Alisaie and Nero (spoilers!)

[Anonymoose]

What if in a similar way, that it was the Ascians who were the ones who really manipulated Nael into bringing down Dalamud?

I wrote about five or six different versions of my reply to this, each one a different digression into when the Ascians might have gotten involved in the fall of the Sixth Astral Era, and where, but I never got anywhere useful with it and just went in circles with myself. So, instead of leading up to this with a lot of "that's a great 'what if'" discussion, I'm forced to just leave it at this boring report. As interesting as your theory is, as far as I know, at most, some of it is possibly true and Nael was Bahamut's puppet.

We do have confirmation that that Bahamut, whether it be via some form of tempering or the natural abilities dragons seem to possess to manipulate man, gained control of Nael via first contact with the Lunar Transmitter, which a quest in 1.0 said could "communicate with the lesser moon." The first hint came when Nael, a Garlean with no magickal ability, used an eldritch magickal power to sever the aetherial line to the Bowl of Embers, but the big reveal was when Nael gave himself over (losing his lancer abilities and switching from third person to first person speech) and used the attack Megaflare.

Presently, and this could change, it looks to me like the Ascian arc was independent of this, or perhaps this was an unexpected side-effect of it. The Ascians were part of the original story, but it's been stated that Team Yoshida came up with "bringing Dalamud down" and the "What's in the Wonder Ball" reveal of Bahamut. I think they paused the Ascian story and started the Seventh Umbral Era the way they did as a marketing decision, a clear border between the two projects.

When Lahabrea first sees Bahamut, he says, "That I should live to behold Bahamut once more..." To me he seems surprised and amused to see him; as if saying, "Huh, no sh[kupo!]t... Well, that's great news! We needed primals for this and damned if that's not a great addition to the war effort." Would you interpret it differently?

Like I said, though, perhaps it is that you are right about the Ascian involvement to a certain degree and Darnus was a dragon primal's marionette.

Nael van Darnus was able to rise into the air and hover before Dalamud.

In that scene, Nael gives himself over "body and soul" to "Almighty Dalamud." Bahamut is basically possessing him, hence the crystal wings, Megaflare, etc. Interestingly enough, and I believe it was Hiir who showed me this, Zodiark's Final Eclipse in FFXII looks very similar to Nael's crystal wings ... coincidence? Homage? Intentional likeness?

SE could go back and connect some dots at any time...