The WoL's Canonical Name? (ShB/EW Spoilers)

[Vyrerus]

Last year, I did a quiz for funs and my Tumblr. It said Nyx. That works perfectly for me and thus for the ToasTiE. Also, me and the sun don't have the best track record, so I like to pretend to be a bit subversive whilst remaining entirely obvious.

Heh, I got Hephaestus. Neat.

As for the topic of the thread... I believe in the past when this has been teased around, or when I've made a thread about it before, I've leaned heavy on Azem being Apollo for reasons already stated by others in the thread.

But what if Azem's lineage expression is even elder to that of Hades? You know, just to put one more hammer down on that poor old man. What if Azem's name was Utu (Shamash) from Babylonian mythos? Utu was the god of the Sun, Justice, Morality, and Truth. He was the twin brother of the Queen of Heaven, Inanna (Ishtar). Obviously there's no Ishtar in FFXIV, but Venat's probably close enough (And in FFXII she assisted the Archadians - similar to Akkadians no? Ah, I'm reaching, but it's fun. It also doesn't need to make perfect logical sense).

I actually wouldn't mind them hammering down something more concrete about Azem, because we will never be past Azem, and even in individual fan fiction, people ignore what's set in stone all the time. It would also cause people to become more creative/think more about other elements of the past.

[TaleraRistain]

They'll probably never tell us. My personal pick is Prometheus. Not a Greek god, instead a Titan of fire, and defied the gods to help mankind. Azem got censured more than once according to the stories and we know of at least one instance where they went against the Convocation's wishes. It's not hard to imagine it happened more than once.

I'm also not convinced the Ancients were the only race on the star. I'm not sure what Azem would be out there learning about other cultures if they were all the same flavor.

Plus for whatever reason, Azem seemed to give the middle finger to summoning both Zodiark and Hydaelyn.

[CrownySuccubus]

I just did this quiz and got Dionysus. Not quite the god I would associate with the WoL, but still interesting from a personal perspective.

Dionysus was the god favored by outcasts and rebels, because his entire gimmick was ignoring the status quo. His followers were also well known for partaking in grapes and wine.

Seems fitting for an Azem, who are typically the rogues of the Convocation that ignore the rules when it suits them, and prefer making friends and allies across a diverse range of people including those marginalized by society. Likewise, we're also told that "our" Azem single-handedly stopped a volcanic eruption from killing a populace because they liked the grapes there.

Dionysus seems pretty damn well appropriate.

[CrownySuccubus]

Incidentally, I got Aphrodite for my name.

Still fitting, considering Eos and Aphrodite used to be part of the same goddess.

[TaleraRistain]

Seems fitting for an Azem, who are typically the rogues of the Convocation that ignore the rules when it suits them, and prefer making friends and allies across a diverse range of people including those marginalized by society. Likewise, we're also told that "our" Azem single-handedly stopped a volcanic eruption from killing a populace because they liked the grapes there.

I got the impression Azem didn't give a fig about the grapes and told that to the impressionable Elidibus and the real motive was rescuing the village there.

[Rannie]

Last year, I did a quiz for funs and my Tumblr. It said Nyx. That works perfectly for me and thus for the ToasTiE. Also, me and the sun don't have the best track record, so I like to pretend to be a bit subversive whilst remaining entirely obvious.

Yeah.... I took that test and got Hades.. I now think that the world is trying to tell me something...

[Enkidoh]

I got the impression Azem didn't give a fig about the grapes and told that to the impressionable Elidibus and the real motive was rescuing the village there.

It's, somewhat ambigious, but how the story was written suggests that the villagers were already evacuating/preparing to evacuate (or at least the Convocation expected them to) so any casualties would have been minimal, if not outright nonexistent, and thus the Convocation's dismissal of helping save the island was just pragmatism on their part - why bother stopping a village being destroyed by a normal environmental process when buildings and crops can just be restored to normal with creation magic afterwards once the danger has passed?

And, add in the Convocation regarded themselves as the stewards of nature, so they did not want to intefere with a 'natural process', which using Ifritia to absorb the excess fire aspected aether would have definetely counted as intefering with. So their decision was a pragmatic one, do not interefere and let nature run it's course.

Of course Azem, being the practical one, had other ideas, and it definetely seems that saving the grapes for personal reasons probably did influence their decision as well (SE themselves played on that in EW, where you can tell an impressionable loporrit that you would gladly do the same thing Azem did to save some grapes, simply because you love to eat them. ).

[Ceridwenae]

Yeah.... I took that test and got Hades.. I now think that the world is trying to tell me something...

The world would be telling you you're a pretty decent person, then, albeit one who is often misunderstood by ingrates. Well, that's what I'd think, anyways.

[Lyth]

I actually wouldn't mind them hammering down something more concrete about Azem, because we will never be past Azem, and even in individual fan fiction, people ignore what's set in stone all the time. It would also cause people to become more creative/think more about other elements of the past.

There are some decent opportunities for this to be explored between Pandaemonium and Myths. It's hard to say definitively yet if we aren't actually 'past Azem' given that we're apparently their spitting image (while Hermes and Amon look nothing alike physically). Perhaps our ancestral lineage has remained relatively identical in appearance across 120 generations, but there might always be an accidental second time travel loop lurking at the end of the Pandaemonium arc that explains Themis' 'falling star' prediction. I'm kind of hoping for the latter, because that seems like a very Azem thing to do.

What might resolve the issue somewhat is if Azem isn't actually even Amaurotian in origin. That allows their role in Amaurot to be fleshed out while leaving their overall backstory open ended. It also keeps them as a traveller of the world rather than tying them down to one culture.

[Alleluia]

Hah! Wish I'd seen that. I figure it's probably Apollo, especially because I'd assume that canon Azem is Ancient Meteor/Derplander. Course, they've named two of the male characters after female goddesses so I suppose the reverse could happen too. The sun aspect is only part of it, Apollo is associated with just about everything from archery to dance, is generally favorably looked upon by those from all walks of life, and is considered to be a protector from evil. He seems to be an 'all-rounder' who fits the bill.

I think Azem, if they are named after a greek god, is probably Apollo, as well. He's associated with the sun, light, inquiry, truth. He has a twin sister who is goddess of the moon, which may or may not thematically tie into Menphina/Azyma.

And Apollo can work as a female name, imo, so that works for female Azems, too.

In addition to Hades, we've had Hermes and an Athena. (Who either was a previous Lahabrea or was a previous director of Panda? Both? I'm not clear on that.) And we may have a Hephaestus for Lahabrea, if this theory is at least partially right: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IAPkEVAIOc

Plus, though Venat's name sounds french and apparently is derived from the french word for hunter according to earlier in this thread, the way its pronounced in the Japanese dialogue is definitely "Venus". Why they didn't just use "Venus" in her case, I have no idea, but its a thing and kinda pulls her back into both the "they're all greek" and the "convocation = olympians" folds, even though her name is technically an outlier. The only other outlier as far as "Convocation = olympians" seems to be Themis, but that may end up not even being his real name or something, so I'm waiting and seeing.

So I think Azem having a greek god name is very likely.