The Threat of the Void

Having finally finished FFXIII-2, I was struck by an odd similarity in the plot to the story of FFTA2. Both games feature an unworldly threat breaking through a rift between worlds, and the bleedthrough of creatures and power from a dark otherrealm. Both also feature the idea of seals placed upon the rifts, holding the spread of the corruption at bay.

This is hardly the first time the Void has been a threat in the worlds of Final Fantasy, however. Exdeath tried to consume the world with it in FFV. The Cloud of Darkness had a similar plan in FFIII. Gilgamesh has been a wanderer of the void in many of his appearances. And, of course, Dissidia shows us the threat of the void to all the worlds of Final Fantasy.

So what exactly is the void, what is its nature, why is it a threat, and what connection does it hold to the worlds of the series?

In most games, it is shown as a consuming, corrupting force. In XIII-2 and Dissidia, we see the results of its corruption unchecked.

But XIII-2 and FFTA2 also give us another insight into the Void. The Voidbeasts and the Neukhia. Though often described (and, indeed, named) for being empty, in both of these games, the Void has life, of a sort. Beasts, demons, creatures from beyond, that spread into our world through the rifts, along with the Void's corruption.

So is the Void as empty as we think? Or is it being driven from some force within? Had Luso not succeeded in sealing the Rift, would Ivalice's fate have been the same as Pulse's? What is the true power and malignancy of the void, and when will we take on this threat to the worlds that is greater than any villain the series has had so far?

Leaving it nebulous allows us to apply whatever we want to think of the void as. That is we think of what would be horrible to us, and that is what they are afraid of...

I feel its first appearance as the Cloud of Darkness largely explains what the Void is since CoD is pretty much a physical manifestation of it, but I get the impression that the Void is largely the primordial state of the universe, which is trying to undo the Order that has created the worlds we know.

How the Void is sentient is beyond me, perhaps a side effect of Order giving it a will but who is to say. The Void existed in the early games as a true balance to change the dynamics of good and evil. Its like the Nothingness in Kingdom Hearts in that matter, but its only been in recent years that the Void has really been brought in as some kind of story element though I don't necessarily feel all of them are connected, so I don't think the Void of FFV is the same as the Void from the Ivalice titles, or the ones from FNC XIII titles. They may share similar themes but I highly doubt someone at SE is actually trying to write in some grand mythology.

It was likely originally conceived as an villain archetype that required little explanation, exposition, or interaction with the protagonists. The Void, as a concept, can be as empty as its namesake implies it to be. I don't think that there should be any serious attempt to try and reconcile the concept of a void with other games in the series as they were all developed by different writers, right?