Revelations from Patch 7.3: The Promise of Tomorrow

[Cleretic]

A little off-topic, I know - but despite having played the game for approximately four years now.... I was unaware of this.

Every single time I've played it the Tanks always deal with Susano's sword and I always took it for granted that it was a Tank's job to parry his sword.

I've always been a little mad about it because 'make big shield to protect people' isn't a tank thing in the game's cutscenes, that's a healer thing. Y'shtola used to do it a lot!

The game's always been in need of 'cool healer moments', where the healer feels like the big, center-stage hero. Even the actual healer-focused mechanics are more often the healer doing smaller complex stuff like having to clear Doom; 'make a big damn shield' is exactly healer's brand for a hero moment, and yet... well, it's a tank mechanic! (Even if other people can do it, it's intended as a tank mechanic, the healers have healing to do, the tanks don't ahve tanking to do.)

So yeah, let's look at the Alexandrians. They were specifically wearing something like a neurolink with the capacity to alter their very souls, and they were fully tempered by said device and Necron. So they actually had a wombo combo. Both tempered and thought controlled. But mere words, spoken gently by their queen caused it to fail just enough so Necron could be beaten. Keep in mind that they are all, at a minimum, Sundered Source inhabitants, but there should be quite a few of them who have a drastic amount less aetheric density, on top of not having dragon scales.

If it's not a plot hole, then it is at least disrespectful to previously established lore. Heck, look back at the Summoner questline from ARR. Tristan Nightflicker was one of many people forced to kill family members who were tempered. If emotional response was so worthwhile, then we wouldn't have needed a cure for Tempering, now would we?

Dikatis did a good job showing that your read on all this was pretty narrow, but to add to it:

The thing with the people who had to be put to death for tempering is that they were fantatical and violent. A cure would've been nice, everyone theoretically wanted that, but it wasn't available for a long time. Meanwhile, the people forced to summon Necron weren't really doing anything; they were sort of laser-focused on the summoning and just sorta vegetative otherwise. Ironically, they were probably more dangerous before the tempering, that one guy mugged someone for their neo-regulator. All this makes sense not only when you remember that Necron isn't exactly megalomaniacal, but also when you remember that Calyx is a very technically-minded person who just wanted them to do one thing; of course they're not exactly doing anything else.

The writers haven't lost their grip on their worldbuilding', and they're not disrespectful of it; I think you're overly rigid in your understanding of it. It's not that the thing can't be done: it's that you decided it can't, probably quite a while ago. When the truth is this all completely scans, this is essentially an echo of Ga Bu as Dikatis said, but also Venat as RedLolly said.

Bringing up ARR Summoner is a little weird to me, because it's kinda... neutral to the point. Tristan isn't proving or disproving anything about this, he's merely a consequence of a previous status quo. But I kinda suspect you're putting him forward as an unconscious appeal to 'old and more niche info is better': that because he's from an old storyline that other people might not have touched or remembered, he is therefore 'greater evidence' than much clearer things like, again, Ga Bu and Venat.

[Carin-Eri]

I've always been a little mad about it because 'make big shield to protect people' isn't a tank thing in the game's cutscenes, that's a healer thing. Y'shtola used to do it a lot!

The game's always been in need of 'cool healer moments', where the healer feels like the big, center-stage hero. Even the actual healer-focused mechanics are more often the healer doing smaller complex stuff like having to clear Doom; 'make a big damn shield' is exactly healer's brand for a hero moment, and yet... well, it's a tank mechanic! (Even if other people can do it, it's intended as a tank mechanic, the healers have healing to do, the tanks don't ahve tanking to do.)

This!

In hindsight, it's a real shame - particularly since I play as Sage very frequently, and shields are pretty much a Sage's MO!

[Dastan]

All should be revealed soon, but I did suddenly have a suspicion that Calyx is one of our missing four Ascians. It is possible we will get a trio of them as the antagonists of 8.0. Yes, we saw Altima and Deudalaphon's masks in Gaius' possession, but that doesn't mean they are "dead". Calyx could possibly be Pashtarot's shard. This could explain his knowledge of primal summoning and his cold and calculating personality. That "ascian" we saw could be Altima, Deudalaphon, or even Halmarut.

But I still think Calyx is definitely dying in 7.4

[RedLolly]

There was a cancelled event at the VERY end of 1.0’s life that showed the original upcoming Titan story actually included a wild scene of super healing. Titan, sobbing at the deaths of Kobolds and the fighters in the Company of Heroes alike during a battle, rips out his own heart and crushes it, killing himself while reviving everyone there. Unhinged and awesome and the fact we haven't gotten to healer LB in a cutscene like THAT is a shame but also, damn.

[Cassar]

But I still think Calyx is definitely dying in 7.4

Absolutely no chance imo. If Calyx died in 7.4, what would've been the point of him surviving 7.3? 7.3 was the end of Dawntrail, if Calyx were to die immediately after it would very much undermine that conclusion.

Narratively speaking, what makes the most sense is that the Scions won't even know that Calyx survived until way later (like 7.5 at the earliest), and him alongside the Winterers will be overarching villains for future expansions.

Of course, this is speculation, but I think this is what makes most sense considering they want to make Dawntrail the base for the next 10 years of the story.

[mallleable]

I can see Calyx dying in like 7.4 or .5, but only if it's at the hands of a bigger bad to establish some stakes.

[Cleretic]

I would consider Calyx dying-for-real in 7.4 a personal insult, he deserves better than that and as his apparent biggest defender I'll continue saying that! He's also smarter than that, he knows people think he's dead, you don't get to capitalize on that by just, like, waiting until the next day.

But also... when has this game dodged killing a significant character (especially a villain), only to kill them for real the literal very next chance they get? C'mon, even Yotsuyu and Nidhogg had a couple patches of runway, they just don't do that.

[PorxiesRCute]

Calyx being an Ascian doesn't make much sense either, since he doesn't even have a soul.

It would be interesting if his human self had become an Ascian after he was digitized, though.

[Shistar]

A little off-topic, I know - but despite having played the game for approximately four years now.... I was unaware of this.

Every single time I've played it the Tanks always deal with Susano's sword and I always took it for granted that it was a Tank's job to parry his sword.

I like stepping in as AST because you just plop the star globe in front of you and it looks super silly. Usually gets fun reactions from the party as well xD I'll just do the first one for funsies and let the tanks for their thing for the second one after I'm done having my silly moment.

[Carin-Eri]

Calyx being an Ascian doesn't make much sense either, since he doesn't even have a soul.

It would be interesting if his human self had become an Ascian after he was digitized, though.

I guess another question remains regarding what actually happened to his 'human' body.

I realise he said that he "discarded the flesh", but he didn't elaborate on that - and "discard" doesn't necessarily indicate 'destroyed'. I can't help but feel that someone as pragmatic, and with such a meticulous mindset, as Calyx would just leave his former body to rot, particularly not when the technology to place a person in stasis existed. So whilst he may not care about it, I guess it isn't entirely impossible that his flesh body is hidden away somewhere, being kept alive by the same technology that kept real-Sphene alive.