Revelations from Patch 6.5: "Growing Light", Part 1

[Lyth]

...

Aloalo:

Not explicitly. The word 'auspices' does come up a couple of times in the entries and dialogue, but it's probably meant in a more traditional sense ('guidance').

I think Kalika fulfills Senri's criteria at least informally, as he's able to remember events dating back to the Fifth Umbral Calamity.

Kalika: I can tell you only of legends passed down through generations. Of biting frost that turned seas to ice, which drove the Speaker's makers to go forth in search of a haven where light shone bright. Those who came long after found Aloalo, where life had weathered the ancient rime. At the island's heart was the Speaker, its jewel flawless and radiant.

[...]

Matsya: Just how old are you, Kalika? You speak of eras so ancient that they are as myth to us.

Kalika: Your guess is as good as mine, Master Matsya! I remember well when the island was bustling and vibrant, its inhabitants dedicated to esoteric equations and other cultural pursuits. Some even attempted to unravel the mysteries of the Speaker and its jewel.

I was born in the great shrine, this much I know. When the people found me, I spoke to them in their own tongue─they were beside themselves in disbelief! Thus was I deemed the Speaker's servant.

/tenrabbits

[Cleretic]

Aloalo:

Not explicitly. The word 'auspices' does come up a couple of times in the entries and dialogue, but it's probably meant in a more traditional sense ('guidance').

I think Kalika fulfills Senri's criteria at least informally, as he's able to remember events dating back to the Fifth Umbral Calamity.

Kalika: I can tell you only of legends passed down through generations. Of biting frost that turned seas to ice, which drove the Speaker's makers to go forth in search of a haven where light shone bright. Those who came long after found Aloalo, where life had weathered the ancient rime. At the island's heart was the Speaker, its jewel flawless and radiant.

[...]

Matsya: Just how old are you, Kalika? You speak of eras so ancient that they are as myth to us.

Kalika: Your guess is as good as mine, Master Matsya! I remember well when the island was bustling and vibrant, its inhabitants dedicated to esoteric equations and other cultural pursuits. Some even attempted to unravel the mysteries of the Speaker and its jewel.

I was born in the great shrine, this much I know. When the people found me, I spoke to them in their own tongue─they were beside themselves in disbelief! Thus was I deemed the Speaker's servant.

/tenrabbits

Actually, that quote confirmably removes the possibility being discussed.

Basically the most confirmed and verifiable thing about Auspices is that they take a long goddamn time to happen: it's basically when a normal animal survives so long that it happens to just gain deific powers probably through aether collation. But Kalika instead being able to immediately communicate after its 'birth' removes the possibility of Kalika being an Auspice.

My best guess, from a current standing of not having done many of the endings, is that perhaps Kalika is the Speaker's 'carbuncle'. But for that to be true I'd have to be making a lot of assumptions about the Speaker's nature, far beyond the point I'm comfortable with my assertion.

[Lyth]

Aloalo:

There's a bit more to it than that. The Speaker, Loquloqui, is a giant lalafell statue carved out of wood that guards the Jewel in the deepest part of the island, placed there by the island's original inhabitants ('the forgotten people') back in the Fourth Astral Era. When the Fifth Umbral Calamity of Ice struck, there was an exodus from the island (which we've heard also happened in many other places, including Meracydia) to the fertile and aetherically rich lands of Eorzea. Some of those descendants went on to found the city-state of Nym.

During the Fifth Astral and Sixth Umbral Eras, various peoples arrived back on the now deserted island, some of whom were of Nymian descent. Statice likely belonged to one such settler, and is thought to have persisted after her Scholar's death by drawing on the aetheric supply of the Speaker's Jewel.

After the War of the Magi and the subsequent Sixth Umbral Calamity of Water, some of the island's second set of settlers returned to Vylbrand, bringing back with them the knowledge of Arcanima as we understand it today. This cross-pollination between Nym and Aloalo likely explains the interconnections between the various Arcanist-derived techniques.

Sparrows themselves are quite common in Thavnair and on Aloalo. Kalika was able to talk by the time he first met the second set of settlers on the island, but we have no precise time frame about how old he actually was at the time. Given his recollections, it's entirely possible that he predates even Nym, which means that he could have been a couple thousand years old by the time of his first encounter with the new settlers. It is possible that his time spent in proximity to the aetheric energies of the Jewel contributed to his unique longevity, however.

The most recent set of Aloalo's inhabitants worshipped three animal deities that they placed to guard the entrance to the temple. Performing a ritual for them is necessary to enter the temple of the Speaker. One such deity is likely Kalika. The second is Ketuduke, who is a flying whale of the variety that can be found in the Southern Seas. The third is a sea turtle, whom I don't think we meet directly. They also came to revere the Speaker as well when they discovered the temple, so this is likely a case of mythos constructed upon mythos.

Lastly, in case you were wondering if there was a point to all the fishing - the fish that lived in the temple of the Speaker had a property that protects against illness, which was used to cure an epidemic that struck the infants of the island's inhabitants. Matsya ends up gifting the fish to Vaazti, the baby daughter of Qerasaf and Mehvan.

/tenrabbits