Bahamut (Final Fantasy XVI)

Bahamut, the Warden of Light, is the Eikon of Dion Lesage in Final Fantasy XVI. Dion uses Bahamut in service to his country, the Holy Empire of Sanbreque, and to lead the Holy Order of the Knights Dragoon. Bahamut is a steel-colored wyvern, with a massive wingspan. He is a flying Eikon who projects destructive beams of light from his mouth and wings. As dragons are revered as holy creatures by the Greagorian church, its Dominant is held in especially high regard within in the empire.

Bahamut is a recurring summon in the Final Fantasy series, and often the most powerful summoned monster met during the main story. Bahamut is typically non-elemental in the series, and sometimes his energy attacks also bypass targets' defenses. In Final Fantasy XVI Bahamut is Light-aspected, and the series's typical Holy-elemental summon, Alexander, does not make an appearance.

Active Time Lore[]

The Warden of Light, whose power dwells within Dion Lesage, prince of Sanbreque. In the Holy Empire, the Greagorian faithful hold dragons to be sacred creatures, and Bahamut the most sacred of them all. Because of this, as well as the protection it grants them, the Eikon is loved and revered by the imperial populace.

Basic Information

The Warden of Light, whose power dwells within Dion Lesage, prince of Sanbreque. A tribe known as the Motes of Light once dwelled in the northeast reaches of Storm where the great city of Oriflamme now stands, among which the Dominant of Bahamut would always emerge. In modern times, Dominants are often born among the Sanbrequois nobility—most likely because the tribe's bloodline still runs strong in their ranks.

Hidden Truths

History[]

Bahamut awakens in descendants of the "Motes of Light" tribe, who inhabited the region of Valisthea that is now modern-day Sanbreque. Ultima created Bahamut, along with the other Eikons, to serve as vessels of power to one day be absorbed by Mythos, Ultima's chosen vessel, to cast the mad creator god's Raise spell to reshape the world for his revived species. Only members of the Circle of Malius cult knew this, however, while the rest of Valisthea believed the Eikons to be powerful, protective deities. Bahamut commonly awakens among the Sanbrequois nobility, where the Motes of Light bloodline is still strong.^[1]

Dion Lesage awoke as Bahamut’s Dominant, which helped his father, Sylvestre Lesage, be elected as the Holy Emperor of Sanbreque, due to the nation's deification of dragons. Dion once called upon Bahamut's power to fight Cidolfus Telamon, the Dominant of Ramuh, when the latter attempted to reach the heart of Sanbreque's Mothercrystal, Drake's Head. Dion established the Holy Knights Dragoon order and built a loyal following, and he and Bahamut together became the beacon of hope for the empire and many songs were written about his exploits.^[2]

In the Year of the Realm 873, Dion joined Sanbrequois forces at the Battle of Belenus Tor, priming into Bahamut and fighting Odin, the Eikon of Barnabas Tharmr, the king of Waloed. Their battle was brief, and ended in a stalemate.

Five years later, Dion led the Holy Order of the Knights Dragoon in an insurrection in Twinside against his father, in an attempt to overthrow his tyrannical stepmother, Anabella Lesage, and their son, Olivier, whom Dion had deduced was little more than a puppet of Ultima. Dion accidentally killed his father when the latter took a fatal blow from his spear intended for his half-brother. Dion was overcome by grief and rage, losing control of his powers, and primed into Bahamut, attacking Twinside indiscriminately and destroying most of the city. The heart of Drake's Tail, Twinside's Mothercrystal, fought back by delving into Dion's innermost feelings,^[3] transforming the Mothercrystal into a form resembling the wyvern tail flower, which held great importance to both the Sanbrequois royal family and Dion himself.

Joshua Rosfield arrived shortly after Bahamut began his rampage, priming into the Phoenix in an attempt to stop him. Joshua's older brother, Clive, soon joined the fight by priming into Ifrit, and the three Eikons battled on top of Drake's Tail. Bahamut drew massive amounts of aether from the Mothercrystal's heart, greatly increasing his strength. Ifrit and the Phoenix merged, transforming into Ifrit Risen, which allowed Ifrit to fly with the Phoenix's wings and launch volleys of fireballs. Bahamut and Ifrit Risen flew into the planet's upper atmosphere. Bahamut attempted to destroy his opponent by unleashing Zettaflare, but was defeated before Ifrit destroyed Drake's Tail's heart, and the Mothercrystal along with it. Afterwards, Clive absorbed Bahamut's aether from Dion, taking the Eikon's power for himself.

Some time later, Dion called upon Bahamut's power one more time to carry Clive and Joshua to Origin to confront Ultima. Though Clive warned Dion that he had personally witnessed Dominants whose Eikons he had absorbed as Mythos to lose control when they primed after, Dion vowed to keep focus. After reaching Origin, Bahamut unleashed a storm of light beams to breach the vessel’s walls, eliminating various Origin-tied creatures that attacked him in the process, with their meeting Ultima shortly afterward. Clive and Joshua primed into their respective Eikons, and the three battled the mad deity, who transformed into Ultima Prime, a form resembling a darker, winged version of Ifrit. Bahamut, Ifrit, and the Phoenix battled fiercely, combining their powers to cast Tri-Disaster, but Ultima overpowered Ifrit and took him out of the fight. As Ultima prepared to unleash a massive, dark fireball, the Phoenix readied himself to block the attack, but Bahamut stepped in, telling Joshua to go help his brother.

Bahamut unleashed a powerful Flare blast to deflect the fireball, but Ultima's attack proved stronger. Realizing that he was outmatched, Bahamut chose to sacrifice himself, taking the blow from Ultima's fireball while launching a barrage of light beams at him, taking the mad deity by surprise and briefly incapacitating him. Bahamut reverted into Dion, who fell from the sky to his presumed death.

After Clive defeated Ultima and destroyed the nexus within Origin, the source of all magic, Bahamut and the other Eikons ceased to awaken, and magic, crystals, and Bearers were erased from the world. As time passed, Eikons and magic faded into myth, being spoken of in the story of Final Fantasy by "Joshua Rosfield". In the post-credits scene, two children play with a puppy, who is named Bahamut.

Characteristics[]

Bahamut is a large wyvern with steel-green scales with some gold highlights across his body, bright blue eyes and a third eye in the center of its head, with a massive bat-like wingspan. There are four spear- or cannon-like protrusions on each of his wings, with a long, whip-like tail. He has two long, narrow horns on his head, with smaller spines running down the length of his neck. There are also two large spikes near the back of the neck.

After absorbing the aether from the Drake’s Tail Mothercrystal's heart, Bahamut's scales turn gold, and his chest begins to emanate a golden aura that engulfs his lower wings. His spear protrusions glow blue as well.

Gameplay[]

Boss[]

Bahamut is fought as a boss in Twinside in a multi-stage affair.

Clive's abilities[]

Bahamut's Eikonic Feat is Wings of Light, where Clive manifests wyvern wings and hovers while charging for Megaflare; the longer the charge the higher level Megaflare he can unleash. The initial maximum level is three, but upgrading Wings of Light in the Abilities menu unlocks Level 4 Megaflare. Megaflare pummels Clive's enemies with indiscriminate magic volleys that rain down from above; the higher level Megaflare, the longer the effect.

During the charging phase Clive cannot use normal attacks or initiate Eikonic Abilities without canceling the stance, but precision-dodging enemies' attacks (called Megaflare Dodge) levels Megaflare up instantly. Wings of Light is thus best invoked against aggressive enemy groups or just before a formidable foe or boss is about to unleash a combo attack. After casting Megaflare, Clive continue to act during the barrage of light streams, which home in on enemies. Wings of Light/Megaflare has some synergy with Bahamut's other abilities, Impulse and Satellite, which conjure persistent adds.

Bahamut's default Eikonic Abilities are Flare Breath and Impulse. Flare Breath emits a long-lasting light-aspected magic plume in front of Clive whose direction the player can control with the thumbsticks and damages all enemies within its area of effect repeatedly, also pushing and pulling smaller enemies and stopping small enemies engulfed in it from fighting back. The downside is that Clive is left vulnerable to being attacked during it from all enemies not stun-locked by the plumes, and that it is not overly powerful even after being upgraded. It can be used to group/reposition enemies, however, potentially useful for deploying Impulse.

Impulse deploys magic charges that continue to damage enemies they are in contact with, as well as bind small enemies. Tapping the execute button again detonates the charges, dealing good damage and excellent will damage when done when the orbs turn orange. Impulse can be detonated at any time, including during Wings of Light, and in the middle of another ability's animation. It also has a fast cooldown.

Satellite summons drones that follow Clive and shoot laser beams at his target whenever the player taps the magic command button ( in the default controller scheme) even when this results in no magic being cast, such as when Clive is recoiling from attacks, during Wings of Light, and during other abilities' animations, such as Flare Breath and Gigaflare. Satellite can a valuable addition to Clive's loadout to supplement damage from other actions, and to have a way of dealing damage when Clive cannot otherwise attack.

Gigaflare is Bahamut's most expensive Eikonic Ability to learn and master. It has a fast cooldown for an "ultimate" Eikonic Ability, and fires a beam of light the player can direct with thumbsticks that deals continuous damage with a great range, also slowing down everyone else but Clive. It is one of the highest damaging abilities in Clive's arsenal.

Gallery[]

Etymology[]

[view · edit · purge]Bahamut (Arabic بهموت Bahamūt) originated as an enormous whale in ancient pre-Islamic Arabian mythology. Upon Bahamut's back stands a bull with four thousand eyes, ears, noses, mouths, tongues and feet called Kujuta (also spelled "Kuyutha") (compared with the pair of Behemoth and Leviathan). Between each of these is a distance of a 500-year journey. On the back of Kujuta is a mountain of ruby. Atop this mountain is an angel who carries six hells, earth, and seven heavens on its shoulders.

Another version of the Arabic story is that Bahamut is indeed a dragon and he stands on a whale called Liwash.

In modern times, the game Dungeons & Dragons is responsible for reimagining Bahamut as the king of dragons, a benevolent Platinum Dragon; the opposite of the malevolent Tiamat, the five-headed Chromatic Queen of Dragons.

Citations[]