FFXI Plot-holes and unclear issues

[Damane]

Spoiler: show

Not really since Alexander and Odin have been at it in perpetuity, regardless of Promathia's status. Both ultimately answer to Altana and her word is law.

The tilt towards light wins in our world dragged Vana'Diel towards the void in the same way that Desuetia is a world where dark wins and is likewise destined for the wastebin. Like most FFs before it, the moral of the story is that light and darkness are required in the world and trying to tip things too much in one direction gets your world gobble gobbled by the Void. The equation must BALANCE.

Oh and Altana seems to be a pretty poor manager god.

so in the end BARANCU wins!!! Tanaka knew what he was talking about!

[Kyreth]

Spoiler: show

Oh and Altana seems to be a pretty poor manager god.

Spoiler: show

She's only half of the equation- without Promathia, there isn't enough conflict to keep the winds of time blowing and the Void at bay, but The Adventurer by becoming powerful enough to step in for the Reckoning ends up being a great enough proxy to do the job (if the Cloud hadn't already contaminated Selh'teus Crystal). Odin and Alexander are a microcosm of the essential clashes of Light and Dark and probably would have helped keep the "clock" wound if Ragnarok hadn't been averted, by spawning another Great War.

It also makes Odin much less of a bastard. He's happy to empower people like Raogrimm, Luzaf and Lilith because the resulting conflict literally shields the world from oblivion.

Me, I want to know WTF is up with Balamor. Exactly where DID he come from, since he's apparently a literal alien?

[Suteru]

Anyone else surprised

Spoiler: show

they actually modeled Phoenix?

[Damane]

Anyone else surprised

Spoiler: show

they actually modeled Phoenix?

Spoiler: show

I am still surprised i havent seen any SMN requests for Phoenix as an avatar due to that model ¬.¬

[Tarage]

I've long since given up on that when Cait Sith got Raisega.

I think I don't understand anymore why Promathia offed himself, or why he keeps trying to off himself. What's up with that?

[Sechs]

Promathia wants to die. We never got a full explanation of that tbf I think, but he wants to die.
Putting him in chains was Altana's attempt to avoid him dying.
Did we really kill him in CoP? Or did we just "defeat" him and reseal him? I forgot...
I'm a bit sad they didn't give further importance to the Zilarts (as a race) in RoV. I mean, certain zilart characters appear there, but they could have been any race and it would've been the same, I mean something different.

Btw, some things that are still unclear to me

1. What exactely are Escha zones? Where they created by Siren when she was under Volto Oscuro's control? To what end?
2. Why doesn't Siren appear when all the avatars empower Phoenix?
3. So Altana in the future "needs" future-us to become a god of light to help her TRY (not succeed, TRY, as if she wasn't even sure it would've succeeded) to send Iroha back in time. I mean... she controls Atomos and Cait Sith, couldn't she just use a maw to send Iroha back?
4. So we now know that all parallel universes exist in an empty void. What about the gods though? Are there multiple versions or just a single? There are contradictions here. Altana seems to be the same for all the universes (our Vana'diel was created by Altana because she was sad of how things ended up in original vana'diel etc), yet there are multiple versions of Promathia. The Shinryu from Abyssea, the Shinryu from Desuetia... also wasn't Shinryu Promathia full power + Bahamut? From RoV it seems it's just Promathia full power...
5. If all that was needed is balance between dark and light to keep the Cloud of Darkness at bay, couldn't Altana simply tell Disjoined One to become the next Promathia and join her to stay in her world to keep the balance again, after he absorbed Desuetia's Promathia? Why did we need to have us become a god of light first and confront future-us?
6. After that fight Altana makes present-us join with dark half of future-half. But... dark half of future-us exists because future-us split himself in two (and light half died). Present-us didn't split in two yet, so in theory we could still have both parts. Why did we need to join with future-us' dark half? Couldn't we simply, you know, avoid splitting and keep our native dark half?
7. Why did Volto Oscuro (our dark half from future-us under the control of the Cloud of Darkness) try to obstruct us? I can understand trying to obstruct Iroha and her attempt to change the future, but obstructing us? Impeding us from splitting in the future = the future changes and Volto Oscuro ceases existing. If what he wants is chaos and Cloud of Darkness devouring Vana'diel (like it does in the future aside from Reisenjima) then he NEEDS future us to split, no?
8. What exactely is Reisencrystal? We know the magatama crystal we hold is part of one of the protocrystals, but Reisenjima? An... artificial crystal created by selh'teus? But when? It gets treated like it's an ancient relic worshipped for millenia in the sacred soil of reisenjima, but if Selh'teus really created it then it's something pretty recent, no? And how the fuck do you create an artificial protocrystal, srsly? If that was that easy the Zilart would've made it when the 5th one went amiss, to complete their project of merging the protocrystal again and re-creating the Mother crystal ("opening the gates of paradise")

The whole process of "becoming a light god" was overly simplistic too. It kinda makes sense in the future because we know there's a heavily risky ritual to do (Yve'noille talks about it).
But present-us? We basically do nothing and because of a cheap plot device bam! You're temporarily a light god, enjoy your god powers.

I really loved the fact they did fanservice and showed us Altana, but god is she clueless? The fuck has she been doing all these years/centuries? Srsly?

[errantfish]

If you ask the other shinryu why he wants to die, he'll say something about how he believes that the death of a god can turn away the cloud. I always figured promathia was simply suicidal, but I guess SE wants us to think that he was trying to die to push away the cloud of darkness.

As for why there are multiple promathias and not altanas, it's probably because Altana still exists on a higher plane of existence, while all of vana'diel is essentially promathia's life support system his wife made for him. So every time vana'diel splits off into another timeline, there's another promathia bound to it.

[Sechs]

That's a cheap but actually pretty good explanation I gotta say.
Good one, fish!

[Tarage]

The reason the dark 'masked' you was trying to stop it was because he was possessed by the cloud. That's what the mask was.

Also the mask takes away the 'darkness' inside of you for you to be able to turn into a god. You get it back when he merges back into you. Now, one could argue that the darkness is more than when you started, but you can kinda hand wave that away.

[Sechs]

The reason the dark 'masked' you was trying to stop it was because he was possessed by the cloud. That's what the mask was.

Oh I got that much! Sorry if I made you think diffently.

I was kinda wondering why Volto Oscuro (i.e. the Cloud of Darkness controlling dark half of future-us) was trying to stop past us.
I mean... the fact that future-us split in two, is ultimately what allowed Cloud of Darkness to prevail, or one of the reason why he managed to prevail in the future.
So... why stop that from happening?
If anything Cloud of Darkness should aim to keep the past time line identical (i.e. so the future doesn't change), which means stopping Iroha, not stopping us lol.

You get it back when he merges back into you.

Yeah, but when we merge we got not only our own original dark half, but also another dark half which is not our own, but comes from future-us.
So basically more dark than light.
Altough I guess algebric math doesn't apply to soul matters probably lol

[Tidis]

I wonder if it might be because we have more light than dark so double dark balances out our excess light which is what makes us truly balanced.

[Teorem]

If all that was needed is balance between dark and light to keep the Cloud of Darkness at bay, couldn't Altana simply tell Disjoined One to become the next Promathia and join her to stay in her world to keep the balance again, after he absorbed Desuetia's Promathia? Why did we need to have us become a god of light first and confront future-us?

Altana says that god-of-light you and god-of-dark you are too nascent to be able to fend off the Cloud in the same way Altana and Promathia did, so it seems unlikely god-of-dark you was strong enough yet to simply replace Promathia on that plane of existence even after Desuetia Promathia breaks the Cloud's control. Altana's too busy loving everyone, so the conflict between the two yous would produce the wind needed to keep the Cloud away.

What exactely is Reisencrystal? We know the magatama crystal we hold is part of one of the protocrystals, but Reisenjima? An... artificial crystal created by selh'teus? But when? It gets treated like it's an ancient relic worshipped for millenia in the sacred soil of reisenjima, but if Selh'teus really created it then it's something pretty recent, no? And how the fuck do you create an artificial protocrystal, srsly? If that was that easy the Zilart would've made it when the 5th one went amiss, to complete their project of merging the protocrystal again and re-creating the Mother crystal ("opening the gates of paradise")

In the second set of missions, Selh'teus tells you in Al'Taieu that he's been visiting alternate Vana'diels and "balancing" them, while absorbing a fraction of crystals' energy from the worlds he visits. His plan all along has been to die ("return to the crystal") and use the magic he accumulated to become the backup crystal on Reisenjima all the while conveniently retaining his mind and sense of self. So Reisen Crystal is newly created, and incidentally the whole panopt culling was because he accidentally took out part of the shrine in the process and disrupted the local lifestream.

Selh'teus actually mentions that someone tried a similar ritual 10000 years ago in Tu'Lia, but the person (explicitly, "he") rushed it and died. It's not clear who exactly he's referring to, or whether the crystal in the Celestial Nexus has anything to do with it (a product of the failure, maybe?).

But... dark half of future-us exists because future-us split himself in two (and light half died).

God-of-light future you didn't die, but ascended and hung out with Altana for "countless aeons," before figuring out all you had to do was throw Iroha back in time to fix things. Given the whole plot of WoTG that future you presumably went through, ascension must really do a number on the brain.

[Neisan]

I've been out of the game for years so two questions-

Spoiler: show

1. Is Cloud of Darkness or the Void related in any way to the one from other series? What about Shinryu?
2. Is Balamor actually an alien or just from another dimension/parallel world?

[Damane]

I've been out of the game for years so two questions-

Spoiler: show

1. Is Cloud of Darkness or the Void related in any way to the one from other series? What about Shinryu?
2. Is Balamor actually an alien or just from another dimension/parallel world?

Balamor is from another world/dimension and found his way to vanadiel through Tartarus and Hades. He is heavily involved in the Adoulin storyline and replaced Teodor in the deathborne triumphirate after Teodor betrayed hades and sided with august.
The ends of Adoulin seem to indicate that Balamor had more planned for us then what Hades intended which shows up in the Rhapsody arch. It seems his goal was to stop the Void/CoD.

Apearantly the Void/Cloud of Darkness ate away Balamors world and other worlds. Interdimensional as well as same Dimensional, so it might very well be the same Void/CoD as in other games.
Shinryu from Vanadiel is not the same as in other series .its the result of Promathia and Nagmodlia fusioning together when we dont interrupt them in Chains of Promathia. Basicly Abyssea is what happens when we dont stop the events of chains of promathia, We failed that final battle in that world over there, hence the reason why the moon is closer to vanadiel in abyssea, and why emptiness and sea mobs roam around abyssea zones.

[Neisan]

All right, thanks

[The Assman]

Why wasn't Siren in the big avatar scene in La Theine?

[Damane]

Why wasn't Siren in the big avatar scene in La Theine?

Because she didnt follow the call of Altana?

[Neisan]

Was there a time given for when Balamor joined Hades? I think I heard 5000 years but not exactly sure if that was the actual time or referring to something else

[Damane]

Was there a time given for when Balamor joined Hades? I think I heard 5000 years but not exactly sure if that was the actual time or referring to something else

oh god i would need to go check the library in Eastern Adoulin and check out the history date on events. Tough i would say Balamor joined Hades recently since Hades was emprisoned/slumbered. Its not certain wether Balamor woke Hades up, or Hades just regained his streangth over time.
As far as the Serpent Labyrinth goes, it was sealed off and each entrance was guarded by the 7 Naakuals so no human would stumble upon/enter it by mistake and wake Hades up/free him.


Balamors goal was never a big resurrection of Hades as it seems, he rather liked to do games and put us the Adventurer and the rest to the test and clash against oposing enemys. He was the reason for all the scathered Skirmish parts and the skirmish entrances.

Rumor has it that Hades was once an Elvaan many many many years ago that stumbled across the entrance of Tartarus. By traveling the Tartarus he gained immortality and a different form. I think he explained in one speech why he wanted to Conquer Vanadiel and open the floodgates to Tartarus (but i forgot what it was).

[Yuella]

the FFXIV Iroha's event seem to happen before Rhapsodies' final battle because Iroha still has black hair there