Ending, plot discussion. Warning: Spoilers

[Ingolf]

So it's confirmed ARR is 5 years after the Dalamud incident? I was just thinking Lou probably ported us to the past to find solutions and strength to prevent things from happening or face Bahamut back to the present when we are ready? Learn cool moves and such where things are already ancient or lost in the present.

And another question is, does every era ended with Dalamud? Maybe this incident just keep cycling.

It's definitely 5 years into the future. We're currently in stasis.

And nah, every Umbral Era starts with a new disaster or major event in the world. the Sixth (we're in the seventh since Dalamud fell) was major flooding all across the world.

[Gentaro]

What i don't understand is that Louisoix, who was related to Thaliak, was able to control the powers of Althyk, the patron of gravity and time.

[Catapult]

Some personal analysis in a Q&A format...

Why seal Bahamut? Why not just kill him?

Because a defeated primal can be re-summoned from the aether. We've experienced this problem first-hand. By sealing Bahamut, you lock up his sentience and prevent that being drawn back out into a new corpearal form by the dragons.

Why would ancient Allag banish this "great sin" to the sky?

Because primals absorb aether from the land as food. Move Bahamut's prison far enough away from the land and you are essentially starving him of the energy needed to break free.

((Extra context: Gaius tells us that it was the Allagan Empire that originally banished Dalamud. This suggests it happened during the 4th or 5th Umbral era, since Allag was founded in the 3rd Astral and the 6th Umbral was associated with flooding.))

So how did Darnus bring Dalamud down?

By feeding him. The lunar transmitter looks like a powerful aether cannon, sending aether gathered from the land right up to a hungry dragon. OmNomNom!
A hungry beast will move closer to its food source. And the best source with which to generate this food is Silvertear Falls, both the heart of the aether stream and the heart of Nael's enemy's territory. How convenient!

What are the consequences of Dalamud getting closer?

Bahamut's power and influence begins to recover. This allows a little investment in Darnus to replace a broken lunar transmitter and the ability to pick up the latent aether of other dispelled primals. (So on the point of knocking out primals that feed on the land's aether, it becomes a damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't situation.) By the time you've properly dealt with Darnus, Dalamud is close enough for it to not matter any more. Sure that extra energy feed would have been nice, but Bahamut can take care of himself by now.


Next topic.

Do the Twelve exist?

Yes. During the third Gridanian quest, "Beckon of the Elementals", a moogle brings you a message.
"The great arbor spirit Everschade has spoken and we have listened, kupo. Those beckoned by the forest are messengers of Nophica herself."
There is plenty of other anecdotal evidence that others have shared.

So how are they summoned?

Louisoix appears to do so through the use of divine symbols. Likewise, we see the Amaljaa's summoning of Ifrit in a cutscene involve placing a symbol on the ground before Ifrit comes forth. This theory is reinforced by information that the arcanist class will form the basis of the summoner job in ARR.

So is Louisoix an arcanist?

We can probably assume so and likewise for Urianger, who wields a type of staff seen used by the arcanists of Maelvan's Gate. This also helps explain the presence of a divine symbol upon Louisoix's staff and his admission that it was by his hand the thirteen "altars" had appeared (this admission is made at the start of "Living on a Prayer").

So why the pilgrimage? Why not just cast the spell?

An aetherial being can hardly be summoned unless its sentience is roused. It needs to WANT to come out (and Ifrit and Garuda are all too happy). The Twelve were in a deep slumber, possibly acutely aware of what impact their corpearal presence would have on a realm that has had a good chunk of it's aether consumed in a giant seal. We needed to get through to them that we needed them again. Badly.

And who better to lead those prayers than the hero who defeated Darnus whose exploits have been spread and praised throughout the grand companies? You have become a leader and a role model and will be followed and imitated for maximum effectiveness. You are a beacon to the people more than the twelve directly.

Why would the Empire allow this?

They wouldn't. Obsessed with Nhilism, Van Darnus has been witholding the true nature of Dalamud and deceiving His Radiance.

[Zacas1]

Sort of curious if anyone else noticed in the video... while attempting the "Binding ritual" on Bahamut, that the binding circle isn't complete... there's a 'rune' missing, an arrow that should be pointing roughly towards Althyk's symbol...

I've kind of been wondering if Louisoix wasn't an avatar for the twelve, more specifically Althyk, or the 'mortal form'. Which would semi make sense with the missing part of the divine binding circle that is directed to Althyk's symbol. If his 'essence' is in the mortal form, he can't put the full effort into the binding circle, causing it to fail and let Bahamut free... I honestly can't picture Loiusoix being powerful enough to make the 'ice shield' that protects the heroes and stand against bahamut without some greater link to the gods...
Perhaps grasping at straws... but considering he's the old man of the group of followers that were praying... and by what info on the deities I could look up, it'd almost seem Althyk is the elder of the Twelve... as he's one of few that isn't labelled as being a child of, younger than, or a 'servant' of another of the deities. Though Oschon is listed as the divine lover of Menphina (Althyk's daughter) and Nald'Thal is Oschon's brother... and considering SE's sticking to less-delicate sides of 'relationships' allowed... I'd think that'd put them as being younger than Althyk. But this is just random thoughts. x.x

[AmyNeudaiz]

I'm not sure if it was mentioned in this thread at all, but I have a theory that Neal Van Darnus was presumably a Dragoon since he was so influenced by Bahamut (since Dragoons are vulnerable to the influence of Dragons). So in my opinion Bahamut has simply been controlling Darnus this whole time. This becomes much more apparent when he gets crazier and crazier as Dalamud got closer and closer.

So what I think is that all these events were of the doing of Bahamut, from bringing Dalamud closer to the killing of the primals to absorb their aether to the eventual killing of Neal Van Darnus and the absorption of his power as well to make himself powerful enough to break free from Dalamud.

But this may just be a stretch, who knows?

[whoopeeragon]

Sort of curious if anyone else noticed in the video... while attempting the "Binding ritual" on Bahamut, that the binding circle isn't complete... there's a 'rune' missing, an arrow that should be pointing roughly towards Althyk's symbol...

I've kind of been wondering if Louisoix wasn't an avatar for the twelve, more specifically Althyk, or the 'mortal form'. Which would semi make sense with the missing part of the divine binding circle that is directed to Althyk's symbol. If his 'essence' is in the mortal form, he can't put the full effort into the binding circle, causing it to fail and let Bahamut free... I honestly can't picture Loiusoix being powerful enough to make the 'ice shield' that protects the heroes and stand against bahamut without some greater link to the gods...
Perhaps grasping at straws... but considering he's the old man of the group of followers that were praying... and by what info on the deities I could look up, it'd almost seem Althyk is the elder of the Twelve... as he's one of few that isn't labelled as being a child of, younger than, or a 'servant' of another of the deities. Though Oschon is listed as the divine lover of Menphina (Althyk's daughter) and Nald'Thal is Oschon's brother... and considering SE's sticking to less-delicate sides of 'relationships' allowed... I'd think that'd put them as being younger than Althyk. But this is just random thoughts. x.x

I don't see any kind of rune missing...it looks complete to me. o.o

And since the next part of the sealing almost seems to be done from Althyk's Rune perspective, I really didn't see anything missing from his part of the sealing.

[MegaMilk]

I have a theory that Neal Van Darnus was presumably a Dragoon since he was so influenced by Bahamut

That's most likely since he also uses a (gun) lance as weapon.

[AmyNeudaiz]

That's most likely since he also uses a (gun) lance as weapon.

Well that does go without saying that he's a lancer. :P

[Zacas1]

I don't see any kind of rune missing...it looks complete to me. o.o

And since the next part of the sealing almost seems to be done from Althyk's Rune perspective, I really didn't see anything missing from his part of the sealing.

Look at the orb in the center... then slightly to the left... there's a blank gap where there are triangle/arrow-like runes (Or cardinal and intermediate directions if you prefer) pointing outward from where bahamut is attempting to be contained.. the arrow-like rune would be pointing ROUGHLY towards Althyk's symbol

[Thebard]

Look at the orb in the center... then slightly to the left... there's a blank gap where there are triangle/arrow-like runes pointing outward from where bahamut is attempting to be contained.. the arrow-like rune would be pointing ROUGHLY towards Althyk's symbol

Those "arrows" dont line up with the other symbols in that pic, however 6 points are visible, another would make 7 and that makes no sense at all. I will have to watch the vid again but for now I'd say its no clue at all.