Questions about the Thirteenth shard [Spoilers]

[Torquil]

Plus, if he just needs one more calamity, then why didn’t he merge all the worlds in the future ironworks timeline? Cause if he had the Ascians would have killed all of humanity to free the Amaurotians aether.

[Anonymoose]

inb4 the Eighth is just taken for granted as the final Calamity because the writers know they have no plans for a Ninth in any possible plot they'd consider ... Mezaya Thousand eyes would have foreseen it, and she didn't, so it's a hypothetical finality based on traditional Eorzean theory of elemental cycles.

[Iscah]

inb4 the Eighth is just taken for granted as the final Calamity because the writers know they have no plans for a Ninth in any possible plot they'd consider ... Mezaya Thousand eyes would have foreseen it, and she didn't, so it's a hypothetical finality based on traditional Eorzean theory of elemental cycles.

Did she foresee the Eighth though?

Talking of which, we never did discuss the last Rising here, but I felt like maybe the prophecy that everyone was all "never mind, it was referring to a past event after all" about, might not actually be about the past after all... or at least describing multiple things at once. The beauty of vague prophecy, I suppose, but still.

[Anonymoose]

Did she foresee the Eighth though?

Nobody thought she foresaw the Seventh until they found it in a cave. As a tongue-in-cheek joke it could go either way.
Maybe we'll find the Eighth hidden in a jar in the mountains somewhere. "The Eighth will be a- oh, nvm."
Though I'm still not quite over the inconsistencies in how space and time work.

Talking of which, we never did discuss the last Rising here, but I felt like maybe the prophecy that everyone was all "never mind, it was referring to a past event after all" about, might not actually be about the past after all... or at least describing multiple things at once. The beauty of vague prophecy, I suppose, but still.

Which Rising prophecy?

[Iscah]

Which Rising prophecy?

The Message in a Bottle quest.

On re-reading it, I think I'm getting mixed up with parts of other quotes, but just bringing it up for no reason other than to go "there's nothing here to worry about!" seems kind of suspicious.

Do we have a central reference for prophecy quotes somewhere? Game quotes, New Year's messages, Minstrel's Rising songs...

[Anonymoose]

Do we have a central reference for prophecy quotes somewhere? Game quotes, New Year's messages, Minstrel's Rising songs...

I've saved them all, but individually in different archives. I can compile them if needed, but I know one other person who -- that seems like something they'd do, lol. Let me ensure they haven't and then I'll start shoving together a collaborative document for the sake of posterity.

UPDATE: I've gone through all the bottles and there are no prophecies here?

- Six small and seven medium bottles from dev. team members thanking you in-character for playing the game and using the features they worked on.
- One large bottle from an adventurer "farther along" promising there's so much more in store for you someday (if you haven't completed any base games)
- Three large bottles from "background NPCs" thanking you for playing such a large part in their struggle if you completed it (Praetorium, Dragonsong War, Liberation of Ala Mhigo)
- One large bottle from Biggs, Third of His Name thanking you for saving their past and giving them a brighter future, and hoping you'll look after G'raha.

[Lium]

Speaking of the Thirteenth and Eden

Wasn't Gaia, the Oracle of Darkness who Urianger believes hears the voice of Zodiark, from the Thirteenth? I know she said she grew up in Eulmore but I could have sworn they said something about her being connected to the Thirteenth. I could be wrong though and misheard that.

[Jandor]

However, it's noted that the Ascians have "Made a void of the Thirteenth", meaning it cannot be rejoined. Would this not have had an effect on the plan, given that Zodiark can thus only be at best 12/13ths of his full strength?

I guess they're just hoping that 12/13ths will be enough to power up Zodiark sufficiently to break free of his prison, at which point they can ask the Ancient God of rewriting the laws of reality to once again rewrite the laws of reality and undo their mistake.

[LineageRazor]

I've thought of it as meaning the Eighth Rejoining would be the last necessary one, as it would be the tipping point at which Zodiark would be able to awaken. Not whole, yet, but whole enough to get the ball rolling on putting the star back together himself, without the need of Ascians orchestrating further Rejoinings.

As for why the alternate timeline shows two hundred years of this apparently NOT HAPPENING, it could well be that the Ascians screwed the pooch, as some have suggested - the Flood harmed the Source too much, and the Ascians have basically doomed everything. It's also possible, though, that Zodiark IS hard at work in the background, but the enormity of what he has to do is simply taking a period of time that seems lengthy to mortal eyes (but is actually quite small in the timeframe of an Ascian or a Dragon). Powerful as he is, he can't simply snap his fingers and put everything right. He needs to work at it over a period of likely millennia. Certainly, the folks on the Source would have been too preoccupied with their own problems to notice Zodiark happily chowing down on the remaining Shards, if they had any possible methods for noticing him do so in the first place.

Could a 13/14ths complete Zodiark repair and incorporate the Void? Perhaps. We simply don't have the knowledge. Whether or not it's useless to Zodiark, we DO know that the Void is useless to the Ascians. It can't be used to awaken Zodiark. As such, they needed to be more careful moving forward, and they do their best to avoid further Floods. That said, they don't seem to feel that the current state of the Thirteenth is a notable obstacle to getting the job done. It's only a problem if too many MORE worlds fall in a similar manner.