Fan Fest Lore Revelations [Spoilers]

[Dualgunner]

Something that came to mind was how the WoL minion describes that the WoL usually appears in the Umbral Era when they're most needed and mysteriously disappears afterward (don't quote me I have no access to the game rn).

Is Kuribu what happens to the WoL when their work is done? Dragging and dropping WoL.exe into the recycling bin as it were?

[Alleo]

It's my personal prediction that this dungeon is in THE FUTURE. In the next patch, the voice that's been stealing away the Scions' consciousnesses will succeed in doing the same for the WoL, and will take us to the Bad Future represented by the Gimlet Dark. We'll then run the dungeon, and be returned to our body in the past, having witnessed first-hand the horrors we need to prevent.

That's just a guess, however!

Thats honestly my guess too. Otherwise we would have a garlean invasion or huge attack in the last patch which would still feel quite sudden. This way they could have the WoL see the effects of the actions (even though I still dont know what we should do against that..) and still dont have to change the map at all.

Something that came to mind was how the WoL minion describes that the WoL usually appears in the Umbral Era when they're most needed and mysteriously disappears afterward (don't quote me I have no access to the game rn).

Is Kuribu what happens to the WoL when their work is done? Dragging and dropping WoL.exe into the recycling bin as it were?

Only my guess so no proof here: Couldnt it simply be that the WoLs died? I mean they did not manage to stop the calamities so maybe they simply died there.

[Fenral]

Well, a big problem I have with the whole "balance" shtick is that we still haven't seen any indication that it's tipping too far one way or the other (on the Source, our own world). Yes the Burn is a good illustration of what an aether-bleached (Light-flooded) world will end up like and yes we've been told time and again that primals drain the land's aether... but other than the unresolved aether readings from before Wilred was killed and the deaspected crystals Y'shtola found mirroring those from before the Calamity, we have no evidence anything strange is going on.

There are simply too many unknowns to figure out much at the moment (which was the intent).

We've been seeing more indications of spontaneous aether depletion since the latest patch. Without veering too far into "Hydaelyn is evil territory," it's possible we've been inadvertently feeding her the land's aether as we grow stronger. It may be possible that the balance needs to be maintained between more than just two points, with the land itself as a possible third (which would also throw a wrench in the "Hydaelyn == planet" hypothesis and pave the way for more concrete answers). Man as the fourth to give it a proper second axis?

The wording in the Shadowbringers synopsis implies to me that the WoL vs. Elidibus fight is just the start of the events that led to a calamity in another history (Presumably that of the first shard's), so I don't think things actually went bad until well into the campaign against the Garleans or after it was over.

Shards aren't parallel worlds or alternate timelines, though. The Ascians also travel between the shards, so there isn't another Elidibus out there. Just the one.

I really shouldn't be starting mobage conversations on a board intended for the lore...

I'll be moving my eponymous "alt" (actually my original character from 2010) to the Primal datacenter in the next round of free transfers. Seems like a good place for Lore/other discussion.

[Dualgunner]

Only my guess so no proof here: Couldnt it simply be that the WoLs died? I mean they did not manage to stop the calamities so maybe they simply died there.

That's definitely a possibility. It's also possible the minion's description was written just with the 1.0 WoL in mind.

[Ilenya]

Only my guess so no proof here: Couldnt it simply be that the WoLs died? I mean they did not manage to stop the calamities so maybe they simply died there.

Doesn't mesh. The WoL appearing in the Umbral Era means they are working to create an Astral Era (Like we did). The WoL disappearing means they aren't usually around when a Calamity hits.

Which does beg the question, did the 1.0 WoL mess things up by...Being Warriors of Light at that point? I mean, I don't recall having crystals for what I did of the story, but I never finished it, and I...Assume (correct me if I am wrong) that the 1.0 players who finished the story still got their first crystal the same way. I suppose all this rambling is getting at is that there were no WoL until after the Calamity. We may literally be upsetting the balance by being around when a Calamity *might* hit.

Something that came to mind after the 4.4 stuff was wondering if Bahamut was actually meant to be the Seventh Calamity, and not just something that came along, because I feel like the whole "Create Garlean Empire to create Calamity" idea kinda falls apart if the idea was to have them still pull off another Calamity. This is the first time (That I recall from when I read the lorebook) that nations actually continued to exist as they relatively were when a Calamity hit. The idea of still having planned not one, but two Calamities triggered via the Garleans...Was either just a massive case of hedging their bets, since there was no guarantee there would be a Garlean Empire post-Bahamut or a massive case of "Pulling things out of our rear."

[ObsidianFire]

The 7th Umbral Calamity was a bit of a weird one. Loiusioux's sacrifice meant that the destructive effect of it on the immediate surroundings was lessened a lot. So while a 7th Rejoining probably happened as usual (wall between a Shard and the Source being destroyed) it didn't slam everyone in the Source as hard as the Ascians were probably planning and hoping it would. As much as somethings got moved around, we don't see entire City-States being destroyed like in the 6th Umbral Calamity or anything like that. Which would have happened if Dalamud had fallen like it was supposed too...

This is both good and bad. Hydaelyn has confirmed that she's sent WoL to try to avert every Calamity that has happened, but that she has never been successful. The forces of good/order survived the 7th Umbral Calamity intact and are probably a huge reason why the 7th Umbral Era was so short compared to previous ones. On the flip side, the forces of evil/chaos survived as well. I'm very suspicious that the Garlean Empire never was supposed to survive the 7th Umbral Calamity. However, the smarter Ascians are never ones to look a gift horse in the mouth and probably started planning for the 8th Umbral Calamity as soon as the 7th hit. It's just that... for most Calamities, it's taken Society a long time to get stable enough for the Ascians to cause the large-scale chaos needed for a Calamity. Here, they didn't have to wait. Of course, this also means that Hydaelyn doesn't have to go find new champions for once (if you're from 1.0).

[Jonnycbad]

I don't understand why Hydalyn and Zodiark's struggle matter so much. It's been established there are other planets now. So are these deities just born out of the aether/lifestream that created our world? Do Ascians only care about our world? Are zodiark/hydaelyn just the guardian gods of this planet? Did Omega's homeworld have twin gods born of the aetheric sea? Dragonstar?

[Iscah]

I've wondered the opposite thing about the Seventh Umbral and Astral eras... did they declare the start of the Astral era too soon? It seems like it to me. They defeated a military opponent and forced Lahabrea to retreat (but didn't truly defeat him or prevent him from continuing to act). All good for them, but is that really enough to declare history is out of its Umbral stage? I'm not sure it is.

[Dualgunner]

I'm inclined to agree, and it makes me wonder how an Astral Era is declared. What are the criteria? Clearly an Umbral Era is declared when a Calamity happens. But what if a Calamity happens and the whole world doesn't know? Did Doma know about Dalamud falling? If they didn't, what if they still thought it was the sixth Astral Era?

[Dualblade]

Astral and Umbra eras, as far as most of Eorzea is concerened, are just ages that are named at certain points. The Ascians probably don't care at all what they are called, its just that usually the Calamities/Ardors they cause start what Eorzeans call an Umbral age, and usually the start of the next Calamity/Ardor happens when the Eorzeans enter what they call an Astral age. Because thats when society has come back.

One of the things to remember is that the events of HW happen in part because Lahabrea and Igeyorhm start trying to cause the next Calamity REALLY early. Which in part is possible because the last one ended up not being as catastrophic for the societies around at the time as it has been for every other one. The same for ARR I believe with Ultima Weapon, even if Lahabrea survived that one long enough to try again in HW.

Elidibus so far is more patient, but also is taking advantage of society, specifically the Garleans, still being around to try and start the next Calamity. Both he and Solus are also currently pushing for moving into Ala Mhigo and crushing them NOW, rather than the plodding along that Varis is doing. Which also, to me, says that the next dungeon isn't in the future. It just means that Elidibus and Solus got what they want.

Back to Astral and Umbral eras...As far as I remember they only really pertain to Eorzea due in part to this paticular continent having the most aether on the planet. While certain ages spread beyond Eorzea like the Allagans, it doesn't seem like other regions get hit by Ascian-made Calamities. Though they certainly have their own problems as we are seeing in the Four-Lords storyline for Doma. Course if Dalamud had actually hit Eorzea full-on it probably would have affected the whole word pretty badly.