Is Zodiark evil?

[Aurelius2625]

Just as the question topic says, is he evil? In other games, like the Elder Scrolls, there are superbeings like Anu and Padomay, which represent stasis and change, they have no moral compass. Likewise, there are the Aedra, which are 'of our ancestors' and the Daedra, which were not of the people of Nirn's ancestors, again, there's no good or evil associated with them.

Some of the Daedric Princes are far more malevolent, but even then, their true will is unknowable. There was the Aedra: Umaril the Unfeathered, which was an Aedric being, of the same gods that the people of Nirn worship, but was an Auroran, and essentially a tyrant king.

Sithis is the "Dread Father", but is akin to an abyss, although those in the assassin's cult: the Dark Brotherhood worship him and kill people in his name, it's not said that Sithis is evil.

So is Zodiark evil? Or, are the Ascians simply doing their own thing?

For that matter, is Hydalyn "good"?

[Anonymoose]

I feel like the answer to this is going to be complex in the end, but that regardless of the complexity, he's sure going to seem evil.

Hydaelyn and Zodiark occupy a place in the lore that echoes the classic games, and thus it appears pretty clean cut: the Mothercrystal is Light and "good" and Her counterpart is Dark and "bad". But in the big picture, this isn't a classic game, and thus it will probably be more complicated than that. For example, I'm almost positive that - in the end - "good" and "evil" are going to be dependent on, more than anything, one's point of view.

Consider Elidibus, the closest thing we have to a measure of Zodiark's intentions. Is it so "evil" to see our cosmos as an aberration of the natural order in need of redressing? That, regardless of what has come after, it is a mockery of what was and ought still to be? But from our perspective, he's responsible for incalculable suffering and loss to the world we know and love. He and his are directly responsible for the utter annihilation of eight and a half worlds not unlike our own, and the deaths of everyone there upon, and he plans the same for us. ("These lands, these people, this world─all shall soon change.")

Even if Zodiark is "evil" (from our perspective) it might even be incidental; what if his attributes are the attributes of Darkness and He can no more deny his nature than the scorpion of The Scorpion and the Frog?

[Eloah]

This is something that should be addressed in Shadowbringers. The simplest answer is no. But a more complex answer might be yes, in the sense that their right effects our right so we view it as wrong. A good way of looking at it is how do you view something "bad" but is it really bad, or do you just perceive it as such.

[Kalise]

As far as we know... He's suggested to be Evil, with Hydaelyn being suggested as Good.

By the nature of how Hydaelyn caused the fracturing of the world into the 13 shards in order to lock Zodiark away. In addition to how she also helps adventurers such as the WoL deal with Primals that would threaten the world(s) by granting the Echo.

Though, it's unclear if Zodiark can also grant the Echo (If he cannot, then it leads to some awkward realization involving the fact that Ascians became Ascians due to the Echo enabling them to do so)

So, we have Ascians trying to rejoin all the shards with the Source - Not only ending all life on the shard, but also causing a Calamity on the Source. With the purpose of reviving Zodiark. Which suggests some level of Evil, because of the extreme loss of life involved in this.

Then we have Hydaelyn who's doing things like expending her life essence to grant a Hero the Blessing of Light so that they may protect the world (Soon to be worlds) as well as things like saving Minfilia's soul from disappearing into the Aethereal Sea (Though, one could argue this in of itself, is an act of Evil... ). This suggests a level of benevolence and thus Good.

It's possible that Shadowbringers might complicate things somewhat, but I think at the base level, Zodiark being Evil and Hydaelyn being Good are very likely to be absolutes.

[Ssmiley_Bjakkzz]

haha i thought you meant the server

[Misutoraru]

It is a very difficult topic I think

Some very early ARR spoiler










I seem the intention of Zodiark is to bring darkness and chaos to our world and he would make whole again with Hydaelyn. On the other side Hydaelyn claim Zodiark is power hungrey and banish him.
While both flooding of light or darkness mean no good for our world, and Elidibus once said Zodiark have no intention of flooding darkness to our world.

Good and evil become a simple point of view. Rejoining will result a mass genocide among all shard. However, what rejoining would bring us is never mention and while we do the deed killing every primal and extinguish darkness will result in flooding of light. Are we the good guy which our doing will result in turn our world in a form of void, or are those prepare to sacrifice all shard and bring the greater good to the one (if rejoining is actually the ultimate good ending)

We can only wait for the idea to be expand in ShB, Zodiark is inevitable

[MistakeNot]

Just as the question topic says, is he evil?

From what little we know, he appears to be evil. But we really have no idea about his actual motivations and intentions.
We do not know to what extent the Ascians' actions reflect Zodiark's will, or how much they truely know about Zodiark.

I have a feeling that this will turn out to be not so much a matter of "Good" vs "Evil" as a matter of "Order" vs "Chaos", with Hydaelyn on the side of "Order", and with Zodiark and the Ascians on the side of "Chaos".

What we do know is that if the Ascians follow their plans and make more rejoinings happen, then that will cause the death of many millions of people - which in my book at least is an evil thing to do.
It is possible that in the grand scheme of things it is the lesser evil, but it is still evil, and the Ascians show no hint of regret or remorse over all the deaths they have caused.
So I'd say that at least the Ascian's are evil, no matter what Zodiark may be.

So far, Hydaelyn has not really given us any cause to doubt that it can be considered "good".

[LineageRazor]

As others have mentioned, Hydaelyn has never given us much cause to doubt that she's "good". We even get to see things a bit from her perspective through her lines in the "Answers" theme, which paints her as one who loves her children, wishes for them to thrive and be free, and is pained when they suffer.

Zodiark is much more mysterious; everything we know about him we know through his effects on other characters. We know that Hydaelyn (apparently a GOOD entity) felt the need to cast him out and seal him away - but even that does not necessarily indicate that he's evil, merely that Hydaelyn felt he was incompatible with the world she envisioned. We know that the Ascians do awful things in his name, but we do not know whether he endorses those actions.

He may turn out to be much like Promathea in FFXI - dark, but not evil, and an entity whose very being threatens the current order of the world. We may need to oppose him simply because his existence is harmful, not because he is bad as an individual. Really the worst that could be said about Promathea was that he was selfish - willing to hurt his companion Altana (and, as it turns out, doom the world to eventual consumption by the Cloud of Darkness) in order to fill his ultimate ambition of self-destruction. Zodiark may be the same way; we know that he coveted power, and perhaps that put him at odds with the well-being of the world.

Of course, there's CERTAINLY plenty of room to make Zodark Capital E EEEEEVIL, as well. He doesn't HAVE to be a morally complicated or ambiguous character. It's pretty likely that we'll encounter and have to defeat the guy eventually, either way, so we'll find out the truth in due time. It's worth noting that he's sealed in the moon - just like the ultimate villain in FFIV. And THAT villain had very little in the way of moral complexity, whether you're referring to Zemus (who wished to commit genocide in order to colonize the planet) or Zeromus (literally the incarnation of the evil that lies within the hearts of humanity).

[Aurelius2625]

I wish that in a way, we could have done something akin to the Warrior of Darkness serving Zodiark from the beginning of the game, kind of like the Horde/Alliance thing in WoW but better. Where if we picked Zodiark as our patron deity, we'd side with the Garleans during the story, they could have still made it end up in favor of how it did, having some victories for Hydalyn, like the thrashing of Gaius, but some in favor of Zodiark like the Garleans taking over Ala Mhigo and Doma.

[uvuvwevwevweonyetenyevweugwemu]

This is my take on the story. In a battle of resources, a story can be dumbed down enough to not have the obvious solution(:share). XIV's about battle for ideology of both systems of existence, Order and Chaos. Warrior of Darkness does not serve Zodiark. Arbert from the WoD story use Crystal of Light and quite frustated when Hydaelin didn't response (because she really doesn't know how to work Darkness from Light, that is the primary purpose for WoL/WoDs). The only way to serve Zodiark (using the Crystal of Darkness) is to be Ascian.

First things first, if it's about who should be on top of the food chain. A system of chaos (Zodiark's view) will create pockets of Order to maintain. And vice versa, system of Order (Hydaelin's view) will create pockets of Chaos. There are many things Hydaelin aren't telling us (even though she is "good" to us). I wouldn't be surprised if Ascians were the natural effects of imprisoning Zodiark (thus putting Order on the top of the food chain), then she had to have WoLs/WoDs for dealing with that issue (again she doesn't know how).

Secondly, which side you're on doesn't matter. Both WoLs/WoDs and Ascians are freaks of nature from each side of existence. WoLs/WoDs use Blessings of Light to gain Brink of Death, perpetually avoiding permanent death. While Ascians born from death, perpetually avoiding going back to the lifestream. Arbert was tricked into doing this. From Ascian point of view, they didn't lie, this is how it works for them. Basically, however we want to wield our powers is up to us but we can't really change the way we exists.

Zodiark himself is quiet, we only aware the extent of his agents. Same like Hydaelin, she doesn't tell us what/where/how. She's merely the *why* (=the will), in layman's term, "You exists in my domain of existence so yes I care about you". Would it be great if we start as Chaos on the top of food chain? True, but the worlds wouldn't be as we know it or try to preserve.