The Masked Mage

[PSxpert2011]

SE will probably rewrite it all! Thanks guys, you uncovered the mystery of it al,lol! (joking)

It's really a Garlean cover-up and everything you've learned through the cut-scenes are misleading.

The truth can be far greater that fiction because I see ARR as true allegory of the RL investigations of Atlantis, ancient civilizations and the Nephilim. It's abstract to current life.
The elite[Garleans] want power to control the world but I think they are being used by a superior race and it's seen through all of the XiV BETA.

I believe the mask-mage is not just the summoner of Bahamut but also a cult leader who gained immortality through extreme compromise. Primals are false gods but on essence of the Aeyther like some may say. I haven't played in a while so let me go back and reference this... it could be much deeper that what's already revealed.

My conclusion:
This story can have no real surprises for me and it would need more twist and expansions to explain it all to be on par with RL human history/ lore.
The corruption of the world and the efforts to claim this world for their own through manipulation and deceit.
Nothing now in real life seems to be far fetch from fantasy anymore when everything we know now was used 3000 years ago already.
Though the plot of the main scenarios are interesting, it could much more grand if it was to compare fantasy and reality.

[Mieck]

Can I just drop in here to say that this line;

"To think that I would live to see Bahamut once again"

can be interpreted another way. The masked mage could quite easily have studied legends or heard stories of the power of Bahamut, and he could simply be commenting that he is lucky/fortunate to live to see confirmation of those stories. He (or she) doesn't necessarily have to have been there in the past.

[Yrusama]

Forgive me if anyone brought this up, but wasn't Urianger accused of being part of a circle of mages responsible for the 6th Umbral Era? If these Ascians are as old as they seem to be, maybe Urianger was mistaken for one of them?

[Mtoto_Wamoto]

Forgive me if anyone brought this up, but wasn't Urianger accused of being part of a circle of mages responsible for the 6th Umbral Era? If these Ascians are as old as they seem to be, maybe Urianger was mistaken for one of them?

Mhm! He was in fact. He's also referred to by Nael van Darnus as a false prophet.

The possibility of him being mistaken for one of the dark sorcerers from the Sixth Umbral era, Ascian or not, is definitely there I think. Especially since stories can become twisted over time as they're passed down and no normal person from the last umbral era would still be alive.

Again I point to a line a text Y'sthola provided.

Y'shtola: Yes, there are those who claim it was the mages and their unholy pact with the demon lords of the seven hells that triggered the cataclysm, but there are others who believe it was the mages who led the realm out of that dark age.

Perhaps the stories of Archons and Ascians* got mixed up and twisted over time, hence why some people believe mages led them out of the umbral era, those mages actually being the Archons and not the dark mages they fought.

When we confront Urianger about the rumors in the quest An Officer and a Wise Man, he has this to say.

Urianger: The Twelve have willed that our paths cross once more, and for this I give thanks.
Urianger: For that which came to pass when last we met, I do beg thy pardon. Though I called upon my familiar, I swear I meant thee no lasting hurt.

Urianger: Upon these once taintless shores lurk Garlean devils, dizened in darkness─their object, to bestrew venomous falsehoods anent my person and purpose.

Urianger: They claim me one of a cabal of malign mages whom erst summoned forth a terrible doom unto Eorzea. They covet my knowledge of the Seventh Moon, deeming it a threat to peace, and have ventured so far as to call for my death, luring would-be abettors with the luster of false riches.

Urianger: I have pled mine innocence to them that would hear it, but what is one voice of truth amidst a chorus of calumnies? So, that my message might be delivered, I was compelled to brave a less trodden path. I had need of them that could discern good from evil, though each be clad in the cloth of the other.

Urianger: And it was with this in mind that I did test thee, knowing that when thou hadst overcome adversity, thou wouldst awaken anew to the light of truth.

Urianger: From thy feats that day, I know I have found one of them I seek. Thou art blessed with the fortitude to endure the blight that will descend upon Eorzea anon. Aye, thou shalt prove a boon in the battle to come, and any of the Grand Companies of Eorzea would be fortunate to count thee in their number.

Urianger: Yet...though thou hast hitherto endured much, thou must needs apprehend all this as but the beginning. The fate of the realm rests upon thy shoulders and the shoulders of thy compeers. Shirk not this burden, for if thou dost, Eorzea will perish ere the first flame falleth from the heavens.

[Yrusama]

Mhm! He was in fact. He's also referred to by Nael van Darnus as a false prophet.

The possibility of him being mistaken for one of the dark sorcerers from the Sixth Umbral era, Ascian or not, is definitely there I think. Especially since stories can become twisted over time as they're passed down and no normal person from the last umbral era would still be alive.

Again I point to a line a text Y'sthola provided.



Perhaps the stories of Archons and Ascians* got mixed up and twisted over time, hence why some people believe mages led them out of the umbral era, those mages actually being the Archons and not the dark mages they fought.

When we confront Urianger about the rumors in the quest An Officer and a Wise Man, he has this to say.

Thanks! I figured as much. Maybe both existed in the 6th Umbral Era - the Circle of Knowing and the Ascians - and one group averted the calamity that the other had caused, only to have history lump them in the same category.

Edit: Another possibility as that they were the same group, but some members defected to found the Circle of Knowing and save the world, and thence dedicated themselves to preserve the world thereafter.

[Daniolaut]

http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/world/threats/key-enemies

The Ascians


The reason he has a shadow is because the ARR team hasnt tied loose ends with the beta. Hopefully they really kick it into gear before release and get as much taken care of as possible. Not that releasing the game early is a game breaker like 1.0 this time around, but more time would have been beneficial to them in cases like this.

[Catapult]

The reason he has a shadow is because the ARR team hasnt tied loose ends with the beta.

I certainly hope this is the case.