Emet-Selch, The Brother Hypothesis

[Gothicshark]

I want to clarify a bit more on this. Going point by point, giving my perspective on each of your points.

1. He's old. That's made abundantly clear.

Over 9000... (Joke), but seriously he is one of the 3 Unsundered, which means he's older than History. And even though the exact time scale has never been stated, each era is just over a 1000 years, ARR starts the 14th era of history. Meaning the Source is at least 14000 years old and could be millions of years old, meaning Emet-Selch is at least that old, and since the Ancients were timeless beings, he's even older than that. He's at this point in the story the Oldest Being known, with the exception of dragons and alien robots which could be even older.

2. He shows a favoritism towards the WoL. ...

Familiar relationship is clear, but the read could be lovers, husband & wife/husband, best friends to the point of being Brothers/Sister of another mother. Jumping right in to one of these relationships because it reflects on your past is fine, but it is an assumption to read more than face value here. Personally because of the very clear queer coding of Emet-Selch and his obsessive nature, I read this as Husband and Husband, with them breaking up over the augment over how they planned to deal with the troubles facing their world. Emet-Selch wanted to Create a God, and Azem wanted to Inspire Heroism, which Ironically inspired Elidibus even though he stayed on to Summon Zodiark.

3. The average player picks a fairly short character, ...

This is not really a point, Emet-Selch's current body plan is his Garlean Version, which are all Tall Hyuran, as base Garleans are Hyuran Heads on Elezen Bodies at Max Sliders. With named Garleans all being buff Roegadyn Sized Humans. (Drools at sexy Cid posters), Ironically my Femroe is Taller than Emet-Selch by a large bit.

4. In my experience, brothers have the fiercest personal conflicts....

Ex-Lovers who still love each other will wage immortal wars to prove they are correct. Although Final Fantasy uses a lot of Mythology in the look and feel, and naming conventions, the series has always based conflict on reality and realistic type events which is a lot easier for people to relate to. Million year hate between Siblings is rare in reality, while divorce of lovers is an every day experience, and totally relatable to most.
end of Part 1 of 2

[Iscah]

I [Garleans] are all Tall Humans, as base Garleans are Human Heads on Elezen Bodies at Max Sliders. With named Garleans all being buff Roegadyn Sized Humans.

Human heads on Elezen bodies, sure. (Though some are Hyuran instead.) But they're not necessarily max sliders at all – they can still be set to whatever height they want the model to be. As I linked earlier, Emet's model is set at zero height.

And by "all named Garleans" I think you mean Zenos and Varis, because plenty of the Elezen- and Hyuran-sized ones have names.

[Gothicshark]

Human heads on Elezen bodies, sure. (Though some are Hyuran instead.) But they're not necessarily max sliders at all – they can still be set to whatever height they want the model to be. As I linked earlier, Emet's model is set at zero height.

And by "all named Garleans" I think you mean Zenos and Varis, because plenty of the Elezen- and Hyuran-sized ones have names.

True, although the Max Slider Garleans are basic mobs, and generally they are all the same, and helmeted. The only reason you can tell they are Garlean and not Elezen is that the helmets have no Ear extensions, and are made with the forehead eye.

Also I will fix Human to read Hyuran, I am dyslexic and spelling that word always makes my head hurt. But I can copy and paste your typing to fix it.

[Katie_Kitty]

I wouldn't be surprised at all if it turned out Emet and Azem were actual brothers. In fact, I played around in my head with the idea of Venat being Azem's actual mother in the old days and thus Hydaelyn by extension feels the same way about whatever creature Azem's soul reincarnates into.

Just not convinced it's *true*, although I'm open to the idea of it.

[Gothicshark]

Part 2:

5. Emet-selch's true name is Hades. ...

Actually that's backwards, Hades is his empowered by a god name. The name of his Element. While Emet-selch is his true name.

Reference FF12 for the names of each of them



You will see that the FF12 Espers and the Ascians have a lot of overlap. However there are only 11 ascians and Espers that share names and everything really. However a strong point can be made that Altima is probable a respelling of Ultima, and Elidibus the heart of Zodiark counts as Zodiark. Azem left the 14 and never was a part of the god summoning, so they do not have an Element/God granted power name.

6. lyrics from Endwalkers theme trailer

Are just that, they relate to the story, and it relates to all the characters.

7. I reckon that Emet-selch's hatred of heroes

More like a hatred of wasted effort, he actually respects the PC WOL.

[Ardox]

Emet-selch is the name of it's office. All ancients take the name of their office while serving on the Convocation of 14. Hades is Emet-selch true name.

[Enkidoh]

Actually that's backwards, Hades is his empowered by a god name. The name of his Element. While Emet-selch is his true name.

That is completely wrong, Emet-Selch was the name of his position on the Convocation of Fourteen, Hades was his real name, and given he had an uncanny affinity to the 'Underworld' and the cycle of life, (what the Lifestream was called back in Ancient times), his real name was appropriate (we know of two other Ascians whose real Ancient names were also figures from Greek mythology - Loghriff and Mitron's real names are Gaia and Artemis respectively, although SE have stated in the past that is not necessarily true for all of the former Convocation members to have real names taken from the Greek pantheon.).

And to further stir the pot Emet and Azem's 'mutual friend' Hythlodeaus may be a Greek word, but it's not from Greek mythology, it's actually taken from Thomas Moore's Utopia (like the name 'Amaurot' and it's various place names are also from this book), where his name literally means speaker of nonsense. Make of that what you will.

However a strong point can be made that Altima is probable a respelling of Ultima,

It is, and it was deliberate for meta reasons. 'Altima' was how Ultima was originally translated as in the original PS1 version of FF Tactics and SE clearly named the Ascian this way to avoid confusion with the Ultima Weapon, which was of course ARR's final boss, due to being fairly recently fought at the time Altima the Ascian was first shown (the only time she was shown to be honest). And of course, it's just another fanservice reference to the history of the FF series that FFXIV is a celebration of.

Elidibus the heart of Zodiark counts as Zodiark.

Again, for the same reason as Altima, this is a reference to FF Tactics, where Elidibus was a legendary human wizard who was the final boss of the optional dungeon 'Midlight's Deep' (also called the Deep Dungeon in the PS1 original), who held the secret 13th Zodiac Stone 'Serpentarius' (referencing the constellation Ophiuchus). During the fight Elidibus had Zodiark as a summon spell, the ultimate summon spell in fact, that the player could actually learn blue magic style if main protagonist Ramza happened to be SMN at the time. So Elidibus here in FFXIV being Zodiark's heart is a wry refrence to that.

[Adeacia]

Emet-selch is the name of it's office. All ancients take the name of their office while serving on the Convocation of 14. Hades is Emet-selch true name.

This here. It's expressly said that Emet-Selch is a title. Don't forget before the final battle he says "Let us cast aside titles and pretense." Then he says his real name since he cast his title aside.

[Rannie]

Yeah... I don't actually buy the whole brother's or siblings bit. They most likely were as close as brothers or brother and sister but not biologically related. Inheritance doesn't necessarily go just by if one is related to some one. We as a species whole can say we inherit the earth. Also it never looked like he was looking away when he was saying those thing to the PC he looked angry and to me seemed like he was narrowing his eyes in said anger.

I mean he even gets giddy when he watches the PC start to break down from the strain of the aether and tells us to rise up in madness and kill everyone to take back the "Land that was once ours".

[Vyrerus]

Yeah... I don't actually buy the whole brother's or siblings bit. They most likely were as close as brothers or brother and sister but not biologically related. Inheritance doesn't necessarily go just by if one is related to some one. We as a species whole can say we inherit the earth. Also it never looked like he was looking away when he was saying those thing to the PC he looked angry and to me seemed like he was narrowing his eyes in said anger.

I mean he even gets giddy when he watches the PC start to break down from the strain of the aether and tells us to rise up in madness and kill everyone to take back the "Land that was once ours".

He specifically looks away when he says, "My world will have no need for heroes." It's a sideways, downwards glance that only last for the duration of that one line. I should have clarified better, I suppose.