Why did the Ascians never try to do these?

[Catapult]

Emet-Selch's comment that the Exarch opened "new worlds of possibility" suggests the Ascians believed it couldn't be done until he did it, thus suggesting that the Ascians are more than a little disinclined to innovation. I'd be curious as to why. A little "if it were possible we'd have known about it in our time" arrogance? A little "only Zodiark can bend time to His will" interference from the tempering? Who can say.

The difficulty I have with this is the fact that Courgevais, an ascian, provided the horn which would power Alexander's core. It means at least one ascian had to have been aware that a time-travelling-city primal was on the board. That they do not act on this more meaningfully requires assuming that the ascians are disorganized lone actors who don't talk to eachother about their plots.

...which they kind of are. But that disorganized? *sigh*

The best conclusion I can take from this is that Courgevais may very well be (or be a pawn of) a convocation member with their own autonomous plots. Meaning that they have thought of it, but deliberately neglected to tell Emet. And they still need dealing with.