Why i think "Flames of Truth" was a weak way to explain the world's survival

[LineageRazor]

Yet for me the Hydaelyn/zodiark thing is following the Altana/Promethus story from XI with differences. As when Altana did her I'm sorry but I can't withstand your actions anymore she didn't create other copies and he did what he did post imprisonment because he was lonely, still a little mad, but also just wanted to hear her voice again. Creating the empty also took him a very long time and I can't remember if he started working on it right away or until he fell into a depression. Moose would be better at explaining and correcting anything.

My impression of the XI storyline is that while Altana and Promathea represented light and darkness, respectively, they were not adversaries. They were lovers. Their interactions with one another did result in a conflict, of sorts - exactly what was needed to generate the metaphysical wind that kept the Cloud of Darkness from encroaching on Vana'diel - but there was no enmity between them.

As for their parting from one another, Altana did not take any actions to separate herself from him - in fact, that's the last thing she wanted. Promathea was the instigator, and his action was, basically, to die. He didn't want to part from Altana, exactly, but he DID wish for self-destruction - the reasons why are never made clear - and succeeded. Possibly with the assistance of the Zilart; it was never clear to my what direct role they had, if any, in the upheaval.

After his death, Altana wept five tears, and those tears became the five player races. The beastmen, in turn, were born from Promathea, somehow (his blood, maybe?). For centuries, the conflicts between the Beastmen and the player races was enough to continue to keep the Cloud of Darkness at bay, but Promathea's death caused other problems - most notably, the Emptiness. Additionally, Promathea himself was on the verge of resurrecting within the body of one of the Aern of Tu'lia. This was something which, if it came to pass, would unmake the world at it currently exists - and, in at least one timeline, result in the destruction of everything but Promathea himself, in the form of the great serpent Shinryu.

At any rate, the FFXI cosmology is just as fascinating as the FFXIV cosmology, but I'd say there are far more differences than similarities!

[Jonnycbad]

I'm curious why so many people continue to think Hydaelyn is replenishing aether by re-absorbing a Shard. As far as I'm aware, there is no actual basis for this fan theory. The Ascians work towards a Calamity in order to break down the barrier between the Source and a Shard. The outcome may be the same, but the purported motive for the means is not. At least, not based on what I understand about Calamities.

Ascians call Calamities "Rejoinings". It's implied that the aether is drained from the land in one aspect to bring about a calamity, and then during the Astral Era. The ascians want to return the world to its original state, probably by rejoining the shards to the source, e.g. combining the aether pools of each shard back into the source to rejoin the lifestream into one entity or some such.

[SannaR]

Gah, what I ws trying to say is at the general sense they're simular in that you have two gods that for however long did fine co-existing until the male in both stories went and did/said something that resulted in a separation of the two. Of course in XIV we don't know yet what the reason was. Then post separation horrible things end up happening which at least in XI seems to have taken a long time for that to get to a point where intervention was needed.

One of the big differences is Altana didn't interact much if at all with the world yet everyone knows about her and says she's good which she is but the only time we get to really talk to her and learn why she doesn't is when the player becomes a god and gets told dems the rules. I mean obviously it's not going to end the same way because we already beat up Cloud of Darkness.

I do wonder though with Bahamut who's plan it was to have Tiamat do a summon and then have that summon get imprisoned. Like was that a back up plan if the cause an earthquake plan failed? Did our robed friends go oh crap the empire isn't getting the results we wanted and we forgot about Midgardsorm what the heck are we going to do to cause another calamity? They seem to be very thoughtful in how they go about getting the ball rolling except now it kind of feels like their timer is about to reach zero to the point where their "leader" has gotten rather impatient. I do get that part of this is the devs needing to have something to allow them to change the world with an in game reason behind it, but they seem to have be come sloppy recently. Or at least seem like there is some urgency on their end.

[Zohar_Lahar]

It does create the odd effect of the entire world being stuck in a disaster just because Eorzea screwed up. People in Othard or Meracydia or the New World were probably going "all right, what did those Eorzean idiots do this time".

The Seventh Umbral Calamity/Era really was weird, though. The actual Calamity was very localized, even if the pre-Calamity effects (eg aether drain) was presumably global. So to everyone outside Eorzea, everything continued more or less as per normal, minus one moon in the night skies.

I found it strange in Stormblood how there's little mention of Great Flood in the Far East. No surviving arks or legends like in Eorzea.

[Cilia]

Ascians call Calamities "Rejoinings". It's implied that the aether is drained from the land in one aspect to bring about a calamity, and then during the Astral Era. The ascians want to return the world to its original state, probably by rejoining the shards to the source, e.g. combining the aether pools of each shard back into the source to rejoin the lifestream into one entity or some such.

That's not entirely accurate, and nobody's really sure what exactly happens, but our understanding of it thus far is:

Calamities (Rejoinings) happen because too much aether is drawn out of Hydaelyn, breaking something (a dimensional barrier separating a shard from the Source, most likely).

Hydaelyn does not eat a shard to maintain Her aetherial state. In fact if one takes Matoya's Crystal Eye (an ancient Crystal of Light) into account, She has gotten objectively weaker over the ages as a result of the Calamities. If She were eating shards to maintain Her stability and present strength, this wouldn't be the case - She would be at roughly the same power level she was to begin with.

Calamities seem to be designed to weaken Hydaelyn and return Zodiark's fragmented aether to Him - at least enough to wake Him from His slumber, since with the Void on the 13th (and partial on the 1st) all of it simply isn't available.

Taking Varis' speech in the 4.5 trailer into account, the whole "return the world / mankind to its original state" thing sounds very much like the (in)famous Human Instrumentality Project from Neon Genesis Evangelion. Whether this is the truth or not remains to be seen.

[zuzu-bq]

Remember that the calamity was not only caused by Bahamut but everything that happened at once, the Battle for the Cartenau, the fall of the lesser moon which had Bahamut in it, Bahamut itself, and massive amounts of aether running thourhgt Eorzea in the attempt to Summon the Twelve, which resulted in the birth of Phoenix and the havoc of Voidsent across the land throught the rejoining. Bahamut was just one of the many things that happened that day, the video isnt to explain how Eorzea survived, but how we all gave birth to a primal, Phoenix. The world survived because... well, after destruction comes rebirth (in real world history too, life isnt that easily erradicated is it). The realm had reborn. Its all very thematic.

As for the Varis speech in the trailer, maybe he is talking about a world before Hydaelyn and Zodiark started their eternal struggle. Who knows! Im very much hyped for the expansion's finale.