Ancient lore from Korean liveletter Q&A

[Lurina]

The Korean community recently got an open Q&A session during a liveletter and asked a bunch of questions about the Ancients specifically that clears up some long-standing ambiguous points. There's a translation here, but it's a little messy (I think their English might be a spotty, though it's still helpful) so I went over the Korean with toktogi and compared to make something a bit more straightforward.

According to the preamble, all questions are answered by Banri Oda.

"Question: Why is there so little difference in size, intellect, and power between the people of the rejoined Source and the First? With the difference between Ancients and modern humans, I would have thought people in the Source should be stronger, but they don't seem that different. Do all 14 worlds have to be rejoined for them to become like the Ancients?

Answer: I think that even if all 14 worlds were rejoined, the density of souls would return to normal, but their bodies would not. (After all, their species itself has diverged...) That's why the Ascians plan was to sacrifice all life on the rejoined world to Zodiark so everything could be regenerated.


Question: I'm curious about how aging works for the Ancients. Emet-Selch seems to have known Lahabrea as a younger man before he grew older.* How old are these characters in relative terms and compared to normal people? You'd expect Venat to be an old woman, but she looks quite young. And how do the Ancients transition from childhood to adulthood?

Answer: As Emet-Selch said, "In the beginning, everyone lived nigh for eternity." The Ancients had vastly longer lives than contemporary people. I'll give some examples of the age relationship between them.

Emet-Selch: Someone who has fully reached maturity.
Hythlodaeus: The same age as Emet-Selch (or so he claims...)
Venat: Older, but younger than Lahabrea (or so she claims...)
Lahabrea: An old man.
Themis: A youth who has barely reached legal adulthood.

As for the second part of the question, although the Ancients grow more slowly than modern humans, childhood still passes very quickly relative to their long lives, and they spend most of their lives appearing as late adolescents and young adults. That being said, their body does physically age as normal if they grow old enough, but since creation magic has grown so advanced, even an aged person can maintain their physical youth if they try. Perhaps it depends on whether they've accepted the idea of themselves as old.


Question: What are the criteria for being selected for the seat of Elidibus on the Convocation?

Answer: The role of the seat of Elidibus is to monitor the other 13 seats, moderate their behavior, and reconcile conflicts between them. As all members of the Convocation are very knowledgeable and experienced, they can be stubborn about what they believe. So the key criteria to become Elidibus is to command their universal respect. This can be through knowledge, experience, sheer power, personality... It depends on the makeup of the Convocation at the time."


*not sure quite what they're saying here since we never seen Emet specifically with Pandaemonium Lahabrea - maybe they're talking about how he was presented as younger earlier in the MSQ...?

[Cleretic]

This is all pretty much exactly what I figured. Which is probably good, I'd hate for several months down the line to be doing some lore research and go 'actually this was only explained in a Korean-language live letter'.

[Lurina]

Unrelated piece of Au Ra lore from the same Q&A: Limbal rings are apparently something added via magic for cultural reasons rather than being natural, which is why you can change them at the barber.

Kind of a silly handwave IMO.

[TowaIsBestGirl]

Unrelated piece of Au Ra lore from the same Q&A: Limbal rings are apparently something added via magic for cultural reasons rather than being natural, which is why you can change them at the barber.

Kind of a silly handwave IMO.

So, JoJo is also a plastic surgeon. Neat, and also slightly disturbing considering the introductory quest. Perhaps there's truth to the rumors of the Slasher of Limsa Lominsa, after all?

[shadowclasper]

I mean it's heavily implied fantasias, like everything in game (including freaking party finder now), has an in game, Canon explanation and literally exists. That people use magic to alter appearances seems logical to me.

[Brinne]

Just wanted to share this - the NieR Reincarnation crossover event with Hades was recently brought back, but brought with it a new weapon description:



Not enough, I think, to warrant its own post, so I figured it would work here for "recent Ancient lore." Not a lot of hard new info, but it seems to confirm Erich was killed in the Sundering and Lahabrea was essentially driven to madness trying to get him back. Emet made a conscious decision watching him to preserve his own mind.

[shadowclasper]

Just wanted to share this - the NieR Reincarnation crossover event with Hades was recently brought back, but brought with it a new weapon description:



Not enough, I think, to warrant its own post, so I figured it would work here for "recent Ancient lore." Not a lot of hard new info, but it seems to confirm Erich was killed in the Sundering and Lahabrea was essentially driven to madness trying to get him back. Emet made a conscious decision watching him to preserve his own mind.

See that sorta contradicts what Erichthonios said though. He deliberately didn't participate in the creation of Zodiark but rather passed back into the life stream despite the 14's directive. That means that Lahabrea I think was driven mad by having to pick between eventually sacrificing his son's soul to bring back everyone else (as was his duty), and the fact his son was lost forever.

[Wyssahtyn]

Unrelated piece of Au Ra lore from the same Q&A: Limbal rings are apparently something added via magic for cultural reasons rather than being natural, which is why you can change them at the barber.

Kind of a silly handwave IMO.

shit lore tbh. why did it need an explanation?

[SannaR]

Lahabreha said that the only two who seemed to have noticed when he shed off the part of himself that had been tainted by Athena was Igeyorhm and Emet-Selch. So that's probably where that part came from.

[RyuDragnier]

Lahabreha said that the only two who seemed to have noticed when he shed off the part of himself that had been tainted by Athena was Igeyorhm and Emet-Selch. So that's probably where that part came from.

Makes sense. Emet has always been a very observant person, and it's implied that Igeyorhm and Lahabrea have apparently always been close (siblings perhaps?), so of course Igeyorhm would notice.