Hydaelyn's History | FFXIV Lore For Beginners

final fantasy xiv is a sprawling thoughtful story spanning across a base game a rebooting at present three expansions there's so much content and all of it is truly important to the tale the devs are trying to tell and for those of you who are looking to jump into the game and fall in love with a new mmo adventure it might seem a little overwhelming because at its core final fantasy 14 is an rpg first and foremost so joining up now might seem like you've already missed out on so much but i'm here to tell you you haven't you can still join in on the fun and if you're kind of worried about being lost consider this video series my attempt at an easily accessible primer to the game world i hope this will serve new players looking to catch up and might be a fun way for long time fans to refresh themselves on key plot points now if you follow me for a long time you know in a former life i used to be a history teacher so i'm gonna try and tackle this the same way i would try to teach a class on the subject we're gonna break it down try to deliver all the things you need to know without getting in the minutia and also spoiling major plot reveals i figure to preserve the fun of actually playing the game we just don't want to say all the facts we know right away and instead we'll reveal them over time as they would be revealed in the story so if during this video or any others you as a person let's say in 5.5 think wait a minute actually what happened was the reason i am either being vague or leaving out information is because i'm trying not to spoil it for the new players you understand anyway enough introduction let's begin our first lesson the world you're playing in [Music] the world of final fantasy xiv is called heidelin a land blessed by a magical staple of the final fantasy franchise the crystal now if you've never played a final fantasy game you you don't need to worry the crystal just like chocobos or moogles or whatever it's just a trope of the franchise none of the final fantasy games are actually connected in any important manner however final fantasy xiv does pay homage to those games that came before it in some very fun and fan service ways but none of it is important to the story all you need to know is that there's a magical crystal also called hydeline that bestows the blessing of light upon your character giving you the fantastical powers you possess and this crystal is connected to the planet or star as it's often called in game just know that every time they mention a star they mean the planet anyway it's connected to the planet or star through this mystical force called ether for long time final fantasy fans think of it like the life stream or for star wars fans it would be the force it flows through the land and it is both nature and magic things are born from it and when we die we return to it it's just a creative way of explaining where the major elements and magics come from and it can sometimes leave behind crystallized versions of itself that can be used in everything from the complexity of fast traveling across the world to building a simple bookcase and so you might logically think that this means all the peoples of the world worship the ether and the crystal and that's definitely not the case this star our world is filled with a wide variety of peoples and cultures all with their own customs and beliefs they have their own religions and deities and they worship in their own ways or don't worship anything at all so while yes there is this magical crystal and there is the ether there is also the passage of time and different cultures developed differently and the game tackles all that in our part of the world where much of our story takes place for example we've got the 12 which are a group of ancient deities each associated with an element in a calendar month when you make your character you even select which of these 12 you're born under and in other parts of the world they don't give a damn about the 12. but behind it all in the background is the crystal and the ether and that's how it all works because no matter what beliefs the people have the presence of the crystal and crystals in the world still hold great power they are revered as a way of connecting to their deities this power can allow tribes of men or beasts with enough resolve to literally summon forth a type of elemental god called a primal these creatures could be the deities they're worshiping or they could be something else but either way they are powerful and dangerous because they feed off the devotion of those around them tempering mortal souls to their will and feeding off the ether basically making mortals mind-controlled slaves to the primals but even with that danger many people are determined to make the sacrifice be it out of need or some other cultural importance and the reason i'm bringing all this up right now and just bombarding you with all this is because this isn't one of those games where everyone and everything is segmented from each other until you buy a new expansion these different races and different peoples from far-flung cultures and international locations they aren't unknown to you from the moment you start the game you hear tales of far-off lands you know legends and histories of other kingdoms it's all connected and as you go on your adventures you'll meet people from these places long before you actually go there in a future expansion i once had a conversation with a friend about why the trailer for the upcoming expansion and walker was so exciting when in his words it just seemed like a series of locales with not much story i had to explain to him the reason fans were so excited was because for years we've heard of these places we've met people from these places but now we finally get to go to them it's it's like knowing japan exists wanting to visit japan and then finally getting the chance it's exciting so i think before we get into the who when and why of final fantasy 14's history we should take a look at where because it's important and neat to know final fantasy 14's world consists of five major continents but the current version of the game only really takes place on three that are connected together seen here this from left to right is aldenard ilsibard and othard othard or the far east as it's often referred to is home to several important nations in our story the first is the island nation of hingashi which is kind of like a japanese analog or as i lovingly call it anime japan it's a reclusive island chain ruled over by what is essentially a shogunate with a pass that potentially stretches all the way back to the ancient elegant empire which is something we'll talk about later it's biggest port kugane is open to trade with the rest of the world but honestly most of the island chain remains a mystery to outsiders to the west on the mainland of othard is the nation of doma or sort of a china analog located in a region known as yangxia its kingdom sits on the one river which provides the domains with all they need for their way of life in the anxious north is the azim steppe occupied by a wide array of nomadic tribes basically a mongolia analog south of doma lies the nation of damascus and its capital of rabonaster for final fantasy fans this is a huge fan service-y thing just for you spanning the deserts of the east to the jungles of the west dalmasca is situated at a crossroads of international trade between othard and its continental neighbor to the west ilsabar so let's talk about ilsabar the second major continent not much is actually known about it at present look at the map itself most of it's covered with clouds to symbolize this lack of knowledge but what is known is that it is ruthlessly controlled by the garlian empire its capital seated in the northern reaches of the continent the guardians will play a major role in things to come so we'll come back to them to the oceans in the south is thavnair with its city-state of rozet-han a colorful nation of traders and crafters who have maintained their independence from guardian rule due to a strict policy of non-interference the island sort of serves as a waypoint for travelers between east and west and finally this brings us to the third continent aldenard the main focus of our game now a lot of times in the game you're gonna see people talk about aorzia and aldenard and they're gonna be interchangeable the best way to think of this is like great britain and england aorzia is the whole thing while aldenard is just this part in the northwestern ocean is what is known as the old world a series of islands were at the heart is the isolationist nation of scholars charlene or as it's sometimes known old charlene revering those who devote their lives to study this nation of academics rarely involves itself in the affairs of other nations in fact it mostly just hoards knowledge for itself its governing council the forum is secret and selective about what knowledge it allows to be released into the world and how it's disseminated on the total opposite end is al amigo prosperous from its early days of salt trade the nation became a mighty force and some say the most powerful military in all of aldenart for years they were strong bulwark in the east against the forces of the guardian empire leading to a proud and stubborn people the north of aldenard is ruled by the theocratic ishgard its holy see rules over the lands of kurthus and puts faith above all else controlled by the church but maintained by four high houses it's basically game of thrones backstabbing and intrigue while vying for control over what little the church does not possess and although they are neighbors to the other aorzian nations their attention is drawn north to dravania home of dragons for a thousand years they have waged war on the germanian horde and it continues to this very day between ishgard and alamigo lies gridania set deep within the forests of the twelves wood gridania is one of the three starting cities they're a nation focused on agriculture and harmony with nature a place where mughals flutter about in the same dark force as terrible monsters led by a council of seed seers or magical conjurers who can hear the elements it's a place of reflection and connection with the ether to the west on the island of vilbrind again part of eorzea not aldenard is the maritime city-state of limsa lomensa another one of your starting city choices the nation of pirates as it's called was formed from an alliance of rival crews who sought to end the bloodshed but in recent years the nation sort of seeks to move away from its plundering past and finally in the southern deserts the last starting city uldah an affluent culture of merchants and miners teeming with unimaginable wealth and unthinkable poverty uldah finds itself at an inflection point making it the focus for much of the game's story although the city-state is technically controlled by a salt in it the true power is held by the syndicate a cabal of mostly wealthy businessmen and that's the that's the three main continents i know it is a lot but thankfully you can revisit this video rewind do whatever if you have any questions hey that's what comments are for but i did mention there were five continents the two others miracidia and the mysterious new world are not on any current version of the map the way i've always thought of it is if you look at the map it kind of looks like earth right and you can see the three major continents are kind of like where africa europe and asia would be then miracidia would be australia or maybe antarctica and the new world would be the americas i also say this because in game there are hints about what's going on in the new world and it all sounds very similar to the native peoples and cultures from the americas in earth's history miracidia on the other hand is a place where men and dragons and the centaur race and tree-like creatures thrived they had their own religions and cultures and were in the past protected by the elder dragon bahamut but like i said that was in the past [Music] well you made it you finally got here we had to go through geography but now it's time to take a deep dive into the ancient history of the world of hydeland with this information in your back pocket i promise you you will have all the fundamental knowledge you'll need to tackle anything else i make on this channel about the game and honestly probably most other channels and what they make as well so to start and i know this is going to be confusing so just bear with me it was confusing for me when i first learned it but i'm here to walk you through it the past is described in final fantasy 14 in the terms astral and umbral eras and so those concepts astral and umbral can get kind of confusing because in the game they're connected to crystals and elements and pretty much everything and having been a new player once i too even having read everything was like what the hell let me simplify astral means active while umbral means passive we can get into a lot more detail and if you want that video just ask in the comments below let me know if you want me to deep dive astral umbral but just active passive and when it comes to talking history it's even easier just think golden age versus dark age astral eras are mostly defined by civilizations rising and technology advancing until a terrible calamity occurs resulting in an umbral era or a time of recovery until eventually it is followed by a new astral era our world this star heidelin has moved between these eras six times in recorded history before the start of our game each tied to a different element and i say recorded history because long long ago before the first astral and umbral era was the time of the twelve this was a time of those larger-than-life heroes or gods honestly we don't really know what we do know is that long ago they took up residence in eorzea and the people of eorzea revere them however warring tribes and magical beings and primals abound and all this warring it angered the twelve so much they left the world and wiped it clean with wind creating the first umbral era it was a dark time for those who were left behind but the remaining peoples of the world were forced to rebuild and start over it was during this time also that dragons first appeared and eventually the world would recover although it isn't known why the first astral era came to an end in a calamity of lightning the skies darkened and mankind was forced underground but it's also thought during this time due to the prayers of the hopeless that the first magics began to take shape when it comes to the second astral and umbral eras not much is really known about them except that it was a time of twisted religion and bloody holy wars and so in a very fitting way it's calamity was one of fire but from out of the ashes of the third umbral era rose the elegant empire the empire more commonly known as alec was founded by emperor zhande roughly 5000 years before the start of the game it's this empire that much like the empires of persia rome britain the mongols or ottomans basically like all the major empires in earth's history would shape heideln's future its reach and power quickly grew spanning the three major continents and potentially the entire world however the people of mericidia under the protection of bahamut like we talked about refused to surrender to zande's forces and although he tried numerous times to invade he would not live to see a victory or even the height of his great empire but it did continue to grow after his death its technological and magical power soon accelerated at an unprecedented rate and as it did so did its research into ether and its manipulation allowing them to wield it for all sorts of things like the construction of weapons to even the creation of life they developed automatons and biotech and flying ships and eventually spacecraft but like all great empires it eventually grew stagnant to restore it to its former glory a technologist and magician named amon sought to clone and revive zonde and hopes he would bring strength back to the empire in the form of an immortal leader and so long after his death the reborn zonday quickly did just that and the elegant empire continued once more on the war path to expansion his sights set on merisitia and revenge once more his armies descended on the people's americidia but this time exponentially more powerful than before however the combined forces of men and dragon stopped alex advanced by turning to their gods known at the time as icons but what we would call primals you know those things we talked about earlier that can be summoned to existence with enough ether and crystals and devotion so they summoned their icons and once again pushed alec back zande furious with his impending defeat turned to murdering his mages until they discovered a way to deal with these icons the result was a process by which an icon could not only be captured but used to power elegant technology keeping the primal god alive and in the physical plane for as long as they need it and so the elegans captured these primal gods and turned their power back against the merisitians this of course pissed off their guardian bahamut who smashed the elegant forces and pushed them back once again and so of course the fury of zande spurred the elegance to search for a means to victory leading them to research more dark and twisted means to defeat the merisitians this deep dive into the darker waters of ethereal research led them to the void a shadow realm outside our own this would be zonday's advantage to unleash creatures of the void or as they'd come to be called void scent these would be things like imps and demons and all sorts of dark monsters they could possess the dead twist the weak and lay waste to marissidia and so they did merisitia fell much of it rendered to a wasteland and finally bahamut was captured but he would not be killed instead he was to be imprisoned for all eternity in an orbital space station drawing solar ether from the sun to a conducting crystal tower on the surface his defeat an enslavement would power a new age for the alagan empire but victory achieved zonday soon fell into a melancholy from atop his throne at the peak of the crystal tower he reflected on his death his new life and the seemingly pointlessness of existence one day all he had created would be gone all of his grand schemes would fade to nothing and so he once more reached out to the void and in his despair drew a sentient mass of void to his side the cloud of darkness together the two formed a pact to unleash the cloud onto the world of hydlen obviously this didn't sit well with the many peoples of the alagan empire or the world in general revolts and uprisings began to take place all over the empire refusing to give up on his plan and in a desperate attempt to force open the portal to the void and fulfill his pact zonday directed all of alex etherical energy to the tower but it was unable to hold it bringing about the fourth umbral calamity a massive earthquake that swallowed the crystal tower and brought the alligan empire to ruin the fourth umbral era saw the complete collapse of elegant society technology was lost to time and when the fourth astral era came about the reformed societies lacked nearly all of the advancements of the prior ages a calamity of ice is what ended this age bringing about the fifth umbral era but allowing four more races of men and beasts to move freely and migrate across the frozen seas the fifth astral age was one of great importance and saw the rediscovery of magic it was during this time that the sorceress chatoto discovered black magic setting in motion events that would again alter the world and as magic and its use expanded three great nations arose each using magic as an engine to power their growth the first was mach founded in what would now be somewhere around here it was there that chatoto would delve deeper into spellcraft and create the first black mages their powers only increasing as they began to access the void and once again unleash its terrible power on eorzea the next was amdapor a nation located right around here in response to mock's growing dark powers they created white magic now to clarify just like all things in final fantasy xiv black versus white magic isn't necessarily evil vs good or damage versus healing it's all about how you use it sure white mages are known for healing but they can also use powers like holy to devastate the enemy and the last nation was the scholars of nim which would be somewhere around here there isn't much known about nim how or why they were founded but what is known is that they tried mostly to keep themselves it appears most of their magic was developed for defensive purposes and so of course based on how i described the previous two nations it would be obvious why the people of nim would want to keep themselves because it wouldn't be long before war broke out between amdapor and muk but the poor nimians despite their best efforts were unable to stay out of the conflict because the maki figured if they ever joined the enemy they could be a real threat so they unleashed a mysterious illness called the green death upon them and just like that there were only two nations left and so the war of the magi as it would be called raged on the heavy use of elemental magics began to throw the world out of balance the maki desperate to end the war once and for all summoned forth a king among the void scent diabolos to destroy amdapor's city but using the power of white magic the am de pori managed to lock the creature away and prevent what they thought would be a coming calamity but it turns out all of this use of elemental magics triggered one neither nation had foreseen as the two battered each other with elements like fire and wind and earth and lightning to power their spells they drained the land of that ether and it tipped its elemental balance in favor of water causing the sixth umbral calamity a great flood the realm and both nations were devastated but it was this calamity that would see rise to the city-states we know in eorzea today in fact it's thought a few maki escaped the calamity and ended up founding the city of bella dia which would eventually lead to ulda and soon the other city-states and nations we know today now i'm sure at this point a few of you are wondering jesse my dude great lore but what was the point of all that well in this game when it comes to any in all trouble it's usually caused by one of four things it's either something terrible the elegance did way back when or something left over remnant from the war of the magi or something from the garlian empire which brings us to the last bit of lore for this video garlimold the current and biggest threat to everyone who just wants to go fishing in chocobo race the guardians pure blood guardians cannot use magic long ago their ancestors fled north after a terrible accident destroyed their home and for thousands of years they existed as a small nation in northern ilsevard and as i'm sure you've noticed from what we've talked about most growth as a nation up until this point came from wielding ether in its various forms and like i said the garleans simply could not then 50 years ago solis zos galvez a brilliant leader and soon to be first emperor discovered something called ceruleum a powerful source of energy found in abundance on ilsibard think of it like glowy oil this great discovery brought technological change to the guardians unlike anything anyone had ever seen before in a single generation he managed to create a continent spanning empire and a new type of cerulean powered machine magitek to say this quick ascension to power affected the egos of the guardians would be an understatement they came to believe themselves to be superior to all other races they ascended so quickly with no help from magic and so with this attitude and the imperial war machine they soon turned their gaze to the rest of the world under the pretense of bringing the more barbaric races into the fold and ending dangerous religions and the practice of summoning elemental primals they would expand east into oath art conquering doma and dalmasca with little resistance and their only major threat alamigo on their border they next sought to conquer aldenard and so 20 years prior to the start of our story they would attack alamigo suffering from all sorts of problems and an internal strife of its own al amigo fell quickly to the empire its people outcast or forced into servitude the great might of their nation in ruins now nothing stood in the way of garland's invasion of aorzia it's this invasion that would serve as the beginning of final fantasy xiv version 1.0 and so those are the three major obstacles you'll face as the warrior of light so to summarize heidelin is both a planet star and crystal the patron of you the warrior of light that crystal is connected to the ether that flows through everything that ether can be used to create magics weave spells make all sorts of things and using that ether in the past we've seen great nations rise and fall empires span the entire planet and then disappear in a calamity and all of that history and now the guardians will comprise the three major threats that you face as the warrior of light oh wait did i say there was a fourth hmm i guess we'll have to save them for the next video thank you so much for watching thanks for cramming all this lore into your brain and hopefully it was worth a like or a share to a friend i've got two more lore videos coming one about 1.0 one about the reboot realm reborn i hope you will come back and watch those this has been a ton of fun to work on and i can't wait to show you the rest thanks for joining me on this adventure and as always i'll see you in the game

Channel: Jesse Cox

Views: 493,886

Keywords: intro to final fantasy, final fantasy, ff, ffxiv, ff14, final fantasy xvi, rpg, jrpg, square enix, lore, lore video, final fantasy guide, final fantasy 14 guide, final fantasy lore, final fantasy history, complete history, final fantasy story, final fantasy xiv story, history of final fantasy, final fantasy games, jesse cox, big ideas in gaming, history of, final fantasy xiv, eorzea, ffxiv lore, ffxiv story so far, ffxiv story recap, ffxiv story summary

Id: GaQ__5ZBwBc

Length: 28min 24sec (1704 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Syt1976]

"Why does this guy on Reddit sound like Jesse Cox?"

...

"Oh. Nevermind!" :D

[u/dragonseth07]

For some reason, I never expect to see creators I recognize post on Reddit.

I saw this post like "How/why is someone using Lil JC in their thumbnail?"

[u/chweris]

Just finished the video and I love how you taught it like a history class. Very very easy to follow and entertaining! (And Dan's animations absolutely MADE this video!!)

[u/JesseCoxOnReddit]

Thank you everyone for giving this video a shot!

I put in months of work, researching and editing...

I really hope you enjoy it. The video is 99% spoiler free, and anything that could be a spoiler is given without context.

I've got 2 more videos in the works, so feel free to share and comment and tell me what you liked or didn't.

-Jesse

[u/ehgameraz]

Extra points for all of the Allagan info. I'd forgotten all the stuff about clone Xande and the Cloud of Darkness

[u/GeistTheWolf]

Well made video. I used to watch the stuff you did with TB back in the day. Glad to see you're still making quality content.

[u/raedge]

This was a great refresher. I've been meaning to rewatch all the cutscenes from ARR to now to bring myself up to speed on the goings on before EW (because tbh by this point I've forgotten most of what happened from ARR to SB). This little history lesson must be a sign I should get on that.

I'm a long-time enjoyer of your content; since the WoW days actually. I've enjoyed following along with your journey through FFXIV since you got to HW and this really does feel like an awesome finish to a very enjoyable marathon.

Can't wait to watch the rest of these videos and to accompany you through EW. Keep doin' whatever you're doin', Cox.

[u/Guildedpixel]

It's so nice to see all these videos from you Jesse. Brings me back to the old Cata days. Jesse x Ethys vid when?

[u/bigflanders]

Damn, that 30 mins flew by. Great video, super informative to someone whose been playing FF14 for a few months but had no real understanding of a lot of the lore. Thank you for this.