Thoughts About the Sundering
Some thoughts while I let ideas for today's FFXIV Write prompt marinate.Ā MAJOR DIRECT SPOILERS FOR EVERYTHING POST CROWN OF THE IMMACULATE UNDER THE CUT.Ā
I would like to call into question how evenly split the Sundering was and a little bit about just what would happen if the Great Rejoining (TM) occurred. I started wondering about this when we go and meet the Firstās Bismark and thinking about the Fae in general.Ā Ā
One of the primary complaints voiced by Emet-Selch is manās mortality. The implication being that the Ancients were immortal prior to the sundering, but if the Source was split into fourteen pieces why are there still immortal being on the Source or any of the shards?Ā There are some immortal beings that seem to have come to the Source after the sundering, like Midgaurdsommer and his brood. That doesnāt seem to be the case with everything though. There are the elementals of Gridana which are certainly self-aware, IMMORTAL, and powerful within the confines of their realm, and the only thing remotely comparable on the First are the Fae Folk who are self-aware, IMMORTAL, and powerful EVERYWHERE on the First. If we theorize that these two sets of entities are shards of the same original thing why do the Fae who are 1/14th of the original have fewer limitations than the Elementals which are 1/2 of the original?Ā
Bismark, in particular, is where I get hung up on the idea that the Sundering was equal across the board. On the First, Bismark is a discrete being, not a summoning, and given what we are shown by direct action more than likely as powerful as the primal on the Source if he ever got the motivation to mess thing up. And he matches the Vanuās myths pretty well, even though we have no indication that Bismark ever existed on the Source as a discrete being. So the question is did he exist on the Source in some fashion after the Sundering? What if the onlyĀ āraceā that was sundered directly were the Ancients and the rest of things just ended up scattered about? For that matter what proof, besides their word, do we have that Emet-Selch, Elidibus, and Lahabrea are the only ones that were not sundered of the Ancients?
Something else to consider is that life replicates and increases, often on exponential curves. There is no reason not to think that the lifestream grows and changes as each individual shard grows and changes. It is directly said that each of the reflections grew and developed on their own path. So the rejoined source? Thatās not going to be the place the Acians think itās going to be. First, because Iām pretty damn sure their memory of it is so far from objective as to not even be the same thing. Second, because they arenāt rejoining the same shards that existed at the time of the Sundering.Ā If despite the efforts of the WoLs across the ages they DID manage the Great Rejoining (TM). I think the Acians would end up learning the lesson D&D players inevitably learn, NEVER use the Wish spell.Ā
