| 1 | [[WMG:[[center: [- ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' | ''[[Characters/FinalFantasyXIV Main Character Index]]''\ |
| 2 | [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVTheWarriorOfLight The Warrior of Light]] ([[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVTankClasses Tank Classes]] | [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVRangedClasses Ranged DPS Classes]] | [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVMeleeClasses Melee DPS Classes]] | [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVCasterClasses Caster Classes]] | [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVHealerClasses Healer Classes]] | [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVLimitedJobs Limited Jobs]])\ |
| 3 | [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVScionsOfTheSeventhDawn Scions of the Seventh Dawn]]\ |
| 4 | ''Nations of Hydaelyn'': [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVTheEorzeanAlliance The Eorzean Alliance]] | [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVIshgard Ishgard]] | [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVDragonHordes Dragon Hordes]] | [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVOthardAndHingashi Othard and Hingashi]] | [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVSharlayanAndThavnair Sharlayan and Thavnair]] | [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVTural Tural]]\ |
| 5 | ''Other Realms'': [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVTheVoid The Void]] | [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVTheFirst The First]] | [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVTheWorldUnsundered The World Unsundered]] ([[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVPandaemonium Pandæmonium]]) | [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVUltimaThule Ultima Thule]]\ |
| 6 | [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVGarlondIronworks Garlond Ironworks]] | [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVHildibrandAllies Hildibrand Allies]] | [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVAllies Other Allies]] ([[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVHydaelyn Hydaelyn]] | [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVGrahaTia G'raha Tia]])\ |
| 7 | ''Antagonists'': '''Ascians''' ([[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVEmetSelch Emet-Selch]]) | [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVGarleanEmpire Garlean Empire]] ([[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVGaiusVanBaelsar Gaius van Baelsar]] | [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVZenosYaeGalvus Zenos yae Galvus]]) | [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVBozjanGarleans Bozjan Garleans]] \ |
| 8 | [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVPrimals Primals]] | [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVRaidAntagonists Raid Antagonists]] ([[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVOmega Omega]] | [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVTheTwelve The Twelve]]) | [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVAntagonists Other Antagonists]]\ |
| 9 | ''Class and Job Questlines'': [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVDisciplesOfWar Disciples of War]] ([[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVDisciplesOfWarTank Tank]] | [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVDisciplesOfWarMelee Melee]] | [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVDisciplesOfWarRanged Ranged]]) | [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVDisciplesOfMagic Disciples of Magic]] | [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVDisciplesOfTheHand Disciples of the Hand]] | [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVDisciplesOfTheLand Disciples of the Land]]\ |
| 10 | ''Races'': [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVPlayableRaces Playable Races]] | [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVBeastTribes Beast Tribes]]\ |
| 11 | [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVSeasonalEvents Seasonal Event NPCs]]\ |
| 12 | ]] -]]] |
| 13 | |
| 14 | Due to the story's advancement and the fact some articles would otherwise be all white, '''there are unmarked spoilers below'''. You have been warned. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 17 | |
| 18 | ---- |
| 19 | !!Ascians |
| 20 | [[folder:Ascians in General]] |
| 21 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ascians.jpg]] |
| 22 | [[caption-width-right:350:The Three Paragons and Zodiark's Crystal [[note]]From left to right; Lahabrea, Elidibus, and Emet-Selch[[/note]]]] |
| 23 | ->''"We can't accept it! We won't accept it! It will be ours again--a world free of sorrow!"''\ |
| 24 | |
| 25 | A cult of dark sorcerers that have lurked in the shadows of Hydaelyn for millennia. It is said that they taught the Beastmen tribes how to summon their primals, and with the coming of the Seventh Umbral Era, their actions are becoming more overt. They are worshippers of Zodiark, a slumbering god of chaos inferred to be the dark opposite of Hydaelyn. The Ascians themselves are immortal and formless, and use "Dark Crystals" to possess living hosts so that they can interact with the physical world. |
| 26 | ---- |
| 27 | |
| 28 | * AdvancedAncientHumans: [[spoiler:They're the remnants and reincarnations of an ancient race that collectively called themselves 'mankind', who had dominion over the Star before known history and had an abundant dominion over magic and creation. Appearance-wise, they looked like very, very tall Hyurs; when travelling to the past in Elpis, the friendly Ancients will note on your unusual appearance if you play as anything other than a Hyur.]] |
| 29 | * AmbiguousSituation: |
| 30 | ** After the events of ''Endwalker'', [[spoiler:it's uncertain what's become of the remaining Ascians. There are upwards of nine of them still alive - only Emet-Selch, Elidibus, Lahabrea, and Fandaniel being well and truly, permanently dead. But with Zodiark dead and no Unsundered left, they've effectively been neutralized as a threat; their original goal is no longer obtainable and they have no way of raising other shards should any of them die. The developers have confirmed that they do have plans for what the remaining Ascians are doing now, but that they likely won't appear for some time.]] |
| 31 | ** How Emet-Selch, Elidibus, and Lahabrea managed to remain Unsundered went unanswered in the main story, until it was eventually confirmed in the first Live Letter after ''Endwalker'' that [[spoiler:Hydaelyn intentionally left a gap in her attack that she knew Emet-Selch would be able to sneak through, and Lahabrea and the primal Elidibus happened to be with him at the time, so they avoided it with him.]] |
| 32 | * ApocalypseHow: They seek to cause these [[spoiler:in order to restore the world to what it was before so that they can sacrifice it to Zodiark in order to bring Amaurot back.]] As ''Shadowbringers'' reveals, they've caused in order; a Calamity of Wind, Lightning, Fire, Earth, Ice, Water, and Darkness. |
| 33 | * ArtifactTitle: The word Ascian means "without shadow" in Latin, referring to how in 1.0 their defining characteristic was that they [[CastsNoShadow didn't have shadows.]] Since ''A Realm Reborn'' this aspect has been dropped from the narrative and seemingly been retconned, and so the name doesn't really make sense anymore. WordOfGod is that this is a result of technical difficulties, and a sarcastic HandWave was offered that it's the Ascians' ''clothes'' that are casting the shadows, not them. |
| 34 | ** Interestingly, the Heroes' Gauntlet duty provides Shadowless Gear, which resembles Ascian robes and [[spoiler:Amaurotine Masks]]. Additionally, as seen in ''Endwalker'', [[spoiler:the Ancients who prayed to Zodiark deeply desired the return of their utopia free from pain, while Venat begged them to realize that "no paradise is without shadow". Therefore, the Ascian name now alludes to a more metaphorical "shadowlessness"]]. |
| 35 | * BadassLongRobe: All of them wear a black one, with Elidibus being the sole exception. |
| 36 | * BalanceBetweenLightAndDarkness: Despite the evil they cause, they actually don't (usually) seem to want to have "darkness" win all the time; they mostly use dark powers as much as they do because the Warrior of Light is such a powerful force for Light and channel of Hydaelyn's power. This can sometimes seem dubious or hypocritical, but Elidibus in particular is very insistent on it. [[spoiler:It turns out that, earlier in multiversal history, the Ascians did in fact employ darkness much more freely in order to simply dominate light, and succeeded upon the Thirteenth Shard... whereupon that entire dimension of Hydaelyn ''imploded on itself'' in a Flood of Darkness. This actually made it functionally worthless for their plans for resurrecting Zodiark. And what's more, the First Shard is on the verge of being lost to a Flood of ''Light'', which would make it just as worthless. (Though ''Shadowbringers'' reveals the Ascians - in their [[XanatosSpeedChess ever-cunning adaptations]] - have simply turned that outcome to their advantage, utilising the Flood of Light to help usher an aetherial imbalance on the Source that will enable an Eighth Calamity and cause the First to merge with the Source as they intend.) So modern Ascians are far more careful about how they balance light or dark, especially since the Source - Hydaelyn - being Flooded either way would be even more of a disaster than the Flood of a Shard.]] |
| 37 | * BatmanGambit: They keep having primals summoned, knowing full well that the Warrior of Light will keep fighting and destroying them. This is exactly what they want to happen; by having the Warrior of Light fight the primals over and over again, the beastmen will be forced to increase their efforts to summon more powerful Primals to damage the lands. Hydaelyn will have no choice but to keep giving the Warrior of Light more power to help them destroy the primals [[CastFromHitPoints and have her own strength sapped in the process]]. Ergo, weakening Hydaelyn until she can no longer use her powers will allow Zodiark to emerge and create chaos and destruction. |
| 38 | * BattleThemeMusic: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyfTDbc57E0 "Thunderer".]] |
| 39 | * BeautyEqualsGoodness: [[spoiler: All the Ancients shown prior to the Sundering are angelically beautiful, even for Final Fantasy standards, and are nigh-unfailingly virtuous. Contrast the Ascians of the present, who are sinister figures constantly cloaked in shadow and have lich-like true forms. The greatest exception to this moral trend, [[MadScientist Athena]], is notably always depicted wearing her Ancient mask, its soulless wide eyes and beaked nose serving to make her look rather unnerving despite otherwise having the Ancients' beatific features.]] |
| 40 | * BenevolentPrecursors: |
| 41 | ** At present they are definitely ''not'' this, but that wasn't always the case. [[spoiler: When the Scions encounter shades of these ancient Ascians, they are all perfectly accommodating to any request to learn more about their people, and are downright friendly in any interaction with them. When their world had been devastated by a terrifying cataclysm, half of their population willingly gave their lives on two separate accounts to stop the ongoing disaster and restore life to their dying star. Even when their people found themselves divided for the first time in their history it was between those who wanted to support Zodiark and return those previously sacrificed to him, and those who championed Hydaelyn and felt that the lives newly born had a right to exist beyond being sacrificed to Zodiark. This stands in stark contrast to the Ascians of today who will gladly cause apocalyptic events and destroy countless lives to complete their goals.]] |
| 42 | ** This question is only complicated when the Warrior of Light [[spoiler: visits Elpis. The Ancients of the Unsundered World are shown to be pleasant, courteous, and not that different to modern peoples apart from their mastery of creation magics. Many express great compassion towards the Warriof Light and curiosity about their thoughts and feelings despite their assumption you are "just" an ensouled familiar. However, the nature of Elpis as a testing ground, and the imprecise nature of creation magic, means that the researchers there have grown accustomed to euthanizing creations that they feel are unsuited for wider dispersal, and some argue it would be simpler to disperse and recreate a creation encountering difficulty rather than simply teach it.]] |
| 43 | ** In the end, [[spoiler: the trope is ultimately Downplayed. While the overall social lean of the Ancient civilization was benevolent, their cultural credo regarding stewardship of the star and creation of life ultimately lead to ''two'' examples of their cultural philosophy nearly causing the apocalypse, between Hermes' depression leading to his creation of Meteion and later endorsement of her genocidal crusade, and Athena's decision to write off her entire civilization as imperfect and fit to be discarded as well. In the end, rather than being presented as singularly good or singularly evil, Endwalker's story regarding the time of the Ancients ends up communicating that the Ancients were more akin to the people of the world which came after, simply blessed with incredible power that could be used for either good or evil ends.]] |
| 44 | * BlackCloak: Most of the Ascians wear distinctive hooded black robes. The only exceptions are Elidibus, who wears a white version of the robes, and Emet-Selch, who is never seen in the typical Ascian robes [[spoiler:until shortly before his demise]]. |
| 45 | * BlackMagic: All of them use darkness-based magic, contrasting directly with the Light of Hydaelyn. |
| 46 | * BlackSpeech: They partake in this fairly often, with shadowy black text bubbles instead of white. It's subtitled normally, however, as the player can understand it thanks to the power of the Echo. [[spoiler:It also ends up hilariously subverted in ''Shadowbringers'' when you get to Amaurot, as it turns out that's just their ''native language'', and when the phantasmal Amaurotines speak it, it's still otherworldly and uses the same text box but sounds profoundly less sinister, since the Amaurotines aren't angry at you all the time. In fact, the first Amaurotine you meet treats you like a lost child and offers to walk you home.]] |
| 47 | * BlueAndOrangeMorality: [[spoiler:The crux of what drove Hermes into a depression bordering on madness; the Ancients saw themselves as guardians and stewards of the Star, and created many things and species while watching over others, yet demonstrated an unnerving apathy for death thanks to the cycle of aetherial reincarnation and cared ''very little'' about the actual lives of non-Man entities. This carries over to the Ascians, who see the sundered species as less than living, and thus justify planetary genocides in the Rejoinings in the name of restoring their civilization.]] |
| 48 | * BrownNote: [[spoiler:Meteion's song of despair caused the Ancients to lose control of their creation magic. As the Amaurotines were unaware of the true source, it was described as a mysterious sound emanating from the heart of the planet.]] |
| 49 | * ComplexityAddiction: Justified. [[spoiler:Their ultimate endgame is to Rejoin all thirteen Shards with the Source, which they thought would be as easy as destroying the Shards outright. As proven with the Thirteenth Shard, it wasn't that simple: there needs to be an accompanying disaster in the Source that ''uses'' the aether of the destroyed world, otherwise the Shard collapses on itself into a useless void. Carefully manipulating events with convoluted schemes in both the Source and Shards at just the right time is a ''requirement'' for a Rejoining.]] |
| 50 | * CharacterizationMarchesOn: In early story content, Ascians are characterized as a stock purely malicious ReligionOfEvil that desire to resurrect their [[GodOfEvil god of pure darkness]] for seemingly no reason. It doesn't help that most Ascians seen from ''Legacy'' up to ''Heavensward'' have either no real redeeming qualities to speak of (Lahabrea, Nabriales) or have very little screentime, with the sole exception of Elidibus. ''Shadowbringers'' manages to single-handedly flip the characterization of '''all''' Ascians by [[spoiler: revealing their surprisingly sympathetic motivations and backstory, having one of the most likeable villains in the form of Emet-Selch, and revealing that the fight between Hydaelyn and Zodiark isn't as black-and-white as previously thought.]] |
| 51 | * CreatingLife: [[spoiler:When the world was one the "unbroken" souls of the Ascian civilization utilized the powerful creation magick, allowing them to create whatever they desired. Due to the boundless abundance of aether that came naturally from their own immortal being it never threatened the star's existence. This magic is the power that creates the Primals seen throughout the story.]] |
| 52 | * CreativeSterility: |
| 53 | ** It’s implied that the [[spoiler:Ancient civilization while advanced had started to become stagnant before the Terminus began. It’s noted that despite being three of their most intelligent and powerful members, the Unsundered, were unable to conceive of G’raha Tia’s and Garlond Ironwork's innovations let alone think of them as possibilities. While regularly using interdimensional travel, their way requires reducing one’s self to a soul, aka dying. Whereas G’raha Tia was able to summon the Warrior of Light whole without the cost of death. Not only that, Emet-Selch, who had a hand in creating the Crystal Tower had no idea that it could be used to power TimeTravel, which G’raha Tia performed on a massive scale. Likewise, G’raha Tia’s summoning spell had to be jury-rigged by Elidibus in order to be used by him which only resulted in half-aware phantoms. Tellingly Elidibus had to take G’raha Tia’s soul vessel imbued with G'raha's blood to use it to enact the spell.]] |
| 54 | ** In ''Endwalker'', [[spoiler:Maira, a researcher at Elpis, admits that her creativity has dwindled due to living so long, calling the Warrior's perspective a breath of fresh air when it comes to redesigning creatures to better perform their intended roles.]] |
| 55 | * DidntThinkThisThrough: Repeatedly, the Ascians either stumble into the paths of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, or outright try to confront them and the Warrior of Light head-on. This gets several lackeys and multiple major leaders taken down for their efforts, and their operations utterly crumbled, even when they should know better later on. [[spoiler:It says a lot that Lahabrea, Elidibus, Emet-Selch all have a NearVillainVictory by exploiting either their raw, unmatched power or creative advantages they have of dealing with problems (such as Elidibus sealing the Warrior in the Void, or Emet just trying to wait out the Warrior's transformation into a Lightwarden) -- and only fail because of circumstances they [[DidntSeeThatComing could never have predicted happening.]]]] Even Fandaniel [[spoiler:had the Warrior playing to his tune and [[ThanatosGambit planned on losing]] in Zodiark's body [[TakingYouWithMe to let the Song of Despair kill everyone for him.]]]] |
| 56 | * DyingRace: [[spoiler:The Ascian's are the remaining survivors of the ancient Amaurotine society, and thus are working on restoring those lost to summon Zodiark. However, as the Ascians lose members of their organization, they slowly but surely lose anyone who can even hope to restore the people lost to summon Zodiark. By the end of ''Shadowbringers'', only one Ascian is confirmed still alive, and said Ascian seemingly has no interest in the goal of bringing the original world back.]] |
| 57 | * EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: [[spoiler:The Ascian's names aren't their true names, but rather a legacy title of the first Ancient that it belonged to, and at this point are no different than an extremely prestigious office job designation. Ancients of the ruling class are almost always referred to by their title, with only the true names of Emet-Selch (Hades), Mitron (Artemis), Loghrif (Gaia), Fandaniel (Hermes), Elidibus (Themis), and Lahabrea (Hephaistos) known as of patch 6.2.]] |
| 58 | * EvilPlan: The Ascians have one clear goal in all of their actions: to cause enough aetheric instability to trigger disasters they refer to as "Rejoining". They have succeeded in seven calamities and seek to perform thirteen Rejoinings total to restore and resurrect their god Zodiark. [[spoiler: It turns out though that what they seek is actually more well intended than previously thought. They seek to sacrifice a completed Star to Zodiark so that he could bring back all those who were lost in the previous world.]] |
| 59 | * FightingAShadow: The Ascians' true forms are dark spirits that simply flee to the void between worlds until they can possess another shell. And even after having his essence exorcised and seemingly killed for good, Lahabrea just revives later. Finding a way to make it possible to kill them entirely is Moenbryda's reason for coming to Eorzea to help the Scions by creating a SoulJar to trap the Ascian long enough to destroy them with a Blade of Light. |
| 60 | * FusionDance: The Ascians are able to use the power of the Echo to fuse together. The resulting creature, dubbed Ascian Prime, is a grim reaper-like cloak filled with nothing but pure shadows with the masks of the Ascians used in the fusion smelted together in the center to identify them. This creature also has some of the strongest dark magic seen yet, making Nabriales, Lahabrea and Igeyorhm look like two-bit thaumaturges by comparison. |
| 61 | * FreudianTrio: The Paragon Ascians are this. Lahabrea was the Id, due to his [[UnstoppableRage pure rage]] and sociopathic tendencies, hoping to use weapons of mass destruction like the Ultima Weapon and the Warring Triad to cause mass destruction and hasten the awakening of Zodiark. Elidibus is the Superego due to his [[TheStoic cold rationality]], using politics to ensure war and [[spoiler:raising of Warriors of Light]] to create Calamities from the conflict. Emet-Selch was the Ego, due to being the [[BigBadFriend most reasonable]], [[BlueAndOrangeMorality but not by much]], out of the three of them, [[spoiler:deliberately creating and influencing advanced empires that would rise and fall in order to create Calamities, with Allag and Garlemald being the most notable examples]]. |
| 62 | * GameFace: When they get serious about fighting you, their current vessel gains a flat mask of what looks like red HardLight in an intricate geometric pattern. |
| 63 | * GhostMemory: Ascians have demonstrated the ability to access the memories of their hosts, such as Lahabrea [[spoiler: using Thancred's knowledge of the Scions to inform the Garleans of their base, Elidibus using Zenos's memories to learn and use Asahi as a pawn, and much later on impersonate Ardbert, and Fandaniel using Asahi's memories to assist in their plans to manipulate the Populares and Garlemald, and to mock his own host being forgotten by Zenos. Notably in the case of Elidibus, it further worsened his memory loss problems, not helped by the fact that he had to constantly act as a Warrior of Light to further the Ascian cause.]] |
| 64 | * GodzillaThreshold: [[spoiler:The threats of the sound emanating from the earth that was driving Ascians insane and causing their creation magick to run rampant, the sound ruptured the very planet to its core turning it into a deadly wasteland, and even rained down death from above, threatened them to the point ''half the people willingly sacrificed themselves to save the world''. Only with Zodiarks birth as the will of the Star were they able to repel the threat.]] |
| 65 | * HumansAreFlawed: [[spoiler: Wrestling with accepting this was the cause of their downfall. Although prosperous, wise, and powerful, the Ancients' fall stemmed from a morbidly depressed scientist whose extreme empathy drove him to accidentally create a threat to existence itself. When he discovered this, his despair over humanity’s flaws drove him to encourage said threat to attempt to wipe them out as a test to see if they deserved to live. Furthermore, once faced with a world-destroying calamity, many Ancients surrendered to despair and would have sacrificed many of their own creations - in defiance of their own ethical code - in a futile attempt to restore their civilization's glory days without reckoning with their trauma. This ultimately brought about the destruction of their world.]] |
| 66 | * IKnowYourTrueName: Most of the Ascians [[spoiler:are fragmented souls that have forgotten their past and reincarnated over the ages. The Unbroken who stand at the top of their organization gathered them together and helped them learn the truths they've forgotten]]. |
| 67 | * KeystoneArmy: [[spoiler:The Paragons are the only ones able to recruit new Ascians, with Elidibus and Emet-Selch in particular ensuring the rest are kept in line. As soon as the trio is wiped out, the Ascians as a group cease to exist while the next BigBad is a survivor who does not believe in their cause and is after his own agenda.]] |
| 68 | * LaserGuidedKarma: Most of their centuries-long plans quickly fall into ruination due to the Warrior of Light, whom Elidibus initially considered to be a useful pawn, and Zenos yae Galvus, whom Elidibus refers to as "(their) irreplaceable test subject". Indeed, Elidibus laments that he should have never involved the two at all. [[spoiler:What made their misfortune all the more karmic was that the Warrior was the reincarnation of none other than Azem, one of the fourteen members of the Convocation, whom they more or less struck off their annals for refusing to participate in the summoning of Zodiark.]] |
| 69 | * LawOfChromaticSuperiority: |
| 70 | ** The more powerful and notable of the Acians wear red masks that leave their mouths visible. The lesser of their kin wear dark gray masks that hide the whole face. The red-masked and white-cloaked Elidibus ranks among the Paragons, the mightiest of the Ascians, and he seems to have the most political clout as the Emissary. |
| 71 | ** Before the sundering, the ancients wore black robes with white masks. Red masks marked members of the Convocation of Fourteen, the ruling government of the time. [[spoiler:White robes marked either the Emissary Elidibus or former members of the Convocation who are venerated as sages.]] |
| 72 | * {{Leitmotif}}: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd1r3n4HKOo "Without Shadow"]]. |
| 73 | * LongGame: As immortals, the Ascians have been working towards their ultimate goal to restore their "one true God" since ''before recorded history''. [[spoiler:Every Calamity was orchestrated by the Ascians to facilitate the Rejoinings to restore Zodiark to power… and thus, they hope, restore the lost "original" form of the world, complete with the old civilization from which they hail.]] |
| 74 | * ManBehindTheMan: Aside from Lahabrea and Nabriales, the Ascians prefer to work from the shadows and avoid direct confrontation. Their manipulations are responsible for the primals being summoned with more power than ever (the extreme modes), the existence of Good King Moggle Mog and Shiva as primals, the tragedy that befell Haukke Manor (maybe), potentially the monetarist coup of Ul'Dah, and further proliferation of the Dragonsong War. It's also revealed that they taught Tiamat a form of dark magic to bring her brother Bahamut back as a Primal after he was killed by the Allagan Empire. Ironically, the only major moment in the lore that they seem to have been completely uninvolved in was Ratataskr's murder and Nidhogg's declaration, that was entirely the Heavens Ward to drive home the HumansAreTheRealMonsters theme associated with the Dragonsong War's origins. [[spoiler: One of the biggest {{Wham Episode}}s in the game reveals that even the Garlean Empire was made as an Ascian scheme, however subverting expectations in that they're not just pawns, but the first Emperor, an Ascian himself, ''created'' the Empire for this purpose.]] |
| 75 | * MarkOfTheBeast: When an Ascian uses their power, a red symbol appears over their face. The symbol is unique to each Ascian. |
| 76 | * MemoryJar: [[spoiler:The Ascian's are able to reawaken their brethren by using these, as they contain memories and aspects of the Unsundered beings. When given to the person they have become, it allows the users to regain past memories, though they are susceptible to their current life influencing them.]] |
| 77 | * MoreThanMindControl: [[spoiler:Emet-Selch reveals that they have been tempered by Zodiark when their self-sacrificed members brought him forth. Due to them ''all'' having the Echo, it's left unclear how much of their praise of Zodiark is brainwashing. Emet-Selch in particular shows great reverence for Zodiark, but his desire is to revive his people first and foremost as the goal that motivates him above anything else, Lahabrea had [[DragonWithAnAgenda an unknown agenda]] that he was concerned only with benefits for himself and Zodiark was an afterthought to his plans. After Elidibus's death in 5.3, the remaining sundered Ascians may have been freed from their enthrallment to Zodiark.]] |
| 78 | * MotiveDecay: After a fashion. While the three Paragons in charge each face their varying degrees of exhaustion and intentions gradually falling apart over the millennia, the rest of the Ascians are a wild variation between genuine dedication, ForTheEvulz, and straight up AxCrazy. The story and extra materials go on to imply that while their goals of summoning Zodiark have always been consistent, their motivations for [[spoiler:restoring their lost civilization of Amaurot]] had eventually decayed into much of the malice and destructive spite several of the Ascians seek. It's not helped by the revelation that everyone besides the Paragons are [[spoiler:mere sundered remnants of themselves uplifted to the Ascian mission via empowerment and the truth of their origins]]; this actually resulted in significant group instability and splintered motivations, ''and'' gave [[spoiler:Fandaniel the perfect opening to exact his omnicidal vengeance.]] |
| 79 | * MysteriousPast: Most of the Ascians have this trope in spades, with all of them wearing robes and masks, hiding their identities and being able to bodysnatch. ''Shadowbringers'' and ''Endwalker'' reveals alot about them but they still count of this trope as they still have secrets beyond the information given to us. |
| 80 | * MysteriousPurple: The Ascians are a group of {{Evil Sorcerer}}s whose goal is to revive their god, Zodiark, whom they declare the "one true god". All of them are dangerous, [[PurpleIsPowerful powerful mages]] whose coming is heralded by a purple portal briefly opening at their pointy of entry and many of them are cloaked in purple energy while using their magic. Aside from their goal of resurrecting Zodiark, their origins are shrouded in mystery for much of the game's story. Deciphering the Ascians's motives to thwart their plots is a major goal of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn. |
| 81 | * MythologyGag |
| 82 | ** The titles that the Convocation bear are of the Scions of Light, counterparts to the Scions of Darkness (espers) from ''Videogame/FinalFantasyXII'' only mentioned in lore. Exceptions to this are Altima and Elidibus (As Ultima and Zodiark had no counterparts) who were instead named after the mistranslation of Ultima's name and the Lucavi who used the Serpentarius/Ophiuchus Auracite in ''Videogame/FinalFantasyTactics'' |
| 83 | ** Additionally, the glyphs they pull over their faces are made from their counterpart Esper's from Final Fantasy XII, resembling a modified piece of the whole glyph usually flipped upside down. |
| 84 | ** While not obvious at first, ''Shadowbringers'' and ''Endwalker'' parallel the Ascians to the [[spoiler:Lunarians from Final Fantasy IV and the Cetra from Final Fantasy VII. In the former's case, they're an ancient advanced race who are waiting to retake the planet for their own, albeit the Lunarians are willing to wait for the humans to advance to their level, had radical members of their race plotting to genocide what they see as an inferior race to advance the cause, and have a deep connection to the Moon. Like the Cetra they were 'stewards of the planet', and were similarly wiped out by an Eldritch entity that threatened all life on the planet, the last of them sacrificing themselves to seal the apocalypse away. Fittingly, the recreation of Amaurot by Emet-Selch is located underneath the sea, just like how the City of the Ancients in Final Fantasy VII has a deep aquatic and coral theme.]] |
| 85 | * NeverSayDie: {{Discussed|Trope}} in ''Endwalker'', where Hythlodaeus admits that it's been a while since he heard someone say the word "die", the Ancients preferring to use the euphemism "return to the Star", instead. |
| 86 | * NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler:How the Ascians lost their world. They had in mind to save the world from a calamitous event. However, some people of their time were threatened by Zodiark's powers and created Hydaelyn in response. The resulting battle between the two primals sundered their world, dividing it into 14 worlds, the Source and the 13 reflections.]] |
| 87 | ** Subverted: [[spoiler:As of ''Endwalker'', the reason as to why those people opposed Zodiark is explained. When one remembers the scene from ''Shadowbringers'' in which a group of people is lead by a person called Venat in conjuncture with your experiences in Elpis and the abridged version of the Final Days on Amaurot, the Sundering was done for a reason. That is to give the inhabitants of the world a fighting chance against the threat they couldn't even understand, even if it would dirty their names among their fellow people.]] |
| 88 | * NightmareFetishist: In ''Endwalker'', a major plot arc is devoted to the Warrior of Light [[spoiler:traveling back into the past to a time before the sundering of the world, in an attempt to learn what triggered the Final Days. They find themselves in an elaborate artificial habitat where creatures brought into being by the Ascians are studied to see how well they can integrate into the natural ecosystem. With very few exceptions, all of the creatures the Warrior finds inside are large, aggressive, and outfitted with impressively over-the-top killing tools. The giant morbol tower that was previously fought in Akadaemia Anyder? In Elpis you can find a dozen more, along with giant horned couerls, giant vicious bulls, merhorses, an entire herd of ''Ixion'', etc. And these are the ones that are free to wander the grounds. The Warrior also enters their containment facility, Ktisis Hyperboreia, for the really deadly stuff that hasn't been let out yet. By all appearances the Ascians are actively playing a contest to see who can imagine and create the single deadliest monster in existence. It's no wonder they were being wiped out when their creations were warped and turned against them during the Final Days.]] |
| 89 | * NothingLeftToDoButDie: The Amaurotines' culture and customs dictated that once an Ancient had seen their official tasks to completion to the best of their abilities, the only thing left to do was to abdicate their position, declare a successor, "return to the star" and await their next reincarnation... There were, however, some oddballs among the Amaurotines who sometimes decided to remain in this life even after abdicating their positions and duties to an inheritor and then finding purpose in life beyond that of their official tasks. |
| 90 | * NotSoOmniscientCouncilOfBickering: The Ascian overlords don't really seem to communicate much of their plans to each other and mostly follow their own schemes, even if their goal is ultimately the same. Multiple times do Ascians insult or belittle each other - including the three Paragons, with Emet-Selch calling Lahabrea's scheme in ''Heavensward'' his "crowning act of idiocy" for example. |
| 91 | * NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: An interesting example that isn't exactly their fault. [[spoiler:They sincerely want to bring back the lost nation of Amaurot through the Rejoining, and repair their (and our) shattered world into its proper, perfect state. The problem is that, as Emet-Selch admits, they've been tempered by an immensely powerful elder primal to help it, meaning that their noble ideals are really more of a rationalization for throwing the Source and its shards into chaos so Zodiark can feed. They're sincere, but that doesn't make them ''sane''. Even worse, as Alisaie puts it, [[TragicDream even if they do restore the world, they can't save]] ''[[TragicDream everyone]]'' [[TragicDream who was lost.]]]] |
| 92 | * OhCrap: Despite seemingly always being in control of the plot, they've had this from time to time, when the unexpected has happened. |
| 93 | ** Lahabrea has one when he's forced out of control of Thancred's body, and banished for a time back to dark plane of existence by the power of Hydaelyn, Warrior of Light, and their allies. |
| 94 | ** Nabriales has one when he finds out that Scions have discovered a way to trap Ascians, and in his final moments discovering he's not as immortal as he thinks he is. |
| 95 | ** Lahabrea, and Elidibus both have a minor one in a conversation at the end of 2.55, admitting that, while Nabriales's destruction was his own fault, they are nonetheless concerned that the Warrior of Light and Scions did manage to find a means to somehow kill them, forcing them to hasten their plans in the Northern parts of Eorzea, notably Coerthas. Additionally, Elidibus summons Urianger for a meeting as well, citing that it pertains to the future fates of everyone, though for what purpose, is currently unknown. |
| 96 | ** Lahabrea one last time at the end of ''Heavensward'' when he learns that Thordan had been playing him like a fiddle and was about to kill him off for good by summoning the Knights of the Round primals to consume his lifeforce. |
| 97 | ** Emet-Selch [[spoiler:when he sees a vision of the Ascian the Warrior of Light once was after the latter and Ardbert fuse, before rejecting it by stating that it's "a trick of the light."]] |
| 98 | ** Elidibus [[spoiler:when the Warrior of Light awakens their power as Azem, and summons Emet-Selch from the lifestream to help them escape from the Rift.]] |
| 99 | * OurAngelsAreDifferent: [[spoiler: The Ancients have quite a few parallels with angels, with their song ''To The Edge'', likening the Ascians to wingless angels. Indeed, the Ascians can be seen as fallen angels, having once been near-perfect beings, trying to reclaim the sundered paradise they once called home. Venat as Hydaelyn puts the parallel in full force, denouncing their people's wishes to restore the world on the blood of their creations, and declares that the Ancients will no longer have the right to simply fly to their paradise, instead they will have to walk to it the hard way as sundered beings.]] |
| 100 | * OurGiantsAreDifferent: [[spoiler:The ancient Ascians of Amaurot were massive, easily reaching around 30-feet tall. The physical extinction of their race forces their souls to possess the bodies of smaller races. The shades inhabiting Amaurot mistake the Scions of the Seventh Dawn for children due to the height difference.]] |
| 101 | * ThePerfectionist: [[spoiler:One of the biggest flaws in the Ancients' society was their intolerance for any creature they deemed 'flawed'. Should one of their creation concepts show itself even slightly imperfect, the project was deemed a failure and all the creatures were eradicated--even if the 'problem' was so slight that a little time and attention could help, as proved by the Charybdis that was struggling to fly but learned how with Hermes and Emet-Selch's help. Rather than devote their energy to trying to work with 'flawed' beings, the Ancients just found it easier to wipe the slate clean and start again.]] |
| 102 | * PhysicalGod: [[spoiler: The Ancients were effectively an entire race of this, thanks to their unparalleled powers of creation. However, this is ultimately Downplayed as they were ''not'' limitlessly powerful, could suffer physical deaths, and it took half of the population sacrificing their life to create a 'true' god (in the form of Zodiark and Hydaelyn).]] |
| 103 | * PlayingBothSides: They are more than happy to manipulate both sides to get what they want. This includes in the past where they trick Tiamat into raising Bahamut as a Primal and teaching the Allagan Empire how to seal away Primal Bahamut afterwards. |
| 104 | * PowerLimiter: As revealed in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRpdIL7_NII Letter from the Producer 68]], the Ascians' red glyphs are power limiters on their grand magic. When the glyph appears it represents the limiter being released. |
| 105 | * PutOnABus: The Ascians don't play any role at all in ''Stormblood's'' main story until patch 4.5, even the new primals are summoned without their influence. The only thing they did ''period'' was sic a powerful voidsent into Shisui of the Violet Tides. According to WordOfGod, this was intentional to make the scope of the expansion's fight more personal and less world-saving. Elidibus does show up in TheStinger of 4.0 though, [[spoiler: and given Varis's reaction, might have something to do with Zenos turning up alive]]. In patch 4.5, the Ascians come back in a big way with the revelation that [[spoiler:the Ascians are responsible for the foundation of the Garlean Empire on the whole and by extension nearly all of the expansion's events.]] |
| 106 | * RankScalesWithAsskicking: The Paragons of the Source are significantly more powerful than other Ascian Overlords, and are the main architects of their schemes. [[spoiler: This is because the Paragons are Unsundered who have existed for more than 12,000 years, retaining a larger part of their Ancient powers. The other Overlords are reincarnations of the sundered Convocation members who were ascended into power, though said ascension is heavily implied to give them a massive boost in power.]] |
| 107 | * ReligiousAndMythologicalThemeNaming: [[spoiler:The Ascians' "names", such as Elidibus and Lahabrea, are just titles; for their real names they're all named after Greek gods. Emet-Selch is Hades, Elidibus is Themis, Lahabrea is Hephaistos, Mitron is Artemis, Loghrif is Gaia, and Fandaniel is Hermes. This theme also extends to non-Ascian members of the Ancients, such as Lahabrea's wife Athena and son Erichthonios.]] |
| 108 | * TheRemnant: [[spoiler:''Shadowbringers'' reveals that they are the last survivors of an ancient civilization that has existed before written history, or rather before the world was divided. The civilization that encompassed the whole world was about to wiped from the face of the earth from an unknown threat and then, the two most powerful primals known to us, Hydaelyn and Zodiark, caused their battle to split the world as know it. Now they seek to resurrect Zodiark in the hopes of reclaiming what they have lost.]] |
| 109 | * SignatureMove: All three higher ranked Ascians engaged in battle boast the powerful Shadow Flare, a party-hitting dark element attack distinct from the Arcanist spell. |
| 110 | * StayingAlive: Ascians are not easy to kill. Their true nature is basically sentient aether that can jump from one vessel to another - an exhausting process, but as long as they survive this is a non-issue. There are only three known ways to kill an Ascian for good, none of them practical: to hit them with a ''massive'' amount of Light aether (we're talking an ''entire world's'' worth), to trap them in White Auracite and hit them with a not-as-big amount of Light aether (Auracite is very hard to find and even harder to synthesize, and it still needs a more-than-practical amount of aether to perform), or for an aether-devouring being to consume them (the most practical solution, but the least ideal because the only beings that consume that much aether are Primals, which drain the aether out of ''everything around them'' the longer they survive). Note that this is only for the red-masked Ascians. Low-ranked, black-masked Ascians can be killed with relatively lesser effort. |
| 111 | * SuperheroSpeciation: [[spoiler:In ''Shadowbringers'', it's revealed that the red-masked members were all members of the Convocation of Fourteen, the ruling council of Amaurot consisting of the most powerful and distinguished members of the ancients' society. Although they all had access to powerful creation magicks, they were nominated for their roles based on their specialty. For instance, the office of Emet-Selch goes to the "keeper of the aetherial realm", better known to Eorzeans as the aetherial sea, requiring that the holder be especially connected to souls and the afterlife. Lahabrea's office belongs to those especially skilled at creation magicks, while the offices of Mitron and Loghrif went to specialists in aquatic and terrestrial life.]] |
| 112 | * SympathyForTheDevil: ''Shadowbringers'' goes a long way in humanizing them as a whole by delving into their tragic history. |
| 113 | * TechnicolorEyes: In their original forms the Ascians had incedibly vibrant eyes, so much so that it actually makes the eyes seem like they glow (and makes their pupils look unusal as well). These eyes also happen to come in just about any color you can imagine. |
| 114 | * ThemeNaming: The Ascians are named after the Espers' light counterparts from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII''. Elidibus is named after the sorcerer and optional boss from ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics Tactics]]''. However, ''Shadowbringers'' elaborates that these names are in fact titles, related to their roles in the Convocation. |
| 115 | * TragicDream: [[spoiler: As Alisaie puts it, it's a hollow dream, as even though the world ''would'' be restored as to what is was, many lives were irreversibly lost, and that ''can't'' be reclaimed. And even if the world were restored, the lives regained, the Convocation was irrevocably sundered. No matter what, things can't go back to how they were.]] |
| 116 | * VoicesAreMental: Lahabrea speaks in his own voice even while possessing Thancred, and Igeyorhm later continues using her feminine voice [[VocalDissonance even while possessing a male body]]. [[spoiler:Elidibus uses Ardbert's voice when posing as him, but reverts to his own when the jig is up. Fandaniel similarly speaks with Asahi's voice initially, but reverts to his own after revealing his previous identity as Amon.]] |
| 117 | * WeAREStrugglingTogether: One of the biggest flaws of the Ascians. Despite them all, on some level with one exception, having the same goal, they don't make an effort to truly work together unless pushed to the edge. Each one seems to want to perform their own plans and gambits independent of each other, causing them to often clash in ways. Lahabrea for example seemed to go off script and had his own ambitions, while Emet-Selch, the most clear of mind and dedication to the goal, could only watch as his brethren essentially went off and lost sight of the goal. [[spoiler:Following the death of Elidibus, the remaining sundered Ascians are no longer bound to the restoration of the Ancients, the most notable being Fandaniel, who wants to recreate the Final Days that destroyed Amaurot in an attempt to kill all life on the Source and as well as his own.]] |
| 118 | * WeHardlyKnewYe: Several of the Ascians are KilledOffscreen. Mitron and Loghrif were slain by Ardbert and his companions, [[spoiler:though they're revealed to still be alive,]] while Emmerololth was destroyed by the Students of Baldesion, and another shard of her raised before we even knew she 'had' been killed. |
| 119 | * WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: [[spoiler:Elpis reveals that the Ancients had no problem with euthanizing [[ThePerfectionist any creations they deemed 'flawed']], sometimes mere ''seconds'' after its existence, justifying it as them only being "concepts" unfit for the star. In fact, it was this societal LackOfEmpathy and Hermes' empathy for the creatures that led to the Final Days, and this attitude is still reflected in the surviving Ascians.]] |
| 120 | [[/folder]] |
| 121 | |
| 122 | !! The Paragons |
| 123 | |
| 124 | The three most evident leaders of the Ascians. The Paragons of the Source are significantly more powerful than other, lower ranked Ascians, and act as major villains across all storylines. |
| 125 | |
| 126 | [[folder:Lahabrea]] |
| 127 | !!!Voiced by: Creator/ShuichiIkeda (JP), Creator/KyleHebert (EN, Los Angeles cast), Alec Newman (EN, London cast), Gabriel Le Doze (FR), Michael Che Koch (DE) |
| 128 | [[quoteright:317:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/maskedmage.png]] |
| 129 | [[quoteright:317:[[labelnote:Click here to see him as an Ancient, pre-Final Days]]\ |
| 130 | https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/um0pbn3ip0s9cgfcxopdg7_idw.jpg]] [[/labelnote]] |
| 131 | [floatboxright: |
| 132 | '''Race''': Ascian\ |
| 133 | '''Epithet''': The Creator] |
| 134 | |
| 135 | ->''"The end of your tale is but the beginning of another: the tale of the Crystal's demise!"'' |
| 136 | \ |
| 137 | A powerful sorcerer who bears the rank of "Overlord" among the Ascians, and who can be identified by the red mask he wears. He seems to be helping the Garlean Empire advance their agenda by sowing chaos in Eoreza and helping the Beastmen to summon their Primals. He possesses the body of Thancred sometime during the events of the story. His goal is to manipulate Gaius van Baelsar into completing the Ultima Weapon so that the ancient artifact at its heart can be used to advance the resurrection of Zodiark. |
| 138 | ---- |
| 139 | * AbusiveParents: [[spoiler:Not entirely by choice. His son Erichthonios isn't wrong when he says Lahabrea is a horrible father, but he doesn't know the reason behind it: his wife Athena whom Erichthonios puts on a pedestal was actually ''worse'' than Lahabrea, seeking scientific progress at any cost to the point of wanting to use ''her own son'' as a test subject, and she tried to literally infect Lahabrea's soul with that drive. Lahabrea had to physically ''rip out'' that corrupted part of his soul, and what remained of him afterward was a duty-bound workaholic; the reason he doesn't try empathizing with Erichthonios is because he ''literally can't'', and his keeping his son at arms length is meant to protect him from the AwfulTruth surrounding his mother.]] |
| 140 | * TheArchmage: [[spoiler:Among the Convocation of Fourteen, the role of Lahabrea is to be the foremost authority on creation magicks. In a society entirely ''built'' upon said magicks. In the present day, he's been reduced to a cackling madman but he's still a very powerful mage.]] |
| 141 | * BadBoss: |
| 142 | ** He and Emet-Selch are the two Paragons essentially leading the Ascians in the modern day. Guess which one of them is hated by everyone for his insanity and insufferable personality. [[spoiler:In the Pandæmonium raids, his son Erichthonios claims that Lahabrea was pretty awful to people working for him even before the Final Days, with his attitude towards his followers and staff (which includes his own son) at his top secret facility in Pandæmonium was dismissive at best and neglectful at worst. Almost none of the characters have anything good to say about him, and when Themis asks if Lahabrea's achievement at creating an immortal firebird was celebrated, its revealed that all he did was saddle them with more work containing it while expecting no moments of fun on the job. Both the Warrior of Light and Themis are unnerved by this.]] |
| 143 | ** [[spoiler:Then it's subverted in the second wing of Pandæmonium, Abyssos, where Lahabrea himself appears to deal with the situation. In doing so, he shows profound respect and appreciation for the warders of Pandaemonium and does not take heart in his decision to destroy the facility and thus everyone inside. Adgistis has nothing but kind words to say to him in her final moments and apologizes for revealing an AwfulTruth that reveals the start of his strained relationship with Erichthonios. Lahabrea bears no ill will toward her for this and says it must be done. Erichthonios' scathing account of him is colored by his animosity.]] |
| 144 | * BigBadDuumvirate: |
| 145 | ** He shares the role of BigBad with Gaius in ''A Realm Reborn'', though he is in fact using Gaius as an UnwittingPawn. |
| 146 | ** Later, he forms one with Archbishop Thordan in ''Heavensward'', but this time Lahabrea is the UnwittingPawn. |
| 147 | * BodySnatcher: Possesses Thancred near the end of the 2.0 scenario. ''Shadowbringers'' alludes that this was his MO for millennia. [[spoiler:At the end of the Pandæmonium raids, it's suggested that this ability came from Athena's work]]. |
| 148 | * BossBanter: In his PostFinalBoss fight at the end of the Praetorium, he constantly punctuates his spells with things like "you have meddled ''enough''!" and "Hydaelyn cannot save you!" |
| 149 | * CallForward: As of Patch 6.1, his revised story duty fight also starts off with him proclaiming he'll kill the Warrior of Light for the "sake of the star." Up to this point, Ascians had been seemingly nothing but ObviouslyEvil destroyers out to end the world and resurrect Zodiark for nefarious purposes. [[spoiler:Turns out he firmly believes that Zodiark's revival is a resurrection of the star to its original, pure form, and that he and the rest of the Ascians [[WellIntentionedExtremist think themselves the heroes of the story]] in the revival of their paradise.]] |
| 150 | * CardCarryingVillain: Of all the Ascians faced by the Warrior of Light, he is the most overtly antagonistic and straight up evil, in contrast with Elidibus and Emet-Selch who are more [[WellIntentionedExtremist Well Intentioned Extremists]]. He outright relishes in the pain and suffering his schemes inflict on Eorzea, despite these being incidental to the primary goal of reuniting the fragments of Zodiark. |
| 151 | * CastingAShadow: All of the magic he used in the original battle against him in the Praetorium is dark elemental. Subsequent battles against him and the updated Praetorium battle downplay this in favor of making PlayingWithFire his specialty, though he still retains some dark magic as all Ascians do. |
| 152 | * TheCorrupter: |
| 153 | ** It is implied he was the [[DealWithTheDevil demon]] that [[VainSorceress Lady Amandine]] of [[HauntedHouse Haukke Manor]] consorted with, though with the release of 2.1 and Haukke Manor's hard mode it's equally implied that Halicarnassus was the demon instead based on her battle dialogue so take that as you will. |
| 154 | ** It's also heavily implied that at least his direct underlings, if not he directly, are responsible for providing the beast tribes with the support to summon such powerful versions of the Primals, while the other "major" Ascians are off attending to other matters. |
| 155 | * DamagedSoul: His penchant for bodyhopping is noted in ''Shadowbringers'' to have slowly but drastically reduced his competency and increased his sadism. ''Endwalker'' takes it further by revealing that [[spoiler:he'd been damaged a lot earlier than anyone knew. In Pandaemonium, it's shown that he ripped out a "corrupted" portion of his soul rather than allow it to fester and dominate him, leaving him duty-bound, logical, and with muted emotions. Emet-Selch and Igeyorhm noticed the change in personality, but not the cause. He eventually takes back his expelled half, willing to bear Athena's influence so he can fully administer authoritative actions]]. |
| 156 | * DayInTheLimelight: [[spoiler:The 8-man raid series of ''Endwalker'', Pandaemonium, has a lot to do with him, as its creation was in part of the Words of Lahabrea. Though he's not the true mastermind behind the events of the story; that honor falls to his LoveInterestTraitor, Athena]]. |
| 157 | * DeaderThanDead: At the end of ''Heavensward'', Archbishop Thordan VII, channeling the power of King Thordan as a primal, disperses Lahabrea's body and then devours the aether that makes up his soul to empower himself, ending the Ascian once and for all. To make sure that ''any'' trace of him is gone, said eye is later used in creating Shinryu, who is then defeated at the end of ''Stormblood'' and said eye completely drained afterwards, and is then destroyed just to make sure that it can't be used and so he can't come back. |
| 158 | * DidntSeeThatComing: |
| 159 | ** He didn't expect Archbishop Thordan VII to use the summoning technique against him nor did he expect the Archbishop to absorb him as a source of aether once he became a primal. This is one of the very few times Lahabrea acts completely surprised before he meets his demise. |
| 160 | ** As of the revised 6.1 patch battle with him into a Solo Duty at the end of ''A Realm Reborn'', he thoroughly believes Hydaelyn had completely exhausted all of her power protecting the Warrior of Light from the Ultima spell prior. So when he manages to ''[[HeroKiller kill the Warrior]]'', it's only a brief respite for him before Hydaelyn manages to resurrect them from the brink to defeat him. |
| 161 | * DoNotCallMePaul: [[spoiler:In the unsundered past, Lahabrea threw away his birth name, Hephaistos, after tearing out the part of his soul tainted by Athena's EvilutionaryBiologist desires. This was both to remove that part of his identity from himself and to devote himself tirelessly to his role as a member of the Convocation.]] |
| 162 | * DramaticIrony: It's implied by the title "Convocation Speaker" and outright confirmed by the game files that [[spoiler: Lahabrea was the Convocation member who tells Elidibus that his dedication to his duty verges on obsession. Lahabrea's own fanatical devotion to his duty and habit of burning through bodies at a breakneck pace would cause him to suffer extreme SanitySlippage and end up as a cackling lunatic.]] |
| 163 | * DramaticUnmask: Late in ''A Realm Reborn's'' storyline, he takes off his mask to reveal that he has possessed Thancred's body. |
| 164 | * DragonWithAnAgenda: The final moments of ARR's grand finale before ''Heavensward'' hint that he might have a plan separate from Zodiark. While he and Elidibus discuss accelerating their plans in Ishgard, Lahabrea remarks that everything is moving according to his will. Elidibus corrects him that it's moving to ''Zodiark's'' will and Lahabrea corrects himself in what sounds like almost an afterthought. Elidibus realizes in ''Heavensward'' that Lahabrea and Igeyorhm planned on initiating the eighth Rejoining prematurely, and Emet-Selch later comments that what Lahabrea did was a 'crowning act of idiocy'. Whatever his goals were, they went up in flames the minute he was outplayed by Thordan. |
| 165 | ** The Pandæmonium storyline suggests that this separate plan was likely [[spoiler:continuing Athena's work toward achieving godhood]]. |
| 166 | * EvilLaugh: He is prone to maniacally laugh while witnessing the destruction caused by his plans and actions. |
| 167 | * EvilSorcerer: Lahabrea is a powerful sorcerer wielding dark magics who is devoted to visit death and destruction upon Eorzea. |
| 168 | * EvilDoppelganger: [[spoiler:Long ago, he cast aside the worst parts of himself to keep himself from succumbing to his wife's obsessions. They found a vessel and took up his old name of Hephaistos to take over Pandaemonium.]] |
| 169 | * FieryRedhead: He's the most hotheaded, hands-on, and overtly villainous of the Paragons, PlayingWithFire is his specialty, and he had red hair in his younger days. |
| 170 | * {{Foreshadowing}}: While a lot of his dialogue in ''A Realm Reborn'' doesn't match the [[CharacterizationMarchesOn Ascians' later stated motivation and goals]], his speech before his boss fight at the end of The Praetorium is ''chock full'' of this; what initially seems like mere ranting and raving about his God, Zodiark, takes on more meaning the further into the plot we get. |
| 171 | ** He mentions that a growing imbalance afflicting the planet; much later on, in the content between ''Heavensward'' and ''Stormblood'', you learn the results of such an imbalance [[spoiler:from the Warriors of Darkness, as they explain the Flood of Light that immediately began consuming their world, the First, after they had beaten the darkness completely]]. |
| 172 | ** He calls Hydaelyn a parasite; much, ''much'' later on in the middle of ''Shadowbringers'', it's revealed [[spoiler:by Emet-Selch that both Zodiark and Hydaelyn are in fact elder Primals, with the latter taking the former's spot as the Will of the Star, and what we know of primals states that they are inherently parasitic, sustaining themselves with the aether of the land.]] Ironically [[spoiler: he's wrong, the reason why Hydaelyn has been steadily weakening throughout the ages is because she HASN'T been absorbing Aether.]] |
| 173 | ** He mentions that the imbalance will cause the laws of existence, both aetheric and physical, to be warped beyond recognition. He would presumably know, as much, ''much'', '''much''' later on, at the very end of ''Shadowbringers'', [[spoiler:you get to see his long-lost home of Amaurot tear itself apart when said laws of existence unraveled, and as he's one of three remaining unbroken Ascians from Hydaelyn's sundering, he would have direct memories of the event]]. |
| 174 | * TheFriendNobodyLikes: A lot of his fellow Ascians ''really'' don't care that much for him despite making use of his talents, especially when he's not around. Elidibus clearly thinks he's an overactive hothead (and is at least willing to tell him this to his face), Nabriales has ''absolutely'' no respect for the man, several other Ascians do question him a bit during their grand conclave, [[spoiler:and during the lead-up to ''Shadowbringers'', Emet-Selch refers to his escapades as "Lahabrea's crowning act of idiocy" which ended up undoing centuries worth of work on his part. Later on in ''Shadowbringer'''s main plot, Emet would not hesitate to call Lahabrea an idiot for various reasons, such as his habit of constantly jumping between multiple hosts which has taken its toll on both his mind and powers. Back in the past, his own son also hated him due to his parenting and hardass attitude]]. |
| 175 | * FusionDance: He merges with Igeyorhm into an Ascian Prime while fighting the Warrior of Light at the Aetherochemical Research Facility. |
| 176 | * FutureMeScaresMe: [[spoiler:When a memory of the pre-Final Days Lahabrea is resurrected in the present day, he is disheartened to learn that his real self eventually became a megalomaniacal villain responsible for so much suffering. He accepts it with resignation, however, recognizing that he could and would make the same choices that the real Lahabrea did under the same circumstances.]] |
| 177 | * GameplayAndStorySegregation: Lahabrea is one of the foremost leaders of the Ascians and is supposed to be a very powerful sorcerer, but he was pathetically weak in his original PostFinalBoss fight in Praetorium, which doesn't match the power he supposedly wields story-wise. However, this is no longer case with his reworked solo duty fight in 6.1, as Lahabrea now actually comes across as the threat he is supposed to be story-wise, even managing to briefly ''kill'' the player. |
| 178 | * GoodIsNotNice: [[spoiler:As the chief keywarder of Pandaemonium, Lahabrea was devoted to serving the star and preventing any of the horrors within from seeing the light of day. However, as the situation spiraled out of control, he was willing to destroy the facility and everyone in it to prevent an even greater tragedy. His immense pride and devotion to his work has also alienated his son Erichthonios, whom Lahabrea scorns so frequently that Erichthonios rarely calls Lahabrea "father". Despite this, Elidibus admires Lahabrea's intelligence, creativity, and measured reason.]] |
| 179 | * HandWave: Despite supposedly being one of the most powerful Ascians, both of the original fights with Lahabrea are shown to be laughably easy, especially in comparison to his fellow Paragons. A non-essential conversation in ''Shadowbringers'' explains that an Ascian swapping bodies takes up a huge amount of aether, and that since Lahabrea had a penchant for swapping bodies like they were new clothes, he'd long since exhausted himself by doing so. Patch 6.1 however outright {{Retcon}}s his encounter to make him more of a threat by turning him into an epic solo duty with complex mechanics where he even briefly kills the Warrior of Light before Hydaelyn resurrects them and gives them a [[EleventhHourSuperpower last-minute powerup]] to defeat him. |
| 180 | * HeroKiller: As of 6.1 reworking his boss encounter into an epic solo duty, he slays ''the Warrior of Light'' at the end of ''A Realm Reborn'' with a huge ball of dark magic. Thanks to divine intervention from Hydaelyn, they get back up and resume fighting. |
| 181 | * HiddenDepths: The sadistically evil SmugSnake Lahabrea [[spoiler:was once the preeminent researcher and user of creation magicks. [[HowTheMightyHaveFallen He has certainly fallen a long way since then]].]] |
| 182 | * InsufferableGenius: [[spoiler:Before the Final Days, Lahabrea was the part of the Convocation of Fourteen, with his specialty being the creation magicks that formed the core of the ancients' society. His many creations earned praise from his peers for their beauty and creativity, including the Phoenix and later Zodiark himself. But his son Erichthionios paints him as a ruthless, insufferable man who never mourned the death of his own wife and is solely devoted to his work. However, this is {{subverted|trope}} when the man appears in person. While Erichthonios' description as a cold, logic-driven man is not entirely inaccurate, Lahabrea is ultimately a just, well-meaning man admired by his warders and most of the Convocation.]] |
| 183 | * KilledOffForReal: He does a FusionDance with Igeyorhm into an Ascian Prime while fighting the Warrior of Light at the Aetherochemical Research Facility. After that doesn't work, Thordan uses the Eyes of Nidhogg and a millenia of prayer to turn himself and his Knights Twelve into the Knights of the Round primal. After this is done, Thordan declares "divine judgment" on Lahabrea and uses Ascalon to absorb Lahabrea much like Leviathan did to a Sahagin priest who developed the Echo, permanently killing him. |
| 184 | * MalevolentMaskedMan: Together with his black robes, his mask is an easy hint as to his nature. |
| 185 | * MythologyGag: |
| 186 | ** Like his Scion of Darkness counterpart from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' Mateus, [[spoiler: Lahabrea also fuses with someone with an elemental affinity to ice.]] |
| 187 | ** Mateus is also the name of the Emperor of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyII''. In that game, the Emperor takes over Hell’s castle, [[Literature/ParadiseLost Pandæmonium]], upon his death. ''Endwalker''’s Pandæmonium raid story involves Lahabrea in a major role. [[spoiler:He is revealed to have been the chief Warder in command of the monster-containing facility named Pandæmonium, back in the World Unsundered. This makes him the master of Pandæmonium, like the Emperor.]] |
| 188 | * TheManBehindTheMan: Lahabrea regularly pulls the strings of one UnwittingPawn after another. |
| 189 | * NotQuiteDead: At the end of ''A Realm Reborn'''s main story, Lahabrea is seemingly obliterated by the player character and the spirits of their allies as they are infused with pure light by Hydaelyn. However, Alphinaud doesn't believe he is gone and indeed he is revealed shortly after to have survived the encounter as he is shown scheming with his fellow Ascians. |
| 190 | * OhCrap: He gets two of these during the climax of ''Heavensward''. The first is after he and Igeyorhm are beaten by the Warrior of Light, commenting that he always considered the possibility that the Warrior might regain Hydaelyn's blessing, but he ''never'' counted on them to become so strong without it that with the blessing now back their power is completely overwhelming. The second is immediately after when he realizes he's been played for a fool by the Archbishop and is ''actually killed''. |
| 191 | * OneWingedAngel: He performs a FusionDance with Igeyorhm to become an Ascian Prime while fighting the Warrior of Light in Azys Lla. [[spoiler:He and Athena did something similar in Pandaemonium, retroactively foreshadowing this.]] |
| 192 | * OutGambitted: He assumed that by manipulating Thordan, the plan for the Eighth Rejoining would go on as normal. However, Lahabrea was completely outwitted by the archbishop via BatmanGambit; the bishop knew that the Warrior of Light would fight Lahabrea and when the Ascian grew weak after the battle, Thordan comes in and summons a primal unto himself and then uses Nidhogg's eye (the one that he kept hidden from Estinien for years) to absorb Lahabrea's soul. The Ascian is flabbergasted over how he got outsmarted before Thordan kills him. |
| 193 | * PapaWolf: [[spoiler:In the Pandæmonium storyline, once his son is kidnapped, he quits arguing, accepts blame, and does everything he can to rescue his son. He calls out his evil doppleganger for hiding behind Erichthonios while swearing he loves him. He even killed his own wife because she planned to experiment on him.]] |
| 194 | * ParentsAsPeople: [[spoiler:Lahabrea was neglectful at best and verbally abusive at worst to his son Erichthonios. He constantly belittles Erichthonios' abilities as an IneptMage and kept him at arm's length at nearly all times. Lahabrea's pride and calculating attitude did enormous damage to Erichthonios' self-esteem and gave him a [[WellDoneSoneGuy burning desire to prove himself to Lahabrea]]. But Lahabrea kept his distance on purpose, believing it better than Erichthonios hate him than learn the AwfulTruth that Athena, whom Erichthonios loved more than life itself, solely saw him as a tool for her research. He's enraged when Erichthonios is kidnapped by Hephaistos and blames himself for constantly scorning his son. After Erichthonios successfully interrs Hephaistos, Lahabrea finally comes clean to his son and tells him how proud he is of him.]] |
| 195 | * ParentalNeglect: [[spoiler: In his past as an Ancient, he completely neglected his son Erichtonios in favor of overworking himself at his Convocation role. This, alongside his superficially uncaring attitude towards the death of his wife Athena, made his son have a...not so positive opinion of him.]] |
| 196 | * PlayingWithFire: Fire magic seems to be his specialty as of the Aetherochemical Research Facility [[FireIceDuo juxtaposed with Igeyorhm's ice magic]] and may of his attacks in his reworked solo duty in ''A Realm Reborn'' feature huge beams of flame and exploding fireballs. [[spoiler:Indeed this connection with fire goes as far back at his identity as an Ancient, and his most prominent creations, Ifrita and the Phoenix, are heavily associated with the element in question. Even when he purges Hegemone of Athena's influence, he does so by [[FirePurifies wreathing her in flames.]]]] |
| 197 | * PoorCommunicationKills: [[spoiler:In Pandaemonium, Lahabrea's constant scorn for Erichthonios and inability to empathize with him due to excising that part of his soul created an enormous gulf between father and son. His refusal to reveal the AwfulTruth allows Hephaistos to manipulate Erichthonios and kidnap him. The Warrior can point out that Lahabrea could have saved everyone a lot of grief had he simply been truthful to Erichthonios rather than bickering with him like a child. Lahabrea is outraged when he hears this, but quickly realizes that the Warrior has the right of it.]] |
| 198 | * PostFinalBoss: At the end of the Praetorium in ''A Realm Reborn'', the Ultima Weapon is in ruins and Gaius is defeated, but Lahabrea comes down to finish the job. In the original fight however, he was considerably easier than the last two fights with Ultima Weapon, often dying in half a minute. In 6.1 however, his fight is reworked into an epic solo duty more worthy of a FinalBoss, featuring complex mechanics as well as him briefly ''killing'' you before Hydaelyn revives and empowers you to defeat him. |
| 199 | * PosthumousCharacter: We learn more about him after his true death than we did while he was alive. Such as the fact that he and Elidibus were close friends, [[spoiler:indeed, Lahabrea was almost like an older brother to Elidibus.]] |
| 200 | * PowerFloats: He rarely if ever walks. |
| 201 | * {{Pride}}: So very full of it. Messing with the Spoken races and beastmen for ages made him so full of himself that he thinks nothing can go wrong with his plans. It isn't until King Thordan manages to effectively kill him, the same man Lahabrea thought he could manipulate, that the Ascian manages to get caught off-guard. |
| 202 | * ReasonableAuthorityFigure: [[spoiler:When he appears to address the situation in Pandæmonium, Lahabrea is initially firm in his belief that the facility should be destroyed for the sake of protecting the star from the horrors within. However, Themis' and Erichthonios' earnest plea along with proof of the Warrior's ability to subdue the mythic creations sways Lahabrea's opinion enough to give them a chance.]] |
| 203 | * SanitySlippage: In ''Shadowbringers'' (particularly in the Tales from the Shadows), it is implied that the Lahabrea we see at present time is the result of thousands of years of constantly working towards the revival of Zodiark and lots of [[BodySnatcher body snatching]] damaging his aether, and possibly by extension his mind. [[spoiler: In the ''Pandeæmonium'' storyline, he's a lot less of a cackling villain, if very stuck up.]] |
| 204 | * SilentScapegoat: [[spoiler: He allowed Erichthonios to hate him so he doesn't find out the AwfulTruth about his cherished mother.]] |
| 205 | * SlowlySlippingIntoEvil: [[spoiler: The Pandaemonium raid story heavily implies this is how he became the Lahabrea we meet in ''A Realm Reborn''. Like Emet-Selch and Elidibus, he wanted to restore the world lost by the Final Days and the Sundering, but the combination of the long and arduous task of doing so, and Athena "infecting" him with her desires caused him to slowly become more insane, until he had become nothing like the Ancient met in Elpis]]. |
| 206 | * SmugSmiler: Very much so. When it is revealed that he hijacked Thancred's body, he is seen with such a smile, and even when the situation doesn't look good for him, he keeps smiling smugly and loves to taunt his opponent. |
| 207 | * SmugSnake: He loves rubbing his evilness right in peoples faces, which only makes it that much more satisfying to kick his ass. Despite being powerful, he tends to not utilize some of his greatest abilities as one of the highest ranked Ascians and gets repeatedly humiliated as a result. Elidibus even calls him out on his arrogance at the end of ''Heavensward'', where him attempting the 8th Rejoining without the consent of the others only made the Warrior of Light more powerful than ever. |
| 208 | * TheSociopath: Textbook example. Nothing and no one will stop him in the goals he pursues. He is completely [[LackOfEmpathy unfazed]] by the death of one of his companions, even when said death happened right before his eyes (and despite having fuzed with her mere moments before), and doesn't seem to really care about his companions in general. He is an expert at manipulation (or, at least, [[SmugSnake believes himself to be one]]), thoroughly enjoys playing with people and making them do his bidding, and is so full of himself you will want to punch him repeatedly in the face. [[spoiler:The Pandaemonium raid implies he became this because his soul was infected by an ''actual'' sociopath to continue her work.]] |
| 209 | * SpannerInTheWorks: [[spoiler:According to Emet-Selch, ''something'' Lahabrea did was his greatest "crowning moment of idiocy" that forced him to return into play. It is unknown if that event was either unleashing Ultima magic during the fight with the Ultima Weapon or throwing his lot behind King Thordan, but whatever he did was enough to convince Emet-Selch to step out of hiding to get more involved.]] |
| 210 | * TheStoic: In ''Endwalker'', Lahabrea was described as a man who showed little emotion. Professional, yet cold. A far cry from the cackling villain he became in present time. |
| 211 | * SummonMagic: Can use his dark magic to call the [[OurDemonsAreDifferent voidsent]], and in the past before the Sundering was the premier expert on creation magic, and is known to have designed the original forms of at least two modern primals (Ifrit and Phoenix). |
| 212 | * ThatManIsDead: [[spoiler:As a younger man, he discarded his birth name of Hephaistos, resolving to live only for his duty as Lahabrea, when he purged a portion of his soul which bore his wife's single-minded obsession with transcending the bond between body and soul.]] |
| 213 | * TilMurderDoUsPart: [[spoiler:Lahabrea executed his own wife, Athena, after realizing the horrible HumanExperimention she had planned in an attempt to AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence. Said experimentation included merging their son Erichthonios with a monstrous creation in an attempt to create an entirely new lifeform.]] |
| 214 | * TookALevelInBadass: Despite purportedly being one of the most powerful Ascians, Lahabrea failed to live up to either of his other two Unsundered compatriots, becoming a ButtMonkey within the fanbase. After ''Heavensward'', the developers began making pains to improve his standing. |
| 215 | ** In Stormblood, he was made part of ''[[HarderThanHard The Weapon's Refrain (Ultimate)]]'', entering the fight with a pair of instant-kill attacks. He is only able to be warded off by ''two sequential'' Limit Breaks. |
| 216 | ** After almost a decade of being a laughably easy PostFinalBoss in The Praetorium thanks to 8-player Full Parties thrashing him, the 6.1 update ''transforms'' Lahabrea thanks to his solo duty status, becoming a genuinely challenging boss fight as a result. It's to the point that he manages to [[FissionMailed temporarily]] ''kill the Warrior of Light''. |
| 217 | ** 6.2 adds [[spoiler: [[DiscOneFinalBoss his younger self]] as a Level 90 Raid boss in Pandaemonium's second tier, complete with a OneWingedAngel transformation in Savage.]] |
| 218 | * TookALevelInJerkass: [[spoiler:As one of the Convocation pre-Sundering, he was certainly frosty but he wasn't an outright dick, just very flawed as a man and father. He does reveal that for his faults, he does love his son Erichthonios and means well, and is one of the heroes of the Pandaemonium raid. Fast forward to the present day, and his bitterness over eons and mission to Rejoin the shards has turned him into a monster who doesn't think twice about possessing Thancred or slaughtering countless innocents.]] |
| 219 | * VillainHasAPoint: His rant about Hydaelyn at the end of ''A Realm Reborn'' seems like a being associated with the darkness utterly loathing that of the light, favoring his "one true god" so much as to despise the opposition. [[spoiler:In reality, Hydaelyn is very much a Primal the same as Zodiark, and despite her good intentions and relative benevolence, she's the reason why the Star is fractured into multiple worlds to begin with from defeating Zodiark. Plus as the Warriors of Darkness and the plot of ''Shadowbringers'' can attest, too much light can be a world-extinguishing calamity in its own right. While Lahabrea ''is'' insane and highly biased, he sees Hydaelyn as the cause for the end of his home and life altogether.]] |
| 220 | ** Lahabrea's rant in the Praetorium mentioned a [[TheCorruption corruption]] that if "permitted to worsen, the very laws of existence -- both aetheric and physical -- will be warped beyond all recognition." [[spoiler:''Shadowbringers'' shows the Final Days of the Unsundered world, a calamity which caused anything without a high aether capacity (notably the Ancients' creations) to "be warped beyond all recognition" into monsters, an event they attributed to the planet beginning to die. The Ancients created Zodiark to shield the planet from the effects of the corruption... but as explained in ''Endwalker'', without the Ancients knowing the source of the calamity, Zodiark could only block it as long as he was alive -- and after the Sundering, the corruption could even extend to warping ''people''. With what information the Ascians had, Hydaelyn ''very well'' could have been making things worse by weakening Zodiark as she had.]] |
| 221 | * VillainTeleportation: Used as a plot point because teleportation without the use of aetherytes is simply not possible for regular beings. |
| 222 | * WesternZodiac: Pisces. |
| 223 | * WorfHadTheFlu: Despite being one of the Paragons - one of the most prominent Ascians who is unsundered and at his full might - his original encounter portray him as laughably easy compared to his contemporaries. Dialogue in ''Shadowbringers'' reveals that possessing a new body takes a considerable amount of power from the Ascian doing it. In contrast to [[spoiler:Emet-Selch]], who preferred to stick with the same body custom made for him for the better part of the last hundred years and [[spoiler: puts up a ''much'' better fight at the end of ''Shadowbringers'']], Lahabrea had a very bad habit of abandoning his possessed hosts the moment they began to no longer be useful and significantly drained his aether and sanity as a consequence. His reworked solo duty encounter in 6.1 does portray him as significantly stronger and actually worthy of his status, even briefly killing the player, but the damage caused by his body-hopping does still mean he's not ''as'' powerful as he was originally. |
| 224 | * {{Workaholic}}: He's fanatically obsessed with his duty as an Ascian to the point that coupled with his habit of repeatedly taking new bodies he burned himself out, severely taxing his aether and sanity. [[spoiler: Pandaemonium both elaborates on and offers a tragic explanation for this trait: he's shown to be a cold and distant father to his son, and completely dedicated to his duties. But the truth is that Lahabrea ripped out half his own soul containing his more selfish emotions after fearing his wife Athena had infected him with her sociopathic and amoral desire to transcend mortality, leaving him with only an nigh-unflinching dedication to his duty.]] |
| 225 | * WorthyOpponent: By the time the player faces him he readily acknowledges their strength and doesn't hesitate to call them a Warrior of Light. |
| 226 | [[/folder]] |
| 227 | |
| 228 | [[folder:Elidibus ('''Unmarked Spoilers for ''Shadowbringers''''')]] |
| 229 | !!!Voiced by: Creator/AkiraIshida (JP), Matt Stokoe (EN) Cyrille Monge (FR), Rainer Döring (DE) |
| 230 | [[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/elidibus.png]] |
| 231 | [[quoteright:300:[[labelnote:Click here to see his transformed state '''(PANDAEMONIUM SPOILERS)''']]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dwktrhysdiojxoln6yoyfs9zzq.jpg]] |
| 232 | [[/labelnote]] |
| 233 | [floatboxright: |
| 234 | '''Race''': Ascian\ |
| 235 | '''Epithet''': The Emissary] |
| 236 | |
| 237 | ->''"At times I stand with my brethren. At times I stand against them. All that I might steer mankind and the very star upon their true course."'' |
| 238 | \ |
| 239 | An Ascian who appears in a white with gold trim cloak, not far into the Seventh Astral Era. He claims to have no quarrel with the Scions, or the Warrior of Light, but seems to be stirring up trouble in Eorzea just as much as Lahabrea. He apparently knows secrets of the Echo that neither Minfilia nor the Warrior of Light are yet aware of, and tells them that the Ascians and those who possess the Echo are not so far apart. |
| 240 | ---- |
| 241 | * AffablyEvil: He's far more civil with the Scions than any of his compatriots, and his alliance with Varis has him acting polite and helpful towards the emperor. But as of the events of the 5.x storyline, losses on the Ascian side have caused Elidibus to take a harsher attitude towards the Warrior of Light and the Scions. In a role reversal, the Scions are the ones to offer a diplomatic solution while Elidibus is the one to scorn them for their efforts, and his personal interactions with the Warrior of Light are more condescending and hostile because of his anger over Emet-Selch's death. After his defeat, when his soul is contacted in the Crystal Tower in ''Endwalker'', he returns to cordiality with the Warrior, even absolving them of guilt if they apologise for disturbing him. |
| 242 | * AlasPoorVillain: After he's defeated and being absorbed into the Crystal Tower, and the Warrior gives him the memory crystals of the Convocation of Fourteen, he remembers that all he wanted was to save everyone by becoming Zodiark, but the Ancients' cries of rage and despair over not only their doom but the division on the fate of their world only drove him deeper, which forced him out and only made things worse. He ultimately dies in peace, being reunited with his old friends via their crystals, but laments that they can't share the new beautiful day with him. |
| 243 | * AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: At the climax of 5.3, he takes over the Crystarium's Crystal Tower after attacking the Crystal Exarch, allowing him to summon the Spectral Warriors ad infinitum using the Exarch's blood-infused soul vessel. The Warrior must fight their way through these spectral heroes to reach the Tower. |
| 244 | * AllYourPowersCombined: When fought as a simulacrum of the original Warrior of Light, he uses powered-up abilities and Limit Breaks from several of the game's jobs. |
| 245 | * AmbiguousSituation: An InUniverse one at that. The Scions are very confused by the revelation that ''someone'' named Elidibus chose to become the "Heart of Zodiark", as they aren't sure if its the same Elidibus as they encountered so often, or one from the past. The following patch clarifies this by explaining that while he is the original Elidibus, he became a primal by separating himself from Zodiark after becoming his core, in order to assist the Ascians. |
| 246 | * TheBabyOfTheBunch: "Ere Our Curtain Falls" reveals that he was the youngest member of the Convocation. Emet-Selch even notes the rest of the convocation viewed him as a younger brother of sorts and personally found his admiration for Azem and the rest of the council both equally endearing and embarrassing. When they all found out Elidibus was the most suitable candidate to be Zodiark's heart, the convocation all had second thoughts but went through with it in the end. |
| 247 | * BadassBoast: In the final battle with him as the Warrior of Light, after the party escapes from the Void with the help of Azem's crystal and Emet-Selch, he dishes one of these out when the second phase against him starts, even more effective by being visually matched with a [[TheCavalry heroic buildup]] to a badass group pose resembling many of the Final Fantasy game's hero group logos. |
| 248 | -->'''Elidibus/Warrior of Light:''' I am salvation given form... Mankind's first hero... ''and his final hope!'' |
| 249 | * TheBattleDidntCount: Despite being soundly defeated by the Warrior of Light at the end of ''Stormblood'', he simply stands back up looking no worse for wear. That being said, its ambiguous if the Warrior of Light would have lost given that he only "won" the fight because of the Warrior of Light being hit by the Calling during the fight, and the Exarch calling him warning that regardless of who wins the Warrior of Light would have lost in the long run. |
| 250 | * BatmanCanBreatheInSpace: He is seen speaking with the Warrior of Darkness on the moon. Justified, as [[spoiler:''Endwalker'' shows that the moon has a breathable atmosphere]]. |
| 251 | * BatmanGambit: In Patch 5.2, the Warrior of Light and their companions decide to reveal the truth about Ardbert and the First's Warriors of Light to the people of the Crystarium, hoping to lure out the person posing as one. Indeed, that person turns out to be Elidibus in Ardbert's body. He quickly hijacks the moment to shill "his" heroics, inspiring others to take up the mantle of Warriors of Light, and later summons a vision that awakens the Echo in these new aspirants. He even mocks the Scions for being puppets dancing to his tune. It's eventually revealed that he's exploiting the newfound heroic will of the people to summon "spectral warriors" of heroic will that lack the awareness to think for themselves. And he directs them to the Warriors of Darkness... |
| 252 | * BeneathTheMask: He normally gives the idea of being calm, mysterious, and scheming with a reverence for Zodiark. Only when he's been cornered does he show his deep-seated hatred for Hydaelyn and the Warrior of Light. |
| 253 | * BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame: His trial as the Warrior of Light is effectively this. Not only he can use abilities from several jobs used by the players and use a LimitBreak like they do, he also takes the Crystal Exarch's idea of summoning other Warriors of Light to the First and uses them against the player character and their party in a similar fashion. |
| 254 | * BigBad: As the Ascians' leader, the Ascian who the player encounters the most number of times, and the heart of Zodiark, he's the closest thing the game has to a singular, overarching villain. Despite this, Elidibus is never fought as the final boss of an expansion launch; every boss fight against him is part of postgame patches. Fittingly, the final such fight with him is the end of the Paragons' tenure as the antagonists. |
| 255 | * BloodKnight: When fought for the final time as [[spoiler:the penultimate boss of Anabaseios]], Elidibus openly ponders how he would fare against the Warrior of Light in battle and shows excitement to battle them in his transformed state. |
| 256 | * BluffTheImpostor: "Ardbert" suddenly shows up alive and in the flesh in 5.2, with only a HandWave in-universe as to how he came back. The Scions don't buy that it's really Ardbert for a second, instead seeing this as a huge red flag of Ascian involvement. The Warrior of Light ''immediately'' realizes it can only be Elidibus and confirms it with this ploy when they get "Ardbert" alone. The Warrior questions "Ardbert" about Seto, hinting that Seto made a HeroicSacrifice, when Seto is in fact alive and well. When Elidibus takes the bait, the Warrior gives up the ghost, potentially by saying "I thought you were supposed to be good at this" and causing Elidibus to drop the act. |
| 257 | * BossSubtitles: [[spoiler:When fought as Themis in Anabaseios: The Eleventh Circle, he has the subtitle "Ephemeral Justice".]] |
| 258 | * CallForward: [[spoiler:When a young Themis is recreated as a boss during Pandaemonium Anabaseios, he uses the same "Styx" attack that Zodiark would later have access to.]] |
| 259 | * CameBackWrong: It turns out he sacrificed himself to become the capstone for Zodiark's creation, but re-emerged to unify the remaining Ascians, at the cost of becoming a nigh-emotionless primal. Emet-Selch laments this drastic change in who he saw as a younger sibling. |
| 260 | * CoupDeGraceCutscene: After being beaten as the Warrior of Light, he still has enough strength to go back for Round 2 and claims that he is immortal... Then, in the following custcene, the Crystal Exarch uses the ''entire Crystal Tower'' as a gigantic White Auracite. Doing so rips out the very soul of Elidibus, sublimating it inside the tower and killing him for good. |
| 261 | * TheChessmaster: |
| 262 | ** While possessing Zenos' body, Elidibus orchestrated the events of Tsukuyomi's summoning by manipulating Asashi into bringing back Yotsuyu with the Kojin mirror treasure, by doing so he knew that the Warrior of Light would defeat Tsukuyomi and also planned for Asashi's death in case he had survived the initial summoning. When the emperor learns of this he is extremely angry at the thought of Garlean involvement in a summoning, Elidibus calmly explains that the events were set up in a way that Tsukuyomi is now forever unable to be summoned again, essentially killing off the primal Tsukuyomi for good and that everyone involved sans the Warrior is now dead. |
| 263 | ** In ''Shadowbringers'', while he hit a large speed bump in the form of [[WildCard Zenos]] derailing his plans in the Source and halting Black Rose, he quickly regains his footing and by 5.2, has dozens of new Warriors of Light in the First wrapped around his finger while ensuring that the Scions can't do anything to stop him. The following patch brings his plan to action as he summons Shards of Warriors of Light from other worlds, using their collective power to try and kill the Scions and the Warrior of Darkness. |
| 264 | * CrashIntoHello: [[spoiler:When you meet him as Themis, it's via falling from the sky and straight onto him.]] |
| 265 | * CreepyMonotone: He rarely raises his voice above a dull, steady drone when speaking. |
| 266 | * DeaderThanDead: [[spoiler:After the events of ''Pandæmonium'', his soul is finally washed away into the Lifestream for reincarnation, making it explicit that this is the last time we'll ever see Elidibus/Themis.]] |
| 267 | * DemotedToDragon: [[spoiler:In Pandaemonium Anabaseios, Athena generates a recreation of him using the remnants of his aether to serve as her Dragon.]] |
| 268 | * DespairEventHorizon: Emet-Selch's death hits Elidibus hard. Being [[LastOfHisKind the only remaining complete Ascian]] drives him to act much more directly and impulsively. He also starts referring to the player as Death itself and shunning any attempts at communication. |
| 269 | * DidntSeeThatComing: A random adventurer joining the Scions of the Seventh Dawn and being unable to fortell just how much of a thorn they would become is where Eldibus' problems ''started'', and it reached a peak at the Seat of Sacrifice; in less than ten minutes he was hit by this ''three times in a row'': |
| 270 | ** He was unprepared for Azem's Constellation Stone and the magics within it summoning seven other ''true'' Warriors of Light to the Warrior's aid against Elidibus' own spectral Warriors of Light. |
| 271 | ** He was even ''more'' unprepared for Emet-Selch to return just long enough to pull the party back from the void between worlds and let them resume the fight. |
| 272 | ** His attempt to invoke HeroicResolve to get back up following his defeat is interrupted by G'raha Tia reminding him of the Crystal Tower's original purpose as an enormous aether battery. Elidibus barely has enough time to realize his error before G'raha and the Warrior invoke the Crystal Tower's powers to tear Elidibus apart and suck his essence into the tower. |
| 273 | * DiscOneFinalBoss: For ''Final Fantasy XIV'' as a whole. As TheChessmaster throughout the story from ''A Realm Reborn'', his machinations alongside his fellow Ascians drive the main threat of further calamities befalling the Source and after the events of ''Shadowbringers'' he's the [[LastOfHisKind last surviving member of the Convocation]]. However, he's defeated in ''5.3'' after making one last desperate attempt to destroy the First, leaving the door wide open for [[AxCrazy Fandaniel]] to make his move [[OmnicidalManiac to destroy everything]]. |
| 274 | * DontYouDarePityMe: In 5.2 he expresses disgust when the Scions try to implore him to hear them out after what they learned in Amaurot and he expresses disappointment in Emet-Selch for sympathizing with mortals in his final moments. He then states that they will never reach an understanding before leaving. |
| 275 | * DyingAsYourself: |
| 276 | ** Elidibus, who has been stripped of almost all of his memories since the TimeAbyss of the sundering, finally remembers his brothers and who he swore his oath to before disappearing. Elidibus finds some solace in that it is a new beautiful day, as his compatriots once reminded him of, but laments that they could not be there to see it with him. |
| 277 | ** [[spoiler:Played straight at the end of the Pandæmonium questline, where the last cutscene reveals he got his memories of the raid events back, including his whole relationship with the Warrior of Light. His last words indicate that he's at peace with everything, has no regrets over his past friendship with them or his decisions, as it led to the Warrior saving the planet for good, and they part in good terms. He then succumbs to slumber in order to prepare for reincarnation and start a new life.]] |
| 278 | * EtTuBrute: In his final battle, he's unnerved when none other than ''Emet-Selch'' comes to the Warrior of Darkness' rescue. This is especially ironic as avenging Emet's death at the player's hands was a big motivator for him. |
| 279 | * EvilPlan: Naturally like the other Ascians, it's to bring back their god, but unlike the more proactive Ascians he's smart enough to keep most of the details to himself, and will flat-out tell the Scions he has ''no'' intention of giving them any details that might lead to his defeat. |
| 280 | * EvilSoundsDeep: In English, has a rather deep and booming voice. |
| 281 | * FalseFlagOperation: The events of Patch 4.2 and 4.3 was this: Elidibus-as-Zenos charges Asahi with suing for peace with Doma under the banner of the Populares. While he's doing that, he was to hunt down the still-alive Yotsuyu and recruit her into turning into a Primal. As the caveat of the peace being that Doma forsake summoning, Yotsuyu during into a Primal would be "proof" that the Populares' way of trying to obtain peace would never work and the Garleans' way is the right way. It doesn't really work out that way as Maxima smells a rat, and survives Elidibus's attempt to [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness clean up loose ends]]. |
| 282 | * FatalFlaw: |
| 283 | ** '''Wrath.''' After the end of the 5.0 quests of ''Shadowbringers'', Elidibus becomes much more impulsive and reckless as a result of what the Warrior of Darkness has done to save the First. The deaths of Lahabrea and Emet-Selch really hit Elidibus hard, and he moves up several parts of his plan. Elidibus does this both in the name of vengeance for his comrades, and because the Warrior of Light has become such a SpannerInTheWorks that he can't afford to let them stay on the board any longer. Elidibus also refuses any and all attempts by the Scions to meet him halfway, since they now know about the history of the Ascians and what they're trying to do. Because Elidibus is so insistent on making the Warrior pay, it leads to Elidibus getting sloppy, rushing through several parts of his plan without factoring in the logical conclusion of them, which results in the Ascian making several mistakes that lead to his defeat. |
| 284 | ** '''Sense of duty.''' Elidibus makes it very clear throughout ''Shadowbringers'' that his duty is to guide the Ascians towards their goal, damn the consequences, even his own life. However, it's revealed over the course of patch 5.3 that he's suffering from a LossOfIdentity, and he can't remember who he's fighting so hard for. By the time the Warrior faces him, Elidibus can't even remember why he's doing it, thanks to his becoming a primal affecting his memory through the hopes of the people he's recruited. The Warrior can even point this out, but Elidibus makes it an IgnoredEpiphany and doubles down, saying that it's his duty to do what the Ascians want, and he will not be talked out of it. This obsession causes the Warrior to oppose him, and eventually defeat him. |
| 285 | * FightingYourFriend: [[spoiler:To quote Erichtonios, "Themis would never have wished to be your enemy." This recontextualizes all the encounters with him, as external factors would pit him against the Warrior of Light. For much of the story, his actions were because of his nature as Zodiark's will; the Warrior of Light was the biggest obstacle from fulfilling his duty as Zodiark. Later, after being your steadfast ally in Pandæmonium, he ends up as the third boss of Anabaseios due to his memory being under Athena's will. Thankfully, you manage to break him free from her control, and use your aether to buy him time to figure out how to end Athena's machinations.]] |
| 286 | * ForegoneConclusion: [[spoiler:Due to the way time travel works, the Themis seen in the Pandæmonium storyline is destined to become the Heart of Zodiark, then the leader of the Ascians and mastermind of several atrocities, and meet his end at the hands of the Warrior of Light and then have his soul consumed as fuel for the Crystal Tower.]] |
| 287 | * {{Foreshadowing}}: In all of his boss fights, he never uses his actual name. Using Zenos yae Galvus and Ardberts' bodies in their respective solo mission fights, while as the Primal Warrior of Light, it uses the title, not his own name. All of which highlights the fact of his identity issues and becoming more like the people he wears while being influenced by the masses' voices, having long [[TheFogOfAges forgotten most of everything he's fighting for]], [[{{Determinator}} yet still continuing anyways]]. [[spoiler:The fight against him in Pandæmonium is the sole exception, in part of being his past self, where he had yet to become Zodiark. In that instance, he uses his true name, Themis, and fights in his transformed state. It also goes full-circle in that fight, as one of his attacks, "Styx", is the same one used by Zodiark.]] |
| 288 | * GenderBlenderName: [[spoiler:His given name, Themis, is the name of the ''goddess'' of law and order, cited as the personification of justice.]] |
| 289 | * HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: In ''Endwalker'', he [[HeroicSacrifice uses the last of his essence]] to send the Warrior of Light into the past to discover a way to prevent the return of the Final Days. He openly says he only does this since [[KnowWhenToFoldEm he no longer has a purpose]] after the death of Zodiark. However, after embarking through the portal, he states that he is finally entrusting the Warrior of Light and Hydaelyn as [[TheChosenOne the only true hope to save their star]].]] [[spoiler: This allyship with the Warrior of Light continues when he's temporarily brought BackFromTheDead during the Pandæmonium questline. After being freed from Athena's control and having his life extended by the Warrior of Light's aether, he uses his remaining time to aid them in stopping her.]] |
| 290 | * HopeBringer: It turns out that he became a primal to both steer the Ascians through their goal and to bring hope to his people. As a primal, he apparently is sustained by Hope instead of Aether to be empowered, so he has manipulated societies to always have a level of hope so that he can exist. And in order to gain enough power to square off with the Warrior of Light feasibly, he piggybacks off the Warrior of Light's efforts in the First and encourages many people to become warriors of light themselves, which creates a huge influx of hope that empowers him until he is able to transform into the avatar of hope, the very first Warrior of Light. |
| 291 | * HumiliationConga: The end of ''Stormblood'' and ''Shadowbringers'' has him failing hard time and time again. First he is beaten by the Warrior of Light. Before he could land the killing blow when the Warrior of Light was crippled by the calling, Estinien holds him off and then whisks the Warrior of Light away to safety. Varis mocks him for being unable to deal with the Warrior of Light and basically says "I thought you were going to take care of them," to which Elidibus can only offer a weak excuse for why he failed. Lastly, Zenos not only shows up to reclaim his old body, but he ''succeeds'' and drives out Elidibus's soul, forcing him to retreat. After all that and finding out that Emet-Selch was killed, Elidibus is nearly at a loss on what to do next. |
| 292 | * {{Hypocrite}}: |
| 293 | ** He holds the "fragmented" civilizations in contempt for their inability to remember their past mistakes and their tendency to forget what they've learned. Turns out he's suffering from a big case of TheFogOfAges. He doesn't even remember why he fights anymore. |
| 294 | ** He smugly flaunts superiority over the Warrior of Light on the claim that they kill indiscriminately and don't stop to think their enemies might have loved ones somewhere. Not only is there an entire class quest chain ([[spoiler:Dark Knight 60-70]]) ''about'' the Warrior's guilt over that very thing, Elidibus has helped wipe out thousands upon thousands of the "lesser beings" without showing any sign that he's stopped to consider if they're loved by someone else. |
| 295 | * {{Idiosyncrazy}}: Even while working with the Ascians, Elidibus always goes out of his way to inspire hope for the "fragmented" races. This is a side effect of [[CameBackWrong his condition of being a primal after becoming the heart of Zodiark]], and emerged from him to inspire hope for the Ascians, which would carry over to their enemies. |
| 296 | * IgnoredEpiphany: After learning that Elidibus is really a primal and that he doesn't remember the faces of his comrades, who he struggles for, the Warrior of Light points out that he is essentially a machine running on auto-pilot, that everyone he wants to help is too far gone. Elidibus is shaken by this, but decides that it doesn't matter. He pauses briefly in awe and wonder when the Warrior of Light uses the power of an ancient invocation, but even then he refuses to back down. He has a purpose and he is going to stick to it no matter what. This forces the Warrior of Light to kill him. |
| 297 | * InvisibleToNormals: Tataru couldn't see or hear him when he visits Minfilia in the Waking Sands, and says that those without the Gift or the knowledge cannot see him. It's later explained that this was because he wasn't possessing a corporeal body at the time. |
| 298 | * {{Irony}}: One of the largest cases in the game. He is, as the Heart of Zodiark and effectively a walking primal in Ascian skin, but has also fought as one of the first Warriors of Light, inspiring, prepping and ''manipulating'' the countless inheritors of the title that would invariably be defenders of the realm and associated with Hydaelyn, the very antithesis of existence; without Elidibus doing this, the title and legend of it altogether would simply have never existed. But despite all of the countless heroes stirred about in the Ascian's plans for so long, the one that truly takes him down at the very end was the ''true'' Warrior of Light, [[TheChosenOne handpicked by Hydaelyn herself]], via an ultimate duel between the two Warriors -- and circumstances [[DidntSeeThatComing he could've never predicted]] are the key to that victory despite doing his absolute damnedest to manipulate them too. |
| 299 | ** To compound on this, the person he swore his oath to that he desperately can't remember? The same oath still driving his duty even now? [[spoiler: It's indicated to be Azem, whose reincarnation stands before him in direct opposition to said oath.]] |
| 300 | * ItsPersonal: It turns out that he holds a pretty strong grudge against the Warrior of Light for killing Lahabrea and Emet-Selch. It's a large reason for why he is so adamant against any sort of peace brokering or compromise with the Scions. |
| 301 | * KingIncognito: [[spoiler:During the Pandæmonium raids, Elidibus presents himself as a mere associate of the Convocation investigating the facility on their behalf. He conceals his identity by wearing an ordinary mask rather than his station's and going by his birth name, Themis. This proves essential to unmasking Hephaistos in Abyssos, as Themis' deception means that only the real Lahabrea would know him as Elidibus.]] |
| 302 | * TheLastDance: [[spoiler:The final battle with him in Pandæmonium. He knows he's living on borrowed time and is only fighting the Warrior of Light because Athena's forcing him to, but he's ultimately ecstatic he gets to test his strength against the Warrior of Light as Themis rather than using someone else's form. While the fight in 5.3 was the dramatic last stand of the Ascians and a battle between deadly enemies, this is an entirely personal battle between him and the Warrior of Light which, despite the tragic circumstances, is a beautiful and glorious showdown between two friends.]] |
| 303 | * LastOfTheirKind: The sole remaining unsundered Ascian with Emet-Selch's death at the end of ''Shadowbringers''. As of patch 5.3, [[spoiler:he is gone too, though considering he had to become a Primal to separate himself from Zodiark, and how much it impacted his identity issues, it's not clear how different he became from how he used to be. In any case, he's the last Ascian antagonist to be faced, and the last to fall to the Warrior.]] |
| 304 | * LawfulStupid: PlayedForDrama. As revealed when the Warrior of Darkness reaches him at the top of the Crystal Tower, [[LossOfIdentity Elidibus has forgotten the faces of the people he's fighting for]]. Infact, he's even forgotten why he has to do any of it in the first place. All Elidibus knows is that it's his duty to do it, therefore he's going to do it. The Warrior can even point out that Elidibus has "no fight left to fight", which causes Elidibus to briefly falter before [[IgnoredEpiphany brushing it off and going all-in]].[[invoked]]. It is even indicated that the person he made his oath to was [[spoiler: Azem, whose reincarnation stands before him in opposition to the goals of said oath.]] |
| 305 | * LightIsNotGood: On the face of it, he's the least antagonistic of his comrades, the one most prone to brokering deals and negotiating, and has genuinely inspired people across multiple stars to acts of heroism that even the Scions admit are ultimately for the benefit of everyone around them.]] He's also the only Ascian seen wearing a white robe. But all of the aforementioned is in service of gathering power the same way any other primal does worship - the worlds-spanning belief in the legendary Warrior of Light he has used for so long as a beacon of inspiration and hope is enough for him both to twist the otherwise well-meaning spirits of other stars' heroes to his own ends and to transform himself into a simulacrum of the franchise's original Warrior of Light. |
| 306 | * LimitBreak: In the final battle with him, he weaponizes the Limit Break mechanic against you in the form of "Ultimate Crossover"; After the party escapes from the void he banishes them to, he summons more Warriors of Light to empower himself to use his own Limit Break, complete with a level '''[[MyRulesAreNotYourRules FOUR]]''' gauge, to unleash a light-infused combination of {{Blade Spam}}s and {{Beam Spam}}s. If one of the tanks doesn't use their level 3 Limit Break to block it, it's a TotalPartyKill. |
| 307 | * LossOfIdentity: A major theme of his arc in patch 5.3; he struggles to reconcile his original goal of bringing back Zodiark and subsequently saving his people, with the actions he's taking to gain enough power to reach that goal. He's shown questioning his identity and purpose, with memories fading and serious inner-conflict as to who he is fighting for. Turns out there's a very good reason for this: while he is the real Elidibus, he had to take a Primal form to be able to separate himself from Zodiark to interact with the world. As part of his plan to gain enough power to resurrect Zodiark, he decides to illicit faith in the emergent Warriors of Light on the First, making 'Ardbert' their paragon and channelling their hope for him into his own being. This would make him strong enough to potentially fell the player character Warrior of Light. The only problem is since Primals are powered and given purpose by the faith they're fueled by, Elidibus comes to lose sight of his original goal and come to embody the hopes and wishes of the Warriors of Light rather than his own. In addition, with the other unsundered Ascians dead, he has no faith to draw from people who gave him his original purpose, which explains his fading memories. |
| 308 | * MagicKnight: He wields a combination of dark magic and superhuman swordsmanship when he fights the player in patch 4.56. This makes him more dangerous than previously-faced Ascians; by combining Zenos's raw power with the ability to use magic, the heroes are unable to overpower him until the Warrior of Light arrives, and he still has enough power to rise up for another match afterwards. As the primal Warrior of Light, he likewise combines incredible swordsmanship with powerful magic. |
| 309 | * MeaningfulName: [[spoiler:His true name, Themis, literally means "divine law", the thing Elidibus would go on to passively enforce on the star as Zodiark. As a word, Themis was also used in ancient Greece to refer to custom and social order, tying into Elidibus's role as the Emissary who was charged to arbitrate disputes and foster reconciliation.]] |
| 310 | * TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody: |
| 311 | ** When he takes to the field and fights after taking Zenos' body, he notably becomes more of a BloodKnight, and even seems surprised about how powerful Zenos was. He even toys with Hien, Yugiri, and Lyse for a bit, not unlike Zenos did when fighting the Warrior of Light at first. As Emet-Selch showcases, the magical abilities of an unbroken soul when transformed far surpass anything that exists, but he lets the rush of power from Zenos' body cloud his mind and to keep appearances up for their battle. |
| 312 | ** He is markedly more energetic and melodramatic when in the guise of the original Warrior of Light. {{Justified}}, as he is a primal in design, which are shaped by the views and nature of their summoners. |
| 313 | * MyGreatestFailure: He considers involving the Warrior of Light into their machinations as his. He assumed that the Warrior of Light would be just another in the long list of useful pawns for the Ascians, but the Warrior of Light proves themselves to be far too powerful for the Ascians to properly control. He goes as far as calling the Warrior of Light Death itself and swears to take responsibility for his mistake by killing the Warrior of Light himself. [[spoiler:When a version of him is created with a complete set of memories from his entire life, he has two: Not fighting the Warrior of Light in a form that was truly his own and never solving the remaining mysteries of the Pandæmonium incident. Luckily, it turns into MyGreatestSecondChance and he gets to satisfy both before reincarnating.]] |
| 314 | * MyNameIsInigoMontoya: Like Hades before him at the Dying Gasp, Elidibus introduces himself this way before transforming to fight the Warrior as [[spoiler:the third boss of the Anabaseios wing of Pandæmonium.]] |
| 315 | -->'''Elidibus:''' In transformation I present to you my truth! I am Elidibus! |
| 316 | * MythologyGag: |
| 317 | ** Shares the [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics same name with a mage]] who is also associated with a Zodiark. |
| 318 | ** The revelation that [[spoiler:he was a diminutive youth all along is a reference to the esper Zodiark from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' who's growth was halted when it was young]]. |
| 319 | * NearVillainVictory: |
| 320 | ** In 4.5, it's Zigzagged. The Warrior of Light is powerful enough to be able to fend him off entirely by themselves, even with him possessing Zenos' body. Then the [=WoL=] is Called like the rest of the Scions were by the Crystal Exarch, rendering them unconscious and forcing Estinien to bail them out, at which point Elidibus opts to retreat since he'd already taken a hell of a beating and didn't want to duke it out with a combat-ready Scion too. Historically, it seems that the Warrior of Light and Scions would completely dominate Elidibus-as-Zenos in battle, which justifies Varis releasing the Black Rose and causing the BadFuture the Crystal Exarch was intending to avoid, which effectively settles into Elidibus' plans and was presumably a total victory for the Ascians; by creating something of an awkward stalemate at the most perfectly inopportune time, it causes them to relent on releasing it for a while longer. This butterflies out into buying the real Zenos enough time to kill Varis, prevent the Black Rose release entirely, drive off Elidibus to get his body back, and ultimately change history. |
| 321 | ** Happens again in 5.3, where he straight up sentences the Warrior of Light to the rift between worlds with minimal effort and would have effectively killed them in one fell swoop. Then the shade of Emet-Selch appears and [[BigDamnHeroes bails the Warrior out]], which seals Elidibus' fate in the rest of the fight that ensues. |
| 322 | * NiceGuy: |
| 323 | ** [[AffablyEvil Only partially in the present]], as he is a TokenGoodTeammate and relatively reasonable, even if still opposed to the Scions for their difference in goals, and it is very conspicuously absent while possessing Zenos' body -- though the story implies that to be [[TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody a bit of an unintended side-effect.]] He only fully loses this trait once Emet-Selch is killed, as Elidibus decides they've gone too far and moves to eliminate them in one fell swoop -- [[spoiler:and yet after his defeat, he ends up [[GracefulLoser helping the Warrior of Light]] get to Elpis anyways.]] |
| 324 | ** Notably [[spoiler:as his original name of Themis, prior to becoming the Heart of Zodiark, he is probably one of the nicest members of the entire Convocation, doing his best to save everyone stuck in Pandæmonium and becoming fast friends with the Warrior of Light much like he did with Azem. Taken even further with his shade in 6.4, which, despite having the memories of his entire life and being an antagonist again, contains none of the less savory qualities he gained as the Heart of Zodiark and is just as kind as he was before the Final Days. This shade even makes sure to tell the Warrior of Light that his real self has no reason to resent them, as everything they shared together back during the Pandæmonium story is what ultimately allowed Elidibus' act of sending the Warrior back in time and save the planet for good. The shade's last words are even that he's glad to have met the Warrior, as he wishes them well on their journey. This is reflected when the scene shifts to the real Themis' point of view, and his shade's words prove to be true, as he is at peace with his newfound memories, and leaving the planet to the Warrior and modern humanity.]] |
| 325 | * NoNonsenseNemesis: Unlike all the other Ascians who fight the Warrior of Light, he wastes no time trying to kill the Warrior of Light when they finally fight, going all out from the start. When encountered in ''Shadowbringers'', he makes it very clear that he will ''not'' fall into the same pitfalls as his fellow Ascians, and makes no hints to his goals at all. |
| 326 | * NotSoAboveItAll: For someone so serious yet strict to his goals, Elidibus has his moments of not exactly living up to expectations. Like when the Warrior of Light managed to thrash him while in Zenos' body, Varis comments that Elidibus had boasted he'd swat the Warrior like a fly. ''Elidibus'' actually has to take a moment to awkwardly glance to the side and weakly retort that it was merely a minor setback, clearly mortified at failing his boasts so blatantly. |
| 327 | * NotSoDifferentRemark: |
| 328 | ** His claims about the relation between Ascians and Echo bearers. In fact, he says if the Scions knew the whole truth about the Echo, they would be "of one mind". Of course, he declines to ''reveal'' this whole truth, but later events show a Sahagin priest using what seems to be the power of the Echo to become an immortal BodySnatcher -- indeed, just like the Ascians. |
| 329 | ** Calls out the Warrior of Darkness on this in 5.3: When the Warrior of Darkness demands that he release Ardbert's body, ask why he must embroil others into their conflict, or what he's plotting, Elidibus always states in some fashion that he is doing nothing different than the Warrior of Darkness has done many times before. His refusal to release Ardbert's body is because that would be akin to surrendering his weapon on the eve of battle to his enemy. His plot is simple, he holds the Warrior of Darkness as an enemy for killing those he holds dear. Both of those options get stated with a bit of light gloating or snark from him in a "isn't it obvious?" sort of fashion. But the dialogue option for why he involves others in the conflict elicits a snarl of anger from him while practically calling you a hypocrite. |
| 330 | * NotQuiteDead: |
| 331 | ** [[spoiler:He wasn't killed at the end of his final confrontation, merely sealed inside the Crystal Tower. This allows the Warrior Of Light to ask him for answers about the Final Days. However, he uses his aether to power the Crystal Tower to send the Warrior of Light back to the time of the Ancients, long before the tower was even created; this act drains all of his aether, causing his final end.]] |
| 332 | ** [[spoiler: He also turns out to be Not Quite DeaderThanDead in 6.4. While it was assumed he was gone for good, Athena yanks his soul from the Aetherial Sea and creates a shade of him from it, which ends up allowing him to obtain closure on his final regrets before the shade dessipates and his soul returns to the sea to be reincarnated, completely satisfied and parting on good terms with the Warrior of Light.]] |
| 333 | * OneSteveLimit: As with the others of the convocation, [[spoiler:Elidbus's "name" is, like Emet-Selch, a title. A title he shares with the Ascian who gave up their life to become ''Zodiark's heart'', which makes sense since he IS him, albeit in a slightly different form he had to take]]. |
| 334 | * OneWingedAngel: Becomes a massive knight similar in appearance to the Warrior of Light in the first Final Fantasy game during the Seat of Sacrifice Trial. [[spoiler:He also transforms into an angelic knight for his fight in Anabaseios: The Eleventh Circle]]. |
| 335 | * OrcusOnHisThrone: He rarely interacts with non-Ascians, and never personally raises a hand against any protagonists; he barely even performs DemonicPossession which is basically the Ascians' calling card. The worst he does is enable other villains to do his dirty work, only stepping in personally when things have gotten dire enough to warrant it. So far this has only happened twice. The first was a brief venture off the throne when he has a chance to kill the Warrior of Light with Zenos's body. The second is where he outright abandons the throne and becomes the main villain of the post-''Shadowbringers'' story. That being said even in the past he was far from inactive, and was incharge of setting up the plans and even meeting with potential mortal candidates to inspire them to manipulating them into becoming heroes who commit heroic acts inline with ascian goals. Their actions maintaining the balance on each world until they inadvertently either imbalance said world or fail to save it in just the right way the Ascians need to trigger a rejoining, destroying that world to merge it with the Source. |
| 336 | * PaperThinDisguise: |
| 337 | ** Elidibus manages to do this while pulling a typical Ascian GrandTheftMe. When he shows up in Ardbert's body in patch 5.2, the Warrior of Darkness and the other Scions don't believe for a second that it's really Ardbert, as he so claims. Later on in the same patch, the Warrior of Darkness manages to BluffTheImpostor, while a dialogue choice can have them say "I thought you were supposed to be good at this". Elidibus gives up the ghost pretty quickly when he can tell that the Scions see right through him, but also says that he wasn't trying to fool the Scions anyway. |
| 338 | ** In the Pandæmonium storyline, [[spoiler:Elidibus is investigating the titular research facility on behalf of the Convocation while not revealing he is a member himself. While he's visiting Elpis wearing a white mask and using his real name instead of his title, he's ''still'' wearing his white robe, which only two kinds of people wear in his society; former Convocation members who stepped down from their seats but didn't [[NothingLeftToDoButDie return to the star]] and the current Elidibus.]] |
| 339 | * PintSizedPowerhouse: [[spoiler:As noted by Emet-Selch, Themis was rather on the shorter side height-wise. He was also able to destroy chaining traps simply by punching on the ground.]] |
| 340 | * PositiveFriendInfluence: In the Pandæmonium raids, [[spoiler:Elidibus befriends Erichthonios while investigating the strange events at the prison as Themis. During the events of the story, Themis shows unwavering faith in Erichthonios and his abilities as a warder. Themis' and the Warrior's encouragement and friendship with Erichthonios helps the warder get over his feelings of inferiority and successfully inter the likes of Hephaistos.]] |
| 341 | * PostFinalBoss: Whenever the main villain of a main storyline is dispatched, Elidibus is usually the one to take up the reins. While he doesn't do much in the postgame of ''A Realm Reborn'', the following three expansions see him enacting some sort of plan to keep things interesting for the Warrior of Light in the interrim. |
| 342 | ** In the pre-''Shadowbringers'' story, he fights you in Zenos's body. |
| 343 | ** In the post-''Shadowbringers'' story, [[spoiler:he fights you as the original Warrior of Light.]] |
| 344 | * PreFinalBoss: [[spoiler:He's the penultimate boss of the Pandæmonium raids.]] |
| 345 | * PunchClockVillain: [[spoiler:As the PreFinalBoss of Pandæmonium, he is his pre-Sundering NiceGuy self, but has been ReforgedIntoAMinion by Athena and forced to serve as her bodyguard. He knows just as well as the Warrior of Light that Athena is [[HateSink a more monstrous person than any of the post-Sundering Ascians]], but due to the spell that revived him he cannot disobey her commands to watch her post. [[ZerothLawRebellion Absolutely nothing prevents him from giving you fair warning about himself and the other defenses she's made]], however, and he promptly returns to working with you after you BeatTheCurseOutOfHim.]] |
| 346 | * RecurringBoss: You face him in battle four times over the course of your journey but he [[BodySurf uses a different face]] and [[DiscardAndDraw different abilities]] every battle. |
| 347 | * TheRedMage: |
| 348 | ** In his solo fight using Zenos' body, he [[AllYourPowersCombined combines Nabriales's magical prowess with Zenos's swordsmanship]], though not as efficiently as either of them. |
| 349 | ** By 5.3, powered by the hope of multiple stars who believe in heroism he's inspired, he becomes a towering MasterOfAll just as deadly with his magic as he is his sword. |
| 350 | * RevengeMyopia: |
| 351 | ** What ultimately marks him as different from Emet-Selch. Elidibus holds the Warrior of Light as nothing short of Death itself for killing so many of his compatriots, while ignoring all the death and suffering said compatriots had brought unto the Source and the Shards; a very different attitude from his deceased friend who at least acknowledged that the races of Hydaelyn were just defending themselves, even if he looked down on them. This also influences how they view their conflict with the Warrior: whereas Emet sees it as a clash between almost equals and thus fights them as his true self, Elidibus deludes himself into believing that he is saving the World from the Warrior of Light, and thus assumes a false form in order to match their power. It's this difference that ultimately influences their deaths: while Emet-Selch is able to move on with a smile on his face, able to believe for the first time that the races of Hydaelyn can live up to the legacy of the Ancients, Elidibus clings to the memories of the past, only then able to remember why he fought and dying in despair, having failed his purpose. |
| 352 | ** PlayedWith in ''Endwalker'', as while [[spoiler:he still laments what he lost, he has accepted his defeat at the hands of the Warrior, and is willing to aid them in order to stop the Apocalypse since he feels partly responsible for Fandaniel's actions.]] |
| 353 | * RoaringRampageOfRevenge: While he continues to speak of achieving salvation for the star, it becomes increasingly clear over the course of 5.3. that he's just as motivated by vengeance against the Warrior of Light for killing his fellow Ascians as he is by altruism. His hatred goes so far as to pit the Warrior against simulacrums of their friends and loved ones just to "prove" that they're an indiscriminate killer. He later seizes control of the Crystal Tower to summon countless spectral heroes to empower himself solely for the sake of striking the Warrior down. |
| 354 | * RoboticReveal: Or rather a magical instance of it. Elidibus serves as Zodiark's heart, and became a primal by separating himself from Zodiark so that he could steer the Ascians for all the years to come. The problem is that so much time has passed that he's forgotten the faces of those he is fighting for and has basically become a machine on auto-pilot. When the Warrior of Light points this out, he is momentarily put off-balance, before [[IgnoredEpiphany recommitting himself to his mission, regardless of its pointlessness.]] |
| 355 | * SelfDuplication: During the [[spoiler:Pandæmonium raids, Themis will generate seven phantom warriors modeled after the Warrior of Light's own capabilities to aid them in their battles against the creatures of the eponymous facility.]] Later on, Elidibus will use this ability to create duplicates of himself to attack the party as [[spoiler:the PreFinalBoss of Anabaseios]], forcing them to handle multiple mechanics at once. |
| 356 | -->'''Elidibus:''' Warriors forged in mine own image! |
| 357 | * SuicidalOverconfidence: |
| 358 | ** He's impressed with the raw physical power Zenos' body has when combined with his own magic, and outright claims to Varis that he would "destroy Eorzea's Champion with the ease that one might swat a fly", the same Warrior of Light that every Ascian up until now has failed to kill. When Elidibus finally fights the Warrior of Light personally, his claims are quickly debunked when they prove they can engage him on even footing, only getting an opening because they were Called mid-fight. After the battle, his confidence and domineering attitude over Varis are notably absent. |
| 359 | ** He ends up doing it again offscreen against Zenos in the body of a different vessel during Shadowbringers, getting defeated easily despite wielding Zenos's body. He even admits to letting himself get carried away. |
| 360 | ** Justified later when it is revealed that he was actually the youngest of the Convocation, a youth lacking in experience compared to his peers. His lack of (relative) maturity explains why he poorly handled Zenos's power when faced against an opponent of comparable power, and also why he chose to flee when the real Zenos unexpectedly showed up at his doorstep. |
| 361 | * ThisCannotBe: |
| 362 | ** In the fight against him in ''Stormblood'', he's flabbergasted at how the Warrior of Light has grown extremely powerful and wonders how they could gain so much power in a short time span, given that Elidibus previously thought that he could swat them like a fly. |
| 363 | ** In ''Shadowbringers'' he's stunned when Azem's crystal calls Emet-Selch back from the dead just long enough to save the Warrior of Light from being banished to the Rift and give Elidibus one of his flippant waves good-bye as he fades into aether once more. |
| 364 | * ThisWasHisTrueForm: The scheming, unflappable, and grown adult looking Elidibus was actually a youth of small stature and the youngest member of the Convocation who just wanted to see his friends once again. |
| 365 | * TokenGoodTeammate: |
| 366 | ** While his fellow Ascians all seem to be utterly ruthless, Elidibus comes off as being the only reasonable member of their organisation. He is more inclined to try to find a pacifistic solution to the conflict at hand, and never tried to move directly against the Scions. He even summoned Urianger to speak directly to him, though the content of their conversation remains unknown. However, feeling that the Warrior of Light became too powerful, he enlisted the help of his direct counterpart: the Warrior of Darkness. So unlike his allies, when he says he's doing everything for the sake of cosmic balance, you'll be slightly more inclined to believe him over his comrades. |
| 367 | ** In 3.5, it's revealed that he saved Unukahlai from the death of his world, which would eventually become The Void, and taught him Ascian magic despite being well aware he would work against the Ascians' stated goal of initiating rejoinings by fighting against primals; in fact, he seemed to encourage it. Safe to say this makes his motives and plans ''very'' curious. |
| 368 | ** His dialogue throughout the series, but especially at the end of the 3.4 story quests suggest that while his ultimate goal is still the return of Zodiark, Elidibus is significantly smarter about it than his fellow Ascians since aside from triggering Calamities to set off another rejoining, he needs to ensure that [[DoWellButNotPerfect they don't overdo it]]. Failure to do this carefully will end up creating another void like Igeyorhm had, which is counterproductive towards bringing Zodiark's return. |
| 369 | * TragicVillain: As a primal, his sole goal is to ensure everyone's happiness. Even if you define "everyone" as "just Amaurotines", it's impossible for one person to make ''everyone'' happy, but his innate nature ''as'' a primal means he cannot try to do anything else. But make no mistake, Elidibus is a remorseless killer on a scale that's so vast it beggars belief. |
| 370 | * TrueCompanions: In a tragic irony, [[spoiler:he shares this kind of dynamic with the Warrior of Light and Erichthonios in the Pandæmonium questline. It also overlaps with ReincarnationFriendship with the former, though Themis presumably isn't aware that the Warrior is the reincarnation of his close friend Azem.]] |
| 371 | * UniformityException: Elidibus's robes are white in contrast to the other Ascians' black. |
| 372 | * TheUnReveal: In TheStinger for the main ''Stormblood'' storyline, Elidibus takes off his mask to make a point to Emperor Varis. The player doesn't get to see what’s underneath, but Varis does, and he reacts with open-mouthed shock. Later patches would reveal that Elidibus had taken the recently deceased Zenos as his new vessel, hence the Emperor's reaction. |
| 373 | * UsedToBeASweetKid: In ''Ere Our Curtain Falls'', Emet-Selch fondly remembers Elidibus being like the youngest brother of the Convocation, who endeared them by making no effort to hide his affections and zeal to the rest of the Convocation members. Contrast to the present nigh-robotically stoic Elidibus, to which Emet-Selch sadly wonders if he will ever see the pure-hearted youth again. [[spoiler: The Pandæmonium raids confirm this, as the young Elidibus we meet there (going by his birth name Themis), is very friendly and polite, even when recovering from the Warrior of Light literally falling out of the sky on his head.]] |
| 374 | * VagueAge: After his defeat, we witness [[ThisWasHisTrueForm a shade of true, ancient self]], and he is actually much shorter than the others. In "Tales of the Shadow", Elidibus is addressed as "seinen" in the Japenese version, a term generally used for young adults (15-30), while the English translation refers to him as a youth of small stature. Emet-Selch also refers to him as the youngest member of the Convocation. Notably, 17-year old Alphinaud is still referred to as "shounen", which all taken together suggests Elidibus is actually in his late teens or early adulthood, but specifics are not given.]] This continues a bit in ''Endwalker'', [[spoiler:when he appears as his original self, Themis. He is shown to be short and young, but is still close in height to some other Ancients and player characters. To add to the confusion, while the french and japanese versions refer to him as "Young man with a soft look" before knowing his name (with the japanese version still using "seinen", suggesting Themis is definitely at least in early adulthood), english localization refers to him as "confused boy", playing up the youth aspect. Overall, the Pandæmonium questline places him firmly into at least early adulthood, and a later Q&A with the devs specifies that he's just barely past the age of majority of the ancients.]] |
| 375 | * VillainDecay: He grouses at length that he's undergone this as of the end of ''Shadowbringers'', suddenly missing a lot of pieces in his [[TheChessmaster cosmic chess set]] and having no foresight on what will happen next. Garlemald has lost its PuppetKing, the First being saved from the Light has made Emet-Selch's ultimate plan FUBAR ''and'' gotten him killed, and the current driving force of chaos in the Source is Zenos, a ''monster'' of a man that he can't manipulate that now has his sights set on ''fusing'' with Zodiark. The post-''Shadowbringers'' questline sees him finally moving to avert this, as he becomes the arc villain of the story. |
| 376 | * VillainInAWhiteSuit: A unique trait to Elidibus, said to be the mark of an Emissary. |
| 377 | * VillainWithGoodPublicity: In 5.2, by using the body of Ardbert right after the Scions make an effort to redeem the First's Warriors of Light's names, he becomes a source of inspiration to the people of the Crystarium. Even the Scions admit that though his methods and intentions are far from benevolent, the lessons he is teaching the people of the First are admirable. Overall, this currently makes him near untouchable. |
| 378 | * VillainHasAPoint: |
| 379 | ** Big time in 5.2. He's travelling the world as Ardbert telling everyone the Warrior of Darkness came from a different world, and that they and their companions will be leaving the First sooner or later. So the people of the First need to become Warriors of Light to protect the world when the Warrior of Darkness leaves. The only lie there is that he's Ardbert. The Scions are actively looking for a way home, their lives are actually in danger if they don't get back to their world, and the Warrior of Darkness can't pull them out of every jam; it's highly unlikely word could reach the Warrior in time if the First needs them to run back to take care of something. A few heroes in the First honestly wouldn't be a bad thing. And considering the reveal near the end of that chapter that the Echo is a lot more widespread than thought, and the fact that a whole crowd of people all awakened to it, the people of the First are probably up to the task. |
| 380 | ** Later on in 5.2, away from everyone else, Elidibus makes another point to the Scions. When the Scions confront him alone so he can speak without pretending to be Ardbert, Elidibus flat out states that he doesn't trust mortals to properly preserve the memory of the Ascian world, citing that it only took a century for the people of the First to turn against the Warriors of Light who did so much for them all. Considering that it was only earlier in that chapter that people finally regarded them as heroes, Elidibus makes a good argument. This becomes downplayed in the next patch when it's revealed that he has all but forgotten Aumarot himself due to TheFogOfAges. He doesn't even remember the faces of his fellow members of the Convocation, and what's shown of his fading memories implies that they would be upset to see how obsessed he became with restoring them back to life, especially without really knowing why. |
| 381 | * VillainSong: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IiG4vo9k9U "To the Edge"]], whose lyrics reuse Emet-Selch's NotSoDifferentRemark and YouCantGoHomeAgain chorus and bridge from "Who Brings Shadow", while also lamenting the ForeverWar and MotiveDecay he and the Ascians have suffered in their quest to go home again. [[spoiler:When fought one final time as the third boss of Anabaseios, he instead has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q141dgcObro&t=263s "Fleeting Moment"]], a driving and upbeat mix of "To the Edge" and "Mortal Instants" characterized by a soft piano and bassline. This reflects Themis fighting the Warrior not as an enemy but as a friend with no hard feelings between them.]] |
| 382 | * VillainsDyingGrace: [[spoiler:After learning of Fandaniel's actions and Zodiark's fate in ''Endwalker'', Elidibus's spirit uses the last of his remaining power to send the Warrior of Light to the distant past for clues on how to stop the Final Days.]] |
| 383 | * VillainousBreakdown: As the most calm and diplomatic of the Ascians, he goes completely off the deep end after the climax of ''Shadowbringers'', at that point losing all subtlety and openly declaring war on the Scions, going into the villainous equivalent of the GodzillaThreshold. By this time, Elidibus admits that he miscalculated, and that the Warrior of Light has become such a SpannerInTheWorks that they need to be killed if the Ascians are to have any hope at all of succeeding. Elidibus enacts his plan by summoning Warriors of Light from all of the other shards to try to take them down before becoming the ''embodiment'' of a Warrior of Light himself in a desperate move to put an end to Hydaelyn's champions. It does not work. |
| 384 | * VocalDissonance: When he's finally defeated, we finally see what he looks like as an Ancient, and he's...very small, much smaller than all other ancients. Despite this, he keeps his regular voice. The short story "Ere Our Curtain Falls" clarifies things by revealing he was the youngest of all the Convocation but considered just old enough to be a member (the terms used in the Japanese versions refer to a 15-30 year old. ), but relatively short in stature. Emet-Selch notes that his voice itself sounds the same than back in Amaurot times, but his tone changed drastically over the years, due to the things he went through, which may lampshade this trope. |
| 385 | ** The Japanese dub makes it more played with. [[spoiler:He has a rather boyish sounding voice, particularly when in his Warrior of Light form that contrasts with his more adult appearance. However his tone is strikingly different in modern times, as it is incredibly cold and stern compared to his original voice.]] |
| 386 | * WalkingSpoiler: He is largely an enigma for the majority of the story until patches 5.2 and 5.3, where a lot of secrets are revealed. Thus most of his tropes are spoilered. |
| 387 | * WesternZodiac: As he's the odd one out of the Ascians, his is Ophiuchus, a constellation typically excluded from the zodiac. As per ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'', the constellation is also associated with ''Zodiark'', whom Elidibus becomes the heart of. |
| 388 | * WhatIsThisFeeling: [[spoiler:Before sacrificing the last of his energy and going back to the Aetherial Sea, he has a hint of memory about his past and friendship with the Warrior of Light coming back to him. While he doesn't understand how this is possible, he is shown to be very shaken and emotional about it, before focusing back on the task at hand. At the end of Pandæmonium he states that this vague memory was the reason he chose to send the Warrior back, as its very existence demanded the Warrior visit Elpis at some point as part of a StableTimeLoop.]] |
| 389 | * WildCard: {{Invoked}}. Whereas his fellow Ascians acted out their roles as usually villains or secret manipulators, Elidibus instead made himself appear as both a hero and a villain. At times he would assist heroes or even be one, and at times he would play the villain. All of these allowed him to pursue the goals of the Ascians since nobody could tell what his goals were. |
| 390 | * WhiteHairBlackHeart: He gains long, flowing silver locks when transforming into the 'Warrior Of Light'. [[spoiler:The Pandæmonium raids reveal this was his original hair colour, but confirms that he UsedToBeASweetKid.]] |
| 391 | * YinYangBomb: |
| 392 | ** Elidibus, a being aligned with Darkness, transforms into a physical embodiment of belief in the powers of Warriors of Light to face the Warrior atop the Seat of Sacrifice. |
| 393 | ** His transformed self fought [[spoiler:in Pandæmonium]] uses both light and dark to enhance his attacks. He will also take a page from the Eden raids and align the party members' aether with light or darkness, forcing them to balance it by stepping in the opposite element lest they take damage. |
| 394 | [[/folder]] |
| 395 | |
| 396 | [[folder:Emet-Selch '''(Unmarked spoilers for ''Stormblood'' and ''Shadowbringers'')''']] |
| 397 | |
| 398 | '''See his page [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVEmetSelch here]]''' |
| 399 | |
| 400 | [[/folder]] |
| 401 | |
| 402 | !! Other Ascian Overlords |
| 403 | [[folder:Nabriales]] |
| 404 | !!!Voiced by: Masumi Yoshida (JP), Creator/GideonEmery (EN) |
| 405 | [[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nabriales_ffxiv.jpg]] |
| 406 | [floatboxright: |
| 407 | '''Race''': Ascian\ |
| 408 | '''Epithet''': The Contender] |
| 409 | |
| 410 | ->''"Unlike the others, I am not given to waiting. I shall take that staff, and bring about the next Rejoining."'' |
| 411 | \ |
| 412 | An Ascian overseer introduced briefly at the very tail end of TheStinger of the initial 2.0 release and brought into greater prominence in the patch content, particularly patch 2.5, Nabriales is the Ascian responsible for teaching Iceheart how to summon Shiva, and potentially for how the primals were re-summoned in their "Extreme" difficulty. Contrasting Lahabrea's and Elidibus's personalities, Nabriales isn't one for sticking to the shadows or respecting diplomacy. |
| 413 | ---- |
| 414 | * AbhorrentAdmirer: Leers at Minfilia's chest and makes to caress her cheek after stringing her up in the Chrysalis. Although he might have just been taunting the player. |
| 415 | * AmbiguousSituation: His and Deudalaphon's are the only two seats whose roles on the Convocation have yet to be revealed. |
| 416 | * BarehandedBladeBlock: He blocks Moenbryda’s axe with a single ''finger'' when she tries to cut him down, prompting her to mutter [[OhCrap “Oh, bugger.”]] |
| 417 | * BastardUnderstudy: Implied from his dialogue where he mentions being under the tutelage of Lahabrea while he taught people about primals. He has no respect for him and makes his disdain and desire to surpass him clear. |
| 418 | * BeardOfEvil: He has some noticeable sideburns poking out from under his hood. |
| 419 | * BlackMage: While all the Ascians seem to be able to cast dark magic, he takes this art to another degree during his boss fight, in which he unleashes powerful spells such as Dark IV, Quake III and Comet (a ''lot'' of Comets actually, while slowing the flow of time itself), and summon dark elementals. He is also able to cast nearly instantly his basic spell several times in a row, something which will kill your tank if you don't anticipate it. |
| 420 | * CastingAShadow: His basic attack spell Spark as well as the Dark IV spell which will wipe the party if they let the orbs reach him and charge his spell, during this time he also summons Shadow Sprites who cast Dark II at you. |
| 421 | * ColonyDrop: His final desperation move is to trap your party in a rift in time space and pelt you with Comets while he summons a Meteor and your party has to escape the rift before the meteor lands to avoid a TotalPartyKill. |
| 422 | * DeaderThanDead: At the end of 2.5, he becomes the first Ascian to fall victim to the Auracite/Blade of Light combination, which is an ImmortalBreaker. As a result, Nabriales is permanently and irrecoverably slain. Though doing such comes at a great cost, as Moenbryda dies in the effort. |
| 423 | * DishingOutDirt: When he starts getting desperate he will cast Quake III an unavoidable shockwave, sometimes several times in a row. |
| 424 | * EvilBrit: Has a distinct British accent in the English version (largely because Creator/GideonEmery pulls double duty in voicing him, on top of doing Urianger). |
| 425 | * FauxAffablyEvil: He is very polite, but this is nothing but a facade, hiding an incredibly ruthless individual. He seems to respect Elidibus's wishes to not harm Minfilia, who tries to stop him from getting Louisoix's staff... so he decides to kidnap her instead with the staff. |
| 426 | * GetBackHereBoss: He loves to teleport away from you and cast a long-range spell, prompting you to run after him. |
| 427 | * HeroKiller: Fatally wounds Moenbryda in the Rising Stones. [[spoiler:She ends up pulling a HeroicSacrifice to ensure that the Ascian who wounded her is KilledOffForReal.]] |
| 428 | * HoistByHisOwnPetard: Sucking the party into the rift extends all buffs and debuffs, and he tries to cripple the entire party with Blight so you're less effective to break out if you go straight in. However, when we say all buffs, we mean ''all'' of the buffs. This means a clever Tank can straight up activate their invulnerability skill -- and extend it to upwards for an entire minute, making them able to NoSell the meteors in the rift altogether. |
| 429 | * HotBloodedSideburns: The only identifying characteristic underneath his mask, and matches his [[NoNonsenseNemesis no nonsense personality]] to boot. |
| 430 | * KilledOffForReal: He's the test subject to see if trapping an Ascian in white auracite can get rid of them for good. It takes the HeroicSacrifice of Moenbryda by adding her aether to the white auracite's beam, but it does indeed kill Nabriales without giving him the ability to resurrect. [[spoiler:Later dialogue from the Ascians confirms that Nabriales was permanently slain, and he never appears again, confirming that Nabriales really is gone for good.]] |
| 431 | * KnightOfCerebus: He shares this role along with Midgardsormr in the 2.5 patch, [[spoiler:though his role is short-lived]]. |
| 432 | * ImplacableMan: As soon as he realizes that the player character is no longer under Hydaelyn's protection, he immediatly rushes the Scions' base in order to steal Louisoix's staff, and crushes anyone resisting him, effortlessly. |
| 433 | * NiceJobFixingItVillain: Rather than just simply taking the fragment of Tupsimati, Louisoux's former staff, he decides in the middle of taunting the Scions to explain why it's so important to the Ascians and partly because he's shocked that the Scions had such a powerful artifact in their possession all this time. Namely he explains that it's able to draw to it a great amount of aether from the land at once. Yes that's right, he unwittingly gave the Scions the solution to his own destruction to summon forth the aether needed to use the Blade of Light. |
| 434 | * NoNonsenseNemesis: Elidibus wants to solve the enmity with the Scions through diplomacy and Lahabrea's still recovering from his temporary defeat and prefers to work in the shadows; Nabriales is neither of these. While at first he just shows up to gloat, he easily deflects Moenbryda when she attacks him. And when he senses your character no longer has the Blessing of Light, he ''immediately'' goes to the Rising Stones to get Louisoix's staff, which has the ability to channel incredible amounts of aether. When Moenbryda tries to stop him, he doesn't hesitate to fatally wound her in a single attack. And when Minfilia refuses to give him the staff, he adheres to Elidibus's orders to not harm her... by taking her and the staff together. This even spills into his boss fight: he doesn't mess around with weak or slow magic, his spells are extremely powerful, have excellent range, and cast quickly. He uses his "big" technique twice, and after it's clear it won't work a third time, reveals a ''second'' big technique: pulling you into a pocket dimension and spamming Meteor, which is a great deal more difficult that stopping his shadow flare. Ultimately, the entire reason for his downfall was only because Moenbryda pulled a HeroicSacrifice; has she not, he would have escaped with knowledge that the Scions are unprotected and of the existence of the white auracite. |
| 435 | * NoSell: He stops Moenbryda's battleax with a single finger. |
| 436 | * TimeMaster: His skills are so great that he is able to spam spells and slow the flow of time itself. |
| 437 | * TimeStandsStill: He is able to create a distortion in time and space, in which time is slowed (complete with mandatory ColourCodedTimestop) and in which he spams meteors on your party. |
| 438 | * VillainTeleportation: As an Ascian, he is able to teleport himself around pretty quickly. He actually teleports himself inside Minfilia's room several times, and also likes to do that during his boss battle. |
| 439 | * VillainousBreakdown: When it's clear to him that he's finished and about to be DeaderThanDead, he starts this very quickly. While the English dub portrays this as him being {{defiant to the end}} but [[ThisCannotBe still flipping out that this is even possible]], the Japanese audio has him outright screaming in terror. Either way, once Nabriales realizes that this ImmortalBreaker is really going to kill him, he's suddenly sick with dread. |
| 440 | --> "I don't want to die. ''I don't want to die!'' '''''I DON'T WANT TO DIE!!!'''''" |
| 441 | * WaveMotionGun: Whenever he teleports he will cast the End of Days spell which is a straight forward laser beam of death. |
| 442 | * WeakButSkilled: According to ''Encyclopedia Eorzea'', Nabriales lacks the raw magical power of the likes of Lahabrea and Elidibus, but makes up for it with his expansive knowledge of the dark arts. |
| 443 | * WesternZodiac: Scorpio. |
| 444 | [[/folder]] |
| 445 | |
| 446 | [[folder:Igeyorhm]] |
| 447 | [[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/igeyorhm_ffxiv.jpg]] |
| 448 | [floatboxright: |
| 449 | '''Race''': Ascian\ |
| 450 | '''Epithet''': The Rhetorician] |
| 451 | |
| 452 | ->''"Darkness shall consume light!"'' |
| 453 | |
| 454 | A female Ascian in league with Lahabrea and the one in charge of overseeing the group's plans within Ishgard. |
| 455 | ---- |
| 456 | * AnIcePerson: She specializes in ice elemental magic to contrast the magic of Lahabrea. |
| 457 | * DarkActionGirl: The first female Ascian seen in person and more than capable in a fight. |
| 458 | * DidntSeeThatComing: Lampshaded by Y'shtola in 6.5 after the Knight in Black reveals what she was doing on the Thirteenth. [[spoiler:They discover Igeyorhm had directly pointed Durante (now Golbez) to the shard of Zodiark on the Moon, had him kill the Watcher and got the shard released, only for the unstoppable amount of Darkness to overwhelm the world in a Flood of Darkness. The Ascians were still fresh to the Rejoinings at the time, so they hadn't figured out that they needed an equal calamity in the Source to be a conduit for all that darkness. With nowhere for all that darkness to go, Igeyorhm botched the outcome, ultimately turning the Thirteenth into the Void when the Flood of Darkness overwhelmed the star. However, Emet-Selch and the other Ascians never attribute blame to her, as not even the Paragons could've seen this coming ahead of time, since no one on the Ascians was sure of the machinations of a rejoining quite yet.]] |
| 459 | * FusionDance: Joins with Lahabrea to become an Ascian Prime. |
| 460 | * GoneHorriblyRight: ''Encyclopedia Eorzea'' explains that Igeyorhm was the Ascian in charge of events in the Thirteenth Shard, and that she really botched her mission. But, this was by having everything go exactly as planned. [[spoiler:She crushed the forces of light in that world so suddenly and completely, and then convinced Golbez to kill the Watcher to unleash Zodiark. This triggered a flood of darkness that nullified the shard's aether and converted that realm into the Void, which was useless for the Ascians' purposes. Further explained the storyline between ''Endwalker'' and ''Dawntrail'', where Zero describes her perspective of the Thirteenth's history. The Ascians had only just started their summoning methods to cause a calamitous war. However, Zero makes it out to be that the Ascians were warded off and their plans temporarily thwarted... until [[HumansAreBastards the darkness-empowered mankind sought too much power]] and caused the Flood of Darkness. It didn't help that Igeyorhm was manipulating Golbez to break the seal on Zodiark, only to overflow the world with darkness without anywhere for that flood to safely leak to. In essence, The Void ending up as it currently is is due to the Asican's trial and error with the general populus being easily influenced, with Igeyorhm acting as the middle-man.]] |
| 461 | * InTheBlood: She was [[spoiler: Lahabrea's cousin, which is why she was compatible with him for a FusionDance into an Ascian Prime, a process that usually reserved for people who's souls resonate closely like lovers]]. |
| 462 | * KilledOffForReal: She does a FusionDance with Lahabrea into an Ascian Prime while fighting the Warrior of Light at the Aetherochemical Research Facility. After that doesn't work, the Warrior of Light traps her in a white auracite container before casting a blade of light from Nidhogg's eye, permanently killing her. |
| 463 | * MustMakeAmends: She seeks redemption by working with Lahabrea for her failure in the Thirteenth shard. [[spoiler:Even though Igeyorhm wasn't solely responsible, she still ultimately caused the Flood of Darkness that turned the Thirteenth into the Void. This is because neither she nor the other Ascians had quite gotten down what they needed to do to make a rejoining work yet, resulting in the loss of the Thirteenth as a viable shard.]] |
| 464 | * PosthumousCharacter: Relatively speaking. She is still largely unknown as a character, but [[spoiler:during 5.3, we learn that she was one of the people closest to Elidibus, the other being Lahabrea. They are the two we see in Elidibus's memory of his closest companions and during his final moments, Elidibus clutches Igeyorhm and Lahabrea's stones containing their memories to his chest.]] |
| 465 | * SmallRoleBigImpact: She serves as a bit-player in the storyline and only shows up in a few scenes, one of which is a boss fight [[spoiler: which ends in her permanent death.]] Yet it was first ''Encyclopedia Eorzea'' which revealed that she's potentially one of the most important figures in the entire meta-universe. [[spoiler:Since she's responsible for creating the void, she's, albeit unintentionally, the GreaterScopeVillain for every single voidsent villain on both Hydaelyn and the other shards. ''Shadowbringers'' confirms this, though Emet-Selch claims that, really, the Ascians are collectively guilty for not stepping in to help Igeyorhm and prevent the Flood of Darkness until it was far too late to stop.]] |
| 466 | * VocalDissonance: While Igeyorhm used a female body when first seen in ''A Realm Reborn'', come 2.3 she has {{body surf}}ed to a male body, which she uses throughout ''Heavensward'' while retaining her feminine voice. |
| 467 | * WeHardlyKnewYe: While she can be seen in the scenes where all of the Ascians are present, she's properly introduced in the main story of 3.0 and is killed by the Warrior of Light at the end of it while barely getting any screen time. |
| 468 | * WesternZodiac: Sagittarius. |
| 469 | [[/folder]] |
| 470 | |
| 471 | [[folder:Emmerololth]] |
| 472 | [floatboxright: |
| 473 | '''Race''': Ascian\ |
| 474 | '''Epithet''': The Mender] |
| 475 | A briefly seen Ascian mentioned in Galuf Baldesion's notes within Eureka Hydatos. She sought to control the primal Eureka, only to be destroyed by Galuf and his three allies. |
| 476 | ---- |
| 477 | * AlternateSelf: An Emmerololth was seen and spoke at a meeting of the Ascian Convocation that canonically occured after her supposed death at Val. Given later revelations regarding the Ascians, it seems likely the Paragons found another one of her shards and raised them to her seat. |
| 478 | * DeaderThanDead: Galuf and company took her down at the same time you were fighting Lahabrea and managed to kill her outright. This turned out to be a terrible idea. |
| 479 | * GreaterScopeVillain: Her machinations are why the Isle of Val became the Forbidden Land of Eureka. |
| 480 | * TheMedic: Was the Convocation's specialist in medicine and healing. |
| 481 | * PosthumousCharacter: She was destroyed by Galuf and his allies, and her aether was scattered into the Lifestream. |
| 482 | * WesternZodiac: Aquarius. |
| 483 | [[/folder]] |
| 484 | |
| 485 | [[folder:Loghrif and Mitron '''(Unmarked [=5.4=] Spoilers)''']] |
| 486 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/loghrif.jpg]] |
| 487 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mitron.jpg]] |
| 488 | [floatboxright: |
| 489 | '''Race''': Ascian\ |
| 490 | '''Epithet''': The Pastor (Loghrif), The Mariner (Mitron)] |
| 491 | |
| 492 | Two briefly mentioned Ascians whom Emet-Selch entrusted with increasing Light's sway in The First to help trigger a Calamity of Light. The pair were slain by Ardbert and his allies, but in doing so caused the Flood of Light to ravage the world. In truth, while Loghrif was slain, she was reincarnated as a the Oracle of Darkness Gaia, while Mitron, attacked by Ardbert's Blade of Light that was enhanced by the unbalanced light on the First, mutated the Ascian's body into the first Sin Eater Eden, while his consciousness was sealed away as Eden ushered in the Flood. Mitron serves as the main antagonist of the Eden raids series, hoping to reawaken Gaia's memories as Loghrif. |
| 493 | ---- |
| 494 | * AlasPoorVillain: Gaia, remembering Mitron as he was is sad to see him vanish after his defeat, comforting him with the thoughts of finding him once more when he is reborn and crying out for him not to leave when he passes on. |
| 495 | * AndIMustScream: The fate of Mitron after his fight with Ardbert's party. While Loghrif was killed in the battle with Ardbert and her fragment was allowed to be reborn, Mitron was instead ''mutated'' by the blade of Light, due to the extreme imbalance of Light they had created in the First. His body became the first Sin Eater and released the surplus Light from the Ardbert's blade as the Flood, but he was unable to act on his own for over a hundred years. |
| 496 | * AntiVillain: In their previous lives, Mitron and Loghrif were lovers, and during their previous life, Loghrif told Mitron that should she ever forget who he was (a real possibility due to her tendency to lose more memories than other Ascians between deaths), that he should do everything he can to make her remember. At present, when Loghrif has reincarnated into Gaia, Mitron chooses to follow her previous incarnation's wishes even though the current incarnation simply wants to be left alone to live her own life. A healthy does of SanitySlippage from the above AndIMustScream certainly didn't help his perspective. In the end, he simply loved her too much, and she notes that if he had found her earlier on in her life, maybe things would have been different between the two of them. |
| 497 | * ArcVillain: Mitron is revealed to be the BigBad of the Eden raids, having become Eden when struck with the blade of light by the Warriors of Darkness, and ushered in the Flood of Light and Sin Eaters. While trying to repair the Empty, Mitron awakens and forcibly tries to reawaken Gaia's memories as Loghrif. |
| 498 | * BodyguardCrush: Mitron is implied to have had one on Loghrif, leading him to fuse with Gaia so that they would never be parted again. |
| 499 | * EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: When he was first introduced in 3.1, Mitron was given a deeper, raspier voice that now doesn't fit his youthful looks. Considering he was only shown from the back at the time, this is a given. |
| 500 | * FusionDance: The two did this to become an Ascian Prime like Lahabrea and Igeyorhm in order to combat Ardbert and his companions, then Mitron forcefully does this with Gaia to awaken her dormant memories of him and together they serve as the final boss of the Eden raid. |
| 501 | * GenderBlenderName: Artemis in mythology is the ''goddess'' of the moon and the hunt, but this Artemis (or rather, the shard of Artemis that became an Ascian and subsequently Eden) is clearly stated as being a male. |
| 502 | * GoneHorriblyRight: During her previous life, Gaia as Loghrif told Mitron that should she ever forget him in a future life, he should do everything he can to make her remember. He takes this request to heart to the point of trying to forcibly reform her into Loghrif even when she currently wants to be able to grow as her own person. |
| 503 | * GrandTheftMe: Mitron pulls a variation of this on Gaia, forcibly awakening her Ascian powers in order to fuse with her and revive her memories as Loghrif. |
| 504 | * LoadBearingBoss: Ardbert's team defeated them, but doing so triggered the Flood of Light and nearly destroyed the First, leading to the Warriors of Light becoming HeroesWithBadPublicity. More accurately, Mitron ''became'' the Flood of Light due to the manner in which he was slain. |
| 505 | * LordOfTheOcean: Mitron's original duty among the Convocation of Fourteen was the management of ocean-based life, which she took to with ''great'' enthusiasm. |
| 506 | * MeaningfulName: Gaia's duty as Loghrif was centered around the care and management of land-based life, and her reincarnation took on the mission of restoring life to the land, while Artemis's life's mission revolved around being with Gaia forever. There's also the MeaningfulRename in Mitron's case as he becomes obsessed with creating a paradise as Eden, much like the biblical garden his new form is named after. |
| 507 | * MookMaker: Mitron effectively became one as Eden, being responsible for the creation of Sin Eaters as well as the many Primals used by Ryne to restore the land's aether. Multiple times throughout the raids, particularly during "Descent" and "Iconoclasm", he flexes his powers to summon both Sin Eaters ''and'' Voidsent to kill the Warrior of Darkness. |
| 508 | * MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning: While the two obviously weren't intending to die, the First's Warriors of Light killing them resulted in their plan succeeding anyway. |
| 509 | * MythologyGag: In Katakana, "Artemis" (アルテミス, ''Arutimisu'') bears a significant resemblance to "Ultimecia" (アルティミシア, ''Arutimishia''), befitting his similar role in the story. |
| 510 | * RavenHairIvorySkin: Loghrif's face beneath the hood, in contrast with Mitron. |
| 511 | * RecurringBoss: Mitron is technically fought three times in Eden, once in each tier: first as his mindless Sin Eater form Eden Prime, then as proxy through the Idol of Darkness, and finally his true self fused with Lohgrif to create Eden's Promise. |
| 512 | * ReligiousAndMythologicalThemeNaming: Their true names are based on Greek mythology, just like Emet-Selch: Loghrif's is "Gaia" (Primordial goddess of the Earth) and Mitron's is "Artemis" (Olympian goddess of the Moon). Mitron may specifically be a reference to Artemis of Ephesus, a fertility goddess whose [[https://www.livius.org/articles/religion/artemis-of-ephesus/ image]] may be an inspiration for Eden's Promise. |
| 513 | * ReincarnatedAsTheOppositeSex: Implied with Mitron. There are hints that his original ancient self used to be a woman, such as his convocation stone speaking with a feminine voice, or being referred to with feminine pronouns by Cyella in several versions. Loghrif mentions that his appearance changed a lot over his reincarnations, which Mitron confirms, though he doesn't seem bothered by it. The Tales from the Dawn short story ''Days Gone By, Days Yet To Come'' would eventually confirm that the ancient form of Mitron/Artemis was indeed a woman. |
| 514 | * ReincarnationRomance: Loghrif and Mitron have been in one since they were Ancients, and vowed to find each other time and again no matter how many times they are reborn. This comes back to bite Gaia, who has no memory of her past life as Loghrif and only sees Mitron trying to destroy her current one. At the end of the Eden questline, [[spoiler:they seem to be happy to settle with a possible ReincarnationFriendship instead, once Mitron reincarnates and they meet again.]] |
| 515 | * SmallRoleBigImpact: Loghrif's name only comes up once, and their known actions took place over 100 years ago, but they ended up engineering the catalyst for the events of ''Shadowbringers'' and half the plot of ''Heavensward''. Mitron is ''slightly'' more fleshed out, as Akadaemia Anyder reveals that the original Mitron oversaw the ichthyology wing of the lab. |
| 516 | ** It is all but stated that Loghrif was the ''original'' choice to become the heart of Zodiark, but that Mitron shot down the notion due to her extremely protective attitude towards her, forcing Elidibus to do so instead. |
| 517 | * WesternZodiac: Loghrif is Aries and Mitron is Taurus. |
| 518 | * WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: A variation. Once Mitron's consciousness is freed from Eden, he notes that Emet-Selch was likely aware of his fate all along, but would have elected not to waste energy saving him from his fate (which would risk undoing the Flood) when the Ascians could just [[WeHaveReserves elevate another shard of Mitron to take his seat.]] |
| 519 | * {{Yandere}}: Mitron was one for Loghrif/Gaia, having become obsessed with the idea of uniting with her and creating an eternal paradise with her. This extends to trying to destroy Gaia's current identity, including wiping out her memories of her parents, friends, and Ryne in particular. |
| 520 | * YouAreTheNewTrend: One RunningGag about Mitron shows up in ''Endwalker''; apparently she had the extremely strange impulse to create a concept for a fish that could fly. This ended up ridiculously popular with the ancients, who barraged Hythlodaeus' office with similar concepts of fish that could soar through the air as well as water, [[EnragedByIdiocy much to his confusion and annoyance]]. It's also implied she started another trend of everyone submitting mutant shark-based creations as well due to her borderline obsession with the sea creatures. The results of this trend can be seen in the present day, with the modern-day Etheirys having an abundance of flying sharks in the Sea of Clouds and the Ruby Sea along with bipedal sharks like the Major-General and the Supersharks. |
| 521 | [[/folder]] |
| 522 | |
| 523 | [[folder:Fandaniel ('''Unmarked Spoilers for Shadowbringers''')]] |
| 524 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fandaniel_3.png]] |
| 525 | [floatboxright: |
| 526 | '''Race''': Ascian\ |
| 527 | '''Epithet''': The Observer] |
| 528 | |
| 529 | !!!Voiced by: Creator/JunichiYanagita (JP), Matt [=McCooey=] (EN), Laurent Gris (FR), Simon Derksen (DE) (as Asahi)\ |
| 530 | Creator/YoshitsuguMatsuoka (JP,), Jeremy Ang Jones (EN), Bastien Bourlé (FR), Peter Becker (DE) (as [[spoiler:Amon/Hermes]]) |
| 531 | |
| 532 | ->''"Imagine it! Bound no more by the shackles of moldering memories, of damnable duty! Free at last to live for the moment!"''\ |
| 533 | |
| 534 | A mysterious Ascian appearing to Zenos at the conclusion of ''Shadowbringers'' main story. Despite being an Ascian, he quickly supports Zenos and forms with him the Telophoroi, a group dedicated to bringing the Final Days. |
| 535 | ---- |
| 536 | * AlasPoorVillain: [[spoiler:He was a pretty vile antagonist, but Fandaniel/Amon's final moments are a somber and quite sad affair, with him trying and utterly failing to maintain his StrawNihilist facade, only to let his past unsundered self Hermes shine through one last time, and realize that he was never truly free from his regrets.]] |
| 537 | * AllForNothing: [[spoiler:The realization that the Ascian's were behind the fall of Allag, and that he was one of them, made him grow to resent them deeply for effectively making all his hard work for his home a waste. Part of his plan to let Zodiark die and take the world with it, seems partially motivated by his sheer spite for his work being made useless by the Ascian's, and wanting to get revenge on them]]. |
| 538 | * AndThereWasMuchRejoicing: Upon realizing that Elidibus is dead and the Paragons are no more, Fandaniel bursts into ecstatic laughter and dances around with glee, thrilled that he is now free to follow his own agenda. |
| 539 | * ArcVillain: For ''Endwalker''. Most major plot advancements come about as a result of his actions (or the actions of his other incarnations), and he's fought [[RuleOfThree three times]] throughout the main questline. He's also the most persistent and recurring obstacle to the Warrior of Light's quest to save the Source: as Zenos' aide he's behind all the towers that are tempering people and he's the one who [[spoiler:frees Zodiark and forces the Warrior to kill him]], later [[spoiler:his past incarnation Hermes is revealed to be the creator of Meteion, the being who caused the Final Days]], and then finally [[spoiler:his spirit as Amon is fought in the Aitiascope as he tries to stop the Scions from reaching Hydaelyn.]] |
| 540 | * AxCrazy: He's absolutely nuts, shouting and almost dancing as he thinks about how much destruction he and Zenos are going to wreak together. He makes [[BloodKnight Zenos]] look composed by comparison, as while he [[EvilIsHammy revels in his acts]], Zenos is relatively stoic in the same scenes. |
| 541 | * BeenThereShapedHistory: [[spoiler:Fandaniel's sundered life before being ascended to his station as an Ascian was Amon, the genius who revived Emperor Xande to save the Allagan Empire from decline, only for Xande to cause the Fourth Umbral Calamity, destroying the empire almost completely. Amon left a clone of himself in the Crystal Tower and accepted Emet-Selch's offer to join the Ascians in the last days of the empire, but even so, he has always thought of himself as Amon rather than the ancient who held the seat of Fandaniel, and this is the form he takes after dying on the moon in ''Endwalker''.]] |
| 542 | * BootstrappedLeitmotif: He inherited ''Imagination'', the Aetherochemical Research Facility theme (specifically the piano version from the ''Duality'' cover album) during ''Endwalker'', as you find out his previous incarnation was [[spoiler:Amon, the Allagan scientist responsible for many of its facilities and creations, including the aforementioned dungeon.]] |
| 543 | * CardCarryingVillain: He professes to having no greater plan, motivation, or creed other than [[DeathSeeker wanting to die]] and a desire to take the whole world with him as painfully as possible. |
| 544 | * ComplexityAddiction: Played with. [[spoiler: His remnant traits of Amon give him a penchant for grand theatrics with complicated machines. Most of his actions are fairly pointless and serve no end but to amuse himself. However, it all serves one primary purpose: obfuscation. His body swap shenanigans with the Warrior of Light and Zenos buy him enough time to finish the Tower of Babil's cannon, while his possession of Zodiark is done seemingly to use his body to wreak havoc; rather, he wants to ''destroy'' the Elder Primal, as doing so is the true catalyst for bringing forth the Final Days. He goads the Warrior or Light into doing so, under the pretense he'll use Zodiark to destroy the world if not stopped]]. |
| 545 | * CuteAndPsycho: Has Asahi's handsome face, an almost endearing whimsy, and is probably one of the most batshit, nihilistic characters in the whole saga. |
| 546 | * DespairEventHorizon: [[spoiler: The destruction of the Allagan Empire, despite his best efforts to prevent it, is what sent him over the edge, with him retaking the position of Fandaniel primarily as a means to burn everything else down out of sorrow and spite.]] |
| 547 | * DraggedOffToHell: [[spoiler: Courtesy of Asahi for using his body against Zenos]]. |
| 548 | * TheDragon: Despite being an Ascian, he supports Zenos' plans and goals and defers to him. [[spoiler:[[TheStarscream At least openly..]]]]. |
| 549 | * DragonAscendant: With the Unsundered dead at the end of ''Shadowbringers'', he quickly jumps at his newfound freedom to sow whatever chaos he likes. |
| 550 | * DyingAsYourself: In a sense. [[spoiler:When he meets his FinalDeath in the Aitiascope, he talks about how he always identified more with his mortal life as Amon than his Ancient self as Hermes. And yet he is shown reflecting on his Ancient life, his voice changes to resemble Hermes' more than Amon's, and he even refers to himself as Hermes just before Asahi drags him to the depths. In his final moments, his "Hermes" side showed itself once more.]] |
| 551 | * EstablishingCharacterMoment: In his first full appearance in 5.3, he brags to Zenos about how his host body's money made it easy to escalate the Garlean's CivilWar, tries to get a rise out of Zenos by pointing out his host was a fan of his, over-dramatically "laments" that Zenos doesn't even recognize him, and then notes that Elidibus not showing up to stop him means that he's most likely dead and, more importantly, unable to interfere with his plans. All this establishes [[MisanthropeSupreme his belief in mankind's inherently being monsters]], [[TheGadfly his tendency to needle at others]] and most importantly [[MoreDespicableMinion that whatever he has planned is far worse than what even his bosses were up to]]. |
| 552 | * EvilIsHammy: Oh yes, he is ''very'' extra, even more so than Emet-Selch's Solus persona. |
| 553 | * EvilVsEvil: He expected Elidibus to challenge him, as whatever he's up to is counterproductive to the Paragons' plans. [[BlackAndGreyMorality He ends up firmly cast as the black to the more sympathetic Ascians' grey]]. |
| 554 | * ExactWords: He wants to die, and take everyone with him. [[spoiler:By which he means, make it so that ''his'' death will serve as the trigger to ensure everyone else follows.]] |
| 555 | * FatalFlaw: Of all things, it turns out that his was [[spoiler:''love''. His love for the Allagan Empire when he was Amon lead him to desire the return of the Final Days, and as an Ancient his love for living things lead him to want to know what made life ''worth'' living as he was tired of destroying "unfit" creatures that didn't have a chance ''to'' live, a line of questioning that directly caused the Final Days]]. |
| 556 | * FaustianRebellion: He considers the Paragons' fall to be a wonderful thing, because with them out of the way, pure chaos can reign. He's also a willing accomplice to Zenos's plan to consume and overthrow Zodiark. |
| 557 | * {{Foil}}: |
| 558 | ** To Emet-Selch. When people first saw Emet-Selch in the lead-up to ''Shadowbringers'', everyone thought, due to his behavior (and his seeming leitmotif), that he might be "the crazy one" and would contrast against some of the more staid, stoic Ascians; [[BeneathTheMask instead, we discovered]] that he is a crushingly tired and worn-down man who still deeply cares about his cause, and is trying to keep up a facade of sarcastic, occasionally "silly" disinterest to hide how weary he is. Fandaniel, by contrast, is ''genuinely'' unhinged; he barely even cares about the ostensible mission of the Ascians, and is interested only and solely in causing as much chaos as possible in a quest to kill ''everything''. Including the god the Ascians had spend thousands of years trying to bring back. |
| 559 | ** Also to [[spoiler:himself, or more specifically Hermes, his unsundered identity. While Fandaniel seeks to destroy all life on the planet, Hermes cared passionately for life, so much that he was heavily distraught at the idea of unmaking a concept simply because it wasn't working out as planned. Not to mention Hermes sought to prevent the Final Days ([[AmnesiacDissonance albeit thanks to a self-imposed amnesia that made him forget his own role in triggering them]]) while Fandaniel sought to start it anew. It's to this end that the sundered Fandaniel did not identify with his unsundered self after gaining his memories.]] |
| 560 | * {{Foreshadowing}}: |
| 561 | ** His flamboyant personality, habit of speaking in theatrical metaphors, and penchant for inventing make [[spoiler:his true identity as Amon obvious in retrospect.]] |
| 562 | ** One of his battle lines is "Will you live to see the end?". While this may seem like a generic taunt in the heat of the moment, it actually reveals his plan: [[spoiler:even should the Warrior of Light live through the battle, they'll still see the end of the world.]] |
| 563 | ** In addition, [[spoiler: his despair despite having access to Fandaniel's soul crystal should have been a warning that the original bearer of the crystal came to some similar conclusions. Indeed, Hermes - said original owner - is found to have not just been morbidly nihilistic himself, but the actual mind behind the being who is causing the Final Days. While Hermes' contribution to this was erased from his memory, his morose outlook remained regardless]]. |
| 564 | * TheGadfly: Seems to get a kick out of intentionally annoying others, even Zenos. Such as telling him he nearly had Lunar Bahaumut sizzle the Warrior of Light, and when Zenos coldly asks if he is trying to provoke him, Fandaniel just muses that it would be an interesting contingency to his DeathSeeker goals. He later pokes fun at Zenos' indecisiveness in choosing a new weapon, nearly receiving a thrown sword to the skull in response, and is clearly enjoying his frustration. |
| 565 | * GivenNameReveal: Twofold. His name in his final mortal life is revealed to be [[spoiler:Amon, the brilliant scientist from the Allagan Empire]] and his true name as an ancient was [[spoiler:Hermes, major Olympian god in Myth/ClassicalMythology who is also associated with one of the more powerful accessories in the ''Final Fantasy'' franchise.]] |
| 566 | * GrandTheftMe: [[spoiler:Can inflict this on others thanks to Aulus mal Asina's research. He gleefully experiments with it on the Warrior of Light and Zenos, briefly placing the former in a Garlean soldier's body and the latter in the Warrior of Light's. In the end, he even uses it to make himself the core of Zodiark, so he can use Zodiark's power to end the Warrior of Light and then the world.]] |
| 567 | * GreaterScopeVillain: [[spoiler:He serves as one to all expansions prior to ''Endwalker'', as the being responsible for both the Fourth and Seventh Umbral Calamities.]] |
| 568 | * HeadsIWinTailsYouLose: In ''Endwalker'', once he [[spoiler: takes over as the Heart of Zodiark instead of the then-deceased Elidibus]] he gets exactly what he wants - and there's not a damn thing anyone else can do about it, since any path just leads to [[YouCantThwartStageOne him progressing his plan]]: [[spoiler:Zenos kills him, as he originally planned? He wins. The Warrior of Light kills him? He wins. The Warrior of Light subdues him and attempts to seal him away? He just kills himself to prevent that. He kills both Zenos and the Warrior of Light? Then he goes to the planet below and uses Zodiark's power to cause as much mayhem as possible until he is either killed by someone else or - failing that, he just kills himself to get the show on the road. Getting defeated by the Warrior of Light was simply the least bad outcome.]] |
| 569 | * HeelRealization: [[spoiler:When defeated in the Aitiascope, he seems to finally grasp that the nihilistic philosophy he had embraced may not have been the answer he thought he had been looking for all along. He seems to finally grasp that he was wrong all along, and dies admitting that he is a monster that deserves to be hated, and a fool who knew so much and understood so little.]] |
| 570 | * HumansAreBastards: His hatred towards life stems from his unshakable belief that, in the end, all people are monsters. Considering [[spoiler: [[FalseUtopia the empire he was raised in]] and [[DecadentCourt the people he worked with]]]], it comes as no surprise he feels such contempt for his fellow man. |
| 571 | * {{Irony}}: The form he takes is that of Asahi sas Brutus, whose most defining traits were his sadistic and unhinged nature, and his MadLove for Zenos. While he definitely lives up to the former, he sees Zenos as just a means to an end, which would have come off as a ''grave'' insult to the man whose corpse he is occupying. [[spoiler:And to this point, when the two meet in the Underworld, Asahi makes it a point to end Fandaniel for using his body to mess with Zenos.]]. What is additionally ironic is that despite him hypocritically making jest of Asahi's obsession with Zenos, his own relationship with the Allagan Emperor has the exact same shades. |
| 572 | ** Despite his insistence [[spoiler:over him identifying more as Amon than Hermes, and on the fact that both he and other people say they are very different, it turns out that they are very similar in many aspects. They both started out wanting a better future for their people, fell into despair at the world's state, looked for hope into other individuals, and wished to reach the stars. This is brought up by G'raha Tia, who says that even though Amon wasn't supposed to have memories of his past life, this core part of his identity survived through all his lifetimes, and outright starts to realize that souls have personalities. This makes the situation even more ironic, as Amon rejecting his life as Hermes is rejecting his own past experiences, and an essential part of himself, even though it was many years ago. Even he realizes it at the end of the Aitiascope dungeon, as his memories of both his Amon and Hermes lives start to play out together, and admits it only brought him an answer he never truly wished for, despite his earlier claims.]] |
| 573 | ** He also intends to release the Ascians' beloved god not to save the world as he was originally designed to do, but to 'destroy' it. [[spoiler: Though this ends up being a mild subversion; while he does plan on using Zodiark as a contingency, his ideal goal is to destroy Zodiark, which will set back into motion the Final Days. One that the Warrior of Light succeeds in doing for him with flying colours]]. |
| 574 | * ItAmusedMe: As [[LampshadeHanging conceded by the man himself]], Fandaniel's innate curiosity and drive for amusement will occasionally complicate his own plots. |
| 575 | * KarmaHoudiniWarranty: [[spoiler: At first, he seemingly gets away with kickstarting the Final Days and dies on his own accord, and indeed some optional dialogue with G'raha has him note that while innocents turn into blasphemies and lose their souls, Fandaniel gets to return to the Aetherial Sea. However, it's in the Aetherial Sea where he gets his comeuppance, as the vengeful spirit of Asahi drags him into the depths of the Aetherial Sea as punishment for using his body to betray Zenos.]] |
| 576 | * MeaningfulName: [[spoiler:Although he started as [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Hermes]], he sees himself far more now as [[Literature/ArsGoetia Amon]]. Once with the divine, he’s long been a rebel like any other FallenAngel—and now he can act on his true mentality.]] |
| 577 | * MindControlDevice: His towers have the ability to temper anyone who wander near them similarly to primals, but instead of making them slavishly obedient to a single entity, they become fervently loyal to the Garlean Empire itself. Said mind-controlled beings make up the bulk of the Telophoroi army. |
| 578 | * TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody: An unusual example. [[spoiler: Unlike the other Sundered Ascian's who seem to, after having their memories awakened, regain themselves and commit themselves to the goal of restoring their people, Fandaniel seems to have been changed by his experiences as Amon, lacking the same loyalty to Zodiark as the others, but rather to Emperor Xande. Notably he seems to take more pride in his history as Amon than anything else he did as Fandaniel, referencing things like his experiments at Syrcus Tower. No doubt the Ascian's being responsible for the fall of Allag played a role in Amon essentially coming out the "winner" for his being.]] |
| 579 | * MisanthropeSupreme: In the end, this is what drives his actions; he truly believes mankind are all irredeemable monsters, more interested in petty viciousness than true empathy and kindness. It does not help that [[spoiler: his current reincarnation Amon was born into the Allagan Empire, a lax utopia full of sociopaths who caused suffering to innocent people for their own amusement, and even his beloved emperor Xande had fallen to ennui upon being ressurected, leading Amon to believe humanity was apathetic at best, malicious at worst]]. He says so much when you [[spoiler: defeat him in the Aitiascope]]: |
| 580 | -->'''Fandaniel:''' We betray, we torment, we murder. We are wicked, spiteful creatures - without exception! If life is so sacred, so precious, why fill it with such misery? |
| 581 | * MoreDespicableMinion: As heinous as the plans of the three paragons were, they merely wished to restore their home and loved ones to their original states. After the undoing of his bosses, Fandaniel becomes free to kick off his own scheme with Zenos which is much worse for the world at large as he desires nothing less than utter destruction by restarting the original crisis that caused his world to be sundered in the first place. |
| 582 | * MortonsFork: This is what his scheme amounts to: Zenos consumes Zodiark and goes on a rampage, bringing about the end of the world; Zodiark is freed and on his own brings about the end of the world; [[spoiler:Fandaniel himself merges with Zodiark and brings about the end of the world, or the Warrior of Light kills Zodiark... bringing about [[NiceJobBreakingItHero the end of the world]]]]. |
| 583 | * MythologyGag: Fandaniel brings to mind both [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI Kefka]] and [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX Kuja]]. All three are powerful sorcerers with an extremely nihilistic view on life; from Kefka he takes his [[LargeHam hammy]] and clownish personality, while his [[SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum motivation]] and resentment of being a sundered minion to villains trying to save their people calls to mind Kuja's own goals and motivations. ''Endwalker'' brings this comparison even closer when it reveals [[spoiler: he was the court magician of an expansionistic Empire prior to becoming an Ascian, just like Kefka and, to a lesser extent, Kuja; furthermore, he is consumed by such all-encompassing nihilism, failing to see meaning in his own life or others', that he wishes for the end of himself and all existence.]] He also has traces of his Esper countertpart, Hashmal, from the Ivalice games as both instigated a civil war for their agenda. |
| 584 | * NiceJobFixingItVillain: His act of [[spoiler: hijacking Zodiark while Zenos was distracted was a legitimately impressive betrayal and manipulation of Zenos, but in the long run assured his defeat and ruination of his plans. Due to making himself the bigger target for the WOL, this means that Zenos survives long enough to be a SpannerInTheWorks for Meteion as he pulls VillainousRescue for the WOL to ensure that the final days are stopped. To add insult to injury, Fandaniel's betrayal of Zenos is the direct reason why Asahi's vengeful soul drags Fandaniel to oblivion.]] |
| 585 | * NonchalantDodge: Upon asking if any of his new weapons is to his liking, Zenos's response is to hurl a sword at him. It barely misses, but Fandaniel doesn't even deign to dodge, instead choosing to further provoke Zenos by asking if he's still upset about the loss of the dragons. |
| 586 | * NonUniformUniform: Fandaniel's robe has a radically different design and color from those worn by the other Ascians, reflecting how his goals are not aligned with those of the Paragons. The specific model of his robe is obtainable by players and is part of the "Cryptlurker" set, which ''also'' says a lot about his motivations. |
| 587 | * OmnicidalManiac: Fandaniel reveals his madness and utter loathing of everything around him to the Scions when he attacks with Lunar Bahamut. His ultimate goal is to recreate Amaurot's Final Days purely so that he can kill ''everyone and everything'' on The Source, [[SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum ending with himself]]. He despises the "half-broken" "wretched creatures" of the current world, including himself, just that much. He stands out easily as one of the most unhinged antagonists in a setting full of antagonistic madmen, and he wants absolutely ''nothing'' but death and chaos. |
| 588 | * OpportunisticBastard: Regardless of his true motives, he only starts acting once Emet-Selch is gone, even though Elidibus is still alive. Once he deduces that the last of the Unsundered is no more, he is delighted at the notion and promises great amusement to Zenos. |
| 589 | * PracticallyJoker: A nihilistic LargeHam who wants [[SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum to die and take all of existence with him]] and makes fun of everything, including the shallowness of his own motives. [[spoiler:He also turns out to be a MagicalClown in his true claimed identity as the Allagan court jester and archmage Amon, and has two "[[DespairEventHorizon one bad day]]" moments; discovering his entire civilization was a tool of ancient immortals that cared nothing for it as Amon, and the Meteia finding how cold, lifeless, and pain-ridden the universe was as Hermes.]] |
| 590 | * RayOfHopeEnding: [[spoiler:Despite being dragged off into oblivion in the depths of the Aetherial Sea by Asahi, the latter indicates that he will still eventually reincarnate, and suffer again. However, the Warrior of Light has the choice to tell him that they will help him find his answer together in their next lives. While Fandaniel stays pessimistic up until the end, mocking the Warrior for even offering, his tone of voice suggests he was still touched by it. Meteion also voices the hope that one day, he will be able to see the beauty of the world she found, hopefully in his next life. This is even completed with rising sun/new beginning imagery at the end of ''Endwalker''.]] |
| 591 | * RecurringBoss: He is fought no less than three times throughout ''Endwalker'', [[spoiler:albeit in different forms every time. First by performing a GrandTheftMe on Zodiark, second in the past as his unsundered self Hermes, and third in the Aetherial Sea as Amon]]. |
| 592 | * RedIsViolent: Fandanial is a blood thirsty maniac, and his soul crystal is appropriately a vivid crimson color. |
| 593 | * RedemptionRejection: Voices this if [[spoiler: the Warrior of Light offers to find an answer for his question together in the next life. Even expressing shock that despite everything he did, they would still offer to help him.]] |
| 594 | * RedOniBlueOni: Fandaniel is the Red Oni to Zenos's Blue Oni. Fandaniel is loud, theatrical, and passionate to the point of mania. Zenos is quiet, stoic, and nearly emotionless when not engaged in a thrilling battle to the death. |
| 595 | * {{Revenge}}: [[spoiler: Amon never saw himself as Fandaniel after retaking the position. So, instead of identifying with the Ascians, he saw them as those responsible for Allag's downfall, having used it to usher in a Calamity. Naturally, he'd have every reason to want to derail their plans. And ironically, ''Hermes himself'' was heavily responsible for bringing about the Final Days to begin with, and even shared Amon's motivation of being disdainful of his own people, albeit for very different reasons.]] |
| 596 | * {{Sadist}}: [[spoiler:This is what truly sets him apart from his past unsundered incarnation Hermes, and even Meteion for that matter. Hermes was somewhat remorseful even as he set Meteion free and even though he had severe issues with the way his people lived, his role in bringing about the Final Days was never motivated by spite. And while Meteion did relentlessly torment whoever she could, she largely served as a conduit to all the despair she'd assimilated and got no satisfaction from other people's misery ''per se''. Amon, by contrast, relishes in tormenting people ''because he enjoys it'', and has a truly hateful streak present in him that is unmatched by most major villains of the entire ''XIV'' storyline, with the exception of Asahi, who's body he possesses.]] |
| 597 | * SanitySlippage: Fandaniel's already at the bottom of the slippery slope, and possibly tried to launch himself off the slide while he was at it; scenes in ''Endwalker'' explain how he got there. [[spoiler:Amon's dedication to the Allagan Empire kept him working tirelessly to prevent its decline, only for Ascian manipulations to bring it to a violent end. As a result, he took the seat of Fandaniel to destroy the Ascians]]. |
| 598 | ** Furthermore, [[spoiler: his unsundered self of Hermes was already questioning the "righteousness" of the Ancients for their callous creation and destruction of creatures that didn't fit their definition of worth, and Meteion's report of life in the universe being dead or dying agonizingly tipped him over the brink. And given Amon's statement that Hermes trying to erase these memories just burned them into his soul, Fandaniel's [[OmnicidalManiac apocalyptic despair]] was ingrained into all his sundered selves.]] |
| 599 | * ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: {{Invoked}}. As the Brutus family was one of the richer houses of TheEmpire, he decides to use the massive amounts of wealth at his disposal to further the goals of himself and Zenos. |
| 600 | * ShadowArchetype: To his previous incarnation. [[spoiler:On the surface, both Amon and Hermes were scientific geniuses who lived in a very peaceful society with people that had a callous disregard for the lives of those they saw as beneath them, both end up crossing the DespairEventHorizon and both end up setting the stage for world-ending apocalypses that threaten the annihilation of mankind. However, Amon's own life is an incredibly twisted reflection of the life Hermes led. While the Ancients had genuinely benevolent intentions and justified their practice of disposing of unfit creations by invoking the greater good of the star, the Allagans had no such pretensions and encouraged all sorts of twisted experimentation solely for their own amusement. While the tragedy of Hermes's life is driven by his inability to open up to his fellow Ancients, who might have genuinely listened to him, the Allagan Empire was doomed from the outset, and it's strongly implied that nobody ever really cared about Amon to begin with. Hermes embraces nihilism after hearing of Meteion's reports of all the dead and dying civilizations across space, while Amon's nihilism is solidified after he resurrects Emperor Xande and discovers that even ''he'' believes in nothing. And finally, while Hermes remained remorseful even as he concluded that mankind had no true claim to continue existing, Amon was actively sadistic and hateful, and reveled in being an OmnicidalManiac.]] |
| 601 | * ShiftingVoiceOfMadness: Inverted. [[spoiler:When he's defeated in the Aitiascope and gives a dramatic monologue about the futility of existence, he admits he still has doubts if the answers he's found satisfy him. As he ponders this, his voice softens and becomes more like the Hermes players met in Elpis.]] |
| 602 | * SissyVillain: He is a very dramatic grandstander who has rather effeminate mannerisms, especially around the unfeelingly icy Zenos. When he lets slip that he attacked the Warrior of Light, Zenos immediately threatens to kill him; this does [[DeathSeeker little to change his demeanor]], other than to tell Zenos he'll hold that offer as a ''backup plan''. |
| 603 | * StrawNihilist: His ''only'' goal is to kill everyone and everything on Hydaelyn, and then die. He makes it clear very early on he has no sympathetic side to him, and he has absolutely no desire to for you to understand him or his insanity. Played with come ''Endwalker''; our current Fandaniel does in fact have some sympathetic aspects, overshadowed as they are to his, well, ''everything else'', namely a deep and abiding dedication to his homeland. [[spoiler:Shame that homeland was ''Allag'' and he wants to destroy the star because he loved Allag far more than he did Amaurot, and wanted vengeance on the Ascians for taking his empire away when all he wanted to do was save it]]. |
| 604 | * SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum: Fandaniel's overarching goal is to die, but not "just" to die. Oh, no, he wants to take everyone else with him first. |
| 605 | ** Played with in regards to his true identity. [[spoiler:While he doesn't ''want'' to destroy the universe, he believes that if he cannot find true purpose and meaning to life, then the universe doesn't deserve to exist.]] |
| 606 | * TeethClenchedTeamwork: It's clear that neither he nor Zenos particularly care for each other, and that they are only allied as long as they are useful to each other. Zenos makes his disdain of Fandaniel much clearer when Fandaniel pushes his buttons (particularly about potentially having the Warrior of Light killed before Zenos gets the chance), but in the ''Endwalker'' cinematic, Fandaniel is last seen subtly scowling at Zenos's back. |
| 607 | * UndyingLoyalty: [[spoiler: ''Not'' towards Zodiark, notably, but towards the Allagan Empire and Emperor Xande, instilled from his early life as Amon, Allag's Chief Scientist of the time. Much of his DespairEventHorizon is spurred as much by his being inspired by the example of his beloved Emperor beliefs and teachings as much as his sorrow over Allag's fall.]] |
| 608 | * TheUnfettered: Again, he wants to kill the planet and everything on it, including himself, meaning that his only opinion about casualties and collateral damage is 'yes, more of that, please'. This makes him much more dangerous in certain ways than other saner and more competent Ascians - his plans may not be perfect, or even all that well thought out, but even a partial success will cause untold death and destruction, so the heroes have to give 100% to stop everything he does. |
| 609 | * UniformityException: With all other Ascians, the glyph that covers their face is taken from FFXII's Scions of Light's glyphs. While this is ''technically'' true of Fandaniel, his glyph instead uses the ''negative space'' of Hashmal, Bringer of Order's. |
| 610 | * VilerNewVillain: Mind you, the previous Ascian villains were ''bad'', their goal was to commit genocide on a multi-planetary level, but at least if they won then the Source would still have life in it. Unlike them, Fandaniel just wants to kill everyone in the most painful way possible and make sure nothing can grow back. |
| 611 | * WesternZodiac: Leo, a star sign associated with hubris and backstabbing at its nadir, which definitely defines him. |
| 612 | * XanatosGambit: His ultimate plans with Zodiark; [[spoiler: while he frees Zodiark with the express purpose of killing him to usher the Final Days, should the Warrior of Light fail to do so, he has the challenge-seeking Zenos as a backup. And should ''he'' fail as well, Fandaniel can just used the possessed Elder God to wreak havoc instead. Either way, the world gets destroyed, be it by the Final Days or Zodiark's hand]]. |
| 613 | * YouAreWhatYouHate: Lampshaded by [[spoiler:Elidibus in ''Endwalker''. Fandaniel -- the Fandaniel ''we'' know -- is a far cry from the unsundered ancient who held the seat, consumed by self-loathing and hatred to the point of wishing for the death of all living beings, the ones he once desperately sought to preserve. In fact, he's actually this twice over, as he considers himself more Amon than Hermes, and ''loathes'' the Ascians for destroying his homeland. Later revelations make it clear that Hermes wasn't as different from Amon as Elidibus or even ''Amon Himself'' believed, though Amon definitely took Hermes's existential despair to sadistic and spiteful new heights.]] |
| 614 | * YouCantThwartStageOne: You only get to actually face him after [[spoiler:he manages to release Zodiark and pit him against you, assuring the revival of the Final Days.]] |
| 615 | [[/folder]] |
| 616 | |
| 617 | [[folder:Altima, Deudalaphon, Halmarut, and Pashtarot]] |
| 618 | [floatboxright: |
| 619 | '''Race''': Ascian\ |
| 620 | '''Epithet''': The Composer (Altima), The Sower (Halmarut), The Arbiter (Pahstarot), The Innovator (Deudalphon)] |
| 621 | The four remaining Convocation members, of whom little is known. |
| 622 | ---- |
| 623 | * AmbiguousSituation: Pashtarot appeared in a cutscene in the 2.X storyline, but hasn't been seen or mentioned since. Altima and Deudalaphon were defeated by Gaius at some point after the Praetorium, but whether he killed them hasn't been stated. Halmarut is mentioned in Akadaemia Anyder and nowhere else. The developers have confirmed plans for all of the remaining Ascians after ''Endwalker'', but with [[spoiler:Zodiark dead and their primary goal no longer attainable]], they likely won't be appearing for some time. |
| 624 | ** Deudalaphon, furthermore, is one of the only two members of the Convocation (alongside Nabriales) whose role before the Sundering is unknown. |
| 625 | ** Also counting the remaining unawakened shards of the Ascians. With no unsundered left, there is no one to restore their original selves from their reincarnations on the source or any other remaining shards. They will continue to live their mortal lives untouched, eventually perishing and reincarnating like any other person, as will any existing ascian who perishes and is reincarnated in the aetherial sea as a mortal once more. |
| 626 | * GreenThumb: Halmarut was the Convocation's specialist on fungal and plant life, and as such Akadaemia Anyder's phytobiology wing is named after them. |
| 627 | * OddNameOut: Altima is the only black-robed Ascian who isn't named after a Scion of Light from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII''. Instead, she is named after Ultima, who didn't have an opposing Scion, with Altima having been an earlier BlindIdiotTranslation of Ultima in the [=PS1=] version of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics''. |
| 628 | * WesternZodiac: Altima is Virgo, Deudalaphon is Capricorn, Halmarut is Libra, and Pashtarot is Cancer. |
| 629 | [[/folder]] |
| 630 | |
| 631 | |
| 632 | !!Others |
| 633 | [[folder:Zodiark ('''Unmarked Spoilers for Endwalker''')]] |
| 634 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ff14_zodiark.png]] |
| 635 | [[caption-width-right:350:[[CastingAShadow Eternal Darkness]]]] |
| 636 | ->''"We are the savior.''\ |
| 637 | ''We are the guardian. The keeper of natural order.''\ |
| 638 | ''We are the martyr. The bestower of new beginnings."''\ |
| 639 | |
| 640 | As the Final Days threatened to destroy the world, Fandaniel discovered that the source of the devastation could be shielded against with great amounts of aether. To this end, the Ancients sacrificed half of their entire population to create the most powerful being their creation magicks ever produced, the first Primal Zodiark. Aspected to darkness aether, the aspect of activity, Zodiark reenforced the ambient aether around Etheirys and forestalled the Final Days. To undo the ravages the Final Days had on the world and restore it to hospitality, the remaining Ancients sacrificed half of ''their'' population to empower Zodiark to {{Terraform}} the world. |
| 641 | |
| 642 | A schism between the surviving Ancients over whether or not to continue making sacrifices to restore what was lost lead to the creation of Hydaelyn, who defeated Zodiark and sundered him into fourteen pieces. The surviving members of the Convocation, now the Ascians, worked over the next ten thousand years to rejoin the sundered pieces of Zodiark so they might sacrifice all current life on Etheirys that was not a sundered soul so that Zodiark may resurrect those initially sacrificed to summon him. |
| 643 | ---- |
| 644 | * AlmightyIdiot: ''Endwalker'' reveals that for all his immense power, he lacks an actual will if he doesn't have a Heart connected to him, something that Fandaniel exploits by replacing Elidibus after the latter was dispatched. |
| 645 | * AmbiguouslyEvil: Up until ''Endwalker'', it was unclear how malevolent Zodiark really was. Hydaelyn claimed Zodiark "coveted power" in ''Heavensward'', and while the Ascians summoned him for benevolent ends, the fact he was a Primal means he could have tempered them and had some degree of influence over their subsequent actions. ''Endwalker'' clears it up by demonstrating that Zodiark isn't and was never evil, and lacks the capacity to even ''be'' evil: without someone like Elidibus to guide him he's a creature of per instinct with no will of his own. |
| 646 | * BarrierMaiden: Zodiark's very existence is the one thing ensuring the flow of aether on Etheirys and its shards are bolstered enough to shield the worlds from the Sound. After being destroyed in Fandaniel's ThanatosGambit, the [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Final Days]] immediately resumes to [[ApocalypseHow/Class6 begin to destroy all life on the star]]. |
| 647 | * BeamSpam: His Styx attack repeatedly blasts one party member with multiple, simultaneous and devastating beams of darkness. |
| 648 | * BossSubtitles: When fought in The Dark Inside, Zodiark has the subtitle of "Eternal Darkness". |
| 649 | * CantKillYouStillNeedYou: The reason why Hydaelyn only sundered and sealed him rather than destroying him was because his existence acted as a barrier to the source of the Final Days, postponing the apocalypse until mankind would be ready to either face it or escape the planet. |
| 650 | * CastingAShadow: Uses darkness-based attacks, befitting his element. |
| 651 | * CelestialBody: Zodiark's wings are black and dotted with glowing stars, making them look like the night sky. |
| 652 | * CosmicKeystone: Zodiark is one for all the world and its shards, protecting them from the Sound; without him, the world goes to hell rather quickly as its aether and peoples are corrupted. |
| 653 | * DarkIsNotEvil: He's initially presented as a typical case of DarkIsEvil: he's the God of Darkness worshipped by the Ascians, the main antagonists of ''XIV'', and the opposite number to Hydaelyn, the Mothercrystal and Goddess of Light. ''Shadowbringers'' then reveals everything players assumed about the two gods was wrong; in ''XIV's'' cosmology, darkness and light are ''both'' essential to the creation and proliferation of life, dark is the aspect of creation and light is the aspect of stasis. Too much of either can doom a world, as seen by The First and The Thirteenth. The same expansion reveals Zodiark was the first Primal and summoned by the Ascians to ''save'' their world from a terrible calamity. Hydaelyn, the second Primal, was summoned by Ascians who believed that repeated sacrifices to Zodiark to try and recreate their idyllic world was morally wrong. |
| 654 | * DisabledDeity: When the Warrior of Light finally encounters Zodiark in ''Endwalker'', they find the deity is missing multiple body parts--including three of his six arms, part of one wing, several of his tentacles, and most of his waist--due to his sundered state. On top of that he's basically a mindless monster acting on instinct now that his heart, Elidibus, is dead. |
| 655 | * DiscOneFinalBoss: After years of buildup, Zodiark is finally fought during the ''Endwalker'' expansion... at level 83, seven levels short of the expansion's new cap. Suffice it to say, killing him is merely the end of Act 1 of the grand finale of the story thus far, not its climax. |
| 656 | * ElementalPowers: When he's fought as a trial, he not only uses darkness, but the other astral elements: fire, wind, and lightning. |
| 657 | * EquivalentExchange: Due to the level of power needed for him to do things on the scale of a Star, Zodiark needs an equivalent level of aether to perform the miracles the Ascians need of him. Summoning him in the first place to protect the world from the Sound required half of their people to sacrifice themselves, and {{Terraform}}ing the planet to make it able to sustain life again after the destruction caused by the Sound required the sacrifice of another half of what was left. The plan then was to keep making sacrifices to Zodiark, but now in the form of other lifeforms, to have him resurrect the Asicans that were sacrificed previously. Some of the Ascians thought that such supplication was wrong and enough had been sacrificed, their time had passed and the world should be left to future generations. This splinter group summoned Hydaelyn into existence to counter Zodiark, and the rest is history. |
| 658 | * {{Expy}}: Of Promathia from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'': both are gods that embody darkness, and are diametrically opposed to a goddess of light, Altana for Promathia and Hydaelyn for Zodiark, and both are connected to a long-gone ancient civilization: Promathia ended the Zilart, while Zodiark was created to save the Ancients. The magical circles that appear inside his body even resemble Promathia's own floating magic circles when fought as the FinalBoss. Finally, their destruction allows an otherwordly EldritchAbomination to corrupt the world and begin the process to return it to nothing: the Cloud of Darkness in Promathia's case, and the Endsinger in Zodiark's. |
| 659 | * FemaleAngelMaleDemon: Zodiark is the male demon to Hydaelyn's female angel; while not properly a demon (or Voidsent, the setting's equivalent), Zodiark has several demonic traits in his design such as horns, wings, a dark/purple color scheme, and an elemental affinity towards darkness. |
| 660 | * HistoricalVillainUpgrade: An in-universe example; Zodiark was never truly a GodOfEvil. He could not be, as the Zodiark form itself is but a mindless vessel that had to be controlled by a conscious being. Indeed, Hydaelyn's own reason for sundering the world had nothing to do with Zodiark himself, so much as it was about preventing the Ancients from dooming themselves through apathy. Zodiark's sundering was merely a necessary byproduct of that since he had tied himself to the heart of the star. He only became the centerpiece of history's scorn when the remaining Ancients - who became the Ascians - succumbed to their tempering and treated the resurrections of Zodiark as paramount above all things. In treating Zodiark as a god, they vilified him in the eyes of their enemies, and made him the overarching evil he came to be perceived as. |
| 661 | * HiveMind: With the absence of Elidibus to serve as his heart, Zodiark consists of this; an entity comprised of the souls offered in sacrifice for his summoning, but since Zodiark lacks his heart, the hive mind is completely directionless and doesn't fight against his seal. His state is reflected by how Zodiark is introduced donning a mask, and only once Fandaniel wrests dominance over the souls does the mask shatter and reveal Zodiark's visage. |
| 662 | * HPToOne: His Kokytos spell brings the whole party down to 1 hit point each. |
| 663 | * HumanSacrifice: To stop the Final Days, half of the remaining Ancients sacrificed themselves to create Zodiark to rewrite the laws of nature and stop the destruction. Half of those who survived the end then sacrificed themselves to empower Zodiark enough to {{Terraform}} what was left of the star to be inhabitable again. It is the Ascians' goal to complete the Rejoining, then sacrifice every soul that was not once an Ancient to Zodiark so he will return those first sacrificed to create him. |
| 664 | * InstantRunes: Channels his power through conjured sigils in his boss fight as an attack theme, from summoning runes that cast attacks of their own through Exoterikos to firing repeated beams of Darkness from sigils during Styx. Apomnemoneumata, his ultimate attack in the Extreme version of his trial, summons overlapping sigils surrounding the entire arena. |
| 665 | * {{Leitmotif}}: "''Endcaller''", a fittingly orchestral and 'final boss'-feeling theme with a chorus sang from the perspective of the Ancients sacrificing themselves, with the final part being a literal dark mirror to ''Footfalls'', the main theme of ''Endwalker''. |
| 666 | * MeteorSummoningAttack: He can summon Behemoths which will call meteors down on themselves, and his "Astral Eclipse" attack brings three waves of meteors crashing down. |
| 667 | * MultiArmedAndDangerous: Zodiark has six arms, three of which are truncated due to his incomplete nature. He puts them to deadly use during his Trial battle. |
| 668 | * MythologyGag: |
| 669 | ** As the Ascians each take their names from the Espers of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' that each represent one of the astrological signs, Zodiark is named for the Esper Zodiark, which represents Ophiuchus, the "13th" sign, and the Esper of Darkness. Like the Zodiark of ''XII'', this Zodiark is the strongest of the beings created by the gods (insomuch its the strongest Primal, conjured by the Ascians) and is so powerful that he can control the laws of nature and twist the fabric of reality. |
| 670 | ** He takes a lot of cues from Zemus from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'': an ancient and powerful creature sealed on the moon by an ancient race, and the primary goal of the villains is to free him. Unlike Zemus, however, Zodiark isn't truly evil and doesn't even have a mind of its own. |
| 671 | * PhysicalGod: He's called the "most ancient and powerful of Primals" for a reason. Having been created by incalculable amount of Ancient souls, each containing much more aether than a current mortal, Zodiark was capable of warping reality on a massive scale, and able to shift the currents of the entire planet just by existing. Even in the fight against him, still sundered and missing around half of his full power, he's able to create living constructs to attack for him, shift the arena, call down comets, and is capable of utilizing extremely powerful and varied forms of magics. |
| 672 | * PiecesOfGod: Hydaelyn divided Zodiark into fourteen pieces, and the Ascians have been working towards the "Rejoining" to make him whole again. When he's fought in ''Endwalker'', pieces of him are still missing, his body acts as a whole but chunks of it are simply gone with crests of magic in their place. |
| 673 | * PoweredByAForsakenChild: Well, not forsaken, Elidibus volunteered himself, but Zodiark was born from a young man offering himself to become his Heart. Eventually, Eldibus removed himself from Zodiark to ease the rage and suffering of his people, but it does not change the fact that Zodiark was created from a young boy as his base. |
| 674 | * PowerCrystal: The Warrior of Light briefly gets to see what is apparently Zodiark at one point during A Realm Reborn, and like Hydaelyn, he seems to be a giant crystal, but in dark purple coloration instead of light blue. |
| 675 | * RealityWarper: He was summoned for the purpose of altering the laws of reality for the world. In doing so, he halted the apocalypse the ancients faced. |
| 676 | * RedBaron: The Ascians consider Zodiark "the One True God", fitting with knowing Hydaelyn was created to counter Zodiark and is likely weaker than him since she was created from far less aether. In his trial battle, he receives the {{Boss Subtitle|s}} "Eternal Darkness". |
| 677 | * SatanIsGood: As the dark counterpart to the benevolent goddess of the world, Zodiark is set up as a SatanicArchetype, but the truth is this trope: his existence is necessary for the world to sustain itself, without him the Sound begins to disrupt the aether and drive people mad again. |
| 678 | * SealedEvilInACan: Long before the start of the story, he and Hydaelyn clashed, which ended with Hydaleyn defeating him and casting him out to the heavens, in what's highly implied to be the moon. ''Endwalker'' confirms that not only is he indeed being held in the moon, but the moon was ''created by Hydaelyn herself'' with the express intent of sealing Zodiark. She had to seal him rather than destroy him, as despite her sundering the world to prevent the Ancients' indolence from dooming them to the Final Days, she still needed time to put her plans into motion, and thus kept Zodiark alive to continue stimulating the flow of aether that was protecting the star from the Final Days. |
| 679 | * StrongAndSkilled: Zodiark's main power is his RealityWarper magic, and the majority of his attacks in the fight against him are magical in nature, with Zodiark himself barely moving from his position. However, he's also a gigantic demonic-looking god with arms the size of a small house, and one of his attacks has him simply slam his fists and cover almost all of the arena. |
| 680 | * TechnicolorFire: His tankbuster, Ania, engulfs the Tank in a column of black fire, while the triangle version of Exoterikos produces a conical wave of bluish-purple fire. |
| 681 | * {{Terraform}}: One of his abilities as ''the'' elder primal of Darkness. Darkness is the aspect of growth, and as the avatar of darkness, he would be able to reform the world. With enough aether that is... |
| 682 | * WalkingSpoiler: It's incredibly hard to talk about Zodiark without discussing his origin, his purpose, and his role in ''Endwalker''. |
| 683 | * WalkingWasteland: This was one of the main reasons why the rebel Ancients who summoned Hydaelyn chose to do so. As the most powerful primal in existence, his aether consumption was outright apocalyptic, requiring endless sacrifices of other lifeforms. While Zodiark stopped the Sound, invoking his power is an apocalyptic occurance in its own right. And the Ancients wanted to ''keep'' doing it to try and reclaim their fallen paradise no matter how many lives it cost... |
| 684 | * WorfHadTheFlu: Despite being the strongest Primal in existence, Zodiark is defeated with relative ease by the Warrior of Light, and even Zenos is disappointed by his show of power. However, Zodiark hadn't been fully Rejoined yet and was only at about half-power, not to mention that he was being controlled by Fandaniel, who [[ThanatosGambit wanted you to kill Zodiark]]. Despite this, even when not fully Rejoined, Zodiark is treated as capable of ending the world if Fandaiel wanted to. |
| 685 | [[/folder]] |
| 686 | |
| 687 | [[folder:Warriors of Darkness]] |
| 688 | A mysterious group of individuals holding the power of Echo summoned by the Ascian Elidibus and led by the warrior Ardbert, a dark counterpart of some nature to the Warrior of Light. |
| 689 | ---- |
| 690 | Check their page on [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVTheFirst The First]] |
| 691 | [[/folder]] |
| 692 | |
| 693 | [[folder:Spectral Warriors ''(Unmarked Spoilers for 5.3)'']] |
| 694 | -->''"In the name...of the Light...I shall vanquish...the Darkness... I shall deliver the world from its doom!"'' |
| 695 | When Elidibus as Ardbert takes control of the Crystal Tower, he uses the Exarch's summoning method to call upon Warriors of Light [[spoiler: (and Hildibrand for some reason.)]] from the Shards. Rather than complete beings, however, he manifests mere slivers of their souls as spectral warriors single-mindedly obsessed with destroying Darkness. They serve as enemies during the Heroes' Gauntlet. |
| 696 | ---- |
| 697 | * AllYourPowersCombined: Spectral ink mages seem to combine the spells of a Summoner (Ruin III), a Scholar (Flambé II as a stand-in for Broil II), and an Astrologian (Gravity). |
| 698 | * AntiVillain: They aren't really evil, they are shards of Warriors of Lights from other Shards that Elidibus has fooled into thinking are actually saving the First from the Warrior of Darkness. Some comments about them make it clear they are under the impression you are a danger. The issue is that they don't know the truth of their summons, meaning they attack the Warrior of Darkness and friends without realizing they are dooming another world. |
| 699 | * BeehiveBarrier: Spectral White Mages can cast Absolute Protect on themselves and their allies, which signifincatly reduces damage that they receive. |
| 700 | * TheBerserker: The last boss of The Heroes' Gauntlet is a spectral berserker. |
| 701 | * BlackAndWhiteInsanity: Perhaps due to being just shards of a soul, but they seek to destroy the dark, and because of Elidibus' influence and you taking the mantle of "Warrior of Darkness", they actively seek to kill you. |
| 702 | * BlowYouAway: The spectral thief can attack with wind magic. |
| 703 | * BossSubtitles: The spectral berserker gets the subtitle "Distant Ideal". |
| 704 | * DarkIsNotEvil: The Spectral Necromancer raises the dead to act as her thralls and suicide bombers and can create fields of poison. But even with these dark powers, her desire to do right in the world is strong enough for Elidibus to summon her like all the others. |
| 705 | -->'''Spectral Necromancer:''' Tainted though I am, I am still a Warrior of Light! |
| 706 | * DeviousDaggers: The spectral thief fights with a pair of knives and will also throw out several chicken knives that he can control telekinetically. |
| 707 | * DumbIsGood: While he fights against you, the spectral berserker does genuinely mean to do good. He is also about as well spoken as the Hulk. |
| 708 | * EvilCounterpart: Are made up of warriors and mages of every Discipline, and are worse than the Ascian's Warriors of Darkness, as these are fragments obsessed with destroying the darkness -- which in this case [[BlackAndWhiteInsanity means you]]. |
| 709 | * FighterMageThief: The three bosses of The Heroes' Gauntlet fit this archetype. The spectral thief is… well, a Thief; the spectral necromancer is the Mage, and the spectral berserker is the Fighter. |
| 710 | * {{Foil}}: Not just to the Ascians' Warriors of Darkness, but, of all things, the ''Terminus'' of the Amaurot dungeon. |
| 711 | ** The Warriors are comprised of five members, each with a specific role, and while sane are forced to work with the Ascians because their World is suffering under a Flood of Light. The Spectral Warriors are comprised of every Discipline currently released, and are more or less mindless zealots and monsters. |
| 712 | ** Like the Terminus, they serve as the final set of opponents in the story (Terminus for the main and Spectral Warriors for the post), attack and pillage the land around them, are comprised of many members, are more or less [[{{Tulpa}} the thoughts of the people given form]] (hence the Spectral Berserker's subtitles), and they both appear [[ApocalypseWow under falling stars]]. Unlike the beasts, they appear human but glow a ghostly white-yellow, use the classes you use, and are associated with light compared to the Terminus' dark. |
| 713 | * HeroAntagonist: As Elidibus sics half summoned specters of heroes from across the shards on the now established Warrior of Darkness, with only the vague instructions "[[DarkIsEvil Here lies darkness,]] [[BlackAndWhiteMorality destroy it]]." |
| 714 | * LightIsNotGood: While the spectral warriors genuinely believe they are doing the right thing by trying to kill the player character and the Scions in the name of the light, it's certainly not a good thing to do what is basically dooming the First by killing its heroes. Likewise, spectral White Mages can use Absolute Glare and Absolute Holy against you, two spells that are based on light. |
| 715 | * MythologyGag: The very first mob of Spectral Warriors you run into is a "party" of a Paladin, a Monk, a White Mage, and a Black Mage. In other words, with the Paladin being the closest equivalent to a Fighter (more specifically its Class Change, Knight), your first fight is against the classic ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'' party. |
| 716 | * {{Necromancy}}: The second boss of The Heroes’ Gauntlet is a spectral necromancer. She attacks by animating corpses to chase after the party and making those corpses explode. |
| 717 | * NemeanSkinning: The spectral berserker wears the skin of a great beast as a hooded cape. |
| 718 | * OneHandedZweihander: The spectral berserker wields an enormous greatsword in one hand. |
| 719 | * SuperSpeed: The spectral thief moves so quickly that some of his attacks literally originate from two places at once. |
| 720 | * TheUnfought: [[spoiler: One of the more notable spectral Warriors is … Hildibrand however all he does is just wonder who he is and never fight anyone.]] |
| 721 | * TacticalSuicideBoss: The spectral berserker has an attack which gouges deep craters into the floor. The party can hide in these craters to avoid a different attack which strikes the whole battlefield for lethal damage. |
| 722 | [[/folder]] |
| 723 | |
| 724 | [[folder:The "Warrior of Light" '''(UNMARKED SPOILERS)''']] |
| 725 | -->''"If you would usher in the end, then with my all shall I oppose you... As the avatar of those mortal heroes, who fought unfalteringly, in all their imperfection! As the Warrior of Light incarnate! ''Come, Warrior of Darkness! Let us finish this!''"'' |
| 726 | \ |
| 727 | In his personal quest to bring about the Rejoining, Elidibus had at times posed as Warriors of Light to further his goals. In his final confrontation with the Warrior of Darkness, he uses Ardbert's body to assume the form of the first Warrior of Light in Norvrandt's ancient history, calling upon his powers to destroy his nemesis. |
| 728 | ---- |
| 729 | Check the Ascians' Primal folder [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIVPrimals here]] |
| 730 | [[/folder]] |
| 731 | [[folder:Travanchet]] |
| 732 | [[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/travanchet_ffxiv.jpg]] |
| 733 | [floatboxright: |
| 734 | '''Race''': Duskwight Elezen] |
| 735 | |
| 736 | A mysterious Elezen mage who appears in the 1.0 storyline. He does not cast a shadow, and it is inferred that he is an agent of the Ascians. |
| 737 | ---- |
| 738 | * BeardOfEvil: A combination of HotBloodedSideburns and thin lines of hair on his jaw. |
| 739 | * GreaterScopeVillain: In the final segment of the Alexander storyline in ''Heavensward'', it was revealed that he was the one who instigated the summoning of Alexander and convinced Mide to infuse a magical horn within the primal's core allowing it to drain aether from Hydaelyn itself rather than just the surrounding area. |
| 740 | * {{Leitmotif}}: While it would go on to be used by the Ascians in general, he was notably one of the very few ''Legacy'' [=NPCs=] to have a personal theme in "Without Shadow". |
| 741 | * MindOverMatter: He has unexplained telekinetic powers. |
| 742 | * OurElvesAreDifferent: He's a dark-skinned Wildwood elezen. |
| 743 | * PutOnABus: For the ''Seventh Umbral Era'' storyline and on into ''Realm Reborn''. There has been no indication he will return. Reading between the lines, it seems likely he was a prior host for one of the Ascians, either Lahabrea or maybe Nabriales, or possibly even one of those lesser, nameless Ascians, but was abandoned for more conveniently-placed hosts post-Calamity. He makes a cameo appearance in ''Heavensward'' in the Alexander questline, but its a flashback with an unclear period for when it occurred, and he hasn't appeared since. |
| 744 | * RedRightHand: He has no shadow. |
| 745 | * WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Despite his brief appearance in ''Heavensward'', he has not appeared at all in any form. Its not even clear if he is really an Ascian or just someone related to him either, so his fate is just up in the air. |
| 746 | * WhiteHairBlackHeart: Whatever his motives are or were, no good came from his agenda. |
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/context.php
FollowingContext Characters / FinalFantasyXIVAscians
Go To
- Show Spoilers
- Night Vision
- Sticky Header
- Wide Load
