#ardens

[deadyaxsha]

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Fallen water by rob_visser20 Source: https://ift.tt/2Sk7dvH

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Ardyn Latin name?

Recently I heard some people talking about the fact that all Kings and Queens of Lucis have a name with latin origin, except Ardyn. But is it really the case?

 Let’s go further into this!

 First, you have to know that Ardyn’s name wasn’t originally spelled ‘’a-r-d-y-n’’ but ‘’a-r-d-e-n’’ with an E as you can see on Roberto Ferrari’s artwork:

  If you want to know the reason of this change, I made a post where you can find all the explanations: Why ‘’Arden’’ became ‘’Ardyn’’?

To summarize, it’s due to an incompatibility with the French pronunciation and so the sound [ɛ] became [i].

 It is true that names like Somnus, Crepera or Noctis Lucis Caelum are based on latin roots, with ‘’Noctis’’ coming from ‘’nox’’ (=night) and Lucis Caelum from ‘’lux’’ (=light) and sky, for example. Let’s see what we can find for Ardyn…

 With ‘’Ardyn’’, we can have ‘’ardi’’ or ‘’ārdus’’ which can mean dry/arid or meagre/shrivelled or spiritless or even greedy. If some of this words could possibly connect with Ardyn’s story and personnality, they are not entirely satisfactory.

 With ‘’Arden’’ on the other hand, we can have ‘’ardere’’, ‘’ardent’’ or ‘’ardēns’’ which refers to something on fire, burning or shining.

  As you can see the root of the word is always the same and this consistency makes me believe that it is this idea of fire that inspired the dev team for Ardyn’s name.

 In addition, if you check SOMNUS and OMNIS LACRIMA lyrics, you can find this:

 Somnus : « Deus dormit/Et liberi ignem faciunt/Numquam extinguunt » which means « God sleeps/And its children start a fire/They can’t extinguish »

OMNIS LACRIMA : « Liberi… Et liberi ignem faciunt » which means « Children… children start a fire »

 Despite the idea about the fire, you can assume that Ardyn is literaly like a flame still burning through the ages that no one is able to extinguish. In this way, the fire symbolize his immortality but also the threat he represents for the entire world.

 Notice that ‘’Liberi… Et liberi ignem faciunt’’ is not anymore in the OMNIS LACRIMA of FFXV but comes from the Versus XIII version of the song. Nonetheless, OMNIS LACRIMA lyrics were written by Tetsuya Nomura so their meaning is surely connected to the heart of the game even if a lot of things changed in 10 years, and most importantly they were still part of the song when Ardyn character was created.

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Moreover about this idea of fire: if you consider Ardyn’s complete name with the ardēns root you obtain ‘’Arden Lucis Caelum’’, ‘’Ardent/Fire Light Sky’’. As we can interpretate Noctis name as ‘’Light in a Night Sky’’ and connects it to his job as the Chosen King that consist in bringing back the light in a world of darkness, we can interpretate Ardyn’s one as ‘’Light of Fire in the Sky’’ and see some interesting connections with his character.

 First, the ‘’sky on fire’’ refers to the time of the day when the sunshines enter the planet’s atmosphere in a way that colors the sky in red (like Ardyn’s hair btw). It is the case at sunrise or at sunset and we know how the dawn is a central theme through FFXV. Besides, the sunset corresponds to the aurora which is represented by the Goddess Eos in Greek mythology, exactly as the name of the planet in FFXV. Ardyn is literaly a character that symbolizes these two moments of the day: he was shining and brillant as a healer and future King 2000 years ago like a sunrise, and then he fell into darkness when the Starscourge corrupted his body, he ‘’spurned the dawn’’ as the Mysterious Voice explains in Episode Ignis and was trapped in an eternal night after his sunset.

 Talking about darkness… Second, we can also read the name as ‘’fire from the sky’’ which is a biblical reference evoking a divine thunder falling on mortals to punish them, or to give them a blessing. As Ardyn says about his immortality, ‘’such is my blessing, and curse’’… You find again the dichotomy of Ardyn’s character: good and benevolent in the past, blessed with unique abilities as a gift from the Gods to humanity, and then his powers have proved to be one of Eos worst plague when he remained immortal, spreading the Starscourge evrywhere and dooming this world as a divine retribution (maybe because of mankind’s mistakes in Solheim times?). Furthermore, it would not be the first time biblical references are used to characterize Ardyn… There are too many to be listed here but check for example these two artworks recalling the Palm Sunday and a crucifixion: 

(If you want to know more about biblical references and you can understand French, I made a full article about this on my website: Les Mystères d’Eos)

 To conclude, for me Ardyn’s name HAS a latin origin too but due to several minor changes here and there the root is not as visible as for Noctis or Somnus for example. Moreover, I strongly believe that the latin root is ‘’ardēns’’ which corresponds pretty well to his character and connects with a lot of point from FFXV lore.

[skystudies]

18 september 2017

bts’ comeback makes this the best birthday ever and I caught up on so much work thanks to early school dismissal!!

[deadyaxsha]

[deadyaxsha]

Player character sketches from work