The President of Ascension Arcadia Championship is a non-playable character in Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail. He serves as the main antagonist of the Arcadion raid series storyline.

History

Before Dawntrail

The President of Ascension Arcadia Championship was a native of Lindblum, Alexandria's neighbor and enemy during the Storm Surge. His ancestry included a noble patron of the theatrical arts, and originally intended to pursue stage acting but instead inherited the Arcadion from his predecessor. He intended to deliver truly spectacular fights to the arena, and for this he introduced the use of feral souls to the fighters. The Arcadion's popularity soared with this new method of fighting.

The President personally introduced Retsarra, Hector and Eheeya to the Arcadion.

But when the first ever fighter developed psychonekrosis through the usage of feral souls, the President immediately regretted ever introducing them. He began to search for a cure by recruiting a scientist at Origenics, who unearthed Lindblum's abandoned research into the Lindwurm, a serpentine beast native to the nation with an advanced regenerative factor. This factor was named "Drop of Life", and it was capable of curing psychonekrosis. However, the Lindwurm needed to reach maturity first, and in order to control it, the President used feral soul infusion to absorb it into himself. He couldn't let this knowledge become public until the right time, so he confined himself to his chamber resembling a Lindblum theater in the upper levels of the Arcadion. Even though he permanently remained in the form of a Lindwurm, he was still able to maintain his sense of self, and through his regulator he was able to control machinery and address the public when needed.

As more and more fighters developed psychonekrosis, the President had them immortalized, a cover story for their retirement. In truth, he did this in order to confine them into capsules which keep them alive in cold stasis, until the cure can be obtained. He also learned that the Lindwurm's regenerative factor was unable to be shared with others through himself, and so his only hope was that one day, a worthy fighter would rise and defeat him, since the cure could only be obtained by extracting it from the Lindwurm's heart. The heavyweight champion known as the Tyrant fought him once, but not even he was strong enough to defeat the Lindwurm. Aside from the Tyrant, he confided his status to Metem, Vamp Fatale and the Xtremes Deep Blue and Red Hot.

Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail

The President's hopes were answered, when he heard that a foreign warrior had defeated Zoraal Ja. He asked Metem to recruit this warrior, the Warrior of Light, to join the Arcadion as a challenger. Knowing that the Warrior wouldn't fight with feral souls, the President believed they are exactly the one who has the power to defeat the Lindwurm. The Warrior agreed to fight in the Arcadion, and they soon triumphed in the light-heavyweight division. During their coronation ceremony, they were challenged by Eutrope, the Wicked Thunder, who left the Arcadion and had her licence revoked. But despite this, the President sanctioned a match between her and the Warrior, which the Warrior eventually won. Eutrope then revealed the truth about psychonekrosis to her sisters Yaana, the Black Cat, and Neyuni. Against the President's script, they began to warn other light-heavyweight and cruiserweight fighters about psychonekrosis. As a result, he urged Hector, the Brute Bomber, to obtain unsanctioned feral souls for a grudge match. These turned him into chimeric beast that the Warrior also defeated, but to the belief of those present, he perished for utilizing multiple feral souls at once and already having contracted psychonekrosis, with the public believing that the fight was his last and he went into retirement. In reality, the President arranged for Hector's death to be faked, having provided him with less-potent feral souls for his transformation. The championship organizers retrieved his body from the construction site where the match took place, treating his psychonekrosis and reversing his transformation, though this confined Hector to the Arcadion's infirmary to maintain the deception.

After the Warrior became the Cruiserweight champion by defeating Retsarra, the Howling Blade, the President had Eutrope and Neyuni kidnapped in order to coerce them to continue the tournament. He also agreed to release them and provide the Drop of Life, should they become the grand champion. The Warrior had no choice.

The Warrior worked their way through heavyweight division by defeating Vamp Fatale, the Xtremes that replaced Wicked Thunder, and the Tyrant, eventually becoming the grand champion of Ascension Arcadia. The President then congratulated the Warrior and said they were right about them. He asked them and Yaana, who acted as the Warrior's second, to follow them to his chambers, with Metem following them with cameras in tow.

What awaited the Warrior and Yaana was the President's current form: the Lindwurm, and also all the immortalized fighters in cold stasis capsules, including Eutrope. The President then revealed the truth about psychonekrosis to the public and asked the Warrior to defeat him in order to obtain the cure.

The Warrior was pushed to their limit due to the Lindwurm's immense regenerative abilities, but in the end they were able to defeat him. Yaana was saddened, believing her sister was dead like the others. But Metem then revealed she and the other immortalized are still alive, but they must now obtain the Lindwurm's heart to create the cure. He then told them the whole story about how the President was able to revive the Arcadion with feral soul usage, his instant regret about it once the psychonekrosis was first diagnosed and his intent to use the Lindwurm as the cure. But Metem spoke too much, and the Lindwurm regenerated in the meantime. The other fighters arrived to help, even Hector, to the surprise of everyone. He asked other fighters to give him aether and he conjured a large fireball, which infused the Warrior to deliver a strong kick, knocking the Lindwurm down. The heavyweight fighters arrived, with the Tyrant revealing the President had confided the truth to them long ago, and since then have been acting in order to push the Warrior to this moment. The Tyrant delivered the final blow to the Lindwurm and obtained the heart.

Everyone with psychonekrosis were cured and the Arcadion entered into a new era without feral souls. All fighters stopped wearing regulators now that they don't need them anymore. Metem took the President's duties and he held a belief that wherever the President is now, he is happy about the Arcadion's future.

Characteristics

Appearance

The President is a middle-aged Hyune man wearing a suit and a tie, gloves, and a headset on his left ear.

After transforming into the Lindwurm, the President has a large, serpentine body and two sets of five arms sporting clawed hands on their ends, with four on each side webbed together to form wings. His two, non-webbed arms are capable of bursting and generating draconic heads in their places, which are capable of extending and spitting poison, as well as regenerating back to arms. The orange, glowing organ in his chest is the heart and the source of his regenerative powers.

In the Savage-exclusive phase of his encounter, the Lindwurm's heart, instead of becoming inert, regenerates an entirely new but smaller Lindwurm, this time a muscular humanoid form with serpentine traits. This new Lindwurm has many smaller snakes coming from his head that resemble hair, clawed hands and feet, along with a draconic familiar resembling the dragon head arms from his first form that wraps around his body. He is capable of creating identical copies of the familiar called Lindschrats that are able to assist him in battle, which transform into the humanoid Lindwurm and can further clone themselves as well. He is also able to summon humanoid mannequins into the arena which take on the form of the Warrior of Light. Additionally, he is capable of channeling the elements into his attacks, as well as having control over space and time by being able to send all combatants to another dimension and opening portals for his clones to jump through. Like in his first form, the heart is at the center of his chest.

Personality

The President is presented as a controlling man privy to the Arcadion's dark secrets, intent on providing entertainment to the public even if it cost the fighters their very lives. An entertainer by nature, he is obsessed with maintaining control over the narrative, deeming any deviations from his "script" punishable. His true nature is a mystery to the public, with Eheeya remarking that the last interaction they had in person was three years prior.

In reality, the President regretted introducing feral souls to the Arcadion's fighters and set out to cure them at any cost, even if it meant tarnishing his own legacy. In keeping his line with his theatrical personality and showmanship, he wrote his "script" to present himself as the heel of the story and the Warrior of Light as the protagonist who would save the immortalized fighters from psychonekrosis, becoming the stage actor he originally dreamed of being before inheriting the Arcadion in the end.

Gameplay

The President is fought as the Lindwurm in the AAC Heavyweight M4 and its Savage mode as the final boss of the Arcadion raid series in Dawntrail, with an exclusive second phase in the latter encounter like all final floor Savage mode encounters from Stormblood onwards.