Quote Originally Posted by Mikey_R View Post
Whilst this was my initial reaction as well, upon reflection, it doesn't make sense. We already know what happens when the shards join with the source, and it isn't good.

Rather, with the key and Azem's crystal, I would point it more towards breaking down the walls between shards to allow travel between them more freely and thus 'unite' them in that way.
I would say yes and no here... we saw a partial rejoining of the ninth without an accompanying calamity. Alexandria now exists on the source, and while the time bubble and the unique climate within the bubble weren't good for the people who existed in the area when Alexandria plopped itself onto the source, the damage was pretty minimal compared to the rejoinings we've seen in the past.

I can absolutely see the warrior of light being persuaded by the argument that life on these other shards has become incredibly poorly due to the imbalance of the aether created by the ascians, and that a controlled rejoining is preferable to a violent one like we had seen before. Also worth mentioning just becuase the ascians did rejoinings the way they did, doesn't mean that's the only way to do it, as we saw with how the ascians taught primal summoning to include tempering, when that wasn't actually something you had to have to summon up those old gods.

Similarly it could be possible to do a rejoining without destroying both planets in the process, and the ascians just preferred the more destructive route