So we know some part of Calyx's past. But i do hope we get to see more of his background. So far he's a really interesting character and we might have to face him again in the next expansion along with the Ascian and this Winterer.
What do you guys think? Should we learn more of his past to get a better understanding?
Calyx's past
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10-25-2025, 05:32 PMPimsan20Calyx's past
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10-25-2025, 06:06 PMCarin-EriAbsolutely.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pimsan20
Much like you, I found him interesting too. I quite enjoyed having an antagonist who didn't challenge us head-on. I mean, we knew nothing of him until he took a sniper shot at us that may well have worked if the shot was more powerful. A foe who was intelligent enough to try to out think us.
In fact, I would assume it's a given that the story will look into his past at some point, as it'll probably be necessary to give us more insight into his motives and how he became associated with the 'Winterers'. -
10-25-2025, 07:51 PMCleretic
I love Calyx, and the idea that we'll get more of him is honestly the only reason I can even find any excitement in me about the Winterers, but I'm actually a little reticent to see more of his past specifically.
He's a character that I genuinely think wouldn't be helped by seeing his 'origin'. Sure, more Calyx is more better, but I don't think his history as a sick child, which I feel the game would treat as the natural place to go, would do anything to aid who his character is in the present. I more just want to see him keep being a weirdly emotionless evil genius, and while there's certainly place in his history for that (I think particularly his early Endless days has some potential, probably alongside Demetrios), I really do just have more fun shaking our fists at him now. -
10-26-2025, 02:30 AMfulminating
Overall I’d say mystery is good and needed. I think what we’d gain from further exploring his backstory is insight into the local ascian puppetmaster, at the cost of calyx’s intrigue. A direct meeting with the ascian handler could probably lay a few plot hooks without compromising the mystique with a meandering woe is he flashback, maybe skilled enough in the echo to disable the exposition scenes so we have to take them at their word or not, at least for the time being.
I would quite like to have an unexplored yet fully plausible hook that the ascian handler has perhaps queen eternalled calyx to a degree though, just to keep it interesting. Electrope is sort of magic writing mostly and the ascians have hidden rakes in magic before. As long as it doesn’t get explicitly stated either way, just odd coincidences/echoed phrases etc. -
10-26-2025, 06:26 AMmallleable
I want to know more about his ability to use concepts, and how he was able to give his Necron the ability to use Grand Cross. Yeah, I know the original FFIX Necron used Grand Cross, but this version of Necron was constructed by Calyx. What abilities it could use were Calyx's choice, and it used an ability that has been used by Ultima, The High Seraph, and savage Neo Exdeath. Awfully suspicious.
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10-26-2025, 04:08 PMPimsan20That is a really good point now that you mention. Maybe he and the Winterer came into contact with a being like Ultima? We know that Auracite did exist before the sundering and that it didn't not native to Etheirys. If it came from space or from a different dimensions is still debatable.Quote:
Originally Posted by mallleable
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10-26-2025, 07:31 PMRedLollyI'm not so sure.Quote:
Originally Posted by mallleable
Flare Star, the level 100 capstone for Black Mage, is a spell previously used by Zurvan. I don't know if that's something wr should look into that deeply as the only spells we've been meant to look at this closely is Ultima, which has an entire incantation. And in Ultima's case, it's functioned the same every time. But instances of both Grand Cross and Flare Star do not. -
10-27-2025, 05:44 AMmallleableI think this might be a little different. "To that end, I set strict parameters for a “concept” of my own design." Everything about Necron should be considered a deliberate choice by Calyx, and to me it should be considered an extension of his character, and his abilities. And he gave his creation the reoccurring big bad spell Grand Cross. So at the very least we must consider that Calyx has knowledge of some powerful magicks.Quote:
Originally Posted by RedLolly
An additional layer of tinfoil is that this Necron's version of Grand Cross is somewhat mechanically similar to savage Pallas Athena's 'Gaiaochos' ability where she shrinks the arena, and summons thigs that fire overlapping beams through the arena that make crosses. The names 'Grand Cross,' and 'Gaiaochos' also sound kind of phonetically similar. There is the possibility that one is a linguistic corruption of the other. Yeah, yeah the Pandaemonium savage fights are canonically in the realm of reckless speculation, and it could just be the battle designers reusing mechanical ideas, but it is a juicy coincidence that a Sharlyan scientist, and Calyx had similar ideas for an enemy ability. -
10-27-2025, 09:25 AMClereticGaiaochos is a Greek term for geocentrism (that's also linked to the belief that Poseidon was holding up the Earth), to go along with the theme of Pallas Athena's attacks all being named after obsolete scientific theories.Quote:
Originally Posted by mallleable
Your theory also only makes sense in English; for that to carry through the names for both attacks also need to look a little bit similar in every other language, too. -
10-27-2025, 02:35 PMmallleableApparently every language just uses 'Gaiaochos' for the cast, and it is just spelled out in Katakana in Japanese. As for Grand Cross, Croix Suprême (FR), Supernova (DE), Grand Cross (in katakana). The most phonetically similar would be Japanese, and English with the most different being German. Still a little suspicious.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cleretic
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10-27-2025, 05:22 PMPimsan20
Getting back on topic, we don’t know what happen to Calyx’s parents. It highly likely that they died during the storm surge. But what do you guys think?
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10-27-2025, 08:23 PMCarin-EriI suspect that, outside of possible echo-fueled flashbacks, we might not learn much - if anything - about them. It doesn't seem like a subject that someone like Calyx would be interested in discussing or would care about very much.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pimsan20
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10-27-2025, 08:36 PMPimsan20True, but we know someone took care of him. It’s highly possible that the Ascian we saw or Winterer. Let’s face it, he couldn’t do all of the things by himself let along taken care of HIMself.Quote:
Originally Posted by Carin-Eri
It’s highly possible that he was groomed to be the person he is just to be used as a tool. -
10-27-2025, 09:12 PMCleretic
I mean, we also haven't met Thancred's dad. Sometimes the parents just aren't all that relevant to the story.
Speaking personally, I'm very rarely interested in a character's family in relation to the character themselves. I want to learn about Calyx as a person in his own right, not as a son. -
10-28-2025, 12:01 AMPimsan20That's fair. But i do wonder if we're going to fight him like with Kuja trying to achieved Trance.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cleretic
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10-28-2025, 07:14 PMRedLolly
I don't think Calyx has much in relation to FFIX outside of giving us an FFXIV translation of Necron.
One thing I am interested in regarding relationships is that Real Sphene not only knew Calyx, they were contemporaries. I theorize the literal child that Calyx is/was? getting into his position with so many psychopathic ideas was partly due to Sphene's rapidly declining health and no one in power checking him. Also, Demetrius's obsession. That creepy ass locker tells so much and so little at once.
Maybe Demetrius was the "check" and we saw how that went. -
10-28-2025, 07:48 PMAnvaireCalyx is very similiar to Kuja, in that both fear death and both know death will come for them. Though while Kuju goes the whole If I have to die, so do you route, Calyx just decides that life is miserable and not worth anything and wants to 'ascend' everyone he can. I think its why hes compelling. He can straight up murder someone, but in his eyes its fine because they were suffering and going to die anyway. And he can just bring them back if he has their memories and data.Quote:
Originally Posted by RedLolly
Kuja's complexity was similiar as he wasnt convinced he was even alive to begin with but also feared death immensely.
Calyx's fear of death is very similiar in that he has faced death, he knows its intimately after being hounded by it for a long time. Hes basically a child illequiped to deal with his own reality.
I really hope they keep him around and use him well as he has protential for a lot of development depending how they decide to use him. Straigt off the bat they could make him go full Cray Cray and desperate to just keep living and unwilling or unable to see how what hes doing is wrong (kind of like Vauthry) Or they could have him realise and come to terms with and atone, almost like Kuja at the end 9, though its not a redemption, after everything Kuja does gain some understanding. -
10-30-2025, 10:51 AMRedLollyOkay, I conclude it's been so long since I played FFIX that I didn't pick up any of that, but I see it now. Thank you!Quote:
Originally Posted by Anvaire
Otherwise, Calyx being a child was something that explained why Living Memory was literally just a theme park and museum. Everything there has this kid-friendly veneer and it just really hit how immature Calyx actually was.
If there is anyone Calyx reminds me of, it's Alphinaud. Both are young prodigies that stepped up in their own way to "fix" their world's ills, both with way too much political power at way too young an age, and both even lean into healer roles. The difference is Alphinaud had everything blow up in his face early and was able to grow and learn from his over-confident nature with worldly allies that both care and supported him, while Calyx is quite literally frozen with former allies that expected him to do no wrong and hero worshipped him. If we weren't there for Alphinaud, he'd be very much like Calyx, I think. -
11-04-2025, 07:13 PMShistarQuote:
Originally Posted by RedLolly
A terrifying thought.