1.23b/c Speculation

What if we haven't seen the absolute last of Nael Van Darnus? I understand a Hard Mode of To Kill a Raven is coming, but that's not exactly what I mean.

1.23 doesn't feel like "The End". Rather, because Yoshida said that "1.23 would mark the beginning of the events of the 7th Umbral Era", combined with the fact that Cid speaks of a plan Louisoux had come up with.

I know many of us were expecting Darnus to turn into Ultima/Omega, and while that may not have happened here, perhaps we could be looking at an ascended Darnus as a final boss for 1.23c?

It's not my intention to beat a dead horse, but I have this ominous feeling we haven't seen the end of Dalamud or Darnus as Cid claims.

Agreed. Even in the 2.0 trailer, you see Louisoux in the trailer trying to do something. Something is gonna happen to make Dalamund fall and destroy the world.

Pretty obvious actually~ Maybe I forgot but we just killed the white horned dude? where is the black armor dude?

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Originally Posted by Fyres

Agreed. Even in the 2.0 trailer, you see Louisoux in the trailer trying to do something. Something is gonna happen to make Dalamund fall and destroy the world.

Pretty obvious actually~ Maybe I forgot but we just killed the white horned dude? where is the black armor dude?

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I think Gaius Van Baelsar is meant to be the primary antagonist representing the Empire in 2.0 once we get around to continuing the main storyline.

We have to remember that Nael Van Darnus was made specifically for the 7th Umbral storyline, and that in the end, he or the master he claims to serve are most likely the final bosses.

I'm expecting something in 1.23b/c....I just don't know what.

'white horned' = Nael van Darnus, the White Raven
'black horned' = Gaius van Baelsar, the Black Wolf

With that cleared-
Gaius is actually 100% against Meteor, he is very sure that Meteor itself is an error that will threaten the Garlean Empire as well and goes as far as straight out telling you to go kill Nael because that would be better for him and the Empire.

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Originally Posted by Fyres

Pretty obvious actually~ Maybe I forgot but we just killed the white horned dude? where is the black armor dude?

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He's in the 2.0 trailer, so he'll probably be our next big villain.

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Originally Posted by Keres

He's in the 2.0 trailer, so he'll probably be our next big villain.

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He's also still listed on the 2.0 website.

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Originally Posted by Rau

He's also still listed on the 2.0 website.

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I mean, so is Nael so clearly he lives through whatever's changing the world from 1.23->2.0 right?

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Originally Posted by Alerith

What if we haven't seen the absolute last of Nael Van Darnus? I understand a Hard Mode of To Kill a Raven is coming, but that's not exactly what I mean.

1.23 doesn't feel like "The End". Rather, because Yoshida said that "1.23 would mark the beginning of the events of the 7th Umbral Era", combined with the fact that Cid speaks of a plan Louisoux had come up with.

I know many of us were expecting Darnus to turn into Ultima/Omega, and while that may not have happened here, perhaps we could be looking at an ascended Darnus as a final boss for 1.23c?

It's not my intention to beat a dead horse, but I have this ominous feeling we haven't seen the end of Dalamud or Darnus as Cid claims.

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That earring white raven pretty much says that we will have a hard mode.

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Originally Posted by Rocl

I mean, so is Nael so clearly he lives through whatever's changing the world from 1.23->2.0 right?

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Well, the site still shows screenshots of 1.0 areas and doesn't list/show the missing genders either. With the apparent mix of 1.0 and 2.0 information, he could indeed be dead. That is not to say he absolutely is though, just that it is unclear.

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Originally Posted by Noir

That earring white raven pretty much says that we will have a hard mode.

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You kinda missed the point.

I'm talking about Nael Van Darnus being involved beyond the "To Kill a Raven" fights, regular or hard. I'm speculating that we'll see him again before this 7th Umbral Event comes to it's conclusion, and I mean we'll see him in a storyline capacity, not just a Hard mode fight.

For the hard fight , its probably unrelated to the plot. Just a harder fight for fun.

I think that he got absorbed into Dalamud which causes Dalamud to crash down anyway, but none of the NPCs know that yet. (Or Dalamud was going to crash regardless . Think FF7 Aerith)


Later, Louisoux sees this then you get the 2.0 trailer.

When should 1.23a come out?

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Originally Posted by Noir

That earring white raven pretty much says that we will have a hard mode.

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Who knows maybe they are giving the items out at the end of the game as a sort of "Promethia ring" reward. Nothing is set in stone.

This whole situation just reminds me a lot of ff6 before Kefka ruins the world. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Nael Van Darnus survives in a more sinister form.

But then I haven't even made it to the last fight yet so I haven't seen the final cut-scenes. So my input is purely speculation.

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Originally Posted by Alerith

I think Gaius Van Baelsar is meant to be the primary antagonist representing the Empire in 2.0 once we get around to continuing the main storyline.

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Not only that, but if you notice, Van Darnus is Legatus of the VIIth legion, with his fight and storyline sharing some simalarities to FF7.

Van Baelsar himself is Legatus of the XIVth legion, which would imply that along the storyline we'll run into at least another 12 Legatus, possibly each with it's own distinct tie to the FF series. Maybe whoever the IIIrd Legatus is has to do with the Crystal Tower?

After all Yoshida did say he wants this game to have many throwbacks to the series.

you are all over thinking this....
there is a giant meteor being pulled towards a planet....

have your friend drop a ball off the roof of a condo, and then shoot him dead.... is the ball going to stop?

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Originally Posted by Azurymber

you are all over thinking this....
there is a giant meteor being pulled towards a planet....

have your friend drop a ball off the roof of a condo, and then shoot him dead.... is the ball going to stop?

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Welcome to Final Fantasy, where Aether, Primals, Magitek and about a hundred million other things exist that say "Fuck Gravity".

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Originally Posted by Alerith

Welcome to Final Fantasy, where Aether, Primals, Magitek and about a hundred million other things exist that say "Fuck Gravity".

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you must not have taken university physics...
When you throw a ball forwards, what is the force that prevents it from randomly stopping mid air and falling to earth (obviously not gravity)

There is a line from Cid right after the Darnus fight where he says that thankfully Louisoux will not need to use his last resort plan. I'm guessing this last resort is the image in the trailer. So in jRPG tradition, the seemingly 'end' is not as there will be a twist in 1.23a ... it seems this twist will bring about the radical changes, else, why would Goobbue go away?

My guess is right about August 15th to coincide with the end of the event and Gamescon.

Louisoux betrays us.

People keep calling "To Kill a Raven" the final fight, but I think they are all wrong. If you take into account the line from Cid about Louisoix and the 2.0 trailer, it is glaringly obvious that something bigger than defeating Darnus is going to happen before 2.0 lands.

"Yet the bravest among us were spared, sent beyond the reach of time" is a very revealing line from the trailer that makes me think that we are going to succeed in preventing Eorzea from being completely destroyed but fail in preventing a major catastrophe (thus the world being reshaped). Our character is going to some how be spared by some kind of aetheryte magic that freezes us in time, a sort of stasis if you will, and we emerge a few years later in the reborn world.

As for Darnus, many people have speculated that he will become Odin. That seems even more likely after To Kill a Raven because his essence was absorbed into Dalamud. We know Odin is coming and the resemblance is striking, I'd wager that he turns into him and is released during the upcoming apocalypse.

Baelsar is definitely going to take advantage of the situation, possibly even make an attempt at the throne considering how ill Solus zos Galvus is said to be, but I'm not sure if he is pro-unification of all the nations or if he wants to end the attack on Eorzea.

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Originally Posted by Jynx

Who knows maybe they are giving the items out at the end of the game as a sort of "Promethia ring" reward. Nothing is set in stone.

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I wonder... our usual fights come with 7 weapons as rewards, but for this one we only get 1 earring.

It would be weird to have his battle be just about the earring, but it would be even weirder to have 7 white raven weapons.

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Originally Posted by Arkine

I wonder... our usual fights come with 7 weapons as rewards, but for this one we only get 1 earring.

It would be weird to have his battle be just about the earring, but it would be even weirder to have 7 white raven weapons.

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The earring has stats on it for just about everyone. It isn't out of the question for it to be a single drop, perhaps a chest that awards it to everyone in the party upon victory.

I speculate that you're all wrong.

and the funny thing is I'm most likely right. lmao

Or you know, 7th Legion/FF7, 14th Legion/FF14

In the lettered patches i think we are going to see some of the first world changes like this,

http://www.creativeuncut.com/gallery...-concept02.jpg

and this,

http://www.creativeuncut.com/gallery...-aetheryte.jpg


..and maybe we'll have a final cutscene before the end of this world. Curious to see the Twelve content as well.. they are going to protect Eorzea in some forms?

World of ruin here we come.

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Originally Posted by Alerith

You kinda missed the point.

I'm talking about Nael Van Darnus being involved beyond the "To Kill a Raven" fights, regular or hard. I'm speculating that we'll see him again before this 7th Umbral Event comes to it's conclusion, and I mean we'll see him in a storyline capacity, not just a Hard mode fight.

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yep its that cut scene where the players finds his Gun halberd stuck in a tree in grid and has to return it to him.....in a very personal way :).

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Originally Posted by Jinrya-Geki

World of ruin here we come.

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With a music theme appropriate,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1mkBwMmcaY

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Originally Posted by Alerith

The earring has stats on it for just about everyone. It isn't out of the question for it to be a single drop, perhaps a chest that awards it to everyone in the party upon victory.

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The reason primal battles lasted so long is because most people are after the full set, if we're going to fight the guy just for 1 item then the window to complete the battle and actually obtain the earring would be very small.

I'm guessing they'll make it a shared chest.

Though, I would rather it just be a reward for completing the 7th era quests.

..I actually like the idea of Darnus becoming Odin, in some form or another. The one guy who is hell-bent on destroying Primals, becoming one, or having his essence transferred into what was once Odin, sealed up inside Dalamud.

His own words said, though not quote for quote, that what good is a world bereft of the crystal's light, when talking about how the empire is bent on destroying all primals and the rest of eozrea in general.

Which, may just be a typo of some sort, or another meaning in it.. if Darnus is so focused on destroying the Primals and life in general "purfication' as it were, but is still embracing 'the crystal' in whatever form its taking in this game.. does that mean that the Primals, or the Dieities themselves, are not of the Crystal but a different source?

The 'Crystal' as it were, has always been the origin source for everything, well typyically, in the FF universe. But it almost seems as though in this case the Crystal and the 12/primals arent actually connected, but remain separate idenities..

Well, during the cutscene you see after defeating Darnus you clearly see:

[Spoilers ahead, but I guess anybody's reading this thread won the fight already]

Before "dying" he extends his arm towards Dalamud.
His body dissolving into some steamy energy aura/aether, and it slowly flies to Dalamud. There's a scene just for that:
http://i48.tinypic.com/24q3kow.png

Now the moon/meteor/machina and the sinister thing that lives inside it has probably Darnus' will. They are finally one thing, he sacrificed his own "flesh" for Dalamud.
When you get back to Gridania and talk to Cid, he says he believes Dalamud is not going to fall and that Louisoux doesn't need to use the "last resort he kept muttering about...".
We clearly see he's going to use "it" in the trailer, sending the adventurers into a safe place at the end of time, and making them come back in 2.0 world, after a (long?) timeskip. Probably sacrificing himself. :( Something is going to happen in the next patches.
Although I believe the Darnus "hard" fight is going to be just to give us an extra challenge and probably unrelated to the storyline.

The time skip can't be that long if Gaius Van Baelsar is still around, when we get back.

It'll be long enough so that people vaguely remember us, the adventurers who fought Nael van Darnus, but the resistance will be on its last legs, desperately requiring assistance. Our return will be met with both joy and scorn, as we were unable to assist this entire time while people died and the Garleans gained control of everything.

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Originally Posted by Jinrya-Geki

The time skip can't be that long if Gaius Van Baelsar is still around, when we get back.

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Its funny and I don't know how SE will approach this. I was originally assuming that the world would reincarnate itself and Baelsar (not the original one) would be a character again. Like that episode of Futurama where they went so far ahead in time another Big Bang happened and the world progression process went right back to where it was.

One other theory is that Baelsar himself also gets sent through the Aether along with us. I do believe also that Odin uses Darnus as a host to roam Eorzea again in physical form, most likely sealed within Dalamud. He could also become Omega Weapon....both look very similar, so it is a toss up for me.

But my best prediction is that it will be something I don't expect most likely.

Nael Van Darnus resembles Ultima more than Odin, just look at the art and tell me they aren't the same thing.

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Originally Posted by Alerith

What if we haven't seen the absolute last of Nael Van Darnus? I understand a Hard Mode of To Kill a Raven is coming, but that's not exactly what I mean.

1.23 doesn't feel like "The End". Rather, because Yoshida said that "1.23 would mark the beginning of the events of the 7th Umbral Era", combined with the fact that Cid speaks of a plan Louisoux had come up with.

I know many of us were expecting Darnus to turn into Ultima/Omega, and while that may not have happened here, perhaps we could be looking at an ascended Darnus as a final boss for 1.23c?

It's not my intention to beat a dead horse, but I have this ominous feeling we haven't seen the end of Dalamud or Darnus as Cid claims.

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You know even in the journal it makes mention to you having a feeling that it isn't over yet... I suggest everyone go read that entry in the journal if they've fought the white raven.

Other theory:

http://www.csicon.org/wp-content/upl...liens-meme.jpg