FFXV *spoilers*

Hello everyone, haven't posted on here for a while and I hope everyone is ok 😌.

I have done a lot of research and can't find any definitive answers so I thought I'd come on here and ask. So here goes:

Was Ardyn a king? A lot of people say no that he was just a healer but Ardyn had the power of kings.

Was he the first chosen king of light? Then because he absorbed the demons within him he was then rejected by the crystal and astrals.

Why did everyone including the astrals turn against him? After all he was healing the people not from what we are told he didn't do anything bad.

Who was in control Ardyn or Ifrit? A lot of people claim that Ifrit was in control over Ardyn, I did not get hat impression but could be wrong.

The English script isn't entirely clear on the "Was he a king?" question, but the Japanese text fortunately is. I actually just covered this in the chapter-by-chapter lore exposition section of the FFXV lore archive I just finished up:

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When Bahamut describes Ardyn with "One so impure of body and soul was deemed unworthy of the Crystal’s Light, and forbidden to ascend," by "ascend" he means "become king." This turn of phrasing for the English localization, while elegant, is confusing, coming as it does right after "A man cursed with life eternal, whose immortality stems from the selfsame scourge that wrought the daemons."

The reasonable implication to take from "deemed unworthy of the Crystal's light, and forbidden to ascend" is that it ties directly to Ardyn becoming "cursed with life eternal." In other words, that Ardyn cannot die and "ascend" because he became "one so impure of body and soul" that the Crystal rejects his soul returning to itself, the soul of the planet.

This understanding, while the reasonable conclusion to be drawn, is an unfortunate misunderstanding encouraged by the wording chosen here for the localization. What Bahamut actually says in Japanese is その汚れた身体を聖石に拒まれ王位に就くことなく葬られた愚かな男. A more direct translation of this would be "A foolish man who was rejected by the Holy Stone for that unclean body and was buried without ascending to the throne."

Ardyn's immortality, meanwhile, is a result of the Starscourge itself rather than due to the Crystal's rejection of him for absorbing the Starscourge.
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As for why Ardyn fell out of favor with the Crystal, I think Tashasaurous is correct that he was trying to avoid dying the way Noctis had to, so he went about trying to defeat the scourge by absorbing it. He probably thought it was good enough and the Crystal disagreed.

To become the King of Light, one must have a pure heart and soul and absorbing demonic energy would corrupt that person.

I'm guessing he thought that he could rid the world of the starcourge if he absorbed it all himself. Then the crystal saw him as unlean and unfit, and rejected him. The king of light cannot be full of darkness.

The crystal must look for light in the person's heart, as Noctis helped a lot of people out without having to on his journey, which will have made his light strong. It seems like Ardyn didn't want to help with minor things, just wanted to look good by getting rid of the starscourge.

Thank you for your replies everyone. I understood that he was the first chosen king of light but what I mean is was he actually a king of Lucis? Like Regis for example. I have been told that Insomnia wasn't around during before his fall from grace. But I'm assuming he was a king? And in the cosmogony books is that Ardyn in the pictures of the king?

No, he was just in the running for it I think. The other guy became King instead because he was accepted by the crystal.

ultima espio said:

To become the King of Light, one must have a pure heart and soul and absorbing demonic energy would corrupt that person.

I'm guessing he thought that he could rid the world of the starcourge if he absorbed it all himself. Then the crystal saw him as unlean and unfit, and rejected him. The king of light cannot be full of darkness.

The crystal must look for light in the person's heart, as Noctis helped a lot of people out without having to on his journey, which will have made his light strong. It seems like Ardyn didn't want to help with minor things, just wanted to look good by getting rid of the starscourge.

Click to expand...

While possibly true, I don't think there is anything available in canon to verify this. Noct, after all, was just five years old when the Crystal chose him, and so was hardly a tried and tested man of principle.

Harley Quinn said:

Thank you for your replies everyone. I understood that he was the first chosen king of light but what I mean is was he actually a king of Lucis? Like Regis for example. I have been told that Insomnia wasn't around during before his fall from grace. But I'm assuming he was a king? And in the cosmogony books is that Ardyn in the pictures of the king?

Click to expand...

This is answered in my post above. Ardyn never got to ascend to the throne.

The Twilight Mexican said:

ultima espio said:

To become the King of Light, one must have a pure heart and soul and absorbing demonic energy would corrupt that person.

I'm guessing he thought that he could rid the world of the starcourge if he absorbed it all himself. Then the crystal saw him as unlean and unfit, and rejected him. The king of light cannot be full of darkness.

The crystal must look for light in the person's heart, as Noctis helped a lot of people out without having to on his journey, which will have made his light strong. It seems like Ardyn didn't want to help with minor things, just wanted to look good by getting rid of the starscourge.

Click to expand...

While possibly true, I don't think there is anything available in canon to verify this. Noct, after all, was just five years old when the Crystal chose him, and so was hardly a tried and tested man of principle.

Harley Quinn said:

Thank you for your replies everyone. I understood that he was the first chosen king of light but what I mean is was he actually a king of Lucis? Like Regis for example. I have been told that Insomnia wasn't around during before his fall from grace. But I'm assuming he was a king? And in the cosmogony books is that Ardyn in the pictures of the king?

Click to expand...

This is answered in my post above. Ardyn never got to ascend to the throne.

Click to expand...

I think it pretty much answered the question in general. Or maybe they decided to erase him from memory so that only Noct would be able to know this. After all, he did change his last name.