Heart of Sabik EXPLAINED! (Final Fantasy XIV Lore)

Patch 6.4 in Final Fantasy XIV finally gave us some answers about one of the game's biggest mysteries -- the Heart of Sabik! Here's everything we know about the stone and speculation on where the story could go beyond Endwalker and into 7.0!
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[@wyvernlord23]

We REALLY shouldn't have let Claudien keep the freaking SOUL COURRUPTING NUCLEAR WEAPON....just a thought.

[@StoutHelm]

THIS WAS MY REACTION WHEN PLAYING. I was like…. We’re just gonna let him TAKE it?

[@acgearsandarms1343]

So long as it isn’t active or used, just examined, I think it can be left with him. But yeah, needs precautions.

[@the_starweaver_2024]

Nidhogg's eyes 2.0....

[@coyoteseattle]

What could possibly go wrong?

[@crowdemon_archives]

To be fair, WoL isn't exactly a good candidate either 😅 (We don't need another Zenos, thanks)

[@jaypro6269]

One thing that I am curious about is it's name. Prior to the end of the Pandaemonium raid, we could only speculate about the stones origins. And, presumably, it's name was derived from those origins. But we now know that isn't the case. So why name it Sabik? Sabik is actually a real star, and is part of the constellation Ophiuchus, which is Zodiark. This revelation seems to indicate a connection to Zodiark long before his actual creation. After all it was Lahabrea who created Zodiark's concept. So there is something there that we are unaware of at the moment. And the connection between Zodiark and Ultima's "rivalry" from XII isn't lost either.

[@zeekfarrongaming5302]

I noticed too that a lot of Athena’s attacks mirror the same effects and style that Ultima the High Seraph uses in her boss fight. She even has identical minions that ultima had with her.

[@StoutHelm]

Same incantation for Ultima that Lahabrea uses too.

[@vita2831]

The track for P12S phase 2 is just a recreation of Ultima's theme.

[@Sneedmeister]

and the Savage version of the fight sees Athena using the Heart while the Ultima theme plays

[@acgearsandarms1343]

Are you referring to Theos’ Ultima?

[@thew00dsman79]

@@StoutHelm I even made some videos about that!

[@kagamine14]

Hrmm so I want to lay a few references to xii that might influence my hopes for the heart of Sabik. Firstly all the ascians titles are based off the “Scions of Light” which are sort of the reflections of the Espers, which are dutifully named “scions of darkness.” Meaning Zalera’s counterpart is Emet-Selch, the angel of truth. Hashmal is Fandaniel, the Protector exc. also all of the ascian glyphs actually take a piece of the esper glyphs of their respective esper. While in the xiv cannon we actually do have auricite recreations of all the espers, so a 1:1 context is not applicable. But there are two espers that actually don’t have a counterpart. Zodiark and Ultima the high seraph. They’re not counterparts of each other either! Judging by how important every other esper, or rather their scion of light counterpart is + Zodiark. I am 100% confident that the Heart of Sabik will play a major role in the story of some fashion. Ultima is “alien” to etherys at least the heart of Sabik is. If we expand the lore of the espers, they were created by the Occuria, a very ancient and powerful/omnipotent race. They used the espers to execute their influence over history and destiny. I don’t think XIV will take this omnipotent approach if they do put in the Occuria, especially because I see the amaurotines fulfilling this role narratively. I mean an ancient race that creates life/monsters/constructs through magic all for the sake of their home kind of sounds like a retread to me. I… completely lost my train of thought, but I do believe that ultima is a weird exception to how they’ve treated every other esper lore in xiv, so I truly believe they’re going to be building something out of it. Ultima gave humanity the other auracites too, and she’s not really benevolent. Perhaps she is a corruptor and was cast to etherys as punishment, but in xiv lore I’m imagining more of a shot out from a different planet vs casting down from the heavens.

[@jvstice56]

My belief is that we'll be getting a call to Old Sharlayan at some point either in 7.0 or 8.0's post expansion content, most likely frantic ones as Claudien's gone missing once again, being influenced by the Heart of Sabik. Hopefully, we stop him in time before he goes fully insane given the events of Pandaemonium. If it were up to me, I'd bring it to the Ultima Thule then toss it into the horizon never to be seen again. Auracite's dangerous even at the simplest form, something as potent as that damnable stone would leave naught but ash in its wake.

[@Lyu-Phy]

We saw how well throwing away stuff works out (welcome to the eyes of Nidhogg). Nah the only real solution is destroying it completely or locking it away in maximum security.

[@FtanmoOfEtheirys]

But then you would have a starship full of Laporrits who may start worshipping Athena and use their creation magicks to erase the WOL for attempting to cast away "their god" lol. I wonder if the Laporrits, being a creation of Venat, have the same protection from aethereal corruption like the WOL does?

[@DamianRavenhold]

While Im certainly not smart enough to predict how the Heart of Sabik could impact future storylines. I can easily see how the High Seraph being confirmed as extra dimensional being where the next 10 year arc leads to. I mean with us defeating what is without a doubt the most powerful threat in our dimension, there is really only one place to go. Another dimension, or multiple fuck lets get wild

[@acgearsandarms1343]

If anything nasty comes from the depths of the seven hells, we can do what they did in II. Use Ultima and it’s convenient it’s in the Heart.

[@Kyzoren]

With us having been to space, Auracite probably being alien related (an alien's Materia perhaps?), Athena & Valens essentially being two halves of Hojo from FFVII, the relevance of the Ultima Weapons, and us hopping into the G-Warrior once more during that latest Tataru quest, I'm gonna assume they're prepping us for Jenova as a new threat (also Gundam, but I don't know enough to be certain on that one)... And going with this, I think it could recontextualize/specify what exactly Meteion saw out in space... Seeing a bunch of dead and dying worlds would be depressing, don't get me wrong... but it shouldn't be enough to wish all life be wiped out so it doesn't suffer...

[@msaag5490]

The fact we didn't take the Heart of Sabik with us, and have it mentioned to be sealed away makes it feel like it will be one of the major incidents for a future expansion. That along with whatever the ending of the alliance raid will be. They setting up what could be a Crystal Tower level of payoff in the future.

[@TitanDraugen]

It's possible that they're saving the Heart of Sabik for a future expansion. We have yet to go to Meracydia after all.

[@TheDarkThunder]

When Meteon(s) first made contact with us, I thought she found Jenova.

[@StoutHelm]

She might have. I wouldn’t be surprised.

[@aaronlefebre5060]

To be fair, the High Seraph more or less is a stand in for Jenova as far as Etheyris is concerned. Alien woman with a penchant for corrupting and consuming the planet they land on, and twisting the inhabitants for her goals? Yup, that's Jenova's MO right there! Ultima even got herself a Sephiroth, to boot!

[@Lyu-Phy]

@@aaronlefebre5060 I think Meteion was just the beginning considering how Ultima is way more like Jenova. Now we can get all kinds of threats, especially otherworldy ones from space. If there is one thing Final Fantasy and JRPG's love it's the alien factor.

[@steakdriven]

Yeah I thought the poor girl was going to get eaten by some kind of space alien

[@NiCeNuKNaN]

The Heart of Sabik maybe become the new key point to the new saga of the 10 long-years story. Someone take it, use it and try to do something villainly. In the end, the heart is destroyed.

[@aaronlefebre5060]

Despite Pandemonium being a FF2 reference, the plot is almost FF7 in disguise. We have an alien woman (Jenova/Ultima) coming from outer space to consume the Lifestream of a world (Gaia/Etheyris), fighting against an ancient people (Cetra/Ivalicians), and gets a hold of an agent to do her bidding (Sephiroth/Athena) who ends up having an angelic god form the party has to beat to save the day. All because of a black rock (Black Materia/The Heart of Sabik).

[@PetarBladeStrok]

DOPE video! BTW Auracite can pull the essance of living people too. Hence how Emerald Weapon pulled the essance of Gaius despite Gaius still being alive!

[@StoutHelm]

Thank you, and great point!

[@fuma5354]

I think the stones can make simulations of people. The legatus had an auracite black box in their armors to train garleans. Naels soul is forever corrupted and tied to bahamuts aether that is abundant in eorzea. That energy will keep sephirothing her images. I bet if you used creation magic to make nael and its exposed to the orange crystals from bahamut, she will possess it and be reborn

[@TheNeoVariable]

My theory is that the heart that Claudien has is only a piece of what Thordan cut through and we'll end up finding the other pieces. It would be interesting if we end up having to use the spell and something from within (something new entirely) get's unleashed.

[@crazy13alex]

I seriously doubt Thordan *could* cut through the Heart of Sabik.

[@StoutHelm]

If Lahabrea couldn’t destroy it, I doubt Thordan could.

[@shinji200489]

As with any good mystery, the answers to it raise even more questions and mysteries for us to investigate and solve

[@StoutHelm]

Right on, agreed

[@DoctorPlato]

Fantastic video as always. I'm so excited to see where they go with this. Makes me wonder if any more quests are going to get the CT treatment and become mandatory at some point.

[@StoutHelm]

Thank you. And they should. I know they probably want to avoid rail roading but everyone should be doing the normal raids. They’re easy and have a lot of tie ins.

[@dusky6484]

I literally googled the heart the other week bc I wanted to know more about it! thanks for your video :D

[@StoutHelm]

Glad I could help!

[@iamonthetube]

Nobody does it like Stout. LOVE this vid. Touched on a few things at the end that other theorists just arent and I appreciate that

[@StoutHelm]

Thank you king, this comment made my morning!

[@mindfighter1]

Love the explanation and speculations on the Heart of Sabik. I just wish the Tower of Babil that was playing in the background wasn't such a short section of the music. I was expecting the pattern to change but it never did, which annoyed me as a musician and composer. Most people probably didn't notice though, so consider it a fringe critique.

[@StoutHelm]

I appreciate the feedback. I used the Remix Tool to extend the track to the desired length, but all it did was mix that short section over and over after the initial run. Not happy with the result but I was so focused on adjusting my voice over that I didn’t really notice. I’ll make sure this doesn’t happen with future videos.

[@michaelb.2892]

Awesome video!! I hope this has some use in the upcoming expansion. Maybe it gives us power to be able to Traverse the other shards

[@StoutHelm]

Thank you! And I’m sure you could do a lot with it!

[@kimaclaret]

Appreciate the video, and so quickly. I forgot about a lot of the Ivalice stuff 😂 I can't wait to see this come back into the story in the future, and I couldn't begin to tell you how they'll do it.

[@StoutHelm]

This is something we’ve been waiting years for, I have been frothing at the mouth to talk about it. Haha

[@tvdinner1986]

I see the Auracite/HoS as being analogous to the Black Materia from FFVII: A dark crystal containing immensely powerful magicks.

[@twotoned_echos]

Inb4 the Black Auracite is Jenova's dandruff

[@Taresh084]

Okay, now I want a Jenova raid series

[@MericamFFXIV]

Another banger from my favorite FFXIV creator! 🎉🎉

[@shimogane2474]

omfg mikoto is looking exactly like my own WoL character, thats wild

[@abbottone]

I feel I NEED these videos, because I get lost.

[@StoutHelm]

That’s why I always try to research even further when I write these. And even then, there are little details I miss too!

[@rhaganadoomslayer]

OMFG I'm not the only one who thought the Heart is Jenova or Jenova like.

[@pokemondude45]

It'd be hype if the heart somehow ties in to whatever leads us to Meracydia. And so long as the heart is still in vulnerable hands (I mean hell, Claudien already got brainwashed once into taking it from Azys Lla), there's always the chance shit is about to go down when that thing activates again. Claudien's desire to study it further may very well already be the heart taking control of those desires again. One thing I'd like to point out though is if this might be related to Urianger and Thancred. After the 6.4 dungeon, the following cutscene has Urianger speak of the duo's next assignment and how their "client" needed Archons of neutral stance from Sharlayan. I wouldn't be surprised if it was to keep tabs on Claudien's research on the Heart. But man, we just gotta wait and see where Yoshi'll be taking us next. Also side note, like the mention of Terra from FF9. They definitely pulled the plot elements from that as inspiration for the Rejoining. Super ancient civilization met with calamity, and it's only recourse to sacrifice worlds in the hopes of preventing further destruction or in the case of the Ascians, bringing back the world they once had.

[@LMMotoss]

I’m an Ivalice Enjoyer, so I would love for the Heart to lead us to a further exploration of that pantheon. Not only the Lucavi, who we’ve seen several members of in FFXIV, but also the Espers, whose counterparts the Convocation of Fourteen derive their names from. There is a foundational connection between all the Ivalice lore and FFXIV lore as a whole, that much is clear. I just want more of it

[@Jasepo]

It would be nice an expansion related to the Heart's creators and how to travel to other reflections

[@RyanHarris77]

I’ve been wondering about this since 2018 when I first started playing.

[@pimsutter]

That is a really hard to think where this will lead. I think they will try mixing the story of 7, 9, 10 and maybe 16 for the next expansion.

[@klcpm]

Funny seeing this now after playing through Dawntrail and your mention of FFIX 🤭

[@Darrel_B]

I've watched this video a number of times. Love the work, my dude. I would suppose for the future (if Matsuno returns to write for the game) that with the Garlean Empire defeated, Dalmasca and Bozja can be restored. I imagine a further conflict for them is the resurrection of Ultima by the Sect of Germonique lead by someone claiming to be St Ajora reborn. If Ultima's physical form was created by "wishing" (creation magicks) then perhaps stealing the heart of Sabik and using it to resurrect or re-create Ultima is not that far-fetched. The sect possessed the knowledge of using the Auracite as seen by the Bozja skirmishes/Critical Engagements so I reckon there's basis there. If a candidate for resurrecting Ultima survives, it'd be one of the remaining Ascians on the 1st we have yet to encounter. Again, this all depends on Matsuno, I think. Continuing this story any further would firmly put it into side content unless the succession battle in Tural has a secret for us....

[@Von223]

This video helps me not feel so crazy!!!

[@kataku8609]

Crazy theory: Someone will either merge/eat the hearth of Sabik OR the Hearth of Sabik is actually an egg. And now without Athena's hold on it, the creature inside can hatch. Probably villain, dunno.

[@CrystalPrelude]

I tell you my dream idea. The Heart of Sabik becomes a class quest for the BLM. Once you get it, you get the spell, Ultima. Or maybe Demi Ultima? Or they could change the LB3 to it.

[@josephgregorowicz5135]

Where to begin.... The first time the term "auricite" was used, to my knowledge, WAS in FFT. The final boss of the RTI raid is St Ajora, not "ah-HOR-ah". and "Altima", not "Ultima". Two different things. While yes, the Ranza in the raid series is a member of a Garlean Troupe, it is discovered that his father is actually Alazlam Durai, the decendant of Oran Durai, the one who chronicled the story of FFT (who was executed as a heretic for doing so). The same one who narrates the start of FFT. This raid series is a direct tie in to Ivalice, and Fran's presence kinda confirms this. How, you ask? Not sure. But my theory is that the events of FFT happened during FFXIV's mysterious 4th Astral Era. Why do I speculate this? The fall of the Allegan Empire led to those survivors going back to simpler times, and avoiding technology, with religion even making a comeback. This is reflected in FFT with machines from "long ago" being "found" beneath Gaug, which would make sense, as if the Allegan Empire proceeded this, the earth would have swallowed much of it up, as well as any "auricite" that existed during that time.

[@StoutHelm]

Altima is an Ascian, though it is a reference to esper Ultima the High Seraph from XII.

[@thew00dsman79]

Matsuno himself has stated that Ivalice in FFXIV isn’t the same as Tactics/XII, and he wrote both, so I’m inclined to agree

[@jeanerick8583]

Hello 7.0 msq story . The Heart of Sabik

[@alexandraslankard5032]

Keep the videos coming!

[@StoutHelm]

Trying my best!

[@alexandraslankard5032]

Thanks for the content!

[@StoutHelm]

Welcome!

[@exodosthesoulbanish]

Gerolt gets his hands on and is like "aight I'll see what I can do WoL" thus causing Rowena to take over the world.

[@Josua070]

Maybe... It came from Ivalice? Like, the original Ivalice from the original timeline instead of the one from FFXIV? Space-Time got wonky when the Heart of Sabik came from there some time after FF Tactics ended (Or was it the War of the Lions or something, point is, after the finale with the Durai Papers got revealed or something)...

[@gratuitouslurking8610]

Ah yes, time to watch this and then enjoy a big fat taco.

[@StoutHelm]

That’s two references to tacos. What did I miss?

[@Archris17]

@@StoutHelm The song for the weapon series. The lyrics are, "Beat, the Heart of Sabik, the Heart of Sabik, the Heart of Sabik," but because of how it was sung, a LOT of people misheard it and memed it into, "Big fat tacos, o big fat tacos, o big fat tacos, so big."

[@mizuwisver9141]

Another incredible video!

[@StoutHelm]

Thank you so much, glad you enjoyed it!

[@ViewTube_Emperor_of_Mankind]

It is the forbidden popsicle

[@johnsaunders7257]

Sounds like dawntrails electrope 🤔

[@rafagd]

I'm fairly confident Athena (or whatever was left of her without the memories) IS Ultima the High Seraph.

[@steakdriven]

Okay here's a silly answer. The warrior of light use it to make a necklace for Y'shtola.

[@WalkerRileyMC]

I think the only loose thread left is where the rest of the sundered ascians are.

[@DonPetexX]

The moral of the story from this raid, ivalice and Bozja is very simple. Don't do auricite kids.

[@StoutHelm]

Auracite is the gateway to bad stuff

[@RyanHarris77]

I would not be surprised if it’s central to the 7.x msq.

[@hellgorama]

After finishing secrets of the twelve alliance raids, I think I know where she got the heart. *spoilers* At the end of the raid series, we learn a thing or 2 about the twelves’ lives when they were still ancients. One of them - rhalgr actually worked together with venat to destroy an auricite asteroid that was going to hit eitherys.

[@dafire9634]

Cool video man

[@StoutHelm]

Thanks homie

[@oriongold395]

Who or what is this Sabik that this Heart belongs to?

[@GrayNotGrey_]

Love the video but might want to add EW normal spoilers in either the title or start of the video just to be safe!

[@StoutHelm]

Appreciate it! You can’t do the Pandemonium raids without finishing 6.0 MSQ first so I figured that was a given.

[@Celis.C]

What's gonna happen to the Heart of Sabik? It'll probably ... keep on beating.

[@jasyn5667]

I think the aliens are coming back for their rock.

[@banzai0905]

all i know is that the heart of sabik is what fuels to make tacos.

[@derpy_mushroom531]

My theory is that nothing is gonna happen with it for another decade 😂😂😂😂

[@medigoomnis]

When your pronunciations are so bad it's hard to figure out what you're talking about, it's time to google.

[@StoutHelm]

Liking your own comment is hilarious. Which ones did I get wrong chief?

[@acgearsandarms1343]

I’ve learned recently that one of the reasons the High Seraph comes is due to high amounts of bloodshed, hence her title as the Angel of Blood. I have to wonder if I’m certain periods of time before her imprisonment that high death tolls in large scale wars ever brought her to interact with people. We know how bloody the campaign of the Allagan Empire was. But I have to wonder about the time in the Unsundered world. How Athena came into contact with the auracite. Was it Ultima herself before she became sentient or just her influence. Before becoming the High Seraph, I do think she was just a factor of the universe. Like a cosmic entity meant to make auracite and destroy stuff, but that could be stepping into eldritch god levels of speculation. While not absolute proof, the savage content has some details that are hard to ignore.

[@StoutHelm]

The savage details are always hit or miss on whether they fit into the canon. That’s why I didn’t dive in to them here. But I think you could be on to something with how Ultima started and eventually evolved. Interesting note about the Angel of Blood title. Thank you for sharing.