Revelations from Patch 6.4: The Dark Throne

[fulminating]

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So is that door to elpis just permanent then? we didn't need a crystal whatsit to pass through for the amogus meeting.
I think the pacing felt kind of weird - Hard to put into words. Broadly it was everything I was expecting, but didn't quite feel like it emphasised the climax properly. Perhaps having a bit more run up/corridor thing like omega and "huh athena's been messing around here" rather than using the first boss on it would have probably done the trick. Then the first fight being pandaemonium the walking building would have freed up a bit more space at the end for conclusions. It also feels like there's two rather conspicuous doors left open, namely claudien and the black auricite and the one in the ocular if that is the case.

[Tracewood]

MSQ:

I'm playing catch up since 6.2. While I never finished FFIV, just watched ending videos and such, guess Zeromus is the 6.5 trial. Feel bad for Vrtra having been so close to rescuing his sister for it to be snatched away, and the original Golbez's memory crystal falling into the chasm looks like the "Chekov's gun" for how we defeat it.

Also our devices for traversing the rift seem to be wearing down? I'd imagine they might just say "Oh actually, we just need to recharge these then go fight Zeromus after a fetch quest and dungeon crawl." The pacing of these past few patches feel like they're repeating themselves a bit, hope they change it up in the last one before expansion. At least Zero is finally showing some growth and some resolve.

Pandaemonium:

Am I understanding this as we're just destined to clash with Lahabrea and Elidibus after we defeat Athena? Our WOL just took it on the chin.

Also glad they went back to the Heart of Sabik. Back in ARR, thought it's power was implied to be Zodiark's when Lahabrea says "Here is but a sliver or our one true God's power!" When it was actually Athena's? Either I'm not understanding that or it's a bit of a plothole or the Lahabrea in ARR was so driven to madness by tempering his memories were muddled?

Athena went into psycho-stalker-creep territory in the end, just a total selfish jerk of a parent who would forsake her own son for a chance at godhood. Glad they didn't pull any punches on that, many stories would have them see the error of their ways in the 11th hour. Nope, she was a total witch until the end.

The reincarnation angle was a neat twist, and a nice surprise for a voiced cutscene at the end. Also implies that Elidibus knows something about the fate of the star, the water scene in his final dialogue reminds me of the opening from FFX when Tidus swims up in the beginning and end of the game...

...wait.

I'm three patches behind the Tataru stuff, saving that and the other Four Fiend flashbacks for another day. On another note, first patch I've tanked everything and not slip back into DPS. Not a big deal for most players, but for me it felt good.

[Zeich]

Last post was broken and kept telling me it was too short even with a full post when trying to edit, so let's try this again. >:T

MSQ

Maybe I missed it but I was surprised when I realized that the Durante model was based off of FFIV: The After Year's Golbez model, down to his sword and everything. Bit more armor than ol' cloak-and-kilt, but he was absolutely dead-on recognizable the moment I saw him and had the wheels turning in my head before the plot even said anything.

[Zero-ELEC]

So... about Auracite....

Pandæmonium

With the implication that the Heart of Sabik might have actually originated from Ultima, the High Seraph, which explains why the Ultima spell is said to be named after her, that accounts for most Auracite coming from her... the only remaining Auracites that we know of are Synthetic Auracite (based on the Black Auracite Sabik), Memoria (which might not be Auracite at all since the term Auracite is just what they called it, so it might have been a coincidence in naming?) and White Auracite (which we do not know enough about how its made only that it allows to carry souls but not minds, minds but not souls, or a whole Ascian for a second).

Are White Auracite and Memoria actually Auracite? They seem to be missing the one thing we know about Auracite, which is them being able to contain emotions and amplify them and potentially transform the users. The Synthetic Auracite from the Weapons seems like they do that on a scale that lets them basically supplant the personalities of the pilots with Oversoul. I guess White Auracite seems as permeable as other Auracite, only not of emotions but of aether, but what about Memoria? We're told by Unukalhai that the dark Memoriates were corrupted by the Memoria crystals they carried with them from sealing Eidolons, which in turn transformed them into voidsent, like Cuchulain. This is sorta like Auracite, but we don't really see this happening with the Memoria we're theoretically carrying and that Zero is creating during the current events.

If only Mikoto were around to infodump about these things.

[AlexionSkyllark]

The only thing this patch made me really sad was about Pandemonium.

We now have it, folks. The final, nail-in-the-coffin revelation that Lahabrea is, in fact, truly dead and undone since Heavensward MSQ.

I always hoped, since his Aether was merely absorbed into Ascalon, and no blade of light ever cut him (unlike Igeryohim), that he was still whole and alive in there, and that SOMEDAY he'd come back. But alas, it seems not the case. As stated by multiple characters, Lahabrea is dead-dead. What a sad day it is...

[SannaR]

Anyone else notice the semi Allagan thingys surrounding the aether font? Also why did the camera linger on Athena's mask after it had fallen off?

[Denishia]

Also why did the camera linger on Athena's mask after it had fallen off?

Symbolically she's unmasked her true self and true feelings of having never loved her family and Erichtonios is disabused of the hope that she ever did is my guess.

[Iscah]

So... about Auracite....

You might be looking at the terminology backwards. Asking "are these other things really auracite?" seems the wrong question. The simpler resolution is to regard auracite as a generic term for a crystal that can store a person's aether or memories. The kind created by Ultima is just one example, not the sole owner of the term.

We now have it, folks. The final, nail-in-the-coffin revelation that Lahabrea is, in fact, truly dead and undone since Heavensward MSQ.

There is no new proof for or against it, and certainly not because other characters believe he is dead. Whether he is or isn't, they've thought that since Heavensward.

Lahabrea as seen in the present-day part of the raid story is a construct from memories stored in the crystal, and has no connection to his real self.

[SannaR]

I know this isn't much in the way of lore, but Gosetsu's tank stance is called imposing force. So the man literally gains threat from just existing. Lyse also I want to say it's when she limit breaks says this is for you Yda which is similar to her this is for you Papalymo line she uses when limit breaking the last trash mob in Ghimlyt Dark.

[Zero-ELEC]

You might be looking at the terminology backwards. Asking "are these other things really auracite?" seems the wrong question. The simpler resolution is to regard auracite as a generic term for a crystal that can store a person's aether or memories. The kind created by Ultima is just one example, not the sole owner of the term.

That's a good point, though the kind created by Ultima seems to have the property of amplifying what emotions are put into it and manipulating emotions with them, but I guess that's just special properties of her particular holy stones.