The State of the Ascians (Assume Spoilers as of TODAY)

[Cilia]

The PC is very self-sacrificing. They don't (and arguably due to gameplay purposes can't) die, but they have given of themselves again and again and again and again and again and again. It's easy to sit back in our chairs and say "Whatever," but the amount of pain they've endured is so great it leaves Fordola speechless when she sees it in 4.1. That's before learning we've been fighting under false pretenses, necessary though the fight may be.

It's easy to die for a cause. Living for it is much, much harder.

[Vyrerus]

It's easy to say that it's easy to die for a cause, but that's giving up your entire life, all of your convictions, and possibly your cause in and of itself if your death doesn't seal its success. Like sure, it's easy to run in and get yourself killed. Sure, it's harder to stay alive on the front lines of conflict, where so much comes down to circumstance. It's another thing entirely to put yourself there knowing you could fail and die, especially if it's for the cause alone.

We're allowed to say what our WoL is in the game for, power, wealth, or what have you, but we don't often get to express it. There are character traits for the WoL that are presented as canon, whether we like them or not. But the fact remains that the WoL benefits 100% in every way by gallivanting and heroing across the world(s). More prestige, more gil, more equipment, ins with every major leader, military, and heads of state. For all the pain that the WoL goes through, there is incentive in abundance. Forbidden knowledge, heretical arts, secret techniques... about the only thing the WoL doesn't really get is physical intimacy and romance.

[BlitzAceRush]

Except there are easier ways to get all of that, we're not the only hero just the most renown currently, while we are free to decide why we fight to a degree the fact remains is if all we cared about was fame, power, money or even knowledge we have better and less life threatening ways to gain in.
Fame? Could just roam the world beating the best of the best or just go kill some unkillable monsters of legend.
Power? With how much we already have we could just go anywhere looking for relics or lost allag items.
Gill? So many options, charge the city states to deal with things for them, the Colosseum, hell we could just stand around, people would pay just to see us showboat and kill some weak things, or even join the syndicate.
While we can chose if our WoL gets a raise out of different aspects of our role if we didn't care at all about the greater good it makes no sense we would chose to nearly get ourselves killed every other week going head first into the worst possible situations.

[Rosenoire]

So there was probably a lot more reasons than just "summoning a god is bad" that led Azem to not wanting to summon Zoidark.

One reason might have been that utilizing Creation magic on a massive scale to imbue the planet with a will in order to do what the Convocation couldn't in response to Creation magic going haywire was sounded like a bad plan. Remember that the monsters in the Amaurot dungeon were spawned from the Ancients' nightmares and deepest fears, and that we are told at several points that Creation magic is based on intent, and something as simple as seeing an eagle fly past changes a lion into a griffon. Now imagine that the Convocation, who are themselves at odds, and are desperate to save their people, pool their aether and their talents into Creating something that by definition is more powerful than they are.

Ending up with an entity capable of overwriting the will of his creators with his own desires seems almost inevitable under the circumstances.

[Rosenoire]

Not even the Sundered necessarily see Zodiark as a god, as shown by Fandaniel. So I have no idea why Lahabrea got tempered hard enough to believe Zodiark to be the True God, when even Emet-Selch went "yeah, Zodiark's a Primal, he tempered us, next question".

When Emet-Selch gives us the big reveal after Qitana Ravel, he says:

Emet-Selch: But through prayer and sacrifice, the will of the star was made manifest.
Emet-Selch: Zodiark was His name, and by His grace was the calamity averted.
Emet-Selch:...A savior mighty and magnificent, deserving of reverence and gratitude one would have thought.

That definiitely sounds like worship.

[Rosenoire]

It's easy to die for a cause. Living for it is much, much harder.

In Stormblood, we get that almost word-for-word as a Hamiliton quote: "Dying is easy, soldier--living is harder."

[YianKutku]

When Emet-Selch gives us the big reveal after Qitana Ravel, he says:



That definiitely sounds like worship.

To be honest, given Emet-Selch's later (and some earlier) comments, I've always read this as biting sarcasm on Emet-Selch's part. But it's true that he could be sincere here, and the dialogue where he's less than reverent towards Zodiark could be his way of playing it cool for some reason.

[Kesey]

To be honest, given Emet-Selch's later (and some earlier) comments, I've always read this as biting sarcasm on Emet-Selch's part. But it's true that he could be sincere here, and the dialogue where he's less than reverent towards Zodiark could be his way of playing it cool for some reason.

It was sarcasm on Emet's part. But I think he was referring to the fact that even though they sacrificed so much to get Zodiark and saved their civilization, there was still a faction that broke off and summoned Hydaelyn, leading to the situation he has in the present of setting up and causing rejoinings. That he is allowed, from his POV, to be a bit salty about.

[Edgedy]

Really fun thread to read, and a bit of a necro. So we're going to head to Sharlayan and there's almost 100% going to be an ascian there. There's a good chance the reason they choose not to intervene is also because said ascian is in a position of power. So one observation is which Ascian would it be?

Halmarut's identity is unknown, but after we do Akademia Anyder we learn that he specifically is mentioned as a "Professor." He would likely be the one we encounter in Sharlayan.

An interesting take as well is that we are now armed with the ability to 'cure' tempering, which would include removing Zodiark's tempering from an actual Ancient. The implications would be kind of interesting if we have an opportunity to create an ally from an Ascian to help us fight against Fandaniel.

[vormela]

(from original post) As of 5.3, we also possess all of those stones. (Or they vanish into the aether with Elidibus's soul, I'm not quite sure.)

As of 5.55, this is still the case, and we still haven't told any of our friends so far that we are part of this collective and entrusted with the responsibility to eventually reunite the convocation. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

I really love the idea of secrecy about multiple group memberships. Who we open up about this to is going to be really interesting. It feels like we are on equal footing to Urianger's secrecy at this point.

I think it will become problematic and I am hyped. I keep thinking about some point where Moenbrydah relays that she finally understands (something) before she dies. And Urianger is very comforted by that. But not sure what that means.

I so want to use my golden tablets as Dionysus/Persephone and summon my new old ween-woon bros and have a final meal with them while we kill gods and alien spaceships thank you.