Have we seen the last of them?

[Necrotica]

Some poor Ascian on another shard-"Alright got things pretty much set up for calamity on this end. Emet is gonna be so proud of me."
1 week later.
"Okay okay...Emet is dead, Elidibus is dead, but it's okay! Fandaniel has stepped up and said he will bring back Zodiark!"
2 days later.
"Well fuck."

[Shookbeast]

Odds are pretty highly on 'may not'…

I agree it may swing toward the unlikely, but it would be quite a coup for Athena to have deceived two other Ascians, and set her up as someone pretty formidable, and quite dangerous.

Also, they could just hand waive that she appeared after Pandemonium and players can play it if they want.

At the same time it is possible, as stated before and above, that Pandemonium will be used to clean up all the Ascian stories - especially since it’s currently in our present timeline. So maybe they’ll all be dealt with in the final raid.

[Hurlstone]

I do not know if we have seen The Last of Them, but I highly recommend The Last of Us. Fantastic game/TV series.

[Hurlstone]

Seriously though, it seems there certainly can be some Ascians floating around, and I think it would be really interesting to see what they are doing now. What are their goals now that Zodiark is gone? Are they just floating around in despair, or are they now going to try something new with their lives? Could they even still hold on to that dream of the Ancients being restored that they will be looking for new ways to regain what was lost, no matter how impossible. Could be allot of good stories to mine there, perhaps in side stories. They could be involved in future MSQ I suppose (It seems possible that Zodiarks or their power at least may be apart of Golbez’s plans)

[RyuDragnier]

But there is Athena… who may or may not be our Lahabrea… and I do wonder if they aren’t a contender for our new big bad going forward…

I think it's far more likely that Athena helped cause the Final Days to occur, through some form. It could be something as simple as "she was the original scream from within the earth that caused everything to transform." Meaning one of the catalysts in addition to the cause of Lahabrea's insanity, so we're likely dealing with the very final threat from the Unsundered world. I put money on her being what Azem was trying to deal with when the Sundering happened, also making Athena the final obligation, the "secret final boss" of the entire saga.

[Kranel_San]

Some poor Ascian on another shard-"Alright got things pretty much set up for calamity on this end. Emet is gonna be so proud of me."
1 week later.
"Okay okay...Emet is dead, Elidibus is dead, but it's okay! Fandaniel has stepped up and said he will bring back Zodiark!"
2 days later.
"Well fuck."

I wonder if at least one ascian is on another shard for a long while and is not aware of what's going on with the rest. Would love to see such a reaction!

[Iscah]

As for why she isn't a contender for the next big villain... well, it's because she's from normal raids. To have that story work for the mass audience (both in terms of base narrative structure and dramatic impact; people who haven't done Pandaemonium won't know or care who Athena is, which would suck) they'd have to make Pandaemonium required pretty much immediately, and a lot of players aren't going to be down for that.

I don't think they would bring Athena in as an MSQ villain, particularly as any part of her surviving to the present day is more likely to be dealt with in the conclusion to Pandæmonium itself.

However, if they hypothetically intended to bring her into the MSQ then – depending on exactly what we learn in part 3 of the raid questline – I don't think there would be a need to make the questline mandatory.

The raids could remain optional for the same reason that Crystal Tower was still optional in 5.0 and Alexander and Omega remain optional to this day: time travel is involved, and from an objective view of the timeline, the events at Pandæmonium have already completely played out in the distant past, whether or not we have yet experienced them for ourselves.

While it's not a hard bet, I could imagine Golbez and Zero being the shards of Pashtarot and Halmarut respectively. Tying up all the Ascian loose ends in 6.5 with another rivalry plot similar to Eden, but with siblings rather than lovers, of course. (I know this would contradict some of the 2.x Ascian lore but I mean, what doesn't?)
This would give us a blank slate for 7.0

Just finding "a shard" of a Convocation member won't do anything to tie up loose ends regarding a different Ascianised shard just because they share an ancient soul.

[Vyrerus]

I can't help but find it curious that the Ancient language is apparently documented enough in Sharlayan for them to identify words like "pandaemonium" as having originated with them.

Perhaps there are still some traces of their civilization left on the Source we simply haven't stumbled across yet, because I'd much rather learn more about their culture then the Allagans.

Didn't one of the Studium crafter quests allude to some of the Forum or higher tier Sharlayan scholars having firsthand experience of time travel? Spoken to us by someone wearing the Creator raid gear?

Sharlayan's got a lot tucked close to the chest still. Sorta makes me wonder why they weren't a prime target for Garlemald, what with all their forbidden knowledge and comparable magitek that's apparently been developed in parallel.

[Cleretic]

Didn't one of the Studium crafter quests allude to some of the Forum or higher tier Sharlayan scholars having firsthand experience of time travel? Spoken to us by someone wearing the Creator raid gear?

Fisher, actually, I believe, but the time travel allusion was an invention of the English script. The Japanese script was more of a vague 'well we knew that thing you found out, but we didn't expect you to figure it out independently'.

As for how they dodged Garlemald... well, it is indeed entirely possible they were up to something, but I would be remiss not to point out that it's entirely possible they were spared for a much simpler reason: they weren't worth attacking. Sharlayan was isolationist to the point of actively fleeing Eorzea when the notion of war arose (which yes, was more complicated than that, but AST's story confirmed they weren't unrelated), across a sea, and were keeping any fancy shows of technology pretty secret. That's a perfect formula for 'not worth the effort', it's why a country like New Zealand was untouched during the World Wars.

[Tehmon]

I suspect whomever is left will be dealt with in the next expansions, most likely in side content, as a fanservice-y callback to the past story.