I made an hour-long loredump video on the Ascians

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Thanks for sharing this with us! I liked it a lot, very detailed without feeling too heavy, it's a great recap to prepare for Endwalker

One thing though, about Travanchet. My understanding was that he was a black masked Ascian, not one of the Convocation. I had posted about this here and some helpful fellows explained that he had been ruled out as a black mask, and that this was confirmed by the writers? Somebody can confirm that I'm sure.

I finally got some loose point about Eureka thanks to you, as I was too lazy to look them up by myself too!


Spoilers for 5.X:

Otherwise, looking at your list for what's to come in the game, I sure hope Ascians transition to a more minor role in FFXIV's future. With the end of the Hydealyn vs Zodiark. I'm sure they wil make a decent story from Fandaniel the Ascian on the loose, but I don't want each subsequent stories to be "well well well if it isn't an ascian plot device!", as Eden's finale was such a disappointment for me.

[Cleretic]

You say in the video you usually post on Reddit?
Well thank you for sharing this here.
It took me awhile to get around to watching this (I wanted to do so in one chunk) but I'm glad I did (your info on the Sahagin priest, and on Gaia & Mitron alone made this worth watching for me). And yo you so aptly tackled that tricky The Conclave / The Twelve issue.

This was a surprisingly exhaustive video and very informative. Exactly the kind of ascian recap I was itching for pre-endwalker.
I'm def sharing this with my FC.

I mostly hang around the Reddit because it's got an app I can check at work, honestly. I am liking here now that I've been here for a bit, I just can't check it as easily!

And yeah, there's a lot of parts of the whole Ascian thing (a lot of ongoing parts of the story, actually) where we can definitely start drawing some really interesting and plausible connective lines, but a lot of people neglect the fact we don't have the means to finish drawing those. And 'the Convocation are the Twelve' is a perfect example of it; it sounds good enough that I could believe a theory about it, but there's not enough actual facts behind it to just say it and call it there. You need to do more homework to get there than just saying it, at least right now!

[Cleretic]

And apologies on the double post here, the character limit caught me off-guard!

Thanks for sharing this with us! I liked it a lot, very detailed without feeling too heavy, it's a great recap to prepare for Endwalker

One thing though, about Travanchet. My understanding was that he was a black masked Ascian, not one of the Convocation. I had posted about this here and some helpful fellows explained that he had been ruled out as a black mask, and that this was confirmed by the writers? Somebody can confirm that I'm sure.

I finally got some loose point about Eureka thanks to you, as I was too lazy to look them up by myself too!


Spoilers for 5.X:

Not surprised I taught some people about Eureka! I'm known in my friend groups for loving it more than anyone, to the point where one person said that I'm the only source they'd trust to talk at length on it.

I don't think Travanchet's actually been talked about by the developers, at least not as far as I've seen. So he hasn't been ruled out as a black or red mask, I just think he's a red mask because of dramatic appropriateness. If nothing else, because he's both the longest-running ongoing subplot now, and that he's tied to one of the most popular bits of content in the entire game. If he wasn't originally a red-masked Ascian of import, he's earned a retroactive promotion to being one.

As to your spoiler talk!

I'd personally be into them taking a back seat for a while after Endwalker. I think the 'surprise, it was Ascians' reveal can really cheapen things in a lot of places; personally I lost a lot of interest in the Garlean Empire once we learned they were Ascian-made. Hell, I've seen it ruin things for people doing plots they AREN'T in--I know someone who basically completely dismissed all of Bozja's storytelling about very human-level failures, betrayals and oppression because he was just so used to the 'secret ultrawizard puppetmasters' plot twist that even when the plot was done he was still expecting it.

That said, I think it would be really neat if we kept some around and then sprinkled them in on side content every so often after Endwalker. Partly because I was actually rather impressed when they used Eden to tell a story with them that didn't boil down to one-note megalomania (I actually think Eden was a better Shadowbringers ending than 5.0's or 5.3's), but also because I think FFXIV's story is at its best when it sticks around after the climax and asks 'okay, now what'. I want some Ascians to still be around so we can hear their answer to that after Endwalker.

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I don't think Travanchet's actually been talked about by the developers, at least not as far as I've seen. So he hasn't been ruled out as a black or red mask, I just think he's a red mask because of dramatic appropriateness. If nothing else, because he's both the longest-running ongoing subplot now, and that he's tied to one of the most popular bits of content in the entire game. If he wasn't originally a red-masked Ascian of import, he's earned a retroactive promotion to being one.

Found my original post and see below the replies : https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post5500909

Travanchet specifically, though, was confirmed by Koji to be a black-mask. Travanchet isn't even the Ascian's name, it was the dead Elezen's real name. Koji wouldn't confirm the reaper was Lahabrea that day, probably because they were still planning to use it in the end of 3.0, which was upcoming at the time.

Hope Moose will be okay with me quoting his reply here!

In any case, even Travanchet being mentioned by someone else to explain whose orders he was following would be enough. I don't really see this as a loose plot point, because nothing came out of it since Alexander, (unless we are heading towards a big Endwalker surprise, but I think we have enough on our plate right now).