#grumpyteddybear;emet

Early Life

Born as one of the fewancientswith the gift of soul sight, the man named Hades was chosen to fill the seat of “Emet-Selch” for theConvocation of Fourteen, a group that served as guardians of the city ofAmaurotand their world ofEtheirys. Hades was good friends with two other ancients:Hythlodaeus, another ancient with soul sight and the Chief of the Bureau of the Architect; and his fellow Convocation member who filled the seat of “Azem”. Originally, Hythlodaeus was nominated for the seat of Emet-Selch, but he declined on account of most of his talents to be lacking and recommended Hades instead.

While accompanying Hythlodaeus to recruitHermesto take the seat of “Fandaniel” in the Convocation, Hades met the Warrior of Light, a figure he assumed to be a familiar Azem had made due to the similarity of their souls. He gave them some of hisaetherto help them become fully tangible. Hades reluctantly accepted the Warrior of Light’s presence as they conducted their business. Before meeting with Hermes, Hades toured the facility to familiarize himself with Hermes’ responsibilities. Hades found Hermes’ reluctance to accept the seat of Fandaniel confusing. While discussing the nomination with Hermes and learning more about the research going on in Elpis, Hades was talked into helping one experimental creature learn to fly. Hades later assisted in subduing and euthanizing out-of-control experimental creatures. At this point, Hades noticed that Hermes was in agony over having to kill a creature when its life only just begun and encouraged Hermes to join the Convocation so he doesn’t have to suffer. At the end of the day, Hades had to put the matter of Hermes’ nomination aside until the next day.

The next day, Hermes found himself occupied with many tasks, which afforded Hades and Hythlodaeus more time to learn about the research being conducted. During the course of their exploration, they encounteredVenat, the previous Azem. Venat recognized the Warrior of Light as a time-traveler rather than a familiar since she recognized the signs of herprotection magicson the Warrior despite having never met her at this point in time. When the time-traveler revealed future events detailing the planet’s sundering and the man Hades would become, Hades refused to accept it. He took his leave in anger, but returned to ascertain the truth of the cause of theFinal Days. When the group learned it wasMeteion’s doing, Hermes covered her escape while inflicting himself, Hades, and Hythlodaeus with a spell to erase their memories of the event. Hades assisted Venat and the Warrior of Light in escaping the memory alteration process.

Unaware of the truth, Hades recruited Hermes into the Convocation. When the Final Days commenced heralding the end of their world, Hades joined his fellow Convocation members to devise a plan to halt the calamity: summoning a primal to undo the aether stagnation—Zodiark. This led to Azem resigning from the Convocation as half of their people, Hythlodaeus included, voluntarily sacrificed themselves to offer up the necessary aether to complete the ritual.

Upon Zodiark’s creation, the deityenthralledHades and the others into becoming his devout followers, but succeeded in his primary purpose. Even with the Final Days halted, Etheirys was still unfit for nurturing life. The Convocation thus besought their people to sacrifice another half of their number to replenish their ruined world and restore the cycle of nature. For Hades and the Convocation to restore the lives of those originally sacrificed, Zodiark would require even more aether; aether that would come from the new life being born into the world. This disturbed Venat, who felt that the sacrificial costs were already too great, and that the world now belonged to the lives birthed in it. An opposing group of Amaurotians who felt similarly summonedHydaelynin opposition to Zodiark, and the resulting conflict ended with Hydaelyn’s final attack shattering reality, sundering Etheirys and nearly all life on it into the Source and its thirteen shards. The Source became called “Hydaelyn”, named after its creator goddess with its denizens lacking any knowledge of the parallel worlds.

Thanks to an intentional flaw in Hydaelyn’s attack, Hades survived the sundering intact along with two of his fellow Convocation members,LahabreaandElidibus, while everything he knew and loved was either sacrificed to Zodiark, or fragmented into what they considered flawed parodies. Going by his title “Emet-Selch”, Hades worked with the other Paragons and their Ascian followers to orchestrate the Rejoining of the shards with the Source to restore both their god and their home. During the Source’s Third Astral Age, Emet-Selch influenced the creation of theAllagan Empireby helping its advancement until it was destroyed in the Fourth Umbral Calamity. During that time, he inducted the Allagan scientistAmoninto the Ascians while restoring his memories as the former Convocation memberFandaniel.

Establishing The Garlean Empire

Solus zos Galvus was born in theyear 1489of the Sixth Astral Era to the esteemed House Galvus, a distinguished family of purebloodGarleansin the then-small Garlemald Republic. He joined the military at the age of sixteen, where he distinguished himself from the rank and file as a brilliant tactician and statesman and attained the rank of Legatus by his twenty-fourth nameday in 1513.[2]At some point before the founding of the Garlean Empire, Emet-Selch took over Solus’s body and would control it for the rest of its life, but the exact timeframe of the possession is unknown.

Shortly after achieving the rank of Legatus, Solus learned of the newly-inventedceruleumengine and saw its combat potential as he guided the development ofmagitekweapons and their integration into the army.[2]Despite initial skepticism, the Garleans saw Solus’s reasoning as it allowed them to conquer northernIlsabardand won over the subjugated peoples with the promise their lives would be improved with magitek.

In 1517, Solus was granted control of Garlemald as dictator by popular support. Garlemald devastated the small country of Nhalmasque before conquering the south of Ilsabard in 1522. Solus proclaimed himself Emperor and created the Garlean Empire. In spite of Solus’s many successes it is difficult to characterize his life as happy: he was betrayed by those he had believed were his closest friends, and lost his firstborn son Lucius to illness when the man was still young. He would also have a second son named Titus.

Expanding the Empire

Solus was not content with Ilsabard alone. Six years after becoming Emperor, he set his gaze upon the eastern continent ofOthard. With their warmachina at the fore, the Imperial forces toppled all who dared stand before them. During this campaign the Emperor laid eyes upon the ruin wrought by primals—an entire land drained of life. The sight led him to issue a mandate for the annihilation of the dread beings the Garleans dubbed “eikons” to deny them as beings ofdivine origin.

After a long and hard-fought resistance, the nation ofDomafell to Garlemald in 1552. Having conquered the east, the Emperor turned his armies towards the west, plotting the invasion ofAldenard, and capturedAla Mhigoin 1557. However, this was to be the last victory for some time.

Once Ala Mhigo had been assimilated into the Empire both politically and economically, theXIVth Imperial Legionfocused on hastening the progress of theEorzean campaign. In 1562, the Imperial fleet accompanied by the mighty flagshipAgriusforged its way intoMor Dhonaand to Silvertear Falls. The legion’s armada encountered unexpected resistance from theMidgardsormr—forgotten guardian deity of the lake. The great dragon called out to his kin, who pitted themselves against the Garleans’ fleet. The battle ended when Midgardsormr and theAgriuscollided and plummeted to the land, compelling the legion to retreat from Mor Dhona.

The Ascians teachingEorzea’sbeast tribesthe means of summoning their own “gods” provided the Emperor the means of motivating the Empire to conquer the realm.

The Garleans attempted communication with the lesser moonDalamudunder the guidance of the Empire’s principal engineer and grand minister of industry,Midas nan Garlond. Dubbed “Project Meteor”, the operation was tested at the Imperial stronghold of Bozja Citadel using Allagan artifacts donated by House Darnus. Midas nan Garlond had proposed the project after the Emperor had tasked the engineer with finding a solution to the eikon threat. Midas nan Garlond uncovered the Allagans’ method of overcoming primals and that Dalamud was an ancient satellite the Allagans had created. He surmised that within the moon’s metallic nacelle slumbered a great source of untapped energy—forgotten power that could transform the moon into a weapon of mass destruction if pulled down from the skies and unleashed upon Eorzea. The moon was to serve as the Empire’s own “meteor”.

Days after receiving the Emperor’s blessing, Midas nan Garlond traveled to the Garlean city of Bozja to communicate with Dalamud. The immensity of the satellite’s power was confirmed, but nearly five millennia-worth of amassed energy was directed to the citadel’s makeshift transmission tower, evaporating the tower as well as the city. The Imperial Censors tried to hide the event, but the vanishing of a major commercial center was too big a secret to suppress. News of the catastrophe spread across Hydaelyn and became known as theBozja Incident.

The loss of Midas nan Garlond, the lunar transmitter, and the Allagan records stored at the Bozja Citadel, seemingly ended Project Meteor. The Emperor had no interest in power of such an unpredictable nature and ordered the project to be dismantled.

During the Empire’s decade-long stalemate with Eorzea, the Emperor publicly recognized LegatusNael van Darnusas a man of exceptional talent for his crucial victories in the Empire’s eastern campaign. Despite being well past his eightieth nameday by the year 1572, Solus’s ambitions to unify the Three Great Continents under Garlean rule were as strong as ever. After amalgamating the political affairs of the occupied territories in Othard, he once again set his sights upon Aldenard and her vexing eikons. When he declared the eikons’ annihilation as one of his administration’s top priorities, van Darnus proposed ridding Eorzea of its false gods once and for all using House Darnus’s closely guarded knowledge of Allagan relics to succeed where others had failed.

After learning of his deployment to Eorzea, van Darnus convinced the Emperor into resurrecting Project Meteor, claiming he had discovered a means to control Dalamud. After a decade-long stalemate on the Eorzean front, the aged Emperor, impatient to solidify his legacy before his death, entertained the notion of a realm-wide “cleansing” of beastmen and their eikons and the second phase of Project Meteor was commenced.

In spite of repeated interference from theGrand Companiesand adventurers, Project Meteor went along with the lesser moon beginning its descent into a direct collision course with Eorzea. With the denizens of Eorzea praying totheir gods, the remnants of theVIIth Imperial Legionamassed at the plains of Carteneau where Dalamud was expected to make landfall. The Eorzean Alliance learned of this thanks toGaius van Baelsar, Legatus of theXIVth Imperial Legion, who disagreed with Project Meteor.

Eorzea was devastated as Dalamud shattered above the land to reveal the elder primalBahamut, whom the ArchonLouisoix Leveilleursubjugated[8]and theSeventh Umbral Erawas subverted. Gaius and his XIVth Legion used Eorzea’s state of disarray to set up several outposts across the land in preparation for the future conquest of the severely weakened realm.

A Realm Reborn

Five years after the Calamity, Emet-Selch allowed Solus’s corporeal form to die of old age at eighty-eight without naming a successor. News of the Emperor’s failing health incited political strife within the Empire over who would succeed him, leading to the official abandonment of the unified effort to conquer Eorzea with only Gaius and his legion attempting to conquer the realm on their own.

As Gaius was no longer present to oppose any challengers, a civil war broke out in Garlemald over the succession to the throne. The conflict was resolved with Solus’s grandson Varis, the child of Solus’s dead son Lucius, named Emperor. Varis subsequently learned the truth of his grandfather’s possession by Emet-Selch while commissioning the use of Allagan technology to create clones of Solus.

Stormblood

The Ascian Emissary Elidibus was forced to bring Emet-Selch back as “Solus” some time after Lahabrea’s demise. Emet-Selch found the cloned bodies of his previous vessel preferable to possessing a random body and molding it in his image. With his return, Solus became the power behind the throne with Varis serving as a figurehead, much to his dismay. Solus reminded Varis that he was not to make judgments but to administer them without question, as any threats to thebalance of the Light and Darkwere to be expunged. He revealed that he, as an Ascian, built the Garlean Empire for the purpose of creating chaos and to ultimately invoking another Calamity. Varis shot him, proclaiming that man was the master of his own destiny. His attempt was scoffed off as Solus simply reappeared in another clone body to end their discussion.

Following Gaius andAlphinaud Leveilleurdestroying the plant manufacturing theBlack Rosepoison gas, Solus noted its application could be useful for his agenda. He used what he considered his final meeting with Varis to thank him for the clone bodies. Solus also revealed that the civil war following his supposed death was intentional. Following the siege of Ala Mhigo reaching a stalemate, Elidibus wished to speak with Solus/Emet-Selch, but neither he nor Varis knew where he was, Varis remarking he could be doing what all Ascians do. Elidibus suspected that Emet-Selch had found a means to take advantage of the situation.

Shadowbringers

Emet-Selch, having arrived onthe Firstsome time prior, followed theWarrior of Lightwhen they were called to this shard of the Source. He possessed a vessel and molded it into his now-preferred appearance of Solus while observing theScions of the Seventh Dawn’s actions from afar. He made his presence known afterTitania’sdefeat, introducing himself by his Ascian title: Emet-Selch. While admitting he was tempted to ally withEulmore, he offered cooperation with the Scions despiteUrianger Augureltdestroying the shade he was using to offer the deal. Emet-Selch told them he believed that by helping them to understand his goals, the Scions would ultimately choose to join him instead.

When the Warrior of Light, Urianger,Thancred Waters, andMinfiliaarrived in theRak'tika Greatwood, Emet-Selch reiterated his proposal to join the group as an observer, which the Scions begrudgingly accepted. He disappeared again after being trapped by the Night’s Blessed, reappearing to win the group’s trust by retrievingY'shtola Rhulafter she used Flow to escape a pit at the Ronkan ruins. After the Scions defeated Eros, they found ancient murals depicting the sundering, the event that had shattered Etheirys. Emet-Selch revealed the Ascians’ origins from that original and intact world, and that Hydaelyn and Zodiark were primals. Emet-Selch justified the Ascians’ actions by saying that as all the races of man were but fragments of their true selves, the Ascians did not consider them people and thus killing them was not murder.

Emet-Selch remained as an observer until the Warrior of Light failed to contain the amassed light ofNorvrandt’sLightwardens, before revealing he had been testing the Warrior and the Scions to see if the former would regain enough of their “former self” to be considered a potential ally. He spirited the Crystal Exarch away after the latter was revealed to beG'raha Tia, considering his knowledge of magic to transport between reflections and back in time to be useful. Emet-Selch requested that the Warrior meet him in a recreation of Amaurot where they could be consumed by the light in peace, but was disappointed that the Warrior arrived with the rest of the Scions. Emet-Selch revealed the Ascians’ intent to sacrifice the lesser beings once Zodiark was freed, as in his opinion the people of the Source and its shards were unworthy inheritors of a reunited world. When Alphinaud posited they were not different in their resolve, Emet-Selch took offense and forced them through another trial in the form of a recreation of the calamity that had befallen his world.

Despite the Scions fighting their way through the monsters of the Final Days to reach him, Emet-Selch remained unconvinced of their worthiness and easily defeated them while gloating that the Light would consume the Warrior. When the Warrior stabilized after fully merging their soul with Ardbert—the leader of the First’s Warriors of Light—Emet-Selch briefly saw Azem in their place before denouncing the vision in anger. Emet-Selch was livid when G'raha Tia arrived to aid the Warrior with reinforcements, and decided to face the Warrior in a final test, unveiling his true name: Hades. Though initially gaining the upper hand, the Warrior of Light unleashed the collected Light within them to overpower Hades’s Darkness. Overwhelmed despite channeling his kin’s collective power, Hades refused to surrender, and was only defeated when the Scions used white auracite to hold him at bay long enough for the Warrior of Light to kill him with an aetheric blade in the form of Ardbert’s axe. Hades accepted his death, asking the Warrior of Light to remember his people before fading away with a smile.

The Warrior of Light later acquired a crystal that Emet-Selch had secretly created with Azem’s memories and powers, allowing them to use the ancient’s ability to summon allies in times of need.[10] A shade in the recreation of Amaurot implied that Emet-Selch would not want the final unsundered, Elidibus, to be left alone after his passing. During the Warrior’s battle with Elidibus, who assumed the form of the original Warrior of Light, a shade of Emet-Selch appeared and summoned the party back from the void with a snap of his fingers. He sauntered away with a final wave to Elidibus.

Endwalker

When the Warrior lost all their comrades while braving Meteion’s nest on Ultima Thule, they used Azem’s crystal infused with Hydaelyn’s magick to summon Hades and Hythlodaeus from the aetherial sea. In death, the memories that Kairos had erased from them back in Elpis had been restored. Hades was upset that Hermes had made a fool of him by erasing his memories, but was also critical towards Venat. He yet commended the Warrior, since with his memories restored, he acknowledged that the Ascians’ methods couldn’t have brought mankind to that very state. The Warrior used the pair’s creation magick to spawn Elpis flowers to convince Meteion that Ultima Thule was no longer a realm of despair, which also signified that the Warrior’s friends could be brought back and the environment was now hospitable to life. Once the Warrior revived their comrades, Hades and Hythlodaeus allowed themselves fade back into the aether; Hades would not suffer to live again by Hydaelyn’s magick. He acknowledged the past he loved was not the future the Scions fought for, admitting it could never be brought back, although he still held on to his ideals. He only requested that the Scions save their star.