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

[Denishia]

Emet's grief- and the classic fantasy trope of immortal being surrounded by mortal friends therefore growing detached and callous towards them is a classic trope for a reason. ShB made the Ascians motives understandable - but it did nothing to convince me to join them and I felt very little regret in killing off Emet for good nor do I have love for the pre-Sundered world and society. My fondest wish was that when we killed Emet at the end of 6.0 that we had somehow Sundered his soul, therefore making him the same as not only Azem but also the Garlean family (and who knows how many other families) that he lost and was pretending not to mourn. The cruelest act of the Sundering was that there were at least four UnSundered still around.

Like Moose, my hope for Myths of the Realm is that it reveals that the Twelve were Venat's companions-in-the-conspiracy or constructs she made like The Watcher who functioned as the opposite of the Ascians- a group who worked post-Sundering and first Calamity not to worsen society but to rebuild and nurture it.

[Iscah]

What I find fascinating about this - is that we had Emet bopping from reflection to reflection. He got to meet 14 versions of his friend Azem - and who knows what transpired…

If the sundered worlds seem as horrible to him as he makes out – and from the side stories it sounds like the world looks aetherially awful compared to how it was – then he might not have wanted to seek out his friend at all and see them in that state. And/or there might be some kind of relationship breakdown after Azem walked out on the Convocation and one of them doesn't want to see the other.

Plus once a person dies it seems like it might be difficult to find their reborn soul again. It sounds like they have difficulty with it when needing to raise up new replacement Ascians.

[Iscah]

Like Moose, my hope for Myths of the Realm is that it reveals that the Twelve were Venat's companions-in-the-conspiracy or constructs she made like The Watcher who functioned as the opposite of the Ascians- a group who worked post-Sundering and first Calamity not to worsen society but to rebuild and nurture it.

Mentioning the Watcher reminds me – I think they said in passing something about being based on a specific person? I wonder if that's significant. (And will have to double-check exactly what they said.)

[Shookbeast]

I’m cool with all this - but I still want to know what happened to our Azem. Did they retain their autonomy - or did Venat take that from them by either wiping their memory, or disassembling them to make new people?

Right now it seems like we’re dealing with 14 Azem clones spread across 14 planets. I think that makes sense.

The next question is what did these Azems get to keep of themselves. Did Venat leave them befuddled and sorta kinda memory-wiped?

Or did they retain their memories - while also realizing they were fundamentally different. Less powerful. No creation magic. Mortal.

Either option is kinda dire.

If Azem had foreknowledge that this would happen - and was able to retain their memory - then I’d put forward they likely had or were part of a plan to help rebuild/nurture/guide the new societies that would emerge on each reflection.

If they didn’t retain their memories - then they sort of had their lives stolen from them - which could lead to confusion and chaos.

I still think the Azem character is being held back for use is a secret storyline - but that storyline will be deeply affected by what shape Azem was in right after the sundering took place.

[NekiUno]

I’m cool with all this - but I still want to know what happened to our Azem. Did they retain their autonomy - or did Venat take that from them by either wiping their memory, or disassembling them to make new people?

Right now it seems like we’re dealing with 14 Azem clones spread across 14 planets. I think that makes sense.

The next question is what did these Azems get to keep of themselves. Did Venat leave them befuddled and sorta kinda memory-wiped?

Or did they retain their memories - while also realizing they were fundamentally different. Less powerful. No creation magic. Mortal.

Either option is kinda dire.

If Azem had foreknowledge that this would happen - and was able to retain their memory - then I’d put forward they likely had or were part of a plan to help rebuild/nurture/guide the new societies that would emerge on each reflection.

If they didn’t retain their memories - then they sort of had their lives stolen from them - which could lead to confusion and chaos.

I still think the Azem character is being held back for use is a secret storyline - but that storyline will be deeply affected by what shape Azem was in right after the sundering took place.

First of all, 14 clones of Azem spread across 14 planets or you are talking about WOL that housed 9/14 of Azem's soul while you still have five of them in the different reflections (now that would be another story to tell).

To me, when the stage curtains rising again for the second act, I would love to see about Azem's whereabouts because I believe Azem has another task that was important enough to disagree with his/her predecessor - Venat and going against two of the best friends in the world in Emet and Hythlodaeus. Pandæmonium is the intermission to this part of the story.

[RyuDragnier]

Mentioning the Watcher reminds me – I think they said in passing something about being based on a specific person? I wonder if that's significant. (And will have to double-check exactly what they said.)

It's probably Eric from Pandaemonium. He's only good at chaining and locking things up, which would make basing The Watcher on him a perfect idea, since he's already a Warden in a sense.

[Denishia]

It's probably Eric from Pandaemonium. He's only good at chaining and locking things up, which would make basing The Watcher on him a perfect idea, since he's already a Warden in a sense.

You know that GIF of the man motioning to his forehead and the overlay of a star exploding? That's what your comment has done to me. Especially with the idea that if the Ascian Lahabrea is Eric's dad, then the irony of Contruct!Eric yet again in eons long opposition to his father and hiding/avoiding each other and acting as the Warden chaining up his father's too dangerous to be free but too beneficial to destroy creation is a poetic parallel.

[Shookbeast]

First of all, 14 clones of Azem spread across 14 planets or you are talking about WOL that housed 9/14 of Azem's soul while you still have five of them in the different reflections (now that would be another story to tell).

To me, when the stage curtains rising again for the second act, I would love to see about Azem's whereabouts because I believe Azem has another task that was important enough to disagree with his/her predecessor - Venat and going against two of the best friends in the world in Emet and Hythlodaeus. Pandæmonium is the intermission to this part of the story.

I’d like to know what Azem was up to as well (:

But to clarify - the going theory (apparently) is that when Venat sundered her world - she created 14 exact copies of her planet, and everyone on them. That means there were 14 “original” Azems - one on each planet - the moment after the Sundering. They were each a copy of the original in looks and personality. Just like every sundered person - these Azems were all reduced in power, and left without creation magic.

To further complicate the matter - it appears that everyone who came out the other end of the Sundering - was left without memories of what happened and possibly what came before.

If the last part is true - I think Azem (and their Scion-like friends) would take offense in the memory-wipe aspect of the Sundering (and possibly in the sundering itself) and they would have likely been working to find an alternative to the Sundering. Just like our character was trying to find an alternative to the Forum (and Venat’s) plan to abandon the planet (and billions of people) to escape to the stars.

Now, we know some of these original Azems died, and their reincarnated souls eventual made their way to our character. We don’t know the status of the remaining Azem shards though. One or two could still even be Azem. A few could be reincarnated shards still following the original Azem’s plans. One could have even become evil. Who knows…

But figuring out Azem’s reaction/knowledge to/about the Sundering is key.

[Iscah]

It's probably Eric from Pandaemonium. He's only good at chaining and locking things up, which would make basing The Watcher on him a perfect idea, since he's already a Warden in a sense.

You know that GIF of the man motioning to his forehead and the overlay of a star exploding? That's what your comment has done to me. Especially with the idea that if the Ascian Lahabrea is Eric's dad, then the irony of Contruct!Eric yet again in eons long opposition to his father and hiding/avoiding each other and acting as the Warden chaining up his father's too dangerous to be free but too beneficial to destroy creation is a poetic parallel.

That makes a heck of a lot of sense and it lets Erich be someone ongoingly relevant without him having to turn out to be "our" Lahabrea, plus if it's an AI copy and not actually him, it still frees his soul up for being reincarnated as Claudien.

[Shookbeast]

That makes a heck of a lot of sense and it lets Erich be someone ongoingly relevant without him having to turn out to be "our" Lahabrea, plus if it's an AI copy and not actually him, it still frees his soul up for being reincarnated as Claudien.

I wonder if this will link up to the source’s post-sundering 1/14 Azem copy? There’s the secret message on the Crystal to contend with… and there could be tons of ways for the 1/14 Azem to get to the moon right after the sundering.