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

[Vyrerus]

We don't really have a personal feud

My money is on shitbag dad, Fourchenault. Him and his Forum have Hydaelyn's vestiges locked in their Silence of the Lambs style book pit. It rubs the crystals on its skin, or it gets the hose again!

Seriously though. Even if he turns out to be a milquetoast character development, "Old Man wrong, new youth right" style trope, his introduction was so inflammatory to me that there is little they can do that would turn my opinion of him.

Bonus points if he's somehow in the vein of Garland from FFIX, and the Telophoroi are/were actually aliens seeking to disrupt the Lifestream of our planet, so that the Lifestream of their planet could step in and overwhelm it, replacing our planet on the soul level.

[HiraishinNoJutsu]

We do actually, though. She directly references what she did to Zodiark with that, the planet with that, and lies to frame the Ascians as bad. She also omits that she sundered all life. It's a big lie, given contemporary context.

Yeah I'm not a big "ascian fucker" but for all the flak Emet gets for telling lies of omission and giving half truths we kinda let the mother crystal slide. Hydaelyn not telling us that the world being split across ten and three resulted in the devastation of all the existing life or that she isn't a "primal" manifested by said existing life is fairly suspect. Maybe we can chalk it up to the writers not knowing at the time or Hydaelyn not having the capacity to know but, as far as I am concerned Crystal Mom's hands aren't completely clean,

[Lyth]

Fourchenault is more of a midboss, meant to be debated down in the middle of his Forum before he runs away and reveals himself to be Yakra XIV.

I don't think that the Amaurotians, with their knowledge and understanding of primals, would have summoned one of their own without a good reason. The Endwalker site tells us that there's something very hungry sealed away at the bottom of Pandaemonium, and for once it's not Azem. What would Amaurot do when faced with such a threat? Perhaps summon their own primal to kill it? Perhaps sunder the star to weaken it and seal it away? Azem's solution would have been to just punch Cthulhu in the face, which is why we probably weren't included in this discussion.

But there was probably someone in Amaurot who benefitted from all this dissention. Find that person, and you find your main villain. That's really the only way that Emet and Elidibus are going to find peace.

[Cleretic]

But there was probably someone in Amaurot who benefitted from all this dissention. Find that person, and you find your main villain. That's really the only way that Emet and Elidibus are going to find peace.

Fan Daniel, Back At It Again With The White Robes. He does seem to know a conspicuous amount about the End of Days, after all.

[Vyrerus]

Fourchenault is more of a midboss

He's most certainly not Dark Adonis material!

[Mansion]

This is getting into more of a theological discussion, but I do think it's kinda sad if you can't fathom even an entirely fictional concept of a caring god. Of course, just because a god cares, doesn't mean they can save us.

That's not about me being unable to imagine this concept, that's more about everything that won't let it easily apply. Because the concept of god-entities in intrically linked within the people, and that's unstable ground enough to make pretty much any notion ambivalent.
I'm not saying you are wrong to think your way, and I wouldn't care that much if your theory appeared to be true. I was just jumping in about the tradition of (J)RPGs that have "studied" a similar question for 30 to 40 years now. And I do personally think a "flawed" god is much more interesting in a writing point of view, but that doesn't mean we have to end them (with the power of friendship) .
For me the main flaw of Hydealyn is how little she has let us known about the big scope of things, so much that we had to get most of the info from the baddies (which then questions the reliability of this info). Or her being so inefficient to fight the Ascians / rejoinings. Or that we have endless arguments on the forums to discuss the possibility of the WoL being tempered or not, about the Blessing of Light and so on. But all of this could be explained in Endwalker so I don't mind so much. I do think the writers think ahead, but not so much that any detail is already set in stone in their minds so that everything makes sense from the beginning, that's a storyline that has being going on for 10+ years now.

Now for my personal theory: I think the chunk of the Endwalker build up will be defeating a Zodiark infused Zenos, Fandaniel, and the origin of the Final Days. I believe Hydealyn would have had enough opportunities to show her dark side by the time we got here, so for me she is a benevolent god in principle. And I guess that if we defeat all that Ascian-Zodiark opposition, her existence will have reached its purpose and she will kind of retreat. I also think the Hydealyn becomes corrupted by whatever and we have to smack her back to her senses is a possible plot.

[Veloran]

An additional thought on this: as far as we are aware, Hydaelyn's summoners gave their own lives to fuel the summoning – in which case Azem's refusal could be in the vein of "it sounds like a great idea but I can't afford to die for it because there's something else important that I need to do."

I mean, come on. It's really doubtful Ancient WoL was like "Ripping everyone's souls apart and sundering the fabric of reality by tearing the star into fourteen shards? Great plan I'm totally into it, but not right now though because I'm busy."

My money is on shitbag dad, Fourchenault. Him and his Forum have Hydaelyn's vestiges locked in their Silence of the Lambs style book pit. It rubs the crystals on its skin, or it gets the hose again!

Seriously though. Even if he turns out to be a milquetoast character development, "Old Man wrong, new youth right" style trope, his introduction was so inflammatory to me that there is little they can do that would turn my opinion of him.

I'm pretty confused about people's hatred of Fourchenault. The moment we got the New Years excerpt the notion of him being a legitimate villain basically flew from my mind.

[Iscah]

I mean, come on. It's really doubtful Ancient WoL was like "Ripping everyone's souls apart and sundering the fabric of reality by tearing the star into fourteen shards? Great plan I'm totally into it, but not right now though because I'm busy."

We still don't know if that was the plan.

If the plan was "we think there's a flaw in the Convocation's design of a darkness-only Will of the Star so we're building a light-based module to balance it out" then that's a very different matter.

[Alenore]

We still don't know if that was the plan.

If the plan was "we think there's a flaw in the Convocation's design of a darkness-only Will of the Star so we're building a light-based module to balance it out" then that's a very different matter.

They still kind of expected to "suffer the eternal condemnation of their brethren". It wasn't probably just summoning friendlyfriend Hydaelyn to chill and balance aether.

[Cleretic]

They still kind of expected to "suffer the eternal condemnation of their brethren". It wasn't probably just summoning friendlyfriend Hydaelyn to chill and balance aether.

No matter how you cut 'summon a counter-god to match up to their god', that's probably not gonna go down well. Especially given the Hydaelyn game plan, even if it didn't intend some world-cracking, definitely did intend to smash Zodiark to bits.