Revelations from Patch 4.3

[Remedi]

Re: Shadowhunter Discussion

If it's not Gaius, we must figure out who else would...
- Be dressed in red
- In his 50s
- Wield a DRK-length gunblade
- Use Terminust Est / Quickstep in battle
- Have a history with the Scions
- Recognize Alphinaud on sight
- Know of and loathe Ascians
- Be an imperial on bad terms with the Empire
- Have Gaius van Baelsar's faceplate on his belt

That's a lot of coincidences to redirect into, Actually, he's dead, but you should have seen the looks on your faces! ... Not that writers aren't occasionally so cruel.

I always imagined he'd try to rebuild something, if not Ala Mhigo when forces who didn't care about it (aside from Lyse, whose competence would be questionable at best) started tearing it apart, or a rebellious legion (not because the Warrior of Light is on "the right path", not because he's any friend of Eorzea, but because, To the Seventh Hell with Varis zos Galvus; they have every reason to want one another dead. It was a surprise to find that he'd taken Lahabrea's revelation of, "Not all the gods are lies and you've been a pawn in service to the Dark's restoration." so hard that he'd abandon all other pursuits to hunt them (with no particularly special gifts that we know of just yet).

The only question is ... how the sugar-frosted f[kupo]k does he have as many overlord kills as the Warrior of Light?
(I'm not even mad.)

Regarding our dear friend

Too many coincidences for him not to be Gaius unless the writers want to play a Lucia 2.'0 on us + considering their reticence in the past in confirming him dead AND the thousands hints on his survival makes me think that it can only be him.
But let us consider that not only he's going to purge Garlemand of ascian corruption but that he most likely will have the backing of the populares faction too, shall we call now that the titlr of the next exp will be CIVIL WAR?

[Belhi]

On killing Ascians

In the Lvl. 60 Summoner quest, we find out it's possible to really kill the black-masked Ascians by killing their bodies. There just can't be any dead bodies in the area. The black-masked Ascians aren't skilled enough at leaving their bodies to get back to the space between worlds or take over living bodies. As far as killing them in the first place goes, Deathflare works just fine, no crazy empowered-by-Hydalen blades of light needed. Whether that just means killing them normally works, or a spell that slams them with a bunch of aether works, or dragon death magic works, is up for debate.

In order to kill an Ascian though, you need to know it's an Ascian in the first place. None of the Ascians in 2.0 and onwards have been "found" by the Scions while they were possessing someone. They have all revealed themselves to the Scions. Which kinda begs the question of how Giaus has found so many. 'Cause if it's by tracking down people with agendas that align with the Ascians' goals, that's a very different way of finding Ascians then the Scions. If it's because the Ascians have been purposely revealing themselves to him, then how much of a threat is he to them compared to the WoL?

The irony is that one of the big GiausLives theories was that he survived due to being possessed by an Ascian. Instead he's been doing one of the things the Scions have let fall by the wayside ever since SB started.

There is an detail about this:

In the summoner quest you are referring too, you are dealing with lesser Ascians who are substancially weaker than the Overlords and cant as easily transition to the 'space between planes' that the Ascian overlords got to when they lose a body. They can also only use corpses as hosts. Simply put, while he could permanently kill a lesser Ascian, the Overlords don't have the same weakness to exploit. Hell, even holding an Ascian overlord's soul still long enough to destroy is difficult. From ingame dialog it sounds like the WoL was the first to pull it off. That would suggest to me that it is unlikely that Giaus found a way, particularly since he doesn't seem to have the full resources of the Empire to use.

[Alleo]

About Shadowhunter:

I can see him permanently kill lower Ascians but Overlords? I think that he might just kill their hosts otherwise it would feel a bit off since it either took us a great sacrifice or a big amount of aether to do that. I know that not all Ascians are of the same rank but shouldnt Elidibus kinda worry a bit if someone else next to the WoL is starting to kill red masked Ascians?

[Lauront]

Re the above...

Hence my incredulity that it would involve anything permanent. Had the Allagan devised such techniques, we would likely know of it by now. I think Gaius is probably just killing the hosts with his little posse. The precedent set by the WoL and later Thordan re Igeyorhm probably has Elidibus intrigued, though he doesn't seem to be the fearful type. I suspect he will be the most powerful Ascian we've seen to date. I would not be surprised if he has not begun investing in some counter-measures. Remember, after all, that he says to Varis that he is not too concerned if some of his black robed brethren are slaughtered and would not stop him. Perhaps he is already aware of what Gaius has been up to.

The last point I will make is that the overlords possess great power. As shown with Nabriales and Moenbryda, this extends to great physical strength, but more importantly, they possesses a devastatingly powerful arcane arsenal. Nabriales, and Igeyorhm/Lahabrea (and then the Ascian Prime), would not struggle even a little to crush a mortal foe who was not the WoL. It has long been my suspicion that the WoL has a much stronger concentration of "echo" powers than anyone else with the Echo (although there are probably some others who come close), upon which the Blessing of Light is then added on top. This is why they can withstand such beings, as well as eikons, void lords (think Forgall and his death magic), and such. Even the lesser Ascians, like the one in the SMN quest, can pose a significant threat, and the one in question only balked when you became attuned with Bahamut's aether traces, which in itself is a significant power. I'm also not entirely convinced the Blessing of Light was suppressed, so much as Midgardsormr made you think it was, to get you to rely more on your own abilities and wits, but this is an aside as my view is that the concentration of Echo in the WoL is really the source of his power, with the BoL as a cherry on top. What I am getting at here is that Gaius & co would need some impressive abilities to best an overlord, if that is indeed what the red masks represent; alternatively, he would need some means of breaking their connection to their "host", which is what I actually suspect is at play. Any number of things could then be the tool, but it's anyone's guess as to what. Lastly, I will hazard a guess that to witness their full power, we will have to see them in their "true" form, as all other forms we've seen are akin to avatars.

[Lauront]

Regarding this point...

With the confirmation that Elidibus is using Zenos's body, I wonder if he *was* previously Aulus and so needed a new host after being defeated in Ala Mhigo? In which case, either it was potentially not 'planned' for him to take over Zenos but rather an opportunity, or Aulus's fighting us and being defeated was staged to free Elidibus and let him take a new host. (Can Ascians body-jump entirely at will or are they locked into a particular host until killed, or their crystal destroyed?)

I am increasingly partial to the view that he was either possessing Aulus, or took on that guise, or was "guiding" him, as the Resonance has all the trappings of an Ascian innovation.

[Cilia]

Shadowhunter:

I'm not going to say he's not Gaius. That is the most likely conclusion that can be reached given the (veritable mountain of) evidence supporting it, and what I am running with until we get explicit confirmation or denial.

I'm just saying it's possible he's not Gaius. How? Well... there are endless possibilities and "What if?"s that can be raised to answer all those. The most probable conclusion is that he is Gaius, but the possibility he's not, however slight, lingers.

How has he been killing Overlords? How did he get from Eorzea to the Burn? Unknown, but I suspect those questions will be answered in time. He may just be killing the hosts; they need to use their Dark Crystals to return to the interstitial world between dimensions; if they're stopped from using them as Thordan did that's not an out, and if there is a way to prevent the possession of a living person they're no more invincible than the black masks.

Perhaps totally-not-Gaius will be our in to Garlemald... but given Gaius is a disgraced and presumed dead legatus, I doubt he has much power there anymore. That he's hunting Ascians is a good thing, though.

Yotsuyu / MSQ

The whole thing just feels like an unmitigated tragedy; like we should have been able to stop it, but couldn't. Asahi's designs became pretty apparent during the Echo flashback through Yotsuyu's father, and considering the Warrior of Light (a.k.a. the Eikon Slayer) was there and she still summoned anyway I can't help but feel like she wanted us to kill her. MSQ was pretty damn emotionally draining. Not quite 3.3, but close.

[ObsidianFire]

The biggest fallout of "killing an Ascian" is not if the Ascian is actually dead. It's that they are not in whatever host they possessed and can no longer manipulate a situation from that host. The most damage the Ascians managed to do against the Scions stems from the fact that the Scions had no reason not to trust Thancred with all their information. The odds of them manipulating situations elsewhere from possessed hosts no one knows are Ascians is very high (Suishi of the Violet Tides is a good example). The big problem is, so far we've never seen anyone figure out how to tell if people are actually possessed by Ascians... but you'd probably need to be able to do that if you're specifically hunting Ascians...

[Lauront]

With respect to that ...

That is a very good point. I think all he would need to do then is to break the connection to their host somehow, as I mentioned in my post. It's a much more confined aim than actually killing an overlord, which may be outwith the scope of his abilities. I mean Thancred's possession goes to show how subtle it can be. I am guessing some of the lesser ones have become less than subtle about their presence in Garlean borders, given Elidibus's words to Varis.

Perhaps totally-not-Gaius will be our in to Garlemald... but given Gaius is a disgraced and presumed dead legatus, I doubt he has much power there anymore.

Yeah, this is what I suspect too. In the extreme, if the Emperor were to perish, he could use that to seize power, and may even find some support in so doing, but the fact that Alphinaud is headed to Garlemald might suggest they have other plans in mind. The Emperor seems to be skeptical of Elidibus, so perhaps it won't take much to convince him to change course... if it's not too late. IMO, Gaius is being set up as the NPC to guide us to Garlemald, more than anything else and he won't be marching in and taking the reins. Maxima will probably be our connection to the Populares.

[Chewy2nd]

re: Shadowhunter

Is it possible he possess' the Heart of Sabik still? He could have took it from the remains of the Ultima Weapon, given that it is an ancient relic of unknown origin, perhaps it can hold Ascian souls, like the Eyes of the first brood

[Theodric]

24 man raid:

It's not much of a secret that I adore all things Ivalice. We learned a lot this time around. Dalmasca has its own language. The Garleans may be descended from the inhabitants of the Clockwork City of Goug, a race said to be similar to Garleans in their lack of a natural inclination towards wielding aether and a firm grasp of technology.

It also means that the Garleans would have lost not one but two homes if true - which does a lot to explain their psyche and desperation to carve out a place for themselves in Hydaelyn. It would also mean that they had a grasp of technology before re-purposing Allagan stuff. Livia shows up for a brief cameo, though as an illusion. A character that looks suspiciously like Gabranth from FFXII also shows up in the same form. In a 'blink and you'll miss it' moment. I doubt the model would be designed for such a brief period of time so I expect 'Gabranth' to be a boss/anti-hero during the next phase of the story. Extra points if they add the FFXII Empire theme as an Orchestrion roll - then another of my dreams for this game will be complete.

EDIT: After speaking to the NPC's aboard the Prima Vista he's mentioned outright. Noah van Gabranth. It's also mentioned that scores of Imperial colonists were slaughtered by the Dalmascans which is the reason Livia was sent to Dalmasca, leading to her being known as the 'Witch of Dalmasca'. As ruthless as she may have been, it seems the members of the resistance were equally so given the implication that 'colonists' are civilians/settlers.

We get a couple of Vagrant Story references, too. In the form of a beverage with the name 'Lea Monde' (the dark magic infested city in which the game takes place) and the fact that Jenomis' wife is called Tia. Which is the name of a character in Vagrant Story. That Jenomis contemplates using the auracite to bring her back is foreboding. Though it may be a red herring. Still, the third portion of the raid series could take place in Lea Monde. The dead arising as a result of dark power was a major theme of the game, after all.