Final Fantasy 14: A Deep Dive Into Hydaelyn

gamerant.com:

Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker wrapped up the story of Hydaelyn, and did so by both showing her backstory and letting the players finally meet her face to face. Throughout most of the MMO, interactions with Hydaelyn were quite limited. For the first couple of expansions, Hydaelyn is treated as a distant goddess. As the game continued, though, Hydaelyn turns out to be more complex and was even once very human.

There is a lot to understanding Hydaelyn, from her creation to her creations. While she is technically a primal, she is very different from Zodiark, Garuda, Bahamut, and others. It has also been revealed by Square Enix developers that many of Final Fantasy 14's musical themes such as «Answers» and «Dragonsong» are inspired by Hydaelyn's perspective on the matters of war, identity, life, and ideology.

Final Fantasy 14: What Is Aether?

Hydaelyn was a creation by an ancient named Venat back when Etheirys existed. While the Convocation of 14 decided to solve the issues of the Final Days with a primal named Zodiark, Venat did not approve. Zodiark demanded constant sacrifices, and the Convocation decided they would not only sacrifice their own people but also «lesser» lives from other planets. Venat used to be in the Convocation of 14 as Azem, so she traveled through many worlds and did not think of them to have any lesser value.

With like-minded ancients, Venat sacrificed herself to create Hydaelyn. Unlike Zodiark, who lost its core, Elidibus, Hydaelyn got Venat to be its core personality. When Hydaelyn was created, she sundered Etheirys into 14 fragments and sealed Zodiark into the moon on the Source. The primal then hid into the core of the Source, where she would observe her work and wait for a hero to solve the tragedy of