Quote Originally Posted by vehere View Post
snip
If I remember rightly the argument she gives against telling the convocation is that Hermes is liable to find out. As one of the few scholars on Celestial aether and a handful of those with even a passing knowledge of dynamis, if the truth made it to him he would likely either become useless or actively impede any solution to the final days. Also a lot of what we see dynamis is capable of doing, aether can do similarly enough, the few big differences being not really seen as worth consideration if the general reaction to the Elpis flowers are any indication.

As for Ala Mhigo and Ishgard, a big part of their stories is that they can't go back to the way things were, and shouldn't: Ala Mhigo can't be a monarchy again, because it would take just one Theodric and they'd be back at square one, hence why they start discussing how they should govern now in 4.1.

Ishgard persues peace not for the sake of returning to the past, but because the Dragonsong war benefited no one, and so they began to change for this new future, even if may look superfically like something in the past, and even if those currently living might not truly see the end result.

But the ancients after the final days did truly hope to not just return to a sense of normalcy, but to act as if their tragedy never happened, sacrificing new life that arose after Zodiark's second invocation to restore those who died to create and empower him so that they may resume their stewardship of the star... their perfect paradise as one ancient called it.