Good ol' Jormungandr - the World Serpent. This guy is one of Loki's children and was thrown into the great ocean that surrounds Midgard by Odin. Eventually Jormungandr grew so large that he circled the entirety of the world and was able to bite his own tail. This is how he earned his nickname "the World Serpent"…otherwise known as Midgardsormr, everyone's favorite crotchety old dragon god.

Oddly enough however, BOTH Midgardsormr and Jormungandr appear in FF14, despite being two names for the same creature. Jormungandr however is just the name of some lame trash mob from World of Darkness (in that room with the black hole things and the clones of Xande and Scylla).

Back to Midgardsormr! In FF14 ol' Middy makes his first appearance in the very first intro from waaaaaaaaay back in 1.0. The male Hyur PC stand-in (commonly referred to as "Derplander" - which is how I'll refer to him) has an Echo vision from an event in the game's back story - The Battle of Silvertear Skies.

Silvertear Skies was a battle which took place in the skies above Mor Dhona between the Garlean Empire and the Dravanian Horde. The Imperial Flagship, the Agrius, flew over Silvertear Lake which woke Midgardsormr from a long period of slumber. In response to being woken up from his nap, Midgardsormr tells the Garleans to get off his lawn in the most awesome way possible - he flies forth from Silvertear Lake, coils around the Agrius, and drops it down into the Lake - blowing up the Ceruleum tanks in the Agrius and seemingly killing Midgardsormr in the process, along with unleashing an Aethereal Seal that made the Primals easier to summon.

I know Midgardsormr has appeared in other Final Fantasies. The one that sticks out the most to me is FF7, where he appears in this famous scene:



I know that this post is about the FF14 version, but I am always reminded of this scene when I see his name in a Final Fantasy game.

***Mild FF14 Spoilers Below***
After what Midgardsormr does to us by the end of the 2.5 storyline, I would like to give him the same treatment Sephiroth did in FF7. (=

*****More Mild Spoilers in Response to Selestia*****

Come now, he didn't do anything bad to us. He just said, "Let's see if you're powerful in your own right rather than just being chosen."

Side note: The Japanese and English versions are slightly different in translation. He plays mind games in the English and apparently just sits there and gives a full exposition in the Japanese.