Is The World of Darkness the Void? [3.4 spoilers]

[Cilia]

But do the 13 shards technically still count as Hydaelyn?

/darkstelfoilhat

Considering the Warriors of Darkness seem to know of Her, and are angry at Her for abandoning the First Shard to the Flood of Light until Urianger's gambit to get Her to do something worked... yes? Probably? I mean, they're stated to be Reflections of the Source, so basically the same as our world only with (what seems to be) an aetherial balance that leans toward Light or Dark as opposed to our normally neutral state. So they're essentially the same place, just separated by dimensional barriers.

Dammit, another question I thought to ask just a little too late, along with "Is Lahabrea totally 100% bona-fide dead forever?"

[Zul]

Mayhaps the position of the shards and hydaelyn is more like a solar system? With zodiark being at the very far end and hydaelyn is the center(or the source is the center idk). It kinda falls apart when the void gets mixed in but there is probably a ways it could work. /shrug

[Kallera]

The world of darkness is a part of the Void, which was the 13th reflection of the source before being overtaken via darkness, its denizens warped into undying monstrosities.

This fate, the warriors of darkness want to stop in their own world, the 1st reflection, except its being overtaken by light, threatening to turn its denizens there into light based monstrosities.

[Morningstar1337]

The world of darkness is a part of the Void, which was the 13th reflection of the source before being overtaken via darkness, its denizens warped into undying monstrosities.

This fate, the warriors of darkness want to stop in their own world, the 1st reflection, except its being overtaken by light, threatening to turn its denizens there into light based monstrosities.

Somehow I'd doubt they would go that far if they and their worlds inhabitants were to become Light based monstrosities. The way they mentioned the First's status ("blank white perfection") implies it to be be an actual void. That means that nothing that would be made of matter or aether would exist there. No spoken, no voidsent, no life(, and thus no death), no aether. (I'm pretty sure Cillia can explain this better than I)

The WoDs goals is not to prevent their inhabitants from becoming voidsent, its to save them from being trapped in a state of limbo, a state that is nether living or dead. A state that is purely metaphysical in a world where even the metaphysics of that world are gone

[cyborgmermaid]

While I know there's no connection between the Final Fantasy games (outside of ol' Greg) Cloud of Darkness was the big super final boss in SE's previous MMO. So to find out they're only using her as the "precipice" for this one makes me wonder what the flipppity flapjack is actually ruling the void.

Or is anything? Perhaps it's just mindless darkness, regurgitating monsters now and then.

[Cilia]

A Light Void would, theoretically, produce nothing. No Voidsent, no abominations, nothing, because according to Arbert's description of what the First Shard was like as a result of the Flood of Light (a place of "pure white perfection" that "erase[s]" whatever existed before), a Flood of Light is not so much Light drowns everything as it is Light erases and leaves nothingness in its wake. There is nothing left - no life and no aether to create life. Anyone familiar with the name "Ulamog" can fairly guess what such a world would be like.

Any Voidsent from such a world would start out extremely powerful but degrade over time thanks to entropy, if they could even exist at all.

To understand the dichotomy in simple terms, think "heat death" (Light Void) vs. "black hole" (Dark Void).

The Cloud of Darkness has been around much longer than its appearance in XI; its first appearance was as the final boss of III, and the Crystal Tower is essentially one big shout-out to that game's final dungeons. Hell, its appearance in XIV predates its appearance in XI! ... but I digress. The Void sounds like a place where it's "survival of the fittest," for lack of a better term - the weak are eaten by the strong, so there is no singular ruler but a food chain. The Cloud of Darkness sits atop or very high on that food chain.

[ADVSS]

I must have gotten things reversed i thought the first world was the furthest from the source(our world) and that the thirteenth was right next to it. the other way around makes more sense except the fact that hydalyn is apparently so weak, yet her next door realm is flooded in light.

[Cilia]

Hydaelyn's lifeblood is aether, not Light. Light just happens to be her domain.

Hydaelyn is "the benevolent goddess whose domain is Light and Order," while Zodiark is "the covetous, dead god whose domain is Darkness and Chaos." Light is good because it's Hydaelyn's domain; Hydaelyn is not good just because Light is her domain.

At the same time, Dark is not evil because it is Zodiark's domain; Zodiark just happens to be a (seemingly) malevolent god whose domain is Darkness. Light and Dark are both essential components of a world; too much of either and you get either a "black hole" scenario (Darkness) or a "heat death / erasure" scenario (Light).

[ADVSS]

Which leads me to believe that balance could only truly happen when the rejoining occurs, except that the perpetual struggle would be rooted at the source, in which all darkness and light would ripple outwardly to the other shards, or in fact all worlds would become one world.
Obviously those two will have to come to terms with each other, even if things were reversed i dont think zodiark can handle and sustain darkness spread throughout 14 reflections forever, the result would probably be the same but reversed however dizzy it makes one feel thinking about that

[cyborgmermaid]

The Cloud of Darkness has been around much longer than its appearance in XI; its first appearance was as the final boss of III, and the Crystal Tower is essentially one big shout-out to that game's final dungeons. Hell, its appearance in XIV predates its appearance in XI! ... but I digress.

I'm aware of that; she's just been traditionally reserved as the baddest of the bad. The only other big FF namedrop I can think of that they could throw in there as a Void superboss would be Hades.