#ffxv lore

[vaer19]

~FFXV Resource Link Site~

Hello I made this. Use it maybe. Direct message me for the collaborator password.

[secret-engima]

So, we know that Noctis is the 114th king, and that it’s been about 2000 years since Somnus. However, 114 generations, if *everyone* had a kid at 25 (which we know Regis didn’t, he was 30), that would be 2850 years. So either the timeline isn’t accurate (totally possible) or there have been a fair few kings that succeeded their siblings/cousins.

While we don't know much about the previous kings, one of the more notable ones, the Rogue, ascended to the throne in an age where queens were not seen as fit to rule alone because her father *and* her brother (presumably older one) had both been killed (by daemons, according to the wiki). That coupled with how quickly Regis was seen to age and have failing health in canon, and you can assume that Rogue was not the first or last time a sibling had to ascend the throne, and that in times or war or notable trouble, Lucii had a much higher mortality rate than the average royalty.

[hiddeneosbymrsflowerpot]

Tutorial The training room from Noct’s dreams is actually a box floating in the sky.  The sun streams from the skylights in this dream room, decorated with the Lucian flag, pole arms and works of art depicting the lore of Eos. Accompanied by Carbuncle Noctis learns how to fight, parry and use magic to defeat his shield, Gladio with Carbuncle healing him with Ruby Light if his health falls too low.  You can revisit any time you wish by selecting “tutorial” from the menu.  It’s worth it just to see Carbuncle! All images copyright Square Enix Co Ltd.

[guinea-goon]

FFXV Timeline Makes No Sense

Hey there, I’ve never made a post like this, but I swear, this has bugged me for months at this point. Truly, since I really started to dig into Final Fantasy XV lore, this has truly made no sense. According to the newspapers the year is 756 ME. But we know that Ardyn and Somnus lived nearly 2,000 years ago, 114 generations ago. So, so, there are a lot of questions for how those timelines meet up. According to the Final Fantasy wikipedia, the only explanation is “the four nations agreed to use the same calendar”. There is a lot to unpack there. Who was the stronger nation? Who’s calendar are we following? Why are we following that calendar? This means a lot culturally for the other three nations about why they suddenly agreed to change the years of their calendars to match everyone else. Was there a war? A massive peace summat? The developers leave nothing to us to let us know. Instead we just left with a giant hole in the timeline for a massive cultural shift for all four cultural entities for no one to explain. Fanfiction writers, do you have the time? I’m a bit busy? But I have so many questions? I want to explore this so much!! Perhaps have I tackle this other project? Cultures just. ..  don’t change the year stamp easily. Romans and their conquered lands had the massive shift to Christianity to do so, and the eventual mass conversion of everyone else to change to time A.D. (now ACE) but, I cannot think of any other major reason why cultures just, change how they count their years. Why, why did Eos just, start recounting their years in the middle of the reign of Lucis Caelum? What major historical event happen to make them begin again?

[crystaline323]

Ever notice that Noct has glowing magenta eyes when using the ring/summoning, but Nyx's eyes don't change color once even when using the ring? And yet, Ignis' eyes glow just like Noct's when he uses the ring, and it doesn't kill him like it killed Nyx.

I swear, Ignis WAS meant to be special in some way, he's not just another regular person. They just never got around to actually fleshing out what it is.

[kaus-quietis]

Does free will even exist in FFXV? Post-Episode Ardyn discussion

Keywords: free will, destiny, destiny-fabricated role vs personal self, Noctis, Ardyn

Yesterday I finished FFXV's Episode Ardyn DLC and watched all my headcanons and theories come true. These were surely headcanons and theories I shared with many of you fans, with anyone who analyzed stuff a bit deeper. What I dived into is the following problem: does free will even exist in FFXV? aka the problem of free will VS destiny/divine calling. I’ll put the text under the Keep Reading cut, since this is a rather long post. I hope you enjoy it!

The story of FFXV is the story of the Lucis royal bloodline. Basically, from the starts of their kingdom to erasure of it all, with the Fleuret line of Oracles, the Niflheim empire and Astrals involved. But first we must address the Astrals vs humanity conflict which precedes and gives a bit of context to the starts of the Lucis. A main possible reason for this conflict is the fact that humanity can evolve and gain immense knowledge, literally Become as Gods (totally not a NieR Automata reference) or at least god-killers, ever since Ifrit gave them the fire of wisdom and civilizations like Solheim crafted it into rafined machinery. Humanity is dangerous, Ifrit did a bad thing (he realized this and was enraged by the fact that the humans would even consider building god-killing machines, like a god-human friendship betrayed), and no other Astral ever came over this.

Exterminating humanity is still a thing. It is interesting to note that both helping and destroying humanity are 2 legacies of Ifrit, either pre- or post-Solheim evolution. EP Gladio told us that Bahamut defeated Ifrit, but since then the Scourge came from a meteor called by Ifrit (a danger to both humans and gods, since both humanity and gods treated Ifrit like shit in the end). Surely Bahamut knew it was all the fault of humanity's insatiable curiosity and DETERMINATION, thus he'd have no reservations about using humans aka mere mortals to eventually get rid of the Scourge if he can AND at a safe distance so that he'd remain unafflicted. So exterminating humanity was the plan back then and is still a hidden intention or a necessary strategy move of some Astrals (ex. Bahamut with his use of the Lucis, and Leviathan who is THIS close to drowning everyone), while pre-Solheim Ifrit's legacy also lived on with Shiva and, maybe, Titan, while other Astrals simply decided to isolate themselves forever (Ramuh). The gods definitely had their own plans, and let's call their plans the will of gods, which in the FFXV universe equals "destiny". Or should, at least.

The case of Somnus. So let's say it all LOOKS as if the humans themselves brought all this to themselves. Somnus states he was envious and wanted to be special and loved by his people, but his people loved Ardyn for the genuinely nice person he was, and only 1 could sit the throne, while negociation was not an opition for Somnus (ex. splitting the kingdom, while most people clearly would side with Ardyn). Also, the moment Somnus found out, before Ardyn, that Ardyn was "chosen" (Aera told Somnus this), that was the last drop to his psychopath brain cocktail (let's be real, who, without an ounce of unhealthy mental state, would ever consider "killing" their brother, his wife-to-be and also seal their brother, fully alive, in a dark cave, pierced by chains and stuff, for eternity? Somnus, a pragmatist? Like this? But I refuse.). Envy and desire for rulership are reasonable motives for Somnus' actions, they'd be enough to carry the concept of free will and create the set-up for the rest of the history of Lucis. However, rather than humane motives, a "divine calling" brings (the excuse for apparent) solid justification in a way more indisputable way, and Somnus still believes he was merely fulfilling his calling (justifies his actions via calling it all destiny), in the Ardyn vs Somnus fight. His dialogue in the fight presents both elements: human motives and divine justification, as if clinging to free will but also denying it to seek justification via divine approval (Somnus: "I did what I did because I wanted to, I wanted to be special in the eyes of my people and I wanted to rule them! What I did was cruel, yes, cruel, but I was merely answering my divine calling." If we write it out like this, we can clearly see how he presumes both free will and destiny to be true, maybe unaware that the concept of destiny negates the concept of free will aka he can't be special if he just merely carries out the grander plan of destiny, like a puppet).

The case of Aera. One can be judged guilty or innocent depending on their own actions, for which they bare full responsibility. In order to do that, they must have free will to choose, otherwise responsibility is lifted. The key question for Aera is “can a human have a fault and be judged guilty when destiny dictates and justifies all human actions?" It is hard to determine if Aera truly "does have a fault" or not, since, again, everyone's actions seem to be already destined to be the way they are, before they even know it. In favor of her having free will, we can say she couldn't possibly predict that a brother would kill a brother over the throne, but that is shaky ground since Somnus was known to the population as the guy who burns people alive for even "seeming" to carry the Scourge. These are instances in which one could argue that humans retain their free will and bad sense of logic. But there's another thing that botheres me: the Crystal.

It's possible that the Crystal doesn't reflect the godly will, but the impartial truth. We are told that the Crystal acts like a mirror in which the will of the gods can be seen. According to this acception of the term, that means that destiny = Ardyn rules as the first king. Even so, this destiny is never fullfilled, yet another "destiny" takes its place. This seems fishy to me, I start to think that the Gods aren't vehicles of destiny, but beings that orchestrate whatever they want except 1 thing: the truth. Maybe the Crystal is void of any human or divine criteria of judgement and only shows the true state of things. The truth was Ardyn = First King, which is by all means predictable since the whole population was already happy to accept Ardyn as King by the time Aera looked into it, but truth can be hidden with enough layers of "it's destined, it's my calling, this course of history is the will of gods", IF the will of gods doesn't like the truth. Astrals, unlike Hebrew/Christian vision of God for example, are far far away from being the truth themselves (God = truth, Astrals definitely not). So the humanity extermination agenda still holds, even after these considerations, because, if humans do have free will (that's the reason Astrals got mad and felt threatened by humanity in first place, then the best aproach for a Astral is to trick them into believing they are "special" because they "answer a calling", they have a destiny to fulfill, thus becoming their instruments in larger plans, while the Astrals themselves are free of any responsibilities, like helping humanity, like the people pray for...). In the end, the Astrals, most notably Bahamut, is much satisfied with the results: Solheim? destroyed. Niflheim? destroyed. Tenebrae? destroyed. Altissia? in ruins. Lucis? erased. Only the people left wandering outside some state-authority remained alive, and they hardly have the same extreme ambitions as Solheim or Niflheim had. At least for now...

He who knows the truth, knows it's all unfair, but had no choice. I'd say that Ardyn, even in madness, is the most humane character in terms of his way of thinking. He has clear vision over what is preposterous and what is unfair, even in his own mixed history of actions (from extremely good to extremely cruel actions). And you know who else also has that clear bullshit filter? Noctis. The highest pawns in the play, the 2 kings, know this destiny stuff is unnecessary cruelty that one could even try to avoid, but with the continental plague at bay, they are forced to act. Ardyn fought his destined role to spread darkness for a long time, insisting that he wants to save people, not to harm them. Young Noctis definitely doesn't like all this Chosen King plan everyone is forcing on him (we, as players, can see this pretty well in the main game, also thanks to the great voice acting). After finding out the truth, Ardyn doesn't handle it well at all, as he was abandoned, tortured, forgotten, called a monster and other absolutely ridiculous things that an originally kindhearted man just has no reason to be forced to endure (like he shouts "For what sins must I attone?!").

Free will remains at the core of their hearts. Accepting the fate or resisting it doesn't change Ardyn's status as, literally, a man of no consequence, but it's good to keep in mind that he continues to NOT be ok with this darkness-spreading role, for he says in his "submit to fate" ending: "Loath though I am to serve the shadows...", aka unwilling to serve the shadows. Also, mature Noctis understands what role he plays, and what man he slays, he learns everything, presumably, in the Crystal, hence the noticeable change of attitude towards Ardyn as Noctis matured. My favourite scene in the whole game is when Ardyn in the real world fades away with a smile, under Noct's understanding watch. Who knows what he smiles for... his death-to-come, the success of his revenge, or, as I like to think, the thought that at least his counterpart understood the larger scheme of things and didn't just buy into this Astral destiny construct. They knew they were forced into this play, they knew they were driven into a corner (facing the Starscourge), but I believe they both had their original, unique selves intact deep in their hearts, and by this I mean they both kept a common personal desire, chosen via free will, in contrast to the desires of the roles fabricated by destiny. That desire was to save lives, and that, in the larger, very circular plan, meant the undoing of the Starscourge. However, personally, I think Noctis' deep personal desire wasn't this (saving people, like Ardyn's personal wish), even if saving the world is an honorable goal. I think Noctis' personal self just wanted to live and, sadly, his destiny-fabricated self in the end didn't allow this to him, while Ardyn, for all the long suffering he had to endure and also inflict for no reason, in the end accomplished, in a way, both his original self's goal to purge the Scourge/save people and also his destiny-fabricated self's role of spreading the darkness and fuel Noctis with enough motives for Noct to WANT to kill his counterpart.

Tertium non datur/no third option is given. I want to add that in FFXV's plot, there is no middle way like "humans shape their own destiny"/"humans can change destiny"/"humans can defy their fate". If that would be the case, then we'd probably have a plot in which both Ardyn and Noctis strive to fight against the gods, in different or maybe even mutual ways. Maybe they'll be given such a third option in the FFXV novel, but so far, it seems free will simply is not allowed to manifest itself in FFXV's story, ruled by the concept of destiny.

That is all... I want to end this post with my personal feelings towards this final, whole picture of the plot. I'd be lying if I said I don't feel bad about it all. Free will is one of the key-concepts that give humanity meaning and work of fiction that takes it away for no solid (and well-presented) reason will always be... uncomfortable for me to read, to say the least. I feel the whole story becomes void of meaning because of everyone just playing their parts in destiny's bad PowerPoint presentation, and I feel it's very unfair to characters with such great designs, like Noctis and Ardyn. Thanks for reading~...

[tenebraetrash17]

Ravus Nox Fleuret-Last Rites: An Observation.

Fight me Ravy-oli!!

Alright! It's time for some observation once more. While it is stated in the description of Ravus' tech ability that it is a "Magitek source" I feel as if it doesn't add up. Don't get me wrong, it's fully possible that Ravus is using Magitek weaponry to activate his lightning bolts.

But, why is it purple? If we've seen anything from the Magitek, it's that what ever is powering them......

It has always been red.

There are no instances hinting otherwise, not even in Episode Prompto, where it would have been seen!

"But Silver!"You might say, "If it's not Magitek, then what is it?"

An excellent question, dear reader! Although, you probably didn't ask it to begin with.

Take a look at the name:

Last Rites.

Definition Of Rite

1 : a : a prescribed form or manner governing the words or actions for a ceremony

b : the ceremonial practices of a church or group of churches

2 :a ceremonial act or action initiation rites

3 :a division of the Christian church using a distinctive liturgy

( https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rite )

Does that sound like a mechanical function to you?

No, it is a act of holiness. And what is Ravus descended from?

The line of Oracles. Perhaps the holiest bloodline in Eos.

Ravus also says some very specific things throughout the game, such as:

"Power of the storm surges through my blade!"

And earlier than that:

"So, you've received the storm's blessing."

I always thought that Ravus knowing about Noctis acquiring the Mark of the Fulgarian was rather strange, but then again, A HUGE LIGHTNING BOLT TOTALLED THE BASE so I guess he would have noticed that something was different. But what if the reason he knew is because the Bloodline he comes from is, in a sense, bonded to it?

What am I getting at with this? I must beg that you look to the crest of the royal family of Tenebrae.

Does that seem familiar at all?

The staff of Ramuh, also known as:

And what color is his lightning?

A vibrant violet, just like the lightning Ravus wields.

I think that these things are far too similar to be written off as just a gift of the Magi(tek) as we have heard in the past that Ravus' super strength is possibly due to him being Oracle born, so who's to say that isn't the truth?

[mistress-light]

This tale of our shared past is entrusted to the King of Kings.

The Six have safeguarded this star since time immemorial - each of a different mind, but united by this common purpose.

The gods' protection extends to all creatures here below - even to the mortals created in their image. They are feeble creatures leading fragile lives and clinging to foolish fancies. The Frostbearer scorns these visions of 'hope' which melt like snow in the sun's light.

Yet the Pyreburner admires their strength of will. For their reverence, he grants unto them his flame, and the world of man flourishes. His benevolence warms the frozen heart of the Frostbearer. The mortals have earned her respect; he, her love and admiration.

It is not long, however, before some among those men ascend to new heights of hubris. The people of Solheim spurn the gods who blessed them - the gods they once worshipped. The ungrateful mortals incur the wrath of the Pyreburner. He seeks to raze the very civilization his flames once helped build.

But the Six are sworn to defend this star and all of her inhabitants from harm - and, at times, from one another. The flames of war surge as Solheim fends off the Pyreburner's fire. The gods' pleas for peace fall on deaf ears and the battle rages on.

When the smoke clears, the world of man is in ruins, their star left scarred for time eternal. Wearied from war, the Six seek solace in slumber.