Quote Originally Posted by Cleretic View Post
Actually, it's a fair assumption that its chief purpose is dimensional travel, not fusion; the lalafel didn't graft Aloalo Island onto the Ninth, they traveled there. To ask 'why would Azem make a tool capable of dimensional fusion' is probably like asking 'why would the Wright Brothers create something capable of destroying a building': they didn't, other people brought the creation to that conclusion.

...except that there's a different problem that's also at play with this presumption, that we also hit if we're talking about dimensional travel: the other dimensions did not exist at the time Azem was around. Why create a tool with the express purpose of traveling to a location that literally doesn't exist? Especially given we're not exactly talking about seasoned geniuses in the subject; I don't even know who in Ancient society would be able to predict where the shards would be on a dimensional-physical level (which I can only imagine would be unfathomably difficult, you can't exactly point on a map and go 'there'), but I wouldn't put that bet on Azem.

This is why my suspicion with the key is that it wasn't made by Azem: it was made afterwards, by people evoking Azem's symbol and story after it had faded into legend. That makes a lot more sense to me; the other shards confirmably exist at that point, and the key isn't realistically that much of a leap beyond later tech we've seen. It'd have to be from a group we haven't seen before, but there's a lot of gaps in the game's worldbuilding to fit new, interesting locations.

Also it'd mean we wouldn't get a rehash of the least interesting zone in Endwalker to me, and that'd be great too.
There’s always Ultima. That’s also a theory being put forward, and maybe it has some legs? Do we know if Venat made up the idea of Sundering/Reflections all on her own… or did she maybe encounter something that gave her the idea that inter-dimensional reflections/travel were possible?

And if that’s the case - maaaaaaybe Calyx didn’t learn about reflections from the Ascians - but instead learned from a version of Ultima?