Revelations from SHADOWBRINGERS

[IlSire]

About Ascians and their plan.

So their plan is to rejoin every shard to return the world to its original state...but isn't that inherently impossible to execute?
The 13th fell to Darkness and became an unusable Void preventing it to be rejoined; wouldn't that mean that whatever they do the'll never be able to complete their objective? How would that work?
And I remember the overabundance of Light aether in the First being a problem aswell...but now it seems that it's actually how they operate, why was the 13th different then?
Something feels off.

[EdwinLi]

So can we talk about...

that they just set up the Plot for Warrior of Light Origin Story!

Current we know that the WoL is from the Original World before the split into 13 shards happened and the 3 head Ascions knew who WoL was before he/she became the Warrior of Light.

[Johaandr]

SO FAR!!! i love the SHB msq!! It felt like playinh another game! And such immerse character involved with those who you barely in reality involved with in fights!

Why are there ruins of Amarout(NOT the one he created But in The Ondo Cups )on the first?..
Can i assume that before the source got split and after the destruction.. uh the city remained in ruins and then when the source got split the ruins got duplicated somehow? And so people on those different shards created their own civilization above the ruins without knowing? Cuse the first Norvrandt has similar «land» as Eorzea from the Source.

that also means in source there r ascian ruins beneth the unexplored sea.???

[Sove92]

Why are there ruins of Amarout(NOT the one he created But in The Ondo Cups )on the first?..
Can i assume that before the source got split and after the destruction.. uh the city remained in ruins and then when the source got split the ruins got duplicated somehow? And so people on those different shards created their own civilization above the ruins without knowing? Cuse the first Norvrandt has similar «land» as Eorzea from the Source.

that also means in source there r ascian ruins beneth the unexplored sea.???

This was explained. The same ruins exist or existed on each shard, including the Source. Source however, has had so many calamities that any traces of the old Ascian civilisation are long gone. These calamites have not happened on the remaining shards, so at least the First still has ruins remaining. Any ruins seen so far on the Source are from Allagan era at the earliest.

[Yuyuka3]

So can we talk about...

that they just set up the Plot for Warrior of Light Origin Story!

Current we know that the WoL is from the Original World before the split into 13 shards happened and the 3 head Ascions knew who WoL was before he/she became the Warrior of Light.

I just finished MSQ earlier today (well, yesterday my time by now...), and I got a few new thoughts about this.
First a self-quote, since what I say next is based off this:

Got something interesting from a level 78 quest, something that goes along the line of Thordan's question when he is defeated...

What, exactly, is our character? Emet-Selch drops hints that our story is far longer than what we think. He tells us we are the "product of 7 Calamities", implying that we have been there back then. Also, while the elevator in Kholusia is getting repaired, Emet-Selch talks to us again and tells us it's a shame that we cannot remember how the world was before the split, implying we might have been around back then. I feel this is really important and it once again questions what, exactly, we are.

To reply to you more directly:

Yeah, I was really excited about this. Based off my own quote above, I now think that we are a part of the 14th member of the Convocation, and the one who brought Hydaelyn into the world in the first place; together with all the other Warriors of Light in the different Shards. That friend of Emet-Selch we meet in the illusion of Amauret said that we and Ardbert are the same; and that he recognizes us for who we really are, because our eyes (or did I misread aura?) are so unique. I also think that after the last battle, Ardbert merged with us and we became one again, hence Emet-Selch, for a brief moment, seeing his old friend/enemy instead of us.

Now that I think about it... the "product of seven Calamities" part I mentioned in the previous post, could it be that since the Aether of the shards that got absorbed into the Source mixed with the Aether of the Source, that maybe over time, the original soul we were a part of slowly pieced itself back together, one piece at a time? So now, we possess a large part of the original soul again, and maybe future patches/expansions could focus on us gathering the rest to be ready for the final confrontation? That would actually make our fight with the Ascians literally older than history... and I feel that even should I be incorrect about the soul(s), that last part is almost confirmed by this fantastic storyline.

Man, I cannot wait for 5.1 now, seriously. 5.0 really was the best storyline of all expansions so far, dethroning Heavensward with ease.

Need. to. know. what. happens. next!

EDIT: Anyone else who played through the story noticing that at the very bottom of the area drop-down menu, beneath "Norvrandt", there is an entry only reading "???" there? I cannot remember that being there before, so could there be an area we cannot reach yet, but might be able to reach soon(ish)?

[redheadturk]

IIlsar, I might be wrong about this, but I wonder if the final plan is to have the WoL dump all that light he's carrying around into the Void to try to restore it? If that's even possible?

[EdwinLi]

I have to say...

When G'raha Tia finally revealed his face, I still felt emotion for that moment even through I knew it was him.

CT story ended with a sense of hope for him to awaken one day to a bright future but instead he awoke to a horrible Calamity and all his friends dead with WoL among them.

To bad players who did not use a character that already complete CT storyline will not get that emotional CT exclusive story dialogue.

[Yuyuka3]

IIlsar, I might be wrong about this, but I wonder if the final plan is to have the WoL dump all that light he's carrying around into the Void to try to restore it? If that's even possible?

If you want to know, the answer is in the tags below, with some additional spoilers:

The plan is for the Crystal Exarch/G'raha Tia to absorb all the light aether, and transport it into the space between worlds, where he would have died. I'm not sure why that guy is always so self-sacrificing, really...

But I have to admit, I was wondering about the light being brought into the Void myself for a while, to at least make the light and the dark neutralize each other. Well, turns out that at least I've been right about the neutralizing part, though the dark aether that neutralizes our light is Emet-Selch's instead xD

To Edwin:

I have to say...

When G'raha Tia finally revealed his face, I still felt emotion for that moment even through I knew it was him.

CT story ended with a sense of hope for him to awaken one day to a bright future but instead he awoke to a horrible Calamity and all his friends dead with WoL among them.

To bad players who did not use a character that already complete CT storyline will not get that emotional CT exclusive story dialogue.

Same for me, really.

I found it so adorable how obvious his admiration of you was throughout the entire storyline, even though he tried to hide it by talking about you as if he was talking about somebody else, really. He barely could contain his excitement to see you again, or his worry about your condition after absorbing so much light.Also, I was so convinced that it just had to be him I didn't even falter when I saw that he seemed to lack the Miqo'te tail and ears, which made many people who believed it to be him doubt it, haha xD
I literally told my raid members who were further along the story or on the same part as me that I think the person he wants to protect is us, and when we had that little conversation on Kholusia away from the others when he tells you of his dream to go on adventure with that person he wants to save, that I would eat a broomstick if it wasn't him. That's how sure I was by that point...

Also, I just had to hug the guy after completing the story, haha xD
Really like him. Bonus points for him being the character that made me bond with a friend at Frankfurt Fan Festival two years ago!

Btw, did you show him the minion of himself?^^

[KageTokage]

I can't help but wonder what the post MSQ plot line is going to be about this time.

The only problem that really needs fixing right now is getting the Scions back home, though I'm curious as how exactly Elidibus intends to destroy us with the Warriors of Light if we've become the Warriors of Darkness.

Hopefully it's suggesting that we're going to get the full picture about the nature of our being before the next expansion releases.

[Theodric]

Alright, here's some of my thoughts. Bear in mind that I have completed the story, so don't open up the boxes below if you have not!

I'm going to place my bets on whatever is behind the 'Terminus' monsters being the true threat to all life as we know it. Since they arrived before Hydaelyn and Zodiark even entered the picture that means that they're probably still out there somewhere. Given that the Ascian homeland is basically a twist on the City of the Ancients from FF7 and Zenos is basically a twist on Sephiroth I'm going to tentatively suggest that the Terminus will be a twist on Jenova.

That aside, I thoroughly enjoyed the story. I feel so pleased to see that there was nuance and depth to the Warriors of Darkness and the Ascians. The latter still have to be stopped, of course, but their reasoning is sympathetic. They lost absolutely everything and since they're immortal, their pain and torment only grew over the ages.

As for Hydaelyn? As I proposed in the past, she is both not who she claims to be and she put forward malicious lies that failed to expose just how much she messed up. There's a high chance that we'll be fighting both Hydaelyn and Zodiark. Though we'll see how things go from here.

Garlemald went as I suspected, too. Varis' death was tragic yet befitting his honourable streak. Gaius expressing concern for him was a touching moment and I'm betting that he'll make a point of directing his attention away from rooting out the Ascians and towards reforming his homeland/stopping Zenos. Speaking of Zenos, he really is an unhinged man-child. Even more so than usual. Even Vauthry at least tried to do some good, misguided as he was. Yet Zenos? He's clearly willing to throw the entire world into chaos just to appease his obsession with the Warrior of Darkness.