In the presentation that announced Endwalker, the next Raid story was named. So far, we have the name "Pandæmonium", and this art, showing that Lahabrea will most likely be a major focus.
Given what we know, I wanted to put together a few thoughts on what might be going on here.
"Pandæmonium" (or "Pandemonium") most commonly means chaos and confusion these days. However, it was first coined in John Milton's poem Paradise Lost, which tells the story of Satan falling from Heaven and tempting Adam and Eve into being cast out of Eden. There, Pandæmonium is the capital city/palace of Hell, crafted by fallen angels; the word combines the Latin words for "All" and "Demon", so it's the place of all demons. In Final Fantasy, the name was first used in that context, in Final Fantasy II. The Emperor's power and armies come from a contract with Hell. When he's killed, he manages to overthrow his patron demon and conquer Hell itself. Thereafter, he rules Hell and earth from the demon palace Pandæmonium. The name has been used in other games in the series, sometimes for enemies. Final Fantasy IX referenced FFII by naming a major dungeon Pandæmonium. notably, Final Fantasy IX's Pandæmonium is located on a planet that seeks to sustain itself by consuming the lives of other planets.
The fact that Pandæmonium was coined in Paradise Lost is interesting to me, since Lahabrea is important to this story. A fallen paradise and fallen angels are thematically important concepts when talking about the Ascians. The main theme for Shadowbringers even name-drops the phrase "Paradise Lost", and "To The Edge" compares the Ascians to fallen angels. Because of this, I think it's likely that the Final Fantasy II interpretation of Pandæmonium is going to be what we're dealing with.
Circling back to Final Fantasy II, there's the character of the Emperor. The Emperor has never been directly given a name in any of the games. He was given the name "Mateus" in a novelization of the game (Final Fantasy II: Nightmare's Labyrinth). Later games have used the name Mateus for things related to him, such as his strongest weapon in Dissidia. Mateus is also the name of an Esper in Final Fantasy XII; there are also Espers directly related to the names of the final antagonists of I, III, IV, and V, so this is likely a direct connection to the Emperor. Also in Final Fantasy XII, the Espers have counterparts, named in their lore. The Espers were beings who rebelled against the gods, and named Scions of Darkness for that. Almost every one is opposed by a Scion of Light. As you may know, the Ascians in this game are named for the Scions of Light. In the case of Mateus the Corrupt, his counterpart is Lahabrea the Abyssal Celebrant. This means that there is a possible thematic connection between Lahabrea and Mateus. Now, we've seen these connections before, and they're not always important. For instance, we've seen Belias, Hashmal, Cuchulainn, Adrammelech, Famfrit, and even FFXII's version of Mateus, without an actual connection to the Ascians. However, we do have Elidibus as a pretty spectacular example of the link being super important. I think that this is at least worth considering, since we're starting from the name Pandæmonium.
If we assume a thematic connection to Mateus, then the cover art has an interesting detail. We don't have much to go on, but Lahabrea's Ascian glyph has been torn in half. The first thing to come to mind is that it's a very interesting concept for one of the only Unsundered Ascians to be sundered in some way after all. But also, this kinda fits Mateus, and Pandæmonium. I mentioned above that at the end of Final Fantasy II, the Emperor conqured Hell and ruled from Pandæmonium after he was killed. Later remakes of Final Fantasy II added a side-story centered on characters who died during the main story. There, they explore a strange afterlife that should be Heaven, but is overrun by monsters. At the end of that story, they also encounter the Emperor. When Mateus died, his soul was split in two. The dark half of his soul descended to Hell, where he became the demonic Emperor fought in the main game. The light half was allowed to ascend to Heaven, and makes a show of asking the fallen heroes for forgiveness. His desire to rule betrays his intentions, (and the abundance of monsters in his Heaven isn't a good sign either), and the fallen heroes fight him as well. So, given that, I find myself wondering if we may be dealing with two versions of Lahabrea, after his soul was split somehow (perhaps as a result of being drawn into Nidhogg's Eye?). Be wary of anyone in the new story with the same name as a Greek god telling you to help take down Lahabrea, is all I'm saying.
So, to sum up, I think that we will indeed be entering a demon palace named Pandæmonium. I think it's likely that Lahabrea will have been split into two, possibly along the same sort of lines as Emperor Mateus. Possibly we will defeat the obviously-familiar form of Lahabrea first, only for the other aspect of him to be revealed in the story's final act.
And this isn't even getting into the timing of the raid. Endwalker's main story is going to wrap up the Hydaelyn/Zodiark conflict by 6.0, and we don't get raid stories until after finishing the main story at launch. Whatever form Lahabrea will be in, he might be the last Ascian when we run into him. Thinking along those lines, I imagine the themes of a paradise lost will be particularly strong.
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Given what we know, I wanted to put together a few thoughts on what might be going on here.
"Pandæmonium" (or "Pandemonium") most commonly means chaos and confusion these days. However, it was first coined in John Milton's poem Paradise Lost, which tells the story of Satan falling from Heaven and tempting Adam and Eve into being cast out of Eden. There, Pandæmonium is the capital city/palace of Hell, crafted by fallen angels; the word combines the Latin words for "All" and "Demon", so it's the place of all demons. In Final Fantasy, the name was first used in that context, in Final Fantasy II. The Emperor's power and armies come from a contract with Hell. When he's killed, he manages to overthrow his patron demon and conquer Hell itself. Thereafter, he rules Hell and earth from the demon palace Pandæmonium. The name has been used in other games in the series, sometimes for enemies. Final Fantasy IX referenced FFII by naming a major dungeon Pandæmonium. notably, Final Fantasy IX's Pandæmonium is located on a planet that seeks to sustain itself by consuming the lives of other planets.
The fact that Pandæmonium was coined in Paradise Lost is interesting to me, since Lahabrea is important to this story. A fallen paradise and fallen angels are thematically important concepts when talking about the Ascians. The main theme for Shadowbringers even name-drops the phrase "Paradise Lost", and "To The Edge" compares the Ascians to fallen angels. Because of this, I think it's likely that the Final Fantasy II interpretation of Pandæmonium is going to be what we're dealing with.
Circling back to Final Fantasy II, there's the character of the Emperor. The Emperor has never been directly given a name in any of the games. He was given the name "Mateus" in a novelization of the game (Final Fantasy II: Nightmare's Labyrinth). Later games have used the name Mateus for things related to him, such as his strongest weapon in Dissidia. Mateus is also the name of an Esper in Final Fantasy XII; there are also Espers directly related to the names of the final antagonists of I, III, IV, and V, so this is likely a direct connection to the Emperor. Also in Final Fantasy XII, the Espers have counterparts, named in their lore. The Espers were beings who rebelled against the gods, and named Scions of Darkness for that. Almost every one is opposed by a Scion of Light. As you may know, the Ascians in this game are named for the Scions of Light. In the case of Mateus the Corrupt, his counterpart is Lahabrea the Abyssal Celebrant. This means that there is a possible thematic connection between Lahabrea and Mateus. Now, we've seen these connections before, and they're not always important. For instance, we've seen Belias, Hashmal, Cuchulainn, Adrammelech, Famfrit, and even FFXII's version of Mateus, without an actual connection to the Ascians. However, we do have Elidibus as a pretty spectacular example of the link being super important. I think that this is at least worth considering, since we're starting from the name Pandæmonium.
If we assume a thematic connection to Mateus, then the cover art has an interesting detail. We don't have much to go on, but Lahabrea's Ascian glyph has been torn in half. The first thing to come to mind is that it's a very interesting concept for one of the only Unsundered Ascians to be sundered in some way after all. But also, this kinda fits Mateus, and Pandæmonium. I mentioned above that at the end of Final Fantasy II, the Emperor conqured Hell and ruled from Pandæmonium after he was killed. Later remakes of Final Fantasy II added a side-story centered on characters who died during the main story. There, they explore a strange afterlife that should be Heaven, but is overrun by monsters. At the end of that story, they also encounter the Emperor. When Mateus died, his soul was split in two. The dark half of his soul descended to Hell, where he became the demonic Emperor fought in the main game. The light half was allowed to ascend to Heaven, and makes a show of asking the fallen heroes for forgiveness. His desire to rule betrays his intentions, (and the abundance of monsters in his Heaven isn't a good sign either), and the fallen heroes fight him as well. So, given that, I find myself wondering if we may be dealing with two versions of Lahabrea, after his soul was split somehow (perhaps as a result of being drawn into Nidhogg's Eye?). Be wary of anyone in the new story with the same name as a Greek god telling you to help take down Lahabrea, is all I'm saying.
So, to sum up, I think that we will indeed be entering a demon palace named Pandæmonium. I think it's likely that Lahabrea will have been split into two, possibly along the same sort of lines as Emperor Mateus. Possibly we will defeat the obviously-familiar form of Lahabrea first, only for the other aspect of him to be revealed in the story's final act.
And this isn't even getting into the timing of the raid. Endwalker's main story is going to wrap up the Hydaelyn/Zodiark conflict by 6.0, and we don't get raid stories until after finishing the main story at launch. Whatever form Lahabrea will be in, he might be the last Ascian when we run into him. Thinking along those lines, I imagine the themes of a paradise lost will be particularly strong.
submitted by /u/Enlog
[link] [comments]
Continue reading...