(Spoiler) About amaurots downfall

[armandojc3]

I like to think the sound coming from the planet was the planet itself rejecting the Ascians manipulation of reality.

Planets having their own will is a regular concept in final fantasy series, a few games even had the "Weapon" monsters that are summoned when the planet faces a problem.

In FF7 (a game that heavily influences FFXIV) these weapons had pretty specific purposes (especially chaos and omega), showing the planet is aware of itself, has intelligence and is prone to extreme solutions. Hell the planet blasted a meteor out of space. Ascians creations are made of ether, could be the exact same problem as ff7, the planet not liking how its inhabitants use its life energy as fuel.

Ascians were altering reality itself, I can see the planet seeing this as unnatural and thus decided to erradicate the problem.

Makes even more sense because of Zodiark. He did not "stop" the sound, he altered the rules of physics for the whole star, perharps turning the ascians work into the normal state of the planet instead of what was there originally.

Using FFXIV concepts, the sound could be the planet itself using ether creation. Which would require both Willpower and Ether control.

[LineageRazor]

I like to think the sound coming from the planet was the planet itself rejecting the Ascians manipulation of reality.

I've been slowly coalescing a theory that both Hydaelyn and Zodiark actually predate their own Summoning - that what the Ancients unknowingly did was give FORM to a "Will of the Planet" that already existed. If this were the case, then Hydaelyn's comments (by way of the Word of the Mother) that she and Zo predate life makes a little more sense. She also noted that Zodiark "coveted power"; perhaps he coveted that power as a kind of self-defense, in order to stop the Ancients from harming the planet with their Creation magic. He used the Sound to agitate them, and took advantage of their great Summoning in order to gain an active form. (If that's the case, though, it's quite a gambit; it's unclear how he could imagine that one would have lead to the other!)

Hydaelyn's later summoning gave similar agency to the part of the Will of the Planet that was left behind.

Since the expansion explained that Astral is statis and Umbral is chaos(I think? I forget exactly what was said), and the Ascians are often despicted with Umbral-tones (purple/black), I just assumed they finally had performed enough chaos magic that the whole star was feeling the effects. Then everything turned to, well, chaos.

Other way around, I'm afraid! While it doesn't make much sense given the in-real-life meanings for Umbral (shaded) and Astral (starlike), in-game Astral = Darkness = Active = Chaos, while Umbral = Light = Stasis = Order.

Aside from that, what you say makes sense, just swap Astral for Umbral. :P

[Eyvind]

I've been slowly coalescing a theory that both Hydaelyn and Zodiark actually predate their own Summoning - that what the Ancients unknowingly did was give FORM to a "Will of the Planet" that already existed. If this were the case, then Hydaelyn's comments (by way of the Word of the Mother) that she and Zo predate life makes a little more sense. She also noted that Zodiark "coveted power"; perhaps he coveted that power as a kind of self-defense, in order to stop the Ancients from harming the planet with their Creation magic. He used the Sound to agitate them, and took advantage of their great Summoning in order to gain an active form. (If that's the case, though, it's quite a gambit; it's unclear how he could imagine that one would have lead to the other!)

If I am right, and Lahabrea had a hand in the original crisis, as well as having a seat on the governing body of Amaurot - that is, if we was working with a pre-embodied Zodiark - then he could have shaped the exact response to the crisis and planted the idea of Zodiark in the conclave's head, as well as arguing for it.

[Rosenstrauch]

She also noted that Zodiark "coveted power"; perhaps he coveted that power as a kind of self-defense, in order to stop the Ancients from harming the planet with their Creation magic. He used the Sound to agitate them, and took advantage of their great Summoning in order to gain an active form.

I believe that this is related to the manner in which Hydaelyn and Zodiark behave in regards of sacrifice. Hydaelyn doesn't seem to encourage worship of herself, nor does she require ritual sacrifice in the form of lives or aether. Instead she rewards a select few champions with her blessing when they perform some manner of sacrifice personal to them, such as the actions taken by Ardbert and company as seen during Shadowbringers' role quests. She also seems to have no compulsion against bleeding herself dry, so to speak, in the defense of her champions, as seen in the Praetorium wherein she shields us from the unleashed Ultima spell.

By contrast, according to Emet-Selch the Ancients had to sacrifice their own lives so that Zodiark would do what was asked of him, be it ending the calamity destroying their world or restoring life to it. it's possible that, like Hydaelyn, Zodiark doesn't actually require this, but rather does it as a sort of equivalent exchange in order to avoid expending his own power. A being who values self-sacrifice as much as Hydaelyn seems to might see that as coveting power.

[NessaWyvern]

I like to think the sound coming from the planet was the planet itself rejecting the Ascians manipulation of reality.

I've been thinking the same thing, mostly because of the music track in FF7 "You can hear the cry of the planet". It could very well be, that their creation magic (creating creatures that die later, such as Griffin's that one if them creates, etc.) caused some kind of disturbance in the lifestream.