A certain someone isn't coming back [Spoilers]

[Carin-Eri]

I never thought I'd say this, as Zenos presented as a rather large pain in the posterior for a great deal of the story and I was certainly no fan of his. He seemed like a trope, the ‘bored manchild’ personality was rather weak, and his single-minded obsession quickly got on my nerves.

However, I must acknowledge that he did finally receive some character development in Endwalker – albeit very Zenos-esq character development. I mean, its difficult to ignore the fact that, regardless of why he did it, he acknowledged that the WoL was too busy engaging in heroics to fight him and later on, once he was done assisting us against Endsinger, he waited patiently for us to finish talking with Meteion before addressing us and offered to let us walk away if we wanted to. And whilst it was, unfortunately, not an option anyway (which was a little irritating) I actually think that he probably would’ve let us go.

What we saw was that Zenos had learned, in his own unique way, what it means to care for someone. His demands of “I WILL have my contest!") changed to sincerely offering the WoL to share in the only form of happiness he understood. And he was finally able to see WoL as their own person. The way he referred to the WoL as “Adventurer” demonstrated that he understood there is a part of WoL that's difficult for them to express in the midst of all the heroics that were, more often than not, forced upon them.

So yeah – hate to say it, but after that interesting slice of (very specific to the character) development it IS a shame that his story ended there. Although on saying that, he certainly went out the way he wished to.

[KageTokage]

I'm honestly curious about what's going to happen to the souls from other stars, as it's noted that the Ragnarok did essentially link Ultima Thule to Etheriys due to the immense trail of aether it left behind.

Do they just inherently try to return to whence they came, or would they be drawn in whatever flow happens to be most readily available...?


As far as Zenos goes, he got about as much development as I was expecting him to so while I wasn't terribly intrigued by him past his initial departure in SB, he at least went out on a high note in my eyes.

[YianKutku]

I'm honestly about what's going to happen to the souls from other stars, as it's noted that the Ragnarok did essentially link Ultima Thule to Etheriys due to the immense trail of aether it left behind.

Do they just inherently try to return to whence they came, or would they be drawn in whatever flow happens to be most readily available...?

The current understanding is souls will return to the "strongest" version of the Lifestream in the near vicinity. I headcanon a caveat that "near" might not mean physical proximity, but rather some other aetheric measurement, since the big Dead Star soul cluster was collected from all over the universe, regardless of distance. But the general implication is that every planet with life has either its own Lifestream, or is "near" another bigger Lifestream that might serve several planets.

However, I also agree that the linking of the Ragnarok between Ultima Thule and Etheirys might change the proximity calculations here. It would be interesting if the aether trail would turn into a sort of "river of souls" funneling into Etheirys. Do the other Lifestreams that Meteion had sucked all the souls from even exist anymore?

[kaynide]

Honestly I'm pretty bothered by this being it. Not because I want him to live or come back, but because his purpose in the narrative beyond StB that I was hoping would have some sort of payoff down the road a la the Ascians, never came to fruition.

I'll throw some bait you might be able to keep holding out for. Also, Tinfoil hats, everyone, it's time for a quick lesson on the Void:

1) We don't know how Voidsent are created, specifically. If they are Dark-element creatures like Sineaters (which should be overflowing with Dark Energy), or Dynamis based creatures (and Aether Starved). The lore suggests they are eternally Aether starved.... so there is support in a connection between Voidsent and Dynamis-based creatures (like Blasphemies)

2) The lore is contradictory, but we are led to believe a person can become a voidsent. Lady Amandine of Haukke Manor is an example, although there is the possibility she is merely possessed. In Haukke Hard Mode, we see more of this, although it is Woodwailers becoming possessed and "changed" into voidsent against their will.

3) Also some contradictory stuff, but seems Voidsent don't really "die-die", but are sent back to the Void upon destruction. This is not unlike extra demons/devils in many fantasy settings such as Forgotten Realms.

In our experience, we have fought -and killed- both Diabolos and Feridad more than once. There are examples in lore about the voidsent having vessels allowing them into our world, or possessing bodies, but it's not clear.




QED: It is entirely possibly Zenos has become a voidsent before or during our fight, and entirely possible he is now in the 13th shard.

...I still think he's dead-dead personally, just putting it out there.

[DBriggs304]

Good.
He was beyond annoying.

[Iscah]

After we found out about that I assumed those souls were missing because they got slurped up into the cage. I guess with Meteion gone they'll be free to leave now, but probably won't end up back in Etheirys particular lifestream.

I'm honestly curious about what's going to happen to the souls from other stars, as it's noted that the Ragnarok did essentially link Ultima Thule to Etheriys due to the immense trail of aether it left behind.

Do they just inherently try to return to whence they came, or would they be drawn in whatever flow happens to be most readily available...?

We could pull Hades' and Hyth's souls all the way from Etheirys, so presumably they can get back there.

I actually wondered if Etheirys might be the central point for the Lifestream of the whole universe, as an explanation for its richness in aether.

[KageTokage]

Voidsent were noted as not being able to truly die unless they've crossed over to the Source completely as all but the weakest of them simply use host bodies as proxies while they operate there, and if "killed" their souls simply return to their original body back in the void. The ones who do bring their bodies with them however, are implied to simply die as any other being of Etheriys would with their souls returning to the Lifestream.

It's also been noted that the strength of a voidsent's vessel is a limiting factor, so I'm a little unsettled by the thought of what could come to inhabit a body with supposedly "limitless potential" as Elidibus put it...

[Jandor]

We could pull Hades' and Hyth's souls all the way from Etheirys, so presumably they can get back there.

I actually wondered if Etheirys might be the central point for the Lifestream of the whole universe, as an explanation for its richness in aether.

We had just flown there from Etheirys though, creating an aether trail thick enough for Zenos to swim along (mostly) unaided.

I was basing my 'probably not Etheirys' idea on a line about souls migrating to other nearby stars if theirs dies. Thinking about it though, depending on just how thoroughly the Meteia scoured the Universe of life, Etheirys might indeed be host to the closest available lifestream.

[Belzarr]

Ayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy, Totally unfinished story line goes unfulfilled in FF14?!?! M8 plz.

-1: Why is Zenos so strong? (What is "Big hot tacos" and why does it play for him at the end of EW?)

-2: What happened to Exarch-Timeline Zenos? Did he die to black rose? If not, to what lengths would he go to find the WoL again.
*2.5: Zenos became Shinry by absorbing his aether completely. What's to say he can't absorb Alexander and use the power of time. For him, something like this would be no less than expected.

-3: Just because Zeno's body dies doesn't mean he's dead. As seen after STB. Not just that, but just because the body is dead doesn't me he can't use it.

-4: How did the Exarch-Timeline Umbral Calamity happen if Zenos Killed Varis to stop the black rose? Did this happen differently in the new timeline?
*4.5: The flood of light in the first wasn't responsible for Black Rose existing. It only increased the potency. But the Black Rose ended up not being used at all in our timeline. Why/How/What changed?

*2.5+4.5: Did Zenos come back to the past from the Exarch-Timeline to stop the Black Rose from killing WoL?
**Couldn't our Timeline Zenos do the exact same thing in reverse as G'raha Tia did with his past and future self?
***Is Zenos just going to fade away in the land of Dynamis and nothing comes of it?

I mean, at the very least, given his new mental disposition at the end of EW he could at the very least become a reoccurring or even theme based boss fight. Given his ability to become a primal, he could even become a replacement for the "Unreal" trial duties.

[KizuyaKatogami]

Tbh i kind of hope they don’t have a Void expansion revolve around him. He’s had 3 straight expansions now, and none of them made him particularly interesting to me, and his presence came at the cost of many other more well written and interesting characters, i’d really rather not have to sit through another expansion of voidsent zenos sitting on a throne, preaching about things to come that just won’t even occur in the expansion, aka what happened with his ShB monologues, very little actually came true in EW.