For ages through our early journey in Eorzea, Omega was an enigmatic threat that felt a bit like the Reapers in the first Mass Effect. Unseen and only spoken of in hushed whispers and rumors, some of Eorzea’s biggest political powers neglected to take the ancient machine’s threat seriously. All through A Realm Reborn, the Warrior of Light chases ghosts, confiding in the Flame General, Raubahn Aldynn, and Ul’dah’s sultana, Nanamo Ul Namo, on the mysterious nature of Omega and its whereabouts. It’s not until later expansions we ultimately learn just what this thing is, how it’s important, and where its story fits into Final Fantasy 14’s overarching narrative.
In Stormblood, a lot of Omega’s loose ends seem to resolve and we finally piece together this thing’s motivations and origins. So, why is it important now? Well, Omega popped up again in the benchmark trailer for the next expansion, Endwalker, looking a little different from how we remember the weapon. Soon after, director and producer Naoki Yoshida made a gentle suggestion during a PC Gamer interview, recommending players complete the Coils of Bahamut, Alexander, and Omega raid series before diving into Endwalker. Perhaps it shapes up to be a lot of nothing, and Yoshida just really thinks you should have your fill of deep lore before proceeding, but Final Fantasy 14’s writing team is always full of surprises.
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The Source, The First, and all of Final Fantasy 14’s other reflections – other worlds – get a little complicated the longer you weave their tales, and Omega’s journey is no different. While plenty of side stories in Final Fantasy 14 begin and resolve within a single expansion, Omega’s complicated history is one of the longest threads to follow. Originally introduced to us as an Allagan weapon, Final Fantasy 14 originally baits us all into thinking this thing is just some super destructive, primal-control device the Allagans conjured up, but it’s not. We eventually learn that we have really learned nothing at all. Omega’s creators are a mystery, and it was in fact discovered by the Allagans long ago, it just didn’t immediately try to wipe them all out as it did upon reviving in Eorzea.
Understanding what drives Omega teaches us why it played nice with Allagans, leading us to believe that it was engineered by them. Omega’s entire purpose is to find something stronger than it is, defeat it, and evolve. When it encounters lesser beings, lesser civilizations, it has no qualms about committing genocide and moving on to the next, traveling between the Interdimensional Rift searching for its next big target. Every encounter leaves Omega a bit weakened before it recovers, and it’s assumed the Allagans must have caught the thing at a bad time when it was unable to properly wipe the floor with them.
Since Omega has decided to play nice with the Allagans, they now have a handy way to beat back the dragon, Bahamut, as he and the other dragons align themselves with the Meracydians. Meracydia and the dragons were all that stood between the Allagans and Xande’s tyrannical quest for power, and ultimately, Omega brings down Bahamut. After his fall, it’s all downhill from there. No one can really challenge an enemy that wields Omega.
Fast forward a few hundred years to current times, and the Warrior of Light is in a race to prevent the ancient machine from falling into the wrong hands. The Scions seek the aid of Nero and Cid to gain control of Omega via its uncovered control panel, using the weapon to seal the primal Shinryu and keep it from their enemy’s control, just as the Allagans did with Bahamut. While everyone can breathe a sigh of relief during this part of the story, just where Heavensward is ending, that’s not the end of Omega. After the Warrior of Light makes use of it, the thing goes missing.
That’s where the Interdimensional Rift comes in, because Omega is awake now and it’s not keen on playing nice with you come Final Fantasy 14’s Stormblood expansion. Remember that this thing is always looking for a fight to drive its original purpose, to evolve, and it ultimately sees the Warrior of Light as a way to do that. After holding the Warrior of Light’s friends hostage, forcing them deeper into the rift, and pitting them against trials, Omega tries to replicate the hero – yes, the thing is capable of creating sentient beings. The official lore books state Omega seeks to “recreate itself in the image of man.” It wants to understand what motivates something so powerful, and Omega winds up with a male and female human-like version of itself. And, surprise, the Warrior of Light defeats them too.
Stormblood’s conclusion with Omega seems like it puts a nice bow on things – it “dies” as much as a machine can and the Interdimensional Rift is gone. There’s some serious digging to be done around the Eighth Umbral Calamity during a different timeline, but ultimately this doesn’t come to pass in the story our Warrior of Light experiences. In the present, all you have of Omega is the OMG minion, which includes a little line about how it “may have been created to observe your behavior.”
So, why is all of this important? It’s to demonstrate that Endwalker, being the conclusion of the Zodiark and Hydaelyn arc, may have more history to tell us about Allagan, Bahamut, the Garleans, and how they ultimately tie into Omega’s own story. The weapon is defeated, but at the end of the day, it’s still just that – a weapon. That seems like something that can be brought back. The side stories in Tales from the Shadows lead us to believe its consciousness is a little more complicated than some code, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we see the thing return in more impactful ways.
History, however, does tell us that a benchmark plug doesn’t mean much. We’ve seen monsters in Final Fantasy 14 benchmarks wind up as Fates or Extreme battles. The side of me that wants to refrain from reading too deeply into a passing trailer appearance thinks that Omega will likely be a Fate or some special, nonsensical encounter that won’t really shape your enjoyment of overarching story beats, but it’s that interview recommendation from Yoshida that keeps me open to idea there’s more to it.
We also know Final Fantasy 14 will sport another Ultimate raid, and that the Omega series fights from Stormblood are next in line to get that treatment. Perhaps it’s a simple nod to that, or perhaps this version of Omega is something different. After all, if you compare its Benchmark appearance to old iterations of Omega, it doesn’t look the same. Did the Garleans rebuild it? Did some other version of it come from another distant star? Did it not actually die? Or, is it just some goofy bonus Fate shoved in to give you a fancy new hat to glamor? Who knows, but Yoshida says it’s important, and my favorite part leading into any new expansion is horribly predicting what comes next.
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