Question about the real gods and how they relate to the story

[Lium]

I'm not talking about primals. I mean the actual deities of the FFXIV world.

During character creation, we are given an option to choose who our guardian deity is going to be. This doesn't appear to serve any real purpose, either in gameplay (no passive buffs or traits or anything) or in the story. And it's the latter that has me curious.

With all the talk of Zodiark and Hydaelyn, and how the WoL appears to be tempered by Hydaelyn, what if anything, is our guardian deity going to do about it? Do they even exist? What purpose is having a guardian deity if they don't actually guard you?

I'm not sure if the writers ever thought that far ahead, and perhaps choosing a god at character creation was just for RP purposes, but I have to figure there's a reason for it?

I've never played any other Final Fantasy game, so can anyone tell me if this is a feature in the other games as well? I assume the gods and goddesses talked about in FFXIV are references to other Final Fantasy games.

[Varynn]

The only time I've really seen the deities brought into the story is when you're doing the quest to be eternally bonded. You have to go to each of their shrines and pray.

Beyond that, they don't seem to have much of a point in the actual story. If they haven't been brought into it in any of the other expansions, I doubt they will be now, and I don't really know what their purpose is.

[Bright-Flower]

Gaius implies that the Twelve are no more real than the beast men gods/primals, so it could be they don't actually exist at all. I don't know of any point in the story one of them directly intervenes. I think the people of Ala Mhigo THINK he sent the red star their ancestors followed to high ground after the flood but there's no confirmation that this was actually divine intervention. The closest thing was Louis partially summoning the Twelve at Cartineau.

[JeanneOrnitier]

I honestly never got the impression that they were real. The nations of Eorzea worship them, like Halone in Ishgard for example, but they're just beliefs.

Louisoix tried summoning them like Primals in an attempt to seal Bahamut in the end of 1.0 and Paplymo repeated that to seal Shinryu at the end of Heavensward, but Primals don't need to be real to be summoned either. You just need belief and aether.

[shoobiedoobie]

Beyond what was already mentioned, during the ARR MSQ quests in Southern Thanalan, you deal with some of the refugees there attempting to steal crystals from the beast men in order to summon Rhalgr. I believe it was at least implied, if not stated outright, that an Ascian had given them the idea, much like they'd often done with the beast tribes.

[Heliantheae]

I want the twelve to be real so I can punch Halone in face for everything that happened in Heavensward.

[Ardox]

There is very little lore around them, but it's their power that Louisoix call upon against Bahamuth

Do they really exists? It's debatable, but I'd say yes. I say debatable because, it seems that summoning requires only faith (or purpose) and aether so I don't see the summoning of something completely made up as something impossible either. That said, the twelves are real for the Eorzean.

However I want to point out the hidden assumption in your question: that gods and primals/eikons are not the same. As of 5.01, we don't know if gods exists. We know primals have godlike powers and are revered as such, but we don't know if there's anything greater than primals. For all we know the twelves are nothing different than primals, but then again, you can summon a primal that incarnate what you feel an entity should be. Here I'm making allusion to Shiva who was a mortal (not a god), was revered like a saint (faith/purpose) and was only a shade of what the real Shiva was (by Hraesvelgr account).


As if they are going to be relevant, here some food for thoughts:
If I recall correctly, in the lore it's say the First Umbral Era marked the end of the age of gods and that The Twelve, retreated from direct involvement with mortals during this time. This, I assume, refers to the era after the Sundering and before the 1st calamity. We also know that since then, heros have raised before each calamities and there's references in the relics quest Lv50 and the last 24 men raids about the Zodiac Braves (which were 12).

So at the moment I'm flirting with the idea the Twelves are in fact just the original Zodiac Braves.. With all the awe we generate around us (and we're not yet a myth), I can see eons of story telling twisting the facts that much

[Hazmick]

Well to start with, 'existence' is always a tricky topic. Take Ifrit for example - does he exist? Sure he can be summoned, but when nobody is summoning him does he exist elsewhere waiting to be summoned? The Twelve can be summoned, as Louisoix partially did, so does that confirm their existence? Are primals gods, and vice versa? What even is a god?

The pantheon of The Twelve has all the heavens and hells associated with them - are they real places where The Twelve hang out or just another part of the fiction created by Eorzeans over the years?

Personally I just consider The Twelve to be primals for the 'spoken races'. Concepts of faith that can be given form by aether, kind of like fancy egis.

It's a shame nobody's ever thought to sit down and interview a primal. WoLs are always too busy bullying them.

[Gaethan_Tessula]

Well to start with, 'existence' is always a tricky topic. Take Ifrit for example - does he exist? Sure he can be summoned, but when nobody is summoning him does he exist elsewhere waiting to be summoned? The Twelve can be summoned, as Louisoix partially did, so does that confirm their existence? Are primals gods, and vice versa? What even is a god?

The pantheon of The Twelve has all the heavens and hells associated with them - are they real places where The Twelve hang out or just another part of the fiction created by Eorzeans over the years?

Personally I just consider The Twelve to be primals for the 'spoken races'. Concepts of faith that can be given form by aether, kind of like fancy egis.

It's a shame nobody's ever thought to sit down and interview a primal. WoLs are always too busy bullying them.

The issue with interviewing a primal is that most of them believe their own hype. The process of Creation likely includes the possibility of imbuing the summoned entity with memories of its imagined history if it has one.

Among the primals, Hydaelyn or Zodiark would probably be the ones to ask, being the most powerful, the longest lived, and both are likely utterly aware they were created for specific purposes by mortals. Even then, there will be biases (Zodiark will see himself as a savior and Hydaelyn as an usurper born of ingratitude, Hydaelyn clearly sees Zodiark as utterly evil).

[Cybylt]

I want the twelve to be real so I can punch Halone in face for everything that happened in Heavensward.

Why? She had nothing to do with the decisions of the original Thordan or the high houses. They just slapped the name of a god on their lies to legitimize their selfish power grabbing after the fact and keep the populace in place, it didn't matter at all which one.