Ultima behind everything?

[LilimoLimomo]

I love a good post that tugs at connections, and plenty of the connections you've made are solid. It does seem clear that generally speaking, there's a connection between Ultima and Auracite.

From what I remember of all of these quests and stories, Ultima was the source of most (but not all) Auracite. However, I think it's an assumption to presume that anyone in contact with Auracite is going to end up transformed, consumed, controlled, etc. Different kinds of Auracite have been shown to interact with their hosts in different ways; for example, in the Ivalice quests transformation via Auracite (whether intentional or accidental) happens extremely fast when the circumstances are right, but at the same time Tia's Auracite necklace shows that it's possible to be in possession of Auracite for decades without experiencing ill effects. In addition, the original Ramza and his buds were able to use Auracite in a heroic fight against Ultima. The eidelon-containing Auracite used in the Contramemoria only eventually lead to their users transforming into aether-starved beasts, suggesting that it takes a good deal of time for the change to occur.

In addition, it's likely that the Unsundered experienced Auracite in different ways due to the density of their aether. While Athena seems to have been somehow affected by The Heart of Sabik, I think it would be a leap to suggest that Lahabrea was without more explicit evidence.

When Cylva says her soul is stained, Occam's Razor suggests that she's just being poetic. In fact, I don't believe we're ever presented with any lore that states that souls are changed by Auracite. The game presents a lot of metaphysics about how souls work but I don't recall anything like that being among it.

I also think that the connection between the eyes is reaching; my take is that there are very few ways to draw creepy, minimalist eyes, and that's what they have in common. Especially since Cylva never really transformed into anything.

This last part is just my opinion, but I would caution against scrutinizing a lot of the content happening around ARR. It seems clear to me that the devs didn't have the Ascian story fleshed out until a handful of expansions had passed, which is why in ARR they're all talking about the power of "chaos" which is eventually entirely dropped once they decided to make Ascians more than moustache-twirling villains. The content is certainly still there if you want to explore its practical ramifications on the rest of the world for funsies, but later writing has retconned a lot of that stuff.