(Big spoiler) Future content could be based on...

This is actually a repost of a post I did earlier this morning on reddit. Beside the speculations, I think it explains well how FFXIV connects with another chapter in the series.

First of all, if you haven't finished the main storyline, close this post now. I'm going to spoil the very end of the story. don't spoil that to yourself, it's really fun, and it will give you chills. Just take your time and finish it, it's not worth ruining it by reading a post on reddit. To everyone else, what I'm going to talk is so huge that it could be the theme of a whole expansion, if not more. I'm not going to talk about the upcoming content like crystal tower or the next turns in coil.

I've been bugged by this since i found out the name of Lahabrea, and I lost my sleep since I finished the main storyline. I haven't seen a post about it yet, so I decided it's time for me to see if anyone is excited as me after seeing the final cutscene, the one with all the Ascians.

As we all know, a big name is mentioned by them. Zodiark. When I heard it, I knew that Final Fantasy XIV is really going to make something huge about Ivalice Mythology.
It's not only the fact that they name a random thing from another installement in the saga, it goes really deep within the storyline. As I mentioned, a bell was ringing since i heard the name Lahabrea. And then, we happen to discover three other names of Ascians: Pashtarot, Igeyohrm and Nabriales.

What this means is that the influence that FFXII has over FFXIV is WAY bigger than the most would expect. These names are, in fact, part of Ivalice's mythology. They are 3 of the scions of light, a counterpart to the Scions of darkness, which are the Espers you can summon in FFXII. So there is a 1/1 parallel between every Ascian and every Esper, except for two. The first is the thirteenth, the one who never committed rebellion but was bound because the Gods were afraid of its power: Zodiark.

As a further proof there is also that weird rune that appears in front of Lahabrea every once in a while. I was really annoyed at first by this, since i saw no meaning on it... until i remembered by the glyphs that are used to summon the espers in Final Fantasy XII. In particular, I want you to look at the second glyph in the top left, which is the one that is used to summon Mateus the corrupt, the parallel to Lahabrea among the scions of Darkness (both of them are under the zodiac sign of Pisces, the fish). Take the top part, rotate it by 180 degrees. Now that thing has a meaning, it's no longer a "why does he have a red tribal in front of his face?" thing.
the traditional primals AND the espers from Ivalice. Not only Zodiark. The game is actully hinting that we could get all thirteen the espers.

There is already a connection between Primals and the Ascians, as in 1.0 we learned that the Ascians were the ones who taught the beastman how to summon the primals. And moreso, it is Lahabrea who gives the Ultima Weapon to the empire. Was that only fan service, or was it a reference to Ultima, the high seraph, the scion under the Zodiac sign of Virgo, the one who started the rebellion against the Twelve gods of Ivalice, and the other Scion that has no parallel amongst the Scions of Light?

We also are part of the "scions of the seventh dawn"... If they already knew that they were going to refer the "Scions lore" from the XII, why did they call the organization that way? I know this is pure speculation, but my brain can't stop thinking about this and getting so excited... So many possibilities open up from here.
And how does all this relate to the image of a corrupt Hyadelin we got in the last scene we see our character?
TL;DR Who cares if Lightning will appear in a FATE, the whole story is a huge reference to FFXII, give Espers please.

Sorry for multiposting, 1k characters limit.

awesome, you might just be right :)

i didnt play 12 so i missed out on the nuances, but it sounds absolutely credible. i wont be surprised if all 12 ascians were there at the ending, and it would be pretty mind blowing to realise that the ascians are truly the darkness aspects of the Twelve in 14.

Cameo reference and nothing more - FFXIV has about as much direct connection to the Ivalice games as it has to FFIII (ala, the Crystal Tower), FFXI (similar player races to the races of Vana'diel and beastmen races), FFVI (magitek and the whole 'evil technologically-advanced empire' thing), FFVII (planet-threatening meteor/Lifestream-subsitute, materia), etc etc. FFXIV is full of references to all FF games, without directly connecting itself to any in particular.

And the Scions of the Seventh Dawn is just a restructuring of Minfilia's earlier organization of Echo-users from version 1.0, the Path of the Twelve, amalgamated with the Circle of Knowing (Y'shtola clearly states this early on when you first join the Scions) - it's not a reference to FFXII at all.

Also you can simply make one post and then edit it endlessly to get around the 1000-character limit by the way instead of duplicating posts. ;)

Very interesting. We will have to wait and see if square expands the story of the game. Have you read my theory on how the acians were created? Here is my topic what do you think? Personally I think zodiark is just the name of the giant dark crystal he/she is the mirror of hydaelyn.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...er-spoilers%29

Well, I saw this as well and it's very exciting to know that the story does not stop there. And that there will be many more exciting elements to the story. You wouldn't believe how mad I was when I saw Thancred (a.k.a. Lahabrea) standing by Gaius' side laughing his head off while the Scions were trying to escape from the Empire. But that little bit at the end with Hydaelyn going all purple and red and the Ascians all together like that (not to mention Bahamut screaming his head off!) really gives something to look forward to. I hope the patches with the new story content come soon! Also, where are the rest of the primals? Like Leviathan and Ramuh?

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Originally Posted by AlexSam

I hope the patches with the new story content come soon!

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me too! my only concern, however, is how they are going to implement it... so far, I have been happy with how they distributed the story evenly across lvl1 - 50 (Ok, maybe some parts were unnecessarily draggy i.e. the banquet pre Titan and the botch-up with crystals pre Garuda). However, if they are going to introduce another series of super heavy content, I'm under the impression that they are either going to a) make them level-based progressive quests from lvl1 - 50 like how 2.0 is i.e. you could technically use those quests to lvl another class or b) make them lvl 50 quests/dungeons all the way or c) increase level cap; and a) would be nice be inappropriate, b) would be akin to coil and CT and require players to do endgame dungeons which i personally am not a fan of compared to crafting and gathering, and c) would be too soon imo.

Very good find, glad there's more people who understand the FFXII reference.

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Originally Posted by AlexSam

~Also, where are the rest of the primals? Like Leviathan and Ramuh?

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Well we calmed the Sylphs and they won't summon Ramuh unless encroached upon. We also know that the Sahagin lack the necessary crystals to summon Leviathan, so expect them to start more raids on crystals. Shiva has probably not been taught to the Gigas yet, after all they just now appeared in Coerthas.

The other Primals will be added in later patches - Leviathan after all was always in 1.0's client code, just dummied out for the same reasons Titan originally was (due to the 2011 Japanese tsunami and earthquake being too recent and hence Leviathan and Titan were considered to be in bad taste), a teaser of Ramuh's new battle music was released by SE a while ago, and Ferne posted images of Shiva's concept art and early renders on the main website blog earlier in the year.

So it's obvious that the storyline will be added to, to explain the appearances of the new Primals (but your explanations Noloe are definitely logical). :)

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

a teaser of Ramuh's new battle music was released by SE a while ago

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I think you will find that that was not Ramuh's music in the end, instead implemented for Ultima Weapon part two.

Final Fantasy XII is my favourite game in the series and I fell in love with Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy Tactics as well. Ivalice is a wonderful setting and I would be delighted it if turned out that FFXIV is set in the same world as Ivalice.

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Originally Posted by AlexSam

Well, I saw this as well and it's very exciting to know that the story does not stop there. And that there will be many more exciting elements to the story. You wouldn't believe how mad I was when I saw Thancred (a.k.a. Lahabrea) standing by Gaius' side laughing his head off while the Scions were trying to escape from the Empire. But that little bit at the end with Hydaelyn going all purple and red and the Ascians all together like that (not to mention Bahamut screaming his head off!) really gives something to look forward to. I hope the patches with the new story content come soon! Also, where are the rest of the primals? Like Leviathan and Ramuh?

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I too am wondering about Hydaelyn turning all purple/red like that. I wonder if they are going to put something in later on, such as, maybe a corresponding dark crystal that goes along with each of those 6 crystals that your character got throughout the main story.

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Originally Posted by DavyDavy

As we all know, a big name is mentioned by them. Zodiark. When I heard it, I knew that Final Fantasy XIV is really going to make something huge about Ivalice Mythology.

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What this means is that the influence that FFXII has over FFXIV is WAY bigger than the most would expect.

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Yeah see I can't get excited. I played 12 for 2 hours after I bought it at release, then I gave it away to my friend because it was terrible. Just.. god awful. The only good thing about a game set in Ivalice was Tactics because it was a brilliant game, incredible replay value, and the story telling was unlike any previous FF, it wasn't predictable. It's actually one of the few gems Square has outside of Xenogears.

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Originally Posted by gothikka

I too am wondering about Hydaelyn turning all purple/red like that. I wonder if they are going to put something in later on, such as, maybe a corresponding dark crystal that goes along with each of those 6 crystals that your character got throughout the main story.

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Y'know, a part of me is a trite concerned with this. If you played WoW during Vanilla, there was a huge ass quest chain that ended with the Onyxia raid (on the Alliance side). During Wrath, it got retconned so that the part where you expose Onyxia got removed (apparently because Onyxia was unimportant content at the time).

My theory is, they have Ramuh's model in there - mayhaps they might've locked us out of the Story Mode Ramuh fight, only to retcon the fight later and actually require that bit with Frixio to end with a Ramuh battle?

Or they could have the next arc in the story deal with the elements of Ice, Water, and Thunder. I mean, when you think about it, those are all aligned towards "Destruction", in more ways than one.

I am pretty sure that Livia (or maybe someone else) was called the witch of Dalmasca in one of the cutscenes. I really don't remember where I've seen it though. Anyone else noticed that?

I am pretty sure I read somewhere that they would have some story merging from other FF games in this one so I think you are not too far from finding something.

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Originally Posted by BillyBones

I am pretty sure that Livia (or maybe someone else) was called the witch of Dalmasca in one of the cutscenes. I really don't remember where I've seen it though. Anyone else noticed that?

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Well, perhaps Dalmasca might be a village or town in Othard? They can reuse names for FFs in games whose host worlds don't have the exact same points of interest.

I mean, hey, it's been done before. They gave the Emperor in FF2 the name of "Mateus Palamecia", even though that could be considered a retcon since it wasn't in the original NES version of FF2. So really, if you think about it, they could probably reuse some names, terms, and objects if they, perchance, got crafty about how they did it.

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Originally Posted by Renvalt

My theory is, they have Ramuh's model in there - mayhaps they might've locked us out of the Story Mode Ramuh fight, only to retcon the fight later and actually require that bit with Frixio to end with a Ramuh battle?

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Suddenly, in that context, Noraxia's fate becomes very important. I don't think it will go as you say, but I have a feeling Noraxia's story is not over.

@ AlexSam I don't think that was Hydaelyn i'm pretty sure that was the opposing crystal the "one true god" as the ascians put it.

As for the story so far i'm intrigued as to where they take it, personally i wouldn't be all that bent out of shape to see the final fantasy universes connect to some degree we are playing a game after all. And the immersion argument generally is limited in scope since bikini clad bomb fighting warriors is okay but god forbid something gets pulled from another dimension or something.

IMO, FFXIV is "separate" but has some similar themes (all the FF games share a lot of common things.) For example Ramuh is in FF3-7,9,11-14
Ifirit is in FF3-14, and so forth. Personally I found a lot of the FF6 references were used in the storyline (the magitek armor and the entire garlean empire comes straight out of FF6, in a somewhat altered form.) All the FF games involve crystals. There is a Cid in every FF game, but they are never the same person. Cid's backstory in 14 is similar to 6's as well.

It's not likely FF14's Hydaelyn is Ivalice, but then again, look at FF5 and FF6 how the world changes geographically at the mid-point of the game.

I have a theory..it may be far far off the scale and be completly wrong but...have any of you played Dissidia, Dissidia: Duodecim . In that the warriors of light (main characters from all final fantasys) are called to do their battle for good and/or evil, the good guys fight from Cosmos( Notice she is the same colour as hydaelyn) and evil fights for chaos ( same colour as the red crystal in the vision) Now...could it just be cosmos and chaos, in a different form? and realm.

I know how far-fetched it sounds but, as someone posted, XIV has some links from all Final fantasys, maybe this is the link from Dissidia.

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Originally Posted by Nevaldus

I have a theory..it may be far far off the scale and be completly wrong but...have any of you played Dissidia, Dissidia: Duodecim . In that the warriors of light (main characters from all final fantasys) are called to do their battle for good and/or evil, the good guys fight from Cosmos( Notice she is the same colour as hydaelyn) and evil fights for chaos ( same colour as the red crystal in the vision) Now...could it just be cosmos and chaos, in a different form? and realm.

I know how far-fetched it sounds but, as someone posted, XIV has some links from all Final fantasys, maybe this is the link from Dissidia.

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I don't think there is much of a link to Dissidia here. Cosmos and Chaos just represent good vs. evil and their colors commonly represent the same thing. The same is likely true for Hydaelyn and that evil looking crystal.

Anyone who has followed the FF series, knows that FFXII was based off of FF:T. Ivalice, the localities, etc.

One interesting thing is the level of advancement of Airships in FFXII was very similar to the level in FFXIV. The Airships even look to be of a similar design. The "Empire" in FFXII also had Judges who look remarkably similar to the hierarchy in of baddies in FFXIV. Those two things were very apparent to me, but Gunblades and the aforementioned Third Eyes were not in either FFXII or FF:T.

The other thing I've noticed is the map of Eorzea and the map of Ivalice. Here's the map of Ivalice:

http://oi42.tinypic.com/2vbkdog.jpg

Take notice of the bottom continent of "Lionel"... That is Eorzea...

it is remarkably similar, though not quite the same. I'm not 100% convinced, but there is a lot of evidence supporting the theory. I would totally freak out (in a positive way) if it turned out to be true. The differences might be accounted for due to the Calamity, but it might be something separate.

This is a little more Official for a map comparison...

Game map in FF:T:

http://images.wikia.com/finalfantasy...FFTIvalice.png

Bottom area is Eorzea...

Map of Eorzea:

http://images.wikia.com/finalfantasy...Eorzea-map.jpg

Not exactly the same but

...Very, very interesting...

Love your signature, by the way. I'm a pretty big SW fan

If there was a connection I would be so ecstatic! Tactics was my first Final Fantasy game, and I have loved the lore of Ivalice for years. The maps do seem remarkably similar. On my linkshell today I commented how the world really reminds me of Ivalice.

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Originally Posted by gothikka

I too am wondering about Hydaelyn turning all purple/red like that. I wonder if they are going to put something in later on, such as, maybe a corresponding dark crystal that goes along with each of those 6 crystals that your character got throughout the main story.

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Pretty sure that wasn't Hydaelyn. FFXIV is all about duality:

- Astral and Umbral Eras
- Archons and Ascians
- Crystals of Light and Crystals of Darkness

It would stand to reason that even the Mother Crystal has a dark counterpoint.

Am I the only one who noticed that the new named Ascians in the final cutscene lined up with certain Generals that were recently taken down? Lahabrea, two males, and a female Ascian. Since we know that Ascians posses bodies, and certain folks had no use for them anymore.

:X

Also those of us who picked up the Physical Collector's edition got a nice art book which included a few interesting pictures which showed Crystal Tower Bosses and a few others:

http://www.creativeuncut.com/gallery...14-fenrir.html
http://www.creativeuncut.com/gallery...4-bosses2.html
http://www.creativeuncut.com/gallery...er-bosses.html
http://www.creativeuncut.com/gallery...4-bosses1.html
http://www.creativeuncut.com/gallery-19/ff14-amon.html
http://www.creativeuncut.com/gallery...4-typhon2.html

The Siren fight was a reference to Final Fantasy V, I believe.

I'm pretty sure everyone here is getting a little ahead of themselves. Despite all the parallels, there is no way this is supposed to be Ivalice. It's much more likely that SE simply based the Scion storyline on that one.

There was a theory on here that each Legatus will be based on the villains/plots of their respective FF game. Look at the VIIth Legatus, he was basically Sephiroth. Gaius, the XIVth Legatus is original because well, this is the original setting for him. XD