That Garlean guy, what was his name? Gaius Van Baelsar

[CyrilLucifer]

Lahabrea is probably dead. I can see them bringing Estinien back though.

I'd rather have Lahabrea.
Come at me.

[Nalien]

Thorden basically did this in reverse. He used Ascalon to reduce Lahabrea to Aether, then he ate him.

Sigh...

Except it was Nidhoggs Eye in the Ascalon which absorbed Lahabrea, not Thordan. The animation is very specific, and similar to Nabriales being absorbed by the White Auracite which, of course, did not kill Nabriales.

At this point I don't care if people want to agree or disagree that Lahabrea is still kicking or not, the point here is that Thordan did not absorb Lahabreas aether. The animations specifically shows Nidhoggs Eye doing the absorbing.

Far be it for me to remind everyone that Saint Shiva is still seemingly "alive", after being consumed by her lover... Now we have Nidhogg consuming Lahabrea...

Lahabrea is probably dead. I can see them bringing Estinien back though. Nidhogg and Estinien might be at odds with fighting over control of the Dragon's body. Maybe why Nidhogg temporarily leaves Ishgard alone. Or Nidhogg wants Ishgard to rebuild before tearing it back down again.

It makes no sense to let Ishgard rebuild, as I explained earlier.

Before, Ishgard was an isolated City-State, and they were against Dravania. Nidhogg periodically attacked, tormenting them but not finishing them off, letting them rebuild only to do that all again with them growing up hating Dravania.

Now, Ishgard is part of the Eorzean Alliance, it has three separate armies to back it up in a fight with Nidhogg. They're making good relations with Dravania, potentially making allies out of Nidhoggs own sibling/s. The truth behind their history has been revealed and accepted. If he attacks now, they know it's just him being a jerk, they know they have Dravanians they can trust.

Unless he has gone off to find some powerful McGuffin (and most McGuffins in Eorzea are either anti-Primal, or anti-Dragon in nature...), he has missed his chance to finish Ishgard off. Had he attacked during 3.1, then he would likely have succeeded, given Ishgard was fighting itself at the time. He could have left survivors as always, and Aymeric and co would all be remembered as Heretics who foolishly allowed Nidhogg to gain the upper hand, and the truth would have been washed away again. He'd have perpetuated the cycle he was enjoying for so long. He has now missed his chance to do that, because he was busy doing something else.

[MagiusNecros]

Nidhogg's brood fled with Nidhogg so...

Records show the Eorzean alliance won't do shit. It's been proven many times. Only time they move is when their cities are in danger. They are pathetic.

[Nalien]

Nidhogg's brood fled with Nidhogg so...

Records show the Eorzean alliance won't do shit. It's been proven many times. Only time they move is when their cities are in danger. They are pathetic.

If only they were about to change or something...

However, FFXIV’s patch titles are usually multi-layered, so the “change” mentioned here is not exclusive to the Minfilia branch of the story. It also ties into the Dragonsong War branch as well. As we saw in 3.1, following the dramatic rescue of an Ishgardian by a dragon, the people of Ishgard have begun questioning their heretofore violent relationship with the Dravanians. They have begun to think that a change towards peace may be possible. In addition, the other regions of Eorzea have also detected a change in the winds, and are now beginning to re-evaluate their stance on the conflict...possibly considering action themselves.

Nidhogg is allowing time for this kind of change to take place, so whatever he is up to, it better be worth it... The Eorzean Alliance has a nice shiny Bahamut-Killer buried away that Ishgard might want to make use of eventually, so whatever Nidhogg is busy with, it better be worth it...

I'm personally a fan of whatever he is up to furthering the plot. If he has just gone off to get help from one of his siblings, then that's fairly boring (though at least better than "Haha! I had an Ishgard destroying device hidden away all this time! That's what I was getting!", since I actually want to see some of the other Celestial Dragons). Conspiring with the Garleans to push for an escalation of conflicts, or dealing with a pesky Ascian he accidentally consumed, can't think of much else he could be doing. Dealing with Estinien might fit, but I'm not sure why that would require him to leave the Aery, though the same goes for Lahabrea.

[MagiusNecros]

If by action you mean getting off their asses then great but if by action you mean creating another task for or fighting the WoL then it changes little. So far only Gridania's representative got off their ass if only for a small amount of time.

I would like to see more of the other regions leaders doing something other then "holding the fort".

[Theodric]

I'm torn. I want to see the other leaders do more...but I also don't want them to be shrouded in the same plot armour as the Scions. The leaders shouldn't necessarily be on the front lines, anyway - especially when there's so many issues in their territory that has not been addressed as of yet. Hopefully that hypocrisy will be pointed out though.

I also don't want to see Garlemald ally with Nidhogg. Why would they? Nidhogg is essentially a Primal at this point - and even if they're not aware of that fact they loathe the idea of working alongside 'Beasts'.

Plus they don't want Ishgard to be destroyed. Conquered and brought to heel, perhaps, but not destroyed/infested with elezen transformed into dragons.

[Kaiser-Ace]

Sigh...

At this point I don't care if people want to agree or disagree that Lahabrea is still kicking or not, the point here is that Thordan did not absorb Lahabreas aether. The animations specifically shows Nidhoggs Eye doing the absorbing.
.

I think someone doesn't exactly understand how Thorden was using the Eye. Think of the Eye as a Sponge. It absorbs all Aether, regardless of form or element, into itself. Primals, needing constant Aether to survive, feed on aether as efficiently as possible to sustain their existence even enthralling mortals into worship to feed on their aether. So, Thorden uses the Eye, Embedded in his newly formed Ascalon Blade, to absorb Lahabrea's Aether . But, due to him being a primal and a powerful one at that, the moment he touched Ascalon he began to rapidly drain the Eye's Aether. Lahabrea's freshly absorbed Aether included.

If he had won, he would have undoubtedly done the same to Sephirot (The Fiend), Sophia (The Goddess), and Zurvan (The Demon) as well in order to absorb enough Aether into the eye to sustain him indefinitely.

Think of Nidhogg's Eye as God-King Thorden's Bottomless Lunchbox.

This is NOT what we do with the White Auracite. What we do there, is absorbe the Acsian into the crystal as to separate his will from his soul's aether. By doing this we render them temporarily mortal as their Souls are in a destructible vessel. Then by forming a blade of light via some form of Aether Sponge ala Dragon's Eye (Or via Human Sacrifice) we then destroy the Auracite with the, now mortal, Ascian Soul inside thus severing the ability they have that allows them to cheat death. In the process the now ambient aether that was once their corporeal form is now purified and returned to Hydaelyn.

[Atoli]

If only they were about to change or something...

In addition, the other regions of Eorzea have also detected a change in the winds, and are now beginning to re-evaluate their stance on the conflict...possibly considering action themselves.

Yeah no, I wouldn't get my hopes up with just that..x)
They miiight be possiiiibly "considering" changing their stance, wow. So much uncertainty in that sentence, that's far beyond the usual "We are being vague for non-spoiler reasons". It's more of a "They'll talk about taking action but will probably arrive at the same conclusion again".
Don't get me wrong, I don't consider their stance cowardly or bad in any way!
Time and again we've seen that they have good reasons for doing so; they have barely any resources, their people have no fighting will for yet another war after the last catastrophe, especially not for one that doesn't directly affect their families and such. All city states are still in the middle of even basic repairs and have lots of other problems they are struggling with (once fertile land that suddenly won't produce crops any more, tons of refugees to the cities, infighting, etc.).
Taking action in Ishgard's war or even just going into the offensive against the Garleans in that kind of state would be a horrible idea. So I'd be completely understanding if they stopped at "considering" vs. "acting upon it".

I'm currently working on the idea that Estinian is working on Nidhogg's mind the same way Saint Shiva is on Hraysvelgr.

But weren't Shiva and Hresvelgr lovers..?
Now you made my mind wander into the direction of a Nidhogg x Estinien ship...oh god x.X

[Kaiser-Ace]

But weren't Shiva and Hresvelgr lovers..?
Now you made my mind wander into the direction of a Nidhogg x Estinien ship...oh god x.X

Apologizes. But the Lore team said that. One Dragons are neither Male or Female, and two don't have the traditional concept of "mating" as humans understand it since they reproduce asexually (aka on their own).

Hrasvelgr merged his soul with Shiva's when be consumed her. Like wise, when Nidhogg's body snached Estinien he may have inadvertently done something very simmilar. Or at least pulled a Xehanort and caused both Souls to inhabit one host body.

[Cilia]

At this point I don't care if people want to agree or disagree that Lahabrea is still kicking or not, the point here is that Thordan did not absorb Lahabreas aether. The animations specifically shows Nidhoggs Eye doing the absorbing.

... and King Thordan was using Nidhogg's Eye as his personal rechargeable battery. So it should make little, if any, difference whether King Thordan himself absorbed Lahabrea's aether (or to be more exact, "the aether formerly known as Lahabrea") or the Eye absorbed it.

The reason we need a White Auracite is to prevent the Ascian from using their Dark Crystal to run away. If the Ascian doesn't, as happens both with King Thordan executing Lahabrea and in the Echo Flashback to the Warriors of Darkness' past, it's not unreasonable to conclude that just blasting a weakened Ascian with enough aether can perma-kill them.