Giants and Allagans

[Anonymoose]

If Enkidoh and I came to the same idea, it might be worth looking into. At the time, I was just rambling possibilities.

This game has gone to extreme lengths to show the illusion of organic growth and development in language, culture, history, and religion. Even the word Dalamud is just the word Bahamut distorted by "a few thousand years of imperfect historical record." If the Gigas were truly the distorted descendants of the Allag, that would mean that, somewhere along the evolutionary line, they lost a finger and two toes, which seems like a crazy stretch of biological tendency. The five fingered hand is so far back in the evolutionary chain that it's part of the human arm, the dolphin flipper, and the bat wing - yet somehow it might have been lost in the 3,000 years between Allagan and Gigant? I'd be disappointed in someone at HQ. A firm thrashing would be in order, kupo. They'd have to apologize in front of absolutely everybody.

Now... oh, wait.

<puts darksteelfoil hat on>

Now, that means that the gigantism shown by Acheron was probably part of his modifications. After all, the stairs in the Labyrinth of Ancients are for "normal" people. Surely Acheron wasn't the only monstrously modified man they left on auto-pilot in their fall. By the time the wandering races appeared in the by-then empty Eorzea, there could have been a few of them wandering around... Twelve of them, maybe. I bet the sight of THAT would have inspired some stories. Giant heroes that helped get the realm in order before disappearing... and over time, legends of heroes become legends of gods.

But is that in line with Square Enix's inspiration of Ancient Greece? Twelve "Olympic" figures who seal primordial forces away to rule in their stead? And after the Titans were sealed away, the Olympians took hecatonchiers as slaves. Perhaps the Gigants weren't descendend from the Allag but from those that served them. Perhaps the Allag created them to be a slave race using early methods of the same modifications Acheron underwent, and they've been using the same slave traditions to separate Gigas/Giant/Hecatonchier ever since. The Gigas claim to be descendant of the Allag, but, if this nonsense I'm rambling is true, who's going to call them out on that bluff? I don't see any Allag around to challenge the claim.

<takes darksteelfoil hat off>

What was I talking about? Oh, right. A firm thrashing, kupo.

Then again, hey, who can trust fully in biological evidence when magick and technology! <waves fingers and says, "o0o0o0o">

[FJerome]

It could also be a case that it was something like the Tonberry sickness? Not sure they'd play that card twice but on the other hand if you set the precedent that there's diseases in Ezorea that can mutate a person to that extent, it seems odd that there's only one case of it.

[Catapult]

Well, I've been won over rather quickly there.

That, and I just encountered...

...a bioweapon storage. Yeah, they were biologically organised it seems.

[treuhavik]

Now, that means that the gigantism shown by Acheron was probably part of his modifications. After all, the stairs in the Labyrinth of Ancients are for "normal" people. Surely Acheron wasn't the only monstrously modified man they left on auto-pilot in their fall. By the time the wandering races appeared in the by-then empty Eorzea, there could have been a few of them wandering around... Twelve of them, maybe. I bet the sight of THAT would have inspired some stories. Giant heroes that helped get the realm in order before disappearing... and over time, legends of heroes become legends of gods.

I like to think that the Allag became so advanced and/or enlightened that they ascended to a higher plane of existence. Correct me if I'm wrong but Dalamund was of Allagan technology and, using the summoned power of the Twelve, the scions tried to trap Bahamut in a second Dalamund during the opening cinematic. This also explains the sudden disappearance of the Allag.

But is that in line with Square Enix's inspiration of Ancient Greece? Twelve "Olympic" figures who seal primordial forces away to rule in their stead? And after the Titans were sealed away, the Olympians took hecatonchiers as slaves. Perhaps the Gigants weren't descendend from the Allag but from those that served them. Perhaps the Allag created them to be a slave race using early methods of the same modifications Acheron underwent, and they've been using the same slave traditions to separate Gigas/Giant/Hecatonchier ever since. The Gigas claim to be descendant of the Allag, but, if this nonsense I'm rambling is true, who's going to call them out on that bluff? I don't see any Allag around to challenge the claim.

If it was possible to alter Archeon in such a way, could they not have created the Gigas of their own race? Perhaps they were prisoners and better served them laboring rather than rotting in a cell. The Gigas could also be their failed attempts at creating champions of Archeon's proportion or even deformed, mentally and physically, by their own power/technology, failing to ascend and instead descending.

[Anonymoose]

It seems that a lot of discussion about Nael in 2.2 comes from people who've only read half of the spoilers for some odd reason.

(So probably stop reading if you don't want the other half, I guess)

Alisaie seems to say flat out that the Coil Deus Darnus is a hastily built, erroneously projected copy housing the very last of Nael's essence.

Bahamut denied you death, and imprisoned what little was left of you in an aetherial shell resembling...what, I wonder? Images from your memory, perhaps?

That's not necessarily implying that Nael was a woman, or even that he wasn't Elezen - only that this woman's image was strongly imprinted within his psyche. She was likely important to him, ever present in his thoughts; someone he dwelled on frequently and may even have thought about as his essence was dissipating. Even after the encounter and in the next quest, Alisaie uses the masculine pronoun in reference to Darnus. I'd believe that she was Bradamante herself before I'd believe she was an accurate representation of anything Nael van Darnus without stronger evidence than one of Bahamut's projections.

By your leave, I would speak first of the coil's late guardian, Nael van Darnus. Fear not. No lengthy history shall I give to thee of this man whom thou hast now defeated twice. Or man and maid, I should rather say, through Bahamut's queer oversight.

'Tis little wonder he was so loath to part with him. Why let a simple thing like death deprive one of so useful a pawn? ...Though we may accuse him of bungling van Darnus's resurrection, I daresay Bahamut was as content to have a handmaiden as a manservant.

The Coil Copy of Louisoix isn't much better of a copy considering he worships Bahamut and agrees that Nael is a woman.

Foolish girl. How could the White Raven allow herself to be bested by such sniveling opponents? Listen well. We all exist at the pleasure of one divine will. And the word of Lord Bahamut is absolute! Scurry back into your holes, vermin. You have been granted this one reprieve. But should you be so foolish as to crawl into my lord's domain again, I will crush the life from you myself.

Until the Hyur showed up in droves, the Elezen considered Eorzea a gift from the Twelve to their kind. That's why there was animosity between those two races; the Hyuran migratory waves were akin to an invasion and seizure of their Promised Land. This took place a thousand years ago (500 Sixth Astral Era), and the Miqo'te came in the Fifth Umbral Era. In the Third Astral, Elezen likely were the overwhelmingly dominant race (barring the idea that they were once diverse and only the Elezen stayed, for which there is nothing to suggest so far, or that they were not of the five races at all, which is a possibility brought up in this thread). If Nael was a descendant of the Allag, it makes sense he would be Elezen, too. Those two likelihoods fit together nicely in an Occam's Razor sense, and that's a lot of useful information to toss out the window based on "an aetherial shell resembling ... something from [Darnus'] memory, perhaps."