Quote Originally Posted by Cleretic View Post
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?)