The Ancients still deserved better, after everything

[Lauront]

There seems to be a gap in the storytelling. I got the impression that Venat did work with the Council of 14 and did her best to convince them that summoning a blood god was probably not the smartest course of action, but she's fighting against the egos and naive worldviews of people like Hermes and Emet-Selch, who also think they know best.

I do find it rather ironic that you're referring to a gap in storytelling, when I think this relates more to a gap in comprehension. Her entire plan requires Zodiark. Her faction was reliant on keeping him around to shield the star. She emphatically says she won't be able to lean directly on the Convocation in this case, and there is zero indication she told them the truth of the matter, i.e. about a goth bird waifu created by Hermes absorbing vast quantities of planetary despair and vomiting it back onto the universe. Not even her own creation, the Watcher, is privy to the ultimate cause.

Plan 1A was summon a god so powerful it would stop Meteion, even if it cost them half their souls. Plan 1B was to have a bunch of children, and then sacrifice them, to bring back the first batch of lost souls.

Sorry but what are you even talking about at this point? Can you provide any sources to back this up? Zodiark was intended to correct a weakening in the aetherial currents. They did not know the true cause of the apocalypse, because Venat never told them. Point 1B may as well be headcanon - see here.

Were there likely some outside of the box solutions that the Council should have explored? Yes. But that would entail them believing crazy old Venat's story: that a time traveler from the future came and told them that their world was going to be destroyed by a non-aetherial based creation.

Did she even try convince them? Make use of the Echo? Approach Hyth and Emet to explain what had happened to them? Etc. No, she basically rules this approach out because she wouldn't want to alienate Hermes according to her reasoning. But she had plenty of tools at her disposal. She was a highly revered member of her society, even if they saw her as eccentric - see here:

Emet-Selch: Then again, even with you slowing her down, there is no denying that Venat is an accomplished researcher. Her wealth of wisdom and experience is unmatched, and her achievements in creation magicks─in any field, frankly─are nothing short of extraordinary.
Emet-Selch: Though the singular brilliance which sets her apart can make her motives somewhat impenetrable at times...
Emet-Selch: As her student and successor puts it, she is a force of nature, at once so close...and at the same time, so very distant.

Yes. But Zodiark was a primal. He needed an external aether source to exist. So the ancients would have to sacrifice living beeings permanently to feed him. And since he tempered the Convocation of 14, they would not have any problems to sacrifice other life.

Cheers

Not sure what this has to do with anything? Hydaelyn's entire plan relies on him. She too is a primal. There is nothing indicating either drain the star of aether like regular primals do. If you want to provide actual sources for this, including that their tempering would actually sway them to sacrifices (when the FR version indicates the Convocation was divided on this in Elidibus's SoS dialogue), I'll be happy to entertain this, but I am not in the habit of just accepting headcanon as fact.

We had the ability to influence dynamis, something the ancients were literally incapable of. Their vaste amounts of aether would not have helped them in the vortex of pure dynamis. Meteion is by design exceptionally slippery, you'll only manage to defeat the endsinger if you manage to break the despair that infests the sister network. Meteion had no reason to hurry, she could instigate mankind's demise as slow as she needed to while hiding in her stronghold.

They were capable of creating workarounds, like entelechies. At a bare minimum, selective sundering of their kind could create life forms capable of influencing this, without sundering their entire star and people. Like I said, a small quantity of sundered sufficed. And this is not considering what other manner of solutions they could devise over 12k years, with knowledge of the actual cause behind this. Sorry if I don't find this point particularly compelling.

Given more time her ever increasing song of oblivion would have broken through zodiark's shroud..

12k years later and the shield was still holding. Plenty of time for the ancients to devise workarounds and solutions.

[Larirawiel]

Not sure what this has to do with anything? Hydaelyn's entire plan relies on him.

It has something to do with sustainability. Zodiark as a shield against the Endsinger's song will not last forever. It is a mitigation and does not solve the problem from the ground. And the ancients would have spend fresh life to Zodiark permanently. Until all life on Aetheris is spent. Zodiark has not the ability to create new life without a sacrifice.

It is like the ozone hole. It is better, that the ozone can restore instead of using sunblockers permanently. The second method is a mitigation and not a solution. The ancients chose the second method.





Cheers