Since this got buried in the main discussion thread, I figured it might make sense to continue theorizing about Pitioss here, because it seems like it could be really interesting.
Here's what's been said so far:
Any further thoughts?
Here's what's been said so far:
https://www.reddit.com/r/FFXV/comments/5t367b/pitioss_ruins_revelations/
i want parts of this to be canon so MUCH
why random players manage to make an interesting and detailed explanation like this and the devs puts nothing in the game (unless their intention was to left things open for imagination...)
i want parts of this to be canon so MUCH
why random players manage to make an interesting and detailed explanation like this and the devs puts nothing in the game (unless their intention was to left things open for imagination...)
There's no doubt the dungeon tells some type of story. I wish it was covered specifically in the strategy guide or something.
Nice find.
Some fans write the most interesting explanations for the game I swear. This kind of speculation I don't mind. It's the outlandish ones that make me want to facepalm from embarrassment.
[...]
Yeah that's what I thought when I first went through that dungeon. So many intriguing symbolism in there. Such an amazing and unique dungeon if I saw any.
[...]
This just leads me to believe that, on paper, the people over at Square have already worked out and written down the intricate and detailed story parts for the game, but just weren't able to fit it all into the game due to time and space on the disc. So they weren't "winging it" like some people believe.
If you look at the Big Bang artwork, Ardyn's concept art in the FFXV artbook (http://i.imgur.com/1SmssiH.png), Luna and Ravus' art in the same book (http://i.imgur.com/YHFbOkn.png), and just some of the general concept art they had for environments, you could gauge that they had a very rich, detailed, and very involved story for the game.
The most telling one is the Big Bang artwork. You could tell that they had an epic tale with all these summons appearing but had to be cut. Only the first half of that artwork makes sense with what happens in the game.
Next is the Ardyn concept art. I think they already fully wrote out his backstory.
Since the game has performed so well sales wise, I do hope that they would make use of all of these intriguing ideas by continuing to add to this game 2 years post release.
Some fans write the most interesting explanations for the game I swear. This kind of speculation I don't mind. It's the outlandish ones that make me want to facepalm from embarrassment.
[...]
Yeah that's what I thought when I first went through that dungeon. So many intriguing symbolism in there. Such an amazing and unique dungeon if I saw any.
[...]
This just leads me to believe that, on paper, the people over at Square have already worked out and written down the intricate and detailed story parts for the game, but just weren't able to fit it all into the game due to time and space on the disc. So they weren't "winging it" like some people believe.
If you look at the Big Bang artwork, Ardyn's concept art in the FFXV artbook (http://i.imgur.com/1SmssiH.png), Luna and Ravus' art in the same book (http://i.imgur.com/YHFbOkn.png), and just some of the general concept art they had for environments, you could gauge that they had a very rich, detailed, and very involved story for the game.
The most telling one is the Big Bang artwork. You could tell that they had an epic tale with all these summons appearing but had to be cut. Only the first half of that artwork makes sense with what happens in the game.
Next is the Ardyn concept art. I think they already fully wrote out his backstory.
Since the game has performed so well sales wise, I do hope that they would make use of all of these intriguing ideas by continuing to add to this game 2 years post release.
Part of the theory is that Pitioss was designed by a guy who'd worked on Bloodborne, a game that's infamous for relying almost entirely on environmental storytelling to convey its story.
With that said, there are some parts of it that I love, but there are other parts that depend on faulty premises.
Starting with the stuff I like:
The female figure in Pitioss serves as FFXV's equivalent to Etro. The core concept behind Etro is that she's a goddess who passes into the Unseen Realm after dying and finds that the Unseen Realm is infected with Chaos, which threatens the stability of the universe. Etro then serves as a death goddess, receiving human souls and imbuing them with Chaos before sending them back out in the world in an effort to retain balance. The goal of the other gods in the FNC mythos is to open the gate to the Unseen Realm through the deaths of an enormous amount of humans so Etro can be slain, because she's mistakenly seen as the source of the Chaos that will inevitably destroy the world. It also seems like she was intended to be the source of Noct's powers in Versus XIII, since he could see the light shining from the Unseen Realm as a result of a near-death experience.
If the Ravatough and Pitioss imagery is interpreted in that light, a rather different story emerges. Ifrit doesn't embark on a journey to the underworld to save the female figure from imprisonment. She's already dead, and the pyre on Ravatough is his first attempt to follow after her. It doesn't work, of course, because the Astrals don't go through through the gate when they "die," but it would explain why part of him looks burned. So, he decides to run with the FNC plan and summons a plague-ridden Meteor to kill a bunch of humans to force the gate open (which would explain why his hatred for humans hadn't been a problem beforehand, at least). This gets him into the underworld like he was hoping.
There's no need to alter the descent all that much, at least up to the point where the female statue comes into play. If she's a slightly-revamped Etro, then she wouldn't have been banished for having part-human offspring. She'd be attempting to stave off the darkness around her until being forced to pass that role onto a (human) successor. The Genji Gloves at her navel could still figuratively represent "giving birth," but instead of literal children, she'd "give birth" to a line of human souls intended to fulfill the role she could no longer fulfill -- the line of Lucis (whose divine ability to wield spectral weapons is never fully explained, even though we've been told the origins of the Crystal, the Ring, and the Oracle) -- before fading into the darkness. Cue Ifrit's infection with the Starscourge, cataclysmic fall, and desperate flight from the underworld trailing the scourge behind him.
After that, infected!Ifrit could have the massive fight with the other Astrals that created Taelpar Crag before dying at Shiva's hands.
As for the Crystal, the idea that it was cut from the heart of the female figure is really cool, but it makes more sense that Bahamut (the Astral who actually gave it to humanity) would have done that after Ifrit went AWOL than that Ifrit did it himself but lost it to the other Astrals.
With that said, there are some parts of it that I love, but there are other parts that depend on faulty premises.
Starting with the stuff I like:
- The idea of the fantastical protrusions on Ravatough being a wing and Ifrit's horns is kind of brilliant. I'd been convinced that that volcano had to have something to do with Ifrit since it was first shown, and it's completely plausible that Ifrit's original corpse could have been resting on top of there (especially given what happened to the area where Shiva's corpse fell).
- The idea of Pitioss representing a journey into the underworld in search of a fallen goddess makes a whole ton of sense, and I intend to keep that in mind when I go through that section myself.
- The idea that Gladio's DLC will take place in the underworld. Given Cor's presence in what we've seen of the DLC, I suspect the nature of that episode will be far less supernatural than that.
- The idea that Taelpar Crag was created by Ifrit alone. It's explicitly stated that it's the consequence of the fighting between the Astrals, so it's strange to attribute it to the actions of only one of them.
- The idea that the Meteor isn't the source of the Starscourge. Some of the localizations confirm this outright.
- The idea that Ifrit managed to escape the underworld with the corpse of Eos. As far as I can tell, there's nothing in the dungeon that really hints at it, and the "Ifrit lit a pyre on Ravatough" scenario could have easily happened before the underworld journey.
- The idea that the winged figure in the prophecy artwork is the goddess Eos in the first place. The tutorial room makes it clear that the winged figure represents the Oracle, and I'm not sure there's any particular reason to believe that the statue of the woman in Pitioss is a goddess named Eos.
- The idea that the Oracle line could have had divine blood. One of the Cosmogony books explains the source of the Oracle's powers, and it's Bahamut.
- The idea that multiple levels of associations (like Marlboro Tentacles -> Marlboro Vines -> Doomtrain summon or Owlyss -> Aegolius -> Aegolius Funereus -> ill-omened funeral) can provide any meaningful insight into the story being told by the dungeon.
- And, most importantly, the idea that Ifrit is a misunderstood hero, if only because it flies in the face of literally everything the game does on a surface level. FFXV's Ifrit is as blatant a Satan expy as the FF series has ever had. An argument that effectively amounts to "Satan is actually the good guy" requires a bit more evidence than some meaningful item placement and architecture.
The female figure in Pitioss serves as FFXV's equivalent to Etro. The core concept behind Etro is that she's a goddess who passes into the Unseen Realm after dying and finds that the Unseen Realm is infected with Chaos, which threatens the stability of the universe. Etro then serves as a death goddess, receiving human souls and imbuing them with Chaos before sending them back out in the world in an effort to retain balance. The goal of the other gods in the FNC mythos is to open the gate to the Unseen Realm through the deaths of an enormous amount of humans so Etro can be slain, because she's mistakenly seen as the source of the Chaos that will inevitably destroy the world. It also seems like she was intended to be the source of Noct's powers in Versus XIII, since he could see the light shining from the Unseen Realm as a result of a near-death experience.
If the Ravatough and Pitioss imagery is interpreted in that light, a rather different story emerges. Ifrit doesn't embark on a journey to the underworld to save the female figure from imprisonment. She's already dead, and the pyre on Ravatough is his first attempt to follow after her. It doesn't work, of course, because the Astrals don't go through through the gate when they "die," but it would explain why part of him looks burned. So, he decides to run with the FNC plan and summons a plague-ridden Meteor to kill a bunch of humans to force the gate open (which would explain why his hatred for humans hadn't been a problem beforehand, at least). This gets him into the underworld like he was hoping.
There's no need to alter the descent all that much, at least up to the point where the female statue comes into play. If she's a slightly-revamped Etro, then she wouldn't have been banished for having part-human offspring. She'd be attempting to stave off the darkness around her until being forced to pass that role onto a (human) successor. The Genji Gloves at her navel could still figuratively represent "giving birth," but instead of literal children, she'd "give birth" to a line of human souls intended to fulfill the role she could no longer fulfill -- the line of Lucis (whose divine ability to wield spectral weapons is never fully explained, even though we've been told the origins of the Crystal, the Ring, and the Oracle) -- before fading into the darkness. Cue Ifrit's infection with the Starscourge, cataclysmic fall, and desperate flight from the underworld trailing the scourge behind him.
After that, infected!Ifrit could have the massive fight with the other Astrals that created Taelpar Crag before dying at Shiva's hands.
As for the Crystal, the idea that it was cut from the heart of the female figure is really cool, but it makes more sense that Bahamut (the Astral who actually gave it to humanity) would have done that after Ifrit went AWOL than that Ifrit did it himself but lost it to the other Astrals.