Thank you to whoever wrote the Pandaemonium story so far [SPOILERS]

[Boblawblah]

But yes. I know. "Ancients couldn't Dynamis!!!!" is the reason given by the game, straight out of Author Mouthpiece Y'shtola's mouth, confirmed by Hydaelyn. Whose justifications for not telling anyone that mattered of the Final Days in the first place is a pile-up of suppositions about how people would react – and never actual facts. Anyway, not my fault Endwalker's plot is shoddy. There's another, nearly 700 page thread about this.

And yet you guys/girls don't seem to be over it yet.

[TaleraRistain]

Again, a really good homage to just how underrated and underappreciated the greek god Hephaistos himself is, both in-mythos and by the people who study it. One of the Twelve bloody Olympians. A great god who created impressive and magnificent devices, whom even Zeus feared because at any given time he could unleash the monster powering Mount Etna. But all he's known for is being "the lame fire god who got angy at Aphrodite being a girlboss".

I LOVED this because you're exactly right. Hephaistos is very underrated and even the butt of the joke in most mainstream depictions. But he is a force to be reckoned with just as any other god. He's always been one of my favorites and to see him done justice made me very happy.

I also enjoy his semi-counterpart in Myths. Though even though that place seems to have Olympian trappings, it feels more Norse. Byregot is very Thor, Azeyma has fire cats so you could easily see Freyja, and Rhalgr has an Odin feel. Not sure how to fit in Nald'Thal. I have suspicions about Oschon which would make it very possible he's the Loki counterpart. And the Norse gods had a different relationship with their worshippers than the Greek gods did. They were more like people to their worshippers, which feels more like how Eorzeans see them.

[TheMightyMollusk]

Not sure how to fit in Nald'Thal.

Hel, goddess of the underworld and keeper of the inglorious dead, is usually described as fair and beautiful on one half of her body and rotting and corpselike on the other half. The duality motif fits, along with the idea of more glorious deaths taking souls to other realms (Halone's halls, Valhalla).

[Teraq]

And yet you guys/girls don't seem to be over it yet.

Of course not. I spent the lifespan of Shadowbringers loving this game and eagerly reading every bit of Ascian and Ancient lore I could get my grubby hands on. I found Endwalker a massive letdown that squeezed two expansions into one and didn't do the arc's long-standing antagonists any sort of justice.

I intend to keep calling that out for as long as I am still subscribed (because I enjoy the gameplay and reward structure that WoW won't give me anymore). Conversely, when they do something that pleasantly surprise me, I'll make it known - both of these is what official forums are for.

Your childish post might have had a point if this story was completely done and over (even then, I still enjoy dunking on GoT 3 years after its end). However, this is an on-going story after all, and YoshiP has made it clear in a recent interview that the ending to Pandaemonium is still being written. Therefore, I fully intend to use that to influence course of things. And if the Omega quest calling out Venat ever so slightly and giving us the choice to rebuke her, and the Pandaemonium story treating Ancients as three-dimensional human beings are any indication, I'd say we are being heard a little at least.

[Lauront]

b. manually sundering their own Aether like Lahabrea just did – which we now know they viewed as unprecedented and highly risky, but again, when it's to counter the literal end of the world, I'm sure mavericks like Azem would try something like that if it meant saving the planet.

The hemitheos research and the potential of merging with creations, including possibly entelechies, and maybe coupled with other techniques like what you mention (or the Ktisis Hyperboreia suppression field), would've been another possible fruitful avenue to consider. We can't know if it'd have resulted in any successful counters (either way, it's down to the stroke of the writer's pen whether that happens or not), but certainly, it'd be something to put on the table as an option, even if the research would be considered too risky to pursue in other circumstances. Sundering the entire world in excess of what was sufficient for being able to manipulate dynamis directly is highly risky and costly in itself, after all.

[TaleraRistain]

Hel, goddess of the underworld and keeper of the inglorious dead, is usually described as fair and beautiful on one half of her body and rotting and corpselike on the other half. The duality motif fits, along with the idea of more glorious deaths taking souls to other realms (Halone's halls, Valhalla).

True, it's mainly the commerce part that's hard to fit in. But I like that they're similar and not exact copies. I definitely get a very Norse feel from all of them which is rather nice since I always liked Norse mythology a lot more.

[Fiel_Tana]

However, this is an on-going story after all, and YoshiP has made it clear in a recent interview that the ending to Pandaemonium is still being written.

I'm really liking Pandaemonium so far and knowing the ending is still in the works makes me a bit hopeful, would love to read the entire interview. Do you have a link for it please?

[ShinyChariot]

When the Pandemonium storyline would make more sense as the potential cause for the Final Days than whatever garbage we had in Elpis.

[Vahlnir]

When the Pandemonium storyline would make more sense as the potential cause for the Final Days than whatever garbage we had in Elpis.

I think it would have been better if the effects were immediate. Like, the world had begun collapsing the second we finished the dungeon or something. Instead, it was like "Go on, Metieon. You get, you hear me?! Just come back and destroy us all whenever you feel like it." Sort of killed the urgency of the entire situation prior and left us with more questions than answers afterwards because Venat said nothing to no one. I think their intention was to preserve the timeline our characters came from, which makes sense given an MMO needs a consistent game world. But it was handled pretty poorly on that front. I also have a hard time believing that a rag tag band of adventurers with vastly limited knowledge compared to the Ancients figured out the whole Dynamis thing in 5 minutes when a race of more intelligent beings with creation/destruction magics at their fingertips could not. But yeah, the Pandemonium story has definitely been much better than some aspects of Endwalker.

[Teraq]

I appreciate that most people I talk to want tier 3 to have Athena pull an "I LIVED! JUST AS PLANNED!". Somehow. Frankly, does it even matter how? We all agree we just want Athena. Give us more Athena. I want her to swagger her way up to the pantheon of fictional horrible human beings I love.

I'm really liking Pandaemonium so far and knowing the ending is still in the works makes me a bit hopeful, would love to read the entire interview. Do you have a link for it please?

Sorry, I don't post very often. Hopefully you see this. It was a Famitsu interview posted around August 9th. This reddit thread has a digest of the interview, with a link to it in Japanese. Here's a tweet translating the relevant part of it:


Looks like my memory is terrible, it's being adjusted rather than still written.

Still though. I hope they can… adjust its ending to give the slightest bit of hope for Ancients. If history must be unwritten…

I also have a hard time believing that a rag tag band of adventurers with vastly limited knowledge compared to the Ancients figured out the whole Dynamis thing in 5 minutes when a race of more intelligent beings with creation/destruction magics at their fingertips could not.

Venat: "I cannot say a thing about Hermes, the Convocation needs him to figure out the celestial currents "
WoL: "…not if you tell them about what Hermes would have figured out. Once they are aware of the problem, surely they could call upon anyone else with expertise in the matter, as we have established you are a civilisation of immortal scholars and academics?"
Venat:
Venat:
Venat: "oh my god look at you you're fading already you gotta go BYE I'LL HANDLE EVERYTHING"

I feel like I have to applaud the writer(s? (I refuse to believe this is the same single person who gave us Shadowbringers)) for making apparently a fair amount of people believe this entire plot can stand on its own two feet.