Revelations from Patch 7.4: Into the Mist

[Diclonius]

So, my best reckoning on these...

Factoring in that extra line (I didn't remember it off the top of my head), the milalla were trying to get the key to work for a while. That 'we' is both historic and current; they probably were trying for hundreds of years. Probably not consecutively, I'm imagining 'every generation we give it another shot', but they just haven't succeeded.

As for why Preservation wouldn't have stepped in until very late? First of all, we can't assume that they would've necessarily cared for a lot of that time; they ultimately used it to solve a resource and energy crisis, so it's entirely possible it just wasn't an avenue worth pursuing/caring about for a long time. After all, Calyx was rather famously cool with going small and sustainable with the 'five thousand Endless' plan in the earlier patches. But on top of that, we don't actually know how accepted and recognized that fact is; we know that's true because of sources we found independently, but from Preservation's side? The milalla are just a cultural minority with a specific origin myth, and a religious artifact that doesn't do the thing they say it should. That doesn't exactly sound like something you'd pursue as Plan A to me.

That makes more sense, thank you for helping!

I'm guessing their lack of success is because the soul of Azem is needed to make the key function in the first place, and the Speaker was the only Milalla to be possessed of it since the time they fled the Source. Either way I still find it to be very questionable phrasing and I'm glad to know I wasn't the only one confused by interpretation.

I think Calyx and Halmarut know a lot more than they're letting on based off the latter's ominous foreshadowing, and Ascian plots tend to be rather far reaching from experience, so I do find it weird that they wouldn't have foreseen an energy crisis or sought out the key much sooner if they were knowledgeable about it. Then again, it's unclear how deep the extent of the Winterer's involvement in the 9th is just yet, so we'll have to wait and see if this is all part of the plan!

[EdwinLi]

That makes more sense, thank you for helping!

I'm guessing their lack of success is because the soul of Azem is needed to make the key function in the first place, and the Speaker was the only Milalla to be possessed of it since the time they fled the Source. Either way I still find it to be very questionable phrasing and I'm glad to know I wasn't the only one confused by interpretation.

I think Calyx and Halmarut know a lot more than they're letting on based off the latter's ominous foreshadowing, and Ascian plots tend to be rather far reaching from experience, so I do find it weird that they wouldn't have foreseen an energy crisis or sought out the key much sooner if they were knowledgeable about it. Then again, it's unclear how deep the extent of the Winterer's involvement in the 9th is just yet, so we'll have to wait and see if this is all part of the plan!

This does bring up a lot of questions about Azem though....

for starters, when was the Key created by him will be among the first set of questions people will be asking since the Shards did not exist until after the Sundering.

The other is what was his main goal with creating the ability to travel to other Shards?

How did it become lost in the first place until it was found?

and among many other things.

either way it seem this expansion was just setting up for the eventual focus on who Azem was.

[Cleretic]

This does bring up a lot of questions about Azem though....

Also, this entire theory breaks down when we remember what the actual history of 'successful Key uses' is. ...In fact I'm not gonna spoiler tag this because this is all pre-7.4 stuff. We do have three unambiguously successful Key uses.

1. Use by Speaker Loquloqui to get from the Source to the Ninth.

2. Grafting of Alexandria onto the Source, by Preservation.

3. The 'twelfth floor' portal to Living Memory (or at least its closure, we don't know the whole process), also by Preservation, specifically Endless Sphene.

If you want to give partial credit of 'well you got the Key to do something even if it wasn't what you planned', Preservation gets at least one extra count through the failed experiments we learned about in 7.3, and plausibly the first use of the gate by Robor and Alayla, but we don't really know any details there. But crucially, there's one person who hasn't gotten a successful use out of the thing: us. As in, the only person that we can say with some degree of confidence does have Azem's soul.

So either Azem's soul is not actually in any way necessary, or Preservation have made some very alarming discoveries!

[Cilia]

FYI, that one didn't come with this patch; Hildibrand's stuff is coming in the 7.x5 patches, and you just played the 7.35 one!

For what it's worth, while I was surprisingly on board with the 7.25 Hildibrand questline, the 7.35 one mainly got a reaction of 'wow, y'all found One New Joke'. Sometimes Hildibrand has a habit of going all-in on different variations on one gag, and this time they really hoped the Oglop joke was a massive hit.

Well 7.3.5 was the Deep Dungeon, and I'm not at all fond of the mystery dungeon playstyle so I just kept to my usual crafting and dungeon grinds. As someone who is very fond of IX (while cognizant of it's shortcomings), seeing another small reference to it was very nice. There were other jokes in there, but I still want an oglop minion now that they're confirmed to exist in XIV's setting (and are far from the most egregious reference, even to IX).

Also, this entire theory breaks down when we remember what the actual history of 'successful Key uses' is. ...In fact I'm not gonna spoiler tag this because this is all pre-7.4 stuff. We do have three unambiguously successful Key uses.

<snip>

So either Azem's soul is not actually in any way necessary, or Preservation have made some very alarming discoveries!

A lot of this comes from how Azem's symbol (Sol) showed up when Queen Eternal started to invoke the Key's power, but it's very important to remember that we ultimately still know nothing about the artifact's creation and original owner. It sounds like something Azem would make, and if anyone could make something like that it would be the Ancients (Ascians), but we also know that Azem was sundered and would have no reason to make such a thing beforehand. It's able to defy known laws regarding travel across the reflections, but in such a way that remains unreliable to everyone other than Calyx... who has Ascian backers, so it's clear he knows more than we do at the moment. If anything the Key functions like Halmarut's recently revealed power to punch small holes in reality on a grander scale.

They can't keep us in the dark about this thing forever, and since I seriously doubt 8.0 is going to be a sojourn across the Storm Surged Ninth, answers will have to come sooner than later unless we're just going to meander across referenced but unexplored Source locations like the Blindfrost and Nagxia. That said... Halmarut's ominous foretelling might only apply to the Storm Surged Ninth, and there's a curiously unused gate in the park where we fought the Behemoth during the MSQ...

One last note regarding references:

The route into XIV Treno isn't a 1:1 reference to IX; after exiting the Electrope Mine you grind down a derelict railway into the Treno Lowlands, referencing IX's South Gate cable car. It's not necessary to take the cable car to get from Quan's Dwelling to Treno in IX. Clearly, jamming references in wherever they can. Additionally, IX's Mist Continent had a similar population spread but in a different direction (IX's Mist Continent cities had to be on highlands due to the denser than air Mist making surface settlements hazardous; in XIV they need barriers to protect themselves from the perpetual thunderstorm and levin monsters, and are connected through railways rather than by airship).

On top of Queen Stella's gazebo, the Stellazio coins themselves are scattered across Treno, locked away in metal cages similar to those Queen Stella kept them in. There's no way to interact with them, but it's a fun little Easter Egg.

In addition to the bosses referencing Treno's item shop, most if not all of the trash mobs are enemies fought in random encounters during IX (using XIV models and levin glowups, of course).

Doctor Tuphut, Sphene's Milalla tutor who took the barrier technology back to Treno, is a clear reference to Garnet's tutor Doctor Tot from IX who similarly lived in Treno.

The VIII insert Doomtrain still retains a reference to it's Japanese naming through it's demonic roots. It's original name, Glasya Labolas (also used for the second boss of Syrcus Tower), is one of the 72 demons from the Lesser Key of Solomon. VIII references this by requiring 6 copies of 3 items (666) and the Solomon Ring to acquire it as a GF. The name of it's trial in XIV, Hell on Rails, is a subtle but clever nod.

... and now I have to do PvP this season up to Rank 15 because they put an MGSD G-Warrior as a minion reward and MGSD is my favorite Gunpla line (Strike Noir / Vidar when Bandai?). God damn it.

[Cleretic]

A lot of this comes from how Azem's symbol (Sol) showed up when Queen Eternal started to invoke the Key's power, but it's very important to remember that we ultimately still know nothing about the artifact's creation and original owner. It sounds like something Azem would make, and if anyone could make something like that it would be the Ancients (Ascians), but we also know that Azem was sundered and would have no reason to make such a thing beforehand. It's able to defy known laws regarding travel across the reflections, but in such a way that remains unreliable to everyone other than Calyx... who has Ascian backers, so it's clear he knows more than we do at the moment. If anything the Key functions like Halmarut's recently revealed power to punch small holes in reality on a grander scale.

Yeah, the thing that always holds with me about the key that a lot of people seem to dismiss is that the Ancients and Ascians would have no use for this thing. There were no shards to make portals to in Azem's day, so they can't have made it, and the Ascians can already do this, so why would they need it? 'The key reflected Azem's symbol when we used the crystal' is pretty thin evidence of anything (how do we know it wouldn't do the same if we pulled out Pashtarot's crystal, or the PCT job crystal?), but people take it to a conclusion that just doesn't make any sense.

Also, one more little thing in the references that I feel like you--and probably others--will get a kick out of:

The internal name for Doomtrain/Glasya Labolas in the Japanese version of FFVIII is Devil Thomas. Which is not only hilarious, but also clears up some conceptual ambiguity about it: FFVIII Doomtrain isn't a ghost train, it's a demon train. XIV Doomtrain is pretty clearly demonic (and has an actual backstory besides), but the visuals in VIII were much more ambiguous, and thanks to the name change the Lesser Key of Solomon references didn't quite carry internationally.

[Diclonius]

Yeah, the thing that always holds with me about the key that a lot of people seem to dismiss is that the Ancients and Ascians would have no use for this thing. There were no shards to make portals to in Azem's day, so they can't have made it, and the Ascians can already do this, so why would they need it? 'The key reflected Azem's symbol when we used the crystal' is pretty thin evidence of anything (how do we know it wouldn't do the same if we pulled out Pashtarot's crystal, or the PCT job crystal?), but people take it to a conclusion that just doesn't make any sense.

Correct me if I'm wrong but was it not established that Azem had some sort of extreme future sight?

I vaguely recall a line Themis says in the Pandaemonium questline heavily implying so (and I always thought it was the off hand excuse for why our WoLs can foretell mechanics.) My point being that perhaps Azem created, or set in motion plans to create the key, foreseeing that he/she would not survive the Sundering, because they were aware of another, bigger/concurrent/produced problem to the Final Days. I find it hard to believe they weren't doing anything during that time, and it would almost line up with what Halmarut was saying too. Potentially the key's purpose *is* to fuse the shards, and they're trying to imply that's some kind of necessary evil now with the lack of Zodiark and Hydaelyn being around. Maybe they were suppressing something, or maybe the Source would wither in their absence if left not whole ("silence left by the will of the star" as Halmarut put it.)

Ramblings aside, I think the key's activations by Preservation were also a result of Sphene's presence (Azem's shard in the 9th perhaps?)

[Cilia]

[...] 7.3 confirmed for us that the Key is just the crystal, and the chalice was some kind of additional system added on by Preservation; to this day we don't have a great idea what the chalice is doing, save that--again, going by Preservation's track record--it seems to be working.

Going on what we've seen, the chalice is clearly designed to be a way to focus the Key and get it to act more reliably. It's original Milalla owners were only able to get it to work once through prayer but Preservation's housing (chalice), which was seen in various stages of development in the lab during 7.3, was able to get it to graft Everkeep and the surrounding area onto the Source in addition to Endless Sphene closing the bridge to Living Memory at will. We don't know how to use it, but clearly Preservation (Calyx) figured out how to use it at will - little else explains his extensive efforts to get it back during 7.2 / 7.3. (With or without Ascian benefactors isn't super relevant, but like I said it's basically a grander application of Halmarut's power...)

There's always the 'it's Auracite' angle.

Auracite hasn't played a significant role in any storyline outside of the Ivalice-adjacent content, and considering it is a known material wouldn't take as long as it has to identify. White Auracite is basically "blank," the Heart of Sabik was essentially shoehorned into Pandaemonium to tie up that loose end from A Realm Reborn (and, as noted by Lahabrea, wouldn't have made a difference in the long run regardless), and the synthetic auracite used in The Sorrow of Werlyt is more or less a "loaded" variety of White Auracite. While it remains a possibility I don't think it's probable, seeing as Ultima is dead, auracite wants to be used, and making (even an adaptation of) the Tactics Big Bad so integral to XIV's story going forward doesn't seem very original. I know they're basically just doing bizarro incarnations of other installments' worlds at this point, but even so.

Correct me if I'm wrong but was it not established that Azem had some sort of extreme future sight?

I vaguely recall a line Themis says in the Pandaemonium questline heavily implying so (and I always thought it was the off hand excuse for why our WoLs can foretell mechanics.) My point being that perhaps Azem created, or set in motion plans to create the key, foreseeing that he/she would not survive the Sundering, because they were aware of another, bigger/concurrent/produced problem to the Final Days. I find it hard to believe they weren't doing anything during that time, and it would almost line up with what Halmarut was saying too. Potentially the key's purpose *is* to fuse the shards, and they're trying to imply that's some kind of necessary evil now with the lack of Zodiark and Hydaelyn being around. Maybe they were suppressing something, or maybe the Source would wither in their absence if left not whole ("silence left by the will of the star" as Halmarut put it.)

Ramblings aside, I think the key's activations by Preservation were also a result of Sphene's presence (Azem's shard in the 9th perhaps?)

A couple things to note:

Azem hasn't ever been stated to have exceptional precognitive abilities; how s/he knew about "our" arrival on Elpis for Pandaemonium remains unclear, assuming s/he wasn't just joshing Themis (a very in-character thing for them to do knowing what we do). That said it has been confirmed that AoE markers are an aethersense related to the Echo - ironically, despite all the hubub about Fordola's Resonant Echo - by the Guardian Arkveld, whose attacks can be predicted due it consuming enough aether to leave telegraphs (cf. Rathalos, who does not leave these markers due to having not actually devoured much prey before we could kill it). Beyond that is just speculation, but why would Azem create the Key if s/he knew s/he was going to lose their memories in the Sundering (and by extension both what the Key was and how to use it properly)?

Sphene being an Azem reflection hasn't been confirmed or even hinted at, and either way it doesn't explain how the Milalla got it to work the first time and Endless Sphene (a soulless data construct) was able to use it when the real Sphene was on another plane of existence so...