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“ | A power greater than even that of the Six, purifying all by the light of the Crystal and the glaives of rulers past. Only at the throne can the Chosen receive it, and only at the cost of a life: his own. The King of Kings shall be granted the power to banish the darkness, but the blood price must be paid. To cast out the usurper and usher in dawn's light will cost the life of the Chosen. Many sacrificed all for the King, so must the King sacrifice himself for all. Now enter into reflection that the Light of Providence shine within. | „ |
~ Bahamut's words to Noctis as they meet within the Crystal. |
“ | The Chosen's purpose is no more. Power is granted that darkness be banished and balance returned to the Star. When mortals grow arrogant, seeking to repeat blasphemies of old, no longer are they worthy wards. To cleanse the Star, all life must be swept away. So it is ordained, and so shall it be. | „ |
~ Bahamut's true intentions revealed. |
“ | One foolish act trumped by another greater still. Such havoc serves only to harm those who wreak it. Without the guidance of the Light, mankind will fail, doomed ever to repeat the cycle of folly. Always have mortals lived under patronage divine. Though guided by the Light, they war among themselves and defile the Star. How could mortals hope to survive alone in a godless world? | „ |
~ Bahamut's last words before he was destroyed by Noctis. |
Bahamut is the overarching antagonist in Final Fantasy XV. He first appears to be an ally of Noctis Lucis Caelum in the base storyline of Final Fantasy XV, but is soon revealed to be the true villain of the game's expanded universe.
He is one of the Six Astrals of Eos, representing as the God of War and is perhaps the most powerful among them, as well as the most mysterious one. He is also responsible for bestowing his powers onto the Oracle, as well as entrusting the Ring of Lucii and the Crystal to them in hopes of them to find the True King. Like the other Astrals, he is bound to protecting Eos, but he believes that sacrifices must be made for life to flourish.
Appearance[]
In contrast to many of Bahamut's appearances in other Final Fantasy games, Bahamut is depicted in Final Fantasy XV as a gargantuan human-like man wearing metallic armor reminiscence that to a dragoon, similar to the traditional dragoon armor set found in different games. He also has a tail, which is plated with the same metallic armor, as well as red ribbons attached to his back. He also has wings, which are actually made up of his swords. When Bahamut uses attacks such as Megaflare, his swords separate from his back and form around each other in a circle.
He possesses a human-like face structure underneath his helmet that covers his face, with the exception of his blue eyes, though it can be difficult to see from certain angles, due to the top of his helmet hiding it. Underneath his helmet, he possesses a face identical to Noctis and Somnus.
Personality[]
As one of the six Astrals of Eos, Bahamut oversees the planet and is bound to protect it, but unlike the other Astrals, he is very ruthless in doing so. This is evidenced in the bonus content added after release: Final Fantasy XV: Comrades, Final Fantasy XV: Episode Ardyn and Final Fantasy XV -The Dawn Of The Future-, which reveals him to be uncaring toward the individuals who are to play a part in the fate he has spelled for the planet. His attitude in both the main game and additional content paint him as a fatalist in his dismissal of an alternate solution to destroying the Scourge, to the point of an unhealthy obsession that is most fully expressed in The Dawn of the Future, where he completely abandons the salvation of Eos.
Despite having a hand in their creation, Bahamut deems humanity inherently foolish without admitting his own horrific actions or his responsibility for the events that caused such "foolishness" on their end, considering them of no more value to him than flowers; worthy of cultivation if healthy, yet perfectly willing to exterminate them all if diseased. Bahamut strictly believes in fate and those chosen by the gods are to fulfill their callings. Should those go against the fate destined to them, Bahamut will punish them for it, either through enforcement or torture. Otherwise, he will abandon it all together and punish humanity as a whole to ensure he gets what he wants.
Biography[]
War of the Astrals[]
Bahamut and the Astrals have ruled over Eos since before the beginning of time. Like the other Astrals, Bahamut is bound to protect Eos, but unlike them, he oversees all life of Eos including the Astrals. After the nation of Solheim turned against Ifrit due their hubris belief that they were superior to the gods, Ifrit, the Infernian, declares war against the people of Solheim, triggering the War of the Astrals, creating a conflict between mankind and the gods. Bahamut was one of the few gods to be involved, along the Messengers of the Astral as he battled against Ifrit and defeated him upon the Rock of Ravatogh. As the war went on, Bahamut grew tired of the conflict and desired to destroy all of life, including mankind and the gods by using Teraflare. The four other Astrals prevented this by absorbing the Teraflare, causing Bahamut to be greatly weakened and was forced to enter in a state of slumber to restore his power.
The Foundation of Lucis[]
Bahamut eventually reawakened but his power had not been fully restored for him to unleash Teraflare. During this time, a dangerous plague of unknown origin known as the Starscourge emerged and spread across the planet, destroying life and transforming humanity into monstrous creatures known as Daemons. To destroy the Starscourge, Bahamut selected two individuals whose bloodlines would play a role on ending the plague: the King of Lucis and the Oracle. The King of Lucis would serve as the destined royal bloodline that would end the Starscourge, wielding the Ring of the Lucii, while the Oracle would serve as a guide right next to the Lucian King, and that she can communicate with the Astrals and heal those that have been infected by the Starscourge. All of this would lead to the True King, the one destined to banish the darkness from the world for good.
In the meantime, Bahamut resided within the Crystal that was bestowed upon humanity along with the Ring of Lucis and the Trident. Two brothers would then be born into the world; Somnus Lucis Caelum and Ardyn Lucis Caelum, the latter who was blessed with a special healing power that allowed him to cure those from the Starscourge. These two brothers would serve as the beginning of the Lucis bloodline. When it was time to choose a king, Aera, the first Oracle chosen by the Draconian, was informed by Bahamut that he and the other gods have decided who would be the Founder King of Lucis.
Though Aera believed that Ardyn was chosen, Somnus revealed that he was actually the one chose to be king. Ardyn was rejected by Bahamut and the other gods as he had absorbed and held the Starscourge from within himself and as a result, he was betrayed by his brother who had accidentally murdered his fiancée. Somnus would then later imprison Ardyn on Angelgard when he saw that he could not be killed.
Episode Ardyn[]
Two millenia later, Ardyn would take his revenge on Somnus by attacking Insomnia and sought out to kill his descendants, starting with Regis Lucis Caelum. But before he could kill him, Bahamut prevented him from doing so, transporting him to another realm. It is here that Bahamut revealed that Ardyn was never destined to be king, but instead he was destined to become the accursed being known as Adagium, whose role is to spread the Starscourge across Eos until he is to be defeated by the True King. Ardyn was greatly angered by this revelation and how Bahamut continues to let him suffer, but Bahamut reassures him that his suffering will end when he is to face the True King in his last stand and that he will finally find his revenge. Bahamut then tells him he can defy his fate if he wishes but warns him that it will bring him unending darkness and suffering to him.
In the original canon narrative, Ardyn accepts his fate so long as he gets his revenge and see the end of the Lucis bloodline, in which Bahamut proceeds to send him off for him to fulfill his calling. Alternatively, in The Dawn of the Future, Ardyn rejects his fate, refusing to kneel before the gods. Bahamut declares him to be impudent and a foolish mortal, but Ardyn reminds him that he is no mortal, but a monster whose path is paved with blood and darkness. For that, Bahamut calls him a pitiful creature.
To punish him for his treachery, Bahamut decides to torture him by impaling him with a crystal blade. He then hangs Ardyn with his swords and conjures a vestige of Aera, who proceeds to stab him repeatedly with her Trident. Ardyn is eventually sent back to Eos after "Aera" declares that his struggles are in vain.
Final Fantasy XV[]
After Noctis is absorbed into the Crystal, he is summoned and awakened before Bahamut himself. It is from here that Bahamut reveals to him the true nature of Ardyn and that it is his calling as the True King to banish him and the darkness from Eos away by sacrificing himself, restoring light to the world. Bahamut then allows Noctis into a state of slumber for him to reflect upon his destiny for the next decade.
Over the years, Eos has fallen into darkness with the world covered in darkness and daemons run amok across everywhere. The remaining side of humanity has banded together to fight off against this evil until Noctis is awakened to fulfill his calling. During this time, members of the Kingsglaive have turned against the royal throne and so Bahamut sets out to judge those if they are truly traitorous or if they have retained their loyalty. Upon battling those in combat to test their loyalty, Bahamut sees their honor still remains as they are determined to protect Eos and so he forgives them, allowing them to set forth on Angelgard for them to guard the island until Noctis awakens.
Upon Noctis's awakening after ten years, Bahamut guides him to reunite with his Crownsguard and set forth to return to Insomina where he will battle against Ardyn and his army of daemons. Upon reaching to the Citadel, Noctis and his Crownsguard are forced to battle Ifrit, who Ardyn has summoned. After a long battle, Bahamut is eventually summoned to lend his assist in defeating Ifrit. Bahamut proceeds to cast his blades down upon him, using the Ultima Sword. Though Ifrit was able to block and evade most of his attacks, this gave Noctis the opportunity to land the final strike upon him, allowing him to defeat Ifrit.
With the defeat of Ifrit and the barrier of the Citadel destroyed, Noctis and his Crownsguard are able to confront Ardyn. After their final battle, Noctis proceeds to fulfill his calling by sacrificing himself, allowing him to enter within the realm beyond. From there, Noctis finishes off Ardyn's soul with the combined forces of the Crystal's light and the royal arms of the previous kings. As a result, both bloodlines have been sacrificed and the Starscourge has been vanquished from Eos, fulfilling Bahamut's plan.
Dawn of the Future[]
Ten years after the death of Lunafreya and Noctis's disappearance, Ardyn has allowed the Starscourge to spread its darkness across Eos, resulting in daemons appearing everywhere and leaving nothing but waste and destruction. He has become too powerful for the Ring of the Lucii to defeat. As a result of this and Ardyn defying his fate, Bahamut decides to put his plan of ending life once more into action by unleashing the Teraflare.
To do this, he decides to resurrect Lunafreya and bless her with the same power Ardyn was given when he was a healer so that she can absorb all of the darkness from the world. He reveals to her that Ardyn was originally suppose to be destroyed by Noctis, who in turn would sacrifice himself to ensure this, but because the circumstances have changed, Bahamut has decided to give her a new calling where she will be the one to defeat Ardyn. Lunafreya proceeds to carry out her new task, under the impression that this will ensure Noctis will be saved. What she doesn't know, however, is that Bahamut intends to use the darkness from her to empower the Teraflare to destroy all life on Eos.
When Lunafreya learns who Ardyn truly is and Bahamut's true intentions, she seeks out to meet with Ardyn, but rather than killing him, she wishes to form an alliance with him in hopes of defeating Bahamut. Ardyn was perplexed by this revelation as Lunafreya explains how Bahamut could not be killed and so she plans to trick Bahamut into absorbing the darkness from her to power the Teraflare, so that the Astrals would come and counter the attack, exhausting him once more into slumber. Despite this, Ardyn was not convinced and summoned the Infernian, Ifrit to battle her. Lunafreya was able to defeat Ifrit by absorbing the darkness out of him and forming a covenant, but this resulted her into fully transforming into a daemon.
When Noctis arrived to reunite with Lunafreya and confront Ardyn, he was instead confronted by her daemon self. Lunafreya proceeded to battle with Noctis. As the two battled, Bahamut's presence engaged within the throne room, as his blades struck down into the ground, declaring the True King's purpose is no more and that all life must be swept away to cleanse the star. Upon hearing this, Noctis was shocked but Bahamut gave him no time to comprehend this and instead ordered Lunafreya to unleash her power.
Bahamut then proceeded to summon miniature avatars of himself that circled around Lunafreya, preventing Noctis from reaching to her. This was to ensure the preparations of Teraflare would be done without issues. The Citadel itself was then pulled out from the ground as it reached towards the sky. With the help of his allies, Noctis was able to battle against Bahamut's avatars before eventually to reach to the top of the Citadel where he confronted Ardyn once more in a battle. Afterwards, Noctis granted Ardyn the Ring of Lucii and asked that the Kings of Yore within grant their power to him so that Ardyn may defeat Bahamut.
After giving the ring to Ardyn, Noctis continued on ahead with Gladio, Ignis and Prompto in the Citadel. Bahamut's avatars were nowhere to be seen, but instead they found Lunafreya, who was singing a song that served as a spell to empower Bahamut's Teraflare. Eventually, the darkness was stripped out of Lunafreya's body, making her fall unconscious. Twelve orbs then descended from the sky and grew bright, charging up the Teraflare. However, the five Astrals were able to prevent the Teraflare from casting down upon humanity, though they were greatly injured and fatigued in the process.
While the Teraflare was sapped, Bahamut still remained strong and powerful. Bahamut mocks the Astrals for protecting the mortal lives of humans and decides to perish them along with humanity. After Noctis saved Lunafreya and entrusted her in the care of his Crownsguard, Noctis went back ahead to finish Bahamut for good. Bahamut was impressed with his defiance, but still called him a foolish, frail creature to fight against the divine. Noctis shouted back at him, stating the power he wields is of his own and not one blessed from him. He then tells Bahamut to watch as the mortals he mocked prove to be his undoing. Noctis then proceeds to drive his blade into Bahamut's shoulder, but Bahamut swatted him away with ease. The five Astrals then remerged to provide their aid on defeating Bahamut. Together, Noctis and the Astrals worked strategically to overwhelm Bahamut.
Eventually, Noctis was able to land a blow into his mask, damaging it and revealing his face underneath. When Noctis saw Bahamut's face, he was shocked to see that his face greatly resembled his and Somnus's. This led Noctis to wonder if Bahamut had always planned Somnus to be king from the start or if it was just a major coincidence that they had look alike. Nonetheless, it was clear to him that Bahamut planned all of these events from the beginning.
Meanwhile, Ardyn had managed to reach to the realm known as the Beyond with the Ring of Lucii. There, he encountered Bahamut's spiritual self, who was displeased to see Ardyn and demanded for him to leave, stating this was no place for the Accursed. Ardyn was fully aware of this as he held forth the ring towards Bahamut and summoned the Kings of Yore, including his brother, Somnus. The kings then proceeded to launch their attack on Bahamut, destroying his armor and him before Bahamut himself could even react. Upon his defeat, Bahamut declared Ardyn was a fool and that the six Astrals will fall because of his doing, but Ardyn couldn't care less about the gods perishing, the Crystal breaking or his own soul disappearing.
With Bahamut destroyed in the Beyond, the darkness began to split and shards of the heavens rained down from the sky. Bahamut deemed that mankind will fail without the guidance of his light and that they are forever doomed to repeat their folly cycles, but Noctis merely interpreted these words as Bahamut on the verge of his death. When Bahamut asks how humanity could hope to survive by themselves in a godless world, Noctis simply tells him that mankind does not stand still and that they will always continue to move forward, with or without the gods. Noctis then proceeds to land one final blow into Bahamut, destroying him as a result. Bahamut proceeded to fall as his body faded and broke apart into tiny fragments, being vanquished for good.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- This depiction of Bahamut is the first to become outright evil without any outside influence or another antagonistic character controlling him, in a subversion of his role in the original Final Fantasy appropriate enough to have potentially made FFXV the last numbered game.
- The FFXV incarnation of Bahamut turning out to be evil has been foreshadowed subtly (and perhaps intentionally) by Noctis' pre-battle quote before fighting the Dissidia NT version.
- As with Ardyn, before his reveal to be a legitimately tragic villain, Bahamut is one of the few villains to win, at least in the game's original ending. The companion epilogue novel, "The Dawn of the Future", shows a new timeline, branching off from the end of Episode Ardyn, or the end of Chapter 13, where Bahamut's true nature is exposed before it's too late.
- Very ironically, in the new timeline, Bahamut's original goal of destroying the Scourge is still fulfilled, but through his destruction by Noctis and Ardyn using the very power he intended to use against them, with Ardyn still dying but Noctis being saved as a result.
- In regard to the possibility of the majority of DotF happening after Chapter 13, it is implied, in the "Episode Noctis" segment that Chapter 14 as depicted in the base game took place only as a dream, as something of a subversion of the "Squall is dead" theory.[1]
- His role is similar to Bhunivelze in Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. Final Fantasy XV was originally conceived as part of the Fabula Nova Crysallis series, which includes FFXIII, it's two sequels, and Final Fantasy Type-0, so this similarity may be an intentional throwback to these mythoi.
- Bahamut appeared in a more positive light in those other titles, yet now he has become like the god he helped Lightning defeat, in a dark, cruel irony.
- In Final Fantasy XV, his role of being the real reason Ardyn became so destructive and evil, and then being killed by the "monster" he created in a fitting irony, mirrors the God of War series' version of Zeus, and Ares, by extension.
- Ironically, Bahamut also has Kratos' and Ares' title of God of War, and an even worse bloodlust and appetite for destruction and murder, even if Kratos' or Kefka's was more obvious, and while Bahamut was willing to destroy the world to meet his goals, Kratos simply didn't care (initially) what happens to the world around him in his quest for vengeance.
- However, Ardyn did not have to kill all the gods like Kratos did, only Bahamut, while the other Astrals, unlike the Olympian gods, fought against their corrupt leader and accepted their resulting deaths as punishment for their complicity in Bahamut's evil ways.
- Bahamut’s stubborn fatalism and desire to control everything also makes him similar to Odin in the Norse mythology arc.
- Bahamut's desire to wipe out all life can be considered a throwback to earlier Final Fantasy villains like Zeromus, (Neo) Exdeath, and Kefka wanting to do the same thing. While his motivation is/was somewhat justifiable compared to theirs, it is ultimately overridden by the audacity of his chosen approach, his stubborn authoritarianism, and perhaps worst of all his diminishing lack of respect for human life.
- His turn to evil after being associated with the Final Fantasy heroes for so long is something akin to the original plan for Mega Man X to become evil in Mega Man Zero.
- Fittingly enough, Bahamut and Copy X are both tyrannical, hypocritical, and believe what they do is for the greater good.
- The result of magic and summons dying out with Bahamut is identical to what happened at the end of Final Fantasy VI after Kefka is killed, since he had become the "God of Magic".
External Links[]
- Bahamut on the Pure Evil Wiki.
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