Are the actual Ascians all but defeated?

[Februs]

Do we actually consider them to be true Ascians, though?

Personally, Lahabrea and crew strike me as Ascians who fell off of the beaten path. They were cliche characters with a completely transparent agenda who reveled in wanton destruction for the sake of an ambiguous goal that they didn't seem to fully understand. Sure, they dropped Zodiark's name from time to time, but none of them seemed to have an actual connection to him or a serious plan for making any headway with his release. I mean, think Lahabrea on Bahamut's calamity:

"BWHAHAHAHA it's been so long since I've seen Bahamut rip shit up! (paraphrasing, obviously)" .... and then nothing. It's like go out of their way to enjoy all this carnage, but when it happens they sit back and say, "So, what was step 2 of this plan again?" Cuz' nothing happens. For a long time it seemed like the Ascians just did not take their job seriously, so it's difficult to take them seriously. I was pretty happy to see Lahabrea get bumped off just because he was an obsolete character who had worn out his welcome a long time ago.

At this point, Elidibus is the only one that I considered to be a true Ascian because he seems to be actually interested in an end-game of some kind. We don't know what that end-game is, for the moment, but we do know that he has an interest in it. We also know that he seems to have a much tighter connection to Zodiark than the other Ascians, and it's been implied that he has a much deeper understanding of the cosmic forces at work. He, also, is the only Ascian that is currently active (that we know of).

So, have the Ascians been written off? No, I don't think so. I think SE has just re-focused them because the original Ascians didn't seem to have a relevant purpose anymore.