More primals than elements?

[RolandDebreton]

I wondered after this too. I think that Eorzea will be a realm very soon that will literally have more Primals than Elements. We have two named Elder Primals, Bahamut and Odin. Then there is Fenrir, where does he fit in?

Maybe Bahamut is an Elder "Fire" Primal from Allag, a "ghost," that is not elementally locked, without living worshipers. Perhaps Odin is a formerly elemental "ghost" as well. My guess is Fenrir and a bevy of others will pop up from Final Fantasy archetypes.

My theory is that they really are heinotheistic beings. Heinotheism is a system that is really foreign to moderns but was pretty common in the ancient world. Basically, gods were seen as regional. There would be an ancient Mesopotamian god or system of gods, an Assyrian pantheon or singular Baal, a singluar Hebrew God, and so on. For many of the people these gods were almost like divine barons, each ruling their own little barony or dukedom. A wandering Assyrian might head into another region and he would still worship his god as his own, acknowledging the existence of others, but not the primacy of them over their particular region.

I think the Primals would be similar, there could be a fire Primal of the ancient world, Bahamut who is now faded (although still intensely powerful, well beyond even the modern Primal over Eorzea). There there is Ifrit, he is the localized Primal of fire for Eorzea centered in the worship of the Amal'ja. Meanwhile in Othard, there is Salamander, Phoenix or Maduin as the localized fire Primal summoned by dragon men or something. Perhaps in the centuries gone Ilsabard had a fire Primal of its own, Belias. They seem to be intensely jealous beings, with no particular concern for the elemental nature of any of the others, simply that they have worship.

Secondarily, I've wondered if there could be reduplication of elements even regionally like the Twelve have doubles of elements Astral and Umbral; Astral Fire and Umbral Fire.

[Anonymoose]

Perhaps in the centuries gone Ilsabard had a fire Primal of its own, Belias.

Speaking of Final Fantasy Online as installments that pay more-than-usual homage to the series as a whole, I think using the summons, aeons, etc. for Eorzea and the espers for "foreign" primals could be a really fun idea.

I'm not quite sure what's up with the elders; I've tried not to think about it because we'll know soon enough. The poster looks like Bahamut and Odin represent the astral and umbral, which would make sense considering all of the fire, wind, and lightning during Bahamut's release during End of an Era, but it might be a stretch...

[RolandDebreton]

I think using the summons, aeons, etc. for Eorzea and the espers for "foreign" primals could be a really fun idea.

The idea of fighting Zeromus, Exodus, Adrammelech and Chaos (as nods to previous FF bosses even) again as say a "foreign esper" gives me chills. Talk about a fan-services two-fer. They would need to tinker with them a bit and make the main-line series espers look a hint more like Chaos of I, Zeromus of IV and Exodus/Exdeath of V (opinion of course). Alas, I've gone from intended course.

To add my own thoughts, I would say that it was never implied that a Primal absolutely 'has' to have some elemental alignment. Though I think an alignment of some kind is implied simply by their nature as deities representing aspects of the world.

If each beastman tribe is able to summon a primal then, Goblins, Dragons (If Bahamut isn't theirs), Tonberries, Qiqirn, Mamool Ja and so on would need their own. Can you imagine a Tonberry primal? It wouldn't seem elemental, it would have to simply be a dark, pyschotic being:

[Ichi]

Additional thoughts:

Othardian Primals: they seem to open up possibilities such as Fenrir, Alaxander, diabolos, and im sure a few more we would all love to see. Behemoth was also included in that video, another possible candidate for Mob type primals, the Beast king. (courels, hyenas, and hippocerfs... no im not gonna make that reference).

Siren is off the charts for me, and I'd be interested to hear more speculation on her for now id guess shes Othardian, But just for laughs I'll picture Qiqirn.

Speaking of laughs... since we already got Good King Moogle Mog, Good King Mog. I wantz Fat Chocobo!

[Ichi]

If each beastman tribe is able to summon a primal then, Goblins, Dragons (If Bahamut isn't theirs), Tonberries, Qiqirn, Mamool Ja and so on would need their own. Can you imagine a Tonberry primal? It wouldn't seem elemental, it would have to simply be a dark, pyschotic being:

I definitely think each Beast Tribe will be able to summon a primal as we've seen even Good beast tribes (moogles) summon primals. Also the devs have stated that Dragons are beastmen and not 'fiends' which probably implies intelligence to the point of sentience despite their lack of a Broca's area (part of the brain responsible for speech) they could still be highly intelligent.

Furthermore we know there are more primals than the the ones summoned by beastmen... Looks like we have a lot to look forward to... and theyll probably add beastmen... oh man this game is going to be around for a while ><;

[Taelyn]

I definitely think each Beast Tribe will be able to summon a primal as we've seen even Good beast tribes (moogles) summon primals.

As per Yoshida in the live letter...

From a lore-perspective, Good King Moggle Mog XII is not a primal and is introduced as a sort of fairy tale which became real due to the effects of the Seventh Umbral Era. Due to this, we have to have a proper story for his appearance in ARR, and we will be implementing this via a scenario in patch 2.1.

[zaviermhigo]

I wondered after this too. I think that Eorzea will be a realm very soon that will literally have more Primals than Elements. We have two named Elder Primals, Bahamut and Odin. Then there is Fenrir, where does he fit in?

(this is my conjecture, so you can choose not to believe it)
I'd say Siren, is most likely the primal of the Mamool Ja, since Yoshi-P hinted they could have a summon later.

Just in my opinion, I'd say Fenrir, and Nidhogg are more like Midgardsomr, are not primals, but deities.

We know Eorzea will have: Ifrit, Garuda, Titan, Shiva, Leviathan, Ramuh. Bahamut and Odin don't really count as far as the elemental associations go because they are elder primals.

We could add in Alexander, Valefor, Anima, Quetzalcoatl, Ixion , maybe bring in Brynhildr and Hecatoncheir from XIII, love the lore they came from, didn't really like XIII summons though.

The mere fact that Othard has/had primals gets me pretty excited.

[Catapult]

I'd say Siren, is most likely the primal of the Mamool Ja, since Yoshi-P hinted they could have a summon later.

OMG Siren Confirmed!
/running joke