Originally Posted by
Khryseis_Astra
*nods* it definitely reacts to us, but that doesn’t necessarily mean our Ancient self made it. Also, Azem is an office of the convocation… so while the symbol of Azem was last associated with our former self, it was also associated with Venat before us. Could be she had a hand in it, especially knowing what she was planning to do… at any rate, I really hope they will explore a bit of the key’s mystery: who made it and why, exactly what it’s full capabilities are, how the Lalas ended up with it (which could take us to the South Sea Isles, just a hop away from Meracydia in time for 8.0! Please! lol). Instead of just ignore it and now we have a shiny new key (plot device) to travel between shards.
As for the mask… I remember seeing a lot of speculation before release about the Arcadion symbol looking like Altima, while Sphene’s mask and some details on her dress looked more like Pashtarot… suggesting that maybe the original Sphene was a sundered Ancient from the convocation. At any rate the Sphene we knew wasn’t the original, but Ascian or not, it’s possible that Preservation as an organization or even Living Memory itself could’ve been part of an Ascian scheme… whether to prep shards for rejoining or just an experiment to find another way of restoring their lost loved ones.
At any rate, I don’t think Sphene’s mask is related to Azem… they have no problem sticking that symbol on the key, on our crystal, even on the throne in the Crystal Tower! (Which I still don’t think I’ve ever seen an explanation for, though I have theories!) I think if Sphene was connected to Azem, we would have seen the symbol on her somewhere, rather than patterns that seem to point to another Ascian.