Tales from the Dawn

[Enkidoh]

Not outright, but there was some very interesting dialogue Eric mentioned in the cutscene after P2 - where he initially thought the WoL and Themis "didn't look like mercenaries", then stated "you don't look like fighters training here either" (paraphrased). Now, why would a paradiscal civilization need mercenaries unless they were fighting wars? (this also brings me to another question as to why Emet and Hythlodaeus were clearly trained in combat - what purpose for fighting would they need? - Venat gets a pass by being formerly Azem whose hat that was, but the other two are meant to be more academic/bureacratic sorts usually stuck behind a desk or debating on the floor of a council chamber, and yet perfectly were able to fight. Even Hermes was able to hold his own against them in combat. Being trained in combat "to deal with dangerous creations" seems a bit of a stretch.

And then we're shown creations that wield weapons like the minotaurs (who were specifically mentioned as being "guards") - could they therefore use creations specifically set up for combat to wage war against each other (after all, any damage could easily be repaired quickly, and if it's creations doing the fighting, overseen by a few select combat-trained Ancient specialists, then a war would not have the same impact as it does in our world, or after the Sundering, as death would be kept to a minimum and any damage to the environment or infrastructure would be easily and quickly repaired.

There is actually precedent for this post Sundering too - past Astral Eras had automata doing most of the fighting in wars like golems in the War of the Magi, or mammets like the Onion Knights in Allag, so the Ancients doing the same thing wouldn't be too unbelivable. Of course this is all speculation based on a few ambigious lines, but it does go some way to explaining why things ended up how they did. And that was despite the warm glow of paradise ancient Etheirys appeared to be, there was very much a dark side to the ancient Unsundered world that ultimately festered and rotted through once the flaking 'perfection' broke away. So really all Venat did was force the blinders off. After all, Venat herself stated "that there has always been sorrow", all the Ancients did was shove it under the rug and pretended it didn't exist.