Tale of Emet [FF14 x Nier Reincarnation event story]

I dunno - personally I’m excited for the Azem shards and all they entail. I’m not sure I can see the writers ignoring the basic premise of “Hey. You (but not you) got split into 14 different pieces - and so did your (but not your) planet and friends.” At some point those Chekhov Shards gotta either get put back together, or rendered forever separate. Either way that means addressing the missing pieces in the story.

Perhaps one way to think about all this, is that the writers chose to set the game on the Source - with its partially assembled characters (including our own) as the main POV characters for the story. If they had negative feelings, or a general disinterest in the through-line of collecting the Azem shards - they might’ve set the game on a reflection where our characters had little to no chance of collecting other Azem Shards - and might even possibly view the people of the Source as monstrous beings.

Instead our characters have been specifically placed by the writers - giving them the tools, allies, and even possibly a personal narrative that would allow them to hop from reflection to reflection and collect their shards.

Initially I thought this would take a loooooong time to wrap up, and maybe even be part of how the MSQ might wrap in the final expansion. However, if it’s true that 7.0 might be a reset of sorts - then perhaps we’ll collect all the Azem bits sooner rather than later, as a way to prime that reset.

The “Azem Shard” story could be resolved very quickly, especially if the denizens of the Void (who can also hop from reflection to reflection) have done some collecting for us already…

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Originally Posted by Shookbeast

At some point those Chekhov Shards gotta either get put back together, or rendered forever separate.

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That's the thing. They have been rendered separate and we've been given no reason to think that we need to do anything further to "properly" separate them.

The rejoining was a threat that we needed to stop. We stopped it.

We don't need to do anything more about our other personal shards unless the writers bring in a new plot point to say we can't just leave things as they currently are.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

That's the thing. They have been rendered separate and we've been given no reason to think that we need to do anything further to "properly" separate them.

The rejoining was a threat that we needed to stop. We stopped it.

We don't need to do anything more about our other personal shards unless the writers bring in a new plot point to say we can't just leave things as they currently are.

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I’m not entirely convinced the rejoinings have stopped. There’s even the theory that without Hydaelyn the Sundering may begin to undo itself. We also have reflections in states of great distress such as the Void - and other reflections that are all wildcards at this point. (One Reflection could even be a relatively unchanged Ancient world with largely unaltered denizens still hanging out post-sundering. We really don’t know what’s in store for us out there.)

As far as our own shards - what I’m saying is that by the writers specifically choosing to write a story about reflections, shards, and a main character affected by both - it seems highly unlikely they’ll spend all that time laying groundwork, and then just ignore it. They’ve dropped plot lines before - but not the central conceit of their game. If anything, they’re doubling down with all the chatter about reflection hopping and focus on Azem breadcrumbs. If they had no intention to follow through - why set a character with these traits, in a world with these plot points?

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Originally Posted by Shookbeast

As far as our own shards - what I’m saying is that by the writers specifically choosing to write a story about reflections, shards, and a main character affected by both - it seems highly unlikely they’ll spend all that time laying groundwork, and then just ignore it. They’ve dropped plot lines before - but not the central conceit of their game.

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I don't think our personal shards are the conceit of the game. The shattered world, yes, and our personal link to the past via having Azem's soul, but the "groundwork" of establishing the Sundering hasn't gone to waste at all. It's already been thoroughly used for the game to date and the plot arc that has just wrapped up.

Chekhov's gun got put on the mantelpiece in Heavensward and fired in Endwalker. Maybe it will get used again, but it doesn't have to be, because the setup has already paid off.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

I don't think our personal shards are the conceit of the game. The shattered world, yes, and our personal link to the past via having Azem's soul, but the "groundwork" of establishing the Sundering hasn't gone to waste at all. It's already been thoroughly used for the game to date and the plot arc that has just wrapped up.

Chekhov's gun got put on the mantelpiece in Heavensward and fired in Endwalker. Maybe it will get used again, but it doesn't have to be, because the setup has already paid off.

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I’m not sure that’s true either. We (sort of) wrapped up the conflict between H&Z - but the continuing story we’re seeing unfolding right now through the patches is already discussing the Void and other reflections. Main characters are actively looking for ways to travel to other reflections. And Azem continues to be mentioned in the game.

So perhaps we’re seeing “Chekhov’s Shards” being used, right at this moment - but the writers don’t seem to be finished with them.

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Originally Posted by Shookbeast

I’m not entirely convinced the rejoinings have stopped. There’s even the theory that without Hydaelyn the Sundering may begin to undo itself. We also have reflections in states of great distress such as the Void - and other reflections that are all wildcards at this point. (One Reflection could even be a relatively unchanged Ancient world with largely unaltered denizens still hanging out post-sundering. We really don’t know what’s in store for us out there.)

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Is there anything ingame that support such a theory? Because if Hydealyns death would undo the sundering why would the Ascians not just simply try to find a way to her and to kill her?

As far as the state of the reflections: Emet says that we should visit them and that we may be surprised to what we find there. I doubt he meant in the way of: We will find out that they are basically all falling apart and the best solution would be to rejoin them.

Honestly for me the theme felt like: Its okay to be these imperfect beings. We are not worth less than the whole ones. Why then would SE turn around and be like: But now lets just rejoin us anyways. (Especially since rejoining does mean the death of a whole shard...I doubt that we would do that especially after being friends with Ryne and Gaia and all the other people on the first)

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Originally Posted by Alleo

Is there anything ingame that support such a theory? Because if Hydealyns death would undo the sundering why would the Ascians not just simply try to find a way to her and to kill her?

As far as the state of the reflections: Emet says that we should visit them and that we may be surprised to what we find there. I doubt he meant in the way of: We will find out that they are basically all falling apart and the best solution would be to rejoin them.

Honestly for me the theme felt like: Its okay to be these imperfect beings. We are not worth less than the whole ones. Why then would SE turn around and be like: But now lets just rejoin us anyways. (Especially since rejoining does mean the death of a whole shard...I doubt that we would do that especially after being friends with Ryne and Gaia and all the other people on the first)

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I didn’t mean to infer that if we find a reflection in distress - then we’d force it to rejoin. There are plenty of ways we could collect Azem shards without forcing a star to rejoin with the source. (Also, there are plenty of ways for our WOL to collect Azem shards without being the one to murder them). And I think the writers want the reflections to hang around for story-telling reasons. (Although I wouldn’t put it past the writers to do an expansion down the line centered on a surprise calamity/rejoining and all the upheaval/zone re-design that would cause).

And I agree with your stated theme - but I don’t see it conflicting with the possibility of our WOLs somehow becoming Azem. We may find out that being Azem (and an Ancient) isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Or we may find out that the only way to save the day is by embracing our flaws - which seems very Azem-y to me. Azem stands out as an Ancient who didn’t fit in - which would likely be how we would behave as an Ancient.

As far as the theory about the reflections deteriorating without Hydaelyn- that’s just speculation as far as I know. But plausible speculation given how Zodiark is fading away across all reflections. If he and his influence/parts seem to be poofing out - the same may be possible for Hydaelyn.

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Originally Posted by Alleo

Is there anything ingame that support such a theory? Because if Hydealyns death would undo the sundering why would the Ascians not just simply try to find a way to her and to kill her?

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It's been stated at times that without intrusive forces at play, the natural order of the world tends to try to correct itself. In the case of Zodiark, the alterations he had made to the aetherial flows were undone almost immediately, so I would be very surprised if the removal of a god of stability did not have consequences.

Considering that the Ascians were taking it slow with the rejoinings in order to avoid potentially destroying the Source entirely, I feel like even if they thought getting rid of Hydaelyn could potentially solve the problem in one fell swoop they probably wouldn't out of fear of potential repercussions.

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Originally Posted by KageTokage

Considering that the Ascians were taking it slow with the rejoinings in order to avoid potentially destroying the Source entirely, I feel like even if they thought getting rid of Hydaelyn could potentially solve the problem in one fell swoop they probably wouldn't out of fear of potential repercussions.

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The Ascians weren't taking it slow with Rejoinings because the Source was 'fragile' or anything. They were taking it slow because civilization on the Source is blasted back to somewhere in the Iron Age almost every time they crack out a Calamity. It's hard to orchestrate a worldwide doomsday event using people for whom large boats might be a tall ask.

Remember that the one time the Source did survive a Calamity with a minimum of destruction, the next attempt at a Calamity was five years later. Possibly even less time than that, depending on when you think Emmerololth started to take her crack at Eureka. The Ascians moved fast when opportunity presented itself.

That makes me further question as to why the Ascians didn't just aim to cause calamities that minimize the damage to civilization so that they can proceed with their plans quicker then they did (Though I feel like the writer's answer to that would be "for the evulz/dramatics"). You'd think they could've just found a nice, isolated place to build some manner of elemental weapon of mass destruction to set off once one of the shards is primed for a rejoining instead of relying so heavily on mankind's folly.

It also makes me wonder what circumstances for the calamities of wind, fire, and ice occurred under.