Phoenix, I summon you!

[Ziyyigo-Tipyigo]

You're thinking celestial avatars (a/k/a "sleeping gods"). Phoenix is terrestrial

[Imakun]

To see what was involved in getting that to happen the first time, rewatch the cutscenes for "The Pursuit of Paradise" in Pso'Xja.

To see why Phoenix's going away is fundamentally different this time, rewatch the cutscenes for "A Fate Decided" in the Grand Palace of Hu'Xzoi. Hint: notice anything different about Selh'teus at this point?

To see another example of a game where Phoenix was really, really, really gone, ala Uncle Ben Parker, see Final Fantasy VI.

You mean the thing and the other thing with the boy? Yea I remember those..
But at this point it would be easy to make something up and change part of the story, it's not like they didn't do it already! Hint: WotG >_>;

Edited for spoilers huge like xbox lol

[Ziyyigo-Tipyigo]

(Spoilers in white text, highlight to read)

Sure, some small things might have been changed here and there with Wings of the Goddess, but that's part of the nature of having a time-travel storyline. It's kinda hard to whitewash and gloss over little details like the wholesale slaughter of tens of thousands of innocents just to get what little presence Phoenix had, the impact of which weighs heavily on Tenzen and is a strong motivation for that character's actions, nor can you really easily ignore the merger of Phoenix and Sehl'teus after they both died, which is rather important to maintain as Sehl'teus' death would cause the lethal amounts of Emptiness he absorbed to return to the crystals. That last bit was important to keeping Promathia weak enough to be defeated.

In conclusion, either Phoenix stays "dead" or all of creation ceases to exist, which was exactly what Chains of Promathia was about avoiding.

[Imakun]

I know that, but since we have time travel and parallel dimensions as real and viable options now they could easily avoid all of that. Just try imagining this.
You zone in La Theine Plateau and your Moogle shows up in a CS. "Oh master, I believe this belongs to you. I found it in an old box at the Mog House, kupo." He gives you an orange feather. "I thought it might be important so I ran to you as fast as I could. I'll go back now! Safe travels, Kupo!"
You then go to Carbuncle's stone circle and click on the ???. Carbuncle shows up and it's like "Where did you find that? Oh well that's a feather from Phoenix. Might it be possible.. Listen, <summoner>. What if I told you there was a way to bring at least a part of her back to us? (Insert X numbers of shenanigans about time traveling to the past to gather energy without you-know-what)."
You accept. Go to the past, watch like 3 CS in Windurst, a couple more in some open field area, get some item from some Yagudo or something, go back to Windurst and bam you have Phoenix back. CoP completed would be required of course.

It's not that complicated as it would have been before WotG. WotG and Abyssea allow us to get anywhere we want with storyline at this point. Everything that happened can be avoided by either time traveling or dimension traveling.
And it's lot easier than getting Bahamut really. He'd just eat you.

[Zetonegi]

Spoilers of various questlines in white
Phoenix isn't so much dead as he is a bit too busy to be summoned. In Abyssea, Phoenix was kinda a delicious snack for Promathia AKA Shinryu. You kinda killed him. And if you did the windy quest line you'd know that the terrestrial avatars can die.The end of it was about reviving Fenrir after Karuha-Baruha's crazy misadventures with him. The whole Windurst was going to cease to exist because Fenrir was straight up gone thing. Joker wasn't revived until part way through the missions so it isn't like Fenrir was just dormant, he was legitimately dead. In our world Phoenix is kinda busy helping the world not end. You know the whole keeping Sehl'teus around who is keeping the world around. Its a bit time consuming I'm sure you can understand the pressure he's under though. Phoenix might be to lend us his strength in a millennium or two though so don't give up hope!

[Zeargi]

I read this story too on the wiki by mistake (I wish I hadn't though ;^; )

Spolier in white: Robel-Akbel is actually Karaha-Baruha from another future where he failed to some Fenrir and save Windurst. So it's very possible to have Phoenix, either through the WotG or even Abyssea, as there are plenty of reasons she'd be alive there.

[Panthera]

We get to summon Odin for Pete's sake. Why not Phoenix?

[Teraniku]

You know this can be worked around. We could all travel to various places around Vana'diel recovering "Phoenix Embers" and either fighting NMs for them or get various items to recover them. Then all we'd need to do is go to the top of Parradamo Tor and the Cradle of Rebirth to get Phoenix.

[RayneShock]

Or even Phoenix Pinions like in FF8 I think, weren't those supposed to be only a fragment of Phoenix's power?

[JagerForrester]

You know this can be worked around. We could all travel to various places around Vana'diel recovering "Phoenix Embers" and either fighting NMs for them or get various items to recover them. Then all we'd need to do is go to the top of Parradamo Tor and the Cradle of Rebirth to get Phoenix.

I don't think just trotting up to the Cradle of Rebirth after collecting pieces of him/her will let us summon Phoenix. That's too easy, even if NMs have them and the path up there is troublesome. Nah, there's gotta be a fight to prove our worth, just like the other avatars has challenged us. And the Cradle would be the gateway like the proto-crystals are to Ifrit, Shiva, and the others.