The Road to 5.0

[Lauront]

I feel like it would be within the capabilities of the Garleans to design some manner of weaponry that's able to focus aether effectively enough to destroy Ascians if they've gone so far as to be able to artificially replicate the Echo (Though there's a rather large chance the Ascians were involved in that).

For that matter, I'm curious as to whether or not the Shadowhunter has been actually killing off lower ranking Ascians somehow, since even those require an extremely powerful aetheric force to destroy completely (If the HW SMN quests were any indication).

It's a two phase thing, because you basically have to also prevent their aether from 'escaping' and coalescing back into its original form. The lesser ones don't take on a new body, so they're not as huge a challenge to permanently kill. Could the Garleans do so? Perhaps, but they'd also need to weaken it first, and Ascian overlords are formidable foes, particularly without something like the Echo and the BoL, but even with it they're dangerous. Elidibus is also no doubt cognisant of these tricks, is aware of the Resonance and may take measures to ward against them, including ways of disrupting any Allagan-type machinery they try use; I still wonder if an Ascian empowered by something like a Blessing of Darkness is possible, even in Zodiark's dormant state. Elidibus, being his emissary, would be a sure candidate.

However, I don't really think Varis has an intention of killing Elidibus, so much as seeing how he can benefit the Empire. He may have failsafes and one potential plotline could be their failure, resulting in Varis's death. My other suspicion is that Varis takes draws a line in the sand, Elidibus baits him by crossing it, kills him and becomes the new Emperor in Zenos's form. It all depends on how subtle he intends to be.

Again, even Maxima, a ranking of the Populares, thought the fringes of the Empire just needed a firm hand and didn't realize until laying eyes on them that "mistakes have been made".

Good post. On that point, I'm of the view that Varis may have dismissed Aulus (was he guided by Elidibus?) to Gyr Abania, where he could entertain a far more interested Zenos, partly because he was intrigued to see whether Aulus's theories could bear any fruit, without him making a mess of things in the imperial heartlands. Zenos was probably smart enough to ensure that the intel that flowed back to the Empire did not unveil the true extent of his activities, hence why Maxima was taken by surprise.

whatever helps you sleep at night you do you.

I don't think this is a constructive approach and I fail to see what he said that merits it. He's made some pretty good, well backed up arguments here.

It is said of the lore forum that it can be a petty upvote echo chamber. I don't like to believe that, but seeing some of the posters here, perhaps it is not entirely wrong to say so, but it need not be so.