How commonly known was zodiark?

[Recon1o6]

Its something thats been bugging me.

People knew of hydaelyn because she made wol's throughout the ages. But as far as I was aware the ascians operated behind the scenes more often than not, causing destruction to what most people knew as unknown ends if they even knew about the ascians at all. Evil for evil's sake to the common man.

Pretty much nobody knew dalamud was artificial until the garleans discovered the relevant allagan tomestones or ascians pointed them to it.

So when Zodiark was brought up in the fisher studium quest I was under the impression next to nobody knew Zodiark was up there or who he even was other than "yet another dark godlike being"
There's also the small matter I'm surprised nobody blamed the wol for slaying zodiark and then the final days happening.


Have I missed something about Zodiark been known about more commonly or was this a plot point that slipped when quests were written?

[KageTokage]

I'd be surprised if the Loporrits hadn't made any mention of him to the Sharlayans once they established communication, given that his destruction would be the catalyst that would bring about the Final Days.

I'd assume nobody really cares about us technically having a role in causing the Final Days because Fandaniel would've likely just gone on a rampage in order to force someone's hand otherwise.

[Enkidoh]

Zodiark wasn't even mentioned by name til the stinger scene to ARR - before then the Ascians just namelessly referred to him obliquely as "the one true god". For that matter, even Hydaelyn wasn't well known, she wasn't mentioned by name at all in 1.0 (Minfilia for instance thought the Echo had something to do with the Twelve, hence she named her organization of Echo users the Path of the Twelve), other than some vague references to the "One who gave (you) the Echo" and the lyrics to Answers referring to "the Land's alive".

And even in ARR only a few people mentioned Hydaelyn the goddess too (such as Kan-E Senna), despite her name being used as the name of the world, suggesting that neither are known by the smallfolk, who mostly believe in the pantheon of the Twelve instead (with the moon symbolized by the goddess Menphina the Lover, and the land symbolized by the goddess Nophica the Matron.).

Having said that, the Sharlayans have always known far more than they let on as hoarders of knowledge (after all, uncovering many of the secrets they've been hiding is a major plot point of EW), so it makes sense that they would know about Hydaelyn and Zodiark's existence even when others do not.

[Cleretic]

I feel like Zodiark was probably most known as 'the god the Ascians worship' in abstract more than anything else. That lot wasn't ubiquitous and commonly known, but they were an extant cult; the overall gist of their belief system was known to people in the know, we just didn't know any inherent legitimacy or that Zodiark was necessarily anything more than 'what this cult thinks the One True God is'. No different to Ifrit, really.

[Gemina]

In terms of indictment for slaying Zodiark, considering he wasn't acknowledged outside of Sharlayan, and perhaps a few isolated circles throughout the world, but likely under a different name representing the same entity, there wasn't going to be much if any demand to reprimand or punish the WoL. But yeah, if it got out that the WoL kind of had a hand in initiating the End of Days; it is totally feasible to conclude that he/she would shoulder the blame casted by many who lost their loved ones. That is information that needs to remain strictly confidential. I think even among the Loporrits it is not widely known, and most are just under the impression that Zodiark was destroyed.

Besides, keeping Zodiark imprisoned wasn't a fight Hydaelyn could keep up forever. He is just too powerful. She just hoped to keep him shackled for a time to come about another means to save the souls on Etheirys from Meteion. Which begs the question on what she planned to do about Zodiark if a sundered Azem wasn't so conveniently around to wipe the floor with him.

[YianKutku]

The first Encyclopedia Eorzea claims that the Scions had been publishing essays about Zodiark, including the "imprisoned in the moon" part, which we ourselves only knew in 3.2.

[Luizgazen]

Besides, keeping Zodiark imprisoned wasn't a fight Hydaelyn could keep up forever. He is just too powerful. She just hoped to keep him shackled for a time to come about another means to save the souls on Etheirys from Meteion. Which begs the question on what she planned to do about Zodiark if a sundered Azem wasn't so conveniently around to wipe the floor with him.

She didn't need to hope tought, she knew the WoL already had defeated Zodiark in the future.

[Gemina]

She didn't need to hope tought, she knew the WoL already had defeated Zodiark in the future.

It's not that easy. In a timeline gone askew due to a bootstrap paradox, the recipient(s) of told events from a future entity still have to believe what is being said to them. Every truth that reveals itself only does so upon arriving at that point of time. IOW, even though we told Venat we destroyed Zodiark, she will never know it to be 100% true until we kill Zodiark in her present course of time. If the WoL was not being truthful, as what Hades thought, then Hydaelyn would have had a serious problem on her hands in a now weakened state against her greatest adversary.

That said, I can answer my own question by saying Venat simply believed in the WoL, which means she had no contingency plan for a rampaging Zodiark if it came to that. She's a gambler, and would do well in a TT tournament for sure.

[Cleretic]

Also, Hydaelyn didn't know if she'd caused a time loop or not until basically when we came down and told her she did. Remember that there's two possible results of time travel in this world, either creating a new timeline or causing a time loop; for the most part that doesn't change a lick of Hydaelyn's plan, but it does mean she can't put blind faith in the way she was told things happen being the way things will happen.

In fact, she might not even know a time loop is possible, since if we assume we only told her the MSQ then the only time travel instance she knows of is G'raha's, all the time loops before her (in our chronology) were in Alexander's story. If that's true then she has no space to take it easy and coast at any point, because nothing she told us is guaranteed until she sees it happen. In that case, all she can do is hope things are on the right track, especially given:
A: We are not the world's most perfect and reliable narrator,
and B: her plan had details that we didn't even know at the time we spoke to her, so for all she knows those extra details knocked things off the stated course.

[Lyth]

Amon/Fandaniel was the one who obliterated Zodiark. The Watcher was about to just reseal Zodiark after you subjugated Him. As Fandaniel himself points out, it really wouldn't have mattered what you did there, because either Zenos or himself would have done the deed either way. He just wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to eliminate you as a threat to his plans while he had Zodiark under his control.

Trust isn't normally an issue in Amaurotian society, as is pointed out to you on Elpis. Whenever someone accesses their memories, they're literally baring their soul, in a manner of speaking. You were Echo flashbacking all over the place in Poieten Oikos, such that the truth would have been self evident to anyone who bothered to look. That's no small part why the tone of that scene is so somber, and why your 'ridiculous' story hits home. Everyone there knows in their heart that you're telling the truth.