The Lambs of Dalamud

[JeanneOrnitier]

What exactly is the deal with these guys? I get that they worship Dalamud, but what does that entail? Does it extend to worship of Bahamut too? They always pop up in low level stuff doing cultist rituals with voidsent but I can't recall ever learning what their like, precepts and stuff are or what their endgame goal is.

[Canadane]

From the 1.0 quests they were involved with, I recall nobody knowing of dalamud.
They just worshiped the lesser moon, much like how some religious followings worship the moon or the sun, etc.

[Ardox]

They never really expanded on it since ARR, the latest being the Amdapor Keep (Hard) dungeons. The only lore we have says it's a doomday cult that started when the lesser moon started its descend. It's not even clear if they moved to worship Bahamut or not once it been revealed it was its prison. I don't think there's any mention of them being tempered either. Some would argue they were exterminated once they freed Ferdiad, but don't quote me on that: we absolutely don't know what happened to them next.

Personally I feel it would have been nice to have a bit more minor evil organizations like that. It's been so long we've seen them, I doubt we will ever heard of them again tbh

[YianKutku]

They never really expanded on it since ARR, the latest being the Amdapor Keep (Hard) dungeons. The only lore we have says it's a doomday cult that started when the lesser moon started its descend. It's not even clear if they moved to worship Bahamut or not once it been revealed it was its prison. I don't think there's any mention of them being tempered either. Some would argue they were exterminated once they freed Ferdiad, but don't quote me on that: we absolutely don't know what happened to them next.

Personally I feel it would have been nice to have a bit more minor evil organizations like that. It's been so long we've seen them, I doubt we will ever heard of them again tbh

The Encyclopedia Eorzea 2 has a two-page feature on them, but a lot of it is "they are a mysterious doomsday cult, and being mysterious, we don't know much about them". Lots of speculation, but no real answers.

It does mention that the Lambs of Dalamud were generally surprised that Dalamud was actually a prison for Bahamut, and this caused many of them to abandon the cult. Whatever remnants who still believe are scattered and relatively unorganized.

As for their final fate, the EE2 doesn't mention their extermination at Amdapor Keep, or indeed any of their activities since 1.0, but it does mention that in the "present time", there are suspiciously similar cults among the Xaela, which may or may not be a revival of the Lambs in another location.

[Iscah]

it does mention that in the "present time", there are suspiciously similar cults among the Xaela, which may or may not be a revival of the Lambs in another location.

The list of Xaela tribes includes the Dalamiq, a non-nomadic tribe who are believed to have once worshipped Dalamud.

[ObsidianFire]

It has also been revealed that the House of the Crooked Coin houses the crystal that launched Dalamud into orbit. So there is a connection with that as well. Personally, I'm hoping the Lambs of Dalamud being in the Steepe is a set-up for Bardam's Mettle (Hard) where the cult has taken over the Mettle and the Xalea ask us to help them take it back. Hopefully with more references to the Xaela legends that date back to the time of Allag...

[Anonymoose]

In trying to understand the Lambs of Dalamud, it helps to know that (A) even though we don't see them very often, there are obscure cults and religious sects everywhere, (B) the Lambs were just a new cult on the scene for the supposed apocalypse, and (C) Koji Fox just really likes them.

In a nutshell, they were people who were so afraid of the coming Calamity that they rallied around delusional cult leaders and bought into this idea that Dalamud was a god - the loyal hound of the goddess Menphina - and that his coming heralded a new age. By spilling blood in Dalamud's name and serving him before the Calamity, he would remember their scent and fetch them from the depths of the Seventh Hell to serve him in his new paradise. Certain voidsent were all too happy to feed into their delusions for a path into our world, so we usually see them in that capacity: being duped into doing something stupid.

You'd think the Calamity and Bahamut and all that jazz would shake that belief ... but that's not always how cults work.

Anonymoose
As of Amdapor (Hard), have the Lambs of Dalamud effectively been destroyed?

Koji Fox:
My boys! No! They have not. [pauses]
They had, really...until I said, “Oda-san, no.” <laughs>
And he’s like, “Well, okay, if you want to write a quest—” “I will write a quest!”
So in the expansion we’re gonna do something with them. I already have a great story in mind.
The Lambs will never die! I want that on, like, a T-shirt.

[Gwaeron]

Koji Fox just really likes them.

One could tell just from the quality of the scripts of those quests. I remember being blown away by the quest where we unwittingly helped the Lambs with a human sacrifice at Gwyr-Aen (?).

[Iscah]

One could tell just from the quality of the scripts of those quests. I remember being blown away by the quest where we unwittingly helped the Lambs with a human sacrifice at Gwyr-Aen (?).

Very unwittingly, it seems... I don't remember that happening.

When was that?

[MrThinker]

Very unwittingly, it seems... I don't remember that happening.

When was that?

Maybe it was a 1.x quest? Cause I also don't remember that ever happening.