7 Times Rejoined and Legacy Players

[Rannie]

Ok, so, since we all know that everyone on the source has been rejoined 7 times (though for our pc it's now most likely 8), I have been wondering about us the Legacy Players and when exactly we got our 7th rejoining. Was it when Bahamut was attacking us on Carteneau. Was it before Louisouix sent us into the time rift. While we were in the time rift or did it occur after we got put back 5 years later. Does anyone have any ideas or theories about that?

[YianKutku]

I've been wondering about this and related topics as well. The obvious question is how a soul rejoining works: given that the Calamity apparently means everyone's souls on the Source got rejoined, and yet nobody mentioned feeling weird during that time five years ago. Specifically non-Eorzeans, whose interaction with the Calamity is mostly "the red moon descended then disappeared, and then lots of traumatized Eorzeans started showing up". (For Eorzeans, presumably the sheer terror of the Calamity plus whatever aether shenanigans caused the post-Calamity amnesia might be suitable handwaves.) Even as a non-Legacy player, we are clearly not merely five years old, so there should be some mechanism by which a soul can be grafted onto an existing one without the existing soul even noticing, as opposed to the lightshow when we joined with Ardbert.

And the other question, which you brought up, is how long each Calamity lasts, in cosmic terms. What is the "start" of the Calamity, and when does it "end"? It's likely that cosmologically, the Calamity "starts" when the barrier to the Shard breaks down and an uncontrolled aether transfer phenomenon occurs, but what does that mean in the case of the Seventh Calamity? Was it just during the very short period of Bahamut's rampage? Or did it start earlier, when Dalamud was in the process of falling? Both are possible due to time shenanigans between Source and Shard, but we don't know which case it is.

[Iscah]

The cosmic "break point" might be when Bahamut hatches from the moon. That's the point where it switches from preventing the Calamity to mitigating its effects.

[uvuvwevwevweonyetenyevweugwemu]

It's most likely happened when souls were being reassembled. For legacy players was when they first appeared on ARR, remember they were teleported into the future. Teleportation is a nifty way to reassemble our aether. My pet theory is the calamity on the source was needed so enough people die and be reincarnated with their shard fragments. That's why living people don't feel any different, they won't be rejoined until they die. WoL don't experience rejoining the same way as everyone else but specifically is different because we don't die (for lack of better words, have our soul separated from the body). Why? we have Hydaelin's shield and blessings which keep our aether together as tight as possible.

This blessing has some magnetism property to our aether. Remember the way other crystals of light are drawn to us, Lahabrea noted it and thought we manifested them somehow. It could just be crystals from other shards, drawn to their owner's aether (our shard fragments). If we think about it that way then our aether don't need to die (go to lifesteam), and our fragments are simply drawn by our aether amplified by the blessings.

[Zohar_Lahar]

The cosmic "break point" might be when Bahamut hatches from the moon. That's the point where it switches from preventing the Calamity to mitigating its effects.

The sudden inflow of astrally-charged aether from the seventh shard probably powered up Bahamut's Megaflares to such an extreme point that Dalamud's fetters were overloaded and the whole structure violently exploded. This presumably extended to the secondary effects of Dalamud exploding and Bahamut's rampage: the fissure opening up in Eastern Thanalan, Gods' Grip being scoured by a megatsunami, and Coerthas becoming a glacier.

[Daralii]

What I'd love to know is if the legacy tattoo is retroactively representative of the 14th's glyph.

[SaberMaxwell]

What I'd love to know is if the legacy tattoo is retroactively representative of the 14th's glyph.

No, iirc that's something to do with being thrown through time.

[Rannie]

It's called the mark of the 12 and legacy chocobo even have it...

[YianKutku]

It's called the mark of the 12 and legacy chocobo even have it...

The Chocobo of Light, Seven Times Rejoined.

The whole revelation about soul rejoinings apparently happening every Calamity has kind of thrown a lot of other lore bits into disarray, such as whether there are "new" non-Ancient souls (the statement was "everyone on the Source", but it could be a figurative/non-exact "everyone"), or what happens to intact souls that don't happen to be attached to bodies, ie Saint Shiva.

[Rannie]

Shiva was a regular mortal, that from what I've gathered was eaten by Hvrae dragon and that happened after the world was sundered by Hydaelyn. Midgard came to this source remember after everything happened and entered into a pact with Hydaelyn. So Shiva was a sundered soul, now I dont know if Hvraes... consumed her soul like what happened to Lahabrea and nidhoggs eye or it was just the body he ate.