Diabolos

[Lusavari]

Whoa whoa whoa. Hold the phone. The Nymians are the Tonberries now. In XI, Diabolos tells you that the Tonberries are the former Kuluu who changed after he freed them from The Emptiness. Dare I say it... We now have something as to what happened to the Nymians. This also begins to link Diabolos to the Primals, ever so loosely. Though he's no where close to them, Diabolos could be the Primal of the Tonberries.

[Velox]

This also begins to link Diabolos to the Primals, ever so loosely. Though he's no where close to them, Diabolos could be the Primal of the Tonberries.

No, primals are comprised of aether. Diabolos is a voidsent. He's just a King which makes him special, but a voidsent nontheless. No different from the other voidsents you've been massacring since day 1 :P

[Anonymoose]

Nym and Amdapor were at war <...> Do we have an origin for Shatotto?

If I'm reading the lore correctly, Nym and Amdapor were among those at war. We only know of these two specific cities, but the story seems to say that that most nations of the day were involved. To save me some time, I'm just going to quote the 2.2 Lore Primer we made for The Lore Train, which had me track down every mention of Nym, Amdapor, Fifth Astral Era, Shatotto, etc. that I could find.

The Fifth Umbral Era was that of ice, otherwise known as the Age of Endless Frost. Eorzean ancestors are credited with ending this era of hardship 3,000 years ago by discovering (or perhaps rediscovering) the art of magick as a means of surviving the cold and barren wastes. As the ice receded and the Fifth Astral Era flourished, magick was no longer necessary for survival, but there was no going back. The aetherial arts became the source of power, glory, and wealth. Nations prospered to untold heights as the development of new spells and magickal techniques became their central focus, but also their addiction of convenience and a vice of vanity.

The magickal arts originally had one major limitation: mages could only cast spells utilizing the aether within their own body. However, a talented and competitive magi fascinated by destructive spells, Shatotto, discovered a way to circumvent this limitation and draw aether from the land itself to power her spells, and thus was Black Magic born. Fearful that the practice was becoming unbalanced as the aetherial art of ruin swept Eorzea, the civilization of Amdapor developed new techniques for succor and brought about the rise of White Magic. With balance restored, the civilizations continued to flourish, but the growing contempt between nations eventually caused this peace to collapse, and the War of the Magi began.

Cities bought to bear the most powerful spells against one another. The magickal arts allowed even the hopelessly outnumbered city of Nym to hold their ground against invaders such as the Amdapori, though the nation eventually collapsed after the outbreak of a mysterious illness. The war yet raged on until the land was drained of its aether by destruction and succor alike. Legend states that this enraged the elementals, and that their collective fury was made manifest is the Elemental if Nihlity, Oha-sok, with whom the elementals wailed in anguish until the land was torn asunder and the skies rained until all was submerged, including Amdapor. This ushered in the Sixth Umbral Era nearly 1,600 years ago, and the ruins of Amdapor have been hidden by the elementals ever since, fearing that history would not repeat itself should the magicks be resurrected. But the wards of old have weakened…

It could have been the Nymians, seeing as they possess the power of summoning - but it's not entirely conclusive.

The Nymians are the Tonberries now. In XI, Diabolos tells you that the Tonberries are the former Kuluu who changed after he freed them from The Emptiness. Dare I say it... We now have something as to what happened to the Nymians. This also begins to link Diabolos to the Primals, ever so loosely. Though he's no where close to them, Diabolos could be the Primal of the Tonberries.

I think it might be pushing it to take it in a primal direction (unless we're right about primals and summons being different "species" of the same aetherial coalescence "genus"), but taking it in an FFXI direction is a possibility of sorts. The only problem is that Surito Carito (Lalaberry from the SCH quest) says that Nymian traders were the first to catch "the sickness from the sea" and that they brought the malady home with them.

The traders, they were the first. As their ears and noses began to atrophy, their limbs grew shorter, and their skin... We scholars tried to halt the spread, tried to find a cure. But in time, we too fell ill. Sympathy turned to fear, and fear to anger. Monsters, they called us. Abominations!

If the tonberry sickness and Diabolos are again related, it seems that Nymian traders picked it up from the nation that summoned him (or perhaps it was the traders who were after information on how to summon dark entities instead of faeries in the first place?)

The big question on my mind is, if Diabolos was summoned as opposed to slipping through the Veil on his own, how'd they get him into the Tower of White (a seat of Amdapori power nestled within the central part of the city)? I get the feeling that one does not simply order Diabolos to venture off and destroy a specific people when there are perfectly good victims right where he was summoned. Did a double agent summon him within Amdapori walls?

Or...

</equip head "darksteelfoil hat">

In Version 1.0, the circular Gelmorra Ruins were mostly intact, and they were surrounded by figures that looked very much like Amberscale Rock. To this day I firmly believe that Amberscale Rock is the dragon from the tale of the Boy and the Dragon Gay, and that it was imprisoned by Elemental magicks when the boy was taken by the elementals as punishment for bringing him there. If I were on to something there, then these Gelmorra Ruins figures might be imprisoned creatures, as well! Let's see if they resembled anything.

Heh, those ruins look kinda like the Temple of Uggale...TONBERRIES!?

What if the Nymian traders weren't traders at all?

What if they were Nymian intelligence operatives meant to betray the art of the scholar and infiltrate Amdapor to release Diabolos!?

What if the Elementals imprisoned those who were transformed to halt the spread!?

But it was too late - some got away! Back to Nym!