Do the twelve even exist? [spoilers]

[Akonyl]

I very much appreciate the way faith and religion are handled in this game.

To be sure, the Final Fantasy series has usually taken a sceptical — if not outright cynical — approach towards religion, which is almost always portrayed as a power-hungry organisation used by the clergy to manipulate the masses. This was especially the case in say, Final Fantasy XII,Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy Tactics.

The matters of gods, primals and eikons in this game, on the other hand, underscore the deeper reasons for why faith and religion continue to persist not just in Eorzea, but also in the real world. Our world.

To this point though, most JRPGs even where they have the token Evil Church still have a "true" or more benign version of religion, beyond what the church has corrupted it to be for its own purposes, it's just generally in the form of less organized religion+personal spirituality. It's less cynicism about religion/gods themselves and more cynicism about organized religion, which XIV really isn't free from either, since we had an entire expansion that was about thwarting the lies of an evil church (even if their lies about the gods themselves weren't what made them evil rather than their manipulation of history).

[dynus]

To this point though, most JRPGs even where they have the token Evil Church still have a "true" or more benign version of religion, beyond what the church has corrupted it to be for its own purposes, it's just generally in the form of less organized religion+personal spirituality. It's less cynicism about religion/gods themselves and more cynicism about organized religion, which XIV really isn't free from either, since we had an entire expansion that was about thwarting the lies of an evil church (even if their lies about the gods themselves weren't what made them evil rather than their manipulation of history).

At the risk of over generalization, I think this is probably Japan's general feeling about religion. Shintoism, Japan's native religion can be a very personal one. Worship is different all over Japan. There is the State Shinto but as a whole, it's far less organized than Christianity.