So What is Elidibus Planning (4.56 Spoilers)

[Zohar_Lahar]

The big question is what did Elidibus want them to have faith in, instead? Who was this new god?

Was it merely an as-of-yet un-invented primal superseding the limitations of the elemental primordials; all the beast tribes of Eorzea united with one god against one empire?

Shinryu, I presume. especially since Elidibus gave Ilberd the Eyes of Nidhogg right afterwards. Seeing Shinryu using Tidal Wave, Judgment Bolt, Hellfire, etc. I could only think of what Arbert said about a new deity.

[Iscah]

Elidibus is definitely setting up our trip to the First; would not surprise me in the slightest to find out that for whatever reason, it's the only suitable place to kill Solus; and the whole reason we're going is to off him there, and not on the Source.

Is he? What makes you say that?

Enigma is the only character who has directed us to the First.

[Cilia]

Shinryu, I presume. especially since Elidibus gave Ilberd the Eyes of Nidhogg right afterwards. Seeing Shinryu using Tidal Wave, Judgment Bolt, Hellfire, etc. I could only think of what Arbert said about a new deity.

Shinryu specifically? Nah, I don't think so. The read I got from it was that by killing the already existing primals over and over, the beast tribes would be forced to acknowledge their god(s) weren't powerful enough and be driven to collectively summon some new primal that could stand up to the Warriors of Darkness / Light - and eat vast amounts more aether, which would then trigger a Calamity. "Arbert" gets impatient, though, and tries to take a shortcut at Urianger's suggestion by just killing the Warrior of Light.

I think what Sempai was trying to imply was that their efforts were meant to get the Beast Tribes worshiping Zodiark, knowingly or otherwise, but I just don't see it...

[Jennah]

Is he? What makes you say that?
Enigma is the only character who has directed us to the First.

Because Elidibus is a master manipulator.
We only know about the Warriors of Darkness and the First because he brought them here, and shared a lot of information with Urianger.
He basically caused every major event in Stormblood. Giving the Eye over to the Griffin started the War; the whole business with Tsukuyomi inflamed it; his meat-puppetting of Zenos is currently bringing it to a head.
I firmly expect to find out that the reason the 4.56 ending was so lame was because he didn't expect us to be able to off him; that he just let us go when blacked out. Wouldn't be surprised to find out he wanted the world to see the WoL killing 'Zenos' in fact.
Could be wrong - but it seems to be his characterization.

[Iscah]

Because Elidibus is a master manipulator.
We only know about the Warriors of Darkness and the First because he brought them here, and shared a lot of information with Urianger.
He basically caused every major event in Stormblood. Giving the Eye over to the Griffin started the War; the whole business with Tsukuyomi inflamed it; his meat-puppetting of Zenos is currently bringing it to a head.
I firmly expect to find out that the reason the 4.56 ending was so lame was because he didn't expect us to be able to off him; that he just let us go when blacked out. Wouldn't be surprised to find out he wanted the world to see the WoL killing 'Zenos' in fact.
Could be wrong - but it seems to be his characterization.

I'm really quite confused by your last paragraph. Do you think he (A) didn't expect we could kill him, or (B) planned for everyone to see us kill him?

And I'm not sure the rest of the evidence regarding our trip to the First points strongly enough to him. He was involved in bringing the Warriors of Darkness to the Source, but it's not clear if he intended for us to learn about them or if it came about as a combination of us meddling with and interrupting his plan, the Warriors themselves revealing most of the story, and Urianger playing both sides and setting him up to fail.

And now we're being sent to the First by someone who we may know as a previous ally, who has no reason we are aware of to be linked with the Ascians. He is at least presenting himself as a "third option" outside of the fight between Light and Darkness on the Source.

There's a possibility Elidibus has a hand in it, but there's absolutely no proof at this point.

It's also worth keeping in mind that Elidibus is not omniscient - at least not enough to realise Urianger was out to thwart him until it was too late. He may be able to see actions but not read minds, or he may simply not be aware of everything unless he pays attention to it. It's possible the Crystal Tower has entirely slipped under his radar.


Edit to add: Inhabiting a physical body may also restrict his ability to move freely and control events on a large scale, eg. it might prevent him from teleporting to other shards.

[Bright-Flower]

I don't think Elidibus expected us to live. If he wanted people to see Zenos 'die' and us to live, he wouldn't have gotten back up. He would have let the body perish and abandon it as acians can do. The fact that he got back up after we beat him and took advantage of our vulnerable state to wound us makes it clear to me that he was not trying to throw the fight for some convoluted reason, but his plan was simply foiled by best boy Estinien.

[KageTokage]

I feel like he's probably going to end up heading to the First, either in pursuit of us or figure out what exactly it is Solus is scheming because it really doesn't seem like their motives align when the latter is very obviously trying to keep his true intentions a secret from both him and Varis.

[Bright-Flower]

I feel like he's probably going to end up heading to the First, either in pursuit of us or figure out what exactly it is Solus is scheming because it really doesn't seem like their motives align when the latter is very obviously trying to keep his true intentions a secret from both him and Varis.

I think he'll be focused on the empire at least for the start of things. Would be a bit odd for him to abandon chasing us to go and reclaim what's 'his' only to shortly thereafter change his mind and hunt us again.

[MrThinker]

I think he'll be focused on the empire at least for the start of things. Would be a bit odd for him to abandon chasing us to go and reclaim what's 'his' only to shortly thereafter change his mind and hunt us again.

Just so we are clear, Kage was talking about ZElidibus, while the bolded section is about Elezenos.

[Balipu]

Honestly I'm not sure whose trap we are falling into, but all this travel to the first business is fishy. Why should we care? And correct me if I'm wrong, but a light void cannot be rejoined, so if we save the First from the flood of light, we actually benefit the Ascian plan in the long run.

If we assume that Solus and Elidibus aren't working together, we have Varis, Solus, Elidibus and Elezenos all having their wicked plans for us while we follow a hooded mystery dude to another dimension while the Garlean Army is ready to conquer Eorzea.

There is no way this will go wrong and bite us in the ass.