The State of the Ascians (Assume Spoilers as of TODAY)

[Cleretic]

I've mentioned before, I feel like they might regret having a fourteen-member group of effectively identical and single-goaled villains, going by how high the off-screen bodycount got over time. Having Gaius kill two of them off-screen doesn't just give him some extra legitimacy both in combat ability and 'we know he's good for his word', it also means they have to write two less Ascians.

It's worth remembering that not only is Gaius just generally a smart guy with a lot of contacts, he's also one of the very few non-Scion people who's seen us kill an Ascian (or at least, 'I saw them take a swing at Lahabrea and then Lahabrea wasn't there anymore'; he doesn't need to know that didn't work as well as we thought). If they revealed that Merlwyb killed two Ascians, I'd have a lot more questions; but they revealed Gaius killed two Ascians, and that just sounds like something Gaius could've pulled off in the amount of time we weren't watching them.

After all, even we're not killing Ascians by sheer power; every single time we killed one we had to get clever and resourceful. And Gaius is definitely both of those.

[shadowclasper]

I mean, can't we assume the broken masks on what's his face (it's late, sue me) count as confirmed kills as opposed to temp banishments?

[Necrotica]

Would love to see a short story put out on how the hell he pulled it off then. Cause killing Ascians permanently is kind of a big deal. And he no longer had the resources of the Empire. He was angry terrorists hiding in desert camps at that point.

Getting a hold of white Auracite would be the first hurdle. I HIGHLY doubt he would have summoned a Primal to eat the Ascians soul like we lucked into with Thordan.

[Anonymoose]

Would love to see a short story put out on how the hell he pulled it off then.

Same. White auracite's role is simply to prevent their escape - to anchor them. Gaius could have knowledge of the process by having an informant at the Rising Stones, or - even better - he could have knowledge of aetherospiritual containment from restoring the Ultima Weapon and could modify the tech. For a while I was hoping they'd reveal he was still in possession of Sabik and weaponized it against the Ascians somehow.

But it'll be fun to hear the tale, either way.

[Caitlinzulu]

I still wonder what that heart of Sabik actually is and what happened to it. Its like its completely forgotten.

[JeanneOrnitier]

I still wonder what that heart of Sabik actually is and what happened to it. Its like its completely forgotten.

If I remember correctly, Cid theorizes in the beginning of the Sorrow of Werlyt questline that it was a piece of Ultima's auracite.

[Enkidoh]

I still wonder what that heart of Sabik actually is and what happened to it. Its like its completely forgotten.

It hasn't been forgotten, it's just no longer relevant to the story because it no longer exists - it was destroyed when the Ultima Weapon exploded, not surprising given it was the weapon's power core (this is why Lahabrea was so annoyed with Gaius, because the Heart was now lost).

Of course, given we now know the Ascians can simply snap their fingers and make anything they like instantly so nothing would have stopped Lahabrea from simply recreating it, but his obvious anger towards it's loss at the time seemed to suggest that probably was not the case then.

[KageTokage]

I still can't help but find it strange that they decided to make reference to Sabik with the P8S part 2 theme.

Though a this point, I am more inclined to think it was one of those "inconvenient" plot points they decided to just drop instead of trying to elaborate on how black auracite is different from white or some such.

[Anonymoose]

It hasn't been forgotten, it's just no longer relevant to the story because it no longer exists - it was destroyed when the Ultima Weapon exploded

The Heart of Sabik seemed very important, but it was never mentioned again. Is it out of play?
Koji Fox: It’s gonna come back. And before [4.0]. That’s all you get!

The fact it wasn't destroyed with the Ultima Weapon as of 2016 is what kept me focusing on the "where did it go?" (most of the time just for the lulz).

Conspiracy Theory: Sabik's role was tossed and the Eyes of Nidhogg were brought back, instead, to tie MSQ and raid together (they got feedback that Alexander being isolated was underwhelming compared to the Binding Coil, if I remember right). That said, Twelve know there are even some straight up subtraction retcons I'd be OK with at this point (such as invasive surgery on the 2.x era Ascian cutscenes), so if Sabik was destroyed at Praetorium now, so be it, but ... <pout>

A lot of the most fun uses it could have had died with Zodiark, anyway, as it was alleged to be a "sliver of His power", but you might still be able to tie Sabik, Zodiark, and the High Seraph together and focus on Sabik as a vehicle for the Ultima magick.

pLaNnEd aLL aLoNg!

[Iscah]

A lot of the most fun uses it could have had died with Zodiark, anyway, as it was alleged to be a "sliver of His power", but you might still be able to tie Sabik, Zodiark, and the High Seraph together and focus on Sabik as a vehicle for the Ultima magick.

Clearly Golbez has the thirteenth shard of Sabik.

I was intending to be flippant but... maybe? Assuming it's a sundered object and wasn't in Lahabrea's pocket when he dodged the Sundering, or something.