need lore more lore cause -
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need lore more lore cause -
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Turn 9 cutscenes courtesy of BG.
http://youtu.be/_YXNNSFi3No
Starting to think that there's some significance to the "random BLM" on the cover of the new boxart. For starters, all the Thaumaturges in the guild questline are all Lalafells. This one's not, and it's not Shatotto either (who is a BLM and not a THM), nor is it one of the beastmen.
I noticed that the eyebrow visible in the mask looks kinda white, the face is a bit aged and gnarled, which made me think of Louisoix, but the eye color is wrong.
Thoughts about Turn 9 villain:
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Since when does someone being dead prevent us some meeting them?
No one ever really dies in any FF game. Ever.
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Is it even possible to use the Echo on people who are tempered?
I can't recall of any mention of Echoing a Tempered ever. Unsure what'd happen.
Unfortunately having read the quest dialogue already (and now seen the CS!) I think there's far too little to go off of. There's not enough information to say anything yet.
If you operate under the assumption that those with the Echo are tempered by Hydaelyn, I suppose there is a precedent for using the Echo on tempered people since we used it accidentally on Minfillia in 1.0.
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Has there been any hints towards Alexander primal, or atleast carbuncle, were missing light based
Couldn't resist.
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Yet that picture takes place after her death. She's still sort of active in the plot, therefore not completely dead dead.
The speculation is that Alexander = Allagan, so they might do it then. Otherwise, no other primals are known beyond Ramuh and Shiva.
Haven't given 2 shits about beastmens from last patch, but what's their back story/finishing if someone just did one single path.
So the second coil is some kind of crazy allagan zoo/science lab/bioweapons factory? consider the mutated rafflesia, the test tubes of t7, and the biomechanical treant. is t7 the holding area? why are there so many test tubes of renauds, lamias, and snakes? if the dalamud's been up in the sky for all this time how are the chimera in t7 the same as the ones outside? did the allagan piece together snakes, lions, and goats in the t7 lab to create an army of chimera? are modern day chimera descendants of ancient allagan creations--or just the ones that were never rounded up since the fall of the allagan empire?
spoooooooooooooooky
There were 'normal' monsters in Coil-1 as one, don't forget. Whether Dark Matter Pterocs are Allagan defense contingency or mutated by the aetherial corruption of Dalamud's descent is up in the air. (Reminder that before Dalamud's impact it began affecting the aether in everything, including within the body of monsters. This is also a convenient excuse as to why anima/other game mechanics no longer work even if the game itself doesn't justify it. Dalamud's descent fucked with our aether as readily as it did the monster's. In the THM questlines we learn the aether within our bodies is, somewhat obviously, very important to our ability to do just about anything. IT'S MY FANON AND IT'S REAL)
I can't remember if what I'm about to say is explicitly stated by Alisaie before T9 or it was part of the dialogue that I read for the final quest of 2.2, but here goes:
The Allagans did indeed create chimeras. It's likely the knowledge of chimera production has passed down in some form (the Gorgimera FATE mentions a 'madman' made it, however this could be about a hundred things; the Chimera in Cutter's Cry has existed for a much longer period tho), much like the knowledge of summoning shit from the Void has been passed down since the 5th Astral Era (The Nymians were likely the ones to invent this, or perhaps a 3rd aggressor in the War of the Magi) The Lamia are also obviously created by Allagans, and I imagine mirrorknights were as well. (In fact, based on the SMN quests and the general spread of mirrorknight mobs I'm going to say with certainty they were.) Cyclops are a bit hairier subject as to why they exist there. Let us just assume that the Cyclopean race has been one of the few to survive 4 Umbral Eras.
The snakes are ever so lovingly mentioned by solracht earlier in the thread and goddamn there was that one guy who posted pretty extensively about it but I forget his name FUCK. It's a thematic element I think is often ignored in the Binding Coil. The 13th Zodiac Brave in Final Fantasy Tactics is Ophiuchus / Serpentarius / Elidibus what have you. Those three entities are deeply related to Zodiark. The presence of Snakes in the Coil is actually somewhat indicative of Ascian involvement in Bahamut's recovery. In addition the named snakes are: Hygeia (goddess of health), Asclepius (god of medicine, Hygeia's father) and Caduceus (the name of Hermes' staff, which is commonly used to represent medical practitioners today and has basis for reviving the dead in Greek mythos). This serpent motif also continues with the introduction of lamia and ties together nicely with preconceived XI notions of them being chimeras (I mean they are chimeras in XIV too, but there exist games where lamia aren't chimera)
If The Avatar is meant to be a robot treant and not just a blatant model plagiarization it has ridiculous implications. The Elementals of the Shroud work very closely with the Treants, and the Elementals of the Shroud knew exactly what the fuck was in Dalamud before it fell. As I recall, not going to look it up right now, they referred to it as a great evil imprisoned in the sky. The Moogles are also one of the few races (we believe) to have existed across many (or all) of the Umbral Eras. This is again, important, because of Moogle x Treant x Elementals work together often. Treants are supposed to be the wrath of nature itself, could it be that's a crude way of saying it's a Hydaelyn defense system and that the Allagans sought to mimic their power by creating The Avatar?
I think I strayed from shit explicitly stated by Alisaie a while ago. If I didn't say it yet (I don't think I did) she mentions that the Allagans fired Dalamud into the sky (with the intention of using Bahamut as a battery to power it, to reflect the sun's aether to the Crystal Tower or some shit) with chimeras included. This is because the Allagans were paranoid as fuck someone was gonna fly up there and knock it down. The Allagans had starships (Ragnarok is a class of starship and they are the keys that stick out of Dalamud, it's likely that's how they docked with it? this means more or less Coil-1 takes place in the cavern surrounding the impact site (T1), the outside of the starship (T2), the insides of the starship (T3-5), it appears the fight in T5 takes place outside of the starship again obviously. alternatively: teleports) but we don't know if their contemporaries had them. In fact, we only know of Meracydia having a contemporary population with the Allagans afaik. I guess it makes sense that there would be others as they were said to rule much of the world as the Garleans do now. I can't find a proof of the struck claim, it's possible the 'Empire' of the Allagan Empire simply meant their dominion of Eorzea.
The Scourges of Meracydia were likely wyverns used to conquer Meracydia (Meracydia is also where the Allagans first encountered primals and summoners). The Ghost of Meracydia are probably something similar.
Rafflesia is either a monster mutated by Dalamud or an actual Allagan chimeric creation. I don't think it's particularly useful to know which it is, but my personal opinion is the former.
We are given an Asican's word that Belias is an elder primal but I don't recall any distinct reference of Zodiark being a primal, only a god (the one true god!) so I think that claim might be a little heavy handed. Much like the "omg hydaelyn tempered us qq" theory train. There's a lot of support and it makes sense but it hasn't been explicitly stated so it's not what I'd call definite.
I've only completed the 2nd to last quests for both, so I'll let someone else fill in the rest, but so far...
Sahagin:
Novv used to be the Scarlet Sea Devil, the feared leader of a Sahagin raiding group (the Coral Tridents) that killed bunches of people a decade or so prior. Back when he was at his peak, the matriarch awarded him with her best batch of eggs for being so bad-ass (note: it does not specify whether or not he got to bang the matriarch). The Lominsans followed him back to his hatchery and waited until he went on another raid, then wiped out most of his eggs. He came back to the slaughter and was distraught. He realized that all his evil deeds just got him malice in return, so he renounced his ways and became a peaceful clutchfather of what few eggs were missed by the slaughter. Another sahagin is now taking up the mantle of "Scarlet Sea Devil" and is wreaking all sorts of havok just like back in the day. Novv doesn't want to see history repeat itself and thinks that diplomacy is the proper course of action, so he's trying to stop the new guy who took up the mantle of Scarlet Sea Devil / Coral Tridents.
In the 2nd to last quest, Novv goes to talk some sense into the other guy but, of course, the other guy doesn't care and tells his lackeys to attack. Novv starts to glow (it wasn't explained), and they get all wide-eyed and run away.
It's also mentioned that the reason why the Sahagin have moved inland onto Lominsan territory is because they need to breed / raise young on the coast and the Calamity wiped out their old spawning grounds. A retcon for why the Sahagin weren't present in 1.0, I guess.
Kobold:
Gi Gu is a cowardly dipshit that "leads" the 789th Kobold division (the highest-numbered division, meaning they're lowest in the Kobold heirarchy). As of the 2nd to last quest, his girlfriend (Bi Bi) got kidnapped by some big bad Kobold (leader of the 13th division, I forget his name) that treats the 789th crew like shit. Gi Gu seemed to get up in arms about Bi Bi's kidnapping at the end of the 2nd to last quest, but then the quest just... ended. I guess it makes sense that it would take that guy 10+ RL days to actually do anything about something about that, lol.
Also, the top-brass in the Maelstrom that's stationed at Camp Overlook isn't too thrilled with you (and one of his subordinates) assisting the 789th Kobolds, but he seems to tolerate it so long as you don't make things worse for him. Oh, by the way, you made things worse for him by pissing off a big bad Kobold, so you'd better go handle that. He's seen a bunch of Kobold gathering for what's likely to be some massive raid on Camp Overlook because of your dealings with the 789th, so the final quest will likely resolve both sides of this story.
Oh, and it's mentioned that the big bad Kobold is making some "furnace to beat all furnaces" to ... make bombs or something.
Both:
Unlike the previous beastmen tribes, these aren't explicitly clear about whether the opposing beastmen forces are tempered or not. They probably are, or at the very least they're all dicks, but so far neither group has so much as mentioned Leviathan/Titan.