The clones of Emet.

[RyuDragnier]

The fact they chose him to be the one to narrate the Endwalker trailer does make me feel like he's going to show up some small capacity, but certainly not as a major player.

If he was able to preserve himself to some extent in Azem's crystal, perhaps he took still more "just in case" measures in the event he decided the sundered were worthy of inheriting the world.

He HAS been a pretty big manipulator and planner up to this point. He planned the whole soul crystal stuff in 5.3 during the final battle with us (which may be where he disappeared to when we were fighting the adds), so him having planned one last "encore" for a curtain call isn't out of the question. Not to mention the unexplained existence and stalking of THAT SHOEBILL (no, I can't forget this thing, it haunts me).

[Cleretic]

He HAS been a pretty big manipulator and planner up to this point. He planned the whole soul crystal stuff in 5.3 during the final battle with us (which may be where he disappeared to when we were fighting the adds), so him having planned one last "encore" for a curtain call isn't out of the question. Not to mention the unexplained existence and stalking of THAT SHOEBILL (no, I can't forget this thing, it haunts me).

Do we have evidence he planned all of that at exactly that point? Because I'm pretty sure the crystals were kicking around for a long time (and are by all rights appearing to be the real deal ones they used to ascend the rest of the Ascians), the only real question is how they ended up where we found them. And there's a lot of explanations for that, chiefly suspecting Hythlodaeus or perhaps Elidibus dropping them.

[RyuDragnier]

Do we have evidence he planned all of that at exactly that point? Because I'm pretty sure the crystals were kicking around for a long time (and are by all rights appearing to be the real deal ones they used to ascend the rest of the Ascians), the only real question is how they ended up where we found them. And there's a lot of explanations for that, chiefly suspecting Hythlodaeus or perhaps Elidibus dropping them.

Hythlodaeus hands us a soul crystal that belongs to the 14th, one that shouldn't have been made since defectors were not to be remembered. One that Emet-Selch made in secret. Nobody but him would have had access to it or know of its existence, and Hythlodaeus even says he's unsure if all this was by his own will or by Emet-Selch's that he has given it to us. But considering all those crystals suddenly appeared in Amaurot when they weren't there before the end of 5.0, it's highly likely Emet-Selch had a hand in it.

[Wiz33]

Do we have evidence he planned all of that at exactly that point? Because I'm pretty sure the crystals were kicking around for a long time (and are by all rights appearing to be the real deal ones they used to ascend the rest of the Ascians), the only real question is how they ended up where we found them. And there's a lot of explanations for that, chiefly suspecting Hythlodaeus or perhaps Elidibus dropping them.

Yeah right. If Elidbeus dropped them, he won't need them to bring back his memories at the end. Hythlodaues being anything other then a shade created by Emet and happens to have the Azem's crystal create by Emet would be sloppy writing and you know that would never happen in FFXIV.