Our Azem - A secret plan? (Slight EW Spoilers)

[Shookbeast]

Hello there, new to the forum - but I’ve been thinking about the game’s story for a bit.

EW leaned real heavy into Venat’s decision to sunder the star - but we know from past lore that (our) Azem wasn’t keen on either Hydaelyn or Zodiark. It seems like Azem went off to try and find their own solution... I’d wager with their own Scion-like band of friends.

So, is it possible our Azem has enacted a plan, possibly with the help of their friends - a plan with a long-term goal of saving/rescuing the people who were lost before and during the sundering? But without hurting the new life that came after?

While the followers of Zodiark wanted to sacrifice more lives to reclaim those lost, and Hydaelyn had decided to kill everyone so more lives would prosper later on - did Azem and friends perhaps find a way to save everyone? (Seems very WOL to me).

If so, what do you think this plan might be, and when/how might it come up in the future patches/expansions?

Thanks for your thoughts (:

[Veloran]

I think it's possible Azem may have been busy frying a completely different fish. We still have no idea why the Sound itself was coming from inside the planet.

[Shookbeast]

Definitely possible, but I just don’t see our Azem sitting down and waiting to be sundered - or being taken by surprise by the sundering. (Like, “Oops, I was fighting some monster and got sundered right in the middle of it.”)

I can see Azem possibly following a different path, (like the Sound), but their goal feels likely to me to be saving as many people as possible. I’d bet the “Azem narrative” leads to some kind of plan put into action by Azem and their Scion-parallel friends.

I think it’s a big blind spot in the story right now that Venat (who seems to like our Azem) was cool with murdering them (and everyone else). I doubt our Azem would take it lying down.

[Iscah]

I'm replaying 5.3 and was just thinking on this myself – the fact that Azem was a defector and opposed to the summoning of Zodiark, but we never go into why or what alternative they might have considered.

In the absence of Endwalker providing a good explanation for what was going on, and not even touching on Azem's thoughts regarding either Zodiark or Hydaelyn, I feel like there's more to the story that is yet to be told. Perhaps this will be tackled in Pandaemonium or the 6.X MSQ.

[YianKutku]

I think it's possible Azem may have been busy frying a completely different fish. We still have no idea why the Sound itself was coming from inside the planet.

It would be hilarious if the Sound from inside the planet was Pandemonium, and it just coincidentally happened to be an issue at the same time as Meteion's song from beyond the planet, and the Ancients conflated the two.

Hilarious, as in "you totally just came up with that explanatory retcon five minutes ago, didn't you, lore writers".

[Iscah]

Hilarious, as in "you totally just came up with that explanatory retcon five minutes ago, didn't you, lore writers".

"No, no, no," they say, "it was always like this. Really."


...as they hastily try to sweep incongruous details under the rug.

[Rulakir]

Well, I would want to see the trio together and that wouldn't have happened during the Final Days. I also doubt Azem will ever make an appearance in game aside from the generic Amaurotine model.

The story in EW undermined so many possibilities for the Ancients. Azem would have to confront Hydaelyn and stop her from sundering the world, which I would love to see. I feel like fans of hers got to live out an ideal scenario in EW, those of us who never liked her didn't have that luxury so it'd be nice if there were any scenario where we could actively oppose her.

I'm hesitant to do time travel shenanigans again given how unsatisfying it was in EW, but perhaps if there were a way to send a message instead of the WoL back in time? It'd have to result in an alternate timeline, obviously. Maybe I'm not thinking enough outside of the box. I'm stuck on the #1 priority being stopping Hydaelyn, cause once Azem is sundered there's nothing else they can do.

[Jandor]

I think it's possible Azem may have been busy frying a completely different fish. We still have no idea why the Sound itself was coming from inside the planet.

Meteion attacked the planet with her 'song of oblivion' and as a result said 'song' rang out from the planet itself.

It seems pretty obvious that the sound was a result of Meteion's actions, I at least can't say I ever got the impression the two things were unrelated.

-----

I don't know if we'll ever get much detail on what Azem was up to near the end. While I personally see my character and the ancient Azem as different people, and therefore I don't really care what they write ancient Azem as having done or not done, I think a lot of people would see it as the writers writing their own WoLs backstory for them and get quite upset if it's not exactly what they wanted.

[RyuDragnier]

It would be hilarious if the Sound from inside the planet was Pandemonium, and it just coincidentally happened to be an issue at the same time as Meteion's song from beyond the planet, and the Ancients conflated the two.

Hilarious, as in "you totally just came up with that explanatory retcon five minutes ago, didn't you, lore writers".

Or the thing in Pandaemonium was an AMPLIFIER for the Song. A creature in pain, suffering, despair, crying out loud enough for it to be heard everywhere. Akin to a bluetooth speaker. Especially if said creature turns out to be a transformed Athena (sounds like something Lahabrea would do).

[Atamis]

Meteion attacked the planet with her 'song of oblivion'
It seems pretty obvious that the sound was a result of Meteion's actions, I at least can't say I ever got the impression the two things were unrelated.

I don't think its related at all. The final days doesn't seem to have any connection with meteion as she was busy being lonely at the edge if the universe building up power.
There doesn't seem to really be a connection between the final days of the ancients, or the current final days besides the link with Dynamis.
I'm not saying you're wrong though, I can see the train of thought. Theres just loose ends between summoning Zodiark to shield the planet, the sundering of Zodiark apparently doing nothing to the effectiveness of his shield, the final days 2 happening before zodiark is slain despite him steadily gaining power from rejoining, the Zot towers all over the world apperenly being the catalyst for the second final days (where were they sending the excess aether? Zodiark?) and then the meteion nest still being in a state of brooding. Why wait so long to finish the job if the first attack pretty much destroyed everything and then they self immolate by making their shield 14 times weaker?

I believe the sound from the planet will be further explored along with the "anomalies in the life stream" that was touched upon in the crafting quests. The BSM/ARM/GSM one in particular had a rather foreboding forshadowing mcguffin.

I'm hesitant to link everything to meteion. Previous games have also shown the planet/lifestream to be semi sentient in some capacity so I rather expect that to come into play.
If I had to theorize, I would think the rampant creation magicks creating life from thin air interacted with the natural flow of the life stream somehow, combined with the nonchalant deletion of "failed" life lead to a spike in (negative?) dynamis entering the planet and thus everything went belly up at some point. Zodiark may of provided a release valve or perhaps just kept things together by sheer determination, only faltering with Fandangles tower schemes.