(EW Spoilers) Tales from the Dawn #5 - Days Gone By, Days Yet to Come

A new Tales from the Dawn has dropped with characters selected by the community - Hythlodeus & Emet-Selch, to the surprise of probably no one.

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...from_the_dawn/


I thought it was a really nice story and while there weren't really any lore bombshells, there were little tidbits here and there that felt new. The ending was really sweet and felt like a final (fantasy) farewell to Emet and Hythlodeus and the Ancient storyline as a whole as the last of them fade into the lifestream to be reborn.


From context clues, the story's first part takes place just after the Pandaemonium incident as Igeyorhm is chiding his cousin Lahabrea and Elidibus mentions having met the WoL as a result of the whole affair.

Mitron and Loghrif show up as well and I was surprised that Mitron was described as a woman since her Ascian form was a man. I know that Ascians are just reincarnated versions who are given memories by those crystals, but I could've sworn there was a cutscene of both of them as Ancients from before. Mitron's actual name is Artemis who is indeed a Greek goddess, but then again there was the cat Artemis from Sailor Moon who was male so I didn't really think much about it.

Fandaniel's appearance is a darker turn in the story. It says he retained some fragments of memory after Kairos, and he's more than a little unhinged, very obviously sleep deprived, and mumbling about having murdered Meteion and apparently he never makes another winged creation after her. It's too bad that Amaurot doesn't seem to have any therapists.

And then Azem. The story gets kicked off by Azem forgetting a new crystal meant to aid in their adventure and they literally fly off into the sunset before Hythlodeus finally catches up which is pretty much typical. And then in the second part of the story just before the Summoning, we are told that Azem had struck out on their own to find a solution to the Final Days. Which if we weren't told as much before, I'm pretty sure everyone had figured out already. Emet-Selch had been waiting and holding out hope for their return, which tracks since he made them a crystal in secret even after having left the Convocation.

I do wish we knew a bit more about Azem and it does feel a bit anti-climatic that they just left to find a solution, never did, never contacted anyone again, and then got sundered like everyone else. I know they left Azem a bit ambiguous since they're supposed to be the player character and so a bit of a self-insert, but it's not like we have their memories like the Ascians do for their past selves. Though I suppose such a thing happening to our character in a future part of the game would be neat and I might hold out hope for something like that happening or at least flashbacks.

The crystal Azem left at Hythlodaeus' office seems to be aetheryte crystal. But aetheryte crystal was made canon during the Yedhlimad part of the MSQ and there were aetheryte crystals in Elpis but maybe those are not supposed to be canon.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Yuella

The crystal Azem left at Hythlodaeus' office seems to be aetheryte crystal. But aetheryte crystal was made canon during the Yedhlimad part of the MSQ and there were aetheryte crystals in Elpis but maybe those are not supposed to be canon.

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The Ancients had Aetherytes already, we see them in Elpis and Amaurot. This is most likely a concept crystal containing a Mount:

https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Eden_Crystal
https://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/Sunforged_Crystal
https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Ramuh_Crystal

Confession- this was the only Lore story I lost interest in reading by the halfway point. Which regardless of my levels of interest all the other stories I at least finished. This was specific fanservice, which was what it was conceived as, but blatant in whom it catered to.

The tidbits that made the mildest of impressions was more confirmation at least in the EN version of Mitron's gender pre-Sundering, which I found a nice touch to have that version of Mitron and Gaia as sapphic and that at least one of the Sundered Ascians was reborn in a body with a different gender. It's something that that game needed to do and should have done more, because of their direct tying of the player's WoL and Ardbert to Azem, and that Ardbert only works in his central character concept if reincarnation is unlimited in gender and race to facilitate that the majority of XIV's players are playing neither male characters nor Hyur (or Elezen).

Also Igeyorhm is Lahabrea's cousin as to answer why those characters were close. And more emphasis of Hermes's deep sorrow and guilt, his worsening mental state even as he did his best to help and how, while observant and sympathetic of Hermes's mental anguish, the people around him were unable to help. Some of that because the mindwipe locked away the full extent from not just them but Hermes himself, but also in part because their society was limited in comprehending and definitely in acknowledging the depth of that sorrow, depression, and fundamental nihilistic dissatisfaction.

Azem thankfully remains off-screen, their concept creation left purposefully blank as to invite everyone's headcanons, same with their actions and journeys.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Denishia

And more emphasis of Hermes's deep sorrow and guilt, his worsening mental state even as he did his best to help and how, while observant and sympathetic of Hermes's mental anguish, the people around him were unable to help. Some of that because the mindwipe locked away the full extent from not just them but Hermes himself, but also in part because their society was limited in comprehending and definitely in acknowledging the depth of that sorrow, depression, and fundamental nihilistic dissatisfaction.

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Yeah, I wonder if part of why they wrote Hermes like that in this story is to double-down on his not being cooperative if not outright hostile had Venat tried to go through the Convocation.

It’s also a little messed up that Hythlodeus’ response to Fandaniel mumbling about murdering his familiar is “can I get you some fruit?”

Excellent story to wrap up the set.

The crystal in question is palm-sized and contains a concept inside, so it's probably unlikely to be an aetheryte, which is designed to function as a beacon in the lifestream. Venat previously mentioned looking for a colleague's concept-engraved crystal that was stolen by an oreias on Elpis. I wonder if that was another Azem prototype.

Just watch the next Ultimate be Azem's alternative solution to the Final Days.

Even without the extremely real security threat of involving or notifying Hermes of her plan and the real world necessities of limiting knowledge, I always found it hilarious and realistic that Venat judged whom in her society she could trust to have both the intelligence and skill to be vital to solving this universe ending threat and have the compatible personalities and mental perseverance to do so. And she disqualified all of her former coworkers or their chosen government successors. She still included several top government employees and masters of their fields: i.e. Thaliak, Azemya, Byregot who did Hyth's job, but also the closest to outside perspectives available in their nearly homogeneous society.

Hermes is a wonderfully sympathetic villain and I'm glad for the bits that felt like a sequel to his story "A Question of Life".

But mostly I'm glad this story justifies its existence beyond the fan-requested fan-service by making the UnSundered Mitron was a woman canon in more than just the French translation.

I found the story a bit too self-referential, but it paints a fun enough picture.

My main takeaway from this is that Ancient stories have now crossed an overflow point, beyond which they are only for Ancient fans. There is no other hook, no other onboarding.

Usually I think there's two parallel appeals to the short stories: seeing a story about this specific character, and learning things about the part of the world they inhabit. And I feel like the latter is a good consolation prize if you happen to not like the focus characters: if you don't like this story about Ran'jit, then at least you get to learn new stuff about The First as it surrounded him. That's not always gonna hit, but the point is there's an extra something to gain from reading it beyond just the act of reading it, which helps with short stories that don't give you a focus you love.

All this story tells me is that there is nothing more to say about the Ancients. There's no new information to give, no more story to tell. The most celebrated 'new fact' in this whole story is a pronoun! (And frankly, one that a lot of us already predicted; c'mon, her name is Artemis.) My go-to example for 'new information that provides no actual value except to already bought-in fans' is a character's favorite food, because it shouldn't matter one bit what they like to eat, and that is literally the exact thing this story tries to wring feelings out of.

I desperately hope this is the last time we hear from the Ancients. Because if this story has told me anything, it's that there's nothing left.

This story's focus was specifically stated as being chosen by player poll though, so those that like Azem and the Ancients must be in the majority (I'm one of them :D).

And really, there was no need to give any new massive lorebombs here, it was simply a nice finale for Hythlodaeus, Emet and some of the other Ancients and his thoughts about the rest of the Amaurot Gang, specifically the WoL's 'Unsundered counterpart'. And also seeing Hyth unsucessfully chasing down Azem through Amaurot was quite funny and yet also touching, and we also see some more of Emet's hidden soft side finally come out to play.

And we also get more context from the cutscene during the Final Days of Amaurot the WoL saw when returning to the present day during EW, where Hyth left to join the Zodiark summoning sacrifices - it was clear during that scene it hit Emet pretty hard and was probably the last straw that sent him into the 'dark, depressed megalomaniac' he then spent the next 12000 years as he had nothing left (first he lost his headcanon-ex-lover, then his why-is-this-jerk-my-best-friend, and finally his hetrosexual-life-partner, that would send anyone into despair frankly), and seeing what Hyth was thinking as he bidded Emet farewell on that street in Amaurot as he left to fulfil his destiny put it into a new light.

So I really enjoyed this one - the side stories on the Lodestone don't always need massive revelations or lorebombs to be enjoyed.