Thread: Revelations from Patch 5.3

I'm more inclined to believe it was something simpler like Emet-Selch guiding a familiar soul he spotted during one of his Lifestream viewing sessions to be reborn as Zenos due to the circumstances permitting.

It may not have even been an intentional move on his part and simply something that just kind of happened due to his intense longing for the better days of the past.

Originally Posted by filkry

Sorry if this has already been discussed, but - Elidibus isn't dead, right? Usually when we finish off an Ascian, we first trap them in auracite, then destroy the auracite with a huge burst of aether. In Elidibus case, it seems his soul is trapped in the Crystal Tower on the First, but he was never destroyed.

I keep seeing people say that Elidibus has been destroyed, so I wonder if I'm missing something.

This is a pretty important thing to keep in mind, isn't it? There's also the matter of why that is: Auracite alone isn't enough to permanently deal with an Ascian even in the context of trapping them. And then there's the matter of Elidibus being a primal... to quote Unukalhai from the quest The Fate of Stars:

Unukalhai
...What I am about to divulge concerns the fate of another star entirely. On this other world, a magick was devised that allowed the realm's champions to use a stone known as “auracite” to contain the power of primals.

So armed, these heroic souls conquered god after god, oblivious to their weapon's fatal imperfection: its propensity to bleed primal energies. And with each victory, the heroes changed, transforming at last into fiends of endless appetite. Insatiable in their hunger for aether, they ultimately went to war over the star's ever-dwindling life force...

...And fought until there was nothing left. Thus, as Urianger so astutely observed, when I am faced with those who rush to embrace power unchecked, I lose all semblance of rationality.

Know that my master, too, cares deeply about the fate of this star. I am his servant─his instrument─sent here to ensure that the same tragedy does not consume another world.

There, he's describing what happened to the Thirteenth that led to its transformation into the World of Darkness. In hindsight, "killing" Elidibus by trapping him inside Syrcus Tower seems a little... odd, yeah. I'm inclined to believe it really did kill him, if only because of the emotional weight of his last moments, but for all we know he really could still be around. Not quite living or dead, but in a state of suspended animation, bleeding his energies out into Norvrandt. And not only that, but given the unique attributes Elidibus has as a primal—both in his usual form and as the "Warrior of Light"—I can't help but wonder what that'd do to Norvrandt.

On the other hand, Syrcus Tower isn't exactly auracite, as far as I know. The Exarch only compares it to the aforementioned material. Maybe Syrcus Tower really is the "no strings attached"* solution it was presented as.

*The Exarch dying notwithstanding, and even then...

Originally Posted by filkry

Sorry if this has already been discussed, but - Elidibus isn't dead, right? Usually when we finish off an Ascian, we first trap them in auracite, then destroy the auracite with a huge burst of aether. In Elidibus case, it seems his soul is trapped in the Crystal Tower on the First, but he was never destroyed.

I keep seeing people say that Elidibus has been destroyed, so I wonder if I'm missing something.

Technically the Ascian doesn't have to be destroyed with a huge burst of aether either. They could just be eaten, as per Lahabrea.

Originally Posted by Vyrerus

Ah, remember before he was eaten, he was first dispersed aetherically by a light wave that Thordan swung at him.

True. I interpreted that sort of similar to what we did at the end of 2.0, where we yeeted Lahabrea out of Thancred's body with the help of Hydaelyn. In this case, Thordan didn't really care about the body Lahabrea was inhabiting at the time, so it was a straight-up dispersal of mortal form.

In any case, the White Auracite or Dragon Eyes or Crystal Tower is basically just to pin the Ascian's soul in place, for whatever purposes later, be it destruction or nourishment. So even if Elidibus's soul is stuck in the Crystal Tower, it's not going anywhere, and will possibly just degrade over time into the undifferentiated aether that powers the Tower in general. However, the whole bit about Elidibus actually being a Primal birthed from Zodiark is a mystery in itself, so Elidibus's soul could well be still existing within Zodiark, and what we defeated was just a simulacrum of it.

(I feel like the metaphysics of FFXIV is generally less concerned with whether something makes complete sense based on the laws of the universe, and more about whether it's a cool scene. Hence Haurchefant and Ysayle helping us at the end of 3.3 when they should be totally dead, like Emet-Selch does in 5.3.)