Latest FFXIV plot analysis

[Rydin]

My personal plot analysis... in case anyone cares
Caution... more spoilers than have ever been put into any 1 thread

Eorzea is a simple hillbilly-esque region....

15 years ago.... the strongest of the 6 city states is decimated by the Garlean Empire because they use Giant, metal, magic steam punk powered "beasts"

The rest of the city states team up for all out war....
Sensing how easy victory would be (And knowing that easy victories don't make for good storylines), the empire just stops....

At any rate.... the opening movie begins in a time where NPCs are capable of movement and guildleves are actually fun and exciting....
we shall call this time "More than 10 but less than 15 years ago...."
the adventurers are in an adventurers guild much bigger and livelier than any we have now (Maybe Ishgard? Sharlayan?).... Also, they appear to be wearing gear we do not have access to...

The guildleve takes our adventurers to a foresty Mor Dhona to beat down a community rep named Bayohne... but the battle is interrupted when war breaks out in the skys above... and our hero is thrust aboard a big flying bong....
It seems the Empire has completely skipped over Gridania... and for good reason...
They're tree huggers, they can't see the sky anyway, so they are no risk.... and honestly, Spears and Arrows vs Metal bongs? Not even worth the fight
So the empire is in Mor Dhona...
More than likely because the dragons there pose the biggest threat to the invasion, now that Ala Mhigo is no more

Apparently there are dozens... even hundreds of bongs in the sky... with a huge ship... and they all seem to be shooting down dragons left and right....
Until the biggest, slowest moving dragon of all time flies... no... Glides... no.... slowly lumbers??? Yea... Slowly lumbers down from a cloud and attacks the big ship...

It brings the ship crashing down... but instead of flying away... it decides to stay and rot with the ship because its obviously a very old, very slow dragon who wants to die anyway... A little geriatric euthanasia never hurt anyone, right?

At the site of the crash is a bright light... and beings seem to be shooting out from ground zero... We can make out Ifrit and Titan (But surprisingly, no moogles) fleeing the scene

Many people believe this fight is what stopped the Empires advance into Eorzea....
But that theory yields way too many plot holes....
1. The Empires sudden halt prompts the unemployed soldiers to resort to "villainy" to survive (Villainy being the number one job skill of both soldiers and hoodlums)
2. To quell that barbaric behavior, guilds are set up, and so begins the "Age of the Adventurer"
3. The opening movie is of adventurers getting guild leves from an adventurers guild.. Implying that the empire has long since stopped their advance into the city states, and therefore this battle cannot be what halts their forces and these events are much closer to 10 years ago than 15

Here is what really happened...
The Empire found Allagan technology that showed how to grab shit from space and make it come hurling to the planet....
The Empire creates "Team Meteor" to discuss how to use the Allagan magical machines to control heavenly bodies....
The Moon Dalamud is one such heavenly body that could be meteored.
Was it sent into orbit by the Allagans? Perhaps we'll find out...

I know, I know... the empire could have just marched on the other city states and destroyed them... But thats like the New England Patriots defeating your kids Pop Warner football team... whats the fun in that? The Emperor was thinking meteor sounded so much more appealing

But alas, the Allagan tech could not be controlled and the Bozja citadel (And probably a big portion of the imperial army or important Garlean citizens) was destroyed in the process....

For one of the key members of Team Meteor, Cid, this was a wake up call that the Empire was evil... Because obviously the fact that they kept having him build more fire breathing bongs wasn't evidence enough...

10 years ago.... Paragons (Who are probably connected to the dragons in some way) teach the Beast tribes how to summon primals to defend and protect the planet
The only catch is Primals drain Aetherial energy (Think FFVII Mako) from the planet. Which would explain why Mor Dhona went from being a beautiful, forest/waterfall paradise to a barren, miasma filled wasteland with purple air and cool music

At some point within the last 10 years... Louisoix and his trusted Sharlayan Circle of Knowing realize that there is a great threat to the safety of Eorzea

So he, Alfagar, Thancred, Yda, Papylamo, Y'shtola, Padme, Anakin and Obi wan set out to confront the coming danger

Cut to really REALLY recently....
The Circle is unable to stop the sky from swirling menacingly and spitting fire (Which may or may not have been shooting out monsters)
This cloud phenomenon is witnessed by everyone, but only you seem to remember it (Go figure). And you end up with this mysterious ability to see into a persons past

Fast forward to now....
The circle of knowing has been busy convincing the city states to form grand companies again and persuading their favored candidates into running them....
They've just got their hands full because not only do they have you helping prepare for a war with the empire... they've also got you fighting Primals to stop them from draining the land of Aether

The Empire has been creeping into Eorzea... probably much weaker now after what happened at Bozja Citadel
Also because Cid now runs with the city states... the Empire can't just use technology to roll over them...

Imperial Legatus Nael van Danus claims to have some Allagan artifacts that will help him actually control where the Moon, Dalamud, will fall... signifying that "Team Meteor" is back in business...

It seems if you can stop "Team Meteor," with the help of the Circle and Cid, you might just stop the empire completely
Maybe...

tl;dr its you... FFXII's Empire... and FFXI's Beast tribes in an every man for himself battle royal for the planet... and all of it's FFVII-esque "Mako-like" aetherial energy

[Rydin]

If this spoiled the story for anyone... I apologize....

Long text is long... right?
I really wanted it to be comprehensive though... going from the entire backstory to Right now...

I purposely left out all the "Archon" talk because I didn't really care for all of that cryptic, flowery poetic dialogue....
For me (And I can only speak for myself) that 7th umbral poem stuff is way overdone...

[Seirra_Lanzce]

is a fun read for me ^^ not much that i didnt know already...

[Rydin]

is a fun read for me ^^ not much that i didnt know already...

Agreed... just a little overview...
Some of it is confusing because it is spread across 3 different sets of company quests....
Like my company quest never allowed me to see the "Two Vans are better than one" quest, which really shed some light on the entire story....

Question... Why do YOU think the Garleans skipped over The Black Shroud for Mor Dhona? Looking for some great ancient power there?

Wouldn't it be so very final fantasy if this whole invasion thing was just a diversionary tactic for finding this ancient power...
And the main intention of using Meteor Dalamud is not to destroy Eorzea... but to help uncover this ancient power (Or destroy some sleeping beast) and the destruction of Eorzea is just a side effect of that goal (Collateral damage, if you will)

Because honestly... even now, the Garleans could probably take Eorzea at any time....
And they don't...
Right now everyone is looking at Meteor as Garlemald's End game goal....
But what if that is just the beginning???? *gasp*

[Seirra_Lanzce]

Agreed... just a little overview...
Some of it is confusing because it is spread across 3 different sets of company quests....
Like my company quest never allowed me to see the "Two Vans are better than one" quest, which really shed some light on the entire story....

Question... Why do YOU think the Garleans skipped over The Black Shroud for Mor Dhona? Looking for some great ancient power there?

Wouldn't it be so very final fantasy if this whole invasion thing was just a diversionary tactic for finding this ancient power...
And the main intention of using Meteor Dalamud is not to destroy Eorzea... but to help uncover this ancient power (Or destroy some sleeping beast) and the destruction of Eorzea is just a side effect of that goal (Collateral damage, if you will)

Because honestly... even now, the Garleans could probably take Eorzea at any time....
And they don't...
Right now everyone is looking at Meteor as Garlemald's End game goal....
But what if that is just the beginning???? *gasp*

Hmmm if you have played the Monk Quest, you should know why Mor Dhona is very special. and also is full of aetheryte. ^^

[Earl_Caldera]

I assume that by now everyone knows there are spoilers in this topic, but obligatory spoiler warning.

Many people believe this fight is what stopped the Empires advance into Eorzea....
But that theory yields way too many plot holes....
1. The Empires sudden halt prompts the unemployed soldiers to resort to "villainy" to survive (Villainy being the number one job skill of both soldiers and hoodlums)
2. To quell that barbaric behavior, guilds are set up, and so begins the "Age of the Adventurer"
3. The opening movie is of adventurers getting guild leves from an adventurers guild.. Implying that the empire has long since stopped their advance into the city states, and therefore this battle cannot be what halts their forces and these events are much closer to 10 years ago than 15

The character in the opening movie used the echo. (On whom? Who knows.) It's why he, like our characters in the main scenario, gets all confused and disoriented when he returns. You're able to reach into the memories or the past and alter the memory but not the outcome.

It brings the ship crashing down... but instead of flying away... it decides to stay and rot with the ship because its obviously a very old, very slow dragon who wants to die anyway... A little geriatric euthanasia never hurt anyone, right?

The dragon(Midgarsormr) blew the ship up, and the ship's on board ceruleum tank exploded, killing the dragon. Also, the dragon is -extremely old-, it's the Keeper of the Lake, whom has protected the lake since Nymeia asked him to, or so it is believed.

[REDace0]

Enjoyed the read. You provide a good overview of the 7th Umbral Era plot and how it fits in with the events of 10-15 years ago. I couldn't tell where you were serious and joking necessarily, but there were a couple of things that deviated from my observations of the game.

(1) I'm pretty sure the big flash of light when the great wyrm (Nidhogg?) attacked the Garlean dreadnought was the combined result of the explosion of its massive Ceruleum fuel supply and the death of the wyrm itself, which punched a massive hole in the aetherial fabric of the area, releasing Ifrit, Titan, etc. (2) I think the party we see is supposed to be in the present, whereas the vision is of the great battle set firmly in the past roughly 15 years ago and is likely a use of the Echo.

[Seirra_Lanzce]

Enjoyed the read. You provide a good overview of the 7th Umbral Era plot and how it fits in with the events of 10-15 years ago. I couldn't tell where you were serious and joking necessarily, but there were a couple of things that deviated from my observations of the game.

(1) I'm pretty sure the big flash of light when the great wyrm (Nidhogg?) attacked the Garlean dreadnought was the combined result of the explosion of its massive Ceruleum fuel supply and the death of the wyrm itself, which punched a massive hole in the aetherial fabric of the area, releasing Ifrit, Titan, etc. (2) I think the party we see is supposed to be in the present, whereas the vision is of the great battle set firmly in the past roughly 15 years ago and is likely a use of the Echo.

>_< there something wrong there.... .

The Dragon that dies with that ship is called Midgarsormr. Nidhogg is the dragon that have one eye (according to DRG lore) and still alive.

[Rydin]

As far as the dragon and the ship... yea.. it was an explosion... I was being funny... Because you have to admit, he was moving slow as crap.....

Re: the guildleve itself...
what you guys are saying is definitely possible
But.... the Echo is used on a person.... not a guildleve plate

Momodi and other NPCs tell adventurers that within aetherytes exists the key to unlocking the power of guildleves. In order to carry out duties outside of the city-state, or that are very far away, a magic seal is applied to leve plates.

The aetherytes and aetherial gates function as a key, and by having them resonate when you complete your duties it is possible to open an aetherial node to return with. This is what the animations above your head signifies.

This is standard amongst adventurers, so even for duties within city-states that don’t utilize aetherial nodes, the same thing takes place when the leve begins. This is a kind of “wish” that you will complete your duties safely and return.

As a matter of fact, aetherytes are referred to as the manifestation of the planet’s lifeblood, which is made up of aether. Due to this, leve plates are also made of crystal which makes it easy for the two to resonate.

And this makes me think guildleves are a wish for a safe return on duties that need to be completed...
Implying that guildleves are not a past tense activity.... The nature of guildleves is work that needs to be done... guild tasks.. not reliving some special battle... that doesn't seem to embody the pragmatic nature of guild quests

Also, the guildhall and gear worn were unlike any we've ever seen...
Was that from Ishgard? Ishgard definitely doesn't employ adventurers now...
But they did 10 to 15 years ago
Or was that some guild hall in Mor Dhona... It makes sense that there would have been a city in Mor Dhona.... a city that wouldn't be there now....

[REDace0]

>_< there something wrong there.... .

The Dragon that dies with that ship is called Midgarsormr. Nidhogg is the dragon that have one eye (according to DRG lore) and still alive.

Ah! Thanks for the correction. Midgarsormr is more strongly associated with the wyrm's snake-like appearance, so that makes better sense. I haven't done the DRG quests, so it was a guess from names I've read in the game and lore.