What exactly do we know as of 5.3 about the sound that was heard before Amaurot fell?

That was also my assumption as well, and that by extension the fate of Aumarot read more of greek warning on hubris as a result.

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Originally Posted by ShadowMeowth

I would say, if anyone might have had any idea about the Sound's origins and the determination to quell it, that would be Azem. It was part of their role as Wanderer, to know the star and any threat to it. If Hydaelyn had meant to be a solution, Azem would have not rejected Venat's invitation to join them. No, I think Azem set out to find the origin of the Terminus, but as we know, whatever they might have uncovered was lost when they were sundered. Yet, who knows. Perhaps the key resides in us and whatever memories of Azem we possibly regain. That would be certainly interesting.

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It'd be very interesting if we had discovered it, and revealed it to Hydaelyn right before we were Sundered. Remember, Midgardsormr had a pact with Hydaelyn and was protecting something in Silvertear Lake, whatever is there is incredibly important to what's going on. Whether that's the path to Hydaelyn herself, the seal to the cause of the Sound, or something else entirely is the question.

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Originally Posted by RyuDragnier

It'd be very interesting if we had discovered it, and revealed it to Hydaelyn right before we were Sundered. Remember, Midgardsormr had a pact with Hydaelyn and was protecting something in Silvertear Lake, whatever is there is incredibly important to what's going on. Whether that's the path to Hydaelyn herself, the seal to the cause of the Sound, or something else entirely is the question.

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Hmm. The equivalent of Silvertear Lake in the First is called "the Source". I doubt Azem would have told Hydaelyn anything, they were neutral and if anything I would have seen them telling their former comrades in the Convocation rather than Venat. But it could be possible that you are onto something. Actually, if you dive into the Source Lake, there are strange crystalline structures near the string of isles of Sullen. To me, there are two main possibilities: 1) the Source is where Hydaelyn dive-kicked Zodiark and sundered the star, being some sort of shared link between the shards, 2) it is the literal "Source" of the Sound. Both possibilities are relevant enough to have Sormr as a guardian there.

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Originally Posted by ShadowMeowth

I would say, if anyone might have had any idea about the Sound's origins and the determination to quell it, that would be Azem. It was part of their role as Wanderer, to know the star and any threat to it. If Hydaelyn had meant to be a solution, Azem would have not rejected Venat's invitation to join them. No, I think Azem set out to find the origin of the Terminus, but as we know, whatever they might have uncovered was lost when they were sundered. Yet, who knows. Perhaps the key resides in us and whatever memories of Azem we possibly regain. That would be certainly interesting.

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I'm glad you mentioned this. Since we know that 6.0 is culminating the end of season 1 of the Warrior of Light and subsequent expansions will be a season 2 story, I wonder if the whole Hydaelyn/Zodiark story ends with us realizing who we are and our importance; only to know that the big bad of season 2 will be our true purpose.

Essentially, season 1 is our origin story. Season 2 is where we have real villian/evil we need to face.

We haven't learned anything new, but to recap what we do know about the Sound:

• It started somewhere outside Amaurot.
• It spread in some manner; whether radially or like a contagion is unknown.
• It came from the Planet itself, before Zodiark existed as its "will made manifest."
• It caused the Ancients' creation magicks to go haywire, involuntarily forcing them to invoke creation spells making their deepest, darkest fears manifest.
• When it reached Amaurot, it basically caused the apocalypse.
• It was finally halted by Zodiark's summoning, which consumed the lives of half of the Ancients still alive at that point.

Everything else is just speculation, but to throw my two cents in...

I am of the mind that it may have been a reaction from the planet to the Ancients' hubris. Even in contemporary times the few that remained were extremely arrogant until their defeat; adding to this is that Amaurotine civilization takes many cues from Thomas More's Utopia (its existence as a utopia in Emet-Selch's memory; Amaurot; Hythlodaeus; Anyder) - a place that cannot exist in reality. It also has a smattering of Greek in it (Therion the "Chthonic Riddle;" Hades; several Greek words such as Akademia and Utopia), which lends credence to the idea of hubris being a part of the Ancients' downfall (a recurring theme in Greek myth).

The Ancients' refusal to try and understand the Sound, and in so doing try to prevent a recurrence of the phenomenon, is what peeves me the most about how they handled the situation. Instead of learning from the event they just tried to go back to the way things were before. Again, this ties back into their hubris - those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, and the Ancients didn't even appear to want to learn any sort of lesson from the Sound.

Considering G'raha's 5.3 closing narration mentions a "beast" and the "apocalypse," I have little doubt the Sound will factor in going forward; but we still know next to nothing about it. (Given modern peoples aren't nearly as well-versed in creation magicks, would it affect them the same way it affected the Ancients?)

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Originally Posted by Cilia

Considering G'raha's 5.3 closing narration mentions a "beast" and the "apocalypse," I have little doubt the Sound will factor in going forward; but we still know next to nothing about it. (Given modern peoples aren't nearly as well-versed in creation magicks, would it affect them the same way it affected the Ancients?)

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I mean they could have set the "apocalypse" in motion and Zodiark stopped it. Our defeat of Zodiark (I'm not alone in thinking this showdown is coming, right?) may set it off again. Destroying the great evil only to reveal the greater evil behind it huge jrpg trope. Guess we'll wait and see.

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Originally Posted by Kesey

I mean they could have set the "apocalypse" in motion and Zodiark stopped it. Our defeat of Zodiark (I'm not alone in thinking this showdown is coming, right?) may set it off again. Destroying the great evil only to reveal the greater evil behind it huge jrpg trope. Guess we'll wait and see.

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Maybe, maybe not. Zodiark himself is not malevolent; if anything he's benign, the problem with him having been that the Ascians wanted commit genocide / omnicide times over in order to resurrect the dead. Now that the Unsundered are gone, and the sole known active Ascian apparently isn't interested in bringing back Amaurot, letting Zodiark off his chains might be permissible if he doesn't interfere with the material plane... and Zenos weren't interested in devouring him for power.

What gives me apocalypse vibes going forward is the last boss of Amaurot: Therion, the "Chthonic Riddle." Therion is another moniker for the Beast of Revelation from the Bible's Book of the same name; the connection draws itself.

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Originally Posted by Cilia

Maybe, maybe not. Zodiark himself is not malevolent; if anything he's benign, the problem with him having been that the Ascians wanted commit genocide / omnicide times over in order to resurrect the dead. Now that the Unsundered are gone, and the sole known active Ascian apparently isn't interested in bringing back Amaurot, letting Zodiark off his chains might be permissible if he doesn't interfere with the material plane... and Zenos weren't interested in devouring him for power.

What gives me apocalypse vibes going forward is the last boss of Amaurot: Therion, the "Chthonic Riddle." Therion is another moniker for the Beast of Revelation from the Bible's Book of the same name; the connection draws itself.

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There is too Therion's boss epithet: "Chthonic" comes from Greek root meaning "of the earth / land". So the title could be loosely translated as "Therion, Riddle of the Land". We see several Therions gleefully spaming laser beams just before getting to the fight with the Terminus Bellweather (the second boss) so apparently there were more than one, but seemingly they were the worse of the Terminus monstrosities. Their epithet directly connects them with the Sound emanating from the land or beneath it.

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Originally Posted by ShadowMeowth

There is too Therion's boss epithet: "Chthonic" comes from Greek root meaning "of the earth / land". So the title could be loosely translated as "Therion, Riddle of the Land". We see several Therions gleefully spaming laser beams just before getting to the fight with the Terminus Bellweather (the second boss) so apparently there were more than one, but seemingly they were the worse of the Terminus monstrosities. Their epithet directly connects them with the Sound emanating from the land or beneath it.

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I thought the Therions to be the ultimate culmination of the Ancients' fear for the end of the world and the Sound that initially triggered the Final days as well.

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Originally Posted by ShadowMeowth

Zodiark's summoning upset the balance, aye, but I would argue that was the only solution they had for what it was coming, and it was Hydaelyn's summoning what caused the first war in history, because fear had taken root in the Ancients.

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All we know of the Ancients is seen through the lens of the last final survivors of that civilization. To say 'the first war in history' has to be taken as the hyperbole it is -- we know nothing about the history of the Ancients.

There may well have been tens of thousands of years of utter chaos, with war after war after war before the Ancients became what they were in Emet-Selch eyes. The highly structured civilization we see in Amaurot is the culmination of what went before. It did not drop into existence fully formed.

It is entirely possible that the 'Sound-heard-round-the-world' was akin to the Warring Triad in the Allagan Empire. Something to be contained. Something forgotten as the world moved on after the Allagan's civilization was no more.