Ardyn Izunia's Origins Explained ► Final Fantasy XV Lore + Episode Ardyn

Stories about the triumphs of good over evil are as classic when it comes to fictional as non-fictional tales and many of them have stood the test of time, such as the success of the Trojans at the Battle of Thermopylae, the defeated Frodo's Sauron in The Lord of the Rings and even Sydney's failure in Billy and Stu's plans in the original Scream. The Final Fantasy franchise is no different in this regard, as this particular narrative concept has been used to great effect over the years, one of the things that has made the franchise unique. However, the story has rarely been recurring until recently, where sequels and spin-offs have become a bit more common.

Every time Final Fantasy featured a standalone story, they would see a new group of protagonists trying to save the war from destruction after it ended. being threatened by the ultimate antagonist and although we now have more sequels, each iteration has still focused on bringing the spirit and liveliness that comes with reinventing oneself, it has caused a lot of deviation across the board and when it comes to antagonists, means that Not all of them are simply maniacal demons bent on destruction for the sake of it, as the stories have become more developed, so having our antagonists and their motivations one of the most prominent trends in recent times is the rise of the sympathetic antagonist More Sometimes they remain evil to the core, but only because they have been twisted by the cruel hands of fate to the point that they are not interested in salvation, only destruction, they often seek escape, but after learning their plight it is possible to have compassion for what they have been through This goes back to Ian MacLaren's famous quote, have pity because every man is fighting a tough battle, except in the case of most Final Fantasy antagonists, the The battle has already been lost and they no longer deserve or want anyone's examples of pity.

This has all been shown in some of our previous origin videos about Sephiroth and Caius Ballad, but based on what has just been truly confirmed through the release of Final Fantasy 15's

final

DLC, Odin xenia also falls into this category in a In a rather large way, an altruistic individual leans towards a fact that he did not choose and is carried beyond the normal balance of sanity. They say time heals all wounds, but as Rose Kennedy pointed out, the wounds still remain; the mind only tries to lessen the pain over time and in Arden's case, this is very much the case and it will be fun to dig into his history to try to explain how it all happened.

Truth be told, we've had a lot of people want us to cover Final Fantasy 15 within our origin. series for some time now, but we wanted to wait until the story was officially over and since Dawn of the Future will now be released as a non-canonical novel focusing on the timeline intertwining with the alternate ending of the Odin

episode

, it's time to start working and what better place to start than with the game's antagonist, which served as the

final

act only as a slight disclaimer, although after the release of the Arden

episode

, its prologue, subsequent interviews with the developers and disagreements that exist between different language versions of the main game.

There are a lot of potential ways the story of Final Fantasy 15 can be interpreted, so putting together this

origins

video is really a challenge, but I've done my best to create a narrative that makes the most sense to me anyway. before diving into the story.

origins

of our dinner Suniya, be sure to subscribe to Final Fantasy Union. Our goal is to publish interesting new Final Fantasy content every Monday or so, and we have plenty of interesting things on the horizon so you'll be notified immediately when we publish something new. Make sure you hit that notification. bell and I would also like to say a big thank you to our patreon supporters, Mod Squad, you guys are great and we really appreciate your support.

Someone else who is cool is TPR for allowing us to use their music in our videos, if you enjoy it check it out. on Spotify one last thing, be sure to let us know in the comments who you would like us to see on the cover of our future origins video, so let's start with Arden's origins, born as the eldest son of the respected Suniya family, Arden . He was a gifted child and was believed to have been blessed by the Astrals themselves due to his innate abilities with healing powers. He was also the ideal role model for his younger brother Somnus and in their early years together they were very close and often spent a lot of time playing chess with each other and developing their strategic acumen, but as they grew older their areas of interest began to diverge and when humanity was threatened by a dangerous plague that would later be known as the stellar scourge, they disagreed on what would be the best way.

In trying to save not only his close friends and family, but humanity as a whole, the challenge was that the stellar scourge was inherently different from anything humanity or even the Astrals had faced before AOS was accustomed to it. conflicts of varying degrees, but often they were physical. encounters based on acts of conquest or defiance, but with the scourge of the stars, they faced a new type of problem that affected the planet on multiple levels. The first part was the plague itself, which would cause people to become infected with a photophobic parasite known as Plasmodium malariae.

This would gradually transform the form of their hosts changing both their mental and physical states to the point where they could no longer be identified as the people they once were and this then led to the second part as they would become demonic creatures that They wandered around there. in the dark and took advantage of people who were pure, the outbreak could not be left unchecked, it needed to be controlled, but even though they were, after all, charged with protecting an impressive stability, they were unable to act directly after it. A bitter war had broken out after the kingdom of Solheim turned its back on Ifrit, its benefactor, the Astrals, ended up defending humanity by punishing Ifrit for his blatant abuse of power and his irrational rage which they felt would end up threatening everyone. all of us, the consequence was that if the fruit was killed in the hands of the other Astrals, but the conflict took its toll on everyone and everything related to an oz was marked and Ramu Shiva Leviathan and Titan ended up falling into a deep sleep after Having extended his powers too far, only Bahamut remained the sole observer, but even he The will no longer had the same level of influence when the stellar scourge emerged.

Muhammad realized that he alone could not fight the disease and that is why he turned to humanity. Popular sentiment was that the Asuna family would be in the best position to lead the charge and so Bahamut granted Odin. and his brother somnus special powers that were powered by the crystal, an incarnation of the planet's soul, to reflect the meaning of this distinction and to show that they had a connection with the Astrals, the Izuna family was renamed house caelum and Odin From then on it became known. as Arden Lucis caelum in an official capacity, while his brother became known as somnus Lucis caelum at the same time Muhammad also granted special powers to another family, they resided within the city of Tenebrae and would be known as house f

lore

as opposed to the powers awarded to house caelum. which would allow the bearers to fight the byproduct of the disease, the demons more effectively, the house f

lore

was given more defensive powers to help address the initial stages of the starskirt and keep it under control, and the benefactor who could cleanse the world and In communion with the Astrals there was a woman named was who turned out to be Arden's fiancée.

These gifts were important, but they were actually part of a larger plan that Muhammad was enacting that would actually help him rid us of the stellar scourge, but still. The members of House Caelum and House Flore were eventually sacrificed for their unrelated problems and now empowered by the gods to apparently deal with their pandemic. Arden and somnus said about trying to fight a stellar scourge, but while somnus chose an aggressive stance. Raising armies to hunt demons and burning those who had been infected by the plague, Arden chose to lend aid to the people, this saw him let go of these strong offensive powers that he had received only using them in extreme circumstances, instead, He chose to use his unique healing powers to absorb the ailment of the infected into his own body, as he believed that the gods had also granted him this power due to his actions.

Arden was heralded as a hero by the general population who could see him with their own eyes. he was healing people, allowing families to stay together, something that strengthened his collective resolve and they began to believe that perhaps they could defeat the stellar scourge with Arden as their Warrior of Light fighting the forces of darkness; It was a realistic hope, but there were unforeseen consequences of Arden's actions. Over time, his health had begun to suffer from the stellar scourge that consumed him from within, and every time he healed, someone knew they were only exacerbating the problem by realizing what they were doing. was happening Arden decided to move away from the public eye that was.

He was worried that those who idolized him would feel betrayed if they saw the monster he was becoming and he didn't want to risk them losing faith by trying to fight the starskirt through passive means. It wasn't an easy decision by any means, but what? He had another choice, so Aalberts cut off contact with the bug and left behind most of the people he was trying so desperately to protect, relying on the kindness of those within his flock to keep him clothed, fed, and protected. . Auden's decision created a void that was a great personality and was worshiped because of his compassion, but his absence represented an opportunity for somnus like Odin.

He had been trying to help people in a way that he truly believed was best for his survival, but due to Odin's more positive attitude. actions, he had been reprimanded for his tactics that were often considered unnecessary and sometimes even barbaric with strangers and now missing, his supporters had begun to create small rebel groups to protest against omnis, but in reality there was now nothing real in somnus, his strange methods and their champion HeLa had all but abandoned them hiding in the shadows, thus allowing Somnus to gain increasing support from a population that only wanted to know that they would continue to stay safe.

This support often came at the expense of the reputation of his and Somnus' brothers. He used the small rebellions to demonize Aden and consolidate his power, but it also strengthened his conviction that Aden had chosen his path and had not been successful, so Somnus became more aggressive with his actions and Aden would not give up his official name. and would return to Being in a zoo, Nia even called her brother a potential threat to society who should be hunted down and treated as a fugitive. Despite all this, Aden still tried to continue his mission of healing the sick and giving them hope, but he was becoming more and more.

Harder was not only struggling to control his demonic side, but his forces were also intensifying their searches, it meant that even seeing his fiancée was a dangerous task, but it was worth it to simply look into her eyes and remember when times were more difficult. simple and It wasn't long after one of those strange visits that he learned that he had been anointed as the champion of the crystals, the one true king who would be able to unite the people and work to eradicate the star scourge of Once for all. This was a pleasant surprise.

For Aden, he had chosen to let go of his mobility in almost every way except name and had no real interest in returning to that particular environment, but he had done more than anyone to try to protect the people and if that meant that he could finally rid the land of this plague, he would happily accept this new role as its king with somnus and then extending a hand welcoming him back into the fold to be adorned. Aden ventured to see the crystal without having to hide in the shadows, but he couldn't. Having foreseen what his brother was planning to continue with his campaign against Aden, Somnus declared himself as the chosen king of the crystals and revealed that he only knew that he was strange and that they were going to be crowned to lure him there with the goal of eliminating him and his rebellion. the land was unfortunate despite being close when they were younger.

Odin had seen his brother become increasingly arrogant over time, but he had been tolerant of these actions even though he did not agree with his brother's tactics,They were still brothers. They were both working for the same goal, only their methods were different when Somnus later branded him a stranger and a traitor, he refused to take the bait, he just wanted to help people and that was of no use yet with Somnus now carrying weapons against he in front. Of his noble peers Odin was cornered, he could no longer stand by and allow the farce to continue.

He saw the two face each other in a spectacular jewel, his God-given powers were used to the fullest, but due to being much more experienced in combat and in awe and psychologically weakened due to his condition, Somnus prevailed with relative ease upon seeing that her fiancé had lost, she attempted to intervene before Somnus could take down her brother, but in doing so, she inadvertently ended up sacrificing her own life. When Somnus showed no remorse and instead declared that that time had been a strange nonsense and he lost control of his emotions, it was all too much.

He had tried for so many years to be the embodiment of integrity, frugality and altruism, the guiding light that would offer hope. to those in need, but despite all this it seemed that the punishment and pain of what had been predetermined for him to realize that everything he loved was now gone. Odin could no longer suppress the stellar scourge that had been growing within him and showed the world exactly what he had become, a monster, but instead of lashing out and attacking those present seeking revenge for the perceived injustice, Artin just wanted to know the truth.

TRUE. If the crystal had truly chosen Somnus as its true king, the answer he received was clear. Arden was rejected by The Crystal and Somnus chose to execute his brother on the spot, but to his surprise he failed as due to Odin's unique healing abilities, he had not been affected by the Starskirt in the same way as many other humans, But Odin's body was now the host of a myriad of demons that had given him unimaginable powers. The stellar scourge had not infected him, it was feeding him and had made him immortal. Realizing this, Somnus decided to create an eternal prison for Aden. on the island of Angel God and after placing there he proceeded to strip Aden of his name and title, there he removed him from history, only those within the inner circle would know of Odin's continued existence and would refer to him simply as a da Geum for more than 2000 years.

Aden remained inside his prison. by chains trying to repent of the sins that had caused the crystal to reject him and choose somnus until he was found and freed by a rather curious scientist from Niffleheim called Starburst Sathya. He was desperate to gain more knowledge so that he could help the The Niffleheim Empire became more powerful and after extolling many virtues of the ancient civilization of Saul Heim, he first moved on to the next chapter of the story that led him to search for that mythical Adagio, but then After spending so much time inactive, the entire ordeal was too much for Aden to bear as he realized he was forced to defend himself against the illusion of the Rural God who had been monitoring his prison for over two millennia.

Ardan lost control of himself succumbing to the demons within him and ended up using his powers, but to his surprise he discovered that they no longer worked. like they had done before, now instead of being able to heal people, he had the ability to grant the plague to people and absorb their memories. It was a huge shock and Arden passed out and went into a coma for seven months when he woke up. Harden learned from everyone versed. about how much the world had changed while he had been removed, but he had no desire to seek revenge for what had been done to him and so little benefit in helping an empire in its petty war, Eva, if it were against Lucious's kingdom. .

At first, Aldo was relentless, desperate to have Aden as a powerful Allah in his fight, and he kept pushing and probing in the hopes of finding something that would motivate Aden to join his side, but nothing he could do seemed to make any difference. in Aden, not even the offer to subjugate a. God, that was until he received some unexpected help from the real Aleutian God who had snuck into the facility hoping to get Aden back with so much happening in such a short amount of time. Aden was on the verge of some serious mental instability that he had had.

He used to try to keep the demons under control, but his new situation was in stark contrast to the life he knew and it was difficult to understand everything with a stand and then teasing him like a wild dog was making him angry, making him nervous, but what Pushing him over the edge was again that the Lucien Royal Guard had infiltrated the four-star facility and hoped to recapture Arden for a second time. All they accomplished was sending Arden into a schizophrenic rage within the Kingsguard. Aden saw hallucinations of his brother somnus of him. They were mocking him and Aden could no longer tolerate such a challenge when Ifrit woke up.

Aden, still in the throes of his rage, decided to succumb to Styles' influence and ignore the morals he had held so firmly throughout his life, even during difficult times. They were difficult. Aden had always worked to try to please the gods to play his part in his grand design, but now they would begin to work for him and this began with a subjugation of Ifrit. It was stimulating and she learned a lot from him by remembering him. including what he believed to be the truth about what happened so long ago, that consolation ruse of his was much more sinister than a simple ploy, but this time he had a different conclusion instead of dying peacefully in his arms. .

Aden was forced to kill his beloved. With a gentle nudge from his loving brother, he pushed Arden over the edge and swore he would no longer kneel to the will of the gods, he would embrace the demons within him and become the monster everyone believed was spreading the star scourge. throughout the land. and creating chaos, the outpost was delighted with Arden's choice and together they worked to combine their existing magitek technology with the power of the star scourge. This saw the creation of new, more powerful weapons, such as magitek infantry, and in the years that followed they were amazed and dazzled. important figures within the empire with his knowledge in recognition of this, Auden was promoted to the position of chancellor and given a direct line of communication with I Dulles Aldicott, the Emperor of the Niffleheim Empire, who despite being very wise was mesmerized by the Odin's promises. of even greater powers, he turned a blind eye to the cracks that had begun to appear within the empire after Arden's arrival, but part of this was due to ignorance.

Thanks to the actions of Somnus, the star scourge had been all but eradicated. , but Aden brought it back to spread it across the imperial lands as it sought to gain more and more knowledge from its citizens, something that in turn caused Aden to become a former shadow of itself. I don't think Arden's promises of greatness were set in the crystal he believed they were. After all, he would allow her to kill him and become a god, so he sanctioned more aggressive measures against the Kingdom of Lucis. This culminated in an assault that occurred on the founding Kings' Day, in which he would attempt to disable the outer defenses of Insomnia, his famous wall.

Aden was a prominent part of this plan as he infiltrated Insomnia and someone Ifrit to wreak havoc as planned. This caught the attention of a newly crowned king of Lucis named Regis Lucis caelum, who strangely and expectedly would summon the old wall and allow him to seek revenge. against her brother Somnus and after defeating Regis with ease, Autumn was granted this opportunity when Somnus descended from the heavens to face her brother once again, but unlike the last time Somnus was bested, she was unable to compete. With the power Aden had amassed and after his defeat, he attempted to explain the events of 2,000 years earlier from his perspective, but this did little to quell the fire burning in the heart of Arden.

He needed to rid the land of everything the caelum lost and would begin with Regis, the current king, picking up his sword, swinging hard and ready, but Bahamut stopped him in his tracks after having observed from afar that this was not part of the overall plan. which Bahamut had set in motion thousands of years earlier and began to make this explicitly clear to Arden. Arden's role was and always had been that of the sacrificial lamb that the gods had allowed Somnus to usurp so that when the time came he could be the ultimate motivation behind the true destruction of the darkness and this in turn would give him the who longed for how to free the darkness.

In the land of darkness, the true king would end strangeness and suffering, but he would also have to end the line of lusus. Naturally, Auden was perplexed. This plan seemed ridiculous, convoluted and unnecessarily cruel, but if he sought salvation, he had no choice but to submit and therefore submit. He did so at least for a short time when, upon reflection, he remembered the vow he had made a few years before, that he would no longer kneel to the will of the gods, he would put fate in his own hands and kill the chosen king when he was the one. right time, which meant that he would have to wait patiently until the chosen king was strong enough to transcend mortality and pass the time.

Auden continued to spread the blanket of stars throughout the earth, but his main goal now was to plan and wait patiently for the future. He watched from afar as Noctus, the chosen king, was born within the limits of insomnia, but when the doctors turned 20 it was time to put his plan into action. His initial step was to guide Noctus in his quest to fulfill his destiny and achieve this Arden. convinced that I would like to implement a rather diabolical plan that revolved around capturing the crystal under the illusion of peace. Auden proposed that the Empire corner King Regis and reveal to him how deep his influence was upon learning of his proposal.

Regis knew he couldn't win the exchange, his timing was close and very strange and he anticipated that Regus would secretly snap Noctus out of insomnia in hopes of avoiding the bloodshed that would follow, in fact, just before the invasion. Arden met with the doctors, he had the golden key and to make sure that Noctus followed the path of his choice, he had forbidden any ship from leaving for Artesia before nonchalantly introducing himself and giving him an ascension coin from the Oracle in a rather ironically as Noctis continued forward. Autumn was there to show him the way and offer assistance and advice. all in the name of increasing Noctis' strength in the early stages of this mission, Aden took a more passive role influencing events to ensure that the Empire behaved enough to allow Noctis to proceed as planned, but when arrived on Artesia, Aden decided to be much less subtle with his motivations upon realizing that Noctis simply wasn't strong enough, but Aden decided to provide additional motivation by assassinating the Oracle of his time.

Luna Freya struck with all her strength right in front of her eyes. She undertook this action with little remorse. Maluna phrase. and the actions resonated with the man that Aden had once communed with the gods, she knew of Muhammad's plan and as such knew of Aden's suffering and in her final moments Luna hoped to remind Aden where she came from, but also what he was working towards. but she had the opposite effect. Aden became enraged and punched Luna Freya before proceeding to hunt down Noctis to end this here and now, gods be damned and poetic justice be damned.

Aden would take revenge immediately and also thought that he was coming in disguise. He hoped to clean up the riffraff before dealing with Noctus, but after the ravers discovered his ruse, Aden decided to be more direct until Ravus thwarted him again, giving Ignace time to escape and place Lucy's ring on his hand. . He didn't look with Glee because he knew that only those who were worthy could wear the ring, but after witnessing Lucy's eyes, the acceptance of Ignis Auden's happy behavior changed significantly, things had escalated in a way he hadn't expected, although The resulting fight was calming. and allowed Arden to return to a more serene state, this gave him the foresight to return to his original plan of savoring the night as his death, so he retreated ready to push Noctis once again to transcend mortality, although first with some cruel modifications.

Had Ravus been considered a punishment for his betrayal, he then separated Prompto from the group and goaded Noctis to find him with a grunted eeeh before being thrown out by Shiva while there toughening Noctus before leaving the final pieces of the puzzle, all at the expense of Ravis, someone who despite having similarities in their plight, Aden had little sympathy for even turning him into a demon to show how much contempt he now harbored for the man he also believed should have been chosen to save us and with a strange idealismand then changing. to a demon to you as thanks for his contribution, the way was clear for Noctus to enter the crystal and become the worthy adversary that Odin had been waiting for all these years for the next 10 years free of kings and the Adam of Oracle he was free to spread his illness and plan how he could torment Noctus upon his return.

This saw him settle in Crown City when doctors appeared 10 years later. Aden was one of the first to greet him when he returned to insomnia by hitting Noctus with mental Barb, he hoped. He would dig a way to make it unstable, unfortunately for Arden, although the gods were in no mood to play and destroyed the wall he created so Noctis could continue unharmed. His initial plan was later foiled. Aden had taken us down fighting his ancestors, including the founder King and his brother Somnus, who was now a corrupted soul that Aden could command and his latest fun tactic was to have Luna Freya Reedus Nix bodies and ideas displayed on chains for his amusement.

None of this fazed Noctis, though Arden was ultimately glad The Chosen One was worth his time. It was time for the Battle of Kings to begin. A burning hope that he would prevail by striking the gods and ridding them of his favorite bloodline. Arden, although unable to escape the fate that had been preordained, became the sacrificial lamb. The chosen king was victorious and he along with Arden were defeated, which meant that the line of the loosest ones came to an end and Arden was finally able to realize the peace he had longed for before going mad and thus concludes Arden's story. like Oona, the main one.

For me, the antagonist of Final Fantasy 15, Arden is one of the most unique characters to ever exist within the Final Fantasy franchise. I mentioned in the introduction that there has been a trend towards more sympathetic antagonists and Arden certainly fits within that character trope, but what makes it strange. And the only thing is how much they were able to expand on what happened before his fall from grace. We'd seen something similar with Caius and Sephiroth, but with Aden they took it much further, which meant that even though his appearance in the main game was perhaps not the strongest in isolation across the expanded works of the universe.

Final Fantasy 15, we got to see a character that had so many layers and those layers were

explained

, they even made the effort to demonize his brothers so we could get to I see Arden as a protagonist for a short period of time and after seeing all of this It's easy to see why Arden ended up losing his mind despite being able to contain the demons. Within him he was simply pushed too far bound by superior beings who cared little for the whims of mere mortals in many ways. Auden is still very different from lightning, both were trying to fight against the destiny that had been assigned to them. by higher powers, the difference was that while Autumn was largely alone in this fight, the lightning had friends to share the burden with and allies among the gods who tipped the scales in her favor, oh how different they could have been. things if somnus had simply sided with his brother, the only disappointing thing is that due to the number of cooks they've had in the kitchen, elements of Aden's story ended up becoming disjointed, but it's still coherent enough to make it a good adventure, but yes, but that little analysis is out of the way.

This marks the end of this Final Fantasy 15 origins video. Thank you all so much for watching. This was our first foray into Final Fantasy 15's story within our origin series, and honestly, it was a lot of hard work because of all the inconsistencies they have now. was featured, it was hard to decide exactly how I wanted to portray things but I hope you enjoyed it but we'd love to hear what you think so let us know in the comments how you felt about the video if you did. so far, give yourself a pat on the back in the comments as a badge of honor and if you enjoyed it, which we hope you did, hit the like button, share the video with everyone you know who loved Final Fantasy 15 and if you haven't already, subscribe to our channel and be sure to tell us what others mean to you as a character.

I just want everyone to know that your support means a lot to us, it means we can continue producing these. videos and we would love to have you along for the ride. Our Patreon supporters give us so much stability that allows us to try new things and have fun experimenting. You could support Lauren and me for just $1 a month. However, we have other levels available. For $5 a month you can get access to behind-the-scenes content where we talk about the creation of these types of videos. We also have exclusive Patreon activity, feed a Discord server, and recognition for all your support at the end of our videos.

Very good guys, thank you. So much for joining me on this deep dive into the law of Final Fantasy 15, we'll dive back into it very soon, but for now this is Daryl signing off. I'll see you all next time for more Final Fantasy videos.