Everything we know about Allagans?

[Ware]

I'll be honest I wasn't expecting anyone to type up the entire allagan history. I meant more if/was there one available. My main questions are more specific. To rephrase:
Information on their tech/How it functioned.
Their language. (In cut-scenes a node is required to work the Azylls La consoles, but Cid can read the results?)
Their knowledge on chimeras, and how it relates to the second coil. (I've yet to clear the binding coil due to mishaps, but I know the second coil features chimeras as a story point? How did allagans make the chimeras? Why? etc etc)

That's not to say I wouldn't ENJOY the knowledge. When I want to know about a certain part of the lore, I want to know as much details as possible.

Regardless, thank you all for taking time out of your lives to answer my questions ^^ I need to head to bed as it's 5am and I need to get up in 3 hours...But I look forward to reading what's here to greet me when I return!


Thank you for the info. That's answered most of my questions that were gnawing at my mind. <3 Thanks a bunch.

[Sounsyy]

Information on their tech/How it functioned.
Their language. (In cut-scenes a node is required to work the Azylls La consoles, but Cid can read the results?)
Their knowledge on chimeras, and how it relates to the second coil. (I've yet to clear the binding coil due to mishaps, but I know the second coil features chimeras as a story point? How did allagans make the chimeras? Why? etc etc)

Like most everyone already said, to compile a complete list of everything relating to Allag would just be... a truly massive undertaking. Likely take days to complete, not to mention tracing the seeds of what Allag left behind to current place names, occurrences, and such that at a quick glance might not at first appear related to Allag, such as the Lambs of Dalamud. But for those specific questions, we can easily pull some answers from the lore book.

Chimeras

Simply stated, chimeras are creatures created by conjuring the flesh from two or more different beings. The process is highly complex, and was only perfected in the waning years of the Allagan Empire - the culmination of nearly an entire era's biological research. Despite recent findings which have shed more light on the process, replication of chimera-manufacturing techniques remains an impossibility within the scope of modern science.

The wonder of aetherochemistry allowed the Allagan civilization to reach theretofore unmatched heights, granting them a nearly limitless power with which they could manipulate the very building blocks of Hydaelyn's myriad creation. They could forge life anew, and by doing so take the final forbidden step toward godhood.

Yet the gods would not allow their halls to be corrupted by the taint of man, and so they cast the Allagans down from their pedestal in a great calamity of earth. Their creations, however, survived long after the fall of the empire, the truth behind their origins lost to time. The scholars of following eras assumed the beings to be natural, albeit twisted, and categorized them as they saw fit using distinctive characteristics as guides. Naga were reptilian, so they must be scalekin. Chimeras bore the head of a lion and a ram, so they must be beastkin. It was not until the discovery of information locked inside receptacles of knowledge known as tomestones that the true nature of the blasphemous creatures and their wicked evolution was brought to light.

The first chimeras were crude creations - forbidden marriages of two seemingly dissimilar creatures, one serving as a "medium" to serve as host, the other as a "catalyst" to incite a transference of characteristics. What traits from the catalyst would manifest in the host could not be predicted with any accuracy, leaving much of the process to chance. The result was countless expensive "failures" that required suffering while awaiting the emergence of an acceptable subject. What is worse, the resulting chimeras were all infertile, meaning that the only means for mass production of the creatures was via cloning techniques that, at this time, had yet to be perfected. As a result, very few of these first-generation chimeras still exist today.

As aetherochemists continued their first-generation trials, the process of splicing biological information from one creature into another grew more refined. Scientists could now isolate certain traits from teh catalyst and transfer those to the medium with a high rate of success. This breakthrough succeeded in both significantly reducing the probability for test failure while also solving the problem of infertility. Second-generation chimeras could reproduce on their own, removing the need for costly and time-consuming cloning and opening the door for military mass production.

Chimera development took its next step forward following the discovery of methods allowing traits of multiple catalysts to be spliced into a single medium. Yet, while the incorporation of additional characteristics led to more complex and diverse creatures, maximizing strength, agility, and intelligence, the resulting abominations proved unsound of mind. Many and more would simply refuse to take orders, attacking their siblings, or even their creators. The scientists were forced to watch as the sanity of their creations collapsed in on itself, rendering the beasts useless masses of quivering flesh.

As the Third Astral Era neared its end, Allagan aetherochemists finally succeeded in stabilizing the psychological deficiencies present in many of the third-generation chimeras, the result being what was ultimately hailed the perfect construct. Not only did the fourth-generation creations exhibit strength and intelligence rivaling that of even a spoken, but they were no longer prone to the erratic behavior that plagued the past generations. To achieve this, however, the Allagans would test their very moral limits, electing to perform their research on beastmen and even members of the five races. As a result, near-flawless creations such as the shabti and the iksalion were achieved... but at what price?

Here are some examples from the Chimeras section of the Beastiary:

These second-generation chimeras were developed out of pure hubris in an attempt to recreate beings which, until that time, had existed merely in folklore - the mythical constructs of the divine. Much to the chagrin of their creators, several of the pegasi escaped their pens soon after their unholy breeding, and took to the skies of the Sea of Clouds to once again become the stuff of legend.

The people of this serpentine race appear as Hyur women from the waist up, and sinuous snakes from the waist down. It is now known that these creatures were born not of the gods, but of an unholy union between witches and beasts in ages past - an unholy union guided by the hands of mad Allagan scientists. Lamiae are capable of harboring massive quantities of aether within their bodies allowing for accelerated healing and potent spellweaving.

The birdlike iksalions proved remarkably intelligent constructs and were thus employed by Allagan engineers to perform maintenance tasks requiring a capacity for advanced problem solving, though notable flaws included a weakness against the elements and certain genetic instabilities. The offspring of these creatures would eventually evolve over the next four millennia to become the Ixal - a fact of which none of their tribe remains aware.

The naga is a sizable scalekin-like creature, large enough to swallow whole an entire phurble. Originally thought to be native to the eastern continent of Othard, naturalists now know that the aberrations are actually chimeras pieced together in a Third Astral Era labratorium from the limbs of voidsent summoned to this realm by godless Allagan aetherochemists. Records claim that they created the naga for no other reason than to discern whether such grafting and splicing of voidal flesh was, in fact, possible.

Using knowledge gained in the creation of the naga, Allagan aetherochemists ultimately succeeded in cloning flesh that, for all intents and purposes, was identical to that from creatures of the void despite being grown entirely on this plane. This flesh was subsequently provided to the imperial army whose weapons division scientists fused it with antling tissue, creating what they believed to be the perfect infantry soldier.

The reptoid is a gruesome assemblage of flesh and blood taken from multiple scalekin specimens and spliced together to form an all but invincible killing machine. A tiny metal box capable of emitting lightning-aspected shocks is inserted into the braincase of each and every reptoid so as to deliver commands to the creature that they may be controlled from afar - a feature implemented specifically for the Allagan Empire’s Meracydian campaign.

A fourth generation construct, and one of the first to effectively employ sustainable cloning technology, the highly intelligent shabti was hailed as a major breakthrough in chimera creation. To serve as a deterrent for tempering by Meracydia’s primals, each shabti had within their bodies implanted a powerful explosive device which would trigger when bombarded with high concentrations of manipulative aethers, effectively destroying the subject while delivering extreme damage to any enemy targets in its vicinity.

Now that how the Allagans created the Chimeras is out of the way, we can quickly answer the why. As you might've guessed based on some of the specific chimera descriptions above, one of the leading catalysts to the progression of aetherochemical research was Allag's war against the Meracydians during the Second Reign of Xande.

Amon’s genius and obsessive nature made dangerous bedfellows, leading to the death of countless suubjects before ultimately bearing fruit. Not only was Xande resurrected from his millennium-long slumber, but had achieved both immortality and an otherworldly vigor in the process. Over the next few days, the emperor was briefed by Amon of the myriad changes the realm had seen in the thousand years since his death - the advancement of civilization, the extent of the empire’s reach, and the state of her people. Once aware of what he had to work with, he moved quickly to right the ship, starting with the assassination of the current emperor and any loyalists to the regime by the Glasya Labolas-lead Imperial Honor Guard. With the throne reclaimed and potential challengers to Xande’s authority conveniently disappeared, the new emperor wasted little time restoring the heretofore impotent Imperial Army to its former size and strength, and ordering it on its first mission - the full-force invasion and occupation of the southern continent, Meracydia.

Just as Amon predicted, Xande’s return had revitalized the empire, igniting the fire in the hearts of the complacent and providing them with purpose. The army’s ranks swelled with new recruits, manufactories began hiring manual laborers to meet increased demand for weaponry, and scholarly circles were abuzz with new discoveries and inventions. The Allagan Empire would be great once again, and the road to greatness led south. The Meracydians, however, were not about to give up their homes without a fight. While the empire’s first wave of attacks were largely successful due to the fact they were unexpected, subsequent raids into Meracydia proved more difficult. The native peoples of the southern continent banded together under the leadership of the dragons who also claimed dominion in Meracydia. While without equal on the Three Great Continents, the Imperial Army’s chimerical warbeasts were no match for the dragons’ fiery breath, and countless casualties were suffered. This, however, only served to further motivate the scientists of Allag in their ungodly pursuit of might through biological manipulation, and it was not long before they had created abominations which exceeded the might of the Meracydian Horde. In a decisive and bloody battle, the Allagans slew the dawn wyrm, Bahamut, paving the way for immediate occupation… or so they believed.

With the dragons all but defeated, the Meracydians turned to their gods for salvation, invoking terrible beings known as “eikons” in one final attempt to rid their land of the Allagans. While there is no record of any eikon (currently “primal”) summonings on Meracydia prior to the imperial invasion, immediately following the fall of Bahamut, multiple tribes were simultaneously successful in calling their deities from the aether, suggesting that a third party may have been involved in the passing of the specific knowledge required to do so.

Of these eikons, three - Sephirot the Fiend, Sophia the Goddess, and Zuvran the Demon - or the “Warring Triad,” as they would come to be called, would prove the most problematic for the invaders from the north, temporarily driving the Allagans back to the Meracydian coasts. A furious Xande demanded a solution from his imperial cadre of mages, threatening to kill a man a day until they fulfilled his seemingly impossible request. How could one rid the world of a being the could simply be resummoned the moment it was slain? In their desperation, the mages turned to the very enemy they fought for inspiration, and before too many of their brethren had succumbed to the emperor’s wrath, they discovered a new branch of spellcasting which would ultimately become the roots of modern summoning, and utilized it to neutralize the power of the Warring Triad by imprisoning them, instead of defeating them outright.

Victory over the eikons should have marked the end of conflict in Meracydia, but the southern continent was not yet willing to concede defeat. Devastated by her mate Bahamut’s demise at the hand of the Allagans, the wyrm Tiamat endeavored to resurrect the dawn dragon in the same manner that the tribes of Meracydia summoned the eikons - as a deity. What rose from the ashes, however, was but a shade of the dusk wyrm’s beloved Bahamut. Twisted with rage, the great wyrm unleashed his fury on the Allagans, erasing almost immediately any advantage the empire had seized.

Emperor Xande found great joy in the ever-changing tide of battle, and is claimed to have said that he never felt more “alive” than during the slaughter of the Meracydian campaign. He also believed that a man was only as strong as those he slew, and therefore would welcome the onslaught of his enemies with open arms, using them as opportunities to gain even more power. The war with Meracydia fueled the advancement of Allagan technology and deepened the empire’s knowledge of arcane magicks. Not only could a dragon or an eikon now be captured, but it could be tamed, controlled. Its very life essence could be tapped and used as a source of seemingly endless energy - a fate that ultimately befell the Warring Triad. In a breakthrough by the imperial mages, communion with voidsent was achieved, ultimately culminating in the signing of a pact between Emperor Xande and the self-proclaimed “ruler” of the void, the Cloud of Darkness. In exchange for an unlimited supply of vessels which would house the minions of the void, allowing them to remain in the corporeal realm, the emperor merely demanded that the voidsent fight for him on the shores of Meracydia. With each enemy slain, a new vessel would become available, allowing for the immediate summoning of a host and subsequent possession of the body. The more the undead army killed, the larger their ranks swelled, until not even the mighty Bahamut reborn could overcome their numbers. The great wyrm grew gradually weaker, as the crystals required to maintain his strength became scarce due to overharvesting. Unable to wield his former might, Bahamut was finally captured and fitted with neurolinks, effectively making him a tool of the empire, and putting an end to Meracydian campaign. The Allagan Empire had claimed yet another prize.

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The Allagan Language

As Anonymoose mentioned, a few words from an "Allagan tongue" appear in the game, as well as scripts on Allagan ruins. Considering the Allagan Empire toppled the entire known world, it's likely that several languages may have existed or perhaps a common spoken tongue that perhaps survived into the Fourth Astral Era.

From what information - mostly based in oral tradition - remains of the early Fourth Astral Era, blame for the fall of civilization was placed firmly on man's lust for knowledge. The people deemed that the answers to life's mysteries were best left with the gods. Pursuit of that which lies beyond man's ken was seen as a sin, and that it was this covetousness that proved the impetus for his destruction. A widespread shunning of any and all manner of higher learning began. Books were burned and parents refrained from teaching letters to their children. Surviving Allagan technologies were destroyed, buildings were toppled and buried, and the learned - what few remained - were exiled or even killed. Civilization took a giant leap backward to a time not unlike the Second Astral Era. The pendulum had swung, and an era-long thirst for knowledge was quickly replaced with an unmoving fear in the heavens. Stories of the Allagan Empire survived now only in scripture, where the fallen civilization was reduced to a simple device used to teach lessons on the sin of hubris.

For approximately fifteen hundred years - a number long speculated, but only recently confirmed with the discovery of an operating expulsion node in Azys Lla placing the abandonment of the floating research complex at five thousand years ago - the silent war against knowledge continued, the church manipulating what knowledge (if any) trickled its way down to the masses. Religious leaders went even as far as introducing a new alphabet for their holy scriptures, taught only to men and women of the cloth, so as to solidify their control over the realm through the continued illiteracy of the common people. It is therefore ironic that this alphabet for the privileged would eventually evolve into the Eorzean script used throughout the realm today.

In times of eld, countless tongues and dialects were spoken regularly by the various peoples of Eorzea. As migration and cultural exchange between the races became more common, a universal language arose, easing the burden of communication between different peoples. This language, which came to be known as the common tongue, is now spoken by the vast majority of the realm's residents. It is believed that Hyuran priests also played a vital role in the creation of the Eorzean alphabet at the end of the Fourth Astral Era, though the precise details are lost to history.

Assuming that oral dictation truly was the primary means for spreading history, stories, scripture, etc throughout the early to late Fourth Astral Era, as well as the tidbit on the modern Eorzean alphabet for the Common Tongue supposedly arising from this spoken oral language(s) of this earlier era, it's possible that this same universal language may have existed in some dialect or form during the Allagan years as well, offering us a possible explanation as to why Allagans and Allagan constructs that have only recently been uncovered seem to be able to more or less speak our language, whereas the ancient Meracydians who were only integrated into the Allagan Empire during its twilight years still exclusively spoke a primitive Meracydian dialect that non-Echo wielders were unable to understand.


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Allagan Technology and Technologists

The communities which emerged in teh aftermath of the Calamity of Fire, while fearful of the gods, were wary to once again make them the centerpieces of their society. Pursuit of the divine had incurred the wrath of the heavens, so to avoid a similar fate, mankind chose to place distance between itself and the gods. As a result, society began to focus on the individual talents of its people. Faint in the gods gave way to faith in oneself. With this newfound confidence, mankind began producing some of the greatest minds in history. New discoveries in science and technology were being made each day. Civilization was advancing at a rate unseen in the previous two Astral Eras, and at the forefront stood a man who would see that civilization reach to the far corners of Hydaelyn - Xande.

The Allagan Technologists were the creators of "Clockwork" technology. If the term sounds familiar, its rediscovery and revitalization as an Eorzean technology runs more or less parallel to Garlean magitek. Two different technologies, both based upon rediscovered or reversed engineered Allagan technologies.

As Allagan civilization grew more advanced, their technologists developed sturdy machines which could handle the mundane tasks of everyday life, allowing the people time to indulge in more leisurely pursuits. Incapable of doing anything beyond what they were programmed for, these metallic automatons proved safe, loyal allies in battle... even far after the demise of their masters.

Unlike clockwork soldiers, many of which were little more than manservants reprogrammed to wield weapons, clockwork knights were initially designed with warfare in mind - evident from their refined weaponry, improved armor plating, and aether-neutralizing jamming devices.

It was not long before the enemies of the Allagn Empire - most often resistance cells from within - learned ways of tampering clockwork soldiers' original programming, effectively turning the machina on their masters. To prevent this, imperial technologists worked with aetherochemists to create a more manlike soldier which would prove nigh impossible to corrupt. The result was the clockwork predator which, in addition to having an impenetrable security protocol, was also a faster, more efficient killer.

Developed in the waning years of the Allagan civilization when the empire's leaders and technologists had become abnormally paranoid of enemies stealing their knowledge, defense nodes were mass-produced and deployed in ridiculous numbers in Azys Lla, Syrcus Tower, and other important centers of rule. It is thought that due to the similarities in design, that the nacelle used to contain Bahamut is a large-scale rendition of a defense node.

All-purpose iron claws were put to use in many aspects of Allagan society, from logistics to construction to military detail. The imperial army would deploy the unmanned vehicles into the lands of hostile tribes known to have summoned eikons. There, the claws would capture tempered tribe members and bring them back to Azys Lla where the captives would be goaded into summoning their gods so that the Allagans might capture them.

The next step of evolution for the Allagan Empire's clockwork army went beyond merely creating machina that took on the appearance of chimeras (such as the hydrae), but actually incorporating living tissue into the automatons, granting them enhanced dexterity and fluidity of movement. However, the overall difficulty faced in performing such grafting procedures, combined with the inability of aetherochemists to devise a means to prevent the incorporated flesh's desiccation would result in the abandoning of any further study in this field.

Hopefully this helps! As you can see, even skimming the surface of these three questions netted a lot of data. If you have more questions though, feel free to ask!

[Ware]

Thanks GREAT ^_^ That's awesome! Thank you so much! That's an immense help. A lot of information, references, and lore on chimeral creatures. I'm quite sated in terms of knowledge now. Thanks a bunch!