Is the FFXIV story basically the PURGE?

[JackHatchet]

So from my understanding, in the fictional horror movie "The Purge," they've figured out that society functions best if we have a day of darkness once a year, so that people can be good the rest of the year. That is, everyone gets out their evil-impulses one day a year, so that they can be super good and nice the rest of the year. Trying to create some kind of wonky balance. I don't know. It's a fictional movie. *shrugs*


Now in FFXIV, they keep threatening that if we're good all the time, and let The Light win--that it'll consume our world-shard or some nonsense. And that's basically what happened with the Warriors of Darkness. Which means that ultimately to keep our world from being destroyed--we need to find a way to balance light and dark. So... wouldn't it be better to just copy the purge at that point? Run a tight ship of folks being good most of the year, and then just let people be evil one day a year to prevent us from ever going full-on light?

[MomomiMomi]

Light and Dark are not Good and Evil.

Neither is intrinsically good, and neither is evil. They can both be used for either purpose.

[Clover_Blake]

Light and Dark are not Good and Evil.

Neither is intrinsically good, and neither is evil. They can both be used for either purpose.

I'm not sure if that applies to this game though. As someone else pointed out, the Ascians are only seen doing purely "evil" things (childish as that word sounds -shivers-), which are always related to causing despair and death, while the warrior of light is always trying to save everyone and make their lives better.

I enjoy the FFXIV story overall, but I'm very lost as to where this game is going with the light and darkness balance thing, for nothing has been actually blurry or subtle here. The "bad guys" who complain about the lack of balance and about how we're ruining it with our good deeds, well, they aren't trying to fix it with a mix of good and bad things; they are doing nothing more than plain bad. If the Warrior of Light wasn't there to save the day (and it's been implied that saving the day is the wrong thing to do), then the world would simply be devastated and full of despair. Is that what balance looks like? I don't get it O_o

[BillyKaplan]

while the warrior of light is always trying to save everyone and make their lives better.

The WoL can also be a Dark Knight, and/or a Black Mage, two jobs who are associated with darkness and the void. Black Magic was used in the ushering of the sixth Calamity, but it was created in the first place in order to save Eorzea from a meteor that would've otherwise created a Calamity on its own. Does it make Black Magic inherently evil that people used it for such purposes after the fact? Absolutely not, and that's been the recurring motif of the BLM questlines since you got your soul crystal.

I enjoy the FFXIV story overall, but I'm very lost as to where this game is going with the light and darkness balance thing, for nothing has been actually blurry or subtle here.

The WoDs being too strong caused their world to be overrun with Light, making it as barren and dead as the Void which was a world where the Ascians were too strong. In our world, the Ascians were the bad guys so long as they stood uncontested, but once we showed up we began standing up to them, and now we're the ones pushing back, which makes us the disturbance to the balance.

[Wyvernheart]

@Momo

Genesis 1:4
[4]And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

[BillyKaplan]

@Momo

Genesis 1:4
[4]And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

>> Applying Western theology to a game made by a Japanese company

[JackHatchet]

But Ascians aren't really doing 'dark' as an elemental. They're doing 'chaos' as opposed to 'order.' Which is basically the Purge.

[Melichoir]

But Ascians aren't really doing 'dark' as an elemental. They're doing 'chaos' as opposed to 'order.' Which is basically the Purge.

I think people misunderstand the concept of 'chaos'.

Think of it this way: If you lived a life of just pure 'order', it would be a static life. Everythign would be in neat little boxes, nothing of surprise would happen, everything would happen as expected. That sounds pretty good right? Except that in a life of pure order, the second a smidge of chaos comes into the picture (which it inevitably would), your life and way of it would be obliterated because you have no reference on how to deal with chaos. Youve never had the experience of trials and tribulations to steel you against it. This doesnt even include the doldrums that come with stasis. Part of the joy of life is challenge, and being deprived of that, being in a place of no disorder of any sort, people forget the reason to keep existing. Remember, it is through some level of hardship that life in general has meaning. On the flip side, if you had a life of complete chaos, t would destroy it from how tumultuous it is. You wouldnt have a moment of respite for growth and understanding.

For life to exist, it needs a healthy balance of that order and chaos. Enough order so things are so mindnumbingly hard or bad, but enough chaos to challenge and force growth.

In Context of FFXIV, the point of having to much of one or the other boils down to that. To much Light, and the world becomes oppressively stale and static, where growth would cease to be and life would more or less just wither on the vine. To much chaos and the world falls into darkness, oppressive and always on the brink of ruin. The warning the Wars of Dark tried to pass on was that while it was good for the WoL to go after the ascians and keep the world in a more stable 'light' state, doing it to much would push it into a terrible fate all the same. That there has to be a balance between the two.

[TheMightyMollusk]

Light and Dark are magical energy types, not moralities. While Dark tends to be corrupting, that doesn't make it inherently evil. Dark knights use the power of the abyss, but they're still protectors of the innocent. Likewise, Light isn't always purely good; the big bad of the Heavensward white mage quests is a conjurer.

[Berteaux_Braumegain]

Light and Dark are magical energy types, not moralities. While Dark tends to be corrupting, that doesn't make it inherently evil. Dark knights use the power of the abyss, but they're still protectors of the innocent. Likewise, Light isn't always purely good; the big bad of the Heavensward white mage quests is a conjurer.

Also, the Big Bad of Heavensward (pre-patch content).