History Fridge / FinalFantasyXIV

** Lolorito DOES state that he had Ilberd planted in the Crystal Braves to spy on it. And that Ilberd genuinely believed that Lolorito would free Ala Mhigo once the Sultana was dealt with. So it's possible that the knowledge Ilberd gained was not his main goal, but one he used nonetheless when he and the rest of the traitors became wanted men. So in a way, Lolorito picking Ilberd to be his spy is some serious ForWantOfANail.

* There are many times that the Ascians respresent a zodiac sign. These include:
** Pisces (Lahabrea): Devoted yet indecisive, taking after the former in his dedication to the Ascian and the latter in [[spoiler: his Pandaemonium storyline.]]
** Scorpion (Nabrieles): Loyal but also obsessive, respenting Nabrieles as a devoted Ascian who sought out the Tupsimati's power.

** Gemini (Emet-Selech): Energetic and clever yet devious and superficial, representing how he's a cunning trickster who conceals his pain.
** Aries (Loghrif / Gaia): Independent yet moody and short-tempered. represented in how her reincarnation's Tsundere traits.

** Leo (Fandaniel): Confident and loyal but also stubborn. Representing his devotion to Xande's ideal, but also how he doesn't care that he's throwing his life away.

* The Pandaemonium raid storyline brings up an understated but very important part of Ancient society: If a Convocation member judged another Ancient to have done an unforgivable crime, they can ''execute the criminal'' on the spot with no trial. It's easy to assume that what Lahabrea did was out of the norm, but there's also no indication that what he did was ''illegal''.

!!FridgeLogic
* The Warrior of Light being the same between Legacy and 2.0 is fine and all, but then it raises brows about a potential ContinuitySnarl with your openings, which to Endwalker remain unchanged: a no-geared adventurer wandering in via caravan with no context for anything going on in Eorzea, having come to find their calling as an adventurer. The Legacy import opening explicitly has the character warp in and wander to their assigned city state by themselves instead. It creates the question of how Louisoux warping them five years into the future even lines up with non-Legacy characters being implied to have traveled quite far, unless we're supposed to just assume it's LaserGuidedAmnesia to themselves off-screen?
** It does make sense when you go through Heavensward to explain it. Louisoux did a perfect cast of a variant of the ''Flow'' spell, the same one Y'shtola casts at the end of ARR to save herself and Thancred. The catch to that spell is that even a perfect cast of it requires an additional sacrifice of all affected. In Y'shtola's case it was her natural vision and for Thancred it was his ability to manipulate Aether. What was the Warrior's sacrifice? His memories.
* Rowena, the ever growing wealthy merchant, sets up shop in Mor Dhona for all of 2.0. In 3.0, she is still there and somehow is also in Idyllshire at the same time!
** Both Revenant's Toll and Idyllshire have aetherytes that she could teleport between, and she can ''certainly'' afford the fees involved. And [[OffscreenInertia how do you KNOW she's in both places at the same time]]?
** Seems like 3.1 finally explains how, or at least gives Rowena a new way to travel. She has a mini aetheryte in her Mor Dhona shop, allowing her to travel between there and Idyllshire.
* In a similar manner as Rowena, Urianger will always appear in the Waking Sands if you haven't completed all the quests to unlock A Realm Reborn's Extreme Primal trials. Even after the Scions move to the Rising Stones, when he's adventuring with the rest of the Scions, or when he's on the First with no way to get back to the Source. Even better, he's still in his old outfit from before Shadowbringers. Of course, this is explained as earlier content always happening before later content no matter your place in the story.
* It is explained that the reason people are charged gil to use aetherytes via the Teleport spell is Eorzea's way of paying off the debt incurred to have the aetherytes rebuilt with wealthy businessmen from Ul'dah footing the bill. It is never explained (other than for gameplay purposes) why adventurers still have to pay gil to teleport in between areas that man has never set foot into, such as Azys Lla and the Churning Mists.
** Teleportation may cause wear on the local aetheryte network in some way, even if no one else is there to maintain the destination point.
** Most chocobo stations charge money for the obvious reason that the chocobokeep wants a fee. But when you find unattended stations in Dravania, the Warrior of Light leaves a fee there anyway -- basically out of superstition.
* So what exactly happened to the Allagans? Yes, there was an earthquake, but Hydaleyn must have many tectonic plates just as Earth does, which should mean that even a very violent earthquake wouldn't stretch across the entire planet's surface. And even if it did, the Allagans were a spacefaring race - the moon Bahamut was sealed in didn't create or get into its orbit itself. Anyone that can create a death star sized moon to hold an Elder primal must have the ability to create colonies (small moons, perhaps?) elsewhere in the star system Hydaleyn resides in. And as of patch 3.2, it is know that time manipulation/travel is possible. Did a colony of Allagans simply move to another time. To the current game's imminent future, perhaps?
** It's possible that the majority of the Allagan Empire was localized in Eorzea or other smaller countries rather than a complete global superpower. It's possible such devastating earthquakes in a single continent that rivalled the Calamity would be enough to wipe them out. We know that they were able to launch Dalamund, but that doesn't mean the Empire had the means of colonized space travel (the captive didn't have to worry about food or water in this case).
*** It ''was'' actually confirmed that at one point they did control most of known civilization with the exception of Meracydia (though it is unknown if this included the New World). Perhaps the destruction wrought from Xande's pact with the Cloud of Darkness and the power from the Crystal Tower truly was close to an EarthShatteringKaboom.
*** The official lore book goes into more detail on this. The Allagan Empire was in fact centered in Eorzea, but the entirety of the civilization was powered by the Crystal Tower, which among other things was a gigantic solar panel. The Empire bound Bahamut into Dalamud and sent it into orbit, with Emperor Xande's plan to use the primal's fire-aspected nature to more efficiently absorb solar energy, and then send it directly to the Crystal Tower. However the Allagan scientists did not properly account for the sheer amount of power that Dalamud could produce, and the tremendous force of the connection almost instantly created a power surge and massive earthquakes that would bury the Tower and much of the surrounding area. That which was not destroyed in the earthquake was left without power, its technology useless. The survivors of this calamity decided that rather than try to rebuild, they would destroy or hide what was left so that future generations would not succumb to hubris in the way that their own civilization did.
*** Further explained in ''Shadowbringers:'' aether imbalances on one of the shards cause the excess aether to spill into the Source world, amplifying associated disasters into full-blown Calamities. So if an excess of earth aether was poured into the Crystal Tower's earthquakes...
* Why does the fake Inquisitor Guillaime even bother antagonizing the Scions? They have nothing to do with the reason he's there and if any group could possibly expose what he's doing and ruin his entire scheme it would be the Scions. It seems like he's taking a huge risk for very little reward and he could do a lot more damage by just letting the Scions do what they came there to do and leave without drawing attention to himself, or even help expedite their quest (which he's in a position to do) so they leave faster and do less damage to his cause and his allies. They want something from his allies, true, but it's something completely useless to them. Instead, he gets in their way, forces them into an alliance with his enemies, gets a lot of his allies killed and his plans blown apart, then dies, and his allies lose the thing the Scions were after anyway.
** The second the Scions started snooping his plan was going to fail in the worst kind of MortonsFork scenario: Let the Scions into the Stone Vigil and they wipe out the occupying Dravanians enough that Ishgard can reclaim it for both strategic and sentimental reasons (which ends up happening anyway), or give them access and tell the dragons inside to just let them go peacefully, which would cast a ''ton'' of suspicion on him... if they didn't just ignore it anyway, as it's made pretty clear that Nidhogg and his brood don't give a damn about the Heretics until they've become a dragon themselves.
* In the Ivalice Raid storyline, we learn that Garlemald has a hand in covering up Ramza's involvement in the Zodiac Braves story generations ago since Ramza was a heretic to the church at the time. But why would Garlemald, an athiest state, try to cover up the actions of a heretic to a church? Probably mostly since the story wouldn't work without it, but it doesn't really make much sense.
** It might be that the digging they did while considering making the records public knowledge lead them to (correctly) realize that he was not only a Warrior of Light but also very much closely connected to some very anti-Garlean Primal activity, likely leading to the Garleans (or Solus if he was directly involved) to continue the coverup so it didn't get out that a heretic was not only in actuality one of its greatest heroes but also a blessed of a Goddess the Garleans claim doesn't exist.
* So here's what I don't get about the Four Lords quest line ending. If Suzaku has access to revival magic, why didn't she use it to save Genbu during the fight against Koryu, instead leading to Soroban to summon Genbu's spirit as part of a FusionDance?
** Resurrective magic in this game seems to functionally be a magic defibrillator, so while Suzaku's powers could revive her adds (an extension of herself) and probably heal someone who was effectively dead, reviving someone truly dead is only the realm of necromancy. Even if her powers were that strong, it would be moot anyway because Genbu's body dispersed into Aether upon death so there was nothing to raise.
* To kill an Ascian, and we mean KilledOffForReal, it requires distinct resources and specific means to accomplish that only the Scions of the Seventh Dawn and very close associates like the Scholars of Sharlayan are privy to. How in the world did Gaius, with no magic and only a Garlean Gunblade to his name, become the Shadowhunter by killing ''several'' of them as what amounts to a BadassNormal? The story doesn't even imply he has White Auracite or a means to produce a Blade of Light, either.
** Most of the masks Gaius had were belonging to black-masks, the underlings who are implicitely (per the Summoner quests) not able to evacuate their bodies and die with them. While he does have a few red Overlord masks, there's never anything to say he permanently killed them, at best he most likely just drove them from their host bodies by killing them (itself a masterful display of skill and power).
* When evacuating the people of Thavnair, why did the Sharlayan council think it was a good idea to march them ''straight through Garlemald''?!
** To use the Tower of Babil to send them up to the moon without having to use their ship. It wasn't just evacuating them from Thavnair, it was beginning the process of migrating the world's population up to the moon, and having a working teleporter that can instantly send people up there en masse was a more attractive option than having to use a ship with limited capacity and fuel requirements, and that wasn't even finished by that point. It was a risk to be sure, but the Final Days couldn't wait, and with the Garlean Empire in ruins and the Ilsabard contingent covering their exit, it was seen as an acceptable risk to take. They didn't bank on the Final Days coming to Garlemald until it was too late.
* One of Endwalker's biggest reveals is that the moon itself is a construct created by Hydaelyn to serve as Zodiark's prison, and then as an emergency ark to get the people of the Source to another planet if necessary; however, there is one problem: if you go to Elpis, and look up, you can see that there's ''already a moon''. Since Elpis is pre-Sundering, it doesn't make sense for there to already be a moon, especially when it's explicitly stated that the current moon was ''created'', not ''transformed'' by Hydaelyn.
** Technically it's possible that the original moon got destroyed as part of the final days, considering that when we run through the Amaurot dungeon, we get a view of the planet which is clearly lacking a moon and shows a meteor shower of massive proportions going down on the planet. The original moon might have gotten destroyed during the original Final Days and Venat decided to replace it as part of her plan to stop Zodiark.
* So the Omega quests in EW reveal that despite the base expansion saying giving in to despair is what causes a transformation into a Blasphemy... it's in fact entirely up to luck (which probably explains why Sharlayans weren't popping into monsters, can you imagine how many of them would turn into Blasphemies over getting a bad score on their A levels?). So the whole "be strong and never give up" thing was... bunk. So then what does that mean of the Ancients? Was there actually a chance for them to gain control over the rampaging magics? Was everything just the result of Venat jumping the gun in fear she would otherwise doom the entire planet if she didn't hurry? Also what happened to the souls of people who turn into Blasphemies? Y'shtola says they vanish, but then it turns out it's just Meteion's illusions obscuring them? 6.1 was very confusing, and it's clear the writers want to move away from the Hydaelyn/Zodiark arc quickly.
** It has nothing to do with luck. The point this quest was making (or, rather, reinforcing) is that what helps us forge through the hardest of times is the support of people close to us, and sense of purpose. It pretty explicitly compares Khalzahl, who turned into a Blasphemy, with Djinabaha and Nashvan. The former, a fellow trader, admitted that he was too busy dealing with problems to fall into despair, while the latter, while he was at the time at the end of the rope due to having witnessed his child's death, nonetheless found the strength to endure thanks to Djinabaha's support. Khalzahl, on the other hand, has pretty much lost everything when Thavnair was closed off, and he had no one who could help him shoulder his grief. As for Ancients, the part about support is the most important, considering that, as was shown by Elpis, and also a short story about Hermes, when it comes to psychological support, their idea of it came down to "Just smile and don't think bad thoughts", which is a problem, to put it lightly.
*** That doesn't track. What kind of life did that kid have that even having his father present next to him caused him to despair to that level? The father being consoled AFTER doesn't change that nadir of despair at the time. The quest seemed to sever the tether of become a blasphemy from being a moral failing (what omega was looking for was a reason why they failed to resist, like his race did) to random chance if it affected you enough *at the moment* to the extent of turning.
*** There's nothing random about a child being afraid of all that's happening around them and falling into a state where they are succeptible yo becoming a blasphemy. Even a toddler who wouldn't know despair can fall into it. It's not a moral failing, it's a storm of negative emotions that person for one reason or another just can't handle.
* 6.3 Mentions that killing a voidsent in the Source is Permadeath... Why was the Nullstone needed for the Mhach alliance quests, since it was stated to scatter Aether and stated (if not heavily implied) to be necessary to kill them?
** Assuming it's not just a plot hole, it's plausible that permadeath only applies to Voidsent who ''physically'' enter the Source through a large enough Voidgate, which are exceedingly rare and often only allow weak Voidsents like Imps and Bombs to fully cross over, and most other strong Voidsent (prior to 6.3) only enter with their soul inhabiting a vesselk. Diabolos was summoned by the Mhachi, who used a lot of vessels to help them in their mass-Voidsent summoning. Presumably, a Voidsent killed while its soul inhabits a vessel simply has their soul go back to the Void, while the Nullstone is capable of completely destroying a Voidsent even with that clause.

!!Fridge Brilliance

* For those who survived the challenge, most players are in agreement that Ozma is the harder boss than Calofisteri and that it should have been the final boss over her. But it's actually rather fitting that Ozma be so tough despite not being the last boss, considering his status as the infamous BonusBoss of ''IX'', several magnitudes stronger than the game's own FinalBoss.

* Speaking of the Black Rose, it's talked about in hushed whispers and aghast horror until the cast find out more about it in full, with only the most crazy and sociopathic of the Garleans as well as the [[WellIntentionedExtremist most intent on using it]] conversing in any sort of open matter. No one of the entire Eorzean Alliance knows anything about Black Rose except glimmers of information and what research they can gather, to the point that had Varis managed to release it the way he did in the original timeline, [[DownerEnding no one could've seen it coming.]] Then this gets worse when you realize how far its come despite Gaius trying to shut it down; Blue Quests in ''Stormblood'' take a silent test of it to a small, dead town practically ''[[OhCrap at the doorstep of the Shroud]]'' in Ala Mhigo, [[KickTheDog still their own territory at that point]], and while it horrifies the investigation, no one actually knows what they're in for, which is why its use right at the end of the expansion further confuses those around. Had it not been for the work of the Crystal Exarch subverting history at virtually the last minute, the Black Rose was practically waiting to be used right in Eorzea itself, or at least leak over the border conflict where it would've likely killed the Scions, the heads of the city-states all accumulated at once in the immediate vicinity, and every commander on both sides, ''all at once''.

* ''Shadowbringers'' shows how Renda-Rae, one of the Warriors of Darkness, was an exceptional Archer back in her day and manages to kill the beast that slayed her friends. She intiatally does it alone since she feels responsible for her friends' deaths and didn't want her current comrades to be put at risk. When you fight her in ''Heavensward'', she is a Bard. What are Bards known for? Aiding their allies with songs. Renda-Rae had basically learned that fighting as one is better than fighting alone, thus becoming a Bard would let her support her allies.

* The revelation that Elidibus is the Heart of Zodiark paints his AffablyEvil actions from ''A Realm Reborn'' in a new [[JustForPun light]]; Zodiark was born out of the will to save the Star from the Final Days, and therefore he wishes no ire (at least to useful pawn pieces) until his plans are genuinely jeopardized, because he is a savior, not a destroyer. One could say being the original Warrior of Light even helped produce this image, as being what his people would consider TheHero of their species' story encouraged him to play the part to perfection. Even his method of trying to upend the First via Warriors of Light from the other reflections is essentially weaponizing Azem's penchant for ThePowerOfFriendship from the opposite side of the coin.

* A quest for the amaro has you find a massive empty egg in the north of Il Mheg. The quest giver will mention that the egg had been there before the Amaro came and they don't know what hatched from it. Do the Mean questline for Gatherers and you will find that [[spoiler: the mythical Samiel]] had been there, only to then later find it in Kholusia with young ones.

** Endwalker reveals that [[spoiler: Emet-Selch showed us exactly what had destroyed Amaurot. The Final Days spurned the Ancients creation magic to make horrors beyond compare. Considering that many of the beasts still exist in one shape or another, they either survived the Final Days long enough to remain in a more harmless shape or Igeyorhm molded the first creations of Darkness after them which simply got out of hand when the Thirteenth was lost to the void.]]
* Fandaniel's mere existence. An Ascian who wants [[spoiler: to destroy everything, regardless of the Unsundered's objectives. Knowing the Ascians did indeed get tempered by Zodiark for their goals, one could wonder if (and how) Fandaniel gave Zodiark the slip.]]
** It's quite likely that, [[spoiler:since Zodiark is a blank slate itself and Elidibus is essentially the core and will of the Primal, that Elidibus' death freed Fandaniel to allow him free reign to turn against the Unsundered's plans.]]
** Alternatively, [[spoiler: considering that the tempering mostly happens by either being present during a summoning or prolonged exposure, it could be possible that all Sundered were in fact untempered and only followed the Unsundered solely due to having their memories awakened. As such, Fandaniel can easily break free once the pure Ascians are gone since he himself explained that his memories as Amon are much stronger and precious than any memory from when he had been Fandaniel.]]

** ''Endwalker'' provides the source of that horror: [[spoiler:a single misguided creation of one Ancient in his hope of seeing the living answers of civilizations across the stars ends up dooming immeasurable numbers of worlds and civilizations when they are driven to despair by how many "perfect" societies kept wanting for death or killing themselves off in the end. ''Everything that happens in this game and '''beyond''''' stirred into motion because a single person used those powerful creation magicks and one poorly-programmed concept went awry, proving that all that fridge horror was ultimately on the mark in unexpected ways.]]