Quote Originally Posted by stenovrain View Post
It bugged me after 6.3 and it still bugs me now:

If the Twelve was a "system" created by Hydaelyn and they "never manifested before men," then how did Eorzeans know their true names and at least part of their background stories? Even if something happened around Mor Dhona during the 3rd astral era and some men accidentally witnessed the images of one or two gods, was it possible that they got to know the names of the Gods and their charges that accurately?
So who spread the messages of the gods to Eorzeans but not anyone else in the world? Was it Hydaelyn? If so why would she do that? Because she loved Eorzeans the best?
Also, if the Twleve was to maintain the running of the Source, then did Hydaelyn create similar systems for the shards? At least we didn't get any clue either in the First or in the 13th.
I think some of this quesitoning is valid, but not all of it.

I don't think we did get their 'true names'. Consider that the Watcher is basically the same sort of thing as the Twelve but without the influence of prayer, meaning that they probably were about the same as him originally; I don't think Byregot was the Builder's 'true name', I think Byregot became his name just by cultural consensus. After all, remember that we do know Althyk and Nymeia's names, and they're not 'Althyk' and 'Nymeia'.

As for how their stories came through, remember that after the Sundering people did have some memories of the Ancient world, just... mangled and clouded. I think it makes sense that a few stories did persist, and mutated through the years. You also have the factor of the Ascians on top of Hydaelyn; it seems pretty plausible that their own recollections of these people and their shenanigans leaked over time, and lined up with those fragmented memories enough to match up. If people have faded memories of a man punching a meteor, and then both visions of Hydaelyn and the grumblings of certain shadowy figures describe Rhalgr in association with meteors, then people are gonna link those names. It's worth noting that very few of those legends actually fit very close, too; Llymlaen throwing a knife at a nameless researcher for getting too close to a fish somehow turned into her throwing a knife at specifically Oschon for seeing her naked; that's a LOT of narrative drift in that tale, they aren't very close at all to the truth.