Diabolos

[Anonymoose]

Which leads me to believe that the Ascians' overall plan may well be to induce an Umbral event through the rampant summoning of Primals, through any means. If one thinks of aether as Hydaelyn's lifeblood, it may well be that the Ascians are ultimately trying to kill Hydaelyn through this plan.

It's easy to forget considering people tend to do the dungeon 5,000 times while only watching the cutscenes once (if that), but Lahabrea admits this freely at the end of the Praetorium.

The growing imbalance afflicting the planet must be redressed. If it is permitted to worsen, the very laws of existence─both aetheric and physical─will be warped beyond all recognition. Know you the root of this corruption? Hydaelyn! Like a parasite, she must be burned out if the planet is to recover. And naught but the return of the one true god will ensure her complete excision. Yet to pave the way for the Master's return, a chaotic confluence of untold proportions must needs be brought about. And that will necessitate the presence of the primals. Needless to say, both you and your Scion accomplices can not be suffered to interfere in this endeavor.

How this all ties into Diabolos basically boils down to "The Void." It's a place of darkness from which all the things we face seem to originate, from the immortal mages to the demons they summon from the "voice of creation." In that realm, Diabolos is a powerful figure - here, he's a nightmare (pun retroactively intended).

I'm still trying to work through it. "It is told that the enemies of Amdapor" is a big umbrella with a lot of room for historical inaccuracy.

Perhaps we'll get more of it when Diabolos comes back at a higher level cap. Because why wouldn't he?

[Darske]

Thinking about what I'd just posted on the drive home, should my speculation be correct (although assuming speculation is correct is probably the worst kind of thing you can do with speculation), it occurs to me that there's an extremely interesting similarity to the events of the Black Mage questline. Specifically, how the quest's events revolve around a gate to the void which must be closed. In that quest, a ritual gone wrong turned a few Black Mages into a demonic monstrosity, and a gate to the void was opened. What strikes me as intriguing is that it's mentioned in the quest that the mage who opened the gate didn't really know why he changed the ritual ever so slightly- if I remember correctly he describes it as "perhaps an act of arrogance". That always seemed a little off to me though, and just a little eerie, as if some outside force was at work that I wasn't seeing at the time. But, if the White Mages opened a door to the void and found Diabolos... perhaps a more sinister force is at work in these events. Diabolos, literally meaning "Devil", has strong connotations of deceit and temptation. So while perhaps this is entirely built on a paper thin speculation on my part, I believe that perhaps Diabolos may have actively tempted the White Mages to even try to open the door to the void in the first place- and perhaps he tried it again, reaching out through a Black Mage centuries later when the lost arts of the Mages were being rediscovered.

I'd love to hear any thoughts on this. Diabolos, White Magic, and Black Magic... I feel like there's definitely a big plot connection waiting to be explored.

[RoboPadre]

...Baalzephon (I've got nothing here, its a god of the north as far as the ancient Semites were concerned).

Not that it means too much but, etymologically, Baalzephon can be read as "Lord of the Hidden" which works well with their appearance.

[gornotck]

They fixed the quest text. Woot.
Lalai's femininity has been re-established.
Diabolos is, quite obviously, a huge rock star and that's why he shows you the door at the end of the Dungeon, after you get by all the pests attracted by him trashing his hotel room.
Vermin are a huge problem when you don't clean up.

[Catapult]

As a small contribution on my part, let's recall a chief characteristic of the 7th Umbral era - the weakening of the veil between this world and the void. Such weakening allowed the admittance of far more significant Voidsent into Eorzea than could otherwise gain access, chief among them the Atomos (cue darksteelfoil hat for Crystal Tower implications).

5. What happened to Atmos?

Thanks to the havoc wreaked on the planet’s aetherial flow by good old Dalamud (Bahamut) the rift between Hydaelyn and the void (which up until now had been small, and reserved to places like Dzemael Darkhold) grew extremely large in that turbulent period of time leading up to the Battle of Carteneau. This allowed far more, far larger, and far more powerful enemies a free pass into Eorzea—a hotbed of aetherial energy, also known as a voidsent’s favorite snack. Atomos was one of these creatures. So, what happened to him? That remains to be seen in ARR.

I have this hunch that Diablos' own means of arrival may have been... similar. Or at least given cause to similar nasty phenomina that would make the elementals say <kupo> this!

[Viridiana]

Such weakening allowed the admittance of far more significant Voidsent into Eorzea than could otherwise gain access, chief among them the Atomos (cue darksteelfoil hat for Crystal Tower implications).

I'm a little more troubled by the fact that, thus far, all travel seems to have been Void -> Eorzea. With the veil being weakened, who's to say that there was no travel the other direction, and what would be the ramifications there?

[Raestloz]

I'm a little more troubled by the fact that, thus far, all travel seems to have been Void -> Eorzea. With the veil being weakened, who's to say that there was no travel the other direction, and what would be the ramifications there?

You actually traveled into the void, for about 6 seconds, when you opened the matching doors. The ramifications seem to be temporary invincibility

[saber_alter]

You actually traveled into the void, for about 6 seconds, when you opened the matching doors. The ramifications seem to be temporary invincibility

your immune because your in a different plane of existence. you can't do anything there, as your being pulled to an exit constantly. you also get a vulnerability up debuff for entering the void, so i suppose it is harmful for us to enter the void.

[Raestloz]

your immune because your in a different plane of existence. you can't do anything there, as your being pulled to an exit constantly. you also get a vulnerability up debuff for entering the void, so i suppose it is harmful for us to enter the void.

I think someone just doesn't get a joke. Anyway, I don't remember a vulnerability debuff, there is an invincibility buff that says you're currently in the void, but considering the original statement never said anything about actually doing anything in the void, only traversing from Eorzea to Void, that pretty much answers the original premise

[Catapult]

I'm a little more troubled by the fact that, thus far, all travel seems to have been Void -> Eorzea. With the veil being weakened, who's to say that there was no travel the other direction, and what would be the ramifications there?

I've got a few ideas on this front, but it deserves a thread in it's own right.

Please look forward to it. (TM)