Did Just our Star(planet) get sundered or the whole universe?

[Enphilistor]

So several lore issues bother me. First, Every time the alliance random raid sends me to one of the Puppets, such as the copied factor, etc, I wonder and ask the raid, how did they get to the first and not the Source or one of the others? Can races outside our "star" choose which one to enter as they approach it from space? Second, When Midgardsiormr arrived at our star, he went to the source and talked to Hydaelyn who gave permission for the dragons to use it as refuge. Why did the dragons not encounter the first, like the puppets did, or even end up in the 13th, or some other sundered reflection? Could they choose, or did they see only one? or did they go to a reflection randomly? Could people on the Source, or the other reflections, travel to other reflections by flying out into space on a ship far enough and then back, to enter any of the other reflections? Last, Thaumaturges spells tap into the void, which has been linked to the void in the 13th. If that is the case, and the void is only in the 13th which is a reflection around our star, how does thaumaterge magic still reach into the void way back on the 13th from way out across the universe in Ultima thule?

[Cleretic]

Okay, answering the questions basically in order. Some of these will cover the same answers.

• Just the planet we're on got sundered. Also the moon, probably, when exactly the moon started existing is still an open question, but the shards definitely have their own moons.
• It isn't completely clear how the Nier raid people got to the First, but the Seeds of Destruction (and I believe the Ark) can cross dimensions so it might be a 'them' thing rather than something anyone can just do.
• No plausible examples to figure out if/how someone gets to a shard via external travel rather than the Source.
• Midgardsormr just got to the Source; no idea why he didn't hit any other shard, but nothing really suggests that he did anything special, so the Source is probably the 'default'.
• We probably can't do shard travel by doing a return space trip, but that's on Y'shtola to figure out.
• Thaumaturge spells do not tap into the void. Neither do Black Mage spells. Thaumaturges use internal aether and black mages use the aether of the world around them, so both of them work just fine as far as results go no matter where we are, although if you wanted to get really, really fiddly on how aether works, there might be other story there. (The writers will not get that fiddly on how aether works.)
• How everything works in Ultima Thule is a separate interesting question, because it's basically a space that isn't made out of conventional matter and energy. The best we can reckon, everything there is made of and powered by dynamis (and given a bit of Thancred-help to take interactable form), so all forms of combat work just fine with it. But the Reaper's Avatar is making one hell of a trip to get there.

[Lyth]

If the explanation that we had in Shadowbringers was correct, then sundering doesn't influence the physical realm directly (i.e. 'the flesh'). I wonder if what was directly split was Etheirys' soul, namely the lifestream, which in turn resulted in the division of all souls connected with it. It might just be that the shards all occupy the same coordinates in the 'physical domain', but are separated in the 'spiritual domain'.

On the magical front, I'm still not quite sure which effects are actually 'Aether' and which are 'Akasha'. Most entities in the Void are aether starved, which makes me wonder why you would call on them specifically to expend their Aether on your behalf. Unless there's different power source behind their magic, of course.

[JnCrWe]

Regarding the dragons, there is Vrtra's answer to Y'shtola's question about the Final Days, in which he says Midgardsormr "alighted upon a shattered Source, its 13 reflections long since scattered beyond the Rift". It may be that Midgardsormr could at least see that the Source had been sundered, or perhaps he only knew because Hydaelyn told him. In any case, it seems only the Source was there for him to land on.

[LilimoLimomo]

Reading this post made me realize that The First's night sky is full of stars...and presuming that the stars in the sky in FF14 are "planets" (or even actual stars, which I don't believe there's a term for in FF14 since star = planet) that would suggest that the shards are able to see these other stars, which suggests they are in some way in the same space. Alternatively, it would suggest that the shards have been pushed into other spaces with their own galaxies of stars...which seems far less likely.

I'm guessing someone with more FF14 star lore expertise can speak more definitively on this!

Sidenote: I wonder if anyone has compared the positioning of stars in the night sky in the Source to those of the night sky in The First?

[MikkoAkure]

Reading this post made me realize that The First's night sky is full of stars...and presuming that the stars in the sky in FF14 are "planets" (or even actual stars, which I don't believe there's a term for in FF14 since star = planet)

In FFXIV, stars are called stars and planets are also called stars.

I think it's a "poetic" use of the word in combination with the fact that in Japanese "hoshi" can mean both. Sometimes in English planets are called stars like how Venus was the "morning/evening star" and other cultures referred to the planets as stars as well. "Planet" comes from the Greek "wanderer" since the planets were described as "wandering stars".

Otherwise I think it was established that the First and the rest of the shards are shunted off into a side dimension and can't be accessed from space but can view it and that the Sundering was a local event, not universe-wide.

[SilverArrow20XX]

I figure the Shards share the same physical space as the Source, but are out of phase dimensionally.
So they see the same night sky as the Source does, but I think some weird stuff might happen if they actually tried to travel out into space.

[thegreatonemal]

Okay, answering the questions basically in order. Some of these will cover the same answers.

• Just the planet we're on got sundered. Also the moon, probably, when exactly the moon started existing is still an open question, but the shards definitely have their own moons.
• It isn't completely clear how the Nier raid people got to the First, but the Seeds of Destruction (and I believe the Ark) can cross dimensions so it might be a 'them' thing rather than something anyone can just do.
• No plausible examples to figure out if/how someone gets to a shard via external travel rather than the Source.
• Midgardsormr just got to the Source; no idea why he didn't hit any other shard, but nothing really suggests that he did anything special, so the Source is probably the 'default'.
• We probably can't do shard travel by doing a return space trip, but that's on Y'shtola to figure out.
• Thaumaturge spells do not tap into the void. Neither do Black Mage spells. Thaumaturges use internal aether and black mages use the aether of the world around them, so both of them work just fine as far as results go no matter where we are, although if you wanted to get really, really fiddly on how aether works, there might be other story there. (The writers will not get that fiddly on how aether works.)
• How everything works in Ultima Thule is a separate interesting question, because it's basically a space that isn't made out of conventional matter and energy. The best we can reckon, everything there is made of and powered by dynamis (and given a bit of Thancred-help to take interactable form), so all forms of combat work just fine with it. But the Reaper's Avatar is making one hell of a trip to get there.

Hydaelyn created the moon specifically as a prison for Zodiark. I'm guessing this planet just didn't have a moon at all.

[LilimoLimomo]

Hydaelyn created the moon specifically as a prison for Zodiark. I'm guessing this planet just didn't have a moon at all.

As Cleretic said, it's up in the air. Figuratively that is, although also literally. Could be that the moon was created at the moment Zodiark was sundered and then simultaneously sundered itself, could be some other order of operations.

Additionally, it's worth noting that the moon can be seen in Elpis pre-sundering. There has been plenty of time to correct this obvious issue if it was indeed a bug, which may suggest that it's intended.

[Cleretic]

As Cleretic said, it's up in the air. Figuratively that is, although also literally. Could be that the moon was created at the moment Zodiark was sundered and then simultaneously sundered itself, could be some other order of operations.

Additionally, it's worth noting that the moon can be seen in Elpis pre-sundering. There has been plenty of time to correct this obvious issue if it was indeed a bug, which may suggest that it's intended.

It's only seen in basically the rarest time/weather condition in Elpis, and not especially clear even then, so I could see it just being that they missed a spot.

'Creating the moon to serve as a prison/escape pod' and 'repurposing the moon to serve as a prison/escape pod' are pretty much equally insane concepts, so both options are still pretty huge.