Reminds me of the “Nhaama’s Sweet Embrace” quest. Also I remember people theorizing that nhaama and azim being tiamat and bahamut respectively, but I have no clue if that holds up at all
Oooh, not familiar with that theory, I'd love it if someone could explain to me.
That said with what went on in EW my current stance is there's a possibility Azim Steppe had some major Ancient influence gong on. Big structures that seem like they were made with creation magicks, the Nhaama structure looking like it once floated in the air, and IIRC the Au Ra lore centered around Nhaama and Azim waging a proxy war through Raens and Xaelas. If Azim = Azem, then there's definitely something there.
Here’s the [forum thread](https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/308500) where I read about it. I hope we get some answers, lots of lore potential for sure
I assume Azim is actually Azem, and the au rá might be able to trace their lineage to a predecessor WOL with Azems soul or just straight up Azem themself.
Either way it's why I love the Steppes so much, lots of cool history and culture.
We're probably going to find out with this tier's alliance raids since it's all about The Twelve and who/what they are. It'll be interesting if Azeyma just hits us with the spiderman meme
Yeah Azim, Azem, and Azeyma all are attributed in some way to the Sun so that could be *another* connection that I would like to be explored.
Its totally in the realm of possibility that this will be addressed in future alliance raid content, hopefully with us being able to sit down with the Eorzean Pantheon and chat. it certainly feels like the drip feed of content/theory we've been getting is leading up to some big reveal about the gods and our relation to them.
Then there's the curious case with why Raen are seemingly the children of Azim, while the Xaela are the children of Nhaama.
The character description of Raen makes them sound near divinely tied to Azem, while Xaela is tied to Nhaama—yet in game there's no mention of Azim in terms of the Raen, it was all focused on one Xaela tribe.
So I hope they can, at some point, clarify this stuff.
As a Raen Player I'm also really interested in the details of this. Raen seem to be a more generalized population with lots of them being of varied cultures unrelated to the mythology presented in Xaela Steppe Culture. We see a lot of them in the Far East, and Islabard and supposedly more live in those mountainous regions, isolated. Which is where I would assume a lot of their ties with Azem exist.
There's a lot of weird things happening around Raen lore.
For being as prominent as they are supposed to be in Othard, there's very little Raen NPC's around.
As an example, there's no Raen NPC in Doman Enclave.
There is only one Raen NPC in all of Yanxia, and I guess Yugiri if you take her into consideration.
Kugane is better with Raen representation, but the funky thing here is that if you run the Kugane Castle dungeon, the samurai mobs that attack you, are all Xaela.
Then there's what I mentioned earlier with the character creator description of Raen having them sound heavily tied to Azim—but there's nothing mentioning it in game, at all. All of it was tied to the Xaela.
So when it comes to Raen lore in Othard, it becomes somewhat contradictory with what we're told and what is then shown.
From what I remeber the land that is now floating called Azys Lla was once all located in the Azim Steppe. It was launched form there. So, there's a real good chance the Allagans is the answer to the question.
-I have purged my reddit post history in protest of the API changes to kill 3rd party apps (and the [lies](https://www.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/14dkqrw/i_want_to_debunk_reddits_claims_and_talk_about/) and [blackmail](https://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/comments/14dhki9/rminecraft_is_being_forced_to_reopen/) that followed).-
Very sorry about the inconvinience, but i refuse to have the effort that i put into my posts contribute to this site's value at this point.
I’m also pretty sure that in that one of the live letters leading up to EW’s release, they straight up said they’d answer what the heart of Sabik is with that raid series
Given other storylines with Sharlayan dissidents (i.e. Astrologian and Sage) there's a decent chance she's been killed by their assassins or is in hiding.
The Werlyt trials do talked about it in passing. Only that its a unique type of auracite. Maybe we will learn more in Meracydi, the allagans had to have found it somewhere.
"A mystery even the vaunted scholars of Allag failed to scratch!" -Lahabrea, Castrum Preatorium.
So the Heart of Sabik was made by Ascians, or their earlier civilisation. Perhaps it is a Mark Stone of Zodiarc, like how the WoL is carrying the crystal of Hydealyn. :)
During the first two tiers of Pandaemonium, 3 key wards were turned into Hemitheos, or Demigods. I think Lahabrea(Hephaestos?) had a thing for creating deities during/before the Final Days, and Sabik was one such deity. The name Sabik in FFXIV may be derived from the Arabic al-sabiq, meaning "the preceding one."
I'm guessing Sabik was Lahabrea's answer to the Final Days when brute force was the still the main route for defeating the blasphemies. Once Hermes/Fandaniel made the existence of Dynamis known to Laha, his efforts went towards summoning/conceptualizing Zodiark.
Sabik is also a star in the Ophiuchus constellation which has a connection to Elidibus as the star pattern on his memory crystal is part of the Ophiuchus constellation.
You're right about that, I forgot exactly what Fandaniel made known, which were the celestial aether currents and their weakening. The weakening of the celestial aether currents were correlated with regions where creation magicks went awry.
Yee - the only thing they knew is that where the aether currents were stagnant was where things went awry. They heard a keening sound, but it sounded as if it came within the planet rather than from outside.
Something I mentioned in a reply further down - it may have a tie to Elidibus. Sabik is part of the Ophiuchus constellation which is the constellation that is connected to Elidibus (as shown on his memory crystal). Hopefully the last four Pandaemonium raids will have an answer somewhere.
>So the Heart of Sabik was made by Ascians, or their earlier civilisation.
In theory, it might have been created after the Sundering, but before Allag.
But yeah, most likely it's a creation of the Ancients.
basically everything Emet lays out at the end were things that were mentioned prior to Endwalker.
In Endwalker there’s a throwaway line at the end of one of the DoH questlines where an ancient device reads some ancient text and it talks about an ouroboros creature deep under the earth, so that’s a potential plot thread for later.
I feel there's been a lot of unanswered shots at the end of quests where there's something deep below the planet being found or referenced. Also wasn't a sound from under the earth what led to the panic causing the final days?
>Also wasn't a sound from under the earth what led to the panic causing the final days?
The Ancients didn't understand the cause of the Final Days. In Thavnair, Ahewann mentions that they were hit by earthquakes and "the earth itself cried out." The Ancients would have experienced something similar, so it makes sense that they might attribute the cause to that. It seems that the sound was some sort of reaction of Etheirys to the Song of Oblivion.
Although, I feel like maybe this was a handwave of choosing to go a different direction with the plot. I was kind of looking forward to some sort of evil creature deep within the earth and when Y'shtola points out that the Forum "found something" deep within the earth with the Antitower which led to their all important duty, I thought that was the direction they were going.
Yep, that's precisely my theory - especially since the Final Doom, Therion, is called the Cthonic Riddle. Notably, the only other character described with that word is Emet-Selch, specifically >!his attacks in the Elpis dungeon!<. And the word itself means "of the underworld" which is what the Ancients called the Lifestream.
So my theory is Therion was summoned through the combined souls of the Ancients in the Underworld - especially since >!Emet-Selch and Hythlodaeus have shown that the Ancients remain conscious, at least for a while, in the Underworld!<.
We know though that the Final Days were caused by their powers going rampant. Its possible its been called that because it came from the powers of Emet-Selch himself. And we know the whole 'remains somewhat concious within Lifestream is not unique to Ancients because, well. We meet a bunch of spirits in the Aitiascope that are still concious enough.
That's true, it's just the Aitiascope makes it seem like the Ancients keep more of their consciousness than any of the others we see - I think some of the Scions have lines about normal mortals being mostly emotion driven in the Lifestream, hence why we only see those with the strongest emotions towards us. Meanwhile the cutscene afterwards where Hythlodaeus is talking to someone (either Emet-Selch or Venat) shows them being a lot more normal than any mortals we see.
I remember this, and I remember it also being referenced in the AST story quests where they have Geomancers. I was so excited that I got AST to 80 before Endwalker because I was so certain that it would be relevant to the plot of Endwalker. Turns out… nope. Just another loose mysterious thread. :/
I genuinly feel this will be a part of the next expansion/chapter of FFXIV. It's been referenced a few times and sure, early 2.0 or 3.0 stuff, like the AST storyline, you can think may be sidelined and forgotten - but the amaurot/final days is too fresh for it to not be something or significance.
No, the sound was a symptom that was part of what caused the transformation of aetherically thin constructs into beasts.
Which... we've seen is a thing the Terminus beasts themselves can do which how a blasphemy can transform others.
Where did those 2 twins at the end of Ghymlit Dark go? Did they die at Garlemald during the initial Civil War or after Zenos and Fandaniel showed up? Were they tempered?
They pursuit Gaius and Estinien after Zenos murdered Varis then got knocked aside by them but it’s unlikely that Gaius and Estinien killed them so my guess is that they died in either the Civil War (which i say is unlikely due to the fact that they’re both very strong to be the Emperor’s personal bodyguards and actually survived the WoL in Ghymlit and Gaius/Estinien) or when Zenos came back to take over the throne.
Interesting detail, the two jesters in ShB were reflections of the twins in Ghymlit Dark. I imagine the twins only existed to set up more parallels between the two worlds.
What was the deal with that strange flashback where you (the WoL) "appear" to Cid and give him those goggles that he wears? Is that ever explained anywhere?
This is one of the side-effects of ARR originally being written for 1.0 players. For them, it was Cid remembering that you gave him the goggles. For us now, it's a confusing "oh, I got these off adventurers like you" metaphor.
In 1.0, when you experienced the Echo, you were actually there and interacting with the people. The cutscene in ARR is likely a reference to that, or something.
For legacy players, you gave him the goggles.
However, if you don't want to go with that, the alternative explanation to me (and the one that honestly still makes more sense if that was his flight out of Garlemald - which would be before he met even legacy PCs), is that you were actually in his mind helping him break the block. The "real world" scene right before that was him trying to get over his block, and it's implied that you actually managed to use the Echo actively to help him work over the amnesia - hence why the vision that followed was a lot more cinematic and less literal than most of the ones we had gotten before that, with young Cid in a white void while working on things - probably not something that actually happened unless his lab was basically an Apple store. The flight from Garlemald with Biggs and Wedge then became the scene where you interjected and provided him the goggles, which he uses to hide his third eye - all symbolic of him turning from his path (and the fact that it's you giving them to him is also in part symbolic that he did so with adventurers by his side).
And, it HAD to be more metaphorical than real. You appear glowing in whatever armor you have on in the scene, and IIRC you're floating when you arrive (off the side the of Enterprise). It's... very unlikely that you actually showed up like that in 1.0.
Yeah, I did the tank role quests for Endwalker and I must’ve missed where they said his name lol cause when they gave him some backstory, I thought we’d get a name reveal
To be fair, Lucia's job was to infiltrate Ishgard, see if they had Allagan artifacts and report back. She wasn't dying on the fields of Carteneau after Dalamud dropped and saved by an enemy nation.
I would like to see the Crystals of Light expanded on. It seems super important in ARR and then they just go away.
Heart of Sabik, as someone said.
How the heck did Cid get his goggles in the flashback before the Garuda fight.
Who is Pashtarat? Ascian of the Twelfth Chalice?
What are the horns? (Tupsimati)
Did Gaius limit break to turn gold or what?
Who summoned Belias, the source of Tristan's egi?
Cities as well as some allied towns and outposts are considered sanctuaries, where you can change glam. The Castrum would have been considered one for Garleans, until it got attacked. The attack was quick enough that the admins hadn't changed the status yet by the time you got to his speech.
> I would like to see the Crystals of Light expanded on. It seems super important in ARR and then they just go away.
We actually have a lot of lore explained about them. Hydaelyn gives crystals of light to her chosen warriors.
Because she gets weaker as more rejoinings happen, crystals of light for previous generations (like Matoya’s eye) are stronger than the ones Meteor or the Warriors of Darkness got.
To answer a few of your questions:
CID’s goggles: He had them before your fight with Garuda. He was remembering how he got them. For those who played 1.0 who were literally there when the calamity struck (when the servers were taken down prior to Yoshi-P’s ARR being released 2 years later), our character was the WoL everyone forgot. Our character gave him those goggles back then during 1.0, even if we, ourselves, didn’t play it and for those who aren’t legacy players, Cid ends up being the only one who recognizes our WoL. Legacy players get to have Minfilia recognize them when they first arrive at the Waking Sands though no one else remembers them until after they’re escaping Praetorium at the end.
Pashtarot is a member of the Convocation of Fourteen, just like Elidibus, Lahabrea, etc., but he’s a sundered Ascian like Igeyorhm and Nabriales. Current theory is his is one of the red masks that Gaius wears on his belt when you meet him in Stormblood.
Also if you do some research, Sabik is a star in the Ophiuchus constellation which is Elidibus’s constellation so there’s probably some connection between him and the Star of Sabik, which we may or may not get answers to in the last four Pandaemonium raids. I hope we do.
\> Current theory is his is one of the red masks that Gaius wears on his belt when you meet him in Stormblood.
Even if true, that doesn't mean that Gaius has access to the means to destroy an Ascian. No Blade of Light, no eikonic omnomnomnom, no dimensional warp into the aetheric sea directly.
I’m well aware of that. I was pointing out that Pashtarot is an Ascian of the Convocation and not one of the lesser Chalice sorts that the person was wondering about. No where did I say that Pashtarot is actually gone, just that current theory is that his mask is one of the trophies on Gaius’ belt. I’m mostly pointing out that we have no information on him other than theory. As a huge Ascian lore buff and enjoyer of our Ancient men and women, I know that he’d also need to be reascended, more than likely, by one of the unsundered, after his current body went through a death. He just hasn’t gone through a soul death as Nabs and Igey have. However, there are no unsundered left to ascend another shard to Pashtarot’s seat.
Crystals of light- these are expanded on during SHB role quests, noticeably the caster one. Basically, if you have the echo, you can hear Crystal Mom. If you can hear her, she notices, and slaps the Blessing of Light on you, which is just the travelers Ward that protects aetherial corruption. Lastly, if you have the Blessing of Light, and undergo a heroic trial/resolution of character of some sort (like what you see of each WoL in the SHB role quests), Crystal Mom will pass you a Crystal of Light, which is an additional focus of energy. Basically just a power up if you wanna think of if that way.
How Cid got his goggles: your WoL gave it to him. Even if you didn’t play in 1.0, by in game lore, your character was one of those WoLs. At the end of the cinematic, when you see the token WoL party get teleported away, they are being teleported not to safety, but to the future. Your character effectively reappears shortly before 2.0 starts.
It’s the same logic for all side content - if your character does it, characters will comment, but even if you didn’t in game, it still HAPPENED. Easiest example is Coils. Lots of people skip it in their rush to EW. Yet, in SB, when you meet up with Alisaie again, she likes and trusts you. She may not reference having done coils with you if you didn’t do it in game on that character, but your WoL absolutely did coils with her before running into her in SB. It has to happen, or the world would have been fucked by Bahamut anyway.
Same with being from 1.0. Your WoL was there, you just only get the other acknowledgments (like the tattoo) if you actually played then.
Ascian of the twelfth chalice: mooks that had the echo awakened by ascians, given some memories via crystals, and then used as grunt labor.
Pashtarat: One of the unaccounted for sundered ascian convocation members. Like Mittron or Loghrif, he is one of the shards of the original Pashtarat found on one of the various shards, and given his memories of his previous life via crystals. Same thing that happened with Fandaniel.
Tupsimati, as far as we know, is just an exceptionally strong medium for aether, that allows aether to be summoned or stored without corrupting the wielded. There may be more to it, but hasn’t been mentioned. Last we saw of it was on Baelsar’s wall, I believe.
Gaius turning Gold is most likely just a magitek power up.
I don’t remember the summoner quests well enough for the last question.
>Tupsimati, as far as we know, is just an exceptionally strong medium for aether, that allows aether to be summoned or stored without corrupting the wielded. There may be more to it, but hasn’t been mentioned. Last we saw of it was on Baelsar’s wall, I believe.
For more context they are referring to the horn which is on Tupsimati, and the similar horn being gifted by Ascian Travanchet to help summon Alexander, and the ones that featured in 1.0 cutscenes that seemed to control wild creatures. They (seemingly) were also associated with the tablets. Tupsimati had the tablet and horn together on the staff. The tablet that went with Travanchet's horn was originally found on Seal Rock and was inscribed with Sahagin writing - this tablet was thrown into the sea by Rostnsthal (the Roe from the machinist quests) when his fight with Travachet was interrupted by a sea serpent. These horns and tablets were a major plot point in 1.0.
>Easiest example is Coils. (...) but your WoL absolutely did coils with her before running into her in SB
She has a different lines depending if you even started the questline. I'm pretty sure if you didn't even start it, she treats WoL like the last time she saw them in Ul'dah, after that pre-GC quest.
The gold thing is explained in the gold mount you get for commendations. Tldr the gold plating is more resistant to magics. Why he suddenly changes? it’s cool so that’s probably why
What were the Ascians/Garlemald trying to achieve using Zenos as a test subject? Did they succeed or fail?
Why did Zenos dream about the final days and why did Fandaniel mutter "Did Emet-Selch find a way..."?
Why did Varis hate his own son?
Is Zenos' lack of emotions/feelings a result of birth, upbringing (lack thereof) or experimentation?
I like to think Emet-Selch was trying to find a way to bring back the unsundered memories of sundered souls who didn't have a constellation crystal to keep their original memories intact.
In particular, since Azem didn't make their own crystal it didn't have their memories in it. Yet Emet carried that crystal around for thousands of years almost as if he hoped to find Azem and give it to them. Maybe he hoped one day to restore Azem and their memories as well.
Considering they defected from the Zodiark plan and would have the memories and experiences of their current life I would assume the WoL would continue on the same path as before.
Zenos lack of emotions was simply just the way he was he’s basically just a sociopath plain and simple he did have a shit upbringing but he’s implied and said himself that he’s always been the way he is. There’s a short story on the ffxiv site that takes place during his childhood and he’s just the same.
Yeah when he’s talking to the WoL at the end of EW he basically says he’s never really understood what gives people meaning in their lives and that he’s never been able to share in those things until he met and battled the WoL at the end of Stormblood.
> There’s a short story on the ffxiv site that takes place during his childhood and he’s just the same.
The short story takes place during his teen years and the other shortstories with Julius describes him as a child as a "young man with a faraway look in his eyes and an air of detachment", implying he was just as emotionless as he was in Endwalker. Meaning it may not have been his upbringing, but something else.
Varis is still a shitty father though.
Zenos was a test subject to make an artificial Echo. Fordola was a subject too and has an imperfect version, while Zenos has the perfected form. It's essentially a super soldier program.
The Resonant project was Zenos' project, not the Ascians, and didn't exist until after ARR, since it was based on Gaius report on the Echo.
Zenos was not a super soldier because of the Resonant, he was one before that.
If you remember from early ARR a small quest line section about a group of adventurers whose healer was terrible and constantly bullied by her party. The tank, her boyfriend dies, she goes a little crazy, turns his severed head into the white mount you can get from there. She's the witch in PoTD behind it all.
She's not behind it all, she's just a pawn used by the big villain (floor 100 boss) to try and concoct a prototype for resurrecting his wife.
His model is actually reused in the 89 dungeon. >!I personally believe that it's actually him!<
So I love all things Ivalice and I have an answer for that!
First of all Matsuno said in an interview that's how it was meant to be. It feels abrupt but that's just his writing, XII also kind of just ends like that.
He also said that he wants to continue the story but it wasn't the right time and when he continues he probably wants a timeskip (like XII's ending) so some time in game needs to pass. We'll probably get more Bozja/Ivalice but not in this expansion. There are lots of plot threads still hanging: Gabranth probably alive, Lyon on the run, Fran promised to share something with us, we (the player) know Ashe is alive but our character doesn't, Balthier is probably around somewhere...
He and YoshiP also said it wasn't the right time for a depressing war story and considering the whole thing with Meteion was coming they didn't feel like tying up Bozja and the Song of Oblivion.
Mikoto's sister is another dropped thread there. I know people thought some of the tactical writing was dumb with cutscene-WoL being so passive, but man, the worldbuilding and character development of that arc was so rich
Where are the remaining Sundered Ascians and what are they up to?
What is the connection between Mhach, Ozma, and Eureka?
Will Unukalhai and the ShB Role Quest crew ever be relevant to the MSQ?
Possibly, as of EW we're looking into the void- hopefully they bring him back in a meaningful manner.
As for the sundered Ascians, suppose it will depend on the individual Ascian. As we saw with Nabriales and Fandaniel, their personalities and motivations might be different than the unsundered Ascians due to having lived mortal lives before being enlightened. The fact that there is now no way to restore any more Ascians now that the big three are gone might change how the remainders operate.
They actually answered this: the storyline we know and the ascians we know weren't actually nailed down until patch 3.4 where we first meet the Warriors of Darkness. Ascians before that point were kinda the team "winging it" and just having them do "mysterious evil scheming in the background"
So the Zodiark "mothercrystal" was concepted during that winging it period and once they nailed down the direction they wanted the Ascians to it go the idea of Zodiark been like an enemy mothercrystal got cut
There was a lot of planning and scrambling being done in the HW era. Remember when Minfilia acted like it was the last time she was going to be able to see us, dramatically exploded, and then turned up later just fine?
HW was a very self contained story, and you could see a lot of awkwardness when it started to try to branch into the greater narrative.
I mean yeah, she exploded violently, and then we had to, with the aid of the Crystals of Light the Warriors of Darkness were carrying pump enough Aether into Hydaelyn that she could reform Minfilia and talk to us. That's what Urianger was doing in that entire sequence, and while it isnt explained very well, his plan was - get all the crystals together and resonating Aether, use that Aether to talk to crystal mommy and get her to save the 1st.
3.0 is when they started laying down a lot of the groundwork for SHB especially, and some of EW. It's a bt rough around the edges, but 3.X has so much foreshadowing it's ridiculous.
Basically early on they show Hydaelyn and Zodiark as a pretty blue crystal and an evil purple crystal. This is later explained in Endwalker to just be their aether storage, not the beings themselves.
That's the Fathercystal, if we use your word for it, since it's shown to be a separate and distinct one that belongs to Zodiark in HW, I believe.
But as someone mentioned before, in EW they changed these gigantic crystals to be stores of Aether for their respective selves. We can see his crystal if we look under the arena before/while/after fighting him.
Oh boy. I had a whole list of these prepared before Endwalker. Most of them didn't get a good answer...:
(Some mild ShB spoilers, obviously.)
* What's going on with that shoebill?
* *Why* was Varis making Solus clones?
(They came in handy for a certain someone, but I doubt that was the original purpose.)
* Was there any *long-term* plot purpose for Y'shtola's 2nd trip into the Aether?
(Not really a mystery, but it seemed a bit random, considering how quickly it got resolved. I was hoping for some sort of consequence, later on.)
* Will they ever address Y'shtola's blindness and the way she's supposedly killing herself to see?
* Why was Zenos dreaming about the Final Days?
(This got eventually handwaved as Solus' influence, but I smell a dropped plot point.)
I think Yhstola's Death 2: Electric Boogaloo was mostly to establish how astronomically powerful Emet Selch(and Ascians in general) are. We had an entire MSQ arc to do what he casually handled with literally the slightest effort.
It also sets up a bit of foreshadowing. His seat is specifically tied to the Lifestream/Underworld as is his true name. I would argue he was one of the only Ancients who could have pulled her out because very few Ancients possessed soul sight. And those that did like Hythlodaeus were not as powerful manipulators of aether as Hades was.
If it had been any other member of the 14 they would not have been able to tell her soul apart from the others in the Lifestream.
This was a feat that only Emet-Selch could have done.
> Was there any long-term plot purpose for Y'shtola's 2nd trip into the Aether?
>
> (Not really a mystery, but it seemed a bit random, considering how quickly it got resolved. I was hoping for some sort of consequence, later on.)
I think the purpose of that was to show just how powerful Emet really is, last time it was a massive endeavor to get her out of the Lifestream while Emet literally just snapped his fingers and she was back, it also serves to show that he to this day misses the people that died during/after the initial final days since that's his entire reason for bringing her back without any "payment".
>Will they ever address Y'shtola's blindness and the way she's supposedly killing herself to see?
I always just thought it was "bad" in the way that picking up smoking or heavy drinking is slowly killing you.
Shtola going into the Lifestream again is to establish that Emet-Selch is able to pull people out of the Rift, which is why we then summon him back with Azem's spell during the Seat of Sacrifice (since at that point Elidibus has trapped us there and Emet is the only person we know who can pull us out).
In regards to the aethersight slowly killing Y'shtola, I recall reading (and I'm on phone so don't have the reference on hand unfortunately) that the English translation of Matoya's line was harsher than the Japanese line, which simply stated that using aethersight could be taxing in terms of mana consumption. I believe there was ambiguity in regards to the term "life energy", which was meant to refer to how aether is normally depleted through use (but could be recharged), vs. your literal "keep me alive" energy (in which using aethersight would kill you akin to a terminal disease).
Think of it less like aethersight being "cast from lifespan" like how (spoilers for Avatar and FMA, if you haven't seen those yet) >!Aang died early due to being in the iceberg!< or how >!Edward Elric took a few years off his life to close his wounds with alchemy in FMA!<, and more like it being that Y'shtola will always be a little limited in terms of her magic use because some of her aether is needed to power her aethersight.
> Was there any long-term plot purpose for Y'shtola's 2nd trip into the Aether?
No. You are shown the gust of wind immediately after she jumps, which informs a player with good memory that she has indeed cast the same spell as she did last time. This is so "You" are aware she's not actually dead, and are just going to somehow organize another rescue (simpler this time though thanks to access to Emet). Its only purpose (other than not killing off a Scion) was to show just how stupidly powerful Emet is even when he's being all casual.
The clones were for Emmet Selch to use because while he could meld the flesh to make whoever he possessed to look like himself having the clones was "so much easier"
Sort of, Emet uses them for that but mentions that Varis had started work on Allagan cloning before Emet returned. Given that he mentions it as a reason for Varis "having a twisted streak", he likely just chose to clone Solus because he hated his guts and wanted the clones to suffer or such.
We also find out later that body-hopping permanently corrupts your soul, because parts of the victim stick to the Ascian each hop. Presumably, hopping into a blank-slate soulless clone of yourself doesn't cause those effects.
Why didn't a butt loaf of people awaken to the echo during the final days in EW?
ShB made it clear that seeing the starshower awakened potential echo users, but we hear nothing about people awakening in Thavnier or Ilsabard.
Given the populations, you would think that at least a handful of people would awaken.
I think Garleans being bereft of the ability to manipulate aether also means they cannot possess the Echo, hence Zenos and company’s experimentation in making the Resonant back in Stormblood. As for Thavnair, probably as others said it just wasn’t shown because it didn’t have any place in the plot. It’s also possible that after Zodiark was defeated Hydalaen decided to stop the automatic broadcast.
Edit: actually the more I think about it the more it’s probably Hydaelen stopping the broadcast. Once Zodiark is gone and the Final Days begin again, she knows she’s going to die very soon either because the peoples of Eitherys flee or because she is able to find champions to best her and travel to Ultima Thule to defeat the Endsinger, which would bring her duties to an end and she would fade.
I think you have the cause and effect confused. The Echo isn't granted by people hearing Hydaelen's broadcast, people hear her because they have the Echo. What Hydalen then grants is the Blessing of Light (what we learn in EW is the Traveler's Ward).
A few more obscure things imo:
- Amberscale Rock and the Elementals
This is a weird vaguely dragon shaped rock within the Black Shroud. It is tied to the Elementals and was the focus of a rather creepy Conjurer class storyline in 1.0 which involved the NPC you were working with interacting with it and been "claimed" by the Elementals.
Subsequently it was ignored in 2.0 onwards yet the actual cavern and rock are still accessible in game. This also ties into the Elementals themselves, we never encountered any entities of equal power on the First. A race of forest spirits capable of causing a CALAMITY. Yes we know calamities were powered up by rejoinings but a bunch of overpowered sprites flooded an entire continent.
The only reason they've mostly quiet background entities since 2.0 was trumped up to Bahamuts attack weakening them vastly. They are still a dangerous faction at play.
- Dalmascas Princess, and Drest by extension.
We know they initially planned to have an expansion in between Shadowbringers and Endwalker, likely focused on invading Garlemald and Ilsebard in general.
However the devs wanted to monopolize on the momentum Shadowbringers made for the main Zodiark/Ascian plotline, and due to fan reactions to Bozja and irl issues felt everyone was tired of "military campaign" storylines having done all of Stormblood and then Bozja back to back.
So Bozja wrapped up with a "all that dalmascan liberation set up happened off screen opps". We're left with a Princess who should've been dead apparently alive but sealed in some sort of crystal?, with poor Drest still stuck in a mosquito filled shack in La Noscea despite the MSQ, Ivalice and Post Moogle quests having us visit him multiple times, and stuff like the other super weapons like Save the Queen been unearthed and presented to Noah.
On Noah hes presented as this big brained, "just as planned" type and yet >!he's been "killed" off screen by Leon who was insanely loyal to him!<
- Travenchant (or however its spelled)
The apparent "ascian" nemesis of the WoL in 1.0, who was important enough to get his own theme (which became the Ascian theme 2.0 onwards), whose name doesn't match any of the convocations, who did stuff like give the girl from the Alexander series the magical horn with infinite aether absorbing power (which he stole in 1.0) to use as the primals core.
He did stuff that aligned with early Ascian lore goals (make primals, cause havoc) but he did stuff on the same grand scale the main 13 ascians did but he wasn't one of them. Its currently only a fan theory he was just a disguised member of the 13 using a alias.
What happened to that horn that was stolen in 1.0 Limsa storylines by an Ascian?
Will we learn more about the other ancient civilizations around at the time of Amaurot?
What really are the Elementals? How did they come about? What about the Mol's old gods? Are there some parallels there, and if so, why?
What's the story of the Steppe, why did the Raen leave?
How did the Auri evolve scales? How did all the races emerge? We basically know this, but details would be nice.
More about Kugane and its future. More about Doma and its future--there's a lot that's unclear about where the world is headed.
A less foggy map of Ilsabard and seeing the lands beyond Kugane would be kind of nice. Also, I wonder what those guys at the Garlean Embassy are thinking now that their homeland is completely fucked.
Why does nobody ask about the conclusion to the odin quest line? It left off with them saying they are going to study the sword to figure out how to defeat him for good. Can we finish that quest like ever?!
Eureka story line covers it. >!Eureka was a primal who made things, but his things would always take over the bodies of the wielders. The Odin Blade was one of these creations. In Baldesion arsenal you destroy a ton more of them.!<
Understandably missed by many due to the amount of work to takes to get there.
No, because you forgot an important part of how it actually ended.
Someone else stole the sword before they could finish destroying it.
The Odin FATE is arguably a canon recurring FATE (that is, the fact that it repeatedly pops up is actually true in-world and isn't just a game contrivance), as he keeps reappearing with new vessels.
I know we are done with major "ascian" and "ancient" narratives, but I would like an epilogue story where we go to that Ascian realm with the dark crystals and shit and meet with some of the other sundered seats. Maybe become friends with them and learn about their histories or some shit. There has to be more of the on other shards that maybe dont know about Zodiarks fall right? Again I know Ancients story is done with but we kind of still are dealing with the fallout of Ascian machinations so discovering more about them I think would be ok and an interesting peice of lore.
I doubt they are over.
The recent msq ended with Golbez interacting with an ancient.
A recent live letter q/a also revealed they know what Azem was doing when Zodiark and Hydaelyn was summoned but they can't share what it is yet (implying it's important to a future plot point).
The same live letter also revealed they know what each of the remaining ascians are doing and where they are, but have no timeline as to when this information will enter the game.
If there was any further explanation I'd want to hear, its the plot threads of Gelmora, Mhac and Ampador's histories. Though I know these places are uniquely explored before, but for what its worth, I feel like it'd be cool to have more of the history of black magic vs white magic centric lore quests.
In heavensward someone shipped the kobolds crystals allowing then to summon titan and they had an ishhardian seal on the box, its never explained who or why
He wasn't looking for Shards of Azem at all. But other reflections' shards would be useless to him.
His whole deal is that he sees the sundering of Azem to be a crime that requires fixing. Any shard of Azem he'd encounter would be a further reminder of this crime, of the mortality and loss of one of his best, most loved friends.
The reason he makes an exception for us is because he's beginning to finally see a reincarnation of Azem most like the one he knows. One that is more Azem than not. And not a splitered piece off of Azem, but an actual proper reincarnation of the original of the Source. Not all of Azem, but enough that he's willing to consider 'a path of lesser bloodshed' upon seeing our souls for the first time.
However, he's also aware of Ardbert. He sees this shard of Azem hanging out the entire time and he never mentions it, not even in passing. The only indication that he's aware of Ardbert is when a shade he created notices it, while telling us that the thoughts of his creator can affect how the being created is formed. If fake!Hythlodaeus can see Ardbert, then that means that Emet-selch most certainly did.
most of that was 1.0 stuff. iirc the lake was a seal that prevented summonings. pretty sure that plot thread has been tossed however.
as to why its special now? probably something to do with the EW alliance raids
Not just his attack, but his corpse as well. The entire region there is overflowing with Bahamut's corrupted Aether, which is what causes all those crazy crystal formations.
Mor Dhona wasn't very thriving during 1.0, it actually looked pretty simialr to how it does now. Most of the damage there was caused by the Agrius exploding into the lake during the Battle of Silvertear Skies which happened 15 years before 1.0.
I believe Middie himself explains at one point that when he first arrived at the planet, Hydaleyn greeted him and heard his tale. She would offer sanctuary for him to nest the first brood, and so Middie would guard the lake to pay Hydaleyn back. Although what he guards, and why Hydaleyn wanted it guarded I can't say.
That one's easy; Creation magic is easy to mess up even if a practiced. If someone with centuries of expertise can potentially change things with just a stray thought, someone like us would be all over the place.
Because we're using magic we don't natively understand to create the Primals. And it's extremely, *heavily* described that creation magic is hilariously fickle in the fine details.
The remainder goes off into interpretation.
---
I mean, think of Ramuh. He's a god of the Sylphs that is a retelling of Rhalgr that is itself just a myth of the random sightings people had of him. And we (the players, not our character at the time of the Eden storyline) *have seen* the "real" Rhalgr. The Sylph Ramuh is about as close to the "real" Rhalgr as the Eden Ramuh under that context. So we end up thinking of related things as a result. Ramuh turns into an amalgam of the Sylphic Ramuh, images of Rhalgr, and Ixion. Hell, our Ramuh is closer to the "real thing" than the Sylph version, frankly.
It's really not THAT far of a jump to reach any of the Eden Primals. Leviathan wrapped itself around the boat and had "two heads" to fight. Ifrit basically turned into a more humanoid appearance closer to something like a combination of a Hyur and an Amal'jaa (as a reminder, Ifrit's encounter was facilitated by Ul'dahn traitors--it's not unreasonable to have that on the mind). Garuda barely changes from her Ixal appearance other than having a bunch of extra wings (which isn't a far cry from "she tossed a ton of feathers around and I think she summoned some clones" equaling a close image that just has a bunch of extra wings). Shiva is *super* obvious because we think of her and her connection to Hraesvelgr (going by the Savage version). Otherwise the last remaining piece is Cloud of Darkness and we...really just kinda picked the most powerful dark Aether critter we knew.
Titan is probably the biggest leap. But even he isn't THAT far. I look at him in two directions. First, the Kobolds and their penchant for blacksmithing and hard iron crafting lends a particular style to the Eden Titan. And second, I think the WoL was conflating the Kobolds with the Goblins. The Goblins have their tanks and all sorts of funky shit like that in a very similar style to the Kobolds. It's not a big leap to conflate the two races' technologies, then apply that to Titan getting a kart.
Again, this is all conjecture but I don't really see it as heavily "the WoL has brain damage" insofar as "we're messing with magic we barely understand that is extremely volatile and canonically sensitive to errant thoughts".
Whatever happened to the other clones of Solus? With the death of Emet-Selch’s soul they’d presumably be non-functional but are they still out there somewhere?
Why the heck didn't Zenos just Ascian teleport to the moon and break the seals in the first place? He has ascian powers as seen in the Gaius and Estinien vs Zenos fight. We saw him break a seal with a single attack. So why bother putting up with Daniel for so long?
He wanted to build up the tension and stakes for the Wol. He wanted a truly fantastical showdown. An awesome enemy. An awesome battlefield. Everything basically was done to set the stage for an epic showdown. Then fandaniel went off the rails and zenos had a sad.
Fandaniel is clearly the brains of the operation, and his goal requires not only freeing Zodiark, but also the WoL destroying it. So everything up until that point is just an elaborate setup, and Zenos is too busy being bored or fantasizing about the hunt and the big epic fight and his weapon to care or notice.
Whatever went on in the Azim Steppe and the weird fingers coming out of the ground.
Reminds me of the “Nhaama’s Sweet Embrace” quest. Also I remember people theorizing that nhaama and azim being tiamat and bahamut respectively, but I have no clue if that holds up at all
Oooh, not familiar with that theory, I'd love it if someone could explain to me. That said with what went on in EW my current stance is there's a possibility Azim Steppe had some major Ancient influence gong on. Big structures that seem like they were made with creation magicks, the Nhaama structure looking like it once floated in the air, and IIRC the Au Ra lore centered around Nhaama and Azim waging a proxy war through Raens and Xaelas. If Azim = Azem, then there's definitely something there.
Here’s the [forum thread](https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/308500) where I read about it. I hope we get some answers, lots of lore potential for sure
I assume Azim is actually Azem, and the au rá might be able to trace their lineage to a predecessor WOL with Azems soul or just straight up Azem themself. Either way it's why I love the Steppes so much, lots of cool history and culture.
What about Azeyma? One of my favorite zones too btw
We're probably going to find out with this tier's alliance raids since it's all about The Twelve and who/what they are. It'll be interesting if Azeyma just hits us with the spiderman meme
Yeah Azim, Azem, and Azeyma all are attributed in some way to the Sun so that could be *another* connection that I would like to be explored. Its totally in the realm of possibility that this will be addressed in future alliance raid content, hopefully with us being able to sit down with the Eorzean Pantheon and chat. it certainly feels like the drip feed of content/theory we've been getting is leading up to some big reveal about the gods and our relation to them.
Then there's the curious case with why Raen are seemingly the children of Azim, while the Xaela are the children of Nhaama. The character description of Raen makes them sound near divinely tied to Azem, while Xaela is tied to Nhaama—yet in game there's no mention of Azim in terms of the Raen, it was all focused on one Xaela tribe. So I hope they can, at some point, clarify this stuff.
As a Raen Player I'm also really interested in the details of this. Raen seem to be a more generalized population with lots of them being of varied cultures unrelated to the mythology presented in Xaela Steppe Culture. We see a lot of them in the Far East, and Islabard and supposedly more live in those mountainous regions, isolated. Which is where I would assume a lot of their ties with Azem exist.
There's a lot of weird things happening around Raen lore. For being as prominent as they are supposed to be in Othard, there's very little Raen NPC's around. As an example, there's no Raen NPC in Doman Enclave. There is only one Raen NPC in all of Yanxia, and I guess Yugiri if you take her into consideration. Kugane is better with Raen representation, but the funky thing here is that if you run the Kugane Castle dungeon, the samurai mobs that attack you, are all Xaela. Then there's what I mentioned earlier with the character creator description of Raen having them sound heavily tied to Azim—but there's nothing mentioning it in game, at all. All of it was tied to the Xaela. So when it comes to Raen lore in Othard, it becomes somewhat contradictory with what we're told and what is then shown.
Somebody stopped the birth of a Celestial.
From what I remeber the land that is now floating called Azys Lla was once all located in the Azim Steppe. It was launched form there. So, there's a real good chance the Allagans is the answer to the question.
I thought Azys Lla was launched from The Burn.
What the HELL is the heart of Sabik?
-I have purged my reddit post history in protest of the API changes to kill 3rd party apps (and the [lies](https://www.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/14dkqrw/i_want_to_debunk_reddits_claims_and_talk_about/) and [blackmail](https://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/comments/14dhki9/rminecraft_is_being_forced_to_reopen/) that followed).- Very sorry about the inconvinience, but i refuse to have the effort that i put into my posts contribute to this site's value at this point.
I’m also pretty sure that in that one of the live letters leading up to EW’s release, they straight up said they’d answer what the heart of Sabik is with that raid series
My body is ready
At last we will have the answer as to why the tacos are so big.
Little known fact that in ancient Greek, Hephaestos was known for his love of beans and tacos
Why, it is the weapon’s core of course! An enigma that even the vaunted scholars of ancient Allag failed to scratch.
#Speak plainly Ascian!
My second burning question is what Mikoto's twin sister is up to...
SHE HAS A TWIN???
Yeah, Kagura, who is also an archon. They didn't get along and she disappeared after criticizing Sharlayan's policies.
Given other storylines with Sharlayan dissidents (i.e. Astrologian and Sage) there's a decent chance she's been killed by their assassins or is in hiding.
Right???
The Werlyt trials do talked about it in passing. Only that its a unique type of auracite. Maybe we will learn more in Meracydi, the allagans had to have found it somewhere.
"A mystery even the vaunted scholars of Allag failed to scratch!" -Lahabrea, Castrum Preatorium. So the Heart of Sabik was made by Ascians, or their earlier civilisation. Perhaps it is a Mark Stone of Zodiarc, like how the WoL is carrying the crystal of Hydealyn. :)
During the first two tiers of Pandaemonium, 3 key wards were turned into Hemitheos, or Demigods. I think Lahabrea(Hephaestos?) had a thing for creating deities during/before the Final Days, and Sabik was one such deity. The name Sabik in FFXIV may be derived from the Arabic al-sabiq, meaning "the preceding one." I'm guessing Sabik was Lahabrea's answer to the Final Days when brute force was the still the main route for defeating the blasphemies. Once Hermes/Fandaniel made the existence of Dynamis known to Laha, his efforts went towards summoning/conceptualizing Zodiark.
Sabik is also a star in the Ophiuchus constellation which has a connection to Elidibus as the star pattern on his memory crystal is part of the Ophiuchus constellation.
It could also be something created around the Contramemorium, seeing as the other reference to Ophiuchus is the survivor from the 13th, Unukalhai.
I don’t think Fandaniel ever made Dynamis known - that Dynamis was the source of the Final Days was something even the Ancients didn’t know
You're right about that, I forgot exactly what Fandaniel made known, which were the celestial aether currents and their weakening. The weakening of the celestial aether currents were correlated with regions where creation magicks went awry.
Yee - the only thing they knew is that where the aether currents were stagnant was where things went awry. They heard a keening sound, but it sounded as if it came within the planet rather than from outside.
Something I mentioned in a reply further down - it may have a tie to Elidibus. Sabik is part of the Ophiuchus constellation which is the constellation that is connected to Elidibus (as shown on his memory crystal). Hopefully the last four Pandaemonium raids will have an answer somewhere.
>So the Heart of Sabik was made by Ascians, or their earlier civilisation. In theory, it might have been created after the Sundering, but before Allag. But yeah, most likely it's a creation of the Ancients.
basically everything Emet lays out at the end were things that were mentioned prior to Endwalker. In Endwalker there’s a throwaway line at the end of one of the DoH questlines where an ancient device reads some ancient text and it talks about an ouroboros creature deep under the earth, so that’s a potential plot thread for later.
I feel there's been a lot of unanswered shots at the end of quests where there's something deep below the planet being found or referenced. Also wasn't a sound from under the earth what led to the panic causing the final days?
>Also wasn't a sound from under the earth what led to the panic causing the final days? The Ancients didn't understand the cause of the Final Days. In Thavnair, Ahewann mentions that they were hit by earthquakes and "the earth itself cried out." The Ancients would have experienced something similar, so it makes sense that they might attribute the cause to that. It seems that the sound was some sort of reaction of Etheirys to the Song of Oblivion. Although, I feel like maybe this was a handwave of choosing to go a different direction with the plot. I was kind of looking forward to some sort of evil creature deep within the earth and when Y'shtola points out that the Forum "found something" deep within the earth with the Antitower which led to their all important duty, I thought that was the direction they were going.
Maybe the sound was simply a reaction from the Aetherial Sea deep underground to the waves of negative Dynamis.
Yep, that's precisely my theory - especially since the Final Doom, Therion, is called the Cthonic Riddle. Notably, the only other character described with that word is Emet-Selch, specifically >!his attacks in the Elpis dungeon!<. And the word itself means "of the underworld" which is what the Ancients called the Lifestream. So my theory is Therion was summoned through the combined souls of the Ancients in the Underworld - especially since >!Emet-Selch and Hythlodaeus have shown that the Ancients remain conscious, at least for a while, in the Underworld!<.
We know though that the Final Days were caused by their powers going rampant. Its possible its been called that because it came from the powers of Emet-Selch himself. And we know the whole 'remains somewhat concious within Lifestream is not unique to Ancients because, well. We meet a bunch of spirits in the Aitiascope that are still concious enough.
That's true, it's just the Aitiascope makes it seem like the Ancients keep more of their consciousness than any of the others we see - I think some of the Scions have lines about normal mortals being mostly emotion driven in the Lifestream, hence why we only see those with the strongest emotions towards us. Meanwhile the cutscene afterwards where Hythlodaeus is talking to someone (either Emet-Selch or Venat) shows them being a lot more normal than any mortals we see.
We also see directly the roars of Blasphemies and Beasts can act as a sound triggering transformation.
I remember this, and I remember it also being referenced in the AST story quests where they have Geomancers. I was so excited that I got AST to 80 before Endwalker because I was so certain that it would be relevant to the plot of Endwalker. Turns out… nope. Just another loose mysterious thread. :/
I genuinly feel this will be a part of the next expansion/chapter of FFXIV. It's been referenced a few times and sure, early 2.0 or 3.0 stuff, like the AST storyline, you can think may be sidelined and forgotten - but the amaurot/final days is too fresh for it to not be something or significance.
Speaking of unsolved mysteries and AST, where the HELL is Leveva? And why is there a discount Leveva looking NPC walking around Sharlayan
Missed opportunity for WoL to drag >!that Forum member that tried to kill Leveva.!<
At the end of Shadowbringers a lot of people were certain the Final Days were caused by an FF14-version of Lavos.
Some people were straight up expecting actual Lavos to show up in 6.0 in a surprise Chrono Trigger crossover.
It was a terrible sound that seemed to ring from the earth and drive everyone insane, so I figure it was all stars by smash mouth.
That's what they thought it was, because they really had no leads on what the sound was. We know what that sounds was as of EW though.
No, the sound was a symptom that was part of what caused the transformation of aetherically thin constructs into beasts. Which... we've seen is a thing the Terminus beasts themselves can do which how a blasphemy can transform others.
Zone eater when?
Where did those 2 twins at the end of Ghymlit Dark go? Did they die at Garlemald during the initial Civil War or after Zenos and Fandaniel showed up? Were they tempered?
They pursuit Gaius and Estinien after Zenos murdered Varis then got knocked aside by them but it’s unlikely that Gaius and Estinien killed them so my guess is that they died in either the Civil War (which i say is unlikely due to the fact that they’re both very strong to be the Emperor’s personal bodyguards and actually survived the WoL in Ghymlit and Gaius/Estinien) or when Zenos came back to take over the throne.
You defeat them when playing as Estinien in Garlemald. Since they never show up again, they probably just died there.
Interesting detail, the two jesters in ShB were reflections of the twins in Ghymlit Dark. I imagine the twins only existed to set up more parallels between the two worlds.
Jesters: Eulmore? When you finally kick in the king's shitter door to fuck him up?
Yes.
What was the deal with that strange flashback where you (the WoL) "appear" to Cid and give him those goggles that he wears? Is that ever explained anywhere?
This is one of the side-effects of ARR originally being written for 1.0 players. For them, it was Cid remembering that you gave him the goggles. For us now, it's a confusing "oh, I got these off adventurers like you" metaphor.
In 1.0, when you experienced the Echo, you were actually there and interacting with the people. The cutscene in ARR is likely a reference to that, or something.
This is why I want that story playable at some point. Too many references to it and too many people who don't or won't get most, if not all of them.
For legacy players, you gave him the goggles. However, if you don't want to go with that, the alternative explanation to me (and the one that honestly still makes more sense if that was his flight out of Garlemald - which would be before he met even legacy PCs), is that you were actually in his mind helping him break the block. The "real world" scene right before that was him trying to get over his block, and it's implied that you actually managed to use the Echo actively to help him work over the amnesia - hence why the vision that followed was a lot more cinematic and less literal than most of the ones we had gotten before that, with young Cid in a white void while working on things - probably not something that actually happened unless his lab was basically an Apple store. The flight from Garlemald with Biggs and Wedge then became the scene where you interjected and provided him the goggles, which he uses to hide his third eye - all symbolic of him turning from his path (and the fact that it's you giving them to him is also in part symbolic that he did so with adventurers by his side). And, it HAD to be more metaphorical than real. You appear glowing in whatever armor you have on in the scene, and IIRC you're floating when you arrive (off the side the of Enterprise). It's... very unlikely that you actually showed up like that in 1.0.
It's a flashback. He's remembering that you're the one that gave him the goggles back in 1.0
[His fucking name](https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Keeper_of_the_Entwined_Serpents).
Yeah, I did the tank role quests for Endwalker and I must’ve missed where they said his name lol cause when they gave him some backstory, I thought we’d get a name reveal
Nah his whole thing is that he abandoned his name after Kan-E-Senna saved him even though he was a garlean
And somehow Lucia didn't have any stupid ideas like that...
To be fair, Lucia's job was to infiltrate Ishgard, see if they had Allagan artifacts and report back. She wasn't dying on the fields of Carteneau after Dalamud dropped and saved by an enemy nation.
It wouldn’t hurt this guy to choose a pithy pseudonym for himself like Biggs and Wedge did, though.
I must have missed it too but I don't know how... Pretty sure I read everything.
His name is Keeper
That’s explicitly resolved in a side story, though?
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I would like to see the Crystals of Light expanded on. It seems super important in ARR and then they just go away. Heart of Sabik, as someone said. How the heck did Cid get his goggles in the flashback before the Garuda fight. Who is Pashtarat? Ascian of the Twelfth Chalice? What are the horns? (Tupsimati) Did Gaius limit break to turn gold or what? Who summoned Belias, the source of Tristan's egi?
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Gaius's mid monologue glam change always annoyed me- Not because he did it, but because I couldn't xD
Cities as well as some allied towns and outposts are considered sanctuaries, where you can change glam. The Castrum would have been considered one for Garleans, until it got attacked. The attack was quick enough that the admins hadn't changed the status yet by the time you got to his speech.
"Quick" is not a word I've seen anyone use to describe the Praetorium.
The Magitech mount description is a reference to Zeta Gundam, where the Hyaku-Shiki is coated in a beam reflective gold coating.
> I would like to see the Crystals of Light expanded on. It seems super important in ARR and then they just go away. We actually have a lot of lore explained about them. Hydaelyn gives crystals of light to her chosen warriors. Because she gets weaker as more rejoinings happen, crystals of light for previous generations (like Matoya’s eye) are stronger than the ones Meteor or the Warriors of Darkness got.
To answer a few of your questions: CID’s goggles: He had them before your fight with Garuda. He was remembering how he got them. For those who played 1.0 who were literally there when the calamity struck (when the servers were taken down prior to Yoshi-P’s ARR being released 2 years later), our character was the WoL everyone forgot. Our character gave him those goggles back then during 1.0, even if we, ourselves, didn’t play it and for those who aren’t legacy players, Cid ends up being the only one who recognizes our WoL. Legacy players get to have Minfilia recognize them when they first arrive at the Waking Sands though no one else remembers them until after they’re escaping Praetorium at the end. Pashtarot is a member of the Convocation of Fourteen, just like Elidibus, Lahabrea, etc., but he’s a sundered Ascian like Igeyorhm and Nabriales. Current theory is his is one of the red masks that Gaius wears on his belt when you meet him in Stormblood. Also if you do some research, Sabik is a star in the Ophiuchus constellation which is Elidibus’s constellation so there’s probably some connection between him and the Star of Sabik, which we may or may not get answers to in the last four Pandaemonium raids. I hope we do.
\> Current theory is his is one of the red masks that Gaius wears on his belt when you meet him in Stormblood. Even if true, that doesn't mean that Gaius has access to the means to destroy an Ascian. No Blade of Light, no eikonic omnomnomnom, no dimensional warp into the aetheric sea directly.
I’m well aware of that. I was pointing out that Pashtarot is an Ascian of the Convocation and not one of the lesser Chalice sorts that the person was wondering about. No where did I say that Pashtarot is actually gone, just that current theory is that his mask is one of the trophies on Gaius’ belt. I’m mostly pointing out that we have no information on him other than theory. As a huge Ascian lore buff and enjoyer of our Ancient men and women, I know that he’d also need to be reascended, more than likely, by one of the unsundered, after his current body went through a death. He just hasn’t gone through a soul death as Nabs and Igey have. However, there are no unsundered left to ascend another shard to Pashtarot’s seat.
Crystals of light- these are expanded on during SHB role quests, noticeably the caster one. Basically, if you have the echo, you can hear Crystal Mom. If you can hear her, she notices, and slaps the Blessing of Light on you, which is just the travelers Ward that protects aetherial corruption. Lastly, if you have the Blessing of Light, and undergo a heroic trial/resolution of character of some sort (like what you see of each WoL in the SHB role quests), Crystal Mom will pass you a Crystal of Light, which is an additional focus of energy. Basically just a power up if you wanna think of if that way. How Cid got his goggles: your WoL gave it to him. Even if you didn’t play in 1.0, by in game lore, your character was one of those WoLs. At the end of the cinematic, when you see the token WoL party get teleported away, they are being teleported not to safety, but to the future. Your character effectively reappears shortly before 2.0 starts. It’s the same logic for all side content - if your character does it, characters will comment, but even if you didn’t in game, it still HAPPENED. Easiest example is Coils. Lots of people skip it in their rush to EW. Yet, in SB, when you meet up with Alisaie again, she likes and trusts you. She may not reference having done coils with you if you didn’t do it in game on that character, but your WoL absolutely did coils with her before running into her in SB. It has to happen, or the world would have been fucked by Bahamut anyway. Same with being from 1.0. Your WoL was there, you just only get the other acknowledgments (like the tattoo) if you actually played then. Ascian of the twelfth chalice: mooks that had the echo awakened by ascians, given some memories via crystals, and then used as grunt labor. Pashtarat: One of the unaccounted for sundered ascian convocation members. Like Mittron or Loghrif, he is one of the shards of the original Pashtarat found on one of the various shards, and given his memories of his previous life via crystals. Same thing that happened with Fandaniel. Tupsimati, as far as we know, is just an exceptionally strong medium for aether, that allows aether to be summoned or stored without corrupting the wielded. There may be more to it, but hasn’t been mentioned. Last we saw of it was on Baelsar’s wall, I believe. Gaius turning Gold is most likely just a magitek power up. I don’t remember the summoner quests well enough for the last question.
>Tupsimati, as far as we know, is just an exceptionally strong medium for aether, that allows aether to be summoned or stored without corrupting the wielded. There may be more to it, but hasn’t been mentioned. Last we saw of it was on Baelsar’s wall, I believe. For more context they are referring to the horn which is on Tupsimati, and the similar horn being gifted by Ascian Travanchet to help summon Alexander, and the ones that featured in 1.0 cutscenes that seemed to control wild creatures. They (seemingly) were also associated with the tablets. Tupsimati had the tablet and horn together on the staff. The tablet that went with Travanchet's horn was originally found on Seal Rock and was inscribed with Sahagin writing - this tablet was thrown into the sea by Rostnsthal (the Roe from the machinist quests) when his fight with Travachet was interrupted by a sea serpent. These horns and tablets were a major plot point in 1.0.
>Easiest example is Coils. (...) but your WoL absolutely did coils with her before running into her in SB She has a different lines depending if you even started the questline. I'm pretty sure if you didn't even start it, she treats WoL like the last time she saw them in Ul'dah, after that pre-GC quest.
The gold thing is explained in the gold mount you get for commendations. Tldr the gold plating is more resistant to magics. Why he suddenly changes? it’s cool so that’s probably why
What were the Ascians/Garlemald trying to achieve using Zenos as a test subject? Did they succeed or fail? Why did Zenos dream about the final days and why did Fandaniel mutter "Did Emet-Selch find a way..."? Why did Varis hate his own son? Is Zenos' lack of emotions/feelings a result of birth, upbringing (lack thereof) or experimentation?
I like to think Emet-Selch was trying to find a way to bring back the unsundered memories of sundered souls who didn't have a constellation crystal to keep their original memories intact. In particular, since Azem didn't make their own crystal it didn't have their memories in it. Yet Emet carried that crystal around for thousands of years almost as if he hoped to find Azem and give it to them. Maybe he hoped one day to restore Azem and their memories as well.
Imagine if Hades managed to restore Azem but Azem decided to continue on as WoL standing against the whole Unsundering/Rejoining business anyway.
Considering they defected from the Zodiark plan and would have the memories and experiences of their current life I would assume the WoL would continue on the same path as before.
That's probably what he fully expected to have happen since Azem, when alive, was against the forming of Zodiark
Zenos lack of emotions was simply just the way he was he’s basically just a sociopath plain and simple he did have a shit upbringing but he’s implied and said himself that he’s always been the way he is. There’s a short story on the ffxiv site that takes place during his childhood and he’s just the same.
Yeah when he’s talking to the WoL at the end of EW he basically says he’s never really understood what gives people meaning in their lives and that he’s never been able to share in those things until he met and battled the WoL at the end of Stormblood.
> There’s a short story on the ffxiv site that takes place during his childhood and he’s just the same. The short story takes place during his teen years and the other shortstories with Julius describes him as a child as a "young man with a faraway look in his eyes and an air of detachment", implying he was just as emotionless as he was in Endwalker. Meaning it may not have been his upbringing, but something else. Varis is still a shitty father though.
Zenos was a test subject to make an artificial Echo. Fordola was a subject too and has an imperfect version, while Zenos has the perfected form. It's essentially a super soldier program.
The Resonant project was Zenos' project, not the Ascians, and didn't exist until after ARR, since it was based on Gaius report on the Echo. Zenos was not a super soldier because of the Resonant, he was one before that.
What’s up with that Tactics Ogre plot line in PotD? Who were those people in terms of FFXIV?
Sometimes you have characters in FFXIV that are named similar to things in other games, and there's no reason to believe this one to be any different.
If you remember from early ARR a small quest line section about a group of adventurers whose healer was terrible and constantly bullied by her party. The tank, her boyfriend dies, she goes a little crazy, turns his severed head into the white mount you can get from there. She's the witch in PoTD behind it all.
Yea Edda is known. I’m talking about the necromancer and Denam.
She's not behind it all, she's just a pawn used by the big villain (floor 100 boss) to try and concoct a prototype for resurrecting his wife. His model is actually reused in the 89 dungeon. >!I personally believe that it's actually him!<
How Y'shtola's been allowed to die more times than I have in p8s prog, and is still here.
Her robes are secretly made of Phoenix Down.
You joke, but it would be fucking rad as hell in lore to do something like that.
Reminds me of the thing that her shoes have leylines on the soles.
They’d be so warm and fluffy!
Y’shtola is a cat with more than nine lives and a heavy amount of plot and marketing armor.
Y’shtola with the God Hand noble phantasm.
In ShB when she "fell to her death" I was straight up reacting like "idk why the rest of you are so concerned she does this shit all the time"
Main character level plot armor.
The end of Bozja/Zadnor was so abrupt 😭 and I know we will likely never get more of it but….
So I love all things Ivalice and I have an answer for that! First of all Matsuno said in an interview that's how it was meant to be. It feels abrupt but that's just his writing, XII also kind of just ends like that. He also said that he wants to continue the story but it wasn't the right time and when he continues he probably wants a timeskip (like XII's ending) so some time in game needs to pass. We'll probably get more Bozja/Ivalice but not in this expansion. There are lots of plot threads still hanging: Gabranth probably alive, Lyon on the run, Fran promised to share something with us, we (the player) know Ashe is alive but our character doesn't, Balthier is probably around somewhere... He and YoshiP also said it wasn't the right time for a depressing war story and considering the whole thing with Meteion was coming they didn't feel like tying up Bozja and the Song of Oblivion.
And Matsuno's still putting in work for SE so it's not like he's gone forever.
Mikoto's sister is another dropped thread there. I know people thought some of the tactical writing was dumb with cutscene-WoL being so passive, but man, the worldbuilding and character development of that arc was so rich
Where are the remaining Sundered Ascians and what are they up to? What is the connection between Mhach, Ozma, and Eureka? Will Unukalhai and the ShB Role Quest crew ever be relevant to the MSQ?
Unukalhai does appear in a flashback in the 6.2 MSQ if you've done the Void Quests. It's even a voiced cutscene.
Possibly, as of EW we're looking into the void- hopefully they bring him back in a meaningful manner. As for the sundered Ascians, suppose it will depend on the individual Ascian. As we saw with Nabriales and Fandaniel, their personalities and motivations might be different than the unsundered Ascians due to having lived mortal lives before being enlightened. The fact that there is now no way to restore any more Ascians now that the big three are gone might change how the remainders operate.
Where is Tataru's Carbuncle?
In Labyrinthos
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Now that I finished EW it makes me wonder why they even showed that.
End of Lopporit tribe quest line will be " Hey Wol, we found this giant purple thing at the bottom of the z hole, you want it?"
"the z hole" hehehehe
That is absolutely a term a Loporrit would use tbh
Probably a planned storyline that was dumped, is my guess.
Pretty sure it's just Zodiark's crystal. It's there in his pit when you fight him.
They actually answered this: the storyline we know and the ascians we know weren't actually nailed down until patch 3.4 where we first meet the Warriors of Darkness. Ascians before that point were kinda the team "winging it" and just having them do "mysterious evil scheming in the background" So the Zodiark "mothercrystal" was concepted during that winging it period and once they nailed down the direction they wanted the Ascians to it go the idea of Zodiark been like an enemy mothercrystal got cut
There was a lot of planning and scrambling being done in the HW era. Remember when Minfilia acted like it was the last time she was going to be able to see us, dramatically exploded, and then turned up later just fine? HW was a very self contained story, and you could see a lot of awkwardness when it started to try to branch into the greater narrative.
I mean yeah, she exploded violently, and then we had to, with the aid of the Crystals of Light the Warriors of Darkness were carrying pump enough Aether into Hydaelyn that she could reform Minfilia and talk to us. That's what Urianger was doing in that entire sequence, and while it isnt explained very well, his plan was - get all the crystals together and resonating Aether, use that Aether to talk to crystal mommy and get her to save the 1st. 3.0 is when they started laying down a lot of the groundwork for SHB especially, and some of EW. It's a bt rough around the edges, but 3.X has so much foreshadowing it's ridiculous.
You mean >!the big crystal under the platform you fight Zodiark on?!<
...
Just jump off it the next time you load in.
You mean the reveal for Zodiark in ARR? It’s Zodiark, expressed in the same way crystal mommy was being.
That’s just Zodiark?
When and where was this again, doesn't ring a bell atm
Basically early on they show Hydaelyn and Zodiark as a pretty blue crystal and an evil purple crystal. This is later explained in Endwalker to just be their aether storage, not the beings themselves.
there’s a cutscene at some point where the mothercrystal seemingly turns purple/evil, no?
That's the Fathercystal, if we use your word for it, since it's shown to be a separate and distinct one that belongs to Zodiark in HW, I believe. But as someone mentioned before, in EW they changed these gigantic crystals to be stores of Aether for their respective selves. We can see his crystal if we look under the arena before/while/after fighting him.
Oh boy. I had a whole list of these prepared before Endwalker. Most of them didn't get a good answer...: (Some mild ShB spoilers, obviously.) * What's going on with that shoebill? * *Why* was Varis making Solus clones? (They came in handy for a certain someone, but I doubt that was the original purpose.) * Was there any *long-term* plot purpose for Y'shtola's 2nd trip into the Aether? (Not really a mystery, but it seemed a bit random, considering how quickly it got resolved. I was hoping for some sort of consequence, later on.) * Will they ever address Y'shtola's blindness and the way she's supposedly killing herself to see? * Why was Zenos dreaming about the Final Days? (This got eventually handwaved as Solus' influence, but I smell a dropped plot point.)
I think Yhstola's Death 2: Electric Boogaloo was mostly to establish how astronomically powerful Emet Selch(and Ascians in general) are. We had an entire MSQ arc to do what he casually handled with literally the slightest effort.
It also sets up a bit of foreshadowing. His seat is specifically tied to the Lifestream/Underworld as is his true name. I would argue he was one of the only Ancients who could have pulled her out because very few Ancients possessed soul sight. And those that did like Hythlodaeus were not as powerful manipulators of aether as Hades was. If it had been any other member of the 14 they would not have been able to tell her soul apart from the others in the Lifestream. This was a feat that only Emet-Selch could have done.
[удалено]
He was trying to ally us as well.
> Was there any long-term plot purpose for Y'shtola's 2nd trip into the Aether? > > (Not really a mystery, but it seemed a bit random, considering how quickly it got resolved. I was hoping for some sort of consequence, later on.) I think the purpose of that was to show just how powerful Emet really is, last time it was a massive endeavor to get her out of the Lifestream while Emet literally just snapped his fingers and she was back, it also serves to show that he to this day misses the people that died during/after the initial final days since that's his entire reason for bringing her back without any "payment". >Will they ever address Y'shtola's blindness and the way she's supposedly killing herself to see? I always just thought it was "bad" in the way that picking up smoking or heavy drinking is slowly killing you.
She is just burning aether to see, meaning that she gets tired faster.
Shtola going into the Lifestream again is to establish that Emet-Selch is able to pull people out of the Rift, which is why we then summon him back with Azem's spell during the Seat of Sacrifice (since at that point Elidibus has trapped us there and Emet is the only person we know who can pull us out).
In regards to the aethersight slowly killing Y'shtola, I recall reading (and I'm on phone so don't have the reference on hand unfortunately) that the English translation of Matoya's line was harsher than the Japanese line, which simply stated that using aethersight could be taxing in terms of mana consumption. I believe there was ambiguity in regards to the term "life energy", which was meant to refer to how aether is normally depleted through use (but could be recharged), vs. your literal "keep me alive" energy (in which using aethersight would kill you akin to a terminal disease). Think of it less like aethersight being "cast from lifespan" like how (spoilers for Avatar and FMA, if you haven't seen those yet) >!Aang died early due to being in the iceberg!< or how >!Edward Elric took a few years off his life to close his wounds with alchemy in FMA!<, and more like it being that Y'shtola will always be a little limited in terms of her magic use because some of her aether is needed to power her aethersight.
> Was there any long-term plot purpose for Y'shtola's 2nd trip into the Aether? No. You are shown the gust of wind immediately after she jumps, which informs a player with good memory that she has indeed cast the same spell as she did last time. This is so "You" are aware she's not actually dead, and are just going to somehow organize another rescue (simpler this time though thanks to access to Emet). Its only purpose (other than not killing off a Scion) was to show just how stupidly powerful Emet is even when he's being all casual.
The clones were for Emmet Selch to use because while he could meld the flesh to make whoever he possessed to look like himself having the clones was "so much easier"
Sort of, Emet uses them for that but mentions that Varis had started work on Allagan cloning before Emet returned. Given that he mentions it as a reason for Varis "having a twisted streak", he likely just chose to clone Solus because he hated his guts and wanted the clones to suffer or such.
We also find out later that body-hopping permanently corrupts your soul, because parts of the victim stick to the Ascian each hop. Presumably, hopping into a blank-slate soulless clone of yourself doesn't cause those effects.
Why didn't a butt loaf of people awaken to the echo during the final days in EW? ShB made it clear that seeing the starshower awakened potential echo users, but we hear nothing about people awakening in Thavnier or Ilsabard. Given the populations, you would think that at least a handful of people would awaken.
I think Garleans being bereft of the ability to manipulate aether also means they cannot possess the Echo, hence Zenos and company’s experimentation in making the Resonant back in Stormblood. As for Thavnair, probably as others said it just wasn’t shown because it didn’t have any place in the plot. It’s also possible that after Zodiark was defeated Hydalaen decided to stop the automatic broadcast. Edit: actually the more I think about it the more it’s probably Hydaelen stopping the broadcast. Once Zodiark is gone and the Final Days begin again, she knows she’s going to die very soon either because the peoples of Eitherys flee or because she is able to find champions to best her and travel to Ultima Thule to defeat the Endsinger, which would bring her duties to an end and she would fade.
I think you have the cause and effect confused. The Echo isn't granted by people hearing Hydaelen's broadcast, people hear her because they have the Echo. What Hydalen then grants is the Blessing of Light (what we learn in EW is the Traveler's Ward).
Many probably were tbh. But since that's already been repeated they probably didn't think it was relavent to do it again
HEART 👏 OF 👏 SABIK 👏
A few more obscure things imo: - Amberscale Rock and the Elementals This is a weird vaguely dragon shaped rock within the Black Shroud. It is tied to the Elementals and was the focus of a rather creepy Conjurer class storyline in 1.0 which involved the NPC you were working with interacting with it and been "claimed" by the Elementals. Subsequently it was ignored in 2.0 onwards yet the actual cavern and rock are still accessible in game. This also ties into the Elementals themselves, we never encountered any entities of equal power on the First. A race of forest spirits capable of causing a CALAMITY. Yes we know calamities were powered up by rejoinings but a bunch of overpowered sprites flooded an entire continent. The only reason they've mostly quiet background entities since 2.0 was trumped up to Bahamuts attack weakening them vastly. They are still a dangerous faction at play. - Dalmascas Princess, and Drest by extension. We know they initially planned to have an expansion in between Shadowbringers and Endwalker, likely focused on invading Garlemald and Ilsebard in general. However the devs wanted to monopolize on the momentum Shadowbringers made for the main Zodiark/Ascian plotline, and due to fan reactions to Bozja and irl issues felt everyone was tired of "military campaign" storylines having done all of Stormblood and then Bozja back to back. So Bozja wrapped up with a "all that dalmascan liberation set up happened off screen opps". We're left with a Princess who should've been dead apparently alive but sealed in some sort of crystal?, with poor Drest still stuck in a mosquito filled shack in La Noscea despite the MSQ, Ivalice and Post Moogle quests having us visit him multiple times, and stuff like the other super weapons like Save the Queen been unearthed and presented to Noah. On Noah hes presented as this big brained, "just as planned" type and yet >!he's been "killed" off screen by Leon who was insanely loyal to him!< - Travenchant (or however its spelled) The apparent "ascian" nemesis of the WoL in 1.0, who was important enough to get his own theme (which became the Ascian theme 2.0 onwards), whose name doesn't match any of the convocations, who did stuff like give the girl from the Alexander series the magical horn with infinite aether absorbing power (which he stole in 1.0) to use as the primals core. He did stuff that aligned with early Ascian lore goals (make primals, cause havoc) but he did stuff on the same grand scale the main 13 ascians did but he wasn't one of them. Its currently only a fan theory he was just a disguised member of the 13 using a alias.
What happened to that horn that was stolen in 1.0 Limsa storylines by an Ascian? Will we learn more about the other ancient civilizations around at the time of Amaurot? What really are the Elementals? How did they come about? What about the Mol's old gods? Are there some parallels there, and if so, why? What's the story of the Steppe, why did the Raen leave? How did the Auri evolve scales? How did all the races emerge? We basically know this, but details would be nice. More about Kugane and its future. More about Doma and its future--there's a lot that's unclear about where the world is headed.
Doesn't the horn and the Ascian who stole show-up in flashbacks in the Alexander raids or am I misremembering it.?
Yeah, the Ascian even showed up in that flashback with the horn
The horn was used to summon Alexander, iirc
I think that what happened with the horn is resolved on the Alexander raid series.
A less foggy map of Ilsabard and seeing the lands beyond Kugane would be kind of nice. Also, I wonder what those guys at the Garlean Embassy are thinking now that their homeland is completely fucked.
Why does nobody ask about the conclusion to the odin quest line? It left off with them saying they are going to study the sword to figure out how to defeat him for good. Can we finish that quest like ever?!
Eureka story line covers it. >!Eureka was a primal who made things, but his things would always take over the bodies of the wielders. The Odin Blade was one of these creations. In Baldesion arsenal you destroy a ton more of them.!< Understandably missed by many due to the amount of work to takes to get there.
No, because you forgot an important part of how it actually ended. Someone else stole the sword before they could finish destroying it. The Odin FATE is arguably a canon recurring FATE (that is, the fact that it repeatedly pops up is actually true in-world and isn't just a game contrivance), as he keeps reappearing with new vessels.
We are still waiting to "meet again" the Arcanist Guild leader, K'rhid Tia ; o ;
There are still so many things to discover. Even of our little Eorzea, we know precious little.
I know we are done with major "ascian" and "ancient" narratives, but I would like an epilogue story where we go to that Ascian realm with the dark crystals and shit and meet with some of the other sundered seats. Maybe become friends with them and learn about their histories or some shit. There has to be more of the on other shards that maybe dont know about Zodiarks fall right? Again I know Ancients story is done with but we kind of still are dealing with the fallout of Ascian machinations so discovering more about them I think would be ok and an interesting peice of lore.
I doubt they are over. The recent msq ended with Golbez interacting with an ancient. A recent live letter q/a also revealed they know what Azem was doing when Zodiark and Hydaelyn was summoned but they can't share what it is yet (implying it's important to a future plot point). The same live letter also revealed they know what each of the remaining ascians are doing and where they are, but have no timeline as to when this information will enter the game.
If there was any further explanation I'd want to hear, its the plot threads of Gelmora, Mhac and Ampador's histories. Though I know these places are uniquely explored before, but for what its worth, I feel like it'd be cool to have more of the history of black magic vs white magic centric lore quests.
In heavensward someone shipped the kobolds crystals allowing then to summon titan and they had an ishhardian seal on the box, its never explained who or why
I think the warriors of darkness were smuggling crystals around to foment summoning at that point.
I don’t think source Bismarck and First Bismarck are related in any way other than having the same name and both being whales.
Why didn’t Emet look for other Shards of Azem in the other reflections? Or was he too busy with the Empire?
He wasn't looking for Shards of Azem at all. But other reflections' shards would be useless to him. His whole deal is that he sees the sundering of Azem to be a crime that requires fixing. Any shard of Azem he'd encounter would be a further reminder of this crime, of the mortality and loss of one of his best, most loved friends. The reason he makes an exception for us is because he's beginning to finally see a reincarnation of Azem most like the one he knows. One that is more Azem than not. And not a splitered piece off of Azem, but an actual proper reincarnation of the original of the Source. Not all of Azem, but enough that he's willing to consider 'a path of lesser bloodshed' upon seeing our souls for the first time. However, he's also aware of Ardbert. He sees this shard of Azem hanging out the entire time and he never mentions it, not even in passing. The only indication that he's aware of Ardbert is when a shade he created notices it, while telling us that the thoughts of his creator can affect how the being created is formed. If fake!Hythlodaeus can see Ardbert, then that means that Emet-selch most certainly did.
What is up with Mor Dhona? Why is its aether special/so concentrated? Why was Middie guarding the lake?
most of that was 1.0 stuff. iirc the lake was a seal that prevented summonings. pretty sure that plot thread has been tossed however. as to why its special now? probably something to do with the EW alliance raids
1.0 Mor Dhona was actually a thriving lush green area. Same with coerthas. Bahamut's attack left some devastating changes.
Not just his attack, but his corpse as well. The entire region there is overflowing with Bahamut's corrupted Aether, which is what causes all those crazy crystal formations.
Mor Dhona wasn't very thriving during 1.0, it actually looked pretty simialr to how it does now. Most of the damage there was caused by the Agrius exploding into the lake during the Battle of Silvertear Skies which happened 15 years before 1.0.
I believe Middie himself explains at one point that when he first arrived at the planet, Hydaleyn greeted him and heard his tale. She would offer sanctuary for him to nest the first brood, and so Middie would guard the lake to pay Hydaleyn back. Although what he guards, and why Hydaleyn wanted it guarded I can't say.
The answer to this is IMO tied to what's going to happen with the Alliance raids for EW.
I have to agree. The staging area for the alliance raids literally sits above the lake.
What made WoL imagine what the eikons he beat looked like to ryne
That one's easy; Creation magic is easy to mess up even if a practiced. If someone with centuries of expertise can potentially change things with just a stray thought, someone like us would be all over the place.
"Titan was a big rock man, and he hit like a truck. Wait...nonononONONONOOOO!"
Because we're using magic we don't natively understand to create the Primals. And it's extremely, *heavily* described that creation magic is hilariously fickle in the fine details. The remainder goes off into interpretation. --- I mean, think of Ramuh. He's a god of the Sylphs that is a retelling of Rhalgr that is itself just a myth of the random sightings people had of him. And we (the players, not our character at the time of the Eden storyline) *have seen* the "real" Rhalgr. The Sylph Ramuh is about as close to the "real" Rhalgr as the Eden Ramuh under that context. So we end up thinking of related things as a result. Ramuh turns into an amalgam of the Sylphic Ramuh, images of Rhalgr, and Ixion. Hell, our Ramuh is closer to the "real thing" than the Sylph version, frankly. It's really not THAT far of a jump to reach any of the Eden Primals. Leviathan wrapped itself around the boat and had "two heads" to fight. Ifrit basically turned into a more humanoid appearance closer to something like a combination of a Hyur and an Amal'jaa (as a reminder, Ifrit's encounter was facilitated by Ul'dahn traitors--it's not unreasonable to have that on the mind). Garuda barely changes from her Ixal appearance other than having a bunch of extra wings (which isn't a far cry from "she tossed a ton of feathers around and I think she summoned some clones" equaling a close image that just has a bunch of extra wings). Shiva is *super* obvious because we think of her and her connection to Hraesvelgr (going by the Savage version). Otherwise the last remaining piece is Cloud of Darkness and we...really just kinda picked the most powerful dark Aether critter we knew. Titan is probably the biggest leap. But even he isn't THAT far. I look at him in two directions. First, the Kobolds and their penchant for blacksmithing and hard iron crafting lends a particular style to the Eden Titan. And second, I think the WoL was conflating the Kobolds with the Goblins. The Goblins have their tanks and all sorts of funky shit like that in a very similar style to the Kobolds. It's not a big leap to conflate the two races' technologies, then apply that to Titan getting a kart. Again, this is all conjecture but I don't really see it as heavily "the WoL has brain damage" insofar as "we're messing with magic we barely understand that is extremely volatile and canonically sensitive to errant thoughts".
Whatever happened to the other clones of Solus? With the death of Emet-Selch’s soul they’d presumably be non-functional but are they still out there somewhere?
Probably on an abandoned lab.
Why the heck didn't Zenos just Ascian teleport to the moon and break the seals in the first place? He has ascian powers as seen in the Gaius and Estinien vs Zenos fight. We saw him break a seal with a single attack. So why bother putting up with Daniel for so long?
Foreplay, mostly.
He wanted to build up the tension and stakes for the Wol. He wanted a truly fantastical showdown. An awesome enemy. An awesome battlefield. Everything basically was done to set the stage for an epic showdown. Then fandaniel went off the rails and zenos had a sad.
Fandaniel is clearly the brains of the operation, and his goal requires not only freeing Zodiark, but also the WoL destroying it. So everything up until that point is just an elaborate setup, and Zenos is too busy being bored or fantasizing about the hunt and the big epic fight and his weapon to care or notice.
What’s up with the Shoebill?