Zodiark's Codex entry what do we think about it?

[Lyth]

I don't think that you can unironically use words like 'superior' and 'inferior' in reference to other human beings. This is one of those things that is by its nature not objective or mathematical. While you can be proud of your strengths, they don't make you intrinsically 'superior' to another human being.

I'm still of a mindset that Azem is from one of those other places. Personal headcanon is that Azem is from a place more in tune to nature and open to ideas and creativity. Basically the opposite of Amaurot. If we were to declare Amaurot the "Order" of the world, the place Azem is from is the "Chaos" of the world. A place that raises people to be themselves instead of following the overall "Order" of the society. Not to say there aren't rules there, but they're much more open to creativity, expression of the self, and more akin to Idylshire or the Azim Steppe in terms of how the society is.

I'm of a similar view. That's not to say that Azem couldn't have absorbed their share of Amaurotine values from the likes of Emet and Elidibus over time. But as a non-conformist who was censured at least twice by the Convocation (to the point that the Convocation refused to preserve the memories of Azem's post for future generations), it seems that growing up as an outsider and a misfit in Amaurotine social circles would line up very naturally with that origin story. At the very least, the less definitive constraints that are placed on Azem's story, the more freedom players have to construct their own player character's stories in relation to their progenitor's spirit.

On a related note, I'd really like to see that same clash of values between 'Order' and 'Chaos' be encapsulated in Summoning magic. It strikes me as really strange that Summoning in this story has been dismissed as an inferior substitute for Creation magic, especially when the former is easily one of the most iconic and recognizable spell casting techniques across the 35-year franchise. It really deserves better. I would love to see a FFXIV society that gets Summoning 'right' - a village of summoners who use a combination of spiritual faith and forming bonds with their summons to in order live in harmony alongside them, perhaps in the vein of FFIV's Mist or FFIX's Madain Sari. I think there are plenty of opportunities to explore what Summoning really entails if we head south to Meracydia, given what we know of their historical war with Allag. Bonus points if they trace their lineage to one of those foreign nations observed by Amaurot from 'across the pond'.

[RyuDragnier]

On a related note, I'd really like to see that same clash of values between 'Order' and 'Chaos' be encapsulated in Summoning magic. It strikes me as really strange that Summoning in this story has been dismissed as an inferior substitute for Creation magic, especially when the former is easily one of the most iconic and recognizable spell casting techniques across the 35-year franchise. It really deserves better. I would love to see a FFXIV society that gets Summoning 'right' - a village of summoners who use a combination of spiritual faith and forming bonds with their summons to in order live in harmony alongside them, perhaps in the vein of FFIV's Mist or FFIX's Madain Sari. I think there are plenty of opportunities to explore what Summoning really entails if we head south to Meracydia, given what we know of their historical war with Allag. Bonus points if they trace their lineage to one of those foreign nations observed by Amaurot from 'across the pond'.

Even more bonus points if the name of that area of Meracydia (or of that foreign nation apart from Amaurot) is the Feymarch.

[Lunaxia]

I don't think that you can unironically use words like 'superior' and 'inferior' in reference to other human beings. This is one of those things that is by its nature not objective or mathematical. While you can be proud of your strengths, they don't make you intrinsically 'superior' to another human being.

"Superior" can be used objectively and subjectively. Emet-Selch tells us that the Ancients were superior in terms of strength, intelligence, robustness and longevity. At least two of those (strength and longevity) can be measured mathematically, but that's irrelevant here, because the story already confirmed the Ancients do indeed possess these traits anyway. So in that respect, he was objectively telling the truth.

What is subjective, however, is whether these qualities make the Ancients superior or subsequently more deserving of life as a race overall. And I don't think anyone here or within the story is claiming that, or that Emet-Selch wasn't categorically wrong for believing otherwise. But that still has no bearing on humanising Amaurot itself, or why you have to view everything Emet-Selch tells us as a lie in order to do so.

[Cleretic]

Personally, I constantly argue that Emet was wrong about intelligence, for the simple example of 'every time an Ascian died, it was because they were outsmarted by sundered people'. That's not exactly the most scientific measuring criteria, but in a story it speaks volumes more than if someone produced, like, the Etheiryan equivalent of IQ scores.

If I were being generous, Emet might be falling for a fallacy that I wish had an actual name: the belief that 'less advanced' civilizations must have less intelligent people in them. In the modern day it manifests as variants of 'people in the past were stupid' (see: 'ancient Egyptians couldn't have built the pyramids, it must've been aliens'), and of course, it's a backbone of a whole lot of racist outlooks on the world (see: 'colonialism was good because it brought 'modernity' to other countries'). It's a view usually born of a combination of not recognizing that human intelligence is built on a mountain of previous discoveries, having a selective and self-centered view of 'knowledge' in the first place, and drawing your own criteria for 'success' to put yourself on top. Basically, from Emet's perspective, the sundered people must be less intelligent, because a real intelligent society could've come up with skyscrapers, Elpis, and the cubus, and he's just ignoring or belittling the advancements they actually are making.

...and as a sick addition to that: remember that the big reason the Source has lost a bunch of information they can't easily learn from and build on is because the Ascians keep forcing their advanced civilizations to blow themselves to smithereens.