Revelations from Patch 7.2: Seekers of Eternity

[Dikatis]

Two down two up does seem to be the standard family structure in mamools, but as with real creatures parthenogenesis wouldn’t have to be the exclusive option. Language describing zoraal - “the miracle” - is also associated with virgin birth* in reality. As I remember which might not be entirely accurate, the dead baby urns were full of infants that didn’t hatch properly from their eggs among other issues; indicating they like sahagin and potentially au ra grow from a cluster of eggs allowing us to draw some reasonable inferences based on real creatures.

*Galool ja ja may not actually be a virgin

Except... no? That's not how it was at all? Zoraal Ja wasn't a virgin birth, he was the first Mamool Ja child to ever be born to a two-headed Mamool Ja, who were all thought to be sterile. That is why he's the "miracle". He's an impossibility made reality and the firstborn son of the greatest warrior and diplomat Tural has ever known. It's part of the reason why Zoraal Ja is so hung up on surpassing his father. As a "miracle", people expected miracles from him, which led Zoraal Ja to impose enormous amounts of pressure on himself as his father's and people's golden child.

There was no implication that Gulool Ja Ja was ever a virgin. And the fact that he had a child in his 70s or 80s implies that he was trying for a while.

[fulminating]

You can’t say for definite that it’s the case. The miracle of Jesus’ birth is pretty strongly associated with the word miracle. When deciding on the English translation, they didn’t have to use the word miracle at all, doing so can only be a deliberate choice on their part. There’s not been mention of a mother, no consideration from zoraal that he might have after her rather than his father. Not to mention that the rules for racial inheritance we know about are that it’s broadly matrilineal with slight if any features from the father. This would necessitate at the least a hoobigo somewhere that’s his mother. Parthenogenesis saves the bother of inventing this new npc because we know one of the heads is a hoobigo.

It does raise the question of why he didn’t have a second child after proving he could do it once though, even if it was through the standard method.

[Iscah]

Zoraal’s child is the tiniest mammool ja you’ve ever seen; reduced litter size is another associated consequence.

Gulool Ja is tiny because he's still a child. He's the same size as other children we see in Tuliyollal.

Language describing zoraal - “the miracle” - is also associated with virgin birth* in reality.

You can’t say for definite that it’s the case. The miracle of Jesus’ birth is pretty strongly associated with the word miracle. When deciding on the English translation, they didn’t have to use the word miracle at all, doing so can only be a deliberate choice on their part.

One association of the term "miracle" with a virgin birth, even if a very culturally prominent one, doesn't put it off-limits for ever being used for other types of births. The Bible is full of different types of miracles happening anyway, so it's not a word strongly linked with any one specific event.

...potentially au ra grow from a cluster of eggs

Not to mention that the rules for racial inheritance we know about are that it’s broadly matrilineal with slight if any features from the father.

Both of those are pure fan inventions with no canon support.

Au Ra are never portrayed as reptilian. Scales and horns can be mammal traits. If the devs wanted us to think they hatched from eggs, they could have dropped that detail into either of the Au Ra homelands we visited, but there is nothing.

And the "baby takes the mother's race" thing seems to have come from bad extrapolating from minimal examples.

We have Hilda, who is actually a pretty even balance of Hyur and Elezen traits, besides having been given a Hyur model (but that had to go one way or the other). The main racial differences are height and ear shape, and Hilda looks halfway between in both cases.

All the other direct examples we have are Hyur x Garlean, which is basically human x human besides the Garlean third eye which rarely gets passed down. Then we have one legendary example from Sui-no-Sato (Au Ra x Hyur = scaleless Au Ra apparently) which maybe leans more towards the mother's race, but that's still just one example and not an indication of how it always works.

[Iscah]

Being super woke here lol but am I the only one who finds it extremely problematic that basically the antagonist was just a man’s puppet the entire time? God forbid a woman (AI) shows some agency lol. Has to be a man behind it…

Idk I think I prefer ‘AI got confused between Sphene personality and its programmed commands’ to ‘shut-in hacker boy with another exhausting god complex’ (how many freaks are we going to meet that are obsessed with ‘evolving people’/‘being more than human’).

I dislike it, but not because of the gender aspect particularly. It just felt like "sentient AI caught between her personality and her programmed orders" was a more interesting story concept without the newly added factor that someone else was manipulating her into feeling like that.

[mallleable]

While yeah there was fiddling around with Endless Sphene's behaviors by Calyx/Preservation, Sphene did muse over the idea that she could have made similar decisions given the right circumstances.

"The Endless Sphene was one possibility. A version of myself who made choices I want to believe I never would. I'm beginning to come to terms with the fact I did, though."

So I like to believe that 'history's most brutal queen' wasn't something created by Preservation, and is instead came from Sphene's self. I think Calyx, and Preservation were rather hands off when it came to Endless Sphene, save for some blinders maybe. I don't think it's possible to create personality defining memories unless you have some truly evil magicks like the 'Ultima of memory magicks.' I don't think something like Kairos would be capable of changing who someone is by blasting their brain with aether.

Sim Sphene is 100% puppet. The only things she has in common with Sphene is just raw information about real, and Endless Sphene, recent events, and her face. She has no point of view other than Calyx's, and only exists as an extension of his plan.

Also Zoraal Ja just suffered from weapon's grade insecurities. No biological explanations needed.

[SannaR]

Well wasn't expecting to learn more about that incident from the Mamool Ja society quest line finisher.

It looks as tho Zereel Ja didn't order the attempted drowning of Wuk Lamat when she was a toddler. I'm going to assume that it was blessed siblings related as even though female Hrothgar are still rare they're not as rare as a successful attempt at a blessed sibling. He didn't even know that the girl survived or that she had grown up to be Wuk Lamat. To me him feeling relieved at learning from Wuk Lamat's father that she did is genuine. Same for knowing how lucky he is that Wuk Lamat is the way she is when it comes to forgiveness. It was a really nice let's burry the hatchet this time kind of moment.

[mallleable]

Dunno where else to put this, but realizing we might be getting the first whispers of 8.0 in 7.3's MSQ.

[Iscah]

Dunno where else to put this, but realizing we might be getting the first whispers of 8.0 in 7.3's MSQ.

Next-expansion hints tend to be more of an X.4 thing, don't they?

[mallleable]

Next-expansion hints tend to be more of an X.4 thing, don't they?

I don't think there's a set rule when they start leaving bread crumbs for the next expansion, but x.3 would be the earliest considering they introduced Fandaniel at the end of 5.3. Would not be surprised if we get a 'meanwhile elsewhere' cutscene at the end of 7.3 that seems out of place.

[Cleretic]

I don't think there's a set rule when they start leaving bread crumbs for the next expansion, but x.3 would be the earliest considering they introduced Fandaniel at the end of 5.3. Would not be surprised if we get a 'meanwhile elsewhere' cutscene at the end of 7.3 that seems out of place.

Well, no, they introduced Fandaniel in 5.1, we just didn't know who the hell he WAS until 5.3. And didn't even have the faintest idea what he was doing until 5.4. (And even then, a lot of people got that wrong.)

Iscah's right that x.4 is traditionally the 'setup for the next time' chapter. 3.4 introduced the Griffin and pointed us at Ala Mhigo, 4.4 introduced 'Solus Galvus'. At best, if you're really hoping to look more at the next expansion, 7.3 is going to tell you what character that already exists will be worth keeping an eye on. But even then, be aware of a false positive; the Warriors of Darkness were still lingering as of the end of 3.3.