Nidhogg and the Monetarists

[Zohar_Lahar]

I'm just going to put this out there, but I think Nidhogg has some ties to the Monetarist plot. The reason is because of the timing of the wyvern skirmish, as well as that loose end from Dreams of Ice when it turned out the Ivy was also dealing with the Harriers and Monetarists.

Remember when Teledji went in to accuse the Scions of regicide, and there were Templars with him as he entered the banquet hall? Aymeric noted something was off about that, and there was Teledji's smug grin as he looked at him before leaving. I bring this up because of what "Templars" did at the Gates of Judgement earlier.

[Belhi]

It would make little sense for Nidhogg to bring the Captain of the Temple Knights to return to Ishgard while your attacking it. The Dravanians did attack it.

[treuhavik]

What's far more likely is that a certain someone(s) is orchestrating these events unbeknownst to the puppets at the end of each string. For this event in particular, all it would take is a whisper to the right Dravanian representative.

[Cilia]

There's zero doubt a certain organization is behind all this. You know, them. We just need to stop playing their game, but alas, the story doesn't let us go anti-hero enough to do so.

[Exodus-E]

There's zero doubt a certain organization is behind all this. You know, them. We just need to stop playing their game, but alas, the story doesn't let us go anti-hero enough to do so.

They do love it when everyone follows their script to the letter, don't they?

Too bad everyone in Eorzea, no matter their position, never questions past/present/future events or the implications they may bring (our main character being an egregious example).

And that's one of the main reasons why they are winning.

[Frederick22]

There's zero doubt a certain organization is behind all this. You know, them. We just need to stop playing their game, but alas, the story doesn't let us go anti-hero enough to do so.

On my opinion I should say that the Monetarist got somehow the info of the atack even faster than the Ishgardians, possibly there was a cristal brave there watching the events. Or somehow they could knew a message about an atack was being delivered and they desided to stop it, so they could delivered by themselfs. I should say that is more logic my first option, why? Beacuse I would think that maybe Aymreic would have never resieve the message from their own men or maybe he would have recieve it but too late for the Montecarists to act. They realy wanted to get rid of all Ishgardians before starting you know what. Also im not gona say beacuse of spoilers, a particular monteracist says something that if a particular ishgardian was there when he said that, he would totaly denied it and that is not true.

[lilirulu]

They do love it when everyone follows their script to the letter, don't they?

Too bad everyone in Eorzea, no matter their position, never questions past/present/future events or the implications they may bring (our main character being an egregious example).

And that's one of the main reasons why they are winning.

The Ascian's are master manipulators; They don't go for people who are going to put up a fight they want the depressed, downtrodden, greedy and gullible (the WoL is the only real exception to this). They look for one loose thread and use it to unravel the whole spool.

And I can't blame people for not seeing them coming because most of Eorzea probably doesn't get to travel like the WoL or have other duties keeping them from looking into it. Most people probably don't even know the Ascians even exist after all.

[Cilia]

They do love it when everyone follows their script to the letter, don't they?

Too bad everyone in Eorzea, no matter their position, never questions past/present/future events or the implications they may bring (our main character being an egregious example).

And that's one of the main reasons why they are winning.

That really is the problem - nobody thinks about anything or reflects on the past.

Who taught the Beast Tribes the summoning rituals for Primals? So then, who would have had to teach Iceheart the ritual for going Super Sai... er, summoning Shiva into herself? Who? Who? Who could it be?

Who did we glean to be pulling the strings behind Dalamud's fall through the Echo? Who pointed the Garleans in the direction of the Ultima Weapon and helped them learn how to use it properly? Isn't Omega an awfully similar beast? Hm... is there a pattern here?

... nah, it's just a coincidence.

It's almost certain they are behind the Dravanian attacks on the Steps of Faith (through Iceheart) as well as the Monetarists' plot to get Omega. The Warrior of Light and Scions should know this. We (as players) also know they are influencing the Holy See. Unfortunately, it seems none of the Scions are very good at detective work and I just got off a Dangan Ronpa binge, so all this not thinking about glaringly obvious answers is really irritating me.

Unfortunately, the puppets are many. We'd need to be smart enough to know to cut their strings and be capable of doing so. Unfortunately most everyone but the villains seem to be as smart as a box of rocks, and we have to play a straight hero. If we could stop playing their game it'd be easy... but we can't proactively fight them, and we just lost a game within the game. Hopefully we do better in Heavensward.

[Belhi]

To be fair, our characters have seen no indication that the Ascians are behind the Dragonsong war. I don't think we have come to the conclusion that the Ascians are behind every base hate and conflict that exists and currently the only thing in the Dragonsong war that seems to indicate Ascian involvement is Shiva. Even that is an odd twist as Shiva was unlike any other primal we have seen so far and for a while we were debating if she was even a primal.

The Scions do seem to understand the Ascians are the main threat. The problem is it's pretty hard to move against them directly. In the mean time we struggle to keep Eorzea together and keep Garlemald from stomping in and screwing things up with their hubris.

The big problem is that very few outside the Scions understand the Ascian threat. Its too abstract for most to see and the Scions can hardly preach it to people without looking like kind of crazy conspiracy theorists. A single group behind major conflicts and calamities since the first Astral Era?

That's one of the interesting things about FF14's story. You have this two layered thing where you have this almost abstract war being fought between the Warrior of Light and their close allies verse the Ascians. Light vs Dark. However the war plays out mostly through proxies in the world kind of like a giant chess board. The Dragonsong war isn't the war for us. It is one battle among many in a much greater war and while the stakes for most with the Dragonsong war are the fate of Ishgard and the Dragons, our war is one with the world itself as the stakes. Most people ingame just can't perceive the scale of the war the Warrior of Light fights though and it cant really be explained.

At the same time I suspect our character would be having to check themselves not to see Ascian's hands in things where they might not be. They aren't behind everything.

[Kaiser-Ace]

Rule 1, It's ALWAYS The Ascians.

Being the Semi-Immortal beings they are, they've had thousands of years to play their game.

They admit to manipulating the Allage, we've seen first hand that they are manipulating Garlemauld, we (The player) know that they are manipulating Ishguard some how, and I'd be shocked if they weren't the ones that pushed the proverbial buttons that lead to The War of the Magi either.

Let's face it, they've had something to do with every disaster in Eorzea's history and it seems Lahabrea and Elidibus are the masterminds behind it all. (Elidibus himself implied that not all of the Ascians are the same age when he suggested that Nebralius' age may have been the cause of his rebellion)

So if Lahabrea and Elidibus are the first Ascians that may or may not date as far back as the 1st Umbral Era, then THEY are the only ones that know what's really going on. And are the sole possessors of the truth about the Primals, the Twelve, and Hydaelyn and Zodiark themselves.