I feel like I'm missing something huge, at the start of Shadowbringers

[Iscah]

Edit: It also puts us in a very unsatisfying position, thinking about the future, because again, all we've been shown to this point were Ascian methods. Like I have to say, "Sorry, I have to let Ultima go off and kill all these people, or the world will die because I'm too good at being heroic."

This was a running concern we (or at least I) had in the lead-up to Shadowbringers given the history of what "bringing darkness" meant in the hands of the Ascians.

You said you're only at the start of the game, so you probably haven't reached the point of actually starting to diminish the Light yet. Rest assured that you will not be embracing the powers of darkness or committing acts of cruelty to do so.

Honestly it's prettymuch false advertising that makes you expect something much edgier than what you get. To my relief, personally, but it's still at odds with what actually happens.

[Elesiel]

I agree that the whole Light/Dark conflict isn't much explained until ShB, except for the occasional "Dark is evil !" here and there.

However, if you ever played other FF games, this is a recurring theme, which is usually explained like "Light and Dark are opposed, but we need both of them or sh*t gets real in a hurry"

I don't want to get too spoiler-y, OP, because it seems clear that you haven't completed ShB's story yet. I will say, though, a few things. First of all, there are more ways to push the balance from a side to an other side than letting Ascians do stuff without stopping them or fighting civilians until the world gets dark again. After all, fighting Forgiven creatures is more or less like punching Light in the face...

Then, consider this : most of the time someone brings up the topic of Light and Dark, it's from the vantage point of someone who is on the Light side of things. Most of your friends may believe that Light is good; some of them may want to make you believe that. ShB will bring quite a lot of light(pun intended) on that subject. In my opinion, you should do the MSQ and then come back if you have questions.

As Yoshi-P usually says : Please look forward to it !

[Jandor]

Light and Dark are just what they are, one stabilizes elements and one energizes them, but there is no inherent morality there.

If anything I got the impression that the story was taking a bit of a gentle jab at mankind assigning morality to primordial forces.

[Eloah]

One issue is we don't know where you are in the MSQ just yet so it's hard to gauge just how much info you have on the subject. But things do get explained in their usual "confusing" way, lol. But as people have said the conflict gets refrained as order and chaos instead of light and darkness. It's also important to realize that we learn that the terms vary depending on who you ask. But that might fall into spoiler territory if you aren't far enough in the story.

[LineageRazor]

Even when the Light is made out to be literally monstrous, we get enemy names like "Forgiven Cowardice", with the citizens of the world calling themselves Sinners.

It's explained during the Main Scenario that self-referring as "Sinners" was due to a misunderstanding at the start of the Flood of Light. A not-insignificant number of people believed that the Lightwardens and the Sin Eaters were holy hosts from the heavens called down to punish the wicked. When it became clear that they were here to punish EVERYONE, the name still stuck, but with an ironic twist to it: the people now used the name as a badge of resistance. They would RESIST Heaven's judgement, and fight against the holy hosts (if holy hosts they even were). They continued to refer to the creatures by the names they'd already given them, and why not? Everyone by that point knew what a "Forgiven Cowardice" was, so there was little point in confusing the issue by naming it something else.

As for the light vs darkness angle, here's a VERY spoilery explanation that basically gives away the whole plot of Shadowbringers. Read at your own risk!

As others in the thread have mentioned, "Light vs Dark" is really "Order vs Chaos" rather than "Good vs Evil". Light represents stability (as a positive spin) and stagnancy (for negative). Darkness represents change (positive) and destruction (negative). Zodiark, the god of the Ascians, is actually an enormously powerful Primal that they summoned out of desperation when their world was literally ending. Enormous change was needed to bring things under control, and so Zodiark is pretty much the epitome of Darkness.

It worked, but was a problematic solution because Zodiark needed a tremendous amount of energy, but for the initial summoning and also to provide him the power he needed to get the job done. Three quarters of the world's population were sacrificed (voluntarily - it was such a utopian society that folks en masse were willing to give up their lives for the sakes of those who would carry on after), and the world was healed and began to flourish with new life. The folks that had summoned Zodiark, though, were not satisfied, and decided to sacrifice this new life to Zodiark in order to resurrect the sacrificed people.

Not everyone agreed with this plan. There were a signficiant number of dissenting individuals who believed that enough blood had been shed, that the world now belonged to the new life. Further, they believed that bringing back the sacrificed would set the stage for the disaster that Zodiark had prevented to resurface again. For the first time in living memory for the members of that utopian society, no amount of debate was enough to reach an agreement, and the dissenters eventually summoned their OWN primal, one much weaker than Zodiark but with a particular power capable of overcoming him: Hydaelyn, who had the power to divide. She divided Zodiark (and the entire world, and all but three of the Ascians) into fourteen pieces, rendering him weak enough to seal away.

Hydaelyn's goal now is to preserve order and stability on the divided world, and to prevent Zodiark from resurfacing. She hasn't been doing the best job - the Ascians decided that the best course of action was to put the world back together again, and they've succeeded seven times so far. Each Calamity merges one of the sundered worlds (the Shards) back into the original world (the Source, where we live), at the cost of extinguishing every life on that planet. The Ascians see this as a mercy - mortals live pitiful, short lives, and are weak in magic, mind, and body. Compared to the Ancients, they barely even qualify as ALIVE. Obviously, as members of this weak, pitful collection of mortals, we disagree, and see the wanton slaughter as monstrous.

So we, representatives of Light, order, and stability, are in conflict with the Ascians, representatives of Darkness, change, and destruction. The Ascians are doing what they see as best for the world, for their lost people, and for quality of life in general. We are doing what we see as best for all the worlds and the people living on them now.

The Ascians DO seem as though they enjoy their role a bit too much, it's true - but there are bits and pieces here and there that hint that they've come a bit unhinged over the millenia, frustrated with the slow progress, the resistance they face, and above all the general AWFULNESS of the mortal beings that now consider themselves to be rulers of the world the Ascians' people once claimed.

[DPZ2]

The original Warriors of Light were not called that when they were still around, at least according to every head of the local Adventurer's guild in-game. They were called that because, when people tried to remember their faces, all they could recall is the light surrounding them.

There is a moment with a certain member of the clergy where this is driven home both visually and verbally.

Thordan VII: "Who ... what are you?"

We are called the Warrior of Light for that reason alone, in memory of those who went before, not because we're disciples of Hydaelyn.

Good and evil are not defined as Black or White in our world. We consider the Ascians as evil by their actions, not by their choice in robes. Evil, as we understand it, tends to favor Black for some reason, except when they wear White, or Rich Person's Clothing, or Poor Person's Clothing, or ...

What occurs in Shadowbringers is not a role-reversal. Up doesn't become down, inside doesn't become outside. Our understanding of the nature of our Reality changes, and we get to assess the true intentions of the Ascians -- which I personally consider to be Evil, although they stopped wearing Black.

[thegreatonemal]

That's part of what ShB is trying to explain. That the Ascians (the unsundered at least) more chaotic good than pure evil. They honestly feel that their plan is correct, and if they have to be the villains in order to make it happen, so be it.

That's not what ShB was trying to say given the nature of what it is the Ascians serve. They are pure evil who think they are good. ShB shows us why they came to feel that way.

[Brightamethyst]

They are pure evil who think they are good.

The Asicnas aren't deluded. It's all a matter of perspective.

We see them as evil because modern human morality says genocide = bad. The Ascians see themselves as right because from their perspective none of this is real. Killing people means nothing because the world isn't really real and reviving Zodiark will put everything back to the way it should be. We of course don't want the world to end and millions of people to die, but that doesn't make the Ascian's viewpoint inherently wrong.

Did you ever play FFTA? Same thing. Marche just wants to end the dream and get home, but to the people of Ivalice he looked like a supervillain trying to unmake the universe. It's all perspective.

[Cilia]

Spoilering for Ascian information

They don't feel what they're doing is acceptable because none of it is "real," they just place no value on lives lesser than them beyond as livestock. While it's not clear whether or not they intended to genocide the lesser races to restore their fallen brethren, the Ascians certainly have no qualms doing so now after the world has been fully rejoined. (That they were willing to do so at all paints a less than positive picture regardless.) Mortality renders us feeble, both in body and mind, and gives us less time to live - thus they don't see us as deserving of the gift of life due to the vices and folly that come with that shorter lifespan.

Most of the Ascians are mortals raised up via memory transferrence from crystals. Of the three unsundered, only Emet-Selch still resembled his Ancient self - Lahabrea lost himself in his passions, while Elidibus stopped using his memory crystal to hold onto his identity and gave himself over to the programming that came with his existence as a primal. While the Ancients were longer lived than contemporary races, they weren't immortal, and it's rather unlikely they were intended to live for the 12,500 years the unsundered did. As for the sundered... I expect a clash between personality and memory is part of Fandaniel's deal, but we'll see.

Personally I clock the Ascians in as Chaotic Neutral, albeit using evil methods. They want what's best for their people, but don't care what happens to anyone else. At the same time I'm not sure how much they actually believe the "you're not really alive by my standards, so killing you isn't murder" shtick Emet uses to justify what he does - such a convoluted explanation sounds more like he's trying to convince himself, meaning he knows what he's doing is wrong, but he tells himself there's nothing wrong with it so he's not crushed by guilt. Maybe.

[Morningstar1337]

5.3 Spoilers.

It is also worth noting that Azem, the original incarnation of the PS, was a neutral figure, not siding with the Convocation's Zodiark plan, but also not working with Venat's faction either.