The questions I want EW to answer the most: WHY and HOW was the world sundered?

[Cleretic]

But Mooooose, what about my Primal of Balance that supercedes and negates both Hydaelyn and Zodiark? :O

(Again, doubtful this'll happen but we were told to expect the unexpected and the scions whole "primal summon bad" view and ultimately summoning one to save the world would be pretty unexpected)

We've had a primal of balance before! She didn't do very well, but did have some lovely theme music!

[KageTokage]

I feel like the reason for Hydaelyn's creation was not just to stop Zodiark but to prevent the Final Days from recurring due to him having been recognized as only a temporary solution.

It's suggested the creation magicks of the Ancients had been interfering with the world's natural order somehow, but if the majority stubbornly refused to give them up despite the harm it was causing, it would be a logical solution to deprive them of their misused power through the Sundering.

[Vyrerus]

The Hydaelyn sect had to intentionally design Hydaelyn the way they did in order to even stand a chance against Zodiark.

Think about it like how old school Red Mage from FFXI fights. It has an A+ in enfeebling magic, which is magic aimed at reducing every offensive aspect of an opponent. Lower their attack speed, blunt the force with which they can strike, soften their form, cause their form to deteriorate gradually, change their form to stone, put them to sleep, hold them in place, cause them seizures, and the list goes ever on.

Then think about how Emet-selch knows what her attacks do. While he focused on telling us about the direct clash between Zodiark and Hydaelyn, we also see from those cave paintings that each primal tempered subjects and the subjects also fought one another. These were fully fledged ancients, capable of creation magicks, and also each capable of offering their own forms to become lesser primals, like what we see at the end of Akademia Anyder with the researcher who transforms his life energy into Quetzacoatl.

Do you really think Hydaelyn's construction went straight from her berthing pool to fight Zodiark without opposition? It is very likely she first sundered individuals or their summons/creations, as they attacked her to stop her(as well as tempered more to her cause).

It was a civil war.

Personally I see its conclusion being retold by the Eden raid line(as well as it being foreshadowing for what is to come). Once Hydaelyn was summoned, her host lost control, and proceeded on course overzealously, resulting in the Sundering. What was supposed to be a counter weight wound up destroying the scale. There was nothing and no one to hold Hydaelyn in check. Who watches the warden?

I think the why of it is as simple as their plan having no oversight. It was ultimately an experiment with good intent gone wrong. If Zodiark and the Ascians are tragic heroes turned villains, Hydaelyn is somewhat the same. It's tragedy all around for our Greek inspired Amaurotines.

What I'm most curious about is the afterwards, on the side of Hydaelyn's Sect. What was their plan, once Zodiark was bound, however that ultimately turned out? I suspect they envisioned it going quite a bit differently, but they must have provided Venat's lieutenants with some sort of measure to control Hydaelyn, no? Did any of them flee into the rift to escape the rampant Hydaelyn? Did they seize any sort of power after the war was over, and the Ascian's resistance and reunification efforts began? I think we can at least say that they brought her back to her senses, if nothing else. She seems quite lucid when she outright lies to us through the Word of the Mother.

[Cleretic]

Personally I see its conclusion being retold by the Eden raid line(as well as it being foreshadowing for what is to come). Once Hydaelyn was summoned, her host lost control, and proceeded on course overzealously, resulting in the Sundering. What was supposed to be a counter weight wound up destroying the scale. There was nothing and no one to hold Hydaelyn in check. Who watches the warden?

I think the why of it is as simple as their plan having no oversight. It was ultimately an experiment with good intent gone wrong. If Zodiark and the Ascians are tragic heroes turned villains, Hydaelyn is somewhat the same. It's tragedy all around for our Greek inspired Amaurotines.

Okay, so what changed between then and now? Because in the present day, if anything Hydaelyn's problem has been underkill. She doesn't put forward enough to reliably kill the Ascians, which caused Lahabrea to live and caused Ardbert's attempt on Mitron's life to backfire. (Ysayle also failed when she tried to get her help, but it's hard to tell who's responsible for that one.)

How did a figure who apparently went so wild in the ring she broke the ring end up being that reserved?

[Vyrerus]

Okay, so what changed between then and now? Because in the present day, if anything Hydaelyn's problem has been underkill. She doesn't put forward enough to reliably kill the Ascians, which caused Lahabrea to live and caused Ardbert's attempt on Mitron's life to backfire. (Ysayle also failed when she tried to get her help, but it's hard to tell who's responsible for that one.)

How did a figure who apparently went so wild in the ring she broke the ring end up being that reserved?

Either loss of power over time, resulting in a return to sanity, or her own faction's failsafe being employed. Though it could also be a return to sanity since the prime directive was accomplished.

[Garnix]

As per the title.

Ever since I first heard about the splitting of the world into the source of its fourteen shards, these questions have been kicking around in my mind non-stop. Was this event intentional? was it an accident? Or an unavoidable consequence of something? What are the SPECIFICS of this event, aetherologically speaking?

Was it really only Hydaelyn that was responsible for the sundering? or did Zodiark also play a part in it? What about the other parties involved, the convocation and Venat's secret sect? Are they also responsible in some more direct way?

So many questions bubbling in my mind, I really would like to hear your take in all this
So what you guys think?

When Emet talks about Hydaelyn's fight against Zodiark, he says that "your 'Mother' would probably tell a different story".
So I am guessing we will hear her side of the story.
+ we still need to find out why only 3 Ancients survived.

[Cleretic]

I should say that I'm not asking questions like that to shoot the theory down, I just believe that every theory has to at least be able to answer the most immediately realized evidence against it. Otherwise we hit stuff like that 'but what if Hydaelyn tempered the WoL' theory that completely ignores the fact that got shot down directly back in ARR.

I can't personally sign off on a theory that says Plan Hydaelyn basically immediately fell apart, though. Zodiark was formulated in a panic to solve a very weird problem, so it makes sense that it didn't work out perfectly. But Hydaelyn... Venat's crew had time, and clearly were composed of people that were pretty thoughtful. I can imagine that their plan frayed over time, but I don't see them coming up with a plan that went off the rails, like, minutes after they did The Big Part--and certainly not before. I don't know if their game plan involved sundering the planet, but I can't imagine that their response to doing so was 'whoops'.

When Emet talks about Hydaelyn's fight against Zodiark, he says that "your 'Mother' would probably tell a different story".
So I am guessing we will hear her side of the story.
+ we still need to find out why only 3 Ancients survived.

Personally, my theory for this one is that those three were, by happenstance, not on the planet when it got sundered. I think we're gonna find out when we get to Mare Lamentorum that Emet-Selch, Lahabrea and Elidibus were up there for some unrelated reason; they weren't trying to dodge the blast, but they happened to be clear of it.

[Vyrerus]

When Emet talks about Hydaelyn's fight against Zodiark, he says that "your 'Mother' would probably tell a different story".
So I am guessing we will hear her side of the story.
+ we still need to find out why only 3 Ancients survived.

We already got her version of the story, which was a lie(At the end of Antitower). Here's to hoping we get the actual truth that lieth at the heart of the world the next time!

[Garnix]

Personally, my theory for this one is that those three were, by happenstance, not on the planet when it got sundered. I think we're gonna find out when we get to Mare Lamentorum that Emet-Selch, Lahabrea and Elidibus were up there for some unrelated reason; they weren't trying to dodge the blast, but they happened to be clear of it.

But that's assuming the Moon predates the sundering and was not impacted by it.

[Vyrerus]

I should say that I'm not asking questions like that to shoot the theory down, I just believe that every theory has to at least be able to answer the most immediately realized evidence against it. Otherwise we hit stuff like that 'but what if Hydaelyn tempered the WoL' theory that completely ignores the fact that got shot down directly back in ARR.

I can't personally sign off on a theory that says Plan Hydaelyn basically immediately fell apart, though. Zodiark was formulated in a panic to solve a very weird problem, so it makes sense that it didn't work out perfectly. But Hydaelyn... Venat's crew had time, and clearly were composed of people that were pretty thoughtful. I can imagine that their plan frayed over time, but I don't see them coming up with a plan that went off the rails, like, minutes after they did The Big Part--and certainly not before. I don't know if their game plan involved sundering the planet, but I can't imagine that their response to doing so was 'whoops'.



Personally, my theory for this one is that those three were, by happenstance, not on the planet when it got sundered. I think we're gonna find out when we get to Mare Lamentorum that Emet-Selch, Lahabrea and Elidibus were up there for some unrelated reason; they weren't trying to dodge the blast, but they happened to be clear of it.

The thing about Plan Hydaelyn is that it was driven by the fears of a select minority, not chosen to lead, who in essence copied the basis of what had already been done with Zodiark, though since they could not make her as powerful, they designed a mechanism by which she could achieve parity (at least in battle, and what else could such an ability achieve?).

Basically, Team Hydaelyn performed a Coup d'état. We don't even know every single member of the team's motivation for that, either. Sure, Venat was pure of heart and didn't want to speak ill of the Convocation and wanted harmony... but others were quick to call them fools, obviously of the mind that they were superior, at least in thought, to the Convocation. Who then, among them, was of the mind that Venat's sensibilities were not the way forward once Zodiark was under control.