No true gods?

[Anonymoose]

Assuming that my memory functions as proper, neither Louisoix or Bahamut were killed.

Not visibly, of course; but that's why I leave the ? on the table.

To elaborate: Bahamut was deified after he was dead; there was an "essence" (amongst the Lifestream) to be drawn to the "beacon" (the summoning) and rematerialized as a primal. This is also known to be true for the Allagan general conflated with the Garuda, the sanctified heretic Shiva, the deified king Thordan, and the transmogrified chieftain Moggle. All of these were long-distributed essences rematerialized it into something new, and it's easy to speculate what other primals perhaps "once were", as well. It seems to just be the way this works.

Louisoix, by contrast, appeared to be still living - still whole - and he was (re)materialized anyway. It's the only example we have of such an event. Ysayle was able to (by virtue of the Echo) allow her soul to fuse with that of the primal Shiva. She became host to an already-existing deified soul. Thordan says that this is true for him, as well (though his possession of the Echo is an inference). Louisoix makes no suggestion of a pre-existing Phoenix soul merging with his own, or that he was a vessel at all (and he didn't, as far as we know, ever have the Echo). He says that he himself became a primal.

Because it is an anomaly, I leave the door open for the bright light that precedes the vision of the "Twelve" to perhaps be his death; that he was either taken by the intense heat of Bahamut's charging attack or shorn apart by the massive amount of aether focused on him (which kills even Ascians under the right conditions). Notice that his skin cracks and glows like other beings who have been dematerializing / shapeshifting due to being stuffed chock full of aether (such as Eula Darnus and Estinien), yet he never actually takes the shape of the Phoenix.

What comes after that we know for sure: he blew a hole through Bahamut, thought he killed him, tried to return all the surrounding aether to the land to revive it (another possible origin for if not simply further strengthening his thoughts of the Phoenix), and got sucked up along with a last-ditch vacuum effort by Bahamut's heart.

I just leave a little blur in my headcanon between the bright light and Louisoix returning the aether to the land for ... "Wait, did he die in there?", lol. For all we know, it is possible to warp a living being's soul directly into a newborn primal, though. (A terrifying prospect.)

The door is also wide open for me to be, as usual, overthinking things.

Mind you, Bahamut took in all the aether he could, including that infused with Louisox/Pheonix, Gaius Van Baelsar, and more.

Baelsar would have been a hell of a plot twist, so I'm going to imagine that this said Nael van Darnus, lol.

[Zhao]

Baelsar would have been a hell of a plot twist, so I'm going to imagine that this said Nael van Darnus, lol.

lol, Thanks, I can never remember names right. I did a (quick) search for a name and clearly did not read enough, just saw the Garlean name and stuck it in. Lesson learned. xD

and great thanks for the clarification between Louisoix's and Ysayle's circumstances!

[CGMidlander]

the transmogrified chieftain Moggle

lol I see what you did there