Revelations from Patch 6.2: Buried Memories

[Cilia]

P8 TT card note

Which is Hephaitos's card says "Born from dark shades of Lahabreha's emotions and memory, Hephaistos was a mirror that the chief keyward could not bare to look upon. Although sealed away in Pandeamonium's deepest circle, he was liberated by an unknown force, and devoted himself to seeing Athena resurrected. By fusing his being with mythic creations, Hephaistos unlocked the hidden secrets of creation magicks, and his hands could mold the very concept of life itself."

Emphasis: Hephaistos caused a lot of trouble, maybe even everything that was going on so far, but he is not the ultimate culprit. Given his goal was resurrecting Athena, she couldn't have been behind it either... except through a postmortem gambit, perhaps. He's gone now, though, so...

Please look forward to it!

[RyuDragnier]

Emphasis: Hephaistos caused a lot of trouble, maybe even everything that was going on so far, but he is not the ultimate culprit. Given his goal was resurrecting Athena, she couldn't have been behind it either... except through a postmortem gambit, perhaps. He's gone now, though, so...

Please look forward to it!

Since you mention that...

Considering Athena merged souls with Lahabrea for a bit, it wouldn't be out of the question for her to have left a tiny piece of herself in Lahabrea to take control. After all, we've seen all the keywardens up until now controlled by other organisms through corruption. I'm betting money that Athena was the one who unsealed Hephaistos in Pandaemonium, and may be part of why Lahabrea went insane and became the man we fought in ARR and HW. She's likely also the final boss of Pandaemonium, and is why it has shown up in the present time.

[Lyth]

I wonder...

Abyssos:

I think that Lahabrea excised his emotions, which is why the people around him likely now perceive him as cold. I'm curious if those who knew him from before (llike Emet and Igeyorhm) would have described him the same way as Eric or even Elidibus. That's very much reinforced by the P8S phase transition, where he talks about how how he longs for his reunion with Athena. It's also interesting that he seems to have merged his soul with all of the same creations as his followers, with a few additional ones as well like Phoenix and Ifrit.

[Iscah]

Shadowed Pasts sidequest

The backstory stuff was okay but not really enthralling. Scarmiglione was pretty straightforward though I'm not sure if we were supposed to see Barbariccia as villainous or tragic in the end. Maybe just both.

Kind of random but I feel like it could/should have been a thing in her backstory (maybe with some changes to her exact situation) to explain her weird obsession with her hair, by having it that after running away the first time she was punished by having her hair cut short, and that's why she associates the opposite with freedom.

Anyway, the rogue hecteyes seems like the most interesting bit of the plot – whether they're being genuine about just living in peace here. I hope so. Nice to have more voidsent on our side. I wonder if they / any of them were someone important?

[SannaR]

I found out that if you choose the tend to your island option when asked what your WoL will do next by Vrtra after you arrive back in the Source his reply is kinda funny. He says that if he had known the WoL was into that sort of thing he would have asked them to spruce up some of the isles nearby in order to gain more visitors.

[Alleluia]

Shadowed Pasts sidequest

The backstory stuff was okay but not really enthralling. Scarmiglione was pretty straightforward though I'm not sure if we were supposed to see Barbariccia as villainous or tragic in the end. Maybe just both.

Kind of random but I feel like it could/should have been a thing in her backstory (maybe with some changes to her exact situation) to explain her weird obsession with her hair, by having it that after running away the first time she was punished by having her hair cut short, and that's why she associates the opposite with freedom.

Anyway, the rogue hecteyes seems like the most interesting bit of the plot – whether they're being genuine about just living in peace here. I hope so. Nice to have more voidsent on our side. I wonder if they / any of them were someone important?

10 characters

With how the Echo works, it does imply that they each have to have either been or consumed (which is effectively the same thing?) one of the people present in those scenes for us to see them in the first place.

[KageTokage]

On the subject of Pandaemonium...

That creepy eyeball in Tartaros is making me wonder if rather then Lahabrea, Athena left some portion of her soul in Pandaemonium and effectively became a hemitheos with the entire facility itself.

It would make Themis referring to the place as the "dread beast Pandaemonium" more apt if it turns out it's somehow alive.

[Iscah]

Character locations post-story (MSQ and raids)

I hadn't seen anyone mention these before, and I missed seeing Zero earlier despite having walked straight past her while doing the Shadowed Pasts quest.

Zero is at the airship landing in Radz-at-Han, marvelling at the sky. A nice little detail.

Meanwhile over in Pandæmonium, Lahabrea and Erichthonios are working together on fixing stuff. Sadly it seems we don't get to raise the issue of the facility turning up in our time but perhaps we're a bit hesitant to do that after all that happened in Elpis. Plus it would mean having to admit to the time travel being a thing, which we've avoided so far here.

[Rannie]

Character locations post-story (MSQ and raids)

I hadn't seen anyone mention these before, and I missed seeing Zero earlier despite having walked straight past her while doing the Shadowed Pasts quest.

Zero is at the airship landing in Radz-at-Han, marvelling at the sky. A nice little detail.

Meanwhile over in Pandæmonium, Lahabrea and Erichthonios are working together on fixing stuff. Sadly it seems we don't get to raise the issue of the facility turning up in our time but perhaps we're a bit hesitant to do that after all that happened in Elpis. Plus it would mean having to admit to the time travel being a thing, which we've avoided so far here.

Elpis thingy since I'm too lazy to cut stuff on a cell phone

I'm kinda figuring we may say a little something about it when the next portion comes out cause I doubt we're done with Pandaemonium yet

[Iscah]

I doubt we're done with Pandaemonium yet

Of course we're not done with it. There's always a third instalment, and it ended on a cliffhanger.

Still, it feels quite jarring that most of the key players in the story are now unaware of its biggest new development.

On the one hand, revealing the time loop to them is probably not viable, and then the story would have to invoke memory wipes again (or do a really good job of revealing that Ascian Lahabrea – whoever he is, exactly – recognised us all along.

Still, there's at least hypothetically a window of opportunity to influence the past so that the reason for the facility's appearance in the aetherial sea is somehow beneficial or playable to our advantage. Though being a story, it probably has to end up messy one way or another.