Raimdelle Reborn: The Neverending Bestiary

[Kicha]

Mirrorknights don't fall into the category of Allagan Bioweapons. As far as we know, they are the product of the calamity, metal and such being blasted together an coming to life on its own. I don't have a screenshot of it, be that's what we're told in the fate "The Big Bagoly Theory" in Eastern Thanalan. If anything, Mirrorknights aren't truly alive, they're animated constructs like golems, just created accidentally as a byproduct of Dalamud falling.

[Kyan]

...we learn that many seemingly unnatural (but not voidsent) creatures have an unexpected origin - the ancient Allag were heavily invested in the development of Bioweaponry...

I'm actually curious as to how much of the fauna and flora of modern Eorzea/Hydaelyn originate from Allag construct. Possibly including us, the wandering tribes? Who knows. Many of the datalogs for some fish, and I think an obscure reference about a Nix or Gigantoad, also mentions Allag bioexperimental origins. Did they bioengineer for just weaponry, or also for creating better agriculture/horticulture/aqua-cultural practices?

[Anonymoose]

3-faced snakes...? Are you talking about the Hydra?

Cobras. They look one-headed, but they have three faces - one main face and two half-faces stuck to the sides of it. Actually, I guess, technically, it's one snake that's split in half and has another snake running through it - two snakes, three face sections. So far we've encountered them deep inside the Binding Coil, well past where the local flora/fauna have crept in, as well as all over Silvertear, where a ton of Allag ruins exist encased in crystal and earth. The thing is, we also find them caged in the Coliseum... If the Cobras are Allagan creations, what are they doing there like normal animals? Did they escape from other ruins at some point and the Ul'dahn were just like, "Yeah, that looks fierce, cage it up!" Or did some of them just become normal fauna after the civilization fell? Bah - lot of unanswered questions about cobras. Still, looks like a possible genetics job to me - then again, now that you mention it, so does Hydra, lol.

Maybe the Allagan Bioweapons Team had their own Dr. Mephesto who just really though everything needed more faces.

"What if we made a lion with THREE faces, but one is a goat and one is a dragon!?"

Do you think the Bio-labs are associated with the Garleans rebooting them, or are they clearly not involved with BC2?

The Garleans don't seem to be involved at all. We just go right into the big chunk that fell on Boulder Downs and inside of that is a massive automated system of platforms and tubes and growth chambers clearly labeled "bioweapons storage." Around the area are tubes filled with Lamia and Chimera. Hydra and cobra are unconfirmed, though on the way TO Melusine there are trash pulls that I really should pay attention to next time...

"In the land of Mor Dhona, forged in the wires of Mount(ain) Dewm..."

Mirrorknights don't fall into the category of Allagan Bioweapons.

Technically, I think they're Allagan Constructs. The Sons of Saint Coinach find a bunch in the SMN questline and describe them as such.

Metallic monstrosities of Allagan construction known as “mirrorknights” have risen from the dig sites scattered across Mor Dhona.

If this is the case, I think the text in the Big Bagoly Theory is just saying, "OH, JEEZ, NOT JUST WRECKAGE! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!" as if they've suddenly "come back online," and now that I think about it this conspicuously occurred around the same time the Garleans started poking around the Binding Coil and the Sons around Crystal Tower...

Did they bioengineer for just weaponry, or also for creating better agriculture/horticulture/aqua-cultural practices?

I'd imagine they'd go hand in hand. For instance...

Certain electrical phenomena─phenomena of a rather distressing nature─suggest that the Allagan Empire may have created electric fish. Just think! They may have originated magitek, and reshaped living creatures to their own ends. Only a highly invasive study will reveal the truth.

What makes me wonder is if any Eorzeans mistake them for voidsent. The levequest Make Up Your Mind or Else implies that the hippocerf is a mix of "age, aether, and Allagan magicks" and yet we've seen Hippogryphs come from and retreat to the Void several times. <crazed voice> What if the Allagans accidentally split The Crystal into Light and Dark worlds, creating the Void, and the Twelve are actually great Allag figures trapped in immortal ascended darkness as the Ascian overlords and, like in Urianger's fake backstory for himself, made a pact with the demon lords of the seven hells!? SOMEONE CLOSE THE SPECULATION FLOODGATES.

[DoctaruRavenbe]

for the Halatali snakes... maybe there were caught in mor dhona and used an exotic gladiatorial spectacle. Similar to how the Romans would import strange and exotic beasts to pit against their gladiators.

[Anonymoose]

I just got back into T7 (the compromised bioweapons storage) and can confirm that the mobs of Allag origin there are Automated Defense System Nodes, Lamia, Mirrorknights, Chimera, and ... AAAAAND ... cobras! The name of the snake trash mob on the way to Melusine is even Allagan Cobra, which makes things nice and unambiguous, lol.

maybe there were caught in mor dhona and used an exotic gladiatorial spectacle

Best theory I've heard so far, and I can't think of anything better. Let's go with that for a theory for now, lol.

[Kyan]

Interesting!

Thinking out loud: I wonder if this has any implications to other snakes found within the realm lore wise? Are they also products of Allag construct or are they the base-genetics used as templates for their bioweaponry?

The only other snakes mentioned in game lore that I am currently aware of are an item, the grass viper found throughout Eorzea, which looks more traditional, like an Earth snake - different to the three-faced cobras and pit vipers. (There is also the L tribe's viper totem, which may or may not imply vipers are in the Miqo'te Sunseeker homeland, but hey, it's another reference to snakes being in Hydaelyn, so, they can't be super rare...)

Seriously, I would probably upset everyone if I was given an exclusive opportunity to speak with the lore team about anything in game. You people have intelligent, story-related questions you all want answered! My questions would probably be like: "So, about adamantoise shells in North Thanalan..."

[DoctaruRavenbe]

So with folks doing the Kobold Daily quests we've learn some interesting things about those "Voidsent" we call bombs.

Apparently Kobold Alchemists are quite adapt at crafting bombs and grenades. Hell they can even set them to be remote detonated with proper placing. This may mean that the bomb species may not be so unnatural to this world than we thought. Or it could be that the kobolds found a way to reverse engineer and grow bombs

[Fernehalwes]

Just a quick little chime-in/chime-out to address Doctaru Ravenbe's acute observation:

So with folks doing the Kobold Daily quests we've learn some interesting things about those "Voidsent" we call bombs.

Apparently Kobold Alchemists are quite adapt at crafting bombs and grenades. Hell they can even set them to be remote detonated with proper placing. This may mean that the bomb species may not be so unnatural to this world than we thought. Or it could be that the kobolds found a way to reverse engineer and grow bombs

Here's some clarification:

The kobold alchemists are not creating them in the sense of creating them from scratch, but more creating a new 'generation' of Eorzean-born bombs via the genetic manipulation and breeding of voidsent captured in the wild (the kicker being: those new bombs, while still classified as voidsent, were never actually "sent" from the void). Is a baby born in space of Earthling parents still considered an Earthling? Good question...

Hope that helps clear up things a little!

[DoctaruRavenbe]

Just a quick little chime-in/chime-out to address Doctaru Ravenbe's acute observation:



Here's some clarification:

The kobold alchemists are not creating them in the sense of creating them from scratch, but more creating a new 'generation' of Eorzean-born bombs via the genetic manipulation and breeding of voidsent captured in the wild (the kicker being: those new bombs, while still classified as voidsent, were never actually "sent" from the void). Is a baby born in space of Earthling parents still considered an Earthling? Good question...

Hope that helps clear up things a little!

Oh my. *blushes* I like this response

[Akujin]

You know, with that response, I have to almost wonder if they didn't just give us an open door for something to consider. Either currently or in the future.

As he said, are children born in space by parents from Earth, considered Earthlings? So, current generations of some creatures we find, or even possibly, Beastmen, could have at one time been not of our world at all, but have migrated and settled in ours and through reproduction across many generations adapted and altered themselves to where they inhabit (the way the Ixal did regarding the loss of their feathers)

Do we really have an actual knowledge of where exactly the Beastmen come from? In particular, Goblins?