The Heart Of Sabik - FFXIV Lore 

This smells of, Ultima High Seraph. Last ring of the raid even has parallel attacks and theme as well

some of the big questions left unanswered; - When did the High Seraph gained sentience? based off her TT card and irl collectable statue description, she was apparently merely an abstract concept, a symbol of ruination, with no will or thought of her own, until she gained sentience, self awareness feeding off the terrified reverence mankind had for her, not at all unlike a Primal summoning. if she somehow gained sentience before the sundering, that'd imply the high possibility Athena was given the auracite. but otherwise, if she only gained sentience after the sundering, via St. Ajora's summoning, that just leads to more question questions. - How was St. Ajora involved with the Heart and Ultima? the most obvious theory here is Lahabrea baiting them into his schemes, lending the Heart for them to use against Mullonde. but then, WHY summon Ultima? why not just cast the spell Ultima? that alone would send fear down the enemies' spine enough for them to surrender. - if you take the lyrics to Hic Svnt Leones and Scream, and take on the perspective of it about Athena's morality and sanity eroding away under the influence of the stone, then it takes on a horrific new meaning. but one particular part early on in scream has caught my intention; "O Lost Lamb, First to the Feast". would that somewhat imply that the Athena is the very first to have ever made contact to whatever weird power the stone is emanating? - in P12S, you'd notice in the background there being the body of a massive snake, neverending, possibly massive. naturally, it lives up to the Sabik namesake, the name of the constellation that makes up part of the Ophiuchus constellation, represented by the snake. this would not be the only thing having mention or relation to gigantic snake in-game; the Great Serpent of Ronka was once a destructive force in ancient times in the First before it was sealed. but the most damning mention of serpent was in the studium smithing quests; the Golden Dhyata mentions of a great serpent that "sleeps in the deep", and to stop it, "seven wedges must be driven into it's back". you will recall after beating P10N, a golden gate popped up where it fell.... containing what looks like 7 leaves or eye-like structure; the location where these "seven wedges" must be driven into? are there any relations between the High Seraph, the Heart, the Great Serpent of Ronka in the legends, and this serpent spoken of by the Golden Dhyata? as the High Seraph is described as an interdimensional traveler, were all 4 part of some much larger whole which got sundered by Venat? is that why the High Seraph came from another dimension? she was a sundered fragment from another reflection? or is there more dimensions out there BEYOND the 13 reflections of the source? - "Denizens of the abyss. From ink of blackest night". this is how the High Seraph and Athena summons their followers in battle. the Lucavi in FFXIV are basically just normal people warped by the auracite they hold, the form they take based off each individual, not on each stone. but yet, despite defeating Hashmal, Belias and Famfrit, they are summoned by the High Seraph as denizens of this "Abyss". it's evident it's not the 13th now, seeing as all three and Ultima herself are not voidsents. so; what or where is this "Abyss"? because via this incantation, it somewhat implies that all three Lucavi mentioned were not people turned by auracite, but came from the "abyss". if she possess such influence to summon them forth, why not summon Mustadio, Agrias, Cid, Argath and Yiazmat? if the Abyss is simply the aetherial sea, then why were they summoned back as Lucavi, and not in their normal forms? is that to imply that there's no turning back? - pure speculation from here on, but; what if there is some truth to some of the things Ultima, the High Seraph said in all her voiced lines? that she is the only god? that she is the mother of all creation. what if she, or possibly, whatever larger whole she was formally a part of, before she gained sentience, was some sort of primordial catalyst that lead to the creation of life in Etheirys? the auracite, while having a strong influence to living things, is not fully inherently evil, as was the case with Mustadio, Agrias and TG Cid transforming into Lucavi. rather than corrupt the individual, what if the actual power of the auracite is to drive organisms to ascend to greater heights? to push a single cell organism to go beyond it's limit becoming a multi-cell organism, then to further push that organism to ascend to various flora and fauna, and pushing said fauna to much greater heights, eventually leading to the existence of ancient mankind. if you've read the short stories, Venat's main topic of research was the source of all life in Etheirys, having finally found indisputable proof that lead her to become a traveler; what if she had discovered this source being the auracites, but never went so far as to mention it in full detail, in fear that it gets misused? what if Athena had figured out from reading her papers, and backtracked deep enough into what Venat was previously researching to somehow found an auracite? but again, this is just speculative rambling.

It is basically stated the heart of sabik comes from Ultima. It is one of the Auracites that she created( most likely). This means Athena was always being influenced by Ultima all along and as Claudien said, Ultima has been directly responsible for so many wars and death. Ultima is so powerful not even Hydaelyn could go directly against her as Ramza said.

I never thought I'd see the day this soon. Only having spent 4 years in the fandom whereas the Heart of Sabik has captured the imaginations of many others for 10 years now. Reading many, many developer interviews gave me a mythical impression of this stone. Like it would never be explained and becoming a running gag by Koji and co. Glad that wasn't the case. And for you truly dedicated, old farts it is a resolution after a fashion. 😊

I love this game so much. Waited SO LONG to finally know what the Heart of Sabik is, only to leave with 1000 more questions!!! Time to start theorizing all over again 😄

Great video! I think the influence on Lahabrea was that of Athena, rather than the Heart of Sabik itself. After all, he had severed his caring half and locked it away because he feared what Athena had done to him when they merged their beings in the past. That is also why it was so chilling to realize that all this time, the Lahabrea we knew from ARR and HW was in truth just Athena's mouthpiece, with her speaking the very same incantation that's seared into everyone's mind from countless Praetorium runs. But it also explains (recontextualizes really, but still) how even in ARR, Elidibus has to remind Lahabrea that they labor for Zodiark when Lahabrea speaks of his plans coming to fruition. It all falls in place when you realize it's not so much him but Athena that is the one obsessed, and the staunch and stoic Lahabrea we see in Pandaemonium by that point is all but consumed with her ambition, his soul all but completely overtaken by her tireless drive. I think it's also a good reason why Lahabrea was left unsundered, something that always felt a bit off when the concept was originally introduced. Elidibus and Emet-Selch, that makes sense - but why spare Lahabrea of all the Fourteen? But with the recontextualization of Pandaemonium, just imagine the absolute havoc if there were shards of Lahabrea/Athena across all reflections, all seeking their way to the Heart of Sabik, with the dormant memories of the mighty Ascian just laying there to be awoken! At least this way, Athena could be somewhat contained, and even then she clawed her way to the Aetherial Sea through the sundered, infected soul of her son. Ultimately, Athena is just so selfish and controlling and revolting that she's the perfect foil to the idealistic, self-sacrificing Ancients. It is only thematically appropriate that these qualities are all her, with the Heart of Sabik merely encouraging her delusions of grandeur. And it's good to have some villains that are just utterly rotten to the core and cannot be redeemed at all, simply because they would refuse the very thought out of pride.

i really think that in some way or another, the auracite and the heart of sabik will play a key role in the overall story arc of the next series of expansions, not like it will the core of one expansion but more like the glue that will help conect the dots of whats really going on behind the scenes, they are starting to set up the conecting dots for the next big arc and im so interested in whats coming next

Long story short, if they take more from FFT its stated that Ultima can never truly be killed. We could see a return of Ultima and mix in an all consuming race that we find out uses the power of Dynamis to corrupt people's souls using methods like Auricite. We could throw in a lot of bosses like Jenova and Sephiroth into this storyline. It would work well as a raid series, using the ship to to to what they believe is their home planet... but we still have so much to do with the reflections still that I do not think it will work into the MSQ that well.

The Heart of Sabik storyline matches the Final Fantasy Tactics storyline! Crystals that transform the user into something/someone new! I think it may have come from the Seven Hells which I hope we go to after we deal with the other deities of the Twelve!

Lovely video Wyrm, I love how you explained everything!

So I feel that Ultima High Seraph might have been analogous to Jenova. A being that came from another Star and maybe fled its destruction at the hands of Meteion. It could've likely followed her path back to Etheirys and rested there until found by Athena. But... would that mean that maybe there is a version of the Seraph in every shard? They had White Auracite in the First...

Honestly, it kinda feel like they are preparing a ff7 based story for an expansion. I can’t but help to see the connection between the game, the heart of Sabik and Ultima.

I think the Ophiucus / Serpentarius connect is strong, given many hints. We also know that the Ophiuchus stone in Tactics was a very deep green, itself bordering on black, where the Heart of Sabik is deep black with some color shimmer in the glow. I'm trying not to allow my mind to add green, but it's not all black. 'Sabik' is the name of a star in the Ophiucus constellation. The Heart of Sabik intensifies desire, and Ultima the High Seraph we've known for a while was 'an embodiment of pure ruination' [her TT card] eventually given form. We now that the Heart of Sabik is not of the Source's Star. We also know that the Nibirun created 'a Star without Strife'. To quote Meteion: Farther still, there existed a Star without strife. When none remembered life's trials, or its joys. What its people had gained from ease, they lost to Apathy. We also know from the Omicron tribal quests that the Nibirun obtained 'complete mental resonance'. They became overwhelmed by Apathy, having no Desire left. My current speculation is that the Nibirun gathered their negative emotions, or what they perceived as negative emotions, into a ball as they became more psychically aware of each other. Containing the energies of desire (the general source of conflict) into a singular point, they created what Athena would refine into the Heart of Sabik and sent it hurtling into the places between Stars, where it eventually found its way to Pandaemonium. We don't know where it was after Lahabrea claimed it, only that he 'kept it safe' until he took it out of Omega and it was left in the Research Facility when he was finally killed. It's not entirely unpossible that he hid it in Dalmasca, where it was then found and its corrupting influence created desire, then strife, then worship. No, I have no idea what this means for 7.0. But it does open a number of possibilities, including Dalmasca being a potential location for travel. Dalmasca is on the far south segment of Othard, and was a major trade port for international commerce. I suppose it could be possible that 7.0 could open with a missive from Hien, saying that the withdraw of the Garlean Empire has led to reopening trade to Dalmasca, or the Empire itself branching out since they are reopening trade routes. Then we go from there to Meracydia. This would also explain why there are currently no ports from Eorzea or Othard that connect to Meracydia that we are aware of.

I wonder, if the stone is called "Heart of Sabik", perhaps it literally belonged to a creature or entity called "Sabik". I hope we will learn more about this

My guess is that it always guides you to eventually try and destroy the Lifestream of the planet you are on, it twists you to this goal so you can absorb all that lifestream aether and "become" what it is, just like Jenova.

Auracite is soul stone It contains the essence of a being unlike soul crystals which are just pale imitations they're obviously being possessed by something trying to escape most likely although it does feel a bit like a retcon since they've decided to detach it completely from zodiark and disassociate him from the ultima spell entirely

"Lahabrea" lool that broke I was waiting Isildur. Haha cool video I am waiting for the continuation regarding Seraph.

Great video love the clips 👌

Athena shares some parallels with FF7s Hojo. Both are researchers who drift into mad scientist territory after coming under the influence of an extraterrestrial entity that is using them to further its own aims and both Hojo and Athena have children with fellow researchers purely for the sake of furthering their research.

Since this Athena was nothing but stored memory in the Heart of Sabik, potentially we may run into her sundered reincarnation on the Source at some point. And it wouldn't surprise me if this reincarnation somehow comes into contact with the Heart of Sabik. 😂

In Ultima weapons theme the Heart of Sabik is beating as if alive and its the heart of darkness. In ff7 Jenova Death was to appear in a black coat in the whirlwind maze and once it revealed its self it would be a floating heart. In Ultima weapon song it also says witness Ultima it brings salvation and destruction. The song also says the light retreats and rend the shield of light.

I have a dreadful feeling that this is going to lead to some Lucavi shenanigans with our friends.

I doubt we've seen the last of this considering Dawntrail is going to involve cosmic exploration. I wonder if the catalyst for that is finding the origin of the heart?

Possibly wrong but interesting theory: when Emet-Selch is introduced in Stormblood, he outright insults the late Lahabrea for purposefully drawing things out and spoiling their plans. In the Pandemonium raids, we learn that Hephaistos (Lahabrea’s worst aspects of himself) was utterly dedicated to Athena; and at the end of the Pandemonium raid series, Lahabrea merged with Hephaistos to gain enough power to carry out his duties. Could it be possible that present-day Lahabrea was not working solely for Zodiark, but also trying to bring Athena’s or some other being’s plans to fruition?

My question is, where is Pandaemonium? Before the sundering, Erichthonios said he sealed it and sent the crystal off into the aetherial sea so one day someone would find it again and prevent the creations from escaping. If the "pandaemonium" we saw and fought was a transmuted portion of the Aetherochemical Research Facility, doesn't that mean the actual pandaemonium is still out there somewhere? Also, Athena is basically Hojo. The one wing sticking out of the P10 boss combined with the other clues leads me to suspect we'll see a Jenova raid/trial series at some point in 7.0 - 8.0

Most of the things i wanted to say have already been said, but i must say it sounded like you said "Claudine" which is a girl's name in french, that poor researcher is Claudien, that sounds like Estinien... It made me laugh 😂 But, i'm glad we finally learn what it is, it was bugging me !

You're telling me it was never BIG FAT TACOS 😢

I see that people are making a lot of parallels to ff7. Here's something I thought of, In ff7 there is a Godess name Minerva which is the Roman name of Athena. Maybe we run in to a recarnation of Athena or maybe she reaches godhood and renames here self Minerva. She could be good or evil. Lol who knows but I would love some ff7 in ff14.

I do hope they keep where it came from secret. A rock that has been around for thousands upon thousands of years with no trace of origin. Kinda spooky.

If Pandæmonium is gonna be another Crystal Tower type deal (being forced to finish the normal version to continue the story because it gets used too often as a plot device) I'll be a little pissed but understandable because I wouldn't have understood the Crystal Tower plot point in Shadowbringers

Big Fat Taco!!!

I guess the theory that auracites originated from ultima and the denizens of the abyss are accurate. XIV is an ivalice game all along! I think ultima is definitely of a higher position than haedelyn and zodiark themselves. Don't forget in a couple of the ivalice games, zordiak is but an esper / summon as well. The power of the auracites allowed it to house the souls of the lucavi demons, which allows the demon to take over the host possessing the stones.

6:13 My man should have dodged Larboard. Nobody can get that mechanic right!

I am still a bit disappointed from 6.3 when they added the Aetherochemical Research Facility to Duty Support. I expected they add a hint about what Lahabrea dropped when he got killed by surprise, but the cutscene seemed unchanged to me. I mean they did add an extra line to the Vault Ending, so why not this?

Funny how the Heart of Sabik litarally is Aizen's Hogyokku...

Wait... Why does it feel like the heart of savik story line is yet to end? Is it gonna be in another raid series in the future or something? o_O

You know the crazy thing? As soon as the pandemonium raids came out, I just had this hardcore feeling that, given the nature of Pandemonium's status as a research lab for the Ancient Ones darkest projects and Lahabreas direct involvement, that this would SOMEHOW lead back to explaining once and for all the mystery of the Heart of Sabik. AND I WAS RIGHT !!!

mindblown xD big fat taco is burned in mind xD

I'm trying to introduce my nephews and nieces to Final Fantasy. Which entry would be the best for a young kid(12year old) to start?

What could possibly go wrong!? :)

Big Fat Tacos 😉😬🤭🤣🤣🤣🤣

The Heart of Sabik is it a hogyoku ? 👀

Big, Fat Tacos.

Are these like the stone of ff tácticts?

Athena best waifu

Maybe needs a spoiler warning. I remember when i was playing through ARR i wanted to know what that was :p