Fandaniel and the Depths of Ascian Tempering

[Vyrerus]

So what do you all think?

One thing that has become abundantly clear about the Ascians is that they are people first and foremost with their own deeply personal desires. As far as I can tell, all of them save Lahabrea and Igeyorhm are more in line with their personal wishes than with any overarching plan.


The other thing we know about Ascians from seeing Gaia demonstrate it firsthand is that when they reincarnate without their old memories, their souls still seem to have their old powers. "Power of Darkness, answer my call!" It speaks to me of the Summoner questline where in order to summon an Egi of a Primal, you must have been soaked in its aetherial signature. So, theoretically, what all Ascians do when they channel the power of darkness is channel the aetherial signature of Zodiark, much like the Dreadwyrm/Firebird Trance... more like the Zodiark Trance.

You might be thinking, "But Gaia's power revolves around time manipulation, not just darkness, so it must be her unique thing..." Wrong! In the Chrysalis fight with Nabriales, he creates a pocket dimension within the pocket dimension, where everything is inverted, and time on buffs/debuffs is dilated.

As for how this relates to their tempering status, I think it means that more or less every Ascian save the Unsundered were completely untempered, and they were being compelled to duty to Zodiark by the Unsundered. Those with Zodiark stained souls make better servants, because they have a direct understanding of what Zodiark's powers are, since they have capability of the trance. Moreover, based on Gaia, they get a deep sense of self actualization upon learning about their past life and memory. I can only imagine what it's like for those "lucky" few who were raised to a Convocation seat without having the soul of an original Convocation member.

And regardless, none of the sundered are supposed to be as powerful as the unsundered, and even if they achieved greater power by now, they weren't that powerful when they were raised to the seat. Being forced to take on memories they can't actually identify with likely leads to a schism of the mind, and so they are slaves to the servants of Zodiark, powerless to break their chains themselves. I think that's Fandaniel to a T, personally, but that's just my take.

As far as the tempering state of the Unsundered, I think they are tempered. However, since they implanted Zodiark's imperative, it was already their imperative from the start. Save the star. Where it went wrong was when Zodiark required unending sacrifice. Where modern, lesser primals require crystals, Zodiark requires souls. Tending the harvest of souls, and then afterwards when they lost the war, tending to the Rejoinings are their only imperatives from their tempering. Desiring to bring back the initial sacrifices doesn't supersede this imperative, nor does helping Azem. Though, we could also say that because Zodiark is sealed and split, and his tempering ancient, that the effects of it are so diminished that it is only present in that it happened, and was once the impetus for their duty, now only the memory of it fueling their way forward.