Questions we may never get an answer to.

[Eloah]

in life there are many things that we are left to wonder. And, usually in a fictional story such as FFXIV, most things are eventually explained to us. But there might be something that piques your curiosity that you may never get and answer to, or will you?

Let's ask a question we have about something in the story and see if it actually has a canonical answer. Maybe it's just in a part of the story we haven't touched on yet. Or maybe it's still a mystery.

My question is, what happens to the people that the Ascians possess? Specifically, I'm curious what happened to the original Solus Zos Galvus? We know from the Lahabrea/Thancred possession that the original individual does not "die", but what becomes of that person if the Ascian stays in that one particular body of such a long time? Like Emet-Selch did with Solus. Did he just wake up after being depossessed as an old man and die? That's horrible. We know Solus was a real person, before he became an Ascian. Imagine "living" like that.

And what of the "ascended" Ascians? Do they "keep" their original bodies? We know Fandaniel doesn't really look like that. So what happened to his original form?

And why have we not seen a Lalafell Ascian? Are they just too evil for the Ascians to possess? Lol

Post any questions you might have, or responses to other peoples questions.

[Sauteed]

Lalas are too super congealed awesome to be possessed by Ascians.

[Veloran]

What are the Auspices? My only theory is that they're animals that just happened to get Ancient souls somehow. Otherwise, their ability to live for so long and display Primal-like abilities is basically inexplicable, they're the closest thing to true dieties seen in the world.

[LineageRazor]

What are the Auspices? My only theory is that they're animals that just happened to get Ancient souls somehow. Otherwise, their ability to live for so long and display Primal-like abilities is basically inexplicable, they're the closest thing to true dieties seen in the world.

The idea of animals (and even objects, like kimono or mirrors) becoming kami (gods) after living (or existing) for a long time (generally 99 years) is pretty deeply ingrained in Japanese culture, to the point where they likely felt the Auspices did not need any further explanation. Live a long time equals become a god - obviously, right? Kitsune (fox spirits) are the most well-known of this phenomenon, with the fox gaining additional tails as it grows older, until eventually becoming a nine-tailed fox, the most powerful of all Kitsune.

[RyuDragnier]

What rank name do Garlean spies get in the hierarchy? Who came up with the ranking system anyway?

[Kesey]

Lalas are too super congealed awesome to be possessed by Ascians.

I think its more like a Lala possessed by an Ascian wouldn't be taken seriously.

[Rannie]

What exactly can the Garlean third eye do?

[myahele]

What exactly can the Garlean third eye do?

According to lore

Native Garleans can be distinguished by the presence of a "third eye" on the forehead. The third eye is believed to improve the race's capacity for spatial recognition, giving them an advantage over other races when it comes to navigating aircraft or firing weapons.

This is the only information we have about it for now.

[Veloran]

The idea of animals (and even objects, like kimono or mirrors) becoming kami (gods) after living (or existing) for a long time (generally 99 years) is pretty deeply ingrained in Japanese culture, to the point where they likely felt the Auspices did not need any further explanation. Live a long time equals become a god - obviously, right? Kitsune (fox spirits) are the most well-known of this phenomenon, with the fox gaining additional tails as it grows older, until eventually becoming a nine-tailed fox, the most powerful of all Kitsune.

Yeah, okay, but that doesn't at all explain how that happens in Othard in the world of XIV, because all of that lays completely outside of the established lore.

I mean Suzaku can literally counteract the Lifestream to resurrect and make people immortal. Not to mention they have the Primal-like ability to remodel their environment, I don't think I've seen anyone other than Primals do that

[LineageRazor]

Yeah, okay, but that doesn't at all explain how that happens in Othard in the world of XIV, because all of that lays completely outside of the established lore.

It's not meant to. It's meant to explain why the Japanese creators of the game didn't see any point in explaining them at all.

Consider ghosts, which are an actual enemy in the game. From what we know of the Lifestream, they shouldn't exist - when things die, their souls return to the Lifestream, are broken up, and return as new souls for newly born creatures. So where do ghosts fit into this, when ghosts are, in theory, the lost souls of the dead? We can come up with our own theories, but the game never really explains. It's just assumed that ghosts exist because this is a fantasy game which draws upon a smorgasbord of fantasy tropes. By the same token, auspices exist in the game because they, too, are a fantasy trope (and, naturally, they were introduced in the same expansion which introduced Eastern fantasy tropes). Because this trope is one unfamiliar to folks outside of the Far East, we're naturally curious about it and would like a more in-depth explanation - but as far as the Japanese are concerned, they are a completely ordinary fantasy phenomenon, and there's no more need to explain these guys than there is to explain ghosts.

It's not a satisfying answer, I know, for folks who want to dig into the lore, but I doubt the game is going to put any further effort into explaining how Auspices exist than they already have.