(05-30-2015, 11:52 PM)Flashealer Wrote: -How important are the God of Twelve in FFxiv? In Dofus lore/rp the Twelve are major, cant seem to find much about the 12 in Eorzea however
The Twelve play varying roles of importance depending on who you're talking to in Eorzea. Overall, the Twelve were believed to be divine beings of immense power before a time known as the Dawn of Eras, an estimated 10,000 years ago. Some are accredited with creating life on Hydaelyn - the planet - while others are merely watchful guardians. The Twelve are only worshiped in Eorzea, not the rest of the world, and even in Eorzea, some are worshiped more than others. Nald'thal, for instance, is the patron deity of Ul'dah and its sister and mother nations Sil'dih and Belah'dia. While in Limsa Lominsa, seafarers are more like to worship Llymlaen.
While the Twelve are often credited with making life possible on Hydaelyn, (namely Nymeia, Althyk, and Llymlaen) Eorzeans do not believe in "Creationism" but believe that the current Races of Man evolved from an ancient common ancestor that was born of Hydaelyn. There's a lot of interesting evolutionary debate that many Naturalists deem farfetched - like Miqo'te having a common ancestor in the Coeurls or Elezen having evolved from Hyur... not Hyur evolved from Elezen...
Only the Beast Tribes believe they were created by Gods, but they do not believe in the Twelve, they believe they were created by Primals - Terrestrial Deities born of the Twelve and of Hydaelyn.
So as you can see there's a lot of mythology and mystery surrounding these ancient gods, but one thing all the stories have in common is that the Twelve once lived in harmony among each other, wandering and creating life on Hydaelyn. When Man first came to Eorzea - the land of the Gods and birthplace of the world - it was a harsh, unforgiving land and the Gods took pity on Man and began to favor them and watch over them. Until the Gods began to bicker amongst themselves and eventually waged war upon each other. (According to the Moogles over a glass of wine.) Eventually the Gods went into eternal slumber and Man was left alone to watch over themselves, so began the Dawn of Eras. There have been seven cycles of Astral and Umbral eras since.
Each god or goddess has its own lore, who worships them, what element they represent, etc. The lore behind each one is way too long to list out here, so I'll link a few good references:
-The Twelve
-Mercurias' Twelve Lore
-Azurymber's 1.0 Lore Guide
Hope this helps as a general overview! Lemme know if you have any questions about any of the Twelve specifically and I can try to answer those in more detail! ^^ One thing to note is that an Eorzean can choose to worship one, many, none, or all of the Twelve depending on their own belief system.
