How big is Bahamut?

[Nutz]

The thing I don't really understand about primals is, they were something before, weren't they?

I'm not sure that's always the case. Certainly for Saint Shiva and Bahamut it is, but it almost certainly isn't the case for King Moggle Mog XII. For the others I'm not sure. Perhaps there's lore supporting their corporeal origins, but I've always taken them to be essentially demigods made real through aether and devotion, regardless of having ever existed before.

[treuhavik]

The thing I don't really understand about primals is, they were something before, weren't they? They are right now images shaped out of aether and given a conscience of some sort, which they can project on others (tempering).

Right now the primal waters are pretty murky. According to everything in the game thus far, anything can be summoned with enough aether and prayer, living, dead or even inanimate, it would seem. I'm known to loathe this fact, and I hope we're given some stricter requirements in the near future.

So for Garuda, I remember a story about her being sane before slaughtering a snake of some sort, but being mortally wounded she survived by eating that very same snake's flesh. Is that story related to her, whatever that was, before being conjured as a primal (which means after she gained that attributes/images in the Ixali's minds)? Or am I missing an important detail?

The fight between Garuda and the Lord of Snakes is assumed to have happened before becoming a primal, yes. And, while I'm unsure if it was a result of consuming this Snake Lord, her triple triad card confirms that it was power that drove Garuda mad. Likely, this victory over The Snake who (allegedly) robbed the Ixal of flight won her a heroic reputation among the beast tribe, leading to her eventual summoning.

[Dererk]

We deeply need to re think how primals come into being because when Greg summoned Enikida solo I prayed there was a table right in front of me so I could flip it and as luck would have it one was summoned right in front of me.

At that point I just threw my hands up in the air and walked out.

[Mercutial]

Ghost Train soon to be making an appearance....

[Kaiser-Ace]

The thing I don't really understand about primals is, they were something before, weren't they?

It truly depends on the Primal on how you approach this question. Ifrit, Titan, Garuda, Leviathan, and Rhamu are all Elements given form, more specifically, the wrath of those elements given form.

Odin, Shiva, Bahamut, and (Debatably) Mog King were mortal beings at one point summoned as primals after the end of their lives. We can confirm that Bahamut and Shiva were historical beings as Saint Shiva was a documented living person and Bahamut was/is one of The Celestial Dragons that Midgardsormr sired, Odin and Mog King both bear the question of how mortal were they to begin with as we now know it's Zantetsuken that was the Elder Primal and not the Swordsman himself and not even the moogles them selves know where The Legend of Mog King stops and the History Begins.

Enkido and Phoenix give us out best view on the existence of primals since we actually saw them created. Louisoux gave his life to become phoenix (Similar to "The Incarnate Summon" of the Nova Crystalis lore) thus suggesting that with enough aether and prayer anyone could make himself into a primal at the cost of their lives. And Enkido was summoned by Greg with little more than heartache and longing for his friend in the presence of Crystals, thus suggesting that the thought of the worshiper(s) give the being form and possibly extract the essence of the "Primal Force" summoned from the Aetherial Relm/Life Streem.

[Zohar_Lahar]

The thing I don't really understand about primals is, they were something before, weren't they? They are right now images shaped out of aether and given a conscience of some sort, which they can project on others (tempering). So for Garuda, I remember a story about her being sane before slaughtering a snake of some sort, but being mortally wounded she survived by eating that very same snake's flesh. Is that story related to her, whatever that was, before being conjured as a primal (which means after she gained that attributes/images in the Ixali's minds)? Or am I missing an important detail?

That may well be the case. It's just that the backstory on those primals have not been elaborated as much as Good King Moggle Mog XII, Shiva, or Bahamut. Part of this is because their beast-tribes' history and mythology have not been explored as much as the city-states. The Ixal are the only ones with any definitive timetable, having fallen out of the sky prior to settling in Twelveswood and then being evicted by the Elementals. The others are much more unclear.

[Sapphic]

Bahamut in life may have been much smaller. Remember that the primal-version is represented as how the Mercydian dragons imagined him (as is with all primals). It's true that Midgardsormr's children are definitely larger than most dragons we will encounter, but Bahamut's sheer size may only be due to the fact that he was reincarnated as a primal. Likewise, he may have always been unnaturally big. 3.0 should give us more story into the origins of dragon-kind and how they all relate to each other.

I still think Bahamut prime is his real size. his real form. Whereas the city sized Bahamut is his primal form, just as Phoenix is bigger than loisuiox (sp).

[Anonymoose]

So, I just did T5 to help a friend out and used the 100 x 100 yalm grid square to measure Bahamut's palm (from the end of the wrist to the start of the middle finger), which ends up at roughly 130 yalms. Using concept art to measure how many palms he is high, I get a very rough ballpark of 9,360 feet (1.7 miles) as his height.

Now, at 9,000 feet, we're talking 3.3 Burj Khalifas. We're talking almost the size of Mount Olympus.

I can't help but wonder how much wiggle room there is between the various sizes of his various appearances, lol.

[axemtitanium]

I could believe that. He meets Louisoix eye-to-eye while Lou's on top of a mountain cliff, so that sounds about right.

[Dement]

So, I just did T5 to help a friend out and used the 100 x 100 yalm grid square to measure Bahamut's palm (from the end of the wrist to the start of the middle finger), which ends up at roughly 130 yalms. Using concept art to measure how many palms he is high, I get a very rough ballpark of 9,360 feet (1.7 miles) as his height.

Now, at 9,000 feet, we're talking 3.3 Burj Khalifas. We're talking almost the size of Mount Olympus.

I can't help but wonder how much wiggle room there is between the various sizes of his various appearances, lol.

This seems much more likely to me and is still terrifying. OP, I think, as you stated, that your fault was in the assumption of the proportional size of Dalamud to Menphina. Keep in mind that Dalamud is a construct of the Allagans and while they were incredibly advanced, I find it hard to believe that they were able to build and launch a man-made satellite the size of PA. Even building an ~3-4 mile wide satellite is an incredible feat.