The Twelve are taking center stage in Patch 6.1’s new raid “Myths of the Realm” in Final Fantasy XIV. They’ve been around since the game’s rough beginnings, but they are still shrouded in mystery. So who are the Twelve, and what do they want?
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I think the raid needs a more in-depth video in the future, but with three parts. Like an analysis video of sorts. It’s a lot of lore to go through. And it was by far really enjoyable. In my opinion, Nald’thal was the most interesting of the set in the raid. He’s a dual aspected god. His theme is a great song and I hear people notice he has Hythlodaeus and Emet’s VAs to voice Nald and Thal respectively. This kind of has ties to both their abilities of soul sight and the responsibility of the Third Seat as Emet-Selch. Overseer of the underworld and all that.
In the recording we saw in the Anyder of Venat and her faction members before they summoned Hydaelyn, there were 12 of them with her. My guess is, they're ancients that are permanently in a transformed state (like Hades/Hermes in their respective fights) who assumed those roles/forms to power Hydaelyn's summoning and help her maintain the balance. At some point, they got sealed away apart from reality (likely deliberately), each one tied to a specific natural process that needed some form of regulation or serving some other purpose.
They may not know exactly what the state of the world is at this point, only that their realm re-connected to the source when Hydaelyn ceased to exist. Their plan of coming back to take charge is probably a contingency plan in case Hydaelyn is defeated. In stead, they come back to find that the final days are averted and both elder primals are no longer a thing so they're testing mankind to see if we have the capability to master our own destiny without them. Also, I think Deryk (or his monkey) is Oschon.
EDIT: Also, the spirals on the top of the various teleporters to the gods' realm in the phantom realm are identical to those on the buildings in Amaurot. Got to be Venat's close circle.
I think the 12 are unsundered ancients that can "transform" like hades, Hermes, exc. They were probably allied with hyedalen and were somehow able to avoid the sundering. I think they where the ones that formed the races of man that the acsians found deformed as implied by their worship example azemya worshiped by the keepers of th sun exc.
I see them as possibly mortal version of the auspices, basically sennin from Chinese/Japanese mythology, mortals who have simply willed themselves into immortality/divine power (possibly with a dose of help from Hydaelyn?). Thordan, Shiva, Tsukoyumi were all sort of like this though they cheated through using external power to give themselves the necessary power boost, they are a different breed of primal to the type completely "summoned" by worshippers, eg: Ifrit where the nature and personality of the primal is based on a compiled faith.
I think there's a spectrum of primal-fication or deification in the FF14 universe where sheer will and personal power (Hydaelyn) can be compensated for by external fuel (crystals or planetary aether) all the way down to copies made completely of fuel and smaller scraps of will in combination (worshippers).
They talk a lot about dreams and ascension but clearly see themselves as beneath Hydaelyn. My take is that they are not Ancients but perhaps mortals from the 1st Age who either became sennin in their own right or were recruited by Hydaelyn to help steer the star if she was otherwise focused elsewhere. As to why the Ascians didn't seem to care, well these "deities" are still based off sundered mortals regardless of their power or perhaps they have a purpose that is not at odds with the Ascians goals, for example, they might be put in place to make sure the mortal races survive any chance rejoinings/calamities, the Ascians want to force a rejoining but they have no desire for all life to be extinguished prematurely to the final rejoining so this wouldn't conflict.
If they were the 12 who worked with Venat and are actually Ancients I feel this would make them too much like 12 Hydaelyns, it would feel weird, that's why I assume mortals from the First Age.
I initially thought they were either leftover concepts, transformed Ancients, or—my personal favorite—another alien race similar to the dragons. I’m definitely leaning more towards Venat’s conspirators now though. It just makes so much sense. And I feel like their sphere of influence contributes to that theory. Amaurot was recreated beneath the First’s version of the sea around Vylbrand, which is in Eorzea. I think this must be similar to the location of Amaurot in the unsundered world. If the original resistance formed in Amaurot and created its own “realm”, then it would probably be in this area. We never hear of the Twelve outside Eorzea. The myths of the Far East and Near East have no similarities, and the raid series is called “Myths of the Realm”; “the realm” has always exclusively referred to Eorzea.
As for their elements, we’ve seen that transformed Ancients seem to resonate with different elements. Hades used darkness, Hermes used wind; Lahabrea is mentioned to be adept with fire, and Elidibus seemed most attuned to light. Perhaps they created the “heavens” to empower themselves and maintain their godlike forms, and maybe to help perpetuate people’s faith.
I can see Hydaelyn not only leaving a “crack” in her magic for Hades to escape, but also her conspirators, so that they could ensure another contingency plan. Perhaps this plan was to create a faith in what people they could, in order to give those people hope. It was the Ascians who twisted faith to make mortals desperate, but they never seemed to go for the Twelve (except for Rhalgr back in ARR, but that was before the direction of the story had been firmly established).
This is all just wild speculation of course, but boy is it fun! Also, the opo-opo is totally Oschon.
I've been a longtime Menphina follower. I can't wait to see her. Every single character I've had since 2014 were under her care.
I just hope they are something more then ancients creation/transformation. Just feels pretty lackluster that both the 8 man and 24 man is based on ancient lore for this expansion. And if they now have closed the book on Hydaelyn and Zodiark ark, it would be cool if this was something new.
I don't really know why people think they are younger then the ancients, we have no record from that time because of the sundering. So i don't think we can conclude anything about when they started existing. And every calamity has lost more and more about the history of Eorzea.
Those spires on the shrines in Omphalos give me heavy ancients vibes!
I'm in trouble because the only 4 of the 12 I knew anything about were the 4 we fought in this first leg. I need to study up on the others before 6.3!
Hearing you butcher Louisoix's surname that hard when Alphinaud can't go five minutes without saying it made me cringe a bit, but it's also kind of endearing.
I know this much, we will either get a Meister Grade Statue of One of the Twelve or of the end cycle Pandaemonium Raid
I’m curious how the wanderer fits in with all this all my characters call him their deity it fit even before we knew the nature of the seat of azem. It was also because I don’t like to sit still so I’m excited to see how the other gods turn out.
One question. I don’t remember well but do people in first believe in twelve, too? Trying to think who the true identities of the Twekve, that’s the first question j have.
Thanks to you for these in depth videos. They serve as a great refresher when going through this kind of content, and also good food for thought.
If I could make a suggestion, I'd love to see a video on the Legions of the Garlean Empire, who the main figures are in each Legion, and their status and whereabouts now, post Endwalker.
Keep it up.
I would assume next raid will have us face Nophica, Althyk, Halone, and Menphina in that order.
What if they aren't Primals because they didn't come to exist through Aether?
What if they were born of… Dynamis? Dynamis Primals? Born through faith but from Dynamis instead of Aether?
Glad to see I'm not the only one being suspicious about Deryk and his monkey. Him and that little minion are both wearing Oschon's green, and he knows way more than he's letting on about all of this. Also, the job of an adventurer would be the perfect mortal cover…
Also, incredibly wild thought: I'm suddenly stricken with the idea that The Twelve are Unsundered Ascians/Ancients, specifically the twelve who helped Venat summon Hydaelyn. She and the Twelve tried to recruit Azem, but they declined for the same reasons they left The Convocation of Fourteen in protest: mainly, summoning such a Primal would only be bad in the long run for the world. That leaves one person to be the core (Venat and Elidibus), and twelve people to help summon for a total of thirteen in each group. Azem, regardless of which side they picked, would make fourteen. That would unbalance the power dynamics between the two Primals, leading the world to doom, and Azem figured that out somehow.
That's my theory, anyways. I'm looking forward to finding out if that's anywhere in the right ballpark or not.