Forgive the lazy structure of my input, but regarding the Rejoining, I've been suspecting (mayhap hoping) that this is all very Final Fantasy IX. The Rejoining being literal. You kind of touch a bit on that possibility in your post. I just noticed a distinct lack of Final Fantasy IX allusions in this game and was curious if that was because the allusion was just being missed. Heavy bias here, though, as FFIX is my favorite FF game.

I'll be following this thread closely.