(6.X Spoilers/Theory) Future WOL Content - Everything’s Coming Up…

…Azem.

It does feel to me like it’s starting to happen - and that it’s possible we wrap the Azem storyline up far quicker than I thought.

-We’ve got Y’shtola wanting to hop between shards as a driving plot point. That’s an easy way for us to “collect them all” when it comes to remaining Azem shards.

-We’ve got Void story elements and Zenos’ Reaper pal - long thought to be the Azem of the 13th. This 13th Azem shard may even be an “original” Azem from the post-sundering, depending on how soon the 13th fell after the sundering. So 13th Azem might actually remember being “Azem.” (But the Azem shard could also be our new knightly looking villain…)

-We’ve got Raid Azeyma pretty much confirmed to not be our Azem. My theory is that the 12 are Ancient clones (clones of some Ancient person(s)) - with Emet to blame for their creation (and possibly powering them with shards of his sundered pals). This means we should look elsewhere… possibly at characters with capes very similar to the ones we all just got. Or maybe suspicious monkeys.

-If Deryk (that cape) or his monkey are Oschon - it’s possible Emet went and snatched an Azem shard from another reflection and elevated it to Oschon. Did anyone catch the symbol on his cuff, seen when he’s sitting at the table with the team? I don’t recognize it.

-But most telling (for me) is the last fight in the new raid - where the game designers have our party fighting reflections of our own characters. That feels like further testing/teasing (after the Zenos body-snatch) for when we meet (and maybe fight) other Azem shards.

Maybe Azem shard collection will be a big part of the next expansion - or maybe we’re starting it right now…

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Originally Posted by Shookbeast

-If Deryk (that cape) or his monkey are Oschon - it’s possible Emet went and snatched an Azem shard from another reflection and elevated it to Oschon. Did anyone catch the symbol on his cuff, seen when he’s sitting at the table with the team? I don’t recognize it.

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Yeah, I've thought it interesting since they started going into detail on Azem that they and Oschon are both known for being wanderers. I'm not sure exactly where they're going to go with it, but it seems like the twelve have to be connected to the convocation in some way, maybe based on members of it. That would explain the similarities between Oschon and Azem.

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Originally Posted by Shookbeast

-We’ve got Y’shtola wanting to hop between shards as a driving plot point. That’s an easy way for us to “collect them all” when it comes to remaining Azem shards.

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Not necessarily, it all depends on whether Azem's soul shards have actually reincarnated or are still resting in the Lifestream. Also, if they are alive, what if they're still in childhood? Ask yourself this: would you slaughter an innocent child just to rejoin a soul fragment?

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Originally Posted by Shookbeast

(But the Azem shard could also be our new knightly looking villain…)

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The 'black knight' in the Void is clearly none other than

FFIV's main antagonist Golbez (the connection is further rammed home by the 'elemental thrones' obviously being the Four Archfiends Rubicante, Cagnazzo, Barbariccia and Scarmiglione, and the music in that cutscene is none other than a remix of a variation of Golbez's theme from FFIV called Somewhere in the World . I do agree it's very possible that Void!Golbez is potentially the Thirteenth's soul fragment of Azem, given how in FFIV Golbez was protagonist Cecil's brother.

As for Zenos's avatar, there is the possibility it's actually Zenos's own soul fragment, so warped and corrupted it could no longer rejoin to him but merely acts as a puppet. But that theory is so full of holes it's probably wrong. :p

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Originally Posted by Shookbeast

-But most telling (for me) is the last fight in the new raid - where the game designers have our party fighting reflections of our own characters. That feels like further testing/teasing (after the Zenos body-snatch) for when we meet (and maybe fight) other Azem shards.

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We've already fought other Warriors of Light back in the Heroes' Gauntlet in 5.3 (that Elidibus partially summoned), it's entirelly possible any one of those was Azem's soul fragment. But given there is only four remaining Shards (other than the First and Thirteenth), that's not a huge selection to choose from. And again, as I mentioned there is no guarantee Azem's fragments have been reincarnated and are currently alive on a Shard - presumedly the Shard ones only reincarnate when a Shard was primed for a rejoining and so Hydaelyn reincarnated them specifically to try and stop it, usually without success. But that's just my theory so don't take that as correct! :D

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Originally Posted by Shookbeast

My theory is that the 12 are Ancient clones (clones of some Ancient person(s)) - with Emet to blame for their creation (and possibly powering them with shards of his sundered pals). This means we should look elsewhere… possibly at characters with capes very similar to the ones we all just got. Or maybe suspicious monkeys.

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The thing that gives me pause about the Twelve being Ancient is that Rhalgr is very obviously Elezen with those big ol' pointy ears and Byregot is either a heroically muscular Hyur or a Roegadyn. The weird thing about that is that Rhalgr is supposed to be Byregot's dad according to legend. But I think I heard Byregot call Rhalgr "master" so maybe people got the relationship confused? Or the pointy ears and Roegadyn-ness are just artistic decisions that have nothing to do with modern races.

Well they make a point of saying that 12 worship goes back a ways. Could have been that The “true” relationships among them all got confused over the years.

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Originally Posted by Shookbeast

…Azem.

It does feel to me like it’s starting to happen - and that it’s possible we wrap the Azem storyline up far quicker than I thought.

-We’ve got Y’shtola wanting to hop between shards as a driving plot point. That’s an easy way for us to “collect them all” when it comes to remaining Azem shards.

-We’ve got Void story elements and Zenos’ Reaper pal - long thought to be the Azem of the 13th. This 13th Azem shard may even be an “original” Azem from the post-sundering, depending on how soon the 13th fell after the sundering. So 13th Azem might actually remember being “Azem.” (But the Azem shard could also be our new knightly looking villain…)

-We’ve got Raid Azeyma pretty much confirmed to not be our Azem. My theory is that the 12 are Ancient clones (clones of some Ancient person(s)) - with Emet to blame for their creation (and possibly powering them with shards of his sundered pals). This means we should look elsewhere… possibly at characters with capes very similar to the ones we all just got. Or maybe suspicious monkeys.

-If Deryk (that cape) or his monkey are Oschon - it’s possible Emet went and snatched an Azem shard from another reflection and elevated it to Oschon. Did anyone catch the symbol on his cuff, seen when he’s sitting at the table with the team? I don’t recognize it.

-But most telling (for me) is the last fight in the new raid - where the game designers have our party fighting reflections of our own characters. That feels like further testing/teasing (after the Zenos body-snatch) for when we meet (and maybe fight) other Azem shards.

Maybe Azem shard collection will be a big part of the next expansion - or maybe we’re starting it right now…

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Maybe it's just me, but it feels like an overthinking. Exaggerated thoughts.
First of all, the WoL isn't on a mission to rejoin with other shards and that will probably stay the case. We literally just beat Zodiark and the incarnation of despair without any need for more rejoinings.
As for your second point, I'd rather not discuss it because ever since we found out about the shards stuff. People have been theorizing and claiming every single voidsent we see in MSQ and side content to be Azem shard of the 13th.
And regarding the twelve, fair enough. I too have suspected they're related to the ancients as soon as I have seen the helix of their shrines being identical to that of Amaurot. They're definitely related as no civilization (In-game or even irl) have the same helix as Amaurot did, though the rest of the structures are totally different which is interesting. Maybe they're from an older Amaurot than the one we know of? Who knows. Looking forward to see what 6.3 will add to the mystery.
One last point, I'd not really assume Oschon is related to Azem because he has the same title. Being a traveler or labeled as such isn't exclusive to Azem.

A side note I'd like to say after the patch is that every location or mystery hinted by Emet-Selch during the last quests of 6.0 that we were capable of investigating had something unique or interesting to it. The ruins beneath the bounty hosting a void portal and the twelve are real beings and powerful with their own respective domains. Keep in mind Emet-Selch and the rest of the ascians didn't know about the whole Alexander time travel (Or probably it being real time travel) despite it can be utilized in a much more valuable to the ascians than the rejoinings themselves. This can indicate that the ascians have direct or indirect connections to the twelve among other things but who knows?

Edit note: I forgot to say, the mechanic you mentioned in the last fight of the new raid? That has been used multiple time throughout the history of the game and isn't really something new. (Open world Odin and DRK questlines are example of content that duplicates your character as a hostile NPC to fight)

I think if they were going to make a big deal about Azeyma, they would've done it when she turned up, rather than focusing on Rhalgr and Nald'thal. For whatever reason, they're downsizing her presence in comparison to others, so it's unlikely that she's going to suddenly be the big superstar of the alliance raids.

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

Not necessarily, it all depends on whether Azem's soul shards have actually reincarnated or are still resting in the Lifestream. Also, if they are alive, what if they're still in childhood? Ask yourself this: would you slaughter an innocent child just to rejoin a soul fragment?

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I don’t think we need to worry about that too much. If the writers want us to get the rest of the Azem shards - then I don’t think we’ll get obstacles like that thrown in our way. More likely it’ll be a character like Arbert (the best ghost husband) who will die on their own or through noble sacrifice. Maybe to mix things up it’ll be a non-human character on another shard - like a valiant Odder Otter.

I also wonder if a “villain” hasn’t collected a few shards already. (Looks at Void Knight with intense suspicion).

Are we even considered to be the 'Warrior of Light' at this point?

So far as I recall, we were rarely - if ever - referred to as such in the new content.

Hmmmm. Good point. What are we referring to ourselves these days? Is there something better to use in the forum?