Fan Fest Lore Revelations [Spoilers]

[WhiteArchmage]

[*]Koji Fox went into the history of the Padjals, but nothing we didn't already know, and I think the implication is that for now the Padjals we see are the ones that exist currently, and the total number that ever existed is "less than you can count on three Simpsons hands" (whatever that means). I could be mistaken.

Less than 12, Simpsons charactes have 4 fingers on each hand. I hope it means ever existed "at the same time" otherwise we're talking very few Padjali in history since we currently have just over half a dozen living ones.

[Dualblade]

Less than 12, Simpsons charactes have 4 fingers on each hand. I hope it means ever existed "at the same time" otherwise we're talking very few Padjali in history since we currently have just over half a dozen living ones.

If I remember correctly Padjal also have longer life-spans compared to the rest of the mortal races. Probably still been more than 12 overall but depending on how long they can live I could see there still being under 100 total throughout the existance of Padjals.

[Grimr]

my two cents. First take note of the gremlin, kiribu and the lion beast in the trailer to me that screams amdapor. Perhaps this represents the so called flood of light. It is possible to confront this wave of light beside being being wod. This light was fought in the 5th astral era by nymians and more importantly mhachi. I suppose derplander never specked into blm or sch.

[Brightamethyst]

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.

I always wondered about that too. Did the astral era really start there just because Minfilia declared it to be so? That seems like the sort of thing historians would argue and decide on after the fact, with the people of the time never even knowing.

[LineageRazor]

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?

In the broad scheme of the entire universe? No, their struggle doesn't amount to much. The Source, the Reflections, Hydaelyn, Zodiark, all the drama in the game are nothing more than a tiny speck of light to anyone living on Middy's or Omega's homeworlds (assuming, indeed, that anyone still lives on those worlds). However, those worlds, and presumably all others, are far too remote to be of any use. Even an impossibly high-tech entity like Omega traveled through space for so long in scrambled its memories. As far as the game's storyline goes, those worlds are completely inaccessible to us. Do those worlds have deities, like ours does? Possibly, but again, it doesn't matter; those deities, too, would be out of reach.

While life goes on (or doesn't go on) on distant worlds, THIS world is the only one that matters to the movers and shakers. The Ascians care about ZODIARK, not about some distant Dragonstar god that may or may not exist. If Hydaelyn goes kablooie, there's not some other world that her inhabitants can escape to. We need to protect THIS world. While the existence of other inhabited worlds is an interesting curiosity, it's pretty much irrelevant to the conflicts we need to deal with.

The universe might not care about the fate of Hydaelyn, but the people that live on her certainly do!

[ObsidianFire]

An Astra Era's start is probably a lot more up in the air then an Umbral Era start is. Calamities tend towards being very, very obvious in how they start. They are most likely world-wide too (Source-wide more like it). It's only the more recent ones that are local. Although... local in this case is like saying something that happens to all of Europe is "local" so that's not quite the word I'd use to describe a Calamity.

1st - Wind Calamity. Although not much is known about it. No one even knew what element this was until the 6th Umbral Calamtiy. This is the 1st Era of all recorded history and no one knows anything about what happened before this.

2nd - Lightning Calamity. Lots of volcanic eruptions spewed clouds of ash into the atmosphere, so thick they blocked the Sun. Lighting struck out of the clouds for an entire year, forced everyone underground. Given how bad the volcanic activity would have to be for this to be the case, the effects would have been world-wide, if not as extreme. For a modern example of this, look up up the 1991 Mt Pinatubo eruption and see how far it's effects were felt... Then look at some older eruptions like Mt Tambora in 1815 and know that there are records of even larger eruptions even further back...

3rd - Fire Calamity. The sun is said to have increased in size for a long period of time, drying out the realm. Think less of global warming and more of a global drying out. Given that this is because of the sun, it's pretty much global by default.

4th - Earth Calamity. Xande directs Dalamud to stream a vast quantity of energy into the Crystal Tower to open the way for the Cloud of Darkness. The Crystal Tower can't take the strain and discharges all the energy into the earth, causing a massive earthquake. The earthquake buries the Allagan Capital and the Crystal Tower. With the Crystal Tower gone, the Allagan Empire loses its power source and the government crumbles. At a minimum this would have effected the Three Great Continents and most likely Meracydia as well.

5th - Ice Calamity. Think the worst Ice Age ever. It's said that ice got as far south as the Sea of Jade and the Bloodbrine Sea was completely frozen over. The same is mostly likely true for anything north. That would include Old Sharlayan, all of Ilsabard, and the majority of Othard (north of Doma).

6th - Water Calamity. This is the most localized Calamity we've had yet most likely. And even then, it's not that local. The seas on both coasts of Aldenard rose and flooded most of the continent. Only the regions with tall mountains like Gyr Abania (and probably Dravania) were most likely spared. However, given that it was the seas that rose, that presents the possibility of the seas rising around the coasts of the other continents too...

7th - All Elements. This is a rather weird Calamity as the severity of it was curtailed by Loiusoix. So it's very, very, likely the devastation of it would have been bigger otherwise. It's also a rather simple Calamity in concept. The Lesser Moon Dalamud fell from the sky and impacted Aldenard. Only, there was a humongous primal in the middle of it and someone managed to slow it down so it didn't impact Aldenard as hard as it otherwise would have. Which is saying a lot. The Manicouagan Crater in Canada is probably a good example of what would have happened if Dalamud hadn't been slowed. And that's just the mundane fallout of it. Who knows what Bahamut could have gotten up to if the Phoenix hadn't been there... What did end up happening was that the aether rivers under Aldenard (and probably the rest of the planet) got shifted around and one of the moons disappeared. That alone would be noticeable literally everywhere on Hydalyn.

8th - ??? We don't know how bad this will be. But given that Aldenard is still recovering from the 7th Umbral Calamity, it's probably going to hit really, really hard.

[Ghoulheart]

Roegadyn lore fanatic here. I am seeing a few people who are stumped on the name of the final dungeon "The Ghimlyt Dark" and wanted to shed some light on the name. The word "Ghimlyt" I believe is actually a roegadyn term which would roughly translate into "Modestly Lit" which would make the dungeon's name "The Modestly Lit Dark" which would be a rather low profile way to describe the atmosphere of the dungeon and using a roegadyn term for it doesn't surprise me given the roegadyn presence in the area.

'Ghim' being the roegadyn word for 'Modest' as shown in the roegadyn dictionary on these forums and I am going to make an assumption based on my own exposure to roegadyn terms that 'lyt' just means 'lit'.

I don't have any speculation to add though on the subjects at hand.

[Rocl]

If I remember correctly Padjal also have longer life-spans compared to the rest of the mortal races. Probably still been more than 12 overall but depending on how long they can live I could see there still being under 100 total throughout the existance of Padjals.

Padjali only began to appear after the Pact of Gelmorra during the Sixth Astral Era, right? So it's been under two millenia and for a people who live for centuries.... about a dozen doesn't seem too bad?

[Fenral]

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.

I believe the declaration of an Astral Era was a PR move on the part of the Grand Companies, and not based on any hard scientific facts. That may simply be Word of Moose, though.

Now that we have an 8th Calamity on our hands, though, I guess we can say the the entire Seventh Era lasted almost-but-not-quite 6 years, 5 of those being Umbral.

[Draginhikari]

I believe the declaration of an Astral Era was a PR move on the part of the Grand Companies, and not based on any hard scientific facts. That may simply be Word of Moose, though.

Now that we have an 8th Calamity on our hands, though, I guess we can say the the entire Seventh Era lasted almost-but-not-quite 6 years, 5 of those being Umbral.

All and all the 7th Calamity was kind of different as it was interrupted due to Louisoix preventing Bahamut from continuing his rampage. It's questionable if the 7th calamity could be viewed a full calamity at all. Though it probably had the same effect either way. Then again I suppose outside of those NPCs involved in the Coil Storyline as far as anyone knows that was the calamity regardless of how short it was compared to the others.