The Thid Umbral Era

[Zohar_Lahar]

Apparently the third calamity was a solar flare that struck Hydaelyn, right as holy wars reached a crescendo. Does this mean the sun that the planet orbits can be controlled through religion somehow?

[FJerome]

Yes? Maybe? Probably?

Hydaelyn-the-Planet has a serious problem of belief-makes-it-real and not one but both of our moons turned out to be trapped gods. A religious war causing a solar flare doesn't seem that silly in context.

[Enkidoh]

Yes? Maybe? Probably?

Hydaelyn-the-Planet has a serious problem of belief-makes-it-real and not one but both of our moons turned out to be trapped gods. A religious war causing a solar flare doesn't seem that silly in context.

Well, to be fair one moon wasn't even a moon at all but an Allagan built relic with a Primal inside... and it may be just denial on my part, but I still don't fully buy the 'Zodiark is sealed on the primary moon' idea... but that is a whole other discussion....

Either way, there are many possibilities as to how the Third Calamity occurred - fire from the sky can come from many different sources - it could have been a blazing comet that happened to come from the direction of the sun for all we know. But then, I only have a rudimentary knowledge of astronomy and astrophysics so as usual take my ramblings with a grain of salt.

[Fernosaur]

I only have a rudimentary knowledge of astronomy and astrophysics so as usual take my ramblings with a grain of salt.

Tbh you can't really use science to try and explain the story of a fantasy game hahahaha. I would just say "IT RAINED DEATH BC REASONS" and not think about it too much.

[Belhi]

My guess is it is something that disrupted the Aetheric balance on Hydealyn turning it too far to Fire thus drawing down the energy of the sun and leaving the land exposed.

[Enkidoh]

Haha, yeah that is so true (in fact, it is something I myself have constantly stated too! ). Mostly I only mentioned the above because this very forum has in the past in fact attempted to correlate that very thing - explaining in-game and lore-based planetary and astronomical mechanics with real-world astronomy and physics, mostly for 1.0 (it helped a few of the posters were actual astronomers and scientists by occupation).

But you are right, there is a helpful hint in the game's title after all... but then I do have a habit of overthinking fantasy concepts, something that is never going to end well.

[Zohar_Lahar]

It's just that the sun's cosmological role has never been touched upon in lore (its exact relationship to Hydaelyn/Zodiark has been omitted aside from implied gravitational pull), so outside of the occasional solar deity, there's not much reason to think it isn't a fusion engine unaffected by terrestrial affairs.

But moreover, there's how the Third Umbral Era narrative feels confusing and disjointed: Holy Wars ---> solar flare ---> Lahabrea: "Mwahaha! All according to keikaku!"

It's like there's some major missing context here. At least with the second umbral era, there's an easy logical conclusion they might have upset elementals or just dug too deep and woke up balrogs.

[Berethos]

I'm at work so I don't have the book with me to confirm, but I believe the Third Umbral era is the one described as where the sun itself grew larger (or seemed to at any rate), and it was this apparent increase that led to essentially a heat wave fueled drought and famine.

That kind of shift in the climate due to shifts in aether due to the actions of the mortal races, whether or not the sun actually increased in size due to an aetheric imbalance, is certainly in line with some of the other calamities.

[Nestama]

Does the lore book mention Belias at all? Wouldn't be too hard to believe that an Elder Primal like Belias could have been the cause of it... probably (mostly going by his version of Hellfire in FFXII).

[Berethos]

I've not found anything mentioning him specifically, but I think there are other things that hint toward him not being connected to the Third Umbral Era (though as usual with stuff like this, it's a tenuous connection).

There is mention of Tristan and the Ascian of the Twelfth Chalice, and how Tristas was taught the art of summoning. From that, we know how in-game he summoned an Egi of Belias (where Egi, in the language of the Allagan empire, translates roughly to "the essence of").

And after that it's mostly speculation.

Summoning itself wasn't developed until near the end of the Third Astral era, and that's when the essence of primals/eikons was used to create the Egis. The book also mentions that there many tribes that summoned eikons, and the Warring Triad is simply the three most powerful (outside of primal Bahamut, anyway). Certainly possible that the essence of Belias provided to Tristan (or the essence he discovered...it's been a while since I did Summoner stuff on another character so I don't recall those details) came from that time frame...and in fact I consider that the most likely possibility.

But...it's Ascians we are dealing with. They tend to have knowledge of the old and the ancient and stuff even Allag couldn't figure out (Heart of Sabik, for example). Also possible, without clarification/information from the Summoner quests themselves making this idea moot at least, that he knew of a way to expose Tristan to the essence from a primal that existed during the end of the Second Astral era.

That said, I don't think it's likely, and so Belias is an entity summoned by the tribes around the same time as the Warring Triad and thus not connected with the Age of Fire.