Thinking about Elidibus

[Larirawiel]

The general structure of that is:

1. Elidibus is a normal Ancient.
2. End of Days happens, he steps up to become the heart of Zodiark (and isn't even the first choice, but that's not important). Elidibus becomes that heart, part of a primal.

The next question is: why did Elidibus in form of Zodiark temper the other ancients? It seems that the heart of a primal has the control over them. Iceheart had the control over Shiva and it seems that Venat controls Hydaelyn.

Cheers

[Cleretic]

The next question is: why did Elidibus in form of Zodiark temper the other ancients? It seems that the heart of a primal has the control over them. Iceheart had the control over Shiva and it seems that Venat controls Hydaelyn.

Cheers

My guess is that Zodiark wasn't trying to. From Altima's crystal line in Etched in the Stars, the tempering started pretty much instantly on summoning. Remember that the only primal we've had a proper, full conversation with, Ramuh, was tempering the sylphs explicitly against his own will. It seems like tempering is just a natural effect of a primal's summoning and existence, regardless of intent.

This is your inference, not stated fact, and I think you may have it wrong.

From memory, Elidibus thinks on the idea of the Warrior of Light and remarks that they were a sundered soul. There is never any mention of him taking that form before.

It's more likely that it was an early incarnation of Azem's soul who started the legend of the Warrior of Light, and Elidibus's plan in Shadowbringers is to intercept the hero-worship still afforded to this lasting concept of heroism and salvation by taking on that form and claiming the title.

Uhm... no, actually. I think you're thinking of a different cutscene. I'm thinking of the Echo flashback of Elidibus in Anamnesis, before the Dream Amaurot bit. Transcribing the segment in question...

Ancient Elidibus looks at his own hands as they fade.

"It fades. Fades away into oblivion. Does the world no longer have need of me?"
"No. I am Elidibus. And I must--I will fulfill my duty."

Camera pans to FFI WoL-looking guy, facing away from camera.

"Sundered though you may be, you fought for the world's salvation. For hope. Hope..."

Elidibus reaches out the FFI WoL-guy, cuts to black.

"Ahh, it swells within me. Empowers me. Now--now I may carry out my mission."
"Why do I yearn for this? Why must I struggle so?"

That Echo flashback is hard to completely dissect for truth, because it's clear both that A: it is depicting at least two factual events, some significant time apart, and B: it is being SUPER non-literal, what with the lack of cuts and black background. But what is clear is that Elidibus definitely did possess an archetypal hero of the Sundered (post-Sundering, of course), specifically to rejuvenate himself. The mystery is when and where exactly this happened, and what may have happened beforehand in that world, but neither of those are tremendously important to figuring out the chronology of Elidibus' life. The only evidence we have suggesting anything on that is that a figure that looks like the FFI WoL appeared in the First's history, but given the same armor exists in the Crystal Tower somehow, it's hard to say that's a definite A-to-B line to draw.

Saying Azem is somehow involved actually has far less grounding.

[Iscah]

Uhm... no, actually. I think you're thinking of a different cutscene. I'm thinking of the Echo flashback of Elidibus in Anamnesis, before the Dream Amaurot bit.

No, that's exactly the scene I'm thinking of. And it is hard to interpret – so I don't think we can definitively say that Elidibus possessed the original Warrior of Light versus it being a very obscure version of him now recently hijacking that image to become "Ardbert the Warrior of Light".

As I understand it, Elidibus thought of the historical/legendary figure and concluded that the praise still targeted at him was the same concept (hope and salvation) that Elidibus needs to sustain himself.

Edit to add: I did sound more definite than I intended regarding the possibility that the legendary WoL being Azem. It's a suggestion others have made in the past, but nobody else I recall has interpreted it as Elidibus being the original WoL.

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Edit 6 June 2022: As this thread re-emerges, I look at my first sentence here and try to figure out what the heck I wrote. I think it was supposed to be "vision" not "version".