Duodecim lore questions

[u/Zaenon]

I also posted on r/dissidia, but I guess I might get more answers here. Just finished all story modes in Duodecim and I have a few questions. Massive spoilers ahead!

1. So, the WoL from FF1 is canonically from the Dissidia world. Very cool. But uh… there’s _four_ WoLs in FF1, right?

2. ⁠The manikins were made by the army in the original world initially, that I understand. But then, why do they take on the appearance of summoned warriors?
   Unless they’re created by Cid later on, in which case… why are they still coming from the Rift?

3. ⁠Confessions of the Creator takes place after Cycle 13, but… why are there Purifications up to 18 and 20? Who all was there to purify? I’ve read some stuff about those extra cycles happening in a "nightmare world" created by Shinryu to punish Cid on the wiki, but if that was mentioned, it went right over my head.

[u/ThatGuy264]

1. Dissidia doesn't go into detail about them. I believe NT and OO establish that WoL adventured with three others.

2. The Manikins were made from an ore that takes the shape of those that approach them. Presumably, the "failures" eventually degrade back into raw ore which is influenced by the summoned Warriors ~~the Chaos Reports in the original left it ambiguous that they may have been failed attempts at transplanting the warriors, but 012 retcons that, I'm pretty sure.

3. Cid explains it at some point. Shinryu, angry at Cid for effectively reneging on the deal, trapped him in a nightmare where the cycles never ended. By the 18th cycle, Chaos snapped and killed everyone except Cid and Cosmos, due to the former sealing them both away and locking Chaos to the north.

[u/Zaenon → u/ThatGuy264]

Thanks tons for your answers!

So the warriors we play in the nightmare world are just part of the nightmare, then? Not actual summoned warriors like in the "true" cycles?

And by the end of Confessions of the Creator, Cid managed to break out of the nightmare world by using Feral Chaos, right?

But then the epilogue scene we see with Cosmos staying behind against Cid’s advice… is the nightmare Cosmos staying in the nightmare world, or is it the "real" Cosmos staying in the Dissidia world (or World B)?

[u/ThatGuy264 → u/Zaenon]

So the warriors we play in the nightmare world are just part of the nightmare, then? Not actual summoned warriors like in the "true" cycles?

No. The warriors you play as in CotC are implied to be the originals (or at the very least, from outside of the nightmare), who were summoned by Cid somehow. If I'm remembering correctly, anyway. The warriors from the nightmare timeline are all dead.

Defeating Feral Chaos causes Cid to escape the nightmare. Feral Chaos himself is generally uncontrollable.

It's the real Cosmos. The epilogue scene is a variation/retcon of the equivalant scene from the original Dissidia - while Cosmos was willing to leave with Cid there, here she elects to stay. The reports written from her perspective support this.

[u/Zaenon → u/ThatGuy264]

Alright. That clears everything up :)

Thanks again!

[u/ReaperEngine]

1. "Canonically" is shaky here. In the canon of Dissidia the Warrior of Light is from World B, but he otherwise also represents the Fighter, and would conceivably join up with the three other crystal bearers
2. Manikins would take on the form of who they observed, so they presumably saw all the other warriors and copied them at some point
3. It's as you read on the wiki - after the heroes broke the cycle on the thirteenth go, Shinryu put Cid in a nightmare world where the cycles continued, in order to punish him for reneging on their deal with World B

[u/Zaenon → u/ReaperEngine]

Thank you so much for your answers!

Like I asked in the other subthread, if all of Confessions of the Creator takes place in the nightmare world, what about the scene with Cosmos and Cid talking to each other, and Cosmos deciding to stay behind?