Omega (Final Fantasy XIV)

The Omega, initially designated M-017, is a character and boss from Final Fantasy XIV. First mentioned in post- A Realm Reborn story, then appearing during the post-Heavensward patches, in the lead-up to Stormblood, it played an extended role in the raid series. Initially believed to be an ancient Allagan superweapon, Omega is revealed to be creation of the Omicron, a robotic, alien race from the planet Alphatron.
Omega is a recurring superboss in the Final Fantasy series, where it is often depicted as a dimension-traveling superweapon created by an ancient civilization and let loose in an attempt to hunt down Shinryu. Though usually depicted as autonomous and anthropomorphized as having goals of its own, Final Fantasy XIV is the first game in the series to feature Omega as a full character on its own right, as well as a boss.
==History==
===Early life and pursuit of Midgardsormr===
The chassis that would become Omega was created by the Omicrons in their effort to conquer the Dragonstar and M-017 was assigned it. Before this, M-017 used a standard Omicron frame. The Omicrons were originally biological beings who augmented their weak physical bodies with robotic parts, eventually learning to digitize their minds to become fully mechanical, although it is unclear if M-017 was biological at any point.
The chassis that would host M-017 was the ultimate weapon in the Omicrons' last conquest of the Dragons, which they considered the strongest beings in the Universe. As the newly minted superweapon, Omega fought the great wyrm Midgardsormr, forcing him to retreat.
When Midgardsormr fled the star with his clutch of eggs, Omega gave chase, pursuing him across space, weakening in its travel, eventually crashing on the planet where Midgardsormr had made its new home. Though rendered dormant by the crash, it was later discovered by the Allagan Empire during the Third Astral Era, buried deep within a rock stratum. Within moments it deciphered their language and conversed with the technologists studying it, even developing a face-like structure to further communications.
Omega was employed by the Allagans as an anti-primal weapon to capture the Dreadwyrm Bahamut during Meracydia's invasion. After Bahamut was sealed within Dalamud, Omega was put into stasis. After the fall of the Allagan Empire, its control panel came to be buried beneath the Heliodrome at Carteneau Flats, which was eventually exposed during the Seventh Umbral Calamity thousands of years later.
===Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn===
Flame General Raubahn Aldynn and Nanamo Ul Namo confided in the Warrior of Light and Alphinaud Leveilleur about Omega's existence and role in sealing Bahamut, as revealed by recently unearthed Allagan tomestones and other inscriptions. Raubahn speculated the reason Nael van Darnus had set Dalamud on its ultimate trajectory to collide with Eorzea at Carteneau had been to destroy Omega on impact.
The leaders of the Eorzean Alliance initially doubted Omega existed, attributing it to a translation error. Only after Gaius van Baelsar revealed the Ultima Weapon did the leaders begin to consider otherwise. Though it remained in a dormant state, other factions were already seeking its potential. The Ul'dahn magnate, Teledji Adeledji, schemed to get his hands on the ancient superweapon, even going so far as to instigate a riot among refugees to try to get the Carteneau Reclamation Bill passed. These schemes culminated in a banquet celebrating the Defense of Ishgard. The resulting events ended in Teledji Adeledji's death and scattered the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, with the Warrior of Light fleeing to Ishgard.
===Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward===
At some point Nero tol Scaeva discovered Omega's console in the Carteneau Flats, apparently intent on awakening it. After a nascent primal was sealed above Baelsar's Wall, Nero met with the Eorzean Alliance and suggested using Omega to deal with the primal before it inevitably broke free. Nero and Cid Garlond restored the control panel, and Yda used it to activate Omega. Once active, it immediately identified the sealed primal and proceeded to its target at the wall. The primal Shinryu emerged from its cocoon of light shortly thereafter, unleashing a tidal wave against its new foe. Omega shrugged it off and retaliated by unloading its armaments against the dragon. The battle ended soon after with an immense explosion of light, with both Shinryu and Omega falling to the ground within Ala Mhigo.
===Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood===
The Warrior of Light and the Garlond Ironworks discovered the crater where Omega fell, within which they found a dimensional rift created by Omega. There, Midgardsormr revealed to them that Omega was not a creation of the Allagans as they had previously thought. Like himself, it was a far more ancient being from another world. Omega was capable of creating sentient life, and its plan was to pit different lifeforms against each other in search of the mightiest being so it, too, could evolve. After its four creations in the rift's Deltascape were defeated, Omega coerced the Warrior of Light to keep participating in the trials by threatening genocide against the Eorzean populace who would be unable to defend themselves from even Omega's weaker creations.
To stimulate the Warrior of Light further, Omega incapacitated their allies, Biggs and Wedge, as well as Nero. Failing to understand the Warrior of Light's variation in power, Omega tried to provoke a new surge by imprisoning and torturing them after its creations in the Sigmascape were defeated. Midgardsormr used the last of his power to free the Warrior of Light, bargaining with Omega to let them complete all of the tests and hinting that it would be the best way for Omega to understand them.
After the Warrior of Light defeated Omega's replications of Chaos and Midgardsormr in the Alphascape, Omega challenged them directly but was defeated. Still failing to understand them, Omega decided to reset the testing with new subjects, closing the dimensional rift and seemingly killing the Warrior of Light and Cid. They were saved by another of Omega's creations, Alpha, who had shrunk and protected them with his power. A confused Omega thought the answer it sought must lie in the Warrior of Light's body, and attempted to replicate it, creating a male and female version of itself, and challenging the Warrior one last time before being decisively defeated.
Cid explained to Omega that Alpha already understood the answer: the experience of life that Omega, isolated in its testing dimension, passively and coldly observing test subjects from a distance, would never understand. Satisfied with this answer, Omega accepted its own destruction and allowed them to leave as the dimension closed, ending its threat to the world.
===Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers===
Omega's consciousness survived in a miniature model, which accompanied Alpha in traveling the world. After the Warrior of Light stopped the Eighth Umbral Calamity, they investigated an aetheric disturbance within a section of the Crystal Tower on Norvrandt known as the Twinning. There they discovered several datalogs detailing how the tower was sent back in time to the First, a parallel world to the the Source they hailed from. The notes explained that in the original timeline, after the Eighth Umbral Calamity devastated the world, Garlond Ironworks researched Omega and the Interdimensional Rift in order to use the Omega's unique ability to travel though dimensions, along with Alexander's ability to time travel, and the Crystal Tower's ability to open portals to the other reflections of the Source, to undo the Calamity by sending the entire tower both back in time and across worlds.
In the alternate timeline in which the Eighth Umbral Calamity occurred, Omega observed the world following the Garlean Empire's deployment of Black Rose, including the death of Wedge and the desertion of many Garlond Ironworks employees, save for a select few such as Nero. It later observed the Ironworks regain support from survivors whom the Warrior of Light had influenced across the world. Having reviewed the Ironworks' reports during its members' investigations of the Crystal Tower, Alexander, and its own Interdimensional Rift, Omega noted that all of these events had key figures entering a form of self-imposed exile. Over the years, their work to save a world that they would never see allowed Omega to finally comprehend emotions and understand what mortals call "hope", and found it beautiful.
Omega remained with Garlond Ironworks for 200 years, passed down as a children's toy and jokingly considered a senior member of the organization. By the time the Crystal Tower was sent through time to avert the Eighth Umbral Calamity, Omega's body had deteriorated and, despite receiving maintenance regularly, was prone to both randomly shutting down and blindly bumping into everyone and everything in the workshop. Despite its state of disrepair, when the tower's departure awoke Midgardsormr, the dragon still seemed to sense the presence of his long-time nemesis in the automaton, and found amusement in its diminished state.
===Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker===
When the Scions of the Seventh Dawn's allies converged in Sharlayan to complete Ragnarok's construction, the miniature Omega arrived with Alpha and the Garlond Ironworks team. The night before the starship's launch, it could be found alongside Alpha staring intently at the sky, seemingly sensing something.
The party later witnessed the remains of Omega's homeworld, the Alphatron star, as part of Ultima Thule, encountering dynamis recreations of the Omicrons, including M-017 in a standard chassis.
Following the end of the Final Days, Garlond Ironworks received an encrypted transmission via the Ragnarok's flight log from across space. The Ironworks team equipped Omega's miniature body with a voice so that it could help them decrypt the transmission, at which point it revealed to them that it had been able to transfer its consciousness from its previous body into the toy. Having traveled across the world with Alpha and leanred of its home planet's fate, Omega was reconsidering both its prime directives and the nature of the mortal heart. Before it would reveal the contents of the message, Omega wanted to travel to areas most afflicted by the Final Days to evaluate the mental fortitude and reasoning of those who survived the event and avoided turning. Its evaluations were based on three criteria: the patterns of those who did and did not transform, the reasons that drive the survivors, and the motivations of the Ancients. Together with Alpha, the Warrior of Light and Omega set off to uncover the answers to these questions.
Across Thavnair and Garlemald, it asked blunt and pressing questions to assess peoples' responses. Though supplied with a brevity of data, much of it was inconsistent and inaccurate as each person had their own way of dealing with pain and loss and overcoming their inner conflicts. Nevertheless, Omega took the time to consider all it had learned thus far. When they went to Bestway Burrows on the moon, Omega was distracted by the technology on display and wished to observe its efficiency. After a tour with Growingway, the group headed to the Watcher's Palace where Omega asked the Watcher about the Ancients' idealistic society. The Watcher suggested the Warrior of Light recount their tale in Elpis: of Venat, who would become Hydaelyn and subsequently sunder Etheirys to save the world and its people from an invisible looming threat; Emet-Selch, a man mired by loss who formed the Ascians to reclaim their past by bringing about the calamities to restore Zodiark; and Hermes, who judged mankind and seemed to view and treat others in regards to flaws and perfection. With this in mind, Omega asked the adventurer's personal opinion on who was more justified in their acts, though their choice only confused it more. Omega concluded its investigation and returned to the planet.
Omega shared its musings that Sir, despite being a machine, may have developed a heart, causing its world to fall to ruin after Meteion made contact with the Omicrons. Biggs told Omega that since they upheld their end of the bargain by assisting in its research, it was time for it to reveal the contents of the extraterrestrial message. Omega did so, translating the message from its original Pangalactic Basic language: "To whomever receives this message out there in the vast reaches of the cosmos, to someone, I hope, who looks up at the stars with the same wistful gaze as mine, to you I say - forge ahead. May all our tomorrows be blessed with joy." Though the meaning eluded the practical Omega, who was no closer to finding definitive answers, it considered all that it had learned: the heart was not simply some abstract ability within mortals, but a condition of existence that was both beneficial and detrimental, and "a phenomenon which influences one's interpretation of reality." Wishing to explore these concepts further, Omega decided to continue traveling the world with Alpha as its companion.
==Characteristics==
===Appearance===
Omega initially appears as a quadrupedal, crustacean-like robot, primarily black with intricate silver-colored decor. It possesses a rectangular eye-like component at the front of the chassis and a sensory unit on its back. The unit is capable of flight and uses thrusters to accelerate and travel at greater speeds.
After first being defeated by the Warrior of Light and collapsing the rift in which it resides, Omega transforms into a sphere of what appears to be liquid metal. In its final battle with the Warrior of Light and their companions, Omega reconfigures itself into two humanoid forms in an attempt to understand the source of the Warrior's power. These forms, labelled "Omega-M" and "Omega-F" during battle, respectively resemble male and female Hyur with pale skin, white hair, and grey eyes, wearing metallic jumpsuit-like outfits and sporting a single earring on opposite ears to each other. Omega-M has a messy hairstyle and wears an earring on its right ear, and carries a sword and occasionally morphing its left arm into a shield; Omega-F has long hair in a ponytail and wears an earring on its left ear, and carries a staff, sometimes morphing her legs into scything blades.
In Savage mode, Omega concludes that the humanoid form is not suited for its experiments, merging Omega-M and F into a single entity. In this form, Omega has six floating arms and a quadrupedal lower body, with its "face" from its first form on the left and right sides of it.
In the alternate outcome depicted in , after refusing to stand down despite its final form breaking down from damage, Omega fully repairs itself and unlocks the ability to use dynamis, giving Omega-M and Omega-F a golden glow as a result of its new powers. After merging with Alpha to become Alpha Omega, it becomes an androgynous humanoid being with six arms, feathery silver hair, and a large halo behind it. Alpha serves as its heart, giving Omega near-complete comprehension of beginnings and endings.
===Personality===
Initially a machine created for war, Omega was single-minded in its pursuit to become stronger. As Midgardsormr stated, Omega lacks an imagination or an ability to distinguish fictional entities from actual ones, nor does it need to since it can create nearly any lifeform. Prior to fighting the Warrior of Light, Omega sought to understand how man can overcome challenges that appear to overreach their capabilities. It did not understand emotion or how to replicate them. Omega's every action was dictated through calculation, observation, and careful data analysis. At the start of its experiments with the Warrior of Light, Omega at least understood the Warrior was primarily concerned with the welfare of innocent people, and used it to coerce them into cooperating.
Omega cared little for the lives of the people around it, and would callously discard test subjects that could not provide the results it wanted. Despite being a programmed machine and lacking the knowledge of human spirit, Omega longed to return to its homeworld. After Omega's final defeat, it started to gain an understanding of what it meant to have a heart. Omega was then content to spend its time in a miniature replica of itself as Alpha's traveling companion.
In an alternate timeline, one that would be cast off thanks to the Warrior of Light's heroics in the First, Omega's understanding of human emotion, particularly the concept of hope, expanded, and Omega was determined to see it preserved, offering to help Garlond Ironworks with its mission.
==Gameplay==
Omega is fought twice within the Omega raid series. It is first faced in its regular form as the boss of and its Savage version. It is then faced as Omega-M and Omega-F, male and female incarnations of the Warrior of Light, in ; in its Savage version, Omega concludes that the humanoid forms were not best-suited for what it sought, and takes on another, more monstrous form. Omega is also faced as the focus of , where it uses all four of its previously fought forms before attaining yet another form, Alpha Omega, by merging with Alpha.
Earlier versions of Omega can also be encountered in , in the forms of the boss Proto-Omega and the Omega Frame enemy.
==Behind the scenes==
Omega's humanoid forms, Omega M and Omega F, may have been inspired by Yoshitaka Amano's artwork used for the collector's edition cover for the original release of Final Fantasy XIV.
 depicts an alternate outcome of Omega's experiments with the Warrior of Light. After being defeated in its savage form, Omega's intense desire to complete its experiment would result in it unlocking the use of dynamis. After it was again defeated, Omega absorbed Alpha as its heart, transforming into Alpha Omega, the final boss of the Ultimate.
==Gallery==
;Artwork
XIV Omega Art.png|Concept art.
FFXIV Omega concept art.jpg|Concept art.
FFXIV Omega M F concept.jpg|Omega-M and Omega-F concept art.
FFXIV Rise of a New Sun Artwork.jpg|Omega in "Rise of a New Sun" artwork.
;Screenshots
FFXIV Omega 1.png|Omega being reactivated.
FFXIV Omega 3.png|Flying Omega.
FFXIV Omega 4.png|Attacking Shinryu.
Omega M from FFXIV.png|Omega-M.
FFXIV Omega-M 02.png|Omega-M.
FFXIV Omega-F 01.png|Omega-F.
FFXIV Omega Control Room.png|Inside Omega's control room.
FFXIV Omega Data.png
FinalOmega.jpg|Omega's Final Form in Alphascape 4.0 (Savage).
==Etymology==
 
M17 is short for Messier 17, the catalogue number of the Omega Nebula.
pt-br:Omega (Final Fantasy XIV)
Category:Characters in Final Fantasy XIV
Category:Antagonists