How do calamities work, again?

[Big-Isaac]

From what I understand, the Ascians travel to the various different shards and attempt to saturate each with a particular element - in the First's case, that element is light.
Once the elemental balance within a shard has been tilted far enough towards a particular side, that excess elemental aether starts trickling over into the Source, which causes appropriate, negative effects. Eventually, that trickle becomes a flood, causing the shard to crash into the source, resulting in a calamity and rejoining.

What I don't quite understand is how this relates to the Ascians' actions within the Source, or how the 7th calamity fit into this.
The 7th umbral calamity was caused solely by events taking place in the Source and didn't seem to have anything to do with any of the shards. So I'm a tad confused about how Bahamut breaking free and wrecking the place caused a rejoining, or how a rejoining caused Bahamut to break free (whichever is the case).

[Dezarc]

from how i understood the explanation in the MSQ, once the elemental balance tips towards a flood that starts affecting the aether in the Source, but a calamitous event needs to happen on the Source at the same time for the boundaries between it and the shard to crack enough for all that excess aether to rejoin with it - the war of the magi, the dropping of dalamud, the theoretical event of the black rose being unleashed, etc. - so i don't think that a shard merely being in a flooded state is enough to cause a rejoining

[Omury]

So, when a shard is over aspected that aether trickles back to the source. Then, something happens on the source and causes a calamity. This calamity is aspected a certain way by the Acians to create a crack in the aetherial barrier around the source and the aspected aether then rushes into the source.

[Ildefons]

Something else to keep in mind, according to the Exarch's explanation, is that the flood itself will magnify the effect of whatever disaster was about to befall the source. For example, maybe the earthquake that destroyed the Allaghans wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't for the shard that got flooded by Earth. So maybe Bahamut wouldn't have destroyed so much of Eorzea if there hadn't been a flood.

[JeanneOrnitier]

The seventh calamity was supposed to be all the elements aspected toward astral, right? And with Urianger revealing astral is darkness, I guess the shard that rejoined during the 7th was experiencing a Flood of Darkness (but not too far gone the way the Thirteenth was).

[Sylvain]

I just don't understand something.
If à flood occurred on all rejoined shard. Why didn't the 13th (now named the void) joined? The explanation used to be '' a flood of darkness happened making it un rejoins le '' (#useless).
But then we learn that other shard have been flooded and did rejoin.

Soo... I don't get it

[MrThinker]

I just don't understand something.
If à flood occurred on all rejoined shard. Why didn't the 13th (now named the void) joined? The explanation used to be '' a flood of darkness happened making it un rejoins le '' (#useless).
But then we learn that other shard have been flooded and did rejoin.

Soo... I don't get it

This is because the 13th was the first attempt at Rejoining by the Ascians, they didn't jave a full understanding of the sundered world until AFTER the void was made.

[JeanneOrnitier]

I just don't understand something.
If à flood occurred on all rejoined shard. Why didn't the 13th (now named the void) joined? The explanation used to be '' a flood of darkness happened making it un rejoins le '' (#useless).
But then we learn that other shard have been flooded and did rejoin.

Soo... I don't get it

The Flood of Darkness on the Thirteenth was too much. The other shards rejoined before they were too flooded all the way.
The Flood of Light on the First would also have been too much if Minfilia hadn't interfered back during HW, so Elidibus was probably counting on Urianger getting involved and asking Minfilia for help.

I'm curious to see what the other shards were like in their floods. Was whatever shard had the Flood of Water seeing people transform into sea monsters like Leviathan's tempered followers do?

[Sylvain]

The Flood of Darkness on the Thirteenth was too much. The other shards rejoined before they were too flooded all the way.
The Flood of Light on the First would also have been too much if Minfilia hadn't interfered back during HW, so Elidibus was probably counting on Urianger getting involved and asking Minfilia for help.

I'm curious to see what the other shards were like in their floods. Was whatever shard had the Flood of Water seeing people transform into sea monsters like Leviathan's tempered followers do?

I wonder too, it'd be nice to know at some point.

So in order for a rejoining to occur, not only do you need to heavily tilt an element on a shard, but also cause a calamity at the exact same time before the shard gets entirely flooded.
Damn, that must require so insane precision.

So technically, bahamut calamity was suppose to rejoin the first right? Since both calamity happened nearly at the same time

[Cilia]

Conditions for a Rejoining:

1. Tip the elemental balance on a Shard toward a given element.
2. Let the excess elemental aether from that Shard trickle into the Source.
3. After the barriers between the worlds have cracked as a result of this, trigger a catastrophic event on the Source related to that element.

This pulls all of the elemental aether out of the Shard and collapses it on the way, while also magnifying the catastrophe on the Source to unnaturally devastating levels. The reason Emet-Selch mentioned Black Rose has "the perfect aspect" for his plans back in 4.5 is because it's essentially a Light-elemental poison - it halts the circulation of aether in the body, effectively doing the same thing as Light-aspected aether. The unnatural potency of the poison in Crystal Exarch G'raha's timeline is owed to the influx of Light aether from the First, which resulted in the collapse of civilization and the Rejoining of the First.