Lore Primer: The Warring Triad

As most of you Final Fantasy enthusiast know, FFXIV is heavily influenced by other games in the series with the Warring Triads being no exception. As we come to know the Warring Triads, Sephirot the Fiend, Sophia the Goddess, and Zurvan the Demon, we find ourselves looking back at a similar story from FFVI. 1000 years before the story of FFVI, it is said that 3 Gods descended into our world from the heavens; Fiend, Goddess, and Demon. With such immense power, the Gods began to war between in fear of each other’s own power and those humans that were caught in the mists of the fighting became espers; magical beings enslaved to fight for the gods eternally. Once the Gods saw how much destruction and chaos they were creating they unanimously agreed to seal their powers away by petrifying themselves into stone statues. With the last remaining bit of power, the Gods returned the esper’s free will and spoke their last words and warning: “Never must we be woken.”

Humans and espers lived in peace until violence and greed broke out in what would be known as the War of the Magi in which humans attempted taking the esper’s power for themselves. Once killed, an esper would transform into magicite; a solidified crystal of their powers enabling others to use. Those humans infused with the powers from the magicite were then called magi. Once the war neared its end, espers created a new realm to live away from the evils and greed of humans, taking the statues of the Warring Triad with them. Humans then turned on the magi, blaming them for the cause for the war resulting in a massacre with few whom could escape. With both the espers and magi now gone, magic disappeared and became a legend.

Similarly, in FFXIV, we are introduced to the Triad as legendary eikons, a term used by the Allagans to describe these deities, bound in Azys Lla that were once deities worshiped by ancient people of Mercaydia; a continent south of Eorzea and homeland to the Miqo’te race and was once home to dragons born from the original Bahamut bloodline. About 5000 year ago, in the Third Astral Era, The Allagan Empire launched a full-force attack on Mercaydia with their army and chimerical beasts that were no match to the leadership of the dragons that were inhabited there along with the Meracydian people. This then motivated the scientist of Allag to further biologically manipulate creatures, such as Kaliya, to exceed the might of the Meracydian Horde resulting of the slaying of Bahamut. The Triad were then summoned as a last resort to fight the Allagan Empire, unleashing such immense power to drive most the

Allagan forces out but also resulted in chaotic conflict amongst the Triad themselves. The Allagan Empire then turned to aid from their own enemies as the Triad proved to be so challenging. After discovering a new branch of spellcasting, which became the ultimate root of summoning as we know it, the Triad were shackled to machinery to help sustain the Centrifugal Crystal Engine whilst draining infinite amounts of energies and research. The Triad were shackled and bound for 5 millennia until Archbishop Thordan VII traveled to Azys Lla to try to harness their power in order to become a primal unlike any other. The Warrior of Light, along with their companions, were able to stop Thordan in his attempt but to unfortunate consequences. The violence of battle then cracked the seals combined with the Garlean Empire also infiltrating Azys Lla to find the secrets to their technology threatened a full awakening.

The first eikon to awake is Sephirot the Fiend. Sephirot is plural noun in Hebrew as the manifestation of Gods and means “counting”. Sephirot was said to have been summoned by treelike beings from Meracydia as he was said to control the wellspring of life. Sephirot is believed to be the first tree deity and holds the ability to induce unprompted growth in living organisms. He is said to often use this same ability to enlarge his own form to enormous size wreaking havoc on his enemies which gave him the title of “Fiend”.

The second to awake from the battles of Sephirot, is the Goddess, Sophia, summoned by an ancient people of Meracydia. Sophia is Greek for “wisdom” and is a central idea in a plethora of philosophy and religions often depicted as a goddess. She was said to be loved by her people for her compassion and, however, truly feared for her merciless reckoning on those who would dare throw off the perfect equilibrium of her scales.

Lastly, we have Demon, Zurvan, summoned by a race of centaurs in Meracydia. In Zurvanism, Zurvan is the God of infinite time and deity of matter. Zurvan is said to stand above the other gods as he is the embodiment of victory over injustice itself. Legends depict him as a great demon doused from head to toe in blazing armor.

In Eorzea we have known primals that are born of the land and returned to it through a summoning ritual: Ifrit, Titan, Garuda, Leviathan, Ramuh, and Shiva. Each primal is aspected with each elemental until the summoning of Bismark and Ravana which are in fact aspected with 2 elementals. Primals feed upon aether, and those with 2 elementals are able to feed more efficiently, in order to keep a physical form and use their power. The Triad however stand apart from these primals, despite being summoned in a similar manner of prayer, but are in complete forms without the need of aether as they have an infinite amount of power. Little is known about the Triad, however, their infinite power and ability to be sustained for millennials in unfathomable and terrifying all the same. As the Warrior of Light, we are called to action by any means necessary to stop these eikons from being awoken again, free to wreak destruction on our world!