What happened to SB (story)?

[CosmicKirby]

And this I think, is where you're getting your wires crossed. Humans of earth of Earth are people of faith. We believe lots of stuff that we hope is true. That isn't the same thing for the setting of FFXIV, though. The greater races of Eorzeans aren't "people of faith." They live in a world of Godly literalism. They don't believe that their world was created by a goddess in the shape of a large white crystal. They know that it was as a literal and demonstrable fact.

No. By and large, no.
There very much are religions and institutions of faith within Eorzea. There are cathedrals, there are rituals and services to the twelve, and there are certainly those who disbelieve or are ignorant of others within them. For the most part, many people in Eorzea 'know' of Hydaelyn, but don't offer her worship in any way. Some are certainly skeptical of her, because she 'only' seems to commune with people who have her blessing, IE the WoL, Scions, and the former Scholars of Baldesion. To say there's 'literalism' within Eorzea is incorrect, as at no point are the Twelve actually within existence, (that we know of yet) and they're likely powered and fueled by religion in that same way that Primals are. This isn't Dungeons and Dragons, Bahamut himself isn't giving clerics magical spells and miracles for worshipping him, and primals are not in-fact gods. A RECURRING THEME within the narrative, is the Scions trying to convince the beastribes that what they THINK is a God, is in fact, just a primal, an artificial construct of their zeitgeist and zeal.

And to say that it's 'demonstrable' would mean that people have, through study and example, can prove Hydaelyn exists and created Eorzea is partially true. The Scions know it because they've talked to her, the Scholars similarly, but at the same time there's limited solidifying fact from THEIR perspective that it's all true. Louisioux was an agnostic partially because he questioned Hydaelyn and the state of cosmic conflict she has with the Ascians and Zodiark.

Louisoix himself wasn't a particularly religious man, but according to Alphanaud, he nearly "Unleashed the power of the twelve when he tried to bind Bahamaut. " If a Sharlyan agnostic can almost bring about ragnarok, then why couldn't a guy like Ilberd? The further the game's story goes, the more we learn that there are no rules set in stone when it comes to the gods. "If you have sufficient motivation, and enough resources, you can call up whatever you want", is basically what we've learned.

He unleashed their power by going through a very religious ritual, marking stones with the religious symbols of the Twelve and offering prayers. Also worth noting, this plan, FAILED Bahamut was bound by Louisoix's magic, not the twelve's.
It's far more believable that Lousoix was capable of this, because he was an Archon, lived his entire life studying magic, was shown and spoken of to be a mage of almost unreachable renown, and had Tupsimati, an artifact written to have as much of a magical significance as other similar McGuffins (Such as stupid eye balls)
The fact that Illberd, a random Mercenary of no stated magical prowess or knowledge until he somehow summons a primal that can allegedly rival Bahamut... You see why this isn't consistent yet? Illberd didn't 'earn' the right to seem that powerful.

And again, the ultimate point here. If 'anyone' can summon primals like that, there should be far more primals. It's completely unbelievable that some subjugated mortal race in any of the 5,000 years the Twelve have been in their pantheon has not successfully summoned one. At LEAST with the rules that were seemingly established throughout 2.0, it was somewhat believable.