Silvertear Skies plot hole

[Zohar_Lahar]

Will Shadowbringers finally address the huge plot hole left by Midgarsormr? Ever since a Realm Reborn, one question has been left bizarrely unanswered: why did Midgarsormr call the Dravanian Horde to intercept the Garlean fleet? I mean, he was apparently okay with Allag and Mhach setting up their capitals right next door to the lake. Yet somehow a steampunk airship armada meant it was time to sound the Dragonsong?

I remember that interview where it was said there was a "presence at Lake Silvertear" planned for 1.0 endgame, but the reboot clearly dropped that in favor of Binding Coil and Crystal Tower.

[Alleluia]

I imagine that, if the crystal tower and the area around it is a consistent anchor point between all 14 world shards, they could just say he was protecting that?

[Cilia]

I don't think it's a plot hole so much as it is something that just hasn't been explained yet...

Either way, yeah, given Silvertear Lake seems to act as a sort of singularity across all the Shards, Hydaelyn might just have called on him to do something about the Garlean invasion. Why didn't he do anything about Allag and Mhach? Whoooo knows... (Hydaelyn does, actually, but she rarely tells us much of anything.)

[Nalien]

Do we even know how long he was stationed there? I kind of figured he was actually just there to keep the Allagan relics hidden; Mhach, as far as we know, had no interest in Allag. Garlemald is an Empire set up that specifically seeks out such things, and given the whole Lunar Transmitter plot, and how it related to Crystal Tower in the end... I can see a scenario in which Bozja Citadel "woke" Middy up and alerted him to the Empires plans, so he took action when they came knocking. I'd also like to think the Agrius was crashed directly on an Allagan Primal Containment facility, and that's how the whole "Now Primals are summonable!" thing came about. The Amalj'aa are on the First, which means they're at least 10,000 years old, meaning the Allagan could easily have encountered them in the past and contained Ifrit. Potentially holds for the other Primals we see in that old trailer too. Arguably he could have been protecting such a facility as well, to prevent Primals being released, but if you look at events; Garlemald came in, fresh off the heels of Bozja Citadel (which was essentially a replica Crystal Tower) and the only thing that halted their advance was the release of Primals. That changes the release of Primals from a "Middy dun goofed" if he was protecting the "seal" on Primals, to a... Questionable plan that almost payed off (or did, if you consider we have access to the Tower rather than Gaius), if he was meant to be keeping the Tower safe.

I believe the mythology is that Silvertear Lake is the wellspring of all aether though, and Middy has been guarding it since the dawn of time? Every since Crystal Tower popped up though, I've wondered about the validity of that legend... Crystal Tower was the center of the Allagan Empire, and the source of all their power... I can see that history being half-forgotten and warped over time into the mythos we have for Silvertear today. That said, I still have absolutely no clue what Middy was doing during the Allagan days... Or the rest of his children, for that matter... Bahamut and Tiamat got completely messed up, to put it lightly, and none of the other Dravanians have any history for that time whatsoever... Right now it's like they didn't exist until Ishgard needed a backstory... I hope Bahamut and Tiamat simply hatched first, and thus the three we're familiar with were too young to do anything at the time and perhaps needed dad to protect them, more so when you factor in the Allagan teaming up with the Dragon Murder-bot from Space around the same time too.

[Daralii]

Do we even know how long he was stationed there? I kind of figured he was actually just there to keep the Allagan relics hidden; Mhach, as far as we know, had no interest in Allag. Garlemald is an Empire set up that specifically seeks out such things, and given the whole Lunar Transmitter plot, and how it related to Crystal Tower in the end... I can see a scenario in which Bozja Citadel "woke" Middy up and alerted him to the Empires plans, so he took action when they came knocking. I'd also like to think the Agrius was crashed directly on an Allagan Primal Containment facility, and that's how the whole "Now Primals are summonable!" thing came about. The Amalj'aa are on the First, which means they're at least 10,000 years old, meaning the Allagan could easily have encountered them in the past and contained Ifrit. Potentially holds for the other Primals we see in that old trailer too. Arguably he could have been protecting such a facility as well, to prevent Primals being released, but if you look at events; Garlemald came in, fresh off the heels of Bozja Citadel (which was essentially a replica Crystal Tower) and the only thing that halted their advance was the release of Primals. That changes the release of Primals from a "Middy dun goofed" if he was protecting the "seal" on Primals, to a... Questionable plan that almost payed off (or did, if you consider we have access to the Tower rather than Gaius), if he was meant to be keeping the Tower safe.

I believe the mythology is that Silvertear Lake is the wellspring of all aether though, and Middy has been guarding it since the dawn of time? Every since Crystal Tower popped up though, I've wondered about the validity of that legend... Crystal Tower was the center of the Allagan Empire, and the source of all their power... I can see that history being half-forgotten and warped over time into the mythos we have for Silvertear today. That said, I still have absolutely no clue what Middy was doing during the Allagan days... Or the rest of his children, for that matter... Bahamut and Tiamat got completely messed up, to put it lightly, and none of the other Dravanians have any history for that time whatsoever... Right now it's like they didn't exist until Ishgard needed a backstory... I hope Bahamut and Tiamat simply hatched first, and thus the three we're familiar with were too young to do anything at the time and perhaps needed dad to protect them, more so when you factor in the Allagan teaming up with the Dragon Murder-bot from Space around the same time too.

Silvertear itself is important enough that Hydaelyn forged a covenant with an alien entity to grant him and his brood a haven in exchange for protecting the seal over the lake. The lake matters, the question is why it contains such an enormous amount of aether and has at least since Nophica's mythos developed.

[Abigorium]

The short version is that it is not a plot hole. Midgard has some kind of covenant to protect Silvertear Lake specifically, as the font of aether. We also know that Allag and dragons absolutely did clash in the past and while we don’t have specifics as to those events, we have seen some of the results of it.

Idk how to address the Mhach bit as I’ve no knowledge of Mhach ever intruding upon the Lake proper.

As for Garlemald, we can assume several things. We know now that ascians are involved in the empire this time as well, even if we do not assume that Hyd didn’t ask him to or he wasn’t aware of Ascian involvement whom he would arguably have a bone to pick with due to the drama with Bahamut, it was a massive dreadnaught so dangerous that destroying it turned Mor Dhona into a wasteland. It’s possible he could simply detect the threat to the balance it presented and decided to act accordingly.

[Floortank]

What makes you think Midgardsormr could have stopped the Allagans from setting up wherever they wanted?

[Leaf_Dragoon]

The aetherial seal at silvertear lake prevented primals from being summoned so it couldn't have existed during the allagan era when summoning was rampant. It's possible the seal was created by Hydaelyn afterwards to prevent the summoning of Primals & that she stationed Middy there to keep watch.


I've also been curious as to why Allag never fought with Dragons in Dravania When Allag center of power was the continent of Aldenard, since if they had fought there is no way Hraesvelgr & Nidhogg would have escaped allag without being killed or captured. so I can only assume that they weren't living in dravania at that point.
Given their Norse names I'm assuming they would have lived in either northern Ilsabard (which is unlikely given that Allag also ruled Ilsabard) or possibly Aerslaent (Ancenstral home of the Roegadyn). Though I'm honestly not sure whether Allag had Aerslaent as well, if they had then maybe there is another land further north of the 3 great continents they hadn't bothered to conquer.

[Nalien]

The aetherial seal at silvertear lake prevented primals from being summoned so it couldn't have existed during the allagan era when summoning was rampant.

That's the main reason I don't think it actually was a seal, it was just Allag doing what they do best; Sealing Primals. They had Bahamut off in a space station, the Warring Triad up in Azys Lla, and Tiamat warns us that there are many more Primals sealed away by the Allagan elsewhere, yet were do we ever encounter this? Perhaps Odin and Eureka can factor into that, but still... Given the proximity to Crystal Tower, the heart of the Allagan Empire, it makes sense to me that there'd be a FFVI style Magitek Research Facility nearby containing (sealing) many other Primals.

It's entirely possible Hydaelyn sealed them away, but that creates more questions IMO; How did She seal them? Why hasn't She sealed them again? Meanwhile, we know the Allagan went on a Primal sealing frenzy. We know their capital was at Silvertear. It just fits.

Perhaps it's just the trailer being abstract, but what we see also implies to me that Ifrit and Titan (the only two we clearly see IIRC) themselves were sealed there; Physical Primals were sealed there, rather than the seal being some sort of off-switch on summoning.

Silvertear itself is important enough that Hydaelyn forged a covenant with an alien entity to grant him and his brood a haven in exchange for protecting the seal over the lake.

My only issue with this is that he didn't protect the Lake... He seemingly let the Allagan set up shop right there, and he out right nuked any "seal" that was in place there with the Agrius... He attacked the Garleans why? What knowledge of any "seal" did they have? Their motivation was purely driven by conquest, with a side helping of digging up and copying Allagan technology. The biggest Allagan find being buried right next to the Lake... The biggest Allagan find the Garleans already attempted to recreate at Bozja Citadel... Heck, Crystal Tower was even sealed in its own little time bubble by Amon...

It all just fits in my mind, meanwhile everything else just seems like myth. There are enough connections with Silvertear, the Allagan, and Garlemald, and even Primals. Meanwhile this mythical seal, this wellspring of aether? It's never been explored in the slightest, while alternative explanations pile up...

What makes you think Midgardsormr could have stopped the Allagans from setting up wherever they wanted?

If it was his job to protect the Lake because of "reasons", then I expect him to have at least tried to stop the Allagan. Instead we have absolutely no account of that, so I guess he just failed quietly? Then he failed once again when he nuked the seal in 1.0s trailer? Then he gives us sass in 2.5?

Nah, I don't buy that... I think his covenant with Hydaelyn effectively made him the first Warrior of Light, so he had to take cryptic orders from Hydaelyn like we have (also grants him significant WoL-seniority to explain how he could seal our Blessing). He wasn't guarding the Lake for every era, that simply became his new job after the Allagan Empire fell, and a failure to record history between Calamities resulted in the mythology we currently have. He has "always guarded the Lake", because there was no recorded history post-Calamity. Silvertear is the "wellspring of all aether" because... It was important at some point, right? Yes, when it was the center of the Allagan Empire, when Crystal Tower was the "wellspring" of the entire Empires energy needs...

[MrThinker]

Nah, I don't buy that... I think his covenant with Hydaelyn effectively made him the first Warrior of Light, so he had to take cryptic orders from Hydaelyn like we have (also grants him significant WoL-seniority to explain how he could seal our Blessing). He wasn't guarding the Lake for every era, that simply became his new job after the Allagan Empire fell, and a failure to record history between Calamities resulted in the mythology we currently have. He has "always guarded the Lake", because there was no recorded history post-Calamity. Silvertear is the "wellspring of all aether" because... It was important at some point, right? Yes, when it was the center of the Allagan Empire, when Crystal Tower was the "wellspring" of the entire Empires energy needs...

While I understand the point you are making here, remember that there is apparently a similar myth regarding 'The Source', Silvertear lake's analogue on the First, also being the wellspring of aether for the world. If 2 different histories and societies define very similar mythos in a fantasy setting like ours, it begs to contain some element of truth regarding the nature of the world no?