I've always enjoyed Villians, for me they make a game. But Van Darnus was the right sort of mix of righteous, mysterious, brutal and straight crazy. And I enjoyed seeing him develop over the game. Still there is a hole that I hope someone can help me fill. I hope this isn't too tall of an order, since Darnus is a 1.0 character and there shouldn't be any spoilers for ARR.

In the Beginning Van Darnus seems to pop out of the aether. Even though, Cid Garlond was the center of Meteor project, he's shocked when he gets wind of Van Darnus in the beginning.

"I know little and less of this new legatus... Who is this Nael van Darnus?" -- Cid (Appetite for Destruction)

This seem strange because in Into the Dark, he leads his troops directly into Ishgardian territory like a knife through butter. The Ishgardians are just wondering what happened, and they still don't really understand how he could totally penetrate through their defenses and cut off any entry to their own establishment after the whole thing is over.

I like Nael because he can waltz in like a boss and then promptly is the boss. I just find it weird that no one seems to know who he is or where this guy comes from.

Nael is also charismatic. Ever the recruiter, he'll enlist just about any living being to his cause, even Hiir, who snickers uncontrollably every time he uses the word "taint". And whenever someone refuses his offer, his argument boils down to, "You don't join me because you suck, and I don't want you anyway." What's not to love? But the more I got to know him the more confusing he was.

Darnus appears to have rode in on Dalamud's power alone, saying it could destroy all the primals in Eorzea. That's what most people think is his reasoning. But behind that is the crazy that says destroying Eorzea is actually better because if there's nothing there, then the potential is endless. This pitch drives away Gaius, Cid and Hiir, of course. Darnus freely wheels between both of these for quite a while before he settles for the whole destruction of everything else BUT Dalamud.

This appears to occur sometime shortly after the Grand Companies are formed, but WHY Darnus has a change of heart over the whole "destroy the primals, get the Eorzea" scheme still baffles me. Cid hints Van Darnus may have made a new discovery after you reveal his crazy talk of annihilation in Two Vans Are Better than One. After all, just a little bit ago, they were trying to look up tomestones to bring down meteor and Van Darnus tried to assassinate Cid for not telling him what he knew. So even though Cid had info that Van Darnus thought was useful at that time, once he had a change of plans, he no longer felt that Cid's knowledge was even necessary.

Gaius knew more about this than us, separating the mission of killing the primals by the emperor from the mission of bringing down of Meteor by the Darnusm'n. In "Don't Hate the Messenger" he makes it clear that Darnus has been using the Empire for his "Purity Scheme" and that this wasn't always the case.

Gaius Van Baelsar: I will not deny that the primals have proven a great nuisance. They have delayed our advance. It was to break the stalemate between us that Nael van Darnus sought to bring down Dalamud. The impact of the red moon would destroy the primals in an instant. Little wonder that His Radiance embraced the scheme.

But Dalamud is no mere rock, despite what van Darnus would have us believe.
It is a great red sin (me say: primal?), exiled to the skies by ancient Allag. There it has long festered, becoming something far more vile than we ever supposed. I see proof of this in van Darnus. His manner is...altered. He is anxious. Uneasy. He deceives His Radiance.

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I think this is the new information that Darnus got but it's unclear what was the little bird that told him this. Cid was astounded too because he thought that all the information in the Tomestones was destroyed or useless.

We don't see Mr. Darnus until United We Stand. He's quite Altered indeed. In his long spiel, he seems to have turned, not just against the Empire but even against all humanity. He says that someone named He has willed that it be so, and so must it be that all human beings need to be destroyed to stop the endless cycle of eras.

Since when did PEOPLE become the enemy of Darnus? Wasn't "foul taint" (lawl XD) supposed to be primals?

From United we Stand

Cid: And who's the mystery individual who commands his reverence? Somehow, I rather doubt it's His Radiance the Emperor.

Cid: Though I have no answers, these questions bring us closer to the truth. I'd wager van Darnus has a co-conspirator. Someone who has remained hidden from us until now.

Well he's still hidden to me. I can't find much info anywhere about the man behind the mask or how Darnus was converted to the faith of the primals. Was it really just Bahamut controlling him from the moon? If so, how did Bahamut get access to Darnus in the first place? Was it just a matter of him getting close enough? Why did Darnus start worshipping the red moon after he found there to be a Primal in it?

In To Kill a Raven, he laments the fact that he's the only one who seems to know the truth.

"Oh how I grieve for this world! This world beset by fools! And that the worst of them should hail from mine own land! Gaius van Baelsar, the Emperor, his beloved subjects -- fools, one and all! Blindly, they struggle to exterminate the primals in the name of conquest. Yet what worth is there in a realm bereft of the crystals' light? What has become of Garlean pride, that we must scavenge the leavings of false gods!?"

This is Darnus's last reference to his old goals of breaking the stalemate and continuing the conquest of Eorzea. He now views that as foolishness. But WHY?? This is what still eats at me about him. Why has he gone so tsundere for the primals he's supposed to have hated?

Could someone help me understand why Darnus had such a change of heart?