Quote Originally Posted by Shookbeast View Post
I second this opinion, and I’m excited for possible Azem arcs. I find value in Azem shards because it’s a way for the player character to make some (personally) meaningful discoveries about themself.

What if the cloaked “you know who” at the end of the “you know what” cutscene is actually not a regular blankety blank… but is a shard of our volcano grape savior? But a bad one! (Duhn duhn duhn!)

Then anyone who is a shard of us/them - well they’re in danger. The bad one might want to eat them. Or maybe already has.

Cleretic, you are a wealth of knowledge and lore - but it’s clear you simply do not care for Azem theory - but there is plenty of room for us all to spin our fantasies. What favorite theories are you picking up hints for as this expansion winds down/up?

As far as my thoughts on 7.3. Yeesh. I appreciated the ways the writers tried to break up the MSQ, but looking back on it all now, this story gives me big Dragon Age 3 release pattern vibes.

That game got its ending cut off, and released a while later as DLC. It was done as a way to stretch out the story for more content and more cash.

Dawntrail (in my opinion) should have been the 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, and 7.3 patches as a single release - with the filler cut down. 7.3 didn’t feel like the end of Dawntrail - it felt like the story finally kicked into gear - and that feels a bit too little too late for me.

Also, I wish we got a 7th zone that was all the broken down underbelly of Everkeep. The dungeons in that vein were cool, but I want a zone to explore and spend time in. Something like the sub-sub-sub-basements in Portal 2.
Huh Bad News Bears, evil Azem shard that tries to eat us for more power would be kind of interesting. Well, could be, at any rate. I don't know how they'd write that, nor how the guy would actually set him or herself up to chow down on the WoL. We're some tough meat.

Also the nattering issue of, Azem was removed from ze Convocation, and his stone was made in secret. Idk how an evil Azem would even be raised into position.

I guess if I wanted to take the leap of faith, it's possible that a non-standard raising of an exceptional individual to another seat could have triggered Azem memories in an unpleasant way. Cause remember Ye Olde Emet-selch said they do sometimes raise guys that aren't the same soul shards as the prior Convocation members, but we then had 0 examples of that.

It could be cool to see a split personality character, 1 part Azem, and 1 part remaining Convocation seat. My memory's dumped most small XIV stuff since I lost interest. Can't remember which seats are still left. It was what, 2 or 3 Convocation members left to show? And the ever present possibility of 8UE timeline Emet coming out of the 1st's Crystal Tower basement as a long term stowaway in stasis sort of thing.

But I guess the biggest questions would be, what do the remaining Ascians attempt to do now? People theorize there's only so many paths they can take, but what if the writers get really simple with it, and have them aim to resummon Zodiark? I mean, he is just the original primal, supposedly. Why wouldn't they be able to summon him again, if they got enough aether? Yes, it sounds boring, but I just don't know what else they'd do with Ascians, as many folks have said in the past that being Ascian at all marks you as a Zodiark adherent vs. regular Ancient or whatever (compartmentalization if you ask me).

What I'm more interested in, is what sort of villain factions for fodder are we going to get? Initially we had the Garleans, but now it seems like we're doomed to get random faction bad guys every time there's new bad guys. Solution-9's Robo army with Feral Soul generals being what we just put to bed. What's next? Steampunk Magisteam soldiers from The 4th? Or more robo soldiers from somewhere else?

Or are we gonna get like... a whole ass Ascian army? Like what if the last 3 went off on their own machinations, and just started raising anyone who could use magic into having Ascian powers and techniques like the teleporting and rift hopping? What if they're serving some monarch on another shard who has some sort of highly desirable domination goal, and he's made the Ascians into foot soldiers?

Probably a bit farfetched, but I've always loved speculating on the future. It doesn't rob me of enjoyment I have, because I don't expect what I imagine to be what we get. XI broke me of that long ago. I just like the way Final Fantasy activates my imagination.