Nature of the Sound

[Kesey]

I wouldn't be surprised if the Twelve turned out to be the twelve followers who were with Venat when she sacrificed herself to summon Hydaelyn. I also wouldn't be too surprised to find out that they—like Elidibus, Emet-Selch, and Lahabrea—managed to avoid being sundered. The period between the world being sundered and the first rejoining is apparently called the Age of the Gods, after all, and it would make some degree of sense to call the Twelve gods given the disparity between a 1/14th person on the Source and an unsundered ancient.

Another thing to note about that era, apparently, is that humanity was sent back to the Stone Age in terms of technology and magic development. They only began to make up for lost time with the First Astral Era leading into the Second Umbral Era, respectively. I would actually like to know the source of this information, as I found it on one of the wikis: Specifically, this timeline here. I feel like it vindicates my hypothesizing that Hydaelyn sundering the world necessarily lead to global societal collapse and so on.

tl;dr on that note: Hydaelyn may not be evil, but I'm almost certain she screwed up on a level that's... very hard to put into words. If she's at all self-aware, she probably has a very big guilt complex over it.

I agree with this theory 100%. This also explains how Azem, who isn't present for the summoning of Hydaelyn and Zodiark, can post-sunder rejoin this group and rebuild the world. Lets not forget that Nald'thal are twins who count as one god, which make "the 12" actually 13--the 12 Ancients who followed Venat and Azem.

[YianKutku]

Lets not forget that Nald'thal are twins who count as one god

As believed by Ul'dahns (or at least the dominant religious authority in Ul'dah). Most other Eorzeans believe Nald'Thal to be one singular god with two aspects. Having said that, there's also a widespread belief that the "dual aspect" is due to two separate aspects of Nald and Thal manifesting as a single deity, so they were presumably distinct; the disagreement seems to be whether they are currently separate or singular.

This is fairly common in mythology, so it's realistic world-building in that sense. I wouldn't be surprised if the game reveals that Nald'Thal was based on two separate people who were nevertheless very close (probably twin siblings, given how "obvious like anvil" the story has been), but there's also the possibility that the "two separate aspects become one" thing was created out of nothing, and the Nald'Thal inspiration was something else entirely, like some examples in mythology. Generally these are still two different deities, but they become associated together because, well, it makes a better story.

Of course, diegetically the belief by Ul'dah that Nald and Thal are separate deities is seen as similarly unusual as the belief by Gridania that the Elementals are all aspects of Nophica. So I'm a bit more curious about how this belief came about from the initial Nophica-inspiration.

[Lusavari]

As believed by Ul'dahns (or at least the dominant religious authority in Ul'dah). Most other Eorzeans believe Nald'Thal to be one singular god with two aspects. Having said that, there's also a widespread belief that the "dual aspect" is due to two separate aspects of Nald and Thal manifesting as a single deity, so they were presumably distinct; the disagreement seems to be whether they are currently separate or singular.

This is fairly common in mythology, so it's realistic world-building in that sense. I wouldn't be surprised if the game reveals that Nald'Thal was based on two separate people who were nevertheless very close (probably twin siblings, given how "obvious like anvil" the story has been), but there's also the possibility that the "two separate aspects become one" thing was created out of nothing, and the Nald'Thal inspiration was something else entirely, like some examples in mythology. Generally these are still two different deities, but they become associated together because, well, it makes a better story.

Of course, diegetically the belief by Ul'dah that Nald and Thal are separate deities is seen as similarly unusual as the belief by Gridania that the Elementals are all aspects of Nophica. So I'm a bit more curious about how this belief came about from the initial Nophica-inspiration.

Maybe Nald and Thal are Mitron and Lohgrif? Those 2 seem to be particularly close. Especially considering the whole Ascian Prime thing fusing 2 Ascians together and all that. In 1.0, you actually witness a Prime wandering about in a cutscene after a disagreement between the Amal'jaa and Ixals who tried to summon their respective primals against each other. Don't worry though. I successfully defeated them in Parley, that weird mini-game now used in 1 Hildebrand Quest and that's it, and they decided not to summon (this was 1.0 where they made it where you could do the MSQ on crafter jobs). Anyway jokes aside. The Ascian Prime was around in 1.0. I don't know if they originally INTENDED it to be a fusion, but the concept is there.

Also, on the 1.0 business, you bring up elementals... So many story lines abandoned... Especially the Wildlings... But I agree. I would want to know more about in general what is associated with each of the 12 that each culture seems to associate with them and why.