Revelations from Gamescom 2019

[RyuDragnier]

But what about Alpha, though.

Alpha was created by a being that only came onto the planet AFTER the Sundering. Just like the dragons, Alpha and Omega are not Sundered. But that DOES pose a question as to what happens to those not originally from the Source when Calamities occur.

[odym82]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22SS79SJPEs
a video of it if anyone wants

[Lauront]

I didn't really expect the WoL/D to be a sundered Hythlodaeus, so that comes as no surprise to me. I am glad we got clarification that the Ancients are not all Ascians, however. I did kind of get that impression before, as I expect the title of "Ascians" was coined by the three unsundered members of the Convocation to give a name to those tempered by Zodiark (most likely after the sundering), so that information seems to lend credence to that idea. Also, I agree it makes sense that the recreated simulacrums of the Ancients appear the way they do, given how much time has passed for Emet-Selch since the Terminus and the subsequent sundering. Knowing this, however, makes me wonder how incomplete the recreation of the city of Amaurot itself must be, and how much grander it must have actually been before its devastation.

Emet-Selch's budget ran low when it came to the character models.

[QT_Melon]

But what about Alpha, though.

Alpha was in the category of Omega and Midgardsormr?

[AmemeAmeklin]

Now I have to check back on cutscenes to see how our mask is different from Hythlodaeus's...it looked the same to me but it was a vague, faraway glimpse.

[Theodric]

It's a shame that those who reside on the First lack the same potential as those on the Source by virtue of not being as complete. That really puts a dampener on my desire to role-play a resident of the First. Not because I wish to play a powerful character but it because it indirectly makes them much less relevant in the grand scheme of things.

It does make sense from the perspective of all the excess aether having to go somewhere, at least - and it's not as if we didn't see some on the First put up an excellent fight even faced with the Warrior of Light as an opponent.

[Lauront]

14. It's been observed by players that in the Chrysalis, the meteor phase of the fight has a crystal formation very similar to the Crystal Tower, as well as a figure that looks a lot like Hydaelyn's portrayal in the caves. Could you please elaborate on what the Chrysalis is and why the Ascians chose to portray scenes of both gods?

Oda: The cave painting was not done by Ascians, but by someone who had a memory of the world before the Sundering. Perhaps he saw it in a dream or something, and then made a mural. The reason why there’s a crystal-shaped thing when it comes to the Ascians is that Zodiark crystal is sort of the antithesis to the Mothercrystal of Hydaelyn, so that is sometimes used as a motif.

This question was probably referencing that when you go through the Aetherial Tear, the underside of the Zodiark crystal looks very similar to the shape of Crystal Tower. That they didn't pick up on this tells me that they might not know, or that it might not be important. A great deal of the Chrysalis is made up of altered copy-pasta. The floor is from Titan, the boundary in the distance from the Burning Heart, and soon. They might have just clipped some Crystal Tower to use as something else.

Correct. it may be down to the translation, too. My money is on misunderstanding.

I think next time I'll just ask "What is the Chrysalis?"

It's probably one of those questions which is easier to "phrase" visually, because the statues of the Primals (at least one) appear in it, and of course they bear a resemblance to the murals. There may be no significance to it but the Chrysalis is a mysterious place (and possibly where Zodiark was summoned out of given the state of the planet at the time... which could also mean it served as a shelter for the 3 unbroken Overlords during his "demise"), so you'd hope they'd do some of 2 or 3 from the below if it originally had no significance:

Three types of foreshadowing: 1) It was planned all along. 2) It was added without an exit strategy and we worked it out later. 3) It's actually different than what was intended but was made to look foreshadowed with clever writing. Good writers use all of these. Great writers can trick you into confusing them. FFXIV's team deserves a lot of credit for their time and dedication on that front.

Still, I'm satisfied with the answer they did choose to give, as it opens interesting avenues in its own right.

[YianKutku]

Alpha was created by a being that only came onto the planet AFTER the Sundering. Just like the dragons, Alpha and Omega are not Sundered. But that DOES pose a question as to what happens to those not originally from the Source when Calamities occur.

It's just that Alpha didn't have a soul when he was created, but he gained a soul through his experiences and actions during the course of the Omega storyline. So where did that soul come from?

[Eyvind]

The Alpha issue ties in with a larger issue: is everything alive a discreet sundered soul with specific pieces out there? Because the way the scions understand it - as Alphinaud explains in Il Mheg - most souls dissolve into the lifestream and only a few strong souls (including presumably us) maintain cohesion after death.

Either the scions are wrong about how this works, or the detail that every lifeform is gaining ether creates a conundrum. After all, with lifestream theory, there are countless new souls being made, and if they're new what are they rejoining with? Random aether? In that case Alpha could be included.

I guess a third possibility is that there is a discreet unit of aether, an aether atom, which was sundered, and each one gets rejoined. Then Alpha is out of luck again.

[RyuDragnier]

It's just that Alpha didn't have a soul when he was created, but he gained a soul through his experiences and actions during the course of the Omega storyline. So where did that soul come from?

We DO kinda have a habit of releasing a ton of Aether into the surrounding area when we fight, it wouldn't surprise me if Alpha's soul was created from the excess Aether absorbed during our fights in Omega.