Nael Van Darnus -- A Love Story

[HiirNoivl]

Where does it say this? I read that on a website but it sounded so ridiculous I thought it was fanfic!

You have to speak to the NPC fromt he Monk Quest called "Erik"

He talks about Sil'dih and how they tried to make a cheap war by reviving dead soldiers. But it went wrong and they ended up having an FF version of the Walking Dead.

It's all ingame text.

[Yrusama]

(A) Bahamut is the dragonkin's primal
(B) Bahamut's existence is bad for Hydaelyn
(C) As long as dragons exist, Bahamut will be summoned
(D) Eradication of the dragonkin is nigh-on impossible
THUS Bahamut must be sealed.

But it just doesn't sit right quite yet - Bahamut is oft considered ancient and wise; he's someone you must prove your worth to for one reason or another. I'm wondering if there's anything to that this time around, or if in XIV he's just all out of gum.

Does anyone remember that story in the Alchemist quest about a dragon saving a little boy? A Gridanian says it's dangerous to speak favorably about the dragons in case Ishgard is listening, but the story exists nonetheless. I wouldn't be at all surprised if this was passed down from Allag. I also wouldn't be surprised if the Allagans who sealed Bahamut went on to found Ishgard.

You bring up an interesting point about Bahamut needing Dragons to exist. Perhaps Bahamut's destruction was Ishgard's original goal, but they lost sight of it over the centuries.

As for why they needed a callback device for Dalamud, here's my thinking:

Bahamut is a Primal, and Primals manifest only by taking from the planet's Aether. If they really wanted to "get rid" of Bahamut, they would have sent Bahamut a lot farther than a lunar orbit (ideally the sun, but that could be cataclysmic as far as we know). But that could be problematic, because sending Bahamut away is the planetary equivalent to discarding a whole lot of your own blood. They might not have known what would happen if so much Aether was completely removed, and might have wanted an "abort" mechanism in case things went wrong. Could you imagine what would happen if we kept using this method? "Whoop, new Primal! Put it in a Pokeball and throw it off the planet!" Eventually we'd have so little Aether left the planet itself would probably crumble!

The other (and probably more likely) idea is that Bahamut wasn't meant to be merely contained. The Allag may have intentionally weaponized Dalamud, but never had the chance to use it before they died out.

[HiirNoivl]

The other (and probably more likely) idea is that Bahamut wasn't meant to be merely contained. The Allag may have intentionally weaponized Dalamud, but never had the chance to use it before they died out.

I agree with this. You know something that his confused me a lot was the fact that they referred to "Meteor magic" to call down Dalamud, not a summoning spell. The magic was supposed to make the stars fall which they did, if you observed the weather, streaks in the sky were constantly falling. Dalamud itself was a nice weapon, obliterating soldiers long before the primal burst out of it.

[NadienKirisame]

They trapped Bahamut in Dalamud after weakening him... if they simply killed him the dragons would be able to re summon him and they wouldn't want that to happen now would they??

Pretty much it was a way to take the dragons elder primal out of the loop... they possibly used Odin to weaken Bahamut since Odin would also wish to have him out of the picture possibly for a long long time. This was probably done to weaken the dragons foothold... but I wouldn't know...

I love these threads! Always such great reads.

The cat is amused =^.^=

[Yrusama]

They trapped Bahamut in Dalamud after weakening him... if they simply killed him the dragons would be able to re summon him and they wouldn't want that to happen now would they??

Pretty much it was a way to take the dragons elder primal out of the loop... they possibly used Odin to weaken Bahamut since Odin would also wish to have him out of the picture possibly for a long long time. This was probably done to weaken the dragons foothold... but I wouldn't know...

I love these threads! Always such great reads.

The cat is amused =^.^=

Now that is very likely. Just imagine how many times as a SMN in XI you hit a summon macro by mistake and saw "<Player> already has a pet." I bet the dragons kept getting that error message, but were up in arms as to why.

As far as Odin's involvement, I don't think we know enough about him to make any assumptions.

[Yrusama]

also from an external source about Dalamud:
http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Dalamud

Whew! Good thing I just went and made that whole page past-tense and updated some of the info. It still needs some work, though.

Please, people, PLEASE help us with XIV coverage on the FF wiki! I'm maybe one of two people editing for it, and I admit I'm not as knowledgeable as I'd like to be.

[NadienKirisame]

As far as Odin's involvement, I don't think we know enough about him to make any assumptions.

Actually Odin being involved is simply if you look at what Ifrit says about other primals and how Garuda is as well. They want all the aether to themselves. If Odin could use the Allags to get another elder primal out of the way so he could have all the aether to himself why wouldn't he.

The only issue is if Allag had the ability to trap Bahamut why wouldn't they do the same to Odin if they had the chance... Odin and Bahamut are probably close in power or something so if they did fight each other it would have weakened Odin as well... If they didn't have Odin helping them they would need something to stop Bahamuts power as it would lay waste to a large area if not focused on a main target. Maybe the Allag used the Twelve?

The can is amused =^.^=

[Yrusama]

Actually Odin being involved is simply if you look at what Ifrit says about other primals and how Garuda is as well. They want all the aether to themselves. If Odin could use the Allags to get another elder primal out of the way so he could have all the aether to himself why wouldn't he.

The only issue is if Allag had the ability to trap Bahamut why wouldn't they do the same to Odin if they had the chance... Odin and Bahamut are probably close in power or something so if they did fight each other it would have weakened Odin as well... If they didn't have Odin helping them they would need something to stop Bahamuts power as it would lay waste to a large area if not focused on a main target. Maybe the Allag used the Twelve?

The can is amused =^.^=

Ah, yes. Aether competition. On top of that, Ifrit seemed to want to be a supreme being above all others, and I doubt Garuda wouldn't want the same.

I'm really curious who Odin is tied to. He's a non-elemental humanoid, so maybe he's our Primal! Shiva and Ramuh can be tied to elementally-biased beast tribes, much like Ifrit to the dragon/tiger/demon Amalj'aa, and Garuda to the birdmen Ixal.

He may also preside over the other 6 Primals. Isn't he a Terrestrial Avatar in FFXI, just like Bahamut?

[Kinseykinz]

I could be very very wrong...this was really just a random question/thought...so please just keep that in mind.

Could Nael have somehow become Odin? I only ask because have we actually heard about him (Odin) as a Primal pre. Dalamund falling? Maybe Releasing Bahamut also releases Odin and Nael became the catalyst for that. After all, he did absorb what basically amounted to a lot of primal (aether) energy.

Yes, I know Odin is an Iconic primal and would in theory be part of a FF series game...so I know we assumed he'd be introduced. But he doesn't seem to blatantly belong to a Beastmen tribe like Ifrit or Garuda do. Not only that, he seems to be the Yin to Balamut's Yang. So maybe you need one to release the other...

Again, just random thoughts...please don't eat me.

[Anonymoose]

Could Nael have somehow become Odin?

I don't want to say he couldn't have for sure, because the rules of the universe would fold in on themselves to make me look like an ass in the next trailer, but:

a) It seems implied that Odin was the primal the Garleans bumped into shortly after the 1557 conquering of Ala Mhigo, long before the children of that city were indoctrinated into the Empire and used to staff the legion that Nael would later be assigned to lead into that theatre.

b) During an interview, when asked of van Darnus, Yoshida-san gave a pretty confident, "He's dead." and left it at that.