(5.2 spoilers) The Defector

[Alleo]

Another thing that came to mind while bringing up that cloaked person with Zenos. What if it’s possible for shards of ours to absorb each other and combine except for the source (ours)? If this figure is a shard of ours, we can reasonably assume they know how to traverse the rift which is no easy feat. Perhaps they have absorbed some or the rest of our shards from the other remaining worlds. Then they could be on more of an equal fighting ground with us if it should come to that. It may also be possible they were raised up in status to ascian by one of the unsundered. A whole lot to think about!

Well that would mean that one shard was somehow able to travel through dimensions and had the luck that other shards of us were alive at that time. I mean the first and the source had different timelines going on and without the flood Ardbert would have been long death. And no they are not near on equal fighting ground. We are 9/14 and there is the speculation that a certain someone might be our shard from the 13th. If that is the case then 10th of us are save. Leaving only 4 shards behind. Even if they absorb all three of the other they are not even half us.

[Jandor]

We also don't really know how much of a power upgrade absorbing another soul shard gives someone.

The average person from the 1st is only on 1 out of 14, despite that though, they don't seem noticeably weaker than their source counterparts.

Seems it's on a relatively flat curve, at least up to 9/14.



Something like that maybe

[Vyrerus]

Mmmm, I think it has more to do with how strong each soul shard has become while separate than it does purely with a rejoined aspect. I mean, the lead Ascians are full souls, and can't beat us even when they take on their full power.

It makes me think about the 14 chakras though. 7 of light, 7 of dark. Open all 14 and attain incredible power. This was the premise of the level 52~60 Monk quests, and it's safe to say each job unlocked that kind of power, since all jobs are comparable or greater in power than that. Perhaps it's that each soul has these 14 pathways for aether to receive/channel their power through, and as you rejoin, your ability to channel aether through them becomes greater?

Of course, there's been this natural affinity for power being greater or lesser depending on the individual. It's most likely just explained as the WoL had the strongest soul, and even at a partially rejoined state, the magnificence of that soul is greater than a lesser, yet full, soul. Then again, it's been shown through the Resonant that you can burn up other people and their souls to impart more power and the Echo onto any individual strong enough to live through the procedure. I could see one of our other shards being tricked and roped into an artificial infusion. Just don't know how current events would play into that possibility at all.

[Lauront]

The WoL is protected by Hydaelyn through the Blessing of Light. That is why you see Hades trying to suppress it during the fight, plus being able to channel all that stored up Lightwarden light at him was another circumstantial advantage. Lahabrea was worn out, as Emet-Selch mentioned, by body hopping an awful lot, but he also tried to squelch the Blessing by using so much brute force through Ultima that it would weaken Hydaelyn. As for Elidibus, assuming we even fight him again, we have yet to see his full might and we still don't fully understand what his role is. So all else has not been equal when facing off the Unsundered, particularly given the Blessing shielding against their full power.

We also don't really know how much of a power upgrade absorbing another soul shard gives someone.

The average person from the 1st is only on 1 out of 14, despite that though, they don't seem noticeably weaker than their source counterparts.

Seems it's on a relatively flat curve, at least up to 9/14.



Something like that maybe

Yeah, I think there may be something to this. It's possible that re-assembling the pieces isn't quite linear in the benefits it bestows. However, another (non-exclusive) possibility to contemplate is that the WoL's soul is just stronger than the average person on the Source, being a former member of the Convocation, the members of which were exceptional in their skills and natural aptitudes even amongst the ancients - that their soul is just more resilient to whatever corrosion has occured to many others over time. Elidibus, in their big meeting, refers to the fact that the souls on the Source wane even as the Ardor empowers Zodiark - this is at least seemingly contradicted by the recent lore answer Yoshi gave at Gamescom (point 4), where he clarifies that everything on the Source is empowered. What, then, is the difference? I think it could lie in the fact that some souls are more tattered than others. More on that below, spoiler-tagged for compactness...

Another thing that also comes to mind is that some of the difference probably also lies in how much of the Echo's potential has been unlocked. Whilst a less sundered soul is going to simply be more potent than a more sundered one, even the sundered Overlords were formidable opponents given their mastery over the Echo. They just don't hold a candle to an unsundered Overlord with similar mastery.

I've had some thoughts as to why Hydaelyn is light-aspected in the first place. It's been speculated, and with good reason, that Zodiark took on the aspect of darkness because of the effect it has on aether, agitating the elements, allowing for a more rapid recovery of the planet. This is consistent with what Hythlodaeus mentions following his summoning. A common argument is that Hydaelyn has the opposite aspect because of whom she was intended to "check", and it's reasonable as far as it goes... but it really doesn't seem to be a case of one force being superior to the other, in any way. What allowed her to prevail was her ability to enervate. I'm not aware of that being intrinsically linked to the light, and so I think it's reasonable to assume she could just as well have been a Primal of darkness and she'd still be able to do that.

I'm of the belief that her purpose wasn't so much intended to counterbalance Zodiark, as it was to prevent him from reviving the fallen ancients who went into his sacrifice. That may have entailed uprooting/destroying him and substituting him with Hydaelyn. At present, a lot of speculation about Zodiark enslaving the world and demanding more and more sacrifices does not appear to be tenable, and the crux of the disagreement is instead that they did not believe his summoning had permanently resolved the cause of the Final Days. The Convocation disagreed, and so they took it upon themselves to create Hydaelyn to "check" Zodiark.

It's not immediately apparent how checking him would provide a "permanent solution", but if their diagnosis (correct or otherwise) was that creation magicks are the problem, this suggests that their ultimate target wasn't Zodiark but the ancients as a whole and thus why they believed the "new life" should inherit the world, rather than being moved by any emotional preference towards it... he was simply in the way of doing that and would do the opposite by allowing for the restoration of the ancients who went into him. Elidibus mentions in his monologue at the end of 5.0 that it was intentional that memory of the ancient world and souls would be wiped, so it's hard to see the whole thing as being accidental, as opposed to targeted at the ancients... even if sundering the entire star may have been an accident.

With all that in mind, I wonder if the choice of light in this regard is to still/pacify the aether that is available to the birth of new lifeforms, and thus diminish it and prevent the resurgence of souls like those of the ancients. This would fit with Lahabrea's comments here, explain why in spite of all the aether being rejoined to the Source, Elidibus's observed the waning of the souls within it, and also fit with Leveva describing the state inside the star as similar in its description to the First. There is still the question of how all this empowers Zodiark without an automatic pipeline feeding it back into him, but it could just be a case of putting all the aether back where it needs to be and ready for his revival. At the least, the thing he mentions, the Rejoinings, should not be weakening the souls on the Source and so something else appears to be at play.

Anyway, on the OP and thus the defector, my suspicion is that they're the answer to the question the epilogue of 5.0 poses, and they probably vanished in an attempt to get to the root of the Final Days, since the Convocation was determined to resolve the issue through Zodiark's summoning, and events then worsened exponentially, pushing them to go ahead with their plans. The language used by Venat's crew suggests the 14th was still missing in action, and probably too late to present the Convocation with a solution that would remove the need to summon Zodiark, and also to halt the summoning of Hydaelyn for the same reasons. I don't think it is just the Ascians whom they will seek to deter, but both sides in this war... and if the Final Days were the result of some unknown entity's machinations that we've yet to see surface (perhaps sealed away for now, much like the High Seraph), and not just something wrong with creation magic, put an end to that, too.

Still, it's not clear what effects removing Zodiark and Hydaelyn would have - would it undo his rewriting of the laws of reality, or whatever role she plays in the Aetherial Sea? Maybe, but maybe not. They're both interesting cases as they're Primals summoned with an ancient as a vessel within the star itself, so how far the usual rules around tempering, aether consumption etc. apply, is anyone's guess.

[Riastrad]

So hear me out.

We are the defector. We are the fourteenth. We are not Venat. Minfilia/Ryne is. Venat's supporters may just well be the Scions as they were during the time of the Ancients. (The Conversation between Venat and the "Diplomatic" Ancient one reminds me of the conversation between Minfilia and Thancred during the flash back when he took Ryne (then still Minfilia) to the location where the flood was halted.) Venat even places her hand on her chest when speaking. Much like how Minfilia and Ryne do often throughout the story. Yes, I know that last part sounds like a stretch, but stay with me.

During the cutscene after Anyder, Venat and her followers express regret that the Fourteenth left all attempts of communication unanswered. We (The Defector) are Hydaelyn's chosen champion because that is what Venat wanted the Fourteenth to be. As we could not be reached it fell to her to attempt the summoning of Hydaelyn and becoming the Heart. Venat mentions that after doing so that "I shall not vanish from this world. The form I take shall ever remain my choice."

As the Word of the Mother (Hydaelyn calls her a "beloved daughter"), Minfilia retained her image and after parting to the First took the form of flaxen haired, blue eyed girls to forestall the Flood of Light. It would explain why Hydaelyn seemed to have such a close connection to single out Minfilia and Ryne so often and make them Her Oracles of Light. Who better to see your vision to its purpose than yourself?



Select lyrics to "Return to Oblivion" courtesy of the Dev Blog.

Turn the light on
And let her in. Won't you
Turn the light on
Turn the light on
You'll never win 'less you
Turn the light on
Turn the light on
The pain won't end 'till you
Turn the light on
The soul longs for oblivion, oblivion

Falling too far for the fear to embrace me
A voice from the past screaming there is no end (no)
A slave to my fate, ever doomed to repeat this
again and again and again and again (yeah, I'm)

Falling too fast, but the fall will not break me
A voice from the past echoes loud like a drum (oh, yes)
no more goodbyes, I am tired of waiting
Now open my eyes, one last time, Here I come (yeah I come)

[Vyrerus]

So hear me out.

We are the defector. We are the fourteenth. We are not Venat. Minfilia/Ryne is. Venat's supporters may just well be the Scions as they were during the time of the Ancients. (The Conversation between Venat and the "Diplomatic" Ancient one reminds me of the conversation between Minfilia and Thancred during the flash back when he took Ryne (then still Minfilia) to the location where the flood was halted.) Venat even places her hand on her chest when speaking. Much like how Minfilia and Ryne do often throughout the story. Yes, I know that last part sounds like a stretch, but stay with me.

During the cutscene after Anyder, Venat and her followers express regret that the Fourteenth left all attempts of communication unanswered. We (The Defector) are Hydaelyn's chosen champion because that is what Venat wanted the Fourteenth to be. As we could not be reached it fell to her to attempt the summoning of Hydaelyn and becoming the Heart. Venat mentions that after doing so that "I shall not vanish from this world. The form I take shall ever remain my choice."

As the Word of the Mother (Hydaelyn calls her a "beloved daughter"), Minfilia retained her image and after parting to the First took the form of flaxen haired, blue eyed girls to forestall the Flood of Light. It would explain why Hydaelyn seemed to have such a close connection to single out Minfilia and Ryne so often and make them Her Oracles of Light. Who better to see your vision to its purpose than yourself?



Select lyrics to "Return to Oblivion" courtesy of the Dev Blog.

Turn the light on
And let her in. Won't you
Turn the light on
Turn the light on
You'll never win 'less you
Turn the light on
Turn the light on
The pain won't end 'till you
Turn the light on
The soul longs for oblivion, oblivion

Falling too far for the fear to embrace me
A voice from the past screaming there is no end (no)
A slave to my fate, ever doomed to repeat this
again and again and again and again (yeah, I'm)

Falling too fast, but the fall will not break me
A voice from the past echoes loud like a drum (oh, yes)
no more goodbyes, I am tired of waiting
Now open my eyes, one last time, Here I come (yeah I come)

This is actually the more common line of thought about the matter. Though, the Ancients with Venat are unlikely to be the Scions, since the Scions do not all possess The Echo.