A parallel to Ardyn’s story is found in some of the game’s NPCs. You may remember Ezma from the Meldacio Hunter HQ. She’s Dave’s mother, and the leader of the Hunters community. “Ezma” is what the English localization calls her, but in Japanese, her name is “Izania” (イザニア) — strikingly close to “Izunia” (イズニア), the surname Ardyn took from Noctis’s ancestor, who he claims betrayed him.
During Dave’s last quest, “The Witch of the Woods,” we learn that Izania vilified her sister, Kimya, spreading lies that she was a witch, and causing her exile into a forest ...
In case the hints seem too vague, FFXV’s Scenario Side Ultimania does outright show that
Kimya and Izania have the same last name.
This would then seem to also inform the derivation of Ardyn’s first name. Kimya lives in exile in the Malmalam Thicket. William Shakespeare’s “As You Like it” is set primarily in the Forest of Arden (“アーデンの森” in Japanese translations; note that the spelling “Arden” takes in Japanese is identical to that of the Japanese spelling our Ardyn’s name takes), where a duke has been exiled by his brother — the usurper of his duchy.
You may well remember that Final Fantasy XV has borne the influence of William Shakespeare from early in development, when it was still entitled “Final Fantasy Versus XIII.” This was, perhaps, made most obvious by the inclusion in early trailers, such as
this one from 2008, of a quote from Act II, Scene 2 of “Hamlet”: “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
Parallels with “Hamlet” are numerous in FFXV: betrayed kings; usurpers; a decaying world; avenging (or vengeful) princes who die while lifting decay from the lands; the princes’ drowned betrotheds; the brothers of those betrotheds, who maintain long rivalries with the princes until their animosity is put to rest. To be sure, there are a few reversals at work as well, even within the imagery in play (e.g. imagery of the sun denotes corruption in “Hamlet,” while Noctis seeks to restore the Dawn in FFXV), but for the most part, the themes remain reasonably intact and readily identifiable.
Of those themes, usurpation is prominent and highly visible, as is also the case in “As You Like It.”
The parallels we’re concerned with should now be obvious: both Izunia (イズニア) and Izania (イザニア) spread lies about someone close to them, attributing to them an evil, supernatural nature (Ardyn as a daemon; Kimya as a witch), leading to the other person becoming a pariah within their community while Izunia and Izania (the Izzies?) became the leaders of those communities.
An interesting contrast to be found here, though, is that while Kimya wishes her betrayer’s heir well, Ardyn most obviously does not. Kimya sends encouraging advice back to Dave by way of Noctis, while everything Ardyn does is ultimately for the purpose of making Noctis miserable. Much like the exiled duke in “As You Like It,” Kimya seems to find contentment in her situation and remains kind.
All that we’ve examined here in relation to Izunia and Izania, as well as in relation to FFXV and the work of Shakespeare, makes for yet another hint, via thematic parallels in this case, that Ardyn and Izunia — and thus, Ardyn and Noctis — are related.
