Mysterious monsters without much explanation?

[Kaliesto]

Was there ever a monster in the game that didn't seem to have lore or little lore backing it?

I like to know what is up with those Centaurs and Minotaurs in particular.

I got a indication there is couple of Minotaur Tribes, and then there is that allagen tech infused variation.

[Enkidoh]

Minotaurs have been proven to have been yet another Ancient creation as they appear in Elpis (and as I recall, it was even explained there that they were designed to be security guards for sensitive or restricted facilities, basically they're just dumb muscle). Whether by the present day they have formed primitive societies is unclear though.

Really, I think we're at the stage that pretty much every monster or living creature in Hydaelyn was once either made with Creation Magic by some Ancient Etheirysian 12000 years ago before the Sundering, or was created more recently by genetic engineering or magical means by the Allag or some other past civilization (the Ixal being an example).

[RukoBoshi]

Minotaurs have been proven to have been yet another Ancient creation as they appear in Elpis (and as I recall, it was even explained there that they were designed to be security guards for sensitive or restricted facilities, basically they're just dumb muscle). Whether by the present day they have formed primitive societies is unclear though.

Really, I think we're at the stage that pretty much every monster or living creature in Hydaelyn was once either made with Creation Magic by some Ancient Etheirysian 12000 years ago before the Sundering, or was created more recently by genetic engineering or magical means by the Allag or some other past civilization (the Ixal being an example).

I wonder what animals/creatures are actually native to Etheirys.
I get the feeling that it would be mostly animals that actually exist on our world, like cats, wolves or horses.

But to get back to the topic, the monster i most want to have an explanation is Bismarck from the source.
The fact that the First have an actual Bismarck that is a living creature and not a primal is interesting.

It means that a magical being like him could have actually existed on the source, and probably would have been intelligent too.
So was the original Bismarck a creature from Elpis or Pandaemonium ? Or was it an older magical being ? Is it dead or still alive ?

Honestly i'm interested in the backstory of all creatures the primals were based on, and i hope we get some of their backstories.

[Tsiron]

Ultima.....

[JeanneOrnitier]

We still don't know where Ultima came from beyond that Ajora called her from another realm. Is she a space alien like Omega and Midgardsormr? Is she something summoned from one of the shards? Somewhere else beyond the rift?

Gigants? I'm not sure if we saw any in Elpis or not; regardless, we definitely still don't know why they worship Crystal Tower.

We don't actually know where most of the beast tribes come from either, though a lot of the ARR ones existing on multiple shards means they were pre-sundering so are probably Ancient creations. But I think the only one we know for a solid fact is Ixal being Allagan chimeras.

[RyuDragnier]

We still don't know where Ultima came from beyond that Ajora called her from another realm. Is she a space alien like Omega and Midgardsormr? Is she something summoned from one of the shards? Somewhere else beyond the rift?

My personal headcanon is that Ultima's a shard of the Ascian Altima who went out of control, and the WoL of that time was the one who sealed her away originally.

[Absimiliard]

The game calls Ultima extradimensional. That could mean a lot of things, but the wording and surrounding context lead me to believe it's probably got nothing to do with the thirteen reflections.

Originally Ultima had no mind to speak of. She was simply a thing summoned to the Source by Ajora to destroy Mullonde. It was sealed away by Ramza several centuries later, when it reawoke. The description of her included with her collectible statue says people began to worship her out of fear, which in turn fed her in much the same way prayer might feed a primal. The process awoke in her a sense of self. She had effectively become a primal with an actual living body. The text on Ultima's in-game TT card corroborates the statue's description and adds that she was once the "embodiment of pure ruination."

[KageTokage]

I'm curious as to what heck those umbrils in the Tower of Zot were supposed to be, given that all of the other enemies there are either tempered Garleans or magitek.

Even Estinien questions what they are if he's in your trust party.

[Cleretic]

Minotaurs have been proven to have been yet another Ancient creation as they appear in Elpis (and as I recall, it was even explained there that they were designed to be security guards for sensitive or restricted facilities, basically they're just dumb muscle). Whether by the present day they have formed primitive societies is unclear though.

Actually, the minotaurs are weird because they have two explanations. They're in Elpis, but the Encyclopedia Eorzea also credits them as specifically a third-generation chimera made for security detail. There's a few other creatures in similar situations, too.

Personally if I were trying to square that one, I'd go for 'the Elpis animals didn't survive for whatever reason (not even necessarily a big reason, animals just go extinct sometimes), but Allag reinvented them'. Even outside of situations where they conceivably could have come up with a similar idea completely independently--'existing thing but with wings' doesn't exactly require great leaps of creativity--you can point to Amon's dreams of Elpis as a potential bridge.

Honestly i'm interested in the backstory of all creatures the primals were based on, and i hope we get some of their backstories.

I wouldn't want this in any way at all, because it actually devalues and demeans the tribes that we're told envisioned and believe in these figures. 'All of these tribes simply misunderstood a creation made by the effectively-perceived-as-human Ancients' sounds really bad, and basically strips them all of any agency of their own on a societal level. I'm already not a big fan of the fact that Ifrit was entirely explained away as an Ancient creation in a short story that isn't even in the game itself.

Bismarck works and makes sense because the Vanu Vanu's belief system and culture is very totemic and animist; it makes sense that they ascribed deific abilities to an animal they saw do a thing, because that's the sort of society they actually are, and even then they don't really worship Bismarck as their creator, that's not his role in their stories, they see him as the creator of the Sea of Clouds. That's not true for a group like the kobolds, who not only ascribe their own creation to Titan, but whose society is more rationalist and not the type to elevate external things in that way.

And it starts to sound REALLY bad when you factor in the Twelve. "Oh, all these other religious beliefs are just their people misunderstanding something entirely normal, but the majority religion of the place you call home? No, their gods are completely real and pretty much exactly as they say!"


EDIT: Centaurs, to answer the OP instead of just handwaving vague 'probably Ancients' non-explanations, are also explained by the Encyclopedia, but it's a little weird; in the game 'centaur' is specifically used to describe a type of Sharlayan construct, but as we all know there's been a few other creatures of the same shape, some artificial (Reptoids, the Ultima Weapon), some not (the society that summoned Zurvan). So I think it's just a reasonable explanation that centaurs as we understand it are just a thing in FFXIV's world, it's a good shape that both nature and man keep relying on. Or you could say 'it was the Ancients' and throw away everything else, I guess.

If you're ever unsure about why a monster in the game exists, and it's in a part of the game before the late Stormblood patches, I recommend just checking the Encyclopedia Eorzea, it usually has some ideas. You want an explanation for the Skatene? That's in there, turns out those were Sharlayans' fault! We don't have that resource on anything past about 4.2, but with the third volume being worked on, that problem's days are numbered!

[RyuDragnier]

I wouldn't want this in any way at all, because it actually devalues and demeans the tribes that we're told envisioned and believe in these figures. 'All of these tribes simply misunderstood a creation made by the effectively-perceived-as-human Ancients' sounds really bad, and basically strips them all of any agency of their own on a societal level. I'm already not a big fan of the fact that Ifrit was entirely explained away as an Ancient creation in a short story that isn't even in the game itself.

Correction, Ifrita. They are completely different beings, as primal summons are based on what the summoners believe. If we meet the original Ifrita, she likely will not look like the Ifrit the Amaljaa know.