Post EW, I still have Questions

[Shookbeast]

The problem with "Azem is actually future WoL" is when you play anything that isn't a hyur. All of the Ancients are hyur with elezen proportions and when you play anything that isn't hyur they remark that your soul is Azem's but you look weird.

I think (possibly) that we got the “Ancients are embarrassed by physical transformation” storyline for exactly this reason. Original Azem follows their heart - and doesn’t mind stepping outside the norms. The stuffy Ancients say that Azem is weird.

My bet is that Azem takes our form (or something very, very similar) and says that this is how they feel most like themselves. It could turn out not that Azem looks like us, but that we look like Azem. So, when/if we meet them, they just use our model with a few light changes.

Or, if the time travel theory holds true - Azem looks like us, because we are literally Azem. We go back in time to finish the loop. We adventure around the world of the Ancients. We eventually meet Venat and all our buddies. We cause trouble. We laugh, we cry. And then we get sundered - starting the whole cycle all over again. (Although I think it’s possible the writers are working toward an “out” on that, so our WOL can keep on adventuring after. Look to G’raha for possible answers, I think.)

[Alleluia]

/facepalm. Our WoL would not do that he/she would have to KILL that other person. Or as I said do what Ardbert did and Kill themselves. That is not expansion material

My theory for how this could happen is that one of the Azem shards goes bad, for some reason, and desires more power. They travel reflections, killing and absorbing the other Azem souls till its just us left. They leave us for last b/c logically we're the densest soul and most powerful to take on. When all the soul shards are in just two beings, us and the evil Azem shard, then we end up fighting and they lose and die and we (by choice or not) absorb their soul. Boom: 14/14 soul shards.

The Garlean instance and situtation gave us a chilling preview of just how bad it could be if our strength was turned towards evil ends, how no one could really stop us. This would just build off that. Also, evil twins is a tried and true trope. (Not that they'd strictly be a twin in this scenario, obviously.)

In regards to number four, a theory. Done right, Zodiark would not have tempered anyone, but due to the Final Days messing up everyone's creation magicks it made the summon faulty in such a way that it tempered them. Possibly "reverse engineered" by Lahabrea for the Tempering we've come to know and hate.

Possible.

Also, Azem is about 20 malms deep in the earth with a shovel, having learned that the sound was coming up from the star and deciding his/her best course of action was to find it and punch it.

XD Headcanon accepted till we get a real explanation. Speaking as a WAR main, I understand the value of punching something in the face as an opener. rofl

[Alleluia]

The problem with "Azem is actually future WoL" is when you play anything that isn't a hyur. All of the Ancients are hyur with elezen proportions and when you play anything that isn't hyur they remark that your soul is Azem's but you look weird.

Thought it was Elezen that Hyth says the proportions are perfect or something? Cus the ancients have elezen body types. I don't think any of the commentary is meant to say we physoically look like Azem, though. The language is ambiguous enough that I think it can (and does) mean our soul looks like them. The comments on shape are just cus Hades was resizing us and we don't come out looking remotely "proper" unless hyur (no comment) or elezen (perfect except for the ears), but its compared to ancients in general, not Azem.

[MikkoAkure]

Though it was Elezen that Hyth says the proportions are perfect or something? Cus the ancients have elezen body types. I don't think any of the commentary is meant to say we physoically look like Azem, though. The language is ambiguous enough that I think it can (and does) mean our soul looks like them. The comments on shape are just cus Hades was resizing us and we don't come out looking remotely "proper" unless hyur (no comment) or elezen (perfect except for the ears), but its compared to ancients in general, not Azem.

Side-NPCs mention the ears being off if you’re elezen. If you’re something else your “bestial features” may get mentioned.

I was under the impression that "spitting image" referred to our appearance rather than the color of our soul since I thought most Ancients had trouble with soul-seeing. But I guess not if Hrothgar get that same line.

[Kesey]

2. Where was Azem during the Final Days and what were they doing?

I believe this thread was left open for another possible plot point in the future. For example if the new phase of the story needs to present a villain from long ago with a complicated history they can now say, while the Hydaelyn/Zodiark drama played out Azem was trying to solve this other problem instead because greater stakes.

[Alleluia]

I believe this thread was left open for another possible plot point in the future. For example if the new phase of the story needs to present a villain from long ago with a complicated history they can now say, while the Hydaelyn/Zodiark drama played out Azem was trying to solve this other problem instead because greater stakes.

Well, as someone pointed out, we heard that there was a scream from the earth that happened during the Ancients' final days, but we never really experience that in ours'. I recall one mention of there being a sound of some kind before the sky turned red over Thavnair, but that's all and its secondhand. Anima's tempering yell is the only scream-related thing I really remember happening in this storyline. So maybe there is something else that was agitated by Meteion's dynamis assault that everyone overlooked during the first apocalypse, but we'll have to deal with at some point.

Or maybe the scream is just the sound we hear in the echo vision of the moon turning red as we stare at it from our rooms and that was just all we're getting. If you're wearing headphones, that sound can RIP your eardrums if you aren't careful.


Oh, and i thought of another question:

- What was Fandaniel reminded of when he examined the warding scale our girl Nidhana had in Tower of Zot? He said it was "almost identical to" something, but never really expressed his thoughts beyond that that I saw.

I am thinking he *maybe* meant the radios in Garlemald? But that would imply he knew the radios helped shield people from tempering. And did nothing about it. But why would he know that, much less allow it. I mean, I've been assuming that the radios shielding people was a happy accident and nothing more, but if Fandaniel knew enough about them to know how they worked and see similarities with the scales... I don't know what I'm thinking about this, its just weird.

Assuming I'm even right and he meant the radios. Could there have been something else in Hermes'/Amon's experience that he's referring to?

[Kordarion]

What was Fandaniel reminded of when he examined the warding scale our girl Nidhana had in Tower of Zot? He said it was "almost identical to" something, but never really expressed his thoughts beyond that that I saw.

I am thinking he *maybe* meant the radios in Garlemald? But that would imply he knew the radios helped shield people from tempering. And did nothing about it. But why would he know that, much less allow it. I mean, I've been assuming that the radios shielding people was a happy accident and nothing more, but if Fandaniel knew enough about them to know how they worked and see similarities with the scales... I don't know what I'm thinking about this, its just weird.

Assuming I'm even right and he meant the radios. Could there have been something else in Hermes'/Amon's experience that he's referring to?

My first thought was Owen, that one Allagan hyur whose research into tempering and how to cure the tempered, G'raha, Alisaie and the WOL use to prove that the porxies could be used to cure the tempered. If you go and watch the cutscene with the recording in it, Owen outright says that he and his colleagues created a tempering protection device at the cost of many researchers. Considering that we find the node with his recording imbedded in it in Azys La, where they were known to experiment with Dragons, it isn't a stretch to imagine they the Allagans also used dragon scales to ward off tempering, albeit unwillingly harvested scales. Strengthening this connection is the fact that Owen says it was Amon himself who put a halt to his plans of trying to cure those tempered that could be cured. And for those of us that remember said cutscene it served as a teaser for Fandaniel being Amon, I remember wondering what connection could Fandaniel have had to Allag at the time.

tldr: Its pretty cut and dry that Amon/Fandaniel is referring to an Allagan researcher called Owen who created his own warding devices while investigating the tempered.

[Alleluia]

My first thought was Owen, that one Allagan hyur whose research into tempering and how to cure the tempered, G'raha, Alisaie and the WOL use to prove that the porxies could be used to cure the tempered. If you go and watch the cutscene with the recording in it, Owen outright says that he and his colleagues created a tempering protection device at the cost of many researchers. Considering we find the node with his recording imbedded in it in Azys La, where they were known to experiment with Dragons, it isn't a stretch to imagine they the Allagans also used dragon scales to ward off tempering, albeit unwillingly harvested. Strengthening this connection is the fact that Owen says it was Amon himself who put a halt to his plans of trying to cure those tempered that could be cured. And for those of us that remember said cutscene it served as a teaser for Fandaniel being Amon, I remember wondering what connection could Fandaniel have had to Allag at the time.

tldr: Its pretty cut and dry that Amon/Fandaniel is referring to an Allagan researcher called Owen who created his own warding devices while investigating the tempered.

Ah, right. Good call. That's almost definitely it.

[Iscah]

To throw an extra tangle of connections into the "something resembling the warding scale":

- the ore in the radios is mined in Corvos

- there are Allagan ruins in Corvos

- Corvos is near Thavnair and may be geologically similar

- the alchemists were experimenting with giantsgall ore for the talismans

[Alleluia]

To throw an extra tangle of connections into the "something resembling the warding scale":

- the ore in the radios is mined in Corvos

- there are Allagan ruins in Corvos

- Corvos is near Thavnair and may be geologically similar

- the alchemists were experimenting with giantsgall ore for the talismans

What do we know about giantsgall? Other than it is aerherically conductive. Do we have info from the studios quests or anything else? Like why it’s called Giantsgall in the first place? I’m guessing it might be related to the giant “blade” in Thavnair, but I didn’t get a chance to read the pop up bubble the one time vaarshan mentions what the story is with that thing during our hamza ride.