Calyx is a non-playable character in Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail, introduced in patch 7.2, "Seekers of Eternity". He serves as the overarching antagonist of Dawntrail and later the main antagonist of the post-Dawntrail storyline.

History[]

Early life[]

Calyx lived in Alexandria within the Ninth. Four hundred years ago, he was a brilliant scientist who mastered electrope technology and was considered a genius despite his young age. Yet he suffered from a terminal illness he contracted at birth. During the Storm Surge, he founded a scientific collective called Preservation with the purpose of preserving Alexandria from the ravages of the war. Through his research, Preservation created many technological marvels.

When Alexandrian queen Sphene Alexandros XIV contracted a serious case of levin sickness, which would have led to her death, Calyx and Preservation preserved her within an electrope casket, where she was kept in cold stasis, alive and not aging. Calyx was also instrumental in creating the dome that sealed Alexandria off from the lightning-filled atmosphere, which had consumed the Ninth. Preservation labored to save Alexandria by constructing the Everkeep atop the old Alexandria castle.

The research into electrope allowed Calyx and Preservation to create the Endless, simulacrums created from people's memories. The first Endless was Queen Sphene, all for the purpose of maintaining the status quo, as Preservation could not release the real Sphene from her casket without killing her. The Endless Sphene continued ruling Alexandria, while Calyx and Preservation created regulators, which allowed creation of more Endless and also preserved Alexandrians by allowing them to use soul cells to revive them should they die in an accident or in a fight. Regulators would erase memories of the deceased, causing Alexandrians to become unaware of the nature of death.

At some point, Calyx and Preservation seemingly disappeared. Calyx eventually discarded his flesh and became Endless himself, concluding that mortal vessels for souls were outdated, proceeding to create a utopia of Endless. He had some kind of control over the Endless Sphene, which led into Alexandria fusing with the Source when Zoraal Ja entered the Ninth and became the King of Resolve. After the deaths of both Zoraal Ja and Endless Sphene, Calyx created a simulant Sphene to further his plan in creating more Endless and, according to his view, the next stage of human evolution.

Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail[]

To fulfill his plan, Calyx needed the interdimensional key, which the Endless Sphene handed to the Warrior of Light against Calyx's will. He sent the simulant Sphene to coax the people of Alexandria by acquiring neo-regulators to become Endless. A funeral had been held for the Endless Sphene, since the shutdown of Living Memory had made it so, that Alexandrians no longer could forget those who passed away. Calyx likely manipulated all those with regulators to have their memories of the funeral erased, so that the simulant could walk among them without causing too much confusion. The Warrior and Wuk Lamat immediately suspected deception, when they saw the simulant, since they were the ones directly responsible of Endless Sphene's death.

Shortly after, the original Sphene was brought to Solution Nine by Y'shtola and Shale, after her cold stasis casket was shut down along with Living Memory's. While she was getting acquainted with Alexandria of today and befriending the Warrior, Wuk Lamat and other Scions of the Seventh Dawn, they encountered the simulant. She led them into a trap, where the Warrior was struck with a huge bolt of lightning by Calyx, temporarily paralyzing them. Calyx then made himself known through a terminal above them. The reason he targeted the Warrior specifically was because they are the one currently carrying the interdimensional key. The Warrior outright refused to hand it over, and demanded to know what Calyx intended to gain with it. Calyx then explained that his goal was to use the key to usher the next stage of human evolution by turning people into Endless and be rid of mortal vessels. The neo-regulators that were currently being distributed among Alexandrians played some part in this plan. Sphene finally recognized him, and begged him to stop deceiving Alexandrians, but it went to deaf ears. Calyx ended the transmission after demanding that the Warrior surrenders the key or there will be consequences.

When the Scions and Oblivion discussed the event, Shale traced Calyx's transmission to the foundation sector of Everkeep, where the old Alexandria castle still resided. It was an obvious trap, but they had no other leads to follow, so the Warrior led Wuk Lamat, Krile, G'raha, Sphene and Shale there. As expected, Calyx had set up tests to measure their strength, observing their performance and he eventually began to understand how the Warrior was able to defeat Queen Eternal. As the party walked through the hallways, the Warrior and Sphene were caught in a teleporter reacting to the key, and they were teleported to the castle's throne room, where Calyx had set up one more test for the Warrior: to do battle against a machine, that was created from Sphene's recollections of her loyal knight, Zelenia Triantifylli. Sphene was outraged, that Calyx and the simulant were using her memories of people dear to her into creating a mockery of her, and she begged the Warrior to destroy the machine for Zelenia's honor, even though it would be playing right into Calyx's hands. The Warrior proceeded to do battle and used their crystal of Azem to summon reinforcements. This drew Calyx's interest on the crystal, and its summoning power.

The Warrior eventually defeated the machine, and Calyx got what he needed, even though the result would complicate matters. Sphene and the Warrior held him and the simulant, with Sphene declaring them unfit to be trusted with cherished memories of Alexandrians. Calyx claimed he had no interest in using the fruits of his research in this manner, but as long as the Warrior clings to the key, he will. He couldn't understand, why the Warrior is so eager to oppose him, since with the key the Preservation would be able to harvest aether from other reflections and bring salvation to the people of the Ninth as well as others. The Warrior, due to their purpose of protecting the Source and the reflections, particularly the First, resolved to not let Calyx lay his hands to the reflections. He then cut the transmission and left the Warrior and Sphene with a gift: Endless Sphene's tiara.

Shortly after, the distribution of neo-regulators was concluded, and chaos broke out in Solution Nine and in the outskirts, with mechanical soldiers killing innocent people and vehicles and other machines going out of control, remarking Zoraal Ja's attack before. Gulool Ja in particular was shocked, since the mechanical soldiers shouldn't be able to attack the people unless authorized by the King of Resolve's authority. Shale was unable to find out why. The only thing everyone was certain was that Calyx was responsible for the chaos, but the reason why was unclear. Calyx himself did all of this from Living Memory, where he was sitting atop the Meso Terminal, contemplating about his plan.

Even though Gulool Ja made it so that mechanical soldiers can't carry weapons anymore, Calyx nevertheless used them to kill off any Alexandrians without a regulator and harvest them not just of their souls but also their corporeal aether. He needed to do this because without the key, he can't harvest aether from reflections, so he had to use whatever sources were at hand. He addressed the Warrior, Sphene and Krile about this when they found the remains of Geode after he drained his aether.

Oblivion attempted to find his location and through Krile's earring, Shale discovered a hidden laboratory in the tenth level of Everkeep. Within, they discovered the origins of Calyx's founding of Preservation, and also that the container for the key was also developed here. When they found the data terminal, Calyx contacted them and invited them to meet him in Meso Terminal in Living Memory, where is memories are stored.

The Warrior, Sphene, Wuk Lamat, Alphinaud, Alisaie, Krile, Y'shtola and G'raha Tia stormed the terminal and they encountered Calyx next to his memory unit. But before they could do anything about, Calyx initiated a summoning of a primal, Necron, fueled by the fear of death of those now wielding a neo-regulator. The heroes engaged Necron and defeated it, but Calyx denied their attempt to destroy his memory core, as it was shielded. Necron was summoned again, since the fear of death of Alexandrians was still fueling it. Sphene realized this, and she asked Shale to make her voice heard with the Alexandrians to convince them not to dwell on the fear of death, but their life as it is. Her words reached them, and Necron started to weaken, allowing the heroes to hold it off. Calyx noticed he was in danger of losing, so he attempted to transfer his memories do a different location. Y'shtola urged Wuk Lamat to destroy the shield on the memory unit, and fueled by the promise she made to the Endless Sphene, as well as power boost from Sphene, she was able to destroy the shield, albeit with great injury to herself. This then allowed the Warrior to strike the memory unit and destroy it. Both Calyx and Necron vanished as this happened. Everyone believed Calyx was gone for good.

However, Calyx survived, still shocked and terrified by his near-death experience. He felt anger for the first time in centuries towards those who defeated him, he was then approached by an Ascian, representing a mysterious group known as the Winterers to whom he would give a full report.

Calyx's essence was placed inside a doll, and he went to Treno alongside Halmarut, one of the remaining Ascians, who was inhabiting an Au Ra-like body, as she didn't want to be instantly recognized as an Ascian. In Treno, they observed the Warrior of Light until Halmarut's eyes made contact with them and she ran off with Calyx. After getting to safety, Halmarut began to panic and shake Calyx, fearing that the vaunted hero of the Source and the one responsible for the deaths of many of her Ascian bretheren had recognized her. Calyx calmed her down, as they discussed their current predicament. They were planning to flee the Ninth, as Halmarut had predicted the Ninth is doomed to die following the death of the will of the star. Calyx claimed that he intended to only observe how things turn out now that his plans to conquer death had been ruined, but also claimed that should an opportunity present itself, he will continue his research.

Characteristics[]

Appearance[]

Calyx appears as a pale-skinned young man wearing a lab coat, medical scrubs, and white shoes. A tube is attached into his neck.

Following his defeat, his essence was placed inside a white, mu-like doll carried by Halmarut.

Personality[]

Though a brilliant scientist who mastered the use of electrope, Calyx appears borderline emotionless. Even when people are engaged in conversation, Calyx is mostly absorbed in his research, hardly paying anyone mind unless spoken to directly. Even when speaking to others, Calyx's tone is patronizing and condescending if not outright disinterested.

Queen Sphene did mention that Calyx supported the Kingdom of Alexandria during the Storm Surge, with the queen stating that the young prodigy ever strove for the future, to the point of being single-minded, she never expected him to be so ruthless. Neither would Sphene anticipate that Calyx would hijack the kingdom from behind the scenes to fulfill his goals of creating the Endless and "evolve" beyond death, showing that Calyx has no real loyalties towards Alexandria, only his preferred vision of an evolved mankind.

While Calyx has shown a measure of leadership in the founding of Preservation, not to mention being very secretive as he managed to keep the most of Preservation and its true goals hidden for centuries, he is nonetheless proven to be ruthless and pragmatic. In fact, Preservation acted more akin to cult that venerated Calyx's genius, even willing to allow themselves to be experimented on by him and kill those who showed doubt towards Calyx's intentions. This likely contributed to Calyx believing he knows the best path for mankind and has the correct interpretation on evolution. Having never been defied, corrected or even had the time to properly reconcile that death is a fundamental fact of life, Calyx dismisses and scorns the views of others that don't correlate with his own. Determined to a horrific fault, Calyx goes to every length to achieve his goals, even killing innocent people, employing terror tactics to creating a simulant of Queen Sphene to act in his stead in manipulating Alexandria's citizens. Most of all, Calyx had the full intention of invading the other reflections and plunder them of their aether to sustain the Endless and Alexandria's way of life, enforcing the directive upon Endless Sphene, despite it being pointed out numerous times that such a plan was unsustainable. He does acknowledge this but is unwilling to abandon his goals, only shifting the priorities by having a limited number of Endless rather than making everyone Endless.

He develops a personal interest in the Warrior of Light, yet seeks to eliminate them and acquire the interdimensional key from their possession by any means necessary. After witnessing the adventurer's abilities and strength firsthand, Calyx admits that the Warrior is simply beyond his arsenal. Thus, Calyx understands that he will have to employ other means to defeat them. Nonetheless, Calyx was overconfident that he could develop a plan to defeat the Warrior and their allies, underestimating their resolve and determination. He likewise never anticipated that the people of Alexandria could be inspired to rise above their fear of death which ruins Calyx's plan, leading to his definitive defeat.

Likely due to his original self being subjected to levin sickness and thereby dying, Calyx has come to loathe mortality, seeing the subject of death as an obstacle for mankind's evolution and limiting their potential rather than death being a natural part of life. He cannot understand why some would reject the idea of becoming Endless, uncaring of the damage his intentions would have on the other reflections. Yet, Calyx will not bother in debating his plans and views or hearing others' arguments, only concerning himself with his end goals.

After many miscalculations in his plan to retrieve the key and having the enemy attacking his memory core, Calyx began to panic, his stoic and emotionless demeanor shattering. His near-death experience terrified him to the point he could feel his “heart” beating faster, even though he had neither heart nor lungs anymore. His calm side gave way to anger momentarily as he lamented defeat and cursed his enemies for thwarting his plans.

Behind the scenes[]

Calyx appears to be inspired by the villains of Final Fantasy IX. Garland's goal likewise was to direct Terra's fusion with Gaia to preserve the fading Terran population. Similarly, Calyx attempts to preserve Alexandria's current status by turning Alexandrians into Endless.

Calyx also shares some similarities with Kuja, the main antagonist of Final Fantasy IX. Since Calyx was going to die at young age, he fears death and goes into every length to ensure he lives on. Kuja, too, subconsciously fears death and seeks to make sure he will not be replaced or discarded, but unlike Calyx when Kuja realizes his mortality, he goes insane and intends to end the world.

Etymology[]

The calyx is the outermost whorl of flower parts, comprising the sepals. It was adopted from the Latin calyx, which is derived from the Ancient Greek κᾰ́λῠξ (kắlŭx) meaning "a covering of a flower or fruit".

Citations[]