Gelmorra - Secrets of Ancient Eorzea

Of all the fallen civilizations that scatter our land, most of us know least about the Gelmorrans. Let's remedy that!
This video extensively contains my own commentary and editing and is intending for educational purposes.

[@Saphir__]

It's good that someone finally acknowledged the Duskwight race. So much in the game shines a spotlight on the Wildwood when the majority of Gridania is littered with Diskwright ruins. The giant mountainous region west of central shroud is perhaps the most mysterious region in the game other than the anomaly in Mor Dhona with a Dalamud fragment in the center.

[@The_Supervillain]

As a Duskwight player I super appreciate this. It's nice to hear you elaborate on the lore-to-be and the current state of my favorite FF race. I'm really hoping we get a lot more Duskwight lore in general with all the content coming this summer.

[@RaysofLight98]

* makes a duskwight * * a full year later actually looks into Gelmorra *

[@TarossBlackburn]

This is an interesting video to come back to after the current new content has gone live. You were quite right about a few predictions here, and I am amused that you actually had a picture of the Padjal in charge of the expedition into the Palace.

[@sneakyscarab]

its crazy to me as a duskwight player that 9 years and 5 expansions later this video is still basically all we know about gelmorra, with the small addition of palace of the dead.

[@jonamar3965]

Sweet vid dude. Never thought much on the topic of the origin of the races and you have definitely made me more curious about it. If you do another video like this I would love to see something on the Hellsguard Roegadyns!

[@overnightsiren]

First vid I've seen of yours and I love it! So much information on historic races in the game that I never even thought of exploring! I'm about to go explore your channel and I hope to find summaries of all the ancient races/civilizations!

[@GrayveStone]

Really neat stuff! I'm looking forward to see what parts of Gelmorra open up in Heavensward. It's giving tantalizing hints, so I do hope we can explore it more.

[@Joetime90]

I'd like to hear you ramble on about the Amdapori. Go over what we know and see what else you can come up with. A refresher on the Nymians would be great as well. Or even War of the Magi itself.

[@FirestreakRodimusPr]

I picture my duskwright as the archetype 'rebel' Drow but this helps out a lot.

[@usefulenergy1898]

Again, excellent work.

[@zeranba]

rather curious about the partially opened door located in North Shroud proud creek location full of Dullahans. possibly a Gelmorrah entrance given its locations or a new dungeon at that. it also seems the Dullahans appear greatly around these old structures. given their use of dark magic combined with massive 2H swords much like a dark knight. could the Gelmorras possibly be connected to dark knights given that they could have had to turn to other sources of magics at the time given way to that class. it would give more of a story advisement for Duskwights and the perfect location for that job.

[@kevinhill8985]

If Amdapor were populated mostly by Elezen and Nym by Lalafell that sets up a nice popculture reference to LoTR with Elves not getting along with Dwarves. However to challenge your theory on Diabolos, I believe we know now it was the Mhachi of Mhach located NW of Mor Dhona that summoned him. They're also the ones that summoned the voidsent to turn the Nymians into tonberry. Part of me wonders if the Mhachi are related to the Ascians. Another part of me wonders if the Mhachi attacked both Nym and Amdapor in order to end the war between the two.

[@GeoRyukaiser]

My understanding is the the Mhachi Black Mages and Amdapor White Mages where the main instigators of the war while the Nym Scholars initially stayed out of it. I'm fairly certain the Mhachi dragged the Nym into the war but Amdapor where just as fanatical as Mhachi and where aggressive to them as well. It was also the Mhachi that summoned the voidsent that spread the poison in the Wander's Palace that turned the inhabitants into Tonberries. We know for a fact Amdapor did NOT summon Diablos as Lost City of Amdapor (Hard) takes us past the area Diablos inhabited and the secrets that lie within. More likely that the Mhachi where in the middle of a major offensive with Diablos at the head of their army, with Amdapor on the brink of defeat around the time the Elementals started their flood... a flood overcharged by the influx of Water Aether from the Rejoining orchestrated by the Ascians.

[@Tackleberry61]

We never got that West Shroud back. :( Although, there is a PVP arena that takes place in a location that was in 1.0's West Shroud.

[@Krevan44]

Reminds me of Vaati with Dark Souls. Love it!

[@overnightsiren]

I have sent this video to many friends that play Duskwight and we're all really into this series! Hoping for a Nym or comprehensive Amdapori video soon! Maybe Ala Mihgo?

[@EthysAsher]

I'm thinking to go back over the Amdapori and the War of the Magi in the next one... also I'm not done talking about Duskwight, expect a shoehorn in the near future.

[@tjpoe]

amazing knowledge of the game, I love watching your vids. /subscribed. have you ever thought of building an overall timeline of ffxiv, of at what we know. I would be cool see a visual representation of all that we know about past astral/umbral eras, etc. Anyways, keep up the good work.

[@EthysAsher]

I have definitely thought of doing an entire history from the time of the Twelve right up to the Seventh Umbral Era, yes. My only reluctance at the moment is that "what we know" is very limited and although I'm happy to make sound speculations I feel that it might become quickly redundant. The 1.0 Lodestone had a spiel RE: materia which contained the titillating "others speculate that it was born of Near Eastern wisdom that had long slumbered within the ancient tomes of the Great Library”. Now the near east is perhaps Ala Mhigo or Othard but there has been some suggestions from SE internals that Heavensward might give a physical library full of extrapolation on the history of Eorzea, probably somewhere in Ishgard. So I'm tempted to wait and see what kind of resources that offers me and then embarking on a proper series covering the entire history of Eorzea.

[@ShadyGrove14]

Very interesting info on the Duskwights. We assume the Elezan were the 1st settlers into the Shroud but what about the other races? Where could they have come from? From across the sea? What lies beyond the horizons outside Eorzea?

[@qtscorpkid]

Being amdapori would. Make sence from a stat point as duskwight are geared twards being a mage

[@TheGreatMu]

Cool video. I see you have a couple theories as to why the Duskwight appear as they do (physical appearance wise), doesn't the game's actual lore specifically state it's because they lived underground for so long? Also the original 1.0 lore stated that they moved underground because they wanted to live in peace. Could it be possible that they started moving underground while the war of magi was still going on, before the Amdapor fell? Anyways, some very cool observations and theories. Thanks for the video.

[@EthysAsher]

Jinto117 well like I say, recent data-mining seems that will get to explore just that west-shroud region verrrry soon ;)

[@vallgron]

yes very soon....

[@Realmlist]

Soon™

[@ZelothGrey]

Sooooon ™

[@daredaemon8878]

I know it's been a while since this video was released, but I hope my question will still be seen. Mild Heavensward spoilers follow, just in case anyone reading this hasn't finished the HW story yet. Much of the architecture of the pre-Thordan society that once lived alongside the Dragons seems to me to have a resemblance to the architecture of Amdapor Keep and the Lost City of Amdapor. Do you believe it's probable that the ancestors of the Ishgardians were Amdapori survivors who fled the shroud for Coerthas? If so, what do you think the odds are the Gridanians are those who left Coerthas/Dravania around the beginning of the Dragonsong war with the hope to make peace with the Elementals rather than fight an immortal foe they themselves had no quarrel with?

[@SubduedRadical]

It's possible. The fall of Amdapor (and Mhach) at the end of the Fifth Age due to the Calamity was ~1,500 years ago. The Dragonsong war began ~1,000, meaning 500 years of time for some of those fleeing Amdapor to go north and found Ishgard, initially be friendly with the dragons, and then have the falling out with them.

[@Cessija]

This video makes me want to go back to my drow looking duskwright again.

[@J4yDitto]

Hey Ethys did we ever find any more info on the galmorans?

[@SubduedRadical]

A bit: Palace of the Dead is actually part of the residential district of Gelmorra. Albeit completely topsy-turvy due to the Necromancer's magics.

[@sympathiea]

What was datamined? Because from what I can tell, the prediction about the Shroud and exploring more ancient Gelmorran/Elezen lore didn't come through. :

[@SubduedRadical]

Not sure for certain, but Palace of the Dead would be my guess.

[@johnmrke2786]

How come there's a monster from Bubble Bobble in the corner?

[@Trademark989]

So where were the Wildwood Elezen during the time the Duskwight came to be in Gelmorra? Was it just that only a fraction of the gelmorrans were duskwight?

[@EthysAsher]

I believe that the Wildwood were in Coerthas / elsewhere, the small population that survived from Amdador would become to be the Duskwight before the Hyurs and some Wildwood migrated to Gelmorra some several centuries later once it was already established and flourishing.

[@l.madrid8815]

i thought mhach sent diablos to destroy amdapori like they sent the voidsent of green death to nymb..cuz they mean

[@GeekInBelgium]

Well, the video is older than Heavensward, so older than the Void Arch raid. So no one really knew what happened ^^

[@BrysinSelim]

Wait, so the citizens of Gelmorra were essentially the Amdapori, but they then became the Duskwights after spending so much time underground. Then they made efforts to live above ground again, there by establishing Gridania. But Gridania has Wildwoods and a vast quantity of them. Wouldn't everyone be Duskwights if they're the descendants of the Gelmorrans? Gridania was established roughly 500 years ago, the Amdapori's fall was 1,500 years ago. So it basically took 1,000 years to recolor their skin and in just 500 it fixes itself? I might be missing some info or just confused with this, but something seems janky. Or i'm just being dumb, who knows.

[@AlphaKnight708]

I believe wildwoods are actually ishgardians forced to flee ishgard when the dragonsong war started. These guys met up with the hyur and founded gridania.

[@BrysinSelim]

Yeah he explains that same theory in one of his more recent vids.