Warrior of Darkness? (MSQ spoiler)

[Asghard]

I'm sure this is a common topic by now, but couldn't find anything, so here goes.

What's the deal with this guy?

He is clearly the same guy from the ARR and HW cinematics; which at first I only thought of as the representation of our character, right?

But then he appears in the MSQ, in the same gear he does in the cinematics even, and he's, well, what so far appears to be our very anti-thesis, THE Warrior of Darkness (with a full party of "dark" versions of other classes).

Am I missing something?

[MilesSaintboroguh]

I'm sure this is a common topic by now, but couldn't find anything, so here goes.

What's the deal with this guy?

He is clearly the same guy from the ARR and HW cinematics; which at first I only thought of as the representation of our character, right?

But then he appears in the MSQ, in the same gear he does in the cinematics even, and he's, well, what so far appears to be our very anti-thesis, THE Warrior of Darkness (with a full party of "dark" versions of other classes).

Am I missing something?

We don't know anything other than he's probably from an alternate universe, was told some "truth" by the Ascians, and now they're our enemies. So far, everything has been mystery and tease and we probably won't know more till 3.4 or even 4.0

[Cilia]

There are a couple key differences between Derplander (the cinematic WAR -> DRG) and Darklander (The Warrior of Darkness): chiefly, the former wears normally colored artifact armor and has the base Bravura while the latter has a black-dyed version and the Bravura Atma (though it's probably glamours). Darklander also sports a goatee that Derplander lacks a la Mirror Universe Spock.

Also of note is that, if you pay really close attention during the Dragonsong "music video," Derplander appears to be carrying a Ragnarok [Zeta] instead of a Bravura. If it is a timeline shift, it would have to be before 3.0... but that's just conjecture.

[Enkidoh]

Also in the Heavensward opening trailer and all successive patch trailers he changed from WAR to DRG and is now wearing DRG AF2 and a DRG Anima weapon, further distancing himself from his 'evil' counterpart who has remained as WAR right down to wearing black-dyed AF and an atma version of Bravura, as Cilia mentioned above. And if you look closely, 'Evil!Derplander actually has different coloured eyes to 'Real'Derplander - in all the promotional images, artwork and even the 1.0 opening that SE has released over the years featuring him, 'real' Derplander is clearly seen with blue eyes (some ARR trailers also depicted him with more reddish hair and a goatee though, but that's just embellishment I think - maybe he just spends a lot of time at the aesthetician? ).

'Evil!'Derplander though, if you look closely during the player's first encounter with him in

Loth ast Gnath,

has brown eyes, further evidence that they are not the same person. I have my theories, but until we know more, I'm going to keep them close to my chest (maybe the upcoming Lore book will reveal some juicy morsels about him and his evil counterpart?).

[DreamAngel-Ren]

'Evil!'Derplander though, if you look closely during the player's first encounter with him in

Loth ast Gnath,

has brown eyes, further evidence that they are not the same person. I have my theories, but until we know more, I'm going to keep them close to my chest (maybe the upcoming Lore book will reveal some juicy morsels about him and his evil counterpart?).

I just rewatched that scene yesterday and the Evil!Derplander had blue eyes. o.o

See

[Enkidoh]

Really? Hmm, they looked brown to me (or maybe it's just my graphic settings).

EDIT: Annnnd... it seems you are right - I just went back looking through my screenshots of 3.1 and Evil!Derplander indeed has blue eyes not brown. So, that was a nice theory while it lasted... phooey.

Anyway, thanks for clarifying that.

[Anonymoose]

He is clearly the same guy from the ARR and HW cinematics; which at first I only thought of as the representation of our character, right?

Partly. Long ago, in the thread that was probably the last straw for "Do we really need a lore forum?" Fernehalwes dropped this:

But that still leaves one question—was the [CG Trailer] party an actual party, or were they merely symbols meant to represent you, the players? Well, you can breathe easy knowing they are both. They all ventured into Eorzea at the same time as you did. They all did similar quests, and lived through similar adventures. They exist as your characters exist (in a virtual world-sort of existence). The fact that you haven’t come across them is probably the same reason you haven’t come across my character, Amanda Hugginkyss (or maybe you have? /wink). They’re just somewhere else. Though, maybe you’ll stumble across their party in the future. Or maybe you won’t. How’s that for committing to an answer?

So it seems that our friend Derp!CG_Midander was effectively forked into Dark!CG_Midlander and DRG!CG_Midlander ... unless DRG!CG_Midlander is himself still both a trailer man and his own man.

What I'm trying to say here is that the above are correct, we know nothing.

With a (seeming) lack of larger hints, I just took a shot from the hip that (barring timeline f[KUPO!]kery) they're adventurers from the world that was destroyed during the Seventh Umbral Calamity and that Elidibus has provided them with just enough information to fill them with doubt about their previous course of action, but not enough information to make them realize they can't trust him.

Is there much support for any of that? Not really. But I'll whittle it down as more information comes in; not much else I can do but stew over which probably-wrong theory fits my headcanon best, lol.

[Inchinzu]

After re-watching the 1.0 ending trailer and the "WoD defeats Ravana" cutscene, I am convinced that the Warriors of Darkness are the companions Louisoix Leveilleur teleported away at the end of 1.0.

[Enkidoh]

After re-watching the 1.0 ending trailer and the "WoD defeats Ravana" cutscene, I am convinced that the Warriors of Darkness are the companions Louisoix Leveilleur teleported away at the end of 1.0.

Well, yes and no, at least from a narrative perspective. Gameplay wise, the 'companions' you mentioned that were sent five years into the future during the Calamity by Louisoix are actually the 1.0 players who satisfied the story requirements, and who in ARR had a slightly different main scenario with slight dialogue differences where they are eventually revealed to have been the original Warriors of Light. But a little suspension of disbelief is needed here, as for everyone else, new players and 1.0 players like me who did not sadly satisfy those requirements (namely, passing a certain point in 1.0's main scenario) as far as the narrative goes, the original Warriors of Light never returned.... so things just end up confusingly going around in circles.

As Moose mentioned though, Ferne confirmed back on the 1.0 forum (which Moose copy and pasted above) that 'Derplander' and his friends both represent the player in trailers, and are stand-alone characters on their own. Thus the appearance of these self-proclaimed 'Warriors of Darkness' while the 'real' Derplander is coincidentally still appearing in trailers in lieu of the player's character, shows that the two are clearly not the same. But again, we'll find out more in 3.4 and beyond (and hopefully the lorebook will also shed at least a little light on this mystery ).

[Naria]

Well, yes and no, at least from a narrative perspective. Gameplay wise, the 'companions' you mentioned that were sent five years into the future during the Calamity by Louisoix are actually the 1.0 players who satisfied the story requirements, and who in ARR had a slightly different main scenario with slight dialogue differences where they are eventually revealed to have been the original Warriors of Light. But a little suspension of disbelief is needed here, as for everyone else, new players and 1.0 players like me who did not sadly satisfy those requirements (namely, passing a certain point in 1.0's main scenario) as far as the narrative goes, the original Warriors of Light never returned....

I'm being a bit pedantic here but 1.0 WoL(s) (in the fought at Carteneau sense) did return in all scenarios. There are a few of them in them in the Waking Sands prior to "All Good Things" and they are quite confused as to why they have been forgotten, how they had skipped five years and at first were a bit addled themselves (I extend this as a reason as to why the 1.0 character doesn't announce who they are as soon as they make it back to their city state). Since they died fairly early on, I'm presuming that no one besides Minfilia realized who they were.

Enki's correct about the 1.0 characters. I did complete 1.0 storyline and my 1.0 character's opening CS was different--she was teleported into South Shroud by Louisoux. There were a couple different cutsences/dialogues in ARR, particularly in the Binding Coil,

(where Louisoux flat out states he teleported the PC into the future)

and one two bits of different dialogue in Heavensward that I can think of.

The Warrior of Darkness derplander might still be connected to Louisoux's time teleportation shenanigans but it is probably not as straight forward as him being one of the forgotten WoL, unless the WoD are forgotten WoL that even the returned 1.0 WoL forgot about.

I'm going to be a bit annoyed if that's all it is.