Revelations (and Feedback) from Pandæmonium: Asphodelos

[vormela]

I always assumed it was related to the word "azimuth" - the etymology of which originates in the Arabic word as-sumūt, meaning "the directions" or "the paths". Azimuth is often used in navigation to express direction, and it fits nicely into the idea of the seat of Azem being a traveler. Not to mention that azimuth is also used to describe the sun's position in the sky.

I really like this meaning for a globetrotting shepherd to the stars.

If we are left with our Azem's original name only by process of elimination then that would be fine. I have seen some people who thought it was Hermes and I am pretty sure they are not having a breakdown learning that that wasn't it. I am personally all-in on Dionysus but will be so happy if we get to meet him/her as another character. I mean, look at us... pig costumes and running around in chainmail bikinis and memeing about crystal grapes. Individually, we are a bunch of weirdos. Collectively, I can't imagine us being as interesting. But of course it will be because the character writing has been so wonderful. They could just drip feed us Azem and keep the whole game going for ten years.

It is hard to think about the story much when there is the big wide open space for the Entity Formerly Known As Azem. I have to admit, I was like "BABY AZEM??? No... Warden Azem??? No... Vampire Azem??" at whoever was in cutscenes. The person currently Azem IS the one we are affiliated with, yes? Even if we are somehow not them after all? That is the one everyone is talking about? So my take from the raid release is that I am constantly looking for Azem because they are "always" there when SHTF but are somehow preoccupied now when SHTF.

About Pandaemonium... I was mostly super nervous over fight mechanics (I only play white mage and love to run around in the flames...).

The kid reminded me of Ramsa with a wig on. In one scene didn't he have a different voice from Elidibus? Babylidibus with the whispery, eerily calm voice was so wonderful. I hope his voice changes soon if he is in fact the Elidibus we know. That voice actor is amazing.

The researcher in Labyrinthos is...having some issues. My headcanon is that he got tired of the looping "on a mission" music where he worked at Labyrinthos and is now having paranormal experiences.

I am so happy with the raids. This was the first time I have experienced new raids so I have nothing to compare to. No idea what to expect--still so overwhelmed by Endwalker. So I am approaching the story now from a lighthearted angle. I was relieved Themis and company are so chill even though I have no idea what kind of magics they are using. I like that the kids and wardens are running the asylum. It gives us a break for a minute!

[h-alpha]

Both possibilities sound very fitting. Regardless of whether one (or none) is true I think I'd like to adopt both. I like the duality of them. The second embodies something we do for others: help them, protect them. The first one embodies something we do for ourselves: travelling, adventure. I like the idea that we have a name that encapsulates both aspects of our personality and that also gives room for our own ambitions/interests instead of only being other people's WoL. (I like being a WoL in the sense of helping/protecting others but evidently we are more than that and also exist as an individual person behind that role. So it's nice to have a name that reflects both: the "public" and the "personal".)

I love that idea, combining the two. Honestly, it embodies the idea of what the title of Azem means, what its role was in Ancient society, and what kind of people were chosen to hold the seat. What are the qualities that Venat and the WoL have in common? They wander the lands of the world, they get to know its people, they help them when they're in need, they protect them when they're in danger. This, I think, is what it meant to be Azem, and both of those possible origins for the name together describe it perfectly.

[Iscah]

My maybe-pick for Azem's true name is Orpheus, who ventured into the underworld and returned. We have a better track record of rescuing our loved ones successfully though.

So my take from the raid release is that I am constantly looking for Azem because they are "always" there when SHTF but are somehow preoccupied now when SHTF.

My understanding is that Azem is always there when stuff hits the fan and the Convocation aren't interested in doing anything to fix it. Here, and at least for now, they are interested and have sent a representative or ally to investigate.

It was discussed in the raid story that if Themis reported the current state of affairs to the Convocation now, they would probably order the whole place sealed off or destroyed (I forget which) and abandon the warders to their fate. That sounds like the sort of thing that would spur Azem to action.

Of course, there's the added complication that they somehow seem to have predicted we are going to arrive to help Themis, to the point of telling him to expect us. So maybe they also know we'll have it under control?

The kid reminded me of Ramsa with a wig on.

I thought so too. Definitely looks like his face, though I wonder if that face model got reused for Viera model pieces anyway.

[Slatersev]

I kinda got hung up on some stuff with the story relating to Eric.

So he says outright that he is the son of Lahabrea, but also the son of an ex-Lahabrea. Athena is his mom, the ex-Lahabrea.

Then it brought up this idea that Hesperos had an obsession and wanted to be Lahabrea's son, and whatever transformed him into the vampire caused that to get amped up in the transformation.

That calls to mind Tempering, but I'm more hung up on the family connections.

I was thinking they might not only do a revisionism for Lahabrea by making Erich the Lahabrea that we know, so we see his eld past and form a bond and feel slightly bad about killing his tattered 12,000 year old madman self.

They could also apply it to Themis and our WoL. Of course, there's just pieces on the board and not a lot of material right now, so it's just passing speculation, but perhaps Themis is Elidibus's twin brother, and they're the sons of Venat. Perhaps current Azem is the Hesperos in that situation (and us by extension).

If it turns out the basis for Ye Olde Tempering was based off of seeking the adoration of a parental/mentor figure, then they could still deliver us a weak as hell version of, "The WoL was tempered to Hydaelyn." that's still not tempering, but is in the personalized root of it.

Probably not an an eventuality. Just musing.

One thing on Lahabrea

I don't think Athena was Lahabrea's predecessor as Lahabrea, I think it was just that she was his predecessor as Keyward

[Nekaru_Infitima]

Had a thought...

Azeyma is known as "The Warden."

Are we going to take on being the keyward or a ward from these guys?

[Caurcas]

I am just baffled at how much Themis and Venat look like each other. Weird.

[Remedi]

Has Lahabrea's anti-villain-decay day come...?
Let's find out.

I don't know what I was expecting, but "time travel back to Elpis - possibly expanding the time loop farther both forward and back (and forward and back) than Endwalker itself - and fight Dracula" was not it! Lmao.

Like if that was Elidibus, but he's not yet the Elidibus, we ARE farther back, right? I assume he's not just messing with us; the guard did say not to waste Convocation member's time, which would be a weird thing to say to another Convocation member.

I'm not sure what to expect from this set-up. "Dead Mom Athena" feels important and is possibly the motivation for this entire cluster. They focused on the difficulty of Phoinix and the motivation Lahabrea had to succeed there pretty hard, too, so it's possible Lahabrea's already mad and trying to resurrect his wife? The way they talked about Athena it didn't sound like her death was expected or what she wanted it to be. But then is that Lahabrea the Lahabrea we know, or is this Lahabrea doomed to die and his son the Lahabrea we know? Notice that the kid had Dad's mask on his transformed form, and Dad's glyph just casually hanging on the crystal on his belt. We're obviously intended to assume Themis is Elidibus (all but confirmed); maybe this is how they first grew close? This is gonna be a weird one. Anyroad, there's a baseless theory from which to assail the next set of questions and hypotheses in Part 2...

But someone knew we would come...before even the "first time" we arrived...

Wonder who's playing crystal games with Azem / Venat / WoL...

ye old 10 words

Yes this is pretty much what I was thinking when I was doing the raid, the more they had Eric talking the more I was thinking of a what if he's actually the Lahabrea we know, also another reason is the fact that the Lahabrea that we've seen in Elidibus memory seems extremely different from the one portraied here, we've been told that he's all work and no play, yet we have Lahabrea in that memory being "yo chill up Elidibus, go play outside", plus to me the scene with the crystal in front of the portal makes no sense if they aren't meaning something important with it, I've heard ppl saying that we in lore can come and go from Elpis as we like because of the Gathering quests, however that also seems to contradicts Venat telling us that our time in the past was at an end, so to me that feels like we are in a different time in Elpis, but as they say in the story, we are back to Alexander time travel and I suspect they'll decide that you can only change futures by proxy of a fractured dimension

[vormela]

It was discussed in the raid story that if Themis reported the current state of affairs to the Convocation now, they would probably order the whole place sealed off or destroyed (I forget which) and abandon the warders to their fate. That sounds like the sort of thing that would spur Azem to action.

Of course, there's the added complication that they somehow seem to have predicted we are going to arrive to help Themis, to the point of telling him to expect us.

I am glad I wasn't the only one who was like "Ramsa, I know it's you...take that wig off."

Azem must be the busiest lazy person in town. I like the idea of them being game creators for their minions. Like sending out these cryptic messages and causing problems until they get to save the day and take credit. Sadly now, wherever they exist in the timeline, there is no one left to scold them for it or encourage this so maybe they are just trying to entertain themselves. They have yet to leave their seat... maybe this is more of them going rogue. I wonder if Zenos would be as enamored by them as he is with us. Hm.

[QT_Melon]

You're not mixing it up, he did mention it when meeting Venat. So unless there's a different time-travel-shenanigans in which the Pandaemonium crystal took us before the volcano event and the mainline Elpis events, it's safe to assume

the events of Pandaemonium occur after Elidibus is confirmed to the Convocation. I'd maintain that he's not wearing his red mask because he's going incognito, and isn't recognized because his face isn't known; after all, Hermes only recognized Emet as a member of the Convocation, not his office, so we know their faces (or even masks) aren't public knowledge.

The white robes, however... I got nothing.

Well I have a feeling which I'll bring up another post about this

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post5759529

Basically. I do feel we went a bit further back in time. Predating Themis taking the seat of Elidibus. I have a feeling that Pandemonium is probably one of the things that would probably be the biggest influence to make him take the seat, but I would not be surprised if he didn't recall exactly why.




This is just a crazy theory but I feel like this story arc will definitely introduce Kairos again, however, given that Themis is "Justice". I have a feeling that instead of a repeat of MSQ, Themis actually has Xairos wipe his memory on purpose as a sense of Justice and Duty as Elidibus out of respect. However, he will always feel divided making his final decision at Crystal Tower even more poetic to let us go back in the past and his general reaction recalling events of us being there. He had not returned to the star just yet. I think even moreso since the way his character arc went from 2.0 and beyond.

I'm not sure though why would people have a difficult time if Pandemonium events did predate considering no one is questioning how time is passing in our little portal to begin with?

I'm alsocurious about ourself/Azem's little ability to predict some events - as well as oddly stay out of other events. We did definitely defect the Convocation but it's really interesting that Venat was kinda silent on the front when the other Ancient said that Azem did not respond to requests.

Anyways, it's good to see actual Elidibus since there were arguments about how young he was due to using "shonen"/young man to describe him - but people noticed how small he was.

[EaraGrace]

Some thoughts on how the pieces may fall.

Would Kairos even be necessary if Elidibus and Lahabrea are Themis and Erichtonius respectively? Elidibus has lost most of his memories by the point we meet him, Lahabrea has… not been doing well based on the short stories from Shadowbringers, perhaps neither recognized us due to those factors? Would also explain why Elidibus was soon attached to the idea of the Warrior of Light. Perhaps an echo (heh) of us/Azem that he still retained?

Not too mention Kairos requires the approval of the Head of Elpis to use, which would introduce a bit of paradox given Hermes clearly did not recognize us and I assume he was the head at the time as well.