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

[KageTokage]

They more or less stated that the beast tribes were created by the Ancients with the groundwork for what would become the Matanga and the Lupin mentioned in quests/records.

I still kind of wish we got a clear answer about how the different playable races originated, though. Are Hyurs the "original" race descended directly from the sundered Ancients with the others simply being creations that eventually came possess Ancient souls, or is what Varis was told by Elidibus about the Ancients being sundered into the various races the truth?

Both seem fairly plausible from what we know, and perhaps the alliance raid will touch on the matter since it seems likely to delve into the history of Ancients by necessity given that Menphina and Azeyma at minimum have potential origins that can be traced to pre-sundering times.

[Shookbeast]

I think I’m still stuck on what happened to Azem (or anyone) during the sundering. I can deal with the deep-time history later. Cave paintings, later civilizations and all that.

If we were playing as Azem right before the sundering. Let’s say fighting a spriggan…

Then - Bam! The sundering happens.

Do we, as Azem:

A) Not notice much happen - but find ourselves suddenly weaker, smaller, and unable to poof things into existence with a thought? (We are unaware that there are suddenly 14 of us, each on 14 separate planets).

B) Stop mid-fight with the spriggan - because both of us suddenly can’t remember who we are or what we were doing? (But we have a terrible sense of loss and confusion).

C) Cease to exist - because we’ve been divided up into 14 pieces and used to make new people.

This moment post-sundering is super important because it will determine so many actions and reactions going forward.

[Cleretic]

This moment post-sundering is super important because it will determine so many actions and reactions going forward.

Does it, though?

Ultimately, you're trying to litigate a single moment from ten thousand years ago. I understand the more philosophical angle of asking something like 'did it hurt', essentially trying to figure out the continuity of consciousness and if the Sundering itself was an act of murder or violence, but I don't know what this focus on the semantics of the sundering and what they knew but didn't write down actually does.

But, to play ball with you: the answer, from what we can tell, was essentially B. If we can trust Emet's words to be accurate (albeit filled with emotionally manipulative language), and generally speaking we can in most other cases, then there was no retained cohesive memory.

And the worst part? No one could remember it. Not really. Just fragments and fleeting memories of an achingly familiar world...

So, after the Sundering nobody remembers anything tangible at all, but had enough fragments that people could piece together something resembling a story. At the time they might've even put stock in it, since some buildings were probably still standing, but over time all of that fell away.

Basically: yes, you and the spriggan stop fighting, but then you both probably just start screaming in existential fear and confusion for a little while. And as the audience, we silently consider you lucky you weren't fighting something like a tiger, that probably wouldn't have even paused before continuing to try to eat you.

[Shookbeast]

Does it, though?

Ultimately, you're trying to litigate a single moment from ten thousand years ago. I understand the more philosophical angle of asking something like 'did it hurt', essentially trying to figure out the continuity of consciousness and if the Sundering itself was an act of murder or violence, but I don't know what this focus on the semantics of the sundering and what they knew but didn't write down actually does...(cut for space)

Thanks for the reply. This option seems to be where the clues/info-dumps we’ve been given so far are pointing.

I’d say it is an important moment to litigate - because it’s the motivation for everything that happens after. And also maybe before.

If the sundering had negative effects on people, then our “hero” Azem would likely try to reverse those effects. If they are truly a parallel for us (or with potential time travel shenanigans, actually us), then we would try to reverse everyone’s memory wipe - on each star. This would lead to 14 different Azems, each attempting to undo the Sundering. With Emet floating around, possibly attempting to help.

If Azem (and their Scion-parallel friends) knew ahead of time (pre-sundering) that everyone would get memory wipes - they’d probably search for a way to either:

A) Find an alternative to the Sundering. (They’d likely view the Sundering as a “less satisfactory” alternative, similar to our character’s view of the Forum’s plan to escape the planet).

B) Find a way to restore everyone’s memories after the Sundering. (Perhaps, using memory crystals? Think of them similar to Scion’s plans for the anti-tempering device.)

So what I’m saying is that the effects of the Sundering will change how Azem views/reacts/plans/survives the event itself. And since Azem is likely still a major player - their plans will have reverberations all the way to our character.

Whatever Azem was doing, was likely informed by how they (and their friends) would pop out on the other side of the Sundering.

Their friends’ thoughts on the matter probably had a big impact on this as well. Just think if our friends, like the twins, or Y’shtola were presented with an outcome where they (and the entire planet) all wake up as confused, memory-wiped individuals. They’d make plans to either lessen/mitigate the effects - or reverse them completely.

And that plan, I think, is still a big part of this story.