The Allagan Empire is the most technologically and magically advanced civilization in the history of Final Fantasy XIV. Existing during the Third Astral Era—over five millennia before the current game—Allag’s shadow looms over almost every major crisis in Eorzea.
They didn't just build an empire; they conquered nature, subjugated dragons, captured primals, and eventually destroyed themselves in an act of supreme hubris. Behind their miraculous rise was the subtle manipulation of the Ascian Emet-Selch, who guided their founding to eventually trigger a world-ending Calamity.
Here is the history of the world's greatest—and most terrifying—empire.
Early Third Astral Era
Founded by Emperor Xande, the Allagan Empire rapidly expanded across the three great continents of Aldenard, Ilsabard, and Othard. Their supremacy was driven by Aetherochemistry—a revolutionary discipline that seamlessly blended magic and science. During this era, they built the Crystal Tower (Syrcus Tower) to serve as a massive solar energy accumulator to power their sprawling, mechanized civilization.
After conquering the known world, the empire stagnated. Decadence replaced innovation. Desperate to restore Allag to its former glory, a brilliant but mad technologist named Amon sought to bring back the empire's founding father. Mastering the science of cloning, Amon successfully resurrected Emperor Xande.
Late Third Astral Era
The resurrected Xande was not the man he once was. Having experienced the absolute nothingness of death, he returned afflicted with deep nihilism, believing existence itself was meaningless. Seeking to return all of creation to a state of absolute nothingness, Xande forged a pact with the Cloud of Darkness, ruler of the Void. To summon her and her voidsent army into the Source, he needed an unimaginable amount of energy to tear open a Voidgate.
To generate the energy required for the Voidgate, Xande directed his forces toward the southern continent of Meracydia. The desperate Meracydians summoned their primal god, Bahamut, to defend them. Rather than simply killing the primal, the Allagans captured Bahamut using the anti-primal weapon Omega. They imprisoned the dragon within an artificial moon called Dalamud, launching it into orbit to absorb solar energy and siphon Bahamut's immense aether down to the Crystal Tower.
End of the Third Astral Era
Xande ordered Dalamud to beam a catastrophic amount of energy directly into the Crystal Tower to open the Voidgate. The earth's crust could not withstand the sheer density of the concentrated aether. The resulting tectonic collapse triggered the Fourth Umbral Calamity (The Calamity of Earth). Massive earthquakes shattered the continents, swallowed the Allagan civilization whole, and sank the Crystal Tower deep underground—ending their reign in a single day.
Even 5,000 years after their destruction, the relics of Allag continue to shape the modern world. Their technological marvels are treated as weapons of mass destruction by contemporary factions.
The Garlean Empire: Founded thousands of years later (also by Emet-Selch), Garlemald explicitly modeled itself after Allag, scavenging Allagan ruins for magitek and cloning technology to fuel their own conquests.
The Ultima Weapon: An Allagan superweapon unearthed by the Garleans. It was originally designed to absorb the aether of primals—a testament to Allag's terrifying ability to weaponize the gods themselves.
Azys Lla: A massive, floating continent shielded by a cloaking field, remaining hidden until the Heavensward expansion. It served as Allag's premier aetherochemical research facility, where they conducted horrific genetic experiments to create chimeras and engineered dragons into weapons.
The Crystal Tower: Unearthed following the Seventh Umbral Calamity, the tower becomes the linchpin for Eorzea's survival, eventually playing a critical role in time travel and traversing the rift to the First in the Shadowbringers expansion.