Ardyn Izunia's Origins Explained ► Final Fantasy XV Lore + Episode Ardyn

stories about the triumphs of good over evil are as classic as it gets when it comes to both fictional and non-fictional tales and many of them have stood the test of time like the success of the Trojans in the Battle of Thermopylae Frodo's defeated Sauron in the Lord of the Rings and even Sydney's foiling of Billy and Stu's plans in the original scream the Final Fantasy franchise is no different in this regard with this particular narrative concept being used to great effect over the years one of the things that's made the franchise unique however is that the tale has rarely been recurring until recently where sequels and spin-offs have become a bit more commonplace each Final Fantasy presented a self-contained story they would see a fresh group of protagonists attempting to save the war from destruction after it was being threatened by the ultimate antagonist and even though we do now have more sequels each iteration has still focused around bringing the spirit and liveliness that comes with reinventing yourself it's led to a lot of deviation across the board and when it comes to antagonists it's meant that they aren't all just maniacal fiends hell-bent on destruction for the sake of it as the stories have become more developed so to have our antagonists and their motivations one of the most prominent trends in recent times is the emergence of the sympathetic antagonist most times they are still evil to the core but only because they have been twisted by the cruel hands of fate to the point where they aren't interested in salvation only destruction often seeking escape but after learning of their plight is possible to have compassion for what they've been through it harkens back to ian MacLaren's famous quote be pitiful for every man is fighting a hard battle except in the case of most Final Fantasy antagonists the battle has already been lost and they are no longer deserving or wanting of anyone's pity examples of this have been showcased in some of our earlier origins videos around Sephiroth and Caius Ballad but based on what has just been well and truly confirmed via the release of Final Fantasy 15 s final piece of downloadable content Odin xenia also falls into this category in a rather big way an altruistic individual bow by a fait he did not choose and driven beyond the normal balance of sanity they say time heals all wounds but as noted by Rose Kennedy the wounds still remain the minds just attempts to lessen the pain over time and in the case of Arden this is very much the case and it's going to be fun to rummage around his story to try and explain how it all happened truth be told we've had a lot of people wanting us to cover Final Fantasy 15 within our origin series for some time now but we wanted to wait until the story was officially at an end and as dawn of the future will now be released as a non canon novel focusing on the timeline that weaves out from episode Odin's alternative ending it's time for us to get cracking and what better place to start than with the game's antagonist who served as the final act just as a slight disclaimer though following the release of episode Arden its prologue subsequent interviews from developers and discrepancies that exist between the different language versions of the main game there's a lot of potential ways the story of Final Fantasy 15 can be interpreted it's made compiling this origins video actually rather challenging but I've tried my best to come up with a narrative that makes the most sense to me anyway before we dive into the origins of our dinner Suniya make sure you subscribe to Final Fantasy Union we aim to publish new interesting Final Fantasy content roughly every Monday and we have so much cool stuff on the horizon to get notified immediately when we publish something new make sure you hit that notification bell and I'd also like to give a big shout out to our patreon supporters the Mod Squad you guys Rock and we really appreciate your support someone else who rocks is TPR for letting us use his music in our videos if you enjoy it check it out on Spotify one last thing be sure to let us know in the comments who you'd like us to see cover in our future origins video all right so let's get started with Arden's origins born as the eldest son in the rather respected Suniya family Arden was a gifted child and it was believed he had been blessed by the Astral's themselves due to his innate abilities with the powers of healing he was also the ideal role model for his younger brother somnus and in their earlier years together they were very close often spending time playing chess with each other and developing their strategic acumen yet as they grew their areas of interest began to diverge and when humanity was threatened by a dangerous plague that would later become known as the star scourge they disagreed as to what would be the best way to try and save not just their close friends and family but humanity as a whole the challenge was that the star scourge was inherently different from anything humanity or even the Astral's had faced before AOS had been used to conflicts of varying degrees but they were often physical encounters based around acts of conquest or defiance but with the stars' scourge they faced a new kind of problem that affected the planet on multiple levels the first part was the plague itself which would see people become infected by a photo phobic parasite known as plasmodium malariae this would gradually morph the form of their hosts changing both their mental and physical states to the point where they could no longer be identified as the person they once were and this then led on to the second part as they would become demons creatures that roamed around in the darkness and preyed on people who were pure the outbreak could not be left unchecked it needed to be controlled but despite the after all's being charged with protecting a awesome maintaining stability they were unable to act in a direct capacity following a bitter war that had erupted after the kingdom of Solheim turned their back on Ifrit their benefactor the Astral's ended up defending humanity castigating Ifrit for his flagrant abuse of power and irrational rage that they felt would end up threatening all of a us the consequence was that if fruit was slain at the hands of the other Astral's but the conflict took a hefty toll on everyone and everything involved a oz was left scarred and Ramu Shiva Leviathan and Titan ended up falling into deep slumbers having overextended their powers only Bahamut remained as the sole observer but even he no longer will did the same level of influence when the star scourge then emerged Muhammed realized that he alone could not fight the disease and so he turned to humanity popular sentiment was that the Asuna family would be best placed to lead the charge and so Bahamut granted Odin and his brother somnus special powers that were powered by the crystal an embodiment of the soul of the planet to reflect the significance of this distinction and to show that they had a connection with the Astral's the izuna family were renamed house caelum and Odin henceforth became known as Arden Lucis caelum in an official capacity while his brother became known as somnus Lucis caelum at the same time Muhammad also bestowed special powers on another family they resided within the city of Tenebrae and would become known as house flore unlike the powers bestowed on house caelum which would enable the wielders to fight the byproduct of the disease the demons more effectively house flore was given more defensive powers to help tackle the initial stages of the star skirt and keep it in check and the benefactor who would be able to cleanse the world and commune with the Astral's was a woman called era who just happened to be Arden's fiance these gifts were significant but in reality they were part of a wider plan that Muhammad was enacting that would indeed help him to rid a us of the star scourge but with all members of house caelum and house flore ultimately being sacrificed for their troubles oblivious to this and now empowered by the gods so that they could seemingly contend with his pandemic Arden and somnus said about attempting to fight back against a star scourge but while somnus chosen aggressive stance raising armies to hunt the demons and burning those who had been infected by the plague Arden chose to instead lend aid to the people this saw him set aside these strong offensive powers he had been gifted only using them in dire circumstances instead he chose to use his unique healing powers to absorb the ailment from those infected into his own body as he believed this power had also been granted to him by the gods due to his actions Arden was heralded as a hero by the general populace they could see with their own eyes that he was healing people allowing families to stay together something that strengthened their collective resolve and they started to believe that perhaps they could indeed defeat the star scourge with Arden as their Warrior of Light pushing back against the forces of darkness it was a realistic hope but there were unforeseen consequences to Arden's actions over time his health had begun to suffer the star scourge was consuming him from within and every time he healed someone knew it was only exacerbating the problem realizing what was happening Arden chose to remove himself from the public eye he was concerned that those who idolized him would feel betrayed if they saw the monster he was becoming and he didn't want to risk them losing faith in attempting to fight the star skirt through passive means it wasn't an easy decision by any means but what other choice did he have and so he aalberts severed contact with error and left behind most of the people that he was trying so desperately to protect relying on the goodness of those within his flock to keep him clothed fed and sheltered Auden's decision created a vacuum he was a big personality and was adored due to his compassion but with him gone it represented an opportunity for somnus like Odin he had been attempting to help the people in a way that he truly believed was the best for their survival but due to Odin's more positive actions he had been chastised for his tactics that were often deemed unnecessary and sometimes even barbaric with odd and now gone his supporters had started to create small rebel groups to protest against omnis but in reality there was now no real to somnus his methods odd and their champion HeLa had all but abandoned them hiding in the shadows and so it allowed somnus to gain ever-increasing support from a population that just wanted to know they would continue to be kept safe this support often came at the expense of his brothers reputation and somnus used the small rebellions to demonize aden and consolidate his power but it also strengthened his conviction Aden had chosen his path and he hadn't succeeded and so somnus became more aggressive with his actions and as Aden would not renounce his official name and revert back to being in a zoo Nia he even branded his brother as a potential threat to society that should be hunted down and treated as a fugitive despite all of this Aden still attempted to continue his mission to heal the sick and give them hope but it was becoming increasingly more difficult not only was he struggling to control his demonic side but somnus his forces were also stepping up their searches it meant even seeing his fiancee was a perilous task but it was worth it just to gaze into her eyes and remember when times were simpler and it was not too long after one such visit had odd and learned that he had been anointed as the crystals champion the one true king who would be able to unite the people and work towards eradicating the star scourge once and for all this was a pleasant surprise for Aden he had chosen to cast aside his mobility in almost every way except for his name and he had no real interest in returning to that particular setting yet he had done more than anyone to try and protect the people and if it meant he could finally rid the land of this plague he would happily accept this new role as their king with somnus then extending a hand welcoming him back into the fold for him to be adorned Aden ventured to see the crystal without having to hide in the shadows but he could not have foreseen what his brother was planning continuing on with his campaign against Aden somnus declared himself as the crystals chosen king and revealed that he only had it known that odd and were to be crowned so as to lure him there with the goal of removing him and his rebellion from the land this was unfortunate despite being close when they were younger Odin had seen his brother grow more and more arrogant over time but he had been tolerant to these actions even though he did not agree with his brothers tactics they were still brothers they were both working towards the same goal there was just their methods that were different when somnus then branded odd and a traitor he refused to take the bait he just wanted to help people and that served no purpose yet with somnus now bearing arms against him in front of their noble peers Odin was backed into a corner he could no longer sit on the sidelines and allow the charade to continue it saw the two square off against each other in a spectacular jewel their god-given powers being used to full effect but due to being much more experienced with combat and with awed and psychologically weakened due to his condition somnus prevailed with relative ease seeing that her fiance had lost era attempted to intervene before somnus could strike down his brother but in doing so she inadvertently ended up sacrificing her own life when somnus then showed no remorse and instead declared that era had been foolish odd and lost control of his emotions this was all just too much he had tried for so many years to be the embodiment of integrity frugality and selflessness the guiding light that would offer hope to those in need but despite all of this it seemed that punishment and pain of what had been preordained for him realizing that everything he had held dear was now gone Odin could no longer suppress the star scourge that have been growing inside him and he showed the world exactly what he had become a monster but instead of lashing out and attacking those in attendance seeking revenge for the perceived injustice Artin just wanted to know the truth had the crystal truly chosen somnus as its true king the answer he received was clear Arden was rejected by the crystal and somnus chose to execute his brother on the spot but much to his surprise it failed as due to Odin's unique healing abilities he hadn't been affected by the star skirt in the same way as many other humans instead Odin's body was now the host of a myriad of demons that had granted him unimaginable powers the star scourge hadn't infected him it was fueling him and it had made him immortal realizing this somnus decided to create an eternal prison for Aden on the island of Angel God and after placing him there he proceeded to strip Aden off his name and title there raising him from history only those within the inner circle would know of Odin's continued existence and they would refer to him as simply a da Geum for over 2000 years Aden remained within his prison bound by chains attempting to repent for the sins that had caused the crystal to reject him and choose somnus that was until he was found and freed by a rather inquisitive scientist from Niffleheim called for starburst Sathya he was desperate for more knowledge so that he could help the Niffleheim Empire become more powerful and after extolling many virtues from the ancient civilization of Saul Heim first all moved on to the next chapter of history which brought him to seek out that mythical Adagio but after spending so long dormant the whole ordeal was far too much for Aden to comprehend forced to defend himself against the illusion rural God who had been monitoring his prison for over two millennia ardan lost control of himself succumbing to the demons inside and he ended up using his powers but much to his surprise he found they no longer worked as they previously had now instead of being able to heal people he had the ability to bestow the plague upon people and absorbed their memories it was a huge shock and Arden passed out entering into a coma for seven months when he awakened harden learnt from versed all about just how much the world had changed while he'd been removed but he had no desire to seek revenge for what had been done to him and so little benefit in aiding an empire in their petty war Eve if it was against the kingdom of lucious first Aldo was unrelenting he was desperate to have Aden as a powerful Allah in their struggle and kept prodding and probing hoping to find something that would motivate Aden into joining their side but nothing he could do seemed to sway Aden not even the offer of subjugating a god that was until he received some unexpected assistance from the aleutian royal God who had snuck into the facility with the hopes of recapturing Aden with so much happening in such a short space of time Aden was on the edge of some serious mental instability he had been used to trying to keep the demons in check but his new situation was in stark contrast to the life he knew and it was difficult to comprehend everything with a stall then pestering him like a wild dog was antagonizing him putting him on edge yet the thing that pushed him over the edge was again the Lucien Royal Guard having infiltrated four-stars facility and hoping to recapture Arden for the second time the only thing they achieved was sending Arden into a schizophrenic rage within the Royal Guard Aden saw hallucinations of his brother somnus they were mocking him and Aden could tolerate such defiance no longer when Ifrit then awoke Aden who was still in his fit of rage chose to succumb to the Styles influence and ignore the morals that he had held with such steadfast belief throughout his entire life even when times were hard Aden had always worked to try and please the gods to play his part in their grands design but now they would start to work for him and this began with a subjugation of Ifrit it was exhilarating and he learnt so much from it for its memories including what he believed to be the truth about what happened so long ago that solace his ruse was much more sinister than a simple ploy yet this time it had a different conclusion instead of dying in his arms peacefully Aden was forced to kill his beloved era all with a gentle nudge from his caring brother it pushed Arden over the edge and he swore to no longer bend a knee to the will of the gods he would embrace the demons inside him become the monster everyone believed he was spreading the star scourge across the land and creating chaos the stall was thrilled with Arden's choice and together they worked to combine their existing magitek technology with the power of the star scourge this saw the creation of new more powerful weapons such as the magitek infantry and in the years that followed awed and dazzled senior figures within the empire with his knowledge in recognition of this Auden was promoted to the position of chancellor and it gave him a direct line of communication to I Dulles aldicott the Emperor of the Niffleheim Empire who despite being very wise became smitten hypnotized by Odin's promises of even greater powers he turned a blind eye to the cracks that had started to appear within the empire following the arrival of Arden but some of this was down to ignorance thanks to the actions of somnus the star scourge had been all but eradicated but Aden brought it back spreading it throughout the Imperial lands as he looked to obtain more and more knowledge from its citizens something that in turn caused Aden to become a former shadow of himself I don't buy Arden's promises of greatness have become fixated on the crystal he believed it would allow him to slay the after all and become a god himself and so he sanctioned more aggressive measures against the Kingdom of Lucis this culminated in an assault that happened on founder Kings Day which would see him attempt to disable Insomnia's outer defenses their famed wall Aden was a prominent part of this plan as he infiltrated insomnia and someone Ifrit to wreak havoc as planned this caught the attention of a newly crowned king of Lucis called Regis Lucis caelum who odd and hoped would summon the old wall and allow him to seek revenge against his brother somnus and after defeating Regis with ease autumn was granted this chance as somnus came down from the heavens to square off against his brother once again yet unlike last time somnus was outmatched he couldn't compete with the power that Aden had accumulated and following his defeat he attempted to explain the events of 2,000 years prior from his perspective but this did little to quell the fire burning in Arden's heart he needed to rid the land of everything looses caelum and he would start with Regis the current king picking up his sword hard and prepared strike but he was stopped in his tracks by Bahamut having watched from afar this wasn't part of the overarching plan that Bahamut had set in motion thousands of years prior and he began to make this explicitly clear to arden Arden's role was and always had been that of the sacrificial lamb the gods had allowed somnus to usurp him so that when the time came he could be the ultimate motivation behind the true destruction of the darkness and this in turn would give him what he craved as to rid the land of the darkness the true king would end odd and suffering but he would also have to end the line of lusus naturally Auden was perplexed this plan seemed ridiculous convoluted and unnecessarily cruel yet if he sought salvation he had little choice but to submit and so submit he did for a brief time at least as upon reflection he remembered the vow he had made himself a few years prior he would no longer bend a knee to the will of the gods he would place fate in his own hands and killed the chosen king when the time was right which meant he would need to wait patiently until the chosen king was strong enough to transcend mortality to pass the time Auden continued to spread the stars' coat throughout the land but his main objective now was to plan and wait patiently on the sidelines he watched from afar as noctus the chosen king was born within the confines of insomnia but when doctors turned 20 it was time to put his plan into motion his initial step was to usher noctus on his quest to fulfill his destiny and to achieve this Arden convinced I'd olace to enact a rather devilish plan that revolved around capturing the crystal under the illusion of peace Auden proposed the Empire would back King Regis into a corner and reveal to him just how deep their influence ran upon hearing of their proposal Regis knew he could not win the exchange his time was nigh and as odd and anticipated this Regus to ship noctus out of insomnia in secret hoping he would avoid the bloodshed that would follow indeed just prior to the invasion Arden met with doctors had golden key and to make sure noctus followed the path of his choosing he'd forbidden any vessels to leave for Artesia before nonchalantly introducing himself and giving him an Oracle ascension coin in rather ironic fashion as Noctis then continued onwards autumn was there to show him the way offering assistance and advice all in the name of increasing noctis's strength in the early stages of this quest Aden took a more passive role influencing events to make sure the Empire behaved enough so as to allow Noctis to proceed as planned but as they arrived in Artesia Aden chose to be much less subtle with his motivations realizing that Noctis just wasn't strong enough yet Aden chose to provide some extra motivation murdering the Oracle of their time Luna Freya knocked full-array right in front of his eyes he undertook this action with little remorse maluna phrase words and actions resonated with the man Aden had once been having communed with the gods she knew of Muhammad's plan and as such she knew of Aden suffering and in her final moments Luna hoped to remind Aden of where he came from but also what he was working towards but it had the opposite effect Aden became enraged and battered Luna Freya away before proceeding to hunt Noctis down to end this here and now to hell with the gods and to hell with poetic justice Aden would have his revenge immediately also he thought approaching in disguise Aden hoped to clear out the riffraff before dealing with noctus but after ravers saw through his ruse Aden decided to be more direct that was until he was foiled by Ravus again which gave Ignace time to escape and place on his hand the ring of the Lucy I I hadn't watch with Glee as he knew only those who were worthy could wear the ring but after witnessing the Lucy eyes acceptance of Ignis Auden's happy demeanor changed rather significantly things had escalated in ways he had not expected in a way though the ensuing fight was calming and it enabled Arden to revert back to a more serene state this gave him the foresight to revert back to his original plan of savoring nacht as his death and so he retreated ready to push Noctis yet again towards transcending mortality albeit with some cruel modifications first Arden had Ravus deemed a traitor punishment for his betrayal next he separated Prompto from the group and goaded Noctis to find him in growl eeeh before being ushered away by Shiva while there harden goaded noctus further before leaving the final pieces of the puzzle all at the expense of Ravis someone who despite having similarities in their plight Aden had little sympathy for even turning him into a demon to show how much contempt he now harbored for the man who also believed he should have been chosen to save a us and with odd and then turning idealism to a demon to you as thanks for his contribution the path was laid clear for noctus to enter the crystal and become the worthy adversary Odin had been waiting for all these years over the next 10 years free from kings and Oracle's Adam was then free to spread his disease and plan how he could torment noctus upon his return this saw him take up residence within the Crown City when doctors surfaced 10 years later Aden was one of the first to greet him when he stepped back inside insomnia striking noctus with mental Barb's he hoped would dig a way to cause him to become unstable unfortunately for Arden though the gods were in no mood to play games and they destroyed the wall he created so that Noctis could proceed unscathed his initial plan foiled next Aden had knocked us fighting his ancestors including the founder King and his brother somnus who was now a corrupted soul that Aden could command and his final amusing gambit was to have bodies of Luna Freya Reedus Nix and ideas displayed in chains for his amusement none of this fazed Noctis though an Arden was pleased finally the chosen one was worthy of his time it was time for the Battle of Kings to commence an ardent hoped he would prevail smiting the gods and ridding them of their favored bloodline Arden though could not escape the fate that had been preordained he became the sacrificial lamb the chosen king was victorious and he along with Arden were vanquished it meant the line of loosest came to an end and Arden finally got to realize the peace he had craved before he was driven to madness and so that concludes a story of Arden as Oona the main antagonist of Final Fantasy 15 to me Arden is one of the most unique characters that's ever existed within the Final Fantasy franchise I mentioned within the intro that there has been a trend towards more sympathetic antagonists and Arden certainly fits within that character trope but what makes odd and unique is just how much they were able to expand upon what happened before his fall from grace we'd seen something similar with Caius and Sephiroth but with Aden they took it so much further it meant that even though his appearance within the main game perhaps wasn't the strongest in isolation through the expanded works of the Final Fantasy 15 universe we got to see a character who had so many layers and those layers were explained they even went through the effort of demonizing his brothers omnes so that we could get to see Arden as a protagonist for a brief period of time and after seeing all of this it's easy to see why Arden ended up losing his mind despite being able to contain the demons inside him he was just pushed too far tied with by higher beings who cared little for the whims of mere mortals in many ways Auden still it's in too dissimilar from that of lightning they were both trying to fight against the fate that had been assigned to them by higher powers the difference was that while autumn was largely alone in this fight lightning had friends to share the burden with and allies amongst the gods who pushed the balance in her favour oh how different things could have been if somnus had just been aligned with his brother the only disappointing thing is that due to how many cooks they've had in the kitchen elements of aden story did end up becoming a disjointed but it's still coherent enough to make it a good adventure but yeah but that small analysis out of the way that marks the end of this Final Fantasy 15 origins video thank you all so much for watching this was our first foray into the lore of Final Fantasy 15 within our origins series and it was honestly really hard work due to all of the inconsistencies that have now been introduced it was difficult to decide how exactly I wanted to portray things but hopefully you guys enjoyed it we'd love to hear what you thought though so please let us know in the comments how you felt about the video if you've made it this far please give yourself a pat on the back in the comments as a badge of honor and if you enjoyed it which we hope you did please hit that like button share the video around with all the people you know who loved Final Fantasy 15 and if you haven't done so already please subscribe to our Channel also make sure you let us know what other means to you as a character I just want to let everyone know that your support means the world to us it means we can continue to produce these videos and we would love to have you along for the journey our patreon supporters give us so much stability allowing us to try new things and have fun experimenting and you could support Lauren and I for just $1 per month we do have other tiers available though and for $5 per month you can gain access to behind the scenes content where we talk about the creation of these kind of videos we also have patreon exclusive activity feeds a discord server and recognition for all your support at the end of our videos alright guys thank you so much for joining me on this deep dive into the law of final fantasy 15 we'll be diving back into it very soon but for now this is Daryl signing out I'll see you all next time for more Final Fantasy videos [Music] you you

Channel: Final Fantasy Union

Views: 377,177

Keywords: ardyn, ardyn izunia, ardyn theme, ardyn dlc, ardyn prologue, ardyn anime, ardyn izunia kingsglaive, ardyn izunia story, ardyn izunia lore, ardyn izunia final boss, ardyn and somnus, ardyn izunia vs noctis, final fantasy 15 story explained, final fantasy 15 story, Final Fantasy XV Royal Edition, Final Fantasy Gameplay, Final Fantasy 15 Characters

Id: fueK1LTW0qI

Length: 32min 44sec (1964 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 15 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/loyal2life]

FFUnion talk mad shit about Ardyn and then praise him in this video and XV