[SPOILERS]Zodiark, the thirteen shards, and the Source?

[appledoze]

So what exactly was meant by the Word of the Mother when she mentioned the Source? She also mentioned that Zodiark was bound into the moon by splitting the planet apart. So then Zodiark lives in the Moon, which was a piece of the planet, if I understand it correctly. The part I don't get however is the barrier between planes weakening part and of "we" being split into thirteen parts. So...does this mean Zodiark and Hyadelyn are split in like different parallel universes? Man, that part was so cryptic but I'm glad we finally have some more direct information regarding Hydaelyn and Zodiark.

[Zohar_Lahar]

Nabriales once said that Lahabrea and Elidibus were "of this world," which suggests there are alternate versions of Hydaelyn which resulted from Zodiark's banishment. The Warriors of Darkness seem to be from another of these worlds.

[myahele]

I am not a fan of parallel dimension/world, but that could very well be a possibility.

Based on what she and the Gerun Chronicles have said: she banished Zodiark into the moon and split "the sea" (aether ... The Source?) into 13 or 14 shards. I am guessing The Source could probably pre-date Hydaelyn-Zodiark and might have been the one to create them, such power might've been what Zodiark was after prior to the split?

But what is the Source? Source of all life, aether ... etc? Due to the Asciens collecting "keys" and their goal of forging a final key + them being robed figure of darkness I am getting a Kingdom Hearts vibe.

That and this thing in Chrysalis looks alot like a gate/door


They are split and the Asciens are actively trying to Rejoin the worlds/ dimensions. In fact, the Sharlayan scholars + students of Baldesions who disappeared were all researching "Dimensional Compression" aka Rejoining according to ancient texts.

I wonder if this is similar to FF8's Time Compression?

[Whiteroom]

If Zodiark is the moon and was once part of the earth, and wants a Rejoining. Is that the true meteor and Dalamund was a test run?

(Probably better for the crazy head cannon thread.)

[Belhi]

My guess is that the source, whatever it actually is, is what is under Lake Silvertear. It would explain a lot about the site, including the legends and origin Myths tied to it, and why Midgarsormr was set to guard it. Perhaps the source is what the Ascians are truly after and the whole rejoining thing is to try and make it accessable to them.

[appledoze]

My guess is that the source, whatever it actually is, is what is under Lake Silvertear. It would explain a lot about the site, including the legends and origin Myths tied to it, and why Midgarsormr was set to guard it. Perhaps the source is what the Ascians are truly after and the whole rejoining thing is to try and make it accessable to them.

That actualyl makes a lot of sense. In fact I'm kind of disappointed that we really haven't gotten around to learning more about it. I honestly thought we would in patch 2.5 but we got pretty much nothing other than confirmation that Midgardsormr is back. And even then, in Heavensward his role was extremely small and after you beat King Thordan he just kinda goes away. What the hell?

[Anonymoose]

Not to override too much speculation, but the Source might just be a fancy way of referring to our plane before Hydaelyn and Zodiark were separated. In English, the line refers to being divided "across ten and three" (13) that are "reflections of the Source", while, for example, French just says "Your world, the original world, is one of but fourteen that emerged from the fundamental cataclysm." So, when Hydaelyn banished Zodiark to the sky, it stressed the edges of our dimensional plane, "reflecting" the original unity thirteen times over.

What we call a Calamity is the destruction of one of these reflected worlds and presumably anything that may or may not have been on it. Here's hoping Life wasn't seeded there, eh? When these worlds are destroyed, the shards of Light and Darkness that were scattered into them are freed, allowing the pieces of Zodiark's power to be slowly rejoined. Destroying the other dimensions will theoretically free Zodiark's essence - aaand what happens then is up for grabs.

Does He give up His quest for revenge, give back his (allegedly) stolen power, and play nice in unity and balance as the original world is restored? (What Elidibus seems to be hinting at.) Does He immediately use His imbalanced power accumulation to try to burn Hydaelyn out entirely? (What Lahabrea promised at the end of Praetorium.) Or something unexpected? Crush everything back down to a new Genesis? Or do we just assume we're all completely screwed if it gets that far and resolve to prevent it?

Elephino.

[appledoze]

What you said reminds me a lot of the creation story and underlying lore of FFXI, of the original Crystal that birthed the gods being shattered and the realm of the gods being turned into the mortal world because of it. Perhaps FFXI can give us a hint of what's in store for FFXIV since they do share similarities. It's entirely possible that Hydaelyn and Zodiark are analogous to Altana and Promathia.

So if there are worlds being destroyed for the resurrection of Zodiark then what the Ascians are doing is basically what happened in Bravely Default. Only thing is, how do the calamities in our world affect those in others? Perhaps each calamity occurred simultaneously in each parallel world and in one of those, it succeeded in destroying the entire planet.

[appledoze]

I just realized that what the Word of the Mother told us was foreshadowed in Yoshi-P's New Years message:



The "Sea" could be referring to the universe, since the passage makes a distinction between the Sea and the Moon and the Star (the latter usually referring to the planet Hydaelyn). The Sea being split into fourteen, that gives a bit of weight to the theory of there being parallel universes. As for her "children" that she cast into the seas, not sure what this means. Might not refer to the wandering races since the passage says this is before Man. Could it be referring to dragons? To Midgardsormr and his first brood?

Also, the Gerun Oracles is the book that Elidibus shows to Urianger at the end of 3.1

[Fenral]

The thing about the Gerun Oracles, though, is that it implies the original state of the world to be one without Hydaelyn or Zodiark. That makes me think a properly reunited world would necessitate killing both, not just letting one take dominance over the other. The problem is figuring out of we can survive that or not. If we can, time to start planning, but if we can't, our heroes would be forced to acknowledge their desire to survive as they are in spite of some dramatic impact on the larger universe, which would be interesting for completely different reasons.

Last thing I want, though, is for this to turn into a Bokurano-esque parallel world deathmatch, at least not without the acknowledgement that the other worlds being destroyed are no less valid than our own. For us to coincidentally be in the "true" world would be kind of a copout if we have to start destroying other worlds.