#lahabreas creation

[avampyone]

I'll always be here..waiting..

To shatter the pieces of me.

[fatedroses]

Many things were used to describe the mad hermit of Amaurot: a drunkard, degenerate, cynical, and even monstrous by those who stirred trouble for the newly appointed Azem. But nothing could prepare Emet-Selch for what he would see for himself, when offered a chance to meet the Sun's Shadow.

[wind-up-thancred]

(repost) thinking about these screenshots from when my friend group ran akaedemia anyder for the first time "lahabrea fucking grew and nurtured the zaza" has become a permanent part of my vocabulary ever since

[leviathanmirror]

Blocking people for bad Hermes takes :)

[zephyriteluna]

I was unaware of what the role of the Sun was in Astrology, and I have to say this is an incredible take on Azem and the WoL.

Often in the game we are referred to as being inspiring, or an inspiration to others (another thing we're often linked to is hope, but thats a different post).

I believe this was the line from the ancient you were referring to in Elpis (From Charmion, in one of the zone's sidequest storylines)

(Text: Were you perhaps designed to inspire others? I feel something special has been woven into your aura...)

Another case is from Nashmeira in the level 80 Shadowbringers Dancer quest.

(Text: ...Indeed. there is a certain something about you <name>. Something that brings out the best in those whose lives you touch - and Ranaa here is a prime example.)

Heres another line in a similar vein from Cid in the initial unlocking of Bozja questline.

(Text: That was... always your greatest strength... Instilling in others the courage to rise up... The courage to fight for what's right.)

Lastly, more in line with being a Shepard to the stars in the dark. Heres a line from Tolas in the finale for the two big sidequest chains in Lakeland.

(Text: You really are a most remarkable <women or man>. It is as if, by making your way through the world as you do, you bring together those around you, uniting them toward a common purpose.)

And these are just from the top of my head and screenshots I had on hand! (apologies for the mixed quality on those)

There are surely more examples out there and I may add to this post later if I find them, but yeah once again a very fascinating and excellent analysis!

The symbology of the Convocation of Fourteen is just... one of my favorite details in ffxiv. And yeah, I know they have zodiac signs because Final Fantasy Tactics had zodiac signs and FF12 had zodiac signs, but 14's spin on them is inspired, and I don't think that gets enough appreciation.

Each of the Ascians is characterized to at least superficially match their sign. Emet-Selch seems like a Gemini, seemingly on both sides of every issue. Fandaniel seems like a Leo who wants to be the center of attention. Lahabrea, The Creator, seems like an artsy Pisces... just...y'know, a horrible one.

And it's not as if "terrible, messed-up version of Zodiac symbol" is new here. Tactics definitely had that already. The thing ffxiv adds to the trope is the presence of the Sun.

Azem's symbol being the sun and not a constellation tells us exactly what their role in the Convocation was supposed to be. The sun's path through the constellations is what gives all those signs their meanings. You can't be a Gemini unless the sun is in Gemini. The sun's passage through the zodiac is supposed to illuminate the best way forward. This is why Emet-Selch calls them both "Shepherd to the stars in the dark," and "Counsellor to the star's people." They're meant to inspire people to become their best selves. This is inadvertently what WoL does in numerous places and times across the game, (and one of the ancients in Elpis even comments on it) because apparently repeatedly dying at the hands of their coworkers and friends for eons did not get them out of having to do their job.

When the sun protested their unspeakbly terrible plan, they went all in on their hubris by casting it down forever. They never replaced Azem. They don't even want to remember they ever had a sun. They don't have the light that illuminates their best selves, their better future. So they can't find it anymore. They don't know how to be themselves anymore, in Azem's absence. In Elidibus' case, literally. He is so desperate for the guiding star he can't even remember having, that he constantly, instinctively, seeks out Azem in different forms. Wearing Ardbert's corpse, and wandering up to WoL for awkward chats, and looking back to the heroes of the past who were definitely Azem shards.

The sun, torn from the heavens, leads to the maker's ruin.

[angryaurikhori]

Thank you, @calico-heart, for tagging me in the Last Line Challenge! I offer the end of a small action scene.

A mighty roar burst forth from Sinoe as they brought the wide edge down on top of the red petalodus’ head.

As for tagging, if you see this and you want to participate, feel free!

[unionizedwizard]

tbh i know it's me being biased because irma is a summoner main but there's something so funnily accurate about the wol being a summoner re: the whole azem thing. convoker outfit huh! azem's special spell being Use Party Finder and summon allies HUH! and as we've established*, summoning is the missing link between creation magicks and regular sundered arcanima. though of course the funniest reveal of them all was to find out WHY the phoenix rotation had spells called shit like "brands of purgatory" (extremely ❓ for most of the MSQ) and that the true reason is that you pirated copyrighted material created by none other than lahabrea himself and then fixed it yourself. the DRAMA

*as we have obviously all read and agreed with my archon thesis on the topic

[illegiblewords]

Zodiark's Tempering

A lot of people have been confused about whether the Unsundered were tempered (they were) and how tempering works.

Long post under the cut.

First, I'm going to point at the exact line from Emet-Selch in Shadowbringers: "He tempered us. It was only natural. There is no resisting such power."

I believe this was said in one of the ocular cutscenes, but explicitly in no uncertain terms--the Convocation was tempered. This includes the Unsundered. The tempering was, in fact, so powerful, that even after having their souls cleansed in the Lifestream Convocation members still make 'the best servants' according to Emet-Selch.

Zodiark was not only the first primal, but a primal on a scale beyond fathoming. This was half a star's worth of souls, billions of people. I'd argue that we also see what this tempering looks like in practice with Emet-Selch at The Ladder scene in Kholusia, where he is genuinely moved and expresses admiration of both the Warrior of Light and the people of Kholusia coming together only to be railroaded back to 'but the world as it was was better'.

That was not a natural thought pattern. That was tempering. We see further evidence in how Emet-Selch tried repeatedly to live alongside The Sundered and had only the most negative qualities amplified--preventing him from ever finding peace. Hell, it shows in his argument that the qualities of a soul diminish with sundering too. For one, the default quality in a person isn't positive. He frames things in terms of other shards becoming proportionally less intelligent for example, or less kind--but arguably cruelty should have been diminished as well. The civilizations and inhabitants of other shards are also, notably, not at a huge personally/intellectually different framework compared to The Source--where souls are more dense and would (by Hades' argument) have been more advanced and capable.

What we actually know of unsundered versus souls mechanically is that they are more aetherically dense. Being more aetherically dense, it takes more dynamis to influence them. The ancients still feel absolutely and are vulnerable to Meteion, but the sundered are probably a bit more reactive on the whole. It might also be like an inertia situation where once an unsundered starts to feel something it tends to continue and build. That's speculation though.

Zodiark's tempering appears to be closer to magically enforced mental illness in the sense that it warps thought patterns, elevates some tendencies and minimizes/negates others, prevents certain ideas, twists perception, keeps some memories or experiences at the forefront while diminishing or losing others, etc. Psychological wounds that are useful to the mission are kept open artificially well past the point someone would have naturally started to scar over. There is a reason I've been arguing that it's closer to coercion and insanity plea in terms of diminished responsibility. The tempered aren't even able to accurately understand the situations they are in due to thought warping, and claims that their position is reasonable amounts to a completely psychotic person claiming not to be crazy. It's not as simple as mind control from an external source. It's that the person's own thoughts and tendencies are manipulated in unnatural ways to form a cage forcing them into compliance with the primal's mission.

I'd argue it's also very suspect that Elidibus, the lunar shades, and (IIRC) the despairing post-Terminus ancients Venat encountered all separately repeat the exact phrase wishing for 'a world free from sorrow'. Lahabrea explicitly referring to Zodiark as 'the master' at Praetorium strongly indicates tempering too.

A major source of confusion stems from the following scene:

Creation magics are complex and highly sensitive, requiring a tremendous amount of focus. A single moment of distraction can change the outcome of creation. Hades creating his phantom Amaurot having an idle thought 'Hythlodaeus would know the truth' is enough to make the shade of Hythlodaeus aware, even if it wasn't on purpose. Even if it was a split second.

Zodiark was a creation that involved not only the sacrifice of half a star (so likely billions of people)--it also involved the active participation and focus of those people in the summoning process. We know from the environmental storytelling and evidence at Akademia Anyder that I cited in other analysis that Lahabrea was the mind behind the Zodiark concept. We know that the scale of the creation was enormous to the point that it would not function without elevating one individual to steer it--the Heart. This being Elidibus. But the actual summoning was still extremely complex and on a vast scale involving multitudes of people at different skill levels. Hythlodaeus, while experienced as Chief of the Bureau of the Architect, has very limited abilities in creation himself due to aether deficiency. He still sacrificed himself as one of the participants in Zodiark's summoning ritual.

Faith was necessary to simplify the process across that many people of varying life experiences and skill levels. The Convocation would have been handling the more technical elements and forms the concept would take, and guess who was at the head of the Convocation's efforts?

Lahabrea. Who has recently failed to contain Archaeotania despite his people's every faith in him, who we know to be extremely traumatized and has every reason to be terrified not only of the situation but of not performing up to the expectations placed on him. For god's sake, one of the last things Athena said to him involved calling him disappointing after getting full access to his soul.

A single moment of Lahabrea being afraid and hoping everyone would be able to join together to save the star, to be on the same page, would be enough to cause tempering. He's not perfect, but he's been expected to be. He's expected to have perfect composure, impervious to normal human emotions. And of course emotions bled through at a time like that.

The same hope that others would join in to support the mission has bled into every subsequent primal summoning where tempering became a problem.

Venat's summoning technique is different from the summoning technique used by the Ascians. It's also different from the technique used by the Loporrits. Venat used standard creation magic without elevating faith as a tool. She had less people to worry about. The loporrits decided faith would be a useful tool for The Ragnarok insofar as the primals could help fuel its journey, but going off of pure faith rather than the hybrid of faith and strict procedure is dangerous. So they combined the two in a controlled environment knowing the risks.

What Livingway is saying is that using the hybrid technique that is being employed for the first time in that scene, a primal as powerful as Zodiark would cause a slight tug instead of the full force of tempering. Normally there isn't any sense of influence at all with that technique. Zodiark is on a scale and at such a monumental power level that even the safe method would try to influence its summoners along with any bystanders. Zodiark has the most powerful tempering of any primal that has ever existed.

I also want to take a moment to point at what primals are and how they work as distinct from standard creations.

When discussing creations, the shades at Hades' phantom Amaurot mention that souls are gifts from the star and cannot be artificially created. This is part of why Hermes claimed to be so distraught about the way concepts were being handled--there wasn't any accounting for dynamis as a factor.

Livingway mentions that Venat forbade loporrits from making anything possessed of a soul (impossible) or similar.

Here I'm going to point you back to the lecture from the ARR quest What Little Gods Are Made Of:

Primals, brought into being with faith rather than as pure technical concepts, have something like a soul. They are archetypes shared by the living and when they are slain, they aren't destroyed because archetypes can't be destroyed. They return to the aetherial sea, like souls, until they are called forth again. These archetypes reflect common human experiences and desires shared across many, many people. It makes sense that Zodiark would be built off of this premise in the first place as a way of creating common ground with that many participants.

It also makes some sense that something resembling a soul is advantageous, since logistically in FFXIV souls are sources of power in their own right. Thordan, Nidhogg, Shinryu, and The Alexandrians can attest to that.

I understand that there are people who prefer not to use tempering as a key factor in characterization of The Unsundered, and disregard tempering from their headcanons. Obviously this is allowed, but it's not canon. The game is explicit on this point and underlines it multiple times in multiple ways. Hades when told about what lies ahead is completely horrified and does not want to go down the path the Warrior describes--not just for his own sake but because he morally disagrees with it. His line about staying true to his principles at Ultima Thule is deliberately ambiguous--is he referring to pursuit of the Ardor? Trying to save his people? Trying to resist tempering as best he could despite being helpless against it? Giving the Warrior of Light an opportunity to mercy kill him? We don't know.

And regarding the memory of Lahabrea saying he can believe he would get lost trying to save his people to the point of becoming something horrific during Anabaseios... it's very, very important to remember that Lahabrea hates himself. Lahabrea just accepted for years that Erichthonios is better off with the idealized memory of his dead, abusive mother rather than the living father who rescued him. Lahabrea has been ready to commit pseudo-suicide throughout Pandaemonium. His entire Savage transformation design reflects that he thinks the only thing he's good for is being used for his DNA and serving to protect people as Lahabrea. He tries to shield his heart with his wings and the left arm representative of his personal self is long/at a distance, anemic, and basically non-functional due to too many joints. He doesn't want to exist as a person because he hates himself and he expects to be hurt.

And that's before everything to do with The Final Days.

Lahabrea is not a reliable narrator when it comes to questions about whether Lahabrea is a good person. He might be the least reliable source you could find. He is a guilt katamari who is ready to think the worst of himself given the slightest opportunity.

A huge part of what makes Zodiark's tempering interesting is that even if any of the Unsundered are freed, it's difficult to definitively answer the question of whether they might have made the same choices organically. Anything in their heads that might have given them tools to make another choice was taken away. And we know the sundered Convocation members were not tempered when they decided to join The Ardor as Ascians. Fandaniel was able to kill Zodiark because of this.

As it stands though, none of the Unsundered were free. They cannot be judged by the standards of people who are.

I hope this helps clear things up!

[makersruin]

speaking of crazy woman, what do you think of athena?

athena is the exact type of morally repugnant evil scientist trope that i have been obsessed with since elementary school so you can imagine the equal parts delight and horror i felt when i first experienced the Full Athena. i caught up when we only had the second tier of pandaemonium so when we got the third tier i was so excited.

i really enjoyed mulling over the question of whether she was always this evil or if the heart of sabik corrupted what was originally good intentions. lahabrea lands on the former if i'm remembering correctly and though he probably decides this because he's very pragmatic and realizes that a dead man's sentiments towards his dead wife is unhelpful, i'm inclined to agree with him for thematic reasons. having noble dreams being corrupted by a cosmic power is something hermes/fandaniel is already doing (albeit slightly differently) and her true nature being an evil maternal figure works well against venat's maternal goodness. to me, she represents the absolute worst of the ancients, not just because she's an evil scientist who does evil experiments, but because she's the worst iteration of the ancients' obsession with control. in a world where people are blessed with the power of creation, they made rigid rules and standards to ensure peace, but it comes at the cost of individuality and moral principles, and she's the extreme end of it -- manipulating lahabrea, abusing erichthonios, brain-washing her underlings to ensure their undying loyalty. so i'm really glad we got to have her, not only for her part in being a fantastic foil to venat and hermes, but because her existence is irrefutable proof that the ancient world was not as wonderful as emet-selch's rose-colored recollections described and validates hermes's despair.

[ffxivxd]

Akadaemia Anyder, under the perview of the Convocation, contained several faculties seen by its members

1. Words of Loghrif- terrestrial life and husbandry

2. Words of Mitron- aquatic life

3. Words of Halmarut- flora and fungi

4. Words of Lahabrea- creation magic and phantomology

[blucifer08]

The unsundered often did not get along. It was certainly hard to retain the same kind of relationship they would have had when they considered each other 'coworkers' or 'colleagues.' While being the last three of your kind (four if you count Her.) brought them close together just after the world had been ripped asunder, now it only forced them to grow apart. And Emet-Selch had his own opinions of Lahabrea and Elidibus, and he was sure that the two of them had their own opinions about himself--and largely negative at this point. Regardless, the three do their best to never get in another's way, for all things considered, they have the same end goal.

Emet-Selch often pitied Elidibus. He was so young when the Final Days swallowed their world and She carved their world in fourteen. Emet-Selch had been grown and in the Convocation for a long time. Though he hadn't gotten to experience everything life offered then, he had certainly experienced some. Elidibus was freshly entering the adult world and had been putting forth his best effort for the Star for only a couple of years before it all happened. And this has made watching the cracks form in his mind even worse. 

Elidibus has come to Emet-Selch many times with questions, little quandaries, to be reminded of time past. At first, Emet-Selch had been rather sympathetic to these lapses in his recollections. After a while, he became aggravated and irritable every time the emissary appraoched with the same question for the 10th time. And his emotions slowly rounded back around to sympathy, but more closely rooted in depression. The Elidibus he knew was mostly gone. 

Emet-Selch stands with his head hung low, still and unmoving in the Chrysalis. Only moments ago, Elidibus was here to confirm a few facts: The world was once whole, the world was good, and his people had need of him then and now. Emet-Selch takes in a deep breath and lets it out slowly. He closes his eyes and contemplates his feelings. 

Envy. 

Yes, Envy. That was the feeling biting at his nerves.

Elidibus must be in a special type of hell fighting through the fragments of memories already leaving him. But Emet-Selch is in his own. 

He quits the Chrysalis and opts for his recreation. He walks the streets slowly, the sound of his footsteps the only thing there to comfort him. He gazes out at the tall skyscrapers closing in around him. It is just as it was. If not for the algae clinging to the sides of structures and the depressing darkness the city is enshrouded in, this would be Amaurot. From the ashes of his beloved city, he meticulously pieced it back together. Everything here has his touch of magic, every stone, every perfection and imperfection was decided by his hand. 

The shades that populate it too, he has remembered faithfully. He was not as social as Azem, so he cannot remember the personality and mindset of every person he met in the city, but each shade has been drawn from the memory of a person, and his recreation is as faithful to that person as the version of them that existed in his mind would be. He cannot fault himself for not recreating people perfectly, for how well can one know the mind of another?

He swallows. 

There was but one mind he knew well enough to recreate, a shade he did not dare visit for the time being. 

Emet-Selch remembers. He remembers it all. And for that reason, each shade here might hold the personality that he thought to give it, but they all look the same. The grey robes and blank faces are the closest he could bring himself to create the beloved dead. 

Emet-selch can recall when he decided to create Hythlodaeus. A pained decision, but he desired the comfort of the simulacrum, something to ease the pain of his memories. But when he first spun his creation magicks, He started to weave that beautiful smile and those gorgeous locks of lavender. When Emet-Selch saw the dainty, well-cared for fingers that he used to hold in his own, he banished the creation back to the aether from which it was made, quickly erased it from existence and started anew, heart pounding all the while. 

Emet-Selch wishes he could forget, and that is precisely why he envies Elidibus.

Emet-Selch remember the exact shade of Hythlodaeus' hair, the brightness in his eyes and the imperfections in his skin. He rememebers the way Hythlodaeus would pluck and tweeze at his eyebrows to get them in the perfect shape. The way Hythlodaeus dresses and undresses in the morning and night is seared into his mind. The teasing look in his eyes, the manner in which he would crawl into bed and collapse into Hades' chest.

Perhaps this would all be easier if he could simply lose the memories. If he could forget the warmth of Hythlodaeus' lips against his own, the chuckle under his breath when they break the kiss and the hushed words of love and affirmation given plenty in his ear. The way his hand would caress Hades' face. Emet-Selch can never forget the silly way Hythlodaeus would walk when he was hurrying to get somehwere, the skip in his step when it was something he was excited to do. The bags under his eyes after a long night's work approving and disapproving concepts. The shakiness in his voice when he was nervous, the excitement when he overcame a situation. 

Emet-Selch cannot forget what it felt like to love and be loved by Hythlodaeus. 

And in this moment, the weight of love lost is too much to bear. Emet-Selch's legs carry him to where he knows he must not go. He pushes open heavy doors and collapses at the feet of the shade waiting there. As his fingers clutch onto the fabric, tears start rolling down his face without thought. A cold ghostly hand comes to rest on the top of Emet-Selch's head, gently running fingers through his hair like he used to do. 

"It's okay." The shade speaks. 

"I miss you." Emet-Selch sobs. 

"Shh.." The shade tugs at the golden bits on Emet-Selch's shoulders, guiding him to rise from the ground and bury himself in the shade's chest. Emet-Selch cannot help but wrap his arms around the shade and cry harder than he has in years.

"I love you. I cannot bear this any longer." He wails. 

"I know, my love." The shade responds. "It will all be ok." It comforts.

[avampyone]

"There is naught more to cherish than blood and ash in these dark haunted halls. But born of fulgent flame, I was once a beloved creation.." Lament of the mythic Seraphim(Hems ancient) whom was imprisoned in Pandaemonium under Lahabrea's orders. Even though the opportunity to escape arose during the calamity, they stayed to protect Erichthonios until being partially sundered.

[fandaniel]

rioo can i hear more abt ur wol hermes and ascian cherry au .. like what would their dynamic be like in comparison to their actual relationship / dynamic in canon .. how r they individually different from their canon counterparts .. im so interested id love to hear any ideas u have

oh hell yes. this is all a work in progress since i have to change a lot about canon for it to still Work the way it does while also being reflective of their personalities.... but this is what i have worked out so far

elpis is up in the air because. looks around. i do think apollo (azem) had learnt about the creation of meteion from venat right before the final days fully happened, that hermes had made her and how she Kinda works.

in allag times, emet-selch had found astaroth shortly after amon kicked him out of allag (the king wanted him dead but in this canon he couldnt go through with it.) learning his past and becoming apart of the ascians, astaroth stayed quiet about his plans to invoke the final days while playing the part of the spying on whatever organization caught his fancy. also a extreme soft spot for the formerly amon, now hermes, the wol.

astaroth is incredibly..... mysterious in a way that draws hermes in. honestly, i think hermes is a bit fish out of water about being the wol and seeing astaroth as someone so deserving of that, brave, logical. all the things he isnt. astaroth wants to keep a good distance because he hates the idea of hurting him with his plans but. the soul yearns.... astaroth is friendly but withdrawn, he does what he does, tries to feed the scions information, tries to feed the ascians (mostly emet-selch, elidibus refuses to see him as a part of his twin brother, and lahabrea... is lahabrea) information that fits His own goals, becoming just as nihilist as fandaniel in a normal canon.

it is a bit manipulative at the end of astaroth to hang around hermes, knowing he wants him to die with him but. you know. to hermes, astaroth is the perfect ideal of a warrior and someone he fonds after. to astaroth, hermes is someone he wants to control, or so he keeps saying, but he often finds himself strung along with whatever hermes wants in the end.....

[voidsentprinces]

something something something, Urianger the man who was a recluse, who grew into an advance recluse only truly coming out of his shell when talking and provoked by a woman whose name was Moon Bride. The man who heard of her fall and vowed to bring ruin and terror to Ascians wherever they maybe who produced her lineage white auracite to face Lahabrea, Igeyohrm and Emet-Selch. And after all was said and done was chosen by the Moon's Denizens, the Loporitts. To teach them of Eitheirys just as Moenbryda asked him about his tomes and learned from him since her parents were often busy working on the Ragnarok's future flight from her young age onward. Urianger, the chosen of the moon both from the woman he adored and by Hydaelyn's creations.

Thancred Waters, a street urchin turned scholar when he was adopted by the grandfatherly Louisoix while pick pocketing him in Limsa Lominsa. Who learned to use his mind and skills as an underdog to impress even the seasoned shinobi of Doma's resistance. Who, in a capital bereft of water, brought water to those downtrodden and without hope. Who adopted Minfilia with F'lhaminn. Who sought her safety through his own means while never meeting her until she became the Circle of Knowledge's head. Who lost sight and aether channeling when he sacrificed himself in the sewer river beneath Ul'dah to grant her escape. To awaken in the forest and found himself now surrounded by river, streams, and water fall aplenty but nowhere was Minfilia. Taken away by Flow at the last moment to become the Voice of the Mother. Thancred Waters, the man always with the odds against him. Warriors of Darkness, Zenos yae Galvus, Ran'jit. Who would grant hope and provide an oasis for Ryne after a time. Allowing her to also cut her way through the dark with his gunblade to save Gaia from it. The Oracle of Light becoming the beacon of hope and aid in the creation of the aetherically rich Eden, Novrandt could look towards from then on. Waters both leading and gathering to be succor for all. Thancred Waters the man with a street level view raised to scholarly loft ridges, possessed by demons, abandoned by the Goddess, and yet ever moving forward and when he stagnated. He found a way forward to break and become a flowing river of hope once more. To sacrifice himself in Ultima Thule for the good of all. To grant aid to Garlemald which he was the ruin of through rumors and gossip. Becoming the life blood of nations much like Minfilia became part of the aetherstream and the Voice of the Goddess.

Both men going forward to Tural to grant wisdom of heavens and waters to Koana. Grant him the ability to see his people, hear their thoughts, and know their feelings. Koana a man who tried to appear an enlightened, pragmatic and stoic scholar to bring innovation to Tural. But deep in his hearts of hearts wore his heart on his sleeve and cared do deeply for his sister, Wuk Lamat. He would cast his chance at the throne aside and track her down at a moments notice. Accepting the wisdom of Urianger and Thancred and making a pact with Thavnair to call down Vrtra and his brood to aid in the defense of Tural from Zoraal Ja. And who embraces his sisters love for his people as openly and welcoming as Galool Ja Ja did. Ramble ramble ramble.

[picaroroboto]

I've been wanting for a little while to talk about Pandaemonium, and about Hermes, and what I think these two topics have to do with each other, so here goes. The whole time I was playing the story in Pandae, I kept thinking that I wish I could tell Hermes about all this. For one, because Hermes expresses that he feels he's the only one emotionally suffering, yet here is Erichthonios also clearly going through some shit, so maybe they could find some sort of solidarity together.

For two, because I feel Pandae proves Hermes right in his criticisms of the Ancient world. It's essentially every single flaw of their world in microcosm! Let me try to explain:

To start, let's review Hermes and his problems:

This is from the conversation with him after you show him the Elpis flower changing color for you. He expresses the sympathy he feels for creations, and how being forced to put them down for the sake of the star puts him in this ethical crisis. The entire Ancient world is built around this idea of "for the sake of the star" at the expense of all else, including the lives of their creations and their own individual emotions. Because of this, Hermes feels all the more isolated, as if he's the only one who ever feels bad or questions the foundation of their society.

There is something very, very twisted about the fact that Pandaemonium lies geographically below Elpis, the Hell to its symbolic Eden or Heaven. At the very moment Hermes is crying over having to put down dangerous creations, even more dangerous creations are being kept alive in a hellish gothic prison replete with chains and cages.

As I traveled through Pandaemonium, I also kept thinking "Why is it a prison?" Why does such a place even need to exist? As we find out in Anabaseios, the concept of it being a place to research dangerous creations is a cover story, it's more or less Athena's personal laboratory for her to pursue her goal of godhood. I've seen people praise Athena for being a more shallow and simple villain than Emet-Selch for example, but she's not just a megalomaniac:

"I am no different from our peers" is soooo telling. Her obsession with remaking mankind in her image isn't just a selfish madness, it's the ideals of the Ancients, their obsession with making perfect creations for the sake of the star, taken to it's furthest and most insane conclusion! (also note the irony in her belief that a goddess would remake the species better, when Hydaelyn, the only true goddess in the setting, chose to preserve them as they are. Arguably even making them worse by Sundering).

So Athena takes her duty to the star way too far, Lahabrea sees that she's become a danger to the star for it, and kills her, then cuts off the Hephiastos side of himself - another example of how ruthless the Ancients can be and how they justify anything for the sake of the star. Because the Ancients also place a low importance on emotion, he never talks to Erichthonios about Athena. Feeling neglected by his father and curious about his mother, Erich is lead deeper into Pandaemonium and made even more vulnerable to Athena's manipulations. So even if it was one woman's madness that spawned the action in Pandae, the other flaws of Ancient society serve to perpetuate and exacerbate it.

It's also worse mentioning that for Pandae being a prison for dangerous creations, you actually fight more transformed Ancients and corrupted Warders than you do actual animals. As my brother put it in his own meta, Pandae isn't a case of "inmates running the asylum" as much as it is the power that the Warders wield over their creations corrupting them. Athena is indirectly behind the Warder's transformations, but she also took advantage of vulnerabilities that were already there, like Hesperos's fixation on Lahabrea.

And the same obsession with perfect creations for the sake of the star, the abuse of the power over life and death, continues to characterize the Ancients after the Sundering, with the way Emet and the Ascians ruthlessly Rejoin Shards in order to bring back their "perfect" world. But what Elpis and Pandaemonium prove is that the idea of the Ancient world as a paradise is little more than Emet's grief and nostalgia talking. Hermes may have triggered the Final Days, but I feel the blame for destroying "paradise" doesn't lie entirely on him - his crisis was layered on top of myriad flaws with the world he lived in, flaws he felt he didn't have the freedom to talk about because everyone else believed the world was perfect.

Any world where people can't question the foundation of their society is very far from perfect. A world where people ruthlessly wield power over others, both creations and other people, in favor of a grand goal is no paradise. A world in which prisons exist is no paradise.

If my tone started to sound a bit vengeful there, it's because I sympathize deeply with Hermes, and can't help but feel a bit vindicated on his behalf when I think that Pandaemonium proves him right and Emet-selch wrong. But even after I've spent all this time tearing into the Ancient world, I feel like I have to remind both myself and any readers that the point of the conflict between the Ancient and Sundered world in FF14 isn't to objectively compare them and decide which is better and which is worse. Such pragmatism would be in-character for an Ancient, but we don't have to subscribe to their views. Think about it - even if the Ancient world was proven to be a true paradise, we'd still choose our broken world over it, because returning would cost too many lives, and because we love our world not because it is perfect but because it is ours.

The choice is just made a little easier by all this proof that their world was never as perfect as they said it was.

[myreia]

Sketches of Times Lost

Day 28: Deleterious

eons ago, a different conversation at the end of a different world. venat & azem. major endwalker spoilers. final days headcanons. written for ffxivwrite2024. 1409 words ao3 link

Dusk falls upon on a ruined world.

Iphigeneia sits in the Hall of the Convocation amidst a sea of shattered glass. The shards scatter across broken and bloodied tile bloodied tile, no rhyme or reason to their pattern, glinting bloodred in the light of the descending sun. She could have taken her seat—it is one of the few still standing—and yet she found herself drawn to the centre. She stood here once, before she claimed her seat, judged before the fourteen persons chosen to guide their people, and thus their star. She recalls how her predecessor sat upon that very throne that day, white hair pulled back, the glyph of Azem upon her face, blue eyes glowing keenly from beneath her mask. The proud smile that graced her lips when she was judged worthy of the seat.

An eon ago, or close enough to it.

The sky beyond the broken windows bleed red. Vibrant, with orange and purple lines streaking through it. It would be stunning, if not for the dark god growing on the horizon, hanging in the heavens like a falling star trapped in the planet’s atmosphere. Held in place, gorging on the souls that sustain it. Once He was little more than a purple spot in the sky, as distant as a star. But now He grows day by day, until some day He will blot out the sun.

Their saviour. Their end.

Zodiark’s power is vast, His aether unparalleled. A primal capable of rewriting the laws of the star, halting the catastrophe the way a dam blocks a river. A terrible solution for a terrible catastrophe, a solution reached after months of debate here at the top of their lofty tower even as the city below shook and wailed and screamed and died. And yet she cannot help but wonder what now stirs within it, what horror they have unleashed. Umbral can still, umbral can stop, but umbral will grow.  

How many more will they lose to feed a devouring god?

Oh, Hades. Little brother. What have you done?  

She has not seen him since before the Summoning, when the terror of fear was made manifest and Amaurot ran red with blood. Even the outskirts were not safe; every city, every town, every village across the entire star was cannibalizing itself. And yet it was her choice to turn her back on them. She could not bring herself to vote between sacrificing her people and watching them murder each other in the street. Not when she was so close to finding the answer—the true answer—entangled at the centre of it.

A secret within a secret within a secret.

The brightest minds of the Convocation—experts in their field, all—swore stagnating aether currents were the root of the cause. She did not agree. The conclusion did not make sense. To lose control of creation to such an extent could not be the work of rotten aether, unless they have been misguided in the fundamentals of aether for thousands of years.

She brought her concerns to Lahabrea, thinking her lover—the cleverest of them all, to his own detriment—would at least hear her out, and found them dismissed.

She brought them to Emet-Selch, and again they were dismissed.

Finally, she brought them to Elidibus, pleading for him to intercede. He did not agree.

And so she left.

The Defector she is now. Traitor. The one who turned her back on them at the darkest hour, refusing the role they wished her to play.

Iphigeneia exhales a breath and raises her head, her pale golden hair falling about her shoulders as she regards the sky. This will be her final day in Amaurot. Soon, she will be free of the Capitol for good. Return to Aulis, where her daughter waits. Where her work continues.

This is the last step.

“Iphigeneia.” A familiar voice washes over her—clear, crisp, strong. Though where once she would have found it reassuring, now she finds it… wrong. “I have come as you asked.”

Iphigeneia pauses, back straight, frozen in her spot. Glass crunches beneath Venat’s steps as her erstwhile mentor approaches and she sits beside her, legs folded beneath, her unbound white hair tumbling about her shoulders, stained red by the light. Though she hates to say it, her mentor has changed in the passing years, even before the catastrophe struck. The event in Elpis, the one shrouded in much mystery, changed her as much as it changed Hades. “You say that as if you intend to parlay,” she says, ignoring the hollow discomfort in her gut. “But we are not opposed, as far as I know.”

“You left the Convocation.”

“I would not take part in any of it.”

“You speak with such venom.” Venat raises her head, regarding the seat of Azem. “But the Convocation simply seeks to secure the future of our star.”

“This is not a future I had any desire to see.”

Silence. The wind howls beyond the broken windows, whistling through shattered stone and glass.

“The offer still stands,” Venat says. “I would gladly have you at my side in the days to come.”

“And my answer is still no,” Iphigeneia replies.

“An answer I will not speak ill of. Your reasons are your own.”

“You say that, and yet in the same breath you pry, oh mentor dearest.” She pauses, her expression growing grim. As the sun descends, the seat of Azem grows tall in the dark, casting a long shadow across them both. “I am not one of your followers, easily swayed by clever speeches and pretty words. I am not that judicial officer from the Bureau of the Architect, hanging onto your every word, idolizing us both without a unique thought in her head. You forget I know you as well as I know myself. This is no simple mission to rebalance the star, countering Darkness with Light. That is the front. What lies behind?”

“None. Zodiark grows unrestrained, but his power is not eternal. Not without more sacrifice. A permanent solution must be found. That is the truth of it.”

“All of the truth?”

Venat regards her, her gaze sorrowful, yet firm. She glances away, looking to the seat of Lahabrea. Charred and blackened and turned to ash, its glyph glowing like embers. “That is all I am at liberty to say.”

The discomfort returns, worse than before. They once shared everything—why can she not share this? “Who decides the liberty, Venat?” she asks coldly. “You? For what reason are you sworn to secrecy, or will you still not tell me what happened that day in Elpis?”

Venat pauses, her gaze passing now to Elidibus’ seat. The chair is split in twain, its glyph stained and smashed and scratched into oblivion. Not that he has much use for it now. Not when he sits at the heart of Zodiark. “I cannot say.”

Cannot say, cannot say… Is there anything she is willing to say? Iphigeneia has been chasing the vestiges of this secret for more years than she can count. A familiar attributed to her, a woman with the colour of her soul. A disruption in Elpis. Memories lost. Kairos run amuck… The pieces are there, but they are jumbled together so nonsensically that she cannot yet see the full picture. But she knows enough now to point at a horrifying truth, one that drove her to invite her mentor here.

She has told no one of what she suspects. Not even the few who remain she trusts, which is very few indeed. For the truth is both wild and unbelievable as it is horrifying and damning. If she is right, it would break their hearts as surely as it has hers. There is no power as unsettling as that of time.

At last, Iphigeneia rises to her feet, her footsteps echoing hollowly on the broken tile beneath. She stands before Venat, her piercing golden orange eyes gazing down upon her, the seat of Azem towering behind. “Then tell me this, mentor mine,” she says at last. “Did you know? Did you know what our future held?”

Venat does not answer. She simply looks ahead, regarding the seat of Emet-Selch, one of the few that has escaped the disaster unscathed.

The sound of her silence speaks more than words.

Iphigeneia’s jaw clenches. She strides from the chamber without further word and does not look back.