History NightmareFuel / FinalFantasyXIV

** Unlike the Terminus beasts that led to the downfall of Amaurot and the old world, the 'blasphemies' seen in ''Endwalker'' are not merely summoned - after all, there is nobody left with the sort of creation magic required. Every Terminus monster you fight, this time around, WasOnceAMan. Worse still, ''anyone'' can turn so long as they fall into despair, a chain reaction starting as simply as one unlucky schmuck having a bad day - and we do mean ''anyone'', you see children transform on-screen and even ''babies'' aren't safe.

** Unlike the Terminus beasts that led to the downfall of Amaurot and the old world, the 'blasphemies' seen in ''Endwalker'' are not merely summoned - after all, there is nobody left with the sort of creation magic required. Every Terminus monster you fight, this time around, WasOnceAMan. Worse still, ''anyone'' can turn so long as they fall into despair, a chain reaction starting as simply as one unlucky schmuck having a bad day - and we do mean ''anyone'', you see children transform on-screen and even ''babies'' aren't safe.

** Blasphemies, as our world calls them, don't just spawn out of nowhere. They spawn from ordinary people overwhelmed by negative emotion such as despair. It happens so quickly, and it can snowball just as fast, with everyone running in fear and possibly turning too. The worst part is that unlike turning into a voidsent or sin eater, the cause is something so ''mundane'' as emotional distress. And it can happen to anyone at any time; even children as young as ''babies''.
** When you kill a blasphemy, what happens to the person that turns? Nothing. Rather, they turn to nothing. They don't get the repose of going to the aetherial sea, they just ''disintegrate'' to nonexistence.

* Ultima Thule is essentially an EldritchLocation at the edge of the universe, where dynamis has dominance over aether. The sky is an uncanny violet starscape, it's hard to see anything beyond the sickly green fog, and everything here just...exists. Not living, just existing as shades of emotion on a dead star. It all just feels unnerving and ''wrong''. The droning music that [[spoiler: [[ProgressiveInstrumentation initially]]]] plays while you're there emphasizes the otherworldly uncanniness.

*** The Healer Role Quest alleviates this somewhat by clearly showing a slain blasphemy moving on to an afterlife with others who did not die as blasphemies but adds another bit of nightmare fuel. While there is in fact 'something' left that moves on, however Meteion/the Terminus Effect make it LOOK like the soul is completely destroyed, likely in order to fuel despair in those that can see Aether (like the ancients are shown to) potentially furthering the chain of transformations.

** One particularly horrid scene during the attack on Radz-at-Han has a Blasphemy corner a terrified mother and her equally terrified infant daughter. The Blasphemy proceeds to grab the mother by the head, [[NeckSnap snap her neck]], and then throw her corpse ''[[AdultFear which is still holding the baby]]'' into a nearby pool of water. Only the quick intervention of the Warrior of Light and Vrtra saves the child's life. When you examine the mother's body, the narration[[SarcasmMode helpfully]] exposits that her final moments were spent in unimaginable agony, and that the only solace is that it was a quick death.

** One particularly horrid scene during the attack on Radz-at-Han has a Blasphemy corner a terrified mother and her equally terrified infant daughter. The Blasphemy proceeds to grab the mother by the head, [[NeckSnap snap her neck]], and then throw her corpse ''[[AdultFear which is still holding the baby]]'' into a nearby pool of water. Only the quick intervention of the Warrior of Light and Vrtra saves the child's life.

** One particularly horrid scene during the attack on Radz-at-Han has a Blasphemy corner a terrified mother and her equally terrified infant daughter. The Blasphemy proceeds to grab the mother by the head, [[NeckSnap snap her neck]], and then throw her corpse ''which is still holding the baby'' into a nearby pool of water. Only the quick intervention of the Warrior of Light and Vrtra saves the child's life.

** One particularly horrid scene during the attack on Radz-at-Han has a Blasphemy corner a terrified mother and her equally terrified infant daughter. The Blasphemy proceeds to grab the mother by the head, [[NeckSnap snap her neck]], and then throw her corpse ''which is still holding the baby'' into the ocean. Only the quick intervention of the Warrior of Light and Vrtra saves the child's life.

* Ultima Thule is essentially an EldritchLocation at the edge of the universe, where dynamis has dominance over aether. The sky is an uncanny violet starscape, it's hard to see anything beyond the sickly green fog, and everything here just...exists. Not living, just existing as shades of emotion on a dead star. It all just feels unnerving and ''wrong''. The droning music that [[spoiler:initially]] plays while you're there emphasizes the otherworldly uncanniness.

* Ultima Thule is essentially an EldritchLocation at the edge of the universe, where dynamis has dominance over aether. The sky is an uncanny violet starscape, it's hard to see anything beyond the sickly green fog, and everything here just...exists. Not living, just existing as shades of emotion on a dead star. It all just feels unnerving and ''wrong''. The droning music that plays while you're there emphasizes the otherworldly uncanniness.

** This whole scenario puts TheStinger of ''Shadowbringers'' in a new light. Not too long ago, Zenos was in the exact same situation the Warrior of Light is in, and yet even in the body of a lowly soldier, he was ''still'' able to defeat Elidibus and force him to flee for his life. It really shows just how monstrously powerful Zenos has become since ''Stormblood''.

** Moreover, the three Ends aren't random or arbitrary. An affliction that warps the bodies and minds of those affected, caused by overextending forces trying to secure their world and prosperity? An endless war constantly trying to introduce newer and more powerful superweapons, to create a global coalition? A world of robed, masked figures, who were seeking to achieve a perfect world? It's the First's Flood of Light, the Source (particularly the war with Garlemald), and the World Unsundered, respectively. It can't be random that she chose the last vision to show as being one that mirrored the world she left... and perhaps [[GoneHorriblyRight what could have happened had they succeeded]].

** Moreover, the three Ends aren't random or arbitrary. An affliction that warps the bodies and minds of those affected, caused by overextending forces trying to secure their world and prosperity? An endless war constantly trying to introduce newer and more powerful superweapons, to create a global coalition? A world of robed, masked figures, who were seeking to achieve a perfect world? It's the First's Flood of Light, the Source (particularly the war with Garlemald), and the World Unsundered, respectively. It can't be random that she chose her last End to show as being one that mirrored the world she left... and perhaps [[GoneHorriblyRight what could have happened had they succeeded]].

** Moreover, the three Ends aren't random or arbitrary. An affliction that warps the bodies and minds of those affected, caused by overextending forces trying to secure their world and prosperity? An endless war constantly trying to introduce newer and more powerful superweapons, to create a global coalition? A world of robed, masked figures, who were seeking to achieve a perfect world? It's the First's Flood of Light, the Source (particularly the war with Garlemald), and the World Unsundered, respectively. It can't be random that she chose her last End to show as being one that mirrored the world she left

** Fandaniel played all sides against the middle, removing key figures that were preventing war and leaving the rest paranoid enough to go all-out in the city itself. Urban combat with magitek and further prodding by Fandaniel then reduced the Garleans' "shining city" to the ruined husk we see.

** What occurs in Ultima Thule is even worse than the realm itself. The only way to proceed in multiple sections is for someone to confront beings with ultimate despair, die and then have their own positive dynamis affect their surroundings. Thancred is the first to go, after confronting Meteion in the ''Ragnarok'', his demise leading to the aether that lets the Warrior of Light and the Scions proceed without quite literally choking out. The first island features no Aether Currents or means to fly, thus leading to Estinien's demise as he confronts a dragon unable to accept the potential of dragons and man being able to live as one. Y'shtola and Urianger confront the Ea, beings who abandoned their bodies in pursuit of science and [IgnoranceIsBliss concluding that knowledge itself is a poison], which Y'shtola obviously objects to. G'raha Tia declares to Stigma 1, leading intelligence for a warlike and imperialistic civilization of people turned machines, that living is itself a positive purpose. Alphinaud and Alisiae face their demise and seemingly help expose some of the last pieces of positivity in Meteion, by declaring fear is nothing to be worried about and how allies and friends are more than capable of helping them bear the burden. For the first time in the Warrior of Light's career, they aren't just alone as the vanguard... they are absolutely alone with naught but their memories and Meteion.

* [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX Anima]] is here, and it's just as nightmare-inducing as it was in its home game. It represents the desire of the Garlean people to be saved from the fall of their Empire, forms the core of the Toer of Babil, and to create it, ''Varis's corpse'' was used. (It's heavily implied in the Tower of Zot that he was ''dismembered'' so that his body parts could be used to create each of the towers.) All of the suffering caused by the Telophoroi... it all stems from Anima, the Eikon of Eikons.

* Ultima Thule is essentially an EldritchLocation at the edge of the universe, where dynamis has dominance of aether. The sky is an uncanny violet starscape, it's hard to see anything beyond the sickly green fog, and everything here just...exists. Not living, just existing as shades of emotion on a dead star. It all just feels unnerving and ''wrong''.

* Imagine you sacrifice yourself to help create something to stop the seemingly ravenous hunger of Zodiark. You want to spare lives from suffering and give a chance for new life to flourish. What happens instead is that the thing you sacrificed yourself to summon, with the core/heart/brain of it being someone you ''trusted'' decides to trap everyone in a cycle of suffering to make them stronger. And this sort of suffering is also what helped drive the source of the Sound mad in the first place.

** Blasphemies, as our world calls them, don't just spawn out of nowhere. They spawn from ordinary people overwhelmed by negative emotion such as despair. It happens so quickly, and it can snowball just as fast, with everyone running in fear and possibly turning too.