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

[Cilia]

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.

One of the undisputed rulers of the void and an entity of immesureable strength, the Cloud of Darkness occupies the highest rung of the hierarchy of twelve.

So yes, the Cloud of Darkness is one of the most powerful voidsent in existence and a ruler of the void (among other rulers, presumably). We fought her early on in the game's life cycle, but remember that gameplay difficulty != storyline power. If that were the case a number of 3.x endgame dungeon bosses would be objectively more powerful than most every 2.x primal... which is just nonsense.

We're being set up for another major void boss at the end of the Shadow of Mhach storyline: Scathatch, the Shadow Queen. (Too bad I'm 99.9% positive she won't look like her Fate/Grand Order incarnation...) Yes, I know, not a big namedrop, but they have to get original sometimes instead of relying purely on nostalgia, despite what some people want.

[Brannigan]

Something else that's bugging me: Arbert says in no uncertain terms that the First is closest to the Source and that the Thirteenth is far removed from the First. How, then, does the void rub up against the Source at all times in such a way that gates constantly open by accident and design? Are we all talking about distance in different terms, here?

I just took this to mean that it's the most different from the source; maybe the course of the world was changed far earlier than the others. I get the impression that warrior of darkness' world is very similar to Hydaelyn prime, with the exception that their heroes are just more successful than us. Maybe the 13th world was trashed by the first umbral era or something.

[Fenral]

We're being set up for another major void boss at the end of the Shadow of Mhach storyline: Scathatch, the Shadow Queen. (Too bad I'm 99.9% positive she won't look like her Fate/Grand Order incarnation...)

Scathach will be interesting. I'm pretty sure I recall Ferne saying that CoD was the First Rung, but if it turns out there are multiple First Rung voidsent, that leaves open the question of which is stronger.

To be fair, we never beat the Cloud of Darkness, technically, so if Scathach turns out to be someone we can beat, she's Second Rung at best.

(Given how female Voidesnt tend to look in this game, I'd say she'll at least have the spandex. On the flipside, I'm surprised Grand Order doesn't have Ferdiad...)

[Belhi]

Scathach will be interesting. I'm pretty sure I recall Ferne saying that CoD was the First Rung, but if it turns out there are multiple First Rung voidsent, that leaves open the question of which is stronger.

To be fair, we never beat the Cloud of Darkness, technically, so if Scathach turns out to be someone we can beat, she's Second Rung at best.

(Given how female Voidesnt tend to look in this game, I'd say she'll at least have the spandex. On the flipside, I'm surprised Grand Order doesn't have Ferdiad...)

The whole rung thing is an Eorzean concept so its hard to judge how well it applies, particularly when your talking about the strongest of the Voidsent. Also mitigating factors play a part. We have the Nullstone, which we didn't have against the CoD, and also Scathach has spent the last thousand years or so being used as a battery to power the Void Ark while the CoD was chilling in her realm.

[Cilia]

If I recall rightly, voidsent are functionally immortal. The best we can do is kill whatever it is they're possessing, banishing them back to the void. Since we fought the Cloud of Darkness in the void (or so close to its penumbra we may as well be in the void), the best we could do is slow it down. We managed to defeat it, but unlike 99% of everything else in this game, not kill it, and being in the void it just got back up for more. Hell, even the Nullstone can't properly kill voidsent, just cancel contracts with (thereby banishing) them!

... I can't recall whether the Cloud is the First Rung, or just one of the First Rung. Scathach hasn't been around for at least fifteen centuries to contest it either way, but we're going to need the Nullstone to banish her.

Can't permanently kill voidsent, only banish back to void. Might be Am probably wrong about that though.

(And it's not the spandex; she's just pretty beautiful. They may yet add Ferdiad, but there's plenty of guys and gals for all tastes. Plus three varieties of Cu Chulainn. Not sure what Scathach will look like here, female voidsent do tend to be a bit more... err... shapely than male varieties but are still monstrous.)

[Belhi]

It would make sense if Voidsent didn't follow the normal rules of death. After all, their home dimension is a void of Darkness so its likely the traditional Lifestream cycle no longer exists there in any recognisable form. Voidsent also seem to struggle to exist in our world since so many of them resort to using corpses and bodyparts as hosts.

[Nestama]

Can't permanently kill voidsent, only banish back to void. Might be Am probably wrong about that though.

It's safe to assume this. For the ones who appear in Eorzea: Amandine, Diabolos and Ferdiad all returned in some shape or form. Amandine was an add in Haukke Manor Hard and the other two hold story importance in Shadows of Mhach. For the ones in the Void, Cloud of Darkness just lost a physical form. It could still attack us.

So all we can do is seal them away... unless Voidsent are capable of killing other Voidsent (assimilation, super death, etc).

One thing I've always wondered, though. Since there's a Cloud of Darkness, does that mean there's also a Cloud of Light? The Void is technically supposed to be 'void' of elements, right?

[StarDrake]

There's another side to this I've been wondering about, myself: so let's assume that the World of Darkness and the capital-V Void is the Thirteenth.

Did the Allagans and especially the Mhachi know about this fact?

The Mhachi in particular used "voidsent" to power their spells and technology. Did they know they were utilizing what are probably the mutated sentient beings of another shard of Hydaelyn? Did they care?

Puts a whole new light on the actions of the Mhachi, for sure.

[Androir]

The cloud of light at World 1 had got prevented/reverted by Hydalin. Cant spoiler more.
/edit: look up the movie/series : Rise of Bahamut: Genesis.
This is showing that there is more then only this.

[Cilia]

The Cloud of "Darkness," in its origin (III), is not so much an emissary of Darkness as it is the Void (a cessation of existence). There had been Warriors of Darkness who fought against it manifesting as a result of a Flood of Light in the past. Given what we know now about XIV's Void, I don't think that's entirely the case and that they are undoubtedly separate entities. This Cloud of Darkness rules over a part of the sad, shattered remnants of the Thirteenth Reflection and, as far as we know, has no goal but to eat as much aether as it can like every other Voidsent.

From what I can gather a Dark Void is a melding and remelding of all elements into a singularity, occasionally spitting out horrid abominations i.e. the Voidsent we're familiar with. A Light Void instead is, aptly, a void of nothingness - or at least that's how Arbert described it. Black hole vs. white void, basically.

No way to say for sure if anyone before us knew what Voidsent actually are. We still aren't totally sure ourselves - all we know is that the Thirteenth Reflection became the Void as a result of a Flood of Darkness. It required others to hop planes for us to learn, so unless there were planar hoppers before the Warriors of Darkness and/or the Ascians told previous civilizations, I highly doubt it.