The Warrior of Darkness [SPOILER]

[hagare]

I don't have sympathy for the Ascians because their leader refuses to say WHY "balance" needs to be brought back and said leader also refused to tell his friends to cut it out when they were going too far to stop the WOL. If the Ascians are trying to sell me this balance nonsense while also putting lives of others in danger at the same time, then they're, at the very least, stupid evil to me and have to be stopped.

right now we don't know how to restore balance though.
what if restoring it means mass murder on a grand scale?
I mean, it's not like there's a dial you can turn between light and darkness.

If SE is really gonna go full hog with the whole balance thing, then they better show the bad stuff that happens when the scale leans more towards the light.
Because so far everything's just peachy.

Evil gets thrown around too often as a short hand for people whose motivations and desires are in opposition to another group's own. I get the feeling the world the WoD and the Ascians are from is dying cause our world is pulling aether from their side, like if you pictured the relationship as an hour glass. This would explain the divide we see in the Ascian camp at times. One group wants to simply restore balance to make things as they were, the other wants to remove all chance of a repeat in the future by simply removing our world as a factor.

Dhaos from ToP is the perfect example of that.
Though his methods was bad for the other side xD

[MilesSaintboroguh]

HUGOOGABOGALOO

That's exactly it.

"WE MUST RESTORE BALANCE TO THE WORLD! YOU'D AGREE IF YOU SAW IT MY WAY!"

*look at Eorzea, seeing everything is mostly ok*

"Uh...are you a part of that cult in Northern Thanalan?"

"BALANCE!"

*walks away slowly*

[Morningstar1337]

Dhaos from ToP is the perfect example of that.
Though his methods was bad for the other side xD

Someone's been playing too much Tales of Symphonia lol
Loved that game though so I wouldn't complain too much if this was the case.

If we're talking Tales, then I'd rather the story be similar to Tales of Xillia 2 and focus on parallel dimensions (Since FF III's Warriors of Darkness came form another world, and its not liek the XIII/XI/Dq evens, Gilgamesh and Dissidia in general didn't imply that XIV is part of a multiverse).

[Nagrom]

Oh it's not about sympathy for them. Until it's stated differently in the story, the Ascians started this war and can reap the whirlwind. Just cause they have a reason beyond sadism being part of their balanced breakfast, doesn't mean we kill less of them or even feel bad about doing such. Wish I could recall the exact words, but Admiral Merlwyb summed it up to Y'shtola once when Limsa Lominsa's role in the conflict with the beastmen was pointed out. It doesn't matter who did what first, it's about survival now.

Someone's been playing too much Tales of Symphonia lol

Really what came to my mind when typing all that was a variation of the plot to Final Fantasy IX, with the Ascians in a similar role to Garland and Kuja.

[Fenral]

Dhaos from ToP is the perfect example of that.
Though his methods was bad for the other side xD

Dhaos is also a perfect example of how an entire game's worth of cut backstory can be turned into a mind-screw sequel (the inadequately-titled Narikiri Dungeon). Hopefully FFXIV won't make us wait for expanded universe nonsense to properly explain the Big Bad's motivations.

But if we must bring Tales into it, my current bet is on Symphonia: two worlds that were once one (a la FFV), that compete for the same limited resource. Symphonia also had a convenient out in that if one man made the world the way it was, another was allowed to change it back. FFXIV also seems to have "gods who maybe aren't actually gods" involved, too, but I'm not sure reshaping reality is as simple as bringing together Flamberge and the Vorpal Sword...

[FallenArisen0990]

This needs to happen when I meet the WoD face to face...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T28imvKgOdk

As for Balance, the WoD would just kill Beastmen and Dragons while WoL will finish off the new anti group that is against Dragon and Men being together in peace.