First off: yeah, I know this is probably too complex of a theory to actually be true. But stay with me here.
The Brief
I am developing a theory about how the aetheric balance of the Source and the Reflections were impacted over time, which has led me to a conclusion that might tell us which shards are the ones depicted in the Queen Eternal fight, in a manner that properly explains why the specific Roman numerals were used for the stages and which elements are present.
The Short Version
Platform X == The Eleventh, stuck in a Wind Calamity
Platform II == The Fourth, stuck in an Earth Calamity
Platform III == The Eighth, stuck in an Ice Calamity
(Yes, the Roman numerals do NOT match the numbers of the reflections. Again, stay with me.)
All of this meshes with the Ninth being stuck in a Lightning Calamity.
Once Again, The Disclaimer:
Of course, the fundamental problem with this theory is that it's probably far too complex to be communicable to the players. So even if it happens to be what Banri Oda came up with, it's not something Yoshida would worry about trying to communicate because it's just way too much inside baseball.
All that being said...
CONSIDER:
After the Sundering, you have the aetheric capacity of Etheirys split into fourteen equal divisions, the Source and thirteen reflections.
When the Thirteenth gets flooded with Darkness and collapses, that causes a shockwave that disrupts the aetheric balance across the Reflections, but NOT on the Source. Importantly, this shockwave also isn't uniform; it doesn't affect all of the Reflections the same way. Since Darkness is the element of chaos and activity, as opposed to Light being stillness and passivity, this causes more activity to take place, because Darkness.
For the sake of argument, lets assume that the Shockwave of Darkness that happens when the Thirteenth pops creates an imbalance in the aether of specific Reflections. (This is based on the notion that because of the Thirteenth's collapse, the response on the First was that it started becoming more aspected towards Light.) If we assume that a similar imbalance in aspect took place on another Reflection, that could be expressed as one tilting more towards Darkness in general, or one element in particular gaining in power.
With all that in mind, SOME Reflections get impacted in specific ways (one element is out of whack), SOME in general ways (more astral or umbral), and SOME not at all.
First: Tilts Umbral, all elements slow down
Second: Fire impacted, Fire speeds up
Third: Earth impacted, Earth speeds up
Fourth: No change
Fifth: Wind impacted, Wind speeds up
Sixth: Ice impacted, Ice speeds up
Seventh: Tilts Astral, all elements speed up
Eighth: No change
Ninth: No change
Tenth: Water impacted, Water speeds up
Eleventh: No change
Twelfth: Lightning impacted, Lightning up
So what the Ascians realize is that the Reflections that were impacted in an astral manner can be rejoined if an event with a similar elemental aspect takes place on the Source. This is because the Reflection (at near-flood conditions) will resonate with the Source event, breaking the barriers between dimensions and causing the Reflection's aether to get downloaded into the Source, amplifying the event into a Calamity.
But they ALSO realize that the amplification of a particular element in the system as a whole will cause an increase in a corresponding element (and potentially a DECREASE in another corresponding element) based on the Nativities (which elements create which), the Conquests (which elements actively suppress which) and the Submissions (which elements are passively suppressed) SOMEWHERE ELSE IN THE SYSTEM.
The concept of the Elemental Nativites, Conquests, and Submissions is covered on Page 9 of Encyclopaedia Eorzea vol. 1, but I'll summarize it here.
So, going down the timeline of events after the collapse of the Thirteenth forces the Ascians to consider matters more closely:
This makes the goal of the 8UC, which had been umbrally impacted, to be about calming down how much the Source had been whipped up by the 7UC, as well as stabilizing the Source into a state of enough equilibrium (tilted towards Astral/Darkness) to allow Zodiark to safely be released from the Cradle of Darkness, at which point He could reincorporate the remaining Reflections and reconstitute the Thirteenth without the Ascians coordinating Rejoinings. But since the 8UC doesn't happen, that's immaterial.
Since the events of Eden help to correct the umbral tilt on the First and bring the elements back into activity again, an 8UC done post-Eden wouldn't have the same effect.
So:
Which echoes what I have at the top.
Now, the Problems:
So, some outstanding questions would be:
The Conclusion
All of this to say that, if the behavior of the Reflections I've outlined here matches with the history, it helps to support why the platforms in the Queen Eternal fight have the numbers they have, show the worlds beyond that the Queen says she's showing us, AND shows us the state of those worlds in terms of being elemental hellscapes on par with how lightning-blasted the Ninth apparently is. Which, in turn, might suggest that how we interact with the unrejoined reflections might be less about literally GOING there for an expansion (as we did with the First in Shadowbringers) and more about going there for brief visits to limited, stabilized areas (as we did with the Thirteenth/Void in the 6.x patch series and with the Ninth in the latter half of DT and its ongoing patch series).
A reflection in the throes of an eternal Wind Calamity might have civilizations living underground and fighting over resources. A reflection in an eternal Earth Calamity might have opted to build flying cities in order to escape all the quakes. Both of which rhyme with a reflection trapped in an eternal Lightning Calamity whose people found a way to channel the lightning into infinite power and used it to create Cyberpunk 1577, which is what we see on the Ninth.
I suppose we'll get a clearer sense of it as we get closer to 8.0 and further on with this business involving the Traveler's Key. But until then, let me know what you think of the theory presented.
Continue reading...
The Brief
I am developing a theory about how the aetheric balance of the Source and the Reflections were impacted over time, which has led me to a conclusion that might tell us which shards are the ones depicted in the Queen Eternal fight, in a manner that properly explains why the specific Roman numerals were used for the stages and which elements are present.
The Short Version
Platform X == The Eleventh, stuck in a Wind Calamity
Platform II == The Fourth, stuck in an Earth Calamity
Platform III == The Eighth, stuck in an Ice Calamity
(Yes, the Roman numerals do NOT match the numbers of the reflections. Again, stay with me.)
All of this meshes with the Ninth being stuck in a Lightning Calamity.
Once Again, The Disclaimer:
Of course, the fundamental problem with this theory is that it's probably far too complex to be communicable to the players. So even if it happens to be what Banri Oda came up with, it's not something Yoshida would worry about trying to communicate because it's just way too much inside baseball.
All that being said...
CONSIDER:
After the Sundering, you have the aetheric capacity of Etheirys split into fourteen equal divisions, the Source and thirteen reflections.
When the Thirteenth gets flooded with Darkness and collapses, that causes a shockwave that disrupts the aetheric balance across the Reflections, but NOT on the Source. Importantly, this shockwave also isn't uniform; it doesn't affect all of the Reflections the same way. Since Darkness is the element of chaos and activity, as opposed to Light being stillness and passivity, this causes more activity to take place, because Darkness.
For the sake of argument, lets assume that the Shockwave of Darkness that happens when the Thirteenth pops creates an imbalance in the aether of specific Reflections. (This is based on the notion that because of the Thirteenth's collapse, the response on the First was that it started becoming more aspected towards Light.) If we assume that a similar imbalance in aspect took place on another Reflection, that could be expressed as one tilting more towards Darkness in general, or one element in particular gaining in power.
With all that in mind, SOME Reflections get impacted in specific ways (one element is out of whack), SOME in general ways (more astral or umbral), and SOME not at all.
First: Tilts Umbral, all elements slow down
Second: Fire impacted, Fire speeds up
Third: Earth impacted, Earth speeds up
Fourth: No change
Fifth: Wind impacted, Wind speeds up
Sixth: Ice impacted, Ice speeds up
Seventh: Tilts Astral, all elements speed up
Eighth: No change
Ninth: No change
Tenth: Water impacted, Water speeds up
Eleventh: No change
Twelfth: Lightning impacted, Lightning up
So what the Ascians realize is that the Reflections that were impacted in an astral manner can be rejoined if an event with a similar elemental aspect takes place on the Source. This is because the Reflection (at near-flood conditions) will resonate with the Source event, breaking the barriers between dimensions and causing the Reflection's aether to get downloaded into the Source, amplifying the event into a Calamity.
But they ALSO realize that the amplification of a particular element in the system as a whole will cause an increase in a corresponding element (and potentially a DECREASE in another corresponding element) based on the Nativities (which elements create which), the Conquests (which elements actively suppress which) and the Submissions (which elements are passively suppressed) SOMEWHERE ELSE IN THE SYSTEM.
The concept of the Elemental Nativites, Conquests, and Submissions is covered on Page 9 of Encyclopaedia Eorzea vol. 1, but I'll summarize it here.
- Nativity: Wind creates Lightning, Lightning creates Fire, Fire creates Earth, Earth creates Ice, Ice creates Water, Water creates Wind, ad infinitum
- Conquest: Earth grounds Lightning, Water erodes Earth, Lightning boils Water (note the active verbiage)
- Submission: Fire is extinguished by Wind, Ice is melted by Fire, Wind is obstructed by Ice (note the passive voice)
So, going down the timeline of events after the collapse of the Thirteenth forces the Ascians to consider matters more closely:
- 1UC: The Fifth (which was impacted by the collapse of the Thirteenth and has a higher Wind aspect than everything else) hits the threshold for too much Wind, gets rejoined, which causes Lightning conditions to increase on the Twelfth and Ninth.
- 2UC: The Twelfth was already impacted by the collapse of the Thirteenth and has a higher Lightning aspect than the Ninth, and hits the threshold first, so it gets rejoined, which causes Fire conditions to increase on the Second.
- 3UC: The Second had big Fire, gets rejoined, Earth speeds up on the Third and Fourth.
- 4UC: The Third had big Earth, gets rejoined, Ice speeds up on the Sixth and Eighth.
- 5UC: The Sixth had big Ice, gets rejoined, Water speeds up on the Tenth.
- 6UC: The Tenth had big Water, gets rejoined, Wind speeds up on the Eleventh.
- 7UC: The Seventh had been impacted astrally, so EVERYTHING was heightened, which is why an unaspected energy disaster like Primal Bahamut was a good pick for a calamity, and this rejoined the Seventh. Astral/Umbral tilt doesn't play into the Nativities, but it means that the Source is in a more active/chaotic state.
This makes the goal of the 8UC, which had been umbrally impacted, to be about calming down how much the Source had been whipped up by the 7UC, as well as stabilizing the Source into a state of enough equilibrium (tilted towards Astral/Darkness) to allow Zodiark to safely be released from the Cradle of Darkness, at which point He could reincorporate the remaining Reflections and reconstitute the Thirteenth without the Ascians coordinating Rejoinings. But since the 8UC doesn't happen, that's immaterial.
Since the events of Eden help to correct the umbral tilt on the First and bring the elements back into activity again, an 8UC done post-Eden wouldn't have the same effect.
So:
- this leaves the Fourth with a Earth increase (caused by the collapse of the Second (II)),
- the Eighth with an Ice increase (caused by the collapse of the Third (III),
- the Ninth with a Lightning increase (caused by the collapse of the Fifth (V),
- and the Eleventh with a Wind increase (caused by a collapse of the Tenth (X)).
Which echoes what I have at the top.
Now, the Problems:
So, some outstanding questions would be:
- Why would the Nativities/Conquests/Submissions only impact certain reflections and not all of them? --> The idea here is that the Shockwave of Darkness from the Thirteenth's collapse made the system react in a chaotic manner, and that's what started the Ascians on the process of realizing they'd need to slow-walk the Rejoinings instead of just trying to shake it all loose with Darkness and hope the reflections all fell back into place. The exact numbers I used are guesses that end up with the results, which is not strictly the most scientific way of going about things, but this is all about attempting to create a lore explanation that backs up the encounter design choices for the Queen Eternal fight.
- Why would the collapse of the Twelfth only increase Fire conditions on the Second and not another shard? --> This is currently a hole in the theory, which I think has something to do with the interaction of Astral/Umbral tilt and the Conquests/Submissions, and I need to look into more closely. Though it's possible that a Fire increase happened on another Reflection that didn't overwhelm its balance, or that the disruptions themselves were inconsistent between the shards impacted. But it's also important to note that if a Fire increase happened on a reflection that was nonetheless overwhelmed with a different element and rejoined via a different Calamity, it might not matter that Fire was the second-worst problem on that reflection. But ultimately, it comes down to "there aren't enough reflections left for every rejoining to cause nativities on two previously unimpacted reflections."
The Conclusion
All of this to say that, if the behavior of the Reflections I've outlined here matches with the history, it helps to support why the platforms in the Queen Eternal fight have the numbers they have, show the worlds beyond that the Queen says she's showing us, AND shows us the state of those worlds in terms of being elemental hellscapes on par with how lightning-blasted the Ninth apparently is. Which, in turn, might suggest that how we interact with the unrejoined reflections might be less about literally GOING there for an expansion (as we did with the First in Shadowbringers) and more about going there for brief visits to limited, stabilized areas (as we did with the Thirteenth/Void in the 6.x patch series and with the Ninth in the latter half of DT and its ongoing patch series).
A reflection in the throes of an eternal Wind Calamity might have civilizations living underground and fighting over resources. A reflection in an eternal Earth Calamity might have opted to build flying cities in order to escape all the quakes. Both of which rhyme with a reflection trapped in an eternal Lightning Calamity whose people found a way to channel the lightning into infinite power and used it to create Cyberpunk 1577, which is what we see on the Ninth.
I suppose we'll get a clearer sense of it as we get closer to 8.0 and further on with this business involving the Traveler's Key. But until then, let me know what you think of the theory presented.
Continue reading...