A Part, and yet Apart

[Frederick22]

Isnip

Well, actually the force is neutral. Is up to you which way you wanna choose. My apologies if I didnt explain well
But here is much the same, a neutral power with 2 points of view, the light representing the good and the dark, representing the evil.

[Kaiser-Ace]

And he won't spill anything unless we either see things his way or stop getting in his way long enough to hear what he wants to do. As far as I see it, he and Ascians in general are like Black Doom from Shadow the Hedgehog; claiming to be helping, even though their actions are clearly beneficial to them only.

Proof being that he effectively hit the F-All button when he summoned the Warrior of Darkness.

The Truth is that Elidibus never had any intention of doing more than using us. All he wants is to kill Hydaelyn and revive Zodiark. And he's willing to manipulate and sacrifice anyone, including his flow Ascians, to accomplish that.

[CyrilLucifer]

I'm of the belief that we don't know the whole story of Zodiark/Hydaelyn yet. While Elidibus is certainly ruthlessly determined, especially if it is confirmed that he was the one who gave Urianger the second auracite, but I feel as if SE won't go pure "dark is evil, light is wonderful and perfect and best and the only way."

I think it's too early to be saying that Hydaelyn is pure good and everything Elidibus does is for the sake of pure evil.

[Kaiser-Ace]

Yea, learning humility and being humiliated are not often the same thing.

Thus why I loved how my DRG Bro Eistenian kept busting his ego bubble before it could inflate.

I have got to get him back from Nidhogg. Maybe an Echo Ception like we used on Lahabrea would work.

[myahele]

With inter-dimensional and space travel possible in FF14's world, I can't help but wonder if Hydaelyn somehow crashlanded into Zodiark world and displaced him as the the world's crystal? Somewhat similar to FF9's Terra vs Gaia? Hence, all the Astral/Umbral Eras.

Anyways, it is interesting that the WoL is really the only non-Sharlayan of the group. We do find out that Sharlayans are pretty arrogant. Looking back, I never found Alphinaud to be too annoying. Had things been different, I can could have seen him end up being an antagonist with his Crystal Braves

[Cilia]

With inter-dimensional and space travel possible in FF14's world, I can't help but wonder if Hydaelyn somehow crashlanded into Zodiark world and displaced him as the the world's crystal? Somewhat similar to FF9's Terra vs Gaia? Hence, all the Astral/Umbral Eras.

This is actually one of my current theories, with the added caveat that Hydaelyn is breaking apart tiny bits of Zodiark and using them as part of mortal souls. After all, the Ascians constantly refer what's known in Eorzea as a "Calamity" as "Rejoining" or "Ardor," and according to Sidurgu everyone has a tiny, healthy bit of void in them. The Ascian Prime also states s/he is going to make us "render our souls up to Lord Zodiark, that he might be reborn!" In this case, the Ascians' goal is to kill so many people that Zodiark is "reborn" and retakes his position as world crystal, thus making "everything as it once was, as it ever should have remained."

Another possibility I've come to think about lately is that Hydaelyn really is being a problem to the planet. This concerns the Astral / Umbral cycle. New thaumaturges are taught that the Astral / Umbral cycle is simply one of nature: a period of activity (Astral Fire) is followed by a period of rest (Umbral Ice). This isn't bad, or evil, or wrong, it's simply how nature works. Now, remember that the Sixth Astral Era went on for 1500 years, and the Seventh Umbral Era only 5. That's nowhere near enough time to balance things out. Without records there's no way to know for sure, but in the 3500 years between the fall of Allag (Fourth Calamity) and the start of the Seventh Astral Era, how many of those years were spent in an Umbral Era? How long does either last on average? Either way, Lahabrea's monologue after you defeat Gaius leads to the conclusion that something Hydaelyn herself is doing is messing with the aetherial flow of the world and throwing everything out of whack...

To this I would posit that Hydaelyn is forcing the world to stay in an Astral state when it needs an Umbral one out of the flow of nature, and this forced expenditure of energy is having a very negative effect on Hydaelyn (the planet), which is why Lahabrea says that "if the growing [aetherial] imbalance is not redressed, the very laws of existence - both physical and aetherial - will be warped beyond all recognition." Hydaelyn is forcing the planet to stay in an Astral state out of compassion for us mortals, but this is having an extremely detrimental effect on the world. (Thus turning Hydaelyn into a sort of Etro-like figure.)

It's doubtful either of these theories are right, but.

[CyrilLucifer]

The second is my theory as well. Since you mentioned Etro, and I'm always mentioning XI, I'd like to point out that's also what Altana did. In her compassion and love, she basically caused a breakdown of existence and everything started devouring itself (Atomos).

I've seen it mentioned, too, in a similar vein that they might go full FFIX, with Zodiark and Hydaelyn being the Terra/Gaia and the Ascians working as the "angels."

Honestly, we can make up theories forever but none of them will probably be answered until 4.X or 5.0. It's going to eat me alive.

(The only theory I'm close to certain about, however, is that Pashtarot will be the next Ascian we kill due to being the last remaining of the watery triad, which seems to be the "problematic" of the Ascian bunch).

[JeniLinsky]

the Sixth Astral Era went on for 1500 years, and the Seventh Umbral Era only 5. That's nowhere near enough time to balance things out.

Did the Seventh Umbral era truly end? I know that the leaders of the three Eorzean City-States declared it so, but do they truly have the power to do so, or was that just political posturing? If there is a natural cycle of astral and umbral eras, why would the proclamations of heads of state matter to that cycle? For that matter, many of the forces which marked the Seventh Umbral are still going on... wars and rumors of wars; primals and rumors of primals. No matter what political posturing is happening, I think we're still in Umbral VII.

[Fenral]

Did the Seventh Umbral era truly end?

It "ends" either when you beat Ultima Weapon or when you stop the regeneration of Bahamut Prime beneath Northern Thanalan, both of which take place 5 years after the seventh Calamity (along with every single event since you got off the wagon at the beginning of A Realm Reborn). Current Word of God is that the Astral and Umbral labels are mostly arbitrary, and that declaring an Astral Era is enough to make it so.

However, I remember an event from the Seventh Umbral Era story in 1.X, in which I believe it was Urianger and the Circle of Knowing member of your choice brought up that certain types of magic (i.e. golem creation) were only possible in an umbral era do to some special aetheric somethingorother, but that particular note seems to have been more or less quietly retconned by the presence of astral-era-created golems in colonial Sharlayan.

[CyrilLucifer]

Actually, that is a really good point with the golems, but I don't think it necessarily mean it's retconned. If anything, it actually supports the idea that you really can't just arbitrarily decide what is and is not an Astral/Umbral era and that there is probably some aether flow behind it. I imagine flows do not immediately change, so even if we "declare" it Astral, and all signs point to an Astral era rising, the Umbral flow may still be in effect for a few years.

In human anatomy terms, it's like getting a drug or hormone out of your system.

(I still want to know why that scholar was panicking about the crazy aether in the Shroud during 2.5).