Sundering stuff established in the Q&A

[Rosenstrauch]

- Unlike Zodiark, Hydaelyn drained all the souls used in her summoning of Aether completely, destroying them forever. By the time we fight her, only her soul remains, which is also destroyed after the fight.

Well, I guess that explains why Venat's allies weren't present in the Elpis flashback. Also, what the hell.

[Lurina]

Well, I guess that explains why Venat's allies weren't present in the Elpis flashback. Also, what the hell.

He mentioned that she had to go to that extreme to match Zodiark's power. Zodiark used so many sacrifices that they could preserve everyone rather than destroy them outright.

[Cleretic]

Well, I guess that explains why Venat's allies weren't present in the Elpis flashback. Also, what the hell.

No, that's still that they weren't present because that wasn't actually a literal depiction of the summoning. They presumably summoned Hydaelyn in a similar way to how Zodiark was summoned, just smaller. They were also presumably okay with it, so while it's still a bit of an existentially haunting realization, it's not morally dubious. (Other parts of Venat's actions were morally dubious, but not that part.)

But yeah, this is all nice to have a lot of confirmation on, but isn't necessarily surprising; the game basically directly said all of the stuff about Venat's morality and decision, it just didn't say it all directly in one big chunk.

The other moons having a purpose (or indeed, not just being the same moon anyway) was a VERY weird thing to learn, though, that's a bit of a stunner, and I wonder where that's leading.