New Lore Gameplay!

[Fenral]

He clearly wants to turn the lore debates here into a professional e-sport. I can see it now - Cyril representing the Ascians, Fenral representing G'raha Tiahumanity's right to choose their own future and myself representing Garlemald.

Fixed. :P

When Louisoix "half" prevented the seventh Calamity, he prevented the society-collapsing disaster that usually accompanies a Rejoining. But he did not prevent the destruction of a world barrier, or the recollection of its shard, and thus was Zodiark empowered.

Honestly, I think this is the most important part of what she talked about. It has the potential to mean that the Ascians' objectives can be accomplished without calamitous loss of life on our side. Assuming we can find a reason to assist them, as Eldibus thinks we can, we may be able to get out of this without dropping any more moons on anyone.

These lands, these people, this world─all shall soon change. As it was, so shall it be again. As it should always have been.

Say goodbye to everything you know. It's for the best.

Change is also a part of life and nothing to be feared on its own. It really comes down to what that change is. If it has something to do with restoring some lost part of humanity Hydaelyn stripped away for fear of the darkness, well... I'm guessing the Echo is related, but that's as far as I've made it.


But back to the real topic...

I'll go ADC in bot lane with Cilia as support. Cyril go mid, Theodric go top. Kaiser-Ace, can you jungle?

[Anonymoose]

[Louisoix's restoration of the realm] has the potential to mean that the Ascians' objectives can be accomplished without calamitous loss of life on our side.

I absolutely agree.

Does it, though?

People turned out to be wrong in assuming that Louisoix half-prevented anything; that's just how it looked after the fact. The reality was exactly what the Ascians always do and claim must be done: absolute, unbound chaos. And it was even the same MO they've been using for ages: primals at war.

Phoenix and Bahamut tore each other, and Eorzea, apart. The fact that Phoenix just happened to rebirth the realm is kind of incidental. And it didn't bring anyone back from the dead, either. We lost a lot of people. Society just didn't collapse into a barren landscape, for once. Is there any way to use that knowledge to our benefit?

I can come up with one kind-of workable plan, so far. [1] Trust Elidibus. Disregard Hydaelyn's last wishes through the Voice of the Mother; assume she's wrong. [2] Grab Tupsimati and let people know we're gonna need some prayers. [3] Make Elidibus promise that he'll tear the world just enough of a new one to initiate a Rejoining and that none of the acolytes in black will pull any funny business. [4] Chaos hits. Primalize someone to fix it. [5] Hope that it was worth it and not too many people died and that when Zodiark returns, the change makes it look like we maintained everything we fought for.

Sounds risky, though.

[Fenral]

Does it, though? People turned out to be wrong in assuming that Louisoix half-prevented anything; that's just how it looked after the fact. The reality was exactly what the Ascians always do and claim must be done: absolute, unbound chaos.

We've been known to claim a lot of things "must" be done on our end, and Matoya just laughed at us. I think it's less a matter of "it must be done like __ because the universe is built that way" and closer to "we must do it like __ because the alternatives we've explored are all riskier on our end." We have to look past the means used and into what exactly is required to happen on a cosmological scale. It's not like atomic bombs can only be detonated on civilian populations, the same exact explosion happens whether you drop it on a city or out in a cordoned-off and unpopulated patch of desert.

[Anonymoose]

It's not like atomic bombs can only be detonated on civilian populations, the same exact explosion happens whether you drop it on a city or out in a cordoned-off and unpopulated patch of desert.

Used as a metaphor for what's going on in FFXIV, I wholly agree with you. And that's giving me a bit of the "gray panic". However, if an extradimensional entity aligned with "The Devil" tried to convince me that it was in my best interest to nuke a bunch of unpopulated areas... I'd probably still have some questions. And it might not help my confidence if his answers were super vague. Or that the last time his friends got involved, was like, Hitler.

But I'm not saying he's definitely wrong.

I just see the bandwagon stopped outside my house and... I think I need a minute, lol.

[Fenral]

Used as a metaphor for what's going on in FFXIV, I wholly agree with you. And that's giving me a bit of the "gray panic". However, if an extradimensional entity aligned with "The Devil" tried to convince me that it was in my best interest to nuke a bunch of unpopulated areas... I'd probably still have some questions. And it might not help my confidence if his answers were super vague. Or that the last time his friends got involved, was like, Hiter. And Nero before that. But he might be still right. That's all I mean to imply, lol.

I'd like to think he means well in wanting us to figure things out for ourselves before he gets too expodumpy. If we can get a neutral third party (*cough*Midgardsormr*cough*) to explain the workings of the universe, and then hear how Eldibus's version lines up, that would actually be the best way to get us to trust him. But a lot needs to happen to get us there.