Quote Originally Posted by SpectrePhantasia View Post
By escalating sacrifices, I assume you're referring to the 3rd, yes? As with the 1st and 2nd, they were explicitly necessary to ensure they did not die out. Well this 3rd sacrifice of those newly fostered lives, and the morality of it, was not something that the Ancients were united on. It was the greatest divide they'd ever experienced. Venat had followers after all, and in a society that encouraged open debate, it was very clear that while the majority favored Zodiark, the Ancients were not some suicidal hivemind. Additionally, Elidibus, according to his own dying words, withdrew himself from Zodiark for the purposes of mediating the conflict, as was his role as Emissary. There is no evidence that this 3rd sacrifice would have occurred inevitably, in fact I would argue there are implications that it may not have, if Elidibus was given more time. Clearly he wouldn't have disconnected himself if he was not open to hearing alternatives. Given that Hydaelyn sundered an incomplete Zodiark, I'm inclined to believe these overtures from him went ignored, until clarified otherwise.

Platitudes from DRK's quests ring a bit hollow to me when those of Graha's timeline similarly worked to undo all of the pain of what they experienced, and no one bats an eye at them.
I like that we’re discussing the Ancients not as a monolith, but as different factions. It’s possible Azem represents a third option to the back and forth between Venat/Zodiark.

I’m coming around to the theory that the “new life” was basically the playable races (or their progenitors). Azem may have been a supporter of the new life, (probably hung around with them and went adventuring), but maybe Azem was also anti-sundering - thus they didn’t side with either Venat or the convocation.

I still wonder if the seeds of a third option weren’t planted by Azem and their friends (think Ancient-world Scions). Maybe we’ll pick up those pieces to both save the Ancients, and also save the reflections some day. (Or at least explore the Sundering in a more nuanced way).