Additional Kagoshima Producer Letter LIVE Questions Answered (Updated Irregularly)

[Velox]

This is something that's kind of irked me, actually. The so-called calamity brought by Bahamut was so piss-poor, it barely affected civilization at all. It almost feels like an offense to the long-ago survivors of past calamities to call it a calamity at all, let alone something worthy of a change of Eras. The fact that the Umbral Era only lasted five years is also pretty hilarious.

Reading about disasters that brought folks like the Allagans or the Amdapori down, it seems difficult to compare them.

It does and doesn't but remember that the Calamity was cut-short due to the actions of Louisoix (which is covered in detail the Coil raid). If Bahamut was not stopped through the otherwise regrettable means taken to stop him (which was the only way to stop him, as no mortal on the planet had the power to contend), he would have continued his destructive onslaught until not a single creature lived. His rage was so deep--filled with the agony of thousands of years of entrapment and his children pleading for salvation--that he would have even slaughtered dragon-kind (he would no longer distinguish anything). It would have been the Calamity that would have completely destroyed all life.

It was this defeat that not only cut the Calamity short, but also the resurgence of aether from Bahamut's body (now free) and the remaining aether of the summoning of the Twelve kick-started the recovery of life and the re-balance of the planet's aether stream. The combination of the two was the reason why the calamity was blissfully short.

[Berethos]

If Bahamut was not stopped through the otherwise regrettable means taken to stop him (which was the only way to stop him, as no mortal on the planet had the power to contend), he would have continued his destructive onslaught until not a single creature lived.

I think if he had succeeded, the consequences would have been far worse.

Remember what the Word of the Mother said? Our calamities are accompanied by a rejoining of part of Zodiark and part of Hydaelyn...and I believe elsewhere it's mentioned that the actions of the Warriors of Light and Louisoix and the Archons helped prevent the rejoining from happening this last time.

She also reveals that the crystal we've been floating in front of is the last of her.

Which means had the Calamity not been cut short, it wasn't just Bahamut destroying stuff but the end of Hydaelyn entirely. Zodiark would have won.