The Four Lords and the implications (spoilers)

[LineageRazor]

I had a sudden thought; dialog from the critters in the shrine under Hell's Lid implies that Tamamo-no-gozen, the kitsune from the Foxy Lady FATE, is another such Auspice. Could Ixion be another Auspice? How about Kinko, from the Astrologian storyline?

It'd be interesting if it was eventually revealed that there's something about Orthard that leads to the rise of such creatures. I'm not asking for Allagan involvement, but there's plenty of interesting artifacts in the region that might play a role, such as the House of the Crooked Coin, the tower in the Ruby Sea, and eventually, Eureka.

[Sylvain]

I thought the tower in the ruby sea was meant to be the future deep dungeon. (except that we climb it this time)

[ObsidianFire]

Just realized something. In one of the Ruby Sea sidequests, the Confederacy says they collect the lava of Hell's Lid and forge swords out of it that can supposedly kill demons. The sealing stuff going on underneath Hell's Lid is probably where the legend started, or maybe it's not even a legend...

[koichi88]

I had a sudden thought; dialog from the critters in the shrine under Hell's Lid implies that Tamamo-no-gozen, the kitsune from the Foxy Lady FATE, is another such Auspice. Could Ixion be another Auspice?

According to Ixion's description in the mount menu it's some kind of Mhachi bio-weapon. Given its location it may have been at least partially responsible for Skalla's destruction. Either that or it was brought by the Mhachi refugees that ended up in Gyr Abania and it broke free from their control at some point.

[Okamimaru]

It seems to me there's an imbalance in aether or at least the way it influences the environment... eorzea is aether dense and we can't fly... as we get farther away from the core we gain flight due to the wind aether currents... perhaps eorzea is like a clog in the aether flow... elsewhere where the aether flows freely perhaps it has an effect on animals after prolonged exposure...

[EdwinLi]

I have this strange feeling the storyline may end with a Yamata no Orochi Trial boss fight.

[Balipu]

I had a sudden thought; dialog from the critters in the shrine under Hell's Lid implies that Tamamo-no-gozen, the kitsune from the Foxy Lady FATE, is another such Auspice. Could Ixion be another Auspice? How about Kinko, from the Astrologian storyline?

Made a thread just for that topic alone. Another interesting thing is the topic of Kami. They are worshipped by normal races and beast tribes alike. Hell Kojin hardly qualify as beast tribes. They don't worship any specific deity AND none of them are tempeted. Also I find it funny that as far as we know Oni are completely fictional. I mean they only appear in the legend of Tenzen, but as we learn from Genbu there were never any oni.

All this is begging for a new lore book.

[Zohar_Lahar]

What is the nature of their 'primal rage/eternal calm' though I wonder? Dragons that are alone for a long time can be driven into a destructive rage by it. Alternatively it could be something like the Inner beast or a DRK's darkness but on a different scale. Honestly I am hoping we learn a lot more about this lot going forward.

The aramitama of Byakko had a lot of similarities to Nidhogg, particularly the reddish black aura and incoherent fury. Since there were signs in Heavensward that Nidhogg and Hresvelgr might have the Echo, it's possible all the First Brood became auspices due to their extreme age. The way the Four Lords described Koryu in full aramitama does remind me of Nidhogg, who was too maddened with rage.

[ObsidianFire]

There's several problems with Dragons becoming Auspices. One is that living 1,000 years is nothing to a dragon. For reference's sake, that's how long the Dragonsong war has been going on. Several of Hrasvelgr's and Nidhogg's children are older then that and there's nothing "special" about them due to how long they have lived.

The other is that dragon "intelligence" seems to be either there or not when a dragon is born. We meet several young dragons in Anyx Trine and they're just as intelligent (if not more) then any other children of a spoken race is. They just age really, really slowly. So they'd probably be considered "mature" in 1,000 years just from their normal life cycle.

The biggest reason though is that Dragons aren't native to Hydaleyn. They're aliens from another star she has allowed to live on her. We've seen countless times that they have very weird ways of interacting with aether compared to any other living things (life-force contained in eyes, physical shape determined by aetheric balance, can capture the aether of other living things, can effectively mind-control their progeny, their aether can be transfered to other beings, etc.). Given that Auspices are an apparently normal atheric phenomena (if a very, very rare one), it's highly likely the concept doesn't apply to dragons. They're just too alien to Hydaleyn to assume the things work "like normal" with them.

[Eloah]

Since this is Japan, I'm betting Seiryu wont be a dragon but a seahorse. Being a seahorse would make a bit more sense as its dragon adjacent but not technically a dragon. The Japanese word for seahorse is Dragon Child/Dragon's Child.