The Keeper of the Lake Elder primal

[Chewy2nd]

I can't see Midgarsormr being a dungeon boss, it's more likely that there will be a strong beast inside the Agrius though.

[Anonymoose]

We also know that during the many assaults by the Imperial Legion the beast tribes are fervently praying to their gods for deliverance. It seems reasonable that the release of a huge amount of Aether, through the destruction of the Agrius and the death of Midgardsormr, is enough for the primals to take physical form and answer their followers prayers.

Honestly, confirmed or not, that's one of the best explanations for it being the literal interpretation of the scene that I've heard so far. If Garuda could force the summon by killing a small group of them and tearing out their aether as they prayed, it's perfectly possible. It requires two leaps of faith, one I'm completely comfortable with and one I'm not sure about. The former is that there were a lot of prayers going out at the time, at the same time. That I'd buy. The NPCs even referred to the time of the Fall of the Keeper being a time where if your life situation fully recovered from it, that was impressive.

Here's where it gets a little hairy. One of the primals seen in that explosion was Ifrit, and, though some primals were summoned the same year of the Battle of Silvertear Skies (Leviathan and Titan among them), Square Enix has in the past explicitly stated that Ifrit was not first sighted until two years later. He would have had to have been secretly defeated by something else, dissolved on his own without interference, or gone two years without bothering anyone (not his style). It also suggests that the Ascians were already here, already teaching the beast tribes before the Keeper fell, which is unconfirmed. We have no evidence of Sixth Astral Era Ascian activity in Eorzea before 1562, and we're not sure if that activity was pre-or-post Silvertear Skies. It's fully possible, perhaps even likely, but it's not something we can enter into the canon on assumption without building a huge house of cards.

But, as I sit here trying to think of a way to meld these theories, a thought occurs to me that hadn't before. Maybe it actually is a mix of the literal and metaphorical interpretations of the visual scene. If we're seeing Ifrit's essence, perhaps that's the representation of Ifrit is among those who can now be summoned - we're seeing his essence become available, even if he wasn't explicitly summoned. You can even take that theory a little further - what if that explosion of aether happening at the same time as a lot of prayers is not when the primals were summoned or released, but then the not-elder primals, those of this era, were created as true primals—

*FINAL COIL SPOILERS*

the same way Louisoix was turned into Phoenix when all that aether was released over Cartenau.

[Merylx]

Fenrir was almost always a minor summon, I don't see why it was expected from him to have a major role in the story.

This. Although I adore Fenrir, the only Final Fantasy game he's been of any relevance is FFXI. He had a huge part to play in FFXI, but if you look through the history of the game, he's always had an extremely minor role.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Fenrir was almost always a minor summon, I don't see why it was expected from him to have a major role in the story.

Indeed. We may as well wonder why Siren of Pharos Sirius wasn't a summon as well, because, you know, she also guest-starred as a minor summon in other Final Fantasy titles.

Moreover, if one is truly interested in myths and lore, one would know that Fenrir is closely associated with the Norse myth of Ragnarok, the end times heralded by the arrival of the Fimbulwinter. So, it makes sense to associate a wintry dungeon with a legendary monster that has close links to devastating cold. FFXIV's Fenrir is actually a lot more faithful to the original Norse version than the FFXI's version was.

[kyrios91]

They didn't fly out of him, it's more so the Primals were set free when the ceruleum engines of the Agrias blew up as it hit the Silvertear Lake and destroyed some kind of seal. Hopefully the new dungeon will clear it up.

I don't think the primals were trapped at all by the seal. The seal locked a huge amount of aether - and by its destruction, large amounts of aether was released into the world thus providing enough aether for Primals to be summoned.

[lololink]

I don't think the primals were trapped at all by the seal. The seal locked a huge amount of aether - and by its destruction, large amounts of aether was released into the world thus providing enough aether for Primals to be summoned.

A primal was summoned in Othard before the Agrius fall, so it can't be that.

[LineageRazor]

Is it really accurate to say that the primals were actually "summoned" when Midgardsormr was killed? We saw them flying out, but they didn't actually do much.

I was under the impression that the video was trying to make it clear that Midgardsormr's defeat had unsealed the Primals and allowed them to become summonable again, but the primals seen at the actual event were just the primals' essences, made briefly visible before they faded back into the Aether.

Pretty much, the Primals' way of saying, "Hey, everyone - we're open for business again! If you need us, give us a call!"

[ReplicaX]

I can't see Midgarsormr being a dungeon boss, it's more likely that there will be a strong beast inside the Agrius though.

I can't either. Also need to remember XIV 1.0 's "Futures Perfect" Story Mission proved that some of the Garlean Hardware still worked in the Agrius even after it's destruction. It might play a role in the new dungeon as well.

[KiritoKhun]

So if they were sealed in the first place coulnt we re-seal them?

[KiritoKhun]

So if they were sealed could we re-seal them?