In this entry, I cover one possibility of the identity of the twelve by analyzing the responsibilities of the convocation of fourteen. This is a theory and be forwarned there are Endwalker spoilers within!
#ascians #endwalker #finalfantasy #finalfantasyXIV #finalfantasy14 #lore #hydaelyn #the twelve
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Sounds solid. I honestly can't imagine what else The Twelve could be connected to. For a bit I thought maybe they would be unrelated to the ancients, but after EW I've pretty much changed my mind. Either way, I am excited to find out in our upcoming raid.
After the teasing Hades does, I’m deffo on the side of the counter convocation being the twelve.
But I guess we’ll see once the raids start
thanks for sharing your indepth theory on this. Love watching how ppl pick clues up from the game to associate them with future content. Devs love planting seeds in the game that pay off in the long haul.
The stones match the stars on the moon wich is ???
Highly doubt they are related to the members of the convocation at all, remember the scene of Emet during Vauthry defeat. When he had the conversation with Alphinaud he said "By YOUR twelve boy, didn't i say before that everything was thruth" strongly implying that the twelve are strangers to the convocation
A have a theory about them the ascians all worked in 2 right well nald'thal I think is hades and themis. themis because in greek is the Goddess of law and order and balance and holes a scale
Hades because of the underworld and the tie to money
We see them join at lest twice forming ascian prime and junk
So maybe it the same thing with the other 12 2 ascians in one can of like a mega avatar thing also the 2 together are the balance and the cycle of life and death if u look at teloport u see scales for the main picture where nald'thal is wich ties the 2 of them together
And themis I think elidibus wich both are in both shorts storys together
I actually think The Twelve may be the ancients who sided with Venat and helped summon Hydaelyn
I'd be more inclined in thinking it doesn't have to do with the convocation, but being the allies of venat, or people involved in the reason azem left the convocation.
I made a post on reddit on who I think the Twelve are, and there I hypothesized that they might have been made by Hydaelyn who was thinking about a lot of what happened in Elpis while we were there and what happened afterwards. I thought of this because of all the parallels the Twelve's myths with what we went through. Here are some highlights:
Menphina: Venat. Menphina is the goddess of the moon, the twin sister of Azeyma, and before the 7th Umbral Calamity Dalamud was called the "hound of Menphina" because it followed the Moon's trail in the sky. We know that Venat made the moon, was the previous Azem, and has a loyal dog (hound) familiar, Argos.
Oschon: Hermes. Oschon's winds brought creatures to live in the air. Hermes' specialty was creation of flying animals, which culminated in the Meteia. Also, in the Ktisis Hypoborea dungeon his attacks are almost all windbased, to the point that one of his attacks is "True Aero."
Rhalgr: Meteion and her sisters. Rhalgr is called the Destroyer and the Breaker of Worlds, and his symbol is the falling star. In the creation myth his appearance ended the wanton and chaotic creation spree of the gods. Meteion's name means "falling star" and she and her sisters witnessed and even probably started the death of numerous stars. She eventually destroyed the society of masters of creation magics, the Ancients.
Byregot: Zodiark. Byregot showed up the same time as Halone. In the Heaven of Lightning which he shared with Rhalgr, he made a clockwork spire which Rhalgr tries to destroy but instead the attacks power the spire. Zodiark was made to rebuild the laws of the star, and his manipulation of aether in Etheirys protects it from the Meteia's attacks.
Nald'thal: Hades and Hythlodaeus. Nald'thal is the dual god of the underworld and commerce, and shares the Heaven of Fire with Azeyma. Emet Selch is the seat of the Convocation in charge of the aetheral sea, also called the Underworld. Hythlodaeus originally was nominated for the seat but it eventually was given to Hades. The two are inseparable during EW and are close friends with Azem. Finally, Hythlodeaus sacrificed himself ("sold himself") to help manifest Zodiark.
The 12 are either the convocation minus elidubus and azem or they are the first successful attempt at primals after zodiark, those are my theories
I've always imagined the twelve to serve a similar role in the story of XIV to that of the Occuria in XII. Silent watchers who steer the course of history and only intervene when the world is in true danger or in need of serious course correction.
Honestly. I dont think the convocation is the 12. Emmet selchs comment kinda throws the theory into question since if they were the 12 im pretty sure emmet wouldave bragged about it.
Emet clearly knows who they were not his or Zodiark's allies, nor Venats. Probably a third faction. I mean the world was destroyed, the souls sundered and what did the 12 do? Rebuilt everything then left when they were worshipped and wars fought to gain favor with them. Sounds to be alot like Ancients that did not agree with Zodiark or Hydaelyn's methods but instead as Warders of the world and protectors and healers.
They have to be Venat's allies I think because that's still a massive missing piece of the backstory, but then that would bring the question, why would we fight them now if we're Hydaelyn's chosen and stopped the Final Days? I do think some may be Convocation members but the way Emet talks about them, I highly doubt him or by extension, Lahabrea, are involved with the 12 but who knows, they could take this in so many ways.
I can't help but think it's going to be something else entirely and likely a crossover/reference to older FF titles, given how that's pretty much the entire basis of raids in FF and we know for a fact that the Twelve are going to be a big raid, Myths of the Realm. We've got Crystal Tower being very influenced by FFIII, Void Ark set having a lot of FFIX, the Ivalice set being an AU basically of both FFXII/FF Tactics, and the Nier raids being… well, Nier, lol. And that's not including the non-alliance raids that are also big nods to older games like the Omega or Eden ones.
I originally posted this as a reply to a comment on one of Quazli's video's about a month ago, but I'm adding it here as well as it's relevant to the topic of the video.
"If you add Hydaelyn to The Twelve, then there are thirteen beings – the same number of ancients as The Convocation after Azem refused to take part in the summoning of Zodiark. If you also remember, Elidibus was the original heart of Zodiark and he was also a member of The Convocation, which suggests that twelve ancients are needed to summon an Elder Primal/God while the thirteenth acts as the conduit for the summoning.
I just had an interesting thought. What if, as the reincarnation of Azem, the patches after 6.1 set up events in 7.0 where the WoL is basically on the run from The Twelve who want to catch him/her and use their body to summon a new will for the planet? In order to fight back the WoL would have to travel to new places to find out more about The Twelve and also to find new allies and jobs to help them fight back.
It's a thin idea, but it's always interesting to specualte."
Just to expand on that idea, Hydaelyn tells us that the Mother Crystal is "a faceless, omnipotent force of nature", which is tantamount to saying that it's the engine that runs the planet, but now that both Hydaelyn and the Mother Crystal are gone (Zenos ate the last few bits of it), wouldn't that be a bad thing for the planet?
Initially people might not notice many changes, but eventually the distortions in nature itself would become so pronounced that something would have to be done to fix it – and the quickest solution on Etheirys is to summon an obedient Elder Primal to sort it all out. I would imagine that the Twelve wouldn't want to give up their seats of power, which basically leaves the WoL as the only person strong enough to become the "heart" of a new Elder Primal, and if they really are Venat's allies from ancient times then they already know the procedure.
Lahabrea's wife is named Athena, and his son is Erichthonios. In Greek Myth, there's only one god that fits the bill with those two in mind: Hephaestus.
Just a reminder.
SPOILER for EW main and optional quests:
I found something and it's either big coincidence or…There is a sidequest in Elpis "Methods of Mourning". We meet ancient siblings Maira and Alkaios. Maira creates a flower that looks like Nymeia Lily (the name also is mentioned). So could Maira be Nymeia of the Twelve Gods? And here brother Alkaios be Althyk – god of time. During the questline we find out that he can manipulate time. Also there is a cut scene when they pray and they use the same gesture like characters in our time. Asumming that there was no Twelve yet in Elpis, our way of praying was adapted from ancient times.