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

[MikkoAkure]

It's not exactly a secret though. We can see the story changed significantly from ARR to ShB. Really after 3.0 was when the presentation of Hydaelyn shifted away from true goddess towards primal.

Did it really though? I would use the world "evolved" but not straight up "changed". "Changed" implies that they clearly had a specific direction they had for the game that it is no longer going in and retcons are needed in order to rectify where the story will end up. I was also under the impression they had the very end figured out, but not how to get there and we've been meandering around on the way.

Yeah. There's also suspicious comments made by Lakshmi in regards to the Warrior of Light's soul being 'Stained'. Which may or may not imply that the Warrior of Light is Tempered. Especially since 'Stained' is, I believe, the rough translation of Tempering in the Japanese localisation. Add to that recent knowledge of an actual cure for Tempering combined with the frequent display of various degrees of Tempering severity then I don't believe it to be a farfetched theory in the slightest.

That is not correct. In the Japanese version of the game, they use 「テンパード」 which is the English word "tempered" in katakana.

In regards to Lakshmi, she says "your souls are stained" in the middle of battle with absolutely no context. She also says "Do your souls not weigh heavy?" and "rest your weary souls in my bosom". Not exactly eureka material on figuring out whether we're tempered or not. On the other hand, Ifrit full on references tempering, corrects his own disciple on the matter, and had his dialogue changed with the new writing direction of ARR to change his stance on the subject.