Revelations from the Shadowbringers E3 Trailer

[Daralii]

The Kuribu of Amdapor is most likely based on a Sin Eater, as is their Winged Lion. However, we see animate Kuribu and Lions on the first—though the Kuribu differ slightly (feeling more alive! actual hair, not carved stone, etc!) Did the Amdapori accidentally summon Sin Eaters before? Is the Apocalypse Cow FATE in Eureka Pagos transforming the Holy Cow from dzo to Winged Lion mean that it was a Sin Eater itself? Since the Palace of the Dead features pomanders that turn the player into a succubus and later a very different looking kuribu mean that that it transforms them into a Sin Eater akin to the Voidsent? If Sin Eaters have been appearing for about a century and the Amdapori have depictions of them at least 1600 years old... from whence did they come? I have to image this has more to do with the time between Shards being dissimilar.

The second lorebook established that Amdapoori mages saw visions of beings from a higher plane, which they created golems in the image of. These are the winged lion and Kuribu, the latter of which is differentiated from the real thing by the red gem on its chest that provides the aether to animate it.

Please grant us answers, Koji.

[Rocl]

The second lorebook established that Amdapoori mages saw visions of beings from a higher plane, which they created golems in the image of. These are the winged lion and Kuribu, the latter of which is differentiated from the real thing by the red gem on its chest that provides the aether to animate it.

Please grant us answers, Koji.

As the person who excitedly snapped photos of his Encyclopedia at Fanfest to post on the forum of this detail, I'm aware of what it says—and it doesn't say this exactly. =P The only explanation of why Kuribu looks like it does is one sentence, and the Winged Lion goes without mention: "To better contend with the voidsent, [Kuribu] is said to have been made in the image of transcendent beings from yet another plane." (Encyclopedia Eorzea II, 150) The first lore book's entries for Kuribu and Winged Lion barely mention the reasoning behind why the constructions look as they do other than 'golems made by Amdapor to kill voidsent' save "A winged lion was chosen for the design so as to engender confusion amongst their enemies" (Encyclopedia Eorzea, 294).

There is no mention of Amdapor convening with Sin Eaters, or the transcendent beings. Given what we know now, that seems likely, yes—but there is no hard confirmation that they met or summoned Sin Eaters.

I wouldn't necessarily go as far as "tempered" just yet.

Aye, it's a term that's been bandied about since the trailer so I chose to use the same. I also struggle to think that the Blessing of Light as a Tempering yet....

It's likelier to be a more advanced manifestation of much the same phenomenon, whereby the subject retains their free will but feels a nudge to answer a higher calling, with the carrot being the substantial power it offers. Maybe the Echo plays that latter role and then the Blessing comes as the "reward", with the incidental side-effect of spreading whichever force it's aspected to, i.e. darkness/light.

Should Hydaelyn and Zodiark be primals forsooth, does this mean the other banshin are capable of bestowing Blessings if they're powerful enough? Could Ifrit give his followers a Blessing of Fire or Blessing of the Inferno? Is it possible Sophia could give us the Blessing of Balance? The latter example chosen because it is markedly harder to reconcile with my idea here—this is all so confusing at best. Likely by design to help hype the expansion, granted. Can Blessings only be granted by the most elder and powerful of Primals?

Regarding the Echo being something that could be implanted artificially, it's worth recalling at what costs. It's not easy to do, it required stripping out souls (the aether) from other beings and the host isn't even guaranteed to survive the process. It has all the trappings of Ascian techniques, as presumably even the Allagans did not know how to do this until Aulus came along (although it is an elaboration on aetherochemistry in a way), and I doubt it is common knowledge.

Aye, I suspect the Ascians helped design the Resonant (and really was why I pegged Aulus as an Elidibus skinsuit until Ala Mhigo). It's difficult though, because it feels like something designed to cause escalation in primal conflicts, and Ascians are just now playing this card? Entrapping/enslaving Primals was used in both the Third and Sixth Astral Eras (though I guess both are Allagan design), it seems weird for them to have a new play here unless the Warrior of Light is truly beyond all their wild expectations and dreams...

I too thought it could be parsed in terms of the Echo, which is more flexible in that both champions of darkness and light can bear it, but it's still bizarre phraseology, since the blessing has a specific meaning to it. What he may be referring to is what you have accomplished with that blessing, meaning you could achieve similarly great things with a darkness equivalent... however, that would either require Zodiark or some artificial version of him, which I suppose is what you mean by an artificial tempering.

In the CGI trailer he specifically calls out the "Warrior of Light" appellation as well, it's just so... bleh. Is it because we have done so much with the Blessing and for 'Light' that our shift to Darkness will be that much more impactful? It feels difficult to think we can play host to a "Dark Echo" or a Blessing of Darkness if they occupy a Tempering slot, as Ifrit says our "frail mortal frame" can but hold one the Blessing of one...compound that with the fact the player character glows with white/light blue aether when cutting through the Flood of Light and bringing the Night in the launch trailer... it's just... mixed messages....

Most likely because this is only the first flood of Light of which we're aware. It's possible that it had occurred on other worlds but that the Ascians drove it back before it could go much farther. It's also possible that there are worlds outside the shards, where light or darkness can exist in a purer form, supporting life forms compatible with each - i.e. more complete versions of the void/what the First is becoming.

Right, my point here was to harp on the fact time has to pass differently between Shards. War of the Magi and construction of Amdapori golems was ~1700 Source years ago, but Sin Eaters are only ~100 years old on the First. Voidsent have a history going back a good five millenia on the Source, so I guess my point was that the Flood of Light is probably more recent than the Flood of Darkness, but it still has to be old—unless there was another Flood that got curbed, of course. As for worlds outside the shards, that's a tricky and confusing notion? Yes, they must exist; Omega's homeworld and Midgardsormr's, there must be others but.... the Sundering and Reflection of the Source are a local phenomena I think? I'm not even sure how the aether of non-Reflection worlds would act... I've always felt dragons being so weird with regards to aether on Hydaelyn was because of their alien nature and the Covenant Midgardsormr made with Hydaelyn.

Is it July yet >:|

EDIT: I just remembered Y'shtola can see aether and that Tempered folk's aether is different and she can tell the difference and you're telling me since 3.0 she's looked at us and gone "hm ok everything's fine here" klasdjklasjdklasjd

[Zohar_Lahar]

Should Hydaelyn and Zodiark be primals forsooth, does this mean the other banshin are capable of bestowing Blessings if they're powerful enough? Could Ifrit give his followers a Blessing of Fire or Blessing of the Inferno? Is it possible Sophia could give us the Blessing of Balance? The latter example chosen because it is markedly harder to reconcile with my idea here—this is all so confusing at best. Likely by design to help hype the expansion, granted. Can Blessings only be granted by the most elder and powerful of Primals?

There is evidence of that in some of the Beast-Tribe quests. Several Amalj'aa beast-tribe quests tasks you with destroying what was implied to be (un)holy relics blessed by Ifrit. And the Ixali Air Stones are described as being blessed by Garuda. And then you got the adds in primal fights like Wavetooth Sahagin or the Knights of the Round.