Revelations from Patch 5.4

[Iscah]

Bahamut might have been the touchstone of the 7th Calamity which was an "Astral" aspected Calamity... but the Primal himself is a Fire Primal.

He's associated with the sun, but does that automatically make him fire-aspected? Has it been stated somewhere?

The lorebook phrases it that "the attack by Bahamut" was all the elements charged astrally. The Calamity is astral-aspected because Bahamut's attack was, and that is because the attack was the Calamity.

It also occurs to me that what seemed to be Azeyma's sun symbol in the Meracydian cathedral was ascribed to being a symbol of Sephirot, who is certainly not fire-aspected.

[Rosenstrauch]

It also occurs to me that what seemed to be Azeyma's sun symbol in the Meracydian cathedral was ascribed to being a symbol of Sephirot, who is certainly not fire-aspected.

Can I take a moment to comment on just how weird this is? It's been bugging me ever since I noticed it. Why is a Meracydian Cathedral dedicated to Sephirot filled with reliefs depicting the symbol of Azeyma, an Eorzean goddess?

[Iscah]

Can I take a moment to comment on just how weird this is? It's been bugging me ever since I noticed it. Why is a Meracydian Cathedral dedicated to Sephirot filled with reliefs depicting the symbol of Azeyma, an Eorzean goddess?

There's an interview from HW era on that which I should have bookmarked last time it came up - basically somehow the symbol linked to Azeyma also made its way elsewhere and in this case became linked to Sephirot instead.

The writers may have been setting up "Azem inspired sun gods everywhere" for a very long time, or at least setting plot hooks that later turned into it.

[Vyrerus]

I don't understand what the new tome gear represents

They are outright Demon's/Dark Souls/Bloodborne references. Along with the second fight in Eden being a direct reference to Ludwig the Holy Blade, as others have no doubt said by now. In Bloodborne there is a location known as, "The Chalice Dungeons." In gameplay these are procedurally generated dungeons that are optional and lore heavy. Since we get the tome gear from The First still, they represent the last scrap of lore that we can get, in the form of being the gear of heroes and villains of eld.

A heavy portion of Bloodborne is Lovecraftian, and much of the game takes place within pocket dimensions referred to as Dreams and Nightmares, where you travel along in a seemingly physical form, despite being incorporeal, despite the fact that you bleed. As on the nose as this reference is, it also falls in line with the major plot thread given to us with the Scions and The First. When Bloodborne Lore videos discuss these dimensions, and the body you are in, it is your, "Dream form." So this gear may also be the gear of dead heroes' dreams. It's quite poetic.

[Iscah]

They are outright Demon's/Dark Souls/Bloodborne references.

I know it's a reference from an outside perspective, but it still should ideally have some degree of sense within the game. If these dropped from an eerie dungeon it would make sense, but they seem out of place as top-of-the-line new gear you're purchasing from a shop in an opulent city.

[Vyrerus]

I know it's a reference from an outside perspective, but it still should ideally have some degree of sense within the game. If these dropped from an eerie dungeon it would make sense, but they seem out of place as top-of-the-line new gear you're purchasing from a shop in an opulent city.

Do they though? The first tome gear we had this expansion was Ronkan. This established that Eulmorans go or likely went spelunking for battle gear, likely in their original pre-Vauthry bid to fend off the Sineaters.

The next tome gear we got was Deepshadow. Thanks to the painting Elezens and Cylva, we know this to be Shadowkeeper tainted gear of pre-Flood Laxan Loft, likely found when Eulmorans went spelunking post Vauthry for more gear to keep the city secure/provide better trade options.

5.2 saw us in Crystarium guard gear, which makes even less sense as the highest quality of battle gear than the current or former gearsets, but they were saving the last, "spelunking set" for 5.4.

And here we are with discount-Soulsborne attire. We don't know the location in which it was found, and the Ascian mask reference on all of the headpieces doesn't tie in nicely to any location that makes total sense with what we've got, but what does make sense is that prior to this, 2/3 tome sets were found by spelunking Eulmorans, and this marks the third set. So they were found in a spooky dungeon, but this part of their acquisition was done by the expert spelunkers of Eulmore, rather than by us directly.

[Vyrerus]

Also, I submit that the pieces people are likening to Lady Maria's outfit are more in line with, save for the hat, Marvelous Chester's attire from Dark Souls.



Granted, he was a DLC easter egg reference to the game they were working on, which was Bloodborne at the time.

[Morningstar1337]

There's an interview from HW era on that which I should have bookmarked last time it came up - basically somehow the symbol linked to Azeyma also made its way elsewhere and in this case became linked to Sephirot instead.

The writers may have been setting up "Azem inspired sun gods everywhere" for a very long time, or at least setting plot hooks that later turned into it.

A mor elikely doylist expaliantion is that they took some existing ruins and copypasted them there, with that explanation being a retcon added to justify it

the Azem revelations however seem relevant to this as well as you suggest, but those might also been a retcon of sorts

[YianKutku]

There's also the very real possibility that the people who designed the fights for Eden apparently didn't actually get the lore memo that Astral = Darkness.

Consider E7, where the debuff tooltips insist that the white birds are Astral-aspected and the black birds are Umbral-aspected.

[Iscah]

There's also the very real possibility that the people who designed the fights for Eden apparently didn't actually get the lore memo that Astral = Darkness.

Consider E7, where the debuff tooltips insist that the white birds are Astral-aspected and the black birds are Umbral-aspected.

I don't think that's relevant for E9 - there's no opportunity to make that error. They're not looking for an astral or umbral primal, they're specifically looking for a Dark primal to counter the Light.