FF I, what exactly happened? (SPOILERS)

[Flashback007]

Every thing is now ok, so answer

I like playing FF I, but one thing keeps bothering me. What happened? Ok, I can follow it till the part that the Sages go explain what happened

400 years ago, we lost control of the winds, 200 years later, we lost the water, the Earth and Fire followed. The power that binds this world are gone.

That doesn't make sence for me, why does the fiends not come together but single. It says so, first Wind, then Water, Earth and finnaly Fire. If could come single why not with a few days difference. Now with a few years difference. That doesn't make any sense to me. Later in the game we find out that it is Garland that has been sending the Fiends towards the future (he lives in the past) with the help of the black orb. So maybe he decide to put those Fiends in different times? But why? And why? So we encouter Garland later in the game as endboss. Then this happens:

Remember, me Garland? You puny tought it had defeated me, but the Four Fiends send me 2000 years in to the past. From here I send the Four Fiends to the Future. The Fiends will send me back to here and the Time-Loop wil go on. After 2000 years I will be forgotten and the time-loop will close. I will live forever and you will meet your doom

So basicly what he says (I don't have any quotes from the Origins version, maybe they are the same, but post them please) is that after your party has beaten him, the Fiends from the past somehow managed to get him to their age. When he was all cured etc he send the Fiends as a thank you towards the future. Ok. This is confusing. If the Fiends have the power to get Garland back to the past, why didn't they already send theirselfves into the future. Maybe they are only able to get things to the past. But it still leaves some open questions. Like why did Garland send the Fiends to the future? To destroy your party or to destroy the world?
Why have the Fiends arrived in different times?
And more questions, so help me out to get the plot

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

Tiamat came 400 years ago, Kraken came 200 years ago, Lich came in the present era, and Marilith would have come 200 years later, but the defeat of Lich sped up her appearance.

Garland sent the Chaoses into the future so they would, in the future, send him back into the past...so he could send them into the future again, and so on. According to Garland, the repetition of this enough times would make him invincible. As for how that actually works, forget it.

[Captain Maxx Power]

It's one of these self-perpetuating 'Time-Loop' theories. I'll try to explain as best as possible

For this exercise A represents Garland, and B represents the Fiends

1.A is in the present. B sends him into the past
2.A sends past B into the future (a.k.a. present)
3.Repeat Step 1

And so on...

I know, it doesn't make any sense at all, it would probably create a big ol' nasty time paradox (yknow, one of those 'universe destroying' things). Which by Garland's rules wouldn't be so bad. It's this whole 'chicken and egg' problem that gets me. Who sent who back/forth first, Garland or the Fiends? The only logical reason I can think of is that Garland might be Immortal in some wierd kind of way, maybe caused by his defeat at the Temple of Fiends. I'm currently playing through Origins FF1 atm. I'll let you know if things are any clearer there

[commodorejohn]

It took me a LONG time to make head or tail of Garland's ending dialogue. Although the translation in FFI was quite decent, especially for the time, it seems that someone just...slipped. I don't know what the original dialogue was, since I don't read Japanese, so I'll take a crack at the American NES version. I'll go with Ryukishi's theory on the chronology, but I will point out that the Fiends didn't just appear at those times; they would've had to be around 2000 years ago for Garland to be able to send them to the present then, right?
So what Garland says it that the Fiends of 2000 years ago somehow pulled him back to their time at some point following his first defeat (when the Light Warriors rescue Princess Sara.) Then he sent the Fiends forward in time 2000 years, to his and the Light Warriors' present. What I don't understand is how this constitutes a repeating cycle, except that Garland's stated goal is to become immortal, so he would be around 2000 years later for the Fiends to send him back, but wouldn't he wind up living side-by-side with the him that hadn't been sent back yet?
All I know is, when 8-Bit Theater gets to this point in the game, it's going to be comic GOLD.

[DJZen]

1) 2000 years ago the Garland sends the Chaoses into the present
2) in the present, the Chaoses send Garland into the past
3) it being the past again, Garland send the Chaoses into the present.

See how this works cyclically?

[Flashback007]

But why did they come out differently, maybe there is another explantion. What if the Fiends were send at the same time, but that the weaker fiends (Kary and Lich) took longer to take over their element that the stronger fiends (Tiamat and Kraken).

About the time-traveling thing maybe this is an idea. The black orb plays a very important role. Is it not possible that the Fiends kept contact with Garland trough the black orb, something like a visueal phone?? When they saw that your party attacked Garland, they took him to their time. They healed him and as a thank Garland sended them to the future (where your party is). There the black orb was there to keep contact with Garland. That way Garland knew what your party was about to do, and came up with his idea about the unable to kill thing.