Revelations from Patch 6.4: The Dark Throne

[Cilia]

I just realized something about 6.4. Or rather, what's not in 6.4.

Did anyone see a mention of the voidsent-enamored Gridanian goldsmith!?

I vaguely remember this character being mentioned, but the MSQ being an extended IV reference has left me so disengaged I just didn't bother reporting it (and it's now been so long I forgot when, where, and who mentioned said goldsmith).

[Rannie]

Wasn't it the one that was mentioned in 6.2 ish with the whole crack about the terrified voidsent being summoned to the source to do odd things?

[Cleretic]

Wasn't it the one that was mentioned in 6.2 ish with the whole crack about the terrified voidsent being summoned to the source to do odd things?

Yeah, he's weirdly come up in every other patch MSQ so far. We found a book by him in 6.1, we found a voidsent he summoned in 6.2 (we'd previously found his account of the ordeal in one of the Gubal Library books), and in 6.3 we found out that he seemed to be the guy who maintained the Galatea in Lapis Manalis.

It's why I thought it worth bringing up, it's been a weirdly noticeable pattern.

[Rannie]

Yeah, he's weirdly come up in every other patch MSQ so far. We found a book by him in 6.1, we found a voidsent he summoned in 6.2 (we'd previously found his account of the ordeal in one of the Gubal Library books), and in 6.3 we found out that he seemed to be the guy who maintained the Galatea in Lapis Manalis.

It's why I thought it worth bringing up, it's been a weirdly noticeable pattern.

Ahhhhhh I get ya now

[MikkoAkure]

I wonder if Ultima having interactions with the Ancients gives any further meaning to the Convocation seat names being named after the Scions of Light from FFXII (the light variants of the Esper summons), the fact that their symbols are made of parts of the Esper summoning glyphs, the use of Zodiac symbols on their memory crystals, and the presence of the Seat of Altima.

At first it could've been put down as simple fanservice but the writers' use of Ultima in Pandaemonium could open up a whole can of worms. Or it could mean nothing more than the writers just trying to tie loose ends and they'll never come back to the Ancients again.

[SilversLyu]

I wonder if Ultima having interactions with the Ancients gives any further meaning to the Convocation seat names being named after the Scions of Light from FFXII (the light variants of the Esper summons), the fact that their symbols are made of parts of the Esper summoning glyphs, the use of Zodiac symbols on their memory crystals, and the presence of the Seat of Altima.

At first it could've been put down as simple fanservice but the writers' use of Ultima in Pandaemonium could open up a whole can of worms. Or it could mean nothing more than the writers just trying to tie loose ends and they'll never come back to the Ancients again.

To me it's either a loving nod to FFXII which a good part of the FFXIV dev team worked on, or they will come up with more ivalice eventually. My dream is for an ivalice themed expansion (and other games such a vagrant story or FFtactics). Seeing how they STILL bring up The high Seraph Ultima and the use of stones aka Auracite.. Oh boy I am intrigued.

[Alleluia]

The four-month patch cycle is really killing my ability to hold onto minor details.

Nonetheless, she does visibly react to it, so I think there's something there. Never mind how Y'shtola magically pulling "Zero" out of a bag of names in an FFIV homage storyline is as on-the-nose as randomly nicknaming your newly-resurrected uncle "Judas" with absolutely no knowledge of his true identity or how he died. (That's Tales of Destiny 2, FYI)

Its apparently named after a "hero of eld". My current guess is that the original Zeromus is who that statue in Zero's domain is.

[Fenral]

Its apparently named after a "hero of eld". My current guess is that the original Zeromus is who that statue in Zero's domain is.

I mean, yeah. I got that bit. Zero reacts like she has some baggage there, either just with heroes or with the name "Zeromus" in particular, and all of that works fine... except for the part where Y'shtola pulling "Zero" randomly out of a hat several patches ago now strains credibility to the breaking point. I let it slide when I thought it foreshadowed our Zero being involved in the (anticipated) Zemus -> Zeromus transformation, but instead we just skipped Zemus entirely and coincidentally have two characters named Zero, one entirely on accident. It bugged me then, it's really bugging me now.

Maybe Y'shtola will say later that she really pulled it off an inscription on that statue or something, except she can't because the naming thing happened before going to Zero's domain.

[Cleretic]

We didn't 'skip Zemus' so much as 'recast Zemus'. Azdaja's effectively our Zemus, just with different underlying emotions leading to the transformation, and giving Golbez a role of control over the situation rather than him being a puppet. (Which is objectively a way better decision, nobody likes the 'Golbez was being mind-controlled' twist, it's the worst part of IV and probably in the running as the worst plot point in all Final Fantasy.)

...Also, the camera literally doesn't show Zero after Zeromus' namedrop for her to have the reaction you're describing. The actual order of shots goes:
1. Golbez on the lip of the pit, "Zeromus, awaken!"
2. Wide shot of whole pit, Hero Crew not on camera
3. Zeromus' eyes and face
4. Zeromus' right hand
5. Sweeping shot pnning around Zeromus emerging; Vrtra briefly visible, ends behind Golbez looking up at it
6. Back to Hero Crew, step-forward 'oh damn' reaction
7. Zero draws scythe, "No matter how powerful, a voidsent can be sealed in memoria!" (Clearly her going 'alright, I know what to do here')

There's no reaction to Zeromus' name at the time, Zero's response is clearly to seeing this enormous angry voidsent. Afterwards the only response from Zero is "So named for an ancient hero, as Golbez said. Though none can say if there is even a sliver of truth to the legends." That certainly implies she might be aware of the legend, but no reaction to it in terms of expression or animation, not even Zero's signature 'I've got an emotional response to this but I'm too emotionally muted to make it clear' hat-tip. So no, she at no point ever 'visibly reacts' to the name.

I feel like you're mistakenly fabricating your own evidence for what you want the conclusion to be. I'm correcting it not because you're wrong to be disappointed the story isn't going the way you thought it will/hoped you would, but because this sort of mistake has a habit of rooting itself in and compounding if not corrected; you don't wanna spend months building up this theory and assumptions only to find out that your base evidence was wrong.

[Lyth]

I wonder if Zeromus is canonically considered to be one of the Lucavi within the Ivalice storyline. In FFXII this seemed to be the case, being affiliated with the Cancer Zodiac, but I think that Zodiac stone was simply associated with Construct 7 in Tactics. If these are different, I wonder how they will be able to work around having two Zeromus variants, given the recent references to Ultima.