have glimpses here and there about the Elementals. They communicate through emotions (Dynamis?!). Those bonded/chosen with them become the Voidsent's preferred snacks and are physically changed from their compeers. Those who anger them get perma cursed and perma dead. They can protect the entire forest but Lmao shame to the Haukke's. FFXIV most obvious example of Blue and Orange Morality.

What are they? What is their goal? What is their relation with the Black Shroud? Why hate the Ixal but accept the Moogles and be BFFs with the Sylps? Hate when voidsents are in their territory but lmao we can consume the surroundings of Amdapor who have Diabolos sealed inside as other locations that were void infested after the war of Magi.

They existed way before the sixth umbral calamity. They were respected enough that Amdapor didn't encroach on the forest after they were denied permission to settle there. They have their own world ending measures (that only got out of control due to Calamity).

Why no west shroud yet? What are they hiding?!

Nature is really terrifying, and waving the elementals as just silly tree people things may bite us in the ass. 1.0's elementals were lvl 90, we can engage them now.

Conspiracy theories Welcome.

just a dropped plot point from 1.0 really. Bahamut's release from Dalamud and the ensuing destruction severely lowered the elementals capability or even will to assert themselves in the Shroud. Lore book may have more on the subject, don't know tho for sure. The great tree still has influence though.

In ye olde 1.0 lore, Elementals are EVERYWHERE and in EVERYTHING, not just trees in the Shroud. It just happens that the gigantic forest being the gigantic forest has the most living things in a concentrated area and that's where they decided to mostly congregate and where they congregate, their power goes up.

They actually used to be buddies with the Ixal. The Ixal lived in the forest at peace with the Elementals while the Hyur and Elezen were hiding underground. Then the Ixal pissed the Elementals off by clearing land without asking permission and so they booted them off into the mountains where they lost their feathers and ability to fly. Then the underground people asked the Elementals if they could live in the forest and protect it and be cool and after 50 years of cooling off, the Elementals said "sure, why not".

But after the recent Calamity, West Shroud is destroyed completely (that's why we can't go there, there's nothing to see and it all looks like the rocky, treeless parts of North Shroud), the Elementals are weakened and no longer have the power they had in 1.0. The Hedge, which was a magical barrier that prevented anyone from getting in, is severely weakened and the Elementals can't go around marking people with Woodsin and attacking them with Greenwrath like they used to. That's why in ARR there's a conjurer customs agent talking to the Ala Mhigan refugees and the Elementals are telling him which Ala Mhigans they like and which they don't because otherwise they can't do anything about it anymore and are working through the Hearers.

I don't remember them having anything at all to do with the Void or Voidsent though.

The elementals have a lost of history with the voidsent and not necessarily because of the War of Magi.

It is most noted in the CNJ and WHM stories. The CNJ story is around a voidsent that is corrupting the forest, The Elementals are sending uninterrupted voicemails to Sylphie (a hearer) about it, and you have to destroy it. The HW WHM is about Alaqa doing necromancy and the forest going ballistic because the corruption could reach them. SB story is about how a unsupervised Padjal child is a potential voidsent snack, and how if they aren't taught how to control their emotions/powers they can make a rift into the void (and have a voidsent eat them up).

What I mean is that it seemed from your post that there was something mysterious about the Elementals having some sort of double-standard with Void and potentially being in cahoots with them. I was confused by this line in your OP:

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Originally Posted by Rangiswimming

Hate when voidsents are in their territory but lmao we can consume the surroundings of Amdapor who have Diabolos sealed inside as other locations that were void infested after the war of Magi.

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Elementals obviously hate all corruption since it destroys their home and they are also beings of pure aether, and Voidsent survive off of eating aether. I was under the impression that the new Padjali NPC in the WHM quests is a target of the Voidsent because she has a LOT of aether but can't defend herself or control the release of aether like other Padjal can. It's her pure, uncontrolled power that opens up rifts, not something specifically built into them by the Elementals.

The EW tank role quest talks about the forest moogles and the pact they have with the elementals.

You can see a similar model of the elementals in Elpis. At least with what we've been shown the rare times we see them in the cnj quest line.

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Originally Posted by MikkoAkure

But after the recent Calamity, West Shroud is destroyed completely (that's why we can't go there, there's nothing to see and it all looks like the rocky, treeless parts of North Shroud)

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I doubt the West Shroud is actually destroyed completely. Especially considering Lichenweed (Feast PvP map, added in patch 3.21) looks fairly normal.

https://i.imgur.com/7EABaJr.png

Not to mention the West Shroud, and the Crystal Shrine (both inaccessible since 2.0) being very odd picks for the posters on the wall of the Baldesion Annex.
They could definitely use the zone to pick up on the story of the Elementals, especially now that we're at the beginning of a new arc. Although chances are it'll simply be reduced to an expert dungeon.

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Originally Posted by SannaR

You can see a similar model of the elementals in Elpis. At least with what we've been shown the rare times we see them in the cnj quest line.

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It's not just a 'similar' model, they are literally elementals, with a sidequest in Elpis actually finally revealing what they really are and why they're so difficult to communicate with:

the elementals were actually familiars created by the Ancients to regulate aether in the environment, but, for some reason that wasn't adequetly explained there, they were designed not to communicate normally but to communicate via information carried on the aether, which made them obtuse even to their creators (presumedly this was done to allow them to communicate across vast distances).

The quest specifically dealt with one of those elementals being given a task that due to encountering a situation it was not 'programmed' for, it ended up stuck in a feedback loop that the player had to try and resolve (bascially, it was sent to fetch someone but the person it was meant to speak to was asleep, and it wasn't programmed to deal with that - simply poking the person in emote woke them and the elemental was able to continue in it's task). Because of this, it's entirelly probable that the Final Days and the Sundering... "broke" them and made them take their directive of "protect the environment and regulate it's aether" far too zealously.

The Elpis sidequest in question is called "Woken By the Familiar" incidentally for those wanting more information.

Something worth noting, Elementals are also in Eureka. Same model, also called 'Elementals'. Apparently rather more helpful over there, though. Maybe because there's not much we can do to Eureka that's worse than what's already happened. So it seems like they naturally just sorta happen in areas that are aetherically wild as hell. Which isn't too far from what we learn in Elpis.

I don't think they have any greater goals, I think they're just weird super-powerful magical children. They don't do long-term planning, they just do 'this feels bad, let's cry about it and make a mess'.

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

It's not just a 'similar' model, they are literally elementals, with a sidequest in Elpis actually finally revealing what they really are and why they're so difficult to communicate with:

the elementals were actually familiars created by the Ancients to regulate aether in the environment, but, for some reason that wasn't adequetly explained there, they were designed not to communicate normally but to communicate via information carried on the aether, which made them obtuse even to their creators (presumedly this was done to allow them to communicate across vast distances).

The quest specifically dealt with one of those elementals being given a task that due to encountering a situation it was not 'programmed' for, it ended up stuck in a feedback loop that the player had to try and resolve (bascially, it was sent to fetch someone but the person it was meant to speak to was asleep, and it wasn't programmed to deal with that - simply poking the person in emote woke them and the elemental was able to continue in it's task). Because of this, it's entirelly probable that the Final Days and the Sundering... "broke" them and made them take their directive of "protect the environment and regulate it's aether" far too zealously.

The Elpis sidequest in question is called "Woken By the Familiar" incidentally for those wanting more information.

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Oh yeah. I had done that quest but had forgotten that it delt with an elemental. I just remembered those three that are near Poieten Oikos if I'm remembering correctly.

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

It's not just a 'similar' model, they are literally elementals, with a sidequest in Elpis actually finally revealing what they really are and why they're so difficult to communicate with

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It's kind of a bummer when mystical, magical things like the Elementals as well as basically every monster and even at least one beastman race can be traced back to "a bored Ancient did it".

In addition to seeing them in Eureka, they fit pretty perfectly with the Viera's Voice of the Wood.

There's some indication that there's more to the Elementals than just the sprites we see. In the Dark Knight quests for example, it's hinted that there's some kind of familiarity between the Elementals of the Twelveswood and Dragonkind. Probably the most out there theory on this front I've heard is that the Gridanian Elementals which inhabit the wood are actually the spirits of dead dragons, which don't naturally reincarnate through the Lifestream due to their nature as being alien to the star. This could also go a ways towards explaining the nature of the Padjal, and those horns of theirs.

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Originally Posted by MikkoAkure

It's kind of a bummer when mystical, magical things like the Elementals as well as basically every monster and even at least one beastman race can be traced back to "a bored Ancient did it".

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as much as i love ew and elpis in general that section basically shrank the world for me. its also why im (not really) obsessively hoping the twelve are who they say they are. (also why im hoping its not a "we don't need gods" story.)

edit:....feels like ive said this before lol.

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Originally Posted by MikkoAkure

It's kind of a bummer when mystical, magical things like the Elementals as well as basically every monster and even at least one beastman race can be traced back to "a bored Ancient did it".

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To be fair, we knew some of the beastmen were "artificial" as far back as Heavensward.

In general I agree though. I'm really tired of everything boiling down to "because Ascians/Allagans."

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Originally Posted by Brightamethyst

To be fair, we knew some of the beastmen were "artificial" as far back as Heavensward.

In general I agree though. I'm really tired of everything boiling down to "because Ascians/Allagans."

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The fun part of that is that as of Emet-Selch's first appearance in the 4.x patches, 'because Allagans' also counts as 'because Ascians'. As does 'because Garleans'! This has gone entirely too far, let's foster some home-grown villainy!

This is exactly why we need more of the Syndicate. THOSE guys aren't puppeted by ghost wizards, they're just motivated by money!

Bringing Dark Knight quests also reminds me of a working theory of mine:

Back in ARR the padjal in Quarrymill tells you that the Elementals refused to give aid to one ailing Ala-Mhigan. In the DRK Stormblood quests you learn that the Ala Mhigan you procured the medicine to, gave it to somebody else that ended up as Ilberd's high ranking paw.

Could this be the reason why they refused to aid them? Because doing this would ultimately bring war to the twelveswood?

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Originally Posted by Rangiswimming

Bringing Dark Knight quests also reminds me of a working theory of mine:

Back in ARR the padjal in Quarrymill tells you that the Elementals refused to give aid to one ailing Ala-Mhigan. In the DRK Stormblood quests you learn that the Ala Mhigan you procured the medicine to, gave it to somebody else that ended up as Ilberd's high ranking paw.

Could this be the reason why they refused to aid them? Because doing this would ultimately bring war to the twelveswood?

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I don't think we can assume Elementals to be capable of declaring someone guilty of precrime. Mostly because then the tank role quest wouldn't make sense; if they can see that about someone beforehand, why would they have selected that kid as a Padjali when he'd only go on to disappoint and hurt them?

More likely, it goes in the opposite direction, fueled by the Elementals' prejudices; they refuse aid to an Ala Mhigan because they still hold a grudge over the Autumn War, thereby radicalizing the Ala Mhigans that need the help they refused to give. Basically Ilberd's story, only the institution is magical instead of just capitalist.

I hate performing thread necromancy, and double-posting on top of it, but this thread is literally the very first Google result when I try to look for corroborating evidence (and none of the others are very useful) and I really need some verification on this one.

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

It's not just a 'similar' model, they are literally elementals, with a sidequest in Elpis actually finally revealing what they really are and why they're so difficult to communicate with:

the elementals were actually familiars created by the Ancients to regulate aether in the environment, but, for some reason that wasn't adequetly explained there, they were designed not to communicate normally but to communicate via information carried on the aether, which made them obtuse even to their creators (presumedly this was done to allow them to communicate across vast distances).

The quest specifically dealt with one of those elementals being given a task that due to encountering a situation it was not 'programmed' for, it ended up stuck in a feedback loop that the player had to try and resolve (bascially, it was sent to fetch someone but the person it was meant to speak to was asleep, and it wasn't programmed to deal with that - simply poking the person in emote woke them and the elemental was able to continue in it's task). Because of this, it's entirelly probable that the Final Days and the Sundering... "broke" them and made them take their directive of "protect the environment and regulate it's aether" far too zealously.

The Elpis sidequest in question is called "Woken By the Familiar" incidentally for those wanting more information.

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So... can anyone actually find a quest or NPC that says the Elementals were designed as aetheric regulators by the Ancients? Because Woken by the Familiar doesn't. (And I checked another NPC that's hanging around other Elemental models, he doesn't either.)

I wouldn't be asking this if it didn't sound legit, that seems like exactly something that might've been said somewhere, otherwise I'd just dismiss this out of hand. But if this is actually true I'd REALLY like some evidence, because that factors in pretty heavily to a video I'm working on.

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Originally Posted by Cleretic

I wouldn't be asking this if it didn't sound legit, that seems like exactly something that might've been said somewhere, otherwise I'd just dismiss this out of hand. But if this is actually true I'd REALLY like some evidence, because that factors in pretty heavily to a video I'm working on.

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I THINK I know what you're talking about.

When Hermes is giving us a tour of Elpis, he introduces us to the pneuma, which take the form of the lightning sprites seen throughout the setting. According to Hermes, they help maintain the controlled climate of Elpis and keep it aloft, not unlike the crystals in the Sea of Clouds and in Aglaia.

But these pneuma use the sprite models, which many people confuse for the elementals. As stated in Eorzea Encyclopedia #1, they're wholly separate and non-sentient and are NOT kin to the elementals.

Woken by the Familiar does use the elemental model and Pophyrion describes them as messengers capable of communicating through beaming information-laden aether into the thoguhts of otherss, not unlike how the elementals commune with the Seedseers via emotions and feelings. This means that at some point between the events of Elpis and the present, the elemental-prototype evolved into becoming the force of nature it is today.

Yeah I think this is a case of Elementals vs elementals. In the same way as Scholar the job and a person who is called a scholar.