What's up with the other members of the Convocation? (Spoilers)

[Vyrerus]

The aetherial sea is the Lifestream, and the Lifestreams of each Shard are not connected for very obvious reasons. We have no reason to think Hydaelyn residing in the aetherial sea on the Source means that said sea is linked to the Shards.


In regards to both Tenzen and Ramza, we have some reasons to believe that apparitions of certain souls may be due to things like residual aether, or the manifestation of ambient aether through will similar to summonings. I think this was stated to be the case in a few instances of when we see certain spirits. Haurchefant and Ysayle on the Final Steps of Faith come to mind here, but I may be misremembering.

No, it's something different. Basically, Lifestreams are roils of souls that are essentially copies of the original(Ye Olde Pre-Sundered Lifestream), as the shards themselves are, whereas the Aetherial Sea is the gulf of the whole. Think about it like continents or islands, with rivers that lead out to the ocean. A river has its own current, its own water type, unique tributaries, life, and size. If a river leads out to sea, the only thing they have in common is the water, but even that changes once you get out to sea, from fresh to salt. Only in this case aether is the water. This is why we can teleport from The Source to The First using aetherytes.

[Iscah]

This is why we can teleport from The Source to The First using aetherytes.

I'm not sure about that. I thought we were following our aetherial trail back across the rift?

Of course, the whole rift vs aetherial sea thing is sort of vague and we probably need to ask for a new map of the system. The first lorebook talks about there being a physical realm and an aetherial realm (aka the Lifestream, they state) and the deeper into the planet you go, the more blurred the boundary gets until you reach the aetherial sea at the centre.

[Vyrerus]

I'm not sure about that. I thought we were following our aetherial trail back across the rift?

Of course, the whole rift vs aetherial sea thing is sort of vague and we probably need to ask for a new map of the system. The first lorebook talks about there being a physical realm and an aetherial realm (aka the Lifestream, they state) and the deeper into the planet you go, the more blurred the boundary gets until you reach the aetherial sea at the centre.

Honestly, it's all pretty grey. They pick and choose so readily, because the explanation of how or why isn't super important to the story being told. Like back when they give us that first aetherology lesson that leads up to the white auracite and how we're gonna kill the Ascians, they speak of Ascian's rift as a place at the shore of the aetherial realm, and they use realm and sea interchangeably.

In my mind's eye the way I picture it, since we know that the 13 shards are bound aetherically to the Source, hence why Rejoinings work, it's kind of like a web of trees that all share the same root system. In the Omega quest line I'd taken Rift to mean physical space, since that's what Midgardsormr and Omega seemed to have traversed. Yet when we are pulled through the Rift by G'raha Tia, it seems like the Rift exists outside of time and space, since we see those crystal fragments with like, events we'd already experienced pass by us.

All in all, it's a wibbly wobbly timey wimey mess. To make matters worse, I don't think they use the term Aetherial Sea after 3.2. And I don't think they ever equate the Rift to the Lifestream... so I'm kinda just scratching my head here. I guess if it is what the lorebook says that it is, then it makes sense that Omega would have had to burrow deep into the ground in order to congeal his interdimensional rift, something about proximity to the Aetherial Sea being important to create a pocket dimension? But then the Ascians are shown to be able to make Rifts to their pocket dimension above sea level... and the idea that you need to go deep into the planet to be closer to it would seem to be supported by the Antitower being underground and going down, but like... it's underground a mountain plateau? and the tower's not taller than the plateau so... Though the entrance to the Antitower does seem to go into a sort of aetherial pocket itself where all that furniture is floating about and what not.

But I mean, then there's voidgates and all that they imply... they definitely need to give us an update one what all this is, even if it's in another lore book.