Anyone ever wonder why ... (Ascians)

[Sotek]

Did you see an image of a darkened Mother Crystal. Why do you think that is?

I thought they made it clear that it was

the Dark One , Hydaelen referred to at the ending cutscenes.

Well, it can be interpreted in any way I guess, but The Dark One is Zordiark, the Ascians Primal, who was not named until the post post-credits teaser. What did we learn about the Ascians during the story? That they take a host. The logical inference being that, rather than destroying Hydaelyn in the literal sense, the Ascians simply wanted to weaken her so that their God can do as they do and make a host out of Hydaelyn. Primals do require Crystals for summoning, and I really can't think of any better Crystal to summon my God with than the Mother Crystal...

As is always the case with world ending Dark Gods, I imagine there is a gestation period.

Honestly, if Zordiark is just a reskinned version of Hydaelyn I'll be a tad bit upset...

So spoilers don't count towards the word limit? That's nice to know, but also annoying...