Tales from the Dawn

[Lurina]

I was hoping for a Watcher focused short story for Venat, but this one was disappointing. I didn't realize at least 2/3 of it would be him going on endlessly about what a brilliant and perfect jewel she was.

Honestly, the Watcher basing his actions on being really horny rather than any sort of coherent ideology was probably the most reasonable part of the story.

[Iscah]

But while it is a very nice story, it's the absolute worst pick for an opener in my book. Given how much of Endwalker was about moving on from the past, freeing ourselves from its shackles and carving our own way into the future, we sure are spending an awful lot of stories stuck in that past.

"Tales From" is prettymuch always about going deeper into the specific expansion that has just wrapped up. I would be disappointed if we weren't going into Endwalker in more depth.

That said, I was expecting a narrative from the Watcher but I was hoping it would be a bit more substantial. It just has a lot of words without going much deeper into their motivations, and I continue to feel like the writers can't actually decide how the Sundering played out and are leaving it vague intentionally.

(I really hope they just don't reference back to the Sundering at all, going forward, and I can slot in my own imagined version of the narrative over the top.)

[Vyrerus]

Honestly, I didn't really pick up on anything new from this short story. Just some minor confirmations, and I guess confirmation that The Watcher was practically in love with Venat. Seduced by her de-masking. If it was Victorian England she just be showing her wrists and ankles on first meeting!

Looking forward to the other short stories more.

[Lyth]

They did confirm that the Convocation was in fact planning on harvesting souls during the third set of sacrifices to Zodiark, for those who were being deliberately obtuse about it previously. I don't think the 'withholding information' line of reasoning really works anymore, now that Abyssos is out. Unless you have a bone to pick with the Convocation as well.

[Alleo]

They did confirm that the Convocation was in fact planning on harvesting souls during the third set of sacrifices to Zodiark, for those who were being deliberately obtuse about it previously. I don't think the 'withholding information' line of reasoning really works anymore, now that Abyssos is out. Unless you have a bone to pick with the Convocation as well.

In the german version of it they wrote that more followers would be sacrificed so I guess this is the confirmation that it was people that they planned to use. (Which always made sense, especially since the Ancients have a huuuge amount of aether which would need to be replaced)

Interesting how old Venat already was when she got the position as Azem. I wonder if Ancients can decide how old they look? Because she still looked just as young in Elpis as she did in that story. Its great to see what she did on her adventures even though I cant see how that would be doable for centuries. But I guess that confirms that the world was way more chaotic than Emet believed it to be.

[tokinokanatae]

I don't think the 'withholding information' line of reasoning really works anymore, now that Abyssos is out. Unless you have a bone to pick with the Convocation as well.

If only Lahabrea had been smart enough to justify it with a line like, "'Tis best we work towards the greatest good without [fore]knowledge which might cloud our judgment." Might have kept Emet-Selch off his back a bit, lol.

[TheSuperior]

It's that time again - the latest selection of stories for the expansion are now being added to the Lodestone, with the first one now up, fittingly about Venat - 'A Friendship of Record.'

A few interesting things:

the identity of the model for the Watcher was the Chief Archivist of Ananemsis Aynder, and, a little bit of Ancient social norms are revealed, namely, the social traditions surrounding their masks and when it was appropriate to take them off - removing their mask was basically a signal to others they were about to make a big decision, asking someone for help, or when they're in the private company of friends and family. No wonder as the Ascians they continued their obssession with them.

There is a brief reference to WoL!Azem too, but it seems Venat was even more of a hellraiser in the role - no wonder the WoL is like they are, like teacher like student.

Can't wait for the rest!

Hythlodaeus confirmed absolute thot.

[TheSuperior]

In the german version of it they wrote that more followers would be sacrificed so I guess this is the confirmation that it was people that they planned to use. (Which always made sense, especially since the Ancients have a huuuge amount of aether which would need to be replaced)

Interesting how old Venat already was when she got the position as Azem. I wonder if Ancients can decide how old they look? Because she still looked just as young in Elpis as she did in that story. Its great to see what she did on her adventures even though I cant see how that would be doable for centuries. But I guess that confirms that the world was way more chaotic than Emet believed it to be.

There's a meme image of how male/female Ancients age based on the new raid and now I'm wondering how exactly they age as well.

Like, do you need to break the barrier of 10k years before you get a single wrinkle?

[Elissar]

Lahabread was a simp
Watcher was a simp
Hythlodaeus was a simp
Meteion is right, Simporzea/Simpeirys is doomed.


Jokes aside, it's a good enough chapter 1 story.
Side stories never had big reveals, it's made just to spicy our curiosity and provide some background that we may see at least mentioned during the MSQ.
I'm still curious about her crew but to be honest...right now i really want to know what they want to do with Pandaemonium. The end of Abyssos is crazy!

Perhaps her phrase about the timelimes being "mixed/interlaced" (in the end of Elpis) has more meaning than we thought.

[PawPaw]

There's a meme image of how male/female Ancients age based on the new raid and now I'm wondering how exactly they age as well.

Like, do you need to break the barrier of 10k years before you get a single wrinkle?

Lahabrea tells us in Pandaemonium that they can enhance and alter their physical vessels. We can assume they can appear however they wish to.