This is going to be less heavy than my last few. Also, for reference with new readers who aren't familiar with my whole hyper-analysis 'Year of the Navigator' shtick, my blogs about the Scions' trajectory and Blog #18 are the ones I'd consider most broadly applicable. I'll be getting back to the weeds of a major revelation I've had about Dawntrail, but I want to consider this a pallet cleanser.
So! This is something neat I worked out! I suggest reading blog 18 first, but it's not necessary. At the very least, look up the Espers from XII on the Final Fantasy wiki. :)
Okay, so ever since learning the origin of the Ascians' names, I've been absolutely fascinated with the Espers of FF XII, and how they were created to oppose said Ascians, or Scions of Light. The so-called 'Scions of Darkness' are Espers created by the gods who rebelled against them, and each is represented by a Zodiak sign. Fast forward to 5.X and by then we have a pretty good sense of how the Convocation of Fourteen are the origin of the zodiac signs for 'Zodiark'. And the fact that Sabik is still a big unanswered question is endlessly exciting to me! But in 6.X, when we learned that Zeromus and Pashtarot were both involved in the history of the Thirteenth? You have to realize that got me hype.
But what I didn't realize until this past week is that someone has worked out that the OTHER Espers represent the other antagonists of the FF franchise as well. Besides Chaos, Mateus, Famfrit, Zeromus, and Exodus, we can link Cuchulainn the Impure to Kefka, Zalera the Death Seraph to Sephrioth, Shemhazai the Whisperer to Ultimecia, Adramelech the Wroth to Kuja, Hashmal Bringer of Order to Jecht, Belias the Gigas to the Shadow Lord, and finally the one and only Ultima standing in as the leader of the Espers' rebellion for FFXII. I wish I knew specifically who is responsible for this discovery, but there are a lot of people taking credit for this discovery, but it's certainly not my own.
Which brings me to the VII-avoidant context. FF VII was my first Final Fantasy game. I've beaten it and Crisis Core multiple times before I ever even touched another title. Advent Children was my introduction to the franchise. It's a story that I hold dear, and wanted to experience again and again. But over time I wanted to experience the other games, and I've played through a lot of them, but sadly not most of them yet. But XIV is on another level, and has captured my imagination since I began playing during the 4.X patches (Prelude in Violet was brand new when I was really getting invested in the game). My point is, what I've appreciated is that, besides some designs such as the the Weapons that attack upon Sephiroth acquiring the Black Materia, and design for the summon 'Hades', very little of FF VII's world is involved - and that's great for me, since I want to experience other FF games vicariously through XIV, and we have the Remake trilogy of FFVII that the team is likely focusing on. In fact, if the idea that the other game worlds are the other reflections of Etheirys, then the Seventh Umbral Calamity, a Flood of Darkness, took the world of Gaia we knew from FFVII; a way for the Calamity to emphasize that we will, in fact, be not ripping from our biggest title and necessitate the series' inspirations from other sources. There's a veritable wellspring of profound stories in this series even from the first title, and it's worth putting that limitation on the game writers to really open up the world to newcomers.
I've addressed this before, but my observation is that each expansion is based on a Final Fantasy title; Heavensward is a story they dropped from the rough draft of FF II as laid out in the FF Ultimania Archive Vol. 1, Stormblood is the actual idea of FF II with fighting against the Empire, Shadowbringers is the story of the FF III's Crystal Tower and the Warriors of Darkness (and the Eternal Winds leitmotif), Endwalker is the story of the moon, Zeromus, the Loporrits, etc. V is now about Krile, and the crossing between two worlds - suggesting that the path of the Warrior of Dawn is before us.
Now, the big thing about VI is the Warring Triad, which suggests Meracydia. But there's something else. My first time learning about the Warring Triad was the storyline in XIV as the trial bosses with Sephirot, Sophia, and Zurvan*. But back then, I had only the VII context from Crisis Core. And I realized, hey, Sephirot = Sephiroth, right? The Gift of the Goddess? Honestly what hit me is Zurvan's mid-battle attack being so similar to Genesis' during the scene where Sephiroth, Angeal and Genesis fight in the simulated training room atop the cannon of Junon. So that's cool.
...Then it hit me. Not long after seeing the comparison between Sephiroth and Zalera, the Death Seraph. I was suddenly Brandihild entering my mind palace, piecing together the clues, and coming to a sudden, terrifyingly elegant revelation.
It goes deeper.
To quote a previous part of the blog, "what I've appreciated is that, besides some designs such as the the Weapons that attack upon Sephiroth acquiring the Black Materia, and design for the summon 'Hades', very little of FF VII's world is involved"
... Hades... was in... FFVII...
...Emet-Selch... is Hades. Not only Hades, he is THAT Hades design.
Three friends. Sephiroth. Angeal. Genesis. The One-Winged Angels.
Three friends. Hades. Azem. Hythlodeus. The three friends of Amaurot.
...The Azem Pilgrimage? It's a byproduct of the aforementioned self-inflicted necessity to drift away from VII storytelling, or to adapt and reinterpret around it! I mean, even for the used appearances, their contexts are completely different, the Weapons are created by Garlemald, not the Planet of VII. Hades is a Summon, not an Ascian. The three friends, forced to fight, yet bound by a friendship that transcends the possible. Our new-old friends, our friends - our enemies. A veritable Warring Triad of our very own. Solus, Zodiark, and us. Garlemald, the Ascians, and the Scions.
It all comes back to the Espers.
...I think more and more every day that the Espers were created by SE ultimately as a way to use the zodiac signs to encompass the franchise; so that they're no longer independent stories. That each is rewarding to see in a shared context. Ivalice was being created at the same time as FFVII after all, when Final Fantasy Tactics was released. Which also means that I think we're going to have a return to that region in XIV - I hope. (Ties in with how I think we should make raids mandatory so the MSQ can have more routes to take).
I always wondered - why is it that Solus yae Galvus seemed so intent on preserving Ivalice history? What is the connection to the Twelfth Reflection?
I can't wait to see and find out. But one thing is for certain; Ultima? Sabik? What impossible resolution will this bring - and what does this tell us about our 'first self' in the Unsundered World?
Where WAS Azem during the Final Days, anyway? He abandoned the Convocation. He did not join Venat's faction.
What of Venat's faction themselves? ...What of the Occuria? ...
...Gerun?
Two concluding observations about the other Paragons worth considering, then I'll wrap this up. I don't think it's a coincidence that Mateus the Corrupt was created to counter the Scion of Light, Lahabrea, and it's Lahabrea who holds absolute authority over the creations of Pandaemonium. The Second Reflection will unfortunately not be making an appearance, but I just noticed that just now, how the Pandaemonium raids again iterates how the Espers and the Scions of Light oppose each other in unshakable ways.
And finally... everyone knows the lines Elidibus said in the end: "The rains have ceased, and we have been blessed with another beautiful day. But you are not here to see it." Well... no one quotes the beginning of the scene.
"This... Yes... I would become Him. I would save everyone. This I believed. Yet still they cried out, in rage and despair. Divided--over the fate of the star. A rare occurrence, always fleeting. But not this time. Not this time... Reconciliation. Elidibus. I was needed. I withdrew myself from Zodiark. For them... My people. My brothers. ...My friends."
Something I see few talking about? In his left hand is the crystal of Lahabrea. In his right, Igheyorhm. The two who were defeated in the Aetherochemical Research Facility in HW. Who became Ascian Prime. Cousins, as it happens in one of the later Lodestone side stories. What's interesting is Igeyorhm famously is responsible for creating the Void in an attempt to quickly bring about a Calamity, and it backfired. Equilibrium wasn't accounted for.
And... well. The Ascians are the Scions of Light. And, well. We were talking about dividing the Scions during Dawntrail... And while Lahabrea possessed Thancred, Y'shtola has been extremely involved in the Void of late... Food for thought. :)
That is all! Thanks for reading! I LOVE this world, I love this series, I love how elegantly the writers are structuring this lore in a way that lets you enjoy the human aspect just as much as the convoluted.
More to come about Azem, Elidibus, Emet-Selch. But I'll say here the next one is about what I realized is going on. It hit me like a brick, and it deserves several parts; the one tweak that will course correct the big problems I've been observing. Not a 'fix the past' thing, I'm navigating here, remember?
Anyways! See you all on the Trail! :D
*(btw each Warring Triad represent the middle stages of grief and the middle expansions btw; Sephirot = anger/Heavensward, Sophia = bargaining/Stormblood, Zurvan = depression/Shadowbringers)
