And now we're meandering back towards the debate on exactly how much of human folly and disaster can be traced to an external source, and whether or not it was merely the weakness of some humans failing to resist the temptations of some decidedly inhuman evil that brought about the Calamities. That debate.

Pardon my super sarcastic tone, but I don't buy it, never will. I also don't really want to go into that. Again. Humans are the sole agents of their destruction, but also the sole agents of their salvation, blah blah blah wow my navel is awfully perky today blah.

You're free to believe what you want until we know more, but personally, I think the Ascians do little more than take advantage of the notions humans get on their own. The Garlean invasion? Human ambition. The Ultima Weapon? An Ascian merely pointed out a little-known book on a shelf in the Imperial Archives and let Gaius and Nero handle the rest. The invasion would have happened differently, sure, but it still would have happened.