What exactly do we know as of 5.3 about the sound that was heard before Amaurot fell?

[LineageRazor]

I doubt it were Venat and her followers who had a better plan. The Convocation was formed of the greatest sages of their kind, and if they did not know, then the dissenters probably did not have more knowledge. Their priority with Hydaelyn was subduing Zodiark, they mention nothing of the Sound. As for the Convocation, I assume they had their hands full on trying to prevent the ongoing catastrophe.

Is it so hard to believe? The Convocation members we know were pretty arrogant. I imagine a situation much like this:

Dissenters: We present to you information about the Sound, and a solution to the problem.
Convocation: We accept your information, and believe you speak true. However, your solution presents a drastic change from our comfortable way of life, and we therefore reject it. Here's our plan.
Dissenters: Your plan is... um... questionable. And doesn't really solve the problem. It'll just pop up again.
Convocation: If it does, then we will solve the problem the same way - and preserve our way of life in the process.
Dissenters: That's a lot of unecessary suffering!
Convocation: It IS necessary. Preservation of the status quo is of the utmost importance.
Dissenters: We disagree, and will enact a plan to counter YOUR plan.

I do like the idea that Azem was the only one to discover the truth about the Sound (and, as you say, it makes sense since she was the one to actually do the legwork rather than just armchair theorize). But it is not difficult at all for me to imagine the Dissenters finding the truth, and the Convocation being just plain unwilling to jeopardize their way of life.

Personally my thoughts on it are that the Sound is the result of uncontrolled creation magic, whether consciously created or more likely, sub consciously created, say by a dreaming individual. I think that the writers for XIV are likely to reference the old film, Forbidden Planet from 1956.

I was wondering if anyone else noticed that! Yeah, I was getting a REAL strong Forbidden Planet vibe from all this.

I don't think the Ancients had a machine or creature powering their creation abilities, however. The storyline mentions that each Ancient had an enormous amount of Aether within them which they used to power their Creation magic. One Ancient we talked to noticed (who had mistaken us for a child) noted that the Aether within us was WAY weaker than it should be (even for a child), and recommended we get a device to assist us in performing Creation magic.

The origin of Amaraut is an interesting topic. It's clear that they're aware that discord can be a thing (which is why they wear masks and suppress individuality), but they've eventually had no conflict more violent than sprited discussion for as long as anyone can remember. While we know only bits and pieces of what life was like outside of Amaraut, but it seems as though relations between the cities was peaceful (though not cooperative enough that Amaraut immediately leapt to the defense of other cities when the Sound began to manifest - instead, they debated whether they should). Amaruat was a Utopia, and had been for a very, very long time, considering that Ancients are very long-lived and apparently have no history of serious conflict beyond a general injunction against individualtiy.

So, what did this Utopia arise FROM? All we have to go on is our personal experience on our own planet, from which civilization arises from barbarism. Is this the only possible way it could have happened? Were the really, really ancient Ancients similarly barbarous, and eventually found common ground? Or were they peaceful from the day they came to exist as a people? For that matter, did they evolve from lesser beings at all? Or did they just spontaneously come into being fully formed as they are, like the gods they resemble?

The Sound was a change, brought to a society that was largely changeless. If the Sound was CAUSED in some way by the Ancients, they must have had some kind of change the prompted it. Either that, or the change that brought about the Sound was EXTRAORDINARILY gradual. If the Ancients' overuse of Creation magic caused the problem, either something happened recently to ramp up the use of Creation magic, or it had been poisoning the well for a very, very long time...

[ShadowMeowth]

Is it so hard to believe? The Convocation members we know were pretty arrogant.

I do like the idea that Azem was the only one to discover the truth about the Sound (and, as you say, it makes sense since she was the one to actually do the legwork rather than just armchair theorize). But it is not difficult at all for me to imagine the Dissenters finding the truth, and the Convocation being just plain unwilling to jeopardize their way of life.

They were pretty arrogant towards /mortals/. Their attitude is more or less, "you do not know a thing", and to be honest they were rather right. Not the best approach, indeed, but not without reason.

I would say arrogance was on the dissenters' side. They note that they are few in number because most of the people place their faith in the Convocation. And yet, these fewer decide in stead of all their kind and very well aware that their "chosen course may yet doom all of our brethren". Hydaelyn's summoning was not condoned nor approved not just by the Convocation, but a great majority of the Ancients, and that included Azem, the defector. And they did it merely because they feared Zodiark: Hydaelyn's purpose is not "contain the Sound", it is "keep Zodiark in check". This is coherent with FFXII!Zodiark's bio: he was sealed and bound, forever kept an infant, because the gods feared his power.

Now that you mention a machine, however, I doubt it has anything to do with powering up creation magicks (as you mentioned, the Ancients had enough aether by themselves to cast them without resorting to the land, and if they needed a greater incantation, they surrendered their own life force, see Quetzalcoatl and Zodiark) but the very first relevant Amaurotine building we visit are the ruins of the Walls of the Forgotten, a rather peculiar structure of which we only see the top of the tower, and if you recall the mural, it was from that point that the painting depicting Amaurot in flames was portrayed. The architecture of this tower is definitely different from the usual Amaurotine spires, and Y'shtola wonders aloud how much of the building is buried underground. The whole construct does have the appearance of some sort of machine. Hmm. Room for thought.