The Burn

[Cilia]

Saying Solus "conquered" the Burn is a bit inaccurate if nothing lives there... but I digress.

The problem with his assessment is that it's an assumption, not a proven truth. If there's anything to be learned from my bumbling here, it's that operating on assumptions and faulty logic can lead to cascading inaccuracies. While it is readily apparent the Burn is an aether-starved wasteland, nobody has an eyewitness account of primals being responsible for it, and for all the warnings we've been given about them the worst we've seen any primal do to the environment is Bismarck eating a few islands in the Sea of Clouds.

While it is plausible for primals to have been responsible for the Burn, how probable it is remains unclear; it could be the result of something else or otherwise a natural phenomenon of some sort. While primals are the most likely culprit, there remain other possibilities that shouldn't be discarded just yet. Personally, I hope those other possibilities are closer to the truth than the obvious, and not just because I'll be beside myself if the Imperials' attempt at global conquest is running on an incorrect assumption. (It's mostly because I like mysteries and being left guessing, though not quite to Kingdom Hearts' level of everything coming out of left field. Given this game's track record, though...)

Also, I'm only here because I got knocked down Heaven-on-High like a wrecking ball.

[Rufalus]

I just assume, like basically all problems throughout history, that there is big ascian involvement. They made solus believe what they wanted him to believe about the burn, fan the flames of war yada yada, lots of pointless bloodshed now that they taught people how to summon and encouraged the Garleans to war against nations who know how to summon. Now gaius eyes wide open and going rogue, tired of being played for a fool by ascians he is now hunting them. He knows now all the innocents his legion slaughtered was a fools' errand. There's more to the burn than solus knew.

[ObsidianFire]

I think it's still an assumption that Solus made an assumption about what happened to the Burn in the first place. The language used to describe him finding the Burn is vague enough that I can't tell if he just found the Burn as is, or saw the Burn being created. And if he did see the Burn being created, then there's still the question of if what he saw was a primal or not. There's just no way to tell.

Yes, it's right up the Ascian's alley to get Solus to think the Burn is what happens when eikons are summoned for long enough. It's also right up Elidibus' alley to lie by omission instead of outright lying (he never lies to the WoD, he just doesn't tell them about the other option they could take). The Burn could very well what happens when eikons are summoned too much. It could be something that sometimes happens when eikons are summoned, but only under special circumstances. It could also have nothing to do with eikons at all.

What the Burn does remind me of is what little is mentioned of Meracydia. There was lots of eikons being summoned and re-summoned during the Allagan invasion of it and by the end of the war, most of Meracydia was a wasteland. In fact, parts of Meracydia are still uninhabitable because of that invasion. There's not a lot of ways I could see an area still naturally being that way after 5,000 years, but if most of Meracydia was devoid of aether at one point... that's a lot easier to swallow. I kinda wonder if Solus read Allagan records of what state Meracydia was in after so many repeated summonings and war and then recognized that the Burn had all the same characteristics.

[Cilia]

It is believed that a succession of eikon summonings was responsible [for the Burn]. When Emperor Solus first came to Othard and beheld this blight, he is said to have reeled at the scale of the devastation. He declared eikons a threat to our very star's existence, and issued an Empire-wide decree ordering the eradication of all such entities.

Prior to this I would have agreed that the wording was too vague to work out what was meant. We didn't even know what the Burn was. In fact it was my understanding that a primal was summoned against the Garleans when they first marched on Othard, leading to the devastation being witnessed firsthand. If Maxima is telling the truth (and we have no reason to disbelieve him) and if his account is accurate (and until we know otherwise there's no reason to believe it's not), this is untrue; the Imperials happened upon the Burn when marching on Othard and Solus concluded it must be a consequence of primals (for whatever reason - the specifics aren't too important on that).

To put it simply, we don't know primals are responsible for it. Even the Garleans don't know. That's all I was trying to say.

[dwarf]

I found a primary source, Square Enix Website, about Solus zos.
As I mentioned in a previous post, Solus Zos Galvus will be a key character in Burn.

“Born of distinguished lineage in the Garlemald Republic, Solus zos Galvus began his military career at a young age. After a string of impressive victories on the field of battle, however, he soon attained the rank of Legatus, and proceeded to integrate machina technology into the army's regular rank and filqe. With single-minded determination, Galvus transformed his fledgling nation into a formidable military power.
His actions garnered the undivided support of the citizenry, and catapulted him into the position of Dictator, supreme commander of Garlemald. In the years that followed, Garlean forces conquered all the lands of the north and hammered them into a single entity. Galvus then instituted an imperial regime to govern their new territories, conferring upon himself the title of "Emperor." The eastern nations were the first to feel the newborn empire's mighty fist. It was during this campaign that the emperor witnessed firsthand the destruction wrought by the primals—an experience that led to an imperial mandate for their annihilation. Now an old man of more than eighty winters, Galvus yet rules as emperor, but court rumors speak of frail health and frequent illness.”(Square Enix)

Reference
Solus zos Galvus
World of Final Fantasy 14 (Square Enix Official Website)

Thank you for sharing and viewing the thread. I am very happy to connect with people through this thread. If I find more useful info, I wii continue to share with you. If you have your own definition of the Burn, could you share with us? Thank you!

[ChaoticCrimson]

Given that the Shadow Hunter (*cough* GAIUS*cough) is apparently tracking down and taking out Ascians, and that he was out wandering in the Burn, it's not unreasonable then to suspect that there is at least some possible connection between the Ascians and the Burn. However, to what extent that connection holds and how recently it was initiated has yet to be seen, if any such connection exists. I don't doubt they could have had a hand in whatever really happened at the Burn, but we still don't have enough evidence to piece together all the facts. As far as the Shadow Hunter goes, it's also possible he and his entourage could have been using the Burn to avoid detection from their enemies, but I feel that's a less likely reason given the circumstances. In any case, it's certainly probable we'll get more answers when 4.4 drops, if not the full story.

[Theodric]

Well, the English translation of the recent Live Letter is up:

The Burn is described in this manner:

'Since this is an even-numbered patch, we're adding two new dungeons. For those familiar with the lore, the Burn is a desolate wasteland, bled dry of every last drop of aether due to excessive primal summoning. The Garlean Empire saw the devastation of this land and declared primals a threat and ordered their eradication.'

Source: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/371409

[LineageRazor]

Well, the English translation of the recent Live Letter is up:

The Burn is described in this manner:

'Since this is an even-numbered patch, we're adding two new dungeons. For those familiar with the lore, the Burn is a desolate wasteland, bled dry of every last drop of aether due to excessive primal summoning. The Garlean Empire saw the devastation of this land and declared primals a threat and ordered their eradication.'

Source: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/371409

That does seem pretty clear. It doesn't say "Garleans believe" that the land was bled try by Primal summoning; it flat out states that was the cause. Unless the fact that it's a Live Letter blurb calls into question its canonicity, I'd say that particular argument is settled.

Well, unless they decide to shoehorn in a messy retcon sometime in the future... "While it was believed the land was bled dry by Primal summing, new evidence has been found to conclude that it was actually... Ascians. It's always Ascians."

[Iscah]

Well, unless they decide to shoehorn in a messy retcon sometime in the future... "While it was believed the land was bled dry by Primal summing, new evidence has been found to conclude that it was actually... Ascians. It's always Ascians."

Well of course it's always Ascians! (Except when it's Allagans. Or possibly the Mhachi.)

Someone needs to photoshop that "Aliens" guy with some new text, I think...

On the other hand, it's not a retcon until a reliable source has stated something within the story itself, and then they try to say it's something else.


But yes, I agree from the wording it seems fairly definite, but I'd still say there's room for ambiguity depending on how informed they are about the details of the lore. Maybe they've just based it off Maxima's explanation.

I feel like it has enough "potential for error" that I'm not going to take it as a canon statement - not enough to base any theorising on it anyway.

And there's still the Uyagir tribe's story to take into account. It's information that's been set up ahead of time, and is consistent with what little we have actually seen of the Burn.

I found a primary source, Square Enix Website, about Solus zos.
As I mentioned in a previous post, Solus Zos Galvus will be a key character in Burn.

That information is the same as what's given in the lorebook, but with one important difference: it's out of date. Solus died during or prior to the post-ARR patch storyline, thus Varis is now the emperor.

That's not to say he won't be important, given his promience on the 4.4 poster, so it's quite possible we'll get some flashbacks of what happened at that point. But he's not going to be involved in the current events.

At least, I think not.

OMG! Ascians!

[ChaoticCrimson]

If we are to take this as true confirmation that primal summonings are what caused the aether deficit in the Burn, that would certainly lend credence to the Ascians having been involved. It would not surprise me in the least if they provided the knowledge and means to summon primals to those who once inhabited the Burn , much like they have been working on recently. Perhaps what happened at the Burn was one of the Ascians' "success stories".