Are <5.0 main villain> fanboys also supportive of <6.1-6.5 main villain>? *SPOILERS*

[Iscah]

If only we had time travel and alternate timelines so that both groups could have lived...oh wait...

There's time travel along a single timeline, and then there is jumping between different branches of a split timeline.

All instances of time travel that we have seen used in the game stem from Alexander's power, and so far as we have been shown, those powers have only performed the first type of time travel. Either it forms a clear loop on a single timeline (Alexander raids, Elpis time loop) or is only used for the first step of causing a split timeline, which is travelling backwards along a single timeline to transport the timeline-breaker from their original future to their past, at which point their own actions are what causes a split. The breaker – G'raha in our sole canon example – is carried into the new split and has no way back to their original timeline unless their time machine has the ability to jump from one branch to another, which has not been indicated as possible. G'raha seems to believe that the people he knew in the other future are utterly beyond his reach now.

If we somehow succeeded in changing events at Elpis to prevent the history we know, then we would likewise be swept into an alternate timeline with no guarantee of finding our way back to our original present. Neither would we actually have prevented the suffering of the Final Days, because that already happened in the past that led to our own existence, and would still happen in that timeline. Meanwhile the people we left behind in our own present would not be saved, because we might not return at all, or might return but not have witnessed the reason for the Final Days occurring.

If we do not bring news of the root cause of the Final Days to our present, then it is utterly doomed, everyone dies permanently because their souls get imprisoned by Meteion, and Emet-Selch's twelve thousand years of suffering have been for nothing.


The two potential story courses are...

If we only witness the events at Elpis (or unsuccessfully meddle):
- the ancients still go through the Final Days
- events up to the present happen, resulting in our character being alive
- we go to Elpis and return with a solution
- the present-day world is saved

Final outcome: could not help the ancients; could help present-day people.


If we broke the timeline:
- the ancients still go through the Final Days and Sundering in one branch of the timeline
- events up to the present happen
- we go to Elpis and do NOT return with a solution
- present-day world is doomed
- in another branch of the timeline, maybe we saved the ancients and they live happily ever after, or maybe a different crisis strikes and they're doomed anyway.

Final outcome: could not help the original ancients, could not help the present day, cannot guarantee that the other timeline won't just be a different variety of failure.

So in short, splitting the timeline does not prevent any suffering, while dooming people who could otherwise be saved.


In any case, my personal theory is that you can only break the timeline if you are already familiar with how things "should" happen. G'raha was armed with detailed knowledge of the event he was trying to stop; we did not have a single clue what to expect in Elpis.