The 5.2 dungeon looks like it'll be a lore bomb

[RicaRuin]

But G'raha was there. When WoL wakes up after the Echo, he is at the door, asking whether they are alright. If we assume G'raha was already at the door when the Echo triggered, it could work out.

[Rannie]

But G'raha was there. When WoL wakes up after the Echo, he is at the door, asking whether they are alright. If we assume G'raha was already at the door when the Echo triggered, it could work out.

No he wasnt there when we woke up he visited us before we had the echo dream after we fell out of the chair in pain from the nascent light trying to break free. Which was also the time when Ardbert reached out to touch someone (us) and we went all glowy white then he pulled back and gave a cry of pain.

He was in the Occular at that time since he left before we went to sleep and we watched him leave.

[RyuDragnier]

I would have been inclined to say that echo vision of G'raha Tia in the future was a fluke but since we had yet another one of him from his past with out him being even remotely near us, I would then beg to differ. Also Urianger wasnt even close to us when it happened either. The only one close to us was spirit Ardbert and he wasnt even there when that conversation took place.

G'raha Tia mentioned he had fused partially with the Crystal Tower in order to help with the space/time teleportation of it. Which means part of the tower is connected to him, so one could assume that's the reason why we saw into his past, because the Crystal Tower itself was acting as a proxy at that moment (and the Inn is insanely close to it).

[Enkidoh]

It wasn't just to help with moving through time and space, but also to increase his lifespan as he knew that otherwise the length of time needed to make the time travel function possible would greatly exceed his lifespan by several orders of magniture otherwise - it's why he hasn't aged since undergoing the fusion (early in ShB people in the Crystarium tell the WoL that their grandparents swear that the Exarch "hasn't aged a day since the first brick of the Crystarium was laid" (paraphrased), a good thing too given he overshot his intended "destination time" by a good hundred or so years and then had to wait a century til his current time in the First and our own on the Source 'synced'.

The trade-off though is that he also aetherically bound to it in that it is his literal life force - whenever he's away from the tower for extended periods he starts to weaken.

This is also why he survived Emet's gunshot: the crystallization sustained him (and even if it didn't, the bullet probably hit mostly crystallized flesh anyway and would not have done nearly as much damage as it otherwise would have. ). And once he was back in Lakeland, the Tower would have all but healed him.

[Lauront]

The things I'm mainly hoping Anamnesis Anyder touches upon are the Convocation's deliberations before summoning Zodiark and maybe the Echo itself. It'd be a nice bonus if it touched on the cause(s) of the sound that started the whole thing, or the nature of the two Primals, but I'm not sure how deep a dive a dungeon, underwater or otherwise, can really offer, and even that is a lot of ground to cover.

Other areas of interest, like the nature of the split effected by the Sundering on the Source (e.g. are the shards physically in the same place but on a different aetheric "frequency"?), tempering, things in the current world inspired by/linked to memories of the ancient world, the history of Amaurot etc. seem likelier to be touched upon by separate and probably later lore reveals. At least we should be getting a bit more lore on the Oracle of Darkness via the Edengate series and I'm sure we'll get more info on the key players involved in the Garlean civil war. At the least, it looks like the Populares will be getting more of an involvement via Maxima.

In terms of the immediate plot, I'm most interested in 1) the new Ardbert and 2) the white-robed character Zenos meets. Spoiler tagging to keep it compact.

On 1), I feel they've thrown several hints now at this being Elidibus, ranging from Unukalhai’s comments to the New Year's extract (especially the French and German versions), as well as his own words at the end of 5.0. I was curious as to what he might hope to achieve by it and how he'd end up championing light, being an entity of darkness, but someone on Reddit pointed out that it may just be as simple as Ardbert's body still being linked to the Crystal of Light and thus bearing the Blessing of Light, even if his soul is for all intents and purposes gone for now. So maybe the Ascians stashed it away in case they needed it. That makes a lot of sense, and would enable Elidibus, in spite of his nature and using all of his considerable power, to champion light, and push the First back onto the brink of a Flood, as well as maybe bring back entities like the Lightwardens.

I think it comes down to whether Hydaelyn can withdraw the Blessing. I'm going to assume she has some choice in whether someone gets it, given that she seeks out individuals with the Echo to champion the light, but it's possible that once it's granted, she can't withdraw it, maybe due to being too weak to for the time being - or at least that she can't "peer" into the other shards to see what's happening there... maybe both. If so, the Ascians may have effectively figured out how to put their biggest obstacle to use against the WoL. Given the direction of the story in regards to tempering - much as it isn't my first choice for them to reduce the Ascians' motivations to that plot element - there's also the distinct possibility that Elidibus will be un-tempered rather than killed off eventually, but we'll see.

On 2), the thing that struck me was that Zenos commented specifically on the hue of his soul. That's the sort of thing Emet-Selch and Hythlodaeus spoke of, in terms of a reference to the soul's identity, rather than other aspects like its density (which would be a pointer to an unsundered soul), or how it's tempered etc. I assume it's something that Zenos only became able to see once he got the Resonance implanted in him, and possibly even more recently than that, after he came back from the dead.

On that basis, I'm leaning towards the hue being that of a WoL fragment. Based on his comments, we can assume he has some knowledge of Zodiark, leading me to think it’s a (former) Ascian or WoD, as both can bodyjack, which would certainly be a requirement if the model ends up being the body of the guy the data-mining suggests it is. That opens up interesting possibilities, in terms of having to face a fragment of the WoL, which may still be loyal to Zodiark, depending on how true their words were about seeking a new master. They also seem to have enough knowledge of Zenos to know how to manipulate him, potentially influencing the choice of the host, know how he thinks and to understand his plan, which as far as we're aware, he only ever articulated in front of his dying father, greatly limiting the number of people who may have seen it.

Although it may well be an entirely new character, Unukalhai ticks several of those boxes and may himself be the 13th's fragment of the WoL, so he seems like a possible candidate, although it would mean he has a hidden agenda. Can't really rule out Elidibus, either, as Zenos may not have seen the hue of his soul given that it may require a conscious attempt to to so. There's other possibilities, like a fragment of Zenos himself (assuming he even has one), or Lahabrea somehow surviving, but they both seem rather remote. At least in Lahabrea's case it'd explain his knowledge of Zodiark, and potentially the comments regarding a new master, but I'm not sure his hue (as opposed to his soul density) would mean much to Zenos, and it's yet another character presumed dead coming back into the fold... it does become a bit much after a while, even though I wouldn't mind seeing more of Lahabrea. Then there's Aulus, who knew about soul transference, but what would he know of Zodiark? Just please don't let it be the person whom the body matches... there's really no reason for that.

Regardless, I think this character will be the key in allowing Zenos to summon Zodiark before all the Rejoinings are completed. If it isn't some round-about way of the Ascians achieving their goals, it still has the potential to put both Hydaelyn and Zodiark at significant risk, so it doesn't strike me as someone friendly to her, either.

I'm still curious how Zenos suddenly picked up all these Ascian powers, but I'm guessing it's as simple as Elidibus picking up his powers during possession of the body - maybe it acted as a memory sponge in some capacity, possibly as an effect of the Resonance.

Not too long to go now until the live letter and 5.2!

[Rannie]

I think they wanted to pretty much confirm that everyone on the source has shards of themselves on the other reflections. Luq Beqq went out out of her way to say that the Scions on the first had denser souls compared to the people on the first. I don't know if it's his soul or not but we weren't even able to recognize Ardbert was our soul shard until it was flat out pointed out by Hythlodaeus. So *shrugs*.

[LineageRazor]

The things I'm mainly hoping Anamnesis Anyder touches upon are the Convocation's deliberations before summoning Zodiark and maybe the Echo itself. It'd be a nice bonus if it touched on the cause(s) of the sound that started the whole thing, or the nature of the two Primals, but I'm not sure how deep a dive a dungeon, underwater or otherwise, can really offer, and even that is a lot of ground to cover.

I doubt a lot of the lore will be in the actual dungeon. It'll likely be a lot like the Great Gubal Library: A cutscene preceding to establish why we need to go there, then the dungeon where we fight monsters until we reach the center, and then a cutscene after the dungeon where answers are revealed. I'm not expecting mid-dungeon expository cutscenes, as SE has learned that lesson well!

I'm still curious how Zenos suddenly picked up all these Ascian powers, but I'm guessing it's as simple as Elidibus picking up his powers during possession of the body - maybe it acted as a memory sponge in some capacity, possibly as an effect of the Resonance.

I'm pretty sure this is just Zenos taking to the Echo (Resonance) like a fish to water. By virtue of his Mary Sue-esque awesomeness, he's basically lived up to the potential of the Echo Elidibus mentioned to Minfillia way back in ARR, all in order to provide a suitable foil to the WoL's own Mary Sueishness.

It has long been my suspicion that Ascian abilities are, basically, them using the Echo (or something similar) to it's full potential.

[Bright-Flower]

I think there will be some juicy lore bits here, given where it is. But I'm also not going to go in with any assumptions based on the name either after what 'The Grand Cosmos' turned out to be either.

[Lauront]

I think they wanted to pretty much confirm that everyone on the source has shards of themselves on the other reflections. Luq Beqq went out out of her way to say that the Scions on the first had denser souls compared to the people on the first. I don't know if it's his soul or not but we weren't even able to recognize Ardbert was our soul shard until it was flat out pointed out by Hythlodaeus. So *shrugs*.

I believe I know what you're referring to, but IMO it's not really clear yet that each soul has an identifiable fragment which attaches back to it (which for all we know may be exclusive to certain souls), as opposed to it being a case of aether and random souls flooding back into the Source and in the process reinforcing all life there. Granted, it's possible. Just bear in mind Zenos is effectively closer to an unsundered lifeform than the WoL and is already manifesting similar powers to them and he invoked his power to peer at this new person's soul. It's fair to say he's probably a good deal better at this kind of thing than the WoL.

I doubt a lot of the lore will be in the actual dungeon. It'll likely be a lot like the Great Gubal Library: A cutscene preceding to establish why we need to go there, then the dungeon where we fight monsters until we reach the center, and then a cutscene after the dungeon where answers are revealed. I'm not expecting mid-dungeon expository cutscenes, as SE has learned that lesson well!

Agreed. I mainly have those kind of post-completion cutscenes in mind; there's a lot of ground it could cover, but probably won't, and if it touches on any of those areas I expect it to I'll be quite happy.

I'm pretty sure this is just Zenos taking to the Echo (Resonance) like a fish to water. By virtue of his Mary Sue-esque awesomeness, he's basically lived up to the potential of the Echo Elidibus mentioned to Minfillia way back in ARR, all in order to provide a suitable foil to the WoL's own Mary Sueishness.

It has long been my suspicion that Ascian abilities are, basically, them using the Echo (or something similar) to it's full potential.

Yeah, it does appear to be a case of them using the Echo to its fullest, although he's had the Resonance for a while and never manifested the powers before, so I figured the body would be a good repository for such knowledge.

[Gruntler]

Yeah, it does appear to be a case of them using the Echo to its fullest, although he's had the Resonance for a while and never manifested the powers before, so I figured the body would be a good repository for such knowledge.

They can't be powers of the body. The Garlean body is inherently incapable of aetheric manipulation of that sort. Zenos's Resonant powers are powers of the soul, as would be the powers any Ascian weilds, echo or not.