Did Zodiark Temper The Ancients? (FFXIV Lore)

Did the unsundered lose their Free Will in ancient times this question comes up in the comments every time I mention zodiac and Highland two of the most powerful primals we've encountered in Final Fantasy 14. I'd like to take a closer look at the concept of tempering and whether the two primals were influencing the people who summoned them primals also known as icons and eidolons are magical beings worshiped in aorzia they are constructs of ether made manifest by the will of the Summoner this comes in the form of legendary figures or mythical creatures in some cases the Summoner can transform into a primal like with yazel and shiva once summoned primals can exert their will on other beings installing fanatical loyalty and ensuring a Wellspring of Faith to sustain them that's because primals need a lot of ether to summon and maintain this is usually an unintentional part of summoning those gifted with the blessing of light are immune to tempering that's why the warrior of light gained a reputation as the icon Slayer in the realm reborn story this is possibly a retcon as in-game text prior to end Walker implied the echo was what prevented tempering that's why it characters other than the warrior of Light have been shown to resist tempering we learned during live letter 20 7 that primals have their own terms for their thralls leviathan's followers are drowned ramas are touched odins are sundered and lakshmi's are dreaming ifrits thralls are just tempered which has become the default term for anyone under the control of a primal now everything I just described applies to Modern primals heidelin and zodiac were created under different circumstances they were the primals summoned during the final days of etherus when the Ancients creation Magics were warped by their fear-driven mental States this unconsciously brought their nightmares to life the convocation of 14 was the council tasked with leading the Ancients as a civilization they didn't fully understand the threat of the final days at the time because of Hermes actions in cotesis hyperborea go watch my video on his story to learn more about that now despite Hermes meddling he did work tirelessly to find a solution after all he was now a member of the Khan vacation occupying the seat of fan Daniel they theorized that the phenomenon was related to stagnated Ether within the currents of aetherus causing it to rot they believed summoning a very powerful Primal attuned to the darkness element would fix the ether flow that's why they chose to summon zodiac but the ether needed was great and the Ancients offered up half of their population the final days were stopped for now convocation member Elizabeth becomes Zodiac's heart it's at this point in history that Things become a little murky the convocation wanted to restore etherus to the way it used to be before the final days ravaged the star they would need more sacrifices of ether to do this but there was a growing faction of rebels who disagreed with continuing to use zodiac the faction led by Vena the former Azam believed mankind shouldn't dwell on the past but focus on the future she's also the only ancient we know of with knowledge of the future at this time but that's a discussion for another video fanaa and her followers summon heidelin choosing to become the primal's heart at the cost of her Rebel group the convocation restored the star but now wanted to sacrifice the newly developed life forms to bring the Ancients back that gave up their lives this final sacrifice never happens as heidelin fights in sunder's zodiac splintering him and the entire star into 14 pieces now back to our original question were the convocation members tempered by Zodiac's power it can certainly be argued that the convocation had good intentions with their decisions but it's possible zodiac fed into their desires his hunger for ether pushing the ancients for more sacrifices there are conflicting reports about this so let's look at the official material for answers livingway is one of the loperates on the moon the loperates were created by heidelin to help with her contingency plans in case the warrior failed to stop the final days livingway tells us that when primals are summoned correctly tempering does not occur the ashians included a part in their summoning teachings that caused primals to subjugate others aseans went about meddling in history and teaching this art of summoning that was passed down for Generations this information is shared with the warrior just before the party leaves for Ultima Thule the loperits fixed the summoning method so the primals they call help send them to the edge of the universe and these primals don't temper anyone that's the correct method of summoning according to living way however one of the aseans tells us a different story Emmett silk is considered the leader of the aseans and the leader of the convocation in ancient times at least during the time of ancient atheros that we are familiar with during the level 76 Quest best way out Emmett silk explains the conflict of zodiac and heidelin in greater detail but in some optional dialogue he expands further on the idea of tempering and Free Will here's the quote as I told you before zodiac is the creation of my people the first people we summoned him as your kind might summon a primal albeit an infinitely more powerful one and like one of your primals he tempered us it was only natural there was no resisting such power and as we aseans came to exist solely to bring about the rule of Darkness his Darkness Emmett silk spells it out for us in a different way than living way Zodiac's dark power was too much for them and it makes sense that there's no resisting his influence I'd also like to add that it's not an Emmett Silk's character to lie he sees himself above things like dishonesty and overt deceptions that isn't to say he wouldn't omit information when explaining something or be less forthcoming than he could be but the bottom line Emmett silk doesn't contradict his word so it's safe to say what he tells us in this Quest is accurate Zodiac's overwhelming power was enough to guide the convocation toward his desires so if that's the case for Zodi Arc what about his counterpart did heidelin's power influence Vanoss faction leading up to the sundering the timeline isn't clear about when heidelin came into being but we do know Vena became the primal's heart and the rest of her followers gave up their ether for the summoning it's possible heidelin went to confront zodiac directly after we're only ever told of one battle between the two Wind characters recap ancient history so vanas faction probably didn't experience any tempering but we know heideland continued to exist in the source working on numerous contingency plans in case the warrior failed so what about all those beings that she worked with we don't have a direct explanation but we can try to look at some cut scenes for answers menphili award is a former Scion of the Seventh Dawn and speaker for heidelin known as the word of the mother she confronts the Warriors of Darkness from the first towards the end of Heaven's word the Warriors had previously denounced heidelin and allied with the asean elitibus listen to what she tells ardbert as the aseans must serve as instruments of Zodiac's will so too must others carry out the will of hiding [Music] but for the Boon you have granted her she has grown strong enough to set me free that I might serve as her emissary she talks about heidelin's will as if it has equal weight to Zodi arcs but then again the Warriors of Darkness once served heidelin and later chose to stray from that path that means they couldn't have been tempered at least not in theory this is all just speculation but without someone explaining the mechanics it's not likely Heidel and tempered in the same way zodiac did I know this is a controversial topic so I'm curious about what you think do you agree with my assessment on tempering or is there some evidence that I missed let me know in the comments and as always if you enjoy this Final Fantasy 14 lore Deep dive consider subscribing so you know when new videos go live take care Warriors and I'll see you next time foreign [Music]

Channel: Stout Helm

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Id: cP2Xf_-yMuI

Length: 9min 4sec (544 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 17 2023