Predictions for 5.3?

[Vulcwen]

I suppose the newly awakened WoLs ...

Never underestimate xenophobia I guess, we're still essentially aliens to them. If they can't frame us as villain directly, maybe they can frame the Exarch as villain and then by extension us when we stand on his side.

[Fenral]

I wonder if the Exarch getting framed as a villain would be enough to settle the "stay in the Crystarium / go back to the Source with the Scions" debate in our favor? It at least seems more immediately plausible than the myriad diabolus ex machina one can't help but expect from a G'raha Tia story arc.

[Theodric]

Never underestimate xenophobia I guess, we're still essentially aliens to them. If they can't frame us as villain directly, maybe they can frame the Exarch as villain and then by extension us when we stand on his side.

That wouldn't necessarily be a case of xenophobia so much as a lesson in just how silly it is for so many characters to keep secrets from the masses. The Crystal Exarch really should have informed his people about his and the player character's circumstances, especially when faced with what was essentially the apocalypse.

It makes even less sense when you look at how the truth of Ishgard's founding was revealed, paving the way to reform across Coerthas. Any criticism aimed at the Archbishop for hiding the truth from the masses is now negated, since the Warrior of Light and many of his companions resort to the exact same tactic.

It'll be interesting to see if they're bold enough to actually reveal some of the secrets they keep close to their chests on a grand scale - such as the nature of the fractured worlds, the former state of existence and that both Hydaelyn and Zodiark are Primals.

[Lauront]

Would it? I harbor some hesitation to have that kind of faith.

There was a day Ysayle tried to put an icicle through our chest "for Hydaelyn".
There was a day Midgardsormr tried to put a spike through our chest "for Hydaelyn".
Gods save us from half the people who think they're doing the gods' work.

Which is potentially why he won't be the end boss for 5.3 - especially if he is the original Elidibus.

The problem here is the Flood of Light wouldn't do anything for Elidibus at the moment because without Black Rose there is no pending calamity that we are aware of to allow a Rejoining to take place. That would be counterproductive for Elidibus to do to say the least. My guess goes back to his speech about wanting to 'keep us mired in the first', it seems to be an action more to disrupt our progress specifically. But how he intends to do so? That's still a hard thing to determine, as he basically creating a bunch of people with hero complexes.

My theory he intends to mislead these heroes against us somehow, maybe by creating an illusion of some kind of threat, though I must say trying to pin anything on the "Warrior of Darkness" normally would be difficult. Then again, get enough people who think they're doing the right thing and I wouldn't be surprised on what they could do.

At the same time, who's to say he's not working on the Source in parallel? I find it hard to believe that a meticulous planner like him would truly leave Zenos as a "wildcard", not to mention any other number of avenues he could be keeping an eye on, both within the Empire and outside it.

That said, for now it does seem like the focus is dealing with the primary obstacle to his plans, but I am sure he's more than adept at multitasking.

I'm honestly believing that the Elidibus that we are dealing with is Zodiark, just from the way he worded how we could see him as. I mean he straight up tells our character and the scions that he is there to fulfill the will of the convocation and that if we wanted to think of him as another Ascian then we could. (Not the exact quote from when we confronted him in Rak Tika but pretty much the gist of it). So yeah I think that would be a revelation sometime in the future.

He's almost inviting them to underestimate him.

[Morningstar1337]

Never underestimate xenophobia I guess, we're still essentially aliens to them. If they can't frame us as villain directly, maybe they can frame the Exarch as villain and then by extension us when we stand on his side.

Would make sense, especially if the newly awakened included Eulmorans who preferred Valthey's rule over the new Status quo.

[Draginhikari]

At the same time, who's to say he's not working on the Source in parallel? I find it hard to believe that a meticulous planner like him would truly leave Zenos as a "wildcard", not to mention any other number of avenues he could be keeping an eye on, both within the Empire and outside it.

That said, for now it does seem like the focus is dealing with the primary obstacle to his plans, but I am sure he's more than adept at multitasking.

That's why I said in my point 'Is no pending calamity that we are aware of to allow a Rejoining to take place'. Generally, the story tends to let us as the Players know that some element is going to be important by bringing it up long before it becomes story relevant like how Black Rose was. At this stage, all we know is that Zenos is traveling with a white robed figure that seems different from Elidibus somehow who seems to know about the past. If there is a potential option for another calamity, it's not currently apparent.

[Truen]

Whatever they do--I hope they add some more interesting dps rotations for the healing jobs. Right now they SUCK, big time. Since 5.0 released the SCH is a boring, clunky mess...I'm so tired of casting "Broil" 10,000 times a week and literally hundreds of times per dungeon que.

[Mansion]

Since 5.2 there is something odd to me in the Warriors of Light awakening schemed by Elidibus.

If he wants to set them against us :
- We literaly just saved them from doom. And since then, we have tried to help them even more with politics in Eulmore for instance. That shift against us would be a 180 turn difficult to explain.
- I'm not sure they would be that much of a threat anyway. And that's just a bunch of people, but I believe we would still have the support of Lyna and her "soldiers". I don't think we would be outnumbered.
Also, I don't understand how people would also let themselves be so easily manipulated. I understand that a lot has been goin on, but we are talking about people with life-long trauma of excess of Light, perhaps even the feeling of having been abandoned by Hydealyn in the last 100 years or so. But they would forget that 30 seconds after they supposedly heard Hydealyn, being presented by supposedly a former public enemy... It is a bit too much for me.

So the only way this is a good plan on Elidibus' behalf in my opinion, it would be drawing our attention to the wrong target. I imagine the Scions and all those in the know about Elidibus' plan will be closely watching what these new WoLs will be doing from now on. Leaving Elidibus some occasions to pull out yet another trick.
I'm afraid it might turn this character into a meme at some point. 3.X "What if we sent Warriors of Darkness ?" 4.X "Nevermind, I'll just wear that corpse to bring chaos." 5.X "Nevermind, What if we sent Warriord of... Light?" That's a lot of build up to make us understand we are the thorn in his side, or to delay the final act of the Ascian plotline.

[Lauront]

That's why I said in my point 'Is no pending calamity that we are aware of to allow a Rejoining to take place'. Generally, the story tends to let us as the Players know that some element is going to be important by bringing it up long before it becomes story relevant like how Black Rose was. At this stage, all we know is that Zenos is traveling with a white robed figure that seems different from Elidibus somehow who seems to know about the past. If there is a potential option for another calamity, it's not currently apparent.

I agree, it's not readily apparent. Nonetheless, there is something odd about a cautious planner like Elidibus not having a plan to make use of Zenos and just leaving it to the wind. Especially since this new "guest" has knowledge of a plan we've only seen Zenos articulate in front of a dying Varis - a plan a forward-thinker like Elidibus would anticipate from Zenos once he revealed to him the nature of Hydaelyn and Zodiark. So I think it is likely that Elidibus is still guiding Zenos in some manner or other, and that the choice of Asahi is no less intentional than how he used Zenos's form to goad Asahi into doing his bidding. In fact, I would go as far to say that Elidibus knows enough about Zenos's psychology to avoid giving him a fight worth remembering (in which case he'd just become a pest obsessed with him) and has imparted this knowledge to this new person to better manipulate him. Particularly if Elidibus is the original and thus the same as Zodiark.

So far, his stated aim is to use the newly minted WoLs on the First to hinder the main character (with the exact details being unclear for now), so assuming he's the one pulling Zenos's strings, it suggests he has some other use for him. If he intends to just wait until the WoL is dead before putting all the pieces in place, then maybe he has no use of a Source-based calamity right now - in that case his plan could even include throwing Zenos at you. On the other hand, if the goal is to ready the First (and possibly the 13th, too) to be rejoined and at the same time put the Source into a rejoining-ready state, and distract the WoL whilst this is happening, the use for Zenos could be to cause enough devastation in pursuing his goal that it all slots into place and happens too fast to be hindered.

Of course this could all mean nothing if it's Venat or one of her minions (or someone else entirely) who's manipulating Zenos, which would be interesting in its own right, but in my estimation all the signs so far point to it being Elidibus. I could be wrong but I would find it very out of character for him to do nothing with Zenos.

[Fenral]

"Reflections in Crystal" and the key art is the Exarch. Ah, s[kupo]t. I'm not going to like this, am I?