One of those reflections—the one nearest to the Source—is our home. And we were the heroes blessed with Her Light. But not all worlds hold Light and Dark in equal measure. In ours, the power of Light was greater by far. So the Ascians who once threatened our home were no match, and they fell before us, one after another, till none were left. Victory, we thought...
...And then came the Light—a flood of pure, blinding radiance, annihilating shadow and color and life itself. Ere long, it will consume our world, leaving naught in its wake but blank perfection.
The First, more specifically its region of Norvrandt, is the setting of the Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers expansion, and the world from which the Warriors of Darkness hail. It is one of the reflections of the Source.
History[]
Before the events of Final Fantasy XIV[]
Sundering and creation[]
Originally one world known as Etheirys, the planet was wracked by the Final Days, which caused the world's inhabitants to lose control of their creation magicks. The Convocation of Fourteen put a stop to the event by summoning the dark primal Zodiark, sacrificing half of the world's population to do so. Upon seeing the land was left uninhabitable, the group further sacrificed half of their remaining people to allow the realm to heal and new life began to sprout. With more sacrifices of that new life planned to resurrect their sacrificed brethren, an opposition group summoned the light primal Hydaelyn to put Zodiark in check. In the process Hydaelyn sundered the world into fourteen pieces, a fragment of Zodiark within each, forming the Source and its thirteen reflections and effectively creating the world of the First.
Ascian influence and the Flood of Light[]
After many years civilization in the First recovered, at perfect reflection of the Source from the moment of division with the same races despite different names. But the First was set apart from the Source in having a different history and set of world cultures, and that time moves faster when compared to the Source. The Ascians, a secret society that worshiped Zodiark and wished to see him once again whole, started exerting their influence on the world. Their plan was to cause a rejoining by suffusing the reflections with particular aether aspects while causing a calamity of the same aspect in the Source, causing the aether of the reflection to be absorbed back into the Source, destroying the reflection while restoring a part of Zodiark. Taking their failure in The Thirteenth into account, Loghrif and Mitron were tasked to orchestrate an atone the world towards light aether without tipping the balance too far. But the plan goes array when Cylva did not fall at the hands of the world's Warriors of Light, who then proceeded to defeat the Ascians. This initiated a Flood of Light and transformed Mitron into Eden, the first sin eater.
Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward[]
The First was saved by the timely intervention of Minfilia Warde, who traveled to the First from the Source to halt the Flood before it would consume Norvrandt, with the light-blasted wasteland surrounding it becoming known as the Empty. Beings afflicted by the light were transformed into sin eaters, which continue to plague the remaining denizens. Eventually, Emet-Selch orchestrated the birth of Vauthry to take advantage of the light-blighted world to establish an Eight Umbral Calamity in the Source. Although the Flood was halted, the First has since then been constantly under everlasting light, and night sky has not been seen since then.
Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers[]
A century after Minfilia stopped the Flood in the First, the Crystal Exarch summoned the Scions of the Seventh Dawn members from the Source, including the Warrior of Light, to destroy the Lightwardens and avert the Source's Eight Umbral Calamity, and the rejoining of the First into it. As the first Lightwarden was defeated, the Warrior absorbed its light and as a result, the night sky returned to the region of Lakeland for the first time in a century. The inhabitants of Crystarium took this as a sign that a hero from a legend, the Warrior of Darkness, had come.
The defeat of the first Lightwarden alerted Vauthry, and he saw its defeat as threat to his power over sin eaters, as he believed the world's only salvation lies in the order he brings. The Crystal Exarch openly defied Vauthry and this caused Crystarium and Eulmore to be drawn into a conflict. As Crystarium held off against Vauthry the Scions and the Warrior traveled across Norvrandt to defeat the remaining Lightwardens. After defeating the fourth Lightwarden, they learned the final Lightwarden was located in Eulmore, and to their horror they discovered the Lightwarden was Vauthry himself. Despite this, he was defeated, but after the Warrior absorbed his Light, the amount of absorbed Light became too much for the Warrior to bear, and he was about to be transformed into a sin eater. The Crystal Exarch, revealed as G'raha Tia, attempted to draw all the light into himself and then exile himself into a rift between worlds, where the Light cannot harm anyone or anything. Emet-Selch thwarted the plan and invited the Warrior to meet him underneath the waters of the Tempest. Thanks to the Oracle of Light, Ryne, the Warrior's condition was stabilized for a time.
Within Tempest, the Scions discovered the ruins of ancient Amaurot, the capital city of an ancient civilization that inhabited the unsundered world before the Sundering. There, the Scions encountered Emet-Selch who was eventually defeated, and with his defeat, the primordial light was banished from the First, and night returned.
Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker[]
The Warrior visited the First to learn the true cause of the Final Days. By talking to Elidibus still sealed within the Crystal Tower, the Warrior was sent back into the past into Elpis, within the unsundred world.
After the Final Days were averted, the now disbanded Scions came into conflict with Golbez, a powerful voidsent from the Thirteenth. He used the aether of the great wyrm Azdaja and the residual aether of Zodiark to create Zeromus, a voidsent with a desire to tear down the barrier between the Source and the Thirteenth. Since Zeromus was too powerful to be directly harmed, Y'shtola Rhul claimed it could be made vulnerable with resplendent Light, which she believed can be acquired from the First.
Behind the scenes[]
The planet seen during Eden's Eternal Breath.
The animation for Eden's Eternal Breath shows a planet from space. This does not appear to be a literal view of the the First from afar, however, as the Flood of Light halted the flow of aether, and the planet shown in Eternal Breath has water.