Astral vs Umbral | FFXIV Lore For Beginners

It's the requested follow up to my first Final Fantasy XIV Lore video. Today we're talking Astral v Umbral! Designed to help new players get into the game, help returning players catch up, and give current players something to refresh themselves with.

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Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:21 - Astral v Umbral: History
01:40 - Astral v Umbral: Elements
03:25 - Astral AND Umbral together
05:29 - SPOILERS HERE

[incap]

One thing we have to consider with the behaviours of Voidsent and Sin Eaters. Voidsent are active, chaotic and always on the move. They possess more personality, ambition and aggression, actively betraying each other and manipulating others for their own gain. They talk, boast, taunt others, hold people hostage and a myriad of other acts. They behave like individuals, morally corrupt individuals with no inhibition or self control.

Sin Eaters operate more like a hive. They gather around the largest of their kind, who are content to sit in some hole and just gouge on aether, occasionally sweeping through some village to do so. They don't act with a sense of individualism, and behave very much like drones in a hive mind. They don't talk, or do anything, other than act on an instinct of feeding. They possess no free will, they have no personality or ambition.

[johndipietro]

There's an interesting line when you beat Leviathan - he will say something to the effect of "My waters are stilled... is this the power of the Light?" DEFINITELY something to consider...

[Poukena]

Your light and pigment analogy was really spot on for explaining the differences between how the Source and the First view Astral and Umbral. Really enjoyed this episode!

[dprture]

knowing jesse was a history teacher makes these videos even better, everything just makes sense when he explains it

[Castersvarog]

Something worth mentioning about Umbral electric/Fire is that we do see Umbral electricity in The churning mists, which has a weather called Umbral static. In addition, background lore officially states that Ul’dah is aspected towards Fire all the time, but it’s Umbral which causes a giant desert.

[Burred]

I cannot believe that I, for the first 30 seconds of this video, was like "hmm, where have I heard this background music from before?" only to then realize, "oh right, FF14... go figure"

[Lilly_Belle]

What I find interesting is that Hydaelyn and Zodiark represent our understanding of Astral and Umbral perfectly, as well. Hydaelyn actively chooses champions to further her cause and even speaks and appears before people. Zodiark, however, has never been seen nor heard in the entirety of FFXIV. We've seen a dark crystal, yes, but never Zodiark himself.

But that doesn't mean they fully encompass what we believe to be Astral and Umbral. Just as Hydaelyn has her Warriors of Light, so too does Zodiark have the Ascians. Darkness overtook The Thirteenth, but Light nearly stole The First.

And people are all so quick to turn on Hydaelyn and call her evil because of what happened on The First, but what really happened there? Ascians caused the flood of light. Who stopped the flood of light? Hydaelyn. Hydaelyn sacrificed a massive amount of her power to halt the flood and even gave up her only way of speaking, namely Minfillia, to help us in our fight.

I don't think Hydaelyn or Zodiark is evil. I think they're balanced and are both capable of active and passive interaction with the world.

[GrotslagBrickface]

I hope this blossoms into a passion for FFXIV lore videos because these have been a pleasure to watch.

[theoriginaltubeofyous]

really really interesting to see after Endwalker and think about how Zodiark was actively summoned to passively stop the active end of the universe by actively keeping the aether currents flowing around the star as a sort of magnetosphere against the end of days.

[Derpinator]

My personal thoughts for the ending question are that whether order/stagnation and chaos/change are good or bad is a matter of perspective based on one's position. If you're in the middle of a thriving civilization that thinks itself Hydaelyn's gift to Eorzea, then of course you'd want to keep that around, even as the luster starts to fade. On the opposite end, if you've lost everything in a calamity and are struggling to pick up the pieces, then of course you'd take any change you can get, because even danger would be better than having absolutely nothing. This even ties into how the eras cycle between prosperity and calamity, with each era having its own problems and highlights.

[CallMeNoa]

Wonderfully edited and informative video Jesse, just as before! There is one thing I'd mention too though: How some areas have different amounts of aspected aether. Like Coerthas has a lot of astral ice aether so is cold and snowy, while Thanalan has a lot of umbral fire aether so is dry and hot.

[Highstar]

now that we have more details, I'd love to see these videos return and give us a breakdown about the twelve, the world unsundered and hydalyn/zodiark's creation.

[Amovetv]

Such a good rundown! Look forward to watching past the spoiler warning

[OceanFragments]

Check out the concept of Taiji, which I think is the root of the concepts behind Umbral and Astral. What's fascinating is at the apex of Absolute Stillness and Absolute Motion, you will find the opposite emerges from each.
As with Periods shifting into opposite periods, so too do the metaphysical concepts shift endlessly into one another at their peaks. That's why I believe the void is actually a realm of such destructive activity, it tore itself apart and became a still space of nothingness, and beings trapped in undeath. Raging energies existing in such a hyperactive state that none of it can exist in stability as anything meaningful without tearing itself apart, mirroring the nihilist philosophy of the voidsent.
As for the first, they had the 'burn' like area, devoid of meaningful activity and change, but such vast quantities of it. seeking to make all like itself. A world truly lost to the light likely would have just been a planet of unchanging white sand, full of the potential for life, but never seeing any of it actively exist. The need for all the be consumed and become one in identical stagnation despite their flaws creating meaningful differentiation is mirrored in the self-righteous philosophy of the sin-eaters.
The mid point and dissemination of these forces is the material souls and lifeforce are made from. We see such souls tempered too far in one direction by an apex force wreaks catastrophic effects on them. Even elementally charged tempering can be harmful, since a soul in a neutral state is malleable enough to be pushed in any direction.

[Sith]

only Jesse could get me to watch a side lesson to the lore of a game I don't play

[CozyRozzy]

I'm so happy to see your passion for this game grow into such a well put together and important series to the game. Keep going! I'm so proud of you and everyone involved.

[Devhead]

And he did it all without a single "thou" or "must needs". Urianger better watch out.

[kitsunehanyou]

I love teacher Jesse's energy, it helped me reinforce things I already knew from the game but also gave me a new perspective to look at it--like I didn't think about how the graph was structured. Props to Dan for adding that old ass Classroom TV and vhs player for presentations

[pamharvestcraft]

As someone who just got into FFXIV in the last month(s), I'm so happy to be able to explore the lore better with a fantastic voice. :)

[trivialslope]

This is a nice refresher while playing Shadowbringers