Lore Book Revelations

[TheGrimace]

I remember in one of the Monk quests, with that historian explaining some history about the war between Gridania and Ala Mhigo... He mentioned something about a staff (which was significant enough to be named and all) that was lost and captured by the Ala Mhigans after one of the Gridanian commanders launched a very foolish offensive.

Does the lorebook mention anything about this? I've a feeling that staff's going to turn up somewhere with the new expansion...

This is actually Kan-e-Senna's wand, Claustrum. The wand eventually came back to Gridania and found its way to her capable hands. Whether or not the lore book mentions anything about this, I could not say.

[Alberel]

Uh, which one was confirmed to be a corrupted WoL again?

Chuchulain, he is described as one of the champions of the 13th that was corrupted by auracite. This description matches exactly with Unukulhai's story. Neither explicitly use the term 'Warrior of Light' but the 'champions' or 'great warriors' of the various worlds are likely to be their equivalent of us. The fact that they were capable of slaughtering primals en masse, as per Unukulhai's story, means they almost certainly posessed the Echo at the very least.

Please don't say that. I have a degree in linguistics. Sure it is still present so it isn't literally destroyed, but it is irreversably lost to the darkness. For all intents and purposes it is gone.

I meant no offense in saying that. Your statement was ambiguous though as it is debatable whether Rejoined worlds could also be considered 'destroyed' or not. That was the point that caused confusion. I merely expanded on your argument. I understood what you meant, but others did not.

[Balipu]

I know. And this isn't how I act when I am actually hurt. It really was oddly worded. But you know, professional pride and all that. I think rejoined worlds are definitely destroyed. But I don't know if any world rejoined at all. I mean Nabriales wanted to make the next rejoining so it stands for reason that there was a previous one, but the way I understand is: rejoining is just another word for calamity. I mean there are fourteen worlds in total and we had like, how many calamities here on Hydaelin? six? The total number of calamities overall should approach a hundred, yet Zodiark is still sleeping.

[Alberel]

My understanding is that when a world is Rejoined it ceases to exist and its aether is reabsorbed by Hydaelyn and reintegrated into the Source world. The 'why' of it is still unclear though. The impression I get is that Hydaelyn suffers so much damage from a Calamity that she has to draw aether from a reflected world in order to restore herself but there are a bunch of holes in that theory.

We don't actually know if the reflected worlds suffer Calamities as we do on the Source. We don't really know much of what goes on on the reflected worlds at all in fact. The only knowledge we have of them is that the Ascians do interfere on them (Igeyorhm accidentally caused the 13th's Flood of Darkness and the WoD's fought Mitron on the First) so there clearly is something that needs to happen on those worlds as well to engineer a Rejoining.

The ultimate goal for the Ascians though is to have all of the reflections Rejoined with the Source. It's not the Calamities themselves that actually matter; they're just a means to an end. Returning all of that scattered aether to the Source is what will wake Zodiark up somehow. Again, though, we don't know why.

[Anonymoose]

I feel like the semantics might be getting weird. Hopefully I can help instead of make things worse:

Rejoined worlds are often called "destroyed" by NPCS (in multiple languages). The entire dimension is collapsed back into the Source, killing everyone and everything there and causing all of that aether to be rejoined to the original dimension. This has happened seven times. Seven planes of existence have been entirely destroyed.

(1 Source + 13 Shards) - 7 Rejoinings = 1 Source and Six Shards

Why? Because that's how much aether it takes to awaken an entity on par with Hydaelyn Herself.

The void (aka the Thirteenth) has not been dimensionally compressed; it's still there. Thus it probably doesn't count as one of the seven, but one of the six. That one dimension, a void, is now just worthless to Zodiark; its aether has been shorn away. Could it be the other way around and the victim of awkward wording? Perhaps. But the claims seem rather specific: The void is still a dimension, just one devoid of aether - devoid of light - where no life or death exists and all that was has become starved and monstrous. Destroyed? Yeah, pretty much. But a different kind of destroyed. Lost to void vs. lost to oblivion.

If Ascians get people to summon primals on the Shards, and Hydaelyn calls champions there, it's probably safe to assume that Calamities happen there, too. The point is to weaken the walls between that dimension and the Source, calling the shard to collapse back inward.

Did the First experience a calamity every time the Source did, or (if the Flood of Light did not begin) would it have only seen the one? I have no idea. They haven't really been clear about that yet. If I had to guess, I'd assume the Source gets a Calamity every time a world is rejoined to it, but a shard only gets its one calamity when it is destroyed.

Can't stress enough, though, that this is all terminology and knowledge as of today.

It might change, it might get more specific.

[Alberel]

Did the First experience a calamity every time the Source did, or (if the Flood of Light did not begin) would it have only seen the one? I have no idea. They haven't really been clear about that yet. If I had to guess, I'd assume the Source gets a Calamity every time a world is rejoined to it, but a shard only gets its one calamity when it is destroyed.

This makes the most sense IMO as it would explain how the specific shard to be Rejoined is actually chosen.

[FJerome]

Did the First experience a calamity every time the Source did, or (if the Flood of Light did not begin) would it have only seen the one? I have no idea. They haven't really been clear about that yet. If I had to guess, I'd assume the Source gets a Calamity every time a world is rejoined to it, but a shard only gets its one calamity when it is destroyed.

It's interesting where this all puts the Divine Chronicles of Mezaya Thousand Eyes, who is now increasingly looking like the Nostradamus of Eorzea - occasionally right, but mostly by virtue of coincidence and confirmation bias?

I'm also curious how far the Sunder extends, mostly because Midgardsormr seems to come from beyond it. It goes pretty far out, given Zodiark's time-out in the moon, but how much further? We know the Allagans had a space program, did their interstellar probes ever start sending back some really weird readings?

[Dualblade]

So wait, I had been under the impression that our world was one of the remaining shards from what I know from the game itself. Is our world the Source, and if so are we basing this from the game or the lore book (or both)? Still waiting for second wave of books to be ready to try and get mine.

[Anonymoose]

We know the Allagans had a space program, did their interstellar probes ever start sending back some really weird readings?

This is something I'm trying really, really hard not to think about because it's the only information we have. Allag had interstellar communications technology. So perhaps the entire universe was reflected with us at the epicenter for all we know. Who knows where the borders are.

And that raises another question, if the Allagans knew their technology worked, they were communicating with ... whom? Even if the answer is just "other Allagans" (that perhaps had made their way out there on Ragnaroks), does that mean that the Allagans who perished in the quakes were left to die? Are the chosen survivors in their interstellar transports still freaking out there?

I don't want to think about it. (Yet.)

So wait, I had been under the impression that our world was one of the remaining shards from what I know from the game itself. Is our world the Source, and if so are we basing this from the game or the lore book (or both)? Still waiting for second wave of books to be ready to try and get mine.

Indeed, we live on the "original" dimensional plane that the other thirteen were reflected from. It's confirmed in both the game and the book.

[Dualblade]

Huh. Thought I was paying good enough attention and I wasn't. Need to be more careful in the future then, thanks!