Quote Originally Posted by Alleo View Post
I am not sure that we can assume that we somehow beat Elidibus. Killing the person they are using at the moment does not kill the Ascians. We would have needed white auricite and a huge light source to kill him after that and even though it might be possible since the scions were not taken at that time (since that only happens because of the time changes) I really doubt it.

I guess we simply beat Zenos thus the alliance is not at a stalemate and tries to fight back. This started the use of black rose and had us dieing. I doubt that they would have waited until we got to Garlemalds doors, especially since the plan of the alliance was to defend themselves not to conquer.

We do not know how far it spread but I have a hard time believing that it only was around Eorzea. If that was the only continent suffering then people could have just moved to other lands. The short story and the parts we got ingame suggest to me that it spread quite a bit otherwise why would it still be so hard living on this world 200 years after? If only Eorzea was affected people could have moved on. But I guess it will be open to speculation.
We don't have to assume that we killed Elidibus permanently, just that we destroyed Zenos's body. Remember back when we fight Lahabrea in Praetorium, part of what makes it so sinister is that without the Blessing of Light and Hydaelyn enabling us to merely remove Lahabrea so we can save Thancred, we would have killed Thancred's body. When we fight Zenos-Elidibus in the doomed timeline, we destroy Zenos's body, making it uninhabitable. The entire reason Elidibus felt confident to take us out, at the time, was due to him having Zenos's, "adamantine flesh." Until he relies purely on his Primal aspect to enhance his strength, something he could only do with the Crystal Tower and the Exarch's Call spell, he is weaker than us. Yes, even before the events of Shadowbringers.

Also you mistake what is required along with the auracite. It's merely a large quantity of pure aether. It doesn't need to be light aspected. When we kill Igeyorhm we first disabled the physical body she was possessing, and then blasted her with aether held in one of Nidhogg's eyes. It wasn't aspected. I can see where the confusion comes from, because it's referred to in the early Scion plannings as a, "Blade of Light." Referring to what Hydaelyn had us do with our six Crystals of Light, which, if it came down to it, we could use them again to fuel another blade. The reason we didn't in ARR against Nabriales was that the whole point of the Scions' experiment with Auracite and the Aetherial Siphon/Tupsimati was to show that Ascians could be struck down without Hydaelyn's intervention, because when we cast out Lahabrea, we did not know what we were doing. We did by Stormblood though, and we sure as heck know what we're doing by the end of Shadowbringers as well.

Anywho, as for the last bit about how far the Black Rose spreads... Well the way that Nero, Cid, and the Ironworks escaped it was that they were in Doma tending the Shield Generators in The Burn at the time of its deployment on Eorzea. It's said in that Tales From The Shadows that it spread all through Eorzea and parts of Ilsabard, but places underground and far away were spared. Basically every habitable place and City State in Eorzea was turned to hollow husk amongst wasteland. Some in Ilsabard as well, as well as some surrounding coastal ocean. With the Empire still active, it likely made Doma a no longer safe place to be, and from there I could see Hingashi/Kugane being taken over as well. Basically, people wouldn't go to other lands, because the Empire could flex its muscles after this and grow bigger under threat of using the Black Rose again. Better to stay and hide away in the waste land or trek out over the ocean to the New World, but not many seafarers with good knowledge of sailing were still around, those that were had to start fighting for their life against the other survivors. Think Fallout, but fantasy style.