Tales from the Shadows

[Iscah]

Very interesting story, and will be good to have it in mind for replaying Shadowbringers.

It sheds more light on Hades' attitude toward Varis in his introduction, which was a big sticking point for me seeing him as a sympathetic character during the game.

Could the "shift in the laws of the star" have caused things to develop souls more easily?

The "Words of Lahabrea" seems an odd phrase. Is it an organisation? Is it the full form of Lahabrea's title?


On a side note, I think they've messed up with that "city landscape" screenshot and showed the buildings from an angle we're not supposed to see - look at that floating one! In-game you can't see the bottom edge of it. Looks like they might have one double-ended skyscraper model that they use in different configurations to create different parts of the city buildings.

We can perhaps learn a fair amount from this story. Let's weave it all together. In the time of Amaurot, there was indeed one race, one people.

I don't think we can 100% confirm the "one race, one people" thing yet though - they're just described as "men" and race isn't talked about. In modern Eorzea all the races can equally be referred to as men (and women) regardless of race, so it's not impossible that the races exist at that point and simply aren't being talked about.

And it still requires the question of how the races came into existence if the Sundering simply split the world into multiple copies.

Only Deus ex Phoenix I want to see is Alphinaud finally popping out a Phoenix-Egi.

I'm still headcanoning that's what his Ruby Carbuncle actually is, seeing as he wouldn't be able to summon Ifrit (to our knowledge) but he does have the 'aether blueprint' for a fire-aspected egi that has to be kept secret...

Crazy theory time, i wonder if the soul of that Phoenix was the start of the cry/voice that started making everything go foobar, fear of death is a very powerful fear and for near immortal beings with creation magics could be spread fast from a singular point creating untold destruction. It would be also add another layer of sadness to Hades's tale if he inadvertently caused the original calamity by forcing this soul back into the underworld.

Definitely an interesting possibility!

It did bring up a few very puzzling things, though! The Underworld, for instance... Is this supposed to be the Lifestream? If so, is it the SAME Lifestream we know? It appears that there's a cycle of life and death involving the Underworld... are the Ancients themselves, being immortal beings, not a part of it? Or are they still subject to it on the rare occasions when they do die, or are born?

It sounds like the Underworld is the place where the [Lifestream-or-equivalent] runs - but then the general idea of aether visibly swirling around and flowing through the world is perhaps an extension of the same process. Perhaps the deep aetherial realm is the only place where the flow of aether is still strong enough to be perceived as a 'stream'. Or perhaps Zodiark altered how the flow behaves.


I don't think the Ancients are immortal though - just very long-lived compared to humans. Emet talks about them "living for an age" (ie. era) at one point.

It seems [Emet] was pretty reclusive back then, an interesting change from the man we came to know, but at the same time mayhap it was this special sensory with every kind of life and soul that made him, in a sense, the most sociable of the Ascians.

Apparently Hythlodaeus was the original smug, cheeky character, more similar to Emet in the present.

I disagree about the personalities being different - present-Emet might be "smug" but in a different way, and he's certainly not "cheeky". I think the withdrawn, somewhat irritated personality he has here seems consistent with how he is in-game - he still seems like the sort of character who would have a snarky sense of humour in a different situation, and act like he's less impressed with things than he actually is.

Hythlodaeus seems to be a more good-natured, openly friendly person who might tease his friends but only because he knows they'll be okay with it.

Let me ask then, from where did you think that Architect is a role, capital A? If we do in fact take it from a seated title (Words of Lahabrea) then isn't the case that Hythlodaeus is not it as Hythlodaeus refuses to take the seat/role?

In the city we have three visible buildings that are labeled as Bureaus: the Architect, Administrator and Secretariat, which does suggest that the Architect is a position of power in the city - whether it is part of the Convocation or something separate.

Why are there only four? T_T

Given the pattern so far, we should be getting another four stories at some later point, though I'm not sure when.

I feel like we're going to need more than eight total though.

(It continues to disappoint me that the "official" WoL has an apparent aversion to taking on spellcasting jobs. The summoner remains, in my mind, one of the strongest contenders for the WoL's actual canonical discipline, given its many links to the MSQ and game lore.)

Same - it just makes a lot of sense, and ties in with all sorts of core story elements like the Ascians, summoning and Allagan technology.

If the individuals were so much more powerful then, it's possible that their souls were more resilient and less likely to degrade in the Lifestream. Since each soul has a color, it'd explain why Hades saw an aurora of them in Amaurot and something sickly and putrid after the Sundering- the "colors" were running together instead of staying distinct.

Could be, although that line is more about the intensity of the light than the colour. Instead of the radiant light of aether that he could once see, there's just a weak glow left.