Behind The Mask – Battle against Legatus Nael van Darnus [7th Umbral Era Predictions]

[Onizuka]

Hello, adventurers!

This is a lore post (therefore, it contains spoilers) that I direct to all of you following/interested in the 7th Umbral Era storyline.
To keep track with the revelations, I like to do round-ups of the missions: I've been covering all the ones since the first appearance of Urianger, and today I've completed my latest journal entry with the Maelstrom quest “Alive”. If you're from another Company and would like to see what happened, I should have covered all the info on it.

As I said in another discussion, the cutscenes in those missions differ from each Grand Company and, although the main story of Dalamud/Meteor/Allag is the same, they link with each other and offer different tidbits, like here with the connection between Legatus Gaius van Baelsar and Cid Garlond (and his father Midas).
I remain hopeful that we'll be able to watch them all in time.

However, this is not a Topic to talk about that, but about the Seventh Umbral Era itself (even if some details are missing, we should all have the main story after doing the level 40 mission). I'll copy my predictions from my journal:


Future Predictions
So, what's going to happen to Eorzea? Will Dalamud truly crash on our land, or some other event linked to the primals or the beast tribes will cause the 7th Umbral Era?

For Mid July “patch 1.23” is scheduled, with a Legatus Battle planned.
My guess is that we'll fight only one of the Legati: I'm expecting an EPIC match against Nael van Darnus.
I hope Tribuni Atilus and Luscus will be with him at first, but then make it a multi-stage battle, like “a boss with multiple forms”; I'd find it awesome if there'd be a 2nd/3rd stage where Darnus' helm is partly broken and we can see who's behind the mask. Yeah, I always find it fascinating when there's a masked character as villain, even more if in the end his mask is taken off.



Eventually, we'll manage to defeat Nael (probably we'll be above level 50 by then) and he actually dies (perhaps Gaius will finish him off?), but not before achieving his goal and causing the 7th Umbral Era.
For such a character, I kind of expect such a death. A big victory for us against the Empire, but at a great cost.
Gaius, on the other hand, also considering his legion is the one besieging Ala Mhigo, will be seen again in the future. My instinct tells me he's a character far more important than “the temporary” Nael, with an interesting backstory to tell...


If Darnus' battle will be as epic as I hope, it thrills me at the thought!
Patch 1.23 is 6 moons away, not really that far... and Dalamud will surely grow even bigger until then! So it's good to start thinking about what may happen (also, that other lore-related “Content surrounding the Twelve mythos” of patch 1.23 looks intriguing!).

What are your takes on that “Legatus Battle”, adventurers? Would you like to see Darnus unmasked/partly unmasked before he dies, or with his valiant helm on until his last breath? This, of course, if he will be the main opponent like I believe.

If you wish, post here your predictions!


Update Post patch 1.22b:

I completed the 2 new storyline quests on the Seventh Umbral Era, the storytelling and cutscenes were amazing as usual.
The revelations were crazy just like Nael van Darnus turned to be. Here is he, after he absorbed power from Dalamud:




It seems like my guess was correct and we'll indeed battle him in patch 1.23.

He says he will offer his own flesh to Dalamud... Could he transform into...?




If you've a keen eye you might notice a slight resemblance.

I'll gather all these new revelations in a round-up for my blog in the near future, but in the meantime I wanted to post this for all the lore-interested adventurers. Cool stuff the 7th Umbral Era, eh?

Whatever battle and in whatever will transform the Legatus of the VIIth Legion, I'm sure the final showdown with Darnus in patch 1.23 is gonna be Super Great!

[Nikita]

Very cool! Thanks for putting all of this together!

[Jinrya-Geki]

I believe Darnus is one of two things. His physical height and weight tells us he is either a Roegadyn, or something else entirely.

Why? Look at the cutscene after beating Ifrit (Low Level), He towers over over his men, but his body structure is thinner than Roegadyn even with the armor. His men look like Hyur, Mid and highlanders, and Elezen.

[HiirNoivl]

Do you have a link to the Cutscene for "Like Father, Like Son"? that's the Uldah one.

[Onizuka]

Unfortunately not, I still can't video a video of it... I asked an adventuress to explain it to me, but she doesn't know English very well, so I cannot confirm what exactly happened. There's this scene with Darnus and Cid and Cid apparently fakes his death, what made me believe that it happens cronologically after “Alive” (like the Twin Adders mission happens before it), but as I said I can't confirm it.
Anyway, we might discuss this in the Topic in the Quests section.

I believe Darnus is one of two things. His physical height and weight tells us he is either a Roegadyn, or something else entirely.

Why? Look at the cutscene after beating Ifrit (Low Level), He towers over over his men, but his body structure is thinner than Roegadyn even with the armor. His men look like Hyur, Mid and highlanders, and Elezen.

I always had two hypotheses on Nael's size:

1. He's some kind of “special” Hyur, kinda like Cid is far bigger than the average Midlander, but he's no Highlander. Probably just some work out.

2. He's of Highlander origins, that's why he wears a mask, as Highlanders originated from Ala Mhigo. However, considering his and his father's history, I'm not really into this option, but more into the first one.

Anyway, surely he's not a Roegadyn! I think in the “It Kills with Fire” cutscene he looks taller simply because he's in front of his troops, so the camera creates this effect.
I met him in person and he wasn't much taller than me. Here's a pic for comparison (others in my journal entry of last August):



I really crave to see who's behind that mask!

[Endemerrin]

I came to a similar conclusion.

The most recent GC missions seem to paint Van Baelsar in a much more forgiving light than Van Darnus. It seems to me that Darnus has more or less been driven mad and bent on purging Eorzea, no matter the cost. That there's limitless potential to be had from the void. I honestly think there's something more to this plot. I have a strong feeling Darnus is nothing but a pawn for the Emperor, and will be disposed of soon enough (Most likely at our own hands, come 1.23)

It's clear that Baelsar doesn't want anything to do with Dalamund. He's well aware of how dangerous it is, and is clearly afraid of another Bozja Citadel occurring - even with the assistance of the Allagan tomestones to guide Dalamund's path. I won't try to paint him in a positive light, as he still seeks to conquer Eorzea, but he seems to at least want to spare the lives of the innocent - not see them all decimated by Dalamund's immense power.

I have a feeling Baelsar might also have a hand in the death of Darnus. We know that Darnus is head of a rather prestigious household in Garlemald. Founding figures of Garlemald, even. Baelsar wields Heirsbane, which has supposedly slain nine aspirants to the crown of Garlemald. Would be a fitting end for Darnus to die at the end of such a blade.

Baelsar's motto also brings some questions to mind. "He who cannot preserve the sovereignty of his nation is unfit to rule it." Something tells me he does not look favorably upon the emperor, even more so after having apparently fallen from his graces. Unless I'm mistaken, Garlemald is currently having issues maintaining some of it's outer territory, as it's army has grown thin. That's why they're being forced to conscript soldiers from conquered lands.

Baelsar probably sees this as a sign of weakness in the Emperor's rule. Who knows, maybe there will be some sort of coup, and the empire will be under new management come 2.0


And as far as Darnus' race goes, I'm fairly certain he's Elezen. He's quite lanky, and if you compare him to the Tribunus' who are clearly Elezen, they're similar in build. Not to mention Darnus has Elezen animations in-game.

[HiirNoivl]

Grr. This is another reason why Immortal Flames stinks. NO respect for Lore. What are they going to tell the next generation?

"Oh yeah, the moon got big, we killed some stuff. They said something about it not being a moon and revealed a cool secret but... I wasn't listening... or I forgot to press 'Record' so... sorry kids."

[Deli]

Do you guys think the story line might go to:
they put blame on one of these 2 as super bad guy and military of empires looks evil but truly trying to protect people, so in the end all we need to do is defeat the bad guy and all 3 cities is buddy-buddy with empire...so we can visit there regularly.
cus I want to visit that flying castle without some sort of battle form...
my engrish is so broken XD

[Rau]

Can I make Gaius my Path Companion?

[WilyKat]

<3 your siggy Deli!