"Answers" mark 3.

[Cassandaria]

Now, the Warriors of Darkness are not meant to be "Evil", mind you. They're just meant to be folks who, much like the Warriors of Light fight off the forces of darkness to prevent them from swallowing the world, the Warriors of Darkness once fought off the forces of light to prevent them from swallowing the world, both trying, albeit ignorant of their true purpose, to keep the world in balance.

For those who need more context on the Warriors of Darkness: http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Warriors_of_Darkness

The warriors of Darkness actually combated the light. As Light and Dark are simply powers that balance each other out, neither being evil, the fact of the matter is, it's how they are used that dictates what kind of warrior comes about. The warriors of light combat the darkness, the warriors of darkness combat the light. This would fit in with the fact we have seen another crystal, similar to the one of light, but in darkness. So it IS highly possible, with the addition of the crystal tower that part of FF3's storyline will seep into our world here and I would not mind at all.

[gornotck]

[...].

It is true that the Emissary is... different. He seems to think that if you only knew what they knew, you'd help revive Zodiark too.

There are heavy themes of the struggle between life and death, over and over. Astral light and umbral darkness. The thaumaturges used to be a very explicit example of it.

[Quintalian]

"Our souls have been torn, and our bodies forsaken."
The word 'forsaken' as thematic to primals seems to hold water. What if primal summoning requires the sacrifice of a physical body, whose soul is merged with the primal's essence?

-The Echo-using Sahagin priest becomes able to transfer his soul to a new body, but is then absorbed into Leviathan.

-The ritual foci mentioned in the Extreme primal cutscenes are made of beastmen remains, fashioned by the Ascians, and have the effect of enhancing the powers of the primal. Why should the bones of beastmen have such an effect?

-Odin's physical form is altered to resemble an adventurer who fought him before. Is his essence 'borrowing' the body of a powerful fighter who felled him?

The 2.3 story teaser image of a mysterious, silver-haired maiden was almost unanimously heralded as being that of a non-primal form of Shiva, but made me wonder, how? Is she is intended to be a physical ideal, or a sacrifice, to bring Shiva into being?

[Viridiana]

The 2.3 story teaser image of a mysterious, silver-haired maiden was almost unanimously heralded as being that of a non-primal form of Shiva, but made me wonder, how? Is she is intended to be a physical ideal, or a sacrifice, to bring Shiva into being?

Hmm. . .but then, the actual footage of Shiva herself shows dark hair. . .