What is Zodiark?

[Ignacius]

Pure speculation incoming...

-Zodiark existed before the world as we know it, thus all of reality occurred after Zodiark and (we can assume) the current world somehow is mutually exclusive to whatever Zodiark lived in before.

-The Ascians are largely not of this world and cannot interact with it.

-Hydaelyn is shown as a bright crystal in darkness, and a dark crystal is shown in a vision (possibly Zodiark or Hydaelyn...)

-There are as many Ascians as gods (twelve).

There's a lot of FFXIV that is based on duality, so it may be that Hydaelyn and Zodiark are actually the same being, with the Ascians attempting to return Hydaelyn back to Zodiark in order to retake the place of the Twelve (who may have supplanted them during this era). It could be that, before this era, Zodiark was Hydaelyn and the Ascians were in the position of the Twelve, and it was actually the Twelve who were attempting to break the status quo.

Just speculation, of course, but everything in FFXIV seems cyclical.

[Fenral]

Just speculation, of course, but everything in FFXIV seems cyclical.

Which begs the question of what effect our actions have on the cycle. Will our final objective be to halt the wheel, turn the wheel, or break the wheel?

[Ignacius]

Well, weirder questions abound if that's the case:

-Why is Hydaelyn fighting the cycle?
-Was the cycle supposed to have changed already, and Hydaelyn is trying to stop it?
-Is trying to stop it part of the cycle?
-Is it ethical to stop the cycle? Who or what did we replace? Another common theme through both ARR and HW is that mankind might be sorry about thing, but they always do what they think they must for their own good. Is that a reflection of Hydaelyn?
-The dragons arrived from the stars and made a deal with Hydaelyn. Were they not supposed to be here? Did they stop the cycle? Are they meant to continue the cycle?

[Februs]

Well, weirder questions abound if that's the case:

-Why is Hydaelyn fighting the cycle?

Assuming there is a cycle in place (and it is anywhere even remotely similar to actual mythologies that exist in our world) I would say that it's a safe bet that she is protecting herself.

In the mythos of a lot of cultures, each subsequent generation of "gods" leads to the downfall of the previous one (Ie: Greek Cosmic deities give way to the Titans, Titans give way to the Gods, Gods give way to man... man gives way to supercomputers and the internet... etc ...). The only "God" that persists in most mythos is that of the "true" god, whom is usually the origin god (in Greek mythology that god is a shapeless entity named "chaos" from which all thing supposedly sprung into existence, including the cosmic deities) and is the furthest "god" removed from direct involvement with humans. The way such a god is directly involved with mortals is by nature (ie: chaos represents our state of existence. Rather than being personified or preforming miracles or w/e, we simply exist with Chaos as a facet of our reality). Hydaelyn may be taking on this role. However, it's also possible that Zodiark is the true holder of this role, and Hydaelyn just stands in for him, doing what she can to prevent her destruction at the hands of subsequent generations of Gods.

It is possible she's simply trying to protect us from destruction at the hands of this cycle, since it's possible that her destruction could also mean ours, but it's just as likely that she is only looking out for herself, and exploiting our ignorance as a means of getting us to play along.