Chaos
From FFXIclopedia, the free Final Fantasy XI encyclopedia
This was one of four servers used for beta testing of the original release of FFXI for the Playstation 2 console in Japan.
ID Number: N/A
Activation Date: December 17, 2001
Deactivation Date: April 26, 2002
History in the FF Series
Chaos was the final boss from the original Final Fantasy. Chaos was the beastial entity created when Garland, a renegade knight, merged with the powers of the Four Fiends of the Elements. Garland had allied with the Four Fiends (Lich, Fiend of Earth, Marilith/Kary, Fiend of Fire, Kraken, Fiend of Water, and Tiamat, Fiend of Wind) and formed a convoluted scheme to remain immortal. The Four Fiends controlled the power of the natural elements and would use their elemental powers to destroy civilization. For a reason not stated, their power base was in the past. Their versions 2000 years ago were stronger than the versions which were sent forward in time.
The scheme involved a time loop. Garland, using the Time Gate inside the Black Orb (located in the Temple of Fiends in the present) being sent back in time by the Four Fiends of the present. Garland, after arriving in the past sent the Four Fiends of the past forward in time (Garland's time of departure was sometime after he was defeated by the Light Warriors at the beginning of the game). Then, when the present arrives, the Four Fiends will send Garland back, causing time to loop over and over.
Tiamat would arrive 400 years ago and eventually cause the prosperous Lefein civilization (which had put space stations, called Sky Castles, in orbit and developed teleportation technology, robots, and airships) to be destroyed. Though it is not stated, it was presumably a wind-based phenomenon.
Kraken arrived 200 years ago and caused the Sea Shrine, home of the mermaids, to sink into the ocean. His flooding destroyed much of the prosperous sea-faring civilization on the northwest continent (what remains is the town of Onrac), which had submarine technology. Eventually, all ports in the north would be destroyed and all contact between the northern hemisphere and southern hemisphere would be cut off.
Lich arrived at an unspecified time (based on the previous interval, possibly 100 years ago) and caused the earth to rot and be reduced into a swampy mire on the Melmond area of the southern continent.
Marilith/Kary arrived at an unspecified time (based on the previous interval, possibly 50 years ago) and was threatening the Crescent Lake area of the southern continent with being incinerated through the eruption of Gurgu Volcano.
The mechanics of the time loop were after arriving 2000 years in the past, when the world reaches the present chronologically, Garland would go back in time again. The world was locked in a 2000 year time loop which caused civilization to collapse around the world. The time loop would only be broken by killing the true enemy 2000 years in the past. The matured, legendary warriors who came out of nowhere in the past formed the basis of the legend of the Light Warriors which the young, immature warriors were immersed in upon arriving from parts unknown in Coneria. With the breaking of the time loop, no Fiends would remain in the present and all the struggles of the Light Warriors in the present would be erased. Only their final battle against Chaos would be recorded in the legends of various peoples.
It was not clear how Garland transformed into Chaos, whether he merged with the remnant power of the newly slain Four Fiends of the past or was created through some other process. The ending text seems to indicate Garland's hatred 'burned for 2000 years', which lured the Four Fiends to him, with 'Chaos was created from those four'. How he became immortal is unknown since the simple act of traveling through time would not account for that. Chaos was a giant light brown bestial figure, with large horns giant claws on his hands and feet, talons, bat wings, and a spiny tail. He had some shoulder pads and skulls as knee pads. He also had a second face, a horned demonic face in his abdomen. Chaos used the most powerful elemental magic, cures, and 4 powerful elemental attacks, each representing one of the 4 elements.
Historical Background
In Greek mythology, Chaos refers to the primordial void, the nothingness that preceeded existence and from which all existence spawned from. It was said to be a vast expanse filled with air and mist. Chaos was considered one of the primordial gods. Chaos had no manifest form. Chaos was the first thing existing after creation. Chaos spawned, without any mates: Erebos, Nyx, Aether, Hemera (Darkness, Night, Aether/Upper Sky, Day), and the Fates. After Chaos spontaneously came into being Gaia, Eros, and Tartarus. In Late Greek cosmology, Chaos came to refer to a chaotic, unordered mass of material, but this is a misinterpretation of the primordial Hyle (mud) from the Orphic mystery cult's cosmogony. Nonetheless, Chaos can be considered the first state of existence for the universe. As the term got translated into English, it came to been the opposite of Order, disorderly, unpredictable, uncontrolled, unrestrained. Chaos was Greek for "gaping void".
