Seventh Umbral Era



The Seventh Umbral era is a cataclysmic event that is prophesized to happen in the near future on Final Fantasy XIV. The entire Seventh Umbral Era subplot is being used by the develpoment team to explain in-lore several updates - such as enlarging the monsters and other events, all of which will culminate in the release of Final Fantasy XIV 2.0, as the cataclysm will eventually happen and reshape Eorzea itself, justifying the new version's updated maps. The last umbral era happened 1.500 years ago.

The Umbral Eras


The Eorzeans believe the land is always shifting from periods of abundance followed by catastrophes that bring scarcity and sometimes destroy entire civilizations. These periods, are know as the Astral (abundance) and Umbral (scarcity) eras. Information on periods prior to the Fifth Umbral Era is hard to come by, and little is known about the other eras beyond their elemental alignments and the destruction of the Allagan civilzation on the Fourth Umbral Era. Because all the six prevous Umbral eras are based on the six elements, the people of Eorzea have believed that there will be no more. But since the discovery of the 7th Verse of Mezaya's prophesy, they are instead beginning to believe in an impending 7th Umbral Era.

The elemental alignment of each Umbral Era is as follows


 * The First Umbral Era of Wind. Marked the end of the divine era and the beginning of men's age.
 * The Second Umbral Era of Lightning.
 * The Third Umbral Era of Fire.
 * The Fourth Umbral Era of Earth - Destroyed the allagan civilization.
 * The Fifth Umbral Era of Ice.
 * The Sixth Umbral Era of Water - Severe flooding caused the submersion and damage of many parts of Eorzea.

The Seventh Umbral Era
The first signs of the coming of a new umbral era came in the form of a sudden change in both monster behaviour and size. Creatures all over Eorzea became larger within days, and Dalamud itself became considerable brighter in the night sky. A prophet by the name of Urianger soon started spreading the coming of the seventh Umbral Era, and was quickly deemed an herectic by the Garlean Empire, that even sent Nael Van Darnus personally to search for him and offer rewards for his capture.

While the populace initially ignored the new prophecy, new signs didn't take long to appear, as weird weather patterns could be perceived on the world; rain became far more common even on the deserts of Thanalan, and the Black Shroud had tempests lasting for days.



While the weather has normalized after some time, Dalamud still seems to grow bigger with each passing day. Due to that, the Grand Companies of Eorzea, aided by the Garlond Ironworks and adventurers all over Eorzea, started investigating the cause of this strange phenomena. First off, they discovered the Empire is trying to accumulate high amounts of ceruleum, the substance needed for their magitek technology. After, capturing Garlean spies, the companies obtained several magitek components, sent to the Ironworks for analysis.

Putting all the pieces together, Cid Garlond came to a sinister conclusion: The Empire is planning to cast the ancient magick of Meteor, in a desperate attempt to purge it of it's Primals, a project he himself was part of before fleeing Garlemald. Further proof was obtained due to a Gridanian soldier who eavesdropped Nael van Darnus and Gaius van Baelsar discussing the use of such drastic measures. Cid also mentions that Dalamud is actually a colossal machine created by the Allagans and is not a natural moon.

Currently, what will ultimately bring the Seventh Umbral era is unknown, as it could be Meteor, the draining of Aether caused by the presence of Primals on Eorzea or another disaster altogether.

Unique Events


Each patch since 1.17 has added some sort of event related to the Seventh Umbral Era. Often, game master controlled characters such as Urianger, Nael van Darnus or journalists from the major newspapers of each city states log on near camps or in towns to discuss current events with players. With each patch, the size of Dalamud increases, and random Garlean invasions occur on several camps - fighting them on these invasions grant unique lodestone history achievements.

Other changes that happened were the removal of Thanalan's area theme on April 29, 2011, and the high occurence of rain all over Eorzea - starting at the same time in the entire world and persisting even in towns (normally not affected by any weather effect). Sometimes, the rain would go on non-stop for several real life days, mostly on The Black Shroud

Also, every quest related to the umbral era and some companies quests will become unavailable after the 2.0 update, including the current Primal battles (those will have their questlines modified), and every reward acquired on these removed events will not be obtainable again, including a special mount.