6.0 Story Speculations

[Iscah]

I've rewatched the post Ramuh scene with the Convocation, and I'm quite curious about this seemingly dropped line, "All that remains is to nurture the strength of the gifted... to forge the final key."

What the heck does that even mean? What is the final key? Who are the gifted to be nurtured? @,@ We're never gonna know now, are we?

IIRC Nabriales was also talking about a key. I think it was either Minfilia or Tupsimati.

Basically it's one of the points that really looks like they were setting up for the Ascians to go a very different direction to where they eventually ended up going – or rather, set a plot hook (without a solid follow-up plan at the time) that should have pointed in a different direction if they'd actually connected to it instead of ignoring it and trying to paint over the gaps.

[BlitzAceRush]

To me, the early beginnings of the Ascians painted them more as a cult of individuals, brought together in purpose "The one true god!" but very much having their own goals and interests and even seeming that actively going against one another to pursue their own agendas was going to be a thing.
Obviously that's not what they ultimately decided on and so we get the unsundered having to "keep them in line" as an explanation for these transgressions, in addtion to us still not really knowing how the "raising up" processed really works. from Gaia's flashback they seem to lose their current memories, get their "old" ones back, but are confused and almost need to be lead or have someone "fill in the blanks."

[LoriCroft]

I'm just going to throw in here what I think, could be completely wrong and I think it will be but...

With the defeat of Elidibus in 5.3 and now Zodiark without its heart, the balance of the world is fluctuating rapidly, causing the End of Days to occur again. The balance everything back out, Zodiark will need its heart replaced. A lot of people think Zenos will 'eat' Zodiark and us with Hydaelyn but I think instead that at the end, following the big calamity where we defeat the final boss, Zenos turned into Anima, Zodiark will still need its heart due to Elidibus not existing and instead of Zenos filling the heart, it will be the person who has had a lot of focus on them again. Someone who has been struggling with how everything turned out on The First, The Source, the days through The Bloody Banquet, Heavensward and now the Telophori... and the final scene of Endwalker and the end of the original arc is that Alphinaud will make the ultimate sacrifice and become Zodiark's heart to re-balance the world, stopping the End of Days and ending the original Hydaelyn/Zodiark/Louisoix/Ascian storyline

[BlitzAceRush]

I don't really see this, as Elidibus's balance he spoke of turned out to really be his own role as mediator for the convocation bleeding into everything he did, as he lost more and more of himself that core principle became something he clung ever tightly, Zodiark himself hasn't really done anything since the sundering, which is kind of the point, he's often blamed for a lot of things he's had no direct or even indirect part in, we've yet to even ascertain his motivations, if he even has any. The final days 2.0 are no more his doing than the first ones were, Danny boy and Zenos are kicking these ones off, and while his heart is "dead"/trapped, he's been separated from it and effectively in a coma for 12000 years, so pretty much nothing has changed for him.
I don't see them going out of their way to of all things need Zodiark to suddenly need his heart back, they'll likely either have them fuse, they'll both stick around, or both need to go or one of them might remain, though given parts of Zodiark are still technically sealed in the other shards, I'm not even sure if he can be destroyed in the traditional sense.

[KageTokage]

I feel like Anima is going to end up getting snuffed out sooner then later if it's the primal responsible for all the tower shenanigans, but I'm expecting it will also have already fulfilled its purpose of gathering aether to activate Fandaniel's "gate of the gods" and the Final Days will return in spite of its demise.

[Tensaihime]

both need to go

I’m leaning more and more towards this. I was super excited to have Hydaelyn supporting me and talking to me in the beginning, but as time went on I wasn’t very happy with her saying unhelpful things and/or playing Captain Obvious. If that’s all you have to say, just conserve your energy, you know? When I found out what she actually was, I was off of that bandwagon and relievedly wiping my forehead as somebody reassured me my WoL hadn’t been tempered. I’ll put her and Zodiark in the ground and lose no sleep over it.

[BlitzAceRush]

While I could very much see them taking this path with the story, we need to remember the only one who called them Primal's called them, them "in terms you'd understand" really neither of them functions at all like what we've come to understand at as a Primal. Both exist and can take and be given aether, but neither simply drain the land of it by existing. As for tempering, while again, Emet says he's tempered he takes a lot of actions against the revival of his Primal so we don't even know what that means in relation to them, it certainly doesn't seem to mean the same thing it does for all the Primals we see today.
Outside of the name and the fact they were summoned, they don't really share anything with conventional Primals.

That's why I posited that one of them would remain, Zodiark being destroyed/sacrificing itself is kind of a big deal given he is still kind of bound to the planet so if he did make the ultimate sacrifice, Hydaelyn would then take his place as the will of the star, letting them both save the world.

But either way they take it, I was never too sold on the Primal bit in ShB, it always felt like a "yes, but no" kind of wow moment, Emet didn't lie but them being called Primals in the context he gave and given their creation magic feels moot, Primals are bad because of their limitations and tempering, both of which seem to be a mix of the races of today's limited ability to creation magic and deliberate Ascian chaos sewing, neither of witch effects Zodiark and Hydaelyn.

[Erendis]

Scions' airship will break irreparably and later we will have to travel the usual way.

[Tensaihime]

While I could very much see them taking this path with the story, we need to remember the only one who called them Primal's called them, them "in terms you'd understand" really neither of them functions at all like what we've come to understand at as a Primal. Both exist and can take and be given aether, but neither simply drain the land of it by existing. As for tempering, while again, Emet says he's tempered he takes a lot of actions against the revival of his Primal so we don't even know what that means in relation to them, it certainly doesn't seem to mean the same thing it does for all the Primals we see today.
Outside of the name and the fact they were summoned, they don't really share anything with conventional Primals.

That's why I posited that one of them would remain, Zodiark being destroyed/sacrificing itself is kind of a big deal given he is still kind of bound to the planet so if he did make the ultimate sacrifice, Hydaelyn would then take his place as the will of the star, letting them both save the world.

But either way they take it, I was never too sold on the Primal bit in ShB, it always felt like a "yes, but no" kind of wow moment, Emet didn't lie but them being called Primals in the context he gave and given their creation magic feels moot, Primals are bad because of their limitations and tempering, both of which seem to be a mix of the races of today's limited ability to creation magic and deliberate Ascian chaos sewing, neither of witch effects Zodiark and Hydaelyn.

That’s fair. I admit I want to learn more about them before I go fight them.

Really, there are a few things from ShB I don’t yet get but would like to: exactly how the “super-primals” work; whether the star can get along without one; thinning aether, the extent to which it will affect the magic people are doing (if it’s giving freaking Matoya trouble, we need to be concerned), and how it can be fixed... and as long as I’m here, why the story starts all but yelling “DON’T WORRY BE HAPPY” at the point when it was just established you have a few minutes left before you shift and start killing people.

[FrightfulNight]

Okay so this is just a theory i contemplated recently but what if Fandaniel's real name is

Thanatos

It would fit with the Ascians having names based on the Greek Pantheon and Fandaniels ultimate plan being to kill everything, what with Thanatos being the god of death plus it would further tie in with Zenos being a reaper. They could also do a Secret of Mana reference with his final form perhaps even being fought in that Lapuda like zone as a callback to the fortress of mana.