The Horn

[radhaz]

So, the horn from 1.0 finally meets it's maker in 3.4. If the lore mongers would be so kind, please expand upon this.

[Anonymoose]

Having spent far too much time trying to figure out The Key since what (CG Midlander? lol), this thing still has its own folder in my notes.

The Lore Train: Seal Rock covers the whole of the 1.0 Lominsan introduction, so that's a good place to sart if you missed it. A similar horn (sans the tablet) also showed up in the Ul'dah scenario, but was mainly used to make localized aether wig out and cause mobs to go mad. It vanished with Corguevais.

Following up on that unfinished storyline, Koji Fox confirmed that the Horn (and matching tablet) were of the same make as Louisoix's staff.

The Key is not as exciting as it probably should have been. That key was an important part of the story back then and it’s basically an enchanted item that assists in the summoning of primals and other types of creatures by manipulating the aether around where it is used.

The Ascians would give it to certain beast tribes as a nudge like “Heeey, here ya go! I’m not going to tell you what to do with this, but I can tell you what you can do with this!” And, again, it’s one way the Ascians tried manipulating the beast tribes. It’s not going to summon the primal, but it’s going to make it easier. There’s also that Thanalan quest where Corguevais blows the horn, and the Coblyns all start to mass.

To go off of that, and whether it will play a part in the game from now on, we can tell you that if you look closely in the game, there is a certain staff that a certain important someone used in a certain important something and that staff was broken but it’s now somewhere and you can take a look at it and that also might be of the same type of make as this Key…

It turns out that after Travanchet pulled his vanishing act with the horn, he gave it to someone to someone less apt to know what it is and more like to use it. It turns out that the Ascians' whole "spread the Knowledge of the Paragons, let primals destabilize everything" plan is supported by a rather effective black market antiques ring.

I'm not sure that it was planned from the get go for the Key to end up with Alexander (doesn't seem likely) or if they just thought it'd be a cute way to close the book on that story - having Travanchet and the Horn literally fall out of the time machine, unseen since 2010 (seems very likely).

But one can never say for certain.

[radhaz]

lol, Moose on the job!

[MilesSaintboroguh]

Moose should be Koji Fox's sidekick. Complete with wind up minions.

[Zohar_Lahar]

Now the real question I'm wondering is: who or what made these horns, and the matching tablets? They seem to be capable of controlling aether in a scale similar to the eyes of a Great Wyrm. And someone had to place one of them on Seal Rock, and someone had to assemble the Tupsimati using another set.

[Alberel]

Now the real question I'm wondering is: who or what made these horns, and the matching tablets? They seem to be capable of controlling aether in a scale similar to the eyes of a Great Wyrm. And someone had to place one of them on Seal Rock, and someone had to assemble the Tupsimati using another set.

I have worries over whether we'll ever receive any answers on that issue. The Keys seems to be a vestigial component of the old 1.0 story so it may be that the story will never move in the right direction now for us to discover their origins. 3.4 does seem to have thrown Tupsimati back into the spotlight though so if we're going to explore the idea any further it'll be there. I wouldn't be at all surprised if there were meant to be twelve of them. I do hope they're reintroduced into the story properly as a major concern at some point.

[myahele]

Now the real question I'm wondering is: who or what made these horns

Yeah, I am curious about the Horns, too. I once thought that *maybe* they're the horns of ancient beings that could summon. Afterall, Summoners in many Final Fantasies had horns which they used as a beacon to summon. In fact, FF9 had a whole race of single-horned people in Madain Sari. This could be what remains of those beings? At the very least I think they're horns of extinct beings and function much like how Dragon Eyes can absorb aether but at a greater extent.

...Or Asciens are the one's responsible for making these "Keys" since Elidibus seem to want to forge the "final key"

[Alice_89th]

...Or Asciens are the one's responsible for making these "Keys" since Elidibus seem to want to forge the "final key"

He seems to be refering to

us, the WoL. That dialogue made it sound like we somehow need to become stronger and thus become the final 'key' to summoning/awakening Zodiark.

We've just learned from the WoD that too much light can also cause a calamity (or worse) so that may very well be exactly what Elidibus was/is planning: to make sure the WoL is so powerful that they upset the balance and thus cause a calamity.

[Alberel]

He seems to be refering to

us, the WoL. That dialogue made it sound like we somehow need to become stronger and thus become the final 'key' to summoning/awakening Zodiark.

We've just learned from the WoD that too much light can also cause a calamity (or worse) so that may very well be exactly what Elidibus was/is planning: to make sure the WoL is so powerful that they upset the balance and thus cause a calamity.

Upsetting the balance renders a world void and is entirely separate from the Calamities and resulting Rejoinings. A voided world is no longer able to be rejoined to the source, which means it's as much a disaster for the Ascians as it is for us. That's why Elidibus was helping the WoDs to accelerate the Rejoining of their own world, as it was the only way they believed it could be 'saved' from the void of light.

If Elidibus was referring to us in that little speech then he likely intends to drop a truth bomb on us to make us actually want to revive Zodiark. There's still a lot we don't know about why Hydaelyn cast Zodiark out, and it's possible the only way to solve this whole mess will be to combine them again.

[Anonymoose]

The source of the horns as a whole I'm not entirely sure of. Enchanted items that manipulate aether have surely have been around for ages, but specifically the [bone horn + inscribed tablet] tradition has few hints to trace. The horn that ended up in Alexander had its accompanying tablet (allegedly) thrown into the sea by Sthalmann, which (allegedly) made the sea serpent return to the depths. That tablet was written in an ancient Sahagin dialect called Rhotano Bloodcant.

Are the Sahagin that old? Or are the horns that new? Or is it a newer relic that follows a very old tradition?

We don't know anything about Louisoix's Key, but the side of the tablet that we can see bears only the symbol that usually represents Thaliak. Note also that replicas of these staffs appear occasionally, but seem unnoteworthy. The Ixal steal items from Eorzeans all the time and have been seen using staffs extremely similar to Tupsimati, but bearing the symbols of Oschon and Llymlaen (wind spells, I suppose).

Did the Keys inspire the replicas?

The last hint is from French, where Y'shtola casually mentions that the Treasure of Seal Rock (the Key in question) was believed by the Circle of Knowing to be an ancient Allagan artifact. Indeed, the symbols for the Twelve are that old - even Louisoix's staff could fit the timetable. Granted, who knows if the symbols always meant the same things. Allag invented Dalamud after they had given up on theology, but their theological relics contain the Twin Moon symbol of Menphina.

Unaddressed retcon? Who knows.

Elidibus' comments strike me (first-impression wise) as an unrelated use of the word key, though. I assume he is speaking of the "Awakening" that Elidibus says needs to occur within the Gifted. Having survived the Ardor seven times, Hydaelyn is weak and the souls of mortals are weak, and thus the Gifted have arisen by Hydaelyn's will. But Eli is less specific about the rest - is the Awakening for the Warrior of Light? Any Echo user? Mortals in general?

Either way, this awakening seems to be the final key to "open the door" to Zodiark's rebirth.