[LVL 87 MSQ SPOILERS] I’m so confused about that cutscene

[Alenore]

After we leave that level 87 zone, we see a vision of what happened during the Amaurot final days. But it’s so inconsistent with what we were told. Emet told us in 5.0 that the sundering happened when Hydaelyn battles Zodiark AFTER the second offering of souls. The first offering was to stop the final days, the second was to restore the world to a habitable state. But this cutscene shows that the sundering happened in between the first and second offering… so what’s the deal?? Furthermore, if Zodiark was already summoned at this time, why does this cutscene show someone summoning a blasphemy? It was a badass cutscene but the impact was lost on me because I was so confused at the inconsistency.

And if the answer is that it was just “symbolic” that would be the biggest let-down of the entire ffxiv storyline IMO.

Also, on a lesser note, we are shown a recording of Venat speaking with a friend after akademia anyder. The friend is sad because Venat had decided to become the heart of Hydaelyn. But in the aforementioned cutscene in 6.0, Venat is just out walking around. I assume that she is an avatar of Hydaelyn due to her glowing eyes, but that anyder cutscene now makes little sense. Venat is still herself, she can still walk around and interact with people.

On an even lesser note, why are the ancients depicted as mysterious creepy looking tall grey people up until the level 87 zone? At that point they all start looking like regular tall humans that also start speaking the modern tongue. So… what’s the deal?

This cutscene was interesting!
First, it was a mashup of different periods :
1) The first part describes the days before summoning Zodiark, Venat even says so herself "this day saw half our number sacrificed to summon Zodiark". It's during this part that a blasphemy is summoned, so when Zodiark wasn't around ;

2) It then skips to right before the second sacrifice, with Blasphemies still around. They're about to sacrifice life, but Venat try to reason them. This was the moment she resolved she had to do as we said she would: it's a way to avoid more temptation to use Zodiark's power. I didn't interpret that as Venat actually "Sundering" the world at that point, however. For me, she just summoned/became Hydaelyn because she finally got to the point where she understood this was the course of action she had to take.

3) The third scene is kinda her long wait and the pain she experienced at making all she loved suffer and die, I *guess*? This part is clearly not to be taken literally, if anything it's probably what her soul experienced after the Sundering.


As for why they speak like us, you can probably attribute it to the echo, as we've only ever had shades of ancients speaking to us, so beings without souls to read. Once in Elpis, we meet actual ancients with souls, and so, can understand what they say.

I have a different take on it. While I agree the initial scene being something of a montage, it seemed more to me to be using her calmness as a foil for the chaos going on in order to emphasize the horror of the event. It could also underscore her fore-knowledge of the event, its inevitability, and the necessity of it to protect the future.

The parting of Emet-Selch and Hythlodaeus seems to me to symbolize the gathering of people to summon Zodiark. The looks on their faces were those of friends taking action, knowing they would never see each other again. Not being an uber-lorehound I don't know if the world continued burning for a time after Zodiark was summoned or if it stopped immediately. My understanding of the situation was they summoned Zodiark, who then stabilized the world, and the second sacrifice was done to return the world to its original state, which Venat/Hydaelyn interrupted.

The scene of her walking, to me, portrays the passage of time and her waiting for the WoL to be born while experiencing the various Joinings. After spending so much time getting us used to seeing Venat, using that form was more impactful to me than simply seeing a big crystal floating through empty space. I had associated Venat's form with Hydaelyn's "residual self image" to use Matrix terminology so having a face and body to express continued pain and effort was relatable.

The first sacrifice was to summon Zodiark in order to quicken the celestial currents and protect the star against the Final Days.
The second was meant to revitalize the star, which was in no shape to let life start again in good conditions.
Then, they planned a third sacrifice, of the life that grew again, in order to get back those who died to summon Zodiark. Long plan, really.

[Arzalis]

The parting of Emet-Selch and Hythlodaeus seems to me to symbolize the gathering of people to summon Zodiark. The looks on their faces were those of friends taking action, knowing they would never see each other again.

Hythlodaeus was one of the people who sacrificed themselves to Zodiark. We talked to him on the moon during the part where we saw all the souls Zodiark had kept from the initial summoning. Their conversation was him telling Emet he was going to do this and Emet being unhappy/upset about it. Also really contextualizes why Emet wanted to bring everyone back. It wasn't nameless people to us now, it was someone we have interacted with. It helps that Hythlodaeus was a really likeable character, imo.

[Zoliru]

That was definitely an interesting cinematic, it does feel it is completely symbolic, as in it shows the moment where Venat gave up trying to save her own people because she showed how they reacted at the first serious taste of suffering and was repulsed by how desperate and dependent they had become to Zodiarc, so unable to handle reality that they desperately cling to the past.

Though that leaves a lot of questions open, how did Venat became hydaelin?
You would assume it would be through the same way Zodiarc came into being, the group that opposed the convocation and Zodiarc used the same ritual to summon Hydaelin using Venat as her core?

Though I still feel things could have been very different if she did remind Emet of what happened, Zodiarc would have kept currents going, and Emet would understand the nature of the threat so rather than focus on bringing back the old world which was the main objective since they believed the threat was over, he could have focused on solving that problem because I believe Emet unlike most, would have not also fallen so deep into despair he would not function and simply try to bring the old world back if he knew the truth, if only she had told him the truth when the disaster struck...

[Catwho]

I assumed that Venat used her own life force as well, not only becoming the heart of Hydalaen, but tying herself wholly to that fate.

Elidibus was supposed to be the heart of Zodiark, but he somehow "escaped" - they never said what exactly happened. As part of the sundering and binding of Zodiark, did Hydalaen cause Elidibus to break free out of compassion? Zodiark bound is a dark version of the aetherial sea, just a bunch of souls stuck in limbo. If poor Elidibus had been conscious the whole time, it would have been even more cruel.

[huqboss]

Still there is something wrong in that cutscene (not saying it's not awesome, cuz it is awesome). The one who sundered the world was Venat, not Hydaelyn - it clearly says on dialogue box. We were told that sundering of world was effect of sundering Zodiark by Hydaelyn, but nothing like this happened, no sign of their fight.. You wanna say E-S - one of actually living in that time had wrong informations? Also Hydaelyn confirmed that is a primal (summoned by people not agreeing on sacrifice of new life to bring back to life ones sacrificed to summon Zodiark, but we also didn't see any of them..). Just Venat with 1 swing of the sword.. Venat =/= Hydaelyn, it's same as Elidibus and Zodiark - they are not the same. Still missing answers for some quite important questions - how 3 Ascians avoided to be sundered and.. where the F did crystal came from? Hydaelyn was always just a big crystal - why? She also mentioned that each calamity was her battle with Zodiark (all except 1 lost) - where is connection if Zodiark was all the time sealed and as we learn noone ever tried to free him before? Very confusing and inconsistent with our knowledge from previous expansions.