Dynamis in hindsight (Massive 6.0 spoilers)

[RyuDragnier]

So as we know Dynamis is a very hit or miss thing to the lore community due to it being the power of emotions and determination, but I wanted to see what everybody could find in lore that actually makes sense in hindsight with the reveal of Dynamis.

Example, I always thought the Vanu Vanu "dance-off" was ridiculous for the longest on intimidation. With the introduction of Dynamis though, it now makes sense. They're not being frightened by the dance, they're sensing and being scared by the amount of Dynamis the dancer is giving off.

[Veloran]

I reject the idea of retroactively attributing things that were already easily explained as aetherial phenomena as Dynamis just because it's the new hot topic and lacks any rules or clear display of what it even is or does.

[RyuDragnier]

It's fine to do that. My thought is that if they're going to be putting this into canon, might as well see what all fits it.

[Anonymoose]

I'm curious how much dynamis lore was rooted in, "They're going to riot if we retcon what aether is/isn't again."

[RyuDragnier]

I'm curious how much dynamis lore was rooted in, "They're going to riot if we retcon what aether is/isn't again."

Let's be honest, there was going to be a riot if there was any retcons at all. Dynamis feels like their "let's throw a bit of uncertainty as to what is or is not aether" in an attempt to give wiggle room for not only certain past lore inconsistencies, but to also give something new to write about in the future.

[Theozilla]

I personally thought the introduction of dynamis was quite clever, what with it essentially also being FFXIV’s equivalent of Dark Energy, as evidenced by it also being 68.3% of the universe and being responsible for the acceleration of the expansion of the universe.

It also reminded me of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Material’s trilogy (which are some of my favorite sci-fi/fantasy books) and how Dust functioned as a concept in the story (though in HDM Dust was called Dark Matter, which in real life works with gravity rather than against it, which is what Dark Energy does).

[Theodric]

I'm curious how much dynamis lore was rooted in, "They're going to riot if we retcon what aether is/isn't again."

It remains to be seen how it is handled, I suppose.

Personally? I'm rather wary. I know a lot of people who spent a lot of time working out how things fit together and why only to have to adjust everything not because they were necessarily wrong for making the connections that they did...but simply because some completely new thing came into play that made certain things much more contrived than they necessarily needed to be.

It's one thing to have things planned out on a long term basis, but another to just alter things to do whatever each time a new expansion or content patch comes around. Maybe I'd be less wary if I had not witnessed WoW go in a similar direction with major characters coming back from the dead, time travel, alternate universes and so on.

[Slatersev]

So as we know Dynamis is a very hit or miss thing to the lore community due to it being the power of emotions and determination, but I wanted to see what everybody could find in lore that actually makes sense in hindsight with the reveal of Dynamis.

Example, I always thought the Vanu Vanu "dance-off" was ridiculous for the longest on intimidation. With the introduction of Dynamis though, it now makes sense. They're not being frightened by the dance, they're sensing and being scared by the amount of Dynamis the dancer is giving off.

The actual examples are in the Omega and Dancer quest lines. Dancer especially is basically a stealth EW add. Right down to to fighting a Blasphemy

[RyuDragnier]

The actual examples are in the Omega and Dancer quest lines. Dancer especially is basically a stealth EW add. Right down to to fighting a Blasphemy

There's also the possibility (I say this because I cannot remember for certain what caused this) of one at the end of the Crystal Tower raids with Nero. He's being corrupted, trying to make his way to the exit, and only after does he state with determination that he will not fall there, the corruption dissipates.

[Theozilla]

I'm curious how much dynamis lore was rooted in, "They're going to riot if we retcon what aether is/isn't again."

When was aether exactly retconned before in the first place? Sure, there's been additional information added about the subject (like Primals being Tulpas and Astral Darkness and Umbral Light and such), but I can't exactly recall when its nature itself was retconned?