What are "The Elementals" of the Black Shroud?

[Rangiswimming]

People fall for the Long FFXIV con about the Black shroud being just forest boring instead of wising up that it's your casual, unapologetic, neighborhood eldritch location.

Location ruled by one of the remaining biggest mysteries in the series.

We have glimpses here and there about the Elementals. They communicate through emotions (Dynamis?!). Those bonded/chosen with them become the Voidsent's preferred snacks and are physically changed from their compeers. Those who anger them get perma cursed and perma dead. They can protect the entire forest but Lmao shame to the Haukke's. FFXIV most obvious example of Blue and Orange Morality.

What are they? What is their goal? What is their relation with the Black Shroud? Why hate the Ixal but accept the Moogles and be BFFs with the Sylps? Hate when voidsents are in their territory but lmao we can consume the surroundings of Amdapor who have Diabolos sealed inside as other locations that were void infested after the war of Magi.

They existed way before the sixth umbral calamity. They were respected enough that Amdapor didn't encroach on the forest after they were denied permission to settle there. They have their own world ending measures (that only got out of control due to Calamity).

Why no west shroud yet? What are they hiding?!

Nature is really terrifying, and waving the elementals as just silly tree people things may bite us in the ass. 1.0's elementals were lvl 90, we can engage them now.

Conspiracy theories Welcome.

[DrWho2010]

just a dropped plot point from 1.0 really. Bahamut's release from Dalamud and the ensuing destruction severely lowered the elementals capability or even will to assert themselves in the Shroud. Lore book may have more on the subject, don't know tho for sure. The great tree still has influence though.

[MikkoAkure]

In ye olde 1.0 lore, Elementals are EVERYWHERE and in EVERYTHING, not just trees in the Shroud. It just happens that the gigantic forest being the gigantic forest has the most living things in a concentrated area and that's where they decided to mostly congregate and where they congregate, their power goes up.

They actually used to be buddies with the Ixal. The Ixal lived in the forest at peace with the Elementals while the Hyur and Elezen were hiding underground. Then the Ixal pissed the Elementals off by clearing land without asking permission and so they booted them off into the mountains where they lost their feathers and ability to fly. Then the underground people asked the Elementals if they could live in the forest and protect it and be cool and after 50 years of cooling off, the Elementals said "sure, why not".

But after the recent Calamity, West Shroud is destroyed completely (that's why we can't go there, there's nothing to see and it all looks like the rocky, treeless parts of North Shroud), the Elementals are weakened and no longer have the power they had in 1.0. The Hedge, which was a magical barrier that prevented anyone from getting in, is severely weakened and the Elementals can't go around marking people with Woodsin and attacking them with Greenwrath like they used to. That's why in ARR there's a conjurer customs agent talking to the Ala Mhigan refugees and the Elementals are telling him which Ala Mhigans they like and which they don't because otherwise they can't do anything about it anymore and are working through the Hearers.

I don't remember them having anything at all to do with the Void or Voidsent though.

[Rangiswimming]

The elementals have a lost of history with the voidsent and not necessarily because of the War of Magi.

It is most noted in the CNJ and WHM stories. The CNJ story is around a voidsent that is corrupting the forest, The Elementals are sending uninterrupted voicemails to Sylphie (a hearer) about it, and you have to destroy it. The HW WHM is about Alaqa doing necromancy and the forest going ballistic because the corruption could reach them. SB story is about how a unsupervised Padjal child is a potential voidsent snack, and how if they aren't taught how to control their emotions/powers they can make a rift into the void (and have a voidsent eat them up).

[MikkoAkure]

What I mean is that it seemed from your post that there was something mysterious about the Elementals having some sort of double-standard with Void and potentially being in cahoots with them. I was confused by this line in your OP:

Hate when voidsents are in their territory but lmao we can consume the surroundings of Amdapor who have Diabolos sealed inside as other locations that were void infested after the war of Magi.

Elementals obviously hate all corruption since it destroys their home and they are also beings of pure aether, and Voidsent survive off of eating aether. I was under the impression that the new Padjali NPC in the WHM quests is a target of the Voidsent because she has a LOT of aether but can't defend herself or control the release of aether like other Padjal can. It's her pure, uncontrolled power that opens up rifts, not something specifically built into them by the Elementals.

[Brightamethyst]

The EW tank role quest talks about the forest moogles and the pact they have with the elementals.

[SannaR]

You can see a similar model of the elementals in Elpis. At least with what we've been shown the rare times we see them in the cnj quest line.

[Nezerius]

But after the recent Calamity, West Shroud is destroyed completely (that's why we can't go there, there's nothing to see and it all looks like the rocky, treeless parts of North Shroud)

I doubt the West Shroud is actually destroyed completely. Especially considering Lichenweed (Feast PvP map, added in patch 3.21) looks fairly normal.



Not to mention the West Shroud, and the Crystal Shrine (both inaccessible since 2.0) being very odd picks for the posters on the wall of the Baldesion Annex.
They could definitely use the zone to pick up on the story of the Elementals, especially now that we're at the beginning of a new arc. Although chances are it'll simply be reduced to an expert dungeon.

[Enkidoh]

You can see a similar model of the elementals in Elpis. At least with what we've been shown the rare times we see them in the cnj quest line.

It's not just a 'similar' model, they are literally elementals, with a sidequest in Elpis actually finally revealing what they really are and why they're so difficult to communicate with:

the elementals were actually familiars created by the Ancients to regulate aether in the environment, but, for some reason that wasn't adequetly explained there, they were designed not to communicate normally but to communicate via information carried on the aether, which made them obtuse even to their creators (presumedly this was done to allow them to communicate across vast distances).

The quest specifically dealt with one of those elementals being given a task that due to encountering a situation it was not 'programmed' for, it ended up stuck in a feedback loop that the player had to try and resolve (bascially, it was sent to fetch someone but the person it was meant to speak to was asleep, and it wasn't programmed to deal with that - simply poking the person in emote woke them and the elemental was able to continue in it's task). Because of this, it's entirelly probable that the Final Days and the Sundering... "broke" them and made them take their directive of "protect the environment and regulate it's aether" far too zealously.

The Elpis sidequest in question is called "Woken By the Familiar" incidentally for those wanting more information.

[Cleretic]

Something worth noting, Elementals are also in Eureka. Same model, also called 'Elementals'. Apparently rather more helpful over there, though. Maybe because there's not much we can do to Eureka that's worse than what's already happened. So it seems like they naturally just sorta happen in areas that are aetherically wild as hell. Which isn't too far from what we learn in Elpis.

I don't think they have any greater goals, I think they're just weird super-powerful magical children. They don't do long-term planning, they just do 'this feels bad, let's cry about it and make a mess'.