Tales from the Dawn

[YianKutku]

The story gives some welcome insight into what a public servant who isn't part of the Convocation thinks about, well, the Convocation. Not a personal close friend of one (as Hythlodaeus was), but rather an unnamed and "regular" archivist. Someone of some competence and skill, given he was promoted to chief archivist, but not a famous person.

Tangentially, I had read the Sherlock Holmes short stories pastiche collection "Observations By Gaslight" recently, and the archivist reminds me of the chapter about Arthur Lomax, the sublibrarian who was mentioned in like a single line in the original stories, but fleshed out quite well in that short story. The archivist here seems to fit into the same personality as Lomax, in that he's quietly intelligent (ie notices things, but doesn't bother mentioning it unless necessary, even in the narrative), happiest when surrounded by a vast range of information, and willing to go very far when it comes to what he believes in.

There's also confirmation that the Convocation is not exactly democratically elected. The successors of the Convocation members are chosen by the current seat-holders, and approval of their appointment seems to be mostly a formality. We saw this in the aftermath of Elpis, where Emet-Selch claimed he was there to investigate how Hermes ran Elpis, but got the memories of that investigation completely wiped out, returned to Amaurot with as little information as he arrived with, and Hermes became Fandaniel anyway. Similarly, Venat chose "us" as Azem, and the seat of Azem continued to give headaches to the rest of the Convocation, up to and including being condemned as a traitor during the Final Days. Thus the implication is each seat of the Convocation chooses the person they, personally, think is suited, and the rest of the Convocation cannot argue against this save for particularly grievous offenses.

Something I might be reading too much into is that between this story and the dialogue in-game of Endwalker and Pandemonium, there is the impression that the Ancients don't appear to have a lot of experience with strong emotions. They're almost like Star Trek Vulcans: they try to maintain and present a rational, logical front that focuses on careful reasoning and calm discussion, but when they start feeling emotions too strong to be reasoned away, they go all the way to the point of obsession and excess. Elpis-era Lahabrea even tried to rip out that emotional part of himself to maintain his rational side, which seems like overkill for a situation that would probably be solvable through talking it out and perhaps therapy (whether professional or just confiding in others). The archivist here feels fierce loyalty and common mindset to Venat, and appears to be unfamiliar with this feeling.

Quite so, it's not.

Yes, we know you have chosen not to be convinced by anything, as you have stated yourself.